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
proceeded this not only unchristian but barbarous and inhumane perfidious bloudy action of Charles 9. Hence the suspition of his Brother and Successors Henr. 3. Hence all the licentiousness and wickedness which we see every where in the World And to all this is no small occasion given by the complying Conduct Commutations of Penances and other practices of the Jesuites and other Romanists But the same Apostle informs us of another cause near of kin to this and no less effectual to the provocation of this judgment of obduration of mens minds which is very likely to have had no little influence in this case and that is the resisting rejaction or not receiving and embracing of the Truth when offered which he mentions in a passage which if I be not much mistaken concerns the defection of the Church of Rome and hath been so understood by the Christians in all ages though somewhat obscurely and imperfectly as is usual in the interpretations of prophetick writings before they be fulfilled as well agrees with the conjecture Because they receive not the love of the Truth saith he For this cause God shall send them strong delusions 1 Thes 2. And this 't is very likely had no small influence in this case For if out of the Roman Religion we take all that which the Protestants receive and profess which the Romanists must needs confess to be truly Catholick the greatest part of the rest hath been either introduced or so new modelled and accommodated to the secular interest and advantage of the See of Rome within this 600 years last past as hath not only given occasion to most of the troubles and mischiefs in Europe ever since but very much injured dishonoured and prejudiced Christianity it self And when it pleased God by his providence both long since and again of latter days to raise up a people in the Confines of France who retaining that which of all sides is confessed to be truly Catholick rejected those novel corruptions and abuses though perhaps with them some things which might be tolerated and thereby gave so fair occasion to the French upon further consideration and with more mature deliberation to reform the same as Queen Eliz. did here that a great part of the most sober and pious of the French Nation even Bishops and Cardinals being thereupon sensible of the need of it did earnestly desire and sollicit the convention of a National Synod to that purpose the French Kings were unhappily so far wrought upon by the arts of Rome as not only ungratefully to reject that benefit offered by the Divine Providence but at last to persecute those who were made the occasions of it And this seems to have been so manifest a cause of the troubles mischiefs and adversities which by the providence of God have befallen that Nation and their Princes since the beginning of that Century that it is strange but that the height of contentions then on foot might perhaps hinder it that neither those prudent considering men did take notice of it in this case nor yet our judicious and can did Author who relates their judgment and had himself observed almost as much in Lewis 12. If it be fit says he for a mortal man to speak his opinion concerning the eternal Counsels of God ◠v. 1. I should say that there was no other cause why that most excellent Prince in so many respects commendable and worthy of a better fortune should meet with so many conflicts with adversities than that he had contracted so near alliance with Pope Alexander 6. and cherished the cruelties lusts perfidiousness and fortunes of that impure Father the Pope and of his Son Caesar Borgia a man drowned in all kind of wickedness and then relating the King's calling of a Synod upon his provocations by the next Pope Julius 2. undoubtedly so ordered for the same purpose by the Divine Providence first at Lions and then at Pisa for the reformation of the Church and his medals coined with this Inscription PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN and how after all this he renounced the Council at Pisa through the importunities of his wife and subscribed to the Lateran Council to gratifie the next Pope Leo 10. and adding that in the judgment of many he had done more advisedly if he had persevered in his purpose of reforming the Church he concludes These therefore were the causes both of the declination of our Empire and of the adverse fortune of Lewis who after all his other misfortunes died without issue male which he much desired to succeed him And in this King is very observable that as there was in him no want of magnanimity humane prudence or care for himself the glory of his Kingdom and prosperity of his affairs to which his misfortunes could be imputed which makes the judgment of God therein the more apparent so neither could any vice or other fault be noted in him which might be assigned as a cause of that judgment but what is here mentioned the neglect of that duty whereunto he was so fairly led and whereof he was so far convinced as that he began to put it in execution In the time of his successor Francis 1. all things seemed to conspire in giving occasion every where to the Reformation of the Church what through the Pope's differences with several Princes which produced the abolition and abrogation of the Papal Authority for some time in Spain and afterward in England what through that abominable imposture of Indulgences and other their gross wickedness and abuses which provoked Martin Luther and other learned men to search into and detect their mystery of iniquity and discover many gross errors and abuses crept into the Church whereupon ensued the Reformation happily begun and promoted by many Protestant Princes and Cities in Germany and other parts But Francis not only neglected the occasion and rejected and made himself unworthy of the common benefit of it but moreover contracted that * He married his Son Henr. 2. to Katharine of Medices daughter to Lawrence D. of Urbin who was Nephew to Leo 10. and Cousin to Clem. 7. alliance with the Popes and at last began those †V. 3. Sect. 39. pag. 56. persecutions the unhappy consequence of both which we are now relating Nor was the King of Spain much more happy in his persecutions of the Protestants in the Low-Countries the consequence whereof was the loss of the best part of them and all he got by the Inquisition in Spain was but the exclusion of light and truth from his people and his own slavery to the strong delusions and infatuations of the Jesuites who precipitated him into divers dishonourable unsuccesful and to his own affairs pernitious undertakings 49. But to return to the effects and consequences of that bloudy act whereof what hath yet been related was but the first fruits of those Counsels from which so much happiness tranquility and glory were so long expected instead whereof
Scotland those of James Gordon and Edmond Hay and with us that so often mentioned of Barriere But among the ancient Christians these monsters were unheard of Of the Christians was no Cassius no Niger no Albinus as Tertullian speaks Nor was that crime ever heard of in France till the coming in of the Jesuites For it was brought in by them from Spain whence they had their original where the Gothes as an ancient Author informs us took up this detestable custom that if any of their Kings pleased them not they put him to the sword and set up whom they pleased in his place On behalf of the Jesuites Cl. Dureus rather pleaded in bar of the action than spoke to the merits of the cause but P. Barnius answered more copiously in writing But as much of what was spoken by the others is here purposely omitted for brevity sake so those things particularly which I find answered by him except that of Portugal which notwithstanding his answer seems very probable as well agreeing with their principles and actions though such mysterious practices are not easy to be fully proved And thus stood the case with the Jesuites in France when the King was about to * Which was done 17. Jan. proclaim war against their great Patron the King of Spain and whether the particular consideration of these or either of these to prevent what they feared might be the consequence of them †V. Perefix 229. did produce that attempt of their Scholar Chastel or not for he was more deeply seasoned with their principles and instructions than to make a full confession yet certain it is that that attempt did produce a more speedy determination of the cause than could otherwise have been expected by a Decree 29 Dec. 1594. Thu. l. 111. whereby the Court did ordain that the Priests and Students of the Colledge of Clermont for they would not call them by the name of Jesuites and all others of that Society as corrupters of Youth perturbers of the publick Tranquillity and enemies of the King and Kingdom shall within three days after denunciation depart from Paris and all other Cities where they have opened School and within fifteen days after out of the Kingdom upon pain to be prosecuted as guilty of Treason and that their Goods and Lands shall be imployed for pious uses and be distributed at the pleasure of the Court and all the Kings Subjects were interdicted to send their children to the Schools of that Society out of the Kingdom to be instructed in Learning upon pain of Treason This was executed the Summer following Li. 112. Some few days after this was made another Decree whereby Chastel's Father's house which was neer to the Palace was ordered to be pulled down and a Pyramid to be erected in the place of it with the Decree inscribed upon it ad aeternam facti memoriam which was likewise done with other inscriptions in detestation of the crime V. l. 134. 58. How necessary for the safety both of the King and Kingdom this was and that the Decree should be strictly executed throughout the whole Kingdom and duly and constantly observed for the future many in the Court and most in the Parliament of Paris and of the Clergy were very sensible and the King could not be ignorant especially after such fair warnings And yet whereas the Jesuites being by virtue of this Decree exterminated out of the Jurisdictions of the Court of Paris Thu. l. 129. which extends to near half the Kingdom and likewise of Burgundy and Normandy continued notwithstanding for three years after to keep up their Schools in the Territories of Tholouse and Bourdeaux to which many sent their Sons to be taught and many again from that Society changing their habits as if they had also renounced their vow crept into other Schools though the King was often importuned to command those Courts by his Edict to publish the Decree and it was once or twice so resolved in Council the execution notwithstanding was continually retarded by the craft and subtilty saith our Author of some about the King but perhaps some thoughts of a peace with Spain which had been proposed might make it thought unseasonable at that time But the Parliament of Paris was not wanting to do what in them lay 21 Aug. 1597. and by another Decree under a severe penalty prohibited all Cities Colledges and Universities to admit any of that society though pretending the renunciation of their vow to preach or to excrcise any sacerdotal Ministery or to teach children either publickly or privately Thu. l. 12â— The year following the King was again provoked through the obstinacy and insolency of the Court of Tholouse to send out his Edict commanding those Courts to publish the Decree and was moved by the Chancellor Ph. Huraltus Cevernius so to do but by some Courtiers says 〈◊〉 Author the business was at present delayed and at last wholly put off and very likely was now also though unseasonable in respect of the King's desire to obtain a dissolution of his Marriage with the Queen Margaret Thu. ib. Perefix p. 294. that he might marry his beloved Mistress La belle Gabrielle whereof he began about this time to treat with the Pope's Legate And indeed though I know not whether so much be written by any yet it seems very legible in the actions and occurrences which are written that this was so powerful a motive with him as made him not only desist from further enforcing the execution of the Decree and total extermination of the Jesuites but on the contrary to yield to their Restitution Thu. ibid. For the Jesuites about this time taking occasion upon a Convention of the Clergy to offer him a supplication ceased not afterwards till by supplications and recommendations every where sought they at last obtained their desire the Pope's Legates sparing no pains on their behalf So out Author who afterward tells us L. 129. that when Ignatius Armandus their Provincial about a year before they were restored had made a Speech to the King for them the King answered that the business was now in the Pope's hands without whose direction he would determine nothing negotium penes Pontificem esse quo inconsulto nihil velit decernere But it may be more plainly perceived in a passage afterward at their restitution L. 1â—â— for when the Parliament interceded against their restitution and were very averse from publishing the Kings Eidict for that purpose at lâ—st comes 〈◊〉 Huraltus Messius into the Senate and acquaints them from the King with the whole series of the business and tells them that above five years since the Pope had dealt with the King that the Jesuites might be restored to the same state in the Kingdom wherein they were before the Decree This was about the beginning of the year 1604 and the King having in the year 1598 treated with the Legate about the dissolution
