beyond what was paied them in France was imputed to his Method of Writing that wants none of the beauties of History except that of Truth and to the Ignorance in which Strangers live as to the Particulars of their History It is true at last he has found a Patron and a Pension and now he has given us an Essay of his Merits but if this Work is examined severely he will very probably soon lose his appointments since mercenary Pens are seldom paied longer than they can be useful Here one finds so much occasion for censure that whereas in other Books one must run up and down to find matter for a Critical Judgment here it occurs so copiously that a Man must take care not to surfeit his Reader with too much of it and therefore must choose out the more remarkable Errours and there are even so many of these that it is to be feared that the World will not think him not his Writings worth the time and the pains that must be bestowed on them Mr. Maimbourg has set a Pattern to the World that thô few wil care to imitate yet it has taken so much with the present Age that it is no light indication of its degeneracy when surch books are so much read and sold in which the Writer seems to have so broken loose from all the common measures either of honesty or shame that one would wonder of what composition he were made if they did not know that he has lived 50 years the in Iesuite Order for as he has no regard to truth or likelyhood in what he writs so he seems to be proof against the evidentest discoveries of his prevarications that are possible and when they are laid open in a manner capable of making any man besides himself to blush he neither has the conscience to confess his errours nor the sense of honour to justify himself but he finds out still new matter to writ on and a new stock of Champaigne wine as I have been told that he has oft said to make his blood boil till he has spoild an other piece of History and he thinks a scornfull period or two in a Preface is enough to carry off all the shame to which his errours ought to condemn him He has also the Impudence to dedicate his books to the King and the world is still willing to be cosened by him This trade has succeeded so well with him that it seems Mr. Varillas vies with him in it and as he has the chaster stile and the more natural way of misleading his Reader so he has resolved not to be behind him in a bold quality that I love not to set down by its proper Name But thô Mr. Varillas has the art to refine upon the pattern that Mr. Maimbourg set him yet Mr. Maimbourg is the Author of the Invention and therefore he deserves the better Pension History is a sort of Trade in which false Coyn and false Weights are more criminal than in other Matters because the Errour may go further and run longer thô these Authors colour their copper too slightly to make it keep its credit long If Men think there are degrees of Lying then certainly those that are the most loudly told that wound the deepest that are told with the best grace and that are transmitted to Posterity under the deceitful colours of Truth have the blackest Guilt but some Men have arrived at equal degrees in hardning their Consciences and in steeling their Forheads and are without the reach either of inward Remorses or publick Discoveries so that as Augustus fancied there was a charm in the Pillour of a Roman that died hugely indebted since without an extraordinary saporiferous composition he could not fancy how such a Man could sleep securely so if humane Nature did not often produce some very irregular Individuals a Man that feels the Authority that Truth and Modesty have ever a pure mind can not easily imagine by what secret others can quite extinguish those Inclinations which he finds are so prevalent in himself But I will now by Mr. Varillas's leave take the liberty to set before him some of his most conspicuous errours and thô I do not expect much sincerity from himself yet I hope the world will be juster than he has shewed himself to be Mr. Varillas begins his History with a view of the progress of that which he calls Heresy in a Prophetick stile setting forth what effects it was to produce as if he were foretelling what was to fall out and that for 11. pages according to the Impression of Amsterdam this has so little of the air of a Historian and is so full of the figures of a Declaimer that it looks liker the strain of a heated and angry Fryer than of a grave and serious Writer of History who ought to be always in cold blood and ought not to let the heats of a vitious Rhetorick transport him But this is so like one of the forced raptures of some Missionary that one would think it was writ either by one of them or for one of them It is much a safer thing to prophecy concerning matters that are past than concerning those that are to come and one is less in danger of committing errours yet when heat enters into matters of History and meets with so vast a deal of Ignorance as is that of Mr. Varillas no wonder if it carries him into great errours If Mr. Varillas had gathered the History of the last Age out of any Books or out of those Letters tha◠he so often vouches he could not have said that Edward th◠6th's Tutor or Governour was the Duke of