those Orders of Monks there happen to be some particular men who follow other Principles it is certain that they are in no Number so that the Body of the Monks is absolutely in the Interests of the Court of Rome and by consequence in that of Spain Thus you see already a considerable Party of whose Fidelity the Kings of France cannot be assured And what is this Party One may say that it is all France for the begging Monks and the Jesuits are Masters of all the Consciences they are Confessors they are Directors they persuade what they will to those that are devoted to them The House of Bourbon ought not to doubt of this truth if it never so little calls to mind the endeavours that were used by the Monks for the forcing from it the Crown when the Raâ—e of the Valois came to fail It is against this so considerable Party that the State ought to take its Precautions in preserving that other Party which can never be of intelligence with this it is that of the Reformed History tells us how impossible it is to be long without having Disputes with the Court of Rome It is always attempting and we are obliged to defend our selves against its enterprises It is capable of setting great Engines a going of making Engagements and Alliances It had twenty times like to have ruined Germany it has dethroned great Emperours it has likewise caused great troubles in France and one cannot be too secure against its ambition Par. I fancy that your Hugonot's Advocate would not spare the rest of the Clergy and that he endeavoured to prove that wâ— can be no more assured of their Fidelity than of that of the Religious Prov. What you have already heard may make you easily imagine that for the giving the more force to what he had to say against our Divines he prevented what might have been objected If you understood these matters Sir said he to me you could tell me that our Clergy of France teach a Divinity wholly different from that of Rome that all make profession of maintaining the Liberties of the Gallicane Church the principal Articles of which are 1. That the King of France cannot be Excommunicated by the Pope 2. That an â—cclesiastical Censure cannot be laid upon their Kingdom 3. That it cannot be given to others 4. That the Pope has nothing to do with the Temporality of Kings 5 That he is not Infallible 6. That he is inferiour to the Council These you would tell me are the Maxims of the Sorbonne that have often censured the contrary Propositions This Divinity is maintained by the Authority of the Parliaments who have often declared the Bulls of the Pope abusive null scandalous and impious and have appealed from the Execution of these Bulls when they found them contrary to the Liberties of the Gallicane Church The Estates assembled at Tours during the League caused the Bul 's of Excommunication to be burnt by the hands of the Executioner that had been published against Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth This looks great and magnificent if you please but these fair appearances have no foundation I do not speak of the Divinity of the Parliaments which is that of the Politicians I speak of the Divinity of the Clergy Once more added he I do not at all doubt of the Fidelity of the Divines of France to their King but they shall never perswade me that this Fidelity and Zeal for their Prince is without exception and I make no other exception agaiâ—st it than what they themselves make Will you hear them speak Read the Harangue that Cardinal du Perron made to the third Estate in the name of all the Clergy of France in the Assembly 1616. and remembeâ— that it is not the Cardinal du Perron who speaks it is the Clergy of France assembled in a Body who speak by the mouth of that Cardinal All France struck with a sense of the two horrible Parricides that had been committed in the persons of the two late Kings both of them assassinated out of a false Zeal for Religion would draw up a form of an Oath and establish a Fundamental Law of the State which all the Subjects were to swear to and this Law imported that every one should swear to acknowledge and believe that our Kings as to their Temporalities do not depend on any but God that it is not lawful for any cause whatsoever to assassinate Kings that even for causes of Heresie and of Schism Kings cannot be Deposed nor their Subjects Absolved from their Oath of Allegiance nor upon any other pretence whatsoever This Law methinks is the security of Kings this is a Doctrine which all the Hugonots are ready to sign with their Blood What did the Clergy of France do thereupon It formally opposed that Law Works of Cardinal du Perron p. 600 and following they were willing to acknowledge the Independancy of Kings in regard of the Temporalty they consented that Anathema should be pronounced against the assassinates of Kings But they would never pass the last Article that for what cause soever it was a King cannot be Deposed by the Pope stript of his States and his Subjects