severity mitigating the punishment of those who assemble without Arms only for Religion instructing and admonishing them and to this purpose to cause the Prelates to reside hoping that by these remedies they would need neither National nor General Council A Decree was made the 27. of that month That there should be an Assembly of the States at Meaux the 10. of December and if the General Council shall not be called suddenly the Bishops shall assemble on January 13. to treat of celebrating a National in the mean-while the punishments for cause of Religion were suspended except against those who took up Arms. The Pope hereupon wrote to Cardinal Tournon to hinder the meeting of the Bishops and if he could not to return to Rome The Pope makes shew to call a General Council suddenly He received answer from Tournon that having tried all means he was not able to remove the King or any of his Council nor could hope for any better success hereafter The Pope's secret purpose was to avoid the Council or to defer it but makes a contrary resolution against his Will and is much troubled with the occurrences of France A Currier went in haste to Rome out of France with protestations from the King that if the General Council were not called he could no longer defer the National adding that if any place in France were chosen for the meeting of the Council it should be most secure Then the Convocation of the Council was published in the Consistory the Bull whereof was entitled Of the Intimation of the Council of Trent the Latine word was Indictionis Vergerius wrote a Book against this Bull. At this time News came to Rome that the French King had imprisoned the Prince of Conde and set a guard upon the King of Navarre which pleased the Pope much as a thing that might hinder the National Council Saga servant to the King of Navarre is taken at Estampes with divers letters about him and being tortured confesseth certain practices against the Crown The Prince of Conde had attempted to possess himself of Lions but without success The Governour of the City condemned many of the Hugonots to be hanged and the rest he sent alive to the Court who served afterwards to confirm the Depositions of the Prisoners against the discontented Princes The King departeth with his Guard from Fountainbleau and summoneth the States to meet at Orleans where the first thing that was done was to make a profession of their Faith Which being set down by the Doctors of the Sorbon conformable to the belief of the Roman Church and publickly read by the Cardinal of Tournon President of the Ecclesiastical order was by a solemn Oath approved and confirmed by every one of the Deputies because none should be admitted into that General Assembly either unwittingly or on purpose that was not a true Catholick Then the High Chancellour in presence of the King proposed those things which were necessary to be consulted of for the reformation of the Government But this was the least thing in every mans thought for the minds of all men were in suspence about the Prince of Conde's imprisonment who being interrogated excepts against his trial and appeals to the King but the Appeal is not accepted and he was declared to be held as convict because he had refused to answer the Delegates So they proceeded judicially until the very last pronouncing of sentence The Commissaries having pronounced the sentence against the Prince of Conde the King one morning being under the Barbers hand was on a sudden taken with an Apoplexy and laid by his servants on his bed and on Decemb. 5. he died Charles IX brother to Francis and second Son to the Queen succeeded to the Crown being yet but about eleven years old in regard of his Minority the Government fell principally upon the King of Navarre as first Prince of the Blood Navarre did almost openly favour the new Religion and was wholly governed by the Counsel of Jasper Coligni the old Admiral who made profession of it so that the Protestants were more confident to obtain liberty of Religion as they desired They assembled almost publickly Hereupon the King's Mother and the chief of the Council resolved to hold the States at Orleans and begun to do it on the 13. of December where the business of Religion was debated The Chancellour shewed That there was need of a Council which the Pope had promised and that in the mean time it was not to be tolerated that every one should shape out his own Religion and bring in new rites at his pleasure He said That it was necessary that the names of Lutherans Hugonots and Papists no less factious than those of the Guelphs and Gibilines were to be taken away and Arms to be taken against those who cover their avarice ambition and desire of innovation with the cloak of Religion John Angelo Advocate in the Parliament of Burdeaux spake much against the bad manners and discipline of the Clergy James Earl of Rotchford said That all the present evils did arise from the large donations made by the King and other Grandees to the Churches especially of jurisdictions in the end he gave a Petition in the name of the Nobility demanding to have publick Churches for their Religion Jacobus Quintinus a Burgundian spake for the Clergy he said The States were assembled to provide for the necessities of the Kingdom not to amend the Church which cannot err though the Discipline in some small part may somewhat need reformation He said That they that demand Churches apart from the Catholicks are to be punished as Hereticks and that the King ought to force all his Subjects to believe and live according to the form prescribed to the Church that those who have forsaken the Kingdom for Religion ought not to be suffered to return that those who are infected with Heresy ought to be proceeded against Capitally that the Ecclesiastical Discipline will easily be reformed if the Clergy be freed from payment of Tenths c. In the end he demanded that all priviledges of the Clergy should be confirmed and all grievances removed The King ordained That the Prelates should prepare to go to the Council of Trent commanded that all that were in prison for Religion should be set at liberty their offences until that time pardoned and their goods restored The Pope sends a Nuncio to the Queen-Mother praying her to be careful of the Religion in which she was born and bred and not to suffer Schism to arise by too much licence nor to seek remedies else-where for the present and imminent evils but from the Church of Rome for which end the Council was intimated The Prince of Conde was set at liberty and by an Edict in the Parliament of Paris absolved from the imputation laid upon him and the Sentence declared null and irregular which was pronounced against him by the Judges Delegates as incapable of judging the Princes of the blood
In France though the Queen and Prelates did desire to satisfie the Pope in referring the causes of Religion to the Council yet a Congregation of Prelates was put in order at which the Pope is offended and sendeth for Legate the Cardinal of Ferrara into France giving him four particular Commissions viz. to favour the Catholicks and oppose the Protestants to divert the National Synod and Assembly of the Prelates to solicite the going of the Prelates to the Council and to cause an abrogation of the Constitutions made in matters Ecclesiastical Afterwards it was ordained in France that the Bishops should meet in Poisy on August 10. The Colloquy of Poisy in France and that the Protestant Ministers should have a safe-conduct to come thither At the time prefixed the Prelates assembled in Poisy the Cardinals of Tournon Lorain Bourbon Anno 1561. Armagnac and Guise many Doctors of the Sorbon and other Divines sent for from the most famous Universities of the Kingdom There appeared for the Protestants Theodore Beza Peter Martyr Francis de Saint Paul John Raimond John Virel with many other Preachers which came some from Geneva some out of Germany and other neighbouring places in number fourteen These gave a Petition to the King which had four parts 1. That the Bishops might not be Judges in that business 2. That the King with his Councellours would preside 3. That the Controversies might be decided by the word of God 4. That what should be agreed on and decreed might be written by Notaries elected by both parties The Queen would have one of the four Secretaries of the King to write and granted that the King should preside but so that this should not be committed to writing alledging that it was not fit for them nor profitable for the King considering the present times Before the Parties were called to the combate the Prelates made a Procession and did all Communicate except the Cardinal Chastillon and five Bishops The others protested one to another that they meant not to handle points of Doctrine nor matters of faith The second of September they began in presence of the King Hist Concil Trident. li. 5. Queen Princes of the blood and the King's Councellours together with six Cardinals and forty Bishops The King spake desiring them to labour to compose the differences of the Kingdom and not to depart till that were done The Chancellour speaks more largely to the same purpose The Queen commandeth Beza to begin Who having prayed on his knee and recited the profession of his Faith complained that they were accounted seditious and perturbers of the publick peace though they had no other end than the glory of God nor desired to assemble themselves but to serve him and obey the Magistrates appointed by him Then he declared in what the Protestants agree with the Church of Rome and in what they dissent he spake of faith of good works of the authority of Councils of sins of Ecclesiastical Discipline obedience to Magistrates and of the Sacraments and entring into the matter of the Eucharist he spake with such heat that he was commanded to conclude And having presented the Confession of his Churches and desired it might be examined he made an end Cardinal Tournon disdaineth at Beza's speech The Queen answered that nothing was done but by the advice of the Princes of the King's Council and the Parliament of Paris not to change or innovate any thing in Religion but to compose the differences The Assembly being dissolved the Bishops and Divines consulted what to do The Congregation being again assembled the 16. of the month the Cardinal of Lorain makes a long Oration for the Papists to whom Beza was willing to answer but was not suffered But on the 24. day in another Assembly Beza spake of the Church and of the conditions and authority thereof shewing they may err and the dignity of the Scripture Espenceus answered he had alwaies desired a colloquy in matter of Religion and abhorred the punishments the Protestants had endured but he much wondred by what authority the Protestants were called into the Ecclesiastical Ministery who had laid hands on them to make them ordinary Ministers and if they pretended an extraordinary vocation where were the miracles to demonstrate it Then he treated of Traditions shewing that many things are believed by Tradition only as the Consubstantiality of the Son the Baptizing of Infants and the Virginity of the Mother of Christ after his birth He added that no General Council was ever corrected by another in point of Doctrine Divers Replies and Disputations passed on both sides so the Colloquy was put off till the next day In which Beza who began to speak provoked the Bishops For having justified his vocation to the Ministery he discoursed of the vocation of those Prelates shewing what Simony was committed and passed from thence to the Article of the Eucharist The parties not being able to agree a Spanish Jesuite having reproached the Protestants did reprehend the Queen for meddling in matters which belonged not to her but to the Pope Cardinals and Bishops Finally not being able to conclude any thing by this manner of parly it was ordered that two Bishops and three Divines of the most moderate should confer with five of the Protestant Ministers to see if they could find out a way to make an agreement But this doth as little good as the former so an end was put to the Colloquy The Pope was glad to hear that the Colloquy was dissolved without doing any thing and much commended the Cardinal of Lorain and Tournon more The zeal of the Jesuite pleased him He said the Oration of the Chancellour was heretical in many parts and threatened to call him into the Inquisition The Cardinal of Ferrara had been received by the King and Queen with much honour and acknowledged for Legate of the Apostolick See But the Parliament having discovered that among his Commissions one was to desire a revocation or moderation at the least of the things accorded in the States of Orleans concerning the distribution of Benefices and particularly the paying Annates to Rome and sending money out of the Kingdom to obtain Benefices there or other favours did immediately publish the Decrees which had hot been published until that time under the date of September 13. that the Cardinal might not obtain his purpose and did resolve not to give the Legate lieve to use the faculties given him by the Pope For the custom of that Kingdom is that a Legate cannot exercise his office if his faculties be not first presented and examined in Parliament and regulated by a Decree thereof and confirmed in that form by the King 's Brief So that when the Bull of the Faculties of the Legation was presented to be approved it was refused by the Chancellour and Parliament Besides Pasquins were made and spread abroad concerning the loves of Lucretia Borgia his Mother and Pope Alexander VI. his Grandfather by the
the Queen intended to continue with the same power till her Son came of Age they thought it more easie to gain the King of Navarre who was already much averse to the Protestants Religion by reason of the different opinions he found among them about the Points in Controversie And now the King of Navarre joyns himself with the Duke of Guise and the Constable These three the Hugonots called the Triumvirate Queen Joan was highly displeased at this so unexpected deliberation of her Husband and leaving the Court carrieth with her Prince Henry and the Princess Katherine her Children whom she brought up in Calvinism into Bearn being determined to separate her self from the Counsels and conversation of her Husband The Queen Regent was also terrified herewith and in opposition to the Triumvirate joyns with the Prince of Conde and the Admiral The Prince of Conde takes upon him openly to Head the Hugonots who ardently desire to revenge his past affronts upon those that were his chief persecutours His power and boldness was moderated by the wise Counsel of the Admiral of Chastillon Their Authority led after them being of the same Faith the Prince of Porcien the Count de la Roch-fou-caut Messieurs de Genlis de Grammont and Duras the Count of Montgomery the Baron des Adrets Messieurs de Bouchavane and Soubize and many other the Principal in the Kingdom Thus upon a sudden the King of Navarre went over to the Popish party and Queen Katherine though dissemblingly took upon her the Protection of the Protestants The King of Navarre staying in Paris laboureth to hinder the Assemblies of the Protestants to diminish their force and credit and finally to take away their liberty of Religion The Prince of Conde being likewise in Paris Davil Hist of the Civil Wars of France lib. 3. on the contrary encourageth the Preachers and as he could enlargeth their licence and liberty The King of Navarre deliberating to drive the Prince of Conde out of Paris for this purpose sends for the other Popish Lords to Court The Duke of Guise makes a journey thither and passing through Vassy his Servants heard a noise of Bells and having askt what was the reason of it answer was made That it was the hour wherein the Hugonots used to Assemble at their Sermons The Pages and Lacquies of the Duke that went before the rest of the Company moved with the Novelty of the thing and a curiosity to see for then those Congregations began first to be kept in Publick with jesting speeches and a tumult went towards the place where the Hugonots were Assembled at their Devotion Who understanding that the Duke of Guise their great Persecutour was there and seeing a great Troop come directly toward them inconsiderately fell presently to gather up stones and began to drive back those that advanced first to the place of their Assembly By which injury the Popish party rashly betook themselves to Arms. The Duke putting himself in the midst of them was hit with a blow of a stone upon the left cheek which bled much which caused him to withdraw from the hurly-burly His followers impatient of such an affront done to their Lord with their fire-arms presently assaulted the house whither the Hugonots retired to secure themselves killed above sixty of them and grievously wounded the Minister who climbing over the Tyles saved himself in some of the adjoyning houses The tumult being ended the Duke of Guise called for the Officer of the place sharply reproving him for suffering such a pernicious Licence to the prejudice of Passengers He excusing himself as unable to hinder it by reason of the Edict of January which tolerated the publick Assemblies of the Hugonots the Duke no less offended at his answer than at the thing it self laying his hand upon his Sword replyed in choler This shall soon cut the Bond of that Edict though never so binding From which words many afterwards concluded that he was the Authour of the ensuing War But the Hugonots incensed by this Chance now full of rage stirred up such horrible tumults and bloody Seditions that besides the slaughter of men in many places the Monasteries were spoiled Images thrown down the Altars broken and the Churches defiled The people in all places ran headlong to take Arms and the Heads of the Factions went about gathering Forces preparing themselves for a manifest War And now each Faction desired to draw the King to their party and to possess the Persons of the King and Queen But the Catholicks prevent the Hugonots and lead them both to Paris from Fountainbleau The Prince of Conde therefore possesseth Orleans and prepareth for the War The Popish Lords under the King's name likewise raise an Army Many writings are published on each side and both Armies go into the Field The Queen-Mother labours for a Peace To this end she comes to a parley with the Prince but without success notwithstanding she continues to Treat of an Agreement which at length is concluded But the Prince by the perswasion of the rest again takes Arms purposeth to assail the King's Camp by night but misseth of his design Forces come to the King's aid out of Germany and many thousands of Swisses whereupon the Prince is forced to retire unto the Walls of Orleans where being unable to keep the Army together he divides it He sendeth for succour from Germany and England consents to give Havre de Grace to the English and to receive their Garrisons into Deipe and Roven to obtain aid from them The King's Army takes Blois Poictiers Tours and Bourges besieges Roven and takes it and sacks it where Anthony King of Navarre received a Musket shot in the left shoulder which breaking the bone and tearing the Nerves he presently fell down on the place as dead and died shortly after Succours come to the Prince of Conde out of Germany with which being re-inforced he makes haste to assault Paris The King and the Queen arrive there with the Army and the Prince after many attempts is necessitated to depart Both Armies go into Normandy and there follows the Battel of Dreux in which the Prince of Conde is taken Prisoner on the one side and the Constable on the other The Duke of Guise being Victorious layes siege to Orleans and is ready to take it and is treacherously slain by Poltrot Sieur de Mereborn of a Noble Family near Angoulesme He feigns to forsake the Protestant party leaves Orleans insinuates himself into the Duke of Guises Court and whilst the Duke gives order for an assault shoots him in the shoulder whereof he dieth Poltrot aided by the swiftness of his horse saved himself in the neighbouring Woods and the Duke being carried to his Lodging died three dayes after of his hurt Poltrot was taken and being taken was by sentence of Parliament publickly quartered After the death of the Duke of Guise an accommodation followed Conditions of Peace were conluded at Orleans March 18. 1563. viz.
brake forth The Prince of Conde approached with an Army to Paris and distressed it for want of food The Parisians under the Conduct of the Constable sally out of the Town and come to Saint Denis where the Prince of Conde's Army lay There the Admiral put the Parisian Souldiers to flight and the Constable was shot by a Scotish Souldier of which wound he died shortly after After the Battel the Prince of Conde marched toward Lorain to joyn with the German Army Which was to be sent for his succour from the Count Palatine of the Rheine under the Conduct of Cassimire's Son This German Army joyned with the Forces of the Prince of Conde at Pontamonsou a Town in Lorain on the River Mosel Being thus conjoyned they march to Chartres and besiege it The danger of Chartres brings on a new Treatise of Peace which at last is concluded The Armies are disbanded and the Towns by him subdued are delivered into the King's hand the German Souldiers were dismissed and every man returned to his own house But this pacification was but a subtil snare to entangle the Protestants withal for the Protestants were compelled to lay down their Armour when they entred into the Towns where they dwelt and strictly commanded to remain in thei◠houses being not permitted to visit one another In all the parts of the Country great cruelty was used and many cruelly butchered so that within the space of three months moe than three thousand were slain by the Sword All means also were sought to intercept the Prince of Conde the Admiral Andelot and other principal Personages The Prince of Conde and the Admiral flie with their Wives and young children to Rochel God's Providence so conducted them that albeit all the Bridges and Passages were strictly kept yet God provided a Foord in the River Loyre near unto Sanser which was unknown before neither was any passage found to be there two daies after By this way they passed safely to Rochel The Prince of Conde had sent letters to the King greatly complaining of the Cardinal of Lorain who abused the King's Name and Authority and so maliciously sought the lives of the King 's innocent Subjects for their Religion expresly against the King's Edict of Pacification which had been sealed with the King 's own hand-writ and ratified with his Oath To those Letters no answer was given but all the Country was in Arms and the Duke of Anjou Brother to the King was made General Commander of the Army The Queen of Navarre on the other part adjoyned herself and her Forces to the Prince of Conde and from Britany came Andelot and his Forces who passed the Loyre by a certain Foord not known before and unpassable afterward no less miraculously than the Prince of Conde and his Family had done in another place of the same River before After whose coming Angolesme was besieged and taken by the Prince of Conde Likewise Acierius brought with him to the Prince out of Dolphinè Provence and Languedoc twenty three thousand men The Duke of Anjou was come with his Army to Poictou and pitched his Camp at Castellerault near to the River Vienna The Prince of Conde and the Admiral daily provoke him to fight but he politickly delayeth The Duke of Anjou receiving ayd from Germany forceth the Protestants to fight A Battle was fought at Blansac wherein the Prince of Conde was taken and slain and two hundred more of the Protestants and forty taken Prisoners The Admiral led the rest of the Army back to Saint Jande-Angeli Soon after Andelot died at Sainetes to the great grief of all the Army his body being opened was found to be poisoned The Queen of Navarre comforted the Army of the Protestants And her Son the young King of Navarre with the Prince of Conde's Son took upon them the Government of the Army and sent Count Montgomery to relieve the Town of Angolesme which was then besieged by the Duke's forces at whose coming the siege was raised Then the Duke of Bipont cometh from Germany to ayd the Protestants and takes the Town of la-Charity in Burgundy and dieth within two daies after having appointed Wolrod Count of Mansfelt to be General in his room In this Army were seven thousand and five hundred horse-mem and six thousand foot-men besides two thousand French horse-men who came in their company and ten Ensigns of foot-men The Prince of Orange with his Brothers Lodowick and Henry were also in this Army In the Country of Poictou the Princes had taken many Towns and Poictiers was besieged by them but they were forced to raise the siege At length both Armies met and joyned in a Battel near Montconvire where the Duke of Anjou had the Victory Hereupon all the Towns which the Protestants had taken in Poictou were recovered by their Enemies St. Jan-Dangely was also besieged and surrendered At the siege of this Town Martiques Governour of Britany was slain This Martiques perswaded la Matpinolis to yield the Town to the King and desired the Town to remember the Battel of Montconvire wherein their strong God had forsaken them and said it was time for them to sing Help us now O God for it is time Not long after this proud Blasphemer felt that this strong God was living able to help the weak and confound the proud The Princes now resolve to make Languedoc the seat of War because the Town of Nimes was lately surprized by the Protestants and many Towns in that Country favoured their Religion This occasioneth a new Edict of Pacification to be set forth granting liberty of Religion to the Protestants again and for their further security the keeping of four Towns during the space of two years viz. Rochel Cognack Montallan and Caritea Thus was an end put to the third Civil war in France About this time was a notable Suit of those who with a presumptuous and partial Title termed themselves of the society of Jesus decided in the Court of Parliament Steph. Pasquier pleading against them for the University of Paris a most grave Advocate of so rare a Cause and M. Peter Versoris for their Company Their pleadings are read and their beginnings and first entry into France their advancement and all that concerns their Sect is so learnedly expressed in an Epistle of the fourth Book of the said Pasquier and in his pleading as it is needless to insert here Then the King offereth his Sister in Marriage to the King of Navarre and passing to Bloyes sent for the Queen of Navarre whom he received so courteously that the Queen was fully perswaded that this Marriage would be a more sure pledge and bond of constant peace The Admiral also was sent for and met the King at Bloyes whom the King seemed highly to honour The Admiral and other Nobles are sollicited to be present at the Marriage The Queen of Navarre as she was busied in making preparation for the Marriage died hastily by the scent of empoisoned Gloves
Avergne by force where the blood of the Inhabitants shed without pity by the Duke of Anjou confirmed the Protestants in the bad opinion they had conceived of him The Duke of Mayenne sends forth a Navy to Sea under the Command of Lansac which coming before the Isle of Ré retired seeing the Islanders resolved to fight if they approached The Rochellers Arm seven Ships those of the Islands five entreating aid from Holland and Zealand to withstand the force of the Fleet. The Nobility invite all others to charge themselves willingly for the maintenance of this Army Mayenne assaulteth Brovage a little square Town built in a Marsh recovered out of the Sea fortified during the third Peace and after the Rochellers had cut off six hundred of his men the Town for want of victuals entred into Capitulation and departed August 28. 1577. with their Arms and Baggage leaving the place at the Duke's devotion But a Peace was concluded at Poictiers and was in the end of September Proclaimed with great joy of either party This last Edict cut off some Articles of the former made no mention of Strangers left their consciences free yet without exercise of Religion but in Towns and places where then it was publickly used in the houses of Gentlemen Feudataries or as they call them de Haute justice free admission was given to every body but in the houses of private Gentlemen not above the number of seven was allowed and in a prefixed place in every jurisdiction and Baily-wick except in Paris and ten Leagues about it and two Leagues compass from the Court wheresoever it should be But the Marshal D'anville who every day withdrew himself further from the Protestants ceased not to prosecute those by whom he pretended to be injuried in Languedoc under colour of reducing the places of his Government under his own Command Nor did the Sieur des Diguieres in Dolphinè dare to trust the Peace nor hazard himself upon the King's word remembring what had befallen Monbrun in whose company he had made War and therefore still continued Armed for his security And the Papists when they saw the Protestants meet at their Sermons could not suffer them without murmurings and detractions which occasioned many contentions and sometimes dangerous bloody accidents whereby a great part of France though the Peace was made continued still in broyls and insurrections About that time the King created two Mareschals men valiant in War and very prudent in Government viz. Armand Sieur de Byron and Jaques Sieur de Matignon men free from the Interests of the Duke of Guise depending wholly upon the King's will And Renato di Birago the High Chancellour being made Cardinal Philip Hurault Viscount de Chiverny is chosen in his place In the year 1579. the King shews himself in publick for a mirrour of Reformation and Piety he builds many Monasteries Chappels and Oratories undertakes many Pilgrimages on foot confirms the brotherhood of Penitents erects tne Order of Jeronomites is daily conversant with the Capuchins and Fucillans called Jesuites and by their instructions erects many Congregations He carrieth a Crucifix and Beads in Procession with a Whip at his Girdle He causeth many Books of Devotion to be Printed And leads a Life more befitting a Cloyster than a Court. He institutes the Order of The Knights of the Holy Ghost binding them to Conditions which carry a strict bond to the Church of Rome The Duke of Anjou dies and now the King of Navarre is by quality the first Prince of the Blood and first Peer of France and most part of France cast their eyes upon him as upon the Sun rising This amazeth the Duke of Guise and his adherents they assemble the Heads of their house at St. Dennis and endeavour to renew the Catholique League which before was almost laid aside for seeing that the King ballanced the forces very carefully with those of the Hugonot Lords and that he would not suppress that party which as they believed he might easily have done and that under several pretences he devested all the dependants of both Factions of their places and honours to bestow them upon such as should acknowledge them meerly from himself they were the more highly incensed Nor could it satisfie them to see the King taken up with Religious thoughts and addicted to a quiet unactive life for they knowing his nature wherewith they had been conversant from his very Childhood interpreted that course of life to subtil deep dissimulation Wherefore the Duke of Guise a man of a very quick insight discerning judgement and high thoughts determined to prevent and not stay to be prevented In which resolution he was seconded by his Brother Louis the Cardinal a man of an high spirit and great wit as also by Henry of Savoy Duke of Nemours and Charles Marquess of San-Sorlin both Sons of Anna d'Esté and therefore his Brothers by the Mother Charles of Lorain Duke of Aumale and Claude his Brother a Knight of Jerusalem Charles of Lorain Duke d'Elbeuf Emanuel Duke de Mercure and his Brothers Only Charles Duke of Mayenne proceeded more slowly than the rest who thinking how dangerous it would be to hazard their safety by rash resolutions advised them to proceed with more patience and more respect toward the Lawful possessour of the Crown But the Duke of Guise resolute in his thoughts by the Authority of his Person Vivacity of his courage and Eloquence of his Language drew all the rest to his Opinion and excluding his Brothers advice setled all his thoughts upon the machinations of the League for the establishment whereof dissembling his discontents no less than his jeolousies and private interests he made shew of stirring only for the respects of Religion and the general good making an ill interpretation of all the King's actions and with many arts and circumstances aggravating that danger which he pretended hung over the Catholick Religion in France He grounded his fears upon the death of the Duke of Alançon and the Queens barrenness which in the space of ten years had had no Son whereby the King dying without heirs of the house of Valois the Crown fell to the Princes of Bourbon and in the first place to the King of Navarre whom he termed a relapsed Heretick and an open enemy to the Roman Religion He urged that his coming to the Crown would be the universal ruine of Religion and the total Conversion of all France to the Doctrine and Rites of Calvin and therefore shewed how all good Catholicks were obliged to look to it in time Davil Hist of the Civil Wars of France lib. 7. and to prevent the terrible blow of that imminent subversion He shewed that when sometimes he had been constrained to make War against the King of Navarre he employed the Mareschal de Byron who though a Catholick in outward appearance was yet by many former proofs known to be a favourer of the Hugonots and interessed in their Factions that therefore he
of Provisions The Duke of Parma marcheth away into Flanders in good order The King assaulteth Clermont takes it and sacks it The Duke of Parma departing leaves aid of men and promiseth supply of money to the League The King marcheth toward Picardy Grenoble in Dauphiné after a long siege returns to the King's obedience The King assaulteth Corby and takes it The Parliament of Burdeaux who with much ado had been brought to the King's obedience make complaints for the King 's persevering in Calvinism The King studieth how to conserve the affections of those of his party and to keep them in obedience He recalls the Duke of Espernon to the Army and other Popish Lords to reconcile them unto him The Viscount of Turenne obtains of Queen Elizabeth of England that she should send the King one hundred thousand crowns That she should send 6000. Foot into Bretagne for the relief of the Prince of Dombes That along with him she should send Horatio Palavicino a Genovese who for Religion was fled into that Island to perswade the States of Holland and the Princes of Germany to assist the King with men and money on their Part. She promised likewise that if the Duke of Parma should return again into France she would assist Grave Maurice and the Hollanders to make a strong diversion by entring into Brabant and Flanders Now the party of the League make a disgust against the Duke of Mayenne which is fomented by the Spaniards And the Lords of the house of Lorain grow jealous one of another and the Duke of Nemours lays aside the Government of Paris The Duke of Mayenne dispatcheth President Jeannin to the King of Spain and the Sieur des Portes to the Pope to solicite aid The Chevalier d'Aumale goes to surprize S. Dennis and without resistance enters with all his men but the Governour with only thirty Horse chargeth and routs the Enemy and d'Aumale being thrust through the throat falleth down dead Those that were curious observed that he fell dead before the door of an Inn whose sign was the Espeè Royale a Sword embroidâ—red with golden Flower-de-luces and that his Body being laid upon the Bier in the Church of the Friers of St. Dennis his carkass the night following was all gnawed and mangled with Rats Pope Gregory XIV assigneth fifteen thousand crowns by the Month for the service of the League and Marsilio Landriano a Milanese is chosen Legate for the Kingdom of France Chartres is besieged and surrendered to the Baron de Biron The Duke of Mayenne receives Chasteau Thierry with the composition of twenty thousand crowns Then the Popish Princes and Noblemen following the King did solicite his Majesty to turn to the Romish Religion Anno 1591. The Petitions made to the King to provide for his dutiful Subjects of both Religions to prevent the new attempts of the Pope and his adherents to the prejudice of the Crown of France were the cause of two Edicts made at Mante in the beginning of July The one confirmed the Edicts of Pacification made by the deceased King upon the troubles of the Realm and dissannulled all that passed in July 1585. and 1588. in favour of the League The oâ—her shewed the King's intent to maintain the Catholick Religion in France with the Ancient Rights and Priviledges of the French Church The Court of Parliament of Paris resident at Chalons and Tours having verified these Edicts had dissannulled all the Bulls of Cardinal Gaetan's Legation and other Bulls that came from Rome on March 1. the Proceedings Excommunications and Fulminations made by Landriano terming himself the Pope's Nuncio as abusive scandalous seditious full of impostures made against the holy Decrees Canonical Constitutions approved Councils and against the Rights and Liberties of the French Church They Decree that if any had been Excommunicate by vertue of the said proceedings they should be absolved and the said Bulls and all proceedings by vertue thereof burnt in the Market-place by the Hang-man That Landriano the pretended Nuncio come privily into the Realm without the King's leave or liking should be apprehended and put in the King's Prison And in case he should not be taken he should be summoned at three short daies according to the accustomed manner and ten thousand Franks given in reward to him that should deliver him to the Magistrate Prohibitions being made to all men to receive retain or lodge the said pretended Nuncio upon pain of death And to all Clergy-men not to receive publish or cause to be published any sentences or proceedings coming from him upon pain to be punished as Traytors They declared the Cardinals being at Rome the Archbishops Bishops and other Clergy-men which had signed and ratified the said Bull of Excommunication and approved the most barbarous and detestable Parricide traiterously committed upon the Person of the late deceased King Henry III. to be deprived of such Spiritual Livings as they held within the Realm causing the King's Proctor General to seise thereon and to put them into his Majesties hand forbidding all persons either to carry or send Gold to Rome and to provide for the disposition of Benefices until the King should otherwise Decree Du recueil de l'Histoire de la ligne That of Tours added this clause to the Decree They declared Gregory calling himself Pope the fourteenth of that name an enemy to peace to the union of the Roman Catholick Church to the King and to his Estate adhering to the Conspiracy of Spain and a favourer of Rebels culpable of the most inhumane and most detestable Parricide committed on the Person of the most Christian and Catholick King Henry III. of famous memory The Parliament of the League did afterwards condemn and cause those Decrees to be burnt at Paris which were made against the Bulls and Ministers of the Romish See So one pulled down what another built up The Cardinal of Vendosme begins to raise a third party of Catholicks to make himself Head of them and thereby to bring himself to the Crown Scipio Balbani is sent to Rome by the Cardinal of Vendosme to treat with the Pope and to communicate his design unto him The Cardinal of Lenoncourt gives the King notice of the designs of the Cardinal of Vendosme The High Chancellour thereupon perswades him to turn to the Romish Religion Charles Duke of Guise having been long kept Prisoner at Tours escapes at noon-day and fleeth to Bourges and then meets with the Duke of Mayenne The Council of Sixteen falls into an emulation with the Parliament of Paris and with the Council of State chosen by the Duke of Mayenne Brigard who had been imprisoned upon suspicion of Plots against the League being escaped the Judges that made his Process are by the people in Arms tumultuously put in Prison and by the Council of Sixteen are caused to be strangled in the close Prison and the next day their bodies are hanged at the Greve with infamous writings on their Breasts The Duke
Orator Dialecticus Poeta Tractator Geometra Musicúsque Doctus solvere vincla quaestionum Et verbi gladio secare sectas Vi quae Catholicam fidem lacessunt Tandem Concludit At tu quisquis doles amice lector De tanto quasi viro nihil supersit Vndis parcegenis rigare marmor Mens gloria non queunt humari Paulinus lived about this time he was Bishop of Nola born in France a man of a great wit and an excellent Orator and Poet. Of both Testaments he writeth thus to Severus Paulin. Epist ad Sever. 12. Nam quia latorem duo Testamenta per unum Pacta Deum in Christo copulat una fides Lex antiqua novam firmat veterem nova complet In veteri spes est in novitate fides Sed vetus atque novum conjungit gratia Christi And upon the Supper of the Lord I will add these mystical Verses out of the same Epistle In cruce fixa caro est quâ pascor de cruce sanguis Ille fluit vitam quo bibo corda lavo Carne tua vivet tunc illi pocula sanguis Praebeat in verbo vivat agátque tuo The next I shall mention is John Cassian the Scholar of Chrysostome and made Deacon by him at Constantinople afterwards he was a Presbyter of the Church of Marseilles Vincentius Lirinensis a French man spent the first part of his life in Secular and Military employments but afterwards he led a solitary and contemplative life and became a Presbyter as the Catalogue of Gennadius relateth he wrote against the Pelagians and Nestorians and against prophane novelties In the Year of Christ 485. Clovis the first of that Name and the fifth King of France began his Reign being about the Age of fifteen years a Prince of singular Hope born for the establishment of the French Monarchy He had the honour to be the first Christian King of France Although Clovis was a Pagan before by Profession yet was he no enemy to the Chrstians fitting himself to the humour of the Gauls who generally followed the Christian Religion He suffered his Wife likewise to Baptize her Children Causins Holy Court Part. 2. Clotilda desired nothing more than the Conversion of her Husband which happened in this sort The Suevi a people of Germany passed the Rhine with great Forces Commanded by many Kings who were personally in the Army and came to rush on the Gauls with intentions to destroy the beginnings of the French Monarchy Clovis speedily opposeth them with good Troops for he likewise had drawn together to his Aid the Ribarols people near bordering on the Rhine who were Allied to the French and had first of all given notice of the Enterprize of the Suevi who in a near degree threatned them The encounter of the two Armies was near Colen which was one of the most desperate that we find in Histories The King undertook the Conduct of the Cavalry and had given unto Prince Sigebert his Kinsman the Infantry There was nothing but fire tempests deaths and slaughters so great was the resistance on either side In the end Sigebert valiantly fighting was wounded with an arrow and born all bloody out of the battel by his Son The Infantry through the absence of their Colonel was defeated and put to rout All the burden of the battel fell upon the Cavalry which did great exploits fighting before the eyes of their King but in the end the shock of their enemies was so impetuous that it brake through and scattered them Clovis covered with blood and dust performed the duty both of a great Captain and valiant Soldier but notwithstanding all his endeavours terrour had so seized on these flying men that his affairs grew desperate Hereupon Aurelianus the Kings great Favourite perswadeth him to make a vow unto God to be Baptized if he returned victorious from this battel which he did calling aloud upon the God of his Wife and promising an absolute Conversion to the Christian Faith The word was no sooner spoken but that his Troops rallied themselves up made head against their enemies pursued them ran through and routed them with so great a massacre that the fields were all covered with dead bodies The discomfiture so terrified them on the other side of the Rhine that the Almans which survived yielded themselves tributaries to his Majesty Clotilda hearing the news of this victory and of the King 's pious Resolution went out to meet him as far as Champagne accompanied with Remigius Bishop of Rhemes a man of great Piety and Eloquence to instruct him in the true Doctrine wherein he was very ignorant De Serres Hist in Vit. Clodov It was necessary he should be instructed by a discreet man that in leaving the vanity of Pagans he might not be infected with the Arian Heresie which then was dispersed in divers places and even his own Sister Lantielde was infected therewith The preaching of Remigius was effectual with Clovis and the Example of Clovis with his men of war When he came to the Church of Rhemes to be Baptized Remigius spake to him these words Bend thy neck to the yoke in mildness worship that which thou hast burnt and burn that which thou hast worshipped He Answered I worship the true God which is the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator of Heaven and Earth The King being Baptized exhorted his men to the same belief they cry all joyntly We leave our Mortal Gods and are ready to follow the Immortal So Clovis was baptized at Rhemes by Remigius and with him three thousand of his Soldiers to the incredidible joy of the Gauls greatly affected to Christian Religion and this perfected the union betwixt them and the French making their yoke easie and them tractable The first War he undertook after his Baptism was against Gombaut King of Burgundy who being vanquished became Tributary to Clovis Gombaut was an Arian and this his Heresie drew upon him the vengeance of God Afterwards Clovis encountred with the Forces of Alaricus in Aquitain discomfiteth them and kills Alaricus The hand of God thundred and lightened at that time upon many Diadems of Heretical Kings viz. Gombaut Godemar Chilperic Godegisilus Alaricus and in the end on Theodorick himself Remigius was a man of most holy Conversation and besides his admirable sanctity acknowledged throughout all France he had the reputation to be one of the most able and eloquent men of his time witness Sidonius Apollinarius who speaking of his eloquence with admiration saith He thought there was not a man living upon the face of the earth whom Remigius surpasseth not without any elaborate study at all through the experience he had acquired of well-speaking his conceptions were unimitable his language so sweet and polite that it resembled a very smooth piece of ice whereon nothing might be seen unequal His sentences were full of weight his arguments forcible and his words glided along like a river and ever bare in them some flashes of lightning at
