feele his bounty neuer was there more affection in each one to performe his duty more deuotion toward his Prince more grace in particular more hope of future times it seemed that the soules of all Frenchmen loosed out of prison enioyed such a liberty as neuer could bee expected or hoped for There had beene more spent in seeking to dispoile our King of his rightfull inheritance then euer was in making warre against the Turke neuerthelesse all the iniuries which he had receiued from the time of Sixtus the 5. and his successours vntill Clement the 8. could not withold him from discharging the duty of a thrice Christian King from sacrificing al his passions and iust apprehension of the wrongs hee had receiued to the glory of God and the good of his people Thus our King whilest hee liued exalted aboue the most renowned Emperors richer then euer Prince was in the loue of his people had the good will of all his subiects equally and as he was all our hope so was he the terror of all our enemies And that which made the blessing of God entire was that neuer there were so good courses taken and greater successe in the conuersion of those which were out of the Church in priuate there were such mild communications such meetings and endeauors for the honor of God and of the Catholique Church and so visible an operation of the holy spirit that those who were not yet touched were more astonished then greeued or displeased thereat What was the successe of the conference at Fountaine-bleau where the King himselfe was moderator and did giue light vnto others by his example as the light in the middest of the Temple where that learned Prelate that most illustrious Cardinal that minde enriched with immortall graces by his Christian temper did more profit the Catholique religion then ten thousand Iesuits could euer doe by their preaching of fire sword O what victories were there in publike of the greatest wits from whom the holy Sea and all Christendome hath receiued most notable seruices what in priuate and particular of those who wanted rather oportunitie then will The perfection of a man consisteth in the contemplation of the truth there is nothing which so much tempereth the inconsiderate zeale of those who are in an error as to shew them that no other force shall bee vsed vpon their consciences but that of the truth and as the King did earnestly endeauour it hauing established the Catholique religion and made the masse to be celebrated in more then three hundred Townes of his Kingdome where it had not been said in fiue and thirty or fortie yeeres before so did he promise the accomplishmēt of this holy worke in the conuersion of the greatest of his Estate and of his neighbor Princes who suffered themselues to be perswaded both by the force of reason and by the miracle of his example The holy scripture teacheth vs that too curious and nice deuiding causeth schisme the Church hath felt the discommodity thereof too much vniting is the other extremity which threatneth the like inconuenience All the body is not the eie saith the Apostle for then what should become of the hearing and the body is not one member but many God hauing composed the body of such a temperature that he would haue the members to haue care perpetually one of another that which delaieth the conuersion of an infinite company of men separated from the Church although they are satisfied in all other points of the Catholike faith is this absolute power and authority which they cannot brooke this is that which augmenteth their distrust and suspitions and putteth off the reconciliation of many this is the meane whereby the Iesuits haue ouerthrowen the estate of Hungarie made the Turke master of the better part thereof and that the rest is held but at his pleasure this hath troubled Transiluania bred disorder and confusion in Polonia and Sweden without that anie part of the worlde can be free from this trouble These are the profitable seruices which the Iesuits doe vnto the Church who for the establishing of this power and for their particular ambition doe make as small conscience to hurt the best Catholikes as those whom they hold to be separated from the Church that they may verifie a part of the decree of the Sorbonne Multas in populo querelas multas lites aemulationes dissiaia contentiones variaque schismata inducit That it bringeth in many quarrels among the people much strife aemulation discord and contention and diuers schismes not to repeate the example of our last troubles when they would from the beginning abridge King Henry the third a Prince most Catholike of his seruants yea so farre forth as to deny them the holy Communion The schoole of Paris hath felt their calumnie the Cardinall Bellarmin hauing written in the 4. booke de Rom. Pont. chapter 1. 