Rome and of the Thirty at Athens is easily corrupted For the persons who are in command do frequently usurp a Soveraign Authority Such Usurpation is not stiled a Tyranny for this is of one alone but strictly a Dynastie that is a Potentacy or Power violently assumed and retained contrary to the disposition of the Laws The Greeks whose the word Dynastie is do take it in this case in an ill sense An Aristocracy and an Oligarchy are dissolved when some one among the Rich the Noble or the Brave does attain to an overgrown height Thus Caesar became Master of Rome The Aristocracy is also in danger when they that Govern come into contempt with the multitude or are hated by them so that the inferiors grow factious and mutiny against them as hapned at Rome when the Tribunes of the People were first created The apprehensions which the more than ordinary virtue of some excellent persons gave the People of Greece caused the introducing of Ostracisme among the Athenians and of Petalisme at Syracuse Punishments but glorious for such as were condemn'd to them A Democracy likewise sometimes turns into an Oligarchy And that is when the dregs of the ignorant people seduced by evil Orators whom the Greeks call Demagogues or Leaders of the People do dispose of Affairs tumultuously with uproar and violence without respect to Law or Equity Thus the Athenians seduced by their speakers did put to death Aristogenes and other Captains who had fought in company with Thrasibulus and gain'd a notable Victory upon the Lacedomonians their enemies Obligarchies are the means sometimes that People lose their liberty and fall into servitude Pisistratius became Tyrant of Athens that way and Dionysius of the Syracusians There are as various Monarchies Aristocracies and Democracies as there are different manners of men But I have discours'd all this only cursorily and I design not any further to engage my self in these matters my purpose being to speak precisely of the concerns of the French Monarchy There are two sorts of Monarchy unto which all Regal Governments of whatever quality imaginable are reduced whether Elective Hereditary Barbarous Despotical or any other The first of these is entituled The Lacedemonian in which the King hath but a limited Authority The second Aeconomical in which the King hath a Sovereign and Absolute power in his Kingdom as the Father of a Family hath in his house 'T is no longer a question Whether Monarchy be the best Government the case having been often debated by Politicians and still decided for Regality And indeed it is of greatest Antiquity least susceptible of change most conform unto the Government of GOD himself and not only represents the Authority which a Father exerciseth in his house but it also necessarily occurs in an Aristocracy and in Democracy it self For both in the one and the other of these States the Sovereignty is entirely one so that no single person can possess any the least parcel of it In an Aristocracy no one of the Senators is a Sovereign but the whole Senate being united of one accord is King In a Democracy no one of himself hath power to make the least Ordinance the People assembled are the Monarch Thus every where appears an indivisible Sovereignty so conform to the Laws of Nature is Monarchy In fine it may be said that there never was Aristocracy but founded upon the corruptions and ruins of some Monarchy moreover that Tyranny it 's direct contrary is the worst of all Governments Now from all that I have said it follows by a necessary consequence That the Monarchique State is better than any other CHAP. II. 1. Of the true good and happiness of States 2. Of the true good and happiness of a King 3. How Felicity may be acquired THings reckon'd under the notion of Good are of three sorts Corporal as Health Beauty Strength Agility and the like External which we commonly call Goods of Fortune as Birth Riches Dignities Reputation Friends and such others The third sort are those of the Soul these are simply and absolutely good that is good of themselves and so they can be no other but virtue alone Things accounted good are no further such indeed than as they promote our Felicity and bring us to it Corporal and External things are not instruments to effect this But the good of the Soul is the true happiness Felicity is not a simple habit otherwise a man asleep would be happy but it consisteth in action which is the true use of Virtue The Soul makes us capable of living happily for happiness is measured by virtue nor can we be counted happy but proportionably as we are counted good The intention of Political Science is to bring to pass that men lead their lives happily as I have observ'd in the precedent Chapter 'T is therefore certain that it requires they be actually virtuous All that I have been discoursing is of constant and confesseth truth Whence clearly results That the Politicks consider virtue in a much more noble manner than Ethicks do for these confining themselves to the forming of idle speculations can produce but an imperfect felicity which the Schools do call Theoretical The Politicks on the contrary go further and causing us to exercise virtue do give us a Practical that is solid and perfect Felicity In fine it is not doubted but the Act is preferrable to the habit Besides the Ethical or Moral discourses of virtue can have no other aim but at most the welfare of particular persons which does not always produce that of the Publick And the Politicks regarding the welfare of an whole State provide at once for that of each particular as a good Pilot in endeavouring the safety of his Ship procures necessarily the safety of all that are embarqued in it Also the care of the welfare of particular persons seems to be beneath the Politicks except so far as it is necessary for the publick good Yet sometimes particular Men must of force suffer for the Publick Good as when a Malefactor is punished and when some Houses are pull'd down to save a Town from Fire and from Enemies The happiness of a State is of the same quality with that of particular persons For as we say a Man is happy when he hath Strength Riches and Virtue in like manner we say a Common-wealth is happy when it is potent rich and justly governed A Monarch is in reference to His State what the Soul is to Man There is no doubt therefore but that the proper Goods of a King are those of the Soul and that he can possess no other Fortune being beneath a true Soveraign and extrinsick to Him cannot give him ought of that kind from Gold or Glory All that He hath doth arise from His own Virtue His Power His Treasures and the various effects of Beneficence which he holdeth in His Hand do not constitute His Happiness as GOD Himself is not Blessed by external Blessings but only
Before any further advance into this matter it will be pertinent to observe that the fundamental Wealth of a State consists in the Multitude and Plenty of Subjects For 't is Men that Till the Ground that produce Manufactures that manage Trade that go to War that People Colonies and in one word that bring in Money To make way in France for multiplying of Men and oblige them to Marry the King may at once do two things after the example of the Emperor Augustus First He may decree Priviledges and Advantages in favour of such as shall have divers Children exempting them from Guardianships from being Collectors from Commissions to look to the Fruits of Sequestred Lands and other burthensom Offices He may discharge them from Subsidies and even give them some Estate Secondly He might impose penalties upon those that Marry not before a certain Age and take part in the Successions of all sorts of persons who in contempt of Law and Wedlock live single not having impediment by any natural infirmity 'T is upon a like consideration that I said in a former Chapter the King to restrain Parents from compelling their Daughters into Cloisters might Declare that the right of all Recluses in any Succession was vested in Himself And 't is for the very same reason that the Ancient Earls of Flanders were Heirs to all the Priests that were their Subjects Now to that which Augustus did for the inducing of his Subjects to Marry the King might add Two particulars One is That the First Year a Man Taxable did Marry the first time being under 26 years of age he should be exempt from all Subsidies and Impositions and publick Charges even quartering of Soldiers in case he kept House apart and was setled in a Dwelling of his own If the newly Married be the King's Officer his Office should not fall into the King's hand if he died within the year Commanders also and Soldiers should be dispens'd with as to their serving for that time unless on urgent necessity or some important occasion The other partilar which in France had need to be added to Augustus's Ordinances is to take effectual Order that persons once Married be not so easily separated again as they are For 't is to no purpose to contract Marriages if they be not stuck to and the coupled Parties cohabit not A strange abuse in this matter of separation hath crept in of late nor know I how the Officials have become so favourable in it or how the Parliaments have suffer'd it Now-a-days a Woman that would have as they say her swing and without controul practice all that her giddy witless and oft times wanton humour prompts her to raiseth stirs in the House at length tires out her Husbands patience hereupon she complains of his Vices hath Servants suborned for her purpose a Divorce comes to be adjudged upon their Depositions the Husband is sentenced to yield her up her Goods and not only do that but also to let her have possession of her Dower or of a good part of it at least to allow her a great Pension Then this Woman reties takes an House and lives after her own fashion which is not alway the most commendable in the World her Husband the while sinking under the whole weight of his Houshold Affairs Had she counted upon nothing else but that of necessity she must live with her Husband and in his House she would have formed her self to it and not have play'd her vexatious pranks so she had promoted the happiness of her Husband and of the Children and together with it her own For application therfore of a remedy in this case it must be a Law That a Wife shall not sue for a Separation ' as to Person or Habitation but by the advice ' of four of her nearest Kindred Men of known Integrity and that a Separation being ordered either by Sentence in Court or by Accommodation between the parties she shall be bound to enter a Monastery without egress again nor suffered to admit a visit from any man there it being contrary to Publick decency that a Woman who hath lost her Husband for to be separated from him is to lose him should appear openly and maintain commerce with other Men. On the other hand her Sex and all seemliness requiring that in this estate she hide her self and hide withal her ill fortune and her grief for it I would too that a very slender Pension be adjudged her And since Husbands will be found in fault on their part likewise and discover their ill husbandry it would be very just that the disposal of their Estates be not left to them nor the possession of more than a part of 'em as is the case of Wives and that supposing they have Children the Money arising from the remainder should be received employed and administred by a Guardian He to accompt for it to the said Children in due time If there be none the Revenue exceeding the Pension should be laid out on Hospitals and other necessities of the State This Law should extend to Separations already made And such rigour being practis'd in matter of Divorces there would be no more of ' em Husbands and Wives would be under a reciprocal Obligation to live together and to live together discreetly so they would breed up a Family that might prove the contentment of their Life the comfort of their elder years and be beneficial to the whole Kingdom There is a further consideration to be made in the matter of the Finances and it is this namely that it is expedient the King should declare that for the future He will be Creditor and Donotary to His Receivers and accomptable Officers fot their Wives dotal Money and Marriage settlements and for their Childrens Portions and Donatives then explaining the late Ordinances to take away all difficulty declare further the crime of misemploying the publick Money to be punishable by death and ordain that the Interests Amends and civil Reparations adjudged against Criminals of that kind should fall upon their Heirs or Legatees This Law is rigorous yet it is just and necessary forasmuch as it will strike terror on the Financiers who having no hope to escape Justice could not entertain a Thought of committing a fault that would ruine all that is dearest to them Beside the Romans punish'd even with death the very friends of those whom they condemn'd for Crimes against the State the History of Sejanus affords unquestionable proof of it That which we call the Demesne of the King and of the Crown cannot be Alienated nor is it liable to any charge or encumbrance This Law is Fundamental in all kind of Common-wealths as well as in France But here things are judged to belong to the Crown three manner of ways from all Antiquity As the Soveraignty the power of War Subsidies and the like By Declaration when the King by His Letters declares some particular united to the Crown By Confession
confers them as a distribution made to His Creatures and that He may cause them by sensible means to experiment His Goodness The Magnificence of a Man renders him considerable if his Spirit in it be Great and Heroick But it is not enough to have spoken of that which constitutes Felicity we must take some account of the means which conduce unto it Nature Constancy and Reason do contribute to endue us with Virtue The two former do enrich the Mind and dispose it to receive Virtue then Reason being cleared by the light of Precepts makes it spring up and cultivates it Of all Precepts those of greatest efficacy are the Political which being indeed Laws do command and oblige Men to obey in a manner blindly necessitating and constraining us to live well whether we will or no. 'T is upon this ground it hath been said That there lies no servitude at all in submitting to the power of the Law and that it 's the proper act of Men truly free to reduce their inclinations and subject their practice to the same Forasmuch as the conforming of Life and Manners to the impulses of Virtue which is always right always uncorrupt is in truth a setting our our selves at full liberty and an enfranchisement from the Empire of importunate and irregular Passions But of these general Theses enough It is time at length to enter upon the subject which occasion'd my taking up the design of this present Treatise CHAP. III. 1. Of the French Monarchy 2. Of the Situation and Quality of France 3. Of the Nature of the French THE Monarchick Government doth not more excell other Governments than the French Monarchy doth all other Monarchies on Earth It is hereditary and for Twelve whole Ages there hath been seen Reigning from Male to Male upon the Throne of France the August Posterity of Meroue of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet For it is exactly proved that these three Races of our Kings are Branches issued out of the same Stock This very Succession so Legitimate as it hath been and so long continued makes at present the surest foundation of the welfare of the State and carries in it Splendor Reputation and Majesty Indeed to how many Ills are Elective Kingdoms exposed How many Cabals How many Complottings and in truth Wars are kept on foot by so many different agitations The one and the other Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Poles do administer sensible proofs of this Opinion If the Spartans heretofore did draw so great an advantage from the Honour they had to be commanded by Princes of the Blood of Hercules The French have far greater cause to glory since in the Catalogue of His Majesties triumphant Ancestors there may be counted an hundred Heroes greater than Hercules himself Is there a Monarch in the World whose just power is more absolute than that of our King and by consequent is there a Monarchy comparable to the French Monarchy It is necessary that the power of a good King be not confin'd within other bounds than Reason and Equity do prescribe otherwise there will ever be division between Princes and People to the ruin of them both What a disorder would it be in Man if the Eye or Hand should fail of following the impulses of the Soul this disobeying and rebellious Member would prove dead or seized with a Palsie If then the whole Body should fall into an universal revolt against the Spirit of Man all the Symmetry the Order and oeconomy would be utterly defaced Thus the Subjects in a Monarchy once ceasing to yield their King a full Obedience and the King ceasing to exercise His Soveraign Authority over them the Political Ligatures are broken the Government is dissolved by little and little all is reduced to extream calamities and oft-times to Anarchy and an annihilation Such are the inconveniencies that occur in Royalties of the Lacedemonian kind where the Prince hath but a limited Authority and if all that England suffer'd in the late times were pourtray'd here it would be easie to observe of what importance it is unto the felicity of a Monarchy that the Prince do in it command without restriction In