absolved from the Oath of Allegiance He who spoke for them alledged all the examples of Emperours and of Kings who had been Deposed and Excommunicated by Popes upon account of refusing Obedience to the Holy See and approved them he alledged the Example of St. Vrban the Second who Excommunicated Philip the First and laid an Ecclesiastical Censure upon his Kingdom because he had put away his Wife Bertha Daughter of a Count of Holland to Marry Bertrade Wife of Foulques Count d' Anjou then still alive He made use of the testimony of Paul Emile who said that Pope Zacharias discharged the French from the Oath of â—ideâ—iâ—y that they had made to Chilperick These two Princes were noâ— Hereticks yet the Clergy of France approved their having been stript of their States by the Popes which makes appear that the Clergy in the bottom judges that the Pope has Right to lay an Ecclesiastical Censure upon the Kingdom of France and to depose its Kings for any â—â—â—er cause as well as that of Heresie Is it not to abuse the World to confess on one side that the Temporalty of Kings does not depend on the Pope and establâ—sh on the other that the Pope may in certain cases Interdict these Kings Excommunicate them and Absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance In fine this is the result of that Famous Opinion of the Clergy of France So that if Christians are obliged to defend their Religion and their lives against Heretick or Apostate Princes when once absolved from their Allegiance the Politick Christian Laws do not permit them any thing more than whaâ— is permitted by Military Laws and by the Right of Nations to wit open War and not Assassination and Clâ—ndestine Conspiracies that is to say that when a
opened After our first Salute I ask'd him what they were They are said he French Books and those Printed Sheets are the new Edicts Declarations and Acts which the King of France hath lately publish'd against the Protestants of his Kingdom I am very happy said I in lighting on you at the opening of your Papers I was extremely impatient of knowing with some certainty what it was drove so many of them from their Native Country and I perceive by the care you have taken to collect all the pieces which concern them that I could not have met any one who might better satisfie my curiosity They come hither in Troops almost every day and the greatest part of them with no other Goods but their Children The King according to his accustomed Goodness hath had pity on them so far as to provide means whereby they may be able to gain their Lively-hood and amongst other things he hath ordered a general Collection for them throughout the Kingdom We were all resolved to answer the charitable Intentions of our Gracious Prince and were beginning to contribute freely But to tell you the truth we were extremely cooled by certain Rumors It is confess'd that their King is very earnest to make them embrace his Religion but they assure us that he uses none but very reasonable Means and that they who come hither with such Outcries are a sort of People not gifted with much patience who easily forsake their Native Country being dissatisfied that their merit as they conceive is not sufficiently rewarded Besides they are represented to us very much suspected in the point of their Obedience and Loyalty If we may believe many here they have been very factious and rebellious such as in all times have struck at the higher Powers both in Church and State which you must needs see would not be much for our purpose in these present Conjunctures In truth this is intolerable cry'd our Friend I cannot endure that the Innocence of these poor people should be run down at this rate I perceive Father La Chaise is not content to persecute them in their own Country with the utmost cruelty but trys all ways to shut up the Bowels of their Brethren in foreign parts he endeavours to ruine and to famish them every where in England as well as France A Hatred so cruel and if I may so say murderous agrees not so well with the Gospel of the Meek Iesus whose Companion Father La Chaise styles himself For he came not to destroy men but to save them Let this Jesuite alone said I and his Emissaries I do not doubt but he hath too much to do in all the Affairs of Protestants But tell me ingenuously do they give just cause to them of France to quit their Country as they do and are they persons whom the State and the Church may trust You your self shall be Judge said he and that you may be fully inform'd of the Cause I will give you a particular Account of the State of these poor People But before I speak of the Evils they have suffered it is sit you should know what it is that they have right to hope for from their King and from their Countrymen you will then be more affected with the usage they find You cannot but have heard of the Edict of Nantes Here it is said he taking up one of the Books that lay upon the Table It is a Law which Henry the Fourth confirmed