on the highest part of the Gibbet with the other Thieves he was hanged His immense Riches sufficiently proved the Justice of this Sentence Afterwards those Receivers or Officers of the Treasury who were of his gang were laid hold on and several put to the Wrack they would confess nothing however so well those Caterpillars know how to wind up their bottoms desiring rather in the greatest extremity to lose their Lives then part with their Money They carried on this search even to his very friends and particularly Peter de Latilly Bishop of Chaalons and Chancellor of France He was accused of giving the Morsel that is to say of having poysonn'd the Bishop his Predecessor and also the late King He was put out of his Office and left a prisoner in tbe hands of the Arch-Bishop of Reims his Metropolitan The execrable Custom of Poysonning was grown very common in France and it grew so in my opinion because the Ministers of the deceased King had been so extream Violent and vindicative This Prelat accused of so Villanous a Crime was referr'd to the Judgment of the Bishops of his Province To that end there was a Council Assembled at Senlis in the Month of October of this year 1315. where the Archbishop of Reims was present with his Suffragans The Party accused upon his request and according to Law was first redintegrated to his Liberty and his Bishoprick and afterwards it having been proved that four Women had been Convicted and Punished for Poysonning his Predecessor he was absolved fully and wholly Year of our Lord 1315 The Gentry and Commonalty of the Country of Artois having divers causes of Complaint against their Countess Mahaut the King sent for her in presence of Ame the Great Earl of Savoy and obliged her to give him her Hand that he might take notice of it Year of our Lord 1315 This Ame the Great was one of the most considerable Princes of his time He acquir'd the Title of a Prince of the Empire which was granted him by the Emperor Henry VII in Anno 1310. He increased his Territory with the Lordships of Bresse and Baugey by his Marriage with Sibilla the only Daughter of Guy Lord de Baugey as likewise with a part of the little Country of Revermont by Purchase of the Duke of Burgundy who had it of Humbert Dauphin of Viennois and the Earldoms of Ast and Yvree the first whereof came to him by the Concession of the Emperor Henry VII the second by the voluntary subjection of the People His Wisdom made him reign in all the greatest Courts in Europe the Emperors King Philip's of France Edward King of England's and made him find the Art to be so much a Friend to all these Princes who were at great variance that he became the perpetual Mediator concerning those Differences which Interest and their Jealousie bred amongst them Year of our Lord 1316 The Truce with the Flemming being at an end about the very time of the Coronation the King assembled his Forces and whilst on the other side William Earl of Hayâ—ault ravaged the Country along the Scheld he besieged Courtray The unseasonable Weather did what the Flemming durst not undertake and forced him to raise the Siege but the infinite havock and spoil the Soldiers made caused a horrible Famine in Flanders About the end of the Month of May in the year 1316. King Lewis began to feel the effects of those Poysonnings grown so rife in France They had given him a Dose so violent by what hand was not known that it carried him off the Fifth day June An Accident which the Vulgar thought to be presag'd by a Comet which had Year of our Lord 1316 display'd its terrible Train in the Heavens the One and twentieth of the Month of December before He died at the Bois de Vincennes the Nineteenth Month of his Reign and the Eight and twentieth of his Age. He left Clemence his second Wife with Child being four Months gone By his first which was Margaret Daughter of Robert II. Duke of Burgundy he had had a Daughter named Jane to whom belonged the Kingdom of Navarre and the Counties of Brie and Champagne but the Kings Philip the Long and Charles the Fair found out pretences to detain them REGENCY without a KING for Five Months Year of our Lord 1316 WHen Lewis Hutin left this World Philip the Long Earl of Poitiers his Brother was at Lyons where in pursuance of his Orders he laboured to make them elect a Pope to supply the See that had been vacant for above three years He had employ'd himself with so much zeal that at length he got all the Cardinals to Lyons and had shut them up in Conclave in the Jacobins Convent They had been there together some days when the news was brought him of the death of Hutin this made him return to Paris with diligence after he had left the guard of the Conclave with the Earl de Fores. After the end of fourty days the Cardinals could come to no other agreement about the election of a Pope then to refer it to the single Vote of James Dossa a Cardinal Bishop of O Porto who without hesitation named himself to the great astonishment of the whole Conclave who notwithstanding let it pass so He took the name of John the Twenty second of that name