and against all the Princes of the Blood thereby to possess himself of the Soveraign Power and of the Regality when they should at one blow have destroyed all the Royal Line The premier President Christopher du Thou though in his heart he abhorred so foul an action as that of St. Bartholomew's day and openly disclaimed against it all his life does yet undertake out of a flattery little becoming so great a Magistrate to commend it as the effect of a singular prudence and in his Speech to extol the King who to preserve the Government by suppressing those that would have overthrown it understood so well how to practice that excellent Rule of Lewis the Eleventh who was used to say He that knows not how to dissemble knows nothing of the art of Governing And the better to prove this Plot which gained but little faith then and that no body believes now they proceeded against old Briquemaud Marshal du Camp to the Princes Army against Caragnes Chancellor to the party and against the dead Admiral They were all three hanged the last in Effigy by something made up like him with a tooth-pick in his mouth as he was almost always used to have and the two others in person before the King and the Queen who would needs see the Execution out of the Town-house window They thought by this likewise to perswade the Princes whom they had a mind to draw over from that Party by making them believe That they had engaged with those who were their greatest enemies and the most profligate of all men What do you think says our Friend after he had read all this long story out of Monsieur Maimbourg what do you think of the enemies of the French Protestants and their dealings I assured him I was extreamly surprised and that out of respect to the quality of those that acted I durst not tell him all I thought But I heartily thank Monsieur Maimbourg for letting the World know that this pretended hellish Conspiracy charged upon the Huguenots to take away their good Name after they had taken away their Lives was but a shameful Story raised by a devilish malice to excuse a hellish action and for so freely censuring the meaness of the Premier President Christopher du Thou who was so base to commend that in publick which he abhorred in private and to countenance such a Story against the Dictates of his own Conscience All the World may by this easily discern the Spirit of Popery It is a Spirit of Murder and Lying It causes the shedding Rivers of Blood and it invents Lies to colour its Murders and to commit fresh ones by which Briguemaud and Cavagnes were hanged This is to say much in a few words says our Friend And if Monsieur Maimbourg had been constantly so ingenuous as he is upon this occasion his Book would be no Libel but a true and righteous defence of the Protestants Innocence All those dreadful things which he there alledges against them are the stamp of the same Spirit which vouches a Conspiracy to justifie the Massacre Neither was it harder for him to be assured of that than to satisfie himself that this last report was a meer Story This Story was as he says himself the first means his Church thought fit to use for the conversion of the young King of Navarre who was afterwards Henry the Great and the young Prince of Condè to the Roman Religion They likewise believed says he that this meaning the false rumour of a hellish Conspiracy against all the Royal Line would help towards the Conversion of the Princes by making them believe they were engaged with those that were their greatest enemies and the worst of Men. An excellent way of converting truly And becoming the Christian Religion I will now read to you what account Monsieur Maimbourg gives of Charles the Ninth's proceedings in the accomplishment of this excellent Work after as Christian a manner as it had been begun Whilst they were Massacring the Huguenots in the Louvre and all over Paris the King sent for those Princes into his Closet where after he had in short given them the reason of this bloody Proceeding of which they themselves had seen some part and which was yet in execution he tells them with a stern countenance imperious and threatning according to his custom that being resolved no longer to suffer in his Kingdom so wicked a Religion which teaches its Followers to revolt and even to conspire against the Person of their Sovereign he expected they should presently renounce this cursed Sect and that they should embrace the Faith which was always professed by the most Christian Kings from whom they had the honor to be descended and that if they refused to comply with him in this he would use them just as they had seen them used whose Rebellion and Impiety they had hitherto been directed by To this the King of Navarre answered with all respect that he was no ways obstinate but was ready to submit to instruction and sincerely to embrace the Catholick Religion when he should be convinced of the truth of it which as yet he was ignorant of The Prince of Condè answered That his Majesty whose Subject he was might dispose of his Life and Fortune as he pleased but not of his Religion for which he was accountable to God alone of whom he held it This answer given to a fierce and hasty Master put him into so great a rage that falling into hard words calling him ever and anon Seditious Mad-man Rebel and Son of a Rebel he swore by God that if he did not comply in that little time which he should give him he would have his life Nay more not being able to endure to see that in spight of all their endeavors to convert him this Prince should still continue unmoveable he drew his Sword and vowed he would destroy all the rest of the Huguenots that persisted in their Heresie beginning presently with the Prince of Condè And it was with much ado that the young Queen prevailed with him to lay by his Sword casting herself at his feet to entreat him with hands lifted up and tears in her eyes but to forbear a little while He yielded but at the same time making the Prince be brought before him he cast two or three thundring looks at him without saying any more than these three words to him in a threatning and frightful tone Mass Death or the Bastile and so turning away he dismissed him This wrought so strongly upon the Mind of the poor Prince and so terrified him that he solemnly abjured Calvinism in the presence of his Uncle the Cardinal of Bourbon as had done before him the King of Navarre the Lady Catharine his Sister and the Princess of Condè You see what were the motives that converted the Princes And this detestable Massacre was the introduction of the fourth War upon the Protestants as Mezeray
innocency under Lewis the Thirteenth SIR I Was no sooner come to our Friends Chamber and that we were sate down but we fell to our business I am very well satisfied says I to him in all that you have told me hitherto in behalf of the French Protestants and I am convinced That till the Reign of their King Lewis XIII they cannot justly charge them with any Plot or Rebellion against their Kings If at any time they have taken up Arms it was always to secure the Crown to their lawful Prinâ—es against the ambitious designs of the House of Guise and under the Authority of the first Princes of the Blood who had a natural Right to oppose the Usurpation these Strangers would have made who making an ill use of the Simplicity Minority and Weakness of the Kings Francis the Second Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third had taken the Scepter out of their hands or at least would have deprived their Rightful Successors of it had not the Protestants given Succour with their utmost Force the great Prince of Condè first and afterwards the King of Navarre Therefore to say the truth they armed only in their Kings Quarrel and especially to secure to France the Illustrious House of Bourbon which sits on that Throne at present After all it is clear That hitherto they cannot question their Loyalty or their Innocence but through the heart of Henry the Great by blasting his Memory and disgracing his Crown and all his Posterity But I must confess to you That I am to seek how well to defend them against the Reproaches for their several Insurrections under the Reign of Lewis the Thirteenth For in the Year 1615 they joined with the Prince of Conde against their King which had like to have set the whole Nation in a Flame In the Year 1620 they sided with the Queen-Mother who raised Forces against the King her Son In the Years 1621 and 1622 they gave the occasion by the Meeting they held at Rochel contrary to the King 's express Command of a most bloody War in which many of their Garisons were Besieged Taken and Sacked In the Year 1525 they carried away their King's Ships from Blavet they seized upon the Island of Oleron they had divers Battels Lastly in the Years 1627 and 1628 they gave fresh disturbances under the Command of the Duke of Rohan and Rochel Revolted from its Allegiance to that degree of obstinacy that nothing but the utmost extremity of Famine could make them open their Gates These several Insurrections which are continually objected against them gives occasion to their Enemies to cry them down at Court amongst the Nobility and indeed all over the Nation as a restless sort of people active and dangerous whose Religion inspires them with a Spirit of Sedition and Back-sliding pernicious to Monarchs and Monarchies Therefore pray Instruct me what I may answer in their Justification and Defence I know not says our Friend whether you are in jest or earnest but for my part I find nothing more easie than to satisfie any reasonable Persoâ— in this point 1. â—tis is a hundred and sixty Years since there have been Protestants in France For by the Confession of Monsieur Maimbourg himself the Reformation begun to be settled ever since the Year 1522. And all the World agrees That from this Year to the Death of Henry the Second who was killed with a Lance by Montgomery in the Year 1559 which was about 37 Years after the Protestants continued all along exactly Loyal anâ— in the deepest Veneration for their Kings Monsieur Maimbourg indeed disputes the thirty Years under the Reigns of Francis the Second Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third but I have confuted all his Calumnies in this particular and you have allowed the strength of my Arguments for clearing the Protestants during these three Reigns so that here are 67 Years of Allegiance and Loyalty Neither have they any thing to say against them upon this account for the one and twenty Years that Henry the Fourth Reigned or for the four first Years of Lewis the Thirteenth no more than for the 54 Years that passed between the Year 1629 at what time all the Wars about Religion ceased and this present