a manner is to make a kind of Alienation 'T is a fetch of the Benedictine Monks to take up Money for Rent to be paid by them that so they may appear always poor and have pretexts to solicite the liberality of devout People also that they may have Protectors for the greater number of their Creditors is the greater is the number of persons interessed in their conservation Yet there is nothing more unjust than this Custom For there are Monastick Communities that owe more than all their Goods moveable and immoveable are worth The Monks care not though their House be ruin'd nor though they ruine some of their Creditors provided themselves subsist For by passing from one Convent to another they are quitted of all the Debts they have created It greatly concerns the Publick to Prohibit these kind of Contracts that Monasticks may be kept from defrauding any Man for the future and to decree that the Contractor shall pay the Rents Contracted for and they bound to do it both all in common and each of them in particular then that the Notaries be Fined and Declared incapable of bearing any Office Or if insolvent condemned to the Gallies for 101 years Moreover that the Purchasers of such Rents shall for their part pay a Mulct of 3000 Livres to His Majesty and the principal Money be converted to His use Besides it would be very fit to require all Notaries all Creditors of Monasticks and the Monasticks themselves to make Declaration of the Sums and Rents charged upon them bring in the Contracts for the same before Commissioners nominated by the King to be Registred and this within a time expresly limited which being once pass'd no more shall be received and all Contracts not Registred remain null and as if they were cleared This course would be very severe but excellent to reduce the folk of the Cloister to Reason There is an important Observation to be made too namely That all the Contracts which Church men have made are utterly null unless their Creditors can make it appear that the Money they lent did turn to the profit of the Church and that there was an authentick permission to make such Contracts This Doctrine is a point of Law for the Church is ever a Minor and all that it possesseth hath come from the liberality of particular persons without whose consent or at least the Magistrates and such as are capable of it the Ecclesiasticks can make no alterations in the Estates they have received So that the King may not only forbid Contracts for the future but also Declare those to be dissolved which have been made heretofore and discharge the Monasteries of them Debts have been annulled for less reasons often It must likewise be prohibited to Monks and to the Church to purchase any Estate in Land or High-rents upon pain of such Contracts being null and void in Law and the Sellers and Notaries incurring the forementioned penalties Our Lords the Prelates have lately bethought them and resolved to compell such Gentlemen as have Chappels in their Houses where the Sacrifice of the Mass hath been at any time performed to profane the said Chappels or endow them with Land for the maintenance of a Priest This would be a means to gain the Church more than Two hundred thousand Livres of Rent at one blow wherefore it will be fit to Ordain that this enterprize of the Bishops do not take effect except in case of Chapels built hereafter and built for other persons CHAP. V. 1. Of the Hugonots and whether it be for the good of the State to put them out of France 2. Politick means to extirpate their Heresie 3. Of their ancient Confession of Faith A King cannot have a more Illustrious Object of his Cares and Application than the preserving of that Religion which he hath received from his Ancestors in the States he governs because diversity of Belief of Divine Service and of Ceremony doth divide his Subjects and breeds Animosities among them Whence arise Contentions War and in the end an universal defiance Unity of belief on the contrary knits Men together and 't is seldom seen but that Fellow-subjects who call upon GOD in one and the same Temple and offer at the same Altars do also fight with the same Arms or under the same Banners If this Maxim be generally true in Christian Politicks and the Religion we profess the only one as it is that we can savingly embrace the Princes are obliged to maintain it with all their Might and employ that Soveraign Power for the Glory of the true GOD which they hold of his Goodness The Pagans whose particular conduct was so prudent and just and who have left us so many Examples of wisdom and virtue made it their principle not to suffer in their Republicks any novelty that thwarted the common and popular belief and they adher'd so peremptorily unto it that they would not so much as permit any man to undeceive them of their Errors The Books of Numa Pompilius which had been found near his Grave and contained the ancient Religion of Rome the Senate caused to be burnt because the Praetor Rutilius who had been commission'd to read them affirmed upon Oath That the Contents of e'm tended to subvert the Religion which the People observed at that time They refus'd even to open their eyes unto the light of truth though known to them when they apprehended it would be novel to the people They rather chose to stick to Fables which length of years had consecrated among them and the multitude was through custom addicted to Thus too the Athenians thought they did an act of necessary Justice in condemning Socrates to death for having taken on him to persuade the people that there was but one only GOD. They knew however that in truth this Philosopher was the Wonder of his time the Honour of the City and of all Greece the discerning men amongst them were convinc'd of the solidity of this Doctrine and the Sect of the Stoicks made profession of it so that it must be confess'd the fall of Gentilism and subversion of Idols is an effect of the hand of GOD who alone can work miracles of Grace and Omnipotence The Kings His Majesties Predecessors have set themselves with unwearied diligence to preserve the Catholick Religion inviolable They have never failed to be Protectors of the Apostolick See and the Church They expelled the Arrians they turned their Arms and exposed their lives against the Albigenses they vanquish'd e'm they destroy'd e'm they punish'd the Poor men of Lions In fine they have provided that Christianity receive no harm in any places unto which their Authority extended The last Age produced a new Monster to oppose the Church France saw him born in her bosom and unhappily bred him up with several complices of his Impiety and Revolt History will tell Posterity how much Blood was shed during the course of well nigh Fourscore years to quell this dangerous
