the fact on the Puritans Fuller v. Foulis p. 690. did nothing less at first than profess themselves the Authors of the Fact or make any mention of Religion to the People but purposed to hold that in suspense for some time and by a Proclamation published in the Queens name to redress great grievances for the present and feed them with hopes of more for the future till the Faction growing strong either by favour or severity of new Edicts they might draw the People to their Parts and Obedience and the odiousness of their fact so by degrees discovering it self would in time and together with their good success grow off Nor came it in so long time into the minds of any of them how many Innocents all about them how many Infants how many that agreed with them in Religion how many who perhaps had deserved well of them that vast ruine would over-whelm Now all things are ready and the last Scene was going to be Acted when as by the unsearchable Judgment of God one who desired to save another brought destruction both to himself and his Associates There were ten dayes to the Parliament when upon Saturday in the Evening a Letter was brought as from a Friend to the Lord Monteagle but by whom written is uncertain and by whom brought unknown By it he was warned to forbear meeting at the Parliament for the two first dayes of the Session forasmuch as some great and sudden and unsuspected mischief did threaten that Meeting The hand of him that wrote it was unknown and the writing it self purposely so ordered that it could hardly be read No date to the Letter no subscription no inscription put to it and the whole composure of words ambiguous The Lord Monteagle was doubtful what he should do therefore late in the night he goeth to Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury and chief Secretary to the King and giving him the Letter freely declared to him how he came by it and how little he valued it Cecil did not make much more account of it and yet thought it was not altogether to be neglected and Therefore shewed it to the chief Councellors Charles Howard Chief Admiral of the Seas the Earl of Nottingham to the Earls of Worcester and Northampton The thing being considered of amongst them although at first sight the Letter seemed of no great moment yet they thought that not the slightest discovery ought to be despised especially where the safety of the King was endangered nor such great care to be blamed in them to whom the preservation of His Majesty did both by Office and Duty belong The King was then gone to Royston to Hunt It seemed good to them to determine nothing before they had consulted the King For they said that they had oftentimes experienced the quick apprehension and happy conjecture of the King in unriddleing things that were liable to greatest doubtfulness Upon the Calends of November 1 Nov. the King returned to the City and forth with Cecil taking him aside unfolds the matter and shews him the Letter which it seems worth while to insert here for the perpetual remembrance of it forasmuch as not without cause it afforded such matter of dispute between him and his Councellors The love which I bear to some of your Friends makes me careful for your safety Wherefore I advise you as you love your life that you would invent some excuse for your absence from the Parliament For God and Men as it were by agreement do hasten to punish the wickedness of this Age. Do not make light of this warning but depart as soon as you can into your own Countrey where you may securely expect the event For although no signs of troubles do appear yet I admonish you that that meeting shall receive a terrible blow and shall not see who smiteth them Do not despise this discovery it may be profitable to you it cannot hurt you For the danger is over as soon as you have burnt this Letter I hope by the grace of God you will make good use of this Counsell to whose protection I commend you The King having read the Letter though through the generousness of his mind he was no way prone to suspicion did conjecture that some strange thing did lye hid under it and that the notice given was by no means to be neglected On the other side Cecil said it was certainly written by some Mad man For no man well in his wits would speak at this rate of a danger which he doth admonish so much to beware of The danger is over as soon as you shall burn the Letter How small a danger could that be which should vanish in so short a moment On the other side the King in whose breast the first suspition had now â—aken deep root urged the foregoing words That assembly shall receive a terrible blow and shall not see who smiteth them And whiles walking in the Gallery he deeply thought of these things from one particular to another it came into his mind that a sudden blow by Gun-powder was intended by those words For what more sudden then a blow by Gun-powder Thus the King and Salisbury so broke off their discourse that the King did strongly persevere in his conjecture Salisbury to free the Kings mind from fears and cares seemed in his presence to make light of this notice given but in the mean time admiring within himself the Kings uncouth and unusual interpretation and so presently suspecting it did conclude that it was not lightly to be regarded The next day the thing being again considered of by the King and His Counsellors it seemed good that the Palace with the places near adjoyning should be diligently searched and that business was assigned to the Lord Chamberlain who upon the Monday which preceded the Parliament about the Evening that he might give no occasion of Rumours goes with the Lord Monteagle to those places entring into the house that Percy had hired they found a great heap of Billets and Fagots and Coal in a Vault under ground Wardrobe and Wineard the Keeper of the Kings houses being there present he was asked for what use they were brought in thither they understood that the house was hired by Percy and that heap was brought in by him Moreover the Chamberlain spying Fawks standing in a corner of the Cellar asked who he was and what business he had there Who answered that he was the Domestick Servant of Percy and the Keeper of that house in Percy 's absence Having thus done they return to the Court reporting what they had seen and conjecturing worse things then formerly they had done For it came into Monteagles mind upon the mention of Percy that he was highly addicted to the Popish Religion that they had formerly been acquainted and lived as Friends and it might be that he was the Author of that Letter which gave ground to all this suspition The Lord Chamberlain among other suspicious matters
all the Religious Orders but moreover by that fourth peculiar to that Society of special obedience to the Pope 2. Of that height of zeal against Hereticks that at the very mention or least remembrance of them in common discourse he would change colour and his stomach rise against them 3. Before he entred into the Society he had been one of the chief Senate of Brabant then Chanceller of Brabant and had the management of the Kings Exchequer Phil. Alegambe in Biblioth 4. And being first well qualified by these employments and then sufficiently instructed in the Jesuites Society he at length became a Politician and had his projects and devises for an Innovation to be made both in Church and State throughout the whole Romane Empire which the Jesuites earnestly endeavoured to put in practise the summ whereof as they are related from his own mouth by William Freake of the Practice of the Jesuites pag. 58. were to raise such divisions and differences among the Princes of the Empire by working upon their contrariety of opinions in matters of Religion c. that they may wast and weaken themselves one against another that their strength and power may be broken or at least weakened and become utterly unable to withstand a common foe when he shall come upon them Where he sets down more particularly how differences may be raised between such and such particular Princes Lastly his Opinion and Judgment of this Gunpowder Plot may in some sort be understood by his esteem of Garnet whom he * Delr ' vind Arcop cap. 27. pag. 104. compared with S. Dionysius Areopagita He died at Lovane 19. Octob. 1608. not full three years after the discovery of this Plot. 14. If from the Author of this Instance we come to the Actors of this Plot and the Authorizers and Abettors of it we shall find all circumstances still to agree very well 1. They were all either of the same Society with this Author * v. Tortur Torti p. 280. Jesuitas Consultores Consentientes R. Abbot Antitogiae cap. 9.10 11. Jesuites or their Jesuited Disciples such to whom the Jesuites were Confessors and had the Conduct of their Consciences such who were by them resolved in point of Conscience in all things concerning this Plot received the Sacrament upon their Oath of Secresie from them and by them were absolved after the Plot defeated Nor do we find any in Holy Orders except the Pope himself to have had any hand in it or particular knowledge of it but such as were of this Society of the Jesuites For the Secular Priests though two of them in pursuance of the Popes Bulls immediately upon the coming in of the King were ingaged in a Conspiracy of their own if not trapan'd by the Jesuites V. Stowe Fuller Anno 1603. Sect. 14. against him but of a lower and more ordinary nature and by the Actions of the Jesuites perceived something in general that the Jesuites had then some notable Plot in agitation yet we may reasonably believe that they were utterly unacquainted with the Kind and Particulars of this so high and refined a project above the pitch of their imaginations to conceive not onely from what hath been already said out of their Confessions but also by reason of the differences and dissentions which were then and have since continued between the Jesuites and them V. Declarat Motuum Edit 1601. Watsons Quodlibets Edit 1602. 15. 