time 1682 when they are persecuted with the utmost Rigour So that for a hundred and sixty Years that the Protestants have been in France there are but fourteen in which they have any thing to object against them that is from their uniting with the Prince of Condè in the Year 1615 to the general Peace concluded in the Month of Iuly 1629. And of these fourteen Years we must deduct seven which are the Years 1616 1617 1618 1619 1623 1624 and 1626. in which there were no Civil Wars Thus when all is cast up and due Deduction made allow the worst that can be there are but seven Years which they can reproach them with And suppose it true that the Protestants during these seven Years should have forgot themselves so far as to have come short of their duty towards their Sovereign is it just to infer from thence That the Principles they go by proceed from a Spirit of Sedition and Rebellion Is there any proportion between seven Years misbehaviour and uneasiness and above a hundred and fiâ—ty Years Duty and Loyalty such Duty and Loyalty as have undergone the greatest proofs And since they have testified twenty times more Zeal and Constancy for the service of their Kings than they have shewed Disobedience and Opposition to their Orders does not Reason and Justice plainly oblige us to conclude from thence That they are animated by a spirit of Loyalty and Obedience It must be confessed That their Loyalty which stood firm for more than fourscore Years was shaken to some degree for the space of seven Years But he that swounds away is not dead The Sun goes not out when it is â—clipsed And the Loyalty of the Protestants is so well recovered from its fainting Fit that it is more than half an Age that we find it resisting all manner of Provocations and ill usage without yielding in the least This long and constant perseverance of the Protestants in their duty is that we ought to have regard to if we would be just in taking the true Character of their Spirit and not the infirmity of a hasty and short-lived transport This ought to be enough to satisfie all reasonable Men and yet it is not all that can be said in behalf of these poor persecuted people 2. It is a great matter Sir that they can with no Justice impute those Insurrections you spake of to the whole Body of the French Protestants For First There was an infinite number of them not in the least concerned Secondly they that were the Ring-Leaders were only Protestants in Name but really men only of this World Ambitious or Covetous who only made use of Religion for a Mask to hide their wicked purposes and
of our blessed Martyr King Charles the first Their famous Amyraldus likewise took occasion from the Martyrdom of our good King to Print an excellent Discourse of the Power of Kings where by the strongest Arguments taken out of the Word of God he proves beyond dispute That the Majesty and Person of Sovereign Princes ought at all times to be Sacred to all their Subjects We have likewise to the same purpose the Letter of their learned Bochart to Doctor Morley then Chaplain to His Majesty and now most deservedly Bishop of Winchester You may see there how this excellent person defends the Rights of all Crowned Heads He takes in there in the Compass of a few Pages the strongest things that can be said The force of all this is that the performance of these Protestants has exactly answered their Confession of Faith the Prayers of their Liturgy and what their Doctors have taught as often as there was occasion for it They have been always the first in assisting their Kings when there was need with their Lives and Fortunes Every Body knows how many mischiefs the Queen Catharine de Medicis did them Yet when the Guises had seized the person of Charles the Ninth who had nothing but Tears to oppose their violence as Mezeray well observes and that the Queen finding her self under the same streights with the young King had called for help upon the Prince of Condè and his Friends the Protestants came in from all parts and ventured all they had to set their Majesties at Liberty It is a remarkable Story Mezeray does all he can to diâ—guise the matter but so known a Truth could not but extort this confession from him The Queen writ two Letters the same day to the Prince full of pitty and good words recommending to him the safety of the Kingdom beseeching him to take compassion of the innocent tears of his King who was held captive by his own Subjects and that he would generously attempt his rescue aâ—suring him that he should be maintained in whatever he should do The same Historian confesses in his Chronological Abridgement That by these Letters the Queen who was then Regent gave to the Prince who was then a Protestant a just ground to take up Arms which he did so soon as he received the Order Then flew in like lightning to the assistance of the King and Queen the same Protestants that with so much rigour and violence had been persecuted by them He sent presently says Mâ—zeray to the Reformed Churches especially to those upon the River Loire to Bourges Poitiers and others more remote ordering them immediately to seize all the Passes and that for his part he was resolved to expose his person and all that was in his power to make good the Kings Commands and Revenge the injury done to his Majesty You have here Sir the true Cause of these Proteâ—â—ants first taking up Arms and as you see it was upon a glorious account For it was in short to succour their King whom stranger-Princes who aimed at his Crown as it appeared at last held Captive Besides all here was lawful They take not up Arms but by order of the Regent who promises the Head of the Protestants That he should be justified in all he did And she made her word good to him however the great credit his enemies had and the Queens inconstancy had for some time run down the credit of this glorious Action with the people For the King gave an authentick testimony of the Innocence and Loyalty of the Prince and his Friends upon this occasion It is by the solâ—mn Edict of 1563. where the King says That the sincere and true intent of our said Cousin the Prince of Conde may not be doubted we have said and declared and do say and declare That we esteem this our said Cousin as our good Kinsman faithful Subject and Servant as likewise We hold all those Lords Knights Gentlemen and other Inhabitants of Towns Communalties Boroughs and other Places of our Kingdoms and Countries of our Dominion that have followed assisted aided and accompanied him in this present War and during the said Tumults in what part or place soever of our Kingdom for our Good and Loyal Subjects and Servants believing and esteeming what was done before this by our sâ—id Subjects as well in regard of the taking up of Arms as the Articles of Justice agreed among them and the Judgments and Executions of the same was done with a good Intent and for our Service Henry the Third was their mortal Enemy He was the chief Author of that detestible Massacre where by the confession of the Bishop of Rhodes himself near a hundred thousand Protestants had their throats cut And yet all this did not hinder them from coming in to his assistance so soon as ever they saw his Crown and Life in danger They forgot that he had been their Persâ—cutor and remembred only that he was their King And all Europe knows that without their aid he had been lost He was shut up in Tours hard pressed by the Army of the Ligue which consisted as every one knows all of Roman Catholicks Already three parts in four of his party and those of the bravest as Mezeray assures us were slain and the Duke of Mayenne General of this Army of Parricides had made himself master of the Suburb when the Protestant recruits came This brave Captain says Mezeray speaking of Chastillon lodged his Men in the Isle in despite of their continual Firing upon him from every part of the Suburb and made them work so hard that they had covered themselves in less than two hours The Liguers so soon as they had discovered them and knew him by his face did well to cry To your Quarters White Scarfs this is none of your quarrel brave Chastillon we have no design against thee retreat it is against him that Murdred thy Father let us but alone and we will revenge his death adding several reproaches against the King more insolent than commonly upon such occasion Souldiers use to do Chastillon answered That he they spake so ill of was their King that it was for women to rail and that he would see the next day whether they were as good at fighting as they were at scolding But the Duke of Mayenne fearing to stand the shock of the Protestant Troops considering as Mezeray says That it might not be safe to encounter with old Souldiers that had been used to blows he quits all his advantages and marches silently away at three a clock in the morning Thus was Tours relieved and Henry the Third saved by the same Protestants to whom he had done so much mischief And by this the Protestants preserved the Crown to the Family of Bourbon fâ—om which it had been gone past recovery if Tours had been taken For indeed they that laid the siege and intended to dethrone their King were heads of that powerful Faction which as
