this case is only a Bugg and vain pretence laid hold on by the Court of Rome for promoting their Temporal Power and making their Creatures in every corner That the shiftings of the Monks and their rambles from one end of France to the other serve only to debauch them with an universal acquaintance All these Observations are true and judicious But the fear that my Lord Marquess shews of offending the Court of Rome or at least the Complement he had made That it is the Glory of a King to Honour the Holy See hinders him from sounding the bottom of the Evil and from presenting the necessary remedy For it may be said of the wholsome Rules that he prescribes for reducing the Clergy to their Duty and for preventing of Fraud in matters of Benefices that this comes to no more than the paring a Man's Nails when his Skull is broken and ought to be trepann'd The great Honour and the great Interest of the King indeed would be to think of a way how he may roundly shake off this infamous and tyrannical Yoke of the Roman Court which my Lord Marquess calls the Holy See And deliver himself from this buzzard Superstition which rides even our very Statesmen viz. That there can be no Religion Catholick but in submitting to the Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Holy See Is it because the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ His Majesty has a number of Bishops within His Realm who if they understand and do their duty are the Vicars of Jesus Christ So that we need not travail over the Alps to seek one Instead then of providing a French Secretary of Conscience who may make a Bank in the Court of Rome by which means we might know what Money passes from France to Italy which is the advice of Mouns the Marquess He should rather break the Bank in France and give order that no more Money pass out of France into Italy for this Bank is a continual Pump which draws away the fairest Cash of France which fattens a stranger with our Kingdoms Treasure which carries much away but returns nothing I know all these Tributes and Respects are paid to the Pope because he is suppos'd to be the Head of the Church and his Flatterers tell us That the Church can no more subsist without the Pope than the Body without the Head But that great Chancellor of the University of Paris John Gerson was not of this Opinion for he writ a Book expresly De auferribilitate Papa ab Ecclesia That is to say to prove that this same head might very well be quite taken away and the Church yet be never the worse nor take any harm The Cardinals have sometimes continued more than two years before they could agree about their Choice of a Pope During all which time the Body of the Church was without a Head The Churches of France and Germany did not at all feel the want of it and matters went still on there as they were wont Which puts me in mind of the Man of Wood that being mounted on Horse-back and coming under a Tree a bough struck off his head to the ground yet the heart of Oak kept the Saddle and trotted on with the company nothing dismaid for that the head was not essential to the rest of the body It is too soft an expression to call the Pope an unprofitable Head of the Church he is absolutely pernicious to it I pass by the Spirituals suiting my self herein with the humour of Mouns the Marquess who considers the Catholick Religion little farther than as it makes for the interest of France But what greater mischief can the Pope do to the Church than to render the Power of the Church suspected to Sovereign Princes as a pure politick device to invade their Rights grind their Subjects and form even an Empire within their Empire The Marquess endeavours with great reason to make the King jealous of the Popes Temporal Monarchy over his Subjects He might with as good reason have mov'd him to be jealous of that Spiritual Monarchy which is in effect purely Temporal For he has well observ'd That the name of Religion is a false pretence us'd by the Court of Rome to advance his Temporal Power And that the Popes having begun with Letters of Recommendation to the Chapters to have an Eye on such an ones mirit to be chosen Bishop Have after in process of time turn'd these Letters Recommendatory to Bulls and Decrres to dispose of the Bishopricks of France at their pleasure which is a Tyranical invasion of the Rights of the King and of those of the Church Glaber who liv'd in the times of Hugh Capet relates lib. 3. cap. 4. how Pope John sent a Cardinal into France to Found and Consecrate a Monastery within the Diocess of Tours and that the Prelates of France and Hugh Archbishop of Tours opposed him and said roundly That the Bishop of Rome having a Diocess to himself ought not to meddle with the affairs of another Diocess nor send his Commands to their Bishops who are his fellow Bishops and Colleagues The Doctors of the Sorbon in their Rescriptum publish'd at the time of the Appeal concerning the abuse about the Breviary of Anjou by the Bishop of Eâ—gers and his Injunction to the Church of the Trinity to use that of Rheims amongst other Propositions declare That the other Bishops have the power of Government and Ordination within their Diocess as fully as the Bishop of Rome has within his Therefore in the time of St. Cyprian and even in St. Angustin's days the Popes did write Ad Coepiscopos Galliae Collegas Now Collegue imports equality of Power And if the Bishops of Rome have not any power over the Bishops of France they can much less pretend to any over our Kings Pope Leo VI. promised Lotharius dist 10. c. 9. can 10. to obey his Edicts both at present and for the future Pope Pelagius to the like effect to Childebert The Holy Scriptures says he command us to obey Kings and to be subject to them The Popes were always humble Subjects of the Roman Emperors so long as that Empire continued And 't is but the other day that they got free from the Emperors of Germany Onuphrius de varia Creatione Pontif l. 4. testifies That even then when they were look'd upon as the Successors of St. Peter their Authority reached no farther but only to maintain and defend the truth of the Doctrines of Faith And for the rest were wholly subject to the Emperors who ordered all things according to their wills and were wont to create the Popes It is a notable Observation the Marquess has made That the Tables were put into the hands of Moses and not into the hands of Aaron and that it is the part of Secular Princes that the People be instructed in the Laws of God He was entrusted with the first Table as well as with the second to teach us that the
no longer now any ambitious Prince within the Kingdom to rob him of his Peoples Affection or that may dare to make any Alliance with the Pope to tumble him from his Throne and share the Crown We have this good fortune that we may set out to the life the ill aspect of Rome upon our Kings and that dangerous vigilance over France without any danger of abating the Courage of our Great King but on the contrary were his truly Royal Courage capable of an increase it would yet swell the higher from the consideration of the Evils that Rome has done and will yet do to France if he do not heartily oppose the Usurpations she exercises with impunity in all the parts of his Kingdom The honest French men that have the Honour to be near his Person might represent to Him the danger of this Doctrine maintain'd by the Popelings of His Kingdom That Jesus Christ committed to St. Peter as well the earthly as the heavenly Empire which are the very words of Pope Nicolas Therefore Cardinal Bellarmine Ch. 27. against Barclay holds absolutely That the Pope may dispose of all the Temporals of the World I affirm says he with confidence That our Lord Jesus Christ the time he was Mortal might dispose of all Temporal things and deprive the Kings and the Princes of their Kingdoms and Dominions and that without doubt he has left the same Power to his Vicar to be employ'd when he shall judge it necessary for the good of Souls The Pope Pius V. displays this Power with great Ostentation in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth of England wherein after that he calls Himself Servant of Servants he declares That God has establisht the Bishop of Rome Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to take destroy disperse consume plant and build and in the Power hereof he does Anathemize degrade and depose this Queen absolves all her Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made her and forbids them absolutely to give her Obedience Gregory XIV set out such another Bull against our Great Henry declaring him uncapable of the Crown and exposing His Kingdom to prey But both this and the other Bull were torn and cast into the fire by the hands of the Hangman Observe that the Pope exerciseth this Power over the Temporalties of Kings for the good of Souls and as a Spiritual Prince So that our French Statesmen may cease to have their Eyes wilfully seal'd up by that distinction of Spiritual power which they allow him and Temporal power that they deny him For that it is by virtue of the Spiritual Power that he exerciseth the Temporal See what