ready to march in he was obliged to recall it because of the Death of Childebert The last of this Kings days was the 15th of April Anno 711. He was Aged about Year of our Lord 711 Twenty eight years and had enjoyed the Title of King Sixteen or seventeen years He was buried at the Church of St. Stephens at Coucy Though he had not the opportunity of doing any Act himself being as it were Tethered by the Authority of Pepin nevertheless they gave him the name of Just rather to distinguish him from the other Childebert then because he deserved it Some give him two Sons Dagobert and Childeric The first Reigned the other was bred up to Learning or clerkship and surnamed Daniel There are those that will make him to be the Son of Thierry the First The Piety of Gontran the Mildness and Justice of Clotaire and the Tranquillity of his Reign after the death of Brunehaud turned the genious of the French already very Devout to be highly Religious and inclined them more generally to Reverence holy things and such as they believed to have a more frequent Communication with Heaven The Kings and Grandees outvied each other who should bestow most Gifts upon the Churches They deposited in those sacred Treasuries even to their very Girdles their Belts their Precious Vessels their Apparel when they were rich and set with precious Stones or Embroidered their Houshold Furniture and any other Rarities which were more for Ornament then use It was then who should build most Churches and Hospitals and who should found the noblest Monasteries The Kings strove to exempt such as they founded from all Temporal Jurisdiction and Charges and to ascertain the full and free Possession of all what they bestowed And therefore because of the assumed power the Bishops had to lay hands on all those Goods and that they disposed of the Donations and Offerings which were made to any of the Churches within their Diocess and for that besides they took some certain Duties for Blessing the Chrisome for the Consecration of Altars for their Visiting and sometimes for Ordinations they obliged them to free them from all such Impositions and even not to meddle with any Monastery but to leave the Correction and Government of the Monks to the Abbot excepting in case he had not power enough to compel Obedience and withall to confer the Sacred Orders to such Monks as should be presented without exacting any thing The Princes on their part did likewise freely bestow many the like Immanities which exempted them as well from Contribution for their Lands and from all Imposts on their Goods as from New-years-Gifts Lodging and Expence of Judges which they claimed from all other People wherever they went to hold their Courts Now these Exemptions were agreed to by the Diocesan but with the consent of his Brethren of the Clergy That of St. Denis the oldest now remaining was conceded by Landry of Paris upon the intreaty of King Clovis II. Anno 659. in the Assembly of Clichy it containeth many more things then the Protocole or Deed of Marculfe That of Corbie was given by Bertefoy of Amiens Anno 664. at the request of Queen Batilda It makes mention that there had been the like heretofore granted to the Monasteries of Agaune and Lerins and Leuxeu Pope Adeodat in the year 672. confirmed that which had been granted to St. Martins at Tours saying That divers others in France had obtained the like without which he would not have given his consent it being contrary to the Canons There was the like granted to Fontenels by Ansbert of Rouen in a Council which he called for that purpose in that City 682. In fine there were few great Abbies that did not obtain the like and ever the last gained something more and enlarged themselves as I may say to the prejudice and cost of the Hierarchy who lent them her Authority to destroy her self and them likewise since the Perfection of a good and holy Monk consists in Obedience and Humility I hardly find any Age wherein the heat for a Monastick Life reigned so greatly as in this Such as were prompted with that Spirit went from one Country to another wandring in every corner to seek out Forests and Mountains which were the more and sooner peopled by how much they were the more solitary and melancholly Ireland Scotland and England sent great numbers of these good Monks into France Colombanus the most renowned of all Irish by Birth having been very well received by King Gontran then by Childebert built the famous Monastery of Luxeu in the Mountain of Vosge His Reputation spreading over the three Nations drew thither a vast number of People and the Sentence of the Council of Mascon in the year 627. who undertook the defence of this Institute against the Monk Agrestin who would oppose him gave him such a Vogue that it spread all over France going an equal pace with St. Bennets and producing most eminent Servants to God as Emery Deile Eustasius and Gal Disciples of Colombanus Eustasius was Abbot of Luxeu and Gal who was likewise an Irishman went and built a Monastery in the Country of the Swissers about which was afterwards raised the City of St. Gall. St. Vandrille built one in the Diocess of Rouen at that place called Fontenelle St. Riquier one in Vimieu St. Vallery and St. Josse two others in the Diocess of Amiens upon the Sea-coast This St. Josse was younger Brother of Judicael King of Bretagne and had for Brother Vinok and two more who all chose to lead the same Life St. Ghislain one in Haynault Romaric one for Nuns in the Vosge in the place where stood his Castle of Romberg St. Tron one in the Country of Liege St. Bavon one at Ghent St. Goar one on the River Woker near the Rhine All these Monasteries to this very day bear the names of these Saints The Princes or Grandees gave them Ground whereon to build them together with the assistance of devout People and sometimes some of them did build at their own Charge and Expence Sigebert King of Austrasia erected twelve A Lord named Bobelen four in the neighbourhood of Bourges Clovis II. or rather an Archdeacon of Paris St. Maur des Fossez The Queen Batilda two very famous ones viz. Corbie for Men and Chelles for Women King Thierry St. Vaast of Arras as an Expiation for having consented to the death of St Leger St. Ouin or Owen filled his Diocess with a great number the most illustrious of them are Fontenelle Fescamp and Gemieges This last as likewise that of Noir-moustier in an Island of Poitou was the work or production of the care of that Philebert whom we have mentioned St. Eloy amongst many others built one at Solongnac in Limousin and one for Virgins at Paris of which St. Aura was the Abbess At this time it is the Church of St. Eloy before the Palace inhabited
before Gondiochus King of the Burgundians was dead and his Four Sons Gondebaud Godegesile Chilperic and Gondemar had shared his Kingdom amongst them Now Anno 477. Gondebaud the eldest and the most knowing of all had Year of our Lord 477 Leagued himself with the Second to dispoliate the two others at first he was defeated and kept himself hid for a time then when they thought him dead he comes forth on a suddain and surrounds them in Vienne Gondemar was burned in a Tower where he was defending himself Chilperic fell into the Victors hands who caused him to be Massacred with his two Sons and his Wife thrown into the River with a Stone tied to her Neck but spared the Lives of his two Daughters They were called Sedeleube and Clotilda both of them were of the Orthodox Faith though their Father and Vnkle were Arrians The First Consecrated her self to God the other Gondebaud kept and had her bred up in his own House King Childerick upon his return from an Expedition against the Almains is assaulted by a Fever and dyes aged at least 45 years of which he had Reigned 22 or 23. He left Four Children one Son whom they named Clouis and three Daughters Andeflede who espoused Theodorick King of the Orstogoths Alboflede and Lantilda Year of our Lord 481 These two received Baptism with their Brother Alboflede being Converted from Paganism and Lantilda from the Arrian Heresie These were not Married It is conjectured that he held his Royal Seat at Tournay because in our times in the year 1654. digging under some Houses there was a Tomb discovered and amongst other singular Curiosities was found a Ring whereon his Effigies and his Name are Engraved Clovis King V. Aged Fifteen years POPES FELIX III. The 8th of March S. Twelve years GELASIUS I. in March 492. S. Four years nine Months ANASTASIUS II. the 28 th Novemb. 496. S. Two years SYMMACHUS the 20th Novemb. 496. S. Fifteen years Eight Months whereof Three years in the following Reign CLovis or Louis for 't is the same Name handsome well shap'd and personally brave was not so soon at age to Command but he undertakes a War against Siagrius Son of that Gillon who had been set up in the place of his Father Childeric he Fights him and Defeats him near to Soissons the unfortunate Man flies to Aleric King of the Visigoths for refuge but Year of our Lord 481 Clovis by Threats forces him to send him back and when he hath him in his hands he puts him to death having first secured all his Towns to himself which were Soissons Rheims Provence Sens Troye Auxerre and some others and thus there remained nothing in the hands of the Romans amongst the Gauls Year of our Lord 484 It was a Law amongst the French that all the Plunder should be brought in common month Or 485. and shared amongst the Soldiers there had been taken a precious Vase or Vessel in a Church by his People he desired as a favour they would set it apart to restore it to the Bishop who had besought him for it an insolent Soldier opposed it and gave it a blow with an Ax saying he would have his share Clovis took no notice of it for the present but a year afterwards upon a general Review he quarrell'd with him because he did not keep his Arms in good Order and cleft his Head with his Battle-Axe a bold undertaking and which made him to be the more dreaded by the French From the year 489 Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths was entred into Italy after Year of our Lord 489 various events having overcome and put to death Odoacer King of the Heruli he setled a potent Monarchy there Anno 494. Year of our Lord 489 Clovis subdues a part of the Thuringians and imposes a Tribute upon them Year of our Lord 494 His Victories and his Conquests increase his Renown and his Dominion and lift him above other Princes his Power must have been great since Gondebaud King of the Burgundians was either his Vassal or his Officer perhaps Grand Master of his Militia Towards the end of the year 491 he Married Clotilda Daughter of King Childeric and Neece to that Gondebaud who consented not to that Match but out of fear Aurelian a French Lord was the Mediator and had the County of Melun for a recompence The Almains one of the most puissant people of Germany who then inhabited Suabia part of Retia on this side the Rhine Swisserland and perhaps the Countrey of Alsatia to Strasbourg were entred in hostile manner upon the Lands of Sigebert King of Colen or of the Ribarols Clovis his Kinsman went to his assistance Year of our Lord 496 and gave them Battle near Tolbiac it is guessed to be Zulg within Ten Leagues of Colen In the midst of the Engagement his Men gave ground and ran into disorder the greatness of the danger made him then think of Praying to the God of his Wife and to make a Vow that if he delivered him from that peril he would be Baptized Immediately the Scene of the day changed his Men returned to the Charge the Enemies were put to flight and left their King and a multitude of their Army slain upon the place He hotly pursued his Victory entred upon their Countrey and without Mercy exterminated all that were on this side of the Rhine the others saved themselves Year of our Lord 496 in Italy under the protection of Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths It is to be believed that at the intreaty of this great Prince who was his Brother-in-law he suffered such as desired it to return to their own Dwellings but he perfectly subdued them gave them some Counts and a Duke to Govern them and shared their Lands amongst his Captains After this check they had no more Kings and were but inconsiderable till the time of the Emperour Frederick the II. under whom in my opinion they gave the Name to all Germany As he returned from this Expedition his Wife took care to send some Holy Men to him to exhort him to keep his Word and to instruct him in the Orthodox Faith St. Vaast who was as then but a Priest and dwelt at Verdun Catechized him by the way St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Rheims powerful in Works and Eloquence confirmed him mightily in the belief of Christianity Having therefore brought the most part of his Captains to have a good opinion of this Conversion he received Holy Baptism with great Ceremony in the Church of Rheims on Christmass day Anno 496. The Bishops plunged him in the Consecrated Lavatory Three thousand of his French Subjects followed his example and this regenerated Flock with their Leader wore the White Robe eight days together according to the Ceremony then practised in the Church Year of our Lord 496 It is said that Heaven in favour of his Conversion Honoured him and the Kings of France his Successors with many miraculous and singular Favours
the Daughter of Theodoric was yet in his insancy The Fame of Clovis his Valour spread even to the East The Emperour Anastasius thereby to engage him the closer to the Empire sent him Consulary Honorary Letters and the Imperial Ornaments viz. The Purple Robe the Mantle and the Diadem Clovis having put them on in St. Martins Church Mounted on Horseback in the Portall and bestowed a Largess on the People after that day he was ever Treated with the Title of Consul and August which were not altogether useless to him towards the bringing the Gauls to better Obedience by those Titles for which they had still some reverence Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths jealous of his success takes in hand the Defence Year of our Lord 508 and 509. of his Grand-Son and sends a great Army on this side the Mountains made up of Goths and of Gepide and Commanded in Chief by the Count Ibba The French held then the City of Carcassonne besieged and the Burgundians that of Arles the first quitted their Siege and joyned the others at Arles to hinder him from passing the Rhosne There hapned many Combats and at last a bloody Battle the Count gained it having killed 30000 French and Burgundians and afterwards wrested from them all Year of our Lord 510 they had conquer'd in Provence and in Languedoc excepting Thoulouse and Vzez After this advantage Theoderic remained King of the Visigoths and having taken away the Crown and Life of Gesilac joyned what they held in Gaul and in Spain to his Kingdom of Italy till his Grandson Amalaric should be come of age Clovis fretted at these losses distemper'd with a long Fever and having the Spirit Year of our Lord 510 and 511. of a Conqueror that is to say Unjust and Sanguinary lays snares for the other petty Kings of the French who were his Kindred and rids himself of them by methods full of Cruelty and Treachery He incited Chloderic Son of Sigebâ—rt King of Colen to kill his Father and caused him afterwards to be Massacred by his own Domestiques He compelled Cararic and his Son we know not in what Countrey they Reigned perhaps it was at Triers or Arras to enter into Holy Orders and being informed that the Son expressed some threatnings he sent and caused the Throats of both to be cut He cleft in two the Heads of Ragnacaire King of Cambray and Riquier his Brother with a Battle-axe they being both delivered into his hands by their own Subjects and his Satellites assassinated Rignomer King of Mans in his own City He dyes himself at Paris the 26 th of November in the year 511. and is interred Year of our Lord 511 in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul which he Built and where St. Genewiefue had been buried the same year his Reign was 30 years and his Age 45. Some have made him parallel with Constantine the Great and find great resemblance betwixt them both for Good and Evil. He had four Sons living Thierry Clodomir Childebert and Clotaire the first by a Concubine the other three by Clotilda and by the same also a Daughter named Clota or Clotilda who Sixteen years afterwards married Amalaric Ring of the Visigoths in Spain Under his Reign the French wholly freed themselves from the Roman Empire and became their Allies on equal terms till then as I believe they had been stipendaries or tributary to them That part of Gall which reaches from the Rhine to the Loire was called France The French measured those Lands and took the third or fourth part which they shared amongst themselves There were but two sorts of People or Conditions amongst them the Free-men and the Slaves all the Free-men bore Arms. Gall which was almost a Desert began to be re-peopled and to rebuild their Towns The Galls paid a Tribute to the French but the natural French paid hardly any thing but their personal Service These lived according to the Salique Law the Galls Conformed to the Roman Institutions These were called Romans all the other Nations which flocked thither from beyond the limits of the Empire were named Barbarians They were bred to the exercise of War from their greenest years of a good shape and stature enured to Labour strong and so nimble that they were upon the Enemy almost as soon as the Dart they had thrown against them They had left off the use of Arrows and employ'd in their stead for offensive weapons the Sword the Angon which was a Dart of moderate length having an Iron bearded Head and cheeks of Iron and the two-edged Axe which they called Francisque This might be darted as well as the Angon but neerer at hand For defensive Aâ—ms unless it were their Commanders they had only the Buckler which they managed very dextrously to shelter and Tortoise-like cover themselves when they went to make a Charge or an Assault Their whole Armies were Infantry or if there were some few Horse they served only to attend the General and carry his Orders They retained a good part of the establishment made by the Romans as the manner of raising Imposts but much lesser of providing Magazines for the subsistance of their Forces of maintaing Horses and Carriages for Travellers on the great Roads of publick Sports Horse-racing and combats of wild Beasts and their Kings believed themselves as absolute as Emperours created Dukes Counts and great Masters of their Militia nay even Patricians and perhaps the Mayers of the Palace held the Office of Praefecti Praetorii In the Fifth and Sixth age the Gallican Church received few into the Church for Bishops but Saints or such as they made so They were for the most part the greatest Lords of the Countrey who to secure themselves from the suspicions and Year of our Lord 400. unto 500. or thereabouts jealousies the Visigoths and French might have against them cast themselves into the Church as a safe Harbor or Asylum They reckon amongst the most Holy Honorat d'Arles being of the Monastery of the Isle of Lerins which bears his Name to this day Hilary his Successor and Eueheres of Lyons coming from the same place German d'Auxerre and Loup de Troyes Palladius or Palais de Bourges Brice de Tours Agnan d'Orleans Simplicius de Vienne and Mamertus his Successor This was he who instituted or rather revived those Processions or Litanies we call Rogations which all the Church hath received All these did not survive the one half of this Age unless Loup or Lupus who lived a long while after In the Second lived Apollinaris-Sidonius of Clermont Alcimus Avitus the Successor to Mamert Eleutherius of Tournay Remy de Reims the true Apostle of the French and Vaast of Arras these three survived a long time after Clovis We should not omit the illustrious Virgin Geneviefve who even in her life time was the Patroness of Paris and remaineth so still nor St. Maximin or Mesmin Abbot of Micy near Orleans which Place now bears his Name
in hand the Defence of King Hilderic whose Kingdom Gilimer had usurped sent the great Captain Belisarius thither who made an end of that Conquest in less than Six Months having happily overthrown those Arrian Barbarians in some Battles taken Carthage and received the Tyrant Gilimer upon Composition who had sheltred himself in a Fortress The Visigoths during the Wars of Burgundy and Turingia had taken divers places of Septimania The Princes Gontier and Theodebert who were Sons the former of Clotaire the latter of Thierry had Orders from their Fathers to recover them Goutier returned without doing any thing Theodebert took some Castles in the Countrey of Beziers but suffered himself to be taken also by the Beauty of the Artificious Deuteria Lady of Cabriere who received him into her Castle and into her Bed From Septimania he carried the War to Provence reckoning to have a better Market of the Ostrogoths When he had sorely snaken it and already received some Hostages from the City of Arles he received news that his Father was very sick at Mets he goes away in all diligence and arrived there some few days before he died Year of our Lord 538 Thierry Reigned a little more then 23 years and had lived about 55. He had no Son but Theodebert but a Learned Historian gives him likewise a Daughter named Theodechildus he believes it to be her that was Married to Hermegisile King of the Varni of whom Procopius relates a memorable Adventure and who being returned into France amongst many pious Works built the Monastery of St. Pierre le Vis near Sens. It is fit we observe that the Bavarois or Bojarians were under his obedience since in their Estates or General Assembly at Chaalons he put their Laws in Writing They were originally of Germany it is not certain of what Canton but that they had the same Language as the Lombards About the time of the death of Odoacer King of Italy they were come to possess that part of the Norica which lies on the Banks of the Danube and in time they also gained the Mediterranean part and Rhetia Secunda which was situate betwixt the Rivers L'Oein and the Lec so that they were bounded by Panonia Swevia Italy and the Danube Perhaps Clovis subdued them at the same time he subdued the Almains but they had always retained their Laws and a Duke of their Nation who was confirmed by the King of Austrasia he was to be of the Race of the Agilolfingues or Descendents of Agilolfe who in all appearance brought them into that Countrey CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris CLOTAIRE in and Neustria at Soissons THEOD'EBERT aged about 30 years in Austrasia Burgundy betwixt both  Year of our Lord 534. and 535. The Uncles of Theodebert were prepared to invade the Kingdom of his Father his diligence broke their measures After he had agreed with them by a Peace which he bought and that he in appearance had tied the knot of a strict amity with Chlidebert who promised him the Succession because he had no Children he sent for Deuteria and publickly Married her despising Wisgard the Daughter of Wacon King of the Lombards whom he had betrothed in the life time of his Father Thierry Year of our Lord 534 In this year they place the Erection into a Kingdom True or Fabulous of the Countrey of Yvetot in Normandy which was done say they by King Clotaire in satisfaction for his having with his own hand in the very Church and on a Holy Friday Killed one Gautier who was Lord of the Mannor Athalaric King of Italy dies in the age of Adolescency Amalasuinta his Mother espouses Theodad Son of Amalafrede Sister to King Theoderic and sets him on the Throne but shortly after the Ingrateful makes her away upon a suspicion of Adultery The death of Amalasuinta caused the ruine of the Ostrogoths Justinian with whom she had always kept in amity gave Command to Belisarius to revenge her death and to recover Italy At first Dalmatia the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia after that Abbruzza and Lucania the Campagnia or Terra del Lavor surrenders to him without any resistance and the City of Naples is surprized by a way thorough an Aqueduct Theodad sends an Army under the Conduct of Vitiges his Officer but the Ostrogoths who had a hatred for him elect this Vitiges who to secure the Diadem for himself puts Theodad to death and Marries Mattasuinta Daughter of Amalasuinta Year of our Lord 536 When Theodad dyed he was in Treaty with the French and proffer'd them Provence and Two thousand pound of Gold if they would embrace his Defence Vitiges being pressed by Belisarius and finding himself not strong enough to resist the Imperialists and the French put in execution what his Predecessor had projected and deliver'd Provence and the Money to the French If we must believe Procopius Justinian confirmed this Cession by his Letters Patents It seems they divided it into two Provinces that of Marseilles and that of Arles Year of our Lord 537 Theodebert made no scruple to take off both Parties that he might be the better enabled to ruine them both He had caused Ten thousand Burgundians to slip into Italy who having joyned with Oraia one of Vitiges Chiefs had helped him to retake Milan Year of our Lord 539 When he believed both parties to be much weakned he entred the Milanois with Two hundred thousand Men. The Roman Army and that of the Ostrogoths were encamped one just over against the other neer Pavia either of them thought he came to their assistance and his design was to surprize them both He therefore Assaults and Defeats the Ostrogoths and then comes thundering upon the Romans and cuts them all in pieces But a Plague and Famine soon revenged them upon him for this perfidiousness When he found his Men perished by thousands he repassed the Mountains with all speed for fear lest Belisarius who was in Tuscany should come and attaque him Year of our Lord 539 Afterwards Vitiges being Besieged by Belisarius in Ravenna omitted not to crave help of the French who promis'd to come to his assistance with Five hundred thousand Men but before they were arrived he had compounded with Belisarius and was gon to Constantinople where of a King he became an Officer to the Emperour The Visigoths in his stead chose Theodobaldus Governour of Verona and he being slain three years after they substituted the famous Totila who Took and Sacked the City of Rome twice in 547. and in 550. Year of our Lord 540 The Queen Deuteria became so furiously jealous of her own Daughter because the King her Husband began to look on her that she made her away in a cruel and ingenious manner having caused untamed Bulls to be harnassed to draw her Chariot who precipitated her from off the Bridge at Verdun into the Meuse The French who during the Two first Races and a good while in the Third had