fine the obedience of instrumental parts as those of Organical Bodies and the Subjects of a State is of so indispensible a necessity that the common good and conservation of that Whole which they compose depends upon it In Democracies even the most tumultuous and disorderly all must bow under the Will of the multitude though blind ignorant and seduced in like manner the parts of the Bodies of Brutes must act by their motions though they be in rage and madness And the reason of this necessity is that the Body and the Soul which is the form thereof are but one indivisible Whole so a King and Subjects are together but one whole that is one State In fine the French Monarchy is accompanied with all the mixture that can be desired for a compleat and perfect Government The Counsellors of State do compose an excellent Oligarchy in it The Parliaments and other Officers of Judicature do form an Aristocracy The Provosts of Merchants the Mayors the Consuls and the General Estates do represent rarely well limited Democracy so that all the different modes of governing by Laws being united in the Monarchy do render it as excellent and consummate as Reason can propose The Regality of France is therefore of the Oeconomick kind in which the King hath an absolute power in his State as the Father of a Family in his House and though he govern at His pleasure and without contradiction it is always for the good of His Kingdom even as the Master of an House does Rule it with an entire Authority and incessantly provides for the accommodating of this Family There is nothing Despotical nor Barbarous in France as in the States of the Moscovites and Turks In short our Laws are Holy and Equitable to a greater degree than in any Common-wealth that ever was and they are conceived with so much prudence and judgement that they are apt to make the People happy in the gentle times of Peace and enable them to triumph in the occasions of War The Situation and Compactness of France are known to all the World so that it would be a needless labour should I here expatiate to shew the Beauty and Richness of our Grounds and of our Rivers or declare how we abound in Wine in Corn in Silk in Wools in Cloth in Wood in Cattle in Salt in Mines and in Money how necessary we are to our neighbours and to what degree we may forego their Succors and their Merchandise I might justly be accus'd of a fondness for superfluous Discourse if I should particularly consider all these great advantages and as much if I should speak of the pureness of the Air and the incredible number of Inhabitants the most ignorant having a full and an assured knowledge of ' em I shall only say that it need not
an house do there fix not coursing from Lower Britannie for example unto Paris nor incessantly changing as their wont is unless some indispensible necessity does oblige to such changes The Carthusians keep in their houses and run not from place to place Nuns do the same The Voyages of Monks and all their transmigrations have no other end but to get an universal acquaintance Beyond all this it may be declared to the Monks at least its a thing that should be done in its season how that the King understands not their Monastick Profession does Exempt them from his Jurisdiction Thus the Orders being purged from their impurities will resume their ancient Iustre and be true Seminaries of Doctrine and Sanctity In fine no person will doubt but the King may take cognisance of all that concerns the external Policy of the Church because this is in such sort annexed to the Government of States that not a Patriarch nor even the Pope himself can make any regulation of it without His Majesties consent That reason of State which presseth for a retrenching of the number of Monks does also reflect upon Nuns and that with the more Justice because the greatest part of young Women who become Votaries are driven thereunto by the violence of their kindred There will never want just means to hinder this abuse from having a longer course As for instance Young Women may be declared incapable of making vows before 22 years of age at the least It may be enacted that they never shall be Professed i. e. setled of the Order in the Convent where they have had their Education either as Pensionaries or Novices This would be well enacted For oft-times the Nuns in hope to the gainers by their Portions do flatter the silly Maidens and persuade 'em to live with them All kind of humane iuducements must be remov'd and the inspirations of the Holy Ghost left to their full operation It may again be ordained that Recluses do take no Money as a Portion but only simple Pensions yearly for life and those likewise cautiously limited A Law too may be made that the Goods which might fall to a Daughter from her Parents and her collateral Kindred should at their Decease fall to the State and the King by representation be invested with the same Right to the Goods of the deceased as this Daughter had had to recompence the Publick for the loss sustained by a Recluse being incapacitated to raise a Family Further a general Regulation might be made of all Marriages of young Women with due respect had to the quality of each of 'em in particular and it might be ordered that in case any of them would take up a Religious life they should carry as much with them into Religion as into the Married state For if the Order was that Daughters becoming Votaries should have less Portions than those that Married Fathers so hugely covetous they are would compell them to the Cloister But when they shall find no profit in taking this course they will rather chuse to dispose of them in Marriage and make Alliances by that means This subject inclines me to say summarily that the moderating of Portions is a piece of the ancient Civil Law of the French and of divers other Nacions in which Daughters had nothing at all Thence it is as we see in the Customs that a Nobleman is licensed to Marry his Daughter with a Nosegay of Roses and she becomes disabled to pretend to any other Portion provided the Match be suitable and fitting This moderation is necessary Forasmuch as the vast wealth which is given to Daughters in Marriage does incommode the richest Houses Moreover Gentlemen themselves would no more contract undue Alliances and so the Nobility recover their ancient esteem Young Womens Birth their Beauty their Discretion their Virtue and their Ability in the management of Domestick Affairs would be to them instead of Wealth They would make it their care to lay up a rich Stock of so many precious things that perhaps it may one day come to pass that Men will as heretofore they did give Money to have Wives whereas at present Women do so to purchase Husbands I have spoken here of Marriages occasionally I am well aware that the Matter ought to be reserved for another Chapter To conclude it s a great ingredient of the Glory of a King to honour the Holy See to love and protect the Bishops to maintain the Gallican Church in its Liberties never suffer that any propositions be advanced any way that may wound the Authority of the Canons and employ all the rigor of his Ordinances a gainst persons who shall have the rashness to publish a suspected or erroneous Doctrine Additions to CHAP. IV. 1. That Bishops ought to be near the King 2. Of the Pension to be paid the Order for a Monk enter'd 3. Monasticks cannot Alienate therefore neither sell a Rent-charge 4. They shall not have power to purchase I Have affirmed Chap. 4. That Bishops are obliged by Command of GOD unto residence This is true yet forasmuch as they are also the Kings Subjects and Royal Dignity requireth that his Majesty have Bishops about him as the Roman Emperors after Constantine had it is fit to ordain That each Bishop be at Court Three Months every year attending His Majesty to Honour Him during which time they may negotiote their Affairs and the rest of the year abide fix'd in their Diocesses the King assigning to each of them the Months in which their presence will be needful In the same Chapter I have said That to prevent the vast number of Monks it should be ordained that the Parents of such as enter into an Order should pay an annual Pension to that Order during the persons Lives The effect of this Law would be that such a Pension being a Monachal Right in form of Clericature given by Act of State they that would have Revenue enough to be Monasticks would have enough to be Secular Priests And so persons whose Devotion should incline them to take Orders and Consecrate themselves unto GOD would rather chuse to remain Seculars than shut themselves up in a Cloister all the remainder of their Lives Now the more to fortifie this Law it should be added That Bishops make no more Priests upon the Title of Poverty upon Penalty of maintaining them The reason against it as to Secular Priests being as strong in reference to Regulars because it is no less a disparagement to the Clergy that a Priest Monk do beg and fall into extream poverty which may happen than that one of the other rank do so It is manifest that Monastick communities have no power to Alienate any thing and that Monks do daily re-enter into their Estates which they possessed heretofore Hence it follows that neither can they charge them with any Rents for Money taken up Forasmuch as by these kind of Contracts they Mortgage their Lands but to engage an Estate in such
Sect and the world well know that the Zeal there was to reduce Hereticks to their duty did take up the Reigns of Six of our Kings the glory of cutting off the last head of this Hydra being reserved for his present Majesty But it is expedient to see what weapons must be used for an execution so long expected There is no cause to doubt but that upon the Principles of Christianity and Maxims of Policy its necessary to reduce all the Kings Subjects to one and the same Belief And though they that make Profession of the pretended Reformed Religion be now without Arms without Strong-holds without Treasure without an Head and without Allies yet they are not out of case to be feared They still retain a remembrance of their boldness and by-pass'd Rebellions they look back on the Towns they once seized and out of which they could not be driven but by force of Arms as if they were their proper Inheritance and had been unjustly pluck'd out of their hands they bear in their hearts the same aversion for Order and Discipline that they ever had and their minds are always inclining to revolt and to Confusion and Anarchy It disquiets them not to think who shall head them they have Soldiers of their own number whom they can advance to be Captains by giving them Authority to command e'm They persuade themselves that if they were in Arms they should want neither Money nor Friends They believe that the Glory of the King attracts as much Envy on him as Admiration and that his Virtue raiseth in his Neighbours no less Anger than Terrour In short there is ground to think that he will have more than an Hundred Thousand Men of his Enemies in the heart of his State while there are Huguenots in France they too perhaps do but wait an occasion to make their Musters Thus they are perpetual Obstacles to the Designs that might be formed and though weak may nothwithstanding be dreaded 'T is true the honest men of their Communion do well know that they cannot be in a calmer repose than they now enjoy by the Grace of the King and under the security of his Edicts but in these matters the multitude carries it These are a Torrent that by its Rapidity overturns Rocks which seems unmoveable It will be said that the good treatment which the Huguenots receive doth preserve the friendship of the German Princes for France and if favourable Justice should be no longer done them the King would lose the most potent and most considerable of his Allies This discourse is but a found and void of all substance of reason for beside that the Princes of Germany are not of the Religion of our Hereticks They need not the Kings Protection for maintaining the Huguenots in their pretended liberty of Conscience but the French Arms securing them against the power of Austria and principally of the Emperor who hath divers pretensions upon them they cannot recede from the Alliance they have made with his Majesty nor will they do it though the last man of the Huguenots was brought to the Scaffold nay forasmuch as the Kings Forces are so useful to all those Protestants it will would be their interest not at all to Arm themselves for the Huguenots preservation but far otherwise even to promote their expulsion out of France and the reason is because if this party were in a condition to raise stirs the King would have his hands full of work to repress them and so his Forces being dissipated the Emperor might take his time to enlarge his Domination the thing that Charles the Fifth did when Francis the First was not in a possibility to succour the Princes It being therefore certain that the Liberty of Germany hath its support and prop in the Arms of the King they are not sollicitous there for the affairs of the Huguenots in France and since the Protestants of the Empire are knit to his Majesty by other engagements than those of Religion they will continue the same Deportment and his Majesty on his part will always have the same reasons to succour them though the time should come that he should have no more Huguenots in his Kingdom No succour neither may they hope for from England that 's a State too weak to make any trial of strength against France all the English there are must pass the Sea and the Isle be disfurnish'd of Soldiers and Provisions yet this all would be nothing to purpose mean time their affairs would lie expos'd to the Levity and Lunacy of the people Holland and Swedeland are of like consideration and they both have other Interests to Negotiate with the King than those of the Huguenots Denmark is defective in power The Calvinists mount unto a strain of Policy above ordinary when they would have us believe That whatever is not of the Roman Communion is of the Opinion of Charenton the Lutherans of Germany notwithstanding sympathize with them less than with us Thus the King hath nothing to be afraid of from the pretended Allies of the Huguenots Yet these men as I have already said are to be feared and they would be seen stoutly to bestir themselves if some extraordinary Commotion should happen in France as a Civil War or some great Invasion by Foreign Enemies in such a Juncture they would do as they did in the War of Paris they took up Arms and respectively protested they were for the Kings Service but if the Peace had not been soon made they would not have forborn to think themselves necessary and to make all the Propositions that they could imagine advantageous to their party They would have re-demanded their places of Security they would have press'd for a restoring of their Temples for an augmentation of their pretended Priviledges and for a free exercise of their Religion and according to their good old custom have uttered Complaints and Menaces But if by ill chance a Victorious Army of Strangers whether Catholicks or Religionaries should enter the Kingdom the King must resolve to see the Hereticks declare against him or else content them in all their pretensions which would prove an engaging of his State in like Calamities as our Fathers in their time saw It ought to be ordained that they shall exactly follow their ancient Confession of Faith which was permitted them in France and that such as vary from it shall be no longer reckon'd in the number of those of the Protestant Reformed Religion who have Liberty of Conscience given them These Huguenots have no ground at all to plead the Edict of Nantes so loudly and bravingly as they do they extorted it by violence and with Sword in hand yet was it but an Interim an Order taken until they should inform themselves of the truth which they have had time enough to do But did they not violate it themselves by the War of Languedock that other of Sevennes and again by that of Rochelle nay they call'd the Enemies of
