who is so clear-sighted see what an impoverishment it is to his Kingdom that France be tributary to a Stranger under the Title of Annates Offerings Dispensations Absolutions and Causes Matrimonial Against these Depredations our ancient Kings had provided some remedy by the pragmatick Sanctions vext to see the fairest Revenue of the Kingdom pass over the Alps by a Religious spoil and go into the Purses of those who laugh at our simplicity But what reason is there that they who pay so willingly Tribute to the Pope should make so great difficulty in paying to the King Is it not because they believe they owe all to the Pope and nought to the King St. Paul teaches them to pay Tribute to the Higher Powers inasmuch as they are Ministess of God And St. Chrysostom commenting upon this Text tells them who are these higher Powers If says he the Apostle has establisht this Law whilst the Princes were Pagans how much more ought this to be done under Princes that are Believers And he had said before The Apostle commands this to all even to the Priests Which is more he adds though thou art an Apostle though thou art an Evangelist or a Prophet or what ever else thou art From St. Ambrose we have the same Lesson in his Oration of delivering the Temples If Tribute be demanded refuse it not the Lands of the Church pay Tribute Even Pope Vrban and the Roman Decretal say That the Church pays Tribute of its exterior Goods Also That Tribute must be paid to the Emperors in acknowledgment of the Peace and Repose in which they ought to maintain and defend us The right of Kings and Truth must needs be very strong that could draw from the Pope and his Canonistical Doctors this acknowledgment For the Canon Law was not founded for any other end but to supplant the Civil Laws and establish the Popes Jurisdiction throughout This is a Body of Foreign Laws that have their Tribunal apart and that depends on a Foreign Prince and where the King has nothing to do but look on I mean till such time as he shall please to take cognizance of so unreasonable an Usurpation And forbid that any Cause be judged in France by other Authority than His and much less any Cause commenc'd in France be appeal'd to Rome And in truth he is but a King by halfs till he alone possess all the Jurisdiction exercis'd within his Kingdom This is what Charles du Moulin said in an Epistle to Henry II. where he writes freely against the Empire that the Pope has set up within our France where the Pope has Subjects that submit not to the Laws of the King but to those of the Pope which are the Canon-Law and the Constitutions that come from Rome But some may object Would you have the King judge in Spirituals I Answer That if the King ought not to be Judge it does not follow that the Pope must The King has his Bishops that may and ought to judge of matters purely Spiritual but of nought without being authoriz'd by the King and there is no need of an Authority out of the Kingdom for this I will say more That the Ecclesiastical Government is a part of the Office of a King For so it was in the Kingdom of Israel And who would believe that in this Age and in Spain where the Inquisition Reigns King Philip IV. assum'd to himself the Soveraign Power of Churches within his Dominions For this purpose he apply'd that excellent passage of Isodore which is attributed also to the Council of Paris That the Secular Princes should know that they ought to give an account of the charge of the Church committed to them by Jesus Christ for whether that the Peace or the Discipline receive improvement by believing Princes or that they are impair'd He who committed the Church to their Power will demand an account O the excellent passage O the Holy Lesson God give all Christian Kings the Grace so well to learn it that they may never leave this Charge of the Church which Jesus Christ has committed to them upon the hands of Strangers and when they have taken it into their own hands to acquit themselves worthily and render a good account Alas Alas Have Kings Eyes to see their Rights and have they no hands to maintain them Are they quick-sighted enough to perceive that the Government of the Church is committed to them and that they are to render an account to God and have they not the courage to rescue them from unjust and strange Hands that snatch them away Think they to acquit themselves of this great Account of the Government of the Church of their Kingdoms by saying That the Holy Father has discharg'd them of it when they have in their hands the power to discharge Him from his Usurpations In Truth they will never be in condition to Govern the Church committed to them they will never be but Kings by halfs till they have banisht from their Territories this pretended Spiritual Jurisdiction which destroys the Civil and which will draw under its Cognizance all sorts of Causes there being none wherein there is not some matter of Conscience or some kind of Transgression of Gods Commandments and that by consequence belongs not to the Jurisdiction of the Pope if He must be own'd the Soveraign Spiritual Judge in France The Popes themselves inform our Kings of their Right to Govern the Church Leo IV. writing to Lewis and to Lotharius did not he own that the Investiture of the Bishop comes from the Emperor and the Pope has only the Consecration Did