do homage to them and also pay a yéerelie tribute to the sea of Rome for the kingdome newly gotten When this couenant and conspiracie was concluded foorthwith the prince that held on the other side was proclaimed an heretike and schismatike and his kingdome was adiudged to him that did first get possession thereof By which shifts it cannot be told how manie fires the popes haue kindled in all parts of Christendom within these fower hundred yéeres how many kings and princes they haue made vassals tributaries and stipendaries to them and their filthie stinking sea Concerning which matter bicause we haue spoken at large a little before it shall be sufficient to speake of those two kings of France and England Therefore when there arose contention betwéen them pope Innocentius the third sent first from his consistorie into France two legates that they might both terrifie the king with threatening curses and that they might raise his subiects to rebell against him and that they might secretly consult and talke with the bishops and priests of France That done he did so quickly and sharply raise the emperor Otho the fourth and also Ferdinandus earle of Flanders and many other princes of other countries to beare armes against the French king that vnlesse he had happily with a valiant and stout hart contemned those threatenings and beastly buls of that pope he had lost not onely that part of his kingdome but also in a short time all the rest The remembrance whereof is extant not onely in our French chronicles but also in the Canonists * For that decretall shall be a in c. nouit 13. extra de iudic perpetual moniment of the popes hatred and rebellious mind against our kings and countrie Therfore we suppose that it is apparent to all men by these things and other that we haue shewed before what authoritie the orders and Counsellers of the realme of France ought to giue to this declaration of pope Sixtus whom we haue prooued by most manifest testimonies to haue béene not onely accused by the most part of Christendome of most notorious crimes but also to haue béene conuict and condemned But if happily there be anie that dispute that like as bicause two parts of thrée parts of Europe haue put downe the pope the third part must giue him none authority so séeing two parts of thrée parts of France would haue his authority reserued to him it is méete that his authoritie be preserued in France we haue a double answer in readinesse The first bicause out of that number of French men which taketh part with the pope all cardinals archbishops bishops priests innumerable crues of munks and clerks and other sharuebugs of the same sort the popes vassals finally all dogs which licke the popes tribunal seat must be culled out bicause of the rule of the law wherein we saie In what busines soeuer any mans matter is handled bicause in some respect §. sed neque Inst de testam ordi l. nullus 10. D. de test l. omnibus 9. C. eodem l. 1. §. in propria D. quand appell sit it concerneth him he is not a méet witnes in that busines The second is that when as these are culled out of the number no small part of the rest which follow the old custome of religion in France do that not with iudgement and willingly but being compelled with threatenings and terror that they are no more to be numbred amongst the clients of the papacie than as the lawiers say witnesses or Gardans retained in any busines by violence and feare are numbred among fit witnesses and authors of whom Vlpian writeth finely those that are present at any act or l. 1. §. vltim D de tutel l. qui testament 20. §. vlti D. qui testamen fac l. nouiss 7. §. 1. quod fals tutor auctor l. 2. D. de iud busines against their will they séeme to be no more present than if they had béene in that place being asléepe or oppressed with the falling sicknes Finally all men perceiue that if the French men had like libertie to vse and exercise both religions scarce the fourth part of the people of the realme would continue in the religion of the sea of Rome In which place it liketh vs wel to recite that old saieng of Bartholus who in the preface of the Digests * num 14. where disputing about Constantines donation and rekoning vp the opinions of other doctors when he commeth to his owne he saith thus Lo we are vpon earth of the church for he taught at Bononia and therefore I say that that donation was of force Where notwithstanding he writeth many things afterward flatly against that donation And in like sort when the canonistes did dispute that it was not lawfull for the emperor to condemne any man of rebellion that did follow the popes faction Bartholus making mention of the sentence of Henrie the emperor wherein he had condemned Robert king of Sicilia of rebellion and of the contrarie sentence of pope Clement the fift whereby he had absolued the same Robert he sheweth surely that he dare not oppose himselfe against the pope But he dissembleth not to allow the emperors sentence with which Bartholus the canonists