the Bible But that I may seem to have done something more I made use of this advice not to reck'n for Tradition-Mongers those ancient Doctors of the six first Ages wherein the Church was not as yet fully nobilitated when her Sumptuous Buildings were not as yet rear'd when the Popes liv'd up and down in Caverns and in short might pass for the first Promoters of her troubles at what time the Church smelt somewhat strong of Huguenotism or rather of the Faggot I say they wrote nothing boldly or over-confidently in those first times therefore I allow for Traditions the Books corrected by the devout Council of Trent For some time after that we have seen at the Court and we have still some Doctors who affecting squeamishness of Conscience play the Demi-Huguenots and Appointers of Religion This ought to be a fair example to Monseiur Benedict and his Compagnons Berenger and Chauveau in their Deaths of Melancholie or Poyson These Hero's would fain persuade the suppression of a Book entitl'd Index Expurgatorius Accordingly it was one Result of the Council of Trent whereby all Printers were commanded to expunge or correct the most boistrous passages wherewith the holy Fathers had besmear'd the belief of the Church with a Catalogue of such Sentences as it was convenient either to stifle or amend to the end the Heretics might make no use of them These Prudent Worldlings esteeming themselves wiser then the Council would needs have this Expurgatorie Index suppres'd to concealâ— as they said the shame of the Church which was not to plead for its self upon false Evidences But they have display'd the shame by thinking to hide it For about 11. or 20. years since the Book I mean a copie of it sign'd by the Council fell into the hands of the Family of Antwerp and is now carefully preserv'd among the Rarities of the Elector Palatine And which is worse some Doctors among the rest Baronius who were chosen to make this Reformation are reformed themselves and have confess'd in their printed writings that one of them had for his part alone alter'd above sixty of those passages Thus the design of the Council being discover'd in going about to suppress this Book we might suppress the Authority of the Church and make it questionable whether it be not lawful to change the Expositions of the Doctors and something of the Text of the Ancients Certainly the Affirmative is to be maintain'd and that the Church ought to change both the old and new Testament without bogling any more at the Translation of the Septuagint then at the Translation of fifteen Score if we would have all the main Principles on our side The Primates of Bourges and Lyons would discard out of the number of Traditions the Conformities of St. Francis the Pattern of Wisdom the Garden of disconsolate Souls Marial the Sermons of Menot Manipulus Curatorum Stella Lavacrum Conscientiae Summa Peccatorum dedicated to the Virgin Mary the Golden Legend the Book of Rates and the Life of Christ A Preacher whose name was Christi preach'd at Nantes to the Ladies in these words My dainty quaint Ladies if I find a Bible or a new Testament in any of your hands you shall tast of my Whip but have always between your fingers the good Vita Christi the Vita Christi who made Vespasian and Titus Christians and brought about the design of the Siege of Jerusalem to revenge the Death of Christ and then he condemn'd and vilifi'd all other Historians to establish the truth of that Book But one of those Prelats might sooner have instructed himself to believe in God then us to believe in Him and it is as difficult a thing to make us quit our love of those Books as to make him quit the love of his kind Sister For those books are the only foundation of our belief Neither do they allow the defeat of Monsieur Cayer They say that the Tales of St. Francis were made at Geneva That 's well for the Alcoran of St. Francis However the studies of these abstemious Find-faults are full of those books of the old Impressions 'T were better for them to defend them and say that they were made with a good Intention As when we read of St. Francis living with his Wife of Snow We ought to speak the best and say the good man did it to cool not only his own naturally sinful heat but as a president to his posterity When he preaches to the flesh thereby it is intimated that when his offspring should preach they would require a mute Auditory When he preach'd it up for a Miracle that God would not suffer the flesh to be drown'd in the Deluge thereby he insinuates that the Miracles of the Church of Rome ought to proceed from natural causes as Richeome labours to make out When he calls the Wolves his Brethren and stroaks them with his hand he did it to show that the Franciscans should be rough footed and surprizers of the Innocent sheep He calls the Swallows his Sisters because their Brothers like them all morning prayer time build their nests i' the Country-mens Houses When the Angel told St. Francis as he was at his devotions that Antichrist should be born of his Order that was because it should not be thought an Indignity to make the Franciscan Friers Popes And when he disrob'd himself before the Women and set up his Crucifix what was that but to display the beauties of Nature as not having eaten of the Tree of Knowledg and