Cardinal Bellarmin says De pont Rom. l. 5. c. 5. The Pope may change the Kingdoms take them from one and give them to another as a Sovereign Spiritual Prince when it shall be necessary for the good of Souls And of this necessity he shall be the only Judge as the Sovereign Spiritual Prince For 't is thus the Cardinal argues Apol. pro Garnet p. 84. If the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of Temporal things she would not be perfect and would want the Power that is necessary for the attaining her end for says he the wicked might entertain Hereticks and go scot-free and so Religion be turn'd upside down This reason charges imperfection on the Church in the Apostles time for that had no power over the Temporals These horrible Principles so strongly maintain'd by the Court of Rome were of fresh memory found so prejudicial both to the safety of our Kings and to the Peace of France that those of the third State an 1615. were mov'd to propose to the General States an Article containing the means to dispossess the people of that Opinion that the King might be depos'd by the Pope and that by the killing of Kings one might gain the Crown of Martyrdom Cardinal Du Perron in the name of the Clergy oppos'd this Article and employ'd all the strength of his Eloquence and Learning in two fair Speeches the one before the Nobility the other before the third State to perswade them that our Kings may be depos'd by the Pope offering himself to suffer Martyrdom in defence of this Truth The Lords of the Nobility to their great shame joyn'd with the Clergy for the putting their Kings Crown under the Miter of the Pope much degenerating from the vertue of their Ancestors those French Banons by whose advice Philip the August declar'd to the Cardinal D'Anagnia the Popes Legat that threatned him that it did not at all belong to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France But the third State held firm to their Article that maintain'd the Dignity of their King and the safety of his Person and could never be won by promises nor affrighted by threatnings to depart from it shewing themselves in this more noble than the Nobility It is no wonder in this case that the third State shew'd more affection to their King than the Clergy seeing that the Clerks hold That they are not the King's Subjects for in effect they acknowledge another Sovereign out of the Kingdom And who can think it strange if they labour to heighten that Monarchy of which they make a Party But that the Nobility the Kings right arm that they should be so base to strike their Head and lay it at the feet of an Italian Bishop this is that which after Ages will reflect upon with astonishment and indignation and which Historians shall blush to relate and be vex'd that they cannot let pass in silence So the Nobility being joyn'd with the Clergy the Article of the third State was censur'd and rejected Whereupon the Pope writ Triumphant Letters to the Clergy and the Nobility who had been faithful to Him in this Cause glorying in His Victory and exalting the Magnanimity of these generoâ—s Nobles But in truth the Deputies of these generous Nobles deserv'd to have been degraded from their Nobility and they of the third State to have receiv'd their Titles The minority of the late King and the easiness of the Queen-Mother render'd them expos'd to these Injuries and apt to be circumvented insomuch that this Harangue made to the third State was printed with the Priviledge of the King and the Pope gain'd his point The false dealing of the Cardinal who made this Speech is remarkable namely that he had a long time followed King Henry the Great even then when he was of a contrary Religion and depos'd by the Pope and that a little before in an assembly held at the Jacobins in Paris he had resisted the Popes Nuncio who would that this Doctrine of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope might be held for an Article of Faith But in these two Harangues the Cardinal made a kind of a Recantation and pronounc'd himself his own condemnation Ungrateful wretch to have thus abus'd the tender Age of the Son of his King
care of the Service of God belongs as much to the Authority of the Prince as that of Justice and Civil Government Those Expressions of the Marquess That Secular Princes are the Protectors of the Church of its Doctrine and of its Canons are intended by him in a more liberal and ingenious sense than they meant from whom he takes them For they are the ordinary terms of those who make the King subject to the Pope and who own not the King for the Sovereign of the Church but only for its Protector and to execute the Commands of his Holiness and for that his Canons be observed This is the Stile of my Lord Bishop of Montauban Peter Bertier in his Remonstrance made to the King in the City of Rheims June 8th 1654. where after he had term'd his Sovereign Power a true resemblance of the Deity he sinks it again not only below the Pope but even below the Bishops who are the Kings subjects saying That the Bishops are the Head to govern and the Mouth of the Church to speak but that the King is its arm and its right hand to execute its Decrees and Ordinances This Scholar of the Jesuits speaks like his Masters for all the Jesuits harp on the same string which Becanus in Pref. ad Reg. Jac. Kings are only to execute the Popes Commands What is the duty of Kings says he in relation to the Church and to Religion I will tell you in one word they ought to guard and defendit not as Lords but as Servants not as Judges but as Executioners And why I pray has not the King the same Sovereignty in France that the Emperor Constantine and the Emperor Charlemaigne enjoy'd under whom the Canons of the Synods were none other than counsel and advice till these Emperors had examin'd and authoriz'd them Did not these Sovereigns altogether call and dissolve those Synods of Bishops at pleasure and wherefore shall our Kings be rob'd of that Power Our great King who surpasses all his Predecessors in Glory and Magnanimity shall he suffer a stranger Bishop to snatch from his Crown this essential Right of governing the Church of his Kingdom and He of a King become a Serjeant to put in execution the Commands of that Bishop and those of the Bishops his Subjects The world is well chang'd since Pope Adrian in his Letters inserted in the second Council of Nice express'd himself to the Emperor Constantine to this effect We beseech your Clemency with ardour of Spirit and as though we were present we cast our selves at your knees and lie at your feet I with my Brethren Then it was that Popes kissed the Feet of Emperors whereas now Emperors kiss the Popes Toe In the Year 679. the Pope Agathon pray'd the Emperor Constantine to discharge the Tribute which the Bishops of Rome pay'd Ordinarily to the Emperor for their Conservation Very far from compelling the Emperors the day of their Conservation to lay a sum of Money at the Popes feet for Tribute as a token of subjection which afterwards the Emperors of Germany have been oblig'd to do Gregory the First gave a good Example for our Popes at this day how they should demean themselves towards the Emperor for he speaks thus to the Emperor l. 3. Ep. 6. I am the unworthy Servant of your pity And in the same Epistle Whilst I speak thus before my Masters what am I other than Dust and a Worm And l. 2. Ep. 61. I am subject to your Commands I might bring many Examples how anciently the Christian Emperors and the Kings of Italy created and depos'd the Popes commanding them and deposing them at their pleasure Not to go farther than our France there we may see what Power our Kings of the first Line exercis'd in the Government of the Church The History of Gregory of Tours may furnish us with many examples l. 4. c. 5. King Glotharius speaks thus to the Inhabitants of Tours Have not I commanded that the Priest Cato be made a Bishop Why are my Commands slighted and Chap. 18. Pascentius is made Bishop of Paris ex jussu Regis Chariberti by the Command of King Heribert The same King being provok'd because Emerius had been turn'd out of the Bishoprick of Xaintes caused him to be beaten who came to signifie to him that deposition and made him be drawn upon a Cart loaden with Thorns into banishment and restor'd Emerius to his place from whence he had been cast out l. 6. c. 27. Felix Bishop of Xaintes being deceas'd Nonnichius Consobrinus rege ordinante successit His Cousin Nonnichius succeeded him by the King's Order C. 39. King Guntram created Sulpitius Bishop of Bourges rejecting the Presents offered him for promoting another and saying It is not our Custom to sell the Priesthood for the price of Money l. 8. c. 22. are these words Then the King commanded that Gundegesil be made a Bishop which was done accordingly And C. 39. Evantius Bishop of Vienna died and in his place was substituted Vitus a Priest the King chusing him In all these passages we find no mention of the Pope nor of Annates nor of Letters of Investiture For in those days the Bishops of Rome meddl'd not at all with the Election of the Bishops of France Above all is memorable the Francique Synod to