for that Adolphus had given them no share of his it hapned that in an Assembly they had at Prague for the Coronation of King Venceslaus they easily suffer'd themselves to be persuaded that the Pope was consenting to the Deposition of Adolphus as being useless to the Empire And in effect the Cabal was so strong that they did Depose him and elected Albert Duke of Austria The two Competitors came to blows about it near Spire the Second of July Adolph fighting valiantly but betray'd or at least forsaken by his Men lost his Life there Year of our Lord 1298 The Election of Albert was illegal to rectifie it he was fain to lay it down at least seemingly in the hands of the Electors who elected him the second time with all the Formalities the Seven and twentieth of the same Month. But the Pope still refused to approve it and designed that Crown for Charles de Valois for whom he had a particular Esteem He seemed now as if he would have sweetned the sharp Humours of Philip for the year preceding he Canonized St. Lewis his Grandfather and he interpreted the Bull by which he had forbidden the Clergy to pay any Tenths or Contributions to Princes very favourably Philip believing he had done it expressly to choque him was offended several Letters had been written on that Subject to each other and things were like to have proceeded to the greatest Extremity However Boniface upon the intreaty of some French Prelats yielded to reason declaring that he intended not to forbid voluntary Contributions provided they were made without Exaction He added that they might be levied without permission from the Pope in times of the Kingdoms necessity and that even upon urgent necessities they might be constrained by the Authority Apostolick Spiritually and Temporally But as their Spirits were already exasperated on either side the Wound burst open afresh in a short while afterwards Boniface had been chosen Arbitrator of the Differences between the King with the English and the Flemming After the hearing of their Deputies he gave his Sentence of Arbitration which ordained That the Year of our Lord 1299 Flemmings Daughter should be set at liberty and his Towns restored and as if he had been the Soveraign Judge he caused it to be publickly pronounced in his Consistory Which so touched the King and his Council that it being brought to Paris by the English Deputy the Earl of Artois snatched it out of his hands rent it and threw it into the Fire The Queen on her part made use of the means within her power to highten the King her Husbands Wroth against the Flemming for whom she had a mortal hatred So that the Truce being expir'd the Earl of Valois had order to enter into Flanders and carry things on to the last push Year of our Lord 1299 He pursues him so smartly that having taken Dam and Dixmude from him he besieged him in Ghent with all his Family That unfortunate Prince destitute of all succour and forsaken even by his own Subjects was advised to render both himself and his two Sons into his hands The Earl of Valois promised he would carry him to Paris to Treat with the King himself and assured him that if within a Twelve-month he could not procure a Peace he should be set again at liberty and brought back to the same place where they had taken him But the King would have no regard to what his Uncle had sworn detains the Flemming and his two Sons and disposes them into several Prisons asunder from each other Year of our Lord 1300 The Earl of Valois being picqued for that they violated the Faith he had given the Flemming or by some other motive of Ambition went out of the Kingdom and passes into Italy whither the Pope had earnestly invited him for at least Three years He there Married Catharine the Daughter and Heiress of Baldwin the last Emperor of Constantinople and the Pope gave him that Empire and made him his Vicar or Lieutenant over all the Lands belonging to the Church hoping by his means to carry on that great design of the Holy War which was ever rumbling in his Head Year of our Lord 1299 For the third time the Truce was prolonged betwixt the two Kings by vertue whereof the Prisoners on both sides were set at liberty and particularly John Baliol King of Scotland who was brought into Normandy and left in the keeping of some Bishops who were willing to take that Charge upon them Year of our Lord 1299 The Emperor Albert could not obtain his Confirmation of Boniface and Philip was apprehensive of the audacious Undertakings of this Pope for this reason both the one and the other to prevent him from taking advantage of their Divisions to ruine them Conferred together at Vaucouleurs In that Interview they renewed the ancient Confederations of the Empire with France and to unite themselves more closely Treated the Marriage between Rodolph the Son of Albert and Blanch the Daughter of Philip. It was not compleated till the following year Year of our Lord 1300 At the end of the Thirteenth Age of the Christian Aera the Pope publish'd a general Indulgence or Relaxation of Canonical Pains due for Sins for all those who being Confessed and Penitent should visit the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul for a certain number of days Since that Clement VI. reduc'd it to Fifty years and called it the Jubile Boniface hath been reproached that on this Ceremony he appeared sometimes in Pontifical Habit sometimes in Habits Imperial causing two Swords to be carried before him to signifie his double power Spiritual and Temporal He had so in effect but the last only in his own Territory However he did not understand it thus as his Actions and the Sixth Book of the Decretals wherein he boldly affirms that there is but one Power which is the Ecclesiastical does but too plainly shew This Institution of the Jubile seems to have its Original from Secular Pass-times The Ancient Romans Celebrated them once in every Hundred years Paganism being abolished the People did not lay aside their Custom of coming from all parts to Rome the first year of every Age but sanctifying that profane Solemnity they paid their Devotions on the Tombs of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Several do in this year place the beginning of that dreadful Family or House of the Othomans and tell us that the Turks having conquer'd much of the Countreys belonging to the Greeks in Asia divided those Lands into seven Principalities of which the Province of Bithynia fell by Lot to Osman or Othoman Son of Ortogules who was in great reputation of probity and valour amongst his Countrey-men His Successors have devoured not only the other six Principalities but the Grecian Empire the Kingdom of Egypt and so many Countreys of the Christian Princes that it is to be feared they may swallow up the Western Empire likewise Year of our
