charity he explains it to me and so he says that I confound what he had said of the Council of England with the Parliament 1. If I were ignorant of this my Ignorance were indeed insupportable or which is all one it were as great as his own 2. But tho he speaks indeed of the Council yet when he had the confidence to cite on the Margin the Petition of the Parliament to the Pope I had reason to discover something else which is in him that is yet more insupportable than Ignorance and to prove his forging of Authorities by shewing that the Parliament never medled in this matter which I do yet more evidently in my Appendix since no Parliament met at that time 3. He affirms here that the Council of England knew that care was taken that the Marriage with P. Arthur could not be consummated which is another character of that insupportable quality for which I charge him I clearly prove that the Privy Councellors knew there was no such matter since they deposed the contrary upon Oath 4 But at last he betakes himself to his Florimond and there I leave him in Company like himself XIV He accuses me of an irreparable Injury that I have done the Memory of Henry the Seventh in taxing him of Avarice which he says no Historian Protestant or Catholick had done before me This is a good discovery of his acquaintance with our Historians in particular with Chancellor Bacon since that whole reign but chiefly the last year of it was a course of Extortions and as the vast Treasure which he left behind him shewed this so if Mr. Varillas had known Henry the Eighths History he would have seen that the very day he came to the Crown he sent the two chief Instruments of his Fathers Oppressions to Prison and that their Process was made and they were soon after executed So certain it is that Mr. Varillas read no History of that Reign 2. He excuses the Impertinence with which I had taxed him in calling Henry the Eighth Duke of York after his Brothers death by saying he did it to avoid a Galimathias which he thinks had followed if he had called both the Brothers Princes of Wales but having once shewed that by the death of the Elder the Younger became Prince of Wales this had been no more a Galimathias than to call any Successor to a Crown the King which will create no confusion in the Readers mind or if he was too tender in this point he might have distinguished them by their names of Arthur and Henry which was both clearer and shorter XXV He excuses himself here and says he drew from a Letter of the Catholick King 's that which he had asserted of their Apprehensions and adds that Authors are not to be blamed when they write out of good Memoirs But I do not blame him for writing out of good Memoirs but for forging false ones 2. His confidence in putting himself in the Class with Salustius and Tacitus is another of his insupportable Qualities 3. His spending two pages in repeating over again that for which I had charged him as if he had read it in a Letter of the Catholick King 's does not make any man believe this a whit the better If he had told where that Letter was to be found what the date of it was and to whom it was writ and if he had given it in the Language in which it was writ originally then this might have had some appearance of a Proof but he had several very weighty Reasons that kept him from doing this and he hoped that as Downright Impudence was the shortest way so it would be the surest to make him be believed 4. He goes on to justify that of Henry the Sevenths power to alienate the Crown of England by saying that he was a Conquerour and was the Master of the Kingdom as much as William the Conquerour was and so he might dispose of it as he pleased This is a new Theory of Mr. Varillas's that one who pretends to be the right Heir and is so happy as to defeat an Usurper is upon that to be accounted a Conquerour for this was the case both of William the Conquerour and of Henry the Seventh the one pretended a Title from Edward the Confessor and defeated Harold as the other did derive a Title from the House of Lancaster and defeated Richard but neither the one nor the other pretended that the Nation was a Conquest no more than Henry the Ninth of France did when he broke the League 5. He says I needed not tell him that K. Henry the Seventh chused rather to hold the Crown by his Marriage with the Heir of the House of York than by his right of Conquest I told him no such thing for I know it is false since for the Reasons that I formerly named he would never consent to hold the Crown in his Wife 's Right 6. He pretends that I am banished England for having been in the design of the Exclusion of the present King All this is equally false that I was in that design that I was banished the Nation and that it was on that account so his Sentence set in Capitals is only a more evident discovery that he makes of himself which he has done indeed in Capital Letters XXVI He had said somewhat to purpose upon the Article of P. Alexander the sixth if he had given any sort of proof that he had refused to grant the Dispensation for the Marriage XXVII If instead of all the Relations both printed and Manuscripts which he mentions so indefinitly he had cited any one printed Relation of an Author that deserves credit or any Manuscript that may be examined this had deserved an Answer Mr. Varillas had not said as he would have it pais now that Ferdinand only pretended to give his Daughter to the Duke of Calabria but he had affirmed positively that he intended it and yet all the proof he brings for this is that there is no inconvenience in thinking that at some time or other of his life he might have been touched with the Remorse of the Injustice he had done the Duke of Calabria I am not to examin the State of Ferdinands Conscience nor what his secret Remorses might be tho in matters of Injustice his was not very tender But it is a new sort of proof and well becoming our Author who being called on to make good a thing which he had positively affirmed tells us there is no Inconvenience in thinking it true but then I see as little Inconvenience in thinking otherwise it was convenient indeed for Mr. Varillas to have it believed but his Conveniences do not determin me XXVIII He pretends that I had denied that Henry the Eighths Parents thought of Marrying him to Francis the Firsts Sister He tells me It was ordinary in those days to contract Marriages among Children and therefore it was not