be found in the Third Tome of the Councils of the Edition of Cologne Pag. 39. Where Carloman who stiles himself Duke and Prince of the French thus speaks By the advice of my Priests and of the chief of the Realm we have appointed Bishops for the Towns and have set over them Boniface Archbishop Pope Adrian the First by a Council made this Law to pass That Charlemain should have the Right and Power to choose the Pope and to govern the Roman See Which Constitution is inserted in the Roman Decretal The Council of Mayence held under Charlemain an 813. dist 63. Can. Hadrians begins thus To Charles August Rector of the True Religion and Defendor of the Holy Church of God And the Second Council of Mayence under Lewis the Debonnaire to Lewis the most Soveraign Rector of the True Religion At this day these Titles would be counted wicked Now for all that Charlemain and Lewis the Debonnaire have advanc'd the Pope out of measure yet his Authority even in Spirituals was no better than precarious and suject to those Kings that were Emperors For proof of this Hincmar relates l. 55. c. 20. That the Emperor Charlemain did convoke a general Synod in France whereby the worshipping of Images was condemn'd and the Second Council of Nice which defended them was rejected as a false Synod thô the Pope had approv'd it And thô at this Synod convoked by Charlemain the Authority of the Pope was admitted For the History of those times teaches us That Charlemain who had advanced the Pope made use of the Authority given him to his own advantage even against the Pope himself when he had a
revolts for Confusion and Anarchy That there will be more than an hundred thousand men of the Kings Enemies in the bowels of his Kingdom so long as there shall be Huguenots in France and that perhaps they wait only an occasion to rise up in Arms. He pretends even to know their hearts saying That they have in their hearts the same hatred they had which are words flung out with more animosity than reason For 't is but ill Logick that they are all Rebels because about a six part of their number took up Arms in their defence to keep some Places of safety and that because they have sin'd they never have repented If all they who have been engag'd in the Troubles of the State within these last forty years are to be thought the Kings Enemies for ever His Majesty would find few Persons in his Kingdom whom he might trust and now forty years are past since the War for those Places of safety was ended When the Body is in a Fever the good humors are stir'd as well as the bad and all settle again when the Disease is over The same is in the Body of a State it is subject to hot fits that enflame both good and bad but all grow cool and quiet in time by the wisdom of the Sovereign and by the repentance of those that are honest good men To upbraid them as Rebells and Enemies that took up Arms against their duty and laid them down again forty years ago this is to violate the Laws of Amnesty without which no State could subsist Kings being the Lieutenants of God ought to deal with their Subjects as God does with his He forgives and forgets offences and makes them faithful that were disobedient through his Benefits The Protestants of Languedoc stay'd not for the Kings Benefits till they testifi'd their Fidelity and their Oblivion of what they had suffer'd in the reduction of the Places that they had held than when their wounds were yet bleeding This was when the Duke of Montmorency in Longuedoc where he was Governor made a Party against the King hoping to find the Protestants who are in great numbers in that Province ready for an Insurrection from the resentment of their late Sufferings But he found the quite contrary for they all joyn'd as one man with the Kings Forces and did him excellent Service in a battel where the Duke was defeated and taken and a Bishop with him The old Marshall De la Force who had scap'd the Massacre of St. Barth olomew by hiding himself under the Carkasses of his Brothers whose Throats were cut was one of the Principal Commanders in this Action That Marquess confesses That in the Wars at Paris they put themselves in Arms and with great respect protested that they were at the Kings Service and their Actions would have justify'd their Protestations if His Majesty had had occasion for their Service I will not loose time and pains in making Reflections upon the fourteen ways he proposes to torment us and make us weary of our Religion of our Country and our Lives Ways enough are found out without his proposing And now because the King of late years has had much to do with the Court of Rome it has been a part of the Policy of France whilst they affront the Pope at the same time to treat us with some extraordinary Severity to prevent the suspicion of Heresie We humble our selves under the powerfull hand of God and under that of our Sovereign confessing that we are justly chastis'd for our sins For the rest we know in whom we have trusted and shelter our selves under the Hand that strikes us assuring our selves that it will protect us and that we shall find Jesus Christ our Redeemer and his Spirit our Comforter both in this Life and in that which is to come As the Marquess is very exact in giving Instructions to ruine us he does the same towards the end of his Book for England counting it a Nation that is good for nothing but to be ruin'd We cannot take the advantage of these Instructions given against us to defend our selves against them for we are a Body meerly passive expos'd and submitted to all that God and the King will do with us But for the English when he has disoblig'd them by the most odious Character that his Malice could furnish his Eloquence withall He obliges them in publishing all those ways that must be taken to destroy them for it is likely that being told of them they will look to themselves Mean time his Readers will say of him that they who tell aforehand of their cunning are not very cunning Because that the noble Marquess terms us Rebels and Enemies of the State after the humble confession of our Faults which I have neither cloak'd nor dissembl'd I will take the boldness to compare them with those of some of the Gentlemen of the Roman Clergy especially of the Jesuits and their Disciples and that they that are not pre-possest with passion may judge whether to them rather or to us belongs the title Of Enemies of the State Let us consider the Actions and the Doctrine of the one and the other For the Actions the horrible attempts against the Sacred Persons of our Kings by Ecclesiasticks and Scholars of the Jesuits and all the Enormities of the League to destroy our Kings our Laws and our Monarchy and to transfer it to a stranger carry away without dispute the prize of Villany from those who being possest with a fear ill-grounded have with Arms defended the Places that were lent to them by Edict for the security of their Religion of their Goods and of their Lives Add hereto that they had their hearts big with the sense of their incomparable Service to the Crown and believ'd they well deserv'd what these endeavour'd to keep And as for the Doctrine these never read Lectures of Rebellion and Parricide And the resistance some of the Party made against the King was condemn'd by their Divines whose writings are full of Lessons of Obedience and of Fidelity to their Sovereigns Whereas those of the Jesuits and their Disciples teach the people to cast off and kill their King so often as it may please the Pope to Excommucate him France has felt the Effects of this Doctrine during the long Wars of the League and it was the Books and the Sermons that made the Sword be drawn and that sharpen'd the Daggers for the Murder of our Kings whilst the Protestants expos'd their Lives for their Preservation Now I am content to let pass what is past provided the same may be done to us Let us fix upon the present Whom ought you to esteem the Enemies of the State those who subject the Crown of our Kings absolutely to the Papal Mitre and who acknowledge another Sovereign than the King or they who own him their only Sovereign and maintain that his Crown depends not save on God alone What in Conscience is
