the publick Inns That they should deliver in all the Books written or printed by David George and not keep any by them in the Dutch Tongue and that they should send their Children to the School of Basil to be instructed That they should pay a Pecuniary Mulct if required and that they their Wives and Children should appear in the Church and make Profession of the True Faith and-Renounce that of David George Two days after his Body was sentenc'd to be taken up and burnt together with his Books and Effigies by the Hands of the Common Hang-man in the place where they usally executed Malefactors and all his Goods they sez'd to the Publick Treasure adding That if any Person presum'd to blame this their Decree he should be liable to the same Punishment His Body was found very perfect so that it might be known by his yellow Bâ—ard from another Man's though he had been buried two Years and six Months and was accordingly burnt in a vast concourse of Men. In the beginning of February the Ambassadours met again at the Castle of Cambray to conclude the Treaty which was broke up upon the Death of Mary Queen of England Queen Elizabeth who succeeded her Sister Mary a Princes of a Masculine Soul and of a Prudence above her Sex fearing if she relied upon the Spaniard she might either be deserted or dishonoured by his Protection had in the mean time made a separate Peace with France After which she changed the Religion of England in her first Parliament abolishing all the Laws made by her Sister Mary and reviving those made by her Brother Edward VI and rejecting all Obedience to the Pope of Rome This Peace with France did much facilitate the Treaty of Cambray In which among other things these Princes promised to do their utmost that a General Council should be held as soon as was possible to the Glory of God and the pacifying Men's Consciences This last Clause by the perverse Counsels of these Princes in a short time raised a War in the Low-Countries and France which was more lasting and more fatal than any former Wars This Treaty was signed at Cambray April 3. These two Kings having thus regained their Peace and disburthened themselves of the Cares which the War brought upon them they betook themselves solely to the Care of Religion which in France had been under consideration the two foregoing Years and was then omitted on account of the War and Treaty but was now reassumed in the heat of a Marriage-Feast There was one Diana Dutchess of Valentinois a Court-Lady and one of the King's Mistresses who used to beg the Estates of all such as suffered for any Crime And the Duke of Guise who were the Promoters of this Persecution the latter aiming at nothing but Popular Applause These two insinuated this Belief into the King That the Venome of Heresie was much spread in France and that in truth he was not King of those Provinces in which that prevailed That the Impudence of those who imbraced it was so great that they did not whisper it as heretofore in the Ear but preached it openly and boldly throughout the Kingdom by which the name of God was blasphemed and his Majesties Royal Authority was endangered for when the Law of God was once confounded who can Question say they but that all Human Laws will soon be subverted And that they might the more easily prevail they employed Giles Maistre president of the Parliament Jean de S. Andre Anthony Minart and Giles Bourdin the King's Attorney and principally the first of these who was a Man of a fierce Disposition and Temper to incense the King's Mind against the Sectaries he being no way inclined to such Severities To this end they tell him That there would little be gained by the Peace of a more cruel War was fomented and carried on at Home For that the Disease had already got such Strength that if his Majesty dissembled a little longer the Sword of the Magistrate and the Laws of the Land would not be able to suppress it but he must levy Armies and himself take the Field against them as had been done in the case of the Albingenses That what had hitherto been done had not had its desired effect because all the severity had been spent upon the populace and the mean people the hatred and detestation of which had affected all Men but very few had taken example by it That now it was fit to begin with the Judges many of which had imbraced their Doctrin secretly or favoured them on other accounts and by their connivance nourished the Distemper suffering this Offence either to go unpunished or very lightly corrected This they said was the very Root of the Evil and that all labour was in vain tâ—ll it were pulled up Not long after this the King was prevailed upon to come into the Parliament in Person whilst the Members were debating about the Punishment of the Sectaries June 14. He seemed rather to labour to conceal his Anger than to have come with a calm Mind Among other things he told the Parliament That having made a Peace he hoped it would turn to the general Good but he was much concerned that the business of Religion which was one of the principal Cares of a good Prince had been during the War tumultuously and seditiously treated by some That therefore he desired for the future more care might be taken of the Christian Religion And because he heard that affair was this Day to be debated by them he was come thither and he admonished them to proceed in it with Freedom saying It was God's Cause who knew all our Hearts and Thoughts Tho' the Members of the Parliament knew the King was brought thither to deprive them of their Liberty yet there were some who resolved to retain their ancient Freedom at the price of their Lives and having declaimed against the Manners of the Court of Rome and its ill Customes which had degenerated into most pernicious Errors and given occasion to the rise of many Sects they thence inferred That the Penalties of Heresie were to be mitigated and the Severities of the Law abated till the differences of Religion were composed by the Authority of a General Council and the Discipline of the Church reformed And this was the Opinion of all the good Men in the Parliament Arnold du Ferrier President of the Criminal Court an honest and a wise Person and the best Lawyer in France was the first who proposed this Method and was followed by many others among which was Lewis du Faur a Man of great Sense and of a generous Temper who added That all were agreed that the Differences in Religion had occasioned great Disturbances but then said he we ought carefully to enquire Who caused these Disorders lest as Elijah answered Ahab when he reproached him as the Troubler of Israel it might be said to us It is thou that hast
and Queen which was refused and he severely treated for undertaking that Embassy by the Guises The Oppression of the Princes of the Blood in France by the House of Guise and of the Protestants by the Roman Catholicks caused a dreadful Conspiracy which drew in all the desperate People of that once most Fourishing Kingdom to the great hazard of its Ruine The concealed Head of this Conspiracy was Lewis Prince of Conde the apparent Godfrey de la Barre Sieur de Renaudie a Young Gentleman of an Ancient and Noble Family of Perigort who falling into a long and ruinous Suit for a Living which his Uncle had intercepted and detained from him in Angoumois had not only been overthrown by his Opposite but had also for some fraud in the management been severely Fin'd and Banish'd for some time he at Lausanne and Geneva had contracted a Friendship with some others of his Country who had fled thither on the account of Religion by whom he had been brought over to that Persuasion and after returning into France in disguise he had wandred over a great part of the Kingdom and made many Friends of that Religion and being a Stout Subtil Man and exasperated by the things he had suffered he undertook this dangerous Employment willingly as a means to revenge the Wrongs he had undergon The Conspirators met the First of February at Nantes in great numbers on diverse Preteces and there form'd the fatal Design of Blois for the Surprizing the King and the Court the Fifteenth of March and the bringing the Guises to a Tryal for all their Encroachments on the French Privileges and Abuses of the Royal Authority The whole Design is so well expressed in Davila his History of the Civil Wars of France that I shall rather refer the Reader thither for his Satisfaction in it than attempt to reduce it into a Dark and scarce perhaps Intelligible Compendium It was very extraordinary that before ever this Kingdom had in the least been shaken by any Commotion the Majesty of the King the Authority of the Governors and Magistrates being all in their former vigor that such great numbers of Men in all Parts of the Kingdom should enter into so unheard so dangerous a Design But such was the Hatred they bore to the House of Guise and the Detestation that all Men began to entertain of the bloody Practises against the Protestants that though so every many were engaged in it yet they all kept Faith each to other and conceal'd the Secret so that the Guises had notice of it from Italy Spain and Germany before any of their Spies in the Kingdom scented or suspected it At last one Pierre Avanelles an Advocate of the Parliament of Paris and a Protestant out of pure Conscience for the preventing so great a Scandal and Mischief discovered this Conspiracy to Stephen L' Allemont Sieur de Vouzay Secretary to the Cardinal of Lorain he having got knowledge of it from La Renaudie the Chief Agent in it who lodged in his House The King was then gone from Blois to Ambois which was a small and strong Town which had also a great and a very strong Castle and easily to be defended Here de Vouzay acquainted the King and the Council with it and was immediately Imprison'd to be produced as a Witness against the Conspirators if it proved to be true and to be treated as an Impostor if it happened otherwise The Guises were very desirous that Andelot and Coligni the Admiral should be invited to Court fearing or hoping rather that they too were in the Plot. And they accordingly came presently to the Queen-Regent and Coligni in a Discourse before Oliver the Chancellor inveighed sharply against the violent Proceedings in Matters of Religion which had exasperated a great part of the People against the Government and concluded That he believed the granting Liberty of Conscience and suspending the Severity of the Laws till the Controversies of Religion were composed by a Lawful and Free Council would very much appease and quiet them Oliver who desired a Reformation and hated the bloody Methods then in use was glad of this Proposition and recommended to the Guises the granting of a general Pardon and Liberty of Conscience till a Free Counsel could be had as an excellent Remedy of these Evils Which was presently granted excluding notwithstanding those who under pretence of Religion had conspired against the King his Mother Brothers or Ministers Which was published the Twelfth of March in the Parliament of Paris which yet never shock'd the Conspirators who were well resolv'd The same day Renuadie came to Carreliere in Vendosmois not far from Ambois and appointed the rest to meet him the Seventeenth of the same Month the King having changed his Abode they were forced to change the Day That day Deligneris another of the Conspirators and a Captain repenting the Undertaking discovered it to Queen Catherine The Guises had by this time got a good Body of the Nobility about the King and a Party of the Conspirators being met in Arms near Tours the Inhabitants of that City would not endeavour to take them but suffered them to escape to Saumur the Seventeenth of March was the day now appointed for this great Design and Renaudie who knew nothing of the Discovery marched boldly up to Ambois and though great part of his Foot were cut in pieces in the Woods as they came up in small Parties or taken Prisoners by the Horse who were sent out for that purpose many of which were presently hang'd on the Battlements of the Castle in their Boots and Spurs yet Renaudie their Chief Commander escaped and was not taken then The Duke of Guise obtained a Commission to constitute himself the King's Lieutenant General in France the Eighteenth of March and Oliver the Chancellor obtained before he would pass it a Pardon for all who should lay down their Arms within twenty four hours and return home with only two or three Companions giving them liberty to present what Petitions they pleased in a peaceable way to the King. The Nineteenth of March Renaudie met Pardaillan who was sent with a Party of Horse to take up such as he found in Arms. Pardaillan would have fired a Pistol against Renaudie but it missing Renaudie run him through but was slain in the same moment by Pardaillan's Servant himself His Body was brought to Ambois and hang'd on a Gibbet with this Inscription The Leader of the Rebels Two of his Servants were taken at the same time and some Papers in a private Character which proved to be a Petition on the besalf of the Protestants designed to be presented to the King in an Assembly of the States Begging a Remission of the Severity of the Laws against them and Protesting the utmost Duty and Obedience to him Many of those who were taken were examin'd against the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde Who said They
Nuremburgh Hall and Hailbrun but being not Confederates they did not concern themselves in the other points When the Protestants had deliver'd themselves to this effect Eldo return'd them an Answer ex tempore where after he had enlarged himself again upon the Emperor's kind Inclinations towards them and concerning the French King his conspiring with the Turk to ruine Christendom he came to the business of the Chamber That no Man was to be prosecuted there for any thing relating to Religion he granted was undeniable But then the Pinch of the Controversie was what matters ought to be comprehended under this notion and what not for those Causes which they call'd Religious others believ'd to be of a civil and secular nature and it was very unjust in them to be unwilling to have the Point argu'd and not to hear the reasons and defence of the other side It 's possible they might mention some Causes to the Princes of the Mediation at Nuremburgh and threw them into the Classis of Religion but then the Emperor did not receive them as such because he did not perfectly understand under what denomination they were to pass Nay possibly those very Princes had not then any exact knowledge of the nature of the Causes nor have at present but only as they are inform'd by those who are concerned in the Dispute who will be sure to say nothing to their own disadvantage Now it 's agreeable to the Municipal Laws to Equity and the holy Scriptures that in all Disputes both Parties should have a sufficient Hearing and that no Sentence should be pronounced upon the Information of one side though the Allegations should be never so true Therefore the Emperor in referring this Debate to the Imperial Chamber had done nothing but what became a Person in his place His Majesty being of opinion that if the Reasons of the Protestants Proceedings were so weighty as they pretended they ought to be brought into view and made publick This was the way to clear the Controversie about the Preliminary Points and to satisfie all Parties what Causes were to be referr'd to the Council and what not And also whether those who had lost their Goods and Estates were to have Restitution made them neither did the Emperor believe the Judges would do any thing in this matter contrary to their Duty and solemn Obligations of this they had given his Majesty an assurance in their Letters intimating that they had not in the least concern'd themselves with any Causes relating to Religion which account they also wrote to himself and added particularly concerning the Hamburgers that all the while the Suit was depending between them and their Ecclesiasticks they did not so much as make the least mention of Religion but when Judgment was given against them and was ready to be executed then they began to insist upon it besides the Judges are willing to give an account of their Proceedings which ought to content them especially since he so lately acquainted them that the Emperor intends to give them Satisfaction as soon as he is assur'd that the Chamber has done them any Injury For his Majesty resolves not only to make good the Damages they have sustain'd but all Causes which appear to have been illegally decided shall be heard over again and all unjust Verdicts set aside and revers'd and for his part he declares he cannot apprehend what the Emperor can or ought to do more than this And whereas they alledge that those who refuse to be of their Religion ought not to be repossess'd of their Estates he does not see any manner of Equity in that Plea for we are not to pronounce in these cases till both Parties have had a Hearing in a legal way For they could not be ignorant that no Law gives any Man the liberty to rob another for the sake of Religion or upon any other account therefore he could not admire this method of proceeding let the Practisers of it be who they would Now to prevent such arbitrary and unaccountable Courses as these there was a Treaty concluded at Nuremburgh upon certain conditions and afterwards by the Emperor's Edict there was a general Peace setled and proclaim'd through the whole Empire And to speak truth it was his opinion that the business of Religion might be much more easily accommodated if they did not graspe so eagerly at the Temporalties Now these secular Advantages ought not to be so highly valu'd in the present Affair especially considering the Gospel prescribes us other Measures and teaches us to set our thoughts and inclinations upon other designs Their saying that either the dispute of the Hamburgers related to Religion or none can was very surprizing to him when there are a great many other Causes which the Chamber hath a right to take Cognizance of both by the Constitution of the Laws and by Vertue of that Edict which the Emperor set forth at Wormes but his Majesty out of a singular kindness to them had order'd the Process of them all to be stopped And since the Emperor will do nothing contrary to what he hath agreed to and expects the same exactness from them he desires they would give him a Categorical answer to this question As to their personal Objections against the Chamber he lately told them those Judges were chosen out of the heart of Germany and though there were very few of the Bench of their Perswasion yet it was not probable Justice would be less impartially administred upon that account because the Judges had no power to act Arbitrarily but were tied up to Rule and bound by Oath to give Sentence according to the Laws and Customs of the Empire which method was constantly observ'd when he was one of their number But let this matter be as it will if they have offended they will be sure to be punish'd neither does he pretend to justifie or excuse them indeed they did not desire he should but are willing to submit their whole Proceedings to Examination Now concerning those who came into their League and Religion afterwards he had lately acquainted them that the Emperor had yet receiv'd no certain account of that matter and his Majesty conceiv'd that those who were not expresly comprehended in the Pacification at Nuremburgh were bound to observe the precedent Laws of the Empire and wait for the determination of the Council And whereas they say that some of their late Confederates made no promises at all some reserv'd themselves a liberty in this point by private Treaties and others thought they did engage it was upon an assurance that a Council would be call'd in a short time whatever the truth of these Allegations may be he does not intend to examine at present but yet as to those who pretend a private Agreement he dares adventure to give them an answer on the Emperors's behalf if they can produce an Instance of any such thing For he could not believe that the Emperor had ever
Regular way Now the reason why they themselves are so desirous to have the matter Legally debated is not because they are afraid their Adversaries would be too powerful for them in the Field for as they design to hurt no Body so if they are threatned with any Violence they are God be thanked sufficiently prepared to defend themselves and their Right Besides they hope that he upon whose account they Engage will afford them his Assistance and Protection Indeed their Cause is so Honourable and Religious that they ought to maintain it at their utmost Peril But they are very much concerned for the ill Consequences which will happen to the State this way For though they deserve to be corrected by God Almighty yet because a Civil War will occasion a horrible desolation in Germany they desire nothing more earnestly than that the whole difference may be amicably accommodated and that all future Ages may have a remarkable Instance of their good Inclinations and Honesty transmitted to them but their Adversaries are implacably exasperated and will not be brought to any reasonable Terms neither did they foresee any other Issue of this Contest than that it would occasion the strength of the Empire which ought to be employed against the common Enemy the Turk to be perfectly wasted and torn in pieces by the mutual Slaughter of its own Subjects but these Consequences ought not to be charged upon them And whatever the Event may be there will come a time when the other Party will be obliged to admit of those Conditions which they now reject with so much Obstinacy for God will appear in the Vindication of his own Honour Upon the First of March the Ambassadors of the Protestant Princes and Cities came to Smalcald according to appointment There came also several Divines along with them viz. Jonas Pomeran Melancthon Cruciger and Bucer who were required to draw up a Scheme of Doctrine upon which they were to treat with their Adversaries about an Accommodation In this Convention they debated those Points which were left unconcluded at Arnstet as hath been mentioned already In the mean time Dulcius and Burcartus returned from their Ambassy in England and upon the Seventh of March they make a Report of the State of Religion in that Country viz. That the Act of Parliament made the last Year was not Executed very strictly but yet Hugh Latimer and the Bishop of Salisbury who where Imprisoned upon the account of Religion were not yet set at Liberty that Cromwell the first Minister of State endeavoured to mollifie the King and abate the Rigour of his Opinion And the King himself had in private Conversation told them his thoughts upon the Point which were these He conceived the Protestant Divines were not Orthodox in their Doctrine concerning the Marriage of Priests the receiving the Lord's Supper as they call it in both Kinds nor in that concerning private Masses and therefore he desires that they would write to him at large about these and other necessary Points and set down the Reasons of their Opinions and he would take care that some Learned Persons in his Kingdom should give them an Answer that so the way to Truth might be discovered It was likewise the Opinion of Cromwell and of some others that it would be proper for them to send an Honourable Ambassy to the King and Melancthon with the rest for if they could come to a tolerable Agreement in their Doctrine the King would furnish them with a vast Summ of Money towards the supporting the League which he intended to make with them not only in the Case of Religion but for defence in general Indeed his Majesty very much wondered why they confined their Alliance to Religion seeing it was likely they would be invaded upon a quite different account Some few days after the Divines gave in a Writing to the Ambassadors The summ of it was this That they ought not to depart from the Contents of the Ausburg Confession nor of the Apology which was afterwards annex'd to it This Opinion all the Divines who were absent afterwards approved by their Letters to the Convention About this time Henry Duke of Brunswick came to Ghent Upon the Sixteenth of March the Emperor gave the Protestant Ambassadors his Answer by Cornelius Scepperus the Substance was courteous enough but withal so Ambiguously worded that they could not tell whether he would secure them the Pacification or not The Ambassadors therefore with the Emperor's permission withdraw and returning presently after they entreat him that he would command the Chamber to cease their Prosecutions and grant them a Peace The Emperor replied That at present he had nothing more to say to these Requests but he would consider the matter farther This Answer was Reported at Smalcald Ten Days after and upon Easter Munday which was then the Twenty-ninth of March the Princes came thither themselves There was at that time a great Emulation and misunderstanding between Granvell and Eldo which at last occasioned Eldo's being removed from his Place upon which he retired from Court and lived privately For the other having the better Interest charged Eldo with Misdemeanors and rendered him odious because he had been too violent in his Councils and Treaties and had like to have run the Emperor upon a War against his Will when he thought nothing of it Now Granvell giving pretty plain signs of his being desirous to accommodate Matters and to settle a good Correspondence in the Empire invited the Protestants to address to him and at their request disposed the Emperors Inclinations for Peace And immediately after and as it were in his own Name he dispatcheth away Two Ambassadors to Smalcald to mediate an Accommodation viz. Theodorick Manderschitt William Nuenarius Counts Persons of great Sence and Quality though the first of these was seized with a dangerous Distemper and forced to stop by the way There demands were indeed moderate enough but then they intimated that the Emperor was almost assured that Religion was not the Protestants design neither did they heartily desire a Peace but were wholly intent upon enriching themselves with the Revenues of the Church That his Majesty had reason to suspect they were glad to see the Empire embroiled That they were disaffected to him and rather inclinable to side with those who were his open Enemies This Information against them the Emperor received partly by their Adversaries and partly by the French as it 's certainly reported For when the Emperor travelled through France and all things seemed to promise a most intimate Alliance and Endearment they say there were some Letters discovered to him which were written from the Convention at Smalcald to the French King. Some say this was done by the King himself but others lay it upon the Constable who was then the Chief Minister and earnestly desirous to bring the Two Monarchs to a good Understanding and besides not very well affected to the
used against any man for any cause whatsoever but that all things should be done according to the standing Laws and ancient Customs and then he sheweth how the States of the Empire are bound in Duty and Allegiance to him But without any regard had to any of these things says he John Frederick Elector of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hesse have with insolent boldness at all times as much as in them lay frustrated all the pains and labour we have been at for the publick good and have continued disobedient nor did they themselves only resist our Authority but inticed likewise the other States to enter into unlawful Combinations with them Besides the Landgrave some Years since under I know not what pretext made War against some of the chief States of the Empire and marching into their Countries raised great vast Sums of Money there then afterward both in conjunction together without any cause given invaded a certain Prince of the Empire drove him out of his Country and seized his Territories Nay they have also appropriated to themselves some Bishopricks and other both Secular and Ecclesiastical Fiefs the Owners whereof by ancient Custom are Members of the Empire and have place in the Assembly of the States and still detain them in that Bondage though they have often sued to Us and implored our Protection in several Diets They have also spoiled many of their Estates and yearly Revenues and received into their Homage the Clients and Vassals of others Lately also they were so strangely bold as to sollicite some of the States not to repair to this Diet that they might thereby hinder the dispatch of all Affairs and bring Us and Our Authority into contempt And all these things they do with the greater security and liberty that they slight Justice and neither fear nor stand in awe of any Magistrate for through their fault the Supreme Judicature of the Empire is suppressed the Laws are silent and now for a long time which is a thing not to be paralelled there has been no Administration of Justice to the great prejudice of many And what is most grievous all these things they act under the specious and sweet Name of Religion Peace and Liberty for these plausible Titles they make use to veil and cloak their Actions when in the mean time they desire nothing less than Agreement in Religion or the Peace and Liberty of Germany Surely they can prove by no Text of Scripture that it is lawful for them in any manner of way obstinately to resist the Supream Magistrate but the contrary is easily made out both from the Word of God and approved History to wit that the ancient Professours of the Christian Doctrine who not only confirmed their Faith by their words and actions but sealed it also by their death obeyed even profane and Pagan Kings How much less then ought they under a pretext of Religion to deny Us their Duty and Obedience for by denying it they make it manifest that their Design is to Usurp our Crown Scepter and Authority and having put all into confusion and disorder to oppress Religion Law Peace and Liberty that with the accession of new Titles and Possessions they may constrain all men to truckle under their Tyranny And indeed nothing less can be gathered from their haughty Words and Menaces and from those scandalous Libels and Pictures scattered abroad in all places among the People to the great dishonour and contempt of Our Person and Authority Moreover they have not only made Leagues against Us in those Conventicles of theirs but also stirred up foreign Kings against Us and under-hand assisted them both with Supplies and Councel Some may be found also that can tell Tales how far they have gone that they might invite the Turk into Germany which is indeed the more credible that such a Juncture would have proved very commodious for their designs By these Acts of their then they break their Allegiance to Us trample upon the Dignity of Our Character and evacuate the force of all Decrees which they look upon as made for no other end but that others should be barr'd from the liberty of resisting Violence and they only allowed a permission to do wrong to all men For all which Causes they have fallen into that most heinous Crime of High Treason and incurred the Penalties thereunto due by the Laws as plainly appears by their Villanies which are so notorious that it is to no purpose to spend time in proving them Now though we might have long ago used Our Authority and punished them according to their deserts nevertheless for peace-sake and for avoiding all stirs and troubles We still shewed them Our Favour and in many things condescended to them more than was becoming and in that We often offended our own Conscience lessened our Authority and neglected the Interests of others Thus We used most gentle means five years ago with the Landgrave at Ratisbonne and two years since with the Duke of Saxony at Spire and that in hopes that being gained by our extraordinary lenity and forbearance they might at length break off their ill purposes and save themselves and Us the trouble of any more violent Remedy But now that We find all our endeavours to have been in vain and that they have plainly cheated Us by their Words in regard that slighting our Decrees and the Laws of the Empire they obstinately go on even contrary to their own Covenents and Engagements and through an unbridled Desire of Rule invade other mens Rights and Possessions having no respect to Law but in all their Actions aiming at the overthrow of the Government so that unless they be restrained there will be so little possibility of composing the Differences of Religion that all the parts of the State must remain discomposed and out of order We are forced to use the power that God hath put into Our hands against them And since their Rebellion is so notorious that they themselves cannot deny it and that they carry all things on in a violent way refusing to submit to Law and Justice We therefore Proscribe and Outlaw them as false Traitors perfidious and seditious Rebels and are resolved to bring them to condign punishment that they may no longer be a hinderance unto Us in setling the State and doing those things which properly belong to Our Character and Place We therefore strictly Charge and Command all and every one of Our Subjects that they presume not in any manner to aid and assist them or otherwise take their part under the pain of forfeiture of Lives and Fortunes and that such as are now in their Service return to their Duty and Obedience to Us without pretending any League or Association to the contrary all which we hereby rescind and annul We moreover absolve all the Nobility Gentry and Commons of their Dominions from their Oath of Allegiance to them assuring them in the Word of an Emperour of all Security and
desired only that they would furnish him with Provisions and that he might March with his Army through their Country promising them all Good-will and Friendship He made use of the Cardinal of Lenoncour as his Agent who commended his Zeal and good Intentions to the Senate The Constable had written to them also most friendly but when he was come nearer the Town with his Forces he desired to be let in and obtained it and next day he made himself Master of the Gates and all the Works and Fortifications Afterward on the eighteenth of April the King himself came also and stayed four days there He obliged the Senate and People to take an oath of Allegiance to him and appointed Monsieur Gonnâ—r to be their Governour with orders to disarm them to carry all their Weapons into one place and to fortifie the Town the same he did in those Cities we mentioned In Lorrain also and by Messengers sent before to Strasbourg Haguenaw all the neighbouring places and to the Bishop of Strasburg he demanded supplies of Corn and Provisions Ausburg being taken as we said the old Town-Council whom the Emperor had turned out restored and the Power of Election also being again confirmed to the Companies the confederate Princes marched to Ulm which had refused to enter into League with them When on the twelfth of April they were come thither they rode about the Town but being shot at with the great Guns from within they demanded satisfaction for the Injury done unto them and rated it at three hundred Thousand Florins which being refused they fell to Hostilities But Duke Maurice went from thence to Lintz a City of Austria that he might understand from King Ferdinand what the conditions of Peace were for he as I said was by consent of the Emperor Mediator The Emperor in the mean time had by Letters exhorted the chief Princes of the Empire to use their endeavours to quench this Conflagration and find out some means of Peace wherein he would not be wanting and when some implored sucours from him as being unable to act any thing against so great force to encourage them he made answer that there was a treaty of Peace on Foot which he hoped would take effect but if otherwise that he would not be wanting neither to them nor the Publick The Princes having besieged Ulm six days on the nineteenth of April removed to Stocach a Town in Hegow where they received three Months Pay in the French King's Name as it had been agreed and Gamey de la Mark the French Hostage was delivered up for the other de Nantueil died on the way thither The Hostages whom the Princes gave the King were Christopher Duke of Meckelburg and Philip the Landgrave's Son. April the last the Princes returned to the Danube some Miles below Ulm. In the mean time Albert of Brandenburg burnt and destroyed the Towns and Villages belonging to Ulm raised Contributions from them and took their Castle of Helfenstein seated on a high Hill putting a Garrison therein He also raised a Contribution of eighteen Thousand Florins from the Town of Gislingen three Miles distant from Ulm and some adjoyning Villages When Duke Maurice came to Lintz he offered Proposals about the setting at Liberty the Landgrave his father-in-Father-in-Law about settling the difference concerning Religion the right Establishment of the Government about the making Peace with the French King their Confederate and the reception of the outlawed Persons into Favour These were the Rhinegrave and others whom we mentioned before amongst whom also was Count Heideck who some years before had put himself under the Protection of Duke Maurice as hath been said but on whose head the Emperor had set no rate that he might not offend Duke Maurice as it is credible To these demands King Ferdinand with whom were his Son Maximilian his son-in-Son-in-Law the Duke of Bavaria and the Emperor's Ambassadors made answer that the Emperor did not refuse but that the Landgrave might be set at Liberty yet so that they presently laid down their Arms that as to Religion and the regulation of the Government he was pleased that the matter might be determined in the next Diet of the Empire but that the Emperor was very loth that the French King should be comprehended that however Duke Maurice might learn of him upon what terms he would make Peace that the proscribed might also be received into Favour provided they would submit to the condition offered by the Emperor King Ferdinand demanded besides that after the conclusion of the Peace Duke Maurice would assist him in Hungary and that the Soldiers should not take on under the French King. But Duke Maurice having answered that without the consent of his Associates he could not conclude any thing they broke off the Treaty at that time and appointed another meeting to be on the twenty sixth of May at Passaw a Town lying between Ratisbonne and Lintz where the River Inn falls into the Danube that the Princes Mediators and their Deputies should also be there On the first of May the Landgrave's Son and John Albert Duke of Meckelburg led the Army to Gundelfingen and there lay eight Days waiting for Duke Maurice's return from Austria Next day after he came the Army was Mustered at Laugingen a Town belonging to Otho Henry Prince Palatine for they had recovered his Province out of the Emperor's Hands and driven the Bishop of Ausburg out of his Country Otho Prince Palatine having also joyned in League with them From thence they direct their March towards the Alpes but it happened at this time that King Ferdinand obtained a Truce from them which was to last from the twenty sixth of May to the eighth of June In the mean time the Emperor was raising Forces at the Foot of the Alpes who assembled at the Town la Rue During these Commotions the Cardinal Bishop of Ausburg who otherwise was not rich and had suffered much damage went to Rome that he might obtain from the Pope new Promotions and Benefices to fill up the chinks again After this the Judges of the Imperial Chamber fled from Spire for both the French King and the Princes had in their Declarations hinted their displeasure against them plainly enough and cast the blame of all the troubles upon them The French King marched with his Army along the Borders of Lorrain and May the third came to Saverne a Town belonging to the Bishop of Strasburg within four Miles of that City He had before demanded a supply of things necessary from the Strasburgers and therefore Deputies had been sent to him to Sarbruck seven Miles from the City to offer him a certain supply of Corn and Wine and the Deputies were Peter Sturmey Frederick Gottesseim and John Sleidan but the Constable undervalued that offer as nothing answering his Expectation and though the Deputies left him with a promise to make their report to
the Confederate Princes should make Peace with the Emperor For that it was the Interest not only of one Nation but of all Europe also that it should be so since the civil Broils that disturbed the same threatned no less than its ruin That they made no doubt but the Conditions which the King desired would be obtained For that the Emperor as before so now in these intestine Commotions was well affected towards the Publick and would not have the Liberty of Germany depressed That there was great hopes also that he would shortly set the Princes at Liberty But that as to the renewing of ancient Leagues and confirming new ones the King in his own Prudence knew very well that a matter of so great moment could not be transacted in that Assembly That nevertheless they wished the Friendship and Correspondence that had always been betwixt both People might remain firm and inviolable That it was not only their chief Desire that such private Controversies as he had with the Emperor might be adjusted but that they would also use their utmost Endeavours to accomplish it That nevertheless since the King had hinted that the Emperor detained some things that were his and that he had somewhat to re-demand from him it seemed not unreasonable to them that he would declare what his Pretensions were For that they were resolved to state the Controversie to the Emperor and interpose as Mediators and that they earnesty prayed the King to take these things in good part Now as to the Relation that is betwixt the French and Germans we discoursed in the eighth Book But as to what the French Ambassador spoke of the Family of Luxembourg the matter in short is this Henry Count of Luxembourg had a Son Henry who was afterwards Emperor and the seventh of that Name He again had a Son who by Marriage became King of Bohemia and this Prince aided Philip of Valois in his Wars against Edward the third King of England and being present in a Battel wherein the English got the Victory he was slain there leaving amongst others an eldest Son who was afterward the Emperor Charles IV. the Father of Wenceslaus and Sigismund who were both afterwards Emperors and Sigismund also King of Hungary and Bohemia he who procured the calling of the Council of Constance Albert of Austria of whom he spoke the Son of the Emperor Rodolph when he became Emperor entertained a firm Amity with Philip the Fair King of France though Pope Boniface VIII had eagerly incited him to War. Besides the delivery of the Landgrave Duke Maurice insisted chiefly on two things First that as to those things which wounded the liberty of Germany and had been reckoned up by him King Ferdinand his Son Maximilian and the Mediators would themselves forthwith determine and pronounce Sentence concerning them according to the Laws and ancient Custom of Germany And then that Religion should be let alone in Peace and no Man molested upon that account till all the difference should be fully agreed The Mediators did not disapprove this Course But the Emperor's Ambassadors in his Name interposed and said that their Master thought it but reasonable that they who for their Fidelity to him had incurred Calamities and sustained great Losses should have reparation made them When some Points after much debate had been moderated they came to this Resolution at length that the Emperor should by the third of July give his positive Answer and that in the mean time there should be a cessation of Arms wherefore on the sixteenth of June the Mediators wrote to the Emperor and exhorted him to Peace We told you that after the taking of Erenberg and the plundering of Inspruck the Confederate Princes took another way through the Alpes and about the latter end of May returned to Fiessen Marching from thence they came on the nineteenth of June with all their Forces and Encamped at Aichstadt and Episcopal City upon the Frontiers of Bavaria where they expected the coming of Duke Maurice with great Desire being in some Anxiety for his Absence At length he came and gave them a full account how Affairs stood but on the last day of June took Post back again to Passaw upon Horses purposely laid on the Road that he might be present by the day appointed and the day following the Confederate Princes decamped and after four days March came to Rottenburg a Town on the Danube bordering upon Franconia Notwithstanding all this Marquess Albert still pursued his Point and having brought Norimberg to accept of Peace compelled the Nobility and States in those Places to submit to his Orders For though he acted in the common Cause at first as he promised in his publick Declaration he would yet he was not joyned in that Confederacy and after the siege of Ulm was raised he began in a manner to act separately either because he would take all to himself that the Fortune of War gave him or that he disapproved what Duke Maurice had done or else that being put on by the French King he entertained other Designs but yet he made those who had given Oath to be true to him to swear the same also to the Confederates His next Expedition was into the Territories of the Archbishop of Mentz where along the River of Mayne he did very much damage by Fire and Pillage and demanded a vast sum of Money of him but when Agents being employed to treat could not agree about the Sum the Elector having first sunk his great Guns in the Rhine July the fifth fled for his safety At the same time Marquess Albert who left nothing unattempted demanded of the Archbishop of Treves that he would put into his Hands the chief Castle of his Territories it stands where the Rivers of Rhine and Mosell do meet upon a very high Hill both strong by Nature and very commodiously scituated This demand he made as he said in name of the French King. But the Elector having advised with his Friends made Answer that he could not comply with his Demands Because in the latter part of the Answer which the Princes Mediators made to the French Ambassador as we mentioned before they had said that it seemed reasonable to them that the King would declare what Pretensions he had and what he demanded of the Emperor The Ambassador having received Instructions from the King wrote to them from the Camp at Aichstadt June the nine and twentieth That the King had undertaken that War for no other Cause but meerly for the publick Good and especially that he might retrieve the liberty of oppressed Germany having been thereto much sollicited by some Princes of the Empire That he had not at all proposed to himself any private advantage therein as the thing it self might bear him witness For that he had not possessed himself of any thing in Germany which he could easily have done That he had also given his Confederates