to establish their Condition and to secure their Lives and Privileges and that they might have liberty freely to profess their Religion It is called the Edict of Nantes because it was concluded of at Nantes whilst the King was there It contains 149 Articles 93 general and 56 particular You may read it at your leisure if you please I will only observe some of them to you at present Look I pray said he on the sixth general and the first particular Article Liberty of Conscience without let or molestation is there most expresly promised not only to them who made profession of the Protestant Religion at the establishment of the Edict but which is principally to be observed to all those who should imbrace and profess it afterwards For the Article saith that Liberty of Conscience is granted for all those who are or who shall be of the said Religion whether Natives or others The seventh general Article grants to all Protestants the right of having Divine Service Preaching and full exercise of their Religion in all their Houses who have Soveraign Iustice that is to say who have the privilege of appointing a Judge who hath the power of judging in Capital Causes upon occasion There are a great many Noble Houses in France which have this privilege That seventh Article allows all Protestants who have such Houses to have Divine Service and Preaching there not only for themselves their own Family and Tenants but also for all persons who have a mind to go thither The following Article allows even the same Exercise of the Protestant Religion in Noble Houses which have not the right of Soveraign Justice but which only hold in Fee-simple It is true it doth not allow them to admit into their Assemblies above thirty persons besides their own Family The ninth Article is of far greater importance it allows the Protestants to have and to continue the exercise of their Religion in all those places where it had been publickly used in the years 1596 and 1597. The tenth Article goes farther yet and orders that that Exercise be established in all places where it ought to have been by the Edict of 1577 if it had not been or to be re-established in all those places if it had been taken away and that Edict of 1577 granted by Henry the Third declares that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion should be continued in all places where it had been in the Month of September that same year and moreover that there should be a place in each Bailywick or other Corporation of the like nature where the Exercise of that Religion should be established tho it had never been there before These are those places which since have been called with reference to the Exercise of Religion The first places of the Bailywick It follows then from this tenth Article of the Edict of Nantes that besides the Cities and Towns in which the Exercise of that Religion ought to be continued because they had it in the years 1596 and 1597 it ought to be over and above in all those places where it had been in the month of September in the year 1577 and in a convenient place of each Bailywick c. altho it had not been there in that Month. The eleventh Article grants also this Exercise in each Bailywick in a second place where it had not been either in the Month of September 1577 or in the years 1596 or 1597. This is that which is called The second place of the
That is to say Sir said I interrupting our Friend they will pry into their hearts and perfectly know where their strength or their weakness lies If there were nothing but that in it replyed our Friend that Declaration would not allarm them so much as it doth For there is nothing done in their Assemblies which they are not willing all the world should know They defie their most mortal Enemies to prove the contrary Can there be a more undeniable proof of this than the practice of the Protestant Commissary who sends to the Court a Copy well attested of all the Results of the Deliberations which are made while the Synod or Conference is held What do they fear then replyed I from the presence of a Papist Commissary Because they know that the end of the Court cannot be to discover their Secrets since they have none therefore it is that they justly fear that this Papist Commissary hath been set over them to create them trouble in the most innocent Affairs to hinder those Deliberations which are most necessary for the due preservation of their Flocks to silence those Ministers among them whom he shall perceive to be of greatest Ability and of Credit to dishearten one by threatnings to corrupt another by promises to sow Dissention and Division among them and to employ all means possibly to ruine them These are the just fears which have hindred them till this present from assembling any Synods with this so destructive a condition hoping continually that it may be God would touch the heart of their King But perceiving no favourable change and not being able to subsist without holding their Synods I