Church from the sole of the Foot to the Head the Bride was spoiled and even they that were called the Bridegrooms of the Church were not the friends of the Bridegroom And the Council so far took with this rebuke that some Acts were made for Reformation though no reformation followed About that time had been started that opinion concerning the Virgin Mary viz. of Universal freedom from original sin which opinion had been in the minds only of some private persons but yet was not come among the ceremonies of the Church nor into the minds of the learned About the year 1136. the Chanons of Lyons durst first bring it into the service of the Church St. Bernard flourishing at that time for piety and learning before all the Divines of that Age and so immoderate in the praises of the blessed Virgin that he calleth her the neck of the Church as if by her all Grace did flow from the Head nevertheless he sharply writeth against these Chanons that without reason and without example of former times they had brought in so dangerous a novelty He confesseth that they had matter enough to commend the blessed Virgin but such ambitious novelty which is the mother of fondness the sister of superstition and daughter of levity he saith could not please her Recentissimus est vixitque post confirmatam Episcopi Romani Tyrannidem Cham. de Oecum Pontif. Bernard dyed in the 63. year of his Age Anno 1153. From erring Bernard that frequent proverb of writers erring drew it's Original Bernardus non vidit omnia neither is it a wonder seeing he flourished in the darkest midnight as it were of Popery He is much commended by divers learned Protestants as by Bishop Morton Bishop Carleton Carlet Consens â—â—cles contr Trident. l. 6. Hist Pelag. li. ca. 21. Vossius and others He hath solidly disputed concerng the chief Heads of Faith of the Scriptures of the Church of the misery of man of free justification of grace of new obedience with the Catholick Church against the Tridentine Fables so that nothing can be found more solid In the Council of Rhemes forementioned where were assembled 434 Prelats these five principal acts were concluded 1. That no Man should either buy or sell any Bishoprick Abbotship Fox Act and Monum Deanry Arch Deaconship Priesthood Prebendship Altar or any Ecclesiastical promotion or Benefice Orders Consecration Church-hallowing Seat or Stall within the Quire or any Office Ecclesiastical under pain of Excommunication if he did persist 2. That no Lay-person should give Investiture or any Ecclesiastical possession and that no spiritual man should receive any such at any Lay-man's hand under pain of deprivation 3. That no man should invade take away or detain the goods or possessions of the Church but that they should remain firm and perpetual under pain of perpetual curse 4. That no Bishop or Priest should have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or benefice to any by way of inheritance Adding moreover that for Baptism Chrism Anointing Burial no Money should be exacted 5. Item That all Priests Deacons and Sub-Deacons should be utterly debarred and sequestred from company of their Wives and Concubines under pain of excluding from all Christian Communion The Acts thus determined were sent soon after to Henry the Emperour to try before the breaking up of the Council whether he would agree to the Canonical Elections free consecration and investing of spiritual persons and to other Acts of the said Council The Emperour maketh answer that he would lose nothing of that Antient Custom which his Progenitors had given him Yet because of the authority of the general Council he was content to consent to the residue save only the investing of Ecclesiastical function to be taken from him unto that he would never agree Upon this at the next return of the Pope to the Council Henry the Emperour was excommunicated In the Year 1142. Pope Eugenius came to Paris where that he might usurp the right of investiture and deprive the King of it he gave the Arch-Bishoprick of Bourges to his Chancellour of the Apostolical Chancery named Peter Aimery without the consent of King Lewes a Prince very much given to obedience unto the Papal See Yet the King was so angry at it that he swore upon the Holy Relicks that never so long as he lived Aimery should set his foot in Bourges But the Pope knowing the King 's timerous nature excommunicated him put his person in interdict and gave order that in France in all places where the King came divine Service should cease and all his Court were deprived of the Communion This lasted three whole years till St. Bernard came to the King and perswaded him to receive the said Arch-Bishop But because by so doing the King brake his Oath made upon the Holy Relicks he was enjoyned for satisfaction to take a Journey to the Holy Sepulchre in Syria to fight against the Saracens In which Journey the King lost the flower of the French Nobility and returned afflicted and full of confusion as you shall see more hereafter Peter Bishop of Clugny was in great account with Pope Eugenius Bernard wrote many Epistles to him in one Epistle he calleth him a Vessel of Honour full of Grace and Truth and endued with many gifts The loss of Edessa wherein Christianity had flourished ever since the Apostles times moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewes VII sir-named the young King of France to undertake a Voyage to the Holy Land Pope Eugenius III. bestirred himself in the matter and made St. Bernard stis solicitour to advance the design The Emperour's Army contained two hundred thousand foot besides fifty thousand Horse nor was the Army of King Lewes much inferiour in number Paul Aemil. in Lud. VII In France they sent a Distaff and a Spindle to all those that went not with them as upbraiding their effeminateness But by the way the Grecian Emperour did them all possible mischief by mingling lime with their meal by killing of straglers by holding intelligence with the Turks their enemies by corrupting his Coyn so that the Dutch sold good Wares for bad Money and bought bad Wares with good Money by giving them false conductors which trained them into danger so that there was more fear of the guides than of the way The King of France followed after the Emperour and drank of the same Cup at the Grecians hands though not so deeply till at last finding that those who marched through the Continent met with an Ocean of misery he thought better to trust the Wind and the Sea than the Greeks and taking shipping safely arrived in Palestine where he was welcomed by Reimund Prince of Antioch Some weeks were spent in entertainment and visiting holy places till at last Tho. Fuller holy War lib. 2. Elianor Wife to the King of France who accompanied her Husband made Religion her Pander and plaid Bankrupt of her honour under pretence of Pilgrimage keeping
of Auxerre in France Henry's Son-in-Law 4. Robert 5. Baldwin the fifth and last At this time the Tartarians over-run the North of Asia and many Nations fled from their own Countries for fear of them Among other the Corasines a fierce and Warlike people were forced to forsake their Land Being thus unkennelled they have recourse to the Sultan of Babylon who bestows on them all the Lands the Christians held in Palestine They march to Jerusalem and take it without resistance Soon after the Corasines elated herewith fell out with the Sultan himself who in anger rooted out their Nation so that none remained The French-men make War against Reymund Earl of Tholouse and think to enclose him in his Castle of Saracene but the Earl lying in Ambush for them in Woods slew many of them and 500 of the French Souldiers were taken and of their Servitors to the number of 200 men in armour were taken of whom some lost their eyes some their ears some their legs and so were sent home the rest were carried away Prisoners into the Castle Thrice that Summer were the French-men discomfited by the aforesaid Reymund King Lewes puts a stop to the persecution of the Albigenses saying that they must perswade them by reason and not constrain them by force whereby many Families were preserved in those Provinces In those times lived Gulielmus de sancto amore a Doctor of Paris and Chanon of Beauvois exclaiming against the abuses of the Church of Rome He wrote against the Fryars and their hypocrisie but especially against the begging Fryars In his days there was a most detestable and blasphemous book set forth by the Fryars which they called Evangelium Aeternum or Evangelium spiritûs sancti The Everlasting Gospel or The Gospel of the Holy Ghost Wherein it is said That the Gospel of Christ was not to be compared to it no more than darkness to light That the Gospel of Christ should be preached but fifty years and then this everlasting Gospel should rule the Church He mightily impugned this pestiferous Book Fox Act and Monum p. 410. ad 416. He was by the Pope condemned for an Heretick exiled and his Books were burnt His story and Arguments may be read in Mr. Fox his first Volumn Pope Alexander armed Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure men of violent spirits against him but he was too hard for these reprovers his followers were called Amoraei Pope Gregory succeedeth Innocent and is a great Enemy to Frederick the Emperour who had entred Italy with a great Army After his Election he sends his Nuncio into France to exhort Lewes to succour him The Pope comes into France and calls a Council at Lyons whither he cites Frederick but yet upon so short a warning as he could not appear Frederick having sent his Ambassadours to require a lawful time and to advertise the Pope of his coming begins his Journey to perform his promise Being arrived at Thurin he hath intelligence given him that the Pope had condemned him as Contumax excommunicated him and degraded him of the Empire But this was not without the consent of the Princes Electors of the Empire who after mature deliberation proceeded to a new Election They chuse Henry Landgrave of Thuring for Emperour but he besieging the City of Vlmes was wounded with an Arrow whereof he dyed shortly after Frederick writes to the French King against the sentence against him at Lyons Then the Electors chose William Earl of Holland for Emperour In all the chief Cities the Guelph's Faction was the stronger through the Authority of the Council of Lyons Frederick over-pressed with grief dyeth leaving Italy and Germany in great combustion The Pope having Canonized Edmond Arch-Bishop of Canterbury soon after Blanch Queen Regent of France came into England to worship that Saint representing to him that he had found refuge for his Exile in France and beseeching him not to be ungrateful She said my Lord most Holy Father confirm the Kingdom of France in a peaceable solidity and remember what we have done to thee Now Lewes IX came to assist the Christians in Palestine His nobility diswaded from that design Lewes takes up the Cross and voweth to eat no Bread until he was recognized with the Pilgrim's Badge Their went along with him his two Brothers Charles Earl of Anjou Robert Earl of Artois his own Queen and their Ladies Odo the Pope's Legat Hugh Duke of Burgundy William Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul and William Longspath Earl of Sarisbury with a band of valiant English-men The Pope gave to this King Lewes for his charges the tenth of the Clergy's revenues through France for three years and the King employed the Pope's Collectors to gather it whereupon the Estates of the Clergy were shaven as bare as their crowns and a poor Priest who had but twenty shillings annual pension was forced to pay two yearly to the King Having at Lyons took his leave of the Pope and a blessing from him he marched toward Avignon Where some of the city wronged his Souldiers especially with foul Language His Nobles desired him to besiege the city the rather because it was suspected that therein his Father was poisoned To whom Lewes most christianly said I come not out of France to revenge mine own quarrels or those of my Father or Mother but injuries offered to Jesus Christ Hence he went without delay to his Navy and so committed himself to the Sea Lewes arrives in Cyprus where the pestilence raging two hundred and forty Gentlemen of note dyed of the infection Hither came the Ambassadours from a great Tartarian prince invited by the fame of King Lewes his piety professing to him that he had renounced his Paganism and embraced Christianity and that he intended to send Messengers to the Pope to be further instructed in his Religion but some Christians which were in Tartary diswaded him from going to Rome King Lewes received these Ambassadours cuurteously dismissing them with bounteous gifts And by them he sent to their Master a Tent wherein the History of the Bible was as richly as curiously depicted in Needle-work hoping thus to catch his Eyes and both in his present pictures then being accounted Lay-mens books The French land in Egypt and Damiata is taken by them Discords grew between the French and English the cause was for that the Earl of Sarisbury in sacking a Fort got more spoil therein than the English Then dyed Meladine the Egyptian King Robert Earl of Artois Brother to King Lewes fighting with the Egyptians contrary to the Counsel of the Templars is overthrown In his flight he cryed to the Earl of Sarisbury flee flee for God fighteth against us To whom our Earl God forbid my Father's Son should flee from the face of a Saracen The other seeking to save himself by the swiftness of his Horse and crossing the River was drowned The Earl of Sarisbury slew many a Turk and though unhorsed and wounded in his Legs stood
commanding that one should be celebrated every ten years His opinion was followed by Ludovicus Faber and some others Anno du Bourge did add that many villanies were committed condemned by the Laws for punishment whereof the rope and fire were not sufficient viz. frequent blasphemies against God perjuries Adulteries not only secret but even cherished with impudent license making himself to be plainly understood that he spake not only of the Grandees of the Court but of the King himself also adding that while men lived thus dissolutely divers Torments were prepared against those who were guilty of nothing but of publishing to the World the vices of the Church of Rome and desiring an amendment of them In opposition of all this Egidius Magister the prime President spake against the new Sects concluding that there was no other remedy but that which was formerly used against the Albigenses of whom Philip Augustus put to death six hundred in one day and against the Waldenses who were choaked in the caves whither they retired to hide themselves All the voices being given the King said he had how heard with his own Ears that which before was told him that the contagion of the Kingdom doth hence arise that there are in the Parliament who do despise the Pope's Authority and His that he well knoweth they are but few but the cause of many evils Therefore he exhorted those who are good Subjects to continue in doing their duty and immediately gave order that Faber and du Bourg should be imprisoned and afterwards caused four more to be apprehended in their houses But at the same time as if there had been no danger at all the Ministers of the Reformed for so the Protestants are called in France assembled in Paris in the Suburbs of St. German made a Synod in which Francis Morellus the chief man among them was President ordaining divers constitutions of the manner of holding Councils of removing the domination in the Church of the Election and Offices of Ministers of censures of Marriages of Divorces of degrees of consanguinity and affinity that throughout all France they might not only have an Uniform Faith but Discipline also And their courage did increase because the same of the severity used in France coming into Germany the three Electors and other Protestant Princes sent Ambassadours to the King to disswade him from that rigour against the professours of their Religion But the King though he gave them a courteous Answer yet remitted nothing of the severity but after the Ambassadours were gone he deputed four Judges of the body of the Parliament in the causes of the prisoners with the Bishop of Paris and the Inquisitor Anthony de Mocares commanding them to proceed with all expedition Nicholas Clinet one of the Elders of the Church at Paris and Taurin Gravelle a Lawyer and Advocate in the Court of Paris and elder of the same Church were both burnt at Paris Bartholomew Hector was burnt at Thurin Mistriss Philippa de Luns was strangled at Paris Anno 1558. after she had a little felt the Flame with her Feet and Visage Of the same company was also Nicholas Cene a Physician Brother to Philip Cene above-mentioned and Martyred at Diion and Peter Gabart which two were brought forth to their execution Octob. 2. They were holden long in the Air over a small fire and their lower parts burnt off before that the higher parts were much harmed with the fire Nevertheless these Holy Men ceased not in all these torments to turn up their eyes to Heaven and to shew forth infinite Testimonies of their Faith and constancy In the same fire many Bibles and Testaments were burnt Among divers young Scholars and Students that were in the little Castle with Peter Gabart there were these two viz. Frederick Danville and Francis Rebezies neither of them being past 20 years of Age. How valiantly they behaved themselves in the cause of Christ what conflicts they had disputing with the Doctors of Sorbonne what confessions they made their own Letters left in writing do make Relation these valiantly suffered Martyrdom Crispin li. 6. comment Gallic de Statu Relig. Reipub. Rene Seau and John Almerick were almost wracked to death in prison and afterwards both of them dyed in prison John Bordel Matthew Vermeil Peter Bourdon Andrew de Fou at the Countrey of Bresil were also Martyrs Villegaignon Lieutenant to the French King brought three of them to the top of a Rock and there being half strangled without any Judgement threw them into the Sea The fourth viz. Andrew de Fou he caused by manifold allurements somewhat to incline to his sayings so he escaped the danger not without a great offence taken of a great part of the French-men in that Countrey Benet Romain a Mercer at Draguignan in Provence was wracked and burnt Francis Civaux who had been Secretary to the French Ambassadour here in England in Queen Maries time after being desirous to hear the word of God went to Geneva Also he was placed to be Secretrary to the Senate of Geneva where he continued about the space of a year Having then certain business he came to Diion where he was betrayed by a Priest apprehended and carried to prison and within seven days after was first strangled and then burnt Peter Arondeau of Rochel was burnt quick at the place called St. John in Greve at Paris The Heroick constancy which God gave hâ—m and wherein he endured victorious unto death was a mirrour of patience to Anne du Bourg Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris and to divers other then prisoners and was to them a preparation toward the like death which shortly after they suffered Thomas Moutard was burnt at Valenciennes Divers others also suffered Martyrdom at Paris for the profession of the Gospel Philip the second King of Spain after the death of his Wife Mary Queen of England was married to Elizabeth eldest Daughter to King Henry II. Philibert Emmanuel Duke of Savoy married with Marguarite the King 's only Sister and Charles Duke of Lorrain with Claude a younger Daughter of Franoe The King yielded to Philip all that he had taken from him as well on this side as beyond the Mountains To the Savoyard he restored Bresse Savoy and Piedmont to the Genevois the Isle of Corse and about four hundred places more conquered during the late fatal Wars which had made so many Provinces desolate ruined so many Castles Towns and Villages drunk up so much Christian blood and slain so many millions of Men of all qualities retaining nothing but the Territories of Boullen and Calais The prisons were now full of the Protestants the Marriages of the King's Daughters and Sister were solemnized with all the pleasures and sports that could be devised The Court exceeded in sumptuous Plays Masks Dances and Bon-fires the people expressed publick joy by reason of the peace with loud acclamations in these ceremonies But this pleasant Comedy was converted by a sad
Catastrophe into a mournful Tragedy The King on June 10. Anno 1558. would be one of the Challengers at the Tilt in St. Anthonie's street being seconded by the Dukes of Guise and Ferrara And to run his last course in favour of the Queen his Wife he sent a Lance to the Earl of Montgomery The Earl excuseth himself to run against his Majesty But having a second charge from the King to enter the List he runs and breaks his Lance upon the King's cuirass and with a splinter thereof his Bever being somewhat open strikes him so deep into the eye as on July 10. he dyed at his house of Tournelles in the 42 year of his Age. The King when he caused Faber and Anne du Bourg to be imprisoned vowed to see them burnt within few days if they persisted in their opinion but he was prevented by death The King's death in France which the Reformed did ascribe to miracle increased their courage though they durst not shew themselves openly in Paris For his Son Francis the second the new King after he was consecrated at Rhemes Septemb. 20. gave order to prosecute the process of the Counsellours who were in prison and deputed the president of St. Andreas and the Inquisitor Antonius Democares to discover the Protestants The Judges having gained some of the common sort formerly professours of that Religion had notice of the places where they secretly assembled Therefore many both men and women were imprisoned and many fled whose goods were confiscated after a citation by three Edicts And the example of Paris the same was done in Poytou Tholouse and Aix of Provence by the instigation of George Cardinal of Armignac who not to abandon that enterprize would not go to Rome to the election of the Pope using all diligence that those who were discovered might be apprehended The professours of that Religion being stirred up hereby and imboldened because they knew they were many sent about many writings against the King and Queen and those of Lorrain by whom the King was governed Authours of the persecution intermixing some points of Religion which being willingly read by all as things composed by publick liberty did imprint the new Religion in the minds of many In the end of the process against the Counsellours after a long contestation all were absolved except Anne du Bourg who was burnt on the eighteenth of December not so much by the inclination of the Judges as by the resolution of the Queen provoked against him because the Protestants did divulge in many writings and Libels spread abroad that the late King had been wounded in the eye by the providence of God for a punishment of his words used against du Bourg that he would see him burnt But the death and constancy of a man so conspicuous did make many curious to know what Religion that was for which he had so couragiously endured this punishment and made the number increase There was a great conspiracy in many parts of France into which many were entred and the major part for cause of Religion disdaining to see poor people drawn every day to be burned at the stake guilty of nothing but of zeal to worship God and to save their own souls To these were joyned others who thinking the Guisards to be the cause of all the disorders of the Kingdom judged it an Heroick Act to deliver it from oppression by taking the publick administration out of their hands Both these cloaked themselves with the cover of Religion to gain more followers and the better to confirm their minds caused the principal Lawyers of Germany and France and the most famous Protestant Divines to publish in writing that without violating the Majesty of a King and Dignity of the lawful Magistrate they might oppose with Arms the violent Domination of the house of Guise who offended true Religion and lawful Justice and kept the young King as it were in prison Great tumults of the people were raised in Provence Languedoc and Poitou whither the preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly By whose Sermons the number of Protestants did increase This general combination made the Governours of the Kingdom resolve that there was need of an Ecclesiastical remedy and that very quickly and a National Synod was proposed by the whole Council The Cardinal of Armignac said nothing was to be done without the Pope to which opinion some few Prelates did adhere But the Bishop of Valence said that France had Prelates of it's own to regulate the causes of Religion who best knew the wants of the Kingdom that it would be a great absurdity to see Paris burn having the Rivers of Some and Marne full of Water and to believe that water must be brought from Tibur to quench the fire The resolution of the Council was that there being need of a strong and sudden remedy the Prelates of the Kingdom should assemble to consider of these things and April 10. the Synod was intimated for the tenth of September A Currier was dispatcht to Rome to acquaint the Pope with this Resolution The Pope blameth the King for pardoning Hereticks and will not approve the National Synod but sendeth a Nuncio into Spain to disswade it And the King of Spain disswadeth the French King from the National Synod Therefore he dispatched away Antonio di Toledo Prior of Lyons to pray him not to go on herein The assaulting of Geneva was proposed But this proposition was not well taken in France because it would make the Protestants unite themselves Besides none going to that War but the Catholicks the Kingdom would be left open to the opposites The French King answered that he would not make a National Council to separate himself but to unite to the Church those that went astray that a general Council would more please and in likelihood be more profitable if his urgent occasions would suffer him to expect the time which must needs be very long that the National Council which he desireth shall depend upon the Apostolick See and the Pope which shall cease when the General shall be assembled and shall incorporate with it And that his deeds may answer to his words he desired the Pope to send a Legate into France with power to assemble the Bishops of the Kingdom and to settle the affairs of Religion The French King doth not think Trent a fit place for the Council nor that the Doctrines already discussed there should be maintained without re-examination This troubled the Pope who thought it did not proceed from the King 's own motion but from the Protestants The Protestants were formerly called Hugonots because the first conventions they had in the City of Tours where that belief first took strength and increased were in certain Cellars under-ground near Hugo's gate from whence they are by the vulgar sort called Hugonots Theodore Beza a man of great eloquence and excellent Learning having by his Sermons drawn many to embrace the Reformed Religion even
be enjoyned to bestow them not upon such as seek after them but on those that are worthy of them and avoid them and for certain proof of their Merits to make them Preach sometimes and those such as have taken some Degree in the Universities upon whom only Livings might be conferred by the consent of the Bishop and people Augustine Marlorat one of the Ministers of the Reformed Church at Rhoan in France was taken by the Guisians and hanged upon a Gibbet there before our Ladies Church He was a man excellently learned and of an unblameable Life who had the testimony even of the Papists themselves that in his Sermons he never uttered ought tending to Sedition or Rebellion He hath written upon Genesis Isaiah and the Psalms and an Ecclesiastical Exposition upon the New Testament which hath been well esteem'd of Clement Marot was a famous French Poet. Pasqu Recherch de la France li. 7. ca. 5. He turned fifty of Davids Psalms into French Metre which are read with admiration of his excellent Wit He set them forth at Geneva for he might not safely longer abide in France for suspicion of Lutheranism Marcus Antonius Muretus was a very eloquent and diligent Writer Scarce hath he passed by any Latine Authour either Historian Oratour or Poet which he hath not explained amended and restored to his purity either with his Commentaries Scholia or Notes Terence Petronius Tibullus Catullus Propertius Seneca Salust Tacitus His Book of divers readings sheweth how Learned he was His excellent Orations shew his great Eloquence Gesner mentions his Latine works and Antoine du Verdier his French Thuanus styles him Magnum non solum Galliae nostrae sed ipsius Romae lumen not only a great light of our France but also of Rome it self About this time Father Edmond in a Book of his Printed at Paris by Sebastian Nivelle and by him dedicated to King Charles IX with this Inscription The Pedagogue of Arms Le Pedagogue d'Armes ca. 8 9. to instruct a Christian Prince to undertake a good War well and accomplish it with success to be Victorious over all the Enemies of his State and of the Catholick Church gives such Rules as these That Wars have been alwaies accounted not only profitable but necessary That the Pope is bound to take Arms against Hereticks That to a Monarch undertaking such a War a man cannot urge any of his former Edicts or Ordinances That no man how Potent soever he be can Contract with an Infidel or one that hath revolted from his Conscience He gives this reason For what King is there how redoubted soever he be that can without falsifying his Oath made to God permit and give lieve to the Enemies of all truth and condemn'd by the general sentence of all the world to sow heresies in his Countries and allure souls He adds further That what conditions of Peace soever he can grant unto his Rebels in this case will not endure long But it will behove him not to awake such strong and Potent Enemies That to make a Peace with them at last he must resolve to make a good War And anon As oft as by the Articles of Peace licence is granted to every man to adhere to which of the two opposite Parties he please without being offended at it it is all one in my opinion as if one should cast a man into the fire and forbid him to burn himself In the seventh Chapter he saith If such persons were Infidels or hereticks I would never excuse the Monarch that having sufficient means in his own hands should not assay by all waies even of fact to reclaim such a Kennel or drive them far out of his Country out of the Territories of Catholicks And so much the more roughly ought he to proceed against them as he knows them perverse in all respects and of the Hugonote stamp which should be accounted the most pernicious most devilish upholders of lies that ever rose up against the Church Thus he Waseri Comment ad Mithrid Gesneri In this Age flourished Gulielmus Sallustius Bartassius and excellent French Poet. Ille Poetarum Gallicorum Coryphaeus Sallustius Barthasii Dominus cujus Poemata apud exteros etiam in laude sunt He is translated into many Languages He may be read in Latine French Italian English Dutch Pasquier sheweth that the French Poets imitating the Latine have often equalled and sometimes exceeded them Antoine du Verdier and Thuanus do commend him Near this time also lived Guido de Bres a holy Martyr He hath written against the Anabaptists in French of the Authority of the Magistrate and the immortality of the Soul Johannes Quiquarboreus was Professour of Hebrew and Chaldee to the French King in Paris There is his Chaldee Paraphrase with Scholia upon Ruth Lamentations Hosea Joel Amos. Franciscus Rabeloesus was a witty but Atheistical French writer and Doctor of Physick Robert Constantine was Beza's great friend he was saith Thuanus trium linguarum peritissimus most skilful in three Languages especially in Greek and Latine He lived till he was a hundred and three years old his Senses of Body and Mind being perfect and his Memory strong These are his Works Nomenclator insignium Scriptorum Dictionarium abstrusorum vocabulorum Lexicon Graeco-Latinum John Croy was a learned French Divine He hath written a Treatise entitled Observationes Sacrae Historicae in novum Testamentum That Bâ—â—k and his Specimen conjecturarum observationum in quaedam loca Origenis Irenaei Tertulliani Epiphanij c. and his French Book entitled La verite de la Religion Reformee declare him to be a good Linguist and a General Scholar He hath written a Book against Morinus not yet published but commended and quoted by those who have perused it John Morinus was a learned Papist There are his Exercitationes Biblicae de Hebraeo Graecoque Textu Exercit. Ecclesiasticae In the late Progress of King Charles IX was discharged all Preaching and exercising of the Reformed Religion in the Towns of France wherein it should happen the King to be during the time of his Progress Many new interpretations of the Edict of March were invented whereby the liberty granted to the Protestants was utterly infringed The Prince of Conde having heard that the Kings of France and Spain had made a League for the rooting out of the Protestants addresseth himself to the King on the behalf of the Protestants Symson Eccles Hist li. 1. Cent. 16. complaining that contrary to the Edict of March they were injured and cruelly slain demanding redress for the foresaid injuries and that they might have liberty to enjoy their Religion without molestation The King hearing of the Prince's coming being with four hundred Armed men with all expedition in great fear hastens to Paris and caused the Parisians to give thanks to God as if he had been delivered from a great peril and imminent danger After this the second War for Religion
which she received from an Italian the King 's Unguentary But the Marriage was celebrated notwithstanding on August 18. Anno 1572. Soon after viz. August 22. the Admiral as he went from the Louvre to his house was shot with two or three bullets in his arm This was taken in ill part by the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde desiring liberty to depart from Paris But the King with so many attestations protested his dislike in that matter and that he would diligently search out and severely punish the Authours of that deed that in some part he quieted the minds of the complainers The King likewise came to visit the Admiral pitifully lamenting the chance that was fallen out affirming the dishonour to be done to him although the Admiral had received the hurt He would also have had the Admiral transported to the Louvre for his better security to which the Admiral seemed unwilling Therefore the King appointed some of his own Guard to attend upon the Admiral 's house and the Protestants were required to prepare their Lodgings near to the Admiral 's house to be a Guard unto him in case any commotion should happen in the Town The Massacre of Paris August 24. Anno 1572. All this was done under deep dissimulation to put the Protestants in security that they should not once imagine of the Tragedy that was to come The night after was the appointed time for the horrible Massacre of the Protestants that were in Paris THe Duke of Guise went from Court with order from the King to find President Charron Provost des Merchans the chief Head of the people of Paris giving him direction to provide 2000. Armed men who should wear every one a shirt-sleeve upon their left arm and white Crosses in their hats which upon notice given were presently to execute the Kings commands That he should cause to be in readiness the Sheriffs Echevius they call them of the several Wards and that upon ringing of the Bell of the Palace-clock lights should be put in every window through the Town which things were all presently performed the Dukes of Montpensier and Nevers with many other Lords of the Court took Arms all the Guards being in Arms at the Gate and in the Court of the Louvre At the prefixed hour the Duke of Guise the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur d'Angolesme Grand-Prior of France the King's Bastard-Brother with other Commanders and Souldiers to the number of 300. going to the Admiral 's house forcibly entred the gate of the Court kept by a few of the King of Navarre's Halberdiers and the servants of the house which were all killed without mercy The Lords stayed below in the Court and one Besme a Lorainer and Achille Petrucci a Gentleman of Siena one of those Strangers which he maintained with Colonel Sarlabous and the other Souldiers went up to the Admiral 's chamber He hearing the noise got up and kneeling down leaned against his Bed when seeing Cornason one of his servants come frighted in he asked him what noise it was who answered My Lord God calls us to him and ran out hastily at another door They presently entring Besme ran him into the Breast and the rest when they had made an end of killing him with their Daggers threw his body out of the window into the Court and presently it was dragged into a stable In the same Palace were slain Teligny the Admiral 's Son-in-Law and Guerchy his Lieutenant who wrapping his Cloak about him died fighting manfully Colonel Montaumar and Raura Son to the Baron des Adrets with all the rest that had relation to him Then the Colonel of the King's Guards called the Principal Hugonots that were in the Louvre one by one who being come in the Court were all killed by the Souldiers that stood in two long Ranks with their Arms ready for that purpose There died the Count de la Roch-fou-caut the Marquess de Renel Piles who had gallantly defended Saint Jean de Angeli Pontbreton Pulviault Bandine Francourt Chancellour to the King of Navarre Pardillan Lavardin and others to the number of 200. Then at the ringing the Bell of the Palace-Clock they fell a killing the Hugonots throughout all the Lodgings and houses where they were dispersed making an infinite slaughter of them without any distinction of Age Sex or Condition The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were kept in the King's Chamber during the Massacre and after are kept Prisoners They are threatened except they will renounce that Religion which they professed they shall surely die The King of Navarre requested the King to regard that new bond of friendship that was bound up between them and not to urge him so strictly to forsake that Religion wherein he had been trained up from his youth The Prince of Conde added that his life was in the King's hands to dispose of it as it pleased him But as for his Religion he had received the knowledge of it from God and he would not renounce it for any fear or danger of this present life Some of the Protestants then lodged in the Fobers of S. German as Count Montgomery and the Vidame of Chartres for intercepting of whom the King had given command to the Dean of Gild of Paris to have in readiness 1000. Armed Souldiers But these Souldiers were not in readiness so they escaped The Duke of Guise the Count of Angolesme and others pursued them to Montfort which is eight leagues distant from Paris but could not overtake them and so returned back again to Paris Besides the Nobility more than ten thousand persons were slain whose bodies were laid on heaps upon carts and cast into the River Seine which was coloured red with the blood of the slain Peter Ramus was slain at this time he was the King's Professour of Eloquence and Philosophy at Paris in the 36. year of his age In the 21. year of his age he published a Logick with animadversions upon Aristotle Being murthered his body was reproachfully dragged up and down the streets and many of his works unperfected there perished Jacobus Pascharius hath these Verses of him Fertilior quavis cùm sit sacer arbore Ramus Arboris hic dignus nomine Ramus erit Dionysius Lambinus a very learned man was also slain in this Massacre John Mercer a learned Protestant a man well skilled in the Hebrew tongue and Hebrew writers succeeded Vatablus in the Profession of the Hebrew tongue at Paris He escaped at the cruel Massacre at Paris being thrown into the River and after put forth his learned Commentary on Genesis Peter Merlin a godly and learned French Divine who was Beza's Scholar was miraculously preserved in that Massacre In many other Towns there was a general slaughter of Protestants So that within the space of a month more than thirty thousand were reckoned to be slain To all this Tragedy was added the defection of Rozarius a Preacher at Orleans by whose Apostasie
