and laid upon the Tomb of that Prince of the Apostles was received with huge joy by Pope Zachary and not without reason Thus there as upon all other occasions he contrived things so that all made still more and more for the Popes Severaignty and tended chiefly to that end As to the Discipline it was resolved that the Bishops should be re-admitted to their Sees the Churches to the enjoyment of their Goods and the Clergy to their Rules but the two first particulars were not brought to pass till the time of Charlemain The Canons which they made were principally to prohibit the Clergy from bearing Arms or going in the habit and garb of Soldiers and yet the Bishops could not be excused from going to their Wars and Armies till Charlemain exempted them by a particular Capitulary to take away their Wives and Concubines to hinder and prevent Incests and Adulteries the punishment whereof was left to the Bishops and also to abolish and root up the remainders of Pagan Superstition The Religious of both Sexes were enjoyned to walk by the Rule of Saint Bennet which Wilfred Bishop of York had set up and caused to be observed in England Till that time the Rules of Saint Colomban and Saint Cesarius of Arles amongst many others had born the greatest Vogue in France At the Council of Soissons were two men Condemned who were Consecrated but without any See Adelbert a Gaul and Clement of the Scotch Nation The first was an Hypocrite and Frantick rather then an Heretique he made the ignorant people follow him as having a particular Spirit of God built Oratory's and set up Crosses near Fountains in Woods and the midst of open Fields The other Preached divers Errours maintaining that Jesus Christ descending into Hell Redeemed Pagans as well as the Faithful that they ought according to the Jewish Custom to marry their Brothers Widdow and that which appeared more horrible he would needs keep his Wife and wear his Mitre at the same time At Leptines Carloman caused it to be ordained with the Consent of the Clergy either voluntary or extorted that to carry on the War which he had on every side of him he might take part of the Lands belonging to the Church and bestow it during pleasure or while that necessity lasted on his followers who for every Mansion or House should pay only a Crown in Gold or twelve Deniers in Silver and the Ninths or Tenths towards the reparation of the buildings and that such as held these Precaires or Leases during pleasure hapning to dye the Prince should give it to any other upon the like conditions In the Year 779. Charlemain made an Edict wherein he ordains that such as held those Lands should pay the Nones and the Tithes to the Church But moderates the Tax or Quit-Rent to a Sol for Fifty Manses and half a Sol for Thirty Besides the Council of Francfort and Lewis the Debonnaire in his Edict of 828. Charges the Possessours with the Reparation of Churches This was the beginning of the Alienation of those Lands by publick Act and Authorized by Law There are some that maintain that those Kings did not only invest the Laity with these Church Lands but the Tithes and all the Rights and Revenues of the Altar as the first fruits oblations distributions for Masses and other Prayers and even with the right of putting in Priests whence say they is derived the gifts and presentations claimed and exercised by many Lords in divers Churches Hence they are called Patrons a name found in the Council of Rheims held Anno 878. It had been ordained in the Council of Soissons that thenceforward a Council should be held there every year to stifle and suppress disorders and heresies at their first birth Likewise Pepin called one at the Royal Palace of Verberie Anno 752. where he would assist in person one at Mets the year following one at Vernon upon the Seine two years after one at Compiegn about the same distance of time and one at Gentilly right against Paris Anno 767. We have the Canons of the first four but nothing of that at Gentilly unless the two questions they propounded to wit Whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son which the Greeks denyed and whether we ought to adore Images We may almost put in the Rank of Councils the Conventus or Assemblies which the Kings often held as that of Duria in 760. that of Neures of Wormes Attigny Orleance and Saint Denis which were held successively from the year 763. to 768. In all which the Lords being joyned with the Bishops they ordained such things as concerned the Polity and Government of the Church as well as what concerned the Temporal and Government of the Kingdom Of the decisions of Councils and the Ordinances made in those Assemblies partly Politique and partly Ecclesiastical were Composed those Laws which are called Capitulary the best and most holy that any Nation hath had since the Roman Law Never Prince had more affection for the Honour and the Discipline of the Church then Charlemain There hardly passed any year in all his life but there were either some of these Assemblies or Councils for that purpose I will not quote the years of the Councils held at Wormes which were Five at Valenciennes Geneva Duren and other places because we have only the names But that of Frankford is very considerable It might be called the Western Council for the Bishops of the greatest part of Italy with those of Germany and those of Gall were there It was called and appointed by Charlemain who it seems presided in it at least he reasoned and argued very learnedly against the Errors of Elipand of Toledo and Felix d'Urgel who taught that Jesus Christ was the adopted Son of God the Father according to the Flesh Those whimseys were Condemned and that Great King refuted them in a long Letter which he wrote to the Bishops in Spain very amply and very learnedly They also discussed the questions about Images The Council of Nice had ordained that they should be retained in the Churches and adored In France they would have them allowed to be set up in Churches as things proper to instruct the people but not to be adored Wherefore the Fathers in this Western Council Assembled disdaining to acknowledge that for Oecumenick rejected that Adoration in all respects and manners and condemned it by common consent and Charlemain wrote a Book to oppose it to which Pope Adrian made a reply There remains nothing of that of Aix la Chapelle held in 809. but that the question concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost was again debated and no doubt but they agreed That the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son For the French believed that so firmly that it was the cause of having it added as an express Clause in the Symbol of Faith or Creed The last year of his life he Convocated
Honorable of those People in the Town-Hall and pardoned their Crime in the name of the King The other Cities were Taxed but according to their faculties and at such moderate Sums that they were rather Subsidies then any punishment Year of our Lord 1500 The apprehensions the King had of Maximilian hindred his Forces from drawing out of Milanois to go about the Conquest of Naples Whilst he was treating to renew the Truce with him he sent a Party of them under the conduct of the Lord de Beaumont to subdue the City of Pisa in favour of the Florentines and another Party commanded by Yves d'Allegre to Caesar Borgia to assist him in turning out the Vicars of Romandiola As for Beaumont having been beaten off upon three assaults at Pisa finding his Swiss Mutined and the Florentins not very diligent in supplying him with provisions as they had engaged to do he leaves that City at Liberty and takes his march towards Milan Borgia without striking one blow drew into his Nets the Cities of Pesaro and Rimim Fayano maintained a Siege three times but at the last their courage failed and it Surrendred But this was not till the year after The protection which the King granted to Bentivogle and the Florentins kept him from laying Hands likewise Year of our Lord 1500 upon Bologna and Pisa as he had a great mind to do This year the 25th of February on St. Mathias day Charles Son of Philip Arch-Duke of Austria and of Jane of Spain Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella came into the World and near the same time the little Prince Michael went out of it as it were to yield up the Birth-right to him This Michael was Son of Isabella eldest Sister of Jane and Wife of Emanuel King of Portugal who died before her Child The Pope gave Emanuel permission to Marry the Third who was named Margaret Year of our Lord 1500 The Centenary Jubilé ended this fourteenth Age. After it had been Celebrated at Rome Alexander sent it into the Provinces and made use of this Pious juncture to animate the Christian Princes to league themselves against the Turks who in favour of Ludovic had made cruel irruptions in Friuli Whilst the Venetians were employed in the Milan Wars and withal had taken from them the City of Modon and Coron in Peloponese It seemed as if Heaven invited the Christians to this enterprize for during the Years 1500 and 1501 all Germany and the Low-Countries saw the shapes of Crosses of all Sizes not only in the Air but likewise on their Cloathes especially on their Linnen as their Shirts Night-caps Napkins and Sheets They were of a confused Colour and most times appeared Bloody and could not be scowred out with Soap but vanished by little and little So many Authors of those Countries testifie this Prodigy that it may be believed without too much Credulity Nor would it be an impossible thing to deduce some reasons for it from ordinary causes And we may boldly say that they were so disposed by the Soveraign Master of the Vniverse who fore-seeth all things that the effects which they produce though they be purely natural may however when they draw our Eyes to consider the singularity of them with attention forewarn us of his Holy will or presage what is to come King Lewis had strength enough to have Conquer'd the Kingdom of Naples without help And yet he was so ill advised as to share it with Ferdinand King of Arragon and thus allowed of a Partner with him in Italy where he was absolute Master Ferdinand's division was Puglia and Calabria the King had Naples Terra del'Avoura and Abbruzzo Ferdinand had for a long time devoured all that Kingdom in his hopes for he pretended that Alphonso the Great Brother of John his Father could not give it to Ferdinand his Bastard but he concealed this desire of his with a profound dissimulation in so much as although he had shared in the Spoil of the unfortunate Frederic he still made a shew as if he would assist him thereby to have the fairer opportunity to oppress him To this purpose he sent the great Captain to him who under pretence of securing some places of safety for a Retreat upon occasion made them give him two or three of their best Towns which he detained when the Treaty with the French came to be declared Year of our Lord 1501 In order to this Conquest Daubigny the Count de Gajazza and the Valentinois commanded the Kings Army by Land Philip de Cleves Ravestein commanded that by Sea which rendevouz'd at Genoa Frederic having no aid but from Fabricia Columna Constable of the Kingdom did make no long resistance When the French had forced Capoua where seven or eight Thousand Persons were Massacred and Naples and Cajeta terrified at the cruel fate of that City had afterwards surrendred he came to a Treaty with Daubigny and Nemours whereby he agreed to give up all those Towns in the division made for the King within six days They suffer'd him to keep the Island of Ischia for six Months to retire whither he pleased and to take away any thing out of the Castles of Naples excepting the Cannons belonging to Charles VIII Being reduced to this condition having no Kingdom and his relation Ferdinand having betray'd him under colour of assistance he thought he had no other game to play but to cast himself upon the Kings mercy He had a safe conduct given him to go into France where he was received with much Humanity and obtained a Pension of thirty Thousand Crowns which was continued to him even after the French were driven again out of Naples In the French Army there were a great many young Princes and Lords that went Volunteers Amongst others Lewis eldest Son of Gilbert Earl of Montpensier It is related of him that going to pray to God over his Fathers Tomb at Puzzeoli reflecting in his thoughts upon the miseries he had endured and the deplorable manner of his Death his blood was so moved thereby that he was put into a Feaver of which he Died at Naples thereby demonstrating that to be a false belief and observation That Love ever descends towards our Posterity but never ascends to our Parents Gonsalvo on his side had as little trouble in Conquering the other part of the Kingdom Frederic had put his Son Alphonso into Tarenta which he thought impregnable having left the care of his Son and of the place to the Earl of Potentianne and Leonard Bishop of Rodes These two Captains finding no hopes of Succours capitulated in good time and promised to surrender the place in four Months Had they held it but six the quarrel that happened between the French and Spaniards had saved it and with it their young Prince This surrender compleated the Conquest of the Kingdom Gonsalvo had sworn to that young Prince upon the Holy Eucharist that he would give him the liberty to retire whither soever he pleased yet
the Disputes of the Donatists in Africk There was one at Colen in 346. which condemned Euphratas the Bishop of that City who denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ One at Arles in 353. One at Beziers in 356. One at Paris An. 362. All three for the business of the Arians The two first were favourable to them against S. Athanasius the Third condemned them One at Valence in the year 374. about Discipline One at Bourdeaux in 385. to whom Priscllians Cause having been referr'd by the Emperor Gratian that Heretick perceiving cleerly he was going to be condemned appealed to the Tyrant Maximus but it was to his great misfortune One at Treves the year following where Bishop Itacus was accused for having contrary to the Spirit of the Church prosecuted Priscillian and his Abettors to the death his Party or Cabal caused his bloody proceedings to be approved which notwithstanding were condemned by the most Conscientious Bishops One at Turin An. 397. Upon the desires of the Gallican Bishops to compose the differences about Proculus de Marseille and that of the Bishop of Arles and Vienne Proculus pretended to Ordain Bishops in some of the Churches in Provence which had been dismembred from his or himself had instituted they allowed him that Honour for himself only the Bishops of Arles and Vienna disputed the Right of Metropolitain it was divided between them by provision This Cause having been transferred to the Holy Chair and judged variously by three or four several Popes was determined by Symmachus Ann. 513. who conformably to the Sentence of Leo adjudged to Vienne only the Bishopricks of Valence Tarentaise Geneva and Grenoble and all the rest to Arles Our Margent not allowing room enough to set down all the Popes without incumbrance it was thought necessary to place them in the Page with the Kings in the same Reigns wherein they sate in the Holy Chair Though for those of this Fourth Age it seems more fit to range them here to the time of Pharamond Silvester I. therefore held the Chair from the 1 of February An. 314. till the last of December in the year 336. In the time of his Pope-ship Constantine the Great was Converted to the Faith and the Holy Nicean Council was Assembled An. 324. Marcus Governed from the 16th of January following to the 7th of October of the same year Julius the I. from the 27th of the same Month to the 13th of April of the year 352. Liberius from the 8th of May to the 3 of September in the year 367. Damasius from the 15th of that Month to the 11th of December An. 384. In 381. was the Council of Constantinople Siricius was Pope from the 12th of January to the 24th of February An. 398. Anastasius from the 14th of March of the same year till about the end of April An. 402. Innocent I. from the 14th of May to the 28th of July in the year 417. And Zosimus from the 18th of August to the 26th of December An. 418. The First Race Pharamond King I. POPES BONIFACE in December 418. S. almost Five years CELESTINE I. The 3 of Nov. 423. S. 8 years 5 Months whereof Five years in this Reign Year of our Lord 412 DURING the great Revolt of the Armoricâ—e or Maritime People who were those of the coast of Flanders Picardy Normandy and Bretagne which hapned towards the end of the year 412 The French King being joyned with them occupied that part of Germania Secunda named Ripuaria and the People Ripuarians or Ribarols The Romans by Treaty or otherwise left them the free Possession thereof and it was a little after this that Pharamond began to Reign We find in the Historians of those times that the French had had several Kings before him I do not speak of those of the Monk Hunibaud they being as Fabulous as the Author But we find towards the year 288. Genebaud and Atec who came to Treves to Demand a Peace of Maximian An. 307. Ascaric and Rhadagâ—ise whom Constantine took in War and whom he exposed to wild Beasts as a punishment for that having given their Faith to Constantius his Father they had nevertheless taken up Arms again In the year 374. one Mellobaudes who being Grand Master of the Militia and Count of the Palace to the Emperour Gratian flew and vanquished Macrian King of the Almans and did the Empire many other Services About the year 378. one Richemer who had the like Office under Gratian as Mellobaudes An. 382. One Priam or Priarius whom some will have to be the Father or Grandfather of Pharamond In the year 397. Marcomir and Sunnon Brothers the first of which Stilicon banished into Tuscany and caused the other to be Massacred by his own People when he attempted to stir to Revenge the exile of his Brother And An. 414 or 415. One Theodemer Son of Richemer who was Beheaded with his Mother Ascila for having attempted against the Empire Nevertheless common Opinion hath ever begun to reckon the Kings of France from Pharamond whether because the preceding ones had never had any fixed abode in Gaul or because he re-established the Royalty amongst the French In effect it seems the Romans had in some manner subjugated this Nation and after the Treatment they had shewn to Marcomir and Sunnon and Theodemer they would no longer suffer them to have any Kings Year of our Lord 1418 He began to Reign not in 424. which is the common opinion but in the year 418. very remarkable for a great Eclipse of the Sun It may be doubted whether Pharamond be a proper Name or whether it be only an Epithet which signifies that he was as it were the Father and the Stock of the French Nation For Pharamond in the German Language imports Mouth of Generations For the manner of the inauguration of the French Kings the Lords or Chief Heads having Elected them or at least approving them set them up on a great Shield or Target and caused them to be carried into the Field where the People were Assembled in Arms who confirmed this choice with acclamations and applause The same Ceremony was practised for Emperours and Gothish Kings The Scottish Historians begin the Kingdom of Scotland An. 422. with King Fergus from whom they derive the succession of their Kings though withal they will have us believe that he only restored it and that it was first begun or formed 330 years before the Nativity of JESUS CHRIST from which time it lasted till the days of the Tyrant Maximus who ruined it about the year 378. Year of our Lord 427 The Vandals who had passed out of Gaul into Spain were from thence called into Africk by Count Boniface Revolted against the Empress Placidia They went over to the number of 80000 only under the Conduct of their King Genseric and within seven or eight years drove the Romans totally from thence and setled their own Kingdom there Year of our Lord 428 The Romans drive the French beyond
