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
more considerable We shall likewise save the Treasure that is spent unprofitably in the Embassies to Rome and in courting the good Graces of the Cardinals at the Elections of Popes and in the Reception of Legates and Nuncio's by all which France does nought else but prosess and encrease her Slavery without the return of the least advantage For what-ever Compliments what-ever Expence France may make yet the Catholick King is the Minion of Rome and the Subjects of Spain are the Chapmen that but most of their Wares and that have most blind Devotion for the Holy See And in truth seeing that the Politicks of France by the Marquess and Monfieur Silhon and before them Cardinal D'Ossat have testified their little satisfaction with Rome and publish'd her Cheats in so far that as we know that Rome does not at all love us in like manner Rome well knows that we care not for Her and I cannot understand to what end serve all our Civilities to the Court of Rome but to puff them up the more and provoke the Gentlemen to laughter who without doubt receive a wonderful pleasure in seeing their professed Enemies come to kiss their feet 'T is true that so long as France suffers Rome to dispose of many Benefices we must always have occasion to deal with them and as the Pope to Preserve his Credit amuses the Princes with com-promises and treaties which he draws out at length deporting himself as the Judge of Differences whereas he creates more than he decides So very often Princes contribute to his Inclination by their delays and in setting before his Council-board Affairs that they have no intention should be concluded And whatever their Inclination be at the bottom he is courted and caress'd as the Arbiter which pleases him extremely And why should it not please him to have at his Court the Ambassadors of the Empire of France of Spain of Poland of Portugal and other Princes that bring him Authority by their difference and bring gain to his Court and his Citizens by their Liberalities and by their Expences suitable to the Dignity of their Masters The great Men and the Sages of Council to His Majesty may when they please consider what good comes to our Kings by their keeping the Pope in this humour of his being their Judge and in letting him enjoy his pretended Rights in France And whether it is not better and a shorter way for France to do its own business without him and to take from him what does not at all belong to him in our Kingdom that we may have no more to do with him The King has been pleas'd to declare That he desir'd to re-unite his Subjects in their Religion This so Christian and Royal Design cannot be executed so long as the Pope shall have any Power in France for this Re-union cannot be made unless the Parties mutually yield some matters either in the Doctrine or in the Discipline 't is certain that the Pope will never consent at least not to be own'd the Vicar of Jesus Christ that has all the Power which Jesus Christ had upon Earth and that on the other hand the Protestants who have quite another Opinion of him and such an one as all know though they make it not an Article of their Faith they can never submit to his Authority But if that France were not govern'd in Spirituals save by the King and his Bishops an half of the way to this great Work were already over it being most certain that most of the Points in difference are not maintain'd by the Theologians vow'd to the Popes Service farther than as they serve his Interests REFLECTIONS UPON THE Fifth Chapter OF THE Politicks of France Which Treats of the HUGUENOTS I Have Treated my Lord the Marquess of C. with all the Respect that was possible for me in my Reflections upon his Chapter of the Clergy I could not do more to comply with him and serve him than by approving his Judgment and confirming it with Authorities adding only what he durst not venture and may be had a mind to say Upon his Chapter of the Huguenots I shall keep my self within the same Respect But I would hope from his Ingenuity that after I have taken some pains in commending and defending the judgment he has made on the Roman Clergy he in recompence would give me the liberty to oppose that which he has given upon those he calls Huguenots and to complain of the Treatment he would have dealt to them But because I take great delight in according with him as far as is possible I embrace the advice he gives at the entrance That a King cannot have a more noble Object of his care than to preserve in his States the Religion he has receiv'd from his Ancestors For though this Proposition be not universally true I will understand it in his Senle supposing that he means the True Christian Religion And 't is that His Majesty he receiv'd of His Ancestors the which I presume he will not limit to two or three Descents of his next Predecessors but as he has drawn from three Stocks the lawful Succession of our last Kings and affirms That they are Branches sprung from the same root he cannot take it ill that we go back to the First