of the Leaguers That if they obeyed not they should repent it And yet again at Spires he labored to have prevailed with them by fair means but thither the Duke being grown more jealous and fearful of Caesar would not come However by this course which the Emperor constantly held towards them you may see how unwilling he was to disturb the Peace or to begin the War and how inexcusable they were that rejected so often the offers of accommodation But beside this if I should relate the malice and contempt they used to him you might well think they ought not to have expected the least degree of mercy from him in case they should fall into his hands as it hapned they did For in all their publike Letters they vouchsafed him no other Title then Charls of Gaunt Surius in Chron. usurping the name of Emperor whereby they renounced all obedience to him and so far as in them lay deposed him Which was an indignity the meanest Prince of them all would not have accounted sufferable in his own person I must not forget that the Landsgrave did usually both by Letters and Messages with no little bravery and confidence assure the Princes and Towns of the League that within three moneths they would force Charls to flie out of Germany and leave the Empire to them But how then did their pretences hang together that this League was made onely se defendendo and for their Lawful Protection Surely they aimed at some thing more when they talked of expelling the Emperor out of Germany As they also did when they solicited the Kings of France England Denmark the Hans Towns and Swisses to joyn with them and dishonorably abused him by many foul and infamous aspersions It is true France indeed though his enemy at that time nobly denied them Denmark lingred expecting the success neither was King Herry forward though his great Counsellor and Favorite Cromwel sollicited their business diligently and was so forward as to promise an hundred thousand Crowns for their aid At which time Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Westminster and Sir Philip Hobby were the Kings Ambassadors with the Emperor and by that occasion witnesses of the whole Tragedy And yet a little further to disprove their proceedings by Law Let us remember first the Decree at Worms above mentioned which as Gail the Lawyer hath told us in the case of publike Peace obligeth all persons alike Let us remember the Decree of Maximilian the First Emperor about the year 1500. in these words Consentientibus Statuum Ordinum votis c. By the general consent of the Princes and States of the Empire an Edict or Constitution was published necessary for publike Peace called in the Language of the Empire Landtfrieden By which Constitution Proscription or Banishment was adjudged to all such as disturbed the publike Peace by force of Arms Gailius de Pace lib. 1. c. 14. which Gail further explains to this sense Omnia Bella c. All War saith he made without consent of the Prince and Commission from him upon private revenge or quarrel onely is adjudged unlawful And Cap. 5. In crimen laesae Majestatis incurrit c. He commits high Treason saith he whosoever within the Empire raiseth Arms but by the Emperors Authority and Commission because he usurps to himself that which is the proper Prerogative Imperial Yea Lib. 1. tit 190. their own Goldastus confesseth it to be ancient Law Nemo intra Imperii fines c. That no man presume to gather Soldiers within the bounds of the Empire but by consent of the Prince of that respective Circle where he is and that he give sufficient Caution to the State that he intends not to attempt any thing against the Emperor or against any of the States of the Empire Tom. 2. And in another place he alledgeth a Decree of Ludovicus Pius against the King of the Romans and his Confederates as guilty of High Treason for attempting against the Emperor The like also of Henry the First against Arnulphus Duke of Baviere who rebelled against him and of Otho the First against Ludolphus King of the Romans and lastly of Maximilian the First against Emicho Earl of Lingen whom he proclaimed Traytor confiscated his Lands and Estate and gave them to other Princes of the Empire onely for going to serve the French King in his Wars though out of the Empire contrary to his Proclamation And as for the Imperial Towns which confederated with these Princes there is as little to be said for them For it is a Maxim of Law recorded by Gail Vbi supra that Civitatum Imperialium solus Imperator est dominus That the Emperor onely is Lord of the Imperial Cities and not their several Magistrates And that they pretended their Liberties in this case against the Emperor to no purpose And for Luther who was the primum mobile and cheif wheel of all these motions or rather the malus Genius that Fury which agitated the people and stirred them up to all these disorders if the Princes and Towns were thus guilty he could not be innocent If the Flock did erre the Shepherd which led them was to blame I shall not here charge him again with any small faults I will not accuse him of belying Caesar most impudently when he wrote to his friend thus Wormatiam ingressus sum In Epist I entred Worms saith he at a time when I knew that Caesar would not keep Faith with me Nor of his traducing or vilifying that most Fundamental Constitution of the Empire in Aureâ Bullâ making it one of the cheif miracles which Antichrist was to work viz. The translating of the Empire from the Greeks to the French in the person of Carolus Magnus Turesel Epitom lib. 6. p. 204. which was done by Pope Leo the Third Nor of his usurping upon the Emperor and Temporal Governmâ—nt in those pretended Laws of his which he published concerning the Publike Exchequer and how he would have Church-Lands and Abby-Lands to be disposed when he and the Princes should be Masters of all It shall be enough that I say He first counselled the Princes to take Arms and oppose Caesar in his quarrel and this Sleydan himself acknowledgeth And that all his Preaching and all his endeavors were to overthrow the Ecclesiastical Electors whose Dignities and Estates being established by the Aureâ Bullâ it was Treason or Sedition in the highest degree so to do The three Ecclesiastical Electors are three Chancelors of the Empire and in respect of their Regalities immediately subject to the Emperor so as there lieth no appeal from them to the Pope but to the Emperor and Chamber at Spires Luther therefore contriving their ruine attempted treacherously to pull the fairest Flowers out of the Imperial Crown Neither could he effect the suppression of them but he must undermine and endanger the State of the Temporal Electors also who as links of the same chain must necessarily
