informed that Walsingham one amongst you who hath conspired my death and the death of my Son doth make use of such artifices and hath counterfeited a letter from me in answer to that of Babingtons which he intercepted The other innocently believed it and took his oath that it came from me but all this is no more than one simple conjecture There should be a million of witnesses more clear than the rays of the Sun to impeach a Sovereign Queen who comprehends within her Authority so many millions of lives And a man unknown a man half dead is believed against me who spake all that he knew and that he knew not to deliver himself from the horrible cruelties of his Examiners Let them produce but one letter of my hand one shadow of the crime and I will yield my self convinced I speak it in the sincerity of my heart and of the tears of my eyes I would not conquer a Kingdom with the bloud of the vilest person picked out of the scum of the people much less with the bloud of a Queen I will never make a shipwrack of my soul in conspiring the ruin of a person to whom I have vowed so much honour and friendship For my Secretaries I did alwayes take them for honest men if they do charge me and accuse me in their Depositions to have dictated an Answer to Babington's letter they have committed two great faults the first in violating the Oath which they have made to be secret and faithfull to their Mistress the second in inventing so detestable a Calumny against her to whom they ow all Reverence and Fidelity In a manner all the belief that you draw from them doth amount to more than that it comes form perfidious men O good God In what a desperate condition is the Majesty and the safety of Princes if they depend upon the writings and the witnesses of their Secretaries in affairs of so high a consequence How many are of them who prostitute themselves to the uncertainty of riches How many of them for fear onely do comply with the menaces of the great-ones They are men of Fortune who follow the ebb and flow of Inconstancy If those poor men have taken their Oaths as you say it was onely to deliver themselves from the horrour of your torments and put all upon the crowned head of a Queen which they thought was inaccessible to your Commissions But what Lawyers are you to put Babington to death without bringing him before me face to face To open his mouth by torments to tell a lie and then to shut it up for ever against the Truth If my Secretaries are yet alive let them come into my presence and I assure my self that they will not persist in that Deposition which you object against me Doth it not easily appear that you proceed here on a bad belief and that you borrow these poor Formalities to give some slight tincture to your prejudgings I never did dictate any thing to my servants but what Nature did suggest unto me for the recovering of my liberty This is the third Objection of your Proces And I demand of you if I have not committed a great crime to desire a benefit which every common voice doth teach us which the laws do approve which all men do practise which Nature prompts the Nightingales and every little Bird unto that are imprisoned in their Cages what can he do less that sees himself in irons but implore the assistances of his friends and desire that some strong hand of mercy might open the prison for him I confess I have had the desire of liberty but I deny that I sought the effect thereof by that means which you alledge It is a strange thing that a Prisoner all whose action are spied into and every step she treads is counted should do the affair which great Sovereigns though of a free and most absolute power could not remove So many years are now passed since I have been as it were in the chains of miserable captivity yet neither the offers which I have made nor the assurances which I have given nor the increase of my sickness nor the declining of my age could move my Sister to my inlargement Have I not offered to contract a strict Friendship with her to cherish her to respect her above all the Princes in Christendom to forget all offences to acknowledge her the true and legitimate Queen of England submitting all my Rights to the benefit of her peace neither to pretend to nor take any part of the Crown during her life and to remove both the Title and the Arms of the Kingdom of England which I did attribute to my self by the commandment of Henrie the Second King of France And yet all these submissions have prevailed nothing for my Deliverance Am I so much to be blamed if I have desired forreign Princes my Friends and my Allies to draw me out from the depth of these miseries And yet I neither have nor was ever willing to confirm into the hands of the King of Spain the Right which he pretended to the Crown of England although he hath been angry with me concerning it but I have given respect unto my Sister so far that I have neglected both my life and liberty to satisfie her interests and have delighted my self with the prayers of Esther and not with the sword of Judith But I now speak and declare that since England is inequitable and so unkind unto me that I neither ought nor will misprise the aid of other Kings I have here sincerely declared my thoughts and my counsels to you on this Accusation and if Right and Equity must give way to Power and Force must oppress the Truth amongst men I do appeal to the living God who hath an absolute Empire of command over Elizabeth and my self I swear unto you by God and protest unto you on my honour that for this long time I have had my thoughts on no Kingdom but onely that of Heaven which I look on as the haven after my long sufferings I believe I have now satisfied all your Objections And you know indeed in your own conscience that nothing doth charge me but my birth nor render me guilty but my Religion But I will not deny that to which by Gods goodness I am born nor remove the character which I received in the day of my Baptism I have lived and I will die a Catholick It is the crime alone for which I need no Advocate to defend me in which I desire all the world to be my witness and fear not the severest Judges The poor Princess did mingle these words with her tears fore-seeing the persecution of her friends and considering how barbarously her Royal Dignity was exposed to the Advocates of the Palace who did all seem to have sworn her death Howsoever in their consciences they were touched to the quick because that what she represented was most true even by the
by a writing signed under their own hands have authentically protested to the Queen of England that the Earls of Murray Morton and Lidington were the Counsellers and Authours of the horrible Parricide committed against the King the good Queen always professing that she did forbid them to do any thing whatsoever that might any way reflect upon her honour or offend her conscience Also this unfortunate Earl of Morton who was afterward Cambden part 3. pag. 336. convicted and executed for this murder did totally discharge the Queen from having any hand in the Kings death and named the Conspiratours who by writing had obliged themselves one to another to defend the murder of his Royal Majesty John Hebron Cambden pag. 128. an 1567. Paris and Daglis who prepared the Myne being put to the Rack to accuse the Innocent Queen did absolutely discharge her protesting before God and his Angels that she was free from all fault and that Murray and Morton did give them commandment to perform it Buchanan a Pensionar of Murrays who Cambden pag. 105. cried down this Queen by his venemous pen being touched at last with the remorse of conscience with tears demanded pardon of her Son King James And being sick to death desired that his life might be prolonged either to clear the integrity of Queen Mary by the light of Truth or by his own bloud to wash away the stains of his reproches Some Protestants being amazed to hear him speak in this manner in the apprehension he had of Gods judgements to fall upon him did give forth that his old age had made him to doat This which I now write was afterwards acknowledged as we shall see anon by a publick and solemn sentence of the principal Nobility of England who although Lutherans and enemies being chosen to examine the business did highly publish the Innocence of this Queen And now Detractours what have you to say Do you not behold wherewith to make your shame to blush and the despite of so many infamous Historians to increase who have made black her whiteness Nay some of the Catholicks themselves being but little versed in the discerning of History having suffered themselves to be surprized concerning this subject not considering that all this calumnie is derived from the Book of Buchanan being corrupted to it by the bastard Murray who promised to make him Patriarch of Scotland if ever he should come unto the Crown And this is it which made this Apostate to write a detestable libel against the honour of this Queen which was condemned afterwards by the Estates of Scotland and retracted by the Authour himself But some Hugenots of the Consistory who are the most pestilent slanderers that ever the earth brought forth have not ceased to give some countenance to this fable and illusion of mankind although it was legally condemned of falshood by the most apparent of all their party It is an unhappiness of most men that they are wilfully given to believe the worst whether by an inclination they have unto it or whether by a difficulty to forsake and to put off that which first they entertained in their belief The most virtuous Queen Dido doth pass perpetually through the world for a woman lost in love although indeed she died in the defence of her chastity chusing rather to be devoured by the flames of fire than to be given in marriage as Tertullian doth affirm 6. But to take into my hand again the thread of The rash love of the Earl of Bothuel my discourse Some time after the Kings death Bothuel who was one of the most powerfull Earls of Scotland did prevent to court this Queen in the way of marriage and the rather because the Earl of Murray had promised her unto him for the recompence of this treason This motion came directly cross to her heart although as yet she did not know that this pernicious man had imbrued his hands in her Husbands bloud having always found him most faithfull in his service But as the report thereof increased she grew very angry with all those who offered to renew the motion to her alledging that there was no apparance that he should be propounded for a husband to her who is suspected for so detestable an act no although he indeed were innocent Besides that she urged that he was already tied in marriage to another woman But Murray the Bastard and other of the conspiratours who with an obstinate resolution had undertaken this business did justifie this Crime by the Judges of their faction and gave the Queen to understand that his first wife was not lawfully contracted to him and therefore she was removed from him All this was not able to perswade her who was wonderfully troubled with the dismalness of these late events which was the occasion that Bothuel being transported with love and assured of the high reputation which he had in the Kingdom did draw forth into the fields with five hundred horse where corvetting before them a wild presumption did invade him to take away the Queen as she returned from Sterlin to which place she was gone to see her Son and to bring him with her to her Castle at Dunbar At which place having with strange submissions demanded pardon for his boldness He represented to her the contract of his marriage signed by the Earl of Murray and the principal of the Nobility of the Kingdom who thought very well of it by that means to remedy the publick calamities of the Kingdom Moreover he protested to her that he would never over-value himself for the Honour he should receive from her Majesty nor for the greatness of his unexpected fortune with which the greatest Monarch on the earth might proudly content himself but that he would always continue her most humble and most obedient servant In this manner did this Philistine adore the Ark in its captivity But she moderating her passion did represent unto him that to proceed in this nature was to overthrow the whole business before it was established that she would be absolutely brought to Edinborough the chiefest Citie of her Kingdom where she would take a resolution to do that which should seem good unto Her On this occasion it came about that the Earl of Murray who had removed himself a little to be the less suspected of the murder did return to Court and brought with him the Suite of the Assassinate rewarding him for it with the obtainment of the bravest Lady in the world as the recompence of his murder He ceased not to importune her to take Bothuel Cambden part 1. pag. 3. doth shew that this marriage was brought about by the fraud and the pressing solicitations of the Earl of Murray for her husband declaring his innocence publickly avouched the splendour of his house the exploits of his courage the proofs of his fidelity which did render him most worthy of her love He added that being alone and without assistance she was no
fifteenth year of her age being himself not much more indebted unto yeares than she was All things laughed at the beams of this bright Morning and it seemed that Felicity her self had with full hands poured down her favours upon a Marriage which had been made in Heaven to carry along with it the approbation of all the earth But who can dive into the secrets which Providence The inconstancy of humane affairs hath in her own breast concealed from us Or who is he that hath tears enough to deplore the condition of great Fortunes when they are abandoned to the pillage and plunder of destruction This young French King having in his way but saluted Royalty after his reign but of six moneths was taken out of the world by an Impostume in his ear All France did groan under this loss by reason of the excellent inclination of that Prince but she was more touched with the impressions which in her heart her most dear Spouse received who desired to sacrifice the rest of her dayes unto the ashes of her husband Nevertheless as the tenderness of the Kings age who was troubled besides with divers indispositions of body and the short time they were married together did not permit that any issue should be left behind him there did arise upon it a report that the young Her return into Scotland Queen should return into her own Countrey where two Crowns did attend her the one in England the other in Scotland she being the true Inheritress of them both of one of which she took possession and was deprived of her rights in the other by the injustice of Usurpation 3. Elizabeth of England now began to torment The first fire of the jealousie of Estate her self with a furious jealousie against her and had already laid the Design to stop her in her return to Scotland but God was pleased that she was gallantly accompanied with a great part of the most generous of the Nobility of France and did pass the seas very fortunately and arrived so suddenly in Scotland as if she did flie in the Air there she was received of all the good Catholicks with wonderfull entertainments of applause and joy Elizabeth who did swell with despite that she failed in her design covering her artifice with the vail of friendship did send a solemn Embassage with Presents to congratulate her arrival and to give her the assurances of an eternal Alliance The good Princess who had a heart as credulous as generous was passionately taken with this friendship and disputed with her self how she should overcome her in honour and in courtesie She took from her Treasurie a Diamond of which she made a Present to her It was cut in the manner of a heart and enriched with a verse of Buchanans who had not as yet his spirit infected with Treason In the mean time Elizabeth not unlike those Sorcerers which from the fairest mornings do produce the foulest weather did not cease under-hand to sow troubles and divisions in the Realm of Scotland endeavouring to destroy her Cousin by the fines of policy whom she durst not attach by the force of Arms. On the first arrival of Queen Mary into Scotland she found the Kingdom overspread with the factions of the Calvinists which at that time troubled all the Estates in Christendom And seeing that the youth and inexperience of her widow-hood was not compatible with the great underminings which her Enemies did daily form against her State she began after the space of five years to think of a second Marriage The small success in her first marriage made Her second marriage her suspect an alliance with strangers and those who were most near unto her did disswade her from it She did cast her eyes on her Cousin Henry Stuart the young Earl of Lenox who for the comeliness of his person was one of the most remarkable in the Kingdom of Scotland and having procured a Dispensation from the Pope she married him This affection The seed of the jealousie of love although most innocent in it self being not mannaged with all the considerations of State did bring upon her the jealousie of other Princes and was in the end attended with great disasters But to speak the truth the Earl of Murray natural brother to the Queen a pernicious and luxurious man who under-hand was the Instrument of Elizabeth of England did sow the first seeds of all these Tragedies In the beginning of these troubles he was called The Prior of S. Andrew as being ordained by James the Fifth to Ecclesiastical dignity but having drunk the air of a turbulent and furious Ambition which Knox the Patriarch of the Hereticks in Scotland had inspired in him he did not cease to affect the Quality of Regent and of King nor sparing any wickednesses to arrive to the butt of his desires As he observed that the Queen his sister being yet Ambition the beginning of all evils very young and very beautifull was sought for in marriage by the King of Spain to be married to his Son and by the Emperour to be maraied to his Brother he used the utmost of his power to divert that Design politickly fore-seeing that such alliances would tend to the diminution of his power and he failed not with most violent perswasions to represent unto her that she should enjoy neither peace nor honour in her Kingdom if she were espoused to a forreign Prince and the better to divert her from it he ceased not to advance the perfections of young Lenox which he did rather to amuse her and to possess her with thoughts of love than in earnest to bring the marriage to accomplishment The generous Princess who understood not yet what Dissimulation meant gave car unto him and overcome by his counsel she proceeded to the effects of the marriage with the Earl of Lenox who was indeed accomplished with all excellent endowments both of body and of mind but being very young had not the qualities requisite to serve him to secure himself This Murray who thought he should reign in him and by him and that having advanced him to the Royal Dignity the King should be but as the instrument of his will did find himself much deceived when he observed the King to grow cold in his behalf and to reign with an Authority more absolute than he intended His fury did proceed to that height that he drew into the field to make war against the King but having bad success therein he was constrained to retire himself into England where he began his designs to destroy his Sister He had in the Scotch Court the Earl of Morton who was unto him as his other-self to whom he gave Commission to throw the apple of Discord on this marriage of the King and Queen This he performed with incredible The effects of Envy and Ambition cunning and finding some disposition by the cooling of his affection he perswaded Lenox That he was
report of the Hereticks themselves as it appeareth in the Book of Cambden who hath wrote the Life of Cambden pag. 493. Elizabeth and who doth not deny but that Walsingham did open and make up the letters again which Gifford brought him counterfeiting in them what he thought good And he himself confesseth that it was the judgement of the most rational men that the Secretaries of the Queen of Scotland were seduced and corrupted with money And it is certain that Amanuensium absentium qui pretio corrupti videbantur testintonio oppressa est they demanded a Recompence of Walsingham who told them that they ought to content themselves with their lives And added that in condemning their Mistress without producing the Witnesses they had not proceeded according to the Rules of Justice Observe here the judgement of the Hugenots themselves her most cruel Enemies I speak of those who have some sparks of a good conscience and not of those Incendiaries who write Rapsodies full of ignorance and folly All this may serve for an invincible proof of her innocence but her evil Judges The unjust Judgement who had sold themselves to iniquity did not cease to proceed further even to the Sentence of Condemnation which they carried to the Queen of England and was presented to the Parliament for the publication of it Thither Elizabeth did come in person with a studied Speech where she gave thanks to God for the Deliverance from this danger and thanks to her Subjects for the affection to their Queen Afterwards coming to the work in hand she shewed her self to be extreamly afflicted for the Queen of Scotland that a Person of her Sex Estate and Bloud should be convicted to have conspired against her Adding that she was most willing to pardon her and to abandon her own life if it would render the affairs of England more flourishing but in this effect she would neither prejudice her self nor the good of her Kingdom In this action she came with a heart full of vengeance however she would put upon it the reputation of Sweetness and of Clemency imitating the Herods and Tyberius Caesar who never did worse than when they spake best and laughed in their hearts when they distilled the tears of Crocodiles from their eyes With joyned hands she desired that her Parliament would but demand that thing of her which most willingly she would not grant Sometimes she would flatter them with the Respects and cordial Affections they did bear her on purpose to incite them to pursue this business Sometimes she seemed to be weary of their too much zeal Sometimes she said she would preserve her self And sometimes she said she would abandon her own preservation to exercise her clemency Her spirit which was greatly given to dissimulation made never more leaps nor daunced more Rounds than in this business And to speak the truth she perplexed her self in her own labyrinth and endeavouring too much to hide her self she laid her self more open saying unto those who demanded the death of the Queen of Scotland I pray and conjure you to content your self with an Answer without an Answer I approve your judgement and comprehend the reasons but I pray you excuse the carefull and the doubtfull thought which doth torment me and take in good part the gracious affection which I bear you and this Answer if it be of that worth as you esteem it for an Answer If I say I will not do what you demand peradventure I shall say more than I think If that I will do it I shall precipitate my self to my ruin whom you are willing to preserve In the end the Sentence of Death was confirmed by the Authority of Parliament and Beal was sent to the Queen of Scotland to carry her the news of her mournfull Condemnation and to acquaint her that the Estates demanded the Execution to be dispatched for Justice Security and Necessity Her great heart was no way dejected at this so violent a Rigour and damnable Injustice but listing up her eyes and her hands to Heaven she gave thanks to God demanding immediately a Priest to administer to her the Sacrament and to dispose her to die Paulet Execrable indignity who had the guard of her did use her after this most barbarously commanding the Officers of her house to beat down the cloth of State that was in her chamber but when he observed that no man would touch it and that they onely answered him by tears and lamentations which would have softened the heart of any man he performed the Execution by the Guard and took from the poor Prisoner all the marks of Royalty to make her behold her Funeral alive and to make her heart to bleed with a mortal wound before the bloud were drawn from the veins of her body by the hands of the Hang-man But Elizabeth did yet deferre the Execution whether it were for the fear of sorreign Princes being not able to see clear enough into their power and protection or whether it were to gain the imaginary Reputation of Mercy or whether by degrees she would consume this poor sacrifice by a small fire prolonging the languors of her imprisonment The other was resolved to write unto her not in a base and begging stile to crave her life but to demand an honest Burial Behold her letters to that effect MADAM I Give thanks to God with all my heart who by the Sentence of Death hath been pleased to put an end to the tedious pilgrimage of my life I desire not that it may be prolonged having had too long a time to trie the bitterness of it I onely beseech your Majestie that since I am to expect no favour from some Zealous Ministers of State who hold the first place in your Councels I may receive from You onely and from no other these following favours In the first place I desire that since it is not allowed me to hope for a Burial in England according to the Solemnities of the Roman Church practised by the ancient Kings your Ancestours and mine and that in Scotland they have forced and violated the Ashes of my Grand-fathers that my Bodie when my Adversaries shall be satiated with my innocent bloud may be carried by my own servants into some holy Land and above all if it may be into France to be there interred where the Bones of the Queen my most honoured Mother are lodged to the end my poor Bodie which knew no rest whiles joyned to my soul might now find rest being separated from it Secondly I beseech Your Majestie in the apprehension which I have of the tyrannie of those to whose power You abandon me that I may not suffer in any private place but in the view of my servants and other people who may give a testimonie of my faith and of my obedience to the true Church and defend the remnant of my life and my last sighâ— against the false Reports which my Adversaries may contrive
eyes enlightened with the Beams of the face of God Consider the waves of the Ocean which cease not to carry the Memory of your Deeds unto the ends of the earth pardon your Subjects and wash away the stain which the effusion of that generous bloud hath made since you had rather be a Messenger of Reconciliation than to be the Bearer of Vengeance O great and illustrious Brittanie Is it possible that this bloud hath yet wrought nothing on the hardness of thy heart and that thou dost still delight by force of Arms to fight against Heaven to oppose thy own safety and to shut the gate against thy own happiness Where is that glory of thy Christianism which heretofore did make thee to be lookt upon as on a land of Benediction which opened her liberal breasts to give so many Doctours to Europe so many Lights of learning to the Church so many Examples of piety to all Christendom and so many Confessors unto Paradise Thy Kings by a pious violence have forced their way to Heaven and their people have followed their foot-steps There was nothing spoken of thee but obedience to the Church of Rome of Saints of Reliques of Piety of Combats of Virtue and of Crowns And since the devil of lust and rebellion raised from the most black Abyss hath seized on the soul of a miserable King thou hast sullied thy perfection thou hast destroyed thy Sanctuary the lamentable Reliques whereof are now spread over all the world and the sacred stones of thy Temples groaning amongst the Nations do attend the day of the Justice of God and the Re-union of the hearts of thy people in the performance of his service What hast thou done with the cradle of Constantine and of S. Helena who were born with thee to give Laws unto all Christendom What hast thou done with those precious stones which composed that Diadem the beams whereof did sparkle with admiration in the eyes of all the people in the world Return O Sbunamite return Return fair Island to thy first beginning the hand of God is not shortned his arms all day are stretched forth to receive thee If the insolent hands of Heresie have made them bars which have been planted for so many years do not think but the hands of true piety will tear away the disorders which protect themselves in the night of so corrupted an Age. Feign not to thy self imaginary horrours and overthrowings of Estates by the Inquisitions and Thunders of Rome The beams of the Sun will make the Manna to melt which no Power can destroy The bloud of this immortal Queen shall break the Diamond in pieces and one day work those great effects which we our selves cannot believe nor our Posterity sufficiently admire It is in your veins most mighty Monarch of Great Brittain where still her bloud doth run That cruel Axe which made three Crowns to fall with one head hath not yet poured it all out it doth preserve it self in your body and in the body of your Posterity animated with the Spirit of Marie and imprinted with the image of her goodness It is she who hath given you so temperate a spirit such attractive inclinations such royal Virtues and so triumphant a Majesty It is she who uniteth you with the Queen your dear Spouse with a will so cordial and with a love so perfect and makes your marâ—iage as a continual Sacrifice of the Ancients whose offerings that were presented had no gall at all in them The Queen of Scotland your Grand-mother was given unto France and France hath rendered you a Princess according to the heart of God and according to your own-heart a Blossom of our Lilies the Daughter of a King the Sister of a King the Wife of a King Royal in her bloud Royal in her Religion Royal in her Piety in her Prudence and Royal in her Courage She enters into your cares she partakes of your troubles She conspires with your Designs her spirit turneth unto yours and yours continually is ready to meet with hers They are two clocks excellently ordered which at every hour of the Day do answer one another Great Majesties of Brittanie carry the same yoke in the service of God and the piety of your Ancestours and as you have but one heart maintain also but one Religion Establish that which your Grand-mother of everlasting memory hath practised by her Virtues demonstrated by her Examples honoured by her Constancy and sealed with her Bloud CARDINAL POOL LE CARDINAL POLVS NExt unto Boëtius I will insert Cardinal Pool one of the most excellent Men of the Age before us who being chief of the Councel in the Realm of England under Queen Marie did know so well to marry the Interests of the State to the Interests of God that rendering himself the Restorer of Religion he repaired the Ruins of the Kingdom which were fallen into a horrible desolation His Birth most high and illustrious made him a His birth and Education near Kinsman to the King of Great Brittain as well by the Fathers side as by the Mothers His spirit did equal his Nobility but his Virtue did exceed them both and proved him to be the wisest and the most moderate person in all the Clergy The care of his good Mother did with great advantage improve his more innocent and tender years and omitted nothing that might either enlighten his understanding in the knowledge of learning or inflame his heart with a generous heaâ— after gallant actions In his most tender age he testified a Divine Attraction His love of solitude which made him to eschewall commerce of company and secretly did inspire him with the love of Solitude He did delight in the Countrey life where the pureness of the Air the aspect of the Stars the ennammel of the Meadows the covert of the Woods the veins of the Waters and other objects did prepare him as many Degrees to mount up to God as he did there behold Beauties in the discovered breasts of Nature It was for this that he made his first studies near unto the House of the reverend Fathers of the Charters whose conversation he loved more than all the pleasures in the world which occasioned a certain tincture of Devotion and of probitie to pass into his manners which continued with him all his life From thence he removed to the Universities in England where he gave most admirable proofs of his Capacity On the approach of the twentieth year of his age His Travels he travelled into Italie where he beheld the wonders of Rome and had a tast of the rarest spirits in that Age some whereof did afterwards live with him and did much conduce to fill his spirit with the height of learning which made him to be admired by all and the rather because it no way diminished the holy heats of his Devotion Having travelled into forreign Countreys for the space of five years he returned into England where he was lookt
he particularly recommended to all holy minds who breathed after the restoring of the ancient Religion In the second place he entered into the heart and possessed himself with the inclinations of Queen Marie whom he found throughly disposed and animated by a generous spur for the glory of God and the felicity of her Kingdom which kept her alwayes exercised on that high thought and comprehended in it the safety of all that Nation In the last he more and more encouraged all the Catholicks by the desires of their repose of conscience and by the liberty of their functions in the exercise of spiritual things In the third place he treated with those who were in an errour with the Spirit of Compassion of Sweetness and of Bounty complying with them in what he could in civil affairs and endeavouring to take from them the apprehension which they had conceived to themselves that the Change of Religion would ruin their fortunes and the establishment of their houses He caused a report to be spread by many remarkeable and grave Personages that he came not to take away their temporal goods but to give them spiritual blessings And as concerning the Goods of the Church which many Great men had usurped in that general Confusion of Affairs he said he would compose it in the best way that Love and Candor could prescribe him Fourthly He did wisely fore-see that with sweetness he should also bring in Authority which might ruin the resistences of those men if any should appear to oppose so saving a work On which he had recourse to the greatest Potentates in Europe whom he secretly affected to this Enterprize He had been before employed on the Peace between Francis the First and Charls the Fifth He did apprehend and attract the spirits of them both with wonderfull dexterity for having dived into the heart of the Emperour and finding the seeds of the Design which afterwards did discover themselves having been dismissed of the Empire and embraced a solitary life he wrought upon him with the recital of his great actions and the Conquests he had obtained and told him That all those strong agitations of his spirit were but as so many lines which ought to tend to the center of Rest that he ought not to weary and torment his good fortune That it was a great gift of God to confine his thoughts on true glory without attending the tide of the Affairs of the world That it was the duty of an Emperour to endeavour the Peace of Christendom and an incomparable honour to accomplish it He touched his heart so directly with these Demonstrations that he opened it and the Emperour declared to him That he had a great desire to that divine Peace and would embrace all reasonable Conditions that should conduce unto it After that he had effected this he made no delay to address himself to the Most Christian King and knowing that he was puissantly generous he wrought upon him by the glory of the great Wars he had sustained and the immortal actions of valour which he produced that by his invincible courage he had at the last wearied the most puissant Potentate in Europe who had him in admiration and desired nothing more than to hold a fair correspondence with him That a fair Peace should be an inestimable benefit to them both which should give rest unto their Consciences and pull down a blessing from on high upon their persons and be a great comfort to their Subjects who were overcharged with the continuation of the war In the end he did demonstrate to him how extraordâ—narily he was beloved of his people who did attend this Effect of his goodness by which he should crown his Valour with all happiness and abundance in his Kingdom The King took fire at this Discourse and the Cardinal most vigorously did blow it up and did remonstrate That two so great Monarchs who were made for Heaven ought not so greedily to hold unto their interests on earth and that they had nothing now to wish but to part their affairs and to save their honour And this indeed they afterwards performed restoring willingly on both sides all that they had conquered since the ordinance of Reconciliation made by Paul the third who some years before did transport himself to Marseilles although he was of a very great age to pacifie the Affairs of Christendom This Accord being so happily atchieved by Cardinal Pool he gained by it the approbation and applause of all Princes who favoured the Catholick cause He observed that the Emperour had his son Philip to marry and that there was nothing more expedient for the advancement of Religion than to allie him to Queen Marie He carried this affair with such secresie and dexterity that the King of Spain was in England and the Marriage published before the plot was discovered By the counsel of Charls Cardinal Pool did deferre his entery into the Realm until the Marriage was concluded and then he entered with all assurances The King himself came to meet him and Queen Marie with all her people received him with extasies of joy He incontinently did draw unto him the affection of all the principal Lords and not long after he counselled the King and Queen to call an Assembly of the most remarkable persons in the Kingdom to whom he spake thus in presence of their Majesties MADAM SInce it hath pleased God after the Confusions of the His speech to the States late times to shine upon us with his eyes of Mercie and at last to place upon the Throne the true and faithfull Inheritress of the Crown who is so worthily espoused to one of the greatest Princes in all Christendom we have a great subject to satisfie our Discontents and advance our hopes This Realm at this day doth imitate the Creation of the world coming forth from its Chaos and dark Abyss to receive the favourable influences of the light The day which by all good men hath been so passionately desired so suspected by the wicked so unlookt for by the incredulous and so attended by the afflicted is at length arrived to destroy our death and to make us new born in the life of the children of God Behold the true Religion which entereth with triumph into all the Cities of this Kingdom from which Impietie and Furie had dispossessed her she holds out her arms unto you adorned with the Palms and the Crowns with which your Ancestours have honoured her she demands again the place which from the first conversion until the furie of these later times she hold with so much honour and satisfaction Will you yet banish her Will you yet continue to persecute her Can you endure that she should present before God her torn and her bloudie Robe and complain again of the outrages of her children My Brethren There is neither life nor salvation but in this Faith which shineth and speaketh in S. Peters Chair It is that which God hath given us
wherewith God hath entrusted them and abuse it to outward pomp rather then exercise it to the advantage of good men Let the fear of misdemeanours and obliquities banish all fiercenesse from them and let them esteem it the greatest impotence to boast a Priviledge of Injustice or a Power to hurt The cause of the Warre must first be balanced by an accurate examination lest the affections obtain precedence over Equity and Reason lest iniquity be predominant in the better part and force and fury comply to cheat the world under the specious title of Injustice I am both sad and ashamed to consider with my self what frivolous occasions have prevailed with many whereon to ground a Warre The Trojan Warre that common Sepulchre of Asia and Europe flamed out from the impetuous flagrancies of a noble Whore By a thousand ships she was re-demanded and for her that had lost all modesty vast numbers of gallant Hero's lost their neglected lives So many chaste lay open to the lust of the enemies that an unchaste might be restored Alexander being yet a child was reprehended by his Tutour for his profusion of Frankincense in his Sacrifices to the Gods but being arrived to mans estate that he might wash away this admonition of his master he invadeth Arabia and there the second time offereth up Sacrifice for the conquest of the Countrey The Egyptians for a slain Cat rose up in arms against the Romans and fourty destroyed many thousand men Caligula with a mighty noise of armed men and a great preparation of all Military ornaments hasteneth to the Ocean there to gather cockles The Romans being contumeliously upbraided with this ridiculous Expedition conspired and almost effected the utter ruine of the scoffing Tarentians The people of Alexandria rebelled against Galienus because of a sottish contention between the Master and the Servant concerning the elegancy and neatnesse of a pair of shoes And to omit many examples which I could commemorate William of England sirnamed the Conquerour who was victorious over all men but himself revenged a pleasant conceit of Maximus the Prince with innumerable destructions The Conquerour was of a corpulent habit and his belly was somewhat prominent thorow a plenty of Hydropick humours wherefore when Philip the King of France heard of the nature of his disease We will allow him time saith he to provide for his lying in which by the bulk of his belly appeareth to be near at hand The Conquerour being mad with fury replyed That he would rise up after his delivery and kindle five hundred fires in France to adorn his up-sitting Nor was he unmindfull of his resolution for presently upon his recovery he entred France with a stupendious army wholly addicting himself by fire famine and horrible slaughters to the satisfaction of his revenge Shall we suppose that he playes and trifles with the bloud of men who upon such slight provocations can enterprize such mournfull Tragedies May we suppose those people miserable with whom the scoffs of furious men must be expiated with such a direfull destruction No man ought to believe himself or another concerning the cause of a Warre but let him weigh it with the exquisite prudence of the principall men whose advices are the more fruitfull of truth the lesse they are espoused to affection A right intention must necessarily be coveted to a just Cause and all these things are estimated by a sober and moderate conclusion or a justifiable end Be such a thought eternally banished from the head and heart of a Christian Prince that he should array himself in a Military posture to oblige some light affections of a luxuriant mind that he should run on slaughters command the burning of towns prosecute and seem to rejoyce in devastations that he should destroy he should extinguish and bury his own glory in the overthrow of others This is the indelible ignominy of Centaures and the Lapathae who in warring seek nothing but Warre The wisest Kings thorow tumults and intestine jarres have made a progresse unto Justice Equity and Concord and being themselves in Arms have sacrificed undefeigning vows to Peace They think of an Enemy as a Physician sometimes of his Patient that he must be recovered by corrosives and sharp remedies Oh that he would have been cured with a diet or asswaged with fomentations But when against the Law and Right of Nations he hath persisted in his obstinacy and contemned the reiterated offers of composing the present differences then you must bind then you must cut then you must burn him yet all this to restore not to exterminate him And all things composed behold like the scourge of a deadly and destructive Warre a Northern tempest rageth in the miseries of Germany there they wallow in bloud and in their night-marches they are conducted by the hideous light of burning Cities some few making a resistance and all men being astonished at the ferall prodigy The Altars are polluted with sacrifice Virgins with rapes the chains of Church-men are heard louder and further then the drums of their persecutours holy things are profaned and the abomination of desolation is consummated their very King who had appointed them thither being either ignorant of those outrages or unconsenting Now can any man conceive that this was devised by a Christian mind Can it be imagined that he who hath any reverence unto or sense of Religion can give such directions It is not credible such a monster could not have been brought forth had not hell conceived the bottomelesse-pit exhaling the fuliginous vapours and the devils themselves torturing mens minds into such uncouth diversities All things cannot properly have a reflected reference unto men The Privado's and Ministers of Princes are not at all times to be accused as though they had cast off all humaniry and covered themselves with brutish cruelty There are certain vagabond and deceitfull spirits destinated to revenge who being themselves lost in misery cease not to comfort their malice by driving others into a participation of those miseries which reason greatest Princes ought so much the more to invite yea to admonish you to leagues of Peace because our Omnipotent God in his secret counsel hath determined to subdue Satan by your hands and to cast him under your feet The highest circumspection and vigilancy are therefore requisite least matter be suppeditated to the Devil who altogether watcheth for destruction from the affections and vices of men Jealousie that tinder of Kingdomes and Nations easily taketh fire if it be fomented onely with an animal wisdome and be not mixed with the prudence of the Saints They who are addicted to one part say that the Spaniards do too much expose their power to Envy that it is hatefull unto equalls terrible to inferiours and if not prevented destructive unto all There is amongst them say they such an epidemicall itch after domination such intentive and indefatigable cares of their ambition such a luxurious wit to enlarge their Empire so vast a
is as the Wise-man said as the rain-bowe that is bright in the fair clouds This is he whom after so many storms so many tempests and such a deluge of Christian bloud God seems to exhibit as a restorer of things a Peace-maker to the world an avenger of evils and a bestower of blessings And indeed this is not done by humane counsel but by the gubernative reason of God which is his Providence that he might demonstrate to the world by no vain auguries that to this man as to the Patriarch Noah the tops of the mountains should appear the waters of strife and the flouds of contention being dried up This I suppose is that dove with silver wings and whose hinder parts glittered as the purest gold whereof the Prophet spake Innocentius hath ever shined brighter then silver by the candour and uprightnesse of his mind but now the latter parts of his life promise a golden Age unto the world He doth not sit idle amidst the complaints and mournings of the Church he doth not revel in an uncircumspect and lazy greatnesse but with unwearied pains and a mind alwayes vigilant he is intent upon illustrious cares for Christ and aimeth at the consolation of mankind The amiable name of Pamphilius is delightfull unto all men and delightfull is the name of Innocentius so often consecrated to the salvation of men Innocentius the first extinguished Alaricus boasting himself in the prey of the Roman Empire with his prayers and by his splendour re-beautified the face of the eternall City when it was infuscated with the sooty vapours of a brutish Warre Innocentius the second dissipated the Schism of the counterfeit Anacletus and with the co-assistance of S. Bernard composed the Christian world when it was disunited with great discords A pure white dove fore-shewed the inauguration of Innocent the third by flying to his side without doubt designing the solicitous endeavours whereby he laboured to consociate all Christian Princes by firm Leagues one with another and to exasperate them against the common enemy of Religion Innocentius the fourth came to Lyons that he might reconcile the irregular tumults in the Church and that by his authority he might remove Frederick the Emperour that fomented many things and disturbed all things Innocentius the fifth was no sooner crowned but presently he addicteth his mind to pacifie the Cities of Italy and being by such pious determinations immortall in glory he spent his short Pontificate in a fatherly care of his people Innocentius the sixth when the flame of a destructive warre devoured France and England stood stoutly for the House of God and with a great spirit laboured for Peace with John and Edward at that time the Kings of the Nations Innocentius the seventh mounted not otherwise to this pitch of supreme Dignity but by a faithfull endeavour constantly transacted to reconcile the Princes and appease the cities of Italy which a malignant force of discord had precipitated into imminent destruction Innocentius the eighth was most desirous of Peace among Christian Princes and could not without some motions of impatience see any go to warre but upon the most important and importunate causes Innocentius the ninth when before his Pontificate he was the Aposticall Nuntio of Gregory the fourteenth staying six years among the Venetians conjoyned them both in Arms and Armies with the Pope and Philip the second King of Spain and irritated them against the Turk whereupon that most famous victory of Naupactus broke the boldnesse of the Sarazens and after a wonderfull manner improved the conduct of Christian Affairs Oh how is the name of the Innocents born and consecrated unto Peace Oh joyful appellation unto Christians The Tenth will accomplish what the nine have attempted so much the greater as this number is the more noble Go on thou dove of Innocence display thy silver wings flie over both earth and sea view the world shew forth in all places the celestiall olive give Peace so ambitiously desired and by such constant expectations wished give Peace I say so often called for and to be implored of thee the Anointed of the Lord or else at this time it must be despaired of What remaineth Greatest Princes but that you grant that to our Petitions which you have hitherto denied to our Reasons Whatsoever restraineth passion whatsoever can appease an armed man in fury doth now run towards you in one troop that so it may be honourable for you to be thus intreated and shamefull for you not to yield to these intreaties Behold the Pope the Pastour and Parent of the whole Church stretcheth out friendly hands unto you and when he might command intreats you almost forgetting that he is the Pope he becomes an humble suppliant A man dear to heaven and born for great enterprises Worthy in all places to bear the felicities of the world about him amidst all his exalted prosperities is your Petitioner that Divine wit equall to his heighth feels a colluctation with these burdens and in a vigorous and circumspect old age is grieved by you The bowels of a Father are urged who is as often fruitfull in the generation of children as he desires those children to be reconciled to Peace Be ashamed not to hear him whose predecessour Attila would hear He is full of dayes honour his grey hairs he is a Father acknowledge his Charity he is the Pope be observant of his Dignity God forbid that he like meek Jacob should be compelled to say Simeon and Levi are brethren in iniquity Let not my soul participate of their counsels and in their company let not my glory come Cursed be their fury because it is obstinate and their indignation because it is cruel The whole Church lamenteth with her Pope in times past triumphing now deformed full of filth now bedewed and almost drowned in tears and tired under cares and sorrows He beseecheth you that you would not suffer the Ammorites and the Moabites to insult in your destructions Prevent the petulancy of such an objection that even Barbarians did reverence him and yet he had Parricides to his sonnes How often have we seen the Priests at Jubilees prostrate in the Sanctuary with ejulations How often have we beheld Religious persons wearying the Altars with unwearied prayers How often have we seen the well-disposed Virgins imploring the aid of heaven by frequent sighs How often have we gladly beheld the Devout multitude crouding the Church to pour forth their wishes Of what quality and complexion is that rigour that which God a vert will not hear the whole world How is the metall of their souls compounded that would make heaven iron unto us and almost noxious whilst it either seemeth not to hear or what it heareth to contemne To be never free from Warres they think is either for the publick profit or for their own if for the publick let them hear S. Augustine crying out That felicity acquired by Martiall exploits is alwayes a brittle perishable beauty
upon as a man slâ—d down from Heaven whose excellent Qualities did promise him the fullness of glory But he suddenly observed the Affairs of the Kingdom His return to England to be greatly perplexed by reason of the horrible divorce which Henry the Eight resolved on who indeavoured at once to separate himself from his wife and from the Church of God He much desired that Pool who was Famous for knowledge and integrity should approve his intention to the end that finding no assistance from Truth he might beg some apparence from the opinions of men This was no small temptation to this young Prelate The Combat in his spirit who was not altogether so austere as to distast all honour of preferment nor so little versed in Court as not to look on the King as the Original from whence it flowed He a long time consulted with himself to find a mean which might make his conscience to accord with the will of the King His integrity which was to him as another Birth did dispute in his heart with the Interest of his Fortune and he sought after the means to temper them into one One day he thought he had found it and addressed himself to the Court to expose his advise unto the King which was an advise more pleasing than just and he had then a care that the liberty of his words should not hinder the pretences to his dignity O who is he that is able to Counsel a King in his passion If you alledge unto him too much of Justice you hazard your Fortune If you comply unto him with too much Gentleness you do betray your heart The words of a Prince are the surnace which doth prove you where you may behold some to burn and consume away like straw and others to come forth purified like Gold The spirit of God did seize on the heart and the tongue of this wise Councellour he forgot all the worldly and flattering reasons he had prepared to open onely his eyes unto the Truth How Sir said be unto the â—â—ng to labour a divorce He took part with God from Queen Katharine after so many years of your marriage who hath brought you issue to succeed you in the Crown It is true that she was given a spouse to your elder Brother but he died in his youth before his marriage was consummated And you have espoused the Queen in the face of the Church with a dispensation as authentical as the Pope could give and which he granted with your consent at the request of the King your Father of glorious memory And since your Majesty hath had a secret Repugnance caused by a respect to him to whom you ow your Birth that can bring no prejudice to the publick Faith nor to the consummation of a marriage followed by such fruits and Benedictions as ordinarily do attend that mutual commerce Alas Sir your Majesty hath consecrated its Reign by so many Royal virtues and excellent Examples which have acquired you the love and admiration of Christendom will it now eclipse so pure a life and so Triumphant a reputation by a stain which cannot be washed away but by the effusion of the bloud of all your Realm Your Majesty hath sacrificed both its Scepter and its pen by the obedience which it hath rendered to the holy Sea and by the book which it hath made in the defence of the Church Cannot it honestly cast off those Laws which it hath authorized by a publick Testimony What will your people say who have so just an apprehension of Religion What will forreign Princes say who have conceived so high an opinion of your Merit Those who do Counsel you to that divorce are the most capital Enemies of your glorie who do draw upon you the indignation of God the censure of the Sovereign Priest the arms of a great estate who being offended at this affront will conjure your ruin That which hath droven you to it is onely a passion of youth which ought to be moderated it is had Counsel from which you should retire your self it is a mischief which you should labour to avoid In this case the advice which doth least please you will be the best The precipitation of so hazardous an Act can bring nothing but repentance This I speak unto your Majesty being driven to it by the fervent zeal which I have unto the safety of its Soul and by the tender respect which I have always born to your Royal Person I must beseech it that I may not be surprized in so important an affair as this marriage is which had his Ordinance in heaven and its happiness on earth This was boldly spoken by a Man who saw that in accommodating his humour to the King he incontinently entered into the possession of the richest benefits of the Kingdom and that crossing his design he exposed his liberty his Estate his life to most apparent danger Nevertheless he had the constancy to make him this grave Remonstrance without following the Example of those which flatter all evil actions and make Divinity to speak that which the interest of their Fortunes doth suggest unto them Henry the Eighth grown more hardened Henry the Eighth was no way softened at this so grave an Oration but on the contrary he had a most earnest desire to arrest his Cosin Pool and to put him to death which had been put in Execution if the hand of God had not withheld the blow He very well observed that the heart of the King was impoysoned with lust and choler even to the despair of all remedy Wherefore not long after finding his opportunity he asked leave of the King under some pretence to go out of the Kingdom and did abandon himself to a willing banishment because he would not offend his conscience He came Pool banished himself into France and stayed sometime in Avignon from thence he traveled to Padua and from Padua to Venice where he was acknowledged and esteemed for one of the chiefest men of Christendom and renowned Pool made Cardinal for excellent quallities In the end God being pleased to demonstrate that there is nothing lost in serving him and that honours are not onely for them who by a politick suppleness do accommodate themselves unto the Times and the lusts of great men he stirred up the spirit of Paul the third a great lover of learned men who made him Cardinal with approbation of all the world So that forsaking a Bishoprick in England for the satisfying of his conscience and the defence of the truth he obtained by his merit so high a place of Eminence in the Church which all the Crimes of a conscience prostituted to evil could never procure unto them Henry who had already declared war against God and all his Saints by his divorce was inflamed with choler by reason of the retreat and the promotion of this holy man causing him to be proscribed over all England and promising fifty
thousand Crowns to him who should bring him to him and having understood that the Pope had made him his delegate into France and Flanders he did importune the French King by all manner of Sollicitation to deliver him into his hands But the brave Prince although it was directly against his Interest would do nothing that was against his generous mind and received the Cardinal with all courtesie and fidelity because he would not offend the Pope howsoever he would not suffer him to continue long in France because he would not exasperate the King of England for he had great use of his assistance in the war which he made against the Emperour Pool was then constrained to repair to Flanders where he was charitably received by Cardinal Everard Bishop of Cambray and he continued there sometimes attending the disposition of the Pope But Henry understanding that he was retired into that Province did again kndle his choler and that in so violent a heat that he promised the Flemmings to entertain four thousand men in pay for ten Moneths in favour of the Emperour against the French if they would abandon the Cardinal to his discretion Howsoever he found none that would favour his violence which did so incense him that he caused the Countess of Salisburie to be arrested She was mother to the Cardinal and daughter to the Duke of Clarence brother to Edward the fourth She was accused for having received a letter from her Son and for having worn about her neck the figure of the five wounds of our Saviour on which he commanded that a Process should proceed against her which was performed accordingly and the perverse and abominable Judges who made all their proceedings to comply with the merciless sury of their Prince did condemn her to death and caused her head to be cut off upon a Scaffold where she gave incomparable demonstrations of her piety and constancy Her dear Son who did love and respect her with all the tenderness of affection was extreamly afflicted at it and could find no comfort but in the order of Gods providence and in the glory of her death which was pretious before God After this the Legate was called back to Rome and after he had informed Paul the third of the misery of the people of Christendom who incessantly groaned under the calamity of war kindled betwixt the two principal Crowns he did contribute the uttermost of his indeavour to provide a remedy for it This good Pope was courteous liberal magnificent well versed in letters and above all a great lover of Astrology It seemeth that the Harmony of celestial bodies with which his spirit was so delicately transported did touch his Soul with a desire to make a like harmony on earth He was passionate for the Peace of Christian Princes and as he well understood the great capacity of Cardinal Pool joyned with the Royal bloud which gave him a more full Authority he did not delay to send him with a most Authenticall Commission to mediate an accord betwixt the two Kings The holy Prelate undertook this busines with great courage being carried to it as well by his own inclination as by election He failed not to represent unto their puissances all reasons both Divine and humane which might move them to an accord for the glorie of God for the glory of their own Monarchies and for the safety of their people But as he found in the ear of Henry the Eighth a Devil of lust which obstructed all the force of reason which was presented to him to divert his passion so he found in the spirit of these two Monarchs a horrible jealousie of Estate which stopped all enterance to his saving Counsels The time was not yet come and it was to row against the wind and tide to press that business any further He was constrained to return to Rome where the Pope gave him Commission to go to Wittimbergh where he continued certain years delighting in the fruits of a sweet tranquillity In the end the Councel of Trent being already assembled to extirpate Heresies and remedy the disorders with which its venemous Contagion had infected the brest of Christendom he was chosen to be president thereof which place for some time he executed to the admiration of his knowledge and the universal approbation of his zeal But when Paul the third having exceeded the age He is considered on to be Pope of four-score years did pay the Tribute common to the condition of the living he was obliged to return to Rome where all the world did cast their eyes on him to make him the head of the Church All things seemed to conspire to his Election his age his bloud his virtue his knowledge his great experience in affairs the general affection of all which did pass almost to veneration It was onely himself that resisted his own Fortune because he would not assist himself and permitted nothing of a submiss softness to over-act his generosity neither in that nature would he be a suppliant although it were for the chiefest Miter in the world The Nephews of Paul the third who as yet possessed the most high Authority of affairs considering the faithfulness of the great services which he had rendered their uncle did perswade him with importunity to this chief Bishoprick of the world And as the Conclave was assembled and the Decision of the great business did approch unto maturity they came at night into his Chamber to speak with him concerning his promotion and to offer themselves to his service to prefer unto him that Sovereign dignity But he shewed so little complacence to their discourse that in stead of making indearments and submissions of which they who pretend to honour are always excessively prodigal he made answer to them That God was the God of light and that the affair which they came about ought not to be treated on in darkness That one word did rebate the edge of their spirits and on the morning following the good Fortune which for two moneths together did look directly on Cardinal Pool did slack its foot at the dismission of the Nephew Cardinals and Julius the Third was chosen Pope a person of much renown and a great Lawyer Pool his Competitor well understanding that it was He retireth again into solitude not expedient to reside under the eyes of a Potentate to whom the power over Christendom was secretly preferred retired to Mentz into a monastery of Saint Benets where he enjoyed the delights of rest to which his inclinations carried him exercising his devotion to the height and recreating himself with good letters which he always loved But God who by his means was pleased to bring about the greatest revolution of Estate as Europe ever saw did cause occasions to arise to draw him from that solitude to return again to his great imployments It is necessary in this place to make mention of the condition of the affairs in England to behold virtue in