entred into Sedan where he was joyfully received by the Duke being Prince of Sedan and Protectour of the Protestant Church there The King promised that the Church of Sedan should suffer no alteration but enjoy the liberty of their conscience In the year 1603. the Duke of Savoy had an enterprize upon Geneva his men on scaling Ladders mounted the Walls undescried surprized the Souldier that stood Centinel got the word of him and slew him being also Masters of the Streets about two hours But they were disappointed thirteen were by the Towns-men taken alive among whom was the Baron of Attignas which were condemned to be hanged whose heads with the heads of those that were killed in all seventy seven were set upon the Gallowes and their bodies thrown into the River of Rhosne for which deliverance they made a solemn thanksgiving to God concluding a peace with the Duke in July the same year The same year the King being at Metz there came unto him four Jesuites to obtain their re-establishment in France In October there was a National Synod held at Sap by those of the Reformed Religion which Treated touching Doctrine Discipline and the Government of Churches The King made Monsieur Alexander his Bastard Son of the Order of the Knights of Malta A great number of Commanders and Knights being assembled at Paris where he was invested into the Order in the Augustines Church by the Grand-Prior of France who set upon his Breast a Plastron of black Satten with a white Cross So the Ceremony ended with great joy and sounding of Trumpets The new Knight feasted the Grand-Priors of France and Champagne with the Commanders and Knights at the Temple The King having promised to restore the Jesuites Father Cotton came to Paris by his Majesties Command with Father Armand the Provincial and Father Alexander and the King grew presently into such a liking with Father Cotton as he did nothing but he was called and in the end his Majesty granted their return upon certain Conditions and the Edict made for their establishment notwithstanding any oppositions made unto the Court to hinder the confirmation therof was confirmed in the beginning of the year 1604. and their Colledges were restored at Lions Roven Bourges and Dijon The Signeur of Varenne Controller General of the Posts and now Governour of the Town and Castle of Anger 's who loved them of this company besought the King to build a new Colledge at La Fleche in Anjou with priviledges like to the other Universities of that Realm the which the King made of a Royal Foundation and gave them his own House with Pensions for the instruction of a good number of young Gentlemen whom his Majesty would have bred up and instructed there in all Professions Tongues and Exercises But Father Cotton returning one night somewhat late about the end of February and passing by the Street of the new Bridge to go unto the Louvre there were certain Pages and Lacquies which calling for him at the door of the Coach wounded him with their Rapiers giving him one great wound in the shoulder going toward the neck and throat whereof he was soon after cured There was great search made for this attempt Some were taken and examined Cotton requested the King to pardon them yet were they banished the Court and forbidden ever to come there upon pain of death In the year 1606. the King made special orders on the behalf of those of the Reformed Religion enjoyning them to carry themselves according to the Edict of Nantes avoiding all occasions of scandal About Easter this year were such violent winds and storms throughout all France as the tops of houses being cast down many were slain and sore hurt in Paris Not long after there was a violent Plague in the same and in the beginning of the following year In the year 1608. were the Jesuites admitted into Navarre and Bearn whereat all the Judges and Officers of the Country were discontented as who hated the Jesuites above all Creatures living and had in former times put them to death like Spies if they found any within their limits The Prelates of France in like manner Petitioned the King once again that the Decrees of the Council of Trent might be observed On April 11. Anno 1609. there was a Conference between Monsieur Du Moulin lone of the Ministers of the Reformed Church of Paris and Father Gontier a Jesuite being seconded by the Baroness of Salignar after which it was bruited abroad that Gontier had confuted Du Moulin in divers points which the Protestants held Gontier himself writing a specious Letter to the King to that effect Du Moulin finding his Reputation touched and the truth misreported was forced to publish a true Discourse of the whole Conference In the year 1610. another attempt against Geneva was discovered whereof the Authour was â—analis one of their own home-bred and native Citizens a man not meanly reputed of both for his knowledge in Physick and the Languages whereof being found guilty and of another before he was condemned and his body broken and so laid half dead on a wheel unbound he was cast from thence to be burned in a fire under him On May 13. the Queen was solemnly Crowned at St. Dennis by the Cardinal of Joyeuse On Friday May 14. the day after the Queens Coronation the King was treacherously murthered by the cursed hand of a bloody villain The King being advertised of some ominous influence and Prediction which did threaten him that day went to see Mass with great devotion At his return they brought him some of his Children among the rest the Duke of Anjou whom he dearly loved but being then very pensive he commanded they should carry him to breakfast Then being very sad he cast himself upon his bed to sleep if he might but not being able to take any rest he fell upon his knees and began to pray Then he lay down again and prayed again and thus he did three times In the end he went and walked in the Gallery till dinner time After dinner many Noblemen came into his Chamber and began to tell some tales to make him laugh Having smiled a little with the rest being naturally of a pleasant disposition in the end he said We have laughed enough for Friday we may well weep on Sunday Hereupon he caused some to go to the Arsenal at four of the clock Whereupon they say that the Duke of Vendosme told him that he had been warned to beware of the 14. day yet making no account thereof he went down into the Court where a man of a mean condition entertained him a quarter of an hour Then he went into his Coach by the Duke of Espernon who sate in the first place of the Boot on the King 's right hand Montbazon the Marshal of Lavardin la Force and Praulin being followed by two Foot-men and one of his Guard on Horse-back having commanded Monsieur de Vitry and the rest of
his Guard to stay behind Being between the Draw-bridge and the Port a miserable wretch Francis Ravillac born at Angoulesm by Profession a Lawyer watching his opportunity drew near unto the Coach on the right side thinking his Majesty had been ther but seeing he was on the left hand and hearing them command the Coach-man to drive on he went the nearest way by narrow Lanes and met with the Coach again in the Street called Ferroniere near Innocents Church where staying to make way for a Cart to pass the King leaned down on the one side towards the Duke of Espernon pressing him to read a Letter without Spectacles Montbazon with the Mareschal de la Vardin was in one of the Boots who turned toward them and one of the Footmen was busie in tying up his garter on the other side so that this Monster had the opportunity to stab the King in the left Pap but the wound was not great Whereupon crying out O my God I am wounded he gave him a second blow which was mortal the knife entring between the Fifth and Sixth Rib it cut asunder the Vein leading to the heart And the wound was so deep that it entred into Cava Vena the which was pierced wherewith the King did presently spit blood losing all apprehension and knowledge for any thing they could perceive who being carried back into the Louvre was laid upon a Couch in his Cabinâ—â— where presently after he gave up the ghost After whose death the Queen-Mother was declared Regent in France by whose Commandment the King's heart was delivered to the Jesuites to be laid up in their Colledge of la Fleche as the King himself had long before resolved The first Edict at Nantes was also confirmed for the entertainment whereof a Declaration was made by Lewes the young King The Murtherer being arraigned was put to the Rack on May 25. and on the 27. had the Sentence of death given against him His execution was after this manner He was brought out of the Prison in his shirt with a Torch of two pound weight lighted in one hand and the knife wherewith he had murthered the King chained in the other Then was he set upright in a Tumbrel or dung Cart and so he was conducted with a good Guard to our Ladies Church where he did penance After this he was accompanied to the place of Execution by two Doctors of Divinity who still perswaded him to save his soul from everlasting punishment by revealing his Associates the which he would not In this manner he was carried to the Greve where there was a strong Scaffold built for his Execution At his coming up on the Scaffold he crossed himself in token that he died a Papist Then was he bound to an Engine of wood which done his hand with the knife chained to it wherewith he had slain the King was put into a Furnace then flaming with Fire and Brimstone wherein it was in a terrible manner consumed and yet he would not confess any thing but cast forth horrible cries like a soul tormented in Hell Then the Executioners having made Pincers red hot in the same Furnace they did pinch his Paps the brawns of his arms and thighs with the calves of his legs and other fleshy parts of his body pulling out collops of flesh and burning them before his face Then they poured into those wounds scalding Oyl Rozen Pitch and Brimstone melted together After which they set a hard roundel of Clay upon his Navil having an hole in the midst into the which they poured molten Lead yet he revealed nothing but roared out most horribly Then they caused four strong Horses to be brought to tear his Body in pieces But these Horses could not of a long time pull him asundâ—r though another very strong Horse was put in the place of one of the four who strained but faintly until they were constrained to cut the veins under his arms and thighs by which means his body was the easier torn in pieces Then the enraged multitude pulled this dismembred Carkass out of the Executioners hand which they dragged up and down through the dirt and cutting off the flesh with their knives the bones which remained were burnt at the place of execution and the ashes scattered in the wind His Father and Mother were commanded to depart the Land and never to return again His Brethren Sisters Uncles and others his Kinsfolk enjoined to take another Name His goods were declared forfeited to the King and the house where he had been born to be beaten down This wicked Parricide confessed no other motive of his Crime but the Book of Mariana a Spanish Jesuite Which Book by a Decree made by the Colledge of Sorbonne and confirmed by a sentence from the Courts of Parliament was for that cause by a sentence condemned to be publickly burnt before our Ladies Church in Paris After the execution of Ravillac there was a foul imputation laid on the Jesuites and many condemned them as Abettors and favourers of the Murtherers of Princes for which cause Father Cotton employs all his Wit and Eloquence to wipe it off in whose behalf the Bishop of Paris wrote which as a Preface was prefixt before his Declaration and Printed But the Learned Du Moulin put forth that famous Book called Anticoton in which he proved that the Jesuites were Authours of that horrible Parricide Though he put not his name to it yet the Jesuites soon knew that it was his Work and made an answer to it directed unto him because there was in the Anticoton an Anagram of Father Cotton which fathered the King's death upon him thus PIERRE COTON PERCE TON ROY They also made this Anagram upon Du Moulin's name PETRUS DU MOULIN ERIT MUNDO LUPUS With these Verses Petri hostis Petrus christi insidiatur ovili Quo deglubere quo dilaniare queat More Lupi verè Lupus est cui nomen omen Et mores insunt ingeniumque Lupi Which Verses Du Moulin answered thus Quisquis es insulso qui fundis acumine versus Hellespontiaco victima digna Deo Quà m frustrà vacuum scalpsisti sinciput ô quos Risus Hâ—â—rida vox semilatrina movet Dum tua menâ—â—ariè turbata elementa pererrat Et spargis virus nomen in innocuum Quin in hoc casu quaedam est industria dum tu In laudem imprudens nomina nostra trahis Namque Lupo cohibemus equos agitator equorum Improbioris equi comprimit ora lupo Qui in gyrum cogit facilique peritus habenâ Compositos gressus agglomerare docet Ergo lupus mundo est qui fraenans ora lupato Dura per errorum devia monstrat iter Nec mirum si nos Papalis verna culinae Si ciniflo Satanae dixerit esse lupos Cum Christum Satanam Pharisaeus dicat apella Nemo bonus secum mitiùs optet agi Ergo Dei servum vanis latratibus urgens Meque lupum appellans desinat esse canis At this
by the Parliament he disswaded them from it as much as he could both by Letters and Sermons And unto him the Court was obliged that all the Protestant Tows on this side the Loire kept in the King's obedience He shewed that he did it not to serve the times but to serve God The declaring of the Politick Assembly of the Protestants for the Prince of Conde in the year 1616. was the greatest error that ever they committed and they smarted for it as soon as the young King had got more Age and vigour In the mean time Du Plessis laboured much in procuring the peace of the Protestant Churches endeavouring to keep a good correspondence between the King and them which was continually ready to be interrupted in which business he carried himself with so much prudence and fidelity in all occurences between them that he was admired and praised by all Yea even Cardinal Du Perron himself heretofore one of his greatest enemies shewed him great respect in the Assembly of States held at Roven Anno 1617. Speaking of him in all companies with an excess of Praises and telling the King himself that those men had done him wrong who had kept off Monsieur Du Plessis from having a greater Power in the management of his affairs And that his Religion ought not to render him unprofitable in the exercise of those graces which God had given him and that his Majesty ought to keep him near his person so long as he should live After the return of Dr. Du Moulin out of England the Jesuite Arnoux a Court Preacher sent a challenge to the Ministers of Paris to appear before the Queen-Mother to give account of their Religion preacht fire and sword against them before their Majesties and sent them a Pamplet full of heavy accusations The Doctor was charged by his Colleagues to make an answer to it which he did and addressed it to the King In that answer by way of just recrimination he affirmed that he had seen in the Colledge of the Jesuites at la Fleshe a Picture of the Martyrs of their Order and in that rank some Traytors who had been executed for conspiring against the Life of their Kings That the maxims of the Jesuites were pernicious to Kings whereas the Doctrine of the Protestants maintained their Life their Authority nad their States And the Pastours of the Reformed Churches taught their people fidelity and obedience to the King Then he represented the many Perils and Combates which the Protestants had sustained for the defence of King Henry IV. till they had brought him to the Crown Of which services they that had been the King's enemies received the reward This answer of the Ministers was presented to the King by the Duke of Rohan See the Life of Dr. Du Moulin This bold address to the King irritated the great Officers of the Crown of whom not a few or their Fathers had been of the party of the League The Jesuites therefore letting their challenge fall indicted the Ministers of Treason although all the ground they could find for it was that the Ministers called the Reformed Churches their people as if they had pretended some Soveraignty over them The Ministers being summoned before the Council the indictment of Treason was not much urged as being but a Cavil After grave Admonitions and high threatnings by Chancellour Bruslart they dismissed them That challenge of Arnoux and a Pamphlet of his against the confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in France occasioned the Doctor to write his Buckler of Faith A Jesuite came to the Doctors Study to dispute with him Monsieur de Monginot a famous Physitian was present at the Conference whereby he was converted and set out an excellent Book of the reasons why he abjured Popery He had many encounters and to relate all his Conferences migh◠fill a great Volume Scarce was he a week without one while he lived in Paris and some of them were very long He was the object of the publick hatred of the Romanists His name was the general Theme of Libels cryed up in the Streets of railing Sermons in all Pulpits and of the curses of ignorant Zealots The Popish Clergy in the year 1617. being assembled at the house of Austin-Friers in Paris as every two years they used to do being to take their leaves of the King elected the Bishop of Aire to be their Spokes-man and to certifie his Majesty of their grievances In performing which business the principal thing of which he spake was to this purpose That whereas his Majesty was bound to give them Fathers he gave them Children That the name of Abbot signifies a Father and the Function of a Bishop was full of Fatherly authority yet France notwithstanding was now filled with Bishops and Abbots which are yet in their Nurses arms or else under their Regents in Colledges Nay more that the abuse goeth before the Being Children being commonly design'd to Bishopricks and Abbacies before they were born He also made another complaint that the Soveraign Courts by their Decrees had attempted upon the Authority which was Committed to the Clergy even in that which concerned meerly Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government of the Church To these complaints he gave them indeed a very gracious hearing but it never went further than a hearing being never followed by redress The Court of Parliament knew too well the strength of their own Authority and the King was loth to take from himself those excellent advantages of binding to himself his Nobility by the speedy preferring of their Children So the Clergy departed with a great deal of envy and a little of satisfaction In the same year the States of the United Provinces desired the Churches of England Germany France c. to send some able Divines to the Synod of Dort whereupon the Churches of France named four viz. Dr. Du Moulin Chamier Rivet and Chaune But when the Doctor was making ready for his journey he was forbidden by a messenger of the Council of State of France to go out of the Kingdom upon pain of death The like prohibition was made to the three other Divines Andrew Rivet was a Godly and Learned French Divine He hath very well expounded Genesis Exodus the Prophetical Psalms and Hosea and wrote Learnedly against the Papists in his Catholicus Orthodoxus and against Grotius Criticus sacer seu censura Patrum Isagoge in S. Scripturam Synopsis doctrinae de naturâ gratiâ He hath published other Learned Treatises in French and Latin William Rivet his Brother hath also published a Learned Treatise De Justificatione an exact French Treatise De invocatione adoratione Sanctorum defunctorum Epist Apologet. Daniel Chamier was also a Learned French man who in his Panstratiae Catholicae hath so Learnedly refuted the Papists that none of them hath made any answer to it His Epistolae Jesuiticae and Corpus Theologiae also shew his great abilities There is also a Work of his in French