deal with the Saxons the Huns the Lombards and the Saracens The Saxons a most Warlike and as yet Idolatrous Nation compounded of several People and such as had been invincible had they acted by a mutual agreement and consent gave him work and exercise enough for above Thirty Years during which time he made divers Expeditions against them always with advantage He never denyed them Peace and they broke again as soon as he was out of their sight But his Piety constant as their Malice was never wearied in forgiving them not so much out of a desire to allure them to his obedience as to bring them under the Yoak of Christ Jesus The highest part of his Care having no other end but the propagation of Religion He entred into Saxony therefore this Year and would try to terrify those Rebels by Fire and Sword but they were not afraid to bid him Battle somewhat neer Osnabrug Their Confidence was punished by a huge Slaughter of their men those that remained made their escape beyond the Veser He pursuing his Victory took in the Castle of Eresburgh demolished the Famous Temple of the false God Irmensul and broke his Idol It is supposed to have been the God Mars whence Mers-purg took it's name He afterwards pass'd the Veser compelled the Saxons to give him some Hostages and having rebuilt Fresburgh put a French Garrison into it Year of our Lord From the Year 767 to 771. King Didier not able or willing to give over the Design his Predecessors had formed to abate the Power of the Popes to make himself thereby Master of all Italy sowed a Schisme in the Church of Rome whereby to discompose and weaken them Pope Paul being dead Anno 767. Toton Duke of Nepet at his instigation enters into Rome and forced the Clergy to Elect his Brother Constantine who was not in Orders The following Year another Cabal Enemies to this Violence of Constantine's sets a Priest in the holy Chair named Philip But Crestofle Primicera this was the highest Dignity in the City next to the Prefect constrained both the one and the other to renounce the Popeship and caused Stephanus to be duly elected a Priest of St. Cecil's who was the fourth of that name Didier bethinks him of another method in the Year 770. he goes to Rome upon pretence of Devotion and by force of Presents gained Paul Afiarte Duke or Soveraign Judge in Rome to cause this Crestofle to be put to death and to banish or imprison for colourable reasons all such Roman Citizens as he knew to be most able and disposed to thwart his attempts Afiarte did according to his desire but Adrian who was chosen after Stephen stopt those unjust proceedings and not only eluded all the vain essays of the Lombard but was likewise the cause of his utter destruction After all other Experiments Didier employs Force seizes on several Cities of the Exarchat ravaged the Neighbourhood of Rome and the Year after to turmoil the Pope advances towards him upon pretence of Visiting the Sepulchre of the holy Apostles carrying along with him the Sons of the late King Carloman to oblige him to Crown them The Holy Father flatly refuses him and failed not to make use of this Motive to exasperate Charlemaine the more against the Lombards Year of our Lord 773 Betwixt these two Kings there were already some other causes of Enmity For in the Year 771. Charles had repudiated Hildegard the Sister of Didier saying she was infirm A pretence that did not please a great many good people particularly Adelard the King's Cousin who for this reason retired from the Court into a Monastery And Didier on his side had given a reception to Carloman's Widow and promised her his assistance and support to restore her Sons to the Inheritance or Kingdom of their Father These offences having inclined Charles's Mind to hearken to the Pope's Intreaties he was the more easily induced to pass over the Mountains but with so great and numerous Forces that it was evident it was not meant so much to assist him as to conquer Lombardy Having therefore Rendevouz'd his Army at Geneva he divided it in two Bodies his Uncle Bernard with one took his way by the Mount Jou and himself led the other by Mount Cenis Didier had fortified the Passages and in case they should be worsted himself was advanced with all his Forces neer Turin and in Year of our Lord 773 the Valley of Aost to observe and oppose the French even to the hazard of a Battle but some of their Army having stollen by him very silently and charging them in the Rear he was so much afraid of being hemm'd in that he cast himself into Pavia and Adalgise his Son whom he had made Partner of his Crown into Verona Those of Spoletta and Rietta had already forsaken him to joyn with the Pope When his Retreat was known all the Marca Anconitana and many other Cities followed their Example Charles with a part of his Army encamped before Pavia and sent the remainder before Verona And to demonstrate he did not intend to go thence till he had them in his power he ordered his new Wife Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suevia to come to his Camp and passed the Winter there even till Christmass at which time he goes to Verona to press that Siege forwards Adalgise apprehending to fall into his hands abandoned that City and fled to the Emperour of Greece The Veronese soon after yielded Year of our Lord 774 and gave up Carloman's Children and Widow they were carried into France what afterwards became of them is not mentioned that I know of Nothing remained but Pavia The Siege spinning out in length Charles had a desire to go and pay his Devotions at Rome at the good time of Easter The Pope made him a magnificent Entrance such as was accustomed to be made for the Exarchs He in return confirms all the Grants made by his Father and besides say some added that of Soveraign Justice and absolute Power in all those Countries So that to speak properly the Popes before this time held what they had from the French Kings from whom it must be owned they derive the best portion of their temporal Grandeur In length of time Pavia became so straightned not by any Attaques but by Famine and the people so ill disposed Hunoud the Fire-brand of this War having been knock'd on the head by the Women that Didier surrenders himself with his Wife and Children to Charles He was conveyed into France Cloister'd and Shaved and died soon after Thus was the Kingdom of Lombardy in Italy Extinguished after it had lasted some 204 Years Before his return into France Charles made a second Voyage to Rome where the Pope with 150 Bishops whom he had summoned to honour his Reception and likewise the Roman People conferred upon him the Title of Patrician which was the Degree the nearest to the Empire It belonged to the Emperours only
Six at Arles at Ments at Reims at Towrs and at Chaalons on the Soan of all which the Canons are still to be found Thus the Church of France could not miss the being reformed and Pope Adrian would needs contribute towards it by giving several Reglements to Charlemain drawn from the Councils of the Greek and Latine Churches and the Papal degrees which he sent to him in the Year 789 by Ingilram Bishop of Mets. The Ecclesiastiques had their particular Judges for their Lands where the Kings Judges had no inspection neither for things Civil nor Criminal and as for their persons they were judged by none but of their own Body Now it was almost impossible to Convict them for mean and reproachful people were not admitted to accuse them and there were to be Seventy and Two Witnesses to Convict a Bishop Forty for a Priest Thirty Seven for a Deacon and Seven for others of inferiour degree all without exceptions and if they were of the Laity only such as had Wife and Children This last condition was required in all sorts of Testimonies at least in matters Criminal Charlemain excessively encreased the power of the Bishops by renewing in all his Dominions the Law of Constantine the Great quoted in the Sixteenth Book of the Theodosian Code which allows of one of the parties pleading before a Secular Judge to bring the Cause before the Bishops and leave it to their Arbitration without Appeal though the other party doth not consent thereunto Which would have still continued perhaps had they not corrupted the effects of so holy a Law by infinite deceits and by appeals to the Metropolitan and from thence to the Court of Rome against the express terms of it It was in the Eight Century that the Metropolitans commonly took up the Title of Arch-Bishops for there are none mentioned in the foregoing Those that subscribed the Council of Chaalons and to the immunity of the Abby of Saint Denis had not this Title as yet Towards the end of the same Age or about the beginning of the Ninth began the Devotion and Pilgrimages to Saint Jacques or James the Great in Gallieia This Apostle suffered Martyrdom at Jerusalem however his body was immediately carried into Spain and being hid in the times of the Pagan Persecution was not found out again till about that time by the Bishop of Iria near Compostella where King Alphonsus built him a Church at the recommendation of Charlemain Pope Leo transferr'd thither the Episcopal See of Iria and Two Hundred years afterwards Pope Calistus II. the Metropolis of Merida We find by the Ecclesiastical Capitulary's of Charlemain that there were besides some Chorevesques and although they were only the Successors of the Seventy Disciples they pretended nevertheless to do all Functions of Bishops who were Successors to the Apostles There were indeavours for Five or Six Hundred Years together used to bring them to the just bounds they ought to have kept it were difficult to describe it and in the end it was found much more easie to abolish then to regulate them The ignorance amongst the Bishops was amazing since they were enjoyned even to learn to understand the Lords-Prayer and Charlemain after so great a reformation had much ado to bring them only to make some little kind of exhortations to the Peple To dissipate these Clouds of Darkness it was ordained there should be Schools in the Bishopricks and the Abbeys but they only taught the Psalter Musick to Compose and Grammer I find one Capitulary that enjoyns them to send their Children to study Physick it does not mention at what place Under so ignorant a Prelacy the People could not but be blockish unpolished and very illiterate all their Religion was turned into Superstition and there were a great many Soothsayers Enchanters Tempestaries and other such infamous Sorcerers who were very wicked because they thought themselves such or would have others believe so We must not wonder if amidst such gross Ignorance even the very Women would needs Usurp a Power in the Church There were some Abbesses so vain without doubt because many of them were of great Families as to give their blessing to people with the sign of the Cross and Vail some Virgins with the Sacerdotal Authority Likewise the better to reform the Clergy it was ordained that they should live by Rules and in common The superiours of those Communities were called Abbots and they Chanons which is to say Regulars In those very times there were found to be certain Amphibies if I may so say Who put on the habit of the Religious and yet would neither be Monks nor Priests It was said they should be compelled to one of the two Professions it being fit they should make their choice to be either one or other The Covetousness of the Clergy was not less apparent then their ignorance all the Councils from the Fifth Century and all the Capitulary's are full of Rules and Orders to Tye them up from Selling of Holy Things They took Money for Ordinations for Visits for the Crisme for Baptising for Preaching for Confirmation and for every thing People of servile condition were not admitted to Orders which we should have noted before If such had been admitted their Masters had power to disband and turn them out of that sacred Militia and bring them back to the Slavery and Chains of their former mean condition Even the Free-men could not be admitted to enter into Orders or into a Monastery without Letters from the King because many were otherwise apt to creep in either out of base Cowardise as afraid to serve in the Wars or for want of understanding being seduced thereto by such as had a mind to get their Wealth and Estates from them Because the Arch-Deacons managed the Almes and Offerings the Laity would needs get that preferment and this abuse had been introduced in the former Ages Whatever Orders Pepin could make they still held the most part of the Abbeys and Bishopricks and enjoyed the Revenue allowing but a small portion thereof to the Bishops and Abbots Charlemain did almost quite root out this abuse and restored the liberty of Elections at least his Capitularies bear it however History makes mention that he often named and recommended people to Benefices Tithes were become obligatory so that such were excommunicated who did refuse to pay them after three admonitions and it was even exacted upon the encrease of Cattle Pious Donatives were not restrained unless by one Law which prohibited the Church from receiving any which disinherited Children and the next of Kin. Charlemain had a very great care of the poor Of every thing that was bestowed upon the Church there was Two Thirds alloted for them the other third only being for the Clergy unless in some places where they were richest they shared them equally afterwards they made the Division in Four parts one for the Bishop one for the Clerks one for the Poor and
