a word to justify are also falsely cited out of Cajetan but he does not say a word to justify this and does not so much as give a shaddow of a proof that Pope Iulius designed to settle the Peace of Italy but much to the contrary for that of hindring K. Henry from marrying into Houses suspected of Heresy he says it is the part in which I treat him with the greatest Injustice and for which he has the justest occasion to complain of me and yet after all he confesses it is wrong and lays the blame of it on his Compositor so that he would make it only an Error of the Press but yet this is so expressed that it seems there is some other thing under it and what ever may be in it I vehemently suspect that there is no truth at all in it and I am neither bound to know how Matters go between his Compositor him nor to believe so unlikely a thing as that the put Heresie instead of those who were suspect to the Holy See He says his weak sight makes him correct the proofs by the eyes of another but if he Imployed his Ears he might have corrected this without straining his Sight in short it had been good for the Age that both his Sight and his hearing had failed him long ago for then the world had not been troubled with such a set of Impostures as he has given it He has much more material faults to answer for than the putting Squadrons for Bataillions for which he makes such an excuse LII Beauvais for Belcaire is a fault of the Impression in the French and in my English it is Belcaire he sets up here again his probabilities against the positive Proofs that are among the Acts which I have printed that shew the truth of this concerning a Bull of dissolving the Marriage that was sent over by Cardinal Campege but all this is already shewed to be so ridiculous that I will say no more of that subject LIII He makes me guilty of a Contradiction tradiction for saying that he adds no new matters of fact to those mentioned by Sanders and yet adding that he had Invented somewhat but this was only a Circumstance of the time when the Queen went out of the Court so this is not to be reckoned among the Matters of fact yet after all he shews me indeed that Florimond had said this which I had believed was an effect of his own Invention so that I find I judged too well of his Invention in ascribing to him those Romantick tours that he gave matters for I find he had these furnished him by another This is all that he does in the 54. Article for after a dull saying over and over again that he was not guilty of those things for which I had charged him he again justifies himself by his Florimond LIV. And this is all he says likewise upon the next Article only because I had shewed him that the Queens Cause could not be pleaded by her Advocates after she had declined the Court this being so Universal a rule that is founded on so clear a principle that I had thought even Mr. Varillas could not be ignorant of it that when one declines a Court he can no more plead before it since by pleading before it he passes from his Declinator he after he has shewed that he took this from Florimond concludes in those dreadful words Dare I doubt that this Author did not know the forms of Courts since he was so long a Councellor in a Parliament where this Practice is followed with as much regularity as in any place in the World but I am not so soon frighted as Mr. Varillas fancies for I dare do any thing that I think fit to be done and I do not see what should appear in this that is so terrible for tho I were in the hands of that Parliament I do not believe they would use me ill for saying that one of their body writ once Impertinently concerning the forms of proceeding but I dare not only doubt of this but because of this I dare doubt yet much more than I did concerning the Author of this Book and if it is not likely that a Councellour of Parliament could be guilty of such a Mistake which I confess I think he could hardly commit unless he was as Ignorant as Mr. Varillas is then this makes it more probable that he was not the Author of that Book but that F. Richeome writ it and published it in Florimond's name for a mistake in a point of form might be justly enough supposed in the one without any great derogation to him but not in the other LVI Upon the 56. Article there is nothing but two short Citations out of Florimond LVII He cites again the same Voucher and because he thought it would be a little offensive to me he runs out in an Invective against King Henry in which I am no way concerned having writ of him with all the freedom that became a sincere Historian yet in one thing I must tell Mr. Varillas that his heat carries him a little too far when he says that for four hundred years there had been no Prince who had put to death more of his Subjects than he had done when there was neither War nor Rebellion in the case I have examined in my Reflections on his second Volum a long List he had given of all that King Henry had put to death and have shewed him that there is not one Article of all the ten that he gives that is either ture or so much as near truth and that those who suffered upon the account of his Supremacy and that were not either in actual Rebellion or in Conspiracies for raising one were not above twelve persons and I believe it is possible to find out Princes within muchless than four hundred years that have put more of their Subjects to death upon the account of Religion LVIII He gives no other justification of all he had said to blacken Cranmer but his constant Voucher Florimond and yet he appeals to the Publick upon this and thinks the Quotation he brings is an entire Iustification but whether He or I knew Cranmer's Character better and gives it truer will be no hard point to decide he never saw any thing concerning him but Florimond's History and I have perused many Volums writ with his own hand besides a vast number of Letters that were writ by him and to him yet as for Cranmer's being made the King 's Chieff Minister Florimond says not a word of that so that Mr. Varillas who had asserted it does not find an entire Iustification in his Florimond LIX Mr. Varillas who is Ignorant of every thing cannot bear the least Imputation of Ignorance for commonly men are tender when they know their own defects and tho it had been no heinous matter if he had been thought a
A DEFENCE Of The REFLECTIONS On the Ninth Book of the First Volum Of Mr. VARILLAS's History of Heresies Being a REPLY to his ANSWER By G. BURNET D.D. Amsterdam Printed for J. S. 1687. The AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT I Do not think it necessary to write any thing in the way of Preface to so short a Book but since there appeared a long Preface before the French Translation of my Reflections to which Mr. Varillas has made some sort of Answer The same worthy Person having given himself the trouble to translate likewise my Reply thought it necessary to say somewhat in Defence of his former Preface I have translated that into English since it gives a further discovery of Mr. Varillas's sincerity The Translator's PREFACE Put in English I Had accused Mr. Varillas in the Preface which I had set before Dr. Burnet's Reflections that he had in his History of Heresies contradicted several things which he had affirmed some years before that in his History of Wickliaffianism for tho the two first Books of the former are indeed the same work with the latter as to the main parts of them yet several considerable Alterations were observed to be between them many things being left out in the History of Heresies which were in that of Wickliffianism To all this Mr. Varillas answers in a few words and says 1. That the History of Wickliffianism was printed without his knowledg 2. That his Name was not prefixed to it 3. That tho it contained indeed several things that were taken from him yet it contained others that were none of his 4. That he not only never owned that Book for his but that he moved to have it suppressed and that at his Instance an Order of Council was granted for suppressing it and for fining the Printer in 600. Livres From all which he concludes that he is not at all accountable for any thing that is in that Book and that no Inferences ought to be drawn from it to his prejudice It is true that it cannot be proved that Mr. Varillas sold the Copy to Certe the Merchant of Lions but it is certain that he pay'd dear for it and that the Copy that was sold him was very clean writ and that there were some Marginal Notes writ upon it by another hand tho these were not indeed of great Consequence The Stationer was also so much scandalised when he saw that Iohn Hus was represented so advantagiously and that the Council of Constance was so ill spoke of that he intended to have altered the Copy a little but in that he was not left to his Liberty The Book was printed and sold publickly both at Lions and Grenoble for some considerable time and it passed generally for Mr. Varillas's Book both among the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants The more moderate of the Roman Catholicks recommended the Book to the Protestants as an Evidence to convince them that there were Writers in their Church that even in Matters of Consequence durst say the Truth very boldly Nor was it then so much as pretended by any person whatsoever that there were any Passages foisted in which were not of the Authors Writing The Book was not only looked on as writ by Mr. Varillas in the remoter Provinces but even in Paris it self it past for his and this report went so current that Mr. la Rogue spoke of it in his Iournal last year as a thing of which no doubt had been made for he tells us That Mr. Varillas begins his two first Books with the History of Wickliff of John Hus and Jerome of Prague which had already appeared in several Impressions under the Title of the History of Wickliffianism So that it is certain that the Order of Council which Mr. Varillas procured against the Printer of Lions for suppressing that Book made no great noise at Paris otherwise the Author of the Iournal would have heard of it The Preface that was set before the Edition at Lions is indeed writ by one who says that the Author would not give his consent to the printing of the Book and for that reason he does not set his Name before it but he does not say a word of any Additions that are made to it tho he shews himself to be both so zealous for his Religion and so full of