Island so named Apulia Calabria and some other neighbouring Countreys which Roger held in Italy Now although William Duke of Aquitain had suffer'd himself to be brought back to the Obedience of Innocent II. in the year 1135. yet Gerard nevertheless stood up obstinately for Anaclet to the end of his days but some while after he was found dead in his Bed horribly black and blew and swoln About three years after viz. in An. 1138. Anaclet died also his Relations placed another Cardinal in his stead to whom they gave the name of Victor In fine Innocent found it better to buy his peace of them then to leave these Divisions smothering and smoaking any longer and when they were agreed Victor laid down the Tiara and cast himself at his Feet Notwithstanding Roger held out still some time not owning him for Pope because he would not own him for a King till having taken him prisoner in War An. 1193. he came fairly to an agreement with him and got the Title of King confirmed to him Frederick I. being come to the Empire young haughty and ambitious as he was undertook to recover its dignity to which the easiness of Pope Anastasius seemed to chaulk out a way but Pope Adrian IV. who succeeded Anastasius resolv'd to obviate his designs and keep him under as his dependant Hence proceeded a mortal enmity betwixt them which however came not to an open rupture but made Frederick more plainly sensible that it was necessary to have a Pope at his Devotion Adrian being dead An. 1159. it hapned that all the Cardinals excepting three elected Cardinal Rowland who took the name of Alexander III. but whilst he was shewing some kind of unwillingness to accept the Popedom those three that were not for him Elected immediately the Cardinal Octavian who was named Victor The Emperour having notice of it favour'd him first underhand thereby to frighten Alexander and bring him to his bent then openly when he found he could not lead the other as he pleased So he causes his Election to be authorised by the Council of Pisa which he had call'd by his own authority after the example of former Emperours and employ'd all his Interest to perswade other Princes to adhere to him The Kings of France and of England who had been at war having now agreed assembled their Bishops Abbots and Barons the one at Beauvais and the other at Newmarket to discuss the right of the two concurrents the Legats both of the one and other side having been heard Alexander was approved by all and Victor Excommunicated This hapned in the year 1161. The good Title and Right of the former was this year confirmed by a great number of miracles as many Authors write and yet there is one affirms likewise that God wrought some in favour of Victor after his decease In the mean time this last being most powerful in Rome Alexander seeks his refuge in France and remained there three years at the end whereof his Affairs going in a better method in Italy the Clergy and People call him back to Rome An. 1164. To defray the Expences of his journey he was sorced to impose a Year of our Lord 1164 Collection on the Gallican Church Year of our Lord 1164 The same year Victor his Rival died in the City of Luca. Some Prelats of his Faction being assembled at the same place gave the Popedom to one of those two Cardinals that had elected him which was Guy de Crema He lived five years and deceased An. 1170. Those of his party substituted another I cannot tell what Abbot not known but by his debauches they call'd him Calistus III. and Frederick supported him as he had done the two others At the same time there were great stirs in England King Henry stickling to preserve certain pretended Rights which he called Customs of the Kingdom and Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury not to suffer them as being contrary to Ecclesiastical liberty It would be thought strange in these days if a Bishop should hold his Head up so high against his Prince for the like cause but then the best of Men were perswaded that such Liberties were the pillars of Religion The contest lasted seven or eight years and ended not but by the death of the Archbishop who was murther'd in his Cathedral in the year 1170. and the Kings penitence which was so great and so publick that the Church was edified more by such an example then it had been scandaliz'd by his offence The Emperor Frederick was not more fortunate then the two Henrys so that being shatter'd by the Popes Thunder-bolts and more severely yet by his ill fortune driven out of Italy and apprehending the sudden Revolt of Germany he could find no other way to save himself but to ask pardon of the Holy Father and prostrate himself at his Feet to gain his Absolution which was done at Venice in An. 1177. His Anti-Pope Calistus did as much the following year throwing himself at the Feet of the same Alexander Afterwards Frederick had again some Disputes with the Popes Lucius Vrban and Clement III. of that name but he was reconcil'd to Clement and lived well enough with the See of Rome to the time of his death Henry VI. his Son was Crowned by Celestine III. in the year 1191. He undertook nothing directly against the Popes but yet he suffer'd himself to be Excommunicated for detaining Richard King of England prisoner and for not restoring the Money he had extorted from that Prince to purchase his liberty He died without Absolution Anno 1197. Let us now speak of Heresies About the end of the Twelfth age the opinions of one named Rousselin had made a great deal of noise He said the three Divine Persons were three separate or distinct things as three several Angels were but in such sort nevertheless that all three had but one and the same Power and one and the same Will and that if custom would permit it one might say that they were three Gods or otherwise it would follow that the Father and the Holy Ghost had been incarnate These Sophistical impieties were condemned in a Council held at Soissons notwithstanding the Author did not refrain Teaching in private and perhaps he might have made a greater progress if there had not been some watchful persons amongst the rest Yves de Chartres who broke his measures I cannot tell whether it were the same against whom St. Anselme when he was but Abbot du Bec. wrote his Treatise of the Incarnation of the Word which he sent to Pope Vrban II. to examine An. 1094. About the year 1125. one Tanchelin the most profligate of all Mankind infected Brabant and the neighbouring Countreys with his Errors he asserted that the Ministry of Bishops and Priests was a cheat and that the Communion of the Holy Eucharist availed nothing to our Salvation He drew people after him by the magnificence of his Feasts and the pomp of his dress
That the Saint Ampoulle i. e. Holy Oyl was conveyed at his Baptism by a Celestial Dove That the Shield Semé with Flower-de-Luces and the Standard Royal de l'Oriflamme were by an Angel deposited in the hands of a good Hermit living in the solitudes of Joyenval near St. Germans en Laye That he had the Gift of Healing the Evil and made proof of it upon Lanicet his Favourite But God made him a more extraordinary and more excellent Present than all those when he bestowed upon him the Heavenly Knowledge of the Orthodox Faith there being amongst all the Princes upon Earth none but himself that did not live either in Error or Idolatry This Conversion did him no little Service towards keeping the Gauls who were all Christians in Obedience and to allure others who were Subjects to the Gothick and the Burgundian Princes whose Government was odious to them because they would compel them to follow the Opinion of Arrius The zeal of Christianity did not allay his Warlike heats Gondesigilus having promised if he would assist him in suppressing his Brother Gondebaud to share the spoil with him he fell with his Army upon the Burgundians Countrey Gondesigilus Year of our Lord 500 pretending he was mightily scared sent to pray his Brother to come to his assistance Gondebaud failed not but when it came to the Battle which was fought on the borders of the River L'Ouche near Dijon Gondesigilus went over to the French and began to Assault him Gondebaud finding it was a thing designed betwixt them fled to Avignon Clovis pursues and besieges him there The Sage Aredius Principal Counsellor to Gondebaud cunningly contrives to do his Master Service upon this occasion the Siege spinning out to some length he pretends to desert him and renders himself to Clovis with whom he manages Affairs so wisely as that King agrees to a Composition and Gondebaud becomes his Tributary Year of our Lord 500 and 501. When Clovis was out of that Countrey and perhaps employ'd in other business Gondebaud scorning to pay him the Tribute assembles his Forces together and besieges Gondesigilus in Vienne One Fontenier whom they had thrust out amongst the useless People discovered to him the mouth of an Aqueduct by which way he sent in some Men who surprized the City his Brother having sheltred himself in a Church belonging to the Arrians was there slain together with a Bishop of the same Belief Thus Gondebaud remained sole King of all Burgundy Year of our Lord Towards 502 or 503. It is my opinion during these years that the French as Procopius tells us not having been able to subdue the Armoricae betwixt the Seinè and the Loire did incorporate with them by a mutual Confederacy which of two made them bat one People The Roman Garrisons not being strong enough either to Retreat or to Defend themselves restored their Towns to them but did not quit the Countrey where they for a long time afterwards retained their Laws their Discipline and Habits The Citizens of Verdun being Revolted it is not said for what reason Clovit being ready to force them the Prayers of Euspice Arch-Deacon of that City a Man of a very Holy Life allayed his Wrath and obtained their Pardon I cannot tell precisely in what year hapned that which Procopius relates how Clovis and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths having made an agreement together to conquer Burgundy and divide it upon condition that if either of the two Armies did not meet at a certain time appointed they should pay a certain Sum to the other the Visigoths made no great haste but left the French to bear all the brunt then coming when the hottest work was over and the Countrey subdued took their share of the Conquest paying the Sum as had been stipulated Year of our Lord 503 or 504. Neither the one nor the other held those Countreys long but restored them entire to Gondebaud who afterwards made a strict Alliance with Clovis against the Visigoths There is great likelyhood that it was in these peaceable days that Clovis laboured to reform the Salique Law which having been made by the French when Pagans might contain many things contrary to the manners and Laws of Christianity This Law was only for the French in his own Kingdom for those of Colen had another which we find to this day by the name of the Law of the Ripuarians conformable notwithstanding in many particulars to the Salique Law Year of our Lord 506. And the following Two Kings powerful and young as were Clovis and Alaric could not be long Neighbours and good Friends Divers petty differences set them at variance by the secret practises of the Bishops of Aquitain who being troubled they should obey Alaric an Arrian Prince pushed on Clovis to a Rupture The Two Kings had an Enterview and discoursed each other in the Island D'Or nigh Amboise between the City of Tours which belonged to the Visigoths and that of Orleance appertaining to the French This Meeting salved up their quarrel for a time and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths Father-in-law to Alaric and Brother-in-law to Clovis undertook to make them agree but as great a Polititian as he was he could not restrain the Ardour of Clovis This Conquerour knowing the Visigoths were softned or effeminated by a long Peace and having made sure of Gondebaud by a League contracted betwixt them resolved to Attaque Alaric under the specious pretence of Religion the French followed him with great cheerfulness those of Aquitain invited Year of our Lord 507. 507 and him Heaven conducted him by visible Signs and Miracles Immediately the City of Tours surrenders to him Alaric who was getting his Forces together at Poitiers le ts him pass along to Vienne then imprudently resolves to give him Battle it was in the Plains of Vouglay Ten miles from Poitiers Clovis having exhorted his Soldiers Armed them with the Sign of the Cross and for the Word gave them the Name of the Lord. Alaric's Army was defeated and he slain in the Fight by Clovis's his own hand The vanquisher divided his Army in two Bodies with the one his Son Thierry makes himself Master of Albigeois of Rouergne of Quercy and of Auvergue and himself with the other of Poitou of Saintonge all Bourdelois and Burdeaux it self where he passed the Winter then in the Spring of Thoulouse wherein was the Treasure Year of our Lord 508 of the Visigoths At his return he took the City of Angoulesme the Walls whereof sell down before him in fine of all the Three Aquitains the Catholicks casting themselves into his Arms to be freed from the yoak of the Arrians At the same time Gondebaud pursuant to the Treaty made with Clovis Conquered the two Narbonnoises and the City of Narbona from whence he drove Gesali◠Year of our Lord 508 so was called the Bastard Son of Alaric who had seized on the Kingdom of the Visigoths because Almaric the Legitimate Son born of
excommunicate and wrote very harsh Letters Year of our Lord 856 to young Lotaire threatning to deprive him of his Kingdom There is no craft nor submissions which this Prince did not put in practice to elude that Sentence But the Pope not valuing all those Arts sent a Legat into France named Arsenius who addressing himself to the German Louis called a Synod Year of our Lord 866 and taking upon him a Supream Authority declared to Lotaire that he must take his Wife again or remain excommunicated with all his Adherents The Kings his Uncles maintained this Sentence in such sort that for the time he was forced to obey But so soon as the Legat was departed France he began afresh to mis-use his Wife to threaten to make process against her for Adultery and prove that crime by combat The accused retires to the protection of Charles the Pope takes her business much to heart and excommunicates Valdrade and Duke Huebert Brother Year of our Lord 867 of this Queen rebelling against Lotaire plunders his Country kills his people and exercised all manner of cruelty till he was slain himself by Count Conrard Father of that Rodolph who was the First King of Burgundy beyond the Jour or Transjurain Salomon had fancied that the Kingdom of Bretagne though Neomene had obtained it rather by conquest then succession belonged to him because he was the Son Year of our Lord 867 of Rivalon eldest Brother to that King Thus having forgotten he was carefully and tenderly bred under his tuition he contrives a conspiracy against Herispoux his Son assaults him in the Fields then kills him in the Church to which he fled for safety and so puts the Crown all bloody upon his own head Neomene and he intitled themselves Kings of Bretagne and a great part of Gaule because in effect they possessed the Countries of Mayne and with that the lower Anjou which they had wrested from the French For this cause was Anjou divided in two Counties the one containing what is beyond the River Maine and held by these Breton Kings the other what lies on this side and remained to the French At the same time the Normans entring into Neustria by the Loire spread themselves all over Nantois Poitou Anjou and Tourraine Ranulfe Duke of Aquitain and Duke Robert the strong who was so called because he guarded those Marches against these Barbarians and the Bretons having attaqued them in a Post which they had fortified near the River were by misfortune both slain in the combat So that their Army wanting a Head though they got the advantage let those robbers get away from them Robert had two Sons very young Eudes and Robert whom we shall find to have reigned hereafter The Saracens tormented Italy no less Lotaire went thither with his Forces not only to assist the Emperor Louis his Brother but moreover by this means to deserve and gain the Favour of the Pope which was Adrian successor to Nicholas hoping in time to obtain the dissolution of his Marriage with Thietberge The Holy-Father received him very well because he assured him he had punctually obey'd to all that was enjoyned him but when both he and his came to receive the Holy Communion from his hands he obliged them all to swear it was true that he had quitted Valdrade Now it hapned shortly after that the most part of these Lords died of sickness or otherwise in such numbers and so suddenly as if they had been cut down by the Sword of an exterminating Angel and Lotaire himself was Seized with a Feaver at Luca which he drag'd along to Piacenza where he gave up the Ghost the 6 th of August Which some interpreted a divine Vengeance for the false and Sacrilegious Oath he and his Courtiers had made The Body of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament being a destroying Sword to the wicked and unworthy Communicant Year of our Lord 868 His youngest Brother Charles King of Provence endeavoured to reap his succession and was Crowned at Mets by the Bishop Adventius But he survived not long after and died without Issue He was Interred