Northumberland since there is not any one Book writ concerning that Time that does not shew the contrary The Duke of Somerset was his Governour and for the Duke of Northumberland thô the last two Years of that Reign in which that King was past the Age of Tutelage he bore the chief sway of affairs yet he had neither the Character of the King's Tutor or Governour nor any other whatsoever but only that of a Privy Councellour that was much considered by him and he at his Death professed that he had been always a Catholick in his Heart so that his pretending to be of the Reformed Religion to serve his interests shews that he belongs no more to our Church than the now forced Converts belong to that of Rome In the same page he says that Mary Queen of Scotland did by her Bastard Brother's persuasions marry a single Gentleman and on the Margent he gives his Name Henry d' Arley this is a new proof how little he knows the Books of the last Age. This Henry whom he calls d' Arley was Henry Lord Darly eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox which was one of the chief Families of Scotland and a Branch of the Family of the Stewarts It is true it came off from it before the Crown came into it by Mariage yet the
REFLECTIONS On Mr. VARILLAS's HISTORY Of the Revolutions that have happned in Europe in matters of Religion And more particularly on his Ninth Book that relates to England By G. BURNET D. D. Amsterdam Printed for P. Savouret in the Warmoes-street near the Dam. 1686. REFLECTIONS On Mr. VARILLAS's HISTORY of the Revolutions that have happned in Europe in matters of Religion and more particularly on his 9 th Book that relates to England MR Varillas has within a few Years given the World so many-Books of History and these have been so much read and so well received that it seems he thinks he is now so far possessed of the esteem of the Age that he may venture to impose upon it the falsest coyn that can be struck not doubting but that the name Varillas stampt upon it will make it pass current and this being a time in which some have thought that they might doe whatsoever they pleased against those of the Religion he it seems thinks he may likewise say whatsoever he pleased against them that so there may be a due proportion between the injuries that he does them with his pen and those that others make them feel with severer tools and perhaps he thought the severities that are now exercised upon them are so contrary to that tenderness with which the humane Nature not to say the Christian Religion is apt to inspire all that are not transported with such violent Passions that they drown the Motions of our bowels towards the miserable that nothing could divert the World from those merciful inclinations but the dressing up the first beginnings of the Reformation in such odious representations as might possess the Age with so much fury against them that none of the miseries that they suffer might create the least Compassion for them It is true Princes have their Prerogatives with which they take great liberties as their several passions are excited and dextrously managed the desire of glory mixing with a heat of blood at one time can produce a wâ—r as terrible in its consequences as it was injustifiable in its first beginnings and the same ambition mixing with a superstitious disposition of mind and working upon colder Blood can at another time produce a violation of Edicts that have been solemnly sworn to and often confirmed and accompany that with a sequel of Severities that are more easily lamented than expressed yet an humble regard to the sublime character of a Crown'd Head lays a restraint on those Groans which we would rather stifle than give them their full scope least the language of our Sorrows look like an accusing of those whom after all that our brethren have suffered at their hands we would still force our selves to reverence and therfore we choose rather to support our grief than to vent it at their cost But small Scriblers who have set a price upon their pens and sacrifice our reputation that they may merite a pension at the hands of the chief Instruments of our Brethrens sufferings are not to look for such respect he that fights against the Laws of War ought to expect no quarter when he is taken A Historian that favours his own side is to be forgiven thô he puts a little too much life in his colours when he sets out the best sides of his party and the worst of those from whom he disfers and if he but slightly touches the failings of his Friends and severely aggravates those of the other side thô in this he departs from the laws of an exact Historian yet this biass is so natural that if it lessens the credit of the Writer yet it does not blacken him but if he has no regard either to truth or decency if he gives his imagination a full scope to invent and his pen all the liberties of foul language he ought not to think it strange if others take some pains to expose him to the World And thô their Conscience and Religion obliges them to take other measures with relation to Truth and their Breeding engages them to a strict modesty of Stile yet if the things that are said are as severe as they are true and as wounding as they may appear soft it is