another little Town near to Saint Aubin and put all the Souldiers in it to the sword Then they marched against certain places which the Duke of Rohan had resolved to defend but the fear which the Inhabitants and Souldiers apprehended on sight of the Army made them open their Gates so they entred without resistance Then they became Masters of Corconne and Aubenas Montmorency pursued the Duke of Rohan and constrained him to flight he maintained the fight about two hours and saw about an hundred of his Souldiers killed fifteen of his Guard seven or eight Captains slain and divers others wounded In fine he saw at the years end that he had very little advanced his design The Rochellers now send to the King of England to demand succour Order was given for the Rigging out a Fleet in behalf of the Rochellers and the Command to be given to the Earl of Denbigh The King goes from Rochel to Paris to dissipate those Factions which began to rise thereabouts by the Hugonots in Picardy Champagnie and Brie Richlieu Commandeth the Army in his Majestie 's absence The English Fleet being now ready to hoise sail for Rochel the King resolveth to return thither The Rochellers are summoned by an Herauld to surrender to the King but their minds and answers were full of insolency so that the King bent all his thoughts to prepare for the fighting with the English Fleet at their first coming About the eleventh of May they were descried two Leagues off the point of Coreille An order was resolved on by the King assisted with his Generals and Sea Captains and so delivered to the Commander of Valencay who distributed it among the Officers The English attempt to relieve Rochel but in vain and when the Rochellers were embarqued after the exhortations of their Ministers and their Captains had solemnly sworn to pass the Bank in spite of all opposition or die in the attempt they were struck with such faint-heartedness that not a man durst stir his hand and Vincent their Minister could no longer speak unto them as himself confessed in a Letter to a friend of His. The English Fleet now departeth whereupon great dissentions arise among the Rochellers Then the King sent another summons to them to yield Breton Herauld at Arms was commanded to do it in form with his Coat of Arms who went into the City required them to lay down their Arms assured them of Pardon for their past Crime and threatning them with the contrary in case they should now refuse it But they being animated by their Preachers the Town continued obstinate in their insolencies After a feigned Treaty between the King and the Rochellers the Town was reduced by Famine to extream miseries The Cardinal perswaded his Majesty to settle divers Catholick Preachers in the Hugonot Provinces and wrought upon the Duke of Tremoville to forsake the Protestant Religion The Rochellers when they saw there was no hopes of succour from the English and that they died by thousands of the Famine made divers proposals of accommodation Since the last six months there had died about ten thousand of the Famine The Cardinal declared to them they must not think of any other condition than absolutely to submit to his Master's will At last they chose twelve of the principal among them most of which could hardly creep to beg his Majestie 's pardon to assure him that they would live and die in the obedience which they owed to him without demanding any other conditions than what his Majesty should please to give them The King granted them the pardon which they desired and the Sieur of Herbaut Secretary of State read the Patent to them by which his Majesty pardoned their Rebellion discharged them of all Acts of Hostility ordained that they should be restored to their goods granted them the Exercise of their Religion in the City and commanded that all the Souldiers in the City should enjoy the same Grace and that the chiâ—f Captains and Gentlemen should go out with their swords by their sides and the Souldiers with Cudgels in their hands but first they were to swear never to bear Arms against his Majestie 's service Rochel yielded up to the King Upon October 30. the Duke of Angolesm the Marshal de Scomberg the Sieurs de la Curce Vignolle Hallier St. Chaumont and divers other Lords fourteen Companies of the Regiments des Guardes and six of Swisses began about six in the morning to enter into Rochel The King placed himself upon the Fort de Beaulieu to see the Forces march into the Town They who Commanded these Forces seized on all the Gates of the Town the Ramparts Cannon and Munition and sent away the Souldiers the English by Sea and the French by Land who looked more like ghosts than men There were as many Citadels as Gates and as many Castles as Towers and this was it that made the City be esteemed impregnable especially seeing it had an outlet by Sea which could never have been broken up but by his Majestie 's extraordinary power and prudence yet all served but as Trophies raised to his Majestie 's glory On November 1. the King made his entrance into the City Those poor Creatures of the City prostrated themselves as he rode by them that they might the more acknowledge the mercy he had shewed them He had his Arms on and rode in on Horse-back without any Ceremony only four Companies of his Guards two of Swisses his two Troops of Light Horse Armed Cap-a-pe his Dragoons and the Life-guard marched before him all the Nobility following him without any order to avoid the disputes of Precedency Administrat of Card. Richliâ—u The Inhabitants cast themselves on their knees as his Majesty passed along the Streets crying God save the King who hath been so gracious unto us And he frequently saluted those who seemed to be of the better sort among them But those submissions and acknowledgements were much more increased when they received the ten thousand Loaves of Bread which the King distributed among them the same day together with divers other Alms. But when they saw that there came three thousand Carts laden with Wheat and other Provisions into the Town with a proportionate number of Beasts and Cattle which his Majesty commanded to be brought and sold at the usual rates of the Army they then confessed that he knew how to pardon as well as to vanquish The King alighted at S. Margarite's Church which had been Consecrated by the Bishop of Burdeaux and where the Cardinal had with divers Ecclesiasticks that morning celebrated Mass by way of doxology for that happy Victory He was received by the Archbishop assisted by the Clergy and divers other Religious who sung the Te Deum and the King himself also sang it with great devotion About two daies after the King caused the Hoast to be carried in Procession which was performed with a pompous Devotion He also wrote to the Archbishop
they connive at the punishment of crimes whereof they have the Cognizance the Courts of Parliaments may interpose by means of an Appeal as from Abuses especially considering it is it that grants them Jurisdiction over Spirituals And if the Question be of granting pardon to a Priest or other Ecclesiastick not only in a priviledged case but also in a common crime by him committed it belongs to the King only to grant it not to the Pope nor the Bishop And so it hath been always accustomed to be done in France Moreover the Pope cannot there restore Clergy-men to their former State Papon ca. 15. 16. des libertez de l'Eglise Gallic so as to free them from the infamy which they have incurred nor Lay-men unless it be to receive them into Orders Offices and Ecclesiastical Acts not otherwise As also that within this Realm he cannot pardon or remit the Honorary Amends adjudged by a Lay-man albeit the condemnation were passed by an Ecclesiastical Judge and that against a Clerk as making such Honorary condemnation a part of the civil satisfaction The Pope cannot make any Vnions or annexations of the livings in France during the life of the Incumbents nor at other times but he may grant out Writs of Delegation concerning unions which is conceived to be done according to the form prescribed in the Council of Constance and with the consent of the Patron and not otherwise The Kings of France have always reserved this authority and prerogative to themselves to determine of the Residence of Bishops to compel them to feed their Flocks and wait upon their Churches when need required and that by seizing upon their Temporals to call them from Rome to return into France to dispense with them and approve the causes of their absence The Pope cannot in France dispense for any cause whatsoever with that which is of the Law of God or Nature or with that wherein the Councils do not allow him to dispense And the Ordinances of the French Kings do expresly forbid all the Judges of the Land to have any regard to dispensations granted contrary to the sacred Decrees and Councils upon pain of losing their places And declare furthermore That such as procure the said Proviso's and dispensations shall not make use of them unless they get leave and permission from his Majesty The Gallican Church is also more free from payments to the Pope than the Church of Spain as also to the King The Clergy of France pay only the Disme whereas in Spain the King hath his Tertia's Subsidio Pyla Escusado in all a moiety of the Church-livings As to the French Churches separating from Communion with the Church of Rome they have often been brought very low by the Popish party Sad was the condition of the Church of Merindol which was cruelly rooted out by vertue of an Arrest of the Parliament of Aix Men Women and Children being destroyed And yet I doubt not but some small remainder of them was preserved For so the story saith expresly pauci quidem profugi Genevam alia loca Vicinia pervenerunt Osiand Eccl Hist Some few of them escaped by flight to Geneva and other Neighbouring places What Persecutions did the Waldenses or Albigenses suffer when the Pope sent about his Fryars in France it seemeth to preach Crusado 's viz. That whosoever would take the Badge of the Cross upon his Garment and serve the Pope forty days in his Wars against those Christians who denyed him obedience and opposed his Pride and Tyranny should have full pardon of all his sins and if he dyed in the Wars should presently go to Heaven and escape the flames of Purgatory and by this means as I remember he had at one time about an hundred thousand of the silly people in Arms whom he used against the most faithful Christians seeking utterly to extirpate them and by this means much Blood was shed It was easie for him in those times of darkness to draw multitudes of poor blind Souls to Destruction And Reimond Earl of Tholouse a great Prince and Peer of France was ruined the Pope seizing on his Estate and holding it unto this day A French Historian speaking of the bloody massacre in the Reign of Charles IX saith Thuan. Hist li. 54. that many wise men that were Papists themselves did think that in all Antiquity there could not be found an example of like cruelty But even then remarkable was God's Providence towards those of the Reformed Religion in France In the time of that cruel massacre at Paris the Protestants being in great fear shifted for themselves here and there Among the rest many of them fled to a certain honourable Lady for protection who being near of kin to the King was the more bold but being a faithful Christian she was also willing to receive them Hereof complaint being made the King in great displeasure commands her to dismiss them all which she could not withstand so that in one day about 300 Waggons for the most part filled with Women and young Children were constrained to dislodge and without a guard to go to a strong Town for the safety of their lives In this Journey they were to pass through their bloody enemies stragling up and down in Armes and ready to seize on such a booty But by the special providence of God a certain Troop of Armed Gentlemen on Horse-back hapned to meet them who soon perceiving and pitying their danger conducted them along in safety and often repulsed their enemies that were ready to assail them And though the French Kings have all of them professed the Roman Religion yet the Lord hath had many Instruments who with the hazard of their lives and outward Estates have stood for the defence of his Church divers Princes of the Blood Nobles Gentlemen and others and did strangely raise his Church again after that horrid massacre by which it seemed to have been extinguished And King James of happy Memory speaketh thus of those worthy Patriots whom God raised up for the defence of his Church at that time in his book of the defence of the right of Kings I never knew yet saith he that the French Protestants took Arms against their King In the first troubles they stood only on their defence Before they took Arms they were burnt and massacred every where And the quarrel did not begin for Religion but because when King Francis the second was under Age they had been the Refuge of the Princes of the Blood expelled from the Court even of the Grandfather of the King now reigning and of that of the Prince of Condè who knew not where to take Sanctuary it shall not be found that they made any other War Nay is it not true as a learned Divine of ours hath well observed that King Henry III. sent Armies against them to destroy them and yet they ran to his help as soon as they saw him in danger Is it not true that
Orator Dialecticus Poeta Tractator Geometra Musicúsque Doctus solvere vincla quaestionum Et verbi gladio secare sectas Vi quae Catholicam fidem lacessunt Tandem Concludit At tu quisquis doles amice lector De tanto quasi viro nihil supersit Vndis parcegenis rigare marmor Mens gloria non queunt humari Paulinus lived about this time he was Bishop of Nola born in France a man of a great wit and an excellent Orator and Poet. Of both Testaments he writeth thus to Severus Paulin. Epist ad Sever. 12. Nam quia latorem duo Testamenta per unum Pacta Deum in Christo copulat una fides Lex antiqua novam firmat veterem nova complet In veteri spes est in novitate fides Sed vetus atque novum conjungit gratia Christi And upon the Supper of the Lord I will add these mystical Verses out of the same Epistle In cruce fixa caro est quâ pascor de cruce sanguis Ille fluit vitam quo bibo corda lavo Carne tua vivet tunc illi pocula sanguis Praebeat in verbo vivat agátque tuo The next I shall mention is John Cassian the Scholar of Chrysostome and made Deacon by him at Constantinople afterwards he was a Presbyter of the Church of Marseilles Vincentius Lirinensis a French man spent the first part of his life in Secular and Military employments but afterwards he led a solitary and contemplative life and became a Presbyter as the Catalogue of Gennadius relateth he wrote against the Pelagians and Nestorians and against prophane novelties In the Year of Christ 485. Clovis the first of that Name and the fifth King of France began his Reign being about the Age of fifteen years a Prince of singular Hope born for the establishment of the French Monarchy He had the honour to be the first Christian King of France Although Clovis was a Pagan before by Profession yet was he no enemy to the Chrstians fitting himself to the humour of the Gauls who generally followed the Christian Religion He suffered his Wife likewise to Baptize her Children Causins Holy Court Part. 2. Clotilda desired nothing more than the Conversion of her Husband which happened in this sort The Suevi a people of Germany passed the Rhine with great Forces Commanded by many Kings who were personally in the Army and came to rush on the Gauls with intentions to destroy the beginnings of the French Monarchy Clovis speedily opposeth them with good Troops for he likewise had drawn together to his Aid the Ribarols people near bordering on the Rhine who were Allied to the French and had first of all given notice of the Enterprize of the Suevi who in a near degree threatned them The encounter of the two Armies was near Colen which was one of the most desperate that we find in Histories The King undertook the Conduct of the Cavalry and had given unto Prince Sigebert his Kinsman the Infantry There was nothing but fire tempests deaths and slaughters so great was the resistance on either side In the end Sigebert valiantly fighting was wounded with an arrow and born all bloody out of the battel by his Son The Infantry through the absence of their Colonel was defeated and put to rout All the burden of the battel fell upon the Cavalry which did great exploits fighting before the eyes of their King but in the end the shock of their enemies was so impetuous that it brake through and scattered them Clovis covered with blood and dust performed the duty both of a great Captain and valiant Soldier but notwithstanding all his endeavours terrour had so seized on these flying men that his affairs grew desperate Hereupon Aurelianus the Kings great Favourite perswadeth him to make a vow unto God to be Baptized if he returned victorious from this battel