a little too high with relation to the Popes Resentments he makes them as abject as can be in their own particulars since they own that the ground of their courage in serving the Holy Seâ— on dangerous occasions was the Sacredness of their persons which must be maintained otherwise it could not be expected that they would expose themselves any more There is no courage when a man knows he is invulnerable It seems Mr. Varillas thinks that the Colledge of Cardinals have not the spirit of Martyrdom among them now tho it is very likely that this may be true yet Mr. Varillas had shewed more respect if he had suppressed it 6. The Sentence which Mr. Varillas represents as past at this time but not pronounced was passed two years before this the first of September 1535. so little is he exact that he does not examin the days of printed Bulls 7. Mr. Varillas represents this present Negotiation as in the year 1538. which he sets on his Margin yet the final publishing of the Sentence was on the 17. of December 1538. So that all this delay of the Sentence and that which follows could not belong to this year but it must come in here for Amours giving a lustre to Romances our Author thought it was necessary to make them have a large share in all his Relations and if the dates of matters will not agree there is no help for it he must pass over such inconsiderable things 8. Zealous Catholicks again for Rebels XI He goes on to dream and fancies that since the Daughter of France was Christned by King Henry both Francis and he would be obliged to send to Rome for a Dispensation and that the Pope resolved not to grant it but after that England should be reconciled to the Holy See Therefore to facilitate this matter the Pope sent for Pool who was then at Padua and he made him a Cardinal and sent him to France to set on that Design which Pool who loved his Countrey to excess undertook with all possible Zeal But the King of England by a fatal Blindness rejected all this And here he pretends to tell what might be the secret Reasons of it in his way that is to say very impertinently He adds that King Henry sent to Francis to demand Cardinal Pool as a Fugitive and a Traytor and that he cited the examples of Charles the Fifth and of his Father who had delivered up Princes of the House of York to the Kings of England and in conclusion that Henry threatned Francis that if he did not grant his desire he would break the League in which he was with him and would make one with the Emperour against him If Mr. Varillas had seen Card. Pools Book against King Henry which he pretends to have lying before him he would have known that it was printed in the year 1536. in which he had used the King in a stile that no Crowned Head in the World could al ow of but the conclusion of it was beyond all the rest for he conjured the Emperour to turn his Arms rather against the King than against the Turk and it was known in England that he had obtained this Commission to be sent to France only that he might set on a League between the two Crowns against England and so it was no wonder if the King resented his being well received in the Court of France 2. It is not to be imagined that when Charles the fifth was contriving how to make War upon England and was the person that chiefly supported Cardinal Pool that I say King Henry would be so highly displeased with the civility of the Court of France to the Cardinal as to threaten upon that to join with the Emperour who was the Kings chief Enemy and the spring that set Pool in motion therefore all this whole negotiation is to be reckoned among our Authors Fictions since he gives no Proofs of it XII Mr. Varillas says that King Henry set fifty thousand Crowns on Cardinal Pools head and upon this he grafts a new Fable But in the Sentence and Act of Attaindor against Pool there is not a word of any sum set on his head so this was a small decoration that was not to be omitted by a man that does not trouble himself to examin whether what he writes is true or not XIII If Mr. Varillas were not so excessively Ignorant as he is of the History of England he would not have passed over the great advantage he had here of reproaching King Henry with that which was indeed the greatest blemish of his whole Reign and that was first practised on the Countess of Salisbury Cardinal Pools Mother whom by an affectation contrary to our Rules he calls Princess Margaret the Title Princess being affected in England to our Kings Children and not being so much as given to their Brothers Children who are only called Ladies this piece of Tyranny was that she was condemned without being brought to make her Defence or to be heard Answer for herself Now I leave it to the Reader to judge how well informed Mr. Varillas is who is ignorant of that which is to be found in every one of our Writers that have given the History of that time and which would have furnished him with the best Article of his whole Satyr against King Henry XIV He tells us that Calvin writ an Apology for King Henry's conduct in that matter upon which he makes a long excursion But I know nothing of this matter I believe it not a whit the better because Mr. Varillas sayes it and it does not appear among his printed Works He adds that the accusation was false that was brought against Card. Pool as if he had formed a design to raise Troops in Picardy and Normandy and to make a descent with them to assist the Zealous