were therefore greatly displeased which vse that verse of the pope and Caesar calling the pope their Iupiter Caesar with Iupiter doth diuide The empyre reaching far and wide Moreouer Bartholus disputeth in the same place that it was so far off that Robert was the popes vassall as the pope auouched against the emperour that he testifieth that when Robert was dead Aloysius his heire did sweare alleagance to the emperor in the name of Sicilia in the city of Pise he being there present Concerning which matter we must repaire to the constitution of Henrie Ad reprimendam Qui dicant rebel and the contrary In Clem. Pastoralis de iud constitution of the pope abrogating and reprochfully reuersing that But if we thinke it méete to speake any thing of the ecclesiasticall rebellion of popes it shal not be amisse to bring to light the testimony of one that was somtime a most famous Senator of Paris called Cosma Guymerius who vpō the preface of the pragmatical decrée writtē at Bituriga the author wherof was king Charles the seuenth reckoneth vp some things which are greatly appertinent to know the madnes of these Romish Alastors About the yeere of our Lord saith he M. cccxxc after the death of Gregorie the eleuenth when the cardinals were to proceed to choose another to succeed they were threatned by the Romanes that they should die if they would not choose some Italian Therfore they chose the archbishop of Bare who was then at Rome making knowne to him that they chose him to auoide danger or rather they did feigne that they did choose him but afterward when opportunitie was offered they did freelie intend to choose another Therefore when they had chosen him that was called
a band-dog or Cerberus than this But as I haue alreadie said this boldnes of the pope against the king of Nauarr is not greatly to be woondered at séeing such was his vnbridled furie against the most mightie king of France Wherefore let vs heare rather other testimonies of like and the same pride for it is not for man to contend with satan in railing spéeches and it shall be sufficient to vse that curse of Michael the archangell The Lord Jude 1. 9. rebuke thee Therefore to returne to our purpose we must not passe ouer that testimonie of the same popish seruice which is reported touching the same Boniface who in the yéere 1300. when there was great concourse of people at Rome by reason of the Iubilie in the first solemne day the pope shewed himselfe to the people in his Pontificalibus the day following hauing on the attire of the emperor he commanded a naked sword to be borne before him crieng with a lowd voice I am the pope and emperor and I beare rule in earth and heauen And a few daies after hée proudly reiected Albertus created emperor by the electors of Germanie when he came to craue his confirmation denieng that the election had without his authoritie ought to be counted firme séeing he alone had the authoritie of both swords After some good space he confirmed him vpon condition that with al expedition he shuld make war against the French king whose kingdome he gaue him for a pray and reward of his victorie Which things are witnessed by Cuspianus in the life of Albertus in the chronicle of Vsperge and by the writers of the French chronicles But to what end do we prosecute these light and trifling things We haue before declared that the pope of Rome doth claime by the donation of Constantine the empire of al the west parts These be but bare words Wherefore let vs looke into the thing it selfe For we denie that there is any king in the west I meane of France Spaine Aragon Portugal Hungarie Bohemia England Scotland Denmarke Sueueland Ruscia Croatia Dalmatia whom the papacie of Rome will not haue to be vassall and feudatarie to it as if he had receiued his kingdome from him as a fée and benefit and ought for that cause to ow allegeance and to do homage to him It is much that we say and almost incredible to be spoken but the truth shall appéere by instruments that we wil bring to light and by testimonies that we will vse For we wil touch euery realme according to the order of the letters Of that of England AVgustine Steuchus the maister of the popes librarie doth witnes in his book of the donation of Constantine that in 2. pag. 138. that librarie of the popes there is extant a register of pope Alexander the 3. wherein is found an epistle to William king of England For as we vnderstand by that booke of Steuchus the maister of the librarie all the actes of euerie pope are written in seuerall registers to the which what credit we ought to giue the verie rule of the law doth show wherein it is said that a priuate writing must be beléeued but onely against the writer himselfe Therfore this was Alexander his epistle Your wisedome knoweth that the kingdome of Englande sithence the time that the name of Christ was there glorified hath bin vnder the hand and tuition of the chiefe of the Apostles For as you know full well the Englishmen were faithfull and in respect of godly deuotion and knowledge of religion they gaue a yeerely pension to the apostolike sea wherof some part was giuen to the bishop of Rome some part to the church of S. Marie which is called the schoole of the Englishmen to the vse of the brethren These things are cited out of Steuchus But I finde these testimonies in other places besides Steuchus Flauius Blondus in his 6. booke Decad. 