and Second Race to find the Religion that His Majesty has receiv'd of his Ancestors Therefore as the Noble Marquess in his Second Chapter speaking of the pretended Exemptions of the Clergy appeals for that matter to the old Kings and Emperors who own'd no such thing and says That the Clergy cannot take it amiss if His Majesty reduce things to their Primitive state In like manner the Marquess cannot take it amiss that Religion be reduc'd to its Primitive state at least to the state it was left in at the time when our Kings were Emperors Now I have shew'd in the foregoing Chapter that the Emperor Charlemaign one of His Majesties Ancestors Convok'd a Synod in which the Worship of Images was condemned and that he himself made a Book against the Second Council of Nice and against Images which we have preserv'd to this day and that under Lewis the Mild his Son another Synod was held at Paris against Images all the Acts of which we have entire This Doctrine is a principal Point of the Religion that our Kings receiv'd from their Ancestors and which we profess And as much may be said in point of the Holy Sacrament of which so much noise is made at this day that we willingly refer our selves to what was believ'd in the times of His Majesties Ancestors I should stray from my Subject should I enter upon Controversie the Marquess obliges me to stand upon another Guard employing his Eloquence in treating us as Rebels and Enemies of the State I am far from justifying the evil Actions of our Party But since we are to deal with Men of such a spirit that display the Evil and suppress the Good
revolts for Confusion and Anarchy That there will be more than an hundred thousand men of the Kings Enemies in the bowels of his Kingdom so long as there shall be Huguenots in France and that perhaps they wait only an occasion to rise up in Arms. He pretends even to know their hearts saying That they have in their hearts the same hatred they had which are words flung out with more animosity than reason For 't is but ill Logick that they are all Rebels because about a six part of their number took up Arms in their defence to keep some Places of safety and that because they have sin'd they never have repented If all they who have been engag'd in the Troubles of the State within these last forty years are to be thought the Kings Enemies for ever His Majesty would find few Persons in his Kingdom whom he might trust and now forty years are past since the War for those Places of safety was ended When the Body is in a Fever the good humors are stir'd as well as the bad and all settle again when the Disease is over The same is in the Body of a State it is subject to hot fits that enflame both good and bad but all grow cool and quiet in time by the wisdom of the Sovereign and by the repentance of those that are honest good men To upbraid them as Rebells and Enemies that took up Arms against their duty and laid them down again forty years ago this is to violate the Laws of Amnesty without which no State could subsist Kings being the Lieutenants of God ought to deal with their Subjects as God does with his He forgives and forgets offences and makes them faithful that were disobedient through his Benefits The Protestants of Languedoc stay'd not for the Kings Benefits till they testifi'd their Fidelity and their Oblivion of what they had suffer'd in the reduction of the Places that they had held than when their wounds were yet bleeding This was when the Duke of Montmorency in Longuedoc where he was Governor made a Party against the King hoping to find the Protestants who are in great numbers in that Province ready for an Insurrection from the resentment of their late Sufferings But he found the quite contrary for they all joyn'd as one man with the Kings Forces and did him excellent Service in a battel where the Duke was defeated and taken and a Bishop with him The old Marshall De la Force who had scap'd the Massacre of St. Barth olomew by hiding himself under the Carkasses of his Brothers whose Throats were cut was one of the Principal Commanders in this Action That Marquess confesses That in the Wars at Paris they put themselves in Arms and with great respect protested that they were at the Kings Service and their Actions would have justify'd their Protestations if His Majesty had had occasion for their Service I will not loose time and pains in making Reflections upon the fourteen ways he proposes to torment us and make us weary of our Religion of our Country and our Lives Ways enough are found out without his proposing And now because the King of late years has had much to do with the Court of Rome it has been a part of the Policy of France whilst they affront the Pope at the same time to treat us with some extraordinary Severity to prevent the suspicion of Heresie We humble our selves under the powerfull hand of God and under that of our Sovereign confessing that we are justly chastis'd for our sins For the rest we know in whom we have trusted and shelter our selves under the Hand that strikes us assuring our selves