come to his majority Year of our Lord 1422 The one and twentieth of October following King Charles VI. the weakness of whose Brain stupified with so many relapses made him a prey to every one that could but come to deal with him ended his Life and his unhappy Reign in his Hostel of St. Pol at Paris attended only by his first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber his Confessor and his Almoner His Funeral was at St. Denis no Prince of the Blood went to it not even the Duke of Burgundy who was ashamed to give place to the Duke of Bedford This last as soon as the Ceremony was over caused young Henry his Nephew to be proclaimed King of France Charles VI. Reigned two and forty years and five and thirty days and lived fifty two He had by Isabella of Bavaria six Sons the three first of them died in their infancy the other three Lewis John and Charles appeared on the Theater and the last survived him and Reigned He had the same number of Daughters Isabella Jane Mary a second Jane Michel and Catharine The first was Married to Richard II. King of England then to Charles Duke of Orleans the second died in her Cradle the third devoted her self to God in the Convent at Poissy the fourth Married John VI. Duke of Bretagne the fifth Philip who was Duke of Burgundy and the last Henry V. King of England Before him the Kings of France were wont at all Ceremonies to appear with all their Regal Ornaments and wear some marks about them every day as their Robes lined with Ermines and a Crown upon their Hoods or their Hats In the Army a Coat of Armour Sem'd with Flower-de-Luces and a Hoop with Flowers pretty high upon their Helmets This King neglected all these Ornaments and did not distinguish himself at all from other People so that he seemed to have degraded himself of all Royalty That Quarrel which Pope Boniface had with King Philip the Fair was the Rock whereon the Papal Power both Spiritual and Temporal was split and shipwrack'd which till then had Master'd had Lorded it over the Emperors and other Western Princes The translation of the Holy See to Avignon brought them lower yet by removing them out of their natural place and laying open their defects which exposed the Court of Rome to the great contempt and scorn of all that did but make the least observation on their ill Conduct But to say the truth France that thought to aggrandise it self by this Spiritual Power of the Popes Court gained nothing but their Vices with the plague of Litigious Disputes and the Maletost or extraordinary Taxes But if the multitude of Cardinals were an advantage to the State France might have vaunted that she alone had as great a number as all the other parts of Christendom besides We have seen how Clement V. promoted to the Papacy by a method not strictly Canonical extinguished the Order of the Templers who were found to be all guilty in France but innocent in divers other Countries John XXII was the first who made it a fixt and permanent right to reserve the Fruits of vacant Benefices for the Holy See He bestowed the same Honour on the Bishoprick of Toulouze but thinking it too rich and of too great extent he divided it into five whereof Toulouze is one Montauban Lavaur Rieux and Lombers are the other four which he would have to be its Suffragants as also Mirepoix and Lavaur created new by him Moreover he restored the Bishoprick of Pamiez to that of Toulouze which had been taken away and brought under Narbonne by Boniface VIII when he erected it To recompence Narbonne in some manner he made two more in the same Territory these were Alet whose See was first at Limoux and St. Pont de Tomieres He likewise made four for that of Bourges Castres of a portion of that of Alby St. Flour of part of Clermont Vabres of part of Rodez and Tulles of part of Limoges He likewise erected four for the Archbishoprick of Bourdeaux which had been dismembred Condon from the Territory of Agen Sarlat from that of Perigueux Maillezais and Lucon from that of Poitiers Most of these sixteen Churches were Abbies changed into Bishopricks and their Abbots converted to Bishops The Popes return to Rome was attended with a Schism of forty years which troubled all Christendom but afflicted France particularly overthrew the Discipline of Elections and of Collations filled all the Churches with Mercinary Pastors nay hungry Wolves and absorded all her Revenues not only by ordinary Taxes upon each of them by Annats and Rights of Provision but by extraordinary Taxes and Tenths The Princes first the Duke of Anjou then the Duke of Berry and after him the Duke of Orleans favoured the cupidity of the Popes of Avignon that they might share in the prey the Cardinals gorged themselves the Prelats either for want of courage or in hopes of getting into fatter Benefices gave their consent the lesser ones were so much under the pawes of the Wolf they durst not so much as open their mouths The University of Paris alone opposed these disorders and notwithstanding the Princes menaces the corruptions of the Court of Avignon the tricks and artifices of the Popes that were Competitors they saved the Temporals of the Gallican Church and restored the Universal Churches Peace by extinguishing the Schism And truly this great work is in the first place due to their zeal and labour and in the second place to the care and perseverance of the Emperor Sigismund who called and maintained the Council of Constance and who made divers Voyages into Italy France and Arragon to establish Unity and Peace There was not in all the Kingdom so powerful a Body as the University as well for the multitude of her Scholers which sometimes exceeded the number of thirty thousand as because she was the Nursing Mother of all the Clergy of France The remonstrances she took the liberty to make to the Princes the care she had to procure the reformation of the State during the troubles and that which hapned to Savoisy are very strong proofs of it But we will add two more The one that in the year 1304. the Prevost of Paris having caused a Scholer that was a Clerk to be hanged they carried their complaints to the King and left off their Exercises till they had satisfaction He was fain to go to the Pope for his absolution The other was thus in the year 1408. William de Tignonville who was at that time in the same Office having likewise sent a couple of Scholers to the Gallows who well deserved it but were Clarks was forced together with his Lieutenant to go and unhang them to kiss their Feet and cause them to be brought with great ceremony to the Matburins where yet their Epitaph is to be seen We find by the Letters of Pope John XXII that the Oriental Languages the Greek the Arabian the
