obedient subjects The Kings escape was made in the end of Iune and in December following he calls a Convention of the Estates in which the subject of his Proclamation was approved and verified the fact declared to be Crimen laesae Majestatis or Treason in the highest degree For which as some were executed and others fled so divers of the Ministers that had been dealers in that matter pretending they were persecuted had retired into England For notwithstanding his Majesties great clemency in pardoning the Conspirators on such easie conditions they preferred rather the pursuing of their wicked purposes then the enjoying of a peaceable and quiet life For whether it were that they presumed on supplies from England of which they had received no inâ—â—obable hopes as afterwards was confessed by the Earl of Gowry or that they built upon the Kirk-Faction to come in to aid them as the General Assembly had required they begin in all places to prepare for some new Commotion but being deceived in all their hopes and expectations they were confined to several Prisons before the Convention of Estates and after it upon a further discovery of their preparations and intentions compelled to quit the Kingdome and betake themselves for their protection unto several Nations Onely the Earl of Gowry staid behind the rest and he paid well for it For being suspected to be hammering some new design he was took Prisoner at Dundee in the April following 1584 thence brought to Edenborough and there condemned and executed as he had deserved In the mean time the Kirk-men were as troublesome as the Lay-Conspirators Dury so often mentioned in a Sermon at Edenborough had justified the fact at Ruthen for which being cited to appear before the Lords of the Council he stood in maintainance of that which he had delivered but afterwards submitting himself unto the King on more sober thoughts he was kept upon his good â—ehaviour without further punishment But Andrew Melvin was a man of another metal who being commanded to attend their Lordships for the like offence declined the judgement of the King and Council as having no cognizance of the cause To make which good he broached this Presbyterian Doctrine That whatsoever was spoken in the Pulpit ought first to be tryed by the Presbyterie and that neither the King nor Council were to meddle with it though the same were treasonable till the Presbyterie had first taken notice of it But finding that the King and Council did resolve to proceed and had entred upon Examination of some Witnesses which were brought against him he told the King whether with greater Confidence or Impudence is hard to say That he preached the Laws both of God and man For which undutiful Expression he was commanded Prisoner to the Castle of Blackness Instead whereof he takes Sanctuary in the Town of Berwick where he remained till way was made for his return the Pulpits in the mean time sounding nothing but that the Light of the Countrey for Learning and Piety was forced for safety of his life to forsake the Kingdom In which Exile he was followed within few moneths after by Palvart Sub-Dean of Glasgow Galloway and Carmichiel two inferior Ministers who being warned to tender their appearance to the King and Council and not appearing at the time were thereupon pronounced Rebels and fled after the other Nor was the General Assembly held at Edenborough of a better temper then these Preachers were in which the Declaration made at the last Convention of Estates was stoutly crossed and encountred The King with the advice of his Estates had resolved the Fact of surprizing His Majesties person to be treasonable But the Brethren in the said Assembly did not onely authorize and avow the same but also esteeming their own judgement to be the Soveraign judgement of the Realm did ordain all them to be excommunicated that would subscribe unto their opinion 61. The King perceiving that there was no other way to deal with these men then to husband the present opportunity to his best advantage resolved to proceed against them in such a way as might disable them from committing the like insolencies for the time to come The chief Incendiaries had been forced to quit the Kingdom or otherwise deserted it of their own accords the better to escape the punishment which their crimes had merited The great Lords on whose strength they had most presumed were either under the like exile in the neighbouring Countries or else so weakned and disanimated that they durst not stir So that the King being clearly Master of the Field his Counsellors in good heart and generally the Lords and Commons in good terms of obedience it was thought fit to call a Parliament and therein to enact such Laws by which the honour of Religion the personal safety of the King the peace and happiness of the Kingdom and the prosperity of the Church might be made secure In which Parliament it was enacted amongst others things the better to encounter the proceedings of the Kirk and most Zealous Kirkmen That none of his Highness Subjects in time coming should presume to take upon them by word or writing to justifie the late treasonable attempt at Ruthen or to keep in register or store any Books approving the same in any sort And in regard the Kirk had so abused his Majesties goodness by which their Presbyterial Sessions the general Assemblies and other meetings of the Kirk were rather connived at then allowed an Act was made to regulate and restrain them for the times ensuing for by that Act it was ordained That from thenceforth none should presume or take upon them to Convocate Convene or assemble themselves together for holding of Councils Conventions or Assemblies to treat consult or determine in any matters of Estate Civil or Ecclesiastical excepting the ordinary judgements without the Kings special commandment 62. In the next place the Kings lawful Authority in causes Ecclesiastical so often before impugned was approved and confirmed and it was made treason for any man to refuse to answer before the King though it were concerning any matter which was Ecclesiastical The third Estate of Parliament that is the Bishops were restored to the ancient dignity and it was made treason for any man after that time to procure the innovation or diminution of the Power and Authority of any of the three Estates And for as much as through the wicked licentious publick and private Speeches and untrue calumnies of divers his Highness subjects I speak the very words of the Act to the disdain contempt and reproach of his Majesty his Council and proceedings stirring up his Highness subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness to cast off their due oâ—edience to his Majesty Therefore it is ordained that none of his subjects shall presume or take upon them privately or publickly in Sermons Declamations oâ— familiar Conferences to utter any false scandalous and untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of
time thereof For a preparative whereunto and to satisfie the importunity and expectation of their Brethren of Scotland they attaint the Arch-bishop of High Treason in the House of Commons and pass their Bill by Ordinance in the House of Peers in which no more than seven Lords did concur to the Sentence but being sentenced howsoever by the malice of the Presbyterians both Scots and English he was brought to act the last part of his Tragedy on the 10th of Ianuary as shall be told at large in another place This could presage no good success to the following Treaty For though Covenants sometimes may be writ in blood yet I find no such way for commencing Treaties And to say truth the King's Commissioners soon found what they were to trust to For having condescended to accompany the Commissioners from the Houses of Parliament and to be present at a Sermon preached by one of their Chaplains on the first day of the meeting they found what little hopes they had of a good conclusion The Preacher's Name was Love a Welsh-man and one of the most fiery Presbyters in all the Pack In whose Sermon there were many passages very scandalous to His Majesty's Person and derogatory to His Honour stirring up the people against the Treaty and incensing them against the King's Commissioners telling them That they came with hearts full of Blood and that there was as great a distance betwixt the Treaty and Peace as there was between Heaven and Hell Of this the Oxon Lords complained but could obtain no reparation for the King or themselves though afterwards Cromwel paid the debt and brought him to the Scaffold when he least looked for it 44. But notwithstanding these presages of no good success the King's Commissioners begin the long-wisht-for Treaty which is reduced to these three Heads viz. Concernments of the Church The Power of the Militia and the Warr of Ireland In reference to the first for of the other two I shall take no notice His Majesty was pleased to condescend to these particulars that is to say 1. That freedom be left to all persons whatsoever in matters of Ceremony and that all the penalties of the Laws and Canons which enjoin those Ceremonies be suspended 2. That the Bishops should exercise no act of Iurisdiction or Ordination without the consent and counsel of the Presbyters who shall be chosen by the Clergy of each Diocess out of the gravest and most learned men amongst themselves 3. That the Bishop shall be constantly resident in his Diocess except he be required to attend His Majesty and shall preach every Sunday in some Church or other within the Diocess if he be not hindred either by old age or sickness 4. That Ordination shall be publick and in solemn manner and none to be admitted into Holy Orders but such as are well qualified and approved of by the Rural Presbyters 5. That an improvement be made of all such Vicaridges as belonged to Bishops Deans and Chapters the said improvement to be made out of Impropriations and confirmed by Parliament 6. That from thenceforth no man should hold two Churches with Cure of Souls And 7. That One hundred thousand pound should be forthwith raised out of the Lands belonging to the Bishops and Cathedral Churches towards the satisfaction of the Publick Debts An Offer was also made for regulating the Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts in Causes Testamentary Decimal and Matrimonial for rectifying some Abuses in the exercise of Excommunication for moderating the excessive Fees of the Bishops Officers and ordering their Visitations to the best advantage of the Church and all this to be done by consent of Parliament 45. His Majesty also offered them the Militia for the space of three years which might afford them time enough to settle the Affairs of the Kingdom had they been so pleased and to associate the Houses with Him in the Warr of Ireland but so as not to be excluded from His Care of that People But these Proposals did not satisfie the Puritan English much less the Presbyterian Scots who were joined in that Treaty They were resolved upon the abolition of Episcopacy both Root and Branch of having the Militia for Seven years absolutely and afterwards to be disposed of as the King and the Houses could agree and finally of exercising such an unlimited power in the Warr of Ireland that the King should neither be able to grant a Cessation or to make a Peace or to show mercy unto any of that people on their due submission And from the rigour of these terms they were not to be drawn by the King's Commissioners which rendred the whole Treaty fruitless and frustrated the expectation of all Loyal Subjects who languished under the calamity of this woful Warr. For as the Treaty cooled so the Warr grew hotter managed for the most part by the same Hands but by different Heads Concerning which we are to know That not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents And at the first the Presbyterians carried all before them both in Camp and Council But growing jealous at the last of the Earl of Essex whose late miscarriage in the West was looked on as a Plot to betray his Army they suffered him to be wormed out of his Commission and gave the chief Command of all to Sir Thomas Fairfax with whose good Services and Affections they were well acquainted To him they joined Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell who from a private Captain had obtained to be Lieutenant to the Earl of Manchester in the associated Counties as they commonly called them and having done good Service in the Battel of Marston-moor was thought the fittest man to conduct their Forces And on the other side the Earl of Brentford but better known by the Name of General Ruthuen who had commanded the King's Army since the Fight at Edg-hill was outed of his Place by a Court-Contrivement and that Command conferred upon Prince Rupert the King's Sisters Son not long before made Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness 46. By these new Generals the Fortune of the Warr and consequently the Fate of the Kingdom which depended on it came to be decided And at the first the King seemed to have much the better by the taking of Leicester though afterwards it turned to his disadvantage For many of the Soldiers being loaded with the Spoil of the place withdrew themselves for the disposing of their Booty and came not back unto the Army till it was too late News also came that Fairfax with his Army had laid siege to Oxon which moved the King to return back as far as Daventry there to expect the re-assembling of his scattered Companies Which hapning as Fairfax had desired he marcht hastily after him with an intent to give him Battel on the first opportunity In which he was confirmed by two great Advantages first by the seasonable coming of Cromwel with
in point of courage And yet the anger of God did not stay here neither that Plague being carried into England at the return of the Soldiers which raged extreamly both in London and most parts of the Realme beyond the precedent and example of former ages It was on the 17 of Iuly an 1563 that New-haven was yielded to the French that being the last day of the first war which was raised by the Hugonots and raised by them on no other ground but for extorting the free exercise of their Religion by force of Arms according to the doctrine and example of the Mother-City In the pursuit whereof they did not only with their own hands ruinate and deface the beauty of their native Country but gave it over for a prey to the lust of Strangers The calling in of the English to support their faction whom they knew well to be the antient enemies of the Crown of France and putting into their hands the chief strength of Normandy of whose pretensions to that Dukedome they could not be ignorant were two such actions of a disloyal impolitick nature as no pretence of zeal to that which they called the Gospel could either qualifie or excuse Nor was the bringing in of so many thousand German Souldiers of much better condition who though they could pretend no title to the Crown of France nor to any particular Province in it were otherwise more destructive to the peace of that Country and created far more mischief to the people of it then all the forces of the English for being to be maintained on the pay of the Hugonots and the Hugonots not being able to satisfie their exorbitant Arrears they were suffered to waste the Country in all parts where they came and to expose the whole Kingdom from the very borders of it toward Germany to the English Chanell unto spoyle and rapine so that between the Hugonots themselves on the one side and these German Souldiers on the other there was nothing to be seen in most parts of the Kingdom but the destruction of Churches the profanation of Altars the defacing of Images the demolishing of Monasteries the burning of Religious Houses and even the digging up of the bones of the dead despitefully thrown about the fields and unhallowed places 25. But this first was only raked up in the Embers not so extinguished by the Articles of the late agreement but that it broke out shortly into open flames for the Hugonots pressing hard for the performance of the Edict of Ianuary and the Romanists as earnestly insisting on some clauses of the pacification the whole Realm was filled in a manner with such fears and jealousies as carryed some resemblance of a War in the midst of Peace The Hugonots had some thoughts of surprising Lyons but the Plot miscarryed they practised also upon Narbonne a chief City of Languedock and openly attempted the Popes Town of Avignion but were prevented in the one and suppressed in the other A greater diffidence was raised against them by the unseasonable Zeal of the Queen of Navar who not content with setling the reformed Religion in the Country of Berne when she was absolute and supreme suffered the Catholicks to be infested in her own Provinces which she held immediately of the Crown insomuch that at Pamiers the chief City of the Earldom of Foix the Hugonots taking offence at a solemn Procession held upon Corpus Christi day betook themselves presently to Arms and falling upon those whom they found unarmed not onely made a great slaughter amongst the Church-men but in the heat of the same fury burnt down their Houses Which outrage being suffered to pass unpunished gave both encouragement and example to some furious Zealots to commit the like in other places as namely at Montaban Gaelion Rodez Preieux Valence c. being all scituate in those Provinces in which the Hugonots were predominant for power and number But that which most alarmed the Court was a seditious Pamphlet published by a Native of Orleance in which it was maintained according to the Calvinian Doctrines that the people of France were absolved from their Allegiance to the King then Reigning because he was turned an Idolater In which reason it is lawful also to kill him as opportunity should be offered Which Doctrine being very agreeable unto some designs which were then every where in agitation amongst the Hugonots was afterward made use of for the justifying of the following Wars when the opinion grew more general and more openly maintained both from Press and Pulpit 26. The Catholicks on the other side began to put themselves into a posture of Arms without so much as taking notice of those misdemeanors which they seemed willing to connive at not so much out of any inclinations which they had in themselves but because they found it not agreeable to the will of the Court where such dissimulations were esteemed the best arts of Government The Catholick King had sent the Duke of Alva with a puissant Army to reduce the Low Countries to obedience where the Calvinians had committed as great spoils and Rapines as any where in France or Scotland This Army being to pass in a long march near the Borders of France gave a just colour to the King to arm himself for fear lest otherwise the Spaniards might forget their errand and fall with all their Forces into his Dominions To this end he gives order for a Levy of six thousand Switz which he caused to be conducted through the heart off the Kingdom and quartered them in the Isle of France as if they were to serve to a Guard for Paris far enough off from any of those parts and Provinces by which the Spaniards were to pass But this gave such a jealousie to the heads of the Hugonots that they resorted to Chastillion to consult with the Admiral By whose advice it was resolved that they must get the King and Queen into their power and make such use of both their names as the Catholicks had made of them in the former War This to be done upon the sudden before the opening of a War by the raising of Forces should render the surprize impossible and defeat their purposes The King and Queen lay then at Monceux an House of pleasure within the Territory of Byre in Champaigne not fearing any the least danger in a time of peace and having the Switz near enough to secure their persons against any secret Machinations And thereupon it was contrived that as many Horse as they could raise in several places should draw together at Rosay not far from Monceux on the 27 of September that they should first surprize the King the Queen and her younger Sons and then fall in upon the Switz who being quartered in several places and suspecting nothing less then the present danger might very easily be routed and that being done they should possess themselves of Paris and from thence issue out of all Mandates which concerned