whereof 2 months in this Reign Year of our Lord 751 AFter the Estates of Soissons had Elected Pepin and as it is believed had lifted him on the Pavois and upon the Royal Throne he would needs add the Ceremonies of the Church to consecrate his Royalty and render it more august Boniface Archbishop of Ments Crowned him in the Cathedral of Soissons and anointed him with holy Oyl according to the Custome of the Kings of Israel that thereby the Word of God Touch not mine Anointed might become a Buckler to him and his Successors The Anointing and Crowning began from this time to be practised at the Inauguration of the Kings of France and hath been continued to this day Being of a very low stature the Lords had not all that respect for him which they should Having perceived it he would needs let them see by experience that he had more Courage and Vertue than those great bulks who very often have nothing but an outward appearance of bravery Those Kings took much delight in Combats of Wild Beasts and not only pleased themselves with the divertisement of such Spectacles in those Publique Entertainments they gave the People but many times in private in their own Palaces One day being at the Abbey of Ferrieres a furious Lion having grappled with a Bull whom he held fast by the Neck he said to some Lords that were about him That they must needs make him let go his hold Not one had the Courage to undertake it the very proposition affrighted them After he had observed them all and plainly perceived their astonishment he leaped down from the Scaffold his Back-Sword in his hand went directly to the Lion and at one stroak managed with as much skill as strength divided his head from his body his Sword entring even a good way into the Neck of the Bull. After this wonderful blow turning himself towards his Lords Do you not believe said he with a kind of Heroick Pride that I am worthy to Command you Year of our Lord 752 His first Warlike Expedition after his Coronation was in Saxony where he constrained the Saxons to pay every Year Three hundred Horses for a Tribute and to bring them to him into the Field of Mars or General Assembly of the French Year of our Lord 753 On his return from that Country he heard of the Death of Griffon his Younger Brother That unquiet Spirit being come out of Aquitain whither he had retired to Duke Gaifre was assassinated in the Valley of Morienne going into Italy either by some People of Pepins says our Author or by some of Gaifres who conceived some Jealousie for having been too familiar with his Wife To Childebrand Grandson of Luitprand King of the Lombards degraded by his Subjects Rachis Duke of Friul succeeded by Election who professing himself a Monk in the same Covent with Caroloman Brother of Pepin Astolphus his Brother had taken his place He finding the Emperour Constantine Copronimus full of Trouble had seized on the Exarchat of Ravenna and Pentapolis which till then had been held by the Exarchs or Vicars of the Emperour Besides he had got into his power even under the very Walls of Rome several Towns belonging to several private Lords who had made themselves as it were Soveraigns in the time of the distress and disorders of the Grecian Empire and finding all things submitted to him he had likewise a great desire to make himself Master of Rome pretending and maintaining That the Exarchat he had conquer'd gave him all the Right and Title the Emperours had enjoy'd in Italy and therefore Rome and the Popes being in subjection to the Empire were now under his Year of our Lord 753 By vertue of this pretence he marched with his Army towards Rome and sent to Summon the Romans to acknowledg him and to pay him a Crown in Gold for every head Pope Stephanus much amazed at this enterprize beseeches him to leave the Lands belonging to the Church in Peace hath recourse to the intercession of the Emperour Constantius and afterwards comes himself to Pavia to see the Lombard But finding his Intreaties nor the Emperour's Request had no influence upon him he implored the Assistance of Pepin and his Protection as Gregory III. had done that of Martel So that after he had prepared and disposed him by some Ambassadours sent before-hand he went from Lombardy into France to the great astonishment and vexation of Astolphus who however durst not detain him Year of our Lord 753 The King being unable to go so far as Morienne as he had made him hope sent to intreat him to come to Pontigon a Royal Castle near Langres Charles his Eldest Son went above fifty Leagues to meet him The Pope arrived at Pontigon the sixth day of January the King with his Wife and Children received him about a mile from the place and treated him with all manner of respect and honour But not to that degree as to walk on foot by his Horses side and hold the bridle as Anastasius hath written who in some places hath spoken of ancient times rather according to the Practice and Customs of the days he lived in then according to the naked truth After several Conferences both publique and private Pepin promised him all manner of assistance as soon as he had put his own affairs into some order and wished him in the mean time to go and repose himself in the Abbey of St. Denis in France Stephanus hath written That being fallen desperately ill and causing himself to be carried into the Church under the Bells to begg his recovery of God â—e beheld St. Denis in a Vision together with the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul who miraculously restored him Which could not but be very pleasing to the French who had a singular Veneration for that Saint and to Pepin himself whose Father either out of devotion or to do like other Kings had acknowledged he was greatly beholding to the intercession of those Holy Martyrs A little while after his being recovered from his Sickness which was in the Month of July he Crowned and Anointed Pepin and his two Sons with his own hands exhorting the French to keep their Faith and from that time Excommunicating Year of our Lord 754 them if they ever chose a King of any other Race Some say that this Ceremony was performed in the Church of St. Denis before the Altar of St. Peter and St. Paul which the Pope did on that day dedicate in remembrance of the recovery of his health Others believe it was in the Abbey-Church of Ferrieres Wherever it were the Ceremony being ended Stephanus declared him Advocate or Defender of the Roman Church Astolphus well foreseeing that the Pope would bring the French upon him had by Threats obliged the Abbot of Mount-Cassin to send the Monk Carloman into France to bring Pepin his Brother upon pretence of demanding the Corps of St. Bennet which had been stolne and
fit we observe that at the Coronations of Kings they forgot not their own Interests nor failed to make them promise solemnly to maintain the Rights of the Church But we do not find them always so careful and zealous for the good of the People and the Prerogative of the Nobility Of those that appeared with most Splendor some were such as were noted for Intrigues and Factions and of them were a great number Ebbon of Reims Agobard of Lyons and Bernard de Vienne active in the degrading of Louis the Debonnaire Ebroin of Poictiers for disposing Aquitain to surrender themselves into the hands of that Emperor who would bestow it upon Charles his beloved Son Thietgaud de Colen and Gontier de Ments touching the marriage of Valdrade And Hincmar of Reims for his resisting the Pope and intermedling with all affairs both of Church and State wherein he acted with as much heat as judgment during the Reign of Charles the Bald. The others were illustrious for their Learning as the same Agobard Theodulfe and Jonas his Successor Rabanus Maurus of St. Bennets Order and Arch-Bishop of Mentz Hincmar of Reims who had been Abbot of St. Denis and the other Hincmar his Nephew Remy de Lyons Adon de Vienne Hilduin Abbot of St. Denis Loup Abbot of Ferrieres in Gastinois Henry Monk of St. Germain d'Auxerre Valafride Strabon Abbot of Richenoue Florus Master of the Church of Lyons that is a Divine and John Scot or Scotus surnamed Erigena This last was a great Philosopher and for the Beauty and Delicacy of his wit highly cherished by Charles the Bald even to the lying in his Chamber But in Theology he passed for one of a raving Brain whose sentiments were not right and sound As for Hincmar de Reims we have his works whereof every one may judge The other Hincmar his nephew very zealons for the Popes authority collected their Decretal Letters and was the first that durst put down the names of some Ancient Popes who till that time had none but which Isâ—dore Mercator had already gathered together Other Canonists followed his error till at length the more judicious found they were but fictitious Adon de Vienne composed a Matyrology which is yet in being Hilduin wrote the life of St. Denis the Areopagite by command of Louis the Debonnaire from the Memoires of Methodius Patriarch of Constantinople who to flatter the French endeavour'd to have two things believed which the Criticks pretend to condemn of false-hood The one that this Saint Denis had been Bishop of Paris the other that those Writings which go under his name were his own We have the Epistles of Loup de Ferrieres which give a great light in the affairs of those times And the Monk Henry wrote the Life of Saint Germain de Auxerre in more Elegant Verse then the roughness of that Age could promise I shall observe en passant that Latin Poetry began to rouze its self under Charles the Bald and amongst other Poets that flatter'd him there was one that made a Piece containing three hundred Hexameters in praise of the Bald where every word began with the Letter C. Some for their good lives deserved to be placed in the Catalogue of Saints as Anscher taken out of the Order of St. Bennet by Louis the Debonnaire to be the first Arch-Bishop of Hamburgh Established by that Emperor and to Preach to the Danes and Swedes the same Rabanus whom we have mentioned Two Audrâ—'s one of Sens the other of Mans Ayos de Bourges Prudence de Troyes Hildeman de Beauvais Foulquin and Hunfroy de Teroüanne Amant de Rodez and Bernard de Vienne This last had Adon above-named for Successor both in his Sanctity and his See But he had very few in that good Christian Maxim so often in his Mouth and ever in his Soul That the Riches and Goods of the Church are the Patrimony of the Poor and that a Clergy-man hath no right to them but for his necessities Nor did he keep any more Domestique Servants but one Priest and one Lay-man Proclaiming to all Prelats by this noble example That he who is great in himself hath no need of other Equipage or Train of Servants to make him appear so LOUIS IV. Surnamed TRANSMARINE King XXXII Aged XIX or XX Years POPES LEO VII in 936. S. 3 years 6 Months STEPHEN IX Elect. in 939. S. 3 years 4 Months MARTIN II. Elect. 943. S. 3 years 6 Months and one half AGAPET II. Elect. 946. S. 9 years 7 Months Louis IV. surnam'd Transmarine in France Otho I. in Germany Rodolph II. in Burgundy Transjurane HUGH and Lotaire his Son in Italy Year of our Lord 936 OF all the French Lords Hugh le Blanc Earl of Paris and Orleans Duke of France and Brother in Law to the late King had the greatest Authority in the Kingdom He durst not however take the Crown because Hebert Earl of Vermandois and Giselbert Duke of Lorraine two very potent Enemies would have broke his Measures He found it therefore more safe to make a King of the Blood of Charlemaine who should be wholy obliged to him for his Crown To this purpose he dispatched a Famous Deputation of Prelats and Lords whereof William Arch-Bishop of Sens was the Chief into England to beseech Ogina the Widdow of Charles the Simple to bring back her Son Louis whom the French desired to own for their King She granted their request but not without great opposition of King Aldestan her Brother He apprehended his Nephew might be destroy'd by some treachery as his Father had been and therefore would not be satisfied with only their Oaths but took Hostages besides Hugh and the other Lords came to receive their King at his Landing at Bullogne tender'd their Hommage on the Strand and thence conducted him to Laon where he was Anointed by Arnold Arch-Bishop of Reims the 20 th day of June Year of our Lord 936 Immediately after his Coronation Hugh who still retained the Administration of the Kingdom carried him into the Dutchy of Burgundy for his own ends for there were some pretences but how grounded we do not well know And Hugh le Noir appropriated it to himself as Heir of the Deceased Rodolph his Brother who had it from Richard his Father on whom Boson had bestowed it when he was made King of Burgundy Le Noir or the Black had therefore Seized on the City of Langres after the Decease of King Rodolph but the new King and Hugh thrust him cut again without striking one blow and engaged him to yeild up one half of the Dutchy to Hugh le Blanc or the White An. 937. King Rodolph died having Reigned 25 years in Burgundy Transjurane and only five in the Kingdom of Arles He left three Children Conrade who Succeeded him but whom Otho Seized upon and detained fourteen years Burchard Bishop of Lausanne and Adeleis a most Illustrious Princess who by her first marriage was Wife to Lotaire King of
mentioned and Hugh both Abbots of Clugny who being favoured by Heaven were in great credit with the Princes of this world of Thierry Bishop of Orleans Burchard de Vienne Bruno de Toul all three in the beginning of this Century and in the latter part of it Austinde d'Auch Hugh de Grenoble Arnold de Soissons and Maurille de Rouen Add to these Prelats Brune who was Institutor of that most austere Order of the Chartreux and Robert Abbot of Molesme who was Institutor or Founder of the Cisteaux For Robert d'Arbresel he is not yet in the Catalogue of Saints France was not exempted from Heresies In the year 1000 there started up a Phanatiqee Peasant named Leutard in the Burrough de Vertus within the Bishoprick of Chaalons who broke down the Images Preached that they ought not to pay Tithes and maintained that the Prophets had not always spoke those things that were good he was followed by an innumerable multitude of the Populace who believed him to be inspired of God his Bishop it was Guibin having easily convinced him and afterwards disabused those ignorant people the unhappy wretch in despair to see himself forsaken cast himself into a Well his Head foremost Some years afterwards came from Italy I know not what Woman infected with the dotage of the Manicheans which she inspired into a couple of the most Noble and most Learned Clergy-men of Orleans and those into several other people of several conditions King Robert who made his Residence in that City being informed hereof assembled a Council An. 1017. to convince them but not able to dis-infatuate them they kindled a fire in a neighbouring Field to burn them if they persisted in those Follies These obstinate Zealots far from dreading those Flames ran to them Thirteen were burnt Ten whereof were Canons of St. Croix The same severity was practised towards all of that Sect that could be discovered in any place especially at Toulouze An. 1022. But the remainders or Seeds of those ashes or as some say the frequent Commerce the French who travelled to the Levant had with the Bulgarians who were Manicheans soon after raised up this Phrensie again in Languedoc and Gascongne The error of the Sacramentaries was more subtil and therefore did not make so great a progress Joh. Scot. Erigene and other half Learned and too subtil Wits disputing about the incomprehensible Mistery of the Holy Sacrament according to the notions and terms of humane Philosophy had raised doubts and difficulties in the minds of Men touching the real presence of the Body of JESVS CHRIST in the Holy Eucharist We may believe that even in the Tenth age some scruples had been made by people contending herein since there were miracles wrought to prove it But the First that durst openly say contrary to the belief of all former ages that the Holy Sacrament was but the Figure of the Body of our Lord was Berenger Arch-Deacon of Anger 's Treasurer and Super-intendant of St. Martin de Tours As he was one of the most Learned Men of his time and had such charms in his Discourse and Entertainment that he was followed by vast numbers of Disciples for which reason his adversaries said he was a Magician he drew to his party Brâ—â—o Bishop of Anger 's and very many others who spread his Doctrine thorough France Italy and Germany Durandus Bishop of Liege and Adelman his Rector afterwards Bishop of Bresse stopt the current of it by their Writings and King Henry by his Authority so that he kept close and quiet for some years At the end whereof moving the question afresh Pope Leo IX condemned it in the Council of Rome and in that of Vercel both in An. 1050. In the last they ordered Scots Book to be burned which was the Well from whence he had drawn his error Five years afterwards Hildebrand Legat from Pope Victor II. being sent into France to reform the Clergy convened a Council at Tours where he compell'd him to abjure his Error and subscribe his Retractation For all this he desisted not from his former ways they were fain to cite him before the Council which was held at Rome An. 1059. where he was ordered to burn Scotus his Book with his own hand and Sign to a Confession of Faith composed by Cardinal Humbert but as soon as he was at liberty he renews the Dispute which lasted till the year 1079. when Gregory VII having summon'd him before another Council in Rome managed this turbulent Spirit so well that he owned and confessed both from his Heart and Tongue the substantial Conversion of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST Being returned into France he took up the Habit of St. Bennet for his pennance and retired into the Priory of St. Cosmo which is in an Island of the Loire about two Leagues from Tours whither he drew several Cannons of St. Martins who were enchanted with the sweetness of his Conversation He passed the rest of his days there with great austerity and died very Religiously An. 1091. aged above Fourscore years What care soever was used to reform the disorders and take away the Weeds and Darnel out of the Church yet they could never pluck up the most spreading and fruitful root of Simony I shall give you a little taste of it In a Council which the Legat Hildebrand held at Lions An. 1055. there were 45 Bishops and 23 other Prelats who without any other accusation but their own Consciences publickly avowed this crime and renounced their Benefices An example very common as to the fault but singular for the repentance I do not know any times wherein so many Churches and Abbeys were built as in these days King Robert himself founded above 20. There was not one Lord but ✚ valued himself in so doing The most wicked affected the Title of Founders whilst they ruined the Churches on the one hand they built on the other and made their Sacrilegious Offrings to God of those things they had ravisht from the poor and needy The fancy that reigned in Mens minds at the beginning of this Century is most remarkable which was to pull down old Churches to build new nay even the fairest and noblest to erect others after their own mode This change of material Walls seemed to be a sign of that change was made in those times in the whole Face and if we may say so the Body of the Gallican Church From the Eighth Century the Popes had found out means to diminish the Authority of Metropolitans obliging them by a Decree in Council held at Ments by St. Boniface necessarily to receive the Pall at Rome and subject themselves Canonically to obey the Roman Church in all points A Profession since changed into an Oath of Fidelity under Gregory VII They had likewise attributed to themselves exclusively to all others the Right of Separating or Dissolving the Spiritual Marriage which a Bishop contracteth with his Church
the Empire and that the election of the Grandees belonging to it could make but a King unless their own Authority would honour it with the Title of Emperour This belief was grounded upon what they had done for Pepin and Charlemain whom indeed they first dignified with the Title of Patrician and afterwards conferred that of Emperour upon Charlemain As for this point they carried it cleerly against the Emperours The example of Henry VI. puts it out of all doubt for when he took the Imperial Crown at Rome in the year 1191. Pope Celestine III who was upon a Scaffold and sitting holding it between his Feet threw it down upon the ground to shew it lay in his power to overthrow it and the Cardinals having caught it in their hands put it upon the Emperours Head who was below and on his knees waiting that favour with submission But the Popes could not so easily gain a fourth point which was to hinder the Bishops from paying Homage to their Temporal Sovereigns They opposed this submission because they thought it unworthy that those Sacred Hands which were employd in the operations of the most Holy Mysteries of Religion should be touched or pressed by Hands profane Now although Sovereign Princes especially the Kings of France had a great reverence for all that came from the Holy See they could not for all that yield them this point nor that concerning the franchise of Goods and Persons For King Lewis VI. would not suffer Rodolph to re-enter the Arch-Bishoprick of Bourges till he had done him Homage which Yves de Chartres excused to Pope Paschal upon the apprehension of a greater inconvenience And that Pope having granted a Bull at the requisition of the Clergy of France which prohibited upon pain of Excommunication all Bayliffs and Prevosts belonging to the King the exacting any Loan of poor Clerks the said King wrote Letters full of heat to Yves threatning he would take the Goods of any Clerks wherever he could find them if that Bull were not revoked I cannot say what hapned upon this There was a Maxim set up in those ages which gave the Popes an indirect Dominion over Princes and right of animadversion on their Government which was that although they did not believe the Princes depended upon them for things Temporal they thought they had good ground considering the Spiritual to judge whether their actions were good or evil to admonish them to correct them to forbid them things they held unlawful and command them to do what they thought was just When two Princes made War they concern'd themselves to bring them to a Truce to refer their business to Arbitration and oblige them to debate it in their presence King John pressed upon by Philip Augustus had recourse to Innocent III. who wrote thereupon that being proposed to the Government of the Universal Church he found himself obliged by the command of God to proceeed in that Affair according to the Rules and Forms of the Church and to pronounce the King of France to be an Idolater and a Publican if he did not make his Right appear before him or his Legat. For although said he it did not belong to him to judge of the Fief yet he had right to take cognisance of the Sin and it appertained to the Holy See to correct all persons of what quality soever they could be and if they proved refractory to his Commands to employ the Power and Arms of the Church These were the Excommunications and also the Interdictions cruel remedies which took away the use of the Sacraments and the Divine Service from the Living and sometimes the very Burials from the Dead They were perswaded it was part of their Duty to provide against all publique scandals of their paternal care to help and protect all the oppressed and of the grandeur of their Tribunal to do justice to the whole World So they received the complaints of all that were under oppression nay they would go to meet them as it were and take cognisance of what injustice Princes used towards their Subjects and of their new exactions They sometimes denounced Anathema against those that levied them and sometimes exposed the Goods and Estates of these they Excommunicated as a Prey and gave Command to seize their Persons and bring them into slavery The Sovereigns were not exempted or secure against these Thunder-claps for whether by virtue of an opinion commonly received in those days but in my judgment not to be maintained or made out that the Excommunicate have lost all Titles to their Estates or whether they did not believe the Government of Catholique people was not to be left in the hands of Princes revolted from the Church they proceeded even to the deposing them declaring their Subjects Absolv'd of all the Oaths they had taken and forbid them longer to obey them Gregory VII began to exercise this Authority against the Emperour Henry IV. He would have practis'd the same towards Philip I. King of France For he once wrote to all the Grandees of the Kingdom to hinder the excess he committed especially towards those Merchants that went to great Fairs And another time he threatned to dissolve those Bonds and Obligations of Fidelity which tied his Subjects to him if he did not forbear the sale of Benefices and suffer the elect Bishop of Mascon to enter upon his Bishoprick Victor II. did in effect Excommunicate him in the Council of Clermont Other Popes Excommunicated and deposed the Emperours Henry V. Frederick I. and Frederick II. and have attempted the like things against divers other Crowned Heads It is admired that Popes who had so great a reputation for their goodness particularly Gregory VII and Alexander III. should have undertaken such things which seem so contrary to the Maxims of the Ancient Fathers and the Innocency of former ages We must therefore know that these supposed Letters of the First Popes upon which they founded a new Cannon right had made their Predecessors believe even from the end of the Eighth Century that their Authority and Power over the Faithful had no limits that in quality of universal Pastors they had Power to lay Commands or to forbid any of the Faithful in any thing that concerned their Salvation and the promotion of Religion to admonish them and afterwards punish them if they did not obey That if the predecessors of Gregory had not made use of this power against Emperours it was because those Princes were then more regular and the Popes of those times involved in great troubles but on the contrary Henry IV. had made himself execrable by his infamous Vices And Gregory was venerable through all Christendom for his Virtues I shall presume to add that there was even some things in the preceding Ages that might give some colour to what that Pope did undertake For in the Sixth the Church had assumed power to exclude those who were enjoyned publique pennance from exercising any function Civil or
Insolence upon the Popes complaint the King resolv'd to expel them from that House and gave it in charge to Suger Abbot of St. Denis who placed twelve Canons Regulars there whom he took from St. Victors Thus of a Chapter they made an Abby the first Abbot they had was named Odon As for that of St. Victor it was built in Anno 1113. or rather amplified by Lewis the Gross for before that time it was the Habitation of a Recluse a famous Doctor named Thomas de Champeaux who taught Divinity at Nostre-Dame having taken on him the Habit of that Order was Commissioned for the Government and Conduct of the new Institution and transferr'd the Divinity Schools to that place where he read till he was called thence to the Bishoprick of Chaalons Geduin his Pupil succeeded him and bare the Title of Abbot We may say in praise of this House that they never withdrew themselves from their Obedience to their Bishop but that they ever allow'd and received his Visitation and his Correction whereby they have fared so well that in Five hundred and fifty years for so long they have been there they never fell into any so great disorder as hath required a Reformation of the whole as all the rest have done who did shake off that Yoke of Lawful Authority The Order of Fontevraud of which we made mention about the end of the last Age was confirmed by Pope Paschal II. in the year 1117. The following year some Gentlemen zealous for the defence of holy Places amongst others Hugh de Paganis and Gefroy de Saint Ademar to that end Instituted an Order of Religious Kinghts who were named the Poor Knights of the Holy City then the Templers because they had their first Lodging or Quarters near the Temple of Jerusalem and for the same reason they likewise called those Houses they had in France Temples and so in other Countries Their Order received its Confirmation Rules and Habit at the Council of Troyes in the year 1127. Their Rules were contrived by St. Bernard and their Habit was to be white for the Knights and black or grey for the Servants Their number was then but small but it increased in a while to three hundred I mean of Knights alone for the Servitors were almost innumerable The Order de Premonstre was instituted in Anno 1120. by Norbert who was afterwards promoted to the Archbishoprick of Magdebourg That of the Carmelites did not begin till the year 1181. as you shall find in the other Age. The Orders of the Chartreux de Grandmont de Cisteaux were instituted in the preceding Age as we have observed They were all in great Veneration because of their austerity the two first were so still for their horrid solitariness indeed both of them were reckon'd amongst the Hermits and besides they consider'd that of Grandmont for their rigorous Poverty The Friers Converts of this last they were named the Bearded because they wore great Beards having the management of their Temporal Goods would have the Government of the Order and bring the Priests under their Ferula or Lash but in the end they lost their Cause The Chartreux have to this day preserved their Cloister and their Discipline having ever avoided all Intrigues of the World Conversation with Women and the ✚ ambition of attaining to Prelacy Three Rocks which ever have and will be fatal to other Orders These good Fathers had so much respect for the holy Sacrifice of the Mass that within their Walls they never celebrated it but upon Sundays and Holidays nevertheless they sometimes allowed those that had an earnest desire to it to say Mass every day to such as were indeed devout We must not wonder at this practise which would appear strange in these days St. Francis in his Letters which are called his Testament ordains his Brothers that but one Mass be said each day in the places where they lived according to the custom of the Church of Rome Masses were not then the best part of the Revenue and Subsistence of the Convents and poor Priests The Congregation of Clugny had been an hundred years in very high Reputation but her Monks had made themselves a litle too dainty taking too much delight in being Clothed in the finest Stuffs providing against the Heat and Cold avoiding all Labour and the open Air and seeking the Shades and Rest They heaped up Riches with both Hands got all the Cures to themselves to have the Offerings and Tythes and obliged the Chapters and Bishops to bestow the Prebendaries of their Churches upon them In so much that when the Reformation of the Citeaux appeared and those new Friers were observed to follow St. Bennets Rule literally without omitting one single point labouring with their hands refusing to acept of any Tythes and behaving themselves with great submission towards their Prelats the Reverence and Devotion of the People turned to them Thus they acquired much Wealth as well by Gifts presented to them as by their assiduous Labour there being in some of their Houses two or three hundred Friers that clear'd the Lands of the Woods and other Lets to Tillage drained the Fens and Bogs digged and planted and withall lived with great Frugality Being very poor in their beginning Pope Innocent would have them exempted from paying Tythes for their Lands a favour that was allowed to some Abbies the Lazar-Houses Canons Regulars and the Kinghts Templers and Hospitallers Now as their great Thriftiness and Gifts of Pious People did furnish them wherewith to make new Purchases the Prelats made great complaint of this Covetousness which did with-hold from them what they believed to be justly theirs by Divine Right The Monks of Clugny who were much perjudic'd or impair'd by them because they had the Tythes in divers places made loud complaints and a great stir wherever they could come to be heard so that in fine the Council of Latran which was held in the year 1115. restraining that Priviledge to the acquisitions they had already made This Difference joyn'd with the jealousie of growing too powerful prompted these two Congregations to decry each other Both of them were very Potent the Popes and Kings took their Counsels gave them notice of their good or ill success recommended themselves to their Prayers in all their great Undertakings and made them large Gifts and Presents to be Associates and Partakers of the Merits of their Societies That of Clugny had acquir'd much Renown by the desert and reputation of four or five of her first Abbots but lost a little by the irregularity of Ponce who squandred away a great part of the Wealth of that rich Abby on the contrary the Cisteaux encreased so much in Credit by the Reputation of her St. Bernard that those Monks were the Agents or the Organs of all the weighty Affairs of those times I must tell you here if I have not mentioned it already that the Will of the Parents made the
