REMONSTRANCES TO THE DVKE DE MAYNE Lieu-tenaunt generall of the Estate and Crowne of Fraunce Wherein by way of information are discouered diuers priueties concerning the proceedings and affayres of that Duke and his Associates Trulie translated out of the French coppie printed at Paris by Ant Ch LONDON Printed by Iohn VVolfe Anno. 1593. Remonstrances to the Duke de Mayne Lieu-tenaunt generall of the Estate and Crowne of Fraunce Wherein by way of information are discouered diuers priueties concerning the proceedings and affayres of that Duke and his Associates MY Lorde the auncient dutie that I beare to your house the seruice which after none I haue vowed vnto you commaundeth mee to make you these remonstrances which in most humble manner I beseech you to reade with such affection as I present them vnto you withal from him which after the honor of GOD hath nothing in so much esteeme as the repose of this estate and in like manner of you al which is yours VVe all aspyre vnto peace and yet there is none that hopeth it great mis-fortune euery man diuines his owne ill knoweth and seeth the cause of it I must tell you freely my opinion of the matter I haue since these troubles alwaies excused your demeanure vntill this day I say expresly excused although it may seeme that this word may fal vnrespectiuely from my pen but in regard that the question was not of smal consequence VVhether it were standing with law that a Subiect might take Armes against his King yet notwithstanding the iust passion which you haue conceiued of the death of my Lordes your two Bretheren the people whom you founde voluntarily disposed and aboue all seeing he that pretends for the Crowne is diuers from our auncient Religion al that I say considered gaue you cause to take Armes after not to desist from the bearing of them So much as concernes the first poynt the true blood cannot lie none can say how pleasing that reuenge is but he that hath receiued iniury and withall what the fashion of their two endes hath procured may be the more a meane to good minds to extinguish the memory of it though doubtles they were of great importance As touching the second cause the people had a farre off confirmed themselues in an obstinate enuie to their King which euen died of ioy to heare the newes of Bloys And as concerning the last it is very hard to take from vs the feare which wee haue conceiued of the subuersion of our auncient Religion if we submit our selues vnto a King diuers from vs therein I desire not to impeach the famous memorie of the last King neyther that of my Lords your Bretheren neither yet the proceeding of the King of Nauarre and farre lesse your owne for it is my intent to proceede with few words not of sharp intention or ceremonies to the drift of my discourse for I call God to witnes I haue no intention to write in a partiall humor You represent at this time in the infortunate Theater of Fraunce a mighty Prince think not that your proceedings by howe much the more they are apparant may not but be so much the more exposed to adulation and bee subiect to slaunderous inuectiues and surelie it is hard to iudge which of these two is aptest to preiudice your fortune Those which adapt themselues to impeach it with slaunders say That neither reuenge nor disorder in affayres beseemes you to take Armes but that they were only pretexts to culler your desseignes And as touching the new religion of the King that it is apparant by your proceedings that you take holde of it as an opportunity or masque to shadow your pretence haue vsed the same as a mist to delude our eyes withall whilst meane while you couer in your heart an vnmeasured ambition intending the subuersion of the whole state That vntill nowe they remained as blinde in conceiued passion but now that time hath taught them to see cleerly euen as before they had their eares stopped against whatsoeuer proposition might be obiected to you and that contrariwise they haue both eyes eares too great to afflict your honor and reputation For first as touching the reuenge they all affirme vna voce that your own selfe was the first and last that condemned the progresse of my Lorde the deceassed Duke of Guyse your Brother his policies And firstly because that in the yeere 1585. beeing solicited by him to enter into that part of the holy League you were sixe whole weekes before you would condiscend Lastly for that fiue or sixe daies before his death you aduertised the King of an enterprise that he intended against his Maiestie And withal these fellowes can tell that you were not of such internety with him but that to infest or hasten his death you would sette fire in the midst euery corner of the kingdom for you complained your selfe most apparantly at Vimory that hee had layd waite to butcher you though against his expectation you had had good successe at the last adiewe of you two you failed to come to the enterprise If the same be true or not you best know sure it is that who so wold enter into the demeanure of your