eyes enlightened with the Beams of the face of God Consider the waves of the Ocean which cease not to carry the Memory of your Deeds unto the ends of the earth pardon your Subjects and wash away the stain which the effusion of that generous bloud hath made since you had rather be a Messenger of Reconciliation than to be the Bearer of Vengeance O great and illustrious Brittanie Is it possible that this bloud hath yet wrought nothing on the hardness of thy heart and that thou dost still delight by force of Arms to fight against Heaven to oppose thy own safety and to shut the gate against thy own happiness Where is that glory of thy Christianism which heretofore did make thee to be lookt upon as on a land of Benediction which opened her liberal breasts to give so many Doctours to Europe so many Lights of learning to the Church so many Examples of piety to all Christendom and so many Confessors unto Paradise Thy Kings by a pious violence have forced their way to Heaven and their people have followed their foot-steps There was nothing spoken of thee but obedience to the Church of Rome of Saints of Reliques of Piety of Combats of Virtue and of Crowns And since the devil of lust and rebellion raised from the most black Abyss hath seized on the soul of a miserable King thou hast sullied thy perfection thou hast destroyed thy Sanctuary the lamentable Reliques whereof are now spread over all the world and the sacred stones of thy Temples groaning amongst the Nations do attend the day of the Justice of God and the Re-union of the hearts of thy people in the performance of his service What hast thou done with the cradle of Constantine and of S. Helena who were born with thee to give Laws unto all Christendom What hast thou done with those precious stones which composed that Diadem the beams whereof did sparkle with admiration in the eyes of all the people in the world Return O Sbunamite return Return fair Island to thy first beginning the hand of God is not shortned his arms all day are stretched forth to receive thee If the insolent hands of Heresie have made them bars which have been planted for so many years do not think but the hands of true piety will tear away the disorders which protect themselves in the night of so corrupted an Age. Feign not to thy self imaginary horrours and overthrowings of Estates by the Inquisitions and Thunders of Rome The beams of the Sun will make the Manna to melt which no Power can destroy The bloud of this immortal Queen shall break the Diamond in pieces and one day work those great effects which we our selves cannot believe nor our Posterity sufficiently admire It is in your veins most mighty Monarch of Great Brittain where still her bloud doth run That cruel Axe which made three Crowns to fall with one head hath not yet poured it all out it doth preserve it self in your body and in the body of your Posterity animated with the Spirit of Marie and imprinted with the image of her goodness It is she who hath given you so temperate a spirit such attractive inclinations such royal Virtues and so triumphant a Majesty It is she who uniteth you with the Queen your dear Spouse with a will so cordial and with a love so perfect and makes your marâ—iage as a continual Sacrifice of the Ancients whose offerings that were presented had no gall at all in them The Queen of Scotland your Grand-mother was given unto France and France hath rendered you a Princess according to the heart of God and according to your own-heart a Blossom of our Lilies the Daughter of a King the Sister of a King the Wife of a King Royal in her bloud Royal in her Religion Royal in her Piety in her Prudence and Royal in her Courage She enters into your cares she partakes of your troubles She conspires with your Designs her spirit turneth unto yours and yours continually is ready to meet with hers They are two clocks excellently ordered which at every hour of the Day do answer one another Great Majesties of Brittanie carry the same yoke in the service of God and the piety of your Ancestours and as you have but one heart maintain also but one Religion Establish that which your Grand-mother of everlasting memory hath practised by her Virtues demonstrated by her Examples honoured by her Constancy and sealed with her Bloud CARDINAL POOL LE CARDINAL POLVS NExt unto Boëtius I will insert Cardinal Pool one of the most excellent Men of the Age before us who being chief of the Councel in the Realm of England under Queen Marie did know so well to marry the Interests of the State to the Interests of God that rendering himself the Restorer of Religion he repaired the Ruins of the Kingdom which were fallen into a horrible desolation His Birth most high and illustrious made him a His birth and Education near Kinsman to the King of Great Brittain as well by the Fathers side as by the Mothers His spirit did equal his Nobility but his Virtue did exceed them both and proved him to be the wisest and the most moderate person in all the Clergy The care of his good Mother did with great advantage improve his more innocent and tender years and omitted nothing that might either enlighten his understanding in the knowledge of learning or inflame his heart with a generous heaâ— after gallant actions In his most tender age he testified a Divine Attraction His love of solitude which made him to eschewall commerce of company and secretly did inspire him with the love of Solitude He did delight in the Countrey life where the pureness of the Air the aspect of the Stars the ennammel of the Meadows the covert of the Woods the veins of the Waters and other objects did prepare him as many Degrees to mount up to God as he did there behold Beauties in the discovered breasts of Nature It was for this that he made his first studies near unto the House of the reverend Fathers of the Charters whose conversation he loved more than all the pleasures in the world which occasioned a certain tincture of Devotion and of probitie to pass into his manners which continued with him all his life From thence he removed to the Universities in England where he gave most admirable proofs of his Capacity On the approach of the twentieth year of his age His Travels he travelled into Italie where he beheld the wonders of Rome and had a tast of the rarest spirits in that Age some whereof did afterwards live with him and did much conduce to fill his spirit with the height of learning which made him to be admired by all and the rather because it no way diminished the holy heats of his Devotion Having travelled into forreign Countreys for the space of five years he returned into England where he was lookt
by a manifest reflection of beauty and goodness sometimes also by passages altogether extraordinary in such sort that it is very hard to divine from whence the knot groweth which tieth two persons who never have seen one another so suddenly that it is done in an instant and so inseparably that it lasteth even to the tomb Some have said it proceedeth from secret influences of the same stars which predominate at their births a matter which they verily have much ado to make good Others have thought it is a work of fortune and that loves were shuffled together like cards to marry sometimes a Queen to a Groom Others have referred it to complexions of the body and to resemblance which useth to be the mother of affections a thing very probable Others to the qualities of humours which is daily sufficiently found But besides this there is a certain secret touch as in the adamant not to us throughly known which readily striketh its blow and speaketh in a dumb language in the bottom of hearts For my part I should think that in this love which Hermingildus bare to Indegondis there should be some very particular passage of the Providence of God who was pleased constantly to bind his heart to her whom he intended to make use of for his conversion The eleventh SECTION The persecutions of Indegondis NEver Nuptials were more full of content nor amities more faithfull nor beginning more prosperous than were these But there is ever in humane things some mischief which sticketh on the most smiling felicities and never giveth wine but with a mixture of dregs I know not what kind of fantasie possessed this wicked step-mother Goizintha but she became jealous of the chast contentments of her son-in-law altogether as it were besotted of this admirable Princess whom he could not endure out of his fight She observed their conversation their discourses their pleasures and ever put her self athwart their designs becoming as troublesom as if she had been one of those malign spirits which use to possess men Indegondis although she passionately loved her husband durst not refuse the flattering entertainment of this step-mother nor shew that she distasted the company of her sex to seek after a man but the Prince extreamly repined hereat and could not dissemble the jealousie of his step-mother saying She ought to be contented with the credit she had in affairs not to prie so narrowly into his marriage and by her importunities take from him his dearest spouse The other let him understand this frequent conversation amity offered her tended to no other end but to convert her to her Religion thereby to render her the more obsequious to his will And verily she well witnessed this design was deeply engraven in her heart For she neither spared endeavour nor subtile practice to seduce this innocent Princess first waging war against her in the shape of a Dragon afterward of a Lion She told her with much cunning that God might as well be served in one Religion as in another That we ought to accommodate our selves to the place where Fortune hath ranked us That it was the chiefest policie of a Kingdom to satisfie the will and inclinations of the King That she was not come into Spain to give Law but example of obedience That her husband never could faithfully love her whilest she entertained any other sense other laws and other Sacraments than himself That never could she be a Queen of people if she embraced not the faith of the people over whom she was to command That it was a folly to fear the reproches of France where the wisest would ever think she had done discreetly to submit to the times That if the same faults are pardonable in those who in erring authorize themselves with a multitude of great complices no man could argue her justly of a verity which she had entertained with a whole Kingdom The wicked woman ceased not to afflict the innocent ears of this young Princess with such like words but she who had not herein a pliant and yielding spirit protested that if she persisted to maintain these discourses it would enforce her to forsake her company and that it was not needfull to use so many subtilities for sooner should her heart be torn out of her belly than her Religion from her soul In saying this she went out of her chamber shewing unto her an eye sweetly discontented with a soul well resolved with which the other offended notwithstanding dissembled her anger so much she feared to disturb her but quickly afterward endeavouring to make this breach up again she tendered her a thousand protestations of affection and ceased not to tyre her out with flatteries whereat the poor Indegondis was much perplexed and could not any longer handle the matter so as not to express her disdain Notwithstanding Goizintha who lost not hope to seduce her attempted once again to get her to be baptized after the Arian manner alledging a thousand reasons whereunto the Princess answered very wisely That she was thanks be to God well christened in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that if the water of the Baptism of the Arians had been cast on her head although she loved her hair as well as any woman of her sort she would cut it off and tear away the skin which had been defiled with such an execration The step-mother hearing these words shifted away and said all foaming with choller That since she would not be baptized after the Arian manner she would prepare another kind of Baptism for her which would wash her from the head to the foot And thereupon enraged she put her self upon a practice wholly barbarous which is related by S. Gregorie the Great and many others to wit that after she had dregged this poor Princess by the hair and tormented her even to the effusion of some bloud she caused her to be taken by two or three of her waiting women commanding them to strip her stark naked then to bind her with cords by the arms and in this posture plunge her in a pool in a very cold season of the year It was a pitiful spectacle to behold the daughter of a king thus cruelly used in the same place where she entered with so many triumphs The impious Goizintha stood upon the brink of the pool as she who bare sway in this torture commanded her wicked servants to drench her in the water not all at once but by little and little that she might endure the longer Martyrdom At every moment the mischievous Queen cried out Say you are an Arian and you are safe The holy maid who had not so much apprehension of death as of her nakedness answered aloud I am a Catholick A Catholick I will die Take away my life in this confession neither fire nor water shall ever have so much force upon me as to make me unsay it She was a long time in this torment
content the King my father and yours who requireth from you no other satisfaction The good Prince answered Ab Brother What have you said you lately perswaded me to an act of pietie at the peril of my life think not now to induce me to an impietie although it should concern all the lives and Kingdoms of the world Behold here the time for you to reign and for me to die I willingly die for the honour I ow to my Religion for which I gladly would suffer death a thousand times if it were possible I neither accuse you nor my father whom I more compassionate than my self and counsel you to render him all the duties of pietie in the decrepitness of age whereinto he is entered As for our step-mother I pray you rather to endure her nature than revenge my death It is the work of God to take knowledge of injuries and for us to bear them When my soul shall leave this miserable bodie it shall ceaselesly pray for you and I hope most dear brother you in the end will renounce this poor libertie which entertaineth you in the sect of the Arians and if dying men use to divine I foretel that being converted to the faith you shall lay foundations of Catholick Religion in all this Kingdom which I am about to moisten with my bloud Recaredus used all the intreaties he could devise never being able to shake the constancy of his brother which much offended King Levigildus and transported him into resolutions very bloudy Notwithstanding those who might yet speak unto him with some liberty counselled him to precipitate nothing in an affair of so great consequence saying there was no apparence that Hermingildus had undertaken any plot against the life and State of his father since he came so freely to present himself upon his bare word that those who find themselves guilty use not to come to burn themselves as butter-flies at the candle That his countenance at this interview was too sweet his speech too proper his deportments too candide to cover so black a mischief and as for change of Sect it was no wonder if the King having given him a Catholick wife he had taken that Religion with its love that it was a complement of a lover which age would bend experience sweeten and prudence in the end deface that he had at that time more need of a Doctour than an executioner since the apprehensions of God were distilled in the heart by the help of tongues not the dint of swords The seventeenth SECTION The death of Hermingildus THe faction of Goizintha transported beyond all considerations ceased not to sound in the ears of the King that Hermingildus was not an offender whose power was to be neglected That his crime was not such as might promise him impunity that the laws of the Countrey had never tolerated such practises that he had violated right both divine and humane becoming a fugitive from his Countrey an Apostata in his religion arebel to the power of his father in such sort that to render his wound incurable he had changed all lenitives into poison That he had levied arms against his Sovereign without regard of his age his name the majesty of the Kingdom and the voice of nature and that there was nothing but the despair of his affairs which had taken them out of his hands That he held correspondence with the enemies of the State to whom he was become an assistant and a companion and now to make himself as impudent to defend a crime as bold to execute it had