in the Church of St. Peter's at Lyons LOUIS in Bavaria and Germany CHARLES in West-France Burgundy and Lorrain LOUIS II Emperour in Italy Year of our Lord 868. And 69. Charles who then held a Parliament at Poissy informed of the death of Lotaire went and Seized on the Kingdom of Lorraine neither minding the Emperor Louis Brother of the two last Kings to whom it should have belonged nor the Mediation of the Pope who desired him by an express Legation to do his Nephew Justice The Bishops of that Kingdom being Assembled at Mets gave him the Crown And Hincmar the Arch-Bishop chief promoter of that Decree put it on his Head with the usual Ceremonies Lotaire had one Son and two Daughters by Valdrade The two Daughters were Berte and Gisele Berte was first wife to Count Thibauld Father of Hugh Count and Marquess of Provence and by her second Marriage to Adelbert Marquess of Tuscany Father of Guy and Lambert Gisele was Wedded to Godfrey the Dane who Reigned in Friseland the Son was named Hugh who when he came to Age contended for the Kingdom of Lorrain Hermentrude Wife to Charles the Bald dying at St. Denis the 16 th of October Year of our Lord 869 he married for the second time Richende or Richilda his Mistriss Daughter of Earl Buvin or Boves and the Sister to Thietberge Widdow of King Lotaire III. It was with some justice but without legal power that the Pope should take Year of our Lord 870 any cognisance of the difference about Lotaire He dispatched a second Embassy to Charles the Bald to exhort him to surrender it to the Emperor Louis otherwise he would Excommunicate him And he wrote to the Bishops that they should forbear all Communion with that King unless they would be cut off from the Church of Rome Charles reply'd modestly enough to the Legats but the French Bishops went a higher Note and the Arch-Bishop Hincmar wrote very smart Letters to Adrian His Nephew of the same name Bishop of Laon was of an other opinion and with much heat maintained all those Orders brought from the Pope He had Excommunicated a Norman Lord because he detained some Lands belonging to his Church whereof the King had given him the Benefice His proceedings were blamed and condemned by the Bishops at the Synod of Verberie he appealed to the Pope for which cause his Uncle having cited him before the Council of Attigny which consisted of the Bishops of twelve Provinces he caused his Equipage to be Plundred by the way and when he came to the Assembly forced him to renounce Year of our Lord 870 his Appeal The Pope made grievous complaint of it and would have brought the Process and the two Hincmars to Rome but the Arch-Bishop reply'd with force and hindred him This dispute went so far that the Bishop of Laon was deposed and clapt in Prison
to Boson An. 879. There was one at Fimes in Champagne in 881. amongst whose Acts we find an exhortation and advice to King Louis Son of Louis the Stammerer to Govern well King Arnold had one held at Mets An. 888. That of Valence in Daulphine An. 890. gave the Kingdom of Burgundy Cis-jurane or Arles to Louis the Son of Boson In the same Kingdom there was one at Vienne two years after of which some Canons are remaining The same year that of Reims where Foulks Successor to Hincmar presided which ordered comminatory Letters to Baudouin or Baidwin Earl of Flanders who Invaded the Propriety belonging to the Churches The question about the Worshipping of Images and that touching Predestination had like to have divided the Gallican Church For the first it is certain there were no Bishops in all France that would have broken them or rejected the Intercession of Saints unless Claude de Turin who was so pelted on all hands that he could not stand his ground But many and those of the most Learned amongst others Jonas of Orleans and Agobard of Lyons could not consent or yeild that Images should be adored In so much that the Emperors Theophilus and Michael having sent Ambassadors into France An. 825. to consult with the Debonnaire about the means to take away that Schism which divided the Greek Church from the Roman the Bishops who were Assembled at Paris to confer about it examined the Sayings of the Fathers with their reasons and opinions on that Subject whence they did infer that the Worshipping of Images was not to be permitted They also wrote Letters conformable thereunto to be sent unto the Pope on this occasion as well in their own as in the Emperors name and others likewise for his Holyness to send to the Eastern Emperors But we do not find that these resolutions had any effect the Gallican Church hath allowed and received the Worshipping of Images and hold those of a contrary opinion to be Heretiques For the question of Predestination that made more noise yâ—t It was Godeschale the Monk a Native of Germany but who had taken his Frock in the Abbey of Orbais in the Diocess of Soissons who gave occasion for these Disputes On his return from a Pilgrimage to Rome passing by Ments he made out some propositions upon this Subject which seemed to be hard and Scandalous he was accused for Teaching that God destined or Predestinated unchangeably the reprobated to be damned as the Elect to be glorified and therefore as he was the Author of good Actions so he was likewise the Author of Sin Those on the other side for him maintained that he held no other then the Doctrine of St. Augustine St. Gregory St. Fulgentius and in fine the whole Church which is that God prepares Eternal punishments for those whom he foresees will dye in Sin without Predestinating or Inclining them to Sin However it were Rabanus Maurus Arch-Bishop of Ments adjudged him guilty of the Error whereof he was accused but because in condemning him he seemed to contradict that Proposition in General that God Predestinates to Death not knowing it was the opinion of St. Fulgentius and authorised by many of the Fathers Godeschale reproached him that his was contrary to their Sentiments There is some likely-hood this Monk did not express himself with all that respect and submission he ought to so great a Prelat and indeed being cited before the Council of Ments he presented a Petition containing an accusation against him The Arch-Bishop call'd him Make-bate and Insolent and sent him back to Hincmar his Arch-Bishop to give judgment against him Hincmar who of himself had but little mercy and was besides'something evilly disposed against the Monk because of his too confident proceedings used great severity towards him For in the Council of Crecy he caused him to be condemned for his Incorrigible obstinacy and for his having been the cause of trouble to be deposed from the Order of Priesthood whipped till he should throw his Writings into a Fire which was kindled near him then shut up in close imprisonment where he died at ten or twelve years end He persisted however in his opinions to the last and Hincmar treating him like one excommunicated deny'd him the Sacraments even at the time of his dissolution and Christian Burial after his death Now as in the Council of Crecy that the Arch-Bishop had composed four Chapters wherein he seemed to refute that Proposition of St. Fulgentius and examine and oppose some others of St. Augustin's the greatest men of those Times withstood the enterprise Amongst others St. Prudence Bishop of Troyes Servais Loup a Priest of Ments Loup Abbot of Ferrieres Ratramne a Monk of Corbie Nay even the Church of Lyons to whose judgments Hincmar referr'd himselftogether with all those of the Kingdom of Arles and his Pastor St. Remy who for his Doctrine and Ecclesiastical capacity was to be compared with the ancient Fathers Divers Councils were held and many things written on either side especially by John Scot for Hincmar and by Florus for the Church of Lyons By which say the Learned it appears they were all for St. Augustine but did not well understand themselves or explain their own meaning clearly so that the Errors they charged each other withal lay only in the different Interpretations and Sence of either Party And indeed the Councils before whom these Controversies were brought wisely suppressed them declaring that they were to be considered in a more ample manner and sober discussion Which certainly they would never have done if there had appeared any positive or notorious errors in either Party All the mischief of this Storm fell upon two Priests Godeschale and John Scotus who suffer'd because they had reflected on the Bishops The first was handled as is above-mentioned the other having been mightily baffled and despised was compelled in the end to forsake the Court and Kingdom And even after his death was condemned as the Precursor of Berenger and the Sacramentarians Rabanus and Amalarius Deacon of Treves were likewise censured or blamed in their life time for holding that villainous or filthy opinion of the Stercoranists which is not to be explained without trespassing on that respect which is due to the most Sacred of all Mysteries The Authority especially was excessively encreased ever since Pepin made use of their interest to obtain the Crown and Charlemain after the Pattern of the Visi-Goth Kings would have affairs both Civil and Ecclesiastical debated in the same Assemblies where those Bishops being the Principals often times carried things so as best pleased and served themselves But the Rebellion of Louis the Debonnair's Children against their Father and afterwards the Civil Dissentions ensuing raised their power to a higher pitch yet and put them into such a Capacity that they seemed to pretend a Right of Electing Kings like the Pope who disposed of the Empire as if it had been a Benefice depending on him It is
others who named themselves the Humbled The First made profession of an Evangelical poverty the Second undertook to Preach wherever they came To contradict or countermine these two Religious Orders were instituted viz. The Friers Mineurs or Cordeliers and the Preaching Friers or Jacobins The First Foundation of that was laid in Italy by St. Francis d'Assise of the other in Languedoc by St. Dominique of the Noble Family of the Guzmans in Spain and Cannon of Osma who came into this Province with a Bishop to Convert the Albigenses Year of our Lord 1208 King Philip would have been himself in this Expedition or would have sent his Son for these Sectaries had committed some Hostilities in his Territory acknowledging his Enemy King John had he not feared a Landing of the English in Bretagne under favour of the Fort du Garplie He went not therefore beyond the Loire but Commanded the Nobility that held of him to arm themselves and take that Fort as in truth they did this year The Bishops of Orleans and Auxerre who had been sent thither with their Vassals upon this Expedition being return'd again without leave pretending not to be oblig'd to march with the Army but when the King was there in Person the King commanded their Regalia to be seized that is to say what they held in Fief of him not their Tithes Offerings and other dues necessarily belonging to People of that Function They made complaint by their Envoys to Pope Innocent III. then went themselves The Pope having examined the matter found they had failed and transgressed against the Customs and Laws of the Kingdom so that they were fain to pay a Mulct to the King to re-enter upon their Temporals Year of our Lord 1209 The number of these New-Crossed Soldiers were not less then 500000 Men not all Combatans as I believe amongst whom there were five or six Bishops the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Nevers St. Poll and de Montfort The general Rendezvous was at Lyons about the Feast of St. John Thence going into Languedoc they assault the City of Beziers one of the strongest held by the Albigenses forced it and put all to the edge of the Sword there being slain above threescore thousand Persons Those in Carcassonne terrified with this horrible Slaughter surrendred upon Discretion thinking themselves very happy to escape naked or only in their Shirts Year of our Lord 1209 The Lords in this Army having called a Council elected Simon Earl of Montfort chief Commander in this War and to govern the Conquests they had and should make upon those Hereticks That done the Earl of Nevers returned with a great Party of those Soldiers and soon after the Duke of Burgundy with another so that Simon was left ill attended yet he maintained himself by a more then Heroick Valour and Conquer'd Mire-pâ—ix Pamiers and Alby In so much as in a little time he made himself Master of the Albigois the Counties of Beziers and Carcassonne and above an hundred Castles Year of our Lord 1209 In these times the School at Paris flourish'd more then ever They gave it the name of University because all sorts of Sciences were universally taught there although in effect the desire to Study or Learn and the affluence of Scholars were much greater then their Doctrine A certain Priest of the Diocess of Chartres named Almaric beginning to Preach up some Novelties had been forced to recant for which he died of grief Several after his Death following his Opinions were discover'd and condemn'd to the Fire he Excommunicated by the Council of Paris his Body taken out of the Grave and his Ashes cast on the Dunghil And because they believ'd the Books of Aristotles Metaphysicks lately brought them from Constantinople had fill'd their heads with these Heretical Subtilties the same Council prohibited either the keeping or reading them upon pain of Excommunication Year of our Lord 1209 Guy Count d'Auvergne for the violence and injustice he committed against the Clergy particularly the Bishop of Clermont whom he had imprison'd was deprived of his County by King Philip and could never be restor'd again Year of our Lord 1210 The Emperor Otho grew stubborn in the defence of the Rights of the Empire and prepared to go into Italy wholly to subdue it with a mighty Army which he raised with the Money his Nephew King John had sent him upon condition that from thence he should fall upon France Thereupon he was thunder-struck with Excommunication by Pope Innocent and a little after a great part of the German Princes elected Roger-Frederick II. Son of the Emperor Henry VI. about the Age of Seventeen years and who in his Fathers Life-time had already been named King of the Romans The Pope consented to this Election and the following year Frederic who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily passed into Germany Every other while there came new Bands of Soldiers of the Cross to the Earl de Montfort even from Flanders and Germany but slipt away again within six weeks or two Months With these Recruits he carried all the Places and Castles not only of the Hereticks but likewise of other Lords The King of Arragon of whom divers in those Countries held their Lands in Under-Fiefs because of some Lordships he was possessed of wrote to the Pope about it and the Earl of Toulouze went even to Rome to make his Complaints where his Holiness receiv'd him well enough and promis'd him Justice Year of our Lord 1210 But at his return they propounded an Agreement with Montfort if he would let him have all he had already taken He could never consent to it and Milon the Popes Legat Excommunicated him in the Council of Avignon because he levied certain new Tolls upon his Lands The King of Arragon came in Person to another Council which was held at St. Gilles to endeavour to accommodate Affairs and restore the Earl of Foix and the Vicount de Bearn who were dispossess'd as favourers of Hereticks but he could not obtain any thing Year of our Lord 1211 The Toulouzain after so many mean and ruinous Submissions takes the Bit in his Teeth and puts himself in a posture to defend his own Then is he openly Excommunicated and his Lands exposed to any that could Conquer them Montfort besieges Toulouze but the grand Recruits that were come with him stealing away in a little time he is forced to raise the Siege The Earls of Toulouze and de Foix with their Confederates pursue him and besiege him in Chasteauneuf a thing incredible above 50000 Men could not overpower or force three hundred are beaten and shamefully retreat Year of our Lord 1211 The young Princes Frederick II. and Lewis eldest Son of King Philip delegated by his Father Confer at Vaucouleurs upon the Frontiers of Champagne to renew the Alliance between France and the Empire and to unite themselves more closely against Otho and against King John his Uncle two irreconcilable Enemies Renauld Earl of
