great preparatiues for war against him did make me stedfastly to belieue that hee could haue no means to kéep himselfe from vs wherevpon my selfe as well as many other did according to my duetie bring in whatsoeuer I was able togither with my own person and notwithstanding all our delaies and the lingering of our purposes yet did I not neuertheles dispaire of good successe but now am I forced to pluck my pin from the stake and earnestly to open mine eies to perceiue the causes of our misfortune togither with the necessitie of a farther cause of mischiefe wherof this late one is but the first or at the least the most apparant beginning Not my maisters that I will resemble those foules which so soone as colde weather commeth on doe habandon euerie climate by anie rash alteration of my wil which so long and resolutely I haue alwaies kept For I protest that of all the reasons that may bee imagined in this noueltie I do admit onely the same which setteth before me the preseruation of that estate for the which so farre I am from all feare of the losse of my first pretence that I wish rather to lose my selfe and in the name of God doo exhort you so wel to try my aduice that you may allow therof and ensuing the same shew so good an example to the rest of Frāce that sith your selues are the light that should lighten vs this estate may also by your meanes recouer her auncient brightnesse and this oppressed people perfect reliefe from all their afflictions To enter therefore into the matter my selfe haue alwaies béene through zeale to religiō thrust for ward whensoeuer there fell out any spéech of the defence thereof I came as hotely as might be desired Now this religion I alwaies held in such sort as I receiued of my predecessors and as I account it true saluation of my soule I preferred it before all other whatsoeuer worldly considerations Wherein I was confirmed not onely by this domesticall example but also by that doctrine which your selues haue alwaies deliuered vnto vs referring al that possibly I might vnto the authoritie which long you haue obteined and kept among our nation I will not bee ashamed to say that in this case I haue willingly reposed my selfe vpon you as imagining that you would not damme your selues in sport as also that in so good company I could not doo amisse In consideration wherof I neuer troubled my selfe much about the search into the depth of these misteries and difficulties wherein your schoole is as it were plunged leauing to you the arguing in words and reseruing to my selfe the decisions in action wherewith as néede required to yéeld authoritie to your decrées and for my part stoutly to oppose my selfe against all those that woulde withstand you howbeit vnder the authoritie of the soneraigne magistrate to whom I neuer doubted of my due obedience Hereupon I alwaies supposed that our warre was not lawful against al such as shot against you and sought to subuert your doctrine accounting them verie heretikes Apostataes from the Church with whom we were to striue euen for life considering that their opinions did for the most part kill vs by rauishing from vs through their frowardnesse that which I supposed you had imparted vnto vs in sincere and faithful consciences For this which I haue often heard you say did I take for an infalible principle that is to say That our Church can not erre also that to accuse you of error was such an error as deserued to be pursued with fire and sworde Thus was I neuer of any other mind but that we had a most firme and more than necessarie foundation euery way to persecute those whom men tearme Protestants So presumpteous a title could not I like of as in these latter ages Gods spirit threatneth vs with sundrie seducers so haue I alwaies accounted these men to be whereupon I haue detested their companies so farre haue I béene from sparing whatsoeuer I could possibly doe to vse against them all rigors whereby to roote them out For this cause doe I make great account of the deuotion which diuers of our kinges haue at sundrie times shewed But séeing that the more we striue the more this people increase the large expertence of these affaires maketh mee the more stacke in these matters and their late victorie which God hath giuen them causeth me to imagine that hee doth wholy fauor their cause also that whatsoeuer crosses hee doth by our hands lay vpon them hee doth neuerthelesse reserue vnto them a happie a comfortable end Disorder saith a certaine auncient breedeth good decrees and the reiteration of our transgressions when wee finde them doe worke vs to our knowledge wisedome yea the apprentiship of our owne losses is more strong and forceable then that which proceedeth of others harmes I doe therefore willingly suffer my selfe to bee carried away with that whose effects doe teach me to procéede further not that I will search out all the contentious pointes betwene the one and the other for as yet I haue not taken so much paines but onely in respect of the proceedings vsed against their persons and goods First you are all to debate in matter of religion you differ in sundrie articles and yet doe agrée in the ground which is one onely Iesus Christ mediator betwene God and man and sole head of the Chruch I pray you is this a matter to be decided by your murders is it such a controuersie as may bee so determined how can you graunt