Grandfather of this Henry had matched with one that was very near the Crown and Cosen German to K. Iames the 4th's and Sister to Hamilton Earl of Aran this Lord Darly's Mother was also Uterine Sister to K. Iames the 5. being the Daughter to the Queen Dowager of Scotland that was K. Henry the 8th's Sister who by her second mariage with the Earl of Angus Dowglass had Lady Isabel Dowglass who was bred in the Court of England and whom K. Henry the 8. maried to the Earl of Lennox that had by her this Lord Darly who as he was the Queen of Scotland's Cosin German was also the next Heir to the Crown of England after her and might have been a dangerous Competitour to her in that Succession having been born and bred in England so that this mariage was so far from making her contemptible to her Subjects that it was considered as the wisest act of her life and Mr. Var. could not Imagine any thing more honourable to the Earl of Morny's memory than to make him the adviser of so wise a choice It is no wonder to see Mr. Var. make so bold with meaner persons when he takes so much liberty wiht the Royal Family of England as to stain their descent for which if the consideration of the Crowns they wear did not restrain him yet the particular regard to the King that now reigns ought to have taught him so much respect as not to have ventured to blot his Scutcheon so far as to call his Great Grandfather a single Gentleman and if he had payd the respect he owed to the Memory of that unfortunate Princess he had no◠enlarged so much on her Story but I know what is due to the Memory of a crowned Head even when it is laid in ashes and thô he makes an easy weakness to be her prevailing Character upon which he would discharge all her Misfortunes this Picture is so different from the Truth that she was certainly one of the wittiest and highest spirited Women that ever lived But it seems Mr. Varillas has pretended to some Pension from the Crown of England and in revenge for the disappointment he has resolved to debase the Race all he can Here he affords our Kings the honour to be descended at least from a Gentleman thô one of the ordin ariest sort but upon another occasion he is not so liberal for in his History he says that Henry the 8th had reasons to desire the mariage of his Bastard Son the Duke of Richmond with his Daughter Mary that were too well known for libels had been spread over all Europe reproaching him that his Great Grandfather was not a Gentleman but that by his credit at Court and by the vast riches that he had acquired he had obtained leave to marry a Daughter of the Family of the Plantaganets that was then 16. degrees distant from the Crown and yet by that means his Grand-child came to reign upon which he makes a long speculation concerning the King's Reflections on that matter and the reasons that restrained him from writing on that subject as if it were an ordinary thing for Princes to become their own Heralds He also tells us how he comforted himself by the remembrance of the meanness of Arbaces K. of Persia that was the Son of a Locksmith whose Posterity had reigned so long and with so much glory and therefore he says he designed to marry his Natural Son and his Daughter together Here is such a mixture of Impertinencies that it is not easy to know at what one is to begin and if there were but this one period it is enough to let the World see how incapable Mr. Varillas is of writing History I shall not in this place shew the falsehood of that Imputation on Henry the 8th that he designed this incestuous Match for that will come in more property upon another occasion only if his Birth was defective on his Great Grandfathers side it was an odd method for the correcting of it to think of adding a new blot and of bringing a Bastard into the 5th Succession so the reason is as foolish as the matter of fact is false and the Ignorance that Mr. Var. shews here is the more remarkable because this matter belongs to the most extraordinary transaction that is in the whole French History in which he pretends to be so conversant I need not say any more to prove the Tudors to be Gentlemen but to tell that they are Welshmen of the Race of the Ancient Britons who do all pretend to the highest Birth of any in the English Nation and do run up their Pedigrees to Iulius Cesar's time among whom is the Race of the the Ap Theodore's or the Sons of Theodore that by a corruption of some Ages were called Tudors but knows Mr. Varillas so little of the French History as to have forgot that the Daughter of France that was maried to Henry the 5th of England in whose right both Henry the 5th and her son Henry the sixth were crowned Kings of France in Paris did after King Henry the 5th's death marry Owen Tudor by whom she had 3. Sons the two eldest were made the Earls of Richmont and Pembroke being the Kings Uterine Brothers and the next heirs to that Title that he claimed to the Crown of France in the right of his Mother which I am far from thinking was a good one This being the case it was no extraordinary thing for a man of the Earl of Richmont's rank to marry a Lady that was then at such a distance from the Crown thô it was only in the 6th and not the 16th degree but I do not insist on this because it may be only the fault of the Printer and I will not descend to a doubtful fault when I have such material ones in my way I know there are a sort of men that are much more ashamed when their Ignorance is discovered than when their other vices are laid open since degenerate minds are more jealous of the reputation of their understanding than of their honour And as Mr. Varillas is very like to be of this temper so if a simpathy with Mr. Maimbourg has not wrought him up to the like pitch of assurance such discoveries as these ought to affect him a little and here a man is apt to lose his patience when he finds such a Scribler pretend to defame the Noblest blood in the world There is nothing else in the first Prophetick Rhapsody that relates to our matters so I was inclined to go from hence to a more particular enquiry into our English affairs only the Ignorance that he discovers in the next paragraph is so surprising that I will bestow a short remark on it He says that the Switzers were so prevailed on by this pretext that their separating themselves from the Roman Communion was the best expedient to preserve them from falling under the Dominion of the House of Austria
and his want of Judgment 32. He accuses Mr. Beaucaire for saying a thing that was no way probable when he affirms that Card. Campegio caried over to England a Bull annulling the Mariage which he was allowed to shew both to the King and to Card. Wolsey but that this was only an artifice to procure him the more credit for drawing out the Process into a great length But when a Writer rejects what he finds affirmed by another that lived in the Time concerning which he writs he ought at least to give some reasons to justify his being of another mind since it is a little too bold for any Man of a temper more modest than that of Mr. Varillas to deny a matter of fact meerly because he thinks it is no way probable but it is not only probable but evidently true as I have made it appear beyond all possibility of contradiction for after that Campegio had according to his Instructions shewed the Bull both to the King and to Wolsey great endeavours were used at Rome to procure an Order for his shewing it to some of the King's Ministers but the Pope could not be prevailed on so far and I have printed an Original Letter of Iohn Castalis that contains a long conference that he had with the Pope on this head by which it appears that the only consideration that the Pope had before his Eyes in this whole matter was the Emperour's Greatness and his Fears of being ruined if he had made any further steps in that Affair 33. He says that the Queen having thrown her self at the King's Feet and made a very moving Speech the King was so far melted with it that he said he was contented to refer the matter to be judged by the Pope in Person upon which she went out instantly that so the King might not have time to recal that which perhaps he had said a little too suddenly and that she always claimed this Promise thô the King had no regard to it Here is a new Fit of his Religion for it seems Sanders felt not those vigorous motions that were necessary to furnish out his Scenes and therefore thô Mr. Varillas adds no Discovery as to matters of fact beyond what Sanders had made yet he has the more copious Inventions of the two But he does not place his contrivances judiciously for it is much safer to dress up the secrets of the Cabinet than publick Courts of Judicature with such garnishings and as that was the most solemn Trial that ever England saw in which a King and Queen appeared as Delinquents to be tried for Incest so the matter is not only particularly related by those that lived in that Time or soon after it but the Journals of the Court are yet in being and by all these it appears that as soon as the Queen made that moving Speech she immediatly rise and went out without staying for one Word of Answer And in all that long Sute that followed afterwards for obliging the King to carry on the Sute at Rome that depended for three years this offer of the King 's if it had any other being but that which Mr. Varillas's Fiction gives it would have been certainly alledged for obliging the King to continue the Process at Rome but it was never so much as mentioned so the honour of it belongs to Mr. Varillas 34. He says that in the Process as the King's Advocates produced a Letter that Card. Hadrian had writ at the time of the granting the Bull for the Mariage that he had heard P. Iulius the second say that he could not grant it the Queen's Advocates produced likewise a Letter of Pope Iulius to the King of England that assured him that thô he had not granted the Bull as soon as it was demanded that was not out of any intention to refuse it but that he had only waited for a favourable conjuncture that so he might doe it the more deliberatly This is of no consequence but some Men get into ill habits that engage them even when there is no advantage to tell Lies The whole Journals of this Sute mention neither the one nor the other of these matters there is somewhat like the second of which some it seems had in discours given Mr. Varillas a dark Hint and he resolved to garnish it up the best he could There was a Breve of P. Iulius's produced but not writ to the King of England for it was addressed to the Kings of Spain and was indeed believed to be forged in Spain It was conceived in the very Words of the Bull for the Mariage and was of the same date and the only difference between it and the Bull was that whereas the Bull mentioned the Queen's Mariage with P. Arthur as having been perhaps consuminated this spoke of the