that it will protect us and that we shall find Jesus Christ our Redeemer and his Spirit our Comforter both in this Life and in that which is to come As the Marquess is very exact in giving Instructions to ruine us he does the same towards the end of his Book for England counting it a Nation that is good for nothing but to be ruin'd We cannot take the advantage of these Instructions given against us to defend our selves against them for we are a Body meerly passive expos'd and submitted to all that God and the King will do with us But for the English when he has disoblig'd them by the most odious Character that his Malice could furnish his Eloquence withall He obliges them in publishing all those ways that must be taken to destroy them for it is likely that being told of them they will look to themselves Mean time his Readers will say of him that they who tell aforehand of their cunning are not very cunning Because that the noble Marquess terms us Rebels and Enemies of the State after the humble confession of our Faults which I have neither cloak'd nor dissembl'd I will take the boldness to compare them with those of some of the Gentlemen of the Roman Clergy especially of the Jesuits and their Disciples and that they that are not pre-possest with passion may judge whether to them rather or to us belongs the title Of Enemies of the State Let us consider the Actions and the Doctrine of the one and the other For the Actions the horrible attempts against the Sacred Persons of our Kings by Ecclesiasticks and Scholars of the Jesuits and all the Enormities of the League to destroy our Kings our Laws and our Monarchy and to transfer it to a stranger carry away without dispute the prize of Villany from those who being possest with a fear ill-grounded have with Arms defended the Places that were lent to them by Edict for the security of their Religion of their Goods and of their Lives Add hereto that they had their hearts big with the sense of their incomparable Service to the Crown and believ'd they well deserv'd what these endeavour'd to keep And as for the Doctrine these never read Lectures of Rebellion and Parricide And the resistance some of the Party made against the King was condemn'd by their Divines whose writings are full of Lessons of Obedience and of Fidelity to their Sovereigns Whereas those of the Jesuits and their Disciples teach the people to cast off and kill their King so often as it may please the Pope to Excommucate him France has felt the Effects of this Doctrine during the long Wars of the League and it was the Books and the Sermons that made the Sword be drawn and that sharpen'd the Daggers for the Murder of our Kings whilst the Protestants expos'd their Lives for their Preservation Now I am content to let pass what is past provided the same may be done to us Let us fix upon the present Whom ought you to esteem the Enemies of the State those who subject the Crown of our Kings absolutely to the Papal Mitre and who acknowledge another Sovereign than the King or they who own him their only Sovereign and maintain that his Crown depends not save on God alone What in Conscience is
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
no longer now any ambitious Prince within the Kingdom to rob him of his Peoples Affection or that may dare to make any Alliance with the Pope to tumble him from his Throne and share the Crown We have this good fortune that we may set out to the life the ill aspect of Rome upon our Kings and that dangerous vigilance over France without any danger of abating the Courage of our Great King but on the contrary were his truly Royal Courage capable of an increase it would yet swell the higher from the consideration of the Evils that Rome has done and will yet do to France if he do not heartily oppose the Usurpations she exercises with impunity in all the parts of his Kingdom The honest French men that have the Honour to be near his Person might represent to Him the danger of this Doctrine maintain'd by the Popelings of His Kingdom That Jesus Christ committed to St. Peter as well the earthly as the heavenly Empire which are the very words of Pope Nicolas Therefore Cardinal Bellarmine Ch. 27. against Barclay holds absolutely That the Pope may dispose of all the Temporals of the World I affirm says he with confidence That our Lord Jesus Christ the time he was Mortal might dispose of all Temporal things and deprive the Kings and the Princes of their Kingdoms and Dominions and that without doubt he has left the same Power to his Vicar to be employ'd when he shall judge it necessary for the good of Souls The Pope Pius V. displays this Power with great Ostentation in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth of England wherein after that he calls Himself Servant of Servants he declares That God has establisht the Bishop of Rome Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to take destroy disperse consume plant and build and in the Power hereof he does Anathemize degrade and depose this Queen absolves all her Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made her and forbids them absolutely to give her Obedience Gregory XIV set out such another Bull against our Great Henry declaring him uncapable of the Crown and exposing His Kingdom to prey But both this and the other Bull were torn and cast into the fire by the hands of the Hangman Observe that the Pope exerciseth this Power over the Temporalties of Kings for the good of Souls and as a Spiritual Prince So that our French Statesmen may cease to have their Eyes wilfully seal'd up by that distinction of Spiritual power which they allow him and Temporal power that they deny him For that it is by virtue of the Spiritual Power that he exerciseth the Temporal See what Cardinal Bellarmin says De pont Rom. l. 5. c. 5. The Pope may change the Kingdoms take them from one and give them to another as a Sovereign Spiritual Prince when it shall be necessary for the good of Souls And of this necessity he shall be the only Judge as the Sovereign Spiritual Prince For 't is thus the Cardinal argues Apol. pro Garnet p. 84. If the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of Temporal things she would not be perfect and would want the Power that is necessary for the attaining her end for says he the wicked might entertain Hereticks and go scot-free and so Religion be turn'd upside down This reason charges imperfection on the Church in the Apostles time for that had no power over the Temporals These horrible Principles so strongly maintain'd by the Court of Rome were of fresh memory found so prejudicial both to the safety of our Kings and to the Peace of France that those of the third State an 1615. were mov'd to propose to the General States an Article containing the means to dispossess the people of that Opinion that the King might be depos'd by the Pope and that by the killing of Kings one might gain the Crown of Martyrdom Cardinal Du Perron in the name of the Clergy oppos'd this Article and employ'd all the strength of his Eloquence and Learning in two fair Speeches the one before the Nobility the other before the third State to perswade them that our Kings may be depos'd by the Pope offering himself to suffer Martyrdom in defence of this Truth The Lords of the Nobility to their great shame joyn'd with the Clergy for the putting their Kings Crown under the Miter of the Pope much degenerating from the vertue of their Ancestors those French Banons by whose advice Philip the August declar'd to the Cardinal D'Anagnia the Popes Legat that threatned him that it did not at all belong to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France But the third State held firm to their Article that maintain'd the Dignity of their King and the safety of his Person and could never be won by promises nor affrighted by threatnings to depart from it shewing themselves in this more noble than the Nobility It is no wonder in this case that the third State shew'd more affection to their King than the Clergy seeing that the Clerks hold That they are not the King's Subjects for in effect they acknowledge another Sovereign out of the Kingdom And who can think it strange if they labour to heighten that Monarchy of which they make a Party But that the Nobility the Kings right arm that they should be so base to strike their Head and lay it at the feet of an Italian Bishop this is that which after Ages will reflect upon with astonishment and indignation and which Historians shall blush to relate and be vex'd that they cannot let pass in silence So the Nobility being joyn'd with the Clergy the Article of the third State was censur'd and rejected Whereupon the Pope writ Triumphant Letters to the Clergy and the Nobility who had been faithful to Him in this Cause glorying in His Victory and exalting the Magnanimity of these generoâ—s Nobles But in truth the Deputies of these generous Nobles deserv'd to have been degraded from their Nobility and they of the third State to have receiv'd their Titles The minority of the late King and the easiness of the Queen-Mother render'd them expos'd to these Injuries and apt to be circumvented insomuch that this Harangue made to the third State was printed with the Priviledge of the King and the Pope gain'd his point The false dealing of the Cardinal who made this Speech is remarkable namely that he had a long time followed King Henry the Great even then when he was of a contrary Religion and depos'd by the Pope and that a little before in an assembly held at the Jacobins in Paris he had resisted the Popes Nuncio who would that this Doctrine of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope might be held for an Article of Faith But in these two Harangues the Cardinal made a kind of a Recantation and pronounc'd himself his own condemnation Ungrateful wretch to have thus abus'd the tender Age of the Son of his King