this case is only a Bugg and vain pretence laid hold on by the Court of Rome for promoting their Temporal Power and making their Creatures in every corner That the shiftings of the Monks and their rambles from one end of France to the other serve only to debauch them with an universal acquaintance All these Observations are true and judicious But the fear that my Lord Marquess shews of offending the Court of Rome or at least the Complement he had made That it is the Glory of a King to Honour the Holy See hinders him from sounding the bottom of the Evil and from presenting the necessary remedy For it may be said of the wholsome Rules that he prescribes for reducing the Clergy to their Duty and for preventing of Fraud in matters of Benefices that this comes to no more than the paring a Man's Nails when his Skull is broken and ought to be trepann'd The great Honour and the great Interest of the King indeed would be to think of a way how he may roundly shake off this infamous and tyrannical Yoke of the Roman Court which my Lord Marquess calls the Holy See And deliver himself from this buzzard Superstition which rides even our very Statesmen viz. That there can be no Religion Catholick but in submitting to the Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Holy See Is it because the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ His Majesty has a number of Bishops within His Realm who if they understand and do their duty are the Vicars of Jesus Christ So that we need not travail over the Alps to seek one Instead then of providing a French Secretary of Conscience who may make a Bank in the Court of Rome by which means we might know what Money passes from France to Italy which is the advice of Mouns the Marquess He should rather break the Bank in France and give order that no more Money pass out of France into Italy for this Bank is a continual Pump which draws away the fairest Cash of France which fattens a stranger with our Kingdoms Treasure which carries much away but returns nothing I know all these Tributes and Respects are paid to the Pope because he is suppos'd to be the Head of the Church and his Flatterers tell us That the Church can no more subsist without the Pope than the Body without the Head But that great Chancellor of the University of Paris John Gerson was not of this Opinion for he writ a Book expresly De auferribilitate Papa ab Ecclesia That is to say to prove that this same head might very well be quite taken away and the Church yet be never the worse nor take any harm The Cardinals have sometimes continued more than two years before they could agree about their Choice of a Pope During all which time the Body of the Church was without a Head The Churches of France and Germany did not at all feel the want of it and matters went still on there as they were wont Which puts me in mind of the Man of Wood that being mounted on Horse-back and coming under a Tree a bough struck off his head to the ground yet the heart of Oak kept the Saddle and trotted on with the company nothing dismaid for that the head was not essential to the rest of the body It is too soft an expression to call the Pope an unprofitable Head of the Church he is absolutely pernicious to it I pass by the Spirituals suiting my self herein with the humour of Mouns the Marquess who considers the Catholick Religion little farther than as it makes for the interest of France But what greater mischief can the Pope do to the Church than to render the Power of the Church suspected to Sovereign Princes as a pure politick device to invade their Rights grind their Subjects and form even an Empire within their Empire The Marquess endeavours with great reason to make the King jealous of the Popes Temporal Monarchy over his Subjects He might with as good reason have mov'd him to be jealous of that Spiritual Monarchy which is in effect purely Temporal For he has well observ'd That the name of Religion is a false pretence us'd by the Court of Rome to advance his Temporal Power And that the Popes having begun with Letters of Recommendation to the Chapters to have an Eye on such an ones mirit to be chosen Bishop Have after in process of time turn'd these Letters Recommendatory to Bulls and Decrres to dispose of the Bishopricks of France at their pleasure which is a Tyranical invasion of the Rights of the King and of those of the Church Glaber who liv'd in the times of Hugh Capet relates lib. 3. cap. 4. how Pope John sent a Cardinal into France to Found and Consecrate a Monastery within the Diocess of Tours and that the Prelates of France and Hugh Archbishop of Tours opposed him and said roundly That the Bishop of Rome having a Diocess to himself ought not to meddle with the affairs of another Diocess nor send his Commands to their Bishops who are his fellow Bishops and Colleagues The Doctors of the Sorbon in their Rescriptum publish'd at the time of the Appeal concerning the abuse about the Breviary of Anjou by the Bishop of Eâ—gers and his Injunction to the Church of the Trinity to use that of Rheims amongst other Propositions declare That the other Bishops have the power of Government and Ordination within their Diocess as fully as the Bishop of Rome has within his Therefore in the time of St. Cyprian and even in St. Angustin's days the Popes did write Ad Coepiscopos Galliae Collegas Now Collegue imports equality of Power And if the Bishops of Rome have not any power over the Bishops of France they can much less pretend to any over our Kings Pope Leo VI. promised Lotharius dist 10. c. 9. can 10. to obey his Edicts both at present and for the future Pope Pelagius to the like effect to Childebert The Holy Scriptures says he command us to obey Kings and to be subject to them The Popes were always humble Subjects of the Roman Emperors so long as that Empire continued And 't is but the other day that they got free from the Emperors of Germany Onuphrius de varia Creatione Pontif l. 4. testifies That even then when they were look'd upon as the Successors of St. Peter their Authority reached no farther but only to maintain and defend the truth of the Doctrines of Faith And for the rest were wholly subject to the Emperors who ordered all things according to their wills and were wont to create the Popes It is a notable Observation the Marquess has made That the Tables were put into the hands of Moses and not into the hands of Aaron and that it is the part of Secular Princes that the People be instructed in the Laws of God He was entrusted with the first Table as well as with the second to teach us that the
