they did were only such turbulent spirits or poor deluded souls as many of these Nor hath the holy providence of God escaped their prophane abuse by entitling it to such trifles as a prudent Historian would disdain to mention and palpable lyes as may be seen in Sanders Ribadeneira and other such like Writers To which if we add the abuse of miracles by lyes and forgeries we shall find that the gates of Hell that is the counsels have prevailed against these degenerate successors of Peter with a witness Nor could a more effectual means be devised for the subversion of Christianity and all Religion not the very arms of Mahomet and his sect than this mystery of iniquity nor if it be well considered hath the whole World produced any thing which doth better deserve the name of Antichrist And indeed if we consider the present growth of Atheism and Infidelity among us and trace it to its roots and original we shall find it all to be of an Italian Extraction and from thence propagated to France and so to England and other parts Nor shall we find any other reasons for it than what are here mentioned the Italians perceiving better what is acted among themselves than those who are more remote For let the Italian subtilty be what it will I think it is plain that they have made no deeper search into either the secrets of Nature or of Antiquity from one or both of which they must derive their principles if they have others besides what are here mentioned than other Nations have made 63. And now before I conclude I must crave leave to make this address to several sorts of persons distinctly And first to all Christians in general that they will seriously consider whether they be not obliged for the honour and reputation of our holy Profession and whether our great Lord doth not require it of them to declare against this Romish Faction and their Unchristian or rather Antichristian and abominable scandalous principles and practices that is all National Churches and Vniversities publickly by solemn Decrees and Protestations if not by excommunication and all particular private Christians by abstaining from their communion and coming out of that Babylon that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues 2. To those who are not of that Communion and have hitherto escaped those delusions that they beware that they be not again entangled therein For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment 2. That they be careful that they do not hold the truth in unrighteousness Atrocius sub sancti nominis professione peccatur but walk worthy of their vocation c. worthy of God who hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory out of darkness into his marvellous light as children of the light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them and as becometh the Gospel of Christ and that while they separate from the scandals of others they themselves do not administer occasion of scandal to others 3. That they who are in authority whether in Church or State be careful both by their example and authority as much as in them lieth to discourage and suppress all manner of vice and debauchery and to encourage and promote all manner of virtue and particularly piety and devotion in Religion For as vice and debauchery and even coldness and indifference in matters of Religion in any man makes him the more obnoxious to the delusions of the Papists so they well perceiving so much by experience are not without reason believed to endeavour first the debauching of the Nation that the people being thereby the better prepared and disposed to receive their impressions they may the more easily compass their design as Physitians who cannot immediately cure the present distemper of their Patient are fain many times by art to divert it into some other disease which they hope more easily to cure Nor do the Papists look upon debauchery as a more dangerous disease than that they call heresy This is such a means as is of natural efficacy to obviate and obstruct the endeavors of the Papists but of all most likely to be effectual by the blessing of God upon it whereas the neglect of it doth both naturally expose the people to their delusions and is most likely to provoke the judgment of God to give them up to be deluded by them Nor need Governors to fear that their people will prove less morigerous and governable by being more devotely affected to Religion but may well hope the contrary provided they will require nothing of them that may be thought contrary to Religion which certainly they need not Christianity containing nothing inconsistent with any solid principle of policy 4. That they be careful to walk worthy of their vocation particularly in that wherein the Apostle doth particularly instance and which he earnestly urgeth endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing according to the truth in Charity Eph. 4.1 3 15. for it must be remembred that separation and division among Christians is like homicide generally unlawful and though the one as well as the other in certain special cases and under certain circumstances may be not only lawful but an indispensible duty which the Romanists cannot with any reason deny since it hath been the judgment and frequent indeed too frequent practice of that Church both anciently and of later ages as is apparent in their excommunications of whole Churches even all or most of the Eastern Churches and in the last age many of the Western for no other cause but the reformation of many scandalous abuses which the Church or Bishops of Rome by their Agents had transfused into them whereby they do unanswerably justify our separation from them were not themselves the authors of it for just and necessary causes yet ought not this to be done but with great caution and mature deliberation and under such conditions as these 1. That it be just and necessary for just and necessary causes 2. That it be done with Charity and with intention and desire to return to communion again as soon as the causes of the separation are removed and reformed 3. And therefore that it be done with Sobriety not widening the difference or quarrelling at such things as may be or ought to be tolerated such as being in their own nature indifferent are left to the prudent ordering and disposition of each particular National or Provincial Church Unaquaeque Provincia abundet in suo sensu c. Hier. ep 28. v. can ult Concilii Ephesiu so as may be best for order decency and edification that it proceed no further than for just and necessary causes it ought lest if we measure truth as for example in this case by its distance from
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
wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily †Thu. l. ◠out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then here in prison Respons ad Apol. Bellarm. cap. 5. pag. 113. to pass over into England as the Popes Legate cum plena potestate and here to publish the Bull In which Bull the Pope by the power which he saith is from God by the Lawful succession of the Catholick Church deseended to him over All persons for several causes there in specified and more fully expressed in the Bulls of Pius v. and Gregory XIII doth again proscribe the Queen Takes away all her Royal Dignity Titles and Rights to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Declaring her Illegitimate and a Usurper of those Kingdoms Absolving her Subjects from their Oath of Faith and Obedience to her Threatens All of what condition soever under danger of the wrath of God not to assist her in any wise after notice of this Mandate but to imploy all their power to bring her to Condigne punishment Commands All Inhabitants of those Kingdoms diligently to execute these Mandates and as soon as they have certain notice of the Spaniards coming to joyn all their forces with them and in all things be obedient to Parma the King of Spain's General and lastly Proposing Ample Reward to those who shall lay hands upon the proscribed Woman and deliver her to the Catholick party to be punished in conclusion out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his Trust and Dispensation he draws out his treasure and Grants a Full Pardon of All their Sins to All those who should engage in this expedition This Thuanus relates more at large and presently adds It was agreed in secret that King Philip should hold the Kingdom when reduced to the Obedience of the Church of the Pope in Fee as of the Holy See according to the Articles of the contract by Ina Henry 2. and King John made and renewed with the Title of Defender of the Faith And to reduce it to this Obedience these were the forrein Preparations which were made according to Thuanus his Account A Navy of 150. * Of vast burden says Cicarella besides an infinite number of small ships In vita Sixti v. Ships extraordinarily well furnished and in it of Mariners and Seamen 8000. Gally-slaves a great number 2080. says Camden of Souldiers 20000. besides Gentlemen and Voluntiers for scarce was there any family of note in Spain which had not son or brother or cousin in that fleet Brass Guns 1600. Iron Guns 1050. Of Powder Bullet Lead Match Muskets Pikes Spears and such like weapons with other instruments and engines great abundance as also of Horses and Mules and Provisions for six moneths And that nothing might be wanting as to matters of Religion they brought along with them the Vicar General of the Sacred Office as they call it that is the Inquisition and with him of Capucines Jesuites and Mendicants above 100. And besides all these were prepared in Flanders and those parts by the Duke of Parma of Flat-bottomed Boats for transportation of men and Horse and other necessaries 288. of Vessels for Bridges fitted with all things necessary 800. and of Armed men 20900. 50000 Veterane Souldiers says Sir Fr. Bacon But all these preparations and forces were not greater than was the Spaniards expectation and confidence of an assured Victory and Absolute Conquest of this Kingdom and that not only in respect of the strength and greatness of their Forces though so great that in admiration of this Navy they named it as hath been said The Invincible Armado and so was it called in a Spanish ostentation throughout Europe and hath indeed been thought the greatest Navy that till that time ever swam upon the Sea though not for number yet for Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions But that which very much heightened their Confidence was the supposed Goodness of their Cause and presumption of the Divine assistance accordingly favouring them in it and thereby signally ratifying the Sentence of Christs Vicar this being assigned as an Apostolical Mission against the Incorrigible and Excommunicate Hereticks to reduce them to the Obedience of the Catholick Church of Rome and to execute his Holines's Sentence of Excommunication against that accursed Anathematized woman though this that we may note it by the way was properly and anciently reputed the Office only of Satan and his Angels and Ministers and never taken out of their hands till Pope Gregory VII after above a thousand years exercise of it by the Plenitude of his Power took upon him to dispose as it seems of the Kingdom of Darkness as well as of the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth But
undone partly to consult the credit of their King and Countrey partly to accommodate the present state of affairs endeavoured either by feigned praises or officious excuses to cover and palliate that fact which in their hearts they detected And some were therein so far transported and over-shot themselves out of zeal for the honour and good of their Countrey that our ingenuous author deplores their actings in it especially as to that foul business of the Trial and Sentence above-mentioned But generally the French Courtiers who were more ingenuous than to prostitute their reputation by asserting that pitiful pretence of the conspiracy yet used all their art to represent the case as a sudden accidental thing and not so long before contrived as the Italians and Spaniards relate 48. It is very usual and even natural to men especially to the more considering minds when any thing rare and extraordinary doth occur not to rest satisfied with the bare contemplation of the thing but also to reflect back and enquire into the causes of it And therefore since Thuanus relates that the more prudent of those Lib. 53. who being no way addicted to the Protestant party with good and honest meaning sought how to excuse this execrable fact yet in their heart detesting the same did also seriously consider the causes of it their sense and judgment in that respect may likewise deserve our observation They saw apparently that so infamous and pernitious counsels could not proceed but from minds so strangely infatuated and blinded and did seem to argue a special judgment of God upon them And of that the causes to which it might be reasonably attributed were very obvious and easy to be discovered For such was the profaneness debauchery and wickedness which prevailing in the King through his evil Education by his Mother and those Tutors to whom she committed him and in the Court were by the evil example thereof derived to the City and thence to the Countrey-Towns and Villages and so diffused through the whole Kingdom as could not but provoke the Holy Majesty of God to send down his judgments upon them This is the sum of their judgment only he gives more particular instances in the sins of common Swearing Adultery and Fornication to which others add many more and tell us in general that then never was there any more vicious or more corrupted Court. And indeed those were such causes as being so obvious and notorious no serious Christian believing and instructed in the Sacred Scriptures but would readily assign in the case Rom. 1â— For thus doth St. Paul inform the Romans of such as hold the truth in unrighteousness and our Romanists might do well to be admonished by it that because when they knew God they glorified him not as God their foolish heart was darkened and he gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts to vile affections and to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all Injustice Fornication Murder Deceit breach of Faith c. What-ever be the profession which such men make of Religion most certain it is that there is either great error and corruption in their Religion or little sincerity and life in their profession or lastly such impotence in the professors that the prevalence of their sensual affections doth easily over-power and fascinate their reason which argues their desertion by that Sacred Spirit