not He beseech the Emperor to invest a person he had recommended and does he not acknowledge that the Metropolitan dares not Consecrate him without the Emperors consent And Pope John X. in his Epistle to Hereiman of Cologue about the business of Heldwin of Tongres does he not observe That the old Custom has this force that none ought to confer a Bishoprick upon any Clerk save the King to whom the Scepter has been given of God The Council held at Thionvil under Lewis the Debonnair An. 835. gives us this good Maxim That the Pope ought to be call'd Pope and Brother not Father and Pontifex and that Lewis had more Power in the Government of the Gallicane-Church than the Bishop of Rome as Agobard Bishop of Lions has it in his Treatise of the Coâ—â—â—â—…ison of the Two Governments related by Bossellus in his Decretals Gregory Turonensis does furnish us with more than Ten Examples of the right of Investiture belonging to our Kings before the Empire fell into their hands In the times of Clovis they held the Royal Right of the Investiture of Bishops They had also a Right which they call'd Regal which was the Power of enjoying vacant Bishopricks and Prebends and the moveables of Bishops dying without a Will And it is very easie to prove that under the first Line of our Kings and a long while under
be wondred at if Men whom Fortune brings forth and breeds up in so excellent a Climate be capable of handsomly contriving and successfully executing the haughtiest Enterprizes In fine it s an unspeakable satisfaction to a Man that sets himself to Treat of the Politicks of France that he may know the French of all the People upon Earth are the most susceptible of Learning of Policy and of Government For if one consider the Situation of the Country he may be assured that the Constellations of Heaven are eminently favourable to it The Experience and Skill of the Ancients do inform us that the Situation of Regions is the prime cause of the temperature of the Men in 'em as it is of the quality of the Plants and Fruits which they produce The Laws of this State being so Judicious as they are do argue the Wisdom of those that enacted them and of the People that accepted them whereof the long duration of the Monarchy is a second proof On the other hand the great Acts of the French do speak their Valour They serve in our Age for examples to all Nations in matter of execution and not only so but are as eminent likewise for their Counsels And they have choice of the best Generals on Earth to lead Armies as well as of the best Soldiers That heat and impetuosity which is taken to be visible in all their attempts is an effect of their high Courage and the confidence they shew with somewhat less of restraint and respect than prudence could wish can be imputed to nothing but their fearlesness In fine the Emperor Charles the Fifth declared with very much judgment That the French seem'd to be Fools but were really wise Now since we know what France is let us examine what may most conduce to the well-governing of it to the conserving it in Plenty and in Reputation in what it may be augmented and how its interests with the neighboring States ought to be secured In a word let us see what way may be taken to maintain the parts that compose it in so regular an harmony that they may all incessantly contribute to the weal of the Monarchy CHAP. IV. 1. Of the Clergy 2. Vseful means to obstruct Frauds in Beneficiary cases 3. Of the Monastick Religious of each Seu. OUr Ancestors have ever been great observers of Religion Long before the coming of JESUS CHRIST the Druids were their Priests and had an entire direction not only of affairs relating to the service of their false Gods but of those too which concern'd distributive Justice even in the general Assemblies held by all the Gauls whether for confirmation of Peace or for reconciliation of disagreeing parties who might embroil the Republiques or whether the making of some common National enterprises was in question still there was no resolution formed but by their advice No wonder then if since the Truth of the Gospel appeared and made known the holiness of Christianity the Prelates have conserv'd so many Prerogatives and Considerations They have been called to the Royal Counsels they have assisted at the decision of the most important affairs they have every where hold the first rank much hath been attributed to their Judgments and the respect had for their Character and Dignity hath gotten them great and signal priviledges which have exempted them from contributing to the burthens of the State though at the same time wealth was heap'd upon them by Alms and Foundations But as Church-men after the mode of the Court of Rome use to convert whatever is freely granted them into a point of Religion in such manner that by little and little they engage the tender Consciences of the faithful in vain scruples and possesses them with a superstitious fear of offending they have not been wanting to assert and maintain that these exemptions and privileges were not liberally given them that Kings did but settle them in possession of an advantage which was by Divine Right inseperable from their Profession that they while Men of War fought for the Glory and Liberty of their Country sufficiently did their part in lifting up as as was anciently done