which he did calling aloud upon the God of his Wife and promising an absolute Conversion to the Christian Faith The word was no sooner spoken but that his Troops rallied themselves up made head against their enemies pursued them ran through and routed them with so great a massacre that the fields were all covered with dead bodies The discomfiture so terrified them on the other side of the Rhine that the Almans which survived yielded themselves tributaries to his Majesty Clotilda hearing the news of this victory and of the King 's pious Resolution went out to meet him as far as Champagne accompanied with Remigius Bishop of Rhemes a man of great Piety and Eloquence to instruct him in the true Doctrine wherein he was very ignorant De Serres Hist in Vit. Clodov It was necessary he should be instructed by a discreet man that in leaving the vanity of Pagans he might not be infected with the Arian Heresie which then was dispersed in divers places and even his own Sister Lantielde was infected therewith The preaching of Remigius was effectual with Clovis and the Example of Clovis with his men of war When he came to the Church of Rhemes to be Baptized Remigius spake to him these words Bend thy neck to the yoke in mildness worship that which thou hast burnt and burn that which thou hast worshipped He Answered I worship the true God which is the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator of Heaven and Earth The King being Baptized exhorted his men to the same belief they cry all joyntly We leave our Mortal Gods and are ready to follow the Immortal So Clovis was baptized at Rhemes by Remigius and with him three thousand of his Soldiers to the incredidible joy of the Gauls greatly affected to Christian Religion and this perfected the union betwixt them and the French making their yoke easie and them tractable The first War he undertook after his Baptism was against Gombaut King of Burgundy who being vanquished became Tributary to Clovis Gombaut was an Arian and this his Heresie drew upon him the vengeance of God Afterwards Clovis encountred with the Forces of Alaricus in Aquitain discomfiteth them and kills Alaricus The hand of God thundred and lightened at that time upon many Diadems of Heretical Kings viz. Gombaut Godemar Chilperic Godegisilus Alaricus and in the end on Theodorick himself Remigius was a man of most holy Conversation and besides his admirable sanctity acknowledged throughout all France he had the reputation to be one of the most able and eloquent men of his time witness Sidonius Apollinarius who speaking of his eloquence with admiration saith He thought there was not a man living upon the face of the earth whom Remigius surpasseth not without any elaborate study at all through the experience he had acquired of well-speaking his conceptions were unimitable his language so sweet and polite that it resembled a very smooth piece of ice whereon nothing might be seen unequal His sentences were full of weight his arguments forcible and his words glided along like a river and ever bare in them some flashes of lightning at
then it was the custom of the French Kings not to eat alone and seeth twelve poor men ill-apparelled sitting by upon the ground near to the Table of the Noblemen He demanded what those poor miserable Creatures were that did feed apart One answered They were the Messengers and Servants of God He then said Their God was of small account seeing his Messengers and Servants were so miserable and contemptible and thereupon retired himself having by this Treaty qualified the Force of Charles viewed his Train and made shew of his Courage even without an Ambassadour Charles Resolved to avenge this affront of the Saracen He raiseth an Army of an hundred and thirty thousand men He returneth into Spain at the first encounter he defeated Agoiland's Army near to Pampelona and for a seal of his Victory carrieth away the Head of Agoiland slain by the hand of Arnold of Belange a Noble and Valiant Knight Charles wrote divers Books He began a Grammar of the German Language but ended it not He changed the names of the Winds and Months from the Heathenish manner In the Epistle to Alcuinus before his Books De Divinis Officiis he saith when Christ was at supper with his Disciples he brake the bread and gave the cup to them in figure of his body and blood and left a great Sacrament which is profitable unto us Lib. 1. cap. 15. He saith elsewhere The Miracles which they say have appeared in Images if they did not appear truly as no Authentick History sheweth were but lies If by some imaginary over-shadowing they did appear to deceive mens minds it is most dangerous lest that Old Enemy by his subtilty through shew of wonders perswade to do unlawfull things But if these things did verily appear we should understand that when many wondrous things are done at the pleasure of God by some Creatures Lib. 3. cap. 25. or in whatsoever Creatures they be done yet these things are not to be worshipped by which or in which these wonders are made because God who sheweth many signs unto men by visible and palpable things to mollifie the hardness of mens hearts by these visible things worketh not these signs to confirm the worship of any Creature for he hath commanded to worship himself alone Because God spake out of a bush to Moses should the bush therefore be worshipped Because a Woman was healed by touching the hem of Christ's garment should hems therefore be worshipped The Catholick Church professeth to serve God not by Images not by men nor ethereal powers but by Christ our Lord. Charles the Emperour made many Laws and Ecclesiastical Constitutions which Angisus Abbot of Lobien and then Arch-Bishop of Senon gathered together with the Constitutions of his Son Lewis and divided them into seven Books Sinderus testifieth that they were in the Abby of St. Gallus and were not long since printed at Paris Alcuin cont Elipant Alcuinus saith thus of him Charles was a King in Power a Catholick in Faith an High-Priest in Teaching a Judge in Equity a Philosopher in Liberal Studies famous in Manners and excellent in all Honesty He was never served at Table with more than four dishes at once his Recreations were hunting and reading of Histories He died in February Pedro Mexia Hist Anno 814 and was interred at Aix la Chapelle where he was born and his Memory honoured with a goodly Epitaph The greatness of his Monarchy is admirable for he quietly enjoyed all France Germany and the greatest part of Hungary all Italy and a part of Spain He left his Son Lewes sole Heir of his great Kingdoms who was the weakest of all his Sons The French Monarchy being come to the height of it's Greatness not long after the death of Charlemagne it began to decline The foolish lenity of Lewes was the beginning the which was continued by the disordered confusions of his Successors who in spite one to another hastened the ruine of their House making way thereunto by their Vices and Misfortunes Lewes more fit to be a Monk than a King was so given to Devotion and of so soft a spirit that he made his Authority contemptible both within and without the Realm This made divers Nations subject to the Crown to fall from their obedience Bernard King of Italy an ambitious young man was perswaded by the Bishops of Orleans and Milan to seize upon the Realm of France But being in field to go into France against his Unckle with an imaginary favour of the French to be proclaimed King both he and all his Counsellours were taken by Lewes his Subjects Lewes having both his Nephew and Counsellors in his Power despoils him of all his Realm of Italy confines him to perpetual prison and puts out his eyes the like he doth to all the Bishops and Noble Men he could get and after a few dayes causeth them to be beheaded This act from Lewes and committed against such persons began to breed a general dislike the which was aggravated by a domestical dissention After the death of Bernard Lewes gave Italy to his eldest Son Lotharius and associated him in the Empire To his Son Pepin he gave Aquitain to Lewes Bavaria and would have them all bear the name of Kings Lewes had a Son by Judith his second Wife an ambitious Woman called Charles This Woman play'd the Empress and Queen over all which caused Lewes to be hated and contemned His Sons Lotharius Pepin and Lewes by the Advice of the Bishops who were incensed against the Emperour by reason of the death of those Church-men resolve to seize upon their Father Mother and younger Brother to dispossess them of all Authority and then to govern the States after their own wills wherein they must use force and a publick consent Lotharius lieves a great Army and calleth a National Council of the French Church at Lions supposing sooner to suppress Lewes by this means than by a Parliament Lewes appeareth and yieldeth to the censure of the Prelates which was to retire himself into a Monastery there to attend his Devotion and to resign the Empire and the Realm to his Children So Lewes was conveyed to Soissons to the Monastery of St. Medard his Wife and her Son Charles were committed to other places and the whole Government committed to Lotharius and his Brethren And the greatest of the Church-men were guilty of this Out-rage seeking to maintain their Decrees Lewes continued in prison five years viz. from the year 829 unto the year 834. Then Lotharius being forced to yield to his Father goes to field takes him prisoner again and leads him back to the Convent at Soissons where he stayed not long for the French did bandy openly against Lotharius and his Brethren abandoned him so as he was forced to yield unto his Father and to crave pardon Then Lewes gives portions to his Children to Lotharius he leaves the Realm of Austrasia from the River of Mens unto Hungary with the Title
of Emperour unto Lewes Bavaria and unto Chrarles France Pepin enjoyed Aquitain without contradiction Lewes not content with Bavaria levies an Army and passeth the Rhine The miserable Father prepares an Army to go against him but he falls sick and dieth Anno 840. There was a Council held at Paris by the Command of Lewes and his Son Lotharius Anno 829 and three others at the same time in other places as is collected from the Preface It was Ordained that Synods should then be Assembled in four several places of their Empire In his Reign in France was used of Priests and Church-men precious and shining Vestures and golden and rich staring Girdles with Rings and other Ornaments of Gold Fabian's Chron. Wherefore the said Lewes procured of the Pope a correction for all such as used such strange apparel causing them to wear brown and sad colours After the death of the Emperour Lewes Lotharius his eldest Son and Emperour by his Fathers Testament would force his Brethren to a new division He quarrelleth with Charles King of France and Lewes Duke of Bavaria but the two Brethren unite together and joyn their Forces to oppose Lotharius Lotharius finding himself the stronger refuseth the Conditions of Peace offered by his Brethren Then Lewes and Charles charging the Army of Lotharius overthrew it with a notable slaughter Lotharius after this defeat changeth his humour with his estate he enjoyed the titulary mask of the Empire with Austrasia yet much curtailed and divided to his three Sons Lewes Charles and Lotharius Then Lotharius having remorse of Conscience for attempting against his Father and Brethren professeth himself a Monk in the Abby of Pluviers and dies a Monk in the Year 855. Charles and Lewes after the Victory call the Bishops to take their Advice upon Occurrents who being solemnly Assembled exhort them to Concord They hearken to them make an Alliance and come to the dividing of their parts Charles remains the sole King of France Daulphine and Provence were left to Lewes in his partage for the commodity of Italy which was given him notwithstanding the pretensions of Bernard's Children But he died soon after without any Issue-male leaving one only Daughter called Hermingrade Heir of all his great Estates Charles married his Neece Hermingrade to Boson Earl of Ardennes Concil Meldens Cap. 78. Tom. 3. brother to his Wife Richilde who called himself King of Arles At the Council at Meaux held about this time it was Decreed that the Capitular Laws concerning the Church made by Charlemagne and his Son Lewes should be strictly observed The same Council entreats King Charles the Younger to grant the Bishops a freer liberty for the execution of their Ministeries in their Parishes Charles called the Bald began his Reign Anno 841. King Charles was present at the Council holden at Pistis upon Sein Anno 963. He is named first the Decrees are conceived in his name He caused himself to be proclaimed Emperour after the death of Lewes who survived Lotharius without contradiction He went to Rome and was Crowned Emperour by the Pope with the Imperial Diadem then raising his Spirit very high after the custom of the Grecians he walketh with a Surplice This King Charles the Bald relying on the Popes help favoured the Pope with all his Power and brought the French Clergy to the subjection of the Roman See as much as he could Then began the Popes Legates to come to the Councils of France and there to preside Then also the French Kings began to tremble under the thunderbolts of the Vatican and to fear the Excommunications of the Pope The first Pope that made tryal of his Excommunications against them was Pope Nicholas the first who threatned Lothary to Excommunicate him unless he recalled Tietberga his Wife whom he had put away to take Waldrada whom he loved which also this Pope did Excommunicate Whereupon there was great murmuring of the Prelates and People of France against the Pope being displeased both at the Pope's Usurpations and the pusillanimity of their Kings These things happened from the Year 863 to 866. After that Nicholas came Adrian the second who favouring Lewes Du Moulin cont Perron lib. 3. c. 9. Grand-child to Lewes the Gentle against Charles the Bald his Unckle sent peremptory Letters into France whereby he declared That if any presumed to make an enterprize upon the Kingdom of Lewes not only he would make void by his Authority all that he should do but also that such a man being bound with the bonds of Anathema and deprived of the name of Christian should be lodged altogether with the Devil * Pope John the 8. having excommunicated Count Lambert and Count Adalbert and some others which had ill entreated him in Italy came into France Anno 870 where he called a Synod at Troyes consisting of the Bishops of that Kingdom to desire their Consent to that Excommunication which they accordingly granted him This is seen in the Epistle which Hinomarus Arch-Bishop of Rhemes writes to the said Adrian upon the said subject where he saith That both Ecclesiastical and Secular men being Assembled at Rhemes would say in a reproachful way That never any such Mandate was sent from that See to any of the Kings Predecessors Adding That the Bishops of Rome had never withdrawn themselves from the obedience of Heretical Emperours Wherefore said they we will not believe that we cannot otherwise attain to the Kingdom of Heaven but by receiving him for a Temporal King whom this Apostolical Lord recommendeth to us It was in this ninth Age that the Decretals were forged by Riculphus Bishop of Mentz as is supposed who published them under a false Title And at that time and a long time after the Arch-Bishops of Mentz were the first promoters of Papal Authority in Germany And nothing hath helped more to the establishment of the Papal Empire than these Epistles which have for a long time been held for Oracles in the West by them the Father of lies hath wrought very powerfully These Decretals were forged under the Reign of Charlemagne and of his Son Lewes the Gentle being unknown before and never mentioned in all Antiquity bearing on the front the name of Isidorus Peccator and in some Copies Isidorus Mercator a man unknown and a name forged at will That Collection of Decretals began to go about in France in the beginning of the Reign of Charles the Bald. The first that used them was Hinckmar Bishop of Laon upon this occasion Hinckmar Arch-Bishop of Rhemes had promoted to the Bishoprick of Laon another Hinckmar his Nephew who having excommunicated his Clergy and hindered the Divine Service and the Baptism of Children in his own Bishoprick and committed divers crimes and excesses was cited to appear before his Unckle who was his Metropolitan But he would not obey nor appear Upon that Hinckmar of Rhemes disanulled all the Acts of Hinckmar of Laon and would synodically proceed against him