be admitted to any office charge dignity or magistracy whatever if he did not profess and live conformable in all points to the Roman Religion And for a Preamble hereunto the King was pleased to make a long and distinct Narration of the indulgence he had used to reduce the Hugonots to a right understanding and of the ill requital they had made unto him by the seditions and conspiracies which they raised against him their bringing in of forraign forces and amongst others the most mortal enemies of the French Nation putting into their hands the strongest places and most flourishing parts of the Kingdom to the contempt of his authority the despising of his grace and goodness and the continual disquieting of his Dominions and the destruction of his subjects To counter-poise which terrible Edict the Princes and other Leaders of the Hugonots which were then at Rochel entred into a solemn Covenant or Association by which they bound themselves by Oath to persevere till death in defence of their Religion never to lay down arms or condescend to any agreement without the general consent of all the Commanders and not then neither but upon sufficient security for the preservation of their lives and the enjoying of that Liberty of Conscience for which they first began the war 30. But the Admiral well knowing that the business was not to be carried by Oaths and Manifests and that they wanted mony to proceed by arms advised the Rochellers to send their Navy to the sea which in a time when no such danger was expected might spoyle and pillage all they met with and by that means provide themselves of mony and all other necessaries to maintain the war Which Counsel took such good effect that by this kind of Piracy they were enabled to give a fair beginning to this new Rebellion for the continuance whereof it was thought necessary to sollicite their Friends in Germany to furnish them with fresh recruits of able men and Queen Elizabeth of England for such sums of money as might maintain them in the service And in the first of these designs there appears no difficulty the inclination of the Prince Elector together with the rest of the Calvinian Princes and Imperial Cities were easily intreated to assist their Brethren of the same Religion And the same spirit governed many of the people also but on different grounds they undertaking the imployment upon hope of spoil as Mercenaries serving for their Pay but more for Plunder In England their desires were entertained with less alacrity though eagerly sollicited by Odet Bishop of Beauvais a younger Brother of the Admiral who having formerly been raised to the degree of a Cardinal therefore called most commonly the Cardinal of Chastillon had some years since renounced his Habit and Religion but still kept his Titles By the continual sollicitation of so great an Advocate and the effectual interposing of the Queen of Navar Elizabeth was perswaded to forget their former ingratitude and to remember how conducible it was to her personal interest to keep the French King exercised in perpetual troubles upon which Reason of State she is not onely drawn to accommodate the Hugonots with Ships Corn Arms and Ammunition but to supply them with a hundred thousand Crowns of ready money for the maintaining of their Army consisting of fourteen thousand Germans and almost as many more of the natural French And yet it was to be believed that in all this she had done nothing contrary to the League with France which she had sworn not long before because forsooth the Forces of the Hugonots were raised to no other end but the Kings mere service and the assistance of the Crown against the Enemies of both and the professed Adversaries of the true Religion But neither this great lone of money nor that which they had got by robbing upon the Seas was able to maintainâ— War of so long continuance For maintainance whereof they were resolved to sell the Treasures of the Churches in all such Provinces as they kept under their Command the Queen of Navar ingaging her Estate for their security who should adventure on the purchase 31. I shall not touch on the particulars of this Warâ— which ended with the death of the Prince of Conde in the battel of Iarnar the rigorous proceedings against the Admiral whom the King caused to be condemned for a Rebel his Lands to be confiscatedâ— his Houses plundred and pulled down and himself executed in Effigie the loss of the famous battel of Mont-Contour by the Hugonots party Anno 1569 which forced them to abandon all their strong holds except Rochel Angoulesme and St. Ieanâ—d Angeli and finally to shut themselves up within Rochel onely after which followed such a dissembled reconciliation between the parties as proved more bloudy then the War The sudden and suspected death of the Queen of Navar the Marriage of the Prince her Son with the Lady Margaret one of the Sisters of the King the celebrating of the wedding in the death of the Admiral on St. Bartholomews day 1572 and the slaughter of thirty thousand men within few days after the reduction of the whole Kingdom to the Kings obedience except the Cities of Nismes Montauban and Rochel onely the obstinate standing out of Rochel upon the instigation of such Preachers as fled thither for shelter and the reduction of it by the Duke of Anjon to the last extremity the raising of the Siege and the Peace ensuing on the Election of that Duke to the Crown of Poland the resolution of the Hugonots to renew the War as soon as he had left the Kingdom and their ingaging in the same on the Kings last sickness In all which traverses of State there is nothing memorable in reference to my present purpose but onely the conditions of the Pacification which was made at the Siege of Rochel by which it was accorded between the parties on the 11 of Iuly Anno 1573 that all offences should be pardoned to the said three Cities on their submission to the King and that it should be lawful for them to retain the free Exercise of their Religion the people meeting in the same unarmed and but few in numberâ— that all the inhabitants of the said three Cities should be obliged to observe in all outward matters except Baptism and Matrimony the Rites and Holy-days of the Church that the use of the Catholick Religion should be restored in the said Cities and all other places leaving unto the Clergy and Religious persons their Houses Profits and Revenues that Rochel should receive a Governour of the Kings appointment but without Garrison renounce all correspondencies and confederacies with Forreign Princes and not take part with any of the same Religion against the King and finally that the said three Towns should deliver Hostages for the performance of the Articles of the present Agreement to be changed at the end of every three months if the King so pleased It
and provocations the King resolved to proceed in his former indifferency hoping thereby to break the Hugonots without blows and bloud-shed and thereby to regain the good opinion of his Popish Subjects To which end he was pleased to grant such priviledges to the Hugonot Faction as they durst not ask and never had aspired unto in their greatest heats which he conceived he had more reason to do in the present pinch then any of his Predecessors had in far less extremities For the Hugonots had not onely brought in a formidable Army of Switz and Germans under the conduct of Prince Casimir one of the younger sons of Frederick the Third then Elector Palatine but had also made a fraction in the Court it self by drawing Francis Duke of Alanzon his youngest Brother to be Head of their Party who brought along with him a great number of Romish Catholicks who then past under the name of the Male-contents To break which blow and free his Kingdom from the danger of so great an Army he first capitulates to pay the Germans their Arrears amounting to a million and two hundred thousand Ducats to gratifie Prince Casimir with the Signory of Chasteau-Thierry in the Province of Champaigne with a Pension of fourteen thousand Crowns and a Command of a hundred Lances To confer the Government of Picardie with the strong Town of Perrone on the Prince of Conde and settle on his Brother the Duke of Alanzon the Provinces of Berry Touraine and Anjou together with one hundred thousand Crowns of yearly Pension and made him also Duke of Anjou foâ— his greater honour And then to pacifie and oblige the Hugonots if such men could be gained or pacified by acts of favour he grants unto them by his Edict of the 14 of May 1576 that they should peaceably enjoy the exercise of their Religion together with full power for erecting Colledges and Schools for holding Synods of Celebrating Matrimony and Administring the Sacraments with the same freedom as was used by his Catholick Subjects that those of the Reformed Religion should be permitted to execute any Places or Offices and enjoy any Dignities of what sort soever without such distinction betwixt them and the rest of that Nation as had been of late times observed that in each Parliament of France a new Court should be presently erected consisting equally of Judges and Officers of both Religions and they to have the Cognizance of all Causes which concerned the Hugonots that all sentences past against the Admiral the Count of Montgomery and the rest of that party should be revoked and made null and the eight cautionary Towns being all places of great strength and consequence should remain with the Hugonots till all these Articles were confirmed and the Peace concluded 38. The passing of this Edict gave great scandal to the Catholick party which thereupon was easily united by the Duke of Guise into a common Bond or League for maintainance and defence of their Religion apparently indangered by those large Indulgences by the first Article whereof they bound themselves for the Establishment of the Law of God in its first Estate to restore and settle his holy Service according to the Form and Manner of the Catholick Apostolick Roman Church and to abjure and renounce all errors contrary thereunto Then followed many other Articles relating to the preservation of the Kings Authority the maintainance of the common liberties and Priviledges of their Country the mutual defence of one another in defence of this League against all persons whatsoever the constancy of their obedience to any one whom they should chuse to be the Head of their Conâ—ederacie and finally the prosecuting of all those without exception who should endeavour to oppose and infringe the same And for the keeping of this League they severally and joyntly bound themselves by this following Oath viz. I swear by God the Creator laying my hand upon the holy Gospel and under pain of Excommunication and eternal Damnation that I enter into this holy Catholick League according to the Form thereof now read unto 〈◊〉 â—nd that I do faithfully and sincerely enter into it with a will either to command or to obey and serve as I shall be appointed â—nd I promise upon my life and honour unto the last drop of my bloud never to depart from it or transgress it for any command preâ—ence excuse or occasion which by any means whatsoever can be represented to me And as the Hugonots had puâ— themselves under the Protection of the Queen of England and called the â—â—â—mans to their aid so they resolved according unto this example to put themselves under the Patronage of the Catholick King and to call in the Forces of the King Pope and the Princes of Itâ—ly if their occasions so required The news of which conâ—edeâ—acy so amazed the King that he proceeded not to the performance of those Indulgences contained in the Eâ—iâ—t of the 14 of May which seemed most odious and offensive in the eyes of the Catholicks so that both sides being thus â—xaâ—perated against one another and each side jealous of the King the old confusions were revived the disorders multiplyed and all things brought into a worse condition then at his first coming to the Crown For though the Catholick King had willingly consented to be head of the League yet to bâ—â—ak â—ff all such dependance as was by that means to be fastned on him by the rest of the Leaguers the French King findes himself necessitated to assume that honour to himself And thereupon in the Assembly held at Blois having in vain tryed many ways to untie this knot he publickly declared himself to be the Principal Head and Protector of it with many specious protestations that he would spend his last breath in a cause so glorious as the reducing of his people unto one Religion which as it raised many jealousies in the mindes of the Hugonots so it begot no confidence of him in the hearts of their opposites 39. Hereupon a new War breaks out and a new Peace followeth by which some Clauses in the former Edict were restrained and moderated though otherwise sufficiently advantagious to all those of the Reformation so as now hoping that all matters were accorded between the parties the King pretends to betake himself wholly to his private Devotions falls on the institution of a new Order of Knighthood called The Order of the Holy Ghost commends his Brother for a Suâ—ter to the Queen of England to keep him out of harms way for the time to come and finally failing of the project procureth his advancement to the Dukedom of Brabant and to be made the General-Governour of the Belgick Provinces which had withdrawn themselves from their Obedience to the King of Spain 40. But in the midst of these devices the Leaders of the Hugonots are again in Arms under colour that the former Edict had not been observed but in plain truth upon a clear and manifest experience that Peace
