the State unto their Succour and took a course to bring Fire and Sword into all parts of the Kingdom Shortly in matter of Government that which is good at one time is frequently not so at another all things must be accommodated to the general rule of Policy which is that the good of States be incessantly procured When the Edict of Pacification was accorded there was provision made for the welfare of France if that welfare does now require that the Edict be revoked there is no remedy revoked it must be or neglected From all this which I have said it follows that the King hath most just cause to secure himself from the Professors of the Protestant Reformed Religion and put them into such a state as he may have nothing to apprehend from their particular Perhaps it will be said that 't is expedient there be Huguenots in France because they oblige the Church-men to study and to live with the greater circumspection and a more exact observance of the rules of their Profession But this consideration is not worth the considering The Church of GOD will never be supported by these humane means He is in the midst of it and governs it Himself by His Holy Spirit which animateth and filleth it At whatever time there shall be no more Huguenots in France there will be fewer bad and a greater number of good men which the King should particularly desire since States are always sustained by people that love Virtue c. It passeth therefore for certain that it is fit the King do disable the Religionaties as to their doing any harm and as to their giving cause of suspicion It remaineth to examine what way may most readily and most commodiously lead unto this end I would not advise that these People of the other Religion should be compell'd to depart out of France as the Moors were out of Spain which proved in the sequel so prejudicial to the whole Country 'T would be a piece of inhumanity to drive the Huguenots in that manner they are Christians though separated from the Body of the Church besides this course would deprive the State of not a few good Families and put the unhappy numbers of e'm out of all hope of Conversion and Salvation so that the King in this concern should do well as seems to me to imitate the Church the common parent of all Christians who in the Remedies She prepareth ever mingleth mildness and Mercy with Justice and Compassion with Correction The first means then which the King might employ should be to provide that the Huguenots might frequent the coversation of the Catholicks with more familiarity than they do For by this coversation they would in time be undeceiv'd of the Opinion with which they are pre-possess'd that we hate them they would put off the Aversion they have for us they would know our Deportment and be informed of our Doctrine in the points that offend them because they understand not the Mysteries of them which would induce them to confess as St. Augustin did on the like occasion That the Church does not teach things as they once thought it did Nothing is to my Understanding or can be more effectual for the Conversion of the Hereticks than this frequent Conversation it is not possible but that at length the spirit of Men should yield unto impression the plumage of the Eagle 't is said consumes that of other Birds Light dissipates Darkness Truth triumphs over Falshood The second means should be to confer a recompence of Honour upon Converts and to make a Stock for this purpose which might never fail I should think it would be none of the best course to exclude the Huguenots from all Employments they must enter into lesser Offices though not at all into the greater The reason is because if they be put off from all kind of publick business they will accustom themselves to tarry at home idle and their ambition will be extinguish'd in such sort as perhaps they will make it a point of Religion to do nothing whereas being taken to ordinary Offices they will habituate themselves to a living among Catholicks and their Ambition will awaken when they shall compare themselves with their Superiours The third means I offer is to select some particular Men and create them such business referring to Religion as may constrain them to attend the Council and keep following the Court. Business of that kind may be started to Gentlemen upon the Exercise they have in their Houses There is not one of them but is obnoxious to a Process in that case and the Bishops will with joy be the Prosecutors Besides the King's Procureur or Attorney General is concern'd to know whether Marriages Baptisms and Burials be solemniz'd with due accurateness in these private houses and whether good and faithful Registers of them be kept or no Great defects herein being easily supposeable the same will be just matter of complaint against the Owners as negligent in observing the concession made them of having Exercise in their Castles The like may be done if others contrary to the Edict be admitted to these Preachings beside the Domesticks A Fourth means would be to oblige the Religionists to put again in due state the ancient Chappels of their Houses which they have demolish'd or prophan'd the pursuance whereof ought to be by the diligence of each Bishop in his Diocess There must not be made a common affair of it to all the Huguenots in general but divers particulars only be fix'd upon And the thing it self is as reasonable as any For they had no right to destroy Temples that had been all along destin'd to Divine Service according to the Religion of the King receiv'd by all the Kingdom and also profess'd by our Progenitors The Fifth means is that when an Affair of such quality as I mention'd comes before the Council the Deputies which the Huguenots have at Court in the name of them all be not permitted to intervene in it There are 3 Reasons for the putting by of these interventions The First is that the Huguenots cannot constitute a Body in France nor assemble without the Kings express permission The Second that Private and Particular affairs ought not to be set up in the rank of those that are general and publick The Third that the King will do Justice without their intervention The Deputation should not be all at once abrogated out-right but no regard must be had to what the Deputies represent in the name of all the party The sixth means should be that the King do take effectual order the Huguenots may no longer have their dwellings nor their Exercise in places not Royal at least such as have any Lords of the Protestant Reformed Religion for Proprietors As for Example Vitrey in Bretannie belongs to Monsieur the Prince de Tarante who is of that Religion and it belongs to him by a Demise made him of it by Monsieur de la Tremouille
adviseable to appear in it barefac'd for says he That would be to bring upon us the Clamours and importunity of all the Monks and their followers this would be to bring Rome upon our back which might give us trouble I confess that no good can be acquir'd without trouble But I cannot conceive that it would be much trouble to deliver France from the Usurpations and the Exactions of Rome To forbid that there be in France no more Courts depending on the Pope nor Money carried from France to Rome or any Cause removed thither by Appeal And that no provision of Benefices be receiv'd from thence This in truth would be to bring Rome on our backs but not one Sword would be drawn in the Cause either within the Kingdom or without Should the Emperor do the same within his Principalities our King would not stir nor would the Emperor any more be concern'd if the King should set back the Jurisdiction of the Pope to beyond the Alps. When King Henry VIII of England did the same in his Kingdom what Prince undertook the quarrel against him How easily would the People accustom themselves to be free from the Papal Exactions and how vain and idle were the Attempts of the Popes Partisans in England to restore his Authority that Prince hack'd and harass'd what he had a mind to in the Ecclesiastick Estate and the clamours of the Monks which the Marquess is affraid on frighted not him though he treated them coursely Nor are we at all to fear least the Monks take up Arms as the Chiefs of the League forc'd them to do which would serve only to make them be laught at and gave a subject to the Painters for those antick and ridiculous Portracts that they have left us Or if any little broil should be rais'd by some of the Bigots how soon must it fall before a great King who is never without an Army Who shall read over all the Book of the Marquiss shall find that he proposes Reformations in the State far more hand to be effected than the banishing of the Canon-Law and Papal Jurisdiction out of the Kingdom For he would perfectly melt down the Justice and Policy and cast them all anew He has truly made it appear that he understands the Malady of the State and yet his Projects to remedy them cannot be put in execution without bringing to ruine and despair many active Spirits that live on their Prosessions which is very dangerous to attempt in a State Whereas the expulsion of the Canon-Law out of France and the reduction of all Causes thereon depending to the Civil Magistrate and of all persons acknowledging the Pope to the Obedience of the King would not at all be any dangerous Innovation To discontent the regular Ecclesiasticks that are unactive as bred up in the shade and in contemplation or in idleness can be no great danger especially leaving them their Revenues at least for life I neither have the wit nor the presumption to give a model of what Orders should be prescrib'd the Church after the Papal Jurisdiction is banisht the Kingdom And I shall go no farther than to say that I see no vigour in the Roman Jurisdiction and their Partisans in France that may hinder the King from cashiering them absolutely and making himself Master at home Even the Excommunications and Interdicts that would follow would strengthen him being of no other effect but to provoke the Parliaments and to animate the People against the Pope The greatest part of the Clergy would submit to the King and would cast off all Foreign Domination and the dissenting Clergy would be inconsiderable would be disperst and vanish before the Rays of the Authority Royal. And I pray a King of England could he accomplish this Work to free himself from the Papal-Yoke though carried thereunto more by passion than prudence And our Great King so Vigorous so Powerful so Wise shall not he dare to undertake it for fear of vexing the Pope and the Monks Shall he be scar'd with an imaginary Monarchy that has neither force nor foundation save in the Opinion of those that fear it and establish it by their sottish fear What is most considerable in this Example is That the Pope continues banisht out of England For though restor'd by Queen Mary and his Power own'd for the space of five years Queen Elizabeth and the Kings her Successors found themselves so much at ease in being deliver'd from the Roman-Yoke and in being acknowledged Supreme under God in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil that they have maintain'd and do yet maintain this Authority essential to their Crown This Authority is no less essential to the Crown of our Great King and 't is this that the good Prince James King of England represents to all Kings and Princes of Christendom in the Remonstrance he has made them touching the Rights of their Crowns They have not hitherto been so happy to listen to it but let us hear what he says to them If you that are the most Powerful come to consider in earnest with your selves that well-nigh a third of your People and of your Lands belong to the Church will not the Thoughts of so great a loss move you which withdraws from your Jurisdiction so many Men and so much of your Lands in such manner that every where they plant Colonies and Provinces for the Pope What Thorns and Thistles suffer you to grow in the Country under your Subjection so long as so powerful a Faction flourishes and spreads over so much good Soil within your Kingdoms openly maintaining that they are exempt from your Power and that they are by no right subject to your Laws and to your Judgments insomuch that whereas formerly the Clerks desir'd no more but their Tiths and liv'd thereon content at this day the Pope chief of the Clerks is not content with less than a third part of your Subjects and of your Lands These words of a King our Neighbour happily enjoying a Sovereignty independant of the Pope of which his Ancestor robb'd this Robber an hundred and forty years ago ought to move in our Kings a virtuous Emulation to recover and after to maintain the Rights proper to their Crown And the example of so flourishing a success ought to encourage them to so just and so noble an Undertaking From this great and principal acquisition that the King shall be the only Sovereign in his Kingdom other advantages will arise These stranger Courts being put down that are the Mills whither every one brings and where the Moulture goes all to Rome or to their Creatures the Money they drain from the Kings Subjects shall stay in France and seeing that this employs a great number of Officers that only do harm to the State when this Gate shall be shut the young Men will seek out other ways to make themselves valued by and the Arts and Commerce of the Kingdom will be