He was of the Country of Quercy the Son of a poor Cobler but very Learned for those times The Succession of the Males to the Crown was established not by any Written Law but by the inviolable Custom of the French nevertheless because in all other Kingdoms and in great Fiefs the Daughters succeeded and that in France of a long time no occasion had been offer'd to exclude them The Friends and Parents of little Jane particularly Eudes Duke of Burgundy Brother of her deceased Mother were on the Watch pretending the Crown belonged to her in case the Fruit of Queen Clemences Womb should come to no Perfection In the mean time they named Philip the Kings Brother for Regent till the time of her delivery Philip V. King XLVII POPE JOHN XXII Elected the 7th day of August 1317. S. Eighteen years and Three Months whereof Five years under this Reign PHILIP V. Called the Long because he was Tall King of France XLVII and enjoying the Kingdom of Navarre Aged Twenty six years Year of our Lord 1316 THe Fifteenth of November the Queen brought a Son into the World whom they named John but he went out of it again eight days after He was buried in St. Denis and in the Funeral Pomp was declared King of France and Navarre Which hath given some occasion to some Modern Authors to increase the number of the Kings of France and to call him John I. Year of our Lord 1317 Then the Dispute touching the Crown was renewed with more heat then before Charles Earl of Valois seemed to favour little Jane and the Duke of Burgundy her Uncle claimed and
these Sacramentaries he made on the 2â— th of January that Solemn Procession which is described in all the Histories of those times and to expiate those impieties deliver'd up to the Flames six of those Wretches He afterwards caused divers others to be Condemned to the same sufferings but who went to their death with an alacrity and constancy worthy of a much better cause They had more to undergo yet in the Reign of Henry II. the aversion which the Dutchess of Valentinois had conceived against them in hatred to the Dutchess d'Estampes and the more Religious zeal of the Cardinal de Tournon renewed the Year of our Lord From the year 1947. search and prosecutions of them and besides this their ugly base attempts drew the anger of the Judges and the severity of the Laws upon their own heads For they fell upon Images and the Holy Sacrament not only by virulent writings but likewise with horrible Impieties In Anno 1550. a fantastical Fellow undertook in the open day-light to cut off the head of an Image of the Virgin in the Church of Nostre-Dame at Paris In fine maugre all punishments the mischief became so great that it was not in the power of man to extirpate it by force and besides the divers manners and methods of proceeding gave them opportunities to escape for sometimes they were left to the Judgment of the Secular Magistrates another while they were taken out of their hands to be carried before the Bishops then they sent them to the Presidial Courts created first as it was said by the suggestions of the Sacramentaries themselves with design of becoming Masters thereof by perswading and engaging their Friends to buy those new Offices Which however brought them little advantage in the end because at length the cognisance of those Crimes was referred to the Parliaments After the loss of the Battle of Sainct Quentins they lifted up their heads in divers parts of the Kingdom They had the confidence at Paris to meet by night Year of our Lord 1558 in a House of the Street Sainct Jacques The Magistrates having Information went thither well guarded those that were armed amongst them fought their way thorow the crowd and saved themselves some less desperate were seized all the Women were taken of whom four or five belonged to the Queen For she her self to be thought wise and pious seemed to have some tendency towards that Religion The accused defended themselves so well upon their Trials that their friends had time enough to get Letters of intercession from the Protestant Princes of Germany which saved their lives Anno 1554. They first began to have a Minister at Paris his Name was John Macon Four years after on the Nine and Twentieth of July they held their first Synod in the same City the number of those they have held since is almost infinite In that of Chaalons which was in the year 1563. they propounded to exterminate all Despotique Power the Papacy and Chicane or Pettyfogging which they termed the three Pests of humane kind It was but very lately they ordained that the singing of Psalms turned into French Meeter should be part of their Liturgy Marot had done but fifty only after his death Beza set himself about that work and finished the remainder This Version if we may so call it was published with excellent Tunes set and Composed by the most Famous Musicians of those Times The more pious of the People received them with applause and took delight in singing those Psalmes and Airs imagining by this means to suppress all filthy and impure Songs but when it came once to be