excited him with many Captains and Commanders who for the most part lived upon spoil and plunder to raise an Army of seven thousand Horse and four thousand Foot with which they made foul work in France wasting and spoiling all Countries wheresoever they came for being joyned unto the rest of the Hugonots Army they found them brought to such a poor and low condition that they were not able to advance the least part of that sum which they had promised to provide against their coming Somewhat was raised by way of Contribution to keep them in some present compliance and for the rest they were permitted to pay themselves in the spoil of the Country especially Churches Monasteries and Religious Houses But the Queen offering termes of Peace none were more forward then these Germans to imbrace the offer and Casimir more forward in it then all the rest The King had offered to disburse a great part of the money which belonged to the Souldiers for their pay which to those mercenary spirits was too strong a temptation to be resisted or neglected 8. These Germans were scarcely setled in their several Houses when the Hugonots brake out again and a new Army must be raised by the Duke of Zudibruck whom the French call the Duke of Deuxponts a Prince of the Collateral Line to the Electoral Family who upon hope of being as well paid as his Cozen Casimir tempted with many rich promises by the Heads of the Hugonots and secretly encouraged by some Ministers of the Queen of England made himself Master of a great and puisâ—ant Army consisting of eight thousand Horse and six thousand Foot With this Army he wastes all the Country from the very edge of Burgundy to the Banks of Loire crosseth that River and commits the like outrages in all the Provinces which lye between that River and the Aquitain Ocean In which action either with the change of Air the tediousness of his Marches or excessive drinking he fell into a violent Feaver which put a period to his travails within few days after Nor did this Army come off better though it held out longer for many of them being first consumed with sickness arising from their own intemperance and the delicious lusts of the Strumpets of France the rest were almost all cut off at the Battail of Mont-counter in which they lost two Colonels and twenty seven Captains of Foot and all their Horse except two thousand which saved themselves under Count Lodowick of Nassaw But the love of money prevailed more with them then the fear of death For within few years after Anno 1575 we finde them entring France again under Prince Iohn Casimir in company with the young Prince of Conde who had sollicited the Cause The Army at that time consisting of eight thousand Horse three thousand French Fire-locks and no fewer then fourteen thousand Switz and Germane Foot joyned with the Hugonots and a new Faction of Politicks or Male-contents under the Command of the Duke of Alanzon who had revolted from his Brother became so terrible to the King that he resolved to buy his Peace upon any rates To which end having somewhat cooled the heats of his Brother he purchaseth the departure of the Germane Souldiers by ingaging to pay them their Arrears which came in all to twelve hundred thousand Crowns on a full computation Besides the payment of which vast sum he was to gratifie Prince Casimir with the Siguory of â—hasâ—eau-Thierry in the Province of Champagne the command of one hundred French Lances and an annual pension of fourteen thousand Crowns as before was said 9. In the mean time the flames of the like civil War consumed a great part of Flanders to which the Prince Elector must bring Fewel also For being well affected to the House of Nassaw and more particularly to the Prince of Orange and knowing what encouragements the Calvinians in the Netherlands had received from them he hearkned cheerfully to such Propositions as were made to him at the first by Count â—odowick his Ministers and after by the Agents of the Prince himself But those small Forces which he sent at their first ingaging doing no great service he grants them such a large supply after the first return of Prince Casimirs Army Anno 1568 as made them up a Body of French and Germans consisting of seven thousand Foot and four thousand Horse with which he sent Prince Christopher a younger Son to gain experience in the War and to purchase Honour And though he might have been discouraged by the loss of that Army and the death oâ— his Son into the bargain from medling further in that quarrel yet the Calvinian spirit so predominated in his Court and Counsels that another Army should be raised and Casimir imployed as Commander of it as soon as he could give himself the least assurance that the French required not his assistance During the languishing of which Kingdom between Peace and War the War in Flanders grew more violent and fierce then ever which moved the Provinces confederated with the Prince of Orange to enter into a strict union with the Queen of England who could not otherwise preserve her self from the plots and practices of Don Iohn of Austria by which he laboured to embroyl her Kingdom By the Articles of which League or Union she bound her self to aid them with one thousand Horse and five thousand Foot the greatest part whereof she raised in the Dominions of the Prince Elector or indeed rather did contribute to the payment of so much money for his Army which was drawn together for the service of the Prince of Orange as might amount unto that number And that they might receive the greater countenance in the eye of the World she sends for Casimir into England where he arrived about the latter end of Ianuary 1578 is Royally feasted by the Queen rewarded with an annual Pension and in the next year made Knight of the Garter also By these encouragements he returns to his charge in the Army which he continued till the calling in of the Duke of Anjou and then retired into Germany to take breath a while where he found such an alteration in the State of affairs as promised him no great assurance of employment on the like occasion 10. For Lodowick the fifth succeeding Prince Elector in the place of his Father and being more inclined to the Lutheran Forms did in time settle all his Churches on the same Foundation on which it had been built by the Electors of the former Line so that it was not to be thought that either he could aid the Hugonots or the Belgick Calvinists in any of their Insurrections against their Princes if either of them possibly could have had the confidence to have moved him in it But he being dead and Frederick the Fourth succeeding the Zuinglian Doctrines and the Genevian Discipline are restored again and then Prince Casimir is again sollicited to raise a greater
power then ever for the aid of the French The Catholicks of which Realm had joyned themselves in a common League not onely to exclude the King of Navar and the Prince of Condâ— from their Succession to the Crown but wholly to extirpate the Reformed Religion To counterpoise which Potent Faction the King of Navar and his Associates in that Cause implored the assistance of their Friends in Germany but more particularly the Prince Elector Palatine the Duke of Wirtemberge the Count of Mombelliard and the Protestant Cantons who being much moved by the danger threatned unto their Religion and powerfully stirred up by Beza who was active in it began to raise the greatest Army that ever had been sent from thence to the aid of the Hugonots And that the action might appear with some Face of Justice it was thought fit to try what they could do towards an atonement by sending their Ambassadors to the Court of France before they entred with their Forces But the Ambassador of Prince Casimir carried himself in that imployment with so little reverence and did so plainly charge the King with the infringing of the Edicts of Pacification that the King dismist them all with no small disdain telling them roundly that he would give any man the lye which should presume to tax him of the breach of his promise This short dispatch hastned the coming in of the Army compounded of twelve thousand German Horse four thousand German Foot sixteen thousand Switz and about eight thousand French Auxiliaries which staid their coming on the Borders With which vast Army they gained nothing but their own destruction for many of them being consumed by their own intemperance more of them wasted by continual skirmishes with which they were kept exercised by the Duke of Guise most of the rest were miserably slaughtered by him near a place called Auneaw a Town of the Province of La Beausse or murthered by the common people as they came in their way 11. Such ill success had Frederick the Fourth in the Wars of France as made him afterwards more careful in engaging in them until he was therein sollicited on a better ground to aid that King against the Leaguers and other the disturbers of the Common Peace Nor did some other of the petty Princes speed much better in the success of this Affair the Country of Montbelguard paying dearly for the Zeal of their Count and almost wholly ruined by the Forces of the Duke of Guise Robert the last Duke of Bouillon of the House of Marke had spent a great part of his time in the acquaintance of Beza and afterwards became a constant follower of the King of Navar by whom he was imployed in raising this great Army of Switz and Germans and destined to a place of great Command and Conduct in it Escaping with much difficulty in the day of the slaughter he came by many unfrequented ways to the Town of Geneva where either spent with grief of minde or toyl of body he dyed soon after leaving the Signory of Sedan to his Sister Charlot and her to the disposing of the King of Navar who gave her in Marriage not long after to the Viscount Turenne but he had first established Calvinism both for Doctrine and Discipline in all the Towns of his Estate in which they were afterwards confirmed by the Marriage of Henry Delatoure Viscount of Turenne Soveraign of Sedan and Duke of Bouillon by his former Wife with one of the Daughters of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange a professed Calvinian the influence of which House by reason of the great Command which they had in the Netherlands prevailed so far on many of the Neighbouring Princes that not onely the Counties of Nassaw and Hanaw with the rest of the Confederacy of Vetteravia but a great part of Hassia also gave entertainment to those Doctrines and received that Discipline which hath given so much trouble to the rest of Christendom Which said we have an easie passage to the Belgick Provinces where we shall finde more work in prosecution of the Story then all the Signories and Estates of the Upper Germany can present unto us 12. The Belgick Provinces subject in former times to the Dukes of Burgundy and by descent from them to the Kings of Spain are on all sides invironed with France and Germany except toward the West where they are parted by the Intercurrent-Ocean from the Realm of England with which they have maintained an ancient and wealthy Traffick Being originally in the hands of several Princes they fell at last by many distinct Titles to the House of Burgundy all of them except five united in the person of Duke Philip the good and those five added to the rest by Charles the Fifth From hence arose that difference which appears between them in their Laws and Customs as well as in distinct and peculiar Priviledges which rendred it a matter difficult if not impossible to mould them into one Estate or to erect them into an absolute and Soveraign though it was divers times endeavoured by the Princes of it The whole divided commonly into seventeen Provinces most of them since they came into the power of the Kings of Spain having their own proper and subordinate Governours accountable to their King as their Lord in Chief who had the sole disposal of them and by them managed all Affairs both of War and Peace according to their several and distinct capacities All of them priviledged so far as to secure them all without a manifest violation of their Rights and Liberties from the fear of Bondage But none so amply priviledged as the Province of Brabant to which it had been granted by some well-meaning but weak Prince amongst them that if their Prince or Duke by which name they called him should by strong hand attempt the violation of their ancient priviledges the Peers and People might proceed to a new Election and put themselves under the Clyentele or Patronage of some juster Governour 13. The whole Estate thus laid together is reckoned to contain no more in compass then twelve hundred miles but is withall so well planted and extremely populous that there are numbered in that compass no fewer then three hundred and fifty Cities and great Towns equal unto Cities besides six thousand and three hundred Villages of name and note some of them equal to great Towns not taking in the smaller Dorps and inferiour Hamlets But amongst all the Cities and great Towns there were but four which anciently were honoured with Episcopal Sees that is to say the Cities of Vtrecht Cambray Tournay and Arras and of these four they onely of Arras and Tournay were naturally subject to the Princes of the House of Burgundy the Bishop of Cambray being anciently a Prince of the Empire and Vtrecht not made subject to them till the Government of Charles the Fifth Which paucity of the Episcopal Sees in so large a Territory subjected some of the Provinces to the
Bishops of Leige some to the jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Rheims and Colen and others under the Authority of the Bishops of Munster Of which the first were in some sort under the Protection of the Dukes of Burgundy the three last absolute and independent not owing any suite or Service at all unto them By means whereof concernments of Religion were not looked into with so strict an eye as where the Bishops are accomptable to the Prince for their Administration or more united with and amongst themselves in the publick Government The inconvenience whereof being well observed by Charles the Fifth he practised with the Pope then being for increasing the number of the Bishopricks reducing them under Archbishops of their own and Modeling the Ecclesiastical Politie under such a Form as might enable them to exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction within themselves without recourse to any Forreign Power or Prelate but the Pope himself Which being first designed by him was afterwards effected by King Philip the Second though the event proved contrary to his expectation For this enlargement of the number of the Sees Episcopal being projected onely for the better keeping of the Peace and Unity of the Belgick Churches became unhappily the occasion of many Tumults and Disorders in the Civil State which drew on the defection of a great part of the Country from that Kings obedience 14. For so it was that the Reformed Religion being entertained in France and Germany did quickly finde an entrance also into such of the Provinces as lay nearest to them where it found people of all sorts sufficiently ready to receive it To the increase whereof the Emperor Charls himself gave no small advantage by bringing in so many of the Switz and German Souldiers to maintain his Power either in awing his own Subjects or against the French by which last he was frequently invaded in the bordering Provinces Nor was Queen Mary of England wanting though she meant it not to the increasing of their numbers For whereas many of the Natives of France and Germany who were affected zealously to the Reformation had put themselves for Sanctuary into England in the time of King Edward they were all banished by Proclamation in the first year of her Reign Many of which not daring to return to their several Countries dispersed themselves in most of the good Towns of the Belgick Provinces especially in such as lay most neer unto the Sâ—a where they could best provide themselves of a poor subsistance By means whereof the Doctrine of the Protestant and Reformed Churches began to get much ground upon them to which the continual intercourses which they had with England gave every day such great and manifest advantage that the Emperour was fain to bethink himself of some proper means for the suppressing of the inconveniences which might follow on it And means more proper he found none in the whole course of Government then to increase the number of the former Bishopricks to re-inforce some former Edicts which he made against them and to bring in the Spanish Inquisition which he established and confirmed by another Edict bearing date April 20. 1548. Which notwithstanding the Professors of that Doctrine though restrained a while could not be totally suppressed some Preachers out of Germany and others out of France and England promoting underhand those Tenents and introducing those opinions which openly they durst not own in those dangerous times But when the Emperour Charles had resigned the Government and that King Philip the Second upon some urgent Reasons of State had retired to Spain and left the Chief Command of his Belgick Provinces to the Dutchess of Parma they then began to shew themselves with the greater confidence and gained some great ones to their side whom discontent by reason of the disappointment of their several aims had made inclinable to innovation both in Church and State 15. Amongst the great ones of which time there was none more considerable for Power and Patrimony then William of Nassaw Prince of Orange invested by a long descent of Noble Ancestors in the County of Nassaw a fair and goodly Territory in the Higher Germany possest of many good Towns and ample Signories in Brabant and Holland derived upon him from Mary Daughter and Heir of Philip Lord of Breda c. his great Grand-fathers Grand-mother and finally enriched with the Principality of Orange in France accruing to him by the death of his Cozen Rene which gave him a precedencie before all other Belgick Lords in the Court of Brussels By which advantages but more by his abilities both for Camp and Counsel he became great in favour with the Emperour Charles by whom he was made Governour of Holland and Zealand Knight of the Order of the Fleece imployed in many Ambassies of weight and moment and trusted with his dearest and most secret purposes For Rivals in the Glory of Arms he had the Counts of Horne and Egmond men of great Prowess in the Field and alike able at all times to Command and Execute But they were men of open hearts not practised in the Arts of Subtilty and dissimulation and wanted much of that dexterity and cunning which the other had for working into the affections of all sorts of people Being advanced unto this eminencie in the Court and knowing his own strength as well amongst the Souldiers as the common people he promised to himself the Supreme Government of the Belgick Provinces on the Kings returning into Spain The disappointment of which hope obliterated the remembrance of all former favours and spurred him on to make himself the Head of the Protestant party by whose assistance he conceived no small possibility of raising the Nassovian Family to as great an height as his ambition could aspire to 16. The Protestants at that time were generally divided into two main bodies not to say any thing of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries who thrust in amongst them Such of the Provinces as lay toward Germany and had received their Preachers thence embraced the Forms and Doctrines of the Lutherâ—â— Câ—â—â—ches in which not onely Images had been still retained â—ogether with set-Forms of Prayer kneeling at the Communioâ— the Cross in Baptism and many other laudable Ceremonies of the Elder times but also most of the ancient Fasts and Fâ—â—tivals of the Catholick Church and such a Form of Eccleâ—â—tical Polity as was but little differing from that of Bishops which Forms and Doctrines being tolerated by the Edicts of Paussaw and Ausberg made them less apt to work disturbance in the Civil State and consequently the less obnoxious to the fears and jealousies of the Catholick party But on the other side such Provinces as lay toward France participated of the humour of that Reformation which was there begun modelled according unto Calvins Platform both in Doctrine and Discipline More stomacked then the other by all those who adhered to the Church of Rome or otherwise pretended to the peace