Catholicks of England one reason that he gives to prove it false is that the English were at that time Masters of the Sea The good opinion that Mr. Varillas has of the Rebellions of the Zealous Catholicks of England returns often in this kind Epithet that he bestows on them But for this accusation of Cardinal Pools our Author may very well answer it for I believe it was never made by any before himself yet so unhappy is he that he must discover his Ignorance in every Page and Line of his Book The Kings of England had then no Fleets and so they were not Masters of the Sea unless he means that the Soveraignty of the four Sea 's belonged to the Crown of England in which sense I acknowledg that not only then but at all times the King of England is Master of the Sea XV. Mr. Varillas after he had carried his Romance to make the round to other parts returns back to England but I do not know by what ill luck it is that there is not one single Paragraph that relates to our Affairs that is true
condemning men without hearing them was applied to himself so he was condemned and executed the 6. of Iuly his body being cut up as is usual to Traitors and Quartered And to justify all this he cites on the margin Cromwells Process But that Process or rather the Act of Parliament that condemned him is in print taken from the Record in which there is not one word of all this business of signing a League with Forreign Princes without the Kings orders 2. No such thing can be done according to our forms Amhassadours that have formal powers can sign Leagues but the Ministers about the King cannot bind him nor sign Leagues without him and no Prince would have either asked or accepted any such thing 3. All that is objected to Cromwell in his condemnation is so Inconsiderable that it is plain there was no great matter against him some Malversations and illegal Warrants some high boasting words is all that is to be found in his Attaindor 4. There was no such Law ever made for Parliaments do not make Laws with relation to their own proceedings but this practice was indeed begun not three moneths but a full year before this 5. Mr. Varillas is incurable in his venturing upon Dates for Cromwels Execution was not on the 6. but on the 18. of Iuly 6. Cromwel was only beheaded it is true the Hangman did it in a butcherly manner but all the rest is fiction and I am not much concerned whether Florimond or Mr. Varillas is the Contriver XXVIII He says Anne of Cleves was terrified with a Sentence of Death as being a Heretick and that She was so far wrought on by that as to become the Chief Instrument of her own Degradation for She confessed that She had promised Marriage to another before King Henry had pretended to her upon which her Marriage was dissolved and She was sent back to Germany I have already shewed the falsehood of this from the Sentence it self that dissolved the Marriage Nor did She ever go back to Germany but stayd still in England being contented with the appointments that were set off for her and with the honour of being made the King's adopted Sister which it seems was more supportable to her than to return to her own Countrey with the Infamy of such a Degradation which she indeed bore either with the constancy of a great Philosopher or with the insensibility of one that was extreamly stupid XXIX He tells us of a new project of a Reconciliation with the Pope in which he is so particular as to set down the Articles that were proposed and King Henry's Exceptions to them and he tells us at last That King Henry stood so much on the point of Honour that he thought it below his Dignity to make any Submission to the Pope All this is Fiction without the least proof for it does not appear that after that proposition that was made upon Anne Bullen's fall there was ever the least step made by either side in this matter Our Author had heard there was one made but not knowing where to place it his fancy rambled about Indeed the King was so much alienated from the Court of Rome that Gardiner and Knevet being sent Ambassadours to the Diet at this time one discovered to Knevet some secret Enterviews that had passed between Gardiner and the Legate which Gardiner considered as so great an Injury to him and as that which must have ruined him in the Kings spirit that he prosecuted the Informer as a Slanderer and got him to be put in Prison concerning which his Letters to the King are in print which shew clearly that there was no such Negotiation at this time on foot otherwise those secret Enterviews could not have been such offensive things XXX Mr. Varillas says That the K. who would not submit himself so far as to confess his Sins did a much meaner thing for he accused his Queen Katherine Howard to the Parliament for her disorders both before and after her Marriage with Thomas Culper and Francis Dirham and so her Head was cut off There are few Writers that do not at some time or other tell things true but Mr. Varillas must needs be an extraordinary person and commit such Errors as no other man ever did before him Catherine Howard's Incontinence was discovered and proved many moneths before the Parliament met nor would the King at all appear in the business as it is expresly mentioned in the Record It were too great an Honour to our Author to insist on such small Faults as that he names the Persons wrong XXXI Nor ought I to make any great Account of his Ignorance of our English