which infuses light and life and heat and power into humane souls as they are disposed to receive it no less than doth the Sun communicate its kind influences to the corporal and animal nature And as this doth maturate and sweeten crude and sour fruits and confirm and strengthen the tender plants so doth that where it is indeed heartily embraced admirably dispose mens minds to sweetness and tranqâ—ility in themselves to sweetness and devotion to God to sweetness kindness and benignity to men and makes these dispositions strong and powerful in them Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is power it informs the mind and understanding it reforms the will and affections and transforms the whole man into its own likeness These are the fruits of the Spirit by which we are to judge of the tree This is that whereby all true Christians have a real and internal not meerly external or political communion and union with their Head Christ Jesus and through him with the fountain from whom by him it is derived to all his true members of his fulness we all receive and one with another they are all partakers of the same Spirit a nearer alliance than that of bloud and are filled with a tender affection to all the children of the same Father and love to all the creatures of their great Lord and for his sake even to their enemies to those that persecute and injure them pitying their blindness and madness and desiring their conversion not destruction But no sooner or further is any man deserted by this blessed Spirit or devoid of his sweet influences but he presently becomes so much the more obnoxious to all the malevolent aspects of wicked spirits and is impregnated and â—illed with the poison of their infections which excites and exalgitates to exorbitancy his sensual affections dementates his understanding and continually foments and promotes the assimulation and likeness of their own nature in him cherishing and fructifying the roots which are in him of Pride Ambition Envy Malice Revenge Perfidiousness and all manner of lusts and wickedness according to his particular disposition And because there is so strong and powerful a propensity to Religion rooted and fixed in the very nature of man as is very difficult if not impossible utterly to extirpate or depress this in such a person is by the subtil operation of these agents either if more languid and remiss diverted by exciting him to an eager prosecution of his other more strong inclinations or if more intense and active perverted either into superstition or some other conceived heroick acts of a partial Religion consisting and concurring with the satisfaction of his other inclinations whence ordinarily proceeds much of that heat and zeal which we frequently see in men for their several parties for the shells and out-sides of Religion for opinions and notions no more necessary to be known and determined to make men compleat Christians than the speculations of Philosophers and often for pernitious and destructive principles especially in the Romanists and inconsiderate endeavours by fraud and injustice sedition or oppression and violent persecutions and such like most unchristian actions for the advancement of the cause which they espouse whereby they encourage themselves with secret hopes to expiate their licentiousness and indulgence to their own inclinations in other matters and easily perswade themselves that so long as they are such good Catholicks or well affected to the truth and the cause of God and his Church that all must needs be well with them And hence
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
their hands in their Princes bloud to be disobedient to Magistrates to stir up seditions among the people to cast off all affection to their own Country and be affected with an adulterous love to foreigners and being thus seasoned with pernitious errors they will in time when grown up bring the same into the Church and State And indeed already since this new sect hath as it were seized upon the youth the manners of our Ancestors have not by degrees insensibly degenerated but like a torrent been precipitated into corruption Nor have whole Families escaped ruine by them by their arts youths being enveigled from their Parents and the inheritances and estates of their Ancessors transferred to these new Lords The complaints and examples of divers Noble Families thus spoiled are known as of Petrus Aerodius Mombrunius Godranus Bollonius Largilactonius the Marques Canilliacus whose Brother was not admitted to his vow in that Society till they were certain of his succession to his elder Brothers Estate And for this purpose they have now their Book of Life as they call it wherein they describe the secrets of Families which they learn from confessions These things and much more having largely discoursed in conclusion he urges the necessity of a speedy remedy and therefore prays that according to the supplication the Jesuites may be decreed to depart the Kingdom within 15 days after denunciation to the several Schools Some days after was Ludovicus Dolaeus heard for the Curates or Ministers who also became Plaintiffs in the Suit Id. â—ul 1594. who among many other things urged That by the Popes were many things inconsiderately and blindly granted them by Paul 3. Power to make new Statutes and to change those which their Founder had established also to absolve hereticks which if the Pope contend is more than the whole Gallican Church can do By Paul 4. To absolve penitents from all kind of crimes even those which are not comprehended in Bulla Caenae Dominicae and from those also which the holy See hath reserved to it self and pro tempore to commute vows and pilgrimages c. by Jul. 3. to give indulgence from fasts and prohibited meats Lastly by Greg. 13. to converse with sectaries and for that purpose to wear secular habits viz. for a disguise a thing prohibited by the S. Canons and to correct all kind of Books and so to mend the writings of the Fathers wherein what Plagiaries they have been is known to them who converse with Books that from thence have great confusions been brought into the Church and the Discipline generally been dissolved for by the Breve of Paul 3. the people are allowed to leave their own Pastors and run after them and to receive the Sacraments from them to whom Greg. hath committed authority to animadvert as well upon the Clergy as the people that all may be done rightly and after the Roman mode so that from Priests whether regular or secular it is uncertain they are suddenly become universal Pastors of the people or rather wandering vagabond Bishops Periodentas circumcelliones hamaxarios Episcopos that there is nothing which they cannot now do at Rome where they are called the Popes eyes mentis Pontificiae oculi that their Principles are inconsistent with the French that it is certain that to them is principally given in charge that they should oppress the Gallican liberty at first by guile and afterwards with open force even as in these last wars they have endeavoured to do that with them they are reckoned anathema who take the Kings part but that the French think the contrary and that not to obey the King is as to resist God and to sight against Heaven that they think that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and People when he pleaseth