2. Nor were they two or three Jesuites only in a corner and they of the lower rank or of mean or ordinary authority but such as were of greatest reputation place and Authority among them who were concerned in this business as besides Osw Tesmond alias Greenwel who with Robâ—rt Winter was by Garnet Catesby and Tresham Anno 1601. sent into Spain with Letters commendatory to F. Creswel to Negotiate the then intended Spanish Expedition besides Gerrard and Hammond and Hall besides * V. Wilson Hist of King James F. Weston who heretofore Anno 1595. at Wisbich castle by his contention for a Superiority over the other Priests as well as Jesuites began the differences which have since continued between them and in his book de Triplici hominis Officio Printed Anno 1602. foretold of many calamities storms and dangers that were like to ensue upon the Queens death as did also the Author of The Ward-word Printed at Lovane 1599. said to be Parsons as was observed and noted * Answer to the Supplication chap 4. Edit Lond. 1â—â—4 in Print before this Plot was detected besides all these and many more no doubt not yet discovered the Superiour of the whole Order of English Jesuites even their Provincial himself here in England F. Hen. Garnet who had been eighteen years here in England and a promoter of former conspiracies and held correspondence with divers other of prime note and authority in forrein parts as with F. Creswel in Spain who being many years Vice-praefectus Anglicanae Missionis Sub provincial and Leger there did great matters and by the Authority which he had with the two Philips 11 111. Kings of Spain obtain'd many things of them for the good of the Catholick cause in England as we read in Alegambe and about a month or six weeks * About the time that â—anham was sent by Garnet to the Pope before this Plot should have been effected went from Villadolit to Rome to be created a Cardinal saith L. Owen but more probably upon some other negotiation concerning this great business then in hand L. O. of the Engl. Col. in forrein parts pag. 74. Lond. 1626. quar also with F. Baldwin in the Low-countries of like place and Authority there ever since the year 1590. at which time Del Rio read Divinity at Doway as he did afterward at other places in those parts as Leige and Lovane who being so famous as he was in those parts and so great a zealot against hereticks it is not to be doubted that he had frequent converse with F. Baldwin and divers others of the English Fugitives of the better quality Lastly at Rome with the English Assistant there F. Parsons whom we may conclude to have had particular knowledge of this design not only from what he wrote concerning the Journey or Pilgrimage to S. Winefreds-well the mystical prayer which he ordered his Students to use to say nothing of the many projects which his working brain continually devised and his furious zeal as earnestly urged and prosecuted or of his Letter wherein he wrote Anno 1600 that he had then been ten years dealing in such matters but we are moreover given to understand so much from some of his own Religion though not of his Order and that he was highly accessory to it both before and after the discovery as might be proved by great and manifest instances The Jesuites Reasons unreasonable Doubt 1. But for his Correspondence at Rome we need do no more but first remember who Garnet
wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily †Thu. l. ◠out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then here in prison Respons ad Apol. Bellarm. cap. 5. pag. 113. to pass over into England as the Popes Legate cum plena potestate and here to publish the Bull In which Bull the Pope by the power which he saith is from God by the Lawful succession of the Catholick Church deseended to him over All persons for several causes there in specified and more fully expressed in the Bulls of Pius v. and Gregory XIII doth again proscribe the Queen Takes away all her Royal Dignity Titles and Rights to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Declaring her Illegitimate and a Usurper of those Kingdoms Absolving her Subjects from their Oath of Faith and Obedience to her Threatens All of what condition soever under danger of the wrath of God not to assist her in any wise after notice of this Mandate but to imploy all their power to bring her to Condigne punishment Commands All Inhabitants of those Kingdoms diligently to execute these Mandates and as soon as they have certain notice of the Spaniards coming to joyn all their forces with them and in all things be obedient to Parma the King of Spain's General and lastly Proposing Ample Reward to those who shall lay hands upon the proscribed Woman and deliver her to the Catholick party to be punished in conclusion out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his Trust and Dispensation he draws out his treasure and Grants a Full Pardon of All their Sins to All those who should engage in this expedition This Thuanus relates more at large and presently adds It was agreed in secret that King Philip should hold the Kingdom when reduced to the Obedience of the Church of the Pope in Fee as of the Holy See according to the Articles of the contract by Ina Henry 2. and King John made and renewed with the Title of Defender of the Faith And to reduce it to this Obedience these were the forrein Preparations which were made according to Thuanus his Account A Navy of 150. * Of vast burden says Cicarella besides an infinite number of small ships In vita Sixti v. Ships extraordinarily well furnished and in it of Mariners and Seamen 8000. Gally-slaves a great number 2080. says Camden of Souldiers 20000. besides Gentlemen and Voluntiers for scarce was there any family of note in Spain which had not son or brother or cousin in that fleet Brass Guns 1600. Iron Guns 1050. Of Powder Bullet Lead Match Muskets Pikes Spears and such like weapons with other instruments and engines great abundance as also of Horses and Mules and Provisions for six moneths And that nothing might be wanting as to matters of Religion they brought along with them the Vicar General of the Sacred Office as they call it that is the Inquisition and with him of Capucines Jesuites and Mendicants above 100. And besides all these were prepared in Flanders and those parts by the Duke of Parma of Flat-bottomed Boats for transportation of men and Horse and other necessaries 288. of Vessels for Bridges fitted with all things necessary 800. and of Armed men 20900. 50000 Veterane Souldiers says Sir Fr. Bacon But all these preparations and forces were not greater than was the Spaniards expectation and confidence of an assured Victory and Absolute Conquest of this Kingdom and that not only in respect of the strength and greatness of their Forces though so great that in admiration of this Navy they named it as hath been said The Invincible Armado and so was it called in a Spanish ostentation throughout Europe and hath indeed been thought the greatest Navy that till that time ever swam upon the Sea though not for number yet for Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions But that which very much heightened their Confidence was the supposed Goodness of their Cause and presumption of the Divine assistance accordingly favouring them in it and thereby signally ratifying the Sentence of Christs Vicar this being assigned as an Apostolical Mission against the Incorrigible and Excommunicate Hereticks to reduce them to the Obedience of the Catholick Church of Rome and to execute his Holines's Sentence of Excommunication against that accursed Anathematized woman though this that we may note it by the way was properly and anciently reputed the Office only of Satan and his Angels and Ministers and never taken out of their hands till Pope Gregory VII after above a thousand years exercise of it by the Plenitude of his Power took upon him to dispose as it seems of the Kingdom of Darkness as well as of the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth But
all these oppressions and Injuries though they provoked some little tumults of the vulgar yet were they not sufficient to produce and necessitate another Civil War which not only the Spaniard desired as well for his own security to divert a War from himself as in order to his further designs but also the Cardinal of Lorain his Nephews now growing up though his brother the Duke was slain and therefore besides these other means were thought on to do that at least if they should fail to make way for their ends by taking off those who most stood in their way And to this purpose besides some lesser Confederacies for an irreconcilable war against the Protestants there was a Conspiracy which was begun indeed by the Duke of Guise in his life time but renued again and carried on by the same faction with the King of Spain for the cutting off of those of the Nobility who favored the Protestant doctrine and particularly for surprising the Queen of Navarre and her Children the next heirs to the Crown of France after the familie of Valois who were all children and in their power already and clapping them into the Spanish Inquisition But this being discovered by the Queen of Spain in receit to her mother the Queen mother of France who easily perceived what was aimed at and by others to the Queen of Navarre and so prevented the Legates of Spain the Pope and Savoy were by the means of the Cardinal of Lorain sent to perswade the King to admit the Councel of Trent in France and to that end to invite him to a Consultation of the Catholick Princes at Nancie in Lorain to enter into a Holy League for the extirpation of the Hereticks but the Queen mother neither liking the admission of the Councel nor to engage so openly against the Protestants the Legates were under some other pretenses dismissed Wherefore the next year the King being declared out of his Minority and with his Mother making a progress through all parts of the Kingdom an Enterview between them and the Queen of Spain accompanied with the Duke of Alva is so ordered that a more secret Consultation is held at Bayonne for the extirpation of the hereticks Jan. 1565. Davila l. 3. Thu. l. 37. and a Holy League made between the two Crowns for mutual assistance to that end and at last it is concluded according to the opinion of Alva which he said was the judgement of King Philip to cut off the chief heads of the Protestants and then in imitation of the * 30. May. 1282 When the French were all at an instant without distinction of age or â—eâ— cruelly slaughtered as were the Danâ—s here in England 282. years before that Sicilian Vespers to slaughter all the Protestants to the last man and because the intended Assembly at Moulins was already talked on that it would be best to make a slaughter of the Nobility assembling there from all parts and upon a sign given to exterminate the rest through out France This Thuanus relates from Jo. Bapt. Hadrianus who he saith wrote his history with very great fidelity and prudence and as is very likely extracted many things from the Commentaries of the Duke of Tuscany Father to the Queen Mother But as he further relates either because they did not all meet there or that for some other cause it seemed unseasonable that business was deferred to another time and was seven years after as was then continued put in execution at Paris at a more convenient place and occasion But from this time the Prince of Conde and the Colinies being admonished by their friends at Court of these bloody Counsels and thereupon suspitious of the Court designs were more cautious and wary Yet was Colinius at the Assembly at Moulins in January following Thu. l. 39. and there by solemn Oath purged himself of the death of the Duke of Guise and possibly might then make some further discovery into these secret counsels which if as is said they were at first designed to be put in execution there seem by the succeeding History to have been deferred for want of sufficient Forces ready and of fit instruments For afterward by the advice of Alva Thu. l. 4â— 6000 Swissers were hired and levies of Souldiers made in Champain and Picardy under pretence of guarding the Frontiers against Alva But this pretence quickly vanished by Alva's withdrawing from those parts as it was afterwards more fully detected of fraud and collusion by his sending them Forces in the War soon after following nevertheless the Swissers were still retained 43. Whereupon Thu. l. 42. all very well knowing that there was a better accord between the Courts of France and Spain especially since the enterview at Bayonne than that there needed any such Guards the Prince of Conde Colinius Andelot his Brother and the rest of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry began to be very sensible of their near approaching danger of ruine and after a long patience under Slaughters Banishments Calumnies loss of their Estates and Fortunes to consult together what course might be taken for the safety and preservation not only of their estates and liberties but of the lives of