Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A49202
|
The French King's answer to Mons. Tyrconnel's letter
|
Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715.
|
1690
(1690)
|
Wing L3099; ESTC R8999
|
2,828
|
4
|
THE French King's Answer TO Mons Tyrconnel's Letter Licensed August 22. 1690. Right Trusty Right Obeysant and Right Couchant Champion and Creature WHEN your most obsequious Letters kissed our most Potent hands at our High and Mighty Seraglio at Versailes we were graciously pleased to condescend to peruse them and to approve the Zeal and Affection therein expressed to Our puissant Person and most Christian Cause and We have vouchsafed to send you our Mighty Greetings and most Sultan-like Thanks for the same We cannot but take it well that with such profound Submission you acknowledge Our Soveraign Councils and Conduct Our Armes and Alliances wherein as We have scorned to take Precedent from any other Monarch so doubtless we have exceeded all that Less-Cultivated Princes could or can pretend to Hath not the Religion of our Wise Pagan Ancestours Commanded them to Worship the Gods themselves had made And if they were compelled to Deifie the Graven or Molten Images the work of their own hands Is it not much more rational and according to Ecclesiastick Rudiment That Adoration and Divine Rights be performed to Us who are a Living Deity yea of their Own forming and setting up too Were they not the late Kings of England that exalted Us to this Grandure and doth not the World see with what Veneration and Devotion the good King James always received Our Orders with what Humility he lies at the Feet of Our Shrine and with what Reverence he pursues our Absolute Commands And is it not due to Us upon Account of the Almightiness to which We are exalted Can We not Thunder like Jupiter Fabricate Arms like Vulcan contrive New Forms like Saturn forge Stories like Mercury be taken in a Net like Mars if not Out-do these and the whole Pantheon of Old-fashion'd Gods And shall We be denied Our Priests and Altars 'T is true there are not wanting some of the Sacerdotal Function that with great Piety have acknowledged Our Jus Divinum and have not been wanting in their Pulpit Declamations and Writings too to convince the Vnbelieving Mob of that Antecedent and Inherent Right of Sway and Empire which Our Infallibility justly claims and Our Vassals out of their Bounden Duty so inculcated acknowledged to be Lineally descended with us and that by Natural Prerogative But after all this I hope we are not to have Our Soveraign Authority and Jus Imperii to stand or fall at the Will and Pleasure of an Orthodox Cassock or Hood Was it not the Bounty of Our Fathers and Predecessors that endow'd their Cloysters and Colledges And shall these Coxcombs in Orders think to give Law to the Sultanian and Imperial Power What hath the Bishop of Rome to do in Secular Affairs Must the Ambassadors of Our Mightinesis take his Time and Manner of Entry from the Direction of an Old Formal Pontificat But now the Father thinks he hath secured his Chair by entring into a Confederacy with Lutherans Hugenots and Whiggs and drawing off a Parcel of sullen Devotes from their Vnquestionable Allegiance to our Stupendious Majesty but alas the Old Prelate will find himself vastly out in his Measures when the Thunder of the most Potent Monarch of France England Holland Spain and Almain shall have broken his Bulls â—â—â—mâ—nations and Ecclesiastical Aâ—â—ery to pieces Neither are We without the most Undeniable Assurances imaginable that may encourage Our Illustrious Confidence and buoy up the sinking Courage of Our drooping Troops with Undeniable Proofs of Our Rising Fortune And that you may raise the Confidence of your Forces by imparting so great a Secret to them the Grounds are these which We have thought meet to acquaint you withall 1. The de facto Party as they are called have made such a Schism in the Minds of the Subject that as long as we can keep alive that Scruple it will encline vast Numbers of the sober Churchmen to Our Side For it is most certain if they can be prevail'd with to believe that a de jure Shim is not there It must necessarily reside some where else and their Allegiance must be due where that is to be found Now We defie the Papers of Our Late Trusty Confident Nevil Paine to speak more to the Purposes than this amounts to 2. The Cocks who were not in Condition to fight this Summer will doubtless have their Weapons grown out against the next and then We need not doubt Our Right Trusty Catholick and Jacobite Friends will Arm stand 〈◊〉 and give the Signal It is almost Unaccountable to Imagine what became of their Courage when Animated by Our Ships of War and Gallies on their Coast but some think sending the latter so near dispirited them they being a People that have a Natural Aversion to the Oar and Chain 3. Those who by too early opening the Design have fallen under the Frowns of the Government will by that time have drawn Breath and be in Condition to Rally and pursue their Purposes unless they shall serve Us as they did their Abdicating Master that is to say fly without a pursuer Secundum Vsum Sarum 'T is very true We have no great reason too much to confide in their Bravery since if they deserted when they had the Sword in their hand there is but small hope they should have the Courage to attempt when the Army and Government are against them But though much Confidence ought not to be laid on their Valour We may a little rely on Verbum Sacerdotis 4. Our Royal Armada will by that Time be Refitted and in Condition to put to Sea again if We can but have such good Fortune as the last Bout only I cannot forbear to tell you as Our Right Trusty Councellour that We escaped not altogether so well as Our Arches and Pillars boast but like Achilles We were galled in the heel And though Our Gazettes made no mention thereof yet the Docks belonging to Our Arsenal will shew it as well as the Abatement of Our Number 5. For a Supply of the True Sinews of War though Our Enemies struâ— and Erect themselves upon the Melting down of Our Houshold and Altar-Plate yet hath Our Egregious Care of your Concerns took up so much of Our Thoughts that We have permitted you to make a Coin of Horn and Leather as hath been the Usage in Times past Neither would We have the Ignorant World imagine that it is the Intrinsick Value of the Metal that gives Reputation to Our Bullion but it is the setting the Image and Superscription of Our High and Mightiness thereon that puts a real Estimate upon it So that as We were graciously pleased to indulge your late Master to Coin up Kettles and Shellets to half Crowns and Shillings We have given you full Power to make any thing pass that comes next to hand setting as was said Our Victorious Figure thereon We heartily commend your Own and Monsieur Lazun's Conduct in making good Limerick and Galloway for Places of retreat and if it be possible for the Soul of a Monarch flusht with such Continual Successes to be Capable of the mean Impressions of Sorrow it is ' only for this That Our great Ships so inconsiderately burnt the Fisher Boats at Tingmouth which else might have served to Transvert you and your Remaining Troops home to 〈◊〉 when Occasion shall Offer What remains is this That if that Active Prince King William can by no means be prevail'd with to remit of his Rigour and put on a Temper of Calmness and Remission if nothing will work him to Compassion then that you make all possible haste you can to Us with the Remainder of your Forces which no doubt we may have need enough of the next Summer for if he bring his Travelling Tent hither My Victorious Self and your Great Master are resolved to betake our selves to the Sanctuary of some Holy Roof and there to end our Days in that Vndisturbed Peace which we have always endeavoured to preserve in Europe So We bid you heartily Farewel Given at Our Castle at Versailes in the last Year of Our Puissance LOWIS FINIS London Printed for R. Baldwin in the Old-Baily 1690.