to lay open if not the understanding yet the nakedness of Father Adam When St. Germain raises a dead Ass wherefore should not he out of his brotherly love and Asinine commiseration being alive give life to Asses who had bin the death of so many at St. Germans de prez and Auxerrois Blase of Anjou who threaten'd his Son with Excommunication if he offer'd to read one line in the Scripture especially the Commandments at length at the intercession of Aubraye a good Catholic gave him leave to read the Maccabees As for Frier Jacopon when I was a Huguenot there was nothing made me laugh like the Legend of that pious Saint and among the rest how he made Confession of his sins to one of his Brethren by signs These things seem absurd but they work this effect among the people as to lead them into a belief that there is no absurdity in the World And therefore it is that St. Paul calls the preaching of these things the folly of preaching From whence Monsieur Cayer draws this notable Syllogism It pleases God to save Believers by the folly of preaching the folly of preaching is the preaching of Legends therefore God is pleased to save believers by preaching of Legends If any person requires the note of Universality and insists that nothing is to be concluded ex puris particularribus he may do well for the School-men However to conclude from pure particulars is rather the Logic
of a Banker then a Scholar The Legend of the Saints is the Garden of the Soul Images are the Books of the Ignorant Yet in this Garden there are certain Herbs to be found which if they do no farther mischief yet cause a general stupidity A brave fellow who understands the fashion of the World knows what it is which the Country people call Robbery If he find that his disconsolate Soul is not able to change its way of living he may see in the Legend the bright example of a Knight who without mercy rob'd the poor as well as the rich and was acquitted for saying an Ave Marie once a day and it is indeed the general practice of the Souldiers at this time If a Lady of the Court find in her disconsolate Soul that she cannot pass for a devout Votaress and a voluptuous Liver both at the same time has she not wherewithal to comfort her like the Egyptian St. Marie who from twelve years of age till she was grown contemptibly old never refus'd any man in her life Are not the ancient Chronicles full of the noble acts of St. Mandlin Do not the Legendary Poets tell us how many persons of good Families have been forc'd by the power of her Enchantments to sell their Estates for her sake How many other couragious Blades have valiantly cut their own throats being jealous of her love and yet she was no sooner exhausted with age but she was presently canoniz'd If any poor Priest have not the pour to preserve his Chastity 't is his fault if he make not use of the Canon Si quis Presbyter Concubinam non habuerit and thereby be as shamelessly happy as Abbot Ephraim who made no scruple like Diogenes to supply his wants in the open Market-place There 's the Authority of the Chapter inter opera Charitatis where it is said that he that couples with a Magdalen multum profuit in remissionem peccatorum If any Bishop or Cardinal becomes amorous of his Page let him comfort himself after the Example of St. Francis who calls his Amours with Frier Maccus sacred As to what the said Book affirms that St. Francis was all inflam'd beholding Frier Maccus and that he often cry'd out the same day as the one held the Chalice and the other the little Cruises transported with the fury of his love praebe mihi teipsum there is much to be collected from thence I will tell ye bythe by that you may hence conjecture where Monsieur Confessor lays his foundation when he calls the Amours of Quailus and his Master Sacred and whence this Title was first deriv'd There is another book whom I have so often mention'd which they would fain have quite extirpated but the holy See would never permit the loss De Sparde was the first that labour'd in it these words Habeat jam Roma pudorem ejusmodi mores toto mundo prostituere desinat Let Rome at length be asham'd and cease to prostitute such Customes to all the World This is the book of Rates where a good Catholic may see the cheapness of sinning and observe in a moment the price of forgiveness Whoever shall deflour a Virgin shall pay six groats He that shall carnally know by consent of parties his own Mother his Sister his Cousin-German or his Godmother shall be acquitted for five groats but if it be known publicly in the Church not under six He that kills his Father or his Mother shall pay a Duckat and and five Cartines I could tell ye more but I shall rather let ye know that these things are to be seen in the Chapter of perpetual Expences The book was printed at Paris in the year 1570. by Toussain Denis in St. James-street at the Woodd'n Cross being entitl'd Cancellaria Apostolica A Poictovin asked me one day whether I could resolve him a quaint Question why Sodomites were more zealous against the Huguenots then any of the Roman Catholics I laugh'd at the Question at first but afterwards I call'd to mind what I had heard from the mouth of the brave Marshal d' Aumont There are none said he that so violently persecute us as these Sodomites and labour the utter