also troubled England the Kings William and Henry maintaining it was a Right and Prerogative of their Crown and in all times possessed by their Ancestors For which cause Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had lost his See but at last that difference was composed An. 1107. upon condition the King should for ever relinquish the Investitures in the Church and that reciprocally the Bishops should render him Hommage This was to speak properly nothing but the changing of terms for he that doth Hommage is a Vassal and receives and holds of him to whom he renders it And indeed the Popes could have wished that the Bishops had not done it to Lay-Princes and they had expresly forbid it to those in France but the resolution King Lewis the Gross and his Successors shew'd in this point obliged them to relaxe They durst not at the same time contend both with this great Kingdom and Germany they must leave some place of shelter in time of need and besides they did not so much trouble their Heads to lessen France with whom they had no contests for Dominion as to pull down the Emperours who being very powerful in Italy had still an aim of restoring their Imperial Throne in the City of Rome Besides France was better united and by consequence more difficult to be subdued then the Empire where the Subjects as well those of Germany as those of Italy and the Kingdom of Arles being divided amongst themselves and having all different Interests have at length ruin'd that vast body by their Jealousies and Rebellions It was for this reason the Popes made it their business so much to lessen that power and it is certain that all other Princes of Europe growing jealous of it as the most formidable then in being joyned willingly with the Popes to suppress it The defence of the Holy See and the Authority of the Church admitting a specious pretence to side with them This reflection is not useless Now to return to our Narrative Henry V. sunk under all this weight as his Father had done before In the beginning his Presence made things prosper in Italy but when after various success he was driven thence his burden was left to the mercy of Calistus who confined him to a perpetual imprisonment Then he himself tir'd with the daily Admonitions and Remonstrances from all parts and not able to wade through the many Conspiracies and Rebellions which hourly threatned to or'ewhelm him yielded the Cause at last He utterly renounced the Investitures and promised to leave the liberty of Elections to the Ecclesiasticks This was in Anno 1122. The scandal and persecutions which these Schismes caused in Christendom gave occasion in my opinion for that false prediction which was spread abroad in those days That the world was near its end and the Kingdom of Antichrist was then begun St. Norbert and some other persons of an irreâ—ragable Sanctity preach'd it as a most certain Truth which was but little doubted and begot so much terror that Pope Paschal who fled into France to avoid persecution staid some time in his journey at Florence to see what the event of this dreadful report would come to Soon after the agreement Henry V. being dead without Children the Empire was given to Lotbarius Duke of Saxony and after him to Conrade Those two Princes left the Popes in quiet and made no breach of Peace with them So that there was no more fear of Schisme on that side The Church having rested in tranquillity for eight years began to be disturb'd again by another most dangerous division for after the death of Honorius II. which hapned in the year 1134. two contrary Factions or Interests in the Sacred Colledge elected each a Pope on the same day One the Cardinal Gregory who took the name of Innocent the II. The other the Cardinal Peter Leonis who called himself Anaclet This last had been a Monk at Clugny a scurvy commendation for him to the Order of the Cisteaux which was then become the most predominant in France His Right if examined in due form appeared the best but his ambitious and haughty proceeding spoil'd his Title the great Gifts ☞ he made of things belonging to the Church to make himself Master of Rome gave just cause to believe there was somewhat of Simonie in his promotion and that he deserved not the Popedom since he bought it Many good people were of opinion so says John of Salisbury that in the like contests they ought to have owned neither of those concurrents but have elected a Pope anew who had not privately made any interest for the Popedom which is of such a nature as well as all other Benefices that whoever bribes for it renders himself unworthy of it And indeed King Lewis VII wavered for some time betwixt both parties and assembled the Council of Estampes to resolve him which of the two was the Legitimate The perswasions of Henry II. King of England had already a little inclined him towards Innocent the Council of Estampes fully determin'd it that Council having been satisfied by the discourses of St. Bernard who with much zeal and vehemence set forth the Right and Merits of that Pope After so solemn a decision most of the Princes in Europe declared for him there was only Roger Duke of Apulia and William Duke of Aquitain that supported Anaclet The First that he might have a Pope convenient for him and more easie to be managed then his predecessors the Second having been perswaded by Gerard Bishop of Angoulesme that his Election was Canonical It was thrown in Gerards Teeth that at first he had been of the contrary party but his spleen because he was not continued in his Legation of Aquitain by Innocent drove him to side with Anaclet who indeed confirmed it to him It was one of the handsomest and indeed most profitable employments the Court of Rome could bestow for besides the three Aquitains both Touraine and Bretagne were comprehended in it I divide Bretagne from Touraine because the former had its Arch-Bishop apart this was the Bishop of Dole who since the insurrection of Neomene took upon him to be the Metropolitan The often reiterated complaints of the Metropolitan of Tours and the sollicitations of the Kings of France in the Court of Rome could not obtain a Judgment in this matter for a long while but Philip Augustus tyr'd with their long delays prosecuted it with so much resolution and talked so high that Innocent III. determin'd it by a definitive Sentence in An. 1198. which restored Dol and the other Bishopricks of Bretagne to the Metropolis of Tours We find in the Life of St. Bernard how he withdrew Duke William from espousing the party of Anaclet so that there was none for him but Roger Duke of Apulia on whom Anaclet conferr'd the Title of King of Sicilia upon condition to pay an acknowledgment of Six hundred Crowns yearly to the See of Rome The Kingdom of Sicilia comprehended the
Military or even from Marriage that it might be the more humble and perfect S. Leo the Pope had only advised it his Successors made it a Law and the Councils of Toledo reduced it into practise towards their very Kings witness Vamba one of the most illustrious and most renowned of their Monarchs who being ordained Pennance while he was in the agonies of death not with his consent for he was deprived of all understanding but according to the custome of those times was yet obliged upon his recovery to renounce his Kingly Office Observe if you please that these Councils of Spain furnished the Popes with great advantages and presidents to bring other Sovereigns under their Command and Disposal For the Visigoth Kings being elective the Bishops had a great share in their Election and their Councils were as so many Assemblies where the Grandees and the Kings themselves were present There they corrected all the disorders of the Crown and imposed Laws upon them under the penalty of Anathema or Deposition if they infringed them The Bishops of France undertook the same thing by deposing Louis the Debonnaire and though it were a perfect Faction that Prince however did not resume the Crown but by the authority of another Assembly of Bishops Foulk Arch-Bishop of Rheims threatned Charles the Simple he would withdraw his Subjects from their Obedience if he made any Alliance with the Normans who were then Barbarians and Unbelievers Now the Popes believed it as an Article of Faith that their power was much greater then that of all the Bishops and that it had no other limitation then was express'd in the Canons of the Councils and the Decrees of the Apostolique See which never had forbid them to Depose Kings because it cannot be imagined the thoughts of such a thing could ever enter into their brains Gregory II. in Anno 730. having thundered his Anathema against Leo Isaurian suspended at least the payment of all Tribute and Obedience of his Subjects or perhaps wholly Absolved them as some pretended Moreover taking upon them as they did the Authority of creating Kings which was allowed by the ambition of such as desired that Title they imagined they might well take away the Crown from those that were unworthy since they could bestow one upon such as did deserve it There were besides all this many occasions which served not a little to confirm this opinion Amongst others the Prohibition of contracting Marriage between Kindred even to the Seventh Degree and betwixt Allies to the fourth and fifth The cognisance they took of all great Causes not only amongst the Ecclesiasticks but Temporal Princes and the Croisado's For as to the first they could easily find enough of Parentage or Alliance to dissolve a Princes Marriage and by this means made themselves formidable And for the second they were not less considerable for the power they had to judge of all Causes because all Parties have naturally a fear and a respect for their Judges and they having by this incredible affluence of Business an opportunity to employ great numbers of People it drew to their Court all those that had an ambition to be made use of by them or such as had the curiosity to be fashion'd or instructed in that most famous School of the whole Universe In effect all the greatest Wits of Europe flock'd thither to gain Employments and as we have still an Affection for those by whom we are advanced when they went from thence after they had done their Business or made their Fortune they proclaimed the Grandeur of the Popes in every Country with an ardent desire to set up their Maxims The Crusado's or Holy War made them likewise very powerful For in all the Expeditions to the Holy-Land they enjoyned Princes to list themselves they held the Soveraign Command of those Armies by their Legats and in a manner made themselves Lords of all those Adventurers not only because they exacted obedience from them but which was more because they took them under their Protection till their return which was as it were an Order of State to stop all Proceedings both Civil and Criminal In other Crusado's which were undertaken against Schismaticks and Hereticks they made it a Law That whoever were convicted of those Crimes should forfeit all their Goods Honours and Dignities In pursuance whereof they deprived those that were guilty or caused them to be deprived by Councils assembled by their Legats then gave the Spoil to such as had served well in those Expeditions without consulting the Soveraign Lords of whom they held those Estates because they durst not refuse Investiture to those whom so holy a Power had provided in that manner for But their greatest Power or Force consisted in that of the Clergy and Religious Orders Those great Bodies being in those times very firmly united for the maintenance of his Franchises and Liberties which they positively believed to be Jure Divino looking upon the Pope as a Chief Head and Potentate that would never fail them at need Indeed his absolute Authority lay heavily upon the Bishops Shoulders but when it pressed too hard they had recourse to that of the Prince as Protector of the Goods and Liberties of the Clergy Reciprocally they made use of the Power of the Pope to shield them from the Attempts of their Princes and governing themselves thus between the Power of both they endeavoured to moderate and qualifie the one by the other However they had cause to complain that the Popes took from them a good part of that Authority belonging to them as Successors to the Apostles as by drawing immediately to their Tribunal the Cognisance of all Causes not leaving them any thing almost to judge of Primarily or Originally By obliging them to give them their Oaths according to a certain Form to which Gregory VII had added some Terms which amounted to Fealty and Hommage By imposing the necessity for their going to Rome By arrogating to themselves the Right of Consecrating Metropolitans By granting Dispensations for not observing the holy Canons as if the whole Ecclesiastical Discipline depended only upon their absolute Authority By allowing Exemptions to Inferiors to withdraw them from their Obedience to their Superiors They complained moreover of their having reserved to themselves alone the power of receiving Caodjutories and that of dissolving the Spiritual Marriages of Bishops that is of separating them or putting them away from their Churches by Cession or Translation or Deposition and their taking upon themselves the disposing of most Benefices Let us say something more particular upon the chiefest of these points The differences between particular People were handled only in the Court of Rome in the Twelfth Age however when the Cause was very important or concerned the whole Church or a whole Kingdom they referr'd it to the Judgment of a Council Thus Gregory VII when the Quarrel betwixt him and the Emperor Henry V. came to be renew'd promised he would
rigorously for fear of greater inconveniency The need the Pop s had of the Credit of the Order of St. Bennet during their Quarrels with the Emperors inclined them as I believe to bestow upon the principal Abbots of those Congregations the Ornaments which had belonged only to the Bishops Those were the Miter the Surplice the Gloves and the Sandals some have since added the Crosier But such as loved the Hierarchy detested this abuse and those Abbots that were but somewhat humbly Religious did not often make use of those Tokens of Honour believing that what is the Mark of Jurisdiction in a Bishop is a stain of Ambition in a Monk Peter de Blois wrote to his Brother an Abbot in the Kingdom of Naples to whom the Pope had made a Present of these Pontifical Ornaments that he should send them back again or rid himself of his Abby Pope Vrban II. beholding the happy Peter Abbot of Caves bare-headed in a Council sent a Miter to him to cover it This holy Man having received it with great Respect would not however put it on but kept it still upon his Knees But Hugh Abbot of Clugny did not refuse those Ornaments from that Popes hands who gave them to him and all his Successors Calistus II. desiring to gratifie that Abby because he had been Elected and Consecrated there gave likewise the Title of Cardinal to the Abbot Ponce de Melgueil to enjoy it both he and all the Abbots of that House The Popes Originally had Right to confirm only the Elections of the Metropolitans of the Roman Diocess The sending the Pall to those of the Galican Church chalkt out the way to usurp it upon them also In the beginning St. Boniface Archbishop of Mentz engaged them to seek that Honour to bring them by that means to the greater dependance then when they were accustomed to deck themselves with those Ornaments which in their opinions distinguisht them much from Bishops the Popes obliged them to receive them always from him as a thing very necessary and forbid them all Exercise of their Function till they had received them Bishops could not change or take another Bishoprick unless they were turned out of their own by the Barbarians or upon some very urgent necessity and that by Sentence of the Metropolitan and Bishops of the Province the Popes notwithstanding permitted it without restraining them to all those Forms Which was introduced in this Twelfth Age not all at once but by little and little as it were sounding the Foord The ancient form of Elections was yet preserved as the Soul of the Hierarchy that is to say they were made by the Clergy and by the People afterwards they were examined by the Metropolitans assisted with the Counsel of his Suffragans If he judged them good he approved them and if he found any default he annul'd it and sent them back to proceed to a new one that is to be understood if they had not knowingly and designedly elected one that was unwerthy or lay under some Canonical impediment For in such case the Metropolitan and his Suffragans elected one themselves The Bishops were not obliged to be Personally present at such Elections and Judgments but sent some Clergy-men who represented their Persons The Consecration of Bishops in France was performed by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans the Pope or his Legat having no right to it but if the Metropolitan refused to Consecrate the Elect the Electors appealed to the Pope who sometimes did Consecrate them himself When the Metropolitans were suspended from their Episcopal Functions the Legats as representing the Holy Father pretended that that lame belonged to them The Elections and the Right the Metropolitans had to Consecrate the Bishops were not directly overthrown during this Age but suffer'd great breaches and diminution For the new Right founded upon the supposed Epistles of the first Popes having perverted all the Canons and reduced all Elections to the litigious forms of Proceedings as there most commonly hapned divers Contests between the opposite Parties electing or difficulties in the Judgment given by the Metropolitans one of the two Cabals seldom failed of making an Appeal to Rome which was an inextricable labyrinth of perplext Proceedings and if there were any omission of formality in the Election the Pope declared it null and reserved to himself alone the right of providing the Bishop and of Consecrating the Person whom he chose Though it were forbidden to take any thing for that notwithstanding the Officers of the Court of Rome exacted furiously under pretence of their Salaries and Paper and Ink afterwards the Popes themselves who had so highly condemned all Exactions converted to their own proper benefit those abuses which they could not hinder I find that the Bishop of Manse gave for his Ordination Seven hundred Mark of Silver In time they setled this Exaction at a years Revenue moderately Taxed which they and their Cardinals shared amongst them The power of the French Bishop was likewise great proportionably For besides that they were the most considerable Member of the State and had most power in the great Parliaments or General Assemblies the Kings rested much upon their Counsels submitted to their Remonstrances and were Crowned by their hands upon every Solemn Feast in the year So that when any King was Excommunicate as was Philip I. the Bishops refused to do this Office and held in a manner as in suspence not the Royalty but the Respect of his People By the Popes example they sometimes made use of Interdicts often of Excommunications which by being so often employ'd upon trivial occasions became so odious that the Secular Judges appearing against them caused those to be apprehended that carried them tormented them in their Estates and the Estates oâ— their Relations and vexed even such as obey'd those Fulminations or who refused to hold Communication with such as were Excommunicated And therefore in the year 1274. the Council of Lyons one of the most famous that hath been held in France Ordained in presence of King Philip the Hardy or Bold and the Emperors of the East and West That those that did so hereafter should be cut off from the Communion of the Church and if they persisted two Months in their Contumacy should not be absolv'd but by the Holy Chair Which was allow'd in France provided those Excommunications were just and did intrench upon the Rights of the Crown Now for as much as it depended upon his Officers to judge herein they eluded them most commonly and seized upon the Temporals as well of those that pronounced it as those that submitted and even caused their Houses to be pulled down The reason why they fore-armed themselves so strongly against these Censures was because that in those times so soon as a Man was Excommunicate he forfeited the benefit of his Goods Honours and Dignities that any one had a right to pillage him that they denied him the Sacraments and Burial and