themselves and their wives and children They had seen and felt the Edicts made on their behalf partly eluded by the interpretations of new Edicts and Proscripts partly violated by the malice and iniquity of Judges and Presidents of the Provinces injuries and mischiefs every where done to them and even the murthers of no small number connived at and permitted to go unpunished And besides all this they had certain intelligence of those secret consultations held for their destruction and of other secret counsels held by Ambassadors with the Pope who fomented the hatred of those two Kings against them and besides the speeches and threats frequently given out that they were not like long to enjoy their Assemblies they saw plainly that those preparations which after the Cities which they inhabited were dismantled and Forts therein built and Garrisons put into them were at first made under such pretext as was no way probable and now continued without any at all were designed against them and were also informed thereof by intelligence from their friends Sures p. 768. and by letters intercepted from Rome and Spain Notwithstanding after a consultation or two it was resolved by common consent of all to use all mild and gentle means and therefore since now there remained no further pretence to retain them the Prince of Conde by his friends desires that since Alva is now retired into Belgium the Swissers may be dismissed But when instead of being dismissed or retained only to guard the Frontiers they found them daily march on nearer to the heart of the Kingdom and had further notice from the Court of their designs they at last assemble in great confusion and though every one saw the danger which hanged over their heads and was now ready to
involve them all yet great question there was how it should be prevented To complain they by experience knew what effect of that might be expected to Arm though in so great occasion of necessity and extremity they easily foresaw many inconveniences attending that They only unhappily not foresaw the proper remedy by their great Master prescribed in such case to fly though it had been to the greater humanity of the uncivilized Indians whereby they might perhaps better have consulted their own safety and also have promoted his service in the propagation of his Truth and Gospel But to Arm besides the mischiefs of a Civil War they thought that could not be without many calumnies and slanders cast upon them by their adversaries as if they were the Authors of it and undertook it against the King to whom they did not so much as impute their former injuries and oppressions or present dangers but only to their adversaries who having at first by force gotten the King into their power abused his immaturity and authority to ruine and destroy them and although they should take up Arms only against them and meerly for the necessary defence of the lives and fortunes of themselves their wives and children and for the preservation of the Kingdom yet should they not escape that imputation and therefore they unanimously agreed rather being innocent after the example of their ancestors to bear what injuries should be done them than to offer any to those who were indeed nocent lest by an ill defence of a good cause they should desert that Equity or Justice which had hitherto stood on their part till by the discourse of Andelot a person of great authority among the Peers and besides of known probity and virtue they were perswaded that after so often breach of Faith by their adversaries there was no further trust to be given to them and for the calumnies and slanders which should be cast upon them the issue of their so necessary undertakings if it pleased God to bless them in so just a cause would sufficiently clear them Upon which they changed their resolutions and agreed to take up Arms for their own defence which accordingly they did to the no little joy of the Cardinal of Lorain that the business was brought to the necessity of a War which Cardinali Lotaringus rem ad belli necessitatem deductam gaudens says Thuanus and a little before speaking of him Turbas consiliis suis opportunas existimans after several ineffectual treaties for an accommodation shortly ensued And these were the true causes and occasions of the second Civil War which after many Noblemen and Gentlemen of both sides slain at the Battel of St. Denis and among them the Constable the last of the Triumvirate and a principal Author of the late oppressions at least by protecting the actors in them from Justice and some other acts of Hostility was about six moneths after it began by a fraudulent peace rather intermitted than concluded for about six moneths after it broke out again upon the like causes and occasions 44. In the mean time that we may note it by the way Philip King of Spain a principal promoter and inventer of those oppressions and troubles to his neighbours escaped not a remarkable judgment of God upon him for at this same time Thu. l. 43. his eldest and then only son Prince Charles designed to kill him or at least he thought so or however suspecting that he favoured the Protestants in the Low-Countreys or for some other reason pretended so and therefore caused him to be taken out of his bed in the night and committed to custody Whereupon the young Prince falling distracted and often attempting to kill himself he was at last by Philip his Fathers own command having first consulted with the Inquisition poysoned Few months after his Queen whom he had employed in those bloudy consultations at the enterview at Bayonne died great with child and not without suspition of poison by his own means being as was thought jealous and suspitious of her too much familiarity with his own son whom he had not long before thus murthered And in her who was the eldest daughter of Hen. 2. of France married at the time of his death as hath been said and in this late consultation in France prosecuting his cruelties and so by her own act contracting a participation of his guilt we may take notice of the divine vengeance pursuing his posterity Nor was this divine vengeance upon King Philip thus remarkable only in those his domestick troubles but also in the Civil Commotions both in the Low-Countreys which by his bloudy consultations with the Inquisition the just judgment of God giving him up to be infatuated by them and the Jesuites and the the cruelties of Alva the same instrument whom he had employed to raise those troubles in France and now made Governor of the Low-Countreys produced there when he thought all things so safe and secure as that he might be at leisure to assist in the troubles which he had raised in France and besides these which as they at present afflicted him so afterward produced his loss of a great part of those Countreys in those Commotions even in Spain it self Thu. l. 43. by the Moors in Granada which for two years during those wars which he had caused in France made him feel the smart at home of such commotions and troubles as he had procured to others abroad And by these means as on the one side his pernitious counsels were justly punished so on the other was he diverted from prosecuting the same by sending those Forces against the Protestants in France which otherwise he had undoubtedly done Thu. l. 58. And to these might be added his loss of Goletta in Africa an 1574. and with it the Kingdom of Tunis which concerned him in point of safety and security for navigation as well as of reputation but that some few years intervene 45. But to return to France the War after six months intermission upon the like causes and occasions breaking out again like diseases upon a relapse was both more violent and of longer continuance Yet the counsels of the Queen-mother prevailing who according to the genius and mode of her Country sought all along rather by her Italian arts and surprizes to compass her ends than by the hazard of a Civil War which Spain and the Guises most desired as best accommodate to their designs Thu. l. 47. it was within the compass of two years brought to conclusion upon such conditions granted to the Protestants as were so much more fair and reasonable by how much with greater fraud and deep design to ensnare them they were granted and yet so qualified and limited as not to give cause of suspition by too great indulgence And now the King was grown up to a capacity of deriving upon himself his Fathers guilt and the guilt of all those murthers and cruelties acted indeed
both to them and to the Princes and States abroad Thu. l. 52. It had been considered before-hand out of that sense and pre-apprehension they had of the wickedness and foulness of the design how to cast the imputation of it upon the Guises who also out of the same sense and pre-apprehension endeavoured all they could to avoid the odium of it And being done the King immediately whether affrighted and terrified says Thuanus with the atrocity of the fact or fearing the odium of it dispatched his Letters to the Presidents of the Provinces to lay all the blame upon the Guises alledging that it was done without his privity or consent that they fearing that the friends and relations of Colinius would revenge the injury done to him upon them had raised the tumult which he was not able to repress in time with a great deal to this purpose And to the same purpose were Letters written by the Queen and sent not only through France but also to the Helvetians and dispersed through England and in divers parts of Germany But as it usually happens upon the perpetration of such horrid crimes and wickedness that the authors of them distracted with the horrors of their guilty conscience when they find no satisfaction or assurance of security in any course they take to conceal or palliate their crime continually devise and attempt new ways and means and by their often change and inconstancy to any promote that discovery which they seek to evade so it happened in this case For as these Letters were disproved by his express commands which as Davila relates he had but few daies before sent out so doth he now again in few days after contract the same and in full Senate declares that all was done by his own will and command and orders so much to be entred of record in the publick acts of the Curt. Cicaâ—el in vita Gâ—â—â— 13. Thu. l. 53. And though to the Pope and Spaniard he owned that he did it upon the score of Religion yet knowing that with others this would not so much excuse as aggravate and increase the odium of it some other cause was to be devised and pretended And therefore first to extenuate the fact 〈◊〉 l. 54. he pretends that his commands extended only to the cutting off of Colinius and his Confederates which thing being once undertaken the tumult at Paris proceeded further than he intended or was able so soon as he desired to restrain and that other Cities taking example from thence did the like without his license and to his great grief and trouble and then for the cause pretends a Conspiracy against himself his Mother and Brothers and Navar himself and to make Conde King and afterwards to kill him also and set up Colinius And though the causes pretended against Colinius in the judgment of the most prudent men who were not at all addicted to the Protestant party says Thuanus had not so much colour of truth as will perswade even children to believe them much less any sufficient proof yet to put some colour upon the business a Trial was ordered to be had in form of Law and two days after a