nothing but what a Zeal for Truth and an Indignation at so much ill-managed injustice draws from them It is not to be denied that Mr. Varillas has an art of writing that is entertaining he pretends to discover many Secrets to give pictures of Men to the life and to interweave the Histories that he relates with a thread of Politiques that is very agreable only this appears to be overdone and those who have had much practice in humane Affairs see that the conduct of the World is not so steady and so regular a thing as he loves to represent it unlookt for Accidents the caprices of some Tempers the secrets of Amours and Jealousies with other particular Passions are the true sources of almost all that is transacted in the World even Interest it self does not always govern Mankind but Humour and Passion have their turns and oft times the largest share in humane affairs So that I ever thought that his books had too much of the air of a Romance and seemed too fine to be true He does indeed now and then to maintain his Reputation in his Reader 's mind vouch some letter or narrative but he neither tells whither it is in Print or in Manuscript or where he had it and where others may find it so this way of Citation looked suspitious yet I could not easily take up such hard thoughts of him as to imagine that all this was his own Invention but being in Paris last Summer I had the good fortune to become acquainted with some men of great probity and that had particularly applied themselves to examine the History of France with great exactness they were of the Church of Rome and seemed to have no other dislike at Mr. Varillas but that which was occasioned by the liberty that he had given himself to writ his own Imaginations for true Histories they assured me there was no regard to be had to any thing that he writ that he had gathered together many little stories which he knit together as he pleased and that without any good Authority and they told me that the greatest number of the pieces he cited were to be found now here but in his own fancy In a word they spoke of all his books with a sharpness of stile and a degree of contempt that I will not repeat least I seem to come too near his forms of speech which are the worst Patterns that one can follow I found he was generally so much decried in Paris that he has reason to say in his Preface that when the Archbishop of Paris thought on him all the World had abandoned him for I did not find any Man under a more universal Contempt than he was and the esteem in which his Works were held in Forreign Parts far
all our powers and the emancipating us from all scrupulosity concerning truth or falsehood this perhaps is the character of Mr. Varillas's Religion thô those that know him well assure me that Religion makes very little impression on him and if that is true then his Apophthegme fails in himself since the Interest of a Pension and the passion of making himself acceptable in the present time have as entirely freed him from all regard to Truth as ever any false Principle of Religion did an enraged Zealot It is matter of horrour to see Religion and Conscience set up as the violentest Corrupters of Truth but we know out of what school this has sprung and it seems Mr. Varillas has so devoted himself to the Order of the Jesuites that he is resolved to speak aloud that which they more prudently think fit to whisper in secret and indeed if we may judge of him by this character that he gives of Religion we must conclude him to be entirely possessed with it since never Man seem'd to be less solicitous than he is concerning the truth or falsehood of the things that hoavers He accuses me of favouring my own side too much and that if I confess some of King Henry's faults it is only that I may have an occasion to excuse the wretched Cranmer This is some Intimation as if he had read my Book but I doe not believe he has done it for thô I have no great opinion either of his Vertue or of his Understanding yet I doe not think he is so forsaken of common-sense and of all regard to his reputation as to have adventured to have advanced so many notorious falsehoods if he had seen upon what Authentical grounds I had so exposed them that I doe not think it possible even for Mr. Maimbourg himself after all his 50 years Noviciat to arrive at a confidence able to maintain them any longer if he had once read my Book and what I had writ was at least so important that he ought to have weakned the credit of my History by some more evident proofs than that of saying barely that I was extreamly partial to my own side My book was so much read and so favourably spoken of in France these three Years past that in common decency he ought to have alledged somewhat to have justified his Censure but this manner of writing was more easy as well as more imperious And if a large Volume of History supported with the most Authentick proofs that has ever yet perhaps accompanied any Book of that sort is to be thus shaken off it is a vain thing to write Books for Men of Mr. Varillas's temper This had been more pertinent if he had voucht for it a report which was so spread over Paris that I had received advices of it from several hands of a design in which as was