esteem for Mr. Varillas that it is not probable that he would have suffered any Additions to be made especially such as those that were marked in the former Preface On the contrary tho he says he will not answer but that there may be some Faults in the Printing yet he affirms that none will be found that contradict the Truth of the History I will not be so malicious as to say that it is probable this Preface was of Mr. Varillas's own composing since it is not likely that there are many besides himself that think so well of him as the Writer of that Preface does and the Artifice of Printing Books by the Authors themselves and yet in the Name of another as if their consent was not obtained is so common that Mr. Varillas may think that he escapes well if he is not charged with fouler and more inexcusable Impostures than this is But it is certain that all those Additions which Mr. Varillas does now reject and writ in the same stile with the rest of the work and no man that is acquainted with his way of writing will think that if he had intended to have said those things which he now disowns he would have expressed himself in other Terms And besides all this he cannot think it is enough to say that there are some things in the History of Wickliffianism that are taken out of his Book since the whole Body of the Work is word for word the same excepting those alterations So that if he would express himself with any sort of sincerity he ought to have said that these two Books weere indeed his But since he does not think fit to own those passages that are now struck out he ought only to have added that some Additions were put into the former Editions without his knowledge instead of setting this matter down so indefinitly as he has done by which he pretends to cover himself and to disavow whatsoever passages are abjected to him as he shall think it convenient for him to do But it is now a little too late for Mr. Varillas to make use of this Excuse and let him say what he will he must at least justify himself for aâ—l that is in his History of Heresies An Ingenious Author has lately shewed him that he has now rendred himself accountable for the former Book even with all the Faults that were in it Let him defend himself as he can but let him not fancy that he will escape a second time by casting the blame of the Faults that are now in this Edition as well as they were in the former over on the Printers or Book-sellers As for
the Order of Council it is so far from proving that the History of Wickliaffianism was none of his as Mr. Varillas pretends that it proves the contrary very clearly for otherwise how could he have obtained it but by affirming that is was a Book of his and that a Copy of it was stollen from him On what other ground could the Merchant of Lions have been fined for he had obtained the Licence for printing it both of the Kings Advocat and his Attorney according to the Custom which is printed at the end of the Preface signed by them both and it is certain that such a Licence as this was sufficient to secure the Stationer against all prosecution at the Kings sute nor could Mr. Varillas found his complaint upon any other ground but this that he was the Author of the Book since he could not prosecute the Stationer for printing another mans Book There is another reason which Mr. Varillas will not easily answer that shews him to be the Author of all those retracted Passages which is that it is well known that no man in France could be inclined from any consideration of Interest to magnify Iohn Hus or to decry the Council of Constance on the contrary this would have been of very ill Consequence to them and might have brought them into great trouble so that men will be inclined rather to think that at first Mr. Varillas writ his own true sentiments touching Iohn Hus and that Council which afterwards he thought fit to suppress when he saw how much prejudice this might bring him A man is easily believed when he writes against his Interest but if it appears that a man has either a design to raise himself or at least to preserve himself the world is too ill-natured not to suspect all that he can say let him use what terms soever he will when it once appears that these are his motives especially if there is any other occasion given to suspect his sincerity and in a word all his complaints of the Printer of Lions and even the Order of Council and Fine will pass with jealous people but as a Collusion so that after all I do very much apprehend that he greatest part of his Readers will still believe him to be accountable for those suppressed passages whether he will or not chiefly when they consider that there was an effectual means by which Mr. Varillas might have cleared himself of those Imputations of which he has not made any use and that was the refuting by good Evidences all those Additions that were in the Edition of Lions and the disproving them by solid Reasons For it is not enough barely to affirm the contrary especially in this case in which it cannot be denied but that there are still specious enough Reasons to induce us to believe them not withstanding his bare Denial A DEFENCE Of the REFLECTIONS On the Nin'th Book of Mr. Varillas's History of Heresies Being a Reply to his Answer MR. Varillas has given me in his Title-Page all possible grounds to expect foul dealing from him for tho the Titles of Books are too publick to be falsified yet he that will be thought an Original in so many other things it seems resolved to begin with one that is a little extraordinary for common Impostures are below him I had entitled my Book Reflections on his History of Heresies and more particularly on his ninth Book and he gives it a new Title as if it had been a Critick on the two first Tomes of his History of the Revolutions that have hapned in Europe in the matters of Religion This was not a failure of Memory but a studied Imposture for he represents my design as if it had been against his whole Work and upon that he charges me for having singled out only some particulars of which he mentions a few and adds that tho all these were errors his first ten Books would deserve still to be believed since his mistakes were only matters of small consequence and in this there was nothing but that to which any man was subject But when I undertook only to examin his ninth Book if I have discovered that all that relates to England is a contexture of falsehoods then I am sure I have quite overthrown one of his ten Books and by overthrowing that I have very much shaken the credit of all the other nine since the Faults that I charge on him are not only some small mistakes but a series of Impostures and the greatest of all is that he pretends to cite Vouchers which are not in being I will not say that his Errors are more than what any man is subject to but I do not know any man that has ever committed so many Mr. Varillas charges me for writing against him in so barbarous a manner keeping none of the Rules of Decency and to let the World see how little he knows the things which he cites he says that the two most passionate Criticks of any Age Scaliger and Schoppius observed these with great exactness but for him he is resolved to play the part of a Christian and so he will only answer the things in which Truth is concerned without regarding those that relate to himself I kept all the measures that I thought became a Christian with relation to his Person nor have I said one word of him but as he is a Writer I have not sent to Paris to have a series of his life transmitted to me on the contrary when some here had offered me while I writ my Reflections some particulars that were to his prejudice I would not hearken to them for I said I would only examin Mr. Varillas as he was an Author but not as he was a Man or a Christian I confess the confidence with which he asserts so many Impostures gave me a just Indignation against him so that I resolved to ruin his credit as he was an Historian because I saw he deserved it so very ill and made so bad a use of it but if he expects that I measure his being a Christian by this Answer I will have as bad an opinion of him that way as I have of him in the quality of an Historian He says I have cut off and supprest and changed his words that so I might represent them as I thought fit But in that I appeal to the Reader I did not think fit to reprint all he had writ nor will I now reprint his Answer as he has done my Reflections I have indeed desired my Printer to reprint it by it self if he finds his account in it and I think that is sufficient I confess I cannot enough wonder at his printing of mine since it discovers too plainly the defects of his Answer and I am apt to think that his Printer has engaged him to it as a thing that would have a good appearance In this the Printer did wisely for he was sure his Book would go off