cast all the fault of his conspiracies upon the Queen his mother-in-law and the marriage of his father shewing himself so insolent in his misery that there was nothing to be expected but tyranny from his prosperity that it was to be extreamly arrogant even to stupidity to seek to retain a chymaera of piety contrary to the will of his father and that never would he be so constant in his superstition if he had not leagued all the interests of his fortune with the Catholicks enemies of the Kingdom That if order were not taken therein they should be hereafter deprived of the power to deliberate on it when they had given him all the means to execute it The credulity of the unfortunate father was so strongly assaulted by these discourses that he resolved to go beyond himself so that on a night which was Easter Eye he dispatched a messenger to the prison with an executioner to let him know he was speedily to make his resolution to choose either life and scepter by returning to the Religion of the Arians or death by persisting in the Catholick That he had a sword and a Crown before his eyes the one for glory the other for punishment the choice of either was referred to himself Hermingildus made answer he had already sufficiently manifested his determination upon this Article that he would rather die a thousand deaths than ever separate himself from the Religion which he had embraced with all reason and full consideration The Commissary replied The King your Father hath given me in charge that in case of refusal I should proceed to execution of the sentence decreed against you What saith Hermingildus He hath condemned you by express sentence saith the other to have your head cut off in this same prison where you are Whereupon the holy man fell on his knees to the earth and said My God my Lord I yield you immortal thanks that having given me by the means of my father a frail brittle and miserable life common unto me with flies and ants you now afford me on this day by these sentences a life noble happie glorious to all eternitie Then rising up again he requested the Commissary he would by his good favour suffer a Catholick Priest to come to him to hear his Confession and dispose him to death He answered It was expresly forbidden by the King his father but if he would admit an Arian Bishop he should have one at his pleasure No saith he for I have detested yea and do still abhor Arianism even to the death and since my father denieth me a favour which ordinarily is granted to the guiltie I will die having no other witness but mine own conscience Which having said he kneeled down again and made his confession to God praying very long for his father his step-mother all his enemies and pronouncing also at his death the name of his dear Indegondis to whom he professed himself bound with incomparable obligations Then afterward having recommended his soul to God under the protection of the most holy Virgin his good Angel and all the Saints he stretched out his neck to the executioner which was cut off with one blow of an ax So many stars as at that instant shined in Heaven in the dead silence of the night were so many eyes open over the bloudy sacrifice of this most innocent Prince from whom a wretched father took
against me In the third place I require that my servants who have attended on me with great fidelitie during so many afflictions may have free leave to retire where they please and enjoy those small Legacies which in my last Will my povertie hath bequeathed to them I conjure You Madam by the Bloud of Jesus Christ by the nearness of our consanguinitie by the Memorie of Henrie the Seventh our common Father and by the title of a Queen which I carrie to my Grave not to denie me these reasonable Demands but by one word under Your hand to grant me an assurance of them and I shall die as I have lived Your most affectionate Sister and Prisoner QUEEN MARY It is uncertain whether this Letter came to the hands of Elizabeth because no Answer can be found unto it whether it were that those next unto her did conceal it from her or whether through the hardness of her heart she did dissemble it In the mean time King James employed himself for The vain endeavour to delay her death the Deliverance of his Mother the Ambassadours from France Monsieur de la Mote Aigron and Monsieur del Aubispene were commanded thither upon that and other occasions and Monsieur de Belieurs did there also carry himself with great wisdom courage and fidelity as may appear by his grave Remonstrance which is to be read in the History of France Howsoever the Arrest of Death was suspended for there moneths until such time that the clamours of the Lutherans and Puritans did cause the Thunder to fall down upon that hand which desired nothing more than to strike home the blow The more advised did remonstrate unto her That it was without example to commit a Ladie the Queen of France and Scotland and the nearest Kinswoman she had in the world into the hands of a Hang-man A Queen which was not her prisoner of War but her Guest whom she had called and invited into her Kingdom and sent unto her assurances of her fidelitie That she ought to consider that what was done proceeded from her Secretaries and not from her And if that after twenty years imprisonment she should have consented to be taken from it by force it did not deserve to be punished with Death That if she should cause her to die it would open a wound from whence there would issue such abundance of bloud that many Ages could not stanch it That Italie France and Spain and all the Christian Kingdoms of the world would be offended at it and that she should bring upon her Kingdom the Arms of Christendom who would be glad of that pretence to invade her Kingdom That it would be a most remarkable affront to her Son James and all his Race who could not but be mindfull of it That it would incense the Spirits of her Kingdom and render them unreconcileable to her And in the end that it was to be feared that Heaven would arm it self against so bloudy a Design That she should use the miserable and especially a Queen who came into her Countrey for protection with more Reverence That she should hazard much in her death but could lose nothing by her life seeing she had so many Guards Prisons Bars and Walls to secure her if she had an intent to enterprize against the State But the insolent Ministers did incessantly crie out That she must put an end to her Imprisonment by putting an end unto her Life That the Queen ought to remember that she had usurped her Titles and her Name and sometimes caused her self to be proclaimed Queen of England and of Scotland and that Sovereigns never pardoned those who did so far intrench upon their Authority That the life of Elizabeth and Mary were incompatible That the onely means to take away all pretences from the Catholicks was to cut off this Root which would make all their hopes to perish That King James was instructed in their Religion and would rather look after the advancement of his own State than take vengeance for the Death of his Mother That forreign Princes were too much perplexed with the difficulties of their own Affairs and took care rather to defend their own than to invade her Kingdom That her Cousin the Duke of Guise was in a bad condition in France and that Henrie the Third would be very carefull how he did espouse her quarrels And if other Princes were so hardy to undertake it they were to understand that England had a deep ditch about it That Queen Elizabeth was mortal and if she should die there was not that calamitie to be conceived which both Religion and the State would not suffer under the reign of Marie in the revenge of her Imprisonment and other injuries she had received That she could not but remember that great personages did write things well done on the sand but did engrave their Discontents in brass The Preachers made it to be a work of Religion with their absurd Allegations out of the Bible which they did corrupt to their bloudy meaning And the Lawyers as ignorant as the Ministers were absurd did produce some Histories for the punishment of Kings which were altogether impertinent But there needed not so much labour to perswade a Woman who had in her so much vanity as once in her life to make a Princess head to fly upon a Scaffold and who did not remember that in the Reign of Queen Mary being her self accused of offending the Estate and expecting her sentence of death she did so much fear the Axes of the Hang-men in England that she was resolved to petition to her Sister to send for an Executioner to France to cut off her head Now was the Commandment given for her death and it was signified to the poor Victim who for a long time was prepared for this Sacrifice Some passionate writers do indeavour to divert this Crime from the reputation of Elizabeth taking their ground on a Letter which she wrote to the Queen of Scotland in which by a shamefull perfidiousness she doth write That her spirit was tormented with an incomparable Sorrow by reason of the lamentable Event which was arrived against her will and that she had not a soul so base as either by terrour to fear to do what was just or by cowardice to denie it after it was done But who doth not see that this is to mock and to Elizabeth entirely culpable of the death of Queen Mary traduce the Story and the belief of mankind Davison her Secretary who mannaged this sad affair as the true instrument of her malice doth express in his Attestation reported in the most faithfull Memorials of England by Cambden that after the departure of the French Ambassadour sent to prevent the Execution she commanded him to shew the Instrument for putting the Queen of Scotland to death which being done she most readily signed it with her own hand and commanded him to see it sealed with the Great Seal and
Right which my Birth doth give me to the Realm of England and the Catholick Religion are the causes of my condemnation although they disguise them as much as they are able by their calumnies They have taken from me my Almoner and deprived me of the consolation of the Sacrament which I intended at my death pressing me with all violence of importunity to receive the assistance and the Doctrine of their Ministers but I will never do any thing that shall be unworthy of my Birth or my Religion These who shall conveigh unto you the last sighs of my life shall assure you of my constancy It remains that I beseech you since you have always protested to have loved me to render to me the proofs of your charity to pray to God for a most Christian Queen who dieth a Catholick as she hath lived and to command that some reward may be given to my dear Servants for I depart this world deprived of all worldly goods As for my Son I recommend him to you as far as he shall deserve for I can not answer for him I have assumed the boldness to send you two stones which are very rare for health which I wish you may find perfect and happy in a long life you shall receive them from your most affectionate Sister in Law who dieth in giving you the last testimonies of her heart I recommend again my desolate Servants to you and if your Majesty shall bestow on me wherewith to found a little Covent and Alms requisite to it for some who shall pray for me you shall send my Soul unto God enriched with more merits This I beseech you for the honour of Jesus Christ whom near unto my death I pray unto for you in the quality SIR Of your most affectionate Sister in Law QUEEN MARY I am of opinion that the letter which made its address to the Duke of Guise was of the same substance The letter to her Confessor did import the Combats she had suffered for Religion and the zeal which did transport her to die in the Catholick faith and that most cruelly she had been denied to make her last will or to have her body transported or to have permission to confess her self In defect whereof she doth confess her sins in General as she had intended to rehearse them to him in particular She desired him to pray and to watch that night in spirit with her and to send her his absolution and to prescribe unto her the prayers which he thought most proper for her for that night and for the morning following adding that if she could see him at the hour of her suffering she would kneel down and take her leave of him with a desire of his Benediction This being done she took a Review of her Testament and caused the Inventory of her goods to be read and wrote down the Names of those to whom she had bestowed her wardrope she also distributed money to some with her own hand afterwards being retired she spent the rest of the night in watching and prayer Others affirm that having said her prayers she threw her self upon the bed and slept some hours very quietly to make her self more strong for the next days conflict Afterwards awaking she began to enter into an agony and her naked knees being humbled on the ground she did read the Passion to incourage her self to her last combat mingling almost already her tears and her bloud with the tears and the bloud of her best beloved she passed many hours in meditations untill she had wearied two of her servants whom she commanded to take their rest Her last day which was on the twenty eighth of February in the year 1587 and on the eighteenth of February according to the English account the sun beginning to rise she did put on those habiliments which she did usually wear on Festival dayes and having again assembled her Servants she caused her Testament to be read unto them and desired them to take in good part the small Legacies which she had given them because the condition of her Estate did not permit her to bequeath them greater She gave them all her last Farewell exhorting them to the fear and love of their Creatour to the preservation of their Religion and of concords amongst themselves and desired them to pray for the safety of her poor Soul In the end she kissed all the women and permitted the men to kiss her hand The Hall was filled with cries and lamentations and sighs and sobs and followed almost with an inundation of tears which they could not wipe away But as she had all her thoughts advanced to Heaven she retired her self again into her Oratory where she continued a long time imploring the Grace of God with sighs and with the groanings of a Dove until that Thomas Andrews Lieutenant of that County did signify unto her that it was time to come forth She suddenly obeyed him and came forth in a posture full of Majesty and with a joyfull Countenance Her habit was most modest her head was covered with a veyl which hung down beneath her shoulders She had a Chaplet at her Girdle and an Ivory Crucifix in her hand The Commissioners received her in the Gallery where they did attend her And Melvin her Steward did present himself before her and weeping fell on his knees to understand her last commands Weep not she said but rather rejoyce for this day you shall see Mary Stuart delivered from all her sorrows I conjure you to acquaint my Son that I have always lived and do die in the Catholick Religion and that I do exhort him with all my heart to preserve the faith of his Ancestors to love Justice and to maintain his people in peace and to enterprize nothing against the Queen of England I have committed nothing against the Realm of Scotland and I have always loved the Kingdom of France God pardon those who do thirst after my bloud as the Hart panteth after the fountain of waters Thou O Lord who art truth it self and soundest the deepest secrets of my heart thou dost know how much I have desired peace and the Union of the two Realms of England and Scotland Her Royal heart growing tender on her Son on the consideration of the cruelties and the persecutions of the Catholick Church and on the Indignities which most innocently she suffered her eyes poured down some tears of compassion which she suddenly wiped away Then turning to the Lords she desired that her poor Servants might after her death be used with humanity that they might be suffered to enjoy those poor Legacies which she had given them in her Testament that they might be suffered to assist her at her death and afterwards be sent safe into their Countreys upon the publick faith The Inhumanity of the Earl of Kent would not permit that her own Servants should assist her and said They would but serve to increase Superstition but she replied Fear