but the French on the contrary hold them for Sectaries who think that the Pope may interpose his authority in any difference of State that they attribute to the Pope an infinite power over all Kingdoms and set him above the Church above Councils and in fine make his power equal to his will to do what he please but the French hold his power to be finite or limited And for their good deeds and practices that Claud Matthew a ring-leader of the faction whom Henr. 3. had familiarly used in his private devotions and who therefore was well acquainted with his piety and devotion to the Rom. Cath. Religion with great impiety and ingratitude went to Rome and would have perswaded Greg. 13. to have excommunicated him unless he would comply with the leaders of that pernitious faction which being denied by him was after his death obtained of his successor Sixtus that Varada of the same society confirmed Barriere in his purpose to kill the King when he made some scruple at it that they confess as much but with frivolous cavillation seek to excuse it Nor are these the faults of single persons among them forasmuch as it is a usual thing or constant custom with them when they have any enterprize in hand to confer together about it c. that by their occult art of prying into secrets they have by little and little insinuated themselves into the minds of the simple and acquired a dominion in their consciences Whereof there is a fresh example in the five Popish Cantons of the Switzers whom when the Jesuites had in vain attempted to draw them from their League with the other Cantons of the Protestants made for their common safety they leaving the men like the serpent which deceived our first Parents set upon the women and perswaded them not to lye with their Husbands till they had broken off the League But the Switzers discovering the fraud shewed themselves men and handled the Conspirators according to their desert The Venetians likewise whose Justice and Prudence the duration of their State doth easily evince saw as much Yet they since did it an 3607. v. l. 137. and being warned by our example they did not indeed thrust them out of their Territories for how could they do that being so near neighbours to the Pope but did maturely shut them up within their own inclosures and interdicted them the hearing of confessions And how powerful they are among us by these means they openly profess and glory in it in their letters to their General But thus is the discipline of the Church overthrown and contrary to the prudent prohibition of the Council of Nants the saying of St. Aug. Neminem digne poenitere posse quem non sustineat unitas Ecclesiae the judgment of the ancient Christians who condemned Audius for making separation in the Church the people seduced from their own Pastors are adulterously allured to communion in sacris with them apart from others and at last stirred up to rebellion against their Prince and emissaries suborned to murder him Their conspiracies are well known against Prince Maurice which at last took effect and in England those of Parry Cullen York Wikiams in
Rome we not only with many errors and abuses cast off some truths and useful matter of decency but also become guilty of breach of Charity while not insisting only upon what is just matter of exception we contend about that which is capable of a charitable construction That these conditions are necessary to be observed to make breach of communion between several Churches justifiable in either I think no Christian will deny And therefore as those Churches which shall contrary to these conditions make a separation from others do thereby transgress the Law of Charity and become guilty of Schism so much more do they who shall so separate from their own particular Church to which their habitation and abode doth subject them as special members and besides to their Schism and breach of Charity add also the guilt of disobedience and which ought well to be considered among us do thereby though contrary to their intention effectually cooperate with the Romish Agents in the promotion of their grand design one of whose principal methods for the subversion of the Reformed and restauration of the Popish Religion as might plainly be demonstrated is the raising and promoting of Sects Factions and Divisions among us which were there no other obligation upon us ought in reason to make us very wary how we do that which gives so great advantage to the common adversary 5. That they who are of chief authority in the Church be very cautious not to administer unnecessary occasion of separation to the weakness of their brethren which may be and frequently is done by these two means especially 1. By rigorous pressing of things in their own nature indifferent For though these things be left to the prudent ordering of each particular National or Provincial Church yet when through the weakness and scrupulosity of many they become matter of offence and scandal to them and so occasions of separation in that circumstance they cease to be indifferent and it would be no less contrary to Prudence than to Charity to impose or longer strictly to require them and is plainly contrary to both the Doctrine and the Practice of the Apostle v. Rom. 14 15. 1 Cor. 8. 9.20 21 22. 10.22 and 2 Kin. 18.4 especially in so dangerous a circumstance as this when it gives so great advantage to such an adversary who so studiously and industriously endeavors our divisions it can never be approved as any way consistent with prudence and that care of the flock which all faithful Pastors ought to have not to allow at least such indulgence and liberty in such things as is necessary to the prefervation of unity in the Church 2. By scandalous coldness in Religion and worldliness in the Clergy It is certain both from reason and experience though perhaps not commonly observed that there is scarce any so universal and powerful a cause of separation and factions as this For the generality of people do rarely judge by any other rule than that of our Saviour by their fruits and are therefore very apt to judge of the truth of mens Doctrine by the virtue and piety of their lives and actions And there is a certain authority of reputation which ought always to accompany authority of Jurisdiction and is in truth the more powerful of the two to retain people in a sweet voluntary and so more perfect obedience and this being lost the other which alone holds them only in a kind of violent and forced not natural and genuine obedience is very difficult to be managed very hazardous to be cast off and is seldom of long duration Now the former which is the proper authority of the Church and Clergy for what is coercive more than bare excommunication is in truth a branch of the Civil Authority can never be retained by only abstaining from those we call scandalous fins but by the constant sincere and vigorous practice of those great virtues of Religion Humility Meekness Heavenly-mindedness contempt of the World devotion in Religion and zealous endeavors for the Salvation of Souls without which the observance of the rules only of ordinary moral virtues will be attributed rather to humane Prudence than to Religion But to see men zealous for the accidents and formalities of Religion and cold in the practice and promotion of the great essential and substantial