been yet thought on yet an ordinary capacity like mine cannot comprehend why this should have made Florimond de Raimond a good Writer and why it had not the same effect on Mr. de Thou So I think I have said enough concerning this Councellour of Bourdeaux and his Wife and Children There are two other general Considerations which I will propose before I enter into the more particular review of his Answer He argues in several places against matters that I had proved by the most Authentical Evidences possible and from some Improbabilities he pretends to overthrow what I had said and in one place he thinks he argues strongly when he says I cannot shew him an Instance that the like ever fell out before an Impossibility is indeed a very good answer to all the Proofs that can be brought and such are the evidences by which I overthrow the Calumnies thrown on Anne Bullen but Improbabilities ought never to be set against Positive Proofs for men are so apt to be guided by Humour and Caprice and are sometimes so blinded by passion and Interest that they do often depart from all the Rules both of Prudence and Decency nor is it a Reason to be alledged by any but Mr. Varillas that such things cannot be true because I cannot shew the like instance in any other History For supposing that were true every Age as it produces Originals so affords new Subjects of Amasement for Instance it may seem incredible that a man could have writ so many Books of History as Mr. Varillas has done in which he mentions nothing less than Letters Instructions and other Original Papers and this in an Age in which men are not easy nor Implicit but love to examin Matters and that also upon Subjects of Religion in which it was probable that some men might call him to an account and that yet this man when called to an account should not cite one of all these Papers but should build only on a doubted and despised Author and that when he had reason to think that this other Writings might be critically examined he went on in the same careless and bold strain a man may argue very strongly that this cannot be true and it is certain that Mr. Varillas cannot give an Instance that the like ever fell out before yet after all the thing is true so that Improbabilities may be justly set against Probabilities but they are unreasonably urged against Positive proofs Truth is Truth still tho it had never fallen out but once as Mr. Varillas is an Original for there was never an Author before him that carried on Impostures in Matters of History so impudently as he has done Mr. Varillas cites likewise many passages out of his other Books to shew that he was not ignorant of those things for which I charge him and which contradict what he has writ in his History of Heresies but first I do assure him I have not read his other Books with so much exactness as to remember all that is in them I was indeed at first surprised with the many Discoveries that he seemed to make but I very quickly made another Discovery that destroyed them all and found that he was a Writer of Romances and not of true Histories unless it be in that sense in which Lucian uses that Title so I am nothing concerned in his other Books but intend only to destroy his Credit which I think my self as much obliged to do as to discover a false Coyner If he has writ differently in his other Books from what he writes in this I am not bound to receive or bear all his Contradictions and from this very thing by which he pretends to justify himself he destroys his own Credit for if he had writ upon good Instructions all would have been Uniform for Truth is ever the same and does not change faces but a man that writes his own Visions cannot carry always along with him all his Dreams and therefore he fits them to the present occasion so that his having reported them in another manner in some of his other Books does not at all justify him but gives a further discovery of his Romantick Impostures I now come to a more particular Enquiry and shall hereafter follow him more closely but I will represent only the most Eminent of the Impertinencies that are in his Book and strike the Eye for to search after all were both endless and needless I. He will needs justify his view of Heresy delivered in a prophetick stile from Titus Livius's beginning who only tells what he intended to do himself which any Writer besides Mr. Varillas may very well do for those who write upon true Information know what they go about but an Author of Romances cannot so easily fore-tel this I do not quarrel with him for telling what he intended to do himself but for representing the progress of Heresy in a fore-telling stile It seems his Acquaintance among the Roman Authors is equal to his Knowledg of Manuscripts otherwise he could have found others that had begun their Works as Livy does without going so far down as to St. Ierome and if that Father had not done the Church more service in writing on the Scriptures than he did in the writing of Lives his Authority would be as small as Mr. Varillas ought to be II. I tell him once for all that I do not believe a title of the Negotiation of Mr. de Noailles that he cites nor of any other upon his word unless he tells where they may be found and if Mr. de Noailles was instructed to go to the Duke of Northumberland when Edward the sixth was but thirteen year old then the paper must be false for Dudley was not created Duke of Northumberland before Edward the sixth was fifteen years old there is a great difference between Governing a Prince and being his Governour all the world believed that Cardinal de Richelieu governed Lewis the thirteenth yet no body called him his Governour III. He denies that in the two Editions of his Book printed at Paris the Epithet simple is added to the quality of Gentleman with which he had honoured the Lord Darnley in this I must refer my self to those who have the French Editions but all who have read the Impression of Amsterdam see that he does me wrong in saying that I have added it No I leave such practices to Mr. Varillas I have taken some pains to find a Book of the Paris Edition in this Countrey but have not been able to do it yet as for his Answer and his second Volum I have them before me of the Paris Edition so there shall be no more room for any such Dispute for the future but it is strange that this word simple should have been soisted into the Dutch Impression if it was not in the Paris Edition words are left out but seldom added in those Impressions that do only Copy another The Series