the Second the Kings of France were the Soveraigns as well in Spirituals as in Temporals And though they had lost their Soveraignty about the end of the Second Line and under the Third by their negligence and by the cunning of the Popes watchful for their advantage nevertheless an infinite of Persons in those times both of the Clergy and of the Law took notice of and Taxed the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Rights of our Kings Amongst others Aegydius Romanus Archbishop of Bourges in the time of Philip the Fair this Archbishop for the Reasons Registred in the Court of Parliament remonstrates That the Gallicane-Church has that Right and that Liberty to provide for its occasions by Synods of the Bishops of the Country without that the Pope ought to meddle unless by way of exhortation Cardinal D'Offat Letter 90 to the King shews That the Pope ought not to meddle at all with the Election of tâ—â— French Bishops and this he proves by the Ordinance of Orleans An. 1560 and saith That since the Popes have reserv'd to themselves the provision of Bishopricks they have been very ill serv'd The excellent Archbishop of Paris Peter de Marca in his agreement of Empire and the Priesthood has wisely and boldly Remonstrated That since the Pope would hold the same Degree in France that the Soveraign Sacrificer held in the Synagogue he ought not to pretend to more Authority in our France than the Soveraign Sacrificer had in the Kingdom of Israel where he was the Kings Subject his Person his Jurisdiction the Affairs of the Church the Order of Ceremonies were within the Kings Jurisdiction who depos'd the Sacrificer and set another in his place out of his pure and full Authority God be prais'd for that in these later times where the Throne of iniquity the Papal See is so much adored he has rais'd up such brave Assertors of our Christian Liberty which would bear up again and for which we want only to shake off the Yoak What is alledg'd the most specious for the necessity of a Pope to superintend the Christian Kingdom is that the Kings need an Arbiter of their Differences that may be generally respected and whose Dignity and Sanctity may oblige them to Submission and Veneration But if this general Arbiter instead of making Peace amongst Princes foment their Differences and embroil their Affairs to fish in troubl'd Waters they shall do wisely to let him alone and yet more wisely to rid themselves of him There 's no question but that when a general Peace is for the advantage of the Pope that then he will set himself seriously about it But it rarely happens otherwise then that the good of one party shall be disadvantageous to the Pope and then 't is ill trusting to his Arbitrement France has more reason to stand upon its guard than any other Nation for the Court of Rome has always sought its ruin has favour'd its Enemies or rais'd them up anew When the English made War against us Rome abetted their quarrel and aided them with Spiritual Weapons I cannot let pass the ridiculous assistance sent to Henry V. of England when he levied an Army to go into France this was a Ship loaden with Consecrated Apples which were distributed to all who would List themselves for this War and they listed themselves with a good Will having scrambl'd for the Apples with Greediness and Devotion and were well satisfied in Conscience of the Justice of this Expedition by these Apples Apostolical The Pope employ'd more powerful means against us when France was weak and the Spaniard powerful whom he assisted with all his Forces Spiritual and Temporal What a strong League did he make to destroy both King and Kingdom What Evils did he heap on France and after the injury done us how much praying did he require before he would be appeas'd Thomas Campanella speaks thus of this Judge of differences Who shall carefully read History shall find that the Popes have made more Wars amongst Christians than they have quieted Let France mark what he adds So far have the Popes been from opposing himself Hispanis Imperiorum helluonibus to the Spainiards unsatiable devourers of Empire that the Pontifical Authority has lent pretences to their Voracity Witness Navarre and France in the times of Henry III. For this last hundred years all the Popes except Vrban the VIII have favour'd the Spaniard And what reason can we have to expect better from them seeing that the greatest part of the Cardinals are born Subjects to Spain in the Principalities of Milan of Naples and of Sicily and that the Court of Rome is inclos'd within these Principalities Judge what confidence we can have in such Arbiters France loses plainly both Money and Pains ' sending Ambassadors to these Gentlemen courting them and enriching them when they are assembled for the Election of a Pope The fear they have of France's Power may gain some respect but it is a respect without Friendship and when France has gain'd it I do not see what France has gain'd They have reason to fear the King knowing that this Great Prince is sensible of their Usurpations and they have no great reason to love his Subjects because they are no great purchasers of Indulgences And the less the King cares for them the more will they fawn upon him but we may assure our selves they employ all their strength and set to work all