understood that they were the Symbole of the Sacramentaries they not only abstained from them but also fell foul upon such as offer'd to sing them which occasioned great Tumults at Paris particularly in the year 1558. The Ministers of State were accused whether wrongfully or not for not having applied the true remedies against this Contagion whilst it infected none but the poorer sort by whose loss they could reap little gain being rather willing it should spread and take hold of the qualified and rich that they might have fines and great confiscations the only means whereby those in favour enriched themselves under the Reign of Henry II. In effect great numbers of People that were wealthy of Ecclesiasticks and of the most considerable Officers were found to be tainted many even of the best Heads belonging to the Parliament were coifed and possessed with it who might perhaps have drawn most of the Members of that body after them had not the King gone in Person to that famous Mercurial of the year 1559. and sent divers of them away Prisoners Some of these would needs justifie themselves the rest retracted the only Anne de Bourg was immolated for his Religion His example spoiled more then an hundred Ministers could have done by all their zealous Preaching Then the weakness of the Reign of Francis II the Minority of Charles IX the Causes of discord which animated the Princes of the Blood assisted by the three Chastillons against the Princes of the House of Guise the Maligne and Artificial Ambition of the Regent Catherine de Medicis who flatter'd sometimes the Huguenots sometimes the Catholicks according as she had need either of the one or the other In fine the Connivence of some great Magistrates and of several Bishops gave opportunities to this Sect both to strengthen and multiply and confirm themselves We have elsewhere spoken of the Tumult at Amboise the Enmities and Cabals of the Grandees for the Government the rise of the name of Huguenot given to the Calvinists who till that were called Sacramentaries and of the Prince of Conde's taking up Arms with the other Chiefs We shall not need Year of our Lord From 1560. to observe that those Furies wasted the Kingdom for thirty years together occasioned the giving of seven or eight battels and an infinite number of Combats were the death either by War or by more cruel Massacres of a Million of brave Men destroy'd two or three hundred Towns and reduced the richest and the most noble Families of France to the poor and humble subsistence of an Hospital It was the Kingdoms misfortune that this Reformation which the Huguenots Preached up so much was passionately desired by the best of people and their Cause hapning to be in some manner complicated with the interest of the State those who had an ambition to show themselves good French-men favour'd and supported them indirectly and Clubb'd Councils with them For this reason the Estates of Orleans did not endeavour to destroy them and some even of the Prelates themselves advised to allow them the Colloquy of Poissy and after that to grant them another Conference concerning Images Reliques and the Ceremonies which did greatly heighten their courage It would perhaps have been more to the purpose to have at that time called a National Council and if they had intended to pluck
the divertisement with women and taking counsel only of the lowest and meanest People gave the Lords of Lorraine just cause to forsake him to submit themselves to Louis Those that had the Government of this young Prince brought him purposely to Thionville where they put the Crown upon his Head and Zuentibold endeavouring to revenge it was slain in a Battel fought between them the Year of our Lord 900 3 d. day of August in this year 900. He Reigned five years Charles in Neustria or West-France Louis in Germany Lorraine Rodolph I. in Burgundy Louis in Provence Lambert and Berenger in Italy In the War which Arnold Earl of Flanders made against Hebert Earl of Vermandois Eudes had favoured Hebert and King Charles took part with Arnold to whom he was in some sort obliged for what he enjoy'd Now Eudes being dead Hebert who was subtil and insinuating found means to make friends with Charles and got into so much credit with him that this simple and un-knowing King took the City of Arras from Baldwin and gave it to Count Altmar that he might restore Peronne to Hebert Baldwin or Baudouin coming to the King to beseech him to let him have his Town again was denied with rough language Now Fulk Arch-Bishop of Reims great both by birth and merit was then chief Counsellor to Charles and holding the Abbey of Saint Vaast had excommunicated Baldwin for invading the Lands thereof Wherefore Winomach Lord of the Island Vassal to the Count imputing the affront his Lord had received to the Counsel of this Arch-Bishop way-laid him in a Wood and murthered him for which being pursued and excommunicated by all the Bishops made his escape into England where he was eaten up with Lice It seems this was an Epidemical distemper in those days For we find divers