Peretti Cardinal of Montalto when he was created Pope call'd Sixtus the Fifth He who from the most miserable way of living to which he was reduc'd by the wretched meanness of his birth as being no better than a Hogherd in his Youth rais'd himself step by step by his merit and his industry to the Triple Crown which he wore more haughtily during the five years of his Pontificate than his Predecessours had done for many Ages As he had been a great Inquisitour and one of the most severe who had ever exercis'd that office those Agents of the League in conjunction with the Spaniards believ'd they shou'd easily obtain his approbation and that joyning his Spiritual Arms with their Temporal he wou'd thunder out his Anathema against the King of Navarre But they mistook the Man with whom they had to deal for as he was of an humour extremely fierce haughty imperious and inflexible and wou'd give the World to understand that he was govern'd by no reasons but his own and least of any by the Spaniards whom he hated he immediately took up an air of Majesty in his discourse with them which made them find to their cost that he suffer'd not himself to be deluded with appearances and that he was a Master as discerning as he was absolute In effect they were infinitely surpriz'd to find they had not the least power upon a Soul which they then understood to be of quite another make than what he formerly appear'd so moderate so humble so soft and so complying when he was Cardinal with his head stooping towards the earth and looking there as he own'd afterwards himself for the Popedom which finally he found In the mean while as on the other side he thought he had a fair occasion to make an ostentatious shew of the Supreme power of the Popedom which he coveted to make formidable to the whole World by some extraordinary manner of procedure he made a little time afterwards of his own mere motion and when no body importun'd him a most thundring Bull against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde For after he had in it exalted infinitely the Power and Authority Pontifical above all Kings and Potentates of the Earth so far as to affirm that he cou'd overturn their Thrones by pronouncing irrevocable judgment upon them whensoever they shou'd be wanting to their duty and trample them under his feet as Ministers of Satan and after having rail'd at large in the rudest and most contemptuous words he cou'd invent against those two Princes he deprives them at last of all their Estates and Demeans of which they then stood possess'd and declares them incapable both in their own persons and in their posterity for ever to succeed to any Estate or Principality whatsoever and particularly to the Kingdom of France absolves from their Oath of Fidelity all their Vassals and their Subjects whom he forbids most strictly to obey them and gives notice to the King of France to assist in the execution of his Decree As much as this Bull which was sign'd by five and twenty Cardinals and sent by the Pope into France rejoyc'd the party of the League who took care to publish it so much did it afflict those Catholiques and good Frenchmen who were opposite to that Faction They were not able to endure that the Popes who had formerly been in subjection to Kings and Emperours whom they thought themselves bound to obey as St. Gregory the Great protests to the Emperour Mâ—urice and the Popes Leo the fourth and Pelagius to our Kings Lothaire and Childebert shou'd now dare to think of deposing them and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance against the declar'd Law of God which enjoyns Obedience in so many places of the Scripture even when Kings shou'd be wanting to their Duty God said they has so divided those two Powers the Temporal and the Spiritual amongst Kings and Princes on the one side and on the other betwixt the Pope and Bishops who are Princes of the Church that as it is not lawfull for the secular Power to interfere with that of the Spiritual nor to lay hands upon the Censer so neither is it lawfull for the Spiritual to attempt any thing against the Secular by abusing that Ghostly Authority which was bequeath'd to them by Iesus Christ onely to exercise in those affairs which are not of the World in the Government of which they have no manner of concernment to intermeddle either directly or indirectly much less have they the power of deposing Princes and of hindring by the censures and fulminations of the Church the due obedience of Subjects to their Sovereigns They added that the Doctrine opposite to this sustain'd by some Writers on the other side of the Alpes to flatter and sooth the Court of Rome had always been condemn'd by the decisions of the Gallicane Church by the decrees of Parliaments and by the protestations which our Kings have often made against this Invasion of their Prerogative unheard of in the Church of God during more than eleven Ages and never admitted in the French Nation And while I am writing this part of my History on this instant twenty third day of March I am inform'd that there is a perpetual and irrevocable Edict enregister'd in the Parlament by which Louis the Great who well knows how to maintain with so much power the rights of his Crown and with so much piety those of the Church ordains that the absolute Independence of Kings in Temporal affairs which no Authority whatsoever shall presume to shock either directly or indirectly on whatsoever pretence shall be maintain'd and taught in his Dominions by the professours of Divinity Seculars and Regulars conformably to what the general Assembly of the Clergy representing the Gallicane Church has solemnly declar'd in expounding the opinion which both it self and we are bound to receive on that Subject To pursue our History the Bull of Sixtus no sooner appear'd in France through the care of the Leaguers to divulge it but a multitude of Writers answer'd it both of the one and the other Religion who agreed in one and the same Doctrine of the independence of Kings on any other power but that of God alone in reference to their Crowns shewing the invalidity of that pretended Authority of Popes some quietly contenting themselves with the force of reason without mixing Gaul and Passion in their Writings and others in the declamatory Style abounding with furious â—nvectives The sharpest and most splenetique of the latter sort though 〈◊〉 the weakest and least knowing is the Authour of the Treatise called Bruâ—um Fulmen which some have father'd on Francis Hoffman a Civilian But that Writer whoever he were had more strongly maintain'd the rights of Sovereigns had he written with a more moderate Zeal without giving the reins to his passion against Popes towards whom even when we blame their failings in some particulars we are never permitted to be
Assembly of the Estates was open'd on Sunday the sixteenth of that Month in the great Hall of the Castle of Blois As it is not my business to say any thing of this Assembly which relates not precisely to the History of the League I shall not trouble my self with every particular which pass'd in it I shall onely say that the King who was naturally eloquent open'd the Assembly with an excellent Oration wherein after he had in a most Majestique manner and with most pathetique words exhorted the Deputies to their duty he either cou'd not or wou'd not conceal from them that he had not so far forgotten the past actions but that he had taken up a firm resolution to inflict an exemplary punishment on such who shou'd persist in acting against his Authority and continue to be still possest with that spirit of Leaguing and Caballing which was upon the point of ruining the State neither wou'd he henceforth spare those who shou'd have any other union than that which the Members ought to have with their Head and Subjects with their Soveraign This touch'd so sensibly the Leaguers of that Assembly and principally their Head who look'd on this Speech as particularly address'd to himself that they proceeded even to threatning that they wou'd break off the Estates by their departure if the King who had commanded his Speech to be Printed wou'd not give order to suppress it or at least correct that passage There are some who affirm that after a rough dispute concerning it the King permitted at last that something shou'd be alter'd and the harshness of his expressions a little mollifi'd But there are others and even of their number who heard it spoken who assure us that it came out in publique in the same terms it was pronounc'd However it were 't is certain that this complaint of theirs much exasperated the King's mind who saw clearly by this proceeding that the League notwithstanding its Reunion with him had still a separate interest of its own and extremely opposite to his I will adventure to say farther that he was then fully perswaded of it when he perceiv'd that the Duke of Guise who was the true Head of it was evidently more powerfull than himself in those Estates For besides that the greatest part of the Deputies had been elected by the factious intrigues of his dependants in the Provinces those who were chosen to preside over the several Orders that is to say the Cardinals of Bâ—urbon and of Guise for the Clergy the Count of Brissac and the Baron of Magnac for the Nobility and the Provost of Merchants La Chapelle Martau for the third order were all of them entirely at the Duke's devotion Insomuch that at the second Session after the Edict of Reunion had been solemnly confirm'd sworn to again and pass'd into a fundamental Law of the State when the Petitions of the three Orders were read he saw that under pretence of desiring to reform some abuses which were crept into the State they were fill'd with an infinite number of Propositions which tended to the manifest diminution or rather the annihilation of the Royal Authority and to reduce the Government to that pass that there shou'd remain to the King no more than the empty name and vain appearance of a Soveraign Monarch and that all the real and essential part of Soveraignty shou'd be in the League which absolutely depended on the Duke of Guise Yet farther they were not satisfied barely to propose these things leaving to the King according to the Ancient Laws and Constitution of the Monarchy the power of either passing or refusing them according to his pleasure â—after they had been well examin'd in his Council but they pretended that after they had been receiv'd by the consent of the three Orders they shou'd become Laws of course and be inviolable so that the King shou'd not have the power either to change or abrogate them in his Council Then they wou'd have an abatement of Taxes and Imposts but so much out of measure that they took away from the King the means of making that War in which themselves had ingag'd him They wou'd also that the Council of Trent shou'd be receiv'd absolutely and without modification And the famous Attorney General Iaques de Faye d' Espesses who in a great Assembly held on that occasion maintain'd with strength of reason against some decrees of that Council the Prerogatives of the King or Regalia and the Immunities of the Gallicane Church was so ill treated there though he had baffled the Arch-Bishop of Lyons who undertook to destroy those Privileges that the King who was affronted in the person of his Attorney was not a little displeas'd at their proceedings But above all things they were urgent with him and press'd it with incredible obstinacy that the King of Navarre who at the same time had assembled the Estates of his Party at Rochelle and from thence had sent to those at Blois intimating his desire of a General Council to be summon'd where all things might be accommodated shou'd from that time forward be declar'd uncapable of ever succeeding to the Crown They had made a Decree concerning this by consent of the three Orders at the particular instance of the Order of the Clergy And the King who clearly foresaw the terrible consequences of this unparallel'd injustice and who was ply'd incessantly to subscribe it was not able to defend himself otherwise than by amusing them with delays and rubbs which he dextrously caus'd to be thrown in their way on sundry pretences It was not doubted but that the Duke of Guise who having two thirds of the Estates for him was consequently the Master there was Authour of all these Propositions so contrary to the true Interests and Authority of the King especially when it was evident that he employ'd all his Managers to cause himself to be declar'd in the Estates Lieutenant General through the whole Kingdom as if he wou'd possess himself of that Supreme Command without dependance on the King and that he pretended his Prince to be no more his Master as not having power to deprive him of a dignity which he was to hold from a Commission given him by others All these things so unworthy of the Majesty of a great King at the length quite weari'd out his patience which after so long dissembling his injuries on the sudden broke out into the extremity of rage Insomuch that those among his Confidents who ardently desir'd the destruction of the Duke for their own advantage found not the least trouble in passing on the King for truths many reports and oftentimes very groundless rumours which ran of the Duke adding to them that it was he who underhand had drawn the Duke of Savoy to possess himself of the Marquisate of Saluces as he had lately done And this they confidently affirm'd though the Duke by his own interest in the Estates had procur'd them to vote a War against the
that low Condition to which they were reduc'd unable by their own Power to resist the King or to procure their safety by any other means than obtaining from King Philip the Assistance of all his Forces to the end that they might be able to maintain that King who was to be elected in the States General which were to be assembled for that purpose each of them in his own Person pretending to that Honour yet none of them daring to own his Ambition openly for fear of drawing on himself the Hatred of his Rivals who wou'd certainly unite and band themselves together to exclude him The Person who was chosen to negotiate in Spain was the famous Peter Iannin President of the Parliament of Bourgogne a man of great Integrity exquisite Understanding rare Prudence and inviolable Fidelity which had caus'd the Duke of Mayenne to repose an absolute Confidence in him who for his own part in the Honesty of his well meaning Soul had follow'd him and the Party of the League with an implicit Faith that it was for the safety of Religion and of the State for on the one side he believ'd not that Religion couâ—d be preserv'd in France if the King were not a Catholique and therefore he argu'd that he ought to be such and on the other side being an honest French-man he wou'd like his Master make use of the Spaniards to compass his ends but not serve them by favouring their unjust Designs in the least circumstance to the prejudice of the State Being such as I have here describ'd him it was not hard for him to discover the Intentions of King Philip who holding himself assur'd of the Sixteen which he believ'd to be the prevailing Faction and much more powerful than in effect it was lay'd himself so open as to make his Intentions be clearly understood which the great Prudence and Policy whereon he so much valued himself shou'd have kept undiscover'd for a longer time in expectation of a fitting opportunity to make them known when all things were dispos'd and in a due readiness for the Execution of his Designs After the President had represented to him in his Audiences the weakness and necessities of the League the Forces and Progress of the King the extream danger in which Religion then was and the immortal glory which he might acquire by preserving it in the most Christian Kingdom by the Assistance which was expected from his Zeal and Power that Prince who was willing to sell his Aid at a higher Price than bare Glory without more advantage open'd his mind without any reserve after a most surprizing manner For he caus'd him to be told by his Secretary Don Iohn D' Idiaques that he had resolv'd to marry his only Daughter the Infanta Isabella to the Archduke Ernestus and to give him in Dowry the Low-Countries and since that for the Preservation of Religion in France it was necessary they shou'd have a Catholick King they cou'd not make a better Choice than of that Princess who being Neece to the three last Kings and Grand-daughter to Henry the Second was without contradiction more nearly related to them than the Bourbons that with her Person all the Low-Countries wou'd be re united to the Crown and that having besides these Advantages the whole Forces of the House of Aâ—stria in favour of her the Hereticks wou'd soon be exterminated and the Prince of Bearn expell'd from the Kingdom The President overjoy'd that he had wherewithal to disabuse the Duke of Mayenne by means of this strange Proposition and confirm him in those good Opinions which the Sieur de Villeroy had infus'd into him answer'd King Philip with great Prudence and no less Policy and faintly putting him in mind of the Salique Law on which he did not much insist seem'd rather to encourage than dash his Hopes in the prosecution of of his Purpose Insomuch that he drew him to a Promise of great Supplies both in Men and Money which he fail'd not to send with more speed than usual And the Duke being satisfy'd that according to that ambitious Design of the Spaniards he cou'd never pretend to the Kingdom us'd all his Endeavours for the future that the Election might not fall on any other not even on a Prince of his own Family who might marry the Infanta On the contrary the Sixteen who were altogether at the Devotion of the Spaniards by whom they were powerfully protected against him wrote to King Philip by one Father Matthew not the Jesuite of that Name a large Letter the Original of which being intercepted near Lyons was brought to the King in which after their humble Acknowledgments to his Catholick Majesty of the many Favours and Benefits which they had receiv'd from him they earnestly petition him that in case he shou'd refuse to accept the Crown of France he wou'd give them a King of his own Family or at least some other Prince whom he shou'd please to elect for his Son in Law 'T is farther observable that the Division which was betwixt the Duke of Mayenne and his nearest Relations exceedingly increas'd the Power and by consequence the Audacity and Insolence of those factious men For on one side the Duke of Nemours who was much incens'd that after he had so bravely defended Paris the Government of Normandy shou'd be refus'd him which Province he thought to have erected into a Principality like that of Bretagne of which the Duke of Mercoeur had made himself a Soveraign Prince was retir'd with a good part of the Forces into Lionnois and by the Correspondence which he held with the Sixteen did his best endeavours to supplant him and cause himself to be chosen Head of the Party on the other side the young Duke of Guise who had made his escape from the Castle of Tours where he was detain'd Prisoner having been receiv'd with great Acclamations by the Leaguers who believ'd that in his Person they had recover'd his dead Father their great Patron and Protector gave him much anxiety and fill'd his mind with jealous apprehensions especially when he observ'd that the great Name of Guise so much reverenc'd by the Parisians drew after it not only the Crowd of common People but also the Nobility and Gentlemen of the League But above all things it grated him that his Nephew had made a strict Alliance with the Faction of Sixteen who were overjoy'd to have him at their Head in opposition to his Uncle whom they hated All these Considerations put together swell'd them to so great an arrogance that they resolv'd to rid their hands of all such as were in a Condition of hindring them from being Absolute in Paris To this effect they bethought themselves of inventing a new kind of Oath which excluded from the Crown all the Princes of the Blood and presenting it to such whom they knew to be too well principled to sign it on their Refusal they made Seizure of their Estates and banish'd them In
misled But in the end when by these specious pretences they had gather'd strength they who had before concluded that Christ was the only King on Earth and at the same time assum'd to themselves that Christ was theirs inferr'd by good consequence that they were to maintain their King and not only so but to propagate that belief in others for what God wills man must obey And for that reason they entred into a League of Association amongst themselves to deliver their Israel out of Egypt to seize Canaan and to turn the Idolaters out of possession Thus you see by what degrees of Saintship they grew up into Rebellion under their Successive Heads Muncer Phifer Iohn of Leyden and Knipperdolling where what Violences Impieties and Sacriledges they committed those who are not satisfied may read in Sleydan The general Tradition is that after they had been besieg'd in Munster and were forc'd by assault their Ringleaders being punish'd and they dispers'd two Ships-lading of these precious Saints was disembogu'd in Scotland where they set up again and broach'd anew their pernicious Principles If this be true we may easily perceive on what a Noble stock Presbytery was grafted From Scotland they had a blessed passage into England or at least arriving here from other parts they soon came to a considerable increase Calvin to do him right writ to King Edward the Sixth a sharp Letter against these People but our Presbyterians after him have been content to make use of them in the late Civil Wars where they and all the rest of the Sectaries were joyn'd in the Good Old Cause of Rebellion against His Late Majesty though they cou'd not agree about dividing the Spoyls when they had obtain'd the Victory And 't is impossible they ever shou'd for all claiming to the Spirit no Party will suffer another to be uppermost nor indeed will they tolerate each other because the Scriptures interpreted by each to their own purpose is always the best weapon in the strongest hand Observe them all along and Providence is still the prevailing Argument They who happen to be in power will ever urge it against those who are undermost as they who are depress'd will never fail to call it Persecution They are never united but in Adversity for cold gathers together Bodies of contrary Natures and warmth divides them How Presbytery was transplanted into England I have formerly related out of good Authors The Persecution arising in Queen Mary's Reign forc'd many Protestants out of their Native Country into Foreign parts where Calvinism having already taken root as at Francfort Strasburg and Geneva those Exiles grew tainted with that new Discipline and returning in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign spread the contagion of it both amongst the Clergy and Laity of this Nation Any man who will look into the Tenets of the first Sectaries will find these to be more or less embued with them Here they were supported underhand by Great Men for private interests What trouble they gave that Queen and how she curb'd them is notoriously known to all who are conversant in the Historiâ—s of those times How King Iames was plagu'd with them is known as well to any man who has read the Reverend and Sincere Spotswood And how they were baffled by the Church of England in a Disputation which he allowed them at Hampton-Court even to the Conversion of Dr. Sparks who was one of the two Disputants of their Party and afterwards writ against them any one who pleases may be satisfied The Agreement of their Principles with the fiercest Jesuits is as easie to be demonstrated and has already been done by several hands I will only mention some few of them to show how well prepar'd they came to that solemn Covenant of theirs which they borrow'd first from the Holy League of France and have lately copied out again in their intended Association against his present Majesty Bellarmine as the Author of this History has told you was himself a Preacher for the League in Paris during the Rebellion there in the Reign of King Henry the Fourth Some of his Principles are these following In the Kingdoms of Men the Power of the King is from the People because the People make the King Observing that he says In the Kingdoms of Men there is no doubt but he restrains this Principle to the subordination of the Pope For his Holiness in that Rebellion as you have read was declar'd Protector of the League So that the Pope first Excommunicates which is the Outlawry of the Church and by virtue of this Excommunication the People are left to their own natural liberty and may without farther Process from Rome depose him Accordingly you see it practis'd in the same Instance Pope Sixtus first thunderstruck King Henry the Third and the King of Navarre then the Sorbonne make Decrees that they have successively forfeited the Crown the Parliament verifies these Decrees and the Pope is petition'd to confirm the sence of the Nation that is of the Rebels But I have related this too favourably for Bellarmine for we hear him in another place positively affirming it as matter of Faith If any Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholick Religion and shall withdraw others from it he immediately forfeits all Power and Dignity even before the Pope has pronounc'd Sentence on him and his Subjects in case they have power to do it may and ought to cast out such an Heretick from his Soveraignty over Christians Now consonant to this is Buchanan 's Principle That the People may confer the Government on whom they please And the Maxim of Knox That if Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are releas'd from their Oath of Obedience And Goodman 's That when Magistrates cease to do their Duties God gives the Sword into the Peoples hands evil Princes ought to be depos'd by inferior Magistrates and a private man having an inward Call may kill a Tyrant 'T is the work of a Scavenger to rake together and carry off all these Dunghills they are easie to be found at the Doors of all our Sects and all our Atheistical Commonwealths men And besides 't is a needless labour they are so far from disowning such Positions that they glory in them and wear them like Marks of Honour as an Indian does a Ring in his Nose or a Souldanian a Belt of Garbidge In the mean time I appeal to any impartial man whether men of such Principles can reasonably expect any Favour from the Government in which they live and which Viper-like they wou'd devour What I have remark'd of them is no more than necessary to show how aptly their Principles are suited to their Practices The History it self has sufficiently discover'd to the unbiass'd Reader that both the last Rebellion and this present Conspiracy which is the mystery of Iniquity still working in the three Nations were originally founded on the French League that was their Model according to
with a League and ended with a Conspiracy In this they have copied even to the word Association which you may observe was us'd by Humieres in the first wary League which was form'd in Picardy and we see to what it tended in the Event For when Henry the Third by the assistance of the King of Navarre had in a manner vanquish'd his Rebels and was just upon the point of mastring Paris a Iacobin set on by the Preachers of the League most barbarously murther'd him and by the way take notice that he pretended Enthusiasm or Inspiration of God's holy Spirit for the commission of his Parricide I leave my Superiours to conclude from thence the danger of tolerating Non-conformists who be it said with Reverence under pretence of a Whisper from the holy Ghost think themselves oblig'd to perpetrate the most enormous Crimes against the Person of their Soveraign when they have first voted him a Tyrant and an Enemy to God's People This indeed was not so impudent a Method as what was us'd in the formal process of a pretended high-Court of Justice in the Murther of King Charles the First and therefore I do not compare those Actions but 't is much resembling the intended Murther of our gracious King at the Rye and other Places and that the Head of a Colledge might not be wanting to urge the perforâ—mance of this horrible Attempt instead of Father Edm. Bourgoing let Father Ferguson appear who was not wanting in his spiritual Exhortations to our Conspirators and to make them believe that to assassinate the King was only to take away another Holophernes 'T is true the Iacobin was but one and there were many joyn'd in our Conspiracy and more perhaps than Rumsey or West have ever nam'd but this though it takes from the justness of the Comparison adds incomparably more to the Guilt of it and makes it fouler on our side of the Water My Author makes mention of another Conspiracy against Henry the Fourth for the seizing of his Person at Mante by the young Cardinal of Bourbon who was Head of the third Party call'd at that time the Politicks that is to say in modern English Trimmers This too was a Limb of our Conspiracy and the more moderate Party of our Traitors were engag'd in it But had it taken effect the least it cou'd have produc'd was to have overthrown the Succession and no reasonable man wou'd believe but they who cou'd forget their Duty so much as to have seiz'd the King might afterwards have been induc'd to have him made away especially when so fair a provision was made by the House of Commons that the Papists were to suffer for it But they have not only rummag'd the French Histories of the League for Conspiracies and Parricides of Kings I shall make it apparent that they have studied those execrable Times for Precedents of undermining the lawful Authority of their Soveraigns Our English are not generally commended for Invention but these were Merchants of small Wares very Pedlers in Policy they must like our Taylors have all their Fashions from the French and study the French League for every Alteration as our Snippers go over once a year into France to bring back the newest Mode and to learn to cut and shape it For example The first Estates conven'd at Blois by Henry the Third the League being then on foot and most of the three Orders dipt in it demanded of that King that the Articles which shou'd be approv'd by the three Orders shou'd pass for inviolable Laws without leaving to the King the power of changing any thing in them That the same was design'd here by the Leading men of their Faction is obvious to every one for they had it commonly in their mouths in ordinary Discourse and it was offer'd in Print by Plato Redivivus as a good Expedient for the Nation in case his Majesty wou'd have consented to it Both in the first and last Estates at Blois the Bill of Exclusion against the King of Navarre was press'd and in the last carried by all the three Orders though the King wou'd never pass it The end of that Bill was very evident it was to have introduc'd the Duke of Guise into the Throne after the King's decease to which he had no manner of Title or at least a very crack'd one of which his own Party were asham'd Our Bill of Exclusion was copied from hence but thrown out by the House of Peers before it came to the King's turn to have wholly quash'd it After the Duke of Guise had forc'd the King to fly from Paris by the Barricades the Queen-Mother being then in the Traitors Interests when he had outwitted her so far as to perswade her to joyn in the Banishment of the Duke of Espernon his Enemy and to make her believe that if the King of Navarre whom she hated were excluded he wou'd assist her in bringing her beloved Grandchild of Lorrain to the possession of the Crown it was propos'd by him for the Parisians that the Lieutenancy of the City might be wholly put into their hands that the new Provost of Merchants and present Sheriffs of the Faction might be confirm'd by the King and for the future they shou'd not only elect their Sheriffs but the Colonels and Captains of the several Wards How nearly this was copied in the tumultuous meetings of the City for their Sheriffs both we and they have cause to remember and Mr. Hunt's Book concerning their Rights in the City Charter mingled with infamous aspersions of the Government confirms the Notions to have been the same And I could produce some very probable instances out of another Libel considering the time at which it was written which was just before the detection of the Conspiracy that the Author of it as well as the Supervisor was engag'd in it or at least privy to it but let Villany and Ingratitude be safe and flourish By the way an Observation of Philip de Comines comes into my mind That when the Dukes of Burgundy who were Lords of Ghent had the choice of the Sheriffs of that City in that year all was quiet and well govern'd but when they were elected by the people nothing but tumults and seditions follow'd I might carry this resemblance a little farther For in the heat of the Plot when the Spanish Pilgrims were coming over nay more were reported to be landed when the Representatives of the Commons were either mortally afraid or pretended to be so of this airy Invasion a Request was actually made to the King that he wou'd put the Militia into their hands which how prudently he refus'd the example of his Father has inform'd the Nation To show how the Heads of their Party had conn'd over their Lesson of the Barricades of Paris in the midst of Oates his Popish Plot when they had fermented the City with the leaven of their Sedition and they were all prepar'd for a rising against the Government
