Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France durng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner disâ—favouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the disferent and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fosse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was blown over but the Spaniard also for divers years diverted by his wars with Portugal from molesting the Queen in that manner which otherwise 't is likely he would have done and from some such Invasion as though then intended was not actually undertaken till ten years after We might here also remember Don John of Austria in the heat of his eager designs upon England cut off by the Plague in the flower of his age Thuan. if his heart was not broken as was thought Raleigh by the disappointment of his ambitious designs after he had fouly by the Popes Dispensation falsified his Oath taken to observe the Treaty made with the States General And we might here likewise take notice not only of what some may think observable in the Death of the King of Spain Thu. l. 120. if not devoured yet in a great measure wasted and consumed by Lyce bred in his own body which in so great quantities issued out of four several tumours in his breast as that it was as much as two men by turns could do to wipe them off from him with napkins and cloathes but of that which others may think more remarkable in his Life which is that having twice most solemnly Sworn to the States General of the Low-Countries over which he held only a kind of Seigniory to Maintain their Ancient Rights Raleigh Priviledges and Customes which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five Earls before him and afterwards obtained from the Pope a Dispensation of his Oathes which Dispensation says Sir Walter Rawleigh was the true cause of the war and Blood-shed since when he sought contrary to his Oathes and all Right and Justice not only by new devised and intolerable Impositions to tread their National and Fundamental Laws Priviledges and Ancient Rights under his feet and both by Arts dividing their Nobility and by Force to enslave their Persons and Estates and make himself Absolute but moreover by introducing among them the Exercise of the Spanish Inquisition to Tyrannize also over their Consciences and in pursuance hereof had committed many barbarous Murders and Massacres among them by the Just Providence of God he was thrown out of all and those Rights and Priviledges which he sought to abolish and that Religion which he sought to oppress were by that people retained and enjoyed with greater freedom and liberty than ever so that in conclusion the recompense of that oppression and cruelty which he exercised upon them was the loss of those Countries which says Raleigh for beauty gave place to none and for revenue did equal his West-Indies besides the loss of an hundred millions of money and of the lives of above four hundred thousand Christians by him cast away in his endeavours to enslave them If besides this we reflect upon his many and various attempts against the Queen of England Thu. l. 120. some of them with so great study and vast expense of his Treasure his unhappy Wars in aid of the Rebels in France which his ambitious hopes had no less devoured than they had England all of them unsuccessful and remarkably blasted and himself at last so weary of them that he was glad to desire peace with both his fruitless wasting of 5594. Myriads of Gold as himself confessed without any other profit than the acquest of Portugal which he thought might be as easily lost as his hopes of the Kingdom of France had suddenly vanished and however was sufficiently ballanced with his loss in Africa and elsewhere the death of his eldest son by his own command as the lesuite * 9. Ration Temp. 12. Petavius saith expresly and the less of all his other sons save only Phil. 111. who succeeded him and was the only son of all his four wives who survived him If we seriously I say reflect upon all these we may look upon the prolongation of his life in respect of himself but as a continuance of trouble and misery to him and in respect of this blessed Queen to have been designed by God for an Exercise of her Faith and Virtue and a necessary means to render his Favour and never failing Providence over her the more Manifest Conspicuous and Exemplary to encourage others to Fidelity to him and Resignation to his most Wise Powerful and Gracious Providence But though these things do well deserve our notice yet that which I call a Distinguishing Providence is yet more admirable and remarkable in her nearer neighbours in France 39. When Queen Elizabeth began her Reign in England Henry 11. was King of France His Father Francis 1. who in the beginning of his Reign which was about the time of Luthers first appearing against Indulgences had unhappily entred into a league with the Pope Leo x. which in the judgment of many says Thuanus brought destruction upon his affairs and family though in many things unhappy throughout his whole Reign yet certainly was he in nothing more unhappy than in the guilt of so much innocent blood as
others There are two factions in the Kingdom one of the Momorancies to whom the Colignies were formerly added but now upon the account of Religion by which they have engaged many to them they constitute a new faction The other is of the Guises nor will France ever be quiet or that Majesty that is taken from Kings by the Civil Wars thence arising ever be restored till the chief of their Heads who disturb the most flourishing Empire and the publick Peace be stricken off They by the troubles of the Kingdom have grown to so great Power that they cannot be taken away at the same time they are severally to be taken off and set one against the other that they may destroy one another Coligni must be begun with who only survives of his Family who being taken out of the way it would much weaken the Momorancies who lie under so great an odium upon the account of their joyning with Coligni But this is an unworthy thing and not to be suffered by you said they directing their discourse to the King that a man whom only Nobility commends one that is advanced to honour by the favour of Kings now grown burdensom to the Nobility equal to Princes in honour grievous to your self should come to that height of madness and boldness that he should count it a sport to mock at Royal Majesty and every day at his own lust to raise Wars in the Kingdom Certainly his madness is above all things by you if you be indeed King to be restrained that by his example all may learn to bear their fortunes decently and use them modestly Nor only shall the faction of the Momorances be broken by his death but the power of the Protestants shall be over-turned of which when he is the very heart and soul in him alone the Protestants seem to live and he being dead they will fall with him This is not only useful but necessary for setling the publick Peace when as experience doth shew that as one house cannot keep two Dogs nor one tree relieve two Parrots so one and the same Kingdom cannot bear two Religions This may be done without danger or blame if some cut-throat as there are enough of them to be had be suborned to take away the life of Coligni encouraged by some present reward and hopes of future who having done the thing may make his escape by the help of a light horse prepared for that purpose V. Dav. p 368 370 The opinion of Alberto Condi Coun. of Retz For then without doubt the Protestants who are very numerous in the City supposing it to be done by the Guises will presently as you know they are a furious sort of people take up Arms and setting upon the Guisians they shall easily be cut off by their greater numbers for the people of Paris are much addicted to them and perhaps the Momorances so hateful to the Parisians shall be involved in the same tumult But if the thing proceed not so far yet at least the blame of the fact from which you shall receive great advantage shall be translated from you upon the Guisians as bearing yet in memory the murder of their Father whom having destroyed their Rivals you shall soon reduce into good order This thing being done you shall forthwith be able to determine concerning the chief leaders of the Protestants whom you have in your power who no doubt will return to their old Religion and due allegiance to you when evil Counsellors shall be removed And when it was debated in the Queens Council among those that were to be trusted their discourse went further that not only the Momorances with Coligni should be taken off but that the Guisians should at some fit opportunity be slain as those whom the Queen ought in no wise to trust or spare being heretofore grievously and often offended by her For so the Counsellors ordered the matter if the Protestants should go about to revenge the death of Coligni they and the Momorances should in the conflict be oppressed by the people as being inferior in strength but not without great loss to the adversaries whom the King having drawn a great number of Souldiers which he had then at his command into the Louvre sitting as a spectator might at last set upon being broken and weakened by fighting and as though they had taken Arms without his command and by way of sedition might command them all to be slain together with the Nobles as taking this or that party for whiles they remained safe there would be no end of murmurs and complaints against the Queen whom the seditious cry out upon as a stranger and so fit to be removed from the Government of the Kingdom 10. These were their divers counsels according to the diversity of the persons but they all agreed in the executing of the matter The Duke of Guise being at last taken into the privity of the fact though otherwise he knew nothing of the other Counsels an Assasine was sought for and presently Morevell