2. Then saith he Iohn king of England fearing that he was not of sufficient force to deale with the French king fled to the mercy of Innocentius the third pope of Rome for making England and Ireland feudataries to the church of Rome by league he promised to pay for either Iland an hundred markes in gold yeerely Antonie of Florence saith * Iohn king of England of his own accord Hist. part 3. tit 19. §. quinto anno 1223. by the counsell of his princes offered and did freely grant to God and his most holie Apostles Peter Paul and to the holie church of Rome and to the lord Innocentius the third being pope all the kingdome of England and also of Ireland with all their rights and appurtenances and he hath done and sworne homage for the same kingdomes to the saide Innocentius the pope that he should hold them hereafter as a feudatarie of the said pope and his successours Whereof also Polidore Virgill maketh mention in his 15. booke By this instrument of the pope if as I said we may giue credence to a priuate writing the realme of England is feudatarie to the pope Go to let vs sée the rest Of the kingdome of Arragonia STeuchus in the selfe same booke * saith Pag. 193. Peter king of Arragonia in the third yeer of the L. Innocentius the third being pope came to Rome to the same Innocentius and he receiued from him solemnely an honorable knighthood and he offered willinglie to S. Peter and to the holie church of Rome his whole kingdome and there he had for his fee the same kingdome Also he appointed to pay a certaine summe of money for the kingdome of Sardinia Of the kingdome of Croatia and Dalmatia STeuchus in the same booke * in the register of Gregorie the seauenth we reade thus In the name of the lord of the holie Pag. 191. and indiuisible Trinitie in the yeere of the Lords incarnation one thousand seuenty sixe in the 14. indiction of the moneth of October I Demetrius which am also called Suinumir by the grace of God duke of Croatia and Dalmatia being made and constituted by thee L. Gebizus hauing the power of Pope Gregorie by the ambassage of the apostolike sea by the synodall and generall election of the whole cleargie and people in the Solantine church of S. Peter and being inuested and appointed king in the gouernment of the kingdome of the Croatians and Dalmatians by the banner sword scepter and crowne to thee I vowe and promise that I will vnchangeably fulfill all things which thy reuerend holines shall inioine me that I may keepe mine oth to the Apostolike sea in all things and that I may keepe irreuocably whatsoeuer as well the sea apostlike as the legates thereof haue or shall establish in this realme that I may execute iustice and defend the church also I appoint to pay to S. Peter yeerely in the resurrection of the Lord the tribute of two hundred Bizanties of al my consulships and primacies for the kingdome granted to me Furthermore seeing to
arme his hallowed hands that are yet hot with working at the altar against the Lords familie that with a mind more thā murderous he shuld seeke to put out the top of the christian name namely a most christian king in the blockish world and that he should somtimes shake that mysticall sword edgeling and foyningly in his angrie purpose as we thinke that he should sometimes borrow of Mars that bloudy speare or iauelin and should also seeke to put those to death whom with cruell curses he had cast down which peraduenture did turne vpon him Lo what hands what feet thou dost willinglie kisse from which thou oughtest to plucke backe thy mouth though bloudie and polluted O wretch that thou then art Iulius and carried with distemperature which thoughtest that thou oughtst to obey thy blind anger so far forth that thou wast carried with furious blindnes of minde and not to respect either thy selfe or the comelines of most blessed maiestie through hatred but carrieng headlong with thee against their will for the most part and euen murmuring against thee that most honourable order that reuerend senate being famous with chiefe reuerence the glorie of Libanus thou shouldest seeke to oppresse vs with the fall of the tower of the church and so consequently thy selfe that thou shouldest also change in a maner the whol world being shaken with those thunderbolts which thou hast raysed and shot against it that thou shouldest behold vs with these firie eies which are inflamed with hatred and enuie and also burne with fire shouldest not now cease but fall vpon our king as he did burne thou hauing obtained thy purpose O immortall God! was it lawfull for wickednes perswading euill things to throw downe by