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
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
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