all this very much excited to it by Dr. Allens Book which saith he teacheth that Princes Excommunicate for heresie are to be deprived of their Kingdoms and Lives All which Parry confessed produced the Letter from the Pope written by Cardinal Como and was executed in March 1584 and the Pope soon after in April was called to account in another world Immediately before this in Thuanus precedes the relation of the murther of the Prince of Aurang 10. Jul. by Bal. Gerard confirmed in his resolution by a Jesuite at Treves promising him if he dyed for it he should be happy and be put in the number of Martyrs and also encouraged to it by a Franciscan at Tourney and three other Jesuites at Treves 31. To Gregory succeeded as well in his practises as in that See Sixtus v. chosen Pope the twenty fourth of the same moneth of April and about this time John Savage into whose head the Doctrines that it is meritorious to Kill Excommunicated Princes and Martyrdom to die for so doing being by the Giffords and Hodgeson priests throughly inculcated made a vow to kill the Queen And soon after the same resolution is taken up by Antony Babington a proper young gentleman of a good family upon the same principles in like manner inculcated and somewhat enforced with other hopes if he escaped the danger by Ballard a Jesuite who incited him to it as not only Just and Holy in it self but moreover Honourable and Profitable to him if he should overcome the difficulty For what could be more Just and Holy than with the hazard of his Life to vindicate his Countrey and the Cause of Religion without which Life it self ought to be nothing esteemed of Elizabeth was now long since by the Lawful Successor of Peter cast out of the Communion of the Church from that time she doth not reign in England but by a usurped Power contrary to the Laws exercise a cruel Tyranny against the true Worshippers of God Whoever should kill her doth no more than he that should slay a profane Heathen or some damned accursed creature he should be free from all sin either against God or Man yea would merit a Crown of Glory and if he survived the enterprise should doubtless obtain a great reward under the notion of Reward not obscurely insinuating his marriage with the Queen of Scots Thus is this Jesuites discourse with him represented by the Excellent Thuanus who there informs us that this business was transacted with the Spanish Ambassadour Mendoza and was to have been seconded by a forrein Army and Paget a gentleman of a Noble family sent into Spain about it And at last all things being agreed on both at home and abroad the day appointed for the perpetrating the business is S. Bartholomews day memorable for the Parisian Massacre fourteen years since and for that reason purposely made choice of But before the day came the business being detected Ballard and Babington and several other of the Conspirators were apprehended whereof some had sworn to be the Executioners of the Queens murther and among them Savage now again swore it and others were to be of the party which the while was to rescue the Queen of Scots and upon their own Confessions and Letters intercepted were Convicted Condemned and Executed And in this Conspiracy was a project of making an Association under pretense of fear of the Puritans These were executed but the twentieth of September and in January following was the French Ambassadour l' Aubaspinaeus a man wholly devoted to the Guisian Faction and Lieger here projecting the same business Camb. an 1.87 and to that purpose treated with William Stafford a Gentleman of a Noble Family to kill the Queen at first more covertly but afterward more openly by his Secretary who promised him great Honours a huge summ of Money great Favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Catholicks Stafford refused it himself but commended to him one Moody and in Consultation how to do it Moody proposes to lay a bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed-chamber and secretly give fire to it But this being discovered by Stafford the Secretary thinking to be gone into France was intercepted and upon his examination confessed the whole matter 32. Hitherto had the Actors and Abettors of most of these Conspiracies to put the better Colour upon their unjustifiable attempts besides the Cause of Religion pretended also the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England Camb. an 1586 who having been discovered to be privy to most of the former and found guilty of that of Babington was therefore condemned and now this being found to have been designed upon the same pretense Queen Elizabeth by great importunity of the Parliament who had confirmed the Sentence was prevailed with to sign a Warrant for the Execution whereupon she was beheaded the eighth of February following And here we must not omit a Notable Artifice of the Jesuites who being at last out of hope of Restoring their Religion by Her or Her Son Camb. an 86 began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imployed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Writer to draw off the Gentry from Her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into those dangerous Counsels which brought Her to Her end and at the same time least the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirring Them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarre and Conde And agreeable hereunto was the discovery of that for which she was condemned viz. by Gilbert Gifford a Priest then sent over into England to immind Savage of his Vow and to be the Letter-carrier between the Queen of Scots and the Confederates who presently goes and offers his Service to the Secretary Walsingham to discover them and that forsooth out of Love to his Prince and Countrey although he had not long before been one of those who provoked Savage to his vow to kill her and accordingly he first conveyes them to Walsingham by whom they are opened transcribed and carefully sealed up again and returned to Gifford who then conveys them to the Queen of Scots Babington or who ever else they are directed to which is so plain a prosecution of the same design that it is a wonder that Camden should be so much at a loss to find out the mystery of this undertaking of the Priest More might be observed to manifest this Juggle if it were necessary to the present business 33. The Design of the Pope and Spaniard to Invade England had been now long since perceived here not so much by printed books which were designed only to work upon the vulgar and their own party as by the secret Letters of Morton and others which were intercepted and Chringhtow the Scotch Jesuit's papers miraculously as himself acknowledged when by him torn and thrown into the Sea blown back into the Ship
am very willing to think charitably of many of our English Romanists yet I see not how they can be excused who separate from the Church of England which is and ought to be their own Church so long as it continues a member of the Church of Christ which an unjust excommunication by an apostate Church cannot hinder to joyn with such a Faction Nor do I see how they can be excused who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance which I am very confident not a man of the ancient Christians would have refused and it is hard not to think that because they received not the love of the truth offered to them that for this cause God hath sent them strong delusions that they should believe a lie c. But notwithstanding that some who for the reason mentioned continue in that communion may by the mercy and grace of God escape these delusions yet it is apparent that these are the Doctrines of the Pope the Church and Court of Rome and of the Jesuites and the rest are generally so seasoned and levened with such conceits of the Pope's authority as are easily improved into these when ever occasion is offered especially if any thing of private interest intervene as is very observable in the History of France though they of all Papists are least inclined to favour the Papal Usurpations where scarce a City unless restrained by the powerful presence of some of the loyal Nobility or inhabited most by Protestants but did or was ready to revolt to the League at every occasion 11. And here again if we take for our Principles two more of Bellarmine's Notes of the true Church viz. * C. 11. Sanctity of Doctrine containing nothing false as to the Doctrine of Faith nothing unjust as to the Doctrine of Manners and †C. 9. Agreement in Doctrine with the ancient Church we may hence also conclude whether this Church of Rome hath continued a true and faithful Church of Christ or hath indeed made that defection which was foretold should succeed the dissolution of the Roman Empire as the Christians in all ages have unanimously and universally understood that which should be taken away and become the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth which is expresly said of the mystical Babylon the great City which then reigned over the Kings of the Earth the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints whether there reigneth not that man of sin the son of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God above all nominal Gods as Kings and Emperors or that is worshipped or reverenced so that he as God Cum super Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem dum se Donatus super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat metas ut se ut Deum non hominem aestimaret c. Optatus l. 3. which with more reason may be said of the Pope sitteth in the Temple the Church of God though adulterous and apostate Church shewing himself that he is a God above all earthly Gods as Kings and Emperors and the immediate Vicar of the true God For the Doctrine of the Primitive and Ancient Church how contrary that is to these Principles and Practices every one may see in the sacred Scriptures and it is almost vulgarly known from the writings of the ancient Christians commonly cited as to obedience to temporal Princes and Magistrates But be this never so evident I know it will be hard to perswade one who hath been trained up in the Popish Principles to believe it Not only the prejudice of Education but more particularly the opinion of the Perseverance and Infallibility of the Church which above all things from their tender years is deeply rooted in their minds will be a great obstacle and stumbling block in their way But let them take heed that a too particular application of a general promise do not deceive them The Jews had as express promises as any they can pretend and were as zealous as they are now and yet were deceived with lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as they do now the Church the holy Catholick Apostolick Roman Church 12. Here also such Princes as having escaped these corruptions will again subject their necks to the Roman yoak may see what a snare they involve themselves in and what a slavery they must lie under to the Papal Tyranny how dangerous it is to have their peoples minds infected with these Principles and their consciences directed by such Guides And here King James's Defence of the Right of Kings sub fin if there be any truth in that speech of Cardinal Perron That so long as the Kings