expulsion of the Huguenots I remember'd also that there are not any who so earnestly solicited the King's Conversion as those who were most suspected for that Crime Which was the reason that I resolvâ—d to understand the Interest of these Monsieur Catamites You know said the Poictovin that there are several persons who are polluted with this peccadillo who though they do not over-credulously believe that there is any Hell or any Paradise yet being still in doubts and fears would as the Decretalists say make use of absolution by way of caution Now should a man come to an honest Divine and ask him by what means a detestable sinner may be sav'd He would reply by embracing the death of Christ with a true and sincere faith by praying with a contrite heart and a real repentance by relying upon the mercy of God and putting on a resolution of amendment of life and perseverance therein But the mischief is that the honest people of this age are not easily allur'd to furnish themselves either with this same Faith or Patience Then comes the holy See compos'd of persons of high birth that carry a great sway in public affairs who observing that such Soul-physic was not at all toothsome to great Personages and being unwilling that Beggars and Tatterdemallions should out-brave Kings and Grandees with their Theological vertues in the other World have found out a more pleasing and quaint Expedient For if you ask a Jesuit concerning that nice and intricate sin of Sodomy he 'l fit your humour better then a Country Parson He 'l send you to Cardinal Sourdis who by his Bull alone shall acquit ye both of Sodomy and Incest He will put about your neck a wreath of the last requests by Master Jacques David Bishop of Eureux If you are a French man he will bestow upon ye certain grains of Paradise out of the 19. Art will cause ye to say certain words out of the 7. Art as Domine Jesu suscipe and such like which are printed at Paris by And this Application rightly manag'd gives ye a full and absolute Indulgence and Remission of all your sins as well in reference to the Crime as to the Punishment Which is expresly quoted by Monsieur Confessor as a new thing For we said before that Antiquity durst not be so hardy nor adventurous Do ye think it strange then that the Religion of the Huguenots of which I will say what the learned Julian said of Christianism that it was the Religion of Beggars and Vagabonds I say do you think it strange that Kings Princes Prelats Cardinals Popes and other Grandees should from the bottom of their hearts abominate Huguenotism and Huguenots and embrace a kind and favourable Religion by the precepts and freedom whereof the gates of Paradise
who though he were no Spie of Israel yet acted as one of the King's Spies among the Huguenot Israelites Per. Give me thy hand I am thy humble Servant and if ever I hear any body scandalize thee and say that thou hast giv'n St. Mary the foul disease I will tell 'em no thou hast it still i' thy own custody for them if they please Math. Go too say thou hast found a Mistress of me Good morrow I 'le go and repeat all our discourse to Guedron CHAP. II. Of the re-union of Religion IT being a task of great difficulty to destroy the opinion of the Huguenots by Disputes we have design'd what is more probable a re-union of Religions by the discoveries and intelligencies of the gain'd Ministers but of six that there were there are five dead and one banish'd Without doubt there would be no great danger for them to quit several Theological Tenets provided the authority of the Church and the Pope remain entire The reason is plain for that they having submitted to the authority of them they might easily afterwards lose their arguments by virtue thereof And when our Jesuits made opposition to several Articles which the other were willing to grant they did not smell the design in regard that some of them aim'd rather at a civil War then pâ—ace of Conscience Now you shall see what we of the other Club of honest good fellows would have had the Romish Church let go First That the obedience should rest in the French provided they dismiss'd some of their Drolleries which caus'd the people to laugh as the beginning the Mass with an c. and other absurdities which are distinctly and sutly discuss'd by Bernard Ochinus in his Treatise della Natività della Messa As to the Ceremonies take away the most ridiculous and for the rest make answer to what Bernard Ochinus says That it is the Lord's Supper disguis'd and clog'd with Ceremonies to make it appear more holy Next that the Priests should be permitted to marry and to leave their Wives when they grow irksom In all cases to make use of the holy Decree and its liberties as you find it in the Canon is qui non habet uxorem loco illius c. It is notably said in the Rubric of the Decree Quod qui non habet uxorem loco illius debet concubinam habere Ita nefas Episcopum creari nisi saltem unius Concubinae dominum Distinct 34. qu. 9. per de var. stud Vol. l. 4. sect 5. Villavinceni ibid c. 4. Were these privileges rightly observ'd and establish'd he were the son of a Whore that would not be of the Church of Rome Then we would abolish all Fasts unless it were to the poor and the sick dismiss the Terrour of imaginary Purgatory yet without any injury to the