learn'd as I came out of France that these poor people are resolv'd to run these hazards and that their Synods are upon assembling in several places May God vouchsafe to preside in the midst of them by his Grace and remove far from them all the Evils â—hey have cause to fear It may be by their good Examples and their Religious Behaviour they may convert them who are set over them for a snare as it happened to their Fathers in the last Age also Then was contrived the placing of Papist Commissaries to spie out their liberty But these Commissaries were so taken with the Modesty the Piety the Charity the Decency of Order and the devout Prayers of the first Reformers that they gave Glory to God and embrac'd the Religion which they had persecuted The Jesuites nevertheless have thought all these Evils of which I have spoken too slack and gentle That they may not be at any more trouble they will do the business once for all They have contrived to starve all the Protestants and to effect this they have made all the means of gaining a livelyhood to be taken from them by the Acts of the Council of State of the sixth of November 1679 and the 28th of Iune 1681. 1. They have turn'd out of all Jurisdictions and Seignuries which are almost infinite in France all Protestants who had been admitted Officers in those Jurisdictions All Stewards Bailifss Sollicitors Officers of the Exchequer Registers Notaries Clerks Serjeants and Ushers that were Protestants of all sorts throughout the whole Kingdom are cashiered by virtue of these Acts they have reduc'd to Beggary thousands of Families which had no other subsistence but by these Employments 2. Look upon those two Pieces which they procured also for the same intent The Title of the one is The Order of the Council Royal of the Finances or Treasury of the 11 th of June 1680. The other is An Order of the Council of State of the 17 th of August of the same year By the means of these two Pieces the Jesuites have made the Protestants to be kept out of all the Affairs of the Finances Customs which they call Traites Forains of Aids Gabelles Taxes of all sorts of Commissions to which the Edict of Nantes ordered that they should be admitted indifferently with the Papists This second hath taken away the Bread of a vast number of Families more 3. They every day make the Protestant Captains and Officers who have serv'd so worthily by Land and Sea to be turn'd out of their Commands Those brave Men after they have spent their Estates to advance their Masters Honor and ventured their Lives a thousand times for his Glory see themselves shamefully as so many Cowards cashiered without any exception for them who having signaliz'd and distinguish'd themselves by particular Actions had deserv'd extraordinary Pensions Because they will not be less faithful to God than they have been to their King they are resolved Disgrace and Beggary shall be the Reward of their Service By this they take away from all the Protestant Nobility the means of maintaining themselves in that Rank in which God by their Birth hath placed them 4. As to the Merchants look what the Jesuits have thought upon to ruine them They have obtain'd an Order of Council of State of the 19th of November 1680 which grants to all Protestants who change their Religion the term and forbearance of three years for the payment of the principal of their Debts with prohibition to all their Creditors to bring any Action against them during that time upon pain of Non-suit Noli prosequi and all Charges Damages Costs and Interests I perceive very well said I to our Friend that this puts those who revolt in a way to secure and withdraw their Goods and to enjoy in peace the Fruits of their turning Bankrupts But I do not see how this tends to the ruine of those Merchants in general who persevere in the Protestant Religion That is said he smiling because you have not so subtle a wit nor are so quick-sighted as the Jesuits You know very well that Merchants subsist by their Credit if their credit be low they must fall there is no more trading for them their business is done Now do you not perceive that the credit of all Protestant Merchants is ruined by this Order which puts them in a way of turning Bankrupts as they please with all indemnity and of inriching themselves with those Goods they have been trusted with Who do you think after this will be so silly as to take their word Who can tell with any certainty whether they with whom they deal are persons who will continue in the Protestant Religion Is there any thing more common than such Changes in Religion now adays It 's enough said I I was mistaken I perceive now very well that the ruine of the Protestant Merchants is unavoidable Go on to the other Professions For I see they are resolved that no Protestant shall get Bread among them You are in the right said he you have seen it in many of them I 'll shew it you now in the rest 5. All Papists who drive any Trade or exercise any Art are forbid â—o take any Protestant Apprentice I have seen the Order but have it not now by me By