he should sway his Scepter or his life Cardan who was imployed no less than one hundred hours to make his Horoscope did easily observe in the stars the incommodities of his body and disasters of his person but he could no way attain to the period of his life which is of the secrets reserved in the knowledge and in the method of God All England was extreamly corrupted in her faith under the Regency of this Seimer and the Ladies of the Court were enveloped in the errours of the time He found none but the Lady Marie daughter to Henry the Eight and Katharine which continued in the Religion of their Grand-Fathers and though she was tempted and sollicited on all sides yet she would not suffer her self to be surprized with a new Faith but with a vigorous force did roar against all the torrents of Opinions and the overflowing disorders which reigned in that age It was for this that God did cause her to mount on the Throne of his own Tower and gave her the grace to be both the restorer of Religion and the State by the assistance of this Cardinal As soon as Edward was dead not without suspition Mary the lawfull heir is troubled and Jane is chosen Queen by Faction of poison Dudley Duke of Northumherland who was then most mighty in power and had newly married his Son to the Lady Jane issued from the bloud Royall conceived himself strong enough to begin the Regency of England the better afterwards to usurp the Crown He caused his Daughter-in-Law to be proclaimed Queen of England and seized on the Tower of London and gave order for the apprehending of Queen Mary But the generous Princess being advertised of the attempt did take horse in the time of night and secured her self in a place of strength and conjured all her good Servants to assemble themselves to defend her person and her right It is to be admired that persevering in the true Religion contrary to that of the great ones of the Kingdom at the same time when she conceived her self abandonned and her cause most deplorable that she should behold the principal of the Nobility and Gentry and Commonalty to fall down before her and to offer her their obedience and their Arms to take the possession of the Crown She marched immediately to London in the middle of her Army apparelled in a Gown of Velvet of a violet colour and mounted on a white horse She entered into the Citie with great applauses of her Subjects and surprized the Duke and caused him to deliver his Daughter in Law into her hands It was a spectacle worthy observation to consider the Inconstancy of these worldly affairs and to look on that person who but yesterday promised to himself to force the whole Kingdom under the power of his Laws to tremble now at the fear of death pronounced by his Judges who condemned him to be drawn upon a Hurdle to be hanged drawn and quartered The Queen sent him Catholick Divines to convert him to whom he gave ear and abjuring Heresie he imbraced the Catholick Religion which was the occasion that the Queen did moderate the Sentence of the Execution and was contented that his head onely should be cut off with his sons who was the husband of Jane This miserable Lady from a high Tower where she was prisoner beheld the body of her dear husband without a head at the sight whereof she fell down into a swoun and being a little recovered she melted into tears and did fetch from her heart so many and so deep sighs that they seemed to be able not onely to mollifie the hearts of men but to cleave the Rocks asunder There was a long Deliberation concerning her The Execution of the Lady Jane Fact because the Queen had an inclination to pardon her observing her to be both young fair knowing and of a delicate temper and one who had not offended but by the violent suggestions of her Father-in-law and of her Husband who had put the Crown upon her head But the Judges did remonstrate that it was of a most dangerous consequence to suffer that person to continue alive who had carried the Title of a Sovereign and that one day it might give a new fire to the enterprizes of the Remainder of her Faction On these Considerations the Sentence of Death was pronounced which she received with a Constancy admirable in her Sex and age A Doctour was sent unto her to reduce her to the Catholick Religion which at the first she refused alledging That she had too little time to think on an Affair of that importance Which being reported to the Queen she deferred the Execution for certain dayes to instruct her at more leisure so that she was gained to God and continued to the the last hour of her life in such tranquility of mind that a little before she came out of prison to go to her Execution she wrote divers Sentences in Greek Latine and English on the contempt of Death and when on the Scaffold it was represented to her that she should die by the sword which according to the custom of that Countrey is accounted a nobler kind of Execution than to die by the Axe she said That she would die by that Axe which was yet discoloured with her husbands bloud and couragiously she tendered her neck to the Hang-man drawing tears from her self and the hearts from all those that did behold her O most unfortunate Ambition that hast made so young a Princess a sacrifice of Death who for the excellency of her spirit might have been another Minerva or at least the tenth of the Muses Behold the strange Revolutions which did prepare the way to Cardinal Pool for the performance of those high Designs which God had committed to his Conduct Queen Marie did incontinently make void all the Sentences which had been pronounced against him and called him back into England to which place in a short time he came as if he had been carried on the shoulders of all honest men The Pope made him his Legate and gave him full power to ordain and execute all things which he should conceive necessary for the glory of God and the establishment of the true Religion He travelled to this Work with incomparable wisdom Pool travels to the Reducement of England to the ancient Faith and with a zeal invincible He well perceived that to restore Religion by arms was to undertake a most laborious if not an infinite work which would open all the veins in England and draw drie as well their purses as their bloud and cover the Kingdom with the calamities of civil wars which would continue for many Ages He resolved to put his good Counsels in execution with gentleness which others propounded to perform with all violence And in the first place he had recourse to Prayers The course he held to Mortifications to Vows and to Devotions which he performed in secret and which
by our glorious Father S. Gregory the Great it is that which our Fathers have embraced it is that which they have defended by their Words their Arms and their Bloud which they have shed for the Honour of it Nothing is left for those to hope for who are separated from it but the tempests of darkness and the everlasting chains of hell It is well known that the change of Faith proceeds from an infectious passion which having possessed the heart of a poor Prince hath caused these reprocheable furies and the inundations of bloud which hath covered the face of England He hath at his death condemned that which before he approved He by his last Testament destroyed that which before he had chosen wherefore those who have followed him in his Errour may also follow him in his Repentance The Peace the Safety the Abundance the Felicity of the Kingdom are ready to re-enter with the true Faith which if you refuse I see the choller of God and a thousand calamities that do threaten you Return therefore O Shunamite Return O fair Island to thy first beginning feign not to thy self imaginary penalties terrours and punishments which are not prepared but for the obstinate The Sovereign Father of Christendom doth continually stretch forth his arms to thy obedience and hath delegated me as the Dove out of the Ark to bring unto thee the Olive Bough to pronounce Peace and Reconciliation to thee This is the acceptable Hour this is the Day of thy salvation The Night which hitherto hath covered thee is at the end of her Course and the Sun of Justice is risen to bring light unto thee It is time to lay down the works of darkness and to take up the Armour of Light to the end that all the earth inhabited may take notice that thou abborrest what is past embracest what is present and dost totally put thy self into the hands of God for the time to come This Oration was attended with a wonderful approbation of all the assembly and the Cardinal being departed from the Councel the King and Queen commanded that they should debate on this Proposition which was presently taken into consideration and it was resolved That the ancient religion should be established The Chancellour made this resolution known unto the people and did powerfully exhort them to follow the examples which were conformable to the advice of the King and Queen and the most eminent personages in the Kingdom This discourse was revived with a general applause for the advancement of the Catholick faith In the end he demanded that they would testifie their resolution in a Petition to the King and Queen and mediate for a reconciliation to the Cardinal Legate of the holy See which incontenently was done the paper was presented and openly read their Majesties did confirm it both by their authorities and their prayers and humbled themselves on their knees with their Grandees and all the people demanding mercy whereupon an authentick absolution was given by the Legate the bels did ring in all the Churches Te Deum was sung All places were filled with the cries of joyes as people infranchised and coming out of the gates of hell After this King Philip was obliged to go into Flanders by reason of the retreat of the Emperour his father Pool was left chief of the Councellours with Queen Mary who did wonders for the good of Religion of the State It is true that Cranmer and other turbulent and seditious spirits were punished but so great a moderation was used that the Benefices and the Reveneues of the Church did continue in the hands of those who did hold them of the King without disturbing them on that innovation all things were continued that might any way be suffered not so much as changing any thing in marriages because they would not ensnare their spirits The heart of the Queen and of her ministers did think on nothing more than to establish Religion to entertain the holy See to render justice to comfort the people to procure peace and rest to multiply the abundance of the Kingdom They did begin again the golden age when after the reign of five years and odde moneths they were both in one day taken out of the world by sickness which did oppress with grief all honest men and did bury with them in one Tomb the happiness and safety of that Kingdom O providencelnot to be dived into by humane reason what vail hast thou cast on our Councels and our works What might we have not hoped from such beginnings What wisdom would not have concluded That felicity had crowned for ever the enterprizes of this Cardinal An affair so well conducted a negotiation so happy a business of State and the greatest that was ever in any Kingdom whatsoever ought it not to carry his progress unto eternity Where are the fine plots of policy Where are the Arms that in so small a time have ever wrought so great an effect The Chariots of the Romans which covered with Lawrels did march on the heads of Kings did not make their wayes remarkable but by stormings of Towns by Flames and Massacres But behold here many millions of men struck down and raised again with one onely speech so many legions of souls converted with a soft sweetness the face of a kingdom totally changed in one Moment and made the happiest that any Ages have seen And after all this to find the inexoarble Trenchant of Death to sap in one day the two great pillars of Estate and ruinate the house of God which should have reached to the imperial heaven O how true is it that there are the strokes of Fate that is to say an order of the secret purpose of God which is as concealed as inevitable nothing can divert nothing can delay it The counsels of the wise are here blinded their addresses are lost their activity troubled their patience tried and all their reasons confounded Poor Brittain God gave thee these two Great Lights not to enjoy them but as they passed by to behold them Thou art soiled with sacriledges and impieties thou art red with the bloud of the Martyrs The sins of Henrie are not yet expiated and the ignominious passions of his life are punished by the permission of the Errour The Powers of darkness have their times determined by God they will abate nothing of their periods if the invincible hand of the Sovereign Judge doth not stop their courses by his absolute Authority It pertaineth to God onely to know and appoint the times of punishment and Mercy and there is nothing more expedient for man than to submit to his Laws to obey his Decrees to reverence his Chastisements and to adore the Hand that strikes him FINIS THE ANGEL OF PEACE TO ALL CHRISTIAN PRINCES Written in French by N. CAUSSIN S. J. And now translated into English Printed in the Year of our Lord MDCL The Angel of Peace to all Christian Princes IF it be
Gentlemen are despoiled of almost all their goods complaints are universall and daily multiplied against Taxes and Exactions which are the aliment that pampers this prodigious pastime But no force of treasure is comparable to the greedinesse of the exactours themselves those gluttons of oppression The riches of a few men causeth a penury amongst all men the odious rejoycings of the unjust are saginated with the tears of the miserable Who is the Architect the Contriver the Artizan of all these evils King Lewis say they is the Authour of the Warre But can a Prince so pious so chaste so perpetually cloathed with the fear of God raise such storms cause such tempests Whilst he lived he daily lifted up undefiled hands to Heaven was frequently conversant in holy Mysteries and a common Father of such an exemplary and chastised Conscience that he could not forgive himself the least contamination till he had craved mercy from his God and washt away his pollution with the Sacramentall Bloud he fought by necessity he overcame by valour he was magnanimous in Resolution famous in Warre and forward in Peace Who therefore can conceive that horrid and bloudy Councels tending to the destruction of the whole Christian world could have had either a conception in or a welcome into that religious sacrary of his heart Who can imagine that hatred and grudges that displeasures and revenge could find an entertainment in his breast But perhaps the Emperour delights in dissentions and nourisheth his fancy with the turbulency of Christian affairs Judgement forbid that any man should believe this for he is a Prince accomplished with the best endowments and compounded of equity and ingenuity vivacity of spirit and solidity of wisdome What can be more agreeable to him then with the gentle hand of a Pacificatour to quiet his Germany shaken with such a dreadfull inundation of Warres What Is the King of Spain then the disturber No man can prove that who hath the most intimate acquaintance with the sense and apprehensions of that great King For he if any other hath a Christian mind a pleasant wit more prone to love and concord then disposed to quarrels and controversies There is nothing of fiercenesse or immoderation in him nothing of malevolence and despight he is carefull to enjoy his own greatnesse carelesse to exercise an unjust domination From whence then floweth all this sea of bloud if no anger lodgeth in celestiall minds Who seeth not that it happens not by humane designment but that it was hatcht in Tophet and the Mali Genii of the Nations have cherisht it to this formidable growth that they might blast our flourishing estate abate our plenty and undermine our happinesse The Affairs of Christendome were too potent when the Factions of Hereticks were overthrown it was their machination to turn our swords reaking with the bloud of our enemies into our own bowels They raised the commotions in Italy at Mantua and they broached all the Warres in Germany they have engaged by a malignant enmity the principall Crowns of Christian Fame in an implacable Warre raging with ineffable destructions the Church mourning Infidels and carnall men rejoycing and hell it self triumphing In the great vicissitudes of things there hath often intervened a bad mind which vitiateth the counsels or retardeth the good determinations of Princes and diverteth them from taking a right aim at Glory Scarce had they saluted the skirts of his Dominions but being exagitated by factious whirlwinds the good King recrowned with triumphant Laurels is called into Italy the Alpes must be penetrated in the depth of winter a journey must be forced thorow rocks concealed with now and lined with armed men the opposite