little of Christianity She was an ambitious Queen who by a wicked Policy would govern at any rate even to the sacrificing Religion it self She did not deal faithfully with the Huguenots when she made the Peace with them Her only design was to deceive them It was she that put the King upon that barbarous resolution which was executed upon that bloody and accursed day of St. Bartholomew He sets out Charles the Ninth as a Son worthy of such a Mother This Prince was of an impetuous humour Cholerick Revengeful and very Cruel which proceeded from his dark Melancholy temper and from his wicked Education He was so good a Proficient in what his Mother taught him who was a Woman the best skilled of any in her time in the Art of Dissimulation and deceiving people that he made it appear he had outdone her in her own Craft What was it he did not do for two years together to deceive the poor Admiral He expressed the greatest value and love for him imaginable Embraced him kissed him called him his Father And yet so soon as ever they advised him to dispatch him out of hand He stood up in the greatest rage and swore by God according to his wicked custom Ay I will have him dispatched nay I will have all the Huguenots destroyed that not a man remain to reproach me hereafter with his death They hung the Body of the Admiral by the heels upon the Gibbet of Mount-Faucon lighting a Fire underneath to make him a more frightful spectacle It was so miserable a sight that Charles the King would needs see his Enemy thus dead which certainly was an act altogether unworthy I will not say of a King but of a man of any Birth to such a degree had this Spirit of hatred revenge and cruelty which he had learn'd of his Mother prevailed upon him As for Henry the Third another mortal Enemy to the Protestants Monsieur Maimbourg sets him out as the falsest and most unnatural of Mankind The Sieur Aubery du Maurier says he tells us in the Preface of his Memoirs that he has heard his Father say that he had it from the mouth of Monsieur de Vellievre that at the same time he shewed large Instructions to oblige him earnestly to intercede for the Life of Mary Queen of Scots he had private ones quite contrary from the hand of Henry the Third to advise Queen Elizabeth to put to death that common Enemy to their Persons and Kingdoms And could there be a stranger cruelty than what he makes this Prince guilty of when as yet he was only Duke d'Anjou The Prince of Condè after he had defended himself a long time most bravely at the Battle of Iarnac was forced at last to yield up himself Two Gentlemen received his Sword with all manner of respect But the Baron of Montesquiou Captain of Monsier's Swiss Guards being come up whil'st this was doing and finding by them that it was the Prince of Condè Kill him kill him says he and with a great Oath discharged his Pistol at his Head and shot him dead at the stump of a Tree where he leant It was an action doubtless no ways to be excused especially in a French Man who ought to have had respect and spared the Royal Blood had it been in the heat of the Battle much more in cold Blood They say this was done by the express command of the Duke d'Anjou He says of the Duke of Montpensier an irreconcilable enemy to the Huguenots that he would give them no Quarter that he always talked of hanging them that all he took prisoners he put to death presently without mercy that he said to that brave and wise la Noüe who came to surrender himself Prisoner of War My Friend you are a Huguenot your Sentence is passed Prepare for death that the day of the Massacre this bigotted Catholick went through the Streets with the Marshal de Tavannes encouraging the People that were but too forward of themselves and provoking them to fall upon every body and spare none He makes the Cardinal of Lorrain that great Champion for Popery to be Author of a sordid and cruel proceeding He says of the Duke of Guise whom the Catholicks looked upon as the invincible Defender of their Faith that indeed he did service to the Religion but that he likewise made it serve his turn and to invest him with that almost Regal Power which in the end prov'd so fatal to him Now a Subject that makes Religion a step to mount him into his Princes Throne and take away his Crown can he be otherwise esteemed than as a prophane and wicked man Speaking of the Ligue which as he says had for the chief Actors Philip the Second Queen Katharine and the Duke of Guise the great supporters of the Pope That it had like to have destroyed Church and State at once and that the greatest part of those that ran headlong in with that heat and passion and chiefly the People the Clergy and the Fryars were but the stales of such as made up this Cabal where Ambition Revenge and Interest took more place than Religion which was used but for a shew to cheat the World At last he represents the Court of Charles the Ninth which had been that of Francis the Second and was afterwards that of Henry the Third as a pack of Miscreants and Atheists The Court says he was at that time very corrupt where there was no difference hardly between a Catholick and a Huguenot but that the one went not to Mass nor the other to Sermon As for any thing else they agreed well enough for as much as the one and the other at least generally speaking had no Religion at all profane without the fear of God And yet it was from this Court as from a deadly Spring that flowed all the Persecutions which the Protestants suffered under the Reigns of three of their Kings And Monsieur Maimbourg is very pleasant when he makes it up of Huguenots as well as Papists All the World knows that the Huguenots were banished from the Court of Charles the Ninth so that all he says of this Court can light upon none but the Papists who alone were admitted at that time You are in the right says our Friend and it will do well to finish the draught Monsieur Maimbourg has given us of this Court that I read to you what the Bishop of Rhodes writes of it in his History of Henry the Fourth There never was one more vitious and corrupt Wickedness Atheism Magick the most enormous uncleanness the fowlest treacheries perfidiousness poysoning and murder predominated to the highest pitch But I beseech you Sir says he tell me what you would infer from these words of Monsieur Maimbourg that gives such Encomium's to the same Protestants whom he would seem at the same time to cry down with all
the matter he commends the Prince his generosity and said He was likewise ready to justifie his Innocence though privately he took care to have him apprehended In good earnest Monsieur Maimbourg's Morals must be strangely depraved since he is no longer a Jesuit not to find any fault in a Prince guilty of so prosligate a Dissimulation and notorious Treachery And does he think if Lewis the Fourteenth ever comes to open his eyes he will think himself obliged to those that would make such a Man pass for a truly Christian Hâ—ro who has done his utmost to disappoint him of the Crown by taking it from his Ancestors and endeavoring to cut off the Illustrious Race of the Bourbon's If an â—nglishman should Canonize Cromwell and place him among the Hero's Can you imagine he should be well received at Court or that the King should repose any great confidence in his Loyalty Monsieur Maimbourg must know that the Prince of Condè being what he was could not look upon this pretended Hero otherwise than as a Monster He was obliged by the duty of his Relation his Honor Loyalty and all that was becoming a Great Mind with all his might to set himself against those wicked Designs which he saw the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain had so plainly layed Would you have had him stood with his hands in his pockets when he discovered so great danger and suffer Strangers to ruine the State and take the Crown away from his Family with a high hand 7. These Usurpers had laid their business so well and were become so absolute Masters of the Person the Mind the Authority and the whole Power of the young King that it was impossible to carry any Address to the King unless by their means and to do any thing against them to bring them to Justice but as one may say in the Kings presence who was continually in their hands and by consequence to redress a mischief that so absolutely required a remedy without resolving upon some great and extraordinary attempt Either therefore the Prince of Condè must have done what he did or else have suffered the Throne to be usurped and the Royal Family sacrificed contrary to that duty he owed to France to his King to Himself and to his whole Race If Monsieur Maimbourg will have it that the Prince of Condè should have let the Guises go on his King ought to look upon him as his mortal Enemy If he believes he did his duty let him retract and be ashamed of those unadvised words That he would have taken the Kings Lodgings by force as Affairs then stood to seize in his presence upon his chief Ministers was to attack the King himself and to seek to make himself master of his Person and Government In the condition matters were then it was the only humane means left to rescue the young King from slavery to give a stop to the Outrages of a Forain domineering Power or rather Tyranny and to preserve the Crown to its right Heirs If God was not pleased in his All-wise providence to give so good success to the attempt as was hoped it failed not nevertheless of doing some good It gave a check to the wicked designs of the Guises and made them sensible that whil'st they had to do with men of that Courage they should not purchase the Kingdom at so cheap a rate as they thought for Besides I must not conceal it from you that the Protestants were not the only Men that Lifted themselves under the Prince of Condè for this important Service to their Country and to the Royal Family several Roman Catholicks shared with them in the glory of this Attempt The famous Mezeray has published it to all the World So that Monsieur Maimbourg is 〈◊〉 out when he would make it a quarrel upon Religion And much 〈◊〉 unjustly is he mistaken when he offers to say that at the business of Amboise The Huguenots entred into a horrible Conspiracy against their King I am satisfied says I to our Friend and I am confident every honest man that knows as much as you have told me of this matter will look upon this Jesuits Imputation with amazement and detestation Pray give me an account now of the business of Meaux The French Protestants repâ—yed he are no less innocent of Conspiracy against their King in the business of Meaux than they were in that of Amboise The testimony of the eminent Cardinal d'Ossat is an invincible Defence to them in this Affair and puts them beyond the reach of Calumny But I suppose you would be throughly informed of this matter I will do it in as few words as possibly I can And I will take the account partly from Monsieur Maimbourg himselff partly from two other Popish Historians who have much a greater esteem in the World than he it is the famous President de Thou and Mezeray We will take it from the beginning You have not forgot what I told you at our former Meeting when I gave you an account of the first War the Prince of Condè was forced to make for rescuing the King at the earnest intreaty of the Queen-mother then Regent I shall not need to take off a thousand odious Reflections which Monsieur Maimbourg lays upon the French Protestants in relation to this War They are either the faults of some private persons who having acted contrary to the principles of the Reformed Religion were disowned by all sincere Protestants or false Suggestions which the solemn Edict of Charles the Ninth in the Year 1563. has sufficiently confuted the King there owning as done for his Service all that the Prince of Condè and his Friends had done in this first taking up of Arms. This noted Edict Ordains That the Protestant Religion should be publickly exercised in several parts of the Kingdom which the Edict names it puts all the French Protestants under the protection of their King in what part of France soever they should make their abode it Wills That every one of them when they come home should be maintained and secured in their Goods Honors Estates Charges Offices c. The Prince and the Protestants observed the Articles of the Treaty of Peace most exactly Monsieur Maimbourg tells us himself That all the places which the Huguenots held submitted to the King Nay we English have occasion to complain of their too great exactness in this point For they were the hottest in taking Havre de Grace from us which we had possessed our selves of only to give them succor against their Persecutors All their great Souldiers came against us to the Siege of this Town The Prince of Condè lodged all the while in the Trenches All the French says Mezeray went thither in great fury especially the Huguenots But their Adversaries dealt not so with them they broke the Edict every where in a shamful and barbarous manner This Illustrious Queen