right or wrong from the top of the sanctuarie so great a man being euen stung with the waspe of reuenge more than that of Atrius that he should hasten to destroy euen his bodie and soule in the graue of his enimies Was it not sufficient for his most furious wrath to haue driuen vs backe againe into our owne coasts being terrified with a thunderbolt departing from the possession of Italie which we deadlie loued and that with griefe and sorrow vnlesse he should moreouer haue made vs fight for our altars and fires as they say and finallie to feare most extreme examples When as in the meane season vnder that bloudie fenser almost all this whole countrie did fight with vs with a most deadlie enuious minde where was then that zeale of the Lord which is iust anger reuenging the maiestie of God being hurt or diminished For it is lawfull for the holie armies to go into the battell with this standerd-bearer alone if at anie time it be lawfull Did he then I praie you fet aide out of that tower of Loue or chappell of Faith or crossed standerds Was he anie whit ashamed to call himselfe the Seruant of the Seruants of God when as he did boast that he made France which was alwaies the beautie of Christians and temple of the popes and fortres of religion famous with the graues of french men Seeing that a priest being seauentie yeeres of age the ambassadour of Christ the authour and parent of peace did offer sacrifice to Bellona the goddesse of war to whom he stroue to offer sacrifice with great losse of mankinde And euen at such time as the profane multitude did make their praiers before the altars of peace and concorde with a pitifull shew Surely a spectacle woorth the beholding To see a father not onely most holie but also reuerend in respect of his age and white haires stirring vp his soldiers whom he had called out with the fame of Bellona as it were to procure tumult in France not reuerently attired in his kirtle and carrieng his gorgeous armes not holie with his pontificall mace or scepter but clad with a mantell and in barbarous attire but girt with furious boldnes that I may so call it glistering with these beastly and vaine thunderbolts hauing the crueltie of his spirits appeering in his sterne countenance and apparell Vndoubtedly we haue seene in a few yeers manie things which our posteritie will thinke to be incredible The ioints of ecclesiastical authoritie and discipline being dissolued in this winde and tempest how should the right faith haue continued vnlesse it had been fastened with the iron and eternall pins and vnlesse it had once been affirmed and established in the holie moniments Thus far goeth Budeus a man as I said before that loued his countrie and which deserued al praise Who though he knew not as yet fully what difference there was betwéen Christ and Antichrist yet could he not being inforced with loue of his countrie but set downe in writing that crueltie and barbarous fiercenes of the pope to the eternall reproch of the papacie that al posteritie might vnderstand with how enuious and rebellious a mind our * Alastor was the companion of Sarpedon king of Lycia whome Vlisses slew at Troie Alastores wer also certaine fiends that did sowe plagues famin and calamitie among men Alastors raged in the time of Budeus in France Go to let vs heare another testimonie of the same rebellion against the kings of France being not a little more ancient No man is ignorant that almost halfe the realme of France was in times past in the possession of the kings of England for the space of more than thrée hundred yéers When as king Philip who was afterward sirnamed Augustus did séeke to recouer that region in war it cannot in words be expressed how prowdly and furiously pope Innocentius the third did set himselfe against him We do not thinke that any man is so void of humanitie that he is ignorant that in times past this was the policie of the Romans to bring vnder them other nations that if they did perceiue any contention to be risen amongst neighbors or kings or people they did carefully nourish the same and did offer friendship felowship to the one partie by the most honorable decrées of the senate and did also promise that partie aide against the other After that by these shifts they had ouercome and subdued the one side they found afterward within short time very easie opportunitie to opprèsse the other Our people saith M. Tullius De Repub. hath now gotten the whole world by defending their companions The popes following this selfe same way of their ancestors that is as Iohn the munke a noble Canonist doth interpret it the way and footesteps of rouers and murderers so soone as they know any discord arise among kings and princes that were neighbors they began to increase and nourish the same by their messengers the cardinals and also to couenant with the one of them that if by their meanes they could obtaine the kingdome of their aduersarie then they should confesse that the sea of Rome was the author of so great a benefit and that they should be sworne to them to