the true ground of the great hatred that is born us is it not for that if we are to be believ'd there would not in France be any French-man that is not the Kings Subject Causes Beneficial and Matrimonial would not be carried to Rome nor the Kingdom be Tributary under the shadow of Annates and the like Impositions And on this Subject the Testimony of Cardinal Perron for us in his Harangue to the Third State is very considerable wheâ— he says The Doctrine of the Deposition of Kings by the Pope has been held in France until Calvin Whereby he tacitely acknowledges That our Kings had been ill serv'd before and that those he calls Hereticks having brought to light the Holy Scripture have made the Right of Kings be known which had been kept supprest Shall they be said Friends of the State who owning themselves Subjects of a Stranger Soveraign dare endeavour to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction of which the Marquess complains loudly and with good cause and of the great resistance they have made to maintain themselves in an Usurpation so unreasonable In this kind those of the Church of the Reform'd Religion could never be accus'd in the Towns where we have had some Power Our Religion is hated because it combats the Pride the Avarice and the Usur pations of the Court of Rome and their Substitutes in the Kingdom and because we have shewn to the World that sordid Bank of spiritual Graces they have planted in the Church and how they have drawn to themselves a Third of the Lands of France for fear of Purgatory from silly People mop'd with a blind Devotion and from Robbers and Extortioners who have thought to make Peace with God by letting these share in the booty 'T is an advice very suitable to the Politicks of France to examine well the Controversies that are most gainful to the Clergy as this of Purgatory concerning which an old Poet said the Truth in his way of Drollery But if it be so That no more Souls shall go To old Purgatory Then the Pope will gain nought by the Story It would be wisely done to examine what necessity there is for so many Begging-Fryers that suck out the Blood and Marrow of devout People and for so many Markets of Pardons in honour of a number of Saints of a new Edition and for what design are made so many Controversies And whether it would not be a great Treasure for the Kings Subjects to Teach them to work out their Salvation and put their Consciences in quiet at a cheaper rate God justly provok'd by the great Sins of France gives us not yet the Grace of that Gospel-Truth St. John Ch. 8. Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free And though it shines out so clear to let us see the Usurpation of the Popes upon the Temporals of the King and upon the Spirituals of the Church yet see we not clearly enough to discover all the mystery of Iniquity and to resolve to shake off the Yoak For this great design no other War need be made by the Pope but only take from him all Jurisdiction in France all Annates and all evocation of Causes to Rome This would hardly produce any other stirrs but the complaints and murmuring of them that are loosers And the condition truly Royal that the King at present is in will sufficiently secure Him from Insurrections at home and Invasions from abroad Or should any happen behold more than an hundred thousand Huguenots that the Noble Marquess has sound him in the heart of his State whom he is pleas'd to call His Enemies but who on all occasions and on this especially would do His Majesty a hearty and faithful Service The two main Interests of France being to weaken the House of Austria the Princes of which enclose him on both sides and to throw off the yoake of Rome which holds a Monarchy within the French Monarchy 't is easie to judge that amongst the Kings Subjects the Protestants are absolutely the most proper to serve him on both these occasions I know that amongst the Roman Catholicks as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars there are excellent Instruments to serve the King in both these Interests But there is need of great caution to well assure him by reason of the multitude of Jesuits Scholars with whom these Fathers have Industriously fill'd all Professions of the State and Church and it is for no other end that they have so many Colledges They who have been too good Scholars of these Masters are contrary to both these Interests being so great Catholicks that they espouse the Interest of the Catholick King to advance that of his Holiness But to find amongst the Protestants trusty Instruments for both these accounts he need not try them they are fitted and form'd by their Education for these two Uses so necessary to France The Marquess assures His Majesty with good reason of the friendship of the Protestant Princes of Germany which they would never testifie so freely as in serving him to ruin the Power of the Pope who savours that of the House of Austria For thereby they would kill two Birds with one Stone Not to mention our other Neighbours who have broken with Rome and being disquieted by its secret practises will be ready to contribute to its destruction Who shall well consider the Scheme of the Affairs of Christendem shall judge that all things invite His Majesty to shut out the Jurisdiction of Rome beyond the Mountains Right Honour Profit Liberty Facility his Duty to his Crown to his Subjects and to his Royal Posterity and that many Aids smile upon him both within and out of his Kingdom for so fair and so just an Enterprize This is the warm desire of the honest French-men And none there are who better deserve that Title than they who with the most Indignation resent that their Kings should kiss the Feet of that Prelate who ought of Right to kiss their Feet for having receiv'd his Principalities from Kings of France and who in recompence of their good Deeds have plotted and plot continually their ruin When the King shall have deliver'd Himself and his People from this strange yoak he will find the enmity amongst his Subjects for matter of Religon greatly diminisht and the way open to a re-union And were the difficulties about the Doctrine overcome the Protestants would not stick much at the Discipline God who is the Father of Kings and the King of Glory protect and strengthen our Great King to accomplsh the Designs that turn to the general good of His Church to the greatness and to the respect of his Sacred Person and to the Peace and Prosperity of His State FINIS
for a Seal At the beginning these Letters which the Popes thus sent were but simple Letters of favour and recommendation but it hapning that the Chapters reverenced them and that here and there at least one who had obtained them was chosen all pretenders to Bishopricks came to believe that it was necessary to obtain them Thus what was at first but as hath been said a recommendation became at length a point of right and duty Such was its Rise Now this being certain there may be use made of the example and thus when a considerable Benefice should be vacant the King might order that a Letter be written to the Patron and some Person recommended to his Nomination There is no cause to doubt but the Patron will Nominate whom His Majesty hath thus recommended so that insensibly it will grow a Custom to take the King's recommendations as otherwhile persons did those of the Popes and as the Bulls became at length necessary for Bishopricks and Abbies so the King's Letters shall become necessary for all sorts of Benefices and He render Himself Master of all Church-men The King in this will have sufficient reason because He being Protector of Religion which is the prime Pillar of every State it is His interest to know whether they that shall be provided of Benefices be Orthodox and of good Life lest they spread some bad Doctrine among the people for Heresies and Scandals do cause division in the Common-wealth as well as Schisms in the Church Besides it concerns the tranquillity of the State that Curates who have the direction of Consciences be well-inclin'd for the good of the Kingdom and ready to keep particulr Persons in their duty To descend now unto the case of the Monastick Religious and find out a way for rendring them useful to the State to take them off from that laziness and loathsome beggery in which they live as also reduce them to such a number as may be proportionate to other ranks of men in the Kingdom It is to be noted that there are three sorts of Monasticks The first is made up of the Orders of S. Augustin S. Benedict S. Bernard and Premonstrey These are they that possess the bulkie riches of the Church I mean the Abbies and Priories The second sort comprehends the Carthusians the Minimes the Coelestins the Feuillans and some others who possess Goods with propriety and beg not but by Toleration The third kind is that of the meer Mendicants who subsist by Alms as do the Jacobins the Cordeliers the Carmelites and their branches that is the Reform'd as they term 'em who are issued from them These notwithstanding their Vow of Monastick Poverty yet are not destitute of some foundations but they plead for themselves that the Pope is Proprietor of the Goods they do but take the Profits which certainly is a vain and frivolous subtilty The Female Religious being comprised under these three kinds there is no need to make of them a separate Article There are too to many Monks It s an abuse so prejudicial to the Kingdom that the King can no longer dissemble it it is time to take it seriously and effectually in hand For Monks live in single state they raise no Families get no Children and so are barren grounds that bring forth no fruit to the Crown Beside the blind obedience by which they are tyed to the pleasure of the Pope doth form a foreign Monarchy in the very bowels of France and into it they train along the credulous people which is a thing of very great consequence This Politie is founded on the abusive and pernicious Maxims of Rome which too are purely Political For that the obedience which Monasticks give the Pope is Religious there is no colour to pretend nor is there a