also their place of honour and at the Mass That honour was seen by the place where they sate by the Censer and by the Pax which was given them in the time of the Mass Now whereas this Councill was held at three severall times under there several Popes Paul the III Jule the III and Pius the IV. In the time of Paul and Jule Charles the V was Emperour whose Embassadors without contradiction sat above the French Embassadors who in the sixteen first Seffions appeared very little and no place was held there under the title of Spain Yet some things hapned then which shewed the eminency of the French Kings above all others next to the Emperour In the Bull of the Indiction of the Councill Paul the III dated an 1542. the King of France is named after the Emperour in express terms and all the other Princes comprehended in one generall term and that twice Thus Charissimos in Christo filios nostros Carolum Romanorum Imperatorem Christianissimum Regem Franciscum duo praecipua Christiani nomins firmamenta atque fulcra orare atque obsecrare institimus A little lower Supra autem dictos Imperatorem Regemque Christianissimum nec non caeteros Reges Duces Principes quorum praesentia si aliàs unquam hoc quidem tempore maximè sanctissimae Christi fidei Christianorum futur a est salutaris rogantes atque obsecrantes per viscera misericordiae Dei c. In the beginning of the Council an 1545. Francis the I had appointed for his Embassadors Claude D'Urfé Seneschal of Forests Jacques de Liguieres President in the third Chamber of Enquests in the Parliament of Paris and the Deane Peter Danes since Bishop de la Vaur But being informed by some French Bishops that were at Trent that there was little hope that the Councell should do any good he called back his Embassadors who did not appear in the Councel Antony Filioly of Ganat Archbishop of Aix in Provence was there for the King who in the first Session when publike prayers were made for the Princes having required that the King of France should be named in expresse termes as he had been named in the Bull of the Indiction the Legats eluded that demand and said that the Fathers ought to be consulted about it and none was prayed for in expresse termes but the Pope and the Emperour all other Princes were comprehended in one generall term In the year 1546. Francis the I sent his Embassadour Peter Danes Bishop de la Vaur to the Councill At his reception he made a fine speech wherein he represented the State of Christendom and the great disorders crept into the Church even into the Court of Rome At which when a certaine Bishop did laugh saying Gallus Cantat Danes replyed readily Utinam isto gallicinio Petrus ad resipiscentiam fletum excitetur An Apophthegm which afterwards was rife in the mouth of the Fathers of the Councill An. 1547. when Paul the III to a void the plague the war of Germany would remove the Councill from Trent to Bolonia the Legates consulting the Fathers about it said that his Holinesse approved of it Communicato etiam consilio cum Imperatore Christianissimo Rege aliis Regibus ac principibus Christianis which is another expression of the honour which the Council did to the Kings of France But in the third Indiction of the Councill under Pius the IV. an 1561 in the Bull of the Indiction Pius the IV useth other words then Paulus the III and Julius the III had used before Thus Charissimos verò in Christo filios nostros Romanorum Imperatorem electum caeterosque Reges Principes quos optandum sanè esset Concilio interesse posse hortamur rogamus without any mention of the most Christian King Philibert de la Bourdesiere Bishop of Angoulesm Embassadour of France in the Popes Court expostulated with him by the Kings order for that neglect with protestation that notwithstanding that neglect he would not hinder the progress of the Councill yea that he had commanded his Bishops to go to the Councill The Pope answered that he had charged some Cardinals to form the Bull and that they had not heeded that Pointillo and that after they had named the Emperour they had not judged it necessary to name all the Kings but had comprehended them under one generall name The Embassador replyed that it was a Prerogative of the Kings of France not to be comprehended under a generall name The Pope answered that he could not foresee all things and that another time order should be given that the like errour should not be committed In the year 1562 the 18. of May Lewis de Saint Gelais Lord de Lansac came to Trent and three dayes after Arnault Ferrier President of the Enquests of Paris and Guy du Faur de Pibrac chiefe Judge of Tolosa sent by the King of France who were received with great honour by the Council yea great part of the Prelats subjects of the King of Spain went to meet them But Ferdinand de Avalo Marquess of Pesquera Embassadour to King Philip went out of Trent three dayes before and retired to Milan of which he was Governour pretending a feare from the Protestants of Daulphiné and the Switzers but in effect to avoid meeting with the French Embassadors who took their place in the general Congregation after the Imperiall Embassadors Pibrac made a fine Oration wherein he spake very freely against the disorders of the Church the small progress of the Councill in such a long time and for the liberty of voting in the Councill which was not to be expected from Rome He was seconded by the two other Embassadors Lansac and Ferrier The Pope