of his Marriage as hath been said in the year 1599 he obtained the Pope's Breve to certain Delegates L. 123. who upon hearing of the cause pronounced the Marriage null ab initio so that this points us to the time exactly and considering the common practice of the Court of Rome to neglecâ—â—no opportunity of promoting their own ends it cannot be thought that they would let this go without some assurance from the King of the restitution of the Jesuites which at the same time was earnestly sollicited It is true that the King 's beloved Mis who had engaged him to send to the Pope about it died in Child-birth before the commission to the Delegates was sent yet this hinders not but she might before have prevailed with him to give all satisfaction to the Pope in order to the obtaining of it and that thereupon he might so far have engaged to the Pope that he knew not afterwards how to get off when he would and this it seems was the true reason why the business hung so long and yet was done at last For thus Messius goes on relating the series of the business the King says he put it off from day to day as much as he could he did not refuse or excuse himself from denying it but sought delays and when he could no longer shift it off Quantum potuerat diem de die dixisse he proposed certain articles almost uniform to the contents of the Decree and by his Embassador laboured with the Pope to be content with their restitution under those conditions For the Pope demanded their universal restitution throughout the whole Kingdom but the King offered it in certain places appointed to a certain number and in the Territories subject to the Court of Paris were only two places assigned them From that time two years passed without any mention of the business whereat the King who desired to gratifie the Pope in it was troubled at length the King's Ambassador being instant with the Pope he answered that the articles proposed by the King seemed to him to be such as the Jesuites ought to be contented with them but that hitherto he had deferred his answer because the General of the Society Aquanina shewed himself not at all satisfied with them nor would subscribe to them c. that the business therefore was no longer in the King's power but transacted by agreement between the King and the Pope rem proinde amplius non esse integram sed de ea inter Regem Pontificem quasi pacto transactum fuisse All which shews sufficiently that the Pope had then gotten some hank upon him which he could not get off Nor can any other be easily assigned so probable as this which I have said Only one thing more 't is likely helped forward the business viz. a desire to secure his life by ingratiating himself with the regicides for so it is said that when his great favourite the D. of Sully disswaded him from their re-admission Foul. l. 9. c. 2. he answered Give me then security for my life And indeed though in his answer to that grave speech of the chief President Harlay in the name of the Parliament and in behalf of the University representing to him both from their principles and practices the danger of what he was about not only to the Kingdom but to his own person he made shew of great contempt of that danger and hopes which upon mature deliberation he had conceived of the good fruits which France might receive from their restitution and also of confidence in God who had thus preserved him hitherto for his future preservation yet since it does plainly appear by what was delivered by Messius from him to the Senate and there can be no reason to think otherwise that he was sore against his will viz. through some inconsiderate pre-ingagement from which he could not recede brought to it his other favours to them besides their re-admission may be thought to proceed from this principle and his shew of contempt of the danger to argue rather what he sought to conceal than what he pretended or at least that that contempt proceeded from his hopes of securing his own safety by this means For what-ever he pretended it could not proceed from a well grounded confidence of God's protection a thing inconsistent with his living in continued known sin by reason of his Amores which the Reverend Bishop of Paris doth frequently deplore and when he had before violated his conscience by his change of Religion for securing his Kingdom For who can with confidence expect any favour from him whom he doth daily knowingly injure and offend Besides that confidence is not always the meer result of a good conscience but is often raised in pious souls by the special influence of the Spirit of God who as he doth more and more encrease it in those who continually and sincerely endeavour to persevere and go forward in a diligent observance of his will and to raise their souls by a constant exercise of the dictates of Reason and Faith above the animal or bruitish nature so doth he always withdraw the same from those who decline to bruitish affections and if they go on so to do at last leaves them dis-spirited Quos perdere vult Jupiter dementat prius and obnoxious to base and deceitful shifts and devices whereby they pull down mischief upon their own heads especially when this is mixt with ingratitude against great mercies Nor can a sacrilegious and profane absolution by those who cry peace peace when there is no peace serve the turn without a due repentance proportionable to the fault with all its aggravations and a found reformation And for what fruits he might expect from their restitution for the good of the Kingdom his Parliament well informed him by the mouth of their worthy President Harlay in that notable speech which might well have deserved a larger place here had not so much been related already to that purpose from others As they have all one common Name and Vow so have they saith he certain heads of Doctrine wherein they all agree as that they acknowledge no Superior besides the Pope and to him they give Faith and an absolute Obedience and firmly believe that the Pope hath power to excommunicate Kings but that a King excommunicate is a Tyrant and that his subjects may with impunity make insurrection against him That every one of them who is initiated though but in the lower Orders of the Church whatsoever crime he commits cannot possibly incur the crime of Treason because they are not at all any longer the King's Subjects nor subject to his Jurisdiction Thus are the Ecclesiasticks by their Doctrine exempt from the secular Power and lawfully may with impunity lay bloudy violent hands upon the sacred persons of Kings This they assert in printed Books c. These false and erroneous Doctrines cannot be admitted by Kings and therefore
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE ORIGINAL OF THE POVVDER-PLOT Together with a Relation of the CONSPIRACIES AGAINST Queen Elizabeth And the Persecutions of the PROTESTANTS In FRANCE To the death of Henry the Fourth Collected out of Thuanus Davila Perefix and several other Authors of the Roman Communion As also Reflections upon Bellarmine's Notes of the Church c. LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell by Flying-horse-Court in Fleet-street 1674. MVNIFICENTIA REGIA 1715 GEORGIVS D.G. MAG BR FR. ET HIB REX F.D. TO THE READER An Account of the Occasion Matter Method and Manner of Writing of the Discourse annexed with the Reasons of it THE Narration of the Gun-powder Treason by Thuanus being commended to me after I had look'd into it I perswaded a friend to translate it into English which being done I gave it to the Book-seller to print and for a Preface to it wrote the first Sect. of the Discourse not intending any more than that which was printed but not all the sheets wrought off when having met with that notable passage of Del Rio briefly cited in a Book lately printed and perusing the same more at large in Del Rio himself I thought it worthy of further consideration and therefore ordered the Printer not to work off that Preface but go on with the Translation of Thuanus and the while wrote so much of the ensuing Discourse as concerns THE ORIGINAL OF THE POWDER-PLOT that is to Sect. 24 though the whole Discourse through want of timely notice to the Printer bears that Title and that was all I then intended But when I came to the conclusion of that part I began to perceive that COMBINATION OF ROME AND SPAIN AGAINST ENGLAND which continued all the time of Queen Elizabeths Reign and doth not a little confirm what had been said in the former part of the Discourse and though I thought that the former part of the Discourse did not stand much in need of confirmation from this yet I thought it very pertinent and useful to shew that Combination in their various practices against that Queen but as briefly as I could This continues to Sect. 37. nor did I then intend more But reflecting upon the admirable Providence of God in preserving that blessed Queen from so many and so various attempts against her and in my turning over of Thuanus for the Story of the Combination having perceived something of the unhappy issue of her Neighbours Persecutions of the Professors of that Reformed Religion which she happily established and defended I began to perceive something of that DISTINGUISHING PROVIDENCE which is very Observable and Remarkable in the ensuing part of the Discourse to Sect. 61. Wherefore having cursorily run over some of the principal parts of that Story and satisfied my self that it would make good what I undertook I thought it an unworthy piece of laziness or negligence not to add that part also so pertinent so remarkable and necessary but hoped to have done it more briefly than I found I well could when I again set my self to the perusal of the History Having finished this I made some Reflections upon the whole and thereupon added the OBSERVATIONS Inferences and the rest which make up the last part and conclusion And this was the Occasion this the Matter and Method of the Discourse Now for the Manner of writing it when I began I was wholly a stranger to the Story and to all or most of the Books I have made use of had never read two leaves in Thuanus save part of the History of the Powder-Plot had never seen Davila had only occasionally if at all looked into any other of the Books I have made use of Besides being most of it written in the Countrey and my own stock being but short I could not have that assistance from variety of Books which I desired and yet it pleased God many things fell in my way beyond my expectation and the Authors I have generally used are such whose Authority is beyond all exception the incomparable Thuanus Davila Pâ—refix and others of the Roman Communion for I have but rarely followed any Writers of the Reformed Religion and more rarely without the concurrent authority of others But what is most considerable the greatest part being sent away in single sheets by the Post as it was written I could neither my self have the perusal of the entire work together nor have it perused by my friends before it was printed This I mention for my excuse of such mistakes as possibly may occur in it For I did not design to injure the Truth in any particular nor have I to my knowledg done it in any thing material only Sect. 12. you will meet with Lovain in Flanders which perhaps is in Brabant though by Flanders I then meant that part of the Low-Countries which was then under the King of Spain or the Archdukes Obedience and I know the name Flanders is used in as large a sense by many and commonly by the Italians and Sect. 34. pag. 48. 't is said he made them amends for it afterwards whereas that excommunication there mentioned was before which I did not then observe when I wrote it Again Sect. 42. pag. 74. you 'l find the D. of Tuscany Father to the Qu Mother which is a mistake for he was of the same Family and succeeded her Brother but was not her Father and therefore the Reader may either amend it or quite strike it out But these are such mistakes as are rarely escaped by those who write at more leisure and are no prejudice at all to the Story If any other mistake that is material shall come to my knowledge whether by my own observation or the information of any other whether friend or foe I will not fail God willing publickly to acknowledge the same and if this discourse shall be thought worthy of another Edition to reform it For I approve not the use of Piae Fraudes and think Lying and Slandering as always unlawful and unworthy of a Christian so where matters of Religion are concerned to be prophane and sacrilegious The God of Truth is able to defend his own cause the Truth without such wicked shifts and when he pleaseth to suffer it to be oppressed for a time he doth with great wisdom permit it but in the mean time allows not us to vindicate it by such indirect means whereby we do as much as in us lyes oppose the design and course of his Providence Numquid Deus indiget vestro mendacio ut pro illo loquamini dolos Job 13.7 But if my hast hath made me in any thing through mistake to mis-represent any actions of the Papists to their prejudice it is likely it hath made me overlook as much more which might have been said against them Nor have I thereby so much injured them as they have injured themselves and their cause by such indirect and wicked practises as are beyond all contradiction to the great
Pag. 10. l. 12. to conceive Or rather being more particular secrets and more worthy of observation they are reserved for private conference with his Majesty as not fit to be committed to paper as he saith c. 27. sub sin Pag. 57. l. 2. Spain for three weeks before troubled with a perpetual flux of blood through all the passages of his body Perefix p. 163. and at last if not A Discourse concerning the Original of the Powder Plot. Sect. 1. ALthough several Relations of this Conspiracy have been long since written and published in English both by several writers of the History of those times and others who have inserted the same among other Historical Relations as Stow in his Annals pag. 874. Speed in his History of Great Britain l. 10. s 31. The Appendix to the Book of Martyrs Fuller in his Church History Bishop Carleton in his Historical Collection of Deliverances and of late by Mr. Foulis in his History of Popish Treasons lib. 10. cap. 2. And also alone as King James his Discourse of the manner of the Discovery of the Powder Treason Printed in quarto 1605. but without his name to it and since in his works 1616. pag. 223. and the Proceedings against the late Traitors Printed in quarto 1606. whereof neither is more than what the title doth import and the latter inlarged with long Speeches which possibly may seem tedious to the Reader and it may be some others yet because many as well for the rare and admirable contrivance and discovery of the Plot as because we are all obliged to the Annual Commemoration of it may be desirous to read some Relation of it who yet may not be willing to purchase those larger works and those Relations of it which have been Printed alone being now long since out of Print and therefore rarely to be met with It was thought convenient to publish this Translation out of Thuanus rather than to reprint any of the other and that for these Reasons 1. Because it seems to be more compleate than most or any one of the other Relations which have yet been Printed in English whether alone or incidentally in larger works 2. But especially in respect of the Great Authority of the Author a person not only of great Quality and Place in his Country Privy Counsellor to the King of France and President of the Supreme Senate of that Kingdom but of known and confessed Candor Impartiality Faithfulness and Exactness as an Historian And being one who lived and dyed a Catholick in the Communion of the Church of Rome his Authority hath in that respect some advantage above any of the other Relations which have been written by any of the Reformed party which of it self may be sufficient to resute the Impudence and vanity of all such as would have had the world believe that it was the contrivance either of the * This bloudy design found in the hands of the malefactors was notwithstanding father'd upon the Puritans as Nero did the burning of Rome upon the Christians by some impudent and cunning