parts and the very business of it to hear men cry up morality as if there was nothing more in Religion than that and yet in the practice even of that to come far short of the very Heathen Moralists to see men prophanely turn the sacred Profession into a kind of trade to design it and apply themselves to it no otherwise than others do to civil or secular employments as a means to get a livelihood to get wealth honour and preferment in the World and when they have and perhaps by indirect means heaped Living upon Living and Preferment upon Preferment accordingly use or rather abuse the charity of our Ancestors and the revenues of the Church in such indulgence to Pride Ostentation voluptuous or delicious living as would be scarce excusable in the religious Laity nay to vie with them in such vanities or insatiably to heap up treasures not for the necessary relief of their own Families but to raise great Families in the World even of their more remote relations that which the time hath been hath been held no less than sacriledge without any regard to such works of Charity and the promotion of Christianity as all good Christians according to their ability are obliged to These things to which might be added the general decay and neglect of the ancient discipline do more effectually weaken the proper authority of the Church and Clergy than any Ecclesiastical Canons or Civil Laws can establish it and being naucious in the sight of the people provoke the more religious to run to private meetings and sects and the rest to jealousie and suspitions of all Religion to Infidelity Irreligion and Prophaneness and so in both give great advantage to the Romanists and help forward the promotion of their labours and designs The truth whereof is confirmed by the happy success of those who take a contrary course For thanks be to God we are not without some who by their good employment not only of the revenues of their Ecclesiastical preferments but also of their private fortunes their virtuous and pious lives and their fervent sound and profitable Preaching prevail with many of the several sorts of Non-Conformists to become their auditors and reclaim them And were there some good and effectual course taken that we might have more such lights set up in the more conspicuous Candlesticks of the Church we should find that the most effectual means both to dispel the mists of Separatists and keep out the Romish Foggs from overwhelming us and to promote and establish the honour and authority of the Church and Clergy Nor would the blessing of God be wanting to
or State or repute for Learning as are thought inconsistent with a real belief of what they possess whence some who affect to know more than the vulgar will needs perswade themselves and others that all such are Atheists and Infidels and thereupon bring all Religion under a suspition of being nothing else but a more refined piece of policy and because I have found by experience that many have no better arguments for their affected infidelity than this and yet few of those who have written of the verity of the Christian Religion have taken any notice of it or thought it worth a particular answer I shall recommend these things to their consideration 1. That this is no argument or evidence against Religion but only a bare supposed opinion and judgment of such persons without any evident and express ground or reason for it 2. That the opinion or judgment of great Statesmen or Scholars meerly as such is of no greater authority in this particular than the judgment or opinion of other men for such men may in general well deserve that reputation which they have and yet be utterly ignorant of those Principles which are necessary to be known to ground a judgment in this case There are very rarely found any men that are well skilled in all the parts of Learning or of some one profession as for example of the Law some are good Conveyancers who are very unskilful in Bar-Practice many good Chancery-men who are no great Common Lawyers c. So in Divinity some are well skilled in Textual some in Polemical or Scholastical some in Casuistical Divinity and yet but meanly skilled in the other parts of it and this part which considers the evidences of Religion is but rarely studied by any but such as have to do with Infidels each man ordinarily applying himself especially to that part to which his peculiar employment engageth him and usually men in great place have of all others least leisure for this particular study 3. But were their judgment never so considerable yet could it not in this case be certainly concluded from their actions For 1. It is agreed by all sorts of men Christians and Heathens and daily experience confirmeth the same that men frequently act contrary to their setled judgment and who may not often truly say Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor Nor is the thing it self more apparent than the reasons of it But I shall not here trace it to its first and original causes but only shew it in its next and immediate causes which are Surpize Impotence and Presumption From Surpize there is certainly no man whose care and caution can always secure him that he may not sometimes through the heat of passion or suddenness of a tentation be * Gal. 6.1 overtaken This we may all observe in our selves and in most we familiarly converse with Nay our very caution it self in many things makes us apt to be surprized by fear and thereupon to do those things we otherwise would not or neglect what we would otherwise do And though there be not a like Impotence in all yet is there more or less in every one whence men often do themselves contrary to what they would advise their children or dearest friends We daily see those who doubt not the directions of their Physitians to be good and necessary to be observed yet frequently overcome to transgress them to the hazard of their health and life it self nay Physitians themselves do the same whereof I could give a late notable instance in one of the most famous of his time Nor are we to think great Statesmen Polititians and learned men more exempt from all impotence than others are It is sufficient that they be well qualified for the places they hold to which their very impotence in some respects may sometime be a special qualification and they who are not easily overcome by one passion or affection may yet be perfectly enslaved to another What is wanting to these two causes is frequently made up by Presumption whether upon God's mercy in general and hope of pardon upon an intended repentance afterward or upon the priviledg of being within the pale of the Church by profession of Christianity or being members of the Catholick Church or zealous for the party they espouse that is as the Prophet saith Trusting in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.3 The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord a Presumption so powerful heretofore that notwithstanding that reproof and after a notable experience of the vanity of it we find it in our Saviour's days still continued and again reproved by John Baptist Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father c. Mat. 3.9 And yet after all this as experience sheweth still prevalent in our days and very common among the Romanists and the Disciples of the Jesuites especially their new Proselytes