into Africk with the Count de Harcour the Lord de la Tremonille and other Lords and Gentlemen to the number of Eight hundred and a much greater number of Adventurers of divers Countries with whom he signaliz'd his Courage and Conduct against the Moors of Barbary The King of Armenia Minor sprung from the Blood of Luzignan flying from the cruelty of the Turks who had conquer'd his Kingdom and kept his Wife and Children in Captivity came for relief and assistance to the French Court where the King gave him Honourable Entertainment during all the rest of his days He enjoy'd it to the year 1404. then died at Paris and was interred at the Celestines Year of our Lord 1383. and 84. As to the Affairs of Naples Charles de Duras and his Captains behaved themselves so well that cutting off all Provisions from Lewis of Anjou and either following or flanking him so as to prevent his Fighting them they reduced him to the extreamest want of all necessaries even of Cloaths insomuch as this Prince who had carried away all the Kings Treasure had no more left him then a Coat of painted Cloth to wear and one Silver Bowl to drink in He had sent Peter de Craon an Angevin Lord into France to bring him Money and Succours this faithless Friend made no haste to return amusing himself at Venice with the divertisement of some Courtisans After the unfortunate Prince had waited a long time without any tidings of him he sunk under his grief and died the Tenth day of October in this year 1384. or Year of our Lord 1384 as some others will have it the One and twentieth day of September the year following The Earl of Savoy died in the month of March either of the Plague or by drinking Water out of a Fountain that had been poyson'd His Son Ame VII Surnamed Le Rouge succeeded him We must observe that this Amè VI. was the Institutor of the Order of the Collar which was composed of Love-knots together with the Symbolical Letters of the House of Savoy and had at the end a kind of a Ring or wreathed Coronet Duke Charles III. being at Chamberry Anno 1518. changed the name of this Order to that of the Annunciado to honour the Holy Virgin in that mystery which is the most agreeable to her adding Fifteen White Roses to the Fifteen Love-knots in remembrance of her Fifteen Joyes and filled the Pendant with Figures of the Annunciation Year of our Lord 1385 The unhappy remnants of the Duke of Anjou's Army perish'd by Famine and Want excepting such as dispersing by small parties retired into France begging their lively-hood and receiving more injuries and opprobrious words in their Travels then they got bits of Bread The Angevin party was not for all this quite extinct in that Kingdom it subsisted yet in the hearts of some Lords of that Countrey whereof Thomas de St. Severin was the Chief and who afterwards served very well upon occasion For this time the Kingdom rested quietly under Charles de Duraz. The Truce with the English being expired the King who began to take cognizance of his Affairs held a grand Council to deliberate whether they ought to continue it It was the interest of the Duke of Burgundy because of his Low-Countreys to have a Peace with the English but to counterpoise his Power and to flatter Year of our Lord 1385 the young Kings heat they resolved on a War and even to carry it into their own Countrey To this purpose they fitted up a great Fleet at Sluce and they sent to the Scots to oblige them to a rupture of the Truce on their side Year of our Lord 1385 By the methods the Kings Uncles Governed it appeared plainly they had a mind to suck the Peoples Blood to the very last drop The Clergy that they might secure something for their subsistance held an Assembly where they decreed that their Revenues should be divided into three parts the one to be for the maintenance of the Churches the other for Ecclesiastical Persons and the Third for the King without any mention of the Poor Pursuant to the recommendation of the late King Charles the Wise the young Kings Uncles sought a Wife for him in Germany the opinions in Council were different and divided the Duke of Burgundy carried it for Isabella Daughter of Stephen Duke of Bavaria Count Palatine of the Rhine The King Married her at Amiens the .... of July In the preceding month of April the Nuptials between John the Duke of Burgundy's Son and Marguerite Daughter of Albert Duke of Bavaria Earl of Hainault Holland and Zealand were consummate Year of our Lord 1385. and 86. The great design upon England being laid aside after a vast expence that something might come of it John de Vienne Admiral went with Threescore Sail to Scotland and there landed to attaque the English on that side He made an irruption into their Countrey and took some Castles but the savage humour of the Scots could not comply with the free liberty of the French Besides Love had invaded the Admirals Heart and Head which made him courta Lady of the Kings Parentage whereat that wh ole Court not being acquainted with those Gallantreys took such offence that he found it the best way to make his escape with all diligence Year of our Lord 1385 The obstinate Ghentois would not yet bend they had two new Leaders Francion and Atreman who hardned them against all apprehensions of punishment This obliged the King to make a third step into Flanders They had no Port could receive any English Succours but Damm the king having taken that by force and afterwards burning all the Houses round about their City the Rebels in the end began to hearken to Propositions for an accommodation being inclined by the more pacifique humour of Atreman one of their new Chiefs in despite of all the practises of John du Bois and returned to the obedience of the King and the Duke of Burgundy their Lord. This Prince quite wearied with this tedious War which ruined all his Countrey gave them a general Amnesty for all things that were past and the confirmation of all their priviledges upon condition they would renounce all Leagues and that the first that should violate the Peace might forfeit his Life and all his Goods The Treaty was Signed the Eighteenth of December A Truce was renewed likewise between France and England for some Months Charles de Duraz not being satisfied with having invaded the Kingdom of Naples went also into Hungary and usurped that upon Mary one of the Daughters of Lewis the Great his Benefactor who died Anno 1381. and Wife to Sigismund Brother of the â—mperour Wenceslaus whom he detamed in captivity with the Widow Queen his Mother After so many Treacheries and cruel Ingratitudes Heaven suffer'd him to be murther'd himself by the order of Nicholas Gato one of the Palatines of that Kingdom who was very
Chaldean and Hebrew were taught in the year 1325. There sprung up if we may so say a vast quantity of excellent Plants in this fertil Nursery I cannot tell whether I ought to reckon the Scholasticks in the number since they have brought forth more Thorns and Prickles then either Flowers or Fruit that is wholesom Henry of Ghent John of Paris John Duns the Scot all lived in the beginning of this Age which was the Fourteenth Century but perhaps some would rather have them placed at the latter end of the Age foregoing the two first were Secular Doctors the third a Cordelier Of the same Order were Aureolus Mayrons Okam and de Lyra. Peter Aureolus amongst other Works composed a short and pithy Commentary upon the Bible The Criticks may examine whether we must distinguish him from another of the same name and of the same Order a Native of Verberie upon the Oyse who was a Cardinal Francis de Mayrons having been rejected at the Sorbonne would needs to shew his ability maintain an Act where without having any President without eating or drinking without rising from his Seat he answer'd from five a Clock in the morning till seven at night Since that the other Batchelors pretend to imitate him And from hence came the Act which they name the Grand Sarbonnique William Okam by birth an English Man wrote of the power of the Popes and Emperors against John XXII Nicholas de Lyra a Native of the Diocess of Evreux in Normandy whom they say was Originally an Hebrew compiled a Commentary or Postil upon the Bible of which great use is yet made From the Order of the Dominicans came Bernard de Guy Inquisitor of the Faith against the Albigensis Bishop of Lodeve of whom we have divers Volumes as well of Holy History as Profane Durand de Saint Pourcain Bishop of Meaux William de Rance Bishop of Sees Confessor to King John Herve Noel by birth a Breton General of the Order and Contemporary with Durand Peter de la Palud a Burgundian Patriarch of Jerusalem Amongst the Seculars we find William Durand Bishop of Mandes called the Speclator who composed the Book Entitled Speculum Juris it was he made likewise the Rationale Divinorm Officiorum He lived in the beginning of this Age about twelve or fifteen years before the other Durandus Bishop of Meaux The Cardinal Bertrand Bishop of Autun Nicholas Oresme Grand Master of the Colledge of Navarre Dean of the Church of Roâ—en and Tutor to King Charles V. who made him Bishop of Lisieux who amongst other Works translated the Bible into French which was perhaps the first Translation that ever was seen in our Language that is to say in French Romance for there had been one in French Tuâ—esque even in the time of the second Race King Charles the Wise will not disdain to be placed in the number of the Learned since he is beholding for his Wisdom in some measure to the Writings of Learned Men whose Eloquence and Politiques drawn from examples in History did both animate and instruct his Captains May not France also reckon amongst her Learned Men the famous Petrarque since he spent so great a part of his Life here though he were Originally a Flore tine and was both born and buried beyond the Mountains This great Genius having in his youth exercised his Pen for his Mistress Laura repented a terwards his having trifled away so much time and imploy'd it afterwards in works that were more Philosophical and more Christian-like We must own that in this Age as in the last the Jacobins and the Cordeliers furnished the Roman Church with a great number of Bishops and Cardinals and that they were so powerful that if they had but wisely managed their prosperity the favour of the Grandees and the affection of the People they might have made themselves Masters both of the Church and State But they retarded their progress by their own faults and if 〈◊〉 say it hung Clogs upon their own Feet which hindred their higher flight the Jacobins in being so stiff to maintain their old opinion about the Conception of the Virgin and the Cordeliers in commenting with too much severity upon the observation of St. Francis's Rules and Philosophising too Metaphisically touching propriety of Goods which are consumed by the use of them John Duns the Scot had taken up the Cudgels against St. Thomas In all which Controversies he came short of the solidity of that Angelique Doctor though he had great advantage in the point of the Conception of the Holy Virgin maintaining that it was perfectly and entirely Immaclate wherein he varied from the Master of Sentences This opinion appearing more to the honour of the Mother of God and more suitable to the zeal of devout Souls was embraced by most Christians The Jacobins having stumbled at it lost themselves mightily in the esteem of the World however the Question was never fully debated till about the latter end of this Age. The Cordeliers had their time of suffering likewise for in a few years after they were brought so low they came almost to nothing even as the Templers beâ—ore them A pretence for the strict observation of the Rules given by St. Francis without admitting those interpretations of the Popes Nicholas III. and Clement V. had possessed divers Monks of that Order with such crude and ambitious imaginations as caused them to be divided into Parties who rambling from one Country to another confounded them almost with the Bisoches and the Frerots who were Hereticks indeed John XXII endeavoured to cure them of this obstinacy but not prevailing with them he threatned Excommunication They far from obeying him retired into Sicilia where they prescribed amongst themselves Rules very strict but withal very ridiculous made choice of a General Provincials and Guardians and began to live as independent from the Holy See Their fancies carried them yet further for they had the confidence to affirm that there was a Carnal Church over-grown with Riches and Vice of which Church the Pope and Bishops were the Prelats and likewise a Spiritual one girded with Poverty adorned with Vertue which consisted only of them and such as were like them in whom was all Authority as well as Sanctity That the Rule of St. Francis was the same thing as the Gospel and nothing therefore that was contained therein could possibly be changed But the Pope pursued them so close that by burning whipping and shutting them up between four bare Walls he made an end of them Others at the same time debated the Question concerning Property with as much heat and contention Nicholas IV. had declared by his Bull that they were to have only the use of those things that were given them and that the propriety belonged to the Roman Church Now it hapned that a Begard whom in Anno 1322. they had brought to the Inquisition at Toulouze having reply'd that neither our Lord Jesus Christ nor his
