indebted thereupon attendant for some one or other remedy now in the absence of their Soueraigne Lord which might keep their estates from declyning wholy to ruine And amongst these there lurcked in the hart of the aforsaid William of Nassaw Prince of Orange as well a desyre of reuenge as of remedy for the vnderpropping of his decayed estate This desire of reuenge was not for any wronges or iniuries donne or suffred to be donne vnto him by the king of Spayne but a reuenge forsooth because the greedy appetit of his insatiable ambition was not fully satisfyed For knowing that the King of Spayne after he had receaued possessioÌ„ of these Netherland Prouinces must needs returne agayne into Spayne and leaue some generall Gouernour thereof behind him he laboured by what meanes he might both by himselfe and such of the Nobility as were of his faction that this authority might be giuen vnto the Lady Christierna Duchesse of Lorayne daughter vnto the sister of the Emperour Charles the fifth who was maryed vnto Chriâ—â—iernus the third King of Denmarcke and this Duchesse had a daughter called the Lady Dorothy and with this Lady the aforesayd Prince of Orange meant to haue maryed that by this meanes after the death of the Duchesse Christierna he might haue come to haue beene Supreme gouernour of the whole low Countries But by reason of the Duchesse of Parma her being preferred vnto this dignity his designment broken he out of coÌ„ceaued reuenge went and maryed with a daughter of Mauritius Duke of Saxony being in religion a Lutheran and with her returned agayne into the Netherlandes retayning still in his hart the maliâ—e which he had coÌ„ceaued the expectation of some occasioÌ„ of further reueng with reparation of his decayed estate Now is it to be noted that albeit Martin Luther the New-ReligioÌ„-maker of Germany dyed not past three years before king Philip departed out of these Netherlandes yet were there already by meanes of him and his disciples six seueral religions risen vp in these CouÌ„tries to wit The religion which Luther himselfe had first begune The religion of the Anabapstists The religioÌ„ of the Caluinists The religion of the Loyistes The religion of the family of loue and the religion of the Georgists of which six for your more satisfactioÌ„ I will heere giue you though briefly some particuler relation Martin Luther when he had made his reuolt from the Catholike Roman Church fynding that there were some thinges taught and obserued in the same Church that were thereto descended by ancient tradition and also deduced from the scriptures though not expressly therein mentioned thought with himself that the only way for him to draw many disciples after him was to proclayme in all his sermons and writings that we ought not to belieue or do nay thing concerning faith religion but that which was expressly comaunded and set downe in the written Word of God By this deuyce in the beginning he found great applause especially among the vulgar sort into whose handes he had thrust Bibles and Testaments translated by himself into Dutche to the best aduantage of his doctrine But it was not long after that some of these his disciples grew so subtile as to examine his doctrine by his owne rule and to see if all that he had taught them were expressly to be found in the written Word of God In which examination they found that the Christening of yonge children was not there to be found and thereupon esteeming the baptisme of children to be of no force they reuolted from him and rebaptized themselues and so began the sect of the Anabaptists After these Andrew Carolostadius one of the first and greatest disciples of Luther who with him allowed the baptisme of children although not expressed in Scripture began to dissent froÌ„ 〈◊〉 in opinioÌ„ of the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament albeit expressed in Scripture which opinion being imbraced by Zuinglius and others and afterward pâ—â—lished by Iohn Caluin left vnto his followers the name of Caluinists The Loyists tooke their name of one Loâ— by occupation a Slater and a townseman of Antwerp who was so confident in his right vnderstanding of Scripture by inward illumination from heauen that being furnished of money by certayne rich Merchantes of that citty whom he had brought to be of his Sect trauailed to Wittemberge to dispute with Luther and to conuert him to his religion but Luther finding him so to interpret the Scripture as to deny the resurrection of the dead to hold that the soules of the good are immortal and do go to God and that the soules of the euill do consume away and come to nothing and consequently that there is neither Diuel nor Hell except the hell of this world and the Men-diuels in it Luther offered rather to dispute with him with fistes then with Scripture wherupon Loy finding such harsh entertaynment returned to Antwerp again left Luther vnconuerted But hauing in Antwerp seduced and brought many to be of his opinion after he had recanted his doctrine and fallen to it againe he was