importance especially at this time wherein the hypocrisie of the popes is laid open almost to all Europe For our Peretus doth as snailes vse to do when winter is ouer when they féele the heat of the sunne then they thrust out their swelling necks and two hornes out of their shels wherwith somtimes little children are terrified So he hath long time couched in his munkish den enduring hunger miserably begging from doore to doore Now when he séeth that he is aduanced to so great honor he casteth his cowle from about his ears and doth proudly shew foorth his hornes and he hopeth that he shal therewith terrifie princes and kings But as we haue alreadie said most Christian princes knowe the blindnes of those beasts they haue learned long ago what difference there is betwéene a lion and an asse of Cuma neither are they mooued either with the gaping mouthes of Antiks and with the téeth making an hidious noise or with other childish bugs of the same sort It is recorded that that our French king of whom we spake euen now Charles the sixt did with like courage despise the vaine thunderbolt of the pope about the yéere of Christ M CCCXXX For when he was proscribed by pope Benedict the 13. bicause he had forbidden certaine new and vnaccustomed exactions of pope Benedict he decréed according to the sentence of the publike councel and orders that the popes legates which had brought into France that bull which was fearefull to women and children should suffer this ignominie at Paris first that about ten of the clocke in the forenoone about which time the Senate of Paris vseth to be dissolued being brought to the gréeses of the pallace hauing some bishops standing by them and a great manie of priests being naked and holding in their right hand a burning torch they should openly confesse the wickednes they had committed and should humbly craue pardon for the same Then that being clothed by the hangman with garments painted to their reproch and hauing that popes armes turned in in reproch and being carried in a dirtie cart through the chiefe stréetes of the citie they should be set to be laughed at of the common people Which thing to haue béene done and also to haue béene quickly put in execution the moniments of the Senate of Paris do declare and it is also reported by Paponius Also In lib. Arrest 1. tit 5. Artic. 27. the authoritie of Baldus is extant against that rashnes of Benedict the 13. * in c. olim col penult Extra de rescript who sharpely and couragiously inueigheth against the Antipopes of that time wherof this Benedict had his sea at Auenion the other namely Boniface had his at Rome and the former of these he called a bellowing oxe the latter a warring beast he inueigheth against both most sharply and most fréely Moreouer there is extant in Theodor Nehemius * an epistle of the Vniuersitie and studie of Paris where Tract 6. c. 17. this first request is made that The popes letter made like to a bull be rent and broken as iniurious seditious fraudulent and offensiue to the kings maiestie with protestation to proceed vnto greater things and let all suggesters fauters receiuers be taken and kept to be punished and corrected according to the canons Like courage appéered in the Florentines against pope Sixtus the fourth whose name this Sixtus the fift thought he might take and also imitate his example who came out of the selfe-same seminarie of Bernardo For when he had proscribed the Florentines for that traiterous bishop of whom we spake before whom they hanged out at the court window and had giuen them to Ferdinando king of Sicilia for a praie the Florentines contemning the popes vaine thunderbolt and taking to them the duke of Ferrarie to be their partner in war they beate downe the madnes of the furious and fierce vncowled frier and inforced him with war and armes to reuerse his curse Which historie Raphael Volateranus recordeth in his fift booke of Geographie Furthermore there is extant the councel of Francis Aretinus a lawier being at that time very famous and noble wherein defending the cause of the Florentines he vseth these words The crime wherwith the woorthie man Laurentius de Medicis is charged touching rebellion is so manifestly refuted that I am ashamed of the voice of the pope in this point For in his letters written to the same woorthie man in the moneth of September last past it is declared that as touching that crime he counteth him as innocent and giltlesse and that he had no sinister suspition of him Then most holie father see you to it why you after a few moneths do heape vp so manie and grieuous crimes against him It is not for me to set my face against heauen onely I will say thus much It is not honestly done of him that sitteth in the throne of God to vse so great varietie Thus writeth Aretinus in his 163. councell as Iohn num 3. Time should faile vs if we would séeke to prosecute the princes and nobles who haue contemned these proscriptions and vain