who seem to hope for indulgence in their sinful courses or to expiate the same by their zeal for the Church whereunto great occasion is given by their abominable abuse of Absolution Commutation of Penance Indulgences and complying Conduct 2. Tâ—â—â—e actions may proceed from error in the understanding and ignorance or mistake about some particular Christian Doctrine through an erronious Conscience thinking that to be lawful or a Christian duty which is absolutely unlawful So our Saviour telleth his Disciples that they who should kill them would think they do God service Jo. 16.2 and Saul thought that he ought to persecute the Christians Act. 26.9 and this may be consistent with a firm belief of the Christian Doctrine in general And this I take to be in truth the case of the Romanists and that they are given up to believe a lye through strong delusions wherein they do not more deceive their disciples than they are themselves deceived for do but admit me one or two of their Principles and there is nothing so monstrous in their actions but I think I can easily prove it lawful I had therefore intended to have shewed from what Principles those actions have proceeded that those Principles are mistaken and are no Christian but rather Antichristian Doctrines what hath been the cause occasion and progress of that mistake and lastly that this defection from the Christian Doctrine and Manners hath been foretold by the first Propagators of the Christian Faith in that manner as I think would not only do much to the removing of the scandal but moreover afford no inconsiderable evidence to the truth of Christianity it self but that I see would be too long for this place and time but I am well assured of the truth of what I say and doubt not but ere long it will be made manifest 3. There is one cause more from whence men may act contrary to Christianity and that in the highest degree and yet without the disbelief of the Truth of it in general or of any particular Doctrine
whom he commended to her In which Letter he wrote plainly and yet sparingly what things he had already confessed what he was not yet examined upon and by what means he would excuse those things which he had confessed and conceal these He wrote likewise to Rookwood the Priest who was Prisoner in another Prison and wrote his Letter with Ink in the middle about some familiar matters that any one might read but left broad Margents on both sides which he filled with his Secrets written with the juice of an Orange denying all whatsoever he had confessed before the Lords As to the Spanish Expedition he said he had obtained the Kings Pardon As to this last Conspiracy he should avoid Judgment because he knew they could make no sufficient proofs against him But however it went he added having too high an opinion of himself that which was spoken of the only Redeemer of the world It would be necessary that one man should die for the People The Letter was by the Kings Councellors who smelt out the cunning held to the fire and presently the writing appear'd and the fraud was discovered He being every day more and more confident of his instructed Keeper told him he did exceedingly desire to have some conference with Hall his Companion He promised to bring it about and brought both of them to a place where they might easily hear one another and where he himself to avoid all suspition might be seen by them both In the mean time he placed two men of known credit near the place who they knowing no such thing and minding only the return of their Keeper who was gone abroad might hear whatsoever passed between them There each of them freely discover'd what they had confessed what they had been Examined about what excuses and evasions for these were their words they had prepared for every particular and many other such things which being carefully taken were delivered to the Counsel in writing The next day the Prisoners suspecting no such thing Delegates from the King came to them and Examine Garnet and Hall a part and object to them that they had yesterday held private conference with one another Garnet thinking they spoke this only upon conjecture †Upon his Soul reiterating it with so many detestable execrations as wounded the Lords hearts to hear him Proceedings Y 3. stifly denyed it and forswore it upon the word of a Priest At last Hall having confessed the Fact and he finding that there was no avoiding it begged Pardon for his contrary asseveration which he sought to elevate by a forced Interpretation or Equivocation And professing that he would speak the truth ingenuously He answered that he had hitherto so constantly denyed it because he knew that no man living but one he meant Greenwell could accuse him as guilty of the late Fact But now that he saw himself encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses he would no longer dissemble but did confess that above V moneths agone he was acquainted by Greenwell with the whole matter That before that Catesby had in general told him that the Catholicks in England were attempting some great thing as to Religion and asked whether if good men should be involved in the danger this were to be made matter of Conscience But that he who had a contrary command from the Pope that he should not engage in any Conspiracy refused to hear any further of it That he did pour out Prayers for the good success of the great cause and amongst other things used the Hymn that was commonly Sung in the Church but intended nothing else when he did so but only prayed God that in the next Parliament no grievous Lawes might be made against the Recusants so they are called in England who keeping within their own houses have their liberty and refuse to Joyne in worship with the Protestants Garnet being twenty times Examined 12 Feb. and 26 Mar. between the Eids of Febr. and the VII of the Calends of April two dayes after he is arraigned at the Publick Tribunal in London * The reason whereof the Earl of Salisbury declared at his Tryal See the Proceedings Y Guild Hall Here the Crimes are layed to the charge of the Prisoner by Sir John Crook which are afterwards enlarged on in a long Speech by Sir Edward Cook the Kings Attorney General Then after Garnet had said something for himself and especially something concerning Equivocation he was Examined by Cecil and others that sate as Judges in that case And lastly the Earl of Northampton made a long and elaborate discourse against him in which he largely handled the Authority which the Popes arrogate to themselves of deposing Princes and discussed that Chapter of Nos sanctorum the ground as he said of this and such like Conspiracies At length Sentence is passed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench that Garnet should be Drawn Hanged and Quartered His Plea for himself was only this that although he did a long time before know of the Conspiracy by common fame and Rumours for Greenwell only informed him of all the particulars but under the Seal of Confession by the Laws of which he was forbidden to discover it to any man living yet that he did admonish Greenwell to desist from the Fact which he did very much disapprove of and to hinder others engaged in Conscience or privity in it Here Cecill severely reproved him For said he if he did disapprove of the Fact why did he afford Greenwell the benefit