onely the Popes Indulgences Bulls and such like but even all the Canon Law it self that he could but get into his hands If you ask by what warrant He gives you none but his own Authority his private spirit was Commi â—â—on and pretence of the Gospel as he called it all the Apology he could make for such pranks An insufficient pretence certainly For although it be true That the Canon Law for the most part of it be originally nothing but the Constitutions of Popes at several times and occasions published yet much of it is also the decrees of Councels Provincial National and Oecumenical and all of it ratified by prescription which is Common Law by general approbation and use of the Country and by the Imperial Laws themselves and therefore his audaciousness was intolerable in giving so publike an affront to the Government of Germany as well Civil as Ecclâ—siastick And the Laws themselves how needless or inconvenient soever this vain man could imagine them yet could not be lawfully and orderly suppressed in the Empire but by the Authority of the Empire it self But as he did thus presumptuously and of his own head abrogate so far as he could the Canon Laws so did he vilifie and despise the Civil Laws also as shall be shewn hereafter in due place for as yet we must trace him in his extravagancies and furies against the Church Having lost his own senses through pride and overmuch confidence of himself he was willing that all the World should be blinde therefore he endeavors to introduce Barbarism and to put out the eyes of his Almayns that in such state they might not be able to see either his errors or their own folly to be so much abused and bewitched by a Sot Universities must down which because Cambridge and Oxford will not perhaps believe I shall produce his own words in his Book against Ambrosius Catharinus Ad Evangelium funditùs evertendum nec astutius nec efficacius commentum c. The Devil saith he never invented a more cunning and more pernicious means to root up utterly the Gospel of Christ then the design of founding the Vniversities And that no man should go about to colour or excuse this Paradox by some favorâ—ble interpretation and sense he seconds it with another elsewhere full as absurd or worse Lib. de abrog Missâ For disswading the people from sending their children to be bred up in the Universities he passeth a sentence of condemnation on them in these words Academias per idolum Moâ—och figuratas puto I am of opinion saith he that the Idol Moloch in old â—ime was a Type of these Vniversities And therefore that it was as unâ—awful for the people to send their children thither for breeding as it was of old for the children of Israel to give of their sons to be consecrated unto that Idol of which we read Levit. 20.2 3 4. The reason he gives is like his assertion Ex isto enim fumo for out of the smoke saith he of these Vniversities do arise all those Locusts which at this day possess the Chairs that is the places of Dignity and Honor in the Church But why will the man have all Universities thus suppressed on the sudden Is it because Catholike Religion and School-divinity was taught in them that can hardly be thought For why did he shut up the Sâ—hoâ—l-doors at home Cochlaeus in Act. Luther at Wittemberg where he prevailed for many years together Why did he neglect the teaching and educating of youth in his own Religion and Profession Why did he forbid Aristotle Tully and other Authors to be read who meddle not with Religion Vlemberg in vitâ ejus Why did Carolstad chuse rather to go to Plough then read a Lecture Nay his own Fidus Achates Philip Melancthon in his Book called Didymus commends Witcliff for a wiseman Qui omnium primus vidit Academias â—sse Satanae Synagogas Because he forsooth was the first that discovered the Christian Vniveâ—sities to be Synagogues of Satan Well said Master Philip in whom indeed so loose an assertion was the more to be wordrâ—d at being himself otherwise so great a Scholar But thus we see what a spirit of confusion and giddiness possessed them at the beginning and how uncertain they were all what to hold or maintain But above all others Vlemberg in vitâ Philippi this was true of Melancthon who was indeed a very Academick always Sceptical inconstant and wavering so as neither himself nor his own party knew well what he was And for this opinion in particular against the Universities and Humane Learning he retracted it in his Book Ad Waldenses which Carolstad would never do and therefore died very miserable and poor in the Country You may perceive by this that at the first rising of these men and their Preaching of Reformation the spirit to which they pretendâ—d had not in many years perfectly illuminated them nor cleared their judgement from many and stupid absurdities of Error to which men of but common discretion are not usually Subject which we may not a little wonder at seeing men extraordinarily called by God and such they would be thought to be as for example the Prophets Apostles St. Paul and others were