two Bretheren with the Estates of Bloys should necessarily be inforced to confesse that there was sufficient subiect to induce the King to a dispaire They had so wel grounded their desseignments that the three parts of the Deputies of which the fourth did all was at their will and deuotion the chiefe Presidents of euery order were theyr principall partakers There past not any Holy-daie in which our Ministers preach't not amongst the Iacobins and with a holy throate tore not in peeces the honour of the King his Seruaunts From day to day Embassages went betweene Paris and the two Bretheren we continued euery day in making prouisions not against the King of Nauarre but against the King our Soueraigne The Duke of Guyse made publique protestations that he would not bee disseuered from the confederacie betweene him and the King of Spayne and al this notwithstood the vnion by him sworne with the same King vpon the holy Sacrament of the Altar Nothing was concluded in the assembly which before was not at large debated on betweene the two Bretheren in secrete which tended not to the shame confusion of the King of all which there were made braues vauntings by litle litle men which els had not dared to haue lift vp theyr eyes vnlesse vnder the protection of these two Princes The King came to prayers as wel amongst the Deputies to be amongst them more acceptable as to the Duke of Guyse to mollefie him And to all this there will be no lystning It was not aboue foure or fiue dayes before theyr two endes that the Duke of Guyse himselfe iniured the King about the Towne of Orleance It cannot bee but that some of his seruaunts euen my Lady your Mother full
of all goodnes and vnderstanding knowing that al these goades might sting the King to the hart and gyue hym cause to misdeeme counsailed him to retire to Orleance where his life shold quickly be disposed of for the conseruation of that of my Lord the Cardinal your brother which shoulde haue contained himselfe within Bloys your selfe can witnes all this And this is the reason why these fellowes that impeach your proceedings so slaunderously say that measuring the opinion and respect of the King by your owne you would neuer haue conceiued hard opinion of their ends for your selfe fell into the like desaster with Sacremore for some I know not what desire he had to attempt against the family of your wiues house and after those troubles in the person of the Marquis of Menelay murdered onely vpon a bare suspition that he would broach newe deuises against your selfe And more-ouer that you fel into dislike with ill gouernments of the deceased K. to the end therby to make your selfe Protector of the people the same contemplatiue Doctors play vpon you thus in that respect inferring that you haue borne a great sway in these matters withall for further confirmation produce diuers Edicts pretending their vtter subuersion which by often importuneties you haue obtained of the King As for example that of the particuler Lieuetenant of the chosen through all Citties Townes Borroughes and townshippes of Fraunce the most wicked infortunate that hath happened in our age and to confirme this desire no better witnesse then your selfe of Mounsier Ribault Treasurer generall of your reuenewes which then sollicited the pursuit of the verification as well in the Court of wardes as elswhere They persist and affirme that what countenaunce so euer either you or the Duke of Cuyse had sette vpon the beginning of these troubles you intended to be irreconcileable enemies to the Heretiques and to make that more apparant you had diuerse Preachers in pay vnder you which shold serue you for trumpets yet neuerthelesse I know there is no such meaning betweene GOD and your soule For that after the death of the Admirall Chastillon in the yeere 1572. the house of Guyse was a secure Sanctuary to the most parte of the Nobility that professed the religion and your selfe my Lord had neuer better meanes to reduce the Dalphinate vnder the obedience of the last King then by a truce wrought by your selfe twixt the Lord D' Ediguire and his partakers which you knewe so well to entertaine that from that time you were surnamed The Prince of the fayth by reason you had so faithfully kept your faith and promise Loe such be the discourses and reports which these slaunderous enemies of yours make to your disaduantage which I woulde desire might bee buried with the death of the deceassed King How then more-ouer will you fore-stall this if fortunately it shoulde be obiected that you onely intende to haue peace which most freely is profered by our enemies VVhy all the quarrel that we haue with the King of Nauarre is but for matter of Religion But take away that obstacle you cannot deny but that the Crowne is peculier to him notwithstanding al the declarations that the Duke of Feria would not long since haue preuented it with For if after the death of the deceassed King we should adiudge the Crowne to my Lord the Cardinall of Bourbon as next in degree