some of them will name themselves too soon perhaps for his honour A man is indeed tempted by the confidence with which Mr. Varillas proposes his Fictions to the world to express his Indignation in terms that are perhaps sharper than is fitting and this carried me into a smartness in my Reflections upon him that had never appeared in any of my other writings the Cause the present conjuncture of Affairs and the reputation that Mr. Varillas had gained seemed to require it but now I do assure him that how much raillery or contempt soever he may find in my Reply to him he shall meet with no mixture of anger I must put a little salt and seasoning in a writing of this nature for it is a dull business to go on in a Flat strain like his and only to say this is False and that is Impudent and to sprinkle here and there a course piece of raillery I will therefore make my self and my Reader a little merry with him for a very bad entertainment must be set off with guarnishings And Mr. Varilla's errors and his ignorance exposed to the world would make but an ill Regale if they were not quickned with a little humour A very short Answer carrys off all that is material in this Book for the only Authority that is brought being Florimond de Raymond as soon as I have shewed how little credit is due to him then the substance of his whole Answer is examined he lived at Bourdeaux far from England and from the knowledg of English Affairs he had no sort of Instruction relating to our matters but what he drew from Sanders whose Eccho he was as much as now Mr. Varillas is his So that since Sanders was the Text upon which both he and all the other Writers of the Roman Communion had only enlarged I had reason to conclude that the overthrowing Sander's credit did at the same time refute all the other Authors that had copied him And I had done this so effectually that no man has since that time pretended to justify Sanders I do not think every man is bound to read my Book yet I may say that every man that goes to write upon those matters is bound to read it and either to discover that the Authorities upon which I have founded my History are false or to forsake those common Mistakes that Forreigners had taken up on Sander's Authority It is no excuse for a man that has followed those Authors to say that such a man had said those things before him unless it appears that the Voucher was both well informed and that he was a sincere and dispassionate man Now as Florimond de Raymond had no particular Informations of our Affairs so a man sees in every period of his History so much of a malignant spirit against the Reformation that this gives a just Prejudice against all that he says and if I have proved beyond a possibility of Contradiction that the relations that he gives must be false they will not become true because a Florimond or a Varillas from him have affirmed them As for that part of Florimond's History which relates to the affairs of England it is not so much as pretended to be writ by him for the contrary is expresly intimated in the Preface his Son seems to claim the praise of that to himself But upon the whole matter it is first very much doubted whether he was at all the Author of those Books that passed under his name For many have said that F. Richeome a Iesuite writ them and borrowed the name of a Councellour of Parliament to give his work the more credit perhaps it was thought necessary to set a Writer of some name in opposition to Mr. de Thou whose History was writ with too much sincerity to be acceptable to that Order Peter Mathieu in his History says positively that it was believed that F. Richeome was the Author of the Books that went under the name of Florimond de Raimond Viguier in his Theater of Antichrist and Rivet in his Answer to the Iesuite say the same thing and these were men that writ soon after Florimond's Books appeared Blondel was also of the same mind and tho he aggreed with the pretended Florimond concerning the Falsehood of the Story of Pope Ioan upon which he had also writ a Book yet he spends forty pages towards the end of his Book to shew how poorly Florimond had disproved it and lays him open in a vast number of errors that he had committed of which some are extream absurd It is true some of the Writers of the Church of Rome have magnified him highly a man that writ so passionatly for them could not fail of this so no wonder if Possevin and Gretzer cry him up and we see by a Letter of Card. Baronius published by Mr. Colomies writ to Florimond de Raimond how highly he valued him and that he looked on him as a most extraordinary person But all this will not prevail much on those who knew the genius of those Writers and how apt they were to magnify every one that was passionate in their cause Yet these praises given him by strangers could not raise his reputation in France where he never passed for a Writer of any note either for judgment or sincerity and he was as little esteemed in the quality of a Judge as he deserves to be for his writings for the Character that was given of him was no less severe than pleasant Iudicat sine conscientia libros scribit sine scientia aedificat sine pecunia He judges without conscience he writes Books without knowledge and builds without money And now this is the Hero of Mr. Varillas upon whose Testimony he triumphs and he who perhaps a year ago would have resented it as the greatest indignity that could have been done him if it had been said that he did nothing but copy such an Author and that he was only his Eccho is now glad to fly to so poor a shift for which he is as I hear so much censured in Paris that it is perhaps too great a cruelty in me to urge this matter too far Yet Mr. Varillas has a sublim tour in every thing so that instead of setting before us the reasons that led him to depend upon such an Author which might pass with the world such as that he was well informed and that he was free of passion he gives one which indeed no man besides himself would ever have thought on he tells us that he had a Wife and Children now it is not easy to find out the force of this Argument but a man must rise above the Vulgar as much as Mr. Varillas to comprehend his lofty strains If to have Wife and Children makes a man a good Writer one may conclude without any further enquiry that Mr. Varillas has neither Here is also a new Argument for he Marriage of the Clergy that has never
been yet thought on yet an ordinary capacity like mine cannot comprehend why this should have made Florimond de Raimond a good Writer and why it had not the same effect on Mr. de Thou So I think I have said enough concerning this Councellour of Bourdeaux and his Wife and Children There are two other general Considerations which I will propose before I enter into the more particular review of his Answer He argues in several places against matters that I had proved by the most Authentical Evidences possible and from some Improbabilities he pretends to overthrow what I had said and in one place he thinks he argues strongly when he says I cannot shew him an Instance that the like ever fell out before an Impossibility is indeed a very good answer to all the Proofs that can be brought and such are the evidences by which I overthrow the Calumnies thrown on Anne Bullen but Improbabilities ought never to be set against Positive Proofs for men are so apt to be guided by Humour and Caprice and are sometimes so blinded by passion and Interest that they do often depart from all the Rules both of Prudence and Decency nor is it a Reason to be alledged by any but Mr. Varillas that such things cannot be true because I cannot shew the like instance in any other History For supposing that were true every Age as it produces Originals so affords new Subjects of Amasement for Instance it may seem incredible that a man could have writ so many Books of History as Mr. Varillas has done in which he mentions nothing less than Letters Instructions and other Original Papers and this in an Age in which men are not easy nor Implicit but love to examin Matters and that also upon Subjects of Religion in which it was probable that some men might call him to an account and that yet this man when called to an account should not cite one of all these Papers but should build only on a doubted and despised Author and that when he had reason to think that this other Writings might be critically examined he went on in the same careless and bold strain a man may argue very strongly that this cannot be true and it is certain that Mr. Varillas cannot give an Instance that the like ever fell out before yet after all the thing is true so that Improbabilities may be justly set against Probabilities but they are unreasonably urged against Positive proofs Truth is Truth still tho it had never fallen out but once as Mr. Varillas is an Original for there was never an Author before him that carried on Impostures in Matters of History so impudently as he has done Mr. Varillas cites likewise many passages out of his other Books to shew that he was not ignorant of those things for which I charge him and which contradict what he has writ in his History of Heresies but first I do assure him I have not read his other Books with so much exactness as to remember all that is in them I was indeed at first surprised with the many Discoveries that he seemed to make but I very quickly made another Discovery that destroyed them all and found that he was a Writer of Romances and not of true Histories unless it be in that sense in which Lucian uses that Title so I am nothing concerned in his other Books but intend only to destroy his Credit which I think my self as much obliged to do as to discover a false Coyner If he has writ differently in his other Books from what he writes in this I am not bound to receive or bear all his Contradictions and from this very thing by which he pretends to justify himself he destroys his own Credit for if he had writ upon good Instructions all would have been Uniform for Truth is ever the same and does not change faces but a man that writes his own Visions cannot carry always along with him all his Dreams and therefore he fits them to the present occasion so that his having reported them in another manner in some of his other Books does not at all justify him but gives a further discovery of his Romantick Impostures I now come to a more particular Enquiry and shall hereafter follow him more closely but I will represent only the most Eminent of the Impertinencies that are in his Book and strike the Eye for to search after all were both endless and needless I. He will needs justify his view of Heresy delivered in a prophetick stile from Titus Livius's beginning who only tells what he intended to do himself which any Writer besides Mr. Varillas may very well do for those who write upon true Information know what they go about but an Author of Romances cannot so easily fore-tel this I do not quarrel with him for telling what he intended to do himself but for representing the progress of Heresy in a fore-telling stile It seems his Acquaintance among the Roman Authors is equal to his Knowledg of Manuscripts otherwise he could have found others that had begun their Works as Livy does without going so far down as to St. Ierome and if that Father had not done the Church more service in writing on the Scriptures than he did in the writing of Lives his Authority would be as small as Mr. Varillas ought to be II. I tell him once for all that I do not believe a title of the Negotiation of Mr. de Noailles that he cites nor of any other upon his word unless he tells where they may be found and if Mr. de Noailles was instructed to go to the Duke of Northumberland when Edward the sixth was but thirteen year old then the paper must be false for Dudley was not created Duke of Northumberland before Edward the sixth was fifteen years old there is a great difference between Governing a Prince and being his Governour all the world believed that Cardinal de Richelieu governed Lewis the thirteenth yet no body called him his Governour III. He denies that in the two Editions of his Book printed at Paris the Epithet simple is added to the quality of Gentleman with which he had honoured the Lord Darnley in this I must refer my self to those who have the French Editions but all who have read the Impression of Amsterdam see that he does me wrong in saying that I have added it No I leave such practices to Mr. Varillas I have taken some pains to find a Book of the Paris Edition in this Countrey but have not been able to do it yet as for his Answer and his second Volum I have them before me of the Paris Edition so there shall be no more room for any such Dispute for the future but it is strange that this word simple should have been soisted into the Dutch Impression if it was not in the Paris Edition words are left out but seldom added in those Impressions that do only Copy another The Series