forces must be intermingled and battels fought upon all disadvantages which difficulties being conquered by a wonderfull courage and an equall felicity and therefore they devise and trust to other arâ—s of gubernation then God hath prescribed as if he saw not enough or were carelesse of his people They excogitate new subtil and crafty wayes of procedure whereby to augment their own and entangle the estates of others and if they can to intermingle and endanger all They conceive it to be the part of a King to mind themselves alone to guard and watch the safety of themselves alone to referre all things to themselves and to make their way to ample and royall profits if any opposition come in their way over the carcasses of their subjects That truth and falshood know no distinction but with reference to our profit unto which all the lives of all our actions must be concentrick and that whatsoever is profitable is onely unlawfull among fools that an humble and timorous conscience is too importunate in the method of high Counsels That subjects should be taught to exercise Religion with a scrupulous tendernesse that Princes must practise it or upon it for advantage That solid virtue is an hinderance if not lawfull 't is the shadow and resemblance of it that is commodious that honesty is praised yet freezeth that nothing is unlawfull to Kings that is magnificent for the Kingdomes This is not that I may use the words of the Apostle This is not that wisdom which descendeth from above but earthy carnall diabolicall which imposeth upon minds bewitched and involveth Kingdomes in a miserable destruction Farre different Excellent Princes is your reiglement and vastly opposite is your understanding to these infernall notions For were it committed to your care to manage the Affairs not of a Christian Empire but to govern the Kingdome of the Sarazens yet this Doctrine would occurre from the very Books and Institutes of Heathenish Legislatours that craft is pernicious to those that turn the globe of Government that this is humble and base and alwayes hatefull seldome and never long together advantageous Whereupon Thucydides the most scientificall Polititian saith That a Common-wealth is better governed and more prosperously by moderate men and such as have an indifferent wit then by the acute and such as are superabundantly industrious But yer should you act the parts of men exiled from God and lawlesse in the world yet according to humane sense and as is believed no unprofitable craft excuse were due to them who have the overseeing of many things which concern all men But now seeing that you perceive that your Empires are continued to you chiefly by those things by which they began who seeth not that Christian Kingdomes are established in Faith Justice and Lenity and that they are subverted by Impiety Injustice and Cruelty Who observes not that those men who stray from the Canons of heavenly Wisdome precipitate themselves into devious enormities and caliginous observations Consult if you please the whole body of History and consider what have been the exits of Tiberians and Herodians you shall sind this to be the pedigree of their everlasting reproach first a subdolous and wily mind a life full of thorny cares and dawning jealousies brittle and fugitive hopes
with a constancy which amazed this bloudy soul that so tortured her In the end she again took her garments going out of the water as from an Amphitheater of her glorious battel The twelfth SECTION The retreat of Hermingildus and his Conversion HErmingildus who knew nothing of what had passed beholding her somewhat pase and weakened with such harsh usage asked her if she felt any pain of body or affliction of mind to discolour her so much more than ordinary but the wise Princess replied It was nothing and that there was not any thing so important as to be worthy of his knowledge He who well perceived that she by her discretion dissembled some great affront enquired very curiously of those who might inform him and somewhat too soon discovered the cruel disgrace which his mother-in-law Goizintha had put upon his wife This transfixed him with a dolour so sensible and so enkindled him with fire and choller in his heart that if the fear of God and the sweetness of his wife had not served for a counterpoize to his passion he had torn this wicked Queen in pieces But the good Indegondis prostrating her self at his feet besought him by all that which was most noble in him not to precipitaâ—e the matter into such extremities and prevailed so well with her natural eloquence that he was contented to remove presently from the Court and retire to Sevil which his father had given him for his lively-hood Then was the time when those chast loves which had been crossed by the disturbances of Goizintha all obstacles being overcome enlarged themselves as a river which having broken his banks poureth it self with a victorious current in the wideness of his channel Hermingildus could not sufficiently satisfie himself to behold so many virtues in so great a beauty the modesty which she had witnessed in this last disgrace gave him apprehensions of her piety above all may be said Those who seek nothing in marriage but sensual pleasure which is more thin than smoke and much lighter than the wind cannot imagine how much these fair amities which are the daughters of virtues nourish holy delights These are celestial fires which are ever in the bosom of God as in their sphere It is he who begetteth them and breedeth them they being not constrained to descend upon earth to beg a caytiff nourishment from perishable creatures which promise so many wonders and produce nought but wind These two great souls beheld one another with the eyes of the dove and were mutually enflamed with affections so honest and innocent that Angels would not be ashamed to entertain the like fires since they are those of charity which is the eternal furnace of all souls the most purified Indegondis perceiving she had already great power in the affection of her husband and that there was no longer any step-mother to dissolve her designs sollicited him seriously for his Conversion and said Sir I must confess unto you the honour I have received from your alliance seemeth not accomplished whilest I behold between us a wall of division which separateth us in belief and Sacraments Since our amities are come to that point as to enjoy all in common and that they unite things most different why should we divide God who is most simple of nature Why should we make two Religions and two Altars since we now live in such manner that we have but one table one heart and one bed Verily Sir if I saw the least ray of truth in the Sect you profess and some hope of salvation I would submit thereunto the more to oblige me to your person which I love above all the things in the world But it is most undoubted that you are ill rectified that you pursue a fantasie in stead of a verity and that dying in this state you loose a soul so noble which I would purchase with expence of my bloud I boast not to be learned as you Arians who have so many goodly allegations of Scripture that you make the ignorant believe God is all that which to your selves you imagine Sir I for my part think the chief wisdom in matter of religion is not to be so wise as you are and to have a little more submission of spirit for faith is the inheritance of the humble and never doth the day of God shine in a soul which hath too much light of man You well see this heresie of the Arians is a revolted Band which hath forsaken the high way to wander cross the fields you are not ignorant that this Arius was a wicked Priest who raised an heresie for despight that he was not made Bishop and was rejected and solemnly condemned in a Councel of three hundred and eighteen Bishops These men were wise enough for you and me I fix my self upon their resolutions I follow the generality of the Church I adhere to the body of the tree and you tie your selves to a rotten branch I have no argument more strong than the succession of lawfull Pastours than the conformity of the Universal Church than the succession of all Ages than the wisdom sanctity and piety which I see resplendent on our side Besides I come from a Countrey where we have seen all the Arian Kings our neighbours round about to have had most unhappy ends when in the mean time my great grand-father King Clodovaeus for having sincerely embraced Catholick Religion received so many blessings from Heaven that he seemed to have good hap and victories under his pay I am not the daughter of a Prophet nor do I vaunt to have the spirit of prophesie but I dare well foretel the Kingdom of Spain shall not be of long continuance unless it vomit out this pestilence of Arianism which lies about the heart of it I would to God with expence of my life I might establish my Religion then should I account my self the most contented Queen of the world Hermingildus knew not what to answer to the strength of truth and love two the most powerfull things in the world onely he said it was a business which well deserved to be pondered and that these changes in persons of his quality are subject to much censure if they have not great reason for caution The good Princess to give him full leisure to advise thereupon handled the matter so by her industrie that he conferred with S. Leander who was a strong pillar of the Catholick faith in Spain The sage Prelate so well mannaged the spirit of this Prince that with assistance of God and the good offices of Indegondis who moved Heaven and earth for this conversion he drew him from errour This brave courage so soon as he saw the ray of truth needs would acknowledge and freely confess it taking the Chrism of Catholicks with pomp and solemnity even to the giving a largess of golden coyns which he purposely caused to be stamped a little too suddenly making his own image to be engraven thereon with a
motto which said Haereticum hominem devita that is to say we must avoid an Heretick alluding to his father Levigildus Disputation which concerneth the estate of Princes is a ticklish piece where the most part of those who speak of it use their own interest for text and their passion for Commentary Silence and peace which are the two mansions of a good conscience are of much more worth than all the questions which enkindle divisions I think the best doctrine is that which best knoweth how to cement up concord among Miters Diadems and Crowns entertain the obedience of people towards their Sovereigns and if there be verities which are the daughters of the abyss and silence as those Ancients said to leave them in the house of their father and mother where though they nought avail they shall ever be better lodged than in publick It is not vice but the times which divideth Saints and every one thinketh an affair probable which he hath taken upon the byass of his own understanding S. Leander approved the separation of Hermingildus in Spain S. Gregorie of Towers blamed it in France I enter not into all the considerations of them both but I think this Prince took ways too violent in his beginnings levying arms against his father which were not according to the counsel of his wife and I will have no other Authour but himself since he condemned his own design so soon as he began to become holy The thirteenth SECTION The reciprocal Letters of the father and the son upon their separation HErmingildus extreamly incensed at the affront which he received in the person most dear unto him in the world and who wanted not a Nobility round about him that enkindled the fire of choller burst forth in the beginning with violence The father an old suspitious man felt himself much displeased with this alteration and the step-mother ceased not to throw flames through her throat and crie al-arm as loud as she could to transport affairs instantly unto the utmost point of severity Levigildus notwithstanding before he would proceed to extremities sought to do something by letters which are found couched in the History wherein this Prince flattereth his son with fair words to surprize him Behold here the copy of them SON I would willingly say that unto you present which I cannot sufficiently express in my Letters If you have as much confidence in me as I yet have love towards you I verily think were you with me and alienated from the evil counsels of those who abuse the facilitie of your excellent nature I might do much upon your spirit both as a father and as a King so that at the least if you fear my Scepter you would love my charitie which still openeth its arms to your obedience I have bred you up from your tender infancie to make you heir of my Crown and since you arrived to full age I have conferred so many benefits on you that they have surmounted your hopes and as it were drained my liberalities I have put a Scepter into your hand to serve your father with the more authoritie and not to deliver it over to mine enemy I have caused you to be stiled a King to become a support to my Crown and not a Lord over mine Empire I have given you all to repose my old age upon the hope of your dutie and not to afflict me And yet notwithstanding after I have done all this beyond custom beyond your age and above your merit you pay me with impietie and ingratitude Expect yet a little and the law of nature will give you that which you seek by ambition Alledge not Religion unto me to justifie your arms it hath been a crime in you to take a Religion contrary to my commands and an impietie in your Religion to separate your self from my obedience I counsel you as a friend and command you as a father to render your self as soon as possibly you may at my Court and set your self in the way of dutie otherwise I fear you may implore mercie when there will be no other Kingdom found for you but that of justice Hermingildus deliberated upon the answer he was to make to these Letters but his Councel too fervent shewed him it was now no time to retire back that he had to do with a man imperious and turbulent a mother-in-law irreconciliable who had no other aim but to ruin him and that if he took not arms to defend his own life he would be chased away like a beast and should not find safety even in deserts Behold the cause why he wrote back in this manner Sir I give thanks to my Religion which hath already afforded me patience enough to bear the sharpness of your words and which is more resolution also not to be shaken with the severitie of your menaces I have ever freely protested that I am tied unto you with immortal obligations and am besides ready prest to acknowledge them even to my last breath were it not that some now endeavour with you to render all my duties unjust and my thoughts criminal Your Majestie should quickly see me by your sides if she who will not behold me at your feet but in the quality of a Delinquent had not pre-occupated your heart and ears to stop up the one to charitie the other to justice What assurance can I have of my life in a place where she for whom I live hath been dragged by the hair and trampled under foot The wound sticketh so sensibly upon me that time can neither find a lenitive nor reason a remedie As for the change of Religion made by me I go along with the main current of wisdom and sanctitie of the whole world and where I find my salvation most assured I cannot live with more authoritie nor die with more hope and if you condemn me for it your Majestie shall know that a father requireth obedience out of the limits of nature when he exacteth it beyond conscience Sir I beseech you to adde to so many benefits by you afforded me the liberty of an honest repose lest our arms may be as shamefull for the Conquerour as miserable to the vanquished Levigildus was more exasperated upon these Letters and the wicked Step-mother ceased not to rub the sore as much as she might All designs tended to war the father upon the one side maketh great levies of souldiers the son fortifieth Sevil and Cordova and draweth to his party some Forces of the Empire having sent an honourable Embassy to the Emperour of Constantinople which was at that time Tyberius to intreat great succours Acts of hostility were practised both by the one and other part and in the end Hermingildus is besieged in Sevil where he made his abode the space of two or three years after his departure from the Court King Levigildus who was an old fox endeavoured then to entertain the Catholicks with much sweetness to divert them from his sons