persons in History that died thereof amongst others Arnold the Emperor the preceding year and King Rodolph of whom we shall hereafter make mention The Hungarians began to make themselves known about the latter end of the Reign of Charles the Fatt They then seated themselves in Pannonia having chased out the Huns and from thence became a Scourge to all the Provinces beyond the Rhine and the Year of our Lord 900 Danube as the Normans were to all on this side They were Originally a People of Scythia Brutish and Barbarous beyond all imagination Their Mother 's trained them to inhumanity from their Birth gashing and mangling their Faces that they might have nothing of humane and by swallowing down blood mixed with their own tears before they sucked their first Milk they might grow Blood-thirsty and pitty-less to all mankind They caroused in blood and fed upon raw flesh cut the hearts of those they took Prisoners in quarters and swallowed the gobbets reeking warm had no faith nor truth nor honour no wit but to defraud and contrive mischief always a turbulent and furious courage either against an Enemy or against one another The women were yet worse then the men They had scarcely any other weapons besides Arrows but were so dextrous in the use of them that every one they shot did some execution and every wound almost was Mortal They were all Horsemen very serviceable in flat and open Countries who would notably harrass an Army within their Bow-shot but aseless in Mountainous or Woody places or for Sieges Nor indeed would they ever adventure to come to handy-blows but ever made a running Fight King Arnold had brought them in to fall upon the back of Zuentibold a Sclavonian Prince who would have usurped Moravia and make himself King He being dead they were not afraid to fall upon the Countries belonging to Louis his Son And this year they gained a great victory against his Forces near the Year of our Lord 901 City of Augsburgh and afterwards Plundred Bavaria Scwaben Franconia and Saxony Year of our Lord 902 The year following having good information of the Civil War betwixt Berenger and Louis the Son of Boson they marched into Italy The Italians An. 899. tired with the Government of Berenger and above all with Adebert Marquiss d'Yvree Father of another Berenger who was likewise King of Italy had called in Louis But Berenger I. had made himself so strong with the assistance of Adebert Marquiss of Tuscany that he hemm'd him in and forced him to a promise he would renounce the Kingdom upon condition he would give him free liberty to march home again without farther lett or molestation The oaths of ambitious Princes are as frail and short liv'd as the vows and promises of Lovers the same Adelbert who had supported Berenger's cause turning Coat and solliciting Louis to return thither again that un-advised Prince confides in Faithless men But he had time to repent at leasure For they delivered him up to Berenger who deprived him both of his Empire and his fight That done he forces the Pope it was John IX to Crown him Emperor but so soon as he was gone from Rome the Pope sent for Lambert who was then private in some corner of Italy and Crowned him Which was confirmed by a grand Council held Year of our Lord 902 at Ravenna Berenger Governed 22 years we might say happily enough had it not been for the incursions of the Bulgarians In the Month of August this same year they again entred Italy with a numerous Army and having ransack'd the Territory of Aquilea Verona Coma and Bergamo came at last towards Pavia Berenger mean while had got his Forces together When they saw his numbers three times more then they expected they endeavoured to make a retreat and when he followed and pursued them so close that they could not get off without fighting they profer'd him all their Plunder and their own Baggage The Italians would hear of nothing less then to have them all upon discretion Necessity converted their fear into fury and dispair the Hungarians now attaque their pursuers and cut their Army all in pieces And Lombardy did afterwards become their prey Nor did they attempt to drive them thence but with their money a Bait so sweet that it allured them to return again often In the year 903. a Star appeared near the Pole-Artick which darted from the North-North-East towards the South-West along Train resembling a Lance which passing between the Signs of the Lyon and the Twinns crossed the Zodiack It was seen for three and twenty days For seven or eight years together there was nothing so remarkable as the cruel incursions of the Normans An. 903. Heric and Haric two of their Captains burnt Year of our Lord 903 the Castle of Tours and Saint Martin's Church Year of our Lord 905 An. 905. Rodolph and Gerlon two other Commanders of the same Nation took the City of Rouen upon composition and there setled their Habitation fortifying the Castles that were near them From thence for five years space they made Incursions into all the neighbouring Provinces conquered Constentine and Inhabited