Christian but sees what his duty binds him to in this case and is altogether subject to his Holiness in Doctrinals without need of making particular vows to oblige him The name of Religion in the matter is but a phantasm and a false pretext which the Court of Rome assumeth to augment its Temporal Power and to have its creatures in all quarters By consequence the abuses ought to be retrenched as was done by Charlemagne in his time and sundry other great Kings But for the effecting of this I should not at all advise that the attempt be openly made For that would be to draw upon the undertakers the importune clamours of all the Monks and their Zealots nay to draw Rome upon their backs which might cost them some trouble In fine it would be to draw on them the People who are ever fond of Novelties that surprise them or are prejudicial to them and always averse to those which they have foreseen and are profitable for them 'T is therefore by-ways that must be taken The first which seems to me fit to be pitcht upon would be to require of the Monastick Communities that they dispatch Missions unto America and the Indies to convert the Salvages and administer the Holy Sacraments to Christians The Monks who are commonly imprudent will strain to set forth the greatest number of their fraternity they possibly may in hope to make considerable Establishments thus there will be forwardness enough to embarque The present juncture is advantageous for this design For they are charged with more Persons than they are able to maintain Charity being evidently cooled toward them A second means may be to debar them the conversation of Women It is scandalous to see Religious Men receive visits from them in Churches and there in presence of the Holy Sacrament spend whole Afternoons with them For remedy it might be ordained that they should have Parlours where Women might go to consult them The thing is a point of deceney and Parlours the Carthusian Friars and all Nuns generally have The third means might be that the Fathers of such as enter into Religion should pay an Annual Pension to the Order by way of Alms during their Sons life which is the practice in Spain This Pension some will say causeth in Spain an huge multiplication of Monks But 't is not the Pension that fills the Cloisters in that Country 't is the licence the Monks have to do what they please In France they are not upon such Terms A fourth means is to oblige the Monasticks to abide in their Convents and not go abroad but very rarely and for urgent affairs so do the Carthusians A fifth to embroil the Monks with the Bishops for which they are sufficiently disposed A sixth to prohibit that Children of Sixteen when as yet they know not what they do bind not themselves by Vows which engage them for the whole remainder of their lives but remit that Ceremony till their 22d year of Age. The seventh means would be to suppress that Congregation as they call it among Monastick persons as for instance there are the Congregations of S. Maur and command that the Religious who make profession in
a manner is to make a kind of Alienation 'T is a fetch of the Benedictine Monks to take up Money for Rent to be paid by them that so they may appear always poor and have pretexts to solicite the liberality of devout People also that they may have Protectors for the greater number of their Creditors is the greater is the number of persons interessed in their conservation Yet there is nothing more unjust than this Custom For there are Monastick Communities that owe more than all their Goods moveable and immoveable are worth The Monks care not though their House be ruin'd nor though they ruine some of their Creditors provided themselves subsist For by passing from one Convent to another they are quitted of all the Debts they have created It greatly concerns the Publick to Prohibit these kind of Contracts that Monasticks may be kept from defrauding any Man for the future and to decree that the Contractor shall pay the Rents Contracted for and they bound to do it both all in common and each of them in particular then that the Notaries be Fined and Declared incapable of bearing any Office Or if insolvent condemned to the Gallies for 101 years Moreover that the Purchasers of such Rents shall for their part pay a Mulct of 3000 Livres to His Majesty and the principal Money be converted to His use Besides it would be very fit to require all Notaries all Creditors of Monasticks and the Monasticks themselves to make Declaration of the Sums and Rents charged upon them bring in the Contracts for the same before Commissioners nominated by the King to be Registred and this within a time expresly limited which being once pass'd no more shall be received and all Contracts not Registred remain null and as if they were cleared This course would be very severe but excellent to reduce the folk of the Cloister to Reason There is an important Observation to be made too namely That all the Contracts which Church men have made are utterly null unless their Creditors can make it appear that the Money they lent did turn to the profit of the Church and that there was an authentick permission to make such Contracts This Doctrine is a point of Law for the Church is ever a Minor and all that it possesseth hath come from the liberality of particular persons without whose consent or at least the Magistrates and such as are capable of it the Ecclesiasticks can make no alterations in the Estates they have received So that the King may not only forbid Contracts for the future but also Declare those to be dissolved which have been made heretofore and discharge the Monasteries of them Debts have been annulled for less reasons often It must likewise be prohibited to Monks and to the Church to purchase any Estate in Land or High-rents upon pain of such Contracts being null and void in Law and the Sellers and Notaries incurring the forementioned penalties Our Lords the Prelates have lately bethought them and resolved to compell such Gentlemen as have Chappels in their Houses where the Sacrifice of the Mass hath been at any time performed to profane the said Chappels or endow them with Land for the maintenance of a Priest This would be a means to gain the Church more than Two hundred thousand Livres of Rent at one blow wherefore it will be fit to Ordain that this enterprize of the Bishops do not take effect except in case of Chapels built hereafter and built for other persons CHAP. V. 1. Of the Hugonots and whether it be for the good of the State to put them out of France 2. Politick means to extirpate their Heresie 3. Of their ancient Confession of Faith A King cannot have a more Illustrious Object of his Cares and Application than the preserving of that Religion which he hath received from his Ancestors in the States he governs because diversity of Belief of Divine Service and of Ceremony doth divide his Subjects and breeds Animosities among them Whence arise Contentions War and in the end an universal defiance Unity of belief on the contrary knits Men together and 't is seldom seen but that Fellow-subjects who call upon GOD in one and the same Temple and offer at the same Altars do also fight with the same Arms or under the same Banners If this Maxim be generally true in Christian Politicks and the Religion we profess the only one as it is that we can savingly embrace the Princes are obliged to maintain it with all their Might and employ that Soveraign Power for the Glory of the true GOD which they hold of his Goodness The Pagans whose particular conduct was so prudent and just and who have left us so many Examples of wisdom and virtue made it their principle not to suffer in their Republicks any novelty that thwarted the common and popular belief and they adher'd so peremptorily unto it that they would not so much as permit any man to undeceive them of their Errors The Books of Numa Pompilius which had been found near his Grave and contained the ancient Religion of Rome the Senate caused to be burnt because the Praetor Rutilius who had been commission'd to read them affirmed upon Oath That the Contents of e'm tended to subvert the Religion which the People observed at that time They refus'd even to open their eyes unto the light of truth though known to them when they apprehended it would be novel to the people They rather chose to stick to Fables which length of years had consecrated among them and the multitude was through custom addicted to Thus too the Athenians thought they did an act of necessary Justice in condemning Socrates to death for having taken on him to persuade the people that there was but one only GOD. They knew however that in truth this Philosopher was the Wonder of his time the Honour of the City and of all Greece the discerning men amongst them were convinc'd of the solidity of this Doctrine and the Sect of the Stoicks made profession of it so that it must be confess'd the fall of Gentilism and subversion of Idols is an effect of the hand of GOD who alone can work miracles of Grace and Omnipotence The Kings His Majesties Predecessors have set themselves with unwearied diligence to preserve the Catholick Religion inviolable They have never failed to be Protectors of the Apostolick See and the Church They expelled the Arrians they turned their Arms and exposed their lives against the Albigenses they vanquish'd e'm they destroy'd e'm they punish'd the Poor men of Lions In fine they have provided that Christianity receive no harm in any places unto which their Authority extended The last Age produced a new Monster to oppose the Church France saw him born in her bosom and unhappily bred him up with several complices of his Impiety and Revolt History will tell Posterity how much Blood was shed during the course of well nigh Fourscore years to quell this dangerous