their eyes and hands to GOD to impetrate His powerful Protection that their Arms were Prayers Oblations and Penitence which they never forbore to use for the publick safety that from the Caves and Deserts whither they retired they sent up Meterials to the highest Heavens which formed into Thunder there might fall back upon and beat down the enemies of the French name In fine That if Gentlemen gave their blood and the People their sweat and labours for the welfare of the Kingdom they Day and Night did pour out Tears at the feet of Altars to disarm the wrath of GOD. Upon such reasonings as these the Ecclesiasticks have founded their pretences for possessing those goods of which publick and private Piety had made them Proprietors without concerning themselves for what success the general affairs of the State might have But this is not all they have tried by divers reiterated attempts to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction and draw Civil causes unto their Tribunal nor have they forgotten any pretext which they thought might promote this dangerous enterprise sometimes they have pleaded That the Church alone having right to judge of the Validity of Marriages as being a Sacrament all that depended on 'em ought to be handled before Ecclesiastick Judges Sometimes again That Christians binding themselves in their Contracts by an Oath the cognisance appertain'd to them Such Kings as perceived that these attempts did tend to the overthrow of their Authority withstood them with a right Kingly vigour But what difficulties were there not of necessity to be overcome for a full attainment of their end and what resistance did not the Church-men make to maintain themselves in so unreasonable an Usurpation Our History affords us examples of it which I cannot call to mind without grief and wonder Their obstinacy hath gone so very far that they have forced our Kings to grant them Declarations upon unequitable and disadvantageous conditions and so capitulate with them both for the Tenths and Acknowledgments of the Lands which they possess as also for the Rights of Mortmain and Indemnity I cannot tell by what name I should call these proceedings Our Sirs of the Clergy could not doubt but that being born Subjects of the Crown nothing could release them of this duty and that the privileges which they have or rather which they have invaded being founded upon the holiness of their Character could not extend to these Temporal Goods which always are the States Yet the old error is so potent and their imagination so strongly prepossess'd for these Immunities that they can scarce acknowledge the Kings Sovereignty to this day What clamour did they not raise about the Arrest of the last Commission of Oyer in Auvergne with what fervour did they charge their Deputies to remonstrate to His Majesty concerning it
of their Houshold-servants and paying an Arbitrary Fine besides because they ought to correct them In the Third place Provost Marshals and their Officers for all Robberies and Murthers committed on the High-ways Burglaries Counterfeit Coin and other the like Crimes within their district if they took not up the Malefactors and brought them to their Trial. This Law would hinder well-nigh all mischiefs of this nature it being as may be said of publick Notoriety that Provosts hold Intelligence with all persons of ill Life Again all Lieutenants criminal and Judges for the Crimes committed in their Towns by the same reason Masters of Inns and Houses of Entertainment for the Crimes committed by their Guests while they are in their Houses Owners of Houses for the Crimes committed by their Tenants during their term because they ought to know and answer for the good abearing of such as they entertain Captains and Officers for the Crimes of their Soldiers the Inhabitants of an House for those committed in it This is done in Spain In the Turkish Towns the Townsmen of each Street are responsible for what is done there And if a Man be slain the Townsman before whose door he falls is sentenced to pay for his Blood This Order is excellent For assoon as there is a noise in the Street all run thither and the Authors of the Fact whatever it be are seized brought before the Judge and forthwith punish'd according to the quality of the Crime In paralel to this Rule of Government in Turkie severest penalties must be imposed upon such as transgress the Laws and especially the Laws that relate to Publick Order and Policy those Penalties also speedily inflicted otherwise the said Laws will be of no use For example 'T is ordained in France that no Lackey wear a Sword that no Towns-man have Arms or that Bakers make their Bread of a certain Weight or other things of like nature They that obey not must be instantly punished the Rich by pecuniary Fines the Poor by Corporal Penalties The Turks cause Offenders who have not Money to pay their Fines to be beaten with a Lath. An Eighth Law All Printers and Booksellers must be forbidden and that upon pain of death to Print Sell Disperse set to Sale or keep any Book of what Quality or Subject soever without its having been Approved and Licence given them under Seal in due manner after which may nothing be added to the Book But as it is just to punish bad Subjects so it is reasonable to reward the good and them that out of love to their