Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A25703
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An apology for the Protestants of France, in reference to the persecutions they are under at this day in six letters.; Apologie pour les Protestans. English.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing A3555A; ESTC R12993
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127,092
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130
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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
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