appears being as it seemed provided for that purpose who having formerly undertaken to do such a villany he fled into the Camp of the Protestants but being affrighted by the danger of it lest he should seem to have done nothing he treacherously slew Arthurus Valdraeus Moius Monsieur de Muy at the siege of Niort Dav. p. 376. and from that time often changing his lodgings he concealed himself in the house of the Guises in which Family he was brought up from a child An house was also pitched upon in the Cloyster of St. German Auxerrois as they call it the house of Peter Pila Villemur who had formerly been Tutor to the Duke of Guise himself by which Coligni returning home must needs pass Therefore upon the Friday Coligni having dispatched much business in the King's Council where Anjou was present and composed a difference between Antonius Marafinus Guerchius and Tiangius chief of the Nobility of the Burgundians forward men he attended upon the King to the next Tennis-Court from whence after a promise from the King the Duke of Guise and Teligny betaking himself homeward walking on foot by the house of Villemur going gently along and reading a Petition which was then by chance presented to him Morevel discharging a Musquet from a window that had a linen Curtain drawn before it he was shot with a brace of bullets whereof one struck off the fore-finger of his right-hand and the other wounded him more dangerously in his left-arm while Guerchius was upon his right-hand and Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus upon his left who as likewise all that were there were exceedingly astonished at what was done But he with a countenance not disturbed only shewed them the house whence the bullets came and presently commands Armanus Claromontius Pilius and Franciscus Movinius that they should go the King and in his name acquaint him with what was done then binding up his arm and leaning upon his
immediately put into Execution These saith he and the like Preparations may be made c. But what are these Why in general 1. Causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and continually keeping up the same 2. Sowing the seeds of a continual war betwixt England and Scotland 3. Rouzing up and encouraging to action the Spirits of the English Catholicks 4. Dealing with the chief of the Irish Nobility to new model Ireland as soon as they hear of the Queen's death For the accomplishing of all which he hath several subservient means Chap. 25. But for the like what they may be is lest to the Readers judgement to conceive Only it may be noted that he who would not scruple to cause and keep up Dissâ—ntions to sow the seeds of a continual war to excite Rebellions among us would hardly have scrupled at such a project as by one blow would have put us quite out of our pain It would be too long to note all the Projects of private men to this purpose which were on foot at that time but this of Campanella for the promotion of the Interest and designs of the King of Spain is the more pertinent and observable because our conspirators had their Negotiations with him their Leger there and built their greatest hopes upon his assistance at the same time 10. But there is an other particular as to this circumstance of Time very considerable which is intimated to us in those words of Campanella For as we may easily perceive many heads at work at this time many projects on foot contemporary in the contrivance so do they all agree in the Time designed for Execution So Campanella's Preparations so soon as ever Queen Elizabeth is dead are immediately to be put in Execution So Pope Clements Bulls had respect to the same time Quandocunque contingeret miseram illam foeminam ex hac vita excedere Proceed Q. 4. And the Reason of all this is very apparent Pag. 158 For now the King of Scots as Campanella observes hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his neighborhood to it but also because of his Right of Succession And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Antient and Continual Rivals the Scots a thing very grievous no doubt both to Rome Spain and Flanders and therefore no wonder if all beat their brains to prevent so great a mischief For whereas England alone Pag. 158 notwithstanding in a manner continually at wars with their ancient and continual Rivals Pag. 155 appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low Countries and against the most Christian King in France assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces what will Great Britain do when not only the occasion of those wars shall cease but both Nations be united under one and the same King No question but the forethoughts of this set wiser heads on work than Catesbys or any other of those unhappy Gentlemen who are vainly pretended to have been trapan'd by Cecil and something no doubt was resolved upon the time drawing on and the Queen very old And this might be the reason of their long expectation that change of State would change Religion also Speed sect 37. And if we consider the Principles and practises of these men and what before had been attempted against the late Queen not only by open Hostility as becomes Kings and States where they have just cause but also by base secret conspiracies and treacheries against her person instigated and somented as well by other Princes and by their Embassadors even whilst Legers here as Mendoza and Labespineus as by the Pope we can hardly think any thing so base or barbarous that they were not like to attempt upon this occasion And if we again consider how all their former endeavours whether more justifyable before men as by open hostility or more base and unworthy not only by promoting rebellions but also by poison assasination had hither to been ineffectual and defeated we may not unreasonably think that they might at last arrive at some such project as this as their last refuge and most effectual and infallible means to accomplish at last their so long studied designs And lastly that it really was so the punctual observance both of Campanella's preparations by indeavouring to alienate affections and raise jealousies between the English and Scots and other differences and dissentions among us and stirring up the spirits of the English Catholicks c. which were practised immediately upon the Queens death and the Kings coming to the Crown of England and have ever since been prosecuted too long here to be related and also of Del Rio's Instance and Doctrine of Concealing Confessions and that by Equivocation even in examination upon Oath so well fitted to this purpose and as well and exactly followed and prosecuted may reasonably incline us to believe This circumstance of the time designed for the Execution of this Plot is also visible in Catesby's Reasonings see the Hist pag. 4.5 which he might well learn from the same Tutors from whom he learnt the project of the Plot it self for if to take off King James alone unless also the Prince the Duke and moreover the Peers and whole Parliament would not serve their turn much less would it have served to have taken off Queen Elizabeth now ready to die of her self though with her Parliament while the King together with the addition of another Nation to this was ready to succeed her 11. And thus we see the business is very plain as to the time so long before resolved on in all their Councels both at Rome and Spain It now remains to consider how the attempt in point of Time did answer this resolution The Queen deceased the 24 of March 1602. the next day was King James proclaimed who came to Barwick 6. April and to Lond. 7. May following Anno 1603. and was Crowned July after The Parliament began 19. March following and continued till 7. July 1604. Then was prorogued till 7. Feb. and then again till 5. Octob. 1605. and then at last till the fatal day 5. Novemb. following when this unhappy Plot was happily discovered From whence we again run it counter to its Original thus 11. Decemb. 1604 was the Mine begun †Fawkes Confes and in May preceding did the Conspirators actually engage in the design under an Oath of Secrecy * Proceedings R. 4. The Lent before Catesby imparted the design to Thomas Winter †Winters Confes and in September before that which was Anno 1603. to * Proceedings R. 2. Percy which was before the Parliament began and that being the time designed it is a very fair evidence to our purpose that find it on foot at that very time which was by all those Councels so long before designed and before this