compleatly fitted for their work from the first instant of their vocation It appears also what Luthers design was viz. At three blows to have cut down three great Cedars of the Empire The Clergy the Canon Law the Vniversities For without Vniversâ—ties the Clergy could not well be educated nor without Laws could they be governed and so being necessarily chained together he could not break the Link without subverting all Neither did he as it is cleer seek a Reformation but an Extirpation of them all together And this I dare affirm That all those hundred Gravamina presented unto the Emperor Charls at Noremberg did not contain one quarter of the danger mischief and publike calamity which these three Articles would have brought upon Germany could they have been executed to his minde And yet behold a greater mischief followeth if greater be possible for I am now to lay down some few of his Positions of State by which it shall appear yet further what prodigious incivility arrogance and presumption was in the man and to how great contempt and prejudice his proceedings tended not of Ecclesiastical Prelates and persons onely whom he made it as it were matter of Conscience and a part of his Gospel to revile and slander but of the Emperor himself and the other Princes of Germany yea of all Princes States and Magistrates whatsoever that stood in his way and complied not with his strange and exorbitant courses And to dâ—scover his spirit the better you shall have a taste in the first place of his behavior with King Henry the Eighth of England a Prince at that time famous and renowned as any in the World and whom but a little before upon report of his disgust
points and Doctrines which I leave to the more learned to discuss That which I shall insist upon here shall be according to my principal purpose to deliver their seditious Paradoxes and shew unto the World how much their new refined doctrine doth derogate from Royalty and that sovereign Authority which belongeth unto aâ—l Kings Princes and States rightly constituted and how much it favoreth the worst of Governments that is Pure Democraty or Popularity And I shall begin with Calvin who goeth more slily and cunningly to work nothing so rudely and bluntly as Luther First therefore for the reputation of his Consistory or Sanhedrim at Genevah he labors to dâ—base Monarchy and to prefer Aristocracy before it Non id quidem per se Instit lib. 4. c. 20. sect 10. Not in it self forsooth as if he had been very tender of the Rights of Kings but by reason of mens natural corruption Quia rarissime contingit Because it is seldom seen saith he that Princes can govern their Passions so well or are so wise and prudent as thâ—y ought to be to uphold good Government So he makes it a rare thing to finde a wise and moderate King and so concludes from a general defect which he supposeth in Kings that it is best fâ—r many joyntly and not one alone absolutely to command For saith he where many govern one supplyâ—th the dâ—fects of another both in point of Counsel and Justice This was his way politick and plausible enough to prepare the hearts of his people at Genevah to the Discipline which he intended for thâ—m For you must know the Genevians had now ejected their Bishop who was also their Sovereign Prince and had been so ever since the time of Frederick the First Bodin de Rep. So that their Monarchy was newly changed into a popular State yet governed Aristocratically which Calvin therefore smooths unto the people by such Reasons as it concerned him to do this change being as the First-fruits of his new Gospel in that City So having given this first blow to Monarchy though therein he seems to forget that himself was born at Noyon and finding himself safe at Genevah he proceeds and to prevent your objection in behalf of Monarchy That Kings have always grave and wise Counsellors to advise them and to supply their defects in case themselves be weak he gives his resolution elsewhere Kings saith he Comment in Dan. 11.26 make choice of such men for their Counsellors as can best fit their humors and accommodate themselves to their appetites in the ways of cruelty and deceit So he makes them little better by having Counsellors and stains the reputation of Counsellors themselves with a scandal intolerable Daniel But Chap. 2. v. 39. he is yet more passionate They are saith he out of their wits quite void of sense and understanding who desire to live under Sovereign Monarchies for it cannot be but order and policy must decay where one man holds such an extent of Government Yea Chap. 5. v. 25. Kings saith he oftentimes forget they are men aâ—d of the same mould with others They are stiled Dei Gratia but to what sense or purpose save onely to shew they acknowledge no Superior oâ— Earth yet under colour of this they will trample upon God with their feet so that it is but an abuse and fallacy when they are so stiled Which is a pretty descant is it not upon Dei Gratiâ and therefore Voila saith he See what the rage and madness of all Kings is with whom it is an ordinary and common thing to exclude God from the Government of the Wâ—rld And this he writ not in quality of a Statesman but of a Divine in that master-peice of his his Institutions and in his Commentaries upon Scripture he delivereth these dangerous Positions as matters of Doctrine and of Discipline to be generally received by all and makes a Nebuchadnezzar of all Kings But rather out of his own spleen then out of his Text by his good leave For to what purpose can such expressions tend but to disgrace Scepters and to scandalize all Governments that are not framed according to his own mould And therefore Chap. 6. v. 25. in Daniel hâ— chargeth them directly Darius saith he will condemn by his example all those that profess themselves at this day Catholike Kings Christian Kings and Defenders of the Faith and yet do not