Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A43922
|
The History of the divorce of Henry VIII and Katharine of Arragon with the defence of Sanders : the resutation of the two first books of the history of the reformation of Dr. Burnett, by Joachim le Grand : with Dr. Burnett's answer and vindication of himself.
|
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing H2157; ESTC R12003
|
14,763
|
16
|
that small measure of Knowledge and Capacity which come to my just share especially now that I have to do with a person of so mean a Talent as M. Le Grand appears to be by this same Treatise of his I could only wish that they who would be better inform'd of the truth of that celebrated Passage of the History which is the Subject of our Dispute would give themselves the trouble to read what Sanders and my self have written and then peruse the History of M. Le Grand I am assur'd they will conclude That there must be some fault in the Title Page where he promises the Defence of Sanders and the Refutation of the Two first Books of my History The whole substance of his Work agrees altogether with mine unless it be in some parts where he shews that great Art of his wherein I yield him willingly to out-do me In all things else he so perfectly concurrs with me that I am tempted to believe He only took his Pen in hand to fulfil those Offers which he made me in your Presence to furnish me with Memoirs sufficient for the Confirmation of what I have wrote upon this Subject True it is I have not read any more as yet than the First Part of his Book nor can I imagine how he can justifie Sanders whom he has abandon'd during the whole course of his History He forsakes him in the whole History of Ann of Boloigne and in all the progresses of the Story that depends upon it though it be the chief Head of Sanders's Accusation and which he presses most vigorously as being a Nullity in the Title of Queen Elizabeth and consequently an Original pretence for Rebellion He acknowledges also the Decretal Bull nor does he insist upon the Carriage of Sr. Thomas Moore In a word if you examine the Fourscore Faults of which I have accus'd Sanders in my Additions you will find that M. Le Grand has confessed above Seventy and confirms what I have maintained in opposition to him Which will most evidently appear if his work shall ever be thought worthy a larger Examination I say nothing of his Stile for that his Readers without much consideration or study will easily find it to be the Stile rather of an Advocate that pleads a Cause than of a person disinterested that cordially and barely relates matter of Fact For to argue with heat and passion and reproach his Adversaries are unpardonable faults in an Historian Besides that there is something so sacred in the very Ashes of Kings that they are never to be spok'n of but with great Caution and if at any time there be an unavoidable occasion to blame some of their Actions softer Terms are to be made use of than those of Lye and Imposture Add to this that the principal Point and upon which the whole Question moves being Whether the King 's own Cause ought not rather to be judged in England and by his Clergy than at Rome and in the Consistory that Man can never be thought to act conformably to the Gallican Church who takes part with the Pope upon this occasion It is rather to be wondered at that at a time when there is so little respect given at Versailles to the Vatican Thunder and where the ancient Custom is renewed of appealing from the Pope to the General Council I say it is a wonder at such a time as this a Subject of this nature should not be handled with more freedom and sincerity Perhaps this is one of the little Tricks of those sort of People which M. Talon has more frankly described than I have a design to do who make hideous portraictures of the Actions of Henry VIII to observe the glory of those of Lewis the Great And perhaps our Author is neither so great a Politician nor so well knowing in Affairs as to have such distant prospects in his Eyes or else this work being his first Essay he did not study the Point with that Application which was requisite believing that trouble to no purpose while he has to do with a person that gives no better proofs of his Understanding than my self I shall therefore insist only upon six of his principal Errors which are nothing to the great number of mistakes which he has committed and which I could easily make appear had I the Liberty to enlarge my self in a writing that must be inserted into the Vniversal Library I. He calls in question the Contents of the Decretal Bull which Cardinal Campeggio brought upon this Ground That having been only shewn to the King and Cardinal Woelsey no Body can tell what it was and if it had been a definitive Sentence in that matter the Legates Commission had been at an end and the King would have contracted his Second Marriage as formerly Lewis the XII did without expecting any other proceedings Had Monsieur Le Grand given himself the trouble to read that Bull which I have published he might have spar'd himself so many useless Remarks The Bull was contriv'd in England and sent to Rome where though some few Alterations were made it appeared nevertheless by all the Letters that were written reciprocally from Rome and England that the Bull which was given to Compeggio was in substance the same Certain it is that Bull declared the King's Pretences to be just gave power to the Legates to examine the Truth of them and to pronounce Sentence upon the proofs that should be made before them For though this Bull implied a definitive Sentence of the Pope upon a supposition of the Validity of the King's Pretensions nevertheless it left many things for the Legates to do They were to inform themselves 1. Whether the King had not desired this Marriage himself 2. Whether it would not occasion a War between Spain and England should a Dispensation be granted 3. Whether this Dispensation had been annull'd by the Protestation which the King made against the Marriage when he came to be of Age. 4. Whether any of the Princes in favour of whom the Dispensation was allow'd were Dead before the Marriage was consummated It is apparent that that same Bull for the dissolution of the Marriage between Henry and Catharine being only granted upon supposition that all the matters in Question were as the King maintained them to be had been void in case he could not have prov'd his suggestions which is the thing that confounds all the Author's Arguments But I must confess that M. Le Grand has something of Reason on his side in what he says concerning Rodulphus whom I believed to have been Campeggio's Bastard He proves out of Sigonius who writes the Life of that Cardinal that Rodulphus was his Legitimate Son Sigonius is a very good Author and I acquiesce in his Authority But had M. Le Grand cast but his Eyes upon the English Edition he would have seen that it was not without sufficient Ground and not out of any design to blacken the