Jesuits Which some years after I had opportunity at Bruges in Flanders to make Weston and old Jesuit active in the Powder plot ingenuously to confess Wilson ibid. Puritans V. Speed Sect. 48. Wilsons History of King James pag. 32. Foulis pag. 690. or of Cecil the then Secretary to draw those unhappy Gentlemen into it V. Foulis pag. 694. The Papists Apol. answered pag. 31-33 edit 1667. the contrary whereof may easily be perceived in the series of this Relation And indeed the first of these projects was extinguished almost with the plot and the other hath been long since sufficiently disproved and the plot it self confessed by some and defended magnified and gloried in by others of that party and now scarce denyed by any to have been of their own contrivance so that more need not now be said as to that particular though the following considerations if need were might be made use of in that respect 2. This design of Blowing up the Prince and People together hath been commonly taken to have been the contrivance of Catesby and of no ancienter Original than their despair of foreign assistance upon their last negotiation with Spain Of that mind seems our Historian here to have been So also Speed Sect. 33 37. Proceed E 4. pag. 3. And the truth is there is scarce to be found in print any direct and express proof of other author and contriver or more ancient original of it though possibly we may ere long see it further proved to have been designed in the Queens days against her but upon further consideration of her age not likely according to the course of nature to live long deferred till the coming in of King James In the mean time it may be remembred what is often seen in Judicatories and Tryals of Causes both Civil and Criminal that those things and works of darkness which are carried on and managed with so much secrecy and caution that no direct proof can be made against them are notwithstanding often discovered and brought to light by a heedful and circumspect observation and comparing of circumstances insomuch that the evidence of the truth which is by this means made out is not seldom more satisfactory to all present than the direct and express proof and testimonies of witnesses which many times prove false even then when they seem to be most full and punctual And therefore to prove this contrivance proceeded from other heads than Catesby 's alone and was of longer standing than hath been commonly thought what is yet wanting in direct proofs may in some measure be made up by the consideration of the following Circumstances 3. And first it may be noted that though Catesby be the first of all these Conspirators taken in this plot that did propose it to the rest for ought appears by what was discover'd at their examination and tryals yet doth it not thence follow but it might have been before proposed to him being the most active of them by some other nor doth it any way appear that it was of his own only devising as to omit other reasons is manifest from their attempt who would have fathered it upon Cecil as a trick to ensnare those gentlemen for otherwise there would have been no ground or colour for that pretense 4. It may 2. be remembred that this was not the first time that this means by blowing up by Gunpowder hath been proposed by confederates of that party for the destruction and murther of our Princes For it had been long before proposed by one Moody to be laid under Queen Elizabeth's bed and secretly fired Camden Anno 1587. principio So that this may seem to have been but a further improvement of a former project 5. But 3. to come nearer to this present business There is a passage of the Jesuite Del Rio 6. Disquis Magic cap. 1. edit Lovan 1600. which with the concurrence of
immediately put into Execution These saith he and the like Preparations may be made c. But what are these Why in general 1. Causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and continually keeping up the same 2. Sowing the seeds of a continual war betwixt England and Scotland 3. Rouzing up and encouraging to action the Spirits of the English Catholicks 4. Dealing with the chief of the Irish Nobility to new model Ireland as soon as they hear of the Queen's death For the accomplishing of all which he hath several subservient means Chap. 25. But for the like what they may be is lest to the Readers judgement to conceive Only it may be noted that he who would not scruple to cause and keep up Dissâ—ntions to sow the seeds of a continual war to excite Rebellions among us would hardly have scrupled at such a project as by one blow would have put us quite out of our pain It would be too long to note all the Projects of private men to this purpose which were on foot at that time but this of Campanella for the promotion of the Interest and designs of the King of Spain is the more pertinent and observable because our conspirators had their Negotiations with him their Leger there and built their greatest hopes upon his assistance at the same time 10. But there is an other particular as to this circumstance of Time very considerable which is intimated to us in those words of Campanella For as we may easily perceive many heads at work at this time many projects on foot contemporary in the contrivance so do they all agree in the Time designed for Execution So Campanella's Preparations so soon as ever Queen Elizabeth is dead are immediately to be put in Execution So Pope Clements Bulls had respect to the same time Quandocunque contingeret miseram illam foeminam ex hac vita excedere Proceed Q. 4. And the Reason of all this is very apparent Pag. 158 For now the King of Scots as Campanella observes hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his neighborhood to it but also because of his Right of Succession And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Antient and Continual Rivals the Scots a thing very grievous no doubt both to Rome Spain and Flanders and therefore no wonder if all beat their brains to prevent so great a mischief For whereas England alone Pag. 158 notwithstanding in a manner continually at wars with their ancient and continual Rivals Pag. 155 appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low Countries and against the most Christian King in France assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces what will Great Britain do when not only the occasion of those wars shall cease but both Nations be united under one and the same King No question but the forethoughts of this set wiser heads on work than Catesbys or any other of those unhappy Gentlemen who are vainly pretended to have been trapan'd by Cecil and something no doubt was resolved upon the time drawing on and the Queen very old And this might be the reason of their long expectation that change of State would change Religion also Speed sect 37. And if we consider the Principles and practises of these men and what before had been attempted against the late Queen not only by open Hostility as becomes Kings and States where they have just cause but also by base secret conspiracies and treacheries against her person instigated and somented as well by other Princes and by their Embassadors even whilst Legers here as Mendoza and Labespineus as by the Pope we can hardly think any thing so base or barbarous that they were not like to attempt upon this occasion And if we again consider how all their former endeavours whether more justifyable before men as by open hostility or more base and unworthy not only by promoting rebellions but also by poison assasination had hither to been ineffectual and defeated we may not unreasonably think that they might at last arrive at some such project as this as their last refuge and most effectual and infallible means to accomplish at last their so long studied designs And lastly that it really was so the punctual observance both of Campanella's preparations by indeavouring to alienate affections and raise jealousies between the English and Scots and other differences and dissentions among us and stirring up the spirits of the English Catholicks c. which were practised immediately upon the Queens death and the Kings coming to the Crown of England and have ever since been prosecuted too long here to be related and also of Del Rio's Instance and Doctrine of Concealing Confessions and that by Equivocation even in examination upon Oath so well fitted to this purpose and as well and exactly followed and prosecuted may reasonably incline us to believe This circumstance of the time designed for the Execution of this Plot is also visible in Catesby's Reasonings see the Hist pag. 4.5 which he might well learn from the same Tutors from whom he learnt the project of the Plot it self for if to take off King James alone unless also the Prince the Duke and moreover the Peers and whole Parliament would not serve their turn much less would it have served to have taken off Queen Elizabeth now ready to die of her self though with her Parliament while the King together with the addition of another Nation to this was ready to succeed her 11. And thus we see the business is very plain as to the time so long before resolved on in all their Councels both at Rome and Spain It now remains to consider how the attempt in point of Time did answer this resolution The Queen deceased the 24 of March 1602. the next day was King James proclaimed who came to Barwick 6. April and to Lond. 7. May following Anno 1603. and was Crowned July after The Parliament began 19. March following and continued till 7. July 1604. Then was prorogued till 7. Feb. and then again till 5. Octob. 1605. and then at last till the fatal day 5. Novemb. following when this unhappy Plot was happily discovered From whence we again run it counter to its Original thus 11. Decemb. 1604 was the Mine begun †Fawkes Confes and in May preceding did the Conspirators actually engage in the design under an Oath of Secrecy * Proceedings R. 4. The Lent before Catesby imparted the design to Thomas Winter †Winters Confes and in September before that which was Anno 1603. to * Proceedings R. 2. Percy which was before the Parliament began and that being the time designed it is a very fair evidence to our purpose that find it on foot at that very time which was by all those Councels so long before designed and before this
was viz. Provincial of the English Jesuites and then reflect upon the continual weekly or octiduan Intelligences which the Provincials from all parts constantly transmit concerning all matters of moment to their several respective Assistants at Rome who immediately impart the same to the F. General of the whole Society always Resident there and he or they as the matter requires or deserves to the Pope of which the Discourse of the Jesuites Politicks written under Paul v. Printed in the Myst of Jesuit part 2. and other Writers give us an account and then we cannot doubt of his correspondence there not only with the English Assistant Parsons but also at least by means of the Assistant with the F. General Claudius Aquaviva and with the Pope himself and that in this very particular being a matter of so great moment which doth more particularly appear by the Bulls prepared to be sent over hither as soon as the plot had taken effect and other instances not necessary here to be insisted on So that if we consider the Persons and their Correspondences and Intelligences it will not be hard to conceive how easily this Plot wheresoever or by whomsoever invented might be communicated if by Del Rio to our Incendians here if by any of them to him if at Rome both to him and to them or for the more secret conveyance of the notice of it from thence by him to them Which is not unlikely that it was and that it was the contrivance of F. Parsons who at that time Anno 1600 had been ten years dealing in such matters and studying and promoting projects against his Country as we may perceive by his aforesaid letter then written 16. Lastly if from the Actors we come to consider their Actions and Management of the whole business we shall find a wonderful agreement from first to last in all the Circumstances not one crossing or thwarting our conjecture not one sailing not one that doth not afford some matter or ground to confirm it For 1. If we consider the whole Section of Del Rio and with it compare the Actions and carriage of the Conspirators in all there is so punctual an agreement that without further proof it seems to own and bewray its parent being as like him as if according to our proverb it was spat out of his mouth at least to discover that it was nearly related to him Thus with his Instance agree the undertakings of the Conspirators with his Dectrine of not revealing things discovered in Confession though the most hainous Treasons and most pernitious to the State the Practice of their Confessors with his means for concealing the same by Equivocation and Confirmation thereof by Oath or most solemn protestations their punctual strict and resolute use and observance thereof All which is so plain and manifest from what is before recited out of that Section and observed in it and from the following History and the Proceedings against the Traytors that nothing more need be alledged to prove it as nothing can be said with any colour of probability to disprove it 17. And therefore 2. We may also as to their Actions take notice of the great Câ—re and Caution and Secrecy together with their Jugling indirect Practises wherewith they managed their business and that in these two respects 2. in general for the better securing of their design and undertakings from discovery And this appears in divers Instances as 1. In Th. Winters Dealing first with Sir William Stanly to whom though a good friend to the Catholick Cause he positively affirmed that there was no resolution to set any project a foot in England as he tells us in his Confession then with Fawkes to whom though sent for by him to act in this tragedy he imparted only a resolution of a practise in general against his Majesty for relief of the Catholick Cause as appears by both their Confessions 2. In that the business was very sparingly communicated at first but to few and afterwards to more as the intended time of Execution drew on and under an Oath of Secrecy in the most solemn manner confirmed by receiving the Sacrament upon it And Garnet himself often religiously protested to them both by word and writing that he would never betray them in his Letter dated on Palm-Sunday Tortura Torti pag. 286. which implyes that he was often thereunto urged by them 3. In that reason which Catesby alledged when he desired leave to acquaint some others with the business for many said he may be content that I should know who would not therefore that all the company should be acquainted with their names as it is in Winters Confession and it is not unlikely that he learnt this reason by experience at the same time and from the same person as he did the contrivance it self which might possibly for the more secrecy be thus conveyed to him through divers intermediate hands from the first Author or Authors of it 18. And 2. more especially for securing the reputation of the Society in case the Plot should be detected and this appears in the Actions and indirect Practises both of the Jesuites and of the other Conspirators Hence it was that Garnet the Provincial being of greatest Authority and therefore likely to bring most Discredit and greatest Odium upon the Society if such a man as he should be discovered to have any hand in so foul and infamous a matter at first would not be known even to Catesby himself the principal visible actor in the Plot or to any other but of his own Order that he was made privy to it And after the Discovery of the Plot how sollicitous was he and concern'd for the whole Society At at actum est de Societate which he feared would suffer for it as being conscious they well deserved Then upon his Examination and Tryal how ready and dexterous was he with his Equivocations and desperately impious in stiff Denyals upon his Soul and with detestable Execrations of those very things which were after so manifestly proved against him that he could not longer deny them And for the other Conspirators 1. They taxed none in Holy Orders which many looked upon says Thuanus as purposely avoided because they were bound by Oath not to do it And certainly Garnet when he so often engaged not to betray them would not be less careful for the Society to oblige them not to discover any of it 2. Nor did they only carefully abstain from accusing but most desperately indeavoured by all means even the worst of means by lyes and false protestations to excuse them Such were Digbys Protestations whereupon the Earl of Salisbury observed what faith was to be given to these mens protestations who sought to excuse all Jesuits how foul soever out of an opinion that it is meritorious so to do at such time as they had no hope of themselves and to clear them of those practises which they themselves have now confessed ex proprio