onely deface and bury all true Piety and Religion but corrupt and deprave the whole worship of God This indeed is work for the Cooper not by a Mar-Prelate but a Mar-Prince The most Christian King must be new Catechised he that is Catholike must be taught a new by an Uncatholike that is a private spirit and the Defender of the Faith must have a new Faith given him to defend by this great Prophet Calvin And so by a new Model all the old Religion of the Church and all the Laws of State concerning it must be abolished Thus doth Calvin presume to reform Kings and Government and pretends to build an Ark but it is of his own head to save the World having dreamt that otherwise it must perish by a deluge of Ignorance Impiety and Superstition of whom it may be truly said Plusquam regnare videtur He must be much more then a Prince himself who thus presumes to play the Aristarchus and censurer of Princes And that he may not seem to come short of Luther his Predecessor in any degree of immodesty Les Rois Chap. 6. v. 3 4. sont presque tous These Kings saith he are in a maner all of them a company of Block-heads and brutish persons as wilde and ungoverned as their Horses preferring their Bawds and their Vices above all things whatsoever Yet did he write this in an age when to say but truth the Princes of Christendom were not so extreamly debauched Lewis the Twelfth Francis the First and Henry the Second of France have left a better fame of themselves to Posterities then this So have Maximilian the First and Charls the Fifth Emperors in Germany Henry â—he Eighth of England degenerated onely in his latter times and not till he was corrupted by some principles of this Reforming Liberty In his children Edward the Sixth there was much hope at least and in Queen Mary much vertue In Scotland reigned James the Fifth and two Maries that might be canonized for their merits And for Castile and Portugal their Kings never flourished more for Government Greatness encrease of State Plenty Peace then in those times What could his meaning then be to censure them all so much for stupidity and vice but to breed a contempt of Kings and to induce people that live under Free States to despise and hate them and their own people to cast of their Government and procure their Liberties at all adventures especially under the cloak of Religion for at this he driveth altogether as knowing well That in popular and tumultuary States he
onely to preserve what remained but also to repair and make up his decayed Estate There factions were ripened to their full Maturity and the place so fortified both by nature and art that till he should be able to appear in Action to the World and fight he might lie secure and write Apologies encourage seditious people abroad and settle his new Religion at home which although at first and from his Father it was Lutheran yet after he had been in France he Professed rather to favor Calvinism providently and wisely foreseing as he was a man that wanted no insight into Worldly affaires of this nature that they viz the Calvinists were to be his neerest and surest Neighbors All which practises and courses of his notwithstanding with the injustice of them being well discerned at last by the States of Artois and Henault when they were in the year 1579. reconciled to the King with the assent of the most Honorable Duke of Areschot they binde themselves in the Fifth Article of Agreement to prosecute the War against the Prince of Orange as the Enemy general of the peace of those Countries and to finde at their own charge Eighteen thousand men for that purpose which certainly being Persons of such Religions and right Noble quality as 't is known they were and of so great experience in all the passages and pretences of Orange they would never have done if they had not known both him and his practises to be very bad I confess that the Hollanders are a people very industrious and skilful to make use of their labor but yet of such a temper that as a Learned Censor saith of them Nec totam libertatem Thuâ—n Nec totam servitutem patiuntur They endure not well either absolute Liberty which makes them insolent nor absolute Servitude which makes them mad Friends they are somewhat too much to change and not always content with the present State which would appear more then it doth but that their mindes are now wholly set upon their Trade and profit wherein finding much sweet by their successes at home and abroad they are extreamly jealous of any thing that sounds but to the least obstruction of either of them The Prince of Orange therefore understanding their natures very well and to feed this jealous humor of theirs with fit matter discovers a certain secret Counsel to them which he pretended Henry the Second King of France had taken with the Duke d' Alva to suppress the Protestants by force of Arms and to erect the Seventeen Provinces into one Kingdom and this the French King himself should tell him at his being in France But first was it so likely the Duke would discover such a secret of his Master to an Enemy newly or scarce reconciled Beside King Henry dying suddenly as he did by mischance there was now no body living to disavow the imposture but D' Alva onely and him he was sure the people would not be over hasty to beleeve He was the first also that gave out that factious and stale Calumny against the Emperor and King of Spain That they should affect a Monarchy Universal over all Europe which forgeries how palpable soever yet they served his turn thus far viz. to terrifie the Hollanders to make them rely still upon him and to procure some distrust and hatred in Forreign Nations against the Spaniards and house of Austria This upon the matter is the whole charge and all that can be objected against the King from the very beginning as I have related it and these the Actors which prosecuted the business