the Emperor resigns the Government to his Son. The Answer of the Roman-Catholicks to the Demands of the Lutherans Those Bishops that change their Religion are to be removed A Parliament in England Libells against the Spaniards spread about London John Gropper offered a Cardinal's Hat which he refused The Deputies of Austria ask of Ferdinand a Liberty to embrace the Reformation The Duke of Prussia professeth the Augustan Confession Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Burnt The Bavarians desire to embrace the Reformation A Truce between the Emperor and King of France The Cardinal of Ausburg's Apology The Diet opened at Ratisbone Transylvania revolts from King Ferdinand The Emperor and his Sisters set Sail for Spain The Death of John Sleidan the Author of this History I Have given an account how England returned under the obedience of the See of Rome in the last Book when the account of this Revolution which was sent with the utmost Celerity came to the Knowledge of that Court there was a vast Joy expessed in the City and extraordinary Processions were made to the Churches and the twenty fourth of December the Pope published a Declaration to this purpose After I had heard saith he that England which has now for some Years been separated and torn off from the Body of the Church was by the immense Mercy of God and the extraordinary Diligence Faith Study and Labour of King Philip Queen Mary and Reginald Cardinal of England reduced to the Communion of the Church and the obedience of this See My Mind was filled with a mighty Joy and as was fit I forthwith rendred to Godâ—s great Thanks as I could nor have I since omitted any thing which might tend to the Communicating the Fruit and Benefit of this my Joy to the whole City But then as the Father in the Gospel who received his Prodigal Son was not satisfied with an inward Exultation and private Joy but invited others to his Feast that they too might rejoice with him and make merry So that the whole Earth may understand the greatness of my Joy I will and Command that publick Thanksgivings and Prayers be made And also by the Authority and Power which I have I allow every Man the Liberty to chuse what Priest he likes best and that having rightly confessed his Sins to him I allow also that Priest a Faculty to remit all sorts of Sins how abominable soever they be even those Sins which belong only to me to remit and which are wont by Name to be excepted And that he shall not only remit the Guilt but the Penalty or Pain due to those Sins which are so confessed That he shall impose what satisfaction he thinks fit and relax all Vows except those of Chastity and religious Orders and so as they be commuted into other works And trusting in the Mercy of God and the intercession of St. Peter and St. Paul I grant a full and intire remission of all Sins which is only granted at the Determination of fifty years at other times to all those who with an humble and contrite Heart shall turn to God and perfectly confess their Sins as soon as they hear of this my Bull and shall twice or thrice in a Week endeavour to appease God by Fasting Alms and other Pious Exercises and shall after this receive the Holy Eucharist with Thanksgivings beseeching God in their Prayers that he would illuminate those that walk in the darkness of Error with the Light of his Countenance that he would send us Peace and incline the Hearts of Kings to Concord And I grant the same Benefit to those who are hindred by Age or Sickness from performing what is above required And that these our Letters may be every where Published I command all Patriarchs Archbishops and the like so soon as they receive the Copy hereof that they forthwith divulge it throughout their several Provinces and as it is a free Gift that they propose it every where without any gain I have said in the former Book that Blasseburg was the principal Fortress the Marquess of Brandenburg had in all his Country and that it was surrendred to the Confederates These Princes considering that being by one means or another recovered it might be the occasion of greater Mischiefs and about this time entirely ruined and demolished it to the great Exasperation of the whole Family of Brandenburg and of all the Kindred of it In the Interim Ferdinand King of the Romans both before he left his Territories and after he arrived at Ausburg for the holding the Diet did continually by his Envoys and Letters sollicit the Princes to hasten thither as I said in the last Book His first and greatest Care was to perswade Augustus Elector and Duke of Saxony He had before this alledged for his Absence the unsettled State of Saxony and now again sent his Deputies to the Diet with the same Excuses and occasionally mentioning the Turks he endeavoured to shew the great danger Germany was exposed to which heretofore having been Potent and formidable to her Enemies was now almost exhausted and depopulated by the many Mischiefs and Wounds she had suffered He said this Calamity received a great Improvement from the disaffection and distrust which the States of the Empire laboured under That the Emperor and his Majesty had omitted nothing which might procure a Remedy against this Disease But that hitherto all their Labour had been in vain for that the Minds of Men were so Exasperated and such ways were open to the admitting new offences that it was not reasonable to expect any mitigation His Brother Maurice some years since he said had commanded that some Ceremonies and other things of an indifferent Nature should be retained in the Churches of his Provinces but then this Command was not only slighted and disobeyed but was attacked by many Libels and rude Reproaches so that afterwards it was not in his Power to re-establish those things unless he would have exposed himself and that by this means some other Princes had been deterred from attempting any thing of this Nature But now those who are of the other Party and oppose the Augustan Confession have given apparent Signs that they intend not the least Pious and Legal Reformation by the Actions of the former times when this affair was considered either in Councils or Conferences Seeing therefore after so many fruitless Labours the loss of many Years and the disappointment of many Councils no way to an Agreement and Union could be found out because perhaps it was the Pleasure of God thus to punish the Sins of Men therefore he desired very earnestly that the Confession of Faith delivered in at Ausburg as a Sum of the Christian Religion might not be thought by his Majesty an impious Book but that it was a pure and a Pious Writing which shew that the Son of God was the Author of Salvation that the Doctrine of it did exactly agree with the
cited Passages out of the Fathers of the Church to shew that the same Forgeries had been made use of by the Pagans against the Primitive Christians and that they might be sure it might come to the King's Hands they got it conveyed into his Bed-chamber which Book was afterwards answered by Anthony de Mouchy a Divine and the chief of the Inquisitors and by Robert Cenali Bishop of Auranches Jean Munier Recorder of Paris was appointed to examine the Prisoners who reporting their Answers to the Parliament Nich. Client a Saintonian who had been a School-master many Years in Paris and was now in the sixtieth Year of his Age Taurin Gravelle an Advocate in the Parliament of Paris and Phillippina Lunia of rigort the Relict of the Graveron a Gentleman who was dead were all condemned the fourteenth of September and the two first were burnt alive but the latter was first strangled And four Days after Nich. Le Cene a Physician of Normandy and Peter Gambara of Poictou were burnt Francis Rebeziers born at Stafort in Condomois and Frederick Danville of Olerone in Bearne were led with an Iron Ball in their Mouths to the Place of Execution where they were hanged and their Bodies burn'd to Ashes When they were now going to proceed against the rest a Noble Matron which was among the Prisoners offered a Petition to the Parliament excepting therein against several of the Judges and offering many Reasons in her Petition which ought not to be neglected to have them set by and some others to be appointed in their stead at the Trial Whil the Parliament were considering what they ought to do as to this Petition there came Envoys from the Switz and Protestant Princes in Germany to desire the King not to proceed against a Company of miserable People who were of the same Religion with themselves And thereupon the Affairs of Philip being then in great Prosperity and those of France in a declining Condition and the King needing the Assistance of the Switz and Protestant Princes of Germany for the Recovery of his Country he suffered the Parliament to act more mildly with them So some of them were dismissed others turned over to the Ecclesiastical Courts where by the Revocation of the Sentence they escaped Death Rantigny and Champagne two married Ladies were given to their Husbands who were very averse to that Religion and Ovarty another Lady was given into the Hands of Queen Catherine The King of France published an-Edict the seventeenth of May commanding all Bishops and their Curates to reside upon their Benefices and to preach to the People or to appoint others in their stead who should do so upon pain of being deprived of the Profits of their Cures There had been a Law published to the same purpose by Lewis XI the thirteenth of January 1476 which was now revived Men judging that Preaching was a likelier way to fix Men in their Religion than Fire and Faggot But however this Edict was not much regarded by the Clergy of France who were then as Unlearned and Ignorant as they were Cruel and Bloody The Army belonging to King Philip being as I have said dissipated or put into Winter Quarters and that of France growing daily greater it was taken into Consideration How they should employ that chargable Body of Men though the Winter was then in its greatest Rigour The first Debate was Whether they should attempt the Recovery of S. Quintin and the other Places that were lost or enter upon some new Enterprize and here they resolved upon the latter and the Reduction of Calais having been proposed by Senarpont Governour of Boulogne in the latter End of the Summer if the Misfortune of S. Quintin had not broke their Measures they presently resolved to reassume that interrupted Design A part of their Forces marched under the Duke of Nevers pretending they intended to attack Luxemburg and Arlon Another Part under the Duke of Guise who was now General of all the French Forces pretended to block up S. Quintin and the other Places that were lost Nevers having-passed through the Territory of Argone came to Stenay a Town in the Dukedom of Lorain and having staid there a short time suddenly sends his part of the Army to joyn the Duke of Guise who lay then at Amiens who presently marched away for Boulogne as if he had been solicitous for the Preservation of it but suddenly wheeling about the first of January he came to Newnham-bridge a Fort seated a mile from the Town of Calais which commanded the Avenues to the Land-ward There was another called Risbank which lay near to the Town and commanded the Harbour on the North of the Town and upon these two Forts the greatest part of the Security of Calais depended The Lord Wentworth was then Governour of the Town but the Garrison was not above five hundred Men and there were not above two hundred Townsmen able to bear Arms so that the Duke of Guise sending three thousand Musqueteers and the Soldiers of Newnham-fort having made one improsperous Sally against them and not being relieved by the Governour the Cannon was brought up against it which began to batter it the next Morning The Duke of Guise knew very well the whole stress of the Success lay in the celerity of his Actions and accordingly the next Day attacked the Fort of Risbank too which were both yielded the same Day by the order of the Governour The Town of Calais is seated in a Plain and on three Sides of it is almost inaccessible by reason of the River Hames part of which fills its Dikes which are Great and Deep and the rest falls with several other small Rivers into the Haven on the west Side of the Town It s Form is Square and at three of its Corners it has Royal Bastions and the fourth which is towards the South has an Ancient but strong Castle for its Defence besides it has a strong Bulwork of Earth which is very high and thick but is of so sandy a nature as the French found after this to their Damage that the force of a Cannon scattered it like dust The Rivers and Marshes encompassing the Town on all Sides there was no Passage to it but by a Causey from the Fort of Newnham nor was it possible for any Ship to enter the Town but what passed under the Fort of Risbank so that these two Forts were the great Securities of the Town which were both now in the Hands of the French after which they lodged on the Causey and Banks twenty Foot Companies and one German Regiment and one thousand one hundred Horse The Marshal de Termes secured the Way leading to Guines with the rest of the Horse and the Switz The fifth of January they began to batter the River-gate with four whole Cannon and three hundred Culverins were imployed against the other parts of the Walls and Bulworks but their main Battery was against the River-gate whilst the
days ibid. Marot Clement an account of him 310. Mary Q. of Hungary made Governess of the Netherlands 149. Goes to Augsbourg to Mediate for the mitigation of the Emperors Edict 501. Holds a Convention of the States of the Netherlands at Aix la Chapelle 560. She stops the Landgrave at Mastricht 573. Mary Q. of Scots Troubles in her Minority 316. Affianced to Prince Edward of England ibid. Is carried into France 477. Mary Daughter to Henry VIII Proclaims her self Queen of England upon K. Edward's death 589. Enters London ibid. Makes Gardiner Chancellor ibid. Beheads the D. of Northumberland ibid. She Establishes the Popish Religion again in England 591. Orders a publick Disputation at London 593. Dissolves K. Edward's Laws about Religion in Parliament 595. Marries Pr. Philip of Spain ibid. Breaks Wiat's Conspiracy 596. Beheads Jane Grey and the Duke of the Suffolk ibid. Banishes Foreign Protestants out of England 597. Publishes a Book of Articles about Religion ibid. Commits the Princess Ellizabeth to the Tower 598. Her Marriage with K. Philip is solemnized with great splendor 604. Calls a Parliament wherein England is again subjected to Rome 605 606. Dissolves that Parliament 607. Burns several for Religion ibid. She mediates a Peace between the Emperor and King of France 616. It was reported that she was with Child ibid. She encreases the Persecution in England ibid. Her Ambassadors return home from Rome 618. She calls a Parliament where she proposes the Restitution of the Church-Lands in vain 627. Martyr Peter comes into England and professes Divinity at Oxon 443. Disputes there about the Lord's Supper 483. Is in trouble upon Edward's Death 590. Applies himself to Cranmer ibid. Gets leave to be gone Ibid. Goes to Zurich 637. Matthews John a great Prophet among the Anabaptists commands a Community of Goods 194. Runs Truteling through with a Pike by Inspiration ibid. Is run through himself by a Soldier ibid. Maurice D. of Saxony Marries the Landgrave's Daughter 272. Quarrels with the Elector of Saxony 292. Is wounded in Hungary 304. Refuses to enter into the Protestant League after his Father's death ibid. Makes Laws for the Government of the Country 311. Endeavours an accommodation between the D. of Brunswick and the Landgrave 353. Perswades the D. of Brunswick to surrender 354. Purges himself of Treachery ibid. Holds a Secret Conference with the Emperor at Ratisbon 380. Has a Conference with K. Ferdinand 391. Calls a Convention of the States at Chemnitz 405. Consults against the Protestants ibid. His Friends write to the Protestants 406. He writes to the Landgrave ibid. Writes to the Elector 409. And to his Son ibid. Takes most of the Electors Towns ibid. Is ill spoken of and Lampoon'd by the Protestants 410. Publishes a Manifesto to clear himself ibid. Joins Ferdinand to go towards Bohemia 423. Intercedes for the Landgrave 429. Writes to the Landgrave to comply 430. Receives Wittemberg with the rest of the Electorate from the Emperor 431. Exacts an Oath of Allegiance of John Frederick's Subjects ibid. Promises the Landgrave to interceed with the Emperor at Hall 433. And Remonstrates about it ibid. Receives the Wittemberg Divines Graciously 435. He is invested in the Electorate Solemnly at Augsbourg 457. Calls a Convention at Meissen who draw up a Form of Religion for Saxony 478. Intercedes with Prince Philip for the Landgrave ibid. Writes to the States to clear himself from the imputation of Popery 484. His Deputies at Augsbourg protest against the Council of Trent 499. He engages in the Expedition against the Magdebourghers 502. He is made Generalissimo of that War 503. He attacks the Magdebourghers 504. Defeats Heideck and Mansfeldt ibid. He promises the Landgrave Aid secretly 505. Routed in a Sally by the Magdebourghers ibid. Proposes Conditions of Peace to the Town 515. Commands his Divines to draw up a Confession of their Faith ibid. Demands a safe Conduct for his Divines to go to the Council of Trent 516. Sends the Proposals to the Magdebourghers by Heideck 521. He holds a Convention about the business of Magdebourg 525. He takes an Oath of Fidelity from the men of atzenelbogen 526. He concludes a Peace with the City of Magdebourg 528. Complains of the Preachers ibid. Hatches a War against the Emperor 529. Sends Ambassadors to the Emperor about the Landgrave 531. He holds a Conference with Prince William the Landgrave's Son 534. His Ambassadors come to Trent and declare their Instructions 537. They join with the Agents of Wirtemberg and Strasburg to sollicite for the hearing of the Protestants in the Council ibid. The Saxon Divines are upon their way to come to the Council 541. The Ambassadors complain against Perlargus ibid. Maurice sends Letters to his Ambassadors 542. They leave Trent secretly ibid. His care for the release of the Landgrave 549. He declares War against the Emperor 550. Takes the Field and joins with Marq. Albert 555. He goes with the other Princes and besieges Ulm 556. Treats with Ferdinand of Conditions of Peace ibid. Writes to the French King 558. His Army Skirmishes with the Imperialists 559. A Mutiny in his Camp for want of Pay ibid. His Soldiers make the Emperor fly from Inspruck 560. Which is Plundered ibid. They Publish a Declaration ibid. He restores the Outed Ministers ibid. His Grievances at the Treaty of Passaw 563. His Proposals at the Treaty 566. He is impatient of delay and hastens Ferdinand 568. He returns to the Confederates 569. Besieges Francfort ibid. At last he accepts a Peace 571. Sends his Forces into Hungary 573. Sends Commissioners to treat with John Frederick's Commissioners to no purpose 577. Went to Heidelberg to mediate between Albert and the Bishops 578. Makes a League with the D. of Brunswick ibid. Declares War against Marq. Albert 581. He overcomes Albert and is killed in the Fight 586. His Death foretold by Prodigies ibid. Maximilian Emperor holds a Diet at Augsbourg 4. Writes in August 1518. to Pope Leo to correct Luther and to put an end to his growing Heresies 5. Dies Jan. 12. 1519. 13. Sends Ambassadors to the Council of Pisa 26. Goes off to Pope Julius 27. Sends Langus to the Lateran Council ibid. Commissions Hogostrate and Reuchlin to examine Jewish Books 30. Wars with the Switzers 469. Maximilian Son to Ferdinand comes into Germany out of Spain 505. Is well beloved ibid. He returns home from Spain 529. Is honourably received at Trent 535. Goes to Brussels 637. Mecklenbourg vide George D. of Mecklenbourg Mechlin almost consumed by Lightning 392. Medices the rise of that Family to Greatness 169. Meinier President of the Parliament of Aix persecutes the Waldenses 345. Vses the Inhabitants of Merindol and Cabriers barbarously 345 346. Meissen John Bishop of Meissen Opposes Luther about Communion in both kinds 25. Melancthon Philip comes to Wittemberg 21. Goes to Leipzick ib. Answers the Parisian Censure of Luther's Books 47. Comes to the Diet at Augsbourg 127. One of the Protestant Deputies there to mediate an
those of Cologne taking no notice of this proceed to Censure Capnion's Book with a Salvo as they pretend to the Credit of the Author and in February 1514 they publickly burnt it this the Bishop of Spire took as an Affront put upon him and because the Prosecutor having been legally Cited had never appeared at the Day but made Default he gave Judgment for Capnion with an Approbation of his Book and condemned Hogostrate to pay the Costs of the Suit. He that he might avoid this Sentence hastens to Rome In the mean time the Divines of his Party make their Applications to the University of Paris and by the Help of Erand Marchian Bishop of Liege who was then in the French Interests they cajoled Lewis XII so as to make him inclinable to favour their Cause Therefore after a long Consultation those of Paris also Condemn the Book as deserving to be Burnt and whose Author ought to be compelled to make a Recantation and their Judgment was That the Jewish Talmuds were justly censured by former Popes and deservedly burnt by their Predecessors This was in the same Year on August 2. To prevent this the Duke of Wirtemberg had interceeded with them by his Letters and Reuchline also himself had written very courteously as having been formerly a Scholar of that University and he sent inclosed the Judgment given by the Bishop of Spire but all to no purpose Hogostrate being come to Rome managed his Business with very great Address but there were some Cardinals who favoured Reuchline upon the account of his eminent Learning among these was Adrian who has a Piece extant concerning the Latin Tongue Leo at last appoints certain Delegates to inspect the matter and they seeming to lean towards Capnion's side Hogostrate having met with nothing but Disappointments after above three Years stay in Rome sneaked away Home into his own Country But it is not to be thought what a Scandal the Divines of Cologn brought upon themselves by this Imprudent Act of theirs for there was not a Man who pretended to any thing of Ingenuity or Scholarship in all Germany who had not a Fling at them in some smart Lampoon or Satyr applauding Reuchline and ridiculing them as Blockheads and Dunces and sworn Enemies to that Laborious but useful Study of Languages and to all other more polite Learning And Erasmus of Roterdam was not wanting to use his interest with the Cardinals in Capnion's behalf concerning which he has several Epistles yet extant which he then sent to Rome The Divines of Louvain before they would declare what was their Opinion in Luther's Case consulted first with the Cardinal Adrian Bishop of Tortona who had been a Member of their College and Order and who was at that time in Spain and being backed with the Authority of his Judgment they published their Censure Luther finding himself so hard beset on all Sides addressed himself in an Epistle to the late elected Emperour Charles V and having made his Apology That a Man of his mean Quality should presume to write to so great a Potentate he tells him That the Reasons were very weighty which had emboldned him to do this and that the Glory of Christ himself was concerned in his Cause That he had published some few small Books which had procured him the Displeasure of a great many Persons but that the Fault ought not to lye at his Door for that it was with great Reluctancy that his Adversaries had drawn him to enter the Lists That a Private Retired Life was much more agreeable to his Inclinations but that his chief Care and Study was to make known the pure and uncorrupt Doctrin of the Gospel in opposition to the false Glosses and even contradictory Ordinances of Men That there were a great number of Persons eminent both for Learning and Piety who could attest the Truth of what he said And that this alone was the Cause of all that Odium and Infamy of those Dangers Contumelies and Losses to which almost for three Years he had been continually exposed That he had omitted nothing which might contribute to an Accommodation but that the oftner he made any Proposals tending that way the more resolved his Adversaries seemed to continue the Breach That he had frequently and earnestly requested them to convince him of his Errours and to give him such Rules by the which he might the better guide himself for the Time to come but that he could never obtain any other Answer from them but barbarous Injuries and railing Buffoonery their Design being to rid the World both of him and the Gospel together That by these Means he was driven to have recourse to the last Remedy and forced according to the Example of Athanasius to fly to him as to the inviolable Sanctuary and Protection of the Law And to beseech him to take upon him the Patronage of the Christian Religion and vouchsafe to shelter him from all Violence and Injury until he should be more fully informed in the Matter If it should appear that he had been ingaged in the Maintenance of any thing that was Unjustifiable he then desired no Favour His humble Petition was only to have a fair Hearing and that every one would t'ill then suspend his Judgment That this was a part of his Duty and that therefore God had intrusted him with this Supreme Power that he might maintain and distribute impartial Justice and defend the Cause of the Poor and Weak against all the Insults of their powerful Oppressors After this he writes much to the same purpose to all the States of the Empire telling them how unwilling he was to have ingaged in this Controversie and with what bitter Malice he was prosecuted by his Enemies when his Aim was purely this by propagating the true Doctrin of the Gospel to convince Men how Inconsistent it was with those false Opinions of which they had been so long but too Tenacious Then he recites in short all that had been done by him in order to a Reconciliation how he had several times promised by a voluntary Silence to let the Cause fall upon condition his Adversaries would cease their impertinent Babling desiring nothing more than to be better informed if he was in the wrong and being willing to submit freely to the Judgment and Censure of all good Men But that these Requests of his had not as yet had their desired Effect his Adversaries continually loading him with all manner of Injuries and Reproaches That since it was so he desired them not to give Credit to any disadvantagious Reports which they might hear of him If he had at any time been guilty of any Sharpness or Petulancy in his Writings it was no more than what he had been forced to by their paultry sawcy Pamphlets which they were almost daily spawning against him In the last place he makes now the same Profers for the composing the Difference which he had so often formerly done
might severely punish so great a Negligence both by publick and private Calamities That Luther's way was not unlike to the Sect of Mahomet which allows Men to marry several Wives and afterwards to put them away by which Law that villanous Juggler bewitched Men and drew the greatest part of the World over to his Religion That Luther did not indeed expresly allow that but that he absolved all those who had made to God Vows of Chastity from the obligation of the Law exhorted them to Marriage and let loose the Reins to Men's Lusts that so he might allure more People into that Association and Confederacy which he was hatching to the Ruine of Christendom and particularly of Germany That therefore it was their Parts punctually to put into execution the Sentences of the Pope and Emperour that they might avenge the Glory of God wipe off the Reproach that stuck to their Country and remove from themselves an infectious Pestilence That nevertheless such of them as should retract and return into the right way might be pardoned and received again into Favour but that they who obstinately maintained their Errors ought to be punished with the utmost severity that the rest being terrified by such an Example might learn to persevere in the true Faith and Religion That if it should be objected by some That Luther was condemned before he had been heard and that it was Reasonable that he should be tryed before he suffered such men reasoned amiss for that Christ himself had laid down a Rule of Faith and Religion whose Authority we ought to submit unto and not dispute about Articles of Faith nor enquire into the Reasons of this or that Precept That he was to be heard indeed when he was examined Whether in his Sermons he had said so or so or whether he had published this or that Book but that he ought not to be admitted to defend those things which he had broached concerning the Faith and Sacraments for here the Custom and Doctrin of the Church was to be observed and not to be deviated from And since most of his Opinions were already condemned by the Authority of Councils no regard ought to be had unto them That there could not be a greater Injury done to Ecclesiastical Assemblies than to cavil at or reject their Decrees nor could there be any End of Controversies if what Learned and Wise Men had after long and serious Deliberation determined should by every Private Person be questioned and examined That all Societies of Men had certain and fixed Laws which they were bound to observe how much more then ought not that to be done when any thing is established by Publick Authority in the Church That seeing then these Men did not only reject but even burn the Decrees of the Councils and Fathers they ought certainly to be punished as Disturbers of the Publick Peace That in the mean time it was not to be dissembled nor past over in Silence that God who is the Revenger of all Iniquity did in this manner afflict his Church for the Sins of the People but chiefly of the Rulers and Ministers of the Church since the Scripture saith That the iniquity of the people proceeded from the priests For that in Truth for these many Years past the Sins of Rome had been manifold and grievous and that even from the Head down to the inferior Clergy that Evil and Contagion had been propagated that no Man did his Duty all had gone astray and that none were free from Guilt no not one So that all Glory was to be given unto God alone from whom Pardon and Remission was humbly to be implored That since things were then in such a State he would take care That the Court of Rome which perhaps had given occasion to so great Evils should first of all be strictly reformed that so the Cure might begin at the Root and Cause of the Distemper which he thought himself the more obliged to do in that it was most earnestly desired by most Men That for his own part he was against his Will and with Reluctancy promoted to the Chair and would have been far better pleased with a Private Life But that being moved by the Fear of God and present State of Affairs he could not at length decline that burthensome Care That indeed no desire of Dominion and Rule had been a Motive to him to accept of that Charge but only that he might have an Opportunity of consulting and doing what he could for the Publick Good and Welfare of Christendom Now that he did not instantly reform the Vices and Abuses which he plainly saw the Reason was because the Disease which he designed to cure was very inveterate and Complicate also so that he must proceed gently and by degrees lest by attempting too sudden and speedy a Cure he should increase the Distemper For that all sudden Changes were dangerous and it was an old Proverb That he who blowed his Nose too hard would squeeze out Blood. This Writing Luther translated afterwards into High Dutch and illustrated with Marginal Notes wherein he observes That what the Pope said of Proceeding in the Reformation gradually and by little and little ought so to be understood as that for the space of every Step an interval of some Ages ought to be allowed However it was said That his Holiness had but little Thanks from the Cardinals for that he so plainly acknowledged the Corruptions of the Court of Rome Although this be reported to be a common Fetch of the Popes when they would delay or break the Measures of calling a Council or bringing Matters to a Hearing to make fair and large Promises that they may have time to ingratiate themselves with Kings and Princes till an Opportunity offer of Deciding the matter by the Sword for by Promises they raise Hopes and Expectations in Mens Minds and in the mean time take Measures for retaining their Power and Dignity which they know to be indangered by General Councils In the mean time whilst the Legate proceeded in this manner the Princes complained That the Compacts and Agreements which they had heretofore made with the Popes were many ways violated at Rome The Pope being acquainted with this by Letters from his Legate ordered him to tell them That he could not help what had been done by his Predecessors But that he had ever been even whilst he was a Private Man much displeased with that usual way of Proceeding of the Court of Rome and that he had already resolved of himself though no Application had been made to him about it to reform all these things and not to suffer any Man to be wronged far less them whom for Countrys sakehe desired chiefly to gratfie That as to what they demanded That all Law-Suits commenced at Rome might be remitted to Germany he told them That most of the Judges and Advocates had left the City because of the Plague but that so soon as they
raise the greater hatred against him affirmed that he had been often heard to say in the Pulpit That they who entred into a League with Foreigners sold Blood and fed on Mens Flesh When upon the return of the Deputies of Zurich Zuinglius came to know of this he justified himself by Letter declaring that he had not spoken so but that in general he had said That there were some who abhorred as a wicked thing the eating of Flesh because forbidden by the Pope's Law but thought it no Crime to sell Mens Flesh for Mony and to destroy it with the Sword That he had named no Nation in particular nor was it his custom so to inveigh against his Brethren the Switzers whom for Country sake he tenderly loved That it behoved him necessarily to reprove Vice which now exceedingly abounded but that good and harmless People were no ways concerned therein Among other things Zuinglius preached that Images were to be removed out of Churches and that the Mass was to be abrogated as a wicked thing For which the Senate called another Assembly in their City whither in the Month of October many repaired and for three days the Disputes lasted However the Senate that they might do nothing rashly wrote to the Bishop of Constance who had sent none to the Assembly praying him that he would also give them his Judgment in the Matter Much about this time several Priests married Wives both in Strasburg and in other places also which occasioned much Strife and Contention For when they were accused for it they made answer That they had done nothing contrary to the Commands of God and that all Men indifferently were permitted by the Law of God to Marry The Senate of Strasburg had a long Debate about this matter with the Bishop of that City who at length on the Twentieth of January cited the Priests to appear before him by a certain day at Saverne there to hear Sentence pronounced against them for having contracted Matrimony whereby he said they had transgressed the Law of the Church and holy Fathers of the Popes Emperor and Empire done the highest injury to their Order and were guilty of Treason against the King of Heaven The Priests having received this Citation petitioned the Senate that they might make their defence and plead their Cause before them protesting that they were willing to suffer Death if they were found to have done any thing against the Commandment of God. The Senate therefore again interceded with the Bishop and that seeing they declined not a lawful Tryal and that nothing could be attempted against them without some dangerous Commotions especially since others of their Order who publickly kept their Concubines were not punished for it They prayed him that he would at least delay the matter till the Conclusion of the Diet which then was held at Noremberg for that there was no doubt but there were actions of the like nature in other places also which they had reason to expect would all be Tryed and Adjudged in that Assembly This is the same Diet which being prorogued to another time as was said before happened to meet again this year Hither also Pope Clement sent his Legate Cardinal Campegio and with him a very loving Brief to Frederick Duke of Saxony dated the Thirteenth of January Therein he tells him that he was very glad to hear of this Diet and that he particularly was to be present in it for that he conceived great hopes that some things might be done there which would tend to the welfare of Christendom and that therefore he had sent Cardinal Campegio a Man of great Vertue who would inform the Princes how solicitously he was concerned for the Publick good and discourse privately with him about the measures of setling Peace which he earnestly exhorted him to endeavour and to be Assistant to his Legate therein since at that time nothing could be more Necessary and Laudable nor more for the Dignity and Prosperity of all who were in Magistracy That he bore singular Love and Affection towards Germany which he hoped would not deviate from its Ancient Virtue but forgetting present Discontents and Animosities contribute to the quieting the Disorders of Christendom Wherefore he prayed him kindly to receive his Legate from whom he would have a further Account of all things January 26 the Switzers held an Assembly at Lucern There a Decree was made That no Man should presume to scoff at or despise the Word of God which had been taught for above these fourteen hundred Years nor the Mass wherein the Body of Christ is consecrated to his own Honour and the Comfort of the Quick and the Dead That all who being of Age received the Lord's Supper should in Lent time Confess their Sins to Priests and perform all other things in the accustomed manner That all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church should be observed That every one should obey their own Pastors receive the Sacraments from their Hands and pay them yearly the Money which they ought and used to pay That Priests should be reverenced and honoured That no Flesh should be eaten on Days prohibited nor Eggs and Cheese in Lent That nothing of Luther's Doctrin against the received Practise and Custom of the Church should be publickly or privately taught That in Taverns and Publick-houses at Feasts and Entertainments no mention should be made of Luther's or any other New Doctrin That no Indignity should any where be offered to the Images of Saints That the Ministers of Churches should not be obliged to give an Account of their Doctrin to any but to the Magistrates That in case of any Troubles or Insurrections they should be protected and defended That such as carried about the Relicks of the Holy Ghost the Virgin Mary or S. Anthony should not be jeered nor laughed at by any That the Laws concerning Religion made by the Bishop of Constance should be observed And that they who transgressed this Decree should be presented to the Magistrate and punished Before Campegius arived at Norimberg Duke Frederick was gone from thence wherefore on the last of February he wrote him a Letter and therewith sent the Brief which he had received from the Pope In his Letter he tells him That it fell out very unluckily that he could not have the Opportunity to Discourse with him for that he had many things to impart to him in the Pope's name which could not so conveniently be done by Letters or Messengers and that the Affair was such as could hardly admit of any Delay But that since it could not be helped after kind Salutations both from the Pope and himself he comes to tell him at length That though it was a common Report that he was a Favourer of the new Heresies that now were broaching yet neither his Holiness nor he could as yet be persuaded of it for that from the very first time he had known him he had observed
Diligence Fidelity and Zeal we have ever since shewn in promoting the Honor and Dignity of our common Country for we still retain the same good Intentions that hitherto we have had Which being so it exceedingly grieves us that at the instigation of others who seek their own Ends you should be so exasperated against us Consider rather with your selves what Friendship hath always been among us when in several places as well at home as abroad we ran the same Fortune of War and did many brave Actions Certainly the thoughts of these things ought to unite not only us but our Posterity also in the strictest Bonds of Amity If the cause of Religion or any thing else that we have done give you offence why do we not amicably debate the matter among our selves as it becomes Allies and Confederates linked together in a kind of Brotherly Fellowship We shall not be morose obstinate or perverse but willingly submit to better Information as we have often declared Now therefore since the Profession of the Reformed Religion the Refusal of the French League besides many other Calumnies forged against us have alienated your Minds from us and changed your former Good-will we were necessarily obliged to write these things to clear our Honor and Reputation For unless as it hath been often said already it be proved by Scripture that we have erred we cannot part from those Decrees which we have made about Religion what Force soever be bent against us for the same The Senate of Strasburg by Letters which on the Thirteenth of February they wrote to the Imperial Council refuted all that had been laid to their charge affirming that three Informers had falsely taken to themselves the Name of the Representatives of a Party when indeed no Man moved in the matter but they only who were restless busie Men that had left the City to raise Disturbances That for their own parts they had done nothing but what they might do by Law and that for avoiding of greater Commotions they could not but allow the People the exercise of the Reformed Religion which grew now daily more and more publick That they begg'd therefore that they would not give credit to those Informers but judge so of them as of those who in imitation of their Forefathers directed all their Thoughts to the Peace and Welfare of the Empire The Preachers also and Ministers of the Churches whom these had informed against as was said before wrote at the same time a long Apology for themselves giving the same Counsellors the Reasons of their Doctrins and Practices And seeing they had acted nothing contrary to the Law of God they earnestly pray them not to give credit to malicious Informers nor to come to any Determination before the Matter were fully examined The War was hot at this time in Italy betwixt the Emperor and Francis King of France who marching thither as I said and having in the Winter-time laid Seige to Pavia about the latter end of February they came to a Battel where he was made Prisoner and carried to the Emperor in Spain In this War Pope Clement secretly sided with the French but upon the change of Fortune he gave the Officers of the Imperial Army a great sum of Money to pay off their Soldiers Pavia was kept out by Antonia di Leyva and a Garison of Spaniards and Germans The King had a vast Army before it insomuch that the Imperialists almost in despair of preserving Lombardy were thinking of drawing off their Forces and marching to Naples for the defence of that Kingdom but being encouraged by the Speech of Ferdinand d'Avalos Marquess of Pescara they engaged in Battel and having routed the Enemy and taken Prisoner a most powerful King obtained a most glorious Victory and rich Booty Charles de Lanoy a Dutchman Commanded in Chief who pretending at first to carry the King to Naples when he was out at Sea changed his course and sailed streight to Spain that so the Treaty of Peace might be the more expeditious This Battel was fought on the Twenty fourth of February the Emperor's Birth-day A little before we took notice of the Insurrection of the Boors which was quieted but this Year in the beginning of the Spring there happened in Schwabia and the neighbouring Parts of Germany that lye upon the Danube another Rising of the Common People against some of the Prelates of the Church and these had sworn a League and Covenant for the defence as they pretended of the Doctrin of the Gospel and the delivering of themselves from Bondage The Magistrates offered to examin their grievances and to reform what was amiss but they continued and daily encreased However they did not as yet take the Field but met now and then on certain days upon occasion of Weddings and such like publick Feasts And at the same time some of their Demands to the number of twelve were published wherein they desired Satisfaction from the Magistrates as you shall learn in the following Book These being forthwith communicated to others occasioned new Stirs in many places While these things were a brewing Vlrick Duke of Wertemberg whom some years before the Confederates of the Schwabian League had driven out of his Country as shall be mentioned hereafter in its proper place got together an Army of some thousand Swisses for the recovery of his own and besides other places took the Suburbs of Sutgart and there possessed himself that he might also make himself Master of the Town But the States of the Schwabian League and Ferdinand's Officers also who were in Possession of that Country raising Soldiers the Officers and Soldiers in like manner being tamper'd with to desert him and he wanting Money he was forsaken and forced to desist In the mean time the Army of the Boors much encreased and the Schwabian Confederates whom we named having repulsed the Duke of Wirtemberg and regained the Towns which he had taken marched to Vlm with their Forces against them who then also had taken the Field and divide their Army into three Bodies posting them one near to Bibrach another in Algow and the third by the Lake of Constance But upon the Mediation of the Citizens of Ravensburg and Kempen some of the Commanders of the Boors Army coming with Safe-Conduct to Vlm a Cessation of Arms was agreeed upon for some Days but not observed for which they mutually blamed one another and so fell to Hostilities wherefore the Council of the Empire fearing the Danger of this popular Tumult sent Deputies to Vlm to the Commissioners of the Schwabian League to treat of a Peace and these were Simon Pistorius in the Name of George Duke of Saxony and James Stuâ—â—ey a Nobleman and Senator of Strasburg in the Name of his own City and sent Letters in the Emperour's Name commanding both Parties under the highest Penalties to lay down their Arms. The Deputies at first proposed a Truce but that was in vain
been any need of his counsel Now that he might in his absence contribute what he could to the Publick Good he wrote a Book to the Bishops and other Prelates in that Dyet laying before them the state of the Church under the Roman Papacy how it had been overspread with thick Darkness Impious Doctrin and Foul Errours and admonishing them of their Duty in most weighty and serious Words he upbraids them with Cruelty and Bloody-mindedness Moreover he exhorts them not to let slip the Occasion of healing the Evil alledging That since his Doctrin agreed with the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles all counsels taken against God would be in vain Whilst the Emperour and Papists were thus venting their Rage and Threats against the Protestants Melanchthon was very much dejected and disconsolate not indeed for his own sake but Posterities and those who were to come after and wholly gave himself over to Grief Sighing and Tears But when this came to Luther's Knowledge he endeavoured to Comfort and Chear him up by several Letters and seeing this was not the Work of Man but of God Almighty he advises him to lay aside all Thoughtfulness and Anxiety and cast the whole Burthen of it upon him And why said he do you in this manner Afflict and Torment your self If God gave his own Son for us why do we Doubt and Fear why are we cast down and dismayed Is Satan stronger than he Will he who has bestowed so great a Blessing upon us forsake us in smaller Matters Why are we afraid of the World which Christ hath overcome If we maintain a bad Cause why do we not change our Mind If it be Just and Holy why do we distrust God's Promises Certainly the Devil can take nothing from us but our Life but Christ liveth and reigneth for ever who taketh upon him the Defence and Protection of the Truth he will not cease to be with us until the consummation of all things If he be not with us pray where is he to be found If we be not of the Church do you think that the Pope and the rest of our Adversaries are Sinners we are 't is true and that in many things yet Christ is not therefore a Lyer whose Cause we maintain Let Kings and the Nations fret and rage as much as they please he that dwelleth in Heaven shall hold them in Derision God hath hitherto without our Counsel governed and protected this Cause he also will henceforward bring it to the desired end What you write of the Laws and Traditions of Men may easily be answered For it is not lawful for any Man to appoint or chuse a new Work as the Worship of God since both the first Commandment and all the Prophets condemn such Works They may indeed be a bodily Exercise but if they come once to be worshiped they become Idolatrous As for any Reconciliation it is in vain hoped for for neither can we depose the Pope nor can the True Religion be safe so long as Popery continues That ye give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in Both kinds and yield not to the Adversaries in that who will have it to be indifferent you do well for it is not in our Power to appoint or tolerate any thing in the Church which cannot be defended by the Word of God. We condemn the whole Church cry they But we say That the Church was unwillingly surprised and oppressed by the Tyranny of a divided and half-Sacrament and is therefore to be excused in the same manner as the whole Synagogue was to be excused when being captive in Babylon it observed not the Law and other Rites of Moses for it was hindered by Force that it could not Take special heed that ye grant not too great a Jurisdiction to Bishops lest more Trouble ensue thereupon hereafter For my part I dislike all this Treaty about accommodating the Difference in Religion for it is all Labour in vain unless the Pope would utterly abolish his Kingdom If they condemn our Doctrin why do we seek for an Uniformity if they approve it why are the Ancient Errours retained but they openly condemn it All they do then is but Sham and Dissimulation They take a great deal of Pains as it appears about Ceremonies But let them first restore the Doctrin of Faith and Works Let them suffer the Church to have Ministers that will perform the necessary Duties They require that Monks may be again put into possession but let them on the other hand give us back so many Innocent and Pious Men whom they have slain let them restore so many Souls lost by Impious and Erroneous Doctrin let them restore those great Revenues got by Fraud and Knavery let them in short restore the Glory of God dishonoured by so many Reproaches When once they have made Satisfaction as to these things then will we reason the case with them who has the best right to the Goods of the Church Since the chief and almost sole difference betwixt Luther and some others was about the Lord's Supper as we have said before and that that exceedingly rejoyced the Papists as it grieved the others Bucer with the consent of the Elector of Saxony and his own Magistrates went from Ausburg to Luther to attempt a Reconciliation and had a very fair Answer from him insomuch that he made a Progress from thence to Zuinglius and the Switzers that he might essay to unite them more closely in Mind and Opinion This then being the state of Affairs and all things tending to Stirs and Troubles the Landgrave concluded a League for six Years with the Cities of Zurich Basil and Strasburg That if any Violence should be offered upon the account of Religion they should mutually aid and assist one another And this League was made in the Month of November At the same time the Emperour wrote to the Elector of Saxony commanding him to come to Cologne by the 21 day of December about difficult and weighty Affairs â—elating to the Publick The same Day he received this Letter which was November 28 he had a Messenger with Letters from the Archbishop of Mentz the design whereof was to acquaint him That the Emperour had desired of him that he would assemble the Princes Electors about the election of a King of the Romans and therefore he cited him to be present at Cologne December 29. This thing being known the Duke of Saxony forthwith dispatched Letters to the Landgrave and the rest of the Protestant Princes and Cities praying them to meet at Smalcalde December 22 but in the mean time he sent away in all haste his Son John Frederick with some of his Counsellors to Cologne that they might be present at the Day appointed by the Emperour To them he gave Orders to represent That the Citation of the Archbishop of Mentz was not legally made and that this same creation of a King of the Romans was a signal Violation of