his race as an out-cast of great Charlemagne Lewes V. reigned one year only and dyed without Heir leaving his place void in troubles of State and confusion of times horribly corrupted unto the House of Hugh le grand Earl of Paris God had prepared the means both for the Father to lay the foundation and for his Son Hugh Capet appointed for the Regal Dignity to finish this goodly building Now cometh in the third race of the Kings of France called Capets of the name of Hugh Capet Charles Duke of Lorrain was first Prince of the Blood-royal he was Son to Lewes IV. Brother to Lothair Unckle to Lewes V. the last King to whom the fundamental Laws of France did adjudge the Crown But Hugh Capet was chosen King by the French assembled in Parliament and Charles Duke of Lorrain was rejected from the Crown This change happened in July Anno 987. This new King was sirnamed Capet or Capitosus either for that he had a great Head or that being young he was accustomed to catch at his Companions caps as a presage of that he should do unto Kings Otho and Henry two other Sons of Hugh le grand were Dukes of Burgundy one after another his other Sons were advanced to Ecclesiastical Dignities the one Arch-Bishop of Tholouse the other of Rovan and another dyed young Charles of Lorrain gathered an Army and entring France came to the City of Laon within which City he by the Treason of Anselm the Bishop of that City was taken and delivered with his Wife and Children into the hands of his Enemies Hugh being crowned King causeth his Son Robert to be crowned King at Rhemes Anno 990. three years after his Father's election Hugh decreeth that the elder Son should reign alone among his Brethren and suppresseth the Majors of the Palace He likewise decreed that hereafter Bastards should not be only rejected from the Crown but also from the sir-name of France the which before was allowed them To him likewise are due the goodly Ordinances of Justice Paris was the chief place of Hugh's residence which City was greatly augmented and beautified in his Reign Arnulph Bastard to Lothair was the only Man which had favoured Charles of Lorrain against Hugh Capet This Man was both perverse and disloyal having deceived both Charles of Lorrain and Hugh Capet who had given him the Arch-bishoprick of Rovan in recompence of the service he promised him against Charles to whom notwithstanding contrary to his Faith he gave means to seize upon the Cities of Rhemes Laon and Soissons Hugh therefore resolves to suppress Arnulph but respecting his quality he assembled a National Council of the French Church in the City of Rhemes This Assembly deposed Arnulph as guilty of Treachery and a troubler of the publick quiet and they substitute Gilbert in his place who had been School-master unto Robert Afterwards Hugh confines him to Orleans with Charles of Lorrain there to end his days in rest The Prelates of France in this Synod made a Declaration that the Popes have nothing to do to usurp the power and authority of Kings Arnalt Bishop of Orleans maintained in that Synod that the Popes have no power at all over the Bishops of France so as to have any cognizance of Cases belonging to them and he declaimed most stoutly against the avarice and corruption of the Court of Rome Seguin Arch-Bishop of Sens was sent also to Orleans to be imprisoned because he consented not freely to the deposition of Arnulph Pope John 12. being displeased with Hugh for that he had not appealed to him for his confirmation in this new Royalty disanulleth this Decree of the Council of Rhemes excommunicates the Bishops which had assisted restores Arnulph and deprives Gilbert of the Arch-bishoprick of Rovan and to temper this sharp and rough proceeding with some lenity he doth invest Gilbert with the Arch-bishoprick of Ravenna And this was a means to raise him to the dignity of Pope Acta Synodi Rhemensis Anno 990. The Acts of this Council of Rhemes under Hugh Capet have these words Poor Rome What clear lights of Fathers hast thou brought forth in the time of our Predecessors What horrible darkness hast thou poured out upon our times which will redound to our shame and dishonour in future Ages The Pope threatens his curse against Hugh and his Son Robert The King returned Answer that he had done nothing in contempt but that he was willing to justifie what He or his Bishops had done if it pleased the Pope to meet him at Gratianople on the Frontiers of Italy and France or if rather he would come into France he promised to receive him with the highest honour The Pope sent his Legates into France Gerebert Arch-Bishop of Rhemes sent an Epistle unto Seguin forementioned who was said to favour the deposed Arnulph the tenour whereof is Morn in Myst iniqu It became your worthiness to eschew the craftiness of deceitful men and to hear the voice of the Lord saying Here is Christ Hist Magdeb. in Actis Synodi or there is Christ follow not One is said to be in Rome who justifieth those things which ye condemn and condemneth those things which ye think just God saith If thy Brother offend against thee go and rebuke him How then say some that in the deposition of Arnulph we should have waited the determination of the Romish Bishop can they say that the Judgement of the Bishop of Rome is greater than the Judgement of God But the Prince of the Apostles saith We must obey God rather than Man St. Paul also cryeth If any Man Preach unto you otherwise than what you have received although he were an Angel from Heaven let him be accursed Because Pope Marcellinus offered Incense unto Idols should therefore all Bishops offer Incense I say boldly that if the Bishop of Rome himself sin against a Brother and being often admonished will not hear the Church even the Roman Bishop according to the command of Christ should be esteemed as an Heathen and a Publican for the highest rise hath the lowest fall And if he think us unworthy of him because none of us assenteth to him when he judgeth contrary to the Gospel he cannot therefore separate us from the Communion of Christ seeing even a Presbyter unless he confess or be convict should not be removed from his Office c. The Priviledges of St. Peter saith Leo the Great are not where Judgement is not exercised according to Righteousness Wherefore occasion should not be given unto these our envyers that the Priesthood which is one every where as the Catholick Church is one should be subject unto one Man that if he be corrupt with Money favour fear or ignorance none can be a Priest except whom these virtues recommend unto him Let the Law of the Catholick Church be common Farewel and suspend not your selves from the sacred Mysteries Pope John had intelligence of this Letter and summoned the
equity and honourableness of the cause and chiefly with a Vision as they say from Heaven took the whole business upon him and travelled to Rome to consult with Pope Vrban the second about the advancing so pious a design Some think that the Pope first secretly employed this Hermit to be his Factor and to go to Jerusalem to set on foot so beneficial a Trade for the Church of Rome because the Pope alone was the gainer by this great adventure and all other Princes of Europe came off losers Pope Vrban had called the Council of Clermont in France forementioned where met many Princes and Prelates to whom he made a long oration which was to this effect First he bemoaned the miseries of the Christians in Asia and the vastation of those holy places Next Tyrius li. 1. c. 15. he encouraged the Princes in the Council to take Arms against those Infidels and to break their bonds in sunder and to cast their cords far from them as it is written to cast out the Handmaid and her Children Otherwise if they would not help to quench their neighbours houses they must expect the speedy burning of their own and that these barbarous Nations would quickly over-run all Europe Now to set an edge to their courage he promised to all that went this Voyage a full remission of their sins and pennances here and the enjoying Heaven hereafter Lastly he thus concluded Gird your Swords to your Thighs O ye men of might It is our parts to pray yours to fight ours with Moses to hold up unwearied hands to God yours to stretch forth the Sword against these Children of Amaleck Amen This motion was most chearfully entertained so that the whole Assembly cryed out God willeth it Sabell An. 9. lib. 3. A speech which was afterward used as a fortunate Watch-word in their most dangerous designs Then many took a cross of red cloth on their right shoulder as a badge of their devotion And to gain the favourable assistance of the Virgin Mary to make this War the more happy her Office was instituted containing certain prayers which at Canonical hours were to be made unto her One observeth that it is enough to make it suspicious that there were some sinister ends in this War Tho. Fuller Hist sacri belli because Gregory VII otherwise called Hildebrand and by Luther in his Chronology Larva Diaboli the worst of all that sate in the Papal Chair first began it but death preventing him Vrban the second whom Cardinal Benno called Turban for troubling the whole world effected it Now a great controversie was in Christendom about the investiture of Bishops whether the right lay in the Pope or in secular Princes Now the Pope diverted this question out of Princes Heads by opening an issue another way and gave vent to the activity of their spirits in this Martial employment and in the mean time quietly went away without any corrival concluding the controversie for his own profit Moreover he got a Mass of Money by it He had the office to bear the bag and what was put into it as contributed to this action from pious people and expended but some few drops of the showers he received As the Pope so most of the Clergy improved their Estates by this War Aemil. de gest Franc. p. 109. For the secular Princes who went this Voyage sold or morgaged most of their Estates selling for Gold to purchase with Steel and Iron and the Clergy were generally their Chapmen Godfrey Duke of Bovillon sold that Dukedom to the Bishop of Liege and the Castle of Sartensy and Monsa to the Bishop of Verdun Baldwin his Brother sold him the City of Verdun Daniel in Henric 1. Yea by these sales the third part of the Feoffs in France came to be possessed by the Clergy who made good bargains for themselves and had the conscience to buy Earth cheap and Heaven dear Many Prelates and Fryars left their pastoral Charges and Covents to follow this business The total sum of those pilgrim Souldiers amounted to three hundred thousand The French Dutch Italian and English were the four Elemental Nations whereof this Army was compounded But France contributed more Souldiers to this Army than all Christendom besides The signal men were Hugh sirnamed le Grand Brother to the King of France Godfrey Duke of Bovillon Baldwin and Eustace his younger Brothers Stephen Earl of Bloys Father to Stephen afterwards King of England Reymund Earl of Tholouse Robert Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul Baldwin de Burge with many more besides of the Clergy Aimar Bishop of Puy and Legate to the Pope and William Bishop of Orange Out of the farthest parts of Italy Boemund Prince of Tarentum and Tancred his Nephew both of the Norman seed though growing on the Apulian soyl led an Army of twelve thousand Men. Many Souldiers also went out of Lombardy England also the Pope's pack-horse in that Age sent many brave men under Robert Duke of Normandy Brother to William Rufus now King of England after the Death of his Father as Beauchamp and others whose names are lost All these Princes being called up by Pope Vrban gathered together great Armies at divers times and places unto that War After many difficulties and the loss of many men they arrived in Palestine and Jerusalem was won by the Christians and twenty thousand Turks therein slain on July 15. Anno 1098. Robert the Norman refuseth the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Godfrey of Bovillon is chosen King In this choice that they might know the nature of the Princes the better their Servants were examined on Oath to confess their Master 's faults The Servants of Godfrey protested their Master 's only fault was this That when Mattens were done he would stay so long in the Church to know of the Priest the meaning of every Image and picture that Dinner at home was spoiled by his long tarrying All admired hereat and unanimously chose him their King In the latter end of this Century Bruno Chanon of the Church of Colen and Rhemes bare the praise of Learning and Holiness and was Master of the Schools by whom the order of the Carihusians was begun The Cistercian Order was begun Anno 1098. by Robert Abbot of Molisma as Sigebert saith Godfrey of Bovillon dyed having reigned one year wanting five days After his death the Christians with a joynt consent sent to Baldwin his Brother Count of Edessa a City in Arabia the Lord whereof had adopted this Baldwin to be his Heir and entreated him to accept of the Kingdom which honourable offer he courteously embraced Anno 1100. He was a Prince of the largest size higher by the Head than his Subjects Bred he was a Scholar entred into Orders and was Prebendary in the Churches of Rhemes Liege and Cambray but afterwards turned secular Prince but Baldwin put not off his Scholar-ship with his habit but made good use thereof in his Reign Century XII
of Auxerre in France Henry's Son-in-Law 4. Robert 5. Baldwin the fifth and last At this time the Tartarians over-run the North of Asia and many Nations fled from their own Countries for fear of them Among other the Corasines a fierce and Warlike people were forced to forsake their Land Being thus unkennelled they have recourse to the Sultan of Babylon who bestows on them all the Lands the Christians held in Palestine They march to Jerusalem and take it without resistance Soon after the Corasines elated herewith fell out with the Sultan himself who in anger rooted out their Nation so that none remained The French-men make War against Reymund Earl of Tholouse and think to enclose him in his Castle of Saracene but the Earl lying in Ambush for them in Woods slew many of them and 500 of the French Souldiers were taken and of their Servitors to the number of 200 men in armour were taken of whom some lost their eyes some their ears some their legs and so were sent home the rest were carried away Prisoners into the Castle Thrice that Summer were the French-men discomfited by the aforesaid Reymund King Lewes puts a stop to the persecution of the Albigenses saying that they must perswade them by reason and not constrain them by force whereby many Families were preserved in those Provinces In those times lived Gulielmus de sancto amore a Doctor of Paris and Chanon of Beauvois exclaiming against the abuses of the Church of Rome He wrote against the Fryars and their hypocrisie but especially against the begging Fryars In his days there was a most detestable and blasphemous book set forth by the Fryars which they called Evangelium Aeternum or Evangelium spiritûs sancti The Everlasting Gospel or The Gospel of the Holy Ghost Wherein it is said That the Gospel of Christ was not to be compared to it no more than darkness to light That the Gospel of Christ should be preached but fifty years and then this everlasting Gospel should rule the Church He mightily impugned this pestiferous Book Fox Act and Monum p. 410. ad 416. He was by the Pope condemned for an Heretick exiled and his Books were burnt His story and Arguments may be read in Mr. Fox his first Volumn Pope Alexander armed Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure men of violent spirits against him but he was too hard for these reprovers his followers were called Amoraei Pope Gregory succeedeth Innocent and is a great Enemy to Frederick the Emperour who had entred Italy with a great Army After his Election he sends his Nuncio into France to exhort Lewes to succour him The Pope comes into France and calls a Council at Lyons whither he cites Frederick but yet upon so short a warning as he could not appear Frederick having sent his Ambassadours to require a lawful time and to advertise the Pope of his coming begins his Journey to perform his promise Being arrived at Thurin he hath intelligence given him that the Pope had condemned him as Contumax excommunicated him and degraded him of the Empire But this was not without the consent of the Princes Electors of the Empire who after mature deliberation proceeded to a new Election They chuse Henry Landgrave of Thuring for Emperour but he besieging the City of Vlmes was wounded with an Arrow whereof he dyed shortly after Frederick writes to the French King against the sentence against him at Lyons Then the Electors chose William Earl of Holland for Emperour In all the chief Cities the Guelph's Faction was the stronger through the Authority of the Council of Lyons Frederick over-pressed with grief dyeth leaving Italy and Germany in great combustion The Pope having Canonized Edmond Arch-Bishop of Canterbury soon after Blanch Queen Regent of France came into England to worship that Saint representing to him that he had found refuge for his Exile in France and beseeching him not to be ungrateful She said my Lord most Holy Father confirm the Kingdom of France in a peaceable solidity and remember what we have done to thee Now Lewes IX came to assist the Christians in Palestine His nobility diswaded from that design Lewes takes up the Cross and voweth to eat no Bread until he was recognized with the Pilgrim's Badge Their went along with him his two Brothers Charles Earl of Anjou Robert Earl of Artois his own Queen and their Ladies Odo the Pope's Legat Hugh Duke of Burgundy William Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul and William Longspath Earl of Sarisbury with a band of valiant English-men The Pope gave to this King Lewes for his charges the tenth of the Clergy's revenues through France for three years and the King employed the Pope's Collectors to gather it whereupon the Estates of the Clergy were shaven as bare as their crowns and a poor Priest who had but twenty shillings annual pension was forced to pay two yearly to the King Having at Lyons took his leave of the Pope and a blessing from him he marched toward Avignon Where some of the city wronged his Souldiers especially with foul Language His Nobles desired him to besiege the city the rather because it was suspected that therein his Father was poisoned To whom Lewes most christianly said I come not out of France to revenge mine own quarrels or those of my Father or Mother but injuries offered to Jesus Christ Hence he went without delay to his Navy and so committed himself to the Sea Lewes arrives in Cyprus where the pestilence raging two hundred and forty Gentlemen of note dyed of the infection Hither came the Ambassadours from a great Tartarian prince invited by the fame of King Lewes his piety professing to him that he had renounced his Paganism and embraced Christianity and that he intended to send Messengers to the Pope to be further instructed in his Religion but some Christians which were in Tartary diswaded him from going to Rome King Lewes received these Ambassadours cuurteously dismissing them with bounteous gifts And by them he sent to their Master a Tent wherein the History of the Bible was as richly as curiously depicted in Needle-work hoping thus to catch his Eyes and both in his present pictures then being accounted Lay-mens books The French land in Egypt and Damiata is taken by them Discords grew between the French and English the cause was for that the Earl of Sarisbury in sacking a Fort got more spoil therein than the English Then dyed Meladine the Egyptian King Robert Earl of Artois Brother to King Lewes fighting with the Egyptians contrary to the Counsel of the Templars is overthrown In his flight he cryed to the Earl of Sarisbury flee flee for God fighteth against us To whom our Earl God forbid my Father's Son should flee from the face of a Saracen The other seeking to save himself by the swiftness of his Horse and crossing the River was drowned The Earl of Sarisbury slew many a Turk and though unhorsed and wounded in his Legs stood