complained of it and said that the King of France had sent not Embassadors but Advocates of the Hugenots And indeed the ill opinion which the Fathers of the Councill had of the beliefe of these three men was a cause why the Councill and the Pope dealt with them with more rigor In the meane while the French Bishops came to the Councill conducted by the Cardinall of Lorraine who was most honourably received by the Cardinall of Mantua and the other Legates Soon after the coming of the Cardinall of Lorrain Philip the II having called back the Marquesse of Pesquera sent to Trent another Embassador Ferdinand Quigones Count de Luna who being gone to Germany before to be present at the Coronation of Maximilian Son to the Emperour Ferdinand would know of the Fathers of the Councill what place they would give him Upon which the Cardinall of Mantua the first Legate having consulted with the Embassadours of France and the Cardinall of Lorraine he propounded unto them this accommodation that as for them they should keep their place next to the Embassadors of the Emperour and that some other place might be found for the Count of Luna over against the Legates on the other side or after the Ecclesiastical Embassadors or
another about Montferrat the Kings of France and Spain intervened to make them friends And this was done without prejudice to the peace betweene the two States Valteline is a vally seated between Germany the Venetians the Dutchy of Milan the Grisons It was in old time a part of the Dutchy of Milan or at least an appurtenance of the same And was engaged to the Grisons by Lewis the XII for foure hundred thousand pounds arrear due to them for their service in the conquest of Milan since which time it was subject to the Grisons But the differences of Religion intervening and the Grisons being turned Protestants for the most part Valtolina kept for the most part the Religion of Milan Which made them desire to shake the yoke of the Grisons and returne under the subjection of Milan invited to it by the Spaniards So that an 1619. the great revolt began and the Valtolins expell the Grisons their Masters Who had recourse to the protection of France by whom they held that Countrey King Lewis the XIII sends Monsieur de Bassompierre into Spaine to Philip the IV. for Philip the III. was lately dead who granted according to the Treaty of Madrid that all garrisons of strangers should depart out of Valtolina and that order should be taken for the maintaining of the Catholique Religion The Duke of Feria having refused to execute that command and the Valtolins unwilling to returne to the obedience of the Grisons King Lewis exhorted the Switzers and Grisons to maintaine their rights and sent them an Embassadour the Marquis de Coenures whom he made afterwards General of their army and Marshall of France known by the name of Marshall d'Estree Then did the French and the Spaniards fight yet without breaking the Treaty of Vervins because both acted for their confederates Pope Vrban the VIII having made himselfe Depositary of the principal places of Val olina sent his nephew Cardinal Barbarini into France an 1625. who not being able to make an accommodation as pretending to deliver Valtolina from the obedience of the Grisons war began in Italie by the aliance made betweene the French and the Duke of Savoy against Genoa which was assisted by the Spaniard Thus these quarrels upon the by came very neer to an absolute rupture betweene the two Nations For at the same time some Spanish ships passing from Barcetona to Genoa and driven upon the coasts of Marseille were arrested by the Duke of Guise Of which the Genoese complained to the King of Spaine whose Councel irritated with these wars and with the taking of many places about Genoa gave order that all French ships in the havens of Spaine should be arrested and all the goods of the French trafficquing in Spaine seized upon The Councell of France to bee even with them made two Edicts the one to forbid all traffick with Spaine the other to seize upon all ships of Spain Portugal Naples and other places of the Spanish dominions yet onely by right of represalls and for restitution of the goods taken from the French War continued in Piemont all that while till the winter of that yeare 1625 when the armies retired into garrisons That winter Du Fargis the French Emassadour in Spain began a Treaty which was called the Treaty of Monson in Arragon whereby without any Commission from his Master or his principall Minister of State the Cardinal de Richelieu as it was pretended he did greatly derogate to the right of the Grisons over Valtolina making the Valtolins well nigh Soveraines taking from the Grisons all power to refuse the Iudges and that forme of Government which the Valtolins would set up among themselves That Treaty was disavowed by King Lewis and the Cardinal who commanded the Embassadour to reforme it Wherein so much tedious protraction was used that Lewis was in the end constrained to take upon him the protection of the Valtolins and sent them the Duke of Rohan who there continued the war even after the rupture between the two Crownes In the yeare 1628 Vincent the II. Duke of Mantua being dead Charles Duke of Nevers the next heire male succeeded but the Emperour made some difficulty about it because he was borne in France and because he did not come personally to him to render his homage But besides his right of lapse for want of