and safety of the Common-wealth For the French Preachers being more practical and Mercurial then the other were and not well principled in respect of Monarchical Government were looked upon as men more likely to beget commotions and alienate the peoples hearts from their natural Governour And at the first the Prince of Orange enclined most to the Lutheran party whose Forms and Doctrines had been setled by his Father in the County of Nassaw And for the clear manifestation of the good opinion which he harboured of them he Married Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony the greatest of the Lutheran Princes At which when the Dutchess of Parma seemed to be displeased he openly assured her of his Adhesion to the Catholick Cause and caused his Eldest Son which he had of that Marriage to be Baptized according to the Prescript of the Church of Rome but underhand promoted for a time the Lutheran Interest which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers Milk But it was onely for a time that he so promoted it For finding the Calvinians to be men of another Metal more quick and stirring of themselves more easily exasperated against their Governours and consequently more fit to advance his purposes he made â—imself the great Protector of that faction and spared not to profess himself for such upon all occasions insomuch that being afterwards questioned about his Religion by the Duke of Arescot he discovered to him his bald head and told him plainly thâ—t there was not more Calvism on his head then there was Calvinism in his heart 17. But to make way for these designes there were two obstacles to be removed without which nothing could be done in pursuance of them King Philip at his going for Spain had left three thousand Spanish Souldiers the onely remainder of those great Armies which had served his Father and himself against the French in Garrison upon the Borders under pretence of shutting up the back-door against the French but generally thought to be left of purpose for a curb to the Natives in case of refractoriness or opposition unto his Commands They must be first removed and the Country cleared of all such rubs as otherwise would have made the way less passable unto private ends For though the King had put those Souldiers under the Command of two Lords of the Netherlands that is to say the Prince of Orange himself and the Count Egmont that they might rather seem to be the natural Militia of the Country then a power of strangers yet that device did little edifie amongst them for the two Lords especially the Prince of Orange expressed such contentment in the trust and honour which was therein conferred upon them that they excited the whole Country both to move the King before his going and the Governess after his departure to dismiss those Souldiers which could not be imposed upon them without breach of their Priviledges To this request the King had given a gratious answer and promised to remove them within four months after his going into Spain but secretly gave order to the Lady Regent to retain them longer till the new Bishops and the Inquisition were confirmed amongst them And she conceived her self so bound to those instructions and their â—etaining there so necessary for his Majesties Service that she delayed time as long as possibly she could Which being observed by those which were of greatest power and credit with the common people it was resolved that no more contribution should be raised on the several Provinces toward the payment of their wages and on the other side the Regent was so constant to her resolution that she took up money upon interest for their satisfaction But being wearied in the end by the importunity of all sorts of people counselled by her Husband the Duke of Parma to give way unto it and authorized at last by the King himself to hearken unto their desires she gives order to have them drawn out of their several Garrisons and Shipt at Flushing from thence to be transported into Spain with the first fair winde 18. The easie removing of this rub incouraged those who managed the designe for innovating in the Church and State to make the like attempt against the Cardinal Granvel whose extraordinary parts and power they were more affraid of then of all the Spaniards in the Country This man being of the â—erenots of Granvel in the Country of Burgundy was trained up by a Father of such large abilities that he was by Charles the Fifth made Chancellor of the German Empire and trusted by him in Affairs of the greatest moment And he declared himself to be such a quick proficient in the Schools of Learning that he became the Master of no fewer then seven Languages in all which he was able to express himself with a fluent eloquence and at twenty four years of age was made Bishop of Arras commended by his Father to the Emperour Charles and by him unto King Philip the Second he served them both with great fidelity and courage and had withall such a dexterity of dispatch in all concernments as if he had been rather born then made a States-man And unto these he added such a moderation in his pleasures such abstinence both from food and sleep when the case required it such extraordinary pains in accommodating all the difficulties which came before him and such a diligent observance of his Princes motions that his greatest Adversaries could not chuse but say that he was a Jewel fit to be owned by none but the greatest Kings By means whereof he so prevailed upon the King whilst he staid amongst them that he did nothing eitheâ— at home or abroad made neither Peace nor League with Kings or Nations concluded no Marriage quieted no Seditions acted nothing that related to Religion or the Church in which the counsels of this mâ—n were not influential The like Authority he held with the Dutchess of Parma not onely out of that report which the King made of him but her own election who found his counsel so applyable to all occasions that seldom any private or publick business came in agitation in which his judgement had not been previously required before it was openly delivered And though his previous resolutions in matters of counsel were carried with all imaginable care and closeness from the eyes of the Courtiers yet no man doubted but that all Affairs were tâ—ansacted by him imputing many things unto him as it often happeneth which he had no hand â—n 19. In the first risings of this man he was dâ—spised for an upstart by the Prince of Orange and some other great men of the Country not fearing any thing from him as an alien born unfurnished of dependants and who by reason of his caâ—ling could make no strong Alliance to preserve his Power But when they found that his Authority increased that all things bended to that point at which he aimed and that some of
Tumults for in the middle of these heats nine of the Lords not being Officers of State convened together at Breda the principal Seat and most assured hold of the Prince of Orange where they drew up a Form of an Association which they called the Covenant contrived by Philip Marnixius Lord of Aldegand a great admirer of the person and parts of Calvin In the preamble whereof they inveighed bitterly against the Inquisition as that which being contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane did far exceed the cruelty of all former Tyrants they then declared in the name of themselves and the rest of the Lords that the care of Religion appertained to them as Councellors born and that they entred into this Association for no other reason but to prevent the wicked practices of such men as under colour of the sentences of death and banishment aimed at the Fortunes and destructions of the greatest persons that therefore they had taken an holy Oath not to suffer the said Inquisition to be imposed upon their Country praying therein that as well God as man would utterly forsake them if ever they forsook their Covenant or failed to assist their Brethren which suffered any thing in that Cause and finally calling God to witness that by this Covenant and Agreement amongst themselves they intended nothing but the Glory of God Honour of their King and their Countries peace And to this Covenant as they subscribed before their parting so by their Emissaries they obtained subscription to it over all their Provinces and for the credit of the business they caused the same to be translated into several Languages and published a Report that not onely the Chief Leaders of the Hugonots in France but many of the Princes of Germany had subscribed it also which whether it were true or not certain it is that the Confederacie was subscribed by a considerable number of the Nobility some of the Lords of the Privy-Council and not a few of the Companions of the Golden Fleece 26. Of the nine which first appeared in the designe the principal were Henry Lord of Brederode descended lineally from Sigefride the second Son of Arnold the fourth Earl of Holland Count Lodowick of Nassaw before mentioned and Florence Count of Culemberg a Town of Gueldres but anciently priviledged from all subjection to the Duke thereof Accompanied with two hundred of the principal Covenanters each of them having a case of Pistols at his Saddle-bow Brederode enters Brussels in the beginning of April to which he is welcomed by Count Horne and the Prince of Orange which last had openly appeared for them at the Council-Table when the unlawfulness of the confederacy was in agitation And having taken up their Lodging in Culemberg-house they did not onely once again subscribe the Covenant but bound themselves to stand to one another by a solemn Oath The tenour of which Oath was to this effect That if any of them should be imprisoned either for Religion or for the Covenant immediately the rest all other business laid aside should take up arms for his assistance and defence Marching the next day by two and two till they came to the Court they presented their petition to the Lady Regent by the hands of Brederode who desired her in a short Speech at the tendry of it to believe that they were honest men and propounded nothing to themselves but obedience to the Laws Honour to the King and safety to their Country The sum of the Petition was That the Spanish Inquisition might be abolished the Emperours Edicts repealed and new ones made by the advice of the Estates of the Countries Concerning which we are to know that the Emperour had past several Edicts against the Lutherans the first of which was published in the year 1521 and the second about five years after Anno 1526 by means whereof many well-meaning people had been burnt for Hereticks but that which most extremely gaulled them was the Edict for the bringing in of the Inquisition published upon the 29 of April as before was said Against these Edicts they complained in the said Petition To which upon the morrow she returned such an answer by the consent of the Council as might give them good hopes that the Inquisition should be taken away and the Edicts moderated but that the King must first be made acquainted with all particulars before they passed into an Act. With which answer they returned well satisfied unto Culemberg-house which was prepared for the entertainment of the chief Confederates 27. To this House Brederode invites the rest of his Company bestows a prodigal Feast upon them and in the middle of their Cups it was put to the question by what name their Confederacie should be called Those of their party in France were differenced from the rest by the name of Hugonots and in England much about that time by the name of Puritans nor was it to be thought but that their followers might be as capable of some proper and peculiar appellation as in France or England It happened that at such time as they came to tender their Petition the Governess seemed troubled at so great a number and that Count Barlamont a man of most approved fidelity to his Majesties service advised her not to be discouraged at it telling her in the French tongue betwixt jest and earnest that they were but Gueux or Gheuses as the Dutch pronounced it that is to say men of dissolute lives and broken fortunes or in plain English Rogues and Beggars Upon which ground they animated one another by the name of Gheuses and calling for great bowls of Wine drank an health to the name their Servants and Attendants crying out with loud acclamations Vive les Gueus long live the Gheuses For the confirming of which name Brederode takes a Waâ—let which he spyed in the place and laid it on one of his Shoulders as their Beggars do and out of a Wooden dish brim-full drinks to all the Company thanks them for following him that day with such unanimity and binds himself upon his honour to spend his life if need should be for the generality of the Confederates and for every member of them in particular Which done he gave his Dish and Wallet to the next unto him who in like manner past it round till they had bound themselves by this ridiculous Form of initiation to stand to one another in defence of their Covenant the former acclamation of Long live the Gheuses being doubled and redoubled at every Health The jollity and loud acclamations which they made in the House brought thither the Prince of Orange Count Egmont and Count Horne men of most Power and Reputation with the common people who seemed so far from reprehending the debauchery which they found amongst them that they rather countenanced the same the former Healths and Acclamations being renewed and followed with more heat and drunken bravery then they were a first on which incouragement they take upon themselves
about her middle which the King forcibly unfastneth and puts him to the power of his mortal enemies by whom he was dragged down the Stairs and stabbed in so many places fifty three saith Knox that his whole body seemed to be like a piece of Cut-work Which barbarous Murther Knox proclaims for an act of justice calls it a just punishment on that Pultron and vile Knave David for abusing the Common wealth and his other villanies and heavily complains that the Chief Actors in the same which he extols for a just act and most worthy of all praise p. 96. were so unworthily left by the rest of their Brethren and forced to suffer the bitterness of exile and banishment 5. The Queen was then grown great with Childe and being affrighted at the suddenness of this execution and the fear of some treasonable attempt against her person was in no small danger of miscarrying The Court was full of Tumult and the noise thereof so alarmed the Town that the people flocked thither in great multitudes to know the matter to whom the King signified out of a Window that the Queen was safe which somewhat appeased them for the present But notwithstanding both the Court and City were in such distraction that when the Earl of Murray and the rest of the Confederates tendred their appearance and offered themselves unto the tryal of the Law there was no information made against them nor any one sufficiently instructed for the prosecution Which being observed they address themselves to the Parliament House and there take instruments to testifie upon Record that they were ready to answer whatsoever could be charged upon them but none there to prosecute And here the Scene begins to change Morton and Ruthen and the rest of their accomplices betake themselves to New-castle as the safest Sanctuary and Murray staid behinde to negotiate for them And he applyed himself so dextrously in his negotiation that fiâ—st he endears himself to the Qâ—een his Sister by causing her Guards to be again restored unto her which had been taken from her at the time of the murther She on the other side to shew how much she valued the affection of so dear a Brother was easily intreated that Morton Lindesay and the rest who remained at New-castle should be permitted to return but so that it should rather seem to be done upon the earnest sollicitations of the Earls of Huntley and Arguile then at his request The King in the mean time findes his errour and earnestly supplicates unto her for a reconcilement assuring her that he had never fallen on that desperate action but as he was forcibly thrust upon it by Morton and Murray And that he might regain his reputation in the sight of the people he openly protested his innocency at the Cross in Edenborough by sound of Trumpet and publickly averred that his consent had gone no further with the Murtherers then for the recalling of the banished Lords which were sled into England The young Prince was not so well studied in the School of mischief as to have learned that there is no safety in committing one act of wickedness but by proceeding to another or at the least