belonged to the Church from the Rapine and Thefts of some Lords and restore the Discipline for which some Canons were made in the Second of Limoges That of Beauvais was held Fifteen days after that of Bourges Pope Leo IX being come into France Convened one at Reims towards Autumne An. 1049. Victor II. One at Toulouze An. ✚ 1056. To extirpate abuses and especially Simony which is more difficult to be taken from the Church then their Riches which is the cause of it King Henry desiring to have his Son Philip Crowned Assembled the Prelats and Lords of the Kingdom at Paris An. 1059 or 60. Amat Bishop of Oleron Legat from Rome in Aquitania Tertia and Narbounensis held divers Two in Gascongne One wherein he Excommunicated such as detained any Goods belonging to the Church another wherein he Dissolved the Marriage of Centulle Vicount of Bearn and another also at the Burrough of Deols in Berry with Hugh Legat and Arch-Bishop of Lyons about the affairs of that Abby The same having the Popes Legation in the lesser Bretagne Convened one An. 1079. in that Province to take some course against the abuses of false pennances that is to say their ☞ imposing of slight pennances for great crimes About the end of the year 1080. there were three One at Lyons where Hugh de Die the Popes Legat caused the Sentence to be confirmed whereby Manasses Arch-Bishop of Reims had been deposed One at Avignon where he consecrated another Hugh Bishop of Grenoble and the Third at Meaux in which Vrsion de Soissons was deposed and Arnold a Monk of St. Medard installed in his place The year following the same Hugh and Richard Abbot of Marseille Cardinals called one at Poitiers Amat d'Oleron Legat in Aquitain came likewise thither They provisionally ordained a Divorce of William Earl of Poitiers from his Wife because of their consanguinity That of Toulouze in An. 1090. was Convened by the Legats of Vrban II. Some Rules were there made concerning Causes Ecclesiastical and the Bishop of that City purged himself of certain things imposed upon him The most famous of all was the Council of Clermont An. 1095. where the same Pope with great zeal Preached up the First Croisade and to obtain the assistance of the Holy Virgin towards those that should undertake the Expedition ordained the Clergy to recite the Office or Heures of our Lady which the Chartreux and Hermits instituted by Peter Damianus had already received amongst them There was one more at Tours the year following to prepare them to that expeditition of the Holy Land The last year of this Century they had one likewise at Poitiers whereat John and Benedict Cardinal Legats presided King Philip was here struck with an Anathema for having retaken Bertrade and the Kingdom of France put under an interdiction The precedent year there had been one held at Autun and the following there was also one at Baugency for the same business The prohibition of Marriages even to the seventh Degree extreamly embarrass'd the Eleventh and Twelfth Century and as that rigour was excessive the Princes broke thorough without much scruple and afterwards became obstinate against Excommunications with so much the more Reason and Pretence as having the opinions of many great Lawyers who reckoned these Degrees after another manner then the Church-men so that it served for little else but a specious colour for such as were distasted with their Wives to procure their Divorce The custom practised in the Church of Jerusalem where because of the too great confluence the Laity communicated only under the species of Bread introduced it self by little and little into the Western Church and there is some appearance that the Canon of the Council of Clermont was favourable to it ordaining That those that communicated should take the two species separately this was to avoid that abuse of the Greeks who soaked or dipped the Bread in the Wine Vnless in case of necessity or by PRECAVTION That is to say if there were danger of spilling the Challice as when the multitude and throng of Communicants was too great There was like a change in the Government of some Churches the Sees of Gascongny which had been vacant above two ages were filled the Bishopricks of Arras and Cambray both which had been Governed by one Pastor since Saint Vaast began each to have their own after the death of Gerard II. who held them both and Manasses was the first Bishop of Cambray An. 1095. The same thing was attempted for Noyon and Tournay which had been joyned since St. Medard but King Philip opposing they remained so united till the year 1146. When Simon the Son of Hugh the Great being Bishop thereof they were divided Anselme a Monk of Soissons and Abbot of St. Vincent de Laon was the first that held the See of Tournay An. 1179 Gregory VII by his Bulls gave or as others say confirmed to the Arch-Bishop of Lyons the Primacy of the four Lyonnoises only being perhaps perswaded as some others that Lyons was in antient times the capital City and first Church of the Galls The Arch-Bishop of Tours was the first who submitted but those of Sens and Rouen opposed it with all their