of Absolution before he had by his penitence given testimony that he did truly and from his heart detest the Fact Furthermore when as he understood the matter from Catesby where there was no Seal of Confession this was sufficient to have made a discovery of the Plot if he had so highly abhorred it as he did pretend But there were other things that lay heavy upon his charge and these chiefly which were amongst his Confessions written with his own hand and sent to the King viz. That Greenwell did acquaint him with this not as with a sin he had to confess but as an Act which he well enough understood and in which he required his advice and counsel That Catesby and Greenwell came to him to require his advice upon the matter and that the whole business might be resolved among them That Tesmund for so he was now called who e're while was Greenwell and he did not long agone consult together in Essex of the Particulars of this Conspiracy Lastly when Greenwell asked who should be Protector of the Kingdom Garnet answered that that answer ought to be deferred till they saw how things should go When these things were brought to his remembrance and did make it appear that he knew of the Conspiracy otherwise then by the way of Confession all that he answered was that whatsoever he had signed with his own hand was true Being brought to Execution the Third of May being
its being effected was received at Rome with triumphant joy by the new Pope and his Cardinals but how far his predecessors were concerned in the contrivance and promotion of it in regard of the great secrecy wherewith all was managed would be very difficult fully to discover as to all the particulars and circumstances yet that they had a great hand in it Thu. l. 36. Da. p. 189. is evident enough in many passages of the story For when after the first Civil War the King instructed by the Queen-Mother had dismissed the Ambassadors sent in the joynt names of the King of Spain the Pope and the Duke of Savoy with thanks to their Masters for their wholsom counsel and proffers of Forces and Aid to expel and extirpate Heresy out of his Dominions assuring them that he would live according to the rites of the Church of Rome and take care that all his people do the like and that he had concluded the peace to that end to expel his enemies out of his Kingdom and promising by Ministers of his own to acquaint the Pope and other Princes particularly with his resolutions they resolved under pretence of a Progress among other things Da p. 190. to come to a Parly with the Duke of Savoy in Dolphine with the Pope's Ministers at Avignon and with the King of Spain or the Queen his Wife upon the Confines of Guienna that so they might communicate their Counsels to them without the hazard of trusting French-men who either through dependence or kindred might be moved to reveal them to the Protestants And having sufficiently informed and fully satisfied Savoy with their intentions and way Da. p. 194. designed to free themselves without noise or danger from the trouble of the Protestants at Avignon they confer with Ludovico Antinori one of the Pope's trusty Ministers and a Florentine being according to the Queens desire come thither and give that Answer to the Pope's Embassy which they would not trust to the Ambassadors concerning their purpose to extirpate Calvinism by secret stratagems without the danger or tumult of new wars And here no doubt was some matters of no small moment transacted Thu. 36. for the King having gone by Arles and Aix as far as Marseilles returned again to Avignon immediately under the Pope's Jurisdiction But what-ever they were in particular so well it seems was the Pope pleased with the means and method resolved upon for the extirpation of Calvinism Da. p. 194. that in order thereunto he consented that the Publication of the Council of Trent in France should be deferred till such time as they had brought their designs to maturity And probably for the same purpose by the mediation of the King and Queen-Mother desisted from his Excommunication of the Queen of Navar which by his Monitory he had threatned against her And at his instance was the next year held that Consultation at Bayonne before mentioned Thu. l. 37. p. 74. at which he desired that the King of Spain himself should have been present to whom it is not to be doubted but he sent his advice concerning what was there to be resolved But this Pope dying soon after his successor Pius 5. being as yet unacquainted with the mystery of them began presently to be offended with the proceedings in France Da p. 210. till he was better informed of all those reasons which Ludovico Antenori had represented to his predecessor with which he remained fully content and satisfied says Davila The Queen also acquainted him with her Counsels Thu. l. 53. not only by Cardinal Sancta Crux four years before they were executed at Paris by him desiring the Pope's confirmation but also by letters under her own hand as Capilupus testifies who saith that he had seen the very letters themselves Nor was he only privy to these Counsels of the King and Queen-Mother but likewise communicated his counsel and advice in the same business to them He sent to the King of France and his Ministers most excellent instructions for the rooting out of those Hereticks out of that Kingdom says Cicarella Cicarel in vita Pii 5. but tells us not what they were yet that is not hard to guess at from the consideration of his nature and actions as hath been mentioned before as well disposed to promote cruel and bloudy designs as could be And when those Civil Wars which for the space of three years interrupted the course of those Italian policies and stratagems broke out he ordered them also the assistance of his Forces But when the War was concluded and the King with his Mother and Cabinet-Council had resolved to make a Marriage between the young Prince of Navar being now grown up and the King's Sister to be the train to draw the Protestant party into that snare which had been so long before devised the Pope not yet acquainted with this circumstance for though the thing which was to be done had been long resolved on yet the method and manner how to bring it about was often altered as accidents and occasions did intervene when he heard of the treaty of the Marriage but had not notice of the mystery of it and moreover heard of the preparations for a War against Spain he began to be suspitious that the King had forgotten his former kindness and excellent instructions and therefore ordered his Nephew Cardinal Alexandrino in his return from Spain to debate the business with him Whereupon the King assured him that he did all this to obey the instructions of P. Pius But P. Pius lived not to receive this satisfaction Catena in vita Pii 5. or not long after not to see that joyful day which his successor Greg. 13. did and kept with great joy and solemnity for the wished success of these Counsels For the promoting whereof being perswaded by the Cardinal of Lorain Da. p. 361 Answer to Philanax p. 100. and told that this Marriage was intended as a trap to destroy the Prince of Navar and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design which was as much as he could do at present things being already ripe for execution Thu. l. 53. But having received an account of the Massacre by letters from his Legate at Paris he read his Letters in the Consistory of Cardinals where presently it was decreed that they should all go directly thence to St. Marks and there solemnly give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian world In Minervae aede and that the Monday following a publick Thanksgiving should be celebrated in the Church of Minerva and that the Pope and Cardinals should be at it and thereupon a Jubilee should be published throughout all the whole Christian World and among other causes thereof expressed this was the first To give thanks to God for the destruction in France of