by Mr. du Puy he says he had two Negotiations in England and that the second did not relate to the Divorce but to the Reconciling King Henry to P. Clement and here he fills the Page with a needless Repetition of that matter And adds that he made use of that Cardinals Letters on that single occasion and for those dangers which he represents as if the Cardinal had set them before the King he says they are contained all in one Letter and that it was not strange if King Henry was disposed to reconcile himself to the Pope apprehending danger to his Person since Camdem reports that Queen Elisabeth could not bring her self to resolve on the Queen of Scots death but after she had said those terrible words Either she or I most perish And in conclusion he says that the Manuscripts that are in the Kings Library favour my History so little that he who would undertake to refute it Page by Page would find more than enough in Mr. de Bethunes Manuscripts alone 1. Mr. Varillas had done well to have named the first Negotiation of Cardinal de Bellay in England for the Books that he cites mention but one 2. The breach that the King made with the Pope being only founded on the divorce it cannot be said that this Negotiation did not relate to it 3. I refer the Readers to his Preface if they will be at the pains to take so ill a Book any more in their hands there they will find that he makes Cardinal de Bellay's Letters the Text of all that he writ of English Affairs 4. If that Discourse of the Cardinals with the King of the Dangers he might run of Rebellions and Assassinations be all contained in one single Letter Mr. Varillas had obliged the Publick more by printing it than by all the rest of this Book 5. If King Henry apprehended this the more shame for that Church that has authorised such Doctrines and such Practices and in which a Pope made a Panegyrick on one Assassinate Clement the Iesuites have Besainted another Garnet 6. If Mr. Varillas intends to justify Queen Elisabeth's Severity to the Queen of Scots he does very pertinently to alledge this for as Self-preservation works strongly on all men so it ought to make a greater Impression on Princes whose Live are of greater consequence and more in danger and if Queen Elisabeth had reason to say That either the one or the other must perish no body will wonder if she chose to let the fate fall on the Queen of Scots for in such an alternative one would not lose much time in the deliberation 7. As for his threatning me it is known that is the language of Cowards I am not affraid of him and I do not apprehend that he has so much tenderness for me or that he thinks himself so much obliged to me that he would not discredit my History as much as I have done his if he but knew how to go about it XIII He assures me He has read Camdem exactly and he excuses his citing him as the Historian of the Revolution of England only in the singular and confesses if he had said it in the plural number Revolutions I had some reason for my Censure so since he writ of the Revolution under Queen Elisabeth this justifies him He denys that Camdem troubled Mr. de Thou with the Manuscript of the second part of his History which was an Imployment below a President de Mortier to be concerned in and he adds that he has often heard that Camdem sent his Manuscript to Mr. du Puy who took care to print it and then he reflects on Mr. de Thou's partiality in all those matters that related to the Queen of Scots and says that King James spake so severely to his Son upon it that it threw him into a sickness of three moneths continuance and in conclusion he thinks I contradict my self having said that he had not read a Paege in Camdem and yet adding that he was displeased with him for his having discovered so many Rebellions and Conspiracies against Queen Elisabeth for how could he know this is he had not read him 1. I do not know why Mr. Varillas calls Camden always Camdem this tempts me still to think that he never saw his Book for when men hear names only mentioned in discourse they are apt to Mistake them but when they see them before them in print they write them truer 2. When Mr. Varillas set a Preface before his first Volum and mentioned a Revolution of Religion in England in it that must be understood of the Revolution comprehended within the Volum and not of one that does not come in but in the third Volum so the Revolution made by King Henry being all that was comprehended in that Volum I had reason to say he had never opened Camden since he cites him as having writ concerning it 3. He obliges me here to tell the Story of Camdens Manuscript more particularly than I had thought necessary Mr. de Thou having intended to make his History general entred into a Correspondence with the men over all Europe that were most likely to inform him right so he was in a great Correspondence with Camden and when Camdens first Volum appeared he writ severely to him finding that it was so different from what had past between them in Letters chiefly with Relation to the Queen of Scots upon which Camden told him the truth that King Iames would needs revise it himself and afterwards put it in the Earl of Northampton's hands who was Brother to the Duke of Norfolk that had been beheaded on that Queens account and that many things were struck out and many things altered this troubled Camden extreamly who took care that his second Part should not run the same fate and therefore he sent it out of England to that Great Man that it might be printed faithfully after his death This is well-known in England and the sending the Second Part beyond Sea to a forreigner does very easily carry a man to believe this to have been the true Reason of it 4. I do not indeed think that a President de Mortier went to the Cramoisy's and the Barbin's of that time to sell the Manuscripts or to correct the Impression and if so worthy and so learned a man as Mr. du Puy took care to see it faithfully printed Mr. de Thou as he did nothing unworthy of his dignity in being the Depositary of so valuable a piece of History so he answered the sacredness of the trust to the full when he put it in his Kinsmans hands 5. It is true that King Iames reproached Mr. de Thou's Son for his Father's having copied Buchanan's invectives against his Mother but Mr. de Thou had a very tender heart if this gave him a sickness of three moneths 6. It is no contradiction for me to say that he never read Camden and yet to add that he disliked
unanswerable thing that deserves well to be set in Opposition to Original Papers XLII Here comes Florimond again but because I had mentioned the Pictures of Anne Bullen which shew that what was said of her person was false he tells me that Painters and Poets have always taken liberties and because his good Judgment made him fancy that this wanted a proof he gives me two storys to make it good But after all a Painter is as well to be believed as a Poet at any time So I may set Hans Holben that was a very good Painter against two such ill Poets as Florimond and Mr. Varillas the first saw her and the others only heard of her so they copied whereas he drew to the life XLIII Here again comes Florimond as his Garend for four Pages and he thought it was necessary to produce him since here as almost every where else I accuse him of a want of Sincerity but I will never give over this Accusation till he produce those Manuscripts out of which he pretends to have drawn his History XLIV After I had refuted Sanders he tells me this does not touch him who had not made use of him but if Florimond does in these Lines copy Sanders then by refuting him I refute all that Copy from him whether it be at first or second hand Mr. Varillas's saying that Cardinal Pool is the Writer of all the Catholicks that has blackned Henry the least shews how carelesly he has read him or how boldly he cites him Pool compares Henry to the wickedest Princes in History and makes a War against him to be more meritorious than against Infidels I had said that the Calumnies by which Anne Bullen was defamed not being objected to her upon her fall this shews that they were not thought on in that Age to this he answers That this shews the Moderation of the Catholicks but the not mentioning such things in History had been a vicious Moderation and indeed their Writers of that Age were as seldom guilty of any excess on that hand as he himself is in this He says also that it was needless to speak of the former Scandals of her Life after she was convicted to Adultery and Incest with her own Brother But when both she and her Brother died denying this and that it was generally thought she suffered injustly then former Scandals should have been alledged to make the Justice of her Sentence appear the more evidently therefore the silence of the Writers of that time and upon that occasion is still a good Negative Argument but he turns this matter upon me with some shew of Reason and says That since none writ a justification of Anne Bullen neither then nor afterwards this is a just prejudice against her But the Unfortunate have seldom pens imployed for their Honour and in Queen Elisabeth's time it was thought below the Dignity of the Daughter to examin too critically all the Reports that malicious Writers had set on foot against the Mother For if any impudent man would question the Birth and Descent of a Crowned Head severer tools than Refutations are thought the properest ways of answering them He then tells me why should