might and although this establishment had been maintained in the Council of Clermont and since by judgment contradictory which was given in the Court of Rome Anno 1099. they had much ado to submit themselves and it was as I believe during this Contest that he of Rouen began out of emulation to take up the Title of Primate of Normandy The Abbot Odillon being excited by divers Revelations to ease the Souls that were in Torments after Death ordained the Monks of his Congregation of Clugny to make a Commemoration every year the day after All-Saints in their Prayers and Divine Service which the Universal Church received soon after About the end of his Age three famous Religious Orders had their Birth That of the Chartreax Anno 1086. by Bruno Canon o◠Reims and St. Hugh Bishop of Grenoble who were the first that retired into the horrid Solitude of the Chartreuse in Dauphine which gave name to this Order That of St. Anthony at Vienne in the same Country by a Gentleman named Gaston who devoted his Person and Estate to the assistance of those that were seized with the Distemper called St. Anthony's Fire and came to implore the intercession of that Saint at Vienne where they had his Corps brought thither from Constantinople by Jocelin Count d'Albon in the time of King Lotaire Son of Louis Transmarine This Gaston got together some Companions who at first were of the Laity but soon after they became Friars under the Rules of St. Augustin and planted their Congregation in several Provinces In the year 1098. Robert Abbot of Molesme Instituted the Order of the Cisteaux being as it were a younger Sprig of that of St. Bennet and became so Potent that for more then Twenty years
he even left them there two Months without joyning them as he had promised They were fain to go and find him out at Vennes He was mightily perplexed for the Breton Lords even those who were the most affectionate being tired with suffering under strangers and the miseries of War and withal revolted from him by the intrigues of Clisson and the credit of Beaumanoir would peremptorily have him agree with France in effect they compell'd him to make a Peace with the King to dismiss the English and renounce their Alliance and also gave such cautions as obliged him to make good this Treaty They did not breed up the young King conformable to the good instructions of his Father but according to the inclinations of his age and airy Nature to Hunting Dancing and running about here and there One day when he was Hunting in the Forest of Senlis a large Stag was rowzed which he would not pursue with his Dogs but took him a Toil They found about his Neck a Copper Coller Gilt with an Inscription in Latine which imported * that Casar had given him it The young King because of this or for that in a Dream he had been carried up into the ✚ Air by a Stagg that had wings took two Staggs Volant for Supporters to the Arms of France Before him our Kings had Flowers-de-Luce Sans number in their Scutcheon he reduced them to three we do not know wherefore Year of our Lord 1381 The Children of the Navarrois to wit his Eldest and his Second Son and one Daughter who had been taken in one of his places of Normandy being yet prisoner the wicked King hired an Englishman to poison the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy in revenge for that they hindred their being set at liberty This wretched fellow was discover'd and quarter'd alive Nevertheless John King of Castille the Son of Henry importun'd by the continual sollicitations of his Sister who Married the Infant of Navarre interceded so effectually with the Kings Uncles that they released those innocent Children of a very wicked Father Year of our Lord 1381 The meanness and condescentions of the two Popes towards those Princes of their parties to attain their ends was a most lamentable thing nor can it without indignation be express'd what exaction and violence they committed on the Clergy and those Churches of their dependance The six and thirty Cardinals of Avignon were so many Tyrants to whom Clement gave all sorts of Licence They had Proctors every where with Grants of Reversions who snapp'd up all the Benesices the Claustral Offices the Commandery's retained the best of them and sold the rest or gave them upon pension or rather Farmed them out Clement himself besides his seizing upon all that any Bishop or Abbot left after his death besides his taking a years Revenue of each Benesice upon every change whether it hapned by vacancy or by resignation or by permutation ravaged the Gallican Church by infinite Concussions and extraordinary Taxes Good People bewailed these disorders there were none but Purloiners that wished they might be continued and nothing but the particular Interests of Princes kept this Schisme still on foot Clement allowed the Duke of Anjou the Levying of the Tenths and the Duke allowed of all his pilserings and violently reproved all those that durst complain This unjust proceeding rather then the Justice of Vrbans party was the cause why many of the principal Doctors