all this very much excited to it by Dr. Allens Book which saith he teacheth that Princes Excommunicate for heresie are to be deprived of their Kingdoms and Lives All which Parry confessed produced the Letter from the Pope written by Cardinal Como and was executed in March 1584 and the Pope soon after in April was called to account in another world Immediately before this in Thuanus precedes the relation of the murther of the Prince of Aurang 10. Jul. by Bal. Gerard confirmed in his resolution by a Jesuite at Treves promising him if he dyed for it he should be happy and be put in the number of Martyrs and also encouraged to it by a Franciscan at Tourney and three other Jesuites at Treves 31. To Gregory succeeded as well in his practises as in that See Sixtus v. chosen Pope the twenty fourth of the same moneth of April and about this time John Savage into whose head the Doctrines that it is meritorious to Kill Excommunicated Princes and Martyrdom to die for so doing being by the Giffords and Hodgeson priests throughly inculcated made a vow to kill the Queen And soon after the same resolution is taken up by Antony Babington a proper young gentleman of a good family upon the same principles in like manner inculcated and somewhat enforced with other hopes if he escaped the danger by Ballard a Jesuite who incited him to it as not only Just and Holy in it self but moreover Honourable and Profitable to him if he should overcome the difficulty For what could be more Just and Holy than with the hazard of his Life to vindicate his Countrey and the Cause of Religion without which Life it self ought to be nothing esteemed of Elizabeth was now long since by the Lawful Successor of Peter cast out of the Communion of the Church from that time she doth not reign in England but by a usurped Power contrary to the Laws exercise a cruel Tyranny against the true Worshippers of God Whoever should kill her doth no more than he that should slay a profane Heathen or some damned accursed creature he should be free from all sin either against God or Man yea would merit a Crown of Glory and if he survived the enterprise should doubtless obtain a great reward under the notion of Reward not obscurely insinuating his marriage with the Queen of Scots Thus is this Jesuites discourse with him represented by the Excellent Thuanus who there informs us that this business was transacted with the Spanish Ambassadour Mendoza and was to have been seconded by a forrein Army and Paget a gentleman of a Noble family sent into Spain about it And at last all things being agreed on both at home and abroad the day appointed for the perpetrating the business is S. Bartholomews day memorable for the Parisian Massacre fourteen years since and for that reason purposely made choice of But before the day came the business being detected Ballard and Babington and several other of the Conspirators were apprehended whereof some had sworn to be the Executioners of the Queens murther and among them Savage now again swore it and others were to be of the party which the while was to rescue the Queen of Scots and upon their own Confessions and Letters intercepted were Convicted Condemned and Executed And in this Conspiracy was a project of making an Association under pretense of fear of the Puritans These were executed but the twentieth of September and in January following was the French Ambassadour l' Aubaspinaeus a man wholly devoted to the Guisian Faction and Lieger here projecting the same business Camb. an 1.87 and to that purpose treated with William Stafford a Gentleman of a Noble Family to kill the Queen at first more covertly but afterward more openly by his Secretary who promised him great Honours a huge summ of Money great Favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Catholicks Stafford refused it himself but commended to him one Moody and in Consultation how to do it Moody proposes to lay a bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed-chamber and secretly give fire to it But this being discovered by Stafford the Secretary thinking to be gone into France was intercepted and upon his examination confessed the whole matter 32. Hitherto had the Actors and Abettors of most of these Conspiracies to put the better Colour upon their unjustifiable attempts besides the Cause of Religion pretended also the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England Camb. an 1586 who having been discovered to be privy to most of the former and found guilty of that of Babington was therefore condemned and now this being found to have been designed upon the same pretense Queen Elizabeth by great importunity of the Parliament who had confirmed the Sentence was prevailed with to sign a Warrant for the Execution whereupon she was beheaded the eighth of February following And here we must not omit a Notable Artifice of the Jesuites who being at last out of hope of Restoring their Religion by Her or Her Son Camb. an 86 began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imployed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Writer to draw off the Gentry from Her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into those dangerous Counsels which brought Her to Her end and at the same time least the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirring Them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarre and Conde And agreeable hereunto was the discovery of that for which she was condemned viz. by Gilbert Gifford a Priest then sent over into England to immind Savage of his Vow and to be the Letter-carrier between the Queen of Scots and the Confederates who presently goes and offers his Service to the Secretary Walsingham to discover them and that forsooth out of Love to his Prince and Countrey although he had not long before been one of those who provoked Savage to his vow to kill her and accordingly he first conveyes them to Walsingham by whom they are opened transcribed and carefully sealed up again and returned to Gifford who then conveys them to the Queen of Scots Babington or who ever else they are directed to which is so plain a prosecution of the same design that it is a wonder that Camden should be so much at a loss to find out the mystery of this undertaking of the Priest More might be observed to manifest this Juggle if it were necessary to the present business 33. The Design of the Pope and Spaniard to Invade England had been now long since perceived here not so much by printed books which were designed only to work upon the vulgar and their own party as by the secret Letters of Morton and others which were intercepted and Chringhtow the Scotch Jesuit's papers miraculously as himself acknowledged when by him torn and thrown into the Sea blown back into the Ship
Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. 111. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Robels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phaenix plume to Tir-Oen their General and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the example of his Predecessors to vouchsafe them some Spiritual Graces and Favours he favourably grants to all and every one who shall joyn with the said Hugh and his Army asserting and fighting for the Catholick Faith or any way aid or assist them if they be truly penitent and have confessed and if it may be received the Sacrament a Plenary Pardon and Remission of All their Sins the same which used to be granted by the Popes of Rome to those who go to war against the Turks 18. April 1600. Camd. p. 750. Foul. p. 651. And the next year again for their further encouragement he sends a particular letter to Tyrone wherein he Commends their Devotion in engaging in a Holy League and their valour and atcheivements Exhorts them to continue unanimous in the same mind and Promises to write effectually to his Sons the Catholick Kings and Princes to give all manner of Assistance to them and their cause and tells him he thinks to send them a peculiar Nuncio who may be helpful to them in all things as occasion shall serve 20. Jan. 1601. Foul. p. 655. The King of Spain likewise sends his Assistance a great fleet who landed at King-Sale 20. Sept. under the conduct of Don John d'Aquila who sets out a Declaration shewing the King of Spain's pretense in the war which he saith is with the Apostolick Authority to be administred by him that they perswade not any to deny due Obedience according to the word of God to their Prince but that all know that for many years since Elizabeth was deprived of her Kingdom and All her Subjects Absolved from their Fidelity by the Pope unto whom he that reigneth in the Heavens the King of Kings hath committed All Power that he should Root up Destroy Plant and Build in such sort that he may punish temporal Kings if it should be good for the Spiritual Building even to their Deposing which thing hath been done in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by many Popes viz. by Pope Pius v. Gregory XIII and now by Clement VIII as is well known whose Bulls are extant that the Pope and the King of Spain have resolved to send Souldiers Silver Gold and Arms with a most liberal hand that the Pope Christs Vicar on Earth doth command them the Papists in Ireland to take Arms for the defense of their Faith c. Camd. p. 829. Foul. 658. And not long after more Supplies were sent from Spain under Alonso de Ocampo Thu. l. 125. Cam. an 1601. 1602. But it pleased God to make the Queen still Victorious over All and part of them with the Irish Rebels being beaten and routed in the Field the rest are brought to articles upon which they Surrender All and are sent home when more forces were coming from Spain to their recruit The next year most of the other Rebels being defeated and subdued last of all Mac Eggan the Popes Vicar Apostolick with a party of the Rebels which he himself led with his Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other was slain by the Queens forces and the Rebels routed in January 1602 3 and so the whole Kingdom Tyrone also submitting to mercy totally subdued Camd. an 1603. Foul. p. 664. 37. And now this Blessed Queen having by an Admirable Providence of Almighty God been Preserved from All these both Secret Conspiracies and Open Invasions through a long Reign of four and forty years compleat and made victorious over All her Enemies as well abroad as at home Out-lived her great and bitter enemy Phil. 11. King of Spain who himself lived to be sensible of the Divine Judgment of the Iniquity of his Actions against her and to desire a Peace with her though he lived not to enjoy it Out-lived four Kings of France eight Popes and the greatest part of the ninth and maugre all the Powers of Hell the Malice and Wicked Machinations of Men of most turbulent and Anti-christian Spirits Defended that Purity of Religion which even at the very beginning of Her Reign she had with Mature Deliberation and a Generous and most Christian Courage and Resolution notwithstanding all Difficulties and Dangers which on every side threatened her undertakings established was by the same at last brought to her Grave in Peace in a Good Old Age. Her very Enemies admiring as well her Worth and Excellence as her Glory and Felicity see the one extolled by Sixtus v. Thu. l. 82. p. 48. and the other by An. Atestina l. 129. and both more largly described by the Noble and Ingenuous Thuanus l. 129. and Sir Francis Bacon in his