Vrsins in the City of Soissons for the same end and one at Avignon by the Legate Peter de Foix Archbishop of Arles Anno 1457. Some perhaps would in this Rank place the two Assemblies of Bourges called by Charles VII the one where the Pragmatick was framed the other with whom he consulted to which of the two Popes they were to adhere either to Nicholas or Felix and that which was held at Lyons Anno 1447. whither the Deputies of the Council of Basile resorted and the Ambassadors from the German Princes and likewise the Electors of Treves and Colen to regulate the Conditions upon which Felix should renounce the Papacy Neither any of Nickclif's nor the Hussite Sectaries spread so far as to infest France or at least did take no rooting there but in the Year 1412. there sprung up a Sect in Picardy who were called Men of Intelligence whereof a Frier William de Hildernissen a German of the Carmelites Order and one Giles le Chautre a Secular were the Evangelists This Giles said he was the Savior of Mankind and that by him the Faithful should see Jesus Christ as by Jesus Christ they should behold God the Father That the Devil and all the Damned should one Day be saved That the Pleasures of Love being simple acts of Nature were no Crimes but a fore-tast of Paradice That Fastings Pennance Confession and Ceremonies were but useless things That the time of the Old Law was that of God the Father the time of the New Law that of God the Son and that there would shortly be a third which should be the time of the Holy Ghost and therein all Mankind stould be set at Liberty That their Actions contributed neither to Salvation nor Damnation for that Our Lord Jesus Christ had abundantly satisfied for the whole World These with many other Whimseys they openly taught The Carmelite was forced to retract them at Bruxels at Cambray and at Saint Quentines where he had dogmatized before Peter Dailly who about that time was created Cardinal The Court of Rome did likewise place in the number of Hereticks another Carmelite named Thomas Connect a Breton by birth and caused him to be burnt alive in the Year 1431. though many believe that the Evangelical Liberty he took to reprove the abominations of the Prelates and the Confidence he had in carrying on his reformation to the very Spring-head of Corruption was all his Crime However his Sermons were so powerful that they wrought a wonderful Change where ever he went moveing even the wanton Women so much as to sell their very Cloaths and Jewels to bestow in Alms and throw all their amorous Toys and Ammunition into the Fire that they might be no longer tempted with those Vanities and dangerous Triflcs A certain French Priest going to Rome at the time of Jubile in Anno 1450. ran the same hazard as the Carmelite because he affirmed he had lived four years without eating They believed it to be either an Impostor or a Compact with the Devil and he was banisht after they had first whipped him We find that in the Year 1453. one William Edeline Doctor in Divinity and Prior of Saint Germans en Laye was condemned by Sentence of the Bishop of Euureux to perpetual Imprisonment for having abused a Woman of Quality and to effect this it was said he had made a Contract with the Devil had worship'd him in the shape of a Ram and had often been transported through the Air to those Nocturnal Assemblies which they called their Sabat We read likewise in the Bourdelois Chronicle that Anno 1435. in the time of Peter Berland Archbishop of Bourdeaux in that Country was discover'd a grand Cabal of those Wretches called Witches that many of them were thrust into Prison some of them were burned and the rest poysoning themselves left their Carkasses to be served as the others This Archbishop was a Peasant by Birth and but little Polished nay as I guess more Scrupulous then Wife or Intelligent since he opposed the Pragmatick but yet he led a pure and innocent life There was War still betwixt the Jacobins and the Cordeliers as between two opposite Powers and mutually jealous each of them watching an opportunity to take advantage of his Adversary In the year 1460. one James de la Marchea Cordelier having preached at Bresse in Lombardy that the Blood of Jesus Christ whilst it was poured out of his Veins at the time of his Passion had lost the Hypostatical Union and that therefore during those three Days it was neither Divine nor Adorable a Jacobin Inquisitor of the Faith cried out it was an Heresy commanded him to revoke that Proposition and caused a Frier of his Order to preach in contradiction to him The dispute grew warm and then it was no longer the Opinion of two private Persons but of both the whole Orders the Devout took part with either according to their Affections and Interest the People were cabaled and were divided as it is usual though they never understood the Question in debate Pope Pius II. fearing the consequences of these partialities commanded the Generals to send the most learned of their Friers to him that he might hear their Arguments and Reasons in this Point This question was bandied three whole Days before the Pope and in the presence of the Cardinals the Bishops and the most Famous Doctors in Law who are more numerous in that Court then the Divines The greatest part of that Assembly and the Pope himself inclined to the Opinion of the Jacobins but having need of the Cordeliers to preach up the Croisade which ran much in his mind they referr'd the decision of this Contest to another time which is not come to this very Day and in the interim the Holy Father made a Constitution which forbid them upon pain of Excommunication and being rendred uncapable of all lawful Functions to Mention Preach or Teach in Private or Publick any thing concerning this Question or to maintain that either the one or the other of these Opinions is Heretical Nevertheless there have been some School-Men in the last Age who out of a strange Itch of raking together all these Niceties and Punctillios much fitter for Sophisters then solid Divines have thrust this Question into their large Volumes And there are besides some People of such a depraved Taste and so ignorant of all Antiquity that they do more delight in reading this Rubbish then in perusing the Holy Fathers or the Councils For this little advantage the Jacobins frequently met with great rubbs and checks upon the Point of the Conception of the Virgin They from time to time renewed the attack upon this question but they were ever routed beat from their ground It happened in the year 1497. that one of their Doctors having Preached at Rouen that she had indeed been purified not preserved from the Original stain was cited before the University and condemned to recant
it publickly The Faculty of Theology proceeded farther they made a Decree to receive or admit no more Doctors hereafter that did not first Swear to profess and maintain that the Virgin was conceived without any blemish or stain A great victory for the Cordeliers to have thus obliged their Adversaries to swear what they never intend to believe or practise Alms being the only Revenue of the Mendicants they endeavoured to engross the Confessions and Burials of all Seculars to themselves that so they might get pr ofit both by the Living and the Dead They had two advantages above the Ordinaries the first was the Union of their Community all labouring with one mind and never quitting the design they have once propounded to themselves the Second the exterior mortisied and singular Fashion of their Habits So that the Churches belonging to those Monasteries were ever crowded with throngs of People and the Parish Churches almost deserted the Sheep forsaking their natural Shepherds and the solid Food of their true Nursing Fathers to run after the others Spiritual dainties In the year 1409. when the 〈◊〉 came to know they had a Pope of their own Order which was Alexander V. they seemed as it were transported and out of their Senses hurrying thorow every street so verily did they imagine they should dispose of his power to their own advantage And indeed he did grant them all they desired and amongst other favours a Bull to the four Orders Mendicants which augmented their Priviledges to such an excess that the University of Paris opposed it and lopp'd off all those from their Body that made use of them The Jacobins and Carmelites renounced all right to it but the Cordeliers and Augustins stood up for them The King was fain to interpose his Authority Proclamation was made by sound of Trumpet at the Doors of their Covents forbidding them either to Preach or to Confess So that Pope John XXIII revoked that Bull and the Council of Constance annull'd all those abusive Priviledges They did not desist from carrying on their Enterprizes and maintained that one is not obliged to be at the Parish Church Masses upon Sundays and Holy-Days nor to make Offerings to the Curates upon those Days that such as were obliged to have Masses sung whether for the Living or for the Dead did not acquit themselves of that Obligation if they had it done by the Curates only for as much as he was bound to do so by his duty That the Law of God did enjoyn the paying of Tithes indeed but that it matters not to whom they are paid provided they are bestowed for pious Works That Saint Francis did regularly once a Year descend into Purgatory and take forth all those that died in his Habit or of his Order That the Friers Minors might hear Confessions without approbation of the Ordinary and provided they made Confession to them they were not obliged to confess to their Pastor no not once a Year The Council of Basile condemned these Propositions as erronious and tending to destroy the Hierarchical Order The Devotion of the Rosarie and of the Virgins Psalter instituted by Saint Dominique but afterwards disused and neglected were restored by the Preaching of the blessed Alain de la Roche a Jacobin particularly in Saxony Belgica and the lesser Bretagne and soon after confirmed by Pope Sixtus IV. You may remember to this purpose that Lewis XI ordained in his time the Devotion to be paid to the Virgin at Noon upon the ringing of a Bell. Nor must we forget now in the Year 1475. he commanded the Feast of Saint Charlemain should be Solemnized which had been otherwhile ordained by Pope Paschal upon the request of the Emperor Frederic I. and afterwards received and approved by all the Western Churches Innocent VII Pope of Rome approved the Rule of the third Order of Saint Dominique Lewis Barba Patrician of Venice Abbot of Saint Justinas at Padoua reformed the Order of Saint Bennet in 1408. and instituted the Congregation of Mount Cassin Anno 1419. Saint Bernardin of Sienna attempted to reform the Order of Saint Francis and to bring them to a more strickt Observance which divided it as it were in two Branches that of the Observantines or the narrow Sleeves and that of the Cordeliers Conventuals or of the great Sleeves Some Years after to witt in 1425. the Blessed Collect Boilet Native of Corbie a Holy Sister of Sancta Clara did likewise reform the Monastery of Nunns of her Order She died at Ghent in the Year 1447. On the contrary the Rule of the Carmelites as too austere was qualified and moderated by Pope Eugenius III. in Anno 1432. in the same manner they hold to this Day who are called Mitigated The Brangling Cobweb Scholastick Controversies still kept the upper hand in the University Their Latin was gross and had only the Termination but not the Phrases and pleasing Air of the true ancient Roman Tongue The Greek was a greater Stranger yet then the Latin and more barbarous but both of them began to be refin'd and polish'd the Latin a little before the midle of this Age in imitation of Petrarque and other Italians who after him set themselves upon the Study of Elegancy and the Greek about the Year 1460. when the learned Grecians sheltred themselves in divers Parts of the West after the taking of Constantinople Gregory Tiphernas came to Paris in Anno 1460. and presented himself to the Rector to teach the Greek Tongue and have that Reward allowed by Holy Decree which was granted Hermonyme of Sparta came soon after and taught that Language to John Reclin who took the name of Capnion then Janus Lascaris arrived and by his politeness gave a great Gusto to all the most learned Men. After that many showed their Parts as Poets Orators and Grammarians in both these Tongues The Credit of the University appeared very eminently at the time of the second Schisme as well as in the first Who was as we may say the chief Promotrice of the Pragmatick Sanction so holy and to this very Day so much regretted by good People We have hinted how the Cardinal d'Estouteville reformed the abuses of this Body in the Year 1452. and how Lewis XI gave Order to John Wesel a Cordelier to labour to banish thence those obstinate contests which were between the Realists and the Nominals Wesel having therefore Assembled the Principal Officers and Heads of the University with their Consent and Advice contrived an Edict dated the First of March in the Year 1473. at Senlis which forbid Teaching any more the opinions of the Nominals and comma nded that all such Books of theirs as were in the Libraries should be chained up lest any should come to peruse them or transport them from that place There were few Learned men in France but like Bees came out of this fruitful Hive Amongst the Divines you have John Gerson whom we have mentioned who lived
he suspected abstained from being his Judges and that they would send Commissioners to Cambray to take Information and hear those proofs he would offer The Holy Father perceived then the Fault he had committed by his Precipitating a thing of that Importance and could well have desired to find out some remedy But the time was past his fatal hand had given the blow which made so desperate a Wound as wholly cut off England from the Communion of the Church of Rome For Henry transported with fury that he had posted him up at Rome withdrew himself absolutely from all obedience to the Pope declared himself Head of the Anglicane Church and persecuted severely all those that opposed this change It is observed that if the Pope had deferr'd the Judgement but ten Months death would have disengag'd him from all these Intricacies and cut this knot by taking Catherine out of this World as it did in January following Year of our Lord 1533. and 34. The Kings constancy for the Catholick Faith was then like to be sorely shaken by two strong Temptations the one was the King of Englands Summons Solliciting him to break with the Pope to preserve the strict Colligation that was between them the other the Induction of his dear Sister Margaret who would needs have perswaded him to call in Philip Melancthon and give him Audience concerning the means he had to propound for accommodating the differences in Religion But as to the first he replyed in Substance to the King of England A Friend even to the Alter And for the second the Cardinal de Tournon put by that dangerous blow and fortified the Kings mind so well that he would never after give the least Ear to any of those Reformers but in time did also wean his Sister from that Fondness she had and hankering after Novelties Each day Accumulated more and more cause of Quarrel and War between the King and the Emperor This last had great Jealousie of the Enter-view at Marseille and the Marriage there Solemnized He likewise thought himself highly affronted for that the King was entred into the League of the German Princes Confederated at Smalcalde and he was no less so for his assisting of the Dukes of Wirtemberg in the Diet of Ausburgh where their cause against his Brother Ferdinand was Judged who detained their Lands as also for that William Langey by his Contrivances and his Perswasive and Powerful Eloquence broke the League of Scwaben which had lasted for seventy years to the great advantage of the House of Austria King Francis on his part complained of a very Bloody and cruel injury He had in the number of his Esquires a Gentleman of Milan named Francis de Merveille who had gained much wealth in his Service And knowing that he would be willing to make some shew of it in his native Country he sent him to Milan in quality of Secret Ambassador Merveille was so vain as not to conceal his Employment the Emperor knew of it and made complaint to Sforza with Threats who promised to give him Satisfaction Now it happened either by chance or otherwise that some People of that Country made a Quarrel with Merveille and some body was killed in the Fray The Duke fails not to lay hold of this opportunity to content the Emperor and under colour of Justice but without any form causes his head to be cut off by night and in the Prison This hap'ned a little before the Kings journey to Marseille In pursuance of the Kings League with the Confederates of Smalcalde Philip Landtgrave of Hesse Espoused the Quarrel of the Dukes of Wirtemberg who that he might have Money to prosecute the same engaged Montbelliard to the King and declared War against Ferdinand over whose Army having gained a Notable Victory he re-Established them in their County and obliged Ferdinand to allow all Liberty to the Protestants the Sacramentaries and Anabaptists not Comprised Vpon which condition they acknowledged him King of the Romans The Landtgrave had promised Francis to go into Italy which however he did not and this King with the Design of renewing a War set up a Militia in all his Provinces which he distributed in seven Bodies of Six Thousand Men each they were named Legions This institution lasted not long it would have rendered the People too Powerful and the Government too weak The twenty fourth of September died Pope Clement Two days after the Cardinals being assembled in Conclave elected Alexander Farnese named Paul III. At this time John Cauvin or Calvin aged twenty four or five years began to expose his Doctrine more conformable to that of the Sacramentaries than to that of Luther and which went much farther for it did not only touch upon the inward belief but overthrew all the Exteriour and the Ceremonies He was a Native of Noyon Son of Gerard who was the Bishops Secretary A Man very studious of a sharp and penetrating Wit a Melancholly and Sickly Temper an angry and passionate humour no very smooth Tongue but an Eloquent and Fluent pen and who was oft reproached that he coverd a Violent ambition and extream obstinacy with the Vaile of great Modesty and Humility Year of our Lord 1534 He took the first Impression of those new Doctrines when he was Studying the Law at Bourges from a certain German named Melchior Volmar who taught the Greek Tongue and was entertained by Margaret Queen of Navarre Sister of King Francis A very generous Princess who having a great love for Learning had suffered her reason to be prevailed upon by these Broachers of Novelties It is held that he laid the first foundation of his Sect at Poitiers and there instituted the form of the Lords Supper or Mandâ—cation that from thence he sent three of his Companions into divers Parts to sow his Dogmatisms and that himself retired to Nerac to Gerard de Roussel and James le Feure of Estaples who were there sheltred under the protection of Queen Margaret and had already establisht secretly in that little Court a form of a Church almost the same as he intended to bring forth into the World He stayed but a few Months at Nerac and passed into Italy to see Renee de France Dutchess of Ferrara who was imbued with the same opinions as Margaret Then when Geneva had expell'd her Bishop and the Catholick Religion he there established the Seat of his residence And from thence he sent his Disciples to Preach his Doctrine over all France and the Low-Countries exposing them to all sorts of dangers and deaths which he kept himself far enough off from the fire of Persecution and hazarded nothing but his Paper and Ink. This same year 1534. and the following was acted that Bloody and Horrible Tragedy of the Anabaptists in the City of Munster Those Phanaticks thinking to Establish their Whimseys by subverting the Lawful Power had chosen for their King a Taylor named John of Leyden Their Bishop besieged them and reduced them to