confers them as a distribution made to His Creatures and that He may cause them by sensible means to experiment His Goodness The Magnificence of a Man renders him considerable if his Spirit in it be Great and Heroick But it is not enough to have spoken of that which constitutes Felicity we must take some account of the means which conduce unto it Nature Constancy and Reason do contribute to endue us with Virtue The two former do enrich the Mind and dispose it to receive Virtue then Reason being cleared by the light of Precepts makes it spring up and cultivates it Of all Precepts those of greatest efficacy are the Political which being indeed Laws do command and oblige Men to obey in a manner blindly necessitating and constraining us to live well whether we will or no. 'T is upon this ground it hath been said That there lies no servitude at all in submitting to the power of the Law and that it 's the proper act of Men truly free to reduce their inclinations and subject their practice to the same Forasmuch as the conforming of Life and Manners to the impulses of Virtue which is always right always uncorrupt is in truth a setting our our selves at full liberty and an enfranchisement from the Empire of importunate and irregular Passions But of these general Theses enough It is time at length to enter upon the subject which occasion'd my taking up the design of this present Treatise CHAP. III. 1. Of the French Monarchy 2. Of the Situation and Quality of France 3. Of the Nature of the French THE Monarchick Government doth not more excell other Governments than the French Monarchy doth all other Monarchies on Earth It is hereditary and for Twelve whole Ages there hath been seen Reigning from Male to Male upon the Throne of France the August Posterity of Meroue of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet For it is exactly proved that these three Races of our Kings are Branches issued out of the same Stock This very Succession so Legitimate as it hath been and so long continued makes at present the surest foundation of the welfare of the State and carries in it Splendor Reputation and Majesty Indeed to how many Ills are Elective Kingdoms exposed How many Cabals How many Complottings and in truth Wars are kept on foot by so many different agitations The one and the other Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Poles do administer sensible proofs of this Opinion If the Spartans heretofore did draw so great an advantage from the Honour they had to be commanded by Princes of the Blood of Hercules The French have far greater cause to glory since in the Catalogue of His Majesties triumphant Ancestors there may be counted an hundred Heroes greater than Hercules himself Is there a Monarch in the World whose just power is more absolute than that of our King and by consequent is there a Monarchy comparable to the French Monarchy It is necessary that the power of a good King be not confin'd within other bounds than Reason and Equity do prescribe otherwise there will ever be division between Princes and People to the ruin of them both What a disorder would it be in Man if the Eye or Hand should fail of following the impulses of the Soul this disobeying and rebellious Member would prove dead or seized with a Palsie If then the whole Body should fall into an universal revolt against the Spirit of Man all the Symmetry the Order and oeconomy would be utterly defaced Thus the Subjects in a Monarchy once ceasing to yield their King a full Obedience and the King ceasing to exercise His Soveraign Authority over them the Political Ligatures are broken the Government is dissolved by little and little all is reduced to extream calamities and oft-times to Anarchy and an annihilation Such are the inconveniencies that occur in Royalties of the Lacedemonian kind where the Prince hath but a limited Authority and if all that England suffer'd in the late times were pourtray'd here it would be easie to observe of what importance it is unto the felicity of a Monarchy that the Prince do in it command without restriction In fine the obedience of instrumental parts as those of Organical Bodies and the Subjects of a State is of so indispensible a necessity that the common good and conservation of that Whole which they compose depends upon it In Democracies even the most tumultuous and disorderly all must bow under the Will of the multitude though blind ignorant and seduced in like manner the parts of the Bodies of Brutes must act by their motions though they be in rage and madness And the reason of this necessity is that the Body and the Soul which is the form thereof are but one indivisible Whole so a King and Subjects are together but one whole that is one State In fine the French Monarchy is accompanied with all the mixture that can be desired for a compleat and perfect Government The Counsellors of State do compose an excellent Oligarchy in it The Parliaments and other Officers of Judicature do form an Aristocracy The Provosts of Merchants the Mayors the Consuls and the General Estates do represent rarely well limited Democracy so that all the different modes of governing by Laws being united in the Monarchy do render it as excellent and consummate as Reason can propose The Regality of France is therefore of the Oeconomick kind in which the King hath an absolute power in his State as the Father of a Family in his House and though he govern at His pleasure and without contradiction it is always for the good of His Kingdom even as the Master of an House does Rule it with an entire Authority and incessantly provides for the accommodating of this Family There is nothing Despotical nor Barbarous in France as in the States of the Moscovites and Turks In short our Laws are Holy and Equitable to a greater degree than in any Common-wealth that ever was and they are conceived with so much prudence and judgement that they are apt to make the People happy in the gentle times of Peace and enable them to triumph in the occasions of War The Situation and Compactness of France are known to all the World so that it would be a needless labour should I here expatiate to shew the Beauty and Richness of our Grounds and of our Rivers or declare how we abound in Wine in Corn in Silk in Wools in Cloth in Wood in Cattle in Salt in Mines and in Money how necessary we are to our neighbours and to what degree we may forego their Succors and their Merchandise I might justly be accus'd of a fondness for superfluous Discourse if I should particularly consider all these great advantages and as much if I should speak of the pureness of the Air and the incredible number of Inhabitants the most ignorant having a full and an assured knowledge of ' em I shall only say that it need not
for a Seal At the beginning these Letters which the Popes thus sent were but simple Letters of favour and recommendation but it hapning that the Chapters reverenced them and that here and there at least one who had obtained them was chosen all pretenders to Bishopricks came to believe that it was necessary to obtain them Thus what was at first but as hath been said a recommendation became at length a point of right and duty Such was its Rise Now this being certain there may be use made of the example and thus when a considerable Benefice should be vacant the King might order that a Letter be written to the Patron and some Person recommended to his Nomination There is no cause to doubt but the Patron will Nominate whom His Majesty hath thus recommended so that insensibly it will grow a Custom to take the King's recommendations as otherwhile persons did those of the Popes and as the Bulls became at length necessary for Bishopricks and Abbies so the King's Letters shall become necessary for all sorts of Benefices and He render Himself Master of all Church-men The King in this will have sufficient reason because He being Protector of Religion which is the prime Pillar of every State it is His interest to know whether they that shall be provided of Benefices be Orthodox and of good Life lest they spread some bad Doctrine among the people for Heresies and Scandals do cause division in the Common-wealth as well as Schisms in the Church Besides it concerns the tranquillity of the State that Curates who have the direction of Consciences be well-inclin'd for the good of the Kingdom and ready to keep particulr Persons in their duty To descend now unto the case of the Monastick Religious and find out a way for rendring them useful to the State to take them off from that laziness and loathsome beggery in which they live as also reduce them to such a number as may be proportionate to other ranks of men in the Kingdom It is to be noted that there are three sorts of Monasticks The first is made up of the Orders of S. Augustin S. Benedict S. Bernard and Premonstrey These are they that possess the bulkie riches of the Church I mean the Abbies and Priories The second sort comprehends the Carthusians the Minimes the Coelestins the Feuillans and some others who possess Goods with propriety and beg not but by Toleration The third kind is that of the meer Mendicants who subsist by Alms as do the Jacobins the Cordeliers the Carmelites and their branches that is the Reform'd as they term 'em who are issued from them These notwithstanding their Vow of Monastick Poverty yet are not destitute of some foundations but they plead for themselves that the Pope is Proprietor of the Goods they do but take the Profits which certainly is a vain and frivolous subtilty The Female Religious being comprised under these three kinds there is no need to make of them a separate Article There are too to many Monks It s an abuse so prejudicial to the Kingdom that the King can no longer dissemble it it is time to take it seriously and effectually in hand For Monks live in single state they raise no Families get no Children and so are barren grounds that bring forth no fruit to the Crown Beside the blind obedience by which they are tyed to the pleasure of the Pope doth form a foreign Monarchy in the very bowels of France and into it they train along the credulous people which is a thing of very great consequence This Politie is founded on the abusive and pernicious Maxims of Rome which too are purely Political For that the obedience which Monasticks give the Pope is Religious there is no colour to pretend nor is there a Christian but sees what his duty binds him to in this case and is altogether subject to his Holiness in Doctrinals without need of making particular vows to oblige him The name of Religion in the matter is but a phantasm and a false pretext which the Court of Rome assumeth to augment its Temporal Power and to have its creatures in all quarters By consequence the abuses ought to be retrenched as was done by Charlemagne in his time and sundry other great Kings But for the effecting of this I should not at all advise that the attempt be openly made For that would be to draw upon the undertakers the importune clamours of all the Monks and their Zealots nay to draw Rome upon their backs which might cost them some trouble In fine it would be to draw on them the People who are ever fond of Novelties that surprise them or are prejudicial to them and always averse to those which they have foreseen and are profitable for them 'T is therefore by-ways that must be taken The first which seems to me fit to be pitcht upon would be to require of the Monastick Communities that they dispatch Missions unto America and the Indies to convert the Salvages and administer the Holy Sacraments to Christians The Monks who are commonly imprudent will strain to set forth the greatest number of their fraternity they possibly may in hope to make considerable Establishments thus there will be forwardness enough to embarque The present juncture is advantageous for this design For they are charged with more Persons than they are able to maintain Charity being evidently cooled toward them A second means may be to debar them the conversation of Women It is scandalous to see Religious Men receive visits from them in Churches and there in presence of the Holy Sacrament spend whole Afternoons with them For remedy it might be ordained that they should have Parlours where Women might go to consult them The thing is a point of deceney and Parlours the Carthusian Friars and all Nuns generally have The third means might be that the Fathers of such as enter into Religion should pay an Annual Pension to the Order by way of Alms during their Sons life which is the practice in Spain This Pension some will say causeth in Spain an huge multiplication of Monks But 't is not the Pension that fills the Cloisters in that Country 't is the licence the Monks have to do what they please In France they are not upon such Terms A fourth means is to oblige the Monasticks to abide in their Convents and not go abroad but very rarely and for urgent affairs so do the Carthusians A fifth to embroil the Monks with the Bishops for which they are sufficiently disposed A sixth to prohibit that Children of Sixteen when as yet they know not what they do bind not themselves by Vows which engage them for the whole remainder of their lives but remit that Ceremony till their 22d year of Age. The seventh means would be to suppress that Congregation as they call it among Monastick persons as for instance there are the Congregations of S. Maur and command that the Religious who make profession in
Regality because of all Governments it comes nearest to it As to use the very terms of Hesiod a Potter envies and is against a Potter Be it remembred here briefly that Theopompus King of Sparta having created the Ephori at last after a great deal of time Cleomenes was fain to put them to death when they had slain King Agis The Senate becoming too potent overthrew the first Roman Monarchy and in one word what hath our Age seen in the trial of Chenailles and what did a former in that of Chancellor Poyet A second source from which the Evils of litigious suits do arise is the sale of Magistracies The Emperor Alexander Severus sound this mischief in his Empire it having been introduced by Domician S. Lewis saw cause to weed the abuse out of His Kingdom it having got in through the confusion and trouble of some precedent Reigns It will be glorious for the King to do in His State what the Emperour Severus and S. Lewis did in theirs with greatest glory to their Memory But as Policy requires that in such enterprises way be made by degrees and greatest events brought on by small beginnings so it is necessary here to proceed leisurely and with measured steps The fixation of Offices hath been much advanced already for though what hath been done seemed to signifie an authorizing the sale of them yet in truth there hath been ground gotten To continue the work and bring it to perfection there must a Decree pass or a Declaration be made and publish'd at the Seal by which the King declares that he purposeth no longer to admit any opposition in matter of Title to Offices This is just for the King ought to be ever Master and have the liberty to bestow the charges of His Kingdom on whom he pleaseth and thinks worthy of ' em Thus no one will be alarm'd but this Declaration will extend unto the price it self by a consequence easily deducible namely since the principal and essential right to Offices consisteth in the Title and the price is but an accessory as they term it 't is reasonable that the price alway follow the Law of the Title as the Title to a Benefice brings in the Revenue of it And as in Marriage the Validity of the Sacrament makes the Validity of the Contract and of the civil effects Thus receiving no more opposition at the Seal for the Title there neither will be any in reference to the price and hence it will come to pass in tract of time that Offices will be no longer security for Money which will diminish the price of them and insensibly bring it to nothing But it is very just too that the Mortgaging of Offices as hath been done hitherto be obstructed for the future For the Officer may dye before he hath paid the Paulette whereby his Office is extinct or if of Grace the King revives it the value of what ariseth from the casualty is much less than the sum for which the thing was engag'd so that there must loss certainly accrue But if the King make a new creation of an Officer all engagements are gone for 't is then no longer the Office that formerly it was Let it not be said that without the Sale of Offices the Casualties will be worth the King nothing For the contrary is true and if the Casualties be worth Him Two Millions by reason of that sale