Annual right That the inquisition he made after such Catterpillers served more to confirm their Robberies than to punish them That loving a little too much to be soothed he gave a freer access to Charlatans and Flatterers than to his prudent and faithful Counsellors and that he often suffer'd importunity to wrest those favours from him which he had refused to bestow on Merit They added That he was very liberal of Caresses and fair words towards the Sword men when he stood in greatest need of them but the Peril once pass'd their Services were as soon forgotten and that he oftner gave rewards to those who had done him Mischief than to such as Sacrificed their Fortunes for his Interest and Advantage That he did not much trouble himself to restrain the concussions of his Lawyers and Justices though he were well enough acquainted and informed thereof but let them go on impunitively provided they did not oppose his absolute Will and the verification of his Edicts That he had suffer'd those belonging to the Treasury to ally themselves with the Officers of his Soveraign Courts who before controul'd their misdemeanour whence consequently followed that the one being fortified by the other they feather'd and deck'd themselves with the richest Plumes and Spoil the War had stripp'd the honest ✚ Gentry of So that the fairest Lands and Estates of a Kingdom which had been founded and maintained by the Sword were now to the indignation and ☞ view of all worthy Persons unhappily made a prey and shared by those Brothers of the Quill If History might make Apologies she might vindicate him from the greater part of these reproaches though not altogether from the fondness not to say frenzy he had to Gaming which certainly is very unbecoming in a great Prince and which begot a great many Academies and Gaming-Houses in Paris most pernicious Schools for Youth and the fatal Rocks whereon many rich and noble Families do split and sink themselves and much less yet could she excuse his abandoning himself to Women which was so Publick and so Universal from his early youth even to the last Period of his days that it will not so much as admit of the name of Love or be allowed but Galantery But these defects have been in some manner effaced and dispell'd by the lustre of his great and glorious Actions his continual Victories and his high Enterprises by the infinite goodness he manifested towards his People and above all by his Valour tryed in so many Combats and his never-failing Clemency salutary to so many People These two most royal Vertues which marched in the Van of all his Undertakings were ever contending with each other which should o'recome his Enemies in the noblest manner so as they have left it still a doubt to whether of the two he was most obliged for his good Success and whether it must be said he recover'd and conquer'd his Kingdom by force of Fighting or by vertue of Pardoning Church of the Sixteenth Century THe Heads or Governors of the Church having not had that care incumbent upon them to maintain its discipline the irregularities and vices of the Clergy mounted to the highest degree imaginable and became so publick as rendred them the Objects both of the hatred and contempt of the people One cannot without blushing make mention of the Usury Avarice Crapulence and Dissolution of the Priests of the licentious and villanious Debaucheries of the Monks the Luxury Pride and vain Expences of the Prelates the shameful sloath gross ignorance and superstitions both of the one and the other Neither durst we say how the corruption of Simony had invaded and tainted the noblest parts of the Church nay even the head its self had we not for undeniable proof the constitution made by Julius II. in the year 1505. which ordained that such Pope as should have attained the Papal dignity by those means should be destituted That they should proceed against him as against an Heretick imploring even the Secular power That the Cardinals accomplices of this impiety should be degraded and deprived of all Offices Honours and Benefices That the remaining ones who had no hand in it should proceed to a new Election and if it were needful should assemble a General Council These disorders to speak truth were not new we must confess there had been the like of a long time but the general ignorance which reigned in those former barbarous ages did as it were hide and cover them in her shades of darkness now in these latter days the light of good Learning being brought into Europe its beams illuminating the obscurest places made these stains appear in all their deformity And as the ignorant whose weak eyes being dazled with this brightness found fault with it and endeavour'd to cast Dirt on that which exposed their defects the Learned in revenge treated them in ridicule and took the greater pleasure in discovering their turpitude and decrying their superstition It must be likewise granted that the enterprizes of the Court of Rome had highly exasperated the Princes and the Nobility of Germany and that the wicked life of Alexander VI. and the contest between the Pope Julius II. and France had extremely scandalized the most moderate men Lewis XII the best of Year of our Lord 1510 Kings caused a Medal to be stamped whose Inscription bear these words Perdam Babylonis nomen and procured the Assembly of the Council of Pisa to restrain the Attempts of Julius It is true that Council caused more scandal then good but there were started some questions very disadvantageous to the Soveraign Authority of the Pope and which could not but leave very ill impressions in Mens minds After the death of Julius Leo X. made the Concordat with Francis I. by which that Pope obtained an Abolition of the Pragmatick and secured to himself the Annates payable at every mutation of Bishops and Abbots they call Year of our Lord 1515 these Benefices Consistorials Which in truth encreased the Popes Revenues but according to the opinion of many did much blemish their Sanctity In effect never was there so odd an exchange as this appeared to be the Pope whose power is spiritual took the temporal for himself and gave the spiritual to a temporal Potentate And indeed one of the greatest and wisest Prelates of our times seems to say the Annates in respect of the Popes could not pass but for perfect Simony were it not that our Kings in this case do transmit their temporal right to them We must refer it to the more learned to judge whether the Elections were Jure Divino and whether they could be taken away as likewise whether that observation which many have made be true that from the very time they were Abolished Heresies have crowded in throngs into the Church and that Holy City being thereby denuded of her strongest Walls and Ramparts found her self to be insulted over by Errors and her temporal Estate invaded by