life to his soule whose bodely life you haue taken away how can you saue those to whom you graunt no time to belieue or how would you haue them to belieue without preaching vnto These be the ordinarie complaintes wherewith they vsually appeale from our pursutes which notwithstanding they séeme iust yet doe we stop our eares against them as against the maremaids song But why doe you denie them all frienndly conference for the decision of your controuersies I know you will answere that it is a matter that hath already beene preferred and yet hath not profited But the Lawiers haue taught me that whatsoeuer hath béene fraudulently done is accounted as wonne for in all our assemblies our procéedings haue béene vnperfect for proofe whereof I referre my selfe to the acts of the Councel of Trent and lately to the parley at Poyssy Concerning the first there was neuer action more impertinent then that wherein they were condemned and yet neither were or could be heard considering that their aduersaries were also their iudges as also your selues doe know that the French Church did neuer in all and through all alow of it witnesse the appeales there against made albeit I say nothing of the opposition of our kings whereby this counsaile may not be admitted as irreuocable in Fraunce otherwise we shall reueale our partialitie in ruling their condemnation after our owne fantasies and not according to the
against her enimies but also she hath as I find béene often molested by her owne household seruants Nouatian the Priest denyed to receyue such as had reuolted to penauce and so with the helpe of Nicostratus a Priest of Carthage caused a great schisme in the Church Samosatenus being Bishop of Antioch renewed the errors of the Ebionites Arrius a Priest of Alexandria had the assistance of many Bishops and Emperors yea and since of whole nations in his heresie Now if in these beginnings the treasons of such as séemed to serue God were so great there is no doubt but this mischiefe hath still slipped in and béene maintained in the Church Yea if you can well thinke vpon it it may bee you will not iudge your selues cleane exempt from all corruptions but I will say no more for feare of incurring your censures Howbeit I am sory you neuer proue the decision of the processe which the reformed haue entred against you and haue long hung vpon the file also that we must belieue some rather then other some wtout any further notice of the matter for so should we be no longer troubled to know whether these two princes be heretikes or not Howbeit admit they be which hardly and without preiudice to their replication I can belieue is it your partes to shrinke from their obedience So did neuer any Christians in the Primitiue Church against the heathen Emperors to whom in all publike gouernment they submitted them selues albeit there could bee no greater difference in religion than was betweene them Did they reuolt against Constantin the great who in the end fauoured Arrius against Licinius against Iulian the Apostata against Valentinian and many others that exercised tyranny against their religion But the king of Nauarre is farre from dealing so with vs for he is not yet come to that which wee feare Thus we cry without a cause before we be beaten not that foresight is not an effect of wisedom but because it is in vaine to preuent that which wee neither can nor ought to eschewe Howsoeuer God giueth vs our kings we must suffer it neither is there anie law or lawfull example in the world that teacheth vs to doe otherwise Herein the reformed may séeme to beare themselues but badly in that they take armes against their soueraigne in defence of their religion But besides that they are iustly grounded vpon the defensiue vnder the magistrats authority also that nothing is more naturall then to expulse violence they doe besides alledge the peremptorie reasons which often enough they haue giuen vs to vnderstand of neither is their any fault but in our negligence that wee are not sufficiently enstructed thereof Moreouer the king of Nauarres and the P. of Condes maner of dealing with our Catholikes might make you to hope of all good entreatie whensoeuer things may come to that passe Truely the king of Nauarre hath alwaies tollerated Catholike religion in his Realme which is the lawer Nauarre that is to say a portion of all Nauarre the rest thereof lying beyond the Pirinean mountaines the Spaniards vniustly detaine from him And this can myselfe testifie as hauing séene it with my owne eyes for vpon a certaine curiositie I trauailed thither two yeares since euen to know whether that which I had heard to the contrarie were true or no. True it is that matters are otherwise ordered in his soueraignetie of Bearne which is because at his comming thereto he so found them yea so well established for the space of certaine yeares during the life of his late mother the Quéene of Nauarre that it were very hard yea vnpossible to make any alteration which also is dangerous vnlesse any greater benefit be verie apparant Secondly his house is full of Catholike gentlemen which serue him euen in his most priuate and notable offices neither did hee euer make anie difficultie with great courtesie to receyue all those that offered them selues This is no token that he will otherwise deale whensoeuer hee shall obtaine our estate neither will I vse