them sufficiently both for the procuring of Diet and Interest too But if that Persecution and burning of Christians which I just hinted had not happen'd and taken the King from his design he was resolv'd as they say to have pulled down their Convent and levell'd all their Works And here we may observe that before the Reformation there was abundance of Apparitions For the Spirits of the dead as was supposed us'd to be very troublesome to this World as soon as their Funeral was over and come and tell people either why they were damn'd or tormented for a time in Purgatory begging their near Relations or Friends to have pity on them Now it was common for them to desire either that their Vows which they had made to the Saints might be discharged or that the Prayers and Sacrifice of the Mass might be repeated as often as they gave directions for their enlargement This practise confirm'd the belief of Purgatory wonderfully and gave a mighty Reputation to Masses and enrich'd the Priests more than can be well imagin'd But after Luther's Doctrin appear'd and got Footing these Goblins went off by degrees and vanish'd For Luther proves from the Holy Scriptures that departed Souls are at rest and confin'd till the last Judgment And that those Disturbances those horrible Noises and Sights are caused by the Devil who omits no opportunity to establish an unlawful Worship and to confirm Men in mistaken Notions concerning Religion that so he may make the Incarnation of our Saviour ineffectual The Lantgrave after he had contracted with the French King raiseth an Army in the beginning of the Spring and before he proceeded any farther the Duke of Wirtemburg and himself wrote to King Ferdinand to justifie what they had done but receiving no other satisfaction from Ferdinand than that he was willing to have the Difference decided by Law at last they brought their Men into the Field And upon the 13th of May meeting with the Enemy who were ten thousand strong in Foot they played their Cannon upon them and routed them near Laufen a Town in the Dukedom of Wirtemburg Philip Prince Palatine who was Ferdinand's General was wounded with a Musket-shot in this Action and lost his Feet And a great many of his Soldiers were drown'd in the River Neckar which they attempted to cross in their flight After this Defeat almost all the Dukedom of Wirtemburg submitted to Vlrick their Prince And at last Auspurg which was built upon an extraordinary steep Rock together with Aurach Tubingen and Nipha all strong Forts upon the account of their situation surrendred themselves Upon the first of May Ferdinand published a Proclamation and wrote particularly to all the Protestants That none should be aiding to the Faction of these Princes but resist them to the utmost of their Power The Emperor also set forth an Edict to the same purpose a few days before insomuch that no body gave them any assistance openly and all Peoples thoughts were in suspence and concern'd about the Consequences of this Commotion While this War was carrying on the Archbishop of Mentz and George Duke of Saxony who was Father in law to the Lantgrave endeavour'd a Reconciliation between King Ferdinand and the Elector of Saxony and at last upon the 29th of June they concluded a Pacification upon these Conditions That no Violence should be offer'd upon the account of Religion nor no Law Suits commenced and that the Peace which the Emperor had made should be kept That Ferdinand by the Emperors Authority should stop all manner of Processes of the Chamber of Spire against the Protestants under which denomination neither the Anabaptists nor the Sacramentarians nor such other Sectarists were to be comprehended The Elector of Saxony and his Confederates should be oblig'd to acknowledge Ferdinand King of the Romans and give him that Title Ferdinand also engaged himself to procure a Decree of the Emperor and the rest of the Electors to this effect When there shall be an occasion to make a King of the Romans in the Emperor's life time that then the Electors shall meet before-hand and consult whether there is good and sufficient reason for such a creation if it appears there is then they shall proceed according to the Form of the Caroline Law All Creations contrary to this Provision shall be reputed null In case this Decree is not made within ten months the Elector of Saxony and his Allies are not to be obliged by this Treaty The Emperor likewise shall within the said term confirm the Elector of Saxony his Succession to his Fathers and Ancestors Dominions And lastly that Ferdinand should endeavour to get the Emperor's Approbation of the Elector of Saxony his Marriage with the Duke of Cleave's Daughter While these things were debating another Treaty was brought on where the Elector of Saxony engageth as a Person Commissioned by the Lantgrave and the Duke of Wirtemburg that those Princes will make good whatever is concluded by him At last after a long Dispute which continued till all the Dukedom was recover'd by force they came to this Agreement By vertue of which Duke Vlrick and his Heirs-Male were to come under Vassalage to Ferdinand as Arch-Duke of Austria and hold the Dukedom of Wirtemburg of him as Lord of the Fee And if the Family of the Wirtemburgs should happen to be extinct or have no Heirs-Male that then this Territory was to descend upon the Arch-Dukes of Austria who were to hold it of the Empire to which they should be oblig'd to pay Homage and Service upon this account Vlrick was bound to acknowledge Ferdinand King of the Romans and never enter into any League against him The Lantgrave and Vlrick were to make Restitution of those Estates and Goods which had been seized on during the War To force no persons to change their Religion To permit the Clergy the enjoyment of their Revenues without any molestation That those who have withdrawn either upon the account of danger or contempt may return home if they please and others who have a mind to depart the Country shall have the liberty to carry their Effects with them The Ordnance with which Auspurg was fortified shall be deliver'd to Ferdinand The mony which Ferdinand hath borrowed and converted to his own use he shall pay himself but that which hath been laid out for the advantage of the Country shall be discharged by Vlrick Duke Vlrick and his Heirs shall do Homage to Ferdinand and his Heirs Kings of Bohemia for those Lands in the Dutchy of Wirtemburg which they hold of that Kingdom Philip Prince Palatine and the rest of the Prisoners shall be dismissed without Ransome The Lantgrave and Vlrick are oblig'd within a certain time to be specified to beg King Ferdinand his Pardon either in their own Persons or by their Embassadors at which time the Duke shall be put into full Possession by Ferdinand who promiseth to intercede for their Pardon with
now how unfortunate such Methods will be and what will be the end of them so wise a Person as the Emperor must needs fore-see As for them they desir'd nothing more than Peace and were willing to gratifie the Emperor in every thing which lay in their power but with this condition That every one might have the liberty to profess the true Religion which request being granted they should be more ready to comply with the Emperor's and King Ferdinand's Demands in reference to the Turks and the Imperial-Chamber As touching the Council to which they were invited by the Emperor they had seen a Copy of the Bull which was publish'd by Paul the Third upon this occasion by which they perceiv'd that the Pope's Designs and the Emperor's were not the same For notwithstanding Adrian the Sixth had frankly confess'd by his Nuncio at the Diet at Nurembergh that almost all things were very much out of order of Rome and promis'd to use his endeavours that these Irregularities should be rectify'd in the first place yet his Successor Clement the Seventh who sent this Nuncio to another Diet in Germany two years after went a quite different way to work insomuch that the Embassadors of the Emperor and the rest of the Princes made a Decree there for the calling of a free Council in Germany that the Church might be clear'd of all Errors and Corruptions in practice which had insensibly crept into it This Decree was afterwards approv'd by the Emperor at the Mediation of the Elector of Mentz and the Palsgrave But a year after Pope Clement propos'd a Council of a very different Form from that which was agreed on in the Diet and appointed Italy for the place which they then refus'd to consent to which Proposition was afterwards renew'd by Paul the Third his Nuncio to whom they return'd the same answer as before that the Pope is now carrying on the same Design appears by his Bull though he does not think it proper to speak out so much as Clement did For where he speaks of Heresies which are lately sprung up they have reason to believe he meaneth their Doctrin which he has as it were condemn'd before-hand under that notion for what a severe opinion he has of their Religion intending no less than the utter Extirpation of it is plain by those Punishments with which he Percutes innocent People only for the profession of it and yet at the same time he hath the Impudence to pretend as if he only design'd to purge the Church of those gross Errors and Corruptions which have been so long and so sharply complain'd of by so many Men of Piety and Learning With these Subtilties he had prevail'd upon the Emperor to call upon them to attend the Council which his Majesty would never have done if he had understood his Holiness's Tricks With the same flattering Pretences he solicits Kings and Princes and themselves among the rest to admit the Council that by this means he may hook them in to applaud and defend his wicked Project and by their approbation of the Council condemn their own Doctrin themselves which Artifice Julian the Apostate formerly made use of to circumvent the Christians in his Army And notwithstanding the Pope gives such apparent signs of being their Adversary yet he continues to arrogate the authority of a Judge to himself which is contrary to all right and reason and is backed in this usurpation by the rest of the Prelates who are tied to him by Oaths and several other Obligations Now how unreasonable such a Claim is and how dangerous to be granted the Emperor and other Princes they presume may easily understand For by the blessing of God their Divines had abundantly shewed that the Popes had broached several Errors in the Church and maintained Tenents not only contrary to the Word of God but to the ancient Councils and Fathers That they had made a great many Laws without any Warrant from God Almighty by which the true notion of Religion was quite stifled and suppressed therefore they intended when they had the opportunity of a lawful Assembly to accuse the Pope and his Adherents of these high Misdemeanors and to prove the Crimes charg'd upon them Besides by what wicked Practices by what uncreditable and indirect Methods of force and deceit they raise themselves to these Dignities what a lewd life they lead what a scandalous example they set how perfectly they abandon their Function how they neglect the people committed to their care and riot in all manner of immorality is so notorious a Truth that to talk any further of it would be superfluous Therefore neither for these reasons can the Pope have any Authority no not by his own Canon-Law to intimate a Council much less to preside in it neither ought his sworn Adherents take upon them the Office of a Judge since they have not so much as a right to Vote in a lawful Council Farther they said That Italy was made the Seat of the Council in direct opposition and contempt of what was decreed by the Emperor and the State of Germany Neither as yet had they any assurance that other Christian Princes would like the place and moreover they had great reason to suspect it was not safe for them and their Party to come thither For notwithstanding they may have a safe Conduct drawn up in ample and satisfactory manner yet because those places are most possess'd by the Popes Vassals who mortally hate the Reformed Doctrin they must lie expos'd to Treachery and secret Practices which are very formidable dangers in that Country and since this Debate is of the most important nature imaginable it being impossible for the World to produce a greater for the eternal happiness or misery of Men is concern'd in it and since the weightiness of the Affair obligeth them to appear there in considerable numbers with their Divines and Pastors of their Churches and not trust a matter of such Consequence with their Embassadors and Proxies it would be very inconvenient for them to be forc'd to travel out of the Empire and go into Italy and leave their Country and Subjects without a Guard and their Churches without Pastors for any considerable time especially at this juncture when there are such Misunderstandings and Animosities among the Germans therefore they earnestly beseech the Emperor that he would please to allow the Reasons they had laid before him a full and distinct consideration and since he was the chief Magistrate to whom the support of the true Religion did more especially belong that he would make it his principal Endeavour that the right way of Worshiping God might be taught under the Countenance of Law and spread into a farther extent As for themselves they embrac'd no Doctrin that was wicked nor aim'd at any thing but the Glory of God. This Answer of theirs concerning the Council was approv'd by the Embassadors of George Duke of Brandenburgh and of the Cities of
it namely because most of that Court were Roman Catholicks who are bound by Oath in giving of Sentence to observe the Canon-Law as well as the Constitutions of the Empire and that the Methods of these Judges were very singular was known to many others in Germany besides themselves To say they are tied up by Oaths does not clear them from suspicion notwithstanding this Allegation they may be lawfully refus'd which themselves were under a necessity of doing For what could they expect from those of a contrary Perswasion who condemn the Protestant Religion as impious Neither is it at all material that some few of them are delegated by his Majesty and most of them chosen out of the Provinces of the Empire for the main stress of the Cause lies in the Question of their Religion but how they ought to be qualifi'd in these respects the Decree made in the Diet at Ratisbone sufficiently shews Besides most of them are made by the Bishops or by others of their way and Interest Now when these Clergymen call all those Ecclesiastical Causes which relate to Rites and Ceremonies to the Pastoral Office and the Revenues of the Church why does not the Chamber put all those Debates which are of the same kind under the same denomination Therefore what they told him before was no more than truth that if they submit themselves to the Jurisdiction of the Chamber there will be no occasion for a Council and yet the Points contested ought to be decided there For those Gentlemen make no distinction of Causes but try all which are brought before them and are willing that their Ecclesiasticks should have not only their pretended Estates but their wicked Ceremonies restor'd them Now if such proceedings as these stand good all the Protestant Doctrin must be condemn'd They said likewise that their Lawyers were so much overaw'd and apprehensive of danger that they durst not defend their Right much less make any Exception against the Judges who if they were challeng'd kept the Bench notwithstanding and had lately sent back the Hamburgers their Letters of Recusation The reason why they instanced in the Monks and such sort of People was to let his Excellency understand that the Goods and Estates which he mention'd did not belong them but to the Ministers of the Church and were partly to be spent upon pious Uses Therefore in charging them with Rapine and detaining other Mens Goods he did them wrong neither was any thing of this nature ever objected to them before not only by one of his Quality but not by the Emperor himself They wonder he should say it was Violence to take away the Revenues of the Church from the Monks and Priests who contemn the true Religion and obstinately defend plain and notorious Errors For to these Estates which were most of them given by their Ancestors the Clergy had no other right than as they were formerly Ministers of the Church in their Dominions Now when they understood the true Doctrin and their Apprehensions were better inform'd they could not with a safe Conscience tolerate known Errors any longer and being oblig'd to remove these Corruptions they did not think it fit to let those Men enjoy the Profits of the Church who positively refus'd to reform their Religion Now if any are of opinion that they ought notwithstanding to have been tolerated in their Perswasion they are mistaken for they could not grant them such an Indulgence without being involv'd in their guilt for we may deny Christ and the Truth not only in our words but in our actions therefore his Excellency had charg'd them wrongfully in this Point For what a strange piece of imprudence would it be to endanger all their Fortunes their Reputation their Lives their Wives and Children and whatever was dear to them for the gaining such little and invidious Advantages They did not desire to possess other Mens Estates and which were not under their own Jurisdiction and if they were put upon it they could demonstrate by the canon-Canon-Law that the Revenues of the Church did not belong to those who broached and maintain'd false Doctrin neither was worldly Interest propos'd by them in this case but their principal and only aim was That God might not be dishonour'd in their Territories and therefore those who profess'd the true Religion had been depriv'd of nothing Neither did they question but that they should give a better account of what they had taken from the Ecclesiasticks than those who assume the name of the Church to themselves and possess the Revenues of it without any right and spend them without any reason Now if they insist upon the right of Possession that is nothing to the purpose for to go no farther than the Canon-Law when Truth begins to display its light all Claims by vertue of Possession Prescription and Custom are to disappear and give place like so many shadows Therefore their Practices are contrary neither to Law nor Equity but are honest pious and consonant to the holy Scriptures That Objection likewise which his Excellency urgeth that he cannot approve that Men should be outed of their Estates is properly applicable to their Adversaries for when any of their Flock happens to turn to the true Religion he hath not only his Fortune but his life too taken from him That this is no Calumny they appeal to his Excellency who very well knows what Cruelties have been exercis'd and how much Blood hath been shed upon this one account for banishment and the ruine of their whole Families is the gentlest punishment such Converts are favour'd with And whereas he insists farther that an Accommodation would be very feasible if the point of Property was waved they grant the truth of this Allegation but then the strength of it ought to be turn'd upon their Adversaries who unless they valu'd their Wealth their Honour and their Luxury that dissolute and scandalous Life which they lead above any regard to Truth all Differences might be easily reconcil'd but though they are sensible of the Excesses and Prodigality of their Expences yet they will not endure a Reformation which is of so absolute necessity Now what truth there is in the Gentlemen of the Chambers Affirmation where they say they have done nothing contrary to their Office his Excellency may understand by what they have deliver'd to him already For their parts they desire nothing more than a legal Trial and have formerly moved that the reasons of their demurring to the Jurisdiction of the Chamber might be examin'd by Referees Now that the Causes which the Chamber have unjustly decided should be brought about again by the Emperor as his Excellency suggesteth this will be a very difficult matter to effect neither will the Parties who have had Judgment given on their side allow it And because he is desirous to know their Resolution in the present case They declare that they value nothing more than Peace that they have not done any thing
to disturb it and have given their Reasons why they refuse to submit to the Chamber But if those Judges will go on at their old rate they are resolv'd not to take any notice of their Sentence and if any violence was offer'd the Law of Nature allow'd all Persons to defend themselves and therefore they could not desert their Confederates when they were in danger especially since they knew that when they were suppress'd the same Fate must be undergone by themselves As concerning their Allies who came over to their League and Religion since the Pacification at Nuremburgh they are sorry the Emperor should know nothing of it for when they sent their Embassadors into Italy they gave them their Names in writing that they might deliver them upon demand and whereas they told him that some of their Confederates had made a particular Agreement for their Liberty in Religion this was be to understood of the Treaty at Cadan and concerning the Duke of Wirtenburgh to whom this Freedom was allowed and since the Emperor may know this already they need not produce any farther proof As for the rest when they had gain'd a better notion of Religion and saw the Council was delay'd they concluded their Conscience was much to be preferr'd to a State-Obligation They did not question what his Excellency told them concerning the good Intentions of the Emperor yet they heard their Adversaries were forming Designs quite contrary to such Inclinations and endeavour'd to exasperate his Majesty against them which beside other proofs they had reason to believe from the practices of the Chamber Therefore their request is That their Case may be consider'd and that such a Peace may be granted in which they may lawfully acquiesce If they have satisfaction in this Point they shall not be backward in complying with his Demands in reference to the Turks and the Imperial Chamber Lastly They said they were something surpriz'd at his requesting them to explain their League for the Emperor understood it already and desir'd them by the Princes of the Mediation at Nuremburgh that they would recede from it but they then gave such an Answer that it was urg'd no more to them They may thank their Adversaries for forcing them upon these measures For it 's no secret what sort of Design they are carrying on and have been contriving for these many years As for their League it 's made only for defence and form'd upon such conditions that if it was requisite they need not be asham'd to shew it not only to the Emperor but to all the World. What he had related concerning the Council and his Majesties kind Inclinations towards the Empire was very acceptable to them and they believ'd his Majesty was unacquainted with the Popes Designs which made him so earnestly promote the calling of a Council Now what opinion his Majesty had of the Pope they would not dispute but since his Bull was ensnaringly worded and quite contrary to the Intentions of the Emperor they could not dissemble their Sentiments of it For before the Council was open'd he hath been so forward as to condemn their Doctrin not only by his Pen but by his Practice Besides it is very well known how himself and his Predecessors though they cannot choose but see the Scripture makes against them have usurp'd and appropriated the Authority of determining to themselves in all Assemblies where there are any Disputes about Religion And though they intend when there is a Council lawfully conven'd and constituted to Impeach the Pope and his Adherents of false Doctrin Heresie and Impiety yet they do not question but that he will pretend to be Umpire and Judge according to his old custom That he aims at such an Usurpation is apparent by his Bull which if they should once approve it will be to no purpose for them to talk afterwards about methodizing the Debate of the Controversie Now whether this be such a Council as his Majesty and the States of the Empire resolv'd upon in several Diets they leave to all indifferent Persons to determine For those words A Free and Christian Council were always added on purpose and for very good reasons Neither was the former part of the Clause to be so taken as if no more was meant by it than that every one should have the liberty to propound his Opinion But to prevent the Pope and his Associates who were engag'd to each other upon the account of perswasion and dependencies from being Judges in their own Cause nor was the word Christian to be so interpreted as if none but Turks and Infidels were prohibited the Council but that all the points of Doctrin might be examin'd and decided by the holy Scriptures For they were assur'd that there were pious and learned Men not only in one Country but all the World over And it is a very entertaining Speculation to them to consider that if the Pope's Exorbitant Power was retrench'd and all things were not under the command of one Man then there was reason to hope that not only their Divines but a great many good Men of divers Countries who are now kept under by his Holinesses Tyranny and forc'd either to conceal or but to whisper their Grievances would contribute their utmost-Endeavours towards the Reformation of the Church Now as to the Seat of the Council they said they could not imagine any place could be more proper than Germany for notwithstanding other Nations ought to have a share in the Council the Germans and particularly themselves were chiefly concern'd in it for they were oblig'd to be there in Person and to bring the Ministers of their Churches along with them whereas other King 's and Princes might dispatch their business by their Embassadors according to the ancient and usual custom Concerning the situation and conveniency of Mantua they had no mind to dispute but at this time there was War in Italy and though there was none yet they had lately given him the reasons why they ought to suspect that Country How the Duke of Mantua stood affected they would not examine at present but it was certain his own Brother was a Cardinal of great Note which circumstances encreased their suspicion Therefore when foreign Countries understand their reasons why they refuse the place and way of proceeding in the Council they do not question but that they will approve them nay if they had done otherwise other Nations they believe would have had an ill opinion of them for it besides his Majesty knows there are many Cities in Germany no less commodious than Mantua and which is more especially to be consider'd they are celebrated for their Justice and Fair-dealing For those Clandestine ways of dispatching Men are not so much known and practised in Germany as in some other places Now their insisting so much upon the Decrees of the Empire and being so unalterably resolv'd to stand by them ought not to seem strange or unpresidented to the Emperor For
one or two Towns left him to retreat to He was always a zealous Roman Catholick and punished those who professed the Reformed Religion Paul the Third in the beginning of his Popedom made two of his Grandchildren Cardinals and being sensible that he had lost some Reputation upon this account he promoted several others who were eminent for their Quality and Learning to this Honour partly that he might make the promotion of his young Relations less invidious and disobliging partly that he might be furnished with Friends able to defend his Cause with their Rhetorick and Writings Those who were created were Gasper Contareno Reginald Poole John Bellay Frederick Fregosi to which were afterwards added Sadolet Alexander Bembo Besides Erasmus was also thought on as he himself relates in a Letter of his to a Friend There are extant likewise several Letters of Sadolets to Erasmus in which he tells him in a great many words what a singular esteem the Pope had for him and that he intended to raise him very shortly to the highest Dignity Contareno was of a noble Family and a Senator of Venice a Man of great Reputation for his Learning and was said to be preferr'd to this eminent Station altogether beyond his expectation and when he made no manner of Interest for it THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK XII The CONTENTS Pope Paul strictly charges his Commissioners for the Reformation diligently to enquire into the numerous Corruptions of the Church and provide â—ffectual Remedies Erasmus his Colloquies are prohibited The Protestants meet at Brunswick and receive the King of Denmark into their League The Persecution of Lutheranism revived in France The Pope goes on Progress to Nice de Provence Whither the Emperor and the French King also come The French King and several of his Nobility kiss the Pope's Right-foot The French of the Reformed Religion have a Church assigned them at Strasburg The King of England burns Thomas of Canterbury's Bones The Elector of Brandenburg gives the Elector of Saxony notice of the Preparation which the Turks made for a War. The Rise of the Antinomians Eldo's and the Duke of Brunswick's Designs discovered by the Lantgrave's intercepting the Duke's Letters A Convention is held at Frankfort where at last a Conference is decreed in order to an Accommodation which Henry Duke of Brunswick endeavours to prevent and raiseth Forces for hat Purpose George Duke of Saxony a most violent Enemy to the Reformation dies and Henry his Brother succeeds him The King of England publisheth another Paper against the Council appointed at Vicenza and makes several Laws touching Religion An Insurrection at Ghent to suppress which the Emperor takes a Journey thâ—â—her through France The Venetians make a Peace with the Turk who had secret Intelligence what their Senate had decreed touching this Matter I Have already mentioned the Prorogueing of the Council till November which was still delay'd after that Term was expired However that the Pope might keep up the Expectation of the World and seem to do something he had some time since pitched upon a select Number out of the whole Body of his Clergy whom he strictly charged to make a diligent Enquiry into the Abuses of the Church and lay them before him impartially without any manner of Flattery He likewise discharged them from their Oath that they might speak their Minds freely and ordered them to manage the Affair with great Secrecy The Delegates were Jaspar Contarino Peter Theatino James Sadolet Reginald Poole Cardinals Frederick Archbishop of Salerno Hierome Alâ—ander Archbishop of Brindisi John Matthew Bishop of Verona George Vener Abbot and Thomas Master of the Holy Palace These Persons after they had debated the Point among themselves set down their Reformation in Writing and addressing themselves to the Pope they begin with a high Commendation of his Zeal for the promoting of Truth which was not prevalent enough to gain the Ears of several of his Predecessors indeed the Fault was chiefly in their Flatterers who stretched their Prerogative too far and told their Holinesses That they were absolute Lords of all things and might do whatever they pleased From this Fountain it was that so many Disorders flowed in upon the Church which had brought her into that very ill Condition she was in at present Therefore his beginning his Cure in the first Principles and Original of the Distemper was an Argument of great Prudence and Vertue in his Holiness who according to St. Paul's Doctrine Chose rather to be a Minister and Steward than a Lord. And since he was pleased to lay this Task upon them they in obedience to his Commands had according to the best of their Understandings digested the Matter into several distinct Heads relating to himself the Bishops and the Church Now because he bore a double Character being not only Bishop of the Universal Church but a Monarch of divers Towns and Countries they would only consider the Ecclesiastical part of his Jurisdiction for the State was well already and governed very prudently and unexceptionably by him And first May it please your Holiness say they We are of Aristotle's Opinion That the Laws of a Country ought not to be changed upon a slight Occasion and apply his Maxim to the Canons of the Church which ought to be strictly kept up and not dispensed with but when the Case is very weighty and important For there can no greater Mischief happen to the Commonwealth than the weakening the Force and Authority of the Laws which were esteemed Sacred and almost Divine by our Forefathers The next Expedient is That the Pope of Rome who is the Vicar of Christ should refuse to receive Money for the granting any spiritual Privilege by virtue of the Power derived to him from Christ For since all these Advantages were freely bestowed upon him our Saviour expects he should communicate them in the same manner This Foundation of Regularity being once laid there must be a Provision made that your Holiness may be always furnished with a considerable Number of Clergy-men well qualified to take care of the Church Among these the Bishops are the chief But there is a great Miscarriage in this Point for all Persons are admitted into this Order without any Distinction or Difficulty when they have neither Learning nor Probity to recommend them and oftentimes when they are Boys Hence it is that so much Scandal ariseth that such Disrespect and Contempt is shown to Religion We therefore believe it most advisable for your Holiness to appoint in the first place some Persons at Rome to examine those who offer themselves to Holy Orders and then enjoin the Bishops the same Diligence in their respective Diocesses And that you would take care that none should be received without the Approbation of his Triers or Bishop and let those young People who are designed for Church-men have a Master set over them by particular Order that so their Learning and Morals may be fit
Vertue by Conrade Heresbach When the States were come to Frankfort in February according to appointment they had a long dispute upon several Points with vehemence enough but at last upon the Nineteenth of April they concluded these following Articles viz. The Emperor grants those who are now Confederates of the Ausburg Confession a Truce for Fifteen Months that there may be a Conference of learned Men concerning Religion and during that time commands all Persons to forbear giving them any disturbance upon the account of their Perswasion The Pacification at Nuremberg and the Emperor's Edict at Ratisbone are still to continue in force And if the differences about Religion are not adjusted before the Truce expires the Peace made at Nuremberg shall continue notwithstanding till the next Diet and if there happens to be a Meeting of the Empire within the Term of the Truce the former Pacification shall hold good notwithstanding till a second Diet is convened While the Truce lasts the Emperor will put a stop to all Suits commenced against the Protestants particularly to the Proscription of Minden and commands all Prosecutions to the contrary to be void and null The Protestants shall have no occasion to make their usual Objection for the future as if they could not have a fair Hearing in the Court upon the account of their Religion for they shall have Right and Justice done them without any manner of Exception On the other side the Protestants are to molest no Body nor admit any person into their League during the Cessation neither shall any of their Party have any Violence offer'd them upon the score of their Religion The Emperor will likewise undertake that none shall be received into the Counter-League during this interval The Protestants shall suffer the Ecclesiasticks wheresoever they live to enjoy those Revenues they are at present possessed of The First of August shall if the Emperor consents be appointed for a Meeting of the Roman Catholicks and Protestants whither candid and peaceable Men shall be sent who have nothing of Quarrelsomness or Obstinacy in their Disposition These Persons shall choose a certain Number of Divines to argue the Case of Religion in a dispassionate and amicable Way These Divines shall have others joined with them in the Conference who though they are not Clergy-men by Profession shall yet be Persons of Understanding and Temper The Emperor also and King Ferdinand shall if they please have their Embassadors present at this Debate and whatever is decreed there by common Consent shall be reported to the States who are absent after whose Approbation the Emperor's Embassadors shall confirm it Or else the Emperor himself shall ratify it in the next Diet and Pronounce it unalterable and inviolable All Warlike Preparations shall cease on both sides and whosoever shall appear to attempt any thing of this Nature shall give a publick Account in Court why he does so yet with this Proviso That necessary Defence shall be denied to no Man In all other Cases the Laws of the Empire shall be observed on both Sides The Anabaptists are not to be comprehended in this Truce nor any others whose Religion is different from the Confession of Ausburg The Protestants shall be obliged to have their Supplies for the Turkish War in a readiness that there may be no time lost And when the Electors and some others of the most considerable Princes and States shall by the Emperor's Order send their Embassadors to Wormes upon the Eighteenth of May the Protestants shall likewise send their Agents thither to conclude upon a Method for the Raising Forces against the Turk upon a sudden Occasion And whatever is there decreed by the Majority shall be signed by the Protestants And if the Turk happens to make War upon the Empire while the Truce lasteth they shall be obliged to fight him with the rest All which Articles are to stand good upon Condition the Emperor gives his Approbation within Six Months computing from the beginning of May. And in the mean time that which they have concluded about the Truce and against enlarging the League shall continue in Force But if the Emperor does not declare his Mind within Six Months yet the Pacification at Nuremberg shall be observed as formerly John Archbishop of Lunden was the Emperor's Embassador at this Diet for Eldo was gone into Spain as I observed before Ferdinand also sent his Embassadors hither There was likewise a great Appearance of the Protestants The Elector of Saxony and the Lantgrave came in Person and brought several Divines along with them The Palsgrave and the Brandenburger mediated an Accommodation The Elector of Saxony among other remarkable things made his Protest against Ferdinand's Title of King of the Romans and declared he would abide by the Articles of Cadan and Vienna This Archbishop of Lunden whom I mentioned was a German by Birth and Privy Councellor to the King of Denmark but when that Prince was forced to fly his Country the Archbishop was banished and deprived of his Jurisdiction upon which he returned into Germany and applied himself to the Emperor and was afterwards made Bishop of Conscance Now while they were treating about an Accommodation at Francfort a Party of Soldiers were got together in Saxony and ordered by their Commanders to march into the Territories of the State of Bremen of the Duke of Lunenburg and of others of the reformed Religion and to stay there till the Camp should move Who gave them their Commission was kept very private at first but afterwards it was certainly known that they were raised by Henry Duke of Brunswick and his Brother the Archbishop of Bremen Those who were damnified by these Soldiers applied themselves to the Chamber for Justice but to no purpose The Protestants therefore to prevent farther Mischief managed their Business so as to gain them over to themselves though when they had them they did not imploy them to give their Neighbours any Disturbance Stephen Faber whom I mentioned before was dismissed by the Lantgrave at the Entreaty of the Princes of the Mediation after he had given a convenient Security about his Behaviour He promised of his own accord not to return to his Master because he believed he would not trust him any more but after he was at Liberty he went directly to him In this Convention William Duke of Cleve gave in a Memorial to the Protestants by his Ambassadors in which he explained his Title to Guelderland and also desired them to intercede with the Emperor on his Behalf and to recommend his Cause to his Imperial Majesty's Ambassador there present The French King had by his Embassador acquainted Vlrich Duke of Wirtemberg That he heard he intended at the Instance of the Confederates to make War upon some of the Bishops in Germany Now this was an Undertaking which he did not understand and therefore out of Friendship and Respect to him desired him to forbear for otherwise the Consequence would be that
they shall be answered And if perhaps there be any thing in our Apology too briefly or not plainly enough expressed we will explain it Again if it be convenient to alter any thing that hath been Printed and Published we will not be Obstinate when once the Fault is detected We know also that the weak and unlearned are offended that the same Laws are not every where observed in all our Churches And though there is no necessity of retaining the same Form every where provided the Doctrine be the same yet we do not refuse but that may also be handled in some Assembly Since therefore we have laid open our Thoughts and Intentions we beseech the Heer Granvell that he would advise and perswade the Emperor to reform and settle Peace in the Church For though manifest Vices and Errors may be defended by Power and Force yet God will always stir up those that shall confute and reprove them How unjust and contrary to the Law of Nature it is also to attempt by Force and Arms the Suppression of the true Religion is obvious enough to be understood The Emperor Constantine gave the Donatists twice a publick Hearing though they taught Doctrines manifestly false and he himself was present at a Third Hearing they had that nothing might be Decreed against them till he had been exactly informed of the whole matter a most excellent Example which ought to admonish us of Meekness and Moderation And since at this time also there are many most weighty Matters under debate we hope the Emperor will attempt nothing by Arms before a fair Hearing and Trial and therefore we humbly Petition his Imperial Majesty that he would appoint a Conference which by his Deputy he promised us at Francfort For it properly belongs to his Charge to consult the Salvation of Men especially when Popes are inflamed with most bitter hatred and have no other aim than to incease Kings and Princes against Innocent People that they may be dragg'd away to the Slaughter The Emperor also deserves high Applause and Commendation which will be celebrated by Posterity that hitherto he hath not given way to those sanguinary Councils And indeed it is the Will and Command of God That all Good-will and Protection should be shown to the Ministers of his Church Now the Report that is spread Abroad as if we enclined to the Emperor's Enemies is a Calumny of the same nature as the former For it can be made out that in time of the War we supplied the Emperor's Generals both with Work-men and Powder and that we enjoined our People to gratifie them in every thing they could Conditions it 's true were at that time offerred unto us and those neither inconsiderable nor inconvenient but we rejected them all upon no other consideration than that we might demonstrate our Loyalty and Affection towards the Emperor And if any one should be informed against as to that particular and the thing done openly we are of Opinion that the Emperor would be satisfied with his Justification Now it is our desire that Granvell would weigh all these things with himself and also represent them to the Emperor recommending to his Majesty at the same time our Duty and Services with a publick Reconciliation For unless a stop be put to that Persecution of Holy Men and such extraordinary Cruelty a horrid Desolation in all Churches will certainly ensue since the Popes and Bishops had rather have no Religion at all than admit of a Reformation We also desire that he would present to the Emperor our Grievance concerning the Imperial Chamber for many of our Associates are most unjustly oppressed by them contrary to Law and the Emperor's Edicts and for the smallest matters most grievous Suits are commenced against them as is notoriously manifest in the Case of Minden The Action was only for Threescore Florins which the Senate applied to the use of a Parish to which they really belonged and had of ancient time been applied but our Adversaries had rather that thet small Revenue should be filthily spent by useless and idle Drones And though the Clergy of that City wallow in Riches yet by no means will they suffer that small Pittance of Money to be taken from them and employed as it ought to be in the Service of the Church For this so inconsiderable a Trifle the Judges of the Imperial Chamber have prosecuted the City of Minden with the utmost Rigour and outlawed them Now it is our Desire that this so great Insolence of theirs may be in general restrained and all those Suits laid aside as it was agreed upon with the Mediators at Francfort for this must of necessity be done if the Emperor would see Peace in Germany And indeed what else are these Sentences and Condemnations of theirs but Alarms to make us prepare for War Against which the very Law of Nature warrants us to defend our selves For if the Emperor repress them not and others in the mean time raise Forces what can we judge but they are designed against us Which may give occasion to a great Combustion though sore against our Wills. We therefore pray the Heer Granvell that he would supplicate the Emperor in our Names to grant us that Peace which has been so often begged and desired When they had thus answered on the Thirteenth of April they put an end to their Deliberations having enjoined their Divines to refute the Arguments of the King of England concerning the Points of Doctrine we mentioned and that the Book should be afterwards sent thither To which if the English Divines should answer and any Hope 's appeared of a future Agreement it was resolved not to refuse a Conference but that they should make a League with him upon any other account than that of Religion no Man thought it convenient A Decree was also made for making Intercession to the French King for those that suffered for Religion in France but so That first they should be informed of the State of France and of the King's Mind and whether or not their Mediation would be well taken Afterwards Decrees were made concerning Church-Lands and the several Grievances Those of Hailbrun were also advised to abolish the Popish Mass in some Churches which they had not as yet done promising them Aid if they should chance to incur any Danger thereby Lastly They enact what was to be done if the Emperor should either reject a Peace or answer ambiguously or if the Imperial Chamber should proceed in their wonted way or Forces should be secretly raised During these Transactions the Emperor punished the Men of Ghent puting the Authors of the Sedition to Death and disarming the rest But that was not all for he deprived them of their Privileges and Immunities built a Castle and put therein a Garrison to curb them It has been a common thing for that City to resist their Princes as we have observed before Thus they served Charles Duke of Burgundy the