directed by the Laws and Customs of the Country Had the business succeeded it had been easie for the Prince and his Friends to have excused to the King this indecent Violence and justified by the event of the sincerity of their Intentions in the same manner as by the event it proved that when Charles the Seventh whil'st he was Dauphin took up Arms it was neither against the King his Father nor against the Kingdom which was the Example that was brought to resolve the scruples of some of the Prince's Friends who were afraid of the odious Reflections which might be made upon the attempt at Meaux how necessary or innocent soever it might be in it self And Monsieur de Thou who gives us an account of this particular tells us likewise that the design the Prince and his Friends had in arming themselves was to drive from the Helm the Enemies of the publick Peace to undeceive the young King and to settle all things quiet in his Kingdom But I ought to read you the whole Passage since it is in my hand Objiciebatur Cardinalem semper Regi ejusdem c. It was objected that the Cardinal always beset the King and that the Swisses were continually about him whom if they should attack in these Circumstances they would not seem to assault the Cardinal and the Swisses but the King himself This must no doubt draw the utmost envy of all men upon them but the King whose favour they should seek would never forgive them To this d' Andelot who was almost always for the warmest Counsel answered That the intention of the Protestants would be judged by the event as formerly Charles the Seventh when he was yet but Dauphin made it appear to all the World by the conclusion of the War that he fought neither against his Father nor his King Nor indeed could any one imagine that a Body made up of French should conspire their Kings ruine For though we have an account of the Conspiracies of some single persons an universal revolt was never yet heard of But if fortune should favour their first attempts there would be an end of a fatal War which being crush'd at the beginning the enemies of our common repose might be removed from the Government and the King of whom being better informed of things a confirmation of the Edicts might be obtained and a firm peace setled in the Kingdom Here is enough to convince all the World of the Insolence and Malice of Monsieur Maimbourg in treating the renowned Grandfather of the present Prince of Condè so rudely in an attempt which as it had nothing in it contrary either to the Principles of Christian Religion or good Politicks was doubtless every way glorious and deserves the highest commendations The Prince appeared in this a true Hero He comes to the succor of his King and Country and all the honest part of the Kingdom and with five or six hundred men he attempts to cut off the six thousand Swisses who were to be the Tools and Bulwork of a Forain Tyranny He had not failed of success had not the contrivances of the Queen who then favored the enemies of the State disappointed him of the Conquest But God was not yet pleased to give repose to France The King retreats from Meaux to Paris against the advice of the wisest of his Councel And the Prince to hinder the utter ruine of a Party that was the only check to the wicked designs of the House of Lorrain found himself obliged to raise a small Army to give Battle at St. Dennis to besiege and to take several Towns But the deep respect he had for his King made him and all his party lay down their Arms at a time when he was just ready to take the Town of Chartres and to have reduced all the enemies of the State So soon as ever they proposed any safety for his Person and for the security of his faithful Protestants who were the only true Supports of the Crown against the ambition of the Guises he immediately quitted all his Advantages and accepted of the Peace which was offered him This was the substance of the Articles says Mezeray That they should fully and peaceably enjoy the Edict of Ianuary without any Qualification or Restriction whatever That they should be put and maintained under the Kings protection as to their Estates Honor and Priviledges That the King would esteem the Prince for his good Kinsman and his loyal Subject and Servant and all those that followed him for good and loyal Subjects You see now what this business of Meaux was with the Consequences of it that Monsieur Maimbourg has made such ado about so as to make it pass with the affair of Amboise for horrible Conspiracies which the Huguenots have contrived against the Kings of France To hinder the Princes of the House of Guise from usurping the Crown of the French Kings and taking it from Lewis the Fourteenth in the person of his Predecessors and destroying the whole Race of the Bourbons must pass according to this man for contriving horrible Conspiracies against the Kings of France Thus It is that he courts his Hero and complements the present Prince of Condè But what does he mean said I to our Friend when he says moreover Not to speak of their cruel Rebellions that have cost France so much blood and the mischievous intelligences they have held with the enemy to rid themselves of the Monarchy and with open face set up a Commonwealth as they have done more than once Our Friend answered me That since he distinguishes this from the pretended Conspiracies of Amboise and Meaux he must by the Rebellions and Plots he Imputes to these Protestants needs mean the other Troubles that happened after these two first to the Reign of Henry the Great and those that were revived in the beginning of the Reign of Lewis the 13th Indeed he accuses them upon this account that contrary to the Treaty they had made the Protestants refused to surrender to the King Sancerre Montauban Milhaud Cahors Albi and Castres but especially Rochel the Rebellion of which Town says he openly maintained by the Heads of the Huguenot party who were resolved to make it their chief place of strength was the true ground of the breach because it would not admit the Garrison which the King would have put in there but received several of the chief Leaders of the Huguenots went on with the Fortifications and gave the Court reason to believe that the Prince and the Admiral were preparing for a War Upon which it was resolved to surprise them and carry them away The Marshal de Tavannes a great Friend to the House of Guise and Confident of Queen Catharine undertook to do the thing whil'st the Prince was at his house called Noyers in Bourgoyne But the matter being discovered just as it was to be executed the Prince made his escape to
says As to the Fact our Jesuite Jesuite as he is notwithstanding condemns it Neither has he the Heart to charge the Huguenots with these new troubles The King raised several Armies to extirpate those that had escaped the Massacre They layed the two so much talked of Sieges of Rochel and Sanvane which were raised at the arrival of the Polish Embassadors come to seek for the Duke of Anjou elected King of that Kingdom whither he went Charles the Ninth falls very ill The Prince of Condé flies into Germany and returns again to the Protestant Communion The King dies after a thousand remorses of Conscience upon the account of St. Bartholomew's Massacre For we are told That oftentimes he fancied that he saw a Sea of Blood flowing before his Eyes and that they should hear him from time to time cry out Ah! my poor Subjects what have ye done to me They forced me to it Then though too late he acknowledg'd that it was not the Protestants as the Jesuite Maimbourg so maliciously reports but the Montmorency's and the Guises who had been the real Authors of all the Troubles He had owned says Mezeray That the Houses of Montmorency and Guise were the true causes of the Civil Wars The King of Poland who was afterwards called Henry the Third returns into France and succeeds Charles the Ninth The Protestants apply to him for Peace and at the same time That Atheism and Blasphemy may be exemplarily punished and that the Ordinances against enormous and lewd Whoring which drew down the Wrath of God upon France might be execuâ—â—â— â—ut says Mezeray this untoward reproof made the Huguenots mere haâ—ed at Court than did all their Insurrections and Heresies They had no fruit 〈◊〉 their demands they would not be hearkned to The War was kept up every where The Duke of Alanzon presumptive Heir to the Crown retired from Court and headed the Protestants The King of Navarre likewise withdrew four Months after Their conjunction with the Prince of Condè who had raised a considerable Army obliges the Court at last to agree to Peace which they had so long desired The Edict was prepared and verified the 15th of May 1576. It allowed the Protestants the free exercise of their Religion which from that time forwards was to be called The Pretendded Reformed Religion It allowed them Church-yards and made them capable of all Offices both in the Colledges Hospitals c. forbid farther enquiry after Priests and Fryars that were married declared their Children Legitimate and capable of Succâ—ssion c. expressed a deep resentment of the Slaughters upon St. Bartholomew's day exempted the Children of those that had been killed from the Duty of the Militia if they were Gentlemen and from Taxes if Yeomen repealed all the Acts which had condemned the Admiral Briquemaud Cavagnes Montgommery Montbrun and others of the Religion owned the Prince and D' Amville for his good Subjects Casimir for his Allie and Neighbor and owned all they had done as done for his Service gave to those of the Religion for their better security of Justice the Chambres my parties in each Parliament or Court of Justice c. But all this was only for a new decoy to catch the Huguenots Mezeray observes that so soon as they had got the Duke of Alanzon from them they began afresh to contrive their ruine And then it was that terrible League broke out which under pretence of extirpating the Protestants set the whole Kingdom