of France have kept good terms of concord with the Popes they have been the more prosperous and on the contrary when they have jarred with the Holy See they have been infested with boisterous storms and tempests here I say if this be true they may perceive the true reason of it viz. in the one case they were free from the molestation of the Popes and their Emissaries and in the other they were infested by them But how little truth there is in that assertion may partly appear by what hath here been written and is also proved by our late learned King James in his solid confutation of it by instances not only in France but other Countries also And in England who hath been more prosperous and succesful than she who wholly cast off the Pope's authority and would not be courted to so much as to admit his Legate and who more unhappy than they who have too much complyed with them 13. Lastly we must here take notice of that which cannot but administer matter of grief to all true and cordial Christians and that is the scandal of these Principles and Practices the occasion which thereby is given to those who are not well acquainted with the Doctrines and Practices of the ancient genuine Christians nor have well considered the great evidences of the truth and excellence of the Christian Religion to suspect it to be no other than what they apprehend it to be in the lives and actions of such spurious professors of it viz. a meer Imposture with great subtilty and artifice managed for secular ends and the injury which thereby is done to the holy Martyrs when we shall see Rebels seditious Traytors and Parricides honoured and magnified as Martyrs and that not by the vulgar only but by their Popes themselves and Cardinals by their learned Writers in printed Books and Preachers from their Pulpits nay when we shall see Relations in printed Books and representations by printed Cuts and Pictures of most horrible persecutions and martyrdoms pretended to be suffered where in truth was no such matter what a tentation may this give to weak unlearned or prejudiced minds to suspect that the ancient holy Martyrs either suffered not at all or if
immediately put into Execution These saith he and the like Preparations may be made c. But what are these Why in general 1. Causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and continually keeping up the same 2. Sowing the seeds of a continual war betwixt England and Scotland 3. Rouzing up and encouraging to action the Spirits of the English Catholicks 4. Dealing with the chief of the Irish Nobility to new model Ireland as soon as they hear of the Queen's death For the accomplishing of all which he hath several subservient means Chap. 25. But for the like what they may be is lest to the Readers judgement to conceive Only it may be noted that he who would not scruple to cause and keep up Dissâ—ntions to sow the seeds of a continual war to excite Rebellions among us would hardly have scrupled at such a project as by one blow would have put us quite out of our pain It would be too long to note all the Projects of private men to this purpose which were on foot at that time but this of Campanella for the promotion of the Interest and designs of the King of Spain is the more pertinent and observable because our conspirators had their Negotiations with him their Leger there and built their greatest hopes upon his assistance at the same time 10. But there is an other particular as to this circumstance of Time very considerable which is intimated to us in those words of Campanella For as we may easily perceive many heads at work at this time many projects on foot contemporary in the contrivance so do they all agree in the Time designed for Execution So Campanella's Preparations so soon as ever Queen Elizabeth is dead are immediately to be put in Execution So Pope Clements Bulls had respect to the same time Quandocunque contingeret miseram illam foeminam ex hac vita excedere Proceed Q. 4. And the Reason of all this is very apparent Pag. 158 For now the King of Scots as Campanella observes hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his neighborhood to it but also because of his Right of Succession And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Antient and Continual Rivals the Scots a thing very grievous no doubt both to Rome Spain and Flanders and therefore no wonder if all beat their brains to prevent so great a mischief For whereas England alone Pag. 158 notwithstanding in a manner continually at wars with their ancient and continual Rivals Pag. 155 appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low Countries and against the most Christian King in France assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces what will Great Britain do when not only the occasion of those wars shall cease but both Nations be united under one and the same King No question but the forethoughts of this set wiser heads on work than Catesbys or any other of those unhappy Gentlemen who are vainly pretended to have been trapan'd by Cecil and something no doubt was resolved upon the time drawing on and the Queen very old And this might be the reason of their long expectation that change of State would change Religion also Speed sect 37. And if we consider the Principles and practises of these men and what before had been attempted against the late Queen not only by open Hostility as becomes Kings and States where they have just cause but also by base secret conspiracies and treacheries against her person instigated and somented as well by other Princes and by their Embassadors even whilst Legers here as Mendoza and Labespineus as by the Pope we can hardly think any thing so base or barbarous that they were not like to attempt upon this occasion And if we again consider how all their former endeavours whether more justifyable before men as by open hostility or more base and unworthy not only by promoting rebellions but also by poison assasination had hither to been ineffectual and defeated we may not unreasonably think that they might at last arrive at some such project as this as their last refuge and most effectual and infallible means to accomplish at last their so long studied designs And lastly that it really was so the punctual observance both of Campanella's preparations by indeavouring to alienate affections and raise jealousies between the English and Scots and other differences and dissentions among us and stirring up the spirits of the English Catholicks c. which were practised immediately upon the Queens death and the Kings coming to the Crown of England and have ever since been prosecuted too long here to be related and also of Del Rio's Instance and Doctrine of Concealing Confessions and that by Equivocation even in examination upon Oath so well fitted to this purpose and as well and exactly followed and prosecuted may reasonably incline us to believe This circumstance of the time designed for the Execution of this Plot is also visible in Catesby's Reasonings see the Hist pag. 4.5 which he might well learn from the same Tutors from whom he learnt the project of the Plot it self for if to take off King James alone unless also the Prince the Duke and moreover the Peers and whole Parliament would not serve their turn much less would it have served to have taken off Queen Elizabeth now ready to die of her self though with her Parliament while the King together with the addition of another Nation to this was ready to succeed her 11. And thus we see the business is very plain as to the time so long before resolved on in all their Councels both at Rome and Spain It now remains to consider how the attempt in point of Time did answer this resolution The Queen deceased the 24 of March 1602. the next day was King James proclaimed who came to Barwick 6. April and to Lond. 7. May following Anno 1603. and was Crowned July after The Parliament began 19. March following and continued till 7. July 1604. Then was prorogued till 7. Feb. and then again till 5. Octob. 1605. and then at last till the fatal day 5. Novemb. following when this unhappy Plot was happily discovered From whence we again run it counter to its Original thus 11. Decemb. 1604 was the Mine begun †Fawkes Confes and in May preceding did the Conspirators actually engage in the design under an Oath of Secrecy * Proceedings R. 4. The Lent before Catesby imparted the design to Thomas Winter †Winters Confes and in September before that which was Anno 1603. to * Proceedings R. 2. Percy which was before the Parliament began and that being the time designed it is a very fair evidence to our purpose that find it on foot at that very time which was by all those Councels so long before designed and before this
ore Such was also that lamentable attempt of Tresham upon his death-bed to excuse Garnet wherein he was disproved by the Confessions both of Mrs Vaux Garnets intimite and of Garnet himself To these may be added Their Design to have father'd the enterprise upon the Puritans and since Their impudent groundless Imputation of the Original of it to Cecil which makes the relation of that design more credible and that again makes this imputation more apparently void of Credit 19. Now of these Observations of their Secrecy and Practise we may reasonably make this Vse 1. To manifest the validity and Sufficiency of these and such like Arguments and Proofs from Circumstances and by way of Inducement in this case For where such Works of Darkness as to the main substance of them are plainly and sully proved and as plainly and evidently proved to have been managed with so much Secrecy and Practise we cannot reasonably expect greater Proof and Evidence of any Circumstance belonging to them than so plain a concurrence and agreement of all other Circumstances with it 2. To manifest the Insufficiency of what ever should be urged from their Confessions against us For since they did not only stifly deny plain truths but also must impudently affirm manifest falshoods especially where it was thought necessary for excusing any of the Society what ever shall be alledged from their speeches for that purpose may reasonably be suspected to have been fained and devised for that end and deserves no credit at all 3. To Answer the Objection that might be made and Correct the Mistake that hath been committed concerning the first Author and Original of the Plot as if it was at first of Catesby's Contrivance and not till their Despair of Assistance from Spain upon their last Negotiation there 20. To which it might be Answered from their Practise to excuse their Complices especially the Jesuits that they attributed the Contrivance to Catesby because he being dead could accuse no other and assigned That Time as being a good probable Occasion of it But 2. It may be Answered perhaps more satisfactorily and fully From their Secrecy and from Catesby's own words that some might be willing to be known to him who would not be known to the rest to be privy and the rather because this was an old policy formerly practised in order to the Spanish Invasion which was after attempted in 88. when many were so cunningly engaged that they knew not of and so were not able to accuse any but the person that ingaged them as Sir Francis Bacon