on with little noise through the meadows and in an instant turneth into a great river and this river into light and this light into a sun but a sun which affordeth lustre and water to all the world The powers of the world which glitter with so much pomp have this almost ever proper to them to be either unprofitable or malign What did those great Philosophers who framed worlds in their idaeas What did the Plato's Aristotoles and Zeno's Could they ever perswade any one silly hamlet to live under those goodly Common-wealths they instituted on paper What did the Alexanders Caesars and Pompeys with all their forces but tend to the destruction of mankind It is a strange thing that the last Plin. l. 7. c. 26. Cruel vanity of Pompey of them caused a Temple to be built to Minerva over the gate whereof he commanded to be engraven that he had taken routed and slain two millions one hundred four-score and three thousand men pillaged or sunk eight hundred forty six ships made desolate one thousand five hundred thirty eight Cities and towns Behold how the great-ones of the earth make themselves remarkable as dreadfull Comets by the ruin of the whole world But Jesus in establishing his Religion would not be powerfull but to do good since He is the Adamant saith Salvianus who hath drawn Salvian de provid l. 4. â—halyâ—em affectu quasi spirante 〈◊〉 â—â—cris sui manibus this mightie mass of Iron of all Ages with the hands of his love and lively affections towards mankind How can the tree be better known than by the fruits And upon what may one more reasonably ground the judgement made of Religion than upon the works thereof What have all other Religions taught but to cut the throats of children to embrue Altars of Idols with bloud but to create ordures and abominations to cover secret mischiefs with the veyl of hypocrisie to authorize fables and canonize vice But Christian Religion is that alone which brought piety into the world where it was before unknown It is that which hath crushed murderous and adulterous gods under the ruins of their Temples which demolished profane altars suppressed sacrifices of humane bloud destroyed Amphitheaters where they gloried to tear men in pieces which confounded witch-crafts tamed pride quailed convetousness stopped the inundations of luxury repressed extravagancies of ambition choaked enraged desires of avarice and turned a land of Tigers Leopards and fiery Serpents into a Paradise of delights It is that which drew from Heaven all the virtues whereof some had before been unheard of others contemned the rest persecuted It is that which taught humility chastity virginity modesty temperance justice and fortitude That which discovered true prudence which opened the sources of contemplation which furnished out the Hoast of religious Orders which brake so many chains of the world trampled under foot so many Idols of gold and silver seated poverty in the throne of glory erected statues of innocency established purity even in thoughts Is it not that which so many Martyrs Confessours Doctours Virgins have done whose triumphs we daily honour Is it not upon these that Jesus having vanquished so many monsters imprinted the rays of his sanctity which is preserved and maintained even in the corruption of Ages in the persons of so many as God hath reserved to himself Must we not confess that a life led according to the doctrine of Jesus Christ is a manifest conviction of all errours and a little miracle in the world 5. From thence when we consider by what means our Saviour hath wrought this establishment which are found so contrary to all humane ways and how he acteth in suffering how he draws to him in rejecting how he is exalted by his abasings glorified by his ignominie enriched by poverty how he doth raise by destroying how he lives by his death and is eternized by dying This is it which transporteth humane understanding into admiration of the greatness of our Religion 6. Finally if you also cast your eye on this last The repose which our faith promiseth perfection of Repose you shall well understand how Alexander after he had conquered the Persians being desirous to pass into the Indies those who thought they were at the worlds end disswaded him and said It was time for Alexander to rest where the sun Tempus est Alexandrum cum orbe sole desinere Senec. Suasor and the world ended But our Religion goes much further than the sun and this inferiour condition of the world It hath the total universe for object of its travel and the Kingdom of Heaven for its repose All other Sects proposed pleasures to themselves for object of their pretensions which might make them desire the body of a horse or a hog to enjoy it with the more advantage But God lifting us up to himself above the tracks of the sun and time promiseth the same delights which he hath for himself in the vision possession and fruition of that divine face which makes all the Happy (a) (a) (a) Scimus quoniam si terrestris domus nostrae habitationis hujus dissolvitur quòd aedisicationem a Deo habemus domum non manufactam aeternam in coelis 2 Cor. 5. Invisibilem tanquam videns sustinuit Heb. 11. 27. We know this house of morter and clay failing wherewith we are covered God hath prepared an eternal building for us in Heaven not made by the hand of man as the Apostle assureth us and as we shall deduce towards the end of these Treatises Thither it is our faith paceth roundly on beholding with a purified eye the lights of Heaven a God invisible as if he were already visible Unto this life it is we prepare our souls and begin on earth to make the first essays of Beatitude 7. I then demand of you O Noble men whether Errours of the times S. Hilarius l. 8. de Trinit Fidem potius ipsi constituunt quim accipiunt all this well considered you ought not to abhor these petty undertakers who seem to come into the world not to receive Rules of Faith in it but to prescribe them They who cannot reform a silly flie in the works of Nature will make themselves Monarchs in the belief of our faith and trick up a new this great work of Religion which derives its accomplishment from God They believe what pleaseth themselves to displease the prime Verity and create a new symbol in the chymaeraes of their wits to introduce an impiety into Christianity Needs must they have a fling at the Bible as if it were the book of a man labour about the fountain-heads of the four rivers of terrestrial Paradise the speaking serpent Noah's Ark the Tower of Babel the red Sea the jaw-bone and foxes of Sampson as if the Omnipotency of God were not a pledge sufficient enough against all these weaknesses and curiosities of wit which saith Tertullian Tert. de praescript Doctrinae
demonum prurientibus auribus nâ—tâ— are doctrines of devils grown up to please the itch of incredulous ears We must believe one Article and leave another believe the Trinity and doubt of the Sacrament Invocation of Saints Purgatory Images and Ceremonies of the Church as if it were not evident that whosoever divideth faith hath none at all It is not much to the purpose to dispute of Religion after the sweat of Confessours bloud of Martyrs and so many millions of miracles Never would belief be so sick were it not preceded by the death of virtue all will be unhappy for them who loose piety the root of happiness But what repose hath a Catholick who may dying say I trust to God for a gift which The notable assurance of a Catholick cannot proceed but from God I die in the faith of Constantine Theodosius Clodovaeus S. Lewis and so many millions of Saints I go where all the wisest and most entire part of mankind doth go I follow the authoritie of eighteen General Councels wherein all Ages assembled together the wisest men of the world I die in the belief of the Church which is professed throughout all the habitable world The living and the dead The stones and marbles of the Tombs of mine Ancestours speak for me The stars will fall from the Heavens before my faith can be shaken And therefore O Catholicks strike at Heaven That zeal ought to be had towards Religion gate by continual prayer ask of the Father of lights a lively Faith a most sincere zeal towards your Religion suffer not your judgement to change in the massie composition of body plunge it not in sensuality polish it for the great fruition of God entertain it with consideration of his beauty nourish it with antipasts of his glory It onely appertaineth to sensual souls black and distrustfull to suffer themselves to fall into pusillanimities and faintness which lessen the esteem we should have of our vocation towards Christianity It onely appertaineth to carnal spirits and who want faith in the house of faith to set the riches and affairs of the world above Religion But Hoc est sidem in domo fidei non habere Cyprian de mortalitate you O Great-men learn hereafter to value your selves not by these frail and perishable blessings which environ you by that skin which covers you by those false ornaments of life which disguise you by all those beauties which never are nearer ruin than when they most sparkle with lustre Learn to behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of Eternity and you shall see them like rotten pieces which possess a nothing of times infinitie Why do we here entertain our selves with earthly considerations as fire which absented from its sphere is fed with fat and coals Let us open our bosoms to these fair hopes wherewith the Religion we profess sweerly replenisheth our hearts We no longer are pilgrims Ephes 2. and vagabonds nor strangers of the Testaments but Citizens of Saints and the domesticks of God built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets on the fundamental stone which is Jesus Christ Let us enter into this goodly train of Ages into this admirable fellowship of Patriarchs Martyrs and Virgins Let us hasten to the sources of light and never end but in infinitie The first EXAMPLE upon the first MAXIM Of the esteem one ought to make of his Faith and Religion The PERSIAN CONSTANCY IF the estimation of things eternal do not as yet Drawn out of Theodoret Cassiodorus Epiphanes Theod. l. 5. c. 38. Epiph. Scolasticus Cassiod histor tripart l. 10. c. 32. Baro. tom 5. anno 4201. alii sufficiently penetrate your heart reflect on that which so many valiant Champions have done to preserve a blessing which you presently possess by grace and which you often dis-esteem through ingratitude I will produce one example amongst a thousand able to invite the imitation of the most virtuous and admiration of all the world In the time when Theodosius the younger swayed the Eastern Empire the Persians who had been much gained by the industry of the Emperour Arcadius his father and afterward entertained by his infinite sweetness and courtesie lived in good correspondence of amity with the Christians so that many of our Religion adventured themselves in their Territory some to make a fortune in the Court others for pleasure many for commerce and the rest there to establish true piety Matters of Religion proceeded then very prosperously and the most eminent men of the Kingdom shut up their eyes against the Sun which this Nation adored to open them to the bright Aurora of Christianity But as there are some who never enjoy any thing so there are others who never have enough Some Indiscreet zeal Christians not contented with their progressions which were well worthy of praise thought they lost all out of the desire they had to leave nothing undone Which is the cause I much approve those Ancients Helinandus apud Vincent who placed the images of wisdom over the gates of great houses with this inscription Experience is my Vsns me genuit mother So the wisest and most experienced thought nothing was to be precipated that mean advancements accompanied with safety were more to be valued than great splendours which drew precipices and ruins after them On the contrary young and fiery spirits thrust all upon extremitie supposing their power extended to the measure of their passion Nothing is more dangerous in any affair than when indiscreet fervour takes the mask of zeal or that a feaver of Reason passeth for a virtue All his thoughts are deified his foot-steps sanctified and although nothing be done for God it is said all is for him Bishop Audas a man endowed with great and singular virtues but extreamly ardent and unable to adapt his zeal to the occasion of times needs would countenance the humour of the blind multitude and went Audes destroyeth a Pyraeum Commotions for matters of Religion Others Baranaves or Goronaves Judgement of Theodoret upon this action out in the midst of the day to destroy a Pyraeum which was a Temple wherein the Persians kept fire to adore it Men quickly enflamed in matters of Religion fail not to raise a great sedition which came to the notice of King Ildegerdes Audas is sent for to give an account of this act He defendeth himself with much courage and little success for the Christians benefit for the King turning his proper justification into crime condemns him upon pain of death to re-edifie the Temple he had demolished which he refusing to do was presently sacrificed to the fury of Pagans Theodoret blames him that he unseasonably ruined the Temple and convinceth him by the example of S. Paul who seeing in Athens many Altars dedicated to false God contented himself with refuting the error without making use of the hammer to destroy it as well fore-seeing the time was
of Nevers Barbarous Anger of Bajazet caused almost two thousand Falconers to be killed for a hawk which had not flown well He well deserved to be shut up in a cage as he was afterward for sporting with such prodigality with humane blood It is much more intolerable when Christian Princes flie out as did Lewis the young who being offended by Theobald Count of Champaigne entred into his territory and made strange spoil even to the setting of the great Church of Vitry a fire and therein burning fifteen hundred men who fled into it as into a Sanctuary But this enraged passion knew no distinction between sacred and profane and the confusion of this fancy confounded heaven and earth Good French men abhorred an act so barbarous and S. Bernard who then flourished made the thunders of Gods Lewis the Young admonished by S. Bernard chastiseth himself for hiâ— aâ—ger by sadnesse and penance judgements to roar in the Kings ear wherewith he was so terrified that re-entring into himselfe he fell into a deep melancholy which caused his mind to make a divorce from all worldly joyes wherewith he became so dejected that he was like to die had not S. Bernard sought to cure the wound he gave shewing that the true penitent ought to be sad without discomfort humble without sottishnesse timorous without despair and that the grief of his fall should not exclude the hope of his rising again But they are more tolerable who punish themselves with their own choler as Henry King of England that bit his lips gnashed his teeth pulled off his hair threw his bed and clothes on the ground eat straw and hay to expresse his impetuous passion 5. They who are arrogant and given to contemne Danger of scoffing Polydor. Virg. l. 9. and flout others draw fire and poison on their heads when they assail impatient natures which have not learnt to feed themselves with affronts and injuries A word flying like a spark of fire raiseth flames William the Conquerour of England very suspicious which are not quenched but with great effusion of bloud Philip the first hearing that VVilliam the Conquerour who was very grosse would not suffer any man to see him by reason of a corporall infirmity It is no wonder saith he if this big man be in the end brought a bed This being told to the other who was of a capricious spirit he protested he would rise from his child-bed but with so many torches and lights that he would carry fire into the bosome of France And verily he failed not therein and in this fury so heated himselfe that he died in proper flames A man hath little to do to enkindle a War at the charge of so many lives for a jest a cold countenance a letter not written obsequiously enough for a word inconsiderate 6. The Flemings were to blame when revolted against History of Froissard Philip of Valois they out of derision called him The found King and advanced a great Cock on their principall standard the device whereof was that The scoffs of certain rebellious Flemings severely punished by the generosity of Philip of Valois when he should crow the found King should enter into their city This so exasperated his great Courage that he waged them a battel and with such fury defeated them that Froissard assureth that of a huge army of Rebels there was not one left who became not a victime of his vengeance Lewis Outre-mer was detained prisoner at Roan for having in his anger spoken injuriously against Richard the young Duke of