of them His Majesty will make Four Millions of 'em if they be no longer saleable Forasmuch as in this Case they will be no longer Hereditary and being no more Hereditary they will revert to the King upon the decease of every Titulary and so the King may dispose of 'em in favour of the Person that is most acceptable to Him and if it please His Majesty the new admitted Officer may fine to the Coffers of His Treasury Royal as the Officers of Gentlemen do to the profit of the Monasticks As to the Objection that by such suppression of Officers and Jurisdictions and taking away the sale of Offices the King will lose the Revenue of many of His Clerks places and of the Paulette The Answer is easie for as to the Clerks places suppress'd the King will be recompenc'd by the greater value of those that shall remain and as for the Paulette the retrenchment of the wages of the Officers suppress'd will be much more considerable A third cause of vexatious Law-driving is that Offices of Judicature are gainful to those that execute them An evil this the dangerousest of any that can affect a State for all becomes suspected all becomes corrupt where profit is to be made Avarice and Ambition creep in Justice Uprightness and Truth depart whereupon we may conclude with the ancient Proverb That Money doth many things which the Devil cannot do For an entrance upon a Reformation in this matter it would be good to ordain First That Judges not the Kings should take no more Spices Secondly That Judges in the Royal Courts should not decree Executions for their attendance against the parties that are in contest Thirdly That if Spices or Fees upon sentence obtained be allowed the parties shall give what they will as the former custom was and not be compelled Fourthly That there be no more transacting by Commissaries in Sovereign Courts Judges should be forbidden to admit any sollicitation from parties at Law even though it be but to let them know the difficulties of their Affairs and put them in a way to clear the same For a Judge ought not to be prayed to do his Office in favour of a man whose case is good much less of one whose case is bad CHAP. IX 1. Of some general Orders in Government 2. Of punishment and recompence 3. Of Royal Virtues IN the Chapters now dispatch'd I have inserted many things which may be of use for the Kings service for the general good of His State and of every of His Subjects in particular In the Chapters that are to follow others very considerable shall be added However I judge it not amiss to make here a distinct Chapter of some important points which I cannot easily rank any other where It hath been long in dispute whether it be good to alter Publick Laws and upon debate of the Question to and fro 't is concluded that there is oft-times so pressing a necessity that it cannot be forborn but withal that such alterations must be insensible to the People who hardly come off from old Customs and cannot be brought to any new observance but by a long circumference and ways to them unknown Legislators are Physicians of Common-wealths and in this case ought to imitate the ordinary Artists of that Profession who seeing the whole habit of a body out of order and that to preserve the Patient from Perishing 't is necessary to change it do prescribe remedies which the more slowly they operate the surer their effect Now the first Law which in my Opinion might be made or
3 Months would utterly ruin him He may be induc'd to hope that he shall be reinstated in the Principality of Geneva If War be made in Italy the Italians must not have time given them to look about them As they are the Wisest so when inur'd to War they are the bravest upon Earth In one word they are the Masters of the Universe The Swisses are Mercenaries who will alway serve the King for his Money As for matter of the English they have not any Friends themselves be a sort of People without Faith without Religion without Honesty without any Justice at all of the greatest levity that can be Cruel Impatient Gluttonous Proud Audacious Covetous fit for Handy strokes and a sudden execution but unable to carry on a War with judgment Their Country is good enough for sustenance of Life but not rich enough to afford them means for issuing forth and making any Conquest accordingly they never conquered any thing but Ireland whose Inhabitants are weak and ill Soldiers On the contrary the Romans conquer'd them then the Danes and the Normans in such a manner too that their present Kings are the Heirs of a Conqueror They hate one another and are in continual Division either about Religion or about the Government A War of France for three or four years upon them would totally ruin them So it seems reasonable that we should make no Peace with them but upon conditions of greatest advantage for us unless the King think meet to defer the execution of this Project to another time or that His Majesty press'd with the love He hath for His own People do incline to prefer their ease before so fair hopes One had need be a Monarch to know what it is to love Subjects as be a Father to know how Children are loved In fine if we had a mind to ruin the English we need but oblige them to keep an Army on foot and there is no fear that they should make any invasion upon France that would be their undoubted ruin if they be not call'd in by some Rebels Now if they have an Army they will infallibly make War upon one another and so ruin themselves You must put them upon making great expences and for this end raise a jealousie in them for the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey of Wight and Man for the Cinque-Ports and Ireland and by that means oblige them to keep strong Garisons in all those places this will create a belief in the people that the King formeth great Projects against their pretended Liberty and while He is in Arms His Subjects will hate Him They must be wrought to distrusts of one another by writing Letters in Cypher to some particular persons and causing them to be intercepted For being suspicious and imprudent they will soon be perswaded that the Letters were seriously written Some Forces should be landed in Ireland and in other parts The Irish may be induced to revolt as having a mortal hatred for the English The Scots also will not neglect to set themselves at liberty Factions must be rais'd and the Sects favoured against one another especially the Catholicks among whom the Benedictine Monks in particular should be secretly promis'd on the King of England's behalf wherein it will be easie to deceive them that they shall be restored to all the Estates which they once possessed in the Island according to the Monasticon there Printed Upon this the Monks will move Heaven and Earth and the Catholicks declare themselves The rumor which hath already gone abroad that the King of England is a Catholick must be fortifi'd and so all will fall into utter confusion and the English Monarchy be in case to be divided On the other hand our League with the Hollanders should be renew'd and they put into a belief that we will give them all the Trade still because they have a through Knowledge of it and are proper for it whereas the French have no inclination that way and Nature cannot be forced They must be told that now they are come to the happy time for advancing their affairs and ruining their Competitors in the Sovereignty of the Northen Seas Beside these particulars if the King give Belle-Isle or L'Isle Dieu or the Isle of Ree to the Knights of Malta as I have said before these Knights will make irreconcilable War upon the English redemand the Commanderies of their Order and by their courses and Piracies oblige them to keep great Fleets at Sea which will ruine them by ruining the profit of their Trade Mean time the King shall increase His Strength at Sea and then finding His Enemies weakned consummate their Depression and Subversion It is not difficult to make defence against any enterprises of the Emperor for He cannot make War upon France though He would such a War would be too costly for Him and and to make any progress in it He must needs bring into the Field excessive great Armies But if He armed Him so potently the Princes of Germany would grow jealous of Him and make Levies to oppose Him and to hinder His passage through their Territories beside His Hereditary Countrys would be disfurnish'd of Men and so expos'd to the inroads of the Turks so that there is no cause to apprehend any thing on the part of the Emperor On the contrary He hath intentions to give the King content because He may receive great succors from Him in Wars with the Turk as happen'd of late Years The Princes of Germany whether Catholicks or Protestants have an equal interest to keep themselves in the King's Protection for the reasons I noted afore in the Chapter of the Huguenots so that they will always oppose the Emperors growing greater on the side of France as it may be they would oppose the designs of the King if He should carry His Arms too far up into Germany 'T is the interest of lesser States that the Kings their Neighbours be equal in Power that the one may maintain them against the others To conclude the King hath no Allies whom He should so highly esteem as the Germans there is not a braver Nation a Nation more open more honest Their Original is also ours They have no Vices are Just and Faithfull there is among them an inexhaustible Seminary of good Soldiers their generosity put Alexander the Great into admiration for 'em and wrought affection and confidence in 'em in the first Caesars who by committinâ— their Persons to the virtue of these People entrusted them with the quiet of the Universe The Hollanders will never attempt any thing against France but keep themselves in our Alliance as much as possibly they may They are Rich and interessed as Merchants commonly are If the King had relinquish'd them theâ—… State would have sunk which yet by the rules of Policy cannot last long Democracieâ— being subject to changes It would be expedient that the King do interpose in their Affairs and some division be raised among
the true ground of the great hatred that is born us is it not for that if we are to be believ'd there would not in France be any French-man that is not the Kings Subject Causes Beneficial and Matrimonial would not be carried to Rome nor the Kingdom be Tributary under the shadow of Annates and the like Impositions And on this Subject the Testimony of Cardinal Perron for us in his Harangue to the Third State is very considerable wheâ— he says The Doctrine of the Deposition of Kings by the Pope has been held in France until Calvin Whereby he tacitely acknowledges That our Kings had been ill serv'd before and that those he calls Hereticks having brought to light the Holy Scripture have made the Right of Kings be known which had been kept supprest Shall they be said Friends of the State who owning themselves Subjects of a Stranger Soveraign dare endeavour to make themselves Masters of all the Temporal Jurisdiction of which the Marquess complains loudly and with good cause and of the great resistance they have made to maintain themselves in an Usurpation so unreasonable In this kind those of the Church of the Reform'd Religion could never be accus'd in the Towns where we have had some Power Our Religion is hated because it combats the Pride the Avarice and the Usur pations of the Court of Rome and their Substitutes in the Kingdom and because we have shewn to the World that sordid Bank of spiritual Graces they have planted in the Church and how they have drawn to themselves a Third of the Lands of France for fear of Purgatory from silly People mop'd with a blind Devotion and from Robbers and Extortioners who have thought to make Peace with God by letting these share in the booty 'T is an advice very suitable to the Politicks of France to examine well the Controversies that are most gainful to the Clergy as this of Purgatory concerning which an old Poet said the Truth in his way of Drollery But if it be so That no more Souls shall go To old Purgatory Then the Pope will gain nought by the Story It would be wisely done to examine what necessity there is for so many Begging-Fryers that suck out the Blood and Marrow of devout People and for so many Markets of Pardons in honour of a number of Saints of a new Edition and for what design are made so many Controversies And whether it would not be a great Treasure for the Kings Subjects to Teach them to work out their Salvation and put their Consciences in quiet at a cheaper rate God justly provok'd by the great Sins of France gives us not yet the Grace of that Gospel-Truth St. John Ch. 8. Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free And though it shines out so clear to let us see the Usurpation of the Popes upon the Temporals of the King and upon the Spirituals of the Church yet see we not clearly enough to discover all the mystery of Iniquity and to resolve to shake off the Yoak For this great design no other War need be made by the Pope but only take from him all Jurisdiction in France all Annates and all evocation of Causes to Rome This would hardly produce any other stirrs but the complaints and murmuring of them that are loosers And the condition truly Royal that the King at present is in will sufficiently secure Him from Insurrections at home and Invasions from abroad Or should any happen behold more than an hundred thousand Huguenots that the Noble Marquess has sound him in the heart of his State whom he is pleas'd to call His Enemies but who on all occasions and on this especially would do His Majesty a hearty and faithful Service The two main Interests of France being to weaken the House of Austria the Princes of which enclose him on both sides and to throw off the yoake of Rome which holds a Monarchy within the French Monarchy 't is easie to judge that amongst the Kings Subjects the Protestants are absolutely the most proper to serve him on both these occasions I know that amongst the Roman Catholicks as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars there are excellent Instruments to serve the King in both these Interests But there is need of great caution to well assure him by reason of the multitude of Jesuits Scholars with whom these Fathers have Industriously fill'd all Professions of the State and Church and it is for no other end that they have so many Colledges They who have been too good Scholars of these Masters are contrary to both these Interests being so great Catholicks that they espouse the Interest of the Catholick King to advance that of his Holiness But to find amongst the Protestants trusty Instruments for both these accounts he need not try them they are fitted and form'd by their Education for these two Uses so necessary to France The Marquess assures His Majesty with good reason of the friendship of the Protestant Princes of Germany which they would never testifie so freely as in serving him to ruin the Power of the Pope who savours that of the House of Austria For thereby they would kill two Birds with one Stone Not to mention our other Neighbours who have broken with Rome and being disquieted by its secret practises will be ready to contribute to its destruction Who shall well consider the Scheme of the Affairs of Christendem shall judge that all things invite His Majesty to shut out the Jurisdiction of Rome beyond the Mountains Right Honour Profit Liberty Facility his Duty to his Crown to his Subjects and to his Royal Posterity and that many Aids smile upon him both within and out of his Kingdom for so fair and so just an Enterprize This is the warm desire of the honest French-men And none there are who better deserve that Title than they who with the most Indignation resent that their Kings should kiss the Feet of that Prelate who ought of Right to kiss their Feet for having receiv'd his Principalities from Kings of France and who in recompence of their good Deeds have plotted and plot continually their ruin When the King shall have deliver'd Himself and his People from this strange yoak he will find the enmity amongst his Subjects for matter of Religon greatly diminisht and the way open to a re-union And were the difficulties about the Doctrine overcome the Protestants would not stick much at the Discipline God who is the Father of Kings and the King of Glory protect and strengthen our Great King to accomplsh the Designs that turn to the general good of His Church to the greatness and to the respect of his Sacred Person and to the Peace and Prosperity of His State FINIS