by standing stoutly unto that which was first committed that so his confidence might in time be took for innocencie A lesson which the rest of the Confederates had took out long since and were now upon the point to practice it upon himself 6. For by this piece of ostentation and impertinencie the King gained nothing on the people and lost himself exceedingly amongst the Peers for as none of the common sort did believe him to be the more innocent of the wicked murther because he washed his hands of it in the sight of the multitude so the great men which had the guiding of the Faction disdained him as a weak and impotent person not to be trusted in affairs of his own concernment nor did he edifie better with the Queen then he did with the Subjects who was so far from suffering any hearty reconciliation to be made between them that she exprest more favour unto Murray then in former times Which so exasperated the neglected and forsaken Prince that he resolved on sending Murray after Risio with which he makes the Queen acquainted in hopes she would approve of it as an excellent service but she disswades him from the fact and tells Murray of it knowing full well that which soever of the two miscarried in it she should either loose an hated Friend or a dangerous Enemy Murray communicates the Affair with Morton and the rest of his Friends By whom it is agreed that they should take into their Friendship the Earle of Bothwel a man of an audacious spirit apt for any mischief but otherwise of approved valour and of a known fidelity to the Queen in her greatest dangers He had before some quarrels with the Earl of Murray of whose designs he was not distrustful without cause and therefore laboured both by force and practice either to make him less or nothing But Murray was too hard for him at the weapon of Wit and was so much too powerful for him both in Court and Consistory that he was forced to quit the Kingdom and retire to France Returning at such time as Murray and the rest of the Confederates were compelled to take sanctuary at New-castle he grew into great favour with the Queen whose discontents against the King he knew how to nourish which made his friendship the more acceptable and his assistance the more useful in the following Tragedy Thus Herod and Pilate are made friends and the poor King must fall a peace offering for their Redintegration 7. But first they would expect the issue of the Queens delivery by the success whereof the principal conspirators were resolved to steer their course On the 19 day of Iuly she is delivered of a Son in the Castle of Edenborough to the general joy of all the Kingdom and the particular comfort of the chief Governours of Affairs for the Congregation There was no more use now of a King or Queen when God had given them a young Prince to sit upon the Throne of his Fathers in whose minority they might put themselves into such a posture that he should never be able to act much against them when he came to age And now they deal with Bothwel more effectually then before they did incourage him to remove the King by some means or other to separate himself from his own Wife a Daughter of the House of Huntley and Espouse the Queen Let him but act the first part as most proper for him and they would easily finde a way to bring on the rest For the performance whereof and to stand to him in it against all the world they bound themselves severally and joyntly under Hand and Seal In which most wicked practice they had all these ends first the dispatching of the King next the confounding of Bothwel whom they feared and
make good their interest nor any head to order and direct those few hands they had At last the Earl of Sussex with some Souldiers came toward the borders supplied them with such Forces as enabled them to drive the Lords of the Queens Faction out of all the South and thereby gave them some encouragement to nominate the old Earl of Lenox for their Lord-Lieutenant till the Queens pleasure in it might be further known And in this Broyl the Kirk must needs act somewhat also For finding that their party was too weak to compel their Opposites to obedience by the Mouth of the Sword they are resolved to try what they can do by the Sword of the Mouth And to that end they send their Agents to the Duke of Chasteau-Harald the Earls of Arguile Eglington Cassels and Cranford the Lords Boyde and Ogilby and others Barons and Gentlemen of name and quality whom they require to return to the Kings obedience and ordain Certification to be made unto them that if they did otherwise the Spiritual Sword of Excommunication should be drawn against them By which though they effected nothing which advanced the cause yet they shewed their affections and openly declared thereby to which side they inclined if they were left unto themseves And for a further evidence of their inclinations they were so temperate at that time or so obsequious to the Lords whose cause they favoured that they desisted from censuring a seditious Sermon upon an Intimation sent from the Lords of the Council that the Sermon contained some matter of Treason and therefore that the Cognizance of it belonged unto themselves and the Secular Judges 23. The Confusions still encrease amongst them the Queen of England seeming to intend nothing more then to ballance the one side by the other that betwixt both she might preserve her self in safety But in the end she yields unto the importunity of those who appeared in favour of the King assures them of her aid and succours when their needs required and recommends the Earl of Lenox as the fittest man to take the Regency upon him The Breach now widens more then ever The Lords commissionated by the Queen are possest of Edenborough and having the Castle to their Friend call a Parliament thither as the new Regent doth the like at Stirling and each pretends to have preheminence above the other The one because it was assembled in the Regal City the other because they had the Kings Person for their countenance in it Nothing more memorable in that at Edenborough then that the Queens extorted Resignation was declared null and void in Law and nothing so remarkable in the other as that the Young King made a Speech unto them which had been put into his mouth at their first setting down In each they forfeit the Estates of the opposite party and by Authority of each destroy the Countrey in all places in an hostile manner The Ministers had their parts also in these common sufferings compelled in all such places where the Queen prevailed to recommend her in their Prayers by her Name or Titles or otherwise to leave the Pulpit unto such as would In all things else the Kirk had the felicity to remain in quiet care being taken by both parties for the Preservation of Religion though in all other things at an extream difference amongst themselves But the new Regent did not long enjoy his Office of which he reaped no fruit but cares and sorrows A sudden Enterprize is made on Stirling by one of the Hamiltons on the third of September at what time both the Parliament and Assembly were there convened And he succeeded so well in it as to be brought privately into the Town to seize on all the Noblemen in their several Lodgings and amongst others to possess themselves of the Regents person But being forced to leave the place and quit their Prisoners the Regent was unfortunately kill'd by one of Hamiltons Souldiers together with the Gentleman himself unto whom he had yielded The Earl of Marre is on the fifth of the same moneth proclaimed his Successor His Successor indeed not onely in his cares and sorrows but in the shortness of his Rule for having in vain attempted Edenborough in the very beginning of his Regency he was able to effect as little in most places else more then the wasting of the Country as he did Edenborough 24. The Subjects in the mean time were in ill condition and the King worse They had already drawn their Swords against their Queen first forced her to resign the Crown and afterwards drove her out of the Kingdom And now it is high time to let the young King know what he was to trust to to which end they command a piece of Silver of the value of Five shillings to be coyned and made currant in that Kingdom on the one side whereof was the Arms of Scotland with the Name and Title of the King in the usual manner on the other side was stamped an Armed Hand grasping a naked Sword with this Inscription viz. Si bene pro me si male contra me By which the people were informed that if the King should govern them no otherwise then he ought to do they should then use the Sword for his preservation but if he governed them amiss and transgressed their Laws they should then turn the point against him Which words being said to have been used by the Emperor Trajan in his delivering of the Sword unto one of his Courtiers when he made him Captain of his Guard have since been used by some of our Presbyterian Zealots for justifying the Authority of inferior Officers in censuring the actions and punishing the persons of the Supreme Magistrate It was in the year 1552 that this learned piece of Coyn was minted but whether before or after the death of the Earl of Marre I am not able to say for he having but ill success in the course of his Government contracted such a grief of heart that he departed this life on the eighth of October when he had held that Office a little more then a year followed about seven weeks after by that great Incendiary Iohn Knox who dyed at Edenborough on the 27 of November leaving the State imbroyled in those disorders which by his fire and fury had been first occasioned 25. Morton succeeds the Earl of Marre in this broken Government when the affairs of the young King seemed to be at the worse but he had so good fortune in it as by degrees to settle the whole Realm in some Form of peace He understood so well the estate of the Countrey as to assure himself that till the Castle of Edenborough was brought under his power he should never be able to suppress that party whose stubborn standing out as it was interpreted did so offend the Queen of England that she gave order unto Drury then Marshal of Berwick to pass with some considerable Forces into Scotland for
of Blackross 7. Of the same temper were the rest who notwithstanding the late Acts of Parliament inhibiting all Assembly and Classical Conventions without leave from the King held a new Synod at St. Andrews in the April following consisting for the most part of Barons and Lay-Gentlemen Masters of Colledges and ignorant School-Masters Which Synod if it may be called so was purposely indicted by Andrew Melvin for censuring the Arch-bishop of that City whom they suspected and gave out to be the chief Contriver of the Acts of Parliament made in 1584 so prejudicial to the Kirk and to have penned the Declaration in defence thereof And hereunto he found the rest so ready to conform themselves that they were upon the point of passing the Sentence of Excommunication against him before he was cited to appear most of them crying out aloud It was the Cause of God and That there needed no citation where the iniquity was so manifest But being cited at the last he appears before them puts up his Protestation concerning the unlawfulness of that Convention and his disowning any Jurisdiction which they challenged over him and so demanded of them What they had to say His Accusation was That he had devised the Acts of Parliament in 84 to the subversion of the Kirk and the Liberties of it To which he answered That he only had approved and not devised the said Acts which having past the approbation of the Three Estates were of a nature too Supreme for such Assemblies and thereupon appealed unto the King the Council and the following Parliament But notwithstanding this Appeal the Sentence of Excommunication is decreed against him drawn into Writing and subscribed Which when neither the Moderator being a meer Layick nor any of the Ministers themselves had confidence enough to pronounce and publish one Hunter a Pedagogue in the House of Andrew Melvin professing that he had the Warrant of the Spirit for it took the charge upon him and with sufficient audacity pronounced the Sentence 8. The informality and perversness of these proceedings much displeased the King but more he feared what would be done in the next Assembly appointed to be held at Edenborough and then near at hand Melvin intended in the same not only to make good whatsoever had been done at the former Meeting but to dispute the nature and validity of all Appeals which should be made against them on the like occasions To break which blow the King could find no other way but to perswade the Arch-bishop to subscribe to these three points viz. That he never publickly professed or intended to claim any Superiority or to be judg over any other Pastors and Ministers or yet a vowed the same to have any warrant in Gods Word That he never challenged any Jurisdiction over the late Synod at St. Andrews and must have erred by his contempt of the said Meeting if he had so done And thirdly That he would behave himself better for the time to come desiring pardon for the oversight of his former Actions promising to be such a Bishop from thenceforth as was described by St. Paul And finally submitting both himself and Doctrine to the Judgment of the said Assembly without appealing from the same in the times to come To such unworthy Conditions was the poor man brought only to gain the King some peace and to reserve that little Power which was left unto Him though the King lost more by this Transaction than possibly He could have done by his standing out For notwithstanding the Submissions on the part of the Bishop the Assembly would descend no lower than to declare That they would hold the said Sentence for not pronounced and thereby leave the Bishop in the same estate in which they found him and not this neither but upon some hopes and assurance given them that the King would favourably concurr with them in the building of the House of God Which Agreement did so little satisfie the adverse party that they justified their former process and peremptorily confirmed the Sentence which had been pronounced Which when it could not be obtained from the greater part of the Assembly who were not willing to lose the glory of so great a Victory Hunter stands up by the advice of Andrew Melvin and publickly protested against it declaring further That notwithstanding any thing which had been done to the contrary the Bishop should be still reputed for an Excommunicated person and one delivered unto Satan It was moved in this Assembly also That some Censure should be laid upon the Ministers who had subscribed the Acts of Parliament made in 84. But their number proved so great that a Schism was feared and they were wise enough to keep all together that they might be the better able upon all occasions to oppose the King Somewhat was also done concerning the Establishment of their Presbyteries and the defining of their Power of which the King would take no notice reserving his disgust of so many Insolencies till he should find himself in a condition to do them Reason 9. In these Exorbitances they are followed by the English Puritans who had been bad enough before but henceforth showed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the news of the good success which their Scottish Brethren had at Sterling a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open in a Conference between Diotrephes representing the person of a Bishop Tertullus a Papist brought in to plead for the Orders of our Church Demetrius an Usurer signifying such as live by unlawful Trades Pandocheus an Inn-keeper a receiver of all and a soother of every man for his Gain and Paul a Preacher of the Word of God sustaining the place and person of the Consistorians In the contrivance of which piece Paul falls directly on the Bishop whom he used most proudly spightfully and slanderously He condemneth both the Calling of Bishops as Antichristian and censureth their proceedings as Wicked Popish Unlawful and Cruel The Bishop is supposed to have been sent out of England into Scotland for suppressing the Presbyteries there and is made upon his return homewards to be the Reporter of the Scottish Affairs and withall to signifie his great fear lest he and the rest of the Bishops in England should be served shortly as the Bishops had lately been in Scotland viz. at Edenborough St. Andrews c. Tertullus the Papist is made the Bishop's only Counsellor in the whole course of the Government of the Church by whose Advice the Bishops are made to bear with the Popish Recusants and that so many ways are sought to suppress the Puritans And he together with Pandocheus the Host and Demetrius the Usurer relate unto the Bishop such Occurrences as had happened in England during his stay amongst the Scots At which when the Bishop seemed