rage in so much that having one day had some words with him for she was come from Val de Rüel to Rouen she hired a wicked Slave who upon Easter-day wounded him to death whilst he was at the Altar in his Cathedral Year of our Lord 587 Church The Murtherer for she was compell'd to deliver him up to a Nephew of that Bishop to do what he thought good with him confessed that she and Melantius with the Archdeacon of Rouen had given him Money to commit the Parricide and that none might doubt of this truth she put Melantius into that Episcopal See King Gontean by good fortune avoided three or four Attempts she made against his Person and notwithstanding either out of faint-heartedness or because the Neustrian Lords jealous of their Authority would not have suffered him to undertake any thing against the Mother of their King he did not do so much as he ought to secure his Life by the Chastisement of this Megera Year of our Lord 587 When Childebert had attained to the age of Fifteen years he began to make himself to be feared by some examples of severity having caused Duke Magnoald to be killed whom he had invited to his Palace to see a Combat of Wild Beasts and Arrested Gontran-Boson to Punish him according to what Judgment King Gontran should pronounce who very well knew the Treachery of this Villain and indeed did not pardon him The other Grandees of Austrasia particularly Ranchin Vrsion and Bertefroy took the allarm at it Fredegonda by her secret Correspondence encreased their Apprehensions so that in Consort with her they conspited to kill their King and make his two Sons to Reign the eldest of which was but two years old Childebert having had notice hereof from Gontran his Uncle sent for Ranchin and caused him to be knocked on the Head going out of his Chamber Vrsion and Bertefroy who had sheltred themselves in a Church were handled after the same manner Year of our Lord 588 The Emperor Mauritius had for some time sollicited King Childebert upon very advantageous Conditions to make a Descent into Italy for the driving out the Lombards at length Childebert to acquit himself of his Promise and the Sums he had received went thither with a powerful Army Autaris knowing by experience that Money drew the French thither but would not drive them back again did not profer them any but resolved in himself either to Conquer or else to dye with Honour The Fates were favourable to him in a great Engagement at the entrance to the Alpes Childebert having been soundly beaten retired Year of our Lord 589 What ever Intreaties Rccared could make to King Gontran he could not obtain a Peace on the contrary he was obstinately bent to continue the War against him but he only encreased his Shame and Losses Duke Boson whom he had sent into Septimania despising the Enemy and minding nothing but to Debauch suffered himself to be drawn into an Ambuscade where most part of his Army was defeated by a very small number of Visigoths Year of our Lord 589 90. The stirs and troubles between the Nuns of the Abby of St. Croix of Poitiers did puzzle King Gontran as much as if it had been a business of greater moment amongst them there were two Princesses Crodield Daughter of King Cherebert and Basine Daughter of King Chilperic Crodield having a fancy in her own Head to Command accused Lubovere her Abbess of many Irregularities to make her be put out After that she went away with forty Nuns of her Cabal to make complaint to King Gontran then being returned to Poitiers she seized upon St. Hilary's Church with a Troop of Pick-pokets who committed a world of Villanies and lewd Actions there They were fain to make use of the Regal Authority and Power to punish those Rascals and call an Assembly of the Bishops to judge of the Accusation against the Abbess She was declared Innocent and Crodield and Basina Excommunicated which was again confirmed by another Assembly of Bishops of the Kingdom of Gontran but at the Intreaty of the King 's the Council of Mâ—ts gave them Absolution Basina went again into the Monastery Crodeild stubborn in her Disobedience had leave to dwell in a Country-House which King Childebert had ordained for her Year of our Lord 590 A second Army which Childebert sent into Italy against the Lombards did most of it perish there by Famine and Sickness but withall struck King Autaris into so much dread that he promised the French if they would leave him in Peace that he would every year send them some Presents Childebert discovered again another of those Assassins whom Fredegonda sent to Murther him This new Attempt giving him occasion to examine and inquire into the old Conspiracies they apprehended Sonnegisile who had been concerned in that of Ranchin This Person accused Giles Bishop of Rheims and the King gave order to lay hold on him but upon complaints made by the Bishops that they should treat a Prelate thus without hearing him he released him to bring it to a formal Trial. For this end he calls a Councel at Mets the Fifteenth of November and there this unhappy Wretch convicted by Witnesses and his own Confession of Treason and Lasae Majesâ—atis and of his having been the Firebrand of the Civil Wars he was deposed from his Bishoprick and banished to Strasburgh the King having given him his Life upon the Petition of the other Bishops The Count Waroc and other Princes of Bretagne notwithstanding the Oath they had given two or three times ransacked the Bishopricks of Rennes and Nants which belonged to King Gontran he would once for all punish their audacious Attempts and commanded his Forces in the Kingdom of Burgundy to march that way They had two chief Commanders Ebracaire and Boubelene who could not accord together The first of these left his Companion with the best part of the Army upon the point of the business however Boubelene defended himself valiantly for two days together but on the third he was overwhelmed and perished with almost all his Men. Ebracair being returned to Court was devested of all his Estate and Goods to the King who awarded them to the Heirs of Boubelene Year of our Lord 590 or 591. King Gontran Hunting one day in the Vosga perceived that some body had killed a Buffalo The Keeper accused the Chamberlain to the King and the Chamberlain denying the Fact Gontran compels him to justifie himself in Combat as the custom then was in doubtful cases His Champion and the Keeper kill each other and he as being Convicted by the death of his Champion was tied to a Stake and Stoned Year of our Lord 592 From the same Principle of levity of mind which caused these violent Fits in Gontran proceeded his Inconstancy and Apprehensions which turned him sometimes on one side sometimes on another He could not but mortally hate Fredegonda and yet nevertheless upon her