thunderings thunderbolts lightenings of the popes euen in former times in so great mistines and darknes The emperor Otho the fourth was proscribed by Innocentius Henrie the fourth by Gregorie the 7. Henrie the fift by Pascalis the second Friderike the first of Sueueland by Adrian the fourth and Alexander the third Philip sonne of Friderike the first by Innocentius the third Friderike the second by Gregorie the ninth was excommunicate not once nor twise but thrise Conradus the fourth by Innocentius the fourth But as touching the first beginning of this madnes boldnes from whom it first came the Germane historiographers do not sufficiently agrée Indéed Otho Frisingensis referreth it vnto the yéere CIC. lxvj wherein William king of England was proscribed by pope Alexander the second * Lib. Chron. 6. c. 35. I read saith he and read againe the famous facts of the kings and emperors of Rome and I can find none any where that was excommunicate before him But Iohn Tritemius writing concerning the emperor Henrie the fourth saith He was excommunicate by Gregorie In Chron. Hirsaug cap. 4. the seuenth and was deposed from the empire by the synodal decree of the bishops though he cared not for it But he is the first amongst all the emperors that was deposed by the pope But howsoeuer it be for it is not greatly appertinent to that we haue in hand what time this insolencie of the popes began it is euident that in all ages there were very many couragious men which despised these thunderings of the popes as squibbish thunderbolts and old bussings and as fray-bugs to feare children Of the kingdome of Nauarre betraied by the pope ANd it séemeth that we ought not to passe ouer in silence in this place that curse wherein the king of France Ludouike the 12. was proscribed togither with Iohn king
being frée and at libertie he might detest that which he had done being inforced by violence and feare It followeth He hath often raised vp heretiks rebels and seditious persons to beare armes against the most Christian king against him and the rest of the catholikes This Latin of the popes agréeth with the rest of his subtilties The king of Nauarre raised heretiks against the most christian king against him and the rest of the catholikes But let vs rather marke the meaning of these words For the king of Nauarre did neuer beare weapon against the most Christian king but against the popes conspirators and the companions of the popes tyranny his adiutors and ministers and finally against the authors of periurie and treacherie as the king himselfe hath most plainly testified in very many edicts tending to pacification Therefore our chiefe cowled frier doth wicked iniurie in this place to the most mightie kings of France séeing he durst charge their maiestie with lieng by whom it hath béen so often declared in edicts tending to pacification that those that tooke part with the king of Nauarre prince of Condie made war not against them but that it was taken in hand for preseruation of their dignitie and state It followeth He hath compelled his subiects with threatnings and strokes * to take the same capescere impietatem impietie To take the same impietie is a kind of popish eloquence But that any man was inforced these twenty yéers to change his religion either by those that tooke part with the King of Nauarre or Prince of Condie is as true as it is certaine and sure that neuer any beast in the brothel-houses of Rome was more impudent than Sixtus the fift in powring out lies Though it be well and we must thanke this pope that he accuseth those by whom silly captiues were inforced by threatenings and stripes to change their religion For as Lactantius wrote most truly religion cannot be inforced the thing must be done rather by words than stripes But bicause Lactantius doth so dispute in that place that he séemeth purposely to handle the cause both of the king of Nauarre and also of the French churches it is woorth the paines to heare his reasons The aduersaries saith he do feigne that they giue counsell to godlie men and that they would call them backe to a good mind Do they then seeke to do this by any speech or by any reason they render No surely but by violence and torments O strange and blind madnes it is thought there is an euill mind in them which go about to keep faith but in the hangman a good Is there an euill mind in those which are pluckt in peeces contrarie to the law of humanitie against all right Or rather in those which do these things to the bodies of innocents which neither most cruell robbers nor most angrie enimies nor most furious barbarians haue at any time done And by and by after And bicause they can do nothing by violence for the more the religion of God is depressed the more is it increased let them rather deale by reason and exhortations Let the bishops and such as are priests and prelates of religions come foorth Let them call vs togither to an assemblie These are the daily requests of the king of Nauarre and such as haue often