is unknown is full full of Mysteries hence Objects of such a nature are apt to surprise us and we hereupon are awed at them and do admire them Such effects the greatness of an unsearchable high-descending Pedigree does produce Nor need we much scruple to affirm that this kind is the only proper and genuine Nobility and that the Two others are only Nobilitations What difference is made between a person Noble and one Ennobled is familiarly known This first kind of Nobility is thought to require a possession of the Virtue of Ancestors and withal a possession of their wealth this too in so essential a manner that if each of them be not joyntly possess'd the Nobility is extinct We daily see proofs that evince the Justice and the Truth of this Notion Be it intimated by the way that the Virtue here mention'd is the Military Art The Second kind of Nobility is that which takes its rise from Offices and eminent Employments unto which the Laws have annexed this mark of Honour The Third is acquir'd by the Prince's Letters which are called Letters of Nobilitation It is a right peculiar to the Kind to give such Letters as the Roman Panegyrist once said to the Emperor Trajan It belongs not but to Caesar to create a Nobility It is for none but the King to Honour brave aud valiant Subjects with this Quality This Third and last kind is least considered because the Person who acquires it hath not the Virtue of Ancestors for a foundation and caution of his own Yet it is sometimes more considerable than either of the two others and Marius in Salust had great reason to tell the Gentlemen of Rome that he had rather begin the Nobility of his Race than faintly continue it or unworthily lose it and that it was more Glorious for him to transmit to his Posterity a sparkling Virtue hard to be follow'd than plod slowly on upon the slight and almost effaced tracks of a common Virtue which his Ancestors had left him In all these three kinds of Nobility there must be the personal Virtue of the Person invested with 'em for when all is done it is but Virtue that confers effective worth All Nations have had a particular esteem for Nobility nor can any well-order'd Common-wealth be named which hath not invented some singular mark of Honour to make it conspicuous The French in this point have surpass'd and out-done all People upon Earth as for the first Antiquity Caesar observes that the Nobles that is the Gentlemen had among the Gauls as much power over the Plebeians as Masters at Rome had over their Slaves After Gaul was reduced to the State of a Province Nobility preserved its ancient Prerogatives and the Emperors knowing that the Nobles loved Glory and sought it above all things stiled them Honorati and gave them an absolute precedency in all Assemblies of the Gauls For the Romans had thought it necessary to weaken the Authority of the Druids In the time of Christianity the same Order was continued and the Nobility gave their Suffrage apart in the Election of Bishops expresly before the People yea even before the Clergy themselves Upon the declining of the Empire the Gentlemen did in France judge the Causes of their equals and hence without doubt came into use the Parliaments Courts and Assemblies which our Kings held of their Peers and Barons that is of the qualify'd Gentlemen of their Kingdom when a Case of some Peer or Grandee of the State was to be Tried The Nobles were distinguish'd anciently from Plebeians by their Hair which they wore long for a mark of their ancient Liberty and when any one of them committed a fault that was unbeseeming his Birth the rest Sentenc'd him to depart the Country or cut off his Hair This was therefore a no less punishment than Exile In Charlemagne's time the Gentlemen of France named themselves Franks by way of Excellence In fine the French Nobility hath alwavs had such an high degree of Excellency and so great a pre-eminence that it was preferr'd in all Cases as when vacant Bishopricks or Abbies were to be provided for or when the principal Magistracy and Seats of Judicature were to be fill'd up or the Government of important Places Warlike imployment and the Leading of Armies were to be dispoled of To conclude this Matter it may be affirm'd that Kings did take the Gentlemen into a partnership with themselves as I may term it in the Regality they honour'd them with part of their Power by conferring on them Fiefs and by entrusting them with the charge of doing Justice and of Commissioning Officers to that end Hereupon it was necessary to put a gradual difference between Gentlemen themselves nor is it indeed sufficient that they all have so many excellent Prerogatives above the vulgar or common sort as we call them For Nature is alike in every Man and all Men are Born equal Fortune on the contrary and Virtue distinguish one from another But natural Reason requires there be Order in all things 'T is Order that makes the Beauty and Symmetry of the Universe Now as a Musical Consort doth not make a perfect harmony but by a diversity of Notes so a Political State can be neither comely nor compleat unless there be a difference between the parts that compose it I know that Nobility being as Philosophers call it an Inherent Quality does lodge with its whole Essence in each of its Subjects As the quality of a Soldier is for its Essence in the person of a Corporal as well as of a Captain or General Officer Yet there is a great distance and many intervening degrees between a General and the meanest Musquetier in an Army Thus the meanest Gentleman in the Kingdom is Noble and to speak after the common Proverb is Noble as well as the King but the one is severed from the other by an immense graduation So though all Gentlemen be equal in Nobility yet they are not so in Riches in Lands in Alliance in Friends in Offices in Authority in Age and in Reputation Again they are not equal in Spirit in Knowledge in Experience nor in Wisdom therefore it hath been with much prudence ordered that they should have some external marks of these differences and for this end there have been created Princes Dukes Counts Marquesses Barons Knights Batchelers Esquires leave hath been given them to bear Helmets and Crowns upon their Armories In short no pains have been spared to find out things that might any way adorn their Quality and their Valour hath been publickly rewarded for an excitement of others to a generous emulation Here I cannot forbear to blame those Gentlemen who give themselves the Title of Knights of Marquesses or of Counts by their own private Authority This is a shameful Usurpation and so far from heightening the Luster of Nobility that it injures them For a Gentleman who takes upon him the quality of a Marquess and well knows he is
upon which they depend are wont to do The Presidial Clerks place its being engaged or bound for security to one or other as is usual should not hinder the execution of this Aflair And when by decease there are no more Officers left care shall be taken of the concern of those to whom the places were engaged the regulating whereof will by that time have no difficulty in it Secondly Of Sergeants Two Thirds wholly must be suppress'd In the Third place all Proctors that are not Advocates and a certain number of Advocates should be appointed in each Parliament and Jurisdiction who might do the Office of Proctors This is not incompatible For the thing is already in use many parts of France The benefit of this regulation is manifest in that the Proctors are very ignorant that have but a slight tincture of practice yet out of Covetousness they often draw up Writings for their Clients and make them pay as dear for 'em as if the best Advocate had taken the pains Mean time these Writings for the most part are nothing worth and the poor Suitors frequently lose good Causes through the naughtiness of their Proctors and for want of being well defended Again such an order taken another advantage would accrue namely that Advocates being Proctors they will be obliged to follow what the Judges shall prescribe them whereas at present they make a jest of it and will not Plead but when they please There cannot be a regulation made in France more profitable in matter of Justice and if the King in a necessity of State would make a Money matter of it which might at any time be done there would be rais'd out of it for all France more than 20 Millions But it had need be gone about with a great deal of Address A Third advantage by this regulation is That all Advocates being Proctors there would no more slip into the Court a sort of young Men who shelter their Ignorance and Idleness under a Lawyers Gown and a square Cap. In the Fourth place All the Masters of Requests belonging to the Palace or Court of Justice of France should be supprest And the Truth is it seems to me a contradiction that these Officers should be Counsellors of Supreme Courts yet not impowred to judge any thing supreamly But that the Commoners of the King's Houshold and other priviledged persons may not be depriv'd of the benefit of the Committimus Power must be given them by special priviledge to commence their Actions and prosecute them in a Chamber of Enquests I say by special priviledge because I know the Parliaments take no cognizance ordinarily save of Appeals but in the case now expres'd this special priviledge shall superadd to them this new kind of Jurisdiction And it will be highly advantageous to those Commoners and Priviledg'd persons for by this Expedient they would get a decree speedily upon one Trial and finally end their business It is to be noted here that the first stating of Cases in order to an Hearing is not so incompetent to Parliaments but that they do the thing for substance upon demands incidentally made Yet this is meant only in behalf of priviledged persons and all such as claim the right of a Committimus Fifthly The Judges Provosts of Towns are to be suppress'd and they laid to the Seneschalsies and Bayliwicks For what are so many different Officers in one and the same Town good for In a Sixth place All the Courts of the Aids should be united to the Parliaments and this done when the Officers of the Supream Court in each kind have been reduc'd to the number which it s judged meet to retain I will say more of this in the Chapter of the Finances Seventhly All the Elections are to be suppress'd and the Assessing of Parishes done by the Treasurers of France of the Seneschalsies by the Lieutenant of the Province I shall speak more plainly of it in the Chapter of the Finances and Taxes Where also the Suppression of Store-houses of Salt and of the Gabells shall be treated of in the Article of Gabells Besides the Chamber of the Treasury and the Court of Moneys should be joyned to the Chamber of Accompts and half of all the Chambers be suppress'd likewise For thirty Officers may do all that the Chamber of Accompts the Treasury and the Court of Monies now do In fine it is for the King's Service and the good of the State that all the Presidents Places be suppress'd as well those of Superior Courts as of others and the Office of Presidents be discharged by Commission 'T is to be consider'd that this new Order would much augment the King's Authority For what will not Counsellors do to obtain a Commission to preside and having obtained it what will they not further do to keep and confirm themselves in it 'T is pertinent to recall to mind here that the Mighty Prince Philip the Fair at his making the Parliament Sedentary made the Count of Burgundy first President of it And that anciently the first President of the Chamber of Accompts was the chief Butler of France Likewise that at that time and long after the Chancellors of France were of the Church or of the Sword and great Dignities not given to Men of the Robe privatively Which being done since without doubt gives them too much credit and leaves the Nobility too little It is important that the thing be not continued but on the contrary all restored to Primitive Order As for Country Courts 't is fit they be narrowly limited and brought to be meerly predial and dominial that is for Rents and the Fealties of Lordships not capable of determining an Inventory or receiving a suit between parties for more than three Livres To conclude the shortning of proceedings in Law would much conduce to the reduction of Officers Let it not be objected that this reduction of Officers and such a multitude of Suppressions will ruin a multitude of Families For though it were so yet should not the thing be stuck at the Reformation of a State being concern'd nor is the ill of particular persons to be put to accompt when the Weal of the Publick is in question GOD Himself who is King of Kings and Eternally Just how many men did He destroy by that universal deluge for the Reformation of the Universe How many Isralites did He cut off in the Wilderness to save the gross of the People There is plenty of examples in this kind and Soveraigns have a right to do like things with like Justice when the general welfare of their Subjects is concern'd Kings are Eagles to whom GOD gives His Thunder-bolts to carry the strokes that come from their hands do come from the hand of GOD whose Images and Instruments they are To conclude it 's a thing which cannot be dissembled that the Parliaments constituting an Aristocratick Government in part as they do are quite contrary to Monarchick Government Aristocracy is adverse to
King do give His Letters for personal Marquessates in such form as they may be verified in the Parisian Chamber of Accompts and the Persons Honoured with them do homage to His Majesty thereupon Such kind of Homages have been done heretofore for Officers and even for Pensions though but of two hundred Livres The Emperour in Germany hath in this manner made Gentlemen and Counts of the Empire as for example the late Count de Guimene who had not a foot of Land within the Emperours Jurisdiction The King of England creates a Gentleman Baron and Earl of a Barony or County in which the Gentleman possesseth Nothing The second kind of Gratifications and Rewards is of those that are purely gainful and pecuniary as Pensions Tickets for Money Acquittances by Patent Ransoms Confiscations of deceasing Strangers goods and the like These however carry a great deal of honour with them as I said afore The third kind is of those that are at once both gainful an honourable as Great Offices Governments c. Upon this matter of Rewards there is this further Reflection to be made namely that a King never be inform'd of a good Action but He gratifie the Actor either with Praises or with Benefits In fine all these favours must be regulated by consideration of His Service and the welfare of His State GOD in giving Princes a Sovereign Power inspires into them Affection for their People But His will is that it be a Paternal Affection that a King do open His Bosom to His Subjects as His very Children and that all His Counsels and Designs be levell'd at their Felicity without which Himself cannot be happy 'T is principally for this great and glorious effect that Kings are Images of GOD and be fortified with His Spirit I have said that Monarchs are in their Kingdoms what the Soul is in the Body of Man that external Goods cannot enrich them that Virtue alone is their proper Portion as it is of GOD Himself It now remaineth I should say what kind of Virtue it ought to be 'T is necessary that a Great Prince have Piety to give His Subjects an Example of it and bettering of them in this is the security of His State He must be just to govern them A Government never is of long duration without Justice This Queen of Virtues comprehends as Aristotle judiciously noted all the rest A King I say must be Just to render unto every one and unto Himself what is respectively due The third Virtue of a Prince is Prudence to foresee of Himself what may betide His States Thus a wise Pilot hath the skill to foresee Calms and Storms he knows by secret notices whether the Winds will be favourable or contrary to his Voyage The fourth Virtue is Magnanimity a weight this that keeps the Soul always in the same position and gives it so setled a firmness that neither good nor bad successes can put it out of place and a King appears unalterable He thus bears up the hope of His Subjects they look upon Him as an assured succour against Fortune and persuade themselves there is somewhat of Divine Quality in His Person Of Royal Virtues a fifth is Clemency It pertains to the greatness of a King that He be benign and do commiserate the weaknesses of His Subjects who are Men as He is Mischances are pardonable and it seems to me 't is too much rigor to punish a poor wretch for a Crime committed out of imprudence or by necessity and of which he is less guilty if I may say it than his ill destiny 'T is to Criminals of this kind that Grace should not be deny'd and when a King gives one of His Subjects his Life who hath been condemn'd to death he should rejoyce more at the feeling in the Secret of his Heart a Will to Pardon than at the having in His hand the power to punish To give a Man his Life is in some sort to create him and the preserving of his Being is a giving of it It would be 't is true a great fault to stop the course of Justice in case of publick Crimes and such as have disturb'd the Peoples Peace Yet in sum it is Noble that a King be inclin'd to compassion and Mercy 'T is an action appropriated unto GOD to disarm His Anger Upon this ground the Roman Poet said That those Thunderbolts which Jupiter throws might be diverted The sixth Royal Virtue is Liberality One of the Ancients pronounced that it was less disadvantageous for a King to be overcome by Arms than by Liberality A Poet introduceth Mark Anthony excellently saying That he had nothing left him but the Benefits he had conferred And to say true A Great Prince never enjoys His Wealth but when He hath given it Liberality enricheth Him and makes Him Purchases of inestimable value For thereby 't is that He wins the love of his own People and becomes admired of all others When I say Liberality I mean a judicious Liberality such as is a Virtue not an exorbitant profuseness a Liberality alway exercis'd with Advantage and with Glory To conclude in short when I consider other Virtues I do not find any one of them all improper for a King but it is impossible a King should have those which I have mention'd without having every one of the rest since they are inseparable Companions and must be united to make a Virtuous Man CHAP. X. 1. Of Finances or a Princes Treasure 2. Means to make the Subjects more numerous 3. Of the Officers that manage the King's Treasure 4. Of the King's Demesnes 5. Means to recover the Demesnes 6. Of Taxes 7. Means to ease the People 8. Of the Free Cities 9. Of the Gabells 10. Means to augment the Receipt of the Gabells and ease the People 11. Of the Salt-free Country 12. Of the Countries of State and Free Gifts 13. Of the expending of Money 14. Of the reserving it THE Art of Finances or the Treasury is a principal part of the Politicks and so much the more necessary in a State in that Money is the Soul of all Affairs A Common-wealth is no further powerful than proportionably to the richness of its publick Treasury and the greatness of the yearly Income that maintain it This the French Name plainly importeth for Finance is an old Word signifying Power and comes from the ancient Verb Finer which is to be able to may or can Three particulars are here to be considered First Just and easie means to make Money Secondly the prudent expending it Thirdly the keeping it in and laying it up for necessities that may happen as Famine Pestilence War Fire Shipwrack and such like We have in France three general means to make Money The King's Demesnes Impositions on the People Merchandises c. Of this last I will speak in the Chapter of Commerce I will say nothing here of Conquests which may come in for a Fourth means of Getting I will treat of them elsewhere