consummation of that Mariage less doubtfully and without a perhaps and the inference that was made upon this was that the Spaniards foreseeing that the consummation of P. Arthur's Mariage would be proved he forged this Breve to make it appear that the Pope was informed of that as of a thing certain thô it was decent in the publick Bull to mention it doubtfully But Mr. Varillas shews how dangerous a thing it is to write History upon flying Reports helped up a little with the dull Invention of an ill Poet. 35. He runs out into a high commendation of the Zeal and Fidelity that some of the English Bishops who were named to be the Queen's Advocates shewed in pleading her Cause But in this he shews how little he understands the common forms of Law for since the Queen declined the Court and appealed to the Pope there was no more occasion given to her Advocates to speak to the merits of her Cause And whereas he pretends that this was done not only by Bp. Fisher but by the Bishops of London Bath and Ely that was impossible since all the Bishops had signed a Writing which was produced before the Legates in which they all declared themselves against the Lawfulness of the Mariage 36. He says the Pope recalled the Cause to be heard before himself on this pretence that the King had by Word of Mouth consented to it This is a flight of our Author's to colour that shameful secret for when the Emperour had agreed to put Florence into the hands of the Medici the Pope who had seemed to favour the King's cause till that time did then admit of the Queen's Appeal and thô he had signed a formal Promise never to recal the Cause yet he being as little a Slave to his Word as Mr. Varillas is to Truth broke his faith But he never so much as once pretended this consent of the King 's 37. He says Wolsey being disgraced was sent to York where he languished some time being reduced almost to Beggary This comes in as a dash of his Pen to set out K. Henry's Severity but one of Wolsey's Domesticks that
scrupulosity of writing truth yet that profound Policy to which he always pretends should oblige him to take a little care that the falsehoods that he advances may not be easily discovered 3. He says Henry the 8th was 12. year old when his Brother died and that his Father had designed him for the Ecclesiastical State This was taken up by the Writers of the last Age to make the Parallel between Iulian the Emperour and him seem to agree that as Iulian had been a Reader in the Church so King Henry should be represented as an Abbot with a little band But as King Henry was not 12 year old when his Brother died for he wanted some Months of 11 and as at that Age young Princes considering the respect that is payed to them in their Education have seldome been found far advanced in Learning so it does not appear that he had then any other Education different from what was given his Brother who understood Latin and some of the beginnings of Learning Learning was then in great reputation and K. Henry the 7th engaged his Children to study either to raise their Authority the higher by that means or perhaps to amuse them with Learning that they might not think of pretending to the Crown during his Life since the undoubted Title to it resting in the Person of their Mother it had devolved upon them by her Death thô they did not think fit to claim their Right 4. He says that when K. Henry the 7th intended to marry his younger Son to P. Arthur's Widdow the Privy Council of England approuved it the more easily because of the precaution that had been taken to hinder the consummation of the former Mariage and to confirm this he cites on the Margent the Petition that the Parliament of England offered upon this matter to P. Alexander the 6th But as the Depositions are yet extant of the Duke of Norfolk that was then a Privy Councellour and of two others that there was no precaution used to hinder the consummation so Warham that was at that time Archbishop of Canterbury opposed the second Mariage as being neither honourable nor well-pleasing to God as he himself did afterwards depose upon Oath The Parliament took no cognisance of the matter nor did it make any address to the Pope so that this citation is to be considered as an effect of Mr Varillas his notion of Religion 5. He runs out in his manner into a long speculation concerning the different interests of England and Spain that made the Spaniards go backwards and forwards in the agreeing to the Match that was proposed for P. Henry and the Princess whom by an extravagant affectation he calls always Duke of York and makes the Princesse's Parents represent to K. Henry the 7th the danger of his Son 's growing weary of the Princess since he was 4 year younger than she was and that in order to the procuring of a dissolution of the Mariage from the Court of Rome he might pretend that his Father had forced him to marry her whenever he should grow weary of her All the other Writers of that time put K. Henry the 7th's desiring this second Mariage meerly on his covetousness which made him equally unwilling to repay the Portion or to send a great jointure yearly after the Princess and the Prince of Wales was too great a Match to be so uneasily admitted by the King and Queen of Spain He whom he calls by the Title of the Duke of York was indeed only Duke of York for some Months after his Brother's Death during which time it was supposed that the Princess might be with child by his Brother which proves beyond exception that it was believed that the first Mariage was consummated But when there was no more reason to apprehend that then he carried the Title that belongs to the Heir apparent of our Crown But it seems the King and Queen of Spain were more easily satisfied in this matter than Mr. Varillas would make us believe they were for two years after the Bull was granted when P. Henry came to be of Age he instead of entring into any engagement to marry the Princess made a solemn protestation in the hands of the Bishop of Winchester by which he recalled the consent that he had given during his Minority and declared that he would never marry her But it is very likely Mr. Varillas had never heard of this thô the instrument of that Protestation was not only mentioned but printed by many of the Writers of that Age and it is confessed by Sanders himself who after all Mr. Varillas's flourish with his Letters is his only Author And for this foresight that he thinks he may justly ascribe to the King and Queen of Spain because they are represented by the Writers of that time to have had an extraordinary Sagacity the reason that he makes them give shews it was a contrivance of his own since a moral force such as the Authority of a Father was never so much as pretended to be a just ground to annul a Mariage after it was made and consummated otherwise most of the Mariages that have been made might have been dissolved 6. He adds to this another speculation that is worthy of him he pretends that the King and Queen of Spain apprehended that K. Henry the 7th had acquired the Crown of England and by consequence had a right to dispose of it at his pleasure upon which the Crown of Spain was afraid least he should have disinherited his Son and given the Crown to the Duke of Suffolk that was then at Brussels and was preparing an Invasion of England from which they did not know but K. Henry the 7th might save himself by declaring Suffolk his Successour and that upon those fears they were unwilling to consent to the Match Here is such a mixture of Follies that it is not easy to tell which of them is the most remarkable This Doctrine of the Crown of England's being alienable at the King's pleasure might have passed well with those that some years ago thought to have shut out the next Heir and yet even these did not pretend that it could have been done by the King alone But here is a new Theory of Politicks for which we are sure Mr. Varillas can cite no Authorities from the Laws and Constitutions of England K. Henry the 7th had indeed acquired the Crown by defeating that Tyrant and Usurper Richard the 3 d but as he pretended to be Heir of the Lancastrian Race himself so by marrying to the Heir of the House of York that was the right Heir he by a conjunction of all Titles made the matter sure But this gave him no right to alienate the Crown at his pleasure and to fancy that a King might be induced to give away his Crown from his own Son to the Person in the World that he hated most and whom at his Death he ordered his Son never
to forgive who by the way was not Duke but only Earl of Suffolk is a Dream better becoming so slight a brain as is that of Mr. Varillas than the consummated wisdome of the King and Queen of Spain But thus it falls out when a Library Keeper turns Statesman and when from being a teller of tales he will turn a Writer of Histories which he composes out of his own Imaginations he must needs fall into childish errours When do Kings fall under those weaknesses as to disinherit an only Son to cover them from a remote fear and a very remote one it was for the Archduke needed at that time the assistance of England against France too much to be in a condition to raise a Civil War in England and to support a competition to the Crown which could have no other effect as to him but to give France an opportunity during the distractions of England to come and destroy him In short here is a Vision of a poor-spirited Pedant which is too much considered when it named and laught at 7. He pretends to enter into the reasons that were alledged at Rome both for and against the granting of the Bull but at last he concludes that Pope Alexander the 6th would not consent to it that he might not give occasion to accuse him of having broken the Discipline of the Church But here is such a false representation of the Court of Rome at that time and in particular of P. Alexander the 6th that since Mr. Varillas will needs write Romances I must put him in mind of one Rule that as Painters shew their Judgment and Learning in that which is in one Word called le Costume observing the Air Manners and Habits of the Ages and Scenes to which their Pieces belong so Poets when they bring unknown Names into their Plays they may clothe them with what Characters they please but if they represent Men whose Histories are known they must not confound Characters nor represent a Nero as a grave Philosopher or as a good natured Prince nor a Marcus Aurelius as a wanton Stage-player or as a bloody Tyrant And therefore thô Mr. Varillas may shew his pretended discoveries concerning Men that are less known yet when he brings in an Alexander the 6th on the Stage it is too bold a violation of Poetry to lay a strictness of Conscience or a sense of Honour to his charge and thô there is one part of this Period true that there had never been any dispensation of this sort formerly granted