I be believed more than the Catholick Writers But I ask not to be believed on my own word but I have shewed the Impossibility of the story that Sanders and our Author from him at second hand had contrived of Anne Bullen for what is impossible can never be true by my Logick but our Author shews how little he ought to be believed upon his Word for I having given for a proof of Anne Bullens good Reputation this that she served Claude Queen of France which he had set down truly in one page but in the very next page being to repeat and examin this he turns it as if I had made her serving Lewis the twelfths second Queen a proof of her vertue I knew the vertues of Queen Claude were as sublime as the others were questioned therefore I had made her serving the one as an evidence of the good esteem in which she was and this he would turn aside in a way very lime himself and wheras he had mentioned English Authors in the Plural and had set only Sanders on the Margin I had reason to ask if he could make a plural out of him as he had done out of Charles the fifth he tells me he had cited Florimond de Raimond but I do not yet find another to justify the plural of the English for whatever Title the King of England may have to Guienne so that Florimond may be reckoned in some sort among his Subjects yet all this does not put him among the English Authors so the Sanders is still all that we have for the plural and all the Histories that have appeared since his time by the Writers of that Communion are nothing but he over and over again in different languages and a little differently drest XLV He had cited a Petition to P. Clement the 7. for which I had accused him of forgery and had told him that he shewed his ignorance since tho the matter for which he invented it is mentioned by Card. Pool yet he was not so well Informed as to cite him now he alledges Florimond as his Garand for that citation whose authority is of so little credit and yet he has the confidence to think that was a more formal proof than if he had cited Cardinal Pool as if an Author that writ 80. years after those matters were to be put in competition with Cardinal Pool who lived and writ in that time he tells me he had Cardinaal Pools book before his eyes while he was writing but by this way of writing it seems he did not open him and his lying shut before him could not Inform him much when a Petition was cited and brought in question no body besides Mr. Varillas would have called the citing of an Author that lived about 80. year after the going to the source for it XLVI He gives me a notable proof of the credit due to Florimond in the matters relating to the Bishop of Tarbes because he had greatengagements with that Bishops heirs so that it is very probable that they communicated to him that Prelate's Papers And are not these very convincing Proofs Sometines a thing is to be believed because it is not Inconvenient at another time because it is probable but when he comes to answer the Reason I had given to demonstrate all this story to be false which was that it is not to be imagined that when that Bishop came to end the marriage of his Masters Son with the Heir of the Crowen of England that he I say could have been prevailed on to let that go and to set on a new Negotiation for Henry's marrying Francis's sister He sayes that Wolsey cheated the Bishop and made him believe that the other marriage was sure notwithstanding this new
the better but Mr. Varillas did a greater kindness to his Stationer than to himself Nor do I believe that he intended it at first for there are some parts of my Reflections so falsly represented by him in his Answer that I cannot believe he would have done it if he had then intended to have printed my Reflections otherwise I must conclude that his judgment and his sincerity are both of a piece for Instance could a man that had intended to have printed what I had said concerning the Lord Darnley being the next Heir after Queen Mary to the Crown of England so that he might have been a dangerous competitor to her in that Succession he having been born and bred in England Could I say this man pretend that I had affirmed that the Lord Darnley was a dangerous Competitor to her for the Crown of Scotland and his putting that in the Citation he makes of my words instead of the Crown of England would appear strange in any other but in him such strains are so common that I am not surprised at this yet he has the Impudence to triumph upon it and to spend some Pages to shew that her Title was undisputed I find many more Instances of the like foul dealing which makes me conclude that Mr. Varillas did not design at first to print my Reflections and besides this he copies out sometimes half Pages of my Words which he would not have done if he had intended to have given them entire to the Reader for they are not so much to his advantage that he had reason to desire that they should be twice read He tells the world that if he had a mind to imitate my passionate way of writing and if he would write my life ever since I was Chaplain to My Lady Dutchess of Hamilton to this present time that I am by my fault become a Citizen of Holland he would write things so singular that they would make his Answer the most agreeable Book that had been printed of a great while For this I know there have been men at work both in Scotland and England to furnish Mr. Varillas with materials to defame me and because I will conceal nothing that I know that is to his honour I was informed that he writ back to England that he would not medle with those personal things and that he wisht that instead of these they would send him good Memorials relating to the matters in dispute between him and me This was to act like a fair Enemy I confess But I do not say this to bespeak his Favour that so he may not print all those Informations that were sent to him from a Society that having forged them had a mind to put another on publishing them Let him print them when he will for I am not affraid of all the hurt they can do me and indeed if one may judge of this Epocha of my life by the two Periods here mentioned the writing upon such Informations may very well agree with Mr. Varillas's other Histories for these may be Authors of as good credit for ought I know as his Florimond de Raymond was I was never Chaplain to the Dutchess of Hamilton I do not deny this as judging it any diminution to me if it had been true for I do honour both her Person and Family so much that I would rather value myself self upon it if I had been ever in her Family but I never was Caplain to any Subject I was Chaplain to the late King but to no other The last Period passes my apprehension Mr. Varillas reproaches me for the Meanness and Flatness of my Stile for he that penetrates into so many Secrets that never were can even judge of an English stile by a translation yet since that he is the first who has reproached me for so very bad a stile I ought to bear this the more patiently but since he fancies that he has attained the Sublime of stile I would gladly know to which of all Longins rules this expression belongs that by my fault I am become a Citizen of Holland By my fault seems so odly placed here and a Citizen of Holland is so strang a way of expressing my being naturalised by the States and would intimate as if Mr. Varillas's ignorance went so far as to fancy that Holland was a City that since there are two sorts of Sublimes the one of Nonsence and the other of Eloquence I will not take upon me to judge to which of these this belongs For it is too great a presumption in one whose stile is so low as mine to examin the flights of so elevated a Writer As for the rest of this Memoire I am very little concerned whether he print it or not I have behaved my self so of late as to shew that I am neither afraid of any discoveries that can be made nor disturbed at any Calumnies by which my Enemies may endeavour to blacken me and as I had much rather have Mr. Varillas print all that has been sent him concerning me than to publish it up and down Paris so whatever he thinks fit to say of me shall be either treated by me with the silent scorn that an ill made Lye deserves or shall be answered as the matter may happen to require it But before I enter into any more particular enquiries I will in general state the whole matter as it lies between Mr. Varillas and my self and then I will leave it even to the judgment of a Reader that may be partial of his side He had published two Volums of the Revolutions that have hapned in Europe in the matters of Religion and with Relation to English Affairs he had pretended in his Preface that he did found that part of his Work on Card. de Bellay's Letters besides several other Papers that he cited on the Margin of his ninth Book but he had given no intimations where any of these were to be found I had on the other hand writ the History of that time in which I not only cited many Original Papers but had likewise printed the most important of them and had also told where they were to be found as for those which I have cited from publick Records they are accessible to all the World for the greatest part and for those that are not to be come at but by a Warrant under the Kings hand that is so easily had and would be so readily granted at present that I may with some degrees of just assurances say that I ought to be believed till it can be made appear that I have been guilty of any Imposture in those Citations and the stir that has been made of late to supply Mr. Varillas with matter against me and the meanness of those Objections with which they have furnished him gives me reason to conclude that they know they cannot accuse me of Fraud or Forgery in any of my Citations as for the other Original Papers