Families since he calls Catherine Parre Sister to the Earl of Essex who was Sister to the Marquis of Northampton these things might indeed be forgiven him if it were not that he sets them down to shew how well he is informed even in the smallest matters which no doubt will make some Impression on Strangers who do not know our Affairs nor our Pedigrees XXXII He reproaches the Emperour for making a League with Henry against Francis notwithstanding his Schism But why might not Charles the fifth do the same thing that Francis had done for seven years together It is known that Francis was not so scrupulous as to decline the making of any League that might be to his Advantage not only with Schismaticks but even with Mahometans and some have been so malicious as to say that this is a maxim that some of his Successors have thought fit to keep up and put in practise against the House of Austria XXXIII Mr. Varillas tells us That Richer was appointed to set on the King of Denmark against England and that he represented to him that King Henry had taken occasion to come over to Picardy at the same time that Charles the fifth entred into Champaigne with a formidable Army and that K. Henry had besieged Bulloigne and tahen it therefore the K. of France resolved to make England the scene of the War and that since he knew the great pretensions that the Crown of Denmark had upon England which his Subjects had formerly conquered he thought the present conjuncture proper for the renewing these so he invited him to share with him and to accept the Provinces that lay over against Denmark while the French King should seise on those that lay nearer him Now it is to be considered that this was in the year 1542. as he warns us by his Margin and all this is founded as he told us in his Preface on Richers Negotiation of whose Relation he makes so great an account telling us both that he was the first that negotiated according to form with the Kings of the North and owning that he had drawn his thirteenth Book out of his Memoirs in which there are some things that by the order of time had belonged to his fifth Book but he had not seen those
Religion that had signalised it self with so much Cruelty I will not take upon me to play the Prophet as to the effects that the present Persecution in France may have tho the numbers that come every day out of that Babylon and the visible backwardness of the greatest part of those who have fallen are but too evident signs that this Violence is not like to have those glorious Effects which Mr. Varillas may perhaps set forth in his Panegyrick one thing cannot be denied that this persecution has contributed more to the establishing the Protestant Religion elsewhere and to the awakening men to use all just precaution against the like cruelty than all that the most zealous Protestants could have wished for or contrived and of this some Princes of that Religion are sufficiently sensible and do not stick to express their horrour at it in terms that they may better use than I repeat In a word Queen Mary in this point will be found to have the better of the French King She found her people Protestants and yet in eighteen months time she overthrew all the settlement that they had by Law She turned them out of their Churches and began to burn their Teachers and Bishops whereas the French King had not of that Religion above the tenth part of his Subjects and yet the extirpating them out of his Dominions has cost him as many years as it did Queen Mary moneths The other Article of the preference that Mr. Varillas gives his Monarch to Queen Mary is that whereas she could not do it without marrying the Prince of Spain the King has been able to effect it without the aid of Strangers If this were true the praise due upon it will not appear to be very extraordinary since he who has so vast an Army and is in peace with all the World has been able to crush a small handful without calling in forreign aid but on the other hand Queen Mary had neither Troops nor Fleets and very little Treasure so that her Imploying Strangers would appear to be no great matter yet so unhappy is Mr. Varillas like to be in all that he writes that it seems his Panegyricks and his Historys will be suteable to one another Queen Mary indeed married the Prince of Spain but she was not much the better for it for she took such care to preserve the Nation from falling under his power that as she would receive none of his Troops so she neither gave him nor his Mininisters any share in the Government of England of this he became soon so disgusted that seeing no hope of Issue and as little probability of his being able to make himself Master he abandoned her and She to recover his favour engaged her self into a War with France which ended so fatally for England that Calais was lost so that upon the whole matter she lost much more than she gained by the Spanish Match but as for her administration at home if some money that she had from Spain helped a little to corrupt a Parliament that was the only advantage that she made by it and thus if Mr. Varillas's Panegyrick is not better raised in its other parts than in this it will be an Original but I doubt it will not add much lustre to that Monarch nor draw the recompences on the Author to which he may perhaps pretend And if the Kings Parchment and Wax which he says procured an Obedience from two Millions of persons that were prepossessed