the true ground of the great hatred that is born us is it not for that if we are to be believ'd there would not in France be any French-man that is not the Kings Subject Causes Beneficial and Matrimonial would not be carried to Rome nor the Kingdom be Tributary under the shadow of Annates and the like Impositions And on this Subject the Testimony of Cardinal Perron for us in his Harangue to the Third State is very considerable wheâ— he says The Doctrine of the Deposition of Kings by the Pope has been held in France until Calvin Whereby he tacitely acknowledges That our Kings had been ill serv'd before and that those he calls Hereticks having brought to light the Holy Scripture have made the Right of Kings be known which had been kept supprest Shall they be said Friends of the State who owning themselves Subjects of a Stranger Soveraign dare endeavour to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction of which the Marquess complains loudly and with good cause and of the great resistance they have made to maintain themselves in an Usurpation so unreasonable In this kind those of the Church of the Reform'd Religion could never be accus'd in the Towns where we have had some Power Our Religion is hated because it combats the Pride the Avarice and the Usur pations of the Court of Rome and their Substitutes in the Kingdom and because we have shewn to the World that sordid Bank of spiritual Graces they have planted in the Church and how they have drawn to themselves a Third of the Lands of France for fear of Purgatory from silly People mop'd with a blind Devotion and from Robbers and Extortioners who have thought to make Peace with God by letting these share in the booty 'T is an advice very suitable to the Politicks of France to examine well the Controversies that are most gainful to the Clergy as this of Purgatory concerning which an old Poet said the Truth in his way of Drollery But if it be so That no more Souls shall go To old Purgatory Then the Pope will gain nought by the Story It would be wisely done to examine what necessity there is for so many Begging-Fryers that suck out the Blood and Marrow of devout People and for so many Markets of Pardons in honour of a number of Saints of a new Edition and for what design are made so many Controversies And whether it would not be a great Treasure for the Kings Subjects to Teach them to work out their Salvation and put their Consciences in quiet at a cheaper rate God justly provok'd by the great Sins of France gives us not yet the Grace of that Gospel-Truth St. John Ch. 8. Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free And though it shines out so clear to let us see the Usurpation of the Popes upon the Temporals of the King and upon the Spirituals of the Church yet see we not clearly enough to discover all the mystery of Iniquity and to resolve to shake off the Yoak For this great design no other War need be made by the Pope but only take from him all Jurisdiction in France all Annates and all evocation of Causes to Rome This would hardly produce any other stirrs but the complaints and murmuring of them that are loosers And the condition truly Royal that the King at present is in will sufficiently secure Him from Insurrections at home and Invasions from abroad Or should any happen behold more than an hundred thousand Huguenots that the Noble Marquess has sound him in the heart of his State whom he is pleas'd to call His Enemies but who on all occasions and on this especially would do His Majesty a hearty and faithful Service The two main Interests of France being to weaken the House of Austria the Princes of which enclose him on both sides and to throw off the yoake of Rome which holds a Monarchy within the French Monarchy 't is easie to judge that amongst the Kings Subjects the Protestants are absolutely the most proper to serve him on both these occasions I know that amongst the Roman Catholicks as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars there are excellent Instruments to serve the King in both these Interests But there is need of great caution to well assure him by reason of the multitude of Jesuits Scholars with whom these Fathers have Industriously fill'd all Professions of the State and Church and it is for no other end that they have so many Colledges They who have been too good Scholars of these Masters are contrary to both these Interests being so great Catholicks that they espouse the Interest of the Catholick King to advance that of his Holiness But to find amongst the Protestants trusty Instruments for both these accounts he need not try them they are fitted and form'd by their Education for these two Uses so necessary to France The Marquess assures His Majesty with good reason of the friendship of the Protestant Princes of Germany which they would never testifie so freely as in serving him to ruin the Power of the Pope who savours that of the House of Austria For thereby they would kill two Birds with one Stone Not to mention our other Neighbours who have broken with Rome and being disquieted by its secret practises will be ready to contribute to its destruction Who shall well consider the Scheme of the Affairs of Christendem shall judge that all things invite His Majesty to shut out the Jurisdiction of Rome beyond the Mountains Right Honour Profit Liberty Facility his Duty to his Crown to his Subjects and to his Royal Posterity and that many Aids smile upon him both within and out of his Kingdom for so fair and so just an Enterprize This is the warm desire of the honest French-men And none there are who better deserve that Title than they who with the most Indignation resent that their Kings should kiss the Feet of that Prelate who ought of Right to kiss their Feet for having receiv'd his Principalities from Kings of France and who in recompence of their good Deeds have plotted and plot continually their ruin When the King shall have deliver'd Himself and his People from this strange yoak he will find the enmity amongst his Subjects for matter of Religon greatly diminisht and the way open to a re-union And were the difficulties about the Doctrine overcome the Protestants would not stick much at the Discipline God who is the Father of Kings and the King of Glory protect and strengthen our Great King to accomplsh the Designs that turn to the general good of His Church to the greatness and to the respect of his Sacred Person and to the Peace and Prosperity of His State FINIS