bearing both the Shield and Thunder-bolt of Jupiter her Father do therein let us know that the Wisdom of a good King ought to serve Him both for Peace and War And such was the manner of teaching in deepest and most remote Antiquity Philosophy then but growing up and bashful durst not shew her full lustre unto deprav'd and ignorant men to whom She was yet very much a Stranger She accosted them veiled with the shadows of Fable and went softly and secretly about the preparing of their reason to receive her illuminations and instructions But to return to our similitude A Storm doth not reach to the whole extent of the Ocean and whatever Tumults be in some part of a Kingdom yet the whole doth not so feel the shock of War but that in others Peace subsists so as the Glory of Arms and the Contentments of a full Tranquility may be had together Nevertheless since these two different times do require like different cares each of which were enough to take up the whole application of an excellent King it is expedient to consider them severally Peace is undoubtedly proper for the Cultivation of Arts and Sciences Knowing Men there must be in a Common-wealth it being necessary that there should be good Men. For knowledge 't is that enlightens our Soul shews us Virtue and inflames us with desire to possess it I joyn Sciences here and Arts it being impossible that Men should have the one without the other For as they are Images of GOD they are mov'd by a natural propension to produce one thing or other so that having acquired general Speculative Principles they necessarily descend to Practical operations which are perform'd by particular Rules from whence Arts take their rise This is done during a Calm then the Soul not interrupted by any violent agitation enjoys and by reflections which by its leisure and repose permit it to make views its self 'T is in these precious hours that it may come to know the Dignity of its Original and be assured of its Immortality At such a time having and keeping its faculties united it gathers the fruit of a solid Wisdom which is unto the Soul as the Sun is to the Eyes of the body and being of all goods the greatest communicates its self in precepts whereof Law is the abstract and consummation giving the same spirit to all the People To proceed it is important that Cities be enrich'd with publick Buildings as Temples Palaces and other sumptuous Edifices because People have by that means the more affection for their Country The Trojans regretting their defeat were griev'd more for the ruine of Troy than the subversion of its Empire And the Jews in Babylon lamented the demolishing of the Temple where they had offered their sacrifices more than they did the loss of their Liberty This affection of People for their Country is likewise augmented by the contentment they receive in it and this Maxim was a principal reason why the Greeks and Romans exhibited to their Subjects publick shews 'T is in a time of Peace that a Prince should prepare His Forces for War yea He ought to be always in Arms they being the Ornament of His Royal Majesty and support of the Laws A People not armed does degenerate and we see that Nations heretofore eminently redoubtable are now bankrupt as to Valour and Reputation Croesus after his defeat counselled Cyrus His Conqueror in recompence for the Favour which had been shewed him to disarm the Lydians and promote among them Musick good Cheer and Pleasures so they would never revolt nor fail of obeying His Command This Counsel of Croesus was really good For by that means the Inhabitants of Lydia lost their former love for War and forgat their ancient virtue Yet it is not expedient that Arms which are the Kings for He hath the power of the Sword should be in the hands of all private Persons alike and the difference between a Citizen and a Gentleman a Soldier and a Country-Labourer not be discern'd Arms therefore must be in their hands whom the King intends for that employment and He being every ones Protector securing all by His Authority all others must be expresly forbidden to bear any without His permission upon pretence of Hunting or Journey or Enemies and this upon pain of being Fined and in case of reiterated Offence sent to the Gallies These Penalties too must not be meerly comminatory but as they term it Legal and of indispensible necessity Not that Gentlemen should all be depriv'd of the liberty to wear a Sword on the contrary 't is fit to be injoyn'd them that they never neglect to do it because it is the mark of their Quality and continually minds them of the Virtue of their Ancestors It may be prohibited them to carry Fire-arms yet 't is convenient to permit them to keep in their Houses Musquers Fire-locks Pistols and other Arms for that they naturally are Defenders of the State and by consequence ought to be furnish'd for any occasion that may be offered For the same reason 't is meet that Gentlemen be enjoyn'd to keep their Stables stor'd with good Horses to breed up and manage a number of them for their Service in War But to this end the use of German Horses for the Coach must be forbidden and none of them suffered to come into France but Mares only for breed Lawyers Ecclesiasticks Citizens Merchants Artificers Husbandmen should never wear a Sword because 't is not their Profession and I would as much approve a Gentleman's fancying to wear a Lawyers Gown or a Priests Cassock But that no such person do abuse this Honourable mark it must be ordained as a fundamental Law of Honour that whoever strikes with a Sword a Man who not being of such profession has none shall be declared actually fallen from all Honour and as a very Plebeian yea Villain to use the old word deprav'd from all Gentility and reduc'd to the rank of a Labourer Since Arms are the Kings as I said it is expedient that there be Magazines in divers parts of the Kingdom they committed to the custody of safe Hands and persons of unquestionable Fidelity in them a store of all sorts of Arms Offensive and Defensive ready fix'd to Arm 40000 Men. There should be Equipage for Horses Boots Spurrs One of these Magazines should be plac'd at Paris to cover Picardy Champagne and Normandy One at Lion for any occasion that might happen on the side of the Mediterranean of Italy of Swisserland or the Franche Comte One at Tholouse or some other City of Languedoc for all that might be apprehended from Spain or the Sea of Guyenne And one at Anger 's to secure the Coasts of Bretagne and Poictou There need be beside these two Arsenals for the Sea which I shall speak of in their place It will be necessary to have in the Magazines a good number of Cannon for Battery and of Field-pieces ready mounted with Powder Ball
I suggested in the precedent Chapter is to be remembred namely That Conquests do afford a State one expedient to get Money In this the Roman Captains are to be imitated who made it a point of Glory to lay up extraordinary sums in the Publick Treasury and their Triumphs were as illustrious by the wealth they brought home with them as by the Enemies they had defeated in their Expeditions It would be very material therefore that Generals should account it a Glory to them to bring the Spoils of their Enemies unto the profit of the King and Kingdom or at least make the Conquered Countrys maintain and pay their Armies But the difficulty is not to make Conquests the Arms of the French will be Victorious wherever they appear All the trouble is to find out the secret how to keep what hath been gotten It is fit to say something on this particular The means to preserve Conquer'd Countrys which the Ancients used and that with good success are in a manner these Transportations and shiftings of the People As when the Chaldeans led away the Jews to Babylon The taking away of their Money of their richest Goods their Antiquities their Holy Things and things of Religion as was done with the ancient Idol-gods and as the Ark of the Covenant the Tables of Moses and the Israelites holy Writings were dealt withall The same for substance might be done among us by shifting of Saints Reliques and Consecrated Images The leading away of the ablest Men and such as have greatest credit with the People So did the Romans when they carried some of the Greeks out of their Country to Rome and treated them there with all possible kindness and civility In like manner as to Artificers the Turks drew at one time 30000 Work-men out of Persia The Romans out of their Enemies whom they had vanquish'd and taken in War reserved those whom they thought stoutest and made them fight on the Theatre the People being Spectators destroying them by that means Christianity suffers not such inhumanity Slavery was alway practis'd in the case of Prisoners of War and the ransom we make them pay is an Image of that old Custom Some People to this day stay their Prisoners or send them away to punishment after the fashion of the Ancients To proceed other means in reference to conquer'd Countrys are the mixing of the old and new Subjects by Marriage the Conquerors accommodating themselves to the manners of the Conquered taking up their modes eating with them as Alexander demeaned himself towards the Persians Then again the ruining the Fortifications of their Towns the taking Hostages of them the taking away their Arms and keeping them weak the abstaining from their Wives the giving them no jealousie in matter of Love To have little converse with them especially in their Houses and when any is to see it be with seriousness and decency to honour them to do them a pleasure on occasion not play with them not pick any quarrel with them not touch their Liberty nor the Goods that have been left them not disquiet them for matters of Religion To do them Justice maintain them in their Laws and Customs and in their manner of Government as the Romans did who permitted the People whom they had subdued to have their accustomed Laws To be diffedent of them and shew a confiderde in them To appear not desirous of their secrets not interrupt them in their pleasures make them pay the Tribute agreed upon with them exactly not at all augmenting it To keep word with them in all things seldom meddle in their affairs except it be to accord them to lend them no Money but owe them some and punctually pay the Interests of it not let them know the true State of affairs not give them entrance into strong holds which must always be well furnish'd with Men and Provisions That the Governor never come among them without being strongest or having Hostages To prevent their assembling and hinder as much as may be their having Commerce with Neighbours that are under another Prince's Dominion to keep off all kind Strangers from Houses and severely punish such of 'em as shall cause the least trouble or any motion that may tend to Sedition If our Conquerors had practis'd in this manner Italy and Sicily would have been French to this day CHAP. XII Of the Sea and its usefulness 2. Means to augment the Kings Power there 3. Of Commerce 4. Of Colonies THE Water of the Sea are wholly obnoxious to the humorousness of Fortune and the Wind that governs them turneth and changeth with as much inconstancy as that blind Goddess Yet it is certain that those States whose renown is greatest in Story did not establish their supreme Dominion but upon the power they attained to at Sea as if Virtue stout and undaunted had resolv'd to Combat and Conquer her Enemy in the very seat of her Empire The Romans are one instance whose example is ever to be follow'd with as peculiar a diligence as their conduct of matters was with singular wisdom and hard to be imitated They imposed not upon the World their Laws till they had forced the Seas to receive and acknowledge them Had they not set out War-like Fleets they had never accomplished their glorious Designs they had never extended their Frontier beyond Italy never brought down the Pride of Carthage nor Triumphed over all the Crowns on Earth The Aegyptians the Persians and the Grecians considered the Sea as the principal support of their Domination Xerxes having caus'd the Hâ—liâ—spout to be to punish'd as he termed it with Stripes accounted his Vanity satisfy'd in the sight of all Asia which he drew after him into Greece with so much Magnificence and Pomp that it seemed as if Jupiter Himself was come down from Heaven The Venetians still renew every year their Alliance with this Element by an old fond superstitious Custom casting into the Sea a Ring as if they espoused it perhaps by this use they would inform all the particular Subjects of their Common wealth that they should be content with the inconstancy and infidelity of their Women since the State of espousing the Sea espouseth inconstancy and infidelity it self The Riches of Tunis of Algier of Holland and England plainly prove the necessity there is for Princes to be Strong at Sea and do shew the Profit which does thence accrue These are petty States yet dare measure their Forces with those of the Greatest Monarchs The former of them are Turkish Slaves the others revolted Burghers and how insolent soever the English are they must confess that all the Brittish Isles laid together do not equal the half of our Continent either in Extent or in Fruitfulness of Ground or for Commodiousness of Scituation or in number of Men in Wealth in Valour Industry and Understanding yet they fear not to affirm themselves Sovereigns of the Sea Had they cast up the Wracks they have suffered and the Battles
they have lost had they well examin'd our Ports and Havens in fine had they compar'd the Coasts of France with those of England they would condemn their Vanity as Canutus one of their ancient Kings did 'T is true all States are not disposed unto Navigation either because they are too far up in Midland Countries or because the temper of the People suits not with it or because they want Subjects but 't is so far that any of these Obstacles should hinder the French from addicting themselves unto it that on the contrary all things conspire to raise desire of it in them and to give them hope of advantageous success The work however is such as must be leisurably carried on and perfected by little and little so great a design continually allarming Europe Asia Africa and America Friends and Foes A precipitation of it would be its ruine I say not what number of Vessels would be fit for France to put to Sea But I affirm that the King may keep an hundred Gallies and an hundred Ships on the Mediterranean and a Fleet of Two hundred Sail upon the Ocean The more Vessels He shall have the more enabled He will be to recover the expence made about ' em As to the building of such numbers six or ten years of time may be allotted for it and there is Timber in France there is Cordage there are Sails there is Iron and Brass there are Victuals and Workmen so that the King's Subjects will gain the Money which is laid out in ' em Is it not far better for the King of France to build Ships for the employing and enriching of His Subjects than it was for the Kings of Aegypt to build their useless Pyramids There need be no anxious enquiry whence a Stock should rise for this advance every year will bring in Money and the Vessels once made and their Guns mounted it will not cost the King a Quardecu for other Equippings 'T will be but to give the Captains Places in the Ships and Gallies on condition to fit them out and there will more persons come to take them than there will be Offices and Places to be bestowed 'T is true Fleets being out there will need vast Sums to maintain them but the Sea will yield a maintenance for the Sea either by Commerce or by War Neither will it be always proper to keep so many Vessels in service On the other hand it will not be necessary to have so many Troops at Land as are at present For Spain or Italy will not dare to disfurnish themselves of their Men so there will be no need of a Land-Army but towards Germany The number of Rowers will be made up by bringing Men from Canada and the American Islands or by buying Negroes at Cape Verde or by sending all Malefactors to the Gallies And when things have taken their course Seamen will be had time and the profit that will accrue will afford store and bring them in from all parts of the World Hereupon the Corsairs of Algiers Tunis and Tripoli will not be able to keep at Sea and the French being continually on their Coasts they will be constrain'd to tarry at home for the guarding of their Towns so not in a condition to