deal with the Saxons the Huns the Lombards and the Saracens The Saxons a most Warlike and as yet Idolatrous Nation compounded of several People and such as had been invincible had they acted by a mutual agreement and consent gave him work and exercise enough for above Thirty Years during which time he made divers Expeditions against them always with advantage He never denyed them Peace and they broke again as soon as he was out of their sight But his Piety constant as their Malice was never wearied in forgiving them not so much out of a desire to allure them to his obedience as to bring them under the Yoak of Christ Jesus The highest part of his Care having no other end but the propagation of Religion He entred into Saxony therefore this Year and would try to terrify those Rebels by Fire and Sword but they were not afraid to bid him Battle somewhat neer Osnabrug Their Confidence was punished by a huge Slaughter of their men those that remained made their escape beyond the Veser He pursuing his Victory took in the Castle of Eresburgh demolished the Famous Temple of the false God Irmensul and broke his Idol It is supposed to have been the God Mars whence Mers-purg took it's name He afterwards pass'd the Veser compelled the Saxons to give him some Hostages and having rebuilt Fresburgh put a French Garrison into it Year of our Lord From the Year 767 to 771. King Didier not able or willing to give over the Design his Predecessors had formed to abate the Power of the Popes to make himself thereby Master of all Italy sowed a Schisme in the Church of Rome whereby to discompose and weaken them Pope Paul being dead Anno 767. Toton Duke of Nepet at his instigation enters into Rome and forced the Clergy to Elect his Brother Constantine who was not in Orders The following Year another Cabal Enemies to this Violence of Constantine's sets a Priest in the holy Chair named Philip But Crestofle Primicera this was the highest Dignity in the City next to the Prefect constrained both the one and the other to renounce the Popeship and caused Stephanus to be duly elected a Priest of St. Cecil's who was the fourth of that name Didier bethinks him of another method in the Year 770. he goes to Rome upon pretence of Devotion and by force of Presents gained Paul Afiarte Duke or Soveraign Judge in Rome to cause this Crestofle to be put to death and to banish or imprison for colourable reasons all such Roman Citizens as he knew to be most able and disposed to thwart his attempts Afiarte did according to his desire but Adrian who was chosen after Stephen stopt those unjust proceedings and not only eluded all the vain essays of the Lombard but was likewise the cause of his utter destruction After all other Experiments Didier employs Force seizes on several Cities of the Exarchat ravaged the Neighbourhood of Rome and the Year after to turmoil the Pope advances towards him upon pretence of Visiting the Sepulchre of the holy Apostles carrying along with him the Sons of the late King Carloman to oblige him to Crown them The Holy Father flatly refuses him and failed not to make use of this Motive to exasperate Charlemaine the more against the Lombards Year of our Lord 773 Betwixt these two Kings there were already some other causes of Enmity For in the Year 771. Charles had repudiated Hildegard the Sister of Didier saying she was infirm A pretence that did not please a great many good people particularly Adelard the King's Cousin who for this reason retired from the Court into a Monastery And Didier on his side had given a reception to Carloman's Widow and promised her his assistance and support to restore her Sons to the Inheritance or Kingdom of their Father These offences having inclined Charles's Mind to hearken to the Pope's Intreaties he was the more easily induced to pass over the Mountains but with so great and numerous Forces that it was evident it was not meant so much to assist him as to conquer Lombardy Having therefore Rendevouz'd his Army at Geneva he divided it in two Bodies his Uncle Bernard with one took his way by the Mount Jou and himself led the other by Mount Cenis Didier had fortified the Passages and in case they should be worsted himself was advanced with all his Forces neer Turin and in Year of our Lord 773 the Valley of Aost to observe and oppose the French even to the hazard of a Battle but some of their Army having stollen by him very silently and charging them in the Rear he was so much afraid of being hemm'd in that he cast himself into Pavia and Adalgise his Son whom he had made Partner of his Crown into Verona Those of Spoletta and Rietta had already forsaken him to joyn with the Pope When his Retreat was known all the Marca Anconitana and many other Cities followed their Example Charles with a part of his Army encamped before Pavia and sent the remainder before Verona And to demonstrate he did not intend to go thence till he had them in his power he ordered his new Wife Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suevia to come to his Camp and passed the Winter there even till Christmass at which time he goes to Verona to press that Siege forwards Adalgise apprehending to fall into his hands abandoned that City and fled to the Emperour of Greece The Veronese soon after yielded Year of our Lord 774 and gave up Carloman's Children and Widow they were carried into France what afterwards became of them is not mentioned that I know of Nothing remained but Pavia The Siege spinning out in length Charles had a desire to go and pay his Devotions at Rome at the good time of Easter The Pope made him a magnificent Entrance such as was accustomed to be made for the Exarchs He in return confirms all the Grants made by his Father and besides say some added that of Soveraign Justice and absolute Power in all those Countries So that to speak properly the Popes before this time held what they had from the French Kings from whom it must be owned they derive the best portion of their temporal Grandeur In length of time Pavia became so straightned not by any Attaques but by Famine and the people so ill disposed Hunoud the Fire-brand of this War having been knock'd on the head by the Women that Didier surrenders himself with his Wife and Children to Charles He was conveyed into France Cloister'd and Shaved and died soon after Thus was the Kingdom of Lombardy in Italy Extinguished after it had lasted some 204 Years Before his return into France Charles made a second Voyage to Rome where the Pope with 150 Bishops whom he had summoned to honour his Reception and likewise the Roman People conferred upon him the Title of Patrician which was the Degree the nearest to the Empire It belonged to the Emperours only