mediation of Saints for fear of ruining the Church I do not without reason advise the abolition of Purgatory There is nothing has made so many Souls very curious of their Salvation at their latter end as the story which follows A Priest when he comforts a sick person tells him That the pangs of death are the entrance into the Gehenna's of Purgatory A Minister teaches him that they are as the pains of Child-bearing that lead into eternal life and builds his argument upon this Text This day shalt thou be with me I will boldly say That the Index expurgatorius ought to take notice of this passage Now the relish of these two differences of dying has caus'd several good Catholics to renounce Purgatory upon their death beds where the hopes and fears of this world give way to those of the other We would have allow'd them for their Markets Wednesday and Saturday Lent and Vigils but that Policy has otherwise orderâ—d it and thus we had made a perfect peace with St. Paul in the 4. of the 1. to Timothy This is also a forgetfulness of the Index Also we ought to withdraw these marks of the Faith of abusers of Preachers of lyes Hypocrisie and the Doctrine of Divels Calvin could not have said more That no person read St. Paul till the agreement be made and firmly sign'd and the pensions of the consenting Ministers well assign'd At the same time the other Church shall reassume their Pomp their Music their Dancings great Feastings and the vast Revenues of their Church These Ministers I would they might keep their Coaches Hounds and Haukes We would have established a free Liberty especially to expel that troublesome Discipline that has lost us so many good people We would not have accompted for sins simple Fornication nor Adultery for love according to Cahier in his learned book upon the re-establishment of Bourdeaux and his admirable dispute upon the 7. Commandment I say the seventh because we have releas'd the second which the Council of Trent would needs take away For this 7. Commandment which is non moechaberis forbids the sin only to the Children of Onan in regard that according to our modern Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is deriv'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est humidum fundere It had bin a brave Religion which had rejected what was irksom to either and had establish'd what was plausible and agreeing to both Every one had bin receiv'd and satisfi'd no one excluded I know the Aristarchians will oppose my good intentions but against them I say First that the Church ought to have its arms open to all sorts of people Now the expulsion of vices or incoveniencies is no reception The Huguenots cry That the Church is only of the elect but this is too severe Secondly I would fain ask these sowerlings whether they would be wiser then the Apostles who desir'd to enter Judaism with honour You see in the Epistle to the Galatians how M. St. Peter conform'd and comply'd like a complaisant Gentleman to the humours and infirmities of the Jews St. Paul reprehends him but Frier Gilles said he might better have held his tongue then spoken so many things that smelt of the Faggot But let us also examin what our Holy Fathers said when they went about to give Paganism a decent Funeral They taught us to paint our Lady after the ancient Model of Vesta holding little Jupiter in her Lap the Trinity like Medius Fidius They have brought in the Cornival instead of the Saturnalia Twelf-day instead of the Lupercalia The first of May belonging formerly to Cloris they gave away to St. Thais canoniz'd for that purpose The Pervigiliae are solemnis'd at Beaucaire upon St. Magdalen's day in commemoration of her first Life The Curtisans have a Mass particular to themselves which after they have said they betake themselves to their Callings Candlemass what is it but the Februaria of the Ancients when they lighted their Candles Their Feast of St. John answers to the Palilia in honour of Pales goddess of Sheep What the ancients callâ—d Supplications are no more then our Processions
had any Church I alleg'd these things in imitation of that pious Father who living three hundred years before Constantine nevertheless is so prudent as to call Byzantium Constantiople to the end ye may not laugh at the letter which wrote to the Virgin Mary and that other which J. C. wrote to the three honest Catholics under the Cross at Azè in Poictou op'nly read by the Curates of the Parishes But not to injure the Chapter of Miracles and to shew you that I was not converted out of Ignorance I have read almost all Bellarmin and I took great care being resolv'd upon my Conversion not to meddle with Whitaker Lambert or Reynolds I have read the Declamations and Fictions of Campanus where I saw so many Martyrs of the new Catholic Church 'T is the best way to read that book without examination I did more for I stop'd my Eares against a Heretic that would have made me believe all those Martyrs to be lyes and fables alleging that there were two Characters of Martyrdom the one that it must be purely for Religion and the other that it be at the Parties own choice whether he will live or dye I began to swear that the Queen of Scot's was a true Martyr Oh said the Heretic what a miserable Religion is yours that hath no Martyr purer then a Homicide