was shed in the barbarous and horrid murders and slaughters which were made upon the Protestants of Merindol and Cabriers condemned meerly for their Religion Thu. l. 6. by a most rigid and severe Sentence of the Parliament of Provence after which he never enjoyed himself says Raleigh nor indeed his life long after his approbation of that Execution wherein their towns and villages to the number of two and twenty were burned and themselves without distinction of age or sex most barbarously murthered But being touched with remorse of Conscience and repenting of it upon his death bed he charged his Son that the injuries done to that people should be enquired into and their murtherers who in the cruelty of their execution had exceeded the severity of the Sentence to be duly punished threatening him with Gods judgments Thu. l. 3. Davil p. 14. if he neglected it And among other Admonitions which he then gave him this was one to beware of the Ambition of the Guises whom he foresaw if admitted to the administration of the Kingdom would reduce both his Children and the People of France to great miseries But Henry 11. no sooner came to his Fathers throne but he presently began to practise the contrary to his directions Davila p. 15.19 displacing those that before had any part in the government and substituting in their room the same men whom his Father had discharged and Guise with the first and at length the three brothers of Guise got into their hands all the principal governments and chief dignities of the Kingdom together with the super-intendancy of all affairs both Martial and Civil the Consequence of which did afterwards make good the truth of his fathers prediction Nor did he much better perform his fathers charge in doing Justice upon the bloody offenders Thu. l. 6. for though he gave the cause a long hearing yet did not the issue of the judgment answer the great expectations which the so many horrid crimes whereof they were accused did raise in mens minds one only of the offenders for want of friends at Court being executed but the principal actors of that wickedness restored to their former dignity and places so that instead of that Justice which if duly executed upon the offenders might possibly have averted or mitigated the Divine vengeance which hath since prosecuted his fathers guilt in his posterity he not only by neglect thereof but also by his own continuance of the like cruelties and for the same cause of Religion appropriated his fathers guilt to himself and with the addition of his own transmitted the same to his posterity with the Divine Vengeance further provoked attending it He began his Persecutions of the Protestants in the first year of his reign and continued the same to the last days of his life with that resolution that no sollicitation of neighbour Princes his allies could mitigate his fury He used his uttermost endeavour says Davila p. 40. to extirpate the roots of those seeds in their first growth and therefore with Inexorable Severity resolved that All who were found convict of this imputation should suffer death without mercy And although Many of the Counsellors in Every Parliament either Favouring the same Opinions or Abhorring the Continual Effusion of blood made use of all their skill to preserve as many as they could from the Severity of his Execution notwithstanding the Kings Vigilance and Constancy was such chiefly by the Incitements of the Cardinal of Lorain one of the Guises that he had reduced things to such a point as would in the end though with the Effusion of much blood have expelled all the peccant humours he means the Protestants out of the bowels of the Kingdom if the accident which followed had not interrupted the course of his resolution That which he calls an accident was the violent and in respect of the course of nature untimely but in respect of Gods Providence most seasonable death of that cruel King in the height of his Resolutions of Inexorable Severity against the Protestants by the hands of that same man whom he had but few days before imployed to apprehend and imprison some of the chief Senators for no other cause but their Religion and their free delivering of their Sentence according to the Laws in Parliament concerning the cause of the Protestants and at the same that Queen Elizabeth was with Her Senators Consulting and Resolved to Establish that Religion which he persecuted which she happily by Gods Blessing effected and procured a Blessing upon her self and her Kingdom while he furiously fighting against God was in a Ludicrous fight running at Tilt by a Splinter of a broken lance which found entrance at his eye though his head and body were clad in armour cut off from further prosecuting his resolutions in the midst of his years and in the midst of his publick Solemnities of the Nuptials of his eldest daughter to the King of Spain which whom he had concluded to make a war against the Protestants and of his only Sister to the Duke of Savoy in the view of the Bastile where those Senators were kept in Prison and within two or three days if not less after one of the chief of them was declared heritick and delivered over to the Secular Power Leaving behind him a Curse upon his posterity and Misery and Confusion to his Kingdom principally caused and promoted by those very instruments whose Counsels and Instigations he had followed in his wicked and bloody practises 40. He left four sons all in a manner children the eldest Francis 11. who succeeded him under the age of sixteen who by reason of his youth Lib. 1. or rather as says Davila his natural incapacity requiring if not a direct Regent yet a prudent assiduous Governour till his natural weakness was overcome by maturity of years the Ancient Customs of the Kingdom called to that Charge the Princes of the Blood among which for nearness and reputation it belonged to the Prince of Conde and the King of Navarre But Katherine of Medicis the Kings mother and Francis Duke of Guise with Charles his brother Cardinal of Lorain uncles to Mary Queen of Scots whom the King in the life-time of his father had married severally aspiring to the Government to which neither had right by the Laws of the Kingdom and therefore despairing by their own power and interest to obtain and retain it alone they resolved to unite their several interests and powers and to share it among them and they quickly obtained she by her interest in the King her Son and they by the means of their Niece his Queen that to the Duke was committed the Care of the Militia Davil l. â— the Civil affairs to the Cardinal and to the Queen-mother the Superintendance of all the Princes of the blood and others of the prime Nobility being excluded not only from the Government but also by arts and affronts removed or repulsed from the
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
a fevor and therefore her body being dissected in open view but her head under colour of respect untouched it was divulged that by the testimony of skilful Physitians she died of a fevor as Davila relates the story The next to be made sure of in particular was that brave person Colinius a man who though through necessity ingaged in them yet detected out of an innate hatred of such broils the late Civil Wars even to his own ruine and destruction at last as Thuanus upon several occasions often notes and as real a well-wisher of his King and Countreys good as any Subject in France as appeared more fully in some instances discovered after his death But the King and Queen-mother by the arts of the Guisian Faction being prepossessed of a contrary opinion of him after all their fraudulent expressions of favour to him caused him to be shot by a retainer of the Guisian Family â—a p. 367. Thu. l. 52. to secure themselves from the imputation of so odious a fact but being thereby only maimed not killed out-right they presently according to their former dissimulations repair to his lodgings to visit him and with great shew of sorrow for the accident appoint him Physitians and Chirurgeons and a guard for his defence and order a strict search for the apprehension of the assasine This done upon the eve of St. Bartholomew being Sunday Da. p. 3â—1 372. the Duke of Guise by order from the King having about twilight given direction to the Provost des Marchand the chief head of the people of Paris to provide 2000 armed men with every one a white sleeve on their left arm and white crosses in their hats to be ready upon notice instantly to execute the Kings commands and that the Sheriffs of the several Wards should also be ready and cause lights upon the ringing of the bell of the Palace-clock to be set up in every window himself at the hour prefixed with the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur d'Angoulesme the King's bastard-Brother and other Commanders and Souldiers to the number of 300 went to the Admiral Colinius his house and having forcibly entred the Court-gate kept by a few of the King of Navar 's Halbardiers and the servants of the house who were all killed without mercy they likewise kill the Admiral himself and threw his body out of the window Felinius his son-in-law with other persons of quality and all the rest that had relation to him This done Monsieur d'O Colonel of the King's Guards calls out the principal Protestants that were in the Louvre one by one who being come into the Court were all killed by the Souldiers that stood in two long ranks with their arms ready for that purpose there died divers Noblemen and persons of great quality and others to the number of 200. At the same time the bell gave the sign and those who were prepared for the deed having received order what to do fell a killing the Protestants throughout all the lodgings and houses where they were dispersed and made an infinite slaughter of them without any distinction of age sex or condition and of many of the Papists among the rest And those who fled were pursued by the Duke of Guise with a great many horse and foot and being overtaken some without shooes some without saddles some without bridles but all more or less unprovided were scattered and cut off There were killed in the City that day and the next above 10000 whereof above 500 were Barons Knights and Gentlemen who had held the chiefest employments in the War and were now purposely met together from all parts to honor the King of Navar 's Marriage Thu. l. 52. A sad time it was what through the noise and clatter of those who every where ran to killing and carrying away of their prey and the doleful groans and sad cryes of those who were slain and murthered without mercy young and old rich and poor men and women women great with child and others with their little children sucking at their breasts and in the dead time of the night plucked out of their beds and houses what with the horrid spectacle of dead bodies thrown out of the windows and trod about the streets and the channels running down with streams of bloud into the River And yet so little moved were the Court Ladies with all this that without either fear or shame in an impudent manner they beheld and stood gazing upon the naked bodies of the Noblemen and Gentlemen which lay on heaps before the Court The day after the Admirals death Da. 3â—â— the Duke of Anjou with the Regiment of the Guards went through all the City and Suburbs causing those houses to be broken open that made any resistance but all the Protestants were either already dead or else being terrified had put white crosses in their hats the general mark of the Papists endeavouring by that means and by hiding themselves to save their lives but being pointed at in the streets by any one or discovered any other way they were without mercy torn in pieces by the people and cast into the River The day before this terrible execution the King dispatched Posts into divers parts of the Kingdom commanding the Governors of Cities and Provinces to do the like And the same night at Meaux and the days ensuing at Orleans Rouen Bourges Angiers Tholouze and many other places but above all at Lyons there was a most bloudy slaughter of the Protestants without any respect of age sex or quality of persons Most sad and lamentable stories says Davila might be here related for this cruelty was prosecuted in so many several places with such variety of accidents against people of all conditions as it was credibly reported that there were slain above forty thousand Protestants in few days The King himself as In vita Greg. 13. Cicarela relates told the Pope's Nuncio that seventy thousand and more were slain Some days after the King dispatched his Grand Provost with all diligence to seize upon Colinius his Wife and Children but his eldest Son with the widow-Lady his Mother-in-law and others being already fled secretly to Geneva the younger children both male and female were condemned to death in their tender years About two days after the Massacre was finished at Paris a Jubilee was there appointed and a publick Thanksgiving kept by the King the whole Court and a great confluence of the people for the business so happily managed according to their wish and desire Thu. l. 52.53 In memory whereof St. Bartholomew's day was by a decree of the Parliament of Paris appointed to be observed as an Anniversary Thanksgiving-day 46. Thu. l. 51.53 This horrible act of most barbarous and inhumane cruelty is highly extolled by the Italian Writers as a good and laudable deed and the politick contrivance of it as most worthy the subtil wit of a magnanimous Prince And certain it is that the news of
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
was reaped only horror shame and anxiety whereunto succeeded a plentiful harvest of other real troubles For the King and that Faction which prevailed at Court after so many former breaches of publick Faith by this so inhumane cruelty and foul breach of Faith so much the greater by how much the greater arts and deep dissimulation had been used before to raise a trust confidence of their sincerity had now driven those of the Protestants who remained alive to that distrust and jealousie the usual fruits of perfidiousness of what-ever Letters Promises Edicts or other means could be devised to satisfy them that nothing could give them any assurance of their lives and safety but retaining those places which by the last agreement of Peace were left in their possession for their security and were now had the agreement been performed Thu. l. 53 to have been delivered to stand upon their defence And though many of them not only doubting of their strength but making scruple of the justice of the cause now since not only the Princes of the blood to whom the administration of the Kingdom did belong were absent but moreover the King himself was grown a man did dispute against it and from both those grounds urged all the arguments they could yet against the first of these the horror of these slaughters which they had so lately seen and did foresee prevailed and despair made the most timerous couragious And this also made the answer which was returned by others to the latter more satisfactory to the rest that to take up Arms for their just defence not to offer violence to any but only to repel the injury and save themselves from slaughter was neither by the Laws of God or man unlawful that it ought not to be reputed a war against the King but a just defence against their enemies who abused the King's authority to destroy them who if so powerful as to have proceeded so far in the late tumult beyond his consent or privity or prevalent with him as to work his assent to so unjust and foul an action they had the more reason to secure themselves against their power and treachery till justice should be done upon them nor ought they to doubt but in so just a cause upon their serious repentance trust in God and humble supplications to him he would graciously pity their misery and provide some unexpected means for their relief And therefore seeing La Charite was surprized at the time of the massacre and the same was attempted against Montabon Da. p. 377. and being further warned by what was lately done at * Castrum in Albigensi agro Castres which after great promises of safety by the King was notwithstanding permitted to be plundered