his might and makes such heavy Reflections upon those same Roman Catholicks whom he makes the Pillars of his Church and the greatest enemies to the Protestant Relâ—gion I make no doubt replyed I but I draw the same Consequences from hence as â—ou do that Monsieur Maimboâ—rg plainly shews by this that he ought noâ— to be believed when elsewhere he charges so many faults upon thâ— first Protestants of France and imputes all the great Exploits to their enemies the Papists and that the true Protestants or the good Huguenots being so pious and having the fear of God before their eyes for which he commâ—nds them could not be the causes of Disorders though very likely their Adversaries might have been whom the Historian represents as the most wicked ambitious ungodly and cruel of men By this he likewise convinces us that his Book ought not to be regarded and that we ought not to look upon his accusations against that which he calls Calvinism otherwise then as railing and aspersions invented at will to make way for his better reception at Court or some other by end that is not worth enquiring after It is that which prejudices his Book with all Ingenious Persons and renders it unworthy the least consideration Yet since the enemies of the French Protestants make such a noise with it let me intreat you Sir to clear the matters of Fact to me which he produces with so much confidence to raise a jealousie in Princes upon these poor Men as if they were the Authors of those Troubles and Disorders in the last Age which came within a very little of ruining France First he charges their Religion with being a mortal enemy to Monarchy I confess you have made the contrary appear beyond dispute in our former Conference But he lays his Charge upon matters of Fact whereof I have not knowledge enough to clear the Objections One shall hardly see says he more dreadful Conspiracies than those which the Huguenots have made against our Kings For instance that cruel business of Amboise and that of Meaux not to mention their terrible Rebellions which have cost France so much Blood and the unhappy Intelligences they have held with the enemy to withdraw themselves from their Allegiance and set up openly for a Commonwealth as they have done more than once I beg of you to give me all the light you can to deliver Innocence from so black an Aspersion With all my heart says our Friend and besides when I have taken off this reproach I promise to make it as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that they are Father Maimbourgs Catholicks who are guilty of all these desperate Conspiracies against the persons of Kings which he so unjustly and fasly lays to the Protestants His first proof of the dreadful Conspiracies of the Huguenots against that of their Kings is the business of Amboise and Meaux But before I enter into Particulars I set against him an unexceptionable Witness who openly declares That the Huguenots entred not into any Conspiracy against their Kings in either of those places My Witness is one of the same Religion with Monsieur Maimbourg and what is more a Cardinal and one so knowing and of so extraordinary worth that Monsieur Sainte-marthe is not afraid to stile him The Flower of the Colledge of Cardinals the Light of France and the New Star of his Age Sacrati ordinis aureum Florem Ocellum nostrae Galliae sui denique seculi novum Sidus He had over and above this advantage of Monsieur Maimbourg that he lived in the time of the businesses of Amboise and of Meaux He was above twenty years old at the time of the â—irst and he was too exact and too knowing not to have throughly examined the Causes and Motives of two Occurrences that made such a noise all over Europe You shall hear what he says in his eighth Letter of the â—irst Book upon the occasion of an attempt against the Life of Henry the Fourth You had it already but I cannot forbear reading it again to you for it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold upon the Front of all the French Kings Palaces To a Prince turned Catholick who should have been encouraged and confirmed by all means possible it was to give him great offence and distaste at the Catholicks when they that call themselves the support of the Catholick Religion should go about to have him Assassinated that which if there were any pretence for the Hereticks ought to have procured or done it themselves because he had quitted and forsaken them and they had therefore reason to fear him and yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors whatever Butchery they had made among them These remarkable words And yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors are a manifest confutation of all that Monsieur Maimbourg's Libel sets forth against the Loyalty of the French Protestants from the beginning of the Reformation which was under Francis the first to the Reign of Henry the fourth