in his Observations upon the Libel published 1592. and in his Collection of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth shews from a Letter of one of their Principal Heads which was intercepted and not only practised before but also repeated immediatly after this Plot when Five had severally undertaken the Earl of Salisbury's death and vowed the performance of it and yet it was so ordered that none of those Five knew who the other Four were for the better preventing the discovery of the rest if any one by attempting and not performing should be apprehended from hence it may well be answered That it is very probable that Winter and Fawkes from whose Confessions this mistake hath arisen and the Objection may be made and most of the other Conspirators did indeed know of no other Author of the Contrivance but Catesby And yet it may very well be that He received it from others the first Contrivers of it either immediately or mediately either the full Project expresly with the Reasons mentioned by Thuanus under some Oath of Secrecy or Engagement not to discover from whom he received it or at least some such Hints and Intimations of it as were sufficient to set on work a mind so active and well disposed to improve the same to the utmost and without any such engagement he might be apt enough to take the Invention upon himself not only out of Devotion to the Society whose reputation he might thereby the better secure in case it should miscarry but even out of an Ambition to be reputed the Author of so Glorious an Enterprise And that He should be intrusted with so Great a Secret and the Chief visible Management of it rather than any of the rest was very likely 1. Because he and his Family had been addicted and devoted to the Jesuits from their very first coming into England and were harbourers of Campian who with his Comrade Parsons the two first and principal who were designed and employed for that Service came into England Anno 1580. where he was apprehended 22. July in the year next ensuing as we are informed by Sanders 3. de Schismate Anglicano From which time it is not unlikely that he held correspondence with F. Parsons who soon after returned to Rome and continued there Rector of the English Colledge till some years after the discovery of this plot he was shamefully turned out of Rome by Mounsieur Bethunes the French Embassadour and Order from the King of France being discovered to plot a new treason against his Majesty to introduce the Duke of Parma as we are told by a Romanist But 2. this was not all why Catesby was preferred before the rest in this service for in this respect Tresham might perhaps have claimed that honor as well as he as we may see in Sanders but Catesby had another more special qualification as being more Cautious and Cunning as we may observe in Thuanus 21. But because so plausible a Pretense for the Occasion of these desperate resolutions at that time as the King of Spain's then deserting of the Conspirators upon his Treaty of Peace with England may seem to have some weight in it though it must be noted that this seemes rather to have been the Conjecture of the Historians and others than that any such thing was expresly alledged by the Conspirators for ought appears in the Printed Confessions of Fawkes and Winter yet that we may leave no scruple and make it further appear that we have not only the concurrence of all Circumstances to confirm our belief of the truth of what hath been said but have also sufficient matter and ground for Answer to all Objections we shall return such Answer though touch'd before as may both sufficiently solve this doubt and be of some use to other purpose And therefore it must be remembred 1. That all the neighbouring Popish Princes especially France Spain and the Archdukes of Austria toward the latter end of the Queens Reign were not a little concerned upon Fear of what Consequence the Vnion of the three Kingdoms viz. of Scotland with England and Ireland might prove in time as is not only apparent in it self but intimated to us by the Papists themselves in their Supplication to King James before the discovery of this plot and thereupon bent all their Consultations and used all Means to prevent or hinder it as well after the Kings coming in as
year sends out his Sentence of Anathema against her Wherein he first sets out his own Title and Authority Sanders 3. De Schis Angl. pag. 368. in these words He that reigneth on High to whom is given all Power in Heaven and Earth hath committed the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to One Alone on Earth to wit to the Prince of the Apostles Peter and to Peters Successor the Bishop of Rome to be governed in Plenitude of Power c. Next he acquaints us with his own great care and endeavours for the discharge of this great trust then draws up a particular charge of several crimes and misdemeanors against Elizabeth pretended Queen of England whom he calls the Servant or Slave of wickedness Flagitiorum Serva And therefore saith he Supported with his Authority who was pleased to place Vs though unable for so great a burthen in this Supreme Throne of Justice out of the Plenitude of Our Apostolical Power We do Declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being a Heretick and Favourer of Hereticks and her Adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the Sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the unity of Christ's Body and Her to be Deprived of her pretended Right to the Kingdom aforesaid and of All Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever and also the Nobles Subjects and People of the said Kingdoms and All others who have in any sort Sworn unto her to be for ever Absolved from the same Oath and from All manner of Duty of Dominion Fidelity and Obedience As we do by Authority of these presents Absolve Them and Deprive the same Elizabeth of her â—â—tended Right to the Kingdom and of all other things abovesai◠〈◊〉 we Command and Interdict All and Every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they Presume not to Obey Her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws Those who shall do otherwise we Innodate in the like Sentence of Anathema This was sent over and toward the end of May affixed upon the Bishop of London's Palace Gates and Copies of it to be dispersed through out England sent to Bidolph Catena who having by the Popes Order distributed 150000. Crowns Aurea among the Confederates and all things here being again made ready against the Queen is sent to acquaint the Pope with their preparations which he approving presently sends him to the King of Spain promising that if need be himself will go to their Assistance and will pawn All the Goods of the Apostolick See the Chalices Crucifixes and Sacred Vestments Hereupon the Spaniard presently gives express Command that Vitellius with an Army shall Invade England and the Pope prepares his money in the Low-Countries But it pleased God that a messenger coming over with Letters to the Queen of Scots the Spanish Ambassadour Norfolk and others being intercepted the whole business is discovered Norfolk and others committed and all their Preparations and Hopes disappointed Which says Catena the Pope took sadly and the Spaniard condoled who said before Cardinal Alexandrino the Popes Nephew not long before sent to him from the Pope that no Conspiracy was ever more advisedly undertaken nor with greater unanimity and constancy concealed Which in so long time was revealed by none of the confederates and that the forces might easily have been transported from the Low-Countries in the space of twenty four hours which might have suprised the Queen and the City of London restored Religion and setled the Queen of Scots in her Throne especially when as Th. Stucley an English fugitive had taken upon him at the same time with 3000. Spanish Souldiers to reduce all Ireland to the Obedience of Spain and with one or two scouting Ships to fire the English Navy The Duke of Norfolk was brought to his Tryal the 16. of January following and Condemned and the 2. of June after beheaded The Pope in the mean time the first of May being called to his tryal and to give an account for these things before a far other Supreme Throne of Justice than what he pretended himself here placed in 27. Before we leave this Pope Pius v. we may take notice of two notable horrid exploits about his time practised in our neighbour Countries The first in Scotland the murther of the Lord Darby King James his father in the first year of his Papacy and the house wherein he was murthered at the same time blown up with Gun-powder in relation to which Thuanus tells us Ad haec Pontificis ut passim jactabatur Caroli Lotaringi Cardinalis Literis incitabantur nam cum per eum a Pontifice petiissent pecuniam ad instaurandam majorum religionem responsum fuerat frustra ipsos conari nisi sublatis iis per quos stabat ne res exitum sortiretur c. lib. 40. ad finem Anni 1566. The other in France that barbarous Massacre at Paris which though not executed till near two moneths after this Popes death yet it is observable that Cicarella notes in his life Ad Regem Galliarum ejusque Ministros optima misit documenta ad eosdem Hereticos Regno illo exturbandos and what these documenta were we may the better guess if we take notice of the temper and employments of this man a most severe austere man who had with so much rigor exercised the business of the Inquisition wherein he was imployed as made many dread his severity when he was chosen Pope And the same Authour notes his irreconciliabile in Hereticos odium though he looks upon it as matter of Commendation But how exceeding mad he was against them condemning and burning even for familiarity with Sectaries or those that were suspected such may be seen at large in the Noble Author de Thou lib. 39. pr. And in both these exploits is observable the Care that was taken to cast the Odium of the fact upon others But to return to our own story 28. After the death of this man the thirteenth of the same moneth was Gregory XIII chosen Pope And although with their late disappointment their party also in England was much broken and disabled for the future the chief heads being taken off yet was it not long before this Pope was also engaged in the same Combination Which was first begun between him and Don John of Austria base brother to the King of Spain and by him about that time appointed Governour of the Low-Countries and in pursuance thereof the Pope wrote to the King of Spain But Don John's Exploits were prevented by his own death before ever he could put them in practice Yet the like Consultations were soon resumed by the Pope and the King himself 〈◊〉 lib. 65. Camd. hoc An. and now England and Ireland both are to be invaded together and Th. Stucley whom the Pope had honoured with the Title of Marquess Earl Viscount and Baron of several eminent places in Ireland is to command the forces thither the Pope providing