and layed waste by the slaughters and rapines of Creuseta Rochel having for some daies kept a solemn fast with divers other places prepare for their defence And at last when arts failed especially after the massacre at Burdeaux in the midst of their treaties the King's Forces were sent to assault them And these says Thuanus after a more particular relation of them were the beginnings of the Fourth Civil War in France the more memorable because from so small beginnings beyond the hope and expectation even of those who through necessity rather than upon counsel and design did manage it when so many Commanders being slain the Nobility who remained dispersed abroad and the people in all places astonished all was thought subdued within the compass of a year without the foreign aid of any Prince and money every where after so great plunders failing them it restored the affairs of the Protestants to good condition again And yet this was only a defensive War on their part and as he says of necessity wherein those poor people sought only for their lives and safety and not to neglect the King's commands were willing to keep their meetings at Sermons only secretly in the night and not openly in the day-time which yet could not be denied them without manifest injustice and breach of publick Faith But such were their apprehensions of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies and resolutions thereupon that they chose rather to suffer all the miseries and necessities that humane nature is able to bear than again to trust to the mercy or promises of them whom they had so often found perfidious and moreover at last so barbarously inhumane and cruel And therefore at Samerre it is almost incredible what they suffered Thu. l. 55. Having spent their stores they killed and eat their Asses Mules Horses Dogs and all other living creatures they could meet with and when that also was spent they devised ways to make Hydes Skins Parchment Bridle-rains and what-ever was made of leather edible and Bran Straw Nutshels the Horns and Hoofs of Beasts even dugg out of the dunghils and the very dung of Horses and such things as scarce any other creatures will feed on insomuch that whereas in eight moneths siege they had not lost 100 slain in forty days above 500 died of hunger Thu. l. 56. and 200 more were famished almost to death Rochel indeed was not driven to that extremity partly having made better provisions for themselves partly by an extraordinary supply little less than miraculous for all the time of the siege the tides it being a Sea Town left the poor people such plenty of a kind of shell-fish as very well supplied them with food which when the siege was ended presently vanished and were not seen in such plenty much longer Yet did they testify as great abhorrence of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies by their incredible courage and activity even of their women in the repulse of several fierce assaults and also in sallies and in conclusion the assailants seeking rather occasions how to raise the siege with credit Thu. l. 56. than having any hope to obtain the City by force they came to this agreement for themselves Montabon and Nismes Da. p. 392. confirmed by an Edict That free profession of their Religion should be permitted them according to the Edicts made in behalf of the Protestants their priviledges confirmed no Garrison imposed on them only the King should appoint them a Governor and they should be governed by the Laws and Customs which they had used even since they became Subjects to the Crown of France c. Some time after Samere obtained by agreement to enjoy the benefit of the Pacification made with Rochel but paying 40000 l. for the saving of their Movables And this end says our Author had this fourth Civil War after the tumult at Paris when the Courtiers thought all subdued by that slaughter begun and finished in the assaulting of certain Cities and especially in the siege of that one City of Rochel which for so many months did most stifly beyond the opinion of all men sustain and at last break the strength and force of the whole Kingdom
raised against it besides Aumale Tular Cossens Goa his Brother and other 40000 Souldiers the very number said by Davila to have been slain in the massacre being slain and dead of sickness and among these 60 chief * Ordinum Ductores Commanders and as some say most of the actors of that tragedy besides a vast deal of mony and military provisions spent and at last things being reduced to those streights that the King contrary to what bad before been falsly perswaded him thought himself a greater gainer by that Peace than by the Parisian slaughter Such were the effects whether of the Italian Policy or the Roâ—ish Doctrine of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 50. He had no sooner ended this War Tâ—â— l. 57. but he began to be grievously afflicted with that fatal disease which in few months after put an end to his life not without suspition of poison by his Mother and Brother Anjou and besides in the mean time by her arts and the influences of the Guises upon her was presently involved in a fit of Civil War And this not only against the Protestants whom having sufficient cause from former experience to beware of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies after other new occasions of suspition she forced again to provide for their security and stand upon their defence by a perfidious attempt to surprize Rochel by her emissaries who had corrupted some in the City to betray it to the Forces which for that purpose they had drawn near it but also against a considerable party of the Catholicks as they call them whom while she thought it necessary for the continuance of her power and authority in the government to keep up and foment factions among the chief Nobility she by over-doing what she designed forced for their own safety and security to joyn their complaints and forces with the Protestants Whereby considering the division of that party she in some sort repaired the loss which the Protestant party had sustained by the massacres the Providence of God undoubtedly thus ordering it to manifest the vanity of their former hopes of peace and tranquility by such wicked courses for the destruction of the Protestants and to punish by their mutual dissentions among themselves their former unanimity in persecuting them The chief of this party were the sons of the old Constable Momorancy in his time an active persecutor of the Protestants the Viscount de Turenne and others whom the Queen favouring the contrary faction of the Guises continually by divers calumnies incensing and exasperating the King against them and by other stratagems which they discovered drove into despair of safety by any other means which no doubt was not a little increased by the experience which they had seen of her perfidiousness and cruelty in the case of the Protestants all men being suspitious of those whom they have observed false and perfidious to others And to these Alancon the King's younger Brother upon the same occasions besides some other causes of discontent joyned himself as head Besides those of the Nobility there were two other subsidiary Factions in the Court. Thu. l. 59. pr. The one of those who desirous by any means to retain the Religion of their Ancestors and careless for any amendment or reformation of it did easily suffer themselves in favour of them who took up Arms under pretence of defending it to be drawn in either by fraudulent interpretations to elude or plainly and altogether to violate the Faith given to the Protestants The other of those who would not depart from the religion of their ancestors but yet desired many things in it in tract of time through covetousness and gross ignorance brought in to the dishonour of God and offence of many to be corrected and therefore being more favourable to the Protestants held that things ought to be transacted in a friendly manner with them that the Faith publickly given them should be faithfully kept and that by any means peace without which the business of reformation could not proceed should be setled The first favoured the Guises who sought all occasions of War the latter the Momorances who perswaded Peace Of this last opinion were those famous men Michael Hospitalius Chancellor of France Paulus Foxius Many others were of the same mind as Jo. Monlue Bishop of Valence and Car. Marillac Arch-Bishop of Vienna Thu. l. 25. Christophorus Thuanus Christophorus Menilius though they never engaged in Arms on either side And this was the party which were called Politicks a name saith our Author by the seditious attributed to them who were studious for the good of the King and peace of the Kingdom li. 52. and male contents But that faction which desired stirs alwaies prevailing in the Court hence it came to pass that so many Edicts of Pacification were made one upon another and as often violated the War being so often renewed and with the same levity where-with it was begun laid down again Whereof the King by this time became sensible Thu. l. 57. and observed but when it was too late that that unhappy massacre had contrary to what was expected dissolved the bonds of peace and publick security And therefore with indignation perceiving that the Counsellors of it had more respect to the satisfaction of their own private hatred and ambition than to the publick Faith and quiet of the Kingdom without which he could never keep up his Royal Majesty being not a little incensed against them he resolved from that time to remove them from the Council and to send away from him his mother her self under a more honourable colour of visiting her son Anjou in Poland whom he had newly almost by force thrust out of France having to be rid of him procured him to be chosen King there And believing that the Civil Wars in France were raised not so much for the cause of Religion as through the factions of that Kingdom that the chief leaders of them were the Guises and the Momorances he resolved without any regard of the Law or the justice of either cause to destroy both these potent Families being no less exasperated against Guise than Momorancy and therefore had often thoughts of taking him out of the way But in the midst of these troubles without in his Kingdom and others within in his mind and body after very grievous and long pains so that long before his death he felt himself dying he ended his life every way miserable by that sickness which few thought natural Pauâ—i naturalem ei rebantur memores quae summus dissimulandâ— artifex prae impatientia interminatus matri frotri â—sset neque ignari quam non sponte nonus Rex Galliam relinqueret p. 441. in octav and again p. 493. Mortut corpus a Chirurgis medicis apertum in quo livores ex causa incognita reperti conceptam multorum opinionem auxerunt potius quam minuerunt l. 57. but rather procured by
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
it behoves that they who maintain them should before all things renounce the same in their Schools If they do not they ought by no means to be suffered as those who maintain a Doctrine devised to the subversion of the fundamentals of royal power and authority If they do yet are they not much more to be trusted for at Rome and in Spain where these new monstrous opinions flourish they think one thing but speak * See their Answers to the Questions proposed to them by the Court after the murder of the King in Foul. l. 9. c. 2. five and the Answer to Philanax Angl. ch 5. p. 128. another in France and as they pass into this or that Country so do they take up or lay down these opinions If they say that this they may lawfully do by †V. Sporswood Hist of Scotl. l. 6. an 1580. pag 308 309. secret Dispensation then what certainty can be had of their Doctrine which is thus changed with their change of place and is good or bad according to the times This Doctrine they embrace and maintain in common all of them and it so thrives by little and little that it is to be feared lest in tract of time it infect the other orders which are not yet levened by it At first they had none more their adversaries than the Sarbonists now many of them are their favourers viz. those who received their first institution in their Schools Others who are now training up in learning under them will hereafter do the like and one day hold the chief dignities in the Senate and if they shall think the same in point of Doctrine also they will by degrees withdraw themselves from their duty of obedience to the King set at naught the King's Laws and suffer the Liberties of the Gallicane Church to become obsolete and wear out and lastly will reckon it no crime of Treason which is committed by an Ecclesiastick Then he goes on and imminds him of the fruits which had already been produced from these principles of Barriere Varada and Guignard and Chastel and of the last King's murder Gens ingrata against whom this ungrateful Society stirred up the people to sedition nor were they thought guiltless of that murder that in the late wars of other Orders many persisted constantly in the King's obedience but these conjoyntly and unanimously conspired against him with the inveterate enemies of the Kingdom the Spaniard nor was there one of that Society found who was of the King's party touches upon foreign examples how in Portugal they and they only deserting the cause of their Country adhered to the Spaniards and were the cause of the slaughters of so many Priests and devout Persons two thousand perishing under the Spaniards in several manners and by a singular indulgence obtained the Pope's pardon of so many confessed slaughters then having spoken of the reasonableness of the Decree which exterminates the Jesuites and had been received without contradiction in all other Courts had not they withstood it who were not well seâ—lâ—d in the King's obedience and were hardly brought off from their inveterate hatred against him and answered objections he presents the humble obsecrations and obtestations of the Parliament for the continuance of it and to these adds the humble supplication of the University and at last imminds him of the regard which his Predecessors had always had to the intercessions of the Supreme Courts at whose Petition or Advice they revoked or altered their Edicts if they contained any thing amiss that this the Courts of the Kingdom beseech his Majesty and promise themselves from his Grace that he will please to suffer them to enjoy their authority entire which indeed is the authority of the King himself as that which depends upon him c. But all would not do notwithstanding the intercession of the Parliament the deprecation of the University the disswasions of those he held both able and faithful to him he had made an Edict and it must be published and the Jesuites restored mal-gremesme les avis de quelques uns de son Conscil