Brother George and the Condition expressed in his Testament he had made an alteration in Religion that he obstructed the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Mersburg and Misen and that he kept to himself the summ of Threescore thousand Florins left by his Brother for the use of the League Wherefore he moved the Emperor to reduce him to Duty and if he refused to foreclose him from his Brother's Succession according to the tenour of his last Will and Testament However he did not thus alone but some others of the League joined with him though he was the chief It is now time to speak of the Assembly at Haguenaw It was opened June the Twenty-fifth King Ferdinand having been there a Month before Some days before the Commencement the Protestants had made their Applications to the Electors Palatines Cologne and Treves to Erick Duke of Brunswick and the Bishops of Ausburg and Spire to all privately in their several Lodgings that they would promote a Peace King Ferdinand therefore having on the Day above-mentioned called the Protestants before him declared unto them the Cause of the Assembly And because the Princes came not in Person which the Emperor fully expected from them he required their Deputies to shew him their Commissions and Instructions After that he nominated Commissioners Lowis Prince Palatine John Archbishop of Treves Lowis Duke of Bavaria and William Bishop of Strasburg who being accepted by the Protestants the Treaty began A great many Protestant Divines came thither also as Justus Menius Pistorius Vrbanus Regius Bucer Brentius Blaurerus Osiander Schnepsius and many more but Melancthon fell dangerously sick upon the Rode. Every one of these preached privately in their own Lodgings as it was their Custom but then especially when all the Deputies met together to consult about any matter But this coming to King Ferdinand's Knowledge he discharged them to preach any more though on the other hand the Deputies alledged that they preached not publickly but privately and that his Majesty had no cause to be offended thereat When the Conference should begin the Lantgrave and Duke of Saxony intended to be present and were already on their own Frontiers expecting the News of it that so they might set out upon their Journey The Commissioners Pacificators afterwards required the Protestants to deliver unto them the Heads of the controverted Doctrines drawn up in short They make answer to this That the Confession of their Faith and Apology had been presented at Ausburg Ten Years before to which they still adhered being ready to satisfie any that found fault with it and since they knew not what it was that their Adversaries chiefly censured in that Book they had nothing to propound but rather were to demand of them what the Doctrines were that they thought contrary to the Word of God. That if they would do so and bring the matter to a Conference as had been thought fit at Francfort they were ready to come to any fair Agreement Some Days after the Commissioners make Report That seeing they stuck to the Confession of Ausburg they had in the mean time read over that Book and all the Treaty of Ausburg and find that some Points of Doctrine had been agreed upon there and some not That therefore they were ready to use all their Endeavours to accommodate these and desired them to tell them their Thoughts therein To this the Protestants reply That some Articles had been discoursed on indeed but nothing concluded therein nor any Conciliation made there The matter being thus tossed to and fro when the Protestants urged a Conference and the others alledged that they had Commands from the Emperor and King to proceed according to the Treaty of Ausburg King Ferdinand calling them all together on the Sixteenth of July told them That since nothing could be then determined and especially because the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave were absent another Day was to be appointed when the Deputies of both Parties and learned Men should meet in an equal number and conferr among themselves about the Points of the Augustane Confession but so that it should be no derogation to the Decree of Ausburg And that the Pope also if he pleased might send Commissioners thither That again since some complained that the Protestants had turned them out of their Possessions it was but just and reasonable that in the mean time whilst the Controversie about Religion depended those who were rejected should be restored to the Possession of their Church Livings or else be allowed to bring their Actions for them at Law. That moreover for avoiding all Commotions a longer Truce should be made wherein those should be now comprehended who were of the Augustane Confession before the Transaction of Nurimberg so that the Protestants should not reckon those of their Number who had joined with them since nor admit of any others neither for the future Five days after the Protestants declared what they had to expect against in these Proposals That they highly approved of a Conference and wished that the Emperor himself in Person and not his Deputies only might be present at it but that as to the Pope's sending Commissioners thither they should not prescribe Laws to the Emperor As to the Restitution of Church-Lands and the Judicature of the Imperial Chamber they made a long Answer as has been several times mentioned before alledging that the Controversie about Religion ought first to be determined but that they should exclude those who had associated with them since the Peace of Nurimberg and admit of no others for the future it was a thing they said they could not do and that they had no Instructions as to that particular On the other hand King Ferdinand and the Commissioners Pacificators urge the Restitution of Church Livings or at least that they should be put under sequestration until the Cause were determined Besides King Ferdinand told them that he would not grant them Liberty to admit of more into their Society and therefore advised them to comply with the Condditions proposed by him for that though they did refuse yet by Authority from the Emperor he would make a Decree and at the same time he appointed the next Convention to be held at Wormes the Twenty-eighth Day of October They return an Answer to him that they were satisfied with the time and place of the Conference but that they had robbed no Man and that the Question it self belonged to the Conference and future Treaty that besides no sequestration could be made without great prejudice to the State and Constitution of the Church within their Dominions and to the Schools and Poor And that since it was not long to the Time of the Conference they craved that the whole matter might be put off till then that there they would make it appear how much more sollicitous they were for the Glory of God and the Reformation of the Church than for Church-Lands and Revenues and that
publick and understand also the Reasons why he came not sooner into Germany that what trouble pains and charges he was at in supporting the Government of the Empire he would in due time make it so plain to them that all should be convinced that nothing was dearer unto him than the Welfare of Germany nor would he mention neither what vast Expences he was put to daily in maintaining a Fleet at Sea to withstand the Encroachments of the Turks That he was come and in great haste too to this Diet though his Health and other Affairs had been a great hindrance unto him That besides he had moved the Pope to send a Legate hither and that accordingly Cardinal Contarini was come a Man of great Vertue and a Lover of Peace That therefore since this Diet was called chiefly for settling the Affairs of Religion and that nothing was yet determined therein though it might be of dangerous consequence if an end were not put to these Divisions it was his earnest desire that a Reconciliation might be made and that he would willingly contribute thereunto whatever lay in his Power That he expected the like Will and Inclinations from them and therefore was importunate with them that they would consult about measures for accommodating the Controversies and the manner of proceeding therein and that they might perceive how much he loved Concord it was his Advice provided they knew of no better Expedient that of the whole number a few good and learned Men that were desirous of Peace and Germans Born should be chosen to conferr amicably about the matters in Controversie and how they might be adjusted and then to make their Report to him and their own States that the thing being afterwards deliberated amongst them and communicated to the Popes Legate a Decree might accordingly pass That this course had been looked upon as the most convenient both at Ausburg heretofore and lately at Wormes but with this proviso That it be no derogation to the Decree of Ausburg To these things the Protestants answered April the Ninth and having praised and extolled the Virtues and Goodness of the Emperor they craved that the Conference of Wormes might be continued as being transferred to this place That to what his Majesty offered of commissionating some new they would give their Answer they said when they should learn from him who the Persons were But the other Princes and States having given their Answer April the Twelfth throughly approve his Council and mainly urge That the Decree of Ausburg may continue in Force and Authority Afterward the Emperor demanded of both especially of the Protestants that they would referr the choice of the Persons to him and confide in him as to that particular who would do nothing but what should tend to the Peace and Welfare of the Country When that was granted him on the Thirteenth of April he caused Frederick Prince Palatine in his Name to appoint for the Conference Julius Pflug John Eckius John Gropper Philip Melancthon Martin Bucer and John Pistorius that they should handle the controverted Points of Doctrine and then make a Report thereof to him and the Princes He afterwards called them before him April the Two and twentieth and gave them a long and serious Admonition that in handling of this matter they should not be swayed by Passion nor Affection but have regard only to the Glory of God. They all modestly excused themselves desiring that other fitter persons might be appointed except Eckius who said that he was prepared and ready but when the Emperor urged it upon them they submitted and at the same time entreated him to add some more to their number who might be present partly as presidents and Moderators and partly as Witnesses and Hearers of the Proceedings He therefore named Frederick Prince Palatine and Granvell for Presidents and Theodorick Count Manderschitt Eberhard Ruden Henry Haseu Francis Burcart John Fig and James Sturmey for Witnesses Now when they all met April the Twenty seventh Frederick Prince Palatine made a Speech and advised the Conferrers seriously to set about the matter and conferr amicably Then Granvell presented to them a Book in Writing which he said had been delivered to the Emperor by some good and learned Men as a proper means for a future Reconciliation That it was therefore the Emperor's Pleasure that they should peruse and weigh that Book as a lawful Argument and Matter to treat on commend what all of them approved therein and correct what was amiss That Book contained these Heads of Doctrine Of the Creation of Man and of the Uprightness of Nature before the Fall Of free Will Of the cause of Sin Of original Sin Of Man's Justification Of the Church and the Marks and Authority thereof Of the Mark of the Word Of Repentance after the Fall Of the Authority of the Church in discerning and interpreting Scripture Of the Sacraments Of Orders Baptism Confirmation the Lord's Supper Penance and Absolution Matrimony Extream Unction Of the Bond of Charity Of the Hierarchy of the Church and its Authority in settling Discipline and Government Of Images Of the Mass Of the Administration of the Sacraments and of the Discipline of the Church both as to Ministers and People In the Month of May the Protestants wrote from Ratisbone to the French King interceding for those of the Protestant Religion in Provence who were partly in Prison partly banished and partly forced to abscond and lead a miserable Life for their Profession and because some were received into Favour if they would renounce their Religion they desired he would release them from that condition shewing what a grievous thing it was to force Mens Consciences This Persecution proceeded from a Sentence pronounced the Year before against the Inhabitants of Merindole a Village of Provence by the Parliament of Aix which being exceeding terrible and cruel put the poor people into extream Terror and Apprehension However the full Execution of it was put off to another time and this Year's Persecution was but a Play in respect of that which followed four Years after as shall be said in the proper place Whilst these things are in agitation at Ratisbone William Duke of Cleve whose implacable Enemy the Emperor was because of his Possession of Guelderland went privily into France having appointed a day and place for those whom he designed to have with him to come to him by several ways When about the end of April he arrived at Paris he was received by the King's Officers and being conducted by Orleans on the Sixth of May he came to the King who was then at Amboise a Town in Turin upon the Loire The King embracing him as a Father would a Son sends presently word to the King of Navarre and his Sister that they should come to him as soon as possibly they could and bring their Daughter with them for they were at that time in Guienne Upon their coming
only we but all those also who profess the Reformed Religion are in danger and that the great Design in hand is wholly to re-establish Popery Let all men judge then of the fairness of their Proceedings when in the late Diet at Ratisbonne they endeavoured to perswade and solemnly averred that they would use only lawful and peaceful Remedies for healing the breaches of Religion Lately said the Landgrave he told me at Spire That he was not engaged in any League with the Pope the same also said Granvell This then is that Fatherly Affection that Zeal for and Love of Peace whereof they so much brag and so often Was ever the like heard that they should endeavour to perswade Princes of one thing and in the mean time resolve the quite contrary We are sensible enough of the Duty of the Princes to the Emperour and what on the other hand he is engaged to perform as we stand obliged to him so is he mutually to us Now that he Proscribes and Outlaws us without a fair hearing and endeavours to turn us out of all he therein dissolves the Obligation in Law whereby the Lord or Superiour is mutually bound to his Tenant or Vassal That he objects to us the Crime of Rebellion it is a meer sham also and he himself knows that he does us wrong in that For not long since said the Landgrave he gave me Thanks at Spire that I had used my utmost diligence to compose the Differences about Religion Now whereas he says that I prepared for War and exacted Money of some States I do not indeed deny it and weighty reasons I had too for making Preparations But it is publickly known that by the mediation of Louis the Elector Palatine and of Richard Archbishop of Traves that whole matter was husht nay he himself acquainted me by his Letters that though he had been highly displeased with me for what I had done yet because I had laid down Arms he required no more besides when sixteen years ago he spoke to me of the same Affair at Ausbourg I justified my self so well in presence of King Ferdinand Frederick Prince Palatine and some others that he was satisfied therewith he cannot then make that any part of his present quarrel That I assisted Ulrick Duke of Wirtemberg at the intercession of the Duke of Saxony and George Archbishop of Mentz that matter was also taken up and I received again into favour which transaction he himself ratified and afterward at Ratisbonne fully pardoned me upon his Royal Word He now also speaks of the War of Brunswick but the cause of that we made manifest by a publick Declaration and two years since gave a fuller account of the same in a most frequent Diet of the Empire where he was present Duke Henry did indeed answer then but the Emperour refused to hear our Replies Now the reason why he did not bring the Tryal to a full issue and with the Advice of the rest of the Princes give Sentence therein at that time was forsooth because demanding then Supplies against the French and Turks he purposely put a stop to the Suit and ordered a Sequestration wherein we also condescended to him at Wormes though we were not obliged and it was agreed on both hands that Frederick Prince Palatine and his Cousin John Prince Palatine of Simmeren should hold and govern the Province which we had taken until the Cause should be brought to a final decision according to Law this being done he past his Word to us that the Duke of Brunswick should likewise comply and by Letters strictly enjoyned him to do so but he slighting the Orders raised War against us and therein was made Prisoner as appears by a Declaration published by me and Duke Maurice In this War then we did nothing undutifully nothing contrary to Law and appeal to impartial Judgment But from that very thing it will easily appear what his Intentions are as to our Religion For though Duke Henry most sawcily despised his Orders and when he heard of the Sequestration reviled him in very reproachful Language yet because he is an implacable Enemy to our Religion he was never called to any Account for it Where he saith That we have brought some under subjection to us it is far otherwise and has been answered by us several times before But that may be truly said of him who hath reduced some Provinces and Bishopricks of the Empire under his Jurisdiction and against this War hath had in many places Meetings of Nobles that he might to our destruction engage them to himself This we acknowledge indeed That we have received some into our Protection upon account that if they should incur any danger for professing the Gospel we might stand by and defend them and that we look upon to be our duty since God commands us to help the afflicted Now for many Years past and at this time especially none stand more in need of Help and Protection than they who are reckoned Lutherans In other things that related not to Religion we never gave them any Countenance but always exhorted them to give the Magistrate his due He objects to us also That we disswaded others from repairing to the Diet but that is very impertinent since on the first of April last we sent Orders to our Deputies who met at Wormes when he was going to Ratisbonne That waving all other Business they should repair to that Diet and that we either came in Person or sent our Deputies to all the other Diets of the Empire What he saith of the Imperial Chamber and the interruption of Justice hath been many times refuted already He moreover brings an Instance of the Heathen Magistrates to shew That it is not lawful to resist him Whereas we have not only done our Duty but more also than either we ought or our Forefathers were accustomed to do to our own great loss and prejudice and that upon that account he hath not the least cause of complaint it will appear by what shall be said hereafter A certain Embassadour lately sent to him from the French King hapned occasionally to speak of this War telling him That he undertook a Matter of very great concern That he would do well to consider with himself how powerful Germany was and how dangerous the Attempt That if one or two perhaps had offended a Course might be taken to accommodate the Matter without a War. Whereunto he is said to have made this Answer That there was no need of an Accommodation That he would subdue Germany or put all to the risque for that the Strength thereof was not so very great that he needed to be afraid of it That it was now above twenty years since he had laid down his Measures for accomplishing that Design That in several Wars they had given him frequent Supplies and lately too against the King his own Master That they had been at great Charges in several Diets That they had lost
himself alone who had viewed the Places before resolved to keep the Army together and pursue the War. Duke Maurice was generally blamed by all Men That he should have so ungratefully served him whom he ought to have honoured as his Father and who was in a manner the sole Author of all his Fortune so that many very invective Libels and Copies of Verses were published against him wherein to his reproach and ignominy he was accused of breach of Faith betraying of his Religion and highest Ingratitude and the more that neither the Intreaties of his Wife nor father-in-Father-in-Law could any way prevail with him When this came to his knowledge he published a Manifesto in his own justification declaring what the Religion was that was professed in his Territories what he himself had promised to his People and how that for the promoting of Religion he had founded and endowed publick Schools Then he alledges That the Emperour had given all Assurances to him and his People and not to him only but to other Princes also concerning their Religion and of his own Resolution to maintain the Liberty of Germany that nothing should be done by Force and Violence but that the Cause should be tried and decided according to Law and many Imperial Decrees made for that effect That therefore he gives credit to his Promises and Letters according to the Example of those Princes who now serve under him and yet profess their own Religion not only in their own Houses at home but also abroad in the Camp and Army That those who are familiarly known to him and daily conversant with him may easily discover his Mind and that doubtless if they found any such Resolution in him they would not remain with him And that whereas the Pope assists him it is because the War is made against those who chiefly withstand his Errours and usurped Power but that it ought to be considered not what moveth him but what the Intentions of the Emperour are who carrieth on the War That it does not neither increase the Suspicion that the Emperour retains the Popish Religion also in his Provinces seeing that is left to his own discretion and no Rules can be imposed upon him as to that there being no Prince nor Magistrate that in that matter will suffer himself to be prescribed to by others That since Religion then was secured he sees no reason why in all other things he should not obey the Emperour seeing it was Christ's Command That we should render unto God the things that are Gods and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's That it was not unknown to the Emperour King Ferdinand and many others what care and pains he had taken that these sad Differences might have been amicably composed nor was it his fault that they were not That if he had had no other Reason to make him desirous of Peace but that by Civil War the Turk increased both in Power and Confidence as the History of Greece alone might sufficiently convince all Men yet that that was more than enough to incline him to it But that when there was no more talk of Peace and that strict Orders were brought him from the Emperour that he should seize into his Hands the Lands and Goods of John Frederick and that King Ferdinand was already hovering over that Country not only with his Bohemians but also with Austrians and Hungarians raised for this War it was not lawful for him to resist the Magistrate who is excepted in all Leagues and Confederations That what is said of him as if he coveted all the Lands of his Cousin was an injury done unto him and that he justified himself in that a good while ago by Letters to the Landgrave his Father-in-Law and to the Duke of Saxony himself That he wished Matters were now in the same Condition as they were when he wrote so unto them and that there were none who endeavoured to appropriate to themselves his Possessions but now that the State of Affairs was much altered that King Ferdinand was not to be intreated but would pursue his Point by an Army that his Forces which came from Bohemia had already possessed themselves of some Silver Mines which are in common to him with his Cousin it necessarily behoved him to take care that they might not invade the rest also and make greater Progresses and that he had acquainted the Landgrave and his Cousin with his Design before That in consideration of all which it was his earnest desire no Man would misinterpret his Actions nor give credit to those things which probably might be reported of him abroad seeing he resolved to be constant in the defence of his Religion and had no other aim but that the Lands and Dignities of the House of Saxony should not fall into the Hands of Strangers Now again were the Persecutions in France revived William Brissonet who some years before had been Bishop of Meaux a Town ten Miles from Paris being a great Lover of the Reformed Religion debarred the Monks and Friars and appointed fit Pastors to instruct the People But when for his so doing the Divines of the Sorbonne began to be troublesom unto him and to threaten him with Danger his Constancy failed him and he fell off from his Enterprise Nevertheless the Remains of that Doctrine stuck in the Minds of many and this year at length about threescore of the Towns-people having laid their Heads together chose to themselves a Minister and meeting in Houses privately on certain Days after Sermon took the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the Institution of the Gospel That could not be long kept secret especially since some came from the Country also to the Meetings Wherefore being all apprehended together they are cast into Prison and after they were examined carried to Paris in Carts Being there condemned to die and brought home again fourteen of them were burnt alive at so many Stakes The rest were partly whipped and partly banished As they were returning home from Paris a certain Person met them from the next Village upon the Road and exhorted them to Perseverance for which he was laid hold on and suffered the same Punishment as they did Before they were burnt they were put to the Rack to make them discover their Companions and Fellows in Religion but nothing could be extorted from them Many were of opinion that this was done on purpose at the Instigation of some to break off the Treaty that then was on foot betwixt the King and the Confederates of Smalcalde The Letters of Duke Maurice wherein he defied the Duke of Saxony were on the sixth of November delivered in the Camp. In the former Book we gave you an Account That the Pope having on the sixteenth of April pronounced Sentence against the Archbishop of Cologne excommunicated him and deprived him of all his Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments Some days after that he had certain
acquaint you with for my own Justification The very same day the States give Duke Maurice and the Elector of Brandenburg an account of this Relation of the Emperours whereunto they next day make answer to this effect That they now confess what hitherto they had always done that they had no cause to accuse or find fault with the Emperour in this particular but that nevertheless they had had several and private Negotiations with King Ferdinand before he went home from the Camp before Wittemberg and with some of the Emperours Counsellors though not many and that perhaps through a slip of Tongue some mistake might have happened which they will not much contend about That however it be they had for the preservation of the innocent Multitude and that Germany might recover its long wished for Peace advised the Landgrave when he had not the least apprehension of Custody or Confinement to come to Hall beg the Emperours Pardon and accept of the Conditions of Peace But now that he had lost his liberty and was still kept Prisoner to the great danger of his health was a thing that no man but must see did extreamly reflect upon their Honour and Reputation That therefore they did most earnestly desire them that they would joyn with them in an Address to the Emperour and beseech his Majesty that it would please him to have more regard to them who had faithfully served the Empire than to the Landgrave's Offence and not to suffer them to be any longer exposed to Obloquy and Censure but to restore him to his liberty especially since all the Conditions were in a manner fulfilled and that the Emperour had most ample security for the performance of them to the least title So then an Intercession was made in the common name of all and the Landgrave 's Wife prevailed with the Lady Mary the Emperour's Sister to second it but it was all in vain And because Duke Maurice and the Elector of Brandenburg said that they had past their promise and obliged themselves by Bond to the Landgrave 's Sons so long as he should be detained Prisoner the Emperour sent John de Lire to the Landgrave who then was at Nordlingen being removed thither lately by the Spaniards requiring him to deliver up all his Writings and amongst the rest also the Letters of safe Conduct and obligation of Security He told him That they were not in his keeping but that his Sons and Counsellors had them That although he should write to them it would be to no purpose for that they had told him at parting that they would not deliver them up before he were set at liberty That nevertheless if he might have assurance from the Emperour of the time of his enlargement he would do what lay in his power to perswade them to deliver all up The Emperour dissatisfied with that Answer shortly after removed his Servants from him allowing him but one or two at most About the latter end of November Peter Martyr a Florentine who had for five years with great applause taught at Strasburg went now with leave from the Senate into England whither he had been invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the King's Name and was made Professor of Divinity in Oxford His Companion that went along with him was Bernardine Ochino of Siena who being in high esteem in Italy for his Eloquence and the opinion Men had of his Virtue forsook his Monastick Life and embraced the Reformed Religion and going first to Geneva and from thence afterward to Ausburg published some Sermons of his in print Much about this time King Henry's Laws about Religion which we mentioned in the twelfth Book are by publick Proclamation abolished all over England and Images and Pictures removed out of the Churches which was the beginning of the Reformation there On the ninth day of December the Cardinal of Trent discharged the Commission the Emperour had entrusted him with in a full Consistory of Cardinals where the Pope himself presided representing in an elaborate Speech what Pains and Danger the Emperour had undergone for the sake of the Council and that now through his Diligence and Authority Matters were brought to that pass that all the States were willing to obey and submit to its Decrees That therefore by all that was Sacred he besought the Pope in name of the Emperour King Ferdinand and the whole Empire first That he would order the Fathers at Bolonia to return to Trent there to perfect the Work begun which was so very necessary for the Publick Good next That he would send a Legat or two into Germany that with their Advice and Counsel some Rules of Good-living might be established until the Council should be ended and that the Clergy might be reformed Lastly That he would also consider and determine that if the Pope should happen to die during the sitting of the Council whether or not the power of Election ought to lie in the Fathers of the Council or in the Cardinals lest if the Case should happen it might give occasion to new Commotions Five days after the Cardinal of Trent had had his Audience James Mendoza by Orders from the Emperour spoke in the same Auditory to the same purpose and besides That if the Pope did make any delay or excuse he said he was commanded by his Master to joyn with the Embassadors of other Kings and Princes and openly protest against the Council The very same day which was the fourteenth of December the Archbishop of Rheims who as we said already was made Cardinal the Summer before being by the French King sent to Rome makes an Harangue to the Pope and Cardinals In the beginning he commends the late King Francis that amongst other his Virtues he was so tender of the Rights and Liberties even of other Princes that upon that account he never declined Danger nor Cost That his Son King Henry did in no ways degenerate from him in Manners and Inclination who so soon as he was seated on the Throne and had performed his last Duty to his deceased Father had nothing more in his thoughts than how to make appear his Zeal and Duty towards the See of Rome therein treading the Steps of his Ancestors the Kings of France who had given so many and illustrious Instances of their Affection towards the Popes of Rome that they were justly reckoned the first and went before all other Nations in that Character And that since now adays there was a Race of froward and saucy People sprung up that opposed and railed against the Majesty of that Place it was a matter of greatest moment that at the same time a most potent King did as it became the eldest Son of the Church and Chief Captain of Christian People submit himself and all he had to the same Church for the maintenance and defence of whose Dignity he was ready to employ and sacrifice all that was near
made me this Report That if rightly understood it was not inconsistent to the Catholick Religion nor with the Doctrines Canons and Constitutions of the Church except only in two Points the one concerning the Marriage of Priests and the other touching the Lords Supper But that it was a proper Expedient in its kind for establishing the Peace of Germany the thing I most wish for For what would be more agreeable than to see all the States unanimous in following one and the same form of Religion Which being so I require those who have hitherto to their praise observed the Laws and Rites of the Catholick Church that they continue in the same without wavering or starting of any Innovations as they have heretofore promised unto me and I earnestly desire those who have changed their Religion that they would either come over to the rest of the States and joyn with them in the Profession of the same Religion or moderate their Doctrine according to the Prescript of this Book and in every Point make it their Pattern Nor would I have them alter or add any thing to it but contain themselves within the limitation therein prescribed and neither in their Writings nor Sermons publish or vent any thing to the contrary but obediently expect the Decree of the Council which I shall endeavour shall be called as soon as possibly may be In the mean time it is my whole care that a Form of regulation be conceived for reformation of the Clergy When he had thus spoken by the Mouth of his Secretary as the Custom is he commanded the Book to be read So soon as that was done the Archbishop of Mentz who has the first place amongst the Electors without consulting the rest of the States started up and as in name of the whole Dyet gave the Emperour most hearty thanks for the great labour and pains he had been at for his care and diligence and for the zeal and affection he had for his Country And that seeing they had formerly referred the Matter to his prudent and faithful management and that now he had laboured to bring it to effect It was but just and reasonable said he that with most thankful hearts they should acknowledge so great favours and dutifully submit to the Decree The Emperour took the thanks for a publick consent and confirmation nor would he afterwards admit of any excuse as shall be said hereafter and commanded the Book to be printed both in Latin and in the Vulgar Tongue Four days after he represented to the States the great labour and charges he had been at in restoring Peace to Germany And that because the thing it self required that the same should be secured for the future it therefore seemed to him very necessary that some considerable sum of Money should be raised and in certain places kept in a publick Bank that if any Commotions should happen to arise within or without the Empire there must be a remedy ready at hand Some few days after that King Ferdinand also represented to the States that for necessary causes and considerations which were not unknown to them and needed not to be related he had by his Ambassadour made a Truce with the Turks for five years which had begun the year before And that though the Turk had charged his Subjects that they should act nothing to the contrary yet he nevertheless desired that they would contribute the Aids which they had promised before that if he should chance to break the truce he might be in a condition to make head against him That besides since the Turk fortified his frontier places with strong Garisons it concerned him not to be negligent And that therefore he had resolved to fortifie all proper places and keep Garisons in them But that because of the great charges he had been at in the late Wars he was not able long to support so great a burden That therefore he entreated them that they would give him a yearly Subsidie for those uses during the continuance of the truce For that that concerned the quiet and safety of them all in general In the mean time Maximilian the Son of King Ferdinand went from Ausburg to Spain to celebrate his Marriage with the Lady Mary the Emperours eldest Daughter and his own first Cousin The Cardinal of Trent was sent with him and the Duke of Alva went some Months before about the later end of May. The Neapolitan Horse who had before quartered in Nortgow came into the Country about Strasburg and continued almost three Months there behaving themselves with incredible insolence They came now and then into the Town which created no small suspition Duke Maurice not long after the publication of the Emperours Decree departed But Marquess John of Brandenburg Brother to the Elector Joachim waited upon the Emperour and in presence of King Ferdinand humbly begg'd that he would spare him as to that Decree and having taken a little notice of the services he had rendered him told him that it was chiefly the confidence he had in the Emperours promise concerning the free exercise of his Religion that made him serve in the late Wars The Emperour made answer That the Decree was made with the consent of the States of the Empire and therefore not to be dispensed with He on the other hand cryed that all had not assented nor could he with a good Conscience approve that Decree and challenged the Emperours Word and Promise When the Emperour perceived there was nothing to be done with him he bad him be gone and it was thought he did so that by his Example or Discourse he might not confirm the minds of others Wherefore the same day towards the Evening he set out on his Journy homewards and made no alteration in all his Country His Brother the Elector who had made it always his study to please the Emperour shew'd no resistance Nor the Elector Palatine neither who otherwise was not much in favour at that time with the Emperour When the Decree was put to the Deputies of the Cities that were of the Augustane Confession they prayed that they might have leave to consult their Principals about the Matter that afterwards they might answer according to their minds which was granted them Wolfgang Duke of Deux-ponts of the House Palatine had his Deputies there but the Emperour commanded him to come before him in Person which being done he pressed him to approve the Decree He made Answer That he knew no other Religion but that wherein he had been born and bred to that very day wherefore he prayed his Majesty to have some Consideration for him promising to do therein whatever he could with a safe Conscience At that time the Emperour did indeed dismiss him but plied him sharply afterwards by Messengers and Letters as shall be said in its proper place Whil'st the Senate and Council of Ausburg are consulting the Emperour posts Soldiers
King Henry the Eight and that also somewhat increased the suspition But the envy and emulation of another great Lady was thought to have contributed much to this disaster The Bishop of Strasburg again enjoyns the Clergy to obey the Emperours Edict Now there is in that City a Church dedicated to St. Thomas the yearly Revenues whereof were by the Senate allotted for stipends to the Ministers of the Gospel and the other learned Men who had the Education and Instruction of the Youth Those chiefly he urged to tell him within what time they would satisfie the Emperours Decree and Expectation then what fit Men they had for that purpose and what Ornaments of the Church were yet in being But they took time to advise with Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England a Man of excellent Learning who made it his whole business to revive and promote Piety and Learning Wherefore when he saw in what state Germany was and the danger learned Men there were in by frequent Letters he solicited Bucer chiefly and Paulus Fagius one most expert in the Hebrew Language to come over into England assuring them of all love and friendship wherefore by permission from the Senate on the first of April they set out upon their Journey that they might go thither and sow the Seed of pure Doctrine Their coming was very acceptable not only to the King but to most of the Nobility also and the People And after they had been for some time with the Archbishop of Canterbury they were both sent to teach in Cambridge On the first of April Prince Philip of Austria with a most splendid Pomp made his entrance into Brussels where his Father was The Ambassadours of Duke Maurice and the Elector of Brandenburg were there being sent to solicite the intercession of Prince Philip and the Cardinal of Trent who was a great Friend to Duke Maurice But though they put the Landgrave who then was at Oudenard in good hopes yet nothing could be effected and not long after when the Landgrave for his healths sake would have eaten Flesh the Captain of the Guard coming in threw down the Dish Meat and all that was brought him upon the Ground At the same time the Bishop of Strasburg after eight years takes at length Orders and says Mass and holding a Convocation of his Clergy at Saverne made such Decrees as suited their purpose Then he requires of the Senate of Strasburg by Messengers that they rebuild the Altars restore to him the liberty of appointing the Ministers of the Church absolve the Clergy from their Oath restore their Priviledges and produce all the Ornaments of the Churches But the Professors he strictly charges to give him a positive answer whether they would obey the Emperours Edict or not They having spoken at large of their submission and deference to the Emperour and then of their several Charges and Employments openly declare what it is they teach and do that being Divines Philosophers Logicians and Rhetoricians and Men of the like Profession they were not only useful but also necessary in the Church and Schools then they shew by whom they were admitted into the College with the Approbation of the Senate and after a long Declaration of their Case they humbly and lovingly pray that he would not disturb an Order so well established nor put them upon minding of other Affairs that were not near so necessary The Agents on the other hand make answer that that College was not Instituted for such kind of Scholastick Employments and that the Antient Order ought not to be changed That if there were any among them that thought themselves grieved and could not with a good Conscience comply the Bishop was not the Man that would persuade them to any thing against their wills But that they were free to give place and as the common Proverb is Either to drink or be gone For that if the Senate had a mind to have Professors of Arts and Sciences in the Town it was but reasonable that they should be maintain'd out of the Publick Treasury and not by the Rents and Profits of the College which was appointed for other uses That the Bishop and the Predecessors had for many years past been hindred in the Exercise and execution of their Right but that he would not suffer it any longer After a long debate about the Matter they depart without coming to any conclusion and when the Senate came to know of it they interceded with the Bishop by most kind and friendly Letters praying and beseeching him that he would have some regard at least to the Youth who were much improved in Parts and Learning by the Endeavours and Education of that School In this manner was the Matter long tossed to and again by Messengers and Letters till at length by the interposition of Mediators it was taken up and compounded as shall be mentioned hereafter It was thought that the Bishop who had been always look'd upon as a Man of a mild and peaceable Nature that loved his ease did not act thus so much out of his own inclination as at the instigation of his Friends who represented to him that this occasion of recovering his Jurisdiction was not to be slighted and that unless he prosecuted it he might also incur the Emperour's displeasure In all these Transactions he made use of one Christopher Welsinger a Civilian who had sometimes studied at Wittemberg But the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Strasburg employed as their Advocate one John Tischell a Doctor of the Laws The last Book mentioned how that after the promulgation of the Decree about Religion Wolfgang Duke of Deux-ponts was sent for to come to Ausburg The Emperour had pressed him by several Letters to obey the Decree and because he had referred the matter to the Bishops the Emperour put the Question to him whether or not he himself approved the Decree And if he would turn out the Ministers of the Church who did not conform thereunto He therefore wrote to the Emperour in French resuming in a few words what had been done the Summer before at Ausburg and telling His Majesty That upon his return home he had intimated to his people and commanded them to observe that part of the Decree which related to the keeping of Holy days and the eating of Flesh that he had also several times carefully read over the whole Decree about Religion wherein he confessed there were many things that agreed with that Faith whereby he expected Salvation and many also that were inconsistent with it But that nevertheless he had charged the Ministers of the Church to weigh seriously all the Points of it and afterwards make their Report to him how they thought the matter might be ordered that since all of them with one voice affirmed that they could not with a safe Conscience approve it in all points he thought it not