against it by the most powerful of all considerations which is that of Religion had not been executed by Dragoons in so terrible a manner it is probable that Edict would have had as little effect upon the Consciences of the Protestants as it seems the Edict of Nantes had upon the King 's tho he had so often promised to maintain it and had once sworn it I would not willingly touch such a Subject but such Indecent Flattery raises an Indignation not easily governed Mr. Varillas in his Preface to his third Volum mentions no Author with relation to English Affairs except the Archbishop of Raguse who as he says writ the Life of Card. Pool I do not pretend to deny that there is any such Author only I very much doubt it for I never heard of it in England and I was so well pleased with the discoveries that I made relating to that Cardinal that I took all the pains I could to be well informed of all that had writ of him so I conclude that there is nothing extraordinary in that Life otherwise it would have made some noise in England and it does not appear credible that a Dalmatian Bishop could have any particular knowledge of our Affairs and if the particulars related in Mr. Varillas's 14. Book are all that he drew out of that life it seems the Archbishop of Raguse has been more acquainted with Swedish than English Affairs for there is not one word relating to England in all that Book and as little of the Cardinal But Mr. Varillas has shewed himself more conspicuously in the Preface to his fourth Tome he pretends to have made great use of P. Martys Works in his 17. Book but he gives us a very good proof that he never so much as opened them he tells us that P. Martyr delivered his Common-places at Oxford where he was the Kings Professor and that one Masson printed them at London some years after his death he tells us that an ambition of being preferred to Melancton had engaged him to that work in which he adds that if he is to be preferred to Melancton for subtilty he is Inferiour to him in all other things upon which he runs out to let his Reader see how well he is acquainted both with P. Martyrs Character and History All men besides Mr. Varillas take at least some care of their Prefaces because they are read by many who often judge of Books and which is more sensible they buy them or throw them by as they are writ Now since Mr. Varillas reproaches me with my Ignorance of Books I will make bold to tell him that the Apprentices to whom he sends me for Instruction could have told him that P. Martyr never writ any such Book of Common Places but that after his death Mr. Masson drew a great Collection out of all his Writings of passages that he put in the Method of Common Places so that tho all that Book that goes by the name of P. Martyrs Common Places is indeed his yet he never designed nor dictated any such Work and this Mr. Masson has told so copiously in his Preface that I have thought it necessary to set down his own words Ergo quemadmodum in amplissima domo rebus omnibus instructissima non omnia in acervum unum indistincta cumulantur sed suis quaeque locis distributa seponuntur ut in usus necessarios proferri possint ita in tantis opibus quas sedulus ille Dei Oeconomus
Heaven which reigned among them and of the discoveries made of the Instruments of coyning in several Houses and of the False Relicks and the Impostures discovered in some Images of which the Eyes and Mouth were made to move by secret Springs for these things that were laid open in the publickest parts of the Nation disposed men to bear with the dissolution which perhaps would not have been otherwise so easily brought about 4. Nor does our Author know that three years before the general dissolution all the small Monasteries were dissolved In short the great discoveries I had made of the progress of this matter might have engaged a man even of an ordinary degree of carelesness to have read what I had writ concerning it But Mr. Varillas must be an Original in every thing XIX He says This Petition was no sooner read in Parliament than on the 28. of April 1539. they appointed that all the Monasteries in England should be set open and that their Lands should be appropriated to the King for the encrease of his Revenue upon this all was seised on and there was so much wealth found among them that out of the Church of Thomas Becket alone there were six Cart load of Plate and other things carried away and for such of the Religious Persons as would not quit their Profession nor their Lands they proceeded against those who were of a meaner rank as guilty of a Contempt of an Act of Parliament and those that were more considered were attainted of Treason because some Libels that had been writ upon the Kings divorce were found among their Papers in which the Kings Amours were painted to the life for these they were accused as having not only concealed them but preserved them to posterity and by a new subtilty the Crime of lese Majesty was added to that of High Treason and here he comes over again with that of King Edward's being cut out of his Mothers belly as if the frequent repeating of Falsehoods would gain them the more credit 1. Dates are unhappy things for Mr. Varillas for this Act did not pass before the 28. of Iune 2. This Act did only confirm what was already done but did not at all threaten any that would not surrender 3. There were eighteen Abbots present when the Act was first read and