Sect and the world well know that the Zeal there was to reduce Hereticks to their duty did take up the Reigns of Six of our Kings the glory of cutting off the last head of this Hydra being reserved for his present Majesty But it is expedient to see what weapons must be used for an execution so long expected There is no cause to doubt but that upon the Principles of Christianity and Maxims of Policy its necessary to reduce all the Kings Subjects to one and the same Belief And though they that make Profession of the pretended Reformed Religion be now without Arms without Strong-holds without Treasure without an Head and without Allies yet they are not out of case to be feared They still retain a remembrance of their boldness and by-pass'd Rebellions they look back on the Towns they once seized and out of which they could not be driven but by force of Arms as if they were their proper Inheritance and had been unjustly pluck'd out of their hands they bear in their hearts the same aversion for Order and Discipline that they ever had and their minds are always inclining to revolt and to Confusion and Anarchy It disquiets them not to think who shall head them they have Soldiers of their own number whom they can advance to be Captains by giving them Authority to command e'm They persuade themselves that if they were in Arms they should want neither Money nor Friends They believe that the Glory of the King attracts as much Envy on him as Admiration and that his Virtue raiseth in his Neighbours no less Anger than Terrour In short there is ground to think that he will have more than an Hundred Thousand Men of his Enemies in the heart of his State while there are Huguenots in France they too perhaps do but wait an occasion to make their Musters Thus they are perpetual Obstacles to the Designs that might be formed and though weak may nothwithstanding be dreaded 'T is true the honest men of their Communion do well know that they cannot be in a calmer repose than they now enjoy by the Grace of the King and under the security of his Edicts but in these matters the multitude carries it These are a Torrent that by its Rapidity overturns Rocks which seems unmoveable It will be said that the good treatment which the Huguenots receive doth preserve the friendship of the German Princes for France and if favourable Justice should be no longer done them the King would lose the most potent and most considerable of his Allies This discourse is but a found and void of all substance of reason for beside that the Princes of Germany are not of the Religion of our Hereticks They need not the Kings Protection for maintaining the Huguenots in their pretended liberty of Conscience but the French Arms securing them against the power of Austria and principally of the Emperor who hath divers pretensions upon them they cannot recede from the Alliance they have made with his Majesty nor will they do it though the last man of the Huguenots was brought to the Scaffold nay forasmuch as the Kings Forces are so useful to all those Protestants it will would be their interest not at all to Arm themselves for the Huguenots preservation but far otherwise even to promote their expulsion out of France and the reason is because if this party were in a condition to raise stirs the King would have his hands full of work to repress them and so his Forces being dissipated the Emperor might take his time to enlarge his Domination the thing that Charles the Fifth did when Francis the First was not in a possibility to succour the Princes It being therefore certain that the Liberty of Germany hath its support and prop in the Arms of the King they are not sollicitous there for the affairs of the Huguenots in France and since the Protestants of the Empire are knit to his Majesty by other engagements than those of Religion they will continue the same Deportment and his Majesty on his part will always have the same reasons to succour them though the time should come that he should have no more Huguenots in his Kingdom No succour neither may they hope for from England that 's a State too weak to make any trial of strength against France all the English there are must pass the Sea and the Isle be disfurnish'd of Soldiers and Provisions yet this all would be nothing to purpose mean time their affairs would lie expos'd to the Levity and Lunacy of the people Holland and Swedeland are of like consideration and they both have other Interests to Negotiate with the King than those of the Huguenots Denmark is defective in power The Calvinists mount unto a strain of Policy above ordinary when they would have us believe That whatever is not of the Roman Communion is of the Opinion of Charenton the Lutherans of Germany notwithstanding sympathize with them less than with us Thus the King hath nothing to be afraid of from the pretended Allies of the Huguenots Yet these men as I have already said are to be feared and they would be seen stoutly to bestir themselves if some extraordinary Commotion should happen in France as a Civil War or some great Invasion by Foreign Enemies in such a Juncture they would do as they did in the War of Paris they took up Arms and respectively protested they were for the Kings Service but if the Peace had not been soon made they would not have forborn to think themselves necessary and to make all the Propositions that they could imagine advantageous to their party They would have re-demanded their places of Security they would have press'd for a restoring of their Temples for an augmentation of their pretended Priviledges and for a free exercise of their Religion and according to their good old custom have uttered Complaints and Menaces But if by ill chance a Victorious Army of Strangers whether Catholicks or Religionaries should enter the Kingdom the King must resolve to see the Hereticks declare against him or else content them in all their pretensions which would prove an engaging of his State in like Calamities as our Fathers in their time saw It ought to be ordained that they shall exactly follow their ancient Confession of Faith which was permitted them in France and that such as vary from it shall be no longer reckon'd in the number of those of the Protestant Reformed Religion who have Liberty of Conscience given them These Huguenots have no ground at all to plead the Edict of Nantes so loudly and bravingly as they do they extorted it by violence and with Sword in hand yet was it but an Interim an Order taken until they should inform themselves of the truth which they have had time enough to do But did they not violate it themselves by the War of Languedock that other of Sevennes and again by that of Rochelle nay they call'd the Enemies of
is unknown is full full of Mysteries hence Objects of such a nature are apt to surprise us and we hereupon are awed at them and do admire them Such effects the greatness of an unsearchable high-descending Pedigree does produce Nor need we much scruple to affirm that this kind is the only proper and genuine Nobility and that the Two others are only Nobilitations What difference is made between a person Noble and one Ennobled is familiarly known This first kind of Nobility is thought to require a possession of the Virtue of Ancestors and withal a possession of their wealth this too in so essential a manner that if each of them be not joyntly possess'd the Nobility is extinct We daily see proofs that evince the Justice and the Truth of this Notion Be it intimated by the way that the Virtue here mention'd is the Military Art The Second kind of Nobility is that which takes its rise from Offices and eminent Employments unto which the Laws have annexed this mark of Honour The Third is acquir'd by the Prince's Letters which are called Letters of Nobilitation It is a right peculiar to the Kind to give such Letters as the Roman Panegyrist once said to the Emperor Trajan It belongs not but to Caesar to create a Nobility It is for none but the King to Honour brave aud valiant Subjects with this Quality This Third and last kind is least considered because the Person who acquires it hath not the Virtue of Ancestors for a foundation and caution of his own Yet it is sometimes more considerable than either of the two others and Marius in Salust had great reason to tell the Gentlemen of Rome that he had rather begin the Nobility of his Race than faintly continue it or unworthily lose it and that it was more Glorious for him to transmit to his Posterity a sparkling Virtue hard to be follow'd than plod slowly on upon the slight and almost effaced tracks of a common Virtue which his Ancestors had left him In all these three kinds of Nobility there must be the personal Virtue of the Person invested with 'em for when all is done it is but Virtue that confers effective worth All Nations have had a particular esteem for Nobility nor can any well-order'd Common-wealth be named which hath not invented some singular mark of Honour to make it conspicuous The French in this point have surpass'd and out-done all People upon Earth as for the first Antiquity Caesar observes that the Nobles that is the Gentlemen had among the Gauls as much power over the Plebeians as Masters at Rome had over their Slaves After Gaul was reduced to the State of a Province Nobility preserved its ancient Prerogatives and the Emperors knowing that the Nobles loved Glory and sought it above all things stiled them Honorati and gave them an absolute precedency in all Assemblies of the Gauls For the Romans had thought it necessary to weaken the Authority of the Druids In the time of Christianity the same Order was continued and the Nobility gave their Suffrage apart in the Election of Bishops expresly before the People yea even before the Clergy themselves Upon the declining of the Empire the Gentlemen did in France judge the Causes of their equals and hence without doubt came into use the Parliaments Courts and Assemblies which our Kings held of their Peers and Barons that is of the qualify'd Gentlemen of their Kingdom when a Case of some Peer or Grandee of the State was to be Tried The Nobles were distinguish'd anciently from Plebeians by their Hair which they wore long for a mark of their ancient Liberty and when any one of them committed a fault that was unbeseeming his Birth the rest Sentenc'd him to depart the Country or cut off his Hair This was therefore a no less punishment than Exile In Charlemagne's time the Gentlemen of France named themselves Franks by way of Excellence In fine the French Nobility hath alwavs had such an high degree of Excellency and so great a pre-eminence that it was preferr'd in all Cases as when vacant Bishopricks or Abbies were to be provided for or when the principal Magistracy and Seats of Judicature were to be fill'd up or the Government of important Places Warlike imployment and the Leading of Armies were to be dispoled of To conclude this Matter it may be affirm'd that Kings did take the Gentlemen into a partnership with themselves as I may term it in the Regality they honour'd them with part of their Power by conferring on them Fiefs and by entrusting them with the charge of doing Justice and of Commissioning Officers to that end Hereupon it was necessary to put a gradual difference between Gentlemen themselves nor is it indeed sufficient that they all have so many excellent Prerogatives above the vulgar or common sort as we call them For Nature is alike in every Man and all Men are Born equal Fortune on the contrary and Virtue distinguish one from another But natural Reason requires there be Order in all things 'T is Order that makes the Beauty and Symmetry of the Universe Now as a Musical Consort doth not make a perfect harmony but by a diversity of Notes so a Political State can be neither comely nor compleat unless there be a difference between the parts that compose it I know that Nobility being as Philosophers call it an Inherent Quality does lodge with its whole Essence in each of its Subjects As the quality of a Soldier is for its Essence in the person of a Corporal as well as of a Captain or General Officer Yet there is a great distance and many intervening degrees between a General and the meanest Musquetier in an Army Thus the meanest Gentleman in the Kingdom is Noble and to speak after the common Proverb is Noble as well as the King but the one is severed from the other by an immense graduation So though all Gentlemen be equal in Nobility yet they are not so in Riches in Lands in Alliance in Friends in Offices in Authority in Age and in Reputation Again they are not equal in Spirit in Knowledge in Experience nor in Wisdom therefore it hath been with much prudence ordered that they should have some external marks of these differences and for this end there have been created Princes Dukes Counts Marquesses Barons Knights Batchelers Esquires leave hath been given them to bear Helmets and Crowns upon their Armories In short no pains have been spared to find out things that might any way adorn their Quality and their Valour hath been publickly rewarded for an excitement of others to a generous emulation Here I cannot forbear to blame those Gentlemen who give themselves the Title of Knights of Marquesses or of Counts by their own private Authority This is a shameful Usurpation and so far from heightening the Luster of Nobility that it injures them For a Gentleman who takes upon him the quality of a Marquess and well knows he is