Hosts it was always unsuccesfull in the Battels which it strooke against the lawfull power And at length overwhelm'd with the same Engines which it had rais'd for the destruction of the Government Truly 't is a surprising thing to find both in the design and sequel of the League by a miraculous order of the divine providence revolutions altogether contrary to those which were expected On the one side the majestique House of Bourbon which was design'd for ruine gloriously rais'd to that supreme degree of power in which we now behold it flourishing to the wonder of the World and on the other side that of two eminent Families which endeavour'd their own advancement by its destruction the one is already debas'd to the lowest degree and the other almost reduc'd to nothing So different are the designs of God from those of men and so little is there to be built on the foundations of humane policy and prudence when men have onely passion for their guides under the counterfeit names of Piety and Religion 'T is what I shall make evident by unravelling the secrets and intrigues couch'd under the League by exposing its criminal and ill manag'd undertakings which were almost always unsuccessfull and by shewing in the close the issue it had entirely opposite to its designs by the exaltation of those whom it endeavour'd to oppress But is will be first necessary to consider in what condition France then was when this dangerous Association was first form'd against the supreme Authority of our Kings The â—ury of the Civil Wars which had laid the Kingdom desolate under the reign of Charles the Ninth seem'd to have almost wholly been extinguish'd after the fourth Edict of pacification which was made at the Siege of Rochell and if the State was not altogether in a Calm yet at least it was not toss'd in any violence of Tempest when after the decease of the said King his Brother Henry then King of Poland return'd to France and took possession of a Crown devolv'd on him by the right of Inheritance He was a Prince who being then betwixt the years of 23 and 24 was endu'd with all Qualities and perfections capable of rendring him one of the greatest and most accomplish'd Monarchs in the World For besides that his person was admirably shap'd that he was tall of Stature majestique in his Carriage that the sound of his Voice his Eyes and all the features of his Face were infinitely sweet that he had a solid Judgment a most happy Memory a clear and discerning Understanding that in his behaviour he had all the winning Graces which are requir'd in a Prince to attract the love and respect of Subjects 'T is also certain that no man cou'd possibly be more Liberal more Magnificent more Valiant more Courteous more addicted to Religion or more Eloquent than he was naturally and without Art To sum up all he had wanted nothing to make himself and his Kingdom happy had he followed those wholsome Counsels which were first given him and had he still retain'd the noble ambition of continuing at least what he was formerly under the glorious name of the Duke of Anjou which he had render'd so renown'd by a thousand gallant actions and particularly by the famous Victories of Iarnac and Montcontour The world was fill'd with those high Ideas which it had conceiv'd of his rare merit expecting from him the re-establishment of the Monarchy in its ancient splendour and nothing was capable of weakning that hope but onely the cruel Massacre of St. Bartholomew whereof he had been one of the most principal Authours which had render'd him extremely odious to the Protestants And therefore in his return from Poland the Emperour Maximilian the Second who rul'd the Empire in great tranquillity notwithstanding the diversity of opinions which divided his cares betwixt the Catholiques and the Lutherans the Duke of Venice and the most judicious members of that august Senate which is every where renown'd for prudence and after his return to France the Presidents De Thou and Harlay the two Advocates General Pibraâ— and du Mesnil and generally all those who were most passionate for his greatness and the good of his Estate advis'd him to give peace to his Subjects of the Religion pretendedly Reform'd to heal and cement that gaping wound which had run so much bloud in that fatal day of St. Bartholomew and not to replunge his Kingdom in that gulf of miseries wherein it was almost ready to have perish'd But the Chancellour de Birague the Cardinal of Lorrain and his Nephew the Duke of Guise who at that time had no little part in the esteem and favour of his Master and above all the Queen Mother Catharine de Mediâ—es who entirely govern'd him and who after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew dar'd no longer to trust the Protestants These I say ingag'd him in the War which he immediately made against them and which was unsuccessfull to him So that after he had been shamefully repuls'd from before an inconsiderable Town in Dauphine they took Arms in all places becoming more â—ierce and insolent than ever and made extraordinary progress both in that part in Provence in Languedoc in Guienne and Poitou That which render'd them so powerfull which otherwise they had not been was a party of Malecontents amongst the Catholiques who were call'd the Politiques because without touching on Religion they prâ—tested that they took Arms onely for the publique good for the relief and benefit of the people and to reform those grievances and disorders which were apparent in the State A ground which has always serv'd for a pretence of Rebellion to those men who have rais'd themselves in opposition to their Kings and Masters whom God commands us to obey though they shou'd sometimes even abuse that power which he has given them not to destroy or to demollish as he speaks in his holy Scriptures but to edify that is to say to procure the good and to establish the happiness of their Subjects These Politiques then joyn'd themselves to the Huguenots according to the resolution which they had taken at the Assembly held at Montpellier in the month of November and year of our Lord 1574. Henry de Montmorancy Marshal of Damville and Governour of Languedoc who to maintain himself in that rich Government of which he was design'd to be bereft first form'd this party of the Politiques into which he drew great numbers of the Nobles his partisans and Friends and principally the Seigneurs de Thore and de Meru-Montmorancy his Brothers the Count de Vantadour his Brother in Law and the famous Henry de la Tour d' Auvergn Vicount de Turenne his Nephew who was afterwards Marshal of France Duke of Boüillon Sovereign Prince of Sedan and the great Upholder of the Huguenots But that which made their power so formidable in the last result of things was that Monsieur the Duke of Alanson onely Brother of the King and the
powers to restore and to maintain the exercise of our said Catholique Apostolique and Roman Religion in which we and our Predecessours have béen educated and in which we resolve to live and die And we swear and promise also all obedience honour and most humble service to King Henry now reigning whom God has given us for our Sovereign King and Lord lawfully called by the Law of the Kingdom to the succession of his Predecessours and after him to all the Posterity of the House of Valois and others who after those of the said house of Valois shaâ—â— be called by the Law of the Realm to the Crown And upon the obedience and service which we are obliged by all manner of rights to render to our said King Henry now reigning we farther promise to employ our lives and fortunes for the preservation of his Authority and execution of such commandments as by him and his Lieutenant Generals or others having power from him shall be made to us as well for maintaining the onely exercise of the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Religion in France as for bringing to reason and full submission his Rebellious Subjects without acknowledging any other whomsoever than himself and such as shall be by him set in command over us And forasmuch as by the goodness of our said King and Sovereign Lord it hath pleased him to doe so much good to all his Subjects of his Realm as to convoke them to a general Assembly of all the Orders and Estates of it thereby to vnderstand all the complaints and grievances of his said Subjects and to make a good and holy Reformation of the abuses and disorders which have continued of a long time in the said Realm hoping that God will give us some good resolutions by the means of so good and great an Assembly we promise and swear to employ our lives and fortunes for the entire performance of the Resolution of the said Estates in that especially which shall depend on the retention of our Catholique Apostolique and Roman Religion the preservation of the greatness and authority of our King the good and quiet of our Countrey all of this notwithstanding without prejudice to our Liberties and ancient Franchises which we understand to be always maintain'd and preserv'd fully and entirely And farther to the effect abovesaid all of us who have hereunto subscrib'd promise to kéep our selves in a readiness well arm'd mounted and accompanied according to our Qualities immediately upon advertisement given us to put in Execution that which shall be commanded on the part of the King our said Sovereign Lord by his Lieutenant Generals or others having from him Power and Authority as well for the preservation of our Province as for going otherwhere if it be néedfull for the preservation of our said Religion and service of his said Majesty Without its being lawfull or permitted to Gentlemen to place themselves or take employment under other Cornets than those of the Head or the Baily-wéeks in which they shall be resident unless by permission and leave of the King or his Lieutenant or at least of the Head Elect of the said Association who is Monsieur de Humieres to whom we promise to render all honour and obedience To the Council or assistance of whom shall be be call'd and employ'd six of the Principal Gentlemen of the Province and others of quality and fidelity requisite with the advice of whom to provide for the execution of the said matters for the expence entertainment and other charges convenient and necessary for such effect according as the said Countrey can furnish and supply For which said Countrey we offer for such effect even to the number of four Cornets men on horseback well mounted and arm'd and eleven Ensigns of Foot as well for preservation of the said Province as to be otherwhere employed as néed shall be yet no ways comprehending the Companies of the old establishment in consideration that they are obliged to serve otherwhere So that for every of the said Companies be they Horse or Foot thrée Gentlemen of the Countrey men of valour and experience shall be named to the King's Lieutenant or to him who shall be impower'd for that purpose from his Majesty out of the said thrée to make election and choice of one And because such Levies cannot be made without great costs and expences and that it is most just in such an Emergency and necessity to employ all means which are in the power of any man there shall be levied and collected upon the Countrey the sums of money convenient and necessary for this by the advice of the King's Lieutenant or other empowered from his Majesty which he shall afterwards be petition'd to authorize and make valid as being for an occasion so holy and so express as is the service of God and that of his said Majesty in which levying of Money nevertheless no Gentlemen are or shall be meant to be comprehended considering that they will do personal service or set out Men with Horses and Arms according as it shall be ordain'd for them to doe by the Head of the League or by others deputed by him And for the more easie execution of the said employments there shall be in every Baily-wick or Seneschals Court of the said Countrey deputed one or two Gentlemen or others of capacity and fidelity requisite to give information of the means and understand particularly upon the places that which shall be néedfull to be done to report it afterwards and instruct coâ—cerning it those who shall be employed by the Governour or Lieutenant from the King or some other impower'd from him And if any of the said Catholiques of the said Province after having béen requir'd to enter into the present Association shall make difficulty or use delays considering that it is onely for the honour of God the service of the King the good and quiet of our Countrey he shall be held in all the Province for an Enemy of God and a Desertour of his Religion a Rebel to his King a betrayer of his Countrey and by common agréement and consent of all good men shall be abandon'd by all and left and expos'd to all injuries and oppressions which can come upon him without ever being receiv'd into company friendship and alliance of the underwritten Associats and Confederates who have all promis'd friendship and good intelligence amongst themselves for the manutention of their Religion service of the King and preservation of their Countrey with their Persons Fortunes and Families We promise farthermore to kéep one another under the obedience and authority of his Majesty in all surety and quiet and to preserve and defend our selves from all oppression of others And if there shall happen any difference or quarrel amongst us it shall be compos'd by the Lieutenant General of the King and those who by him shall be called who shall cause to be executed under the good plâ—asure and Authority of his said Majesty that
which shall be advised to be just and reasonable for our reconciliation And in case it be advised for the service of the King the good and quiet of the said Province and to compass the ends of our intentions that it be necessary to hold correspondence with other neighbouring Provinces we promise to succour and aid them with all our power and means in such manner as shall be order'd by the Lieutenant of the King or other having power from his Majesty And we also promise to employ our selves with all our power and means to preserve and kéep the State Ecclesiastique from all oppression and injury and if by way of action or otherwise any one attempts to doe them damage be it in their persons or their goods to oppose such person and defend them as being united and Associated with them for the defence and preservation of the Honour of God and our Religion And because it is not our intention any ways to molest those of the new opinion who will contain themselves from enterprizing any thing against the Honour of God the Service of the King the good and quiet of his Subjects we promise to preserve them without their being any ways put in trouble for their Consciences or molested in their persons goods honours and families Provided that they do not contravene in any sort that which shall be by his Majesty ordain'd after the conclusion of the General Estates or any thing whatsoever of the said Catholique Religion And forasmuch as this cause ought to be common indifferently to all persons who make profession to live in the Catholique Religion we the Under-written admit and receive into the present Union all persons placed in Authority and Estate of Iudicature and Iustice Corporations of Towns and Commonalties of the same and generally all others of the third Estate living Catholiquely as it hath béen said promising in like manner to maintain preserve and kéep them from all violence and oppression be it in their persons or their goods every one in his quality and vocation We have promised and sworn to kéep these Articles abovesaid and to observe them from point to point without ever contravening them and without having regard to any â—riendship kindred and alliance which we may have to any person of any quality and Religion whatsoever who shall oppose or break the Commandments and Ordinances of the King the good and quiet of this Kingdom and in like manner to kéep secret the present Association without any communication of it or making any person whomsoever privy to it but onely such as shall be of the present Association The which we will swear and affirm also upon our Consciences and Honours and under the penalties here abovementioned The whole under the Authority of the King renouncing all other Associations if any have béen heretofore made J. Humieres L. Chaulnes F. de Poix A. de Monchy S. de Monchy De Payllart Mailly Anthonie de Gouy Loys de Querecques Lovis d' Estournel Adrian de Boufflers F. de St. Blymond De Rouveroy Jehan de Baynast L. de Warluzer C. de Trerquefmen Philippes de Marle Loys de Belloy A. du Caurel Pierre de Trouville A. Ravye J. de Baynast De Callonne De Lancry F. d' Aumalle A. de La Riviere A. de Humieres Du Biez Lameth F. Ramerelle Boncourt De Glisy A. du Hamel De Prouville L. de Valpergue Raul de Ponquet L. de Margival De Lauzeray M. Relly Francois Hanicque J. de Belloy Claude d' Ally Loys de Festart Du Chastellet P. de Mailleseu Charles de Croy. N. Le Roy. Jehan du Bos. N. de la Warde V. de Brioys Claude de Buâ—y J. Lamire Dessosses N. de Amerval Philippes de Toigny Guy Damiette Jehap de Flavigny N. de Hangest De Forceville P. de Canrry Charles d' Offay J. de Belleval A. de La Chapelle Loys d' Ancbont P. Truffier J. de Senicourt De Mons. Du Plassier Nicholas de Lontines N. de St. Blymon J. d' Amyens De Forceville De Monthomer P. de Bernettz De Rambures F. d' Acheu Flour de Baynast Ogier de Maintenant F. de Bacouel De Pende D. Aumalle Montoyvry De Sailly Aseuillers Francois de Conty O. de Poquesolle Sainte Maure De Rambures Claude de Crequy Jacque d' Ally Adrien de Jrin Jherosme de Fertin Le Caron De Montehuyot P. de La Roche R. de Mailly J. de Forceville La Gualterye N. de la Vieufville A. de la Vieufville A. de Mercatel De Perrin De Milly Josse de Saveuses Jehan de Bernetz A. de Boves Jehan d' Estourmal E. de St. Omer Belleforiere Antoine d' Ardre De la Vieufville A. de Monchy J. de Maulde J. de la Pasture L. Du Moulin A. du Quesnoy J. de Milly Francois de Saveuses De Lauzeray Loys de Moy. J. de Hallencourt De Sainte Anne De Villers J. de Happlaincourt A. de Broye Claude de Warsusell Jehan de Caron Charles de Caron A. De Lameth A. de Camousson M. Destourmel Anthoine de Hamel Gilles de Boffles P. de Saint Deliz Heilly J. de Belloy A. de Biencourt Jehan de Biencourt Claude de Pontaine De Nointel Pierre de Bloletiery Adrian Picquet Anthoine Le Blond Jehan Picquet Le Grand De Basincourt Augustin d' Auxy J. de Verdellot E. Tassart J. de Montain Genvoys Du Menil J. Dey J. Tassart Assevillers Charles de Pontaine Du Breulle De Hauteville A. de Mousquet J. du Nas. Sebastien de Hangre J. de la Motte De Hacqueville A. Noyelle C. de Pas. Charles du Plessier Saint Leu Simon Du Castel Francois du Castel A. de Ptolly A. de Estourmel A. de L' Orme Jehan du Bosc. Jehan de Bernetz De Louchart De Warmade A. de Guiery Du Caurell De Sericourt Du Mesnis De Cambray A. de Lancry Du Puids Domons A. de Bithisy De Marmicourt Berton Pierre Le Cat. This day being the thirteenth of February in the year one thousand five hundred seventy seven We the Underwritten being congregated and Assembled in the Town-House of Peronne according to the appointment of the High and Puissant Lord Messire Iaques de Humieres Knight of the order of the King our Sovereign Counsellour in his Privy Council his Chamberlain in Ordinary Captain of fifty men of Arms of the Establishment Governour anâ— Lieutenant for his Majesty of Peronne Montdidier and Roye and Head of the Holy League and Catholique Association in Picardy have to the said Lord made Oath and Sworn upon the Holy Evangelists to keep inviolably and punctually the Articles here above written of the said Association and Holy League and that for the Body and Inhabitants of the said Town representing them Done in the Chamber of the said Town the day c. abovesaid and we have all sign'd it Claude Le Fevre Register of the said Town L. Desmerliers F. de Hen. L. Le Fevre F. Morel De Flamicourt Le Caron
Le Saige Dudel F. de La Motte Le Fevre Register Whatsoever Resolution was taken to keep this Treaty secret it was impossible to be long conceal'd being sign'd by so many men who were desirous to have Copies of it Accordingly there were found some both amongst the Catholiques and Protestants who were not wanting to answer it publiquely endeavouring to make appear in their Writings the injustice which they said was couch'd under those fair and specious protestations which they demonstrate particularly in this that without the King's privity there was made a Confederation and Association of many persons of all the Orders of the States who combine themselves to reform the Abuses of it That another Head of it was chosen and not the King That they bind themselves by a new invented Oath to that Head and that they take upon them to make Levies of men and money 'T is without all manner of dispute they say that this directly strikes at the foundation of the Monarchy if done without the express permission of the King to whom onely it belongs to give out those orders which he judges to be necessary for the safety of the State and the well being of his Subjects Moreover as great evils are commonly contagious and that a dangerous Conspiracy is like Poison which beginning from any little part if Sword and Fire and violent Remedies be not immediately apply'd and if the Scorpion be not crush'd upon the place which he has envenom'd spreads it self swiftly through the whole body thus the example of the Picards for want of immediate acting with force and vigour against the Authours of that tendency to Rebellion was quickly follow'd in all the Provinces of the Kingdom by many persons of all ranks and conditions who under the fair pretence of Religion inroll'd themselves covertly in the League But he who most openly declar'd for it was the Lord Louis de Trimoüille who was afterwards Governour of Poitou and the Païs d' Aunis For as he was most extremely incens'd against the Huguenots who because he was not favourable to them took all occasions of revenge upon him and by frequent inrodes had made spoil of his Estate and was on very ill terms with the Count de Lude Governour of that Province and a faithfull Servant of the King He fail'd not to take advantage of the occasion which was offer'd him to be head of a powerfull party against them and to declare himself for the League into which he caus'd a great part of the Towns and Nobility both of Touraine and of Poitou to enter Thus was the League fram'd and became in a short time exceeding powerfull while the King who cou'd not possibly be ignorant of the designs and practices or the dangerous consequences of it either durst not or wou'd not oppose it whether it were that fatal drowsiness which oppress'd him plung'd as he was in his delights or the laziness of an unactive efâ—eminate way of living averse from labour and application to business or were it that the Queen Mother who at that time was no other ways link'd to the Guises than by her hatred to the Huguenots who had endeavour'd to ruine her made the King believe that he ought to serve himself of that League to infeeble and abase them by taking from them all those great advantages which they had not obtain'd but through compulsion in the last Peace so odious and insupportable to the Catholiques 'T is what was driven at and done in the first Estates which were held at Bloys which began in the month of November the same year 1576. The Protestants had importunately demanded them when the last Treaty was concluded not at all doubting as they were in conjunction with the Politiques but that they should be the strongest and that consequently they shou'd procure the Edict of May to be confirm'd which was so favourable to them But they were deceiv'd in their expectations for it was found that by the management of the Queen Mother and the Guises and by the Money which was distributed in the particular Assemblies of the Provinces not onely that almost all the Deputies were Catholiques but that also the greatest part of them were of the League Insomuch that without regard to the protestations of the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde against the States and after the refusal which those two Princes and the Marshal d' Amville Head of the Politiques had made to assist in them to which they had vigorously been solicited by a solemn deputation the Edict of May was finally revok'd and prohibition made to all exercise of the pretended Reformation and all the Ministers and Directours were banish'd out of the Realm by a new Edict till such time as they shou'd be converted Behold in what manner the Protestants who as yet were not apprehensive of the League found by experience that it was stronger than their party in the Estates according as the King had hop'd it wou'd be But on the otherside that Prince immediately perceiv'd that it acted not with less artifice and vigour to wâ—aken his own authority than to pull down the party of the Huguenots For they had the impudence to demand of him that the Articles which shou'd be approv'd by the three Estates shou'd pass into inviolable Laws which it shou'd not be in his power to alter and that for other Articles concerning which the States cou'd not agree amongst themselves his Majesty might be permitted to ordain conformably to what shou'd be found just and reasonable by the advice of the Princes of the bloud and twelve of the Deputies Which to speak properly was to devest the King of his Sovereign Power in making Ordinances and Laws and to transfer it to the States according to the project of the League This undoubtedly surpriz'd the King but he was yet much more amaz'd when at the same time there was shewn him the Memoires of one David an Advocate which contain'd certain propositions the most villanous and detestable that can possibly be imagin'd For that Fellow who was onely a pitifull wretched Advocate a Defender of the worst Causes and such as were given for quite lost lays down at the first for an undoubted Principle That the Benediction of Popes and principally that of Stephen the Second was bestow'd on the Race of Charlemain alone and not extended to that of Hugh Capet an Usurper of the Crown And that on the contrary he by that Usurpation has drawn on his Descendants those Curses the deplorable effects of which have been seen in so many Heresies and above all others in that of the Calvinists who have laid waste the Kingdom by Civil Wars which after the fruitless Victories gain'd against them have been succeeded by a Peace most advantageous to those Heretiques that this notwithstanding God Almighty whose property it is to draw good out of evil has made use of that extreme horrour which all good Catholiques have conceiv'd for that unhappy Peace
whereby to render their Memory immortal and to fill the World with the glory of their names But on the otherside it gives an Historian to understand that when he is oblig'd to write a History neither fear nor hope nor threatnings nor rewards nor hatred nor love nor partiality nor prejudice to any person ought to turn him one single step out of the direct road of truth for which he is accountable to his Reader if he intends not to draw upon himself the contempt and indignation of posterity which will never fail to condemn him for an Impostor and a publick poisoner Thus you have the Character of this great Man in whom nothing cou'd be censur'd but that he was somewhat too timorous and that he had not firmness and resolution enough to give generous and bold advice in pressing emergencies so to have cut up by the root those great evils which threatned the Government Therefore when he saw the King who was yet more fearfull than himself amaz'd at the audaciousness of the Associators And likewise was of opinion that if he wou'd have ventur'd it was not in his power to have suppress'd the League knowing also full well that the Queen Mother who was his Master's Oracle and who underhand supported the League would never consent that the ruine of it shou'd be endeavour'd and that on the other side he was very desirous to draw the King out of this present plunge betwixt both he took a trimming kind of way by which he thought he shou'd be able to preserve the Royal Authority without the destruction of the League To this effect not doubting but that in case it were not prevented they wou'd chuse a Head who had power to turn it against the King himself he advis'd him to declare in that Assembly that far from opposing the League of the Cathâ—liques against the Huguenots he was resolv'd to make himself the Head of it which they dar'd not to refuse him and by that means wou'd make himself the disposer of it and provide that nothing shou'd be enterpris'd against him And truly this was no ill expedient to check and give a stop for some time to the execution of those vast designs which were form'd by the Authours of the League But it must also be confess'd that by signing this and causing it to be sign'd by others as he did when he declared himself the Head of it he authoris'd those very Articles which manifestly shock'd his Royal Authority put the League in condition and even gave it a lawfull right according to that Treaty which he approv'd to act against himself in case he shou'd disturb it or finally break with it which was impossible not to happen in some time he infring'd the Peace which he had given his Subjects by the Edict of Pacification granted to the Huguenots and precipitated France into that bottomless gulf of miseries that are inseparable from a Civil War which himself renew'd and which was of small advantage to him I shall not describe the particularities of it because they belong to the History of France and have no relation to the League which on that occasion acted not on its own account against the Authority of the King By whose orders two Armies the one commanded by the Duke d' Alanson the other by the Duke de Mayenne attacqu'd the Huguenots from whom they took La Charite Issoite Broüage and some other places of less importance I shall onely say that the King quickly growing weary of the Cares of War which were not â—uitable to his humour loving as he passionately did his ease and pleasures A new Peace ensued which was granted to the Huguenots at the end of September in the same year by the Edict of Poitiers little different from that of May onely with this reservation that the exercise of Calvinism was restrain'd within the limits of the former pacifications and that it was forbidden in the Marquisate of Salusses and the County of Avignon Farther it was during this interval of Peace which was highly displeasing to the Leaguers that the King to strengthen himself against the League by making himself Creatures who shou'd inviolably be ingag'd to his Service by an Oath more particular and more solemn than that which universally oblig'd his Subjects establish'd and solemnis'd his new Order of the Holy Ghost which is even at this day and after the entire revolution of an Age one of the most illustrious marks of Honour wherewith our Kings are accustom'd to reward the merit and service of the Princes and the most signaliz'd Nobility It has been for a long time believ'd that Henry the Third was the Institutour and Founder of this Order and himself us'd whatever means he cou'd to have this opinion establish'd in the World But at length the truth is broken out which with whatever arts it is suppress'd can never fail either sooner or later to exert it self and to render to a man's person or his memory the blame or praise that he deserves For it has been found out by a way which cannot be suspected of forgery and which leaves no farther doubt concerning this Subject that the beginning of this Order is to be referr'd to another Prince of the Imperial bloud of France I mean Louis d' Anjou styl'd of Tarento King of Ierusalem and Sicily who in the year one thousand three hundred fifty two instituted in the Castle Del Vovo at Naples the Order of the Knights of the Holy Ghost on the precise day of Pentecost by its constitution containing 25 chapters and which in the style of those times thus begins We Lewis by the Grace of God King of Jerusalem and Sicily to the Honour of the Holy Ghost on whose day we were by Grace Crown'd King of our Realms for the exaltation of Chivalry and increase of Honour have ordaind to make a Society of Knights who shall be call'd the Knights of the Holy Ghost of right intention and the said Knights shall be to the Number of three hundred of which we as beginner and founder of that said Order shall be Prince as also ought to be all our Successours King of Jerusalem and Sicily But seeing he died without Children by Queen Iane the first his Wife and that after his death there happen'd strange revolutions in that Kingdom that order so far perish'd with him that the memory of it had not remain'd if the Original of that constitution of King Lewis had not by some accident fallen into the possession of the Republique of Venice who made a present of it to Henry the third at his return from Poland as of a piece that was very rare and which coming from a Prince of the bloud Royal of our Kings deserv'd well to be preserv'd in the Archives of France which was not the intention of King Henry For finding this Order to be excellent and besides that it was exactly calculated for him because being born on Whitsunday he had been Crown'd
of Navarre demanded of the term prescrib'd them for the surrender of those cautionary places which they had allow'd them for their security by the last Edict of Peace upon this pretence the Factious cast off all manner of respect to him They clamour'd publiquely on all occasions the Preachers from their Pulpits the Curats from their Desks the Confessours from their Seats the Professours in their Lectures and the Doctours in their Resolutions which they gave that they were oblig'd to oppose themselves with all their power against the King who supported the Navarrois and resolv'd that Heretical and stubborn as he was he shou'd nevertheless succeed to the Crown which ought never to be suffer'd they being assur'd that this Prince if ever he shou'd mount the Throne wou'd abolish the Catholique Religion in France This was that terrible machine of which they made use to stir up the people over whom there is nothing has so great a power as the motive of Religion when once they are perswaded that it will be forceably taken from them And to bind them inseparably to the interests and party of the Duke of Guise whom they believ'd to have no other aim in all his undertakings than the maintenance and defence of it against Heretiques and the favourers â— of Heresie But because that Prince who was extremely dextrous had no mind that it shou'd be perceiv'd he acted for himself under so specious a pretence besides that he believ'd not that it was safe for him as yet to attempt the exclusion of the other Princes of the bloud from the Succession they being good Catholiques he endeavour'd to draw subtilely into his party the good old Man Charles Cardinal of Bourbon And indeed having with great Presents gain'd the Sieur de Rubempre who absolutely govern'd him he perswaded him without much trouble that he being by one degree of kindred nearer to the King than was the King of Navarre his Nephew it was to him that the Kingdom belong'd of right in case the King shou'd dye without Children and that the whole Catholique League wou'd stand by him in his claim with all their power were it onely to hinder an Huguenot Prince from succeeding to the Crown There needed not more to shake a Soul so weak as was that of the Cardinal de Bourbon who devout as he was yet suffer'd himself to be seduc'd with the vain hopes of Reigning He was so much dazled with the false glittering of an imaginary Crown that without considering he had already one of Cardinalship that threescore and ten came fast upon him and that the King was not yet thirty five he quitted his Habit of Cardinal and appear'd in publique like the General of an Army which gave men occasion to believe that his great age had at least craz'd his understanding if it had not quite destroy'd it Yet this opinion of the world hinder'd him not from calling himself the Heir presumptive of the Crown nor from declaring himself openly the Head of the League against his Nephew the King of Navarre especially when he saw that party in which he thought himself already so firmly rooted become every day more powerfull and formidable by the conjunction of the particular League of the Parisians which caus'd such furious disorders under the famous name of the sixteen and which was fram'd in Paris about this time in that manner which I am â—ow going to relate After that by the vigilance of the â—â—rst President Christopher de Thou and some other Magistrates the course of the League was stopp'd at Paris where it had begun to make some impression after it had been sign'd by the Picards all things were in a peaceable condition there none daring to hold any secret Cabals against the State till such time as on occasion of the Conference betwixt the King of Navarre and the Duke d' Espernon in Guyenne a malicious report was rais'd that the King protected the Huguenots who so soon as their Head should mount the Throne which he pretended to be his right wou'd not fail to abolish the Catholique Religion in France For then it was that a mean Citizen of Paris call'd La Roche Blond a man rather weak and silly than wicked prejudic'd by the calumnies which the factious publish'd against the King got it into his head through a false zeal of Religion that the good Catholiques of Paris shou'd unite themselves together and oppose with all their force the King's designs who as it was imagin'd favour'd the Heretiques and hinder the King of Navarre from his Succession to the Crown To this purpose he address'd himself immediately to one Mr. Matthew de Launoy who having first been a Priest was afterwards the Minister of Sedan from whence he had escap'd in his own defence being there taken in Adultery and thereupon renouncing his Calvinism was made Canon of Soissons and at that time preach'd at Paris He also communicated his design to two noted Doctours and Curats the one of Saint Severin nam'd Iohn Prevost and the other of Saint Benet who was the famous Mr. Iohn Boucher one of the most follow'd Preachers of Paris but whose talent chiefly consisted in his extreme boldness which stretch'd even to impudence a man more proper as it appear'd to raise a great Sedition by his violent and furious declamations than to preach the Gospel of Iesus Christ which inspires onely humility obedience and submission to the higher Powers These men being united all four in the same opinion which the Spirit of Division and Rebellion disguis'd under the specious appearance of Zeal inspir'd into them communicated to each other the names of all their several acquaintance in Paris who were most proper to enter into Society with them and to lay the foundations of an Holy Union of Catholiques in that great City which without farther deliberation they coucluded to be of absolute necessity to preserve Religion in France and to extinguish Tyranny for by that name it was that those factious Bygots took the licence to call the Government But for fear of being too soon discover'd by their multitude as it had happen'd formerly in Paris when the project of the League was first broach'd they agreed each of them to name two Associats of the most conâ—iding men they knew to whom they shou'd communicate the whole secret of their enterprise Upon which La roche Blond chose the Sieur Lewis d' Orleans a famous Advocate and the Sieur Acarie Master of the Accompts who was afterwards ironically call'd the Lacquay of the League because that being lame he was one of those who went and came and acted with most earnestness for the interest of his party The same man who was Husband to that pious Mary of the Incarnation of whose good example he profited so ill The Curat of St. Benet nam'd Mignager an Advocate and Crucè a Procureur of Parlament He of St. Severin gave his voice for the Sieur de Caumont an Advocate and a Merchant call'd