a fevor and therefore her body being dissected in open view but her head under colour of respect untouched it was divulged that by the testimony of skilful Physitians she died of a fevor as Davila relates the story The next to be made sure of in particular was that brave person Colinius a man who though through necessity ingaged in them yet detected out of an innate hatred of such broils the late Civil Wars even to his own ruine and destruction at last as Thuanus upon several occasions often notes and as real a well-wisher of his King and Countreys good as any Subject in France as appeared more fully in some instances discovered after his death But the King and Queen-mother by the arts of the Guisian Faction being prepossessed of a contrary opinion of him after all their fraudulent expressions of favour to him caused him to be shot by a retainer of the Guisian Family â—a p. 367. Thu. l. 52. to secure themselves from the imputation of so odious a fact but being thereby only maimed not killed out-right they presently according to their former dissimulations repair to his lodgings to visit him and with great shew of sorrow for the accident appoint him Physitians and Chirurgeons and a guard for his defence and order a strict search for the apprehension of the assasine This done upon the eve of St. Bartholomew being Sunday Da. p. 3â—1 372. the Duke of Guise by order from the King having about twilight given direction to the Provost des Marchand the chief head of the people of Paris to provide 2000 armed men with every one a white sleeve on their left arm and white crosses in their hats to be ready upon notice instantly to execute the Kings commands and that the Sheriffs of the several Wards should also be ready and cause lights upon the ringing of the bell of the Palace-clock to be set up in every window himself at the hour prefixed with the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur d'Angoulesme the King's bastard-Brother and other Commanders and Souldiers to the number of 300 went to the Admiral Colinius his house and having forcibly entred the Court-gate kept by a few of the King of Navar 's Halbardiers and the servants of the house who were all killed without mercy they likewise kill the Admiral himself and threw his body out of the window Felinius his son-in-law with other persons of quality and all the rest that had relation to him This done Monsieur d'O Colonel of the King's Guards calls out the principal Protestants that were in the Louvre one by one who being come into the Court were all killed by the Souldiers that stood in two long ranks with their arms ready for that purpose there died divers Noblemen and persons of great quality and others to the number of 200. At the same time the bell gave the sign and those who were prepared for the deed having received order what to do fell a killing the Protestants throughout all the lodgings and houses where they were dispersed and made an infinite slaughter of them without any distinction of age sex or condition and of many of the Papists among the rest And those who fled were pursued by the Duke of Guise with a great many horse and foot and being overtaken some without shooes some without saddles some without bridles but all more or less unprovided were scattered and cut off There were killed in the City that day and the next above 10000 whereof above 500 were Barons Knights and Gentlemen who had held the chiefest employments in the War and were now purposely met together from all parts to honor the King of Navar 's Marriage Thu. l. 52. A sad time it was what through the noise and clatter of those who every where ran to killing and carrying away of their prey and the doleful groans and sad cryes of those who were slain and murthered without mercy young and old rich and poor men and women women great with child and others with their little children sucking at their breasts and in the dead time of the night plucked out of their beds and houses what with the horrid spectacle of dead bodies thrown out of the windows and trod about the streets and the channels running down with streams of bloud into the River And yet so little moved were the Court Ladies with all this that without either fear or shame in an impudent manner they beheld and stood gazing upon the naked bodies of the Noblemen and Gentlemen which lay on heaps before the Court The day after the Admirals death Da. 3â—â— the Duke of Anjou with the Regiment of the Guards went through all the City and Suburbs causing those houses to be broken open that made any resistance but all the Protestants were either already dead or else being terrified had put white crosses in their hats the general mark of the Papists endeavouring by that means and by hiding themselves to save their lives but being pointed at in the streets by any one or discovered any other way they were without mercy torn in pieces by the people and cast into the River The day before this terrible execution the King dispatched Posts into divers parts of the Kingdom commanding the Governors of Cities and Provinces to do the like And the same night at Meaux and the days ensuing at Orleans Rouen Bourges Angiers Tholouze and many other places but above all at Lyons there was a most bloudy slaughter of the Protestants without any respect of age sex or quality of persons Most sad and lamentable stories says Davila might be here related for this cruelty was prosecuted in so many several places with such variety of accidents against people of all conditions as it was credibly reported that there were slain above forty thousand Protestants in few days The King himself as In vita Greg. 13. Cicarela relates told the Pope's Nuncio that seventy thousand and more were slain Some days after the King dispatched his Grand Provost with all diligence to seize upon Colinius his Wife and Children but his eldest Son with the widow-Lady his Mother-in-law and others being already fled secretly to Geneva the younger children both male and female were condemned to death in their tender years About two days after the Massacre was finished at Paris a Jubilee was there appointed and a publick Thanksgiving kept by the King the whole Court and a great confluence of the people for the business so happily managed according to their wish and desire Thu. l. 52.53 In memory whereof St. Bartholomew's day was by a decree of the Parliament of Paris appointed to be observed as an Anniversary Thanksgiving-day 46. Thu. l. 51.53 This horrible act of most barbarous and inhumane cruelty is highly extolled by the Italian Writers as a good and laudable deed and the politick contrivance of it as most worthy the subtil wit of a magnanimous Prince And certain it is that the news of
War against the Protestants but solemnized with the otherwise untimely death of her Father and by Philip her Husband first employed in the * V. Sect. 42. p. 74. Consultation at Bayonne and at last brought to that †V. Sect. 44. unhappy end when great with child and in the 23 th year of her age which hath been mentioned before and is more fully related in the late French History of Dom Carlos and Margaret the youngest first forced by her Mother and Brother Charles to a Marriage with the King of Navar that unhappy Marriage which was made the introduction to the Massacre afterwards for her * V. Busbeq ep Aug. 27. 1583. Da. p. 599. Thu. l. 80. lewdness and incontinency reproachfully turned from the Court by her next Brother Henr. 3. and at last divorced from her Husband when King of France without issue by him unless she had any by any other which was kept secret as her Brother objected to her If their other Sister Claud married to Charles Duke of Lorain was less unhappy in this respect she seems less to have merited the like misfortune for we meet with no mention of her in all the story of these confusions in France Thus were five Kings in a continued succession cut off besides three others of the same line the youngest son of Francis 1. in few months after the beginning of those persecutions at his age of 23. and the second and youngest of Hen. 2. who never came to the Crown and their whole line and posterity extirpated in France while they sought the extiâ—pation of the Protestants there whereby the Crown at last notwithstanding all opposition and endeavours to hinder it descended to a Protestant Prince and all this by a constant course of Divine Vengeance upon that Family for about 44 years for so long it was from the execution of the Decree of the Parliament of Province Apr. 1545. and the death of the King 's youngest son Sept. 8. following to the murder of Henr. 3. Aug. 1589. the very same space of time which Queen Elizabeth happily and prosperously reigned in England and most of it contemporary Wherein it is very plain and observable a triple difference between her and them viz. a different cause or end and aim of their actions a different manner of proceeding and a different success As to the Cause they designed and endeavoured the suppression of the reformed Religion and extirpation of the Professors of it in their territories she established and promoted it in her Dominions As to their manner of proceeding they sought to attain their ends by fraud and violence slaughters and inexecrable severity either without Law or contrary to Law or by executions exceeding in severity the very rigour of the Decrees Laws or Edicts against the Protestants and all for no other cause but their Religion a Religion which teacheth nothing dishonourable to God or Christ or injurious to man which embraceth all that can reasonably be proved to have been taught by Christ or his Apostles receiveth honoureth and commends to the diligent study of all the sacred Scriptures such a Religion as they who persecute it confess to be true in what it affirms and is the most essential part of their own only believes not what they are not sufficiently convinced to be true and with no little reason suspect to be false or not proposed to their belief by Divine authority She did nothing without Law or contrary to the Laws was very moderate in making and no less in executing any Laws against Papists The first she made in the first and fist years of her Reign being so far from introducing any new severity that they take off from the harshness of what was in force before and those and the rest not being made against their Religion in general but upon special and particular necessary and urgent occasions for the necessary asserting and preservation of her own just authority against those who endeavoured to set up a pretended foreign jurisdiction against her to absolve her subjects from all duty and obligation of obedience to her and excire them to rebellions and to joyn with foreign enemies or by assassination to destroy her whereby she was necessitated and forced through their continual wicked seditious and rebellious practices for the curbing and restraining of them to proceed contrary to her own disposition to more and more severities of Laws which though none of them made without just cause and some special provocation yet were executed with admirable moderation the next after those above mentioned which was made in the thirteenth year of her Reign V. Caâ—nd an◠〈◊〉 p. â—86 being occasioned by the Northern Rebellion and the