that he would have appeared there to answer them had he been called thereto They allotted four Metropolitans to Judge Wenilon who assigned him to give his appearance before them within Thirty days We do not find they continued this proceeding for he died peaceably in his Arch-Bishoprick in the year 865. It is a mistake if we believe this man to be the Subject of those ancient Fables of Ganelon so renowned for his Treacheries in the old Romances Such as understand the old French Tongue know that Enganner signifies to deceive and Gannelon a deceiver a Traytor The Fathers of this Council or perhaps of another held at the same place wrote likewise to the Bishops of Bretagne to exhort them to acknowledge the Metropolitan of Tours and sent them a Memorial to admonish King Salomon to obey Charles King of France his Soveraign which he took little notice of The two Brothers Lewis and Charles and their Nephew Lotaire being reconciled by the mediation of honest men had an enter-view at an Island on the Rhine near Andernac attended by an equal number of Lords who staid upon either hand of the River They shook hands and agreed to meet the following Autumn at a general Assembly which was to be held at Baste But they did not come there having adjourned the enter-view till the next Spring at the Assembly of Coblents At this place the Bishops who were then Masters of the Government through the weakness of the Princes and the little Credit of the Grandees who shewed no courage but in fighting one another and devouring the People contrived the agreement between these three Princes and drew up the Articles or Form to be observed in this Peace which the German first swore to and the two others after him This year 860. the Winter was so hard that the Adriatique Sea was Frozen and the Merchants of the Neighbouring Countries carried their Goods to Venice by Waggons Year of our Lord 860 In several places there was Snow observed to fall of the colour of Blood which will not seem wonderful to those that consider how often it hath Rained the same colour The Bretons continually infested the Territories belonging to Charles wherefore he gave the Dutchy that is to say the Government between the Seine and the Loire to Robert Surnamed the Strong or the Valiant to keep those Marches or Frontiers Which I was willing to observe because he was certainly The stock of that Glorious Race of the Capetines the which should we reckon their Original or Commencement but from this year would have eight hundred and odd years of Antiquity clearly made out from Male to Male and of crowned Heads an Honour which no Line on Earth besides can boast of This year the Bald made a Lord named Thierry Earl of Holland from whom are descended those that have Hereditarily held that Earldom but they have ever had a much limited Authority and such a one as could undertake nothing against the Liberty of that Country Baldwin Earl of Flanders having the support of the German took the confidence to come as far as Senlis and steal away Judith the Daughter of Charles his King the young Widdow of Eardulfe King of England He retired into the Country belonging to Lotaire whence he conducted her to his own and soundly beat those Soldiers under Charles's pay who would needs pursue them The Pope having excommunicated him at that Kings complaint the young Count was so startled that the following year he went to Rome and threw himself at his Feet the Holy Father touched with his submission and the Princesses tears interposed to obtain his Pardon Charles was advised to condescend Nor indeed could the fault be any other ways repaired The passion of King Lotaire bred a greater scandal He had married Thietberge Daughter of Huebert Duke d'outre le Mont-Jou and allied to Charles the Bald Year of our Lord 862 Now in the year 860. having some disgust against her and love for Valdrade Neece to Thietgaud and Daughter of Gontier this being Arch-Bishop of Colen the other of Treves these two Prelates Interessed and Flatterers having Assembled their Suffragans at Aixla Chapelle obliged them to dissolve the Marriage and immediately Lotaire publickly marries Valdrade The pretended Motives for this Sentence were a supposed Incest of Thietberges with her own Brother and the Bishop of Mets his assuring them that Duke Huebert who could do all things in that Court had forced the Prince to take Thietberge for Wife after the death of the King his Father who in his Life time said he had made him Marry Valdrade At this time Nicholas I. was Pope a Prelate of great capacity and one that carry'd it high He wrote concerning this to Charles who before sought to quarrel with Lotaire and indeed would have expell'd him to break this Match had not Louis the German King interpos'd and obliged them to meet at a general Assembly Lotaire appearing there promised to submit to the judgment of the Church and to elude Charles his pursuit appealed to the Pope praying to let this cause be judged by a Council of French Bishops to be held at Mets and whither his Holyness might send his Legats The Holy Father grants his request the Council was assembled in June The two Bishops Goutaire and Thietgaud served the passion of the young Prince his Year of our Lord 863 Presents corrupted the Popes Legats in a word the Council pronounced in favour of the dissolution The two Arch-Bishops had the confidence to carry this Sentence to Rome to have the Popes approbation But far from that he calls a Council in the Lateran Palace by whom they were deposed and both of them excommunicated and it was declared that all the other Bishops who were assisting at this false judgment should incur the same punishment unless they craved pardon by express Legats Thietgaud and Gontaire replied very smartly to the decree he published and framed another whereby they declared him excommunicate himself and contravening even said they the Holy Canons favouring the excommunicated and separating through pride from the society of the other Bishops Which did not a Year of our Lord 864 little encourage the revolt of Photius Patriarch of Constantinople and the obstinate resistance of Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Reims Nevertheless soon after Thietgaud submitted to the Sentence but could not obtain his absolution during the life of Nicholas But the Arch-Bishop of Collen regarded it not still continuing in his obstinacy Charles the Bald's subjects male-contented with his Government had made several Leagues against him he engages his Friends likewise to make one for his service and to meet in all parts of the Country under his Standards to be ready to Year of our Lord 865 March when ever he required it Valdrade had promised to go for absolution to Rome she went twice into Italy And twice repenting her having repented returned back The Pope having therefore Assembled his Church declared her
belonged to the Church from the Rapine and Thefts of some Lords and restore the Discipline for which some Canons were made in the Second of Limoges That of Beauvais was held Fifteen days after that of Bourges Pope Leo IX being come into France Convened one at Reims towards Autumne An. 1049. Victor II. One at Toulouze An. ✚ 1056. To extirpate abuses and especially Simony which is more difficult to be taken from the Church then their Riches which is the cause of it King Henry desiring to have his Son Philip Crowned Assembled the Prelats and Lords of the Kingdom at Paris An. 1059 or 60. Amat Bishop of Oleron Legat from Rome in Aquitania Tertia and Narbounensis held divers Two in Gascongne One wherein he Excommunicated such as detained any Goods belonging to the Church another wherein he Dissolved the Marriage of Centulle Vicount of Bearn and another also at the Burrough of Deols in Berry with Hugh Legat and Arch-Bishop of Lyons about the affairs of that Abby The same having the Popes Legation in the lesser Bretagne Convened one An. 1079. in that Province to take some course against the abuses of false pennances that is to say their ☞ imposing of slight pennances for great crimes About the end of the year 1080. there were three One at Lyons where Hugh de Die the Popes Legat caused the Sentence to be confirmed whereby Manasses Arch-Bishop of Reims had been deposed One at Avignon where he consecrated another Hugh Bishop of Grenoble and the Third at Meaux in which Vrsion de Soissons was deposed and Arnold a Monk of St. Medard installed in his place The year following the same Hugh and Richard Abbot of Marseille Cardinals called one at Poitiers Amat d'Oleron Legat in Aquitain came likewise thither They provisionally ordained a Divorce of William Earl of Poitiers from his Wife because of their consanguinity That of Toulouze in An. 1090. was Convened by the Legats of Vrban II. Some Rules were there made concerning Causes Ecclesiastical and the Bishop of that City purged himself of certain things imposed upon him The most famous of all was the Council of Clermont An. 1095. where the same Pope with great zeal Preached up the First Croisade and to obtain the assistance of the Holy Virgin towards those that should undertake the Expedition ordained the Clergy to recite the Office or Heures of our Lady which the Chartreux and Hermits instituted by Peter Damianus had already received amongst them There was one more at Tours the year following to prepare them to that expeditition of the Holy Land The last year of this Century they had one likewise at Poitiers whereat John and Benedict Cardinal Legats presided King Philip was here struck with an Anathema for having retaken Bertrade and the Kingdom of France put under an interdiction The precedent year there had been one held at Autun and the following there was also one at Baugency for the same business The prohibition of Marriages even to the seventh Degree extreamly embarrass'd the Eleventh and Twelfth Century and as that rigour was excessive the Princes broke thorough without much scruple and afterwards became obstinate against Excommunications with so much the more Reason and Pretence as having the opinions of many great Lawyers who reckoned these Degrees after another manner then the Church-men so that it served for little else but a specious colour for such as were distasted with their Wives to procure their Divorce The custom practised in the Church of Jerusalem where because of the too great confluence the Laity communicated only under the species of Bread introduced it self by little and little into the Western Church and there is some appearance that the Canon of the Council of Clermont was favourable to it ordaining That those that communicated should take the two species separately this was to avoid that abuse of the Greeks who soaked or dipped the Bread in the Wine Vnless in case of necessity or by PRECAVTION That is to say if there were danger of spilling the Challice as when the multitude and throng of Communicants was too great There was like a change in the Government of some Churches the Sees of Gascongny which had been vacant above two ages were filled the Bishopricks of Arras and Cambray both which had been Governed by one Pastor since Saint Vaast began each to have their own after the death of Gerard II. who held them both and Manasses was the first Bishop of Cambray An. 1095. The same thing was attempted for Noyon and Tournay which had been joyned since St. Medard but King Philip opposing they remained so united till the year 1146. When Simon the Son of Hugh the Great being Bishop thereof they were divided Anselme a Monk of Soissons and Abbot of St. Vincent de Laon was the first that held the See of Tournay An. 1179 Gregory VII by his Bulls gave or as others say confirmed to the Arch-Bishop of Lyons the Primacy of the four Lyonnoises only being perhaps perswaded as some others that Lyons was in antient times the capital City and first Church of the Galls The Arch-Bishop of Tours was the first who submitted but those of Sens and Rouen opposed it with all their might and although this establishment had been maintained in the Council of Clermont and since by judgment contradictory which was given in the Court of Rome Anno 1099. they had much ado to submit themselves and it was as I believe during this Contest that he of Rouen began out of emulation to take up the Title of Primate of Normandy The Abbot Odillon being excited by divers Revelations to ease the Souls that were in Torments after Death ordained the Monks of his Congregation of Clugny to make a Commemoration every year the day after All-Saints in their Prayers and Divine Service which the Universal Church received soon after About the end of his Age three famous Religious Orders had their Birth That of the Chartreax Anno 1086. by Bruno Canon o◠Reims and St. Hugh Bishop of Grenoble who were the first that retired into the horrid Solitude of the Chartreuse in Dauphine which gave name to this Order That of St. Anthony at Vienne in the same Country by a Gentleman named Gaston who devoted his Person and Estate to the assistance of those that were seized with the Distemper called St. Anthony's Fire and came to implore the intercession of that Saint at Vienne where they had his Corps brought thither from Constantinople by Jocelin Count d'Albon in the time of King Lotaire Son of Louis Transmarine This Gaston got together some Companions who at first were of the Laity but soon after they became Friars under the Rules of St. Augustin and planted their Congregation in several Provinces In the year 1098. Robert Abbot of Molesme Instituted the Order of the Cisteaux being as it were a younger Sprig of that of St. Bennet and became so Potent that for more then Twenty years
de Creme who named himself Paschal and was confirmed by Frederick But Alexander III. recalled by the Romans left France the year following and returned to Rome to put an end to that Schism Year of our Lord 1165 In the year 1165. Lewis had a Son born whom he believed Heaven had sent him in return of his Prayers For this reason he was surnamed Dieu-Donne i. e. Gift of God or God-Gift and after for his brave Acts the Conqueror which Paul Emilius has rendred by Interpretation Augustus and is followed in the same by all the Modern Historians Year of our Lord 1166 The Life of Conan the Little Duke of Bretagne which had been ever full of trouble ended Anno 1166. to make room for Gefroy of Normandy his Son-in-Law This Prince being yet but Fifteen years of Age remained together with his Datchy under the Guardianship of the King his father for some time after which being at liberty he begins a War against him because he would make him do Hommage for his Dukedom a Duty he required by vertue of a Treaty made by Charles the Simple with Rollo Duke of Normandy Year of our Lord 1168 Thierry of Alsatia Earl of Flanders dies at Gravelin Philip his Son governs after him Year of our Lord 1169 70. The Feud was renewed between the two Kings upon several occasions one was the Earl d'Auvergne whom Lewis as Soveraign Lord took into his protection and safeguard against Henry to whom the Earl was a Vassal holding of him in Aquitain the other the support he gave to Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury The War thereupon breaks forth and lasted for two years however it was carried on but slowly and so as the Respect either of them had for Pope Alexanders Mediation brought them to an Agreement for some time Year of our Lord 1170 These two Princes having Conferr'd together at Saint Germain en Laye concluded the Peace betwixt them and there the King of England's Sons rendred Hommage to Lewis for those Lands their Father assured to them by advance of Inheritance Henry of the Dutchy of Normandy the County of Anjou and the Office of Grand Seneschal joyned thereto from the time of Grisegonnelle as also the Earldoms du Maine and de Touraine and the second named Richard of the Dakedom of Aquitain as for the third which was Gefroy he had Bretagne by his Wife and ow'd Hommage to none but the Duke of Normandy The Kings Intercession obtained of Henry that Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury might return into England but he continuing to act with the same heat four Gentlemen of Henry's Court out of Complaisance as mean as detestable having plotted and contrived to deliver their King of him entred the Church at Canterbury where that Holy Prelat was reading Service it was on the Christmas Holy-days and Murther'd him at the foot of the Altar Year of our Lord 1171 Though the King disown'd this Murther and shewed an extream grief nevertheless Year of our Lord 1172 having given cause to commit it if perhaps he did not command it the Pope Year of our Lord 1173 made a mighty business of it from which he could not get clear without submitting to great Pennance and such Reparations and Satisfactions as was ordained by his Legats The Holy Archbishop revered as a Martyr was Canonized the following year and the frequent Miracles wrought on his Tomb attested his Holiness Year of our Lord 1173 Every year almost there was some Rupture then a Peace or Truce between the two Kings either concerning their own proper Interests or that of their Friends and Vassals Lewis had this advantage that being the Soveraign Lord he had a right of hearing the Complaints of Henry's Vassals and of making himself his Judge Year of our Lord 1173 He had stirred up many in Aquitain and Normandy but this year he Armed his own Children against him The eldest with Margaret his Wife being gone to Visit him and having staid some time in that Court had a fancy put into his Head that since he was Crowned he ought to Reign and to demand of his Father the enjoyment either of the Kingdom of England or the Dukedom of Normandy With this disposition and fretted for that his Father had taken some young People from about him who gave him such like ill Counsels he stole away one Night from him and came and cast himself into the Arms of the King Immediately all the young Nobility follows him Queen Alienor favours him his two Brothers Richard Duke of Aquitain and Gefroy of Brâ—tagne joyns with him and those whole Provinces follow their Motions The King of France takes them into his protection William King of Scotland declares for them and attaques England whither at the same time went some French Forces under the Command of Robert Earl of Leicester Year of our Lord 1174 It seemed therefore as if the unhappy Father must needs be overwhelm'd on a suddain but he overthrew all the Enemies Lewis having taken Verneuil au Perche durst not hold it and retreated before him The Earl of Leicester is defeated in England and all those that followed him either slain or taken then all the Kingdom reduced in less then Thirty days by old Henry who went thither presently after this defeat Year of our Lord 1175 The following year whilst he was doing Pennance at St. Thomas Becket's Tomb William King of Scotland his most capital Enemy loses a Battle against his Lieutenants and was taken Prisoner The Fleet of young Henry is dispersed and disabled by Tempest King Lewis who had carried Philip Earl of Flanders with him is rudely repulsed from Rouen so that finding Henry who was come over-Seas again to Relieve this City made ready to give him Battle he hearkens to a Truce for some Months Year of our Lord 1175 Whilst that lasted old Henry going into Poitou and subduing Richard the worst of his three Rebellious Sons who held that Country all the others returned to their Obedience and he enters upon a Treaty of Peace with Lewis who gave him Alix his Daughter for his Son Richard and put her into his hands to compleat the Marriage when she should be Age for it Year of our Lord 1177 The two Kings now grown old were weary of so many Wars and Disturbances Either of them had cause to fear the one the activity of his three most valiant Sons the other the weakness of his only Heir as yet too young so that they confirmed the Peace by new Oaths promised mutual friendship against all others and took up a resolution to go joyntly into Languedoc to extirpiate those Hereticks already mentioned by us But they thought it more convenient first to send the Popes Legat thither with three or four other Prelats to endeavour to reclaim them by Exhortations and Anathema's which converted and brought back a great many and kept the rest within bounds for some time These Hereticks were all called Albigensis because they propaged