homage he set up the right of Duke Guastullo of the same house of Mantua which yet appeared at the first to be weake and of no force At the same time the Duke of Savoy renewed his rights to Montferrat So the new Duke of Mantua saw himselfe almost swallowed up by the Emperour the Spaniard and the Duke of Savoy Yea Don Gonzales de Cordova besieged Cazal the old apple of discord between the houses of Mantua and Savoy King Lewis resolved to maintaine his subject and confederate sends Bevron and Guron to defend Cazal Himselfe passeth into Italie forceth Le pas de Suze driveth the Spaniard from the siege of Cazal and compelleth the Duke of Savoy to let the Mantuan be in peace The Protestants in France being in armes Rochel besieged and their party brought low some say that the Duke of Rohan sent Clausel from Montpellier to Madrid to put the Protestant party under the protection of the King of Spain The History of Dupleix sets downe the whole Treaty betweene the King of Spain and the Duke of Rohan whereby the Spaniard promiseth to assist Rohan with men and money But Lewis returning victorious out of Italie suddenly overcame the Protestant party and forced them to receive peace The Spaniard thought he might as lawfully assist the Protestants of France as the French assisted those of Holland Whilst Lewis was busy about the pacification of his owne State the Duke of Savoy reneweth his pretence to Montferrat the Emperour sends Colalto against the Duke of Mantua and the Marquesse of Spinola besiegeth Cazal but in vaine being well defended by Toiras since Marshal of France Lewis repasseth into Italie makes himselfe Master of Savoy and Piemont The Imperial Army takes Mantua but all is pacified by the Treaty of Queyras an 1631. and the Duke of Mantua is setled in his Estate In that yeare 1631. Mary the Queene Mother of France retireth into Flanders The next yeare 1632. the Duke of Orleans her sonne doth the like Where getting some Dutch and German troopes he makes an inrode into France and in the yeare 1633. he makes a Treaty with the Spaniard to enter into France with an Army All this without absolute rupture betwixt the two Crownes Onely the Spaniard fomented the divisions of the Royal house of France Gustavus Adolphus King of Sueden after a long war against Poland comes into Germany an 1631. for the restitution of the Dukes of Meckelburg his kinsmen into their Estates out of which the Emperour had expelled them and to restore liberty to the Cities of Germanie Lewis jealous of the greatness of the house of Austria and having causes
in some other place out of the bench of the Embassadors To which the French answered that they were sent by their King not to judge causes or to decide of the Rights of King Philip who was a good friend brother in law to their King Charles the IX but if any would take their place they were resolved to stand for it against all sorts of persons which if the Councill denyed them they had order to withdraw with all the French Prelates and to protest of the nullity of the resolutions which should be taken in their absence To which the Legate answered nothing That declaration of the French though generous gave occasion to the affront which soon after was offered to them in the Councill for they are censured by posterity for not requiring absolutely that the Spaniards should sit under them An. 1563. The Legates fearing some division between the French and Spanish Doctors about their order in speaking gave order that without distinction of Nations every one should speak according to his seniority of Doctorship But because some among the French Divines had the seniority over the Spanish these made great complaints to the Legate pretending that this preference of the French would be a prejudice against the dispute which the Count de Luna was forming against the French Embassadours The Legats rebuked them shewing that the Doctors though sent by the Princes did not represent their persons as the Embassadors did and that the question was onely of the seniority of the degree not of the preference of the Nations Notwithstanding these satisfactory Reasons the Spaniards were angry and threatned the Councill of their Kings displeasure who should take off his protection from them The French seeing that the Spaniard stood upon points in such a clear business and that of Doctors they would make Embassadours did obstinate themselves also to have the preference even in the disputes of the Divines And because the Popes delegates spake first without contradiction the French asked to be admitted to speak next after them which the Legates were constrained to grant and it was decreed that after the Jesuite Salmeron the Popes Divine Nicolas Maillart Dean of the faculty of Paris should speak and that after that all should speak according to the seniority of their degree which was followed Yet to content the Spaniards it was enacted in the Register of the Councill that the French Doctor had spoken the first by the right of his seniority in the degree of Doctor not by the preference of his Nation The same year 1563. upon Easter-day the Count of Luna was received at Trent and in his entry mached between the Embassadors of the Emperour and of France This Ceremony past with much honour and civility between the two Nations And at the same time the Cardinal of Lorrain writ to the Emperour perour Ferdinand who was at Insprugh in the County of Tirol three dayes journey