Pope's Bull to absolve her subjects from their obedience yet notwithstanding in six whole years after was not put in execution against any one though there were those apprehended who had offended against it and in ten years after that rebellion were there but five executed till the further provocations before mentioned in the 29th and following Paragraphs necessitated the execution of the Laws then in force and the enacting of some others in the 23 27 29 and 35 years of her Reign and yet did not the severity which was exercised in all her Reign against Papists equal what was done against the Protestants in two years of her Sisters Reign and oftner than once in few days in France and professedly for their Religion only whereas it cannot be proved * Sir Fr. Bacon in his Observations upon the Libel point 3. and Collection of the Queens Felicities and the late Treatise of the Grounds Reasons and Provocations necessitating the Sanguinary Laws Edit Lond. 1664. quarto that throughout her whole Reign there was any one executed meerly for their Religion Such certainly was her lenity and moderation in this respect considering the daily and high provocations against her as plainly argues an admirable magnanimity and piety in her and is scarce to be parallell'd in any History not to be denied but by such as have cast off all ingenuity and sense of their own credit and reputation and hath extorted the †V. Warson Widdrington c. apud Foulis l. 7. c. 2. The Jesuits reasons unreasonable confession and provoked the free acknowledgment of her more candid and ingenuous adversaries There might also be observed a great difference between the actions of the Protestants in France and the Papists both here and there too but that for brevity sake shall be left to the Readers own observation from what hath been related of each Therefore lastly as to their success they while by fraud and violence they sought the utter extirpation of the Reformed Religion and Professors of it in France were themselves extirpated there and the last of their race cut off by his own Subjects of that same Religion which by those wicked courses was sought to be established and the Religion which they sought to suppress and extirpate
on concerning the murder of this King 60. While the Spaniards are thus active to continue their old and make new friends in France it is not likely they would be unmindful of the Jesuites whom they had always found such ready instruments to serve them and in other Countries were still as well affected to the interest of Spain and the house of Austria V. l. 135.136 though contrary to that of their own Countrey as ever Nor is it to be thought that the Jesuites would be so easily drawn off from their old Friend and Patron by those little expressions of kindness not sufficient to compensate their injuries received and besides might be doubtful whether proceeding from any real affection to them or not especially considering their subjection to the same F. General by whom the motion of their society in other Countries under their several Provincials is in a correspondent uniformity steered only 't is probable as becomes wise men they would be cautious and wary how they did hazard the loss of what they had gotten and therefore act upon pretty sure grounds yet we meet with some influences of their affection to their old friend For to say nothing of F. Cotton a prime man of the Society and the King's Confessor his consulting a supposed Daemoniack concerning the * L. 132. King's life the same Father is reported to have †P. du Moulin Answ to Philanax Ch. 5. brought and recommended to the King a certain Spaniard of whom the King a while after received from Monsieur de la Force Vice-Roy of Bearne and Navar a description with an advertisement that such a day he went from Barcelona into France with intent to kill his Majesty and shewing his letter to Cotton commanded him to bring the man again but Cotton returning a good while after told him he was gone and could not be found and that not a year before the King was murdered he was in disgrace for writing * P. du Moulin ibid. divers things to the Provincial of the Jesuites in Spain which the King had revealed to him in confession and that †Foul. 9. c. 2. the D. of Sully proved to the King that he was guilty of betraying his secrets What these secrets were I find not but this is to be noted that he had then a great design in hand which whether the same or not which he pretended and which is related by the D. of Sully and from him by Perefix the Arch-Bishop of Paris he had in pursuance of it raised a great Army which startled both Spain and Rome Perefix an 1608. He had about two years before his death entred into a League Offensive and Defensive with those Hereticks and Rebels against the Catholick King the Hollanders whereof the Spaniards grievously complained Don Pedro de Toledo representing to him that the ruine or conversion of the Hereticks was the common interest of all the Catholick Princes and what great wars his Master had made upon that design Foul. ibid. Per. an 1609. and was now though the Pope had earnestly dehorted him from any more arming going in person with an Army of 40000 choice men to assist the D. of Brandingburg with his Allies the Protestant Princes in the business of Cleves and Juliers whereof the Emperor complained as that which could not be without wrong to the Catholick Religion and what was worst of all this expedition was not doubted to be only a cover for some greater design that business of Cleves falling out very opportunely to furnish him with a good occasion to commence the execution of his projects Foul. ibid. While the King was raising this Army in France was a great Book secretly kept by some Priests wherein many did subscribe their fidelity and obedience to the Pope Moulin ibid. many of the subscriptions in blood and at Rome the Pope having dehorted him from arming four months before he was murthered was the Decree against John Chastel censured and forbidden to be read by an Act of the Consistory together with the History of Thuanus for relating too plainly that horrid action of Chastel and the part which the Jesuites had in it and likewise a Book of Mariana the Jesuite but not that which approveth the murthering of King's which by that means was in some sort that is tacitly and implicitly approved At last having as well ordered all things for the Government at home in his absence as perfected his preparations for the Expedition he was impatient to be gone from the City partly through his eager desire of pursuing the exploit partly boding and presaging some mischief to his person if he should stay longer there But the Queen to whom he had committed the Regency in his absence assigning her a select Council Per. p. 489 Quaere who was this Conchini who put this into the Queens head I think an Italian of Florence through the instigation of Conchini and his Wife being very importunate with him that she might be crowned before his departure he would not deny her that testimony of his affection though otherwise very unwilling and withal told her That that Coronation did presage him some mischief they would kill him he should never go from that City his enemies had no other remedy but his death it was told him that he should be slain at the first grand magnificence that he should make and that he should die in a Coach which ' made him taken with a trembling when he was in one He was counselled for the avoiding of the unhappy prophecies to depart the next day and to leave the Coronation which might well be done without him but this extremely offended the Queen and therefore to satisfie her he staid with such success as was foretold For the next day after the Coronation when in the morning * Continuation of de Serres he had been very sad and pensive one while casting himself upon his bed to sleep then again when he could not sleep arising to his prayers doing this several times in the afternoon he would needs go to the Arsenal to visit the Duke of Sully who was there indisposed though the Duke of Vendosme imminded him that he had been warned to beware of the fourteenth day but contemning the warning and predictions out of a desire to conceal his fear just as he had done before in the restitution of the Jesuites contrary to the advice and perswasions of his best friends in the way his Coach being stayed by a stop made by two Carts accidentally meeting in a narrow street he was stabbed between the second and third rib Peref and at a second blow to the heart whereof he died presently The Assassin was one Francis Ravaillac formerly a Monk but at that time a Sollicitor What motives perswasions or instigations he might have to this wicked act is much in the dark but that it was not out of revenge for any personal injury the meanness