Jubilâ—e as hath been said was appointed and an Edict published wherein the King declares that what had happened was done by his express command but not out of hatred to the Protestant Religion or to derogate from the Edicts of Pacification which he still desired should be inviolably and religiously observed but to prevent the Conspiracy of Colinius and his Confederates c. and Letters to like purpose were sent to the Presidents of the Provinces declaring as was pretended the TRUE causes of the tumult and commanding them to treat the Protestants in all friendly manner Thu. l. 53. c. And that nothing might be wanting says Thuanus to the height of madness that they might seem to glory and triumph in so detestable an enterprise in emulation of the ancient Emperors Medals were coyned with the Inscriptions VIRTUS IN REBELLEIS PIETAS EXCITAVIT JUSTITIAM Divers other such like arts were used to put a face upon the business and make it look like a happy prevention of some terrible Conspiracy But what was the most detestable of all by the accumulating of sin upon sin as is usual in such cases was the gross abuse of Justice it self whereby the Courts of Justice were drawn into the participation of the guilt by an horrible and abominable Sentence not only against Colinius who was dead but his children who were alive and also against Monsieur de Briquemaut who had fled to the English Ambassadors and Arnald Cavagnes Master of Requests who had hid himself hard-by with a friend who admonished him of the danger but were both taken and imprisâ—ned in the Palace and the same day that Sentence was given against Colinius were condemned to death which Cavagnes suffered with admirable constancy reciting Prayers out of the Psalms by heart in Latin for three hours together with his eyes steadily fixed towards Heaven but his companion at first affrighted with his approaching death made an unworthy offer for the redemption of his life to discover a means how to surprize Rochel yet afterwards when the King refused that condition but offered him another which was that he should acknowledg himself guilty of the crimes objected to him and confess before the people that there was a Conspiracy entred into by Colinius against the King he refused that and chose rather to suffer death which accordingly he did with Cavagnes While these such like arts were used to excuse and disguise the business at home to do it abroad besides the Queens Letters above-mentioned were several Ambassadors employed in Helvetia Germany England Poland and other foreign Countries where they either resided before or were sent on purpose for this service and Learned men suborned and perswaded to do it by printed Books But all these not having any certain ground of truth as a common foundation for all to build upon while each alledged not what he did know or believe to be true but what his own genius dictated as most plausible and likely to put some colour upon the business some extenuating the fact as to the King 's acting in it and others on the contrary justifying the same some excusing it only by way of recrimination for things done in the late Wars and others insisting upon the pretended conspiracy of Colinius were not only confuted by others who also in print answered their writings and speeches but of themselves betrayed and detected the vanity of their several pretences and allegations by their inconsistency and disagreement one with another The Learned Lawyer Fr. Baldwin was hereunto sollicited but was more ingenuous than to be retained in the patronage of so foul a cause and yet among those who undertook this office besides the Mercenaries were some persons otherwise of honour and repute who because what was done could not be
of the people and great converse of the Clergy in favour of the League became so formidable to the King that he was forced to a new agreement with them against the Protestants Da. p. 557. to banish their Preachers confiscate their estates and with all speed denounce a War against them wherein such men should be made Commanders as the League should confide in and a great deal more partly against the Protestants and partly to strengthen their own party Da. p. 598. This agreement was made by the King only to comply with his present necessity and not with any intention to perform it For being now out of hope of issue himself he resolved to further Navar 's right and to unite himself with him as his lawful Successor and make him partaker in matters of Government to which end he held secret correspondence with him Da. p. 600. But the Leaguers force him to go on with the War and upon the score of his treaty with Navar raise great clamors and calumnies against him that the cause of Religion is betrayed the Protestants openly favoured the course of the War interrupted and that the King shews openly that his mind is averse to the Catholick party and that he desires by all means to cherish and maintain heresy Da. p. 606. And now the minds of the people are more than ever inflamed against his person and proceedings which were publickly inveighed against in the Pulpits and particularly slandered in private meetings Thu. l. 86. but especially by the Priests at the secret confessions of the people whom they refused to absolve unless they would enter into the League and for the more secret carrying on of the business intrusted in this new Doctrine that as well the Penitent who shall reveal what he hears from his Confessor as the Confessor who reveals what the Penitent confesseth doth incur the guilt of mortal sin From calumnies and slanders they proceed to conspiracies and actions And at Paris they set up a new Council of sixteen Da. p. 606. Thu. l. 86. which hold their secret meetings first at the Colledg of Forlet commonly called the cradle of the League afterwards at the Colledge of the Dominicans and at the Jesuites Colledge they plot to surprize Boulogne and there to admit the Spanish Fleet prepared against England Da. p. 609. Thu. l. 86. They also consult about taking the King himself as he returned from the Boys de Vincernes with a small guard And both these enterprizes being discovered to the King failing Thu. l. 87. they set up a seditious Preacher to inveigh against the King and his Counsellors and not doubting but thereupon the King would send to apprehend him they determine upon that occasion to stir up the people and thereupon take up arms and destroy both him and those about him who were faithful to him Which in part proceeded and perhaps had been accomplished if the King had not timely recalled those he had employed whereupon he was advised to depart from Paris which he did but not long after returning thither he is presented with a Petition which at a Consultation at Nancy where it was concluded that Guise and the other confederate Lord Da. p. 668. Thu. l. 90. should not enter to oppose the King at the very first was so contrived that if he granted it their desires would be effected without noise or trouble and if he refused he should thereby give them occasion and opportunity to make use of arms and to acquire that by force which he would not consent to of his own accord And though the King did not so much refuse as by excuses delay to answer it the Preachers labour to cast all the odium they can upon him inveigh against him as favouring the hereticks and on the other side highly extol and magnify the Catholick Princes so they called the Guisians And Guise his coming to the City is by frequent Letters much importuned which though according to the former conclusion he at present deferred yet were some experienced Souldiers sent to them he not being willing to trust to the City Commanders alone And now reckoning their strength 20000 men there is a new Conspiracy to fall upon the Louvre and killing the guard and all about him whom they suspect to seize upon the King But this was also discovered and the Council of sixteen who thought there might be some hazard in that resolve upon a more safe course to seize upon him when he should be in procession as he was wont in the habit of a Penitent among the whipping Friars and shut him up in a Monastery with a strong Guard and in the mean time a report should be spread abroad as if the King was taken away by the Protestants at which the people should take up arms and fall upon the Politicks and those they suspected And this being also discovered the King consults how to secure himself against the Conspirators In the mean time the Duke of Guise unexpectedly comes to Paris contrary to the King's command And while the King seeks to strengthen himself and preventing the Leaguers to secure the most important places of the City the Parisians are raised at the ringing of the Bells make Barricadoes cross the streets come up to the Louvre and begin to assault it Whereupon the Queen-Mother goes to Guise in her Sedan being denied passage in her Coach and confers with him but brings back nothing but complaints and exorbitant demands But the siege pressing much on the one side when it was feared they would likewise besiege it on the other the Queen mother going again to Guise and having notice by the way that 15000 men were preparing to enclose the Louvre on the other side holds him in a long treaty while the King with 26 Gentlemen steals secretly away to Chartres to the no small grief of Guise and the Leaguers who had lost so fair an opportunity Whereupon they secure and strengthen Paris lay siege to the Boys de Vincernes which yielded without resistance as did also St. Cloud Lagny Charranton with all the other neighbouring Towns The King being again reduced to his former straits of accepting the assistance of the Protestants or yielding to such terms as the Leaguers would please to give him after long consultation at length resolved to use the same means against Guise which he remembred had been used in the reign of his Brother Charles against the Admiral Coligny and his Adherents and to that end feigned to consent to the opinion of those who perswaded him to unite himself to the Duke of Guise And having upon a treaty concluded a Peace upon almost the same conditions which were contained in the Petition framed at Nancy Thu. l. 91. he receives Guise much after the same manner that his Brother did Coligny with great expressions of honour causes the Edict of the Union to be presently published the War against the Protestants proclaimed for