against whom what exceptions may be taken for their Estimation Integrity Testimony especially in their own cause every man may see It remains that we enquire a little whether the King stood guilty of those Crimes which they charged upon him Injustice and Tyranny For if he be innocent these men were grand usurpers if guilty another question will arise whether his error in Government will give them title and his offence free them from Subjection It is manifest to all the world that the King ever desired peace and with great care so far as in him lay labored to prevent the desolation of his people and Countries as the course that was taken by that excellent and most loyal Prince the Duke of Areschot and by the States General at Gaunt in the year 1574 do testifie When they found it requisite to decree and did decree a general Amnestia or Oblivion of all things past on both sides and took order for the dismission of the Spaniards Notwithstanding that in this pacification all things were in a maner referred to the States and the King scarcely so much as mentioned yet Don John did ratifie it and procured the Kings consent for the confirmation of all as appears by the perpetual Edict This agreement was made by the States General of the Provinces and for the general good and quiet of them yet would not the Prince of Orange Holland nor Zealand accept of it They perswaded the States General not to receive Don John for Governor till the Spaniards were gone although themselves refused at that very time to dismiss those Forreign forces which they had in Holland that is to say They would binde the Governor to perform promise but they themselves must be at liberty to break Was it for Religion they did dissent that can hardly be said For in the Articles of Agreement there was provision made for their security in that point by this Article Vt sola Romana religio in iis exerceatur exceptâ Hollandiâ Zelandiâ Roman Religion was to be exercised onely in the other Provinces but Holland and Zealand were excepted And for the Prince himself in the general Amnestia he had as absolute indempnity offered and assured him as could be imagined if that had been all he had sought And the States had prevailed more in his behalf then the Emperor could But Malice and Ambition transported him still and the more His Majestie gave assurance of his desires of Peace the more he prepared and was inclined to War wherein yet the World did never count him a Hannibal This appeared yet more plainly in the colloquy at Breda in the year 1575. where the King offered reasonable conditions and the Emperor had sent the Count Swartzembergh to perswade them to concord yet the Prince would listen to nothing the Treaty was fruitless and at the same time the Hollanders were Treating by their Agents Jean Peâ—tit Aldegund and Douza to submit themselves to the Queen of England Yet notwithstanding all this which the King knew well enough such was his patience and royal goodness and so far was he from the baseness of Tyranny towards him or any other that he proclaimed not Orange Traytor till the year 1580 that is till his malice appeared to be irreconcileable and his courses desperate and that the Trayterous Vnion of Vtrecht was framed and published which is about
their practises and most justly are they excluded from the protection and benefit of those Laws Liberties and Peace which themselves would destroy if they could prevaile as the Sequel will shew Paraeus and the rest of the Calvinists in the Palatinate were the Firebrands of the Bohemian War they seduced the people set the Princes at variance among themselves and cast that whole Kingdom into a most desperate combustion though to their own shame and confusion at last as it it pleased God I need not be very sollicitous how to report the business aright both the original of the War as also its progress and success are so generally known by the relations of the French Mercury of Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus and others that there cannot easily be any false play used But the long many secret practises and plottings about it were discovered chiefly upon the Battle at Prague by intercepting the very Rolls and Records thereof First of all in the Secreta Principis Anhaltini Cancellaria printed in the year 1621. which certainly was no Fiction as that Catholicon published against the Leaguers in France was but a serious admonition plainly and down-right making report how things were carried without any affectation or disguise as a Treatise made rather to deliver Truth then to shew Art And hereof Lundorpius an Historiographer of Franckford must needs be thought an impartial witness who sets down the Letters and Records themselves for some time viz. so much of them as concerned the time of his writing And afterward they were verified by Cogmandolo who in his Treatise of like Subject called Secreta Secretorum avoucheth the same things So that there being no just ground as I conceive either of jealousie or doubt concerning this relation I shall professedly upon that foundation build my cheifest reports concerning this business In the year 1608. this great Union did begin The Cheifs whereof were the Count Palatine of the Rhine Christian Prince of Anhalt and the Marquis of Onoltzbach Count Mansfield was a principal Agent and in the year 1619. contrary unto and in contempt of the Imperial Proclamations Letters c. sent Two thousand men to the Aid of the Bohemians against the Emperor Afterward they admitted Joachim Marquis of Brandenburgh to be as it were Vicar or Lieutenant General of the League They admitted also the Marquis of Baden the Duke of Wittembergh Landsgrave of Hessen Duke of Dupontz and Strasburgh Norimbergh and many other Cities All which contributed so largly to these Wars as the Emperor never received the like Aid from them against the Turke For as Cogmandolo