The businesses of Amboise and of Meaux happened the one under Francis the second the other under Charles the ninth two of the five Kings Predecessors to Henry the fourth of whom Cardinal d'Ossaâ— speaks Assuring us therefore as he does That the Protestants never attempted any thing against the life of these five Kings he positively denies what Monsieur Maimbourg asserts That in 〈◊〉 two affairs the Huguenots had entred into terrible Conspiracies against their Kings Now in the presence of God which of these two ought we rather to give credit to the Cardinal a man of an unspotted Reputation and who was an Eye-witness of these two passages now in dispute or Monsieur Maimbourg who writ his Libel sixscore years after the business of Meaux and whom the Pope himself has turned out of the Jesuites Order for an untoward reason For every body knows it was for being detected of falsehood in his Writings that the Pope put this high Affront upon him But to come to our present purpose and to be short we will stick to the account Monsieur Maimbourg himself gives of that he calls the business of Amboise This is that he says That at a very close meeting at la Fertè sous Ioûare they determined a high point of Conscience by the advice of Divines Canonists and Lawyers who all agreed That during the present State of affairs men might take up Arms to seize in any manner the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother to bring them to Tryal provided a Prince of the Blood who is in this case a lawful Magistrate would head the Party That all this having been allowed of by a general Consent the Prince of Condé resolved to head them upon condition that they attempted nothing against the King and the Royal Family nor against the State That
says As to the Fact our Jesuite Jesuite as he is notwithstanding condemns it Neither has he the Heart to charge the Huguenots with these new troubles The King raised several Armies to extirpate those that had escaped the Massacre They layed the two so much talked of Sieges of Rochel and Sanvane which were raised at the arrival of the Polish Embassadors come to seek for the Duke of Anjou elected King of that Kingdom whither he went Charles the Ninth falls very ill The Prince of Condé flies into Germany and returns again to the Protestant Communion The King dies after a thousand remorses of Conscience upon the account of St. Bartholomew's Massacre For we are told That oftentimes he fancied that he saw a Sea of Blood flowing before his Eyes and that they should hear him from time to time cry out Ah! my poor Subjects what have ye done to me They forced me to it Then though too late he acknowledg'd that it was not the Protestants as the Jesuite Maimbourg so maliciously reports but the Montmorency's and the Guises who had been the real Authors of all the Troubles He had owned says Mezeray That the Houses of Montmorency and Guise were the true causes of the Civil Wars The King of Poland who was afterwards called Henry the Third returns into France and succeeds Charles the Ninth The Protestants apply to him for Peace and at the same time That Atheism and Blasphemy may be exemplarily punished and that the Ordinances against enormous and lewd Whoring which drew down the Wrath of God upon France might be execuâ—â—â— â—ut says Mezeray this untoward reproof made the Huguenots mere haâ—ed at Court than did all their Insurrections and Heresies They had no fruit 〈◊〉 their demands they would not be hearkned to The War was kept up every where The Duke of Alanzon presumptive Heir to the Crown retired from Court and headed the Protestants The King of Navarre likewise withdrew four Months after Their conjunction with the Prince of Condè who had raised a considerable Army obliges the Court at last to agree to Peace which they had so long desired The Edict was prepared and verified the 15th of May 1576. It allowed the Protestants the free exercise of their Religion which from that time forwards was to be called The Pretendded Reformed Religion It allowed them Church-yards and made them capable of all Offices both in the Colledges Hospitals c. forbid farther enquiry after Priests and Fryars that were married declared their Children Legitimate and capable of Succâ—ssion c. expressed a deep resentment of the Slaughters upon St. Bartholomew's day exempted the Children of those that had been killed from the Duty of the Militia if they were Gentlemen and from Taxes if Yeomen repealed all the Acts which had condemned the Admiral Briquemaud Cavagnes Montgommery Montbrun and others of the Religion owned the Prince and D' Amville for his good Subjects Casimir for his Allie and Neighbor and owned all they had done as done for his Service gave to those of the Religion for their better security of Justice the Chambres my parties in each Parliament or Court of Justice c. But all this was only for a new decoy to catch the Huguenots Mezeray observes that so soon as they had got the Duke of Alanzon from them