of the Faculty put themselves under the Obedience of that Pope and also made the University begin to desire and demand a Council as the Sovereign remedy for all these mischiefs Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Berry angry that he had no part in the Affairs his Father-in-law the Earl of Armagnac perswades him to demand the Government of Languedoc as then in the hands of his Enemy the Count de Foix. The Council consents to his demand but the Count armed to maintain himself and the Province where he was as much beloved for his Justice and his Generosity as the Duke of Berry was hated for his Thievery stuck close to him The Duke with an Army to take possession by force the Count beat him foundly near the City of Rabasteins but after he had let him know he was able to keep his Government he yielded it up to him that he might not be the ruine of those that defended him Year of our Lord 1381 John Lyon chief of the White Hats had so blown up the troubles in Flanders that his death could not extinguish the Flame Most part of good Towns in that Countrey had joyned themselves to the Ghentois the Peace the Duke of Burgundy had made betwixt them and the Earl his Father-in-law lasted but a very short time the Earl goes secretly out of Ghent and the Gentry combine against the Cities Ghent had all manner of ill success but neither their being thrice let Blood which cost above Fifteen thousand Lives nor Waste nor Famine nor being fortaken by the other Cities nor yet the miseries of two Sieges could quell those stubborn obstinate lovers of their liberty After the loss of most of their stoutest Leaders they chose one named Peter du Bois and upon his perswasions another also to wit Philip d'Artevelle Son of that James formerly mentioned much richer then his Father but less crafty and much prouder This last took the upper-hand and pretended to all the Functions of a Sovereign Year of our Lord 1384 Although they had promised the People to take off the Imposts the Regent nor the Treasurers who Governed him could not resolve upon 't The great Cities took up Arms to oppose it Peter de Villiers and John de Marais Persons venerable with the People and also very much regarded by the Regent somewhat appeased the commotion at Paris but could by no means perswade them to suffer those new Levies The Burghers took Arms set Guards at the Gates created Diseniers Cinquanteniers Centeniers and made some Companies to keep the Avenues and Passages to the City free Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Anjou was therefore forced to dissemble for the present but he had not resolved to let go the thing thus and intended only to wait till their heats were grown colder to go on as before It hapned the following year that having published the Farming of those at the Chastellet one of the Officers belonging to the Farmers demanding a Denier of an herb-Herb-Woman for a bundle of Cresles the Rabble gathered together upon the noise this Woman made grew into fury went and broke open the Town-Hall to get Arms and took out three or four thousand iron Maillets or Hammers for which cause this seditious crew were named the Malletiers After this they massacred all that were concerned to gather it plundred their Houses and razed them open'd the Prisons and took out all the Criminals amongst others Hugh Aubriot Prevost of Paris whom they made their Captain but
each for himself the Duke of Mayenne for his eldest Son and sometimes when he found any difficulty he thought of proposing the Cardinal de Bourbon then after divers agitations of mind he found there could be no better Resolution taken then that which in effect was worst of all and that was to take none at all Whilst he floated amidst these Uncertainties the Parliament of Paris being Assembled upon the Rumour then on wing of the Election of the Infanta made it appear they are infallible when concerned for the Fundamental Laws of the Monarchy of which they have ever had a tender and useful care For they made a grand Decree Ordaining that Remonstrances should be made to the Duke of Mayenne that he would look to the maintaining of those Laws and hinder the Crown from being transferr'd to Strangers and declared null and illegal all Treaties that had already been or might hereafter be made for that purpose as being contrary to the Salique Law Conformably to this Decree John le Maistre who held the place of First President went and deliver'd the Message boldly and shewed him how the Government of Women in France even that of Regents had never produced any thing but ✚ Seditions and Civil Wars whereof he instanced in ten or twelve examples most remarkable amongst which he did not omit Blanche de Castille and that of Catharine de Medicis the principal and almost the only cause of these last Troubles During these Transactions the King causes Dreux to be besieged he took the Year of our Lord 1593 Town upon the first Assault and the Castle afterwards upon Composition but not month June and July without much trouble and time The Spaniards finding by the Decree