Daughter and Heiress of the Earl of Toulouze and also gave him the Counties of Poitou and Auvergne and all that had been conquer'd in Languedoc upon the Albigensis Year of our Lord 1241 These years the Tartars made cruel irruptions amongst others one in Hungary under the Command of Bath who was one of their Generals and one in Russia Poland and Silesia whither they were conducted by another of their Generals who was named Pera. These Barbarians were Scythians Originaries between the Caspian Sea and Mount Imaus Some make them descended from the Ten Tribes of the Hebrews who were transferr'd by the King of Assyria into those Countreys and derive their Name from the Hebrew Word which signifies Forsaken Others derive it from the River Tatar which ran thorough their Countrey and say it was given to the whole Nation of the Mogles composed of seven principal People of which they made one They were Tributaries and as we say Slaves to a Christian Nestorian Prince whose Kingdom was in the Indies he was called Prestor-John But Cingis or Tzingis-Cham set that Nation free about the end of the last age ruined the States of Prester-John and founded a very great Kingdom out of it from whence divers Colonies went forth and setled in other Countreys even in some parts of Europe The Earl of Toulouze sought out all means underhand to repair the shameful Treaty he had made with the King and therefore he consulted and contrived with James King of Arragon who was come to Montpellier and with the Earl of Provence though he were the Kings Father-in-law to Dissolve his Marriage with Sanchia Year of our Lord 1241 the Arragonians Aunt upon pretence of parentage that he might Marry the Daughter of the Earl of Provence and that his Daughter Jane whom he had perforce given to the Earl of Poitou might not be his Heiress An example that proves to any that might doubt that amongst Great ones Honour Parentage Alliance and ☞ Conscience does easily give way and stoop to their Interest and Humour Hugh Count de la Marche to his misfortune had Married Isabella the Widow of King John who had formerly ravished her from him This Womans pride would not suffer him to do Homage to Alphonso the new Earl of Poitou the King undertook to compel him and on a suddain took several of his Towns and demolish'd them amongst others Fontenay where his Brother Alphonso was wounded with an Arrow The King of Englands assistance in behalf of his Mother was too slow he and his Brother Richard landed in the River of Burdeaux The Earl de la Marche had assured them that all Poitou would rise and joyn with them upon their arrival but as his promise failed their courage failed too the King falls upon them at the Bridge of Taillebourg fighting desperately in person making them retreat as far as Xaintes and from thence to Blaye The Earl and his proud Dame being forced to forget she had been a Queen found no safety but at the Kings Feet They experimented his Goodness was as great as his Courage and although she had suborn'd Rascals to Murther him who had been discover'd and punished he pardon'd both her and her Husband keeping only two or three of their Places in his hands till he was better assured of their Obedience Year of our Lord 1243 Italy was horribly shatter'd by the Factions of the Guelphs and Gibelins The First held for the Pope the others for the Emperour Year of our Lord 1243 The jealousie betwixt the Franciscans and the Dominicans which had its Birth almost with their Orders encreased likewise proportionably with their growth Insomuch that the Pope who stood in need of them and the King St. Lewis who cherished them found it no little trouble to distribute their favours equally and hold the ballance so even that they should have no cause to take advantage of each other But both of them took much over all other Religions Orders whom they despised as more imperfect and not only set a value upon themselves for their Divinity wherein sometimes they were so meerly notional and over-subtil as it approached very near to error but likewise took upon them the functions of ordinary Pastors drawing the grists of Alms pious Legacies and Burials of rich people to their own Mills concerning themselves in the directing of Consciences and the administration of the Sacraments to the prejudice of the Hierarchy who from that time hath ever been contending with them to maintain her authority Year of our Lord 1244 The Holy See having been vacant near twenty Months Innocent IV. was elected He was thought to be a friend to Frederick but whether that Emperour had not used him well or what else it were he followed the steps of his Predecessors and began to quarrel with him upon the same score of differences The feud grew so hot that Frederic being the stronger in Italy Innocent went thence that he might with more safety let fly his Thunder against him and came into France where being arrived in December this year 1244. he called a Council at Lyons for the year following In the year 1228. the Emperour Frederic being constrained by the threats of Pope Gregory was gone into the Holy-Land where by his Reputation rather then his Sword he had so contrived it that the Sultan had given him up the City of Jerusalem but dismantled with part of the Holy-Land The Pope not satisfied with that agreement had afterwards procured other Adventurers to go who broke the Truce aforesaid to the great damage of the Christians who being mightily weakned it hapned Ann. 1244. that the Chorasmins a People drove out of Persia by the Year of our Lord 1244 Tartars others say of Arabia fell upon the Holy-Land laid it all waste ruined all the Holy places of Jerusalem and drowned them in the Blood of Christians This news was brought to St. Lewis whilst he was fallen sick at Pontoise towards the end of December All those that were about him despairing of his Life he made a vow to God if he restored him to health that he would go in person to make war against those Infidels and in truth being recover'd he took the Cross from the hands of the Legat but could not so soon accomplish his pious design Year of our Lord 1245 The Council of Lyons was open'd the Monday after St. John Baptists Feast in the Abbey de St. Just and from thence transferr'd to the Cathedral Church of St. Johns The Emperour Baldwin the Earl Raimond de Toulouze and Berenguier de Provence were present there these two solliciting for the dispensation that Raimond might Marry with Beatrix the youngest Daughter of Berenguier but the Kings of France and of England and Richard Earl of Cornwal who had Married the other three Sisters hindred the Grant of it Year of our Lord 1245 The Emperour Frederic having quitted his Affairs of Italy to come there and having in the mean time sent his
Besieged on the other hand reduced to Famine Betrand de Guesclin found an expedient to save the Dukes Oath which was That he should enter the Town with nine more and his Colours should be set up on the Gate for some hours To conclude this Treaty they made a Truce between the two parties which was to last till the year 1360. Year of our Lord 1357 The bands of Soldiers being neither cashier'd nor paid the Robbers flock'd together with all sorts of other rasâ—ally people and scowred all the Countreys about without any fear or punishment all the open Countrey lying exposed to their merciless mercy There were five or six several Gangs but the most dreadful crew of them was Year of our Lord 1357 that of one Arnold de Ceruoles who called himself the Arch-Priest he entred into the County of Avignon forced the Pope to redeem the plunder of his Lands at the price of Forty thousand Crowns and afterwards to give him Absolution and Treat him at his own Table with as much Honour as if he had been a Sovereign Prince Year of our Lord 1357 The persons Commissioned by the Estates for the administration of the Treasury made it soon apparent that they had not taken it in hand to dispossess Knaves but to have a share in that prize and pillage themselves so that their corrupt dealing no less criminal then that of the former Officers so much cried out upon did much blemish their choice and by consequence the authority of the Estates The Dauphin being therefore better fortified by the arrival of the Earls of Foix Year of our Lord 1357 and Armagnac and a great number of the Nobility did at length shake off their Tutelage and making le Coq return to his own Bishoprick his party became the strongest in Paris But immediately afterwards the Navarrois was set free from his imprisonment by the intrigues of his people who escalado'd the Castle wherein he was detained which was not done without connivance of the Lord de Pequigny to whom King John had committed the keeping of this Prince Then le Coq returns and the Council resumed greater power then formerly The Dauphin apprehended nothing so much as the malignity of that Prince exasperated by a long imprisonment nevertheless the importunities of the Council establisht by the Estates and the intercession of the two Queens Dowagers Jean and Blanch obliged him to give him a safe Conduct with which he came and lodged in the Abbey of St. Germain des Prez accompanied with a huge number of his friends Some while after having caused it to be proclaimed about the City That he would entertain the People upon St. Andrews day there came above Ten thousand Men to the Tilting-place which was between the Abbey of St. Germains and the Pré aux Clercs He mounted the Scaffold from whence the King was wont to behold Combats or Duels and there with a most pathetical Eloquence declared the injustice of nis tedious Confinement the tyrannical execution of his friends the zeal he had for the good of the Nation and above all express'd his mighty affection for the defence of Paris which was the capital City His flattering harangue tickled the People the more by reason that for some time they had met with nothing but severities The next day he was received into the City the Dauphin and he had an enterview in an indifferent place Le Coq Head of the Council the Prevost des Merchands nay even the University pressed the Dauphin so home to give him satisfaction that he was sain to agree to all he pleased However when he would have gone into his Towns thinking to take possession those that commanded there for the King refused to deliver them up to him or his Commissaries Year of our Lord 1358 Upon this refusal he begins the War anew Had the English assisted him considerably he would have over-turned the whole Kingdom but having dropt an expression in his speech to the People That he had more right to the Crown of France then those that disputed for it they lent him no more assistance then to enable him to draw the War to a great length that so each party weakning and tiring the other might both of them be forced to submit to that yoak the English designed to lay upon them Year of our Lord 1358 That zeal the Prevost des Marchands had for the publique liberty meeting with too great oppositions degenerated perhaps in despite of him into a manifest and most pernicious faction The mark or distinction was a kind of a Hood party-colour'd Red and Blue which he bestow'd for New-years-Gifts upon the People of Paris Who being divided and wavering in their Affections applauded sometimes the Dauphin who made Speeches in publique to them then straightway wheel'd about to their Magistrate whom they judged to be honest in his designs and anon they became indifferent to either Year of our Lord 1358 For the third time the Estates were called together at Paris the Dauphin designing to make himself Master of them drew some Forces about the Town the Navarrois had some likewise who kept the Field This troublesome neighbourhood did greatly incommode the City of Paris and all that lay neer it Marcel cast the fault upon the Dauphin and he discharged himself and laid it on the Navarrois Upon this brangle a Partisan of Marcels named Perrin Macé a Changer belonging to the Treasury Massacred John Baillet Treasurer of France and the Deed being done retired into the Church St. James de la Boucherie The Dauphin commanded the Mareschal de Clermont John de Chaalons Seneschal of Champagne and the Prevost of Paris to drag him thence by force and put him into the hands of Justice They haled him out and the Prevost of Paris caused his Hand to be cut off and sent him to the Gibbet The Churches were then inviolable Sanctuaries the Clergy and People grew into heats because they had pluck'd a Criminal from the feet of the Altar and the Bishop of Paris Excommunicated those that had committed this attempt After this Marcel having armed Three thousand Trades-men who all wore those party-colour'd Hoods entred into the Palace where the Dauphin Lodged and caused those three Lords to be murther'd in his presence This was not all he compell'd him to own the Fact in an Assembly of the Estates which was held at the Augustins and in Parliament to suffer the Navarrois to return to the City and to give him Lands and great satisfaction for damages notwithstanding the other Cities refused to joyn with Paris in any thing otherwise then for the Kings service Year of our Lord 1358 After the Navarrois had remained for some time in Paris and thought he had well secur'd himself of them going forth again to give some Order touching his Affairs he was no sooner out of Town when the Dauphin to lose no time caused himself to be declared Regent by the Parliament After that
Flowers upon their Heads and taking Hands with one another went into the Streets and Churches Dancing Singing and running round with so much violence that they fell down for want of breath This agitation made them swell so prodigiously they would have burst had not great pains and care been taken to swathe them with bands about their Bellies immediately such as looked on them too attentively were often infected with the same distemper Some believed it an operation of the Devil and that Exorcisms did much help them The vulgar named it The Dance of St. JOHN Year of our Lord 1375 Upon the instant and continual exhortations of the Pope the two Kings entred into a Negotiation to compose their differences For this an Assembly was held at Bruges in Flanders whither they sent their nearest Princes of their Blood and the most illustrious Lords of their Kingdoms It lasted almost two years incredible expence There was first a Truce made for a year to commence in the month of May of this year 1375. which being concluded the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of Bretagne passed into England Bretagne not being comprehended their Duke returns with an Army of English and partly by force partly by correspondence regained St. Mahé St. Brieue and seven or eight other places whilst John d'Evreux Brother to the King of Navarre made great spoil and waste all about Kemperlay He had built a Fort thereabouts for his retreat from whence he very much incommoded that City Clisson Roban Beaumanoir and other Lords of Bretagne besieged him in it The Duke hastned thither to deliver him they quickly marched off he pursues them and besieged them in Kemperlay Now when they were just ready to be exposed to his mercy he would have shewed but little to those whom he proclaimed Traitors and Rebels a second Truce wherein they comprized him drew them most fortunately out of his hands Year of our Lord 1375 The minority of the King of France if I do not deceive my self lasted to the age of Twenty years and during all that time all Command all Orders and all Acts were made under the name of the Regent The wise King considered that an Authority so absolute might force or snatch the Crown from his Son if he left him a Minor That the people were it error or custom did not willingly acknowledge a Prince for their King till he was Crowned and that it might be feared lest the Duke of Anjou should make them believe by some former examples or presidents that they ought to chuse one that was in Majority and capable to Govern For these reasons or for others we are ignorant of he made his memorable Ordonnance by the advice of the Princes Lords Prelates University and other notable persons which imports That the eldest Sons of France as soon as they have attained to the age of Fourteen years should be held for Majors and capable of being Crowned and that they should receive the Homage and Oaths of sidelity from their Subjects This was made at the Bois de Vincennes in the month of August 1374. and verified in Parliament the Twentieth of May of the following year We must not however imagine that he believed as much King as he was that he could advance the course of Nature and give his Son the Sence and Wit that age alone can bestow since the same Year and the same Month he made a Declaration which mention'd that in case he died before his Son should have attained to the age of Fourteen years he left the Guardianship and Government of him and of his other Children as also the Government and Defence of the Kingdom to the Queen Mother she was then living and joyned with her the Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon with a necessary and sufficient Council of near Forty persons Year of our Lord 1376 The Popes Legats remained still constantly at Bruges and kept the Ambassadors of both Crowns there with them to labour for a Peace But the Propositions on either side being at too great a distance to be brought to a meane they obtained at least a prolongation of the Truce to the Month of April in the year 1377. In Gascongne the Earl of Armagnac thinking to take revenge upon the Earl de Foix who had beaten him increased both his shame and loss He had taken the little City of Caseres and put himself into the place without providing it with Ammunition the Earl de Foix besieges him and without striking a blow reduces him to the extreamest want but he would not agree to give him and his their Lives but upon condition that they should creep out thorough a hole made purposely in the Year of our Lord 1376 Wall which they could not do but by crawling with their Bellies upon the ground nor were they quit for all this affront the Earl of Armagnac and twenty more of the principal paid great ransoms before they could be released The King of Navarre pass'd his word for that of the Sire d'Albret Year of our Lord 1377 During the long absence of the Popes Italy had accustom'd it self to disregard and disown them The People of Rome set up themselves as several petty Tyrants to preserve some Image of their Liberty and by the same Spirit the Cities belonging to the Ecclesiastical State at the sollicitation and with the aid of the Florentines had shaken off the yoak and turned out his Apostolical Legats Gregony IX thinking to redress these disorders and besides being earnestly pressed by St. Bridget of Sweden and by St. Catherine of Sienna two persons who were thought to have a very frequent Commerce with Heaven resolved to transfer the Holy See back to Rome from whence it had been removed Seventy two years He departed from Avignon the three and twentieth of September embarqued at Marseilles and after very great dangers on the Sea Signes of the agitations that change had wrought in the Church he arrived at Rome the Twenty seventh of January following Year of our Lord 1377 King Edward in the mean while had lost the brave Prince of Wales his eldest Son who had left a Son named Richard very young and for two years past found himself much broken and his Brain decay'd with weight of continual business and contention though he were but 65 years of age This was it made him desire to have a Peace and made him willing to relinquish many Articles of the Treaty of Bretigny But death prevented the effects of that disposition and took him out of the World the 21 of June His Grandson Richard II. Surnamed of Bourdeaux succeeded him He had seven Sons whereof five only lived to Mens Estate and were Married those were Edward Lyonel John Edmond and Thomas Edward was the brave Prince of Wales for the other four the First was Duke of Clarence the Second of Lancaster both of them by the Heiresses of those two Houses and the Third Earl of Cambridge then Duke of York the Fourth
the Pucelle wounded at the foot of the Wall She was willing to have returned to her own Village after she had executed the two points of her Mission but was overpersuaded by the Soldiery to stay with them which succeeded not so well for her Heaven being not obliged to assist her in what it had not commanded her to undertake That attempt failing the King takes his march towards Berry En passant he recovered Lagny upon the Marne Soon after he made his approach near Burgundy thinking to conclude an Agreement which was Negociating at Auxerre with the Duke but the business was not ripe But his good fortune was put to some kind of stand by the differences at Court which lasted almost a year concerning the Vicounty of Touars which the Lord de la Trimouille had usurped and held Lewis d'Amboise in Prison whose Cause the Constable had taken in hand as being of his Kindred La Trimouille had so prepossessed the Kings mind that he made him turn his Sword against his Constable and by this means gave the English time to breath The raising the Siege of Orleans had not much troubled the Duke of Burgundy if he had not found the Kings success go on with greater speed then he desired He was little less amazed at this suddain revolution then the Duke of Bedford He who had lately scorned his intercession in the Affair of Orleans began to seek and court him with submission and earnest application On the other hand the Kings Agents offer'd him an Accommodation and granted him a Pass-port to come to Paris upon some hopes they had that he would reduce them to the obedience of the King But when he had conferr'd with the Duke of Bedford he found it better to renew with the English who gave him a Blanc and together with that the Countries of Champagne and Brie only the Homage reserved Year of our Lord 1429 and 30. The Duke of Savoy and Lewis de Chalon Prince of Orange and Partisans of the Duke of Burgundy had promised to themselves to share the Country of Dauphine betwixt them Grenoble and the Mountains were to have been the Dukes and Viennois for the Prince Lewis de Gaucour Governor of that Country for the King soon spoiled the Market He gained a great Battle between Colombiez and Anton against the Prince slew and took eight hundred Gentlemen and afterwards seized upon all the places he held in those Countries It is related that in the rout the Prince chose rather to leap into the Rhosne on Horseback Armed and venture to swim over then fall into the Enemies hands Year of our Lord 1429 Towards the end of this year 1429. the City of Sens was reduced to the obedience of King Charles Melun recover'd themselves by shutting their Gates against the Garrison who had been making inroads in Gastinois The Kings kindness to such Cities as returned to him was a great bait for others to do the same Year of our Lord 1430 At his departure from Paris the Burgundian returned to the Low-Country where on the Tenth of January he Wedded in second Marriage Isabella Daughter of John I. King of Portugal Then was it that to grace the Solemnity at Bruges he instituted the most illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece composed only of thirty Compagnions or Knights nor did he quite fill up that number making then but twenty four The King of Spain as Heir to the House of Burgundy holds it an honour to be their Chief and maintains it in all its splendour not only by the great dignity of those on whom he bestows it but likewise by not making it cheap by too great a multitude Year of our Lord 1430 Amongst the many Sieges in every Province that of Compeigne was the most remarkable for the disgrace the Burgundians met with as being forced to raise it and much more yet by the Pucelles misfortune who was there taken Prisoner the Four and twentieth day of May upon their retreat after a Salley made the misfortune hapning to her by the imprudence or else the malice of William de Flavy Governor of the place who shut her out of the Barricado She fell into the hands of a Gentleman of Picardy who sold her to John de Luxemburgh one of the Generals he sold her again to the English for the Sum of Ten thousand Livers ready Money and five hundred Livers yearly pension Year of our Lord 1430 The wonders of this Shepherdess having succeeded so well at Orleans as we have mentioned Renaud de Chartres Chancellor of France the Mareschal de Boussiac and Poton de Saintrailles resolved to go to Rouen upon the faith of a simple Shepherd who told them that God had sent him to lead them into that place but the English having notice of it way-laid and fought them in their march defeated part of them and took Poton Prisoner Year of our Lord 1431 An Arragonian Captain named Francis de Surienne who was in the English Service surprized the City of Montargis after this manner Having made himself familiar with a Damsel who was in Love with the Governors Barber he promised her great Sums of Money and a Contract of Marriage if she would introduce his Men into the place thorough her House which was adjoyning to the Wall The Damsel gained the Barber with the temptation of Money without mention of the other part concerning her Marriage Both of them assisted the English in setting up their Ladders and getting in but the place being once taken they were turned out for fear they might play the same trick again by some bargain for the French and got nothing but scoffs and reproaches for reward Year of our Lord 1431 In exchange the French surprized the City of Chartres by the contrivance of a Fellow that carried Goods in a Wheele-barrow Whilst he pester'd the Draw-bridge with his load of Merchandize a hundred Men running out of a Cellar hard by where they had lain hid that night and upon a Signal by them given the Bastard of Orleans and Gaucour who were within a League hastned thither with three thousand Men. The Garrison without striking a blow sled to Evreux by another Gate Some Burghers made resistance by the example of their Bishop John de Fritigny a zealous Burgundian but he was slain with his Weapon in hand upon the steps of the great Church The Pucelle was a Prisoner of War and they could use her no otherwise without violating the common right of all People But the English too much enraged for their being beaten by a Maiden could not endure her glory who caused their shame They thought to repair their honour by branding her with infamy so that having obliged that remnant of an University which yet remained at Paris to make a Request to their King desiring Justice might pass upon her they carried her to Rouen and accused her in the Ecclesiastical Court for a Witch a Seducer an Heretick and one that had forfeited her