Country employ themselves in advancing its Reputation and Glory The King ought to be the sole Master and Arbiter of all Rewards and confer them himself so as they that receive any Beneficence of His may be convinc'd they owe it to His Bounty This would be an infallible means to attract to Him the hope of His Subjects and together with it their Respect whereupon every one would strive to please Him in doing of his Duty and no body promise himself any Grace or Advantage but by his Merit his Services and Diligence There are several kinds of Rewards with which His Majesty may Honour His Subjects I say Honour them because a Subject in receiving a benefit from the hand of the King receives withal a mark of the Esteem which is had of his Person and of the satisfaction he hath given in his Conduct Nothing can be more glorious to a Man of Worth nothing can yield him a truer Contentment A Gift from an ordinary hand is many times somewhat shameful to him that takes it and hence comes the adage That it is better to Give than to Receive But when a King is the Donor the Dignity of the Royal Hand doth add to the Gift a new quality which augmenteth the Worth and Excellency of it whence it is in such a case no less praise to receive than to give This now which I have affirmed cannot be doubted of yet it may be taken for evident that of these rewards there are some purely Honourable others only Profitable and a last sort both Honourable and Profitable too The reward purely Honorary is when the King confers upon a Subject some Dignity which he had not afore as upon a Plebeian the quality of Gentleman upon a Gentleman that of Knight or Marquess c. and permits him to carry Fleurdelizes in his Coat of Arms or some other Memorial of a great Action Or grants him the privilege to wear a Crown in his Crest or the like This kind of reward is unlimited because Sovereignty is a source from whence new Honours and Dignities incessantly flow as projections of Light do every moment issue from the Sun without exhausting its secondity and on the contrary the more rays that it emitteth the more resplendent is it in it self so the more Honours a King confers the greater Lustre He adds to His own Royal Majesty The Romans of any People upon Earth did most abound in conferring rewards of this nature and on that account brought into use Crowns Triumphs Statues Rings Inscriptions Publick Praises and stuck not to grant Deifications Temples and Sacrifices such a love they had for Virtue and so ingenious were they to inhance the merit of their Fellow-Citizens thus inciting them to worthy Persormances and principally to an advancing the power of the Common-wealth For any man that hath a Noble Spirit and is Virtuously dispos'd does more to merit a just reward than he would to gain the Empire of the World because in the issue 't is always Virtue that triumphs and oft-times but Fortune that rules In conformity to this example which both Antiquity and the Authors of it and Experience do render Illustrious the King may Honour such as serve Him best with Honourable Titles but ought to punish all those who without His Permission dare assume and usurp them 'T is necessary that there be a difference of rank between Persons and the distinguishing of them by their merit is to be preferr'd far before all discrimination made by their Wealth It would also be very commodious that as the Honour of Knighthood is purely Personal so the King should make the Dignity of Baron of Marquess of Count c. Personal likewise not real or annexed to Estates the said Dignities to become extinct by decease of the persons invested with them This Expedient to recompence Men of worth being well managed would produce a marvellous effect and an whole race thereby become Men of Merit For what would not the Son of one of these personal Marquesses do to prevent falling from that degree of Honour which his Father had and how could he choose but press vigorously on in the Court of Honour that has been thus mark'd out to him But in this case there is one thing to be further done which might much profit the State by laying a more Express Obligation on the Nobility to serve the King and that is that the
the true ground of the great hatred that is born us is it not for that if we are to be believ'd there would not in France be any French-man that is not the Kings Subject Causes Beneficial and Matrimonial would not be carried to Rome nor the Kingdom be Tributary under the shadow of Annates and the like Impositions And on this Subject the Testimony of Cardinal Perron for us in his Harangue to the Third State is very considerable wheâ— he says The Doctrine of the Deposition of Kings by the Pope has been held in France until Calvin Whereby he tacitely acknowledges That our Kings had been ill serv'd before and that those he calls Hereticks having brought to light the Holy Scripture have made the Right of Kings be known which had been kept supprest Shall they be said Friends of the State who owning themselves Subjects of a Stranger Soveraign dare endeavour to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction of which the Marquess complains loudly and with good cause and of the great resistance they have made to maintain themselves in an Usurpation so unreasonable In this kind those of the Church of the Reform'd Religion could