they began afresh to contrive their ruine And then it was that terrible League broke out which under pretence of extirpating the Protestants set the whole Kingdom in a flame All the Historians agree that it was the pernicious cause of all the Wars that were made against the Huguenots during the Reign of Henry the Third and that had like to have laid France waste Wherefore to justifie the innocence of the Protestants during all these troubles we need only observe the measures and designs of the League which was the cause of them I will keep to what Monsieur Maimbourg says He is thus far ingenuous This League says he had like to have overthrown both Church and State The most of those that went into it or rather run headlong and blindfold with so much heat and passion and especially the common people the Clergy and the Fryars were but stales to those that composed the Cabal where Ambition Malice and Self-Interest had more share than Religion which in all probability was brought in for no other end but to châ—at the World These were the King of Spain Queen Catharine and the Duke of Guise who cast up their Accounts together though upon very different reasons yet such as agreed all against the State the Duke to make himself head of a Party which after the expiration of the Valois might advance him to yet a higher pitch the Queen that she might have a pretence to bring in her Grandchild Henry Son to Charles Duke of Lorrain instead of the lawful Successor to the Crown the King of Navarre her Son-in-Law whom she cared not for and the Spaniard to take advantage of the division the League would cause among the French to make them ruine one another and afterwards become their Master This League divided the Catholicks who took Arms one against anther the one to sâ—cure Religion as they said the other to defend the Royal Authority and the Fundamental Law of the Land which they designed to overthrow It obliged the King for prevention of the dangerous Conspiraciâ—s of the Leaguers to come to a difficult extreme and to join his Forces with those of the Huguenot Party to reduce the Catholick Rebels to their Duty It stirred up terrible Commotions all over the Kingdom This cursed League was made in opposition to the Royal Authority under the fair pretence of Religion It had a fowl beginning though contrary to the common apprehension of those who know not how to fift into the bottom of it It s procedure was abominable being neither more nor less but almost a continued attempt against the Government of a King who was at least as good a Catholick as they that headed the League In conclusion that the rise and design of the League extended to the Subversion of the Royal Family I shall not need to give an exact account here of all the steps the Contrivers of this violent Conspiracy took since the holding of the Estates at Blois in the year 1576. Where as the Bishop of Rhodes says The King Henry the Third was forced to declare himself Head of the League whereby from a Soveraign he became head of a Faction and Enemy to a part of his Subjects down to the year 1589. when they caused this unfortunate Prince to be stabbed by Iaques Clement the Fryar It is enough to understand that by the confession of Monsieur Maimbourg himsâ—lf the Duke of Guise and his Complices did not put Henry the Third upon persecuting the Protestants with that heat and violence for any other end but by the
And this was the only end of arming himâ—elf and not any private Interest if any one shall yet question let him but consider the circumstance of the time and the poâ—ture of his Affairs For who can believe that the King my Maâ—ter has any design upon â—rance or making any Conquests there at so improper a time when he has already upon him an Enemy one of the most Powerful Princes in the World And that if he had any such thoughts of so many Men as he has raised which are the same charge to him as if he had them here and which he is always ready to send over if the Churches want them he should only send a handful in comparison of so many as would be needful for so great an undertaking besides the great Succors he sends at the same time into Germany Who would not conclude rather as in truth it is that the Forces here are but Auxiliaries and that they are for no other purpose but to assist the Churches which for so many reasons and upon such important accounts he finds himself obliged before God and Man to aid and protect that if they will say the King my Master was provoked to arm himself upon other considerations as the imbargo and seizure of all the Shipping Goods and Effects of his Subjects at Bourdeaux and other places of this Kingdom to the open breach and overthrow of the Treaties between the two Crowns which are direct in this point and to the irreparable prejudice even the entire ruine of Trade in the disappointment of which the poor people of this Kingdom not being able to put off their Commodities groan not only under the Burden of so many