time with the Guises and that fatal love which the King had to a lazy quiet life which he cou'd not quit without extreme repugnance and which immediately replung'd him into his pleasant dreams wherein he seem'd to be enchanted render'd fruitless so wholsome an advice Insomuch that he satisfied himself with making a feeble and timorous Declaration wherein answering the Conspiratours in a kind of a respectfull way as if he fear'd to give them any manner of offence he seem'd rather to plead his Innocence before his Judges than to speak awfully to his Rebels like a King and in the mean time gave leisure to the Duke of Guise to form a Body of Ten or twelve thousand Foot and about Twelve hundred Horse The King of Navarre at whom the Leaguers particularly aim'd did indeed make his Declaration which he address'd to the King and to all the Princes and Potentates of Christendom but he made it in a manner which was worthy of the greatness of his courage by the masculine and eloquent Pen of Du Plessis Mornay who particularly understood how to serve his Master according to his Genius For after having generously refuted the calumnies with which the Factious charg'd him he made protestation that he was no ways an Enemy to the Catholiques nor to their Religion which he was most ready to embrace whensoever he shou'd be instructed by another method than what was us'd to him after St. Bartholomew by holding the Dagger to his Throat After which he declar'd that all those who had the malice or the impudence to say that he was an Enemy to Religion and to the State and that he design'd to oppress either of them by an imaginary League which was â—alâ—ly suppos'd to have been made to that intent at Madgburg with respect to the King's Honour Lyed in their throats and above all others the Duke of Guise and humbly begg'd his Majesty's permission without regard to his being first Prince of the bloud that for once he might levell himself to an equality with him to the end that they might decide their quarrel by the way of Arms singly betwixt themselves or by a Duel two to two ten to ten or twenty against twenty to spare the effusion of so much bloud as must inevitably be shed in a Civil War But though he did his uttermost to excite in the King a generous resolution of Arming himself against his Rebels though he offer'd to Combat them in his own person and with all his Forces in conjunction with those Catholiques who were Enemies to the League and that he assur'd him of powerfull Succours from England and from Germany which had been promis'd yet cou'd he never strike more fire out of that irresolute soul than onely some faint sparks of a languishing and impotent anger which his fear and effeminacy soon quench'd like those weak motions which men seem to make in frightfull dreams when they rowze themselves a little but immediately yield to the force of sleep 'T is acknowledg'd that he made Edicts against them injoyning them to lay down Arms and commanding all his Subjects to ring the Larum Bells against them and to cut them in pieces if they disobey'd He summon'd the Nobility and Princes of the bloud to attend him he gave Commissions and issued out Orders to make a great Levy of Reiters and Swisses and commanded his Guards to be in a readiness to march to the rendesvouz which shou'd be appointed them But after all the insuperable passion which he had for quiet and the soft pleasures of the Cabinet and the fear of the League with which he was possess'd by the Queen Mother who held intelligence with the Duke of Guise and magnifi'd his Forces incomparably beyond the life together with the advice of some of his Council who had rather he shou'd arm against the King of Navarre his faithfull Subject than against Catholiques though Rebels brought the matter to that pass at length that he grew colder than ever and left all things to the management of his Mother to whom he gave full power of treating with the Associated Princes and even of concluding as soon as possibly she cou'd with them on what conditions she shou'd please Thus after a Conference begun at Epernay and afterwards finish'd at Nemours on the Seventh of Iuly 1585. a Peace was concluded with the Leaguers granting them whatsoever they cou'd demand either for Religion or for themselves For what concern'd Religion an Edict was made by which revoking all those that had formerly been granted in favour of the Huguenots all exercise of the pretendedly reform'd Religion was prohibited The Ministers were all commanded to depart the Kingdom a month after the publication of the Edict and all the King's Subjects enjoyn'd to make publique profession of the Catholique Faith within Six months on pain of banishment And for the interest of the Confederate Princes who affected above all things to have it believ'd that their principal aim was the preservation of the Catholique Faith a ratification was made of all which they had done as onely undertaken for the maintenance of Religion and service of the King and besides there was a promise made them that they shou'd command the Armies which were to put this Edict in Execution and to make War against the Huguenots in case they refus'd submission to it And for places of Caution besides Thoul and Verdun of which they had possess'd themselves at first there were granted them three Towns in Champaign Rheims Chaälons and St. Dizier Ruë in Picardy besides those of which they were already Masters in that Province which had declared first of all others for the League Soissons in the Isle of France in Bretagne Dinan and Concarneau and Dijon and Beaune in Bourgogne Yet more there was money given them to pay the Souldiers they had Levied and to the Cardinal of Bourbon to the Duke of Guise his two Brothers and their Couâ—ns the Dukes of Mercaeur of Aumale and of Elbeuf to each of them a Company of Arquebusiers or Dragoons on Horseback maintain'd for their Guard as if they resolv'd by so glaring a mark of honour to make ostentation of their triumph over the King against whom they had newly gain'd so great a victory without combate onely by the terrour of their Arms which contrary to the order of Nature made of a Master and a Sovereign the Slave and Executo rof the good will and pleasure of his Subjects Such was the Edict of Iuly which was extorted from the weakness of the King who immediately perceiv'd that instead of securing Religion and his own repose by granting all things to the League as he was made to believe he shou'd he had plung'd himself into a furious War which might have been extremely dangerous to Religion if the Huguenots had overcome the Catholiques 'T is what he himself took notice of when amidst the acclamations and cries of Vive le Roy which resounded from every part when he
to the King who not being resolv'd what to answer them for fear of provoking the League in case he shou'd grant them their demands or of drawing on himself the united Forces of almost all the Protestants of Germany in case of a refusal to gain time took a Progress as far as Lyons while the Deputies of those Princes were at Paris which caus'd the Count of Montbeliard and the Count of Isembourg who were the chief of that Embassy to return But so did not the rest as being obstinately set down to wait the King's return who was at last constrain'd being overcome by their extreme persistance whom he well hop'd to have tir'd first to give them the Audience which they demanded He who was spokesman for the rest loosing all manner of respect made a blunt and haughty Speech reproching him in certain terms which were but too intelligible that against his Conscience and his Honour he had violated his faith so solemnly given to his most faithfull Subjects of the Protestant Religion to whom he had promis'd the free exercise of it they remaining as since that time they had always done in that perfect obedience which is due from Subjects to their Sovereigns That Prince who at other times was but too meek and patient or rather too weak and timorous was so much offended at this brutal insolence that he was not able to curb himself from breaking out into choler on this occasion For he repli'd smartly to them with that air of Majesty and fierceness which he knew well to take up whensoever it pleas'd him that as he had not taken the liberty to give Laws to their Masters of ruling their Estates according to their own liking and changing the Civil and Religious constitution of their Government so neither on his side wou'd he suffer them to intermeddle in those alterations which he thought fit to make in his Edicts according to the diversity of times and of occasions for the good of his People of whom the greatest part depended on the true Roman Catholique Religion which the most Christian Kings his Predecessours had ever maintain'd in France to the exclusion of all others Afterwards retiring into his Cabinet where after he had revolv'd in his mind what had been said on either part he was of opinion that his Answer had not been sharp enough he sent them by one of the Secretaries of State a Paper written with his own hand which was read to them and in which he gave the Lie in formal terms to all those who said he had done against his Honour or violated his Faith in revoking the Edict of May by that of Iuly after which it was told them from him that they had no more to doe than to return home without expecting any farther Audience This was certainly an Answer worthy of a great Monarch had he maintain'd it by his actions as well as by his words and had he not shewn by his after conduct the fear he had of this irruption of the Germans For in order to prevent it he seem'd to descend too much from that high and Supreme Majesty of a King by treating almost upon terms of equality with the Duke of Guise and offering him besides whatever advantages he cou'd wish in Honours and in Pensions and many Towns for his security which had made him a kind of Independant Royalty in the Kingdome on this onely condition that he would be reconcil'd to the King of Navarre and give him leave to live in quiet as if it were the Duke and not the King who had the power of giving Peace Though these advantageous proffers were sufficient to have tempted the Duke's ambition nevertheless he wou'd not accept them because he hop'd to satisfie it much better by continuing the War in which he had engag'd the King who was not able to recall his promise besides he was not willing to destroy the opinion which the people had conceiv'd of him that he acted by no motive of self-interest but onely for the Cause of God and of Religion This expedient of Peace therefore failing the King who had ardently desir'd it he employ'd another which was to intreat Q. Katharine de Medices to confer with the King of Navarre her Son-in-Law to try if by her usual arts she cou'd induce him to some accommodation which might be satisfactory to the League and stop the Germans of whose Succours his peace once made that King wou'd have no farther use The Queen Mother who at that time desir'd the peace at least as much as he because she fear'd to be left at the discretion of either of the two parties by whom she was equally hated willingly accepted that Commission grounding her hopes on those tricks and artificial ways by which she had so often succeeded on the like occasions Having then advanc'd as far as Champigny a fair house belonging to the Duke of Montpensier she manag'd the matter in such sort by the mediation of that Prince who went to visit the King of Navarre from her that it was agreed there shou'd be a Conference After many difficulties which were rais'd concerning it and which with much canvasing they got over the place was appointed to be St. Brix a Castle near Cognac belonging to the Sieur de Fo rs who was of the King's party She came thither attended by the Dukes of Montpensier and of Nevers Marshal Biron and some other Lords who were no friends to the Guises or the Leaguers to the end that Conference might be the more amicable The King of Navarre came also thither with the Prince of Condè Vicount de Turenne and some others the most considerable of their Party It appear'd manifestly at this Enterview that the Queen held no longer that Authority which had been yielded to her in the former Conferences wherein she had carried all things according to her own desire by the wonderfull Ascendant which she had over their minds And she understood but too well from the very beginning that she had to doe with such as were distrustfull of her subtilties and who wou'd not suffer themselves to be surpris'd easily as some of them had been on St. Bartholomew's day whereof they had not yet worn out the remembrance For they wou'd never adventure themselves all three together in the Chamber appointed for the Conference when the King of Navarre was there the Prince and Vicount well accompanied made a guard at the door and when either of the other two enter'd the King of Navarre and the other did the like for him that they might not put themselves unwarily into her hands on whose word they had no reason to rely and who dar'd not to arrest any of them singly the two remaining being at liberty and in condition to give themselves satisfaction on the Aggressours Thus being too suspicious and their minds too much embitter'd to act calmly and reasonably in this Conference it went off in three Enterviews which were made in resenting
Epigramm which concludes that Henry cannot be deni'd to be a great Saint and a worker of Miracles since of a little Valley he has in a moment made a mighty Mountain The Verses run thus Quis neget Henricum miracula prodere mundo Qui fecit montem qui modo vallis erat A Saint at least our Henry we account Who of a Vale so soon has made a Mount. An Allusion was made to his Sirname of La Valette by a kind of clenching Witticism much in fashion in those times but which is now exploded And an offer was likewise made at vilifying his birth not unlike what Busbequius the Emperour Rodolphus his Ambassadour to that King has written in one of his Letters perhaps with some little malignity and following the foolish reports of the rabble who commonly love to speak disgracefully of Favourites what we may receive for undoubted truth is this that this prodigious raising of the Duke of Espernon a declar'd Enemy to the Duke of Guise was the reason that he being furiously incens'd at the refusal which he had and at the greatning of a man who sought his ruine believ'd himself now authoriz'd to give the reins to his resentment and push his fortune as far as it wou'd go And from thence ensued all those dismal and tragical events the very remembrance of which strikes an horrour into my Soul and which nevertheless in performance of my duty I shall faithfully represent in the following Book THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE LIB III. IF I intended to follow the Example of Livy the Prince of Latine Historians who never suffers a Prodigy to escape him and describes it perhaps with as much superstition as exactness I shou'd here make long narrations how the Sun was obscur'd on the sudden without the interposition of any Cloud appearing in the Sky with a flaming Sword shooting out from the Centre of the Body palpable darkness like that of the Egyptians at noon-day extraordinary Tempests Earthquakes fiery Phantasms in the Air and an hundred other Prodigies which are said to have been produc'd and seen in this unhappy year of one thousand five hundred eighty eight and which were fansi'd to be so many ominous presages of those horrible disorders that ensued in it But because I am not of the opinion that much credit ought to be given to those sorts of Signs which are commonly the effects of natural causes though very often unknown to us nor to the predictions of Astrologers some of which verily believ'd they had found in the Stars that this year shou'd be the conclusion of the World I will onely say that the most sure presage of so many misfortunes then impending was the minds of men too much exasperated on both sides to live in peace with each other and not rather to be searching out for means of making sure of those whom they suspected and disposing of them according to their jealousies In order to this the Duke of Guise after he had made an end of ruining the County of Montbelliard took his way to Nancy whither he had invited all the Princes of his house to assemble in the Month of Ianuary there to take their resolutions in reference to the present condition of affairs and of that happy success which they had in the War against the Reyters Some of them there were as it is reported so swoln with that Victory and so blinded with their prosperity that they propos'd in this Conference the most dangerous and most violent expedients to which the Duke of Lorrain a moderate and wary Prince wou'd by no means listen Howsoever it were for I find nothing to confirm these relations not even in the Memoires of their greatest Enemies who have written most exactly of that Assembly 't is most undoubted that if they proceeded not so far as to those terrible extremities yet what was then concluded pass'd in the World for a most unjust and unlawfull undertaking and was condemn'd by all those who were not blindly devoted to the League It was that a Request shou'd be presented to the King containing Articles which under the ordinary pretence of their desire to preserve in France the Catholique Religion tended manifestly to despoil him of his Authority and Power and to invest the Heads of the League in both For those scandalous Articles bore this substance in them that for the service of God and the maintenance and security of Religion the King shou'd not onely be most humbly Petition'd but also summon'd to establish the Holy Inquisition in his Realm to cause the Council of Trent to be there Publish'd suspending nevertheless that Article which revokes the exemption pretended by some Chapters and Abbeys against the Bishops to continue the War against the Huguenots and to cause the goods both of them and of their Associates to be sold with which to defray the charges of that War and to pay the Debts in which the Heads of the League had been constrain'd to involve themselves for the prosecution of it To refuse quarter to all Prisoners who shou'd be taken in that War unless upon condition of paying the full value of their goods and giving caution of living afterwards like good Catholiques Behold here a most specious appearance of Zeal for Religion but in the next place observe the Venom which lies hidden under all these fair pretences That the King shall unite himself more cordially and more openly than before to this Holy League thereby to keep exactly all its Laws to which men are oblig'd by this the most solemn and most inviolable of all Oaths That besides the Forces which he shall be oblig'd to set on foot to wage that War against the Huguenots he shall maintain an Army on the Frontiers of Lorrain to oppose the German Protestants if they shou'd determine once again to enter France That besides those places which the Leaguers already held for their security there shou'd be deliver'd to them other Towns of more importance which shou'd be specifi'd to him where they might establish for Governours those of their Heads which they shall name with power of introducing such Garisons and making such Fortifications as they shall think fit at the charges of the Provinces in which they are situate And in conclusion to secure them that they shall be no more hindred as till this present they have always been in the executing of those things which have been promis'd them for the safety of Religion his Majesty shall displace from his Council and from the Court and shall deprive of their Governments and Offices those who shall be nam'd to him as Patrons of Heretiques and Enemies to Religion and the State These were those extravagant demands which began to open the eyes of many good Catholiques who had suffer'd themselves to be innocently seduc'd by the appearances of true zeal which being little illuminated was not according to knowledge as the Apostle speaks For they now more clearly saw into some of those
Articles that the League to engage the Pope and the King of Spain in their Interests wou'd be content to abandon those Privileges and Liberties which our Ancestours have always maintain'd with so much vigour and resolution and to subject to the yoke of a Spanish Inquisition the French who have never been able to undergo it And in others of them that they design'd to bereave the King of all the solid and essential parts of Royalty to leave him onely the shadow and appearance of it and afterwards to dispose even of his Person as the Heads of their party shou'd think fit And accordingly when the Request was presented to the King on the part of the Associated Princes and the Cardinal of Bourbon whose simplicity and whose name they abus'd and made it a cloke to their Ambition he conceiv'd an extreme indignation against it which immediately appear'd in his eyes and countenance Yet he thought it necessary at that time to dissemble not finding himself then in a condition of returning such an answer to it as was becoming a King justly provok'd against his Subjects who stood on terms with him like Lords and Masters For which reason and withall to gain farther time he contented himself to say that he wou'd examine those Articles in his Council in order to his Answer which shou'd be in such sort that all good Catholiques shou'd have reason to be satisfi'd But in the mean time the Duke of Guise who took not fair words for payment well understanding the King's design and resolving not to give the Duke of Espernon the leisure to conjure down that Tempest which was rais'd against him and to infuse into his Master those vigorous resolutions which were necessary for him to take press'd the King continually to give a precise Answer to every particular in those Articles For he doubted not that in case it prov'd favourable he shou'd ingross all power in himself and if it were otherwise that it wou'd be thought the King resolv'd to maintain the Huguenots and that by consequence the Catholiques wou'd enter into a War against him On which considerations being then retir'd into his Government of Champaigne to which place he went after the Conference at Nancy he pli'd the King incessantly with Messages sent by Gentlemen one after another to urge him to a speedy and punctual Answer And this he did with the more eagerness and importunity because on the one side he found himself more powerfull than ever having a great part of the Gentry and almost all the People and especially the Parisians for him And on the other side he observ'd the party of the Huguenots to be very low and infinitely weaken'd by the defeat of their great German Succours and by their late loss of the Prince of Condé a person of all others the most strictly tied to their Religion and on whom they more relied than any man not excepting the King of Navarre himself He deceas'd on the fifth of March at St. Iean de Angely of an exceeding violent distemper with which he was suddenly seiz'd one evening after Supper and which carri'd him off in two days time The Sixteen with infamous baseness made a great rejoycing for it and their Preachers fail'd not to roar out in their Sermons that it was the effect of the Excommunication with which he had been Thunder-struck by Pope Sixtus But besides that the King of Navarre who had been struck in the same manner by the Bull had his health never the worse for it the King to whom that poor creature the Cardinal of Bourbon had been telling the same story and making wonderfull exclamations in relating it answer'd him with a smile That it might very well be the occasion of his death but withall there was something else which help'd him on his journey And truly the matter was put beyond all doubt after the attestation of four Physicians and of two Master Chirurgeons who depos'd upon their Oaths that they had manifestly seen in almost all the parts of his Body all the most evident signs and effects of a Caustique Poison burning and ulcerating A most execrable action which cou'd not be too rigorously punish'd and yet the Laws inflicted what was possible on the person of one of his domestick servants who was drawn in pieces by four Horses in the place of St. Iean de Angely As to the rest he was a Prince who excepting onely his obstinate adhering to a Religion in which he was born and whoâ—e falshood he might have known in time if he had not been too much prepossess'd had at the Age of five and thirty years at which he died all the perfections which can meet together in one man to render him one of the greatest and most accomplish'd persons in the World if at least there might not possibly be discern'd in his carriage and customes some of those little failings from which the most wise are not exempted and which may easily be pardon'd without lessening the esteem which we have for them And if Fortune which is not always propitious to merit was not favourable to him on some occasions wherein he had need of her assistance yet in this she was his friend that she gave him the greater opportunity of shewing his invincible courage in his adversities in which he rais'd himself infinitely above her by the vigour and greatness of his Soul Accordingly the death of this great Prince was lamented not onely by those of his own party who lov'd him passionately but also by the Catholiques and even by the Duke of Guise himself who Head as he was of an infamous and wicked Faction which he made subâ—ervient to his ends had of his own stock and the excellency of his nature which was infinitely noble all the generosity which is requisite to love and respect vertue even in the person of his greatest and most formidable Enemy All which notwithstanding he was content to make what advantage he cou'd of so lamentable an accident towards the compassing of his designs And as he observ'd not onely by this but by a multitude of concomitant accidents and misfortunes that the Huguenot party decreas'd in strength and reputation and his own grew more bold and undertaking he set himself more vigorously to push his fortune and to demand an entire satisfaction to all the Articles of his request which had so puff'd up the spirits of the Sixteen that they â—orgot all manner of moderation and grew daily more and more insupportable It happen'd also at the same time that the King receiv'd several advertisements of the resolution which had been taken in their Council to seize his Person and to inclose him in a Monastery And the same Lieutenant of the Provostship of the Isle of Paris Nicholas Poulain who had formerly discover'd the like Conspiracy to which belief was not given told him so many particular circumstances in relation to this that though he was very diffident of that double dealing man
be declar'd to have forfeited for ever their right of succeeding to the Crown That the Duke of Espernoâ— La Valeite his Brother Francis d' O. the Marshals of Retz and of Biron Colonel Alphonso d' Ornano and all others who like them were favourers of the Huguenots or were found to have held any correspondence with them shou'd be depriv'd of their Governments and Offices and banish'd from the Court without hope of ever being restor'd again That the spoils of all these shou'd be given to the Princes of his House and to those Lords who had ingag'd with him of whom he made a long List That the King shou'd casheer his Guard of five and forty as a thing unknown in the times of his Predecessours protesting that otherwise he cou'd place no manner of confidence in him nor ever dare to approach his person That it wou'd please his Majesty to declare him his Lieutenant General through all his Estates with the same Authority which the late Duke of Guise his Father had under the Reign of Francis the Second by virtue of which he hop'd to give him so good an account of the Huguenots that in a little time there shou'd remain no other but the Catholique Religion in all his Kingdom To conclude that there shou'd be call'd immediately an Assembly of the three Estates to sit at Paris where all this shou'd be confirm'd and to hinder for the future that the Minions who wou'd dispose of all things at their pleasure shou'd not abuse their favour that there shou'd be establish'd an unchangeable form of Government which it shou'd not be in the power of the King to alter 'T is most evident that Demands so unreasonable so arrogant and so offensive tended to put the Government and the power of it into the Duke's hands who being Master of the Armies the Offices and the Governments of the most principal Provinces in his own person by his Relations his Creatures and the Estates where he doubted not of carrying all before him especially at Paris wou'd be the absolute disposer of Affairs Insomuch that there wou'd be nothing wanting to him but the Crown it self to which 't is very probable that at this time he pretended in case he shou'd survive the King to the exclusion of the Bourbons whom he wou'd have declar'd incapable of succeeding to it For which reason the Queen seeing that he wou'd recede from no part of these Articles and beginning to fear that he wou'd go farther than she desir'd counsell'd the King to get out of Paris with all speed while it was yet in his power so to do And though some of his chief Officers as amongst others the Chancellour de Chiverny and the Sieurs of Villeroy and Villequier who were of opinion that more wou'd be gain'd by the Negotiation and who foresaw that the Huguenots and the Duke of Espernon whom they had no great cause to love wou'd make their advantage of this retreat so unworthy of a King endeavour'd to dissuade him from it yet a thousand false advertisements which came every moment that they were going to invest the Louvre and his accustom'd fear together with the diffidence he had of the Duke of Guise whom he consider'd at that time as his greatest Enemy caus'd him at the last to resolve on his departure Accordingly about noon the next day while the Queen Mother went to the Duke with propositions onely to amuse him the King making shew to take a turn or two in the Tuilleries put on Boots in the Stables and getting on Horse-back attended by fifteen or sixteen Gentlemen and by ten or twelve Lacqueys having caused notice to be given to his Guards to follow him went out by the Port Neuve riding always on full gallop for fear of being pursu'd by the Parisians till having gain'd the ascent above Challiot he stopt his Horse to look back on Paris 'T is said that then reproaching that great City which he had always honour'd and enrich'd by his Royal presence and upbrayding its ingratitude he Swore he wou'd not return into it but through a Breach and that he wou'd lay it so low that it shou'd never more be in a condition of lifting up its self against the King After this he went to Lodge that night at Trappes and the next morning arriv'd at Chartres where his Officers those of his Council and the Courtiers came up to him one after another in great disorder some on Foot others on Horse-back without Boots several on their Mules and in their Robes every man making his escape as he was best able and in a great hurry for fear of being stop'd in short all of them in a condition not unlike the Servants of David at his departure from Ierusalem travelling in a miserable Equipage after their distress'd Master when he fled before the Rebel Absalom The Duke of Guise who on the one side had been unwilling to push things to an extremity to the end he might make his Treaty with the King and that it might not be said he was not at liberty and on the other side not believing that he wou'd have gone away in that manner as if he fled from his Subjects who stopping short of the Louvre by fifty paces seem'd unwilling to pursue their advantage any farther was much surpris'd at this retreat which broke the measures he had taken but as he was endu'd with an admirable presence of mind and that he cou'd at a moments warning accommodate his resolutions to any accident how unexpected or troublesome soever he immediately appli'd himself to put Paris in a condition of fearing nothing to quiet all things there and restore them to their former tranquillity and withall to give notice to the whole Kingdom how matters had pass'd at the Barricades as much to his own advantage as possibly he cou'd To this effect he possess'd himself of the strongest places in the City of the Temple of the Palace of the Town-House of the two Chastelets of the Gates where he set Guards of the Arsenal and of the Bastille which was surrender'd to him too easily by the Governour Testu the Government of which he gave to Bussy Le Clerc the most audacious of the Sixteen He oblig'd the Magistrates to proceed in the Courts of Judicature as formerly He made a new Provost of Merchants and Sheriffs a Lieutenant Civil Colonels and Captains of the several Wards all devoted to the League in the room of those whom he suspected He retook without much trouble all the places both above and below on the River that the passages for Provisions might be free He writ at last to the King to the Towns and to his particular Friends and drew up Manifests or Declarations in a style which had nothing in it but what was great and generous while he endeavour'd to justify his proceedings and at the same time to preserve the respect which was owing to the King protesting always that he was most ready to