young King believed that to execute his Fathers will was to extirpate all such as opposed the Catholick Belief to this end he Created in each Parliament a particular Chamber or Court that took Cognisance of no other matter They were named Chambres Ardentes because in effect they burned without Mercy all such as were convicted and there needed no other proof but the finding them at some Nocturnal or Clandestine Conventicle The President Saint André and the Inquisitor Demochares laboured with great diligence at Paris and sought them even in the bottom of Cellars upon the intelligence of their Spies amongst others a Taylor and two Goldsmiths who had been of that Religion Two young Men of these Mouchards or Informers deposed that in those midnight Assemblies they did eat of the Pascal Lamb and Roasted Pigg and afterwards put out the Lights and mingled in an unclean manner with those they first hapned to meet nay one of them affirmed that upon the like occasion it fell to his lot to encounter an Advocates Daughter of the Place Maubert at whose House they held such communion This calumny was spread abroad by the populace told in the Louvre and brought to the Ears of the King and Queen and though these Witnesses had been convict of falsehood by the Chancellor that did not Year of our Lord 1559 hinder it from making some impression on the Queen Thus the Religionaries being pursued and punished every where especially in the great Cities as Aix in Provence Toulouze Poitiers and Bourges began to think how to defend themselves They first made use of the Pen and scatter'd about several Libels which tended to make out that Kings ought not to be accounted Majors sooner then other Men That in the mean time it belonged to the Estates to assign them a Council and that the Princes of the Blood ought to have the first place and rank that the Laws of the Land did not admit either of Women or Strangers That the Guises were not natural French Men That besides they had pretensions upon Anjou and Provence and even to the whole Kingdom saying they were descended from Charlemain That therefore the trusting them with the Government was to hazard the whole State They added many reasons and examples to prove the administration of Cardinals had ever been very prejudicial to France That Francis I. though he made use of them yet never admitted them into the Council when it concerned the Affairs of Rome and that experience had fully enough demonstrated that the Venetian Polity which excluded all Ecclesiastiques from the management of Affairs was very wise and very prosperous These Books wanted not forr eplies Du Tillet one of the Registers in Parliament made one which at that time was torn to pieces and silenced by the multiplicity of smart answers but in another Season had the fortune to be revived and brought in credit by the Chancellor de l'Hospital and cry'd up as it had been a Law of the Land They then were labouring in good earnest for the Execution of the Articles of Peace The Mareschal de Brissac with much regret gave up the City of Valence and those in Piedmont Those that held Thionville and the places of Luxemburgh went out with curses in their Mouths against those Ministers that made that Treaty nor could any heart be so hardned as not to be touched at the lamentations and sad cryes wherewith the Corses and Siennois endeavoured to move Heaven and Earth to compassion when they had notice the French abandoned them to their severe Masters The Siennois made the last attempt their dispairing impotency could prompt them to for the defence of their liberty but in a short time they fell under the weight of the Spanish Forces who to compleat the measure of their misery delivered them over to the Duke of Florence reserving however the maritime Towns There were at Court great numbers of persons of every Province especially Martial Men who demanded either their pay or some reward The Cardinal de Lorrain who had the management of the Treasury was mightily importun'd and pester'd with them and moreover he apprehended some Conspiracy amidst the multitude Wherefore he caused an Edict to be published which commanded all such as followed the King and Court only to solicite and begg some thing of him they should forbear and withdraw upon pain of being truss'd up on a Gibbet which for that very purpose was set up in the publick place This rude treatment turned great numbers of those against him that had formerly served in the Armies A Quartan Ague tormented the King for some Months which made him uncapable of applying himself to business besides that he was naturally very weak When he came to be cured many pustules appeared on his livid Face which signified some internal indisposition He was therefore carried to Blois for change of Air whilst he staid there some in that Country by whomsover employed sought for young Infants that they might have their Blood as they gave out to make the King a Bath For which reason many will needs have it that he was infected with Naaman's Disease In the mean time they zealously prosecuted all such as were imprison'd for the matters of Religion They began with the Counsellors of the Parliament of Paris formerly mentioned Anne du Bourg having fenced a long time for his life by several Appeals to the Metropolitan of Sens then to the Primate of Lyons for he was an Ecclesiastick and a Priest in the end threw aside his Mask and boldly declared that he professed a Belief contrary to that of the Roman Church The Zealots of his opinion had push'd him on to this resolution They imagined that being a man of eminent condition of rare merit and great vertue at least as to his Morals his example would take a marvellous impression and for Year of our Lord 1559 those reasons the Parliament would never expose him to the infamy of Execution But they deceived themselves the heat of those that had taken this business in hand made them go thorough with it and there hapned an Accident besides which hastned his ruine He had excepted against the President Saint André and finding notwithstanding he still appeared he threatned him that God would restrain and compel him to keep away Now some days after it so fell out that this President going from the Palace was assassinated and shot with a Pistol and it was currently reported the first President was in danger of the like The Authors of this Murther could never be discovered tho Robert Stuart being vehemently suspected was put in Prison This incident exasperated those that Governed in such sort that Du Bourg was condemned to death and after he had been degraded of his holy Orders was burnt in the Greve they having first strangled him He went to his death with so much joy and so great shew of piety that his Execution was so far from striking any terrour it begot
Beauvais and there together with the trouble for this loss he was forced to suffer the murmurings of his Soldiers who openly affirm'd it was occasioned by his neglect and delay whilst his Mistress for her private interest with-held him at Lyons His choler discharg'd it self upon the Duke of Nevers in a Council held to consider of what was to be done after this loss he said some very picquant things to him wherewith that Duke was so sensibly galled that this Disgrace together with the smart of his Wounds which burst open afresh by the satigues of the Campagne cast him upon his Bed in the Castle of Nesle and deprived him of life about the midst of October To repair this loss of Cambray the King employ'd the Forces he had got together month November to regain la Fere the only place remaining in the Spaniards hands on this side the River Somme and which they could not relieve but with great difficulty He believed it so little stored with Provisions that he reckoned to reduce it to famine before the Spaniards could recruit it or draw their Men together and therefore at first he only thought fit to block it up by two great Forts he built at the end of the Marsh Whilst these were raising he took a Journey to Monceaux to visit his Mistress and from thence returned to the Siege bringing with him the Duke of Mayenne and some Companies he had there Year of our Lord 1596 This Duke having held constant to the protestation so often reiterated by him month January not to make any Accommodation till the King were converted and reconciled to the Church by Authority of the Pope seemed very ready to acknowledge him upon the first certain news of his Absolution In the Kings Council many were of opinion since he had stood it out so very late not to admit him to any Treaty but the King desired at what price soever to put out the remainders of that dreadful Fire of Civil War which did yet smoke and smother in divers places of his Kingdom particularly in Provence and Bretagne and to repair those sad breaches the Spaniards had newly made in Picardy Besides there had otherwhile been some kindness and amity between him and the Duke and he consider'd that Personally he had never offended him That he had given up no one place to the Spaniards That if he Year of our Lord 1596 should run him into despair he would unite inseperately with them and what mischief month January would he not do to France with so many Braves as would follow him since Rosne almost singly had been the cause of such great losses These reflections obliged him not to reject the Duke and besides his Mistress by her intrigues had been above a year endeavouring by degrees to dispose the King to grant him good Conditions This Lady besides her generous inclination which prompted her to do kind offices sought every where to make Friends as well because aspiring to become the Kings lawful Spouse she stood in need of such to bring about the dissolution of Queen Margarets Marriage as because she desired to secure her self of some support in case the King should happen to fail her Now having no reason to hope for any favour from the Princes of the Blood the Huguenots nor the Politicks she endeavour'd to gain this Duke that he might devote himself entirely to her Service By this means he obtained the most honourable Conditions that ever Subject had of his Soveraign but which notwithstanding were very mean to those that had been offer'd him before his Party was scatter'd and when Treating for all those Members joyntly he might still have remained Head of them Year of our Lord 1596 In his Edict dated at Folembray of the Month of January the King spake of him in very favourable terms Acknowledged a Zeal for Religion had been the motive month January of his Actions Applauded and esteemed the affection he had manifested in preserving the Kingdom entire and amongst other Articles Granted him an Oblivion of all things past Acquitted and discharged him of all Moneys received and disposed of Restored him and his to all their Goods and Estates Declared there lay no accusation or charge against the Princes and Princesses of his House toaching the death of the deceased King Promised willingly to hear the demands of the Dukes of Mercoeur and Aumale and suspended the execution of the Judgment given against the last Left him Chalon upon the Soane Seurre and Soissons for Cities of security and the Government of Chalon separately for six years from that of Burgundy to his eldest Son undertook to acquit him of three hundred and fifty thousand Crowns for which he and his Friends were engaged as likewise all other the Debts he had contracted as well in his own name as by being Head of the Party with the Swiss Reisters Lorrainers and other Strangers and obliged himself to put them amongst those of the Crown and to annul all such Obligations as he had entred into for the said purposes Together with this Edict were likewise dispatched those for the Dukes of Joyeuse and the new Duke of Nemours The King granted them some particular Conditions Year of our Lord 1596 and to the former also the Staff of Mareschal of France Some time after month January the Duke of Mayenne going to attend the King at Monceaux was by him received in so obliging a manner as he protested that was the only time the King made an absolute conquest over him and vow'd his Soul should sooner betray his Body then he would forfeit his Faith or his Obedience to so good and so generous a Prince There now remained no more of the Heads of the Shipwrackt Faction but the Duke of Mercoeur the Duumvirs of Marseilles with some small Cities in Provence and the Duke of Espernon who being still obstinate to hold the Government of those Countries seemed as one ready to enter into the League when all the rest were going out of it I will not speak of the divers Exploits that had been done in Bretagne the foregoing year but only how the Royalists besieging the Castle de Comper near Renes the Mareschal d'Aumont their General was kill'd there He was a Person whose Valour had proved stanch in all trials and one of the most zealous and most faithful of the Kings Servants John de Beaumont Lavardin was honoured with his Office of Mareschal The dissipation of the whole Army follow'd the death of their General but the Duke of Mercoeur made no advantage of it because of those suspicions which held him perpetually embroiled with the Spaniards The Province afterwards received some comfort by the three Months Truces which were often prolonged but by the Estates whom St. Luc gave order to be month March and April held at Renes they were again loaden with a most heavy burthen Which was an Impost of Six Crowns per Tun upon all Wines brought thither from abroad
Heresies already sowed in France For Anno 1492. the Morrow after Corpus-Christi Day a Priest who was hearing Mass at Nostre Dame snatched away the Host from the Celebrator after the Consecration and cast it on the ground to trample it under foot And in Anno 1502. a Picard Scholar Native of Abbeville committed the like Fact on Saint Lewis's Day in the Holy Chappel Both were seized immediately and some days after burnt alive in the Market aux Cochons without any signs of Repentance the first having his Tongue torn out the second his Hand cut off upon the very place where they brake the holy Wafer King Lewis XII having a great contest with Pope Julius II. demanded a general Council to reform the Church both in its Head and in its Members and caused one to be assembled at Pisa by the Suggestion and with the assistance of certain Cardinals dissatisfied with that Pope The said Council was soon driven from thence and retired to Milan from whence they were likewise forced to remove and came to end their days at Lyons That whole Affair was very ill managed the Pope opposed him with another Council which he assembled at Lateran and this being grown the more powerful did in the end constrain Lewis XII to renounce his and those Cardinals and Bishops that had been the Promoters of it to humble themselves before his Holiness to obtain Absolution The Officers of the Parliament of Provence having been all excommunicated by the Pope in this Council because they had hindred the execution of his Orders if they had not approved of the others and because they acted daily several things which in those times were taken to be designs The King desired they might submit and that Lewis de Souliers his Ambassadour to the Council having their special Procuration should in their Name formally disown all they had done against the Liberties of the Church against the respect due to the Holy See promise that for the future they would be more circumspect that they should ratifie this Submission within four Months and that he should desire their Absolution which was granted them The same Council had likewise cited the Prelates of France to come and shew the reasons why they still justified and maintained the Pragmatique It is probable they would to his Decrees have opposed or alledged the Liberties of the Gallican Church but Francis I. very far from supporting them did himself abandon that which his Predecessors had defended with so much resolution and firmness and passed or agreed to the Concordat with Leo X. of which we have made mention in the year 1516. The smart of so great and desperate a wound made the Clergy the Parliament and the University cry out in vain those two great Powers being now joyned together valued not their Complaints The Clergy had protested to take all Opportunities for the making of Remonstrances to the King for the Re-establishment of Elections this they pursued very well four or five times under King Henry III. and Henry IV. but at length they grew weary whether believing they were no longer obliged to labour to no end or that several of the Bishops gave it over in Charity to themselves as ☜ knowing they should never have attained the Preferments they enjoy'd if the right of Elections had been restored The Authors of the Novel