Lord 1197 Amongst all the events of this War which amounted only to Burnings and Plunderings is to be observed what hapned to Philip de Dreux Bishop of Beauvais Cousin german to the King This Bishop being taken in the War Armed and Fighting by some of Richard's Soldiers was detained a long time in an uneasie prison The Pope would interpose his recommendation to Richard for his deliverance and in his Letters he call'd this Bishop His most dear Son But Richard having sent word back in what posture and manner he was taken and having sent his coat of Maille all Bloody with order to him that carry'd it to ask him Behold Holy Father whether this be the Coat of your Son The Pope had nothing to reply but that the Treatment they shewed to that Prelat was just since he had quitted the Militia of Jesus Christ to follow that of the World Death of the Emperour Henry As he had manifested himself as rude an enemy to the Popes as his Predecessors and besides was very odious for his cruelties Innocent III. strongly opposed the Election of Philip his Brother excommunicating all his Adherents and stood up for Otho Son of the Duke of Saxouy and a Sister of Richards who was Crowned at Aix la Chapelle so that there was a Schism in that Empire which had often occasioned one in the Church The King of England the Earl of Flanders and the Arch-Bishop of Colen supported Otho and King Philip on Year of our Lord 1197 the contrary made a League with his Rival The same year died in the City of Acre or Acon the generous Henry Earl of Champagne Titular King of Jerusalem his Nephew Thibauld or Theobald III. of that Name Earl of Blois inherited those Lands he had in France in prejudice of his Year of our Lord 1197 Uncles two Daughters The eldest was named Alix and was Queen of Cyprus and by her was born a Daughter of the same Name whom we shall find making War against Thibauld IV. The Second was called Philippa who was Married to Erard de Brienne Year of our Lord 1198 These bloody and obstinate Wars the particulars whereof cannot be brought within the compass of an Abridgement caused much mischief in France but the greatest was that Philip grew extreamly covetous and became too greedy in heaping up Treasure under pretence of the necessity of raising and maintaining great numbers of standing Forces which are truly very proper to make Conquests and new Acquisitions but some times become oppressive to the Subjects and destructive to the Laws of the Land As he was the First of the Kings of France that kept Men in pay and would have Soldiers always ready to employ them in what he pleased he set himself likewise upon making great exactions upon the People ransoming or taxing the Churches and recalling the Jews who were the introducers of Usury and Imposts But however he was very frugal and retrencht himself as much as possible knowing and considering ☜ that a King who hath great designs ought not to consume the substance of his Subjects in vain and pompous expences Year of our Lord 1199 At the end of two years War the Pope by his intercession procured a Five years truce between the two Kings during which Richard as covetous of Money as he was proud having intelligence that a Gentleman of Limosin had found a vast Treasure and carried it into the Castle of Chalus he went presently and besieged him he was wounded there with a Cross-bow and his debauchery having envenom'd his wound he died of it the Eleventh day of April in this year 1199. He had introduc'd the use of Cross-bows in France before that time Sword-men were so generous and brave that they would not owe their Victory but to their Lances or Swords they abhorr'd those treacherous weapons wherewith a coward sheltred or conceal'd may kill a valiant Man at a distance and thorough a hole Year of our Lord 1199 He had no Children therefore the Kingdom of England and the Dutchy of Normandy belonged of right to young Arthur Duke of Bretagne as being the Son of Gefroy his Brother elder then John without Land but John having seized the Money gained Richards Forces and stept into the Throne In the mean while the Earl of Flanders with his Allies regained the Cities of Aire and St. Omers It hapned that the Kings party took his Brother Philip Earl of Namur and Peter Bishop Elect of Cambray The King refusing to release this last the Popes Legat puts the Kingdom of France under a prohibition so that after three Months time he was constrained to set him free Year of our Lord 1200 The day of the Ascension in the year 1200. Peace was concluded at a solemn Conference between the two Kings between Vernon and Andeley It was warranted by Twelve Barons on either part who made oath to take up Arms against him that should break it and moreover confirmed by the Marriage of Blanche Daughter of Alfonso VIII King of Castille and Alienor Sister to King John with Lewis the eldest Son of Philip to whom King John in favour of this Alliance yielded up all the Lands and Places which the French had taken from him Each had a care to secure his Partisans John was oblig'd to receive his Nephew Arthur into favour who did hommage to him for his Dutchy of Bretagne but yet remained with Philip. Reciprocally Philip pardon'd Renauld Earl of Boulogne and some while after Treated the Marriage between his Son of his own name whom he had by his Queen Agnes and that Earls Daughter Since the repudiation of 1semburge of Denmark King Philip had kept her in a Convent at Soissons and at three years end that is Anno 1196 he had espoused Mary-Agnes Daughter of Bertold Duke of Merania and Dalmatia Pope Celestine III. upon the complaints of King Canut Brother of the Divorc'd Lady had Commissioned in the year 1198. two Legats to take cognisance of this Affair who had assembled a grand Council at Paris of the Bishops and Abbots of the Kingdom but all those Prelats being partly terrify'd and some corrupted durst give no Sentence and the Legats were suspected to favour the Cause of Agnes Afterwards the Holy Father more importunately desired to do justice had sent two more One of them in the month of Decemb in the year 1199. having called the Prelats of France to Dijon notwithstanding the Appeal interjected by Philip to the Pope pronounced Sentence of prohibiton upon all the Kingdom in presence and by consent of all the Bishops and nevertheless that he might have leasure enough to get away into some place of safety he was willing it should not be publish'd till twenty days after Christmass He had reason to fear Philips anger In effect it burst out with furty against all his Subjects against the Ecclesiasticks first whom he believ'd to be all accomplices in this injury for he drove the Bishops from their Sees cast the
did again inspire them with new and dangerous Questions and Propositions but besides all these another sort of poysoners came out of Italy into France bringing along with them the most pernicious venom of the Manicheans and these were they in my opinion who first infected the Diocess of Alby for which reason those Heretiques were named Albigensis They were convinced at a Conference in that City at the Bishops who was chosen Arbitrator by both parties in presence of many Lords Prelats and Constance the Wife of Raimond Earl of Toulouze and Sister to the King of France Gozelin the Bishop of Lodeve refuting their errors by arguments and proofs drawn out of the New Testament This Conquest could not wholly destroy these unwholsom Seeds they multiplied every day more and more and soon mastered Toulouze the capital City of Languedoc The Kings of France and England were almost resolved to make use of Fire and Sword to destroy them however they thought fit to send some Preachers first amongst them to labour and endeavour to convert them or confound them and to cut them off from all communion with the faithful that they might corrupt no more of them The Popes Legat went thither in Anno 1178. accompanied with Four or Five Bishops and several other Clergy-men they discover'd many of these people in Toulouze amongst the rest the oldest and the richest and as I may say the cock of all the others who let them have his Towers to Meet and Preach in They forced him to submit to a publique pennance pull'd down his Towers or Turrets and excommunicated and banished several of those Heretiques who retired into Albigeois that was as it were their Fort or Cittadel because Roger Earl of Alby favour'd them and made use of them to keep the Bishop of his City a prisoner These Countries of Languedoc and Gascongny as well because of their distance as their situation and likewise the fiery warlike disposition of their people were filled with another sort of wild Beasts and such as delighted in Blood I mean Troops or Herds of Bandits who hir'd themselves to any one that wanted them to take revenge upon their Enemies or else roved all about to seek prey for themselves They sought not only after Money and Goods but took their Persons or their Lives away sparing neither condition nor age nor sex They were of no Religion but help'd the Heretiques thereby to have some pretence to rob Churches and Church-men some of them were called Brabanders Arragonians Navarrois and Basques as coming from those Countreys Others Cottereaux and Triaverdins a Nick-name whose original I do not know and their Horse-men Routiers from the German name Reuter The General Council of Lateran which was held in Anno 1179. Excommunicated both the one and the other forbid the burying them in Holy Ground and exhorted all Catholiques to fall upon them seize upon their Goods and bring their Persons into slavery allowing all those that took up Arms against them Indulgences and Relaxations of pennance proportionable to their Services and at the discretion of the Bishops Amongst these Heretiques there were some that were called Popelicans who held a great many strong Castles in Gascongny where they had cantoniz'd themselves and made up a body ever since they were cut off from the Church Henry who from being Abbot de Clervaux had been made Bishop of Albe having in quality of Legat gathered a good force together by his Preachings and Exhortations went to visit them with a strong hand in Anno 1181. They feigned to avoid this storm they would abjure their errors but the danger being over they lived as before This contagion spread it self in many Provinces both on this and the other side of the Loire one of these false Apostles by name Terric who had kept himself conceal'd a long time in a Grott at Corbigny in the Diocess of Nevers was taken and burnt Divers others suffer'd the same death in several places particularly two horrible old Women in the City of Troyes to one of whom as it was said they had given the name of Holy-Church and to the other that of St. Mary that so when they were examin'd by the Judges they might swear by St. Mary they believed no other then what was the belief of Holy Church These Popelicans amongst other things did openly repugne the reality of the Body of Our S. J. C. in the Sacrament for which cause there were divers miracles wrought in those times to confirm people in the faith of that mistery They were condemned in the Council of Sens of the year 1198. as were likewise the Vandois the Patarins and the Cathares The name of Patarins came from the Glory they took in suffering for the Truth patiently that of Cathares because though falsly they professed great purity of Life These last were called in Flanders Pifles and in France Weavers because the most part of them lived by the labour of their hands which they employed in that Trade It would require a whole Treatise to enumerate and particularize all these Sects their several Names and their Opinions which agreed in some points and were quite different in others but in my judgment they may be all reduced to two that is Albigeois and Vaudois and these two held almost or very near the same Opinions as those we call in our days Calvinists There arose if not an Heresie at least some great doubts touching the resurrection of the Body in the time of Maurice Bishop of Paris by reason whereof to testify what his Faith was concerning this Article he ordain'd they should engrave upon his Tomb the first Response which we find in the Office for the deceased After his example many other Ecclesiastiques gave Order before their death that these words should be affixed upon their Breasts in writing and put into the Graves with them These Schismes and Errors thwarting the power of the Pope and the Clergy confirmed and increased it the more For First the Popes gained the whole advantage upon the Emperours concerning those Disputes about Investitures Then when they had gotten that liberty of Elections they would needs extend it likewise to the persons and Goods of the Ecclesiastiques they said the Church owed no Contribution but to her own Head who is the Vicar of JESVS CHRIST on Earth and that the Clergy could not be corrected but by their Superiours which they founded upon that Maxim That the less Noble or Worthy ought not to command the more Noble or Worthy nor the inferior be judge of him that is above him However this point striking at and diminishing the Authority of all other Temporal Princes as well as the Emperours could not pass for current but in the Countreys of those that were weak and on the other side of the Mountains The third subject of the differences they had with the Emperours was they pretended it belonged to them to dispose of or give
St. Riquier undertook to Confess some Seculars and to Preach without leave of the Ordinary of which complaint was made against him at Rome the Pope caused him to be cited before him but he pleaded his Cause so well that the Holy Father allowed him both the one and the other and gave him Sandals which in those times were the Marks or Badge of a Preacher The Clergy busied themselves mightily in multiplying the Ceremonies the Ornaments and practise of Devotions and in making a great many frivolous Disputes upon each of these The profession of Physick and that of Law were hardly exercised by any but the Churchmen the Laity being very little addicted to Study and as they were very profitable the Monks and Regular Canons had likewise an itch to practise them The Council of Latran under Innocent II. did expressly forbid their medling with either of them The Mortifications and Austerities the Sackcloth Shirt of Hair knotted Girdle and voluntary Fustigation which they called Discipline was much in practise at least in the precedent Age since Peter Damianus mentions it as a thing that was very common When they desired to appease the Wrath of God or obtain some particular favour from his Bounty the Pope and sometimes the Bishops of their own Heads would ordain new Fasts Thus in the year 1187. Gregory VIII sorely afficted for the loss of Jerusalem thought fit thereby to animate the Christians to Arm themselves powerfully for its Recovery to command all both Men and Women to fast every Friday for five years successively with the same strictness as in Lent and to abstain from Flesh the Wednesdays and Saturdays He enjoyn'd all the Cardinals and their Families to do the same and imposed it upon himself and all his As for the Fast of Lent it was then very strictly observ'd they eat but once in the whole day and that after Sun-set all the Divine Service and Masses being then over We may see some footsteps of it remaining to this day in that they say Vespers with the Mass before Noon Some gave themselves the liberty of eating at the hour of Noon which is Three hours after Twelve or Dinner time The Friers fasted but till that hour from the Septuagesima to the Quadragesima but from the Quadragesima till Easter they nor any of the Faithful did eat till after Vespers The Princes and great Persons did not omit this abstinence nor fasting neither which did not so much impair their Health as it abated their Concupisence and in these Holy Times the least Devout were obliged at least in Honour to give Alms every day The Functions of those in holy Orders were yet different and different and distinct the Priest seldom did the Office of a Deacon or Sub-Deacon Many out of humility remained Deacons still or at least a long time not taking upon them the Order of Priesthood till near the end of their days We read that Celestine III. at the time he was elected Pope was but a Deacon and had lived Sixty five years in that Order without aspiring to be a Priest They sometimes tolerated the Marriage of Sub-Deacons but it was Sacriledge in a Deacon Baptisin was commonly not Ministred or Conferr'd but at the time of Easter if those that were to receive it were not in danger of Death They plung'd them three times in the Sacred Font to shew them what operation that Sacrament hath on the Soul