finally burnt The family of Loue began by one Henry Nicholas a Mercer or Seller of Silks also of Antwerp who held among other thinges that man ought to be Deifyed in God and God hoâ—â—â—fyed in man and that men may haue their heauen first heer in this world by liuing in that deifyed loue they ought to do and heereafter in Heauen also The last of these six was the sect of Dauid George a Glasse painter of Delft in Holland This monster secretly taught his disciples that in himselfe was infused the soule of the true Messias and Sauiour of the World that he was more then Elias more then S. Iohn Baptist yea more then Christ These six sects beginning now to grow and spread themselues in sundry parts of the Countrey though some increased more then some the Georgistes keeping themselues more secret then any of the others there was now no remedy for the preseruation of the subiects from so great confusion in religion as also from the dayly increase of more Sects the great inconueniences iustly feared thereby to arise then by putting in practise the Placarts or Ordinances of the Emperour being no other then consonant vnto the ancient lawes of all other Countryes in Christendome as also for the preseruation of the Oath which the Emperour and his Son the King of Spayne had take in this Country for maintenance of the ancient established Religion and Clergy These lawes then being now begun to be put in execution and diuers of those that were of these Sects put to death but of none more then of that of the Anabaptists certain of the decayed Nobility aforesayd of which faction William of Nassaw was the chiefe seeing that all this made for them that somthing must needes come of it whereby they might fall to fishing in a troubled water sought by all meanes to get themselues
was yet Catholike To this was alleaged that if he should so do by fauouring all opposite to the Catholikes the Catholikes would therfore disfauour him seeing the other through his fauour would insult vpon them and so might there be danger of their returning to the obedience of the King of Spayne whom thev were sure was of their religion and would mayntayne them in it All which considered it was not thought fitting for him to declare himself to be a Catholike To declare himself a Lutheran was also thought vnsit because the Duke of Saxony albeit a Lutheran was yet a freind vnto the Emperour and the howse of Austria and besides the Lutherans were but flegmatike cold fellowes and too farre offto giue him assistance if need should require To declare himselfe an Anabaptist was held lesse fitting for albeit they had shewed more heat of zeale in their greater number that had suffred for their religion then any of the others yet were they but of the meaner sort of people not hauing any potent persons among them nor any forrayne Prince or State to take their partes In fine it was resolued that it was most conuenient for him to declare himself a Caluinist in regard of their stirring spirits whereof they had giuen greater proof then any of the others that there was apparence of assistance from England and of good correspondence with the Huguenots of France Vpon this resolution followed straight-wayes the conuersion of this Prince of Orange vnto Caluinian-Protestant religion and his new gayned greatest friendes so bestirred themselues that Town vpon Town rebelled especially after he had by solemne Oath sworne to mayntayne the Catholike Clergy in all their rights and priuiledges and in publike exercise of their Religion about which point yet the town of Amsterdam amongst others very precysely capitulated with him and he very seriously also protested and swore performance of the conditions which Oath notwithstanding he made no more conscience soone after to breake then he had done sundry oathes before as the great and solemne Oath which he tooke of Fidelity to the King of Spayne when he receaued the Order of Knight-hood of the golden Fleece the Oath of fidelity which he also tooke at the sayd Kings making him Lieftenant Gouernour of Holland c. besydes his sundry other perfidious breaches both of oaths and promises And because there is not any fidelity or honest dealing to be expected where there is layd no ground of Religion and vertue it is the lesse wonder that this irreligious Noble Man so caryed himself in choyce of religion Certayne it is that he was at the first a Catholike and notwithstanding that his malice had transported him so farre as to protect and shelter some most sacrylegious Church-robbers yet vpon the aryuall of the Duke of Alua and before his flight into Germany he sent for his eldest some Philip who was Prince of Orange next after him at that tyme a student in the Vniuersity of Louayne and most straightly charged him to liue and dye in the Catholike Roman Religion as the sayd Prince hath at sundry tymes to diuers persons yet lyuing protested wherby it may seem that at that tyme he had yet retayned some regard of religion and holding that for the best commaunded his sonne to remayne still therin