reported a Clergy-man was engaged that has many excellent qualities to which Mr. Varillas seems to be a great Stranger for he has both great application and much sincerity He has searcht with great exactness that vast Collection of Mss. that relate to the last Age which are laid up in the King's Library and he had found so many things relating to England that he intended to publish a Volume of Memoires relating to our Affairs he had also said that in some things he would enlarge himself more copiously than I had done and that in other things he must differ from me Matters generally grow bigger by being oft told so this was given out as a design to write a Counter-History which should overthrow all the credit that my Work had got But upon my coming to Paris I found some sincere enquirers into truth and who by consequence are Men that have no value for Mr. Varillas who intended to bring us together that we might in an amicable manner reason the matter be foresome of our common Friends and both of us seemed to be so well disposed to sacrifice all to truth that two Persons of such Eminence that they can receive no honour by the most advantageous Characters that I can give them who were Mr. Thevenot and Mr. Auzont did procure us a meeting in the King's Library and in their presence In which the Abbot as he discovered a vast memory great exactness and much sincerity so he confessed that he had no exceptions to the main parts of my History he mentioned some things of less moment in all which I gave not only our two learned Arbiters but even himself full satisfaction so that I quickly perceived I had to doe with a man of honour He insisted most on the judgment of the Sorbonne against K. Henry's Mariage which is not in their Registers But I was certainly informed by a Dr. of the Sorbonne that their Registers are extreamly defective and that many of their Books are lost He alledged a letter to K. Henry that he had seen telling him that it was to be feared that he might be displeased with the decision of the Sorbonne and that it might doe him more hurt than good which Letter bearing s after the decision that I have printed does not seem to agree with it To this I answered that all the other decisions of Universities being given simply in the King's favours and that of the Sorbonne bearing only that the Majority had declared for him this left ablot upon the matter since when the opposition is inconsiderable decisions are given in the Name of the whole Body but the mention of the Majority imported that there was a great opposition made which thô it was not supported by a number equal to the other yet was so considerable as to lessen very much the credit of the Decision To this I added that K. Henry's printing this the Year after it was given and none ever accusing that piece of Forgery Card. Pool on the contrary acknowledging that he was in Paris when it was obtained these were undeniable Evidences of its genuinness to which he answered by a hearty acknowledgment that he had seen another Letter in which the detail of the whole Proceeding of the Sorbonne is set down and as I remember there were but one or two more than the Majority that opined on the King's side but the rest were in different Classes Some suspended their opinions others thô they condemned the Mariage yet did not think it could be broken since it was once made and some were positively of the Pope's side In end after some hours discours in which all the Company was fully satisfied with the Answers that I gave he concluded that as he had seen many more Letters relating to that matter than I had done so if I thought fit he would furnish me with a Volume of Authentical proofs for what I had writ greater than that which I had already printed And these were the Letters of the French Ambassadours that were in King Henry the 8th's Court that are in the King's Library but I did not stay
but the eldest Son lived only 9 Months the other two Sons and the eldest Girl died immediately after they were born only the youngest that was born the 8 of February 1515 was longer lived Mr. Varillas has a peculiar talent of committing more Errours in one single Period than any Writer of the Age and here he has given a good essay of his art for the Queen bore only three Children the first was a Son born the 1. of Ianuary that died the 22 of February thereafter which was not two full Months much less 9 Months the second Son died not immediatly but about a Fourtnight after he was born and the Daughter afterwards Q. Mary was born the 9th of February 1516. So that thô by chance he has hit the Month right yet he is mistaken both as to the Year and the Day of the Month. So unadvised a thing it is for an ignorant Writer to deliver matters of fact so particularly for thô this may deceive others that are as ignorant as himself by an appearance of exactness yet it lays him too open to those that can find the leisure and the patience to expose him and the last is no easy matter 12. He runs out into a very copious account of K. Henry's Disorders and dresses up Q. Katherine's Devotions in a very sublime strain It does not appear that in all that time he had any other Mistress but Elisabeth Blunt and during all that while he had the highest