from the colour or cut and fashion of their Hair the habit or defects of their Bodies from their Dress or Age Profession Office or Trade some from their good or ill Qualities others from the Province they dwelt in or the Town or Village where they were born But for the most part they were called by some proper name which was current in the Family or even some Nick-name which descended to their Generations Whoever shall take the pains to examine these Heads throughly and distinctly will find that there are few others can be made out Through all this Age there were two great and cruel Evils predominant in France but which were not new the Leprosie and Usury the one infecting the Bodies the other consuming the Estates of most Families Those that were tainted with the first were secluded from all Society and shut up in places far distant from the Habitations of other People but yet upon or near the greatest Roads The number increased so fast that there was not one City or Burrough that was not forced to build some Hospital for their Retreat They were called Lazar-houses and the Leprous Lazars from St. Lazarus the Patron of the Poor and the Sick whom the Vulgar by corruption called St. Ladre Now the publick Foundations the Gifts of the Relations and Kindred of the Infected the Alms of particular People and with these the Immunities and Priviledges granted by the King and the Clergy to these miserable Wretches made them live so much at their ease that in length of time they became rather Objects of envy than of pity at least in respect of the meaner sort of People They were taxed of leading Lives guilty of great Disorders and sometimes of Crimes But when they were convicted of any they were burnt alive that so the Fire might at the same time purifie and purge the infection both of their Bodies and Souls I have read that there were some Men so apprehensive of this villanous loathsom and shameful Disease that they guelt themselves to avoid it and be preserved from it Usury was very common and yet more excessive the Jews practis'd it with so much cruelty that they did not seize upon Peoples Goods only for satisfaction but likewise upon their Persons and reduced them to slavery The Popes oftentimes endeavour'd to suppress them but it was in vain for the Princes and especially King Philip upheld them receiving Tribute from them for suffering their Exactions and withal they had it in their power to squeese these Blood-suckers whenever their occasions required it Since the first Birth of the Church there had not been any Age wherein she was so much shatter'd and rent with Schisms as she was in this same I speak not of the Schism caused by the Emperor Henry IV. for that was more in the preceding Age then this though it did never end but with the Life of that Emperor who died at Liege Anno 1106. after he was unfortunately deprived of his Empire by his own Son I must note however that his Tyrannical and Scandalous Deportment gave a fair opportunity to Gregory VII whose Life was irreprovable and exemplary to constitute himself his Judge to summon him before his Tribunal upon the universal complaints of his Subjects to Excommunicate him and depose him from his Empire and after all this to wrest from him the disposition of great Benefices Which seemed the more favourable because that Prince made a most infamous and shameful Traffick of it giving them to the worst and investing them with the Ring c. before they were Consecrated But after this Schism there were three more two occasioned by the Quarrels that the Emperor Henry V. Son of the abovenamed Henry and then Frederic II. surnamed Barberossa had with the Popes and a third which hapned between these two through the ambition of Cardinal Peter Leonis That of Henry V. began in the year 1118. the Emperor having caused one Maurice Burdin Archbishop of Braga in Portugal to be elected and ended Anno 1122. the Anti-Pope named Gregory VIII falling into the hands of Calistus and Henry afterwards obtaining Absolution of that Pope The Schism that Frederic caused lasted from the year 1159. under three Anti-Popes Octavian Guy de Crema and John Abbot de Strume who assumed the names of Victor IV. Paschal III. and Calistus III. and did not cease till the year 1183. For although Frederic were absolv'd at Venice Anno 1177. he was not fully reconciled with these Popes till six years afterwards The Schism of Peter Leonis began in 1139. for in that year he got to be Elected to the Papacy concurrently with Alexander III. taking the name of Anaclet and was extinguished Anno 11 After his death the Peace of the Church lasted but Seven years and then was disturbed by the Rebellion of the City of Rome Arnauld Clerk of the City of Bresse stirred it up in the year 1145. The people of Rome by his instigation would needs shake off the Priestly yoke and restore the ancient Republick These disturbances ceased An. 1155. for that incendiary being expell'd the City went to the Emperour Frederick who sacrific'd him to his Interests delivering him up to Adrian who caused him to be hang'd and burnt During the troubles of these Schismes and the combustions Arnauld promoted in Rome there were Five Popes that sheltred themselves in France Paschal II. An. 1106. Gelasius IV. An. 1118. Innocent II. An. 1130. Eugenius An. 1147. and Alexander III. An. 1161. without reckoning Calistus II. who sojourn'd there some time after his Election which was made at Clugny An. 1119. The Son of the unfortunate Henry IV. of his Fathers Name and who had compell'd him to resign the Empire made it plainly appear he did not rebell against him out of any zeal to Religion since so soon as he thought himself well setled in the Throne he began to tread in the same steps and the very next year following 1107. he made it known to Pope Paschal and the Council of Troyes that he intended to enjoy the Apostolique priviledge of instituting Bishops which he pretended had been given to Charlemain This question was referr'd to a general Council to be held at Rome in the year 1110. Paschal therefore returns but Henry coming thither with an Army seizes on his person and forces him to Sign an agreement wherein he allows him the investitures obliging both him and his Cardinals by the most Sacred Oaths to observe it All the Prelats in Europe cried out against this agreement which by leaving such Elections in the power of Temporal Princes caused great disorders in the Church They held many Councils in several Provinces to damne it Excommunicated the Emperour and gave out it was an Heresie to say that Investitures could be made by the Laity not considering that this proposition made the Pope himself an Heretique since he had newly granted it to the Emperour The same question of Investitures had