washing and cleansing it from Original Sin After they had given the extream Unction to the Sick they ordinarily laid them upon a Bed of Straw where they gave up the Ghost Some would needs die upon a Bed of Ashes with their Heads lying on a Stone In those times the Clergy called all those Martyrs of their Order that were kill'd though it were neither for Religion or the maintaining of Christian Doctrines We find in the Decretals some Apostolical Letters of Alexander III. which forbids they should honour the Prior of the Monastery of Gristan as a Martyr The History is strange and odd enough The Monks of that House distributed to the People I know not what sort of Water which they hallowed with certain Prayers and by that invention got store of Alms wherewith they made good Chear It hapned one day that their Prior being drunk wounded two of his Friers with his Knife who immediately beat out his Brains with a Staff that was at hand by chance The rest of their Fellows instead of concealing this Scandal had the impudence to make advantage and profit of this accident and feigned divers Miracles upon his Corps by vertue whereof they Crowned him with the Laurel of Martyrdom and the silly People gave credit to the Cheat. They had been mightily puzled in the other Age to bring the Priests to Celibacy There were some yet that could not agree to it The Popes Calistus II. and Eugenius III. compell'd them by divers Punishments and amongst others deprived them of their Benefices and Excommunicated all such as went to hear them say Mass Now it not being allowed them to make use of the rights of Nature by Marriage there were some though but few in number who made use of things against Nature burning with such flames of Lust as ought not to be extinguished but by Fire from Heaven As for the greater part of the rest the Law of God that is to say his Church forbidding them to have Children the Author of all Confusion substituted great Throngs and Crowds of Nephews in their stead and from thence follow'd great Disorders for if those Nephews were Ecclesiasticks they perpetuated the Benefices in their Families by Coadjutories or otherwise and possess'd as by Right of Inheritance the Sanctuary of the Lord If they were of the Laity and thrifty People they made their Uncles grow Covetous Usurers and Extortioners to heap up Riches for them or else they endeavour'd by all ways imaginable to alienate the Lands of the Church and joyning them to their own appropriate all to themselves Often times they became Masters of their Parents House and living there with too great a Train squandred away the Patrimony of the Cross and the Poor in Feasting Equipage of Hounds and Horses and sometimes in things much worse We might quote a great many Examples of this scandalous Nature I shall instance one which is of the Nephews of an Archdeacon of Paris who committed extraordinary Violences and Exactions in his Place whereof Thomas Prior of St. Victors having often given him warning they Murther'd this holy Holy Friar in the very Arms of the Bishop himself near Gournay as he returned from a Visit The Councils of the Gallican Church having now but little Authority because their Decisions were often annul'd at Rome without hearing their Reasons the Bishops took not so much care to call any I cannot tell in which it was where an old Bishop appear'd with ill Cloaths a Crosier half broken and a Mitre out of order to
last by a Decree of the Twenty eighth of December maintained them in their possession protesting it was his hearty desire to augment the Rights and Priviledges of the Church rather then any way dimish or infringe them for which reason they gave him the Surname of the Good Catholick Notwithstanding after this shock the Authority of that Body hath been so much weakned especially by Appeals in all Cases that now they really believe they have more just cause of Complaints against the Secular Judges then the Seculars had in those times against them Year of our Lord 1330 France being in Peace King Philip following the foot-steps of his Predecessors had conceived a desire of undertaking an Expedition into the Holy-Land To this purpose upon his return from a Pilgrimage he made to Marseilles with a very small Attendance in performance of a Vow he had made to St. Lewis Bishop of Toulouze he visited the Pope in Avignon and discoursed in particular with him about his design Towards the end of the year he summon'd the Estates of his Kingdom and laid before them the passion he had for the Holy War By their advice he sent to demand permission of the Pope to levy the Tenths of all the Clergy in Christendom and many other things but so extraordinary that he could obtain no favourable Answer Year of our Lord 1331 The English could not well digest that Edward had so easily renounced to the Crown of France They ceased not from spurring him on opportunity seeming to present it self favourably because Scotland which France was wont to make a counterpoise to England was extreamly embroil'd For Edward the Son of John Baliol who for a long time led a private Life at his House in Normandy with a small Force had recover'd that Crown and driven out King David who was retired to the Court of France together with his Wife and Children After the death of Mahaut the Earldom of Artois sell Jane of Burgundy Wife of Philip the Long and according to the Articles of Marriage was given to Blancb her Daughter the Wife of Eudes Duke of Burgundy Robert d'Artois who could not yet forbear his pretentions to that Earldom renewed the Process and produced certain Grants under the great Seal which he said he had found by Miracle He believed the King being his Brother-in-Law and owing him so great obligation would not search too deep after the truth of it But the King because it concerned the interest of his Daughter who was much nearer to him then his Sister caused these Letters Patents to be examin'd so exactly that they were found to be false and a Gentlewoman of Artois that had counterfeited them was burnt alive for it they having accused her as being a Sorceress Robert enraged for the loss of his Process and of his Honour slew to reproaches against the King so much the more injurious as they were true and so exasperated his anger that he was pushed on to the utmost extremity against him They seized upon his Confessor whom they obliged by force or promises to bear Witness against him his Wiâ—e was laid hold on though she were the Kings own Sister and after some delay for want of appearing he was Banished by sound of Trumpet and Proclamation through all the Suburbs of Paris and his Estate was declared to be Confiscate He then knew there was no more quarter for him and would have taken Sanctuary at the Earl of Hainaults but the Kings wrath did not suffer him to be so near he excited the Duke of Brabant to make War upon the Hanuyer Robert not to be a Cause of the ruine of his Friend went out of those Countries and resolved to all the extremities whereunto dispair does usually hurry Men of courage he goes to the King of England and by force of blowing the Coals kindled the Flame that set all France on Fire Year of our Lord 1332 In the mean time the King of England strenghned himself with Alliances Moneys and all sorts of Ammunitions for some great Enterprize He had in his Party the Earl of Haynault the Emperor Lewis his Brother-in-Law several German Princes with the Cities of Flanders and to have the greater power in the Low-Countries and over the Princes along the Rhine he purchased at a dear rate the Quality of Vicar of the Empire The King was secure of the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Lorrain the Earl of Bar the Kings of Castille of Scotland and of Bohemia but especially of this last whom he had made fast by many several ties For besides that he had Married a Sister of his and his Son Charles born of that Wedlock had been bred in the Court of France he also Married his Daughter Bonne to John Duke of Normandy The Nuptials were compleated at Melun The Designs of the English being not yet formed gave Philip no apprehension so Year of our Lord 1332 that he was taking up the Cross for the Holy Land and with him three other Kings Charles of Bohemia Philip of Navarre and Peter of Arragon with a great number of Dukes Earls and Knights The Clergy took but small joy in it so mightily were they oppressed with extraordinary Exactions as if they had a design to ruine the Churches of France to go and restore those in Palestine Year of our Lord 1333 Upon the design of this War Philip endeavour'd to make Peace between all his Neighbour Princes he brought the Duke of Brabant to an agreement with the Earl of Flanders and the Earl of Savoy with the Dauphin de Viennois The difference betwixt the first was for the City of Malines It belonged to the Bishop of Liege and to the Earl of Guelders the Bishop had sold his part to the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Brabant claimed it saying he was the Lord of the Fief It was concluded it should remain to the Flemming unless the Duke would rather chuse to reimburse him 85000 Crowns With that was agreed the Marriage of three Daughters of the Brabanders with Lewis eldest Son of the Flemming William Earl of Holland and Renauld Earl of Guelders Year of our Lord 1333 Pope John XXII had publickly preached at Avignon That the Vision or Joyes of the Blessed Souls and the Pains or Torments of the Damned were imperfect till the final day of Judgment and endeavour'd to make this opinion pass current for the Doctrine of the Church The Faculty of Theology of Paris courageously opposed it He tried to get them to own it by two Nuncios whom he sent to them the one was the General of the Cordeliers the other a famous Jacobin Doctor The most Christian King did not judge the Pope to be infallible but order'd the question to be discuss'd by Thirty Doctors or the Faculty of Theology who confounded the Cordelier Nuncio whereupon a Decree was made and Sealed with their Thirty Seals which he sent to the Holy Father exhorting him to believe those who
kept the Field some time but being less crafty he fell into an Ambuscade near Alexandria and was wounded to death after which his whole Army was dispersed and dwindled to nothing Year of our Lord 1392 The great desire the two Kings Charles and Richard had to joyn their Forces against the Turks brought the Duke of Lancaster to a Conference with King Charles at Amiens but the Propositions were so high on the English side that the result at last was only a Truce for a year The more the authority of the Constable and his three dependants was confirmed the more grievous was their power to the People The King's Uncles fretted and grew enrag'd the Clergy betraid by some of the Chief of their own Body were on the brink of losing their immunities had not the University from whom they were also taking away all their Priviledges bestirr'd themselves and put a stop to all School-Exercises and Preaching When they observed that all Foreigners went away from Paris and that such an Interdiction made a great noise all over Europe even those that had undertaken the ruine of that Body would needs have the honour of procuring them an Audience of the King who did them justice upon their Complaints The Support and Priviledges the Kings ever since the time of Lewis the Gross had granted to this famous University the Mother of all the rest that are in Europe the infinite numbers of Students that came thither from the remotest Countreys the strict adherence of the whole Clergy to them to whom they were a Nursery and Seminary and the Authority their Faculty of Divinty had acquired to judge of Doctrine and Matters thereto relating had rendred them so considerable that in times of confusion they were called to consult in all Affairs of Importance if not they took upon them to make Remonstrances and knew how to oblige others to follow them Year of our Lord 1392 Peter de Craon was notoriously guilty of the loss of Lewis Duke of Anjou his Lord the Duke of Berry had threatned to have him hang'd for it yet he was no less regarded at Court where the splendor of Birth and Riches easily covers baseness and crimes It hapned that he fell into disgrace with the Duke of Orleans he fancied the Constable had done him that ill Office he resolved upon revenge and one Evening the Thirteenth of June as he was coming from the King Assassinates him in St. Catherines street being assisted by Twenty Russians whom he had gotten together in his House He alterwards easily escaped out of Paris the Gates having been always left open ever since the Constable had caused them to be taken down upon his return from Flanders These wounds did not prove the death of the Constable but they were the ruine of Craon Three of the Murtherers being discover'd and taken were beheaded his Goods confiscated and given to the Duke of Orleans his House turned into a Churchyard for St. John's in Greve and his stately Seats in the Countrey demolished He could save nothing but his Person by flying to the Duke of Bretagne who kept him carefully conceal'd Some years after the King granted his Pardon upon the request of the Duke of Orleans When the Constable began to recover of his wounds both those that were his friends and such as were no way concerned called earnestly upon the King to punish this attempt There was upon this Command sent to the Duke to deliver up the Assassin he denies him to be in that Countrey the Ministers exasperate the King and perswade him to march towards Bretagne to destroy the Duke In vain did his Unclâ—s urge that this was but a private quarrel which ought to be legally determined by the ordinary ways and methods of Justice and that it was against the common Rights of Mankind to fall upon the Duke of Bretagne before he was proved Guilty or Condemned they could not alter that Resolution Year of our Lord 1392 Marching in the Sun-shine and great heats of weather in August his Brain already much weakned with the debauchery of his youth was discomposed with black and noxious vapours Two unexpected but frightful objects heightned and hastned his phrensy One day as he was going out of Manse passing thorough a Wood there came forth a tall black fellow all weather-beaten and ragged who laid hold of his Horses Bridle bawling out Stop King Whither goest thou thou art betray'd then vanish'd Soon after a Page who carried a Lance sleeping on horseback let it fall upon a Helmet which another carried before him At this shrill noise and the sight of the posture of the Lance the Apparition or Fantasme and its threatnings came fresh into his mind his Fancy was disturbed he imagines they were going to deliver him up to his enemy and believed all those that were about him to be Traitors This puts him into a violent fit of Fury he runs strikes kills without Rime or Reason till he fell into a Swoon They carry him bound in a Chariot back to Manse Witchcrafts and Poysonings were so frequent in those days that it was believed his malady proceeded from some such Cause The third day he recover'd his Sences and by little and little his Strength which was attributed to the publick Prayers made for him but not the full vigor of his understanding In this disorder his Uncle resumed the Government conducted him back to Paris seized upon the three Citizen Favourites who having undergone three Months imprisonment with the continual fear of being led to execution as was threatned were set at liberty by the Kings Command who ordered the greatest part of their Goods to be restored but declared them for ever incapable of holding any Office-Royal The Constable was so fortunate as to make his escape to his own Countrey in Bretagne where he most bravely defended himself against the Duke by the assistance of the Duke of Orleans and the rest of his friends The Princes gave his Office to Philip of Artois Earl of Eu. All Offices being as then but Commissions which were revocable Year of our Lord 1390 Vrban the Pope of Rome died in the Month of October Anno 1389. Boniface IX succeeded him this Pope shewed himself to be very much inclined to re-unite the Church dispatched a Frier to Clement to consult of some method to bring it about Clement puts him in prison but the University exclaimed so that he released him Clament was therefore compell'd to feign that he had a desire to put an end to that Schism But when the University had declared it was impossible to be effected without the renunciation of both Competitors he and the Duke of Berry who took his part highly broke off the Proposition But they could never stop the mouth of that Mother of all Learning and Piety from crying out against that scandal which so afflicted the whole Church Year of our Lord 1393 The 29th of January at the Nuptials of a Lady