And they must not only be restored but moreover have a new Colledge built them at La Flesche which the King endowed with an annual Rent of 11000 Crowns Aurei and prevailed with the Clergy for 100000 more toward the building of it and he also orders that the hearts of Himself his Queen and their Successors shall be there intombed in a Church to be built by himself and in the mean time a Father of that Society is admitted to the inspection and conduct of his own being made his ordinary Preacher and Confessor viz. Father Cotton who presently thereupon began to shew his zeal for the Pope against a Sentence of the Colledge of Divines passed two years before wherein they had asserted the Liberties of the Gallican Church against the Pride and Havghtiness and Avarice of Rome and among other things that other Bishops have power to order the publick affairs of the Church within their own Diocess as well as the Roman Bishop in his V. l. 129. and at his instance by the command of the King L. 144. for the Court could not be brought to consent to it not only the marble Table whereon the Decree was engraved but the Pyramid it self with all the other inscriptions in detestation of that fact of Chastel was taken down and demolished and the printâ—d Cuts of it prohibited which being notwithstanding greedily bought up diligent search was by the King's command made for the brass Plate from which they were printed which yet was not found till few days before the murder of this King also renewed the common hatred against the Jesuits 59. But before we proceed to the murder it self of this King it will be necessary to take notice of some other Conspiracies against him whereof some were contemporary with those of Barriere and Chastel though not discovered till afterward and some were since The first of Nic. Malavicinus the Pope's Legate resident with the Arch-Duke at Bruxels who having every where sought for an assassine Thu. l. 123. at last light upon Ch. Ridicone a Dominican Friar of Gant who was very ready to lay down his life for the cause of Religion but before he would undertake this business desired in the first place to have the authority of the Pope and Cardinal's approbation wherefore the Legate for his satisfaction gave him a writing under his hand in the name of the Pope and Cardinals to that purpose and having furnished him with Mony and blessed him with the sign of the Cross he dismissed him giving him also for his better security from discovery a faculty or dispensation to wear a secular habit of a Souldier and to ride dance fence c. Being thus prepared for the business the Jesuite Hoduma to whom his Mother at confession had discovered the agreement desired to see him and having viewed him disliked nothing
but be blamed by many would be so much the more blamed if a great Prince near of Bloud to the King joyned in a very late affinity should be slain in the King's Palace in the arms as it were of the King his Brother-in-law and in the embraces of his Wife For there would be no sufficient excuse nor would those arguments prevail to excuse the King which might cast the blame upon the Guisians Concerning Conde there was a greater debate he lying under the load of his Fathers faults yet both the dignity of the man and the authority of Ludovicus Gonzaga Duke of Nevers affirming that he would be loyal and obedient to the King and also offering himself as a surety for him upon the account of that close and manifold relation that was between them for Conde had lately married Mary of Cleve the Sister of Henrica Wife of the Duke of Nevers did prevail that he should be spared and exempt from the number of those that were designed for the slaughter as well as Navar. 15. Upon this the Duke of Anjou and Engolesme the Bastard departing as they rode in their Coach through the City they spread abroad a rumor as if the King had sent for Momorarcy and was about to bring him into the City with a select number of horse The very same hour there was one apprehended who was suspected of the hurt of Coligny who confessed himself to be a servant of the Guises which when it was understood Guise and Aumale and others of the Family went to the King to remove that suspition and complain that they were oppressed through the favour that was shewed to their enemies that the ears of Judges were open to calumnies cast upon them and that tho they were guiltless yet they were manifestly set against that they had a long time observed that they were for what cause they knew not every day less gracious with the King but yet that they did dissemble it and hoped that time which is the best Master of truth would at last inform him more certainly of the whole matter But since they find no place for their innocence they did though unwillingly and as forced to it desire that with his good leave they might return home This was done openly and it was observed that the King answered to these things somewhat coldly and the rather that he might perswade the Protestants that he bare no good will to the Guisians Upon this the King adviseth Navar that he should afford no occasion of mischief to the audacity and violentness of the Guisians things being so enflamed and the people enclining to the Guisian party That he should command those whom he knew most faithful of his servants to come into the Louvre to be ready upon any sudden accident which Navar did interpreting it in good part calling those which were most active to lodge with him that night in the Louvre Castle Wise men also did presage some future commotions when they observed armed men to run up and down about the City and the Louvre the people to mutter threatnings to be every where heard This being brought to Coligny he who no way doubted of the good will of the King but thought it to be the devise of the Guisians to enflame the people sends one to the King who should in his name acquaint him with it To whom the King answered that Coligny need fear nothing for those things were done by his command to compose the tumults of the people that were stirred up by the Guisians Therefore that his mind might be secure It was also told Teligny the very same hour that Porters laden with Arms were seen to be brought into the Louvre but he contemned the message and answered that unnecessary suspitions were sought for in this sad and dismal time and forbad that this should be made known to Coligny affecting the unseasonable reputation of prudence and moderation from his despising of reports and consequently of dangers and excusing the matter as if those Arms were carried into the Louvre upon the account of a Castle represented and assaulted in a shew 16. Forthwith Guise to whom the chief command of the execution of the whole matter was committed calling together in the deep of night some Captains of the Switzers and the Captains of the French Troops explains to them the Kings will and pleasure That the time was come wherein by the King's command punishment should be taken upon that head that was so hateful both to God and men and also upon the whole faction of the Rebels that the beast was now in their toils that they should take care that he escape not that they should not be wanting to such an opportune occasion of obtaining a more glorious triumph than they ever yet obtained in all their former Wars with the bloud of so many Royallists that the Victory was easy that rich spoils are proposed which they might acquire without bloud as rewards of their good service Upon this the Switzers are placed about the Louvre to whom are joyned the French Troops and command was given that they should look to it that no man of the Family of Navar or Conde should go out of the Louvre The keeping of Coligny's house was committed to Cossenius to whom was given a party of Musquetteers to lie in the neighbouring houses that none might escape them Matters being so disposed as to the foreign Souldiers the Duke of Guise calls to him John Charron President of the Court of Revenues who after a long canvasing and often repulses was at last put into that Office in the place of Marcellus Provost of the Merchants and commands him that he should give notice to the Corporals to command their Souldiers to their Arms but that they should remain at the Town-Hall till midnight there to understand what was needful to be done The same thing was given in command to Marcellus who though he was discharged of his office yet for some private good offices that he had done was retained in the Queens favour and kept his authority though he lost his dignity He by often going to the Court brought himself into an opinion with men that he was in favour with the King and Queen and upon that account was acceptable to the people and from his mouth the people that were of themselves apt enough to stirs were certified That it was the King's pleasure that they should take Arms to cut off Coligny and the other Rebels that therefore they should see to it that none were spared nor that those wicked men should be any where concealed So the King will have it so he commands who also will provide that other Cities of the Kingdom do presently follow the example of the Parisians The sign at which they should rise is the tolling of the bell of the Palace-clock The Mark whereby they should be distinguished from others is white linen-cloath bound about their left arm and a white cross in
also slain Antonius Claromonlius Marquess of Revel Brother by the Mother to Prince Porcian who had a contest with Ludovicus Claromonlius Bussius of Ambois concerning the Marquesat of Revel came to Paris in the company of Navar hoping there to put an end to his troublesome controversy But the matter had a quite other end than he expected for when in that tumult he fled into the house that was next to his at length he fell into the hands of his Cousin-German pursuing him who being his enemy upon no other account but the matter in controversy cruelly slew him But not long after the controversy being brought to an hearing sentence was given for Bussius but with no more happy success for by virtue of an Edict afterwards made in favour of the Protestants the sentence was repealed and Ludovicus himself was for a far different cause with the same cruelty beheaded Antonius Marafinus Guerchius a stout man who the day before had asked Coligny that he might lodge in his house when being in distress he had not time to hide himself taking his Cloak upon his arm and drawing his sword he for a long time defended himself against the Assasines yet he slew none of them being all in Coats of Male but at last was overpowred by the multitude The same calamity involved Baudineus the Brother of Acierius Pluvialius Bernius being cruelly slain by the King's Souldiers as also Carolus Quellevetus Pontius President of Armorica who had married Katharina Parthenaea daughter and heir of John Subizius but the Mother of Parthenaea complaining of the frigidity of her son-in-law a Suit had been commenced to dissolve the Marriage but was not yet determined Therefore when the bodies of the slain were thrown down as they were slain before the Palace and in the sight of the King and Queen and all the Court retinue many Court-Ladies not being affrighted at the horridness of such a spectacle did with curious eyes shamefully behold the naked bodies and especially fixing their eyes on Pontius did examine if they could by any means discover the signs of his frigidity Carolus Bellomanerius Lavardinus the Kinsman of Pontius and somâ—time Tutor to the King of Navar in his childhood felâ— into the hands of Petrus Lupus President of the Court a good man who when he would have saved him and was commanded by the Emissaries of the Court to dispatch his prisoner he as he was a man of a ready and pleasant wit asked so much time as till he could raise his passion by which speech he for some time eluded their cruelty but by and by a Messenger coming from the Palace as from the King he was forced to deliver him into the hands of the Guard who were to carry him before the King but they in the way first stabbed Lavardinus with daggers and then threw him over the Mill bridge into the River The same fortune and in the same place ran Claudius Gaudimelus an excellent Musitian in our Age who set the Psalms of David as they were put into verse in the Mother-tongue by Clemens Marot and Theodoret Beza to divers pleasant tunes as they are now sung in the publick and private meetings of the Protestants Briolius a Gentleman who was Tutor to Marquess Conte in his childhood venerable for his grey-head being now an old man was likewise slain in the embraces of his Pupil who stretched forth his arms and opposed his own body to the blows Truly lamentable was the spectacle of Franciscus Nompar Caumonlius who had lodged in that neighbourhood but which fortune sporting after her manner mingled with an event of unexpected joyfulness he with his two sons whom he loved with a paternal affection being taken in bed by the murderers who prosecuted him with his children not through an hatred of his Religion but through hope of gain was slain with one of his sons the other being all bloudy with the bloud that flowed upon him saving himself from their blows as he could at that tender age for he was hardly twelve years old by the interposition of the dead bodies dissembling himself dead he was at last left by them for dead a little after more ran flocking to the house for prey of whom some commended the fact as well done for not only wild beasts but their whelps are altogether to be destroyed others that had more humanity said this might be lawful to be done upon the Father as guilty but the innocent off spring which perhaps would never take the same courses ought to be spared Among those that came toward the evening of that day when as one did highly detest the fact and said God would be the avenger of such impiety the boy stretching his limbs and a little lifting up his head gave signs that he was alive and when he asked him who he was he answered not unadvisedly that he was the Son and Brother of the slain not telling his name concerning which when he was asked again he answered that he would tell his name if he would lead him where he desired and withal asked him that he would take care to conduct him to the King's Armory for he was near of kin to Biron Master of the Ordnance or Artillery nor should he lose his reward for so great a benefit which thing he carefully performed This James Nompar that is his name with great gratitude rewarded the man brought to him by the Divine Providence and afterwards married the Daughter of Biron and is now chief of a Noble Family in Aquitania Godfry Caumont his Unckle being dead and leaving only one Daughter Being raised by the King to great honours of which he carried himself worthy as Colonel of the King's Life-guard and Governour of Bearne he seems to be preserved from that danger by the singular Grace of God that he might by his numerous off spring which he had by his Wife propagate that Family that was reduced to a few and by his virtue add the highest ornament to the honours of his Ancestors The same day were slain these Protestants of great note Loverius thrown out of a window into the high-way Montamarius Montalbertus Roboreus Joachinus Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Cobombarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius Chancellor to the King of Navar Hieronimus Grolotius Governour of Aurleance and Calistus his base Brother who were both inhumanely dragged about the streets and at last cast into the River by the instigation of those who gaped after his office and goods Stephanus Cevalerius Pruneus the King's Treasurer in Poictou a man of great integrity and one that was very solicitous for the good of the Common-weal who had been the principal mover for the building the Stone-bridge of Vienne laid at Eraldi-castrum was by certain cut-throats sent by Stephanus Fergo Petauderius who sought after his Treasurer-ship after the payment of a great sum of mony cruelly murdered and thrown into the River and Patanderius is by the commendation of Monpenserius whose affairs he managed put into