they were not able to do what they were very willing to have done The Bodies of the Dead were not so used as they affirm But when for our defence we demolished some Churches near the Town what Bodies were found not as yet consumed were removed to another place and buried deeper in the ground Again all had leave to carry the dead Bodies of their Relations that were found there whithersoever they pleased What they say of the Emperour Otho is a most false and impudent lie of their own devising For we are not ignorant what Honour is due to the chief Magistrate of all but especially to him of whom they speak the Emperour Otho who did many great Actions and was a most valiant Asserter and Defender of the Liberty of Germany That Worship which they call Holy and Divine Service which they complain we disturbed in their Churches is nothing less than Holy but rather a reproach to God in the highest degree The Vestments Chalices and other Ornaments were long before carried out of the Town by them But the Writings and publick Records are in our keeping and are not cancelled as they falsly accuse us Nor were the Priests beaten but they themselves robbed the Churches and carried the prey elsewhere We assaulted the Monastery of Hamerslebe which nevertheless belongs not to them because it was a refuge to our Enemies where they divided the spoil that they took from us and our Associates What they add of the many insolencies and saucy tricks that our Men did there it is a mere Fiction of the Monks as to the injuries which they say were done them in the City the story is this About five and twenty years since when on Palm-Sunday they were performing their apish and ridiculous Ceremonies the Rabble ftocking thither laughed at them for it But they whose rashness and boldness proceeded so far as to break the Windows were by us severely punished and banished For other injuries we know none nor did they themselves ever complain to us of any Wherefore we have done nothing against our Engagements or Transactions and so have given our Adversaries no cause of War. These things then considered we beseech all men not to give credit to their Calumnies but that they would pity our case who are constrained to a defensive War that we may be permitted to preserve the pure Doctrine of the Gospel and the Liberty which we received from our Forefathers for which the godly Kings and Magistrates of former times and those Valiant Macchabees thought no danger too great to be undergone Peace is the thing we most wish for But it is deny'd us So that being long and much infested by the Incursions of our Neighbours we cannot but resist unjust violence And this makes us the more confident that such as have never been provoked by any injury from us will not concern themselves in this War but stand in awe of the great God the Avenger of all unrighteousness For the same cause that hath raised this trouble against us will within a short time involve themselves also in streights and difficulties if they are desirous to preserve and maintain the true Religion January the fifth the Emperour commanded the Popes Bull of Indiction of the Council to be read in the Dyet of the Princes and States and warned them to prepare against its sitting The same day King Ferdinand informed the States that in time of Truce the Turks began to stir in Hungary and to build a Castle within his Dominions as they had endeavoured to surprize his Castle of Zolnock and put a Garison into it That they had also made an inrode into Transylvania That for his part he had given no cause of any Quarrel and was wholly inclined to observe the Truce But that if the Turk refused to do so he moved that supplies might be given him We told you in the twentieth Book that Stephen Bishop of Winchester was made Prisoner in England Now seeing he persisted in his opinion and would not allow the Laws made or to be made concerning Religion during the Kings minority he was this year in the Month of January turned out of his Bishoprick and sent again to Prison Andrew Osiander who went as we said into Prussia broached at this time a new Opinion affirming That man is not justified by Faith but by the righteousness of Christ dwelling in us and he maintained that Luther was of his Judgment also But the rest of the Divines his Collegues vigorously opposed him declaring what he said of Luther to be false who not many Months before his death had given an ample and fair testimony of Philip Melanchtons Book concerning common places of Scripture in the Preface to the first Tome of it That in falling foul then upon Melanchton he made Luther also his Enemy because both were of one mind Then having compared places they plainly demonstrated that Luther taught quite contrary to him in this Matter and affirmed his Doctrine to be pestiferous since he asserted that the Righteousness of Faith did not consist in the Blood and Death of Christ And this Matter was declared to and fro with great heat He pretended as I said that Luther and he were of the same Judgment But in the mean time he boasted amongst his Friends as it is written that Luther and Melanchton had framed a certain Aristotelian Divinity that savoured more of the Flesh than Spirit At first Duke Albert desired that the Matter might have been taken up by Mediators But after much tampering being persuaded by Osiander he came over to his Opinion and commanded the Adversaries of it to depart his Country Amongst these was Joachim Merlin and he must pack off too though not only the Citizens but Women and Children also petitioned the Prince that he would not deprive them of such a Pastor Now Osiander had taught many years at Norimberg and with applause too started no Innovations then and seemed in all things to follow the Doctrine of Luther so long as he lived but when after the Emperours Edict about Religion came out he left Norimberg and went into Prussia he broached this Opinion which as most think he would hardly have done had Luther been still alive He challenged chiefly the Divines of Wittemberg to refute these things if they could and he declared he would defend them whoever should offer to impugne the same not sparing Melanchton whom he sharply pinched All Learned Men generally especially in Saxony condemned his Opinion in Books they published for that effect and censured him for disturbing the Church at a most unseasonable time but every body grumbled that he should so unworthily treat Melanchton a Man of so much Mildness and Learning In another Book he maintained that though Mankind had not been lost by the Sin of Adam yet Christ was to have been born in the World. February the Thirteenth the Dyet of the Empire was dissolved
to him that they who were Parties whether Plaintiff or Defendant should take to themselves the power of Judging Again That it was a Decree of the Diet at Ausburg that the Council should be continued and all things carried on in a right and pious manner that their Prince had always understood it so that what had been done in the Council in former years ought not to have the force of Laws but that all things should be reviewed again from the beginning for what Law or Justice would it be when two are at Law that one of the Parties absent upon a lawful ground should be obliged to ratify and approve the Sentence pronounced in his absence Besides since not only in the former Council but in this also there had been many Decrees made contrary to holy Scripture and many ancient Errors also confirmed as might be demonstrated the Prince demanded that they should be of no authority but all submitted again to a fair and lawful Tryal And all these Heads he gave in in Writing with the confession of Doctrine Having done so their Answer was That the Fathers would in due time tell them their thoughts as to the matter and so they were dismissed The same day towards the Evening the Ambassadours of Duke Maurice were sent for to have Audience in the same place When they were come they delivered their Masters Demands in the long Speech to the same purpose as they had lately done to the Emperours Ambassadours but that it was more pithy in the close where they boggled not to say That the Worship and Service commonly performed in Papist-Churches was not the true Religion but a painted shadow of Devotion Having done speaking they delivered in the same Speech in Writing to the Clerk I mentioned and they had an Answer in the same terms as those of Wirtemberg had before Amongst other things it vexed them exceedingly as was known afterwards that their Religion had been called by so base and contemptible a name The Ambassadours purposed to have delivered their Commission in a publick Session but to avoid that which they knew would have been done the Fathers gave them a private Audience for either they must have done so or have left all to a publick Debate They had brought with them indeed the Confession of Faith that was drawn up as I said by Melanchton but for what cause I cannot tell they produced it not The day following which was the Twenty fifth of January the publick Session was held and the Legate went to Church in the pomp we mentioned before There was a greater number of Soldiers then and a greater confluence of People from several places expecting great matters should be done that day After Mass and all the Ceremonies were over it was publickly read from the Pulpit That for the sake of the Protestants all matters were put off to the Nineteenth day of March by which day they were to be present to propound what they had to say that the Council did condescend to that out of kindness to them hopeing that they came not obstinately to oppugne the Catholick Faith but with a desire to learn the Truth and at length to submit and obey the Decrees and Discipline of the Church that a safe Conduct had also been granted them in a more ample manner that nothing at all might be wanting and then that the Sacrament of Matrimony was to be handled in the next Session Three days after when nothing appeared the Ambassadours of Duke Maurice dineing with Don Francisco de Toledo desired a sight of the safe Conduct that had been promised He gave them a civil answer but when three days more were past the Deputy of Strasburg at the desire of the rest went to Poictieres and complained that now in six days time they had received nothing that there had been delay long enough before because the safe Conduct was not full enough and that now again time was protracted but that the Divines would not come before their Masters were satisfied with the safe Conduct He made answer That it was not any fault of his and that he wondered why Don Francisco de Toledo who was chief of the Embassy deferred so much that he would presently go to him and made no doubt but that the matter would be dispatched the same day that he would send him word of what he learnt from him and so going out together he went to his Lodgings This was on the Thirtieth of January Some hours after all the Ambassadours are sent for to the Lodgings of Don Francisco de Toledo where Montfort also was present but Poictieres spoke and first makes an Apology for the delay that had been made enlarging much upon their own sincerity in the affair and the honourable Intentions of the Emperour their Master and then he urges them to hasten the coming of the Divines with all speed which they thought they must needs do having once received their safe Conduct At these words Don Francisco de Toledo arose and gave every one of them a Copy of the safe Conduct signed by the Clerks of the Council They withdrew to peruse it and found that the places which they had corrected before the Session were not altered wherefore they came back to them again and complain of that shewing them what it was they desired to have done in every Article of the same The Ambassadours of Duke Maurice also were willing to know of them what answer the Fathers made to their demands which those of Wirtemberg likewise desired Poictieres spoke again and as to the safe Conduct made answer That to demand liberty to be granted to their Divines to sit in Council and decide was done a little too early by them that if they were once present and engaged in business many things perhaps might be occasionally allowed them which now were refused that no Man was indeed against it but that the holy Scripture should be the Judge in all Controversies but that when any debate arose about the interpretation of Scripture who was more to be believed than a Council That Scripture was an inanimate and dumb thing as all other Political Laws also were but that the Judges Mouth must go along with it to make it to be understood and that that had been the custom ever since the Apostles days when any doubts arose That it was not indeed expresly granted to them that they should have the exercise of their Religion in their Houses but likewise that it was not forbidden that they had no reason to fear that any thing would be done in contempt or reproach of their Religion and Doctrine because severe Orders would be made to the contrary for that it was the Emperours will it should be so as the Fathers hated all sawcy and intemperate Language and that seeing they met for the sake of peace scurrilous and opprobrious Expressions would not be allowed in any manner They answer their demands much
parts of one and the same Empire under one Prince and governed by the same Laws but that when in the vicissitude of time the Empire devolved upon the Germans the Dukes of Saxony and other Emperors as deriving their Original from the Kings of the Francs entertained constant Friendship with the French insomuch that Philip the August King of France caused that ancient League which was almost worn out by time to be written of new in Golden Characters and to be laid up in a more Sacred place and not without just Cause neither for that so long as this Union lasted both People lived in a most flourishing State That the force of Germany was then so great that they gave Laws not only to the Hungarians Bohemians Polanders and Danes but to the Italians also and the Kings of France again who fought for the maintenance of Religion obtained many glorious Victories in Europe Asia and Africa over the Saracens and Turks the declared Enemies of Christendom But that the times proved more unlucky afterwards when some Emperors as being ingrafted upon the Stock but no natural Germans nor worthy of that Dignity forsook the amity of the Kings of France and brought great Calamities upon the Empire but that through God's Blessing this Wound was Healed by the Illustrious Family of Luxembourg which hath produced some Emperors Princes of great Merit and most intimate Friends of the Kings of France For the Father of Charles IV died fighting for the King of France that the Princes of the House of Austria have entertained the same Amity and Kindness and particularly Albert the first whom neither the Promises nor Threats of the Popes could move to make War against France that he mentioned these things with this Intent that they might be convinced how little some of the Counsellors and Courtiers of the most mighty Emperor Charles V. tendered the wellfare of the Empire whilst they make it their Business not only to divide and rend asunder those two most renowned Nations but also did by their Arts and Cunning so far prevail formerly that King Francis a most excellent Prince was by their Procurement judged an Enemy and no reason given why That they did those things for their own private Gain and Advantage indeed but to the great Prejudice of the Publick That this alone was enough to shew how difficult it would be for them so long as Friendship continued betwixt both Nations to infringe the Liberty of Germany and to erect their own Monarchy that the fear of the French Arms made them now proceed more remissly and not so much urge their Spanish Yoke of Bondage as formerly that these were the Men who by Prayers and Tribute obtained Peace from the Turk that they might under the Colour of Religion and Loyalty raise Feuds and Animosities in Germany that being aided by the Forces of Germany they might make War against Germany that they might squeeze Money from all and reduce the Empire to a sad and miserable Condition placing here and there Spanish Garrisons exhausting the Magazines and making way for Arbitrary Rule For that matters were now brought to this Pass that the great Seal of the Empire the Judicature of the Imperial Chamber and the right and liberty of Diets all depended on the Will and Pleasure of one Man the Bishop of Arrus For what instance could be shewn or reason given that free-born Germans who for a livelihood served Strangers in their Wars should be Punished Proscribed and have Princes set upon their Heads Not to mention so many Murthers lascivious Practices Devastations plunderings of Towns but especially the varying and altering of Religion according to occasion and the turn of Times That there was no doubt to be made but that whatever had been done of this nature for many Years past tended only to this that the Laws of the Empire being Confounded King Ferdinand either forced or wheedled by Promises and the Princes of the Empire over-awed the Prince of Spain might be designed Emperor Were not Death more eligible to brave Men than to live and see the Sun with so great Misery That no Man certainly could be imagined so Barbarous as not to be moved at these things That it ought not to be thought strange then that some Princes should at length arise and amongst others Duke Maurice Elector of Saxony who thought the danger of their Lives too little for recovering the liberty of their common Country But that finding themselves inferiour in Strength they had implored the Aid and Assistance of the King of France and that he setting aside all the Provocations received in former Years had not only imparted to them his Treasure but also employed himself wholly in the Affair having made a League with them wherein amongst other things it was provided that no Peace should be made with the Emperor without the Advice and Consent of the King Moreover that Duke Maurice though he lay under that Obligation yet that he might serve his Country and comply with the Desires of King Ferdinand had lately demanded of the most Christian King that he would let him know upon what terms he would be willing to make Peace That the Proposal had been made somewhat contrary to his Expectation indeed for considering what a great Favour he had done he thought that in matters concerning himself he ought to have Treated Personally and not at so great distance But that nevertheless since he preferred the publick far before his own private Interests he was not willing to deny any thing to a Confederate Prince That therefore if the Wounds of the State might be Healed as they ought to be and such Care taken that they might not for the future Fester again if the Captive Princes might be set at Liberty upon the Conditions prescribed by the League if the ancient Alliance betwixt France and the Empire and the League made lately with the Princes might be confirmed so as it should be perpetual if all these things might be procured the King was so well affected towards the Publick that he not only assented to the Treaty of Peace but would render hearty Thanks to God that by Counsel and Assistance he had contributed thereunto That as to private affairs since the Emperor detained many things by force and upon no just Cause had made War the King thought it reasonable that he who had first done the wrong should first also make the Satisfaction That for his part though he did not distrust his Strength yet he would so behave in all things that it should appear he was not only desirous of Peace but willing also to gratify Duke Maurice and them all To these things the Princes make answer that the Commemoration of the ancient Alliance betwixt Germany and France brought from the Records of former times had been very pleasant unto them nor was it less acceptable to understand that the King preferred the Publick before his own private Advantages and that he was willing
King yet this at his Trial was never or very little at most urged against him and in the Sentence or Judgment pronounced against him it was never mentioned We have said above how Peter Martyr the Florentine about six years since was sent for into England by the late King Edward and upon his Arrival made Professor of Divinity at Oxford He was much honoured and esteemed both for his signal Virtue and Learning but then there were others who did no less envy and hate him Upon the Death of the King he was commanded not to depart or carry away what he had without the leave of the Magistrates and severely threatned if he did any thing to the contrary he readily obeyed this Order at first but when he perceived Delays were made use of he wrote to the Council and acquainted them with the Condition he was in and desired that if any thing were laid to his Charge he and his Accusers might be heard face to face before the Council When by this means he had obtain'd their leave to be gone he went to London There he found the Archbishop of Canterbury his good Patron and Friend who by the Preachers was at the instigation of the Roman Catholick Bishops represented as one that was unsteady that the Mass was restored at Canterbury by his Order that he himself was to say Mass at the King's Funeral and that he had promised the Queen he would do so And at the same time there was a great noise of a Disputation that was soon after to be So soon as the Archbishop heard this he put out a Paper to vindicate himself wherein he confesseth That a certain Priest without his knowledge or consent had said Mass at Canterbury The other Report concerning the King's Funeral he denied adding that if the Queen would grant him her Leave he would prove that the Communion-Service and the Articles of Religion set out and established by King Edward concerning the Lord's Supper and several other things were consonant and agreeable to the Holy Scriptures but on the contrary the Papal Mass was contrary to the Institution of Christ To the proof of which Assertion he did not need the Aid and Assistance of many but only desired that Peter Martyr and a few others might be permitted to be his Companions and Seconds in this Affair And whereas they of the Church of Rome made great Boasts of the Antiquity of their Religion and pretended it had stood above Fifteen Hundred years he said they could never prove this but he undertook to shew that the Religion which was setled here under Edward the Sixth and which was yet the established Religion of England was the genuine and truly ancient Religion which was delivered to us by Christ and his Apostles This Manifesto being by him made publick at London about the Fifth Day of September Peter Martyr came about the same time from Oxford to him and being by the Archbishop acquainted with this Paper he commended it and said he would not decline any labour or danger that could befal him in the defence of it Whilst they were expecting a Disputation the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishop of London Worcester and some others were for their Religion and for some Sermons they were said to have Preached against the Queen by the Order of the Council before she was proclaimed Queen sent to the Tower the Fourteenth of September Hugh Latimer was also taken up whom King Edward had delivered out of Prison his Father having confined him on the account of his Doctrine In the mean time though Peter Martyr saw clearly the danger he was in yet having done nothing contrary to the Laws of England he relied upon his Innocence and would not depart without a Passport or publick Dismission When therefore he had obtained this Signed by the Queens own Hand he arrived first at Antwerp and from thence went to Cologne and so to Strasburg from which place he went when he was sent for into England and here he found Bernard Ochin who was come thither not long before him It was reported in Germany that the Emperor had advised Queen Mary his Cousin that she should govern her People with great Clemency and not change the Religion she found setled nor marry a Stranger he himself having learn'd by sad experience the great dangers which attended a Change in Religion Whether this were so or not I cannot affirm but the Event seems to prove the contrary for she having commanded all the Protestants which were Foreigners to depart the Kingdom and imprisoned many of the Natives quickly resetled the Roman Catholick Religion as I shall shew hereafter the first of October the Queen was Crowned and the Tenth of the same Month a Parliament began The Emperor had summoned a Diet to meet the Thirteenth of August as I have said in the beginning of this Book which was first Prorogued to the First of October and afterwards to the Month of January After the Battel in which Maurice of Saxony was slain Henry Duke of Brunswick and Albert Marquess of Brandenburg began each of them to recollect their scattered Forces and to levy more the Bishops and Norimbergers supplied Henry with Money for that purpose But then all men wondred from whence Albert had these Nerves of War And there was a Report that Mary the Emperor's Sister furnished him with Treasures which was again denied by the Imperialists and they pretended too to wonder that men should be so silly to think so But the Moneys coming in somewhat slowly to Henry and this being known to Albert he reduced him to great danger by solliciting his Souldiers to a defection who bore the delay of their Pay with great impatience but the Tenth day of September in the very moment of time when the Soldiery was in their Ferment and just entring into a Mutiny the Remedy came and all that Tempest was quieted And Henry for the better supporting his Interest made a Peace with Erick his Kinsman who had till then served under Albert against him The King of Denmark some time before this had sent Ambassadors into Saxony to promote the Interests of Augustus his Son-in-Law and they being assisted by the Ambassadors of the Elector of Brandenburg made a Reconciliation between Albert and Augustus The Conditions were That Augustus should not prosecute the War begun by his late Brother nor send Succors to the Enemies of Albert And Albert promised the same for his part and that if the necessity of the War enforced him to march his Forces near the Territories of Augustus he would do him no dammage Augustus was to take great care that none of his Souldiers when they were disbanded should enter the Service of Albert's Enemies and lastly That the ancient League between the Houses of Saxony and Brandenburg should be renewed assoon as could be The next Day which was the Twelfth of September Albert marched his
Emperor's Lieutenant was marching towards them with his Forces and that it would be very difficult to defend it they Plundered the Place and in good time marched away laden with the Spoils of it Not long after this an account was given from Venice and other places that Solyman Emperor of the Turks had caused Mustapha his eldest Son to be Strangled upon a suspition of Treason and Disloyalty towards him The report was very strong that a second Wife of Solyman's had put him upon this Murther in order to the advancement of her own Son which she desired might succeed his Father in the Empire I have already given an account of the Commitment of the Archbishop of Canterbury he and the Lady Jane with three Sons of the Duke of Northumberland were brought to Tryal in the Month of November for Rebellion and Treason and found Guilty But according to the custom of that Kingdom they were remanded to Prison and upon the Intercession of some on their behalf they were reprieved Sebastian Schertilingen whom I have often mentioned upon whose Head and Life the Emperor had set a Price as I have said in my twenty fourth Book was about this time reconciled to the Emperor and Ferdinand his Brother and recovered his Estate again At the Sollicitation of the Bishops and their Confederates the Judges of the Imperial Chamber in the usual form Proscribed Albert of Brandenburg the first of December as a disturber of the publick Peace and of the Empire and sending their Letters to all Parts to be publickly affixed exposed his Life and Fortunes to the will of any Man that would make a Prey of them In the Interim Henry Duke of Brunswick having left Count Plaw to carry on the Siege of Blasseburg he marched the sixth of December with his Forces to Schweinfurt which is a City of Franconia seated upon the Mayn which Albert then held with a strong Garrison The Forerunners of Henry's Army was a reinforcement of Soldiers sent from Norimberg and Forcheim But Albert foreseeing this Siege had before-hand carried into the City whatever Victuals could be found in the Neighbourhood and then had burnt down all Houses near it that he might make it impossible to carry on a Siege against it in that dead time of the Year So not being able to effect any thing and having also lost some of his Men in a Sally which Albert made out of the City this General was soon forced to retire and marching with a small Retinue he passed through the Territories of John Frederick Duke of Saxony without doing him any Dammage in his return Home When Albert heard that he was Proscribed he appealed to the Emperor and beseeched him to reverse the Sentence But the Emperor said he ought not to hinder the Execution or Administration of Justice Whereupon Albert refused to submit to their Judgment pretending it was obtained by Purchase and Bribery and soon after published a Protestation or Remonstrance against it The Chamber in the mean time commanded the neighbouring Provinces of the Empire to put this Decree in Execution The tenth of October a Parliament was begun in England which sate till the sixth of December and then was dissolved in which all the Laws of Edward the sixth concerning the Lord's Supper the Ceremonies of the Church and the Administration of the Sacraments the Marriage of the Clergy the Election of Bishops the Ordination of Ministers and the publick Liturgy and all other things of that Nature were repeal'd and all things pertaining to Religion were reduced to the same State they were left in when King Henry the eighth died That no disturbance should be given to those Priests and Ministers of the Church which should hereafter be Licensed the Divorce of Catherine the Mother of Queen Mary was declared Illegal There was also a Proposition of the Marriage of the Queen to Prince Philip the eldest Son of the Emperor made to the Lords of the upper House for the obtaining their Approbation There had before been a Fame spread that he was to Marry his Cousin-German the Daughter of Emmanuel King of Portugal and of Elenora his Queen This Marriage with Queen Mary of England being at last agreed after the rising of the Parliament which opposed it the Emperor sent for Cardinal Pool to him out of Germany where till then he he had detained him as I said before This Procedure caused a Report That Pool being descended of the Royal Family and much esteemed by the English Nation It was suspected he might have possibly put some stop to this Marriage There were also other Bishops ordained in the Sees of those whom I have mentioned to be Imprisoned about this time The Emperor also sent a very splendid Embassie into England for the Solemnization of the Marriage between Prince Philip who was absent and Queen Mary the principal Person in which was Count Egmondt They arriving in London in the beginning of January after a Treaty of some few days Continuance concluded this Affair The People were much enraged against this Match and some of the Nobility having Communicated their Counsels to each other broke out into a Rebellion the Principal Leader in which was one Sir Thomas Wiat he raising an Insurrection in Kent caused grievous and sharp Sermons to be Preached against the Queen and her Council as designing by this forreign Match to involve England in a perpetual and most wretched Slavery and also that she had extinguished the true Religion and restored the Roman-Catholick again Kent is one of the most Eastern Counties of England ennobled by the City of Canterbury and lying upon the Streights of Calais over against France The report of this Commotion coming to London the twenty fifth day of January there came soon after News that Henry Duke of Suffolk was raising Men in Devonshire whereupon the Queen levied what Forces she could get together and made Thomas Duke of Norfolk whom she had lately discharged out of the Tower her General who marching towards Rochester Bridge was deserted by his Soldiers who went over to Wiat so that he got back to London with great Difficulty For the appeasing these Tumults and avoiding of the Dangers that threatned them the Emperor's Ambassadors took Ship in the beginning of February and returned into Flanders The same day the Queen went into the City of London and in the Guild-Hall made a sharp Speech against Wiat saying she knew all his Projects and expressing the tender Love she bore to her People and saying she had done nothing in it without the Advice of her Council That she had now lived a considerable part of her Life in Virginity and that even now it was none of her Desires to Marry but would willingly have continued Single if the States had thought it convenient That she was very much afflicted to see her Kingdom endangered and filled with Slaughter and Bloodshed on the Account of her Marriage She desired
Emperor pursuant to the Love he bears to his and our Country has in the mean time employed for the extinguishing of all Offences and Disquiets and the establishing of Religion that was known to all and would be testified not only by all his other Actions but also in a more signal manner by the Edicts made in the two last Diets That whatsoever he then undertook or promised he had since exactly performed But then they all knew what pernicious Commotions both foreign and domestick contrary to the expectation of all men had since happened by which those salutary Edicts were not only hindered and disturbed from having that effect which might have been expected but they were also in a manner destroyed to the great detriment of the Empire so that it was needless for him to insist any further or longer upon them That the Emperor ought not in the mean time to be at all blamed because he had given no cause of Offence but had acted sincerely and with constancy had sought the Publick Good whatever the Slanders of his Enemies might insinuate to the contrary He said he did not doubt but that they themselves were of this Opinion and would become the Emperor's Advocates That the Emperor had assembled this Diet for the procuring a Remedy for all these Calamities and had designed to have been personally present in it himself but was in this prevented by Sickness and other Affairs and yet being unwilling it should be any longer delayed he had commanded the Diet to be forthwith opened that so this growing Mischief might be curb'd and he might not be wanting in any thing to his Countrey than which nothing is dearer to him That therefore he had appointed him his Brother his Lieutenant and had given him a full and unlimited Commission and had delegated and sent some others to joyn with him to the intent that they together with the States and Princes might enter upon the Consideration and Establishment of such Laws as should be good and useful to the Empire That Religion should be their first and principal Concern because this lasting Diffention in that Matter was the Head and Fountain of all their Disturbances and Calamities which had not only cost the Lives of so many Thousands but had also endangered the loss of more Souls and was a thing so apparent that it needed no further explication That it was a sad and lamentable Spectacle to see them who were partakers of the same Baptism and united in the same Name Empire and Language thus divided one against another in the Profession of that Faith which they had for so many Ages received by Tradition from their Ancestors But it was yet more to be lamented that not only one or two but that every day new Sects did arise whilst every man endeavours to defend his own private Opinion which is injurious to the Majesty of God a dissolution of the Bond of Charity and so far disturbs the Minds of the ignorant Multitude that they know not what to do or believe But that which is the most afflictive of all is That in this great variety of Errors most men are brought up in such manner by degrees that it is possible perhaps to find many not only amongst the prime Nobility but also in the lower Stations who not at all concerning themselves for any Religion believe none and therefore never trouble themselves with the Rules of Reason Honesty or Conscience This turns to the grievous Mischief of our Youth It is certainly a deplorable thing that Germany which has now for so many Ages possessed the deserved Praises of Virtue and Piety and has on that account flourished above other Nations should of a sudden so degenerate and sink that in time to come it will not bear a comparison with the most prophane Nations and even now it ought not in this to be preferr'd before the Turks and Barbarous Nations or thought any wise better than they Now the Reason why there has been no remedy found out for the stopping this Disease though there has been Conventions of the States for that purpose is because so very few have made it their business and that they who in the first place ought to have promoted the Cure of it have either connived at it or following the bent of the times have endeavoured to find their own private Interests in it Therefore the immortal God has now for a long time afflicted Germany in general and many of its States in particular with various Calamities insomuch that this Region which heretofore so abounded with Men Cities and Strength that it could easily repel any Force that was employed against it being now torn by Contentions and harrassed by Civil Broyls and Foreign Wars is reduced to the utmost degree of Weakness and hastes to a Dissolution if God doth not wonderfully save and preserve it That therefore it was absolutely necessary That every Magistrate should in his place take the utmost care of Religion and do his Duty in that part in which the Glory of God and the Honesty of Humane Life were so much concerned That there had been various Methods proposed in former Diets for the composing this Difference in Religion but the holding a general free and holy Council has been thought not only by the Emperor but by you also from the first the most effectual way because it being a Controversie concerning the Faith it belongs not to one single Nation but to all the Christian World and therefore all Nations were to be assembled that whatsoever is any where faulty may be reformed and taken away That therefore the Emperor as became his Station and at their Request had at last obtained the Calling of such a Council which accordingly had not only been indicted but also several times begun but then what had intervened for the hindring it and the obstructing its good Effects he would at present leave unspoken nor did he doubt but that the greatest part of them who were present in that Council in Person or by their Ambassadors knew very well the Reason why the Commonwealth had as yet reap'd no Benefit from that Council And if it was their desire still that the way of a Council should be pursued and have its place in their Considerations which seem'd to be a thing they ought most earnestly to ask by their Prayers of God That then he would not only willingly consent but with all possible Study Fidelity and Diligence procure the same That in this case they were to consider how those things which had hitherto hindred the good effects which were expected from the Council might now be removed But if by reason of the Wars and that Tempest which then lay heavy upon the Common-wealth it seemed good to them to defer it to a more quiet time then he was pleased that they should treat of some other pious and tolerable ways That in the mean time the People and States of Germany might live in Peace
the Word of God diligently or cause it to be Preached by fit men and that for the future no man be admitted into these Functions but such as can teach the People themselves and not turn them over to be taught by Curates This is the Root which Your Majesty ought to cultivate This is the Foundation on which the Church must be built and then we may hope that in a short time Heresies will vanish but if this way is neglected there is great reason to fear they will encrease whatsoever other Remedies or Edicts are provided against them The 16th Day of October this Answer was made by the Deputies of the Parliament of Paris and in a Letter About the same time the Mediators in the Difference concerning the County of Catzenellobogen met again according to their former Agreement first at Bacheren and after at Worms on the Account of the Sickness of the Elector Palatine At last this Controversie was determined by a Sum of Money to be paid by the Landâ—grave to the Count of Nassaw the Territories in the mean time being to remain in the possession of the Landtgrave But then when the Count of Nassaw insisted That this Agreement should be void if the Money were not paid within the time limited and appointed and that in this case his Claim should be as it was before but the Landtgrave who had sent his Son the second time refused to submit to this the Meeting broke up without any effect In the same Month the Emperor call'd all the Nobility and States of the Low Countries to him to Brussels and having amongst other things spoken of his want of Health he said he would retire into Spain and therefore laid down the Government and conferr'd upon his Son Philip all the Right and Power of those Countries exhorting them to perform their Duties to him The Fame of this flew over all Christendom and a Fleet was forthwith prepared for his Passage and the 13th of November was appointed for his setting Sail but then this Rumor cool'd by degrees and it was said because the Winter was coming on the Voyage was delayed till the Summer It is now time to shew what was done in the Diet which was now Sitting at Ausburg Ferdinand King of the Romans had in a Speech made the 5th of February as I have said in the End of the last Book proposed what was to be transacted in this Convention But the Deputies and States coming slowly in there was no beginning made till the 9th of March and then the Deputies of the Electoral Princes began to consult what was first to be done And although there were at first some Dissenters yet at last they all agreed to begin with the Business of Religion and this Resolution was approved by all the other Princes and the Imperial Cities After a long Debate it was Agreed That a Peace of Religion should be granted but then the great Controversy was because those who had Imbraced the Augustan Confession insisted to have this Peace Communicated indifferently to all that they might all alike follow their several Doctrines and yet enjoy the benefit of this Peace But this was vigorously opposed by the Enemies of the Reformation who would not suffer any of the free Cities which had received the Decree made at Ausburg concerning Religion about seven Years since and commonly called the Interim nor any of the Ecclesiasticks in any Case whatsoever to be comprehended in this Peace but they stood stifly to this That if any Bishop or Abbot changed his Religion he should be removed and another put in his Place This Point was sharply debated the Protestants saying that the Promises of God both in the Old and New Testament which concern our Salvation belonged equally to all Mankind and therefore it was not lawful for them to restrain them within any limits or to streighten them for fear they thereby might exclude both themselves and others out of the Kingdom of Heaven That there was no Turk or Jew that was well affected to his Religion but desired all Men should imbrace it and therefore it was much more reasonable that we should labour to do it who are Commanded by God so to do upon the severest Threatnings And therefore in this matter all were to be left at Liberty They said also that they were able from the sacred Scriptures and the Decrees and Canons of the Fathers and Councils to prove That those who to the great dishonour of God assumed the Title of the Ancient and Catholick Religion had done very ill things in the matters pertaining to Religion and abused the Revenues of the Church Yet for Peace sake they were contented to suffer them to enjoy their Laws Rites and Ceremonies together with their Goods Possessions Tolls Rights and Priviledges till this difference in Religion could be Composed and therefore that they could not consent that they on the contrary should impose such Conditions on the Bishops because the consequence of it would be that they must hereafter be obliged to oppress the approvers and friends of their own Religion and by consequence they must defame their own Cause For this would be say they to confess that our Doctrine and Religion is such as it doth not deserve the Church Revenues and therefore those which have already been given to the Ministers of our Churches are ill bestowed and we shall hereby seem to confess that their Doctrine which is Impious and their Ministry are founded upon the Scriptures and that the Church Revenues are consecrated to their impure Lives Laws and Ceremonies Now who can tell how great the offence this may give will be if we should seem to defend the Cause and Power of those Men who afford the Church no useful or necessary Service And if on the other side we should betray and desert those whom we ought to esteem above all others because they profess the Religion we do Those of the Roman-Catholick Religion alledged on the other side amongst many other things that if Liberty were granted to the Ecclesiasticks to change their Religion their Bishopricks and Colleges would be prophan'd and by degrees be torn from the Church and fall into the hands of the Princes and by them be made Temporal Inheritances but the Protestants said this was no part of their Intention but that all that they desired was that being reduced to their first Institution they might be applied to their true uses and for ever continue annexed to the Church and that there might be no place left for this Scruple They were contented that in those Bishopricks and Colleges in which the Religion should happen to be changed nothing of the Revenues should be alienated and that after the Death or Resignation of the Bishop or Abbot both the Election of the Successor and the Administration of the Revenues should be left free to the Colleges or Chapters When therefore after a tedious debate they could not