proved dangerous to the Holy See But he made them amends for it afterward though without any expense of his Treasure for he sent out his Excommunication against the King of France himself although a man of an irreconcilable hatred against the Protestants and who had been a promoter of the Parisian Massacre unless within ten days he should set at liberty the Cardinal Bourbon whom the Rebels desired to make head of their party This was published in May and the 1. of August after was the King murthered by James Clement a Jacobin who was thus resolved in the Case by the * F. Edm. Burgoin who was afterwards excuted for it drawn in pieces by four horses his quarters burned his ashes scattered in the wind Danita l. 10. p. 857. Prior of his Covent that if he undertook it not out of hatred or desire of private revenge but inflamed with the love of God for Religion and the good of his Country he might not only do it with a safe Conscience but should merit much before God and without doubt if he should die in the act his soul would ascend to the Quires of the Blessed and as some say he was likewise encouraged by F. Commelet and other Jesuites This fact of Clement was highly extolled in France both in Sermons and Printed books and the Leaguers had that opinion of his Martyrdom for he was presently killed in the place and afterward pulled to pieces and his body burned that they came to the place and scraped up the very dust and earth whereon any of his blood lighted as Sacred Relicks and put it into a Vessel in which they came intending to carry it to Paris and there erect a Monument of his Martyrdom ad adorationem but by a vehement wind which suddenly arose both vessel and passengers were all drowned not one escaping and the relicks cast away Nor was the fact less extolled at Rome even by the Pope himself in a Premeditated Speech in the Consistory wherein he not only preferred that wicked wretch before Eleazar and Judith but most impiously and blasphemously compared his fact for the greatness and admirableness of it to the Mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The King had caused the Duke of Guise who was head of the Rebels to be slain and this was one main matter which incensed the Pope against him Thu. l. 94. For the Pope had agreed with Guise in secret to marry his Niece to the Prince of Jonvil Guise his son and heir and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and compel him by the Popes authority to renounce his right to the Kingdom and to set up Guise the father King in his place But how zealous and jealous he was for the Dignity and Authority of the Holy See is worth our further notice in an instance related by a good Catholick the learned Civil Lawyer William Barclay in his book De Potestate Papae dedicated to Pope Clement VIII None of all the writers of the Popes part saith he hath either more diligâ—ntly collected or more ingeniously proposed or more smartly and subtilely concluded their reasons and arguments for the Popes Authority than the Eminent Divine Bellarmine who although he attributed as much as with honesty he could and indeed more than he ought to have done to the Authority of the Pope in Temporals yet could he not satisfie the Ambition of that most Imperious man Sixtus v. who affirmed that he held a Supreme Power over All Kings and Princes of the whole Earth and all People and Nations delivered to him not by humane but Divine Institution In so much that he was very near by his Papal Censure to have abolished to the great detriment of the Church all the works of that Doctor which at this day oppose heresie with very great success as the Fathers of that Order of which Bellarmine was have seriously told me cap. 13. But enough of Sixtus By whom for example we may guess by these fruits what likelyhood there is that he and such as he whereof there hath been no small number Popes since the tenth Age especially that Seculum Infelix when with a great Eclipse of Learning the Popes of Rome as even Bellarmine noteth degenerated from the Piety of the Ancients were partakers of and directed by that Holy Spirit which God giveth to them that obey him to conduct them in all truth or rather the Spirit of the world the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whose works they have done 35. The three next succeeding Popes Vrban 7. Gregory 14. and Innocent 9. did not all of them live out half three years from the death of this and therefore we cannot expect to hear of any attempts or design of theirs against this Kingdom But after Clement VIII who was elected Pope 3. Feb. 1591 2. was settled in his seat the like practises soon began again wherein those agents whom we have mentioned before Hesket Lopez and Complices his Cullen York and Williams who confessed some others and Squire were imployed to raise rebellion poison or assassinate the Queen Lopez by the King of Spain's Ministers of State not without the privity and consent of himself all the rest incited and encouraged by the Jesuites who for the like practises at the same time against the most Christian King though then become Catholick too Thu. l. 111. were exterminated out of all France and a Pyramid erected for their perpetual Infamy But from all these God still preserved her the Emissaries being discovered taken and Executed Nor did he only preserve her from their attempts but shortly after blessed her with happy successes in an Expedition against the Spaniards then preparing again to Invade England Bacon Observ wherein the King of Spains Navy of 50. tall Ships besides twenty Gallies to attend them were beaten and put to flight and in the end all but two which were taken by the English burned only the twenty Gallies by the benefit of the Shallows escaping the town of Cadiz manned with 4000. foot and 400. horse taken sack'd and burnt but great Clemency used toward the inhabitants Camd. an 1596 and at last the English returning home with honour and great spoils besides the two Gallions and about 100. great brass Guns and great store of ammunition and provisions of war taken in the town and with very small loss and but of one person of quality the Spaniards having lost in all first and last 13. of their best men of war and 44. other Ships of great burden and in Ships great guns and military provisions by the estimate of the most knowing persons above 3000000 ducates And when the King of Spain not long after that he might repair this loss in a heat had from all parts gathered together all the Ships he could and manned even the strangers Ships which were in the Ports of Spain and set out this Navy to Land upon the
Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France durng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner disâ—favouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the disferent and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fosse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was blown over but the Spaniard also for divers years diverted by his wars with Portugal from molesting the Queen in that manner which otherwise 't is likely he would have done and from some such Invasion as though then intended was not actually undertaken till ten years after We might here also remember Don John of Austria in the heat of his eager designs upon England cut off by the Plague in the flower of his age Thuan. if his heart was not broken as was thought Raleigh by the disappointment of his ambitious designs after he had fouly by the Popes Dispensation falsified his Oath taken to observe the Treaty made with the States General And we might here likewise take notice not only of what some may think observable in the Death of the King of Spain Thu. l. 120. if not devoured yet in a great measure wasted and consumed by Lyce bred in his own body which in so great quantities issued out of four several tumours in his breast as that it was as much as two men by turns could do to wipe them off from him with napkins and cloathes but of that which others may think more remarkable in his Life which is that having twice most solemnly Sworn to the States General of the Low-Countries over which he held only a kind of Seigniory to Maintain their Ancient Rights Raleigh Priviledges and Customes which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five Earls before him and afterwards obtained from the Pope a Dispensation of his Oathes which Dispensation says Sir Walter Rawleigh was the true cause of the war and Blood-shed since when he sought contrary to his Oathes and all Right and Justice not only by new devised and intolerable Impositions to tread their National and Fundamental Laws Priviledges and Ancient Rights under his feet and both by Arts dividing their Nobility and by Force to enslave their Persons and Estates and make himself Absolute but moreover by introducing among them the Exercise of the Spanish Inquisition to Tyrannize also over their Consciences and in pursuance hereof had committed many barbarous Murders and Massacres among them by the Just Providence of God he was thrown out of all and those Rights and Priviledges which he sought to abolish and that Religion which he sought to oppress were by that people retained and enjoyed with greater freedom and liberty than ever so that in conclusion the recompense of that oppression and cruelty which he exercised upon them was the loss of those Countries which says Raleigh for beauty gave place to none and for revenue did equal his West-Indies besides the loss of an hundred millions of money and of the lives of above four hundred thousand Christians by him cast away in his endeavours to enslave them If besides this we reflect upon his many and various attempts against the Queen of England Thu. l. 120. some of them with so great study and vast expense of his Treasure his unhappy Wars in aid of the Rebels in France which his ambitious hopes had no less devoured than they had England all of them unsuccessful and remarkably blasted and himself at last so weary of them that he was glad to desire peace with both his fruitless wasting of 5594. Myriads of Gold as himself confessed without any other profit than the acquest of Portugal which he thought might be as easily lost as his hopes of the Kingdom of France had suddenly vanished and however was sufficiently ballanced with his loss in Africa and elsewhere the death of his eldest son by his own command as the lesuite * 9. Ration Temp. 12. Petavius saith expresly and the less of all his other sons save only Phil. 111. who succeeded him and was the only son of all his four wives who survived him If we seriously I say reflect upon all these we may look upon the prolongation of his life in respect of himself but as a continuance of trouble and misery to him and in respect of this blessed Queen to have been designed by God for an Exercise of her Faith and Virtue and a necessary means to render his Favour and never failing Providence over her the more Manifest Conspicuous and Exemplary to encourage others to Fidelity to him and Resignation to his most Wise Powerful and Gracious Providence But though these things do well deserve our notice yet that which I call a Distinguishing Providence is yet more admirable and remarkable in her nearer neighbours in France 39. When Queen Elizabeth began her Reign in England Henry 11. was King of France His Father Francis 1. who in the beginning of his Reign which was about the time of Luthers first appearing against Indulgences had unhappily entred into a league with the Pope Leo x. which in the judgment of many says Thuanus brought destruction upon his affairs and family though in many things unhappy throughout his whole Reign yet certainly was he in nothing more unhappy than in the guilt of so much innocent blood as