Foure wyues he had the first was a Catholyke the second was a Lutheran the third and fourth were Caluinists which perchance was because he found no noble woman fit for him to match withall that was an Anabaptist that so he might haue had foure wyues of foure seuerall Religions yet to shew his great good wil vnto the Anabaptists albeit he could not match amongst them he gaue them vnder his hand wryting the priuiledge freedome for exercise of their religion in their own howses which they yet in Holland enioy When I consider the life and actioÌ„s of this man I wonder in my self that the blyndnes of the popular multitude could be so great as to honor and extol him so highly and to accompt him the great Patron and Protectour of their Country that was the greatest enemy therof that euer it had and who was the cause of spilling so much bloud aswell of the people of his owne Country as of other Nations and such an one as was the betrayer transporter also thereof vnto another Nation as much as in him lay who had no right or clay me thereunto To come now to touch the end of this man when I coÌ„sider I say what it was there commeth to my remembrance this saying of a Pagan Poet Tyraennous Lords that cause Landes to rebell VVithout some blow can hardly come to Hell About some foure yeares before the death of this Prince he was for his offences depriued by the sayd King of Spayne his soueraigne Lord of all the authority and power which in former tymes the sayd King had giuen him proclaymed for a publike enemy vnto the King the peace and Weal-publike of the Countrey and his goods person exposed to open violence by publique sentence In the end after some attempts to that effect the Prince perceauing what victorious successe the Duke of Parma that then vnder the King of Spayne commanded in the Netherlands now began to haue in Flaunders and Brabant he fled secretly from Antwerp where he had layne lurcking for a time vnto Delft in Holland in his Armour for it was the greatest prayse forsooth that this valiant Captayne atchieued in these warres that he did commonly put on his Armour when he was eight or ten leagues from any place of danger Being arriued at Delft where he thought himselfe in greatest safety he was vpon the tenth day of Iuly in the same yeare 1584. slayne with the shot of a Pistoll by one Ealtazar Gerard aliâs Serach a Burgundian of the age of fiue and twenty yeares a moneth after that the Duke of Alancon dyed at Chasteau-Theiry for the Duke dyed on the tenth of Iune this Prince was slayne on the tenth of Iuly next following as though his life had beene limitted by lease to last but iust one moneth after the death of the other The next of the greatest Actors in this rebellious Tragedy was Robert Dudley Earle of â—eycester who after he had beene the chiefe Commaunder of Holland in these broyles in which waâ— slaine his sisters Sonne Syr Philip Sidney a Knight worthy to haue deserued more Honour if he had serued in an honourable cause he grew weary of the Hollanders and they of him in so much that by a iustification of his worthlesse actions published in Print he was driuen to accuse blame them of breach of promise and performance of couenants made vnto him that so by laying the fault vpon theÌ„ he might repaire his owne reputation and excuse of gayning so little honour among them as he had Returning therefore with great discontentment into England he soone after sickned and dyed and as it is reported was
poysoned and preuented by one whome himselfe had thought by such a meanes to haue made away He dyed without any signe of a Christian and being dead seemed so vgly a corse as euen amazed the beholders His body was opened and in his stomake were great holes eaten through with the poyson His Landes were all presently seized on for his debts to the Queene whereby he was now as much disgraced being dead as he would perhaps haue beene if he had liued but a little longer and as his life was not much laudable so was his death not greatly lamented The next in this â—anke must be Queene Elizabeth her selfe by whose meanes as this rebellion at the first began so was it by her ayd euen to her last end continued And if a happy death be the true happynes of the precedent life she cannot be sayd to haue had it neither in regard of the good of her selfe nor yet of her subiects for she sought not the one and she had not the other She sought not the good of her subiects which in all reason and right she was bound to do both before God maÌ„ because she prohibited both speach and euen the knowledge as it were of any successor to her Crowne as all the world well knoweth In so much that if some of the Nobility presently vpon her death had not resolued to receaue vnto her Crowne dignity the true lawfull Heyre that now raigneth the bloud of many thousandes of her subiects might haue beene spilt for ought she did to preuent it Some do report her to haue sayd that whyles she liued no Heyre apparent should be deâ—lared and after her death she wished that she might for a while remayne