Sect and the world well know that the Zeal there was to reduce Hereticks to their duty did take up the Reigns of Six of our Kings the glory of cutting off the last head of this Hydra being reserved for his present Majesty But it is expedient to see what weapons must be used for an execution so long expected There is no cause to doubt but that upon the Principles of Christianity and Maxims of Policy its necessary to reduce all the Kings Subjects to one and the same Belief And though they that make Profession of the pretended Reformed Religion be now without Arms without Strong-holds without Treasure without an Head and without Allies yet they are not out of case to be feared They still retain a remembrance of their boldness and by-pass'd Rebellions they look back on the Towns they once seized and out of which they could not be driven but by force of Arms as if they were their proper Inheritance and had been unjustly pluck'd out of their hands they bear in their hearts the same aversion for Order and Discipline that they ever had and their minds are always inclining to revolt and to Confusion and Anarchy It disquiets them not to think who shall head them they have Soldiers of their own number whom they can advance to be Captains by giving them Authority to command e'm They persuade themselves that if they were in Arms they should want neither Money nor Friends They believe that the Glory of the King attracts as much Envy on him as Admiration and that his Virtue raiseth in his Neighbours no less Anger than Terrour In short there is ground to think that he will have more than an Hundred Thousand Men of his Enemies in the heart of his State while there are Huguenots in France they too perhaps do but wait an occasion to make their Musters Thus they are perpetual Obstacles to the Designs that might be formed and though weak may nothwithstanding be dreaded 'T is true the honest men of their Communion do well know that they cannot be in a calmer repose than they now enjoy by the Grace of the King and under the security of his Edicts but in these matters the multitude carries it These are a Torrent that by its Rapidity overturns Rocks which seems unmoveable It will be said that the good treatment which the Huguenots receive doth preserve the friendship of the German Princes for France and if favourable Justice should be no longer done them the King would lose the most potent and most considerable of his Allies This discourse is but a found and void of all substance of reason for beside that the Princes of Germany are not of the Religion of our Hereticks They need not the Kings Protection for maintaining the Huguenots in their pretended liberty of Conscience but the French Arms securing them against the power of Austria and principally of the Emperor who hath divers pretensions upon them they cannot recede from the Alliance they have made with his Majesty nor will they do it though the last man of the Huguenots was brought to the Scaffold nay forasmuch as the Kings Forces are so useful to all those Protestants it will would be their interest not at all to Arm themselves for the Huguenots preservation but far otherwise even to promote their expulsion out of France and the reason is because if this party were in a condition to raise stirs the King would have his hands full of work to repress them and so his Forces being dissipated the Emperor might take his time to enlarge his Domination the thing that Charles the Fifth did when Francis the First was not in a possibility to succour the Princes It being therefore certain that the Liberty of Germany hath its support and prop in the Arms of the King they are not sollicitous there for the affairs of the Huguenots in France and since the Protestants of the Empire are knit to his Majesty by other engagements than those of Religion they will continue the same Deportment and his Majesty on his part will always have the same reasons to succour them though the time should come that he should have no more Huguenots in his Kingdom No succour neither may they hope for from England that 's a State too weak to make any trial of strength against France all the English there are must pass the Sea and the Isle be disfurnish'd of Soldiers and Provisions yet this all would be nothing to purpose mean time their affairs would lie expos'd to the Levity and Lunacy of the people Holland and Swedeland are of like consideration and they both have other Interests to Negotiate with the King than those of the Huguenots Denmark is defective in power The Calvinists mount unto a strain of Policy above ordinary when they would have us believe That whatever is not of the Roman Communion is of the Opinion of Charenton the Lutherans of Germany notwithstanding sympathize with them less than with us Thus the King hath nothing to be afraid of from the pretended Allies of the Huguenots Yet these men as I have already said are to be feared and they would be seen stoutly to bestir themselves if some extraordinary Commotion should happen in France as a Civil War or some great Invasion by Foreign Enemies in such a Juncture they would do as they did in the War of Paris they took up Arms and respectively protested they were for the Kings Service but if the Peace had not been soon made they would not have forborn to think themselves necessary and to make all the Propositions that they could imagine advantageous to their party They would have re-demanded their places of Security they would have press'd for a restoring of their Temples for an augmentation of their pretended Priviledges and for a free exercise of their Religion and according to their good old custom have uttered Complaints and Menaces But if by ill chance a Victorious Army of Strangers whether Catholicks or Religionaries should enter the Kingdom the King must resolve to see the Hereticks declare against him or else content them in all their pretensions which would prove an engaging of his State in like Calamities as our Fathers in their time saw It ought to be ordained that they shall exactly follow their ancient Confession of Faith which was permitted them in France and that such as vary from it shall be no longer reckon'd in the number of those of the Protestant Reformed Religion who have Liberty of Conscience given them These Huguenots have no ground at all to plead the Edict of Nantes so loudly and bravingly as they do they extorted it by violence and with Sword in hand yet was it but an Interim an Order taken until they should inform themselves of the truth which they have had time enough to do But did they not violate it themselves by the War of Languedock that other of Sevennes and again by that of Rochelle nay they call'd the Enemies of