least amiss and indeed this is all the praise that can belong to any part of his Books for tho all that is in them is amiss yet some parts are less amiss than others And is roving about Political projects are certainly less amiss than his plain and impudent Falsehoods XX. I had accused Mr. Varillas for saying that all England witout excepting any one person professed the same Religion under Henry the Seventh and I shewed him that the putting this so generally must be false since in the second year of Henry the Eighth's reign there were a great many condemned of Heresy he pretends to excuse this since the Spaniards boast that Heresy never past the Pyrenees tho many have suffered in the Inquisition for it But if any Spaniard had said that there was never so much as one Heretick in Spain I should have told him that he did not write exactly and because I press this no further than to shew by it that Mr. Varillas is a careless Writer and am willing to let it pass with a gentle censure because I had greater things to lay to his charge he according to his usual sincerity pretends that I acknowledged the weakness of the Objection and abandoned it XXI He pretends that I accuse him falsly for denying the consummation of P. Arthur's Marriage whereas he says he determined nothing positively concerning P. Arthur's Impotence But that was never the Question for it was never brought under debate whether he was impotent or not and that for which I had chiefly accused Mr. Varillas was that he affirmed that P. Arthur was then sick and not yet recovered out of a great disease this is all Fiction and is disproved by Witnesses upon Oath but he says not a word to justify this 2. Here the pretends to tell at what pains he was to examin the Affairs of England that he thought the English and Germans of both Religions might be too partial that the Italians were too short that Ribadeneira might be suspected because of his Orders and therefore he thought Florimond de Raimond the best Author to depend upon But if he had read Sanders alone he would have found that both his Florimond and his Ribadeneira was nothing but Sanders over and over again 3. He accuses me for making him say that P. Arthur died Seven moneths after the Marriage whereas he had said Five moneths But in my English it was five moneths so he has no reason to blame me for this since I am not bound to answer for a Translation and tho this was a good and exact Translation in which my meaning was not mistaken as it has been too often in a Translation of a late Book of my Letters concerning Italy yet so small a mistake was no great matter and in a thing of this nature Mr. Varillas ought to have got some who understand English to examin my Book in the Language in which I writ before he had aecused me of having put seven for five on design to deceive my Readers 4. He justifyes his false Citation of the Bull by the most exact of all those who have continued Baronius in whom the words he had cited are to be found But why then did he cite the third Tome of the Bullarium on his Margin and why did he not name this Writer and the place of his Book for such a way of citing especially in Mr. Varillas is very suspicious and if that Author does not set down the Bull it self but only delivers these words as his sense of them then this was like the rest of Mr. Varillas's Citations to give this on the Margin as drawn out of the Bull. 5. He pretends that there is no material difference between his Citation and mine But as it was enough for me to shew that the words he cited were not in the Bull so tho Mr. Varillas boasts in another place how much he has studied the Law yet I must take the Liberty to tell him that he has lost his time extreamly while he pursued that Study if he does not know a difference between a Confirmatory Clause which may have passed with less observation and what is set forth in a Preamble which being the ground upon which the grace is granted and set at the head of the Bull is of much more importance and was probably much better considered than any general Clause XXII He accuses me for having said That Henry the Eighth was educated as his Brother had been who knew only Latin and some general Elements of Learning and tells me how learned King Henry was It appears by my words that I spake only of his first Education and not of the Improvements that followed 2. He seems mightily concerned for the Memory of King Henry the Seventh as if by this affected Zeal he would make some reparations to the Royal Family for the Injuries he has endeavoured to do them but I will be so plain as to tell him roundly that Henry the Seventh weakned the Rights of the Crown of England more than any that ever reigned in it He knew that he could not found his Title on his Descent from the House of Lancaster for then he could never have been more than Prince of Wales since his Mother by whom he had that pretension out-lived him a year and he would not hold the Crown by his Queens Title for then the Right must have been in her and have passed from her to her Children upon her death or to her Sister if she hapned to dye without issue therefore he who would not hold the Crown upon such a doubtful tenure made that dangerous Law that whosoever is in possession of the Crown is to be acknowledged as the Legal King And if King Henry the Seventh had been so Wife a King as some Flatterers have made him he would never have suffered the Dutchy of Bretagne to have fallen in to the Crown of France it having been always considered that the preserving that in a separated Principality was one of the most indispensible Maxims of the English Policy yet he tho he made use of this as a pretence to ask Money of his Parliament to oppose it no sooner had the Money than he gave way to it for which it was believed that he had Money from France 3. He denies that learning wâ—s then esteemed among Princes and says that the Cardinal of Lorrain was the first Prince that valued himself upon his Learning But is it not known that Francis the First valued himself upon the protection that he gave to Learning and the Glory of the Houses of Est and Medici was not a little encreased by the care they took of learned men of which I could convince Mr. Varillas by his own Anecdotes if I were not ashamed to cite so bad an Author XXIII He reproaches me for my insupportable Ignorance in not knowing the difference between the Council and the Parliament of England and in great