repealed or of any Custom or Priviledge or any other manner whatsoever or that make use of them when they are made and ordained when by them the Ecclesiastical liberty is abolished impaired depressed or restained in any manner whatsoever or who do any prejudice to our Laws and those of our See directly or indirectly implicitely or explicitely See yet another which follows after this Those likewise who do any ways hinder the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates superiour and inferiour and all other ordinary Ecclesiastical Judges in the exercise of their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction against any person according as the Canons the sacred Constitutions of the Church the Decretals of General Councils and principally that of Trent do ordain There is further in the same Bull some Excommunications against those which appeal from the Pope's Sentence to General Councils Against those that hinder Clergy or Lay-men from going to plead at Rome which is a remarkable thing Against Kings and Princes which make the fruits of Ecclesiastical Livings to be sequestred upon any occasion whatsoever which concerns the right of the Crown Against those which impose any Tenths Subsidies or other Taxes All this was levell'd against the rights of the King and the liberties of the Gallican Church Rebuff in praxi benefic de union benef num 28. A Bull had been granted by Pope Alexander VI. in the year 1500. for the union of the Parish-Church of Doway with the Chapter of the Cathedral-Church of the same place But the Parliament of Paris upon the appeal Papon lib. 3. tit 8. art 2. as from abuse exhibited from the Curate of Doway to stop the Execution of it disannulled the union by an Arrest of the first of May 1575. because there wanted a Writ for Commission In Partibus Divers other unions besides have been declared to be abusive because they were made without the consent of the Lay-Patrons and the Bulls have been annulled as well by the Parliaments as by the Grand Council King Charles IX in his demands of the Council of Trent required a reformation of the abuses of Fraternities That Council found nothing to be corrected in them but tacitely confirmed them by ordaining That the Administrators of them shall give account of their Administration every year unto the Ordinary We read that Leagues and Monopolies and Conspiracies against the State have been hatched in such Fraternities as these and that disorders and other unlawful things have been committed among them They have been prohibited in all well policied Kingdoms and Common-wealths and particularly in France where we must observe That as they have been Instruments of trouble and dissoluteness so they have been judged hurtful to peace and concord And for that reason they are condemned by the Edicts and Declarations of the French Kings as the Mothers or at least the Companions of Conspiracies For they are so joyned together by the same Ordinances as in that of King Henry III. of September 1577. And all Leagues Associations and Fraternities made or to be made under any pretence whatsoever to the prejudice of this our Edict shall be utterly void and of no effect And in that of the same Prince given the 20. of December in the same year We expresly forbid all our said Subjects of what quality soever they be to begin make or prosecute any League Association or Fraternity among themselves to the prejudice of our said Edict of Pacification The forty fourth Article of the Conference of Flex saith in express terms All the foresaid viz. Provosts Majors Consuls Sheriffs of Towns c. mentioned in the former Article and other Subjects whatsoever of this Realm of what Condition soever shall depart from and renounce all Leagues Associations Fraternities and Intelligences as well within the Realm as without Duke Casimire had no sooner turned his back from France but they began to find the Peace to be counterfeit being made only to disarm them and to divide the Commanders The Prince of Conde first felt the breach of these Promisâ—s They deny him his Government of Picardy Peronne is seized upon Divers enterprizes upon the Princes person make him to leave the Duke of Alançon and to retire into Guienne to the King of Navarre who had before declared himself for the Protestants and whom those of Rochel received into their Town with much honour on June 28. All such of his Train aâ— they suspected were excluded Upon denial of Peronne the King granted to the Prince the Town of S. Jean d'Angeli but the Inhabitants had a Watchword and a mutual Oath after the manner of a private League made by sixty Gentlemen of Poitou who would have no exercise of any Religion but the Catholick to maintain one another and not to give access to any one of what Religion soever to the end their quiet might not any way be disturbed The Prince finding this repulse caused some Captains to enter secretly and so assured himself of the place But finding this place too weak for the assurance of his Person in the end of October he takes Brovage a strong place near unto Rochel The Protestants complain unto the King that in divers places they are disturbed in the exercise of their Religion granted by the Edict That many Preachers move the people to Sedition That the Chambers of both Religions are not erected and that justice is denied them That both great and small bandy against them And they produce ample proofs of these complaints Now those of the house of Guise studied to discover those terrible Projects which they had long hatched Their chief designs were to overthrow the succession brought in by Hugh Capet in the full assembly of the States and to cause the naming of a Successour to be subject unto the said Estates to cause the Princes of the blood that should oppose against the Decrees of the Estates to be declared incapable to succeed unto the Crown And the residue of what qualities soever Noble-men Gentlemen and others to be degraded of their Dignities the money growing of their Confiscations to be employed for the War and their Bodies to be executed To make the Estates protest to live and die in the Faith set down by the late Council of Trent to cause it to be signed in the open Parliament To revoke and disannul all publick Edicts in favour of the Protestants and their Associates and to pursue them to the death that should hinder the extirpation of Heresies De Serres Hist in vit Henry III. To cause the King to revoke the Promises made unto the Protestants and to prescribe a certain time unto their Associates in the which they should present themselves before the Ecclesiastical Judges to be absolved and then to be sent unto the King to purchase pardon of the Crimes committed against his Majesty To cause the King to make the Duke of Guise his Lieutenant General A League of the Guisian Faction a Person fit to encounter the Rebellion of Princes
that should seek to hinder the effect of the precedent Articles To cause Judges to be appointed to examine the crime committed by the Duke of Alançon declaring himself Chief of the Hereticks To cause the said Duke to come to Court with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde and to seize upon the said Duke King and Prince and all their Accomplices That the Captains that should be under the Duke of Guise should put all Protestants and adherents to the Sword both in the Country and in Walled Towns To subdue the revolted Princes To be Masters of the Field To block up the Towns that were opposite and to put all to fire and sword that should make head against them Then to take exemplary punishment of the Duke of Alanâ—on now henceforth to be called the Duke of Anjou and his Complices Then by the Pope's consent to put the King and Queen into a Monastery as King Pipin in former time had done Childeric and in favour of the Roman See to abolish the liberties and priviledges of the French Church These high projects were hearkened unto received and favoured in the Court of Rome The Articles of this Association were first drawn at Peronne in Picardy but disguised with goodly shews to blind them that would examine them more exactly which were To maintain the Law of God to restore the holy service thereof To preserve the King and his Successours in the Estate Dignity Service and Obedience due unto him by his Subjects To restore unto the Estates of the Realm their Rights Preheminencies and Ancient Liberties And for the execution of these Articles a certain form of Oath was propounded inflicting pains of eternal damnation to the Associates that for any pretext whatsoever should withdraw themselves from this League and a Bond for such should be enrolled to employ their goods persons and lives to punish and by all means to ruine the enemies and perturbers thereof and to punish them that should fail or make any delays by the Authority of the Head as he should think good This being done many Posts went to and fro carrying the news of these designs They cast many Libels through the Streets in many great Towns They murmure that the Protestants are too much supported by the Edict And under this plausible name of the Church the people give ear to such as are ready to thrust them into Mutiny The King was daily advertised of these things But on the other side he hated the Protestants and sought to ruine them by degrees but not by any Instruments without his Authority His Mother likewise hated them to the death She causeth the Duke her Son to come to the Court and the King to be reconciled to him The King calls an Assembly of the States at Bloyes where Peter d'Espinac Arch-Bishop of Lions and the Baron of Senecey are Speakers the one for the Clergy the other for the Nobility and both conclude a publick Exercise of one only Religion in France Peter Versoris Advocate in the Court of Parliament in Paris Oratour for the third Estate insists on the Union of all the Kings Subjects in one Religion but by mild means and without War The King seemed to encline only to alter some Articles in the last Edicts of Pacification and not to abolish it quite But at length the King consenteth to root out all other Religion but the Popish to banish all Ministers Deacons and Overseers of the Reformed Religion and yet to take all his other Subjects of the said Religion into his protection attending that by better instructions they might be brought into the bosome of the Church But the King of Navarre the Prince of Conde the Marshal of Montmorency d'Anville and other Noble-men both of the one and the other Religion refusing to assist at this present Parliament conclude a nullity of all that was Decreed to prejudice the Edict of Pacification protesting to maintain themselves in the Rights Liberties and Freedoms which the last Edict had granted them The King of Navarre beseecheth the Estates by the Duke of Montpensier who was sent unto him not to infringe the Edict of Peace but to suffer the Protestants to enjoy that which had been so formerly granted He desireth time to attend the opinion of an Assembly of those of his Religion and of the Catholick-Associates which was to be shortly made at Montaubon The Prince of Conde answers more sharply That he doth not acknowledge the Assembly at Bloys for the Estates of the Realm but a Conventicle of persons corrupted by the sworn enemies of the Crown who have sollicited the abolition of the Edict to the subversion of the Realm That he hath alwaies honoured the Clergy and Nobility but he pities the people whom this Assembly at Bloys sought to ruine The chief of the Politicks declare that they adhere not to any other Religion than that of their Fathers but they are against the taking from the Protestants the publick Exercise which had been so solemnly allowed them The Duke of Montpensier being returned perswaded to have the Edict confirmed John Bodin a man famous for Learning and experience in State-affairs one of the Deputies of the Commons of Vermandois sheweth to the Assembly how ruinous and fatal the new taking up of Arms would be repeating from the beginning all the dangers and miseries of the late Wars which made a deep impression on the minds of the third Estate But the other Orders being byassed and pre-ingaged it was determined by plurality of voices that request should be made unto the King to establish only the Romish Religion in the Kingdom and to exclude for ever all Communion with the Hugonots Nevertheless Bodin procured certain words to be entred in the Records of the Order of Commons to certifie their desire of unity in Religion without the noise of Arms and the necessity of War This Bodin was a man eminent as well among Protestants as Papists though himself professed the Romish Religion His Learning and skill in Politicks appears in his great Book de Republicâ Thuanus highly commendeth his writings Possevine dislikes his Methodus Historica because he makes such honourable mention of the Protestants there Some commend his Theatrum Naturae for a choice piece a Book full of natural curiosities The King gives notice to his Governours and publisheth by his Letters Patents that he is resolved to grant the Estates their requests touching the Exercise of one only Religion And thus the sixth Civil War begins in Guienne During the Parliament the Deputies of the Low Countries demand succours of the King and the Duke of Anjou for Pfotectour of their Liberties against the insolencies of the Spaniards Anjou is now declared the King's Lieutenant General They deliver him a mighty Army with which contrary to the Oath taken by him in the observation of the accord and promise pass'd with the Prince of Conde and Duke Casimire he besiegeth and taketh La-Charitè by Composition and Ysoire in
had lately taken Geneva into his Protection shewing clearly to all the world how little he esteemed the Catholick Religion and how much he was inclined to the enemies of the Bishop and See of Rome That therefore he had excluded all the Catholick Lords from any access to the Court or administration in the Government particularly those who had spilt so much blood for the preservation of the Kingdom and Religion and had brought in a new people that were privy to his designs and friends to the House of Bourbon That therefore he deprived all the old Servants of the Crown of all their Offices and Honours of the most Principal Governments and most suspected Fortresses to put them into the hands of men that were Catholicks in shew but really partial to Hereticks and inwardly adherents to the King of Navarre He added that notwithstanding the King 's publick shews of Devotion yet in his private Lodgings he gave himself over to the unbridled lusts of the flesh and to the perverse satisfying of his loose depraved appetite From which things set forth with many specious reasons he concluded it was time to unite themselves for their own defence and to destroy those designs before they were brought unto perfection Now the Duke of Guise by means of the Preachers and Friers in Pulpits and other places of Devotion labours to insinuate the Catholick League into the People Among these the chief were Guilliaume de la Rose a man of great eloquence who came afterward to be Bishop of Senlis Jean Prevost chief Priest of S. Severin an eloquent and learned man Jehan Boucher by birth a Parisian and Curate of S. Benet's Parish in the same City one Poncet a Frier in the Abby of S. Patrick at Melun Don Christin of Nizza in Provence and Jehan Vincestre all famous Preachers And finally most part of the Jesuites And as these prosecuted the business of the League in Paris the same was done at Lions by Claude Mattei a Priest of the same Society at Soissons by Mathew de Launoy Canon of that Cathedral at Roven by Father Egide Blovin of the Order of the Minims at Orleans by Bourlate a very noted Divine at Thoul by Francois de Rosier Arch-Deacon of that Church and an infinite number of others dispersed through the several places of France who by their Credit and Eloquence sometimes in their Pulpits sometimes in the Congregations of the Penitents sometimes in their secret conferences at Confessions did allure the people and entice them to enter into that Combination which it is likely very many did out of a respect to Religion believing that thereby the Calvinists would utterly be rooted out and the Authority of the Church be restored to its pristine greatness But many entred into that League invited by other ends and drawn to it by different hopes or else necessitated by their particular interests though all shrouded themselves under the same cloak of the preservation and maintenance of Religion Charles Cardinal of Bourbon the third Brother of Anthony King of Navarre and Louys Prince of Conde deceased and Unkle to Henry the present King of Navarre is desired for the Head of the League a man alwaies most observant of the Romish Religion and an open enemy to the Hugonots Then the Preachers did publickly in all places term the King a Tyrant and favourer of Hereticks the people did applaud them and from this deadly hatred which they had conceived against the King his Council and favourites sprung that fury which soon after was dispersed over all the body of France On July 15. 1582. Renauld of Beaune Archbishop of Bourges and Primate of Aquitain had then spoken at Fountainbleau in this sort The whole Church Christian and Catholick assisted by the Legates and Ambassadours of the Emperour of this your Kingdom and of all other Christian Princes Did call assemble and celebrate the Council of Trent where many good and wholesome Constitutions useful for the Government of the Church were ordained To which Council all the Legates and Ambassadours did solemnly swear in the behalf of their Masters to observe and keep and cause it to be inviolably kept by all their Subjects yea even the Ambassadours of this your Kingdom solemnly took that Oath Now it is received and observed by all Christian Catholick Kings and Potentates this Kingdom only excepted which hath hitherto deferred the publication and receiving of it to the great scandal of the French Nation and of the Title MOST CHRISTIAN wherewith your Majesty and your Predecessours have been honoured so that under colour of some Articles touching the liberty of the Gallican Church the stain of Schism resteth upon your Kingdom among other Countries Wherefore the Clergy doth now most humbly beseech your Majesty that you would be pleased to hearken to this publication and make an end of all to the glory of God and the union of his Church There was a Nuncio from the Pope who arrived in France in the beginning of the year 1583. who prosecuted this matter with great vehemency yet for all this he could not move King Henry III. at all the King of Navarre having written to King Henry III. concerning it the King of France made him this answer Brother Those that told you that I would cause the Council of Trent to be published were not well-informed of my intentions for I never so much as thought it Nay I kiow well how such publication would be prejudicial to my affairs and I am not a little jealous of the preservation of my Authority the priviledges of the Church of France and also of the observation of my Edict of Peace But it was only proposed unto me to cull out some certain Articles about Ecclesiastical Discipline for the Reforming of such abuses as reign in that State to the glory of God the edifying of my Subjects and withal the discharge of my conscience A thing which never toucheth in those Rules which I have set down in my Edicts for the Peace and tranquillity of my Kingdom which I will have inviolably kept on both sides On October 14. 1585. the Bishop and Earl of Noyon in the name of the Clergy assembled in the Abbey of St. German near Paris presented to the King a Book written by the advice of the Prelates of the Council of Trent They told him They brought unto him the Book of the Law of God which they humbly entreated him to receive The Provincial Synod held at Roven made this instance to the same Prince After that a good number of Bishops and Proxies for those that were absent together with Ecclesiastical Personâ— from all quarters of our Province of Normandy were met in our Metropolitan Church at Roan they tendered nothing more than earnestly to sollicite the publishing and promulgation of the Council of Trent within this Realm Wherefore this our Assembly by common consent have resolved to present their humble Petition to our most Christian King in like manner as was
requite their duty and fidelity both in publick and in particular but desired they would not think it strange if he did not so presently satisfie their first requests because the quality of the thing demanded required a convenient time of advice and the ripeness of a grounded resolution That he set a greater value upon his Soul and Conscience than upon all earthly greatness That he had been bred in the Reformed Religion but nevertheless he would not be obstinate That he was ready to submit himself either to a General or National Council and to the instructions which without palliating the truth should be given him by learned conscientious persons That he had a firm resolution to endeavour the satisfaction of his Subjects but that conjuncture was not proper to put his good desires in effect lest his action and declaration should seem feigned and extorted by force or else perswaded by worldly interests Wherefore he intreated them to stay till a fit opportunity and if in the mean time they desired any condition or security for the maintenance of the Catholick Religion he was ready to give them all the satisfaction they could wish for After their departure the Sieur de la Nove a Protestant tells the King he must never think to be King of France if he turn not Catholick At last it was concluded that the King taking a prefixed time for his turning to the Romish Religion he should secure the State of the Catholick Religion and that upon those terms they would receive and follow him And at last a writing was mutually agreed on between both Parties whereby the Popish Princes Lords and Officers of the Crown Nobility and Souldiery on the one side swear fidelity to the King and on the other side the King swears to the maintenance of the Popish Religion The Duke of Espernon standing upon precedency will not sign the writing but departs from Court Many Lords and a great part of the Souldiers following the Duke of Espernon's example leave the Camp so that in few daies the Army is decreased to half the number Many of the Protestants also disbanded out of anger and discontent and returned in great abundance to the Cities of their party The King raiseth the siege from Paris and divides his Forces into convenient places The Cardinal of Bourbon is taken out of Chinon and removed to Fontenay a stronger place where he is kept with stricter Guards The Duke of Luxembourg is sent Ambassadour to the Pope by the Catholick Royallists and the King appoints the Assembly at Tours which is made the Head-quarter of his party The body of King Henry III. is laid in the great Church of Compeign with very little Pomp and such as the necessity of the times would permit by King Henry IV. who went towards Normandy with all possible speed The King's Army is reduced to but 6000. Foot and 1400. Horse yet he marcheth with good success as far as Diepe where he fortifies his quarters possessing all places of advantage The Duke of Mayenne being come before the King's trenches draws his Army in Battalia but the King's Souldiers coming only to skirmish no Battel followeth They that were in the League making signs of coming over to the King's party are received by them at the Maladery but being entred in an hostile manner fall upon them that had brought them in and make themselves masters of the place whereupon both Armies joyn Battel and the King being relieved by Monsieur de Chastillon recovereth the trenches and the Duke of Mayenne marcheth from Diepe with his Army The King came to Amiens the chief City of Picardy where he was entertained with very great pomp being met without the Gates by all the Citizens who presented unto him a Canopy of State to be carried over him as the custom is to do unto the King but he refused it giving great testimony of his prudence and moderation by an act of so great modesty Whilst he stayed at Amiens Elizabeth Queen of England first sent him twenty thousand pounds Sterling with Powder Munition for War and certain Ships also to serve at his command and causing a general Muster to be taken in most of the Shires of England she sent 4000. English Souldiers and 1000. Scots very well appointed and furnished All the money he presently distributed among his Souldiers The General of the English was the Noble Peregrine Barty Lord Willoughby which Forces were again recruited with a supply of three thousand Foot which were sent into Britany under the Conduct of that Son of Mors Sir John Norris These joyning with the Prince of Dombes General of that Province did many worthy exploits for the French King The King now marcheth towards Paris having in his Army 20000. Foot 3000. Horse and fourteen great Pieces He assaults the Suburbs of Paris upon All-Saints-day and taking them gives the Pillage to the Souldiers In the assault above 900. Parisians were slain and more than 400. taken Prisoners among which Father Edmond Burgoine Prior of the Covent of Jacobins who being convicted by witness to have publickly in the Pulpit praised the Murder of Henry III. and to have counselled and instigated the murderer comparing him also in his Sermons after the fact to Judith and the dead King to â—olofernes and the City delivered to Bethulia he was by Judgement of the Parliament of Tours Sentenced to be drawn in pieces by four Horses his quarters burned and his ashes scattered in the wind Which Sentence was some few months after severely executed Yet notwithstanding the pillaging of the Suburbs charge was given not to violate either Churches Monasteries or other Sacred places which was so exactly observed that Masses were said that day in all Churches as if there had been no such business and all the Romanists in the King's Army were present at them celebrating that Holy-day with great rejoycing But at the arrival of the Duke of Mayenne the King leaves the Suburbs of Paris and coming to Estampes he causeth it to be dismantled Many successes hapned to the King's party through all France The King takes Vendosme and gives the pillage to his Souldiers condemns the Governour to death for his unfaithfulness and Father Robert a Cordelier who had there publickly commended the King's murderer and with his Sermons excited the people At this time flourished Lambertus Danaeus a French Divine of Orleans Quin Lamb. Danaeus vir sanâ— apprime eruditus de instruendis aliis optimè meritus Physicam suam Theologicam tam ex Veteri quam novo codice non in utili labore exstruxit Tych. Brah. Ep st Astron lib. 1. Henry IV. is acknowledged King of France with publick solemnity at Tours he defers the Assembling of the States and in short time makes himself Master of all the Towns and Fortresses of Normandy The Pope resolves to send aid to the League against the King He declares Cardinal Henrico Gaetano Legate to the League of France He appointed moreover
of Mayenne posts to Paris to appease this tumult and causeth Louchart Auroux Hamelin and Emmonot four of the chief of the Council of Sixteen which were most guilty to be strangled The King marcheth into Normandy layes siege to the City of Roven The Duke of Parma with the Spanish Army marcheth to relieve that place They fight at Aumale the King is wounded his men routed and he is put hard to it to save himself Villars the Governour of Roven sallying out enters the trenches and gains the Artillery The Duke of Parma retiring the King returns to Roven and reneweth the siege The Duke of Parma also returns to bring relief and the King's Forces being wasted he riseth from the siege and marcheth to the Banks of the River of Seine Those of the League begin to think of a peace The Catholicks of the King's party are displeased that the peace should be treated by the Sieur de Plessis a Hugonot The Mareschal de Biron is killed with a Canon shot before Espernay The King wept bitterly at the news of his death The Baron de Biron to revenge the death of his Father scales a great Tower at Espernay and takes it but is sorely wounded and the Town is delivered up into the hands of the Duke of Nevers Governour of thâ—t Province August 9. 1592. Now the King desireth a reconciliation with the Catholick Church by way of agreement not by way of pardon The King takes Dreux and being constrained by the importunities of his own Catholick party who threaten to forsake him resolves to change his Religion And being instructed by the Archbishop of Bourges by René Benoist Curate of S. Eustache of Paris and of some other Doctors desires to be admitted into the bosom of the Romish Church And on July 25. he went to Mass at St. Dennis and made a publick and solemn Profession to the said Arbhbishop assisted by Charles Cardinal of Bourbon Archbishop of Roven and Nephew to the deceased nine Bishops with many other Prelates and Religious men protesting to live and die in the Romish Religion swearing to defend it against all men Having made profession of his Faith he performed all Ceremonies requisite in so solemn an Act and then he received absolution and blessing with wonderful joy and acclamation of the people Presently after this Act the King sent the Duke of Nevers the Marquess of Pisani and Henry of Gondy Bishop of Paris to the Pope to yield obedience by them to the See of Rome to beseech him to allow of his Conversion and to countenance it with his own blessing Whilst Elizabeth Queen of England upon account of Religion did with so great expences relieve the French King a strong rumour was spread in England that he either would or had already changed his Religion hereupon was Thomas Wilkes sent over into France to understand the certainty thereof But before his arrival the King had made a publick Profession of the Popiâ—h Religion at St. Dennis as hath been before expressed although some Papists of Religious Orderâ— at that time plotted against his life But he ingenuously declared unto Wilkes the causes that moved him to forsake his Religion And Morlante the French Agent in the mean time telleth the Queen all the very same things and with fair and specious words offereth her all kindness in the King his Masters behalf The Queen being much troubled and disquieted in mind snatched up her Pen and a while after sent this Letter to him Alas what deep sorrow Cambden hist of Q. Eliâ—abeâ—h what vehement grief what sighs have I felt at my heart for the things which Morlante hath told me of Alas is the world come to this pass Was it possible that any worldly matter should make you quit the fear of God can we expect any happy issue of such a fact or could you think that He who hath hitherto with his own right hand upholden and preserved you would now forsake you It is a very dangerous thing to do evil that good may come of it Yet I hope a sober spirit will put you into a better mind In the mean time I will not omit to make it a principal part of my prayers the recommending you to God beseeching him that the hands of Esau may not lose you the blessing of Jacob. Whereas you do Religiously and solemnly offer me your friendship I know to my great cost I have well deserved it neither should I repent that had you not changed your Father Verily from henceforth I cannot be your Sister by the Father for the truth is I shall ever more dearly love and honour my own Father than a false and counterfeit one which God knoweth very well who I beseech him bring you back again to a better mind Subscribed Your Sister if it be after the old manner as for the new I have nothing to do with it Elizabeth R. Yet notwithstanding a Contract was made between him and the Queen at Melun in the Month of August to make War offensive and defensive against the Spaniards And the Queen recommended again and again the Reformed Religion and the Professours thereof to his Care and Protection by Sir Robert Sidney He promised Thâ—t as he had been hitherto their Protectour so he would not for the future fail them though most of the Nobler sort of them had forsaken him On August 26. Peter Barrier born at Orleans was taken Prisoner at Melun where the King then was by the discovery of a Jacobin Florentine to whom he had confessed himself in Lions He confessed that seduced and perswaded by a Capuchin of Lions and afterwards confessed by Aubry Curate of St. Andrews des Acts at Paris by his Vicar and by Father Varade a Jesuite he was come thither expresly to murther the King The Priest revealing this Crime incurs no Ecclesiastical censure The wretch was found seized of a sharp knife with two edges He was pinched with hot Pincers his right hand burnt off holding the said knife his arms legs and thighs broken and his body burnt to ashes and cast into the River Upon a general surceasing of Arms the King assembled some of the chief of the Realm at Mante especially to hear the complaints of such as stood in doubt of the King's change in Religion and were grieved at divers contraventions of his Majesties Edicts whereby they suffered wrongs in all Provinces For the Partisans of Spain continually exclaimed of the incompatibility of two Religions in France and many were of opinion That the King ought not to be admitted but he should promise expresly to banish all such as made Profession of any other Religion than that which he did embrace or at least to abolish all publick Profession But the King employed all his care to unite his people in concord Vitry desiring to be the first that should re-enter under the King's obedience as he had been the first that had separated from it brought back the City of Meaux Aix
causes of that ruine Among the writings of John Guignard of Chartres were found certain scandalous libels against the King for which he was executed And one Francis Jacob a Scholar of the Jesuites of Bourges had lately said he would have killed the King but that he held him for dead and that another had done the deed Anno 1595. The Duke of Mayenne and Nemours yield unto the King and are received unto Grace The King of France is now admitted to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome upon these conditions and in these words He shall abjure all Heresies and profess the Catholick Faith in such form as shall be here done by his Ambassadours He shall introduce the Catholick Faith into the Principality of Bearn and shall nominate Catholick Magistrates in the said Province he shall procure within a year the Prince of Conde out of the hands of the Hereticks whom he shall cause to be instructed and brought up in the Catholick Religion The Decrees of the Council of Trent shall be published and received throughout the whole Kingdom of France He shall nominate to the vacant Churches and Monasteries such as are Catholicks and free from all suspicion of Heresie He shall do his best endeavour that the Churches and Clergy be invested anew in their Livings that have been seised upon without any judicial proceeding In bestowing of Magistracies and Dignities he shall take care that Catholicks only be preferred and that Heteticks as near as may be may be expelled The Concordates shall be observed and all abuses removed which have crept in contrary to the same The absolution in France granted by the Bishops shall be condemned He shall write letters to all the Princes of Christendom wherein he shall give notice of his Conversion and profession of the Catholick Faith The Pope granted his Absolution on September 16. by the Negotiation and pursuits of d'Ossat and du Perron his Procurers in the Court of Rome These were afterwards upon his recommendation honoured with Cardinals Caps After a War between the French and Spaniards a Peace was concluded between France and Spain Anno 1598. Then the French King who had hitherto flourished in Martial glory having now his thoughts wholly setled upon peace did so promote the welfare of France which had run headlong to ruine for many years through the storms of Civil War by maintaining and supporting Religion as well the Roman as the Reformed reviving the Laws cherishing Learning restoring Trade and Commerce and beautifying the Kingdom with splendid buildings that he far surpassed all the Kings that were before him In the year 1599. the King's Sister the Lady Katherine de Bourbon was married to the Duke of Bar Son to the Duke of Lorain The Reformed Religion in which she had been bred she would not change by reason as she said of her deceased Mother Queen Joane of Navarre whose life and actions were held worthy to be imitated as who had preferred safety of Conscience before assurance of honours and greatness yea than life it self Being accustomed to say to them on her part that Arms should not be laid down but with these three Conditions either an assured Peace an absolute Victory or an honest Death The Marriage was consummate in the King 's own Cabinet by the Archbishop of Roven at the King 's special Command to avoid greater inconvenencies She cordially affected that which did concert the Liberty of Conscience throughout all France often beseeching the King to let her see the assurances thereof whilst she was in France and not to suffer his Edicts to remain without execution being Proclaimed and without a durable observation being executed She used to be attended in her house by the Ministers of Paris who served her by turns every one a quarter of a year Being then to go into Lorain with her Husband the Church appointed Monsieur de Montigni an Antient Minister to attend her in that journey But M. Peter du-Moulin then coming to Paris the Old Gentleman desired to be excused and that the new Minister as fitter to travel by reason of his age might be chosen for that service To which motion the Princess presently enclined having a special liking to Du Moulin See the Life of Dr. Du Moulin wâ—itten by his worthy Son He took then that journey and because the Princess was entertained in Bishops Palaces and Abbeys he did officiate in the Palace of the Bishop of Meaux in that of the Bishop of Chalons and in the Abbey of Joverre The Harbingers of the Princess being come to Vitris le Francois a Town of Champagne addressed themselves to the chief Magistrate of the Town to prepare quarters for the Princess and her Court. Since Du-Moulin's establishment at Paris till the death of the King's Sister which was five years after he made a journey into Lorain every Spring either with her or to her and having served his quarter at her Court returned to Paris there the Princess was most part of the year Those of the Reformed Religion made many and great complaints that the King's Edicts were not kept nor observed that they were not provided of all things necessary for the exercise of their Religion the liberty of their Consciences and safety of their persons and fortunes That they were excluded from all charges and Offices in the State justice treasure and policie to the great prejudice of their Children c. The end of all their Assemblies was to obtain an Edict from the King so clear and plain as they should not be constrained to sue for any other Then the King made an Edict at Nantes and signed it after he had reduced that Province to his obedience containing a Declaration of the Edicts of Pacification and of the troubles grown in France for matter of Religion the which though granted in April 1598. was not allowed in the Court of Parliament of Paris until the 25. day of February following by reason of the many oppositions and difficulties that were made against it The Duchess of Bar would not go out of Paris before it was confirmed such was her zeal and affection in that matter as in all other affairs of that nature And for the better satisfaction of the Protestants in matters of justice it pleased King Henry IV. to erect a Chamber in the Court of Parliament of Paris purposely for them It consisted of one President and Sixteen Counsellours their Office to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the Reformed Religion as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris as also in Normandy and Britain till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliament of Burdeaux and Grenoble and one at Chasters for the Parliament of Tholouse These Chambers were called les Chambres de l'Edict because they were established by a special Edict at Nantes in Britain The Duke of Joyeuse wallowing in sensual pleasures being
they connive at the punishment of crimes whereof they have the Cognizance the Courts of Parliaments may interpose by means of an Appeal as from Abuses especially considering it is it that grants them Jurisdiction over Spirituals And if the Question be of granting pardon to a Priest or other Ecclesiastick not only in a priviledged case but also in a common crime by him committed it belongs to the King only to grant it not to the Pope nor the Bishop And so it hath been always accustomed to be done in France Moreover the Pope cannot there restore Clergy-men to their former State Papon ca. 15. 16. des libertez de l'Eglise Gallic so as to free them from the infamy which they have incurred nor Lay-men unless it be to receive them into Orders Offices and Ecclesiastical Acts not otherwise As also that within this Realm he cannot pardon or remit the Honorary Amends adjudged by a Lay-man albeit the condemnation were passed by an Ecclesiastical Judge and that against a Clerk as making such Honorary condemnation a part of the civil satisfaction The Pope cannot make any Vnions or annexations of the livings in France during the life of the Incumbents nor at other times but he may grant out Writs of Delegation concerning unions which is conceived to be done according to the form prescribed in the Council of Constance and with the consent of the Patron and not otherwise The Kings of France have always reserved this authority and prerogative to themselves to determine of the Residence of Bishops to compel them to feed their Flocks and wait upon their Churches when need required and that by seizing upon their Temporals to call them from Rome to return into France to dispense with them and approve the causes of their absence The Pope cannot in France dispense for any cause whatsoever with that which is of the Law of God or Nature or with that wherein the Councils do not allow him to dispense And the Ordinances of the French Kings do expresly forbid all the Judges of the Land to have any regard to dispensations granted contrary to the sacred Decrees and Councils upon pain of losing their places And declare furthermore That such as procure the said Proviso's and dispensations shall not make use of them unless they get leave and permission from his Majesty The Gallican Church is also more free from payments to the Pope than the Church of Spain as also to the King The Clergy of France pay only the Disme whereas in Spain the King hath his Tertia's Subsidio Pyla Escusado in all a moiety of the Church-livings As to the French Churches separating from Communion with the Church of Rome they have often been brought very low by the Popish party Sad was the condition of the Church of Merindol which was cruelly rooted out by vertue of an Arrest of the Parliament of Aix Men Women and Children being destroyed And yet I doubt not but some small remainder of them was preserved For so the story saith expresly pauci quidem profugi Genevam alia loca Vicinia pervenerunt Osiand Eccl Hist Some few of them escaped by flight to Geneva and other Neighbouring places What Persecutions did the Waldenses or Albigenses suffer when the Pope sent about his Fryars in France it seemeth to preach Crusado 's viz. That whosoever would take the Badge of the Cross upon his Garment and serve the Pope forty days in his Wars against those Christians who denyed him obedience and opposed his Pride and Tyranny should have full pardon of all his sins and if he dyed in the Wars should presently go to Heaven and escape the flames of Purgatory and by this means as I remember he had at one time about an hundred thousand of the silly people in Arms whom he used against the most faithful Christians seeking utterly to extirpate them and by this means much Blood was shed It was easie for him in those times of darkness to draw multitudes of poor blind Souls to Destruction And Reimond Earl of Tholouse a great Prince and Peer of France was ruined the Pope seizing on his Estate and holding it unto this day A French Historian speaking of the bloody massacre in the Reign of Charles IX saith Thuan. Hist li. 54. that many wise men that were Papists themselves did think that in all Antiquity there could not be found an example of like cruelty But even then remarkable was God's Providence towards those of the Reformed Religion in France In the time of that cruel massacre at Paris the Protestants being in great fear shifted for themselves here and there Among the rest many of them fled to a certain honourable Lady for protection who being near of kin to the King was the more bold but being a faithful Christian she was also willing to receive them Hereof complaint being made the King in great displeasure commands her to dismiss them all which she could not withstand so that in one day about 300 Waggons for the most part filled with Women and young Children were constrained to dislodge and without a guard to go to a strong Town for the safety of their lives In this Journey they were to pass through their bloody enemies stragling up and down in Armes and ready to seize on such a booty But by the special providence of God a certain Troop of Armed Gentlemen on Horse-back hapned to meet them who soon perceiving and pitying their danger conducted them along in safety and often repulsed their enemies that were ready to assail them And though the French Kings have all of them professed the Roman Religion yet the Lord hath had many Instruments who with the hazard of their lives and outward Estates have stood for the defence of his Church divers Princes of the Blood Nobles Gentlemen and others and did strangely raise his Church again after that horrid massacre by which it seemed to have been extinguished And King James of happy Memory speaketh thus of those worthy Patriots whom God raised up for the defence of his Church at that time in his book of the defence of the right of Kings I never knew yet saith he that the French Protestants took Arms against their King In the first troubles they stood only on their defence Before they took Arms they were burnt and massacred every where And the quarrel did not begin for Religion but because when King Francis the second was under Age they had been the Refuge of the Princes of the Blood expelled from the Court even of the Grandfather of the King now reigning and of that of the Prince of Condè who knew not where to take Sanctuary it shall not be found that they made any other War Nay is it not true as a learned Divine of ours hath well observed that King Henry III. sent Armies against them to destroy them and yet they ran to his help as soon as they saw him in danger Is it not true that