been ever so nobly born The Dowager of France that was King Henry's Sister had none of those considerations for hiding her Marriage with Brandon and the other Sister the Queen Dowager of Scotland had no reason at all to hide her Marriage for she made it to secure her in the Government Dowglas Earl of Angus being then the greatest Subject in the Nation so the keeping this Marriage with Tudor secret does not at all prove that He was no Gentleman 6. But Mr. Varillas does not pretend to answer the main thing that I laid to his charge which was that he speaks of the Tudor that married into the Family of the Plantagenets as a mean man when he was the Kings uterine Brother so that I shewed that when he writ his History he knew nothing of that Marriage since it is not to be imagined that any man who knew it could pretend to reckon up the Race of the Tudors without mentioning its chief Dignity 7. If I had thought so slight a fault which Mr. Varillas magnifies so much in me of calling a Great-grand-mother a Grand-mother worth mentioning here I have proved him guilty of it for he calls the Tudor that married the Plantagenet Great-grand-father to King Henry the VIII whereas he was only his Grand-father 8. He tells us in his Justifying the Succession of Bastards that the Rank of the King's Bastard was much higher than Owen Tudors was but tho the French have so far flattered the Lewdness of their Kings as to esteem their Bastards Princes born yet in England they have no Rank at all till the King gives them a Title and then their Rank is only according to the degree and the date of their Creation VI. He confess here the very words that I cited out of him and yet he pretends that I had accused him falsely But that he may have some colour for this he charges on me words that are not in my Reflections He had said The four principal Cantons had suffered themselves to be seduced in less than a year whereas this was ten years work and now he thinks to save this by saying that a great part was abused in less than a year but even this belonged only to Zurich whereas he had said that the four Cantons suffered themselves to be seduced besides that what he speaks thus of the Cantons in general cannot be meant of some Individuals but must be understood of the Magistracy and yet now he confesses that they were ten years a considering this matter before it was generally received by the Government to whom only the name of the Cantons belongs and as the Bigness of the Town of Basil does not hinder its being one of the little Cantons so the pensions that France might pay an Age ago to Schaffhouse will never change its rank among them nor does he say a word to justify his Mustring up of the seven Popish Cantons among the small ones or his raising Appensel and Glaris to be among the middlesised VII Here he remembers me of my Fault of having said That his way of writing wanted none of the Beauties of History except that of Truth which he thus repeats according to his ordinary sincerity that I my self had avowed that he wanted none of the Qualities proper for writing History without putting in my exception of that of truth that even by this citation he might justify my accusing him of want of truth but he tells us that by his Copyers fault his Preface to his third Book was lost so he was forced to make that up the best he could and then he comforts himself with his meditation that the Books of Authors are subject to Fortune as well as other human things but I was not bound to know the secrets that past between him and his Copyer no more than I am bound now to believe what he says of it The Books of Authors are subject to Fortune for by a great chance his were once in some esteem but as we say of the Dead that they are beyond the reach of Fortune so his Books very likely may be soon exempted from Fortune in that sense In short he seems to confess that the Preamble he sets before Luthers affair is Impertinent and I said no more of it VIII He gives me an Advice how I should have begun my History With the Indignation that the English Nation had to the Papacy ever since King John had subjected his Crown to the Holy See and had established the Peterpence that this was encreased because a Pope had made them lose Guienne by binding one of their Kings to levy the tenths on the Church Lands that King Henry the Eighth's lewdness gave him a great byas to schism which he pursues in a full career and repeats those Absurd Calumnies concerning Anne Bullen which I had to copiously refuted and at last he adds That King Henry raised mean persons to great Imployments that these by the Laws and Government of England could not enrich themselves but moderatly and in many years and therefore since they resolved they would be rich all of the sudden they saw they must do it at the Churches cost I do not wonder that Mr. Varillas should advise me to have made up a Preface in this manner that so I might write in his own way but I think I have sufficiently convinced him that I have not such an esteem of him as to be much inclined to follow his Councel 1. It was King Ina and not King John that setled the Peter-pence 2. K. John's Action was a personal Baseness in him which did not at all affect the Kingdom so that there was scarce any notice taken of that meanness of his unless it was to make him that was guilty of it contemptible for a King of England can neither alienate nor subject his Crown to any forreign power 3. What he says of Guienne seems to be one of his Discoveries for it is not mentioned by any of our Historians that I know of 4. At the time that Guienne was lost the Popes by residding at Avignon and being considered as in the power of France had so little credit in England that as there were many Laws made all that while against the Papal Pretensions so a Bull at that time could not have been so much as executed in England without the Kings leave much less could it have obstructed the Subsidies levied upon the Clergy 5. He understands the Interest of England as little as he does other things that fancies the Nation was much troubled for the loss of Guienne which lay at so great a distance and was defended at so vast a charge that the Nation that received no profit by it in an Age in which there was little trade was glad of getting out of this necessity of giving the King so many Subsidies If he had apply'd that which he says of Guienne to Normandy it had been more pertinent but Mr. Varillas is as
him for the Discoveries he had made unless Mr. Varillas will prove that it was impossible for him to know this by hear-say now I that tell him so oft and which is worse that prove that he writes upon hear-say might well say that he had condemned Camden tho he had never read a word in him as there are now a great many that think very ill of Mr. Varillas's Histories and yet are resolved never to be at the pains to read a Page in him XIV He excuses himself for what he had said concerning Mortons History by telling us that Mr. de la Vallade a Gentleman of Poictou that was of the Religion shewed him the Latin Manuscript of a History that he said was Mortons which he intended to print this he says he read and drew Extracts out of it yet Mr. Varillas here speaks modestly and says that Manuscript did not at all relate to the times that fall within the two first Volums and that he will strike out of what Remains any thing that is drawn out of that Book if he is informed by his Friends in England that he has been deceived in it I have already so oft told Mr. Varillas that I will take nothing on his word that I grow weary of repeating it 2. If this History did not relate to the two first Volums why did he speak of it in his Preface to the first 3. I believe he needs not take great care of the Volums that remain for I suppose the world will be at last convinced XV. He excuses that which he had said of Sanders whom he had brought in as one of the Authors of our History and of whom he had said that he was so violent against the Protestants that no wonder if they forced him to dye of hunger in the Mountains of the North of England He pretends that by calling him Violent he did not intend to reflect on his History But since he brings him in as a Historian this Character must be applied to his Book and as he makes no Excuse for his having said that he died in England whereas it was in Ireland so his representing the severity under which he fell as an effect of his Emportments is a very soft way of speaking of one that had raised a Rebellion and that upon its miscarriage had fled into Woods where he died of hunger but this agrees well enough with his notion of Zealous Catholicks XVI What he says of Ribadeneira is still so trifling that I will not dwell on the examining of it the severest things that he could say against England must have recommended him and his Books so much the more to Philip the Second who considered Queen Elisabeth as the greatest Enemy he had so I could not imagin what the Severity of the Inquisition and Philip the Second's strictness as to the printing of Books had to do here and there were no false steps of Charles the fifths to be related for he adhered firmly both to his Aunt 's Interests and to the Interests of the See of Rome in this matter and his setting on with much vigour the giving Sentence at Rome would have appeared rather as a raising than as a darkning of his Glory XVII He tells me That what is printed of Lesley's Works is not the tenth part of his Works which are preserved with great care in Paris in the Scottish Colledge This is like the rest of Mr. Varillas's Citations It is 23. years since I took some care to be informed by the Rector of the Scottish Colledge F. Barclay if there were any Scottish Manuscripts saved in the time of the Reformation he told me they had none but they believed there were some in Italy since that time there has been pains enough taken to enquire after those grounds upon which Dempster had promised so great a Work but it seems he was a Writer like Mr. Varillas for it could never be known out of what Instructions he intended to draw those things that he promises concerning Scotland and some have been so severe to him as to think that he made all that pompous Apparatus as Mr. Varillas makes his Histories out of his own Invention In short Lesley's Book has been so well received of all hands and is so much esteemed that it will not be easy to persuade any that a Colledge of Scottish Priests would have suffered the Manuscripts of so good an Author to lye above a hundred years in the dust XVIII He charges me with a Contradiction for saying That there were some of Cardinal Bellay's Letters in the Kings Library that were not yet printed and yet adding in another place That I know no other of his Letters besides those that are printed But he must have made as great Discoveries in Logick as he pretends to do in History before he can make a Contradiction out of these two Expressions Some told me there were some of that Cardinals Letters in the Kings Library besides those that were printed and that I knew of no others besides