any more then one reason gathered of the likelihood yea vnlesse I be deceiued of the verie trueth It is not likely that this Prince séeing himselfe exalted vnto the throne would after so many troubles séeke other then peace so farre would he be from taking occasion of warre with his subiects whose affections he had rather captiuate then estrange whereupon he will alwaies like that his subiects should maintaine their accustomed religion prouided that the insolencie of these harebraines who séeke but to trouble the water and then to blame the lambes least they should faile of some pretence to deuoure them doe permit him the like He may alwaies consider that the Catholikes parte is well vnderpropped that if his were inuincible so is the other and therefore that hee shall haue a better hand by maintaining of it then by drawing vpon his estate the cursse of the people and vpon his conscience the destruction thereof as also I will adde the other of his house being Catholikes hauing so good part therein hee will be the more careful for their sakes But what we doe according to the prouerbe striue for the Bishops cope and to no purpose doe deuide the inheritance of the liuing who peraduenture may outline all those that dispute of thinges to come after his death yea it séemeth we share out the webbe of his life at our pleasures but albeit it bee not lawfull to moue this question yet may we resolue it to the end to take away all doubts from those that bréeds preiudice to peace and the common wealth And indéede it is as much as to complaine of ease Well you sée that the king of Nauars troupes doe at this day consist as well of the one as of the other sorte likewise that concord remaineth amongst them whereas the best of their profession that cometh amongst vs must bee imprisoned ransomed from all his goodes yea and finally suffer that death which hee hath not deserued These be monsters they must be choaked vp and many times for the satisfying of the rage of the enimies to the State we are forced to iniurie our owne selues I know that the most malicious among them doe vse to gird at this the king of Nauarres facilitie as if the same were the baites wherewith he séeketh to draw vs into his nettes but no man can doe so wel as to please all men still there is some thing to be misliked and mens fansies must be tormented for their pleasures How would it haue béene if in the beginnig abandoning his owne religion for our pleasures he had taken ours Then would they haue said it had béen to curry fauor with vs that he so counterfeited to the end to deceiue vs that outwardly hee had beene a Catholike and inwardly reformed in his conscience that he had not cast his olde skin that yet he smelt of the faggot that we must waite for his perseuerance so to know
his purposes as easily as he would wish neither can he at this day desire or put in execution any thing whatsoeuer with greater honour hauing obteined such a braue victory against vs which is perfect in all notable parts The death and imprisonment of all the chiefe Captaines except the L. of Lauerdin who séeing our conflict a far off went to saue him selfe and few others the winning of the field the taking of the artillery the burning of our armies lodgings the chace pursued foure leagues and a thousand other particularities which I heere omit Concerning the king of Nauarre I haue heard credibly reported that hée was one of the sharpest in fight buckled earnestly yea so farre foorth as by force to cary away Chasteau-renauds Cornet also to haue receiued a taint in the necke with a speare other blowes that bruised his hands and face To be briefe that hee shewed himselfe a Captaine in ordering his battailes and a souldier in fight As for the Prince of Conde that hee fought valiantly had one horse killed vnder him also that being horsed againe he tooke the L. of S. Luc prisoner who had before borne him downe That the Earle of Soisons in this first reencounter shewed so good proofe of his courage that he greatly cōtented his partakers gaue them good hope of himselfe for he ioyned earnestly and with his owne handes tooke the Marquesse of Piennes prisoner so as these thrée Princes fighting with their enemies fought so reciprocally whose vertue should best appeare that they haue no cause one to enuy an other sith they all shewed all duetie according as the occurrences ministred occasiō Neither is it to be doubted but these so assured Captaines did greatly assure their members among whom the L. of Turenne also had his horse slaine in the battell and entered verie farre as also did the L. of Trimouille who was noted of great courage and assurance in the front of his light horsemen Finally that there was no troope in all their army but had a share in the glorie of our ouerthrow Herein haue wee cause to be sory sith the hurt that we do to them do but prouoke our men and that either early or late they will finde meanes to requite vs howbeit at this time it is much more then a requitall neither is there any comparison betwéene all the harme that we haue done them yea albeit you set togither all that haue happened since the beginning of the troubles and the same which wee haue receiued in this battell One onelie short day hath recompēced all that they haue lost in two yéeres and a halfe which is the time since the league was reuealed and as farre as I sée wee