nor any more chast then a Strumpet I could have found i' my heart to have bang'd him but he was a man of the Sword I have read the Amorous Sermons of M. S. Panigarole but cannot find what the Heretics report of his Catamit As to his Mistress indeed ye say something for whose sake he begins one of his Sermons thus 'T is for you fair one that I dye Nor can I find fault with his Complement for presently after he added said Christ to his Church He was a bold Preacher yet not so bold neither but that I have read in some of his Sermons preach'd at Turin that although the Saints were Canoniz'd he did not beleive them all to be in Paradise A wary man not to be a general voucher for every body I have read the Thundring Sermons of the Bishop of Bizonte which hard'nd my heart for the Massacre at hand Whoever read a more substantial Clause then this Che la crudelta loro era pietosa That their Cruelty was Mercy I have read the writings of Reboul who has told tales out of School because he had bin whip'd there That book will serve excellently well for a Farce after those Tragedies which afflict the squeamish raw Conscience of a Convert newly gall'd with his Conversion I have read Dr. Boulanger who has written like a Devil all ran dan and without premeditation they that will not believe me may beleive their own eyes He is better skill'd in Logic now then when he disputed at Miot and had he now to do with that blind zealot he would conundrum him in another manner then he did For he has answer'd the Preface of Duplessis at least he gives him good words being resolv'd like the chief Captains of the holy Party to observe this maxim That in great undertakings 't is enough to shew a good intention In the same manner I could not forbear laughing when I read the I'ambonicum of Michau against him 'T is well known that the Sorbon has forbid him to write upon a Letter of M. Confessour But in the reply of Michau I blame him for saying That the Boulangers are of Troye in Champagne He was ignorant that they came from Lyons where they could not stay as being too near Provence where they had seen M. Auguste upon the Scaffold or upon the Ladder I read the beginning of Doxemel but he put me out of humour At first I was pleased with young Sponde's manner of arguing for we have a young Sponde as well as a young Nostredamus They say the Widow wrote it which causes many to admire because it was verily thought that she had made all public before I have not spoken at all concerning the Treatises of the Husband because the first disgrace the later which do not seem to be made with so good a will nor in so good an humour as the first Those are full of discourse enliv'nd only by pomp of words the first moving and persuasive ad fidem faciendam But the young man treating of consecrated Church-yards draws from the sum of his discourse this consequential Argument The Jews were very curious in reference to their Sepulchers The Turks account their Sepulchers Holy and go in Pilgrimage to Mecca The Pagans erected lofty Pyramids canoniz'd their dead and ordain'd them Supplications Ergo The Christians ought to do the like in imitation of the Jews Turks and Pagans But not to bereave any person of the honour which is due to him we are well assur'd that this was the off-spring of M. Raymund's brain or rather of his Host who is also reported to have made the preliminary Epistle to Richeome Let it be as it will both together have taught me very fine fancies First that it is a duty to carry the Pope upon our Shoulders Thus the Pagans exalted their Druids and Vestals The Romans were carry'd by their Slaves in Litters The Chineses in Tunquin carry their Religious Orders a Cock loft in the same manner and the Country people in Xantoigne upon their wedding days are hoisted after the same fashion as it is also the Custom in Lorrain Ergo We are to carry the Pope Cardinals and Bishops upon our Shoulders to shew our selves Pagans like the Chineses or Slaves as among the Romans or else in imitation of the Courtly fashion of the Country Bumpkins of Xantoigne and Lorrain The same Author tells That Madam Simonite he meant Sunamite kiss'd Elisha's feet Ergo all Kings who are Simonites ought to kiss the Pope's feet This Monsieur Raymund and his Companions speak very well to the Huguenots and their printed Complaints by declaring to them that they do not complain without a cause For as Raymund says to Rabesne contentiously wrangling to make a Huguenot Lady lose the Guardianship of her Children The Laws are not to be observ'd according to humour or to please proscrib'd persons and afterwards solliciting to have a Huguenot put to death for a Murder which a pious Catholic had committed we need not make any scruple to destroy the Estates of those whose lives are under Condemnation or to cut off particular Members where the Body is under the general attainder of the Church I have also read a book much after the same rate and which I believe to be a chip of the same block mainly endeavouring to extirpate the memory of Papes's Joan. And to shew you that I have studi'd and that I keep a Correspondence with the Learned I have sent him an Epigram upon this subject which begins Foemina quod mentita virum to which I expect his answer CHAP. VII Of the Arrogance of the Huguenots IF