those that are printed For I do not pretend to have searched the Kings Library yet after all I had said no such thing for I only said that none of the matters mentioned by Mr. Varillas are in the printed Volum of that Cardinals Letters without adding whether I knew of any other or not tho it is very true that I know of no other If I have put him oftner than once in mind of his Boldness in pretending to draw his History out of Cardinal de Bellay's Letters I do not wonder to see him troubled at it since he cannot justify any one tittle of his History out of them the thing was so important that it deserved to be often repeated and I used him gently in speaking of it so seldom XIX He excuses his Political Refinings by the Example of Guichardin But as there is no part of History more Instructing than that of the Cabinet so a man like Guichardin that knew those secrets and had a share in Affairs obliged the World as much in delivering those so judiciously as he did tho perhaps a little too tediously as Mr. Varillas has abused it by so much counterfeit stuff as he has given out instead of true Politicks But Mr. Varillas tells me a dreadful thing upon this That then his Friends are not clear sighted since they have assured him that this was that which they found to be the least amiss in his Books If Mr. Varillas writes long at this rate I shall come to believe that he has no Friends at all and if he have any it seems they are chosen according to Martials character pares amici men of his own sise so that I do not now wonder if Mr. Varillas has been able to find a Coquelin and a few more as ignorant as himself who may perhaps admire him yet he says in one thing true that this is the part of his Books that is the
least amiss and indeed this is all the praise that can belong to any part of his Books for tho all that is in them is amiss yet some parts are less amiss than others And is roving about Political projects are certainly less amiss than his plain and impudent Falsehoods XX. I had accused Mr. Varillas for saying that all England witout excepting any one person professed the same Religion under Henry the Seventh and I shewed him that the putting this so generally must be false since in the second year of Henry the Eighth's reign there were a great many condemned of Heresy he pretends to excuse this since the Spaniards boast that Heresy never past the Pyrenees tho many have suffered in the Inquisition for it But if any Spaniard had said that there was never so much as one Heretick in Spain I should have told him that he did not write exactly and because I press this no further than to shew by it that Mr. Varillas is a careless Writer and am willing to let it pass with a gentle censure because I had greater things to lay to his charge he according to his usual sincerity pretends that I acknowledged the weakness of the Objection and abandoned it XXI He pretends that I accuse him falsly for denying the consummation of P. Arthur's Marriage whereas he says he determined nothing positively concerning P. Arthur's Impotence But that was never the Question for it was never brought under debate whether he was impotent or not and that for which I had chiefly accused Mr. Varillas was that he affirmed that P. Arthur was then sick and not yet recovered out of a great disease this is all Fiction and is disproved by Witnesses upon Oath but he says not a word to justify this 2. Here the pretends to tell at what pains he was to examin the Affairs of England that he thought the English and Germans of both Religions might be too partial that the Italians were too short that Ribadeneira might be suspected because of his Orders and therefore he thought Florimond de Raimond the best Author to depend upon But if he had read Sanders alone he would have found that both his Florimond and his Ribadeneira was nothing but Sanders over and over again 3. He accuses me for making him say that P. Arthur died Seven moneths after the Marriage whereas he had said Five moneths But in my English it was five moneths so he has no reason to blame me for this since I am not bound to answer for a Translation and tho this was a good and exact Translation in which my meaning was not mistaken as it has been too often in a Translation of a late Book of my Letters concerning Italy yet so small a mistake was no great matter and in a thing of this nature Mr. Varillas ought to have got some who understand English to examin my Book in the Language in which I writ before he had aecused me of having put seven for five on design to deceive my Readers 4. He justifyes his false Citation of the Bull by the most exact of all those who have continued Baronius in whom the words he had cited are to be found But why then did he cite the third Tome of the Bullarium on his Margin and why did he not name this Writer and the place of his Book for such a way of citing especially in Mr. Varillas is very suspicious and if that Author does not set down the Bull it self but only delivers these words as his sense of them then this was like the rest of Mr. Varillas's Citations to give this on the Margin as drawn out of the Bull. 5. He pretends that there is no material difference between his Citation and mine But as it was enough for me to shew that the words he cited were not in the Bull so tho Mr. Varillas boasts in another place how much he has studied the Law yet I must take the Liberty to tell him that he has lost his time extreamly while he pursued that Study if he does not know a difference between a Confirmatory Clause which may have passed with less observation and what is set forth in a Preamble which being the ground upon which the grace is granted and set at the head of the Bull is of much more importance and was probably much better considered than any general Clause XXII He accuses me for having said That Henry the Eighth was educated as his Brother had been who knew only Latin and some general Elements of Learning and tells me how learned King Henry was It appears by my words that I spake only of his first Education and not of the Improvements that followed 2. He seems mightily concerned for the Memory of King Henry the Seventh as if by this affected Zeal he would make some reparations to the Royal Family for the Injuries he has endeavoured to do them but I will be so plain as to tell him roundly that Henry the Seventh weakned the Rights of the Crown of England more than any that ever reigned in it He knew that he could not found his Title on his Descent from the House of Lancaster for then he could never have been more than Prince of Wales since his Mother by whom he had that pretension out-lived him a year and he would not hold the Crown by his Queens Title for then the Right must have been in her and have passed from her to her Children upon her death or to her Sister if she hapned to dye without issue therefore he who would not hold the Crown upon such a doubtful tenure made that dangerous Law that whosoever is in possession of the Crown is to be acknowledged as the Legal King And if King Henry the Seventh had been so Wife a King as some Flatterers have made him he would never have suffered the Dutchy of Bretagne to have fallen in to the Crown of France it having been always considered that the preserving that in a separated Principality was one of the most indispensible Maxims of the English Policy yet he tho he made use of this as a pretence to ask Money of his Parliament to oppose it no sooner had the Money than he gave way to it for which it was believed that he had Money from France 3. He denies that learning wâ—s then esteemed among Princes and says that the Cardinal of Lorrain was the first Prince that valued himself upon his Learning But is it not known that Francis the First valued himself upon the protection that he gave to Learning and the Glory of the Houses of Est and Medici was not a little encreased by the care they took of learned men of which I could convince Mr. Varillas by his own Anecdotes if I were not ashamed to cite so bad an Author XXIII He reproaches me for my insupportable Ignorance in not knowing the difference between the Council and the Parliament of England and in great
little unacquainted with the Laws of England for I have discovered his Ignorance in other things that are less pardonable yet he is so uneasy at this that he cannot bear my saying that such matters were above men of his form and upon that he says he does not know whether he or I has studied the Law most and no more do I but I am sure if he was long at that Study he has spent both his time and his money to very little purpose and if he is no better Lawyer than he is Historian I doubt he will hardly ever recover the Money that he laid out on that Study I assure him I will not compare with him in any thing and I do not know a greater Injury that can be done me in such matters than to be put into a comparison with him But to convince his Reader of his Learning in our Law he gives us another long Quotation out of Florimond which is all the rest of this Article LX. He justifies his saying that Audley the Chancellour was meanly born he cites an Author that had mentioned the mean-birth of a Chancellour and says this was necessary for the History to shew what a sort of men King Henry imployed but what needs all this I had only said that the raising a man of a mean-birth to that post ought not to be taken notice of as a very extraordinary thing since it is very ordinary to see men of the Profession of Law raised upon their merit to that Dignity If he had been to write that Audley's life I acknowledge he must have mentioned his Birth but since his Hero Chancellour More was of no better extraction I am not yet convinced of the Importance of this Reflection and Mr. Varillas will do wisely for himself not to examin too anxiously the birth of the Chancellours of Europe for this last Age but in conclusion a Quotation of Florimond's comes to set all right yet even in it Audley is not said to be a Churchman so here the Eccho did not repeat but speak LXI Here again Florimond is brought out with the honorable Character that Mr. Varillas assumes of being his Eccho which must pass for one of his Sublime Strains But here I must explain one part of my Book for some have mistaken my Reflections in one point as if at every time that I speak of Mr. Varillas's Religion I had meant of the Religion of the Church of Rome but they do me wrong for I mean it