would need neither Law nor Magistrate to keep them in perfect tranquility But Nature being corrupted we no longer consult that Original Righteousness which is inseparable from reason and which without intermission inwardly presseth us to render to all their due as exactly as we would should be done to ourselves Always self-love often necessity sometimes hatred avarice or one passion or other does blind us and induce us to violate this eminently holy and equitable Law in such sort also that we suffer ourselves to be transported unto excesses hard to be believed We equally use fraud and force to content our injustice and irregular desires Whereupon it hath been commodiously done by wise Men to form as may be said a new reason which they called Law But because Laws are of no use except they be armed with Correction to punish such as despise them and have some soul and living principle therefore Magistrates have been created who are to pronounce the Oracles which those Laws inspire to put the Laws in Execution and maintain the Authority of them These Officers are chosen of the best and most intelligent Men in a State and if Common-wealths be duly regulated ordinarily the Rich are preferred before the Poor and Nobles before Plebeians because 't is supposed they have a greater measure of knowledge and virtue and by consequence are less capable of certain mean things in which a necessitous condition and a mean extraction might engage them Thus Ministers of Justice in France call'd Men of the Robe are in truth necessary in Publick Society For if there was no evil-doer Laws and Magistrates would be of no more use than Joyners and the Doors they make for the security of Houses if there were no Thieves whereas should not a Man in a whole Kingdom ever swerve from right reason and pure equity there must nevertheless be Priests for Religion Soldiers for defence against Foreign Invasions that might happen and People who may some of 'em Till the Ground others apply themselves to Trades and Manufactures that Men cannot be without So that these three sorts of Persons are inseparable from a Common-wealth and they make up the Three Estates we have spoken of which have been receiv'd without any contest Yet it seems that of late the Parliaments have sought to infuse into some green heads that they compos'd a Fourth Order in the Kingdom and the same not only distinct from the other Three but altogether superiour to them by reason of their Sovereignty and of the Power they have to deliberate upon the pleasure and Edicts of the King If they should not be brought off from this opinion perhaps they would draw the other Sovereign Courts and Officers of Judicature into the same Error an Union of them all not being deniable because otherwise the affair of Justice would in France form two bodies which may not be But from allowing this Fourth Body in the State namely that of Justice a ridiculous inconvenience would follow to wit that a Sergeant or Catchpole of a Village would be a member of a body superior to that of the Nobility and by consequence in some sort superior to a Marquis For in matter of Hierarchy the last of a more excellent Order is greater than the first of a less excellent one as the lowest of the Arch-Angels is greater than the highest of the Angels But to clear the difficulty before us it must be remembred that heretofore in France the Estates which were called Parliaments did assemble twice a year for two considerations one was to judge of Appeals that were made from judgments pass'd by inferior Officers The other to give the King Counsel when He demanded their Opinion about Government of the State For alway during the first and second Race the King 's did dispose of Publick Affairs as of Peace and War and this is so much a truth that if those ancient Parliaments had had the disposing of the State they would never have suffered that the Children of Lewis when they had divided the Kingdom among them should have fallen to make War one upon another which could tend to nothing but a publick desolation They would as little have permitted the enmities of Brize Haudet and Fredegonde In like manner under the Second Race they would not have endured that the Sons of Lewis the Mild should act such outrages on their Father that Charles the Bald should have given Neustria to the Normans In the Third Race that Lewis the Gross should have ruin'd so many great Lords who made up the greatest-part of the Parliaments that Lewis the Younger should have yielded up Guienne by the Divorce of Eleanore that the Count of Burgundy and the Duke of Britannie and some others should have leagu'd together against Queen Blanche In fine there are thousand and a thousand examples in History which do evidence that these Kings always had the free and Sovereign administration of their State nor will there one be found to prove that the Parliaments ever contradicted them They presented themselves at the feet of their Princes with Petitions and humble Remonstrances they made no resistance nor exercis'd Authority So that our King 's have been King's indeed always absolute Masters and for proof hereof it will be sufficient to look into all the Statutes there it may be seen how they spake and what part the Estates had in them The principal end of Parliaments therefore was to the end the Law-suits of particular Persons and people perceiving that Appeals brought to them were received and sentences invalidated many to try Opinions in their cases once again became Appellants by this means affairs were multiply'd and that contesting parties might not have the trouble to come up from the remotest parts of the Kingdom Deputies of the General Parliament were appointed they also stiled Parliaments and to be ambulatory The Commission they had was sometimes for three Months sometimes for six according to exigence of State but alway by the Command and Letters of the King These Parliaments went into the Provinces to judge the causes that were brought them almost in like manner as we now see done at the Extraordinary Sessions which instead of diminishing the number of Causes to be dispatch'd as had been conceiv'd really augmented them Philip the Fair saw cause to make such a Parliament sedentary at Paris another at Rouen a third at Thoulouse and succeeding Kings establish'd others in other Cities as they are at present From this faithful account it resulteth that the Parliaments are not a Fourth Body in the State but be extracted out of the Three ancient Orders at first they were taken out of the Clergy and Nobility only because the Commons at that time were not considerable afterwards These also were received in Other Sovereign Societies are but Images of these Parliaments As to the Sovereignty of the Parliaments themselves it neither is nor ever was other than an emination of the Sovereignty of the King in whom
upon which they depend are wont to do The Presidial Clerks place its being engaged or bound for security to one or other as is usual should not hinder the execution of this Aflair And when by decease there are no more Officers left care shall be taken of the concern of those to whom the places were engaged the regulating whereof will by that time have no difficulty in it Secondly Of Sergeants Two Thirds wholly must be suppress'd In the Third place all Proctors that are not Advocates and a certain number of Advocates should be appointed in each Parliament and Jurisdiction who might do the Office of Proctors This is not incompatible For the thing is already in use many parts of France The benefit of this regulation is manifest in that the Proctors are very ignorant that have but a slight tincture of practice yet out of Covetousness they often draw up Writings for their Clients and make them pay as dear for 'em as if the best Advocate had taken the pains Mean time these Writings for the most part are nothing worth and the poor Suitors frequently lose good Causes through the naughtiness of their Proctors and for want of being well defended Again such an order taken another advantage would accrue namely that Advocates being Proctors they will be obliged to follow what the Judges shall prescribe them whereas at present they make a jest of it and will not Plead but when they please There cannot be a regulation made in France more profitable in matter of Justice and if the King in a necessity of State would make a Money matter of it which might at any time be done there would be rais'd out of it for all France more than 20 Millions But it had need be gone about with a great deal of Address A Third advantage by this regulation is That all Advocates being Proctors there would no more slip into the Court a sort of young Men who shelter their Ignorance and Idleness under a Lawyers Gown and a square Cap. In the Fourth place All the Masters of Requests belonging to the Palace or Court of Justice of France should be supprest And the Truth is it seems to me a contradiction that these Officers should be Counsellors of Supreme Courts yet not impowred to judge any thing supreamly But that the Commoners of the King's Houshold and other priviledged persons may not be depriv'd of the benefit of the Committimus Power must be given them by special priviledge to commence their Actions and prosecute them in a Chamber of Enquests I say by special priviledge because I know the Parliaments take no cognizance ordinarily save of Appeals but in the case now expres'd this special priviledge shall superadd to them this new kind of Jurisdiction And it will be highly advantageous to those Commoners and Priviledg'd persons for by this Expedient they would get a decree speedily upon one Trial and finally end their business It is to be noted here that the first stating of Cases in order to an Hearing is not so incompetent to Parliaments but that they do the thing for substance upon demands incidentally made Yet this is meant only in behalf of priviledged persons and all such as claim the right of a Committimus Fifthly The Judges Provosts of Towns are to be suppress'd and they laid to the Seneschalsies and Bayliwicks For what are so many different Officers in one and the same Town good for In a Sixth place All the Courts of the Aids should be united to the Parliaments and this done when the Officers of the Supream Court in each kind have been reduc'd to the number which it s judged meet to retain I will say more of this in the Chapter of the Finances Seventhly All the Elections are to be suppress'd and the Assessing of Parishes done by the Treasurers of France of the Seneschalsies by the Lieutenant of the Province I shall speak more plainly of it in the Chapter of the Finances and Taxes Where also the Suppression of Store-houses of Salt and of the Gabells shall be treated of in the Article of Gabells Besides the Chamber of the Treasury and the Court of Moneys should be joyned to the Chamber of Accompts and half of all the Chambers be suppress'd likewise For thirty Officers may do all that the Chamber of Accompts the Treasury and the Court of Monies now do In fine it is for the King's Service and the good of the State that all the Presidents Places be suppress'd as well those of Superior Courts as of others and the Office of Presidents be discharged by Commission 'T is to be consider'd that this new Order would much augment the King's Authority For what will not Counsellors do to obtain a Commission to preside and having obtained it what will they not further do to keep and confirm themselves in it 'T is pertinent to recall to mind here that the Mighty Prince Philip the Fair at his making the Parliament Sedentary made the Count of Burgundy first President of it And that anciently the first President of the Chamber of Accompts was the chief Butler of France Likewise that at that time and long after the Chancellors of France were of the Church or of the Sword and great Dignities not given to Men of the Robe privatively Which being done since without doubt gives them too much credit and leaves the Nobility too little It is important that the thing be not continued but on the contrary all restored to Primitive Order As for Country Courts 't is fit they be narrowly limited and brought to be meerly predial and dominial that is for Rents and the Fealties of Lordships not capable of determining an Inventory or receiving a suit between parties for more than three Livres To conclude the shortning of proceedings in Law would much conduce to the reduction of Officers Let it not be objected that this reduction of Officers and such a multitude of Suppressions will ruin a multitude of Families For though it were so yet should not the thing be stuck at the Reformation of a State being concern'd nor is the ill of particular persons to be put to accompt when the Weal of the Publick is in question GOD Himself who is King of Kings and Eternally Just how many men did He destroy by that universal deluge for the Reformation of the Universe How many Isralites did He cut off in the Wilderness to save the gross of the People There is plenty of examples in this kind and Soveraigns have a right to do like things with like Justice when the general welfare of their Subjects is concern'd Kings are Eagles to whom GOD gives His Thunder-bolts to carry the strokes that come from their hands do come from the hand of GOD whose Images and Instruments they are To conclude it 's a thing which cannot be dissembled that the Parliaments constituting an Aristocratick Government in part as they do are quite contrary to Monarchick Government Aristocracy is adverse to