calumny by witnesses yet first of all he propoundeth it to be debated by the Synod whether witnesses ought to be admitted against a Bishop or whether the bare assertion of the Bishop only ought to be believed The Synod pronounceth That they could not safely give credit to an inferiour person bearing witness against a Bishop Yet they require Gregory to say Masses at three Altars and that he purge himself by Oath which being done by Gregory he was absolved But the Synod excommunicated his Accuser and certified other Bishops by Letters concerning the absolution of Gregory In this Century Rupertus Bishop of the Francks with twelve other Divines came into the Country of the Boii and there Rupertus by preaching the Gospel converted Theodon the Prince of the Countrey with his Son from Heathenish Idolatry unto Christ and baptized them both at Ratisbon Many others also were converted by him In this Age flourished German Bishop of Paris forementioned Osiand Eccles Hist Cent. 6. Lib. 2. When he was an Abbot in a dream he saw the Keys of the Gates of Paris delivered to him and demanding the cause of it he was answered That he should as Pastor feed the Lords Flock belonging to that Church Not long after the Bishop of Paris dying he was Constituted Bishop there by King Childebert With singular zeal he provoked the People to Godliness great was his gravity in preaching and his words were weighty and powerful he was liberal towards the poor and redeemed many Captives King Chilperic after his death who was wont to deride and contemn other Ministers wrote this honourable Epitaph upon him which I thought fit to set down Ecclesiae speculum patriae vigor ara reorum Et pater medicus pastor amorque gregis Germanus virtute fide corde ore beatus Carne tenet tumulum mentis honore polum The Histories of this Age make mention of one Etius Arch-Deacon of the Church of Paris who when he understood that Innocent Praetextatus Bishop of Rhothomagum accused of Treason against the King was in danger to be condemned in a Synod at Paris he with great boldness entred into the Synod and admonished the Bishops and Assessours to beware of having an hand in the condemning of an Innocent person he told them they ought rather to reprove King Chilperic for his sins In the Reign of this King many Jews were baptized in France but many of them returned to their vomit and perfidiously renounced the Christian Religion In those dayes there were great inundations of waters which did much hurt in many places especially at Lions where part of the walls of that City were thrown down Horrible earthquakes made great concussions in part of France and overturned some mountains toward Spain which overwhelmed many men and beasts A fire falling from Heaven consumed the City of Orleans and the streets of Bourdeaux together with the fruits of the earth Other places were sorely afflicted with a grievous hail There followed almost through all France a malignant Cough and bloody Flux which destroyed very many men and women by which disease that wicked Austigildis Wife of King Gunthran perished The cause of these evils was said to be the dissentions civil wars and horrible impieties of those three Brothers forementioned Sigebert Chilperic and Gunthran Kings of France and their Counsellours and Ministers who provoked them to those impieties who were punished of God for their flagitious practices with most grievous judgements Here I shall make mention of the various fortune of Theodorus Bishop of Marseilles in the Reign of Childebert Divamius a most wicked man being Governour of that Province This man hated Theodorus and laid divers snares to entrap him And when Theodorus was going to King Childebert to implore his help he was seized on by Divamius in the midst of the City of Marseilles and injuriously dealt with and so dismissed In his journey Theodorus by the instigation of Divamius is taken by Gunthran King of Orleans then the Clergy of Marseilles being no better than Divamius being very joyful at the news of it do immediately invade and plunder all the substance and treasures of the Church and load Theodorus with divers calumnies King Chilperic setteth Theodorus at liberty and sendeth him back with Gundulphus the Governour to Marseilles that there he might be restored to his former dignity At the coming of Gundulphus and Theodorus Divamius and the Clergy do shut the gates and drive them back reproachfully But Gundulphus by Art getting into the City with his Soldiers soon brake the power of Divamius and sharply rebuked him yet Gundulphus being appeased with deprecations and gifts Divamius having taken an oath that he would restore Theodorus to his Bishoprick and for the future be faithful to the King he returned to his house But Divamius despising his Oath signifieth the restitution of Theodorus to King Gunthran adding That while Theodorus held his Government King Gunthran could never enjoy the City of Marseilles Gunthran being angry sendeth Soldiers to take Theodorus who seizing upon the Bishop unexpectedly they carry him on horseback bound with chains most ignominiously to their King But King Gunthran knowing the innocency of Theodorus without doing him any harm suffers him to return to his charge bestowing many gifts upon him Upon this occasion great enmity grew between King Gunthran and Childebert Many other calumnies and grievous indignities did this innocent Bishop suffer from other of his wicked and malicious enemies About that time Mundericus Episcopus Ternoderensis being by force taken away from his Church is thrust into a close and strong Tower built upon the bank of the River Rhodanus and there was detained almost two years and most grievously handled Under the Jurisdiction of Gregory Bishop of Tours there was a certain Presbyter who denied the Resurrection of the Body The foresaid Gregory disputed against him which disputation you may read at large in the Magdeburgensian History The disputation being ended the Presbyter promised that he would afterward believe the Resurrection of the dead Chidet Anast Child Reg. cap. 10. This Gregory hath put out these works Hist Francorum de Gloria Martyrum de Gloria Confessorum de vitis quorundam Patrum I find him by a certain Writer thus stiled Osiand Cent. 6. Lib. 4. cap. 17. Antiquissimus fidelissimus Francorum scriptor He wrote sharply against the Jews and Arians yet there are divers errours found in his writings which are mentioned by Osiander He was very intimate with Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome flourishing at that time Century VII THe Author of the Book called the Catholick Traditions first in French and then Translated into English searcheth the difference of all Churches and except in Rites or Ceremonies hath not marked any great difference of the Abyssines and Jacobites from our Reformed Churches And in his Preface he saith They pretend to have their name Jacobites from Jacob the Old Patriarch and the name Cophtes because
they are circumcised and in Qu. 5. he saith They call themselves Christians of the first Conversion Phocas a mean Captain in Thracia in a sedition of the people did kill his Soveraign Mauritius the Emperour usurped the Crown and held the Empire seven years He gave unto Pope Boniface the Title of Universal Bishop which Title Gregory his Predecessour had disclaimed Gregory devised many new Rites yet tied not others to follow them For when Augustine whom he sent into Britain demanded of him seeing the Faith is one why are the customes of the Church divers and why is one sort of Mass in Rome and another in France Gregory answereth Thy Brotherhood knows the custome of the Roman Church in which thou hast been nourished but it pleaseth me whether in the Church of Rome or of France or in any other thou hast seen any thing that may please the Almighty God that thou diligently follow it In France the two Sons of Childebert Teodorick and Theodebert their Grandmother Brunehault working that thing reigned with perpetual disagreement among themselves and with Clotharius Theodebert being overcome by his Brother in Battel Anno 612. is slain by his own Soldiers at Colonia Theodorick dieth the year following Brunehault being hated of the French Anno 613. Clotharius having obtained the whole Kingdom of the French bound Brunehault with a Cable rope led her about with wild Horses and tare her to pieces Thus by God's judgement She died most justly who had cruelly caused many others to die Thus died Brunehault only commended in Histories to have built many Temples and given great revenues for the maintenance thereof De Serres Hist whilst she wallowed in her pleasures St. Gregory hath set down certain Letters of his to Brunehault wherein he commends her highly though basely flattering her for her Piety and singular Wisdom Clotharius seeing himself King of so great a Monarchy after a long and horrible confusion of intestine wars used all diligence to pacifie the Realm He augmented the great Authority of the Maires of the Palace who controlled Kings and in the end usurped the Royalty whereas they were before but Controllers of the King's House not of the Realm He had one only Son whose name was Dagobert He committed him to Arnulph Bishop of Metz a learned and good man to be instructed by him Petries Church-Hist in Cent. 7. Agrestin who had been Clerk to King Theodorick entred the Abby Lexovien with all his wealth but he soon became weary of the superstitious Rites and left the Abby Then went he to Aquileia which then was not under the Romish yoke and from thence he wrote unto Eustasius Abbot of Lexovien against the Rites of the Monks exhorting him to reject those Rites Eustasius and his Convent exclude him out of their Society For removing this Controversie was Assembled the fourth Council at Matiscon in Burgundy there Agrestin accuseth Eustasius of many superstitious Ceremonies contrary to Canonical Institution viz. That they did use to lick a Cockle marked with a Cross and used Hallowings when they went in or out of an house Catal. Test Verit Lib. 7. Ex Vit. Eustas Abb. they multiplied Prayers and Collects in the Mass they ridiculously cut off their hair and abstained from the company of men but the Bishops condemned Agrestin Hence we see that some persons did not allow the Rites creeping in and the Inventers of them were but private persons and the Abetters were pleased with the least shadow of Reason Clotharius dieth in the year 631. having Governed 44 years from his cradle and passed happily through many perillous difficulties He left his Son Dagobert for his Successour Dagobert at his coming to the Crown found great difficulties among his Subjects being bred up without Justice under the long licentiousness of Civil Wars and the lenity of Clothaire whereto he provided wisely reducing Justice fortifying it by his Authority with so good a moderation as no man was offended at his severity neither durst any man attempt any thing against the Laws seeing both the reign and the rod in the hands of their Lawful Prince To this good Order he professed to love holy things and the better to confirm this Opinion in the minds of his Subjects he built and enriched many Temples especialy that of St. Denis the which hath since been the Sepulchre of the French Kings This King was much ruled by the forenamed Arnulph Bishop of Metz and by Pepin Major of the King's Palace This Pepin was Grandfather to that Pepin who was the first King of the second Race of the French Kings Fabian's Chron. Part. 5. and began to deal absolutely in the Government of the Realm Dagobert and all his Realm were in great honour and tranquillity till the death of Arnulph after which the King began to change his conditions to the hurt of his whole Realm There were at this time great numbers of Jews in France the which were hurtful to the Realm Dagobert banished them by a perpetual Edict out of the Territories under his obedience But this Zeal of Religion was blemished with the soul blot of Adultery which made him infamous both to his Subjects and to Strangers Amandus Bishop of Paris reproved him for his fault but Dagobert impatient thereof banished him Yet by the earnest perswasion of Pepin he yielded to Reason and having dismissed many of his lewd followers he calleth home Amandus again from banishment Amandus was a man famous for Holiness in those dayes At that time Austregesil was Bishop of Bitures Lupus Bishop of Sens Bavo was converted from a robber by Amandus Columban likewise being much vexed by Brunehault lived under Clotharius and his Scholar Gallus Projectus was a Martyr in Aquitain he was successour to Serenus Bishop of Marseilles Dagobert having Assembled the Estates of France in great solemnity at Byguage he made his Testament and Ordained that he made his younger Son Clovis King of France Fabian's Chronic and his elder Son Sigebert King of Austrasia or Lorain His Testament he had caused before to be written in four sundry skins endented to be read and then sealed with certain seals whereof the one he willed to be kept in the Treasury of St. Denis the second in the Treasury of the City of Lions the third in the Treasury of Metz in Lorain and the fourth in the Kings Treasury Dagobert died having Reigned fourteen years and was buried in the foresaid Monastery To maintain the invocation of Saints the Papists say that at that time the soul of Dagobert King of France was delivered out of the hands of the Devil by Dionysius and Maurice Martyrs and Martin the Confessor whom Dagobert had Adored A Council was Assembled in a Town of France Symson's Church-Hist Lib. 4. Cent. 7. called in Latin Altissidorum vulgarly Auxerre in which were met a number of Abbots and Presbyters with one Bishop and three Deacons In this Council they condemned Sorcery and the consulting with
wont to be in Battles with the sound of Trumpets and noise of Horsemen When two Armies joyn some cursing that which Panormitan went about others allowing the same Then Nicholas Amici a Divine of Paris said Panormitan I appeal from this your conclusion to the judgement of the Council here present neither do I affirm any thing to be ratified which you have done as I am ready to prove if it shall seem good Many grave and Antient men exhorted Panormitan to give over his conclusion But neither the Fathers of the Council were determined to depart without a conclusion neither was Panormitan minded to alter his intent and purpose Then Thomas Rhedon a French Carmelite was a famous Preacher he preached in England France and Italy and in his Sermons said Rome is the mother of Abominations the Church hath great need of reformation Prelates should leave their pride and luxury and follow the example of Christ and his Apostles For such preaching he was burnt at Rome by the command of Pope Eugenius Mantuan de vit beat ca. ult Baptista Mantuan speaking of this man's Death saith Ah mad envy what doest thou Thou hast not killed him for his Soul cannot dye but by hurting his Earthy body he is the sooner partaker of Eternal Life Stephen Brulifer a Doctor of Sorbon and a Franciscan taught in his Lectures and maintained in disputes that neither the Pope nor Council can make any Statute or Article to bind the Conscience of a Christian Fascicul rerum expet fol. 164. that all their Authority consists in urging of obedience unto God's word in preaching it and administring the Sacraments which he hath instituted so that they bring nothing without his command He called justification by merits a devilish Doctrine since the Lamb of God was sacrificed and hath satisfied God's Justice for us The Doctors of Sorbon would not suffer him among them But he went to Diether Bishop of Mentz which had been deposed for speaking against the Avarice of Rome and was restored Antonius de Rosellis was a famous Reader of the Laws at that time and writ several Treatises against the Pope About this time lived also Wesselus Gantsfort a Master in the University of Paris Petries Church Hist Cent. 15. who for his free speaking and writing was forced to return to Groning his Native Countrey Then he lived in the Monastery of St. Agnes Hill near Swol where he taught many young men and had correspondence with sundry Learned men Charles VII dyed July 22. Anno 1461. Lewes XI his eldest Son succeedeth him in the Kingdom The late King Charles willing to follow the Council of Basil had summoned a Parliament at Bitures where by the full consent of all the States in France both Spiritual and Temporal a certain constitution was decreed and published called the Pragmatick Sanction wherein was comprehended briefly the pith of all the Canons and Decrees concluded in the Council of Basil of which constitution I hinted before The same the said King Charles commanded to be observed and ratified inviolably throughout all his Realm for the Honour and increase of Christian Religion for ever Now King Lewes XI successour to Charles had promised before being Daulphin unto Pope Pius the second called before Aeneas Sylvius that if ever he came to the Crown the aforesaid Pragmatick Sanction should be abolished Pope Pius hearing him to be crowned sent unto him John Balveus a Cardinal with his Letters Patent willing him to be mindful of his former promise The King hereupon directed the Pope's Letters Patent with the said Cardinal to the Council of Paris requiring them to consult upon the cause The matter being proposed in the Parliament-house the King's Attorney named Joannes Romanus a learned and eloquent Man proved the said Sanction to be profitable good and necessary for the wealth of the Realm and in no case to be abolished Unto whose sentence the University of Paris adjoyning their consent Du. Tillet en son advis sur les libertez de l'Eglise Gallic did appeal from the attempts of the Pope to the next general Council The Cardinal fretting thereat returned to the King his purpose being not obtained And the same King Lewes Anno 1463. to secure himself from the censures of the said Pope with the advice of his Parliament ordained an Arrest that the Cardinal of Constance should be punished because he had resisted the Rights and Authorities of the King saith Mr. John du Tillet King Lewes XI caused a Council of the Gallican Church and all the Universities to be assembled in the City of Orleans to be more fully informed in the business of the Pragmatick Sanction at which Peter Duke of Burbon Lord of Beaview presided instead of the King And the Court of Parliament in those Remonstrances which they made unto King Lewes among other inconveniences which they urged would follow upon the abrogation of the Pragmatick Sanction say By this means Strangers would be preferred by the Pope and not the Natives of the Countrey wherein the Benefices lye not of the same qualities and conditions with the Countrey Whereupon would ensue questions and controversies betwixt the Church-men or Seculars to the great hinderance of salvation of Souls and irreverence of the blessed Sacraments The Parliament of Paris in the Remonstrance made by Lewes XI touching the defence of the Pragmatick Sanction hath inserted this Article Item It belongeth to our Soveraign Lord the King who is the principal Founder Guardian Protector of the Liberties of the Gallican Church when she suffers in her Liberties Remonstr de la cour de Parlem de Paris Art 3. to assemble and call together the Prelates and other Clergy-men as well within this Realm as of Daulphinè and in the same Assembly and Congregation of the Gallican Church so called together there to preside and provide a remedy against such attempts as may be prejudicial to the said Liberties We find an Ordinance made relating to Abbeys Bishopricks and Benefices by the same King Anno 1464. which runs in this strain Howbeit that by Priviledges Express and Ordinances Royal no Man can have any Elective Benefice within our said Kingdom and Daulphinè it concerns us much that the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Dignities and elective benefices be furnished with able and known Men such as will comply with us and be firm and sure for us especially such as hold the said Benefices and by reason of them divers places and Fortresses for which divers duties and services belong unto us from them Yet notwithstanding our late pious Father granted the said favour and Patents so plentifully and to all manner of Persons of what Nation Kingdom or Religion soever they were without distinction that many under shadow and pretence of these Licences and Patents have insinuated and intruded themselves into the said Dignities and elective Benefices of our said Kingdom and do hold them Howbeit many of them are Strangers unknown and not to be
the Heretical and forbidden Books The King was informed of their shifts and of that Letter Wherefore he ordereth the Bishop to require them again After divers exhortations to this purpose they send fifteen places which they had marked The Bishop conferreth with their Deputy Gagneius upon these Instances and writes a large Letter unto them commending the Annotations and shewing what course they should observe in their censure They were the more enraged at that commendation and would not go on in their censure but would have the Book to be condemned which they had declared Heretical Then the King sent his Letters Patent and sealed charging them to proceed in their censure and to deliver it unto his Printer They do still refuse and at that time King Francis dyeth viz. on March 31. Anno 1547. His Son King Henry II. who succeeded him sendeth the like charge unto them on August 16. 1547 They return Answer that they shall perfect their censure before November 1. But then in place of the censure they send a supplication craving that the Books may be forbidden because he is a Sacramentarian and had written that mens Souls are mortal The Printer is informed of it and addresseth himself to answer before King and Council Then they return unto Paris But he shews how false their calumnies were At that time they sent unto the King forty six Articles which they had collected It was told unto their Deputies that they had spoken of some thousands of Errours and were these all turned to forty six They answered the University had more but had not as yet put them in form The Printer returns to Paris chiding some of the Divines for accusing him falsly The Printer craves of the King protection from the malice of his Enemies The King grants it under his Seal This storm being over he gathereth fifteen old Manuscripts of the new Testament in Greek and printeth it with the divers lections on the Margin and gives the first copy unto Castellan The Pope sends into France Jerome Boccaferrius a Roman Cardinal of St. George in shew to condole with the King for the death of his Father and to give him joy of the beginning of his Kingdom but with commission to make confederation with him The Pope gave the Legate most ample power to grant the King all his demands in matter of Benefices without regarding the Decrees of the Tridentine Council a strong Alliance is made between the Pope and the French King and two Cardinals are created at the King's instance viz. Charles of Guise Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and Charles of Vandosme of the Blood-Royal The Cardinal of Guise made an open discourse in publick consistory in the name of the French King shewing Hist Concil Trident li. 3. that King Francis had never spared any cost or danger to maintain the liberty of other Princes In conformity whereof Henry not degenerating from the vertue of his Ancestors as soon as he had left to mourn for his Father's death was willing to declare his observance towards the See of Rome That the merits of the Kings of France were famous and exceedeth all those of other Nations But this was above all which the King now doth promising all his Forces to preserve the Papal Dignity now when it is so contemned He prayed the Pope to receive the King for his Son and to promise to himself all assistance from him and to take care that the Church should receive no damage nor shame in regard that from small beginnings great factions have risen which have brought the Popes into great calamities He exemplified in many Popes afflicted who were defended and raised by the Kings of France concluding that the present King will not yield to his Ancestors in preserving the Dignity of the Apostolick See In the year 1549. The French King making his first entry into Paris caused a solemn procession to be made and published an Edict wherein he signifieth that he received the protection of the Catholick Religion and of the See of Rome and the care of the Ecclesiastical Order and that he abhorred the Novity of Religion and testified unto all his will to persevere in the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and to banish the new Hereticks so he called the Protestants out of all his Dominions He caused this Edict to be printed in French and sent it into all parts of his Kingdom He gave leave also to his Prelates to make a Provincial Assembly to reform the Churches Which being known at Rome was thought to be a bad example and might be a beginning to make the French Church independent of the Church of Rome He caused also many Lutherans to be put to death in Paris himself being present at the Spectacle and in the beginning of the next year he renewed the Edict against them laying grievous punishments upon the Judges who were not diligent in detecting and punishing them Pope Paul III. dyeth Anno 1549. the Cardinals were divided into three factions about the choice of a new Pope Imperialists French and dependents on the dead Pope and by consequence on his Nephews Hist of Cardin. part 3. li. 2. They made agreement among themselves that nine Cardinals should be named of each Faction three but that the nomination should be made by two only of the Faction of France and that afterwards it should be lawful for the Imperialists to take one of the said nine at their pleasure and that the rest should be obliged to concur Of the French Faction accordingly were named the Cardinals of Lorrain Tornon and Bellai Of the Imperial Faction Theatino Monte and San Marcello and three others of the other Faction Salviati Ridolfi and Trani The Imperialists refused all the nine persons which were named which gave great offence to the other two Factions insomuch that it was proposed by the French to the Farnesians to unite among themselves and to choose a Pope in spite of the Imperialists But they could not agree in the choice of their persons because there were several Cardinals among the Farnesians who were much obliged to the Emperour and much afraid of his displeasure But after a tedious discussion of the Cardinals for the space of three months during the vacancy of the See Gio Maria del Monte was created Pope on February Anno 1550. by the name of Julius the third And now the Faction of the Nipotisme was introduced into the conclave having over-powred the Factions of the Emperour and King of France with no small reputation The Council having been translated to Bolonia the Emperour having protested against it the Pope deliberates about the remitting of it to Trent The French King offered to the Pope whatsoever he was able to do for him promised to assist the Council and to send the Prelates of his Kingdom and all favour and protection for the maintenance of the Papal Authority The Book of Francis Duraneus a learned Lawyer entituled De Sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis came
forth Anno 1551. At this time a War was denounced against King Henry the second by the Pope and the Emperour and that upon an unjust quarrel He gave some hopes saith Onuphrius of composing the differences in Religion Onuphr in Julio 3. when at the request of the Emperour he declared by his Bull in the first year of his Popedom that the Council should be continued at Trent at the beginning of the next May. And presently after he addeth he unwittingly put himself upon the War of Parma and thereby set all Italy nay all Europe on fire The first Session of the Council on May 1. 1551. and the second upon the first of September were only for Ladies for there was nothing done King Henry II. set forth an Edict at the same time dated the third day of September the same year containing a restraint of transporting Gold and Silver to Rome where he sets down at large the occasions of the War of Parma begun by the Pope And among other things he saith Which holy Father upon a sudden fit of Choler had caused a certain company of Men of War both Horse and Foot to be levied and set forth and also enticed and perswaded the Emperour with whom we were in good Terms of Peace and Amity to take Arms to aid his forces in the design of the recovery of Parma And after he had harassed and laid wast all things whatsoever he pleased in the Countrey of Parma Edict du Roy Henric. 2. imprime a Paris l'ann 1551. he caused his said Forces to march toward the Territories of Mirandula which hath for a long time even during the Life of our late most Honoured Lord and Father been in the known protection of the Crown of France which he beleagured using most incredible and inhumane cruelties towards the Inhabitants of the said Territory yea such as Barbarians and Infidels would not have used the like giving the World to know very stoutly that he meant them to us who have not deserved any such things at his hands or the Holy See There were six Sessions holden in the time of that War those two forementioned and four more in two whereof the most material points of Faith of Manners and Church Discipline were discussed and determined as those of the Sacrament of the Eucharist Transubstantiation Penance and extreme Unction as also about the Jurisdiction of Bishops where many blows were struck at the Liberties of the French Church and the rights of the Crown Another Edict of King Henry II. was made at the Camp near Weldenaggbes May 21. 1552. and Printed at Paris the same year From this time till the beginning of the year 1560. the Council of Trent did nothing What time Pope Pius IV. as soon as he got into the Chair sent forth a Declaration for the continuation of it against Easter-day the next year The French King makes preparation for a National Council and protesteth against the Council then assembled in Trent Jacobus Amiotus Hist Concil Trident. li. 4. Abbot of Bellosana appeared in the name of the French King with Letters of his Majesty which he presented to the Legate desiring they might be read and his credency heard The Legate receiving them gave them to the Secretary to be read The Superscription was Sanctissimis in Christo Patribus Conventûs Tridentini Much fault was found with the word Conventûs The Bishop of Mentz said if they would not receive a Letter from the King of France who called them Sanctissimus Conventus how would they hearken to the Protestants who called them Conventus Malignantium Then the King's Letter was opened and read The French King dismisseth the Pope's Nuncio but fearing that by his dissention with the Pope those that desired change of Religion would make some innovation or that himself might come into the bad opinion of his people as if his mind were averse from the Catholick Faith and perhaps to open a way for reconciliation with Rome he made a most severe Edict against the Protestants confirming all the other which he had published before adding greater punishments more ways to discover the guilty and greater rewards to the promoters Hereupon many were apprehended condemned and burnt as I have shewed before in the Table of French Martyrs concluding it at the year 1557. On the fifth of September 1557. in Paris at night about two hundred persons were assembled in an house to celebrate the Communion which being discovered by the common people the house was assaulted and some fled but the women and weaker sort were taken and seven were burnt and the greater part of the others reserved for the same punishment to be inflicted when the complices were found out The Suisses made intercession for these and the King gave order that the proceeding against them should be moderate but the Pope is angry with the French King for using any moderation But the number of the Protestants being now increased in France thâ—ir courage increased also And there being a custom among the people of Paris in the Summer Evenings to go out of the Subburbs of St. German in great multitudes to take the Fresco and to solace themselves with divers kinds of sports those of the new Religion instead of doing so began to sing the Psalms of David in French Verses 〈…〉 The multitude first laughed at the Novity then leaving the sports joyned themselves unto the singers And the number of those who came to that place began to increase more than usually The Pope's Nuncio told the King of this Novity as of a thing pernicious and dangerous because said he the Ministeries of Religion usually celebrated in the Church in the Latin Tongue by Religious men only were put into the mouth of the common people in the vulgar Language which was an invention said he of the Lutherans telling him that if he did not resist the beginnings all Paris would be Lutheran The King gave order that the principal Authours should be proceeded against wherein they went not very far having found Anthony King of Navar and his Wife in that number But for hereafter it was forbid upon pain of death The King now understanding that some of the Parliament were Protestants in a Mercurial so they call the Judicature instituted to examine and correct the actions of the Counsellours of Parliament and Judges of the King held in Paris June 15. 1558. where they were to treat of Religion after the congregation was assembled entred in person And having commanded them to prosecute the things begun Claude Viole one of them spake much against the manners of the Court of Rome and the bad customs grown to be pernicious errours which have caused the new Sects Therefore it was necessary to mitigate the severe punishments until the differences of Religion were removed and the Ecclesiastical Discipline amended by Authority of a General Council the only remedy for these evils as the Councils of Constance and Basil have judged
many of the chief Nobility and greatest persons of the Kingdom their Assemblies and Sermons were then no more celebrated in Stables and Cellars as in the Reign of King Henry second but in the Halls and Chambers of the best Gentry and most eminent Nobility Beza's Translation of the new Testament and his accurate notes upon it have made him famous His French Psaltery was so well liked that it was well Translated into the German Bohemian English Scottish and many Languages and it is both in use and esteem with all the Orthodox Churches Thuanus saith that Beza would repeat whole Psalms in Hebrew and whatever Chapter one could name out of Paul's Epistles he would rehearse it all in Greek for the things he had formerly learnt his Judgement failed him not He lived eighty six years and toward his latter end he began to forget what he had spoken His French works are mentioned by Verdier in his Bibliotheque His Latin are known News was brought unto the Pope that his Subjects of Avignon had taken up Arms against him accounting his succession unlawful because that Countrey was not justly taken from Raimond Count of Tholouse concluding also that the Ecclesiasticks cannot by the commandment of Christ possess any Temporal Dominion And resolving to rebel by the means of Alexander Guilotimus a Lawyer they put themselves under the protection of Charles de Montbrun who being in Arms for Religion was much followed in Daulphinè Charles entring the Territory with three thousand foot made himself Lord of the whole Countrey with much joy of the Inhabitants James Maria Bishop of Viviers Vice-Legate of Avignon made opposition and very hardly kept the City The Pope therefore sent Cardinal Farnese to defend the City But the danger was moderated because Cardinal Tornon whose Neece Charles had married made him desist and go to Geneva by promising restitution of his Goods confiscated for Rebellion and to be recalled shortly with liberty of Conscience if he would go out of France So the Pope's Territory deprived of that protection did remain in subjection but full of suspicions and ready to embrace every Novity Davila saith that Godfrey de la Barre Sieur de la Renaudy Davila Hist of the Civil War 's of France is made head of the conspiracy aforementioned who was one of a desperate fortune with whom many others joyned themselves some led by Conscience others thrust on through desire of change and many also invited by the natural humour of the French Nation who cannot endure to live idly To those of best quality among these he gave several charges to raise men and to bring them to a place appointed dividing to all their several Provinces To the Baron of Castelnaw was committed the care of Gascoign To Captain Mazares the charge of Bearn To Mesny the Countrey of Limâ—ges To Mirabel Xaintonge To Goccaville Piccardy To the Sieur de St. Mary Normandy and to Montejan Britany Men who as they were all of Noble Families so were they of known courage and reputed principal leading-men in several Cities and their own Countries where they lived All these departing from the Assembly at Nantes a City in Britany and returning every one with great expedition to the Province allotted him in a few days working with wonderful secrecy brought a great number of people of several conditions to be at their devotion The Conspirators prepared a great multitude who should appear before the King without Arms to demand that the severity of the Judgements might be mitigated and Liberty of Conscience granted designing they should be followed by Gentlemen who should make supplication against the government of the Guisards The Conspiracy was discovered and the Court retired from Blois an open place to Amboise a strong Fortress This troubled the Conspiratours who while they were thinking of a new course some of them who took Arms were beaten and slain and others taken and sentenced to dye and to appease the tumult pardon was granted by the King's Edict dated March 18. to all who simply moved with zeal of Religion had entred into the conspiracy so that they disarmed within 24 hours Then the King forbad all Assemblies for Religion and committed to the Bishops the hearing of the causes of Heresie An Ordinance was made by the States at Orleans Anno 1560. in the short Reign of King Francis the second Ordonnance des Estats d' Orleans l'Ann 1560. Art 5. That the Abbots and Curates who hold many Benefices by dispensation or reside upon one of their Benefices requiring actual service and residence shall be excused from residence upon their other livings Always provided that they depute sufficient Men for their Vicars of a good life and conversation to every one of whom they shall assign such a portion of the revenue of the Benefice as may suffice for their maintenance Otherwise in default hereof we admonish and enjoyn the Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Diocess to take order for it and most expresly command our Judges and Proctors to assist them therein to cause the Temporalties of such Abbeys or other Benefices to be seized upon without dissembling a Month after they shall have warned and required the Prelates and other Titulars to reside or cause some to reside upon their Benefices and to fulfill the contents of this present Ordinance Another Ordinâ—nce was to this effect That a Prebend or the revenues thereof shall be assigned for the maintenance of a School-master who shall be bound in the mean time to teach all the youth of the City Gratis without any wages Which School-master shall be chosen by the Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the place calling in the Canons of the Church together with the Mayors Sheriffs Counsellours or Capitons of the City and to be put out by the said Arch-Bishop or Bishops with the advice of them aforesaid Here I will set down the Indulgences granted to divers Churches Brother-hoods and Hospitals granted by divers Popes and Printed about this time at Chartres by Philip Hotot I shall transcribe the whole 1. The Statutes and Ordinances of the Worshipful Fraternity of the most blessed Body of our Lord Jesus Christ newly founded and erected in the Church of St. Hilary of Chartres together with a summary of the Pardons and Indulgences given and granted by our Holy Fathers the Popes and by our Holy Father Pope Paul the third of that Name confirmed to the said Fraternity and all others of like denomination as well at Rome as out of Rome erected or to be erected Which Statutes and Ordinances by vertue of taking put of those Bulls made thereupon by Authority of Pope Julius III. of that name Given at Rome May 6. 1550. shall be observed and kept in manner and form following The Pardons Indulgences and Jubilee and plenary Remissions granted to such as visit the Altar where the blessed Sacrament and precious Body of Jesus Christ is placed in the said Church of St. Hilary upon the days in the year and
Mother's side with repetition of the obscenities divulged throughout all Italy in the time of that Popedom which made the Cardinal ridiculous to the people The first thing he undertook was to hinder the preaching of the Reformatists who after the Colloquy did practise it more freely than before To gain reputation he made acquaintance with the Nobles of the Hugonots and went to their feasts and sometimes was present at their Sermons in the habit of a Gentleman But this displeased the Court of Rome The Queen-Mother understanding that the King of Spain took the Colloquy in ill part sendeth an Ambassadour into Spain to excuse it After the Colloquy was ended and the Protestants departed the Prelates remained and treated of the Communion of the Cup the Bishop of Valence with consent of the Cardinal of Lorain proposing that if it were allowed the increase of the Protestants would be interrupted But the major part would not consent it should be done but by grant or at least by favour of the Pope Lieve is given to the Legate by the King 's Brief to exercise his faculties which the Chancellour refuseth to subscribe according to the style of the Kingdom Yet was it subscribed by the Queen the King of Navarre and by the principal Officers of the Kingdom For this favour he began to think well of the Communion of the Cup and to write thereof to Rome In conclusion of the Assembly at Poisy the Prelates granted power to the King to sell an hundred thousand crowns of the yearly rents of the Lands of the Church so that the Pope would allow it The Legate informeth the Pope that there are but two wayes to preserve Religion in France One to give satisfaction to the King of Navarre and to interest him in the defence of it the other to grant the people generally the Communion sub utraque specie And the French Ambassadour desireth the Pope to grant the Communion of the Cup to the French men The Pope giveth a favourable answer for which afterwards he was sorry and at length resolveth not to grant the Communion of the Cup to the French At the same time when the Petition of the French Prelates was published in Rome News came out of Germany that the same men had sent to the Protestants there to perswade them to persevere in their Doctrine promising to favour them in the Council of Trent and to draw other Prelates to do the like for which they are suspected in Trent and in Rome The Nuncio resident in France returned to Rome who having related the state of that Kingdom the Pope wrote to the Legate that he should represent to the King's Council that the Council in Trent was to be celebrated for France only because neither Italy nor Spain had need of it and Germany did refuse it and tell them that therefore it did concern them to promote it Hist Concil Trident. li. 5. But the bad conceit which the Court of Rome had of the French was increased by an advice sent from Paris that the Parliament had with much solemnity condemned to recant one John Tancherel a Bachelor of Divinity because with intelligence of some Divines he had proposed and defended publick questions That the Pope Vicar of Christ is Monarch of the Church and may deprive Princes who disobey his commands of their Kingdoms States and Dignities who being accused cited and having confessed the fact did flie And the Judges as in a Comedy caused the Bidel of the University to represent his person and to make a publick satisfaction and recantation forbidding the Divines to dispute such questions hereafter making them go to the King to ask pardon for having suffered so important a matter to be disputed on and to promise to oppose themselves alwayes against that Doctrine For which the French men are much censured in Rome The Pope promiseth a reformation in the Court and hasteneth the opening of the Council John Fernelius was a learned French man and Physician to Henry the second King of France Medicinam Vniversam doctissimis politissimis scriptis complexus est Thuan. Hist Tom. 1. li. 21. About this time also flourished Andrew Tiraquel an excellent Lawyer He is styled by Conradus Ritterhusius Varro ille Gallicus He hath written well upon Alexander ab Alexandro his Book Genialium dierum What Alexander hath written briefly and without mention of Authours he hath illustrated with his Commentary and shewed to whom he was beholden for what he had Thuanus thus extols him Cùm vario literarum genere excultus tum celeberrimus nostrâ aetate Juris-consultus Julius Caesar Scaliger died near this time at Agen in France He was thirty years old before he fell to study yet was a singular Philosopher and an excellent Greek and Latin Poet. Vossius calls him naturae miraculum Voss instit orat Li. 4. ca. 11. and saith thus Vir ille nunquam sine laude dicendus vir ad unguem factus Lipsius highly admires him He was an excellent Historian and great was his skill in Physick and his Practice therein was happy A Noble and learned pen doth thus commend him Non hunc fefellit ulla vis recondita Steph. Boetius Senator Burdigalae ad Vidum Brassacum Praefidem Salubris herbae saltibus siquam aviis Celat nivosus Caucasus seu quam procul Riphaea duro contigit rupes gelu Hic jámque spectantes ad orcum non semel Animas repressâ—t victor membris suis Haerere succis compulit foelicibus NigrÃque avaras Ditis elusit manus On Snowy Caucasus there grew no root Of secret Power but he was privy to 't On cold Riphaean Hills no Simple grew But he the force thereof and vertue knew Wherewith apply'd by his successful Art Such sullen Souls as would this world depart He forc't still in their bodies to remain And from death's door fetcht others back again His skill in Physiognomy was wonderful But his excellent Parts were attended with prodigious Pride His Son Joseph Scaliger was one of the great lights of France and Holland too One saith thus of him In antiquos Scriptores nimiùm petulans protervus Montacut Exercit. 2. sect 10. For variety of Learning and Skill in the Oriental Languages besides his acuteness in Chronology he exceeded his Father In the first Volume of the Lord of Plessis his Letters and Memoirs Casaubon relating to him Scaliger's death Julius Scaliger Vir incomparabilis nisi Josephum genuisset Meric Casaub saith This loss of so Learned a man wrought in him an incredible grief and that he for his particular had lost another Father Monsieur du Plessis likewise condoles with him in so great a loss and saith That Scaliger indeed made one of the integral parts of the better Learning of this Age. Thuanus honourably mentions him in his History Leighs Treat of Relig. and Learninâ— li. 5. ca. 12. and in the first book of his Commentaries De vita sua saith
he continued in a league of friendship with him thirty eight years And saith also That in all that while in which he was acquainted with him he never heard him dispute of the Controverted points of Religion or that he was accustomed to write to others about them Adrian Turnebus was Professour of Philosophy and Greek in Paris under King Charles IX Thuanus calls him grande nostri seculi ornamentum Illa aeternitate digna Adversâ—ria Thuan. Hist Tom. 2. li. 36. He was admirable both in the Greek and Latin Languages and in knowledge of all Antiquity as his Books entitled Adversaria do evidently testifie of which H. Stephanus thus speaketh Vtinam non tantâ brevitate in suis Adversariorum libris esset usus Paulò enim luculentior plenior quorundam locorum explanatio majorem illi operi gratiam laudémque conciliasset lectori multò magis satisfecisset Stephanus Paschasius in his Icones saith thus of him Quicquid in arcano condebat avara vetustas Turnebus tacitis eruit è latebris He hath rectified Plinies Preface to his Natural History by Ancient Copies and added Annotations upon it He hath commented also upon Horace's first Book of verses and upon his obscurer places Vide Lectium de vita Sadeelis et scriptis At this time flourished Anthony Sadeel Anthony Bourbon King of Navarre greatly respected him and was wont to hear him Preach His friends in France were especially Beza Hottoman Goulartius Faius and others John Auratus Regius Professour in Paris for the King of France was much respected by Charles IX and was the chiefest Poet of his time He was most skilful in Greek and Latine Some of his Poems are published Papyr Masson Auratum nemo te dicat magne Poeta Aurea namque tibi Musa lepósque fuit Antoine de Chandieu was a learned French Divine Beza highly commends his Book of the Marks of the true Church There are other works of his also viz. De l'unique sacrifice Contre les traditions Beza gives him this character De la trefare erudition pietè entiere diligence incroyable dexteritè admirable Beze Epistre au Roy devant son Traicte Des Marques De l'Eglise Catholique Andreas du Chesne was the King of France his Geographer he hath put out divers French Books Gilbert Genebrard was a Divine of Paris and the King's Professour of Hebrew He was a most petulant writer By whom saith B. Andr. it is verified that much Learning and railing may be accidents in one Subject Papyrius Massonius was such a writer of the French Chronicle as Cambden of the English There are four Books of his Annals One speaks thus of him Non tam undiquaque Pontificius quin verò Pontificum vitia libere fateatur Mortoni causa Regia cap. 3. Sect. 19. Jacobus Cujacius was a great light of France His Life is written by Papyrius Massonius He is praised by Peter Faber whose Master he was as the greatest Lawyer of his time Pasquier saith In many Universities of Germany when those in the Chair alledge Cujacius and Turnebus they put their hands to their hats for the respect and honour they bear them He was thought to be somewhat inclinable to the Protestant Religion But when any Theological question was askt him he was wont to answer Nihil hoc ad Edictum Praetoris John Passeratius was a learned French man the King's Professour of Eloquence in Paris an excellent Oratour and Poet. He hath put out Orations and Prefaces a Commentary on Catullus Tibullus and Propertius Varia Opuscula His French Works are mentioned by Antoine du Verdier in his Bibliotheque At the same time lived Dionysius Lambinus a Learned French man he hath Commented well on Lucretius Horace Plautus Turnebus often makes honourable mention of him in his Adversaria The Queen of Navarre Prince of Conde the Admiral and the Dutchess of Ferrara having for many Months made request that places should be allowed to the Protestants for their Sermons and Ceremonies and all these and many more Grandees even in the Court it self making Profession thereof the inferiour Protestants Assembled themselves apart whereupon dangerous Popular tumults were raised in many parts of the Kingdom with slaughter on both sides Two divers tumults were raised by Sermons one at Dijon the other in Paris Hereupon the Presidents of all the Parliaments were called and certain Councellours Elected to deliberate what was best to be done All these being Assembled at Saint German where the Chancellour told them That the differences in Religion should be referred to the Prelates but when the Peace of the Kingdom is in question this could not belong to the Ecclesiasticks but to those whom the King would appoint to consult of it That this Particular was then to be considered of whether it were good service for the King to permit or prohibit the Congregations of the Protestants wherein they were not to dispute which Religion was the better because they took not in hand to frame a Religion but to put in order a Republick In the end they concluded that the Edict of July was to be remitted in part and the Protestants to have lieve to Preach The Edict contained many Points That the Protestants should restore the Churches Possessions and other Ecclesiastical goods usurped That they should forbear to beat down Crosses Images and Churches upon pain of death That they should not Assemble themselves to Preach Pray or Administer the Sacraments in publick or in private by day or by night within the City That the Prohibitions and Punishments of the Edict of July and all others made before should be suspended That they shall not be molested in their Sermons made out of the City or hindered by the Magistrates That none shall scandalize another for Religion or use contumelious words of Faction That the Magistrates and Officers may be present at the Sermons and Congregations That they shall not make Synods Colloquies or Consistories but with lieve and in presence of the Magistrate That they shall observe the Laws for Feasts and Degrees prohibited for Marriage That the Ministers shall be bound to swear to the Publick Officers not to offend against this Edict nor to Preach any Doctrine contrary to the Nicene Council and the Books of the Old and New Testament This was Registred and published by way of Provision with this express Clause and Condition Until such time as the General Council or the King himself should order it otherwise The Duke of Guise the Constable and the Cardinals among which the Cardinal of Tournon was lately dead with the Marshals of Brisac and St. Andre being discontented hereat left the Court contriving how they might hinder the execution of the Edict and oppose the Protestants But because they saw that whilst the King of Navarre stood united with the Regent they had no right to intermeddle with the Government of the Kingdom therefore they proposed to themselves to dissolve that Union And knowing that
That all those that were free Lords over the Castles or Lands that they possessed not holding of any but the Crown might within their jurisdictions freely exercise the Reformed Religion and that the other Feaudataries who had not such dominion might do the same in their own houses for their Families only provided they lived not in any City or Town That in every Province certain Cities shall be appointed in the Faux-bourg whereof the Hugonots might Assemble at their Devotion That in all other Cities Towns and Castles in the City of Paris with the jurisdiction thereof and all places whatsoever where the Court resided the exercise of any other but the Romish Religion should be prohibited Yet every one to live free in his Conscience without any trouble or molestation That the Professours of the Reformed Religion should observe the Holy-dayes in the Roman Calender and in their Marriages the Rites and Constitutions of the Civil Law That all the Lords Princes Gentlemen Souldiers and Captains should have a full Pardon for all Delinquencies committed during the time of the War and every one to be restored to his charges goods dignities priviledges and prerogatives That the Germans should be sent away and have safe-conduct out of the Kingdom and that it should be in the King's power to recover all his places Towns and Castles from any person that should with-hold them from him This Capitulation being published in the Camp and in the Court on May 18. the Prine of Conde and the Constable came out of Prison and Andelot delivered the City of Orleans into the Queen's hands and the Kings Army recovereth Havre de Grace from the English The King cometh out of his Minority The Queen useth divers artifices to work the discontented Princes to her will The King and Queen make a general visitation of the whole Kingdom And from Bearn they went to Lions in which the Hugonots had so great a party And considering the importance of the place the neighbourhood of Geneva and Germany they resolved that a Citadel should be built between the Rhosne and the Saone two great Rivers that run through that Town whereby to bridle the people and secure it from the treachery of its neighbours Which being then begun was afterwards brought to perfection by the diligence of Monsieur de Losse newly put into that Government From Lions the King being come to Valence in Dolphinè he caused the City to be dismantled and built there a new Fortress that Town having ever been a receptacle for those that were in Rebellion From Lions they went to the Castle of Rousillon where there was an Interview between the King and the Duke of Savoy From thence they went to Avignon where the King and Queen gave answer to the Pope's Ambassy shewing that they were ready to extirpate Calvinism and to cause the Decrees of the Council of Trent to be observed in their Dominions Then they came to an Interview with the Queen of Spain at Baionne By an Ordinance of King Charles IX Anno 1563. it was Decreed that none should be admitted to sue by vertue of the priviledge of his Clergy to be sent back to the Ecclesiastical Judge in any Case whatsoever whether Civil or Criminal unless he were a Sub-deacon at the last which is as much as to exclude simple shavelings whether they be married or no. I find an ordinance of the same King made at Mante on Sep. 10. 1563. which speaks of defamatory Libels placards pasquils and such like things in matter of Religion and as for the point of jurisdiction ordains as followeth Commanding all publâ—que Magistrates Commissaries of the Countrey and other our officers whom it may concern to have regard hereunto charging our Proctors in every place and Advocates to do their endevour herein all other business laid aside to the finding out and punishing such faults as they shall find concerning this particular And afterwards they are commanded to observe the said Ordinance punctually and proceed against the breakers hereof by the punishments there assigned peremptorily without observing the ordinary forms of Justice For as much as many large Indulgences are most commonly granted to Fraternities as appears by divers of the Pope's Bulls King Charles IX required in his demands of the Council of Trent a reformation of the abuses of such Fraternities The Council found nothing to be corrected in them but tacitly confirm'd them by ordaining That the Administrators of them shall give account of their administration every year unto the Ordinary They were wary enough to touch upon that point seeing it directly concerns the Pope's authority By means of these Indulgences and the superstition which he useth in them he gains millions of men unto himself who devote themselves so much unto him for the special favour which they suppose they receive by the means of these Indulgences that they do not acknowledge any other superiour The Ambassadours of this King Charles sent to the Council of Trent had such Articles as these given them in their Instructions as concerning the reformation of the Court of Rome Excommunications the restoring of the Cup marriage of Priests Prayers in a known tongue and to demand that Psalms might be sung the Sacraments administred and a Catechism made in the vulgar Tongue And besides to assist all such as should require a just reformation in all other matters The originals of these instructions were signed by King Charles the Queen-Mother Natalis Comes li. 14. Hist sui temporis the Chancellour of the Palace and divers others Hereupon the King of France his Oratour said when they proposed these demands That they did wonderfully agree with those of the Emperour and for that reason they had deferred the Proposal of them supposing that if the other were assented unto they should also be satisfied But perceiving the lingrings and delays that were used in that behalf and withal pressed by the Letters of the King their Master they were constrained to make a motion of them They required further that all Mandates of provision of Benefices all Reversions Re-assumptions Resignations holding of Livings in Trust and Commendams might be quite taken away as contrary to the Decrees and that resignations in Favour might be banished the Court of Rome as forbidden by the Sacred Canons That a course might be taken for instructing the people what they ought to believe concerning the Worship of Images and to clear it from all superstitions and errours if any were crept into it And the like Essay to be made about Indulgences Pilgrimages Reliques of Saints and Fraternities that not only the ancient form of publick Penance might be restored in the Church for hainous and publick offenders but also publick Fasts for the appeasing of God's wrath That general Councils might be holden every ten years that for abrogating of suits about Benefices that distinction of Petitory and Possessory might be taken away or rather for the utter extinguishing of such Suits that Bishops might
the siege and at the end of the siege the Fishes were found no more in that coast Sanserre a Protestant Town after eight Months siege was forced to surrender to Castrius the King's Lieutenant in those parts Upon the ninth day of May 1572. Henry Duke of Anjou was with a general consent chosen King of Poland Wherefore he having long besieged Rochel and seeking to come off from that siege with such moderation that his reputation might be safe and the minds of his new subjects not unsatisfied from whom he endeavoured to remove all suspicion of his taking away their liberty of Conscience he proceeded not so violently against the Protestants who now being quite tyred out desired peace This was favoured by the Duke and the City was yielded upon these conditions That the King should declare the Inhabitants of Rochel Nismes and Montauban to be his faithful Subjects pardoning all faults whatsoever had been committed by them during the Civil War That in those three Cities he should allow the free and publick exercise of the Reformed Religion they meeting together in small numbers and without Arms the Officers appointed for that purpose being there among them That in all other outward matters except Baptism and Matrimony they should observe the Rites and Holy-daies observed and commanded by the Church of Rome That the King should confirm all the liberties and priviledges of those three Towns not permitting them to be in any part diminished altered or violated That the Rochellers should receive a Governour of the King's appointment but without a Garrison who might freely stay there inhabit go and return into the City at his pleasure That they should be governed by the Laws and Customs with which they had been governed under the Kings of France ever since they were Subjects to that Crown That they should not lend any aid to those which should continue up in Arms though of the same Religion That the use and exercise of the Catholique Religion should be restored in those Cities whence it had been taken leaving freely unto the Church-men not only the Churches Monasteries and Hospitals but likewise all the Profits and Revenues belonging to them That all Lords of free Manours through the Kingdom might in their own houses lawfully celebrate Baptism and Matrimony after the manner of the Protestants provided the Assembly exceeded not the number of ten persons That there should be no Inquisition upon mens consciences and that those who would not dwell in the Kingdom might sell their Estates and go live where they pleased provided it were not in places that were enemies to the Crown And that for the observing these Articles the said three Cities should give Hostages which should be changed every three Months and alwayes should follow the Court. When these conditions were established and the Hostages given which by the Duke were presently sent to the Court Monsieur de Byron the Governour appointed by the King entred Rochel with one of the publick Heraulds took possession of the Government and caused the Peace to be Proclaimed After which the Duke of Anjou now King of Poland having dismissed the Army went with a Noble Train of Princes Lords and Gentlemen unto the City of Paris where assuming the title of his new Kingdom and having received the Polish Ambassadours he prepared for his journey to go and take possession of the Crown All the Protestants dwelling in Languedoc Dolphinè and Provence were offered those conditions which the Rochellers had embraced But they craved liberty first to assemble themselves together before they should give their answer Which being granted and the Assembly convened at Miliald they craved these Conditions viz. That in every Province of France two Towns might be granted unto the Protestants for their further security and those Towns to be kept by the Guards of their own Souldiers and have all their pay out of the King's Treasury and that liberty should be granted to all that were of their Religion to exercise the same freely without any exception of places Also that all those that should be found guilty of the horrible Murthers committed at Paris August 24. should be severely punished The Queen-Mother when she had read the Conditions which were required said with great indignation That if the Prince of Conde had been in the midst of France with twenty thousand Horse-men and fifty thousand Foot-men yet would he not have required the half of those conditions This great boldness of the Protestants put the Enemies in suspicion that the Nobles of France were confederate with them About the same time Count Montgomery had returned out of England and taken some Towns in Normandy but soon after he was besieged in Donfront a Town of Normandy where he is taken and sent to Paris and condemned to death This is that Noble man who had slain King Henry the second with a Spear whom King Henry would not suffer to be harmed for it But when he came into the hands of this cruel woman he must die She caused divers of the Nobility to be imprisoned and spared not her own Son the Duke of Alançon The Prince of Conde conveyed away himself secretly into Germany In November following after the bloody Massacre a new Star was seen in the Constellation of Cassiopeia which continued full sixteen Months being carried about with the daily motions of the Heaven Theodore Beza wittily applyed it to that Star which shone at the Birth of Christ and to the murthering of the Infants under Herod and warned Charles IX King of France who confessed himself to be the Authour of that bloody Massacre at Paris to beware in this Verse Tu verò Herodes sanguinolente cave Cambden's Hist of Qu. Elizab. And thou bloody Herod look thou to thy self And he was not wholly deceived in his belief for in the fifth Month after the vanishing of this Star King Charles died of a bloody Flix As he had caused much Protestant blood to be shed so in his sickness before his death great store of blood issued out by vomiting Thuan. Hist li. 57. and by other passages of his body in the two last weeks of his sickness and in his bed he could have little rest but horribly Blasphemed the name of God which he had accustomed himself unto even from his Child-hood Such was his unquietness and affrightments in the night that he endeavoured to appease it by Musick Andrew Melvin hath these Verses to Charles IX dying with an unusual Flux of blood Naribus ore oculis atque auribus undique ano Et pene erumpit qui tibi Carle cruor Non tuus iste cruor Sanctorum at caede eruorem Quem ferus hausisti concoquere haud poteras In those Verses are comprised both the cause and manner of his death He died May 30. 1574. before he was full five and twenty years of Age. As soon as Henry King of Poland heard of his Brother's death he returned privily and speedily and was
Crowned King of France Michael Hospitalius Chancellour of France under Charles IX Thuan. Tom. 3. lib. 56. was removed from the Court and made a Prisoner as it were only because he opposed those wicked Counsels against the Protestants in the Massacre at Paris Beza mentions him in his Icones illustrium virorum And Grotius stiles him Grot. Praef. ad Poem Vnicum aevi nostri decus the only ornament of our Age. There are these of his Works published Six Books of Epistles in Latine Verse De Caleto expugnato Epistola carmen cum aliis In the Preface to his Epistle one saith it appeared by a most Ancient Coyn that he much resembled Aristotle Summum illum omnium Philosophorum principem Aristotelem sic ore toto retulit ut alterius ex altero Imago expressa videri posset At this time flourished Michael Montanus or Michael de Montaigne Knight of the Noble Order of St. Michael and one of the Gentlemen in Ordinary to the French King Henry III. his Chamber His elegant Books of Miscellanies written in French are by him modestly styled Essayes or Moral Politick and Military Discourses He hath thereby gotten a great opinion of his Learning and Wisdom and Rome hath chosen and adopted him for one of her Citizens Charles Cardinal of Lorain dieth December 23. 1574. of a Frenzy in the midst of a cruel tempest and violent whirl-wind which uncovered the houses and loosened the bars of Iron in the Carthusians Covent in the Suburbs of Avignon According to the advice of the Queen-Mother the King assaults the Protestant Towns in Provence Languedoc and Dolphiné Lusignan was besieged and yielded upon Composition Pousin is besieged and taken but the Town of Libero in Dolphinè though besieged was not taken In Languedoc D'anville although he was of the Roman Religion yet had joyned himself to the Protestants and took Aques Mortes a Town of great importance in those Parts with many other Towns In Dolphinè Mombrim was chief Commander and had great success in his attempts But in the end being sore wounded he was taken beside â—ia a Town in Dolphinè and by the Commandment of the King and Queen-Mother was carried to Grenoble and there was executed in the sight of the people The Prince of Conde had required help of Casimire the Son of Count Palatine who had also condescended to succour the Protestants The Conditions they agreed on were these That they should not lay down their Arms until that liberty were obtained to the Protestants fully to enjoy their own Religion And likewise that Casimire should have the Towns of Metis Tullion and Verdum in his hands besides other Towns in all the Provinces of France which the Protestants were to require for their further assurance and as pledges of the King's fidelity and faithfulness to them The Army of the Germans and French entered into France under the Prince of Conde and Casimire and came forward to Charossium a Town in Bourbon not far from Molins where Alançon the King's Brother joyned with them and the whole Army conjoyned was found to be of horse-men and foot-men thirty thousand The King of Navarre at the same time departeth from Court and returneth into his own Country The Army draws near to Paris but at length was concluded upon certain Conditions That Casimire should receive from the King a great summ of money instead of those Towns which should have been put in his hands and that liberty should be granted to the Protestants to exercise their own Religion openly and freely without exception of places the Court and the City of Paris with a few leagues about only excepted They were also declared to be capable of places in Parliament and Courts of Justice and all Judgements which were made against them for any enterprize whatsoever were declared void the cruel day of St. Bartholomew disavowed and for better assurance and performance of these conditions they had eight Towns delivered unto them with the Conditions of their Governments Aques Mortes Benecaire Perigneux Le mas de Verdun Nions Yissure La grand tour The Edict of Pacification was Proclaimed May 10. 1576. and an end was put to the fifth Civil War in France for Religion By the Bull of Pope Gregory XIII sent into France Anno 1575. we may see all the Judges Royal both superiour and inferiour utterly despoiled of the Cognisance of criminal Causes The Sixteenth Article is this Vide Collect. diversar constitut Romanor Pontif. in fine Et Eclogam Bullarum motuum propriorum p. 316. We Excommunicate and anathematize all and every one the Magistrates Counsellours Presidents Auditors and other Judges by what name soever they be called the Chancellours Vice-Chancellours Notaries Registers and Executors their servants and others which have any thing to do in what sort or manner soever with Capital or Criminal Causes against Ecclesiastical persons in banishing or arresting them passing or pronouncing sentence against them and putting them in Execution even under pretence of any priviledges granted by the See Apostolick upon what causes and in what tenour and form soever to Kings Dukes Princes Rcpubliques Monarchies Cities and other Potentates by what name and title soever they be called which we will not have to be useful to them in any thing repealing them all from henceforth and declaring them to be nullities The twelfth Article speaks on this sort We Excommunicate all and every the Chancellours Vice-Chancellours Counsellours Ordinary and Extraordinary of all Kings and Princes the Presidents of Chanceries Councils and Parliaments as also the Attorneys General of them and other Secular Princes though they be in Dignity Imperial Royal Ducal or any other by what name soever it be called and other Judges as well Ordinary as by Delegation as also the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Commendatories Vicars and Officers who by themselves or by any other under pretence of Exemptions Letters of Grace or other Apostolical Letters do summon before them our Auditors Commissaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges with the causes concerning Benefices Tithes and other spiritual matters or such as are annexed to them and hinder the course of them by 〈◊〉 authority and interpose themselves to take Cognisance of them in the quality of Judges This is not all for in the following Article he goes yet further striking an heavy blow at the Ordinances of the French Kings Those also which under pretence of their Office or at the Instance of any man whatsoever draw before them to their Bench Audience Chancery Council or Parliament Ecclesiastical persons Chapters Covents and Colledges of all Churches or cause them to be brought in question before them or procure them directly or indirectly under what colour soever beyond the appointment of the Canon Law Those also which ordain and set forth Statutes Ordinances Constitutions Pragmatiques or other Decrees whatsoever in general or in special for any cause or colour whatsoever even under pretence of Apostolical Letters not now in practice or
formerly done by the States of Bloys and the Clergy convâ—â—â—â—â— at Melun that he would be pleased for proof of his true Piety and Religion to enjoyn the publication of the said Council whereby the maintenance of the Church is well-provided for which is observed to be daily impaired and abated And the Provincial Council of Aix in Provence Anno 1585. Petition the King at the beginning of the Acts That he out of his singular Piety would command the Council of Trent to be published which had so exactly provided against all dangers wherein the Christian Common-wealth was then impugned We must not think that these earnest solicitations which the French Ecclesiasticks here made did proceed so much from them as from the Pope One argument hereof which may be alledged is this that they were not now interessed herein for most of the Decrees which concerned them were admitted and there was no default in the observation of them unless it were on their part and one company of them were inserted in the Edict of Bloys the rest in divers other Provincial Councils holden afterwards in France the Canons whereof are to be seen in Print at Roven 1581. at Bourges 1584. at Tours 1585. and at Aix in Provence the same year The better to countenance the League forementioned it is presented to Pope Gregory XIII that he might bless it The Pope was well-pleased they should attempt any thing against the Protestants but he did not approve those Popular Rebellions which were made against a most Christian King neither would he be the fire-brand of a War which he could not quench and so he sent the Deputies back without any answer The King of Navarre causeth the Deputies of the Protestants to assemble at Montauban to resolve of the means to maintain themselves if the League abusing the King's name and authority should seek to offend them The Duke of Espernon goeth also to the King of Navarre to confer with him privately in the King's name The chief of the League presume That the King means to Arm and to employ the King of Navarre's Forces against them They send forth many Commissions in the King's name that what they did might be thought as done for his Majestie 's service The King in the end of March disavows them and forbids all Leavies of men of War The King made no War but by writing seeking first by gentle means to pacifie them Hedâ—clares the Zeal he hath alwaies born to the Catholick Religion and the necessity that forced him to a Peace Then having promised to restore the Church to her beauty to content the Nobility to ease the people he entreats conjures exhorts and commands all Clergy-men Gentlemen Parliaments and Towns Corporate to abandon all Leagues and Associations and to unite themselves under his obedience The King of Navarre likewise sets forth a Declaration and whereas he was accused of Heresy he answereth That he was born under the toleration of two Religions in France That he will leave that wherein he was bred when by a Lawful Council they shall shew him another truth than that which he believeth He saith he is not relapsed seeing he was not fallen from his first Opinion That he is no enemy to the Catholicks for that when the Edicts had granted Liberty of Conscience he presently laid down Arms. That in all places he maintains his Subjects in the same Liberty as he found them after the decease of his Mother That he hath requested of the King a prolongation of the Towns which he holds for assurance of the last Edict and will deliver them before the time so as the League lay aside Arms and yield unto the King the places they had seized That whereas they declare him uncapable of the Crown it toucheth him very near yet doth he think least of it hoping that God by his bounty will long preserve the King for the good of his Realm and will give him issue to the grief of all his enemies The Queen-Mother accustomed to fish in troubled waters winkt at the Duke of Guise She was contented the Duke should terrifie the King to make him abandon the Protestants and to force him to banish his new Minions from Court who had brought her in disgrace with the King her Son Her ambition moved her hereunto rather than any desire she had to advance the Duke and to bring disorder and confusion into the State and to stand alone in the midst of these furious tempests The Heads of the League march with an Army of 12000. men to Verdun a City upon the Confines of the Duke of Lorain which they take And the Duke of Guise being entred the City drove out the Governour with all his adherents and placed Guittald in his place The City of Thoul drave out the King's Officers and freely gave up it self into the hands of the League The City of Marseilles riseth in favour of the League but the Conspirators are suppressed by the rest of the Citizens They call the Grand-Prior of France Governour of that Province who was then at Aix at whose coming though with but 200 Horse the Fort de la Garde was taken and in it the Consul Daries and Captain Chabanes who the next morning were executed by which severity the City was kept under the King's obedience The same happens at the City of Burdeaux Lions Bourges and many other places in the Kingdom side with the League The King laboureth to disunite the League by drawing many particular men from that party as also the City of Lions but seeing his design succeedeth not to his mind he resolves to Treat an agreement with the Confederates The Queen-Mother goes into Champagne to confer about it with the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Bourbon And after many Negotiations the Peace is concluded The King by his Edict of July 18. revokes all other Edicts in favour of the Protestants he commands their Ministers to depart the Realm and all his Subjects within six Months to make profession of the Romish Religion or to avoid the Country He approves the Leaguers Arms as Levied for his Service allows of their pretexts and by secret Articles concluded at Nemours contents them in all matters only with this condition to leave the League and instantly to lay down Arms. Yet would they have in their power the Towns of Chalon Verdun Thoul S. Disier Reims Soissons the Castle of Dijon Beawne Rue in Picardy Dinan and Coneq in Britain They caused the King to pay one thousand two hundred and six crowns and two third parts for the Strangers which they had Levied They had a discharge for vast summes which they had taken upon the General Receipts They obtained an hundred thousand crowns to build a Citadel at Verdun and entertainment for Guards on horseback for all the Lords of the League This Peace had made a great breach in the King's Authority The King of Navarre seeing this Cloud ready to break upon his party complains that
contained in the writing framed at Nancy with the privity of the Duke of Lorain which had been presented to the King in the beginning of the year That the King should again declare himself Head of the Catholick League he promiseth never to make a Peace nor Truce with the Hugonots nor any Edict in their favour He shall by a publick Edict oblige all Princes Peers of France Lords and Officers of the Crown Towns Colledges Corporations and the whole people to swear the same and bind themselves with a solemn Oath never to suffer any one to reign that was not of the Romish Religion and that for time to come none should be admitted to Offices Places and Dignities in any part of that Kingdom but such as were Catholicks and made profession of their Faith according to the Doctrine of Sorbon and the Belief of the Church of Rome That the Council of Trent should be received and observed through the whole Kingdom upon the conditions and exceptions formerly mentioned the priviledges of the Gallican Church being within three Months to be declared by a Congregation of Prelates and the King's Council with divers other Articles The Articles concluded and confirmed the King presently sent forth his Letters Patents into all Provinces and several Bailages to appoint the Assembly of the States in October following at Blois a place far from Paris where the people were at his devotion far from any commerce or intelligence with the League and near those Towns which were held by the Hugonots The Duke of Guise goeth with the Queen-Mother to Chartres unto the King and is received by him with great demonstrations of honour in appearance The King causeth the Edict of the union to be published in his Council and sworn to by every one and the War against the Hugonots to be openly Proclaimed for the prosecution whereof two several Armies were appointed one in Dauphiné under the Duke of Mayenne the other in Poictou under Ludovico Gonzaga Duke of Nevers The King gives the Duke of Guise the General Command over all the men at Arms of the Realm This though not the name and title yet in effect was the Office and charge of Constable He makes the Cardinal of Guise Legate of Avignon the which he promiseth to obtain for him of the Pope He determined to give the Seal unto Peter of Espinac Archbishop of Lions He declares the Cardinal of Bourbon first Prince of the blood And the King 's late Counsellours are dismissed the Court. But two things trouble the League one iâ— the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armado at Sea by the English the other is that the King will not return to Paris howsoever they importune him Pope Sixtus V. writes congratulatory Letters to the Duke of Guise full of praises comparing him to those holy Macchabees the Defenders of the People of Israel and exhorting him to continue successfully and gloriously to fight for the advancement of the Church and the total extirpation of the Hugonots Which Letters to encrease the Duke's Fame were by his dependants caused to be Printed and divulged in Paris with as much applause in the people as anger and trouble in the King who could not be pleased that another should have more Credit and Authority in his Kingdom than himself The Assembly of the States meet at Blois at the time prefixed viz. on October 16. After dinner all being met in the great Hall of the Castle the King sate down in a Throne raised by many steps from the Earth and covered with a rich cloth of State The Queens Princes Cardinals Peers and Officers of the Crown sate upon Seats fitted for that purpose in two long rowes on the right hand and on the left and between them in the inner part of the Theatre sate the Deputies according to the Ancient preheminence of their degrees and the Duke of Guise as Grand-Mastre with the Staff of Office in his hand sate down upon a Stool at the foot of the State on â—he right hand and on the left sate the Sieur de Monthelon who represented the Person of the High Chancellour of the Kingdom The King begins the Assembly with an elegant Oration wherein attesting the earnest desires of the good of his people and shewing the dangerous condition wherein intestine discords had involved the Crown he exhorted every one to lay aside their passions to forget their enmities to reunite themselves sincerely under his obedience forsaking all novelties condemning all Leagues c. which had disturbed both him their Lawful Sovereign and the peace of the Kingdom For as he pardoned all that was past so for the time to come he would not endure it but account it as an Act of absolute Treason That as he resolved to persecute and tread down Heresie to favour those that were good to restore the splendour and force of justice to advance Religion to uphold the Nobility and to disburden the Common people so he earnestly prayed and conjured every one of them to assist him with their good Counsels and sincere intentions This speech of the King 's stung the Duke of Guise to the quick and all those of his party He caused his Speech to be Printed which served much to excuse those things which followed afterward After the King's Speech followed the Oration of Monthelon who prosecutes and amplifies the King's Speech To which the Archbishop of Bourges answered for the Order of the Clergy the Baron de Seneschay for the Nobility and the Prevost des Merchands of Paris for the third Order of the Commons The Tuesday following the King and the States swear in solemn manner to perform the Edict made before of persevering in the Romish Religion The Archbishop of Bourges shewed the States the greatness and obligation of the Oath which they were to take Beaulieu the new Secretary of State inrolled an Act of that Oath in memory of so solemn an Action After it was done they gave thanks to God publickly in the Church of S. Saveur The Proposition of receiving the Council of Trent made in the Assembly of the States is generally rejected The King is requested to declare the King of Navarre incapable of the Crown and all others suspected to be Hugonots and after much opposition he coldly consents unto it and gives unto the Deputies a Protestation which had been presented unto him from the King of Navarre who having called a Congregation of those of his party at Rochel had caused a writing to be printed wherein he demanded the execution of those Edicts and Grants which had been so often made to those of his party the Convocation of a National or universal Council wherein he might lawfully be instructed in those things that were controverted in matter of Faith and finally he protested to count invalid whatsoever should be determined against him in that Assembly at Blois To which Propositions of the King of Navarre the French King added That if justice requires no man
the Duke and Cardinal of Guise the City of Orleans took Arms suppressed the King's Magistrates and assaulted the Fortress The Citizens of Chartres did the same though in the late commotions it had been of the King's party At Paris the Council of the League being come together in the midst of the City full of tumults resolved to send for Charles Duke of Aumale who flying from the States at Bloys out of a certain presaging fear had stayed in Paris and that very day was retired to his devotions to the Covent of Carthusians hard by the City at whose arrival all the multitude ran to his house though late at night spending the time only in lamentations The next day the whole City being in grief they dispatched divine service quickly and from the Churches being come to the Town-house the same Council met again there at which were present the most noted Citizens and many also of the Magistrates some drawn by an anxious curiosity some driven by the fear of being torn in pieces by the fury of the multitude and some came to find remedy against the unbridled rashness of the common people But it was all in vain Charles of Lorain Duke of Aumaele being made Governour of Paris by the City Arms the people and orders them regularly under Commanders The Preacher from their Pulpits trumpet out the praises of the Duke of Guises Martyrdom and detestations of that slaughter committed by the King Upon December 28. the Council of Sixteen caused a writing to be presenâ—ed to the Colledge of Divines called the Sorbonne in the name of the Provost and Eschuins of the City wherein relating how much the Lords of Guise deserved of the Catholique Church and their being murdered by the King as Protectors of the Faith They demanded whether he might not Lawfully be said to have forfeited his Crown and whether it were not Lawful for his Subjects notwithstanding their Oath of Allegiance to withdraw their obedience from him as a Persecutor of the holy Church who had embrued his hands in the blood of a Sacred Cardinal The Colledge of Sorbonne declares Henry III. to have forfeited his Right to the Crown and his Subjects free from their Oath of Allegiance The Kings Arms and Statues are thrown down the Navarrists and Politicks are slain many quiet men left their houses in those tumults to save their lives All the Streets were full of Arms noises and confusions and the meanest people raging against the marks of Royalty committed intolerable insolencies The Preachers aggravated the Parricide committed by the King and all places were full of Libels both in Verse and Prose which contained and amplified the same things several waies By the advice of the Council of Sixteen all the Counsellours of Parliament and Officers who adhered to the King are imprisoned in the Bastille And the Parliament being afterward assembled to the number of 160. they with a Publick Declaration assented to the deposing of the King and to the freeing of the City and substituted new men in the places of those whom they had put out and imprisoned They also made a Decree to unite and combine themselves for the defence of Religion calling that League the Holy union At the insurrection of the Parliament and City of Paris the greatest Cities and most Warlike People of France took Arms likewise and made a General Commotion so that the party of the League was not only grown very great by the conjunction of the principal Cities but was also strengthened by the abetting of the Nobility in whom for the most part the Forces of that Crown consist All the Provinces of the Kingdom were divided and dismembred Cities were against Cities Castles against Castles Lords Gentlemen and meaner persons against one another the Laws were trodden down the bond of common Charity broken the Magistrates driven away from all places and a most cruel Civil War with fire slaughter blood and rapine was begun so that all commerce being broken off the waies beset the Gentry and Commons Armed and even the very Clergy incompassed with Guards and weapons sometimes under the names of Hugonots and Catholicks â—andes Blanâ—hes sometimes of Royalists and Leaguers sometimes of the holy union and White Forces sometimes of Navarrists and Lorains they were as with a fatal general Frenzy bent upon the destruction of their common Countrey The King dissolved the Assembly at Bloys but many of the Lords as soon as they were departed from Bloys joyned again to the party of the League Pope Sixtus V. being told of the Cardinal of Guise's death is highly offended and answereth the King's Ambassadours very sharply who come to excuse it to him and chuseth a Congregation of Cardinals who were to consult about the affairs of France The King writes kind Letters to the Duke of Mayenne promising him very great things but the said Duke notwithstanding the King's promises being perswaded by Madam de Montpensier his Sister makes himself Head of the holy union and gave order to the Sieurs de Rhosne de S. Paul Chamois and d'Eschavoles to recruit their Regiments of French foot and began to summon the Nobility and Gentry his dependents and to win the hearts of the people in every place On February 15. the Duke came to Paris with 4000. Souldiers and 500. Gentlemen there he is declared Lieutenant General of the Crown of France On February 22. the Duke took possession in the Parliament of his extraordinary dignity having taken a publick Oath for the defence of the Romish Religion against every one to preserve entire the State belonging to the Crown of France to defend the priviledges of the three Orders the Clergy Nobility and Commons and to cause the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom to be observed as also the authority and power of the Parliaments After which Oath many Prayers and Processions having been made he chose and appointed the Council of the Union consisting of forty of the most eminent persons of the League which with his assistance was to treat of and to conclude all the most weighty affairs the Council of Sixteen being nevertheless left and particularly appointed for the special Government of Paris Now the Duke of his Forces began to form an Army and in every Province he allotted both Forces and Commanders to order the affairs of the League and to make war against those who were of the King's party He dispatcheth Ministers to Rome to confirm the Pope's inclination who afterward publisheth a Monitory against the King of France and foments the League exceedingly The King being necessitated to make War agreeth with the King of Navarre and concludes a Truce with him The Spanish Ambassadour leaveth the Court and goeth to reside in Paris with the Heads of the League The Pope's Legate departeth also and not having been able to perswade the Duke of Mayenne to consent to Peace goes out of the Kingdom The War begins furiously in every place The King of Navarre
grants Liberty of Conscience in those places he had taken and publisheth a Manifesto offering to take Arms against those that rebelled against their natural King The Duke of Espernon after the death of the Guises returned to his former greatness with the King Captain Du-Gast who killed the Cardinal of Guise treats about an accord with those of the League by the perswasion of the Archbishop of Lions The Truce was concluded by the Kings of France and Navarre upon these Conditions That the publick exercise of the Romish Religion should be restored in all places held by the Hugonots without any exception That the goods of the Clergy should be restored to them wheresoever they were and that all Prisoners which were in their hands should be set at liberty That the King of Navarre should be obliged to serve the King Personally with 4000. Foot and 1200. Horse wheresoever he should be Commanded and that all the Cities Towns and places of his party should observe the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom obey the Parliament and the King's Magistrates and on the other side that the King of Navarre should receive the City of Saumur and keep it in his power to have a Pass over the River Loire which yet he would be obliged to restore at the King's pleasure without any contradiction Which Capitulations after they were agreed upon and ratified Beaulieu the Secretary of State delivered up Saumur to the King of Navarre who gave the Government thereof to Sieur du Plessis Mornay his old Confident The same truce was made in Dauphiné between Colonel Alfonso Corso on the King's part and Monsieur de lesdiguiers for the King of Navarre and they united their Forces for their common defence The Protestants rejoyced exceedingly at this reconciliation magnifying their Faith and Obedience toward the King to the confusion of those who till then had published and defamed them as tumultuous and disobedient Rebels The King receives an aid of mony from the Great Duke of Tuscany and sends to the Swisses and Germans to assist him with Forces both of Horse and Foot He calleth all the Presidents and Counsellours of the Parliaments of Paris Roven and Dijon who were fled from the popular fury resolving that the Parliament of Paris should reside in Tours that of Roven in Caen in the same Province of Normandy and that of Dijon at Chalons and then by a sharp Edict declared them all Rebels who being chosen to the dignity of the Parliaments should continue to reside in those Cities and places which had withdrawn themselves from his obedience and forbad all men to have any recourse to them to seek for justice declaring all sentences to be void which they should pronounce under the name and title of Parliament The same declaration he made against the Duke of Mayenne against the Duke of Aumale and others Then having appointed Governours in all Provinces he gave Commission to make Levies to draw Souldiers together and that the War should be begun in every place The Parisians at the news of the Truce between the King and the Protestants besides many publick signs of contempt forbid the King to be prayed for any longer in the Canon of the Mass The Duke of Montpensier begins the War against those of the League defeateth the Gautiers in Normandy and the Count of Brisac's Forces who came to divert the siege of Falais The Duke of Mayenne takes Vendosme and the Count de Brienne Prisoner An interview was had between the French King and the King of Navarre at the Parc du Plessis without the Walls of Tours Mayenne assaults the King's Army at Tours where they fight a long time The King himself orders and disposeth his Souldiers puts himself among those that fight But Supplies coming from the King of Navarre he gives off the enterprize The Duke of Aumale besiegeth Senlis Monsieur de Longueville goes with small Forces to relieve it and raiseth the siege with a great slaughter of the Leaguers Aumale fighteth and loseth the day with his Artillery Baggage and thirty Colours Monsieur de Sancy having raised great Forces in Switzerland and begun the War with Savoy marcheth towards Paris against the Leaguers whither the King was also advancing But the Count de Soissons being assaulted by the Duke de Mercoeur is taken Prisoner The Sieur de Saveuse going with 400. Horse to joyn with Mayenne is routed by the Sieur de Chastillon and taken Prisoner The King takes Gergeau and Piviers But Chartres set open their Gates and having driven out the dependents of the League received the King with all his Army The Pope by Monitory declares the King liable to censure if within sixty daies he releases not the Prelates and doth not penance for the Cardinal of Guises death The King being troubled at it fasteth forty hours he said he thought it hard that he who had ever fought and laboured for Religion should be rashly Excommunicated because he would not suffer his own throat to be cut by the Arms of his Rebellious Subjects and that those who had sacked Rome and kept the Pope himself Prisoner had never been Excommunicated The King of Navarre being present answered But they were Victorious Let your Majesty endeavour to Conquer and assuredly the censures shall be revoked but if we be overcome we shall all die condemned Hereticks The King taking Estampes hangs the Magistrates and gives the pillage of the Town to the Souldiers Montereau was also taken by Storm and sacked Poissy yielded it self and now the King was Master of that spacious Bridge which there gives passage over the Seine Here Montpensier joyned with the King's Army Pointoise was after a bloody assault also forced to yield The next day the forreign Army arrived at Poissy-bridge there the Swisses joyn with t e King All the Bridges being lost all the neighbouring Towns surrendered all the passages of the River stopped and the City straitned on all sides there was no other hope left but what the presence of the Duke of Mayenne and of the Army afforded which was all shut up within the Circuit of the Suburbs of Paris The City of Paris being much straitned and under great terrour a thing well known to the King by the frequency of those who ran every hour from the City to his Camp upon the last day of July he would needs Personally view the Enemies Posts resolving on the 2. of August to assault their works on every side In his return toward S. Cloud stopping his Horse upon an hill from whence he saw all the City distinctly he brake forth into these words O Paris thou art the head of the Kingdom but an Head too great and too Capricious it is necessary by letting blood to cure thee again I◠hope that within few daies here shall be neither walls nor houses but only the very footsteps of Paris But now there was in Paris one Jaques Clement a Frier of the Order of S. Dominick born of
mean Parents in a Village called Sorbone in the Territory of the City of Sens a young man about twenty two years of age and alwaies thought by his fellow-Friers and others that knew him to be an half-witted fellow and rather a subject of sport than to be feared This fellow resolves to hazard his life to kill the King whom he called by the name of Tyrant and to free that holy City as he said from Sennacheribs violence with which resolution he went to Doctor Burgoine Prior of his Covent and imparted this damnable project to him to Father Commolet to other Jesuites and to the Heads of the League all of them encouraging him to this devilish design with promise of Abbeys and Bishopricks if he escaped and if he died in the action to be made a Martyr and have place in heaven above the Apostles To that end he goes from Paris having gotten a letter of credit from the Count of Brienne who having been taken at S. Ovyn was still Prisoner in the City assuring him that he was to speak with the King about a business of infinite importance Upon the first of August in the morning the Frier being brought in to the King gives him the letter from the Count de Brienne which the King read and having bid him proceed to tell his business he feigned to feel for another paper to present it and whilst the King stood intentively expecting it he having drawn his knife out of his sleeve struck him on the left side of the navel and left all the blade buried in the wound The King feeling the blow King Henry III. is killed by James Clement a Frier drew forth the knife and in drawing of it made the wound wider and presently struck it himself up to the haft in the Frier's forehead who at the same time la Guesle running him thorow with his sword fell down dead and was no sooner fallen but Momperat Lognac and the Marquess de Mirepoix Gentlemen of the King's Chamber who were present at the fact threw him out of the window where by the common Souldiers he was torn in pieces burnt and his ashes thrown into the River The King was carried to his bed and sending for the King of Navarre he committed to him the care of the Army He told him it custom of killing Kings should grow in use neither should he be long secure He exhorted the Nobility to acknowledge the King of Navarre to whom the Kingdom of right belonged His Confessour absolved him and gave him the Sacrament the same night And having embraced the King of Navarre having called his Chaplain he in the presence of them all rehearsed the Creed after the use of the Roman Church and having crossed himself began the Miserere but his speech failing him in these words Redde mihi laetitiam salutis tuae he died having lived 36. years and Reigned 15. and just 2. Months In his death ended the Line of Kings of the house of Valois and the posterity of Philip III. Sirnamed the Hardy and by vertue of the Salique Law the Crown devolved to the Family of Bourbon nearest of the blood and descended from Robert Count of Clermont the second Son of St. Lewes Here let the Reader be advertised that when the Jesuites have made choice of an Instrument for that King-killing service that they intend to set him about they do not put him upon it till they have first raised and fitted his spirit for the service by this means First they bring him to a very private place in a Chappel or Oratory where the knife lies wrapt up in a cloth with an Ivory sheath with divers Characters and Agnus Dei's upon it They draw the knife and bedew it with holy water and hang upon the haft of it some Beads consecrated with this Indulgence that so many blows as he gives in killing the King so many souls shall he deliver out of Purgatory Then they give the knife to him commending it to him in these words O thou chosen Son of God take to thee the Sword of Jephte Sampson David Gideon Judith of Macchabees of Julius the second who defended himself from the Princes by his sword Go and be wisely couragious and God strengthen thy hand Then they all fall upon their knees with this prayer Be present O ye Cherubims and Seraphims be present ye Thrones Powers holy Angels fill this Vessel with glory give him the Crown of all the holy Martyrs he is no longer ours but your companion And thou O God strengthen his arm that he may do thy will give him thy helmet and wings to flie from his enemies give him thy comforting beams which may joy him in the midst of his sorrows Then they bring him to the Altar where is the Picture of Jaques Clement who killed King Henry III. the Angels protecting him and then they shew him a Crown of glory and say Lord respect this thy arm and Executioner of thy justice Then four Jesuites are appointed privately to talk with him they tell him that they see a Divine lustre in his face which moves them to fall down and kiss his feet and now say they he is no more a mortal man They envy his happiness every one sighing and saying Would God I were in your room that they might escape Purgatory and go immediately into Paradise But if they perceive him to shrink and to be troubled after all this they will sometimes affright him with terrible apparitions in the night and sometimes have the Virgin Mary and the Angels appear c. After the King's death the Image and Portraicture of the traiterous Monk who killed the King by the commandment of the chief of the League was most artificially framed in brass and other paintingâ— wherewith they garnished both their houses and their Churches Then was he Canonized and among the Superstitious prayed unto us as a Martyr whom they called by the name of St. James Clement Henry King of Navarre succeeded Henry III. in the Kingdom of France The Duke of Mayenne not daring to take upon him the title of King caused it by publick Proclamation to be given to Charles Cardinal of Bourbon then a Prisoner and coined both Gold and Silver with the Picture of King Charles X. And disguising the usurpation of his authority he accepted the title which the General Council of the union gave him of Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France The Duke of Luxemburg told the new King that the Princes Lords and Officers of the Crown together with the Catholick Nobility that was in the Army were ready to acknowledge him King of France to serve him against every one since God and nature had called him to the Crown by a lawful succession but withal they besought him he would be pleased to turn to the Catholick Religion to take away the pretences of his enemies and the scruples of his servants The King gives them thanks telling them how ready he was to
a select number of Prelates to accompany the Legate men of good Learning and experienced in the matters of Government among whom were Lorenzo Bâ—anchetti and Filippo Sega who after were Cardinals Marco Antonio Mocenigo Bishop of Ceneda a man well versed in affairs and highly esteemed by the Pope Francesco Panigarola Bishop of Asti a renowned Preacher and Robert Bellarmine a learned Jesuite To the choice of these men the Pope added Bills of Exchange to the Merchants of Lions for three hundred thousand crowns with Commission to the Legate to dispose of them according to occasion but particularly to spend them for the infranchisement of the Cardinal of Bourbon upon which he shewed his mind was fixed more than upon any other thought whatsoever But the Pope by letters from the Duke of Luxemburg found that what the Agents of the League had represented to him was vain whereupon the Pope gave Orders and Commissions to his Legate to shew himself no less Neutral in the secular pretensions of the Princes than most zealous concerning Religion and not to value one French-man above another provided he were obedient to the Church and generally liked by the Kingdom and that he should not shew himself an open enemy to the King of Navarre so long as there was any hope he might return into the bosom of the Church But these advertisements were very contrary to the principal scope of the Embassy which was to uphold the Catholick party of the League as the foundation of that Religion in France so that the substance of the business changed in the variety of circumstances did so disturb the Execution that it was afterwards governed more by the diversity of accidents than by any determinate resolution The Cardinal-Legate being come into France required Colonel Alfonso Corso not only to forbear molesting Grenoble and Valence which Cities alone held for the League in Dauphiné but also that as a Catholick and stranger he should forsake the King's party and joyn with the union But he answered that he was indeed a Catholick and an obedient Son to the See of Rome in spiritual things but that having made his Fortune as a Souldier in the service of the King of France he could not desist from following him but was bound to do what he could in the affairs of the Prince whom he served This answer troubled the Legate and the rather because being come to Lions he found the business of the League in great disorder by the King 's prosperous success The Count of Brisac appointed at first to meet the Legate and sercure his passage was forced to face about and employ himself in the affairs of Normandy The Duke of Nevers invited him to come into his State where standing Neuter he might freely take those wayes as might appear most convenient to him On the other side the Duke of Mayenne ceased not to sollicite him to come to Paris shewing him that without the authority of his name and those helps which were hoped for from him the League was in danger to be dissolved and subdued by the King's Forces and all the rest of the Kingdom would remain oppressed by the Hugonot's party The Legate having overcome many difficulties arrives at Paris where he caused the Pope's Breve of the 15. of October to be published wherein after an honourable commemoration of the merits of the Kingdom of France toward the See of Rome c. He attested that he had chosen Cardinal Gaetano Legate to the Kingdom of France with power to use all means fitting to protect the Catholick Religion to recal Hereticks into the bosome of the Church to restore the Peace and tranquillity of the Kingdom and finally to procure that under one only good pious and truly Catholick King the people of France might to the glory of God live in quietness and tranquillity after so many calamities of War Wherefore he prayed and exhorted all the Orders and Degrees of France to persevere in the Catholick Religion and to labour to extinguish and root up the evil of Heresie to cut off the occasions of discord and that particular enmities quarrels and Civil Wars being laid aside they should resolve to yield obedience to a lawful truly Catholick King and the Divine worship being restored under his shadow to live in charitable union and concord Two different Declarations followed upon the publication of this Breve one of the Parliament of Tours by which all persons were forbidden to obey or acknowledge the Legate the other of the Parliament of Paris by which all were exhorted to receive the Fatherly love of the Apostolick See and to give due Reverence to the Legates admonitions After which contrary Declarations many Learned men fight for their Factions with their Pens as the Souldiers with their Swords Aid being desired by the League from the King of Spain the Sieur de la Mothe refuseth to advance beyond the Frontiers of France from Flanders unless the King of Spain be declared Protector of the Crown of France with authority to dispose the chief part of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Dignities which Prerogatives they called las Marcas de Justitia marks of justice The Duke of Mayenne will not hearken to an agreement with the King The Archbishop of Lions lately imprisoned at Amboise being newly set at liberty by Captain Du-Gast for a great summ of money and come to Paris is made High Chancellour to the Duke of Mayenne and President of the Council The Pope's Legate grants unto Mayenne the three hundred thousand crowns brought for the enlargement of the Cardinal of Bourbon Mayenne besiegeth Meulan a small place but seated upon the pass of the River Seine at the entring into Normandy which therefore next to Pointoise hindered the bringing of Victuals to Paris where after 25. dayes siege news came that the Old Castle at Roven was seized by some Seditious persons which caused him to raise the siege and march to Roven to appease the troubles On the other side the King besiegeth Dreux and the Duke of Mayenne being joyned with the Spanish supplies from Flanders marching towards Dreux resolveth to fight The German Infantry raised for the King of France turn for the League under the Command of Colonel S. Paul The Army of the League had in it four thousand five hundred Horse and twenty thousand Foot The King's Army was but three thousand Horse and eight thousand Foot The King's Army being refreshed they marched toward the field of Yvry appointed by the King for the place of Battel Here the Armies joyned wherein the King obtained a great Victory The King all Armed on Horse-back visits every Division with great diligence and exhorts his Souldiers with great vehemency At last standing still at the head of the main Battalion joyning his hands and lifting up his eyes to Heaven He said so loud that he was heard by many O Lord thou knowest the intentions of my heart and with the eye of thy Providence thou piercest into
my most secret thoughts If it be best for this People that I should attain the Crown which belongs to me by right do thou favour and Protect the justice of my Arms. But if thy will hath determined the contrary if thou takest away my Kingdom take away my life also at the same time that I may shed my blood fighting at the Head of those who put themselves in danger for my sake At the end of which words there arose in the Front of the Battel a loud acclamation from those that heard him with an unanimous cry of vive le Roy which being taken and redoubled from Squadron to Squadron through the whole Army gave an happy beginning to the Battel The Cavalry of the League being defeated save themselves by flight The Swisses laying down their Colours and Arms upon the ground had quarter given them by Mareschal de Biron The Germans who having been raised by the King's money had revolted to the Duke of Lorain were all put to the sword The French Infantry that yielded had their lives given them The Duke de Mayenne fled towards Dreux and having entred the Town broke up the Bridge before his own people were all come which was the reason that multitudes of them the King's Army pursuing them were miserably drowned The Reiters of the League fight till they are all destroyed There died that day above six thousand of the League among which were the Duke of Brunswick the Sieur de la Chastaigneray and the Count d'Egmont who was cut in pieces with all his Lanciers Divers Lords with 204. Ensigns and Cornets were taken by the King with all their Canon and Baggage On the King's side there were but 500. slain This Battel was fought on March 14. 1590. The news of this defeat came the next day to Paris whereat every one was afraid But on March 16. Father Christino de Nizza took an occasion to discourse on those words Whom I love I rebuke and chasten And in the Pulpit tells the Parisians of the defeat and by his Eloquence prevails so on them that they resolve to endure any thing for the Catholick Religion without fearing the heavy tryal of a future siege or Famine The same did William Rose Boucher Prevost and all the other Preachers and last of all Francesco Panigarola who though he Preached in the Italian Tongue was much followed by reason of the same of his Eloquence After the yielding of other places Melun is taken by the King's Army a little Town but well Fortified seven Leagues distant from Paris through which run two Currents of the River Seine and therefore is divided into three parts by the stream and only joyned together by Bridges The Sieur de Villeroy being come to Melun to treat an agreement with the King perswades him by many reasons to turn Catholick and propounds a Cessation of Arms. He was sent by the Duke of Mayenne unto the King To which the King gave a large answer And as to the point of Religion he said he had already contented those Catholicks that followed him who were many of great wisdom and strength and very great extraction to whose determination he thought all the rest might accommodate themselves Mâ—rc Antonio Mocenigo Bishop of Ceneda treats with the Mareschal de Biron and propounds a Cessation of Arms but it is rejected All hope of Truce failing the Parisians prepared for a strict siege from the King's Army The people was already disposed by the long exhortations of their Preachers and sollicitations of those that Governed to endure the siege being wrought upon by the frequent Decrees of the Sorbon and by the Declarations and Protestations of the Cardinal Legate that an agreement could not be treated with the Hereticks without damnation Hereby mens minds were so confirmed that some were put to death for saying it was better to make peace with the King than starve with hunger The Duke of Mayenne by many Letters assured them that he would relieve the City within a few weeks To encrease this inclination in the people a solemn Procession was made by Order from the Cardinal Legate to implore Gods assistance in those necessities in which Procession the Prelates Priests and Monks of the several Religious Orders walked all in their accustomed habits but besides them they were Armed also openly with Corslets Guns Swords Partezans and all kind of Arms offensive and defensive making at once both a shew of devotion and constancy of heart prepared to defend their lives which heightened the courage of the common people After this Procession they made another of all the Magistrates of the City and among the Ceremonies of it the Duke of Nemours their Governour and other Commanders of the Souldiers and Magistrates of the people swore publickly in the great Church to defend the City to the last man and never make an agreement with an Heretick Prince for any danger or calamity whatsoever should befall them The King drew nigh to Paris and shuts up the passages of the River of Seine on every side and the City is in great scarcity for want of Victuals Cardinal Gondy Bishop of Paris gives way that the Church Plate should be turned into money for the relief of the poor and the Cardinal Legate distributed among the poor 30000. crowns extorted from the Pope with much ado The Ambassadour Mendoza promised sixscore crowns a day in Bread The Dutchesses and the richest Lords sold their houshold stuff jewels and Ornaments to relieve the urgent necessities of the common people During this siege the Cardinal of Bourbon dies at Fontenay which produceth no alteration at all only the Duke of Mayenne invites the Deputies of the Provinces to Meaux to chuse another King The Duke of Mayenne having met the Duke of Parma at Conde obtains of him 1500. Spanish Foot towards the relief of Paris In that populous City the Famine was so sore that within the space of three Months moe than an hundred thousand died in it The Duke of Parma cometh with an Army to relieve Paris at his arrival at Meaux he joyns with the Duke of Mayenne The Abbot del Bené dies a man of great abilitie in State affairs at which the King is troubled Upon August 30. the King riseth from the siege of Paris While the two Armies lie still observing one another the Parisians furnish themselves with some Provisions The King sends a Trumpet to the Duke of Mayenne to challenge him to fight The Duke of Parma drawes his Army into Battalia as if he would give Battel goes away suddenly to Lagny and deceives the King The Duke of Parma takes Lagny before the face of the King's Army whereby the passage of the River Marne being freed upon Septemb. 6. great store of victuals enter into Paris The King withdraws his Army and marcheth towards St. Dennis He gives a Scalado to the City which proveth ineffectual The Duke of Parma takes Corbeil and so absolutely frees Paris from want
cared not for the talk of the people nor for challenges And to get out of that mire he moved a question to Du Moulin whether he could tell after what manner of Creation the Angels were created Du Moulin knowing that this was their last meeting answered that the Question in hand was only of subscribing the Acts. But Cayer refusing turned his back and said you shall hear of me and so went away to the great scandal of the Romanists there present A Protestant made the company laugh saying that Cayer was not yet of Age to sign Thus was the Conference broken to the great satisfaction of many faithful souls and the instruction of many ignorant Papists who since gave glory to God by an open Profession of the truth The Acts of the Conference are extant published by Archibald Adaire a Reverend Bishop of Scotland The Doctors of the Faculty of Sorbon stung with the ill success of this Conference provoked him to another in which the body of the University took interest They were to oppose three daies upon what points they thought best and Du Moulin was to oppose three daies also and choose what points he pleased He was then Respondent for three daies and found in the Dispute that blessing of God which never was wanting to him in the defence of his truth After the Dispute of the third day he being returned home and retired to his study a man in a Priest's habit came in the dark evening up the stairs and knockt at his Study door When Du Moulin had opened it the man thrust the door with all his strength to have rusht in and Du Moulin with all his strength in which he was inferiour to few men of his size kept him out and called for help The man hearing some stirring below ran hastily down the stairs and so into the Street It is supposed upon probable ground that the man was come to kill him before he presented himself to be opponent according to the Covenants of the Conference But on the next morrow he met with a Prohibition from the King to continue that Conference any longer These passages raised his reputation very high whereby God was glorified his Truth confirmed and his Church edified and increased with many Converts The last sickness of the King's Sister gave a great exercise to his zeal and industry whereby he did faithfully and constantly assist her in that extremity Du Perron did his utmost to pervert her and to fright him away When she drew near to her end Du Moulin standing by her Bed side Du Perron came and said he was sent by the King and would remove him by plain force But Du Moulin held fast the Bed-post And when Du Perron told him he was to take place of him in all Companies Du Moulin answered that his place was before Du Perron's at the Princesses Beds side and in that service He added that he believed not that the King would offer violence to his Sisters Conscience appealing to her self and beseeching her Highness to declare her pleasure She declared that she would die in the Reformed Religion and that she would have Du Moulin to stay by her Whereupon Du Perron withdrew and the good Princess persevered in God's truth to her last breath The King wisht she had died in the Roman Profession and did all he could without violence to pleasure the Court of Rome in that point A little before there was a Conference between the Bishop of Eureux and Philip de Mornay Lord of Plessis Marly Governour of Saumur in the presence of the King Princes and Officers of his Crown Counsellours of State and other Noblemen of Mark. It was touching a Book which Monsieur du Plessis had published of the Institution of the Lords Supper and against the Mass wherein the Bishop did tax him to have falsified many Authorities Whereupon Du Plessis presented a Petition unto the King that his Majesty would be pleased to appoint Commissioners to examine every passage of Scripture cited in his Book The King yielded to this Conference referring the care thereof to his Chancellour The Commissioners appointed for the Catholicks were Augustus Thuanus President of the Court of Parliament at Paris Pithou Advocate in the Court and Fleure Schoolmaster to the Prince of Conde in whose absence came Martin the King's Physitian And for the other the President of Calignon Chancellour of Navarre in whose place entred De Fresnes Gavay President of the Chamber of Languedoc and Isaac Casaubon his Majesties Reader for the Greek Tongue All men of great Learning and well skilled in the Tongues This Conference began on May 4. in the Hall at Fountainbleau De Serres Hist in Henry IV. in the midst whereof was a Table of a reasonable length At the one end sat the King on his right hand the Bishop of Eureux and on the left right against him Du Plessis Pasquier Vassaut and Mercier Secretaries of the Conference were at the lower end of the same Table Somewhat higher on the right hand sate the Chancellour and the Commissioners Behind the King stood the Archbishop of Lions and the Bishops of Nevers Beauvais and Chastres On the King 's left hand were the four Secretaries of State Behind them which conferred were the Dukes of Vaudemont of Nemours of Mercoeur of Mayenne of Nevers of Elbeuf of Aiguillon and of Janville the Officers of the Crown Counsellours of State and other Noblemen of quality All were commanded to keep silence The King said that the Dispute was not betwixt party and party but particular betwixt the two Conferents not for any question of Right and Doctrine but for the literal truth of some passages He desired they would treat with all mildness and moderation without any bitterness or passion but that of the truth Declaring moreover that he did not mean that this Dispute should in any thing alter or disquiet the peace of his Subjects as the Chancellour did then Declare unto them at large by the King's Commandment After the first daies Conference M. Du Plessis fell very sick so as they could proceed no further The King did write the same day unto the Duke of Espernon what had past in the Conference and shewed by his Letter what his judgement was My friend the Diocess of Eureux hath vanquished that of Saumur Wherewith Du Plessis was discontented so that in a Discourse Printed soon after touching this Conference he termed this Letter A spark of fire and said That the Bishop of Eureux Fly was made an Elephant Some Months after Canay one of the Commissioners and President in the Chamber of the Edict at Castres a man learned in Philosophy and the Tongues and well read in the Church History left his Profession of the Reformed Religion and became a Romish Catholick Philip Mornay Lord of Plessis his work concerning the truth of Christian Religion was written in French against Atheists Epicures Paynims Jews Mahumetists and other Infidels began to be translated
by Sir Philip Sidney and at his request finished by Arthur Golding He published a Treatise containing the reasons why the Council of Trent could not be admitted in France He was sent by the King of Navarre to the National Synod of Vitray in Bretagne where he was joyfully received by the whole Company He was likewise present in the General Assembly of the Protestants held at Montauban by the King's permission Anno 1584. Where he was desired by the Assembly to draw up the form of their Complaints against the violation of the Edict for Peace which He together with the Count de la Val presented afterwards to the King at Blois When the League of the House of Guise brake forth which was formed first against the King under pretence of the Defence of the Catholick Religion and afterwards declared against the King of Navarre and the Protestants That famous Declaration in the name of the said King was Penned by Du Plessis In the following Civil Wars for Religion he did many important services for the King of Navarre and the Protestants both with his Sword and Pen having answered a virulent Book published by the League against the King of Navarre called the English Catholick In the year 1590. he built a Church for the Protestants in Saumur and obtained a Grant from the King for the instituting an University there which was afterwards confirmed by a National Synod held in the same place Anno 1593. he wrote a large Letter to the King who then had changed his Religion desiring the continuance of his favour to the Protestants and withal expostulating that sudden change Anno 1598. he Printed his Work of the Lords Supper The Jesuites of Bourdeaux Petitioned the Parliament there that it might be burnt Jacobus August Thuanus is a most faithful Historian He wrote an History of things done throughout the whole World from the year of Christ 1545. even to the year 1608. in a most elegant style He is highly commended by divers Learned men Suae aetatis Historiam summo judicio fide sine odio gratia ad Dei gloriam publicam utilitatem prudentissimè conscripsit opus styli elegantiâ gravissimarum rerum copiâ ac majestate cum quibusâ—is sive veterum sive recentium in eo genere scriptis conferendum Lans Orat. pro Gallia Inter multa quae in te admiratura est posteritas ego illud unicè obstupesco unde tibi modo in fori arce modo in summâ Republicâ versanti otium unde vis indefessa animi ut res tot ac tantas aut scribendas cognosceres aut cognitas scriberes Grot. Epist 16. Jac. Aug. Thuano Quem ego virum divinitus datum censeo saeculo isti in exemplum pietatis integritatis probitatis Casaub Epist Append. Vir immortali laude dignus Historicae Veritatis lumen Montac Antidiat Vir non minus eruditione quà m officij dignitate Nobilis siquis alius Veri studiosus Morton Causa Regia Isaac Casaubon was a great Linguist a singular Grecian and an excellent Philologer He hath written in twelve Books of his Exercitations Animadversions on those twelve Tomes of Baronius his Annals Scaliger in an Epistle to Casaubon commends his Bok de Satyra and in another his Theophrastus his Characters He is thus styled by Salmasius Incomparabilis Vir seculi sui decus immortale Isaacus Casaubonus nunquam sine laude nominandus nunquam satis laudatus Salmas Praefat. ad Hist August script The Marriage between the King and Queen Margarite being pronounced void and a Contract past between him and Mary of Medices the Duke of Florence's Daughter She being blessed of Aldobrandino the Pope's Legate at Florence went from thence and arrived at Marseilles from wheâ—ce being every where Royally entertained she came to Lions and there after eight daies stay met with the King where in St. John's Church the Nuptial solemnity was performed to this Couple by the Legate On September 27. 1601. the Queen was delivered of a Son which was named Lewes The King blessing him put a Sword in his hand to use it to the glory of God and the defence of his Crown and people The Pope sent presently unto the King and Queen to congratulate with them of this Birth and to carry unto the young Prince swadling bands bearing clothes and other things blessed by his Holiness Then the Pope granted a Jubilee and pardons to all the French that should go visit the Church of St. Croix at Orleans doing the works of Christian Charity An infinite number of people went thither from all parts of France the King and Queen went thither with the first and gave means to help to build this Church which had been ruined during the fury of the first Civil wars The King laid the first stone of this building Then the King did forbid the superfluous use of Gold and Silver in Lace or otherwise upon garments and made an Edict also against Usury and another against Combates Not long after the Duke of Biron's Conspiracy was discovered who was sometimes heard say he would die a Sovereign Refusing to submit hiâ—self to the King's Clemency he is seized on at the King's Chamber door and his Sword being taken from him is carried Prisoner to the Bastille There uttered he those passionate words That if they desired to put him to death they should dispatch him that they should not brag they had made him to fear death that they should speedily drink themselves drunk with the blood which remained of thirty five wounds which he had received for the service of France The King sent his Letters to the Court of Parliament to make his Process In the end being found guilty the Chancellour pronounced the sentence of death whcih was inflicted on him in the Bastille which he took most impatiently King James of happy memory before his coming to the Crown of England sent expressions of Royal favour to the Consistory of Paris who chose the forementioned Du Moulin to address their humble thanks by Letters to his Majesty And when his Majesty publisht his Confession of Faith against which Coeffeteau since Bishop of Marselles writ an eloquent Book Du Moulin undertook the defence of the King's Confession and wrote a French Book with that Title which was most welcome to the King and to the English Clergy and his Majesty made Royal and bountiful expressions of his acceptance And because other Adversaries besides Coeffeteau had writ against the King Du Moulin wrote another Book in his defence in Latine entituled De Monarchia Pontificis Romani The Duke of Bovillon having been accused by those which had been examined in Council upon the Conspiracies of the Duke of Biron being sent for refuseth to come to the King but afterwards in the year 1606. he made his peace and came to the King being then at Dunchery on April 11. The King with the Queen Princes of the blood and other Officers of the Crown
entred into Sedan where he was joyfully received by the Duke being Prince of Sedan and Protectour of the Protestant Church there The King promised that the Church of Sedan should suffer no alteration but enjoy the liberty of their conscience In the year 1603. the Duke of Savoy had an enterprize upon Geneva his men on scaling Ladders mounted the Walls undescried surprized the Souldier that stood Centinel got the word of him and slew him being also Masters of the Streets about two hours But they were disappointed thirteen were by the Towns-men taken alive among whom was the Baron of Attignas which were condemned to be hanged whose heads with the heads of those that were killed in all seventy seven were set upon the Gallowes and their bodies thrown into the River of Rhosne for which deliverance they made a solemn thanksgiving to God concluding a peace with the Duke in July the same year The same year the King being at Metz there came unto him four Jesuites to obtain their re-establishment in France In October there was a National Synod held at Sap by those of the Reformed Religion which Treated touching Doctrine Discipline and the Government of Churches The King made Monsieur Alexander his Bastard Son of the Order of the Knights of Malta A great number of Commanders and Knights being assembled at Paris where he was invested into the Order in the Augustines Church by the Grand-Prior of France who set upon his Breast a Plastron of black Satten with a white Cross So the Ceremony ended with great joy and sounding of Trumpets The new Knight feasted the Grand-Priors of France and Champagne with the Commanders and Knights at the Temple The King having promised to restore the Jesuites Father Cotton came to Paris by his Majesties Command with Father Armand the Provincial and Father Alexander and the King grew presently into such a liking with Father Cotton as he did nothing but he was called and in the end his Majesty granted their return upon certain Conditions and the Edict made for their establishment notwithstanding any oppositions made unto the Court to hinder the confirmation therof was confirmed in the beginning of the year 1604. and their Colledges were restored at Lions Roven Bourges and Dijon The Signeur of Varenne Controller General of the Posts and now Governour of the Town and Castle of Anger 's who loved them of this company besought the King to build a new Colledge at La Fleche in Anjou with priviledges like to the other Universities of that Realm the which the King made of a Royal Foundation and gave them his own House with Pensions for the instruction of a good number of young Gentlemen whom his Majesty would have bred up and instructed there in all Professions Tongues and Exercises But Father Cotton returning one night somewhat late about the end of February and passing by the Street of the new Bridge to go unto the Louvre there were certain Pages and Lacquies which calling for him at the door of the Coach wounded him with their Rapiers giving him one great wound in the shoulder going toward the neck and throat whereof he was soon after cured There was great search made for this attempt Some were taken and examined Cotton requested the King to pardon them yet were they banished the Court and forbidden ever to come there upon pain of death In the year 1606. the King made special orders on the behalf of those of the Reformed Religion enjoyning them to carry themselves according to the Edict of Nantes avoiding all occasions of scandal About Easter this year were such violent winds and storms throughout all France as the tops of houses being cast down many were slain and sore hurt in Paris Not long after there was a violent Plague in the same and in the beginning of the following year In the year 1608. were the Jesuites admitted into Navarre and Bearn whereat all the Judges and Officers of the Country were discontented as who hated the Jesuites above all Creatures living and had in former times put them to death like Spies if they found any within their limits The Prelates of France in like manner Petitioned the King once again that the Decrees of the Council of Trent might be observed On April 11. Anno 1609. there was a Conference between Monsieur Du Moulin lone of the Ministers of the Reformed Church of Paris and Father Gontier a Jesuite being seconded by the Baroness of Salignar after which it was bruited abroad that Gontier had confuted Du Moulin in divers points which the Protestants held Gontier himself writing a specious Letter to the King to that effect Du Moulin finding his Reputation touched and the truth misreported was forced to publish a true Discourse of the whole Conference In the year 1610. another attempt against Geneva was discovered whereof the Authour was â—analis one of their own home-bred and native Citizens a man not meanly reputed of both for his knowledge in Physick and the Languages whereof being found guilty and of another before he was condemned and his body broken and so laid half dead on a wheel unbound he was cast from thence to be burned in a fire under him On May 13. the Queen was solemnly Crowned at St. Dennis by the Cardinal of Joyeuse On Friday May 14. the day after the Queens Coronation the King was treacherously murthered by the cursed hand of a bloody villain The King being advertised of some ominous influence and Prediction which did threaten him that day went to see Mass with great devotion At his return they brought him some of his Children among the rest the Duke of Anjou whom he dearly loved but being then very pensive he commanded they should carry him to breakfast Then being very sad he cast himself upon his bed to sleep if he might but not being able to take any rest he fell upon his knees and began to pray Then he lay down again and prayed again and thus he did three times In the end he went and walked in the Gallery till dinner time After dinner many Noblemen came into his Chamber and began to tell some tales to make him laugh Having smiled a little with the rest being naturally of a pleasant disposition in the end he said We have laughed enough for Friday we may well weep on Sunday Hereupon he caused some to go to the Arsenal at four of the clock Whereupon they say that the Duke of Vendosme told him that he had been warned to beware of the 14. day yet making no account thereof he went down into the Court where a man of a mean condition entertained him a quarter of an hour Then he went into his Coach by the Duke of Espernon who sate in the first place of the Boot on the King 's right hand Montbazon the Marshal of Lavardin la Force and Praulin being followed by two Foot-men and one of his Guard on Horse-back having commanded Monsieur de Vitry and the rest of
time flourished Jacobus Sirmondus a Learned French Jesuite he was Confessour to King Lewes XIII Dallaeus saith he was a most Learned and most diligent man Natione Gallus Biblioth societ Jesu A Philip. Alegamb edit Rector olim Collegii Parisiensis vir totius antiquitatis curiosus investigator Latine Graecéque impensè doctus in omni penè literarum genere excultissimus qui humaniores literas theologicas admodum decore conjunxit As for his Works there are his Eucharisticon pro Adventoria de Regionibus Ecclesiis suburbicariis Censura conjecturae Anon. Scriptoris de suburbicariis Regionibus Ecclesiis Propempticum Cl. Salmasio adversum ejus Eucharisticon and other Works of his We owe unto him saith Dr. Du Moulin the Works of Facundus an African Bishop who lived in the time of the Emperour Justinian Claudius Salmasius was a Learned French Critick Vir incomparabilis maximus Salmasius de primatu Papae post quem Homerum siquis Iliada conscribere velit inutilem laborem suscipiet Rivet Grot. Discus Dial. Sect. 5. Vir nunquam satis laudatus nec temerè sine laude nominandus Claud. Salmasius Voss de Orig. progress idol li. 4. ca. 91. Nostri seculi miraculum antiquitatis promus condus Gul. Rivet Praefat. ad vindic Evang. Non Galliae suae duntaxat sed jam hujus Bataviae ingens decus atque adeo totius Reipublicae literariae praesidium Voss de anal li. 3. ca. 46. Clariss Salmasius notis ad Vopiscum ubi post Guilandinum Dalecampium in Plinium ac Scaligeri Diatribam adversus Guilandinum pulchrè indictaque aliis de hoc disserit argumento Voss de art Gram. li. 1. ca. 38. Vir alioquin ad literas summo honore tractandas illustrandas natus si modestiam adhibere arroâ—â—â—ti de se persuasione ac erga alios mdlignitate excussa mentem animi in iis sedulo occupare potuisset Herald animadvers in Salmas observat Ad jus Att. Rom. li. 2. ca. 7. Desiderius Heraldus a Learned French man hath written a Comment on Martial and the other Books forecited and other Learned Works Franciscus Vieta was a Learned French Mathematician There are his Opera Mathematica Vol. 2. Relatio Calendarii vere Gregoriani cum aliis opusc Vniversalium inspectionum ad Canonem Mathematicum lib. singularis De Aequatione recognitione emendatione Thuanus thus saith of him Vir ingeniosa profunda meditatione cujus vi nihil illi inaccessum in abstnusioribus scientiis nihil quod acumine mentis possit confici difficile confectus fuit Thuan. Hist Tom. 5. part 2. li. 129. Nicholas Vignerius was a Learned French Historiographer There are To. 3. de la bibliotheq Hist and other works of his vid. Thuan. Hist Tom. 5. li. 117. part 1. His Son Nicholas Vignerius was a Learned Divine He hath published an excellent Treatise in French styled Theatre de l'Antichrist and a Dissertation in Latine of the Excommunication of the Venetians against Cardinal Baronius And Theses of the satisfaction of Christ which Rivet highly commendeth and annexeth unto his own Disputations Benedict Turretine was also a Learned French man These Books of his are published in French Defense de la fidelité des traductions de la S. bible faictes a Geneve Recheute du Jesuite Plaigiaire Profit des Chastiments Quod adversus Petri Cottoni Jesuitae plagiariam Genevam manifestum fecit vir dum viveret doctissimus accuratissimus Benedictus Turretinus Andr. Rivet Apologet. pro vera pace Ecclesiae The Works of Cardinal David Du Perron are in four Volumes in Folio in French Replique A la Response du Serenissime Roy de la Grand Bretagne Les Diverses Oevres c. Du sainct sacrement de l'Eucharistie Les Ambassades Negotiations He is well answered by Du Moulin Rivet and Blondel The Jesuites seek to be incorporate in the University of Paris whom the University opposed by all means presenting a Petition unto the Queen Regent against them therein laying down at large their damnable Doctrine and strange Equivocations Hereupon Factions began in Paris some standing for others siding against the Jesuites But these Clouds were quickly dispersed and the State preserved for the continuance whereof Monsieuer Pasquier one of the Masters of Requests a man of great Learning and Judgement wrote unto her a Discourse of advice The Abbot of Bois in his Sermons treating of the Question Whether it be Lawful to kill a Tyrant and refuting Mariana's Book and others he made an exhortation to the Jesuites that they should hereafter have a great care that no Book should be published to the prejudice of France under the name of their Society nor with the approbation of their Superiour if they would not willingly expose themselves to those dangers which all their wisdoms fortified with the Authority of their confident friends could not avoid For this did the Jesuites complain and informed against him who answered for himself both wisely and discreetly October 17. the young King was Crowned at Rhemes by Cardinal Joyeuze On November 26. the Great Chamber the Turnelle and the Chamber of the Edict being assembled by a motion made by Monsieur Servin the King's first Advocate against Bellarmines Book touching the Pope's Temporal Power made a Decree against the same whereat the Pope's Nuncio did mightily storm On May 27. 1611. began the Assembly of the Reformed Churches at Saumur whereat many Dukes and Noblemen of the Reformed Religion were present where Du Plessis was chosen President Which Assembly was dissolved September 29. Monsieur de Bullion letting them understand that their Majesties had given him in charge to say that all their just requests should be favourably answered and whatsoever had been promised should be paid The Duke of Espernon to manifest his gratitude to King Henry III. his Master and Benefactor begged of the Queen Regent to give him leave to perform his Funeral Rites he having formerly after the death of the said King attended his Body to Compeigne where the misfortunes of War and the confusions of the times permitted not at that time the performance thereof The Queen readily consented to his request so that the Duke with a great company of Lords and Gentlemen went to fetch the body from Compeigne from whence he conveyed it to St. Dennis where it was deposited in the ancient Sepulchre of the Kings of France A little before his death the Duke caused a Marble Pillar one of the most excellent pieces of Architecture of these late times to be carried and set up in the Church of S. Clou wherein he was so curious as to make it to be wrought in his own house and almost in his own sight his design being to found a Revenue of a thousand Liuvres yearly for the service of the Chappel where it was erected which was also adorned with Pictures and paved with Marble at his own charge But some difficulties arising about the settlement of that foundation which
by the Parliament he disswaded them from it as much as he could both by Letters and Sermons And unto him the Court was obliged that all the Protestant Tows on this side the Loire kept in the King's obedience He shewed that he did it not to serve the times but to serve God The declaring of the Politick Assembly of the Protestants for the Prince of Conde in the year 1616. was the greatest error that ever they committed and they smarted for it as soon as the young King had got more Age and vigour In the mean time Du Plessis laboured much in procuring the peace of the Protestant Churches endeavouring to keep a good correspondence between the King and them which was continually ready to be interrupted in which business he carried himself with so much prudence and fidelity in all occurences between them that he was admired and praised by all Yea even Cardinal Du Perron himself heretofore one of his greatest enemies shewed him great respect in the Assembly of States held at Roven Anno 1617. Speaking of him in all companies with an excess of Praises and telling the King himself that those men had done him wrong who had kept off Monsieur Du Plessis from having a greater Power in the management of his affairs And that his Religion ought not to render him unprofitable in the exercise of those graces which God had given him and that his Majesty ought to keep him near his person so long as he should live After the return of Dr. Du Moulin out of England the Jesuite Arnoux a Court Preacher sent a challenge to the Ministers of Paris to appear before the Queen-Mother to give account of their Religion preacht fire and sword against them before their Majesties and sent them a Pamplet full of heavy accusations The Doctor was charged by his Colleagues to make an answer to it which he did and addressed it to the King In that answer by way of just recrimination he affirmed that he had seen in the Colledge of the Jesuites at la Fleshe a Picture of the Martyrs of their Order and in that rank some Traytors who had been executed for conspiring against the Life of their Kings That the maxims of the Jesuites were pernicious to Kings whereas the Doctrine of the Protestants maintained their Life their Authority nad their States And the Pastours of the Reformed Churches taught their people fidelity and obedience to the King Then he represented the many Perils and Combates which the Protestants had sustained for the defence of King Henry IV. till they had brought him to the Crown Of which services they that had been the King's enemies received the reward This answer of the Ministers was presented to the King by the Duke of Rohan See the Life of Dr. Du Moulin This bold address to the King irritated the great Officers of the Crown of whom not a few or their Fathers had been of the party of the League The Jesuites therefore letting their challenge fall indicted the Ministers of Treason although all the ground they could find for it was that the Ministers called the Reformed Churches their people as if they had pretended some Soveraignty over them The Ministers being summoned before the Council the indictment of Treason was not much urged as being but a Cavil After grave Admonitions and high threatnings by Chancellour Bruslart they dismissed them That challenge of Arnoux and a Pamphlet of his against the confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in France occasioned the Doctor to write his Buckler of Faith A Jesuite came to the Doctors Study to dispute with him Monsieur de Monginot a famous Physitian was present at the Conference whereby he was converted and set out an excellent Book of the reasons why he abjured Popery He had many encounters and to relate all his Conferences migh◠fill a great Volume Scarce was he a week without one while he lived in Paris and some of them were very long He was the object of the publick hatred of the Romanists His name was the general Theme of Libels cryed up in the Streets of railing Sermons in all Pulpits and of the curses of ignorant Zealots The Popish Clergy in the year 1617. being assembled at the house of Austin-Friers in Paris as every two years they used to do being to take their leaves of the King elected the Bishop of Aire to be their Spokes-man and to certifie his Majesty of their grievances In performing which business the principal thing of which he spake was to this purpose That whereas his Majesty was bound to give them Fathers he gave them Children That the name of Abbot signifies a Father and the Function of a Bishop was full of Fatherly authority yet France notwithstanding was now filled with Bishops and Abbots which are yet in their Nurses arms or else under their Regents in Colledges Nay more that the abuse goeth before the Being Children being commonly design'd to Bishopricks and Abbacies before they were born He also made another complaint that the Soveraign Courts by their Decrees had attempted upon the Authority which was Committed to the Clergy even in that which concerned meerly Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government of the Church To these complaints he gave them indeed a very gracious hearing but it never went further than a hearing being never followed by redress The Court of Parliament knew too well the strength of their own Authority and the King was loth to take from himself those excellent advantages of binding to himself his Nobility by the speedy preferring of their Children So the Clergy departed with a great deal of envy and a little of satisfaction In the same year the States of the United Provinces desired the Churches of England Germany France c. to send some able Divines to the Synod of Dort whereupon the Churches of France named four viz. Dr. Du Moulin Chamier Rivet and Chaune But when the Doctor was making ready for his journey he was forbidden by a messenger of the Council of State of France to go out of the Kingdom upon pain of death The like prohibition was made to the three other Divines Andrew Rivet was a Godly and Learned French Divine He hath very well expounded Genesis Exodus the Prophetical Psalms and Hosea and wrote Learnedly against the Papists in his Catholicus Orthodoxus and against Grotius Criticus sacer seu censura Patrum Isagoge in S. Scripturam Synopsis doctrinae de naturâ gratiâ He hath published other Learned Treatises in French and Latin William Rivet his Brother hath also published a Learned Treatise De Justificatione an exact French Treatise De invocatione adoratione Sanctorum defunctorum Epist Apologet. Daniel Chamier was also a Learned French man who in his Panstratiae Catholicae hath so Learnedly refuted the Papists that none of them hath made any answer to it His Epistolae Jesuiticae and Corpus Theologiae also shew his great abilities There is also a Work of his in French
sitting can produce can countervail the dissipation of so many Churches that lie open to the wrath of their enemies whether when they are fallen you can raise them again whether in the evident division that is among us you are able to rally the scattered parts of that divided body which if it were well united yet would be too weak to stand upon the defensive part Pardon me Gentlemen if I tell you that you shall not find aâ—â— our Protestants enclin'd alike to obey your resolutions and that the fire being kindled all about you shall remain helpless beholders of the ruine you have provoked Neither can it be unknown to you that many of the best quality among us and best able to defend us do openly blame your actions professing that suffering for this cause is not suffering for the cause of God These making no resistance and opening the Gates of their places or joining their arms with the King 's you may easily judge what loss and what weakening of the party that will be How many of our Nobility will forsake you some out of conscience some out of treachery some out of weakness Even they who in an Assembly are most vehement in their votes and to shew themselves Zealous are altogether for violent waies are very often they that first revolt and betray their Brethren They bring our distressed Churches to the hottest danger and there leave them going away after they have set the house on fire If there be once fighting or besieging of our Towns whatsoever may the issue be of the Combate or the siege all that while it will be hard to keep the people animated against us from falling upon our Churches that have neither retreat nor defence And what order soever the Magistrates of contrary Religion take about it they shall never be able to compass it Certainly this stirring of yours is altogether unseasonable and you set sail against wind and tide If any thing can help it must be the zeal of Religion c. But in this cause you shall find that zeal languishing because most of our people believe that this evil might have been avoided without any breach to our Conscience c. When I call to mind our several losses as that of Lectoure Privas and Bearn I find that we our selves have contributed to them and it is no wonder that our enemies take no care to remedy our faults and join with us to do us harm But hence it follows not that we must set our house on fire our selves because others are resolved to burn it or take in hand to remedy particular losses by means too weak to redress them but strong and certain to ruine the general God who hath so many times diverted the Counsels taken for our ruine hath neither lost his Power nor altered his Will we shall find him the same still if we have the grace to wait for his assistance not casting our selves headlong by our impatience or setting our minds obstinately upon impossibilities Certainly although our enemies seek our ruine yet they will never undertake it openly without some pretence other and better than that of Religion which we must not give them For if we keep our selves in the obedience which Subjects owe to their Sovereign you shall see that whilst our Enemies hope in vain that we shall make our selves guilty by some disobedience God will give them some other work and afford us occasions to shew to his Majesty that we are a Body useful to his State and put him in mind of the signal services that our Churches have done to the late King of glorious memory But if we are so unfortunate that whilst we keep our selves to our duty the calumnies of our enemies prevail at least we shall get so much that we shall keep all the right on our side and make it appear that we love the peace of the State Notwithstanding all this Gentlemen you may and ought to take order for the safety of your persons For whereas his Majesty and his Council have said often that if you separate your selves he will let our Churches enjoy peace and the benefit of his Edicts c. And whensoever you Petition for your safe dissolution I trust it will be easie to obtain it if you make possible requests and such as the misery of the time and the present necessity can bear And in the mean time you may advise before you part what should be done if notwithstanding your separation we should be opprest That order your prudence may find and it is not my part to suggest it unto you If by propounding these things unto you I have exceeded the limits of discretion I hope you will impute it to my zeal for the good and preservation of the Church And if this advice of mine is rejected this comfort I shall have that I have discharged my Conscience and retiring my self unto some foreign Country there I will end those few daies I have yet to live lamenting the loss of the Church and the destruction of the Temple for the building whereof I have laboured with much more courage and fidelity than success The Lord turn away his wrath from us direct your Assembly and preserve your Persons I rest c. From Sedan February 12. 1621. Vid. P. H. his voyage to France p. 206. These men not only gave Audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forreign Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a general liberty of going into any other Countries and assinging in their Councils a matter of special importance And therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely Prohibited them to go to any Assemblies without a particular Licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of business with King Lewes they would never Treat with him but by their Ambassadours and upon special Articles An ambition above the quality of those that profess themselves Sorbonets and the only way as De Serres noteth to make an Estate in the State But the answers made unto the King by those of Alerack and Montauban are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kind The first being summoned by the King and Army July 22. Anno 1621. returned thus That the King should suffer them to enjoy their Liberties and leave their Fortifications as they were for them for their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his good Subjects They of Montauban said That they were resolved to live and die in the Union of the Churches but said not for the service of the King This Union and Confederacy of theirs King Lewes used to call the Common-wealth of Rochel for the overthrow of which he alwaies protested that he had only taken Arms. On the second of April before he had as yet advanced into the Field he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Potestant Religion which would contain themselves
within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the Wars had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the burial of one of their dead five of them by the King 's special Commandment were openly executed When the War was hottest abroad those of the Reformed Religion at Paris lived securely and had their accustomed meetings at Charenton so had those also of other places Moreover when tidings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayennes death slain before Montauban and the French according to their hot-headed disposition breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots the Duke of Montbazon Governour of the City commanded their Houses and the Streets to be safely Guarded And when this Rabble had burnt down their Temple at Charenton the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained that it should be built up again in a more beautiful manner and that at the King's charge The forementioned Letters of Dr. Du Moulin being read in the Assembly at Rochel raised much contestation In the end the violent Party prevaling it was resolved that Monsieur de la Millitiere should write to Dr. Du Moulin in the name of the Assembly to desire him that he would not impart the said Letters unto any and to tell him that his advice was not approved Yet his advice was so relished by some of the Assembly that they arose and presently left it and never returned to it again But the violent men in the Assembly did good service to the Court by their violence and were feed by the Court to thrust their Brethren into a precipice and give to the King the long desired occasion to take from the Protestants the places granted to them by his Father's Edict The forenamed Millitiere was one of those violent men who afterwards forsook his party and his Religion and by his working and unhappy wit he hath created much trouble unto the French Churches The Duke of Espernon now receives a Commission from the King to march with an Army to reduce Bearn which the Marquess de la Force had excited to new Commotions to their duty and obedience The Marquess having intelligence that the Duke was coming against him sends to divert the Duke from coming into Bearn but that not taking effect he sends one Charles the principal Minister of Bearn unto him This person in the quality of a Deputy from the Country was sent to represent to him the sterility of the Country the poverty of the inhabitants and difficulty of the waies and the resolution of the people to make a smart resistance should they who were in a very good disposition at present be urged to the last extreams But the Duke having flatly told him that the end of his Expedition was to cause the King to be obeyed and to chastise all those that should rebell against him he was sent back very much astonished at so brisk a reply The Bearnois now gave themselves for lost their high vaunts but a few daies before that they would defend their Religion and their Countries liberty to the last man were converted into a pannick fear so that on a sudden whole Cities were left desolate men of the best quality among them with their Wives and Children seeking their safety in their flight out of a just apprehension of all the punishments an offended Prince might reasonably inflict upon a stubborn and mutinous people In this general consternation of the Bearnois the Duke drew near to Ortez the Castle whereof was very strong and had of late been fortified and furnished with all necessaries of War which also shut up the pass of the whole Country and was of so advantageous a scituation as was very easie to be defended But those within no sooner heard that the Duke hâ—d sent for Cannon from Navarrens to force them but they presently surrendered without staying till they could be brought up The Marquess de la Force having intelligence of the surrender of Ortez made haste to be gone and the Duke immediaetly advanceth from Ortez to Olleron where some Fortifications had lately been made which were also at his appearing deserted without the least shew of opposition At length the fear of the Duke's severity that had before frighted every one from his habitation being converted into an absolute confidence in his Clemency and goodness every one return'd to his own home The Cities which at his coming had been almost totally deserted were on a sudden re-inhabited insomuch that from that time forward all the Duke had to do was only to receive the tenders and protestations of their obedience and to set down Rules for their Civil Government which were ordered with much wisdom and justice He took such care to reconcile the interests of Religion that both parties were satisfied with the equal shares he divided betwixt them in the publick administration And all this was performed in less than three weeks time his journey thither his stay there and his return thence being in all not two month's expedition The Marquess de la Force had fled from Pau in so great haste that he had left his Wardrobe Cabinets and Papers at random of all which the Duke took care to have an Inventory taken leaving them safe seal'd up in the custody of a person in whom he knew the Marquess reposed an entire trust Now the Duke retreats out of Bearn to St. Jean d'Angeli a Protestant Town in France In this Town one Mr. Welsh a Scotch man was Preacher to the Protestant Church where his Ministry was blessed with much success That Town had been twice besieged and God so ordered things that the King did parley with the Town on favourable terms and did only himself with his Court come into the Town without doing any violence On the following Lord's day some of the Protestants in that place fearing Mr. Welsh his hazard earnestly desired him not to Preach the Court being there but he adventured to Preach the word unto his people and on that day had a great Auditory both of friends and others but in Sermon time a Great man of the Court with some of the King 's own Guard were sent to bring him forthwith before the King Whilst he was entring the Church wherein he found some difficulty by reason of the multitude Mr. Welsh turned himself towards that entry and desired the people to give way to one of the great Peers of France who was coming in But when he drew near the Pulpit to execute his Commission by putting force upon Mr. Welsh he did with great authority speak to him before all the people and in the name of his Master Jesus Christ charged him not to disturb the worship of God whereat the Nobleman was so startled that he sate down and made no further trouble The Sermon being ended Mr. Welsh with much submission went to the King who was then greatly incensed and with a threatning countenance asked what he was and how he durst Preach Heresie so near
the League between the French King the Duke of Savoy and the Venetians negotiates another between himself and the Princes of Italy The Spaniard spreads abroad defaming Libels against the League of France Venice and Savoy Those great losses which the Protestants had sustained for some preceding years in Bearn and Languedoc alwaies kept them waking especially after the Peace of Montpelier they well perceiving that those small â—outs which they had suffered did threaten their Party with an utter destruction The Spaniards therefore laboured very much to get the Sieur de Soubize and Rohan who were the only eminent persons to Command their Arms. Their design took effect These two Brothers being met at Castres resolved to raise those of their Party the one by Sea at Guienne and the other in Languedoc The attempt upon the Fort of Blavet otherwise Port S. Lewes of which we have spoken before was an effect of that resolution as also the endeavours of the Duke and Duchess of Rohan began at the same time in Languedoc to draw in more Towns in to their Party But the Marquess de Ragny was sent in all haste into Languedoc with certain Regiments to oppose the first Commotions and to employ many persons of discretion to assure himself of the Counsels of the chief Towns and by this means most of them kept within their duties Soubize publisht a Manifest which sounded an Alarm to all the Protestant Party making them to believe that their utter ruine was concluded on in the King's Council That the loss of their Religion was inevitable if they did not defend themselves by Arms and that the raising of Fort Saint Lewes built by Rochel was a sign of it He suggested to them that the Catholicks were of opinion in most of their Bcoks that they were not obliged to keep Faith with Hereticks Most were taken with these reasons because the Duke of Rohan clapt into some Towns certain Gentlemen and Captains of his own Religion to encourage them and to stir up the Popular Ministers who after this looked for nothing but when to rise not considering that the insurrections which they were carried to were contrived by the Spaniards who pretended not to make use of them but only to divert and draw off the King's Arms from Italy That fomentation which the Spaniard gave to the Hugonots whereby to force the King to draw off his Army from the Valtoline obliged the French King to do the like by the Spaniard in assaulting the Common-wealth of Genoa The Pope sends the Cardinal Barbarino in the quality of a Legate into France to negotiate the Peace between the French King and the King of Spain The Hugonots by the Spaniards instigation arm themselves very potently against the French King The Duke of Rohan took the Command upon himself of those Forces in Languedoc Soubize those in Poictou Although Soubize had been repulsed from before the Port of Blavet yet by that means he made himself master of six great Ships which were the King 's and the Duke 's of Nemours which gave him opportunity of doing very considerable damages He had formerly got together about eleven Ships of War and many Shallops and small Boats and with these roved up and down the Coasts of Poictou and Guienne as hath been before hinted at The Duke of Rohan got together about two thousand men near Castres He gave out that the Rochellers had taken Arms and sworn a League with the Churches of his Party that he might by this pretence get a like interest in some other Towns which he had an eye upon And accordingly he went to Puilaurens Ruel Soreze St. Pauls Leviate and Briteste and made the Consuls swear to the Confederacy afterwards he came to the Gates of Lavaur to surprâ—zâ— it but his design took no effect The Count of Carmain Governour of Foix got into Ruel and Soreze after the other had forsaken them and so dealt with the Consuls that they confessed their faults and protested not to take part with him any more A Process was made in the Parliament of Tholouse against him and all his Adherents The Marquess de Cragny and the Count of Carmain marched against the Duke and whilst those who made the first Encounter were at it the rest got into Vianes who were however so closely pursued by the Marshal's Forces that the Regiment of Normandy was hard at their heels entring into the Town with them Thus he remained Master of Peyresquade where there were about one hundred and fifty of the Rebels Souldiers killed and hurt all which the Duke of Rohan beheld from a Fort in Vianes where he then was from which time forwards he began to despair of doing any great matters for the future especially since he saw himself so closely followed and that the Cardinal had taken such a course in Languedoc that the King could have raised more men in twenty four hours than the Duke in a whole month Soubize finding little assurance on the main Land had fortified himself in the Isles of Reé and Olleron it was the more important to remove him thence because otherwise it would be impossible to reduce Rochel unto its obedience so easily and abundantly might he recruit them with necessaries from those fertile Islands but the Duke of Montmorency the King's Admiral made himself Master of the Isle of Reé after a three daies Combate with a great deal of obstinacy on both parts The Duke of Montmorency Landed at Olleron where he met with no resistance The Sieur de Soubize haying withdrawn himself into England lived at a House called Burgate in Hampshire near the New Forest for divers years after The whole Province was now setled in quiet both by Sea and Land of all which King Lewes was informed who received the news with much joy Cardinal Barbarini Legate from the Pope arrived in France and came to Marseilles where he was received with great honour 〈◊〉 also at Lions according to the Orders sent by the King He came to Paris on May 21. and entred in great pomp He is bound by the Laws of the Kingdom before he officiate the Function of a Legate to present the Brief which the Pope hath given him for the employment to the Parliament of Paris The Pope having omitted in this Brief to give the King the title of King of Navarre the Parliament refused to acknowledge it and obliged him not to proceed any further in the business till that were amended The Legate coming to Paris alighted at St. James de Haut-pas where the Clergy of the City the concourse of the Court and other Officers to the number of twelve thousand went to salute him and receive his Benediction After this the Prelates of Paris came to pay their respects to him There was a little dispute in what habit they should appear before him the Legate desiring they should be in their Rochets and Camall covered over with a Mantlet as a mark that they had no power in
his presence But the Prelates refusing to stoop to this Order it being contrary to the Rules of the French Church took a middle course They went so habited to salute him and accordingly accompanied him in the Cavalcade to Nostre-Dame whither being come they took off their Mantlets but all was done under a Proviso of saving their antient right He proposed to the King what the Pope had given him in charge He urged the King in general terms to peace to restore things in the Valtoline to their former state as they were before the Army of the Confederate Princes entred into it and desired him to grant a Cessation of Arms in Italy The King answered to the three Propositions That he was ever enclin'd to Peace and that he would still be induced to it provided it were for the publick safety and honourable for him and his Allies That as to what concern'd the Valtâ—line the late Treaty of Madrid had made provision for all those difficulties which have risen ever since and that he desired the execution of it As to the Cessation of Arms that he could by no means hearken to it because of the great prejudice it would be to himself and his Allies and the great advantage those of the adverse Party might make out of it Thereupon the Legate unexpectedly departeth from the French Court and goeth toward Rome The Hugonots now begged his Majestie 's pardon by their Deputies whom they sent unto him to testifie the sense they had of their fault and to assure him of their future fidelity and obedience His Majesty was well pleased with it and the Deputies coming to him at Fountainbleau about the end of August whilst the Legate was there there was no kind of acknowledgements and submissions which they did not make both in behalf of themselves as also of the Duke of Rohan and the Sieur de Soubize who sent to supplicate him by their particular Deputies that he would be pleased to employ them in the War of Italy that they might testifie by their passion to serve him that there was not any danger by Sea or Land to which they would not cheâ—rfully expose themselves to contribute to his glory Having made their speeches they presented the paper of their Complaints which they said were grounded upon several Graces which had been conferred upon them by the Edict of Nantes and several other grants The King received it and appointed it to be examined After the paper of their grievances had been examined the French King confirmed to them whatever had been granted to them by the Edict of Nantes granting them free liberty for the exercise of their Religion in such Towns where they had Churches and Church-yards and an Act of Oblivion for any thing done in the War but be would not consent to the demolishing of Fort Lewes as being of great importance for the keeping of Rochel in awe and obedience These favours were accepted by the general Deputies of the Protestants in the name of all their Towns excepting those of Rochel Montauban Castres and Milhaud who having been gained by the Duke of Rohan and Sieur de Soubize and finding that their Leaders had obtained only a single Pardon without any other advantage and without being employ'd in Italy according as they desired they entreated his Majesty upon other pretences that he would be pleased to grant some time till their two chief Officers and those four Cities were joyned with them The King granted to them that delay upon condition it were not over long who presently sent away the heads of those resolutions which had been taken But the Duke of Rohan excuseth himself from accepting those Articles which were granted to those of his Party He did his utmost to surprize some places in Languedoc He made an attempt upon Tillet in Albigeois He had some time before caused the Towns of Masdazil Pamiers and several other of Foix to revolt from which places he sent out his Scouts who committed great havocks in the plain Countrey But the Marshal de Themines and the Count de Carmain fell upon the Hugonots charged and killed many of them and took divers places from them some by storm some by composition Hereupon the Duke of Rohan went to the Assembly at Milhaud where he made those of his Party send a Currier to the King to accept of the Articles of Peace which his Majesty had granted to them His Majesty confirmed them though they had rendered themselves unworthy by their new Acts of Rebellion But it was necessary so to be for the better opposing of the enterprizes of Spain though Rochel was still excepted by reason of the little inclination they had testified of keeping themselves within their duty Then the Bishops and Clergy of France assembled at Paris The chief intent of their meeting was for the renewing of that Contract which they made every tenth year with the King for the payment of those Rents which are imposed on them They also condemned certain Libels sent abroad by the Spanish ambition which had been sent into France They condemned the Authours of them as enemies to the publick quiet and seducers of the people to Sedition And they granted to the King Six hundred thousand crowns upon the Churches oâ— France as a Contribution toward the Wars in which the State was engaged as also to preserve the Catholick Religion in its splendour and to maintain the glory of the Crown But many sordid spirits grudged at it who considering but one of those ends for which Lands were given to Churches began to oppose it as if the Church which is part of the State were not bound to contribute to the good of those Corporations of which they were members and as if the publick necessities were not more considerable than the private profits of some particular people who often employ their Revenues to bad uses The Cardinal now endeavoureth the procuring of Peace for those of Rochel And the same reasons which enclined his Majesty to shew his Clemency to the rest of that party did also perswade him to do the like to those of Rochel The King consented that the Town should be delivered into the hands of the Corporation on condition that they kept no Ships of War that they observed those Orders for traffique which were established in the rest of the Kingdom That they should restore to the Ecclesiasticks all the goods which had been taken from them That they should suffer the Catholicks to live freely and quietly in the exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and in the enjoyment of those goods which appertained to them That his Majesty should leave what Garrison he thought fit in Fort Lewes and the Islands of Reé and Olleron only promising that he would settle such a course in it as those of Rochel might receive no trouble by it either in their Commerce or in the enjoyment of their goods These Articles were agreed on about the beginning of February An.