their Art and Subtilty to put a stop to his Progress and to pull down his Greatness That agreement of the Pope with the Duke of Guise ought never to be forgotten What rancour did he testifie against the Royal Line that Reigns at this day what Pains did he take to disinherit and destroy it Into what combustion did he cast the poor Kingdom that he might have a King of his own Choice who might abolish the Liberties of the Gallican-Church and make France a Fief of the Court of Rome Let us for our experience learn the truth of that Character given by Aeneus Sylvius who was afterwards Pope Pius II. That there was never any great Slaughter in Christendom nor any great Calamity happen'd either of Church or State whereof the Bishops of Rome were not the Authors Hist Austria And as much is said by Machaivel in his History of Florence And if we consider that the great Evils done by the Pope to Kings were done under the colour of com-promise we shall find that 't is the surest way to decline his kindess and to have nought to do with him and that he always comes better off that affronts him than he that flatters him The Marquess after he has wisely consider'd that the name of Religion is a false pretext laid hold on by the Court of Rome thereby to encrease their Temporal Power and raise them Creatures every where the abuses he would have retrench'd after the example of Charlemaign and of many more great Kings But to compass this it is not
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
be wondred at if Men whom Fortune brings forth and breeds up in so excellent a Climate be capable of handsomly contriving and successfully executing the haughtiest Enterprizes In fine it s an unspeakable satisfaction to a Man that sets himself to Treat of the Politicks of France that he may know the French of all the People upon Earth are the most susceptible of Learning of Policy and of Government For if one consider the Situation of the Country he may be assured that the Constellations of Heaven are eminently favourable to it The Experience and Skill of the Ancients do inform us that the Situation of Regions is the prime cause of the temperature of the Men in 'em as it is of the quality of the Plants and Fruits which they produce The Laws of this State being so Judicious as they are do argue the Wisdom of those that enacted them and of the People that accepted them whereof the long duration of the Monarchy is a second proof On the other hand the great Acts of the French do speak their Valour They serve in our Age for examples to all Nations in matter of execution and not only so but are as eminent likewise for their Counsels And they have choice of the best Generals on Earth to lead Armies as well as of the best Soldiers That heat and impetuosity which is taken to be visible in all their attempts is an effect of their high Courage and the confidence they shew with somewhat less of restraint and respect than prudence could wish can be imputed to nothing but their fearlesness In fine the Emperor Charles the Fifth declared with very much judgment That the French seem'd to be Fools but were really wise Now since we know what France is let us examine what may most conduce to the well-governing of it to the conserving it in Plenty and in Reputation in what it may be augmented and how its interests with the neighboring States ought to be secured In a word let us see what way may be taken to maintain the parts that compose it in so regular an harmony that they may all incessantly contribute to the weal of the Monarchy CHAP. IV. 1. Of the Clergy 2. Vseful means to obstruct Frauds in Beneficiary cases 3. Of the Monastick Religious of each Seu. OUr Ancestors have ever been great observers of Religion Long before the coming of JESUS CHRIST the Druids were their Priests and had an entire direction not only of affairs relating to the service of their false Gods but of those too which concern'd distributive Justice even in the general Assemblies held by all the Gauls whether for confirmation of Peace or for reconciliation of disagreeing parties who might embroil the Republiques or whether the making of some common National enterprises was in question still there was no resolution formed but by their advice No wonder then if since the Truth of the Gospel appeared and made known the holiness of Christianity the Prelates have conserv'd so many Prerogatives and Considerations They have been called to the Royal Counsels they have assisted at the decision of the most important affairs they have every where hold the first rank much hath been attributed to their Judgments and the respect had for their Character and Dignity hath gotten them great and signal priviledges which have exempted them from contributing to the burthens of the State though at the same time wealth was heap'd upon them by Alms and Foundations But as Church-men after the mode of the Court of Rome use to convert whatever is freely granted them into a point of Religion in such manner that by little and little they engage the tender Consciences of the faithful