the colour of Religion and particularly to destroy the King Henry III. as appear'd afterwards During these long Troubles what refuge found the King of Navarre whom God reserv'd for the Crown of France but amongst these of the Reform'd Religion These were they that aided that defended and even nourisht him in his long and cruel Adversities And after in the end when the League had pull'd off the Mask and had driven the King from Paris and besieg'd him at Tours came not they to his Relief under their brave Chieftain and did they not deliver him from the utmost danger though he had sent his Armies against them to extirpate them I would gladly ask the Noble Marquess Where were then the honest French and where were the Rebels Would he find the honest French amongst the fiery Zealots and Bigots of the League Who have shed so much Blood to beat down this dangerous Sect as he is pleas'd to brand us With your good leave Noble Marquess which of the two is this dangerous Sect that which teaches that the Persons of Kings are inviolable and that exposes their Lives to defend those Kings that had persecuted them or that which holds That a King Excommunicated by the Pope may be justly kill'd by any body and which out of zeal for Religion plunge their Bloody Hands into the Bowels of their Soveraign as St. Jacob Clement did and as John Castrel and Peter Barâ—iere attempted and as Ravaillac perform'd Where is the Huguenot that ever offer'd any thing of this Nature during all the Persecutions of their Party Or where is the Minister that ever broacht such Doctrine to his Flock to kill their King which your Spiritual Fathers have so often done I would also ask the Marquess Where he finds that term of near fourscorce years spent in quelling this dengerous Sect which is the title he is pleased to give us Would he take in to these 80 years the 38 after the death of Francis II. till the Peace of Amiens in which time the Reformed Party were the constant and the only support of the Great Henry for near 30 years Will he venture to say That those Arms which defended the hope of after Ages and the fortune of France were unjust Let him also say if he please Whether by the zeal that has been to reduce the Hereticks to their duty he means that Butchery of the St. Bartholomews and the Massacres in every Town of France at that time and before which are reductions of a strange nature And because he may Object That their defence of the Princes of the Blood was only a pretence for the Huguenots taking up Arms and their unjust resistance against their Sovereign It will suffice to answer That their Arms were necessary for the Preservation of that Great Prince whom God reserv'd for the blessing of France and that when He came to the Crown they were judg'd worthy of a Reward I would beseech also all indifferent persons to consider them simply as men that are neither Angels nor Devils and to tell us if they think it strange that men the Relicks of Fires and Slaughters which were the only arguments employ'd for their Conversion for so many years take the course at length that Nature teaches them to defend themselves against force with force This to take it at the worst is all the Rebellion can be objected against them in all that past Age till the quiet settlement of Henry the Great But the good Providence of God has well clear'd them from the necessity of that excuse having set them out an Employment so just and so fortunate for their Arms that all who love and who shall for future Ages love the Prosperity of France and the Greatness of the Royal Family will have perpetual reason to bless the timely succour of this Party and to praise God who rais'd them for the everlasting good of the Kingdom Let us come to their condition after that Henry the Great was establish'd on His Throne The King being turn'd Roman Catholick and seeing his Party of the Reformed Religion discontent and in trouble as expos'd afresh to what they had afore tried gave them Places of Security for about twenty years This was the Ground-work of all their Miseries and I am much inclin'd to believe that this was procur'd for them by those who projected their ruine For their Enemies might well think that a King that understands his Interest would not long sufler in the heart of his Kingdom places assign'd for Protection against Himself in effect and to make resistance in case he kept not all his promises That these Places would be retreats for all discontented Persons and Incendiaries that would trouble the State That Strangers seeing in France a Party strengthen'd with Garisons and holding themselves in perpetual defiance would never leave bidding them to cock up and fomenting their discontents That this thorn in the foot of France would always hinder it from advancing and after all that this would be a kind of dangerous Discipline in a State to accustom Subjects to represent their Grievances with Sword in Hand On the other hand they might well fore-see that the Reform'd being seiz'd of these places would not quit them at the end of the term assign'd imagining that the enjoyment of their Religion of their Goods and of their Lives depended all on their keeping of these Places and that by their refusal they would oblige the King to win them by force which would make them Criminals odious and objects of the Justice and Vegeance of an incens'd Master And even so it happen'd For their term for holding these places being expir'd the King demands them again and having at their instant request prolong'd their term for three or four years at length wisely resolv'd to force them this gave occasion for the Assembly of Rochel where most imprudently and contrary to their duty to God and the King they resolv'd to hold the Places by force a resolution of despair ill-grounded For though the King shew'd himself favourable to his Subjects of the Religion after he had taken these Places by his Arms he would have been yet more favourable to them had they render'd the Places humbly and peaceably at his demand When the Assembly of Rochel began was held the National Synod of Alaix in which the famous Du Moulin was President In that Country where many of these Places of Security were he apply'd himself seriously to consider the posture of the Affairs of his Party to sound their Inclinations and to give them good counsel And he found that the greatest and the best part was dispos'd to render their Places to the King and did not at all approve of the proceedings of the Assembly of Rochel of which matter he thought himself oblig'd to inform that Assembly and having return'd home he writ them an excellent Letter a Copy whereof I have procur'd which is as follows SIRS I Write not to you to pour my