testifieth The several Taxes afforded by them from the year 1608 to the year 1619 amounted in the whole sum to no less then Four Millions one hundred seventy six thousand nine hundrd and seventeen Florens The concurrence of so many Princes could not but argue mighty force which was much increased by the Negotiations of Mansfeld and Nomarus in Italy which Nomarus was Baltazar Newwen principal Secretary to Onoltzbach and of Volrad Plessen with the Hollanders and of others with the Duke of Bullion Bethlehem Gabor and the Rebels of Hungary And though they could not perswade the King of England to enter into their League for great and weighty reasons which he alledged yet they hoped for some good assistance from the Grisons and gave out also that the Hans Townes favored their Union They omitted not to sollicit the Venetians also with much earnestness as conceiving it to be their interest to keep the other Princes of Europe in balance as much as may be and to be jealous of the too potent Supereminency of any one but what answer the Common-wealth gave them is not certainly known The pretense of their Union was that it was purely defensive for the protection only of their Religion Liberties and Priviledges Vetus Cantilena the old song I confess but who can beleeve them Can it be supposed of Anhalt that he took Arms onely for Conscience having been so well beaten in France for it both out of his Honor and Fortunes or that Count Mansfeld is a man that fights onely for Conscience and Publike liberty whose Trade and patrimony is the Sword and who braving the World most commonly with a running Army more used to Pillage then Fight Robs and Spoils all where ever he comes Besides doth not Achatius a Donau write to Anhalt November the Fifteenth 1619. that the intention of Bethlehem Gabor a principal Confederate was pied a pied by degrees yet as closely as foot could follow to root out the Antichristian Papacy where he came This was something more then to be onely defensive And in the Union it self which contains One and twenty Articles in all although they say it was onely their Buckler against the Catholikes assaulting them yet do they not profess Art 8. to have intention to expel Papism as they call it and to preserve themselves from the Yoak of Spain and forreign Government And doth not Bethlehem Gabor in his Letter to the Turk profess also how much he labors now Vt rasa Pontificiorum Cobors c. that those shaven Companies of Papelings so he calls the Catholike Clergy and Religious might be utterly destroyed This therefore was certain had they prevailed Catholike Religion long before this time had been extinct in those Countries and Catholikes themselves banished destroyed and gone In order to this do they not decree among themselves Pag. 43. to fall upon Church-men and Church-goods first Pag. 131. do they not resolve to invade some part of their Adversaries Country as they call the Catholikes having first compelled them to be so for their own defense and in particular do they not name and design out the Arch-Bishoprick and City of Triers as lying fairest in their way and being a Prince Electors Country Catholike and the Clergy rich But their Noblest and Chief project was to invest themselves of two Crowns goodly booties indeed if they could catch them and Temptations fit for such high Spirits that is to say of the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary The reason is given Pag 25. because thereby in the Assembly of Electors they should be always Secure of a double Vote And therefore doth the Count Palatine confess in his Letter to the Duke of Saxony that he took upon him the Administration of Bohemia among other reasons principally for this viz. That by this means the Election of the King of the Romans might be hence forward in the power of the Protestants This was certainly a main part of their design according to that which Anhalt writes unto Donau in May 1519. That it were better the Turk were chosen to wear that Crown then Ferdinand yea Gabor tells the Turk that the Palatine and Brandenburgh were resolved no longer to endure Ferdinand and that all those Provinces that were Confederate with them ☞ Corde animo omnia officia fidelissimè praestabunt were ready with heart and goodwil to tender all faithful services to his
Ottoman Greatness and the whole Nation of Turks and that in a short time Ferdinand would surely be expelled out of all Germany and forced to seek his fortunes in Spain But O Monstrous O Incredible that such desperate malice and impiety should enter the hearts of any that profess themselves Christians were it not that the Records themselves be extant fide publicâ which do assure us thereof even beyond contradiction who could beleeve it O Malice implacable O Envy most perfectly diabolical And O happy house Family Name of Austria which for the interest of true Religion and Constancy to Justice deservest to be made the object of such execrable Spleen and to Combat perpetually with such odious and Antichristian Conspiracies Guicciard Lib. 20. It is no new thing But Macte istâ virtute Be faithful to God and to those principles of piety and justice descended from so many so Religious and so Renouned Ancestors and reign in spite of Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endureth The Truth is Ambition was so hungry with them that they consulted about dividing the Bears Skin before the Bear was taken They consulted how they should share among them the spoils of the German Clergy and of the house of Austria before either of them was in their power For as by their Chancery-rolls it is evident Their intent was to advance the Palatine to Bohemia Cancel Anhaltina Alsatia and some part of Austria enlarging his Dominion also with the Bishoprick of Spiers and a part of Mentz Bethlehem Gabor should be assisted to keep Hungary which afterwaâ—d this Gabor