to serve as a Precedent for it yet that exactness in which he represents the Enquiry that the Divines of Rome made concerning this matter agrees ill with the State of the Court of Rome at that time and a Painter may as justly represent the old Romans in Pantalaons and with Hats in their hands 8. He says K. Henry the 7th was preparing all things for the Mariage of his Son to the Princess when he died And a little before that he had said that her Parents sacrificed the Interest of their Family to the satisfaction of the King of England by consenting to it A Match with the Heir of the Crown of England was no very costly Sacrifice and for his vision concerning the design of marrying her to the Duke of Calabria and by that means of restoring the Kingdome of Naples it does so ill agree with the Character of the King of Arragon that since there is no proof brought of this I must look on it as one of those Imaginations with which Mr. Varillas loves to entertain his Readers But for K. Henry the 7th he was so far from making any preparations for the Mariage that one of the Writers of that Age assures us that at his Death he charged his Son to break it apprehending perhaps a return of a new civil War upon the issue of a doubtful Marriage 9. He gives us a new tast of his unskilfulness in ordering his Scenes He had found that when Henry the 8th's Divorce came to be started there was some discourse of a Match between him and Francis the first 's Sister afterwards the Queen of Navarre and therefore he thought a proposition for her might come in before the Mariage as a pretty ornament to his Fable But the silence of all the Papers of that Time which I have seen is a much better evidence against it than his pretended negotiation of Mr. de Piennes is for it to which no credit is due It is well known that in the Archives of Venice there are Recitals laid up of all the Negotiations of their Ambassadours and Mr. Varillas having perhaps heard of this he fancied it would have a good grace to cite such Recitals as to French Affairs thô all that know the State of France know that this has not been the practice of that Court But as there is no proof to shew that there was any such Proposition made at that Time so the State of K. Lewis the 12th's Court differs extreamly from it in which the Count of Angoulême afterwards Francis the first and his Sister were not so favourable as to give us reason to think that pains was taken to raise that Lady to the Throne of England 10. He tells us that King Henry the 8th calling a Parliament in the beginning of his Reign they thought themselves bound in point of Honour to oblige to execute his Father's Orders relating to his Mariage who had not only made it the chief Article of his Testament and charged his Son to do it upon his last Blessing but had laid the same charge on the Men of the greatest Credit in England as he spoke his last Words to them upon which the Parliament being careful to maintain this Authority to which they pretended over their Master did oblige him by repeated Remonstrances to marry the Princess Here he goes to show how implacably he is set against the Crown of England formerly he had debased their Birth but he thought that was not enough now he will degrade them of their Dignity and give the Parliament a Superiority over them But it is a fatal thing for an ignorant Man to write History for if Mr. Varillas could have so much as opened our Book of Statutes he would have found that the first Parliament that K. Henry the 8th held was assembled the 21. of Ianuary 1510. almost 8. Months after the Mariage which was celebrated six Weeks after he came to the Crown in which time if Mr. Varillas had understood any thing of our Constitutions he would have known that it was impossible for a Parliament to have met since there must be 40. Days between a Summonds and a Meeting of Parliament so that if the new King had summoned one the Day after his Father's Death it could not have met sooner than the day before the Mariage 11. He says the Queen bore five Children the first three Sons and the other two Girls
but the eldest Son lived only 9 Months the other two Sons and the eldest Girl died immediately after they were born only the youngest that was born the 8 of February 1515 was longer lived Mr. Varillas has a peculiar talent of committing more Errours in one single Period than any Writer of the Age and here he has given a good essay of his art for the Queen bore only three Children the first was a Son born the 1. of Ianuary that died the 22 of February thereafter which was not two full Months much less 9 Months the second Son died not immediatly but about a Fourtnight after he was born and the Daughter afterwards Q. Mary was born the 9th of February 1516. So that thô by chance he has hit the Month right yet he is mistaken both as to the Year and the Day of the Month. So unadvised a thing it is for an ignorant Writer to deliver matters of fact so particularly for thô this may deceive others that are as ignorant as himself by an appearance of exactness yet it lays him too open to those that can find the leisure and the patience to expose him and the last is no easy matter 12. He runs out into a very copious account of K. Henry's Disorders and dresses up Q. Katherine's Devotions in a very sublime strain It does not appear that in all that time he had any other Mistress but Elisabeth Blunt and during all that while he had the highest Panigyriques made him by all the Clergy of Europe upon his Zeal for Religion and Piety possible so that if we did not live in an Age in which Flattery has broke loose from all the restraints of Decency they would appear very extravagant Commendations and if the sublimities of Flattery were not rather a just prejudice against a Prince which give a character of a swelled Ambition and an imperious Tyranny that must be courted by such abject methods so that it is hard whither we ought to think worse of the Flaterers or the Flatered we would be tempted to judge very advantageously of K. Henry the 8th by the Dedications and other fawning Addresses that were made him As for Q. Katherine it does appear that she was indeed a vertuous and devout Woman but Mr. Varillas being more accustomed to Legends than to true Histories could not set out this without a considerable addition of his own for the half of it is not mentioned by any Author that ever I saw nor by any quoted by himself but a Poët must adorn his matter and if he has not judgment he overdoes it 13. He says the King designed to marry his natural Son the Duke of Richmont to his Daughter Mary upon which he makes that long digression concerning the Names of the Race of Tudors that was formerly considered When a Man affirms a thing that is so notoriously injurious to the Memory of a Prince he ought at least to give some sort of proof of its truth for thô in the accesses of Mr. Varillas's Religious Fits he does not think fit to trouble himself with those inconsiderable matters of Truth and Falsehood yet all the World is not of his mind and some colours of Truth are at least lookt for It is true a Negative is not easily proved so a bold Affirmer fancies he has some advantages but in this case it is quite otherwise for the whole series of the Original Instructions Messages and Letters that passed between Rome and England in that matter are still extant in all which there is not the least tittle relating to this Proposition And there are some things of such indecency that nothing but a temper like Mr. Varillas's can bring them together For when K. Henry was pretending a scruple of Conscience at his own marrying his Brother's Wise it is very improbable that he would have asked a Dispensation for a Mariage in a much nearer Degree For Sanders that is Mr. Varillas's Author says that both Propositions were made at the same time There were many Libels printed against K. Henry about that time but the strongest and the best writ was that of Cardinal Pools in which it is visible that he spares nothing that he could alledg with any colour of Truth yet he says nothing of this matter thô it had more weight in it to discover the King's Hypocrisy in pretending to scruples of Conscience than all the other things he alledges and I never could find any other Author for this Story before Sanders whose Book was printed 60 years after 14. He gives another essay of his skill in History and that he is equally ignorant of the Histories of all Kingdomes when he represents to us the endeavours of the King of Scotland for the obtaining of a Mariage with the Princes Mary in favours of his Son upon whose Person he bestows a kind dash of his Pen and he enters into a speculation of the danger that King Henry apprehended from this Proposition and that if he had rejected it the King and Prince of Scotland might have addressed themselves for it to the Parliament and that the Parliament would have raised a general Rebellion rather than have suffered King Henry to reject it The dislike that Mr. Varillas has conceived against the Crown of England seems deeply rooted in him for it returns very often Here he represents forreign Princes complaining to Parliaments when the Kings do not accept of Propositions for their Children as if our Princes were less at liberty in the disposal of their Children than the meanest of their Subjects are but he knows our Constitution as little as he does the History of Scotland otherwise he could not have represented the King of Scotland as pretending to the Mariage of the Princess Mary for his Son since K. Iames the fourth that had married King Henry's Sister was kill'd at the Battel of Floddun the 2 September 1513 above three years before the Princess was born he left an infant Son between whom and the Princess a Treaty of a Mariage was once proposed but no progress was made in it for K. Henry neglected it And he had always his Parliaments so subject to him to apprehend any of those vain Schemes with which Mr. Varillas would possess his Reader There are many that make no great progress in History but yet know somewhat of the Death of Kings and that carry some small measure of Chronology in their Head Yet since Mr. Varillas has not yet got so far he had best buy some common Chronological Tables and have them always before him when he writes and this will at least preserve him from such childish Errours 15. He tells us that there were many Pretenders to the young Princess and to make a full Period he tells us that all the Souverains of Europe courted her both the Emperour the Kings of France Spain and Scotland and so he gives us a fantastical speculation of King Henry's balancing those Propositions one against