they have lost had they well examin'd our Ports and Havens in fine had they compar'd the Coasts of France with those of England they would condemn their Vanity as Canutus one of their ancient Kings did 'T is true all States are not disposed unto Navigation either because they are too far up in Midland Countries or because the temper of the People suits not with it or because they want Subjects but 't is so far that any of these Obstacles should hinder the French from addicting themselves unto it that on the contrary all things conspire to raise desire of it in them and to give them hope of advantageous success The work however is such as must be leisurably carried on and perfected by little and little so great a design continually allarming Europe Asia Africa and America Friends and Foes A precipitation of it would be its ruine I say not what number of Vessels would be fit for France to put to Sea But I affirm that the King may keep an hundred Gallies and an hundred Ships on the Mediterranean and a Fleet of Two hundred Sail upon the Ocean The more Vessels He shall have the more enabled He will be to recover the expence made about ' em As to the building of such numbers six or ten years of time may be allotted for it and there is Timber in France there is Cordage there are Sails there is Iron and Brass there are Victuals and Workmen so that the King's Subjects will gain the Money which is laid out in ' em Is it not far better for the King of France to build Ships for the employing and enriching of His Subjects than it was for the Kings of Aegypt to build their useless Pyramids There need be no anxious enquiry whence a Stock should rise for this advance every year will bring in Money and the Vessels once made and their Guns mounted it will not cost the King a Quardecu for other Equippings 'T will be but to give the Captains Places in the Ships and Gallies on condition to fit them out and there will more persons come to take them than there will be Offices and Places to be bestowed 'T is true Fleets being out there will need vast Sums to maintain them but the Sea will yield a maintenance for the Sea either by Commerce or by War Neither will it be always proper to keep so many Vessels in service On the other hand it will not be necessary to have so many Troops at Land as are at present For Spain or Italy will not dare to disfurnish themselves of their Men so there will be no need of a Land-Army but towards Germany The number of Rowers will be made up by bringing Men from Canada and the American Islands or by buying Negroes at Cape Verde or by sending all Malefactors to the Gallies And when things have taken their course Seamen will be had time and the profit that will accrue will afford store and bring them in from all parts of the World Hereupon the Corsairs of Algiers Tunis and Tripoli will not be able to keep at Sea and the French being continually on their Coasts they will be constrain'd to tarry at home for the guarding of their Towns so not in a condition to send out Troops for collecting the Tribute which they exact of the Arabs and Princes who lye further up in Africa the Tributaries will without fail revolt and the King may in the sequel Treat with them for their recovering their Liberty and take them into his Protection There is no cause to fear the Power of the Ottoman Port in this particular For beside that the Turks are no good Seamen the Grand Signior doth make no such account of the Pyrats of Algier as that their fortune is considerable to Him The Friendship of the French is more necessary for Him both in point of Commerce and in reference to other Interests The Fleets which the King might keep upon the Ocean would make Him Master of all the Powers and Trade of the North. Yea though the English and Hollanders should unite against France they could not avoid their ruin in the end For how should the one and the other make good their Commerce which is all they have to trust to if they were forced to maintain great Armada's to continue it The point of Bretannie is the Gate to enter into and go out of the Channel Fifty Ships of War at Brest would keep this Gate fast shut and they should not open it but by the King's Command Spain and Portugal would not be able to attempt any thing but by His permission if there were kept a Fleet on the Coast of Guyenne Thus there would need no War almost to be made for all these things nor His Majesties Forces hazarded It would be sufficient to give his Order to Forreiners Nor will it be difficult to cut them out work in their own Countries and by this means stay their Arms at home and make them spend their strength there I shall something of this in its place hereafter There is one further excellent means to strengthen the King at Sea and it is the taking Order that no more of His Subjects go to Malta To do this there must be given in Fee to the French Knights of St. John of Jerusalem some Isle in the Mediterranean as for Instance the Isle du Levant for which they should pay an acknowledgment to the King as they do for Malta to the King of Spain There might be given them too on the same condition an Isle in the Ocean as Besle-Isle l'Isle-Dieu or the Isle of Ree so that the French Knights fighting not but against the Enemies of their Country they would make War upon the English as upon Turks and keep the Islands at their own charge whereas the King is fain to keep great Garisons and be at vast expence to do it There is no cause to fear that they will ever give the King any trouble for being French they cannot fail of Affection or Obedience and their Kindred together with the Wealth they have in France will be perpetual Hostages to the King and caution for their Fidelity This Project is just for of ten parts of the Knights of Malta no less than eight do come from the Commanderies of France and it is easie to be put in execution for there need be only a stopping the income of the Commanderies to effect it The Order in general will find its advantages in it both in that there will be an addition made it of two considerable Islands and that the King will receive the Knights into a more particular Protection than he hath done hitherto The number of Commanderies may also be augmented by giving them some Maladeries or Hospitals for the diseased which are always usurped by People that have no right to them at all Be it observed in the last place that it is very requisite the Office of Admiral and Powers of the Admiralty
mind Insomuch that he was not content to make the Popes Opinion be condemn'd in this Synod assembled pro forma at least by order of the Pope but he sent to the Pope a Book which he writ against the Second Council of Nice and against Images which we have still to this day After that Charlemain had rais'd the Pope in giving him a good share of the Country which he had taken from the Lombards the Popes began to be puft up extreamly and by little and little made themselves formidable taking upon them the Figure of Judges and Correctors of the Actions of Princes throughout Christendom by Excommunications Interdictions and finally by the Deposition of their Crowns Now 't is very remarkable that whereas by their imaginary Arms they have laid at their feet the Emperors of Germany and and the Kings of England and brought their Estates into a miserable confusion yet had they never the like success against France they never have been able to Depose our Kings never could prevail to have any Interdict receiv'd in their Kingdoms which so often as they attempted they were mock'd their Officers beaten and their Partisans ruin'd But alas the Submission which Henry the Great made to the Pope the only Instance that we can be reproacht withal is a cooling cast in our way Under Lewis the Debonnaire was held at Paris a Council against Images that is to say against the Pope who maintain'd them Of which Council we have all the Acts entire And in the beginning of his Reign Claudius Bishop of Turin broke down all the Images he could find within his Diocess and listed himself against the Bishop of Rome who stood for their Adoration and writ a Book against Images and the Pope durst not be angry because this Bishop was supported by the Authority of Lewis Great Troubles being stirr'd in France Gregory the Fourth confederates with the Sons of this Lewis too Debonnaire who had engag'd in a wicked Conspiracy against their own Father Sigebert about an 832. testifies That Pope Gregory came into France and took part against the Emperor with his Sons And the Annals written at the same time Bochel Decret Eccl. Gall. l. 2. tit 16. and the continuer of Aimoinus a Religious of St. Benet writes That the resolution of the French Bishops was that they would by no means yield to his Will and that if he came to Excommunicate them they would Excommunicate him again After this Pope Nicholas the First Excommunicated King Lotharius for in those days Deposing was not talkt on to make him leave Waldrade and take again Thetherge his former Wife Whereupon the Articles drawn up by the French and which may be seen in Hinemar Archbishop of Bheims import That the Bishops hold that as the King ought not to be Excommunicated by his Bishops so can he not be judged by other Bishops because he ought to be subject to the Empire of God alone who alone could establish him in his Kingdom Then also the Clergy of France writ to the Pope Letters full of hard words related by Aventin in his Annals of Bavaria insomuch as to call him Thief Wolf and Tyrant The Popes growing in Insolence Adrian II. took upon him to command King Charles the Bald to leave the Kingdom of Lotharius entirely to his Son Lewis The same Hincmar a Man of great Authority in his time writ several Letters to him containing many Remonstrances on this occasion and amongst other matters informs him That the Church-men and the Seculars of the Realm assembled at Rheims have said and say by way of reproach That never was such a Command sent from that See to any of our Predecessors He adds That Bishops and Secular Lords us'd threatnings against the Pope which he dares not repeat And for the King's part see how little he valued the Pope's Commands amongst the Epistles of the said Hincmar are to be found the Letters of Charles the Bald to Pope Adrian wherein after having charg'd him with Pride and Usurpation he adds What pit of Hell has vomited out this preposterous Law What Infernal Gulf has disgorg'd it from the black and dismal Dungeons quite contrary to the way that is set before us by the Holy Scripture And he forbids the Pope to send any more such Commands to him or to his Bishops unless he would be content to meet with contempt and dishonor Pope Vrban excommunicated Philip the First and set his Kingdom under an Interdict Innocent the Third did as much to Philip the August But nether of their Thunderbolts had any effect and were only receiv'd with Mockery Which agrees with the relation of Mat. Paris that after the Pope had declar'd to Philip the August by the Cardinal D'Anagnia that he would set his Land under an Interdict unless he would reconcile himself with the King of England the King answered That he was not at all afraid of his Sentence seeing that it was not founded upon any just cause adding moreover that it belong'd not to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France the which Du Tillet Clerk of the Parliament tells us was done by the advice of his Barons But what was ever more memorable in History than the truly Royal Courage of Philip the Fair an 1302 Boniface VIII that Monster of Pride was irritated against him because he held Prisoner the Bishop of Pamiers who had spoken defamatory words against him and moreover for that he assum'd to himself the Collation of Benefices The Pope then commands him to release the Bishop and writ him the following Letter Fear God and keep his Commandments We will that thou take notice That thou art subject to us in Spirituals and Temporals that no Collation of Benefices and Prebends belongs to thee that if thou hast the keeping of any that are vacant thou reserve the profits for the Successors if thou goest about to make any such Collations we Decree them void and so far as in fact they are executed we revoke Those who shall believe otherwise we shall count Hereticks A Legate came to Paris with these fine Letters which were torn from him by the King's People and thrown into the fire by the Count of Artois The answer of Philip to the Pope was this Philip by the Grace of God King of the French to Boniface that calls himself Sovereign Pontifex wisheth little health or rather none at all May thy great sottishness know That in Temporals we are subject unto none that the Collation of Churches and Prebends belongs to us by our right of Royalty and also to take to our selves the profits during the Vacancies That the Collations made by us and to be made shall be strong and good and that by vertue thereof we will defend those in possession courageously Those who believe otherwise we count Fools and Mad-men The Pope thus provok'd Excommunicates the King but no body durst publish the Excommunication nor be the bearer of it Nevertheless
the Collation of a number of Benefices and think we are well helpt up in that the King the Magistrates and the Sorbonne will own no other Superior to the King but God for what concerns Temporals But I pray to what end is all this briskness in our Kings in our Parliaments and in the Sorbon against the Usurpations of the Pope in Temporals but to yield him the Spirituals and to confirm his pretensions even in Temporals Grant him the Spiritual Power and he will be Master of the Temporal without contradiction and he shall bring under his Jurisdiction all secular Causes under the colour of a Sacrament of an Oath of Charitable Uses or of matters of Conscience The Concords of our Kings with Rome and their pragmatick Sanctions about the Collations of Benefices what have they come to Is not this to come in for a share with the Robbers who had seiz'd the Royalties and by solemn Articles to make them a Title which they had no pretence to before their Invasions And what other do our Kings in acknowledging the Spiritual Power of the Pope but own themselves his Subjects in Temporals for the one hooks in the other of necessity The experience of six ages has prov'd this truth 'T is the voluntary Subjection of Emperors and Kings to the Spiritual Power of the Pope that has given him the liberty to Excommunicate them for this belongs to the Spiritual Jurisdiction And the very same Jurisdiction has authoris'd him to exempt their Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity for the keeping of an Oath is a duty of Religion so that if the Pope be obey'd by a discontented and factious People you see an Emperor or King is depos'd by the Spiritual Jurisdiction and the Pope may spare the other Power that he pretends to over the Temporalties of Kings seeing that his Spiritual power all alone is sufficient to ruine the poor Prince And if that the Christian Princes that are of his Communion own him for the Vicar of Jesus Christ let the Kings understand it in what sense they please he will make them know when-ever their weakness shall give him an opportunity that he takes himself for the Vicar of the Secular Power of Jesus Christ as well as of the Spiritual And that to him as to Christ whom he represents all Power is given in Heaven and on Earth This is what the last Council of Lateran attributes to him and applies to him that Prophesie of Psalm 72. particular to Jesus Christ All Kings shall be prostrate before him and all Nations shall serve him The Kings that prostrate themselves the most humbly before him are those he throws at his Feet Witness the Treatment he gave our good King Henry the Third who Ador'd him and yet he Thundered upon him and persecuted him even to death and beyond death For after he was Assassinated in pursuance of his Excommunication and Deposition by his Creatures of the League and particularly of the House of Guise that he favour'd He would not at all suffer any Obits or Services to be made for him at Rome as if he had a mind to have him Damn'd after he had caus'd him to be Murder'd Particularly he extoll'd in a Publick Harangue the execrable Parricide Jacob Clement and compares his Fact to the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God The design of this persecution drawn out so at length against the King the