Opinions spared no pains to convey and plant their Doctrines in the remotest Provinces Printing was a great help to bring their Works to light and make them spread the Zealots were at the charge of Printing and Dispersing them and the Country Pedlers whom they paid very well had always some of these new-fashion Wares in their Packs which they shewed for great Rarities to the curious and inquisitive Their Disciples crept into the Universities where under colour of teaching the Law or Greek or Hebrew they instilled their Doctrine into the hearts of the younger fry Others more polite and more dexterous insinuated into the Society of Women and studied to gain their favour that they might gain their belief Thus they gained an Absolute Power over Anne de Pisseleu Dutchess d'Estampes Mistriss of Francis I. over Margaret Queen of Navarre and over Renée of France Daughter of good King Lewis XII There were others who endeavour'd to get into the Houses of such Bishops as they believed to be most susceptible of their fancies James le Fevre Native of Estaples a little Town in Boulonois who was not Doctor in Divinity at Paris as many will have it at least he is not to be found in the Registry of that Faculty William Farel a Daufinois Arnold and Gerard Roussel Picards fell in about the year 1523. with William Briconnet Bishop of Meaux and entangled his Mind so with those dangerous Opinions that he began to own and Preach them There was the same year in that City a Wool-Comber by Name John le Clere who had the Impudence to say That the Pope was the Anti-Christ he was Whipped for it by the hands of the Hang-man and Banished the Kingdom This Punishment corrected him not he went to Mets to vend his Wares and was there Burnt for having broken down some Images Lewis Berquin Artesian by Birth a powerful Genius according to the Sentiment of Erasmus suffer'd a like Death at Paris the One and twentieth of April in Anno 1528. Now the Bishop of Meaux being charged with the Crime of Heresie retracted upon the first Admonition having before-hand sent away his Doctors amongst whom Arnold was so terribly scared that he continued a good Catholick ever after Gerard made his escape to Luther Farel went to Zuinglius at Zurich and le Fevre to Nerac to Queen Margaret The two others came also thither some time after and there began to form a new Church wherein they used no Mass nor observed the Canonical hours for Prayer but communicated by taking Bread and Wine and giving it to all that were present in the same manner said they as Jesus Christ and the Apostles had practised Before and after they made Sermons wherein they explained the Word of God They called it Preaching and their way of taking the Eucharist Manducation The Queen went amongst them and sometimes led her Husband thither who was very submissive to her Will and no less Zealous against the Authority of the Pope because that had furnished the Spaniard with a fair pretence to Invade the Kingdom of Navarre In the mean time Anthony Duprat Archbishop of Sens Cardinal and Legate Year of our Lord 1528 employ'd the whole Authority both of the Church and King to restrain this licentiousness he assembled a Provincial Council in the City of Paris Anno 1528. where appeared Six of his Suffragants and a Delegate from the Seventh They there propounded the Catholick Doctrines and condemned Luther's they Prohibited all Nocturnal Assemblies and the Reading of any Heretical Books with Excommunication against them their Abettors and Adherers On their part
LVII * Pairies * His name was after changed to Henry and he was King Perugia * The Huguenots followed the Doctrines of Zuinglius and Calvin Beginning of the War for Religion Their own Authors blame them for it and say that by this furious zeal they drew upon them the Peoples hate and Massacres * By this word is meant the Duke of Guise the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André and by Confederates they and the King of Navarre * They were Sons of Brother and Sister Half a League from Orleans * Or Jurisdiction Emperor Solyman and Maximilian II. R. 22 years and 3 Months * He was 13. years old * She was called Peace because she was Married to King Phil. 1559. as a pawn for the Peace Emperor Maximilian II and Selim. II Son of Solyman Reigned 8 years 2 Months * Or distinct Courts of Judicature * Artic. 48. * Artic. 54. * Artic. 57. * Or Beggars a nick name given the reformed * Boucicaut Montclar Paulin Serignan Caumont Rapin and Montaigue * Or Field Marshal * The Lame Peace * Angels of Gold * Duke of Zwee-Brughen or Two-Bridges * He was afterwards Duke * Not mistake him for the Count de Montrevel whose sirname is la Baume * Vide beforâ— in March 1568. * Or Light Galleys * â—lluzzali * Acquittances for Money due but never paid c. 1574. December Emp. Amurat II. Son of Selim. II. Dead the 13 th of Decemb R. Twenty years and One Month. And Maximilian II. * Vulgarly Senetaire * Because he razed or shaved them to the quick by his exactions * German Horse * Or Courtâ— Half Protestants half Catholiques like our party Juries * In despite of their Teeth Emp. Rodolph II. Son of Maximilian who died in October R. Thirty five years Three Months And Selsin II. * Why did he meddle with them * This was called the Pacification of Ghent * Revenue or Treasury * For his Purse * Chap 5. of the year 1142. * L'Ordre du Sainct Fsprit * The Country word for the Mouth of the River Vide The Memoirs of Sully Vol. 1. Fol. 79. * Quarente-cinq 'T is the proper term * His name was Robert * The Barrâ—cado's * This Castle is distinct from the Citadel * Forty-five * Forty-five * Viâ—â— in March preceding * Or Suburbs St. James It is now the Hostel de Conde * A Measure about Twelve Bushels * In the Marca of Ancona * Tiers Party * Or Ordinary Judge * It was said of the Parisians they knew better how to fast then fight * Anroux Emonot Ameline Louchard * It was called Pillebadand * The death of the Duke of Guise was that of Henry III. * Or advised too late * Or Gluttons c. Emperor Rodolph II. and Mahomet III. Son of Amurath after he had caused twenty of his Brothers to be drowned he Reigned ten years * Or Wand * Cateâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Capelle D 〈◊〉 lens 〈◊〉 Calais and Ardres * Or Bills * Vulgarly called Aâ—aâ—tel * Or True good Frenchmen * Or a Camp Massacre * The Duke of Savoy called him so * It is now called Bellagarde End of the League and the War * Or Priaepisme * Mattins in Lent in the 〈◊〉 C. Churches * A Nose-gay given from one to another which appoints who shall Treat next * Afternoon Sittings c. * These are the Pieces of 27 Sols now * A Priviledgâ— elsewhere Related * They called him Pater Ney * Son of la Blanche first President in the Court des aiides Massacred at the St. Bartholâ— mews * Or Telescopes * East and West-Indies * Or Luee-Brughen * Or Wolfgang * He was not very old but very much broken * Imagination contributes much towards the shaping of these Figures Church * Monsieur de Marca Archbishop of Toulouze and afterwards of Paris Church * E'in-rauch in High-Dutch and Capnos in Greek signifie Smoak Church Causes of the Progress of Lutheranism Other Causes which obstructed it * Therefore He treated them as Hereticks all his life time Church * La Vaupute Fraissiniere Pragela Argentiere c. Church * Pigge Market Beginning of the new Opinions in France and the cause of their Progress Church Church * Vide in the Year 1534. How the Novators were treated in France Church Causes of the Progress of Calvinisme in Fr. Church Council of Trent Church Church Church Church Church * Forty five Church Church Councils of the Gallican Church * Town-Hall Disorders in the Church * They were called Custodines Church Religious Orders * Some had worn them before Church * or John of God 〈◊〉 Regulars Church Religious Orders of Women * Or Penitent Whores * At present the Hostel de Soissions Church Military Orders Illustrious Prelates Church * He was Nephew to the Dutchess d'Estampes Bishops Church * Or Robertus Cenalis * Or Saint Faiths Church Bishops who fell into heresit Church
some Method to bring Hugh in again to that See but considering that a small number could not undo what had been done by a greater and that they had notice from the Pope to clear their doubts that he had Excommunicated him in a Council held at Rome Anno 949. they broke up without proceeding any farther That of Reims in 975. wherein presided Stephen Deacon to Bennet V. Pope and Adolberon of Reims Excommunicated Thibauld who had usurped the See of Amiens In 983. that of Mount St. Mary in the Diocess of Reims where Adalberon presided confirmed the Decree made by that Bishop to put Monks into the Monastery of Mouson in the stead of those Canons that were there In the foregoing Age in many places the Canons were more desired The Humour was changed in this Gerbert solliciting with heat to have Arnold de Reims his Process made a Council was called in that same City Anno 992. where his Credit and the vehement Eloquence of Arnold d'Orleans carrying it against the Remonstrances of Abbon Abbot of Fleury and the Sentiment of Seguin de Sens who was President Arnold was deposed and Gerbert instaled in his See The Pope believing it intrenched upon his Authority if he suffer'd them to undertake this without his Order sent a Legat into France the year ensuing who first called together some Bishops at Monson then a greater number at Reims where Seguin representing the Person of the Pope it was said that Gerbert should be deposed and Arnold restored but this last being a Prisoner at Orleans Gerbert disputed it and stood his ground yet for some time and appealed to the Pope who grew more stubborn and stiff in favour of Arnold and forced the King by the threatnings of a terrible Excommunication to release him and suffer him to enjoy his Bishoprick Robert King XXXVI POPES GREGORY V. About two years under this Reign SILVESTER II. Elected in March 999. S. Four years and two Months JOHN XVIII Elected in May 1003. S. Five Months JOHN XIX Elected in Novem. 1003. S. Five years ten Months SERGIUS IV. Elected in Aug. 1009. S. Two years eight Months and an half BENEDICT VIII Elected in 1012. S. near Twelve years JOHN XX. Elected in March 1024. S. Nine years eight Months ROBERT King XXXVI Aged Twenty four or Twenty five years THis King compleat both in Body and Mind of a handsom Stature a sweet and grave Air a composed and sage Humour having been nurtur'd to Piety and good Learning by Gerbert became very knowing for that Age much more Religious and Zealous in the Service of God and as Just Charitable and Debonnaire towards his People as any Prince that ever wore a Crown And indeed God favour'd his Reign with the choicest Blessing he is wont to bestow upon those Kings who are according to his own Heart I mean with a long and happy Peace which he enjoy'd near Thirty years after some slight and petty Wars Year of our Lord 996 This year 996. died Richard I. Duke of Normandy who was past his Seventieth year He left his Dukedom to his Son Richard II. surnamed the Good Year of our Lord 997 98. William Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitain having War with Boson II. Earl of Perigord and de la Marche Robert was obliged to assist him as his Kindred and Vassal They both laid Siege to the Castle of Belac but their Army wanting Provisions because they were too numerous could not subsist till the taking of the Place The Chronicles of those times who are all very succinct do not give an account of the end of that War no more then of many other things Eudes Earl of Brie and Champagne prompted with great desire to have a passage Year of our Lord 999 over the Seine as he had already over the Marne thereby to go commodiously from Brie to his County of Chartres cast his Eyes upon Melun and with Money gained the Vicount or Castellaine belonging to Earl Bouchard who deliver'd it up to him Bouchard had been the favourite of Hugh Capet who had given him that Earldom and he was yet at this time Count Palatine for King Robert Wherefore this King took in hand his defence sent Richard II. Duke of Normandy his Cousin and good Friend and with him besieged the place The Battery with their Engines having made a Breach the Garrison surrendred upon Composition the Castellaine and his Wife were both Hanged on the top of a Hill near the place They did not punish Gentlemen with Death for Rebellion or Felony unless they committed Treason but in that case they hanged them in some eminent Place that Crime degrading them of all Nobility Year of our Lord 999 Poland was honoured with the Title of a Kingdom by the Emperor Otho III. who going to Gnesne to Visit the Sepulchre of St. Adalbert Martyr gave the Regal Ornaments to Duke Boleslaus The following year Hungary had the same Advantage and Honour but would receive it from the hands of the Pope to whom Prince Stephen the Son of Geisa who first embraced Christianity sent to demand the Royal Crown Year of our Lord 1000 Towards the end of January in the year 1002. the Emperor Otho aged but Twenty nine years died in the City of Rome or in Paterna not leaving any Children It was believed to be of Poyson the cursed practise thereof being much in use as I have observed in this Age thorough all the West Henry II. of that name called the Cripple Duke of Bavaria and Earl of Bamberg succeeded him by an Election of the German Princes but did not bear the Title of Emperor at least not in Italy till he had been Crowned by the Pope which was Twelve years afterwards Year of our Lord 1002 The degrees of Parentage wherein Marriage was prohibited having been extended to the Seventh besides the obstructions from Spiritual Alliance or Gossipship caused much Broil especially amongst Princes and Grandees who commonly are of Kin to one another even within that degree For so soon as a Husband or a Wife were disgusted with each other or that any one had a mind to trouble them they needed but to Article and make Oath they were of Kin within the degrees forbidden and produce Witnesses upon it to the number of nine as I believe which were not wanting or difficult to get and thereupon the Diocesan Bishop or an Assembly of Bishops if there were any greater difficulty pronounced Judgment Year of our Lord 1003 Now Queen Lutgard the first Wife of Robert being dead he was advised by Maxims of Policy to Wed Bertha Sister to Rodolph the Lazy King of Burgundy Widow of Eudes I Earl of Chartres and Mother of Eudes II. as yet but young She being of Kin in the fourth Degree and besides he having held a Child with her at the Font he thought he might prevent the inconveniency of nullity of Marriage by the Authority of the Gallican Church he called therefore his
Bishops together who having heard his Reasons were of opinion upon consideration of the publick good that he might take her for his Wife notwithstanding the Canonical Obstructions which was a kind of Dispensation Abbon who was Abbot of Fleury a vehement Man not having been able to dissuade him from this match bestirr'd himself with much heat to have it dissolved The Pope to whom Robert had made no Application Excommunicated the Bishops that had authorized it and the two Parties that were Contracted if they did not separate forthwith Year of our Lord 1003 The King not giving Obedience to a Sentence which appeared to him contrary to the good of his Kingdom the Pope by an unheard-of Proceeding put the whole Nation under an Interdiction To which the People so humbly submitted that all the Kings Domestick Servants excepting only two or three forsook him and they threw whatsoever was left at his Table to the Dogs no body thinking it lawful to cat of that Meat he had but touched These Severities and not a Monstrous Birth by his Wife whom the Miracle-mongers say was delivered of an Infant with the Neck and Feet resembling a Goose constrained him to part from her but that was not till two or three years after and we find that they made a Journey to Rome either to defend their Cause before the Pope Year of our Lord 1006 or to crave his Pardon However it were the Marriage remained Null I cannot forget one memorable Example of the Soveraign Power and the extream Rigour of the Pope it was Silvester II. Guy Vicount of Limoges was cited to Rome by the Bishop of Angoulesme because he had detained him Prisoner in a Castle The two Parties appeared The Cause pleaded upon the very Easter-day the Pope pronounced that Guy for Reparation of his Crime should be tied to the Necks of two Wild-horses and his Body thus torn and bruised thrown on the Dung-hill which was to be put in Execution three days after In the mean time Guy was delivered up into the hands of the Bishop but the Prelat being moved with pity pardoned him and stealing away in the night generously brought him thence into France again with him About this time Henry Duke of Burgundy Brother of Hugh Capet died without Children Now by the induction of Giselle his Wife Widow of Adelbert as above King of Italy and Son of Berenger II. he left his Dakedom by Will and Testament to Otho-William surnamed the Stranger issue of that Woman by her first Husband Year of our Lord 1003 who finding himself already Earl of Burgundy beyond Soane named Franche-Comte and besides assisted by Landry Earl of Nevers his Son-in-Law and Brunon Bishop of Langres whose Sister he had Married took possession of all Burgundy by vertue of that Grant But King Robert to whom this Dukedom belonged lawfully as Heir to his Uncle led a powerful Army thither with the aid of