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
on all hands crying out a la queue Many had their Brains beaten out in the Streets the rest escaped to the Bastille where they made composition All the little Neighbouring Forts were an Accessory to this Reduction In the Month of August following the King recalled the Parliament the Chambre des Comptes and the University thither The English had declared themselves Enemies to the Duke of Burgundy by all Acts of Hostility upon his Countreys and by underhand-dealings to stir his Subjects up to Rebellion in those days very much knit to and concerned for England as well by Commerce and Trade as out of a real hatred they had towards the French He would therefore needs revenge himself by taking of Calais which he esteemed no great difficulty and laid Siege to it with a numerous Army In the midst of this Enterprize the Flemmings finding it spin out to a great length fell into an imagination that they were betray'd and herding together in several small parcels on a suddain made up all their packs in great confusion leaving their Provisions and Artillery behind for want of Waggons to carry them off All that their Duke could possibly do for them was to cover them with his Cavalry leâ—t the English should have charged them and after that to follow them The Duke of Gloucester who had sent word that he was coming to give him Battle not finding him there entred into Flanders where he increased their former jealousie by his burning all those places he came near Year of our Lord 1437 It was impossible for Rene of Anjou to obtain his liberty of the Duke of Burgundy without paying him an extraordinary Ransom yielding up several places and consenting to a Marriage between his eldest Daughter whose name was Yoland as then but nine years old and Ferry eldest Son of Anthony Earl of Vaudemont the means whereby Lorrain returned to the Males of that House Year of our Lord 1437 In the interim they carried the King into Lyonnois and Dauphine to make Moneys in those Countries and the following year he went even to Languedoc for the same end Upon his return he laid Siege to Montereau Faut-yonne which submitted not till after a long resistance From thence he came to make his entrance into his good City of Year of our Lord 1437 Paris the fourth of November and then he might truly call himself King of France having replanted his Throne in the capital City of his Kingdom Year of our Lord 1438 These long and tedious Wars did necessarily produce great licentiousness and daily Robberies The Soldiers not being paid lived at discretion and the extream scarcity of all things rendred them most inhumane There were divers Bands commanded even by the Kings best Officers who under colour of seeking for subsistence ran from Province to Province rifling all they could lay lands on Those called Escorcheurs and then the Redondeurs committed strange disorders By these ravages the flight of the Husbandmen and Peasants who neither ploughed nor sowed and the continual Rains during two years 1437 and 38. ensued a great Famine and then a horrible Mortality over all France especially at Paris and its Neighbourhood That City was so depopulated the Wolves came and devoured Children even in the midst of the Street St. Anthoine They were forced that they might rid themselves of those Beasts greedy of humane Flesh to make Proclamation that any one should have twenty Solz a piece for every head of a Wolfe they brought to the Magistrate Pope Eugenius and the Council of Basil were imbroiled to that height that Eugenius declared the Council dissolved and called another to Ferrara and on the other hand the Prelats that were at Basil having summon'd him divers times to come thither began to think of deposing him with the greater confidence for that the Most Christian King seemed then to favour them having forbid the Prelats of the Gallican Church from going to Ferrara Year of our Lord 1438 This Discord in the end turned to a Schism he that might have extinguisht it hapning to die I mean the Emperor Sigismond who ended his days in Moravia the Eighth of November 1437. Albertus Duke of Austria his Son in Law succeeded him in the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and the year following in the Empire by the suffrages of the Electors The Clergy of France ever since the translation of the Holy See to Avignon had suffered infinite oppressions by the Court of Rome And therefore the King having assembled them at Bourges to find out some way to reconcile the Pope to the Council who had each sent their Legats they embraced the opportunity which they could never have since the Council of Constance and made their remonstrances touching those insupportable abuses The King desiring to provide against it order'd them to apply the most convenient remedies To this end by advice of his Council they framed that so celebrated Reglement called the Pragmatique which preventing any the like Enterprizes of the Court of Rome might well be termed the Bulwark of the Gallican Church Year of our Lord 1439 Eugenius transferr'd his Council of Ferrara to Florence where they treated concerning the uniting the Greek to the Latine Church their Emperor John VI. assisting with a good number of his most illustrious Prelats But in the mean while those who were assembled at Basil though reduced to a small number and not well agreed amongst themselves deposed Eugenius and elected Ame VIII Duke of Savoy who had retired himself as was before related to the solitude of Ripaille France Germany and most part of the West paid their obedience to him during the life of Eugenius but after his death all of them almost turned to Nicholas V. Two years after Rene was delivered from captivity he went into his Kingdom of Naples where according to the example of his Predecessors his entrance was very happy but his exit very different Year of our Lord 1439 The Siege of Meaux by the Constable although long and full of difficulty succeeded happily for the French but that of Auranches in the Lower Normandy being ill managed by the same Person and the Duke of Alenson brought them nothing but shame the English having made them raise it and taken part of their Bagage and their Ammunition At the Sollicitation of the Dutchess of Burgundy and the Popes Legats a great Conference was held between Graueline and Calais the Deputies of France England and those of Burgundy meeting to treat about a Peace The English not receding from that Condition that Normandy and their other Conquests should be left to them in full Soveraignty they parted without doing any thing in it Year of our Lord 1440 The King by inclination was well enough disposed for the good of his Country and we observe that from this very time even to the Reign of Henry II. the Kings did often and willingly make use of this term The Publick Concerns of Our
who then had the Government and prevailed with him at last to put him to death without any form of Process Which excited the hatred of all the great ones against her and made them think of ruining her that they might preserve themselves Year of our Lord 1444 or 45. King Charles was then not much above the age of forty three and the Dauphin who was already two and twenty trod upon his Heels and would have plaid the Master in so much as one day at Chinon he gave a box on the Ear to the fair Agnes There hapned another incident worse yet then this He had bargained with Anthony de Chabanes Earl of Dammartin to assassinate some body that had displeased him James Brother of that Earl who was Grand Maistre of the Kings Houshold dissuaded him from it The King coming to the knowledge of this gave the Dauphin a sharp reprimand The young Prince to excuse himself charged the Earl as having suggested this base design first to him the Earl boldly denied it in the Kings presence and offer'd to justifie himself by Combat against any of the Dauphins Gentlemen that would undertake it The King then found the malignity of his Son abhorred it and commanded him not to see him in four Months time but to go into Dauphine He retir'd with menaces and being once gone thought no more of returning but to Cantonise and Reign alone without any dependance but on his malicious fancies The City of Genoa in a few years had changed their Lords and Governors four or five times The Fregoses and the Adornes who were of their principal Citizens disputed for the Siegnory amongst themselves Barnaby Adorne had usurped it Year of our Lord 1445 with the Title of Doge Janus Fregose pretending he would put it into the Kings hands having treated with him for that purpose made use of the Forces and Money of France to make himself Master then kept it in his own hands and Year of our Lord 1446 scoffed at the French Year of our Lord 1446 The King had for a while adhered to Pope Felix or at least stood Neuter but when informed that Nicholas was elected in the room of Eugenius he would let all Christendom understand he approved his Election He sent a famous Embassy to tender his obedience which perhaps brought in the custom of those stately and expensive Embassies of Obedience which Kings now send to every new Pope Year of our Lord 1447 The Government of the Viscounts at Milan after its having lasted One hundred and seventy years ended this year by the death of Duke Philip And that Estate was claimed by divers Pretenders as either having a right or thinking it would be of great convenience and necessary for them The Emperor Frederic the Duke of Savoy the Venetians Alphonso King of Naples and Charles Duke of Orleans Now as it truly appertained to this last according to the Conditions of the Contract of Valentine his Mother he went thither with some Forces but the Milanese intending their own liberty he could get no more then only his Earldom of Ast Afterwards those People having for many years undergone much trouble and affliction by the contending Parties that strugled for the Mastery fell as we use to say out of the Frying-pan into the Fire by accepting for their Duke Francis Sforza who had Married a Bastard of Duke Philips Year of our Lord 1448 There were but little Infantry in France The King that he might have some that were good and well maintain'd ordained that every Village throughout the Kingdom should furnish him with and pay one Foot-Archer who should be exempt from all Taxes and Subsidies For which they called them the Franc-Archers These made a Body of two or three and twenty thousand Men. Year of our Lord 1448 The Truce prolonged three or four several times was not to end till about a Twelvemonth after this time a Captain of the English Party this was Francis de Surienne extreamly greedy after Prey surprized the City of Fougers belonging to the Duke of Bretagne where he met with a Booty of above Sixteen hundred thousand Crowns and at the same time the English made irruption in Scotland which was also comprehended in the Truce as well as Bretagne but they were soundly beaten there England began likewise to be imbroil'd within its self by reason of some new Tax which King Henry would raise in London which hath most commonly been the occasion or at least the pretence for a Civil War Year of our Lord 1448 The Duke of Bretagne and the Scots likewise make their complaints to King Charles for this breach of the Truce The English are summon'd to repair the damage they disown'd Surienne indeed but for the rest gave no satisfaction but put off's and delays All this was suffer'd six Months they imagine the French are afraid At length the Duke of Bretagne flies out and with the Kings consent surprizes at the same time the Pont de Larche above Rouen Conches near Evreux Gerbroy not far from Beauvais and Cognac upon the River Charente Year of our Lord 1449 By force of many Intreaties Negotiations and Menaces the King overpersuaded Felix to set his hand to the re-union of the Church He renounced the Papacy more gloriously then he had accepted of it His Conventions with Nicholas V. were such that he seemed to quit it as a thing belonging to him which he conferr'd as a favour upon his Rival For he made his demission in the Council which he had purposely transferr'd from Basil to Lausanna and after he had deposited his Pontifical Ornaments the Fathers elected Nicholas who left him perpetual Legat in all the Countries of Savoy Montferrat Lyonnois Swisserland and Alsatia and received all those Cardinals he had created into the Sacred Colledge Year of our Lord 1449 The disturbances of England continuing King Charles found the opportunity so favourable that he resolved to chace the English out of his Kingdom He had made the Earl de Foix Lieutenant of his Armies from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and the Earl de Dunois in all the Kingdom in such sort nevertheless as he rendred respect and honour to the Constable when they both met in the same place The first had Order to take all places the English held at the foot of the Pereneans thereby to block up the passage against John of Arragon King of Navarre who had made a League with them and obliged himself for a certain Sum of Money to keep and guard Mauleon de Soule for them a place very strong in those times and situate upon a high Rock For this purpose he had taken it into his protection and had placed his Constable in it The Count de Foix was Son in Law to that Prince however he had more regard to the Kings Orders then his Father in Law and scruples not to besiege it The Navarrois knowing it wanted Provisions Arm'd himself to relieve it and came within two
together from the Month of December It 's Head was in the Sign of the Ballance and it had a long Tail turning a little towards the North. In Spring the King drew near towards Guyenne the Monk had perhaps reiterated his Dose However it was Monsieur died the 12 th of May. In the mean time the Burgundian passionately desiring to recover St. Quintin and Amiens was entred into a Treaty with the King who promised to restore it and to leave the Counts of Nevers and St. Pol to his Mercy and the Duke reciprocally did oblige himself to abandon Monsicur and the Breton to him Neither of these Dreamt of keeping their Word of Faith The Duke Signed the first the King deferr'd from day to day expecting what would become of his Brother when he had certain news of his Death he scoffed at the Duke and Seized Guyenne again into his own hands Although in many actions he had not too much of the Fear of God before his Eyes nevertheless he had great Devotion towards the Saints enriched their Churches went several Pilgrimages every year particularly to places Consecrated to our Lady He Ordained on the first of May that at the sound of the great Bell at Noon every one should kneel down and say the Ave Maria. The same day after the procession William Chartier Bishop of Paris Died suddenly not without suspicion that some had contributed towards his Death Year of our Lord 1472 It was in this year that Philip de Comines quitted the Duke of Burgundy whose Domestick and Subject he was to go into the Service of the King his Soveraign Lord. If the Motive thereto had been Honest no doubt but it would have been explained by him who hath reasoned so well on every thing else Who could express the rage the Duke of Burgundy was in when he Learn'd the Death of the Duke of Guyenne He entred into Picardy with a Torch in one hand and his Sword in the other Hitherto burnings had not been practised by either Party nevertheless he made a Bon-fire of all the open Country and Sacrificed all that fell under his power to his Friends Ghost Nesle taken by assault endured all sorts of cruelties because the Inhabitants had killed a Herald at Arms who went to Summon them and two men besides during a Surcease which had been allowed them to Treat in The reverence to the Altar could not save those innocent people who fled to the Church for refuge and such as escaped the Sword were all hanged or had their hands cut off His blind fury ran aground at the Siege of Beauvais The want of attacking it roundly at first made him lose six Weeks time and two Thousand Men. It is Memorable that upon a General Assault which was given the Thursday 9 th of July the Men within being ready to give ground the Women conducted by one Jane Hatchete did wonders repelling the Enemy with showers of Stones Wild-fire and Lead melted with scalding Rozen The Effigies of that Woman is yet to be seen in their Town-Hall grasping a Sword in her hand and there is a procession the 10 th of July which is the Day on which the Siege was raised where the Women march first the Men following after Year of our Lord 1472 Going thence the Burgundian Ravaged all the Country of Caux took Eu and St. Valery but was repulsed before Diepe then before Rouen and having threatned Noyon he retired to Abbeville From Guyenne the King passed into Bretagne to force the Duke to renounce the League and surrender the Monk to him who had Poyson'd Monsieur For Odet-Daydie had Seized him and transfer'd him to Nantes The Monk was found dead in Prison the Devil as was said having broken his Neck the Night before that day wherein they were to pronounce his Sentence This was what the King desired that so the Proof of the Crime might perish with the Poysoner and it was more easie now for the Breton to avoid the heavy strokes of his power by the ordinary craft of his Landays He granted him a Truce the 10 th of September and remained still in Poitou till it was converted into a final peace Which was brought about by the Mediation of Odet-Daydie whom he allured to his Service by great rewards He knew better then any Prince in the World how to gain Men discover his Enemies secrets distract them with jealousies divide the most united but in his mirth he could not hide his secrets every thing came to light and he was likewise more subject to commit faults then able to repair them which he strove to do by Methods more frequently bad then good Year of our Lord 1472. 73. In the beginning of Winter the Burgundian accepted a Truce In the Month of February the Duke of Alenson who had a troubled and unquiet mind for having contrived I know not what League with him was made Prisoner and conveyed to the Castle of Loches and from thence to the Lowre The following year the Parliament by a Sentence of the 18 th of July Condemned him to loose his Head The King his Godson gave him his Life and Seventeen Months after took him out of Prison and put him into a Citizens House at Paris under a good Guard Year of our Lord 1474 where he soon Died. John V. Count of Armagnac who had been once more driven from his Country after the Death of Monsieur had again Siezed upon his City of Leytoure by certain correspondence and had there surprised Peter de Bourbon Beaujeu Governor of Guyenne He was straightly besieged in that place by the Kings Army commanded by the Cardinal of Arras 'T is said that having capitulated with him that good Prelate broke his Faith so that the City was invaded during the Suspension and the Count miserably Murth'red in his House His Brother Charles was brought Prisoner to Paris During the Truce the Burgundian wont to conquer the Dutchy of Guelders Duke Arnold had either sold or given it to him disinheriting his wicked Son Adolph who had a long time held his Father Prisoner and was himself so now by the Burgundian at Ghent This new Acquisition gave him the Appetite to encrease on the German side He flatter'd the Emperor Frederick with the marriage of his Daughter to his Son Maximilian and was even willing she should give him her promise and a Diamond With this Lure he brings Frederick to Mets thinking by his Authority to make himself Lord of that Town which did not Succeed and got his promise that he would raise his Dukedom to a Kingdom With these hopes he went awhile after to him at Treves carrying along the Regal Ornaments and made him a Feast with more then Royal Profusion But the Emperor meant the Marriage should be first accomplished and the Duke would sign the Contract in Quality of King They could not agree thereon And the Emperor left him there without taking his leave Year of our Lord 1473 The King let
them that they could scarce forbear doing the like to his person Year of our Lord 1495 The same Day he had news of Alphonso's flight That King finding himself mortally hated by his Subjects whom both he and old Ferdinand had Treated most cruelly resigned his Crown which he had not worn a year to young Ferdinand his Son and retired to Messina in Sicilia where he shut himself up in a Monastery to do pennance all the rest of his Days They were not many for before the end of that year he ended his life Dying of the Gravel which made him Languish with most grievous Torment Alphonso's fears and astonishment was so strange that although the French were yet above sixty Leagues distant he fancied they were in the very Streets of Naples and that the Trees and Stones cried out France His wife begging him to stay but only three days that she might say she had been one whole year in her new Kingdom he would not allow her that little satisfaction but said he would throw himself out of the Windows if they offer'd to detain him any longer He made so much hast to fly thence that he took none of all the vast Riches with him which he had heaped up in his strong Castles The misfortunes of this House or rather the Judgments of the Almighty God followed the Son as they had done the Father and Grandfather Ferdinand came and had posted himself at the passage de Cancello near the Abbey of Saint Germans to defend the entrance into the Kingdom As soon as ever the Mareschal de Rieux drew near to attack him he quitted it and all his Forces Disbanded John James Trivulcio a Milanese by Birth but who having been Banished by Ludovic was Listed in his Service came over to the Kings Party and gave him up Capoua which gave example to all the rest to do the like the City of Naples shut her Gates against him in a word he retired to the Island of Ischia leaving the defence of the Castles of Naples to his most considing Officers The two and twentieth of February the King made his entrance into that City the People triumphing at his Victory and receiving him as if he had been their founder and deliverer The Castles did not hold out long Thus in four Months this young King marched thorough all Italy was received every where as their Soveraign Lord without using any Force only sending his Harbingers to mark out his Lodgings and Conquer'd the whole Kingdom of Naples in fifteen days excepting only Brindes Year of our Lord 1495 Greece was almost ready to follow the same Dance with Italy Bajazeth Siezed with the extreamest Terror had drawn away all his Garrisons to strengthen his City of Constantinople the Grâ—ecians were ready to cut the Throats of all the Turks and the Turks cast their eyes towards Zemes or Zizim and wisht he were their Soveraign The jealous Venetians and the Pope made this design miscarry amidst all those fair hopes they poysoned that Prince before he was resigned into the hands of the French And withal gave the Turks notice of all the correspondence the King held in those Countries Which cost the Lives or Ruin of above fifty Thousand Christians whom the King was to have furnished with Arms to have Siezed divers maritime Towns at the time he was to pass into Greece This Bright Sun-shine of Fortune did so dazle the young King and all his Council who had but little Sence or Judgment that they scarce minded or took care of any thing Several Cities that had set up the Standard of France returned to the Arrogonians for want of sending some body to receive and take possession for the King the Favourites on whom he bestowed the Governments squandred away the Ammunitions his Soldiers lived at discretion and his Lords became insolent The People were not eased no justice was done to those Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction who had been thrown out of all their Estates So that the Love they had at first for the French was soon converted into hatred and made them forget the sorrows under the foregoing Tyrannies Year of our Lord 1495 Whilst the King and his Court full of young Fopps wasted their time in dancing Feasting Gaming and pleasant Walks the Venetians laboured to form a League against him comprizing the Pope the Emperor the Arch-Duke his Son Ferdinand King of Arragon and Ludovic Sforza so many Heads could not readily be brought to agree together it required near a whole years time to adjust them And the League they thought to contrive to obstruct his going into Italy could now only serve them to turn him out again At first Ludovic would by no means side with them on the contrary he endeavoured his utmost to hinder them but having attained his own ends he was the most zealous to promote and hasten it It was concluded about the end of Lent and published upon Palm-Sunday in presence ☞ of the Turkish Ambassador The Venetians and the Pope his good Friends would needs gratify him with that joyful news before he took his leave The information the King had thereof put him upon thoughts of his return but yet ere he went he would needs make his Triumphant entrance into Naples the Thirteenth Day of May. He was on Horse-back in an Imperial Habit a Crown upon his Head the Globe in his right Hand and a Scepter in his Left under a Canopy born by the greatest Lords of that Country and the People shouting aloud and crying Long live the August Emperor With this Ceremony he was conducted to the great Church where he received anew their Oaths of Fidelity He left in all four Thousand men to defend that Kingdom and the Country furnished him with twice as many Gilbert de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier had the Title and power of Vice-Roy a good man but of little judgment and one that loved his ease so much he seldom rose from his Bed till Noon Daubigny the Office of Constable and the Government of Calabria George de Sully that of the Dutchy of Tarente Gratian Guerre a Gascon that of Abruzzo Stephen de Vers the Dutchy of Nola. He parted from Naples the Twentieth of May. The Pope had offended him too much to stay his coming he went from Rome and retired to Orvieto But the King did not fail to restore all those places he held belonging to the Church As soon as he was gone some distance the Colonnas lately so zealous for his Interests turned their backs upon him the Florentines alone out of a desire to regain their own offer'd to maintain his quarrel and to furnish him with a good force to convoy him but he refused both the one and the other and again confirmed the Liberty of the Pisans He lost twelve or fifteen days time at Pisa and at Sienna during which the Confederates Army had leasure enough to Assemble Perhaps he waited for news from the Duke of Orleans who remained yet