Normandy And Francis the First ruined all his affairs for having handled Charles Duke of Bourbon with some manner of indignity therein complying with the humour of the Queen his Mother 7. The Anger of potent women is above all dreadfull when they are not with-held by considerations of Anger of women conscience because they have a certain appetite of revenge which exceedeth all may be imagined Queen Eleonor wife of Lewis the Young who had as violent Queen Eleonor an enemy of France a spirit as ever animated the body of a woman seeing her self repudiated by her husband albeit upon most just reason conceived such rage fury against France that being afterward remarried to Henry of England she incestantly stirred up all the powers of that Kingdome to our ruine and sowed the first seeds of Warre Dupleix which the continuance of three hundred years which an infinite number of fights and battels which the reverence due to Religion the knot of mutuall Alliances and Oath interposed in sixscore Treaties could not wholly extinguish 8. There are other anger 's free and simple which Annals of France proceed from an indiscreet goodnesse but which fail not to occasion much evil to themselves when they assail eminent and vindicative people It was the misery of poore Enguerrand of Marigny who having governed Anger our of simplicity many timâ—s cause hurt for a word too free witnesse that of Enguerrand the Finances under Philip the Pair and afterward seeing himself persecuted by Charles of Valois unkle of Lewis Hutin Heir of a Crown was transported with so much heat that it cost him his life For this Prince sharply asking an account of him of the treasures of the deceased King he freely answered It is to you Sir I have given a good part of them and the rest hath been employed in the Kings affaires Whereupon Charles giving him the lie the other transported with passion had the boldnesse to say unto him By God It is you your self Sir This reply being of it self very insolent and spoken at a time when all conspired to his ruine sent him to the Gallows of Montfaucon which he had caused to be built in his greatest authority Men cold and well acquainted with affairs who commonly think much never speak ill of them that can hurt them 9. All these extravagancies which we have produced have proceeded from fervour but there are others cold and malign as are Aversions and Hatred which are no other then inveterate and hardened angers so much the more dangerous as they proceed from a spirit more deep and are plotted with more time and preparation So did Lewis the Eleventh who had many Labyrinths in his heart wherein he kep his revenges and oftentimes took delight to send them abroad with ceremony and pomp to take the more pleasure in them So soon as he was King he set himself to revenge his injuries as if power given from heaven ought to be an instrument of passion He persecuted a good subject which was the Count of Dammartin for no other crime but for having obeyed and executed the order of Charls the Seventh who had sent him into Daulphine to stop Lewis who then turmoiled and perplexed the King his father He prevented this plot and fled into Flanders yet ceased he not afterward to hate this good servant and albeit he prostrated himself at his
them with all the inventions of their Nation for to surprize him there was one that would gain him to her another that would keep him another that would draw him from one sin to another even unto the bottome of hell It is farre more easie to become a fool with a woman then to make her wise he had endeavoured perhaps to covert them to his Religion but they perverted him and drew him to theirs He took their loves and afterward He is perverted in Religion their behaviour and at last their Superstition Every one of these women would bring her God into esteem and thought not her self to have any credit in her love if she did not make her false Deity to partake thereof they made such Gods as had no honester Title then the sinnes of debauched women As soon as he had made an Idol for one he must do the like for another all there went by the Emulation of their brains weak in reason and ardent in their passions They reckon about six Temples built round about Jerusalem to the Gods of six principall Nations But it was not sufficient to make these Gods they must be adored and presented with Sacrifices and Incense to content his Loves And he did not all this in shews onely nor dissimulation but his heart as the Scripture saith was wholly turned aside from the true God and fell as S. Austin saith into the depth of the gulf of Idolatry What might the admirers of his great Temple have said or rather the true worshippers of the great God What discourse might so many Kings and Queens have held that had had in so high esteem the wisdome of Solomon The report of his Loves and his Superstitions ran throughout all Kingdomes as a story unheard of which caused laughter enough to wicked ones as tears to good people and astonishment to the whole world How art thou faln from heaven O fair starre of the The dissipation of his estate morning Thou faithfull fore-runner of the King of Lamps which wert adorned with the purest and most innocent flames of the firmament who hath made thee to become a coal and who could bury thy lights in a dung-hill This lamentable King lost that great wisdome that made him esteemed over the whole world and became stupid leaving the care of all the affairs of his Kingdome All those great riches were exhausted and cast as it were into the gulf of Luxury He began to over-charge his people to maintain his infamous pleasures which made all their minds revolt against him The Prophets and Priests could not relish with him by reason of his changing Religion All the understanding Nobility did abhorre him seeing him so plunged in his filth The Commons desired nothing but to shake off the yoke that they could no longer bear God raised him up Rebellions on every side which prepared themselves â—â— overthrow his Empire But no man took it so much to heart as Jeroboam an able and subtil man whom he had advanced and employed in gatheâ—â—ng his Tributes for him It was he to whom he Prophet Ahaziah gave ten pieces of his garmeâ—t fore-telling him that he should reign over to Tribes of Israel and that was the cause that the King would have put him to death but he fled â—nto Egypt and returned under weak Rehoboam thâ— successour of Solomon who despising the counsels of the Antients that exhorted him to give his people content trusted to that of the young ones without brains which perswaded him to hold his own and that the people would not be brought under but by rigour Which made him to be forsaken by ten Tribes at once which cast themselves into the arms of Jeroboam who made a change of Religion and State in Samaria without ever being able either himself or his successours to bring them unto obedience again See here how Kingdomes change their Masters for the sins of lasciviousnesse impiety and oppressions of the people which are then greatly to be feared when despair hath brought them to fear nothing One may ask for a conclusion what became The estate of Solomon in the other world of this wise Solomon Whether he died in his sinne or whether he repented Whether he were saved or damned This is a Common place that hath exercised many excellent pens which have handled this subject curiously and eloquently I love not to do things done already I shall say onely that we may alwayes take the most favourable opinions which can with any likelihood defend themselves in favour of the safety of great persons There are some number of the holy Fathers which speak very openly thereof and perswade themselves that he repented S. Jerome upon the Prophet Ezekiel saith That although the founder of this great Temple sinned yet he was converted to God by a true repentance and for proof hereof he alledges the Book of the Proverbs in the four and twentieth Chapter that saith Novissimè ego egi poenitentiam respexi ut eligerem disciplinam that is At the last I repented and looked back that I might chuse instruction Although these words are not found in our Bible as he also draws them from the Septuagint and to uphold his opinion he will have Solomon to have written the Book of the Proverbs after his fall which is very hard to verifie And elsewhere also the same Authour upon the first Chapter of Ecclesiastes saith That this Book is the repentance of Solomon according to the Hebrews S. Ambrose in the second book of the Apology of David Chap. 3. puts Samson David and Solomon in the number of sinners converted Erraverunt tamen ut homines sed peccata sua tanquam justi agnoverunt Behold here that which is most formall without collecting many ambiguous passages S. Gregory the Great in the second book of his Morals Chap. 2. S. Prosper S. Eucherius Prosp lib. 2. de praedict cap. 27. Solomon clatus in senio fornicatus animo corpore Domiuo ipsum deserente malè obiit and amongst the Modern Tostat Bellarmine and Maldonat condemne him Tertullian Augustine Cyril of Alexandria Gregory Nyssen Isidore Bernard Chrysostome and Rupert leave this question doubtfull and undecided And to say truly this is all which can be said modestly and humanely and also the truestin a matter where there is nothing more certain then incertainty For to say that he hath composed the Book of Ecclesiastes after that he was deprived of his Kingdome and of all the Vanities is a story of the Rabbins which are little to be believed further also this Book is properly a Dialogue of divers men that dispute one against the other and bring forth good and bad sentences although the Authour of the Book doth take the good part To say that which Bonaventure saith That not one of the sacred Authours was damned if it be true the reason is because they lived well and not because they have written well For the kingdome of God saith
demands an account of that action and resolved to re-establish the true King in his right because that besides that justice would have it so he was much more favourable to the Catholicks The other answered that he had dispossessed a Sit-still and a Traitour to the Religion of the Arrians and that the Greek ought to look to his own businesse without intermedling with the Kingdoms of another This Arrogance netled more the Emperour who now saw himself perswaded by all reasons to enterprise a Warre against an Heretick for Religion against a Tyrant for Justice against an Adversary for his Goods He ordered all this businesse with a marvellous prudence for he sowed first division in Gilimer's Kingdome interressing as much as possible every man to his party the Catholicks for his protection the Kinsmen of Hilderic for Revenge the Zealous men for Piety the Understanding for Reason the Souldiers for the Booty and all the world for the sweetnesse of the tranquility under his Government He chose Belizarius Generall to whom he gave an Army more Valiant then numerous of Souldiers well tried and charged him to use the Africans as his own people and as his children One cannot believe the effect that this moderation wrought The People began to look upon the Armies of that brave Captain not as upon those of an enemie but rather of a Liberatour Tripolis rendred it self quickly to him and the Isle of Sardynia revolted against the Tyrant He dismantled all the strong Holds that might defend him from the Enemie as if he had been assured to live in perpetuall peace which caused that Belizarius in a short time marched even to the gates of Carthage The Usurper as fearfull in Warre as he was bold in wickednesse was astonished and surprised having not had so much leisure as to fortifie the place of his abode He suddenly dispatches his brother Amaras to cut off all the Avenues from the Greeks but he was encountred by John the Armenian who led the Van-guard of the Imperialists and who hotly gave him battell in which the African lost the Victory and his life The Tyrant whether out of rage or out of fear caused Hilderic his Master which he kept in prison to be murther'd and went out with his best Troops to meet Belizarius all dip'd as he yet was in innocent blood and troubled with the image of his crimes He met with the Grecian Generall a little scattered from the rest of his Army and might have defeated him if art and activenesse or rather happinesse had accompanied his designs But while he ranges his ill-traind souldiers Belizarius surprises him kills his best troops and constrains him to put himself in flight He seeing his army much lessened sends for his brother Zaron who led some troops near the coasts of Sardynia to come and joyn with him which he did readily but in the mean time Belizarius following the paths that good fortune trod out for him enters Carthage which cryes for quarter to him without resistance The two brothers rallyed together made as though they would retake it but seeing themselves vigorously repulsed by the Imperialists they more thought of a Retreat then an Assault This caused all the People to despair of their party seeing they themselves had forsaken the seat of Empire They withdrew themselves to a place called Tricamerum about eight Leagues from Carthage whither Belizarius after he had taken order for the security of the conquered countrey soon followed them and commanded John the Armenian to passe the River for whose advantage they were encamped there and to charge them He obeyed and executed very courageously his Generals commands But Zaron Gilimer's brother susteins his onset and twice beat him back till such time as Belizarius re-enforced his Van-guard with new Troops who defeated the enemie and killed the chief Commander in the combat His head was cut off and shewed the Affricanes who fell into a great despair of their affairs Ah my brother sayes Gilimer the most valiant man on earth could I not be miserable without losing you and without sacrificing you to my fortune It is now that I perceive the disastre of my Nation It is now that the blood of Hilderie rebounds against me In the mean time Belizarius who lead up the battalio passed also the River which was fordable and assaults Gilimer who made but a small resistance but taking with him his domesticks saved himself by abandoning his Camp where nothing was heard but the cryes and sighs of the Captives that lamented their Misfortune The unhappy King saved himself in Rocks situated upon high mountains where there was a Fortresse almost inaccessible but unfurnished of Victuals and Munition whither Pharas had order to follow him in the place of John the Armenian who was unhappily killed by accident by a Captain that shot at a Bird. Gilimer that now thought that there was no greater enemy in the world then Hunger was quickly weary of the place to which he was retired and seeing himself sollicited every day by his friends to render up himself he sends to Pharas to demand three things for the capitulation of the Treaty which were some Bread a Sponge and a Lute some Bread because he now knew not what it was to Eat a Sponge to wipe off the tears that he continually powred out upon the Tombes of his brothers and the Funeralls of his Countrey a Lute to give some truce to his anguish by its Musick This disastrous man which had never well played the King would now play the Philosopher at the end of his dayes and expresse a contempt of all things Pharas easily granted him what he demanded and having taken him conducted him to Belizarius who was retired to Carthage This Generall contemplated the principall object of his Conquest with delight and had a great curiositie to entertein him but he did nothing but laugh with a forced and unpleasing laughter All his treasures fell into the hands of the Conquerour who suddenly carryed him to Constantinople A Triumph after the manner of the Antients was ordained in honour of Belizarius who entered in great pomp into the City with all his souldiery causing the proud spoiles of Africa to be born before him and dragging after him the prisoners among which was Gilimer in chains who was brought before the Emperour and the Emperesse seated upon their Thrones on an high Theatre with an unparrellel'd magnificence Gilimer as soon as he saw a farre off this pompous splendour cryed out Vanity of Vanities and every thing is vanity afterward began again his laughings which he did in my opinion that he might passe for a Fool and so have his life He did obeysance to Justinian with most humble submissions who used him with much clemency giving him a Place in the Lands of the Empire to finish there the rest of his dayes The Booty was divided with much equity and the rich Vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem that the Vandalls had