Princes of the Blood and against all the Kingdom is to be seen in the Memoirs of the Advocate David intercepted at Lions An. 1577. as he was upon his return from Rome where he had been Secretary to the Bishop of Paris the King's Ambassador with the Pope This Bishop of Paris a Creature of the Duke of Guise being at Rome An. 1576. instead of serving the Interests of the King his Master who had sent him to make an excuse by reason of the necessity of the King's Affairs for the Peace he had made with the Duke Alenzon his Brother and with the Princes of the Blood that were Protestants He apply'd himself wholly to the Interests of the Duke of Guise and the Pope who had then complotted together their devilish design of the League For the Pope whose custom it is to build his Greatness upon the weakness of Kings and the troubles of their States seeing the Royal-House declining despis'd and drawing to an end and France harassed with Civil Wars was easily wrought upon to favour the House of Guise which aspir'd manifestly to the Crown by the exclusion of the Princes of the Blood So upon the whole matter the Duke of Guise a Prince well made and of high undertaking powerful in Friends lov'd and ador'd by the People promised to give him all the Soveraignty in France which he counts himself debarr'd of by the pragmatick Sanctions and by the Liberties of the Gallicane-Church Then during the stay of this Ambassador at Rome An. 1576. an Agreement was drawn between the Pope and Duke of Guise whereby the Pope Declares That Hugh Capet had seiz'd the Crown of France which of Right belong'd to the House of Charlemaign That he and his Race had render'd the French refractory and disobedient to the Holy See by that damnable Error which they call the Liberties of the Gallicane-Church which is none other says he but the Doctrine of the Valdenses Albigenses the Poor of Lyons Lutherans and Calvinists That it is this Error which makes the Arms of the Kings of France in defence of the Holy Church unfortunate and that they never will prosper so long as the Crown shall continue in this Line In order thereunto an opportunity was now offer'd by reason of the present Divisions to labour in good earnest the Restoration of the Crown to the true Successors of Charlemaign who had always constantly obey'd the Commands of the Holy See And who had in effect shew'd themselves the lawful Heirs of the Apostolick Benediction upon that Crown though depriv'd of their Inheritance by fraud and violence That 't is plain the Race of the Capets are wholly deliver'd over to a reprobate Sense some being possess'd with a spirit of Mopishness Stupid and of no Valour Others rejected by God and Men for their Heresie proscribed and shut out from the Communion of the Holy Church Whereas the Branches of Charlemaign are fresh and flourishing Lovers of Virtue vigorous of Body and in Mind for the execution of high and laudable Enterprizes He goes on and Prophesies for them that as War bad been the means whereby they lost their Degree so Peace shall do them the service to restore them to their ancient Heritage of the Kingdom with the good Will the Consent and the Choice of all the People Afterwards follows a Lesson of the Conclave for the execution of this Design well worthy to be read For it is the whole plot and project of the League which was exactly observ'd all along even to the very last Act with the States
no longer now any ambitious Prince within the Kingdom to rob him of his Peoples Affection or that may dare to make any Alliance with the Pope to tumble him from his Throne and share the Crown We have this good fortune that we may set out to the life the ill aspect of Rome upon our Kings and that dangerous vigilance over France without any danger of abating the Courage of our Great King but on the contrary were his truly Royal Courage capable of an increase it would yet swell the higher from the consideration of the Evils that Rome has done and will yet do to France if he do not heartily oppose the Usurpations she exercises with impunity in all the parts of his Kingdom The honest French men that have the Honour to be near his Person might represent to Him the danger of this Doctrine maintain'd by the Popelings of His Kingdom That Jesus Christ committed to St. Peter as well the earthly as the heavenly Empire which are the very words of Pope Nicolas Therefore Cardinal Bellarmine Ch. 27. against Barclay holds absolutely That the Pope may dispose of all the Temporals of the World I affirm says he with confidence That our Lord Jesus Christ the time he was Mortal might dispose of all Temporal things and deprive the Kings and the Princes of their Kingdoms and Dominions and that without doubt he has left the same Power to his Vicar to be employ'd when he shall judge it necessary for the good of Souls The Pope Pius V. displays this Power with great Ostentation in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth of England wherein after that he calls Himself Servant of Servants he declares That God has establisht the Bishop of Rome Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to take destroy disperse consume plant and build and in the Power hereof he does Anathemize degrade and depose this Queen absolves all her Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made her and forbids them absolutely to give her Obedience Gregory XIV set out such another Bull against our Great Henry declaring him uncapable of the Crown and exposing His Kingdom to prey But both this and the other Bull were torn and cast into the fire by the hands of the Hangman Observe that the Pope exerciseth this Power over the Temporalties of Kings for the good of Souls and as a Spiritual Prince So that our French Statesmen may cease to have their Eyes wilfully seal'd up by that distinction of Spiritual power which they allow him and Temporal power that they deny him For that it is by virtue of the Spiritual Power that he exerciseth the Temporal See what Cardinal Bellarmin says De pont Rom. l. 5. c. 5. The Pope may change the Kingdoms take them from one and give them to another as a Sovereign Spiritual Prince when it shall be necessary for the good of Souls And of this necessity he shall be the only Judge as the Sovereign Spiritual Prince For 't is thus the Cardinal argues Apol. pro Garnet p. 84. If the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of Temporal things she would not be perfect and would want the Power that is necessary for the attaining her end for says he the wicked might entertain Hereticks and go scot-free and so Religion be turn'd upside down This reason charges imperfection on the Church in the Apostles time for that had no power over the Temporals These horrible Principles so strongly maintain'd by the Court of Rome were of fresh memory found so prejudicial both to the safety of our Kings and to the Peace of France that those of the third State an 1615. were mov'd to propose to the General States an Article containing the means to dispossess the people of that Opinion that the King might be depos'd by the Pope and that by the killing of Kings one might gain the Crown of Martyrdom Cardinal Du Perron in the name of the Clergy oppos'd this Article and employ'd all the strength of his Eloquence and Learning in two fair Speeches the one before the Nobility the other before the third State to perswade them that our Kings may be depos'd by the Pope offering himself to suffer Martyrdom in defence of this Truth The Lords of the Nobility to their great shame joyn'd with the Clergy for the putting their Kings Crown under the Miter of the Pope much degenerating from the vertue of their Ancestors those French Banons by whose advice Philip the August declar'd to the Cardinal D'Anagnia the Popes Legat that threatned him that it did not at all belong to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France But the third State held firm to their Article that maintain'd the Dignity of their King and the safety of his Person and could never be won by promises nor affrighted by threatnings to depart from it shewing themselves in this more noble than the Nobility It is no wonder in this case that the third State shew'd more affection to their King than the Clergy seeing that the Clerks hold That they are not the King's Subjects for in effect they acknowledge another Sovereign out of the Kingdom And who can think it strange if they labour to heighten that Monarchy of which they make a Party But that the Nobility the Kings right arm that they should be so base to strike their Head and lay it at the feet of an Italian Bishop this is that which after Ages will reflect upon with astonishment and indignation and which Historians shall blush to relate and be vex'd that they cannot let pass in silence So the Nobility being joyn'd with the Clergy the Article of the third State was censur'd and rejected Whereupon the Pope writ Triumphant Letters to the Clergy and the Nobility who had been faithful to Him in this Cause glorying in His Victory and exalting the Magnanimity of these generoâ—s Nobles But in truth the Deputies of these generous Nobles deserv'd to have been degraded from their Nobility and they of the third State to have receiv'd their Titles The minority of the late King and the easiness of the Queen-Mother render'd them expos'd to these Injuries and apt to be circumvented insomuch that this Harangue made to the third State was printed with the Priviledge of the King and the Pope gain'd his point The false dealing of the Cardinal who made this Speech is remarkable namely that he had a long time followed King Henry the Great even then when he was of a contrary Religion and depos'd by the Pope and that a little before in an assembly held at the Jacobins in Paris he had resisted the Popes Nuncio who would that this Doctrine of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope might be held for an Article of Faith But in these two Harangues the Cardinal made a kind of a Recantation and pronounc'd himself his own condemnation Ungrateful wretch to have thus abus'd the tender Age of the Son of his King
and his great Benefactor and to have basely betray'd the Rights of the King to oblige the Court of Rome But this may not seem so strange if one consider that he got the best part of his preferment for certain Services of pleasure that do not much bind the Conscience of him that receives them nor that of him who is recompens'd for them And in truth those diverting Services that he and Monsieur De la Ravenne render'd to King Henry the Great deserve that Posterity should erect for them Statues crown'd with Myrtle God be thank'd that France now has a King vigorous both in Age and in Virtue who is the terrour of Rome having shewn himself sensible of its Usurpations upon France beyond all his Predecessors and of whom we have good occasion to hope that he will shake off this Italian Yoke and banish all Foreign Jurisdiction out of his Kingdom We also ought to bless God for that the French Nobility at this day is much of a different temper from that which in the full States submitted the Crown and life of their King to the Popes Tyranny 56 years ago And that is ready to cover their Fathers faults by generously assisting their King to make Him the only King within his Kingdom To effect this above all things those pretended Immunities and Exemptions must be taken from the Clergy which indeed are revolts from the Kings Authority to that of the Popes 'T is in truth very reasonable that they who have the charge of Souls should be discharg'd from many publick Services by reason they are vow'd and reserv'd to the Service of God but however not that they and their Lands should no longer depend on the King and be subject to another Sovereign This is what was represented to King Henry the Great by that illustrious Personage Achilles de Harley first President of his Court of Parliament at Paris in a Speech he made to him to disswade him from recalling the Jesuits he Remonstrates to him That according to their Doctrine he who has taken the lowest Orders of the Church could not be guilty of High Treason whatever Crime he committed for that the Clergy are no longer the Kings Subjects nor belonging to his Jurisdiction In such manner that the Church-men if one would believe them are exempt from Secular Powers and may without punishment attempt against Kings with their bloody-hands and that this Doctrine they maintain in their publish'd Books Thuanus l. 130. ad an 1604. To this effect the Jesuit Emanuel Sa holds That the Rebellion of a Clerk against the Prince is not the Crime laesae Majestatis because he is not a Subject of the Prince Words that have been left out in the Edition of Paris but remain in that of Cologne and that of Antwerp Bellarmin that has not been purged says the same thing He affirms De Cl. C. 28. That a Clerk cannot be punished by the Civil Judges or in any wise brought before the Judicial Seat of a Secular Magistrate He likewise says That the Sovereign Pontifex having deliver'd the Clerks from the subjection of Princes Kings are no more the superiors of Clerks The Pope then by his reckoning is the King of Kings if he can deliver whom he pleases from their subjection due to their Princes by their birth by making them Clerks and it will be in his Power not to leave in France any Subject to the King if all his Subjects will but accept of the meanest Orders This Body of the Clergy has its Judges and Officers apart and Prisons apart Their Causes will not bide the Trial before the Kings Judges but fly to the Rota or to the Consistory at Rome There may be found an incredible number of Persons in France who under the Title of the Clergy have shaken off the Yoke of the Kings Authority and a third part of the Land of the Kingdom is in the Church-mens hands for which they will neither render Homage nor Service to the King And though the lots and vents the quints requints and other Rights of Lordship belong to the King all these Rights are lost after that the moveable goods are enter'd into the possession of the Clergy The King also loses his Rights D'Aubanir of Confiscation and of Deforence the Clergy being a Body that never dies yet mortifies the Inheritances new Donations falling to them every day but none goes from them A famous Writer said pleasantly That as the Arms and Thighs dwindle when the Belly swels to excess so in the Body of a State the Nobility and People that are as the Arms and Legs of a Commonweal are impair'd by the fatning of the Clergy I am of those who wish the Clergy may have those means and that Dignity which may lift them above Contempt and Oppression and render them respected even of Kings But because I love them I wish their Riches may not be so excessive as to create in Kings a jealousie that may cause them to be taken away as has happen'd in England and in other places 'T is therefore a great imprudence of our Lords the Clergy of France who possess the best part and the fat of the Kingdom enough to cause jealousie in the Seculars and the avarice of Sacriledge to add yet this unjust pretension of immunity from all Charges both for their persons and for their goods and defend themselves with the Popes Authority which exempts them Which in effect is to tell the King That they are another Kings Subjects who has Power to Command Him to dispose of the Lands under his Obedience and to limit his Authority over the Persons of the Native French If for this they alledge a long Custom we may say That the Popes to settle their Usurpations in France have ever embroil'd our Kings in Troubles and oblig'd them to think of somewhat else besides the repelling the blind encroachments of a stranger Kingdom that crept into their Realm and that they had to do with weak Princes or such as had their hands full other ways But now that God has given France a King wise powerful flourishing and who has leisure to have an Eye or all his Interests will these Gentlemen expect that he will suffer long that a third of his Kingdom lie unprofitable to him and even that it be reserv'd to fortifie a Foreign Monarchy and though natural reason requires that they who live at ease should comfort those who fight for their preservation all this while that the Nobles and the third State oppose the invasion of Strangers all this while that the King is fortifying his Frontiers entertaining Garisons setling Officers both for the State and for the War Why do not the Church-men who are thereby maintain'd in the quiet enjoyment of so great plenty contribute one Mite towards the defraying of publick Charges Why shall their increase be a diminution to the strength of the King who is kept waking for their repose and preservation Shall not the King