from Trent upon divers affaires of the Councill and in the end of the Letter desired him to find some temper to lay down the dispute about the preference between the two Crowns so that it might not appear in the Councill But his Country-men blamed him for it saying that he ought not to have taken notice of a dispute so ill grounded Or if he had spoken of it it should not have been to have desired a temper but to maintaine his Kings right The Emperour answered him that it belonged not to him to decide the disputes between the Kings of France and Spain but since he had desired him to speak his sense about it if your Embassadours said he maintaine their rank after mine and that none take that place from them what does it import you what place be assigned unto the Spaniards A verdict ill taken by the French who held it to be of a dangerous consequence For in an order of sitting who so leaveth his place say they is thought to despise it and to ask a higher which cannot be done without moving a dispute against those that sit in a higher seat The Count of Luna after that solemn entry was hidden forty dayes and appeared not in any ceremony of publique action being in great perplexity how to behave himself sometimes he had a mind to enter into the assembly in the midst of the two Embassadors of the Emperor who were injoyned to bear him company and after they had taken their place stand by them till his Commission had been verified by the Councill and then retire to his house But considering that this would not be a generous maintaining of his Masters honour he made means that the French Embassadors should be desired not to appeare in the Assemby that day which being denyed him he sent some Spanish Bishops to the Legates to propound unto them that the secular Embassadors of Princes should not enter into the generall Congregations but the day of their reception but should content themselves to be present at the Ceremony the day of the Session maintaining that it had been so observed in the Councells before But all the Embassadors of Princes having opposed that motion he could obtain nothing Again he caused some Bishops to propound some point to the Congregation at the discussion whereof the French ought not to be present as interessed parties for example to represent what damage would result to the whole Church by a peace of the King of France with the Hugonots or some such thing But all that being rejected and the Congregation being put off from day to day by his obstinacy in the end that the businesses of the Councell might not be retarded the Cardinall of Lorraine and the French Embassadors declared to the Legates that if they might keep their place immediately after the Emperours Embassadors they did not care what place the Embassador of Spain should take The French to this day exclaim against that action of the Cardinal and the French Embassadors saying that it was a great weaknesse and that they had betrayed their Masters honour Yea the Fathers of the Councell disliked it And when the Cardinal de la Bourdestere Resident for the King of France by the Pope complained to him of that Spanish ambition and novelty introduced against all ancient orders the Pope it was Pius the IV. answered that he should complaine to the French Embassadors whose weakness he condemned saying that although he had been solicited before and after the entry of Count de Luna into Trent to favour that designe he had remained constant and inflexible and that he wondred how the French had so easily yea so freely yielded The day of the Congregation being come and each Embassador having taken his place the Count of Luna enters stands over against the Legates some what far from the Embassadors seat presents his Orders and declares his Masters will Then he protested that although the first seat was due to him next to the imperiall Embassadors as representing the greatest Prince of Christendome
enow to ressent the wrongs offered to him by the Emperour made a Covenant with the King of Sueden for the defence of their common friends opprest the safety of the commerce upon the Sea the liberty of the States of the Empire The King of Sueden promist the assistance of his armes and his person and the King of France a million of livers per annum Hence followed the great victories of Gustavus till he was slaine at the battell of Lutzen in Novemb 1632. An. 1634. the Duke of Orleans leaveth Flanders and returnes to the King his brother III. Paragraphe From the Rupture of the peace till now These mutuall offences being accumulated in the end brake into open war It was declared by the French by a Herald in Flanders in May 1635. That declaration was grounded upon that old complaint that the Spaniard aspires to the universal Monarchy of Europe and to devoure all the Princes thereof and because the Spaniard vexed the confederates of France with wars but more particularly by reason of the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Treves who had put himselfe under the protection of King Lewis To all the complaints of the French the Spaniards have their answers and have enough on their part to complaine Howsoever this war hath produced many great exploits on both sides in Germany in Italy in Flanders in Spaine And though the fortune of war have alternative successes yet France had hitherto the advantage of that bloody game having stretcht her dominions beyond the Rhine united Lorraine to the French