and that it is to sail against Wind and Tide But you are wise enough to see and consider the posture of our Neighbours and from whence you may hope for succor and whether amongst you the Virtue and the good Agreement and the Quality of your Chiefs is augmented or diminish'd Certainly this is not the time when the troubling of that Pool will bring us a Cure And it is plain that if any thing can help us amidst so much weakness it must be the zeal of Religon the which in our Fathers time did support us when we had less Strength and more Virtue But in this cause you will find that Zeal very cool because the most part of our People believes that this Evil might have been prevented without making a breach in the Conscience Assure your selves there will always be Divisions amongst us when we shall stir upon civil accounts and not directly for the Cause of the Gospel Against all this 't is Objected That our Enemies have resolv'd our ruin That they undermine us by little and little and that we had better begin presently than attend longer 'T is very true he must want common Sense that doubts of their ill-will Mean time when I reflect on our several Losses as that of Letoure of Privas and of Bearn I find that our selves have contributed thereto and we are not at all to wonder if our Enemies are not much in pain to set us right and if they joyn with us to undo us But herein it does not follow that we should throw the Helve after the Hatchet and set fire to our own House because others are resolv'd to burn it or undertake to remedy particular Evils by means weak for that end but strong and effectual for the general ruin God who so often has diverted the Counsels taken for our destruction has not lost his Power neither has he chang'd his Will We shall find that He is always the same if we have the Grace to wait His assistance and do not cast our selves headlong through our impatience and dash upon impossibilities Take this for certain that though our Enemies seek our ruin they will never attempt it openly and will lay hold on some other pretence more plausible than that of Religion which we never ought to give them If we contain our selves in the Obedience that Subjects owe to their Soveraign we shall see that whilst our Enemies hope in vain that we shall make our selves Criminals by some Disobedience God will cut them out some other work and furnish us with occasious to testifie to his Majesty that we are a Body profitable to his State and thereby put him in mind of the signal Services our Churches have paid to the late King of Glorious Memory But if we are so unfortunate that whilst we keep to our Duty the Calamnies of our Enemies prevail at the least we shall have this satisfaction that we have been just on our side and that we have testified that we love the peace of the State Notwithstanding all this Sirs you can and you ought to give order for the security of your Persons For His Majesty and His Council having said often That if you will separate He will leave to our Churches the enjoyment of Peace and of the benefit of his Edicts it is not reasonable that your separation should be made with danger to your Persons And when you shall require that you may separate with safety I make no doubt but you will easily obtain your desires provided that you insist upon what is possible and such things as the misery of the Times and the present necessity may admit It remains that whilst you are together you advise what ought to be done in case you may be opprest notwithstanding your separation It concerns your Prudence to give order and is not my part to suggest If in proposing these things to you I have slipt beyond the bounds of discretion impute it if you please to my zeal for the good and the preservation of the Church And if this my advice be rejected as unworthy your consideration I shall have this comfort that I have discharg'd my Conscience and retiring into a strange Country I shall there finish the few days that remain for me to live lamenting the ruin of the Church and the destruction of the Temple for the building of which I have labour'd with more Courage and Fidelity than with Success The Lord turn his Wrath from us guide your Assembly and preserve your Persons I am c. When this Letter was read in the Assembly which did not at all approve it some arose immediately went from the Assembly and never return'd more And all found in the end that the Advertisements of this Holy Person were Prophesies It appears then that notwithstanding the great Temptations of Fear and Despair that mov'd this Assembly to resist the King their resistance was disavow'd by the best and the greatest Party of the Reform'd Churches of France and that they were exhorted to obey the King by their Divines who in matters of Conscience are the representative Body of the Church when they are Solemnly Assembl'd Now this was the Sense of the National Synod of which this eminent Person came from being the President 'T is then wrongfully that the Noble Marquess taxes all our Party with Rebellion when as our Theologians declar'd themselves so strongly against it the most of those that held these Places of Security open'd their Gates to the King and more than three Fourths of his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion kept in their Obedience I cannot omit that in the greatest heat of those who resisted there yet remained many glances of Loyaly and Love for their King I shall observe two At the Siege of Montaubon the most obstinately defended of all the other Sieges the King and his Court passed before the Walls from whence they were shooting most furiously but when the Besieged beheld his Majesty they left off shooting and cry'd out with a great force Long live the King The instance of Rochel is more remarkable and it is very memorable The Rochellers besieg'd implored the assistance of England which was offer'd them but the Duke of Buckingham came late so that the Rochellers after they had eaten the Horses were now eating their Saddles In this great extremity the Duke told their Deputies that if they would deliver the Town to the King of England they should be assisted effectually The Deputies refus'd and the Rochellers resolv'd to undergo all the rigours that their King provok'd would exercise upon them rather than deliver the Town to a stranger This just King had notice thereof and treated them the more mildly at the Surrender overcoming like a Christian evil with good The Noble Marquess does the quite contrary for he studies to overcome good with evil displaying our Faults with all the aggravation and concealing our Services He says That the spirit of the Huguenots is always ready for