says nothing of what the Pope promised Cardinal Tournon That for Forms Sake he should be obliged to observe some Formalities of Action to the End he might not shew himself too partial to the King of England in favour of whom he was resolved to do what lay in his Power for the Love of you said the Prelate writing to the King of France And a little after I think I am well assured that our Holy Father will comply with you touching the Request which you have made him in Behalf of your said Brother Henry VIII In a Letter of the Seventeenth of August 1533. The same Cardinal writes to Francis I. That the greatest Party of the Cardinals that were of the Imperial Faction would have been mad with the Pope had he not done what he did in regard there was but little likelyhood that the King would submit his Cause and that the Pope might have some honourable Pretence to act for him he would do it with as good a Will as was possible And it may be adds this Minister when you meet together he speaks of the Interview that was to be at Marseilles there will be found out Expedients It appears also by another Letter that Francis I. told the English Embassador That the Pope himself had confessed that King Henry 's Cause was just and that he wanted nothing but a Procuration Therefore it was that when the King was cited to appear at Rome in Person or by a Proctor he took little Notice of it That if Carn were sent beyond the Mountains in the Quality of an Excuser it was seen by those Mixtures that it was not in the Name of the King but in the Nation 's Behalf that he went to make those kind of Excuses This Refusal of Henry being look'd upon at Rome as an effect of Contempt which he had of the Holy See the Pope promised him the Divorce if he would but appear in that City either in Person or by his Proctor in pursuance of the Assignation which he had caused to be given him and acknowledge his Authority Francis the First applauded the King's Conduct in that Affair and was so far from endeavouring to oppose his Marriage that he ordered his Embassador to be God-Father in his Name to the Child that should be born in case it were a Son The French Embassador at Rome about that time wrote also several Letters to his Master's Court where he observes That the Pope was very ready to do what was desired in the King of England 's behalf and more if he durst or could but that the Emperors People pressed the Affair with so much Importunity that the half of the time His Holiness against God and against Reason nay contrary to the Opinion of a good part of the Imperial Cardinals was constrained above half the time to act at the pleasure of M. Dosme We wanted you there to have put a spoak in his Wheel pursues he writing to the Cardinal of Grandemont There is no Man that dares tell him the Truth And it is as true that this Embassador who was Bishop of Auxerres said also speaking to the Pope That he saw him so pressed by the Emperor his People and the greatest part of the Cardinals that he thought he could do no good but only by Dissimulation But indeed these cunning Politicians understand so well how to change their Stile according to Occurrences that there 's hardly any trust to be given to their Letters The same Day that he wrote what we have cited to the Pope's Legate in another Letter to the Grand Master he observes that the Pope had told him that for Four Years the Business of Henry VIII had been in his Hands that there was nothing effected as yet that if he might do what he would he would do what we would and says the Minister This he told me in such a manner that if I am not deceived he thought what he spoke All those Letters were dated the 17. of Feb. 1532. But in another of the 13. of Jan. following he assures that the Pope had told him That he was resolved to referr the whole Business to a good Time and that he clearly understood what the Pope meant by a good Time To which he adds that if the Matter had been judged according to the Wishes of the Cardinals and the eager Instances of the Emperor's People the most ancient and learned had judged for the King of England But that there were but few of that Company and the number of the other was so great that by plurality of voices the English would have utterly lost it M. Le Grand is very nice and tender when he comes to that Circumstance that there arriv'd a Courrier from England to Rome a day or two after Sentence was given and he omits the hast in which it was pronounced as if he knew nothing of it Nevertheless we find in these Miscellanies a Letter from Pomponio Trivulci dated from Lyons the 16. of April where he observes that M. de Paris passing that way upon his return from Rome told him that the definitive Sentence which the Pope had given against the King of England had been precipitated That it was not the Pope's fault that they did not temporize longer that if they had staid but Six Days more before they had pronounced it the King would have submitted to the Holy See But that the Importunity of the Imperalists and the Consistory was so great that they would not stay That the next Day after the Resolution of England came too late but that then the Consistory and the Imperalists were mad that they staid no longer All these passages plainly shew that the Court of Rome was governed in this Affair only by the prospects and maxims of Policy And therefore it is that according to the Principles of the Gallican Church M. Talon has maintained with so much Zeal upon an occasion of much less importance that the King of England had no reason to have any regard to the Sentences and Thundrings of that Court. If I am extreamly obliged to M. Le Grand for having made me a present of so good a Book in which he furnish'd me with so many proofs of the most important Points of my History I am no less troubled that he had so little value for himself as to suppress them and for his having forced me as I may so say to make use of the kindness he has done me to his own disadvantage But upon such occasions as these the saying is Magis amica veritas And though M. Le Grand imagines that I am jealous of my Productions were not the Interests of Religion intermixed therewith I could easily abandon mine But I will not now push this censure any farther neither do I know whether I shall write any more upon this Subject not being able to determine any thing in that matter till I have seen the Three other parts of this work and the effects it will produce in the World I shall conclude with humble request to pardon the Liberty which I take of addressing this Letter to you and that in so publick a manner not believing a man could otherwise so properly give a censure upon a printed Book I am Sir c. Hague 20. of June FINIS