the prosecution whereof according to the Articles of the Peace two several Armies were appointed Guises atchievements were highly magnified by the Leaguers in France and no less by the Pope at Rome who sent to him and to the Cardinal Bourbon his Congratulatory Letters full of high praises which were presently published in print and dispersed abroad Wherein he commends their piety and zeal in promoting the business of Religion comparing Guise to the Holy Maccabees the defenders of the people of Israel so highly extolled in the Sacred Scriptures and exhorting him to continue succesfully and gloriously to fight for the advancement of the Church and the total extirpation of the Protestants acquaints him with his own uncessant prayers for the Divine assistance to him adding that nothing could be more seasonable for the present occasion than that he should have his Legate in France by whose means and authority their endeavours might be promoted for the good of the Kingdom and of the Catholick Religion And if any thing more be necessary to be done by him he desires to be certified of it who shall never be wanting to their cause Guise and the Leaguers being not a little animated by these things Thu. l. 93. the Assembly of the States at Blois which was called upon this late agreement and were most of the faction of the League especially the Order of the Clergy which did in a manner wholly incline to that side with great heat pronounce the King of Nivar for his crime of heresy unworthy of the succession of the Kingdom which being decreed by the Clergy and upon their signification and admonition universally subscribed by the other two orders holding it a great fault in the cause of Religion to dissent from the Ecclesiasticks the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun with twelve of each Order repair to the King and desire that by his authority and a publick Edict the Decree may be confirmed But the King utterly averse from it though he would not plainly deny it yet put it off as well as he could but such was the obstinacy of the States that he was forced at last to answer that he agreed to the general vote and would think of causing the Decree to be framed Guise also with all his might urged the receiving of the Council of Trent whereunto though the King consented yet was it rejected with great contradiction not only by the Nobility but by a great many of the Clergy This was urged by him partly as a powerful engine against the Protestants partly further to oblige the Pope if it succeeded and to raise a prejudice in him against the King if it succeeded not by his default And to ingratiate himself the more with the people he moves for ease of grievances by impositions and taxes though a thing inconsistent with the prosecution of the War against the hereticks But the King finding now a convenient opportunity to execute his design acquaints some of his confidents with it and having ordered all things so as to avoid the suspition of Guise much after the manner heretofore used against Colinius he commands him to be slain which was accordingly * The manner of his death see in the notes upon the history of the Massacre Sect. 17. done and the Cardinal his Brother being with many Lords and adherents of that Faction at the same time committed to custody was about two daies after by the King's command in like manner slain Thus do those who had wickedly conspired the barbarous slaughter of so many innocent Protestants now by the just judgment and vengeance of God upon them mutually conspire one anothers destruction And that City which was then so forward in executing the wicked counsels and commands of savage and perfidious men is now as forward in executing the just judgments of the righteous God upon one of the chief Authors of them and they who before had been the instruments of his cruelty are now made the instruments of his punishment 53. Thu. l. 93. Da. l. 10. Upon the news of these things spread abroad the Leaguers are all in an an uproar and at Paris having held a Council where nothing almost was heard but reproaches against the King and cries for revenge the Duke of Aumale is called out of a Monastery to be their Governor the Preachers from their Pulpits thunder out the praises of the Duke of Guise his Martyrdom and detestations of that slaughter most cruelly committed by the King in such manner that not only the minds of the baser people but also of the most noted Citizens were won by their perswasions and inflamed with an infinite desire to take revenge Thu. l. 94 Da. p. 762. Foul. c. 5. p. 530. and the Council of sixteen cause a writing to be presented to the famous Colledg of Divines called the Sorbon in the name of the Provost and Eschevins of the City containing these two Questions 1. Whether they should not be free from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to Henry the third And 2. Whether they might not with safe Conscience arm unite collect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Roman Catholick Religion in this Kingdom against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the King aforesaid and all other his adherents whomsoever and against his breach of publick Faith at Blois c. Whereunto upon mature deliberation at an assembly of seventy Masters of that Faculty and solemn resolution it was answered 〈◊〉 refragante 1. That the people of this Kingdom are free and at liberty from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to King Henry aforesaid 2. That the same people lawfully and with safe conscience * Dav. p. 763. that the King had forfeited his right to the Crown and that his Subjects not only might but ought to cast off their obedience c. may arm unite collect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the aforesaid King and whomsoever adhering to him since he hath violated the publick Faith to the prejudice of the Catholick Religion and of the Edict of the holy Vnion and of the natural liberty of the assembly of the three Estates of this Kingdom Moreover they think fit that this Decree or conclusion be sent to the Pope that he may by the authority of the holy See approve and confirm it and afford his help and assistance Fonl. p. 533. And accordingly a Letter is drawn up and sent by the Parisians in the name of themselves and the rest of the Catholicks in France wherein they represent to him the zeal of the people all good men being ready to lay down their lives rather than suffer that Tyranny and more than 10000 of the Parisians filling the streets with cries to Heaven for vengeance against the Tyrant others whipping the statue of the Tyrant breaking it to pieces and throwing it into the fire Da.
shoulders and having on instead of them Head-pieces and Coats of Male and after them the younger Monks in the same habit but armed with Muskets which they frequently and inconsiderately fired at those they met with a shot whereof one of Cardinal Cajetans domesticks was killed who being slain at so religious a shew was therefore held to be received into the blessed companies of the Confessors After this was made another Procession by the Duke of Nemours and Claud Brother to the Duke of Aumale who commanded the Infantry and the rest of the Officers of the Army who upon the great Altar of the principal Church renewed their League and Covenant and swore upon the Gospel to live and die for the cause of Religion and to defend the City against Navar. The Pope also that this Rebellion might want no authority which his infallibility could give it though there was no other scruple to his right and title but only his Religion fought against him with both swords by his Monitory against the Prelates c. who submitted to his obedience by his Legate Cardinals and other Emissaries sent to encourage the Rebels and by his forces and mony Thu. l. 102. whereof in about 10 months time he wasted 5000000 of aureos most upon the French War when there was more need of it to have relieved the poor who in the mean time died of famine at home and Clem. 8. Thu. l. 103. who not long after succeeded in that Chair said he was resolved in himself to spend all his treasures and bloud too if there was need to exclude Navar from his expected possession of the Kingdom Nor was their good son the Catholick King of Spain wanting to the promotion of so just a cause And in his own Army though many Thu. l. 97. otherwise of the Romish Religion submitted to him without any conditions or delay and others were satisfied with his word and promise which his former faithfulness had made of great authority even with his enemies v. Perefix p. 112. that he would refer all matters of Religion to a Lawful General or National Council and others with his Oath yet many having more regard to their own private interest and concerns than to their duty deserted him and either stood neuter to see which way the scales would turn or turned to the Leaguers Nevertheless not only of the Nobility Gentry and Laity but also of the Clergy Prelates Arch-Bishops Bishops and others many were more sensible of their duty than either to be drawn with such false though specious pretences or to be affrighted with the terrors of the Pope's pretended authority from it And therefore when the Pope's Mandates were read in the Parliament which sat at Tours Thu. l. 101. they made an Act of Parliament whereby the Monitorials made at Rome Mar. 1. were declared Nul Abusive Seditious to be damned full of impieties and importures contrary to the sacred Decrees Rights Immunities and liberties of the Gallican Church and it was decreed that the Copies of them sealed with the seal of Marsil Landiranus and signed by Sextil Lampinetus should be by the common Hangman publickly torne and burnt before the Palace Gates c. that Landiranus who pretending himself the Popes Legate brought those Mandates should be apprehended c. and Gregory calling himself Pope the 14th of that name was declared an enemy of the publick Peace of the Vnion of the Catholick Church and of the King and Kingdom a partaker of the Spanish Conspiracy a Favourer of Robels and guilty of the cruel detestable and inhumane parricide treacherously committed upon the most Christian and truly Catholick King Henr. 3. And this was required to be published by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops through their Diocesses The like was also done at Chaulâ—m and Caen. The next day after this was an Edict made in favour of the Pretestants with the general consent of all as necessary published whereby the Edict of July was revoked and the former Edicts in favour of the Protestants restored And very fair they were to have created a Patriarch of their own in France which the Senate urged but was opposed by the new Cordinal of Bourbon a man of no worth who was out of hope of being the man himself and was a promoter of a new faction of the Thirdlings among the King's party yet in those things which concerned the Collation of Benefices they gave that power to the Arch-Bishop which the Pope had usurped or pretended The King in a speech to a great Assembly of the Nobility and Officers of his Army upon the death of the former King had told them that of those things which Thu. l. 97. as they knew his Predecessor had at his death recommended to him this was the chief That he should maintain his Subjects of the Roman Catholick and of the Reformed Religion in equal liberty aequabili in libertate till by the authority of a lawful Occumenical or National Council something should be decreed concerning that difference which he would religiously observe and professed before them all that he had rather that day should be his last than to do any thing whereby be might be said to waver in his Faith or to have renounced that Religion which hitherto he had professed before he should be further instructed by a lawful Council to whose authority he did submit himself and therefore he gave free leave to those who were not satisfied with this to depart adding and when they have forsaken me yet God will never forsake me who I call your selves to witness from my childhood hath as it were led me by the hand and heaped upon me great and unconceivable benefits Nor did the beneficence of God toward David appear greater or more miraculous than when beyond the expectation of all through so many difficulties and dangers he brought me to the Throne so that I ought not in the least to doubt but he who breaking through so many obstacles hath called me to the Kingdom will preserve me in it and defend me against all the assaults of my enemies c. I value not the Kingdom of France no nor the Empire of the whole World so much that for the obtaining of them I would make any defection from that Religion which as true I have from my tender years imbibed with my Mothers milk and embrace any other faith than what as I have said before should be resolved in a lawful Council The like confidence in God Da. p. 900. Perefix p. 147. Thu. l. 98. with resignation to his will he afterwards expressed in a pious Prayer in the head of his Army before the Battel of Yvry after which he obtained a very notable Victory over a much greater Army Yet notwithstanding after all this whether through the importunity of the Roman Catholicks of his own party or the violence of his enemies who were assembled to elect a Catholick King Thu. l. 106 107. which was