in a flame All the Historians agree that it was the pernicious cause of all the Wars that were made against the Huguenots during the Reign of Henry the Third and that had like to have laid France waste Wherefore to justifie the innocence of the Protestants during all these troubles we need only observe the measures and designs of the League which was the cause of them I will keep to what Monsieur Maimbourg says He is thus far ingenuous This League says he had like to have overthrown both Church and State The most of those that went into it or rather run headlong and blindfold with so much heat and passion and especially the common people the Clergy and the Fryars were but stales to those that composed the Cabal where Ambition Malice and Self-Interest had more share than Religion which in all probability was brought in for no other end but to châ—at the World These were the King of Spain Queen Catharine and the Duke of Guise who cast up their Accounts together though upon very different reasons yet such as agreed all against the State the Duke to make himself head of a Party which after the expiration of the Valois might advance him to yet a higher pitch the Queen that she might have a pretence to bring in her Grandchild Henry Son to Charles Duke of Lorrain instead of the lawful Successor to the Crown the King of Navarre her Son-in-Law whom she cared not for and the Spaniard to take advantage of the division the League would cause among the French to make them ruine one another and afterwards become their Master This League divided the Catholicks who took Arms one against anther the one to sâ—cure Religion as they said the other to defend the Royal Authority and the Fundamental Law of the Land which they designed to overthrow It obliged the King for prevention of the dangerous Conspiraciâ—s of the Leaguers to come to a difficult extreme and to join his Forces with those of the Huguenot Party to reduce the Catholick Rebels to their Duty It stirred up terrible Commotions all over the Kingdom This cursed League was made in opposition to the Royal Authority under the fair pretence of Religion It had a fowl beginning though contrary to the common apprehension of those who know not how to fift into the bottom of it It s procedure was abominable being neither more nor less but almost a continued attempt against the Government of a King who was at least as good a Catholick as they that headed the League In conclusion that the rise and design of the League extended to the Subversion of the Royal Family I shall not need to give an exact account here of all the steps the Contrivers of this violent Conspiracy took since the holding of the Estates at Blois in the year 1576. Where as the Bishop of Rhodes says The King Henry the Third was forced to declare himself Head of the League whereby from a Soveraign he became head of a Faction and Enemy to a part of his Subjects down to the year 1589. when they caused this unfortunate Prince to be stabbed by Iaques Clement the Fryar It is enough to understand that by the confession of Monsieur Maimbourg himsâ—lf the Duke of Guise and his Complices did not put Henry the Third upon persecuting the Protestants with that heat and violence for any other end but by the
Roman Religion in their Dominions Might he not very justly say to the Huguenots says he speaking to the King of France either see that these Princes allow the free exercise of my Religion with them or do not think to have the free exercise of yours and theirs in France If it be expected that we should consider the Edicts which have been here made in your behalf let them shew then the like favour to the Catholicks Monsieur Maimbourg calls this a powerful argument which overthrows the Huguenots But as to that I remit him to the Author of the Critique General of his History He will there find his dream entertained as it deserves It is sufficient for my purpose to let you see that what the Author of the Policy of the Clergy urges to prove that the Papists upon account of the principles of their Religion are always to be feared in Protestant States is no Poor groundlâ—ss evasion as Monsieur Maimbourg would have us believe And that you may be the better judge of it give me leave to read all that this exellent Author has writ upon the Subject I am confident after you have heard it read you will not less wonder then I do at the confidence of the Jesuite who never appears more positive then where he has least reason So then our friend read to me this following discourse Hugonot Princes cannot allow the same toleration to Catholicks in their States that Catholick Princes can allow to Hugonots because Protestant Princes cannot be assured of the fidelity of their Catholick Subjects by reason they have taken Oaths of fidelity to another Prince whom they look upon as greater than all Kings It is the Pope and this Prince is a sworn â—nemy of the Protestants He obliges the People to believe that a Soveraign turned Heretick has forfeited all the Rights of Soveraignty that they owe him no Obedience that they may with impunity revolt from him that they may fall upon him as an Enemy of the Christian Name even to assassinate him See the Iesuits Morals cap. 3. Book the third And thereupon he cited to me Mariana Carolus Scribanus Ribadinera Tolet Gretser Hereau Amicus Lesâ—ius Valentia Dicatillus and several others that are cited by the Iansenists in the Book of the Jâ—suits Morals and by the Ministers All these Authors said he to me teach conformably to the Divinity of Rome that a Heretick Prince and Excommunicated by the Pope is but a private person against whom Arms may be taken that he may be likewise Assassinated or poysoned He added to this the examples of the many Parricides that have been committed or attempted in pursuance of these Maxims How many times said he would they have Assassinated Queen Elizabeth Prince William of Orange was twice Assassinated and lost his Life the Second time Henry the Third was not he killed by a Iacobin as Excommunicated by the Pope and stript of the Royal Dignity Iohn Chastel did not he attempt the same thing upon Henry the Fourth And did not Ravilliac out of a false Zeal Assassinate him After which he gave me an account of the Gun-powder Plot in England by which in the year 1606. the Catholicks had undertaken to blow up the King and all the Grandees of the Kingdom by a Mine they had made under the Parliament House He told me of the Jesuits Garnet and Oldcorn Chief of that Conspiracy who were put into the number of the Martyrs whether they would or no for the Jesuit Garnet going to Execution some one of his Companions telling him soâ—tly in his Ear that he was going to be a Martyr he answered Nunâ—uâ—m audivi parricidam esse Martyrem I never heard that a Parricide was a Martyr He related to me a hundred scandalous Stories of that nature Amongst others he told me one that extreamly surprized me he read it to me with all its circumstances in a little Book that had been published by an English Minister who calls himself the King of Englands Chaplain Thus it is in short A Divine who had been the Chaplain of King Charles who was beheaded turnd Catholick some time before his Masters Death and the English Jesuits put such confidence in him that they imparted to him a very dreadful thing It was a Consultation allowed of by the Pope about the means of re-establishing the Catholick Religion in England The English Catholicks seeing that the King was a Prisoner in the hands of the Independants formed the Resolution of laying hold on that occasion to dâ—stroy the Protestant and re-establish the Catholick Religion They concluded that the only means of re-establishing the Catholick Religion and of laying aside all the Laws that had been made against it in England was to dispatch the King and destroy Monarchy That they might be authorized and maintained in this great Undertaking they deputed eighteen Father-Jesuits to Rome to demand the Popes advice The matter was agitated in secret Assemblies and it was concluded that it was permitted and just to put the King to Death Those Deputies in their passage through Paris consulted the Sorbonne who without waiting for the Opinion of Rome had judged that that enterprise was just and lawful and upon the return of the Jesuites who had taken the Journey to Rome they communicated to the Sorbonnits the Popes Answer of which several Copies were taken The Deputies who had been at Rome being returned to London confirmed the Catholicks in their Design To compass this point they thrust themselves in amongst the Independants by dissembling their Religion They persuaded those people that the King must be put to Death and it cost that poor Prince his Life some Months after But the Death of King Charles not having had all the Consequences that was hoped and all Europe having cryed out with horrour against the Parricide committed upon the Person of that poor Prince they would have called in again all the Copies that had been made of the Consultation of the Pope and of that of Sorbonne but this English Chaplain who had turned Catholick would not restore his and he has communicated it since the return of the Family of the Stuarts to the Crown of England to several persons who are still alive and were Eye witnesses of what I have now told you Par. I never heard this before But the English Calvinists not Producing any authentick pieces to prove this accusation it may be looked upon as a Calumny Prov. My Hugâ—not Gentleman would not answer for it for he is very just However he added that what rendred it very probable is that this Conduct is a sequel of the Divinity of the zealous Catholicks of Spaim Italy and even of France Morâ—over there are several Circumstancâ—s which render the thing apparent For example he that lately published this story had already once published it in the year 1662 to answer a little Book that insulted over the English Calvinists in that they had put their King to death The