betweene heauen earth to see how they would tugge for the Crown Surely the desire of seeing such a sport could litle deserue the loue that her subiects boâ—e vnto her and heerby may we see vpon how little cause and reason vulgar affection is oftentymes grounded That her death was not happy appeareth in that it is no happynes to dye distracted and not to haue had from the beginning to the end of her sicknes the perfect vse of reason and consequently not to haue beene able most earnestly to call vpon God which as it is most fit that at their end aâ—l men should doe so is it most requisite that in the end of a life which hath been entertayned with all the pleasures that the World could affoard it should be done with the greatest compunction contrition of hart that may be And I haue heard it confidently reported that Syr Thomas Gressam more then thirty yeares before Queene Elizaâ—eths death did in priuate discourse tell vnto some friends of his and namely vnto Syr Philip Scidamore then not Knight that at the death of Queene Mary he then being in the Citty of Antwerp a woman comming into a house where he was sayd vnto him Your Queene Mary is now dead and Queene â—lizabeth that succeedeth her shall in the end come to dye mad Whether this woman had the spirit of prophesy or no I cannot say but certaine it is that she seemed not in her sicknes nor at her death to be in her perfect senses wheâ—eby she could neither be carefull for the future good of her subiects by not then declaring that which she needed not any longer to haue concealed nor in calling vpon Almighty God for mercy for a soule that so greatly had need thereof Let vs now lastly come vnto the great Statesman and Menager of this State composed of States the Holland-aduocate Berneuelt This man after the death of the Prince of Oâ—ange aforesayd when his sonne Count Mauriâ—e and his other children were but young and the State and gouernment wholy raw and out of order deuised and set down the plot and meanes for the mayntayning of it in the forme of a Republike he made the alliances between it and other Princes and States abroad and became a most careful Tut or for the bringing vp of the Prince of Orange his children yet in the end about realousies and wranglings grown vp among themselues this great Aduocate of Holland and Sterne-holder of that whole State hauing deserued so well thereof as any man could came to dye on a scaffold as a criminall malefactor by the handes of the hangman whereby the King of Spayne and their Highnesses the Princes of the Netherlands whome he had most offended and had not the meanes to punish him did see him punished by those whome himself had most serued in offending them Some may heer aâ—leage that the Archduke Matthias who afterward came to be Emperor had beene a chief Commaunder and gouernour also ouer this rebellious faction and yet came not to any vnfortunate end To this I answere that true it is this Prince had such a charge layed vpon him when by reason of his youth he wanted iudgment perfectlâ— to descern what he did William of Nassaw the vnhappy Prince of Orange before mentioned being his chief Lieftenant vnder him and the only man that disposed of al. And yet escaped this yong Archduk not without disgrace among theÌ„ when they neither cared for him nor much respected him in their ordinary speaches gaue him the name of their Foster chyld esteeming him but as a chyld or as a cipher that only serued to supply a place But in the end this noble Prince discouering their vniust courses his own errour left theÌ„ and gaue ouer that mistaken gouernment and retyring himselfe into Germany sought and found meanes to reconcile himself vnto his Cousin the King of Spayne whose grace and fauour he obtayned which none of the former that came to vnfortunate endes euer sought for And by this meanes all former soars were salued this Prince by leauing to follow this wrong course was not only freed from comming to an vnfortunate or disgracefull end but came to dy as a good Christian Prince and in the most high estate of an Emperour Thus haue I heere briefly related vnto you how ill they haue sped who haue beene the chiefest Actors in so ill a busines as is rebellion the assisting of rebels against their most iust and lawfull Soueraigne what may succeed to others that do or intend to continue the same vniust course must be reserued to the manifestation of tyme but apparent it is by that which heere hath been shewed that the most high and supreme Ruler of all hath by permitting these their disgracefull endes shewed his dislike of their actions contrarywise to such as haue beene obedient to his will his benediction hath been manifest in a copious manner The benefits then which England might expect by continuing to take the Hollanders partes must be vnderstood to be endles Charges great Dishonour and the high Displeasure of Almighty God togeather with the Hollanders recompensing the same with contemptuous ingratitude which are motiues to mooue mad men to be their friendes Some may perhaps