which had been so often and so long disappointed All which having managed with wonderful art and dissimulation he at last obtained what he desired as in the following History is more particularly related THE HISTORY OF THE MASSACRES OF THE Protestants at PARIS and many other places in FRANCE in the Year of our Lord 1572. 1. THE day of the Nuptials between Henr. Lib. 5. King of Navar and Margaret Sister to the King of France drawing on which was appointed the * August 18th 15th of the Kalends of September the King by Letters solicits Coligni that he should come to Paris having before given in charge to Claudius Marcellus Provost of the Merchants that he should see to it that no disturbance did arise upon Colignie's coming to Paris Likewise Proclamation was published the third of the Nones of July July 5th when he was at Castrum-Bononiae about two miles from the City wherein it was for bidden that any of what condition soever should dare to renew the memory of things past give occasion of new quarrels carry pistols fight duels draw their swords especially in the King's retinue at Paris and in the Suburbs upon pain of death But if any difference should arise among the Nobles concerning their Honour or Reputation they should be bound to bring their plaint to the Duke of Anjou the King's Deputy throughout the whole Kingdom and to pray justice of him if they were of the Commons they should betake themselves to the High Chancellor deâ—l Hospital if it shall happen among those that shall not be in the Court but in Paris they shall go before the ordinary Magistrate It was also provided by the same Proclamation that those who were not of the Courts of any of the Princes or Nobles or of the Retinue of others or were not detained upon some necessary business but were of uncertain abode and habitation about Paris or the Suburbs should depart from the Court City within 24 hours after the publication of this Edict upon the same pain of death This was published for three days together with the sound of Trumpet in the Court and through the City and it was ordered that the publication should be repeated week by week upon the Sabbath-day Also there was adjoyned to the guards of the King's body for his greater security a guard of 400 choice Souldiers all which Coligni full of confidence and good assurance so interpreted as if the King desirous of the publick Peace did only prepare a contrary strength against those which were seditious and movers of troubles Therefore he comes into the City though many were greatly disturbed at it to whom when they importunately dehorted him both by letter and word of mouth he after he had given them thanks answered in one word That he was resolved now that Peace was concluded and things past forgotten to rely upon the saith of the King and that he had rather be dragged through the streets of Paris than to take up Civil Arms again 2. Among other letters there was one brought to him being now come to Paris written very smartly after this manner Remember that it is an established Decree of the Papists upon the account of Religion and confirmed by the authority of Councils that Faith is not to be kept with hereticks in the number of which Protestants are accounted Remember also that Protestants upon the account of the former Wars do lie under an eternal odium so that it is not to be doubted but this is the Queens resolution that Protestants be rooted out by any means whatsoever Add to this that it cannot be but that a woman that is a stranger and an Italian descended of the race of the Popes whom they oppose and of a Florentine and guileful nature should study all extremities against her enemies Consider moreover in what School the King was educated in which he drew in with his milk under his good Tutors this Doctrine that he should make it a sport to swear and forswear to use the name of God profanely to defile himself with Whoredomes and Adulteries to dissemble his Faith Religion Counsels to set his countenance according to occasion And that he might be accustomed to the effusion of the bloud of his Subjects he was taught from his childhood to behold the slaughters and butcheries of * And of men also v. l. 24. p. 275. beasts that he is setled in this perswasion to suffer no Religion in his Kingdom but that which may uphold his state according to the opinion of his Master Machiavel otherwise it would never be at Peace so long as two Religions flourished in it and that it was instilled into his ears that the Protestants did decree to spoil him of his Life and Empire And therefore he would never suffer the Protestants who had once whether upon a just or unjust cause taken up Arms against him to enjoy the benefit of his Edict but that he would with Arms revenge what was done with Arms against him nor would he look upon himself obliged to keep his Covenants which he had entred into with his armed Subjects These are the Arts of Princes the Elements of Policy the Arcana Imperii So Commodus of old commanded Julian whom he owned and embraced as his Father to be slain Thus Antonius Caracalla under pretence of mustering slew the prime youth of the City So Lysander cut the throats of eight hundred Milesians called together under pretence of friendship and society So Sergius Galba raged upon six thousand Spaniards and lately by the command of Antonius Spinola the chief men of the Isle of Corfica were called together to a Feast and slain In our memory did Christiern a King of a barbarous nature use the same arts in the Massacre of Stockholm So heretofore Charles 7 though reconciled to the Duke of Burgundy yet abstained not from killing him though he begged for his life Nor are the discourses that the King lately had with his mother at Blois unknown For when in a jocular manner profanely using as his custom is the name of God he asked her whether he had not acted his part handsomely at the coming of the Queen of Navar the Queen answered that he had begun well but these beginnings would little advantage him unless he proceeded But I said he with often repeated oaths will bring them all into your toils From these words the truth whereof you may be assured of you ought to take counsel and if you are wise get out of the City and so from the Court as from a most filthy sink with all the speed as may be 3. Coligni having read this letter though he was not a little troubled at it yet that he might not seem altogether to neglect the admonitions and intreaties of his friends made answer That there was no place left for these suspitions that he could never perswade himself that so great persidiousness could enter into so good a King than whom France
whereby he quite disfigured him then with repeated blows he fell down dead Some write that these words shewing his indignation fell from Coligny as he was dying If at least I had died by the hand of a man not of a scullion But Atinius one of the Assasines repeated it so as I have written and adds that he never saw man in so present a danger bear death with such constancy Much otherwise did Guise bear the sense of his less apparent approaching death For when after his conspiracy and rebellion in the H. League against the next King he was with such like arts as had been here used brought into the snare which the King had laid for him and having before neglected the warnings of his friends at last began to be suspitious of his danger though nothing visible appeared his vehement fear so prevailed over his dissimulation whereby he endeavoured to conceal it that his whole body though he sate by the fire shaked and trembled and to immind him of this present fact a stream of bloud flowing plentifully from his nostrils as he called for a napkin he was fain to call for some Cordials to comfort his spirits but yet nothing of danger visible when in the midst of this his fear and languishing he was by one of the Secretaries who knew nothing of the design called into the Kings Privy Chamber whereupon having saluted each of the company as if he took his last farewell of them going directly thither he was no sooner entred but the dore was boulted and one of those who were appointed for the business struck a dagger through his throat downward into his breast whereby his mouth was presently filled with bloud and stopped that he could not speak but only fetch so deep a groan as was heard with horror by those who stood by This stroke was seconded by many others upon his head breast belly and groyn And to this end he came not as Colinius from his Prayers but after all his other wickedness from his whore with whom he had indulged the night and therefore came later than the rest this morning into the Counsel Thu. l. 93. It was their different lives and actions which made this difference in their deaths for otherwise Guise was a man of great courage as well as Colinius Then Guise asking Besines out of the Court-yard whether the thing were done when he answered it was done he could not perswade Angolesme unless he saw it Therefore Guise replying and bidding him throw down the body it was thrown out of the window into the Court-yard as it was all besmeared with bloud when * He was afterwards stabbed to death l. 85. Angolesme not believing his own eyes wiped off the bloud from his face with his handkerchief and at last perceiving it was he and as some add kicking the corps in scorn going out of the house with his fellows into the way Go to fellow Souldiers saith he let us prosecute what we have so happily begun for so the King commandeth which words being often repeated when forth-with the Bell of the Palace clock rang out they every where cryed Arm arm and the people presently ran to Coligny's house then the carkass after it had been abused in a strange manner is cast into the next Stable and at last cutting off his head which was sent as far as Rome and his privy-members and his hands and his feet they dragged it about the streets to the bank of Siene which thing he had formerly presaged by an ominous word though he thought no such thing When he was about to be thrown into the River by the boys from thence he was drawn to the Gibbet of Mount Faucon where with his legs upward and his body downward he is hanged in iron-chains then a fire is made under him by which he is only scorched not consumed that he might as it were be tormented through all the Elements slain upon the earth drowned in the water burnt in the fire and hanged in the air There when his corps had been exposed for some days to the luff and rage of all spectators and to the just indignation of many who did boad that that rage would hereafter cost the King and all France dearly Francis Momorancy who had timely withdrawn himself from the danger being near of kin and nearer by friendship to the dead took care that he should by some trusty men be taken down by night and committed to the earth in a Chapel at Chantilly In Coligny's house were slain in the tumult whosoever they met or found hiding themselves and then the