Panigyriques made him by all the Clergy of Europe upon his Zeal for Religion and Piety possible so that if we did not live in an Age in which Flattery has broke loose from all the restraints of Decency they would appear very extravagant Commendations and if the sublimities of Flattery were not rather a just prejudice against a Prince which give a character of a swelled Ambition and an imperious Tyranny that must be courted by such abject methods so that it is hard whither we ought to think worse of the Flaterers or the Flatered we would be tempted to judge very advantageously of K. Henry the 8th by the Dedications and other fawning Addresses that were made him As for Q. Katherine it does appear that she was indeed a vertuous and devout Woman but Mr. Varillas being more accustomed to Legends than to true Histories could not set out this without a considerable addition of his own for the half of it is not mentioned by any Author that ever I saw nor by any quoted by himself but a Poët must adorn his matter and if he has not judgment he overdoes it 13. He says the King designed to marry his natural Son the Duke of Richmont to his Daughter Mary upon which he makes that long digression concerning the Names of the Race of Tudors that was formerly considered When a Man affirms a thing that is so notoriously injurious to the Memory of a Prince he ought at least to give some sort of proof of its truth for thô in the accesses of Mr. Varillas's Religious Fits he does not think fit to trouble himself with those inconsiderable matters of Truth and Falsehood yet all the World is not of his mind and some colours of Truth are at least lookt for It is true a Negative is not easily proved so a bold Affirmer fancies he has some advantages but in this case it is quite otherwise for the whole series of the Original Instructions Messages and Letters that passed between Rome and England in that matter are still extant in all which there is not the least tittle relating to this Proposition And there are some things of such indecency that nothing but a temper like Mr. Varillas's can bring them together For when K. Henry was pretending a scruple of Conscience at his own marrying his Brother's Wise it is very improbable that he would have asked a Dispensation for a Mariage in a much nearer Degree For Sanders that is Mr. Varillas's Author says that both Propositions were made at the same time There were many Libels printed against K. Henry about that time but the strongest and the best writ was that of Cardinal Pools in which it is visible that he spares nothing that he could alledg with any colour of Truth yet he says nothing of this matter thô it had more weight in it to discover the King's Hypocrisy in pretending to scruples of Conscience than all the other things he alledges and I never could find any other Author for this Story before Sanders whose Book was printed 60 years after 14. He gives another essay of his skill in History and that he is equally ignorant of the Histories of all Kingdomes when he represents to us the endeavours of the King of Scotland for the obtaining of a Mariage with the Princes Mary in favours of his Son upon whose Person he bestows a kind dash of his Pen and he enters into a speculation of the danger that King Henry apprehended from this Proposition and that if he had rejected it the King and Prince of Scotland might have addressed themselves for it to the Parliament and that the Parliament would have raised a general Rebellion rather than have suffered King Henry to reject it The dislike that Mr. Varillas has conceived against the Crown of England seems deeply rooted in him for it returns very often Here he represents forreign Princes complaining to Parliaments when the Kings do not accept of Propositions for their Children as if our Princes were less at liberty in the disposal of their Children than the meanest of their Subjects are but he knows our Constitution as little as he does the History of Scotland otherwise he could not have represented the King of Scotland as pretending to the Mariage of the Princess Mary for his Son since K. Iames the fourth that had married King Henry's Sister was kill'd at the Battel of Floddun the 2 September 1513 above three years before the Princess was born he left an infant Son between whom and the Princess a Treaty of a Mariage was once proposed but no progress was made in it for K. Henry neglected it And he had always his Parliaments so subject to him to apprehend any of those vain Schemes with which Mr. Varillas would possess his Reader There are many that make no great progress in History but yet know somewhat of the Death of Kings and that carry some small measure of Chronology in their Head Yet since Mr. Varillas has not yet got so far he had best buy some common Chronological Tables and have them always before him when he writes and this will at least preserve him from such childish Errours 15. He tells us that there were many Pretenders to the young Princess and to make a full Period he tells us that all the Souverains of Europe courted her both the Emperour the Kings of France Spain and Scotland and so he gives us a fantastical speculation of King Henry's balancing those Propositions one against