Richard II. Duke of Normandy suppressed the Usurpers Faction took Auxerre by Composition and Avalon by Battery the Walls as 't is said falling down miraculously before him and at length forced out Otho-William and confined him beyond the Saone where he became the Stock of the Earls of Burgundy Year of our Lord 1004 Otho Son of Prince Charles Duke of the Lower Lorrain being dead without ever Marrying King Henry gave his Dukedom to Godfrey Count of Verdun Bouillon and Ardenne without any regard to the Sisters of the Defunct who were Married Gerberge to Lambert Earl of Brabant and Hermengarde to Lambert Earl of Namur From these issued the Dukes of Brabaut and the Earls of Namur Year of our Lord 1005 c. Baldwin Earl of Flanders already an Enemy to the Emperor undertook the Quarrel of these Daughters The Emperor came to the Relief of Godfrey whom he had invested with this Fief and the King of France embraced Baldwin's Party who was his Vassal The Emperor in vain besieged Valenciennes and then Gaunt Finally this War being made at the Charge and Expence of the Flemming he agreed with the Emperor and restored Valenciennes Year of our Lord 1008 Afterwards the Emperor desiring to make use of his Valour in the great Troubles brought upon him by the Rebellion of the German Princes gave him that City again and withall the Island of Walcheren being part of Zeland whence proceeded a long and bloody Contest between the Flemmings and the Hollanders these pretending that Zeland appertained to them by vertue of a certain Grant which they alledged had been made to them by the Emperor Lotrire Son of Lewis the Debonnaire Year of our Lord 1007 I think we ought to place in the year 1007. the Marriage of Robert with Constance surnamed Blanch Daughter of William V. Earl of Arles Provence and Toulouze a Beautiful Princess but Haughty Capricious and Insupportable We must observe that the Authors of those times frequently called Provence Aquitain whether out of ignorance or because of its City of Aix Aquae Sextiae Year of our Lord 1009 The Saracens at the instigation of the Jews in France demolish the Temple of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre which re-inflames the Devotion of the Western Christians and their hatred against the Jews whom they Banish or knock on the Head every where Year of our Lord 1009 10 c. The good King Robert addicted himself intirely to works of Piety Charity Mercy and Justice re-edified old Churches or built new ones and fed great numbers of poor People in all the Cities throughout his Kingdom He kept above Two hundred in his House whom he led every where having no aversion to see them even under his Table to touch their Ulcers and make the Sign of the Cross over them whereby they were oftentimes made whole He delighted to Sing in the Quire and Compose Words and Notes for the Songs and Responses in honour of God or his Saints The Church hath preserved some of them which they make use of to this day This year 1012. was seen towards the farther Southern parts a Star of an extraordinary magnitude which seemed to dart its bright Rays into the beholders Eyes It appeared for three months together sometimes contracting its self other while seeming much greater as if it took new Fire then again as it were quite extinguished Anno 1003. a Comet had likewise been observed which kept near the Sun and appeared but seldom which was about the break of day Eight years before viz. Anno 995. another had been observed upon St. Laurences-day And in 981. also another yet about Autumn Which I take notice of to shew that these Phenomena are not so rare as to make so much noise about them Year of our Lord 1013 The King having bestowed the Archbishoprick of Bourges upon Goslin his Natural Son Abbot of Floury the Clergy of that Church made great opposition saying That the Holy Canons admitted no Bastards to the Prelacy Which occasioned many Tumults that were not allaied till five
prosecution for three years Before the Peace the People of Toulouze had Mutinied against the Parliament upon occasion of some wall which they were making to enclose the Palace Their thundring Decrees could not stop the Insolency of those whom themselves had nursed up in Blood and Licentiousness by letting loose their rage against the Huguenots Divers of their Members ran great hazard of their Lives in those furious Tumults which afforded a specious pretence to the Cardinals d'Armagnac and de Strossy to Teraide Negrepâ—lisse and Fourquevaux to make a League by which they were engaged amongst themselves after they had Communicated the thing to the Lord de Joyeuse to stand united for the defence of the Religion of their Ancestors against all Rebels Sectaries disturbers of the publick quiet and that in each Seneschaussâ—é or Jurisdiction of a Seneschal they should take an Account of what Arms there were and how many fit to bear them The Articles were drawn with consent of the Solicitor-General and by a Decree month December made the Chambers being Assembled entred into the Register of the Court but yet with this Clause according to the good pleasure of the King This was in my opinion the first League that was openly made amongst the Kings Subjects for the business of Religion By this example divers others were formed in several Provinces and out of all these at least from the disposition this Imprinted in the minds of the People that great League was framed which gave Henry III. his death and infinite troubles to his Successors During this apparent calm the Chancellor labour'd in contriving most excellent Reglements for Polity and Justice All Curates were declared exempt from Lodging and Providing or quartering of Soldiers There was an Edict that such as were Plaintiffs in Law should lay down a certain Sum before they were admitted to plead but the Parliament made great opposition and in fine Year of our Lord 1563 whether it were that this Tax hindred Law-Suits and Process or whether on the contrary they thought it scandalous and unjust in the King to turn the Obligation he had to do Justice freely into a toll this Edict was abolished by Non-usage though it were never repealed Another in the Month of December established a Court of Judicature for Merchants composed of one Judge and four Consuls who were chosen out of a Hundred Citizens called together by the Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins to determine upon the place and without any formal and tedious proceedings all disputes or demands concerning Trade and Commerce to the value of Five Hundred Livers absolutely and Soveraignly and above the said Sum by way of Provision upon giving Security The Appeal to be made to the Parliament After this Example of Paris Ten or Twelve of the chiefest Cities in the Kingdom would needs have the like Jurisdiction and found it to be very good and useful In effect if there were one in every City and the Soveraignty of their Power extended to give Judgment as far as a Thousand Crowns it would prevent frauds dry up deceit at the Root and rid them of all those paltry Splitters of causes who long so much to have a finger in the rich Merchants purse and to taste of that fruit of Trade month December The Fourth of December the Council of Trent was closed where the Cardinal de Lorraine who Composed and Sung their Acclamations though according to ancient Custome it was rather the Office of a Deacon then of a great Archbishop seemed not to have regarded the Honour of France as he ought forasmuch as I know not upon what considerations he named only the Emperour in particular and in gross the Christian Kings and Princes although in the Address of the Bulls for convocation the King of France was by name express'd as well as the Emperor The one and Thirtieth of the same Month which was the last day of the Year was so likewise of the Mareschal de Brissac one of the greatest Warriours of his Age. Year of our Lord 1564 In another Edict given the year after at Paris amongst many Rules contained therein to prevent delayes in Suits of Law and reform their Decrees and Judgments it was ordained that the year which till that time in all Civil Affairs had still taken its beginning at Easter should from thenceforward be changed and begin upon the first day of January according to the usage in the Church This was observed the following year in the Kings Council and the Chambre des Comptes but the Parliament which is as it were Guardian of the Ancient Orders of the Kingdom opposed it and could not be perswaded to follow this Reformation till after the Assembly at Moulins to wit in the year 1567. By vertue of an Edict given at the Instance of the Queen at Saint Maur des Fossez bearing that the void places in the City of Paris namely that of the Palace des Tournelles should be sold for the benefit of the King She caused that Palace to be pulled down together with that of Angoulesme very near the other under colour of abolishing the very Memory of that fatal place where her Husband was wounded to death but in truth to avoid I do not know what sinister accident with which she seemed to be threatned there She gave part of it to the publick for a Horse-Market and sold the remainder to private Persons to build Houses and then began to Erect the Palace of Tuilleries Although the Factions seemed to lye asleep notwithstanding the Heads of both Parties turned every Stone under-hand to keep their Friends firm to them to maintain the Zeal and Courage of their Parties and to strengthen themselves with Forreign assistance The King of Spain was privately courted by several of the Catholick Chiefs who were very willing thereby to support themselves that he should have some hand in the management of the Affairs of France Upon their Solicitations he sent a Solemn Embassy to the King amongst whom were likewise Deputies from the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Lorraine to perswade him to depute some in his behalf at Nancy where the Assembly of Christian Princes was assigned to consult about the most necessary means and wayes to make the Council of Trent to be received and owned and to extirpate all Heresies out of Christendom but the Queen Mother who foresaw the consequences of this demand illuded it by many delayes and sent the Ambassadors back again with an ambiguous and indeterminate answer Year of our Lord 1564. June c. Upon this occasion Master Charles du Moulin the most profound of all the French Lawyers put forth a Consultation wherein he undertook to prove that the said Council was Null and Vicious in all its parts contrary to the Ancient Decrees prejudicial to the dignity of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The zealous Catholicks would not let this attempt of so profane a Fellow escape unpunished but having
accused him in Parliament of dangerous opinions and sentiments concerning matters of Faith got him confined to a Prison but the King by a Decree of Council set him at Liberty with an injunction to write no more without his express Order and Permission and forbid the Parliament to take any Cognisance of this matter The Five and Twentieth of July the Feast day of the Apostle Saint James the great the Emperor Ferdinand I. Brother of Charles V. died at Vienne of a lingring Feaver attended with a Dropsie He had lived Sixty one years and governed the Empire Seven yeaers Maximilian his Eldest Son who was already King of the Romans succeeded him month July The whole Kingdom was full of Factions and Tumults from all quarters complaints were brought to the King of the one and the other Party The Queen Mother desiring to know the Strength of the Huguenots and the different dispositions of Mens minds or having some more secret design under deck thought good to take a Progress with the whole Court to every City in the Kingdome taking along with her the King Alexander Monsieur the Elder of his Brothers and leaving Hercules the youngest at Bois de Vincennes The Prince of Condé had retired himself to his House de Valery Year of our Lord 1564. and 65. The Court began their promenade about the end of Winter visited Champagne Barrois Bourgongne Lyonnois Provence Languedoc Guyenne making solemn Entries in all the great Cities and arrived at Bayonne the Tenth day of June of the following year 1565. Year of our Lord 1565 During the Kings absence a controversie between the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Mareschal de Montmorency Governor of Paris and the Isle of France was very near breaking out into another War The King had forbid all his Subjects wearing of any Arms the Cardinal notwithstanding had a Licence under the Great Seal to have a Guard that might bear them The Mareschal knew it well enough but he expected the Cardinal should send to Compliment him upon it and the Cardinal pretended that it belonged to the Mareschal to pay him that Civility Now when upon his return from the Council of Trent the Cardinal would have passed thorough Paris with the Duke of Aumale his Brother and the Duke of Guise his Nephew the Mareschal de Montmorency knowing he drew near the City sent to Command him by a Prevost des Mareschaux to make his men give up their Arms the Cardinal went on the Mareschal well Accompanied goes to meet him charged him in the Street Saint Denis The Duke d'Aumale was gone by Saint Martins Gate The Cardinals People were scatter'd here and there and he escaped into a Shop with his Nephew At Night they went all to the Hostel de Clugny which was the Cardinals House The next day the Mareschal passed and repassed in a bravado before his Door The City of Paris being just on the point to rise the Prevost des Marchands on behalf of the Parliament endeavour'd to find out some means for an Accommodation between them He prevail'd with the Cardinal to go out of Town and with the Mareschal to permit that Princes Guard to wear their Arms according to the Kings Licence a Copy whereof he shewed The Duke d'Aumale nevertheless hovering about Paris with a numerous Train of Friends whom he had called to him the Admiral was likewise sent for by the Mareschal his Cousin and brought a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Gentlemen along with him and thus both Parties being in Armes it was feared every Moment they would charge each other but the King having heard the Complaints of both sides sent a Command they should lay down their Armes to which they obey'd The Queen Mother being so nigh the Frontiers of Spain desired to see her Daughter Isabella de la Paix Wife of King Philip II. The King sent his Brother the Duke of Anjou to meet her who being attended with the Flower of the French Court passed over the River Marquere which is beyond Saint John de Pied de Port and parts the two Kingdomes met the Queen at Arvanis and accompanied her to Saint Sebastians where Ferdinand Alvara de Toledo Duke d' Year of our Lord 1565 Alva came and waited on her with a great Attendance He brought the Order of the Golden Fleece for the King who went to receive his Sister at the Banks of the River Bidasso and there gave his hand to help her out of the Boat The Queen Mother had past over the River whether so agreed upon or impatient to embrace her Daughter whom they set upon a Palfrey Monsieur and the Cardinal de Bourbon walking on each side and so led her to Bayonne where she remained about Three weeks with her Mother During that time all what the Luxury and Pomp of the Court of France which surpasses all others in those profusions could invent and contrive for Balets Feastings Carousels and Bravery were employed to let them see theirs was as stately and proud and much more ingenious then that of Spain The Queen Mother would have had it thought this residence of the Court at Bayonne was only to divert her Daughter but her design was quite another thing For under pretence of going to visit her by means of a close Gallery purposely built from one House to the other she every Night held Communication with the Duke of Alva and the event did afterwards plainly discover that all those Conferences tended to make a secret Alliance between the two Kings to extirpate the Protestants month July c. The Huguenots who had piercing Eyes and quick Ears imagined the Duke of Alva had advised the Queen to draw them all together to some great Assembly and dispatch them without Mercy They said likewise that he let these words fall That the Head of one Salmon is worth more then all the Frogs in a Marsh and they believed that even at the Assembly of Moulins the Queen had then given the fatal blow if all things necessary thereto had concurred as she desired Now whether these things were true or imaginary it is certain they lost all that little Credit and Confidence there had been between them so that they could never afterwards take any measures with her and thus the Spaniard attained the end he aimed at and so greatly desired which was to maintain an irreconciliable Division in France The Court at their departure from Bayonne passed by Nerac where they restored the Exercise of the Catholick Religion which Queen Jane d'Albret had banisht thence visited afterwards Agenois Perigord Angoumois Poitou and Anjou and from thence going up the River of Loire came and concluded the year in the City of Blois and assigned an Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom and the first Presidents of the Parliaments in the City of Moulïns for the Month of January in the following year 1566. This was Memorable for the Famous Siege of Malta which was fiercely Attaqued by the Turks four