only of his Religion in particular according to the notion that he gives us of it that it enslaves a mans powers so far as to hinder him from examining whether what he writes is true or false All the rest of his Article is a sequel of such Impertinences that I grow weary to examin them as well as the Character that he gives his Florimond as an Author that is worthy of Credit against whom the English have never excepted But if they have always excepted against Sanders who is copied by him than there is no reason to expect that we should have any regard to him His Excuse for his turning the Affairs of Amours so ill is like himself this it seems went to his heart for tho I have destroyed his credit as a Writer of History yet there is some comfort left if he may be still considered at least a good Author of Romances LXII He thinks It is the chief of all the Qualities necessary for the writing of History to be able to describe the Intriques of great men in the matters of Amour and it he has not that as he reproaches me for denying it to him since I had allowed him all the good qualities of a Historian except that of Truth those who praise his works chiefly in this point are much deceived and then he justifies himself with a Quotation out of Florimond I will not dispute much with him whether the quality of setting forth Amours is the Principal one of a Historian tho I do not deny but in a Reign of much Dissolution this is necessary but I will add that this is the hardest to be found out unless one has lived in the time for those are matters in which as it is easy to slander so the only persons who know those Secrets are very shye of writing them and are generally men of Pleasure themselves and not much given to writing I have already satisfied Mr. Varillas by my retracting the praises that I had undeservedly given him but I find he would let that of Truth go and would compound the matter if he might but have the other Qualities allowed him but now I am worse-natured and will allow none of them to him and I as little believe what he says of the Praises that some give his works on that account as I do his other Quotations After this he calls me the rashest of all men this from any man but him would have put me in some disorder but I know his way of writing now too well to be alarmed at any thing he can say One should have thought that I had robbed Churches or coined money or done some very hardy thing to deserve to be called the rashest of all men but all is safe for my only Crime is that I had denied an Assertion of his so modestly as only to say I had never found it in any Author upon which he pretends to infer That to justify this I must say two things the one that I have read all Books whether printed or Manuscripts the other is that I have forgot nothing of that which I have read which two things says he very gravely are not found in any one man without a miracle Tho I should have thought that neither the one nor the other could be found in any man without a miracle and now is it not evidently made out that I am the Rashest of all men LXIII Here again comes the often named Voucher and after that comes another piece of our Authors reasoning I had shewed him that King Henry when he pretended to obtain his Divorce had argued upon the principle of Tradition which is so much considered in the Church of Rome and that it had been made out that the Tradition of the whole Church all down to Cajetans time was clearly of the King's side since the degrees of Marriage prohibited in Leviticus had been considered in all the Ages of the Church as Moral and Indispensable Laws so I had added that according to the Principles of the Church of Rome his Marriage with his Brothers Wife was Unlawful He reproaches me for this since I am of a Religion that rejects Tradition absolutely But still it made the Kings cause good against that Church which makes Tradition the only sure Expounder of Scripture for if the Tradition was here of the King's side then all Cajetans Reasoning against it was no more to be considered than according to themselves
Iudges against all other Writers No it is only that I have a good opinion of my eye-sight and that having seen the Original Record and marked the place where any body else may see for it I expect to be believed beyond those who write only upon Hear-say and when our Author gives such marks of sincerity in his Quotations as I have done in mine then if I question his Papers he may use the right of Reprisal upon me but this is the case between us LXX He tells me the use of the term Stoical is now altered in France if it is so I was not bound to know that but this ought not to come into so high a reckoning The term Stoical is understood to be affected to that Philosophy whose character was an Insensibility and a constant equality of temper so I had reason to say this was ill applied to Anne Bullen The little he says after this is so slight that I cannot dwell upon it every Reader will see that he had a brow of a peculiar composition that could say that I had added nothing in those Articles that are in my Appendix and that I had only repeated those things that I had already said in my Reflections and because he knew he could answer no part of it he thought the more dextrous way of avoiding to do it was to send his Reader back to the former parts of the Book hoping no doubt that they would not be at that pains and so he fancied he had very artificially put all that by him but as my Appendix contains not any one thing that was in the former part of my Book so he had not answered any one tittle in it in those parts to which he sends his Reader yet if he does not answer that which I had said he makes me say that which I had not said concerning Cajetan as appears by the words which are upon the first Page of the Nouvelles of the Common-wealth of Learning for the Month of April And now Mr. Varillas sees that those great Affairs that as he tells me are upon my hands have not hindred me from dispatching so small a one as his is Neither this nor the Continuation of my Reflections on his second Volum could hold me long I should have had both many scruples and much uneasiness upon me if this had required much of my time but I have prevailed with my self to bestow a week on each of them If it were a matter of any Importance on which I had writ I should have thought that the owning the hast in which it was writ was a disparaging of it but since it was imploy'd in so mean and so easy a performance I think it is a Justification of my self to confess the speed I made in it It will perhaps be a little longer a digesting to Mr. Varillas than it was a preparing to me One Proof will quickly appear whether the world is so satisfied with his Answer as upon that to return to any tolerable thoughts of his History for I have been informed from England that a Gentleman who is famous both for Poetry and several other things had spent three moneths in translating Mr. Varillas's History but that as soon as my Reflections appeared he discontinued his Labour finding the credit of his Author was gone now if he thinks it is recovered by his Answer he will perhaps go on with his Translation and this may be for ought I know as good an entertainment for him as the conversation that he had set on between the Hinds and the Panthers and all the rest of the Animals for whom Mr. Varillas may serve well enough as an Author and this History and that Poem are such extraordinary things of their kind that it will be but suteable to see the Author of the worst Poem become likewise the Translator of the worst History that the Age has produced If his Grace and his Wit improve both proportionably we will hardly find that he has gained much by the change he has made from having no Religion to choose one of the worst It is true he had somewhat to sink from in the matter of Wit but as for his Morals it is scarce possible for him to grow a worse man than he was He has lately wreaked his Malice on me for spoiling his three moneths labour but in it he has done me all the the honour that any man can receive from him which is to be railed at by him If I had ill nature enough to prompt me to wish a very bad wish for him it should be that he would go on and finish his Translation by that it will appear whether the English Nation which is the most Competent Judge in this matter has upon the seeing our Debate pronounced in Mr. Varillas's favour or in mine It is true M. D. will suffer a little by it but at least it will serve to keep him in from other Extravagancies and if he gains little Honour by this work yet he cannot lose so much by it as he has done by his last Imployment POSTSCRIPT I Have perhaps said already more than enough for laying open those HIstories that have appeared hitherto with so much pomp and that have been received much more favourably than they deserved It is perhaps a little too cruel in me to pursue Mr. Varillas so closely when he has drawn the Indignation of all the World upon himself Mr. Hosier was not satisfied to call him an Impostor and an Author of Romances in a private Letter to a Friend but was willing to let this be published that all the world might likewise know it and Mr. Larroque has laid open his Errors and Impostures so copiously that he has at the same time discovered his own Learning and Exactness as well as the Ignorance and the Falsehoods of Mr. Varillas in which he has shewed himself to be the worthy Son of so great a Father and has given such an Essay of what may be expected from him upon greater occasions that the world will long for more of the Production of such a Pen. But because Mr. Varillas intends to treat all Nations and all Illustrious Families alike ill and to shew that he is equally ignorant and bold with them all I will only add here one part of the Remarks that those learned Persons who publish the Abstracts of Books in Leipsig have made on him in the account of the moneth of October 1686. In which after they have shewed that he writes almost all names false that he confounds the Order of time and the persons concerning whom he writes that he does not know the Map of Germany nor the situation of Towns or the division of the Circles nor the Interests in which the Princes of Germany were at that time that he contradicts in one part of his Book what he had said in another that he sets down the Reformation of Leipsig 18. years before it was done he who was their