the People with astonishment They removed themselves according to the Orders of their Legislatour to the foot of the Mountain Sinai with a prohibition to passe further All the Mountain smoaked as a great Fornace by reason that God was descended thither all in fire which made it extream terrible But Moses his dear favourite ascended to the highest top amidst the fires the darknesses and the flames in that Luminous obscurity where God presided that spake to him face to face as to his most intimate confident After all that thundering voyce of the Living God was heard that pronounced his Decrees and his Laws in that Chamber of Justice hung with fire and lights that trembled under the footsteps of his Majesty All this Law was set down in writing with a most exact care and is yet read every day in the five Books of the Law Now Religion being the Basis of all Policy without which great Kingdomes are but great Robbings This wise Law-giver applyed his whole care and travell to the rooting out of Idolatry and to the causing of the Adorable Majesty of God to be acknowledged in the condition of a worship truly Monarchicall and incommunicable to any other as appears in the punishment which he inflicted on those that had worshiped the golden Calf For the Scripture saith That when the Israelites perceived that Moses tarried a long time on the Mountain of Sinai in those amiable Colloquies that he had with God they grew weary of it and said to the high Priest Aaron That since that man that had brought them out of Egypt was lost they ought to dream no more of him but make in his place Gods that should march in the head of their Army Aaron that perperhaps had a mind to make them lose the relish of that design by the price to which it would amount demanded of them the Pendents of the ears of their Wives and of their Children to go to work about it but their madnesse was so great that they devested themselves freely of all that they had most precious to make a God to their own phansie Aaron accommodating himself to their humour through a great weaknesse made them a Statue that had some resemblance of the Ox Apis that was adored in Egypt As soon as they had perceived it they began to cry Courage Israel behold the God that hath drawn thee out of the slavery of Egypt Aaron accompanied him with an Altar and caused a solemn Feast to be bidden for the morrow after at which the people failed not to be present offering many sacrifices making good cheer and dancing about that Idol God advertised Moses of that disorder and commanded him to descend suddenly from the Mountain to remedy it although he intended to destroy them and had done it had he not been appeased by the most humble Remonstrances and Supplications of his servant He failed not to betake himself speedily to the Camp where he saw that Abomination and the Dances that were made about it which inflamed him so much with Choler that he brake the Tables of the Law written by the hand of God thinking that such a present was not seasonable for Idolaters and Drunkards He rebuked Aaron sharply who excused himself coldly enough and not intending that so abominable a crime should passe without an exemplary punishment He took the Golden Calf and beat it into dust which he steep'd in water to make all those drink of it that had defiled themselves with that sacrilege and to make them understand that sinne that seems at first to have some sweetnesse is extreamly bitter in its effects After which he commanded That all those that would be on Gods side should follow him and the Tribe of Levi as being the most interressed failed not to joyn with him whereupon seeing them all well animated he gave them order to passe through all the Camp from one door to the other with their swords in their hands and to slay all that they met without sparing their nearest kindred This was executed and all the Army was immediately filled with Massacres Rivers of blood ran on all sides accompanied with the sad howlings of a scared multitude that expected every minute the stroke of death God would have that this so severe a punishment be executed upon those miserable men to cause an eternall horrour of Idolatry which is the most capitall of all sins And to retein the worship of God a thousand pretty Ceremonies were practised after the structure of the Tabernacle of the Ark of Covenant of the Table of the Shew-bread of the Altars and after the institution of the Pontificall habits of the Offerings and of the Sacrifices that were celebrated with much order and a singular Majesty Moses also was indefatigable in rendring Justice sitting from the morning till the night on his Tribunall to hear the requests of all the particular men that came to him which Jethro his father in law that was come to visit him having perceived said to him that it was impossible for him to be long able to undergo so troublesome a labour and that he ought to choose amongst all the people some Puissant men fearing God true and enemies of covetousnesse to administer Justice and that it would be sufficient to reserve to himself the controversies that should be of greatest importance Moses believed his counsell and established an handsome order for the decision of the differences that should arise amongst the People He passed fourty years in the wildernesse in divers habitations partly in war against the enemies partly in preserving peace amongst his People and confirming all the laws which he established by the command of God In this exercise he lived to the age of an hundred and twenty years sepaparated himself from all things of the world and was so united to God that it seemed that even his Body it self passed into the nature and condition of an immortall Spirit In fine God having shewed him upon the mountain Nebo all the Land of Promise which he had got to by so many good counsells and so much pains he dyed in that view without entring into it was mourned for thirty dayes by the Israelites and interred of set purpose in a sepulchre unknown to the eyes of men for fear lest he should give an occasion of some Idolatry to that people that would have held him for a Deity Never had man a Birth more forlorn a Life more various or a Death more glorious of an exposed Infant he became a Kings son of a Kings son an Exile of an Exile a Shepheard of a Shepheard a Captain of a Captain a Prophet of a Prophet a Law-giver of a Law-giver a Sovereign the God of Kings and the King of all the Prophets Active at Court Devout in Solitude Victorious in War Happy in Peace Wise in his Laws Terrible in his Arms a man of Prodigies that opened Seas Manur'd Wildernesses Commanded things Sensible and Insensible and exercised an Empire on
were ruled by the Elder with a sweet and amiable discretion in which there was much satisfaction and small constraint The People of God reteined alwayes very near this form of Governing for the Antient Patriarchs presided over the rest as Masters of Families more by Reverence then by Command Moses in that high Authority that could do every thing both upon Men and upon the Elements never assumed the name of King and his Successours till Samuel his time contented themselves with the Stile of Judges of the People Nimrod was the first amongst the Gentiles that usurped a new Domination over the liberty of the Nations that he subdued by Arms having learned in the continuall Massacres of Beasts Cruelty towards Men. Not but that Kingdoms and Monarchies since that time have been holily instituted of God But he hath alwayes willed that Kings should learn that there was none but he in the Universe of all the Creatures that was an absolute Master having alone the Power to Create and to Annihilate what or whom he pleases This is not permitted to the Greatest Monarchs on the Earth who remaining within the bounds of their charges ought to acknowledge themselves the Vicegerents and Substitutes of God to Conduct Men to their End making them arrive at the heighth of Felicity by the wayes of Justice and of Religion But when they stray from these intentions and abuse the Goods the Bloud and the Life of their Subjects as if they were the Proprietours of them and not the Stewards they render themselves responsible to Gods Judgement for all the abuses that are committed in the whole Kingdome through their default This change of Government projected by the Israelites was not according to Gods Heart who comforted Samuel and told him that he ought not to be sad for that they were weary of him seeing they were weary of God Himself which is an Infinite Goodnesse and gave him Collegues in his Empire He Commanded him to make known to them the Right of a King which should be to take their children for his servants and to Employ them on such Trades as he should judge fit for the profit of his House to usurpe their Lands and Inheritances to accommodate therewith his Minions to exact Tithes of their Revenues of their Vines and of their Corn to enrich therewith his Officers and in a word that he would govern every thing after his own Fancy Those that take these words as a Right that God established in favour of Kings are very farre from the sense of the Scripture for they are spoken by way of Menace and not of Approbation Otherwise we should avouch that King Ahab had right to take away Naboth his Vineyard for which he was so sharply reprehended and so severely punished with his Wife Queen Jesabel Yet it is most Just that Kings and Sovereigns should have some reasonable Tributes from the People to support the Majesty of the Kingdome to maintein their Family to protect their Subjects against Hostilities to open them Trading to give them means to preserve and increase their Revenues to make Friendships to live peaceably in their Commodities and to defend them against the violent Usurpers of their Goods The School-Doctours as Cajetan and Gregory de Valentia require four Conditions to justifie Imposts The First is The Power and Authority of the Prince The Second That they tend to a good End The Third That they be according to the ability of the Subject The Fourth That they be imposed upon fit Persons and rather upon certain Marchandises then upon that which is totally necessary to the Life of Man Samuel failed not well to aggravate to the People the Burdens that they should undergo by choosing them a King and the Repentance that they should have of it when the evil should be incureable But It being hard to make them believe Reason that never use it but when it flatters their own will The Israelites were no way diverted from their Proposition by all possible Remonstrances but continued to demand a King with great urgency desiring to be like in that to so many other Nations They were much like the Froggs in the Fable that prayed Jupiter to give them a King whereto he agreeing threw into their Lake a great piece of Wood which much astonished them at first but seeing it without Motion they despised it and said that they desired a King Robustuous Active and Nimble whereupon he gave them a Bird of Prey that ceased not to devour them After which they made great Complaints but he would hearken to them no more So God caused this miserable People to be advertised that when they should be weary of the Domination of Kings and that they should desire another form of Government he would have no ears for their Requests All this inflamed them the more so resolved were they upon their Misery Samuel being willing to deliver himself from their Importunities purposed to choose them a King and to give him to them with his own hand not for any mind that he had to keep yet the Government but for the zeal that he had of the Glory of God and of Justice desiring that the pains that he had taken to procure peace unto his people and to preserve it many years together might not be made unprofitable through the Caprichio's of an evill Successour that perhaps might take a pride in changing all that he had so carefully established He did not cast his eyes upon his own Kindred to make himself a creature in whom he might reign according to flesh and blood but he took by the Order of God a man very ignore and little taken notice of amongst his brethren Here is a mervellous sport of Divinity that calls things that are not as things that are that makes the Light break out of Darknesse and traces the rayes of his Glory upon an heap of dirt Saul of the Tribe of Benjamin the least amongst the Hebrews and one of the least qualified in that Tribe a Countrey-man into whose heart the Court and Royalty never entred not so much as in a Dream went to seek his fathers Asses that then were gone astray A domestick servant that was with him seeing that he lost his labour in that search gives him notice that in the neighbouring village there was a great Personage that was ignorant of nothing and that he could well tell them news of their losse and added that he had a piece of silver that was worth about six pence which he would make a present to him Saul consents to it and they goe along both together into the Village of Ziph where Samuel was that was to be present that day at a Sacrifice and a Feast that was made among the Principall men Without thinking on it they meet him and asked of him where was the Prophets house Samuel knew by revelation that it was he of whom God had spoken to him and whom he had chosen to be the King of his
bounty that he would vouchsafe to comfort her and confirm her spirit which was descended into the bottom of the Abyss of the miseries of this world Her prayer being ended she was inspired with infusions of love towards her Creatour and armed with a noble confidence she in this manner did express her self Wherefore art thou so sad my soul if GOD permits She comforteth her self in prison this for thy sins shouldest thou not kiss the Rod that strikes thee and adore that infinite mercy who doth chastise thee by temporary punishments not willing to make thee an object of that choler which is kindled by an eternity of flames and if this comes unto thee to approve thy virtues dost thou fear to enter into the furnace where that great workman will consume the straw onely that burns thee and will make thee to shine as gold wherefore art thou so sad my heart To be deprived of liberty and the delights of the Court take unto thee the wings of contemplation and of love and fly thou beyond these waters fly thou beyond the seas which inviron these Islands and understand that there is no prison for a Soul which GOD doth set at liberty and that all the world doth belong to him who knows how to misprise it In these considerations she took incomparable delight 1. Hope against all hope and as well as she could did charm the afflictions of her imprisonment when behold a blind felicity which made her to see unexpected events GOD stirred up a little Daniel to deliver this poor Susanna a little Infant the son of the Earl of Douglas did feel his little heart touched with the miseries of this brave Queen and had the hardiness to speak thus unto her Madam if your Majesty will understand a way to your deliverance I can give it you We have here below a Gate at which we sometimes do go forth to delight our selves upon the water I will bring you the key and have the Boat ready in which fearing my fathers anger I must save my self with you The Queen extreamly amazed at the discourse of the child made answer My little friend your counsel is very good Do as you speak and acquaint no man with it otherwise you will ruine us if you will oblige me for so great a favour I will make you a great man and you shall have content all your dayes In the mean time for want of pen and paper she wrote on her hand-kerchief with a coal and found a means to advertise the Viscount of Selon touching that design assigning both the day the place where he should attend her to which he disposed himself with so much activity as if he had rather wings to flie than paces by foot to measure The child failed not to put in execution what he promised The Queen took the key in her hand opened Her departure the Gate and nimbly leaped into the Boat with this little Companion of her fortune she took her self the pole into her hand seeing the young child had not force to steer the boat she began to guid it and to save her life by the favour of her arms One of her maids named Queneda seing her Mistress in this difficulty did leap into the water out of a window of the Castle and abandoned her self to the mercy of the waves to joyn herself unto the fortunes of her Mistress O good GOD How may the stars in the greater silence of this world with admiration behold so great a Queen to sit at the stern of a boat with oars in her hand and practising a trade of life which necessitie