a long time in this Age and retired to Lyons where he Died in Anno 1419. The Cardinal Dailly Peter de Versailles Bishop of Meaux Thomas de Courcelles Canon of Amiens a powerful and most admirable man for his Doctrine but yet more valuable for his modesty who drew divers of the Decrees of the Council of Basil William Forteon and Stephen de Bruslefer of the Order of St. Francis John Siret Prior General of the Carmelites Martin Magistri Doctor of Sorbonne and William Chartier Bishop of Paris who was maintained in the Schools by Charles VII And was a Good and Holy Man and a great Clerk Amongst the Curious in humane Learning I find Alain Chartier Brother of William out of whose mouth proceeded so many good Sayings and grave Sentences that Margaret Stuard Lewis the Dauphins Wife finding him one Day fast asleep in a Hall where she was passing thorow with her Train would needs do him the Honour to bestow a kiss upon him I find one Charles Ferdinand who being Born blind gave himself nevertheless so much to Study that he acquired a great deal of Reputation for his knowledge in Humane Learning in Philosophy and in Divinity He took on him the Habit of St. Bennet in the Abbey de la Couture at Manse There was likewise Judocus Badius Famous for many of his Commentaries John Bouteiller advocat in Parliament Author of the Somme Rurale Robert Gaguin General of the Order of the Mathurins Library-keeper to Charles VII and after sent on divers Embassies John de Rely Bishop of Anger 's who was Confessor to Charles VIII and harangued at the Estates of Tours for the three Orders Octavian de Saint Gelais of the illustrious Family of Lusignan who was Bishop of Angoulesme and began somewhat to Purge and Beautify our French Poetry I may add Peter Reuclin and Picus Mirandolus without borrowing any thing from Germany or Italy since themselves in their Writings own they had drank in that Fountain of all Arts and Sciences our University Trithemius relates that in the year 1456. there came a young Spaniard thither named Ferrand de Cordule Doctor in Divinity who astonished the whole University by his prodigious Learning for he knew all Aristotle by rote together with all the Law-Books also Hippocrates Gallen the principal Commentators on all those Authors the Greek the Latin the Hebrew the Arabian and the Caldean Languages Judicial Astrology much sought into and Studied but very little understood was in vogue and had great access in the Closets of King Charles VII and Lewis the XI Seven or Eight of their Prognosticks are to be seen concerning each of those Kings and 't is affirmed but perhaps not till after the events that they did foretel several particulars that came to pass The most Famous of them was Angelo Catto a Native of the Dutchy of Tarentum whom Lewis XI made Arch-Bishop of Vienne The Author of the Memoirs of his Life writes that going to King Lewis XI who was then hearing Mass at Tours he foretold the defeat and Death of Charles Duke of Burgundy the very day it happened at Nancy But if that had been true Philip de Comines who Dedicates his Memoirs to him would never have omitted it Printing was brought to Paris about the year 1470. by three Germans Martin Vlric and Michael very able men in that new Art In the beginning they used Characters that imitated writing Hand then Square or Roman Letters and some time after the Gothique or Lombard Letters and at last they came to the Italick and Roman Character Physick was likewise Cultivated with more success then formerly The Doctors of that Faculty knowing that an Archer of Bagnolet very much subject to the Gravel was condemned to Death for some Crime Petitioned the King that he might be put into their hands to try an experiment whether they could cut him and draw forth the Stone or Calculuos matter Their operation Succeeded very happily and the Archer survived a long time after in good and perfect Health During this whole Age France did not furnish the Church with any one Canonised Saint but there were many Illustrious Prelats The most remarkable of those that wore the Sacred Purple were Peter Dailly Grand Maistre of the Colledge of Navarre then Bishop of Cambray John de Roquetaillade Cardinal Arch-Bishop of Rouen Vice-Chancellor to the Pope and his Legat at Boulogne Renold de Chartres Arch-Bishop of Reims William d'Estouteville who was Legat in France and reformed the University Peter de Foix Arch-Bishop of Arles who had been of the Order of St. Francis Lewis d'Albret Bishop of Cahors who was named the delight of the'Sacred Colledge John Joffredy Bishop of Arras then of Alby John de Balue Bishop of Euvreux and William Briconnet Bishop of St. Malo's who all signalized themselves in the greatest affairs the six first being of noble Parentage and rare Learning Joffredi and la Balue of mean Birth that Son of a Peasant and this of a Taylor in Saintonge the former considerable however for his Erudition but la Balue only by his Intreagues and his Fourberies The Cardinal de Foix was he that founded the Famous Colledge bearing his name at Thoulouse with five and twenty Bourses to maintain Scholars We have had a very Learned Prelat from thence whose name will be sufficiently made known to all posterity without expressing it here Amongst the Bishops we may observe James and John des Vrsins Brothers and Successively Arch-Bishops of Reims Martin Gouge Son of an Inhabitant of Bourges who was Bishop of Clermont and to ennoble himself assumed the name de Charpagnes These three lived in the time of Charles VII whose affairs Martin administred and held the Seals till the time of his Death which happened in Anno 1444. Andrew Espinay Arch-Bishop of Bourdeaux had great Credit and Employments under Lewis XI Lewis d'Amboise Bishop of Alby John de Rely of Anger 's and Octavian de Saint Gelais of Angoulesme heretofore mentioned were considerable to Charles VIII The Clergy were but little vexed with Tenths during this fifteenth Age as well for the great respect which Charles VII had for the Church as because things were as yet so uncertain that the Pope who had ever raised them at discretion could no longer do it without the Kings consent nor the King without the Popes permission or allowance which neither of them did willingly grant to each other However in time they found out an expedient to share the Dole between them and strick the Ball very regularly each in his turn LEWIS XII Surnamed The JUST AND THE Father of the People King LVI Aged XXXVI Years compleat POPES ALEXANDER 5 years during this Reign PIUS III. Elected the 22th of September 1503. S. 26 Days JULIUS II. Elected the last day of October in the year 1503. S. 9 years and 4 Months LEO X. Elected the 11th of March 1513. S. 8 years and near 9 Months whereof one year and
the progress of those Opinions and to reform the Clergy whose dissolute behaviour had given rise to those Scandals The year after Lewis Berquin of Artois for Preching Luther's Errors was burnt in Paris the two and twentieth of March. This very year 1528. were forced the first Seeds Englands Schism The Cardinal Woolsey to be revenged of the Emperour who had deluded him and despised him as likewise to oblige King Francis who slattered his ambition and his avarice had perswaded his Master that his Marriage with Catherine of Arragon was not good it being against the Law of God that a Woman should marry the two Brothers for when Henry took her Year of our Lord 1528 she was then Widow of his eldest Brother Arthur that therefore the Pope must declare it null and that afterwards he might marry with Margaret the Kings Sister Widow of the Duke of Alenson In effect the Irons were put into the Fire and the Pope as things then stood betwixt him and the Emperour hearkned most willingly to it and commissioned two Cardinals Campejus and Woolsey to he judges of the matter upon the place He also sent a Bull to Campejus which dissolved the Marriage with order nevertheless not to deliver it nor to let it be seen but as a Secret But finding the Emperors Affairs succeeded better then his own and that he would make him repent it he sent to Campejus to Burn it and to wira-draw the business After which Catherine refusing to own those two Cardinals for Judges and appealing to the Holy See before whom the Ambassadors from the Emperor and the Arch-Duke Ferdinand protested likewise a Nullity of all that they could judge his Holiness removed and brought it before himself which enraged the King of England beyond expression Mean while Woolsey repented he had carried it on so far because he perceived now that Henry who so earnestly desired the Divorce had no inclination to marry Margaret of France but a Damoiselle of the Queens his Wife with whom he was Furiously in Love She was called Anne Bullen was Imbued with the opinions of Luther ☞ yet withal too gallent and one that could Sing and Dance too well to be wise or staid Henry observing therefore that he retarded the business instead of helping it forward with dispatch let him fall into disfavour and immediately every one turned their backs upon him This proud Cardinal who used ordinarily to say the King and I saw himself forsaken of all his Friends displaced from his Office of Chancellour then Banished to his Bishoprick afterwards made a Prisoner persecuted all manner of ways and reduced to the extremest misery In fine the following year as they were bringing him from York to London to answer to such Treasons as were laid to his Charge he dyed as it hath ever been desired those proud Ministers may die and fall who abuse the Authority of their Masters Year of our Lord 1529 After the ruine of the French Army in the Kingdom of Naples the Spaniards reduced all the Towns and Places at their ease In Milanois the Confederates Army commanded by the Duke of Vrbin regained Pavia which Dugast had taken but the Count de Saint Pol was surprized at Landriana by Antonio de Leva who marched out of Milan not above five Leagues from it In the midst of this danger his Lansquenets proved Turn-Coats his Italians abandoned him he was overcome and made prisoner All his Horse and his Van-guard made their escape to Pavia After this Defeat there was a kind of tacit Truce between the Princes All would have a Peace the King out of desire to get home his Children the Pope upon the consideration of his many former miseries and sufferings and the Emperor because he had obtained what he desired About the Month of June it was first concluded at Barcelona between the Pope and the Emperor very advantageous to the first because the other had a most eager desire to go and receive the Imperial Crown at Rome The principal Conditions were that the Emperor should give his Bastard Daughter to Alexander de Medicis That he should re-establish that Family in Florence with the same Power and Authority it had before they were driven from thence and that he should procure those Cities and Places to be restored which belonged to the Church On the other hand the Pope received him as Homager for the Kingdom of Naples upon the presenting him annually with a white Horse and gave him power of nomination to the four and twenty Cathedral Churches which were in controversie with this he also granted him a fourth part of the Fruits and Revenues of the Church as well in his own Lands as in those of the Arch-Duke Ferdinand to be employ'd in making a War against the Turks In the following Month of July Margaret Aunt to the Emperor and Louisa Mother of the King meeting at Cambray to Treat of a Peace between the two Crowns did conclude it likewise in presence of the Ambassadors from the Pope the King of England and the Venetians It was published the Fifth day of August The Articles were almost the same as those at Madrid excepting that the King retained the Dutchy of Burgundy to which the Emperor reserved his Rights and Actions to be pursued by fair and friendly methods and proceedings It was likewise agreed he should revoke the Sentence of Condemnation pronounced against Bourbon and that he should restore all his Goods moveable and immoveables Year of our Lord 1529 to his Heirs and as to his Ransome he should pay two Millions of Gold Crowns to the Emperor or for his Account to wit 1200000 Crowns ready Money upon the Release of his Children 400000 to the King of England as from him and for security of the remaining 400000. he should engage to him the Lands which Mary of Luxemburgh had formerly in Flanders Brabant and Haynault and which she brought to the House of Bourbon-Vendosme Moreover that he should redeem the Flower de Luce this was a Jewel of Price which Duke Philip the Good had pawned to the King of England whom he should likewise satissie in the Emperors behalf for the Sum of 500000 Crowns in Gold which he had promised to that King in case he did not Marry his Daughter As for the Venetians and Florentines the Allies of France they were comprized in this Treaty after such a manner that they were left to the discretion of the Emperor Although the King of England was discontented that it had been concluded without his knowledge nevertheless standing in need of the King for the vacating of his Marriage he forgave him the 500000 Crowns and gratified his Son Henry whose God-Father he was with the redemption of the Flower de Luce. In return the King so order'd it that the Doctors of his Universities and those of Italy held favourable Consultations touching the Divorce Whilst the Treaty was on Foot the Emperor leaving Spain Landed at Genoa the 12 th of August
he suspected abstained from being his Judges and that they would send Commissioners to Cambray to take Information and hear those proofs he would offer The Holy Father perceived then the Fault he had committed by his Precipitating a thing of that Importance and could well have desired to find out some remedy But the time was past his fatal hand had given the blow which made so desperate a Wound as wholly cut off England from the Communion of the Church of Rome For Henry transported with fury that he had posted him up at Rome withdrew himself absolutely from all obedience to the Pope declared himself Head of the Anglicane Church and persecuted severely all those that opposed this change It is observed that if the Pope had deferr'd the Judgement but ten Months death would have disengag'd him from all these Intricacies and cut this knot by taking Catherine out of this World as it did in January following Year of our Lord 1533. and 34. The Kings constancy for the Catholick Faith was then like to be sorely shaken by two strong Temptations the one was the King of Englands Summons Solliciting him to break with the Pope to preserve the strict Colligation that was between them the other the Induction of his dear Sister Margaret who would needs have perswaded him to call in Philip Melancthon and give him Audience concerning the means he had to propound for accommodating the differences in Religion But as to the first he replyed in Substance to the King of England A Friend even to the Alter And for the second the Cardinal de Tournon put by that dangerous blow and fortified the Kings mind so well that he would never after give the least Ear to any of those Reformers but in time did also wean his Sister from that Fondness she had and hankering after Novelties Each day Accumulated more and more cause of Quarrel and War between the King and the Emperor This last had great Jealousie of the Enter-view at Marseille and the Marriage there Solemnized He likewise thought himself highly affronted for that the King was entred into the League of the German Princes Confederated at Smalcalde and he was no less so for his assisting of the Dukes of Wirtemberg in the Diet of Ausburgh where their cause against his Brother Ferdinand was Judged who detained their Lands as also for that William Langey by his Contrivances and his Perswasive and Powerful Eloquence broke the League of Scwaben which had lasted for seventy years to the great advantage of the House of Austria King Francis on his part complained of a very Bloody and cruel injury He had in the number of his Esquires a Gentleman of Milan named Francis de Merveille who had gained much wealth in his Service And knowing that he would be willing to make some shew of it in his native Country he sent him to Milan in quality of Secret Ambassador Merveille was so vain as not to conceal his Employment the Emperor knew of it and made complaint to Sforza with Threats who promised to give him Satisfaction Now it happened either by chance or otherwise that some People of that Country made a Quarrel with Merveille and some body was killed in the Fray The Duke fails not to lay hold of this opportunity to content the Emperor and under colour of Justice but without any form causes his head to be cut off by night and in the Prison This hap'ned a little before the Kings journey to Marseille In pursuance of the Kings League with the Confederates of Smalcalde Philip Landtgrave of Hesse Espoused the Quarrel of the Dukes of Wirtemberg who that he might have Money to prosecute the same engaged Montbelliard to the King and declared War against Ferdinand over whose Army having gained a Notable Victory he re-Established them in their County and obliged Ferdinand to allow all Liberty to the Protestants the Sacramentaries and Anabaptists not Comprised Vpon which condition they acknowledged him King of the Romans The Landtgrave had promised Francis to go into Italy which however he did not and this King with the Design of renewing a War set up a Militia in all his Provinces which he distributed in seven Bodies of Six Thousand Men each they were named Legions This institution lasted not long it would have rendered the People too Powerful and the Government too weak The twenty fourth of September died Pope Clement Two days after the Cardinals being assembled in Conclave elected Alexander Farnese named Paul III. At this time John Cauvin or Calvin aged twenty four or five years began to expose his Doctrine more conformable to that of the Sacramentaries than to that of Luther and which went much farther for it did not only touch upon the inward belief but overthrew all the Exteriour and the Ceremonies He was a Native of Noyon Son of Gerard who was the Bishops Secretary A Man very studious of a sharp and penetrating Wit a Melancholly and Sickly Temper an angry and passionate humour no very smooth Tongue but an Eloquent and Fluent pen and who was oft reproached that he coverd a Violent ambition and extream obstinacy with the Vaile of great Modesty and Humility Year of our Lord 1534 He took the first Impression of those new Doctrines when he was Studying the Law at Bourges from a certain German named Melchior Volmar who taught the Greek Tongue and was entertained by Margaret Queen of Navarre Sister of King Francis A very generous Princess who having a great love for Learning had suffered her reason to be prevailed upon by these Broachers of Novelties It is held that he laid the first foundation of his Sect at Poitiers and there instituted the form of the Lords Supper or Mandâ—cation that from thence he sent three of his Companions into divers Parts to sow his Dogmatisms and that himself retired to Nerac to Gerard de Roussel and James le Feure of Estaples who were there sheltred under the protection of Queen Margaret and had already establisht secretly in that little Court a form of a Church almost the same as he intended to bring forth into the World He stayed but a few Months at Nerac and passed into Italy to see Renee de France Dutchess of Ferrara who was imbued with the same opinions as Margaret Then when Geneva had expell'd her Bishop and the Catholick Religion he there established the Seat of his residence And from thence he sent his Disciples to Preach his Doctrine over all France and the Low-Countries exposing them to all sorts of dangers and deaths which he kept himself far enough off from the fire of Persecution and hazarded nothing but his Paper and Ink. This same year 1534. and the following was acted that Bloody and Horrible Tragedy of the Anabaptists in the City of Munster Those Phanaticks thinking to Establish their Whimseys by subverting the Lawful Power had chosen for their King a Taylor named John of Leyden Their Bishop besieged them and reduced them to
with their Nails and bear him each having a Flambâ—au in his hand to St. Andrews Church About Five Thousand Burghers assisted at this Funeral Pomp carrying all Wax-Candles and making a stop before the Connestables door cryed out for mercy and confessed they had deserved a more heavy punishment Besides all this he put above an hundred to death most part being of the principal Citizens and Officers belonging to the place This great severity â—lienated the affection of the people from him as the tender humanity of the Duke of Aumale gained it so as from this very time that Lorrain Branch began to reign in their hearts Some while after the King who was benign and easie following the counsel of that Prince did in many particulars moderate the rigour of the Sentence preserved the Town-House gave Pardon to many that were Condemned and restored the Bells and Priviledges again to the Bourdelois Charles IX his Son gave them more ample ones After Bourdeaux had been humbled in this manner the Provost belonging to the Connestables going thorough all the Provinces laid hold on several of the most Seditious amongst others Three of their Chiefs viz. a Gentleman who had his Head cut off and two Chiefs of the Commons who were broken upon the Wheel with a Crown of red hot Iron clap'd upon their Heads Year of our Lord 1549 After all these Tragical Executions the Year 1549 was spent for the most part in rejoycings and in Carousels The Birth of the Kings Second Son of whom the Queen was deliver'd at Saint Germains was one occasion of these Feastings He was named Lewis The Figure-Flingers foretold wonders of him and yet he lived but two years The divertisements of the Carneval succeeded that of his Christ'ning then in the Month of July the King and Queen made their Magnificent Entrance into Paris after her being Crowned aâ— Saint Denis To this Ceremony they added Tiltings running at the Ring Balls great Entertainments and all the vain past-times that an ingenious and opulent idleness could invent to delight and glut the Eyes of the Women and multitudes of People When the Court was weary of these Sports the Scene of it was changed and a fit of Piety succeeded their Gallantry They made a general Procession to Nostre-Dame whereat the King was present This was to testifie by a publick Act the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors and to punish all those that would disturb it Which he confirmed by the horrible Executions of great numbers of those miserable Protestants who were burned in the Greve They were haled up by a Pully and an Iron Chain then suffered to fall down in the midst of a great Fire which was repeated several times He would needs feed his own Eyes with this Tragical and Melancholly Spectacle and it is said that the horrible and mournful Shricks of one of those poor wretches left so lively an impression in his imagination that all his life long he had from time to time a very frightful and terrifying remembrance of those dreadful groans However that were it is certain the smell of those Carkasses thus roasted got into the Brains of a great many People who on the one hand beholding their false constancy and on the other the scandalous dissolute living at Court named this Justice a Persecution and their punishment a Martyrdom The 12 th of June the Alliance was renewed with the Swiss but not without much opposition of the Protestant Cantons exasperated for the burning those of their Religion Year of our Lord 1549 When the English were contriving better measures to invade Scotland there hap'ned some division between the Duke of Sommerset and the Earl of Warwick and between the Nobility and the People This Juncture being favourable to France the King would lay hold of it to recover Boulogne He armed powerfully by Sea and Land went before the place in person and gained four or five Forts the English had built round about it Then Autumn coming he Block'd up the Tower d'Ordre meaning to return in the following Spring Pope Paul having lost all hopes of recovering Piacenza from the hands of the Emperor or even to preserve Parma in his Family resolved to re-unite this to the Demeasnes of the Church and to give the Dutchy of Camerino to his Grand-Son Octavio Octavio positively denied to accept of this exchange and wrote to the Cardinal Farneze his Brother that rather then consent to it he would Surrender up Parma to Frederic de Gonsague The Cardinal shewed the Letter to the Pope who was so moved with wrath that his whole Body fell into a strange fit of trembling and afterwards into a violent Feavour whereof he died within three days The Cardinals after three Months practices and juggling Elected John Maria de Monte who assumed the name of Julius III. Year of our Lord 1550 The English not having Forces sufficient would not stand off too long but came to a Treaty of Peace which was concluded between the City of Boulogne and the Fort d'Outreau the 24 th of March They promised to resign Boulogne upon the payment of four hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to wit the one half when the French entered the Town the other moiety six Months after Scotland was comprized in this Treaty and those places the English had Invaded were to be restored to the Queen-Regent The House of Guise obtained great augmentations Duke Claude and John Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother being dead Francis Duke of Aumale took his Fathers Title and Charles who was called the Cardinal de Guise that of his Uncle and his Benefices This same raised his power mightily and that of his whole House not so much by his merit though he had a great deal as by his complaisance to the Kings Mistress He had so much power that he caused Peter Lizet the first President of the Parliament of Paris to be displaced He had dared to affront him by refusing to Treat him as a Prince but was forced Year of our Lord 1550 humbly to have recourse to his intercession to obtain some Benefice for his subsistance they gave him the Abbey of Saint Victor lez Paris John Bertrand second President was put in his place Soon after Diana caused the Seals to be taken from the Chancellor Olivier whose probity did not sute with her conduct and because he stood upon it not to lay down his Title of Chancellor which by the Laws of the Land cannot be taken away but with his Life She obliged the King to grant the Commission and Office of Keeper of the Seals and to give it to Bertrandi who by this means left that of first President to Giles le Maistre who had before succeeded him as second Though Faggots were lighted every where against the Protestants yet the Inhabitants of Merindol and Cabrieres presented their Petition to the King demanding Justice for the Violence done against them under pretence of a Decree of