send out Troops for collecting the Tribute which they exact of the Arabs and Princes who lye further up in Africa the Tributaries will without fail revolt and the King may in the sequel Treat with them for their recovering their Liberty and take them into his Protection There is no cause to fear the Power of the Ottoman Port in this particular For beside that the Turks are no good Seamen the Grand Signior doth make no such account of the Pyrats of Algier as that their fortune is considerable to Him The Friendship of the French is more necessary for Him both in point of Commerce and in reference to other Interests The Fleets which the King might keep upon the Ocean would make Him Master of all the Powers and Trade of the North. Yea though the English and Hollanders should unite against France they could not avoid their ruin in the end For how should the one and the other make good their Commerce which is all they have to trust to if they were forced to maintain great Armada's to continue it The point of Bretannie is the Gate to enter into and go out of the Channel Fifty Ships of War at Brest would keep this Gate fast shut and they should not open it but by the King's Command Spain and Portugal would not be able to attempt any thing but by His permission if there were kept a Fleet on the Coast of Guyenne Thus there would need no War almost to be made for all these things nor His Majesties Forces hazarded It would be sufficient to give his Order to Forreiners Nor will it be difficult to cut them out work in their own Countries and by this means stay their Arms at home and make them spend their strength there I shall something of this in its place hereafter There is one further excellent means to strengthen the King at Sea and it is the taking Order that no more of His Subjects go to Malta To do this there must be given in Fee to the French Knights of St. John of Jerusalem some Isle in the Mediterranean as for Instance the Isle du Levant for which they should pay an acknowledgment to the King as they do for Malta to the King of Spain There might be given them too on the same condition an Isle in the Ocean as Besle-Isle l'Isle-Dieu or the Isle of Ree so that the French Knights fighting not but against the Enemies of their Country they would make War upon the English as upon Turks and keep the Islands at their own charge whereas the King is fain to keep great Garisons and be at vast expence to do it There is no cause to fear that they will ever give the King any trouble for being French they cannot fail of Affection or Obedience and their Kindred together with the Wealth they have in France will be perpetual Hostages to the King and caution for their Fidelity This Project is just for of ten parts of the Knights of Malta no less than eight do come from the Commanderies of France and it is easie to be put in execution for there need be only a stopping the income of the Commanderies to effect it The Order in general will find its advantages in it both in that there will be an addition made it of two considerable Islands and that the King will receive the Knights into a more particular Protection than he hath done hitherto The number of Commanderies may also be augmented by giving them some Maladeries or Hospitals for the diseased which are always usurped by People that have no right to them at all Be it observed in the last place that it is very requisite the Office of Admiral and Powers of the Admiralty
3 Months would utterly ruin him He may be induc'd to hope that he shall be reinstated in the Principality of Geneva If War be made in Italy the Italians must not have time given them to look about them As they are the Wisest so when inur'd to War they are the bravest upon Earth In one word they are the Masters of the Universe The Swisses are Mercenaries who will alway serve the King for his Money As for matter of the English they have not any Friends themselves be a sort of People without Faith without Religion without Honesty without any Justice at all of the greatest levity that can be Cruel Impatient Gluttonous Proud Audacious Covetous fit for Handy strokes and a sudden execution but unable to carry on a War with judgment Their Country is good enough for sustenance of Life but not rich enough to afford them means for issuing forth and making any Conquest accordingly they never conquered any thing but Ireland whose Inhabitants are weak and ill Soldiers On the contrary the Romans conquer'd them then the Danes and the Normans in such a manner too that their present Kings are the Heirs of a Conqueror They hate one another and are in continual Division either about Religion or about the Government A War of France for three or four years upon them would totally ruin them So it seems reasonable that we should make no Peace with them but upon conditions of greatest advantage for us unless the King think meet to defer the execution of this Project to another time or that His Majesty press'd with the love He hath for His own People do incline to prefer their ease before so fair hopes One had need be a Monarch to know what it is to love Subjects as be a Father to know how Children are loved In fine if we had a mind to ruin the English we need but oblige them to keep an Army on foot and there is no fear that they should make any invasion upon France that would be their undoubted ruin if they be not call'd in by some Rebels Now if they have an Army they will infallibly make War upon one another and so ruin themselves You must put them upon making great expences and for this end raise a jealousie in them for the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey of Wight and Man for the Cinque-Ports and Ireland and by that means oblige them to keep strong Garisons in all those places this will create a belief in the people that the King formeth great Projects against their pretended Liberty and while He is in Arms His Subjects will hate Him They must be wrought to distrusts of one another by writing Letters in Cypher to some particular persons and causing them to be intercepted For being suspicious and imprudent they will soon be perswaded that the Letters were seriously written Some Forces should be landed in Ireland and in other parts The Irish may be induced to revolt as having a mortal hatred for the English The Scots also will not neglect to set themselves at liberty Factions must be rais'd and the Sects favoured against one another especially the Catholicks among whom the Benedictine Monks in particular should be secretly promis'd on the King of England's behalf wherein it will be easie to deceive them that they shall be restored to all the Estates which they once possessed in the Island according to the Monasticon there Printed Upon this the Monks will move Heaven and Earth and the Catholicks declare themselves The rumor which hath already gone abroad that the King of England is a Catholick must be fortifi'd and so all will fall into utter confusion and the English Monarchy be in case to be divided On the other hand our League with the Hollanders should be renew'd and they put into a belief that we will give them all the Trade still because they have a through Knowledge of it and are proper for it whereas the French have no inclination that way and Nature cannot be forced They must be told that now they are come to the happy time for advancing their affairs and ruining their Competitors in the Sovereignty of the Northen Seas Beside these particulars if the King give Belle-Isle or L'Isle Dieu or the Isle of Ree to the Knights of Malta as I have said before these Knights will make irreconcilable War upon the English redemand the Commanderies of their Order and by their courses and Piracies oblige them to keep great Fleets at Sea which will ruine them by ruining the profit of their Trade Mean time the King shall increase His Strength at Sea and then finding His Enemies weakned consummate their Depression and Subversion It is not difficult to make defence against any enterprises of the Emperor for He cannot make War upon France though He would such a War would be too costly for Him and and to make any progress in it He must needs bring into the Field excessive great Armies But if He armed Him so potently the Princes of Germany would grow jealous of Him and make Levies to oppose Him and to hinder His passage through their Territories beside His Hereditary Countrys would be disfurnish'd of Men and so expos'd to the inroads of the Turks so that there is no cause to apprehend any thing on the part of the Emperor On the contrary He hath intentions to give the King content because He may receive great succors from Him in Wars with the Turk as happen'd of late Years The Princes of Germany whether Catholicks or Protestants have an equal interest to keep themselves in the King's Protection for the reasons I noted afore in the Chapter of the Huguenots so that they will always oppose the Emperors growing greater on the side of France as it may be they would oppose the designs of the King if He should carry His Arms too far up into Germany 'T is the interest of lesser States that the Kings their Neighbours be equal in Power that the one may maintain them against the others To conclude the King hath no Allies whom He should so highly esteem as the Germans there is not a braver Nation a Nation more open more honest Their Original is also ours They have no Vices are Just and Faithfull there is among them an inexhaustible Seminary of good Soldiers their generosity put Alexander the Great into admiration for 'em and wrought affection and confidence in 'em in the first Caesars who by committinâ— their Persons to the virtue of these People entrusted them with the quiet of the Universe The Hollanders will never attempt any thing against France but keep themselves in our Alliance as much as possibly they may They are Rich and interessed as Merchants commonly are If the King had relinquish'd them theâ—… State would have sunk which yet by the rules of Policy cannot last long Democracieâ— being subject to changes It would be expedient that the King do interpose in their Affairs and some division be raised among
care of the Service of God belongs as much to the Authority of the Prince as that of Justice and Civil Government Those Expressions of the Marquess That Secular Princes are the Protectors of the Church of its Doctrine and of its Canons are intended by him in a more liberal and ingenious sense than they meant from whom he takes them For they are the ordinary terms of those who make the King subject to the Pope and who own not the King for the Sovereign of the Church but only for its Protector and to execute the Commands of his Holiness and for that his Canons be observed This is the Stile of my Lord Bishop of Montauban Peter Bertier in his Remonstrance made to the King in the City of Rheims June 8th 1654. where after he had term'd his Sovereign Power a true resemblance of the Deity he sinks it again not only below the Pope but even below the Bishops who are the Kings subjects saying That the Bishops are the Head to govern and the Mouth of the Church to speak but that the King is its arm and its right hand to execute its Decrees and Ordinances This Scholar of the Jesuits speaks like his Masters for all the Jesuits harp on the same string which Becanus in Pref. ad Reg. Jac. Kings are only to execute the Popes Commands What is the duty of Kings says he in relation to the Church and to Religion I will tell you in one word they ought to guard and defendit not as Lords but as Servants not as Judges but as Executioners And why I pray has not the King the same Sovereignty in France that the Emperor Constantine and the Emperor Charlemaigne enjoy'd under whom the Canons of the Synods were none other than counsel and advice till these Emperors had examin'd and authoriz'd them Did not these Sovereigns altogether call and dissolve those Synods of Bishops at pleasure and wherefore shall our Kings be rob'd of that Power Our great King who surpasses all his Predecessors in Glory and Magnanimity shall he suffer a stranger Bishop to snatch from his Crown this essential Right of governing the Church of his Kingdom and He of a King become a Serjeant to put in execution the Commands of that Bishop and those of the Bishops his Subjects The world is well chang'd since Pope Adrian in his Letters inserted in the second Council of Nice express'd himself to the Emperor Constantine to this effect We beseech your Clemency with ardour of Spirit and as though we were present we cast our selves at your knees and lie at your feet I with my Brethren Then it was that Popes kissed the Feet of Emperors whereas now Emperors kiss the Popes Toe In the Year 679. the Pope Agathon pray'd the Emperor Constantine to discharge the Tribute which the Bishops of Rome pay'd Ordinarily to the Emperor for their Conservation Very far from compelling the Emperors the day of their Conservation to lay a sum of Money at the Popes feet for Tribute as a token of subjection which afterwards the Emperors of Germany have been oblig'd to do Gregory the First gave a good Example for our Popes at this day how they should demean themselves towards the Emperor for he speaks thus to the Emperor l. 3. Ep. 6. I am the unworthy Servant of your pity And in the same Epistle Whilst I speak thus before my Masters what am I other than Dust and a Worm And l. 2. Ep. 61. I am subject to your Commands I might bring many Examples how anciently the Christian Emperors and the Kings of Italy created and depos'd the Popes commanding them and deposing them at their pleasure Not to go farther than our France there we may see what Power our Kings of the first Line exercis'd in the Government of the Church The History of Gregory of Tours may furnish us with many examples l. 4. c. 5. King Glotharius speaks thus to the Inhabitants of Tours Have not I commanded that the Priest Cato be made a Bishop Why are my Commands slighted and Chap. 18. Pascentius is made Bishop of Paris ex jussu Regis Chariberti by the Command of King Heribert The same King being provok'd because Emerius had been turn'd out of the Bishoprick of Xaintes caused him to be beaten who came to signifie to him that deposition and made him be drawn upon a Cart loaden with Thorns into banishment and restor'd Emerius to his place from whence he had been cast out l. 6. c. 27. Felix Bishop of Xaintes being deceas'd Nonnichius Consobrinus rege ordinante successit His Cousin Nonnichius succeeded him by the King's Order C. 39. King Guntram created Sulpitius Bishop of Bourges rejecting the Presents offered him for promoting another and saying It is not our Custom to sell the Priesthood for the price of Money l. 8. c. 22. are these words Then the King commanded that Gundegesil be made a Bishop which was done accordingly And C. 39. Evantius Bishop of Vienna died and in his place was substituted Vitus a Priest the King chusing him In all these passages we find no mention of the Pope nor of Annates nor of Letters of Investiture For in those days the Bishops of Rome meddl'd not at all with the Election of the Bishops of France Above all is memorable the Francique Synod to be found in the Third Tome of the Councils of the Edition of Cologne Pag. 39. Where Carloman who stiles himself Duke and Prince of the French thus speaks By the advice of my Priests and of the chief of the Realm we have appointed Bishops for the Towns and have set over them Boniface Archbishop Pope Adrian the First by a Council made this Law to pass That Charlemain should have the Right and Power to choose the Pope and to govern the Roman See Which Constitution is inserted in the Roman Decretal The Council of Mayence held under Charlemain an 813. dist 63. Can. Hadrians begins thus To Charles August Rector of the True Religion and Defendor of the Holy Church of God And the Second Council of Mayence under Lewis the Debonnaire to Lewis the most Soveraign Rector of the True Religion At this day these Titles would be counted wicked Now for all that Charlemain and Lewis the Debonnaire have advanc'd the Pope out of measure yet his Authority even in Spirituals was no better than precarious and suject to those Kings that were Emperors For proof of this Hincmar relates l. 55. c. 20. That the Emperor Charlemain did convoke a general Synod in France whereby the worshipping of Images was condemn'd and the Second Council of Nice which defended them was rejected as a false Synod thô the Pope had approv'd it And thô at this Synod convoked by Charlemain the Authority of the Pope was admitted For the History of those times teaches us That Charlemain who had advanced the Pope made use of the Authority given him to his own advantage even against the Pope himself when he had a