persons This renewed the odium of the Jesuits who were reputed not only to have been the * So Day in the Sâ—ory of Chastel calls them the first authors and continual fomentors of the League p. 1232. first inventers of this mischievous War but also what by their profane Sermons what by the poison of their naughty Doctrine secretly in confession instilled into the minds of the inraged people to have exposed by a pernitious example the sacred persons of Princes to be murdered by every one The next danger of this kind which he was in came yet a little nearer to him Thu. l. 111. when in the Chamber of his †Perefix p. 229. beloved Mistress happily at the instant stooping to salute a Gentleman that came in he received that stroke only at his mouth and without greater hurt than the loss of a tooth which was designed at his heart by John Chastel a Scholar of the Jesuites who through a flagitious life grown desperate hoped by so heroick an act for the cause of the Roman Catholick Religion to merit though not Salvation whereof he despaired yet some mitigation of his punishment perhaps from the eighth degree to the fourth He was educated and studied in the Jesuites School and was assistant in Philosophy to John Guerret a Priest of that Society and though vitious above his age yet was in esteem with those Fathers who used to admit him among their choice disciples to their more secret conferences and religious exercises and had often heard in that Society that it was not only lawful to kill the King but a thing much conducing to the cause of Religion whereof it seems he was so throughly perswaded that notwithstanding the terribleness of his execution he expressed no signs of sorrow or repentance but on the contrary being first put to the rack gave out such assertions as the Court declared seditious contrary to the word of God and condemned by the sacred Decrees and made it treason to repeat them As he had before freely confessed Da. p. 1332. so when he was tortured he confirmed the same that he was bred up in the Schools of the Jesuites and had often heard it discoursed and disputed that it was not only lawful but also meritorious to kill Henry of Bourbon the King a relapsed Heretick and often said that he learned that Doctrine from them Whereupon their Colledge being searched among the papers of F. John Guignard were found many writings that taught that Doctrine many things against the late King and that praised the murder of him and likewise against the present King that perswaded the killing of him and tending to sedition and parricide that it would be well done to thrust Navar though professing the Catholick Religion into a Monastery there to do penance if without war he cannot be deposed war is to be made against him if war cannot be made he must by any means be taken out of the way c. all which he was convicted to have written with his own hand and was therefore hanged Also John Gueret the ordinary Confessor of Chastel F. Alexander Haye and John Bell all of the same Society were likewise convicted of the like offences but were condemned only to perpetual banishment and confiscation of their goods 57. Thu. l. 37. The Society of the Jesuites to whom the Bishop of Clermont gave his house in Paris called Clermont house from whence they were called the Society of Clermont by those who disliked their ambitious arrogant appropriating to themselves the Title of Jesuites as that which doth belong to all true Christians was by the recommendation of Charles Cardinal of Lorrain the Guisians alwaies highly favouring this new Society first admitted in France in the year 1550. by Henr. 2. of whom was obtained a Charter for them to build and erect a School at Paris but there only and not in other Cities But when this Charter and the Pope's Bull of confirmation of their institution were brought into the Court to be allowed and were read the Parliament referred them both to the consideration of the Bishop of Paris and of the Colledge of Divines Whereupon they gave their Sentence in writing to this effect That this new Society by an insolent Title appropriating to themselves the name of Jesus and so licentiously admitting any persons howsoever illegitimate facinorous and infamous without any respect and which nothing differs from other secular persons in Rites Ceremonies or rule of living whereby the Orders of Monks are distinguished moreover is endowed with so many Priviledges Liberties and Immunities especially in the Administration of the Sacraments to the prejudice of the Prelates and of the Sacred Order and also even of the Princes and Lords and to the great grievance of the people contrary to the Priviledges of the Vniversity of Paris seems to violate the honourableness of the Monastick Order to enervate the studious pious and necessary exercise of Virtue Abstinence Ceremonies and Authority and also to give occasion to others to forsake their Vows to withdraw their due Obedience from the Prelates unjustly deprive the Lords both Ecclesiastical and others of their rights to introduce great disturbance in the Civil Ecclesiastical Government Quarrels Suits Dissentions Contentions Emulations Rebellions and various Scissures that for these causes this Society seems very dangerous in respect of Religion as that which is like to disturb the Peace of the Church to enervate the Monastick Discipline and to tend more to Destruction than to Edification This so startled the Society that they desisted from any further prosecution till the Reign of Francis 2. When the Guisians who highly favoured this new Society carrying all before them they resumed the business again and first the Bishop of Paris Eust Bellaius was required to give his Sentence which he did in writing That that Society as all new Orders was very dangerous and at these times instituted rather to stir up Commotions than to make up the Peace of the Church and after a sharp censure of their arrogant title adding that in the priviledges granted to it by Paul 3. are many things repugnant to the Common Law and prejudicial to the power and authority of the Bishops Curates and Vniversities and therefore it would be more advisable that since they are by the Pope appointed and bound to instruct the Turks and Infidels and publish the Gospel among them yet in places which are near to them they should have their Colledges assigned as heretofore the Knights of Rhodes had in the borders and out skirts of the Christians This and the other sentence being read and considered by the King in Counsel the Court notwithstanding through the instigation of the Cardinal of Lorrain was commanded to publish as well the Pope's as the King's Charter without any regard to the intercession of the Bishop and Colledge of Divines and the Jesuites exhibited a supplication to the Court whereby they subjected themselves to the
horrid murthers of all his friends the more excusable About eighteen years after when he was grown up to maturity about the thirty sixt year of his age and had given some testimony of his constancy in his Profession and for his encouragement had received no small testimonies of Divine favour not only preserving and conducting him safe through many dangers and difficulties but leading him by the hand to the possession of the Kingdom and making way for him by the extirpation of a whole Family another Trial was assigned him by the great Agonothetes V. Ecclesiasticus 2.1.2 3 c. who never ceaseth to provide new matter and occasions of trial and exercise for all those who once apply themselvs to his service till either by many mutual experiments given and received of their fidelity and constancy to him and of his admirable Providence never failing them but ordering all for their good they become more than Conquerors and well setled and confirmed in his service one great reason of the difficulties and adversities wherewith good men are frequently exercised or on the other side after many acts of unfaithfulness whereby their courage and resolution is more and more broken and abated they become easily affrighted or allured from their duty and at last either wholly deserting or little regarding the same are accordingly by him abandoned to the deceitful and pernitious courses of their own lusts and devices The former was a trial whether he would be frighted or forced from his fidelity this rather whether he would be allured from it In the former he failed and now having had time to repent and resume new courage and resolution he is again called upon the stage and in the first assault he behaved himself not much amiss For who can mislike his referring all to the determination and advice of a lawful General or National Council had be been sincere and continued constant in this resolution V. Thu. l. 98. 101 103. Nor did he want encouragement in this respect from the forward and couragious opposition which on his behalf was made against the Pope's Bulls by his Subjects even of the Roman Communion and not only by the Civil Power but the Clergy also concurring therein who moreover gave him a fair opportunity and kind of invitation either by setting up a Patriarch in France V. Thu. l. 103. which had been very agreeable to the first flourishing state of the Church after the times of Persecution or by restoring to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops their ancient authority which was in some sort done and held for four years after to have cast of that Antichristian yoke of the Papal Usurpations under which he afterwards neglecting that opportunity unhappily enslaved himself and his Kingdom and so having reformed that grand abominable abuse he might with the more facility afterwards have established by the mature deliberation of a lawful Council such a Reformation of the Gallican Church as perhaps might not have been inferior to any which hath been made in other places And afterwards L. 107. when he resolved to be reconciled to the Church they admitted and absolved him notwithstanding the Pope's Legate opposed it all he could contending that he could not be absolved by any but the Pope But these things which might have given encouragement to a conscientious and truly pious mind to constancy and further dependance upon God to him perhaps proved a further tentation their fidelity to him making their perswasions to change his Religion the more prevalent with him especially concurring with a more powerful motive viz. the reducing of the rest of the Kingdom to his obedience And therefore though like David he waxed stronger and stronger and the League like the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker yet in about half the time that David was kept out of the greatest part of his Kingdom he began to yield to the tentation And first when the Leaguers through the incitations of the Pope and the King of Spain