the like occasion and Year of our Lord 1608 that the Holy Father caused a Jubilé to be published which commenced at Rome month Novemb. the Sixth of September and Six Weeks afterwards at Paris I think I may in this year place the Invention of Perspective Glasses because the use of them began now to grow common in Holland and France A Spectacle-maker of Midleburg presented one which he had made to Prince Maurice which seemed to bring any Object though two Leagues distant within Two hundred paces of the Eye for from the Hague they could easily discern the Dial at Delf and the Windows of the Church at Leyden the year following many were to be had in the Shops at Paris but which could not descry a third part so far as those Some have named them Galileo's Glasses as if that famous Mathematician had invented them but it is most certain this happy Discovery was made long before his time We find manifest footsteps of them in the Works of Baptista Porta and we must acknowledge that the Ancients made use of them if that be true which Roger Bacon saith That Julius Caesar being on the Belgic Shoar opposite to great Britain did with certain great Burning-Glasses discover the Posture and Disposition of the Brittish Army and all the Coast along that Country However it were they have labour'd so happily to bring them to their full Perfection that it will be difficult to make any further Addition or Improvement The marvellous Observations which have been made and are daily taken of the Heaven by the help of them are a most illustrious proof of their Success As to the Subject of the Fougade at Westminster the King of Great Britain who believed that all these Conspiracies proceeded from that Power which the Pope pretended over Soveraigns made an Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance after a new form wherein he obliged all his Subjects to acknowledge that he was their true and lawful Soveraign and that the Pope had neither of himself nor from any other the Power to depose Kings or to warrant any Stranger Prince to invade their Country or to dispense their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance therefore should Swear to him that notwithstanding any Sentence whatsoever of the Popes they would faithfully obey him and serve him and his Successors and should discover whatever Conspiracies they did know either against his Person or against his State The Pope having notice hereof sent a Brief to the Catholicks to forbid them the taking this Oath George Blackwell Arch-Priest of England being imprisoned upon the refusal he made of it suffered himself at last to be perswaded that this Brief had been extorted and that there was nothing contained in the Formulary of the Oath contrary to the Articles of Faith so that he took it and caused it to be taken by the rest of the Catholicks in England But the Pope by a second Brief confirmed the first and Cardinal Bellarmin wrote a Letter to Blackwel to shew him that the said Oath wounded the Vnity of the Church and the Authority of the Holy-See He published an Apology for this Oath the Cardinal made an Answer the King a reply which he addressed to the Christian Princes Some Authors concerned themselves in the quarrel and it being a contest wherein the power of the Popes was debated as likewise that of temporal Princes it became the exercise and entertainment of the most learned men in Europe for some Months together The States of the United-Provinces had reason to make the Spaniards believe and see that in case the Treaty of Peace were broken off they should be assisted both by France and England wherefore they had several times made instance to the Ambassadors of those Kings that they would enter into a good Defensive League for their preservation The King of France did first agree and Signed it the second day of January notwithstanding the contrary advice of those of month January his Council whom a zeal for the Catholick Religion inclined indirectly to favour the Spaniard the Ambassadors of the King of England having some points to settle with the States touching the liquidation of Arrears of Moneys did not conclude it till four or five Months after Those of Spain deputed for the Peace to wit the Marquiss de Spinola General of King Philips Armies in the Low-Countries John Crusel Richardot President of the Privy-Council to the Arch-Dukes John de Mancicidor Secretary of War to King Philip Frier John Neyen or Ney Commissary-General of the Order of Saint Francis and Lewis Verreiken prime Secretary of State to the Arch-Duke Arrived at the Hague in the Month of January The States deputed Year of our Lord 1608 for the Generality William of Nassau and the Lord de Brederode and the seven Provinces named for each of them one of the most able and best qualify'd they had amongst them The Compliments made on either part they began to assemble the Sixth day month February of February In the first Ten Sessions they produced their Procurations and treated of an Amnesty of Reprisals and some other such Points which passed without much difficulty but when they came to mention the Commerce of the East-Indies there began the main of the Negociation the States insisting to have the full liberty of that Trade the Spaniards to exclude them thinking there were only a few Merchants interested in that Trade and that the rest would not concern themselves much for their preservation but the Company which of late years was set up for the Indies had forty Ships belonging to them the least of five hundred Tun burthen well provided for War and each of the value of five and twenty thousand Crowns Besides fourscore more of six or seven hundred Tun which traded to the West-Indies not reck'ning a great number of smaller bulk for Guiney and the Islands Saint Dominique Being therefore animated by their profit and withal upheld and countenanc'd by Prince Maurice they made so much noise and roused the publick by so many Manifesto's and discourses in Print that their Deputies were obliged to stand to it Seeing therefore they could not agree upon that point they quitted it to pass on to those concerning the reciprocal Trade in the Low-Countries the renunciation of reprisals the declaration of their limits the demolition and exchange of places the Cassation of Sentences of Proscription and Confiscation the restitution of Goods the Priviledges of Cities the disbanding of Soldiers on each side and many other points In the Memoirs of the President Janin are to be seen the difficulties that were created on either part upon different Articles particularly about the restitution of places How the Truce was prolonged two several times the one to the end of May the other till July How Father Ney going into Spain for more ample powers was detained there a long time by the slow motions either natural or artificial of that Council How the President Janin sent for by