who is so clear-sighted see what an impoverishment it is to his Kingdom that France be tributary to a Stranger under the Title of Annates Offerings Dispensations Absolutions and Causes Matrimonial Against these Depredations our ancient Kings had provided some remedy by the pragmatick Sanctions vext to see the fairest Revenue of the Kingdom pass over the Alps by a Religious spoil and go into the Purses of those who laugh at our simplicity But what reason is there that they who pay so willingly Tribute to the Pope should make so great difficulty in paying to the King Is it not because they believe they owe all to the Pope and nought to the King St. Paul teaches them to pay Tribute to the Higher Powers inasmuch as they are Ministess of God And St. Chrysostom commenting upon this Text tells them who are these higher Powers If says he the Apostle has establisht this Law whilst the Princes were Pagans how much more ought this to be done under Princes that are Believers And he had said before The Apostle commands this to all even to the Priests Which is more he adds though thou art an Apostle though thou art an Evangelist or a Prophet or what ever else thou art From St. Ambrose we have the same Lesson in his Oration of delivering the Temples If Tribute be demanded refuse it not the Lands of the Church pay Tribute Even Pope Vrban and the Roman Decretal say That the Church pays Tribute of its exterior Goods Also That Tribute must be paid to the Emperors in acknowledgment of the Peace and Repose in which they ought to maintain and defend us The right of Kings and Truth must needs be very strong that could draw from the Pope and his Canonistical Doctors this acknowledgment For the Canon Law was not founded for any other end but to supplant the Civil Laws and establish the Popes Jurisdiction throughout This is a Body of Foreign Laws that have their Tribunal apart and that depends on a Foreign Prince and where the King has nothing to do but look on I mean till such time as he shall please to take cognizance of so unreasonable an Usurpation And forbid that any Cause be judged in France by other Authority than His and much less any Cause commenc'd in France be appeal'd to Rome And in truth he is but a King by halfs till he alone possess all the Jurisdiction exercis'd within his Kingdom This is what Charles du Moulin said in an Epistle to Henry II. where he writes freely against the Empire that the Pope has set up within our France where the Pope has Subjects that submit not to the Laws of the King but to those of the Pope which are the Canon-Law and the Constitutions that come from Rome But some may object Would you have the King judge in Spirituals I Answer That if the King ought not to be Judge it does not follow that the Pope must The King has his Bishops that may and ought to judge of matters purely Spiritual but of nought without being authoriz'd by the King and there is no need of an Authority out of the Kingdom for this I will say more That the Ecclesiastical Government is a part of the Office of a King For so it was in the Kingdom of Israel And who would believe that in this Age and in Spain where the Inquisition Reigns King Philip IV. assum'd to himself the Soveraign Power of Churches within his Dominions For this purpose he apply'd that excellent passage of Isodore which is attributed also to the Council of Paris That the Secular Princes should know that they ought to give an account of the charge of the Church committed to them by Jesus Christ for whether that the Peace or the Discipline receive improvement by believing Princes or that they are impair'd He who committed the Church to their Power will demand an account O the excellent passage O the Holy Lesson God give all Christian Kings the Grace so well to learn it that they may never leave this Charge of the Church which Jesus Christ has committed to them upon the hands of Strangers and when they have taken it into their own hands to acquit themselves worthily and render a good account Alas Alas Have Kings Eyes to see their Rights and have they no hands to maintain them Are they quick-sighted enough to perceive that the Government of the Church is committed to them and that they are to render an account to God and have they not the courage to rescue them from unjust and strange Hands that snatch them away Think they to acquit themselves of this great Account of the Government of the Church of their Kingdoms by saying That the Holy Father has discharg'd them of it when they have in their hands the power to discharge Him from his Usurpations In Truth they will never be in condition to Govern the Church committed to them they will never be but Kings by halfs till they have banisht from their Territories this pretended Spiritual Jurisdiction which destroys the Civil and which will draw under its Cognizance all sorts of Causes there being none wherein there is not some matter of Conscience or some kind of Transgression of Gods Commandments and that by consequence belongs not to the Jurisdiction of the Pope if He must be own'd the Soveraign Spiritual Judge in France The Popes themselves inform our Kings of their Right to Govern the Church Leo IV. writing to Lewis and to Lotharius did not he own that the Investiture of the Bishop comes from the Emperor and the Pope has only the Consecration Did not He beseech the Emperor to invest a person he had recommended and does he not acknowledge that the Metropolitan dares not Consecrate him without the Emperors consent And Pope John X. in his Epistle to Hereiman of Cologue about the business of Heldwin of Tongres does he not observe That the old Custom has this force that none ought to confer a Bishoprick upon any Clerk save the King to whom the Scepter has been given of God The Council held at Thionvil under Lewis the Debonnair An. 835. gives us this good Maxim That the Pope ought to be call'd Pope and Brother not Father and Pontifex and that Lewis had more Power in the Government of the Gallicane-Church than the Bishop of Rome as Agobard Bishop of Lions has it in his Treatise of the Coâ—â—â—â—…ison of the Two Governments related by Bossellus in his Decretals Gregory Turonensis does furnish us with more than Ten Examples of the right of Investiture belonging to our Kings before the Empire fell into their hands In the times of Clovis they held the Royal Right of the Investiture of Bishops They had also a Right which they call'd Regal which was the Power of enjoying vacant Bishopricks and Prebends and the moveables of Bishops dying without a Will And it is very easie to prove that under the first Line of our Kings and a long while under
Sorrows into your Bosoms or entertain you with my partcular Afflictions I need no Consolation on that account thinking my self greatly Honour'd that in the publick Affliction of the Church it pleases God to set me the foremost I should account my self very happy if all the Storm might fall on my Head So that I might be the only Sufferer and the Church of God continue in Peace and Prosperity One Care more pressing has mov'd me to write to you and has forc'd Nature which was ever averse from medling with Publick Affairs and acting beyond my Calling For seeing the Church generally in eminent danger and upon the brink of a Precipice it was impossible for me to hold from speaking Nor can I be silent in this urgent necessity without making my self guilty of insensibility and of cruelty towards the Church of God And I hope in speaking my Thoughts about Publick Affairs my Domestick Affliction will deliver me from jealousie in your Opinion And if I be not believ'd at least I may be excus'd I confess indeed it does not become me to give Counsel to an Assembly of Persons chosen out of all the Kingdom to bear the weight of Publick Affairs in a time so full of difficulty but I think it for your advantage to be inform'd rightly what is the Opinion and what the Disposition of our Churches from persons that have a particular knowledge of them The question then being whether you ought to break up your Assembly in Obedience to His Majesty or continue to hold together in order to provide for the Affairs of the Churches I am bound to tell you that it is the general desire of our Churches that it might please God we may continue in peace by obeying His Majesty And that seeing the King resolv'd to make himself obey'd by force of Arms they assure themselves that you will to your power endeavour to avoid this Tempest and rather yield to necessity than engage them in a War that will most certainly ruin the greatest part of our Churches and will plunge us in troubles whereof we well see the beginning but know not at all the end By obeying the King you will take away their pretence who incense his Majesty to persecute us And if we are to be persecuted all they who fear God desire that this may be for the Profession of the Gospel and that our persecution may truly be the Cross of Christ In a word Sirs I can assure you that the greatest and the best part of our Churches desire your Assembly may break up if it can be done with safety to your Persons and even many of the Roman Church love that Publick Peace are continually about us praying and exhorting us that we may not by throwing our selves down the Precipice involve them in our ruin On this occasion I need not represent to you the general consternation of our poor Flocks who cast their Eyes upon you as Persons that may procure their quiet and by yielding to necessity may divert that storm so ready to break upon their heads Many already have forsaken the Conntry many have quitted their Religion from whence you may judge what a distraction there will be should these troubles go on farther Nor need I more recommend to you to have a tender care for the preservation of our poor Churches knowing that you will rather chuse Death than draw upon you the reproach that you have hasten'd on the persecution of the Church and destroy'd that which the zeal of our Fathers had planted and brought this State into confusion I am not ignorant that many Reasons are alledg'd to perswade you to hold on your Assembly As that the King has permitted it but for this permission you have not any Warrant nor any Declaration in Writing without which all Promises are but Words in the Air. For Kings believe they have Power to forbid what they have permitted and to revoke what they have offer'd when they judge it expedient for the good of their Affairs And there is none of you that having sent his Servant any whither or given him leave to go does not think you have power to call him back again Above all Sovereign Princes keep not willingly their Promises when they have been extorted from thâ—m There are also represented to you many Grievances and Controventions to the Kings Edicts which Complaints to our great sorrow are but too true yet without alledging that we our selves have given the occasion of many of these Evils the difficulty lies not in representing our Grievances but in finding redress Consider then whether the continuance of your Assembly may heal these Maladies whether your Session may put our Churches under shelter provide necessaries for a War where the Parties are so unequal Levy Forces and make a Fond for Payment if all the good your Session is capable to produce shall be equivalent to the loss of so many Churches that lye naked and expos'd to the wrath of their Enemies whether when they are beaten down you can raise them again whether in the manifest division that is amongst us you have the power to bring together all the scatter'd parts of this divided Body which were it well united would yet be too weak to maintain it self on the Defensive Pardon me Sirs if I tell you that you will not find all those of our Religion dispos'd to obey your Resolutions and that the fire being kindl'd all about you you will remain feeble Spectators of the ruin that you have made to tumble upon your heads Besides you cannot be ignorant that many amongst us of the best quality and most capable to defend us condemn openly your Actions imagining and expressing that to suffer for this Cause is not to suffer for the Cause of God These making no kind of resistance and opening the Gates of their places and joyning their Arms to those of the King you may easily gather what the loss will be and what a weakning of your Party How many persons of our Nobility will forsake you some by Treachery others through weakness Even they that in an Assembly are the most vehement and that to appear zealous are altogether for violent courses are most commonly those that revolt and that betray their Brethren They hurry our poor Churches into the greatest danger and there leave them and run away after that they have set the House on fire If a Fight or the Siege of a Town should happen whatever might be the event of the Fight or Siege it would prove a difficult thing to contain the People animated against us and to hinder them from falling upon our Churches that have neither Defence or Retreat And whatever Orders the Magistrates of the contrary Religion should give it will be impossible for them to take effect I might also represent to you many Reasons arising from the State of our Churches both within and out of the Kingdom to let you see that this Commotion is altogether ill-tim'd