under his authority but yet in his minority by his own actual and voluntary management of affairs for the future whereunto he was in no mean degree disposed both by his natural temper and disposition and by his education by nature beyond measure cholerick says Davila and yet had from his Mother derived so great a share of the Italian genius of deep and subtil dissimulation as did most notably qualifie him for the most effectual execution of malice and revenge Nor was his Education less accommodate thereunto having from his childhood been inured to the effusion of his peoples blood for which purpose as was said it was that he and his brothers while yet children were by the Duke of Guise caused to be spectators of the slaughters at Amboise Thu. l. 24. where the River was covered with the dead bodies and the streets with the bloud of those who by precipitate condemnations without due process of Law were executed and slaughtered and the whole Town turned into a kind of grove of Gallowses and Gibbets with people hanged on them he was arrived to the age of twenty years and upwards in the midst of Tumults Oppressions and Civil Wars had imbibed as great a a prejudice against the Protestants as all the arts and calumnies of the Cardinal of Lorain and that Faction could infuse into him and that incensed by the foulest mis-representations of the late actions of the Protestants that could be devised and by his Mother was instructed in all the Italian arts of Government and Policy Thu. l. 50. Optimis a matre ad bene recteque regnandum monitis instructus says he of himself Being thus qualified for it he now of himself undertakes the execution of the conclusions at Bayonne and resolving to prosecute the same not after the Guisian and Spanish methods by the continuance of the Civil War but by the more subtil and safe Italian method of his Mother his first business is to beget in the Protestants an opinion and hope Thu. l. 47.50 that since he was now grown up to take the reins of Government into his own hands they might henceforth expect to find more reasonable and moderate usage under his Government than they had received from them who had abused his tender years to injure and oppress them and to raise in them a confidence and assurance of his favourable disposition towards them And therefore having granted them as fair conditions of Peace Thu. l. 50.51 as without danger of suspition of his too great favour he could he speedily takes order for the effectual restraining and repressing of the injuries and oppressions which were presently after the peace concluded begun again against the Protestants and gives them leave to call and hold Synods by which means had he dealt sincerely and proceeded soberly and steadily therein he might certainly much better have secured the peace and happiness of his Kingdoms to himself and his successors than he did by those contrary crafty and violent courses which he followed with the chief of the Protestant Princes and Nobility he deals more particularly He had even at the treaty of Peace caused some speeches to be given out Thu. l. 47 as if upon the conclusion of that Peace at home he intended a War in the Low-Countreys against the Spaniard which could not but have been for the benefit and advantage of the Protestants there And shortly after upon another occasion causes the like speeches to be repeated again Thu. l. 50. and a motion by the by to be made in secret of a Marriage between the Lady Margaret his Sister and Henry Prince of Navar. Of both which there is again a proposition made by some Protestant Gentlemen sent by the King to Navar and Colinius for that purpose and to assure them of the Kings extraordinary good will towards them and to invite them to come to Court which the King also by letters and other special messengers earnestly sollicited And to create a further confidence and assurance in them and the rest of the Protestant Nobility of his sincerity Thu. l. 50.51 he causes an overture of a Marriage to be made to Queen Elizabeth of England between her and his brother the Duke of Anjou and moreover enters into a League with her and at the same time also with the Protestant Princes of Germany against the Spaniard And having by these arts at last prevailed with Navar and Colinius to come to Court with the Prince he proceeds in the treaty of Marriage and Colinius is received with all the expressions of favour and kindness imaginable he consults with him how to carry on the Belgick War gives him leave to raise what Forces he will in the frontiers in order to it and in so great favour is Colinius received at Court by the King his Mother and Brothers that the Guises forsooth are so offended at it as thereupon to leave the Court. In sum such were the arts and deep dissimulation which were used as effectually deceived this prudent person and a great part of the Nobility and such was the King's care of secrecy and to whom his designs were imparted that as soon as he perceived that Ligneroles who yet was his brother the Duke of Anjou's confident was but acquainted with the design he presently caused him to be murthered The management of this first business having succeeded according to the King's mind the next thing to be considered is the manner how to accomplish the design Thu. l. 5â—â— And of this he holds a consultation with the Queen his Mother his brother Henry Duke of Anjou who was afterward Henry 3. the Cardinal of Lorain Claud his Brother Duke of Aumale Henry the young Duke of Guise and Ren. Birage Vice Chancellor and som others Thu. l. 51. Da. p. 361. This done away goes the Cardinal to Rome to treat with the Pope about these secret Counsels and to manage the present affairs with more secrecy he goes seemingly as discontented at the Court of France At last the Marriage concluded and the Pope's dispensation obtained the time of solemnity is appointed whereunto besides the principal Nobility of the Protestant Religion in France Imbd. an 572. from England is invited the Earl of Leicester and the Lord Burleigh and out of Germany the Prince Elector Palatine's Sons that if it were possible they might at once cut off all the heads of the Protestant Religion For now in conclusion is put in execution that horrible Massacre which for the matter was as long since as the enterview at Bayonne resolved on though for the manner and method of execution not till of late fully concluded Da. p. 363. Thu. l. 51. And first they begin with the Queen of Navar who being a woman and a Queen they thought fittest to take her away by poison and that so prepared and administred by the perfume of a pair of gloves as to work only upon her brain and put her into
both to them and to the Princes and States abroad Thu. l. 52. It had been considered before-hand out of that sense and pre-apprehension they had of the wickedness and foulness of the design how to cast the imputation of it upon the Guises who also out of the same sense and pre-apprehension endeavoured all they could to avoid the odium of it And being done the King immediately whether affrighted and terrified says Thuanus with the atrocity of the fact or fearing the odium of it dispatched his Letters to the Presidents of the Provinces to lay all the blame upon the Guises alledging that it was done without his privity or consent that they fearing that the friends and relations of Colinius would revenge the injury done to him upon them had raised the tumult which he was not able to repress in time with a great deal to this purpose And to the same purpose were Letters written by the Queen and sent not only through France but also to the Helvetians and dispersed through England and in divers parts of Germany But as it usually happens upon the perpetration of such horrid crimes and wickedness that the authors of them distracted with the horrors of their guilty conscience when they find no satisfaction or assurance of security in any course they take to conceal or palliate their crime continually devise and attempt new ways and means and by their often change and inconstancy to any promote that discovery which they seek to evade so it happened in this case For as these Letters were disproved by his express commands which as Davila relates he had but few daies before sent out so doth he now again in few days after contract the same and in full Senate declares that all was done by his own will and command and orders so much to be entred of record in the publick acts of the Curt. Cicaâ—el in vita Gâ—â—â— 13. Thu. l. 53. And though to the Pope and Spaniard he owned that he did it upon the score of Religion yet knowing that with others this would not so much excuse as aggravate and increase the odium of it some other cause was to be devised and pretended And therefore first to extenuate the fact 〈◊〉 l. 54. he pretends that his commands extended only to the cutting off of Colinius and his Confederates which thing being once undertaken the tumult at Paris proceeded further than he intended or was able so soon as he desired to restrain and that other Cities taking example from thence did the like without his license and to his great grief and trouble and then for the cause pretends a Conspiracy against himself his Mother and Brothers and Navar himself and to make Conde King and afterwards to kill him also and set up Colinius And though the causes pretended against Colinius in the judgment of the most prudent men who were not at all addicted to the Protestant party says Thuanus had not so much colour of truth as will perswade even children to believe them much less any sufficient proof yet to put some colour upon the business a Trial was ordered to be had in form of Law and two days after a Jubilâ—e as hath been said was appointed and an Edict published wherein the King declares that what had happened was done by his express command but not out of hatred to the Protestant Religion or to derogate from the Edicts of Pacification which he still desired should be inviolably and religiously observed but to prevent the Conspiracy of Colinius and his Confederates c. and Letters to like purpose were sent to the Presidents of the Provinces declaring as was pretended the TRUE causes of the tumult and commanding them to treat the Protestants in all friendly manner Thu. l. 53. c. And that nothing might be wanting says Thuanus to the height of madness that they might seem to glory and triumph in so detestable an enterprise in emulation of the ancient Emperors Medals were coyned with the Inscriptions VIRTUS IN REBELLEIS PIETAS EXCITAVIT JUSTITIAM Divers other such like arts were used to put a face upon the business and make it look like a happy prevention of some terrible Conspiracy But what was the most detestable of all by the accumulating of sin upon sin as is usual in such cases was the gross abuse of Justice it self whereby the Courts of Justice were drawn into the participation of the guilt by an horrible and abominable Sentence not only against Colinius who was dead but his children who were alive and also against