forth with Bag and Baggage and all their Galleys and Vessels that were in Port. He made his entrance upon Christmass-Day Year of our Lord 1523 The Grand Master Peter de Villiers-l'Isle-Adam to whose conduct and Heroick Vertue the greatest Honour of this Generous defence was due setting Sail with his Knights and four thousand of the Inhabitants as well of that as of the Islands depending on it retired to Candia where he Winter'd From thence he went to Sicilia and three months after to Rome the Pope giving those Knights his City of Viterbo for their Retreat Six Years after in Anno 1530. they placed themselves in the Island of Malta The Emperor bestowed it upon them to cover his Kingdom of Silicia and they accepted it with the consent of all other Christian Princes in whose Territories their Order had any Lands or Possessions Year of our Lord 1523 The loss of Rhodes being partly occasioned by Pope Adrian's Fault it concerned him in Honour to repair it Therefore upon that consideration and to make his name glorious he employ'd all his cares to procure a Peace or at least a Truce betwixt all Christian Princes that so they might make War upon the Insidels with their united Force Francis would yield to nothing but a Truce and that a very short one this did not sute with the Popes designs So that not being able to overcome him by his Exhortations nor by the threats of the English nor upon the consideration that he made himself odious to all Christendom he would needs bring him to it by Force and thus of a Common Father he became a Partial and open Enemy Prompted with this Spirit he acted so powerfully with the Venetians that he broke them off from his Alliance and made a League with them the Emperor and the King of England to thrust him out of Italy The King had therefore all the great powers of Christendom against him nevertheless his passion to recover Milan did so over-rule his mind that he was resolved to go thither in Person at the Head of his best Men had not the Conspiracy of the Duke of Bourbon which he happended to discover kept him back And though this did strangely embarass him yet he sent Bonnivet thither with an Army For divers years past Madame had sought all opportunities of doing some displeasure to Charles de Bourbon and the Chancellor and Admiral employed themselves most willingly to gratifie both her passion and their own For Bonnivet Year of our Lord 1523 imagin'd if he could ruin him he should have the Connestables Sword and the other had a secret grudge against him for having denied his Family some Favour in Auvergne It did not satisfie Madame that she had deprived him of the Chief Functions of his Office and hindred his Marriage with Renee the Kings Sister she had process against him likewise in Parliament to strip him of the Dutchy of Bourbon and the other great Estate of Susanna his Wife who Died without Children in the year 1521. The Succession whereof as she pretended did belong to her as the next Heiress Indeed she was Daughter of Margaret and Philip who was Lord of Bresse and afterwards Duke of Savoy and that Margaret who was Daughter of Charles I. Duke of Bourbon and Sister to Peter who had the same Dutchy after John II. his Brother and was Father of this Susanna above mentioned As for Charles de Bourbon he was Son of Gilbert Earl of Montpensier who was Son of Lewis Uncle of Duke Peter and by consequence he was farther removed than she But besides that he made it appear by very ancient Titles by Solemn Judgments and Decrees and by many Examples that the Lordship of Bourbon was a Feif Masculin he shewed likewise how in his Contract of Marriage with Susanna he was acknowledged the right Heir of that House and as for the other Estate there was a mutual donation between him and his Wife by vertue whereof he enjoy'd it 'T is true that Susanna was then in minority and not authorized by the Judge but she was authorized sufficiently by the presence of King Lewis XII the Cardinal d'Amboise and four or five and twenty Princes Bishops and Eminent Lords He believed his cause would have been very good in any other times and against any other Party But as soon as they Commenced this process he imagin'd it was before resolved and concluded and that he must Infallibly be cast before Judges who were all Creatures of Madame's or of the Chancellor And this last Affront which reduced him to extream inconveniences blinded him so with rage and revenge that without any consideration of what he was and what he might come to be he casts himself into the Emperor's Arms having Treated with him by the assistance of the Lord de Beaurien Son of Adrian de Crovy Count de Rieux The King of England came into this Treaty It imported That all three were to share France betwixt them That Bourbon should have the Ancient Kingdom of Arles with the Title of King and as a Seal to this Alliance the Emperor should give him his Sister Eleonor who was the Widdow of Emanuel King of Portugal Bourbon had a particular pretension of his own Head to Provence because Year of our Lord 1523 Rene Duke of Lorrain had yielded up the right he had to Anne of France the Mother of Susanna and Anne by her Will and Testament had given it to him Now while the King was at St. Peter le Monstier on the Confines of Nivernois and Bourbonnois two Normand Gentlemen Matignon and d'Argouges Houshold-Servants belonging to the Connestable discovered all their Masters correspondence to him He would needs be satisfied from his own Mouth saw him in the City of Moulins and told him his whole mind The Connestable owned that he had been Sollicited by the Count de Rieux but stiffly denied that he had given any ear to it They would perhaps have laid hands on him if they durst But indeed the attempt would have been dangerous in the midst of his own Country for he was mightily beloved by the People and the Nobility and the King had but four thousand Foot with him and five hundred Horse so he only commanded him to follow the Court. The Connestable taking his Litter under pretence of some indisposition went easy Journeys At la Palice he had news that a Decree was made the of August which put his Estate under Sequestration thereupon he dispatches Huraut Bishop of Autun his Confident to the King to beseech him to stopt he execution of it and to assure him that this favour would bind him for ever to his Service but he was informed they had stopp'd the Bishop six Leagues from that place Then flying from the King's indignation he retired to his Castle of Chantelle where all his richest Goods were And there having intelligence that four thousand men were coming to besiege him he went forth by Torch-light When he had Rode a
gained the Princes favour so entirely that he could not have liv'd a moment without him Seven or Eight dayes were past and the King of Poland went not though all his Equipage were ready and his Goods loaden The King attributes it to the month September Queen and told her with an Oath that one of the two must leave the Kingdom but the Duke of Guise with-held him still upon hopes of a sudden enjoyment and offer'd him Fifty Thousand men to defend him from the wrath of his Brother At Three dayes end the King verily believing the Queen his Mother was the cause of his delay and that it was to hatch some dangerous Conspiracy caused his Closet Door to be rudely shut against her and resolved to prevent their designes by some others which no doubt would have been very Tragical The Peril was Evident both for her and her Son yet notwithstanding she could hardly resolve to part with him The King would needs Conduct him to the Frontiers rather to hinder him from Cantonizing himself in any of the Provinces then out of any Affection He could not accompany him so far as he desired but was forced to stop at Vitry in Partois for in a few dayes after he had menaced his Mother he was seized with a lingring but Malignant Feaver which made him very giddy in his Head and sick at Heart almost every Minute The Queen Mother with the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre Conducted him as far as Blamont in Lorraine There the Mother and the Son took their Leaves of each other amidst their Embraces Sobbs Sighes and Tears she most imprudently let fall these words Farewel my Son you shall not stay there long which being over-heard by several and quickly divulged did much encrease the sinister suspicions they had of the Kings Malady though others attributed it to his constitution which was of adust Choller and to the violent exercises he used as Hunting Riding the great Horse playing at Tennis Five or Six hours together hammering and forging of Iron which had so over-heated his mass of Blood that he slept but little and had sometimes Fits like those that so much afflicted Charles VI. King Henry after his departure from Blamont having Travell'd cross all Germany Arrived at Miezrich the first City of Poland about the end of the Month of January He had in his Train the Dukes of Nevers and Mayne the Marquiss d'Elbcuf the Count de Rais lately made Mareschal of France Roger de Sainct Lary Bellegarde Ten or Twelve other Lords of Note and above Five Hundred of the bravest Gentlemen besides these several Men of the Gown amongst others Bellievre Ambassadour of France to him Vincent Lauré Apostolick Nuncio and Pibrac the Kings Attorney in the Parliament of Paris All the Princes thorow whose Territories he passed strove to pay him the honour due to his Birth and Dignity there was none but Frederic Count Palatine of the Rhine that Treated him otherwise That Prince one of the gravest of his time desiring to make the young King and his bloody Council know the Injustice of the Massacres received him after a manner not much obliging and took pleasure in putting him into some apprehension of a most terrible Revenge At first that Noble and Majestick Air which outwardly appeared in all his Actions and the Profusion he made with both hands got him the passionate Love of the Nobility and adoration of the People but soon after the discomposedness of his Mind proceeding from Vapours of the Spleen his Melancholly for not receiving so early as he wished the News he expected from France a disgust of the Manners and Conversations of those People rendred him un-easie to himself and to his Subjects He sought for solitude in his own Closet communicated himself to none but his Favourites was sad and silent but that which aggravated Year of our Lord 1573 his Sorrow the more was the Proposition made him by the Senate to Marry Anne Sister of the Deceased King ill-favour'd and old whose dis-agreeable aspect did but more encrease those Flames in his Breast first kindled at Paris by the bright Eyes of the charming Princess of Condé There was some likely-hood that his departure from France would contribute much towards the calming of the Affairs in the State That the fears of the Huguenots who dreaded him and his Favorites ceasing their emotions would cease likewise That the Queen Mother having none now to rely upon would be forced to obey in her turn and that her Italians who excited the publick hatred and perverted the Just and Ancient Laws of Government to Introduce a new and Tyrannical Power would loose their Credit and Interest But on the contrary the Huguenots believing themselves the Stronger had not laid down their Arms in Languedoc but being confirmed and encouraged in their Assembly of Millaud and afterwards in those of Montauban and Nismes they became more audacious in their demands than if they yet had their Admiral at the Head of Thirty thousand Men to fight their Battels And besides the Duke of Alencon and the Politiques believing they were now Masters of all by the absence of the Duke of Anjou would needs dispose of things as they pleased The Duke d'Alencon ready to embrace any Enterprize without consideration and to give it over as lightly without thinking forged several in his own head but chiefly two amongst the rest the one to undertake the Lieutenancy of the War in the Low-Countries against the Spaniards and the King would gladly have sent him thither to ridd his hands of such a turbulent and restless Spirit the other was to demand the General Lieutenancy as the Duke of Anjou had it The Mareschal de Montmorency was of opinion he should stick to the latter and earnestly desired it for him with such persuasive Arguments and Reasons that the King thought fit to grant it Year of our Lord 1574. January c. But the Queen Mother who did expect no more acknowledgment or respect from this Son than she had shewed affection towards him who besides feared he would wrest her Authority from her and if the King hap'ned to die might perchance shut her dear Son the Duke of Anjou out of the Kingdom studied to break his measures and desired the Lieutenancy for the Duke of Lorrain who had Married the Fondling of all her Daughters Now when she found the King had promis'd it to the Duke of Alencon she contrived the Matter so well that instead of a Patent he only made a Declaration by word of Mouth and gave Letters under the Privy-Seal to some Governours shewing thereby plainly enough he meant to recall his Word as he soon after did and confer'd that eminent Title upon the Duke of Lorrain In the mean time the Duke of Alencon had contracted a most particular tye with the Huguenots and had promised to take them into his Protection The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé were entred into this
some respect for the King Of the Catholicks as well as Huguenots which were about him there were two sorts some who pressed for his change in Religion Year of our Lord 1590 others who hindred it And of these likewise there were such who solicited it and yet would not have it others that opposed it and yet would have it so The Zealous Huguenots whereof Plessis had greatest Authority not having yet been able to obtain an Edict of him in favour of their Religion and finding he inclined by little and little towards the Catholick resolved they would strengthen themselves with Forreign Aid And in this Prospect engaged him to demand some both in England and Germany so to beset and keep him closer united with the Protestant Princes He met likewise from abroad with another great cause of discontent Pope Sixtus V. had conceived a very high esteem for him an extream contempt for the League and a private hatred for the Spanish Government which was much more dreadful to him then all the Hereticks He had heaped up five Millions of Gold in the Castle St. Angelo the Spaniards importuned him to open his Chests for relief of the Catholick Party but he refused absolutely and that with words as sharp as their demands were arrogant Thereupon he happen'd to die the Seven and twentieth of the Month of August His Successor Vrban VII who proved to be of the same mind lived but thirty days and 't was suspected the Spaniards shortned the lives both of the one and other Gregory XIV who was elected in the place of Vrban being a Milanese by Birth and perhaps apprehending as he was very timorous that they might soon dispatch him after his Predecessors espoused the passions of his King and publickly engaged himself by promising assistance of Men and Money to the month December League Year of our Lord 1591. January The beginning of the year 1591. was made memorable by two Enterprizes one of the Chevalier d'Aumales upon the City of St. Denis the other the Kings upon Paris they both miscarried The Chevalier was by night gotten into St. Denis by means of some People who having passed the Fosse upon the Ice screwed open the Gate and let down the Draw-bridge When he was come into the midst of the Town Dominique de Vic who was newly made Governor goes forth into the Streets with ten or twelve Horse making a huge noise as if great Company were with him He puts the Assailants to a full stop then feeling their Pulses a little afterwards charged them so smartly that he beat back two hundred Men who were soremost upon the Body that came behind Then all betook them to flight The Chevalier with fifteen or sixteen of his lay dead in the Street not without some suspicion of being kill'd by his own Party This was in the night between the second and third of January the Eve of St. Genevieue not very favourable to the Parisians As to the Enterprise upon Paris the Twentieth of the same Month sixty of the most resolute Captains disguised like Peasants and leading Horses loaden with Meal for the City began to grow in want had order to seize upon the Gate St. Honore Year of our Lord 1590. January The Politiques who had notice to be in a Body at the Court of Guard would have joyned them five hundred Cuirassiers and two hundred Arquebusiers concealed in the Fauxbourg would have followed and these again would have been back'd by twelve hundred Men then the Swiss should have marched with several Waggons loaden with Pontons Ladders and Hurdles to scale it in several parts At the same time the King stood at the entrance of the Fauxbourg to give Orders but finding the Gate St. Honore filled up with Earth he judged his Design had taken wind and retired The City of Paris being hourly threatned with the like dangers the Duke of Mayenne was forced to bring in a Garison of Spaniards However to avoid reproach he would not order it of himself but refer'd the business to the Parliament who concluded after great Debate and Contentions it should be so By vertue of their Decree he put four thousand into Paris and five hundred in Meaux a sufficient number to make good his Command but not so many as to make them Masters there month February The inconvenience of the Season which was very sharp could not hinder the King from besieging the City of Chartres The Garison was but two hundred Soldiers but there were three thousand Citizens who believing they did maintain the Cause of God and of the Virgin made the Siege much longer and much more difficult then was expected He was twice or thrice of the mind to raise it Chiverny who was concerned for the recovery of that place because he had the Government of the Chartrain and all his Estate lay thereabouts was the only Man that obliged him not month April to give over This obstinacy of his proved happy in the end for the Town surrendred the Eighteenth day of April The Duke of Mayenne could not make a diversion by attaquing Chafteau-Thierry the taking whereof was very easie the Governor who was the Son of Pinard Secretary of State defended himself so ill that he was accused of Treason His Father and himself were hugely put to it and got out of the Briars rather by the intercession of Friends then any justification of themselves The length of the Siege of Chartres as doubtful at five weeks end as the first day emboldned the Tiers Party to hold up their Heads The young Cardinal de Bourbon a vain and ambitious Prince was Head and Author of it He thought the good Catholicks tired with the tedious delays the King made for his being instructed would confer the Crown on him as being the nearest Prince of the Blood and in this imagination had made a Cabal and sent to Rome to treat with the Pope concerning that matter At the same time his Brother the Count de Soissons was contriving another which would have mightily perplexed the King and made him forfeit his Credit amongst Huguenots The Countess of Guiche offended because the King did not now respect Year of our Lord 1591. April her as he had to be reveng'd of him re-kindled the love that Count once had for Madam Catharine his Sister and so well managed the intrigue that their Wedding was ready to be consummate but the King having discover'd the designs of either that of the Cardinal de Bourbon by means of the Cardinal de Lenoncour who revealed all his secrets that of the Princess by the treachery of a disgraced Chambermaid took such effectual order as removed all his apprehensions The Negociations for Peace began anew after the taking of Chartres Whilst Villeroy was setting them on foot there was an Assembly of the Heads of the League who all met either in Person or by their Deputies in the City of Reims to settle their concerns and the methods for making Peace or