are yet farre in their debts We haue séene all the mightie armies which the king hath sent out of all the prouinces of the realme to make an ende But shew mee now what fruit hath come of them The taking of townes wee haue taken none but such as they made no great account to kéepe and all but loures which were neuer as a mā should say of any name but through mishap And how haue we gotten them with large time excessiue expences and a world of labor and pollicie which heeretofore would not haue béen practised at the siege of Metz S. Quintins and other good Townes in our daies What haue we gained we haue taken nothing by assault and all our sieges haue ended by profitable and honourable composition for the besieged Neither haue our sieges any whit diminished their number sith the lawes of warre haue freed them from the fury of our weapons And which is worse Castillon the Duke of Mayns proudest trophee the taking whereof cost sixe weekes worke and six hundred thousand francks hath the Lord of Turenne recouered in one houre without any expense The king of Nauarre hath in lesse then thrée wéekes taken Tallemōt S. Messan Fontenay Maillezay Mauleon fiue or sixe good Castles more The said D. of Ioyeuse came to recouer these losses but hee spent most of his time in preparatiues and in the end at the siege of S. Maissā was driuen to discharge 113. Cannon shot against the which it had not cost the said king two hundreth Harquebuze shot and had it not béene for the ouerthrow that the said D. of Ioyeuse gaue to the Mothe of his two regiments of Collters and Clounes togither with the controuersies among the besieged we had not had it so soone or so easily As for Maillezay which the said Duke of Ioyeuse also tooke he did rather suprize then take it besides that the smal number of souldiers therein feared his purposes But Fontenay was of ouer hard digestion the Catholike forces gaue place to the Protestants of whom wée made so small account And whereas there died a good number of them as could not be otherwise chosen so if wée peruse the rowles of our army we shal find the the rule of substraction may séem sufficient to finde out our accounts The swoord the bad weather pouertie pestilence or other diseases haue taken away so many that wee haue but fewe left to habandon to the like mishappes and the woorst is wee neuer séeke to spare but rather doo séeme to practise this detestable saying Let our friends perish so as our enemies may perish also Moreouer wherein are their affaires empaired Wee haue kept the field but how For the most part in such seasons as the retraite into the Townes had béene more fit and safe against the iniuries of wind and snow in such a season I say as albeit they had béene as well able to haue kept the field as we yet had it béen wisedome to to habandon it vnto vs so to suffer vs to consume our selues with a million of inconueniences which fought against vs although they meddle not at all Likewise when the time fauoured our voyages besides that the same was but ouer short we haue found such resistāce in them they haue giuen vs so small hold that our selues haue beaten our selues with our owne paines and haue reaped but the dishonour of doing nothing and blame for working too much mischiefe and to be briefe all our fires are in the ende conuerted into smoake which hath choked vs. The raising vp of our bucklers were haughtie but when we came to the matter to take hold wee brought foorth nothing but confusion disorder wherein the king of Nauarres part hath béene rather vpheld then shaken so as we séeme to bee but the winds which breake vpon their constancy or magnanimitie Twentie yeares ago more might I haue learned how hard a matter it was vtterly to ouerthrow him but I neuer thought it vnpossible vntill these our last trials wherein he hath taught vs that hée either is a greater one then wée or else that he hath more supporters then wée haue force or both I will not be ashamed to confesse that at the beginning of these troubles our
winde of religion albeit some of the princes of his blood do professe no other then himselfe also that they which professe anie other are so affectionate to his seruice and the seruice of his crowne that they would not haue béene anie whit more slacke in effect then in will Had there not béen more apparance that hée should haue ioined with these thē with the leaguers that is with his friends then with his enemies with the French then with the Lorrains with his own blood then with these bastardes with the true Officers of his Crowne then with those that haue béen so vndutifull to him The Romans alwaies appeased their domesticall quarrels to agrée against those that assailed them whether the Gaules the Thuscans or the Carthaginians The like did the Spaniards when the late king Frances the first during their reuolt from the Emperour Charles the fift gat from them the realme of Nauarre The discent of the English at Newhauen 1562. bred the reunion of the Frenchmen so to returne them away and when wée haue séene these monsters of Lorrain waste our country must we néeds ioyne with them to help to destroy our selues what is become of that auncient French vertue that was woont to goe to fight with the enemy at his owne doore where now we call him in wee nourish him we flatter him and the more harme hée dooth vs the more we binde our selues to him This