never be accus'd in the Towns where we have had some Power Our Religion is hated because it combats the Pride the Avarice and the Usur pations of the Court of Rome and their Substitutes in the Kingdom and because we have shewn to the World that sordid Bank of spiritual Graces they have planted in the Church and how they have drawn to themselves a Third of the Lands of France for fear of Purgatory from silly People mop'd with a blind Devotion and from Robbers and Extortioners who have thought to make Peace with God by letting these share in the booty 'T is an advice very suitable to the Politicks of France to examine well the Controversies that are most gainful to the Clergy as this of Purgatory concerning which an old Poet said the Truth in his way of Drollery But if it be so That no more Souls shall go To old Purgatory Then the Pope will gain nought by the Story It would be wisely done to examine what necessity there is for so many Begging-Fryers that suck out the Blood and Marrow of devout People and for so many Markets of Pardons in honour of a number of Saints of a new Edition and for what design are made so many Controversies And whether it would not be a great Treasure for the Kings Subjects to Teach them to work out their Salvation and put their Consciences in quiet at a cheaper rate God justly provok'd by the great Sins of France gives us not yet the Grace of that Gospel-Truth St. John Ch. 8. Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free And though it shines out so clear to let us see the Usurpation of the Popes upon the Temporals of the King and upon the Spirituals of the Church yet see we not clearly enough to discover all the mystery of Iniquity and to resolve to shake off the Yoak For this great design no other War need be made by the Pope but only take from him all Jurisdiction in France all Annates and all evocation of Causes to Rome This would hardly produce any other stirrs but the complaints and murmuring of them that are loosers And the condition truly Royal that the King at present is in will sufficiently secure Him from Insurrections at home and Invasions from abroad Or should any happen behold more than an hundred thousand Huguenots that the Noble Marquess has sound him in the heart of his State whom he is pleas'd to call His Enemies but who on all occasions and on this especially would do His Majesty a hearty and faithful Service The two main Interests of France being to weaken the House of Austria the Princes of which enclose him on both sides and to throw off the yoake of Rome which holds a Monarchy within the French Monarchy 't is easie to judge that amongst the Kings Subjects the Protestants are absolutely the most proper to serve him on both these occasions I know that amongst the Roman Catholicks as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars there are excellent Instruments to serve the King in both these Interests But there is need of great caution to well assure him by reason of the multitude of Jesuits Scholars with whom these Fathers have Industriously fill'd all Professions of the State and Church and it is for no other end that they have so many Colledges They who have been too good Scholars of these Masters are contrary to both these Interests being so great Catholicks that they espouse the Interest of the Catholick King to advance that of his Holiness But to find amongst the Protestants trusty Instruments for both these accounts he need not try them they are fitted and form'd by their Education for these two Uses so necessary to France The Marquess assures His Majesty with good reason of the friendship of the Protestant Princes of Germany which they would never testifie so freely as in serving him to ruin the Power of the Pope who savours that of the House of Austria For thereby they would kill two Birds with one Stone Not to mention our other Neighbours who have broken with Rome and being disquieted by its secret practises will be ready to contribute to its destruction Who shall well consider the Scheme of the Affairs of Christendem shall judge that all things invite His Majesty to shut out the Jurisdiction of Rome beyond the Mountains Right Honour Profit Liberty Facility his Duty to his Crown to his Subjects and to his Royal Posterity and that many Aids smile upon him both within and out of his Kingdom for so fair and so just an Enterprize This is the warm desire of the honest French-men And none there are who better deserve that Title than they who with the most Indignation resent that their Kings should kiss the Feet of that Prelate who ought of Right to kiss their Feet for having receiv'd his Principalities from Kings of France and who in recompence of their good Deeds have plotted and plot continually their ruin When the King shall have deliver'd Himself and his People from this strange yoak he will find the enmity amongst his Subjects for matter of Religon greatly diminisht and the way open to a re-union And were the difficulties about the Doctrine overcome the Protestants would not stick much at the Discipline God who is the Father of Kings and the King of Glory protect and strengthen our Great King to accomplsh the Designs that turn to the general good of His Church to the greatness and to the respect of his Sacred Person and to the Peace and Prosperity of His State FINIS