Crowne got many townes in Flanders and Artois Perpignan and the County of Roussillon and got a good footing in the Dutchy of Milan Besides Catalonia which hath submitted her self to the Soveraignty of France The greatest losse of the Spaniard is that of Portugal by the practices of France whereby the King of Spain hath lost Brasill and the East-Indies AN APPENDIX To the foregoing DISCOURSE Shewing the Dispute about the precedence at the Councell of Trent betweene the Embassadors of France and Spaine IT is certaine that before the formation of that great Colossus of the House of Austria about the year 1520. the Kings of France were acknowledged the first of Christendom next to the Emperours The pieces wherewith the greatnesse of Spain is made up are Provinces most of them feudatary of the Empire or of France or of the Pope all these lately gathered up But France is of an ancient entire and independent greatnesse The Embassadours of Charles the V. had the precedence every where before those of France because he was Emperour But in the year 1555. when he resigned that quality of Emperour to his Brother and his other qualities and states to his Son perceiving that his Son wanting the quality of Emperour could not keep that preheminence he used this artifice A little before his retirement from the world he recalled from Venice his Embassador Francisco de Vargas who being an Embassador of the Empire had a precedence before the French Embassador Then after the resignation of his States he sent the same Vargas to Venice again as Embassadour for himselfe and his Son joyntly although in effect Charles being devested of his dignities Vargas was Embassadour of his Son onely hoping thereby to deceive the Venetians and others by sending the same man Vargas demanded of the Senate of Venice the same precedence which he had before To which Dominique Bishop of Lodeva Embassadour of Henry the II of France made opposition representing to the Senate that Charles was no more considerable in the world that when the Embassadours of the Emperour Ferdinand should appear he would yield to them but that he would not yield to the Embassadour of Philip but in all occasions of audience ceremony visits and the like he would take the first place till the coming of the Imperiall Embassadors The Senate fearing some ill issue of this dispute gave order that the two Embassadours should not present themselves at the ceremonies of the Feast of St Mark and so the matter remained undecided all the year 1557 by the irresolution of that Common-wealth and the simplicity of the French Embassadour But in the year 1558. Francis de Novailles Bishop of Acs having succeeded that of Lodeva renewed the dispute and the Embassadours of the Emperour Ferdinand being come he demanded to be maintained in his Rights and to have the first place after the Emperours Embassadour and couragiously took it before Vargas who seeing that the policy of Charles who dyed at the same time took no effect and that he was confidered onely as Embassadour of Philip began to extoll his Masters greatness and number his States and Soveraignties which he possessed in farre greater number then the King of France Saying that these customs of honour and precedence must alter according to the time That his Master was the greatest King of the world farre more able to assist the Common-wealth with Arms Men and Money then the King of France The Bishop of Acs stoutly resisted him and obtained of the Senate an Order whereby the precedence was adjudged unto him above the Embassadour of Spain About which when the Spaniard expostulated very earnestly it was answered him that the Common-wealth would not undertake to examine the greatnesse of their Majesties but that they found in their Records that in all Acts both publique and private Ceremonies Visits and Audiences the Embassadours of France had preceded those of Spain and to that received custome they would keep This answer offended Philip who upon that called back his Embassadour But Micael Surriano the Venetian Embassadour in his Court defended the decree of the Senate of Venice and in some sort mitigated the displeasure of Philip who yet in all occasions renued that dispute His greatest effort was four years after in the Councill of Trent To understand the right of precedences of Ambassadours we must know that in the Councill there was three sorts of Assemblies particular Congregations generall Congregations and Sessions In the private Congregations the Doctors assisted with some Bishops examined the questions of Faith and Reformation and there no Ceremony of precedence was heeded In the general Congregation all the Prelates assembled the Legats were Presidents every one kept his place of honour It was a publique action where questions were resolved the Legates propounded that which was to be examined in the particular Congregations every Prelate had right to speak and to vote Embassadors of Princes had audience after their Commission was examined and that which was to be promulgated in the following Session was there concluded Embassadors kept their place there according to their rank The Session was the solemne day upon which after a Mass of the Holy Ghost and a Sermon of a Prelate or some eminent man upon the matter in question the Prelate officiating pronounced with a loud voyce the Decrees resolved which the Father 's approved with a Placet In these Sessions Embassadors had