nation which heretofore hath triumphed ouer the Emperours the Solimans the Sarasins the Gothes and the Normans hath not now béene able to withstand a handfull of Guizards and this scepter exalted ouer a million of trophees stoopeth to these rebels yea they haue almost trod it vnder foote All the honor of valiancy and courage which our predecessors haue in twelue hundreth yeares atchieued and kept haue wee wretchedly lost in one houre and these Lions that feared no bulles are now terrefied only with the crowing of a Cocke Our estate doo I now compare to the Rocke mentioned by Pliny which if ye thrust with your whole bodie neuer shaketh but when you touch it onely with one finger or rather to that stone which being whole fléeteth vpon the water but broken sinketh The whole world as a man shuld say was not able to make France to shake and now these Mushromes doe quite ouerthrow it We altogither haue fléeted vpon the floodes of infinit forrein warres yet our diuisions doo drowne vs. This miserable realme séemeth to be growne to her last periode and as that auncient Astrologer by the noyse weules that did gnaw the posts iudged of the destructiō of the house wherein he was so many wee boldly say that sith these vermine still consumeth vs our fall is at hand What then must the French men become strangers one to an other can we finde any soules so disloiall as to abandon the true stock of S. Lewes to embrace these wrongfull vsurpers of their right Those that haue béen our true and lawfull Lordes these thrée hundreth and sixtie yeares for so long is it since the raigne of S. Lewes head of that race who also gathereth his discent from Merouee to those whom we haue not knowne these fiftie yeares shall we carry vpon our Targets shoulders those whose vnworthinesse and vniustice should make to cleane to the earth shall wee plucke away these braue branches of the Flowerdeluce which yet remaine to graft in their places these wildings who as they haue begun will yéeld foorth nothing but thornes Oh who can wish this horrible chaunge This onelie reason might mooue vs to detest the ambition of these busie bodies they aspire to the Crowne but they cannot haue it without murther and the death of a million of men those that vphold it are like to be the first that must stoope and they that imagine by their meanes to get preferment shall haue peraduenture no other recompence then the losse of their liues To be briefe for the fulfilling of their ambition we must heape vp our tombes with carkases the heapes of their oppressed partakers are the staies whereby they climbe vp to heauen Ought wee not to abhorre these cruelties to spit in the faces of these shamelesse persons that bereaue vs of our libertie To honor those that may peaceably and without disorder ascend vnto the type of that authoritie which the lawes of the realme their desert haue purchased for them Let vs hardlie touch the chiefe string of this game and sith these men are not ashamed to doe let not vs be ashamed to speake The Guizardes would to the preiudice of the house of Burbon inuade this realme euerie man knoweth it neither is there any thing so common in the peoples mouthes wherefore because the king of Nauarre who is the néerest and the Prince of Conde doo professe the reformed religion and so cōsequently are are heretikes I am sory that I am no great Doctor that I might finde out this point of heresie which so oft is cast in their téeth but in my mind the chief disputations of these reformed doo tend only to make the simple word of God of more force then mens traditions That is it whereto they call vs and I belieue they haue great reason neither that wee are so sufficiently shrowded vnder the cloake of the Church as to thinke that the beautifull title can in effect stop all errors neither is there any thing so easie to corrupt as the mysteries of religion whereof I report my selfe to Noa hes family which was so holily instructed and yet whence grew all the Idolatrie of the Chaldeans and consequently of all the rest of the worlde except those whom God reserued for his people yea I referre my selfe to the same people was there euer thing so fraile as those wretches whence then came the foure hundreth false Prophets against one onely Micheas the worshipping in the high places and the abhominable superstitions wherein these libertines did ouerflow neither was it euer otherwise but that the trueth vpon the beginning of the light thereof hath had the darknesse of lying opposite thereto yea if I durst be so bolde as to passe common spéech it is the trueth that of necessitie bringeth forth lyes euen as light bringeth forth a shadow For this cause so soone as Jesus Christ reuealed him selfe to be the sonne of God al men accounted him a blasphemer and the whole course of his life séemed to those blinde people but a merrie enterlude so soone as the Apostles had preached the pure doctrine the diuel sowed his impurities yea no man driue them more out of the Church then they that named them selues the Church Simon the magitian opposed himselfe against S. Peter Cerinthus against S. Iohn and so consequently sundrie heretikes against the Church as Ebion Basilides Marcion Montanus Carparates Sabellicus and many other who all for the most part endeuored to ouerthrow the ground of our saluation Iesus Christ neither hath the Church wanted exercise onely