were about to assemble to choose a Catholick King though that was not unlikely to break their party by their emulations and divisions concerning the person forgetting his former resolutions and neglecting his conscience instead of dependance upon the Divine Providence he applies himself to humane Policies and resolves to change his Religion without staying for the determination of a lawful either General or National Council L. 107. And this after a few hours instruction whereby he pretended he was much informed of what he was ignorant before being solemnly done he next not long after by a * L. 107 108. special Embassador makes supplication to the Pope to be admitted to his favour And though he had presently hereupon two notable experiments by the attempts of Barriere and Chastel of the vanity and deceitfulness of such shifts and humane Policies without the favour of the Divine Protection and Blessing besides a faithful and sound admonition from the good Queen Elizabeth yet his confidence and reliance upon God being before weakned it commonly proving with perverted minds as with corrupted stomachs which turn their natural food and nourishment into the nourishment of their disease these did but provoke him to the more earnest pursuit of humane politick means and therefore again when he had already broken the party of the League L. 109. L. 10â— and Paris wherein their chief strength lay had submitted to him and besides all this the Pope had unworthily repulsed his Embassador and given him a just provocation which certainly he might have improved with the concurrence and good liking of the French Nobility and Clergy toward the reformation of that abominable abuse of the Papacy which is the original or prop of all the rest he was notwithstanding easily wrought upon at the slight intimation of the Pope who when he saw it was in vain longer to oppose him L. 113. was very willing to receive his submission to send another Embassie and basely prostrate himself to him basely I say because it is not likely that he did it out of Conscience or Religion but rather out of fear of Emissaries and Assassins which is * A percussoribus qui quotidie vitae ejus insidiantur metuentem expresly mentioned by his Agents to the Pope as a motive to his reconciliation and for the same reason 't is likely as hath been shewed before he at last notwithstanding all perswasions earnest intercessions and supplications to the contrary restored the Jesuites again and among other favours subjected the government of his conscience to them This was the foundation upon which he built his Greatness which having laid for his security he presently set himself to heap up Treasures and at last raised a great Army for the execution of some grand design which whatever it was in truth he pretended to be for the promotion of the Christian cause against the Infidels But alas all was built upon a sandy foundation he had forsaken the
they did were only such turbulent spirits or poor deluded souls as many of these Nor hath the holy providence of God escaped their prophane abuse by entitling it to such trifles as a prudent Historian would disdain to mention and palpable lyes as may be seen in Sanders Ribadeneira and other such like Writers To which if we add the abuse of miracles by lyes and forgeries we shall find that the gates of Hell that is the counsels have prevailed against these degenerate successors of Peter with a witness Nor could a more effectual means be devised for the subversion of Christianity and all Religion not the very arms of Mahomet and his sect than this mystery of iniquity nor if it be well considered hath the whole World produced any thing which doth better deserve the name of Antichrist And indeed if we consider the present growth of Atheism and Infidelity among us and trace it to its roots and original we shall find it all to be of an Italian Extraction and from thence propagated to France and so to England and other parts Nor shall we find any other reasons for it than what are here mentioned the Italians perceiving better what is acted among themselves than those who are more remote For let the Italian subtilty be what it will I think it is plain that they have made no deeper search into either the secrets of Nature or of Antiquity from one or both of which they must derive their principles if they have others besides what are here mentioned than other Nations have made 63. And now before I conclude I must crave leave to make this address to several sorts of persons distinctly And first to all Christians in general that they will seriously consider whether they be not obliged for the honour and reputation of our holy Profession and whether our great Lord doth not require it of them to declare against this Romish Faction and their Unchristian or rather Antichristian and abominable scandalous principles and practices that is all National Churches and Vniversities publickly by solemn Decrees and Protestations if not by excommunication and all particular private Christians by abstaining from their communion and coming out of that Babylon that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues 2. To those who are not of that Communion and have hitherto escaped those delusions that they beware that they be not again entangled therein For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment 2. That they be careful that they do not hold the truth in unrighteousness Atrocius sub sancti nominis professione peccatur but walk worthy of their vocation c. worthy of God who hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory out of darkness into his marvellous light as children of the light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them and as becometh the Gospel of Christ and that while they separate from the scandals of others they themselves do not administer occasion of scandal to others 3. That they who are in authority whether in Church or State be careful both by their example and authority as much as in them lieth to discourage and suppress all manner of vice and debauchery and to encourage and promote all manner of virtue and particularly piety and devotion in Religion For as vice and debauchery and even coldness and indifference in matters of Religion in any man makes him the more obnoxious to the delusions of the Papists so they well perceiving so much by experience are not without reason believed to endeavour first the debauching of the Nation that the people being thereby the better prepared and disposed to receive their impressions they may the more easily compass their design as Physitians who cannot immediately cure the present distemper of their Patient are fain many times by art to divert it into some other disease which they hope more easily to cure Nor do the Papists look upon debauchery as a more dangerous disease than that they call heresy This is such a means as is of natural efficacy to obviate and obstruct the endeavors of the Papists but of all most likely to be effectual by the blessing of God upon it whereas the neglect of it doth both naturally expose the people to their delusions and is most likely to provoke the judgment of God to give them up to be deluded by them Nor need Governors to fear that their people will prove less morigerous and governable by being more devotely affected to Religion but may well hope the contrary provided they will require nothing of them that may be thought contrary to Religion which certainly they need not Christianity containing nothing inconsistent with any solid principle of policy 4. That they be careful to walk worthy of their vocation particularly in that wherein the Apostle doth particularly instance and which he earnestly urgeth endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing according to the truth in Charity Eph. 4.1 3 15. for it must be remembred that separation and division among Christians is like homicide generally unlawful and though the one as well as the other in certain special cases and under certain circumstances may be not only lawful but an indispensible duty which the Romanists cannot with any reason deny since it hath been the judgment and frequent indeed too frequent practice of that Church both anciently and of later ages as is apparent in their excommunications of whole Churches even all or most of the Eastern Churches and in the last age many of the Western for no other cause but the reformation of many scandalous abuses which the Church or Bishops of Rome by their Agents had transfused into them whereby they do unanswerably justify our separation from them were not themselves the authors of it for just and necessary causes yet ought not this to be done but with great caution and mature deliberation and under such conditions as these 1. That it be just and necessary for just and necessary causes 2. That it be done with Charity and with intention and desire to return to communion again as soon as the causes of the separation are removed and reformed 3. And therefore that it be done with Sobriety not widening the difference or quarrelling at such things as may be or ought to be tolerated such as being in their own nature indifferent are left to the prudent ordering and disposition of each particular National or Provincial Church Unaquaeque Provincia abundet in suo sensu c. Hier. ep 28. v. can ult Concilii Ephesiu so as may be best for order decency and edification that it proceed no further than for just and necessary causes it ought lest if we measure truth as for example in this case by its distance from
his office Also Dionysius Perrotus the Son of Aemilius Senator of Paris a man not less renowned for his integrity than his knowledge in law worthy of such a Father underwent the same fortune 19. Nor did they spare those whom Navar being advised so to do by the King had brought into the Palace for they were by the King's command made to come down from their Masters chambers into the Court-yard and being brought out of the Palace their swords being taken from them they were many of them presently slain at the Gate others were hurried to the slaughter without the Palace Among these were Pardallanius Sammartinus Bursius and Armannus Claromontius Pilius famous for his late valour in defending the Temple of St. John He when he was led out to be butchered standing before the heaps of the slain is said to cry out Is this the King's faith Are these his promises Is this the peace But thou O most great and most good God behold the cause of the oppressed and as a just Judge avenge this perfidy and cruelty and putting off his Coat which was very rich gave it to a certain Gentleman of his acquaintance that stood by Take this from me as a remembrance of my unworthy death which gift he not accepting under that condition whiles Pilius said these things he was thrust into the side with a spear of which would he fell down and died Leiranus now grievously wounded but escaping out of the hands of the murderers rushing into the Queen of of Navars chamber and hiding himself under her bed was preserved and being carefully commended by Margaret to the King's Physitians was healed Bellonarius formerly Tutor to the King of Navar having a long time lien under the Gout was slain in his bed The King received to his grace Grammontanus Lord of Gascoign Johannes Durforlius Duralius Joachimus Roaldus Gamarius and Buchavarius having promised to be faithful to him and they were worth their word Then the King calls Navar and Conde and tells them that from his youth for many years