agree amongst themselves both Parties gave their Reasons in writing to King Ferdinand and desired him to find out some way They were got but thus far the thirteenth of June because the Proceedings were very slow and most Men thought that the reason was because they would first see the Event of the Treaty between the Emperor and the King of France because this would afford both Parties some considerable Advantage The Roman-Catholicks at the same time put in a third and extraordinary Paper Penn'd with great Passion and Bitterness that they might recommend their Cause so much the more to the King. In the first place say they those who follow the Augustan Confession have proposed five Conditions First That the Catholicks should approve that Doctrine which many Ages since and again in our times upon its first appearance has ever been Condemned by the ordinary Magistrate Secondly That all the Sacriledges they have perpetrated within these thirty Years should be confirmed and approved and that neither Law nor any other of the Pious and Natural ways should be left open for the Church to recover her Revenues And in the interim they would have a Peace made with them when all Communion with them is forbidden Thirdly They would be permitted to institute their wicked Ministers in the Churches and Chapters of the Archbishopricks and Bishopricks and to Preach in these Churches their leud and condemned Doctrines and abolishing the true Ministry and Ceremonies of the Church they would set up in their stead new and wicked Ceremonies and maintain those false Preachers with the Revenues of the Church contrary to the ancient Laws and Customs of the Church Fourthly They would have it lawful that all those Ecclesiasticks and Lay-Princes who do yet adhere to the Roman-Catholick Religion may freely desert their true Religion and pass over to their Camp. Lastly They desire that when any Bishop or Prince makes a defection to their Party that this should not affect his Person only but that it should extend it self to the People which are subject to him and also to the Church Revenues and whole sacred Administration and Jurisdiction which belonged to him Now say they though these things are contrary to all Laws both humane and divine and to the Oaths taken by the Emperor the King a nd the Bishops so that Catholicks cannot well receive them without violating their Faith and Oath yet because they stuck stifly to these Proposals and threatned to make use of Force the Catholicks at last yielded in the Treaty of Passaw as far as they could and have since in the Diet explained themselves by shewing that they cannot-grant a Promiscuous Liberty to all that will to change their Religion For then say they the Empire would be dissolved and that high Honour would be taken from the German Nation For it is the Duty of the Archbishops and Bishops not only not to suffer any condemned Religion but peaceably to disswade and affright all Bishops and Churchmen and all Lay-men too who are inclined to make defection or if they will go on in the Error then they are to represent them to the Roman-Catholick Church for this Custom has ever been observed from the times of the Apostles as may be proved by many Testimonies out of the Councils especially from the ☞ Council of Chalcedon Nor is it fit that any Man should think that those who make defection are to be left to their own Consciences because in things pertaining to the Faith no Man's Conscience should be free But whenever any Man departs from the common Consent of the Church be ought to be punished and restrained That if he will not obey that Church he is to be Excommunicated by the example of the four Principal Councils which condemned Arius Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches and that of Chalcedon condemned Dioscorides and removed him from his See for defending Eutyches For whereas they pretend that every Man was to be left to the freedom of his own Judgment that neither Christ nor his Apostles compelled any to Believe and which is yet more that when many deserted no Man was retained against his Will. All these Pretences are without Foundation and are abundantly refuted by St. Augustine in his two Hundredth and fourth Epistle But if now the Bishops should be suffered to desert the Catholick Religion and make defection to another they will certainly never leave their Bishopricks because they will say they cannot do it with a quiet Conscience but on the other side they will implore the assistance of the Protestants for the Preservation of their States and People in that Religion And if this be done there is no doubt but they will undertake the Protection of them and pretend it is their Duty so to do for the security of their Administration and the maintaining them in the possession of their Lands and Goods But then whereas they pretend that they ought to admit others into the Society of their Religion and not to exclude any Man out of the Kingdom of Heaven this does not excuse them because there is but one Faith which all Christians ought to profess and preserve And this Faith hath heretofore been approved and confirmed by the oaths of our Emperors Kings Princes Governours and the People of this Empire This is that Catholick Faith which we Germans have from the beginning followed to this time those only excepted who have revolted from it Therefore nothing is to be innovated but every thing ought to be referred to this Faith and Men ought to submit their Souls to the obedience of the Catholick Church and he that does otherwise and assumes unto himself a peculiar Religion if he does not submit to the Admonition of his Superiour is to be Excommunicated and removed from the exercise of his Function and his Goods are to be saized by the Civil Magistrate and his Person is not to be endured in the Empire For the Fathers have ever rejected the Liberty of Conscience and Toleration of Religion as a dissipation of the Faith and have made it a fixed Law of the Church that those Articles of Faith which are once defined by a Council shall neither be disputed nor called in doubt so as to establish any thing to the contrary For History informs us what disturbances followed the general toleration of all Sects granted by Valentinian the Emperor and if it be once granted that he who differs from the Catholick Religion shall be excused by his Conscience than are the Anabaptists Zuinglians and Schwinkfeldians to be excused also on the same account and to be comprehended in this Peace They say that the Promises of God pertaining to Eternal Life belong to all Men and that they ought not to restrain them as if these Promises belonged to none but those of their Profession but in truth the thing is quite otherwise for seeing they have forsaken the Communion of the Church they are excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven even
for that the present state of his own Provinces required his Presence because the Turks seemed to be preparing for some new Enterprises against them and threatned high though he was then in Treaty with them and because nothing could to any good purpose be debated and determined if the Electors were not present in Person he thought it was the best way to prorogue the Diet to another time and that in this Convention a Decree should be made to this Purpose Because by reason of the absence of the Princes no Decree can now be made We are pleased to deferr all the further Transactions to another Convention of the States which shall be holden at Ratisbon about the beginning of March in the next Year and then the Princes shall be present in Person that they together with the Emperor or King of the Romans may determine and fix those things which have been now debated or which shall then come under Deliberation And that in the mean time the Pacification of Passaw shall remain in its full force and whereas that contains a Resolution first That in a Diet of the Empire of Germany should be considered whether the differences of Religion might be ended by a general National Council or by a Conference and lastly That this question should be determined by the common advice of all the States and by the ordinary Authority of the Emperor Therefore he who loved Peace and Agreement was resolved to exhibit in the next Convention a Writing concerning the way of determining those things which were now in Controversie That there should be nothing of Fraud in it and that what was offered should only aim at the appeasing the present Offences and the mitigating their mutual Exasperations and give them means of considering with the greater certainty whether the way he should then propose could put an end to the differences or whether it would be necessary to seek out another Therefore he desired they would approve this Prorogation and that they would in Person attend at the next Diet as he had given them an Example who for the sake of the Commonwealth had in this been so many Months absent from his own Provinces That he had chosen Ratisbon because by reason of the impending Dangers which he feared from the Turks he could not conveniently go further than that City from his own Bounds That therefore they should assure him what their Intentions were that he might be certain the thing should not be any longer delayed that so the better part of that time too might not be spent in a vain Expectation as has often happened already These Demands being made the greatest part of the Princes were of Opinion that they should not part till the Peace were confirmed for that all Germany was in great Expectation this would now be done and that seeing they were now nearer an Agreement than at any time before therefore they desired to see this dispatched before his Departure that so in the next Diet they might proceed to the business of the Turks and the other affairs of the Empire with the greater Expedition As to what concern'd the Book he mentioned some of them said what happened about seven years since to a former Book written and published concerning Religion would certainly be the Fate of this For that they could well remember the Reproaches it met with and whereas it was proposed and by a Law established by the Emperor only for Peace sake it became the occasion of very great Offences and Contentions when Ferdinand about the Twenty fifth of August had received this Answer from the Deputies the thirty first of the same Month he gave in an Answer to the Papers delivered him by both the Parties in which he shews what was his own Opinion and especially as to what concerned the Bishops that is that if any of them changed his Religion he should immediately be removed from the Administration of his Bishoprick and be deprived of the Revenues belonging to it and he very largely exhorted the Protestants to yield their Consent to this For said he this Condition takes nothing from you but only takes Care that if any Bishop deserts his Order and falls from the ancient Religion the Benefices or Diocesses shall nevertheless continue in the same state they were at first Instituted which in it self is agreeable to the Law the Statutes of the Empire and the Pacification of Passaw which last in express terms saith That all those who follow the ancient Religion shall not be disturbed whether they be Laymen or Ecclesiasticks in their Religion Ceremonies Goods Possessions Rights or Privileges but they shall quietly use and enjoy all these without the interruption of any Person whatsoever That I do not see saith he why this condition should be refused which tends directly to the same end that is that they may quietly enjoy what is their own which it is certain they cannot do if they part with this Security for then it will follow that those who have deserted the ancient Religion and yet will retain the Administration and the Possession of the Revenues will thereby hinder the Colleges or Chapters from dealing with them according to their Laws and another inconvenience will follow upon it which is that there will be no great affection between their Bishop and them Seeing therefore it is fit that according to the Laws of their Institution fit Persons should govern and administer the Diocesses and that if they act contrary to the Laws and make a â—efection from their Order that then their Colleges should remove them from their Places and take Care that this Defection may hurt only one Man therefore surely this Demand ought not to be denied And therefore I do with great earnestness exhort you that you would not persist any longer in this Refusal For amongst other things you are to consider they do not prescribe to you after what manner and form you shall act in those Bishopricks Colleges Chapters or Benefices which are all ready in your Possession nor how you shall treat the Ministers of your Church who shall violate your Laws and neglect their Duties For as it would be very troublesome and grievous to you if they should desire that such of your Ministers who have deserted your Religion and do make it their Business to oppose it should yet be retained by you So it must be much more grievous to them if theirs must still retain the Administration of their Diocesses and the possession of their Revenues who have cast off their Religion and oppose it for what can be expected from hence but Suits Offences and Contentiens So that the very Foundations of the thing we are seeking in this Treaty Peace shall be hereby rained and entirely destroyed The eighth day after the Protestants replied that it was not their intention to prescribe a Rule to the Ecclesiasticks and much less that the Revenues of the Bishopricks should be dissipated or that the
nature of them being changed they should be turned into Civil or Lay-Fees It is apparent to us that a part of the Empire depends upon and is founded in these Sees which we do not in the least desire should be diminished or imbezelled but by all means we would have them preserved It would have been to our great satisfaction if this question had never been moved but that we might have pursued the decrees of the former years made at Norimburg Ratisbonne and Spire which include all them that imbrace the Augustan Confession And at first the Legates of the three Electoral Archbishops did also wisely consider this but when some others had started and exagitated this Doubt then they joyned with them They who first moved this question had perhaps some reason for it but what has since followed is apparent For if this Rub had not been cast in our way we had long e're this been at our desired End and all things in our Opinions had been determined but then there are many grave and pious Reasons why we should not admit that Condition For any Man may see what a contempt and detriment it will be to our Religion if we suffer those that imbrace it to be put out of their Places deprived of all Dignity and to be treated as Hereticks we will now in silence pass over the first Institution of Colleges or Chapters and the Corruptions which by degrees crept into them But nevertheless we are of Opinion that very much of that Institution is no way repugnant to our Religion And for us to consent that no Bishop that imbrace our Religion which we profess as true and Christian should continue in his Station is a great Wickedness because by this act we should condemn it as impious and unworthy of the order of Priesthood whose duty it is to promote and exercise it Wherefore great Sir we humbly beseech your Majesty to consider this seriously and according to the Power given you by the Emperor to cause this Clause to be struck out and omitted But he answered that no more could be granted and that they had obtained what they could never gain before in the many years they had endeavoured for it That they should have some Consideration for him for otherwise the Diet should be ended and nothing done which if it happened and any Inconvenience ensued there was no reason the Blame should fall either upon the Emperor or him who had so sweetly and patiently Treated of this Affair and attended upon it thus long but could now stay no longer Therefore he would give them ten days more that in that time they might send home to their Princes that so he might have a positive Answer When that day came they having shewn their utmost Diligence that in all other things the good of Religion might be promoted and considering that it belonged to the Emperor and King and not to them to limit this Article the King also on his side remitting some things as shall be said hereafter they upon these Considerations gave their Consent So the twenty fifth of September the Decree was publickly read according to the Custom which is as followeth Neither the Emperor nor Ferdinand King of the Romansâ— nor any of the other Princes or States in the Empire shall in any manner whatsoever hurt or injure any Man for the Confession of the Augustan Doctrine Religion and Faith nor shall they by Command or by any other way whatsoever force any Man to forsake his Religion Ceremonies or Laws which he has already instituted within his Dominions or which those of the Augustan Confession shall hereafter Institute nor shall the said Emperor King or Princes contemn the same but shall suffer them freely to profess this Religion and also quietly to enjoy their Goods Estates Tolls Possessions and Rights and this Controversy in Religion shall not be attempted to be Composed by any other than by Pious Friendly and quiet ways Those of the Augustan Confession shall behave themselves in the same manner towards the Emperor King Ferdinand and all the other Princes and States which joyn in the ancient Religion as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and towards all others of the Clergy and their Colleges whither soever they shall travel to dwell provided they exercise their Ministries in manner and form following All which shall be suffered freely to enjoy their Religion Ceremonies Laws Possessions Tolls and all other their Rights and shall not in any way be hindred in the peaceable enjoyment of the same and if any Difference or Suit shall arise it shall every where be tried and determined by the Laws and Customs of the Empire and those that embrace neither of these Religions shall not be included in this Peace If any Archbishop Bishop or Prelate or other Clergy-Man shall make a defection from the ancient Religion he shall presently relinquish his Bishoprick Diocess or Benefice and shall lose all those Fruits he should otherwise have received from the same which yet shall not in any wise tend to the Infamy of the said Person And it shall thenceforth be lawful and free for the Chapter or those to whom the Eâ—ection shall belong by Law or Custom to elect and constitute another in his Place who is of the ancient Religion whereby the right of Institution Election Presentation and Confirmation together with the peaceable Possession of all the Goods thereunto belonging may be fully preserved to them Yet nothing shall hereby be taken to derogate from the intended Reconciliation above-mentioned And because some Princes of the Empire and other States or their Ancestors have assumed some Ecclesiastical Revenues Districts Chapters or Colleges of Monks and other such Church Revenues and have assigned them to the use of their Ministers to Schools and to other good uses they shall not on this account be troubled nor brought in question but such Goods which do not belong to any of the other States of the Empire or to other Persons who are Subject to the Empire the Possession of which was not at the time of the Treaty of Passaw nor since in the possession of Ecclesiastick Person shall from henceforth continue as they now are and be comprehended in this Peace and it shall not be Lawful for the Judges of the Imperial Chamber upon the account of these things thus taken and alienated to hear or determine any thing against the said Princes and States The Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall not be exercised or take place against those of the Augustan Confession their Religion Faith Rights Laws and Ecclesiastical Ministry But shall be suspended and stopped and shall not give them the least disturbance till the difference in Religion be entirely taken away But in all other things which do not concern the said Religion Ceremonies Laws and Ministry it shall be of the same force and be exercised according to the ancient Laws and Customs And all the Revenues Tolls and Rights belonging to the Clergy shall
we Petitioned your Majesty that we might not be forced to act against our Consciences but then your Majesty referred this Cause to the Diet at Ratisbone But you may be pleased in the mean time to consider how grievous it is to those who do most ardently desire the Salvation of their Souls to be turned off to an uncertain time When in the interim the Mind is in Anguish and in this anxiety and doubt many Thousands must end their Days Certainly the Word of God which was reveal'd to us by Jesus Christ our Saviour ought to be the only Rule which the Church should follow and if any thing has crept into the Church contrary to that Word how ancient soever it may seem to be it is to be rejected For God will be Adored and Worshipped in the manner he has Prescribed and Commanded and not as Men shall think and feign God has always inflicted horrible and fearful Punishments on those who have neglected his Commandments and in the stead of them have introduced the observation of humane Inventions as may be shewn from the Calamities of the more ancient Kingdoms and those which are nearer and have happened in our own Countries seem to speak the same thing Therefore after the most diligent Search we can find no other Remedy than the casting away those manifest Errors and Corruptions which have been brought into the Church and the receiving and free Profession of pure Doctrine attended with such an administration of the Sacraments as Christ himself has instituted and appointed For it is utterly unlawful for us to depart and turn aside from so plain and clear a Command of God as we have often already shewen For we are first to seek the Kingdom of God which being done he will be present by his Spirit with us and govern our Actions and Counsels That therefore he may deliver us from these so great dangers and be the Counsellor and Leader of us in this War stand for us in the Battel and protect us from our Enemies Rage We beseech your Majesty by the Death of Christ by the Salvation of our Souls and by that judgment which shall pass upon all Men because this thing tends to the perpetual Felicity of your Majesty your Children and Countries That it may be lawful for us who are not corrupted by any Sect with your good Leave to live in the true and pure Religion and to enjoy the benefit of that Peace which you lately made in the Diet with those who profess the Augustan Faith. For seeing we are all Baptized alike in Christ we desire our Condition may not be worse than theirs and that you would not deny us what you have granted to some other of your Provinces and that you would recal those Edicts you have put out concerning Religion and deliver us from the Fears which now afflict us and we desire you would by a new Edict secure the Peace of those Ministers who teach according to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and distribute the Sacraments in form abovesaid and that our Schoolmasters may not be Banished or Imprisoned till they have defended themselves before a Lawful Judge And if your Majesty please to do this as we verily believe you will in this extream danger then we do not at all fear but that God will abundantly recompence the same and the States of the Empire will grant greater Supplies than they have at any time heretofore and we for our Parts will not be wanting in our Duty but will chearfully give whatever shall be requisite for the defence and safety of our Country and will to the utmost of our Abilities omply with all your Demands About this time the Ambassadors of the Emperor and the King of France met again and not being able to conclude a Peace between their Princes the fifth of February they agreed on a Truce for five Years by Sea and Land as well in Italy and the Low-Countries as in all other Places That both of them should in the interim possess those Places which he had gained during the War That the Fugitives of Naples and Sicily should be excluded out of this Truce and that the Pope should in the first place be comprehended in it and after him all the Kindred and Servants of both the Princes as the manner is This Truce was soon after Proclaimed by the King of France in his Kingdom and at Metz and some time after it was Proclaimed by the Emperor in his Provinces There was soon after a Report that the Pope was displeased with this Truce and that he endeavoured to perswade the King of France to break it On the other side some said the Pope was the great Promoter of it because he was then contriving a War against the Lutherans In this Truce nothing could be brought to an Agreement which concerned the Captives The Principal of which were the Duke of Arescoâ— a Low-Country Nobleman and the eldest Son of Montmorency Constable of of France who was taken about three Years since in Terovanne The States of the Lower Austria addressed to the King as I have shewn above the thirty first of January that Prince the eighth day after having in the Preface deplored the Calamities and Disorders of the Times and the Wrath of God he assured them of the great Inclinations of his Soul to serve the Commonwealth but then said he whilst I consider diligently my Condition and Place and that I have from my Infancy followed the Precepts of the Christian and Catholick Church as my Ancestors have ever done from whom this Religion and Discipline have been handed down to me In truth I find that I cannot lawfully grant what you ask Not because I would not gratifie my People but because I see it is not lawful for me to prejudice the Christian Church and to change her Laws and salutary Decrees at my Will and Pleasure seeing as Christ saith I am rather bound to hear her Yet nevertheless because I have many years since observed what grievous Calamities have been occasioned by this dismal division in Religion I have been labouring with my Brother the Emperor that theremight be a Composure of them and the thing has been attempted in many Diets and in some Conferences and by our means there has been once or twice a Council begun at Trent but then that the acts of it have produced no Fruit ought not be charged upon us and it is not so obscurely carried but it is known by what Councils and Arts the same has been hindered And now whereas you desire the benefit of the pure Religion and of the peace of Religion lately made may be granted to you Truly as I never yet forced any Man from the true Religion so for time to come I shall not in the least do it nor are ye less comprehended in that Peace of Religion than the Subjects of any other German Prince The plain meaning of the Decree of the said Diet being
that the People should follow the Religion of their Prince and it grants all Princes but the Ecclesiasticks a Liberty to chuse which of the two Religions they will embrace because the People ought to be content with the choice of the Prince but so that those who are not pleased with the Religion which the Prince hath chosen have a liberty to sell their Estates and to remove whither they please without any detriment to their Reputations It is therefore your Duty to continue in the old Catholick Religion which I profess And I have never hindred the Gospel from being Preached purely according to the Interpretation which the Church has received from the Holy Apostles Martyrs and Fathers And as to the Lord's Supper though it was instituted in both Species yet in the ancient Church it was distributed under one as may be shewn at large It was not therefore first changed in the times of the Council of Constance but that Custom was much more ancient than that Council and thence you may easily infer that it is not lawful for me to change and abolish by my own private Authority or Law what has been received and approved by the Canons of a Council especially now when a Peace has been so lately made in the business of Religion and when in the next Diet it is designed to Treat of an Union in which I am resolved to extend all my Powers for the taking totally away of this Difference but if this cannot be done then I will enter upon such Courses as may secure both your Fortunes and Salvations And in the mean time that you may see how much I am inclined to help and favour you I will put a stop to that part of my Edict which relates to the Lord's Supper but upon condition notwithstanding that renouncing all Sects you shall change nothing in the Laws and Ceremonies of the Church and that you shall expect the Decree of the next Diet. The Ministers of the Church and the School-masters so long as they follow this form shall not be molested nor have I suffered any Man to be injured without Law so that being thus disposed towards you I hope you will desire nothing more and because the publick necessity is now very urgent it befits you to consult together and to grant what is needful To this they answered the twelfth day of February That in the greatest of all Cases which pertained to their Salvation and to that of their Children that they should be so far denied was a very grievous affliction to them That which your Majesty affirms concerning the present Custom of distributing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper having been received by the ancient Church may be largely refuted by the sacred Scriptures and also thereby their Error may be shewn who perswade themselves it was so And whereas you say the meaning of the Decree made at Ausburg was that the People should accommodate themselves to the Religion of their Prince Certainly then seeing many Years before this Decree was made by the common Consent of the Diet we have at all times supplicated to you for the freedom of our Religion if this Answer must stand we shall be allowed also to sell our Estates and with our Wives and Children to go and live elsewhere But then who is there who does not see the mischief of this and how sad and mournful the Report of this must necessarily be to your People When they shall be told that they who after the manner of their Ancestors have been accustomed to spend their Blood and Lives for the Honour and Safety of the House of Austria must now desert their Beloved Country which has for so many Ages been inhabited and cultivated by their Ancestors And therefore this Answer as to this Part of it is not received nor allowed by us but as often before so we now again beseech your Majesty by all that is Sacred to grant us that incomparable Treasure the Word of God and that you would not in this put any obstacle in our way But if this were a thing of that Nature that you only were to answer to God for it certainly as in all other things so in this we would have obeyed you But seeing every Man must give an account for his own Action and that there is no respect of Persons with God and seeing every moment may be the last of our Lives and that there is nothing more uncertain than our Lives we cannot but with the utmost Study and Industry desire and pray that we may be secured by the Grant of this Petition The fourth day after the King answered that he did not think there was any reasonable Cause why they should not be satisfied with his former Answer For that said he I have allowed that you should be taught as the Apostles have delivered and as the Martyrs and Fathers received by the Church have interpreted the Scriptures What do you require more in this Particular For seeing God has promised his Holy Spirit to his Church Salvation is not to be sought any where else You say that you are not corrupted by any Sect of which there are many as Anabaptists Sacramentarians Zuinglians Schwenckfeldians and the like this indeed is true but if a promiscuous Doctrine is once allowed which is not restrained within those Bounds I have prescribed how long do you think this Purity will last When every Man will boast he has the Word of God for him and that it is not subject to any Creature nor any Being but God and none of them will submit to any Censure as we see comes to pass in many Places where every thing is filled with disorder whilst every Man defends his Opinion with Obstinacy despising absolutely the Authority of the Church And because you recite the last decree of the Diet in your former Address a little otherwise than it is therefore I have explained how it is to be understood not that I would have you leave my Country and that I might abate your Sollicitude I have suppressed that part of my Edict which concerns the Lord's Supper promising my best Endeavours that there may be a Reconciliation I have shewn my reasons why I cannot make a defection from the Laws and Ceremonies of the Church For that Christ has commanded us to hear the Church and Experience teacheth us that the former Age which did not innovate but continued in the Religion of their Ancestors were more quiet and happy in all things than this is wherein all Places are disturbed by Sects and Dissentions and the greatest part of Mankind are tossed and driven hither and thither with every wind of Doctrine And even for this Cause I thought you would not have answered in this manner And now though it were very easy to make a large Reply to your last Paper yet because it is necessary at present to enter into the consideration of the Contributions and Subsidies and to take a speedy Resolution
troubled Israel Then Anna du Bourg beginning with a Discourse of the Eternal Providence of God to which all things are subject when he came to the Question proposed said There were many Sins and Crimes committed by Men which the Laws had already forbidden and yet the Gallows and Tortures which were imployed had not been able to prevent the frequent Perjuries Adulteries profuse Lusts and Profane Oaths which were not only connived at but cherished On the contrary every Day new punishments are invented against a sort of Men who could never yet be convicted of any wicked Attempt for how can they injure the Prince who never name him but in their Prayers for him Are they accused of breaking our Laws perverting the Allegiance of our Cities or Provinces No the greatest Tortures could never extort a Confession that they so much as thought of any such thing Are they not accused of Sedition only because they have by the Candle of Scripture discovered the shameful and encreasing Villanies and corruptions of the Roman Power which they desire may be reformed Christopher Harlay and Peter Seguier the two Presidents said with great Modesty that the Court had hitherto justly and rightly discharged its Duty in this Particular and that it would still do the same without changing to the Glory of God and therefore neither the King nor People of France would have cause to repent the trusting to it Christopher de Thou with great freedom reflected on the King's Attorney and Advocates for presuming to defame the Proceedings of that Court and indangering its Authority Renatus Baillet desired the Judgments which were blamed might be re-examined and more maturely considered Minart having made a short Preface to soften the Envy which had been raised against them only added That he thought the King's Edicts were to be observed After these Maistre the President made a sharp Harangue against the Sectaries instancing in the Severities which Philip the August is said to have employed against the Albingenses 600 of which he burnt in one day and in the Waldenses which were massacred with Fire and Smoak partly in their Houses and partly in the Dens and Caves they had fled to The King having obliquely reproached the Court for entring upon this Debate without his Order added He now clearly saw what he had heard before That there were some among them who despised both his Authority and the Popes That this was the fault of but a few but it was dishonourable to the whole body of them but only they that were guilty should suffer the Punishment And therefore he exhorted the rest to go on in their Duty The Reflections of la Faur and du Bourg who mentioned the Story of Ahab and the frequent Adulteries exaseperated the King more than the rest and therefore he commanded Montmorancy to apprehend them who again ordered Gabriel de Montgomery a Captain of the Guard to take them and carry them to the Bastile Afterwards Paul de Foix Anthony Fumee Eustace de la Porte were also taken into Custody but la Ferriere du Val and Viole were concealed by their Friends and escaped this Storm Men censured these Proceedings as they stood affected but the Wiser were much disgusted That the King should be so far imposed on by others as to come personally into his Court to subvert those Laws he ought to have protected That he should make use of Threats and Imprisonments saying That this was a clear Instance that he was subject to the Passions of others and who could think but these things were the foreunners of great Changes The Ministers of the Reformed Religion notwithstanding held a Synod at S. German June 28 one Morelle being President in which they setled the order of their Synods the Authority of the Presidents the taking away the Supremacy in the Church the election of Ministers and their Office and Duty Deacons and Presbyters Censures the Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity of contracting and dissolving Marriages which yet were only temporary Decrees to be varied as future Synods should think fit but to oblige particular Persons till so altered About the same time came Embassadours from the Protestant Princes of Germany with Letters to the King subscribed by Frederick Cout Palatine of the Rhine Augustus Duke of Saxony Joachim Elector of Brandenburg Christopher Duke of Wirtimberg and Wolfang Count of Weldentz In which they represent to the King How much they were afflicted to see so many Pious Quiet and Holy Men who professed the same Religion Imprisoned Spoiled Banished and put to Death as Seditious Persons in France That they thought themselves bound by Christian Charity and the Alliance which was between them and France to beseech him well to consider this Affair which concerned the Name of God and the Salvation of so many Souls that he ought to free himself from Prejudice and imploy great Judgment and Reason in it They assured him they were no less solicitous for the Glory of God and the Salvation of their Subjects than he and upon the Differences of Religion had maturely considered how they might be composed That they had found by degrees and insensibly through Avarice and Ambition many Corruptions had crept into the Church which were dishonourable to the Majesty of God and Scandalous to Men and that they ought to be reformed by the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures the Decrees of the Primitive Church and the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers That the Corruptions and Disorders of the Court and Church of Rome had long since been complained of in France by W. Parisiensis John Gerson Nicholas Clemangius and Wisellius of Groeningen the Restorer of the University of Paris under Lewis XI and other Divines That King Francis his Father of Blessed Memory was convinced of this and had wisely endeavoured to put an end to the Differences of Religion and to reform the Discipline of the Church That now France was not involved in War abroad they besought him the Difference of Religion might by his Authority and Conduct be quietly ended That this might easily be effected if the King would but appoint Learned and Peaceable Men who should examin their Confession of Faith without Partiality or Prejudice by the Holy Scripture and the Ancient Fathers That in the interim he should suspend all Legal Severities discharge the Imprisoned recal the Banished restore their Estates to those that had been ruin'd This they said would be acceptable and pleasing to God Honourable to the King Profitable to France and very Grateful to them The King entertained the Embassadors kindly and having read the Letter said he would suddenly send them a satisfactory Answer but by that time they were arrived at the Borders of France the Fire their coming seem'd to have abated raged more horribly than ever June 19. a Commission was issued to Jean de Saint Andre the President and Promoter of these Troubles Jo. James de Memme Master of the Requests Lewis Gayaut
the Protestant Religion was already received in all Parts of Scotland especially in the Towns and Families of the Nobility and Gentry tho' in secret but Queen Elizabeth having entertained the Reformed Religion and setled it in England they thence presumed she would be a sure Friend to those of that Persuasion in Scotland And a Parliament being called to open May 10. 1559. at Sterling Alexander Cunigham Earl of Glencarn and Sir Hugh Cambel an eminent Knight and Sheriff of Aire appeared there in the behalf of the Ministers of the Reformed Religion who had been summoned to appear there by the Regent who was now resolved to dissemble no longer but to excert her Authority and shew her Zeal in their Ruine accordingly she threatned them severely and said She would banish all their Preachers who under pretence of Religion promoted a Rebellion The Deputies amazed with her great Words opposed Supplications remembring her of her Promises to which she samrtly replyed That the Promises of Princes were not to be expected to be fulfilled further than agreed with their Convenience A Mystery which she ought not to have revealed however if her Anger had not broken open the Recesses of her Heart At this the two Deputies replyed by Glencarne That if she would keep no Promise they would acknowledge her no more but renounce their Obedience to her the Mischief of which she ought seriously to consider The Boldness and Briskness of this Answer abated the Regents Anger and Courage and she seemed much calm'd and replyed I will consider of it The news of this being carried that Night to S. John's-Town the Inhabitants of it met that Night openly in their Churches and had Sermons The Queen Regent thereupon ordered all the Ministers who were come as far as that City but attended by vast Numbers of the Nobility Gentry and Commons in order to their appearing in the Parliament to return Home saying She would not proceed in the Citation yet afterward she declared them Rebels for not appearing This made many leave her and go over to the Protestants Whereupon she commanded one James Halyburton Mayor of Dundee to apprehend one Mefan a Preacher who thought to have lien hid in that Place and ordered the People to celebrate Easter-Sunday after the ancient manner When in this no body would obey her one Areskin of Dundee went over to them and assured them The Regent was so exasperated that there was nothing but Ruine to be hoped for at her Hands and that she had no regard to her Promise Thereupon they all resolved to dissembled no longer with her but to use Force against Force One John Knox a bold and violent Preacher further inflamed their over-heated Minds by a Seditious Sermon The Nobility going to Dinner from the Sermon a Quarrel arose in the Church and the Priest that interposed being severely treated the Rabble fell upon the Statues and Altars and destroy'd them in a moment after this they fell upon the Franciscan and Dominican Abbeys where they also destroy'd the Images and Altars The next that suffered was the Carthusian Abbey which they demolish'd so intirely in two days though very great that the Foot-steps of its Foundations were not easily to be discovered The Regent was by this time as much incensed as they and swore She would revenge this Villany with the Blood of the Inhabitants and the Ruin of the Town But in the interim the Example spread and the same things were reacted at Cupre in Fife The Regent having assembled some Forces under Hamilton Earl of Argile and the Earl of Athole marched easily towards St. John's-Town that the Can non might overtake them But the Inhabitants of that Place writing to their Friends what was doing he Earl of Glencarne came presently to their Assistance with Two thousand five hundred Horse and Foot. And shortly after they had Seven thousand Men in Arms against her so that she now saw that Force would not do upon which she sent the Lord James Steward Prior of St. Andrews and one Cambell who tho' Protestants continued in their Obedience to her to treat with the Earl of Glencarne and Areskin who agreed May 29 That all Forces being discharged the Town should be set open to the Regent that she might refresh her self a few days in it That no French should yet enter into it nor come near it by three Miles That all other Controversies should be determined in the next Parliament Whereupon she entred the Town and was honourably received But one of the Inhabitants being slain by an insolent Soldier and the Regent expressing not any Concern for it They from thence concluded the Treaty would not be long observed and accordingly about three days after she ordered the Town to be sack'd chang'd the Magistrates and restoring the mercenary Scots sworn to and paid by the French. Being hereupon urged with her Promise she answer'd That Promise was not to be kept with Hereticks and if she could make an honest Excuse after the Fact committed she would take upon her Conscience to kill and undo all that Sect concluding That Princes ought not to have their Promises so strictly urged upon them and then went back to Sterling The Convenience and Strength of the Place made her think it worth the breach of her Faith to them but the Lord James Steward the Prior of St. Andrew and the Earl of Argile were so offended with this Procedure that they left her and went over to the Protestants and gave them notice that she intended to Garrison Cupre and St. Andrews in Fife with Frenchmen Whereupon they destroyed the Franciscan and Dominican Abbies of the last City under the Archbishop's Eyes yet he durst not shew the least discontent at it but fled into Faulkland The Regent assembled all the French she had in the Kingdom which were two thousand and one thousand Scots and marchd for Cupre the Thirteenth of June The Earl of Argile on the other side brought in one thousand Protestants to the Relief of St. Andrews and Patrick Lermoth Bailiff of the Regality their Chief Officer levied five hundred more of the Inhabitants of St. Andrews and before Ten of the Clock the next Morning there were above three thousand Horse and Foot which being drawn up to the best Advantage upon the Banks of a small River by Mr. James Halleburton Provost of Dundee a Man of good Experience and Valour and therefore made General that day made so formidable an Appearance that the Regent durst not hazard a Battel against them By this time she saw to her Cost how necessary it was for Princes not to break their Faith. For when she would have gladly come to Peace there could no reliance be made upon her Promise and she had nothing else to engage And when they demanded the French might be sent away she said that she could not do it without order from the King of France So she was desired to withdraw the Garrison out of St. John's Town
knew nothing of Navar but heard that Conde should have been their Captain Whence the Duke of Guise concluded That Coligni and Andelot were cetainly in it though Queen Catherine was of a contrary Opinion but however Conde who was then in the Castle with the King was commanded not to depart without leave which he wisely dissembled Some few were Tried for this Conspiracy but many more were Hang'd up by Night and many Merchants were Slain as they travelled about their business for their Mony but under Pretence they were in the Conspiracy so that there was nothing but Slaughter and Murthers to be seen About the same time Oliver the Chancellor of France died not so much of Old-age or Sickness as Discontent at the Cruelcy and Iniquity of the Times his Death was foretold by some of the Conspirators who reproached him for his unworthy Complyances And when the Cardinal of Lorain visited him in his last Sickness he express'd his Resentments against him and died weeping and sighin for what he had done Michel de l' Hospital a great and a good Man succeeded him by the procurement of Queen Catherine Though this Conspiracy was principally design'd against the Guises yet they desired the World should believe these Men had first made a Defection from God by Heresie and then had conspird against the King Queen Catherine and the King's Brothers The Thirty first of March the King wrote to all the Governors of the several Provinces to take great care that the Reliques of this Conspiracy did not imbroil their Provinces after which there was the like Account sent to the Elector Palatine and the rest of the Protestant Princes of Germany The Princes of Germany thereupon among other things desired the King to consider whether he had not yielded more than was fit to some about him meaning the Guises who out of an inbred Malice and Cruelty exercised great Cruelties on Men that were never convicted of any Crime There they beseech his Majesty that he would put a stop to the Sufferings of these Innocents and seeing they imbrace the same Religion with us we cannot but desire an end may be put to those cruel and hasty Executions This Germany has found say they to be the only Remedy and France has no other left to restore its Peace than by granting a Peace to the Minds and Consciences of Men. Coligni the Admiral leaving the Court Queen Catherine ordered him to go into Normandy and to enquire diligently into the Causes of the late Conspiracy He laid the blame of it on the boundless Ambition of the Guises and advised the Queen to observe inviolably the late Edict for Liberty of Conscience and to put a stop to the Persecution of the Innocent as she valued the safety of the King and the quiet of the Kingdom Some of the Captives who had escaped out of the Prisons at Blois wrote Letters to the Cardinal of Lorain telling him they knew the Escape of the Conspirators was very afflictive to his Eminence That therefore they were gone to seek them and hoped in a short time to return better attended This rallery was a great Mortification to that fearful Minister who feared new Commotions and persuaded the King to put out a General Pardon for all Roman Catholicks In May the King put out another Edict which was call'd the Edict of Romoraulin by which he took the Cognizance of Heresie from the Civil Magistrates and gave it solely to the Bishops which about five years before had been so vigorously opposed by the Parliament of Paris De l' Hospital the Chancellor is said to have consented to it only to prevent the violent Guises from introducing the Spanish Inquisition which they had recommended to Henry II and were now promoting with all their might in France From henceforward the Cardinal of Lorain became more placable to those of the Religion and to stop the Mouths of those who desired an Assembly of the three Estates persuaded Queen Catherine to call an Assembly of the Princes at Fountain-bleau to consult of the Publick Affairs About this time Conde left the Court and by a Letter gave his Brother the King of Navar an Account of the Ill-will the Guises bore towards him and that a Debate had been held in the King's Cabinet-Council for the taking him into Custody That therefore he had been forced to betake himself to him into Bearne This Letter was soon after discovered to the Guises who had entertained Spies in the Family of Conde who presently wrote a Letter to Conde full of sugared Expressions of Kindness and Affection which Conde presently sent to his Brother who very much approved his Resolution but advised him to return to Court and clear his Innocence which Conde did not think safe Perrenot the Brother of Cardinal Granvell in an Audience he had of Queen Catherine told her there was no way to restore the Peace of France but by Banishing the Guises some time from Court and Recalling the Princes of the Blood and Montmorancy to their former Stations The Twenty first of August the Assembly of the Princes and Notable Men of France was Opened at Founain-bleau The Chancellor in his Speech among other things complained That the Hearts of the People of France were incensed against the King and his Principal Ministers but the Cause of it was not known and therefore it was so difficult to find out and apply a fitted Remedy For That the greatest part of the Men of this Kingdom being weary of what is present fearful of what is to come divided by different Religions and desirous of Change are willing to imbroil the Kingdom And therefore their principal Business was to find out the cause of this Disease and apply a fitting Remedy to this Sickly Body Coligni the Admiral who was present the next day presented a Petition to the King which had been given him whilst he was in Normandy by a vast number of his Subjects desiring that the Severity of the Laws against them might be mitigated till their Cause had been duly considered and determined That they might have Publick Places assigned them for the Exercise of their Religion lest their Private Meetings should be suspected by the Government And they invoked God to bear Witness That they had never entertained any disloyal Thought against his Majesty nor would do so But on the contrary they offered up to God most devout Prayers for the Preservation and Peace of his Kingdom The Bishop of Valence a Learned Grave and Experienced Person confirmed this Opinion shewing the great Corruptions in the Church had given Birth and promoted these Divisions in the Minds of Men which were rather exasperated than extirpated by harsh means and bloody Persecutions Then he shewed the great Use of General Councils for the composing the Differences in the Church And therefore he said He wondred how the Pope could quiet his Conscience one Hour whilst he saw so