the Second the Kings of France were the Soveraigns as well in Spirituals as in Temporals And though they had lost their Soveraignty about the end of the Second Line and under the Third by their negligence and by the cunning of the Popes watchful for their advantage nevertheless an infinite of Persons in those times both of the Clergy and of the Law took notice of and Taxed the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Rights of our Kings Amongst others Aegydius Romanus Archbishop of Bourges in the time of Philip the Fair this Archbishop for the Reasons Registred in the Court of Parliament remonstrates That the Gallicane-Church has that Right and that Liberty to provide for its occasions by Synods of the Bishops of the Country without that the Pope ought to meddle unless by way of exhortation Cardinal D'Offat Letter 90 to the King shews That the Pope ought not to meddle at all with the Election of tâ—â— French Bishops and this he proves by the Ordinance of Orleans An. 1560 and saith That since the Popes have reserv'd to themselves the provision of Bishopricks they have been very ill serv'd The excellent Archbishop of Paris Peter de Marca in his agreement of Empire and the Priesthood has wisely and boldly Remonstrated That since the Pope would hold the same Degree in France that the Soveraign Sacrificer held in the Synagogue he ought not to pretend to more Authority in our France than the Soveraign Sacrificer had in the Kingdom of Israel where he was the Kings Subject his Person his Jurisdiction the Affairs of the Church the Order of Ceremonies were within the Kings Jurisdiction who depos'd the Sacrificer and set another in his place out of his pure and full Authority God be prais'd for that in these later times where the Throne of iniquity the Papal See is so much adored he has rais'd up such brave Assertors of our Christian Liberty which would bear up again and for which we want only to shake off the Yoak What is alledg'd the most specious for the necessity of a Pope to superintend the Christian Kingdom is that the Kings need an Arbiter of their Differences that may be generally respected and whose Dignity and Sanctity may oblige them to Submission and Veneration But if this general Arbiter instead of making Peace amongst Princes foment their Differences and embroil their Affairs to fish in troubl'd Waters they shall do wisely to let him alone and yet more wisely to rid themselves of him There 's no question but that when a general Peace is for the advantage of the Pope that then he will set himself seriously about it But it rarely happens otherwise then that the good of one party shall be disadvantageous to the Pope and then 't is ill trusting to his Arbitrement France has more reason to stand upon its guard than any other Nation for the Court of Rome has always sought its ruin has favour'd its Enemies or rais'd them up anew When the English made War against us Rome abetted their quarrel and aided them with Spiritual Weapons I cannot let pass the ridiculous assistance sent to Henry V. of England when he levied an Army to go into France this was a Ship loaden with Consecrated Apples which were distributed to all who would List themselves for this War and they listed themselves with a good Will having scrambl'd for the Apples with Greediness and Devotion and were well satisfied in Conscience of the Justice of this Expedition by these Apples Apostolical The Pope employ'd more powerful means against us when France was weak and the Spaniard powerful whom he assisted with all his Forces Spiritual and Temporal What a strong League did he make to destroy both King and Kingdom What Evils did he heap on France and after the injury done us how much praying did he require before he would be appeas'd Thomas Campanella speaks thus of this Judge of differences Who shall carefully read History shall find that the Popes have made more Wars amongst Christians than they have quieted Let France mark what he adds So far have the Popes been from opposing himself Hispanis Imperiorum helluonibus to the Spainiards unsatiable devourers of Empire that the Pontifical Authority has lent pretences to their Voracity Witness Navarre and France in the times of Henry III. For this last hundred years all the Popes except Vrban the VIII have favour'd the Spaniard And what reason can we have to expect better from them seeing that the greatest part of the Cardinals are born Subjects to Spain in the Principalities of Milan of Naples and of Sicily and that the Court of Rome is inclos'd within these Principalities Judge what confidence we can have in such Arbiters France loses plainly both Money and Pains ' sending Ambassadors to these Gentlemen courting them and enriching them when they are assembled for the Election of a Pope The fear they have of France's Power may gain some respect but it is a respect without Friendship and when France has gain'd it I do not see what France has gain'd They have reason to fear the King knowing that this Great Prince is sensible of their Usurpations and they have no great reason to love his Subjects because they are no great purchasers of Indulgences And the less the King cares for them the more will they fawn upon him but we may assure our selves they employ all their strength and set to work all their Art and Subtilty to put a stop to his Progress and to pull down his Greatness That agreement of the Pope with the Duke of Guise ought never to be forgotten What rancour did he testifie against the Royal Line that Reigns at this day what Pains did he take to disinherit and destroy it Into what combustion did he cast the poor Kingdom that he might have a King of his own Choice who might abolish the Liberties of the Gallican-Church and make France a Fief of the Court of Rome Let us for our experience learn the truth of that Character given by Aeneus Sylvius who was afterwards Pope Pius II. That there was never any great Slaughter in Christendom nor any great Calamity happen'd either of Church or State whereof the Bishops of Rome were not the Authors Hist Austria And as much is said by Machaivel in his History of Florence And if we consider that the great Evils done by the Pope to Kings were done under the colour of com-promise we shall find that 't is the surest way to decline his kindess and to have nought to do with him and that he always comes better off that affronts him than he that flatters him The Marquess after he has wisely consider'd that the name of Religion is a false pretext laid hold on by the Court of Rome thereby to encrease their Temporal Power and raise them Creatures every where the abuses he would have retrench'd after the example of Charlemaign and of many more great Kings But to compass this it is not
that insult over us for Actions forc'd by the despair of a few and protested against by the greater Party and that will not acknowledge the signal Services we have done for the Crown which ought never to have been forgotten so long as the Race of Henry the Great shall Sit upon the Throne I think my self oblig'd to represent truly what is most considerable in their condition and in their actions since the last return of the Purity of the Gospel into France I say the last return because that it has been and has flourisht there two or three hundred years before and the Professors remain'd there skulking and yet in great numbers after long and cruel Persecutions For we dissemble not but own that this Holy Doctrine came to us and was planted by the remains of those poor Valdenses and Albigenses the destruction of whom is rank'd by the noble Marquess amongst the good Works of the first Rates The Character that Reinerius their cruel Inquisitor gave them is very remarkable and may satisfie those who ask where was our Religion before Luther c. 4. Contra Valdenses This says he of all Sects is the most pernicious for three Reasons First because of its long duration for some say that it has continu'd since the time of Pope Sylvester others hold that it began even in the Apostles time Secondly because of all Sects this is the most general there scarce being any Country where this Sect has not taken root In the Third place by reason that all contrary to other Sects that become abominable by the enormity of their Blasphemies against God these People seem very Godly for they live justly before Men have a sound belief in all things and of God and of all the Articles contain'd in the Apostles Creed only this They Blaspheme