doth teach her and felicity doth govern The waters stroaked into a calm did perceive the effects of her fair hand and gently opened themselves to make a passage for her At last she arrived at the bank on the other side and found there the Viscount who received her with all reverence and joy She retired her self into a place of safety and thought on the means to re-establish her self to which she found her good subjects well disposed and in a short time raised an Army of about seven thousand men At which the Enemies being inraged drew up against them in great bodies and giving them battel they over-powered them in number and obtained the victory The encounter was bloudy to which one part did contribute courage and the other fury Seven and fifty personages of Honour of the House of Hamilton which is next unto the King did with their dead bodies cover the field where the Battel was fought The Queen who with horrour entertained the apprehension of so many massacres did prefer an innocent Retreat before an uncertain Victory Her bastard Brother the chief of the Rebellion of an imaginary King did now make himself an absolute Tyrant and as much as in him lay he endeavoured to root out the rest of the true Religion in Scotland by the perswasion of Knox and Buchanan he stripped the Churches naked to cover himself he oppressed all honest men and let himself loose unto all manner of insolence 8. The deplorable Queen is constrained to depart Her Retreat into England where her enemies accused her out of her Kingdom to fall no more into such cruel hands She took shipping having a desire at first to sail into France where her Memory was still preserved in singular Reputation but having a lofty heart though excellently well tempted she was ashamed to transport her self to be seen in the condition of a banished woman in a place where all the graces and virtues had given her so many tropheys She cōceived that concealed Misery was the more supportable and that it was more expedient for her to live in an Island which was an out-corner of the world than in the splendour of France Besides she conceived that she A civil shame doth hinder good designs ought to continue within the Neighbour-hood of her own Kingdom the better to facilitate her Return unto it The Archbishop Hamilton a most wise old man did disswade her from that resolution understanding very well the Deportments of Murray with the Queen of England and because she made apparence to give but little heed unto his counsels he threw himself at her feet with tears in his eyes and besought her not to follow the greatness of her mind as to make choice of that place which would be her certain destruction On the other side Elizabeth did sollicite her again and again and did importune her by a thousand courtesies to repair into England to which at last she condescended as if Necessity had prepared links of Diamonds to chain her to her misfortunes The innocent Dove in endeavouring to eschew the nets of the Fowler did fall into the talons of the Hawk She came into a Kingdom from whence Justice and Religion were banished by the horrible factions of the Hereticks She put her self into her hands who had usurped her Scepter and who made use
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
Commission with their own Names On which she demanded by what Law they would proceed against her the Canon Law or the civil Law and because she knew very well that they were no great Lawyers she conceived it would be requisite that some should be sent for from the Universities in Europe They replied That she should be tried by the civil Law of England in which they were sufficiently experienced But she who well observed that they would intangle her with a new Law on purpose against her made answer you are gallant Gentlemen and can make what Laws you please but I am not bound to submit unto them since you your selves in another case refuse to be subjected to the Salick Law of France Your Law hath no more of Example than your proceeding hath of Justice On this Hatton Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen of England advanced himself and said unto her you are accused for conspiring the ruin of our Mistress who is an anointed Queen Your degree is not exempted to answer for such a Crime neither by the Law of Nations nor of nature If you are innocent you are unjust to your Reputation to indeavour to evade the judgement The Queen will be very glad that you can justifie your self for she hath assured me that she never in the world received more discontent than to find you charged with this accusation Forbear this vain consideration of Royalty which at this present serves for nothing Cause the suspitions to cease and wipe away the stain which otherwise will cleave for ever to your reputation She replied I refuse not to answer before the States of the Realm being lawfully called because I have been acknowledged to be a presumed Heir of the Kingdom Then will I speak not as a subject but in another nature without submitting my self to the new Ordinance of your Commission which is known to be nothing else but a Malicious net made to inwrap my innocence The Treasurer on this did interrupt her and said we will then proceed to the contempt to which she made answer Examine your own consciences and provide for your Honours and so God render to you and your children as you shall do in the judgement The next morning she called one of the Commissioners and demanded if her Protestation were committed to writing And if it were she would justify her self without any prejudice to the Royal dignity Whereupon the Commissioners did presently assemble themselves in the Chamber of presence where they prepared a Scaffold on the upper end whereof was the seat Royal under a Cloath of State to represent the Majesty of Queen Elizabeth and on the one side of it a Chair of Crimson Velvet prepared for her The courageous Queen did enter with a modest and an assured countenance amongst the stern Lords thirsting after her bloud and took her place Bromley the Chancellour turning towards her did speak in these words The most Illustrius Queen of England being assured not without an extream Anguish of spirit that you have conspired the destruction of her of the Realm of England and of Religion to quit herself of her duty and not to be found wanting to God herself and her people hath without any malice of heart established those Commissioners to hear the things of which you are accused how you will resolve them and shew your innocency This Man who had spoken ill enough had the discretion to speak but little And immediately as he had given the signal the perverse Officers who were more than fourty in number did throw themselves upon her like so many mastives on a prey propounding a thousand captious questions to surprize her but the generous AMAZA did shake them off with an incredible vivacity In the end all things were reduced to the letter of Babington in which he gave her notice of the conspiracy and to the answer which she made to it exhorting him to pursue his design but most of all to the depositions of her own Secretaries who gave assurances that she did dictate the said letter as also other letters to forreign Princes to invade England with arms They did press her on these falsities which seemed to carrie some probability with them but she did answer invincibly to them as most clearly may appear by those terms which I have drawn from her several answers and tied them together to give more light to her Apology wherein the clearnes of her understanding and her judgement is most remarkable IF the Queen my Sister hath given you a Commission The invincible Apology of the Queen to see Justice done it is reasonable that you should begin it rather by the easing of my sufferings than by the oppressing of my innocence I came into England to implore succour against the Rebellion of my Subjects My bloud alliance Sex Neighbourhood and the Title which I bear of a Queen did promise me all satisfaction and here I have met with my greatest affliction This is the twentieth year that I have been detained Prisoner without cause without reason without mercy and which is more without hope I am no Subject of your Mistresses but a free and an absolute Queen and ought not to make answer but to God alone the Sovereign Judge of my Actions or bring any prejudice to the Character of Royal Majesty either in my Son the King of Scotland or his Successours nor other Sovereign Princes of the earth This is the Protestation which I have made and which I repeat again in your presence before I make any answer to the Crimes which are imposed on me The blackest of all the Calumnies do charge me for having conspired the Death of my most dear Cousin and after many circumventions all the proofs are reduced to the Letter of Babington the Deposition of my Secretaries and my sollicitations made to forreign Princes to invade England with Arms. I will answer effectually to all these Articles and make the justice of my Cause most clearly appear to those who shall without passion look upon it And in the first place I swear and protest that I never saw this Babington who is made the principal in this Charge I never received any letter from him neither had he any letter from me I have always abhorred these violent and black counsels which tended to the ruin of Queen Elizabeth and I am ready to produce letters from those who having had some evil enterprize have excused themselves that they have discovered nothing to me because they were assured that my spirit was opposite to such Designs I could not know what Babington or his accomplices have done being a Prisoner he might write what he pleased but I am certain that I never saw nor heard of any letter to me And if there be found any Answer written by me to those things which never so much as came into my imagination it is an abominable forgery We live not in an Age nor a Realm that is to learn the trade to deceive I am
he particularly recommended to all holy minds who breathed after the restoring of the ancient Religion In the second place he entered into the heart and possessed himself with the inclinations of Queen Marie whom he found throughly disposed and animated by a generous spur for the glory of God and the felicity of her Kingdom which kept her alwayes exercised on that high thought and comprehended in it the safety of all that Nation In the last he more and more encouraged all the Catholicks by the desires of their repose of conscience and by the liberty of their functions in the exercise of spiritual things In the third place he treated with those who were in an errour with the Spirit of Compassion of Sweetness and of Bounty complying with them in what he could in civil affairs and endeavouring to take from them the apprehension which they had conceived to themselves that the Change of Religion would ruin their fortunes and the establishment of their houses He caused a report to be spread by many remarkeable and grave Personages that he came not to take away their temporal goods but to give them spiritual blessings And as concerning the Goods of the Church which many Great men had usurped in that general Confusion of Affairs he said he would compose it in the best way that Love and Candor could prescribe him Fourthly He did wisely fore-see that with sweetness he should also bring in Authority which might ruin the resistences of those men if any should appear to oppose so saving a work On which he had recourse to the greatest Potentates in Europe whom he secretly affected to this Enterprize He had been before employed on the Peace between Francis the First and Charls the Fifth He did apprehend and attract the spirits of them both with wonderfull dexterity for having dived into the heart of the Emperour and finding the seeds of the Design which afterwards did discover themselves having been dismissed of the Empire and embraced a solitary life he wrought upon him with the recital of his great actions and the Conquests he had obtained and told him That all those strong agitations of his spirit were but as so many lines which ought to tend to the center of Rest that he ought not to weary and torment his good fortune That it was a great gift of God to confine his thoughts on true glory without attending the tide of the Affairs of the world That it was the duty of an Emperour to endeavour the Peace of Christendom and an incomparable honour to accomplish it He touched his heart so directly with these Demonstrations that he opened it and the Emperour declared to him That he had a great desire to that divine Peace and would embrace all reasonable Conditions that should conduce unto it After that he had effected this he made no delay to address himself to the Most Christian King and knowing that he was puissantly generous he wrought upon him by the glory of the great Wars he had sustained and the immortal actions of valour which he produced that by his invincible courage he had at the last wearied the most puissant Potentate in Europe who had him in admiration and desired nothing more than to hold a fair correspondence with him That a fair Peace should be an inestimable benefit to them both which should give rest unto their Consciences and pull down a blessing from on high upon their persons and be a great comfort to their Subjects who were overcharged with the continuation of the war In the end he did demonstrate to him how extraordâ—narily he was beloved of his people who did attend this Effect of his goodness by which he should crown his Valour with all happiness and abundance in his Kingdom The King took fire at this Discourse and the Cardinal most vigorously did blow it up and did remonstrate That two so great Monarchs who were made for Heaven ought not so greedily to hold unto their interests on earth and that they had nothing now to wish but to part their affairs and to save their honour And this indeed they afterwards performed restoring willingly on both sides all that they had conquered since the ordinance of Reconciliation made by Paul the third who some years before did transport himself to Marseilles although he was of a very great age to pacifie the Affairs of Christendom This Accord being so happily atchieved by Cardinal Pool he gained by it the approbation and applause of all Princes who favoured the Catholick cause He observed that the Emperour had his son Philip to marry and that there was nothing more expedient for the advancement of Religion than to allie him to Queen Marie He carried this affair with such secresie and dexterity that the King of Spain was in England and the Marriage published before the plot was discovered By the counsel of Charls Cardinal Pool did deferre his entery into the Realm until the Marriage was concluded and then he entered with all assurances The King himself came to meet him and Queen Marie with all her people received him with extasies of joy He incontinently did draw unto him the affection of all the principal Lords and not long after he counselled the King and Queen to call an Assembly of the most remarkable persons in the Kingdom to whom he spake thus in presence of their Majesties MADAM SInce it hath pleased God after the Confusions of the His speech to the States late times to shine upon us with his eyes of Mercie and at last to place upon the Throne the true and faithfull Inheritress of the Crown who is so worthily espoused to one of the greatest Princes in all Christendom we have a great subject to satisfie our Discontents and advance our hopes This Realm at this day doth imitate the Creation of the world coming forth from its Chaos and dark Abyss to receive the favourable influences of the light The day which by all good men hath been so passionately desired so suspected by the wicked so unlookt for by the incredulous and so attended by the afflicted is at length arrived to destroy our death and to make us new born in the life of the children of God Behold the true Religion which entereth with triumph into all the Cities of this Kingdom from which Impietie and Furie had dispossessed her she holds out her arms unto you adorned with the Palms and the Crowns with which your Ancestours have honoured her she demands again the place which from the first conversion until the furie of these later times she hold with so much honour and satisfaction Will you yet banish her Will you yet continue to persecute her Can you endure that she should present before God her torn and her bloudie Robe and complain again of the outrages of her children My Brethren There is neither life nor salvation but in this Faith which shineth and speaketh in S. Peters Chair It is that which God hath given us