béene deliuered to the king of France Let them draw out the sharpnes of their wit If their reason be true let it be brought we are readie to heare if they teach vs. Surely we giue no credence to them so long as they keepe silence as we yeeld not one inch when they rage Let them imitate vs or let them lay downe the reason of the whole matter For we do not intise as they obiect but we teach allow shew Therefore we retaine no man against his will For he is vnprofitable for God which wanteth faith and deuotion And yet no man departeth the truth hir selfe retaining him Let them teach thus haue they any confidence of the truth let them speake learne I say let them be so bold as to dispute any such thing with vs surely the old women whom they contemne and our boies shall now laugh at and mocke their error and follie What fitter thing and more appertinent to the state of these our times could Lactantius write for the king of Nauarre and French churches He procéedeth Butcherie and godlines are greatly contrarie neither can either truth be ioined with violence or iustice with crueltie Thus far goeth Lactantius wherby appéereth plainly how well the lawes of those old churches and of our churches agrée togither It followeth in the bul He sent a certaine deere friend of his being furnished with wicked pollicies without the borders of France by whom he imparted his wicked counsels with the chiefe heretiks and he prouoked their forces and arms against the catholike religion and the power of the bishop of Rome It is nothing appertinent to declare whom our frier meaneth in these words onely we will say thus much Though he whom he calleth the déere friend of the king of Nauarre holdeth a place méete for his birth among the greatest noble men of France and pope Sixtus the fift came of late out of the beggerie and filth of friers yet will not that noble man disdaine to charge him with an impudent lie and to send him sir reuerence of the hearers this paper of defiance if he will haue anie taken out of the 51. leafe of his conformities The diuell tempted Ruffine saieng Thou art damned and Francis himselfe is damned whosoeuer followeth him is deceiued Which when Ruffinus had told Francis Francis answered If he appeere againe and say any thing againe tell him namely the diuell Open thy mouth and I will vntrusse a poynt in it Afterward as Ruffinus did pray the diuel appeered to him again in the likenes of Christ saieng Brother Ruffinus did not I tel thee that thou shouldest not beleeue the sonne of Peter Bernardo Why dost thou vex thy selfe and streightway Ruffinus said to him Open thy mouth and I will vntrusse a poynt in it Then the diuell being displeased departed from him in a rage and with a tempest Sir reuerence as we said before of the hearers But the impudent mouth of that frier should haue béen stopped with this short answer For neither did that noble man at any time make any mention of making war before either any kings or princes but onely of establishing loue and brotherlie good wil amongst the reformed churches Though who doth not sée how profitable it is for all Christendome that that wicked and bloodie murtherer of the Church of Christ that author and defender of feigned religions that he who is conuict of treading vnder foote the maiestie of kings and the most certaine firebrand of our countrie should be quite rooted out of the land of the liuing It gréeueth him indéed to be robbed of so great tributes which héertofore he had
out of Denmarke Sueueland England Scotland Germanie and Heluetia But the noble man whom in this place he touched saith that he was neuer so mad as now when he is like to loose the realme of France and that he doth the same which the asses that are fed with hemlocke are said to do in Thuscia of whom Matheolus writeth that the fall so fast asléepe that they séeme as dead so that the countrimen come oftentimes to flea them and haue almost taken off halfe the skin before they are awaked But when they come to the backe then at a sudden they start vpon their féet and hauing the one halfe of their skin hanging about their héeles they make an euill fauored braieng so that somtimes the countrimen are sore afraid The howling of pope Sixtus séemeth to be like this at this time being spoiled almost of half his kingdoms and being out of hope of the rest and being now readie to put his necke in the halter to hang himselfe vnles most mightie kings and princes for restoring his power do fill poore France with murders and burnings But let these things hitherto be spoken concerning the protestation of the king of Nauarre And as for those things that are spoken properly and apart by themselues against the dignitie of the prince of Condie we take them to be sufficiently refuted with this common answer The pope chargeth him that he came of parents which were both of them heretiks As it is an excellent thing to be commended but of a man commendable so it is an excellent thing to be discommended if it be of a discommended