marching to Villar where they intended to do the like they met the Soldiers who had heard what was done going to Plunder Bobbi stopped them and with their Slings so pelted them that they were glad to shift for their lives and left these Reformers to do the same thing at Villar The Captain of Turin attempting to stop this Rage was beaten and the Dukes Officers were glad to seek to their Pastors for a Pasport After this they beat the Captain of Turin in a second Fight By this time the whole Army drew into the Field and the Inhabitants of these Valleys not being able to resist them they burnt all their Towns and Houses and destroyed all the People they took In these Broils Monteil one of the Duke of Savoy's Chief Officers was slain by a Lad of eighteen years of age and Truchet another of them by a Dwarf The Duke of Savoy had sent seven thousand Soldiers to destroy this handful of Men and yet such was their Rage and Desperation and the Advantage of their Country that they beat his Soldiers wheresoever they met them And in all these Fights their Enemies observed that they had slain only fourteen of the Inhabitants and thence concluded that God fought for them So the Savoyards began to treat of a Peace which at last was concluded to the Advantage of these poor despicable People The Duke remitting the eight thousand Crowns they were to pay by the former Treaty and suffering them to enjoy the Liberty of their Religion So that he got nothing by this War but loss and shame the ruin of his People on both sides and the desolating of his Country A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION BOOK III. The CONTENTS A Persecution in the Low-Countries The French Affairs Queen Catharine favoureth the Protestants but ordereth Montmorency to oppose them She suspects the designs of the Nobility The differences of Religion occasion Tumults in France Various Edicts made The Cardinal of Lorrain procures the Conference of Poissi Mary Queen of the Scots leaves France The three Estates of France Assemble at Pont-Oyse The Conference of Poissi The Rudeness of Laines General of the Jesuits This Conference disliked abroad The Council of Trent recalled Opposed by Vergerius The Popes Legates sent to Princes to invite them to the Council A Diet of the Protestant Princes at Naumburg The Queen of England rejects the Council The Ruin of the Caraffa's The King of Navarre drawn over to the Romish Party by the Arts of the King of Spain Scotch Affairs The Protestant Religion setled there by a Parliament Queen Mary Arrives there Her beginning favourable to the Protestants Great kindness at first in shew between her and Queen Elizabeth The French Affairs The Edict of January 1562. Injunctions published by the Queen concerning Images The King of Navarre pretends to promote the Reformation The Edict of January opposed by the Guises The Massacre of Vassi The Duke of Guise entereth Paris All things in France tend to Civil War. The Queen joyns with the Roman Catholick Party out of fear Orleans surprized by the Prince of Conde The Massacre of Senlis Roan taken by the Protestants Several Treaties for a Peace The Siege of Roan The King of Navarre shot His Death and Character The Prince of Conde leaves Orleans Besieges Corbeil The two Armies come in view He marches towards Normandy The Battel of Dreux in which Montmorency is taken St. Andre slain and the Prince of Conde taken Coligni and the Duke of Guise become Generals The Pope fondly rejoyces at this Battel The Siege of Orleans The Duke of Guise Assassinated His Death and Character The Queen desires and at last makes a Peace which is disliked by Coligni THIS Year there began a sharp Persecution against all that were suspected to favour the Reformation in the Netherlands and for the greater terror they burnt the Houses of all those they Convicted for holding private Meetings Perrenot Bishop of Arras and Cardinal Granvel hoping by this means to prevent the spreading of a Religion in that Country which had made such progresses in Germany and France They that imbraced this Religion were no less scandalized by the multiplying the Bishopricks and thereupon drew up a Confession of their Faith to be exhibited to King Philip beseeching him in the end of it that he would put a stop to the bloody Executions which destroyed so many of his innocent People This Confession was the same in substance with that published by the French Protestants and amongst other things they took particular care to insert That the Civil Magistrate was the Ordinance of God and therefore was to be obeyed Their Tributes to he duly paid and all manner of Respect and Reverence to be shewed to them and that Prayers were to be made to God for their preservation In the month of February the new King of France left Orleans and went to Fontainbleau where the Prince of Conde waited upon him and being introduced into the Privy Council asked the Chancellor if there were any Accusation depending against him and was told by him and the whole Council they were intirely satisfied of his innocence and leave was given him to demand an Acquital in the Parliament of Paris And a Decree was made to that purpose and Published by the Order of the Council March 13. after which he went to Paris to prosecute his Discharge before that Court. In the mean time Queen Catharine the Regent of France seemed very much â—o favour the Protestant Party and by her Arts and Dissimulation so far prevailed upon the spirit of the King of Navarre who was their Head that he told the Danish Ambassador he did not doubt but he should see the Reformed Religion settled in France within one year The Queen on the other side told Montmorency That she connived at them for the present that she might the more easily elude the designs of the King of Navarre by seeming to comply with him But then she said he and the other great Men of that Kingdom ought to oppose them and to complain that the Religion of their Ancestors was every where violated and despised She designed by this First To divide the great Men in the Point of Religion Secondly To weaken the Interest of the King of Navarre And thirdly To preserve the Romish Religion in France But Montmorency who was her Instrument designed only the last yet he was very active in it The Queen in the interim carried her dissimulation so far that she ordered Jean de Monluc Bishop of Valence who was a great favourer of the Reformation and no Enemy to the Protestants Doctrine to Preach frequently at Court and She and the King were sometimes present at his Sermons He would sometimes speak very freely against the Corruptions that were in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and obliquely tax the Papal Authority The favour the Queen shewed to this Bishop made Montmorency suspect that in
her Heart she had a kindness for the Protestant Party and that underhand she and Navarre had one and the same design And thereupon he deserted her and joyned with the Guises his till then Mortal Enemies the Duchess de Valentois procuring the Reconciliation Magdalen of Savoy Wife to Montmorency was also an implacable enemy to the Reformation and hated Coligni the Admiral for that and other causes and therefore she perpetually stimulated him against the Protestants Francis Montmorency Son of the Constable was a person of great Prudence and he wisely advised his Father not to lose the least of his friends in so necessary a time for he foresaw a Tempest would arise in France of what Religion soever they were that it did not become a wise Man to endeavour to gain new friends with the loss of his old ones and to prefer the uncertain friendship of reconciled enemies before the tried affections of his old Acquaintances That if he rejected Conde Coligni and Rochefoucault on the Account of Religion he would deprive his Family of the assistance of three great Men and perhaps the Queen would think never the better of him therefore his advice to his Father was to sit still and let Coligni and the Guises fight it out without taking part on either side and in all probability Guise would be worsted and he would become the Arbitrator of the two contending Religions And in the mean time it was most certain there were many great Errors by length of time crept into the Church which he ought not to defend because they were injurious to the Majesty of God. The good old Gentleman was much moved at this Advice from his Son but made no other answer to it than That he certainly knew that if the Religion were changed the Civil Government would be changed too That he cared not what became of him if his little Masters did well and the Actions of Henry II. might not be called in question who was a wise Prince and his good Master So he perished in his first resolves believing he was obliged to defend the Cause of Religion against his best and most ancient and tried friends The Pope seeing his Jurisdiction and Authority decline so fast in Germany England and France greedily embraced a pretended Overture made by one Abraham a Syrian Impostor who pretended he was sent by the Cophthites an Eastern Sect of Christians to make a submission to the Holy See whereupon he sent Christopher Roderick and John Baptista Elianus two Jesuits to them who gained nothing by this Mission but an exact Account of the Opinions of these Cophthites and a certainty of the Frauds of this pretended Ambassador Abraham who had feign'd this Mission to the Pope for his own Ends. This Mortification was soon after attended by another not less afflictive to his Holiness for Gothard Ketler Master of the Teutonick Order in Libonia intirely submitted to Sigismond King of Poland which put an end to that Order when it had flourished there 357 years He was thereupon made Duke of Gurland and Semigallen and Governor of Livonia and Marrying a Wise withdrew himself and his Subjects from the See of Rome The Archbishoprick of Riga was also about the same time changed into a Dukedom John Kothewick the last Archbishop of that See embracing the Augustane Confession put himself under the Protection of the Crown of Poland and was by Sigismond made Duke of Lithuania This Archbishoprick was founded in the year 1215 by the procurement of the Knights of the Teutonick Order the City being then and a long time after the Seat of the Master of it who divided the Sovereignty and Administration of Justice with the Archbishop After this short Digression which the Reader is desired to Pardon I shall now return to the prosecution of the French Affairs The new Friendship between Montmorency and the Guises was a very frightful thing to the Queen Regent who sought all the way she could possible to divide their Affections for the preserving her own Authority and therefore she was very Anxioâ—sly inquisitive to find whether this new Kindness between two such Ancient Enemies tended The Prince of Conde in the mean time was declared Innocent by the Parliament of Paris the Thirteenth of June and his Discharge Recorded The Differences in Religion not only disquieted the Court but the Provinces also the two Parties reproaching each other with the Names Papist and Huguenot There were frequent Tumults raised also by the Roman Cabolicks to shew that Coligni was out when he said The Protestant Religion might be divulged throughout all the Provinces without any Disturbance And at Amiens and Pont-Oise things came to a Sedition the Catholick Artificers beginning the Quarrel and falling upon some of the Houses of some of the Protestants and they slew one Hadrian Fourre a Priest because he was reported to savour the Reformation and afterwards burnt his Body publickly for which only two were hanged This necessitated the Council to forbid all Reviling Expressions and all Tumults on the Accounts of Religion And by it all that had been banished for Religion in the Reign of Francis II. were invited to return and promised they should enjoy their Goods and Estates if they would live like good Catholicks for the future or otherwise might sell them and retire elsewhere which was after opposed by the Parliament at Paris but yet many returned on that account and many that were in Prison were discharged so that the Protestant Party appeared numerous The Cardinal of Lorrain was Alarm'd at this and represented to the King and Queen That the whole Kingdom was fill'd with Conventicles That the meaner sort ran to the Sermons out of curiosity and were easily corrupted That the Ancient Ceremonies were little frequented or regarded and that they were already derided and scorn'd by many That great numbers every day forsook the Church and went over to the Protestants So he would needs have had a new Edict forthwith published to prevent these Inconveniences This being Debated in the Council in the Month of July there was another Edict published That all should live peaceably and without any furry each to other or reproaching one the other That there be no Listing or Inrolling Men on either side That the Preachers should use no Seditious or Turbulent Expressions upon pain of Death and the Presidents of the Provâ—ces should determine of these Affairs and execute the Ediâ—t That no Sermons should be frequented by Men Armed or Unarmed in publick or in private nor any Sacraments Administred but according to the Rites of the Church of Rome And That if any Man was Convicted of Heresie and delivered to the Secular Power he should only be Banished and this was to stand till a General or a National Council should determine otherwise This was called the Edict of July The Cardinal of Lorrain had so good an opinion of his own Abilities that he was
Council which he had rather promised than desigued before The Conference was to be begun the First of August at Poissy and the Bishops and Divines were already arrived there and had entered into a Debate what Points were to be Disputed where they spent the time to no great purpose disputing amongst themselves concering the Office of a Bishop the Dignity of Cathedral Churches of Colleges and their Exemptions of the Ordination of Curates and Priests concerning allowing them Competent Pensions abating their number reforming the Discipline of the Monasteries of Commendam's and Benesices of cutting off the Pleasures and Luxuries of the Clergy and of Censures And they thought the Answering such like Queries was of great use to the Church in these confused times There appeared for the Protestants Augustin Marlorat Francis de S. Pol Jean Remond Merlin J. Malo Francis de Mureaux N. Tobie Theodore Beza Claud Brisson J. Bouquin J. Viret J. de la Tour Nich. de Crallas and John De l'Espine who abjuring the Dominican Order did then first openly prosess the Protestant Religion Soon after Peter Martyr came to Zurich These Asked four things 1st That the Bishops should be Parties and not Judge 2d That the King and Council should Preside 3d. That all things might be determin'd only by the Word of God 4th That whatever was agreed should be set down by Notaries The Queen yielded all these but would have one of the Secretaries of State be the only Notary and she would not consent that the King should Preside in the Conference The Cardinal of Lorraine had before objected against Beza That he should say that Christ was no more present in the Sacrament than in a Muddy Ditch This Expression is said to have been urged by Melanchthon against Oecolampadius as the Consequence of his Doctrine and was by a mistake of the Cardinal wrongfully charged on Beza who denied and detested it as Blasphemous The First of September the Conference began the King the Queen his Younger Brother and Sister and about Eleven Bishops being present and the Cardinals of Bourbon Tournon Chastillon Lorrain Armagnac and Guise The King opened it with a short Speech which was seconded by the Chancellor with a longer In which he preferr'd a National Council before a General and shewed that the Errours of many General Councils had been corrected by National Synods particularly the Arrian General Council of Ariminium was condemn'd by a Private Council held by St. Hillary Bishop of Poictiers and banished out of France He said they neithe needed much Learning nor many Books the Bible alone being sufficient by which Religion was to be Tried and Examined That the Protestants were their Brethren and to be treated as such if out of Ambition or Avarice they did otherwise God would judge and condemn them and their Decrees would be rejected That they ought to Amend and give God Thanks for any Errour that was discovered and if they did not God would Punish them After him the Cardinal of Tournon spoke and Thanked the King Queen and Princes for being present and approved highly of what the Chancellor had said but desired a Copy of it which the Chancellor refused though it was seconded by the Cardinal of Lorrain because he perceived they craftily designed to mischief him by it Theodore Beza being next commanded to speak fell upon his Knees and after a Prayer and reciting his Faith complained to God that they had been injuriously treated as Enemies of the Publick Peace Then he shewed wherein they agreed with the Church of Rome and wherein they differed and discoursed of the way of attaining Salvation of Faith Good Works the Word of God the Authority of the Councils and Fathers of the Sacraments and of their use and true Interpretation of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation and lastly of the Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline and obedience to Princes he was so long and so sharp in some of these things that they had scarce patience to hear him out and the Cardinal of Tournon presently replied with a Voice trembling for Rage That he and the other Prelates had done violence to their Consciences by condescending to this Conference in compliance with his Majesties Commands by hearing these new Evangelists That he foresaw if they were heard many things would be spoken by them injurious to the Majesty of God which would offend the Ears of the King and of all good Men. And therefore he beseeched his Majesty not to believe what was said That if he could have prevented it the King should not have been present but however he desired he would not suffer his Mind to be pre-ingaged in their false Opinions but to suspend till the Bishops had Answered it and the King and the rest there present should know the difference between Falsehood and Truth He Asked a Day to Answer in and prayed the King that he would persevere in the Religion of his Ancestors Lastly he added that but for the respect they bore to the King the Bishops would have arisen and put a stop to those horrible and abominable Words The Queen calmly said she had done the thing without the Advice of the Parliament of Paris the Princes and Privy-Council That no change was designed but that the Disturbances of France might be appeased and Men friendly brought from their Errors into the Old Way which belonged to them to effect The first Dispute was about the Lords Supper The second which was the 17th of August was about the Church which the Cardinal of Lorrain said could not Err That if any particular Church did Recourse was to be had to the Head the Church of Rome and the Decrees of a General Council and the Concurrent Opinions of the Ancient Fathers and before all to the Sacred Scriptures explain'd by the Right Sense and Interpretation of the Church As to the Lord's Supper in effect he said That if the Protestants would not embrace their Opinions there was no hope of an Agreement The Cardinal of Tournon thereupon applauded his Harangue and said he was ready to lay down his Life for this Faith intreating the King to continue stedfast in it and was contented Good Man that if the Protestants would subscribe these two Points they should be admitted to dispute all the rest but if they refused this all hearing was to be denied them and they were to be expell'd out of his Dominions Beza desired to Answer him Extempore but the King delayed the Answer to the next day Upon a Petition the Ministers were heard at last again the 24th of September before the Queen only when Beza discoursed of the Church and its Notes which he said were the Preaching of the Word and a Pure Administration of the Sacraments As for the Succession of Persons and Doctrines it had been often interrupted He discoursed of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Vocation of the Universal Church and her Authority of Councils which he affirm'd
had and might err of the Dignity of Scripture and whether the Scriptures were to be preferr'd before the Church or did borrow their Authority from the Church Claud d' Espence a learned Man who desired very much the Church might regain her former Peace being Commanded by the Cardinal of Lorrain to answer Beza began with a Declaration that he had a long time wished that there might have been Conferences and said he had ever abhorred those Bloody Proceedings which had been used against those miserable Men. Then he said he wondered by what Authority the Protestants took upon them the Office of the Ministery and by whom they were Ordain'd and Instituted and that seeing the had received Imposition of hands from no body how could they be accounted lawful Ministers for it was manifest they had no Ordinary call And they must prove an Extraordinary Vocation by Miracles which they had not And thence he concluded they never came into the Church either by an Ordinary or an Extraordinary call As to Traditions if any Controversie arose about the Sense of Scriptures which could not be otherwise adjusted they must of necessity have recourse to the Fathers who had their Authority from their lawful and ordinary Call or Succession because upon them the Guifts of the Spirit were bestowed As it was written of the Levites whose Answers were not to be question'd That many things were setled by Traditions which were not written in the Scriptures As that the Father was not begotten That the Son was of the same Substance with the Father That Infants were to be Baptized That the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin after she brought forth That the Decrees of General Councils should be valid and that they cannot err in Matters of Faith and that it cannot be shewn that any of the later Councils have corrected the former Beza replied that the Imposition of hands was no necessary note of a lawful Call The two principal were a due Inquiry into the Doctrine and Manners of the Person and an Election of them to the Ministery That they were not to expect Imposition of hands from the Bishops who opposed the Truth and persecuted those that Preached it And that Miracles were not always necessary to an extraordinary Call which he endeavoured to prove by Isaiah Daniel Amos Zachariah and St. Paul. In the next congress Beza spoke much about the Calling of the Protestant Ministers but in such a manner as tended more to the exasperating of the Prelates than the appeasing them so that these two days were spent in mere squabble without order and to no purpose There was then in France John Laines a Spaniard General of the Jesuits who came thither with Hippolito d' Este Cardinal of Ferrara sent by Pope Pius IV. as Legate to the King. This Laines being present this day at the Conference call'd the Protestant Ministers Monkeys Foxes and Monsters and said they were to be turn'd over to the Council call'd by the Pope Then he fell upon the Queen for medling in things that did not belong to her but to the Pope Cardinals and Bishops and he said it was not lawful whil'st a General Council was in being for the Queen to appoint by her private Authority a Conference here The Queen was much enraged at the Insolence of this Man but out of Reverence to the Legate suppress'd her resentment after this Day there were no more Publick Conferences but they Drew out three of a Side and endeavoured to form such an Exposition of the Lord's Supper as both Parties might agree in which in the End proved impossible to be done and so the Conference of Poissi ended which was the first Liberty that was granted to dispute the Established Religion in France and was blamed by some as a thing of ill Example and approved by others as the only means left to prevent the Storm which hung over their heads But it had not that effect so the Ministers and especially Beza who was invited by the Queen were honourably dismiss'd The Fame of this Conference being diffused through Italy and Spain Philip the Second was strangely surprized at it so the Queen sent Jacques de Monbron a Person of good Birth and Repute to excuse it That Prince would hardly be induced to hear the reason of it and turning him over to the Duke de Alva he blamed their fearfulness and advised them to return to the same Severities which had been used in the Reigns of Henry II. and Francis II. promising his Masters Assistance for the Extirpation of the Protestants Adding That the King had been solicited to it by the Catholick Nobility and People of France and that he could not neglect their Petition but he must be wanting to himself That he did not fear such vain reproaches as that with foreign Forces he invaded what was anothers because in this Cause the Spanish Forces were no foreigners when the Religion of their Ancestors was at the stake By this it appeared to the Court of France That there was a Correspondence between their Catholicks and the Spaniards and one Arthur Desier a Priest was taken much about this time near Orleans going into Spain with a Letter from some great Men to King Philip to persuade him to undertake the Protection of their Infant King and of the Catholick Religion which was in great danger to be ruin'd for which he was ordered to be Penance by the Parliament of Paris and committed to the Carthusian Monks to be kept a Prisoner for ever but afterwards he made his Escape This Sentence was pronounced against him the 14 th of July In the End of this Year one Jean Tanquerel a young Divine proposed as his Thesis in a Disputation That the Pope as Christ's only Vicar and the Monarch of the Church can by his Spiritual and Secular Power command all faithful Princes as his Subjects and if they disobey his Precepts deprive them of their Dignities and Kingdoms which being complain'd off to the King the Chancellor sent a Commission to inquire into it and Tanquerel being fled it was ordered that the Parritor of the Theological Faculty should make a Recantation of it in his Name in the School of the Sorbonne before the Dean and all the Fellows and Students of that Faculty in the Presence of the President of the Parliament of Paris the King's Counsel and Solicitor and for the future the Parliament forbad all such questions to be given And ordered the Sorbonne to send two of their Fellows to beg the King's Pardon This Decree passed the 2 d of December and was put in Execution ten days after The Pope had till now dreaded a General Council as tending to the abatement of his Power and on that score had delayed it till Cosmus Duke of Florence and the fear of a National Council in France prevail'd upon him to reassume that which was began by Paul III. continued by Julius III. and was at
Ulrick Duke of Meckleburg Christopher Duke of Wirtemburg Charles Marquis of Baden Ernest Prince of Henneberg and the Ambassadors of Joachim Duke and Elector of Brandenburg and of John and George Fredirick of that Family of Philip Landtgrave of Hesse and of Barnim and Jo. Frederick Dukes of Pomerania upon the report of a Council suddenly to be assembled met at Naumburg to which Place the King of Denmark and the Princes of Lunenburg sent only Letters of Friendship to assure those that met that they would stand by them The design of it was to put an end to those Controversies which had arisen amongst the Protestants themselves to renew their Subscriptions to the Augustane Confession to consider and by mutual Consent to resolve whether they should go to the Council or refuse it They had great Controversies amongst themselves about the various Editions of the Augustane Confession which had been explained enlarged and as to the Expressions very often changed and the Elector of Saxony was for the retaining the first Edition and putting the Smalcaldick Articles by way of Preface to it but the rest not consenting to it he left Naumburg and return'd When they came to consider the Council of Trent they were no less divided in that too Some were for an absolute rejection of it others were for the fending Ambassadors from the several States who should propose the giving an Account of their Faith in a free and truly Christian Synod and enter a great Complaint against the Pope and Court of Rome make their Exceptions to the Council on the account of the Suspition of the Judges the perverse Method or Order of Proceedings and the Inconvenience of the Place this they conceived would â—itigate the Envy had been raised against them and shew that their Enemies and not they were the obstructers of Concord and Union After this they sent Deputies to the Duke of Saxony deploring his departure before the End of the Conference and giving him an Account of the Form of Confession they had Agreed to Subscribe and desiring him that he would also subscribe it or at least restrain his Divines from traducing and defaming it as they had before done by some things agreed at Frankford Soon after Augustus Duke of Saxony Married Anne Daughter of Morice of the Family of Nassaw and Brother to William Prince of Orange Jerolamus Martinego who was sent to Treat with Queen Elizabeth for the same end as I have said already came into Flanders and from thence according to the ancient Custom sent for Leave to come into England but was denied it the Council of England not thinking it fit to admit a Nuncio from the Pope when there Religion would be apt upon such an Encouragement to Imbroil our Affairs upon began to Treat with Throcomorton our Ambassador in that Court That Queen Elizabeth would be pleased to send her Ambassadours to the Council in which he was seconded by Letters from the Kings of France Spain and Portugal and the Cardinal of Portugal and the Duke de Alva To which she replied That from her Heart she desired a General Council but she would have nothing to do with a Papal That she would have nothing to do with the Pope neither whose Authority was banished out of England by the consent of the Three Estates That it belonged not to him but to the Emperour to call a Council and that she acknowledged no greater Authority in him than in any other Bishop The Twenty fifth of July Erirk King of Sweden was Crown'd with great Pomp at Stockholme upon the Baltick Sea. Charles Cardinal of Caraffa and Nephew of the last Pope was strangled the Sixth of March in the Castle of St. Angelo upon pretence That he had Exasperated Paul IV. his Uncle with his false Stories and put him upon a War That he had caused the Truce between France and Spain to be broken had entered underhand Treaties with the Protestant Princes of Germany and also with the Turk the Enemies of Christianity but in reality because the Pope was much offended with the sharp Answers the Cardinal made after he was imprison'd The Pope being thereupon made sensible that the Cardinal was a Person of great Spirit and Interest and if ever he were dismiss'd he would at one time or other Revenge the Quarrel upon the Popes Relations so that his Holiness contrary to his first Intentions found it was needful to cut him off though against Law as his own Canonists generally said The Count de Paliani Brother of the Cardinal of Caraffa had the same fate but on other pretences In France all that desired the Peace of the Church and the Reformation of Religion concluded the Pope would not hold a Council whatever he pretended and therefore urged the having of a National Council which was opposed by the Guises and their Faction for fear the Protestant Party should prevail in it against the Catholick They did whatever they could to perswade the King and Council from it and procured the Pope to perswade Philip King of Spain to interest himself in it who sent Anthony Bishop of Toledo to perswade the Queen to send the French Clergy to the Council of Trent and that in the mean time to prevent a Schism the thoughts of a National Council should be laid aside He had Orders also as occasion offered to threaten those who favoured the Protestants and to give assurances of his Masters readiness to support the young King which was ill taken in France as a kind of usurping a Right to interpose their Spanish Pride in the French Affairs Toledo died in France and Maurice his Successor became very importunate with the Queen to begin a Persecution against the Protestants which was as stiffly opposed by the King of Navar who demanded his Kingdom and interrupted all the Spanish Proceedings by his frequent Complaints to the young King. King Philip finding to his Cost that this Princes Power was greater in France than he imagin'd began a Design upon him to make him more pliant to his Desires This was to reject his Wife and Marry Mary Queen of the Scots and then declaring himself Head of the Catholicks in France the King of Spain was to give him Sardinia for Navar and to help him to Conquer England and so two Heretical Queens were for Heresie to be laid aside and the Pope was to Consecrate and Bless the Business The King of Navar detesting the Project of Repudiating his Queen the Exchange of Sardinia was driven on with more eagerness pretending it was the greatest Island in the Mediterranean Sea next Sicily and the most fruitful rich and populous and situate very conveniently for a Conquest of Barbary This Project being also seconded by the Popes Nuncio the Cardinal of Ferrara prevented the calling of a National Council which Wise Men thought was the only thing that could have prevented the Civil War which after broke out to the almost total Ruine of France
Though the Edict of July had forbidden all Meetings of the Protestants yet their Number daily increasing and with it their Confidence not only Sermons were openly made but the Priests were in many places forcibly expell'd and the Churches seized for the use of the Ministers which gave being to the Edict of the 3d of November for the Restitution of those Churches upon pain of Death which by the Perswasion of the Ministers themselves was obeyed throughout the Kingdom But when notwithstanding Men seem'd rather enraged than appeased by the Edict of July and the Conference of Poissy was broken up without any effect there being every day news brought of new Commotions they began to think of some more effectual Remedy which that it might meet with the greater approbation and by consequence be the more universally executed the Presidents and some chosen Members of all the Parliaments of France were summon'd before the King to St. Germain by whose Advice it was to be drawn and Moddel'd Upon which the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise left the Court conceiving the thing would do it self now Montmorancy and the King of Navar had espoused that Interest About the same time there was a dreadful Tumult at Dijon whil'st the Protestants were assembled at their Sermon the Rabble thought fit to make themselves the Executioners of the Edict of July and having procured a Drum to beat before them they marched against the Huguenots but the Meeters made use of their Weapons and repell'd Force with Force The Rabble thereupon turn'd their fury against the Private Families and plundered several Houses There were also some Tumults at Paris on the same score and towards the end of the year all things tended to a general Revolution Having thus represented the State of Religion in all the rest of Christendom as shortly and as well as I can I return now to Scotland The Messengers they had sent into France to procure the Royal Consent to the Acts they had made in their last Parliament were no sooner return'd with a positive denial and a dreadful Reprimand which frighted and exasperated the Nation both at once but they had the Joyful News of the Death of King Francis II. to their great satisfaction and the no less affliction of the French Faction in that Kingdom On the other side the Nobility who had lent their Assistance to the Expulsion of the French immediately met at Edinburg and after a Consultation sent the Lord James to their Queen to perswade her to return into Scotland Lesley however prevented them and got to her some days before the Lord James She was then at Vitrie in Campaigne whither she was retired to lament her Loss His business was to bespeak her favour to the Catholick Party and return into Scotland The first she readily promised and as for the other she ordered him to Attend till she had resolved what to do It was soon after resolved that she should leave France so that the Lord James found her fixed to return when he came into France yet his Assuring her of the great desires the Nobility of Scotland had to see her there again much confirm'd her So she sent him back with Orders to see that nothing should be attempted contrary to the Treaty of Leith in her absence In March following M. Giles Noailles a Senator of Bourdeaux arrived at Leith with three Demands from the new King of France 1. That the old League between France and Scotland should be renewed 2. That the late Confederacy with England should be dissâ—lved 3. That the Church-men should be restored to all they had been deprived of But the Council replied That it did not befit them to treat of things of that Consequence before the Assembly of the States which was to be held the 21st of May when the Lord James made answer That the French and not the Scots had broke the old League by endeavouring to enslave them 2. That they could not violate the Treaty made with England and as to the third That they did not acknowledge those he interceded for to be Church men and that Scotland having renounced the Pope would no longer maintain his Priests and Vassals About the same time the Earls of Morton and Glencarn returned from England whither they had been sent with Assurances That the Queen would assist them in the Defence of the Liberties of the Kingdom if at any time they stood in need of her Help which was heard with much Joy. As the Lord James returned into Scotland he waited upon Queen Elizabeth and advised her to stop Queen Mary if she came by England as he expected she would 'till he had secured the State of Religion in Scotland for tho' she had promised She would continue all things in the State she found them ye he would not intirely rely upon her Promise having so often heard the old Maxim from the late Regent To make sure work therefore he procured an Act to be passed in this Convention for the Demolishing all the Cloysters and Abby Churches which were yet left standing in that Kingdom the Execution whereof as to the Western Parts was committed to the Earls of Arran Argile and Glencarn as to the North to the Lord James and as to the Inland Counties to some Barons that were thought the most Zealous Whereupon ensued a most deplorable Devastation of Churches and Church-buildings saith Spotiswood throughout all the Kingdom for every one made bold to put to their Hands the meaner sort imitating the Example of the greater and those who were in Authority No difference was made but all the Churches were either defaced or pulled down to the ground The Church Place and what ever Men could make Money of as Timber Lead and Bells were put to sale and the Monuments of the Dead the Registers of the Churches and Libraries were burn'd or destroyed and what escaped the Fury of the first Tumults now perished in a common Shipwrack and that under the colour of publick Authority John Knox is said to have very much promoted this Calamity by a Maxim he published That the sure way tâ— drive away the Rooks was to pull down their Nests which in probability he meant only of the Monks but now their Hands were in was extended to all the Church Buildings Noailles was then in Scotland and carried the News of this dreadful Reformation to the Queen into France She was much enraged at it and said to some of her Confidents that she would imitate Mary Queen of England but however she had wit enough to dissemble her Resentment for the present In order to her return she left Vitri and went to Paris and having waited upon the King and Queen-Regent to take her leave of them she took her Journy towards Calais Queen Elizabeth had sent the Earl of Bedford to condole the Death of Francis her late Husband and to desire her Ratification of the Treaty of
as Honourable Terms as he could get The 28th of July the Articles were Signed the next day there came sixty Ships and 1800 men to the Relief of the place but it was too late so the English that remain'd were sent on Board the Fleet who had the misfortune to carry this Plague with them into England and within one year there died in London only 21530 persons of this Disease There was so much joy in France for the recovery of this small place that the Chancellor of France said openly That now the most malicious must needs confess That the granting Liberty of Conscience had at once delivered France from a most destructive Civil War united the Princes of the Blood Royal and enabled them to recover too what had been seized by their Enemies during the War and that chiefly by the help of the Protestants who before were so dreadful to them whilest they fought for their Religion The Queen to cut off all pretences to the Guardianship of the King by the advice of the Chancellor resolved to have him declared out of his Minority by the Parliament of Roan pursuant to a Constitution of Charles the Fifth King of France made in the year 1373 tho' he had then entered only into the Fourteenth year of his age which was accordingly done the 19th of August when he declared again That he was resolved not to suffer his Edicts to be disputed by his Subjects as had been done during his Minority and especially the last for the peace of Religion which he was resolved to make all his Subjects obey till it was otherwise setled by a Council This Decree met with some opposition from the Parliament of Paris which pretends to be the Supreme Court of that Kingdom and said they ought to have had the honour of declaring the King of Age and no other which was soon over-rul'd The desire I had to prosecute the Affairs of France and the Story of the Council of Trent has kept me from mentioning Scotland and its Affairs so that I am behind hand with that Kingdom two years In the beginning of the year 1562 Mary Queen of the Scots took her Progress towards the North At Sterling she was Petition'd by certain Commissioners of the Church for the Abolishing of the Mass and other Superstitious Rites of the Roman Religion the punishing Blasphemy the contempt of the Word of God the Profanation of the Sacraments the Violation of the Sabbath Adultery Fornication and other like Vices condemn'd by the Word of God but not punishable by the Laws of Scotland That all Suits for Divorce should be remitted to the Judgment of the Church or at least trusted to men of good knowledge and conversation and that Popish Church-men might be excluded from places in the Session and Council This Petition being read by the Queen she replied That she would do nothing to the prejudice of the Religion she professed and that she hoped before a year was expired to have the Mass and Catholick Profession restored through the whole Kingdom And so in a rage turn'd her back and left them In January 1563. John Hamilton Archbishop of St. Andrews was committed to the Castle of Edinburgh for saying and hearing Mass the Abbot also of Corsragnal and Prior of Withern had the same treatment and divers Priests and Monks were censured for the same cause The Scots thought by these Severities to terrifie the Queen into a compliance with their Religion And it is certain that in a Parliament held at Edinburgh in May this year she passed many Acts in favour of the Reformation However certain it is some of the Protestants made her an ill requital For in August following certain of the Queens Family remaining in the Palace of Edinburgh call'd Holy-Rood House and having a Priest to attend them and perform the Romish Service in the Chapel divers of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh out of curiosity or devotion resorting thither great offence was taken at it and the Preacher began to complain of it as a disorder Whereupon some of the Citizens went thither to see if it were so these being denied Admittance they forced the Gates of the Queens Palace took several of those who were there assembled and carried them to prison the Priest and some few others escaping by a Postern or Back-door This Uproar was very great and yet it was related to the best advantage to the Queen who was then out of Town she was very much incensed as she had good reason against these Zealots and swore she would shortly make them Examples of her Royal Indignation The Earls of Murray and Glencarne however wisely interposed and appeased her anger for the present Soon after John Knox was call'd before the Council and charged as the only Author of this Insolent Sedition and likewise for stirring up the people by his Circular Letters to Tumults whenever he thought fit He answered That he was never a Preacher of Rebellion nor loved to stir up Tumults contrariwise he always taught the People to obey their Magistrates and Princes in God. As to the Convocation of the Subjects he had received from the Church a Command to advertise his Brethren when he saw a necessity of their Meeting especially if he saw Religion to be in peril And had often desired to be discharged of that burthen but stil was refused Then speaking to the Queen with wonderful boldness He charged her in the name of Almighty God as she desired to escape his heavy wrath and indignation to forsake that Idolatrous Religion which she profess'd and by her power maintain'd against all the Statues of the Realm He was going on when the Earl of Morton then Chancellor of Scotland fearing the Queen might be yet more exasperated against all the Protestants of her Kingdom by his indiscreet zeal commanded him to hold his peace and go away After this things were carried more peaceably between the Queen and the Church the Earl of Murray making it his business to propound their Petitions to her and to return her Answers to them FINIS A TABLE OF THE Principal Matters Contained in this HISTORY A. ADiaphorists who Pag. 478 481. Adolph Count Schawenburg is made Archbishop of Cologne by the Pope 417. Enters upon the Resignation of the Archbishop 418. His first Mass 457. Makes his publick Entry into Cologne 499. He leaves Trent 543. He makes a League with the House of Burgundy 560. Adrian succeeds Leo X. 50. Sends a Legate to the Diet of Nuremberg 54. And a Breve to Frederick Ibid. Writes a long Letter to the States assembled at Nuremberg 55. And to Private Persons against Luther 56. As also to the Senate of Strasburg Ibid. An account of his Life Ibid. He is chosen Pope 57. Writes to the College of Cardinals Ibid. And to the People of Rome Ibid. Goes to Rome Ibid. His Instructions to the Diet at Nuremberg 58. Desires an Answer to them 60. Dies