Wife and Marries Bertrade 223 Is Excommunicated because of this new Marriage by the Bishops by the Pope and by a Council at Poitiers ib. Braved by the Lord de Montlehery ib. In fine obtains a dispensation in the Court of Rome is absolved and his Marriage is confirmed 226 His death his Wives and Children 227 Philip Brother of King Lewis the Gross sides with the discontented Party 2â—5 Philip Augustus King of France his Birth 249 His Coronation 250 His Marriage with Isabella Alix 251 He begins his Reign and Government with Piety and Justice 252 He withdraws Vermandois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders 252 He sends succours to the Holy Land and causes the Croisade to be preached 253 Difference between him and the King of England 254 Takes the Cross on him with the King of England for the recovery of the Holy Land 255 Gives chace to the King of England who was entred upon France ib. His Voyage to the Holy Land Order for the Regency of his Son and Kingdom during his absence ib. Difference intervened between him and Richard King of England 256 Takes the City of Acre or Ptolemais ib. Falls sick and returns into France 257 Withdraws the County of Artois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders ib. Declares War against the King of England 258 Repudiates Isemberge his Wife then takes her again ib. Reconciles himself with John King of England 259 Endeavours to accustom the Ecclesiasticks to furnish him with Subsidies 261 Conquers all the Territories of King John which held of the Crown 261 c. Philip the Fair King of France Marries the Queen of Navarre 320 Is Crowned at Reims 322 Accommodates and makes Peace with the Castillian 323 Causes search to be made amongst the Banquers 324 Opposes the designs of the King of England for the subjecting of Scotland and recovering the Cities in Guyenne 325 Is offended with Pope Boniface 326 A great Conspiracy against him 326 Makes War in Flanders his progress 327 c. Confers with the Emperor Albertus 328 Enters into a quarrel with the Pope and hinders the French Prelats from going to Rome whither the Pope sent for them 329 Is Excommunicated by the Pope ib. Takes up Arms to chastize the Rebellion of the Flemings 330 Treats a Peace with the English ib. Makes a Voyage into Guyenne and Languedoc 331 Fore-arms himself against the Bâ—lls of Bâ—niface ib. Assists at the Coronation of Pope Clement at Lyons 332 Appears at the General Council of Vienne in Daufine ib. Undertakes War against the Flemings His three Sons Wives accused of Adultery His death his Wives and Children 336 Philip of Alsace Earl of Flanders his death 257 Philip of Dreux Bishop of Beauvais is held Prisoner 258 Philip Earl of Boulogne 299 Philip Emperor assassinated 264 Philip the Hardy King of France 314 Returns from Afric into France ib. He Arms against the King of Castille in favour of the Princes of Navarre his Nephews 316 Takes up Arms and passes the Pyrenean Mountains against the King of Arragon 320 His death his Wives and his Children 321 Philip the Long espouses Jane of Burgundy 324 Philip d'Euvreux 348 Philip the Long King of France 347 His Wife accused of Adultery 336 Brouilleries in the State 348 His death his Children 349 Philip de Valois passes into Italy against the Gibbelins 348 Philippa Daughter of the Earl of Hainault 352 Peter Son of King Lewis the Gross chief of the House of Courtenay 241 Peter Duke of Bretagne takes Arms against the King 296 Surnamed Mauclerc or Illiterate or Witless 300 His death 301 Peter Earl of Alencon 312 Peter Earl of Arragon Crowned King of Sicilia 317 A villanous and shameful slight 320 Is Excommunicated and degraded by the Pope ib. His death 321 Peter Abbot of Cane refuses the Miter 270 Planet Mars not visible in a whole year 105 Plectrude Widow of Pepin intrudes into the whole Government of France 78 She is constrained to quit the Government to Charles Martel 79 Poissy Gerard Financier 254 Politicks Hereticks 276 Poland honour'd with the Title of a Kingdom 209 Ponce Abbot of Clugny by his Debauches loses the Reputation of his Order 279 Papeliâ—ans Hereticks their Forces and Erâ—ors 276 Popes of the Fourth Age. 5 Popes when they began to change names at their creation 136 Memorable example of their Soveraign power and of an extream severity 209 Of their Elections 247 Have a right to exhort not to command the Kings of France 326 Acts of Temporal Soveraignty they assumed on all occasions during the Thirteenth Age. 337 They would raise themselves above all Soveraigns 293 Gilbert Porct Bishop of Poitiers condemned 289 Port-Royal its foundation 83 Portugal of a Dutchy made a Kingdom 243 Pragmatick of St. Lewis 312 Pretextat Archbishop of Rouen 32 Restored to his See and assassinated 38 Prior of the Monastery of Gristan his History 288 Primacy of the Church of Lyons over the four Lyonnoises 232 Prince that oppresses his Subjects is easily abandonned by them 45 Prince dispoiled of his Estate because of his ill Conduct 161 Priviledges of Monks 282 Bring a Scandal to the Church Buy it off dearly at Rome ib. Prodigy unheard of of Snakes and other Serpents who fought most obstinately 2â—8 Protade Maire of the Palace 43 Provenceaux rise against their Earl and Lord. 301 Provisions of the Pope 236 Petro Brusians Hereticks 276 Puisset Hugh 235 Q. Quarrel between Thierry and Boson 146 Quarrel for the Archbishoprick of Reims 177 c. Quarrel and hatred of the â—arls of Charâ—res and Flanders against the Normans 186 Quarrel famous between the Pope and the Emperors 223 Quarrel between Robert Duke of Normandy and Henry his younger Brother for the Kingdom of England 226 Quarrel of the Popes with the Emperor Henry IV. 227 c. Quarrel between the Bishops and the Monks for the Tenths 228 Quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope for the investiture of Bishopricks 236 Quarrel between the Secular Doctors of Theology and the Orders of Religious Mendicants 307 Quarrel of the Count d'Armagnac and the Lord de Casaubon 315 Quarrel bloody and long for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland 323 Quarrels Little particular Riots do often produce very great Quarrels 325 Qâ—iâ—alet Bishoprick transfer'd to St. Malo's Church of the Twelfth Century R. Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Ments 173 Race Carolovinian and the end of it Causes of its ruine 198 199 Rachis King of the Lombards turns Monk 91 Leaves his Monastery whither he is forced to return again Radbod King of the Frisians 72 Radegonda Sainct 22 Raillery that cost very dear 222 Raimond Earl of Tolose principal Favourer of the Hereticks in Languedoc is Excommunicated 264 Reconciles himself to the Church 295 Is brought to reason 299 Raimond Earl of Toloze pretends to be Lord of the Marsellois c. 300 Raimond Prince of Antioch Rainfroy Maire of the Neustrians 79 His death 81 Rambold of Orange 224 Ranulf Duke of Aquitaine