on his Honour when he could not stand on his Feet and refusing all quarter upon his knees laid about him like a desperate man He fought till at last he breathed forth his Soul in the midst of his Enemies Of all the Christians there escaped no more than two Templars one Hospitaller and one common Souldier the Messengers of this heavy news The Plague swept away many thousands of the French daily Mean time King Lewes sent many of the weakest of the people down the River to Damiata Melechsala King of Egypt meeting them by the way either burned or drowned them all save one English-man Alexander Giffard whose antient Family flourisheth to this day at Chellington in Stafford-shire who wounded in five places of his body escaped to the French and reported what had happened to the rest Melechsala came upon the rest with an infinite multitude and put them all being few and feeble to the Sword taking King Lewes with his two Brethren Alphonse and Charles prisoners Then was there a general Lamentation over all Christendom chiefly in France where all were sorrowful Melechsala is slain by Tarqueminus a sturdy Mammaluke who succeeded him in the Egyptian Kingdom Lewes at last was restored to his Liberty upon condition that the Christians should surrender Damiata and he also pay back to the Turks many thousand pounds both for ransom of Christian Captives and in satisfaction of the vastations they had committed in Egypt Lewes for the security of this Money pawned to the Turk the Pyx and Host that is the body of Christ Transubstantiated in the Eucharist as his chiefest Jewel Du. Serres Hist in Lud. 9. which he should be most careful to redeem Hence in perpetual memory of this conquest we may see a Wafer-cake and a box always wrought in the borders of that Tapestry which is brought out of Egypt Hence Lewes sailed to Ptolemais being forsaken of the Pope Friends Subjects Brothers Alphonse and Charles though sent into France to solicite his suit and to advance his ransom with speed yet being arrived forgot the affliction of Joseph Blanch the King's Mother having gathered a considerable sum of money and shipped it for Palestine a Tempest in a moment cast that away which her care and thrift was many months in getting His Queen Margaret was with him which somewhat mitigated his grief Here she bore him a child which because another Benoni or son of sorrow was called Tristram King Lewes being an excellent Antiquary and Critick on sacred Monuments much employed himself in redeeming of old sacred places from the tyranny of Time and Oblivion Mean-time in his Kingdom of France hapned this strange accident An Hungarian Peasant who is said to be an Apostate to Mahomet and well learned gathered together many thousands of people pretending they had intelligence from Heaven to march to the Holy Land These took on them the name and habit of Pastorelli poor Shepherds in imitation be like of those in the Gospel who were warned by Angels in a Vision to go to Bethlehem Being to shape their course into Palestine they went into France They pillaged and killed the poor Jews as they went Magdeb. Cent. 13. ca. 16. Col. 698. But at last near Burdeaux sixty thousand of them were slain and the rest dispersed A Rhimer of that Age made this Epitaph on them M. semel bis C. L. I. Conjungere disce Duxit Pastorum soeva Megaera Chorum Learn to put together well What M C C L I. do spell When some Devilish Fiend in France Did teach the Shepherds how to dance Anno 1254. Lewes returneth into France being loaden with Debts to his Italian Creditors He made an ordinance for the banishment of common Whores out of all Cities and Towns to be done by his Judges and Officers and their goods to be seized by them After fourteen years Interregnum Pope Vrban IV. appointed Charles Duke of Anjou younger Brother to King Lewes of France King of Sicily and Jerusalem Charles subdued Maufrid and Conradin his Nephew and possessed Sicily but for the gaining of Jerusalem he never regarded it nor came thither at all Hugh King of Cyprus was crowned King of Jerusalem In the Year 1253. was great contention between the Masters of Sorbon in Paris and the preaching Fryars who were so increased in number and honour becoming the Confessors and counsellors of Kings that they would not be subject unto the former Laws and Customs The School-men convened and were content to want somewhat of their weekly portion to satisfie the Court of Rome from which the Fryars had obtained their priviledges About this time or a little before arose a strife between the gray Fryars and Prelates and Doctors of Paris about nine conclusions condemned of the Prelates to be erroneous 1. Concerning the divine essence that it cannot be seen of the Angels or men glorified 2. Concerning the Essence of the Holy Ghost 3. Touching the proceeding of the Holy Ghost as he is love 4. Whether men glorified shall be in coelo empyreo or in coelo Chrystallino 5. That the evil Angel at his first Creation was evil and never good 6. That there have been many verities from the beginning which were not of God 7. That an Angel in one instant may be in divers places 8. That the evil Angel never had whereby he might stand no more had Adam in his state of Innocence 9. That he which hath more perfect strength of nature working in him shall have more full measure of necessity to obtain Grace and Glory To which Articles the Prelates answering did excommunicate the same as erroneous The Abbot of St. Denis having extorted great sums of Money out of his Abbey to present unto the Pope as others did Math. Paris in hopes one day to be made an Arch-Bishop King Lewes as Patron of that Abbey compelled him to re-pay the said sum out of his own purse Whilst this King was gone to the Holy War the Nobles of France finding themselves vexed by the Pope made a league and set forth a Declaration against him where they say among other things that the Clergy pointing at the Pope swallow up and frustrate the jurisdiction of Secular princes so as by their Laws the children of slaves pass judgement upon Free-men and their children whereas by the secular Laws of our Kings and Princes they ought rather to be judged by us Another piece of their Declaration runs in this manner All we the prime Men of the Kingdom Math. Paris Hist Angl. p. 798. Math. West li. 2. perceiving out of our deep judgement That the Kingdom was not got by Law written nor by the Ambition of Clergy-men but by the sweat of War do Enact and Ordain by this present Decree and by joynt Oath that no Clerk nor Lay-man shall sue one another before the Ordinary or Ecclesiastical Judge unless it be in case of Heresie Marriages and Usury upon pain of confiscating all their goods and the
was written in the same Bull We command the Angels to carry the absolved Soul into Paradise It was then a received Article that the Pope may command the Angels as his Serjeants Pope Clement granted great Indulgences to such as could not go but could find Money for that use Out of an old French Chronicle so as he that gave a penny was to have one year's pardon he that gave twelve pence twelve year's pardon and he that would give as much as would maintain a man going over Seas a plenary pardon for all The Pope appointed certain men whom he put in trust for the receiving of this Money Unspeakable were the sums of Money that were given for the purchasing these pardons for five years together At the end whereof when the good men were ready to go and perform what they had promised and vowed the business was broke off but the Pope kept the Money the Marquess his Nephew had a share of it and King Philip the fair and his three Sons who had taken up the cross to go thither in person Edward King of England and other noble persons stayed at home In this Council it was ordained that the feast of Corpus Christi should be kept with many Indulgences granted unto them who should celebrate this Feast In the same Council Pope Clement V. set forth a Book of Papal decrees called Liber Clementiarum which was received Symson Eccles Hist in Cent. 14. allowed and ratified by this Council Nauclerus saith that Clement before his death repented the setting out of this Book and commanded it to be burnt Yet notwithstanding the succeeding Popes and particularly John XXII confirmed and Authorized the said Book again together with the Decretals of Gregory and Boniface because these Books highly advanced the See of Rome exempting the Bishop of Rome from subjection to general Councils and attributing power to him to receive or reject the Emperour after he is chosen comparing the Pope to the Sun and the Emperour to the Moon Finally counting it a thing necessary unto Eternal Life that every person be subject to the Bishop of Rome It was also ordained that Schools should be erected and foreign Tongues should be learned namely the Hebrew Chaldaick and Arabick Languages It was also ordained that the name and remembrance of the Templars should be rooted out which decree was put in execution by all Christian Princes Know then Tho. Fuller supplem Hist sacribelli ca. 1. that about nineteen years after the Christians had lost all in Palestine by the cruel deed of Pope Clement V. and foul Fact of Philip the fair King of France the Templars were finally extirpated out of all Christendom Pope Clement having long sojourned in France had received many great courtesies from King Philip yea he owed little less than himself to him At last Philip requested of him a boon great enough saith my Authour for a King to ask and a Pope to grant namely all the Lands of the Knights Templars in France forfeited by reason of their horrible Heresies and licentious living The Pope was willing to gratifie him in some good proportion for his favours received and being thus long the King's Guest he gave him the Templars Lands and Goods to pay for his entertainment On a sudden all the Templars in France are clapt in prison damnable sins were laid to their charge as sacrificing of Men to an Idol they worshipped roasting of a Templar's Bastard and drinking his Blood spitting upon the cross of Christ conspiring with Turks and Saracens against Christianity they were charged with Sodomy Bestiality with many other Villanies out of the Road of humane corruption and as far from Man's Nature as God's Law The sole witness against them was one of their own Order a notorious Malefactor who at the same time being in prison and to suffer for his own offences condemned by the Master of their Order sought to prove his Innocency by charging all his own Order to be guilty And he swore most heartily to whatsoever was objected against their Order Besides many of the Templars being brought upon the rack confessed the accusations to be true wherewith they were charged Hereupon all the Templars were most cruelly burned to death at a stake through all France with James the Grand-Master of their Order Many men accounted not the Templars Malefactors but Martyrs First because the witness was unsufficient a Malefactor against his Judge and Secondly they bring tortured men against themselves And a confession extorted upon the Rack say some is of no validity But being burned at the stake they denyed it at their death though formerly they had confessed it A Templar being to be burned at Burdeaux and seeing the Pope and King Philip looking out of a Window Hospin de Orig. Monach. ca. 18. fol. 193. cryed unto them Clement thou cruel Tyrant seeing there is no other among mortal men to whom I should appeal for my unjust Death I cite Thee together with King Philip to the Tribunal of Christ the just Judge who redeemed me there both to appear within one year and a day where I will lay open my cause and Justice shall be done without any by-respect In like manner James Grand-Master of the Templars though by piece-meal he was tortured to death craved pardon of God and those of his order That forced by extremity of pain upon the rack and allured with hope of life he had accused them of such damnable sins whereof they were innocent True it is they were generally cryed up for innocents But Pope Clement and King Philip were within the time prefixed summoned by death to answer to God for what they had done Besides King Philip missed of his expectation and the morsel fell besides his Mouth the Lands of the Templars which were first granted to him as a portion for his youngest Son being afterwards by the Council of Vienne bestowed on the Knights-Hospitallers William Durand Bishop of Menda in Languedoc being summoned by Clement V. to the general Council at Vienne to come and see what was fitting to be reformed in the Church made a Book de Consiliis toward the beginning whereof he saith It seemeth to be a thing considerable and it is most expedient and necessary that before any thing else we should proceed to the correction and reformation of such things as ought to be corrected and reformed in the Church of God as well in the head as the Members And in the first Chapter of the third Book Verily as concerning the Reformation of the Catholick Church to bring it about profitably and effectually it seems expedient that it begin at the Head that is at the Holy Church of Rome which is the Head of all others Then he sets down in particular such things as stood in need of reformation notably representing many abuses of the See of Rome that deserved to be corrected But for all his learned discourse there was nothing done therein in
third was that the Pope could not give general licence to hear confessions so but that the Parishoner so confessed was bound to reiterate the same confession made unto his own Curate Which he proved by divers places of the Canon Law The fourth opinion was that the Fryars by the Licence of the Pope and of the Bishops might lawfully hear confessions and the people might be of them confessed and absolved But yet notwithstanding it was just honest and profitable that once in the year they should be confessed to the Curates although confessed before to the Fryars because of the admininistration of the Sacraments especially at Easter of which opinion was William de monte Landuno The fifth opinion was that albeit the Fryars might at all times and at Easter also hear confessions as the Curates did yet it was safer at the time of Easter to confess to the Curates than to the Fryars And of this opinion was Richard of Armagh Arch-Bishop and Primate of Ireland In the time of Pope Clement VI. John King of France invented the Sect and Order of those Monks Sympson Eccles Hist p. 391. which are called Stellati whose manner is always to wear a star upon their Breast signifying thereby that there is nothing in them but the light of perfection and the clear shining of good works yea that they themselves are the light of the World Item That they shall rise again at the last day all shining and glistering as the most clear and pleasant stars according as it is written Dan. 12.3 They that turn many unto Righteousness shall be as the stars for ever and ever After the death of Pope Clement VI. succeeded Innocent VI. before whom the aforesaid Richard of Armagh published nine Articles against the begging Fryars This Pope builded Walls about Avignon and founded an house of Carthusian Monks without the City Pope Vrban V. succeeded him Anno 1364. Nicholas Orem made a Sermon before the Pope and his Cardinals on Christmas-even in which he rebuketh the Prelates and Priests of his time declaring their destruction not to be far off by certain signs taken of their wicked and corrupt life He proveth the Popish Clergy to be so much worse than the old Synagogue of the Jews by how much it is worse to sell the Church and Sacraments than to suffer Doves to be sold in the Church In the year 1370. Peter Belfort of Lemousin who took the name of Gregory XI was created likewise at Avignon who thought good to transfer the Apostolical Chair from Avignon back again to Rome a thing almost incredible for so many French Popes succeeding one another they had so weakned the Italian party that there were scarce any Italian Cardinals among them all and of the French there were more than twenty Several reasons are alledged to have moved Gregory to this resolution but particularly these following The first was that he saw all Italy in Arms not only by the Wars betwixt Venice and Genoa but by a resolution several Cities had taken to shake off the yoke of their servitude and re-establish themselves in a state of Liberty which he believing to be occasioned by the absence of the pilot from the Vessel of Rome he began to think of resettling his pontifical residence in Italy The second was That one day reprehending a certain Bishop his familiar that he left the Bishoprick to follow the Court the Bishop confidently replyed And you who are Pope of Rome why are you in France Hist of Cardin. part 3. lib. 1. Why are you so long from the place where your Church doth lye Others will have it that a Letter from St. Bridget whom the Pope lookt upon as a true Saint contributed much in which she advised him as from God to return to Rome He gave order for twenty Galleys to be ready in the Rhone pretending to go somewhither else with them because he suspected that the French who had so much advantage by the residence of his Court in France would obstruct it if they had the least notice of his removing the See to Rome But indeed they took not the least Alarum at all the preparations which were made as not imagining that a French Pope would put such an affront upon his Nation So that they had no notice of it till the Pope was at Sea being passed as far as Genoa and from Genoa to Cornetto where being weary of his Galleys he made the rest of his Voyage by Land and being arrived at Rome he began to apply fit Medicines and specifical to the maladies of Italy But he dyed Anno 1280. of a great distemper in his Bladder after he had sate six years in France and five in Italy It is reported that at the hour of this Pope's Death the palace of the Pope at Avignon was set on fire and could not be quenched Bale's Pageant of Pope's till the greatest part thereof was burnt Afterwards ensued the greatest schism and division that ever hapned in the Popedom King John dyed Anno 1364. to whom succeeded his Son Charles the fifth of that name King John dyed in England for the French King had an earnest desire to see the King of England again because he had so honourably entertained him whilst he was his prisoner So he went and was entertained very Royally But shortly after he fell sick and dyed at London His Body was conveyed over into France and buried in the Town of St. Denis the King of Cyprus being present at his Funerals Charles V. called the Wise was crowned at Rhemes together with his Wife the Daughter of Peter Duke of Bourbon He made his younger Brother Philip Duke of Burgundy who had been prisoner with his Father in England Many Lords in Gascoign revolted from Prince Edward unto the French King Prince Edward after his great victories had carried himself roughly toward the Noble-men his Subjects But the French King besides his excellent Wisdom was also gentle and courteous insinuating himself into the affections of all men The Duke of Anjou marching with his forces from Tholouse easily recovered all the Towns and holds that were pertaining to the English in those quarters The King of England lost all his whole Seignory of Gascoign the people partly rebelling and partly yielding themselves willingly to his enemy Poictiers also yieldeth to the French The men of Rochel yield also unto the French King Charles dyed of poison taken long before He was a Prince so wise and politick Frossard's chronic in Charl. V. Anno 1380. that fitting in his Gown at Paris in ease and quietness he recovered many things by counsel and policy which his predecessours had lost in the field to their Enemies And among other vexations which hapned to King Edward at his last Voyage that he intended into Britain for the rescue of his men besieged when he was forced back by the extremity of Weather this one thing troubled him above the rest that he must make war