notwithstanding the much distance of consanguinitie which there is between them I see no cause of sufficient argument why we should reiect this auncient and first of the bloode but onely for this that we hold him diuers from vs in regard of religion which might worthely be proued no obstacle at all if we respect his promise which hee hath made conditionally that he would be content to yeeld himselfe vppon the conuent of Estates and Prelats of his kingdom Now in respect of the peace treated on the last yeere between the Lordes of Villeroy and Plessis Mornay the first proposition that the first of these two made and I thinke that hee did it vppon the instructions from your own mouth was that we would acknowledge the King of Nauarre for our right and lawfull King and that wee had no desire to force his conscience but recommending the whole to God whom it might please to shyne forth the beames of all happines on him insomuch that all their conference was vpon the assuraunce required of you VVhich notwithstanding it was aunswered euen to your minde yet vppon the last gaspe you reuoked your Deputy shewing in kinde at that time that you neuer had such feare as that which then returned vnto you of parting with any thing that might detract from the maintayning of you in your wonted greatnesse In which if poore I may belieued you did most wisely For for to mooue dispute with the King of Nauarre touching matter of Religion it was asmuch to say silently an accord that you had beene instructed not to lay by Armes after the death of the deceassed King for other subiect then a singuler zeale and in so dooing you layd an especiall ground of your reputation in euery place but aboue all in Rome And there is the principall drift of all your affayres Since which time of treaty you haue assembled the Estates of Prouinces and Citties with intent to chuse vnto vs a King but before ouerture to this matter you made a protestation full of all piety importing most expresse significations that you neuer had vndertaken thys quarrel but only in this regard that the King of Nauarre was an Hereticke and that when he should be reconciled to the Church you would be most content to holde him for your King Protestations which awake both the one the other vppon which since that time we are entred into conference with an vnspeakeable ioy euen of those which before helde nothing in like feare with peace and in thys conference we haue vtterly derogated from that of the last yeere For first wee sticke at this that it is questionable whether the King of Nauarre woulde make himselfe Catholicke or no declaring that where he woulde not be such that there this conference was to no effect But in case that he were found conformable we should afterward bethinke vs of assurance I haue neuer hearde a matter proceeded on with lesse simplicitie vnlesse by our enemies for euen from the first motion they embraced thys proposition and commended two Lordes of theyr part to communicate it to the King which not by anie intreatie of his owne people but of his proper motion pronounced his wil not to be of himselfe but to insist in that of his own Bishops Prelats This worde was no sooner spoke but through all the Townes vnder him general Processions were made to giue God thanks that he had inspired so holy a desire into their Prince VVe alone haue sung the Requiem as feareful that through this desperate passage issue might be found for the
soueraneties which we now hold hauing none aboue vs. VVherin my good Lord you shall be pleased to giue mee thus much leaue as to say I am nothing edified in one respect for before I coniectured that all these mischiefes were neither familier with GOD nor the diuell or that it was not respected whether they were mad men or Machiauils And through this publique ioy in the Church of God they are all as we are true Romane Catholicks but of a more warie conscience then we They esteeme that of what religion soeuer it pleaseth God to giue vs a King we are all bound to obey him and that wee are so commaunded by S. Peter in two places and by S. Paule wryting both to the Romans and to Titus In briefe that our Sauiour Iesus Christ vppon the moulde on which wee ought to frame all our actions sayd That we ought to giue that to God which belongeth to God and to Caesar that which belonged to Caesar and hold that if they do amisse after Iesus Christ that then that faulte is pardonable But to the ende that I may not too long dwell vppon thys poynt or to sounde deeper in theyr consciences presentlie after the King had made thys protestation to become Catholique with solemnities aunswerable the wise Gentlemen our Deputies demaunde day of aunswere with deliberation and after respette at length made aunswere That they sawe nothing in him that might minister this hope vnto them That hee vvas onely in wordes and his Ministers performed nothing Ho ho quoth I is the game to that And I pray you what hinders that so much may not be said of my Lord the Duke de Mayne That they saw