Redemption by the death and blood-shedding â—f Christ Jesus the Son of God and his descending into Hell This he accordingly performed in several Sermons upon the words of the Apostle viz. God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 In prosecuting of which Text he discoursed at large as well concerning the contents as the effects of Christ's Cross and brought the point unto this issue that is to say That no Scripture did teach the death of Christ's Soul or the Pains of the damned to be requisite in the Person of Christ before he could be our Ransomer and the Saviour of the World And because the proofs pretended for this point might be three Predictions that Christ should suffer those pains Causes why he must suffer them and Signs that he did suffer them He likewise insisted on all three and shewed there were no such Predictions Causes or Signs of the true pains of Hell to be suffered in the Soul of Christ before he could save us And next as touching Christ's descent into Hell it was declared That by the course of the Creed it ought not to be referred to Christ living but to Christ being dead showing thereby the Conquest which Christ's Manhood had after death over all the powers of darkness declared by his Resurrection when he arose Lord over all his Enemies in his own Person Death Hell and Satan not excepted and had the keys that is all Power of Death and Hell delivered to him by God that those in Heaven Earth and Hell should stoop unto him and be subject to the Strength and Glory of his Kingdom And this he proved to be the true and genuine meaning of that Article both from the Scriptures and the Fathers and justified it for the Doctrine of the Church of England by the Book of Homilies 18. But let the Scriptures and the Fathers and the Book of Homilies teach us what they please Calvin was otherwise resolved and his Determination must be valued above all the rest For no sooner were these Sermons Printed but they were presently impugned by a Humorous Treatise the Author whereof is said to have writ so loosly as if he neither had remembred what the Bishop uttered or cared much what he was to prove In answer whereunto the Bishop adds a short Conclusion to his Sermons and so lets him pass The Presbyterian Brethren take a new Alarum Muster their Forces compare their Notes and send them to the Author of the former Treatise that he might publish his Defence Which he did accordingly the Author being named Henry Iacob a well-known Separatist Which Controversie coming to the Queen's knowledg being then at Farnham a Castle belonging to the Bishop she signified Her Pleasure to him That he should neither desert the Doctrine nor suffer the Function which he exercised in the Church of England to be trodden and trampled under-foot by unquiet men who both abhorred the Truth and despised Authority On which Command the Bishop sets himself upon the writing of that Learned Treatise entituled A Survey of Christ's Sufferings c. although by reason of a sickness of two years continuance it was not published till the year 1604. The Controversie after this was plyed more hotly in both Universities where the Bishop's Doctrine was maintained but publickly opposed by many of our Zealots both at home and abroad At home opposed by Gabriel Powel a stiff Presbyterian Abroad by Broughton Parker and some other Brethren of the Separation After this justified and defended by Dr. Hill whom Aumes replyed unto in his Rejoynder as also by another Parker and many more till in the end the Brethren willingly surceased from the prosecution of their former Doctrines which they were not able to maintain And though the Church received some trouble upon this occasion yet by this means the Article of Christ's Descent became more rightly understood and more truly stated according to the Doctrine of the Church of England than either by the Church of Rome or any of the Protestant or Reformed Churches of what Name soever 19. But while the Prelates of the Church were busied upon these and the like Disputes the Presbyterians found themselves some better work in making Friends and fastning on some eminent Patron to support their Cause None fitter for their purpose than the Earl of Essex gracious amongst the Military men popular beyond measure and as ambitious of Command as he was of Applause He had his Education in the House of the Earl of Leicester and took to Wife a Daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham as before is said who fitted and prepared him for those Applications which hitherto he had neglected upon a just fear of incurring the Queen's Displeasure But the Queen being now grown old the King of Scots not much regarded by the English and very ill obeyed by his natural Subjects he began to look up towards the Crown to which a Title was drawn for him as the direct Heir of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester one of the younger Sons of K. EDWARD the third This man the Puritans cry up with most infinite Praises both in their Pulpits and in their Pamphlets telling him That he was not only great in Honour and the love of the people but temporis expectationâ— major far greater in the expectation which his Friends had of him And he accordingly applies himself to those of the Puritan Faction admits them to Places of most Trust and Credit about his Person keeps open House for men of those Opinions to resort unto under pretence of hearing Sermons and hearing no Sermons with more zeal and edification than those which seemed to attribute a Power to Inferior Magistrates for curbing and controlling their undoubted Soveraigns Which questionless must needs have ended in great disturbance to the Church and State if he had not been outwitted by Sir Robert Cicil Sir Walter Rawleigh and the rest of their Party in the Court by whom he was first shifted over into Ireland and at last brought upon the Scaffold not to receive a Crown but to lose his Head Which hapned very opportunely for K. IAMES of Scotland whose Entrance might have been opposed and his Title questioned if this Ambitious man had prospered in his undertakings which he conducted generally with more Heat than Judgment 20. This brings me back again to Scotland In which we left the King intent upon the expectation of a better Crown and to that end resolved upon the Restitution of the banished Lords who being advertised of his purpose returned as secretly as might be offering to give good Security to live conformable to the Laws in all peace and quietness The King seems willing to accept it and is confirmed by a Convention of Estates in those good Intentions The News whereof gave such offence to those of the Kirk that presently they assembled themselves at Edenborough
Noble Lord command is given unto the Provost of Edenborough To attach the Ministers But they had notice of his purpose and escape into England making Newcastle their retreat as in former times 25. It is a true saying of the wise Historian That every Insurrection of the people when it is suppressed doth make the Prince stronger and the Subject weaker And this the King found true in his own particular The Citizens of Edenborough being pinched with the Proclamation and the removal of the Court and the Courts of Justice offered to purge themselves of the late Sedition and tendred their obedience unto any thing whatsoever which his Majesty and the Council should be pleased to enjoyn whereby they might repair the huge Indignity which was done to his Majesty provided that they should not be thought guilty of so great a Crime which from their hearts they had detested But the King answers That he would admit of no purgation that he would make them know that he was their King And the next day proclaims the Tumult to be Treason and proclaims all for Traytors who were guilty of it This made them fear their utter ruine to be near at hand The ordinary Judicatories were removed to Leith the Sessions ordained to be held at Perth their Ministers were fled their Magistrates without regard and none about the King but their deadly Enemies And to make up the full measure of their disconsolation Counsel is given unto the King to raze the Town and to erect a Pillar in the place thereof for a perpetual Monument of so great an Insolence But he resolves to travel none but Legal ways and being somewhat sweetned by a Letter from the Queen of England he gives command unto the Provost and the rest of the Magistrates to enter their persons at Perth on the first of February there to keep ward until they either were acquitted or condemned of the former uproar Whilst things remained in this perplexity and suspence he is advised to make his best use of the conjuncture for setling matters of the Church and to establish in it such a decent Order as was agreeable to God's Word To which end he appoints a National-Assembly to be held at Perth and prepares certain Queries fifty five in number to be considered and debated in the said Assembly all of them tending to the rectifying of such Abuses which were either crept into the Discipline or occasioned by it Nothing so much perplexed the principal Ministers who had the leading of the rest as that the Discipline should be brought under a dispute which they had taught to be a part of the Word of God But they must sing another Tune before all be ended 26. For the King having gained a considerable Party amongst the Ministers of the North and treated with many of the rest in several whom he thought most tractable prevailed so far on the Assembly that they condescend at the last upon many particulars which in the pride of their prosperity had not been required The principal of which were these viz. That it should be lawful to his Majesty by himself or his Commissioners or to the Pastors to propone in a general Assembly whatsoever point he or they desired to be resolved in or reformed in matters of External Government alterable according to Circumstances providing it be done in right time and place Animo aedificandi non tentandi 2. That no Minister should reprove his Majesty's Laws and Statutes Acts or Ordinances until such time as he hath first by the advice of his Presbytery or Synodal or General Assemblies complained and sought remedy of the same from his Majesty and made report of his Majesty's Answer before any further proceedings 3. That no man's Name should be expressed in the Pulpit except the Fault be notorious and publick and so declared by an Assize Excommunication Contumace and lawful Admonition nor should he be described so plainly by any other Circumstances than publick Vices always damnable 4. That in all great Towns the Ministers shall not be chosen without his Majesty's consent and the consent of the Flock 5. That no matter of Slander should be called before them wherein his Majesty's Authority is pre-judged Causes Ecclesiastical only excepted 6. And finally That no Conventions shall be amongst Pastors without his Majesty's knowledg except their Sessions Presbyteries and Synods the Meetings at the Visitation of Churches admission or deprivation of Ministers taking up of deadly Feuds and the like which had not already been found fault with by his Majesty According to which last Artiele the King consents unto another general Assembly to be held at Dundee and nominates the tenth of May for the opening of it 27. It was about this time that Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London began to run a constant course of Correspondence with the King of Scots whom he beheld as the undoubted Heir and Successor of the Queen then Reigning And well considering how conducible it was to the Peace of both Kingdoms that they should both be governed in one Form of Ecclesiastical Policy he chalked him out a ready way by which he might restore Episcopacy to the Kirk of Scotland To which end as the King had gained the liberty in the last Assembly to question and dispute the Government then by Law established and gained a power of nominating Ministers in the principal Cities so in the next they gratified him in this point That no man should from thenceforth exercise a Minister without having a particular Flock nor be admitted to that Flock without Ordination by the Imposition of hands He required also in the same That before the conclusion of any weighty matter his Highness Advice and Approbation should be first obtained And so far they consented to the Proposition as to express how glad they were to have his Majesty's Authority interposed to all Acts of importance which concerned the Church so as matters formerly concluded might not be drawn in question He gained some other points also in the same Assembly no less important than the other towards his Design as namely 1. That no Minister shall exercise any Iurisdiction either by making of Constitutions or leading of Processes without advice and concurrence of his Session Presbytery Synod or General Assembly 2. That Presbyteries shall not meddle with any thing that is not known without all controversie to belong to the Ecclesiastical Iudicatory and that therein Vniformity should be observed throughout the Countrey And 3. That where any Presbyteries shall be desired by his Majesty's Missive to stay their proceedings as being prejudicial to the Civil Iurisdiction or private men's Rights they should desist until his Majesty did receive satisfaction But that which made most toward his purpose was the appointing of Thirteen of their number to attend his Majesty as the Commissioners of the Kirk whom we may call the High Commissioners of Scotland the King 's Ecclesiastical Council the Seminary of the future Bishops to whom
Street cryed out so loud that he was heard by all the Lords and Gentlemen of his Retinue who thereupon prepared themselves for his assistance In the pursuit whereof the Earl himself is killed by Eveskin as he was making haste to help his Brother and Alexander is dispatched by Ramsey one of the King's Pages who being acquainted with the House came by the back-stairs time enough to preserve his Master Of this great Danger and Deliverance the King gives notice to all his Subjects desiring them to joyn with him in thanks to Almighty God for so great a Mercy which was accordingly performed by all honest men but the whole Story disbelieved discredited mis-reported by the Presbyterians whom it concerned to wash their hands of so foul a Treason And how far they were Parties in it or at least well-wishers to it may appear by this That when the Ministers of Edenborough were desired to convene their people and give God thanks for this deliverance of the King they excused themselves as not being well acquainted with all particulars And when it was replyed unto them That they were only required to make known to the people That the King had escaped a great Danger and to excite them to Thansgiving for his deliverance They answered That they were not very well satisfied in the truth of the matter That nothing was to be delivered in the Pulpit the truth whereof was not certainly known and that they were to utter nothing in that place but that which migh be spoke in Faith On which Refusal it was ordered by the Lords of the Council That the people should be drawn together into the Market-place That the Bishop of Ross should make a Declaration of the whole Design and therewithall conceive a Prayer of Thanksgiving for the King's Deliverance Which was performed on his part with a true affection and entertained by the people with great joy and gladness 37. But the whole Nation was not so besotted by the Presbyterians as either to dispute the Story or despise the Mercy Which wrought so far upon the Consciences of all honest men that in a Parliament held at Edenborough in November following the Estate of Goury was confiscate his Sons disherited the Name of Ruthen utterly abolished but the last dispenced with the bodies of the two Brothers brought to Edenborough there hanged and quartered the Heads of both being fixed upon the top of the Common Prison and finally The Fifth of August ordained by Act of Parliament for a Day of Thanksgiving in all times succeeding The like done also two years after at a General Assembly of the Ministers of the Church held in Haly-Rood-House as to the Day of Thanksgiving which they decreed to be kept solemnly from thenceforth in all the Churches of that Kingdom And it was well they did it then the King not venturing the Proposal to them in the year fore-going when they assembled at Burnt-Island whether in reference to some indisposition of Body which he found in himself or rather of some greater indisposition of Mind which he found in them But now it went clearly for him without contradiction as did some other things propounded to their consideration His Ey now looks unto the Crown of England and he resolved to bring the Churches of both Kingdoms to an Uniformity but so to do it as might make neither noise nor trouble The solemnizing of Marriage had been prohibited on Sundays by the Rules of the Discipline but by an Order made in the present Assembly it was indifferently permitted on all days alike Sundays as well as other days at the will of the Parties Before this time the Sacrament of Baptism was not administred but only at the times of Preaching on some opinion which they had of the indifferency or at the least the non-necessity thereof But now it was ordained with a joynt consent That the Ministers should not refuse the Sacrament of Baptism to Infants nor delay the same upon whatsoever pretext the same being required by the Parents or others in their name Which brought them two steps nearer to the Church of England than before they were 38. It was not long after the end of this Assembly when the King received Intelligence of Queen Elizabeth's death and of the general acknowledgment of his Succession both by Peers and People This puts him on a preparation for a Journey to England where he is joyfully received and found no small contentment in the change of his Fortunes here sitting amongst Grave Learned and Reverend men not as before a King without State without Honour without Order where Beardless Boys would every day brave him to his face where Jack and Tom and Will and Dick did at their pleasures cenâ—â—re the proceedings of him and his Council where Will stood up and said he would have it thus and Dick replied Nay marry but it shall be so as he describes their carriage in the Conference at Hampton-Court p. 4. and 80. So leaves he Scotland and the Puritans there with this Character of them recorded in the Preface of his Book called Basilicon Doron in which he paints them out as people which refusing to be called Anabaptists too much participated of their Humours not only agreeing with them in their General Rule the contempt of the Civil Magistrate and in leaning to their own Dreams Imaginations and Revelations but particularly in accounting all men prophane that agree not to their Fancies in making for every particular Question of the Polity of the Church as much Commotion as if the Article of the Trinity was called in question in making the Scripture to be ruled by their Conscience and not their Conscience by the Scripture in accounting every body Ethnicus Publicanus not worthy to enjoy the benefit of breathing much less to participate with them in the Sacraments that denies the least jot of their Grounds and in suffering King People Law and all to be trod under foot before the least jot of their Grounds be impugned in preferring such Holy Warrs to an Vngodly Peace not only in resisting Christian Princes but denying to pray for them for Prayer must come by Faith and it is not revealed that God will bear their Prayers for such a Prince To which He adds this Clause in the Book it self viz. That they used commonly to tell the people in their Sermons That all Kings and Princes were naturally Enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoak of Christ. And thereupon he gives this Counsel to the Prince To take heed all of such Puritans whom he calls the very Pests of the Church and Commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations the square of their Conscience protesting before the Great God That he should never find in any Highlander baser Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lyes and vile