commanding that one should be celebrated every ten years His opinion was followed by Ludovicus Faber and some others Anno du Bourge did add that many villanies were committed condemned by the Laws for punishment whereof the rope and fire were not sufficient viz. frequent blasphemies against God perjuries Adulteries not only secret but even cherished with impudent license making himself to be plainly understood that he spake not only of the Grandees of the Court but of the King himself also adding that while men lived thus dissolutely divers Torments were prepared against those who were guilty of nothing but of publishing to the World the vices of the Church of Rome and desiring an amendment of them In opposition of all this Egidius Magister the prime President spake against the new Sects concluding that there was no other remedy but that which was formerly used against the Albigenses of whom Philip Augustus put to death six hundred in one day and against the Waldenses who were choaked in the caves whither they retired to hide themselves All the voices being given the King said he had how heard with his own Ears that which before was told him that the contagion of the Kingdom doth hence arise that there are in the Parliament who do despise the Pope's Authority and His that he well knoweth they are but few but the cause of many evils Therefore he exhorted those who are good Subjects to continue in doing their duty and immediately gave order that Faber and du Bourg should be imprisoned and afterwards caused four more to be apprehended in their houses But at the same time as if there had been no danger at all the Ministers of the Reformed for so the Protestants are called in France assembled in Paris in the Suburbs of St. German made a Synod in which Francis Morellus the chief man among them was President ordaining divers constitutions of the manner of holding Councils of removing the domination in the Church of the Election and Offices of Ministers of censures of Marriages of Divorces of degrees of consanguinity and affinity that throughout all France they might not only have an Uniform Faith but Discipline also And their courage did increase because the same of the severity used in France coming into Germany the three Electors and other Protestant Princes sent Ambassadours to the King to disswade him from that rigour against the professours of their Religion But the King though he gave them a courteous Answer yet remitted nothing of the severity but after the Ambassadours were gone he deputed four Judges of the body of the Parliament in the causes of the prisoners with the Bishop of Paris and the Inquisitor Anthony de Mocares commanding them to proceed with all expedition Nicholas Clinet one of the Elders of the Church at Paris and Taurin Gravelle a Lawyer and Advocate in the Court of Paris and elder of the same Church were both burnt at Paris Bartholomew Hector was burnt at Thurin Mistriss Philippa de Luns was strangled at Paris Anno 1558. after she had a little felt the Flame with her Feet and Visage Of the same company was also Nicholas Cene a Physician Brother to Philip Cene above-mentioned and Martyred at Diion and Peter Gabart which two were brought forth to their execution Octob. 2. They were holden long in the Air over a small fire and their lower parts burnt off before that the higher parts were much harmed with the fire Nevertheless these Holy Men ceased not in all these torments to turn up their eyes to Heaven and to shew forth infinite Testimonies of their Faith and constancy In the same fire many Bibles and Testaments were burnt Among divers young Scholars and Students that were in the little Castle with Peter Gabart there were these two viz. Frederick Danville and Francis Rebezies neither of them being past 20 years of Age. How valiantly they behaved themselves in the cause of Christ what conflicts they had disputing with the Doctors of Sorbonne what confessions they made their own Letters left in writing do make Relation these valiantly suffered Martyrdom Crispin li. 6. comment Gallic de Statu Relig. Reipub. Rene Seau and John Almerick were almost wracked to death in prison and afterwards both of them dyed in prison John Bordel Matthew Vermeil Peter Bourdon Andrew de Fou at the Countrey of Bresil were also Martyrs Villegaignon Lieutenant to the French King brought three of them to the top of a Rock and there being half strangled without any Judgement threw them into the Sea The fourth viz. Andrew de Fou he caused by manifold allurements somewhat to incline to his sayings so he escaped the danger not without a great offence taken of a great part of the French-men in that Countrey Benet Romain a Mercer at Draguignan in Provence was wracked and burnt Francis Civaux who had been Secretary to the French Ambassadour here in England in Queen Maries time after being desirous to hear the word of God went to Geneva Also he was placed to be Secretrary to the Senate of Geneva where he continued about the space of a year Having then certain business he came to Diion where he was betrayed by a Priest apprehended and carried to prison and within seven days after was first strangled and then burnt Peter Arondeau of Rochel was burnt quick at the place called St. John in Greve at Paris The Heroick constancy which God gave hâ—m and wherein he endured victorious unto death was a mirrour of patience to Anne du Bourg Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris and to divers other then prisoners and was to them a preparation toward the like death which shortly after they suffered Thomas Moutard was burnt at Valenciennes Divers others also suffered Martyrdom at Paris for the profession of the Gospel Philip the second King of Spain after the death of his Wife Mary Queen of England was married to Elizabeth eldest Daughter to King Henry II. Philibert Emmanuel Duke of Savoy married with Marguarite the King 's only Sister and Charles Duke of Lorrain with Claude a younger Daughter of Franoe The King yielded to Philip all that he had taken from him as well on this side as beyond the Mountains To the Savoyard he restored Bresse Savoy and Piedmont to the Genevois the Isle of Corse and about four hundred places more conquered during the late fatal Wars which had made so many Provinces desolate ruined so many Castles Towns and Villages drunk up so much Christian blood and slain so many millions of Men of all qualities retaining nothing but the Territories of Boullen and Calais The prisons were now full of the Protestants the Marriages of the King's Daughters and Sister were solemnized with all the pleasures and sports that could be devised The Court exceeded in sumptuous Plays Masks Dances and Bon-fires the people expressed publick joy by reason of the peace with loud acclamations in these ceremonies But this pleasant Comedy was converted by a sad
Catastrophe into a mournful Tragedy The King on June 10. Anno 1558. would be one of the Challengers at the Tilt in St. Anthonie's street being seconded by the Dukes of Guise and Ferrara And to run his last course in favour of the Queen his Wife he sent a Lance to the Earl of Montgomery The Earl excuseth himself to run against his Majesty But having a second charge from the King to enter the List he runs and breaks his Lance upon the King's cuirass and with a splinter thereof his Bever being somewhat open strikes him so deep into the eye as on July 10. he dyed at his house of Tournelles in the 42 year of his Age. The King when he caused Faber and Anne du Bourg to be imprisoned vowed to see them burnt within few days if they persisted in their opinion but he was prevented by death The King's death in France which the Reformed did ascribe to miracle increased their courage though they durst not shew themselves openly in Paris For his Son Francis the second the new King after he was consecrated at Rhemes Septemb. 20. gave order to prosecute the process of the Counsellours who were in prison and deputed the president of St. Andreas and the Inquisitor Antonius Democares to discover the Protestants The Judges having gained some of the common sort formerly professours of that Religion had notice of the places where they secretly assembled Therefore many both men and women were imprisoned and many fled whose goods were confiscated after a citation by three Edicts And the example of Paris the same was done in Poytou Tholouse and Aix of Provence by the instigation of George Cardinal of Armignac who not to abandon that enterprize would not go to Rome to the election of the Pope using all diligence that those who were discovered might be apprehended The professours of that Religion being stirred up hereby and imboldened because they knew they were many sent about many writings against the King and Queen and those of Lorrain by whom the King was governed Authours of the persecution intermixing some points of Religion which being willingly read by all as things composed by publick liberty did imprint the new Religion in the minds of many In the end of the process against the Counsellours after a long contestation all were absolved except Anne du Bourg who was burnt on the eighteenth of December not so much by the inclination of the Judges as by the resolution of the Queen provoked against him because the Protestants did divulge in many writings and Libels spread abroad that the late King had been wounded in the eye by the providence of God for a punishment of his words used against du Bourg that he would see him burnt But the death and constancy of a man so conspicuous did make many curious to know what Religion that was for which he had so couragiously endured this punishment and made the number increase There was a great conspiracy in many parts of France into which many were entred and the major part for cause of Religion disdaining to see poor people drawn every day to be burned at the stake guilty of nothing but of zeal to worship God and to save their own souls To these were joyned others who thinking the Guisards to be the cause of all the disorders of the Kingdom judged it an Heroick Act to deliver it from oppression by taking the publick administration out of their hands Both these cloaked themselves with the cover of Religion to gain more followers and the better to confirm their minds caused the principal Lawyers of Germany and France and the most famous Protestant Divines to publish in writing that without violating the Majesty of a King and Dignity of the lawful Magistrate they might oppose with Arms the violent Domination of the house of Guise who offended true Religion and lawful Justice and kept the young King as it were in prison Great tumults of the people were raised in Provence Languedoc and Poitou whither the preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly By whose Sermons the number of Protestants did increase This general combination made the Governours of the Kingdom resolve that there was need of an Ecclesiastical remedy and that very quickly and a National Synod was proposed by the whole Council The Cardinal of Armignac said nothing was to be done without the Pope to which opinion some few Prelates did adhere But the Bishop of Valence said that France had Prelates of it's own to regulate the causes of Religion who best knew the wants of the Kingdom that it would be a great absurdity to see Paris burn having the Rivers of Some and Marne full of Water and to believe that water must be brought from Tibur to quench the fire The resolution of the Council was that there being need of a strong and sudden remedy the Prelates of the Kingdom should assemble to consider of these things and April 10. the Synod was intimated for the tenth of September A Currier was dispatcht to Rome to acquaint the Pope with this Resolution The Pope blameth the King for pardoning Hereticks and will not approve the National Synod but sendeth a Nuncio into Spain to disswade it And the King of Spain disswadeth the French King from the National Synod Therefore he dispatched away Antonio di Toledo Prior of Lyons to pray him not to go on herein The assaulting of Geneva was proposed But this proposition was not well taken in France because it would make the Protestants unite themselves Besides none going to that War but the Catholicks the Kingdom would be left open to the opposites The French King answered that he would not make a National Council to separate himself but to unite to the Church those that went astray that a general Council would more please and in likelihood be more profitable if his urgent occasions would suffer him to expect the time which must needs be very long that the National Council which he desireth shall depend upon the Apostolick See and the Pope which shall cease when the General shall be assembled and shall incorporate with it And that his deeds may answer to his words he desired the Pope to send a Legate into France with power to assemble the Bishops of the Kingdom and to settle the affairs of Religion The French King doth not think Trent a fit place for the Council nor that the Doctrines already discussed there should be maintained without re-examination This troubled the Pope who thought it did not proceed from the King 's own motion but from the Protestants The Protestants were formerly called Hugonots because the first conventions they had in the City of Tours where that belief first took strength and increased were in certain Cellars under-ground near Hugo's gate from whence they are by the vulgar sort called Hugonots Theodore Beza a man of great eloquence and excellent Learning having by his Sermons drawn many to embrace the Reformed Religion even
Crowned King of France Michael Hospitalius Chancellour of France under Charles IX Thuan. Tom. 3. lib. 56. was removed from the Court and made a Prisoner as it were only because he opposed those wicked Counsels against the Protestants in the Massacre at Paris Beza mentions him in his Icones illustrium virorum And Grotius stiles him Grot. Praef. ad Poem Vnicum aevi nostri decus the only ornament of our Age. There are these of his Works published Six Books of Epistles in Latine Verse De Caleto expugnato Epistola carmen cum aliis In the Preface to his Epistle one saith it appeared by a most Ancient Coyn that he much resembled Aristotle Summum illum omnium Philosophorum principem Aristotelem sic ore toto retulit ut alterius ex altero Imago expressa videri posset At this time flourished Michael Montanus or Michael de Montaigne Knight of the Noble Order of St. Michael and one of the Gentlemen in Ordinary to the French King Henry III. his Chamber His elegant Books of Miscellanies written in French are by him modestly styled Essayes or Moral Politick and Military Discourses He hath thereby gotten a great opinion of his Learning and Wisdom and Rome hath chosen and adopted him for one of her Citizens Charles Cardinal of Lorain dieth December 23. 1574. of a Frenzy in the midst of a cruel tempest and violent whirl-wind which uncovered the houses and loosened the bars of Iron in the Carthusians Covent in the Suburbs of Avignon According to the advice of the Queen-Mother the King assaults the Protestant Towns in Provence Languedoc and Dolphiné Lusignan was besieged and yielded upon Composition Pousin is besieged and taken but the Town of Libero in Dolphinè though besieged was not taken In Languedoc D'anville although he was of the Roman Religion yet had joyned himself to the Protestants and took Aques Mortes a Town of great importance in those Parts with many other Towns In Dolphinè Mombrim was chief Commander and had great success in his attempts But in the end being sore wounded he was taken beside â—ia a Town in Dolphinè and by the Commandment of the King and Queen-Mother was carried to Grenoble and there was executed in the sight of the people The Prince of Conde had required help of Casimire the Son of Count Palatine who had also condescended to succour the Protestants The Conditions they agreed on were these That they should not lay down their Arms until that liberty were obtained to the Protestants fully to enjoy their own Religion And likewise that Casimire should have the Towns of Metis Tullion and Verdum in his hands besides other Towns in all the Provinces of France which the Protestants were to require for their further assurance and as pledges of the King's fidelity and faithfulness to them The Army of the Germans and French entered into France under the Prince of Conde and Casimire and came forward to Charossium a Town in Bourbon not far from Molins where Alançon the King's Brother joyned with them and the whole Army conjoyned was found to be of horse-men and foot-men thirty thousand The King of Navarre at the same time departeth from Court and returneth into his own Country The Army draws near to Paris but at length was concluded upon certain Conditions That Casimire should receive from the King a great summ of money instead of those Towns which should have been put in his hands and that liberty should be granted to the Protestants to exercise their own Religion openly and freely without exception of places the Court and the City of Paris with a few leagues about only excepted They were also declared to be capable of places in Parliament and Courts of Justice and all Judgements which were made against them for any enterprize whatsoever were declared void the cruel day of St. Bartholomew disavowed and for better assurance and performance of these conditions they had eight Towns delivered unto them with the Conditions of their Governments Aques Mortes Benecaire Perigneux Le mas de Verdun Nions Yissure La grand tour The Edict of Pacification was Proclaimed May 10. 