Souldiers betake themselves to plunder and breaking open Chests they take away mony and other precious things only they preserve letters and papers for so the Queen commanded 18. Thence Nevers and Tavannes and Monpenser who joyned himself to them through the hatred that he bore to Protestants ride armed through the City and spurred on the people that â—an already telling them That Coligny and his Associates had laid a plot against the King the Queen the King's Brethren and Navar himself and that it was detected by the singular Grace of God and that the King prevented them only in time therefore that they should not spare the bloud of those wicked men who are the capital enemies of the King and Country but that they should fly upon their goods as spoil lawfully gotten that it was the King's pleasure that that pestiferous serpentine seed should be extirpated that the poison of heresy being extinguished there should for the future not so much as a word be spoken of any Religion but that of their fore-Fathers Then all being let loose to satisfy their hatreds every one prosecuted his enemy and rival with embittered minds Many brake into houses through desire of prey all ran upon the slaughter without distinction At the same time Francis Count de la Roche fou cault being for his facetiousness and pleasantness in discourse very gracious with the King when as but the day before he had though unseasonably drawn out the night till late in jesting with the King and from thence betook himself to his own house he underwent the same fate with Coligny For Bargins Avernus knocks at Roche-fou-cault's house and telling him he had something to acquaint him with from the King Roche-fou-cault himself commanding the dores to be unlocked he is admitted in when he saw men as he thought in disguises supposing the King was not far off who had sent men in jest to beat him he beggeth them that they would deal better with him but miserable man he found that the thing was not to be acted in jest but in earnest when his house being plundered before his eyes he himself half naked was most cruelly butchered by one that stood by him Also Teligny the son-in-law of Coligny having by running over the tops of houses escaped the hands of many and at last being espied by the Guards of Anjou he is
Appennage to his Brethren and in giving them authority which having read and acquainting Alanson with it whom she had perceived to favour Coligny This is your beloved cordial friend saith the Queen who thus advised the King To whom Alanson answered How much he loved me I know not but this advice could proceed from none but one that was faithful to the King and careful for his affairs Again there was among his papers found a breviate wherein among other reasons that he gave for the necessity of a War with the Spaniards in the Low-Countreys this was added as being omitted in the Speech which he made to the King lest it should be divulged and therefore was to be secretly communicated to the King that if the King did not accept of the condition that the Low-Countreys offered he should †V. Walsingham◠Letter 14 Septemb. 1572. in the Compleat Ambassador p. 241. not transfer it to his neighbours of England who though they were now as things stood friends to the King if once they set footing in the Low-Countreys and the Provinces bordering upon the Kingdom would resume their former minds and being invited by that conveniency of friends would become the worst enemies to the King and Kingdom Which being likewise imparted to Walsingham Queen Elizabeths Ambassador and the Queen telling him that by that he might judge how well Coligny was affected towards the Queen his Mistress who so much loved him He made her almost the same answer and said He did not know how he was affected towards the Queen his Mistress but this he knew that that counsel did savour of one that was faithful to the King and most studious of the honour of France and in whose death both the King and all France had a great loss So both of them by almost the same answer frustrated her womanish policy not without shame unto her self About the end of the month wherein Coligny was slain the King fearing lest the Protestants should grow desperate in other Provinces writes to the Governors with most ample commands Carnii Comes and principally to Feliomrus Chabolius President of Burgundy in which he commanded that he should go through the Cities and Towns that were under his jurisdiction and friendly convene the Protestants and acquaint them with the tumult at Paris and the true causes thereof That nothing was done in that affair through hatred of their Religion or in prejudice to the favour that was granted them by the last Edict but that he might prevent the conspiracy made by Coligny and his confederates against the King the Queen the King's Brethren the King of Navar and other Princes and Nobles That it was the King's pleasure that his Edicts might be observed and that the Protestants every where taking forth Letters of security from the Presidents should live quietly and safely under the King's protection upon pain of death to any that should injure or molest them in any thing On the other hand he should admonish the Protestants that they should keep themselves quiet at home and because in their Meetings and publick Assemblies there used to be such Counsels among the Protestants as were suspitious to Catholicks and which might put them upon new stirs therefore that they should abstain from those meetings and expect the same favour and safety from the King's clemency and goodness as he doth exercise towards others But if they should foolishly neglect this advice command and promise of the King and should presume to meet publickly stir up troubles and take up Arms under colour of their own defence he would then proceed against them as against Rebels To the same effect were Letters sent to Melchior Monpesatus President of Poictou Pria President of Toures and the Presidents of other Provinces Chabolius managed his office with great prudence and moderation having learnt that the Protestants who had hitherto been exasperated by severity and cruelty of punishments might be better reduced to their duty by clemency and mildness And matters were ordered without almost any bloud-shed in Burgundy many returning either through fear or of their own accord to the Religion of their Ancestors renouncing the Protestant Doctrines Only Claromontius Travius of the prime Nobility whose Sister Helena Antonius Grammontanus had married was when the news was hot slain at Dijon in the absence of Chabotius by the people Those that were suspected at Mascon being by the King's command apprehended and cast into prison by Philibertus sustained no further damage 30. So foul a tempest in France being in some sort allayed and the liberty of killing and plundering repressed when the more prudent that yet no way favoured the Protestant party did upon the sad thought of the present state of things by little and little come to themselves and abhorring the fact did curiously enquire into the causes of it and how it might be excused they thus judged That no example of like cruelty could be found in all Antiquity though we turned over the Annals of all Nations These kinds of outrages had been confined to certain men or to one place and might have been excused by the sense of injury newly offered or their rage did only exercise it self upon those whom it was their interest to remove out of the way For so by the command of Mithridates King of Pontus upon one message and the signification of one Letter 40000 Romans were slain in one day throughout all Asia The Sicilian Vespers So Peter King of Arragon commanded 8000 French-men to be slain in Sicily who had seized upon it in his absence But their case was far different from this For those Kings exercised their rage upon strangers and foreigners but this King upon his own subjects who were not more committed to his power than to his faith and trust They were obliged no otherwise by their faith given than to the strangers themselves but he was bound in a late league with his neighbouring Kings and Princes to keep that Peace which he had sworn to They used no arts unworthy of royal dignity to deceive them he for a snare abused his new engaged friendship and the sacred Nuptials of his own Sister whose wedding garment was even stained with bloud These are the vertues that use to be commended in Kings Justice Gentleness and Clemenoy but savageness and cruelty as in all others so especially in Princes use to be condemned Famous through all ages was Publius Scipio who was wont to say he had rather save one Citizen than slay a thousand enemies and Antonius who was called the Pious did often use that saying Kings indeed have power of life and death over the Subjects of their Realm but with this limitation that they should not proceed against them till their cause was heard upon a fair tryal This rage and blindness of mind was sent by God upon the French as a judgment for the daily execrations and reproaches of the Deity from which the King himself ill educated