having no issue might also probably fall to the Palâ—tines lot Too many Crowns herâ—â— you will say to expect any in Heaven Onaltzbach gaped for Two fat Benefices the Bishopricks of Wâ—râ—â—burgh and Bambergh his Neighbors and therefore was it agreed that their Armies should Rendevouz in those parts The Marquis of Baden thirsted after Brisack and was willing by this occasion to continue his possession of the upper Marquisate against the more just claim of the Count Eberstein Brandenburgh expected the least of all being content onely with a part of the Bishoprick of Wirtzburgh which lay fit for him But Anhalt intended to recruit both his purse and broken fortunes with the spoils of Mentz Banbergh and other Catholike places as also with some Lands and Lordships which were like to Escheat in Bohemia If the Venetians would joyn with them they might make themselves Masters of Istria and Friuli and so Oceanum cum Adriatico as their Cancellaria speaks they might joyn Sea to Sea and Land to Land and carry all before them without controule Such were the vast but vain designs of their Ambition and Avarice But before we proceed any further it may not be amiss to examine their Plea It is manifest their design in it self was most pernicious and such as if it had taken effect which God would not suffer had been of general prejudice to the State of Christendom and not onely to the Peace of the Empire which yet every one of the Princes Confederate were bound in some relation or other to maintain beside the subversion of all Laws which apparently it carryed along with it Who doth not remember how all the Pulpits in England when time was and generally of all the Reformed Churches abroad sounded the Alarme against the League and Leaguers in France Which yet was not half so mischeivous as this but was at first set on foot quietly without any sedition or insurrection onely for defense of the Ancient Religion always received and established in France yea confirmed with the Kings personal Oath and approbation And though it were afterward continueed and more strictly prosecuted upon occasion of some horrid Actions of murther and tyranny yet Monsieur Villeroy himself who was a wise man and a great Royallist professeth that their aim was not the Extirpation of the King of Navarre but his Reformation and that if they might be assured of his Religion which he had promised he should be instantly assured of their obedience as in the conclusion it clearly appeared every person in France according as the King condiscended to give them satisfaction in that point entirely acknowledging their Allegiance to him And the mishap which befel him afterwards was not in pursuance of the League but upon a private account not to say upon some new provocation given and which no man living justified But as for this Union it runs in a far wilder strain and is for the advancement of a new Religion entirely disavowed by all the States of the Empire in all their publike Acts. How then can it be otherwise then extreamly disloyal and criminous The Duke of Saxony himself though a Protestant Prince disswaded it and advised the Palatine very prudently and like a friend to quit Bohemia and to seek for reconciliation and pardon where as yet he might possibly finde it Beside it opened the Gates of the Empire to the Turk which mischief alone had there been no other going along with it had been sufficient to condemn it But Plessen confesseth in his Letter to Anhalt That it was an Action of the same nature with Holland and what that was we have seen already In brief they took arms against a King Lawfully Elected solemnly Crowned and established in possession by consent of the States It is true when they first went about the work they nominated the Duke of Saxony as Competitor with the Palsgrave for Bohemia but that was meerly craft and a trick of maliciousness to render the Duke suspected with the Emperor They knew he had rejected their offer and Confederacy long before when their Agent the Count Slick sollicited him in their names By this means they put Austria it self the Emperors Patrimonial Country into sedition The people there through correspondence with the Turk and Gabor were so bold as to tell Ferdinand that unless he would grant them Toleration and such Liberty of Conscience as they desired they would joyn with his Enemies And they were in this point as good as their words For in the year 1620. all the upper Austria did really quit their old Lord and submitted unto a new Protector in his stead If the Catholikes of England should attempt the like how would it be censured for sedition and punished severely as it might and yet surely the cases are much Parallel and if there be any advantage it is on our side who desire the exercise of nothing but what was once publike owned for many ages together by all the people of the Nation and legally established before us But nothing makes the Action more offensive and scandalous then that Anhalt and Onoltzbach two such private and inconsiderable persons in relation to the business they dealt in should take upon them insciis Electoribus without the knowledge and consent of the Princes Electors themselves to dispose of the succession of the Empire and in order to effect this more then