Acts being past Patterns were sent from London in a short time after for the Apparel of the Lords of the Session the Justice and other inferior Judges for the Advocates the Lawyers the Commissairs and all that lived by practise of the Law with a command given to every one whom the Statutes concerned to provide themselves of the Habits prescribed within a certain space under the pain of Rebellion But for the habit of the Bishops and other Church-men it was thought fit to respite the like appointment of them till the new Bishops had received their Consecration to which now we hasten 23. But by the way we must take notice of such preparations as were made towards it in the next General Assembly held at Glasgow Anno 1610 and managed by the Earl of Dunbar as the former was in which it was concluded That the King should have the indiction of all General Assemblies That the Bishops or their Deputies should be perpetual Moderators of the Diocesan Synods That no Excommunication or Absolution should be pronounced without their approbation That all presentations of Benefices should be made by them and that the deprivation or suspension of Ministers should belong to them That every Minister at his admission to a Benefice should take the Oath of Supremacy and Canonical Obedience That the Visitation of the Diocese shall be performed by the Bishop or his Deputy only And finally That the Bishop should be Moderator of all Conventions for Exercisings or Prophesyings call them which you will which should be held within their bounds All which Conclusions were confirmed by Act of Parliament in the year 1612 in which the Earl of Dumferling then being Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom sate as chief Commissioner who in the same Session also procured a Repeal of all such former Acts more patticularly of that which passed in favour of the Discipline 1592. as were supposed to be derogatory to the said Conclusions In the mean time the King being advertised of all which had been done at Glasgow calls to the Court by special Letters under his Sign-Manual Mr. Iohn Spotswood the designed Arch-bishop of Glasgow Mr. Gawen Hamilton nominated to the See of Galloway and Mr. Andrew Lamb appointed to the Church of Brechin to the intent that being consecrated Bishops in due Form and Order they might at their return give consecration to the rest of their Brethren They had before been authorized to vote in Parliament commended by the King unto their several Sees made the perpetual Moderators of Presbyteries and Diocesan Synods and finally by the Conclusions made at Glasgow they were restored to all considerable Acts of their Jurisdiction The Character was only wanting to compleat the Work which could not be imprinted but by Consecration according to the Rules and Canons of the Primitive times 24. And that this Character might be indelibly imprinted on them His Majesty issues a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Bishops of London Ely Wells and Rochester whereby they were required to proceed to the Consecration of the said three Bishops according to the Rules of the English Ordination which was by them performed with all due solemnity in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's House near the Church of St. Pauls Octob. 21 1610. But first a scruple had been moved by the Bishop of Ely concerning the capacity of the persons nominated for receiving the Episcopal Consecration in regard that none of them had formally been ordained Priests which scruple was removed by Arch-bishop Bancroft alledging that there was no such necessity of receiving the Order of Priesthood but that Episcopal Consecrations might be given without it as might have been exemplified in the Cases of Ambrose and Nectarius of whichâ— the first was made Arch-bishop of Millain and the other Patriarch of Constantinople without receiving any intermediate Orders whether of Priest Deacon or any other if there were any other at that time in the Church And on the other side the Prelates of Scotland also had their Doubts and Scruples fearing lest by receiving Consecration of the English Bishops they might be brought to an acknowledgment of that Superiority which had been exercised and enjoyed by the Primates of England before the first breaking out of the Civil Warrs betwixt York and Lancaster Against which fear the King sufficiently provided by excluding the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who only could pretend to that Superiority out of His Commission which Bancroft very cheerfully condescended to though he had chiefly laid the plot and brought on the work not caring who participated in the Honour of it as long as the Churches of both Kingdoms might receive the Benefit 25. This great Work being thus past over the King erects a Court of High Commission in the Realm of Scotland for ordering all matters which concerned that Church and could not safely be redressed in the Bishops Courts He also gave them some Directions for the better exercise of their Authority by them to be communicated to the Bishops and some principal Church-men whom he appointed to be called to Edenborough in the following February where they were generally well approved But as all general Rules have some Exceptions so some Exceptions were found out against these Commissions and the proceedings thereupon Not very pleasing to those great Persons who then sate at the Helm and looked upon it as a diminution to their own Authority and could not brook that any of the Clergy should be raised to so great a Power much more displeasing to the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery who now beheld the downfall of their glorious Throne which they had erected for themselves in the Name of Christ. One thing perhaps might comfort them in the midst of their sorrows that is to say the death of the most Reverend Arch-bishop Bancroft who left this life upon the second of November not living above thirteen days after the Scottish Bishops had received Consecration For which great blessing to the Church he had scarce time to render his just acknowledgments unto God and the King when he is called on to prepare for his Nunc Dimittis And having seen so great a work accomplished for the glory of God the honour of his Majesty and the good of both Kingdoms beseecheth God to give him leave to depart in peace that with his eyes he might behold that great Salvation which was ordained to be a Light unto the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his people Israel 26. Bancroft being dead some Bishops of the Court held a Consultation touching the fittest Person to succeed him in that eminent Dignity The great Abilities and most exemplary Piety of Dr. Lancelot Andrews then Bishop of Ely pointed him out to be the man as one sufficiently able to discharge a Trust of such main importance and rather looked on as a Preferment to that See than preferred unto it Him they commended to King IAMES who had him in a high
Saxon Weimar were taken Prisoners the Bohemian Ordnance all suprised Prague forced to yeeld unto the Victor the King and Queen compelled to flye into Silesia from whence by many difficult passages and untravelled ways they came at last in safety to the Hague in Holland Nor is it altogether unworthy of our observation That this great Victory was obtained on a Sunday morning being the 8 th of November and the 23 d Sunday after Trinity in the Gospel of which day occurred that memorable passage Reddite Caesari qua sunt Caesaris that is to say Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars Which seemed to judgâ— the Quarrel on the Emperor's side Hereupon followed the most Tragical or rather most Tyranical Execution of the chief Directors who had a hand in the Design the suppressing of the Protestant Reformed Religion in all the Emperor's Estates the falling back of Bethlem Gabor into Transylvania the proscribing of the Prince Elector and his Adherents the transferring of the Electoral Dignity together with the Upper Palatinate on the Duke of Bavaria the Conquest of the lower Palatinate by the King of Spain and the setting up of Popery in all parts of both In which condition they remained till the restoring of Charles Lodowick the now Prince Elector to the best part of his Estate by the Treaty of Munster 1648. 35. Such was the miserable end of the Warr of Bohemia raised chiefly by the Pride and Pragmaticalness of Calvin's Followers out of a hope to propagate their Doctrines and advance their Discipline in all parts of the Empire Nor sped the Hugonots much better in the Realm of France where by the countenance and connivance of King HENRY the 4 th who would not see it and during the minority of LEWIS the 13 th who could not help it they possessed themselves of some whole Countreys and near Two hundred strong Towns and fortified places Proud of which Strength they took upon them as a Commonwealth in the midst of a Kingdom summoned Assemblies for the managing of their own Affairs when and as often as they pleased Gave Audience to the Ministers of Forreign Churches and impowred Agents of their own to negotiate with them At the same Meetings they consulted about Religion made new Laws for Government displaced some of their old Officers and elected new ones the King's consent being never asked to the Alterations In which licentious calling of their own Assemblies they abused their Power to a neglect of the King's Authority and not dissolving those Assemblies when they were commanded they improved that Neglect to a Disobedience Nay sometimes they run cross therein to those very Edicts which they had gained by the effusion of much Christian Blood and the expence of many Hundred thousand Crowns For by the last Edict of Pacification the King had granted the free exercise of both Religions even in such Towns as were assigned for Caution to the Hugonot Party Which liberty being enjoyed for many years was at last interrupted by those very men who with so much difficulty had procured it For in an Assembly of theirs which they held at Loudun Anno 1619 they strictly commanded all their Governours Mayors and Sheriffs not to suffer any Jesuit nor those of any other Order to preach in any of the Towns assigned to them though licensed by the Bishop of the Diocess in due Form of Law And when upon a dislike of their proceedings the King had declared their Meetings to be unlawful and contrary to the Publick Peace and had procured the Declaration to be verified in the Court of Parliament they did not only refuse to separate themselves as they were required but still insisted upon terms of Capitulation even to a plain justifying of their actings in it 36. These carriages gave the King such just offence that he denied them leave to send Commissioners to the Synod of Dort to which they had been earnestly invited by the States of the Netherlands For being so troublesome and imperious when they acted only by the strength of their Provincial or National Meetings what danger might not be suspected from a general Confluence in which the Heads of all the Faction might be laid together But then to sweeten them a little after this Refusal he gave them leave to hold an Assembly at Charenton four miles from Paris there to debate those points and to agree those differences which in that Synod had been agitated by the rest of their Party Which Liberty they made such use of in the said Assembly that they approved all the Determinations which were made at Dort commanded them to be subscribed and bound themselves and their Successors in the Ministry by a solemn Oath Not only stedfastly and constantly to adhere unto them but to persist in maintenance thereof to the last gasp of their breath But to return to the Assembly at Loudun They would not rise from thence though the King commanded it till they had taken order for another Assembly to be held at Rochel the chief place of their strength and the Metropolis or principal City of their Common-wealth Which General Assembly being called by their own Authority and called at such a time as had given the King some trouble in composing the Affairs of Bearn was by the King so far disliked and by especial Edict so far prohibited that they were all declared to be guilty of Treason who should continue in the same without further Order Which notwithstanding they sate still and very undutifully proceeded in their former purposes Their business was to draw up a Remonstrance of their present Grievances or rather of the Fears and Jealousies which they had conceived on the King's journey into Bearn This they presented to the King by their own Commissioners and thereunto received a fair and plausible Answer sent in a Letter to them by the Duke Des Diguiers by whom they were advised to dissolve the Assembly and submit themselves unto the King Instead whereof they published a Declaration in defence of their former Actions and signified a Resolution not to separate or break up that Meeting until their Grievances were redressed 37. It hapned at the same time that the Lord of Privas a Town in which the Hugonots made the strongest Party married his Daughter and Heir to the Viscount of Cheylane and dying left the same wholly unto his disposal Who being of different perswasions from the greatest part of his Vassals altered the Garrison and placed his own Servants and Dependents in it as by Law he might This moved the Hugonots of the Town and the Neighbouring Villages to put themselves into a posture of Warr to seize upon the places adjoining and thereby to compel the young Noble-man to forsake his Inheritance Which being signified to the King he presently scored this insolence on the account of the Rochellers who standing in defiance of his Authority was thought to have given some animation unto the Town of Privas to commit