the publick peace had been disturbed by often renewed wars to the great damage of his affairs but now at last by the grace of God he had entred into such a course as would extirpate all causes of future wars That Coligny the author of these troubles was slain by his command and that the same punishment was taken throughout the City upon those wicked men who were infected with the poison of superstition That he remembred what great mischiefs had befallen him from them Navar and Conde who had headed a company of profligate persons and seditiously raised war against him That he had just reason to revenge these injuries and now also had an opportunity put into his hand but that he would pardon what was past upon the account of their consanguinity and the lately contracted affinity and lastly of their age and that he would think that these things were not done by the advice or fault of them but of Coligny and his followers who had already or should shortly receive the just deserts of their wickedness that he was willing that those things should be buried in oblivion provided they would make amends for their former offences by their future loyalty and obedience and renouncing their profane superstitious Doctrine would return to the Religion of their Ancestors that is to the Roman Catholick Religion for he would have only that Religion professed in his Kingdom which he had received from his fore-Fathers Therefore that they should look to it that they do comply with him herein otherwise they might know that the same punishment which others had suffered did hang over their heads To this the King of Navar did most humbly beg that no violence might be offered to their consciences nor persons and that then they would remain faithful to him and were ready to satisfy him in all things But Conde added that he could not perswade himself that the King who had engaged himself by solemn oath to all the Protestant Princes of his Kingdom would upon any account violate it or hearken to their enemies and adversaries in that matter As to Religion that was not to be commanded that his life and fortunes were in the King's power to do with them what he pleased but that he knew he was to give an account only to God of that Religion that he had received from God Therefore that he was fixed and resolved never to recede from his Religion which he knew assuredly was true no not for any present danger of life With which answer the King being highly provoked he called Conde stubborn seditious Rebel and the son of a Rebel and told him that if he did not change his mind within three days his head should pay for his obstinacy 20. Many of the Protestant Nobles had taken up their lodgings in the Suburbs of St. German and could not be perswaded to lie in the City Among these were Johannes Roanus Frontenaeus Godofridus Caumonlius Vidame of Chartres Gabriel Mongomerius Jo. Lafinius Bellovarius Segurius Pardallanius and others The destroying of whom was given in charge to Laurentius Mougironus and besides Marcells was ordered to take care that 1000 Souldiers of the City Trained-Bands should be sent thither to Maugironus who went but flowly on in his business While this was doing tidings came to Mongomery of the rumor of taking up Arms in the City who signified the same to the Vidame of Chartres and presently they met all together uncertain what was to be done for that many confiding in the King's faithfulness perswaded themselves that this was done without the King's command by the Guisians encouraged by the forwardness of the seditious people therefore they thought it was best to go to the King and that he would succour them against any violence In that doubtfulness of mind though the more prudent did not doubt that these things were done by agreement and by the King's command were many hours spent so that they might easily have been destroyed but that another impediment happened to the Conspirators for whiles Maugironus doth in vain expect Parisians to be sent from Guise who were all busied in plundering Guise impatient of further delays calls forth the King's Guards out of the Louvre intending whiles they passed the River to go thither himself And when he came to the gates it did too late appear that they had mistaken the keys therefore while they sent for others it being now broad day the Switzers and others of the King's Guards passing the Siene were seen from the other side and upon the discharging of a Gun on the other side of the River as was thought by the King's command the Associates take counsel to fly and before they came were gotten a good way off Guise pursued Mongomery and others to Montfort but in vain and meeting with Sanleodegarius he commands him that he should follow them with fresh horses There were some sent to Udencum and to Dreux who
whom he commended to her In which Letter he wrote plainly and yet sparingly what things he had already confessed what he was not yet examined upon and by what means he would excuse those things which he had confessed and conceal these He wrote likewise to Rookwood the Priest who was Prisoner in another Prison and wrote his Letter with Ink in the middle about some familiar matters that any one might read but left broad Margents on both sides which he filled with his Secrets written with the juice of an Orange denying all whatsoever he had confessed before the Lords As to the Spanish Expedition he said he had obtained the Kings Pardon As to this last Conspiracy he should avoid Judgment because he knew they could make no sufficient proofs against him But however it went he added having too high an opinion of himself that which was spoken of the only Redeemer of the world It would be necessary that one man should die for the People The Letter was by the Kings Councellors who smelt out the cunning held to the fire and presently the writing appear'd and the fraud was discovered He being every day more and more confident of his instructed Keeper told him he did exceedingly desire to have some conference with Hall his Companion He promised to bring it about and brought both of them to a place where they might easily hear one another and where he himself to avoid all suspition might be seen by them both In the mean time he placed two men of known credit near the place who they knowing no such thing and minding only the return of their Keeper who was gone abroad might hear whatsoever passed between them There each of them freely discover'd what they had confessed what they had been Examined about what excuses and evasions for these were their words they had prepared for every particular and many other such things which being carefully taken were delivered to the Counsel in writing The next day the Prisoners suspecting no such thing Delegates from the King came to them and Examine Garnet and Hall a part and object to them that they had yesterday held private conference with one another Garnet thinking they spoke this only upon conjecture †Upon his Soul reiterating it with so many detestable execrations as wounded the Lords hearts to hear him Proceedings Y 3. stifly denyed it and forswore it upon the word of a Priest At last Hall having confessed the Fact and he finding that there was no avoiding it begged Pardon for his contrary asseveration which he sought to elevate by a forced Interpretation or Equivocation And professing that he would speak the truth ingenuously He answered that he had hitherto so constantly denyed it because he knew that no man living but one he meant Greenwell could accuse him as guilty of the late Fact But now that he saw himself encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses he would no longer dissemble but did confess that above V moneths agone he was acquainted by Greenwell with the whole matter That before that Catesby had in general told him that the Catholicks in England were attempting some great thing as to Religion and asked whether if good men should be involved in the danger this were to be made matter of Conscience But that he who had a contrary command from the Pope that he should not engage in any Conspiracy refused to hear any further of it That he did pour out Prayers for the good success of the great cause and amongst other things used the Hymn that was commonly Sung in the Church but intended nothing else when he did so but only prayed God that in the next Parliament no grievous Lawes might be made against the Recusants so they are called in England who keeping within their own houses have their liberty and refuse to Joyne in worship with the Protestants Garnet being twenty times Examined 12 Feb. and 26 Mar. between the Eids of Febr. and the VII of the Calends of April two dayes after he is arraigned at the Publick Tribunal in London * The reason whereof the Earl of Salisbury declared at his Tryal See the Proceedings Y Guild Hall Here the Crimes are layed to the charge of the Prisoner by Sir John Crook which are afterwards enlarged on in a long Speech by Sir Edward Cook the Kings Attorney General Then after Garnet had said something for himself and especially something concerning Equivocation he was Examined by Cecil and others that sate as Judges in that case And lastly the Earl of Northampton made a long and elaborate discourse against him in which he largely handled the Authority which the Popes arrogate to themselves of deposing Princes and discussed that Chapter of Nos sanctorum the ground as he said of this and such like Conspiracies At length Sentence is passed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench that Garnet should be Drawn Hanged and Quartered His Plea for himself was only this that although he did a long time before know of the Conspiracy by common fame and Rumours for Greenwell only informed him of all the particulars but under the Seal of Confession by the Laws of which he was forbidden to discover it to any man living yet that he did admonish Greenwell to desist from the Fact which he did very much disapprove of and to hinder others engaged in Conscience or privity in it Here Cecill severely reproved him For said he if he did disapprove of the Fact why did he afford Greenwell the benefit of Absolution before he had by his penitence given testimony that he did truly and from his heart detest the Fact Furthermore when as he understood the matter from Catesby where there was no Seal of Confession this was sufficient to have made a discovery of the Plot if he had so highly abhorred it as he did pretend But there were other things that lay heavy upon his charge and these chiefly which were amongst his Confessions written with his own hand and sent to the King viz. That Greenwell did acquaint him with this not as with a sin he had to confess but as an Act which he well enough understood and in which he required his advice and counsel That Catesby and Greenwell came to him to require his advice upon the matter and that the whole business might be resolved among them That Tesmund for so he was now called who e're while was Greenwell and he did not long agone consult together in Essex of the Particulars of this Conspiracy Lastly when Greenwell asked who should be Protector of the Kingdom Garnet answered that that answer ought to be deferred till they saw how things should go When these things were brought to his remembrance and did make it appear that he knew of the Conspiracy otherwise then by the way of Confession all that he answered was that whatsoever he had signed with his own hand was true Being brought to Execution the Third of May being