pay him an entire Obedience and that he propos'd nothing to himself but that provision shou'd be made for the safety of Religion and of good Catholiques which were design'd to be oppress'd through the pernicious Counsells of such as held intelligence with Heretiques and projected nothing but the ruine of Religion and the State These Letters together with those which the Parisians wrote to the other Towns exhorting all men to combine with them for their common preservation in the Catholique Faith and those of the King which on the contrary were written in too soft a style and where there appear'd more of fear and of excuse than of resentment and just complaint for so sacrilegious an attempt had this effect that the greatest part of the people far from being scandalis'd at the Barricades approv'd them loudly praising the conduct of the Duke of Guise whom they believ'd to be full of Zeal for the Catholique Faith for the good of the Kingdom and for the Service of the King And as he desir'd nothing so much as to confirm them in that opinion he was willing that the body of the City shou'd send their Deputies to the King humbly to beseech his Majesty that he wou'd forget what was pass'd and return to his good Town of Paris where his most Loyal Subjects were ready to give him all the highest demonstrations of their Obedience and devotion to his Service He permitted that even processions shou'd be made in the Habit of Penitents to desire of God that he wou'd please to mollify the King's Heart and this was perform'd with so much ardour that there was one which went from Paris as far as Chartres in a most extraodinary Equipage under the conduct of the famous Fryar Ange. This honest Father was Henry de Ioyeuse Count of Bouchage and Brother to the late Duke He had given up himself to be a Capuchin about a year before this time having such strong impressions made upon him by the death and good example of his Wife Catharine de Nogaret Sister to the Duke of Espernon that he was inflam'd with a desire of repentance insomuch that neither the tears of his Brother nor the intreaties and favours of the King who lov'd him exceedingly nor the ardent solicitations of all the Court were able to remove him from the resolution he had taken of leading so austere a Life This noble Fryar having put a Crown of Thorns upon his head and carrying an overgrown Cross upon his Shoulders follow'd by his Fraternity and by a great number of Penitents and others who represented in their Habits the several persons of the Passion led on that procession singing Psalms and Litanies The march of these Penitents was so well manag'd that they enter'd the great Church of Chartres just as the King was there at Vespers As they enter'd they began to sing the Miserere in a very dolefull tone And at the same time two swindging Fryars arm'd with Disciplines laid on lustily poor Fryar Ange whose back was naked The application was not hard to make nor very advantageous to the Parisians for the charitable creature seem'd evidently to desire the King that he wou'd please to pardon them as Iesus Christ was willing to forgive the Iews for those horrible outrages which they had committed against him A Spectacle so surprising produc'd different effects in the minds of the standers by according to the variety of their tempers some of them were melted into compassion others were mov'd to Laughter and some even to indignation And more than all the rest the Marshal de Biron who having no manner of relish for this sort of devotion and fearing besides that some dangerous Leaguers might have crowded in amongst them with intention to Preach the people into a Mutiny counsell'd the King to clap them up in Prison every Mothers Son But that good Prince who notwithstanding all his faults had a stock of Piety at the bottom and much respect for all things that related to Religion rejected wholly this advice He listen'd to them much more favourably than he had heard all the Harangues of the former Deputies and promis'd to grant them the pardon they desir'd for the Town which he had so much favour'd on condition they wou'd return to their Obedience And truly 't is exceeding probable that he had so done from that very time if they had not afterwards given him fresh provocations by proposing the terms on which they insisted for the Peace which they desir'd For the Duke of Guise to whom all these fair appearances were very serviceable and cou'd be no ways prejudicial and who always pursu'd his designs in a direct line knew so well to manage the disposition of the Queen Mother who had seem'd at first to be much startled at his demands that he recall'd her with much dexterity into his interests by working on those two passions which were rooted in her Soul She desir'd to raise to the Throne after the death of the King her Son her Grandson Henry de Lorrain Marquis du Pont and believ'd that the Duke of Guise wou'd contribute to it all that was in his power But as cunning as she was she saw not into the bottom of that Prince who fed her onely with vain hopes of that Succession for another to which he personally aspir'd She infinitely hated the Duke of Espernon and believing he was the man who having possess'd himself of the King's Soul had render'd her suspected to him long'd to turn him out of Court promising her self by that means to be re-establish'd in the management of affairs from which the Favourites had remov'd her And the Duke of Guise who had as little kindness as her self for the Duke of Espernon concurr'd in the same design with at least as much earnestness but for a much different end for he desir'd to be absolute himself In this manner this subtle Prince always dissembling and artifically hiding the true motives by which he acted drew the Queen at last to consent to all that he desir'd and above all to give her allowance that a request shou'd be presented to the King in the name of the Cardinals the Princes the Peers of France the Lords the Deputies of Paris and the other Towns and of all the Catholiques united for the defence of the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Religion This reqest which in the manner of its expressions was couch'd in most respectfull terms contain'd notwithstanding in the bottom of it certain Propositions at least as hard as the Artâ—cles of Nancy and even as those which not long before were propos'd to the Queen by the Duke of Guise For after a protestation in the beginning of it that in whatsoever had pass'd till that present time there had been nothing done but by a pure zeal for God's honour and for the preservation of his Church they demand of the King That he wou'd make War with the Huguenots and that he wou'd conclude no Peace till
all Heresies were rooted out That it wou'd please him to use the Service of the Duke of Guise in so just and holy an undertaking that he wou'd drive out of the Court and despoil of all their Offices all those who held a secret correspondence with the Huguenots and principally the Duke of Espernon and his Brother La Valette Against whom there are recited in that request all imaginable crimes that cou'd be thought most capable of rendring them odious and insupportable to the whole Kingdom That he wou'd deliver the Nation from the just apprehensions it had of falling one day under the power and dominion of Heretiques And that there might be given to the City of Paris a full assurance henceforth to enjoy a perfect tranquillity without fear of oppression he wou'd not onely please to confirm the new Provosts and Sheriffs but that also the â—aid City may have full and entire liberty for the future to make choice of such as shall succeed in those places and in those of City Colonels and Captains This request was extremely displeasing to the King who saw but too clearly that their intention was to give the Law to him hereafter whom they had first so haughtily affronted He therefore caus'd it to be examin'd in his Council where there was but small agreement because the Members of it were divided in their Interests There were but two methods to be taken on that subject either for the King to joyn with the League against the Huguenots as the request demanded or to make War against the League with all his Power in conjunction with the Huguenots for unless he espous'd one of these interests it was impossible for him to succeed Those of the Council who lov'd not the Duke of Espernon who were many and who fear'd that the acting of the King's Forces in combination with the Huguenots wou'd prove of great prejudice to his Reputation and of greater to Religion were for the former Proposition and Counsel that all differences shou'd be accommodated in the best manner they cou'd with the Duke of Guise which was also the deâ—ire of the Queen Mother But the rest who for the most part consisted of those persons whose disgrace and banishment was demanded in the Request insisted strongly on the second and gave their voice for a War to be made against the Duke to the uttermost fortifying their opinion by the number of Forces which the King might raise promiscuously both from Catholiques and Protestants because this was not a War of Religion but that the Sovereign onely 〈◊〉 himself to quell and chastise his rebellious Subjects It wou'd be a matter of much difficulty to tell precisely what was the true resolution which the King took betwixt the extremes of these different Counsels But it may be told for a certain truth that having a long time deliberated and that much more in his own breast than with his Council he seem'd at length all on the sudden to pitch upon the first whether it were that being as he was a good Catholique and hating the Huguenots he cou'd not yet come to a resolution of uniting himself to them or were it that he thought not himself at that time strong enough even with the King of Navarre's assistance to destroy the League which was grown more powerfull than ever since the Barricades and Headed by a man so able so bold and so successfull as the Duke of Guise or lastly as many have believ'd that being strongly perswaded he shou'd never be in safety nor be Master in his Kingdom while that 〈◊〉 whom he hated mortally was 〈◊〉 he took up from that very moment a resolution within himself to dispatch him out of the World and that he might draw him into the Net which he was spreading for him was willing to grant in a manner whatsoever he desir'd as if it were done in coâ—â—â—mplation of a Peace Whatsoever were his true motive for I desire not that random guesses shou'd be taken for truths 't is certain that though the King was highly exasperated against the League yet he answer'd their request with much gentleness and moderation assuring them that he wou'd assemble the three Estates at Blois in the Month of September there to advise of the means to give them satisfaction and to deliver them from the jealousie they had of falling one day under the dominion of a Huguenot Prince that for what related to the Duke of Espernon he wou'd doe them Justice like an Equitable King and wou'd make it manifest that he preferr'd the publique welfare before the consideration of any private person Accordingly in the first place that Duke was despoil'd of his Government of Normandy commanded to depart from Court and retire himself to Angouleme Not long time afterwards the King concluded a Treaty with the Lords of the League to whom besides the Places which they had already in possession the Towns of Montreuil Orleans and Bourges were given for six Years A publication of the Council of Trent was promis'd with provision against that part of it which was contrary to the liberties of the Gallicane Church â—There was given to the Duke of Guise instead of the title of Constable that of Head of the French Gendarmerie which signifies the same thing Two Armies were promis'd to be rais'd against the Huguenots one in Dauphinè under the command of Duke of Mayenne and the other in Saintonge and Poitou which â—hou'd be Commanded by a General of the King 's own choice For the New Constable under another name wou'd not be so far from Court lest his absence from thence might be of ill consequence to his Party In conclusion the King caus'd to be publish'd the famous Edict of Iuly which he commanded to be call'd the Edict of the Reunion where he did more in favour of the League than the League it self desir'd from him For after having declar'd in that Edict that he wou'd have all his Subjects united to himself that in like manner as their Souls are redeem'd with the same price by the Bloud of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ so also they and their posterity shou'd be one Body with him he swears that he will employ all his Forces without sparing his proper life to exterminate from his Realm all Heresies condemn'd by Councils and principally by that of Trent without ever making any Peace or Truce with Heretiques or any Edict in their favour He wills that all Princes Lords Gentlemen and Inhabitants of Towns and generally all his Subjects as well Ecclesiastical as Secular shou'd take the same Oath That farther they shou'd swear and promise for the time present and for ever after it shall have pleas'd God to dispose of his life without having given him Issue Male not to receive for King any Prince whatsoever who shall be a Heretique or a promoter of Heresie He declares Rebels and guilty of High Treason and to have forfeited all Privileges which have formerly been granted to
Savoyard Thus whether it were that the King had long since resolv'd to rid his hands of the Duke of Guise in revenge of some ancient grudge and sense of the affronts he had receiv'd from him particularly on that fatal day of the Barricades or were it that being sincerely reconcil'd to him he had taken or perhaps resum'd that resolution when he saw him act against him in the Estates of which he had made himself the Master and believeing his own condition desperate if he made not haste to prevent him most certain it is that he deliberated no more but onely concerning the manner of executing what he had determin'd He had onely two ways to chuse the one by justice first committing him and afterwards making his process the other by Fact which was to have him slain He manag'd this consultation with exceeding secrecy admitting onely four or five of his Confidents on whom he most rely'd One of these was Beauvais Nangis who having serv'd the King well in his Army against the Reyters was restor'd so fully to his favour that in recompence of the Command of Colonel of the French Infantry which the Duke of Espernon had got over his head he made him afterwards Admiral of France though he never enjoy'd that great dignity which he had onely under the Signet This Lord who was as prudent and temperate in Council as prompt and daring in execution concluded for the methods of Justice maintaining that they were not onely the more honest but also the more safe because the fear alone which wou'd possess the Duke's party lest they shou'd kill him in case they attempted to deliver him by force and by that means hinder the course of Justice wou'd stop all manner of such proceeding and restrain them within the terms of Duty That after all if he were once made Prisoner which might be done without noise or tumult it wou'd be easie to give him such Judges as shou'd soon dispatch his Tryal and that afterwards he might be executed in Prison according to the Laws But if on the contrary they shou'd enter crudely on so bloudy an execution there was danger lest that action which was never to be well justified and which the Leaguers wou'd certainly cause to pass in the World for tyrannical and perâ—idious might raise a rebellion in the greatest part of France which had already declar'd so loudly for that Prince whom they regarded as the pillar of Religion and wou'd afterwards look on as the Martyr of it But the rest who believ'd it impossible on that occasion to observe the ordinary forms of Law and Justice and thought that the Head being once cut off the Body of the League wou'd immediately fall like a dead Body were of opinion that he shou'd be dispatch'd with all possible speed which was easie to perform especially in the Castle where the Duke was almost hourly in the King's power whom he had in no manner of distrust as sufficiently appear'd by his Lodging there In the mean time 't is most certain that this secret was not kept so close but that he receiv'd advertisement from more than one of his imminent danger and that his death already was resolv'd And he slighted not so much these informations as intrepid as he was or as he affected to appear by replying continually they dare not but that two or three days before his death he consulted on this affair which so nearly concern'd him with the Cardinal of Guise his Brother the Arch-Bishop of Lyons the President de Neuilly the Provost of the Merchants and the Sieur de Mandrevile Governour of St. Menehoud on whom he principally rely'd In weighing those proofs which in a manner were indubitable that a design was laid against him they were unanimously of opinion that the safest course was to be taken and that under some pretence or other he shou'd instantly retire Excepting onely the Arch-Bishop who continu'd obstinate to the contrary fortifying his opinion with this argument that since he was upon the point of carrying all things in the Estates according to his wiâ—h he ran the hazard of loosing all by leaving them And that for the rest it was not credible that the King shou'd be so ill advis'd as to incur the manifest danger of ruining himself by striking that unhappy blow To which Mandrevile reply'd Swearing that for a man of Sense as he was he was the worst Arguer he ever knew For said he you talk of the King as if he were a wary and cool-headed Prince looking before him at every step and will not understand that he is onely a hot-brain'd Fool who thinks no farther than how to execute what his two base passions Fear and Hatred which possess him have once made sink into his imagination and never considers what a wise man ought to do on this occasion It were a folly therefore for the Duke to hazard himself in such a manner and to be mov'd by so weak a reason to loose all in a moment 'T is wonderfull to observe that the most clear sighted men who have it in their power if they will use the means before them to avoid that which is call'd their Destiny after the misfortune is happen'd shou'd suffer themselves to be drag'd and hurried to it as it were by force in spight of their understanding and their foresight which their own rashness and not a pretended fatality renders unprofitable to them 'T is reported that the Duke of Guise confess'd that this dsicourse of Mandrevile carried the greater force of reason yet nevertheless he added that having gone so far forward as he then was if he shou'd see death coming in at the Windows upon him he wou'd not give one step backward to the door though by so doing he were certain to avoid it Nevertheless 't is very probable that the incouragement he had to speak with so much loftiness and resolution was the assurance which he thought he had that the King whose Genius he knew particularly since the day when he enter'd into the Louvre where the Duke gave himself for lost wou'd never afterwards dare to take up so bold a resolution as to kill him 'T is certain that when the Sieur de Vins one of his greatest Confidents had written to him from Provence that he shou'd beware of keeping so near the King and not rely on those large testimonies of his affection which he said he had receiv'd the Duke answer'd him that he repos'd not the hopes of his own safety on the King's Vertue whom he knew to be ill natur'd and a Hypocrite but on his Judgment and on his Fear because it was not credible but he must needs understand that he himself was ruin'd in case he made any attempt against his person But he learnt at his own cost by the unhappy experiment which he made that it had been better for him to have follow'd the wise advice which was given him and which he himself had approv'd
Princes far from bringing those advantages to the King which he had promis'd himself from it and which his passion had represented to him through false optiques as exceeding great and most asâ—ur'd threw him headlong on the sudden into a more deplorable condition than that which he thought he had escap'd He well knew after he had consider'd what he had done in cold Bloud that the Murther of the Cardinal of Guise wou'd be extremely offensive to the Pope and that it was necessary he shou'd endeavour to appease him lest he who carried all things with a high hand and was not of a temper to endure the least affront to his Authority shou'd declare himself for the League in opposition to him which as yet he had not done In consideration of which he writ a Note to the Legat on Christmas day in these very words which follow Now at last I am a King and am resolv'd from henceforth not to suffer my self to be affronted I will give them to understand and make them feel whosoever they are who dare to attacque me that I will always remain in this generous resolution following therein the example of our Holy Father the Pope whose common saying it is that we must make our selves be obey'd and punish those who injure us And since I have accomplish'd my purpose according to this Maxim to morrow I will see you Farewell Accordingly on the twenty sixth of December the Legat had a long Audience wherein the King having inform'd him of the reasons which he had to kill the Duke and Cardinal took God to witness that he had debated within himself and oppos'd his own Arguments with all manner of severity for six days together and during all that time was firmly resolv'd not to have come to those extremities for fear of offending Almighty God But at length considering that He who had made him a King made it part of his duty to maintain himself in that Dignity and that the Pope had sent him word by Monsieur de Luxembourg and had often spoken to the same purpose to the Cardinal of Ioyeuse that he ought to make himself be obey'd and punish those who affronted him he had accordingly resolv'd to prevent them by taking their lives rather than stay till his own were taken by them the design of which they had already laid And if he had not proceeded by the ordinary forms of Justice the reason was that in the low condition to which they had reduc'd him 't was impossible to make use of Law To this the Legat who had leisure in the mean time to consider of what he ought to say answer'd without mentioning the Duke of Guise's death that he thought it his duty to advertise him that supposing the Cardinal had been guilty yet his Majesty in causing him to be put to death as he had done had incurr'd the Censures contain'd in the Bull call'd In Coena Domini as much as those who had executed his Orders and either counsell'd or approv'd that action That therefore it was his duty to ask pardon and absolution of his Sin from the Pope who alone was able to give it him and in the mean time he ought to abstain from entring into the Church The King surpriz'd exceedingly at so brisk a declaration answer'd him that there was no Sovereign Prince who was not endued with power to punish his Ecclesiastical Subjects for crimes of High Treason and more especially when his own Life was concern'd in them for which reason he believ'd not that he had incurr'd any manner of censure principally considering that the Kings of France have the privilege to be exempted from excommunication 'T is certain that he fail'd not on Newyears day to perform his Devotions in ceremony with the Knights of the Order and to communicate publiquely in the Church of Saint Sauveur And when the Legat had made complaint concerning it he sent to him the Sieur de Revol Secretary of State who shew'd him a Breviat of the 21st of Iuly in the year foregoing by which the Pope permitted him to chuse what Confessour he pleas'd and who in virtue of that Breviat had power to absolve him from all manner of crimes even the most enormous from all those particular cases reserv'd to the Pope's own person from all censures and Ecclesiastical punishments even those which are contain'd in the Bull which is call'd In Coenâ Domini And the Secretary added that though the King by virtue of his Privileges had no need of that Breviat in order to his frequenting the Sacraments yet it was past all manner of dispute that having it he might communicate without either scruple or scandal after having receiv'd Absolution from his Confessour The Legat having nothing to reply to this said no more and satisfi'd himself with the remonstrance which he had made But Pope Sixtus stopt not there for he was strangely transported against his Legat whom he accus'd of Cowardise because that having seen a Cardinal Murther'd he had not publish'd the censures against the King with the Interdictions even though it shou'd have cost him as he said an hundred Lives He testifi'd his resentment of it to the Marquis de Pisany the King's Ambassadour at Rome with much sharpness as also to Cardinal de Ioyeuse Protectour of France and yet more vehemently to the Sacred College in full Consistory though the Cardinal de Saint Croix speaking to him immediately before had told him that having consulted the Books of the Doctours on this Subject he had there read that a King who had found a Cardinal plotting against his Estate might cause him to be put to death without either form or figure of Process and that he had no need of absolution in such a case The Pope was incens'd at this freedom which he took and loudly protested that he wou'd never grant any favour nor wou'd suffer any consistorial Remission to be made before the King had sent to beg Absolution which yet shou'd not be granted him till the whole business had been throughly examin'd in a Congregation of Cardinals which he establish'd for that purpose The King was very willing that the Pope if he so pleas'd shou'd give him yet another absolution which cou'd have done him no prejudice though he believ'd it not to be necessary But he wou'd by no means allow that it shou'd be juridically scann'd whether he had the right of punishing his Subjects as he had done Upon which the Cardinal de Ioyeuse made no scruple of remonstrating to the Pope with all the respect which was due to his Holiness that the best and most devout Catholiques of France they are his very words held not for authentique the opinions which were receiv'd at Rome in that which concerns not the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church in both which there was no difference betwixt Rome and France but that in France they held the Prerogatives or Rights of the King to be much greater than
by the Memoires of Du Plessis Mornay yet the King to make it evident that it was onely through necessity that he enter'd into this Union with the Huguenots against the League was consenting that before the publication of it there shou'd be made a last attempt on the inclinations of the Duke of Mayenne to induce him to a reconcilement To this effect he gave in writing to the Legat the same Articles which he had already propos'd to the Duke of Lorrain and which were as advantageous to his Family as he cou'd reasonably desire For there was offer'd to the Duke of Mayenne his Government of Burgundy with full power of placing such Governours in the Towns as he himself shou'd chuse of disposing all vacant Offices and levying on the Province forty thousand Crowns yearly To the young Duke of Guise his Nephew the Government of Champaigne with two Cities at his choice therein to keep what Garrisons he pleas'd twenty thousand Crowns of Pension and thirty thousand Livres of Income in Benifices for his Brother To the Duke of Nemours the Government of Lyons with a Pension of ten thousand Crowns to the Duke of Aumale the Government of Picardy and two Cities in that Province to the Duke of Elbeuf a Government and five and twenty thousand Livres of Pension and what was of greatest importance for that Family to the Marquis du Pont eldest Son of the Duke of Lorrain the Government of Toul Metz and Verdun with assurance that if his Majesty had no Issue Male those three Bishopricks shou'd remain to the Duke of Lorrain To all which the King caus'd this addition to be made that to remove all difficulties which might arise in the execution of this Treaty he wou'd remit himself to the Arbitration of his Holiness who might please to joyn in the Umpirage with him the Senate of Venice the great Duke of Thuscany the Duke of Ferrara and the Duke of Lorrain himself who had so great an interest in those Articles With these conditions the Legat went from Tours on the tenth of April towards the Duke of Mayenne who was already advanc'd with his Army as far as Chasteaudun He was receiv'd with all manner of respect and dureing the two days conference he had with the Duke employ'd the most powerfull considerations he cou'd propose to win his consent to a Peace so advantageous for all his House and so necessary to Religion and the publique welfare or at least to gain thus far upon him that if any thing were yet wanting to his entire satisfaction he wou'd remit his interests and those of his Party into the hands of the Pope as the King on his side was already dispos'd to refer his own But after all his endeavours he cou'd not work him to any condescension And whatever arguments he us'd he always answer'd with great respect as to the Pope and the person of the Legat but with extreme contempt for the King whom he perpetually call'd that Wretch that he and his wou'd ever be obedient to the Pope but that he was very well assur'd that his Holiness wou'd never lay his Commands upon him to make any agreement to the prejudice of Religion with a man who had none at all and who was united with the Huguenots against the Catholiques That he cou'd not bear the mention of a reconcilement with a perjur'd man who had neither Faith nor Honour and that he cou'd never trust his word who had Murther'd his Brothers so inhumanely and violated so perâ—idiously not onely the publique Faith but also the Oath which he had taken on the Evangelists at the most holy Sacrament of the Altar After this the Cardinal farther observing what he cou'd not otherways have believ'd that even more opprobrious terms than these were us'd of the King through all the Army and in every City which own'd the League where no man durst presume to give him the name of King wrote him word that he cou'd do him no Service with the Duke and himself not daring to be near his person while the King of Navarre continued with him went to Bourbonnois where he waited the Orders which he receiv'd from the Pope not long after to return to Rome and there to give an account of his Legation Thus after all hope was utterly lost of concluding any peace with the Leaguers the Treaty with the King of Navarre took place He was put into possession of Saumur the Government of which he gave to the Sieur du Plessis-Mornay who had so well succeeded in his Negotiation And it was from that very place that he publish'd his Declaration concerning his intended passage over the Loyre for the Service of his Majesty where he protests amongst other things that being first Prince of the Bloud whom his Birth oblig'd before all others to defend his King he holds none for Enemies but such as are Rebels forbidding most strictly all his Souldiers to commit any manner of offence against those Catholiques who were faithfull Subjects to his Majesty and particularly against the Clergy whom he takes into his protection The King also made his own at large wherein he declares the reasons that oblig'd him to joyn with the King of Navarre for the preservation of his person and the Estate without any prejudice which cou'd thence ensue to the Catholique Religion which he wou'd always maintain in his Kingdom even with the hazard of his Life But that which at length completed the Happiness of this Union betwixt the two Kings was their Enterview which was made in the Park of Plessis on the thirtieth day of April amidst the acclamations of a multitude of people there assembled and with all the signs of an entire confidence on both sides Though the old Huguenot Captains who had not yet forgot St. Bartholomew us'd their best endeavours that their Master shou'd not have put himself in the King's Power as he did with all frankness and generosity He did yet more for being gone back with his Guards and the Gentlemen who attended him to the Fauxbourgs of St. Simphorian beyond the Bridges on the next Morning which was the first of May he repaâ—s'd the River follow'd onely by one Page and return'd to Tours to be present at the King 's Levè who was infinitely pleas'd with this generous procedure and clearly saw by it that he had no occasion to suspect him and that he had reason to hope all things from a Prince who reli'd so fully on his word though he had broken it more than once to him by revoking the Edicts which he had made in favour of him onely to content the League In this manner they pass'd two days together and held a Council where the King of Navarre caus'd a resolution to be taken that for the speedy ending of the War they shou'd assemble their whole Forces with all possible diligence and March directly on to Paris which was the Head of the League and on which the body of it
that he might advise the King no longer to delay the time in fruitless Treaties which were still counsell'd him by some and were so agreeable to his lazy and unactive genius and to let him know that it was now high time to put in execution a more generous design which was to attaque the Enemy in their chiefest strength by besieging Paris He resolv'd on this at last but first he was desirous of getting Orleans into his power which if he cou'd compass he shou'd thereby deprive Paris of the great supplies which might be drawn from thence To effect this having in the beginning of Iune pass'd his Army over the Bridge of Baugency in La Sologne he caus'd Gergeau to be assaulted the Governour of which place who had the confidence to stay till the Cannon had made a breach which he was not able to defend was taken and hang'd for an example Those of Gien terrifi'd by this just severity made haste to surrender before the Artillery had play'd and the Inhabitants of La Charité put themselves immediately into the King's hands of their own accord so that his Majesty excepting onely Nantz was Master of all the passages on the Loire both above and below Orleans which he invested on all parts of it The Sieur de la Chastre who after the death of the Guises had promis'd fidelity to the King and not long afterwards had declar'd a second time for the League in his Government of Berry put himself into that Town with all the Forces he cou'd make and the Inhabitants encourag'd by his presence refus'd with great scorn those advantageous propositions which were made them by the King laugh'd at his threatnings and took up a resolution of defending themselves to the last extremity Insomuch that it being concluded it was but loss of time to undertake that Siege the first design of going directly on to Paris was resum'd For which reason they repass'd the Loire and upon the March without much trouble took in the Towns of Pluviers Dourdan and Estampes at which last place the King receiv'd the unwelcome news of the Monitory which Pope Sixtus had publish'd against him and this was the occasion of it Not long after the death of the Guises the King who clearly saw by the Remonstrations which the Legat Morosini had made him that the absolution which he had receiv'd by virtue of his Breviat wou'd not be receiv'd at Rome had sent thither Claude d' Angennes Bishop of Mans to intercede for another notwithstanding all the discouraging Letters which had been written him by his friends from thence to disswade him from it or at least to delay a submission of this nature which might prove prejudicial to him In farther prosecution of this the Marquis de Pisany his Ambassadour and the Cardinal de Ioyeuse acting in joint commission with the Bishop by his order had represented to Pope Sixtus the most powerfull reasons they cou'd urge to procure this favour from him to which the Pope who was grown inflexible on that point had answer'd them ruggedly according to his nature that he was willing to take no cognisance of the Duke of Guise's death because he was the King's Subject but the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Arch-bishop of Lyons whom he held Prisoners not being his Subjects since none but the Pope had a Soveraign Power over Cardinals and Bishops he wou'd never grant him absolution before he had restor'd them to their liberty or at least put them into the hands of his Legat that they might be sent to Rome where himself wou'd execute justice on them in case he found them guilty On the other side the Commander of Diu the Sieur Coquelaire Counsellor in Parliament Nicholas de Piles Abbot of Orbais and the Sieur Frison Dean of the Church of Rheims who were Deputies for the League at Rome to hinder the Pope from giving this Absolution not onely oppos'd it with all their force but also us'd their best endeavours to perswade him that he wou'd publish the Excommunication which he himself had said was incurr'd by the King for the murther of the Cardinal of Guise and amongst other arguments which they alledg'd to carry him to this extreme severity against a most Christian King they fail'd not to urge the Authority of the Decrees of the Sorbonne and principally that of the fifth of April In that Decree the Faculty declare that Henry de Valois ought not to be pray'd for in any Ecclesiastique Prayer much less at the Canon of the Mass in regard of the Excommunication which he had incurr'd and that these words Pro Rege nostro ought to be taken out of the Canon lest it shou'd be believ'd that they pray'd for him even though the Priest by directing his intention otherwise shou'd call down the effect of those Prayers on the present Governours or on him to whom God Almighty had reserv'd the kingdom The same Decree wills that instead of them there shou'd be said at Mass three Prayers which are not in the Canon Pro Christianis Principibus nostris which were Printed and remain at this day to be seen Lastly it adds that all such who will not conform to this Decree shall be depriv'd of the Prayers and other rights of the Faculty from which they shall be driven out like Excommunicated Persons and this was approv'd by the general consent of all the Doctors 'T is most certain that these Decrees together with what was continually buzz'd in the Pope's ears that the King's party was absolutely ruin'd contributed not a little to the resolution which he took of prosecuting the King by the ways of rigour and without fear But that which put the last hand to his determination was the Manifesto of the two Kings who were now in conjunction against the League For being a man of an haughty temper he was not able to endure that the King shou'd be united with a person whom he had excommunicated as a relaps'd Heretique by a thundring Bull which he had caus'd to be inserted in the Bullary reprinted by him for that onely purpose he easily believ'd whatever reports were rais'd by the Leaguers to the disadvantage of the King's party or his cause and accordingly set up in Rome his Monitory against him In which he commands him to set at full liberty the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Arch-bishop of Lyons within ten days after the publication of his Monitory at the Gates of two or three of six Cathedral Churches which are nam'd and which are those of Poitiers Orleans Chartres Meaux Agen and Mans and to give him assurance of it within thirty days by an Authentique Act. In default of which he pronounces from that present time and for the future that he and all his Accomplices in the murther of the Cardinal of Guise and the imprisonment of the other Prelates have damnably incurr'd the greater Excommunication and the other Ecclesiastical censures denounc'd by the Bull In Coena Domini