in vain scruples and possesses them with a superstitious fear of offending they have not been wanting to assert and maintain that these exemptions and privileges were not liberally given them that Kings did but settle them in possession of an advantage which was by Divine Right inseperable from their Profession that they while Men of War fought for the Glory and Liberty of their Country sufficiently did their part in lifting up as as was anciently done their eyes and hands to GOD to impetrate His powerful Protection that their Arms were Prayers Oblations and Penitence which they never forbore to use for the publick safety that from the Caves and Deserts whither they retired they sent up Meterials to the highest Heavens which formed into Thunder there might fall back upon and beat down the enemies of the French name In fine That if Gentlemen gave their blood and the People their sweat and labours for the welfare of the Kingdom they Day and Night did pour out Tears at the feet of Altars to disarm the wrath of GOD. Upon such reasonings as these the Ecclesiasticks have founded their pretences for possessing those goods of which publick and private Piety had made them Proprietors without concerning themselves for what success the general affairs of the State might have But this is not all they have tried by divers reiterated attempts to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction and draw Civil causes unto their Tribunal nor have they forgotten any pretext which they thought might promote this dangerous enterprise sometimes they have pleaded That the Church alone having right to judge of the Validity of Marriages as being a Sacrament all that depended on 'em ought to be handled before Ecclesiastick Judges Sometimes again That Christians binding themselves in their Contracts by an Oath the cognisance appertain'd to them Such Kings as perceived that these attempts did tend to the overthrow of their Authority withstood them with a right Kingly vigour But what difficulties were there not of necessity to be overcome for a full attainment of their end and what resistance did not the Church-men make to maintain themselves in so unreasonable an Usurpation Our History affords us examples of it which I cannot call to mind without grief and wonder Their obstinacy hath gone so very far that they have forced our Kings to grant them Declarations upon unequitable and disadvantageous conditions and so capitulate with them both for the Tenths and Acknowledgments of the Lands which they possess as also for the Rights of Mortmain and Indemnity I cannot tell by what name I should call these proceedings Our Sirs of the Clergy could not doubt but that being born Subjects of the Crown nothing could release them of this duty and that the privileges which they have or rather which they have invaded being founded upon the holiness of their Character could not extend to these Temporal Goods which always are the States Yet the old error is so potent and their imagination so strongly prepossess'd for these Immunities that they can scarce acknowledge the Kings Sovereignty to this day What clamour did they not raise about the Arrest of the last Commission of Oyer in Auvergne with what fervour did they charge their Deputies to remonstrate to His Majesty concerning it
the State unto their Succour and took a course to bring Fire and Sword into all parts of the Kingdom Shortly in matter of Government that which is good at one time is frequently not so at another all things must be accommodated to the general rule of Policy which is that the good of States be incessantly procured When the Edict of Pacification was accorded there was provision made for the welfare of France if that welfare does now require that the Edict be revoked there is no remedy revoked it must be or neglected From all this which I have said it follows that the King hath most just cause to secure himself from the Professors of the Protestant Reformed Religion and put them into such a state as he may have nothing to apprehend from their particular Perhaps it will be said that 't is expedient there be Huguenots in France because they oblige the Church-men to study and to live with the greater circumspection and a more exact observance of the rules of their Profession But this consideration is not worth the considering The Church of GOD will never be supported by these humane means He is in the midst of it and governs it Himself by His Holy Spirit which animateth and filleth it At whatever time there shall be no more Huguenots in France there will be fewer bad and a greater number of good men which the King should particularly desire since States are always sustained by people that love Virtue c. It passeth therefore for certain that it is fit the King do disable the Religionaties as to their doing any harm and as to their giving cause of suspicion It remaineth to examine what way may most readily and most commodiously lead unto this end I would not advise that these People of the other Religion should be compell'd to depart out of