Concordat bore in express terms that the Duke of Guise should have in charge to deface intirely the name of the Family and Race of the Bourbons Henry the Third said he to me could he be suspected of Heresie or an â—ider of Hereticks Never was any man more linked to the Catholick Church than he Yet the House of Guise had sworn his ruin They would have shaved him which they highly threatned him with and they one day writ upon the Chappel of the Battes to the Augustins of Paris these four French Verses The Bones of those who here lye dead Like Cross of Burgundy to thee are shown And make appear thy days are fled And that thou surely lose thy Crown They are of the same sense with those two Latin Verses which were found set upon the Palace Dyal Qui dedit ante duas unam abstulit altera nutat Tertia tonsoris nunc facienda manu He that gave two has taken one the other Shakes but the Barber still shall give another The Faction of the House of Guise caused this to be done And this poor Prince after a thousand delays and troubles resolved at length to make that execution so famous in our History it is that of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise who were executed at the States of Blois That Prince must needs have seen his ruin approaching and inevitable to come to that since that he well foresaw that this blow would raise him so many storms and give him so much trouble Who knows not that the Faction of Rome and of Spain had a Design of raising the House of Lorrain to the Throne of France for the excluding the House of Bourbon In the year 1587. the Pope sent to the Duke of Guise a Sword engraven with flames telling him by the Duke of Parma that amongst all the Princes of Europe it only belonged to Henry of Lorrain to bear the arms of the Church and to be the Chief thereof Almost all the Kingdom was engaged in that Spirit of revolt The King found no oâ—her support than the King of Navar and of his Hugonotes It was Chastillon the Son of the Admiral de Coligny who saved the King from the hands of the Duke of Mayenne at Tours This Chief of the League cryed to him retire ye white Scarfs retire you Chastillon it is not you we aim at it is the Murderer of your Father And in truth Henry the Third then Duke of Anjou was President in the Council when the Resolution was taken of making the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in which the Admiral Coligny perished But his Son forgetting that injury to save his King answered those Rebels You are Traytors to your Country and when the Service of the Prince and State is concerned I know how to lay aside all revenge and particular interest he added that after the Assassinate committed by the League in the person of Henry the Third Henry the Fourth was ready to see himself abandoned by his most faithful Servants because of the Protestant Religion which he made profession of which appears by a Declaration that this Prince made in the form of an Harangue to the Lords of his Army on the 8 th day of August 1589 in which he says that he had been informed that his Catholick Nobility set a report on foot they could not serve him unless he made profession of the Roman Religion and that they were going to quit his Army Nothing but the firmness and fidelity of the Hugonots upheld this wavering Party He must be said my Gentleman the falsest of men who dissembles the Ardour and Zeal with which those of our Religion maintained that just Cause of the House of Bourbon against the attempts of the League And to prove said he that their interest was not the only cause of their fidelity we must see what they did when Henry the Fourth turned Roman Catholick It cannot be said but that they then strove to have a King of their Religion However there was not one who bated any thing of his Zeal and Fidelity the King was peaceable possessour of the Crown the League was beaten down he was Master in Paris he was reconciled to the Court of Rome when the Edict of Nantes was granted and published Our Hugonots were no longer armed nor in a condition of obtaining any thing by force of arms Since that the Change of Religion had reduced all the Roman Catholicks to him he would have been in a State of resisting their violence It was the sole acknowledgment of the King and of good Frenchmen that obliged all France to give Peace to a Party that had shed their Blood with so much Zeal and Profession for the preserving the Crown and the restoring it to its legitimate Heirs I acknowledge that we did our Duty but are not those to be thanked who do what they ought How is it possible that these things are at present worn out of the memory of men I am certain that if the King was made to read the History of his Grand-father he would preserve some inclinâ—tion for the Children of those who sacrific'd themselves for the glory of his House No man can be ignorant of the necessary dependance that must be between the Roman Catholick Clergy and the Court of Rome This Court is the Head the Clergy is the Body the Ecclesiasticks and Monks are the Members and all these Members move by the Orders of the Head Again I have no Design to chocque the Gentlemen of the Clergy whose persons I respect I do not doubt but that they have good French Hearts But in fine they have their Maxims of Conscience they are of a Religion and they must follow its Principles Now the Principles of their Religion binds them to the Holy see and its preservation preferably to all things moreover Interest deceives the Hearts and Minds of men Their Interest obliges them to take the Popes part who is their Preserver and Protectour and what they do out of interest they perswade themselves that they do it out of Conscience First it may be said of the Monks that all the Houses they have in France are so many Citadels that the Court of Rome has in the Kingdom Those great Societies have withdrawn themselves from the jurisdiction of the Bishops they depend immediately on the Holy See they have all their Generals of Orders at Rome and those Generals who are Italians and Spaniards are the Soul of the Society they are obliged to follow their Opinions and their Orders the Italian Divinity is the Divinity of the Cloisters Thus the King may reckon that all the Monks look upon him as the Pope's Subject as being lyable to be Excommunicated his Kingdom put under an Ecclesiastical Censure his Subjects dispensed and released from the Oath of Allegiance and his States given by the Pope to another Prince And every time that this happens they will believe themselves obliged out of Conscience to obey the Pope If in
Pope has declared a Prince deprived of his Sâ—ates his Subjects may set up the Standard of Rebellion declare War against him refuse him Obedience and kill him if they can meet with him provided it be with arms in their hand and by the ordinary course of War I cannot comprehend how one â—an be secured of the Fidelity of those who hold such like Maxims For in fine Kings are not infallible and if they happen to do any thing that the Court of Rome judges worthy of Excommunication and Intâ—rdiction they are Kings without Kingdoms and Subjects accoâ—ding to our Clergy of France as well as according to the Divines of Italy But perhaps the Sorbonne which is the Depository of the Frenâ—h Divinity does not receive these Maxims so fatal to the safety of Kiâ—gs Let us see what it has done In the Month of December 1587 because Henry the Third for the security of his Person and of his State made a Treaty with the Rütres or the German Protestants the Sorboâ—ne without staying for the Decisions of Rome made a private determination which said That the Government might be taken from Princes who were not found such as they ought to be as the adminiâ—tration from a suspected Tutor This was known by the King he sent for the Sorbonne some days after and complained of it After the death of the Princes of Guise which happen'd at Blois the Sorbonne did much worse they declared and caused to be published in all parts of Paris That all the People of that Kingdom were Absolved from the Oaths of Fidelity that they had sworn to Henry of Valois hereâ—ofore their King they raâ—ed his name out of the publick Prayers and made known to the People that they might with safe Conscience unitâ— aâ—m and contribute to make War against him as a Tyrant If I would add to that the Story that I know this Gentleman told you concerning the Death of the late King of England we should find that the Sorbonne has â—ver been of the same Opinion This is the truth of it every time that our Kings affairs shall carry them to extremity against the Court of Rome the Clergy of France will suppress their discontents while matters go well for the Court of France but if things turn other ways the Maxims of our Divines against the King will be sure to break out Every sincere person will allow â—haâ— it has never been otherwise than so and that it will be always thus which may be observed in the very least disputes I was willing to read all these passages to you out of The Policy of the Clergy of France because the Author of that excellent piece proves there exceedâ—ng well all that I prâ—mâ—sed to shew you for the close of our Conferences which is that the Papists are truly Guilty of the Conspiracies and Rebellions which Monsieur Maimbourg would falsly fasten upon the Hugonots Of this the Murder of Henry the Third that of Henry the Fourth the violence of the League the several attempts against Queen Elizabeth King Iames and our holy Martyr Charles the Firâ—t not to mention the late Plot that has made such a noise in the World are undeniable proofs But you have seen likewise which ought to awaken the Protestant Princes to a purpose that all these black attempts have not been the fruit of impatience and human frailty under the temptation of some severe persecution but the natural Consequence and effect of the Principles of the Roman Religion as we are assured by those very men who pass for the Oracles of this Religion For you have seen just now out of Authentick pieces that the Pope the Cardinals and all the Divines of Italy who are the Pillars of the Roman Catholike Religion all the Regulars of France who draw after them more then three fourths of the French Papists and the Sorbonne it self when the rod is not over it own publickly that the Pope may Excommunicate Kings when he judges them Hereticks or countenancers of Heriticks to interdict their Kingdoms absolve their subjects from their Allegiance and expose them to the fury of all the World You have also seen that the whole Clergy of France was of this opinion by the mouth of Cardinal Perron so that this pernicious Doctrine is the vowed Faith of the whole Popish Gallican Church as well as of the Court of Rome the great depository of the Roman Religion and all its misteries From whence evidently follows what the Author of The Policy of the Clergy of France infers That there is no safety for the Crown nor for the life of Kings whether they be Protestants themselves or only protect such as are whilst they are beset with Papists so that there is not the same reason to tolerate Popery in Protestant Kingdoms as there is to toâ—erate Protestants in Popish Kingdoms Monsieur Maimbourg would make us believe that all this is but a poor shift And to convince us of it he says that we need but to consider these two things First that there are not to be found more detestable Conspiracies then those the Hugonots have made against their Kings c. Secondly that it