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
Appennage to his Brethren and in giving them authority which having read and acquainting Alanson with it whom she had perceived to favour Coligny This is your beloved cordial friend saith the Queen who thus advised the King To whom Alanson answered How much he loved me I know not but this advice could proceed from none but one that was faithful to the King and careful for his affairs Again there was among his papers found a breviate wherein among other reasons that he gave for the necessity of a War with the Spaniards in the Low-Countreys this was added as being omitted in the Speech which he made to the King lest it should be divulged and therefore was to be secretly communicated to the King that if the King did not accept of the condition that the Low-Countreys offered he should †V. Walsingham◠Letter 14 Septemb. 1572. in the Compleat Ambassador p. 241. not transfer it to his neighbours of England who though they were now as things stood friends to the King if once they set footing in the Low-Countreys and the Provinces bordering upon the Kingdom would resume their former minds and being invited by that conveniency of friends would become the worst enemies to the King and Kingdom Which being likewise imparted to Walsingham Queen Elizabeths Ambassador and the Queen telling him that by that he might judge how well Coligny was affected towards the Queen his Mistress who so much loved him He made her almost the same answer and said He did not know how he was affected towards the Queen his Mistress but this he knew that that counsel did savour of one that was faithful to the King and most studious of the honour of France and in whose death both the King and all France had a great loss So both of them by almost the same answer frustrated her womanish policy not without shame unto her self About the end of the month wherein Coligny was slain the King fearing lest the Protestants should grow desperate in other Provinces writes to the Governors with most ample commands Carnii Comes and principally to Feliomrus Chabolius President of Burgundy in which he commanded that he should go through the Cities and Towns that were under his jurisdiction and friendly convene the Protestants and acquaint them with the tumult at Paris and the true causes thereof That nothing was done in that affair through hatred of their Religion or in prejudice to the favour that was granted them by the last Edict but that he might prevent the conspiracy made by Coligny and his confederates against the King the Queen the King's Brethren the King of Navar and other Princes and Nobles That it was the King's pleasure that his Edicts might be observed and that the Protestants every where taking forth Letters of security from the Presidents should live quietly and safely under the King's protection upon pain of death to any that should injure or molest them in any thing On the other hand he should admonish the Protestants that they should keep themselves quiet at home and because in their Meetings and publick Assemblies there used to be such Counsels among the Protestants as were suspitious to Catholicks and which might put them upon new stirs therefore that they should abstain from those meetings and expect the same favour and safety from the King's clemency and goodness as he doth exercise towards others But if they should foolishly neglect this advice command and promise of the King and should presume to meet publickly stir up troubles and take up Arms under colour of their own defence he would then proceed against them as against Rebels To the same effect were Letters sent to Melchior Monpesatus President of Poictou Pria President of Toures and the Presidents of other Provinces Chabolius managed his office with great prudence and moderation having learnt that the Protestants who had hitherto been exasperated by severity and cruelty of punishments might be better reduced to their duty by clemency and mildness And matters were ordered without almost any bloud-shed in Burgundy many returning either through fear or of their own accord to the Religion of their Ancestors renouncing the Protestant Doctrines Only Claromontius Travius of the prime Nobility whose Sister Helena Antonius Grammontanus had married was when the news was hot slain at Dijon in the absence of Chabotius by the people Those that were suspected at Mascon being by the King's command apprehended and cast into prison by Philibertus sustained no further damage 30. So foul a tempest in France being in some sort allayed and the liberty of killing and plundering repressed when the more prudent that yet no way favoured the Protestant party did upon the sad thought of the present state of things by little and little come to themselves and abhorring the fact did curiously enquire into the causes of it and how it might be excused they thus judged That no example of like cruelty could be found in all Antiquity though we turned over the Annals of all Nations These kinds of outrages had been confined to certain men or to one place and might have been excused by the sense of injury newly offered or their rage did only exercise it self upon those whom it was their interest to remove out of the way For so by the command of Mithridates King of Pontus upon one message and the signification of one Letter 40000 Romans were slain in one day throughout all Asia The Sicilian Vespers So Peter King of Arragon commanded 8000 French-men to be slain in Sicily who had seized upon it in his absence But their case was far different from this For those Kings exercised their rage upon strangers and foreigners but this King upon his own subjects who were not more committed to his power than to his faith and trust They were obliged no otherwise by their faith given than to the strangers themselves but he was bound in a late league with his neighbouring Kings and Princes to keep that Peace which he had sworn to They used no arts unworthy of royal dignity to deceive them he for a snare abused his new engaged friendship and the sacred Nuptials of his own Sister whose wedding garment was even stained with bloud These are the vertues that use to be commended in Kings Justice Gentleness and Clemenoy but savageness and cruelty as in all others so especially in Princes use to be condemned Famous through all ages was Publius Scipio who was wont to say he had rather save one Citizen than slay a thousand enemies and Antonius who was called the Pious did often use that saying Kings indeed have power of life and death over the Subjects of their Realm but with this limitation that they should not proceed against them till their cause was heard upon a fair tryal This rage and blindness of mind was sent by God upon the French as a judgment for the daily execrations and reproaches of the Deity from which the King himself ill educated
Here Catesby thought a convenient place to execute his so long studied and digested Plot and having made a Vault and storing it with a great quantity of Gun-Powder to involve all those together who could not severally be taken together with the King and His Family in the Rubbish of the same Ruines Therefore when he had dealt with Piercy and he after many bitter complaints of the King through impatience broke forth into these words That there was only one way left to be delivered from so many Evils and that was to take the King out of the way and to that end as he was ready for any attempt did freely offer his own Service Catesby who was more cautious and cunning moderated the Gentlemans heat and God forbid said he that this Head of thine so dear to all good men should be so fruitlesly exposed to such danger The business may be undertaken and accomplished yet so as that you and such as you are may still be preserved for further consulting for Religion and the Publick weal. Then he opens his design in very plaufible words and with like Artifice shews him the manner how it was to be effected Piercy agrees and presently hires an House nigh to the place and very opportune to work his Vault The Parliament that was called the year before was deferred till February following Nov. 1604. Mean while Tho. Bates Catesby's Servant a dextrous Fellow and one in whom his Master did much confide being least he should suspect any thing taken into the privity of the Fact when at first he seemed to be moved at the horridness of the thing he is sent to Tesmund alias Greenwell for those men that they might the better be undiscovered went under two Names sometimes under three by whom he was perswaded and strangely confirmed to the Execution of the design being made sensible of the Meritoriousness of the work Afterwards Robert Keyes and after him Ambrose Rockwood and John Grant were taken into the Plot. III Eid Xbr. the Vault was begun Dec. 11. Christopher Witthie and a little after Robert Winter being also taken into the Society The work being often intermitted and often repeated at length the Vault was brought to the Wall of the Court where a new difficulty ariseth from the hardness of the Wall and the thickness of three Ells so that under a long time the work could not be finished and there were now but a few dayes to the sitting of the Parliament And now the pertinacious industry of the Workmen had almost beat its way through the middle of the Wall and they seemed not so much to want good minds to the work as time when as the Parliament was put off till the Month of October Then was Despair turned into Joy with certain confidence that they should effect their design and it was observed that whiles they briskly beat upon the Wall there was a noise heard upon the other side of the Wall Thither Fawks is sent to enquire out the cause He brings word back that there was a Cellar under Ground from whence they were removing Cole he beinst lately Dead who had hired that Cellar for his own use Therefore the Conspirators thinking that Cellar more commodious by the help of Piercy let out their other Houses and bring all their Materials hopes into this Such was the opportuneness of the place for it was almost directly under the Royal Throne that so seasonable an accident did make them perswade themselves that God did by a secret Conduct favour their Attempt These things happened about the Feast of Easter The Gun-powder is at their leisure carried into the Cellar from Catesby's House over against the Palace where it had been with great care and diligence brought together First Twenty Barrels are layed in and covered with Billets and Faggots Then the Conspirators being sure of the good event began to consult what was to be done after they had effected their Plot First they consider'd of taking the Prince who about that time they came to understand would not come to the Parliament with his Father contrary to what they concluded in the beginning and against him they plotted destruction as one that was no Friend of theirs and they had found out a way for it The next care was for Supplies of Money concerning which they thought they had sufficiently provided They had also provided that the Peers and Gentry addicted to Popery should as much as might be be exempt from danger Lastly they debated concerning calling in Forreign Princes to their assistance but being doubtful of their faith and secresie they thought fit not to send to them till they had accomplished their design for commonly such Actions are not commended but by their Event They passed their Judgments upon them severally the Spaniards seemed to be more opportune for them but too remote and too slow in raising Forces The French was near but fearful and suspected for the close league he held with the Dutch The most present help was from Flanders from whence they might most commodiously expect Supplies for which Stanly was designed the Captain or Commander Moreover that they might the more easily deceive the world and least by their passing to and fro to those places they should give some cause of Suspition they go their several wayes some into the Coantrey some a great way out of the Island waiting for the time appointed for the Execution Fawks went into Flanders that he might acquaint Stanly and Owen with the whole Matter nor did he return into England till the latter end of August Catesby that he might not be idle in the mean time gets Francis Tresham and Everard Digby to his Party agreeing with them for Supply of Money and the former promisd Two thousand pounds of English Money the other Fifteen hundred Piercy that was prodigal at another mans charge promised whatsoever he could scrape together of the Revenues of the E. of Northumberland In the mean time Ten more Barrels of Gun-powder are added to the former and four more greater than the rest upon suspition least by the moistness of the place the former should have been spoiled and again they are all covered over with a great heap of stones and wood And now the time of the Parliaments convening drew on which was again put off till the Nones of November 5 Nov. Therefore the Conspirators did again repeat their consultation and some were appointed who on the same day that the Enterprize was to be Executed should seize upon the Lady Elizabeth the Kings eldest Daughter who was brought up under the Lord Farrington in Warwick-shire under pretence of an Hunting Match which Everard Digby who was privy to the matter had appointed with great preparation at Dunchurch Her they decreed publickly to Proclaim Queen They taking to themselves the Titles of the Assertors of liberty * They purposed when the blow was first given but the success thereof doubtful to father
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