the King assembles at Paris his Knights Barons and Prelates and demanded of them of whom they held their Fiefs and their Church-Temporalties They answered That they hold them of the King and not of the Pope whom they accus'd of Heresie Murder and of other Crimes In the mean while the Pope made it his business to stir up Germany and the Low Countrys against France But the King sent into Italy William de Nogaret who assisted with the advice of Sciarra a Polander took the Pope at Anagnia and having mounted him upon an hurdle carried him Prisoner to Rome where he died of grief and anger Observe that this Pope who thundered against Kings had so little Power at Rome and so little love of the People that not a Roman stirr'd a foot to deliver the Bishop of Rome so rudely treated even in Rome it self For all this the King had immediately from the Successors of Boniface rare Bulls for abolishing the memory of all these Transactions as may be seen in the Extravaganta Meruit of Clement V. where this King is prais'd as a Religious Prince who had deserv'd well of the Holy See For the Popes are of the nature of Spaniards who will lick their Masters feet when they have soundly bang'd them In the Year 1408. Pope Benedict XIII angry because Charles VI. had express'd the exactions and pilferings of the Popes Court which drain'd France sends into France a Bull of Excommunication against the King and his Princes The University of Paris Order'd That these Bulls be torn in pieces and that the Pope Benedict whom they call'd Peter de Luna be declar'd Heretick and Schismatick and Disturber of the Peace And these Bulls were torn by the Sentence of the Court June 16. 1408. and ten days after the Court being risen at Eleven a Clock in the Morning two Bullbearers who had brought this Excommunication made their honourable Amends upon the stairs of the Palace and after were carried back to the Lovre in the same manner they had been brought being drawn on two Sledges adorn'd with Coats of Painted Canvas and Miters of Paper on their heads with the sound of Trumpets and the publick Laughter So little did they care for the Popes thunder And what would they have done if these Bulls had brought the Sentence of Deposition against the King Charles de Moulin in his Treatise against the Perites Dates relates a pretty Sentence of the Court against the Pope under Charles VI. From the same vigor of the French to defend the Dignity of the Crown of their Kings are risen these customs which have been observ'd many Ages that a Legate of the Pope is not receiv'd in France nor any Rescript nor Command of the Pope without the Kings leave and without that the Legate communicate his Powers to the Kings Procurator-General and that they be view'd and verified in the Court of Parliament who modifie and and restrain them to Masters that do not derogate from the Rights of the King the Liberties of the Church nor the Ordinances Royal. Against which ancient form Cardinal Balui being come into France an 1484. and there acting as a Legate without the Kings permission the Court at the request of the Procurator-General decreed a Commission for an Information to be brought against him by two Counsellors of the Court and did forbid him to use farther any Faculty or Legantine Power on pain of being declared Rebel An. 1510. the Gallican-Church being assembled at Tours it was concluded That the King Lewis XII might with a good Conscience dispise the abusive Bulls and unjust Censures of Pope Julius II. and might by Arms oppose his Usurpations though the Pope should go on to excommunicate or to depose him Which is more by a Council held at Pisa he declar'd himself fallen from the Papacy and caus'd Money to be coin'd with this Inscription around it Perdam nomen Babylonis There is some reason to believe he would have made good his word had he been 30 years younger And we hope that God has reserv'd this Glory for another Lewis in our days who with the vigour of a flourishing Youth has the prudence of an old Cato as also the courage and fortune of an Alexander When Lewis XII and his Adherents were depos'd John D'Albert King of Navarre was entangl'd with the same misfortune whose Kingdom by this Pope Julius II. was given to Ferdinand King of Arragon And this is all the Right the Spaniard has to that our great Kings Hereditary Kingdom In the Year 1561. on Friday 12th of December Master John Tanquerel a Batchelor of Divinity was condemn'd by a Sentence of the Court to make confession publickly that he had indiscreetly and rashly held this Proposition That the Pope is Vicar of Christ having Power spiritual and secular and that he may deprive of their Dignities the Princes that rebel against his Commands And notwithstanding that Tanquerel protested that he had propos'd this Doctrin aliter tantum non juridice that is to say not for affirming it as true but as a Subject for dispute in the Schools was he compell'd to make this acknowledgment During the Wars of the League an 1591. were sent from Rome Bulls monitory of Pope Gregory XIV by the which King Henry the Great was declar'd uncapable of the Crown of France as an Heretick and a Relapser and his Kingdom was exposed to prey Whereupon the Court of Parliament assembled at Tours made this Decree The Court having regard to the conclusions of the Kings Procurator-General have declared and do declare the Bulls monitory given at Rome the first of March 1591. null abusive damnable full of impiety and impostures contrary to the holy Decretals Rights Franchises and Liberties of the Gallican-Church Do Order that the Copies sealed with the Seal of Marsilius Landrianus under-seal'd Septilius Lamprius be torn by the Executioner of High-Justice and burnt in a Fire which shall be kindled for this occasion before the great Gate of the Palace c. which was executed August 5th of the same year I verily believe that many good Freuch men read not these Examples with pleasure and reckon it no glory that the Pope has never set his foot on the neck of a King of France as Pope Alexander the Third did to the Emperor Frederick nor kick'd off his Crown with his foot as Celestine II. to the Emperor Henry VI. nor brought our Kings to yield homage to the Pope for their Kingdom as other Kings have done and do to this day Without doubt they will laugh at the just punishment which Boniface VIII had for his Insolence from the Officers of the generous King Philip the Fair and to see how after this treatment the Popes Successors of Boniface did compliment him with a many Commendations and Apostolick Benedictions Without doubt also these good French-men are well satisfied with the pragmatick Sanctions whereby our Kings have repress'd the Exactions of the Court of Rome and have appropriated
the Collation of a number of Benefices and think we are well helpt up in that the King the Magistrates and the Sorbonne will own no other Superior to the King but God for what concerns Temporals But I pray to what end is all this briskness in our Kings in our Parliaments and in the Sorbon against the Usurpations of the Pope in Temporals but to yield him the Spirituals and to confirm his pretensions even in Temporals Grant him the Spiritual Power and he will be Master of the Temporal without contradiction and he shall bring under his Jurisdiction all secular Causes under the colour of a Sacrament of an Oath of Charitable Uses or of matters of Conscience The Concords of our Kings with Rome and their pragmatick Sanctions about the Collations of Benefices what have they come to Is not this to come in for a share with the Robbers who had seiz'd the Royalties and by solemn Articles to make them a Title which they had no pretence to before their Invasions And what other do our Kings in acknowledging the Spiritual Power of the Pope but own themselves his Subjects in Temporals for the one hooks in the other of necessity The experience of six ages has prov'd this truth 'T is the voluntary Subjection of Emperors and Kings to the Spiritual Power of the Pope that has given him the liberty to Excommunicate them for this belongs to the Spiritual Jurisdiction And the very same Jurisdiction has authoris'd him to exempt their Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity for the keeping of an Oath is a duty of Religion so that if the Pope be obey'd by a discontented and factious People you see an Emperor or King is depos'd by the Spiritual Jurisdiction and the Pope may spare the other Power that he pretends to over the Temporalties of Kings seeing that his Spiritual power all alone is sufficient to ruine the poor Prince And if that the Christian Princes that are of his Communion own him for the Vicar of Jesus Christ let the Kings understand it in what sense they please he will make them know when-ever their weakness shall give him an opportunity that he takes himself for the Vicar of the Secular Power of Jesus Christ as well as of the Spiritual And that to him as to Christ whom he represents all Power is given in Heaven and on Earth This is what the last Council of Lateran attributes to him and applies to him that Prophesie of Psalm 72. particular to Jesus Christ All Kings shall be prostrate before him and all Nations shall serve him The Kings that prostrate themselves the most humbly before him are those he throws at his Feet Witness the Treatment he gave our good King Henry the Third who Ador'd him and yet he Thundered upon him and persecuted him even to death and beyond death For after he was Assassinated in pursuance of his Excommunication and Deposition by his Creatures of the League and particularly of the House of Guise that he favour'd He would not at all suffer any Obits or Services to be made for him at Rome as if he had a mind to have him Damn'd after he had caus'd him to be Murder'd Particularly he extoll'd in a Publick Harangue the execrable Parricide Jacob Clement and compares his Fact to the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God The design of this persecution drawn out so at length against the King the Princes of the Blood and against all the Kingdom is to be seen in the Memoirs of the Advocate David intercepted at Lions An. 1577. as he was upon his return from Rome where he had been Secretary to the Bishop of Paris the King's Ambassador with the Pope This Bishop of Paris a Creature of the Duke of Guise being at Rome An. 1576. instead of serving the Interests of the King his Master who had sent him to make an excuse by reason of the necessity of the King's Affairs for the Peace he had made with the Duke Alenzon his Brother and with the Princes of the Blood that were Protestants He apply'd himself wholly to the Interests of the Duke of Guise and the Pope who had then complotted together their devilish design of the League For the Pope whose custom it is to build his Greatness upon the weakness of Kings and the troubles of their States seeing the Royal-House declining despis'd and drawing to an end and France harassed with Civil Wars was easily wrought upon to favour the House of Guise which aspir'd manifestly to the Crown by the exclusion of the Princes of the Blood So upon the whole matter the Duke of Guise a Prince well made and of high undertaking powerful in Friends lov'd and ador'd by the People promised to give him all the Soveraignty in France which he counts himself debarr'd of by the pragmatick Sanctions and by the Liberties of the Gallicane-Church Then during the stay of this Ambassador at Rome An. 1576. an Agreement was drawn between the Pope and Duke of Guise whereby the Pope Declares That Hugh Capet had seiz'd the Crown of France which of Right belong'd to the House of Charlemaign That he and his Race had render'd the French refractory and disobedient to the Holy See by that damnable Error which they call the Liberties of the Gallicane-Church which is none other says he but the Doctrine of the Valdenses Albigenses the Poor of Lyons Lutherans and Calvinists That it is this Error which makes the Arms of the Kings of France in defence of the Holy Church unfortunate and that they never will prosper so long as the Crown shall continue in this Line In order thereunto an opportunity was now offer'd by reason of the present Divisions to labour in good earnest the Restoration of the Crown to the true Successors of Charlemaign who had always constantly obey'd the Commands of the Holy See And who had in effect shew'd themselves the lawful Heirs of the Apostolick Benediction upon that Crown though depriv'd of their Inheritance by fraud and violence That 't is plain the Race of the Capets are wholly deliver'd over to a reprobate Sense some being possess'd with a spirit of Mopishness Stupid and of no Valour Others rejected by God and Men for their Heresie proscribed and shut out from the Communion of the Holy Church Whereas the Branches of Charlemaign are fresh and flourishing Lovers of Virtue vigorous of Body and in Mind for the execution of high and laudable Enterprizes He goes on and Prophesies for them that as War bad been the means whereby they lost their Degree so Peace shall do them the service to restore them to their ancient Heritage of the Kingdom with the good Will the Consent and the Choice of all the People Afterwards follows a Lesson of the Conclave for the execution of this Design well worthy to be read For it is the whole plot and project of the League which was exactly observ'd all along even to the very last Act with the States
no longer now any ambitious Prince within the Kingdom to rob him of his Peoples Affection or that may dare to make any Alliance with the Pope to tumble him from his Throne and share the Crown We have this good fortune that we may set out to the life the ill aspect of Rome upon our Kings and that dangerous vigilance over France without any danger of abating the Courage of our Great King but on the contrary were his truly Royal Courage capable of an increase it would yet swell the higher from the consideration of the Evils that Rome has done and will yet do to France if he do not heartily oppose the Usurpations she exercises with impunity in all the parts of his Kingdom The honest French men that have the Honour to be near his Person might represent to Him the danger of this Doctrine maintain'd by the Popelings of His Kingdom That Jesus Christ committed to St. Peter as well the earthly as the heavenly Empire which are the very words of Pope Nicolas Therefore Cardinal Bellarmine Ch. 27. against Barclay holds absolutely That the Pope may dispose of all the Temporals of the World I affirm says he with confidence That our Lord Jesus Christ the time he was Mortal might dispose of all Temporal things and deprive the Kings and the Princes of their Kingdoms and Dominions and that without doubt he has left the same Power to his Vicar to be employ'd when he shall judge it necessary for the good of Souls The Pope Pius V. displays this Power with great Ostentation in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth of England wherein after that he calls Himself Servant of Servants he declares That God has establisht the Bishop of Rome Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to take destroy disperse consume plant and build and in the Power hereof he does Anathemize degrade and depose this Queen absolves all her Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made her and forbids them absolutely to give her Obedience Gregory XIV set out such another Bull against our Great Henry declaring him uncapable of the Crown and exposing His Kingdom to prey But both this and the other Bull were torn and cast into the fire by the hands of the Hangman Observe that the Pope exerciseth this Power over the Temporalties of Kings for the good of Souls and as a Spiritual Prince So that our French Statesmen may cease to have their Eyes wilfully seal'd up by that distinction of Spiritual power which they allow him and Temporal power that they deny him For that it is by virtue of the Spiritual Power that he exerciseth the Temporal See what Cardinal Bellarmin says De pont Rom. l. 5. c. 5. The Pope may change the Kingdoms take them from one and give them to another as a Sovereign Spiritual Prince when it shall be necessary for the good of Souls And of this necessity he shall be the only Judge as the Sovereign Spiritual Prince For 't is thus the Cardinal argues Apol. pro Garnet p. 84. If the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of Temporal things she would not be perfect and would want the Power that is necessary for the attaining her end for says he the wicked might entertain Hereticks and go scot-free and so Religion be turn'd upside down This reason charges imperfection on the Church in the Apostles time for that had no power over the Temporals These horrible Principles so strongly maintain'd by the Court of Rome were of fresh memory found so prejudicial both to the safety of our Kings and to the Peace of France that those of the third State an 1615. were mov'd to propose to the General States an Article containing the means to dispossess the people of that Opinion that the King might be depos'd by the Pope and that by the killing of Kings one might gain the Crown of Martyrdom Cardinal Du Perron in the name of the Clergy oppos'd this Article and employ'd all the strength of his Eloquence and Learning in two fair Speeches the one before the Nobility the other before the third State to perswade them that our Kings may be depos'd by the Pope offering himself to suffer Martyrdom in defence of this Truth The Lords of the Nobility to their great shame joyn'd with the Clergy for the putting their Kings Crown under the Miter of the Pope much degenerating from the vertue of their Ancestors those French Banons by whose advice Philip the August declar'd to the Cardinal D'Anagnia the Popes Legat that threatned him that it did not at all belong to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France But the third State held firm to their Article that maintain'd the Dignity of their King and the safety of his Person and could never be won by promises nor affrighted by threatnings to depart from it shewing themselves in this more noble than the Nobility It is no wonder in this case that the third State shew'd more affection to their King than the Clergy seeing that the Clerks hold That they are not the King's Subjects for in effect they acknowledge another Sovereign out of the Kingdom And who can think it strange if they labour to heighten that Monarchy of which they make a Party But that the Nobility the Kings right arm that they should be so base to strike their Head and lay it at the feet of an Italian Bishop this is that which after Ages will reflect upon with astonishment and indignation and which Historians shall blush to relate and be vex'd that they cannot let pass in silence So the Nobility being joyn'd with the Clergy the Article of the third State was censur'd and rejected Whereupon the Pope writ Triumphant Letters to the Clergy and the Nobility who had been faithful to Him in this Cause glorying in His Victory and exalting the Magnanimity of these generoâ—s Nobles But in truth the Deputies of these generous Nobles deserv'd to have been degraded from their Nobility and they of the third State to have receiv'd their Titles The minority of the late King and the easiness of the Queen-Mother render'd them expos'd to these Injuries and apt to be circumvented insomuch that this Harangue made to the third State was printed with the Priviledge of the King and the Pope gain'd his point The false dealing of the Cardinal who made this Speech is remarkable namely that he had a long time followed King Henry the Great even then when he was of a contrary Religion and depos'd by the Pope and that a little before in an assembly held at the Jacobins in Paris he had resisted the Popes Nuncio who would that this Doctrine of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope might be held for an Article of Faith But in these two Harangues the Cardinal made a kind of a Recantation and pronounc'd himself his own condemnation Ungrateful wretch to have thus abus'd the tender Age of the Son of his King