enough to defend themselves but it was very rough and cruel at Meaux Troyes Orleans Nevers Lyons Toulouze Bourdeaux and at Rouen causing above Five and Twenty Thousand Men to Perish in the Red Sea of their own Blood At Thoulouze they hanged Five Councellors of Parliament in Scarlet Robes upon an Elm in the Palace Yard Matignon and the Vicount d'Ortez did generously refuse to stain their Hands with the Blood of their own Country-men the first preserved those of Alencon the other those of Bayonne The horrour of the Massacre brought back a great many to the Roman Church but the danger once over most of them fell off again These and some others who timely fore-saw the threatning Storm saved themselves in divers places Sancâ—rre Rochel Montauban and the Sevenes proved places of refuge to a great number The very Morning of Saint Bartholomews day the King had with his own Mouth told the King of Navarre and Prince of Condé that he pardon'd them provided they changed their Conduct and Religion Afterwards the whole Court labour'd for their Conversion the Example and Conferences of Rosiere a Minister of Orleans afforded a very specious colour and pretence for the King of Navarre month October to be Converted His Sister Catherine the Dowager of Condé and the Princess Year of our Lord 1572 did likewise abjure it The Prince would by no means hear of it the King being tyred with his over-long resistance sent for him and being quite transported with passion told him in three words Death Mass or the Bastile This Thunder-clap beat down his haughty Spirit and compell'd him to follow the Examples of the rest They were all absolved of the Crime of Heresie by the Cardinal de Bourbon and that they might not be able to Retract they were obliged to write themselves to his Holiness The Court of Rome and the Council of Spain were filled with unexpressible Joy upon the Tydings of the Saint Bartholomew the Pope went in Procession to Saint Lewis Church to render thanks to God for that so happy Success and a Panegyrical act thereof was represented before King Philip under the Title of The Triumphs of the Church Militant Both the one and the other of them believed this bloody Butchery would have brought the Protestant Party very low and that their fall would make their own power rise to the desired pitch Indeed if the King had but had an Army in readiness he might with ease have made an end of the Huguenots but he believed these Massacres had so quell'd them that it was to no purpose to maintain one for that Besides he must have been obliged to give the Command of it to his Brother the Duke of Anjou and his growing too great was the only thing he had to fear Whilst the Queen Mother by the Advice of Birague and de Rais her Confidents who apprehended a War as being â—itter to mannage Intrigues then draw a Sword amuses her self by Wyles and Artifices to subdue the remainders of the Huguenots those that had escaped the Blood-Hounds resumed their Courage Rochel labours to Fortiâ—ie it self Montauban encouraged by the fortunate Success of the Vesins who with Five and Twenty Horse defeated two Hundred and took Montluc's great Standard shut up their Gates against the Kings Soldiers their Chiefs seized upon several little Places in Quercy and Fifteen or Twenty Castles in Roüergne Lauraguez Albigeois and Foix Millaud and Nismes in Languedoc took the bit in their Teeths some small Towns in the Mountains of Vivarets and the Sevenes Barricado themselves and Anthony de Pleix Gremian Seizes upon the City of Sousmieres Against so many Heads as sprung up afresh on every side the Kings Council took the Sword again in hand and raised three Armies With one of them la Chastre had order to besiege Sancerre with the second Danville undertook to reduce the Rebel Cities in Languedoc and the third Commanded by the Marquiss de Villars Admiral of France to subdue those in Guyenne As for Rochel they thought fit before they made use of Force to make use of Mildness and Craft as fearing lest their dispair should cast them into the Arms of the English They sent first therefore Biron to be their Governour whom they guessed would be acceptable to them then when they had refused him they forced Francis de la Noüe with Arguments of Knives and Daggers to go thither and reduce them They did not receive him in quality of the Kings Servant but as General to Command their Army which the King was content with upon condition that if he could not incline them to make a Peace he should forsake them upon his first Summons Thus began the Fourth Civil War again The Huguenots escaped from the Butchery had scatter'd their fears amongst all the other Protestants The City of Strasbourg doubled their Guards the Swiss made great Levies and secured all their Avenues the German Princes and the Queen of England formed new Leagues together the Council therefore found it necessary to allay their Suspicions and palliate the Cruelty and Heynousness of the Fact To this end they dispatched Ambassadors to them with relations well contrived and forged and artificial propositions they renew'd the Treaty for Conquest of the Low-Countries with the Prince of Orange they endeavour'd to soothe and sweeten Queen Elizabeth desiring her to be God-mother to the Kings Daughter which she accepted and they began a third time to propound a Match between her and the Duke of Alanson which many attributed to the Queens vain Imaginations who being informed by certain Fortune-tellers that all her Sons should Reign by consequence if it were in France they must all die after one another struggled to alter the course of Fate by seeking other Kingdoms for them in Forraign Parts and proceeded so far therein as to desire the Kingdom of Tunis of the Turk for this last Year of our Lord 1572 The Eight day of November a new Phenomena began to be observed in the Heavens which seemed to be a Star because it was very Bright was fixed to one certain place like the real Stars appeared at the same height and held the same motion It made the Figure of a Lozenge with those of the Thigh aâ—d Breast of the Constellation named Cassiopea At first it equal'd in magnitude the Planet Jupiter but diminished by little and little and at Eighteen Months end quite disappeared The Huguenots interpreted this wonder to their advantage and one of their Poets dared to say it was the Asterism of the Apotheose of the Admiral As soon as it began to appear in France a new Disease broke forth indeed a very strange and odd kind of Malady for at every Tenth Year it still doubled its violence causing most horrible Contorsions and Dislocating every Joynt till the year 1606. that it began to be less frequent and less cruel and tormenting then before It was called the Billious Evil or Colick of Poitou because it reigned
some noble inclinations for great things he easily addicted himself to shew his State Year of our Lord 1577 and Grandeur in those pomps and vanities which carry some outward appearance of Greatness His Favourites had possess'd him with the opinion that all his Subjects wealth was his own and that France being an unexhaustible Fountain of Riches the greatest prodigality could never incommode him It is almost incredible what excessive Sums he lavishly squander'd away and in what magnificent wantonness he wasted them He plaid and lost one night Fourscore thousand Crowns he went often in Masquerade he was seen to run at the Ring in a Ladies Dress with all the trinkets and gew-gaws of a proud gossip he made one Feast amongst many others where the Women waited and served at Table in the habits of Men clad in Green all the Guests wearing the same Livery and the Queen his Mother requited him with another in the same kind where the fairest Ladies about the Court acted the like parts with their white Bosoms open and their Hair dishevel'd The poor People paid for all these follies and mourned many years for a divertisement that lasted perhaps but some few hours The Kings Coffers were empty and they must have recourse to the worst methods for the filling them again particularly the creation of new Offices which the Italian furnished with Titles and perswaded him that such a multiplication was an excellent means to get Money without violence to any man and to render the Kings power more absolute by filling every City with Creatures of his own and such as would be tied fast to his interests thorow fear of losing their employments and so aid him in suppressing his Subjects and force them to lie quiet and submissively under the feet of Power ☜ This luxurious humour which travelled into every Countrey for divertisements brought from the furthest parts of Italy a band of Comedians whose Plays consisting of amorous intrigues and agreeable inventions to stir up and soothe the softest passions proved most pernicious corrupters of Modesty and Virtue and Schools of impudence They obtained Letters Patents for their establishment as they had been some excellent Society The Parliament rejected them as vagabonds or such Cattle whom good Morality the Holy Canons the antient Fathers and even our own Kings had ever esteemed infamous and forbid them to act or endeavour any more hereafter the obtaining of such License or Patent and notwithstanding no sooner was the Court returned from Poitiers but the King would have their Theatre open'd again month October This year appeared the greatest Comet that had been ever seen it took up Thirty degrees in length embracing the Signs Sagitarius and Scorpio the Tail turned towards the West it was observed from the Eighteenth of October till about the end of November An Astronomer found it to be of the same height as the Planet Venus Year of our Lord 1577 In the preceding Month of March John de Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans a great Statesman died at Blois and in the Month of July the Mareschal de Montluc at his House of Estillac in Agenois Armand Gontaud had the Mareschals staff vacant by the death of Montlue and quitted his Office of Great Master of the Ordnance which was given to Philibert de la Guiche one of the Kings Favorites There was open enmity between the King the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Guise The great courage of this last and weakness of the other two made him almost their equal Their hatred broke into quarrels between their Favorites Quelus who was one of the Kings Darlings challenged Entroguet who was the Duke of Guises and took for his Seconds Livarrot and Maugiron who was likewise in favour ✚ His adversary chose Rybeyrac and Schombert Till this time Seconds had only served for witnesses of a combat but an itch of fighting came upon these and this one bad example has lasted to this very day Maugiron was killed upon the spot Quelus was brought back wounded in Sixteen places whereof he died in a Months time The King loved both these so infinitely that he kissed them when dead caused their flax-Locks to be cut off and treasured them up carefully assisted Quelus to his very death serving him with his own hands and erected a stately Mausoleum for them both in St. Pauls Church Some time after he likewise caused the Body of St. Maigrin to be interred there and Statues of all the three to be set upon their Tombs the rabble broke them down and dragg'd them to the River on the day of the barricades This St. Maigrin was also one of his Minions whom the Duke of Mayenne caused to be pistoll'd at his coming out of the Louvre for having vaunted he was in favour with the Dutchess of Guise For this reason the other Minions who apprehended the like Treatment if they plaid with such rough Gamesters never ceased exasperating the King by their stories and reports concerning these Princes and seeking by all manner of ways to ruine them Being thus pusht at they consider'd how to defend themselves and when they had examin'd and found their own strength and the Kings softness they did not stop at the defensive but carried things to a far greater height then their most daring thoughts durst ever make them hope to attain Whilst the Queen-Mother was in Guyenne whither she went to confer with the King of Navarre under pretence of carrying his Wife to him whom he little valued and by whom he was not esteemed much more the Duke of Anjou Treated with Year of our Lord 1577 the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces this was on the Tenth day of August and was assured moreover that Charles de Ganre Inchi Governour of Cambresis would deliver up to him the Citadel of Cambray for the Queen of Navarre his Sister had gained that Lord the year before in a journey she made to the Spaa Year of our Lord From Anno 1568. to the year 1578. We must now relate what had been transacted in those Provinces for some years past The Duke of 〈…〉 them near Five years during which time he exercised most unexpressible cruelties insomuch that he bragg'd that the very Confiscations of the Estates of those he had butcher'd amounted to Eight Millions of Gold yearly and the number of People who had suffer'd by the hands of the Hangman was Eighteen thousand He was recalled in the year 1513. by King Philip and Lewis dé Requesens Grand Commander of Castille put in his place This last gained a Battle at Mouker-Heyde near Nimeghen wherein Ludovic de Nassau was slain this was in Anno 1574. He afterwards assembled the Estates-General to raise some Moneys but far from granting any they firmly united together to desend their liberty and they took so much hearty grace upon his death which hapned some Months afterwards as to seize upon the Government which was then left in the hands of the Council of State till the
Party but only Chaalons for the Inhabitants having received information of the death of Guise before the Governor had any notice which was Rosne assembled together and turned him out From thence he went to Sens where his presence was requisite to fortisie his Friends then to Orleans where he found the Citadel surrendred to his Party afterwards to Chartres who received him with extraordinary month February joy and lastly to Paris where he arrived the Tenth day of February That vast number of People were yet so furiously enchanted with the memory of the Duke of Guise that they would needs bestow the Title of King upon this Brother but he did not find himself sufficiently bottom'd to accept of so high a Dignity He consider'd that besides the divisions it would necessarily have begot betwixt him and the other Chiefs who were content to be his Companions but not his Subjects the Spirits of the Authors of that grand Revolution tended rather to establish a Democracy then a Monarchy Wherefore he presently labour'd to diminish their Power encreased the Council of Forty with fourteen more wholly at his own devotion and admitted not only all the Princes of the League but likewise the Presidents the Kings Attorneys and Sollicitors in Parliament the Prevost des Merchands and Eschevins that he might carry things by Multitude upon occasion Then not able to endure this curb by any means breaks it quite the following year when he was going to give the Battle of Yury Year of our Lord 1589 Notwithstanding it was that Council had confer'd upon him the command of month March the Armies and the Quality of Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France but he gave them little thanks for it because they limited his Power to the meeting of the General Estates which was to be upon the Fifteenth of July His Commission was verified in Parliament the Seventh of March and he took the Oath before the President de Brisson They caused new Seals to be made a great one for Council Affairs and a little one for the Chanceries and Parliaments either of them had on one side the Flower-de-Luce as was usual but on the other an Empty Throne with these words about it The Seal of the Kingdom of France Now to make a real Union of this Party as they had the name and to link all the Cities to them that had declar'd already and intended to declare he made an excellent Reglement which being sent into the Provinces brought others into him Especially Laon where John Bodin the Kings Attorney in that Court prevailed so by his Interest and Eloquence that it was accepted having made it clear that the joyning of so many Cities ought not to be called Rebellion but Revolution that this was a just one against an Hypocrite and Tyrant King that Heaven it self seemed to authorize it because States have their periods as well as Men and the Reign of Henry III. ought to be the Climacterical to France he being the LXI King since Pharaemond who according to the Vulgar Account was the first King of the French To this pretended Order succeeded a general Disorder an universal Robbery thorough the whole Kingdom seizures of Goods sales by outcry Imprisonments Ransoms and Reprizals The Offices Benesices and Governments were divided into two or three private Families were even divided within themselves the Father bandying against the Sons Brothers against Brothers Nephews against their Uncles Nothing was to be gained but by those that had nothing to lose those that had wherewithal were obliged to spend it but the Thieves gained on both hands They nestled themselves in old Castles or in small Towns from whence they bolted out to pillage the Neighbouring Countries took up the Kings Rents made private Persons compound for theirs enjoy'd the Churches Revenues and thus enriched themselves with great ease and little danger month March In the beginning of March the King not finding himself secure at Blois retired to Tours He first took out his Prisoners from the Castle of Amboise sent the Cardinal de Bourbon to Chinon whereof Chavigny an ancient Gentleman was Governor the Prince of Joinville who from henceforward was and called himself Duke of Guise to Tours and the Duke d'Elbaeuf to Loches The Duke of Mayennes Affairs as we may say did do of themselves For even in the Month of February the Cities of Aix Arles and Marseilles offended at the Kings restoring la Valete to that Government took the Oath for the League but he in the mean while passed his time at Year of our Lord 1589 Paris where he and his Officers consumed in fruitless Expences the Moneys assessed month March upon the Country with the Confiscations and Sequestrations of the Politicks and Huguenots Estates While that Duke was in the greatest hurry of his Affairs it hapned that four or five of his Friends and Intimates being in debauch with some Ladies of Pleasure in the Hostel de Carnavalet one of them seeing him pass by ran after him and haled him in almost by force he did not stay above half an hour with this Company yet made a shift to get and carry that away with him that forced him to keep his Chamber several weeks after but being in haste he had time to take only palliative Remedies So that the venom remaining still in his Blood rendred him more slow lumpish and melancholy and in his Person stupified the activity of his whole Party In the Month of March John Lewis de la Rochefoucaut Count de Randan debauched Rion and part of Auvergne whereof he was Governor he had drawn the whole Country after him if some Lords as Rostignac Saint-Herem Allegre Fleurat Canillac and Oradour amongst whom d'Effiat having the Kings particular Orders had acquired great credit had not opposed their courage and skill against his Interest and Faction The Duke of Mercoeur having balanced a while debauched likewise all Bretagne excepting only Vitre the Nobility of the Country were cantonized there against him and whilst he besieged it Renes escaped from him Gefroy de Saint Belin Bishop of Poitiers and the Mayor and some other Leaguers stirred up that Town which however did not yet declare for the League Limoges remained under obedience of the King Pichery retained the City of Anger 's in despite of Brissac who had put them upon rising and reduced them by means of the Castle where he commanded Matignons prudence defeated the Conspiracy of the Leaguers who were beginning to Barricade themselves at Bourdeaux but he durst not search it to the quick the Combination being too general and so thought it sufficient to hang two or three of the most Zealous Since the King of Navarres return to Rochel he had taken Maran and then Niort by Escalado Some few days after hapned the Murther at Blois but that made no alteration in the conduct of his Affairs neither did it oblige him to discontinue his War The Cities of Loudun Thouars Monstreuil L'Isle
Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins went a good way into the Fauxbourg to receive him and made him a Harangue the Governess replied to it In the Month of April a difference arose which was like to have embroiled all month April Provence between the Archbishop of Aix Paul Huraud de l'Hospital and the Parliament A Priest had forced a little Boy of Six or Seven years old the Parents giving information the Arch-bishops Official or Chancellor order'd that the Parties should proceed before him but upon the Parents appeal the Parliament ordained one of the King's Judges should have the hearing of it In fine month April the Priest by Sentence was Condemned to such Death as his Abomination deserved Before Execution the Parliament summon'd the Archbishop to degrade him but as in Provence the Ecclesiasticks were wont to enjoy the same Privileges and Franchises as those of Italy enjoy'd the Archbishop complaining they had infringed the Liberties of the Church excommunicated all such Councellors as had been assisting in this Prosecution forbid any within his Diocess to administer the Sacrament to them and sent a Brief to all the Churches containing their several Names This Scandal was the greater as hapning to be near the time of Easter The Parliament offended with this proceeding cited the Archbishop and upon default of Appearance declared his Brief calumnuous and his Excommunication null and abusive ordained he should take it off and enter the same in the Court Register or upon Record within three days in default whereof he should pay Ten thousand Crowns fine In the mean time the Archbishop was obstinate to persist and the Parliament to compel him the People were divided into two Parties and grew hot even to the danger of some great Commotion Nevertheless the Parliament having order'd a seizure of the Archbishop's Temporal Estate the only Bridle for the Clergy when they more value their Revenues than either their Duty or their Dignity he soon complied took off his Excommunication month May. purely and simply and sent to his Diocesans to receive those Judges to the Communion whom he had deprived Year of our Lord 1602 The following year in the Month of March almost the like Scandal hapned at month March Bourdeaux The Archbishop who was the Cardinal de Sourdis a hot-brained man had demolished an Altar in the Church Saint André his Cathedral without communicating it to the Chapter The Canons endeavouring to Rebuild it were drove away somewhat too rudely by his People The Parliament took the Cause in hand and upon their Complaint put the Mason in Prison who had pull'd down the Altar The Cardinal breaks the Prison doors and takes him thence Some days after the Parliament assisted by the Jurats who came with a strong hand caused the Altar to be Rebuilt The Cardinal was so enraged that the Sunday following being informed the first President by Name Godfrey Malloüin Sessac and the President Verdun were hearing Mass in the Church of Sainct Project he went thither with his Archiepiscopal Crosier and the Holy Sacrament and there Excommunicated them by Bell Book and Candle The Parliament in great wrath for the injury done to all their Body by this affront to their Head made a Decree which enjoyned him to revoke his Censures and to cause the same to be published in the same Church upon the Penalty of Four thousand Crowns Fine forbidding all Bishops to use the like for the future to any Judges for doing their Office upon Pain of Ten thousand Crowns The King having received the Complaints of either Parties brought the Business before himself and there kept it to allay the heats on either hand There were divers Reglements published this year necessary to discharge the King's Debts and make the Money circulate Amongst others the Suppression of the Triennals created upon necessity of the Siege of Amiens and their Reimbursement by the Ancient and Alternatives They did however reserve those of the Espargne Parties Casuelles Extraordinaries for War and some others The Prohibition against Transporting Gold or Silver out of the Kingdom or exposing any more Foreign Coin except Pistols and Reals of Spain Another forbidding the wearing of Gold or Silver upon their Cloaths or to squander away that precious Metal in guilding The King authorized this last by his own Example and look'd very sowrely upon a Prince who presumed to appear before him with that Gawdry This Reformation did much discountenance the Gossips and Year of our Lord 1601 Gallants and was reckoned one of the Publick Grievances by that sort of Cattle who have no other Perfections but what they borrow from the Lace-man ✚ and the Taylor The most Universal cause of all the Disorders and Corruptions sprang from Luxury the extraordinary Taxes first brought forth and Nursed this proud and dainty Monster tho'to say truth both of them were as yet but in the Cradle The Contractors and Exchequer-men having abundance of Money which for the most part cost them but the dash of a Pen did lay it out in all manner of Vanity And most of the Gentlemen who were picked to equal those foolish Expences did by over-swelling and strutting burst themselves like the Frog in the Fable Then when they were so ruined and had nothing left to sell but their Honour they Married with those Fellows Daughters to get great Portions which they could not have met with in Houses of Repute or Quality not considering that from such corrupted Blood nothing but a corrupt and vicious generation ☜ could proceed It was therefore become most necessary to repress the insolency of these Robbers and their Pillage or unlawful Gains that caused it The King for that purpose establish'd a Royal Chamber composed of Judges of known and approved integrity selected from amongst the Masters of Requests belonging to his Parliament and the Cour des Aides of Paris The People who are easily fed with vain hopes imagined that the Gallows would soon do them Justice upon those Robbers under the specious title of Officers and that their Spoil would be restored at least in part to such as had been fleeced by them but by vertue of great Presents and Intrigues they found out able Mediators for some of the greatest Lords many fair Ladies together with the Ministers of the King's Pleasures attaqu'd the Clemency of that good Prince with so many Engines and Importunities that he admitted those Rascals to Composition after the Chamber or Court had sat till the year 1604. and so punish'd them only in their Purses and that but very lightly Thus the Publick far from receiving that Satisfaction they so justly expected had the displeasure to find this Inspection served only to secure that booty to them who had so unmercifully rifled the Kingdom Nor could they distinguish the Innocent few as they were from the Guilty since not the most wicked but the more weak were the most roughly handled The Adventures of a Man who said he was Sebastian King of Portugal