Prelates of the Kingdom that he shou'd restore the Exercise of the Catholique Religion in all places from whence it had been banish'd and remit the Ecclesiastiques into the full and entire Possession of all their Goods that he shou'd bestow no Governments on Hugonots and that this Assembly might have leave to depute some persons to the Pope to render him an account of their Proceedings This Accommodation was sign'd by all the Lords excepting only the Duke of Espernon and the Sieur de Vitry who absolutely refus'd their Consent to it Vitry went immediately into Paris and there put himself into the Service of the League which he believ'd at that time to be the cause of Religion As for the Duke of Espernon he had no inclination to go over to the League which had so often solicited his Banishment from Court But whether it were that being no longer supported since his Masters Death he fear'd the Hatred and Resentment of the greatest Persons about the King and even of the King himself whom he had very much offended during the time of his Favour in which it was his only business to enrich himself or were it that he was afraid he shou'd be requir'd to lend some part of that great Wealth which he had scrap'd together he very unseasonably and more unhandsomly began to raise Scruples and seem'd to be troubled with Pangs of Conscience which never had been thought any great grievance to him formerly so that he took his leave of the King and retir'd to his Government with 2 or 3000 Foot and 500 Horse which he had brought to the Service of his late Master This pernicious Example was follow'd by many others who under pretence of ordering their Domestick Affairs ask'd leave to be gone which the King dar'd not to refuse them or suffer'd themselves to be seduc'd by the Proffers and Solicitations of the League so that the King not being in a condition any longer to besiege Paris was forc'd to divide his remaining Troops comprehending in that number those which Sancy still preserv'd for his Use and Service Of the whole he form'd three little Bodies one for Picardy under the Command of the Duke of Longuevillâ— another for Champaigne under the Marshal d' Aumont and himself led the third into Normandy where he was to receive Supplies from England and where with that small Remainder of his Forces he gave the first Shock to the Army of the League which at that time was become more powerful than ever it had been formerly or than ever it was afterwards In effect those who after the Barricades had their eyes so far open'd as to discover that the League in which they were ingag'd was no other than a manifest Rebellion against their King seeing him now dead believ'd there was no other Interest remaining on their side but that of Religion and therefore reunited themselves with the rest to keep out a Heretick Prince from the Possession of the Crown And truly this pretence became at that time so very plausible that an infinite number of Catholiques of all Ranks and Qualities dazled with so specious an appearance made no doubt but that it was better for them to perish than to endure that he whom they believ'd obstinate in his Heresie shou'd ascend the Throne of St. Lewis and were desirous that some other King might be elected Nay farther there were some of them who took this occasion once more to press the Duke of Mayenne that he wou'd assume that Regal Office which it wou'd be easie for him to maintain with all the Forces of the united Catholiques of which he already was the Head but that Prince who was a prudent man fearing the dangerous consequences of so bold an Undertaking lik'd better at the first to retain for himself all the Essentials of Kingship and to leave the Title of it to the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was a Prisoner and whom he declar'd King under the Name of Charles the Tenth by the Council of the Union At this time it was that there were scatter'd through all the Kingdom a vast number of scandalous Pamphlets and other Writings in which the Authors of them pretended to prove that Henry of Bourbon stood lawfully excluded from the Crown those who were the most eminent of them were the two Advocates general for the League in the Parliament of Paris Lewis d'Orlâ—ans and Anthony Hotman The first was Author of that very seditious Libel call'd The English Catholique And the second wrote a Treatise call'd The Right of the Vncle against the Nephew in the Succession of the Crown But there happen'd a pleasant Accident concerning this Francis Hotman a Civilian and Brother to the Advocate seeing this Book which pass'd from hand to hand in Germany where he then was maintain'd with solid Arguments and great Learning The Right of the Nephew against the Vncle and made manifest in an excellent Book which he publish'd on this Subject the Weakness and false Reasoning of his Adversaries Treatise without knowing that it was written by his Brother who had not put his Name to it The League having a King to whom the Crown of right belong'd after Henry the Fourth his Nephew in case he had surviv'd him by this Pretence increas'd in Power because the King of Spain and the Duke of Lorrain and Savoy who during the Life of the late King their Ally durst not declare openly against him for his Rebellious Subjects now after his Death acknowledging this Charles the Tenth for King made no difficulty to send Supplies to the Duke of Mayenne insomuch that he after having publish'd through all France a Declaration made in August by which he exhorts all French Catholicks to reunite themselves with those who would not suffer an Heretique to be King had rais'd at the beginning of September an Army of 25000 Foot and 8000 Horse With these Forces he pass'd the Seine at Vernon marching directly towards the King who after he had been receiv'd into Pont del ' Arch and Diepe which Captain Rolâ—t and the Commander de Chates had surrendred to him made a show of besieging Rouen not having about him above 7 or 8000 Men. This so potent an Army of the Leaguers compos'd of French and Gâ—rmans Lorrainers and Walloons which he had not imagin'd cou'd have been so soon assembled and which was now coming on to overwhelm him constrain'd him to retire speedily towards Diepe where he was in danger to have been incompass'd round without any possibility of Escape but only by Sea into England if the Duke of Mayenne had taken up the resolution as he ought to have done from the first moment when he took the Field to pursue him eagerly and without the least delay But while he proceeding with his natural slowness which was his way of being wise trifled out his time in long deliberations when he shou'd have come to Action he gave leisure to the King to fortifie his Camp at Arques a League
't is exceeding probable that the greater number must have oppress'd the less by multitudes pour'd in upon them and that he had that day obtain'd an absolute and decisive Victory But as he never did any thing in hast but when he fled for safety of his Life his March was to slow to make fitting use of so fair an Occasion where also his good Fortune depended on his Speed which occasion'd the loss of that Advantage For the Count of Chastillon on the one side running to the Succour of the King with the two Regiments which were in Arques and on the other side the Duke of Montpensier and the brave La Noüe ranging themselves with their Gendarmery by his side that valiant Prince who had already rallied the greatest part of his Souldiers whom the Surprise had affrighted and put into disorder so furiously charg'd the Regiments of Colalte and Tremblecour that they were forc'd to quit the Retrenchments and the Maladery with more speed than they had enter'd them and to retreat towards the Duke of Mayenne who seem'd by his heavy March and slow Advance as if his Business was only to receive them and not to sustain and second them And at the same time the Cannon of the Castle which had him fair before them playing terribly into his Army constrained him to take his way back to his Quarters and leave the Victory to the King who still maintain'd the Possession of Arques from which his Enemies had endeavour'd to dislodge him And what was yet a greater disgrace to the Duke of Mayenne four or five days after this fetching a long compass and posting himself before Diepe with purpose of besieging it he was himself besieg'd by the little Army of the King who being lodg'd out of the Town over against his Camp ply'd him night and day with perpetual Alarms without his daring once to come forth and make his Approaches Insomuch that after ten days stay without having perform'd any thing he rais'd this pretended Siege re-pass'd this River and retir'd into Picardy under pretence that his Presence was necessary in those Parts to hinder the associated Towns of that Province from putting themselves into the Protection of the Spaniards who were labouring under-hand to beguile the Simplicity of those poor People This was the success of that Enterprise of the League which with their thirty thousand men boasted that they would take the King of Navarre or the Bearnois as those Rebels insolently call'd him and bring him Prisoner to Paris where the Dutchess of Montpensier and other Ladies had already hirâ—d Windows and Balconies in St. Dennis-Street from whence they might have the Pleasure to see him grace the Triumph of the Duke de Mayenne with his Captivity But God had otherwise ordain'd and that memorable Fight at Arques wherein according to all humane probability the King with that handful of men shou'd have have fallen under the weight of so formidable a Power was the fatal point of declination to the League For though their General had not lost above seven or eight hundred men in that Engagement yet he lost in it the Honour and Reputation of the party which since that day never did any thing considerable but what made for the glory of their Conqueror by furnishing him with new occasions to make appear his Clemency in pardoning or his Valour in subduing them which succeeded not long afterwards to his immortal Fame For as soon as he had receiv'd the Succours which he expected from England of four thousand men and that the Duke of Longâ—eville and Marshal Biron had joyn'd him with their Forces which they brought from Picardy and Champaigne he march'd upward against the Course of the Seine as far as Meulan where perceiving that the Duke of Mayenne who might have marched directly towards him if his Heart had serv'd him for the Combat appear'd not in those Parts he pass'd the River and on the thirty first of October took up his Quarters in the sight of Paris at the Villages of Isly Vaugirard Montrouge and Gentilly with resolution the next morning to attaque the Fauxbourgs of that great City which the Parisians had fortified In order to which he divided all his Infantry into three Bodies that the Assault might be made at the same time in three several places The first under Marshal de Biron on the side of the Fauxbourgs St. Marceau and St. Victor the next commanded by Marshal d' Aumont assisted by Damville the Colonel of the Swisses and Bellegard the Grand Escuyer at the Head of the Fauxbourg St. Iacques and at that of St. Michael and the third led on by the Sieurs de Chastillon and La Noâ—e right over against the Gates of St. Germain Bussy and Nesle They were sustain'd by as many gross Squadrons of Cavalry at the Head of which was the Count de Soissons on the right hand the Duke of Longueville on the left and the King himself in the midst on the side of the Fauxbourg St. Iacques and four pieces of Cannon follow'd each of these great Bodies to discharge against the Gates of the City so soon as the Fauxburgs should be won Never was any Enterprise better laid so that the success of it already seem'd infallible For besides the strength of the Assailants without the Town they held a secret Intelgence within it which was dextrously manag'd by the President Nicholas Potier de Blanc Mesnil who who having freed himself out of the Hands of Bussy by a great sum of Money had gain'd a good number of those whom the Leaguers suspected to be Royallists and whom they call'd Pollitiques by whose Assistance he was to make himself Master of one of the Gates and then deliver it to the King The invincible courage of that President and his inviolable fidelity in the service of the Kings his Masters in those troublesom and rebellious times will perpetuate his Memory in all Ages and raise a Veneration to his Name in France particularly in Paris his Native Town which he honour'd as much by his singular Vertue as he was honour'd by it in his Birth being descended from one of the most Ancient Families of that Great City He had the generosity for the service of his Prince and the safety of the State to expose himself to the imminent danger of death by the fury of the Sixteen For those brutal Wretches fearing his great parts his Courage and his Vertue which they knew was never to be diverted from the plain ways of Honesty and Honour put him twice in Prison once in the Bastile and again in the Tower of the Louvre where he ran the hazard of his Life if he had not been deliver'd by the good Offices which were done him by some Persons who had the resolution to oppose the fury of those Tyrants And when in process of time he found he cou'd do no more service to the King in Paris he retir'd to him who made him President of
Predecessor or be with him because he was satisfied that this Great Man would be able to do him greater Service by staying with the Duke of Mayenne where by his wise Remonstrations and the credit which he had acquir'd with that Prince he might break the measures of the Spaniards and their Adherents He continued this politique management to the end and principally on that occasion whereon depended either the felicity or the unhappiness of this Kingdom according to the resolution which shou'd be taken For the Duke of Mayenne having ask'd him his opinion in relation to what the Legat and Mendoza had propos'd he gave him easily to understand that all those plausible Propositions which were made by the Legat by Mendoza and the Sixteen were intended only to deprive him of his Authority and to subject him and the whole Party of the Vnion under the domination of the Spaniards who wou'd not fail to usurp upon the French and to perpetuate the War thereby to maintain their own greatness That in his present condition without suffering an Head to be constituted above him he had War and Peace at his disposing together with the glory of having sustain'd himself alone both Religion and the State but by acknowledging the King of Spain for Protector of the Kingdom he shou'd only debase himself under the proud Title of a powerful Master who wou'd serve his own interests too well to leave him the means of either continuing the War or of concluding a Peace to the advantage of his Country There needed no more to perswade a man so knowing and so prudent as was the Duke of Mayenne 'T is to be confess'd that he was a Self lover which is natural to all men but he was also a Lover of the Common Good which is the distinguishing character of an Honest Man Since he cou'd not himself pretend to the Crown which he clearly saw it was impossible for him to obtain for many reasons he was resolv'd no Foreigner should have it nor even any other but that only Person to whom it belong'd rightfully Religion being first secur'd He thereupon firmly purpos'd from that time both in regard of his particular interest and that of the State to oppose whatsoever attempts should be made by the Spaniards or by his own nearest Relations under any pretence or colour which was undoubtedly one great cause of the preservation of the State For which reason that he might for ever cut off the Spaniards from all hope of procuring their Master to be made Protector of the Realm of France and consequently of having in his hands the Government of the Kingdom and the concernments of the League under this new Title as the Sixteen who were already at his Devotion had design'd he politickly told them in a full Assembly that since the cause of Religion was the only thing for which the Vnion was ingage'd in this War which they had undertaken it wou'd be injurious to the Pope to put themselves under any other protection than that of his Holiness Which Proposition was so gladly receiv'd by all excepting only the Faction of Sixteen that the Spaniards were constrain'd to desist and to let their pretensions wholly fall And to obviate the design of causing any other King to be Elected besides the Old Cardinal of Bourbon under whose Name he govern'd all things he procur'd the Parliament to verifie the Ordinance of the Council General of the Vnion by which that Cardinal was declar'd King and caus'd him so to be Proclaim'd in all the Towns and Places of their party retaining for himself by the same Ordinance the Quality and Power of Lieutenant General of the Crown till the King shou'd be deliver'd from Imprisonment And at the same time to ruin the Faction of Sixteen which was wholly Spaniardiz'd he broke the Council of the Vnion Saying That since there was a King Proclaim'd whose Lieutenant he also was there ought to be no other Council but his which in duty was to follow him wheresoever he shou'd be Thus the Duke of Mayenne having possess'd himself of all Royal Authority under the imaginary Title of another and having overcome all the designs of the Spaniards took the Field and after having taken in the Castle of Bois de Vincennes by composition which had been invested for a year together he retook Pontoise and some other places which hindred the freedom of commerce and being afterwards willing to regain all the passages of the Seine thereby to establish the communication of Paris with Rouen and to have the Sea open he went to besiege the Fort of Meulan where he lost much time to little purpose while the Legat against whom the Kings Parliament at Tours had made a terrible Decree was labouring at Paris with all his might that no accommodation shou'd be made with the King not even though he shou'd be converted To this effect seeing that the Faction of Sixteen and the Spaniards were extremely weaken'd after what the Duke of Mayenne had done against them and that the Royalists who were generally call'd Politiques had resum'd courage and began to say openly that it was the common duty of all good Subjects to unite themselves with the Catholicks who follow'd the King he oppos'd them with a Declaration lately made against them by the factious Doctors of the Sorboâ—ne on the tenth of February in the same year 1590. For by that Decree it was ordain'd That all Doctors and Batchelors shou'd have in abhorrence and strongly combat the pestilential and damnable Opinions which the Workers of Iniquity endeavour'd with all their force to insinuate daily into the Minds of Ignorant and Simple Men principally these Propositions That Henry de Bourbon might and ought to be honour'd with the Title of King That it Conscience men might hold his Party and Pay him Taxes and acknowledge him for King on condition he turn'd Catholick c. And then they added That in case any one shall refuse to obey this Decree the Faculty declares him an Enemy to the Church of God Perjur'd and Disobedient to his Mother and in conclusion cuts him off from her Body as a gangreen'd Member which corrupts the rest A Decree of this force was of great service to the Bigots of the League because it depriv'd the wiser sort of the License they had taken to perswade the people to make peace And the Legat that he might hinder any from taking it for the time to come bethought himself that a new Oath should be impos'd on the Holy Evangelists betwixt his hands in the Church of the Augustines to be taken by all the Officers of the Town and the Captains of the several Wards which was That they shou'd always persevere in the Holy Union that they shou'd never make Peace or Truce with the King of Navarre and that they shou'd employ their Lives and Fortunes in deliverance of their King Charles the Tenth Which was also enjoyn'd to be taken by all the Officers of
he had publish'd against him and who afterwards oppos'd his being King of France had very much alter'd his opinion after he had been better inform'd of the French affairs For having made solid reflections on the past without suffering himself to be prepossess'd he clearly understood the great merits of the King whom he then endeavour'd to reconcile to the Church by gentle usage The Ambition of the Heads of the League the indirect dealing and cousenages of their Agents who had so often deceiv'd him by false Relations and more than all the rest the pernicious designs of the Spaniards who that they might irrevocably ingage him in their Interests were vehemently urgent with him to Excommunicate all the Catholiques who follow'd the King and that he shou'd bind himself by Oath never to receive him into the Bosom of the Church what submission soever he should make had opened his eyes and caus'd him to take much other measures For they proceeded at length to plain threatnings that if he deny'd them this satisfaction they wou'd protest in a full Assembly against him and make provision of other means for the preservation of the Church which he had abandon'd This so far inrag'd him as he was the Man amongst all the Popes who was the least capable of bearing such affronts that opposing threatnings to threatnings he told the Embassador Olivares in plain terms he wou'd out off his Head if he shou'd presume to stir any farther in that matter Which fair warning he was wise enough to take as well knowing the fiery temper of the Pope who was like enough to have kept his word Nay there are some who are apt to think that far from joyning with the League against the King to which the Spaniards perpetually solicited him for their own interest he had resolv'd to employ the five Millions of Gold which he had heap'd up in the Castle of St. Angelo during his Popedom to make War against them and to beat them out of the Kingdom of Naples But his measures were all broken by a sudden death which carry'd him off on the twenty seventh day of August in the Year precedent The Leaguers who observ'd not even common decency so little dissembled their joy for his death that the news of it being brought to Paris on the fifth of September Aubry the Curate of St. Andrè des Arcs an hare-brain'd Fool declaring it to the people in his Sermon was impudent enough to say that his death came by miracle betwixt the two Feasts of our Lady And added these his very words God has deliver'd us from a wicked Pope and an ill Politician If he had liv'd longer you wou'd have been all amaz'd to hear Sermons Preach'd in Paris against a Pope and yet it must of necessity have been done Behold how much these Preachers of the League were intoxicated with their passions which they easily infus'd into the people who followed quietly like blind men their Guides who were blinder than themselves and who led them to the Precipice where they all perish'd Gregory the Fourteenth a Milanois who was exalted to the Papacy after Vrban the seventh who enjoyed that honour but thirteen days proceeded in direct opposition to the conduct of Sixtus the Fifth He joyn'd with the Spaniards and declar'd openly in favour of the League according to the manner they desir'd For laying aside the Duke of Mayenne and the other Princes of his House for whom the Spaniards little car'd he writ immediately to the Sixteen to encourage them to persevere in the resolution which they had always testified and never to submit themselves to Henry de Bourbon He promised them fifteen thousand Crowns by the Month for so long a time as he shou'd judge it necessary for their supply and an Army of 12000 men to be rais'd and entertain'd at his own charges which he wou'd suddenly send them under the Conduct of Hercules Sfondrato his Nephew whom he made Duke of Montemarciano And that he might joyn his Spiritual Arms with his Temporal he sent into France by the Referendary Marcelin Landriano a Monitory by which he Excommunicated all Prelates and all other Ecclesiasticks of the Kings Party depriving them of their Benefices if within a certain short space of time they did not forsake him and retire out of all places under his obedience He oblig'd the Nobility and Gentry the Magistracy and the People to do the same and in conclusion declar'd Henry of Bourbon to be a relaps'd Heretique Excommunicated and to have forfeited the Crown and all his Possessions and Lordships There are sometimes Thunders which make a ratling noise and do no harm because the fiery exhalation which breaks out of the Clouds is evaporated whether by the thinness of its body or by the violent agitation of the Air which disperses it before it reaches us Of all the Thunderbolts which have been darted from the Vatican against Sovereign Princes there will be found but few which have been so noisy as this which was accompanied with an Army that was to Act in conjunction with the League and Spaniards All which notwithstanding it had little or no effect by the care which was taken to make evident by many Writings which were spread abroad the nullities of this Bull and by the vigorous resolutions of the Kingâ—s Council of Parliament sitting at Tours and at Chaalons and of the Clergy of France assembled at Mante who condemn'd it as erroneous every one of them after their own manner Insomuch that not a Man of all the Catholicks on that account forsook the Party of the King whose conversion was continually hop'd as soon as he had the means and opportunity of causing himself to be instructed So strongly were our Ancestors perswaded that the power of Popes as Heads of the Church extends not at all upon the temporal and much less on the Rights of the Crown and that it can ordain nothing to the prejudice of that Fidelity and Allegiance which is due to Princes in those things which are not manifestly against God 'T is true that the Parliament at Paris being for the Leâ—guâ— receiv'd that Bull and repeal'd the Decrees of Chaalons and Tours But 't is manifest it was then no free Court as being at that time oppress'd under the Tyranny of the Sixteen who had fetter'd it as I may say by the fear which every Member of it had to be led Captives in Triumph to the Bastile In this manner those turbulent Spirits who may justly be call'd the sixteen Tyrants of Paris finding themselves supported by the Protection of a Pope became daily more insolent and haughty in opposition to the Duke of Mayenne's Authority and their Boldness was increas'd yet more by a most surprising Answer which the King of Spain made to the Deputies of the Lorrain Princes Those Princes being assembled at Rheims where was present the Cardinal of Pelvè whom the Duke of Mayenne had made Archbishop of that Place found themselves in
they gave out at length shou'd compass their design which was to procure their Infanta to be Elected And on the other plainly foreseeing that he shouâ—d not be Elected himself because he cou'd not marry the Infanta he resolv'd no other shou'd be chosen that he might not lose that Sovereign Authority which he cou'd maintain no longer than till the States had made an Election of a new King But after all he cou'd no longer resist the pressing solicitations which the great Cities of his Party the Spaniards the Pope himself and his Legat made him continually putting him in mind of the promise he had so often given of calling that Assembly And that which fix'd him at last in this determination was that the Duke of Parma who was assembling his Forces to enter France for the third time dyed in the midst of these consulâ—ations on the fifth of December For he believ'd that the Spaniards having now no General who was any way comparable to the Genius of that great Man wou'd leave him the command of their Armies or at least not being able to make any great progress wou'd be no longer so formidable to him which fell out accordingly On which consideration he made no longer scruple to assemble the Deputies which already had been chosen in the Provinces and in the Towns not doubting but since he had for him besides a great part of those Deputies the Parliament the Town house the greatest part of the Colonels and the Faction of the Politiques that he shou'd be able with ease to break all the measures of the Spaniards and those few Malecontents which were yet remaining of the Sixteen whom he no longer regarded but as a sort of Rabble whose impotent fury he contemn'd And it was for this very reason that he at last resolv'd the Assembly shou'd be held at Paris notwithstanding all the Artifices of the Spaniards who endeavour'd that it shou'd be at Rheims or at Soissons where the Duke cou'd not secure to himself those great advantages which he had at Paris The Assembly then was appointed to be held in the Month of Ianuary And while the Deputies were coming to Paris the Duke of Mayenne publish'd an ample Declaration bearing date the fifth of Ianuary in which after he had justify'd the Arms of the League by all the most plausible reasons he couâ—d urge and principally by the great motive of Reliâ—ion which at last must give place to Heresie if an Heretick King shou'd be receiv'd he invited all the Princes Prelates Lords and Catholique Officers who were of the opposite party to meet the rest of that Assembly that they might all co-operate without other consideration than only the Glory of God and the publick good in choice of those means which shou'd be found most proper for the preservation of Religion and the State making his prâ—â—â—â—tation against such who shou'd refuse so reasonable a way that they were to be esteem'd the cause of all those mischiefs and misfortunes which from that time forward shouâ—d ensue The Legat made his Declaration apart but in a much more odious manner because instead of containing himself within the general terms of the good of Religion and the State as the Duke of Mayenne had done he invited the Catholiques to meet in the States for the Election of a King who shou'd be a Catholick in practice as well as in profession and who by his power was able to support Religion and the State By which words he seem'd evidently to point out the King of Spain It was not hard for the King to answer these two Declarations with solid Arguments and to make a like protestation against the Authors of them by an Edict of the same Month. And in the mean while the Deputies being almost all arriv'd they went in procession to the Church of Nostre-Dame where having receiv'd the holy Communion they heard a Sermon which was Preach'd to them by the famous Genebrard to the great scandal of all true Frenchmen and well-meaning people in that Congregation This Doctor was certainly one of the most able Men of the Age but especially in the knowledge of the holy Scriptures and the Hebrew Tongue whereof he was the Kings Professor at Paris But by that unhappy fatality or rather excess of immoderate Zeal which drew almost all the Doctors of Paris into the League he embrac'd it so passionately that he was always one of the most fiery and headstrong defenders of it which quality joyn'd to his profound Learning was the cause that Gregory the Fourteenth that great Protector of the League gave him the Archbishoprick of Aix after the death of Alexander Canigrany who dyed at Rome Now he being one of the principal Deputies for the Order of the Clergy and having acquir'd much Reputation and Authority by his rare knowledge was desir'd to Preach this Sermon In which instead of exhorting the Deputies according to Gods Word that they shou'd have nothing before their eyes in all their Debates and Consultations but only the preservation of the State and of Religion which is the strongest support of it he inforc'd himself to prove by weak sophistical reasons that their Assembly had power to change and abolish the Salique Law that is the fundamental Law of the Realm which has been always inviolably observ'd since the establishment of the French Monarchy even to this day As if the States who have no other power than that of representing by way of Petition what they believe to be necessary for the good and maintenance of the State had the authority of destroying it by ruining and undermining the foundations which support it and which preserve it from falling into the hands of strangers But the reason of this was that the Doctor being a true Leaguer and a false Frenchman as one who was devoted to the service of King Philip like the Sixteen in whose Faction he was ingag'd endeavour'd to incline the Minds of the Deputies to dispose of the Crown of France to the Infanta of Spain according to the intentions of the Spaniards who had given him instructions to Preach up this wicked and notoriously false maxim for sound Doctrin and for Gospel-Truth The Duke of Mayenne who notwithstanding that he was Head of the League had the Soul of a good Frenchman and was one who lov'd his Country as the King himself acknowledgâ—d had a much different prospect of things and without concerning himself at this idle discourse because he knew it was in his power to hinder it from taking effect open'd the States-General on the Twenty sixth of Ianuary in the Great Hall of the Louvre where all Ceremonies were punctually observ'd in the same manner as they are always practisâ—d in States which are lawfully Assembled And all that pleasant turn of Burlesque which is given to the description of it by the ingenious Author of the Catholicon of Spain is no other than pure invention of a great Wit who under those