1576. and an end was put to the fifth Civil War in France for Religion By the Bull of Pope Gregory XIII sent into France Anno 1575. we may see all the Judges Royal both superiour and inferiour utterly despoiled of the Cognisance of criminal Causes The Sixteenth Article is this Vide Collect. diversar constitut Romanor Pontif. in fine Et Eclogam Bullarum motuum propriorum p. 316. We Excommunicate and anathematize all and every one the Magistrates Counsellours Presidents Auditors and other Judges by what name soever they be called the Chancellours Vice-Chancellours Notaries Registers and Executors their servants and others which have any thing to do in what sort or manner soever with Capital or Criminal Causes against Ecclesiastical persons in banishing or arresting them passing or pronouncing sentence against them and putting them in Execution even under pretence of any priviledges granted by the See Apostolick upon what causes and in what tenour and form soever to Kings Dukes Princes Rcpubliques Monarchies Cities and other Potentates by what name and title soever they be called which we will not have to be useful to them in any thing repealing them all from henceforth and declaring them to be nullities The twelfth Article speaks on this sort We Excommunicate all and every the Chancellours Vice-Chancellours Counsellours Ordinary and Extraordinary of all Kings and Princes the Presidents of Chanceries Councils and Parliaments as also the Attorneys General of them and other Secular Princes though they be in Dignity Imperial Royal Ducal or any other by what name soever it be called and other Judges as well Ordinary as by Delegation as also the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Commendatories Vicars and Officers who by themselves or by any other under pretence of Exemptions Letters of Grace or other Apostolical Letters do summon before them our Auditors Commissaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges with the causes concerning Benefices Tithes and other spiritual matters or such as are annexed to them and hinder the course of them by 〈◊〉 authority and interpose themselves to take Cognisance of them in the quality of Judges This is not all for in the following Article he goes yet further striking an heavy blow at the Ordinances of the French Kings Those also which under pretence of their Office or at the Instance of any man whatsoever draw before them to their Bench Audience Chancery Council or Parliament Ecclesiastical persons Chapters Covents and Colledges of all Churches or cause them to be brought in question before them or procure them directly or indirectly under what colour soever beyond the appointment of the Canon Law Those also which ordain and set forth Statutes Ordinances Constitutions Pragmatiques or other Decrees whatsoever in general or in special for any cause or colour whatsoever even under pretence of Apostolical Letters not now in practice or
of Mayenne posts to Paris to appease this tumult and causeth Louchart Auroux Hamelin and Emmonot four of the chief of the Council of Sixteen which were most guilty to be strangled The King marcheth into Normandy layes siege to the City of Roven The Duke of Parma with the Spanish Army marcheth to relieve that place They fight at Aumale the King is wounded his men routed and he is put hard to it to save himself Villars the Governour of Roven sallying out enters the trenches and gains the Artillery The Duke of Parma retiring the King returns to Roven and reneweth the siege The Duke of Parma also returns to bring relief and the King's Forces being wasted he riseth from the siege and marcheth to the Banks of the River of Seine Those of the League begin to think of a peace The Catholicks of the King's party are displeased that the peace should be treated by the Sieur de Plessis a Hugonot The Mareschal de Biron is killed with a Canon shot before Espernay The King wept bitterly at the news of his death The Baron de Biron to revenge the death of his Father scales a great Tower at Espernay and takes it but is sorely wounded and the Town is delivered up into the hands of the Duke of Nevers Governour of thâ—t Province August 9. 1592. Now the King desireth a reconciliation with the Catholick Church by way of agreement not by way of pardon The King takes Dreux and being constrained by the importunities of his own Catholick party who threaten to forsake him resolves to change his Religion And being instructed by the Archbishop of Bourges by René Benoist Curate of S. Eustache of Paris and of some other Doctors desires to be admitted into the bosom of the Romish Church And on July 25. he went to Mass at St. Dennis and made a publick and solemn Profession to the said Arbhbishop assisted by Charles Cardinal of Bourbon Archbishop of Roven and Nephew to the deceased nine Bishops with many other Prelates and Religious men protesting to live and die in the Romish Religion swearing to defend it against all men Having made profession of his Faith he performed all Ceremonies requisite in so solemn an Act and then he received absolution and blessing with wonderful joy and acclamation of the people Presently after this Act the King sent the Duke of Nevers the Marquess of Pisani and Henry of Gondy Bishop of Paris to the Pope to yield obedience by them to the See of Rome to beseech him to allow of his Conversion and to countenance it with his own blessing Whilst Elizabeth Queen of England upon account of Religion did with so great expences relieve the French King a strong rumour was spread in England that he either would or had already changed his Religion hereupon was Thomas Wilkes sent over into France to understand the certainty thereof But before his arrival the King had made a publick Profession of the Popiâ—h Religion at St. Dennis as hath been before expressed although some Papists of Religious Orderâ— at that time plotted against his life But he ingenuously declared unto Wilkes the causes that moved him to forsake his Religion And Morlante the French Agent in the mean time telleth the Queen all the very same things and with fair and specious words offereth her all kindness in the King his Masters behalf The Queen being much troubled and disquieted in mind snatched up her Pen and a while after sent this Letter to him Alas what deep sorrow Cambden hist of Q. Eliâ—abeâ—h what vehement grief what sighs have I felt at my heart for the things which Morlante hath told me of Alas is the world come to this pass Was it possible that any worldly matter should make you quit the fear of God can we expect any happy issue of such a fact or could you think that He who hath hitherto with his own right hand upholden and preserved you would now forsake you It is a very dangerous thing to do evil that good may come of it Yet I hope a sober spirit will put you into a better mind In the mean time I will not omit to make it a principal part of my prayers the recommending you to God beseeching him that the hands of Esau may not lose you the blessing of Jacob. Whereas you do Religiously and solemnly offer me your friendship I know to my great cost I have well deserved it neither should I repent that had you not changed your Father Verily from henceforth I cannot be your Sister by the Father for the truth is I shall ever more dearly love and honour my own Father than a false and counterfeit one which God knoweth very well who I beseech him bring you back again to a better mind Subscribed Your Sister if it be after the old manner as for the new I have nothing to do with it Elizabeth R. Yet notwithstanding a Contract was made between him and the Queen at Melun in the Month of August to make War offensive and defensive against the Spaniards And the Queen recommended again and again the Reformed Religion and the Professours thereof to his Care and Protection by Sir Robert Sidney He promised Thâ—t as he had been hitherto their Protectour so he would not for the future fail them though most of the Nobler sort of them had forsaken him On August 26. Peter Barrier born at Orleans was taken Prisoner at Melun where the King then was by the discovery of a Jacobin Florentine to whom he had confessed himself in Lions He confessed that seduced and perswaded by a Capuchin of Lions and afterwards confessed by Aubry Curate of St. Andrews des Acts at Paris by his Vicar and by Father Varade a Jesuite he was come thither expresly to murther the King The Priest revealing this Crime incurs no Ecclesiastical censure The wretch was found seized of a sharp knife with two edges He was pinched with hot Pincers his right hand burnt off holding the said knife his arms legs and thighs broken and his body burnt to ashes and cast into the River Upon a general surceasing of Arms the King assembled some of the chief of the Realm at Mante especially to hear the complaints of such as stood in doubt of the King's change in Religion and were grieved at divers contraventions of his Majesties Edicts whereby they suffered wrongs in all Provinces For the Partisans of Spain continually exclaimed of the incompatibility of two Religions in France and many were of opinion That the King ought not to be admitted but he should promise expresly to banish all such as made Profession of any other Religion than that which he did embrace or at least to abolish all publick Profession But the King employed all his care to unite his people in concord Vitry desiring to be the first that should re-enter under the King's obedience as he had been the first that had separated from it brought back the City of Meaux Aix
Lions Bourges and Orleans surrender to the King On the 22. of March the Parliament the Provost of Merchants and the Sheriffs having disposed the City of Paris received the King maugre the vain endeavours of some remnant of the faction of the Sixteen The Duke of Mayenne was gone into Picardy and Brissac to whom he had committed the Government of Paris for some Months past having taken it from the Count of Belin broke his faith with him believing he ought it rather to the King than to him The King had a little before caused himself to be anointed at Chartres with the Cruise of St. Martin of Tours The City of Rhemes was yet in the hands of the League but he would no longer defer his Coronation because he knew that That Ceremony was absolutely necessary to confirm to him the affection and respect of his people It was wonderful how that there being four or five thousand Spaniards engarrisoned in Paris and ten or twelve thousand factious persons of the Cabal of the Sixteen who all cruelly hated the King he could nevertheless render himself Master of it without striking stroak or without shedding blood His Troops having by intelligence seized on the Gates Ramparts and publick places he entred triumphantly into the City by the new Gate by which Henry III. had unhappily fled six years before and went directly to Nostredame to hear Mass and cause Te Deum to be sung Afterwards he returned to the Louvre where he found his Officers and his Dinner ready as if he had alwaies remained there After Dinner he gave the Spanish Garrison a safe-conduct and a good Convoy to conduct them as far as the Tree of Guise in all security The Garrison departed about three a clock the same day of his entrance with twenty or thirty of the most obstinate Leaguers who chose rather to follow Strangers than obey their natural Prince The same day that he entred into Paris the Cardinal de Peleve Archbishop of Sens a passionate Leaguer expired in his Palace of Sens. The Cardinal of Placentia Legate from the Pope had safe-conduct to retire home but he died by the way Brissac for recompence had the Staff of Mareschal and a place of honourable Counsellour to the Parliament D' O was replaced in his Government of Paris which he had under Henry III. but he died soon after That part of the Parliament which was at Tours was recalled and that which was at Paris re-inabled for it had been interdicted and both re-united conjointly to serve the King By noon of that day in which the King entred Paris the City was every where peaceable the Burgesses in a moment grew familiar with the Souldiers the shops were opened and the Artificers wrought in them And the calm was so great that nothing interrupted it but the ringing of the Bells the Bonfires and the Dances which were made through the Streets even till midnight Balagny with his City of Cambray turns to the King's side In like manner Amiens Beauvais and Peronne renounced the League Yea the Duke of Guise compounds with the King and brings the Cities of Rhemes Vitry and Mezieres under his obedience who in recompence of it gave him the Government of Provence from which he was obliged to withdraw the Duke of Espernon because the people the Parliament and the Nobility had taken Arms against him The Duke of Lorain also made his peace with the King on November 26. Now the Court of Parliament revokes and disannuls all other Decrees Orders or Oaths given or made since the 29. of December 1588. to the prejudice of the King's Authority and the Laws of the Realm And especially they disannulled all that had been done against the honour of the deceased King as well during his life as after his decease commanding to inform of the detestable Parricide committed on his Person and to proceed extraordinarily against such as should be found culpable They revoked the Authority given unto the Duke of Mayenne under the Title of Lieutenant General of the Estate and Crown of France forbidding all men to acknowledge him in that quality or to yield him any aid or obedience upon pain of High-Treason They likewise enjoyned the Duke of Mayenne upon the like pains to acknowledge Henry IV. of that name for King of France and Navarre and their King and to yield him the obedience of faithful Servants and Subjects And to all other Princes Prelates Noblemen GeBtlemen Towns Commonalities and private men to forsake that pretended Faction of the League whereof the Duke of Mayenne had made himself the Head and to yield unto the King obedience and fealty upon pain to the said Princes Noblemen c. to be degraded of their Nobility and Gentry and they and their posterity declared base with confiscation of Bodies and Goods and the razing of their Towns Castles and places that should infringe the King's Ordinances and Commandments Moreover they decreed That the 22. day of March should be for ever celebrated and the same day a general Procession should be made after the accustomed manner where the said Court should assist in their Scarlet Robes as a remembrance to give God thanks for the happy reduction of this said City to the King's obedience Now one John Castel Son of a Merchant-Draper of Paris about the end of the year 1594. having thrust himself with the Courtiers into the Chamber of the fair Gabriella where the King was would have struck him with a knife into the belly but the King then bowing to salute some one the blow chanced on his face only piercing his upper lip and breaking a Tooth It was not known for the present who had struck it but the Count of Soissons seeing this young man affrighted stopt him by the Arm. He impudently confessed that he had given the blow and maintained that he ought to do it The Parliament condemned him to have his right hand burned his flesh torn off with red hot Pincers and after to be torn in pieces by four Horses burnt to ashes and cast into the wind The Jesuites under whom this Miscreant had studied were accused for exciting him to this Parricide Among other things he heard the Fathers of that Society to say That it was lawful to kill the King That he was Excommuncated out of the Church that he was not to be obeyed nor taken for their King until such time as he was allowed by the Pope Therefore the Parliament Decreed That the Priests Scholars and all others terming themselves of that Society of Jesus as corrupters of Youth should depart within three daies after the publication of the said Decree out of Paris and other places where they had Colledges and within fifteen daies out of the Realm upon pain after the same time to be punished as guilty of high Treason The house of Peter Castel the Father of this Parricide standing before the Palace was razed and a Pillar erected containing for a perpetual monument the