and discommendable knaue such as it is euident that both this cowled baud is and I cannot tel what other slaues of his the cardinals who haue so hammered and wrought that thunderbolt at Rome as the Cyclops did sometimes forge thunderbolts for Iupiter in the mountaine Etna For who doth not vnderstand to what end this wicked reproch touching the hauing of two heretiks for his parents vttered properly against the prince of Condie doth tend For there is a rule among the canonists that no ecclesiasticall dignitie be granted to the sonnes of heretiks vnto the second generation * Therefore no doubt our Sixtus C. quicunque §. Haeretici c. statu De H. erit in 6. gloss in c. 1. in verb regnum Extr. de praeb doth prepare this way by the counsell of certain poyoners to take from the most noble prince Charles brother to the prince of Condie and comming of the same hereticall parents his cardinalship and benefices which we hope he will easily marke such is his wisedome But let vs now procéed to the rest of the sentences of Sixtus his bull For a few lines after the pope hitteth the same prince of Condie in the téeth with his dispensation that it might be lawfull for him to marrie his most noble kinswoman What blindnes of mind appéereth in such an impudent lie The prince had contracted that matrimony certaine moneths before that dispensation was brought from Rome He neuer asked any dispensation but being hedged in with armed men which did command him that he should with his hand subscribe an epistle by them written and desiring a dispensation he obeied against his will euen in like sort as we noted before in the king of Nauarre cosin to the same prince But it is woorth the paines to consider what maner liberalitie this was in the pope that he should grant leaue to the prince to marrie his cosin-german which matrimonie is not forbidden either by the law of God or by the ciuill law for in that book before mentioned the title wherof is The Taxes of the apostolike penance the popes absolution for him that hath contracted in the fourth degrée is taxed onely at seuentéene grosses For in the 37. page it is thus written A dispensation for the fourth degree of consanguinity for marriage to be made or made ignorantly gross 17. For the third and fourth degree gross 27. For the fourth and fift gross 27. and he must agree with the popes treasurie But if they haue contracted themselues wittingly and haue dispatched it gross 21. and in like sort for affinitie gross 29. What hath not the pope now somtimes dispensed contrarie to the manifest inhibition of the lawes of God that it might be lawfull for the vncle by the father or mother to coÌ„tract matrimony with the brother or sisters daughter Which notwithstanding ought to séeme so much the lesse strange bicause pope Martin the fift entring into consultation with his doctors and diuines as saith the historiographer dispensed with a certain person that he should take his owne naturall sister to wife For Antoninus of Florence hath committed to writing this sacrilege * in l si tibi filius l. si paterfamilias §. in arrogationibus D de adopt of In sua sum 3. par tit 1. ca 11 §. quod papa whom Angel de claua maketh mention and followeth in his summe in the word Papa and Nicolas Boetius in his 20. counsell vtrum papa num 26. And bicause the pope hath begun to speake of dispensations we must not passe ouer euen that other famous dispensation that it may be lawfull for a frier laieng aside his cowle for a time to marrie a wife for a certaine time namely vntil his wife be with child least the noble stocke do die without issue vpon that condition that so soon as he hath a child then the father letting downe his eares do returne to his cowle Touching which thing we may sée Baldus his testimonie * Iohan. Andr. in c. actus legitimi in c. semel Deo de reiur in 6. Innocent in c. cum ad monast in verb. lic Iohn Andreas * ibi Panormitanus de stat monach Petr. Ancha in con 339 parum du bitationis Marian cons 13. praesens consultatio con 28. circa priâ—â—â—n Panormitanus * who doth also cite others more ancient * William Benedict * in c. Raynutius in ver qui cum alia num 26. part 3. who noteth that the popes power is to dispense that a marriage may be made to last onely for a time Therefore such was the popes liberalitie in permitting to the munks to be married onely for a time bicause he had learned out of the apostle Paul that it was honorable amongst men of all orders But on the other side sée either woonderfull great nigardlines or seueritie of the same man For pope Callistus 3. saith Boerius refused to dispense for a deacons marriage who alledged that he had not the gift of continencie and that he could not resist the law of the flesh ne yet want a wife though cardinall Senensis did at that time make intreatie for him who did afterward succeed Callistus being called Pius the second as he witnesseth in his epistles made in the time of his cardinalship writing to that his friend that he must wait for another