another But since for a round Periods sake he will needs split Charles the 5th in two and name both the Emperour and the K. of Spain as two Pretenders he might have as well subdivided him into the King of Arragon and Castile Sicily and Naples and the very Titular Kingdome of Ierusalem might have come in for its share 16 He tells us that thô the match of Scotland was the most for the Interest of the Nation yet King Henry was so angry with his Nephew the King of Scotland for taking part against him in his last war with France that he resolved never to give him his Daughter Here Mr. Varillas will see again the necessity of purchasing a Chronological Table for thô that will cost him some money which as I am told goes very near his heart yet it will preserve him from some scurvy errours they may spoil the sale of his books for any one of those Tables even the worst and cheepest would have shewed him that it was not his Nephew that took part with France against him but his Nephew's Father for King Iames the 4th that was King Henry's Brother-in-Law made war on that occasion and was killed in it leaving an Infant Son behind him but it is pleasant to see the Ignorance of this Scribler that makes in one place King Iames the 4th to court the Princess for his Son thô he died several years before she was born and then makes King Iames the 5th to be making war with his Uncle during his Father's life and while himself was an Infant 17. He says the Emperour came and pretended the second to the Princess and upon that he sets down a large negotiation that he had with Cardinal Wolsey But he shews here an ignorance of Charles the 5th's Life thô he pretends to have made more than ordinary discoveries concerning his Affairs that proves that he has studied all History alike ill He reckons up the series of the Propositions for the Princess quite wrong for she was first contracted to the Dolphin the 9 November 1518 by a Treaty yet extant then Charles the 5th came into England in Person and contracted a Mariage with her at Windsor the 22 of Iune 1522 after that there was a Proposition made for the King of Scotland that was soon let fall and last of all there was a Treaty set on foot for the King of France then a Widdower or for his second Son the Duke of Orleans it being left to Francis's option to determine that and so remarkable a passage as Charles the 5th's coming to England in person was unhappily unknown to Mr. Varillas otherwise he would have dressed up a mighty Scene of Politicks to adorn it 18 He gives us the character and the History of Card. Wolsey with his ordinary colours in which truth comes very seldome in for an ingredient he tells us how he was Bp. of Tournay or rather Oeconome of that See and how many journeys he made between Tournay and London and that he being enriched at Tournay he got the Bishoprick of Lincoln after that upon the Bp. of Winchester's death he had that See from that he was raised to be Archbishop of York then he was made Chancellour of England then Cardinal and Legat à Latere and last of all he was made Chief Minister of State and to shew our Author 's deep Judgment this last Article seemed so doubtful a point to him that he must needs bestow a proofe on it and he sends us to P. Leo the 10th's Register thô the advancements that he had already reckoned up may well make this pass without a more particular Proof nor is P. Leo's Register a place likely to find it in Here is a great deal to let his Reader see how entirely he was possessed with the History of that time since he could run out so far with the Character and History of that Minister but for the strain in which he sets out his Character one must see it is only Mr. Varillas's fancy for how came he to know Cardinal Wolsey's air and manner of deportment even in the smallest thing I that have seen much more of him in his Letters Dispatches and Instructions than Mr. Varillas can pretend to have done dare not goe so far because I have not arrived at Mr. Varillas his pitch of Religion but if his character is no truer than the History that he gives of Wolsey I know what name is due to it He was made Bishop of Tournay in October and Bp. or Lincoln in the March thereafter or rather in February for the Temporalty was given him the 4th of March which is always restored after the Consecration so that here was not time enough to make such journies between Tournay and London nor to enrich himself with the former he had not Winchester but 15 years after that but he was made Archbishop of York two year after he had Lincoln he was also made Cardinal and Legate before he was made Chancelour for Warham Archbishop of Canterbury was Chancelour while he was Legate and had some disputes with him touching his legative power upon which he obtained that Dignity for puting an end to all disputes and in stead of his being last of all Minister of State he was first of all Minister of State while he was only the Lord Almoner and all his other dignities came upon him as the natural effects of that Confidence and favour into which the King had received him 19. He cannot assent to some Historians that imagine he was the Confident of K. Henry's Pleasures since he thinks if that had been true he could not have been so cheated afterwards as he was Here is a Demonstration that he never read my History into which I have put besides other Evidences of his being on the secret of Anne Boleyn's matter two letters that she writ to him which are undeniable proofs of it But as for the long Story into with he runs out concerning Charles the 5th's Intrigues with him and his way of writing to him in the stile of Son and Cousin for which he cites on the Margent the Emperour's Letters to Wolsey that lie in his fancy that is the greatest Library in the World but the hardest to be come at all this is so loosely writ that it is plain Mr. Varillas had no light to direct him in it since he says not a word of the most important circumstance of it which was the Emperour's coming in person to England which was beleeved to have been done chiefly to gain Wolsey entirely and in which it is certain that he had all the success that he had wisht for 20. He says Wolsey being alienated from the Emperour engaged the King of France after he was set at liberty to treat for a Match between the Dauphin and the Princess of England upon which they were contracted with great Magnificency but that was not enough for the Cardinal's malice I have formerly
shewed that the proposition of a Mariage between the Dauphin and the Princess was in the year 1518 long before Francis the first 's Imprisonment but the Treaty set on foot after his Liberty was either for himself or his second Son and this sort of a Treaty being somewhat extraordinary where the alternative lay between the Father and the Son for the same Lady Mr. Varillas shews his great ignorance of the Affairs of that Time since he says nothing of it for this would have given him occasion enough to have entertained his Reader with many Visions and Speculations 21. He says that Wolsey dealt with Longland the King's Confessour to possess him with scruples concerning the lawfulness of his Mariage that Longland refused to do it but engaged Wolsey to begin and he promised to fortify the scruples that the Cardinal should infuse into the King's mind Upon which the Cardinal did open the matter to the King and the King being shaken by his proposition laid the matter before his Confessour who seconded the Cardinal In this he has taken the liberty to depart from Sanders thô he is the Author whom he generally copies but it is easy to pretend to tell secrets but not so easy to prove them The King himself did afterwards in publick not only deny this but affirmed that Wolsey had opposed his scruples all he could and that he himself had opened them in Confession to Longland and the King himself said to Grineus that he was disquieted with those scruples ever from the year 1529 which was three years before the matter was made publick 22. He says the King upon that consulted the Divines of England concerning the validity of the Mariage and that all those that were Men of probity and disinteressed answered in the affirmative but some that did aspire or that were corrupted thought it doubtful others who were very few in number affirmed it was unlawful This is so false that all the Bishops of England Fisher only excepted declared under their Hands and Seals that they thought the Mariage unlawful 23. He gives a Character of Anne Boleyn in which he takes up the common Reports of her ill shape her yellow colour her gag tooth her Lump under her chin and her hand with six fingers but because all this agrees ill to the Mistress of a King he to soften that adds a long Character of her Wit her Air and Humour in which he lays her charms and here he takes all the licences of a Poët as well as of a Painter But as several of her Pictures yet extant shew the folly of those Stories concerning her Deformity so the other particulars of this Picture are for most part fetcht out of that Repository of false History that lies in Mr. Varillas's Imagination 24. He says the English Historians and some other Catholicks agree to those things and for his Vouchers he cites on the Margent Sanders Ribadeneira and Remond but they add many other particulars thô they differ concerning them and thô he will not affirm them to be true yet he thinks it worth the while to set them down They say that Anne Boleyn's true Father was not known that she was born in England while he was Ambassadour in France that Henry the 8th being in love with the Mother had sent away her Husband that so he might satisfy his Appetites more freely but that he soon quited the Mother for her eldest Daughter Mary that Sr. Thomas Boleyn at his return to England finding his Wife with Child begun a Sute against her but that the King forced him to be reconciled to his Wife and to own the Child that she bore some time after who was Anne Boleyn that this Daughter at the Age of 15 was dishonoured by two of her Father's Domesticks upon which she was sent to France where she was so common a Prostitute that she went by the Name of the English Hackney that she was a common subject of Raillery that she became a Lutheran thô she made still profession of the other Religion He says others make her pass for a Heroïne that cannot be enough commended yet he acknowledges there are not Authentical Evidences left to discover their imposture Here is a way of writing that agrees well with Mr. Varillas's other Qualities he was here in a cold fit and so his Religion did not operate so strong as to disengage him quite from all regard to truth only it produces one start that is sufficiently extravagant for he accuses all that is said in favours of Anne Boleyn of imposture thô at the same time he acknowledges there are not Authentick Evidences to disprove it but how then came he to know that those Commendations were Impostures He answers that in the beginning of this Paragraph and cites in general the Historians of England and other Catholick Writers and for the Historians of England he gives us Sanders alone thô he can hardly make a plural out of him unless he splits him into three or four subdivisions as he had done Charles the 5th when he reckoned up the Emperour and the King of Spain as two of the Pretenders to the Princess Mary But thô I have in my History demonstrated the falsehood of all this Legend so evidently that I had perhaps wearied my Reader by prooving that too copiously yet since I see that nature can croud so much impudence in Mr. Varillas alone as might serve even the whole Order of the Jesuites and that he is resolved to keep up the credit of the blackest falsehoods as the Church of Rome preserves still in her Breviary a great many Lessons with Prayers and Anthems relating to them that are now by the consent of learned Men exploded as Fables I must again lay open this matter thô I thought I had so fully confuted those Lies that even a Pension could not have engaged a Man to support them any more It may seem enough to an impartial Mind that Sanders was the first that ever published those Stories above 50 years after Anne Boleyn's Death that thô Card. Pool and the other Writers of that Time had left nothing unsaid that could blacken K. Henry yet none of them had brow enough to assert Sanders's Fictions and that after Anne Boleyn's Tragical Fall when her Misfortunes had made it a fashionable thing to blacken her yet these impostures were reserved for Sanders and for an Age in which he and many others of his Church were setting on many Rebellions and Conspiracies against Q. Elisabeth they were so powerfully acted by Mr. Varillas's Spirit of Religion thô they had not the folly to own it as he has done as to give themselves the liberty to say the foulest things against the Mother without giving themselves the trouble to enquire whither they were true or false and the things here advanced are of such a nature that either they must be evidently true or they are notoriously false for an Embassy into France of
such a continuance a Sute moved upon Sr. Tho. Boleyn's return were publick matters and must have lien open to a discovery The whole Recital is impossible as it is told for if she was born after Sr. Tho. Boleyn return'd from an Embassy to which King Henry had sent him that he might enjoy his Wife and in which he staid two years as Sanders says then since King Henry came to the Crown in the year 1509 she must be born in the year 1511 and then the 15th year of her Age will fall in the year 1526 and it being certain that the King began to court her in the year 1527 here is not time enough for her Leudness and her long stay in France But it is certain that she was born in the year 1507 two years before K. Henry came to the Crown and when he was but 14 years old and that at 7 years old she went over to France with K. Henry's Sister when she was married to Lewis the 12th and thô upon that King's Death the Queen Dowager of France came soon after back into England yet Anne Boleyn staid still in France and was in the service of Claud Francis's the first 's Queen and after her Death the King's Sister the Dutchess of Alençon took her into her service and these two Princesses were so celebrated for their Vertue that this alone is enough to shew that she was then under no infamy since she was of their Family She was also Maid of Honour to our Queen Katherine who even by Mr. Varillas's Character was of too severe a Vertue to admit a common Prostitute to that degree of Honour So that here is more than enough to discredit all those Calumnies 25. He says thô there is not Evidence enough in the former Reports yet there is a certain proof for K. Henry's disorders with the Elder of the two Sisters Mary Boleyn since in the demand that K. Henry made for a permission to marry Anne he confessed his disorders with her Sister and offered to do Pennance for them and to vouch for this he cites King Henry's Petition to P. Clement the 7th Here Mr. Varillas shews how little he understands the advantages that he has to maintain his Assertions since there is an Authority for this last that has more appearance of truth in it than all his other Citations put together thô his ignorance made him incapable of finding it out For Cardinal Pool in his Book against K. Henry objects this to him and this has a fair appearance whereas the Petition that he cites is a Dream of his own that was never before heard of But thô I have said more for the honour of Cardinal Pool than all the Panegiricks that have been given him amount to yet I am very well assured that in this particular he was abused by Reports to which he gave too easy a belief for as all the Original Instructions and Dispatches that were made upon that Affair are yet extant in which there is not one Word relating to this matter so it is plain that the Affair was never so far advanced as to demand a permission for a second Mariage since that could never be so much as asked till the first was dissolved and that not being gained there was not room made for it If the King had given such advantages against himself as to have put such a Confession in a Petition to the Pope is it to be imagined that the Popes would not have discovered this in some Authentical manner and even have put it in the Thundering Bull that was afterwards published against him for this alone proved his Hypocrisy of pretending scruples of Conscience at his Mariage beyond exception and if the King acted in this matter without any regard to Conscience it is unreasonable to represent him as so strictly Conscientious and that he would have confessed so scandalous a secret and so to have put himself in the power of those of whom he could not be well assured 26. He gives us a long account of Wolsey's design to engage the King to marry the Dutchess of Alençon Of the Bishop of Tarke's being sent over to bring the English Princess into France upon her being contracted to the Dauphin And of Wolsey's prevailing with him to let that Proposition fall and to set on another for a Mariage between the King of England and the Dutchess of Alençon And that the Bp. of Tarke was cheated by Wolsey and being in the interests of the Dutchess of Alençon he demanded a publick Audience of the King in the presence of the Council in which he imployed all his Eloquence to persuade him to divorce his Queen and to marry the most Christian King's Sister In all this matter Mr. Varillas is only the Copier of Sanders yet he cannot tell another Man's Lie without mixing some additions of his own for the Bp. of Tarke's being sent over to demand the Princess is one of the fruits of his own Religion But thô a Pedant of a Priest such as Sanders had told so improbable a Story yet it ill became a Man that pretends to know Courts and the Negotiations of Ambassadours as Mr. Varillas does to assert such improbabilities as that an Ambassadour sent express to demand a Princess for his Master's Son which was the greatest advantage that France could have possibly hoped for should be so far wrought on by the Minister of the Court to which he was sent as not only to let all this fall but to make a new Proposition for the illegitimating of the young Princess and for offering his Master's Sister to King Henry and all this without any Instructions from his Master and thereby exposing the Dutchess of Alençon to the scorn of being rejected after she was so publickly offered to the King of England thô every Body knows that the first offers of Princesses are made in secret And after all this that the Bishop of Tarke who not only exceeded his Instructions but acted contrary to them in so important a matter was neither recalled nor disgraced but on the contrary he was afterwards promoted to be a Cardinal by the recommendation of the Court of France and he being a Cardinal and seeing afterwards how he was abused if we may believe this Fable is it to be supposed that he either out of his own Zeal for the Court of Rome or by the Accusations that naturally such a Proposition begun by him must have brought on him would not have told all this secret afterwards In short as this Relation contains many particulars in it that are not according to the Forms of our Court such as his demanding an Audience in the presence of the Council for it seems as Mr. Varillas set our Parliaments above our Kings he will make the Privy Council equal to them so the whole is so contrary to all the Methods of Ambassadours that this would scarce pass if it related to the transactions of the Courts of
China or Iapan but it is so gross an imposition on such as know the Methods of the Courts of Europe that Mr. Varillas presumed too much on the credulity of his Readers when he thought that this could be believed and si non è vero il è ben trovato is so necessary a Character for a Man to maintain that would have his Books sell well which I am told is Mr. Varillas's chief Design that he had best find out some Judge of his Pieces that has a true Understanding since it is plain that he has not sence enough himself to make a right Judgment in such matters 27. He says when Cardinal Wolsey went over into France he caried a Commission to consult the Universities of France touching the King's Divorce but that the change of Affairs in Italy made the King to recal him who was strangely surprised when he found that the King had no thoughts of marrying the Dutchess of Alençon and that he was become so much in love with Anne Boleyn that he was resolved to marry her on any Terms It is an unfortunate thing for a Man to have heard too much and to have read too little of History for as the one gives him much confidence so the other exposes him to many Errours Mr. Varillas had heard that K. Henry had consulted many Universities but not knowing where to place this he fancied that it must be the first step in the whole Matter But he knew not that this was not thought on till after a Sute of above two Years continuance in which the King saw how he was deluded by the Court of Rome and upon that he took the other Method of consulting the Universities All his speculations concerning Card. Wolsey are built on the common Mistake that supposes him ignorant of the King's intentions for Anne Boleyn the falsehood of which I have sufficiently demonstrated 28. He tells us that Card. Wolsey having once several Bishops to dine with them the King knowing of it went to them after Dinner and made a Writing to be read to them that set forth the Reasons against his Mariage the Bishops did not approve it quite yet they were so complying as to say that if those things were true his scruples were well grounded This was too important a thing not be made appear probable by some of his pretended Vouchers thô it is most certainly false for a Resolution signed by all the Bishops of England except Fisher was produced before the Legates to shew how well the King's scruples were grounded 29. He says the Privy Councel acted more steadily and intended to give the King an undeniable proof of his Mistresses Lewdness for Sr. Thomas Wiat that had obtained of her the last favours was willing to let the King know it and so being of the Privy Councel he not only owned the matter to the rest of that Board but was content to let the King know it and when he found that the King would not believe it he offered to make the King himself an Eye-witness to their Privacies but thô the Duke of Suffolk made this bold Proposition to the King he was so far from hearkning to it that Wiat was disgraced upon it and by this means the Mistress was covered from such dangerous Discoveries for the future Such a Story as this might have passed from a Sanders that knew the World little but in earnest it seems the fits of Mr. Varillas's Religion are strong even to Extasy since they make him write as extravagantly of humane Affairs as if he had passed his whole Life in a Desert A Man that knows what humane Nature is cannot think that Wiat would have either so far betraied Mrs. Boleyn or exposed himself as to have made such a Discovery it being more natural for a Man that was assured of a young Lady's Favour to contribute to her Elevation since that must have raised himself than to contrive her Ruin And K. Henry whose imperious temper gave him a particular Disposition to Jealousy must have been of different composition from all the rest of Mankind if he could have rejected a Discovery of this nature And when the secrets of Jealousies are opened to Princes it is too gross even for a Romance to make the Discoverer to begin with the Councel-board and to procure a Deputation from them to acquaint the King with them But as Wiat does not appear to have been a Privy Councelour till near the end of K. Henry's Reign so it is plain enough he was never disgraced but continued to be still imploied by the King in some forreign Embassies to the end of his Life 30. He says Anne Boleyn endeavoured thô in vain to engage Sr. Thomas More to negociate her Affair but he being proof against all corruption Gardiner that was a Canonist was made Secretary of State and was sent to Rome with My-Lord Brian who scandalised all Rome with his lewd behaviour and had the impudence to assure the Pope that the Queen desired to be divorced that so she might retire into a Monastery And made other offers of great advantage to the Pope in case he would allow the Divorce Mr. Varillas cannot say too much in Sr. Thomas More 's commendation but since he was a Man of so much Sincerity it is certain that he approved of the Divorce for in a Letter that his own Family printed among his other Works in Q. Mary's Reign he writing to Cromwel owns that he had approved of the Divorce and that he had great hopes of the King's success in it as long as it was prosecuted in the Court of Rome and founded on the defects that were pretended to be in the Bull and after that most of the Universities and of the learned Men of Europe had given their Opinions in favours of the Divorce four years after it was first moved he being then Chancellour went down to the House of Commons and made those Decisions to be read there and upon that he desired the Members of Parliament to report in their Countries that which they had heard and seen and added these very Words and then all Men will openly perceive that the King has not attempted this Matter for his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience Upon Wolsey's Disgrace he was made Chancellour and continued in that high trust almost three years which is an evident sign that he did not then oppose the Divorce nor did he grow disgusted of the Court till he saw that the King was upon the point of breaking with the See of Rome So that he would have liked the Divorce if the Pope could have been prevailed with to allow it but he did not approve of the King 's procuring it another way Mr. Varillas is no happier in the other parts of this Article for Gardiner was not sent first to Rome to negotiate this matter Knight that was Secretary of State was first imploied and Gardiner was
not made Secretary of State till near the end of this Negotiation nor was he ever sent to Rome with Brian nor was Brian a Lord but only a Knight and it was a year after this Sute was first begun before Brian was imploied in it so that he could carry no such deluding Message to the Pope concerning the Queen's desiring the Divorce And for this pretension of the Queen's desiring to retire to a Monastery it was never made use of by the English Ambassadours It was on the contrary a notion of the Pope's who thought that if that could be put in her Head it would be the easiest Method of getting out of this uneasy matter and therefore he ordered his Legate Card. Campegio to advise the Queen to it And for the scandals of Brian's Life they must have been very great if they gave offence at Rome at that time but as I can not answer much for Brian so I will not trouble my self to vindicate him but he could not behave him more indecently at Rome than Campegio did in England when he came over Legate who scandalised even the Court with his lewd behaviour 31. He says the Pope was sensible of his obligations to the King and resolved to do all he could to gratify him and so ordered Cajetan to examine the matter who did it in his manner after the Method of the Schools And here he gives us an abstract of his Book He laid this down for a Maxime that the High-Priest under the N. Testament had no less Authority than the High-Priest had under the Law of Moses who had power to allow of such Mariages to good ends and in good Circumstances and that the end of this Mariage was noble that the Crowns of England and Spain being united might send their Fleets to block up Constantinople And that by this Mariage as Italy was to be set at Peace so K. Henry was diverted from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy and that therefore the Pope could not grant a Dispensation for annulling it And with his usual Confidence he cites on the Margent Cajetan's Consultation And this he says confirmed the Pope in his Resolution not to grant the Dispensation for breaking the Mariage upon any Terms whatsoever I have given such Authentick Demonstrations of the Falsehood of this Particular that I am sure the strongest Fit of Mr. Varillas's Religion can not resist them For the Pope upon the first Proposition franckly granted the Dispensation and only consulted with some Cardinals about the Methods of doing it and afterwards he sent one over to England and promised that he would do not only all that he could grant either in Law or Justice but every thing else that he could grant out of that plenitude of Power with which he was vested in the King's favour The Pope also proposed a Method that perhaps would have brought the matter to an easier issue which was that if the King was satisfied in his own Conscience concerning the Divorce in which he did not think that there was a Doctor in the whole World that could judg so well as himself then he might put away his Queen and marry another and then the Pope would confirm all For the crafty Pope thought it would be easier for him to confirm it when it was once done than to give Authority to do it and in short the Pope made the King still believe that he would do it till by that means he brought the Emperour to grant him all he desired And as for Cajetan's opinion I am now in a Countrey where I cannot find his Works so I cannot be so positive in this matter but as far as my Memory serves me Cajetan writ nothing with relation to this matter but only in the body of his School-Divinity that he had published long before this Sute began he had set on foot a new Opinion touching the Prohibitions of marrying in near Degrees which the Church by a constant Tradition had in all Times lookt on as Moral Laws whereas he asserted they were only Positive Precepts that did not bind under the Christian Religion and by consequence that there was no Law now against Mariages in those Degrees but the Law of the Church with which the Pope might dispense In all the Books that I have seen that were writ for the Queen's Cause Cajetan's Authority is brought as a thing already abroad in the World and not as a Consultation writ upon this Occasion and by what I remember of that Cardinal's Life it is said that in his reasonings with Luther he had found himself so defective in the knowledg of the Scripture that whereas formerly he had given himself wholly to the Study of School-Divinity he after that gave himself entirely to the Study of the Scripture in which making allowances for his Ignorance of the Original Tongues he succeeded to admiration But thô I cannot procure a Sight of his Treatise concerning the Degrees of Mariage the Idea that I retain of his solide way of writing makes me conclude that he was not capable of writing in so trifling a manner as Mr. Varillas represents the Matter For what Man of sense could say that the Highpriest under the Jewish Religion could dispense with a Brother's marrying his Brother's Widdow in some cases in case that a Brother died without Children his Brother or the next of Kin might have married the Widdow by the Dispensation that the Law gave and not by a Dispensation of the Highpriest And for the Ends that he pretends of those two Princes going to block up Constantinople with their Fleets a Man must be ignorant in History to the Degree of Mr. Varillas to imagine this since as the Kings of those Times had no Royal Fleets but were forced to hire Merchant Vessels when they had occasion for them so the blocking up of Constantinople was too bold a project for those Days and does not seem to have been so much as once thought on And for the other Ends that he mentions thô the procuring such a Peace to Italy as was for the Interest of the Popes was a thing for which they would have sacrificed any thing yet this differs much from P. Iulius the second 's Character who granted the Dispensation since his whole Reign was a continued Imbroilment of Italy Nor does it appear that K. Henry's Mariage could have any influence on the Peace of Italy unless it were very remote And as for the other Reason alledged for the Mariage that it diverted K. Henry from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy this is too great a violation of the Costume for it seems Mr. Varillas had the present State of Europe in his Head when he writ it but Cajetan could not write this for in the year 1503 there were no Families in Europe suspect of Heresy so that all this reasoning that is here entitled to Cajetan is a mass of Mr. Varillas's crude Imaginations which doe equally discover both his Ignorance
writ his Life tells us in how great State he went to York with a Train of 160 Horse and an Equipage of 72 Carts following him with his Houshold-stuf for the King restored him not only his Archbishoprick of York but also his Bishoprick of Winchester which Mr. Varillas fancies he took from him and it was impossible for a Man that had those two great Benefices to be reduced to any degrees of Want 38. He says Anne Boleyn raised Cranmer to the Dignity of chief Minister of State who was one of the profligatest Men of England that had nothing of Christianity in him but the outward appearances being ambitious voluptuous bold turbulent and capable of all sorts of Intrigues He had studied long in Germany where he was infected with Lutheranisme thô he did not outwardly profess it He took a Concubine in Germany whom he afterwards married by the King's permission He had been Chaplain long in the Family of Boleyn so when the See of Canterbury fell vacant Anne Boleyn presented him The Fit here is extream hot and long and shews how entirely Mr. Varillas was subdued by it since it is hardly possible for a Man to spit out more Venome and Falsehood at once Cranmer was never in the Affairs of State much less chief Minister And any Ignorance less than Mr Varillas's would have found that Cromwel succeeded Wolsey in the Ministry As for Cranmers Ambition as he had passed the greatest part of his Life in a secret Retirement so he was in Germany when the See of Canterbury fell vacant and when he understood that the King intended to raise him to that Dignity he excused himself all he could and delaied his Return to England some Months that so the King might have time given him to change his Mind He was so far from being turbulent and hardy and from being a Man of Intrigues that his plain Simplicity made him to be despised by his Enemies till they found that there was a wise Conduct under all that Mildness and Slowness And it was this simplicity and his keeping himself out of all Intrigues that preserved him in K. Henry's esteem He never went to study in Germany but was sent into Italy and Germany to reason with the learned Men in the Universities concerning the King's Divorce He married a Wife in Germany and was so far from obtaining the King's Permission to marry her that upon a severe Law that was afterwards made against the Mariage of the Clergy he sent her into Germany for some time yet he franckly owned his Mariage to the King when he questioned him upon it and there was never the least imputation laid upon his Chastity except this of his Mariage which we think none at all He was never Chaplain in the Boleyn Family but lived private in Cambridg when the King came to hear of him and to imploy him in the Prosecution of the Divorce And so far was he from being presented by Anne Boleyn upon the Vacancy of Canterbury that he was then in Germany And now it appears what a secret Mr. Varillas has of making as much Falsehood go into one Period as would serve another to scatter up and down a whole Book but we know the Society that has this secret and it is certain that Mr. Varillas has learnt it to perfection 39. He says the King accepted Cranmer upon condition that he would pronounce the Sentence of Divorce between their Majesties of England in case that the Pope ratified their contested Mariage and thus by a way so uncanonical he was made Archbishop of Canterbury There was no occasion of demanding any such Promise of Cranmer for he had openly declared his opinion that the Mariage was incestuous and unlawful so that his Judgment was already known But Mr. Varillas shews how little he knew our matters when he says that Cranmer was made Archbishop in an uncanonical way for as he was chosen by the Chapter of Canterbury so he had his Bull from Rome and how little soever this is Canonical according to the Canons of the Ancient Church yet Mr. Varillas has no reason to except to the Uncanonicalness of it 40. He says he was installed by another Artifice for being required to swear the Oath to the Pope he had a Notary by him who attested that he took this Oath against his Will and that he would not keep it to the prejudice of the King He made no Protestation that he took that Oath against his Will but he repeated a Protestation twice at the high Altar that he intended not by that Oath to the Pope to oblige himself to any thing that was contrary to the Law of God to the King's Prerogative or to the Laws of the Land nor to be restrained by it from proposing or consenting to any thing that might concern the Reformation of the Christian Faith the Government of the Church of England or the Prerogatives of the King and Kingdome This is a different thing from protesting that he took the Oath against his Will which as it had been ridiculous in it self so was very far contrary to that native Singleness of Heart in which he always acted 41. He says there was an ancient Law against the Subjects of England's acknowledging a forreign Jurisdiction upon which the King raised a Sute against his Clergy for owning the Pope's Jurisdiction in that which was a mixt Court relating both to the Temporal and the Spiritual And he adds that the Clergy had an easy Answer to this Charge since that Law had no regard to the Spiritual Authority Matters of Law are things of too delicate a nature for so slight a Man as Mr. Varillas to look into them He represents this as one single Law that was very old and that related only to Temporals whereas if he had known any thing of our Laws he would have seen that there was a vast number of Laws made in the Reigns of many of our Kings such as Edward the first Edward the third Richard the second Henry the 4th and Henry the 5th all relating to this matter and these Laws were made in express Words against all that brought Bulls and Provisions from Rome to Ecclesiastical Benefices 42. He says the motions of the Clergy in their own defence could not but be feeble since they had two such treacherous Heads as Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury and Lee Archbishop of York so they made a submission to the King but he would not receive it unless they would acknowledg that he had the same Authority over the Ecclesiastical Body that he had over his other Subjects and thus without thinking on what they did they furnished the King with a pretence of calling himself Head of the Church of England Cranmer was so little concerned in this matter that it was past two years before he was Archbishop while Warham was Archbishop of Canterbury for the Submission was made in March 1531 and he was consecrated in March 1533.
And Lee of York was so far from consenting to it that he strugled long against it after Warham and his Synode had past it And whereas he pretends that the King drew his pretence to be Head of the Church of England from a general acknowledgment that they had made of the King's Authority over Churchmen this is so far from true that the whole Clergy even his admired Fisher not excepted did in the Title of the Submission to which they all set their hands call the King in so many formal Words supream Head of the Church and Clergy of England in so far as was agreable to the Law of Christ and this was done during More 's Ministry who continued Chancellour 15 Months after this 43. He says that upon More 's laying down his Office the King gave the Seals to another Churchman that was no less devoted to him than Granmer whose name was Andley on whom he bestows a character thô he knows nothing concerning him Andley was no Churchman but a common Lawyer as More was that had been Chancellour before him and the Gentlemen of that Robe being raised upon Merit and not by their Birth his low Extraction was no extraordinary matter 44. He says the King finding that the Pope was ofraid that he should contract a secret Mariage with Anne Boleyn resolved to do it on design to do the Pope a Spite so the Day being set one Polland a Priest being appointed to do the Office demanded the Pope's Bull for the Mariage which he was made believe that the King had procured but the King swore to him that he had it in his Closet and that nothing made him not go immediatly to fetch it but his unwillingness to retard that Action This is so ill told that Mr. Varillas ought to have imploied a little of his Religious Zeal to make it more plausible for it was then so well understood that the Pope was entirely united to the Emperour that Polland Lee could not imagine there was any Bull granted and he was all his Life of too complying a Temper to need such Artifices to oblige him to do any thing that might serve to advance him Mr. Varillas represents the King here too much like a private Gentleman that keeps his Papers in his own Closet of several Popes the Canons of many Synodes and Councils â—nd by the concurring Testimonies of almost all the Greek and Latin Fathers both Ancient and Modern and by the agreeing Doctrines both of Schoolmen Canonists and Casuists and if Tradition was the true Expounder of Scripture and the sure Conveyance of Doctrine the Mariage was certainly incestuous so that according to the fundamental Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Mariage was unlawful and by the same Authorities it was also proved that the Pope's Dispensation could not make void the Law of God and that the Clergy of England were the proper Judges of what fell out in England This being the State of that Matter and almost all the Universities of Europe that of Bologna it self not excepted thô it was the Pope's own Town having declared in the King's Favours it was no wonder if Cranmer upon such Grounds proceeded to give Sentence 47. He dresses up a Speech for Card. Bellay all out of his own Fancy but one thing is remarkable he makes the Cardinal represent to the King that if he went to separate himself from the Communion of the Church of Rome either he would succeed in it or not if he succeeded in it besides that he put himself in a state of Damnation there would be no place found that would be safe for his sacred Person against the attempts of zealous Catholicks who would endeavour to kill him that they might preserve their ancient Religion and if he succeeded not he might be assured that he would lose both his Crown and his Life in a general Revolt Mr. Varillas is now in a Fit of Religion of another sort for as there are hot and cold Fits of Agues so if some of his Fits make him forget the obligations of speaking truth this makes him speak out a Truth indeed but of that nature that if he had been long practised in the Secrets of the Court of Rome or of the Jesuite Order he would have known that thô during the Minority of a King a Cardinal Perron might speak it boldly or during the confusions of a Civil War the whole Sorbonne might declare in Favours of it yet under such a Reign and in the present Conjuncture it was to be denied boldly And one would not have thought that at this time a Clement or a Ravilliae would have had no worse character but that of zealous Catholicks So we have now an entire notion of a zealous Catholick from Mr. Varillas he does not trouble himself to examine what he says whither it is true or false nor will he stick at any Crime if it may tend to preserve his Religion And if a Prince goes about to change his Religion and to depart from the Communion of the See of Rome he must at first look for a general Revolt which must end in his Deprivation and Death and if that fails there is a reserve of zealous Catholicks who will pursue him into every corner and never give over till they have sacrificed him to the interest of their Religion This is the severest thing that the greatest Ennemy to their Church could possibly object to it and yet Mr. Varillas has so little judgment as to put it in the Mouth of a Cardinal But it is but lately that he has got his Pension and he has not past a long Noviciat or perhaps he is now too old to learn the refayings that his Pattern Mr. Maimbourg would have taught him who in such a Reign as this is in France must dress up their Religion as a Doctrine all made up of Obedience and Submission But perhaps some had told Mr. Varillas that the late Articles of the Clergy lookt like the beginning of a Separation from the Court of Rome so that he thought it was fit to let the King know his Danger if he went a step further either in that Matter or in a Reformation of Religion of which there has been so much noise made lately in France thô it is visible that this has been set on foot meerly to deceive those that had a mind to cosen themselves by the hopes of some Amendments to make Shipwrack of their Faith and of a good Conscience 48. He makes the Hopes that the Cardinal Bellay had of succeeding in his Negotiation to be chiefly founded on the King's being weary of Anne Boleyn and his becoming in love with Iane Seimour and that therefore he concluded that time and a little Patience might infallibly dispose him to return back again to Queen Katherine He makes here strange Discoveries in the matters of Love since he fancies that the King 's falling in love with a new Mistress might
History The Queen had a strange Plea for there was not one Witness brought against her so that she was condemned meerly upon Testimonies that were brought in writing which is expresly contrary to our Law As for her Behaviour at her Death it was far from being Stoïcal for it was rather too cheerful and the Lieutenant of the Tower who knew her Behaviour better than any Person whatsoever gives a very different representation of it for in his Letter to Court he tells of her great Devotion of her cheerfulness and of the protestations that she made of her innocence the Morning before she died when she received the Sacrement adding that her Almoner was still with her and had been with her ever since two a clock after Midnight And he also says that she had much Joy and Pleasure in her Death And as all this is very far from the Maximes of the Stoical Philosophy so it seems Mr. Varillas understands very little what they were otherwise if he had remembred what a picture he had made of Anne Boleyn he must have known that the amourous disposition that he had fastned on her agreed very ill with a Stoical Unconcernedness and equality of Temper But this he thought was a pretty conclusion of one of the Scenes of his Piece And now being as weary of this ungrateful Imployment as any Reader or as even Mr. Varillas himself must needs be I find my self at great ease being no more obliged to turn over so very ill a Book And since in the Survey of one of the shortest of the ten Books of which that Work consists I have found so many capital Errours in most of which there is a complication of divers Mistakes in the same Period to how much publick shame must Mr. Varillas be exposed if those who are concerned examine the other Books as I have done this I expect no other Justice from himself but that he will reckon all this scorn that such a Discovery must bring upon him as a meritorious Suffering at the hands of Hereticks and that he will use it as an Argument to raise his Pension But it will be a great happiness if others can learn thô at his cost to write with more Truth and greater Caution The design of all revealed Religion is to heighten in us those Seeds of Probity Vertue and Gentleness that are in our Nature and I will not stick to say that it were better for Mankind that there were no revealed Religion at all in being and that humane Nature should be left to it self than that there were such a sort of a revealed Religion received that overthrows all the Principles of Morality and that instead of making Men sincere teaches them to be false and instead of inspiring them with Love and Mercy enflames them with Rage and Cruelty and it is likely that M. Varillas will easily find out what that Society is of which I mean For he deserves well to be at least one of the Lay-brothers of the Order if not to fill up Mr. Maimbourg's room and then the Order will not lose by the change much of a quality that has been believed to be almost an essential ingredient in its Constitution which gave occasion to a very pleasant Passage that as I was told fell out at Amiens within these 20 years All the Companies of Tradesmen in the Church of Rome choose a Saint for their Patron and the many new invented Trades have put some Bishops to hard shifts to give proper Saints which has produced some very ridiculous Patronages for the Cooks have the Assumption for their Feast because the two first Sillables assum signifies roasted and when the Needle-makers at Paris asked of the Cardinal Gondy a Patron he could not easily find out a Saint that had any relation to their Trade but he advised them to take All-Saints for it could not be thought but that some one or other of the Saints had made Needles but the Bishop of Amiens gave Ignatius Loyola to be the Patron of the Packers now the Word emballeur as it signifies a Packer it passes also for a Trepan so the Packers being satisfied with the Bishop's nomination had Ignatius up on his Day in a Procession upon which the Jesuites were offended to see their Patron pretended to by such a Company of Mechanicks and sued the Packers upon it they defended themselves upon the account of their Bishop's naming him to them and when the Bishop was asked why he had given him for their Patron he alluding to the other signification of the Word emballeur said that he had observed that all the emballeurs of Europe were under that Saint's Patronage But it is not necessary to infer from hence that Mr. Varillas has a just claim to his protection for thô he seems to have very good inclinations yet he wants the address that is necessary to recommend him to so refined a Society and to a perfection in it that cost Mr. Maimbourg a whole Jubily for a Novitiat for thô seven years is enough to learn an ordinary Trade yet 50 is necessary to furnish a Man with a sufficient stock of Impudence for so hardy an Imployment ADVERTISEMENT I Have at last found Card. Cajetan's Works and am now confirmed in that which was only a conjecture when I writ upon the 31st Article pag. 141 for it is hard even to guess wrong when it is in contradiction to Mr. Varillas and as the Reasons that he put in Cajetan's Mouth had such manifest Characters of his own ignorance and hardiness that I could not so much as doubt of the Imposture yet I was not positive till I had taken some pains to find out Cajetan's Works and there I saw my conjectures were well grounded That Volume in which he delivers his opinion in the matter of the obligation of the Levitical Law concerning the degrees of Mariage was writ long before this Dispute of K. Henry's was started for it is dedicated to Pope Leo the tenth And instead of all those impertinencies with which Mr. Varillas calumniates him and of which none less ignorant than himself is capable all that Cajetan says is that whereas Thomas Aquinas was of opinion that those degrees were moral and of eternal obligation he in his Commentary declares himself of another Mind but takes a very backward Method to prove it yet such as was sutable enough to the blindness of the time in which he writ for he proves that they are not Moral only because the Pope dispenced with them who could not dispence with the Moral Law and he gives for instance the Mariage of the King of Portugal to which he adds these Words The present Queen of England had likewise consummated her former Mariage with the late Brother of the King of England her Husband So that Cajetan was only driven to this opinion that he might justify the practises of the Court of Rome And it appears by what he says concerning it that it was considered at Rome as an undoubted Truth that the Queen's first Mariage with Prince Arthur was consummated and so it is sufficiently apparent how impudent Mr. Varillas is in the abstract that he charges on Cardinal Cajetan's Memory it was far from his way of reasoning to talk of Fleets blocking up Constantinople but Mr. Varillas who knows little of the past Time and fancies that matters went formerly as they go now had perhaps the low Estate in which the Otthoman Empire is at present or the Bombarding of Genoa in his Eye when he thought of the sending Fleets against Constantinople above 180 year ago but this speculation was as much out of Cajetan's way as it is sutable to Mr. Varillas Page 250 he says King Henry the eighth had opposed the Mariage of his Sister to the King of Scotland with so much violence that it brought on him several Fits of an Ague But that Mariage being made in August 1502 the young Prince was not then 11 years old and this is too early even for a Poët to make matters of State to have gone so deep into his thoughts as that they endangered his Health But as the Legends of Saints represent them in Extasies before they have past their Childhood so Mr. Varillas thought it sutable to the rest of his Poëm to represent K. Henry even in his Infancy as transported with the violence of impetuous passions But I am afraid I lay too much to his charge since I do not believe that he had examined the History of his Life so Critically as to know even his Age but it is a sad thing for an ignorant Man not to have a Chronological Table always before him FINIS pag. 5. Lib. 9. Pag. 249. Pag. 6. p. 226. 228. â— 240. p. 239. Illudquâ— carnali â—â—â—pula forâ— consummavi Etiamsi Matrimâ—nium fâ—rit per â—â—â—â—nalem â—â—â—pulam â—â—â—â—summaâ—â— p. 232. Ibid. p. 235. p. 2â—6 p. 237 p. 240 24â— â—orison p. 244. p. 245. Ibid. p. 246. p. 248. P. 250. p. 2â—1 P. 252. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. p. 257. p. 258. p. 259. P. 260. Ibid. P. 261. p. 263 c P. 266. p. 278. Ibid. â— 269 â—70 p. 272. p. 274. p. 277. Ibid. â— 278. Ibid. p. 2â—1 Ibid. Ibid. P. 2â—2 Ibid. P 283. Ibid. p. 286. p. 287. p. 287. Ibid. P. 288. p. 289. p. 250. 2da 2dae quaest 15 Art 9. Moderna quoque Regina Angliae consummaverat prius matrimoniuâ— cum olim fratre istius Regis Angli sui marit