nothing in him why they might iudge he would alter his opinion any of hys protestations not withstood That he is the man that he hath beene from the beginning of foure yeeres That he fauours and authoriseth the Preachers of the Religion which among all other are the principall Orators and ministers of these troubles And that it is not to be thought strange that theyr King desireth not to perseuer in error but will not forget to prayse God so that hee receiues the instructions of our Church otherwise it shold be a meane to open a way to Atheisme impiety After hauing persused these Articles I returne vnto that by which our Deputies inferre that the King of Nauarre may receiue instructions from the Prelates Docters of Fraunce but that hauing receiued it it appertained to the holy Father of Rome to haue the especiall gouernment in that businesse sith it was onely hee that had authority to approue the conuersion to giue hym absolution without which he could not be held for one conuerted or reconciled to the Church And did I exclayme then Loe here the consummation of our work The phisick of the Duke of Feria hath not had his operation in Paris it shold be carried to Rome there to haue his working Say that you will not goe vvhy this were to found a new heresie amongst the people But put case that fortunatly you may goe vvho knowes not the Spanish concetis to whose iudgement you must commende the conuersion of a Prince of the bloode Hath not the Duke of Feria sufficiently instructed you in the grounde of his intended pollicies which is to no other ende then to auere the Crowne of Fraunce to his owne state My good Lorde the Legate which at this instance is in Paris shewes he not by his demeanure what commaundements he hath from the holy Father No I must haue patience it is to you my Lord that I must speake for I can gather no other but that this counsell proceedes with your owne aduise as from him that in respect of the degree you are in haue more reason to hinder the course of these affayres or at the least wise that it may not seeme so intricate as thereby it may appeare illusiue vnto you whilst you gather vp the fruite of your greatnes Say I beseech your excellence vvhen you tooke Armes against the deceassed King which wee acknowledged for the most Christian King in al Europe sude you to the Court of Rome for lycence Haue you since craued absolution of the holy See For indeed we are not to doubt but that such bearing of Armes was a very heresie beeing borne against a King so far from being an Hereticke VVell then you haue not doone so yet will you willingly sende your King so I am forced to name him if I see him abiure that error which he hath been nourisht in from his infancie Certes you addresse your selfe to thinke vpon your ill-willers which respect not the See of Rome but so much as you profit by it Let vs shunne all shadowe and dissimulation of thys quarrell let vs leaue apart all ambitions and let vs acknowledge that which is of the auncient fayth of our Church which Saint Ierome sayde had neuer nourisht Monsters meaning vnder that word Hereticks The generall proposition of our Church since and from the passion of Christ was to reduce al her thoughts to the vnion of the Romane Church to holde it for chiefe to simbolize with it in the Articles of our fayth And if our Prelates entred into any doubts touching it to haue recourse to it as the true source from which they ought to drawe all water of life And further all hauing Diocesse had all power and authority to performe theyr owne will within their owne Diocesses but onelie in matters of especiall importance in which they had recourse one while to the Councels prouinciall another while to another place without any interposition of Romish Authority And in this order lyued they from the death of our Sauiour euen vntill the first lyne of our Kings and from that to the seconde And howbeit that it was not so when the great Pagan King Clouis reuolted from his paganisme yet did he sue for pardon at Rome surely no but hee receiued the holy Sacrament of Baptisme at the hands of S. Remy Archbishop of Reims who was so francke a Catholicke as hee woulde neuer haue done it to the preiudice of the holy See if he had thought that in such matters recourse thether had been needfull I acknowledge that vnder the seconde lyne the See began to authorize it selfe more in Fraunce then before it had done and why then but because that King Pepin to the intent he might in better sort vsurpe the kingdom had beene at Rome to seeke instructions for his tyrannous raigne and coulde not sette any glosse on his aspyring vnlesse it were by making the See a wonderment aboue all things which is the same artefice which nowe we infer as especiall engine of your greatnes Neuertheles what preheminence soeuer his holines then tooke to himselfe yet shal you neuer find that he made so bold as to condemne any K. in Fraunce for what offence soeuer they had committed but did it in an open assembled counsel of our Prelats