Taxes and Impositions but even of the Necessaries of Life it self that the apprehension the King my Master has of the growth of the Most Christian Kings Power by Sea has put him upon taking Arms to hinder the progress and in conclusion that he was forced to put himself in a Warlike posture through despair of an accommodation The answer to all this must be that whoever will take notice of the Stops Seizures and Prizes that were on the one side and the other shall find that the King my Master and his Subjects have hitherto got most by this Breach and that it has been an advantage to them in some measure In the second place he is so far from being jealous of the growth of this pretended power at Seâ— and seeking to obstruct it that there needs no more whenever the King my Master shall see his time but to give out Letters of Mart to his Subjects to disappoint all these vain and weak attempts without making use of his Royal Power And lastly that we were necessitated to this arming of our selves out of a despair of an accommodation the contrary is most apparent to any one that will consider the applications that have been made at several times as well by their own as by the Ministers of stranger Princes to the King my Master at their instance to treat about an accommodation All which justifies the King my Master who has not been forced to arm upon any private account but only in aid of the Churches for whose safety and freedom he had undertaken And there are that would possess the world that his Majesty has a private design and that he makes use of a pretence of the Religion to form a Party by the help and addition of which with his own forces he thinks to carry on his design to his own purpose But our Religion teaches us otherwise and the goodness of the King my Master in which he comes short of no man living will never suffer him to do it His purpose is to settle the Churches his interest is their good his end to give them satisfaction This being done the beating of Drums and displaying of Colours shall cease and all this noise of War shall be buried in Oblivion as what was never done but upon their account nor set forward but for their sakes Given on Board the Admiral this Wednesday the one and twentieth of Iuly 1927. Signed Buckingham This Declaration shews that our Kings are resolved to love and cheâ—ish the Protestants of France and that our Great Monarch in holding his Arms open to them at this day does but follow the steps of his Princely Father He demonstrates thereby to all his people that he inherites his goodness as well as his Crown and that as this holy Martyr he knows assuredly that these poor persecuted would breath nothing but loyalty in the enjoyment of the Edicts The same Declaration shews undeniably the innocence and justice of our arming upon the occasions whereof we are treating as not having been made but upon the extreamest necessity when there was no other way left to hold France to that promise of which our King was the Garante and to prevent the loâ—s of Rochel which was undone only for committing its concerns to his Majesty Honour sincerity publick faith the Law of Nations the urging Duty of conscience all obliged us to run in to the succour of a Town that had cast it self upon our Monarch and that had full right to shake off the yoke of France since it had been no otherwise given up to the French but upon a condition that was broken which was that they should build no Fort upon its Territory whereby to give cause of suspicion Nevertheless as the Declaration obâ—erves they had not only built one against the Article of the Treaty which made the Treaty void and put Rochel into its full liberty which it had acquired at other times but they had built several which blocked up the Town on every side and destroyed its trade Our arming therefore upon this occasion was just It was justified by the publick faith and the Law of necessity and had no other end but to protect the weak who were oppressed contrary to the â—ngagement of the Treaty which was the supporting of a good cause For Rochel which they wasted after so many manners was then in right to defend it self being no longer subject to the Prince who attaqued it Conditio non impleta liberat fidem say the Civilians A condition not fullfilled takes off all Engagement Rochel had said to the King of France you shall be my King if you build no Fort upon my Territory but not otherwise and the King of France consented or rather swore to a solemne Treaty that he would not be Master of Rochel but upon this condition So that from the moment in which he had broken the condition agreed upon and accepted of he put Rochel into its orignal right The Rochellers are no longer his subjects and therefore if they shut the gates of their Town against him if they defend themselves as well as they can against his invasion if they call in their friends for succour they do it in their own right and it is to do them open wrong it is traducing them