are obvious to the most common capacities at the first glance The Proposition was made in the plainest and most intelligible terms without the least ambiguity in their meaning that there shou'd be a conference betwixt the Catholiques of the two Parties to consider of the safest ways which cou'd be found for the preservation of Religion and the State yet the Cardinal Legat consulting only the violent passion which he had to support the Faction of the Sixteen against the King and to exclude him from the Crown cry'd out that this Proposition of the Catholique Royalists was contrary to the Law of God who forbids any communication with Heretiques and the Doctors who were devoted to the League to whom that message was sent to be examin'd declar'd it to be schismatical and Heretical But the Duke of Mayenne who had another prospect of things than the Leaguers and Spaniards and who was resolv'd to hinder the election of a King manag'd that affair so dexterously that it was concluded in the States that the conference shou'd be accepted betwixt those only who were Catholiques of the two Parties in the same manner as it was propos'd Notwithstanding which it was not held till two months after at the end of April in the Burrough of Surenne because the Duke of Mayenne who desir'd only to gain time for the compassing his ends was gone before he return'd his answer to meet the Spanish Army which was commanded by Count Charles of Mâ—nsfield That Duke was of opinion that with their assistance he might take all the places on the Seine both above and below which inconvenienc'd Paris But the Army being so very weak that with his own Forces which were added to it there were not in all above 10000 Men all that he cou'd do was only to take Noyon which employed his time after which it was so much diminish'd by the protraction of that Siege which had cost so much blood that the Count was forc'd to return to Flanders As for the Conference though it was made with much more preparation and magnificence than all the former it had yet the same destiny attending it because the two Heads of the Deputation on either side Renaud de Beaunâ— Archbishop of Bourges for the Royalists and Peter d' Espinac Archbishop of Lyons for the League two of the most dextrous and eloquent men of that Age were both of them somewhat too well conceited of their own parts and maintain'd their opinions with too much wit and too great vehemence to come to an agreement in their disputations against each other The Archbishop of Bourges in the three Speeches which he made for the establishment of his Proposition and for the confirmation of it by refuting those answers which were made him omitted no force of Arguments which cou'd be drawn from Reason to induce those of the League to a belief of these three points which he maintain'd constantly and with great vigour to the end as Truths indubitable The First was That there is an indispensable obligation of Acknowledging and Honouring as King Him to whom the Crown belongs by the inviolable right of Lawful Succession without regard to the Religion he professes or to his way of Life And this he prov'd first by the Testimonies of Jesus Christ and his Apostles who command us to honour Kings and Higher Powers and to pay them that obedience which is due to them even though they shou'd be Unbelievers and wicked men declaring that every man ought to submit himself to the powers which are ordain'd by God and that to do otherwise is to resist his Will and trouble the order and tranquillity of the Publick Secondly By examples drawn from the Old Testament where we see that Zedekiah was sharply reprehended and punish'd by God for having revolted against the King of the Chaldeans that the People of Israel obey'd Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonish Captivity by the Command of God and that the Prophets Ahijah and Elijah were content to reprove those Kings who believ'd not in God as Ieroboam and Ahab without ever revolting against them Thirdly By the Example of the Christians in all Ages who had suffer'd peaceably the dominion of Idolatrous Emperors Tyrants and Persecutors of the Church and had not refus'd to acknowledge for their Soveraigns those Emperors who had fallen into Heresie such as Constantius Valens Zeno Anastasius Hâ—raclius Constantine the Fourth and the Fifth Leo the Third and Fourth Theophilus and the Gothique Kings in Italy the Vandals in Affrica and the Visigoths in Spain and in Gaul though they were all of them Arians From thence passing to the second point he added That by a more convincing reason they were bound to obey the present King who by Gods Grace was neither Pagan nor Arian nor a Persecutor of the Church and of Catholiques whom he protected and maintain'd in all their Rights who believ'd with them in the same God the same Jesus Christ and the same Creed And though he was divided from them by some errors which he had suck'd in as we may say with his milk and which he had never renounc'd but by a forc'd conversion with the Dagger at his Throat yet this notwithstanding it cou'd not be said that he was confirm'd in them with that obstinacy which constitutes Heresie since he was wholly resolv'd to forsake them as soon as he shou'd be instructed in the truth which occasion'd him with all modesty to maintain that he ought not to pass with them for an Heretique That for the rest by Gods blessing there was great probability of hope that he wou'd suddenly be converted that he was already altogether inclin'd to it as appear'd by the permission which he had given to the Catholique Princes and Lords to send at his proper costs and charges the Marquess of Pisany to our Holy Father and to make this present Conference with them That he had even uncover'd his Head with great respect in beholding a Procession at Mante which pass'd by his Windows that not long before this time he had solemnly renew'd the promise which he had made to cause himself to be instructed and that he wou'd infallibly accomplish it with the soonest And upon this to acquit himself of what he had propos'd in the third place he set himself to adjure them with the strongest reasons and the most tender expressions he cou'd use that they wou'd joyn themselves with the Kings Party for the accomplishment of so good a work and bear their part in that Instruction and consequently Conversion of so great a King who receiving at their hands that duty to which they were oblig'd wou'd assuredly give them the satisfaction which they wish'd and which he was not in a capacity of giving â—hem at a time when they demanding it with Arms in their hands it wou'd have appear'd that he had done it only on compulsion On the other side the Archbishop of Lyons who was not endu'd with less Eloquence and Knowledge than the
Archbishop of Bourges answering in order to those three points which were propos'd by that Prelate said in the name of all his Colleagues That they acknowledg'd they ought to own for King Soveraign Lord and Head of the French Monarchy Him to whom the Kingdom belongâ—d by a lawful Succession But since Religion ought to be preferr'd before Flesh and Blood this Monarch of necessity must be a Most Christian King both in name and reality and that according to all Laws both Divine and Humane it was not permitted them to give obedience to an Heretique King in a Kingdom subjected to Jesus Christ by receiving and professing the Catholique Religion That God in the Old Testament had forbidden a King to be set up who was not of the number of the Brethren that is to say of the same Religion which constitutes a true Brotherhood That in prosecution of this order the Priests and Sacrificers of Israel had withdrawn themselves from the obedience of King Ieroboam as soon as he had renounc'd the worship of the true God That the Towns of and Libnah which were the portion of the Levites who were the best instructed in the Law of God had forsaken Ioram King of Iudah for the same reason That Amaziah and Queen Athaliah having abandon'd the Religion of their Forefathers had been depos'd by the general consent of all the Orders of the Kingdom and that the Macchabees were renown'd and prais'd through all the World as the last Heroes of the ancient Law because they had taken Arms against Antiochus their Soveraign Prince for the defence of their Religion That the people of the Iews did indeed obey the King of the Chaldeans but they had bound themselves by Oath so to do according to the express command which God had given them by his Prophets for pupunishment of their abominations for which reason he subjected them to the dominion of an Infidel But as for themselves they were so far from having entred into such an engagement that they had made one by the Authority of his Holiness quite to the contrary that they wou'd never acknowledge an Heretique for their King And as for the Christians who threw not off their obedience to their Emperors and Kings who were Heretiques 't is most certain that they obey'd only out of pure necessity and because they wanted power but that their Hearts and Affections had no part in it Witness the harshness with which the Holy Fathers have treated them in their Writings where they call them Wolves Dogs Serpents Tygers Dragons Lyons and Antichrists in conformity to the Gospel which wills that he who is revolted from the Church should be held and treated like a Pagan so far it is from authorising us to hold him for a King much less a Most Christian King For what remains besides the Councils receiv'd in France and the Imperial Laws which declare Heretiques to be unworthy of any kind of honour dignity or publick office much more of Royalty The Fundamental Law of the French Monarchy is most express in this particular by the Oath which the Most Christian Kings take at their Coronation to maintain the Catholique Religion and to exterminate all Heresies in consideration of which they receive the Oath of Allegiance from their Subjects and that the last States had decreed with the general applause of all good Frenchmen that they wou'd never depart from that Law which was accepted and sworn to solemnly as a fundamental of the State In fine to close up all which he had to say in relation to this first point he added That without this it was impossible to preserve Religion in France because an Heretique Prince wou'd not be wanting to establish Heresie in his States as well by his example which would be leading to his Subjects as by his authority which cou'd not long be resisted As it was too manifest in the Kingdom of Israel which Ieroboam turn'd to Idolatry and as it has since been seen in Denmark Sweden the Protestant States of Germany and in England where the people following the example of their Princes and bending under their authority have suffer'd themselves to be unhappily drawn into that Abyss of Heresies in which they are plung'd at this very day And thereupon passing to the other points of the Archbishop of Bourges his Speech he said in few words That it cou'd not be doubted but the King of Navarre was an obstinate Heretique and no way inclin'd to be converted since for so long a time he had continued to maintain Errors condemn'd for Heresies by General Councils and that he still favour'd the Huguenots more than ever and especially his Preachers that he had been often invited but still in vain to reconcile himself to the Church after which it wou'd be lost labour for them to exhort him particularly after being first acknowledg'd as he thought to be that therefore they wou'd never endeavour it and that they had all sworn not only not to acknowledge him but also to have no manner of commerce with him so long as he shou'd remain an Heretique Now when the Archbishop of Bourges who was pre-acquainted with the Kings secret purpose saw that after a strong reply which he had made to that noisy Harangue they still held fast to that one point from which it was impossible to remove them he was of opinion that by yielding it to them the business wou'd soon come to an happy conclusion For which reason having demanded time to consult thereupon the Princes and Lords by whom they were deputed as soon as he had receiv'd the answer which he knew before hand they wou'd make he told the Deputies of the League at the seventh Session which was the seventeenth of May That God had at the last heard their prayers and vows and that they shou'd have whatsoever they had requir'd for the safety of Religion and the State by the conversion of the King which they had been encourag'd to hope and which at present was assur'd to them since the King who was resolv'd to abjure his Heresie had already assembled the Prelates and the Doctors from whom he wou'd receive the instruction which ought to precede that great action which all good Catholiques of both Parties had so ardently desir'd for the reunition of themselves in a lasting peace And to the end that it might be to the satisfaction of every man in particular they might treat with them concerning the securities and other conditions which they shou'd demand for their interests Assuring them that in order to remove all occasion of distrust nothing shouâ—d be done on their side till the King had dâ—clar'd himself effectually to be a Catholique This Proposition which the Deputies of the Union little expected and which ruin'd all the pretensions of their Heads disorder'd them so much that after they had consulted amongst themselves for an Answer not being able to conclude on any they thought themselves bound to report it to the Assembly
of the Estates at Paris And then it was clearly to be seen that the Heads of the Party who thought on nothing but how to satisfie each man his Ambition under the specious pretence of great Zeal for the Catholick Faith were much more afraid than desirous of the king's Conversion Though it had been made evident to them by invincible Reasons supported by the Authority of the most learned Doctors that Absolution might be given to the King in France without recourse to Rome especially since it wou'd be given only ad Cautelam and that afterwards they wou'd send to the Pope for his Confirmation of it they return'd this Answer by the Archbishop of Lyons That they ardently dâ—sir'd the Conversion of the King of Navarre but that they cou'd not believe it sincere till his Holiness to whose Iudgment they submitted themselves and who alone had the power of absolving him had reconcil'd him to the Church before which time it was not permitted them to enter into any Treaty of Peace or to take any Securities because that wou'd be to prevent the Judgment of the Pope and to treat at least indirectly with him who was yet out of the Pale of the Church which wou'd be directly against the Oath which they had taken And thereupon the Duke of Mayenne who only â—ought the means of retaining as long as possibly he cou'd that almost soveraign Authority which he had usurp'd together with the greatest part of the Princes and Lords of his Party took a new Oath betwixt the Hands of the Legat that they wou'd never acknowledge the King of Navarre even though he shou'd turn Catholick unless by the Commandment of the Pope Thus remaining always fix'd in that Resolution which absolutely hindred any farther progress in the Conference after seven or eight Sessions held at Surenne and two more at Roquette an House belonging to the Chancellor de Chiverny without St. Anthonies Gate and at La Villette betwixt Paris and St. Denis they concluded on nothing that was tending to the Peace while the Spaniards still imploy'd all their Cunning and their Friends in the Estates to perpetuate the War by the election of a King For even before the Conference of Surenne was begun the Duke of Feria Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of Spain to the General Estates at Paris accompanied by Don Bernardin Mendoza Ambassador in Ordinary Don Diego d' Ibarra and Iohn Baptista Tassis presented in a full Assembly where he was receiv'd with great Honour his Masters Letters in which he exhorted them to proceed without delay to the election of a Catholick King 'T was that indeed which King Philip infinitely desir'd as well thereby to continue the Enmity betwixt the two Parties which doubtless wou'd have been effected by the choice of a new King as to procure the Crown for his Daughter the Inâ—anta as he had explain'd himself more than once already In effect those Spaniards were not wanting some time after to propose her pretended Right of Proximity as being issued from the Daughter of King Henry the Second But seeing afterwards that they were bent upon a King they renew'd the Proposal of marrying her to the Archduke Ernestus till at last perceiving that both these Propositions were ill relish'd even by their most zealous Partisans who adher'd to all the rest in the election of a King who shou'd be a Frenchman and to whom the King of Spain might give his Daughter in Marriage they made a new Overture after they had taken time to deliberate on an Affair of that importance and said That the King their Master that he might give them full satisfaction was ready to agree on the Marriage of the Infanta with some French Prince whom he wou'd nominate therein comprehending the Family of Lorrain since it was but reasonable that himself shou'd have the choice of the Person whom he intended for his Son in-law but that it was also necessary that the Estates shou'd elect them and shou'd declare both of them King and Queen of France for the whole and every part of it and that he wou'd imploy the whole Forces of his Kingdoms to maintain them in it As almost all the Deputies were desirous of nothing more than to elect a new King who shou'd be a Frenchman this Proposition which seem'd very advantagious was receiv'd by them with so great Applause that the Duke of Mayenne who was newly return'd to the Estates there to frustrate the Designs of the Spaniards durst not undertake to oppose it directly though he was strongly resolv'd to hinder it from taking effect by all the ways in his power because the Election cou'd not possibly fall on him And while he was ploâ—ting the means in order to it that part of the Parliament of Peers which was at Paris for the League having still retain'd notwithstanding the division of their Members those generous Thoughts and inviolable Maximes which they have always made appear on all occasions and in whatsoever condition they were to maintain the fundamental Laws and Prerogatives of the French Monarchy furnish'd him with an excellent Expedient For that Court being inform'd that the Proposition of the Spaniards seem'd to be approv'd by the Estates on the 18th day of Iune made this memorable Decree which contains in substance That not having as indeed they never had any other intention than the maintenance of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion in France under the Protection of a Most Christian King who shou'd be both Catholick and French they have ordain'd and do hereby ordain that it shall be this day remonstrated to Monsieur de Mayenne Lieutenant-General of the State and Crown of France in the presâ—nce of the Princes and Officers of the Crown being now at Paris that no Treaty shall be made for the transferring of the Crown into the Hands of foreign Princes or Princesses and that he shou'd imploy the Aâ—thority committed to him to hinder the Crown from being transferr'd into a foreign Hand against the Laws of the Realm under the pretence of Religion and that the said Court has from this present time declar'd and does hereby declare all those Treaties which are made and which shall be hereafter made for the establishment of any foreign Prince or Princess to be null and of no effect and value as made in prejudice to the Salique Law and other fundamental Laws of the Realm of France The Duke of Mayenne seem'd to be very much incens'd that they had made this Ordinance without his Participation and vehemently upbraided Monsieur the first President Iean le Maistre whom he had constituted in that Office who not being acquainted with his secret intentions answer'd him with that Gravity and Resolution which is becoming the Head of so venerable a Company when he performs his Duty But in reality that dextrous Prince was glad of such an occasion because he well hop'd this Ordinance wou'd at least put a block in the Spaniard's way But he found
the contrary for when they saw by this Decree and by the taking of Dreux which the King had besieg'd and after carried by force during these Agitations that if they made not haste in their election of a King 't was very probable that it wou'd be out of their power to elect one afterwards they us'd their utmost Endeavours to have one chosen in the same manner as they had first propos'd it To put by this Blow the Duke of Mayennâ— who believ'd the Spaniards had been impowr'd only with general Instructions and not to name him whom they judg'd most proper for their Interests told them that of necessity they were to expect a more particular Order from their Master wherein he shou'd declare the individual Person whom he chose for his Son in law But he was much surpriz'd when they who in all appearance had many Blanks which were ready sign'd and which they cou'd fill up with any Name to serve their occasions show'd him before the Cardinal Legat and the principal Members of the Assembly at a meeting in his House that they were impowr'd in due form to name the Duke of Guise yet he strove in the best manner he cou'd to conceal his inward Trouble and Anxiety for this Nomination which his Wiâ—e the Dutchess was not able to endure but counseâ—l'd him rather to make a Peace with the King than to be so mean-spirited as to acknowledge that raw young Creature for so by way of contempt she call'd her Nephew for his King and Master But the Duke of Mayennâ— who at that time cou'd not bear any Master whomsoever took another course and requir'd eight days time to give in writing his Demands for his own indemnifying which the Spaniards allow'd him as fully as he cou'd desire And in the mean time he knew so well to manage the Minds of the greatest part of the Deputies the Lords and Princes and even of the Duke of Guise himself by making them comprehend how unseasonable it was to create a King before they had Forces sufficient to support him against a powerful and victorious Prince that in spight of all those who were of the Spanish Interest the Ministers of Spain were answer'd that the Estates were resolv'd to proceed no farther in their Election till they had receiv'd those great Supplies which had been promis'd them by the King their Master In this manner the Election was deferr'd by the Address of the Duke of Mayenne which Dr. Mauclere a great Leaguer most bitterly bewail'd in a Letter which he wrote from Paris to Dr. de Creil another stiff Leaguer then residing at Rome to manage the Interests of that Party and therein discov'rd the whole Secret which in effect overthrew all the Cabals of the Spaniards and the League and utterly destroy'd their whole Fabrick For many things afterwards happen'd which broke off all speech of an Election of which the first and most principal was the Conversion of the King which is next in order to be related Above 9 years were already past since he though Head of the Hugonots had been endeavouring the means of reuniting himself together with his whole Party to the Catholick Church For in the year 1584. a little before the Associated Princes of the League had taken Arms the late King having sent Monsieur de Bellievre to Pamiers to declare to him that he wou'd have the Mass re establish'd in the County of Foix and in all the other Countreys which he held under the Soveraignty of the Crown of France he caus'd one of the Ministers of his Family who was already well inclin'd to sound the Dispositions of the other Ministers of that Countrey and to try if there were any hope that they would use their Endeavours uprightly and sincerely to find the means of making a general Reunion with the Catholick Church They gave up without any great difficulty all the Points in Controversie excepting one which they laid to heart namely their Interest demanding such vast proportions of Maintenance as he was not then in a condition to give them saying with great simplicity these very words That they wou'd not go a begging for their Living or live upon charity like so many poor Scholars Many of his Counsel and amongst others the Sieur de Segur one of those in whom he most confided were of opinion nevertheless that he shou'd not give over that Undertaking and that he shou'd endeavour to bring it about quietly and without any bustle by gaining the leading men of his Party And he was so well inclin'd to do it that he cou'd not curb himself from protesting frequently after his coming to the Crown and particularly after the Battel of Ivry that he wish'd with all his heart they were reunited with that Church from which they had separated and that he shou'd believe that he had done more than any of his Predecessors if God wou'd one day enable him to make that Reunion which was so necessary that he might live to see all Frenchmen united under the same Faith as well as under the same King But there is great probability for us to hope that God had reserv'd that Glory for King Louis the Great his Grandson whose unbloody Victories which he daily obtains in full Peace over Heresie by his prudent management and his Zeal which have found the means of reducing the Protestants in crowds and without violence into the Church may under his Reign show us the final accomplishment of that great Work which his Grandfather so ardently desir'd It is also known that this Prince being then only King of Navarre at the time when he projected that Re-union of which I have spoken said one day in private to one of the Ministers That he cou'd see no manner of devotion in his Religion which all consisted in hearing a Sermon deliver'd in good French and that he had always an opinion that the Body of our Lord is in the holy Sacrament for otherwise the Communion was but an exterior Ceremony which had nothing real and essential in it 'T is in this place that I cannot hinder my self from rendring Justice to the merit of one of the greatest Men whom any of our Kings have imploy'd in their most important Negotiations and who most contributed to the infusing these good Inclinations into the King of Navarre namely Francis de Noailles Bishop of Acq's who has gain'd an immortal Reputation by those great Services which he perform'd for France during 35 years under four of our Kings in fifteen Voyages out of the Kingdom and four solemn Embassies into England Venice Rome and Constantinople In which last Employment he did so much for the interest of our Religion with Selim the Grand Signior the 2d of that Name and by travelling into Syria Palestine and Aegypt where he procur'd great Advantages and Comfort to the poor Christians that the greatest Princes of Christendom thought themselves oblig'd to make their thankful Acknowledgements of his labour to
our King Pope Gregory the 13th commanded his Nuncio himself to thank the Ambassador from him at his passage from Venice on his return to France and to desire him that he wou'd use his Interest with his Brother the Abbot of L' Isle who had succeeded him in many of his Negotiations and in that Embassy as he also did in the Bishoprick of Acq's that he wou'd follow the worthy Examples which he had given him 'T is true that Pope Pius the 5th Predecessor to Gregory thought it very strange at first that a Bishop shou'd be Ambassador for the most Christian King at the Ottoman Port. But besides that the Bishop of Agria a most prudent and vertuous Prelat had exercis'd that Charge during five years for the Emperor Maximilian the 2d without the least fault found with it he very much chang'd his opinion after the Bishop of Acq's by his credit with the Grand Signior had obtain'd from him that an express Prohibition shou'd be made to Piali Bassa General of his Navy of making any descent on the Territories of the Church in consideration of which Benefit his Holiness made him a promise to promote him to the highest Dignities with which a Pope can recompence the greatest Services that are render'd to the Church These were the Employments of that Bishop whose Deserts were not less eminent than those of his elder Brother Anthony de Noailles Head of that illustrious Family which is one of the most ancient and remarkable in Limousin who was Ambassador in England Governour of Bourdeaux and Lieutenant for the King in Guyenne where he serv'd the State and Religion with the same Zeal which appears at this day with so much Success and Glory in his Posterity It was then by the Motives of the same Zeal for Religion that Francis de Noailles after he had reduc'd 100 Hugonot Families which he found in Acq's at his coming to that Bishoprick to the number of 12 was not wanting to make use of so fair an opportunity as he had to work upon the King of Navarre's Inclinations which good advice in God's due time had the desir'd effect For having conferr'd with him at Nerac by the King's Orders twice or thrice with endeavours to procure from him the re-establishment of the Catholick Religion in Bearn when he found that new Difficulties were still started he laid aside that particular Point and coming to the Spring-head whereon all the rest depended he told him in the presence of Segur with all the sincerity of a faithful Minister That his Majesty cou'd not reasonably hope to support himself by that Party which how powerful soever it appear'd wou'd always be too weak to bear him up in spight of the Catholicks who were infinitely more strong to that pitch of heighth to which his Birth and Fortune might one day carry him that whatsoever Wonders his Valour might perform yet they wou'd never be of any advantage to him till he reconcil'd himself sincerely to the Catholick Church and that it was impossible they were his very words that he cou'd ever raise any thing that was durable for the establishment of his Fortune either within the Realm or without it unless he built on this Foundation This was what he said when he took his leave of the King of Navarre And some few days after this writing from Agen to the Sieur de Segur he protested to him That his Master cou'd never arrive to the possession of that Crown to which he might lawfully pretend if he made not his entrance by the Gate of the Catholick Religion and pray'd him therefore that he wou'd think seriously of that Matter for if he follow'd not his Counsel he shou'd one day speak to him in Petrarch 's Verse When Error goes before Repentance comes behind This Discourse startled Segur who had much power over his Masters Inclinations and it was principally on this account that he gave him the Counsel above-mention'd which consequently caus'd the King of Navarre to consider of the means of reuniting himself to the Catholicks But it happening that in the midst of these Agitations the Leaguers began openly to rebel and afterwards capitulating with Arms in their hands obtain'd an Edict by which the King oblig'd himself to make War with all his Power against the Hugonots Segur whom the King of Navarre had lately sent into Germany to desire assistance writ to him after he had obtain'd it that this was not a time to think of turning Catholick though he himself had formerly advis'd it and that since his Enemies wou'd make him change his Religion by force almost in the same manner as they had us'd him at the Massacre of St. Barthol'mew he ought to stand bent against them and defend his Liberty by Arms that it might not be said he was basely plyant to their will and that he might change freely with safeguard to his Honour at some other time which now he cou'd not without shame as being by constraint He follow'd this Advice which was also seconded by his Counsel He made the War and always appear'd at the Head of the Hugonots with the success which has already been related But being a man of a sprightly and piercing Wit he was not wanting in the mean time to instruct himself and that by a very artificial way Sometimes by proposing difficult Points to his Ministers or to speak more properly his own Doubts and Scruples in matters of Religion to understand on what Foundations their Opinions were built sometimes by conferring with knowing Catholicks and maintaining against them with the strongest Reasons he cou'd urge the Principles which had been infus'd into him by his Ministers on purpose to discover by their Answers which he compar'd with what had been told him on the other side what was real and solid truth betwixt them And he always continued in this manner of Instruction clearing and fathoming the principal Points of the Controversie and causing them to give in writing what they had to argue pro or con which produc'd this effect that the Hugonots never believ'd him to be sound at bottom and settled in their Religion but repos'd much greater confidence in the late Prince of Conde who was in reality a better Protestant than he And truly it appears exceeding credible that when at his coming to the Crown he made a promise to the Catholick Princes and Lords that he wou'd cause himself to be instructed within six months he was already resolv'd on his Conversion there remaining but very few things which he then scrupled and for which he demanded some longer time in order to his fuller satisfaction But as he afterwards acknowledg'd he thought himself oblig'd to defer that good action to some more convenient opportunity because the Hugâ—nots wou'd certainly have cantoniz'd themselves and set up under the protection of some powerful Foreigner whom they wou'd have chosen for their Head which must have occasion'd new Troubles in the Kingdom Besides which the Head