best assistance to the lawful Ministers for the receiving and enjoying of their Glebes and Tythes With an Injunction to all Sheriffs Mayors and other Ministers of Iustice to be aiding to them and to resist by force of Arms all such as should endeavour to disturb them in their lawful possessions But this served rather for a Declaration of His Majesty's Piety than an Example of His Power For notwithstanding all this Care his faithful Subjects of the Clergy in all parts of the Realm were plundred sequestred and ejected for the Crime of Loyalty some of them never being restored and others most unjustly kept from their Estates till this present year Anno 1660. 32. In the other Proclamation he forbids the tendring or taking of the Covenant before remembred Which Proclamation being short but full of substance shall be recited in His Majesty's own words which are these that follow Whereas saith he there is a printed Paper entituled A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the Honour and Happiness of the King the Peace and Safety of the Three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland pretended to be ordered by the Commons in Parliament on the 21 of September last to be printed and published Which Covenant though it seems to make some specious expressions of Piety and Religion is in truth nothing else but a Traiterous and Seditious Combination against Vs and against the established Religion and Laws of the Kingdom in pursuance of a Traiterous Design and Endeavour to bring in Forreign Forces to invade this Kingdom We do therefore straightly charge and command all Our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said Seditious and Traiterous Covenant And We do likewise hereby forbid and inhibit them to impose administer or tender the said Covenant as they and every of them will answer the contrary at their utmost and extreamest perils Such was the tenour of this Proclamation of the 9 th of October which though it served for a sufficient testimony of His Majesty's Prudence yet it prevailed as little as the other did For as the Two Houses did extend their Quarters and enlarge their Power so were the Subjects forced more generally to receive this yoak and to submit themselves to those Oaths and Covenants which they could neitâ—â—r take for fear of God's and the King's Displeasure and dared not to refuse for fear of losing all which was dear unto them So that it was esteemed for a special favour as indeed it was for all those which came in on the Oxford Articles to be exempted from the taking of this leud and accursed Covenant by which they were to bind themselves to betray the Church and to stand no further to the King than as he stood for the defence of that Religion which they then allowed of and of those Liberties which they had acquired by what way soever 33. And to say truth it was no wonder that the Presbyterians should impose new Oaths when they had broken all the old or seize upon the Tythes and Glebes of the Regular Clergy when they had sequestred the Estates of the Loyal Gentry and intercepted the Revenues of the King and Queen And it would be no wonder neither that they should seize on the Revenues of the King and Queen when they were grown to such a high degree of impudence as to impeach the Queen of Treason and were resolved of having no more Kings to comptroll their Actions They had already voted for the making of a new Great Seal though so to do was made High Treason by the Statute of K. EDWARD the third that they might expedite their Commissions with the more Authority and add some countenance of Law to the present Warr. Which must be managed in the Name of the King and Parliament the better to abuse the people and add some Reputation to the Crime of their undertakings And being Masters of a Seal they thought themselves in a capacity of acting as a Common-wealth as a State distinct but for the present making use of His Majesty's Name as their State-holder for the ordering of their new Republick But long He must not hold that neither though that was locked up as a Secrete amongst those of the Cabala till it was blurted out by Martin then Knight for Berks. By whom it was openly declared That the felicity of this Nation did not consist in any of the House of STVART Of which His Majesty complained but without reparation And for a further evidence of their good intentions a view is to be taken of the old Regalia and none so fit as Martin to perform that Service Who having commanded the Sub-dean of Westminster to bring him to the place in which they were kept made himself Master of the Spoil And having forced open a great Iron Chest took out the Crowns the Robes the Swords and Scepter belonging anciently to K. EDWARD the Confessor and used by all our Kings at their Inaugurations With a scorn greater than his Lusts and the rest of His Vices he openly declares That there would be no further use of those Toys and Trifles And in the jollity of that humour invests George Withers an old Puritan Satyrist in the Royal Habiliments Who being thus Crown'd and Royally array'd as right well became him first marcht about the Room with a stately Garb and afterwards with a thousand Apish and Ridiculous actions exposed those Sacred Ornaments to contempt and laughter Had the Abuse been script and whipt as it should have been the foolish Fellow possibly might have passed for a Prophet though he could not be reckoned for a Poet. 34. But yet the mischief stayed not here Another visit is bestowed upon these Regalia not to make merry with them but some money of them Mildmay a Puritan in Faction and Master of the Jewel-House by his Place and Office conceived that Prey to belong properly to him and having sold the King must needs buy the Crowns But being as false to his new Masters as he was to his old he first pickt out the richest Jewels and then compounded for the rest at an easie rate The like ill fortune fell unto the Organs Plate Coaps Hangings Altar-Cloaths and many other costly Utensils which belonged to the Church all which were either broke in pieces or seized upon and plundered for the use of the State Amongst the rest there was a goodly Challice of the purest Gold which though it could not be less worth than 300 l. was sold to Allyn a decayed Gold-Smith but then a Member of the House at the rate of 60 l. The Birds being flown the Nest is presently designed to the use of the Soldiers who out of wantonness and not for want of Lodging in that populous City must be quartered there And being quartered they omitted none of those shameless Insolencies which had been acted by their Fellows in other Churches For they not only
Blessed Virgin and that too on the very Festival of her Assumption when the like outrages were committed in other places For not content to jeer and taunt them in the Streets as they passed along they follow them into the principal Church of that City where first they fall to words and from words to blows and from blows to wounds to the great scandal of Religion and the unpardonable prophanation of that holy Place 31. But this was onely an Essay of the following mischief For on the same day Sennight being not onely more numerous but better armed they flocked to the same Church at the Evening-Service which being ended they compel the people to forsake the place and possess themselves of it Having made fast the Doors for fear that some disturbance might break in upon them one of them begins to sing a Psalm in Marots Meter wherein he is followed by the rest that such a holy exercise as they were resolved on might not be undertook without some preparation which fit of Devotion being over they first pulled down a massie Image of the Virgin afterwards the Image of Christ and such other Saints as they found advanced there on their several Pedestals some of them treading them underfoot some thrusting Swords into their sides and others hagling of their Heads with Bills and Axes In which work as many were imployed in most parts of the Church so others got upon the Altars cast down the sacred Plate defaced the Pictures and disfigured the paintings on the Walls whilst some with Ladders climbed the Organs which they broke in pieces and others with like horrible violence destroyed the Images in the Windows or rather brake the Windows in despight of the Images The Consecrated Host they took out of the Pixes and trampled under their feet carouse such Wine as they brought with them in the sacred Chalices and greased their shooes with that Chrysome or anoynting Oyl which was prepared for some Ceremonies to be used at Baptism and in the visiting of the sick And this they did with such dispatch that one of the fairest Churches in Europe richly adorned with Statues and massie Images of Brass and Marble and having in it no fewer then seventy Altars was in the space of four hours defaced so miserably that there was nothing to be seen in it of the former beauties Proud of which fortunate success they brake into all other Churches of that City where they acted over the same spoils and outragious insolencies and afterwards forcing open the doors of Monasteries and Religious Houses they carryed away all their Consecrated Furniture entred their Store-houses seized on their Meat and drank off their Wine and took from them all their Money Plate and Wardrobes both Sacred and Civil not sparing any publick Library wheresoever they came a ruine not to be repaired but with infinite sums the havock which they made in the great Church onely being valued at four hundred thousand Ducates by indifferent rates The like outrages they committed at the same time in Gaunt and Oudenard and all the Villages about them the severalties whereof would make up a Volume let it suffice that in the Province of Flanders onely no fewer then four hundred Consecrated places were in the space of ten days thus defaced and some of them burnt down to the very ground 32. The news of these intolerable outrages being posted one after another to the Court at Brussels occasioned the Governess when it was too late to see her errour in sending back her Spanish Souldiers and yeilding to the improvident dismission of the prudent Cardinal by whose Authority and Counsel she had so happily preserved those Provinces in peace and quiet and then she found that she had good reason to believe all the information which Count Mansfield gave her touching a plot of the Calvinian party in France from whence came most of these new Preachers to imbroyl the Netherlands which till that time she looked on as a groundless jealousie But as it is in some Diseases that when they are easie to be cured they are hard to be known and when they are easie to be known they are hard to be cured so fared it at that time with these distempers in the Belgick Provinces which now were grown unto that height that it was very difficult if not almost impossible to finde out a remedy For having called together the great Council of State and acquainted them with the particulars before remembred she found the Counts of Mansfield Aremberg and Barlamont cheerfully offering their assistance to reduce the people to obedience by force of Arms but Egmont Horne and Orange whose Brother Count Lodowick was suspected for a chief contriver of the present mischief of a contrary judgement so that she could proceed no further and indeed she durst not for presently a secret Rumour was dispersed that if she did not so far gratifie the Covenanters and their adherents that every man might have liberty to go to Sermons and no man be punished for Religion she should immediately see all the Churches in Brussels fired the Priests murthered and her self imprisoned For fear whereof though she took all safe courses for her own security yet she found none so safe as the granting of some of their demands to the Chief Conspirators by which the Provinces for the present did enjoy some quiet But this was onely like an Intermission in the fit of an Ague For presently hereupon she received advertisement that those of the Reformed party were not onely suffered to take unto themselves some Churches in Machlin Antwerp and Tournay which till then had never been permitted but that at Vtrecht they had driven the Catholicks out of their Churches and at the Bosch had forced the Bishop to forsake the City as their holy Fathers in Geneva had done before them And in a word to make up the measure of her sorrows and compleat their insolencies she had intelligence of the like Tumult raised at Amsterdam where some of the Reforming Rabble had broken into a Monastery of the Franciscans defaced all Consecrated things beat and stoned out the Religious persons not without wounding some of the principal Senators who opposed their doings 33. Provoked with these indignities she resolves upon the last remedy which was to bring them to obedience by force of Arms and therein she had no small encouragement from the King himself and good assurance of assistances from such Princes of Germany as still adhered unto the Pope The news whereof so startâ—es the chief of the Covenanters that they enter into consultation of Electing a new Prince or putting themselves under the power of some potent Monarch by whom they might be countenanced against their King and priviledged in the cojoyment of their Religion It was advised also that three thousand Books of Calvinian Doctrine should be sent into Spain and dispersed in the chief Cities of it to the end that whiâ—st the King was busied in looking to his
own peace at home he might the less regard the Tumults which were raised in the Netherlands and yet for fear that Project might not take effect it was agreed upon that a combination should be made between the heads of the Covenanters and the principal Merchants between whom it was finally concluded and the conclusion ratified by a solemn taking of the Sacrament on either side that the Covenanters should protect the Merchants against all men whatsoever who laboured to restrain them in the freedom of Conscience and that the Merchants should supply the Covenanters with such sums of money as might enable them to go through with the Work begun It also was agreed upon that the Calvinian party for a time should suppress their own and make profession of conformity to the Lutheran Doctrines contained in the Confession of Ausberg in hope thereby of having succour and relief from the Lutheran Princes if the King should seek to force them in the way of Arms which was accordingly performed And that being done they cast themselves into a separate and distinct Republick from that of the State erect a Supreme Consistory in the City of Antwerp and some inferiour Judicatories in the other Cities but all subordinate unto that of Antwerp in which they take upon them the choice of Magistrates for managing and directing all Affairs which concerned the Faction 34. Of all these Plots and Consultations the King is punctually informed by the vigilant Governess and thereupon caused a report to be dispersed that he intended to bestow a Royal visit on his Belgick Provinces but first to smooth the way before him by a puissant Army On this advertisement the Governess resumes her courage complains how much the Covenanters had abused her favours and publickly declares that she had onely given them leave to meet together for hearing Sermons of their own but that their Ministers had took upon them to Baptize and Marry and perform all other Sacred Offices in a different manner from that allowed of by the Church That they had set up divers Consistories and new Forms of Government not warranted by the Laws of the several Provinces That they had opened divers Schools for training up their Children in Heretical Principles That they had raised great sums of Money under pretence of purchasing a toleration of the King whose Piety was too well known to be so corrupted but in plain truth to levy Souldiers for a War against him That therefore she commands all Governours and Deputy-Governours in their several Provinces not onely to dissolve Heretical Meetings otherwise then for Sermons onely in the time to come but to put Garrisons into such of the Towns and Cities as were held suspected or were most likely to be seized on to the Kings disservice By this Remonstrance seconded with the news of the Kings intention the leading Covenanters were so startled that they resolved on the beginning of the War and were accordingly in Arms before the Governess had either raised Horse or Foot more then the ordinary Train bands which were to be maintained in continual readiness by the Rules of that Government But first they thought it most agreeable to the State of Affairs to possess themselves of such strong Towns as either stood convenient for the letting in of Forreign Succours or otherwise for commanding the adjoyning Territories In which designe they speed so well that many great Towns declare for them of their own accord some were surprised by such of the Calvinian Leaders as had friends amongst them and some were willing to stand neutral till they saw more of it But none fared better at the first then Anthony of Bomberg one of the Calvinists of Antwerp who having formerly served the Hugonot Princes in the Wars of France had put himself into the Bosch from whence the Faction had not long before expelled their Bishop And there he played his game with such fraud and cunning that he put the people into Arms made himself Master of the Town and turned the Cannon upon Count Meghen who was Commissionated by the Governess amongst other things to plant a Garrison in the same 35. This good success encouraged many of the rest to the like attempts but few of them with so good Fortune The Count of Brederode having Fortified his own Town of Viana a small Town of Holland stretcheth his Arms from thence to imbrace the rest and takes in Amsterdam it self without opposition but having the like aim on Vtrecht he found his hopes defeated by the Count of Meghen who got in before him Worse fared â—t with Philip de Marnix Lord of Tholouse another of the Antwerpian Calvinists of greater power then Bomberg but of less dexterity holding intelligence with the Provost of Middleberg he entertained a design of surprising Vlushing and therewith the whole Isle of Walcheren and the rest of Zealand To which end he embarks his men and sails down the Scheldt not without some good hope of effecting his enterprize before any discovery was made of it But the Governess knew of what importance the said Island was and was there before him in her Forces though not in her person Repulsed from thence he marcheth back again towards Antwerp takes up his Quarters in the Borough of Ostervill the Southwark as it were of Antwerp and from thence so named where he is set upon by Lanoy another of the Regents Captains the Borough fired about his ears himself burned in a Barn fifteen thousand of his Souldiers killed in the flight three hundred of them taken and then put to the Sword Which execution was thought necessary as the case then stood for fear the Calvinists in the City might renew the fight and put him worse to it then before Nor were they wanting to their Friends in that desperate exigent whose slaughter they beheld from the Walls of the City But when they thought to pass the Bridge they found no Bridge at all to give them passage the Prince of Orange being then at Antwerp had caused it to be broken down the day before not out of any designe to prevent the Calvinists from assisting their Brethren but rather to hinder the Victorious Catholicks if it should so happen from making any use of it to possess the City But the Calvinists not knowing of his secret purposes tumultuously assembled to the number of fourteen thousand men fell foul upon him in the Streets reviled him by the name of Traytor and clapped a Pistol to his Breast and questionless had proceeded to some greater outrage if the Lutherans hating the Calvinists and as hateful to them had not joyned with the Papists and thereby over-powered them both in strength and numbers 36. But none fared worse then the Calvinians of Tournay and Valenciennes though they were both stronger and more numerous then in other places Those of Valenciennâ—s had refused to admit a Garrison encouraged by their French Preachers to that disobedience But being besieged by Norcarmius Deputy-Governour of