with Cardinal Wolsey he had extreamly flattered and bedaubed with praises But now finding by some tartness in the Kings answer That it was but to build castles in the air to expect any favor or countenance from him the poor Frier runs presently mad with rage and fowl language The King is no longer now a King with him Lib. cont Reg. Angliae but an evious mad fool full of bastardy and baseness he hath not a vein of Princely blood in all his body he is a Basilisk to whom this impudent Apostata denounceth damnation A glorious King indeed that lyeth most stoutly and like a King Nay He is a lying Felâ—ow covered with the title of a King not a King but a Sacrilegious theif Lastly which is the height of all imaginable scurrility and rudeness Jus mihi erit Majestatem tuam stercore câ—nspergere If I were neer you saith he I should make bold to dress such a Majesty as it deserves The passage is so extreamly fowl that to render it otherwise would both offend the Reader and defile the Paper I omit infinite more of the same stamp and stain which the Reader if he please to be further curious upon such a subject may finde gathered together by no less honorable a person then Sir Thomas Moor Lord Châ—ncellor of England in those times and published by him in a Latin work of his against Luther Printed at Lovain in the Year 1566. Nor was his behavior towards the Emperor himself and Princes of Germany much better He not onely wrote a Book expresly with this title Surius ad annum 1521. Against the Two Edicts of Caesar which we must also know were Edicts legally published and with consent of the other States and Princes of the Empire but therein he openly chargeth the Emperor himself and the other Princes with false play Turpe est Caesarem ac Principes manifestis agere mendaciis What a shame is it saith he that an Emperor and Princes should lie thus palpably And in the same Book of the same persons speaking Deus mihi dedit negotium It is Gods will saith he that in this business I should not have to do with reasonable men but I see these wilde Beasts of Germany will murder me if they can And therefore more bitterly maliciously and traiterously afterwards Oro cuncios pios Christianos I beseech saith he all godly Christians that they would onely pray for these blinde Princes by whom God afflicteth them in his great wrath but saith he let us not follow them by any means let us not serve them in their Wars nor give them any Contribution against the Turk For that was a thing either then in debate or but lately consented to by the States of the Empire For the Turk saith he is a Prince ten times wiser and more honest then they And what good I pray can such fools expect against the Turk who do themselves so horribly blaspheme and offend God Will any man think this tolerable but he proceeds Art 367. In his Book against the Five hundred Articles Quid ergo boni in rebus Divinis What good think we saith he can such impious and wicked Tyrants appoint in matter of Religion Before they were fools now they are Tyrants And still he goeth on from worse to worse that is higher and higher as it were by degrees in his impudence For in his Book De Saeculari potestate concerning the Civil Magistrate or the Powers of the World He delivers his opinion of all Kings and Princes in general and how he would have them esteemed in these words Scire debes c. You must know saith he that from the beginning of the world to this day it hath ever been a rare thing to finde a wise Prince but more rare to finde one that was honest For commonly they are the veriest fools and knaves in the world And again Quis nescit c. Who knows not saith he that Princes are like Venison in Heaven very dainty and rare it seems scarse one of a thousand perhaps saved This was the charity of the man towards Christian Princes in general as for the Emperor himself in his Book De bello contra Turcas he expresly denieth him to be the head of Christendom or so much as a difender of the Faith and least this might be capable of some tolerable sense he explicates his meaning plainly in the reason which he giveth Eos namque esse pessimos hostes For saith he Emperors and Princes are commonly the greaâ—est enemies which Christianity and the Faith have Yea in his Book Contrae Rusticos against the Boors which was an occasion and subject where if ever he meant to do it a man would think he was obliged to favor Magistracy and Civil Dignities yet even there his Language is the same or worse Sciatâ—â— boni domini Deum sâ—c procurare quod subditi nec possunt nec debent c. You must know my good Lords saith he That Gâ—d will have it so that your Subjects neither can nor will nor ought any longer to endure your Tyrannical G vernments Mark well that debent they ought not it was not put in for nothing I warrant you Those good men the Boors were not altogether or too much to be discouraged by that Book of his though titled against them it having been from his Sermons and Doctrines commonly divulged that they took the cheif grounds of their Insurrection Did ever man before him vent such seditious Paradoxes with impunity Can such assertions as these come from the Spirit of God Did ever any of the Prophets Apostles Martyrs use such barbarous liberty of speech against the worst of Neroes Dioclesians Julians that ever persecuted the Church Did Elias speak thus to Ahab and Jezabel and yet his flatterers commonly call him the Elias of Germany St. Paul if he had pleased to regard him gave him a far better example Acts 26.25 using Festus the Roman Governor with much more reverence And without all doubt no true Christian zeal can be so irregular so rude so intemperately passionate and scurrilous To revile and speak evil of dignities is the property of another spirit then the Spirit of God Jude 8.9 or else Saint Jude deceives us To give Caesar his Sovereign and all the Princes of Germany the lie although it were very insufferable yet it may seem but a personal or particular contempt but to proclaim them all Savages Fools Knaves Tyrants and to say that the Turk was a wiser and honester man then any of them in whose Government as all the World knows the Sacred Law of Christ our Saviour is wholly abrogated and the blasphemous Dreams of a wretched Impostor set up and maintained by force in stead thereof and the Moral Law of God publikely and daily by a contrary law of Mahomet in many respects violated and broken to the great dishonor of God indeed and shame of Christendom is a Language so absurdly