and his great Benefactor and to have basely betray'd the Rights of the King to oblige the Court of Rome But this may not seem so strange if one consider that he got the best part of his preferment for certain Services of pleasure that do not much bind the Conscience of him that receives them nor that of him who is recompens'd for them And in truth those diverting Services that he and Monsieur De la Ravenne render'd to King Henry the Great deserve that Posterity should erect for them Statues crown'd with Myrtle God be thank'd that France now has a King vigorous both in Age and in Virtue who is the terrour of Rome having shewn himself sensible of its Usurpations upon France beyond all his Predecessors and of whom we have good occasion to hope that he will shake off this Italian Yoke and banish all Foreign Jurisdiction out of his Kingdom We also ought to bless God for that the French Nobility at this day is much of a different temper from that which in the full States submitted the Crown and life of their King to the Popes Tyranny 56 years ago And that is ready to cover their Fathers faults by generously assisting their King to make Him the only King within his Kingdom To effect this above all things those pretended Immunities and Exemptions must be taken from the Clergy which indeed are revolts from the Kings Authority to that of the Popes 'T is in truth very reasonable that they who have the charge of Souls should be discharg'd from many publick Services by reason they are vow'd and reserv'd to the Service of God but however not that they and their Lands should no longer depend on the King and be subject to another Sovereign This is what was represented to King Henry the Great by that illustrious Personage Achilles de Harley first President of his Court of Parliament at Paris in a Speech he made to him to disswade him from recalling the Jesuits he Remonstrates to him That according to their Doctrine he who has taken the lowest Orders of the Church could not be guilty of High Treason whatever Crime he committed for that the Clergy are no longer the Kings Subjects nor belonging to his Jurisdiction In such manner that the Church-men if one would believe them are exempt from Secular Powers and may without punishment attempt against Kings with their bloody-hands and that this Doctrine they maintain in their publish'd Books Thuanus l. 130. ad an 1604. To this effect the Jesuit Emanuel Sa holds That the Rebellion of a Clerk against the Prince is not the Crime laesae Majestatis because he is not a Subject of the Prince Words that have been left out in the Edition of Paris but remain in that of Cologne and that of Antwerp Bellarmin that has not been purged says the same thing He affirms De Cl. C. 28. That a Clerk cannot be punished by the Civil Judges or in any wise brought before the Judicial Seat of a Secular Magistrate He likewise says That the Sovereign Pontifex having deliver'd the Clerks from the subjection of Princes Kings are no more the superiors of Clerks The Pope then by his reckoning is the King of Kings if he can deliver whom he pleases from their subjection due to their Princes by their birth by making them Clerks and it will be in his Power not to leave in France any Subject to the King if all his Subjects will but accept of the meanest Orders This Body of the Clergy has its Judges and Officers apart and Prisons apart Their Causes will not bide the Trial before the Kings Judges but fly to the Rota or to the Consistory at Rome There may be found an incredible number of Persons in France who under the Title of the Clergy have shaken off the Yoke of the Kings Authority and a third part of the Land of the Kingdom is in the Church-mens hands for which they will neither render Homage nor Service to the King And though the lots and vents the quints requints and other Rights of Lordship belong to the King all these Rights are lost after that the moveable goods are enter'd into the possession of the Clergy The King also loses his Rights D'Aubanir of Confiscation and of Deforence the Clergy being a Body that never dies yet mortifies the Inheritances new Donations falling to them every day but none goes from them A famous Writer said pleasantly That as the Arms and Thighs dwindle when the Belly swels to excess so in the Body of a State the Nobility and People that are as the Arms and Legs of a Commonweal are impair'd by the fatning of the Clergy I am of those who wish the Clergy may have those means and that Dignity which may lift them above Contempt and Oppression and render them respected even of Kings But because I love them I wish their Riches may not be so excessive as to create in Kings a jealousie that may cause them to be taken away as has happen'd in England and in other places 'T is therefore a great imprudence of our Lords the Clergy of France who possess the best part and the fat of the Kingdom enough to cause jealousie in the Seculars and the avarice of Sacriledge to add yet this unjust pretension of immunity from all Charges both for their persons and for their goods and defend themselves with the Popes Authority which exempts them Which in effect is to tell the King That they are another Kings Subjects who has Power to Command Him to dispose of the Lands under his Obedience and to limit his Authority over the Persons of the Native French If for this they alledge a long Custom we may say That the Popes to settle their Usurpations in France have ever embroil'd our Kings in Troubles and oblig'd them to think of somewhat else besides the repelling the blind encroachments of a stranger Kingdom that crept into their Realm and that they had to do with weak Princes or such as had their hands full other ways But now that God has given France a King wise powerful flourishing and who has leisure to have an Eye or all his Interests will these Gentlemen expect that he will suffer long that a third of his Kingdom lie unprofitable to him and even that it be reserv'd to fortifie a Foreign Monarchy and though natural reason requires that they who live at ease should comfort those who fight for their preservation all this while that the Nobles and the third State oppose the invasion of Strangers all this while that the King is fortifying his Frontiers entertaining Garisons setling Officers both for the State and for the War Why do not the Church-men who are thereby maintain'd in the quiet enjoyment of so great plenty contribute one Mite towards the defraying of publick Charges Why shall their increase be a diminution to the strength of the King who is kept waking for their repose and preservation Shall not the King
who is so clear-sighted see what an impoverishment it is to his Kingdom that France be tributary to a Stranger under the Title of Annates Offerings Dispensations Absolutions and Causes Matrimonial Against these Depredations our ancient Kings had provided some remedy by the pragmatick Sanctions vext to see the fairest Revenue of the Kingdom pass over the Alps by a Religious spoil and go into the Purses of those who laugh at our simplicity But what reason is there that they who pay so willingly Tribute to the Pope should make so great difficulty in paying to the King Is it not because they believe they owe all to the Pope and nought to the King St. Paul teaches them to pay Tribute to the Higher Powers inasmuch as they are Ministess of God And St. Chrysostom commenting upon this Text tells them who are these higher Powers If says he the Apostle has establisht this Law whilst the Princes were Pagans how much more ought this to be done under Princes that are Believers And he had said before The Apostle commands this to all even to the Priests Which is more he adds though thou art an Apostle though thou art an Evangelist or a Prophet or what ever else thou art From St. Ambrose we have the same Lesson in his Oration of delivering the Temples If Tribute be demanded refuse it not the Lands of the Church pay Tribute Even Pope Vrban and the Roman Decretal say That the Church pays Tribute of its exterior Goods Also That Tribute must be paid to the Emperors in acknowledgment of the Peace and Repose in which they ought to maintain and defend us The right of Kings and Truth must needs be very strong that could draw from the Pope and his Canonistical Doctors this acknowledgment For the Canon Law was not founded for any other end but to supplant the Civil Laws and establish the Popes Jurisdiction throughout This is a Body of Foreign Laws that have their Tribunal apart and that depends on a Foreign Prince and where the King has nothing to do but look on I mean till such time as he shall please to take cognizance of so unreasonable an Usurpation And forbid that any Cause be judged in France by other Authority than His and much less any Cause commenc'd in France be appeal'd to Rome And in truth he is but a King by halfs till he alone possess all the Jurisdiction exercis'd within his Kingdom This is what Charles du Moulin said in an Epistle to Henry II. where he writes freely against the Empire that the Pope has set up within our France where the Pope has Subjects that submit not to the Laws of the King but to those of the Pope which are the Canon-Law and the Constitutions that come from Rome But some may object Would you have the King judge in Spirituals I Answer That if the King ought not to be Judge it does not follow that the Pope must The King has his Bishops that may and ought to judge of matters purely Spiritual but of nought without being authoriz'd by the King and there is no need of an Authority out of the Kingdom for this I will say more That the Ecclesiastical Government is a part of the Office of a King For so it was in the Kingdom of Israel And who would believe that in this Age and in Spain where the Inquisition Reigns King Philip IV. assum'd to himself the Soveraign Power of Churches within his Dominions For this purpose he apply'd that excellent passage of Isodore which is attributed also to the Council of Paris That the Secular Princes should know that they ought to give an account of the charge of the Church committed to them by Jesus Christ for whether that the Peace or the Discipline receive improvement by believing Princes or that they are impair'd He who committed the Church to their Power will demand an account O the excellent passage O the Holy Lesson God give all Christian Kings the Grace so well to learn it that they may never leave this Charge of the Church which Jesus Christ has committed to them upon the hands of Strangers and when they have taken it into their own hands to acquit themselves worthily and render a good account Alas Alas Have Kings Eyes to see their Rights and have they no hands to maintain them Are they quick-sighted enough to perceive that the Government of the Church is committed to them and that they are to render an account to God and have they not the courage to rescue them from unjust and strange Hands that snatch them away Think they to acquit themselves of this great Account of the Government of the Church of their Kingdoms by saying That the Holy Father has discharg'd them of it when they have in their hands the power to discharge Him from his Usurpations In Truth they will never be in condition to Govern the Church committed to them they will never be but Kings by halfs till they have banisht from their Territories this pretended Spiritual Jurisdiction which destroys the Civil and which will draw under its Cognizance all sorts of Causes there being none wherein there is not some matter of Conscience or some kind of Transgression of Gods Commandments and that by consequence belongs not to the Jurisdiction of the Pope if He must be own'd the Soveraign Spiritual Judge in France The Popes themselves inform our Kings of their Right to Govern the Church Leo IV. writing to Lewis and to Lotharius did not he own that the Investiture of the Bishop comes from the Emperor and the Pope has only the Consecration Did not He beseech the Emperor to invest a person he had recommended and does he not acknowledge that the Metropolitan dares not Consecrate him without the Emperors consent And Pope John X. in his Epistle to Hereiman of Cologue about the business of Heldwin of Tongres does he not observe That the old Custom has this force that none ought to confer a Bishoprick upon any Clerk save the King to whom the Scepter has been given of God The Council held at Thionvil under Lewis the Debonnair An. 835. gives us this good Maxim That the Pope ought to be call'd Pope and Brother not Father and Pontifex and that Lewis had more Power in the Government of the Gallicane-Church than the Bishop of Rome as Agobard Bishop of Lions has it in his Treatise of the Coâ—â—â—â—…ison of the Two Governments related by Bossellus in his Decretals Gregory Turonensis does furnish us with more than Ten Examples of the right of Investiture belonging to our Kings before the Empire fell into their hands In the times of Clovis they held the Royal Right of the Investiture of Bishops They had also a Right which they call'd Regal which was the Power of enjoying vacant Bishopricks and Prebends and the moveables of Bishops dying without a Will And it is very easie to prove that under the first Line of our Kings and a long while under