against Rome An admirable Testimony from the Pen of a Mortal Enemy that deserves to be Writ in Letters of Gold Let us joyn hereunto that of good King Lewis XII the Father of the People He was much importun'd by those of the Clergy who pray'd him to root out the Inhabitants of the Cabrieres and of Merindol in Provence that were of this Profession and some remainders of the Albigenses But this just King afore he would grant that bloody Request would see their Confession of Faith which having read He swore they were better Christians than he and his People and preserv'd them from the rage of their Enemies But these Enemies obtain'd what they desir'd of King Francis the First and made an horrible slaughter of those poor Christians If these Albigenses be Hereticks because they Blaspheme against Rome Is not the Marquess one and all the Men of Politicks in France who declaim so openly and so generously against the Pope's Usurpations that makes of Religion a pretence thereby to invade the Rights of the King and make himself Universal Monarch of all the World These Gentlemen would abate much of the hatred they bear us would they be pleas'd to consider that the Pope and Roman Clergy hate us for a Cause that is common to us both For it is not upon the account of any Controversies about the Holy Sacrament the Invocation of Saints and the Prayers for the Dead but it is because we oppose boldly the Usurpations of Rome it is because we Blaspheme against Rome as the Albigenses in Reinerius's days That we are call'd as he calls us A pernicious Sect. This is the great Heresie for which we have been made Objects of the Publick hatred and for which the Devotion of the People is made to consist in a bloody Zeal to burn us and Massacre us In the Year 1520. the Light of the Gospel shin'd throughout all the parts of France And the Queen of Navarre Sister of King Francis I. who was enlighten'd therewith was a great Rampire against the fury of the Roman Clergy that labour'd to extinguish this Holy Light by Persecution However she could not hinder but that much cruelty was exercised But after her decease the Persecution grew hot again and continued during the Reign of Francis I. and Henry II. For the space of Forty years those that were converted maintain'd their Holy Profession by a constancy in their Sufferings in imitation of the Christians of the Primitive Church Notwithstanding this Vigor many of the Princes and of the best Families of France as the Princes of the Blood of the House of Bourbon embrac'd the Reform'd Religion Under the Reign of Francis II. the Princes of the Blood debarr'd of their Rights by those of the House of Guise the Queens Uncles form'd the design at Ambois to banish those from the King's Person that held them at distance This attempt failing was call'd a Crime of High Treason and charg'd on them of the Reform'd Religion though Renaudy the chief of the Plot was a Roman Catholick and this Party was compos'd of Noblemen and Gentry of both the Perswasions Whoso understands the Priviledges of the Princes of the Blood in France will never accuse these Undertakers of the Rebellion Thuanus testifies in their Favour Hist l. 24. That not one of them was prov'd to have attempted against the King or against the Queen but only against Strangers that Govern'd all at Court in a Tyrannical way For then the House of Guise was still lookt upon as a Stranger in France Francis II. being dead his Successor Charles IX being a Minor the Princes of the Blood had more Right than afore to be admitted to the management of Publick Affairs at least joyntly with the Queen-Mother But when they saw themselves excluded and their Persons in danger they Levy'd Forces for their Preservation When the King came of Age the Princes seeing Him much incens'd against them and that He was of a dangerous and implacable Nature they retir'd and stood upon their Guard The several Affronts they receiv'd and the frequent Massacres occasion'd two or three little Wars To rid himself of them all at one blow the King set his Sister for a bait to draw in and to destroy the whole Party of the Princes giving her in Marriage to the Prince of Navarre who was afterwards our Henry the Great He and his Cousin Germain the Prince of Conde were imprison'd and the Principals of their Party slain in their Beds having Danc'd at a Ball the Evening before Never were Dancers at such a Wedding Pope Gregory XII had a hand in this execrable Action his Predecessor Pius V. refused to consent to this Marriage because said he the Prince of Navarre is an Heretick But when the Cardinal of Lorrain told his Successor Gregory XII that this Marriage was a trap to catch the Hereticks he then dispatcht the Dispensation and encourag'd the Design The Prince of Navarre having sav'd himself at Rochel was immediately assisted by a great Party that had escap'd the Massacre and the War broke out afresh Thereupon was form'd that Faction of the League to destroy the Princes of the Blood under
Sorrows into your Bosoms or entertain you with my partcular Afflictions I need no Consolation on that account thinking my self greatly Honour'd that in the publick Affliction of the Church it pleases God to set me the foremost I should account my self very happy if all the Storm might fall on my Head So that I might be the only Sufferer and the Church of God continue in Peace and Prosperity One Care more pressing has mov'd me to write to you and has forc'd Nature which was ever averse from medling with Publick Affairs and acting beyond my Calling For seeing the Church generally in eminent danger and upon the brink of a Precipice it was impossible for me to hold from speaking Nor can I be silent in this urgent necessity without making my self guilty of insensibility and of cruelty towards the Church of God And I hope in speaking my Thoughts about Publick Affairs my Domestick Affliction will deliver me from jealousie in your Opinion And if I be not believ'd at least I may be excus'd I confess indeed it does not become me to give Counsel to an Assembly of Persons chosen out of all the Kingdom to bear the weight of Publick Affairs in a time so full of difficulty but I think it for your advantage to be inform'd rightly what is the Opinion and what the Disposition of our Churches from persons that have a particular knowledge of them The question then being whether you ought to break up your Assembly in Obedience to His Majesty or continue to hold together in order to provide for the Affairs of the Churches I am bound to tell you that it is the general desire of our Churches that it might please God we may continue in peace by obeying His Majesty And that seeing the King resolv'd to make himself obey'd by force of Arms they assure themselves that you will to your power endeavour to avoid this Tempest and rather yield to necessity than engage them in a War that will most certainly ruin the greatest part of our Churches and will plunge us in troubles whereof we well see the beginning but know not at all the end By obeying the King you will take away their pretence who incense his Majesty to persecute us And if we are to be persecuted all they who fear God desire that this may be for the Profession of the Gospel and that our persecution may truly be the Cross of Christ In a word Sirs I can assure you that the greatest and the best part of our Churches desire your Assembly may break up if it can be done with safety to your Persons and even many of the Roman Church love that Publick Peace are continually about us praying and exhorting us that we may not by throwing our selves down the Precipice involve them in our ruin On this occasion I need not represent to you the general consternation of our poor Flocks who cast their Eyes upon you as Persons that may procure their quiet and by yielding to necessity may divert that storm so ready to break upon their heads Many already have forsaken the Conntry many have quitted their Religion from whence you may judge what a distraction there will be should these troubles go on farther Nor need I more recommend to you to have a tender care for the preservation of our poor Churches knowing that you will rather chuse Death than draw upon you the reproach that you have hasten'd on the persecution of the Church and destroy'd that which the zeal of our Fathers had planted and brought this State into confusion I am not ignorant that many Reasons are alledg'd to perswade you to hold on your Assembly As that the King has permitted it but for this permission you have not any Warrant nor any Declaration in Writing without which all Promises are but Words in the Air. For Kings believe they have Power to forbid what they have permitted and to revoke what they have offer'd when they judge it expedient for the good of their Affairs And there is none of you that having sent his Servant any whither or given him leave to go does not think you have power to call him back again Above all Sovereign Princes keep not willingly their Promises when they have been extorted from thâ—m There are also represented to you many Grievances and Controventions to the Kings Edicts which Complaints