the Spaniards the Princes the Officers of the Crown the principal Members of the Parliaments the Lords of the Court the Bishops and many Doctors not only of the Royal Party but also of the League went thither and amongst others three famous Curats of Paris Rene Benoist of St. Eustache Charignac of St. Sulpice and Morennes of St. Merry who far from being tainted with the seditious principles of their fellows the Curats of St. Severin St. Cosme St. Iaques St. Gervais St. Nicholas in the Fields and St. André who had ran riot in their scandalous Satyrs as I may call them more properly than Sermons against the Person of the King had the honour of bearing their parts in the Conversion of so Great a Prince Being therefore arriv'd at St. Denis from Mante on the twenty second of Iuly the next morning he entred into Conference and held close at it from six in the Morning to one in the Afternoon with the Archbishop of Bourges and seven or eight Bishops amongst whom was Monsieur du Perron nominated to the Bishoprick of Evreux Many Doctors of great reputation were present in that Assembly with the three Curats of Paris and Father Oliver Beranger a Learned Iacobin Chaplain in Ordinary to the late King The Instruction was made particularly touching three points concerning which the King propos'd some scruples The first was on the Invocation of Saints to know if it were absolutely necessary for us to pray to them On which point they easily satisfied him by giving him to understand the Doctrine of the Church concerning it viz. That as it is profitable for us to recommend our selves to the prayers of our living Brethren without derogating thereby from the Office of Jesus Christ our Mediator in like manner it is very advantageous for us to have recourse to Saints and pray them to intercede for us to the end we may obtain benefits and favour from God by Jesus Christ God imparting to them the knowledge of our necessities and of our prayers by some way best pleasing to himself as he makes known to the Angels according to the Scripture what is done here below and foretels to the Prophets future things though they are more particularly reserv'd to his own knowledge The second was concerning Auricular Confession And it was clearly prov'd to him That Jesus Christ having given commission to his Ministers in general terms of binding and of loosing sins that power cou'd not be restrain'd only to publick sins and by consequence it was necessary that Penitents shou'd give the Priests full knowledge of all the sins they had committed to the end they may make a just distinction betwixt those offences which they ought to remit and those they ought not The third Particular in which he desir'd to be throughly instructed was concerning the Authority of the Pope To which he submitted without difficulty after it was made out to him that according to the Gospels the Councils and the Holy Fathers it extended no farther than to things that were purely spiritual and nothing relating to temporals not at all interfering with the Rights and Prerogatives of Kings or the Liberties of Kingdoms When they wou'd have proceeded from this to the Point of the real Presence of Christ's Body in the Holy Sacrament which of all other Articles is the most contested betwixt Catholicks and Huguenots and in which they never come to an agreement he stopp'd the Bishops by telling them that he was intirely perswaded of that Truth that he had no manner of scruple concerning it and that he always had believ'd it 'T is also said that having appointed a Conference betwixt the Doctors and the Ministers when one of the Huguenot Preachers had yielded that Salvation might be had in the Church of Rome for at that time they granted it he said with great reason There is then no longer deliberation to be us'd I must of necessity be a Catholique and take the surest side as every prudent man wou'd do in a business of so great importance as that of Salvation Since according to the joynt opinion of both Parties I may be sav'd being a Catholique and if I still continue a Huguenot I shall be damn'd according to the opinion of the Catholiques But whether this be true indeed or only a report 't is certain that being perfectly instructed and well assur'd of all points of belief which are held by the Roman Church they drew up a form of the Profession of Faith which was sign'd by him After which there remain'd no more but only to make his profession solemnly according to the custom of the Church and to receive Absolution from his Heresie and from the sentence of Excommunication which had been given against him But it was first to be examin'd anew in a regular Conference which wou'd make the Decision more authentick whether the Bishops had power to absolve him in France of the Excommunication which he had incurr'd in a Case reserv'd by the Popes to the Holy See For not only the Legat and those Doctors who were devoted to the League and above all others the Archbishop of Lyons as he had made appear at the Conference of Surenne but also the Cardinal of Bourbon who had much ado to part with his imaginary Headship of a third Party maintain'd openly and boldly that the Pope alone had power to absolve him and that all other Absolution wou'd be null because the Pope had solely and positively made a reservation of that Power to the Holy See Notwithstanding which in a great Assembly of Bishops and learned Doctors which was held for the resolving of this Case the contrary opinion pass'd nemine contradicente in spight of the Remonstrances of that Cardinal who was indeed no very able man The Curat of St. Eustache himself René Benoist who was afterwards Bishop of Troyes Monsieur de Morennes Curat of St. Merry who dy'd Bishop of Seâ—z those I say who had been of the League till that very time and some other knowing Doctors gave an account to the Publick in their printed Writings of the Reasons on which they grounded their opinion and they are reducible to this ensuing Argumentation which the Reader will not be unwilling to understand as I have extracted it from their Books without interposing my own Judgement in the Matter because I write not as a Divine who declares and maintains a Doctrine but as an Historian who makes a faithful Relation of Actions done as he finds them in the best Accounts 'T is indubitable say these Doctors according to the most knowing Canonists that he who is excommunicated for a Case reserv'd to the Holy See if he have any Canonical hindrance that is to say express'd and approv'd by the Canons which permits him not to go and present himself before the Pope may be absolv'd by some other without being bound to send to Rome for his Absolution provided nevertheless that when the hindrance if it endures not always
especially after they had begun to taste the Sweets of Peace by means of the Truce which being earnestly desir'd by the great Cities was concluded for three moneths beginning four days after the Conversion 'T is true the Duke of Mayenne fearing that it wou'd soon deprive him of the Authority which he enjoy'd as Lieutenant of the Crown procur'd in his pretended Estates that the Oath shou'd be renew'd of perseverance in the Union and obedience to the Pope's Decrees He went yet farther for in order to oblige his Holiness always to support his Party he caus'd the Estates to confirm the Declaration which he had made for the publishing of the Council of Trent though they had formerly inroll'd the Exceptions which they had made in bar of it containing 23 Articles which were held to be inconsistent with the Royal Prerogative of our Kings and the Liberties of the Gallican Church But in conclusion neither that Publication which they had no great mind to make valid had any effect neither did the Oath which they had taken hinder them from treating privately and considering of the best methods to receive the King into Paris in spight of the Duke of Mayenne But that which wholly turn'd the Ballance and made the justice of his Cause apparent in the eyes of all men reducing almost all his Subjects to their Duty was that according to his promise he sent the Duke of Nevers to Rome to render that filial Obedience which is owing to his Holiness from the most Christian Kings and to desire that Absolution which they believ'd at Rome the Pope had only power to give him This met with great Obstructions and Pope Clement being earnestly solicited by the Spaniards who us'd their utmost Endeavours to hinder him from granting it refus'd it for a long time together after a manner which was somewhat disrespectful to so great a King But when his Holiness perceiv'd that he began to be less courted for his Gift and that it was believ'd in France considering what Applications had been made that the King had done all which cou'd reasonably be expected on his part and consequently no farther Absolution was necessary he advanc'd of his own accord as fast as they went back and encourag'd them to renew that Negotiation which had been wholly given over by the Duke of Nevers whom he wouâ—d not receive as the Ambassador of the King of France and who for that Reason he was departed from Rome in Discontent The King therefore being desirous to omit nothing on that occasion which cou'd be expected from a most religious Prince nam'd two new Deputies and both great Men Iacques David du Perron and Arnaud d' Ossat whose extraordinary Deserts were not long after rewarded with Cardinalships and they acted both of them with so much prudence that after many Disputes and Difficulties rais'd by the Spaniards both concerning the Essentials and the Formalities of that Affair the Pope at length resolv'd on giving a second Absolution and to keep himself precisely within the bounds of spiritual authority without mentioning the Rehabilitation to which he pretended For they wou'd not admit that term by which it might have seem'd that the Crown of France which depends on God alone shou'd either directly or indirectly be subjected to the Pope In this manner that Absolution which had been desir'd almost two years before that time was given at Rome on the sixteenth of September in the year 1595. by which it is easie to be observ'd that the League had not the mortal blow from thence but on the contrary that which made the Pope so pliable was that he saw the League was going to destruction In effect as when the two great Pillars which sustain'd the Palace of the Philistims were overthrown by the strength of Sampson all the Building went to the ground so when those two specious pretences of the Publick Good and of Religion which the Heads of the League had taken for the Columns of their Fabrick were thrown down by the Conversion of the King and that Conversion known to be real notwithstanding all the jugglings of the Spaniards who wou'd have rendred it suspected that impious Building already more than half ruin'd and now having not the least support fell down of it self and came to nothing Insomuch that in the year ensuing almost all the Heads and all the Cities of the League made each of them their separate Treaty with the King who was better pleas'd to win upon their hearts by gentle means with his admirable clemency and Fatherly goodness granting them advantageous conditions which did him the more honour the less they had deserv'd them than to force them as he was able by his victorious Arms to return to their duty in their own despight As the Marquess dâ— Vitry was the first who forsook the Kings Party after the death of Henry the Third entring into that of the League which at that time he believ'd to be the juster Cause he was also the first who being disabus'd of that false opinion return'd to his obedience with the Town of Meaux of which he was Governor The Sieur da la Chastre immediately follow'd his example and brought back with him Orleans and Bourges The Lionnois after they had shaken off the yoke of the Duke of Nemours whom they kept Prisoner in Pierre Encise and that of the Duke of Mayenne his Brother by the Mothers side who had underhand wrought them to secure him that he might joyn his Government of Bourgogne to that of Lionnois and set up a kind of independent principality in both turn'd the Leaguers out of the Town and declar'd unanimously for the King Provence was the first of all the Provinces which openly disown'd the Party of the League taking up Arms at the same time against the Savoyards and the Duke of Espernon who had possess'd himself of that Government against the Kings Will. This voluntary reduction was made by the courage and good management of four brave Gentlemen of the House of Fourbin one of the most Noble and most remarkable Families of Provence Their Names were Palamede de Fourbin Lord of Soliers and his two Sons Iaspar de Soliers and Saint Canat and Nicholas de Fourbin Knight of Malta with whom joyn'd Melchior de Fourbin Sieur de Ianson Baron of Ville-Laure and Mane These being related by kindred and alliance to Iohn de Pontevez Count de Carces Governor and Grand Seneschal of Provence whose two Sisters were married to Ianson and Saint Canat wrought so well with him that they brought him over from the League of which he had declar'd himself Head after the death of Monsieur de Vins his Nephew who was kill'd with a Musquet Shot as he was besieging Grasse After which having perswaded the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry to enter into their confederacy the Count without much trouble reduc'd the City of Aix and the Parliament of that place which reunited it self at the
Nuremberg The King was not yet satisfy'd to have wholly extinguish'd that Firebrand of Civil War which the League had lighted up in all the Provinces of France he farther desir'd in order to the security and quiet of his People after so great Troubles to make an end of foreign War which he accomplish'd not long after the Treaty of the Duke of Mercaeur by the Peace of Vervins Since that War which was openly made against the Spaniard during the space of four years had nothing of relation to the League nor the Peace which concluded it I shall forbear any mention of it in this History that I may not exceed the Limits of my Subject I shall only say that after the Spaniard had been oblig'd by vertue of the Articles of Peace to restore all the Places which he had taken from us or that had been basely given up to him during our Troubles we have seen since that time under the glorious Reigns of the Bourbons that imperial House still increasing with the French Monarchy by Peace and War in Greatness in Power and in Wealth even till this present time when Louis the Great by his victorious Arms and by his Laws has rais'd it to the highest pitch of Glory on the Ruines of those who had attempted its destruction by the League A wonderful effect of the divine Providence and Justice and a plain demonstration to all Subjects that they are indispensably oblig'd to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and that with good Reason founded on the express Commands of Jesus Christ the fourth Council of Toledo inspir'd by God's holy Spirit has made a Decree against such kind of Leaguers containing That whoever shall have violated by any League the Oath of Allegiance by which he is bound to maintain the state of his Countrey and of his King or shall have made any Attempt against his sacred Person or endeavour'd to depose him and tyrannically usurp'd the Soveraign Power let him be Anathema before God the Father and his holy Angels before Iesus Christ and his Apostles before the holy Ghost and the Martyrs let him be cut off from the Catholick Church which be has profan'd by his execrable Perjury and let him be excluded from the Company of the Faithful together with all those who have been partakers of his Impiety for 't is most just that they who are Accomplices and guilty of the same Crime shou'd also be involv'd in the same Punishment THE POSTSCRIPT Of the TRANSLATOR THat Government generally consider'd is of divine Authority will admit of no dispute For whoever will seriously consider that no man has naturally a right over his own Life so as to murder himself will find by consequence that he has no right to take away anothers Life and that no pact betwixt man and man or of Corporations and Individuals or of Soveraigns and Subjects can intitle them to this right So that no Offender can lawfully and without sin be punish'd unless that power be deriv'd from God 'T is He who has commission'd Magistrates and authoriz'd them to prevent future Crimes by punishing Offenders and to redress the injur'd by distributive Justice Subjects therefore are accountable to Superiors and the Superior to Him alone For the Soveraign being once invested with lawful Authority the Subject has irrevocably given up his power and the dependance of a Monarch is alone on God A King at his Coronation swears to govern his Subjects by the Laws of the Land and to maintain the several Orders of Men under him in their lawful priviledges and those Orders swear Allegiance and Fidelity to him but with this distinction that the failure of the People is punishable by the King that of the King is only punishable by the King of Kings The People then are not Judges of good or ill administration in their King for 't is inconsistent with the Nature of Soveraignty that they shou'd be so And if at some times they suffer through the irregularities of a bad Prince they enjoy more often the benefits and advantages of a good one as God in his Providence shall dispose either for their blessing or their punishment The advantages and disadvantages of such subjection are suppos'd to have been first consider'd and upon this ballance they have given up their power without a capacity of resumption So that it is in vain for a Common-wealth Party to plead that men for example now in being cannot bind their Posterity or give up their power For if Subjects can swear only for themselves when the Father dyes the subjection ends and the Son who has not sworn can be no Traytor or Offender either to the King or to the Laws And at this rate a long-liv'd Prince may out-live his Soveraignty and be no longer lawfully a King But in the mean time 't is evident that the Son enjoys the benefit of the Laws and Government which is an implicit acknowledgment of subjection 'T is endless to run through all the extravagancies of these men and 't is enough for us that we are settled under a Lawful Government of a Most Gracious Prince that our Monarchy is Hereditary that it is naturally poiz'd by our municipal Laws with equal benefit of Prince and People that he Governs as he has promis'd by explicit Laws and what the Laws are silent in I think I may conclude to be part of his Prerogative for what the King has not granted away is inheâ—ent in him The point of Succession has sufficiently been discuss'd both as to the Right of it and to the interest of the People One main Argument of the other side is how often it has been remov'd from the Right Line As in the case of King Stephen and of Henry the Fourth and his Descendants of the House of Lancaster But 't is easie to answer them that matter of Fact and matter of Right are different Considerations Both those Kings were but Usurpers in effect and the Providence of God restor'd the Posterities of those who were dispossess'd By the same Argument they might as well justifie the Rebellion and Murder of the Late King For there was not only a Prince inhumanly put to death but a Government overturn'd and first an Arbitrary Common-wealth then two Usurpers set up against the Lawful Soveraign but to our happiness the same Providence has miraculously restor'd the Right Heir and to their confusion as miraculously preserv'd him In this present History to go no further we see Henry the Third by a Decree of the Sorbonne divested what in them lay of his Imperial Rights a Parliament of Paris such another as our first long Parliament confirming their Decree a Pope authorising all this by his Excommunication and an Holy League and Covenant prosecuting this Deposition by Arms Yet an untimely death only hindred him from reseating himself in Glory on the Throne after he was in manifest possession of the Victory We see also the same Sorbonists the same Pope Parliament and
League with greater force opposing the undoubted Right of King Henry the Fourth and we see him in the end surmounting all these difficulties and triumphing over all these dangers God Almighty taking care of his own Anointed and the True Succession Neither the Papist nor Presbyterian Association prevailing at the last in their attempts but both baffl'd and ruin'd and the whole Rebellion ending either in the submission or destruction of the Conspirators 'T is true as my Author has observ'd in the beginning of his History that before the Catholick League or Holy Union which is the Subject of this Book there was a League or Combination of Huguenots against the Government of France which produc'd the Conspiracy of Amboise and the Calvinist Preachers as Mâ—zeray a most impartial Historian informs us gave their opinion that they might take up Arms in their own defence and make way for a free access to the King to present their Remonstrances But it was order'd at the same time that they shou'd seize on the Duke of Guâ—se and the Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother who were then Chief Ministers that they might be brought to Tryal by process before the States but he adds immediately who cou'd answer for them that the Prisoners shou'd not have been kill'd out of hand and that they wou'd not have made themselves Masters of the Queen Mother's Person and of the young King 's which was laid afterwards to their charge The conceal'd Heads of this Conspiracy were Lewis Prince of Condè and the famous Admiral de Coligny who being discontented at Court because their Enemies the Guises had the management of affairs under the Queen Regent to their exclusion and being before turn'd Calvinists made use of that Rebellious Sect and the pretence of Religion to cover their Ambition and Revenge The same Mezeray tells us in one of the next Pages That the name of Huguenots or Fidnos from whence it was corrupted signifies League or Association in the Swisse Language and was brought together with the Sect from Geneva into France But from whencesoever they had their name 't is most certain that pestilent race of people cannot by their principles be good Subjects For whatever inforc'd Obedience they pay to Authority they believe their Class above the King and how they wou'd order him if they had him in their power our Most Gracious Soveraign has sufficiently experienc'd when he was in Scotland As for their boast that they brought him in 't is much as true as that of the Calvinists who pretend as my Author tells you in his Preface That they seated his Grandfather Henry the Fourth upon the Throne For both French and English Presbyterians were fundamentally and practically Rebels and the French have this advantage over ours that they came in to the aid of Hâ—nry the Third at his greatest need or rather were brought over by the King of Navarrâ— their declar'd Head on a prospect of great advantage to their Religion whereas ours never inclin'd to the Kings Restauration till themselves had been trodden underfoot by the Independent Party and till the voice of three Nations call'd aloud for him that is to say when they had no possibility of keeping him any longer out of England But the beginning of Leagues Unions and Associations by those who call'd themselves Gods People for Reformation of Religious Worship and for the redress of pretended Grievances in the State is of a higher rise and is justly to be dated from Luther's time and the private Spirit or the gift of interpreting Scriptures by private Persons without Learning was certainly the Original Cause of such Cabals in the Reform'd Churches So dangerous an instrument of Rebellion is the Holy Scripture in the hands of ignorant and bigoted men The Anabaptists of Germany led up the Dance who had always in their mouths Faith Charity the Fear of God and mortifications of the Flesh Prayers Fastings Meditations contempt of Riches and Honours were their first specious practices From thence they grew up by little and little to a separation from other men who according to their Pharisaical account were less holy than themselves and Decency Civility neatness of Attire good Furniture and Order in their Houses were the brands of carnal-minded men Then they proceeded to nick-name the days of the Weeks and Sunday Monday Tuesday c. as Heathen names must be rejected for the First Second and Third Days distinguishing only by their numbers Thus they began to play as it were at cross purposes with mankind and to do every thing by contraries that they might be esteem'd more godly and more illuminated It had been a wonder considering their fanciful perfections if they had stopp'd here They were now knowing and pure enough to extend their private Reformation to the Church and State for Gods people love always to be dealing as well in Temporals as Spirituals or rather they love to be fingring Spirituals in order to their grasping Temporals Therefore they had the impudence to pretend to Inspiration in the Exposition of Scriptures a trick which since that time has been familiarly us'd by every Sect in its turn to advance their interests Not content with this they assum'd to themselves a more particular intimacy with Gods Holy Spirit as if it guided them even beyond the power of the Scriptures to know more of him than was therein taught For now the Bible began to be a dead Letter of it self and no virtue was attributed to the reading of it but all to the inward man the call of the Holy Ghost and the ingrafting of the Word opening their Understanding to hidden Mysteries by Faith And here the Mountebank way of canting words came first in use as if there were something more in Religion than cou'd be express'd in intelligible terms or Nonsence were the way to Heaven This of necessity must breed divisions amongst them for every mans Inspiration being particular to himself must clash with anothers who set up for the same qualification the Holy Ghost being infallible in all alike though he spoke contradictions in several mouths But they had a way of licking one another whole mistakes were to be forgiven to weak Brethren the failing was excus'd for the right intention he who was more illuminated wou'd allow some light to be in the less and degrees were made in contradictory Propositions But Godfathers and Godmothers by common consent were already set aside together with the observation of Festivals which they said were of Antichristian Institution They began at last to Preach openly that they had no other King but Christ and by consequence Earthly Magistrates were out of doors All the gracious Promises in Scripture they apply'd to themselves as Gods chosen and all the Judgments were the portion of their Enemies These impieties were at first unregarded and afterwards tolerated by their Soveraigns And Luther himself made request to the Duke of Saxony to deal favourably with them as honest-meaning men who were
which they built their Babel You have seen how warily the first Association in Picardy was worded nothing was to be attempted but for the King's Service and an Acknowledgement was formally made that both the Right and Power of the Government was in him but it was pretended that by occasion of the true Protestant Rebels the Crown was not any longer in condition either of maintaining it self or protecting them And that therefore in the Name of God and by the Power of the holy Ghost they joyn'd together in their own Defence and that of their Religion But all this while though they wou'd seem to act by the King's Authority and under him the Combination was kept as secret as possibly they cou'd and even without the participation of the Soveraign a sure Sign that they intended him no good at the bottom Nay they had an Evasion ready too against his Authority for 't is plain they joyn'd Humieres the Governour of the Province in Commission with him and only nam'd the King for show but engag'd themselves at the same time to his Lieutenant to be obedient to all his Commands levying Men and Money without the King's Knowledge or any Law but what they made amongst themselves So that in effect the Rebellion and Combination of the Hugonots was only a leading Card and an example to the Papists to rebel on their side And there was only this difference in the Cause that the Calvinists set up for their Reformation by the superior Power of Religion and inherent Right of the People against the King and Pope The Papists pretended the same popular Right for their Rebellion against the King and for the same end of Reformation only they fac'd it with Church and Pope Our Sectaries and Long Parliament of 41 had certainly these French Precedents in their eye They copy'd their Methods of Rebellion at first with great professions of Duty and Affection to the King all they did was in order to make him glorious all that was done against him was pretended to be under his Authority and in his Name and even the War they rais'd was pretended for the King and Parliament But those Proceedings are so notoriously known and have imploy'd so many Pens that it wou'd be a nauseous Work for me to dwell on them To draw the likeness of the French Transactions and ours were in effect to transcribe the History I have translated Every Page is full of it Every man has seen the Parallel of the Holy League and our Covenant and cannot but observe that besides the Names of the Countreys France and England and the Names of Religions Protestant and Papist there is scarcely to be found the least difference in the project of the whole and in the substance of the Articles In the mean time I cannot but take notice that our Rebels have left this eternal Brand upon their Memories that while all their pretence was for the setting up the Protestant Religion and pulling down of Popery they have borrow'd from Papists both the Model of their Design and their Arguments to defend it And not from loyal well principled Papists but from the worst the most bigotted and most violent of that Religion From some of the Iesuites an Order founded on purpose to combat Lutheranism and Calvinism The matter of Fact is so palpably true and so notorious that they cannot have the Impudence to deny it But some of the Iesâ—ites are the shame of the Roman Church as the Sectaries are of ours Their Tenets in Politicks are the same both of them hate Monarchy and love Democracy both of them are superlatively violent they are inveterate haters of each other in Religion and yet agree in the Principles of Government And if after so many Advices to a Painter I might advise a Dutch-maker of Emblems he shouâ—d draw a Presbyterian in Arms on one side a Iesuit on the other and a crownd Head betwixt them for t is perfectly a Battel-royal Each of them is endeavouring the destruction of his Adversary but the Monarch is sure to get Blows on both sides But for those Sectaries and Commonwealths-men of 41 before I leave them I must crave leave to observe of them that generally they were a sowr sort of thinking men grim and surly Hypocrites such as coud cover their Vices with an appearance of great Devotion and austerity of Manners neither Profaneness nor Luxury were encouragd by them nor practisd publickly which gave them a great opinion of Sanctity amongst the Multitude and by that opinion principally they did their business Though their Politicks were taken from the Catholick League yet their Christianity much resembled those Anabaptists who were their Original in Doctrine and these indeed were formidable Instruments of a religious Rebellion But our new Conspirators of these seven last years are men of quite another Make I speak not of their non-Conformist Preachers who pretend to Enthusiasm and are as morose in their Worship as were those first Sectaries but of their Leading men the Heads of their Faction and the principal Members of it what greater looseness of Life more atheistical Discourse more open Lewdness was ever seen than generally was and is to be observ'd in those men I am neither making a Satyr nor a Sermon here but I wou'd remark a little the ridiculousness of their Management The strictness of Religion is their pretence and the men who are to set it up have theirs to choose The Long Parliamentâ— Rebels frequented Sermons and observ'd Prayers and Fastings with all solemnity but these new Reformers who ought in prudence to have trodden in their steps because their End was the same to gull the People by an outside of Devotion never us'd the means of insinuating themselves into the opinion of the Multitude Swearing Drunkenness Blasphemies and worse sins than Adultery are the Badges of the Party nothing but Liberty in their mouths nothing but License in their practice For which reason they were never esteem'd by the Zealots of their Faction but as their Tools and had they got uppermost after the Royallists had been crush'd they wou'd have been blown off as too light for their Society For my own part when I had once observ'd this fundamental error in their Politiques I was no longer afraid of their success No Government was ever ruin'd by the open scandal of its opposers This was just a Catiline's Conspiracy of profligate debauch'd and bankrupt men The wealthy amongst them were the fools of the Party drawn in by the rest whose Fortunes were desperate and the Wits of the Cabal sought only their private advantages They had either lost their Preferments and consequently were piqu'd or were in hope to raise themselves by the general disturbance Upon which account they never cou'd be true to one another There was neither Honour nor Conscience in the Foundation of their League but every man having an eye to his own particular advancement was no longer a Friend than while his Interest
where he carried all things in opposition to the King But by relying too much on the power he had there and not using Arms when he had them in his hand I mean by not prosecuting his Victory to the uttermost when he had the King inclos'd in the Louvre he miss'd his opportunity and Fortune never gave it him again The late Earl of Shaftsbury who was the undoubted Head and Soul of that Party went upon the same maximes being as we may reasonably conclude fearful of hazarding his Fortunes and observing that the late Rebellion under the former King though successful in War yet ended in the Restauration of His Present Majesty his aim was to have excluded His Royal Highness by an Act of Parliament and to have forc'd such concessions from the King by pressing the chymerical dangers of a Popish Plot as wouâ—d not only have destroy'd the Succession but have subverted the Monarchy For he presum'd he ventur'd nothing if he cou'd have executed his design by form of Law and in a Parliamentary way In the mean time he made notorious mistakes First in imagining that his pretensions wou'd have pass'd in the House of Peers and afterwards by the King When the death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey had fermented the people when the City had taken the alarm of a Popish Plot and the Government of it was in Fanatique hands when a Body of white Boys was already appearing in the West and many other Counties waited but the word to rise then was the time to have push'd his business But Almighty God who had otherwise dispos'd of the Event infatuated his Counsels and made him slip his opportunity which he himself observ'd too late and would have redress'd by an Insurrection which was to have begun at Wapping after the King had been murder'd at the Rye And now it will be but Justice before I conclude to say a word or two of my Author He was formerly a Jesuit He has amongst others of his works written the History of Arianism of Lutheranism of Calvinism the Holy War and the Fall of the Western Empire In all his Writings he has supported the Temporal Power of Soveraigns and especially of his Master the French King against the usurpations and incroachments of the Papacy For which reason being in disgrace at Rome he was in a manner forc'd to quit his Order and from Father Maimbourg is now become Monsieur Maimbourg The Great King his Patron has provided plentifully for him by a large Salary and indeed he has deserv'd it from him As for his style 't is rather Ciceronian copious florid and figurative than succinct He is esteemed in the French Court â—qual to their best Writers which has procur'd him the Envy of some who set up for Criticks Being a profess'd Enemy of the Calvinists he is particularly hated by them so that their testimonies against him stand suspected of prejudice This History of the League is generally allow'd to be one of his best pieces He has quoted every where his Authors in the Margin to show his Impartiality in which if I have not follow'd him 't is because the chiefest of them are unknown to us as not being hitherto translated into English His particular Commendations of Men and Families is all which I think superfluous in his Book but that too is pardonable in a man who having created himself many Enemies has need of the support of Friends This particular work was written by express order of the French King and is now translated by our Kings Command I hope the effect of it in this Nation will be to make the well-meaning men of the other Party sensible of their past errors the worst of them asham'd and prevent Posterity from the like unlawful and impious designs FINIS THE TABLE A. ABsolution given by the Archbishop of Bourges to Henry the Fourth held good and why Page 924 Acarie Master of Accounts a grand Leaguer 96 Francis Duke of Alanson puts himself at the Head of the Protestant Army against the King his Brother 10. Is Crown'd Duke of Brabant 79. His Death 85 George de Clermont d' Amboises 147. joyns the Prince of Conde in Anjou with 1500 Men that he had levied 150. Is Grand Master of the Ordnance for the King of Navarre at the Battel of Courtras 209 Arques its situation and the great Battel that was fought there 742 c. John d' Aumont Marshal of France 114. His Elogy 195. The good Counsel be gave the King but unprofitably 114. He Commands the Army Royal under the King against the Reyters 260. A grand Confident of Henry the Third's 383. Commands a Party of Henry the Fourth's Army in Campagne and at the attacquing of the Suburbs of Paris 752. At the Battel at Ivry 774 The Duke d' Aumale at the Battel of Vimory 270. Is made Governor of Paris by the Leagers 428. Besieges Senâ—is 483. Loses the Battel there 486 Auneau a little City of La Beauce its scituation 279. How the Reyters were there defeated by the Duke of Guise 280 c. Don John of Austria treats secretly with the Duke of Guise at Joinville 20 Aubry Curate of St. Andrews a grand Leager his extravagance in his Sermon 825 B. THe Sieur Balagny sends Troops to the Duke of Guise 235. Besieges Senlis with the the Duke d' Aumale 484. His defeat at that Battel 486 c. The Iournal of the Barricades 357 c. Colonel Christopher de Bassom-Pierre 103 250 777 Baston a furious Leaguer that Signs the Covenant with his Blood 449 The Battel of Courtras 200 c. The Battel at Senlis 485 The Battel or Combats at Arques 742 The Battel at Ivry 770 Claude de Baufremont Baron of Senâ—cey enters into the League 106. is President of the Nobles at the Estates at Paris Pag. 875 John de Beaumanoir Marquis de Laverdin Marshal de Camp to the Duke de Joyeuse 196. is beaten by the King of Navarre 197. Draws up the Duke's Army into Battalia at the Battel of Courtras 209. breaks the Light Horse 215. his honourable Retreat and his Elogy his Services recompens'd with a Marshal of France's Staff 226 Renaud de Beaune Archbishop of Bourges chief of the Deputation of the Royallists at the Conference at Suresne 879. The sum of his Harangue and of his Proofs 880 c. gives the King Absolution 928 Bellarmine a Iesuit and a Divine of Legat Cajetan's preaches at Paris during the Siege 806 President de Bellievre sent to the Duke of Guise 335. is not of advice that the King should cause the Duke to be kill'd in the Louvre 341. his Contest with the Duke of Guise about the Orders he brought him on behalf of the King 343. his banishment from Court 384 Rene Benoist Curate of St. Eustach acts and writes for the King 836 923 The Mareschal de Biron commands an Army in Poictou 144. he artfully breaks the designs of the Duke of Mayenne ib. his Valor at the Combat of