more considerable We shall likewise save the Treasure that is spent unprofitably in the Embassies to Rome and in courting the good Graces of the Cardinals at the Elections of Popes and in the Reception of Legates and Nuncio's by all which France does nought else but prosess and encrease her Slavery without the return of the least advantage For what-ever Compliments what-ever Expence France may make yet the Catholick King is the Minion of Rome and the Subjects of Spain are the Chapmen that but most of their Wares and that have most blind Devotion for the Holy See And in truth seeing that the Politicks of France by the Marquess and Monfieur Silhon and before them Cardinal D'Ossat have testified their little satisfaction with Rome and publish'd her Cheats in so far that as we know that Rome does not at all love us in like manner Rome well knows that we care not for Her and I cannot understand to what end serve all our Civilities to the Court of Rome but to puff them up the more and provoke the Gentlemen to laughter who without doubt receive a wonderful pleasure in seeing their professed Enemies come to kiss their feet 'T is true that so long as France suffers Rome to dispose of many Benefices we must always have occasion to deal with them and as the Pope to Preserve his Credit amuses the Princes with com-promises and treaties which he draws out at length deporting himself as the Judge of Differences whereas he creates more than he decides So very often Princes contribute to his Inclination by their delays and in setting before his Council-board Affairs that they have no intention should be concluded And whatever their Inclination be at the bottom he is courted and caress'd as the Arbiter which pleases him extremely And why should it not please him to have at his Court the Ambassadors of the Empire of France of Spain of Poland of Portugal and other Princes that bring him Authority by their difference and bring gain to his Court and his Citizens by their Liberalities and by their Expences suitable to the Dignity of their Masters The great Men and the Sages of Council to His Majesty may when they please consider what good comes to our Kings by their keeping the Pope in this humour of his being their Judge and in letting him enjoy his pretended Rights in France And whether it is not better and a shorter way for France to do its own business without him and to take from him what does not at all belong to him in our Kingdom that we may have no more to do with him The King has been pleas'd to declare That he desir'd to re-unite his Subjects in their Religion This so Christian and Royal Design cannot be executed so long as the Pope shall have any Power in France for this Re-union cannot be made unless the Parties mutually yield some matters either in the Doctrine or in the Discipline 't is certain that the Pope will never consent at least not to be own'd the Vicar of Jesus Christ that has all the Power which Jesus Christ had upon Earth and that on the other hand the Protestants who have quite another Opinion of him and such an one as all know though they make it not an Article of their Faith they can never submit to his Authority But if that France were not govern'd in Spirituals save by the King and his Bishops an half of the way to this great Work were already over it being most certain that most of the Points in difference are not maintain'd by the Theologians vow'd to the Popes Service farther than as they serve his Interests REFLECTIONS UPON THE Fifth Chapter OF THE Politicks of France Which Treats of the HUGUENOTS I Have Treated my Lord the Marquess of C. with all the Respect that was possible for me in my Reflections upon his Chapter of the Clergy I could not do more to comply with him and serve him than by approving his Judgment and confirming it with Authorities adding only what he durst not venture and may be had a mind to say Upon his Chapter of the Huguenots I shall keep my self within the same Respect But I would hope from his Ingenuity that after I have taken some pains in commending and defending the judgment he has made on the Roman Clergy he in recompence would give me the liberty to oppose that which he has given upon those he calls Huguenots and to complain of the Treatment he would have dealt to them But because I take great delight in according with him as far as is possible I embrace the advice he gives at the entrance That a King cannot have a more noble Object of his care than to preserve in his States the Religion he has receiv'd from his Ancestors For though this Proposition be not universally true I will understand it in his Senle supposing that he means the True Christian Religion And 't is that His Majesty he receiv'd of His Ancestors the which I presume he will not limit to two or three Descents of his next Predecessors but as he has drawn from three Stocks the lawful Succession of our last Kings and affirms That they are Branches sprung from the same root he cannot take it ill that we go back to the First and Second Race to find the Religion that His Majesty has receiv'd of his Ancestors Therefore as the Noble Marquess in his Second Chapter speaking of the pretended Exemptions of the Clergy appeals for that matter to the old Kings and Emperors who own'd no such thing and says That the Clergy cannot take it amiss if His Majesty reduce things to their Primitive state In like manner the Marquess cannot take it amiss that Religion be reduc'd to its Primitive state at least to the state it was left in at the time when our Kings were Emperors Now I have shew'd in the foregoing Chapter that the Emperor Charlemaign one of His Majesties Ancestors Convok'd a Synod in which the Worship of Images was condemned and that he himself made a Book against the Second Council of Nice and against Images which we have preserv'd to this day and that under Lewis the Mild his Son another Synod was held at Paris against Images all the Acts of which we have entire This Doctrine is a principal Point of the Religion that our Kings receiv'd from their Ancestors and which we profess And as much may be said in point of the Holy Sacrament of which so much noise is made at this day that we willingly refer our selves to what was believ'd in the times of His Majesties Ancestors I should stray from my Subject should I enter upon Controversie the Marquess obliges me to stand upon another Guard employing his Eloquence in treating us as Rebels and Enemies of the State I am far from justifying the evil Actions of our Party But since we are to deal with Men of such a spirit that display the Evil and suppress the Good
Sorrows into your Bosoms or entertain you with my partcular Afflictions I need no Consolation on that account thinking my self greatly Honour'd that in the publick Affliction of the Church it pleases God to set me the foremost I should account my self very happy if all the Storm might fall on my Head So that I might be the only Sufferer and the Church of God continue in Peace and Prosperity One Care more pressing has mov'd me to write to you and has forc'd Nature which was ever averse from medling with Publick Affairs and acting beyond my Calling For seeing the Church generally in eminent danger and upon the brink of a Precipice it was impossible for me to hold from speaking Nor can I be silent in this urgent necessity without making my self guilty of insensibility and of cruelty towards the Church of God And I hope in speaking my Thoughts about Publick Affairs my Domestick Affliction will deliver me from jealousie in your Opinion And if I be not believ'd at least I may be excus'd I confess indeed it does not become me to give Counsel to an Assembly of Persons chosen out of all the Kingdom to bear the weight of Publick Affairs in a time so full of difficulty but I think it for your advantage to be inform'd rightly what is the Opinion and what the Disposition of our Churches from persons that have a particular knowledge of them The question then being whether you ought to break up your Assembly in Obedience to His Majesty or continue to hold together in order to provide for the Affairs of the Churches I am bound to tell you that it is the general desire of our Churches that it might please God we may continue in peace by obeying His Majesty And that seeing the King resolv'd to make himself obey'd by force of Arms they assure themselves that you will to your power endeavour to avoid this Tempest and rather yield to necessity than engage them in a War that will most certainly ruin the greatest part of our Churches and will plunge us in troubles whereof we well see the beginning but know not at all the end By obeying the King you will take away their pretence who incense his Majesty to persecute us And if we are to be persecuted all they who fear God desire that this may be for the Profession of the Gospel and that our persecution may truly be the Cross of Christ In a word Sirs I can assure you that the greatest and the best part of our Churches desire your Assembly may break up if it can be done with safety to your Persons and even many of the Roman Church love that Publick Peace are continually about us praying and exhorting us that we may not by throwing our selves down the Precipice involve them in our ruin On this occasion I need not represent to you the general consternation of our poor Flocks who cast their Eyes upon you as Persons that may procure their quiet and by yielding to necessity may divert that storm so ready to break upon their heads Many already have forsaken the Conntry many have quitted their Religion from whence you may judge what a distraction there will be should these troubles go on farther Nor need I more recommend to you to have a tender care for the preservation of our poor Churches knowing that you will rather chuse Death than draw upon you the reproach that you have hasten'd on the persecution of the Church and destroy'd that which the zeal of our Fathers had planted and brought this State into confusion I am not ignorant that many Reasons are alledg'd to perswade you to hold on your Assembly As that the King has permitted it but for this permission you have not any Warrant nor any Declaration in Writing without which all Promises are but Words in the Air. For Kings believe they have Power to forbid what they have permitted and to revoke what they have offer'd when they judge it expedient for the good of their Affairs And there is none of you that having sent his Servant any whither or given him leave to go does not think you have power to call him back again Above all Sovereign Princes keep not willingly their Promises when they have been extorted from thâ—m There are also represented to you many Grievances and Controventions to the Kings Edicts which Complaints to our great sorrow are but too true yet without alledging that we our selves have given the occasion of many of these Evils the difficulty lies not in representing our Grievances but in finding redress Consider then whether the continuance of your Assembly may heal these Maladies whether your Session may put our Churches under shelter provide necessaries for a War where the Parties are so unequal Levy Forces and make a Fond for Payment if all the good your Session is capable to produce shall be equivalent to the loss of so many Churches that lye naked and expos'd to the wrath of their Enemies whether when they are beaten down you can raise them again whether in the manifest division that is amongst us you have the power to bring together all the scatter'd parts of this divided Body which were it well united would yet be too weak to maintain it self on the Defensive Pardon me Sirs if I tell you that you will not find all those of our Religion dispos'd to obey your Resolutions and that the fire being kindl'd all about you you will remain feeble Spectators of the ruin that you have made to tumble upon your heads Besides you cannot be ignorant that many amongst us of the best quality and most capable to defend us condemn openly your Actions imagining and expressing that to suffer for this Cause is not to suffer for the Cause of God These making no kind of resistance and opening the Gates of their places and joyning their Arms to those of the King you may easily gather what the loss will be and what a weakning of your Party How many persons of our Nobility will forsake you some by Treachery others through weakness Even they that in an Assembly are the most vehement and that to appear zealous are altogether for violent courses are most commonly those that revolt and that betray their Brethren They hurry our poor Churches into the greatest danger and there leave them and run away after that they have set the House on fire If a Fight or the Siege of a Town should happen whatever might be the event of the Fight or Siege it would prove a difficult thing to contain the People animated against us and to hinder them from falling upon our Churches that have neither Defence or Retreat And whatever Orders the Magistrates of the contrary Religion should give it will be impossible for them to take effect I might also represent to you many Reasons arising from the State of our Churches both within and out of the Kingdom to let you see that this Commotion is altogether ill-tim'd
should be united to the Crown It hath been an ill Policy in France and a Diminution of the King's Authority to communicate unto a Subject so much of His Soveraignty at Sea as hath been done He must resume it to Himself and be every way Supreme alone Then He may appoint a select number whose charge may be to give Him advice of the State of Maritime concerns and hold a Council from time to time upon them in His Majesties Presence if He please to assist These Officers shall in this Council judge of Prizes and other Sea-affairs and when its necessary be Commission'd some of them to visit the Ships and make report or send their acts in Writing concerning them Other Officers for the Marine shall be Military they to execute the King's Orders and have the conduct of Designs and Enterprizes in the usual manner It is important to the King's Service that the Captains of Ships and Gallies be honoured with Dignities and Rewards There may be created Mareschals of France for Armies at Sea as there are for those at Land with the same Honours and Prerogatives The Romans decreed a Triumph for Captains who had been victorious at Sea and called it a Naval Triumph They gave also Naval Crowns as well as Mural and Civical These Honours would eminently promote the King's intention as to the Marine There must be two Arsenals erected One in Provence in some Town upon the Rhosen for what relates to Naval Expeditions on the Mediterranean another upon the River Loire for all occasions on the Ocean By means of these two Rivers it will be easie to bring out to Sea all the Vessels that are builded and all necessary Provisions and Tackling whatever Nor need it be feared that any Enemy should get up these Rivers they too may be shut up by Bridges or by Chains or by Forts His Majesties Power thus strongly setled on each Sea it will be easie to secure Commerce in France and even draw the Merchants thither from all parts I say secure Commerce for till all this be done it will ever be uncertain and dangerous Now 't is unnecessary to expatiate here in proving what profit Commerce brings in to most potent States the thing is generally known and all Men convinc'd of it Again I know not why it hath been said that Trading is contrary to Virtue except it be for that Merchants are incessantly busied in studying inventions to get Money and be in a sort Servants to the Publick The Romans the Thebans and the Spartans admitted not any Citizen of theirs unto the administration of Affairs unless he had for Ten whole years sorborn Merchandizing because they would not have their principal Magistrates accustomed to Gain and expert in the means to do it These kind of inclinations being blameable in persons who being destined to great Employments ought to be above all Considerations of private Interest Commerce in every Common-wealth ought to take its measure from the temper of the People from their strength their wealth the fertility of their Grounds and the situation of their Country Therefore Order must be taken that things traded in be useful and in a manner necessary For it is a rule in Oeconomie that a Man spend not his Money in what is pleasing though he needs it but only in what is absolutely necessary But necessity is stated by the Birth the Dignity and the Estate of Persons as for example noble Furniture is necessary for a great Lord not so for every meaner Gentleman and thus in othes cases proportionably still to the rank and fortune of Men. It must be studiously prevented that Commerce introduce not into a State Superfluity Excess and Luxury which are often followed with Ambition Avarice and a dangerous corruption of Manners And forasmuch as it is not sufficient to Commerce that there be people to Sell but Merchants must be had to buy otherwise no Wares can go off in which all the advantage of Trade doth consist it is meet that Traders furnish themselve with necessaries rather than with things that meerly tend to Ease or Magnificence Among necessaries those make up the first rank which do sustain Life it self the second is of them that are for convenience others are also necessary to preservation from Diseases the injuries of Time and violence of Enemies as Medicinals Dwelling Arms. There is every where a twofold Commerce which is visible in France more than in any other part of the World The First is for things ordinarily found in the Country some of which are spent by the Inhabitants themselves and others transported The Second for Foreign Merchandises We have in France Wines Corn Linnen and Salt in so great a quantity that we send them into the neighbor Kingdoms and the quality of them is so excellent that strangers cannot forbear to come and carry them out of our Ports We have Cattle Skins Wooll Tallow Oils and other things necessary for Man of which Foreiners export very little but our selves do in a manner spend them all and this is the great wealthiness of France that we have enough to serve our turn without Foreign Merchandises but Forreigners cannot do well without ours We receive from other Countries Minerals Pearls Precious Stones Silks Spices and what seems to be matter of Luxury Order should be given that in France the Commodities we have be made use of before any Foreign Merchandises be employed because this Order followed would bring in the people Money and take off their Commodities which would incline every one to fall to the work of his Calling and the whole Kingdom be thereby hugely benefited It hath been a question offer'd to debate Whether Traffique in France should be managed by the Subjects or by Forreigners Many Reasons might be produced in the case upon each hand but to make a short decision 't is evident that Foreigners must be allowed to gain by our Merchandises if we would have them take them off For if we carry them home into their Ports we shall make less sales and be at greater cost than if they came to fetch them Yet that our Merchants may share in the profit they may enter into Partnership with them or be their Commissioners here or freight them themselves provided they sell at somewhat cheaper rates and so be content with moderate gain or take in payment and exchange the Foreign Commodities By means of Commerce as well as by War there may be French Colonies planted abroad and so the dominion of the King extended even to far distant Countries All the Nations of the Earth are intermix'd and may be termed Colonies some of one People some of another Of as many as are known few can be affirmed to be originally of the places they inhabit But to plant Colonies out of danger they must be seated in as much nearness still as is possible For if they be separated at too great a distance it will be difficult to relieve them and perhaps