War A Peace would have blasted all their ambitious pretensions and they could no longer carry on the War without a King nor maintain and support a King without the assistance of Spain To this effect they deputed the President Janin to that Prince who gave him favourable Audience twice and afterwards sent him to confer with one of his Ministers By whose discourse the President discover'd the intentions of Philip which were to Assemble the Estates General that they might bestow the Crown of France upon him that should Marry his Daughter Isabella as the nearest Princess of the Blood Royal upon which condition he promised to send such numerous Forces into France as should drive out the the King of Navarre and withal offer'd ten thousand Crowns per Month to maintain the Duke of Mayenne He founded his hopes upon the charms of his Gold the affections of the Seize and the Cabals of the Friers Mendicants and other Religious Orders very powerful and at that time devoted to Spain by whose means he hoped to gain the greater Cities The Pope aimed at the same thing and treated the Seize as Men of great importance He fancied the time was now come to suppress all Heresies and that his Popeship might not lose the glory of it he resolved to joyn his Spiritual with the Temporal Power to destroy them He put forth two Monitories the one month March directed to the Prelats and Ecclesiasticks the other to the Nobility Magistrates and People By the first he Excommunicated them if within fifteen days they did not withdraw from the Obedience Territories and their Attendance on Henry de Bourbon and within fifteen more deprived them of their Benefices By the second he exhorted them to do the same if not he would turn his Paternal goodness and love into the severity of a Judge In both of them he declared Henry of Bourbon Excommunicate Relapsed and as such fallen from all right to his Kingdoms and Seigneuries Marcellin Landriano the Popes Referendary was the Bearer of them and contrary to the sentiments of the Duke of Mayenne published them in all the Cities of the League about the end of the Month of April month April To the same end the Pope raised Eight thousand Foot and a thousand Horse of whom he made his Nephew Hercules Sfondrata General and to make him the more Year of our Lord 1591. May. worthy that Command he invested him with the Dutchy of Montemarcian with most solemn Ceremony in the Church of Sancta Maria Major About this time the Marquiss de Maignelay who had promised the King to return to his Obedience with la Fere upon Oyse whereof he was Governor was assassinated in the midst of the City by the Vice-Seneschal of Montelimar named Colas and the Lieutenant of the Duke of Mayennes Guards who left the Government of it to Colas The King going to Compeigne to favour this Reduction very angry it was prevented came back to Mantes From thence he put in execution an Enterprise he had upon the City of Louviers It was taken at noon day by the Mareschal Biron Raulet having greatly contributed to this Exploit had the Government of it Fontaine-Martel Governor of the place and Claude de Saintes Bishop of Evreux were taken Prisoners Martel redeem'd himself by paying a Ransom the Bishop for being too hot was detained in Prison and there died The Popes Bull had scarce any other effect but to excite the Huguenots to demand an Edict give an opportunity to those of the third Party to advance and strengthen their Cabal and provoke the Parliaments of the one and the other Party to make bloody Decrees The Chamber of Chaalons a Member of that which was sitting at Tours by a Decree of the Sixth of June cancell'd and revoked them as null abusive scandalous seditious full of Impostures contrary to the Holy Decrees Canons Councils and the Rights of the Gallican Church ordained they should month June be torn and burnt by the hands of the Hangman that Landriano should be apprehended ten thousand Livers Reward to whomsoever should deliver him to Justice forbidding all the Kings Subjects to lodge or harbour him as likewise to carry either Silver or Gold to Rome or to sollicite the Provisions or Expeditions of Benefices And an Act to be given to the Sollicitor General for the appeal he was to bring to the next Council legally Assembled The Kings Council were divided into two parts the one sat at Tours where the Cardinal de Vendosme presided the other at Chartres with the Chancellor de Chiverny the King assembles them together at Mantes to deliberate on so important an Affair After he had heard their opinions he puts forth a Declaration in the Month of July month July wherein he gives notice to his Parliaments that all other things laid aside they should proceed against Landriano as they should in justice see cause and exhorted the Prelats to meet and advise together according to Holy Decrees that the Ecclesiastical Discipline might not be lost nor the People destitute of their Pastors Year of our Lord 1591 On the other hand he thought convenient notwithstanding the vehement oppositions of the Cardinal de Bourbon to grant a Declaration in favour of the Huguenots which revoked all Edicts that had been put forth against them with the Judgments that had ensued thereupon and restored revived and confirmed all the Edicts of Pacification but then added these words by provision only and until such time as he should be able to re-unite all his Subjects by a happy Peace This clause served as a Vehicle to make it pass in the Parliament of Tours As to the business of the Bulls this Company thundred lowder yet then the Chamber at Chaalons and out-vying them declared Gregory an Enemy of the Churches Peace and Union Enemy to the King and State adhering to the Conspiracy of Spain favourer of Rebels and guilty of the Parricide of King Henry III. On the contrary that of Paris pronounced That this Decree was null and of no force made by People without power Schismaticks and Hereticks Enemies to God and destroyers of his Church ordered it should be torn in full Audience and the Fragments burnt on the Marble Table by the Executioner of the Haute Justice The Clergy also assembled at Mantes pursuant to the Kings Declaration They were to examine the Popes Bulls and to settle some Orders for the Provisions of Benesices As to the first point the Assembly made a Decree which declared the said Bulls to be null unjust suggested by the Enemies of the Kingdom protesting notwithstanding that they would not depart from their obedience to the Holy See month August To the second they propounded many Expedients The Archbishop of Bourges this was Renauld de Bealne made a motion of creating a Patriarch in France and he believed his Quality of Primat in the absence of the Archbishop of Lyons who was for the League would acquire him that Dignity
in revoked and converted it into a moderate Subsidy For Imposts though they be Year of our Lord 1602 abolished like Wounds do ever leave some cicatrice and ill-favour'd Scar behind them Whil'st the King was in Poitou the Parliament the Chambers assembled after a Mercuriale and chiefly at the instance of the President Seguier seconded by the Examiners ordained that all Advocates or Attorneys pursuant to the 161 Article of the Estates at Blois should at the end of all their Briefs or Writings put down the particulars of all they had received for their Fees and give a Certificate of what they had gained from their Clients for their Pleadings He made this Decree the Thirteenth of May upon the desire the King had to reform the gross Abuses in Law-States and upon Complaint made to him by the Duke de Piney of an Advocate that had demanded Fifteen hundred Crowns of him to Plead one Cause The Advocates refusing to obey there was a second which enjoyned those that would not Plead to make such Declaration to the Register after which they were forbidden to exercise their Profession upon peine de faux i. e. Loss of Life and Estate month May. The Morrow after this had been pronounced in full Court they all went by two and two out of the Chamber of Consultations to the Number of 307. and going to the Registers laid down their Caps and declared that they obey'd The Palace or Court was dumb for Eight or Nine days Some of the Courtiers persuaded the King to leave them in that humor which they would have been weary of â—ooner than himself But having Business of much greater weight than this and the Brouillery beginning to look like a Commotion he would needs determine it and caused an Order to be dispatched which restored the Advocates to their Function and commanded them to return to the Bar and obey the first Article Which was only for the Formality For the Judges themselves who made it wink'd at it and let it fall to nothing It was with much reason suspected that the Commotions in Guyenne were a Train leading to those other Mynes contrived by the Mareschal de Biron and it looked as if at the same instant that he was to spring them the Spaniards were prepared to give the Assault and enter upon the Kingdom For they had raised a numerous Army by Land which was kept upon the Frontiers and were fitting another for Sea under the Command of Juan de Cardonna They gave out that the first was to be sent into Flanders and the second to execute some Enterprize upon Algiers by the assistance of the King of Fez But it was apprehended rather to be designed against Burgundy and to surprize some Sea-port Town in Provence The Spaniard shewed plainly enough by his Treatment of Alexander Caretta Marquiss de Final who was comprised in the Number of the King's Allies that he cared not over-much to observe the Treaty of Verwins for Fuentes seized upon Final having paid the Garrison of that place for Ten or twelve Musters that were due to them The very Old-Age of that poor Lord who was near upon Fourscore and his being destitute of Children gave him the Confidence to make this Vsurpation for which the good Man never had any other Satisfaction but only I know not what Pension allow'd him in the Kingdom of Naples The fear of some terrible Event keeping the King in perpetual alarms he came back from Poitou to Fontainebleau that he might search into the bottom of the Conspiracy believing that if once it were but laid open it would not be so month May. dangerous And therefore he would needs at what rate soever have Laffin be brought before him who was privy to the whole Secret We have told you what cause of discontent this man had against Biron It is conjectur'd he had given notice to the King of all his Practises for a long while before this time at least it is most certain he had thoughts of doing so and of providing himself with Evidence to verifie his Accusation And this they ground it upon Biron had with his own hand written a Project of the Conspiracy Laffin perswaded him it was dangerous to keep it by him and that he needed but to have a Copy Biron gives it him to Transcribe in his presence When he had done so he rowls up the Original between his hands like a ball and cast it into the Fire but Biron not minding it further the negligence of a great Lord he craftily draws it out agen and puts it into his Pocket So that some will needs believe this man over-whelm'd with Debts Year of our Lord 1602 Crimes and other Misfortunes soothed the passionate Mareschal in his Designs on purpose to make a fortune by betraying his Secrets and that if he would he might easily have prevailed with him to lay them all aside especially after the Queen was deliver'd of a Son For amongst the Letters the Mareschal had written to him there was one that said That since God had bestowed a Daufin upon the King he would think no more of his former Follies and pray'd him to return When Biron understood Laffin was press'd upon by the King to go to Court he sent a Gentleman to put him in mind of his Oathes to let him consider he had his Life and Honor in his hands to intreat him above all things to burn all his Letters and Papers and to rid himself of a certain Curate whom they had employ'd in some ill-favour'd Business Laffin being come to Fountainebleau revealed all to the King gave him all the Letters and Papers and named the Conspirators to him amongst whom he involved so many Persons of Quality even Rosny that the King amazed at the greatness of the Peril was for some time in much doubt whom to confide in His secret Council thought convenient to dissemble in respect of many of the accused and indeed there lay no other proof against them but the Depositions of Laffin It had been the ready way to have set all France on a flame should they have fallen upon so many great ones at once it was safer much to allow them time to repent than to have put them to the necessity of seeking their particular safety in a desperate general Rebellion And therefore 〈◊〉 all the Letters Laffin produc'd they publish'd none but those which made mention of Biron only month May. there were Five and twenty of them The King gave them into the Custody of the Chancellour who for fear they should be lost sowed them within the lining of his Doublet All this was done before the King went to Poitiers During his Voyage Peter Fougeu Descures and then the President Janin being sent into Burgundy labour'd to dispose Biron to come to Court His Conscience his Friends those Prognostications wherein he put much confidence divers ominous Presages the pressing haste of those that would have him go dissuaded him On the
unlawful Cabals and an unworthy Traffick of which they had undeniable Proofs before them Nevertheless such as were sincere and well meaning men amongst them moderating this difference found out an expedient to compose matters but which in truth did in some sort prejudice one advantage France had ever been in possession of But she knew how to recover her former right afterwards and to maintain it The Cardinal de Lorraine had now no other thought but to hasten the conclusion Year of our Lord 1563 of the Council that he might return into France to settle the Affairs of his House He went to wait on his Holiness at Rome with whom he had long and private Conferences and after he came back to Trent he acted altogether in concert with the Legates In so much as the said grand Assembly which during the space of twenty seven years and under the Pontificat of Five Popes had been interrupted and resumed divers times finally ended on the second day of December in the year 1563. To the unexpressible satisfaction of his Holiness who thereby was deliver'd of many great fatigues and far greater apprehensions of the diminution of his absolute power The Decisions have been received in France as to the points of Faith but not those for Discipline there being many that infringe the Rights of the Crown the Liberties of the Gallican Church the authority of the secular Magistrate the Priviledges of the Chapters and Communities and divers usages received in the Kingdom and if several of their Reiglements are practised it is not by vertue of the Decrees of that Council but of the Kings Ordonannces Year of our Lord 1561 c. Whilst that was held Calvinisme which the Edicts of King Francis I. and Henry II. had suppressed began to appear again publickly under the favour of those conjunctures we have before specified The Edict of July deliver'd them from the dangers of death the Colloquy of Poissy gave them confidence to Preach openly the Edict of January the Liberty of Exercise and the accident of Vassy the occasion to take up Arms. From thence followed infinite Murthers Robberies Destruction of Churches Burnings Prophanations and Sacrilegious Out-rages Those people inraged for that they had burned so many of their Brethren revenged it cruelly upon the ☞ Clergy as many as they caught they cut off their Ears and their Virilia some were seen to wear them upon strings hung round like Bandeliers They spared Year of our Lord 1563 not the Sepulchres of Saints nor even the Tombs of their own Ancestors they burned all the Reliques of which notwithstanding as by a Miracle we now find as many as ever and broke in pieces all the Shrines and Sacred Vases to get the Gold and Silver that enriched them From all which impieties this good at least accrued to the publick