seventeen when it passed in the House of Lords and yet none of them opposed it 4. There was no petition read in either House of Parliament that had been made by the Monks for this Act neither dissolved nor opened any Monasteries but only confirmed the Kings Title upon their Surrenders 5. His Author Sanders had raised up Two Chests of the Plate that belonged to Beckets Shrine to Twenty six Cart Load but it seems Mr. Varillas thought this a little too Extravagant so that he reduces it to a modester number of six but yet he should stick to his Author And here I must call to mind a passage of our Author's that had escaped me concerning Thomas Beckets Bones being raised and burnt as if the King had reviewed his Process and by a formal Sentence degraded him of his Saintship whereas this matter passed without any sort of Ceremony Becket did things that were of another nature than all that has been lately done in the business of the Regale he was not content to disobey but thundred against the King and the Clergy and the whole Nation that would not concur with him in his Violences which were such that at this day they would not pass unpunished even in Spain it self and tho he was killed without any Order of the King 's it is known not only what Pennance the King was forced to do but what a Superstition for his Memory there followed upon his Canonisation there were Two Holy Days assigned him there was a Iubily every fifty year with Plenary Indulgences to all who visited his Tomb which brought sometimes an hundred thousand persons together and his Altar was so much more valued than either Christ's or the Virgins that by the old accounts yet extant it appears that some years there were no Offerings at all made at Christ's Altar and tho there were indeed some made at the Virgin 's Altar yet those of Thomas Becket's made a sum about twenty times more So it was no wonder if King Henry put an end to this Superstition and therefore he ordered the Shrine to be broken and the Bones to be buried as our Authors say positively tho the Italians say they were burned for so it is specified in the Bull and indeed there had been no great fault if they had been burnt 6. No man could be punished for refusing to surrender for the Act of Parliament required none to do it 7. Those who were attainted of Treason had been either in the Rebellion or had sent their Plate to the Rebels 8. Our Author shews how well he understands our Law when he pretends to make a difference between High Treason and the Crime of lese Majesty for they are one and the same thing we do not use to express the highest sort of Crimes against the State by the term of Lese Majesty but only by that of High Treason 9. Those Libels of which he speaks were only found among the Carthusians and tho some of that Order were put to death upon other accounts yet these Libels were only made use of to frighten them to surrender up their House sure here are faults enough for one Paragraph XX. He gives us a long prospect of what Cromwel thought on and of what he should have thought on both being alike true and equally judicious then he goes on to tell us the Interests of the Duke of Cleves and of his Sister's Qualities and to shew us how well he was informed of her greatest Secrets he sayes that she was fit for Marriage before she was twelve year old but that tho she had been courted by many Princes her Brother was resolved to reserve her for such an Alliance as might protect him against the House of Austria She was a Lutheran which did not please Henry yet at last the Marriage was agreed on and She came to England and was married the third of Ianuary 1540. 1. She had been contracted to Prince of Lorraine and tho this was really of no force in Law yet it was afterwards pretended to dissolve her Marriage with Henry as appears by the Sentence So much is our Author a stranger to her Story tho he would make us fancy that he had Memoirs concerning her from her Chamber-maids since he tells us when she was fit for Marriage 2. I have often warned our Author to avoid the giving of Dates for he is unhappy in them all this Marriage was made the 6. of Ianuary yet it is much for him to have hit the Moneth right for he is not always so exact XXI He says The King was so well pleased with this Match that immediately upon it
is as exactly writ as the former for 1. Northumberland had no old Troops and he marched from London with 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot such as could be brought together of the sudden 2. Iean Gray was never Crowned she was only proclaimed Queen 3. Northumberland never marched back to London but seeing the Queen's forces encrease and that none came in to him he came into Cambridge and proclaimed Queen Mary 4. It was not so much the City of London as the whole Privy Council that declared for Queen Mary 5. There was no Fleet then to change sides for Mr. Varillas knowing nothing of the past Age and only hearing that at present the English Fleet is the greatest in the world he has this ever in his head and fancies that it was so at all times 6. Nothumberland did not render himself but was apprehended as a Criminal by the Earl of Arundel who was sent to seise on him LXX He tells us that Northumberland was presently put in Irons but he retained so great a presence of Spirit when he came to be examined before the Council that Mr. Varillas thought fit to set this out with all the Pomp that his