I suggested in the precedent Chapter is to be remembred namely That Conquests do afford a State one expedient to get Money In this the Roman Captains are to be imitated who made it a point of Glory to lay up extraordinary sums in the Publick Treasury and their Triumphs were as illustrious by the wealth they brought home with them as by the Enemies they had defeated in their Expeditions It would be very material therefore that Generals should account it a Glory to them to bring the Spoils of their Enemies unto the profit of the King and Kingdom or at least make the Conquered Countrys maintain and pay their Armies But the difficulty is not to make Conquests the Arms of the French will be Victorious wherever they appear All the trouble is to find out the secret how to keep what hath been gotten It is fit to say something on this particular The means to preserve Conquer'd Countrys which the Ancients used and that with good success are in a manner these Transportations and shiftings of the People As when the Chaldeans led away the Jews to Babylon The taking away of their Money of their richest Goods their Antiquities their Holy Things and things of Religion as was done with the ancient Idol-gods and as the Ark of the Covenant the Tables of Moses and the Israelites holy Writings were dealt withall The same for substance might be done among us by shifting of Saints Reliques and Consecrated Images The leading away of the ablest Men and such as have greatest credit with the People So did the Romans when they carried some of the Greeks out of their Country to Rome and treated them there with all possible kindness and civility In like manner as to Artificers the Turks drew at one time 30000 Work-men out of Persia The Romans out of their Enemies whom they had vanquish'd and taken in War reserved those whom they thought stoutest and made them fight on the Theatre the People being Spectators destroying them by that means Christianity suffers not such inhumanity Slavery was alway practis'd in the case of Prisoners of War and the ransom we make them pay is an Image of that old Custom Some People to this day stay their Prisoners or send them away to punishment after the fashion of the Ancients To proceed other means in reference to conquer'd Countrys are the mixing of the old and new Subjects by Marriage the Conquerors accommodating themselves to the manners of the Conquered taking up their modes eating with them as Alexander demeaned himself towards the Persians Then again the ruining the Fortifications of their Towns the taking Hostages of them the taking away their Arms and keeping them weak the abstaining from their Wives the giving them no jealousie in matter of Love To have little converse with them especially in their Houses and when any is to see it be with seriousness and decency to honour them to do them a pleasure on occasion not play with them not pick any quarrel with them not touch their Liberty nor the Goods that have been left them not disquiet them for matters of Religion To do them Justice maintain them in their Laws and Customs and in their manner of Government as the Romans did who permitted the People whom they had subdued to have their accustomed Laws To be diffedent of them and shew a confiderde in them To appear not desirous of their secrets not interrupt them in their pleasures make them pay the Tribute agreed upon with them exactly not at all augmenting it To keep word with them in all things seldom meddle in their affairs except it be to accord them to lend them no Money but owe them some and punctually pay the Interests of it not let them know the true State of affairs not give them entrance into strong holds which must always be well furnish'd with Men and Provisions That the Governor never come among them without being strongest or having Hostages To prevent their assembling and hinder as much as may be their having Commerce with Neighbours that are under another Prince's Dominion to keep off all kind Strangers from Houses and severely punish such of 'em as shall cause the least trouble or any motion that may tend to Sedition If our Conquerors had practis'd in this manner Italy and Sicily would have been French to this day CHAP. XII Of the Sea and its usefulness 2. Means to augment the Kings Power there 3. Of Commerce 4. Of Colonies THE Water of the Sea are wholly obnoxious to the humorousness of Fortune and the Wind that governs them turneth and changeth with as much inconstancy as that blind Goddess Yet it is certain that those States whose renown is greatest in Story did not establish their supreme Dominion but upon the power they attained to at Sea as if Virtue stout and undaunted had resolv'd to Combat and Conquer her Enemy in the very seat of her Empire The Romans are one instance whose example is ever to be follow'd with as peculiar a diligence as their conduct of matters was with singular wisdom and hard to be imitated They imposed not upon the World their Laws till they had forced the Seas to receive and acknowledge them Had they not set out War-like Fleets they had never accomplished their glorious Designs they had never extended their Frontier beyond Italy never brought down the Pride of Carthage nor Triumphed over all the Crowns on Earth The Aegyptians the Persians and the Grecians considered the Sea as the principal support of their Domination Xerxes having caus'd the Hâ—liâ—spout to be to punish'd as he termed it with Stripes accounted his Vanity satisfy'd in the sight of all Asia which he drew after him into Greece with so much Magnificence and Pomp that it seemed as if Jupiter Himself was come down from Heaven The Venetians still renew every year their Alliance with this Element by an old fond superstitious Custom casting into the Sea a Ring as if they espoused it perhaps by this use they would inform all the particular Subjects of their Common wealth that they should be content with the inconstancy and infidelity of their Women since the State of espousing the Sea espouseth inconstancy and infidelity it self The Riches of Tunis of Algier of Holland and England plainly prove the necessity there is for Princes to be Strong at Sea and do shew the Profit which does thence accrue These are petty States yet dare measure their Forces with those of the Greatest Monarchs The former of them are Turkish Slaves the others revolted Burghers and how insolent soever the English are they must confess that all the Brittish Isles laid together do not equal the half of our Continent either in Extent or in Fruitfulness of Ground or for Commodiousness of Scituation or in number of Men in Wealth in Valour Industry and Understanding yet they fear not to affirm themselves Sovereigns of the Sea Had they cast up the Wracks they have suffered and the Battles