that they Coyned good store of Money but one thing was a loss without any the least profit and never to be repaired to wit the destruction of the ancient Libraries belonging to Abbeys where there were inestimable Treasures for History and for the works of Antiquity The Clergy in these Wars sustained likewise great damage in their Temporal Estates for besides that the Huguenots invaded them in many places the Kings also constrained them four or five several times to alienate much Lands for great Sums of Money to be employ'd towards the expences of their War and gave them so short a time that they were forced to sell at a very mean rate Shall we ✚ say these distractions were their ruine or their reformation since it is certain that as those riches serve them for a decent and necessary subsistence when they are moderate so are they the chief cause of their corruption when excessive and that when ever the Church had the least then was she always the most holy and pure When Francis Duke of Guise was Assassinated near Orleans the Queen-Mother and the Huguenots being on either hand delivered from that approaching ruine wherewith he threatned them were easily inclined to a Peace The Queen and the Prince her Prisoner treated it personally the Edict was dispatched to Amboise the nineteenth of March 1563. This was the first of the seven granted them by King Charles IX and Henry III. for so often did they take up Arms sometimes being thereto necessitated otherwhile out of choice and design The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew which in all probability should have utterly quelled them did but rather encourage them to undergo all future extremities since it left them no other prospect to save themselves but by hazarding their All. Now this first Peace in 1563. displeased his Holiness so much that he resolved to discharge his wrath upon those whom he believed to be the most dangerous Enemies of the Catholick Religion in France particularly upon Jane d'Albret Queen of Navarre who had banish'd it out of her Kingdom and pull'd down all the Churches and upon some Prelates who manifestly countenanced Huguenotisme Year of our Lord 1563 He had a mind to Summon the Queen before the Council and to have made her process at that grand Tribunal but foreseeing the Emperors Ambassadors would soon oppose it as they had done in the like Case concerning the Queen of England he resolved to cite her to Rome and caused the Citation to be posted up at the Gates of Saint Peters Church and at the Inquisition declaring if She did not make her appearance that her Lands and Lordships should be proscribed and that She should personally incurr all the penalties provided against Hereticks As for the Prelates he gave orders likewise to the Cardinals of the Inquisition to cite them to Rome upon a day certain and if they appeared not personally to carry on their process to a definitive Sentence which he would pronounce in his secret Consistory The Inquisitors by vertue of this Command cited Odet de Coligny Chastillon Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais but who had quitted his Purple to follow the fortune and opinions of his Brothers and bare the Title of Count de Beauvais N. de Saint Romain Arch-Bishop of Aix John de Montluc Bishop of Valence John Anthony Carracciol of Troyes John de Barbanson of Pamiez Charles Guillard of Chartres Lewis d'Albret of Lascar Claude Reyne of Oleron John de Saint Gelais of Vzez and Francis de Nouilles of Acqs. In the same number they might very justly have placed Peter du Val Bishop of Sees who was of the same sentiments with Montluc After these Proceedings in the Court of Rome the Pope pronounced the Sentence against the Cardinal de Chastillon whereby he declared him an Heretick Seducer Schismatick Apostate and one perjur'd degraded him of his Cardinalship deprived him of Offices all Dignities especially the Bishoprick of Beauvais which he held of the Holy See exposed him to all the faithful that could apprehend him deliver him up to justice The Cardinal to shew that he depended no way on the jurisdiction of the
the French and the Venetians joyned together 262 Returns from the hands of the Latins into that of the Greeks 309 Constantius Count and Patrician in Gall. 3 Crimes how punished amongst the ancient French Divers means to purge themselves thereof 49 Crimes they justified themselves by Combat Croisades and beyond-Sea Expeditions advantageous to Popes and Kings but disadvantageous to the great Lords and the People 224 First Croisade and their happy Exploits 224 25 Croisade preached over all Christendom 223 Croisade for the recovery of the Holy Land 260 Croisade against the Albigeois 264 Croisades affirming the Popes Authority 262 Croisade new of French Lords for the Holy Land 301 Croisade new by St. Lewis for succouring the Christians in the Levant 312 Croisades during the Thirteenth Age. 336 Cunibert Bishop of Colen 56 D. Dagobert Son of Clotaire the miraculous protection of his Person 45 Builds the Abby of St. Denis ib. His Father gives him the Kingdom of Austrasia 46 His Marriage quarrel between the Father and the Son ib. Dagobert I. of that name King of Neustria Austrasia and Burgundy 54 He gives part of Aquitain to his Brother Aribert 54 Too much licence in his Marriage ib. Remains sole King after the death of his Brother Aribert 55 Establishes his Son Sigebert King of Austrasia 56 Disposes of Neustria and Burgundy in favour of his Son Clovis ib. Subdues the Gascons and brings them to reason 57 His death ib. Dagobert Son of Sigebert King of Austrasia shaved and banish'd 60 Is recalled and acknowledged King of Austrasia 66 His death 68 Dagobert II. King of France 77 The Danes and Normands infest the Coasts of France 106 Continue their Piracies 211 St. Denis Areopagite his Corps found intire in the Monastery of St. Denis in France 233 Devotion and Piety admirable in our ancient Kings of France 73 St. Didier Bishop of Lyons suffers Martyrdom 43 Didier King of the Lombards conceives the design of abating the power of the Popes and making himself Master of Italy excites Troubles and Schisms in the Church of Rome 98 Causes of particular enmity between him and Charlemain 98 Is dispossest of his Estate 99 His death ib. Didier is elected King of the Romans after the death of Astolphus Anno 755. Differences between Hugh de Vermandois and Artold for the Archbishoprick of Reims 180 Difference between King Lotair and the Children of Hugh the Great 184 Dispensations their beginning 182 Dissentry horrible in France 34 Divorce of a Marriage the cause of great Troubles 243 Dol in Bretagne made a Metropolitan 134 Brought again under that of Tours 274 Dominion Example of an enraged passion for Dominion 296 Dominicans their Institution and Establishment 339 Dreux Bishop of Mets. 127 Drogo or Dreux Son of Pepin 72 Drogon Duke of Bretagne his death 184 Dutchy of Lorrain given to Godfrey Earl of Verdin Bouillon and Verdun 209 Dutchies of two sorts in France 183 Duel proposed to the King by his Subjects 235 E. Ebles Count of Auvergne and Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine 170 Ebles Baron de Roucy a famous Warrier humbled and brought to reason 227 Ebon Bishop of Reims deposed and degraded 128 Ebroin Maire of the Palace perfidious and wicked 62 69 Is shaved and confined to the Monastery of Luxieu 64 Quits the Monastery to take up Arms. 67 His retreat into Austrasia he there supposes a false Clovis in the place of King Thierry whom he feigns to be dead 67 Causes St. Leger to attaqu'd in his City of Autun puts his Eyes out and shuts him up in a Monastery ib. Is received Maire of Thierries Palace 68 Great Tyranny his death 69 Eclipse of the Sun 213 Ecclesiasticks go to Rome to visit the Holy Places 269 Edmund Brother of Edward King of England his death 326 Edward eldest Son of the King of England goes to make War in the Holy Land 312 Edward Son and Successor of Henry King of England 315 At his return from the Holy Land passes thorough France ib. Passes by Sea and comes to the City of Amiens 319 His Voyage to Burdeaux by France 322 Employs himself to accommodate the differences betwixt the Kingdoms of Arragon and Sicilia 323 A Riot between some particular People makes him break the Peace with France 324 325 Makes a powerful League against France 326 Attaques the Scots and brings them under his Laws 327 Marries with Margaret of France 330 Makes Peace with the King of France 331 His death 334 Edward Son of King Edward Marries Isabella of France 327 Edward II. King of England 332 His Contest with Charles the Fair King of France 351 Odious to his People by reason of his Favourites his unfortunate end 352 Ega Maire of the Palace of Neustria his death 58 Election and the Investiture of the Popes in the power of the Emperor Otho 186 Election of Popes 3â—6 Elections to Benefices 285 Emma Queen of France 168 Emma or Emina Wife of King Lothaire 198 Empire Rome when it ended 13 Empire troubled about the Election of an Emperor after the death of Henry VI. 259 Empire of Greece difference between Michael and Baldwin determined 318 Empire ruined by its dis-union Engelberge Wife of the Emperor Lew's of Italy 156 Enguerrand de Marigny his unhappy end 336 Enterprise of the Pope upon the Bishops of France 203 Enterview of the three Kings of France of Germany and of Burgundy 170 Enterview between Lewis Transmarine and Otho of Lorraine 180 Enterview of the Emperor Henry and King Robert 211 Enterview and Enterparlance of the Emperor Henry III. and Henry King of France 217 Enterview of the King of France Lewis the Young and the Emperor Federic 247 Enterview of the Kings of France and Arragon 308 Enterview of the two Kings of France and England in the City of Amiens 319 Enterview of the Kings of France and Castille at Bayonne 323 Enterview of the King of France and the Emperor at Vaucouleurs 328 Eon de L'Estoille His ignorance passes for a great Prophet is apprehended his death 291 Erchinoald Maire of the Palace 61 Era or manner of accompting of the times by the Mahometans 47 Estate of the Gallican Church after the Conversion of Lewis or Clovis the Great 50 The Fourth Age. 4 During the Fifth and Sixth Ages 17 The Seventh 73 The Eighth 112 The Ninth 170 The Tenth 205 The Eleventh Age or Century 228 Eudes Duke of Aquitaine 80 Makes a League with the Sarecens of Spain and draws them into France 81 c. His death 82 Eudes Count of Paris and Duke of France succeeds in the Estates of Hugh the Great his Brother 155 Is raised to his Dignity and declared King of West France 156 Defeats and cuts the Normans in pieces 157 Quarrel betwixt him and Charles the Simple 159 His death 160 Eudes first Earl of Champagne 203 Eudes Count de Pontieure 211 Eudes Son of King Robert Earl of Champagne disputes the Crown with Henry his Brother 214 Reduced to reason 215 Undertakes
228 c. Saint Amour William great quarrel with the Orders of the Friers Mendicants 307 Saintonge the subject of a great War 208 Saladin King of Egypt tears the holy City of Jerusalem out of the hands of the Christians 254 Saliens ancient People of the French 7 Salomon seizes on the Kingdom of Bretagne 140 His unhappy end 144 Sanc first of the Hereditary Dukes of Gascongne 137 Sanche Duke of Castille makes a Peace with the King of France 323 Saracens become Mahometans 59 Saracens of Africa become the Masters of Spain 77 Saracens pass from Spain into France and make some Conquests there 80 They enter into Languedoc and destroy all that Country 83 Wherefore called Moors 83 They over-run all Provence and lay it waste ib. Torment Italy 146 Savari de Mauleon General for the English in Guyenne 296 The Saxons revolt 52 Throw off the Yoak of the French Dominion 79 Divided into several People ib. Made Tributary to the French 91 Entirely subdued become Christians 108 Schism in the Church caused by the dispute concerning the Worshipping of Images 84 Sclavonians have a quarrel with the French Austrasians 55 Make inroads upon Turingia 56 Sergius II. elected Pope without permission of the Emperor 136 He was not the first who changed his name but Sergius IV. ib. St. Ademar Institutor of the Order of the Templers 290 Sicilia a Kingdom its beginning and extent 242 243 By what means Sicilia fell under the Dominion of the Kings of Arragon 310 Dismembred in two 326 Siege and taking of Angens 144 Sigebert King of Austrasia chastises the Avari out of Turingia 29 Marries Brunehaud 30 Unfortunate taking upon the City of Arles 31 War with Chilperic his Brother 31 Assassinated and slain 32 Sigebert Bishop 62 Sigeric King of the Visigoths 4 Sigismund King of Burgundy abjures Arianism and receives the Orthodox Faith 20 Causes his Son Sigeric to be Strangled his retreat into a Monastery 21 His unhappy end ib. Silingi a barbarous People 4 Silvester II. Pope Example of extream severity 209 Simon de Montfort does Cross himself to go into the Holy Land 260 Simon Count de Nesles Regent of the Kingdom in the absence of St. Lewis the King 312 Of Simony 18 Bishops of Bretagne accused and convicted of that Crime 136 Prelats in France who voluntarily renounced their Benefices for this cause 229 Simplicity too great in a Prince 167 Sobrarve a little Territory in the Kingdom of Arragon 125 Sorabes reduced to reason 121 Spencers Hugh Father and Son Favourites of the King of England 351 c. Their unhappy end 352 Stilicon Massacred 4 Succession of Males to the Crown by preference to the Females 346 Suedes embrace the Christian Religion 110 Suevi over-run and ravage Gaul and then pass into Spain 270 Swiss Their generous Conspiracy against the oppressions of the Lieutenants of the House of Austria 334 T. Tanchelin his errors Church of the Twelfth Age. Tancred Son of Rebert Guischard 224 Tancred causes great discord between the Kings of France and England 256 Tartars make their irruptions their Original 302 Tassilon Duke of Bavaria and his Son Theudon shaved and confined to a Monastery 103 Te Deum Sung by the Benedictins in time of Lent 231 Templers their Institution and Confirmation Church of the Twelfth Age. Are utterly exterminated and their Order abolished throughout all Christendom 333 Thassilon Duke of Bavaria gives an Oath of Fidelity to King Pepin 93 Theodad King of the Ostrogoths his death 23 Theodald Maire of the Neustrians Theodald Son of Grimoald his death 78 Theodebald King of Mets. 25 His death 26 Theodebert Son of Thierry makes War in Languedoc then named Septimania 24 Theodebert Son of Thierry succeeds to the Crown of his Father and makes War against Clotair his Uncle 24 25 Carries his Arms into Italy his death his Children 24 Theodebert Son of Chilperic his death 32 Theodebert King of Austrasia vanquished in Battle and exterminated with his whole Race 43 Theoderic King of the Visigoths joyns with the Romans against Attila his death 10 11 Theoderic King of the Ostrogoths establishes the Kingdom of Italy 14 Theoderic King of Italy passes into Gall and comes to relieve the Visigoths against the French and the Burgundians and becomes King of the Visigoths 16 His death 21 Theudis King of the Visigoths in Spain his death 25 Thibauld Earl of Chartres and Tours 216 Thibauld Earl of Chartres declares War against the King 235 Thibauld Earl of Champagne falls into the Kings disgrace and is severely handled 243 Thibauld Earl of Blois and Chartres 245 Thibauld Earl of Champagne his death 246 Thibauld Earl of Champagne 260 Thibauld Earl of Champagne difference about Alix Queen of Cyprus his Cousin 299 Thibauld Earl of Champagne becomes King of Navarre 301 Thibauld Earl of Champagne becomes Chief of a new Croisade His death ib. Thibaud King of Navarre 312 His death 315 Thierry King of Austrasia otherwise of Mets treacherously abandons Clodomir his Brother 20 c. Makes himself Master of Turingia 21 Chastises the Auvergnats who had revolted against him ib. His death ib. Thierry King of Neustria and of Burgundy 64 He is shaved and confined to the Monastery of St. Denis ib. Recalled and resetled in his Royal Throne 6 Fights unfortunately against Ebroin Maire of the Palace and falls into his hands His death his Wife and his Children 70 Thierry called de Chelles King of France 81 His death 83 Thierry Earl of Alsatia disputes the Earldom of Flanders and remains sole Master and Possessor 168 Thierry of Alsatia Earl of Flanders he passes into the Holy Land 243 Thierry first Earl of Holland 146 Thierry Earl of Alsatia and Flanders his death 249 Thibauld III. Earl of Blois 259 Thibauld Earl of Champagne 296 A Conspiracy against him 299 Tietgaud Archbishop of Triers deposed and Excommunicated 140 St. Thomas Aquinas his death 316 Thomas Prior of St. Victor assassinated in the Arms of a Bishop Church of the Twelfth Age. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury undertakes the defence of the Church is assassinated in his Cathedral ib. Thuringia falls under the Dominion of the French 22 Title of King of Jerusalem annexed to that of Sicilia 319 Treason divinely punished 178 Translation of a Bishop from one See to another condemned 160 Trebisond Kingdom its beginning 263 Truce between the French and the Saracens of Spain broken 123 Truce or Peace of God established in France to prevent Factions Murthers and Robberies 253 Truce with the English and the Fleming 327 Truce with the English 299 Truce granted to the Flemings 330 Trincavel Son of the Earl of Beziers comes hostily upon the Kings Territories 301 Toloze County subject of a War 138 Subject of a great quarrel between the Kings of France and the Kings of England 248 Totila King of the Ostrogoths his death 26 Touars Guy Duke of Bretagne 263 Tournay erected to a Bishoprick Church of the Twelfth Age. Troubles and Factions in Normandy