is by no means thâ— belief of the Roman Catholicks princes that a Pope may depose Princes though they were Heretiâ—ks acquit their subjects from their Allegiance and bestow their Dominions upon those that can first take them But I have evidently shewed you the falsness of the first assertion and for the second it is expresly disproved by those undeniable proofs the Author of The Policy of the Clergy has produced to shew that the Roman Catholicks hold that belief which Monsieur Maimbourg afâ—irms they do not You say Monsieur Maimbourg that it is by no means your belief that a Pope can depose Princes c. At this rate the Pope who is the head of your Church this head for whose infallibility you have so much disputed knows not the belief of your Church for he believes that by the principles of the Church of Rome he has the power which you seem to deny him The Cardinals the Bishops and all the Divines of Italy all your Regulars all your Clergy of France speaking by the mouth of your Cardinal du Perron your Sorbonne it self so renowned for its great number of able men did not know in so important a case what was the belief of your Church For they have all held that it believes the Pope can depose Princes c. At least he should have given some answers to the Authentick Acts and notorious matters of fact which the Author of The Policy of the Clergy had quoted to this purpose To say nothing of all this and to think it enough to say at randome It is by no means our belief that a Pope may depose Princes even though they were Hereticks c. this is to pass the sentence of an unjust judge who rather then fairly to confess his errour makes no conscience of denying
which Aristotle calls Iust Griefs we are apt rather to pity than blame men for the faults they have committed I am well assured Monsieur Maimbourg will not deny but that the Prince's integrity has been put to the severest tryal For he confesses that the Queen broke her word with him in a matter of the Highest Consequence and that the Duke d' Anjou had passed a cruel Affront upon him which touched him to the quick Besides the Prince knew upon very good grounds that his enemies were about to seize his Person a second time It is true they talked only of shutting him up in Prison during life But he could not forget that they were not men to be satisfied with so little when once they had got him in their hands For when he was first in Prison they condemned him to lose his Head by the hand of the common Executioner And then it was manifest they designed the death of the Admiral his great Friend and of a Million of innocent Persons more Suppose it therefore to be true that at the sight of death and of so many Injuries and so great a spilling of Blood the Prince's head was a little turned and that being intent upon saving his own Life and Honor and the Lives and Honor of so many brave Men as were engaged with him c. he forgot that he could not without a want of respect to his King attack his Ministers how wicked or injust soever they might be supposing this to be true ought he to be used after that insolent manner as Monsieur Maimbourg treats him Is he the only Hero the only true Christian that has discovered his Infirmity under so heavy a Temptation And when is it that a Fault is most excusable if it be not when a Man is hurryed away by such violent storms 3. But I cannot endure that so glorious an attempt should be blemished with the least Imputation The Prince by his Birth and the great Concern that engaged him in was under a particular Obligation to watch for the preservation of the Crown and the Blood Royal all the World must grant it It is most certain that the Princes of the House of Lorrain aimed at the Crown under a pretence that it belonged to them as the lawful Successors of Charlemain and that they only waited a fit opportunity to possess themselves of it Experience shews plainly that he was not deceived when Henry the Third to escape the ambitious Attempts of the Duke of Guise Nephew to the Cardinal of Lorrain was forced to run from his Palace and his capital City where the Duke had made every body against him and where they shewed the Suissers with which they intended to make him a Monks crown when they had taken away that of a King The Prince knows moreover that the Cardinal of Lorrain to compass his wicked Design was resolved to rid himself of all the Princes of the Blood whatever it cost him They had thoughts of stealing away the Queen of Navar and her Son the first Prince of the Blood to destroy them in a most cruel and shameful manner by putting them into the Spanish Inquisition They had raised Six thousand Suisses to seize his Person put the Admiral to death and to root out all the Protestants that is the main Supporters of the Rights of Capet's true Line against the false pretences of the Mock-posterity of Charlemain The Prince who sees and knows all this is he not obliged to set himself with all his might against this Bloody Conspiracy of Strangers who are about to shed the Noblest Blood of France to supplant the Heirs of the Family and usurp their Place There is no question of it But things were come to such a pass that the Prince could no longer set himself effectually against the wicked purposes of the House of Guise by the common methods of Remonstrances and Petitions to his Majesty and by the course of Justice either in Council or Parliament For the Cardinal of Lorrain and his party swayed all in the Parliament and Council They had all the power at Court There was no coming to the King but by them They were so got into this young Prince who was at the most but sixteen years of age that he would hear nothing but what these people told him and blindly took their advice in every thing It was then absolutely necessary either that the Prince against his duty of Prince of the Blood and a faithful Subject should suffer all the Royal Blood to be spilt with that of all true French men and that the Crown should be usurped by Strangers or else that he should do something extraordinary and put Himself in a posture to overcome all the difficulties which hindred him from undeceiving the King making him to understand who were his real enemies and bringing them to condign punishment which could never be done without the assistance at least of several of his Friends and cutting off the six thousand Swisses who were to seize his Person and ruine all the honest party unless in short he would become a prey to the Cardinal when he should present himself before the King to request Justice I must confess the Protestant that is the Christian Religion never allows a Subject to take up Arms against his Soveraign upon any pretence whatever But a Prince of the Blood does not take up Arms against his Soveraign when he takes them up to no other end but to hinder Strangers from laying hands upon the Crown and changing the Succession It is true indeed that these Strangers taking the advantage of Charles the Ninth his tender years were predominant in his Court and that it is an odd sort of a way for a Subject to come armed before his King and to seize upon his chief Ministers before his face and as it were teaâ— them out of his arms But Prudence directs us of two Evils always to avoid the greatest And I do not think any one will dispute it in earnest but that to suffer a Kingdom to be taken from its lawful Heirs and all the Royal Family to be oppressed by Tyrants who have ingrossed their King for no other end but to destroy him is an evil infinitely greater than to come short for some little time of the Laws of good manners till the King and Kingdom were safe There are none but such as would be glad to have the way left open either to invade the Throne or Royal Authority whereby to work the overthrow of the State I say there are none but the ambitious and common Pests that have the impudence to perswade the King that to fail in these rules of Good manners when it is upon the utmost necessity and in prospect to save the Crown is to give a mischievous example and encourage Rebellion Extraordinary actions upon absolute necessity as this attempt of the Prince never ought to be drawn into example for ordinary proceedings which should always be
Rochel with his Famiâ—y and the Admiral His Friends upon this news came in to his aid from all parts whil'st the King repealed all the Edicts made in favor of the Protestants and drew all his Forces together This is in short the account Monsieur Maimbourg gives who according to his custom fails not to charge the Huguenots with all the Villanies that were committed in this third War by profligate fellows on both sides But the Towns he complains of knew very well at that time what Mezeray has since published to all Europe That the Councel which is to say the Cardinal of Lorrain and his Creatures had no other end in making this Peace but to remove the imminent danger the Parisians would have been in upon the taking of Chartres and to disperse the great Force the Huguenots had got together that they might oppress them when scattered The same Historian tells us That some of the Court sent them word that if they took not good caution they would be cheated and the Admiral made it appear to them what the inconvencies would be Being a person of an excellent judgment he plainly discovered that treaty to be nothing else but a trick to amuse and so surprise them This ought at least to have perswaded these poor people to have gone warily to work in surrendring their Garrisons till they had seen how the Guise party that governed all would observe the Articles of this Peace which as Mezeray expresses it exposed them to the mercy of their enemies without other security than the word of an Italian Woman It was not long before the Huguenots found by experience that the intelligence they had received from Court was but too true and that the Admirals opinion was â—ut too well grounded Immediately the Parliament of Toulouse Beheaded Rapin a worthy Gentleman whom the King had sent thither to solicit the Ratification of the Edict of Peace Monsieur de Thou gives an account of it Whatever complaint the Prince could make of so outragious a breach of the Peace the Court where the Guises were predominant made him not the least satisfaction I leave you to judge then whether the Protestants had reason to believe they had dealt fairly with them when they saw they had murdered a Man without being questioned for it who was sent by his Soveraign to solicit the verification of the Edict of Peace They found themselves constrained therefore for the safety of their own lives and the lives of the Princes of the Blood to shut up the Gates of their strong Places against those Emissaries that came from their deadly Enemies who