to our great sorrow are but too true yet without alledging that we our selves have given the occasion of many of these Evils the difficulty lies not in representing our Grievances but in finding redress Consider then whether the continuance of your Assembly may heal these Maladies whether your Session may put our Churches under shelter provide necessaries for a War where the Parties are so unequal Levy Forces and make a Fond for Payment if all the good your Session is capable to produce shall be equivalent to the loss of so many Churches that lye naked and expos'd to the wrath of their Enemies whether when they are beaten down you can raise them again whether in the manifest division that is amongst us you have the power to bring together all the scatter'd parts of this divided Body which were it well united would yet be too weak to maintain it self on the Defensive Pardon me Sirs if I tell you that you will not find all those of our Religion dispos'd to obey your Resolutions and that the fire being kindl'd all about you you will remain feeble Spectators of the ruin that you have made to tumble upon your heads Besides you cannot be ignorant that many amongst us of the best quality and most capable to defend us condemn openly your Actions imagining and expressing that to suffer for this Cause is not to suffer for the Cause of God These making no kind of resistance and opening the Gates of their places and joyning their Arms to those of the King you may easily gather what the loss will be and what a weakning of your Party How many persons of our Nobility will forsake you some by Treachery others through weakness Even they that in an Assembly are the most vehement and that to appear zealous are altogether for violent courses are most commonly those that revolt and that betray their Brethren They hurry our poor Churches into the greatest danger and there leave them and run away after that they have set the House on fire If a Fight or the Siege of a Town should happen whatever might be the event of the Fight or Siege it would prove a difficult thing to contain the People animated against us and to hinder them from falling upon our Churches that have neither Defence or Retreat And whatever Orders the Magistrates of the contrary Religion should give it will be impossible for them to take effect I might also represent to you many Reasons arising from the State of our Churches both within and out of the Kingdom to let you see that this Commotion is altogether ill-tim'd
them We can hope for little from their Armies and they would always be a charge and expence to us The King of Denmark is a Prince whose State is but of small extent His whole Strength consists in the King's Protection who upholds Him against the Suedes his Enemies Sueden will never break off from the Interest of France It 's a Country unfertile except in Soldiers but there being little Money in Sueden and they far of they can of themselves make no considerable War they are feared and hated in Germany So we ought to consider them as Instruments which for our Money we may make use of to avenge our Quarrels either against the Emperor or the German Princes or to divert the English and the Holland Forces when His Majesty makes any enterprise which pleaseth them not Poland and Muscovy are of almost no use to 〈…〉 except it be to serve us in stopping the enâ—erprises of the Emperour Furs may be had â—om them and Cloth and Silk-stuffs sent â—hem The Friendship of the Turks is good for â—rance to be made use of on occasion against â—he Emperor and that of the King of Persia to â—e made use of against the Turks The one and â—he other may favour our Commerce There must be no reliance upon the promises of the Kings of Tripoly Tunis and Algier they â—re Pirates that take a Pride in breaking their Words and have no Faith at all Whenever â—ccasion serves War must be made upon them â—nd they attacqued home to their own doors in â—heir Harbours but with considerable Forces They may be ruin'd in time by hindring their courses at Sea and by causing the Tributary Princes to rise against them by Land as I have observed asore Upon this the King as the Carthaginians did might employ the Numidian Troops so much magnified by the Ancients The Emperor of Fez and Morocco is a Potent Prince who 's Alliance may be useful to the King against the Spaniards and for Commerce He is a Mahometan and I would not have too much trust put in His Oaths In fine when occasions for it are offered we must not fail to compliment the African Kings as the Emperors of the Negros and of the Abyssins then the Great Mogol and the other Kings of the Indies of China of Tartary and Japan letting them know by Presents the Virtue the Greatness and Magnificence of the King The Conclusion Such are the Political Maxims by which I have judged that the Subjects of this French Monarchy might attain to the possession of a true and stable felicity and so the Heroick labours of the King be Crowned with immortal Glory and France enjoy in all its parts the highly beneficial Virtue of its incomparable Monarch FINIS REFLECTIONS ON THE Fourth Chapter OF THE POLITICKS OF FRANCE Which Treats of the CLERGY LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet 1691. TO Monsieur P. H. Marquess of C. SIR I Took so great satisfaction in the reading of those your Reflections upon the Roman Clergy that I have thought I could not better employ my time than illustrating them with a large Comment and though sometimes I improvs upon your judgement and make bold to push on somewhat farther than you are pleased to go yet shall you not find that I have gloss'd upon your discourse as some Monks have done on the Bible for I have faithfully confirm'd your Opinion by the History of our France and by the wise sayings of the best Authors And if by their help I let you see that your Maxims carry you to much higher enterprises than your Counsels aim at this is not to Contradict but to Assist you and per adventure to say for rou what you would have been content to have said your self After having thus fought under your Banners the interest of my Party which in your Fifth Chapter you are so hard upon obliges me to engage in their defence And I know you are too generous Sir to take this ill But I bestow not above a Third part of this Discourse on that Subject that you may clearly perceive I have more than double the pleasure in following your steps than I find in opposing you To return then to my chief design which is to espouse your quarrel and take your part against the Vsurpations of Rome I will shew you what more remains to be said on that occasion there is a pretty Book called An Examination of the Powers of Cardinal Chigi then when he came in the quality of Leg at to His Majesty A Book furnish'd with invincible Reasons and a profound knowledge of Antiquity especially for what concerns our France And from thence I acknowledge to have received some of the Authorities that I alledge As in those two Chapters where you speak against two contrary Parties you consider not Religion otherwise than as it affects the Policy of France I likewise have confin'd my self within the same bounds and have not examin'd this or the other Religion and the Professors farther than the State has or may have damage or benefit by them in Temporals I shall throughout this Discourse forbear to say what I now only mention at parting viz. That the Interest of God ought to be dearer to us than that of the State and that these two Interests accord so well that where Truth and Piety Reign Peace Justice and the State can never fail to Flourish God of his Goodness grant such happy times to France this is the Prayer of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant De L'Ormegeigny REFLECTIONS ON THE Fourth Chapter OF THE Politicks of France Which Treats of the CLERGY FRance is much oblig'd to my Lord the Marquess of C. for having mark'd the many Vsurpations of the Court of Rome upon the Rights of our Kings He has wisely observ'd That the Churchmen have attempted on several occasions to render themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction That their obstinacy has proceeded so far that making advantage of trouble some times they have forced our Kings to Declare in their Favour upon very unjust Conditions and to yield to them the Rights of Mortmain and Indemnity for the Lands they possess Whereby the State is so much the weaker as they grow in strength and that the conceipt of these Priviledges is so full in their Heads that to this day they can hardly acknowledge the King's Sovereignty That the multitude of Monks is an abuse of so sensible that the King can dissemble it no longer and that 't is high time seriously and effectually to apply some remedy That their blind subjection and dependance on the Pope's Will makes a Foreign Monarchy even in the very bosom of France And that they seduce the silly credulous People which is a matter of pernicious consequence That this Policy is founded on the abusive and destructive Maxims of Rome which are meerly Politick That those particular Vows of Obedience to the Pope and the name of Religion in