Innocent IX Pope declares himself for the League 861 Duke Anne de Joyeuse the King's Favourite 192 193 His prodigious rise ib. His Elogy ib. He commands the Army against the King of Navarre 194 His Exploits in Poitou 195 c. His faults and presumption at the Battel of Coutras Pag. 202 203 His death ib. Henry de Joyeuse Count de Bouchage becomes Capucin under the name of Fryer Auge and why 368 369 His most extraordinary Procession from Paris to Chartres to ask mercy of the King ib. His going out and re-entring the Capucins 960 c. Francis de Joyeuse Cardinal Protector of France generously maintains the King's Rights 418 His effectual Remonstrance to Pope Sixtus upon his proceedings after the death of the Guises ib. Ivry its situation and the Battel was fought there 770 771 c. L. FRrancis de la Noue at the relief of Senlis 484 Ranges the Army and gains the Battel 485 c. His Valour at the Combat of Arques 748 Wounded and beaten back at the attaquing the Suburbs of St. Martin 353 c. M. de Launoy a grand Leaguer 75 Philip de Lenoncour Cardinal 140 The Sieur de I'Esdiguieres takes Montelimar and Ambrun where the Huguenots plunder the great Church 145 The League and Leaguers its true Original Pag. 2 3 Wherein it is like to that of Calvinism 3 The success it had quite contrary to the end it was propos'd for ib. The first that conceiv'd the design was the Cardinal de Lorrain at the Council of Trent 15 16 The occasion that gave it birth in France 22 23 c. It s Project in Form to which all the Leaguers are made subscribe 32 33 The Refutation of the Articles of the said Form 33 c. It would usurp the Authority Royal in the first Estates at Blois 60 61 c. It s horrible Calumnies against Henry III. 89 166 234 262 234 303 304 The League of Sixteen at Paris its original and progress 93 c. It s twelve Founders 94 c. The Treaty of the League with the Spaniard 102 It hinders the Low-Countries from being united to the Crown 108 In taking Arms at so mischievous a time hinders the ruine of Huguenotism which was going to be destroy'd during the Peace ib. It sends new Memoirs and a new Form of Oath to the Provinces at the coming of the Reyters 234 The Insolence of the Leaguers after the defeat of the Reyters 302 They take Arms and fall upon the Archers who would seize de Prevost Curate of St. Severin that had preach'd seditiously against the King Pag. 203 204 They take the Alarm seeing the King dispos'd to punish them and implore the help of the Duke of Guise 332 c. Their Transports and Acclamations at the Duke's coming 337 They oppose the going forth of Strangers whom the King would have put out of Paris 348 They make Barricades 352 They act openly against the King's Authority at the Estates 389 Their furious deportmenâ—s at Paris after the death of the Guises 427 428 c. They degrade King Henry III. and act â—all sorts of Outrages against him 436 They accuse him of Enchantments and Magic Charms 452 The Cities that entred into the League 461 At Tolous they massacre the first President and Advocate General 462 Their Deputies press the Pope to publish the Excommunication against the King 495 496 They become stronger than ever after the death of Henry III. 737 738 Their Power during the Siege of Paris 800 They offer the Crown of France to the King of Spain 833 834 They cause President Brisson to be hang'd 837 Four of the most Seditious are hang'd at the Louvre 839 They make it appear at the Estates at Paris that they desire nothing less than the King's Conversion Pag. 890 891 Henry d'Orleans Duke de Longueville at the Relief of Senlis 486 Gives Battel to the Leaguers and gains it 487 c. Commands one part of the King's Army 736 And at the Attaque of the Suburbs of Paris 752 753 Charles Duke of Lorrain would not have the passage of the Reyters through his Country oppos'd and why 239 240 c. Would not enter France after the Reyters ib. Obtains Peace of the King 946 Charles Cardinal of Lorrain was the first that form'd the design of a general League of the Catholics 15 16 His Portrait ib. Charles de Lorrain Duke of Mayenne makes Wars with the King of Navarre in Guyenne with little success 143 144 Ioins himself with his Brother the Duke of Guise against the Army of the Reyters 258 259 His brave Action at the Combat of Vimory 270 c. He retires to Lyon in Bourgogn after the death of his two Brothers 426 c. His Encomium and Portrait 453 c. He refuses the great Offers the King made him and goes to the Wars ib. His happy beginnings Pag. 455 His Entry into Paris 457 Weakens the Council of Sixteen by augmenting it 458 459 Causes himself to be declar'd Lieutenant General of the Estate and Crown of France 460 Acts as a Sovereign and makes new Laws 460 461 Marches against the King defeats the Count de Brienne's Troops and takes him Prisoner 480 481 c. He attaques and takes the Suburbs of Tours and returns without doing any thing else ib. His generous Resolution when he saw himself besieged by the Royal Army 507 508 Makes the Cardinal of Bourbon be declar'd King by the Council of the Union 739 He attaques the King at Arques and is repuls'd and beaten 742 743 c. He follows the counsel of M. de Ville-Roy and opposes the designs of the Spaniards 759 760 c. Causes to be proclaim'd Charles X. 764 765. Marches to the Relief of Dreux 769 Loses the Battel of Ivry 787 Breaks with the Spaniards and why 833 c. Divides himself from the Princes of his House 834 c. Is jealous of the young Duke of Guise 835 Causes Four of the principal of the Sixteen to be hang'd up at the Louvre and abates their Faction Pag. 839 Carries the Duke of Parma to the Relief of Roan 846 He assembles the Estates at Paris 862 863 c. His Declaration wherein he invites all the Catholic Lords of the Royal Paâ—ty to meet at the Estates for the good of the Religion and the State 865 866 His Speech and Design in the Estates 875 c. He creates one Admiral and four Marshals of France 873 Causes the Conference of Surene to be accepted by the Estates 878 Takes Noyen 879 Dextrously hinders the Election of a King at the Estates 895 896 Will not hold the King's Absolution good 931 Retires from Paris to Soisons 940 What he did at the Battel of Fontain Francoise 947 948 c. Obtains from the King a Treaty and a favourable Edict 954 955 c. Is very well received by the King at Monceaux 957 Henry de Lorrain Duke of Guise destin'd by his Uncle the Cardinal of Lorrain
afterwards on the same day King of Poland and some time after King of France as Lewis of Tarento had receiv'd his two Crowns of Ierusalem and Sicily on the like day before he took a fancy to renew that Order four years after his Coronation But desiring to be esteem'd the Authour of it he chang'd the Collar where he plac'd certain Ciphers to which has been substituted in following times the Coat of Arms in manner of a Trophy as it is at present to be seen And after he had transcrib'd what best pleas'd him from the Statutes of that Order he commanded Monsieur de Chiverny to burn the Original thereby totally to extinguish the mâ—mory of it But that Minister though most faithfull to his Master believing not that he was bound to be the Executioner of that Order this rare piece descended to the Bishop of Chartres his Son from whom by succession of time it fell into the hands of the late President de Maisons as it is related by Monsieur le Laboreur who has given us the Copy at large in the second Tome of his Additions to the Memoires of Monsieur de Castelnau In this manner this famous Order was rather restor'd than instituted by King Henry the Third to combine a new Militia of Knights which he might oppose against the Leaguers who were much dissatisfi'd with the Peace which he had given to the Huguenots Nevertheless this Peace was not so well observ'd but that from time to time they created new disturbances which two or three years afterwards kindled the seventh War after the refusal they had made to surrender those cautionary Towns which had been granted them for a certain time which was then expir'd and by their surprisal of some other places But this War was ended in the second year after the conferences of Nerac and Fleix by a peace which lasted four or five years till the League which from the time wherein the King had made himself their Head had not dar'd to attempt any thing all on the sudden declar'd it self against him under another the occasion of which I am going to relate Immediately after the peace was made the Catholiques and Huguenots whom the Civil War had arm'd against each other joyn'd themselves to serve in the Army of the Duke d' Alanson who being declar'd Duke of Brabant by the States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands entred as it were in Triumph into Cambray after he had rais'd the Seige which the Duke of Parma had laid to it And after having been proclam'd a Sovereign Prince in Antwerp and been receiv'd at Bruges and Ghent in the same quality he continued the War assisted underhand by Succours from France and openly by the Queen of England that he might drive the Spaniard out of all the Low-Countries On the other side the Queen Mother who had pretentions to the Crown of Portugal had also sent a gallant Navy to the Tercera Islands under the Command of her Kinsman Philip Strozzi and openly protected Don Antonio who after having lost the Battail before Lisbonne was fled for refuge into France and yet ceas'd not to dispute that Crown against King Philip of Spain For which reason that Prince who follow'd the Steps of his Father and of Ferdinand his great Grandfather by the Mother's side in this as in all other things thought of nothing more than how to greaten himself at our expence and appli'd himself with his utmost vigour to foment new divisions amongst us to hinder us from giving him trouble in his own Estates To this effect he us'd his best endeavours and employ'd all his arts to ingage the King of Navarre and Damville who after the death of his elder Brother was now Duke of Montmorancy to break the peace and renew the War in favour of the Huguenots making not the least scruple on that occasion to act against the true interest of Religion at the same time when he upbraided for the same thing those who in reality made the war in Flanders out of no other consideration but the relief of an oppress'd people of which even the greatest part were Catholiques But seeing that design of his cou'd not possibly succeed for certain reasons which belong not to this History he turn'd his thoughts towards the Duke of Guise and gave orders to his Ambassadour Mendoza to omit nothing which might oblige him to make the League take Arms which was already exceeding powerfull and of which he might absolutely dispose as being the principal Authour and the very Soul of it The Duke who was intrepid and bold even to rashness when he had once resolv'd upon his Business was notwithstanding very subtile and clear-sighted wary and prudent enough to take just measures and not to ingage in any Enterprise of which he was not as much assur'd as man cou'd be to have all the means of making it succeed From thence it proceeded that he resisted for a long time the temptation of great Sums that were offer'd him and held out against the threatnings of the Ambassadour to discover the secret treaty he had made with Don Iohn of Austria the Original of which was in the King of Spain's possession nay even against the pressing solicitations of his Brothers and the rest of the Princes of his House who being more impatient and less discerning than he thought every minute an age till he declar'd himself But at last arriv'd the fatal moment in which after having well examin'd all matters he thought that every thing concurr'd not onely to favour the design he had always had to make himself Head of the Catholique League but also to carry his hopes much farther than his ambition vast as it was had yet led him to imagine In Effect on the one side the King was reduc'd to a lower condition than he ever was before his immense prodigality in a thousand things altogether unworthy of the Royal Majesty and of no profit to the State the pomp the pride and the insupportable insolence of his Favourites his fantastique way of living which hurri'd him incessantly from one extâ—eme into another from retirement and solitude to a City life from Debauchery into Devotion and such a Devotion as pass'd in the peoples minds for a mere Mummery into those Processions of Penitents habited in Sackcloth of several colours where he walk'd himself with his disciplining whip at his Girdle against the Genius of a Nation which loves to serve God in spirit and in truth these and a thousand such like things wholly contrary to our customs and to the use of his Predecessours had drawn upon him such a detestation and so great a contempt from the greatest part of his Subjects that against the ordinary practice of the French who adore their Kings there were given a thousand publique marks and principally in Paris of the aversion which they had for him On the other side all things conspir'd in favour of the Duke of Guise
to raise him to that high degree of power which seem'd to equal him with the King himself who in effect already look'd on him as his Rival and as such hated him without daring as yet to enterprise ought against him to prevent his designs or to shelter himself against the mischief which he apprehended from him The people united themselves to him as to their Protectour and the pillar of Religion Most of the great men at Court discontented at the Government threw themselves into his party the Ladies from whom the Minions cou'd hold nothing disclos'd to him all the secrets of the Cabinet to revenge themselves of the King whom they hated mortally for certain reasons not so fit to be divulg'd He was offer'd to have the Dukes of Lorrain and Savoy in his interests who both hop'd to draw great advantages from the League and principally so powerfull a Prince as the King of Spain who 〈◊〉 him two hundred thousand Livres of â—ension besides the Sums he wou'd furnish for the levying of his Troops These were indeed strong temptations to a Prince of his humour and who was inclin'd to throw at all But that which gave the last stroke to his determination was the death of Monsieur the King 's onely Brother who after his unsuccessfull Enterprise on Antwerp having been constrain'd to return dishonourably into France dy'd at Chateau de Thierry either of Melancholy or of his old Debauches or as the common report was of poison For about that time it was that believing the King wou'd have no Children and that the King of Navarre might be excluded with ease from the succession for more than one reason which he hop'd to make authentique rather by force of Arms than by the Writings of the Doctours of his Faction and that the Queen Mother who hated her Son-in-Law Navarre had the same inclination to exclude him thereby to advance her Grand-Child the Prince of Lorrain to the Kingdom he rais'd his imagination to higher hopes than what he had formerly conceiv'd when first the Cardinal of Lorrain his Uncle had drawn the platform of a Catholique League whereof he might make himself the Head And on these grounds without farther balancing the matter he resolv'd to take up Arms and to make War against the King But to make so criminal an enterprise more plausible there was yet wanting a pretence which in some sort might justifie his actions to the World And fortune produc'd it for him to as much advantage as he cou'd desire almost at the same time when he had taken up so strange a resolution As it was impossible that so great a Conspiracy shou'd be manag'd with such secrecy that the King shou'd not be advertis'd of it which in effect he was from many hands That Prince who had suffer'd his natural courage to be made effeminate by the laziness of a voluptuous retir'd Life was become exceeding timorous and incapable of coming to any resolution within himself to stifle in its birth so horrible a mischief by some generous action and some Master stroke had a desire to have near him his Brother-in-Law the King of Navarre whom he acknowledg'd according to the Salique Law for the Heir presumptive of the Crown and knew him to be the man who was most capable of breaking all the measures of the Duke of Guise But foreseeing that in order to this it was necessary that he who was Head of the Huguenots shou'd first renounce his Heresie and be reconcil'd to the Catholique Church he dispatch'd the Duke of Espernon to him in Guyenne to perswade him to a thing of so much consequence to the reeâ—tablishment of his fortune and his true interest both Spiritual and Temporal As that Prince had always protested with much sincerity that he was of no obstinate disposition and that he was most ready to embrace the truth when once it were made to appear such to him he receiv'd the Duke with exceeding kindness to whom he gave a private audience in his Closset in presence of the Lord of Roquelaure his Confident of a Minister of his own Religion and of the President Ferrier his Chancellour who had always lean'd to the opinion of the Huguenots of which at last he made profession in his extreme old age and some little time before his death In plain terms that Conference was not manag'd very regularly nor with extraordinary sincerity for Espernon and Roquelaure who were no great Doctours propos'd nothing but humanâ— reasons for his Conversion and alledg'd no stronger arguments than what were drawn from the Crown of France which they preferr'd incomparably beyond the Psalms of Marot the Lords Supper and all the Sermons of the Ministers But on the other side the Minister and the President who were much better vers'd in disputation than the two Courtiers to destroy those weak reasons of secular interest produc'd no motives but what they affirm'd to be altogether spiritual and Soul saving and the word of God which they expounded to their own meaning to which those Noble Lords who understood nothing of those matters had not the least syllable to answer Insomuch that the King of Navarre who piqu'd himself extremely upon the point of generosity looking on it as a most honourable action for him to undervalue so great a Crown at the rate of selling his Conscience and Religion for it the Duke was constrain'd to return as he came without having obtain'd any thing toward the satisfaction of the King But what was yet more displeasing in that affair was that Monsieur du Plessis Mornay a Gentleman of an ancient and illustrious Family a great wit whose Learning was extraordinary for a man of his Quality and who besides made use of his Pen as well as of his Sword but above all a most zealous Protestant put this conference into writing which he also publish'd in which having expos'd what was urg'd on both sides he pretends to manifest the advantage which his Religion had against the Catholique and that the King of Navarre being evidently convinc'd of the weakness of our cause was thereby more than ever confirm'd in his own opinion This was the reason why the Factious and the Catholiques who were heated with a false Zeal began to fly out immoderately against the King whom they charg'd with a thousand horrible calumnies publishing in all places that he kept Correspondence with the King of Navarre to whom he had sent Espernon not with intention of converting him but rather of confirming him in his Errours as it appear'd sufficiently by the proceedings of that conference where nothing was urg'd to the advantage of Religion but on the contrary all things in favour of Huguenotism And it hapning almost at the same time that the King in order to hinder the Huguenots from resuming their Arms against the Leaguers who had provok'd them by committing many outrages against them without punishment thought himself oblig'd to grant them that prolongation which the King
same time I have found an expedient to draw us out of it The Counsell which you have given me as believing it necessary for my safety I command you to take for your selves and for us all Go then to give out Orders to the Army draw them up in the narrow Passage and upon the Hill which is Planted with Vines without Pont St. Vincent to receive me after I have made the Retreat which I take upon my self to doe which I will perform after the manner which I have already cast in my imagination and which perhaps shall be as much without Danger as it is without Example After this Rone and La Route having already without loss rejoyn'd the Body of Light Horse he began to encourage his Souldiers and that much less by his Words than by his Countenance and that Majestique air which animated all his actions and inspir'd a part of his own Courage and assurance into the most fearfull for appearing at the Head of his little Troup with his Sword in his hand otherwise unarm'd upon a Pad and beholding his Souldiers and their Officers with a lively piercing eye which when he pleas'd he cou'd even dart into their Souls and command them as he thought good he spoke onely a few words to his French Italian and German Officers to each in their own Language and calling them by their Names he assur'd them that he had invented an infallible way of preserving them if they wou'd follow his directions undauntedly and take him for their Example Those few words chearfully pronounc'd by a Prince who always perform'd more than he wou'd promise so much encourag'd those four hundred men that without farther reflexion on the apparent danger of perishing and the seeming impossibility of their escape they look'd disdainfully from their Hill on that vast Army of the Germans who having almost all of them already pass'd the Madon at the Bridge of Buligny March'd directly towards them in Battalia not doubting but they shou'd inclose them and cut them all in pieces if they had the confidence to expect them or put them to the Rout and totally defeat them if they attempted to make their Retreat before them Yet they stood at first in some suspence when having pass'd the Brook which was betwixt them and the Hill they beheld them yet standing firm and appearing with a resolution of receiving them with their Swords in their hands So uncommon a Spectacle stopp'd them a while to observe their countenance as fearing perhaps that their great assurance proceeded from their being back'd by the whole Army But at length resuming Courage and being asham'd that they had doubted one moment to Attacque so inconsiderable a Party they sounded a Charge without more delay Seven Cornets of Reyters having before them three hundred French-men of Arms March'd foremost and began to Mount the Hill at a round Trot against the Enemy but the ascent was so rough that their Horses who were spur'd to the Quick grew out of breath and constrain'd them to abate of their speed and change their Trot into a Foot-pace Then the Duke of Guise takeing his opportunity to make his Retreat according as he had modell'd it in his Head in such a manner as none before him had ever practis'd Retreated a little farther off upon the Hill so as to be out of sight of the Enemy after which having made a half turn on the right hand he turn'd short upon the left hand at the right of the Enemy through a little Valley which was betwixt them and the River His March was out of View under coverâ— of the Hills which hid that Valley as far as to a Foord which he had observ'd though he had been inform'd that there was none besides which there was a Mill wherein he Lodg'd a dozen Arquebusiers who were resolv'd to defend it to the utmost and there he pass'd the Madon from whence the Enemies were departed in pursuit of him On that side were onely the Swissers who March'd after the others to pass at the Bridge of Buligny and who being Foot cou'd neither stop nor follow that Cavalry which had pass'd the River below the Bourg and by that means had the advantage of them So that turning Face and descending on the left along that little River on the other side of which the Enemy was pass'd to Attacque him he continu'd to make his retreat towards the gross of the Catholique Army which was drawing up in Battalia near Pont St. Vincent In the mean time the Enemy having with much difficulty overcome the top of the Hill where they thought to find the Duke of Guise were strangely surpris'd to see him beyond the Water retiring at his ease Immediately they descended with much more speed than they had Mounted and pursu'd him eagerly But they were stopp'd so long by those twelve resolute Souldiers who defended the Mill upon the Foord at the expence of their Lives which they sold at a dear rate that before they cou'd be forc'd the Duke had the leisure without mending his pace to repass the River on this side at another Foord which he had also observ'd adjoyning to that narrow space and that rib of the Hill planted with Vineyards where the gross of his Army lay In this manner that Prince who had ingag'd himself too far in discovering the Enemy found the means of saving his little Troup and retiring in the Face of a great Army not by turning his back as is the usual custome but by going on their side by a new invented Strategem and placing the River twice successively betwixt himself and the Enemy And what Crown'd the glory of the whole action was that putting himself at the Head of five or six hundred Horse in that little Meadow which is at the foot of that rib of the Mountain on which his Army was not wholly yet embattel'd he defended the passage of the River and always repuls'd the Reyters who return'd twice or thrice to the Charge and did their uttermost to Force it and that having left it free the next Morning according to the resolution which had been taken in the Council of War he made good the Retreat of his whole Army without the loss of one single man After both Armies had refresh'd themselves for two or three days the Germans who were always Coasted on the Right and perpetually harrass'd by the Duke of Guise who led the Vanguard having pass'd the Meuse near Neufchateau enter'd France by the Principality of Ioinville where they took their first Quarters at St. Vrbain The Duke of Lorrain who had follow'd them as far as his own Frontiers and had what he desir'd when he had seen the Strangers out of his Estates was resolv'd to go no farther but retir'd into the Dutchy of Barre as did also the Marquis d' Havre with his Walloons both of them saying that they cou'd not enter into France without permission from the King Thus the Duke of Guise was left
to himself with his own Troups which amounted not to four thousand men and nevertheless he undertook with an invincible Courage and so small a Power to pursue to infeeble and entirely to ruine that great Army which was yet more increas'd in the Bassigny by the conjunction of those Troups which the brave Chastillon Son to the late Admiral brought out of Languedoc and Dauphine after having travers'd Lionnois and Burgundy with incredible difficulty The Duke then undertook them all being follow'd by Souldiers as indefatigable as himself who believ'd there was nothing impossible for them to perform under his Conduct and sometimes appearing at the head of the Enemy sometimes at their Rere then coaâ—â—ing them now on the right hand and afterwards on the left cutting them ofâ— from Provisions giving them continual Alarmes and harâ—â—assing them Night and Day in a hundred several manners he reduc'd them often to great extremities particularly after he was reinforc'd by the Troups which were brought him by Monsieur de Mayenne by Chaligny Elbeuf and Brissac who joyn'd him at Auxerre his Forces then consisting of six thousand Foot and eighteen hundred Horse With these inconveniences besides those which the continual rain the broken ways their gluttony and consequently sickness made the Germans suffer their Forces having pass'd the Saine near Chastillon and the Yonne at Mailly-la-Ville they advanc'd about the middle of October as far as the Banks of the River Loire which they thought to have pass'd at La Charitè where much to their amazement they found that place not onely in a good condition of defence but the King in person beyond it with a powerfull Army to dispute their passage on what part soever they shou'd attempt to force it In effect that Prince according to the resolution which he had taken to hinder both the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise from growing too strong the first by joyning the Army of the Reyters and the second by their defeat had given the Duke almost nothing of that Succour which he had promis'd him either to stop or fight the Germans and in the mean time had assembled a very considerable Army in the neighbourhood of Gien on the Loire to oppose their passage His Forces not being less than ten thousand French Foot eight thousand Swissers for the most part levyed out of the Catholique Cantons and eight thousand Horse the one half French the other Germans The Duke of Montpensier had also recruited him with the little body which he commanded apart the Dukes of Nevers and of Espernon the Marshals de Aumont and de Retz and La Guiche Grand Master of the Artillery had each of them a Command in it and held no very good intelligence together unless in this one particular that according to the King 's express orders they spoil'd and made unpassable all the Foords from that of Pas de Fer near Nâ—vers as far as Gien by laying across them huge bodies of Trees and whatsoever else they cou'd find to incumber the feet of Men and Horses This ill understanding amongst the Commanders and the large Encomiums which rung in Paris of the Duke of Guise on occasion of every small advantage which he gain'd upon the Enemy and more than all the murmuring or rather the downright railing of the Leaguers who maliciously accus'd the King of holding intelligence with the Navarrois at the length produc'd this effect in him that shaking off his fatal drowziness and those soft pleasures of the Court with much adoe he came to his Army beyond the Gien about mid October Where he had no sooner set his foot but he began on the sudden to revive to appear the same brave Duke of Anjou with the same Heroique soul which inspir'd him with so much vigour when he commanded the Armies of the King his Brother in the fields of Iarnac and Moncontour Undoubtedly there can nothing be imagin'd more generous or more prudent than what he did on that occasion He put himself at the Head of his Army he gave out Orders in his own Person and caus'd them to be executed with all manner of exactness he reunited the minds of his Captains and Officers taking care that every man shou'd employ himself in his own duty without interfering with the business of another He shar'd with them the labours and fatigues of War lying abroad in Tents sleeping little was first on Horseback always in Arms his Men in good order on the Bank of the River appearing in a readiness to receive the Enemy wheresoever he shou'd attempt his passage and giving him to understand by sound of Trumpet and beat of Drum that he desir'd nothing more than to give him Battel if he shou'd dare to seek it on the other side This manner of proceeding put the Strangers into a terrible consternation The French Huguenots who guided them had made them to believe before they enter'd into Lorrain that they shou'd have the Town of Charité and the Bridge for friend That if those shou'd fail them the Loire was foordable almost every where during the Month of October that the King who kept a secret correspondence with the King of Navarre to revenge himself of the League their common Enemy either wou'd joyn himself with them or at least favour their passage and that they shou'd find the King of Navarre in a readiness on the far side of the River to receive them In the mean time they found the quite contrary to all this the Town of Charité against them the King in Arms to combat them and instead of the King of Navarre onely some Envoys from him who without being able to ascertain them of any thing barely promis'd them that he wou'd suddenly be with them or at least in his room a Prince of the Bloud whom he wou'd send to command them This fill'd with complaints murmurs disorders and Sedition the whole Army which was come down as far as Neuvy without hope of being able to force the passage which the Royal Army in Battalia beyond the River continually defended The Reyters with loud clamours demanded the Money which had been promis'd them as soon as they shou'd be enter'd into France threatning to return into their own Countrey in case they were not immediately satisfied The Swissers were already harkening to the proposition which some of their Officers who were gain'd by the King had made to them of passing into his Army where they had assurance given them of great advantages The Lansquenets were ready to do as much all things manifestly tended to revolt And it was not without incredible pains that the Baron of Dona the Duke of Bouillon and the French Officers put an end to this Mutiny by promising to lead them into Beauce a Country abounding in all sorts of Provisions where they might refresh themselves at their own leisure expecting there the Money and the Prince whom the King of Navarre wou'd send to conduct them by Vandome