that insult over us for Actions forc'd by the despair of a few and protested against by the greater Party and that will not acknowledge the signal Services we have done for the Crown which ought never to have been forgotten so long as the Race of Henry the Great shall Sit upon the Throne I think my self oblig'd to represent truly what is most considerable in their condition and in their actions since the last return of the Purity of the Gospel into France I say the last return because that it has been and has flourisht there two or three hundred years before and the Professors remain'd there skulking and yet in great numbers after long and cruel Persecutions For we dissemble not but own that this Holy Doctrine came to us and was planted by the remains of those poor Valdenses and Albigenses the destruction of whom is rank'd by the noble Marquess amongst the good Works of the first Rates The Character that Reinerius their cruel Inquisitor gave them is very remarkable and may satisfie those who ask where was our Religion before Luther c. 4. Contra Valdenses This says he of all Sects is the most pernicious for three Reasons First because of its long duration for some say that it has continu'd since the time of Pope Sylvester others hold that it began even in the Apostles time Secondly because of all Sects this is the most general there scarce being any Country where this Sect has not taken root In the Third place by reason that all contrary to other Sects that become abominable by the enormity of their Blasphemies against God these People seem very Godly for they live justly before Men have a sound belief in all things and of God and of all the Articles contain'd in the Apostles Creed only this They Blaspheme against Rome An admirable Testimony from the Pen of a Mortal Enemy that deserves to be Writ in Letters of Gold Let us joyn hereunto that of good King Lewis XII the Father of the People He was much importun'd by those of the Clergy who pray'd him to root out the Inhabitants of the Cabrieres and of Merindol in Provence that were of this Profession and some remainders of the Albigenses But this just King afore he would grant that bloody Request would see their Confession of Faith which having read He swore they were better Christians than he and his People and preserv'd them from the rage of their Enemies But these Enemies obtain'd what they desir'd of King Francis the First and made an horrible slaughter of those poor Christians If these Albigenses be Hereticks because they Blaspheme against Rome Is not the Marquess one and all the Men of Politicks in France who declaim so openly and so generously against the Pope's Usurpations that makes of Religion a pretence thereby to invade the Rights of the King and make himself Universal Monarch of all the World These Gentlemen would abate much of the hatred they bear us would they be pleas'd to consider that the Pope and Roman Clergy hate us for a Cause that is common to us both For it is not upon the account of any Controversies about the Holy Sacrament the Invocation of Saints and the Prayers for the Dead but it is because we oppose boldly the Usurpations of Rome it is because we Blaspheme against Rome as the Albigenses in Reinerius's days That we are call'd as he calls us A pernicious Sect. This is the great Heresie for which we have been made Objects of the Publick hatred and for which the Devotion of the People is made to consist in a bloody Zeal to burn us and Massacre us In the Year 1520. the Light of the Gospel shin'd throughout all the parts of France And the Queen of Navarre Sister of King Francis I. who was enlighten'd therewith was a great Rampire against the fury of the Roman Clergy that labour'd to extinguish this Holy Light by Persecution However she could not hinder but that much cruelty was exercised But after her decease the Persecution grew hot again and continued during the Reign of Francis I. and Henry II. For the space of Forty years those that were converted maintain'd their Holy Profession by a constancy in their Sufferings in imitation of the Christians of the Primitive Church Notwithstanding this Vigor many of the Princes and of the best Families of France as the Princes of the Blood of the House of Bourbon embrac'd the Reform'd Religion Under the Reign of Francis II. the Princes of the Blood debarr'd of their Rights by those of the House of Guise the Queens Uncles form'd the design at Ambois to banish those from the King's Person that held them at distance This attempt failing was call'd a Crime of High Treason and charg'd on them of the Reform'd Religion though Renaudy the chief of the Plot was a Roman Catholick and this Party was compos'd of Noblemen and Gentry of both the Perswasions Whoso understands the Priviledges of the Princes of the Blood in France will never accuse these Undertakers of the Rebellion Thuanus testifies in their Favour Hist l. 24. That not one of them was prov'd to have attempted against the King or against the Queen but only against Strangers that Govern'd all at Court in a Tyrannical way For then the House of Guise was still lookt upon as a Stranger in France Francis II. being dead his Successor Charles IX being a Minor the Princes of the Blood had more Right than afore to be admitted to the management of Publick Affairs at least joyntly with the Queen-Mother But when they saw themselves excluded and their Persons in danger they Levy'd Forces for their Preservation When the King came of Age the Princes seeing Him much incens'd against them and that He was of a dangerous and implacable Nature they retir'd and stood upon their Guard The several Affronts they receiv'd and the frequent Massacres occasion'd two or three little Wars To rid himself of them all at one blow the King set his Sister for a bait to draw in and to destroy the whole Party of the Princes giving her in Marriage to the Prince of Navarre who was afterwards our Henry the Great He and his Cousin Germain the Prince of Conde were imprison'd and the Principals of their Party slain in their Beds having Danc'd at a Ball the Evening before Never were Dancers at such a Wedding Pope Gregory XII had a hand in this execrable Action his Predecessor Pius V. refused to consent to this Marriage because said he the Prince of Navarre is an Heretick But when the Cardinal of Lorrain told his Successor Gregory XII that this Marriage was a trap to catch the Hereticks he then dispatcht the Dispensation and encourag'd the Design The Prince of Navarre having sav'd himself at Rochel was immediately assisted by a great Party that had escap'd the Massacre and the War broke out afresh Thereupon was form'd that Faction of the League to destroy the Princes of the Blood under