Monsieur de Briquemaut who had fled to the English Ambassadors and Arnald Cavagnes Master of Requests who had hid himself hard-by with a friend who admonished him of the danger but were both taken and imprisâ—ned in the Palace and the same day that Sentence was given against Colinius were condemned to death which Cavagnes suffered with admirable constancy reciting Prayers out of the Psalms by heart in Latin for three hours together with his eyes steadily fixed towards Heaven but his companion at first affrighted with his approaching death made an unworthy offer for the redemption of his life to discover a means how to surprize Rochel yet afterwards when the King refused that condition but offered him another which was that he should acknowledg himself guilty of the crimes objected to him and confess before the people that there was a Conspiracy entred into by Colinius against the King he refused that and chose rather to suffer death which accordingly he did with Cavagnes While these such like arts were used to excuse and disguise the business at home to do it abroad besides the Queens Letters above-mentioned were several Ambassadors employed in Helvetia Germany England Poland and other foreign Countries where they either resided before or were sent on purpose for this service and Learned men suborned and perswaded to do it by printed Books But all these not having any certain ground of truth as a common foundation for all to build upon while each alledged not what he did know or believe to be true but what his own genius dictated as most plausible and likely to put some colour upon the business some extenuating the fact as to the King 's acting in it and others on the contrary justifying the same some excusing it only by way of recrimination for things done in the late Wars and others insisting upon the pretended conspiracy of Colinius were not only confuted by others who also in print answered their writings and speeches but of themselves betrayed and detected the vanity of their several pretences and allegations by their inconsistency and disagreement one with another The Learned Lawyer Fr. Baldwin was hereunto sollicited but was more ingenuous than to be retained in the patronage of so foul a cause and yet among those who undertook this office besides the Mercenaries were some persons otherwise of honour and repute who because what was done could not be
they did were only such turbulent spirits or poor deluded souls as many of these Nor hath the holy providence of God escaped their prophane abuse by entitling it to such trifles as a prudent Historian would disdain to mention and palpable lyes as may be seen in Sanders Ribadeneira and other such like Writers To which if we add the abuse of miracles by lyes and forgeries we shall find that the gates of Hell that is the counsels have prevailed against these degenerate successors of Peter with a witness Nor could a more effectual means be devised for the subversion of Christianity and all Religion not the very arms of Mahomet and his sect than this mystery of iniquity nor if it be well considered hath the whole World produced any thing which doth better deserve the name of Antichrist And indeed if we consider the present growth of Atheism and Infidelity among us and trace it to its roots and original we shall find it all to be of an Italian Extraction and from thence propagated to France and so to England and other parts Nor shall we find any other reasons for it than what are here mentioned the Italians perceiving better what is acted among themselves than those who are more remote For let the Italian subtilty be what it will I think it is plain that they have made no deeper search into either the secrets of Nature or of Antiquity from one or both of which they must derive their principles if they have others besides what are here mentioned than other Nations have made 63. And now before I conclude I must crave leave to make this address to several sorts of persons distinctly And first to all Christians in general that they will seriously consider whether they be not obliged for the honour and reputation of our holy Profession and whether our great Lord doth not require it of them to declare against this Romish Faction and their Unchristian or rather Antichristian and abominable scandalous principles and practices that is all National Churches and Vniversities publickly by solemn Decrees and Protestations if not by excommunication and all particular private Christians by abstaining from their communion and coming out of that Babylon that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues 2. To those who are not of that Communion and have hitherto escaped those delusions that they beware that they be not again entangled therein For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment 2. That they be careful that they do not hold the truth in unrighteousness Atrocius sub sancti nominis professione peccatur but walk worthy of their vocation c. worthy of God who hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory out of darkness into his marvellous light as children of the light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them and as becometh the Gospel of Christ and that while they separate from the scandals of others they themselves do not administer occasion of scandal to others 3. That they who are in authority whether in Church or State be careful both by their example and authority as much as in them lieth to discourage and suppress all manner of vice and debauchery and to encourage and promote all manner of virtue and particularly piety and devotion in Religion For as vice and debauchery and even coldness and indifference in matters of Religion in any man makes him the more obnoxious to the delusions of the Papists so they well perceiving so much by experience are not without reason believed to endeavour first the debauching of the Nation that the people being thereby the better prepared and disposed to receive their impressions they may the more easily compass their design as Physitians who cannot immediately cure the present distemper of their Patient are fain many times by art to divert it into some other disease which they hope more easily to cure Nor do the Papists look upon debauchery as a more dangerous disease than that they call heresy This is such a means as is of natural efficacy to obviate and obstruct the endeavors of the Papists but of all most likely to be effectual by the blessing of God upon it whereas the neglect of it doth both naturally expose the people to their delusions and is most likely to provoke the judgment of God to give them up to be deluded by them Nor need Governors to fear that their people will prove less morigerous and governable by being more devotely affected to Religion but may well hope the contrary provided they will require nothing of them that may be thought contrary to Religion which certainly they need not Christianity containing nothing inconsistent with any solid principle of policy 4. That they be careful to walk worthy of their vocation particularly in that wherein the Apostle doth particularly instance and which he earnestly urgeth endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing according to the truth in Charity Eph. 4.1 3 15. for it must be remembred that separation and division among Christians is like homicide generally unlawful and though the one as well as the other in certain special cases and under certain circumstances may be not only lawful but an indispensible duty which the Romanists cannot with any reason deny since it hath been the judgment and frequent indeed too frequent practice of that Church both anciently and of later ages as is apparent in their excommunications of whole Churches even all or most of the Eastern Churches and in the last age many of the Western for no other cause but the reformation of many scandalous abuses which the Church or Bishops of Rome by their Agents had transfused into them whereby they do unanswerably justify our separation from them were not themselves the authors of it for just and necessary causes yet ought not this to be done but with great caution and mature deliberation and under such conditions as these 1. That it be just and necessary for just and necessary causes 2. That it be done with Charity and with intention and desire to return to communion again as soon as the causes of the separation are removed and reformed 3. And therefore that it be done with Sobriety not widening the difference or quarrelling at such things as may be or ought to be tolerated such as being in their own nature indifferent are left to the prudent ordering and disposition of each particular National or Provincial Church Unaquaeque Provincia abundet in suo sensu c. Hier. ep 28. v. can ult Concilii Ephesiu so as may be best for order decency and edification that it proceed no further than for just and necessary causes it ought lest if we measure truth as for example in this case by its distance from
of it and that is through desperation the case of some who believe and tremble Ja. 2.19 When men by frequency and long continuance in sin against the light and cheeks of conscience have sinned themselves into this desperation this is often an occasion to them to a surther progress in wickedness even to the height of the most enormous sins though they neither do nor can doubt of the truth of the Christian Religion no more than do the Devils who believe and tremble for there is no sin which is not consistent with a full perswasion of it in such as are once become desperate indeed Even scoffing at and abuse of Religion to evil ends are no certain arguments of unbelief in such as use them There may be and are false Professors of Atheism and Infidelity as well as of Religion it self There is more or less of humane frailty in all Too many sin against knowledg and some thereby sin themselves into despair and then run on into all wickedness against that Belief which they would fain cast off if they could And there are so many causes and occasions of sins besides unbelief that they cannot in reason be attributed to it alone 4. And lastly considering the strange wild fancies which we often see men learned men and otherwise sober men fall into considering the great force prevalence that the will affections have to byass blind and corrupt the judgment considering the power and malice and subtilty that according to the Scriptures the God of this World hath to blind mens minds that they should not believe the Gospel of Truth it is not to be doubted but such there are who do not believe it but then the very same reasons may satisfy us what little credit there is to be given to the opinions of such men without better reason and yet I know and have found by experience that some professors of Infidelity have no better reasons than this they are like men in a panick fear where every one is afraid but none knoweth the cause only he supposeth the rest do and is so much the more afraid by how much the more in number they are whom he supposeth to be in the same passion with himself so many who have no reason at all for their unbelief yet suppose others have and would fain be thought as wise as they This I thought necessary to add