Accommodation 132. Very much disconsolate 140. Comforted by Luther ibid. Comes to Cologne 310. Defends Bucer 311. His Opinion about Indifferent Things 481. He draws up a Confession of Faith for the Saxon Divines 515. Congratulates John Frederick's safe Return home 574. Sends Letters of Comfort to the Banished Bohemian Preachers 613. Mendoza sent by the Emperor to the Council of Trent 360. Ambassador to Strasbourg 419. His Speech to the Pope about the Council from the Emperor 443. Sends the Pope's Answer to the Emperor 445. Mentz the Seat of the Elector four German miles from Francfort 13. Elector of Mentz vide Albert. The Elector approves the Interim craftily in the Diet 460. Sends the Pope's Indult into the Landgraviate 483. Denies to Register Maurice's Protestation against a Council 499. He leaves Trent 543. He flies from Albert of Brandenbourg 567. He dies 614. Mersburgh Bishops Answer to Luther 33. Milan the Council removed thither from Pisa 27. Miltitz Charles Bedchamber man to Pope Leo vide Wittemberg Miltitz sent by Leo to Frederick against Luther 12. Treats with Luther 23. And the Augustine Friars concerning him ibid. Minden proscribed by the Imperial Chamber 245. Mirandula Joannes Picus his Books Censured 28. Monte Cardinal de the Pope's Legate at Bononia His Answer to the Pope's Letter 444. His Insolent Vsage of Vargas the Emperor's Ambassador at Bononia 446 447. made Pope and called Julius III. 492. Montmorency Anne made Constable of France 239. Is in disgrace 277. Gains Favour with Henry II. King of France Takes Metz for the French King 555. His Treaty with the Deputies of Strasbourg 557. More Sir Thomas Chancellor of England 180. Beheaded for not denying the Pope's Supremacy Ibid. Morin John under-Provost of Paris prosecutes the Protestants severely 175. Morone John Legate to P. Paul III. at Spire 291. Muleasses K. of Tunis outed of his Country comes to Augsbourg 457. Muncer Thomas begins to Preach in Franconia 52. An account of his Enthusiasm 83. Settles at Mulhansen 84. Turns out by the Rabbles help all the Magistrates ibid. Joyns with the Boors of Swabia and Franconia Ibid. Is routed by Count Mansfield Ibid. Retires with his Gang to Franck-hausen Ibid. His Speech to the Rabble 85. His men frighted 86. Routed by the Princes Army Ibid. 5000. of them taken Ibid. Muncer taken at Franck-hausen Ibid. Racked to confess his accomplices Ibid. Beheaded Ibid. Munster a City in Westphalia possessed by the Anabaptists 174. The Senate Estabilsh the Reformed Religion there 191. They make a treaty with the Bishop 192. Banish the Anabaptists Ibid. They are Tumultuous there 193. It is besieged by its Bishop Ibid. Who is assisted by the Neighbouring Princes 194. A great Famine in the City 198. The Princes threaten to send the Force of the Empire upon them 197. Murner Thomas a Franciscan Friar complains to Campegio against the Senate of Strasbourg 73. Musculus Wolfgangus flies from Augsbourg to Bern for not subscribing the Interim 461. N. NAples a sedition there because of the Inquisition 434. Nassaw Count of desires the Elector of Saxony to come to the Diet at Spire 152. Henry of Nassaw Charles V's General in Picardy 208. Unsuccessful there Ibid. William Son to Count Nassaw succeeds the Prince of Orange 327. Naves discourses with Count Solmes about the War designed against the Protestants 357. Speaks to the Landgrave at Spire in the Emperors name 368. Dies 419. Naumbourg the Chapter choose Phlugius for their Bishop 288. Netherlands Reformation gets footing there 341. Northumberland John D. of Marries his Son Guilford Dudley to the Lady Jane Gray 580. Is siezed on at Cambridge 589. And beheaded by Q. Mary Ibid. Nuremberg a Diet convened thither 51. Their Ministers accused to the Popes Legate 62. The Acts of the Diet Published 63. The treaty of Pacification removed hither from Schurnfurt 160. A Peace is there concluded Ibid. A Holy League there drawn up amongst the Popish Princes 245. Another Diet there 298. The decree of that Diet 299. The Netherlands Ambassadors accuse theâ—â— of Cleve in the Diet 306. The Decree of the Diet 307. Their quarrels with Albert of Brandenbourg 561. Vide Albert their Answer to Albert's Remonstrance 599. O OBersteyn Ulrick Count made General of the Army against the Munster mad Men 197. His Soldiers are tumultuous for want of Pay 200. He carries the Town at last 201. Ockham William Condemned by the University of Paris 28. What his Doctrine 29. Oecolampadius John Preaches at Basil 76. He embraces the Doctrine of Zuinglius 97. Disputes at Bern 111. Meets Luther at Marpurg 121. Dies 156. Orleans vide Franciscan Friars D. of Orleans dies 352. Osiander comes to Marpurg to the Conference betwixt Luther and Zuinglius 121. Sets up a new Sect about Justification in Prussia 511. Rails against Melancthon and the Saxon Divines 512. Dies at Coningsberg 575. His Sect in Prussia promise to submit to the Augustane Confession 632. Otho Prince Palatine Embraces the Protestant Religion 300. Recovers his Country and Joyns with the Confederate Princes 556. Oxford a dispute there concerning the Lord's Supper 483. Oxline John a Minister carried by force from his House by the Governour of Turegie 76. This Occasions the Canton of Zurich to remonstrate 77. P. PAlatine George vide Spires Palatine Prince vide Lewis vide Otho Palaeologus John Emperor of Constantinople comes to the Council of Ferrara 10. Pall the excessive charge of it 273. The Ceremony of its consecration 274. Passaw a Treaty there 563. The Princes Mediators there answer Maurice's Grievances 564. And they answer the French Ambassadors Speech 565. They exhort the Emperor to a Peace by Letters 566. They answer the Emperors Letters 568. The heads of the Pacification 572. Paris Doctors of that University appealed against P. Leo for Abrogating the Pragmatick Sanction 10. Censure the Books of Reuchlin 30. And condemn Luther's Books 47. An Account of the Faculty of Divinity at Paris 48. A Young Gentleman of Thoulouse burnt there for Religion 239. They are severe upon the Lutherans 296. The manner of Proceedings upon him 297. Their Divines at Melun draw up Articles against the Reformation 342. The Parliament answers the K. of France's Edict 619. Paul III. Farnese chosen Pope 174. Instructs Vergerius how to stave off a Council 175. Issues out Bulls to call a Council 206. And others to reform the Vices of Rome 209. Prorogues the Council called at Mantua 230. Is Sollicitous to reconcile the Emperor and the King of France 232. Appoints a Committe of Cardinals to Examine the Corruptions of the Church of Rome 233. Nominates Vicenza for the Session of the Council 238. Returns to Rome 241. Prorogues the Council without Limitation 250. Sends his Legate to the Emperor 264. Makes War upon Perugia 266. The Speech of his Legate at the Diet of Spire 291. Allows a Council to be held at Trent 292. Sends Cardinals to mediate between the French K. and the Emperor 303. Commends the Chapter of Cologne in a Letter to
the Emperor 204. Appointed of the Committee to draw up a Bull for the calling of a Council ibid. His Speech at Wormes 272. Talks with Spira at Padua 475. Turns Protestant 476. Perswades his Diocess of Justinople to joyn with him ibid. Being Persecuted settles in the Valteline 477. And thence removes to Tubing ibid. Writes a Book to disswad the Switzers from sending to the Council of Trent 528. Vey a Lawyer of Baden speaks to Luther from the Commissioners at Wormes 45. Exhorts him to submit his Books to the Emperor and Princes 46. Vienna vide Solyman Visconti Dukes of Milan their Pedigree 203. Ulm receives the Protestant Religion and a Church is constituted there 149. Is reconciled to the Emperor and fined 413. A Diet called thither 428. What was done at it 431. Adjourned to Augsbourg 432. The Government changed by the Emperor 472. Their Divines refuse with great Courage to acknowledge the Doctrine of the Interim ibid. Their Ministers are released 479. Their answer to Albert's Proposals 563. Ulric Duke of Wirtemberg claims his Country 79. Is repulsed by the Schwabian Confederates 80. Is restored into it by the Landgrave of Hesse 173. Engages to be Feudatary to Ferdinand ibid. And recovers his Country entirely 174. He acknowledges himself Feudatary to Ferdinand 180. Is admitted into the Protestant League 206. Excuses himself by Letter to King Francis 249. He with Vpper Germany first takes Arms 380. Writes Supplicatory Letters to the Emperor 413. Is received upon hard Conditions 415. He makes his Submission to the Emperor in Person at Ulm 421. Receives the Interim 462. Dies 502. Vogelsberg Sebastian raises Men in Germany for Henry King of France 434. Is beheaded at Augsbourg for it 456. W. WAradin George Martinhausen Bishop of made a Cardinal 528. Is killed for Commotions in Transylvania 535. Waldenses Persecuted 345. Barbarously Massacred at Merindol 346. Their Opinions 347. Wenceslaus Emperor intercedes for Husse 46. Wiat Sir Thomas rises in Kent upon Queen Mary's Marrying King Philip 594. Is suppressed 596. Executed 598. Wiclef John Preached against the Pope in England 46. His Bones ordered to be Burnt by the Council of Constance 47. William vide Bavaria Winchester Stephen Gardiner Bishop of he writes a Reproachful Book against Bucer 340. Is Imprisoned for Obstinacy 511. Made Lord Chancellor by Queen Mary 589. An account of his Proceedings in the Divorce of Henry VIII ibid. He dies of a Dropsie 627. Wirtemberg vide Ulric and Christopher Wittemberg a City of Saxony upon the Elbe and an Vniversity 2. Connives at Luther ibid. They write to Pope Leo in his behalf 6. And to Miltitz that he might be tried in Germany ibid. And to Frederick in excuse of Luther's proceedings against Cajetan 12. The Vniversity abett the Augustines in not saying Mass 49. Their Reply to Frederick about that Matter 50. Wolfgang made Grand Master of Prussia 324. His Plea at the Diet of Augsbourg about the Teutonic Order 447. Is driven out of his Country 571. Wolfgang D. of Deux-Ponts absolutely refuses the Interim 480. Yet promises to obey the Emperor as far as he could 481. Wolsey dies for Discontent 170. Wormes a Diet called thither 38. It is opened 41. Luther Proscribed by an Edict there 48. A Diet called to punish the Anabaptists 200. Another Diet called there 201. A Convention cited thither 268. The Heads of the Conference at Wormes 271. A Diet there 343. Z. ZIsca John raises a War in Bohemia against Sigismund in revenge of Husse's death 47. Zuinglius Ulricus comes to Zurick 22. Opposes Friar Samson about Indulgences ibid. Disswades the Switzers from serving abroad in the Wars 48. Defends himself against the Bishop of Constance 51. Writes to the Switzers to allow Marriage among their Priests ibid. Disputes with John Faber in the Assembly at Zurick 57. Acquits himself of the Accusation of the States 66. Preaches up the abrogation of Images ibid. Differs with Luther about the Sacrament 97. Would not go to the Conference at Baden 105. Disputes at Bern 111. Disputes with Luther at Marpurg 121. Is killed 156. Zurick vide Zuinglius They refuse to serve abroad at Zuinglius's desire 48. They est ablish the Reformation 57. They Answer the Remonstrance of the other Cantons 70. And the Bishop of Constance's Book abort Images 72. They remove Images 76. They Expostulate with the other Cantens about the seizing of their Ministers 77. The Mass abolished there 82. They stop Provisions from the other Cantons 155. They are routed in Battle 156. And so a second time ibid. And at last conclude a Peace ibid. The Ministers of Zurick answer Gardiner's Book 340. A TABLE TO THE CONTINUATION A. ALbert Marquess of Brandenburg dies 13. Alva's War on the Pope 9. He goes to Rome 11. The Emperor's Ambassadors to the Electoral Princes to carry his Resignation 6. Dr. Woton English Ambassador in France 14. Between France and King Philip at Peronne 19. At Cambray 22. In France 27. To the Diet of Germany 28. The Popes Ambassadors to the Christian Princes and to the Council 49 62. Admitted by the Princes of Germany of the Augustane confession 63. Refused by Queen Elizabeth 64. His Legates to Trent French Ambassadors to the Council of Trent 87. The Ambassador of Spain received 91. Lansac Ambassador for France at Rome 94. The French Ambassadors protest against the Council 95. And go to Venice 96. Andelot Marshal of France loseth the favour of his Prince 19. Suspected to be in the conspiracy of Bloys 43. Sent for Succours into Germany 78. Is in the battle of Dreux 80. Defends Orleans 82. The Archbishop of Toledo suspected of Heresie 48. An Assembly of the great Men of France at Fountainbleau 44. Of the three Estates decreed 46. Opened at Orleans 51. Prorogued 52. Reassembled at Pont Oyse 58. An Assembly of the Delegates of France 68. B BAbotz a Town in Hungary besieged 5. The battle of St. Quintin 15. Of Graveling 20. Of Dreux 80. The Bavarians demand the Cup and the Marriage of their Clergy in a Tumult 97. Bellay Jean Cardinal Dies 50. The Bible sufficient alone to determine the controversies of Religion 60. Books prohibited and why 86. Bona Sfortia Queen of Poland dies Du Bourg Anna a member of the Parliament of Paris offends the King 31. Is Prosecuted 32. Condemned and Executed 34. C CAlais its Form and Strength 17. Siege and taking from the English 18. Profered to the Queen 41. Catharine de Medicis Queen Dowager of France made Regent 33. She preserves Conde and Navar 47. She shews great favour to the Protestants but yet underhand opposed them 56. Suspecteâ—h the Nobility 57. Excuseth the conference of Poissy 60. Dissembles the Rudeness of Laines 61. Solicited to begin a Persecution by the Spaniards 65. She prohibits the worship of Images 69. She puts her self and her Son under the Protection of the Prince of Conde 72. Yet out of fear joyns with the Catholick Lords 72. And betrays Conde 73. She pretends she is at
Liberty ibid. She thanks Conde for his good Service 75. She treats with him 75 79. She feareth the Duke of Guise after the battle of Dreux yet makes him General 81. After he was slain she more earnestly desired a Peace than before 83. She excuses the Peace when made 91. She complains of the proceedings in the Council of Trent 94. Catzenello bogen resigned 13. Cavii 11. Charles V. Emperor resigns Spain and the Empire 5. Goes into Spain 7. His Letter to his Son 15. His Death and Character 23. Charles the IX King of France succeeds his Brother 47. Carried by force to Paris 72. Is declared out of his Minority at fourteen years of Age 99. Charles Cardinal Caraffa strangled 64. Christian King of Denmark dies 26. The Church ever pure and spotless 51. Civitella a small City in Italy baffles the French 10. Coligni Admiral of France taken in St. Quintin 15. Suspected to be in the conspiracy of Bloys 43. Recommends a toleration as necessary 44. Delivereth a Petition for the Proâ—estants 45. Made General after the Battle of Dreux 81. Disownes the having any hand in the Murder of the Duke of Guise 83. Dislikes the Peace of Orleans 84. Colonna mark Antony 8. Conde Lewis the concealed head of the conspiracy of Amboys 42. Detained for it 43. Leaves the Court 44. Imprisoned 〈◊〉 Orleans 47. Freed upon the Death of the King 48. Acquitted in the Parliament of Paris 56. Reconcil'd to the Duke of Guise 58. The Queen desires his Protection 71. He declareth a War against the Catholick Lords 73. Taken at the battle of Dreux 80. Makes a Peace at Orelans 84. The Conference of Poissy resolved on 58. Began 59. One at Wormes 13. Conquet in Britain taken by the English 21. The Conspiracy of Bloys 42. Discovered first by a Protestant 43. Constantio Confessor to Charles V. burnt after he was dead for Heresie 35. The Copthites pretend submission to the Pope 57. Cosmus Duke of Florence obtains the possaession of Siena 10. Procures a Peace for the Duke of Ferrara 11. And the Assembling of the Council of Trent 49. Ruines the Power of the Caraffa's 26. Councils are not to change the Doctrines or Customes of the Church 45. A National Council decreed in France 46. That of Trent procured to avoid it 49. Recall'd 62. Writ against by Vergerius ibid. Protested against by the Protestant Princes of Germany 63. Opened 86. Complained of by the Queen of France 94. Accused for invading the Rights of Princes 95. Protested against by the French ibid. 96. Ended and Censured 96. The reason why it had no better Success 97. D DAvid George a famous Anabaptist his Life Doctrine and Death 28 29. Diepe taken by the Protestants 74. Surrendred 78. Diana Dutchess of Valentinois 30. Dietmarsh conquered 26. Diets at Ratisbonne 12. At Augsbourg 27. At Naumburg 63. At Francfort 89 13. At Brisgow 89. A Disputation rejected when enforced by an Army 41. Doway attempted by the French 9. Dreux the battle of 80. Dunbar dismantled 42. Dunkirk taken by the French 20. E EGmont Count General at Graveling 21. Elizabeth Queen succeeds 22. Is severely treated by the Pope 23. She at first refuseth but at length leagues with the Protestant Scots 40. She is kind to Mary of Scotland 67. And after this Leagueth with the Prince of Conde 77. She rejects the Council of Trent 64. And the Council designed to depose her 90. The Question Whether Episcopacy is of Divine Institution Debated in the Council and rejected 87. Erick King of Sweden succeeds Gustavus his Father 49. Is Crowned 64. F FAith not to be kept with Hâ—reticks 37. Broken by R. Catholicks 53 54. Designed to be broken when time serves 91. A Turkish Fleet sent to the Assistance of the French 19. The English Fleet make an unfortunate Expedition into France 21. One of LI. Ships attend Charles V. into Spain 7. A Fleet of 90. carries his Son Philip thither 35. The English fleet procureth the victory at Graveling 22. Ferdinand Brother of Charles V. His War in Transylvania and Hungary 4 5. The Resignation of the Empire to him 6. He is elected Emperor 22. He confirms the Peace of Passaw 12. 28. He gives a brisk answer to the French Ambassador ibid. He Solicites the Protestant Princes to submit to the Council of Trent 62. Paul IV. refuseth to acknowledge him to be Emperor 22. He expresses his dislike of the proceedings of the Council of Trent in a Letter to the Pope 90. Hindereth them from proceeding against Queen Elizabeth 96. Ferrara the Cardinal of 85. The Duke of Ferrara makes his Peace 11. His Death 36. Francis Otho Duke of Lunenberg dies 36. Francis II. Succeeds Henry II. his Father in France 33. Having before Married Mary Queen of the Scots 19. He is reported to have the Leprosie 34. Claims England in the Right of his Wife 38. Dies 47. Francford quarrels fatal 11. Frederick I. King of Denmark dies and is Succeeded by Frederick II. His Son 25. He conquereth Dietmarsh 26. His answer to the Popes Legate 63. Frederick III. Duke of Bauaria 36. G GUise the Duke of sent into Italy 10. Recalled 11. Made General in France 16. Takes Calais 17. But is the cause of the defeat near Graveling 20. He is made Lieutenant General of France 43. He procureth the persecution in France 30. Reconcil'd to Conde 58. Recal'd to Court by the K. of Navar 70 71. He frights the Queen into a Compliance with the R. Catholick Lords 72. Becomes General in the end of the Battle of Dreux 81. And is slain by one Poltrot before Orleans 82. Gran a City in Hungary surprized 5. Gustavns King of Sweden dies 49. Guines taken 18. H. HAly General of the Turkish Forces in Hungary his Actions Character and Death 4. Hamilton John Archbishop of St. Andrâ—â—s committed for hearing Mass 99. Havre de Grace surrendered to the English 77. Retaken by the French 98. Helinoa Queen of France dies 36. Henry II. King of France breaks his Oath by the Procurement of the Pope 9. He recovereth Calais out of the hands of the English 17. Zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion 20. He discovereth a secret design between him and K. Philip to the Prince of Orange 27. Is perswaded to persecute the Protestants of France 30. He is incensed against the Parliament of Paris 31. The Protestant Princes of Germany write to him 32. His Death and Character 33. His designs against England 38. K. Philip desireth a Peace that he may be at leisure to extirpate Heresie 27. All Hereticks to be persecuted with Fire and Sword 30 31. Faith not to be kept with such 53 54 91. Princes to be deposed for Heresie 92 93. Philip much commended for his Severity to Hereticks in the Council of Trent 91. No Peace to be made with such ibid. Dangerous to Government 51. Hospital made Chancellor of France 44. His Speech to the Assembly of Princes ibid. He assures the Clergy there should be a National Council
Duke of Aumales Marraige Louis d' Avilaâ— History of the German War. Islebius brags of the Interim The Bishop of Auranches writes against the Interim So does Romey the Dominican The constancy of the Sons of the Duke of Saxony The Duke of Saxony avows to the Emperour his rejecting of the Interim The Deputies of Constance with the Emperour Their humble Letters to him The Bishop of Constance dies of an Apoplexy which he had imprecated unto his People Maximilian's War against the Switzers The Emperour changeth the Senate of Ausburg The Companies are abolished The Emperour gives sentence in favour of Nassaw against the Landgrave The Spaniards march privately to Constance Alfonsus Vives was killed and the Spaniards draw off without success A Custom of the Switzets The Letter of the Strasburgers to the Emperour Their Judgment of the Interim The Emperours answer to those of Strasburg The people of Constance proscribed They pray some Princes and the Suitzers to intercede with the Emperour for them The Emperous answer to the intercessors Those of Lindaw receive the Interim The Strasburgers consult about the Interim Many of them renounce their freedoms in the City and depart The Senate of Vlm changed The constancy of four Divines of Vlm The Ministers of Vlm put into Chains The Emperour comes to Spire The Popes Legats sent to Germany The Duke of Saxony and Landgrave carried Prisoners into the Low Countries The Deputies of Strasburg with the Emperour The Bishops of Strasburg's Letter to the Clergy about the observation of the Decree Their Letter to the Emperour The Deputies of Strasburg are dismissed and ordered to agree with their Bishop The Emperour keeps the Duke of Saxony with him The Landgrave he sends to Oudenard The Reformation of the Chamber The Duke of Brunswick brings an Action against the Protestants and so do some others The people of Constance give themselves up to the house of Austria King Ferdinand upon Conditions takes them into his protection And then lays his Commands upon them The Marriage of Duke Augustus of Saxony A Sedition at Bourdeaux The Bourdeaux-men receive the Constable and his Soldiers The Punishments inflicted by the Constable at Bourdeaux The Bells are taken from them and their Charters burnt The dead Body of the King's Lieutenant being by the Citizens scraped out of the ground with their Nails is splendidly buried The horrible History of Francis Spira John Caso Archbishop of Benevento the Pope's Legate at Venice Spira falls sick and also into despair admitting of no comfort He dyes despairing of Salvation Vergerio The strange Conversion of Vergerio to the reformed Religion Vergerio writes a Book against the Apostates of Germany John Baptista Vergerio Bishop of Pola The Inquisitors against Vergerio An Invective against Vergerio The Inquisition of Pola and Justinopolis Grisonio's exhortation against the Lutherans Vergerio goes to Trent to justifie himself in Council But is deny'd a place in it Vergerio preached the Gospel against the Grisons from thence was called to Tubingen Vergerio's Brother dies not without suspition of Poyson The Book of an Archbishop on the praise of Sodomy Marriages contracted by the Ministers of the Church of Cologne are annulled and declared to be incestuous The Custom of the Province of Treves The Interim is in vain pressed upon the Landgrave's subjects Siâ—onius consecrates a new the Churches of Franckfurt The Queen of Scots carried over into France Philip the Emperour's Son passes through Italy to the Low Countries Philip is magnificently received at Genova 1549. As also at Milan The Count of Buren dies A Convention of States in Saxony A Form of Religion is drawn up for Saxony The Emperous Son comes to Germany The Duke of Arescot is sent to meet him Duke Maurice's intercession for the Landgrave his father-in-Father-in-Law Troubles in Africa Upon what occasion the Cardinal of Lorrain was made Bishop of Metz. The City of Strasburg's Letter to the Emperour The People of Magdenburg exposed as a prey because of Religion The Preachers of Vlm freed out of Prison Tumults in Engâ—and The Admiral of England beheaded The Bishop of Strasburg enjoyns the Clergy to obey the Emperours Edict The diligence of Archbishop Cranmer in Promoting Piety Bucer and Fagius go over Sea to England The Emperours Son makes his entry into Brussels Intercession made for the Landgrave but in vain The Bishop of Strasburg says Mass The Plea of the Professors of Strasburg to the Bishop The Answer of the Bishops Agents to the Professors of Strasburg The intercession of the Senate of Strasburg for their Professors Christopher Welsinger a Civilian The Duke of Deux-ponts is again urged to approve the Decree His Letter to the Emperour The Ingenuous Confession of the Duke of Deux-ponts The refutation of the Interim by those of Lower Saxony The beginning of the divisions in the Churches of Saxony The Hamburghers Letter to Melaâ—chton about indifferent matters Melanchton's Answer The Electoral Archbishops held Provincial Synods The Heads of their Decrees Of Consecrations and Exorcisms The manifold use of Holy Water Salt in Baptism The Churching of Women 1589. The Ceremony of the Dedication of a Church The Consecration of Bells The way of Consecrating Altars The making of Oyl and the Chrism The Popish Ceremonies brought into contempt through the preaching of Luther A Papal Decree concerning the use of Holy Water The Pope's Legates to the Emperour The Pope's Indulgence The Power of the Bishops delegated Of Monks fallen into Heresie Of the Communion in both kinds Of the Profits of Church Lands The Subdelegation of the Bishops Delegate The Emperour sends the Pope's Indult to the Bishops of Germany The Archbishop of Mentz sends the Pope's Indult to the Landgravians A godly Answer of the Preachers A Dispute at Oxford in England about the Lord's Supper The Coronation of the Queen of France The King and Queen of France make their entry into Paris A Persecution in France Solemn Processions and Prayers at Paris Luther and other Hereticks to be rooted out of France Monsieur Vervine beheaded A League betwixt the Switzers and French. Duke Maurice's Letters to his Subjects The Landgraves Wife dies An Insurrection in England The French King recovers some Places from England The Duke of Somerset committed to Prison The Emperour makes the Low-Countries do Homage to his Son Prince Philip. The Senate of Strasburg agree with their Bishop The danger of the Republick of Magdeburg by reason of the Emperours Proscription Their Apologetick Declaration Two Reasons why they cannot obtain Peace Gordius the Martyr The Marriage of Francis of Mantua The death of Paul III. A Book against Paul III. The Murders of Paul III. Paul's Sister being a Whore makes him a Cardinal He murders another Sister His Lusts The Funeral Charges of Paul III. A description of the Conclave of Rome 54 Cardinals in the time of Paul III. The way of chusing the Pope How many Voices every Cardinal may give Three Factions of Cardinals The Conclave full of chinks Pool upon
Beheaded The Deaths of the Duke and Duchess of Saxony The differences between him and Augustus The Strangers leave England The Princess Elizab. committed to the Tower. The Siege of Siena Sir Tho. Wiat executed A Parliament The Diet of Germany The Norimbergerr Answer to Albert. Albert goes into Saxony The Duke of Savoy dies The Edict of King Ferdinand concerning Religion Papal Queries The French War iâ— the Low-Countries In Italy Prince Philip arrives in England Naples Resigned The Diet of ankfurt The French King's Letter to this Diet. Milan resigned to King Philip A Parliament in England †The Attainder was reversed the 22th of November England reconciled to the See of Rome The Emperor's Letter to the States of Germany Ferdinand comes to Ausburg 1555. The Parliament of England dissolved Five burnt in England The Diet opened in Germany A National Council of Germany long disused The Effect of this Speech April 10. 1556. England submits to the Court of Rome 1556. †Atrocia Blasseburg ruined Ferdinand invites the Princes to the Diet. The Protestâ—ne Ministers Comfort the banished Bohemians The French War in Piâ—dmont The Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg and other Princes League together The Letter of these Princes to the Emperor The Elector of Mentz dies Julius III. dies Siena taken by the Emperor's Forces Marceilus II. dies Paul the IV. Elected Cardinal Pool's Letter for a Peace †In 1521. * In 1522. Queen Mary mediates between the Emperor and King of France The Letter of the German Princes to the Emperor His Answer The Persecution in England An Insurrection in Geneva The Turks Fleet. Porto Ercole taken Catzenellobâ—gen The English Ambassadors Return from Rome The Danish Navy †1549. Latimer and Ridley burnt at Oxford †I suppose our Author was mis-informed as to this Particular The Parliament of Paris Answer to the King's Edict Caâ—zenellobogen The Low Countries resigned by the Emperor to King Philip. The Diet of Germany †In 1548. The Allegations of the Roman-Catholicks A Virulent Paper put in by the Roman-Catholicks against the Protestants Liberty of Conscience contrary to Catholick Religion The Protestants Answer Rom. 1. The Answer of King Ferdinand The form of the Recess prâ—posed Ferdinand's Answer to the Papers The Protestants Reply Ferdinand's Answer to the Protestants The Decree then made A Parliament begun the 21st of October in England The Pope requires the restitution of Abby-Lands Bishop Gardiner Dies †A suppression of his Urin. A Duke of Venice deposed King Philip and Ferdinand send Ambassadors to the Princes of Germany King Philip entereth upon the Government of the Netherlands The Address of the States of the Lower Austria for Liberty of Conscience King Ferdinand's Answer The States of the Lower Austria reply English affairs †The 12th of September Cranmer Burnt The Subjects of Bavaria petition for Liberty of Conscience Transylvania revolts The Cardinal of Ausburg's Apology for himself The Marquess of Baden embraceth the Augustan Confession Peter Martyr goes to Zurich * The cause by them alledged was That Ferdinand contrary to his promise had put Spanish Souldiers into their Towns which ruin'd their Country Thuan. †The Inhabitants and Garrison finding the Castle too little to be defended made a sudden Sally and recovered the Town the 23d of July the Turks were forced with great loss and shame to draw off * Which was then said to be much debased and corrupted to the damage of the People †These short Accounts seem added by another hand after the Author was dead if not that of the Emperour's Journey The Introduction The Revolt of Transylvania Sigeth besieged and most bravely defended by the Germans The Situation of Sigeth Babotz besieged The Character of Haly the Turks General Gran surprized by Scalado Charles V resigns the Netherlands and Spain to his Son. And the Empire to his Brother Ferdinand The Emperour's Ambassadours to the Electoral Princes The Emperour sets sail for Spain His Speech at his landing The description of the Place in which he lived Thuanus John Sleidan's Death and Character Natura iracundus pene implacabilis Natalis Comes Paul IV a furious Hare-brained Prince He annexes the Kingdom of Naples to the See of Rome The Duke de Alva begins a a War upon the Papacy Anagni taken Rome prepared for a Siege The Seige of Ostia 1557. The French Affairs Valenza taken Ostia retaken by the Pope The War in Italy under the Duke of Guise The Duke de Alva takes the Field Segni taken by the Spaniards The Duke of Guise recall'd A Peace between King Philip and the Pope * Caviiâ— The Affairs of England Ferrara rescued from Ruine by the Duke of Florence The Dyet of Ratisbonne A Remonstrance of the Protestant Princes Albert Marquis of Brandenburg dies The County of Catzenellobogen setled by Agreement The Conference at Wormes The War between France and Spain Queen Mary joyns with Spain The Siege of St. Quintin The Battel of St. Quintin Montmorancy ruin'd by being taken Prisoner The Day of the Battel St. Quintin taken by Storm A Letter of Charles V to his Son Philip. The French Army grows great A Persecution in France The misrepresentations of the Roman Catholicks against the Protestants The Siege of Calais 1558. The Site of Calais Guines taken A Turkish Fleet land in several Places of Italy and carry many into Slavery The Dauphine married to Mary Queen of Scotland The first Proposals of a Peace between France and King Philip. Andelot Marshal of France ruined by the Arts of the Guises Thionville besieged and taken The Defeat of Thermes near Graveling Dunkirk surprized And Vinoxberg The English Fleet unsuccessful The Treaty of Cambray began The Parliament of England meet and Queen Mary dies The German Affairs * That is the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government The Death and Character of Charles the Fifth His Opinion concerning Justification Queen Elizabeth succeeds The Scotch Affairs Scotland begins to entertain the Reformation 1559. The Death of Frederick I King of Denmark Christian II King of Denmark dies Frederick II conquereth Dieâ—marsh The Affairs of Italy New Bishopricks erected in the Low-Countries King Philip desirous of a Peace with France that he might be at leisure to extirpate Heresie That Design discover'd to the Prince of Orange The Dyet of Germany Conditions proposed by the Protestants for a Council The Emperor Confirms the Peace of Passaw The French Embassadors come to the Dyet The Life and Death of David George a famous Impostor The Treaty of Cambray produces a Peace at last The Peace occasions a Persecution in France The King goes to the Parliament of Paris to aw it into a Compliance Yet some retained their Freedom at the Price of their Lives The King's Answer A French Synod held by the Protestant Ministers The Protestant Princes of Germany write to the King of France A Commission issued to try the suspected Members of Parliament Du Bourg first tried The sad Condition of France during the Persecution Henry
be entirely reserved to them But so that those Princes and States in whose Territories the same are shall not hereby lose that civil Right they had before this difference of Religion in and to the said Goods And moreover that they may with the same Goods provide for the necessary Services of the Churches Parishes Alms Hospitals of the Poor and Sick according to their first Constitution without any Consideration of which of the Religions the Person is who shall be thus assisted or relieved and maintained And if upon the account of this Alimony or the manner of it any Difference or Suit shall arise they shall mutually or by consent chuse Arbitrators who having heard the Controversy shall within six Months determine and appoint what shall be deducted for such Uses and Services and conferred or bestowed upon the same And in the mean time till the Suit is thus determined they who are to pay this Allowance shall not be interrupted in their Possession but shall continue to yield and pay during the Suit what they anciently used to give or Pay. In October and November there was a Parliament held in England and most Men thought the Crowning King Philip would have been one of the principal Affairs of it but this was never proposed But the Queen sollicited the restitution of the Abby-Lands because the Pope required it but the great Men and Nobility had got them and therefore nothing could be done in that Affair But the Queen restored the first Fruits and the tenths to the Church During this Session of Parliament certain sharp and virulent Pamphlets were spread abroad in London in which were some things tending to stirring up the Minds of the People against the Spaniards and others for alienating the Mind of the Queen from King Philip her Husband and an Inquisition being made after the Authors of them nothing could be found Before the end of this Parliament Gardiner Bishop of Winchester died of a Dropsie the twelfth of November who was then Lord Chancellor of England which Office in February following was given to Heath Archbishop of York who had travelled with Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury in Germany and did then profess the Reformed Religion About the fifth of November died the Wife of John Frederick Elector of Saxony who was the Daughter of the Landgrave whose Marriage I have mentioned above Francisco Venerio Duke of Venice was deposed for having unfaithfully managed the business of the Corn and sought his own private more than the publick Good. When the Emperor had resigned the Soveraignty and Government of the Low Countries Philip his Son sent Ambassadors to the principal Princes and Cities of Germany to acquaint them with it and to offer them his Friendship and Alliance And at the same time the Ambassadors of King Ferdinand solicited the said Princes and Cities to be present at the day prefixed for the opening of the Diet because a great danger hung over his Head from the Turks who had demanded of him the resigning into his Hands of the Principality of Transylvania which was very strong by Nature and exceeding Fruitful and afforded great numbers of Horsemen He called also a Diet of his own Provinces for the same purpose in which the States of lower Austria desired to have Liberty of Conscience granted them But the King turned them over to the general Diet at Ratisbon for an answer to this and he also appointed them to meet again the thirteenth of January of the next Year at Vienna The Marquess di Marignano dying at Milan the Emperor or his Son sent the Cardinal of Trent to supply his Place and the Duke de Alva was made Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples About Christmas the Pope according to his Custom created some new Cardinals amongst whom he named John Gropper Coadjutant to the Archbishop of Cologne who has been often mentioned by me who refused the acceptance of this Dignity And then Cardinal Pool was first promoted from a Cardinal Deacon to a Cardinal Presbyter and began to say Mass which by the Papal Laws is not allowed to the Deacons In the beginning of January there were horrible Tempests in Saxony Misnia and Bohemia attended with Thunder Lightning and violent Winds which every where did great dammages especially to the Churches In the same Month at Wintertbur a Town of Switzerland two Miles from Zurich in the Night time after Supper a Fire appeared in one of the Turrets of the Church which seemed by its noise and brightness to threaten the Ruin of that Fabrick but when the Inhabitants came to put it out it was a delusion and they found no Fire this happened twice in this Month viz. the fourth and the fourteenth day Some of the Cantons being after this solicited by the Pope went to Rome which caused a very great Suspition in many King Philip being to enter upon his new Government upon the Resignation of his Father began it with a pompous and splendid Entrance the eighteenth day of January into Antwerp which was then the Principal City of those Countries The Persecution of the Protestants in England was then very sharp The thirteenth of January the Deputies and States of Austria met at Vienna as they had been Commanded when the King shewed them in a long and grave Speech how great the danger was which threatned them from the Tarks and therefore admonished them forth with to expedite their Succours aud to grant him Money that he might be in a Condition to repress his Cruelty and Rage Then those which belonged to the lower Austria acquainted him that they were commanded linded by their Principals in the first Place to transact the business of Religion That therefore they informed his Majesty what they had been doing for fourteen years last past how often they had addressed to him and supplicated him in this affair and what kind of Edicts he had in the mean time issued out contrary to their Expectation And therefore say they seeing all our Counsels against the Turks have been disappointed and as yet we have been so far from repressing him that he has rather more and more prevailed against us and has taken many Cities Towns Castles and strong Forts in Hungary and Sclavonia and now hangs over our Heads we may therefore justly aver that it is a manifest Judgment of God who chastiseth us for our Sins and afflicts us because we have not amended our Lives and that in such manner that it is visible that if his Word is not received and a Reformation of Life promoted we shall lose not only our Lives and Fortunes but Eternal Salvation too For though the whole Earth were to Arm against that Enemy whilst it remains in this unreformed state of Life there is no Victory to be hoped for but instead of it Ruin and Destruction as hath often heretofore happened to the most flourishing Kingdoms We did something towards this in the last Convention when
to the Swisses The Skirmishes the Princes had with the Imperialists Erenberg again taken A Mutiny in the Camp of Duke Maurice The Emperor flies in the Night time And escapes to Villach The Duke of Saxony set at Liberty A Convention of the States of the Low-Countries about making a League The Bishops of Cologne and Liege make League with the House of Burgundy The Emperor's House Plundered The Declaration of the Princes for restoring the outed Ministers The Princes restore the Ministers Devastations made by Marquess Albert. Albert's Letter to those of Norimberg The treaty of the Norimbergers with Duke Maurice Their Complaint to the Princes The Answer of the Princes The Norimbergers Answer to Albert's Letter Albert's cruelty towards the Norimbergers The Bishops of Bamberg and Wurtzburg severely fined by Albert. The Cities of Schuabia Mediators betwixt the Norimbergers and Marquess Albert The Norimbergers make Peace with Marquess Albert The Siege of Norimberg removed Albert's Letter to the City of Ulm. The City of Ulm's Answer to Albert. The French King wastes the Country of Luxembourg And sacks Danvilliers and Ivey The Treaty of Passaw Duke Maurice's Grievances The Opinion of the Princes Moderators concerning the Grievances proposed by Duke Maurice The French Ambassador's Speech The Princes answer to the Speech of the French Ambassador Of the Family of Luxembourg Albert of Austria Duke Maurice insists chiefly on two Points The Mediators by Letters exhort the Emperor to Peace Albert of Brandenburg deserting the Confederates makes War in his own Name Albert falls foul of the Electors of Mentz and Treves The Elector of Mentz flies for it Albert demands of the Elector of Treves his chief Castle Duke Maurice impatient of Delay His Speech in the Assembly of the Princes The Emperor's Letter to the Princes Mediators The Mediators Letter to the Emperor Duke Maurice returns to the Confederates Duke Maurice besieges Francfurt George Duke of Meckleburg killed with a great Shot The Elector Palatine unwillingly supplies the Princes with Cannon Conditions of Peace proposed by the Emperor The Emperor's Answer to the Mediators Letter The Emperor's Answer to the French Ambassadors Letter Duke Maurice accepts the Peace The French King reduces his Army The Duchess of Lorain commanded to leave France Wolffgang Master of Prussia driven out of his Countrey Albert persecutes the Bishops on the Rhine The Bishop of Spire dies Albert's Demands to the Senate of Strasburg The Answer of the Senate Albert besieges Franckfurt The Heads of the Pacification at Passaw The French King offended at the Pacification of Passaw Rifeberg joyns with Albert. Who slighting the Peace makes war against the Bishops of Mentz and Spire The Arch-Bishop of Mentz comes to Ausburg The Sienese revolt from the Emperor Marquess Albert robs she Churches of Mentz Spire The Death of Herman Archbishop of Cologne The Landgrave set at liberty is stopt again Duke Maurice sends his Forces into Hungary Those of Treves refuse a Garison And receive Albert. The Emperor again changes the Senate of Ausburg and restores the Ministers of the Church The Duke of Saxony and Landgrave return home Melanchthon congratulates the return of the Duke of Saxony Marquess Albert's March into the Country of Luxembourg The Emperor charges the Franconians to recover what Albert had taken from them The Emperor marches with his Army to Lorrain The Deputies of Strasburg desires of the Emperor His Answer The Emperor makes his Entry into Strasburg Where the Senate makes him a Present Foreign Ambassadors with the Emperor Richard Morison from England and Marco Antonio Amulio from Venice The Rapine of the Soldiers Which the Duke of Alva did not or could not repress The outlawed Persons slight the Peace and stay in France Hedio and Osiander Dye The Emperor besieges Metz. Marquess Albert makes his Peace with the Emperor Rifeberg goes over to the French King. A Fight betwixt Albert and the French at Pont à Mousson The Bishop of Bayonne escapes and D'Aumale is taken George Lichtemberg The Imperialists take Hesdin The French King writes to the Emperor The Siege of Metz. The Duke of Brunswick again driven out of his Country by Count Mansfield The Master of the Teutonick Order takes Elwang The Duke of Wirtemberg regains Elwang The People of Ulm demolish Helfestein The Emperor raises the Siege of Metz. 1553. Lutheran Books burnt by the Hangman at Metz. The Imperial Chamber order War to be made against Marquess Albert The French Declaration to the States of the Empire Marquess Albert's Complaint of the Franconian Bishops His Deputation also to the Imperial Chamber The Chambers Answer The Emperor writes to Marquess Albert. The Commissioners of the Dukes of Saxony John Frederick and Maurice meet to make them Friends The Ambition of Cardinal Lenoncourt Marsey garrisoned by French. Princes meet at Heidelberg to make Peace betwixt Marquess Albert and the Bishops of Franconia Marquess Albert slighting Peace betakes himself to Arms and publishes a Declaration The Duke of Wirtemberg and the Master of the Teutonick Order are reconciled The Decree of the Imperial Chamber against Marquess Albert and who were enjoyned to put it in Execution Duke Maurice makes a League with the Duke of Brunswick Albert Burns and Plunders He takes Bamberg The Norimbergers raise Bohemian Horse The Duke of Brunswick plagues his Neighbours Cleve and Cologne made Friends A convention of the Princes at Franckfurt The Emperor's Answer to his Ambassadors Letters The Counts of Oetingen force a good Father into Banishment Terovanne besieged and taken English Affairs The War in Germany The Declaration against Alcert Albert's Answer Albert's Territories Invaded Sigismond King of Poland Edward VI. Dies A Battel in which Maurice Elector of Saxony is Slain Maurice Duke of Saxony dies Prodigies which seemed to foretel his Death Hesdin taken The Emperor's Advice to the Princes of Germany Augustus Brother of Maurice succeeds The Diet of Saxony Nine Persons burnt at Lyons in France English Affairs †Sleidan has Norfolk Queen Mary entreth London The Story of Gardiner Northumberland beheaded Peter Martyr One Thornton Suffragan at Dover †Four or five †This Manifesto is extant at large in Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation The Bishop imprisoned The Religion changed in England German Affairs Albert defated again Hoffe taken Corsica taken By the French and Turks The Waa in France Cambray besieged Several Princes of Germany meet †The Duchess de Valentois Albert retires into France Brunswick sieged †He was Prolocutor of the lower House of Convocation and Dean of Westminster but the Dispute began the twenty third of October tho' it was proposed the eighteenth in the Convocation Servetus a Spaniard burnt Sturmius dies Cardinal Pool detained in Germany The War against Albert Prosecuted English Affairs †Outlawed †Outlawed A Parliament in England †This was not done till March of the next Year 1554. †In this our Author seems to be â—isinformed for he said nothing of Religion in Publick The Lady Jane