at the bottom had no other design in destroying the Huguenots party than thereby to make the way more easie for the destruction of the Princes of Capet's Line and open themselves a passage to the Throne or Tyranny rather Doubtless they ought to have stood more carefully upon their Guard forasmuch as they could not but know what Mezeray after Monsieur de Thou assures us was acted so publickly to wit that the Popish Preachers stirred up the people incessantly by their vehement Declamations saying That if there was a necessity to make the Peace it was a sin to keep it that there could be no alliance betwixt Christ and Belial that there is no Obligation to hold Faith with Hereticks but that all Christians ought to fall upon them as Monsters and common Pests that it was an acceptable Sacrifice to God to wash their hands in the Blood of these unclean Beasts And for this they quoted in their own sense a Decree of the Councel of Constance impâ—â—â—ing That no Faith was to be kept with them adding Examples out of holy Scripture of those that were slain by the Levites upon Moses his order of those that had worshipped the golden Calf and of Iehu that slew all the Priests of Bâ—al when he had got them together upon promise of safe conduct Monsieur de Thou observes that those Preachers were Jâ—suits So that all the Protestant Princes and their loyal Subjects may well think from the account these two Popist Historians give what hazzard they run when either they receive or suâ—â—â—r in their Dominions these bloody Spirits enemies to publick Faith and by consequence to Mankind But I must needs give you all that Mezeray says upon this Subject in his Chronological Abridgement which will wholly suppress the impudence of the Jesuit Maimbourg in charging the Protestants with the breach of this Peace These are his words They â—ailed not to cheat the Huâ—uenots both of their Peace and liberty of Conscience They were then in greater danger than during the War In thâ—â—e 〈◊〉 time there were more than Two thousand killed in several parts either by their particular Enemies as Renè Lord of Sipiere son to Claud of Savoy Count of Tende and thirty persons of his Train which Gaspar de Villeneuve Marquess d'Ars murdered in Fraius or else by popular Insurrections as at Amiens near a hundred at Auxerre a hundred and fifty several at Blois Bourges Issoudun Troyes and twenty other places The Prince was at Noyers in Burgundy There they caught a Soldier measuring the Graft and the Wall in order to scale the place When the project failed the Queen sent some Troops into Burgundy to take him by force whom they could not catch by craft He sent Teligny and afterwards Iaquelin de Rohan his Wives Mother to Court to beseech the Queen Mother to observe the Peace the Edicts But it was not a thing longer to be hoped for when he found that whoever was of that Opinion he was called Libertine and Politician and that the Chancellor of the Hospital who advised to Peace was dismissed from Court and sent to his House of Vignan as suspected for a Huguenot The Prince's Mother-in-law was scarce gone from Court when he understood that the Troops had private Orders to block up Noyers and that if he continued there three or four days longer he would not be able to get away Coligny perceiving plainly the Trains that were laid for them was come to Tanlay Castle whence going to the Prince they both wen ftrom Noyers with a Party only of a hundred and fifty Horse under whose Guard were a sad sight their Wives and Children most of them in their Nurses arms or not out of their Hanging-sleeves The Pâ—ince having escaped all danger by his Expedition got to Rochel the 18th of September Soon after the Queen of Navar came thither likewise with the Prince her Son and afteâ—â—er all the Huguenot Officers with the greatest part of their Forces Now let all the World judge whether it was the Protestants of France that were Authors of this third War or not rather the Guises who thirsted after the Blood of this Innocent People to clear the way to that of the Royal Family I will prove hereafter that Rochel in particular was not so much in the wrong for pleading
her Priviledges to avoid the admitting those Men who came for no other end but to destroy her Monsieur Maimbourg is scandalized at it under pretence that the Cardinal of Lorrain who did all at Court had invested them with Regal Authority who came to take away their Religion Liberty and Lives But a scandal very absurdly taken There is no man but sees it plainly and what I shall tell you hereafter will make it more plain I will not enter into the Particulars of this unhappy War where the Prince of Condè was killed in cold Blood after the Battle of Iarnac and which concluded witâ— a Peace yet more unfortunate They allowed in this Peace several very great Advantages to the Protestants but it was only to have an opportunity to cut their Throats in the most Treacherous and Inhumane manner that was ever heard of To say the truth says Monsieur Maimbourg as the Queen made this Treaty it is very likely that such a Peace as this was never really meant on her side who concealed her Intentions and did not grant so many things to the Huguenots otherwise than to make them lay down their Arms that she might fall upon such as she had a mind to be revenged of the Admiral especially upon the first favorable occasion that should offer it self which she thought she had met with at last when she had prevailed with the King to take that horrid Resolution which was executed upon that Bloody and Accursed Day of St. Bartholomew Under pretence of Marrying the Prince of Navar to the Lady Margaret Sister to Charles the Ninth all the Protestants that were of any Quality were drawn to Paris The Queen of Navar was taken away in five days by a hot Fever occasioned as many believed by the art of the Perfumer Messer René a Florentine suspected for a skillful man at poysoning as Monsieur Maimbourg himself acknowledges At last to make the Feast more solemn they had the Admiral murdered by an old retainer to the House of Guise called Louviers Monrevel who shot him with a Carabine and they concluded it with this cruel Butchery which Monsieur de Perefixe Archbishop of Paris sums up in these words in his History of Henry the Great All the Huguenots that came to the Feast had their throats cut amongst others the Admiral Twenty other Lords of note Twelve hundred Gentlemen Three or four thousand Soldiers and Citizens and then through all the Towns of the Kingdom after the pattern at Paris near a Hundred thousand men A detestable action such as never was before nor never will be by the help of God the like But all the Popish World was of the Archbishop of Paris his mind witness what Mezeray says The holy Father and all his Court expressed a mighty joy at it and went in a solemn Procession to the Church of St. Lewis to give God thanks for so happy a riddance where the Cardinal of Lorrain who found not himself in such a transport of joy had placed over the door a Latin Inscription after the ancient manner giving the reason of this Ceremony They were not less rejoyced in Spain than at Rome where they preached up this Action before King Philip under the Title of The Triumph of the Church militant It is true that Monsieur Maimbourg Papist as he is could not bring himself to second this Joy of his High Priest and one of his Hero's the Cardinal of Lorrain But on the contrary he has highly condemned so shameful a Fact neither could he forbear to Declame in more than one place against those barbarous people that did it My Reader says he ought not to expect from me an account of all that was done upon this unhappy day which I wish with all my heart had been buryed in the shâ—des of eternal Oblivion So soon as it rung the Warning Bell at the Palace there were more than Fifty thousand men Armed running up and down the Streets like so many Furies let loose breaking open doors crowding into the Houses that were marked out or that they themselves had observed making the Air sound with the hideous Cries that were heard from the groans of Men and Women that were assassinated and the Oaths and Blasphemies of those that murdered them Dispatch kill stab knock them down fling them out of the windows made Paris all that day which was upon a Sunday and a Feast a bloody Theater of Cruelty or rather an abominable Butchery by the slaughter of above Six thousand persons whose Blood ran down the kennels and their Bodies all gored with Wounds dragged into the River This was what we might reasonably expect from the brutish and blind rage of a Rabble when they are let loose to do what they please with impunity But that which we find in this altogether mis-becoming the French generosity which ought to be the proper character of the Nobility of the Kingdom especially those of the Highest Rank was that the Marshal de Tavannes the chief contriver of this Massacre and the Duke de Montpensier too warm a Catholick went up and down the Streets encouraging the People who were already but too much transported of themselves and setting them on upon every body sparing none The King himself who saw out of his Chamber-window the mangled Bodies floating upon the Water was so far from being troubled at the sight that he shot with a long Gun though to no pâ—rpose cross the River at those who they had told him were got into the Faubourg St. Germain to save themselves from the Massacre and cryed out as loud as he could stretch his voice that they should pursue and kill them However he was afterwards extreamly trouble at it and to excuse himself from the imputation of so cruel an Act he caused Letters to be writ the same day to all the Governors of the Provinces that all which was done at Paris upon St. Bartholomew's day was the effect of an old Quarrel that was bâ—tween the Duke of Guise and the Admiral which drew on such deadly Consequences it being impossible to hinder them during that rage the Parisians were then stirred up to by running into Arms for the Guises against the Huguenots However this excuse passed but for a little while They made the King sensible that besides it would not be credited it would expose his Majesty to the contempt of his Subjects when they should see by this that he had not authority enough over the Guises to be obeyed by them nor power and resolution to punish so great a fault Wherefore wholly changing his mind he appointed the Tuesday following to appear himself in Parliament where he declared the same which he likewise caused to be writ to all the Governors that this Massacre was committed by his Order though to his great grief for prevention of a Hellish Conspiracy which the Admiral with the Huguenots had entred into against his Person