by Sir Philip Sidney and at his request finished by Arthur Golding He published a Treatise containing the reasons why the Council of Trent could not be admitted in France He was sent by the King of Navarre to the National Synod of Vitray in Bretagne where he was joyfully received by the whole Company He was likewise present in the General Assembly of the Protestants held at Montauban by the King's permission Anno 1584. Where he was desired by the Assembly to draw up the form of their Complaints against the violation of the Edict for Peace which He together with the Count de la Val presented afterwards to the King at Blois When the League of the House of Guise brake forth which was formed first against the King under pretence of the Defence of the Catholick Religion and afterwards declared against the King of Navarre and the Protestants That famous Declaration in the name of the said King was Penned by Du Plessis In the following Civil Wars for Religion he did many important services for the King of Navarre and the Protestants both with his Sword and Pen having answered a virulent Book published by the League against the King of Navarre called the English Catholick In the year 1590. he built a Church for the Protestants in Saumur and obtained a Grant from the King for the instituting an University there which was afterwards confirmed by a National Synod held in the same place Anno 1593. he wrote a large Letter to the King who then had changed his Religion desiring the continuance of his favour to the Protestants and withal expostulating that sudden change Anno 1598. he Printed his Work of the Lords Supper The Jesuites of Bourdeaux Petitioned the Parliament there that it might be burnt Jacobus August Thuanus is a most faithful Historian He wrote an History of things done throughout the whole World from the year of Christ 1545. even to the year 1608. in a most elegant style He is highly commended by divers Learned men Suae aetatis Historiam summo judicio fide sine odio gratia ad Dei gloriam publicam utilitatem prudentissimè conscripsit opus styli elegantiâ gravissimarum rerum copiâ ac majestate cum quibusâ—is sive veterum sive recentium in eo genere scriptis conferendum Lans Orat. pro Gallia Inter multa quae in te admiratura est posteritas ego illud unicè obstupesco unde tibi modo in fori arce modo in summâ Republicâ versanti otium unde vis indefessa animi ut res tot ac tantas aut scribendas cognosceres aut cognitas scriberes Grot. Epist 16. Jac. Aug. Thuano Quem ego virum divinitus datum censeo saeculo isti in exemplum pietatis integritatis probitatis Casaub Epist Append. Vir immortali laude dignus Historicae Veritatis lumen Montac Antidiat Vir non minus eruditione quà m officij dignitate Nobilis siquis alius Veri studiosus Morton Causa Regia Isaac Casaubon was a great Linguist a singular Grecian and an excellent Philologer He hath written in twelve Books of his Exercitations Animadversions on those twelve Tomes of Baronius his Annals Scaliger in an Epistle to Casaubon commends his Bok de Satyra and in another his Theophrastus his Characters He is thus styled by Salmasius Incomparabilis Vir seculi sui decus immortale Isaacus Casaubonus nunquam sine laude nominandus nunquam satis laudatus Salmas Praefat. ad Hist August script The Marriage between the King and Queen Margarite being pronounced void and a Contract past between him and Mary of Medices the Duke of Florence's Daughter She being blessed of Aldobrandino the Pope's Legate at Florence went from thence and arrived at Marseilles from wheâ—ce being every where Royally entertained she came to Lions and there after eight daies stay met with the King where in St. John's Church the Nuptial solemnity was performed to this Couple by the Legate On September 27. 1601. the Queen was delivered of a Son which was named Lewes The King blessing him put a Sword in his hand to use it to the glory of God and the defence of his Crown and people The Pope sent presently unto the King and Queen to congratulate with them of this Birth and to carry unto the young Prince swadling bands bearing clothes and other things blessed by his Holiness Then the Pope granted a Jubilee and pardons to all the French that should go visit the Church of St. Croix at Orleans doing the works of Christian Charity An infinite number of people went thither from all parts of France the King and Queen went thither with the first and gave means to help to build this Church which had been ruined during the fury of the first Civil wars The King laid the first stone of this building Then the King did forbid the superfluous use of Gold and Silver in Lace or otherwise upon garments and made an Edict also against Usury and another against Combates Not long after the Duke of Biron's Conspiracy was discovered who was sometimes heard say he would die a Sovereign Refusing to submit hiâ—self to the King's Clemency he is seized on at the King's Chamber door and his Sword being taken from him is carried Prisoner to the Bastille There uttered he those passionate words That if they desired to put him to death they should dispatch him that they should not brag they had made him to fear death that they should speedily drink themselves drunk with the blood which remained of thirty five wounds which he had received for the service of France The King sent his Letters to the Court of Parliament to make his Process In the end being found guilty the Chancellour pronounced the sentence of death whcih was inflicted on him in the Bastille which he took most impatiently King James of happy memory before his coming to the Crown of England sent expressions of Royal favour to the Consistory of Paris who chose the forementioned Du Moulin to address their humble thanks by Letters to his Majesty And when his Majesty publisht his Confession of Faith against which Coeffeteau since Bishop of Marselles writ an eloquent Book Du Moulin undertook the defence of the King's Confession and wrote a French Book with that Title which was most welcome to the King and to the English Clergy and his Majesty made Royal and bountiful expressions of his acceptance And because other Adversaries besides Coeffeteau had writ against the King Du Moulin wrote another Book in his defence in Latine entituled De Monarchia Pontificis Romani The Duke of Bovillon having been accused by those which had been examined in Council upon the Conspiracies of the Duke of Biron being sent for refuseth to come to the King but afterwards in the year 1606. he made his peace and came to the King being then at Dunchery on April 11. The King with the Queen Princes of the blood and other Officers of the Crown
them the quality of Judges under the good pleasure of the Pope and the King the Duke having absolutely submitted himself to their determination But this resolution was not for the gust of the Court. They assembled then again at the Palace of the Archbishop of Burdeaux and from thence sent a Deputation to the King wherein the Archbishop of Arles was to speak for the rest The Bishop in his Oration used all the odious terms he could invent to possess the King with the highest sense of the Duke's misdemeanour Upon which occasion Caspian Bishop of Nantes one of the most vertuous Prelates of his time cried out That if it were possible for the Devil to submit himself to God Almighty to such a degree as the Duke did he would infallibly obtain pardon for all his offences and that notwithstanding the Church deny'd this pardon to a Christian who had ever served God and his Church Upon the Complaints of the Clergy prefer'd to the King by the mouth of the Archbishop of Arles the Cardinal who was present at the Council was of opinion That upon the Duke 's single confession contained in his answer he ought to be reputed Excommunicat◠and as so that the King ought to declare him lapsed from all his Offices and Dignities till by vertue of his Absolution he should be re-united to the Church The Duke now sends his Secretary from Plassac to Rome to procure his Absolution But so many rubs from France were laid in his way that four whole months were laps'd before the Duke could receive his Absolution The Duke's Absolution being resolved on and order given to the Archbishop to give it him and the day for Absolution being appointed the Duke of Espernon attended by the Duke de la Valette and several persons of quality went to Coutras whither being come the Archbishop who was already there accompanied with his Ecclesiasticks went first to the Church where the Duke following after and presenting himself before him kneeled down upon a Velvet Cushion laid ready for that purpose In this posture and in the presence of five Counsellours of the Parliament of Burdeaux who were by the King's order to be assisting at this Ceremony the Archbishop pronounced his Absolution in these words Et Ego Authoritate Ecclesiae eâ quâ fungor absolvo te à vinculo Excommunicationis quam incurristi quia immunitatem Ecclesiae meae Metropolitanae perfregisti manum armatam militum ut me currumque meum in via sisterent misisti Statione dispositâ Palatium nostrum vallasti Jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam violasti eamque tibi arrogasti Nos Clerumque nostrum insignibus indignis contumeliis affecisti In nomine Patris Filii c. Though the Duke was no great Latinist he had nevertheless so much as to understand many words of this Absolution by which he observed they were not according to the ordinary stile of the Church The Duke after his return received by an express Currier from Court his Majesties orders to return into Guienne to his former Government And it happened well not to the Duke alone but as much also to the Province and to the whole Kingdom that the Duke was at this time restored to his Command Soon after a great Sedition was raised in Burdeaux by reason of the Excise upon Victuallers The Duke opposeth the Seditious forceth divers Barricado's wherein divers of his men are slain and wounded and beateth down their Barricado's and reduceth the City to its obedience to the King The whole Province of Guien except Montauban brake out into open Arms committing every-where all the barbarous Acts of an inhumane fury The Duke sends his orders into all parts of the Province which a little quiets them The commotions of the City were no sooner appeased but that madness diffused it self into the Villages of the adjacent Country The Boors in great numbers got into the Suburb of Burdeaux called S. Surin to which place the Duke's house was near enough for him to hear their Clamours and from his Chamber-window that looked into the fields to see the fires they had kindled in several houses of which the greatest part were miserably consumed The Duke being under great indisposition got out of his bed mounted to horse by night and with forty or fi ty Gentlemen his Guards and some of the Town-Companies went out toward these Mutineers They had fortified themselves in several places of the Suburb had Barricado'd the Church and made a shew of defending themselves But at the Duke's arrival they almost all disbanded and ran away none save those in the Church making any resistance who also at the first Volley discharged upon them fled after their fellows forty or fifty of them were slain by the Cavalry pursuing them at whose death the Duke was greatly afflicted The report of this execution dispersing it self in a moment throughout the whole Province caused a calm every-where Now the Cardinal de la Valette Son to the Duke of Espernon was sent at the head of a great Army into Germany the Command whereof was equally divided between him and Duke Weimar The Duke of Espernon was dissatisfied that the Cardinal de la Valette advanced into the Church by his Learning Birth and Fortune to so eminent a degree of dignity and reputation that should wholly have applied himself to her service that he should hazard his life in so dangerous a profession He ever apprehended it would be fatal to him and therefore had done all he could to disswade him from it employing also the endeavours of several his most intimate friends and servants but all in vain Either the humour of the time the inclination of his Son the necessity of his destiny or all together still prevailing with him above the fears or foresight of so affectionate a Father In the mean time the Duke of Rohan was faln from Lorrain into Alsatia where he took Ruffach by storm Then Commissary Bullion had private directions to go along with Monsieur de Lande Ambassadour and Governour of the French Forces which were in Rhetia to the enterprize of the Valtoline The French Forces marched toward the Mountain Spluga and came to Chiavena advanced to Riva and passing over Sassocorbe which is a Rock between the Mountain and the Lake by which way they are to pass who will go from thence by Land into the Valley which is a very strait passage they came to Traon not meeting with any hindrance For the State of Milan wanting necessary Forces for maintaining it self was rather thinking upon self defence than how to set upon another And because the French mens design was to shut up all passages into that State in such sort as it should be impossible for the Emperour to send them any succour by the way of Tyrol the Duke of Rohan came thither on April 24. with two Regiments of Switzers and five Companies of Horse and made himself Master of the rest of the Valley But after Rohan
had held it divers months the Grison Colonels and Captains laying claim to much money and others who were destined to have the Government claiming the restitution of the Valtoline according to promise they mutiny'd and betaking themselves to Arms throughout all Rhetia they secured the Duke of Rohan in the Fort of Maynfelt and enforced the French to forsake them and to return to their own King's dominions Then the Grisons entred into this Valley and recovered their liberty Rohan not being able to escape from Coira whither he was brought from Maynfelt as an Hostage remained there until such time as his men were gone out of Rhetia The dâ—ath of the Duke of Rohan Afterward Duke Rohan wounded in the Battel of Rinfield dieth He was a Duke and Peer of France being bred up in the Wars under King Henry IV. he attained to such experience as following the opinion and Party of the Protestants he was by them chosen to be their General in which charge he alwaies stoutly behaved himself till such time as he got his Pardon from King Lewes XIII Of a civil and courteous deportment to all persons of a sharp wit wary in his proceedings and in his Counsels well advised He was free from pride and ambition Noble in his expenses contemning an increase of wealth and riches He died to the great grief of Duke Weimar and all the other Commanders and of all the Protestants In the year 1637. Francis Cupif a Doctor of Sorbon was converted to the Reformed Religion whereupon the faculty of Theology pronounced this rigid decree against him Howel's Hist of Lewes XIII It is very properly and with great reason that the Apostle ranks Heresies among Crimes and carnal sins because we often perceive that by a secret judgement of God those use to fall and tumble into them who swelling with the vanity and confidence of their own sense or walking according to the flesh suffer not themselves to be led by the spirit of God nor believe that they are tyed to any rule but they taste nothing but what pleaseth man as he is a sensitive Animal Whereof Francis Cupif of Anger 's whom the sacred Faculty had nourished before in her bosom and at last unhappily received into the number of her Doctors to the great scandal of all good men and the applause of the enemies of the Cross of Christ hath lately given an horrid and most deplorable example For according to the honour that was conferred upon him in our School not minding the law he had received from so good a Mother which might have drawn down upon his head all graces from God and men and having quite forgot the Oath he had made so oft and whereunto according to ancient institution all new Graduates and all such who are promoted to the degree of Doctorships are solemnly obliged He is miserably fallen said they from the holy Catholick Church whereby he hath drawn upon himself the loss of his soul before God shame and infamy before men and malediction from all parts This imprudent Son is become the grief and sadness of his Mother then when by a perfidious prevarication abjuring the true Doctrine he hath most impudently turn'd Heretick giving up his name to impiety and falshood But whence can it proceed that he should so easily fall into so fearful a precipice but from the natural presumption of his own judgement and from the ardour of unbridled pleasure c Whence it comes to pass that being blinded and walking continually according to his own covetousness having shaken off the sweet and light Yoak of Jesus Christ he is become a voluntary slave to Heresie which is the height of all sins It being therefore true that as the Christian Emperours said Whatsoever is attempted against Divine Religion becomes injurious to all with greater reason the Sacred Faculty of Theology hath believ'd That the wrong which is done Jesus Christ and to the Catholick Faith by this degenerate Child did concern her so far as to pronounce a grave Censure according to the atrocity of the Crime against such a notorious infamy and to separate him totally from Her and her Nursery though it be nothing at all to be fear'd that such Bastard Plants will take any deep roots Cursed be thou degenerate Child which goest on after thine own Counsel not according to mine which warpest a web but not by my direction which dost add sin to sin which goest down to Egypt and to the Synagogue of Satan and consultest not with me nor remembrest my Precepts Thou hast rejected my Discipline hoping for succour in the help of Calvin and his followers and hast confidence in the shadow of Egypt that is to say in the Conventicle of Hereticks but this imaginary strength shall become thy confusion and the confidence of this shadow which thou followest in despising the Body of the Orthodoxal Church shall turn to thy shame So Anathema was pronounced and publickly fix'd up against him The Queen of France was brought to bed of a Prince on September 5. 1638. at St. German de lay he was born in the twenty third year after the Marriage of the King and Queen The King upon news thereof threw himself upon his knees before a Crucifix and returned humble thanks and acknowledgements to God for his so great goodness toward him All France was full of jollity as they expressed by their voices gestures and actions Yea this gladness dispersed it self up and down all places of Christendom that were Friends to France and struck a kind of wonderment into the world In Rome there were divers inventions and curiosities found out to express a congratulation Before the French Ambassadour's Palace who was then the Marshal d'Estre there was a triumphant Obelisk with the Arms of France and this Ostentous Inscription underneath Ludovico XIII Christianissimo Galliarum Navarrae Regi Qui Pullulantem per avita regna Haereticum Hydram Petulantem in orbe Christiano novum Geryonem Herculeâ clavâ compressit Aras per impietatem eversas Principes per Tyrannidem oppressos Armatâ pietate restituit Aequissimi Herois Justitiae debito Delphino Inter aurealilia nascenti Inter paternos lâ—uros vagienti Futuro futurorum monstrorum Alcidi In afflictorum subsidium In Tyrannorum excidium In liliorum aeternum germen In Ecclesiae invictum columen E coelo in terris stupenda ratione demisso Plausus acclamationes Trophaea Futurae gloriae argumenta Praesentis laetitiae monumenta Attollit adjungit erigit Franciscus Hannibal Estraeus c. For publick arguments of joy Prisoners and Galley-slaves were released Two were ennobled in every Generalty throughout the Kingdom And four Masters were created in every Trade throughout France with divers other priviledges afforded to them of Paris In the year 1640. a great combustion happened in Catalonia which grew so furious that the Viceroy with his Wife and some of his Family were murthered and his house burned to the ground This tumult by