Sublime could furnish he puts Harangues in his mouth by which he confounded the Privy Councillours among whom he names the Earl of Chieresberi but his crimes being so notorious he with his four Sons were condemned to dye as Traitors The Queen pardoned three but was inexorable to the fourth and when Northumberland saw there was no hope of life he declared that he had been only a Calvinist out of Interest and expressed a great detestation of that Religion and of thâ— Preachers of it and suffered with a constancy that was admired by 〈◊〉 that saw it those who suffered with him imitating his conversion this had a great effect on peoples spirits 1. Men of the Duke of Northumberlands quality are never put in Irons in England 2. He shewed so little courage that he threw himself at the Earl of Arundel's feet abjectly to beg his Favour 3. Our Author confounds his being brought to his Tryal before a Lord Steward and the Peers of England with an Examination before the Council and his making the Council condemn him shews that he does not know the commonest points of form in the Government of England 4. All this Constancy and arguing that he puts in Northumberlands mouth is taken from two points in Law that he proposed to the Peers that were his Judges The one was whether a man acting by Order of Council and by Warrants under the Great Seal could be esteemed a Criminal the other was whether one that had acted so could be judged by Peers that had given him those Orders and that were as guilty as himself 5. Tho these were points in Law that 〈◊〉 have some colour in them yet they were far from confounding any for a Council or a Great Seal flowing from an Vsurper is nothing so this Authority could not justify him and as for those who were as guilty as himself and yet were now his Iudges they were not convicted of the guilt and no Peer can be â—et aâ—ide in a Tryal upon general surmises how true soever they may be 6. I confess it was some time before I could find out who this Earl of Chieresberi was At last I saw it must be Shrewsbury who should have been a little better known to Mr. Varillus unless he has read the French Story as carelesly as he has done the English for the Illustrious Ancestors of that Family left such marks of their valour behind them in France that one should think that Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury should be the Family of all England in which a French Writer should be the least apt to mistake And this confirms me in my opinion that Mr. Varillas has never read History 7. There were none of Northumberlands Sons tryed at that time but his eldest Son the Earl of Warwick for he had been called by writ to the House of Lords and so was to be tried as a Peer but the rest were Commoners and were tryed some moneths after this 8. He makes Queen Mary less merciful than she was for it was believed she would have pardoned both Iean of Suffolk and her Husband if upon the Rebellion that was raised six moneths after this it had not been then thought necessary to take to severer Councils 9. It was believed at that time that Northumberland declared himself a Roman Catholick in hope to save his life by the means 10. His constancy was not very extraordinary for there passed some severe expostulations between Sr. Iohn Gates and him who as they had been complices in the Rebellion so now being brought to suffer together they died reproaching one another 11. It does not appear that any other of those who suffered changed their Religion Nor 12. Is it likely that such a Declaration of men who were so odious to the Nation and who in the making of it did likewise shew that they had made a small account of Religion could have any great effect on those who saw it LXXI Mr. Varillas will never give over his bold Quotations for here he tells us that Charles the fifth advised Queen Mary not to proceed so hastily in the change of Religion and that he believed She would find before long that it would not be safe to her to break her promise And to confirm this he cites on the margin Charles the fifths Letters to Q. Mary â— This would make one that does not know the man fancy that there was some Register or Collection of those Letters which he had seen I have indeed seen those Letters for the Originals of them are extant and I shewed them once to the Spanish Ambassadour at London Don Pedro de Ronquillas who did me the honour to desire me to accompany him to the Cotton Library where I not only shewed him these Letters but as many of the other Original Papers out of which I had drawn my History as could be examined at one time but for Charles the fifths Letters they are so little legible and the Queen of Hungary's hand is so little better than his that I could not copy them out nor print them some little hints I took from them but that was all 2. It seems Mr. Varillas was not much concerned in Queen Mary's breaking her word for in those Letters that he makes up for Charles all that he makes him set before her is the danger of it and that she could not do it long safe Impunement if she had a vast Army in any strong places a great Fleet and a huge Revenue then the breaking of her word would have troubled Mr. Varillas so little that it would not have hindred him from making her Panegyrick tho the violation of her Faith was so much the more scandalous that those to whom she gave it had setled her upon her Throne and perhaps he will find somewhat parallel