of Parliament and the loss of this City that the Affairs of the League were beginning to decline did the more press them for the Election of a King and at last in a Council they held with the Duke of Mayenne named the Duke of Guise Never was any Mans astonishment like to that of the Duke of Mayennes the trouble of his Soul appeared thorough all the coverings of dissimulation His Wives indignation was greater yet then his she would have overturned all rather then obey that meer Boy as she called the Duke of Guise In this pressing occasion when he knew not what to reply Bassompierre found out an Expedient for him which putting the business off for a while did in the end dash it utterly in pieces and that was to demand eight days time to give notice of it to the Duke of Lorrain his Master During this delay the Duke of Mayenne set all his Engines at work sometimes with the Duke of Guise to dissuade him from accepting this nomination as a thing ruinous both to him and all the House of Lorrain sometimes with the Spaniards to let them know it was not yet the Season for it and in fine with the Estates to incline them to his Sentiments His attempts proved altogether ineffectual upon the two first especially the Spaniards of whom it was reported they had endeavour'd to persuade the Duke of Guise his Nephew to kill him as being the only Remora to his Advancement But as to the Estates he plaid his part so successfully amongst them that they consented to the drawing up an Answer the Twentieth day of July By which the Duke and the Lorrain Princes most humbly thanked the Catholick King for the honour he did their House protesting they would ever persevere in their acknowledgments and a willingness to serve him and declared they were ready to promise before the Legat to persuade the Estates of the Kingdom to approve the said Election when there should be Forces sufficient to maintain it and when they should have agreed to such Conditions as were reasonable to be secured to the Chiefs of the Party Hereupon great Contests arose between the Partisans of the Duke and those of Spain these requiring they should go on with the Election the others that it should be deferr'd The Spaniards heard all without once opening their Mouths in the end finding their Votaries were fewer by a third part then the other they let go their hold And which was more the Duke without any regard to their Requests concluded month July to Treat for a Truce with the King and named his Deputies for that purpose Many Prelats some Doctors and even three Curats of Paris of whom one was he of St. Eustache named Rene Benoist being sent for to St. Denis the Two and twentieth of July the King came thither the next day and entred into Conference with them to satisfie himself as it were of certain scruples yet remaining touching Year of our Lord 1593 month July some points of Religion He was soon convinced but the Cardinal de Bourbon was not so that any other Bishop besides the Pope had right to give him Absolution the contrary notwithstanding was allowed maugre his under-hand dealings and vehement Remonstrances The formulary of his Confession of Faith was drawn up and the day appointed to make it the following Sunday Some Prelats out of an ignorant Zeal had thrust in certain trifling things which were not very necessary the King whose judgment was solid could not relish such trash wherefore they pared away all that was not essential to Faith and yet they sent it as it was first drawn up to the Pope the better to persuade his Holiness of his entire Conversion The Ceremony was performed in St. Denis Church by the Archbishop of Bourges as may be seen in the Memoirs of those times seven or eight Bishops being present and all the Grandees of his Court even Gabriela d'Estree who had not a little contributed to the Conversion of the King having already conceived great hopes he would Marry her The same night all the Fields from Montmartre whither he went after Vespers to visit the Church of the Holy Martyrs to Pontoise were enlightned by great numbers of Bon-fires which was soon after imitated by the Cities of the Royal Party and accompanied with Feastings Dancings and all other Tokens and Expressions of publick Rejoycing From that very day the People of Paris shewed plainly it was purely their aversion to Huguenotisin had engaged them to reject this Prince for they ran forth in multitudes to this Ceremony notwithstanding the prohibition of the Duke of Mayenne and on a suddain changing that hatred they had for him into a real affection began to call him their King and not the Bearnois as they had hitherto done scoffing at all the declamations of their Preachers who strove to make them persevere in their former Sentiments The Duke of Mayenne rejoycing also or pretending to rejoyce at his Conversion Treated with him about a Truce for three Months and both of them agreed to send to the Pope to get his Absolution without which the Duke would by no means hearken to a Peace His intentions an◠interests as he protested being no other but to preserve the