Heresies already sowed in France For Anno 1492. the Morrow after Corpus-Christi Day a Priest who was hearing Mass at Nostre Dame snatched away the Host from the Celebrator after the Consecration and cast it on the ground to trample it under foot And in Anno 1502. a Picard Scholar Native of Abbeville committed the like Fact on Saint Lewis's Day in the Holy Chappel Both were seized immediately and some days after burnt alive in the Market aux Cochons without any signs of Repentance the first having his Tongue torn out the second his Hand cut off upon the very place where they brake the holy Wafer King Lewis XII having a great contest with Pope Julius II. demanded a general Council to reform the Church both in its Head and in its Members and caused one to be assembled at Pisa by the Suggestion and with the assistance of certain Cardinals dissatisfied with that Pope The said Council was soon driven from thence and retired to Milan from whence they were likewise forced to remove and came to end their days at Lyons That whole Affair was very ill managed the Pope opposed him with another Council which he assembled at Lateran and this being grown the more powerful did in the end constrain Lewis XII to renounce his and those Cardinals and Bishops that had been the Promoters of it to humble themselves before his Holiness to obtain Absolution The Officers of the Parliament of Provence having been all excommunicated by the Pope in this Council because they had hindred the execution of his Orders if they had not approved of the others and because they acted daily several things which in those times were taken to be designs The King desired they might submit and that Lewis de Souliers his Ambassadour to the Council having their special Procuration should in their Name formally disown all they had done against the Liberties of the Church against the respect due to the Holy See promise that for the future they would be more circumspect that they should ratifie this Submission within four Months and that he should desire their Absolution which was granted them The same Council had likewise cited the Prelates of France to come and shew the reasons why they still justified and maintained the Pragmatique It is probable they would to his Decrees have opposed or alledged the Liberties of the Gallican Church but Francis I. very far from supporting them did himself abandon that which his Predecessors had defended with so much resolution and firmness and passed or agreed to the Concordat with Leo X. of which we have made mention in the year 1516. The smart of so great and desperate a wound made the Clergy the Parliament and the University cry out in vain those two great Powers being now joyned together valued not their Complaints The Clergy had protested to take all Opportunities for the making of Remonstrances to the King for the Re-establishment of Elections this they pursued very well four or five times under King Henry III. and Henry IV. but at length they grew weary whether believing they were no longer obliged to labour to no end or that several of the Bishops gave it over in Charity to themselves as ☜ knowing they should never have attained the Preferments they enjoy'd if the right of Elections had been restored The Authors of the Novel Opinions spared no pains to convey and plant their Doctrines in the remotest Provinces Printing was a great help to bring their Works to light and make them spread the Zealots were at the charge of Printing and Dispersing them and the Country Pedlers whom they paid very well had always some of these new-fashion Wares in their Packs which they shewed for great Rarities to the curious and inquisitive Their Disciples crept into the Universities where under colour of teaching the Law or Greek or Hebrew they instilled their Doctrine into the hearts of the younger fry Others more polite and more dexterous insinuated into the Society of Women and studied to gain their favour that they might gain their belief Thus they gained an Absolute Power over Anne de Pisseleu Dutchess d'Estampes Mistriss of Francis I. over Margaret Queen of Navarre and over Renée of France Daughter of good King Lewis XII There were others who endeavour'd to get into the Houses of such Bishops as they believed to be most susceptible of their fancies James le Fevre Native of Estaples a little Town in Boulonois who was not Doctor in Divinity at Paris as many will have it at least he is not to be found in the Registry of that Faculty William Farel a Daufinois Arnold and Gerard Roussel Picards fell in about the year 1523. with William Briconnet Bishop of Meaux and entangled his Mind so with those dangerous Opinions that he began to own and Preach them There was the same year in that City a Wool-Comber by Name John le Clere who had the Impudence to say That the Pope was the Anti-Christ he was Whipped for it by the hands of the Hang-man and Banished the Kingdom This Punishment corrected him not he went to Mets to vend his Wares and was there Burnt for having broken down some Images Lewis Berquin Artesian by Birth a powerful Genius according to the Sentiment of Erasmus suffer'd a like Death at Paris the One and twentieth of April in Anno 1528. Now the Bishop of Meaux being charged with the Crime of Heresie retracted upon the first Admonition having before-hand sent away his Doctors amongst whom Arnold was so terribly scared that he continued a good Catholick ever after Gerard made his escape to Luther Farel went to Zuinglius at Zurich and le Fevre to Nerac to Queen Margaret The two others came also thither some time after and there began to form a new Church wherein they used no Mass nor observed the Canonical hours for Prayer but communicated by taking Bread and Wine and giving it to all that were present in the same manner said they as Jesus Christ and the Apostles had practised Before and after they made Sermons wherein they explained the Word of God They called it Preaching and their way of taking the Eucharist Manducation The Queen went amongst them and sometimes led her Husband thither who was very submissive to her Will and no less Zealous against the Authority of the Pope because that had furnished the Spaniard with a fair pretence to Invade the Kingdom of Navarre In the mean time Anthony Duprat Archbishop of Sens Cardinal and Legate Year of our Lord 1528 employ'd the whole Authority both of the Church and King to restrain this licentiousness he assembled a Provincial Council in the City of Paris Anno 1528. where appeared Six of his Suffragants and a Delegate from the Seventh They there propounded the Catholick Doctrines and condemned Luther's they Prohibited all Nocturnal Assemblies and the Reading of any Heretical Books with Excommunication against them their Abettors and Adherers On their part
they sought by all manner of ways to make some impression upon the Mind of King Francis I. A Curate of the Parish of Saint Eustache named le-Cog Preached one day before him and speaking of the Mystery of the Eucharist told them that they must lift up the heart towards Heaven where Jesus Christ sat at the right hand of God his Father not bow down to the Altar and for this reason said he does the Church sing Sursum Corda those Doctors that were present would not let the Proposition pass so but obliged him to retract That King had a mighty tenderness for his Sister Margaret and was no less fond of good Learning when he met with it amongst the Ingenuous and the Beaux Esprits the Novators employ'd both the one and the other to draw him over to them At that very time which was in the year 1533. Philip Melancthon a man of as rare a Genius as any of that Age propounded to compose all the Disputes and Differences in Religion and did condescend to many Points in favour of the Catholicks in so much that if things of that Nature could have admitted of a Division he would have shared the Differences to have reconciled the Parties The King who had some interest to make himself considerable amongst the German Princes and to whom it would have gained Immortal Honour to have become the Arbitrator of Christendom wrote to him by William du Bellay Langey whom he sent into that Country That he Passionately desired to see him that he should be most extremely Welcom if he would come and confer with his Divines for the Reconciliation and Re-union of the Church and the Re-establishment of the ancient Polity which he desired to embrace with all Affection But the Cardinal de Tournon and the Divines of Paris apprehending the Consequences of this enterview to be like the opening of a Gap in the Sheep-cote to one whom they looked upon as a Ravenous Woolf made such frequent and such pressing Remonstrances to the King that he gave Melancthon notice he did excuse him from taking so great a trouble upon him They likewise hindred him from reading the Book of Calvin's Institutions which the Author had dedicated to him in Anno 1535. and withal engaged him to send for his Sister Margeret and her Doctors to come to Court They were brought thither together with her by Charles de Coucy-Buric the King's Lieutenant in Guyenne imbued with the same Sentiments as that Princess He privately gave her fraternal Correction and Admonition and sent her Doctors to Prison but so soon as they retracted he released them upon condition they should never dare again to approach the said Princess Notwithstanding he restored her Roussel to her whom she had provided with the Bishoprick of Oleron and the Abbey of Clairac with which he passed the remainder of his days in an apparent exercise of the Catholick Religion and a most exemplary Holiness of Life and Conversation if his inside were equal to his outward deportment and his heart as sincere as his tongue seemed Pious As for the Queen she protested to her Brother never to depart more from the Catholick Religion and shewed her self much an Enemy to those that opposed it nevertheless towards the end of her days which was in Anno 1549. she seemed to repent of her Repentance and desired Calvin by Letters to come both to instruct and to comfort her but he did not judge there would be any security for him in the Journey and ever chusing rather to expose his Counsel than his Person in case of danger he would not stir out of Geneva which was his main Fortress We have formerly told you who this Calvin was his Birth his Beginnings and his Progress It is worthy our Observation that in Anno 1534. he held his first Synod at Poitiers in a Garden and from thence sent his Disciples forth to other Cities to plant his new Gospel Those that have seen him write that his Speech his Gestures and his Presence were but little taking in the Pulpit but his Books manifest that no man in his time had so Eloquent a Pen as his His manners were much more regular than Luther's he appeared sober frugal continent setled edifying both by his Discourse and his Example notwithstanding he was by Nature surly violent jealous injurious and implacable towards any that opposed him In the year 1535. the Citizens of Geneva having withdrawn themselves from the dominion of their Bishop who was also their Temporal Lord and then from that of the Roman Church called in Calvin and Farel to be their Pastors Scarce had they been nestled there two years and a half when some difference arose between them and the Magistrates of the City who drove them out this was in the year 1538. but absent as they were they still maintain'd their Cabal and their Party was so strong they were recalled again in Anno Year of our Lord From the year 1535. 1541. After than Calvin never left it more having as it were established his Pontifical seat in that place from whence he governed his whole Party as well in Temporals as Spirituals Farel could not long comply with him and retired into Switzerland As Calvins temperament was very severe and an Enemy to all divertisements that besides he must needs have observed how the Lutherans instead of having retrenched their Luxury Debaucheries and Oppressions had rather increased them he thought it would be much better to use more strictness in reforming those irregularities so to gain Proselytes by the specious appearance of Austerity He therefore forbad all Oaths which then were grown very horrible and very frequent not permitting his to affirm otherwise then by the word verily he prohibited Dancing Cabarets Gaming-houses and Usury he punished Fornication and Adultery with death and recommended modesty of Habits Frugality and Temperance that so those of his Sect might appear to be really reformed and the Catholicks by opposition much more irregular and much more dissolute The number of his followers encreased daily they held their Assemblies by night in Cellars or in solitary places and had Advertisers who went from house to house to give them notice of the place and time Francis I. a very merciful Prince was not over rigorous to them till in the year 1535. when they lost all respect to him as well as to things Holy and Sacred Some over Zealous amongst them being angry because he would not hear Melancton nor read the works of their Calvin posted up certain very scandalous placards against him and against his Religion and scatterd'd divers very injurious Libels even upon his Table and on his very Bed nay there were those that cut off the Arms and heads of some Images So that being exasperated to the highest degree by this audacious Saerilege he quitted Blois where he then was and came to Paris where after he had given order to seize upon a good many of
Pope resumed the Purple and assisted cloathed in that manner at the Act of the Majority of the King in the Parliament of Rouen whereat the Pope was so incensed that he publickly pronounced the Sentence and caused it to be affixed in the Markets of Rome and afterwards dispersed all over Europe But as for the Queen of Navarre the Kings Council considering the consequences of suffering a Princess to be dispoyled who was related to the King and that her Husband died fighting in defence of the Catholick Religion that her Case would be a prejudgment against all Crowned Heads and that this Chastisement would turn less to the advantage of Religion then to the profit of the King of Spain who from thence would take an opportunity to invade her Countrey made such effectual Remonstrances to the Pope by the mout h of Henry Clutin-Doysel his Ambassador that the Citation given against this Queen was revoked As for the Bishops the Cardinal de Lorrain having likewise informed the Pope that it was against the Rights and usage of the Gallican Church to suffer their Process to be made at first instance at Rome it stop'd that business for th e present but five years after Pius V. taking advantage of the weakness of the Kingdom to extend his own Authority pronounced a like Sentence against them as that which had been thundred against the Cardinal de Chastillon and caused it to be published in France The Rebellion of the Huguenots produced the Faction of the League the example of their Confederations with Forreign Princes authorised also the measures these took with Spain The proceedings of both Parties were almost the same at first they affected a strict Discipline then after a little while they fell into all manner of Licentiousness Their Pulpiteers and their Libellers were equally insolent and Factious they employed the same Maxims and used the same Language and Arguments against Soveraign Authority which they attacked and for the Liberty of the Subjects and of Conscience to those whom they Debauched In like manner both the one and the other when they found they were in such extremities they could not possibly extricate themselves by ordinary means suborned Assassines to help them out but all who made use of those cursed means perished by a like fate For as Poltrot murther'd Francis Duke of Guise so the Son of that Duke kill'd the Admiral the Quarante-cinq Massacred this Prince at Blois and those whose hands were stained in his Blood did most of them come to a Bloody end the wrath of Heaven punishing the first by the second and these by a third who were so too by others Which had gone on to infinity if the Clemency of King Henry IV. had not put a stop to those Murthers which necessarily trod upon the heels of one another The first Lineaments of the League were traced in Guyenne and in Languedoc during the first Civil War when there was danger lest the Huguenots should make themselves absolute Masters of those two large Provinces In the year 1585. Humieres with the Nobless in his Government of Vermandois formed one at Peronne and Lewis de la Trimouille another in Poitoü The House of Guise labour'd hard to collect and joyn them all together especially after the Death of the Duke of Anjou Not perhaps that those Princes were then pushed on with the ambition of usurping the Crown as they have been accused but because they were so by the Natural desire of self-preservation For the Physicians assuring them that Henry III. could not live long they justly feared when he should be no more to be crushed either by his Favourites betwixt whom he had a mind to share his Kingdom or by the Huguenots whose hatred against their Family could not be satiated with less then the blood of all those Princes therefore it was they so provided and Fore-Arm'd themselves lest they should remain exposed to the Mercy both of the one and the other It is probable the Forces they afterwards got into their hands by the Confluence of such potent Party 's both from within and without the Kingdom might inspire them with thoughts that were both more high and more Criminal though it would be yet a much more easie task to find credible Conjectures then an certai n or convincing Proofs of it The Pope the Sorbonne the Jesuits and almost all the new Religious Orders contributed with all their might to form the League But yet their Credit would never have been sufficient to maintain it if the People had not been so very ill used as they then were and if the burthen of the Imposts the Insolence of the Favourites the Weaknesses and scandalous Manners of Henry III. had not given them both an aversion and contempt for the Government The Duke of Nevers began it out of zeal and then disowned it out of jealousie Father Claude Matthieu a Jesuite was the first Courier for them Gregory XIII fomented it Sixtus V. approved and protected it Some will needs have that the former contributed to the Conspiracy of Salcede as the latter excommunicated the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé Anno 1585. After the Barricades he wrote to the Duke of Guise comparing him to the Machabees and gave him notice he had Created a Legat a Latere this was John Francis Morosini to whom the Cardinal de Bourbon and himself should communicate all their designs The Death of this Prince murther'd at Blois gave him much Year of our Lord 1588 grief that of the Cardinal de Guise and the detention of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons furnished him with a pretext of revenging it with the Anathemaes of the Church His Monitory against King Henry III. was published the four and twentieth of May affixed in the usual places at Rome the same Day and on the Gates of the Cathedral Churches of Meaux and Chartres the three and twentieth of June If the Relations we have of those times are true this Pope was even transported with joy upon the news he received of the Assassination of the said Prince and highly applauded the act of Jacques Clement in the Consistory comparing it to the most glorious Mysteries of Christianity and to the generosity of the most glorious and Illustrious Martyrs He thought after this change he was bound openly to take in hand the defence of Religion and to hinder Henry IV. from getting into the Throne so long as he remained out of the Church He therefore sent the Cardinal Caetan Legate a Latere to the Duke of Mayenne Upon this occasion the Members of Parliament who were remaining still at Paris and those that had withdrawn themselves to Tours being directly opposite acted after a quite different manner but with alike heat the one for the Pope the others for the King The Sorbon refused nothing to the intreaties of the League and the desires of his Holiness in an Affair that concerned Religion It is not unknown what Year of
our Lord 1591 bloody decrees they made to draw the People from their obedience to Henry III. and Henry IV. but when the latter of these two Kings was converted and withal become Master of Paris they made one quite contrary in favour of him not waiting till he had received his absolution from Rome Gregory XIV not well informed of the State of the League engaged himself yet farther then his Predecessor he promised fifteen Thousand Crowns Year of our Lord 1591 of Gold per Month to maintain and defend the City of Paris and sent an Army into France but it perished almost before it's entrance and brought much more Scandal by the Vices of their Country then assistance to the Party The Prelates to preserve their Revenues which indeed was the main thing studied by most of them and their greatest obligation followed the Party that Year of our Lord 1591 was most prevalent in those Countries where they had their Benefices but in such parts as were Subject to the Incursions of both they did not know what measures to take for if they declared for the one the other immediately gave away their Benefices Gregory by a Bull of the year 1591. commanded all those that then followed the King to forsake him upon pain of Excommunication but the present evil touching them more sensibly then his remoter Menaces they would not obey his Commands This Pope held the See but six Months Innocent his Successor but two Clement VIII who was Elected afterwards did at first follow the Steps of Gregory and sent to Philip de Sega Bishop of Piacenza who was made Cardinal by the said Gregory to procure the Election of a Catholick King This was in the year Year of our Lord 1592 1592. The Prelates on their part finding that all Communication was broke off with Rome made a Proposition for the creating a Patriarch for France and such as were the most powerful at Court either upon the Score of favour or merit did second it with all their might out of the hopes they had to obtain the said high dignity But the Cardinal de Bourbon who had other thoughts for his own grandeur opposed it vigorously under pretence that it would be a means to Confirm the King in his Schism and exasperate his Holiness the more So it was ordained that the Kings nomination to Benefices should be Confirmed by the Bishops and that each of them should have the power of his Dispensation in his Diocess as the Pope If we should judge of the intent of the Heads of the League by the effect produced we might affirm it was good for the Traverse and Troubles they gave Henry IV. put him to such a plunge that fearing worse might follow he resumed and embraced the Religion of his Ancestors to secure himself of the Crown Clement did for some time after keep the Doors of the Church shut against him but at length finding the weakness of the League and the Ambition of the King of Spain open'd them wide to him with great demonstration of kindness But not however without making all his efforts for augmenting the Authority of the Year of our Lord 1595 Holy See upon so eminent and favourable an occasion From that time France was troubled no move with those violent fits occasioned by heats of Religion although some relicks still remained within her bowels of the inflamations of the Holy League as on the other side the Cabals and Contrivances of the Huguenots gave continual Alarms and Apprehensions to King Henry IV. We have told you he allowed them the exercise of their Religion and many other advantages by the Edict of Nantes Of the corruption of the two Parties a third was generated named The Politicks a People who seeming to profess the Religion of that Party they were engaged in yet having indeed none since they placed and made it wholly subservient in all things to Temporal Interests of State were for that reason more pernicious then all the Hereticks During the greatest Heats of War for Religion under the Reign of Charles IX and the beginning of that of Henry III. the Clergy had not the leasure to assemble any Provincial Councils although the Church stood in much need of them but after the year 1580. there were held five or six by the Arch-Bishops assisted by their Suffragants The Cardinal Charles de Bourbon Assembled one at Rouen Anno 1581. Anthony Prevost Sansac held one at Bourdeaux the following year Simon de Maillé one at Tours in 1583. Reinold de Beaune one at Bourges in 1584. Alexander Canigiani one at Aix Anno 1585. And Francis de Joyeuse Cardinal one at Toulouze Anno 1590. I do not reckon amongst these Assemblies neither the diverse Conferences between the Catholick Doctors and the Protestants of which the most Famous as also the most pernicious was the Colloquy of Poissy nor even what they call Assemblies of the Clergy of France because the Form and Methods of Proceedings and the reasons of their Convocation differ very much from those of Councils though upon occasion they do sometimes treat of Discipline and other Matters Ecclesiastical It is true that in all times the Prelates have held such Assemblies either by Order of the King or by his leave when it was requisite for them so to do but they were not held regularly as they began to be since that Sacred Order was obliged in a Contract of twelve Hundred Thousand Livers of Rent to the Hostel de Ville of Paris and upon that Score to pay their Tenths punctually We may in my Opinion put that of Melun Year of our Lord 1579 which was held in the year 1597. for the first of this kind The Remonstrances they made to the King by the Mouth first of Arnaud de Pontac Bishop of Basas then of Nicholas l'Anglier Bishop of Saint Brieuc's were very pressing for the discharging and taking of those Rents for reception of the Council of Trent and the re-establishment of Elections They could obtain nothing as to the first for the second they were promis'd it should be considered in due time and place but to the Third the King replied very roughly that he would do nothing in it and asked whether they did not hold their Bishopricks from him To which some answered generously enough that they were ready to surrender them into his hands again provided he would be pleased to surrender that right to the Church according to the Holy Canons As to the remainder we may know by their Remonstrances what the disorders of the Gallican Church then were we find how the Bishopricks the Abbeys and Collegiate Churches were in the hands of Captains That these words were often heard in their Mouthes my Bishoprick my Abbey my Priest my Chanons my Monks That by an Act the Grand Council Order'd the Moneys upon the Sale of a Bishoprick should be employ'd to pay the Debts of the Vendor that in the Kings Council an Abbey
between him and the Father in Law 255 Alix of Champagne Regent of the Kingdom 255 Alliance by Marriage between the Kings of France and England 247 Alliance of France confirmed with the Emperor Frederic 299 Alliance of Scotland with France 325 Alliance of the Empire renewed with France 328 Alliance of Scotland renewed with France 348 Amalaric King of the Visigoths 22 Amalasunta cause of the ruine of the Ostrogoths 24 Amaury Count de Montfort made Constable 295 Arnold Amaulry Inquisitor against the Albigeois 239 Amaulry or Aimery Doctor of Paris teaches a new and scandalous Doctrine 337 Amee the Great Count of Savoy and Prince of the Empire augments his Estate by several Seigneuries 345 Of the St. Ampoule or Holy Oyl 15 Anaclet Antipope 239 Anger 's taken by the Normans and retaken 144 Anjou divided into two Counties 141 Anne Widow of King Henry Marries again the Count de Crespy 219 Anseau de Garlande great Seneschal or Dapifer 239 Ansegise Archbishop of Sens. 145 Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury banished 289 St. Anselme writes a Treatise of the Incarnation ibid. Ansgard Wife of Lewis the Stammerer 149 St. Anthony the establishment of his Order in France 233 Apostolick Hereticks 276 Appeals to the Court of Rome 51 Archembault Lord of Bourbon 236 Archbishops at what times the Metropolitans took that Title 114 Archbishop of Reims a great debate between the Bishops of France between Artold and Hugh Son of Hebert Count of Vermandois 206 Of the same again between Arnold de Reims and Gerbert 206 207 Archbishop of Rouen named Primate of Normandy 232 Aribert King of a part of Aquitain 54 His death 55 Arles of the Ancient Rights and Preheminencies of its Archbishop in Gaul 50 Arles Kingdom united to that of Burgundy Transjurane 169 Arles the Temporal Seigneury belongs to the Archbishop of it 335 Great Naval Army 296 Of Coat-Arms and the beginning of their use 225 Armand Clerk of the City of Bress causes Rome to rebel against the Popes 272 Arnold King of Germany of Bavaria and Lorraine 156 Drives Guy of Spoletta out of all Lombardy 160 Arnold Emperor his death his Wife and Children 161 Arnold Count of Flanders 168 Arnold the Fat Count of Flanders 164 Arnold Earl of Flanders does cause the Duke of Normandy to be treacherously slain 178 Arnold the old Earl of Flanders his death 186 Arnold Archbishop of Reims degraded of his Dignity 204 Restored 207 Count d'Argues takes up Arms against the Duke of Normandy to his confusion 144 Of the County of Arragon and its Original 97 Arragon Kingdom its Original 163 Artois made a County and Pairie 301 Artois adjudged to Mahaut in prejudice of Robert grandson of Robert of Artois 347 Robert of Artois commands the Kings Army in Flanders is defeated and slain 330 Artold Archbishop of Reims 179 Arthur Duke of Bretagne 256 Takes up Arms against John without Lands who takes him Prisoner then Assassinates him 262 Asylum in Churches 53 Assembly general appointed in May no more for the future in March 124 Assemblies three sorts of great Assemblies 117 Assembly at Aix la Chapelle 122 Assembly or Parliament of Nimeghen 126 Of St. Martin 126 Assembly general of Franefort 127 Assembly general or Parliament of Mets. 139 Assembly of Coblents 140 Assembly of Meaux 150 Assembly general of Tribur 155 Assembly Synodal of the Bishops of Gaul and Germany at Verdun 180 Assembly of Prelats at Estampes 240 Assembly of the Estates of the Kingdom at Paris 329 Assize of Count Geofry Law for the Partage amongst the Bretons 254 Astolfus King of the Lombards seizes the Exarchat of Ravenna c. makes himself Master of Rome 91 Is constrained by the French to desist from his Enterprize and to restore the Exarchat c. 92 His death 93 Ataulfe King of the Visigoths passes in Gallia Narbonensis 3 Athalaric King of Italy 21 His death 24 Attila King of the Huns surnamed the Scourge of God enters into Gaul is there beaten and vanquished and forced to retire 10 His death 11 Avari ravage Turingia 29 Avari seize upon Lombardy 46 Avari are those of Austratia 104 Are wholly subdued 106 Avarice insupportable of the Ecclesiasticks during the eight Century 116 d'Aresnes John Earl of Hainault becomes Earl of Holland 326 Augustines Friers their Institution and their Establishment 340 St. Avi Abbot of Mici 21 Avignon besieged and taken by King Lewis VIII her Walls thrown down and Moats fill'd up 296 Austerities at the Article of death 288 Austrasia and its extent 20 Austrasia given to Dagobert by King Clotair and the Conduct of Pepin the old Maire of the Palace 46 Austrasians despise the commands of Brunehaut during the minority of King Childebert 34 Will not endure the Government of a Woman 78 Beaten by the Neustrians 78 Austria falls into the hands of the Emperor Rodolph 316 B. Baliol John declared King of Scotland 323 Is vanquish'd by the English taken Prisoner and constrained to renounce his Alliance with France 327 Set at full liberty but despised by the Scots 330 Banners belonging to the Church formerly used in time of War as their Standards 216 Bankers and of their excessive Usury and Extortion 324 Barcelona besieged and taken by the French 107 Bastards not admitted to Prelacy by the Holy Canons 210 The Kings of France not allowed to be Married to a Bastard 246 Bastards Adventurers of Gascongny 352 Battles 32 33 35 Battle between the Armies of Clotair II. and Thierry King of Burgundy in the year 599. 42 Battle near Toul and Tobiae 44 Battle of Tetry 69 Battle of Vinciac in Cambresis 79 Battle very famous near Tours wherein the Saracens were beaten and utterly defeated 82 Battle of Sigeac 83 Battle near Periguex 94 Battle very bloody at Fontenay 132 Battles in the Air. 134 Battle lost by the Romans 185 Battle near Monstreuil Bellay 211 Battle of Tinchelray in Normandy 227 Battle between the French and the English 234 Battle between the Flemings and the French to the disadvantage of the last 330 Battle very bloody between the French and the Flemmings to the loss of the last 331 St. Batilda Queen of France her Elogy 60 61 Bavarians and their Original and establishment in Bavaria under the obedience of France 23 Baldwin or Badouin Earl of Flanders steals away the Daughter of Charles King of Neustria 140 Baldwin the Bald Earl of Flanders 162 164 Baldwin with the Beard Earl of Flanders chaced from his Estates by his Son is restored by the Duke of Normandy 212 Baldwin surnamed the Frisonian chaced his Father 212 Baldwin Regent of the Kingdom of France and Earl of Flanders his death 218 220 221 Baldwin King of Jerusalem 222 Baldwin of Hainault 224 Baldwin XI Count of Flanders makes a League with the King of England against France 257 358 259 Baldwin Earl of Flanders takes up the Cross for the Holy Land 261 Is elected and declared Emperor of Constantinople 263 His death ibid. Baldwin an Impostor pretending