Inventio crucis Holy rood day he said he came thither that day to find an end at length of all the crosses that he had born in this life that none were ignorant of the cause of his punishmentâ— that he had sinned against the King in concealing it that he was sorry for it and humbly begged the Kings Pardon that the Plot against the King and Kingdom was bloody and which if it had taken effect he should have detested with all his heart and that so horrid and inhumane a Fact should be attempted by Catholicks was that that grieved him more then his death Then he added many things in defence of Anne Vaux who was held in Prison and lay under great suspition upon his account Being accused that he had while Q. Eliz. was alive received certain Breves from Rome v. Proceedings Q 3. in which he and the Peers inclined to Popery were admonished that when that miserable Woman should happen to die they should admit of no Prince how nearly soever related in blood but such as should not only tolerate the Catholick Faith but by all means promote it he said he had burnt them the King being received for King And when he was again Examined upon the same things he referred Henry Montacute who asked him about it The Recorder of London to his Confessions subscribed by him Being taxed for sending Edmund Bainham to Rome not to return to the City before the Plot should take effect This he thus excused as if he had not sent him upon that account but that he might inform the Pope of the calamitous state of England and consult with him what course the Catholicks should take and therefore referred them again to his Confessions Then he kneeled down upon the Stage to his Prayers and looking about hither and thither did seem to be distressed for the loss of his life and to hope a Pardon would be brought him from the most merciful Prince Montacute admonished him that he should no longer think of life but if he knew of any Treachery against the King or Kingdom that he should as a dying man presently discover it for that it was now no time to Equivocate At which words Garnet being somewhat moved made answer that he knew the time did not admit of Equivocation that how far and when it is lawful to Equivocate he had otherwhere delivered his opinion that now he did not equivocate and that he knew nothing but what he had confessed Then he excused himself that he did at first dissemble before the Lords That he did so because he did not think they had had such testimony and proof against him till they did produce it which when they did produce he thought it as honourable for him to confess as it would have been at first to have accused himself He added many things to excuse Greenwell professing that unless he thought he were out of danger he would not have discovered the guilt of his dear Brother in this Conspiracy Then praying that the * He said also I exhort them all to take heed they enter not into any Treasons Rebellions or Insurrections against the King Catholicks in England might not fare the worse upon his account he crossed himself and after he had commended his Soul to God the Ladder being taken away he was hang'd to death In his behalf Andreas Eudaimon-Johannes a Cretian of the same Society wrote an †Against which Robert Abbot wrote his Antilogia edit Lond. 1613. 4. Apology in answer to Sir Edw. Cokes Book Intituled Actio in Proditores for so much the Title doth imply published four years after and approved by Claudius Aquaviva Provincial of the Society in which chiefly the Doctrine of Equivocation is defended and explained from Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Thomists and the necessity and matter of the Seal of Secresie or Confession is debated and the chief heads of his Accusation are answered the Speech of the Earl of Northampton is refuted Moreover he doth endeavour to evince that Garnet never knew any thing of the Conspiracy but by the way of Confession and that he did always abhor the Treason Then some things are related of his Constancy at his Death which are not related in the History of it And as a conclusion of his Commentary there is the memorable Story of the Straw upon which the Effigies of the Dead was seen at which he saith his Adversaries were very much disturbed Whiles the Body was quartered by the Hangman some drops of blood fell upon the Straw that was there provided to light the fire John Wilkinson who was there present that he might gather some relique of the Body of Garnet carried home with him an Ear that was sprinkled with blood and deposited it with a Gentlewoman Hu. Griffith 's Wife who kept it with great veneration in a Christal-glass Afterward it was observed with great admiration that the Effigies of Garnet was plainly expressed in that blood Then with great Zeal was the fame of the Miracle spread abroad which others did presently elude by a contrary construction saying It ought to seem no wonder if a man brought up among Exiles in Flanders improved at Rome in Italy authorized to a Conspiracy in his own Countrey and breathing nothing but revenge did as long as he lived thirst after the blood of his Countreymen should when dead deserve to be pictured in blood So dangerous a thing it is in these corrupt times to say any thing for the honour of any man in those things which do exceed belief and the common course of Nature which may not presently be retorted to his disparagement This end had this Conspiracy the strangest that either our or former ages do make mention of for contrivance daringness or cruelty For it is often heard of and fame doth deliver it down to posterity that many Princes are cut off by Treachery many Common-wealths are attempted by the snares and falshood of their Enemies But no Countrey no Age ever bred such a Monster of Conspiracy as this wherein the King with the Queen the Parents with their whole Issue all the States of the Kingdom the whole Kingdom it self and in it innumerable Innocents should all be destinâ—d to one Destruction in one moment for a Sacrifice to the lust of a few enraged Minds But it was very well that that Monster which they themselves that bear the blame of it do both by word and writing every where detest being so long before conceived at home should be strangled in the birth before ever it see the light A little while after Isaac Casaubon when he went into England thinking of nothing less than to be engaged in this business upon occasion of another Apology sent to him and by him delivered to the King of Great Britain wrote an Elegant Epistle to Fronto Ducaeus in which he sheweth that Garnet knew otherwise then under the Seal of Confession of the Powder Conspiracy by his own Confession and Testimony written with his own hand and doth at large discuss the Doctrine of Equivocation as ensnaring and pernicious against the Arguments of Eudaimon-Johannes Against which not Ducaeus but Eudaimon-Johannes doth rail sufficiently FINIS
Court it self The Guises having thus intruded into the Authority aforesaid continued the same Resolutions of Severity against those of the Reformed Religion which they had infused or at least fomented and agitated in the former King which they instantly put in execution And the same moneth that this King came to the Crown his Order is sent out for the tryal of the Senators imprisoned by his father Whereof one Anne du Boury was afterward for his Religion executed but the rest not being convicted were only degraded While these were brought to their Tryal by the command of the Cardinal Severe Inquisition is made at Paris Thu. l. 22. into all suspected of that Religion and many both Men and Women are taken and clapt into Prison and many to avoid the danger forced to fly many leaving their infants and little children behind them who filled the streets with the noise of their lamentable crys their goods taken out of their houses were publickly sold and their empty houses proscribed and to increase the Odium of the people against them the same Calumnies which were heretofore cast upon the Primitive Christians of promiscuous copulation in their Nocturnal Meetings the lights being put out were now renued against these and base people produced by the Cardinal to prove it who though upon tryal convicted of fraud and falshood were yet suffered to go unpunished The City being thus diligently searched the same Course is immediately taken in the Suburbes at S. Germans and presently after in the rest of the Cities of France especially at Poictiers Tholouse Aix and throughout the whole Province of Narbon Shortly after command is given to the Court to proceed severely against those who were suspected and with all diligence to attend to the tryal of them without intermission Whereupon the Prisons were all soon emptied some being condemned to death others banished and the rest punished with other mulcts and penalties Nor did all this satiate the fury of these cruel merciless men for dreading the very mention of an Assembly of the Estates which might correct the Exorbitances of their Usurped Power they accused all those as Rebellious and Seditious who desired it and when they perceived the Protestants who were now very numerous notwithstanding all the cruelties used against them to concur in the same desire new Arts and Snares were devised to apprehend them wherein also others who were not of their Religion were often unawares surprised For every where at Paris especially were erected Images of Saints in the Streets by-ways with lighted Candles set up to them in the day time and a deal of Superstitious Worship and boxes set by them into which they who passed by were pressed to cast in money for providing of the Lights and such as refused to do it or neglected to give reverence to the Images were suspected and instantly assaulted by the Rabble and happy was he that in such case could escape with his life though immediately thrust into prison All this was done the same year that Francis came to the Crown And although in the entrance of the next year about 12. Thu. l. 24. Mart. lest the Protestants exasperated by all these Cruelties should be provoked to joyn with them who at that time held a Consultation against the Guises to remove them and the Queen-mother from the Government this severity by the mediation of Colinius the Admiral and Olinier the Chancellour was by a publick Edict for the present in part remitted Yet no sooner was the danger of that Confederacy over by the defeat of the Enterprise at Amboise but the Edict was recalled and new resolutions concluded for the utter ruine and extirpation of the Protestants and that upon this further occasion and by the means following The Guises nothing doubting but that the late attempt at Amboise to surprise and remove them from the Government was secretly excited and managed by the Princes of the blood to whom the right during the Kings inability did belong and that the Protestants thus provoked by such unjust persecutions would favour the right of the Princes resolved to cut off both But considering that it would be difficult and hazardous by open Force to get the Princes into their power Davil l. 2. they resolved to essay to accomplish that by Art and therefore first by all means to conceal and dissemble their suspicion of them and to that purpose endeavoured to have the late business at Amboise imputed to the Protestants and to attribute all to Diversity of Religions which might also serve them to a further purpose viz. to render their own cause and proceedings more plausible to the people and the others more odious and to urge this yet further they endeavoured to possess the King with great apprehensions of the danger of his own person from that party and the people with an opinion that that attempt was designed against the King himself which was so gross a Calumnie that Davila himself though otherwise partial enough against the Protestants thought it not fit to be credited and at last having used all their Arts to beget a confidence in the Princes that they had no designs against them to accomplish their designs they cause an Assembly of the Estates whereat the Princes by their place were to attend to be appointed at Orleans Where against the Protestants in general Thu. l. 26. they presently proceed more openly and having obtained an Edict that all should exhibit a profession of their Faith according to a Form 18. years before prescribed by the Sâ—rbon Doctors and that they who refused should be punished with loss of life and Goods such were sent out throughout the whole Kingdom who should apprehend all that were suspected to be of the Reformed Religion with command to pull down the Houses and Castles of those who made any resistance And the Princes being at length with much Art and difficulty wrought upon to come to the Assembly though contrary to the perswasion of their friends are instantly upon their arrival secured Navar under a kind of Guard but Conde close prisoner Having thus gotten them into their hands they without much difficulty resolve to circumvent Conde with Accusations of Rebellion and put him to death under colour of Law But for Navar they were not a little doubtful what to do with him and at last conclude to murder him secretly But when all these designs against both the Protestants in general and these Princes in particular were brought to the very point of execution and the Tragedy already begun It pleased God by the same means whereby he had decreed to prosecute his judgments and vengeance against this persecuting House of Valois to deliver those who were designed for slaughter and by the seasonable intervention of the otherwise untimely death of this young King before he had accomplished the age of eighteen to confound and disappoint all the subtile machinations of these ambitious unchristian persecutors As the
force and violence of thunder says Davila useth in a moment to overthrow and ruine those buildings which are built with great care and long labour so his unexpected death destroying in an instant those Counsels which with so much art and dissimulation were brought to maturity and concluded left the state of things already in the way although by Violent and Rigorous Means yet to a certain and secure end in the height of all discord and more than ever they were formerly troubled wavering and abandoned Thus he but we may rather observe the unsuccessfulness of such violent and Rigorous Courses though for the attaining of never so good and lawful ends and that not so much of their own nature as by the special Providence of God who doth frequently suffer wicked and proud conceited men confident of their own wit or strength to proceed in their wicked policies and the exercise of their malitious practises till they be at the very point to receive their expected fruits of all and then by some little occurrence to frustrate and blast all their hopes and make them so much more miserable by their disappointment by how much they thought themselves nearer and surer of the enjoyment Such were the Popes and Spaniards disappoinment mentioned before Sect. 26. pag. 32. and that of 88. Sect. 33. and others Whereas Queen Elizabeths moderate proceedings but in a better cause were all along blessed with happy success 41. To this young King thus cut off in his youth and leaving no issue behind him though some years married to a beautiful young Lady succeeded his brother Charles the nineth a Childe of about Eleven years of Age who by reason of his Minority ority being incapable to exercise the Government by Agreement between the Queen mother now sufficiently weary of the Ambition and Insolencies of the Guises and suspitious of their designs and the King of Navarre first Prince of the blood though the Guises used all their Arts to renue the former differences between them She is made Regent and He President of the Provinces Thu. l. 26. Dav. l. 2. and a Decree is made by the King with the counsel and advice of the Queen Regent Navarre the rest of the Princes of the blood and others Privy Counsellors whereby the Supreme Regimen of all is committed to Her Hereupon the Guises being accustomed to govern and not able to conform their minds to their present condition sought all manner of opportunities whereby they might again raise themselves to their former greatness And whereas at the instance of Navarre with the consent of the Regent and the Councel many disliking the effusion of so much blood for no other fault than profession of the Reformed Religion a Decree of Councel passed 28. Jan. for the Release of all Prisoners committed only for matters of Religion and to stop all Inquisition appointed for that cause to prohibit disputations in matters of Religion and particular persons from reviling one another with the names of Heretick Papist commanding all to live together in Peace c. this served them to dissemble the true cause of their grief and therefore they made shew of being moved and offended only at the tacit toleration permitted the Calvinists covering in this manner says Davila with a pious pretence under the vail of Religion the interests of private passion And having by the arts and subtilty of Diana late Mistress to Hen. 2. gained to their party An Momorancy Constable of France who being at that time in the same danger with them and others of being called to refund the large donations which they had obtained of the two last Kings and besides had been very active in the former persecutions against the Protestants was with the less difficulty wrought upon especially in the absence of his son a sober and prudent person who disswaded him all he could they enter into a league for the preservation of the Catholick Religion and mutual defence of their several Estates And when the Protestants Thu. l. 28. after some other Edicts and Decrees partly indulging some kind of liberty to them and partly restraining it were permitted a publick Disputation at Poisey which was first proposed by the Cardinal of Lorain and as was thought to hinder the Convention of a National Synod which he knew would be little pleasing to the Pope but was much desired in France by the most sober and pious of both sides who were studious of the peace and good of the Church there was presently a * V. Thu. in l. 36. a Conspiracy between Guise and the King of Spain qua nulla audacior in regno memoratur which also was in agitation at this time though not discovered till after Guise his death an 1564 secret consultation held by the Grandees of the Popish Faction of France with them of Spain King Philip being wonderfully moved at the news of that Conference and Arturius Desiderius incited by the Sorbon Doctors and as was believed by many not without the privity of the Cardinal of Lorain hastens to King Philip with a Supplication and Private Instructions Complaining of the increase of the Protestants the remisness of the King and his Counsellors in restraining them and imploring his Aid and committing to his Patronage the Honour Lives Fortunes and Estates of the French Nobility with which he was intercepted in his journey at Orleans Not long after this Thesis among others is set up to be disputed publickly That the Pope as the sole Vicar of Christ and Monarch of the Church hath All Christian Princes subject to his Spiritual and Secular Power and that he may turn out of their Kingdoms those that are rebellious to his Commands Wherewith the King being acquainted his Delegates were sent to complain of it to the Parliament which ordered the Sorbon Doctors to deprecate the offence and to recant this errour brought in * About the year 1300. by Pope Boniface 8. and since his death generally condemned The Guises in the mean time dreading a National Synod so much desired as fearing that the Protestants would prevail in it spared no endeavours to keep it off To which end also Philip of Spain sollicited by the Pope sends over his Ambassadour who with threats added to his intreaties daily importunes the Queen R. to Severities against the Sectaries But because the Guises thought that Navarre would be a main obstacle to these endeavours to keep off the Synod they resolve with the Spanish Ambassador and the Popes Legate who was admitted in France but held strictly to the conditions by the Laws appointed to set upon him a man though otherwise of parts yet through indulgence to pleasures and ease grown facile and easie to draw him to their party To which end having first corrupted some of his confidents they first propose to him to divorce his Queen for her heresie and marry their niece the Queen of Scots with whom he should have also the Kingdom of England of