as an Antidoâ—e against that poison which some might suck from those scandalous Practices and Actions which have been here related FINIS POPISH POLICIES and PRACTICES Represented in the HISTORIES OF THE PARISIAN MASSACRE GUN-POWDER TREASON CONSPIRACIES Against Queen ELIZABETH AND PERSECUTIONS OF THE PROTESTANTS in FRANCE Translated and Collected out of the famous THVANVS and other Writers of the Roman Communion WITH A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE ORIGINAL of the POWDER-PLOT LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell over against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1674. THE HISTORY OF THE Bloody Massacres OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE IN THE Year of our LORD 1572. WRITTEN In Latin by the Famous HISTORIAN J A. AVG. THVANVS and faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell by Flying-horse-Court in Fleet-street 1674. A brief Introduction to the History of the MASSACRE THE Lords of the House of Guise whether through the instigation of the Jesuites whom they first introduced into France and highly favoured or through their emulation * V. Discourse sect 40. against the Princes of the Blood who favoured the Reformed Religion or both professing themselves great zealots for the Papal Authority and irreconcilable enemies to the Hugonots as they called them of the Reformed Religion especially after the dissentions grew high between them and the Princes to whom they doubted not but the Protestants would adhere as well upon the account of Religion as of the Right of the Princes having * V. Disc sect 41. by force gotten the young King Charles 9. into their hands endeavoured by all means to raise in his mind as great prejudice and hatred against the Protestants and the chief men of their party as possible The young King thus trained up in prejudice against them and moreover from his youth inured to cruelty and the slaughters of his Subjects even in cold blood whereof by the D. of Guise he had been early made a spectator was scarce out of his minority when he was ivited by the Pope V. Disc sect 42. the K. of Spain and the D. of Savoy to joyn in a holy League for the extirpation of the Hereticks but being by nature of an Italian genius and well instructed by his Mother in the policies of her Country he chose as a more safe and surer way to attempt that rather by secret stratagems and surprize than by open hostility And therefore at an enterview at Bayonne between him with his Mother and his Sister the Queen of Spain accompanied with the D. of Alva having by the way had secret conference at Avignon with some of the Pope's trusty Ministers the Pope having perswaded that meeting and earnestly pressed the King of Spain himself to be present at it it was concluded to cut off the chief heads of the Protestants and then in imitation of the Sicilian Vespers to slaughter all the rest to the last man But the design being discovered to the Prince of Conde Colinius and others of the Nobility when they perceived such preparations made for the execution of it as unless timely prevented they were likely suddenly to be all destroyed V. Disc sect 43. they put themselves into a posture of defence whereupon broke out a Civil War But that being contrary to the design to effect the business by stratagem and surprize it was in few months composed for the present but shortly after when the same design was again perceived to be carried on and the like inevitable danger approached as neer as before was again renewed in the former manner and continued somewhat longer and hotter than before V. Disc sect 45. Whereupon the King perceiving that the greatest difficulty was to beget and confirm in the Protestant Nobility a trust and confidence in himself used all arts imaginable to do that and to that purpose in all solemn manner granting and confirming to the Protestants in France very fair terms of peace and security he at the same time pretended a resolution to make a war with Spain entred into a League with the Queen of England and with the Protestant Princes of Germany and which was the principal part of the policy proposed a match between the Prince of Navar the first Prince of the Blood and chief of the Protestant Party and his Sister Margaret as that which would not only serve his purpose to beget a confidence in the Protestants of his sincerity and good intention but moreover afford him a fair opportunity at the solemnization of the Marriage of effecting his design at last
which had been so often and so long disappointed All which having managed with wonderful art and dissimulation he at last obtained what he desired as in the following History is more particularly related THE HISTORY OF THE MASSACRES OF THE Protestants at PARIS and many other places in FRANCE in the Year of our Lord 1572. 1. THE day of the Nuptials between Henr. Lib. 5. King of Navar and Margaret Sister to the King of France drawing on which was appointed the * August 18th 15th of the Kalends of September the King by Letters solicits Coligni that he should come to Paris having before given in charge to Claudius Marcellus Provost of the Merchants that he should see to it that no disturbance did arise upon Colignie's coming to Paris Likewise Proclamation was published the third of the Nones of July July 5th when he was at Castrum-Bononiae about two miles from the City wherein it was for bidden that any of what condition soever should dare to renew the memory of things past give occasion of new quarrels carry pistols fight duels draw their swords especially in the King's retinue at Paris and in the Suburbs upon pain of death But if any difference should arise among the Nobles concerning their Honour or Reputation they should be bound to bring their plaint to the Duke of Anjou the King's Deputy throughout the whole Kingdom and to pray justice of him if they were of the Commons they should betake themselves to the High Chancellor deâ—l Hospital if it shall happen among those that shall not be in the Court but in Paris they shall go before the ordinary Magistrate It was also provided by the same Proclamation that those who were not of the Courts of any of the Princes or Nobles or of the Retinue of others or were not detained upon some necessary business but were of uncertain abode and habitation about Paris or the Suburbs should depart from the Court City within 24 hours after the publication of this Edict upon the same pain of death This was published for three days together with the sound of Trumpet in the Court and through the City and it was ordered that the publication should be repeated week by week upon the Sabbath-day Also there was adjoyned to the guards of the King's body for his greater security a guard of 400 choice Souldiers all which Coligni full of confidence and good assurance so interpreted as if the King desirous of the publick Peace did only prepare a contrary strength against those which were seditious and movers of troubles Therefore he comes into the City though many were greatly disturbed at it to whom when they importunately dehorted him both by letter and word of mouth he after he had given them thanks answered in one word That he was resolved now that Peace was concluded and things past forgotten to rely upon the saith of the King and that he had rather be dragged through the streets of Paris than to take up Civil Arms again 2. Among other letters there was one brought to him being now come to Paris written very smartly after this manner Remember that it is an established Decree of the Papists upon the account of Religion and confirmed by the authority of Councils that Faith is not to be kept with hereticks in the number of which Protestants are accounted Remember also that Protestants upon the account of the former Wars do lie under an eternal odium so that it is not to be doubted but this is the Queens resolution that Protestants be rooted out by any means whatsoever Add to this that it cannot be but that a woman that is a stranger and an Italian descended of the race of the Popes whom they oppose and of a Florentine and guileful nature should study all extremities against her enemies Consider moreover in what School the King was educated in which he drew in with his milk under his good Tutors this Doctrine that he should make it a sport to swear and forswear to use the name of God profanely to defile himself with Whoredomes and Adulteries to dissemble his Faith Religion Counsels to set his countenance according to occasion And that he might be accustomed to the effusion of the bloud of his Subjects he was taught from his childhood to behold the slaughters and butcheries of * And of men also v. l. 24. p. 275. beasts that he is setled in this perswasion to suffer no Religion in his Kingdom but that which may uphold his state according to the opinion of his Master Machiavel otherwise it would never be at Peace so long as two Religions flourished in it and that it was instilled into his ears that the Protestants did decree to spoil him of his Life and Empire And therefore he would never suffer the Protestants who had once whether upon a just or unjust cause taken up Arms against him to enjoy the benefit of his Edict but that he would with Arms revenge what was done with Arms against him nor would he look upon himself obliged to keep his Covenants which he had entred into with his armed Subjects These are the Arts of Princes the Elements of Policy the Arcana Imperii So Commodus of old commanded Julian whom he owned and embraced as his Father to be slain Thus Antonius Caracalla under pretence of mustering slew the prime youth of the City So Lysander cut the throats of eight hundred Milesians called together under pretence of friendship and society So Sergius Galba raged upon six thousand Spaniards and lately by the command of Antonius Spinola the chief men of the Isle of Corfica were called together to a Feast and slain In our memory did Christiern a King of a barbarous nature use the same arts in the Massacre of Stockholm So heretofore Charles 7 though reconciled to the Duke of Burgundy yet abstained not from killing him though he begged for his life Nor are the discourses that the King lately had with his mother at Blois unknown For when in a jocular manner profanely using as his custom is the name of God he asked her whether he had not acted his part handsomely at the coming of the Queen of Navar the Queen answered that he had begun well but these beginnings would little advantage him unless he proceeded But I said he with often repeated oaths will bring them all into your toils From these words the truth whereof you may be assured of you ought to take counsel and if you are wise get out of the City and so from the Court as from a most filthy sink with all the speed as may be 3. Coligni having read this letter though he was not a little troubled at it yet that he might not seem altogether to neglect the admonitions and intreaties of his friends made answer That there was no place left for these suspitions that he could never perswade himself that so great persidiousness could enter into so good a King than whom France