Visigoths 22 He and his Brother Clotair make themselves Masters of the Kingdom of Burgundy ib. Inhumanely Massacre two of their Nephews ib. Makes War upon Clotair his Brother 24 He and his Brother Clotair pass the Pyreneans and ravage all the Country of Arragon His death his Wife and his Children 27 Childebert II. of that name King of Austrasia 32 Adopted by Goutran his Uncle 33 Makes a League with Chilperic against him and falls upon his Country 34 Reconciliation with Goutran 38 Carries his Forces into Italy against the Lombards 39 Gives examples of severity 40 His death his Children 41 Childebert II. called the Young King of France 72 His death his Children 73 Childebrand Son of Pepin 78 Childebrand King of the Lombards 91 Childerick fourth King of France 12 Degraded of his Royalty and chaced out of France and another elected in his stead ib. Is recalled by his Subjects his Warlike Exploits his death his Children ib. Childeric King of Austrasia 62 Becomes sole King of France 64 Plunges into the Debaucheries of Wine and Women 65 Persecutes St. Leger ib. Becomes a Tyrant his unhappy end ib. Chilperic II. King of Neustria with Rainfroy his Mayor 64 65 Chilperic alone King of France with Mariel his Maire 80 His death ib. Childeric III. King of France 86 Is degraded and made a Monk 87 88 Chilperic King of Soissons falls upon the Territories of his Brother Sigebert 29 Too great Licence in his Marriage 30 Makes War against Sigebert and causes him to be assassinated 32 Seizes on the Kingdom of Paris ib. Surcharges his People with Imposts 34 Assassinated at Chelles in Brie 36 Clement IV. Pope his rare modesty 310 Confirms the election of Charles of France for the Kingdom of Sicilia Clement elected Pope is Crowned at Lyons 332 His death 336 Clodion the Hairy second King of France 8 His Conquests in Gaul ib. His death his Children 9 Clodomir King of Orleans 20 Barbarous cruelty his unhappy end 21 His Children ib. Clotaire seizes on the Kingdom of Mets after the death of Theobalde his Nephew 26 Ranges the revolted Saxons to reason ib. Succeeds in the Estates of his Brother Childebert to the prejudice of his two Nices Daughters of the defunct 27 Cruelty more then barbarous towards his Son Chramue 28 His death his Wives and Children ib. Clotaire II. of that name King of Neustria 37 Remains sole King of all France 45 Set himself to regulate his State and restore Justice and good order ib. His death his Wives and Children 47 Count of Flanders makes a League with the English and draws the War upon his own Country 326 Is held Prisoner in Paris 327 Clotaire III. King of Neustria and Burgundy 62 His death 63 Clotaire King of Austrasia 79 His death 80 Clovis V. King of France succeeded to his Fathers Crown and makes great Conquests 14 Marries Clotilda ib. Defeats and subdues the Almains ib. His Conversion to the Christian Religion and his Baptism 15 Makes War upon the Burgundians 16 17 Reforms the Salique Law 16 Makes War against the Visigoths ib. Rids his hands of the other petty French Kings of his Relations 17 His death his Children ib. Clovis Son of Chilperic his unfortunate end by the wickedness of Fredegonda his Mother in Law 34 Clovis second King of Neustria and Burgundy takes away the Silver Ornaments of St. Denis Church to feed the Poor during a Famine accused for having taken an Arm of St. Denis to keep in his Oratory 59 His death his Wife his Children 60 Clovis III. King of Neustria and Burgundy 71 His death ib. Clugny Abby its beginning 205 Loses its Reputation Colledge of Navarre its Reputation 331 Combats of Wild-Beasts practised under our first Kings of France 90 Comedians Jugglers Buffoons c. banished the Court of France 253 Comet in the Sign of Sagitarius In the Sign of Virgo In the Sign of Scorpio 201 Comet seen in the year 1264. Comet in the year 1301. Of the Earldom of Holland 140 Earls of Anjou their Original 149 Conan Duke of Bretagne his death 221 Conan the Fat Duke of Bretagne 237 Conan III. Duke of Bretagne 245 Canon the Little Duke of Bretagne his death 249 Councils necessary to preserve the purity of the Faith and the Ecclesiastical Discipline 4 The first Councils that were held and Celebrated in Gall. 4 5 Councils held in Gall during the fifth and sixth Ages 18 19 Councils Convocated in France during the Seventh Age. 75 Council of Francfort against the Heresie of Felix d'Vrgel 104 Councils held in France during the Eight Century 114 Council of Lateran 141 Council of French Bishops at Mets. ib. Council of Attigny 143 Council of Savomeres Council of Poutigon 145 Council of Tribur 160 Councils Celebrated in France during the Ninth Age. 171 c. Council of French Bishops at Mets. 141 Council general of the Bishops of Gall and Germany at Ingelheim 180 Council of Reims 203 Councils held in France during the Tenth Age. 206 Councils Provincial annulled by the Popes 230 Councils assembled in France during the Eleventh Century 232 Council National at Chartres 243 Councils of Spain lay the first foundations of the Authority of the Popes 290 Council of Lyons where the Emperor Frederic is Excommunicated and degraded of the Empire 303 Council of Lyons the Pope presiding there in Person 316 Council general assigned at Vienne in Daufine 235 Councils of the Gallican Church during the Twelfth Age. 289 Such as were held by Order of the King 290 Councils of the Gallican Church lose their Authority 289 Councils of France of the Twelfth Age whereat the Popes assisted ib. Councils held in France during the Thirteenth Age for the extirpation of Hereticks 337 Confession publick at the point of death 287 Confession Auricular 287 Conrar Duke of Wormes raised to the Empire 217 Conrad King of Germany his death 163 Conrad Duke of Lorraine obstinately Rebellious 181 Conrad King of Burgundy his death Conrade the Emperor takes the Cross on him and goes into the Holy Land 244 His return into Italy 245 His death 246 Conrade Son of the Emperor Frederic 306 Passes into Italy causes his Nephew Frederic to be Strangled and seizes upon Sicilia 307 His death ib. Conradin ib. Descends into Italy with a great Army for the recovery of Sicilia his unfortunate end 311 Conspiracy of the Romans against Pope Leo. 121 Of Bernard King of Italy against his Uncle Lewis the Debonaire 122 Conspiracy and horrible Treason of the Neustrians against their King Charles 139 Other Treachery of the same in favour of the same Prince ib. Conspiracy against Charles the Bald. 146 Conspiracy of the Italians against their King Berenger 185 Constance Wife of King Robert proud capricious and insupportable 211 212 Constance of Sicilia Marries the Emperor Henry IV. 246 Constance Elizabeth second Wife of King Lewis the Young 16 Constantine Copronymus endeavours to recover the Exarchat by means of the French Constantinople besieged and forced by
Charles IV. R 22 years * Bourbon was Maternal Uncle Hoc me Cefar donavit * Constables and such like Officers * Constables and such like Officers * Constables and such like Officers * Six make a Penny * Herd * Eleven years old * Ball as Baker calls him * Livres * Or Joane * Challenges 1382. in November Emp. Wencestaus and Emanuel II. Son of John R. 24 years * The Red. * Annunciation * He was likewise named Charles de la Paix and Charles the Little Or Bad. * As little ones as he had done it formerly but they were not alone * Lane is to aâ—y Lame the vulgar say Tamberlan * Or Galeaze 1391. * Hostel or â—naâ— as Great Mens Dwellings are called * Chartreux * Or Bennet * St. Ampoulle Emp. Manuel II. and Robert R. Nine years Five Months * Or Sequestred * Hense or Inn. * Naples * Ever since Philip de Valois Eloquence was in vogue they having need of it to perswade the People and because they held divers great Assemblies as well Civil as Ecclesiastical * Sur-Intendant was not then in use * Cut off with an Axe Emp. Sigismund of Luxembourgh S. and Manuel II. R. 27 years * Or Challenge * Or upright Cross * Chappetons Standard so called * Or Agincourt * That Montagu who lost his Head * He was called Duke because in Germany all the Children of a Family bear the same Title as the eldest Emp. John II. by the Session of Emanuel his Father Reigned Twenty seven years and Sigismund * The Vulgar call it the Scab of St. Fiacre Church the fourteenth Age. Schism Church University Learned Men. * The several Dialects in several Ages and parts of the Nation Church Disputes Church Wicked Prelats Saints Church Heresies * Or if you will not turn you shall burn Councils * Roux or Red. * Vulgatly Henry * It was called the Battle of Herrings * Or Basil * Or Have at their Tails * Players * Shavers Emp. John VI. and Albert II. elected the Twentieth of April Reigned fourteen years 1438. Vulgarly called Sorel Emp. Constantin XV. and Frederic III. * Call'd by the Vulgar Guiâ—he * An ignominious punishment To go bare-head and bare-foot with a lighted Torch in his Hand to some Court of Justice or Church and there acknowledge his Crime Emperor Frederic III. and Mahomet II. Reigned 28 years at Constantinople * Or Sancoins * Or Eurc * Short Habits were ridiculous to persons of Quality * The Trenches are yet to be seen * This order of not being destituted is very Ancient it is to be seen in the Capitularies of Charles the Bald and in an Ordinance of Philip Valois quoted by du Moulin * Barbara Greca genus retinent quod habere solebant The English People give Money willingly to make Waron France * Margret Sister to King Edward * Composed by John de Troyes * Hermaphrodite * See above in the year 1474. Empp. yet Frederick III. And Bajazet II. Sons of Mahomet K. 31. Years See below in An. * Or Oliver the Devil a name suitable to the nature of the Beast * Ast belonged to the Duke of Orleans * Heretofore Dame de Btaujeu Beginning of the War of Italy * otherwise Fernand or Ferrand 1494. Empp. Maximilian R. 25. years and Bajazeth * For the King and this young Duke were Sons of two Sisters Daughters of Savoy * The Italians drew theirs only with Oxen * Or of the Egg Malfy * Or of the Egg * Or Consalvo * Or Jack Short-Coat Church In the fifteenth Age. Councils Church Heresy's Disputes Church Church Monks * They are called of the great and the little Observance * Reuclin in High Dutch is Smoak in French and in Greek Capnos whence he took the name Capnion Church * Printed and added to Comines Church He called himself Duke of Valentinois * This word is corrupted from Catapanat a name which one Catapan General for Basilius the Greek Emperor gave to this Country * Or Vignola pleasant Gardens c. * A Prince the will have sincere advice ought wholly to conceal his Sentiments for as soon as that is guessed they never give Counsel that contradicts him * They had 5 thousand from the King * Francesco Alidosi Empp. Maximilian And Selim II. after he had slain Bajazeth his Father R. 8. Years * There have been two Battles at Guinegaste * That having made Money more plentiful Empp. Charles V. R. 38 Years And Solyman Son of Selim R. 47 Years * Qui l'accompagne est Maistre * Of the Country of Hainault * Vulgarly Pisqueton * Or Addua * Or compleat Horse Men. * The Countries of Forez Beaujolols Bourbonnois La Marche and Auvergne were his Lands * Germain Foot * Or Malfy Or rather I and my King * Compleat Horse-men * He called her so though she were only the Daughter of Laurence Son of Peter his Cousin German * He was call'd Duke of Orleans * This King was put out of his Kingdom and could not recover it * These were perhaps beggers or poor Soldiers to get Plunder * He wrote to him Monseieur the Constable when others stiled him Monseigneur * His devise was a Baloon with these words concussus Surgo He was but 20 years old * His device was inter Eclipses Exorior * Paternal Great Grand-Father of the Mareschal d'Effiat * He was Duke of Guise after the death of his Father and Aumal was soon aftererected to a Dutchy * Vulgarly called the old man of Bullen * As at Chambord at the Bois de Boulogne near Paris at Villers-Costerez at St. Germains en lay Fontainbleau and the Louvre Emperors Charles V. and Solyman * Revenue or Treasury * At the Treaty of Crespy hâ— gave a box on the Ear to the Jacobin who acted for the Emperor * Common place of Execution * False constancy as our Author falsly terms it * Or Picus's * Or Africa * Otherwise Capt. Paulin. * Above 30 were beat down both without and within the Town * FERT These are the symbolical Letters of the House of Savoy * See a little above * In Spain they call the Jesuits Theatines * They call the Western Christians Franc's in opposition to the Turks who are Slaves * Consecrated Empp. Ferdinand Brother of Charles V. R. 8. years and Solyman * This is their ordinary excuse * This is what his Father told him at his death * Honour thy Father and thy Mother * This Mareschal was Coligny Gaspar under Francis I. * Burning Courts * His name was de Mouchy born in a Village of the Diocess of Noyon and his Spies were called Mouchards i. e. Eaves-droppers or setters Chef Muâ—t as concealed'under Hatches * He that cannot warrant it ought not to promise it * Fidgenossen or Fidnos then Huguenots * The Staple * Or Peers * Vide in the Reign of Francis I. King
of Allemans or Almans because this Prince being Duke of the Almans had ever both in his Train and in all Offices more of those People then of any other Country The Italians even in those days called then Tudesâ—hi as they do still Death ravisht from the King his two ablest Councellors which were Suger Abbot of St. Denis the Fifteenth of January and Rodolph Earl of Vermandois the last Prince of the second Royal Branch of that name He having no Children and his Sister being Married to Philip Son of Thierry Earl of Flanders the King who cherished this Philip left him the possession of Vermandois the Subject of a Quarrel in the Reign following Year of our Lord 1152 Whether it were jealousie or scruple of Conscience the King eagerly pursued the Separation from his Wife and obtain'd it by Sentence of the Prelats of his Kingdom whom he had called together at Baugency Immediately proceeding with integrity he withdrew his Garrisons from Aquitain to leave her that Country in freedom and gave her liberty to go whether she pleased keeping the two little Daughters he had by her with him This Woman burning with Love and Ambition Married some Months after Henry Duke of Normandy and Presumptive King of England a Prince both young hot and Red-Haired very able to satisfie her Desires As soon as Alienor was Divorced Lewis sent to demand Constance-Elizabeth Year of our Lord 1152 Daughter of Alfonso King of Castile by Hugh Archbishop of Sens who performed the Ceremony of that Marriage at Orleans and there Crowned the new Queen the Archbishop of Reims protesting in vain that this Right belonged to him only Lewis not able to endure his Vassal should go equal with him nor Henry who had so many great Lordships suffer a Soveraign above him it was imposible they should continue good Friends This last being assigned to appear in Parliament refused to come Lewis to punish him besieged and took the City of Vernon but Henry submitting out of some apprehension he yet had of King Stephen the Lords reconciled him with Lewis who restored the place to him Year of our Lord 1152 King Stephen the Usurper of the English Crown being dead Henry gets into possession of that Kingdom according to the former agreement betwixt them It was not permitted the Kings of France says Yves de Chartres to Wed any Bastards Now there went a report that Constance was such wherefore King Lewis two years after his Marriage would satisfie himself herein and under the pretence of going on Pilgrimage to St. Jago in Galicia took her Fathers Court in his way the most magnificent Prince of those times who received and entertained him Year of our Lord 1154 most Royally at Burgos and took away that suspicion he had conceived Year of our Lord 1154 Divers do in this year 1154. reckon the Death of Roger I. King of Sicily one of the most Warlike and Potent Princes of this Age. He raised the reputation and fame of the Normans to its highest pitch in so much as after him it did ever decline He had a Son named William and a Daughter called Constance the Son Reigned but with so much Injustice Avarice and Tyranny that he deserved the surname of Wicked or Bad. He prided himself most in filling his Coffers and draining his Subjects to the very last Penny Constance being an old Maid Married the Emperor Henry VI. in the year 1186. Year of our Lord 1155 Gefroy Earl of Gien on the Loire knowing himself too weak to oppose William Earl of Nevers who made a rude War upon him allied himself with Stephen de Champagne Count of Sancerre and gave his Daughter to him and for Dowry his Earldom to the Exclusion of his Son Herve The Son thus disinherited by his Father without any fault committed implored the Kings Justice who goes in Person and besieges Gien takes it upon Composition and settles him there Year of our Lord 1159 When Henry was possess'd of England Gefroy his Brother demands Anjou Touraine and Maine according to their Fathers Will but far from giving these he takes Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau from him so that he had been left without any thing had it not been his good Fortune to be chosen by the Nantois for their Earl who having forsaken Hoel stood in need of a Prince to defend them against the Assaults of Conan Year of our Lord 1158 The Enmities between King Lewis and Henry being ready to break forth the Lords found out a way to prevent it yet a while by the Alliance of Henry's eldest Son of the same name with Margaret Daughter of Lewis by his second Wife though both of them were Children and had scarce left off their Bibs The Girl was put into the Father-in-Law's hands and Lewis promis'd to bestow in Dowre with her Gisors and other places in the Normand Vexin which in the interim were trusted to the keeping of the Grand Master of the Knights-Templars to be deliver'd up to Henry when the Marriage should be Consummate The Emperor Frederick composed the Difference between Bertold of Zeringhen and Renauld about the Earldom of Burgundy in such a manner that he dismembred or cut off from it the little Country of Nuctland which is beyond Mount-Jou and the Cities of Geneva Lausanna and Sion to give them to Bertold leaving the remainder to Renauld whose Daughter and Heiress named Beatrix he Married After which keeping open Court with great Pomp at Besancon he received Hommage of all the Lords and Prelats belonging to the Earldom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Arles who notwithstanding regarded not his Soveraignty but only to obtain a better Title to their Usurpations Those that were common Friends to both endeavour'd to procure an Enterview between him and the King of France and agreed upon the time and place but the King stung with Jealousie at the Grandeur of that young Prince or having some suspicion he would design upon his Person would go attended with a great number Year of our Lord 1159 of Soldiers which caused Frederick to withdraw very much dissatisfied Gefroy Earl of Nantes being dead without Children Conan Earl of Renes or of Little Bretagne seized on the City of Nantes King Henry Brother of Gefroy pretending it belonged to him by Succession undertakes to recover it by force of Arms. Year of our Lord 1160 Conan being hardly press'd buys his Peace by giving him his Daughter and Heiress named Constance for his Third Son by name Gefroy the same as his Uncle deceased After the Death of Pope Adrian the greater number of the Cardinals elected the Cardinal Rowland a Siennois who was named Alexander III. But the Roman People and two Cardinals only gave their Votes for Cardinal Octavian a Roman who took the name of Victor The Right of either side was dubious for on the one hand the Decrees of some Popes had referr'd the Election to the Cardinals only and on the other the Roman
People pretended they had the better Title and had most commonly maintain'd themselves in possession of it alledging the Popes could not deprive them of a Right born with the Church its self and practised in the times of the Apostles Year of our Lord 1160 King Lewis relying upon the Judgment of the Gallican Church whom he Assembled for this purpose at Estampes adhered to Alexander All the West followed his Example excepting the Emperor Frederick who with his Almans and what Partisans he had in Italy fiercely rejected him because he was Install'd without his Approbation King Henry besides the Kingdom of England held the Dutchy of Normandy which had then a part of Bretagne holding of it the Country of Maine Anjou Touraine and the Province of Aquitain His Ambition upheld by this great increase Year of our Lord 1160 of Power made him revive afresh the Right his Wife had to the County of Toulouze For this end having made Alliance with Raimond Prince of Arragon and Earl of Barcelonna he raised a great Army of Aquitains and Routiers amongst whom was Malcolme King of Scotland enter'd upon Languedoc took Mâ—issac Cahors and some other places The jealousie Lewis had of his growing Greatness moving him at least as much as Year of our Lord 1160 61. the Prayers and Intreaties of Earl Raimond his Brother-in-Law caused him to march that way and cast himself into Toulouze but he had so few with him that it was in the power of Henry to have forced that City had not the scruple of falling upon his Soveraign deterr'd him from it After which they were reconcil'd but Henry would not let fall his claim and hold of the Earldom of Toulouze till he bestow'd his Daughter Jane Widow of William II. King of Sicily on Earl Raimond In these days the cursed Crew of Routiers and Cottereaux began to make themselves known by their Cruelties and Robberies we cannot tell certainly why they were so called but they were a kind of Soldiers and Adventurers coming from divers parts as from Arragon Navarre Biscay and Brabant who wandred over all Countries and would be hired by any one that offer'd to take them provided they might be allow'd all manner of Licence The Cottereaux were most of them Foot-Soldiers the Routiers served on Horseback In the mean while Pope Alexander fearing the Emperor after he had pull'd down the Pride of the Milannois might come to Rome did not judge himself a fit match and so retired into France where he remained above three years Year of our Lord 1161 This year he held a Council at Clermont in which he did not forbear to thunder against Victor Frederick and all their Adherents Year of our Lord 1161 The most Potent and most Factious Family in all France was the House of Champagne Lewis to divide them from the English and gain them to himself takes Alix for his third Wife who was youngest Sister to the four Brothers Champenois for Constance his second Wife was dead Anno 1159. and for the two Daughters of his first Bed he gave one to Henry the eldest of the four Brothers Earl of Troyes and the other to Thibauld the second Earl of Blois Year of our Lord 1162 Pope Alexander came to Torcy on the River Loire where the two Kings Lewis and Henry received him with extream submission Both of them alighted and each taking one of the Reins of his Horses Bridle conducted him to the House prepared for him Year of our Lord 1162 A second time the Emperor came into the County of Burgundy bringing his Victor with him and a second time some endeavoured to procure a Conference betwixt him and the King to determine that Difference which made the Schism by the Judgment of a Council They agreed upon the place of Interview to be at Avignon as being the Frontier of either Prince whither the King by Oath obliged himself to bring Alexander But that Pope refusing to go there saying he could be judged by none it broke off the Conference and put the King in very great danger For the Almans having reproached him that he kept not his word plotted to way-lay him and had taken him Prisoner had not the King of England caused his Army to advance to disengage him Thence follow'd a cruel War between the Emperor and Alexander which horribly tormented Italy and out of which the Emperor could not withdraw himself but by the means of a shameful submission craving Pardon of the Pope and suffering him to set his Foot upon his Throat Which hapned in Anno 1177. in the City of Venice Year of our Lord 1163 Anno 1163. Alexander assisted at the Council of Tours Assembled by his order and there he thunders once more against Victor and Frederick He caused some Decrees likewise to be made against the Hereticks who had spread themselves over all the Province of Languedoc There were especially of two sorts The one Ignorant and withall addicted to Lewdness and Villanies their Errors gross and filthy and these were a kind of Manicheans The others more Learned less irregular and very far from such filthiness held almost the same Doctrines as the Calvinists and were properly Henricians and Vaudois The People who could not distinâ—uish them gave them alike names that is to say called them Cathares Patarins Boulgres or Bulgares Adamites Cataphrygians Publicans Gazarens Lollards Turlupins and other such like Nick-names Year of our Lord 1163 Death of Odo III. Duke of Burgundy to whom succeeded Hugh III. his Son There being Peace between the two Kings Lewis employs himself in doing Justice and suppressing Disorders The Inhabitants of Vezelay having made a Corporation would have shaken off the Abbot who was their Lord protected by the Earl of Nevers He compell'd them and their Earl to ask Pardon and break their Corporation The same year he went in Person to â—ight the Earl of Clermont the Earl du Puy and the Vicount de Polignac Lords of Auvergne who denied to forbear plundering of Churches overthrew them and brought them Prisoners to Paris where having detained them a long while he releas'd them upon giving their Oaths and Hostages In like manner he punished the Earl of Chaalons with the loss of his County because he had pillag'd the Abby of Clugny and kill'd above five hundred some Monks some Servants However the Daughter of this Man re-entred upon her Patrimony Year of our Lord 1163 Thomas Becket Chancellor of England elected Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1163. soon lost the good favour of King Henry for divers causes and particularly Year of our Lord 1164 for stickling too fiercely in maintaining the Priviledges of the Clergy Being banished the Kingdom he retired himself in France in the Abby of Pontigny of the Diocess of Sens whence he gave much trouble to his King and suffer'd not a little himself during six years Year of our Lord 1164 Death of Victor the Anti-Pope in whose stead the Cardinals of his Party elected Guy