France as the Moors were out of Spain which proved in the sequel so prejudicial to the whole Country 'T would be a piece of inhumanity to drive the Huguenots in that manner they are Christians though separated from the Body of the Church besides this course would deprive the State of not a few good Families and put the unhappy numbers of e'm out of all hope of Conversion and Salvation so that the King in this concern should do well as seems to me to imitate the Church the common parent of all Christians who in the Remedies She prepareth ever mingleth mildness and Mercy with Justice and Compassion with Correction The first means then which the King might employ should be to provide that the Huguenots might frequent the coversation of the Catholicks with more familiarity than they do For by this coversation they would in time be undeceiv'd of the Opinion with which they are pre-possess'd that we hate them they would put off the Aversion they have for us they would know our Deportment and be informed of our Doctrine in the points that offend them because they understand not the Mysteries of them which would induce them to confess as St. Augustin did on the like occasion That the Church does not teach things as they once thought it did Nothing is to my Understanding or can be more effectual for the Conversion of the Hereticks than this frequent Conversation it is not possible but that at length the spirit of Men should yield unto impression the plumage of the Eagle 't is said consumes that of other Birds Light dissipates Darkness Truth triumphs over Falshood The second means should be to confer a recompence of Honour upon Converts and to make a Stock for this purpose which might never fail I should think it would be none of the best course to exclude the Huguenots from all Employments they must enter into lesser Offices though not at all into the greater The reason is because if they be put off from all kind of publick business they will accustom themselves to tarry at home idle and their ambition will be extinguish'd in such sort as perhaps they will make it a point of Religion to do nothing whereas being taken to ordinary Offices they will habituate themselves to a living among Catholicks and their Ambition will awaken when they shall compare themselves with their Superiours The third means I offer is to select some particular Men and create them such business referring to Religion as may constrain them to attend the Council and keep following the Court. Business of that kind may be started to Gentlemen upon the Exercise they have in their Houses There is not one of them but is obnoxious to a Process in that case and the Bishops will with joy be the Prosecutors Besides the King's Procureur or Attorney General is concern'd to know whether Marriages Baptisms and Burials be solemniz'd with due accurateness in these private houses and whether good and faithful Registers of them be kept or no Great defects herein being easily supposeable the same will be just matter of complaint against the Owners as negligent in observing the concession made them of having Exercise in their Castles The like may be done if others contrary to the Edict be admitted to these Preachings beside the Domesticks A Fourth means would be to oblige the Religionists to put again in due state the ancient Chappels of their Houses which they have demolish'd or prophan'd the pursuance whereof ought to be by the diligence of each Bishop in his Diocess There must not be made a common affair of it to all the Huguenots in general but divers particulars only be fix'd upon And the thing it self is as reasonable as any For they had no right to destroy Temples that had been all along destin'd to Divine Service according to the Religion of the King receiv'd by all the Kingdom and also profess'd by our Progenitors The Fifth means is that when an Affair of such quality as I mention'd comes before the Council the Deputies which the Huguenots have at Court in the name of them all be not permitted to intervene in it There are 3 Reasons for the putting by of these interventions The First is that the Huguenots cannot constitute a Body in France nor assemble without the Kings express permission The Second that Private and Particular affairs ought not to be set up in the rank of those that are general and publick The Third that the King will do Justice without their intervention The Deputation should not be all at once abrogated out-right but no regard must be had to what the Deputies represent in the name of all the party The sixth means should be that the King do take effectual order the Huguenots may no longer have their dwellings nor their Exercise in places not Royal at least such as have any Lords of the Protestant Reformed Religion for Proprietors As for Example Vitrey in Bretannie belongs to Monsieur the Prince de Tarante who is of that Religion and it belongs to him by a Demise made him of it by Monsieur de la Tremouille
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
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