the enemies of the Truth and of the the Church In Hadriani mole Toward the evening the Guns were fired at St. Angelo Bonefires every where made and nothing omitted of those things which used to be done upon the greatest victories for the Church of Rome Two daies after there was a Procession to St. Lewis with very great resort of the Nobility and people the Bishops and Cardinals going before then the Switzers then the Embassadors of Kings and Princes then under a Canopy the Pope himself a Deacon Cardinal on either side him and the Emperors Ambassador bearing up his train and a troop of Knights and Gentlemen following Being come to the Church which was adorned with more than ordinary magnificence Mass was said by the Cardinal of Lorain who for the incredible joy which he conceived for the so much desired news had ordered a thousand * Aureos Franks to be given to the Messenger who was a Gentleman sent by his Brother the Duke of Aumale Upon the Church-doors was set an Inscription in which the Cardinal of Lorain in the name of the King of France did congratulate the Pope and the Colledge of Cardinals the most wonderful effects and incredible issue of their Counsels and Assistances This done Cardinal Vrsin is appointed to go Legate into France who speedily took his journey Thu. l. 54. and being come as far as Lions where next to Paris was the most bloudy slaughter he began to extol with many commendations the Faith of the Citizens and publickly praised Boidon a most vile wicked fellow who afterward came to a death worthy of his wicked life being executed at Clermont but now was the ring-leader and principal promoter of the barbarous and horrid slaughters and murthers committed at Lions and upon him he also Etiam ei potestatis plenitudine gratiae benesicium impertinit out of the plenitude of his legatine power conferred some of the Pope's favours and graces And although by the King's Ministers who were now much otherwise affected with the sense of the barbarous slaughters of their Country-men than was the Pope and his Ministers he was admonished to be very sober and sparing in his speech of the Massacre yet could he not hold but every-where both in private conference and in publick to commend the King's prudence and magnanimity in that business and so full was he of it that being come to Paris and endeavouring to perswade the King to the admission of the Council of Trent in France he urged it with this as a most weighty argument That the memoâ—y of the late fact which is to be commended to all ages as conducing to the glory of God and the dignity of the holy Roman Church might be as it were sealed by the approbation of the holy Synod For so would it be manifest to all who now are or hereafter shall be that the King consented to the destruction of so many lives not out of hatred or revenge or sense of any private injury of his own but out of an ardent desire to propagate the glory of God That what could not be expected whilst the faction of the Protestants stood now they being taken away the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion which by the Synod of Trent is cleared and defended from the venome of the Sectaries might be establishâ—d beyond controversie and without exception through all the Provinces of the French Dominion But the King had no mind to admit the Council much less to make that an occasion to perpetuate the memory of that fact which he was already contriving how to excuse And therefore was the Legate dismissed without any effect as to that particular to the Pope's no great satisfaction yet he solaced himself with atchievement of the Massacre which because it had happened in the beginning of his Papacy he reckoned a most prosperous omen Thu. l. 5â— Seres p. 794. and among his greatest felicities And to increase his comfort the head of Colinius was sent him to Rome for a present 47. Thu. l. 54. But alas in France all men generally and the King himself had already far other thoughts of that Tragedy and the Legate found a far other face of things there at his coming than he expected and had left at Rome for the King now more sensible of the foulness and odiousness of the fact when done as is usual in such cases the heinousness of sin seldom appearing to wicked minds till actually committed was in great perplexity whether to own it or not and how to excuse it And therefore it was long debated at Court whether to admit the Legate at all or by some handsome excuses to put him off without audience though out of respect to the Pope and to the person of the Legate thought well affected to the interest of France it was at last permitted but not without such caution and admonition to him as hath been mentioned For this unhappy King had no sooner accomplished these deep designs from which he promised himself so great security content and happiness but he found himself surprized and involved in inextricable difficulties perplexity and misery And besides the daily secret horrors of his mind and conscience Thu. l. 57. which appeared in their nocturnal effects and productions disturbing and interrupting his sleep with direful and frightful dreams which drove him to the use of Saul's remedy 1 Sam. 16. by Musick to refresh and quiet his disturbed spirits that anxiety which arose in his mind after the fact committed from his fears and doubts of what might be the ill consequence of it was now no less than his hopes had been before of that happiness and tranquility which he had promised himself that he should obtain by it For though he had before promised himself great security by the destruction of the heads and slaughter of so great a party of the Protestants yet having done the deed that desperation into which he apprehended his perfidious cruelty had driven those who remained and by the articles of the last agreement of Peace held Rochel and other strong places in their possession rendred them not a little formidable to him and perplexed his mind with doubts and fears of new troubles from so just and great provocation These cares of what might be the consequence of this action at home Thu. l. 53. were increased and aggravated by his apprehension of what effects so barbarous an act which is reporâ—ed to have filled with stupor and amazement the Great Turk himself at the hearing of it might produce in his neighbours abroad lest they thereby might be moved out of commiseration to send their aid and relief to his so injuriously oppressed subjects Wherefore all ways and means were studied and devised to give some satisfaction to the Protestants at home by treaties and favourable Edicts though his former often and foul breaches of his Faith made this very difficult and to excuse the foulness of the late fact