2. that the opinion of the schoole of Paris which doth not auow the absolute and infallible power erat erronea haeresi proxima Nay rather is it not heresie to doubt of the faith of the schoole of Paris It is true that for proofe of his proposition he alleageth a passage of Deuteronomy chap. 17. which I very much grieue that this occasion enforceth to speake it hee hath corrupted for whereas it is in all the editions of the Bibles yea in that which was receiued and imprinted by the commandement of Pope Sixtus the fifth according to the text of the tongues Veniesque ad Sacerdotes Leuitici generis ad iudicem qui fuerit illo tempore quaeresque ab eis qui indicabunt tibi iudicii veritatem And thou shalt come vnto the Priests of the Leuits and to the Iudge that shall be in those daies and shalt enquire of them and they shall shew thee the truth of the iudgement He hath written ad Sacerdotem against the expresse prohibition of the holy spirit which forbiddeth vs to change or diminish any thing from the booke of life The selfe same happened vnto the Author of the Catholike institution the second booke 8. chapter vpon the like subiect where citing the place of Saint Luke chapt 22. Ego autem rogaui pro te Petre vt non deficiat fides tua tu aliquando conuersus confirma fratres tuos But I haue praied for thee Peter that thy faith faile not and when thou art conuerted strengthen thy brethren he transposeth this word aliquando from one period vnto another and writeth Ego rogaui prote Petre vt non aliquando deficiat fides tua abusing this word aliquando for nunquam But they doe not this wrong to the schoole of Paris alone there is no Ecclesiasticall order nor Religion which they haue not gone about publikely to disgrace who knoweth not what their ambition hath cost the Catholique Church of England which they had welnigh vndone in stead of aiding it After the decease of Cardinall Alan the conducting of the English
but there where they were then established by appointment of their letters without expresse permission of the King and particularly within the iurisdiction of this Parliament except onely in the Townes of Lyons and Fleche which they being not willing presently to thwarte nor openly to band themselues against the Vniuersity of Paris whom they knew to bee in the particular protection of this great parliament whose Iustice the brighter it shineth the lesse they dare behold it they haue circumuented the accustomed weakenesse and folly of the simple people vpon which foundation they build their most firme dessignes and by the establishment of one or two and forty Colledges which they haue in the Townes of this Realme in stead of twelue or foureteene which they had in former times haue imagined that cutting off and diuerting the streames which runne into this great riuer they would wholy dry it vp And there is no doubt but that the Vniuersity hath thereby felt a great impayring and that they had conceiued such an opinion of the successe that they already gaue out that men tooke notice of their worth and that they were esteemed necessary that the Vniuersity sought them and offered them the Colledges of Plessis du Mans and of Cholets to ioyne them to that of Clermont they reported vnder hand that the City of Paris should come to that passe at length that it should giue them the Colledge of Nauarre or that any other should be built them as large as that But God would that the smoke of these ostentations should doe no hurt but to the eyes of the Iesuites and that the fruit and contentment of their reuenge hath fallen out otherwise then they expected for they confesse that the Vniuersity remaining as it doth without admitting or receiuing them into it their other Colledges cannot long continue and that their designes for the instruction of youth wil be well nigh fruitlesse and to no purpose whereunto in as much as they are stirred vp with the desire of rule and by the consideration of that greatnesse to which they aspire not being able to be withheld by the force of the lawes of our Vniuersity by the authority of your decrees nor the conditions of their reestablishment we are constrained to discouer one of the mysteries of their ambition Although that the Iesuits greatly wronging learning doe mangle and diuersifie the ancient authors that they are altogether ignorant in the secret of the tongues yea that in the Colledges where they account themselues setled and established to continue as in Italy and in Sauoy they do altogether contemne them and reade no other books but such as are composed by those of their own society notwithstäding the reputatiō of learning is highly esteemd the which they can neuer vsurpe nor adde vnto their trophies as long as the Vniuersity continueth without Iesuites Ammianus Marcellinus writeth that it was sufficient for the Physitians of his time in recommendation of their knowledge to haue studied in Alexandria so it addeth vnto the merit of any man be he neuer so learned to haue studied in Paris the strangers euidently shew it in seeking the alliance of the Vniuersity of Paris to grace their schooles as that of Pauia called her selfe as Crantzius writeth her daughter that of Milan her sister as witnesseth Paulus Iouius in the life of one of the Galeaces Besides this reputation of great importance which can giue or take from them the choice of the best wits they cannot manage the instruction of youth according to their minde any where else as well as at Paris the seat of the Empire the place where the royalty resideth whereon the eyes of France are set the residence of the great soueraigne assemblies no where out of Paris is there such ciuilitie out of Paris little experience is to be learned in affaires elsewher the course of the world is not knowne To conclude it is the braine of the body of this estate if they cannot possesse this part their hope is halfe frustrated First because that imploying for the instruction of the youth of other Cities men of little vnderstanding which had more need to be taught then to teach and being constrained to keepe the most able and sufficient they haue to make shew and muster withall the children doe not onely not profit by them but neither are they able to discharge what they haue vndertaken so that the assurance which they giue out of their lectures failing the Vniuersity should be replenished as shee doth begin with schollers which they retaine with all their might Secondly instructing the youth out of Paris vsually and most often the best wits doe leaue them and escape their hand then when hauing gotten more knowledge their iudgement is augmented they are diuerted by a quite contrary instruction vnto theirs so that their haruest neuer commeth to perfection for to confirme and settle their doctrine and institution they must alwaies haue their eye vpon their scholler whom they themselues doe fashion and inure to affaires of the world so that he taketh nothing in hand but by their aduise direction and order and hee must yeeld them an account of what he doeth they neuer let loose the bridle after they haue ingaged him in some matter which concerneth his particular interest and they haue long time had experience that by meanes of the bringing vp of the children of those of Paris they know the secrets of houses they gouerne the hearts and wils of those who commit vnto their trust that which they hold most deare a great augmentation of their power Another reason yet more weighty and of greater force is this The Kingdome of France hath at all times had the Colledge of Sorbonne in singular reuerence and estimation founded by our good King Saint Lewes it honoreth her resolutions and the consciences of men doe willingly submit themselues to her decrees the French Church taketh great assistance from the authority thereof which is so much the more legitimate by how much the more it is very ancient deriued by tradition from our fathers vnto vs accompanied with all sufficiencie learning and piety the Iesuites would haue gotten an absolute victory if they could haue ruinated this fortresse of the French Church and of our beliefe they should be without feare of euer seeing either their doctrine or the bookes of their society condemned or controlled It is not then succour or ayde which the Iesuits seeme to offer the Vniuersitie but to speake properly they seeke her ouerthrow and with what face dare they maintaine that our doctors are defectiue and faulty Gamaches du Val le Clerke Ysambert Hennequin doe instruct so faithfully and plainely that by learned lectures the schoole of the Sorbonne hath her exercises continually replenished with fiue hundred daily Auditors For instruction in humane learning there are as sufficient as euer there were Marsille Morel Bourbon Granger Hardiuiliers and others the least of whom hath more knowledge and
hath beene adored The King of France I say who by the testimony of the Greeke and Latine Historiographers and since their time by the Italian writers and doctors is amongst other Kings as the glorious starre of the daie in the middest of a cloude comming from the South bearing the crowne of glorie and libertie Contrary vnto this the Iesuits doe submit vnto the absolute and infallible Monarchie which they seeke to establish the temporaltie of all Kings and Princes to the end that the spirituall power may reforme rule and correct them when they abuse their authority that is to say when they doe not as the Pope would haue them and behold their sophistrie indeed say they the spirituall power ought not to meddle directly in secular affaires prouided that they hinder not or bee no obstacle to the end and designe of the spirituall power or that they cannot serue aide or aduance the same for if it be so and that there be any aduantage to be gotten spiritualis potestas potest debet coercere temporalem omni ratione via quae ad id necessaria esse videtur The spirituall power may and ought to correct the temporall by anie way or meanes whatsoeuer shall seeme necessary thereunto the proper tearmes of Cardinall Bellarmine in the 5. booke de Rom. Pontif. cap. 6. This is the Vniuersall doctrine of all the Iesuits before cited and others who haue written there being scarcely any one that hath omitted to handle this subiect which is the principall scope and end of their instruction This is the euill doctrine whose fallacious manner of arguing and contrary to all the rules of discourse and disputation hatched the troubles of the yeere 1584. in which time the bookes of Cardinall Bellarmin were published and preached in all corners of France a doctrine of correction which constrained King Henry the third of happie memory who had hazarded his life a thousand times for the zeale of the Catholique religion to vse the remedy which he so many times found by experience to be mortall and deadly forced him to reuoke the Edict of peace vnder which his kingdome and Estate of France did quietly liue for to cicatrize to his great griefe so dangerous a wounde Let vs not any more deceiue our selues the false opinions in religion as they are diseases of the soule so ought they to be cured by spirituall remedies the substance of soules which is incorporall and inuisible cannot be constrained to receiue or reiect any thing by force and therefore those who thinke to establish religion by force as the Iesuits doe wholy forsake and abandon the law and will of God who would not in the building of the materiall Temple of Ierusalem the figure of his Church any one stroke should bee giuen with the hammer or any other toole of iron or that the pretext of religion should driue men into extremities so farre different from all religion let vs not attribute vnto ciuill warre the like effect as vnto the word of God which alone hath power to confirme mens hearts in the truth and to direct them from the contrary so hath there nothing else arisen from thence but that the strong potion of this Circe of ciuill warre made vs to forget our selues and all humanitic And although that both by the law of God and nature and by humane institution all subiects owe faithfull obedience to their Kings and naturall Princes without that any one of what quality soeuer or by reason of any priuiledge whatsoeuer can be freed or exempted Rom. 13 5. Non solum propter iram sea propter conscientiam Not only for feare but for conscience as saith the Apostle this being prescribed both by the scriptures by the doctrine of the fathers and by the Canons of the Church the very bond and ciment of peace betweene the two powers the influence of the perfect and accomplished harmonie of all command and rule here on earth wherein the best and first Christians being instructed haue alwaies made it their glory to serue their Kings cheerefully whatsoeuer they were and to accomplish their commandements in all humble obedience euen vnto the death yet notwithstanding all this vpon the doctrine of this absolute authority of correcting the temporall power by the spirituall are founded the excommunications against Kings interdictions of their Kingdomes discharging of their people from the oath of fidelitie and obedience in case that their naturall and liege Princes should vndertake any thing in temporall matters contrary vnto the will of the Popes a doctrine adiuged to be schismaticall by our Church the maintainers thereof condemned by the Magistrates conformably vnto that which the French Church resolued in the time of Lewis the Debonnaire vpon whom Gregory the fourth would needs make triall of excommunication the which resolution was susteined and vpheld by Hinemarus Archbishop of Reims whose writings are canonized and confirmed in the time of Lewis the Grosse against Pope Paschal of King Philip Augustus against Celestine the 3. of Philip the faire against Boniface the 8. and likewise by the Councell of Tours in the time of Lewis the 12. Notwithstanding the Iesuits haue taken no other pretext but this to iustifie the vsurpation of the Kingdome of Nauarre made by Ferdinand King of Spaine vpon Iohn of Albret for no other occasion but because hee affisted the King of France against the will of Iulius the 2. whom Master Iohn du Tillet Bishop of Meaux calleth perfidiosus sceleratus vecors perfidious wicked foolish in stead that Mr. Gilbert Genebrard a Doctor brought vp in the schoole of the Sorbonne in his Chronologie hath written Ferdinandum Hispaniae regem nullo meliore iure quam quod sibi vtile commodum esset regnum Nauarrae expulso loanne Albreto occupasse That Ferdinand King of Spaine had no better right to possesse himselfe of the Kingdome of Nauarre by expelling Iohn Albret but that it was fit and commodious for him If the Frenchmen hath perseuered in this nourishment they had neuer sucked this outlandish poison which afterward was diffused into their veines wee had not seene the rebellion stirred vp against our good King Henry the 3. by this doctrine confirmed by the booke whereof Bellarmin was the Author intituled Franciscus Romulus published in the yeere 88. by which the mindes of the French men being at that time as they reported sufficiently disposed and prepared it was perswaded that the taking of armes against a Soueraigne Prince was lawfull wee had not seene so many fellowe-Citizens cruelly bent one to the ruine of the other the heart of this poore Estate oppressed with so many calamities the brest thereof so surcharged with anguish and endurances and the skinne so dried vp and withered vpon the bones that there was neither muscle nor sinew of this great body which could discharge his function and our Country of France a thousand times as it were at the last gaspe But more then this it had
neuer entred into the thought of a French man if this doctrine had not beene that it was lawfull to make any attempt vpon the sacred persons of Kings and permitted to kill them for as they haue taught that Kings may be excommunicated and deposed if they failed to submit themselues vnto the will of this absolute power so they haue also said that it was meritorious to kill them and by the one haue proued the other this is the course they take to proue it Princes by being excommunicate condemned and deposed of publique persons become priuate and particular men without hauing either authority or subiects and so from being Kings they become tyrants vsurpers and perturbers of the common peace and repose Occupantem tyrannicè potestatem quisque de populo potest occidere si aliud non sit remedium est enim publicus hostis Emanuel Sa in verbo Tyrannus Any one of the common people whatsoeuer may kill him who tyrannically vsurpeth the authority if there be no other remedy for he is a publike enemie The obiect of all the enterprises made by Parricides vpon which ground both Cardinall Bellarmin in his Apologie against the King of England pag. 299. and Ioannes Mariana in his first booke de rege regis institutione and the Iesuits likewise author of the booke intituled Amphitheatrum honoris haue all after one manner praised the abhominable parricide of our poore Prince and the Iesuits of Bourdeaux haue both saide and written that this was the cause of their safety which this very doctrine the rashnes of Barriere was armed in the yeere 1593. streng thened by the Counsell of Varrade Rector of the Iesuits against our inuincible King Henry the fourth At which time father Commolet did egge him forward by his outcries Iudg. 3.15 desiring an Ehud of what quality soeuer he were beleeuing that Barriere could not faile of his enterprise or if he did that he would stirre vp the minde of some other to attempt the like A great misfortune that France hath lost this aduantage which in ancient time was attributed vnto her that shee nourished no monsters But God stirred vp his Hercules to the end that he might subdue them of whose hand next after his bountie he would wee should receiue this diuine worke and the miracle of the rising againe of this Estate In this time the Iesuits knew that there rested nothing which could any more be opposed against the victorious armes of our great King that hee was as certainely assured of the honour of conquering his Kingdome as that it iustly appertained vnto him they made shew as if they would take a sweeter and more pleasing tune and for to vphold and preserue their society published the resolution which they said their Generall had made at Rome in the end of the yeere 1593. by the which they were expreslie forbidden to intermeddle with any affaires they protested to obey the same and to renounce all factions to honor and serue the King as Subiects whose clemencie should more appeare in pardoning thâ—m all then in the remnant and surplus of those who had swarued and straied from their duty this is that which then they touched in their pleading and by their defense put in print and it may bee was the onely reason and consideration that they were not at that time depriued of the Kings grace and pardon The wisdome of the Iesuits consisteth in gaining time vpon such occasioÌ„s their designe neuer dying they attend the commodity that their seed may bring forth fruit in season foure or fiue moneths after at the instant that the King left his armie this Prince the Pourtrait of valour it selfe in the midst of two hundred gentlemen in his house of the Louure is wounded by Chastel a scholler of the Iesuits nourished in their doctrine and hurt in such sort that without the manifest prouidence of God who loued vs at that time this Monarchie had beene vtterlie subuerted and we miserable men had beene depriued of the blessings which hee afterwardes obtained for vs by his incomparable valor his iustice and piety no lesse admired at by all the world then his arme and his sword were redoubted This miserable monster in the presence of you my Lords said hee ought else but that the King although he were a Catholike was yet out of the Church that he yet stood excommunicate that he must be slaine is there any thing here to bee seene differing from their propositions Barriere had said as much before Guignard the Iesuite written it and after a thousand blasphemies vttered against his naturall Prince Henry the 3. added this moreouer against the last King If hee cannot be deposed without warre let armes be taken against him if that cannot be done let him bee killed True enemies of quiet and repose quite contrary vnto the disciples of our Sauiour Iesus Christ who vsed no other armes but their praiers and preached nothing but loue charity and concord Your enterprises against our Kings and their Crownes by your owne confession deserued a greater condemnation then that which was pronounced against you by the decrees what tongue can sufficiently praise the power and effects of the Iustice of this great Parliament which in the middest of the greatest tempests hath alwaies measured her actions by the compasse of the good and honour of this Estate notwithstanding all oppositions your glory shall remaine immortall Plato in his Politickes holdeth an opinion which hath beene followed by many others that there are ages in the which God in person sitteth at the Sterne of this Vniuers doth guid and turne it according to his good pleasure but that againe there are other times in which God neglecteth this gouerment and that then the world destitute of the conduct of his creator taketh a motion contrary vnto that which God gaue it so that the East commeth to be the West and the North taketh the place of the South and that when this vniuersall conuersion doth happen the generations fashions and manners of men are either extinct or changed As Christians we are brought vp in a better schoole and fully resolued that the prouidence of God neuer abandoneth the guiding and conduct of the worlde and doth not in any age permit the Intelligences or Angels which moue the celestiall spheres to depart from the motion and measure which hath beene once prescribed them notwithstanding when calamities raigne in the world it seemeth that God sleepeth and that he will meddle no more with ought the rebellion of the people accompanied with all kind of vices with forgetfulnesse towards God and all sorts of miseries and calamities during the ciuill warre had taken so deepe roote and so strange and maruellous a growth On the contrary with the acknowledgement of our King our Soueraigne and lawfull Prince with the concord of vs who are fellow-Citizens and his Subiects as God more properly made vs to see his presence and his gouernment so likewise he made vs
reuelation is true whereby God would dispence with him to marry contrary vnto the common law of marriage for God neuer yet dispensed with any one But if hee hath had any true probability he may for auoiding of greater inconueniences vse a dispensation though it be doubtfull and only probable which hath beene also obserued in dispensing with certaine Prelates From henceforth fastings orisons and praiers will become vnprofitable to preserue chastity euery one will abuse his reuelation for to put in vre the euill passions of his soule And indeed the precept was not long without an example Menas the Iesuite committed so scandalous an incest that hee was called in question for it in the inquisition of Spaine those of his company by faining a miracle freed him from his punishment which lighted vpon the officers at Valladolid who were displaced for that peece of seruice the scandale hereof is redoubled in the writings of Sanches and of Chetora who are of the same society the onely imagination whereof is sufficient to make a man loose the knowledge of himselfe and to become worse then a beast And like vnto this is that which is common in euery mans hand set forth some foure moneths agoe to wit the sermons made vpon the beatification of their father Ignacius by the which the name of Ignacius is not onely equalled with that of our Sauiour and placed in parallell with it but surrogated in his place the miracles done in the name of the Almighty for exalting of his glorie and the confusion of Infidels which we beleeue as an article of our faith abased diminished and distrusted For to extoll those of father Ignacius I say not vncertaine but altogether vntrue and which neuer were as they themselues confesse since that Pibadenera in the fift booke of his life saith thus of him eius sanctitatem minus testatam miraculis that his sanctitie was not so much testified by miracles and as if they had commerce and negotiation with heretikes from making him Gods Vicar applying vnto him that of S. Paul fungimur legatione pro Christo wee are emploied in the message of Christ from calling him the ministeriall head of the Church they make him successor vnto Iesus Christ himselfe striking at his holy resurrection and the eternity of his raigne in the Church O learned o sweet o free antiquity how thou art faire with al thy wrinkles with the lineaments of thy countenance defaced and hardly to be discerned O holy schoole of Sorbonne how perfect is the vertue of your mediocrity inspire into thy successors the truth of the prophecie of thy decree verified in the yeere 1554. these are the words thereof Societas haec periculosa in negotio fidei This societie is dangerous in matter of faith in this age corrupted with passion and adulation let this truth find one mouth exempt from this contagion neither haue they failed there censure and testimony constant and loyall vnto the truth shall euer be seene and appeare notwithstanding the-threats and inuectiues of the Iesuits full of bitternesse being as so manybels of the Coribantes which serue to no other purpose but to trouble disquiet the heads of those who are least staied and setled Let vs adde hereunto the inuention of their equiuocations and dissimulations of their homonymies which are deceipts of similitude and apparence in stead of the thing it selfe changing the substance without changing the name which they confesse that they make vse of when they are to answere vnto Kings and Magistrates and other persons bearing office in the common-wealth whose subiects they doe not beleeue they are nor that they are iusticiable by them their words and their answers are like the images of Dedalus which deceiued the sence changing their visage and countenance as often as a man did cast his eies vpon them This inuention of aequiuocation reduced into an art and recommended by Nauarrus in fauour of this society not only like vnto the artifice practised by Arrius who after he had subscribed vnto the Councell of Nice sware vnto another confession of faith which hee had written in his bosome altogether different from that but also vnto that law of the Manichees which permitted them to answere quite contrary vnto that which was true indeed and that which they perfectly knew noted by Lucas Siculus in the time of the Emperour Basil and which he reporteth setting it downe in these words Iura periura sceretum prodere noli By reason whereof for to confirme their euill doctrines then when there is any danger to be auoided or aduantage to be taken it is both lawfull and honourable to vse this inuention yea boldly to gainesay that which they are most assured of witnesse that which they haue done by the writing of Richeome who making answere to an interrogatory ministred vnto them which was thus what they would do in case there should be a Pope which after the example of Iulius the 2. should iniustly display his censures against France being vrged hee answered That their society would doe that which good Frenchmen then did who defending their rights did not giue ouer the respect due vnto the holy Sea did acknowledge the Pope to be the head only in spirituall matters approuing the Councell of Tours of the yere 1510. held for the defence of the rights of Lewis the 12. Cardinal Bell. in the treatise which he hath made against the diuines of Venice saith that the meaning of Richeome was only to shew that good French men ought to obey the Pope without debating the matter and counsell the King to come to agreement with him and not to resist him by armes This is the reason that all their declarations are conceiued in defectiue and incertaine words to the end that they may disaduow reuoke or otherwise interpret them when they shall thinke good and that which is most intolerable yea most vnchristianlike they ground these cauillations and dissimulations vpon textes of scripture which they corrupt most licentiouslie as if God the father of truth had taught the contrary to truth And as it falleth out ordinarily that the worst getteth mastery of that which is better the vsage of their dissimulations and cauillations doth insensibly creepe in and men leauing simplicity and innocency for to learne their shifts and euasions doe receiue the corruption thereof both in generall and in particular And to the end that it may not be thought a particular vice of some one among them but a precept generall to all their society Ribadenera in the life of father Ignacius the 3. booke and 11. chapter intituled De prudentia rerum agendarum hath written thus Dicebat quibus artibus diabolus ad perniciem hominum vteretur ijsdem nobis vtendum ad salutem nam vt ille cuiusque naturam explorans animi propensionem pertentans ad eam se attemperat vt ambitiosis splendida vtilia cupidis voluptuosis luptuosis iucunda piis quaespeciem habent pietatis proponit
receiue any other The letter of William Criton the Iesuite vsed by Richeome in his Apologeticall complaint for to couer the doctrine of this society by the which it is maintained that it is lawfull for particular men to kill those whom they call Tyrants saieth that this is not permitted if those priuate men haue no reuelation or vision which perswadeth them thereunto who shall be witnesse of this vision or reuelation but himselfe and so by this meanes he may take permission both to kill and iustifie the murther from himselfe It is reported in the histories of Assasins murtherers that they were so corrupted Gregory of Tours toward the end of his fourth booke speaking of those who killed King Sigisbert saith that they were inueagled and inchaunted maleficiati and S. Augustine in the epistle 165. vnto Generosus saith that the Donatists most dangerous heretikes did induce their followers to many villanies by visions and continuing his discourse in the epistle 168. reporteth the example of a yong man who by the counsell of the like vision had killed his mother The minde of a man is like vnto a looking glasse which doth vsuallie represent that which is shewed vnto it specially when it is directed vnto the most sensible part which is the conscience let vs adde moreouer that beside these fantasies and inspirations which serue to transport the feeblenesse of these mindes beyond all discretion they giue to these conspirators crownes of martyrdome and to proue this Bellarmine hath highly commended Iames Clement for this quality Mariana calleth him Galliae decus aeternum they doe the like by Guignard and Garnet falsly attributing miracles vnto them Call to mind My Lords if you please that which hath passed before your eies and the memory whereof it seemeth is not yet buried one named Charles Ridicoue a religious Iacobin of Gaunt stirred vp by the preaching of the Iesuites who commended Iames Clement ordinarily as a Saint and Chastel as a Martyr hauing at vnawares giuen out speeches whereby he testified that he had beene tickled with the like desire presentlie his Prouinciall was commanded to bring him to Brussels where he was promised wonders both for the discharge of his conscience for he had some remorce to attempt vpon the person of a most Catholique King which held good correspondencie with the Pope and also in regard of recompence both to himselfe his mother and brother he was visited by father Hodume the Iesuite who gaue aduise whether he were of stature of strength and resolution sufficient to execute such a businesse in the end all fitting to the purpose he had instruction to change his name to alter his apparell to learne to ride daunce and fence that he might be the more ready and the sooner haue admittance these are the confessions made in this Parliament by himselfe who came thrise into France with this purpose and intention He could giue you no reason why he contemned the grace and pardon that was at the first offered him nor why he came the second time hauing beene formerly suspected nor why he perseuered in his villanous designe but that if the Iesuits had perceaued or mistrusted that hee had disclosed the secret of his enterprize they would neuer haue forgiuen him as they neuer reueale the confessions of such people be it anie enterprize whatsoeuer or come what euill soeuer by it At the very time of the last apprehension and execution of this Ridicoue ordeined by your decree of the moneth of Aprill 1599. was published and imprinted the booke of Mariana for to shew how constant the effects of their doctrine are they prepare and fasten together iointly both the doctrine and the effects and notwithstanding one of them in his Apologie hath written that it had beene to be wished that the last parricide had read it well ouer because it is conformable vnto the doctrine of the Sorbonne which hath condemned the booke of Mariana and holdeth it to bee abhominable together with the imposture of the Apology so bold and impudent are they to circumuent the truth with falshood and deceit Great and vnimitable King the wisdome of whose counsels and diligence in executing them whose soundnesse of iudgement more then humane we haue all equally admired receiue in token of our affection and for a sure pledge of our faithfull seruice our teares our lamentations our sorrowes our sighs and perpetuall mourning which we offer vp vnto your glory Happy soule made Citizen of heauen and placed in the ranke of Angels in eternall rest farre from the care of warres your roiall qualities and perfections shall bee euer written in our hearts your name shall be for euer in our mouthes and although that our cries are imperfect that our voice interrupted with sighs cannot vtter it selfe that sorrow bereaueth vs of our soules and that there remaineth no strength in vs but only to feele our griefe wee will die rather then corrupt the holie law of your Estate vnder whose Sunne since we liue wee will for euer loue the light and brightnesse thereof With the same teares and voice halfe dead wee humbly beseech the holy father to enter into compassion of Christendome torne in peeces by this doctrine and to remember what danger there is in taking from the spiritualtie the true honor and glory by medling with the temporall and ciuill gouernment these are things which God would haue to bee wholly separated and distinct that he will bee pleased to remember the wholesome aduertisement of Saint Bernard concerning this absolute power which was then endeuoured to bee brought into the Church in his 2. booke de consid chapter 6. I ergo tu tibivsurpare aude aut dominans apostolatum aut apostolicus dominatum plane ab alterutro prohiberis si vtrumque simul habere voles perdes vtrumque Goe then and vsurpe if thou dare being a publique Magistrate the office of an Apostle or being an Apostle the authoritie of the Magistrate thou shalt plainely bee prohibited from enioying either if thou wilt haue both together thou shalt loose both God hath prouided for the conseruation and augmentation of his Church by other remedies and raised vp Bishops Doctors and Pastors from time to time yet againe once more to bethinke himselfe in this declining age of the world how pernicious this excesse is wee haue seene two of our Catholique Kings able to haue opposed their armies against those of the Turke to preserue the Church and the rest of the world from the inuasion of Barbarous people and Infidels brought vnto an vntimely death by reason of this doctrine this great Estate the cheefest of Christendome in danger of ruine that he will protect the Church and vs from those furious Empiriques which hazard their violent remedies indifferently vpon all sorts of men without regarding the Estate of their bodies that he will purge and rid the world for euer of these so tragicall examples France is nourished and trained vp in a singular