Pinnaces and one Traversin in condition to sail But the Vessels were unladed and the Gentlemen and Souldiers safely landed in the Citadel The French King having been sick after his recovery comes to Rochel to drive the English out of Reé The Duke of Buckingham resolves to make his last attempt upon the Citadel of St. Martin The English began an assault but were repulsed It is said that the besieged took all the Ladders of the English fifty Prisoners of which were divers Captains and Officers that they had killed four or five hundred without losing above eighteen or twenty men and some few wounded among which were the Sieurs de Sardaignes and Gran Val who being shot through the bodies died within a few daies after The English doubting their Trenches would not secure them forsook the one half of them and shortly after resolved to go back for England The Marshal de Schomberg shortly after landeth there with fifty Barques about three in the morning without being discovered by the Enemy These being conjoyned with other Souldiers fell upon the English and routed them Their Horse were lost in the Marish Their Cornet and twenty four Colours and four Cannon were taken About five hundred were killed on the place besides those that were drowned in the Sea Many Gentlemen of quality and Officers were killed And as the French History saith three thousand Arms were taken in the Field and above one thousand five hundred Souldiers laden with the spoils It is reported that the English scarce carried off one thousand men the rest being either dead with sickness or killed and most of them also died soon after their return into England by reason of the discommodities they there endured After the King had obtained this signal Victory against the English he bent all his thoughts toward the besieging of Rochel The order of the whole Circumvallation was prescribed by his Majesty He raised thirteen Forts and several Redoubts upon the Trenches the Circuit of which were three Leagues or thereabout all out of Musket or Falcon shot but not of Cannon This Circumvallation being finished cut off all relief by Land and shortly after they were blocked up by Sea too At this time the Duke of Rohan finds means to make an Assembly in the Ville d'Vsez where divers of their Deputies met together and as he had no less Eloquence than Courage he perswaded them to whatever he had a mind to They approved of those succours which he had negotiated in England as just and necessary and they assured him not to enter into any Treaty of Peace with his Majesty without the Consent of the English and his own in particular Whereupon they deputed some of the chief of their Party to go to the Towns of Languedoc and Guienne they also wrote to those of Dauphiné and Vivarez to encourage them to unite with them for the good of the Cause They drew up the form of an Oath to be sworn by the Consuls the Governours of Towns Lords and Gentlemen who would engage with them An union very strange which divided Members from the Head and so separated Subjects from their Prince After the Duke of Rohan had used all his devices and seen the English Land at Reé he took up Arms and appeared in the Field He summoned the Duke of Savoy to send those Forces which he had promised but he could not obtain them All that he could draw from him was a promise of fifty thousand crowns Those Towns which were delivered up to him were Nismes Vses St. Ambrose Alets Anduse le Vignan St. Hippolite St. Jean de Grandamenque Samens la Salle and other smaller places and with those Forces drawn together he took during this year Realmont Renel Naves Mazares Pamiers Castres Soyon and other Towns upon the Rhofere and in Vivarez and more he had done if the Cardinal under the King's Authority had not prevented him It cannot be imagined with how much care and trouble he kept those together who were engaged in his Party how low he was fain to stoop to work upon the meaner sort of people how many impertinencies he was forced to bear how many inconsiderate discourses he was necessitated to hear and to how much constraint he was compelled to subject himself He hath since protested to divers of his friends that there is no care like that of retaining a mutinous people in that order which is necessary for him to make them follow who would raise any advantage to himself by their revolt Then the King by the advice of Cardinal Richlieu sent the Sieur Galland Privy Counsellour to his Majesty toward those Hugonot Towns which the Duke of Rohan had attempted to revolt that he might confirm them in their obedience This man was one of their own Religion which gave the King reason to hope they would be directed by him Having received his Commission he went directly to Montauban the chief Town of their Party next unto Rochel and by which most of the other Towns would be guided Upon his first arrival be called the Inhabitants together he gave them his Letter of Credence writ by his Majesty to them and began to confirm them in their obedience He laid before them the duty of Subjects toward their Prince the miseries and calamities which they had suffered whilst they fell off from their obedience he represented to them the disasters which would inevitably fall upon them if they should revolt he informed them of the small reason they had to believe the Duke of Rohan's promises or the aid of the English Fleet which he said could not hinder the relieving of the Isle of Reé His words so wrought on them that they subscribed a Declaration which they delivered to him in which they professed to live and die in that Loyalty which they owed unto his Majesty And all the other Towns unengaged in the revolt did the like And his Prudence was so successful that the Towns of Briateste Castres Pamiers Puylaurens Mazares St. Amand Cabarede Mazares Masdazil Arlat and many others made the like declarations under their hands and Seals But the misfortune was that having left divers Factious Spirits of Monsieur de Rohan's Party in Castres Pamiers and some other of those Towns before named they remained not firm to those resolutions he had insinuated to them by which means the Duke of Rohan soon after became Master of them The King unable to stop the D. of Rohan's proceedings by fair means makes use of force He commanded an Army to be raised and committed the Conduct of it to the Prince of Conde sending him a Commission of Lieutenant General of his Forces in Languedoc Dauphiné Guienne and Lyonnois He divided the Army into two parts the Prince of Conde had the better half the other being committed to the Duke of Montmorencie's care then Governour of Languedoc Soyon a strong place upon the Rhone was assaulted and in two daies forced to surrender The Prince also stormed
another little Town near to Saint Aubin and put all the Souldiers in it to the sword Then they marched against certain places which the Duke of Rohan had resolved to defend but the fear which the Inhabitants and Souldiers apprehended on sight of the Army made them open their Gates so they entred without resistance Then they became Masters of Corconne and Aubenas Montmorency pursued the Duke of Rohan and constrained him to flight he maintained the fight about two hours and saw about an hundred of his Souldiers killed fifteen of his Guard seven or eight Captains slain and divers others wounded In fine he saw at the years end that he had very little advanced his design The Rochellers now send to the King of England to demand succour Order was given for the Rigging out a Fleet in behalf of the Rochellers and the Command to be given to the Earl of Denbigh The King goes from Rochel to Paris to dissipate those Factions which began to rise thereabouts by the Hugonots in Picardy Champagnie and Brie Richlieu Commandeth the Army in his Majestie 's absence The English Fleet being now ready to hoise sail for Rochel the King resolveth to return thither The Rochellers are summoned by an Herauld to surrender to the King but their minds and answers were full of insolency so that the King bent all his thoughts to prepare for the fighting with the English Fleet at their first coming About the eleventh of May they were descried two Leagues off the point of Coreille An order was resolved on by the King assisted with his Generals and Sea Captains and so delivered to the Commander of Valencay who distributed it among the Officers The English attempt to relieve Rochel but in vain and when the Rochellers were embarqued after the exhortations of their Ministers and their Captains had solemnly sworn to pass the Bank in spite of all opposition or die in the attempt they were struck with such faint-heartedness that not a man durst stir his hand and Vincent their Minister could no longer speak unto them as himself confessed in a Letter to a friend of His. The English Fleet now departeth whereupon great dissentions arise among the Rochellers Then the King sent another summons to them to yield Breton Herauld at Arms was commanded to do it in form with his Coat of Arms who went into the City required them to lay down their Arms assured them of Pardon for their past Crime and threatning them with the contrary in case they should now refuse it But they being animated by their Preachers the Town continued obstinate in their insolencies After a feigned Treaty between the King and the Rochellers the Town was reduced by Famine to extream miseries The Cardinal perswaded his Majesty to settle divers Catholick Preachers in the Hugonot Provinces and wrought upon the Duke of Tremoville to forsake the Protestant Religion The Rochellers when they saw there was no hopes of succour from the English and that they died by thousands of the Famine made divers proposals of accommodation Since the last six months there had died about ten thousand of the Famine The Cardinal declared to them they must not think of any other condition than absolutely to submit to his Master's will At last they chose twelve of the principal among them most of which could hardly creep to beg his Majestie 's pardon to assure him that they would live and die in the obedience which they owed to him without demanding any other conditions than what his Majesty should please to give them The King granted them the pardon which they desired and the Sieur of Herbaut Secretary of State read the Patent to them by which his Majesty pardoned their Rebellion discharged them of all Acts of Hostility ordained that they should be restored to their goods granted them the Exercise of their Religion in the City and commanded that all the Souldiers in the City should enjoy the same Grace and that the chiâ—f Captains and Gentlemen should go out with their swords by their sides and the Souldiers with Cudgels in their hands but first they were to swear never to bear Arms against his Majestie 's service Rochel yielded up to the King Upon October 30. the Duke of Angolesm the Marshal de Scomberg the Sieurs de la Curce Vignolle Hallier St. Chaumont and divers other Lords fourteen Companies of the Regiments des Guardes and six of Swisses began about six in the morning to enter into Rochel The King placed himself upon the Fort de Beaulieu to see the Forces march into the Town They who Commanded these Forces seized on all the Gates of the Town the Ramparts Cannon and Munition and sent away the Souldiers the English by Sea and the French by Land who looked more like ghosts than men There were as many Citadels as Gates and as many Castles as Towers and this was it that made the City be esteemed impregnable especially seeing it had an outlet by Sea which could never have been broken up but by his Majestie 's extraordinary power and prudence yet all served but as Trophies raised to his Majestie 's glory On November 1. the King made his entrance into the City Those poor Creatures of the City prostrated themselves as he rode by them that they might the more acknowledge the mercy he had shewed them He had his Arms on and rode in on Horse-back without any Ceremony only four Companies of his Guards two of Swisses his two Troops of Light Horse Armed Cap-a-pe his Dragoons and the Life-guard marched before him all the Nobility following him without any order to avoid the disputes of Precedency Administrat of Card. Richliâ—u The Inhabitants cast themselves on their knees as his Majesty passed along the Streets crying God save the King who hath been so gracious unto us And he frequently saluted those who seemed to be of the better sort among them But those submissions and acknowledgements were much more increased when they received the ten thousand Loaves of Bread which the King distributed among them the same day together with divers other Alms. But when they saw that there came three thousand Carts laden with Wheat and other Provisions into the Town with a proportionate number of Beasts and Cattle which his Majesty commanded to be brought and sold at the usual rates of the Army they then confessed that he knew how to pardon as well as to vanquish The King alighted at S. Margarite's Church which had been Consecrated by the Bishop of Burdeaux and where the Cardinal had with divers Ecclesiasticks that morning celebrated Mass by way of doxology for that happy Victory He was received by the Archbishop assisted by the Clergy and divers other Religious who sung the Te Deum and the King himself also sang it with great devotion About two daies after the King caused the Hoast to be carried in Procession which was performed with a pompous Devotion He also wrote to the Archbishop
of Paris that a publick thanâ—sgiving might be made and himself returning to Paris passed by Nostre Dam des Ardilliers that there he might pay his Vows for to his Devotions there he ascribed his first Victories as that of the relieving Reé upon which the whole success depended The King before he left Rochel published a Declaration wherein was contained that the Roman Catholick Religion should be freely Exercised there both in the City and Government of Aulnis That the Churches which had been lately destroyed thereabouts should be re-edified and restored to them in whose Possession they formerly were together with all their appurtenances That a sufficient maintenance should be given to such Curates as had not means to live on out of those lands which belonged to the Town-house That the Religieux de la charitè les Religiouses Hospitaliers should be re-established in the Hospitals of the Town to attend upon all sick persons That a Cross should be raised in the Castle-yard at the Foot of which an Inscription of the taking the City should be inscribed and that every first of November a Procession general should be made to give God thanks for his mercies That the Church-yard Consecrated in the Lands of Coreille where those of the Camp who died during the siege had been buried should still be conserved to that use That a Covent of Religieux Minimes should be built there who might pray unto God for them and perpetuate the memory of the thing The King took this course to keep Rochel in obedience He deposed the Mayor and discharged the Shrievalty and Commonalty of the Town without hopes of restauration He ordained that the most Seditious persons of the City should forsake it and among others Guison Mayre Godefray Salebret and Deserbrieres not so much as excepting the Dame de Rohan who was carried to Niort by the Sieur de Lannay Lieutenant des Gardes des Corps Next he revoked all the Priviledges and Charters heretofore granted to the City He commanded the Walls the Ramparts and the rest of the Fortifications to be razed and the Ditches to be filled up leaving only the Towers de S. Nicholas de la Chains de la lantern standing with that part of the Wall toward the Sea to preserve the Town from Pirates He appointed also that no stranger should have an House or Family in the Town without his Majestie 's permission had and obtained or that any Hereticks as the Protestants were called should return to their former dwellings And for the better keeping them in their obedience he ordained that there should be an Intendent of justice in the City Country and Government of Aulins who should see the Execution of his Ordinances and have an eye to that which concern'd his service all which was inserted in the said Declaration He then commanded the Inhabitants to be disarmed and that certain Regiments should remain in the Town until it were quite demolished After all these things he returned to Paris where he was magnificently received the Companies of the City making Orations unto him The expences of the Siege of Rochel are said to have amounted unto forty millions of Livres Then Monsieur the Prince the Dukes of Montmorency and Vantadour who Commanded his Majestie 's Forces in Languedoc became Masters of the Field and before the end of the year repossessed themselves of all those places in a few daies which were capable of being forced The King in the year following having resolved upon going into Italy commits the Government of the State to the Queen his Mother And before he goeth into Piedmont he compelleth the Hugonots in Languedoc to lay down their Arms and to declare in form before his Parliaments and Judges that they will live in all duties and obedience hereafter His Majesty caused his Declaration to this purpose to be read in Parliament himself being present which put a stop to all the Hugonots affairs until after the taking of Suze Whilst the King is in Italy the Duke of Rohan takes Arms in the Sevennes And with the assistance of the Cities of Montauban Nismes Millaut Castres Privas Vsetz and some others had got such a body of an Army together as therewith he hoped to maintain himself in that little angle of the Kingdom and either presently to obtain some advantagious Conditions or to expect a more favourable time for the re-establishment of his depressed Party In the mean time he treated secretly with the King of Spain from whom he had also obtain'd a promise of some supply of money But the King who had intelligence of his practice returning with the same celerity out of Italy into France in the most violent heats of Summer with which he had passed out of France into Italy in the greatest extremity of Winter presented himself before Privas one of the Hugonot Cities in June which at his first coming he carried by assault after which Aletz another of the same Principles surrendered without resistance The Duke of Rohan observing what a terrour the taking of these two places had infused into his whole Faction and knowing on the other side that a Peace with Italy and England was already conclued began to apprehend at last he should be totally deserted by all his Confederates and Friends and left alone to bear the shock of all his Majesties Victorious Arms which made him in time seriously apply himself to his mercy to avoid the severe effects of his justice A Peace was concluded in July 1629. with the Duke of Rohan which all the other Cities of his Party likewise accepted except Montauban which for some daies stood out but afterwards was surrendered to Cardinal Richlieu who settled all things in peace to the great happiness of the King and the whole Kingdom The next year the French King procured from the Pope the Cardinals Hats to be bestowed on the Archbishop of Lions and Monsieur Bagni the Pope's Nuntio Now new stirs are at Court occasioned by the discontents of the Queen-Mother and the Monsieur The Queen-Mother professeth open hatred to the Cardinal she directly opposeth all his Counsels which how well soever they succeeded she still found matter enough to render them suspected to the King and to discredit them by sinister interpretations The Duke of Savoy was grown by this time sensible of the dishonourable Peace he had concluded at Suze to which the loss of Montferrat stuck mainly in his stomach The Duke therefore seizeth upon all the French in his Territories not so much as excepting the Merchants and Religious Orders The Marshal of Crequi hereupon advanceth to Pignerol with one thousand Horse six thousand Foot and some Cannon and reduced the Town and Citadel to the obedience of the French King And the passages from France to Piedmont were open after the reducing of certain Towns of the Duke of Savoy In short time the King makes himself Master of all Savoy The Cardinal offered all sorts of submission to the Queen-Mother to
King himself He calls him the Grand Director and most puissant Genius of France the perfectest of men who doth penetrate things to come and is ignorant of nothing great and incomparable Cardinal the most eminent among mortals to whom the â—rabbed iâ— and most mysterious affairs of State are but pastimes visible God and tutelar Angel of the Universe a spirit that moves the Heavens and and the Stars the bliss of the world the Supreme Intelligence the Phoenix of the earth who never had nor ever shall have his parallel As there were a number of such profane Sycophants among the Wits of France that idolized him in that manner so there wanted nor others that aspersed him by Pasquils and Libels One calleth the Capuchin the Cardinal and the Devil the three degrees of Comparison Horel's Hist of Lewes XIII One hath made this Epitaphical invective on him Adsta viator quò properas Quod nusquà m videbis aut audies heic legitur Armandus Johannes de Plessis Cardinalis de Richlieu Clarus Origine magnus ingenio fortunâ eminentissimus Quodque mirere Sacerdos in Castris Theologus in Aula Episcopus sine plebe Cardinalis sine titulo Rex sine nomine unus tamen omnia Naturam habuit in numerato fortunam in consilio Aerarium in peculio securitatem in bello victoriam sub signis Socios in praecinctu cives in servitute Amicos in obsequio inimicos in carcere Hoc tamen uno miser quod omnes miseros fecit Tam seculi sui Tormentum quà m ornamentum Galliam subegit Italiam terruit Germaniam quassavit Afflixit Hispaniam coronavit Briganzam cepit Lotharingiam Accepit Cataloniam fovit Sueciam truncavit Flandriam Turbavit Angliam lusit Europam Poeta purpuratus Cui scena mundus gloria stiparium Regia gaza Choragium fuit Tragicus maximè quam fabulam malè solvit Post regnum Testamento suis distributum paupertatem populo imperatam Dissipatos Principes nobilitatem suppliciis exhaustam Senatum authoritate spoliatum exteras Gentes bello incendiis vastatas Pacem terra marique profligatam Cùm fatiscente corpore animum gravioribus consiliis aegrè vegetare Et nullius non interesset ipsum aut vivere aut mori Jamque bona sui parte mortuus aliorum tantum morte viveret Derepente spirare desiit timeri O fluxa mortalitas Quà m tenue momentum est inter omnia nihil Mortui corpus rheda extulit Secuti equites peditesque magnó numero Faces praetulerunt Ephebi crucem nemo quia currus pâ—blicam ferebat Denique hunc tumulum implet non totum Quem tota Europa non implebat Inter Theologos situs ingens disputandi argumentum Quò migravit sacramentum est Haec te lector volui heic te metire Et abi Stay passenger where hast'nest thou Here maist thou read what thou shalt not see nor hear any where else Armand John du Plessis Cardinal of Richlieu Noble by descent great in wit most eminent in fortune And what thou maist admire A Priest in the Field a Divine at Court A Bishop without a Cure a Cardinal without a Title a King without name Yet one who was all these He had nature in all her numbers Fortune in his Counsels The Royal Treasure in possession security in War Victory under his Banner He kept his Confederates in compass his Countrey-men in servitude His friends at a distance his enemies in Prison In this only wretched that he made all men so Being as well the torment as the ornament of his time He subdu'd France he scar'd Italy he shook the Empire He afflicted Spain he Crown'd Braganza he took Lorrain He accepted of Catalonia he fomented Sweden he maim'd Flanders He troubled England he cousened all Europe A purpled Poet Whose Stage was the world glory his Curtain the Exchequer his tyring house His subject for the most part tragical to which he put an ill Catastrophe Having turn'd the Kingdom to Legacies bequeathed poverty to the people Dissipated the Princes exhausted the Nobility with punishments Bereft the Parliament of power destroy'd other Nations with fire and sword Driven away peace by Sea and Land His body now fainting his mind not recreable for restlesâ— thoughts When it concern'd every one that he should live or die Being in good part already mortifi'd and living only in others death He suddenly ceas'd to breath and to be feared O the frail things of mortality What a small moment is there betwixt something and nothing The Corpse were carried in a Chariot Horse and Foot followed in great numbers Pages carried Torches none the Cross for the Chariot carried the publick Cross In fine he hardly fill'd up his grave Whom all Europe could not fill He lies among the Sorbonists Of Dispute a mighty Argument Whither he is gone 't is a Sacrament Reader this is all I would have with thee Hereby measure thy self and be gone He died at Paris December 4. 1642. in the 57. year and third month of his Age. After the decease of Richlieu Cardinal Julius Mazarin a Gentleman of an ancient Roman Extraction was put to sit at the Helm He together with Leo Bouthiller Chavigni and Soublet Noyer both Secretaries of State were the Cabinet Counsel to the King Mazarin was a bosom friend and a great intrinsick Confident of Richlieu before who had imparted his designs infused all his Maxims into him and opened unto him all the Arcana Imperii He had been an active Political Instrument employ'd by the Pope before in sundry Treaties and difficult traverses of State wherein he had good success and in all his negotiations he was discovered to be a Person of excellent address and rare endowments Five months after the death of Cardinal Richlieu the King fell sick at S. German's and died on May 14 1643. the same month the same day of the month and about the same hour of the day that his Father died thirty three years before but with this mark of difference that the one went out the other was sent out of the world about the same time His bowels were presently carried to be interred at Saint Dennis whither his Body followed after in the height of all solemnity and magnificence that his Queen could devise whom he left Regent of the Realm He was a great Zealot in the Religion and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome When the Queen found her self quick he caus'd a solemn Declaration to be published wherein he made the blessed Virgin Protectress under the holy Trinity of all his Estates all which he consecrated to her and for an immortal Mark of this Consecration he commanded the great Altar in the Cathedral Church of Paris to be built anew with the Image of the Virgin which should hold in her Arms that of our Saviour and the K. to lie prostrate before the Son and Mother offering them his Crown and Scepter The Archbishop of Paris was enjoyn'd to Commemorate this Declaration once every year
Empress of the world and the Secular power must be its Lacquey which is scandalous The Queen tolerated these and such like disorders and others cherished them The Parliament condemned them as prejudicial to their Authority The Princes could not well digest the hardiness of the Parliament of Paris The Council of the Nobles slighted both Court and Parliament and joyned with the Clergy Conde removes divers Ministers of State He takes the Government of Guienne rejecting his present one of Burgundy He withdraws from Court The Civil commotions break out afresh and a third Bourdeaux war ariseth Now Mazarine is revoked upon this ground to succour the King who was again distressed by the faction The day of the Kings Majority approached The King with the Queen Regent came into the Parliament on September 7. 1651. with a solemn pomp The Queen having made a short recital of her Regency delivereth up her Government to her Son The first Action of the new King was to fall on Conde's Forces at Marle Guise and Vervain They were partly routed and some slain part under the command of Tavan recovered Stenay From thence was the rise of the Civil War Then did Corinth compass that Hat so often promised and so often put by which Pope Innocent granted not so much for gratifying the King as the eclipsing Mazarine by setting up an equal to him in dignity No longer is he called Corinth but de Rhetz shall he be hereafter called The King leaving St. Germans goes and falls upon Conde's Forces at Estampes They having barricadoed up the place make a stout defence and elude the assaults of Thurenne who upon the approach of the Lorrainer is forced to draw off and convey ths King to Corbeil The Armies meet and fight from five in the morning till five in the evening with great fury There were slain on both sides men of quality besides an innumerable company of common souldiers The port of S. Anthony being clear Conde with his mangled Retinue comes into the City Conde draws off into Flanders And Mazarine counterfeits a departure into Spain to divert the blame of the troubles upon Conde alone The faction declines The King returneth to Paris Orleans withdraweth without waiting on the King De Rhetz is imprisoned at Vincennes He was brought to Nantes and he escapes from thence and afterwards assisted at Rome at the election of Pope Alexander VII Then returning to France he voluntarily laid down the Arch-bishoprick of Paris to gratifie the King he lives quietly in splendour suitable to his disposition Mazarin after his return pursues nothing so eagerly as the peace setleth France makes a peace with Cromwel and reduceth his enemies to extremities Complaint was made unto the King against the Protestants of the City of Montauban accusing them for beating a Priest and making a tumult to the breach of the Kings peace The King upon the complaint of the Clergy appointed Monsieur Melian master of Requests by special commission to go and make enquiry at Montauban touching the truth of what passed there between the Protestants and the Catholicks Whereof the Deputy of the Protestants residing at Paris being informed he addressed himself to Monsieur Melian and gave him an account of all passages according to the testimonies and depositions that had been already taken about me business as how that they were most of them Papists that were in the Tumult at the death of the Woman And in ease this were not true then he desired himself might suffer the same punishment that the â—ffenders do deserve In the mean time he prayed the said Commissioner that the Protestants might have a full and fair hearing from him when he should arrive at Montauban In August 1656. the Assembly of the Clergy sitting in Paris they resolved that the Deputies of the Province of Paris should go to Court to represent to his Majesty the state of the Church of Paris the great need that there was of his countenance and direction to put all things in order The Deputies of the said Assembly having conferred with the Chancellour and the other Ministers of State there residing could not then come to any conclusion upon those pretensions which the Clergy alledged against those of the Reformed Religion And therefore the Archbishop of Sens the Bishop of Montpelier and two Abbots spent some time at Court to sollicite the King to put forth some Declaration in favour of the Clergy and Catholick Religion Madam the Dutchess of Orleans arrived at Chartres to perform a Vow which she hâ—d made which was that once every year she would visit the Church of Chartres there to make her devotion On August 9. the Deputies of the Assembly of the Clergy went with the Chancellour to consider of the differences and quarrels which they had against those of the Reformed Religion the King having deputed the Chancellour to joyn with them in the examination of that business In the same month the Bishhop of Chartres died at Paris He had been Confessour to Cardinal Richlieu It was then affirmed by letters from Paris that the King had consented to a declaration drawn up in favour of the Clergy and Catholicks to be presented to the Parliament for their verification revoking his declaration of the year 1652. which was made in favour of the Protestants The Abbot of Marolles was apprehended and sent prisoner to the Bastille for words spoken against Cardinal Mazarine Christiana late Queen of Sweden having renounced the Protestant Religion and revolted to the Catholick Religion came into France and on September 4. 1656. lodged at Fontainbleau where she was complemented with an Oration by the Sieur Hambrocus the Kings Professour extraordinary for the Hebrew Syriack and Arabick Tongues he being presented to her by the Duke of Guise On the sixth she was at the House of Monsieur Hesselin who entertained her with all manner of divertisements in that most delicious place On the seventh she was at Conflans in the house of the Duke of Richlieu where she was likewise very nobly treated by the Duke and Duchess who at night gave her a Comedy On the eighth she made her entrance into Paris on Horseback passing through ten thousand Citizens who stood in Armes to receive her Before her went an hundred Switzers of the Kings Guard with drums beating At the Gate of S. Anthony she had a speech made her by the Sieur de Seve Provost of Merchants in head of all the companies of the City Then she marched on with a Canopy carried over her the great Guns being discharged and the Streets all adorned with rich hangings towards the Church of Nostre-Dame At the entrance whereof she was entertained with an Oration by the Dean all the Clergy giving attendance and then passing to the Quire they sang Te Deum with admirable musick after which she was most magnificently conducted to the Louvre The Archbishop of Roven having most unjustly prosecuted an Advocate of that Parliament called Monsieur de
Mary Medices only Brother of King Lewis XIII having laid down the Civil Arms would pass off the discontents that were rifsn in his mind for the ill success of his design by retiring to Blois On a sudden he turns Antiquary and Herbalist he delighted in Dogs and hunting and ranging the Woods He heareth Masses frequently sets all the City of Bloys into a Religious humour openly professeth himself a devout Votary Among these and the like courses he fell sick and having Antimony unduly administred within a Week dieth of a Lethargy The Corpse of Gaston is deposited at St. Denis among the Tombs of his Ancestors with a private burial The Kings of Spain and France meet and the French King is married to Maria Teresa daughter to the King of Spain The Gospels were laid on Stands on both sides with a Crucifix The Kings kneeling swore upon them that they would religiously observe the Articles of the peace concluded which were at the same moment read by the Secretaries These Kings having left the Island where they met they were thus parted never more to return to the sight of one another At St. John de Luz next day a solemn Wedding was kept with unusual splendor Then without any stay that barren coast and unhospitable quarters are abandoned The King and Queen stay a while at Fontainbleau thereby giving the Parisians respite to provide for the pompous solemnity The King with the Queen Confort hastens his entry into Paris The entry was next to a triumph In a Domo set up in the Suburb of St. Anthony both their Majesties were congratulated by the several Orders coming forth decently marshalled First came the Ecclesiasticks carrying Images with them and Antique Gods of rude workmanship The Tradesmen followed in their several Companies Then proceeded the Magistrates and afterwards the Parliament in their Robes Next the Chancellor laid over with Gold the Masters of the Requests guarding the Royal Seal charged upon an Horse laden with trappings The Soldiers and the Heralds in rich Coats All had spotted Plumes in their Hats The Captains marched in the Head of their Companies with the Ensigns All sorts of riches are displayed and the ornaments of the City are brought forth to grace the publick joy A Coach embellished with all the badges of Mâ—jesty is brought to the Queen she is set in it alone The King would not go in a Coach but mounted on a gallant Steed rode before The Princes on Horseback followed immediately after In the way all along as they came were Quires of excellent Musitians resounding cheerful Airs in Consorts of Instrumental and Vocal Melody The new married Couple came amidst this Pomp to the City-Gate At the entrance was set up aloft an Image of Peace holding forth divers Verses in its right hand They proceeded from the Port through the High-Streets of the City unto the Louver even tired with joy Scarce were six months expired after the Entry of the King when Mazarine was taken desperately with all the symptoms of extreamest pain His Liver and Lungs distempered caused a general feebleness in all his limbs The Physitians discovering there was no hope of his recovery he retireth to Vincennes there to dye The King commanded he should be left to his rest and disturbed with no business He is reported to have suggested many things of the various Schemes of Policy to the King who commonly sate by his bed side Many secrets he instilled into the King and wisely admonished him That himself would undertake the Government of his State and not create a publick jealousie by ill-chosen Favourites That he should have the same Genius and the same Divine assistance of his counsel as he had to obtain his Victories As they were thus discoursing together many times he fainted away All hope being past the King departed The same setled look which the Cardinal had when he was well accompanyed him at his departure He adopted Du Port the only Son of Meillcray into the Priviledges of his blood to whom he gave his Niece in marriage and conveyed to him his Name and Arms being for his merits taken into equal dearness as if he had been his own Son He advanced his Nephew Mancini in Lordships Riches and Governments These were to share equally Of his Attendants and Menial Servants scarce was any left without a Legacy He ordered the building of a Colledge for the training up the youth of the gained Provinces to have this Motto A Monument of the Empire enlarged He particularly recommended John Baptista Colbert whom he loved for his many good qualities unto the King Having a vast quantity of Jewels he distributed them among divers persons To the Prince of Conde in testimony of injuries forgotten he gave a Diamond of no mean price To the King he left eighteen that were inestimable styled Mazarines to propagate his Name and Renown to posterity He dyed on March 15. in the year of his life 59. of his power 18. He was observant of the Romish Religion as to the Externals of it Being near his end he solemnly received the Eucharist and with a devout Litany received Extream Unction and further requested that Masses might be said for him All was diligently performed in the Temples and the Hoast exposed upon the Altars Supplications were made before all the Saints Zealous he was for the See of Rome beyond measure and at his earnest request the Pope's Nuntio blest him After the death of Mazarine the King's Cabinet Counsellers were Michael Tellier Hugh Lyonne both Secretaries of State and John Baptista Colbert Lord Treasurer men of great fame and vertue At the end of the month of July 1661. Nicholas Fouquet was arrested as he returned from the Kings Council He was carried into the Castle of Anger 's from thence to Vincennes and at last to the Bastile His penalty at last was banishment The French and Spaniard having sent their Ministers into England there arose a contention in London between Estrade the French and Batteville the Spanish Ambassador whose Coach should take place in the proceeding Batteville with his company falls violently upon the Attendants of Estrade and wounds his Coachman and Horses and some of his Servants The French King dischargeth his indignation upon Batteville and banisheth Count Fuelsaldagne from the Verge of the Court not respecting his integrity and that he had been Conductor of the Queen who was the Pledge of Peace He also denyed Caracene that was discharged of the Government of the Low Countreys a passage through France moreover he orders the Archbishop of Yverdon who was then at Madrid upon the Kings account not only to demand of King Philip himself that Batteville might be punished according to the hainousness of the offence but to cut off all contention about precedency for the future that the Spanish Renunciation of all Priority might be established by a publick Act. The Marquess Fuentes is now sent to Paris with a great Train The King causeth the
compelled all the Reformed Churches within the Kingdom to appear before those Commissioners and to reproduce their Titles to verifie their Right for the publick Exercise of their Religion and to be judged a second time as if the Edict had never been put in execution And albeit particular Churches produce Acts made in their favours by the first Commissioners Executors of the Edict yet those new Commissioners without any regard thereof reject the same as utterly invalid The Council past an Act Anno 1662. by which it was Ordained That the Protestants shall not be admitted before the Commissioners to prove the Rights for the Exercise of their Religion by Inquests or Witnesses even although the Witnesses be Roman Catholiques Now beside that this manner of probation was never rejected yet are they deprived of the only Mean which in most places is left them to justifie their Titles For during the late Wars many Churches being pillaged or burnt they cannot otherwise evidence their possession than by the testimony of Ancient men yet alive who can depose the condition wherein Affairs stood in the years 1596. and 1597. Moreover each Province hath two Commissioners one a Papist the other a Protestant And from the Popish Commissioners what justice can they expect They in effect proceed according to the instructions of Menier the Jesuite who hath Printed a Book wherein fastning impertinent Expositions upon the plainest terms of the Edict and changing his Majesties Authentick and Royal Words into Jesuitical Equivocations he hath perverted all things according to his own inclination So that their strongest reasons are scorned and their best Titles rejected as Trifles whilst the false Allegations of their Adversaries are admitted as the best of Arguments And they condemn some Churches which produce the like and much better Titles than those alledged by some other Churches whose Priviledges they have ratified And for the Protestant Commissioners what justice or protection can they expect from them because the greatest part of them are chosen by direction and recommendation of the Popish Prelates And some of those Commissioners have parted or shared the places of Publick Worship between the Papists and the Protestants And this sharing of Churches is alwaies determined in Council by advice of the Popish Commissioners their Protestant Colleagues being never either called or heard and hereupon the Hugonots have lost three parts of four of all their Churches And a multitude of Acts have been published by the Council which have been very grievous to them One Act hath bereaved them of the liberty of praising God May 6. 1659. and March 17. 1661. by forbidding the singing of Psalms even privately in their houses though it be an eminent part of Christian Worship Another Act compelleth them to bury their dead clandestinely Aug. 7. and November 3. 1664. and in the night forgetting that the very Heathens had respect to the Tombs of their enemies c. Another hath divested Protestant Magistrates whatever be their charge or quality of the priviledge of presiding in their Courts Octob. 5. 1663. Another hath taken away all means of instructing and educating their Children Feb. 26. 1663. leaving them at most and that only in some places the smaller Schools where is only taught to Read Write and Compt. Another hath restrained the liberty of Printing any Books in favour of their Religion Jan. 19. 1663. by imposing upon them a necessity of obtaining Licences from the Kings Council which cannot be had Another ordaineth Parents to give Pensions to their Children who change their Religion Declar. Oâ—tob 24. 1663. and Act of Council Jan. 30. 1665. even although the said Children will not dwell with them as if Paternal Authority were nulled by Childrens Apostasie Octob. 5. 1663. Another prohibits the exercise of Charity toward their Brethren who are in want Another dischargeth payment of debts by those of the Commonalty who shall turn Papists Feb. 22. 1664. Another prohibits Ministers to Preach without the place of their Residence thereby depriving the Hugonots of the benefit of Annexations that is the priviledge of one Ministers supplying two Churches which singly are not able to afford a competent maintenance Sepâ— 13. 1660. Another deprives them of the liberty of their Classical meetings in the Intervals of Synods whereby the Exercise of Discipline is restrained c. Octob. 5. 1663. Another prohibits the Censuring of Protestant Parents by the Parochial Eldership or otherwise for sending their Children to be educated by Jesuites or Popish Tutors Sepâ— 18. 1664. Another gives liberty to Priests and Friers to enter the houses of Protestants and to come to their Bed-sides when sick or dying to solicite them to change their Religion And after their death they carry away their Children alledging falsly that their Parents at their death gave some sign of willingness to embrace the Romish Religion June 30. 1663. Another makes it Criminal in Ministers to style themselves Pastors or Ministers of the Word of God They forbid Ministers to wear a long Garment that they might have nothing to distinguish them from the Common people And in the Declaration Declar. 1663. of pretended Relapses it is Ordained That those among the Hugonots who have once embraced the Popish Religion shall never again return unto them under pain of perpetual banishment from the Kingdom This is utterly to destroy all liberty of Conscience They seem also to forbid them all hope of being heard in their own defence And there is little hope of being heard at the Council it self where all their Affairs have their last Appeal and audience For it hath often come to pass that the Protestant Deputies sent by the Provinces and Cities to plead their Cause have been expresly commanded to return without so much as only liberty to appear And some have spent six months some a whole year to procure an hearing whilst the Acts sued against them by the Catholick Clergy have been obtained in less than twenty four hours and in fine after a thousand cares they have only had the grief to return to their Provinces with the news of the loss of the Cause which they solicited The Clergy also do endeavour to intimidate and affright the Protestant Ministers some they have violently silenced others they seek to ensnare on every hand some they criminally indict for very trifles some are bâ—nished others are transported whither their Adversaries please and they vex them so to the end no man may be willing to embrace the calling of a Minister Those Cities where Protestants for number are most considerable seem to be the principal Object of their Enemies fury Of these Montauban Rochel and Milan formerly three flourishing Cities are now brought very low and exposed to sufferings of divers kinds Their Adversaries vex them also with Civil and Criminal Law-suits as well against the Body of their Church as particular persons sometimes in the name of the Kings General
between the Bishop of Evereux and Du Plessis Morney page 90 A new Colledge built by King Henry IV. at la Fleshe page 95 A conference between Du Moulin and Father Gontier a Jesuit page 96 A Congregation of French Prelates page 4 A Colloquy at Poisy in France between the Popish Doctors and the Protestant Ministers page 5 6 John Croy a Learned French Divine page 10 A Conference at Flex page 33 A Conference between the German and French Divines at Mompelgart page 45 A Council of sixteen in Paris page 53 Robert Constantine a Learned Frenchman page 19 An affront put upon the Duke of Crequi at Rome and the effects thereof page 177 178 Jacobus Cujacius a great Lawyer page 11. D. LAmbertus Danaeus a French Divine of Orleans page 71 The Death of the Bishop of Chartres who had been Confessour to Cardinal Richlieu page 171 Dionisius Lambinus a Learned French-man page 24 The French Divines answer and censure the Book of Sancterellus the Jesuit page 182 The Death of King Lewes XIII page 160 Daniel Chamier a learned French-man page 107 Daniel Tilenus Professor at Sedan page 104 E. AN Edict made against Duels page 129 Father Edmonds Prior of the Covent of Jacobines executed page 70 Queen Elizabeth 's Letter to King Henry IV. upon change of his Religion page 80 French Exiles at Mompelgart page 45 F. ANthony Faius a good French Divine and Abraham his Son their works page 50 John Fernelius a learned French Physician page 8 A difference between the Bishops and the Fryars in France page 143 A sore Famine in Paris page 76 Francis Cupif a Sorbon Doctor turneth Protestant his Censure page 152 Fishes called Surdonnes sent by God's providence to the relief of the Poor at Rochel during the Siege page 27 G. THe Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Guise slain page 59 60 A League of the Guisian Faction page 34 35 Gilbert Genebrard a Divine of Paris page 10 Paul Gondy Arch-bishop of Corinth and Cardinal de Rhetz page 163 Henrico Gaetano sent Legat by the Pope to the League of France page 71 The Guisian League sworn in Tholouse by the black Penitents page 45 Many places in France side with the Guisian Faction page 43 H. KIng Henry III. curseth the City of Paris p. 55. he is murthered by a Jacobine Monk page 67 Michael Hospitalius Chancellour of France an opposer of wicked Counsels against the Protestants page 29 King Henry IV. embraceth the Roman Catholick Religion p. 79. he is murthered by Ravillac page 97 I. THe Jesuits restored in France page 95 Julius Caesar Scaliger and Joseph Scaliger very learned Men. page 9 L. A List of the Protestant Churches in France lately demolished page 189 190 191 The latter Councils of France since the Council of Trent page 192 c. The Laws of a Seminary College p. 194. and that of Bourdeaux in particular page 199 200 A Letter of King Henry III. to the King of Navar. page 41 M. CHarles Marillac Bishop of Vienna page 2 August Marlorat Minister of the Reformed Church at Roven hanged by the Guisians page 17 Clement Marot a famous French Poet. page 17 The bloody Massacre of the Protestants at Paris page 23 24 Peter Merlin a learned French Divine page 24 John Morinus a Learned Papist page 19 Muretus an eloquent Writer page 17 Duke of Montmorency beheaded page 144 Papyrius Massonius a Writer of the French Chronicle page 1â— Count Montgomery taken and put to death page 28 Andrew Melvin his Verses page 29 Michael Montaign his Works and when he flourished page 30 Cardinal Mazarine made prime Minister of State p. 164. he raiseth a stately Library p. 164. his Death page 175 John Mercer a learned French-man Successor of Vatablus as Hebrew Professor at Paris page 24 N. KIng of Navar and Prince of Conde excommunicated by Pope Sixtus V. page 44 Their Protestation against it ibid The King of Navar 's Declaration against the Guisian League page 44 O. OBusson Arch-bishop of Yverdon A Form of an Oath propounded by those of the Guisian League page 35 D'Ossat and Du Perron made Cardinals page 84 Some Orders cryed down in France because of their Conspiracies against the State page 45 P. PEter de Espignac Arch-Bishop of Lyons page 35 Peter Verseris Advocate in the Court of Parliament at Paris page 35 The Protestant Princes of Germany raise an Army to defend the French Protestants page 51 John Passeratius an excellent Orator and Poet. page 11 Du Plessis Morney his Story page 103 104 105 Protestants disturbed in the exercise of their Religion page 34 A Popish Form of Profession of Faith page 195 ad 203 The Works of Cardinal Du Perron page 101 Q. JOhn Quinquarboreus Professor of the Hebrew and Chaldee to the French King in Paris page 18 R. A Relation of the present Estate of the Reformed Churches of France page 184 ad 188 The Duke of Rohan his military Actions in France p. 140. his Peace made with the King 141 his Death page 152 The Siege of Rochel page 137 The English attempt to relieve it but in vain ibid It is yielded to the King page 138 Cardinal Richlieu his death The Characters given of him page 156 157 Francis Rabalaesus a Witty but Atheistical Writer page 19 Peter Ramus slain in the Parisian Massacre page 24 Rozarius a Preacher at Orleans Apostatizeth and afterwards recanteth page 24 Andrew Rivet and William Rivet two Godly French Divines page 107 A Provincial Synod held at Roven page 41 S. SEdan a Refuge for the Protestants page 122 A Star seen in the Constellation of Cassiopea page 29 A National Synod held at Tonneinx p. 104. another at Alais in Languedoc page 108 Gaspar Scoppius his Book tending to the Rebellion of Subjects against the Soveraign power burnt by the Hangman page 102 The Spanish Renuntiation of all Priority to France page 176 Claud. Salmasius a learned French Critick page 100 Jac. Sirmondus a Learned French Jesuit p. 99. his works page 100 T. BEnedict Turretine a learned French-man page 100 V. FRancis Vieta a learned French Mathematician page 100. Nicholas Vignerius a Learned French Historiographer page 100 Nicholas Vignerius Junior a Learned French Divine page 100 The Bishop of Verdun imprisoned page 131 FINIS ERRATA PArt I. Page 2. Line 31. read Mantz p. 13. l. 23. 24. r. circumcelliones p. 28. l. 14. r. Avergne p. 31. l. 29. r. Theodorick p. 57. l. 38. r. levies p. 83. l. 17. r. Carthusians p. 91. l. 20. r. his p. 109. l. 27. r. and p. 112. l. 8. r. There Part II. p. 7. l. 11. r. leave and l. 37. r. leave p. 11. l. 3. r. Undiquaque p. 30. l. antepenult r. peace was concluded p. 54. l. 41. r. at Soissons p. 70. l. 19. r. Mars p. 105. l. 3. r. Towns p. 130. l. 19. r. the chief p. 146. l. 22. r. one Fish-day p. 208. l. 8. r. Bells