for this many years never had a better That Anjou indeed was more averse to the Protestant party but that hatred would now cease even out of respect to the affinity contracted with the King of Navar. For the rest the League entred into with England and that which the King was now making with the Protestant Princes of the Empire did sufficiently shew how he stood affected to the Protestants when as he would have one of the Sons of the Elector Palatine in his retinue and some one of the English Nobles as Leicester or Burgleii who were most forward for Religion Moreover he had given his Faith to the Prince of Orange and Nassau his Brother concerning aids against the Spaniards and that a great supply was preparing in the place of those who were routed under Jeulis their leader That John Galeacius Fulgosius who lately returned from Florence did assure them that Cosunus would lend the King two hundred thousand Aurei towards that War That the King's Ambassador did carefully pry into the counsels of the Duke of Alva and daily acquaint the King with them That this he knew every day from the King That the Navy that Philip Strossy and Polinius Garda do command at Broage and upon the Coasts of Poictou was not prepared to any other use but to disturb the Spanish Fleet which being done it shall go to help the Prince of Orange at Flushing As for himself and his own particular safety all might be secure of that for that he through the King's means is reconciled to the Guises each engaging their Faith to the King that they would neither of them hereafter impeach one the other Lastly that the King did all he could to make Peace at home and War abroad and that he might transfer the War into the Low-Countreys and against the Spaniards Wherefore he prayed the Author of the writing and others that are of his mind that they would no more with these suspitions trouble his mind which was taken up with more weighty businesses and better designs but rather that they would joyning their prayers with his beg of God that he would prosper things so well begun and bring them at last to an happy end for the good of the Church and Kingdom 4. The same things were written to Coligni from the Rochellers which he did in as friendly manner take off with all moderation and constancy Therefore when they could not divert him from that mind they set upon the King of Navar with Letters dated 6 of the Eids of July July 10th in which they dehort him upon the same accounts that he should take care of himself and not go to Paris He was then at the Nuptials †Vid. l. 50. p. 787. of Henricus Condaeus his Unckle's Son and Mary of Cleve his near Kinswoman which were celebrated at Blandia a Castle of Jo. Roan Marchioness of Rotelin who was Mother to Frances of Aurleans * Vid. l. 35. p. 559. last Wife to Lewis of Conde within the jurisdiction of Melun Therefore he despising the warnings of his Friends the Nuptials of the Prince of Conde being finished comes to Paris with him and a great retinue of Protestants in the beginning of August where new delays are purposely invented by the Queen for whereas at first there was hope given of favour to be obtained from the Pope by the Cardinal of Lorain who was then at Rome to remove the obstacle of proximity and difference in Religion a Breve was brought to Charles Cardinal of Burbon designed to finish the business wherewith notwithstanding he said he he was not satisfied therefore he desired another more full might be sent from Rome wherein it might be more amply provided for him Therefore the King laid the fault of the delay upon the Cardinal of Burbon who he said by way of scorn was tied up by superstition and I know not what scruples of conscience and by that means great injury was done to his Margarite so he called his Sister who bore it very impatiently to have the fruit of her so long expected joy deferred 5. When in the mean time Coligni pressed that the publick proclaiming of the Low-Countrey War so often deliberated about and approved of and now whether he would or not begun might be no longer deferred he again made delays and declined it and often replied to him importuning him that he had not any Counsellor or Officer of his Army to whose faithfulness industry and diligence he could commit so great an affair For some were wholly addicted to the party of the Guises others had other faults of their own of his Secretaries there was only Bernardus Fiza whom he could entrust with this secret At last it was agreed that the affair should be committed to Momorancy and Fiza with which shews of unfeigned familiarity as he took it and ingenuous freedom Coligni being deceived would not perswade himself any thing otherwise than of truly Kingly virtue or think hardly of the most excellent King 6. Amidst these delays those things as it should seem being altogether composed about which before there was a difference among the Conspirators there came Letters by secret comport from the King's Ambassador with the Pope in which the King is certified of a dispensation now granted and shortly to be sent from Rome by Post wherein the scrupulous conscience of Burbon was fully satisfied therefore when upon the 16th of the Kalends of September August 17th they were contracted by Cardinal Borbon in the Louvre the next day after the Nuptials were celebrated An high Scaffold is erected before the gates of the great Church by which they descended by stairs unto a lower Scaffold which being on every side railed in to keep off the multitude did lead through the Church to the inner apartment commonly called the Chore. From thence another Scaffold encompassed with rails did receive those that went out of the Chore toward the left gate which reached to the Bishop's Palace thither came out of the Louvre with all Royal Pomp and most magnificent shew the King the Queen-Mother with the Brethren the Dukes of Anjou and Alanson the Guises the Colonels of the Horse the chief Peers of the Kingdom leading along the Bride who lodged that night in the Bishop's Palace And from the other part the King of Navar with the Princes of Conde and Contie his Cousins Coligni Admiral of the Sea Franciscus Count de la Roche-fou-eault and a great company of the Protestant Nobles who came together out of all Provinces of the Kingdom When the King had ascended to that higher Scaffold the Ceremonies in manner as was agreed being performed by Cardinal Borbon the King and Navar with his Party came by the lower Scaffold into the Chore where having placed his Wife before the great Altar to hear Mass he with Coligni and Count de la Roche-fou-eault and the other Nobles of his Retinue went into the Bishop's Palace by the contrary door
by his Mother and by those Tutors that she appointed him did not at all abstain the example whereof proceeding from the Court to the Cities and from the Cities to the Country Towns and Villages they now at every third word swore by the head death bloud heart of God Moreover the patience of God was even wearied with their Whoredoms Adulteries and such lusts as are not fit to be spoken Lastly nature it self doth now expostulate as it were with God for his so long patience and forbearance nor could the Country of France any longer bear such prodigious wickedness For as for the causes which are pretended against Coligny they are feigned with such improbability that they can hardly perswade children much less can they be proved For how is it probable that Coligny should enter into such a conspiracy within the walls of Paris who though he were guilty before the Pacification to suppose that yet certainly after the Edict if indeed the publick Faith and the King's promises ought to be observed he came to the King guiltless altogether abhorring a Civil War and solicitous only about the Belgick War But whereas they say he conspired after he had received his wounds this hath less colour of truth For how could Colligny that was indisposed by two such wounds now grown old disabled in both his arms one of which the Physitians tallted of cutting off rise with three hundred young men that attended him against an Army of sixty thousand men that bare him deadly hatred and that were well appointed with Arms How could he in so little time consult concerning so great and vast a design for he lived hardly forty hours after he had received his wound in which all conference was forbidden him by his Physitians Then had he been accused of any crime was he not committed to Cossenius and his guards and the passages being every where secured was he not in the King's power that he might in a moment if it had so pleased the King been thrust into prison and witnesses being prepared after the manner of judicial proceedings might he not have been proceeded against in form of Law Moreover if Coligni with his Dependents and Clients had conspired against the King why must needs the rest that were innocent so many Noble Matrons and Virgins who came thither upon the account of the Marriage so many great-bellied women so many ancient persons so many bed-ridden persons of both Sexes and all professions that were ignorant of these last counsels of Coligni be comprehended in the same guilt To whom doth it not seem absurd and most ridiculous that Coligni should at so unseasonable a time conspire against Navar that professed the same Religion with him and whom he had in his power for four years together Thus many did discourse and so they judged that upon the account of this fact the French Name would for a long time labour under an odium and infamy and that posterity would never forget an act of so great unworthiness Typographical Errors to be Corrected as followeth in THe Hist of the Massacre Pag. 5 l. 1. Burleigh l. 7. Cosmus p. 7. l. 4. compact p. 8. l. 10. when he l. 36. Palace near the Louvre p. 12. l. 1. receive p. 13. l. 28. Antonius Marafinus Guerchius without commas so p. 14. l. 2. Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus l. 7. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 8. Moninius l. 26. racket p. 18. l. 7. your Kingdom p. 21. l. 9. as he did p. 28. l. 11. Cossenius l. 36. Atinius l. 37. Sarlaboux p. 29. l. 5. Merlin the Minister Coligny p. 32. l. 32. Claromontius Marquess of Renel p. 34. l. 19. Caumontius p. 35. l. 25. Monralbertus Roboreus Joach Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Columbarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius p. 36. l. 15. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 32. Bellovarius l. 36. Durfortius Duracius l. 37. Gomacius Buchavanius p. 40. l. 36. Perionius p. 41. l. 13. Languages who had private fends and contentions with Carpentar l. 22. to those l. 30. Roliardus p. 43. l. 2. Sancomontius Sauromanius l. 3. Bricomotius p. 53. l. 33. Meletinus p. 57. l. 17. Arles where l. 36. suspition of poison given p. 58. l. 2. Mombrunius p. 62. l. 20. Helionorus Chabotius p. 63. l. 11. Chabotius THe Hist of the Powder-Plot Pag. 8. l. 27. Harrington p. 14. l. 30. detest p. 15 l. 21. for wikes r. de Vic p. 16. in marg So on the p. 22. l. 27. dele Look entituled l. 29. for Provincial r. Father General A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. MDCV. The History of the Powder-Plot Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspcious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings favour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory