the Kings of Spain France Poland the Princes of Italy Germany c. And yet this is but the first peale which he rang as a Toxsan or Alarum-bell to Bohemia For he addeth another Article which if they look not well to it may touch Reformers Freehold as well as other Princes It is Quando sub praeâ—extu Religionis c When under colour of Religion they look after their own advantages or profit This had not been a Lecture to be read to Henry the Eighth and the Courtiers of his time And surely if a man should ask Murray and Morton those two pillars of Reformation in Scotland Orange and Horn in the Netherlands Conde and the Admiral in France the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland in England Saxony Sweden Denmark and the rest of the Lutheran Princes in Germany whether they had not some by-ends of Avarice Ambition and other sinister and worldly nature when they seemed to be most hot and zealously transported it might trouble them all perhaps what to answer Last of all he assigneth another cause of deposition viz. When they oppress their Subjects in matter of Conscience Which indeed is the strangest of all for who ever knew a Calvinist permit Liberty of Conscience to another man whom he could compel to his own and yet in this point he is so earnest that unless the people do this viz. Resist the Superior Magistrate in the defence of themselves and true Religion he tells them in conscientiis incolumes esse nequeunt They cannot have true peace of Conscience They should offend God by not doing it And in his Commentary upon Judges he speaketh yet more absurdly and dangerously Magistratus Minor potest occidere majorem The Inferior Magistrate in this case may kill the Superior Baylâ—ffs Sheriffs Constables their King and Sovereign or if they think fit one another upon the quarrel of Religion because saith he Domestick Tyrants are more to be suppressed or opposed then Forreigners or such as are without us Neither was Paraeus the onely Master of Paradoxes in that Country although it must be confessed his Doctrine so corrupted the Palatinate that in England to prevent the like evill his Books were purged by fire Gracerus his Pew-fellow teacheth that the Malice of Antichrist that is in his sense the actings or zeal of any Catholike Prince for the true Religion established coercenda est gladio must be resisted saith he or restrained by the Sword And Aretius himself sufficiently shews his affections to the Emperor Christian Empire when he teacheth that the Dragon in the Apocalyps that is the Devil Dedisse Imperio potestatem suam c. gave to the Empire its power and greatness and that plenitudinem Diabolismi the Fulness of Diabolical malice and hatred against Christ dwelleth in the Empire Nor are we to think that this Doctrine was onely Speculative among them it was the practise also of that pretended Church ab origine Yea their own Neighbors and Elder Brethren have felt the effects of it in much inhumane and uncivil usage from them Ask Gieskenius who was a man of Learning and no small account among the Lutherans and he will tell you one pretty exploit of theirs Emdenses Illustrem Dominum suum motâ seditione c. They of Emden saith he had by this time almost driven their Leige Lord out of all his dominions by their seditious proceedings And that they rested not till they had obtained these Articles of him who was himself a Lutheran Ne Illustrissimus Comes c. That his Excellency should not have power to grant unto his Subjects of Emden the exercise of any Religon but Calvinism 2. That himself onely at Court may have a Preacher of the Auspurgh-Confession So it was matter of favor to him that Subjects should tolerate their Princes Religion but for themselves it must be framed entirely according to their own Mode They must direct and their Prince obey If you object that this was but a private tumult and that the Church of the Palatinate did not approve of such proceedings against their Brethren it is cleerly answered by this That in the year 1602. there were twenty points established in that Church The first whereof was this Schulting Hierarch Anaâ—res Totus Lutheranismus omnes libri eorum c. That the whole Doctrine of Luther opposite to Calvinism and all the Lutherans Books be for ever taken away and prohibited Neither are they permitted in any part of the Palatinate the Marquisate of Brandenburgh or the Territory of Emden 'T is true The Lutherans where they command do as wisely provide against them They have as little footing in all the Duke of Saxonies Countries Hamborough or the Hans Towns That great Synod of Torgaw convented by the means and procurement of those Protestant Princes do testifie that the Calvinists had troubled and brought to ruin omnes Christianas Ecclesias All Christian Churches Vniversities Kingdoms and States where ever they were admitted And hence it is that they are not included under the peace and protection of the Empire the Religions Vried is no way permitted unto them as appeareth by the Edict of Charls the Fifth De composit pacis c. Anno 1532. Nor are they comprehended in his Sentence De confess Suevicâ 1530. Nor in the Interim 1548. Nor in the Constitution De pace publicâ And for the Acts made at Passau 1552. by the Emperor Ferdinand the very words exclude them from all benefit So also in his Declaration at Auspurgh 1555. And in the conclusion or agreement of the Princes of the Augustan Confession with the three Electors and other Princes and Cities in the year 1557. it was declared that the Sacramentaries Anabaptists Osiandrians c. were all excluded from the Articles of peace and that there should be Edicts published against them by common consent and for their utter extirpation This was enacted in the year 1557. and in the year 1566. Caesar and the Princes of the Dyet decreto publico scripserunt c. published a general decree concerning Frederick the Elector Palatine of the Rhine that he should desert the opinions of Calvin and not suffer them to be taught in any of the Churches or Schools of his Country And this Decree of the Dyet was intimated to him in the presence of the Bishops of Mentz Triers and Colen of the Elector of Saxony and of the Embassadors also of the Marquis of Brandenburgh and after his death by his Son Lewis it was obeyed In the same year the Princes declare in their reply to the Emperor permittere se nolle that they will not permit that any Sects whatsoever shall be harbored in their Dominions and that they count the Zuinglians and Calvinists for such which was also long before declared viz. in the Recess of the Empire in the year 1555. Calvinism then being so long before not counted tolerable in Germany the Bohemians of late have made it much more odious and intolerable by
THE Jesuites Policy To suppress MONARCHY Historically displayed With their SPECIAL VOW Made to the POPE Printed in the Year 1669. BABEL OR Monarchomachia Protestantium NOt many years since upon divulging of a Letter written by Master Aldred against the Match with Spain and of that scandalous Libel against the Ambassador Count Gondamour as also by the instigation of some Hot-spurs in their Pulpits the people of London were much incensed to snarl and murmur even at the very name of Spain and every Artificer presumed like an Aristarchus to censure the King for that Negotiation as for an error of State which might possibly cast the whole body of the Kingdom into a distemper As if forsooth the Kings affection to the Kingdom and his own issue had been unnaturally frozen or that his judgement had failed him and those Superior Planets of the Counsel had also lost their light and erred in their course Whereupon I was urged by divers of my good Friends to write the Apology of that Action and Proceeding because some of them had heard me deliver at sundry times not onely a full Answer to all the Objections of the contrary faction but also divers Reasons in defence thereof founded as they thought upon very just and solid considerations And truly to speak what I think the benefits which the Realm may reap by this match are such and so advantageous as I wish it rather done then disputed on For first it setleth a firm Peace between both the Kingdoms which is a matter of greater importance then they seem to apprehend who so much oppose it Secondly Traffick will thereby be established and increased when the Seas by a concurrence of both Kings shall be scoured of Turks and Pyrats Thirdly The Kingdom will be again stored with Treasure and Coyn provided we keep it lockt up within our Four Seas and not suffer so much of it to be offered daily to that Idol of Cambaia Fourthly The Crown will be disengaged from a burdensom weight of Debts and by consequence the Subject likely to be much eased in matter of Contribution and Taxes Adde hereunto the renewing and confirmation of the ancient Treaties with the House and Dukes of Burgundy which is not to be reckoned as a Cypher in the business and what it is to have so great a Monarch as the King of Spain a firm friend and ally England very well knoweth It is true the Kingdom was never so full of Money as it was by spoils and depredations betwixt the years 1576. and 1590 but how dear those purchases might have cost us wise men saw if God who had determined to give the Crown of this Nation to her issue who suffered both disgrace and death here for his glory had not made both Winds and Sea at that time to fight for England Lastly Virginia a Colony of ours tenderly to be regarded shall hereby settle her Staples and Mart and adâ—â—nce their Trade by a much safer passage and entercourse with the Islands But to me it is above all arguments That this Match is so much for the Honor Safety and Commodity of Prince Charls which every true Patriot I conceive is bound in conscience to further and advance But thus we shall be said to leave Holland in the bryars an old and assured Friend and of power upon all occasions to assist the Realm God grant the Prince never stand in need of them And for our selves we may remember how small furtherance nay rather how great hinderance they have been to the Traffick of this Realm and what great losses and damage our Merchants have sustained by their means in the Indies Muscovy and Greenland I need not tell you how chargable a Neighbor they have been nor how unsure a Friend ever prefering France before England and yet notwithstanding the Favors which they may still receive at his Majesties hand are neither few nor small if themselves by inconsiderate courses deserve not otherwise But what cause do they pretend who murmur so much against Spain They object the Sin the Curse the disparagement to Match with a Catholike Have they any reason for that Yes Because the Jews were not permitted to marry with the Ammonites nor Religious persons with the profane But that is an opinion which relisheth too much of Judaism and the Talmud the Bar is removed we are now under the Law of Grace both Jews and Gentiles Circumcision and Uncircumcision in Christ are united and made one and incorporated into one Body his Church It is true the Jews might not marry out of their Tribes because the promise was made to Abraham and his Seed therefore his Seed was not to be stained with impure blood or a commixture of Paganism But now the promise being already performed that Judicial Law is abrogated Yea say they but still it sheweth that God is not well pleased when his children mix with superstitious people True But who are the Superstitious and of which side is the true Religion We know that is a question and will be But this is out of question That they are both of them Christians both are Baptized into that blessed Name both lay hold on the promises on the Testaments on the Gospel both pray the same Pater Noster both confess the same Creed yea both reverence the first Four general Councels of the Church Who indeed is the Catholike is Filius Christi of the surer side by reason of the Mother Church and of the elder House But is it indeed so strange a thing that a Protestant should marry a Catholike not to speak here of Queen Elizabeths Treaty with Mounsieur which yet how far and fairly it was proceeded in by both parties Camd. in Elizab. our famous Camden shews at large Did not Henry King of Navar a Protestant and the Protector of the Protestant Churches in France marry with the French Kings Sister a Catholike Thuanus lib. It was propter bonum publicum as this is for publike tranquillity and peace sake and therefore did the Elders and Consistory of Genevah so much as check or reprove him for it nay did they not allow it The same King afterward matcheth his own Sister an earnest Protestant to the Duke of Lorrain Thuanus lib. who is known to be a Prince no less earnestly Catholike and a Champion of the Catholike Church in France Nay did not Lewis himself the Prince of Conde and Protector in chief of the Hugenot party when time was apprehend with great desire the overture of a marriage with Mary Thuanus lib. Leslae hist Scot. in Mariâ Stuartâ Queen of Scotland and which certainly had taken effect had not the Admiral for his particular interests laid blocks in his way But above all others it is memorable and by us Englishmen not unfit to be considered what a bloody quarrel it was made Goodwins Annals in Ed. 6. that King Edward the Sixth who was a Protestant King and the first that ever was known
of the Leaguers That if they obeyed not they should repent it And yet again at Spires he labored to have prevailed with them by fair means but thither the Duke being grown more jealous and fearful of Caesar would not come However by this course which the Emperor constantly held towards them you may see how unwilling he was to disturb the Peace or to begin the War and how inexcusable they were that rejected so often the offers of accommodation But beside this if I should relate the malice and contempt they used to him you might well think they ought not to have expected the least degree of mercy from him in case they should fall into his hands as it hapned they did For in all their publike Letters they vouchsafed him no other Title then Charls of Gaunt Surius in Chron. usurping the name of Emperor whereby they renounced all obedience to him and so far as in them lay deposed him Which was an indignity the meanest Prince of them all would not have accounted sufferable in his own person I must not forget that the Landsgrave did usually both by Letters and Messages with no little bravery and confidence assure the Princes and Towns of the League that within three moneths they would force Charls to flie out of Germany and leave the Empire to them But how then did their pretences hang together that this League was made onely se defendendo and for their Lawful Protection Surely they aimed at some thing more when they talked of expelling the Emperor out of Germany As they also did when they solicited the Kings of France England Denmark the Hans Towns and Swisses to joyn with them and dishonorably abused him by many foul and infamous aspersions It is true France indeed though his enemy at that time nobly denied them Denmark lingred expecting the success neither was King Herry forward though his great Counsellor and Favorite Cromwel sollicited their business diligently and was so forward as to promise an hundred thousand Crowns for their aid At which time Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Westminster and Sir Philip Hobby were the Kings Ambassadors with the Emperor and by that occasion witnesses of the whole Tragedy And yet a little further to disprove their proceedings by Law Let us remember first the Decree at Worms above mentioned which as Gail the Lawyer hath told us in the case of publike Peace obligeth all persons alike Let us remember the Decree of Maximilian the First Emperor about the year 1500. in these words Consentientibus Statuum Ordinum votis c. By the general consent of the Princes and States of the Empire an Edict or Constitution was published necessary for publike Peace called in the Language of the Empire Landtfrieden By which Constitution Proscription or Banishment was adjudged to all such as disturbed the publike Peace by force of Arms Gailius de Pace lib. 1. c. 14. which Gail further explains to this sense Omnia Bella c. All War saith he made without consent of the Prince and Commission from him upon private revenge or quarrel onely is adjudged unlawful And Cap. 5. In crimen laesae Majestatis incurrit c. He commits high Treason saith he whosoever within the Empire raiseth Arms but by the Emperors Authority and Commission because he usurps to himself that which is the proper Prerogative Imperial Yea Lib. 1. tit 190. their own Goldastus confesseth it to be ancient Law Nemo intra Imperii fines c. That no man presume to gather Soldiers within the bounds of the Empire but by consent of the Prince of that respective Circle where he is and that he give sufficient Caution to the State that he intends not to attempt any thing against the Emperor or against any of the States of the Empire Tom. 2. And in another place he alledgeth a Decree of Ludovicus Pius against the King of the Romans and his Confederates as guilty of High Treason for attempting against the Emperor The like also of Henry the First against Arnulphus Duke of Baviere who rebelled against him and of Otho the First against Ludolphus King of the Romans and lastly of Maximilian the First against Emicho Earl of Lingen whom he proclaimed Traytor confiscated his Lands and Estate and gave them to other Princes of the Empire onely for going to serve the French King in his Wars though out of the Empire contrary to his Proclamation And as for the Imperial Towns which confederated with these Princes there is as little to be said for them For it is a Maxim of Law recorded by Gail Vbi supra that Civitatum Imperialium solus Imperator est dominus That the Emperor onely is Lord of the Imperial Cities and not their several Magistrates And that they pretended their Liberties in this case against the Emperor to no purpose And for Luther who was the primum mobile and cheif wheel of all these motions or rather the malus Genius that Fury which agitated the people and stirred them up to all these disorders if the Princes and Towns were thus guilty he could not be innocent If the Flock did erre the Shepherd which led them was to blame I shall not here charge him again with any small faults I will not accuse him of belying Caesar most impudently when he wrote to his friend thus Wormatiam ingressus sum In Epist I entred Worms saith he at a time when I knew that Caesar would not keep Faith with me Nor of his traducing or vilifying that most Fundamental Constitution of the Empire in Aureâ Bullâ making it one of the cheif miracles which Antichrist was to work viz. The translating of the Empire from the Greeks to the French in the person of Carolus Magnus Turesel Epitom lib. 6. p. 204. which was done by Pope Leo the Third Nor of his usurping upon the Emperor and Temporal Governmâ—nt in those pretended Laws of his which he published concerning the Publike Exchequer and how he would have Church-Lands and Abby-Lands to be disposed when he and the Princes should be Masters of all It shall be enough that I say He first counselled the Princes to take Arms and oppose Caesar in his quarrel and this Sleydan himself acknowledgeth And that all his Preaching and all his endeavors were to overthrow the Ecclesiastical Electors whose Dignities and Estates being established by the Aureâ Bullâ it was Treason or Sedition in the highest degree so to do The three Ecclesiastical Electors are three Chancelors of the Empire and in respect of their Regalities immediately subject to the Emperor so as there lieth no appeal from them to the Pope but to the Emperor and Chamber at Spires Luther therefore contriving their ruine attempted treacherously to pull the fairest Flowers out of the Imperial Crown Neither could he effect the suppression of them but he must undermine and endanger the State of the Temporal Electors also who as links of the same chain must necessarily
Epistle to Conradus Sonnius Lib. 4. p. 868. he professeth That obedience or respect is due unto Caesar onely upon condition viz. That he permits them entire Liberty of Religion which yet is more then the Lutherans themselves their pretended Brethren will do Otherwise saith he it should be sin in them and make them guilty before God to obey him Thus boldly doth a Minister of Sedition take upon him to determine whether and upon what terms a Sovereign Prince yea the supream and cheif of all Christian Princes shall either hold his Dignity or be dethroned If Caesar will be wise and advised by them they will obey otherwise they not onely may with Justice but are obliged to take a course with him To which end and that they might be ready when time and opportunity should serve their turn to put such Doctrine in execution in his Epistle to them of Vlm Lib. 4. p. 196. one of the Imperial or free Cities of Germany as they are called he adviseth the fraternity of Ministers there very properly viz. That they remember by little and little warily and by degrees Detrahere personam Imperio Romano c. To pull of this vizor of the Roman Empire from their Auditory and make them see what a folly it is for them to acknowledge a Roman Empire in the midst of Germany which is not regarded at Rome it self Could there be a project devised more wretchedly dangerous and disloyal then this against the Emperor O the depths of Heretical malice and treachery They must do it not suddenly not openly not all at once for that were to spoil all but sensim paulatim prudentèr now a little and then a little as the people shall appear capable of such Counsels and the poyson of Rebellious suggestions shall be most likely to be received and to work upon them Certainly a most plain and full discovery of the Reforming Design and by it the Princes and all States of Europe may see what they are to expect from that sort of people when they have once given them power enough to pull their Superiors down Having thus declared the Principles and Apliorisms of this great Triumvirate of the French Church viz. Zuinglius Calvin and Beza those Ecclesiastical Tribunes of the people and Ring-leaders of Rebellion I am now to make it appear also ex effectis or by the evident practise of such principles That Genevah is and hath been a School of Rebellion to all these parts of Christendom and a Seminary in particular of all the Civil Wars in France Neither shall I blot their names with any false aspersions For as their practise is the best Commentary of their Positions and Writings so it is the best tryal of their Loyalty and can give in best evidence whether they be as they will yet pretend and seem to be good Patriots and faithful Subjects I shall shew both their first beginnings progress and continuance at this present time and this so much as may be in a method ordering their disorderly crimes under these general heads viz. First Their Conspiracies against the King Secondly Their Battles fought against the Kings Armies and Officers And thirdly Their horrible Outrages and Villanies committed incomparable for cruelty and incredible for disloyalty The first of their Conspiracies taken notice of was that of Ambois there they began the Scene of their Tragedy on this maner At an Assembly they had at Nantes in the year 1560. certain of the Calvinists conspired among themselves to seize the Kings person and surprize the Court to apprehend the two principal of the Guises upon an accusation That they sought to invade and possess themselves of the Crown and thereby to ruine the Princes of the Blood and to suppress Religion This being secretly yet upon great deliberation concluded by them in the Moneth of January was to be executed the Tenth of March following at Blois The cheif of the Conspiracy was Godfrey de Barry sirnamed de Renaudy By this man it was imparted to the Prince of Conde who disliked it not but onely wished it could be executed in some form of Law While they stood thus at Demurrer the business hapned to be strangely and beside all their expectation discovered first by a Secretary of the Cardinal of Lorrains afterward by more perfect Intelligence and Information from Cardinal Granvellan out of the Low Countries Whereupon the King suddenly removing to Ambois the Conspirators were disappointed both of time and place so as the forces which they had levied and appointed for that exploit wandered up and down for some while without any Commander in Cheif appearing and were in a short space after most of them apprehended and gathered up by the Duke of Nemours his Troops among others there were taken the Baron of Castelnau and Monsieur Pardillan Mons Castelnau Comment Renaudy the General was slain and some others executed The Duke of Guise in the mean time providently took order for the safety of the King and the Court and so assured himself of the person of the Prince of Conde that he had not power to attempt any thing to their prejudice He was afterwards committed upon this business yea condemned to loose his head Yet nevertheless Charls the Ninth upon some politick Reasons of State and because he was so neer a Kinsman and a Prince of the Blood not onely gave him enlargement but for his honor and to assure his fidelity the more if that had been possible he acquitted him also and declared him innocent of the Conspiracy This was the first attempt of the Calvinists for Religion and Bonum Publicum Their second should have been executed at Meaulx upon the person of Charls the Ninth in the year 1567. But by the noble service of the Duke of Nemours and of the Switzers the King though with some difficulty escaped Their purpose was here as before to have possessed themselves of the Kings person and of the Duke of Anjou his Brother to have put the Queen-Mother with some others marked out to death but as I said by the valor and fidelity of the Duke of Nemours with the aid of the Switzers they recovered Paris by a sudden flight in the night and so were all saved Onely the Cardinal of Lorrain a person whom they principally desired to entrap was forced to take another way yet he made shift to get privately to Rhemes and there died A third was at St. Germans in lay against both King and Queen-Mother for which although onely Mole and Coconas lost their heads through the ill management of the business yet were there so many heads and hands both engaged in it That it was matter of great trouble disquiet and danger unto France for a long time after And this onely of their Conspiracies or of such Treacherous designs as never went further then Intention To inform you of their open and actual Rebellions in the Field where they sought by force of Arms and with
onely to preserve what remained but also to repair and make up his decayed Estate There factions were ripened to their full Maturity and the place so fortified both by nature and art that till he should be able to appear in Action to the World and fight he might lie secure and write Apologies encourage seditious people abroad and settle his new Religion at home which although at first and from his Father it was Lutheran yet after he had been in France he Professed rather to favor Calvinism providently and wisely foreseing as he was a man that wanted no insight into Worldly affaires of this nature that they viz the Calvinists were to be his neerest and surest Neighbors All which practises and courses of his notwithstanding with the injustice of them being well discerned at last by the States of Artois and Henault when they were in the year 1579. reconciled to the King with the assent of the most Honorable Duke of Areschot they binde themselves in the Fifth Article of Agreement to prosecute the War against the Prince of Orange as the Enemy general of the peace of those Countries and to finde at their own charge Eighteen thousand men for that purpose which certainly being Persons of such Religions and right Noble quality as 't is known they were and of so great experience in all the passages and pretences of Orange they would never have done if they had not known both him and his practises to be very bad I confess that the Hollanders are a people very industrious and skilful to make use of their labor but yet of such a temper that as a Learned Censor saith of them Nec totam libertatem Thuâ—n Nec totam servitutem patiuntur They endure not well either absolute Liberty which makes them insolent nor absolute Servitude which makes them mad Friends they are somewhat too much to change and not always content with the present State which would appear more then it doth but that their mindes are now wholly set upon their Trade and profit wherein finding much sweet by their successes at home and abroad they are extreamly jealous of any thing that sounds but to the least obstruction of either of them The Prince of Orange therefore understanding their natures very well and to feed this jealous humor of theirs with fit matter discovers a certain secret Counsel to them which he pretended Henry the Second King of France had taken with the Duke d' Alva to suppress the Protestants by force of Arms and to erect the Seventeen Provinces into one Kingdom and this the French King himself should tell him at his being in France But first was it so likely the Duke would discover such a secret of his Master to an Enemy newly or scarce reconciled Beside King Henry dying suddenly as he did by mischance there was now no body living to disavow the imposture but D' Alva onely and him he was sure the people would not be over hasty to beleeve He was the first also that gave out that factious and stale Calumny against the Emperor and King of Spain That they should affect a Monarchy Universal over all Europe which forgeries how palpable soever yet they served his turn thus far viz. to terrifie the Hollanders to make them rely still upon him and to procure some distrust and hatred in Forreign Nations against the Spaniards and house of Austria This upon the matter is the whole charge and all that can be objected against the King from the very beginning as I have related it and these the Actors which prosecuted the business against whom what exceptions may be taken for their Estimation Integrity Testimony especially in their own cause every man may see It remains that we enquire a little whether the King stood guilty of those Crimes which they charged upon him Injustice and Tyranny For if he be innocent these men were grand usurpers if guilty another question will arise whether his error in Government will give them title and his offence free them from Subjection It is manifest to all the world that the King ever desired peace and with great care so far as in him lay labored to prevent the desolation of his people and Countries as the course that was taken by that excellent and most loyal Prince the Duke of Areschot and by the States General at Gaunt in the year 1574 do testifie When they found it requisite to decree and did decree a general Amnestia or Oblivion of all things past on both sides and took order for the dismission of the Spaniards Notwithstanding that in this pacification all things were in a maner referred to the States and the King scarcely so much as mentioned yet Don John did ratifie it and procured the Kings consent for the confirmation of all as appears by the perpetual Edict This agreement was made by the States General of the Provinces and for the general good and quiet of them yet would not the Prince of Orange Holland nor Zealand accept of it They perswaded the States General not to receive Don John for Governor till the Spaniards were gone although themselves refused at that very time to dismiss those Forreign forces which they had in Holland that is to say They would binde the Governor to perform promise but they themselves must be at liberty to break Was it for Religion they did dissent that can hardly be said For in the Articles of Agreement there was provision made for their security in that point by this Article Vt sola Romana religio in iis exerceatur exceptâ Hollandiâ Zelandiâ Roman Religion was to be exercised onely in the other Provinces but Holland and Zealand were excepted And for the Prince himself in the general Amnestia he had as absolute indempnity offered and assured him as could be imagined if that had been all he had sought And the States had prevailed more in his behalf then the Emperor could But Malice and Ambition transported him still and the more His Majestie gave assurance of his desires of Peace the more he prepared and was inclined to War wherein yet the World did never count him a Hannibal This appeared yet more plainly in the colloquy at Breda in the year 1575. where the King offered reasonable conditions and the Emperor had sent the Count Swartzembergh to perswade them to concord yet the Prince would listen to nothing the Treaty was fruitless and at the same time the Hollanders were Treating by their Agents Jean Peâ—tit Aldegund and Douza to submit themselves to the Queen of England Yet notwithstanding all this which the King knew well enough such was his patience and royal goodness and so far was he from the baseness of Tyranny towards him or any other that he proclaimed not Orange Traytor till the year 1580 that is till his malice appeared to be irreconcileable and his courses desperate and that the Trayterous Vnion of Vtrecht was framed and published which is about
we see well enough it had been in other cases of this Nature Neither in King Edward the Sixths time nor against the Kings of Scotland Denmark Sweden Duke of Saxony Marquis of Brandenburgh or any other Protestant Prince was there ever any such sentence issued to this day Whereupon Father Pâ—rsons and Father Campian procured some kinde of mitigation concerning it presently after the publishing and Pope Gregory following declared That the Subjects of England ought to perform all duties to Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the censures So little reason is there in truth that Protestants should clamour so loud as they do and cry out nothing but Treason Treason against religious and good men who as they have no other business so come they hither for no other end but to do them good and so far as lieth in their power and office to save their souls They tell the world that no less then two hundred Priests have been executed in England for Treason since the times of Reformation which is certainly a very heavy report and sufficient to make them odious to all the world if it were true or that there were any thing in it but fallacie and aequivocation of words whiles they call that Treason in England which in all parts of Christendome besides is both called and counted Religion and the highest Vertue For we beseech them to tell us of what Treason do they convict us at any time but the Treason of being a Priest the Treason to say Mass the Treason to refuse the Oath the Treason to absolve Penitents confessing their sins the Treason to restore men to the Communion of the Church the Treason to Preach and Administer Christs Sacraments the Treason to be bred up in the Seminaries that is in such places where onely as things now stand in England thâ—y can be Catholikely bred and fitted for such Christian imployment What actual and real Treason is in England according to the true sâ—nse and notion of that crime â—dious both to God and man the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. will inform us better then any other being enacted when the whole Kingdom was of one mind and of one judgement as all Christian Kingdoms and Societies ought to be not rent nor overborn by factions and parties undermining and supplanting one another by indirect and undue meanes as it was when these new Statutes of Treason were made By that Statute and by the opinions of the most learned Judges in England Ploydon Stamford c. Treason must alwayes be some Action or Intention actually discovered not an opinion onely or a profession of Religion And this is the reason why Sir John Oldcastle Stow. one of Mr. Fox his Martyrs in the Reign of Henry the Fifth mentioned before though he were both Traytor and Heretike yet for his Treason he was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another as also were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time Secondly it must be some Act or Intention discovered of a subject prejudicial to his Sovereign or to the State where he lives But what hurt had ever I say not Queen Mary Henry the Eighth while he stood right Henry the Seventh or any other Catholike Prince but even Queen Elizabeth her self King James or any other Protestant Prince by a Priests saying Mass absolving of Penitents preaching of sound Doctrine to them and particularly of all due and just obedience to Civil Magistrates as they have ever constantly done Therefore by the common Laws of England and in it self it is not it cannot be Treason or criminous to be a Priest to say Mass Absolve c. But onely by Statute Laws it is made so upon temporary and present occasions and for certain politick ends which men have projected of themselves and which they are resolved to follow And therefore also it is by the very Statutes themselves provided 22. and 27. Elizab. That if a Priest conforms be content to go to Church to renounce the Pope or his Orders c. he becomes ipso facto without more ado Rectus in Curia and is actually discharged of all imputation of Treason no further proceedings lie against him Yea even at the very place of Execution and when the instruments of death are upon him yet still 't is in his own power if he please in three words to pardon himself and frustrate the expectation of so many eyes as are commonly waiting to see his last Exit Let him but say I will conform or I will swear c. Ther 's no man living dares meddle with him further Which is far otherwise where the offence is judged to be Treâ—son indeed and really prejudicial to the Prince or State But the fatal resolution being taken to change Religâ—on upon a principle or pretended reason of State as false as the Counsel it self was evil viâ— That otherwise the Queen could not be secure either of her Kingdom or Life it was necessary to take a severe course with those men whose Function obliged them to maintain True Religion and to endeavour to reduce things again into the old State From this root also sprang their extream jealousie and hatred of the Queen of Scots For she being Heir Apparent to the Crown after Queen Elizabeth and a Princess zealously affected unto Catholike Religion and so strongly Allied in France Those Statesmen who had contrived and wrought all the alterations here could never think themselves secure so long as her head stood upon her shoulders Therefore was she first invited into England upon pretence of Friendship and for Safety But when she was here used with so much unkindness and kept under restraint for little less then twenty years together that at last in order to procure her Liberty she was indeed provoked to doe something which it was easie for them who loved her not to interpret to be Treason and so they cut off her head From hence also sprung those continual injuries and practises of much ingratitude against the King of Spain The intercepting of his Treasure The holding of his Towns The ayding of Orange and the States as hath been said Lastly from this onely Source and Fountain of unjust Policie sprung all those laws of severity and bloud against Recusants as we are commonly called viz. of Twenty pound a moneth of Two third parts of Estate against Hearing Mass against Harbouring a Priest against Being reconciled c. It is well known the Recusants of England against whom those Laws were made were generally persons in all degrees of the Noblest quality in this Nation Vertuous Grave Wise Charitable Just and Good men of fair and friendly Conversation towards all I shall not say Loyal to their Prince because the contrary is so commonly beleeved Stow. yet our own Chronicles will not altogether deny them right in that regard while they testifiâ— how diligent and forward they were to offer their service to the Queen and State even in that great Action of Eighty eight Neither were
ready to second him yea perceiving that some of the greatest Princes in Germany were content though for other ends not onely to give him hearing but incouragement also in his proceedings the mans ambitions and vain conceipts of himself were infinitely raised above his first projects Whereupon as a man sick in his spirits and of a fiery disease he begins now to rage against and to defame all Church Government he abandons his Cloyster throws of his habit breaks yea tramples upon his vows renounceth all obedience to his Superior Preacheth against the whole State of the Clergy and especially against the Superiority of the Bishop of Rome which was ever unto this time held Sacred in matters Ecclesiastical as against a Tyranny in the Church perswading the people not to render any kinde of obedience to them The Pope himself whom yet not long before and since the beginning of the difference he had honored with the title of Christs Vicar and protested unto him very much humble Reverence and obedience he now calls Sathanissimum Papam Messire Asino The Prelates he calls Blinde guides the Religious men Swine Candles put under a Bushel and what not And why think you Preacht he all this Because forsooth otherwise the people should live in darkness still in the shadow of death still be fed and misled by ignorant and blinde guides still remain in ignorance and in the Captivity of Babylon This Prologue having gained him attentive Auditors he begins the Tragedy which was afterwards acted as you shall hear with such incredible Sedition and Tumults His whole study was now bent to undermine the Church and to abolish all Ecclesiastical order which by consequence was of necessity to shake the Foundations and hazzard the State it self Yea this humor fed him with such vain and extravagant hopes That he imagined to conquer the whole World and to subdue the Pope himself whom he was the first that ever absolutely affirmed to be that Antichrist Man of sin and deceiver of the World whom the Apostle mentioneth 2 Thes 2. He was the more encouraged in these proceedings for that now 1519. Maximilian the Emperor was dead whose power and wisdom he had great cause to dread and that Charls the Fifth was chosen to succeed him Surius in Chron. a yong Prince not fully Twenty years of age whom therefore he vainly hoped he should be able to perswade to subdue the Popes power to keep his own Court at Rome and make the Castle of Saint Angelo subject to his commands and that by the assistance of such an Emperor Martin should be able to reform the Church and cast it into what mould he pleased especially seeing John Frederick the Elector and old Duke of Saxony was already his sure Friend and Patron who for his strength riches alliance and other abilities was far Superior to any other Prince of the Empire Hereupon therefore fiâ—st of all he proclaims as it were open war and defiance to all the Bishops and Ecclesiastical State of Germany endeavoring what he can to weaken their authority to abrogate their power yea to make them odious and contemptible to the whole World Therefore in his Book intituled Câ—ntra Statum Ecclesiae Tom 2. oper Latin Jenae falsò nominatum ordinem Episcoporum He sends out a Bull against the said Bishops in these words Attendite vobis Episcoporum umbrae Hearken saith he or rather Look to your selves ye Mock-Prelates ye Bishops in shew or shape onely Doctor Luther intends to read you a lesson which he thinks will not be much pleasing to your tender ears as indeed it was not likely it should be For after a short Exhortation he gives advise what his godly Auditory should do well to see performed viz. To this horrible intent or purpose Quicunque opem ferunt bona famam sanguinem impendunt Whosoever saith he will venture their Lives their Estates their Honor and their Blood in so Christian a work as to root out and destroy all Bishops and Bishopricks which are the Ministers of Satan and to pluck up by the Roots all their Authority and Jurisdiction in the World Hi sunt dilecti filii Del c. These yea these are the true children of God and obey his Commandments And again in his Book against Sylvester Prieras Tom. 1. oper Latin Wittemberg Si fures furcâ latrones gladio haereticos igne tollimus If saith he we dispatch common Felons with a halter Malefactors at the block and Hereticks by fire Cur non magis hos magistros perditionis As for these sons yea masters of perdiâ—ion these Bishops Cardinals Popes c. Why should we not fall upon them with open force and not cease till we have bathed our hands in their blood Was there ever such an Incendiary heard Preach But Objicient saith he going on periculum esse Perhaps some body will be telling us it may cause Tumults and Sedition in the common people Tush saith he I answer must the Word of God be prohibited and the people perish for fear of Tumults The two Mar-Prelates of England and Scotland were not possessed with such a spirit as this and though they were mad enough yet they came not up to such a height of fury Let the Lawyers therefore judge Brunus Minsinger Gail whether this Sermon and Proclamation of Luthers would not bear an Action of Sedition and Conspiracy and whether it were consistent with the Laws and Peace of the Empire any more then it was with the duty of a good man For hereby was the people taught and encouraged when they should be able to pull down and destroy those principal Pillars in the State of Germany viz. The Archbishops of Mentz Colen and Triers the Primate of Magdeburgh the Archbishop and Prince of Saltzburgh the great Master of Prussia the Bishop of Wurtzburgh Bambergh and many others who beside their Spiritual Relations which were so eminent in the Church had also a voice and place in the Imperial Dyet and thereby a great influence and hand in the Government of Germany Can this be avowed to be the act of a dutiful or loyal Subject of the Eâ—pire Doâ—h any Law Reason or Example warrant it in Civil Government That a private man himself a Subject of himself alone should attempt thus insolently against the chief Magistrates and Princes of the Country where he lives That a Sheep should presume to depose the Shepherds And by such wicked suggestions stir up Insurrections and Rebellion against persons of so eminent quality both for Place and Calling Nor did he ever cease or give over these Preachings till out of Saxâ—ny Hess and Wittemberg yea generally out of all places where his Seditious Doctrine prevailed he had expulsed or procured to be expulsed the very name as well as the Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops Neither staid he here but as fury and success lead him proceeded further Cochlaeus in act Luther At Wittemberg he took upon him to burn not
seditious and scandalous as it can never be sufficiently detested Then to give out to the world and publish in Print as it were in open scorn and contempt of all authority That a wise and good Prince was as rarely found as a black Swan that commonly Kings and Princes be the most doting Fools or wickedst Knaves in the World and that they are such a Reprobate crew as there is scarce a place in Heaven for them what is it but by such epithets and execrable boldness to bring Majesty it self and all Governments into contempt to take the Crown from Princes Heads and to expose Magistracy and the just preheminencies thereof without which no Government could long subsist to the malice contempt yea fury too of the meanest of the people But you will say perhaps he used his own Princes with more respect Something to be added here from Page 87. of the Book and all this was said to Catholike that is Popish Princes and his Enemies Well admit it were so that they were Popish Princes yet were they Magistrates notwithstanding and at least in as good capacity as Nero and those others Rom. 13. to whom St. Paul commands every soul to pay obedience and honor yet were they the Lieutenants of God upon earth they had the Image that is the Authority of God upon them and for that Image sake were to be used with due reverence They had the Laws the Customs the Constitutions of the Empire on their side they were not his Enemies further then his irregularities and offences together with their own duty obliged them to be so Neither is it true that he used his own Princes of the House of Saxony much better Surely as for Duke George of Leipsig his bitterness and incivility towards him was notorious calling him The Apostle of Satan Surius Anno 1533. Enemy of the Gospel Murtherer Tyrant and what not Last of all styling him with a most scurrilous kinde of contempt Illustrissima inclementia vestra Your most Illustrious Surliness And as for the Prince Elector himself his Grand Patron and Protector old John Frederick Duke of Saxony it was not possible he should scape without some dirt in his face as well as the rest For whereas the Duke had granted Commission to certain persons viz. unto John Psaumitz a Nobleman Jerome Schurffius a Lawyer Philip Melancthon Hawbitz and others to make a visitation of Saxony which themselves had filled with disorders Luther was much offended at this and therefore when they returned their Commission and made report of things he took occasion to shew his scorn and contempt of their proceedings arrogantly enough Trotz quoth he A fig for these visitors they have done nothing and all this because himself was left out of the Commission That was it which vext his ambitious soul so as he could not hold but must discover himself in his very Sermons Nescio quâ de causâ I cannot tell Serm. in Dominicâ Intravit saith he why the Prince should neglect me in this business But because he was neglected see how he takes it and what respect he professeth to the Orders agreed upon in that Visitation Lib. cont Ambros Catharin Si licet mihi decretales Papae Is it lawful for me saith he for Christian liberties sake not onely to neglect but to contemn and trample under my feet the Popes Decrees the Canons of Councels the Laws and Mandates of the Emperor himself and of all Princes Vestrasne res gestas c. And think you saith he I shall value your Orders so much as to take them for Laws No I warrant you himself must and will be judge always what is fit to be Law Neither the Duke nor his Commissioners must prescribe rules to him further then his own humor pleaseth And therefore whereas the Duke had once presumed to forbid him writing any thing against the Archbishop of Mentz because he being so great a Prelate and a Prince Elector of the Empire it might occasion some publike disturbance speaking of this to Spalatinus a famous Lutheran Loc. Com. Class 4. cap. 30. and great friend of his What saith he Non feram quod ais non passurum principem c. I cannot endure saith Luther that you should say The Prince will not suffer me to write against him of Mentz nor that the publike Peace should be broken rather then this shall be I will loose both thee and the Prince too Potius te principem ipsum perdam if I translate him well Si enim Creatori ejus Papae c. For saith he seeing I have resisted his Maker the Pope I will not surely submit now to his Creature No Spalatinus no that shall never be And thus much of Luthers personal doctrine and spirit by which you may sufficiently judge of the man and perceive how contrary they were both of them person and doctrine unto the Peace and Established Government of the Empire We are next to see what Tragedy followed this Prologue and what effect such principles of Sedition as these had upon the people which indeed was very answerable to them For when as this Wilde Boar in the Church of God as he may be justly termed had broken down the Pale of Order and Discipline and the common people by his means had received such a pleasant new Gospel as taught them That they were exempted now from all Canons and Injunctions of the Church made to restrain licentiousness and disorder That true Christians were freed from the Captivity of Babylon that is from all such Constitutions and Ceremonies as they found burthensom or less pleasing to themselves That there was a more compendious way to Heaven lately found out then had been formerly thought upon that is to say By Faith onely with freedom from merits and all the burthen of good works That Rome was Babylon That Bishops had seduced them for a long time together That Religious men were Idolaters and all Princes that favored or protected them Tyrants That the Will of God was not to suffer the poor Commonalty any longer to bear so heavy a yoke and subjection under such oppressors when I say the common people had well drunk in and were become mad with these intoxicating doctrines of Sedition and Liberty no long time passeth but they rise in Arms make Insurrections and commit Outrages and Ryots all the Countries over Each man was a drum and firebrand to his Neighbor every one gave alarm to other to rise and root out so corrupt a Clergy and depose such unworthy Princes First of all the Boors and Peasants in Germany run together and make havock of all things in Swevia Franconia Alsatia and in many of the Imperial Towns also They in Franconia profess they take Arms to expel the Nobility out of Germany and to cut down those Oaks of the Church which stood in their way viz. The Bishops Archbishops and other Prelates to abolish the old Laws and to
establish others new in their stead The heads of these tumults and as it were Tribunes of the people were cheifly Thomas Muncer and Phifer his Comrade with one Christopher Schaplerus Muncer was a most audacious fellow and as some report of a Priest was become an Apostate He had been formerly Scholler to Carolstad Melancth in Hist Ana. yet Melancthon confesseth That he came also to Luthers Lectures which is not improbable seeing he acted some of his doctrines so much to the life In Alsatia he first began to Preach against the Pope yet dissented in many things from his Masters doctrine because as the Popes Laws were too severe so Luthers even in his opinion gave too much liberty There he also first preached against Mass and against the Baptizing of Infants because it was not expresly commanded in the Scriptures There he taught That Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary and that Magistrates did forfeit or loose all Authority so often as they committed Mortal sin and lastly That the people that is Cent. 15. p 445. such a rabble of the people as followed him tumultuously and without any lawful order might correct Princes when they offend This fellow to make his name and practices more reverenced by the people pretended as others did extraordinary vocation from God That what he did was by revelation and warrant of the Holy Ghost that he had received from God the Sword of Gideon cogere universum orbem as the Centurists write of him thereby to compel the whole World to acknowledge and set up the new Kingdom of Jesus Christ to fight for Israel and to depose Idolatrous Magistrates And with such phantastical pretences as these he made shift to draw into the Field infinite numbers of people of Franconia by whose help he won by force the strong Town of Winspurgh slew the Count Lodowick of Helphensâ—ein and either killed or captivated all the Noblemen of the Country whom they could encounter Besides they sacked and destroyed all Châ—rches Monasteries and Religious places where they came Insomuch Surius Chron. as Conradus Wimpin and other Authors affirm That in this onely Circle of the Empire they pillaged and spoiled neer upon Three hundred Monasteries Castles and Forts and yet these wretched people could pretend they took arms for edification Is it not likely they did so At last for want of Victuals and other necessaries as multitude and fury are seldom provident they were forced to divide their Camps so some of them marched towards the Dutchy of Wirtembergh where by Truchses General of the League of Swevia they were all put to the Sword or flight yet very great numbers of them remained still in Franconia Whereupon because their tumults and proceedings tended so manifestly to the dâ—struction of all State Laws and Gâ—vernment whatsoever at last John Frederick Duke of S xony who had before connived at Muâ—â—ers Pâ—eaching in Alstadt his Uncle Duke George of Leipsig together with the other Princes the Emperor himself being then in Spain joyned their forces and at Franckhuisen made a bloody slaughter and execution of those Peasants in their Camp where Muncer and Phâ—fer both were taken prisoners and executed and above a hundred thousand men lost their lives in these Tumults and Rebellion Yet could not such a fearful warning as this absolutely quiet their spirits For in Alsatia they made new uproars and above Twenty thousand of thâ—m were slain by the Count Palatine and Anthony Duke of Lorrain After this an other multitude of them put themselves in Arms at Petersheim in the Territory of Worms but were likewise dâ—feated and put to the Sword To conclude no part of the Empire was perfectly cleer from this plague of Conspiracy For as the Boors in the Country so in the Imperial Towns the common people would needs be reforming of Religion and removing of such Magistrates as did any way support the old At Erford they degraded and committed all the Officers of the Town at Franckford with more fury they spoiled the Churches banished the Clergy and put all the Authority and Government of the City into the hands of Twenty four Commoners they created all inferior Magistrates new made new Laws expelled the old Senators the whole Clergy not without much threatning and terror Surius in Chron. they selected and set forth Forty and seven Articles out of Luthers new doctrine which they decreed should be observed religiously and professed by all men they sent them also to their Brethren at Colen and Mentz who had attempted the like pranks there standing in Arms and being Masters of the several Cities for some days together but in the end failed In the Territory of the Bishop of Triers one Francis Sicking a private Lutheran yet out of his zeal and to comply as some say with the instigations of Bucer and others feared not to take up Arms and to invade in hostile maner the Country of that Bishop took by assault a strong place of the Princes own possession marched with his Army up to the very Walls of Triers with intention to besiedge it But as his cause was wicked and undertaken without any just ground of War so the success was answerable his forces being suddenly compelled to retire himself with many of his complices apprehended and attainted and their Lands confiscate Briefly and to give you the sum of all these mischeifs under one view This Inundation and as it were First fury of these Reformers of Germany was so general and violent that all Church-Goods whatsoever where they came became prey and booty to them Cathedral Churches were broken down and shamefully defaced Monasteries ransacked and robbed Bishops and Bishopricks spoiled as Magdeburgh for example the Seat of the Primate of Germany and a Prince of the Empire Breme Lu â—ck and no less then fourteen more beside So as the Imperial Chamber at Spires was for a long time after much disquieted and troubled with Actions Petitions and Complaints about those spoils the Emperor himself marvellously perplexed how to procure a Cessation of these disorders and to stop the Torrent of these Reformers Neither could he do it effectually till many years after viz. Anno 1544. when by an Edict he appointed Commissioners particularly to enquire in bona Ecclesiae invasa after all Church-Goods purloyned Till that time himself had his hands full and at some time more then enough to do to make resistance against their fury and to pacifie the troubles which continually grew upon him from these beginnings as will hereafter more clearly appear All which things are reported and testified to the World by Jo. Cochlaeus Jo. Cochlaei Acta Scripta Lutheri an Author beyond all exception whose writings out of which most of this hath been taken were published in Luthers life time and never yet challenged by any man of false play They are reported also generally by Pontanus Hortensius Surius Mountford Elorim Raemundus Flor. Raemundus de ortu
the Boors who made such havock for a while in Germany by their conspiracies and especially against the Clergy did not onely pretend the Gospel and the Liberty of the Gospel for their doings but did even appeal therein to Luther himself Ad Lutheri judicium prâ—vocaverant They appealed saith he to Luthers judgement Not to urge what Erasmus hath to this effect Hyperaspist advers Lutherum nor what Menno Simonius an Anabaptist acknowledgeth in his Book De cruce Christi Quà m sanguinolentas seditiones Lutherani c. What bloody Riots and Murthers the Lutherans have committed for some years past to maintain theâ—r Doctrine And as to that part of the Objection that Luther did reprove yea write against the Boors it is the poorest fallacy of all He did it but how With such calumniating and taxing of the Princes themselves as they could be little secured by his writing and the Boors as little discouraged He did it but when When it was too late when he could forbear no longer when he found himself generally censured and murmured at by the Nobility and better sort of people as an occasion at least if not an Instrument and Fautor of those mischeifs Lastly He did it but when When he saw the Boors go down that they were not likely to maintain their quarrel nor to go through with their work then indeed he left them in the Bryers wisely enough though they appealed to him though they used yea alledged his own Homilies and Sermons for what they did though they were all for Reformation all for Liberty all against the Church of Rome and against Bishops yea and that their very word in the Field was Vivat Evangelium Let the Gospel flourish Hitherto we have discoursed cheifly of Luthers doctrinal extravagancies and touched upon the evil practises or fruits thereof onely in such men as either for the privateness and meanness of their condition being all of them Boors Peasants and rude Country people or for the unsuccessfulness of their designs are generally disclaimed Such as neither Luther nor any of his followers will readily own I come now to give a further instance of the mischief which the doctrine and doings of this man brought upon Germany in a business which was publikely owned not by Luther onely but by many of the Princes themselves who for the defence of his new Doctrine and protection of his wretched person bandied themselves against the Emperor their Sovereign Lord and against the general body of the Empire of which they were both Members and Subjects and by the Publike Laws whereof themselves in that relation ought to have been governed The beginning proceedings and issue of which confederacy was briefly thus Old John Frederick Elector and Duke of Saxony the Landsgrave of Hessen with some others already caught with the Liberty and other advantages which they made of Luthers new doctrine besides an old and inveterate emulation in most of them against the House of Austria which then was and still is Imperial first enter a League at Smalcald which is a Town of Hessia upon the Frontiers of Saxony onely as they pretended for their own defence and to maintain their Religion and Liberties against such men as would invade or persecute them We must observe here first That the Religion spoken of was a Religion but then newly and privately taken up of themselves contrary to that which was publikely received and acknowledged in the Empire and by vertue or rather pretext whereof they were obliged to do and suffer to be done many things which were expresly contrary to the Constitutions of the Empire which Constitutions the Emperor together with themselves were by oath solemnly bound to observe and see observed In this League were also comprehended the Duke of Wittemberg and some of the Imperial Towns They renewed it again at Franckfort and after that again at Auspurgh confirming it with a general and solemn Protestation of what their opinions were in matter of Religion which Protestation being then exhibited unto the Emperor in their names the Title or Sirname of Protestants became thenceforward appropriate to that party After this viz. Anno 1536. Suspecting some opposition would be made against them by the Emperor and other States of Germany for such proceedings and not willing to be taken at unawares by him they bring viz. themselves first of all an huge Army into the Field commanded by the yong Duke of Saxony John Frederick his Father being dead and the Landsgrave of Hessen with resolution by force of Arms to finde or make themselves right as they called it The Duke of Wittemberg the Imperial Towns Auspurgh Vlm Strasburgh and Franckfort sent them aid The Count Palaâ—ine of the Rhine had levyed Two hundred horse for them but upon better thoughts revoked them when they were upon their march The Duke of Brunswick and his sons the Duke of Luneburgh the yong Marquess of Baden the Prince of Anhalt the Counts of Furstenburgh and Mansfield joyned with them either in person or power Surius in Chron. Their Army consisted of about Seventy thousand fighting men and among them Seven thousand and seven hundred at least were Horse they had an hundred and twelve Cannon and Field pieces with such an infinite quantity of all sorts of Provisions as gave them an assured hope and confidence of Victory The eyes of all Princes were upon this action and Germany it self trembled in expectation of the event and success of such an Army prepared as they saw to swallow up the Emperor if they could and to subvert the whole Government and Religion of the Empire I mean that Religion and Government which was then established and had stood so established many hundred years before the Fathers or Grand-fathers of any of those Princes now in Arms to destroy it were born The Emperor had onely God and a just cause on his side for his friends those I mean who openly and avowedly appeared for him were few viz. The King of the Romans his Brother the Duke of Bavaria and the Duke of Cleve For though Duke Maurice of Saxony followed him yet in regard of his affinity with the Landsgrave whose Son in law he was as also for his Religion being a Lutheran he could not but be suspected However it pleased God notwithstanding this huge Army of the Princes that the Emperor became Master of the Field with a most compleat and signal Victory yea which was an accident more rare the two Generals Saxony and Hessen both of them became prisoners and their whole Army was defeated The yong Duke of Saxony a person much honored and pittied had his life given him with some connivence for his Religion yet his impregnable Fort at Gotha was demolished and the Electorate with all the Lands thereunto belonging were bestowed by the Emperor upon Duke Maurice The like mercy for life was shewed the Landsgrave who after some time obtained his liberty also The Duke of Wittemberg for Two hundred
which is not a new Oath neither For the same in effect was taken long since by Carolus 4. Otho 1. and 3. and by Carolus Magnus which is a prescription every way good and indisputable The like profession also we finde made by those ancient and religious Emperors Theodosius Gratian Valentinian Justinian and others both in the Code and Novel Constitutions How therefore could the Emperor either maintain or suffer any other Religion in the Empire then that which he found already established and allowed by all his Predecessors declared by so many Councels continued so many Generations ratified by all the Imperial Dyets and lastly by his own Oath Beside did the Duke of Saxony or the Landsgrave when they were prisoners ever plead the Law on their side did they ever use any such argument any such excuse No they submitted absolutely and craved pardon for their lives from his hands to whom they were forfeited and how ridiculous also had the plea been For shall the Duke of Saxony take arms for the defence of Lutheranism and may not the Count Palatine of Rhine do the same in defence of Calvinism which yet the Lu herans will not endure or an Halberstat for Epicurism or a Muncer with his Boors for Anabaptism and so by Anarchy under pretence of Conscience and Liberties rend in peices the Empire and open the Ports of Germany to the Turk But to stop the mouth of Learned Ignorance I will discover more particularly and lay down the foundation of this great quarrel betwixt Caesar and the Confederate Princes and the legal order and method of proceeding which the Emperor constantly observed therein In the year 1521. The Emperor conferred personally with Luther at Worms and out of his special Grace and Benignity further required the Archbishop of Triers and the Elector of Brandenburgh to treat with him and perswade him to Conformity but perceiving him obstinate and resolved not to submit himself to any due Authority and finding that all his Course Books Sermons tended to nothing but Sedition and making further divisions among the people at last he made a Decree with the general consent of the States not to put him to death such was his mercy but to banish him the Empire wherein was shewn as appeared afterward by the event much more lenity then just providence In which Decree after the Causes and Reasons of such proceedings at large declared and set down he concludeth thus Mandantes de eorundem Statuum consensu sub crimine laesae Majestatis c. Commanding by and with consent of the said States under pain of High Treason and forfeiture of whatsoever Lands Principalities Goods or Priviledges holding of us and of the Sacred Roman Empire as also of Proscription or our Imperial Ban to be ipso facto incurred c. That neither you nor any any of you do presume to receive maintain or harbor the said Martin Luther c. And that ye burn all those his foresaid Heretical and Seditious Books And this Edict was directed to all the Electors Princes Imperial Towns and States Now can you imagine that the Duke of Saxony or the Landsgrave were exempted from this Edict or that the Emperor had not as full power to call them to account for their contempt of it as any inferior persons or otherwise that those Princes were the Ephori of Germany and might curb the Emperor himself if they saw cause Then certainly the Emperor of Germany were but a poor shadow of an Emperor a Titulus sine re indeed a matter of nothing but empty Title and it were true that which Bodin saith that Imperium in Imperio quaerendum est Jo. Bodin de Rep. A man might seek for an Emperor all the Empire over and not finde him Which yet by his leave is a gross error Well! The Duke of Saxony notwithstanding this Edict would maintain and protect Luther as he did at Alsâ—at a Town of his own in Turingia which place Luther with no small arrogance or impiety rather was wont to call his Pathmos and in the mean time changed Religion and established Lutheranism in all his own Dominions and at Smalcald as we said before entred a League against the Emperor for maintenance of it Which actions of the Duke that you may understand how directly they are against Law and Justice Andrew Gail that famous Lawyer shall tell you Gailius de Pace public c. 10. sect 36. Receptores bannitorum perinde puniantur c. The Receivors saith he of Outlaws or Banished persons are lyable to the same punishment that such people are and Domini Praediorum The Lords saith he of those places where they lurk are bound to deliver them up viz. To Justice And again Qui bannito commeatum annonam suppeditat He that supplieth an Outlaw with provision or victuals is ordinarily judged as a receivor Advers Heres lib. 1. c. 4. Brunus shall also tell you That in excommunicatis qui bannitis That the very entertainment of excommunicate and outlawed persons is criminal and lyable to punishment If you suppose that these Laws respected onely inferior receivors and that the Duke was free hear what Gail saith again Conditio Pacis publicae Lib. 1. c. 1. sect 9. c. An Edict for the publike Peace obligeth all persons in the Empire of what state condition or dignity soever as well the Princes themselves as the inferior peâ—ple yea saith he though it were published against some one or more of the Princes The Duke therefore not obeying the Law and knowing that the Emperor had oft written out of Spain that the Edict of Worms should be executed he aggravated his crime fearing the indignation of Caesar and thereupon took up arms and entred into the League as hath been said And yet notwithstanding after this League entred such was the lenity of Caesar that his Ambassador at Spires in the year 1529. offered the Confederates most equal and moderate terms of accord viz. No more then that utrinque ab omni injuriâ c. That henceforward both parties should abstain from doing injury to others and from all offensive language or reviling each other and that onely offenders against this agreement should be banished A man would think this were a reasonable offer from the Supream Magistrate to the Inferiors obnoxious both to him and the Law Yet was it rejected by the Confederates At Auspurgh again in the year 1530. the Emperor most graciously entertained the Duke and received a Petition from him with as much favor and indifferency as could stand with his honor And there again revived his Ambassadors motion at Spires that no further Innovations might be made no more Books published but that at least all things might abide in quiet State till the Seventeenth of May ensuing So much did his Imperial Majesty yeeld for Peace sake And yet the Duke rejected his motion which so much displeased the Emperor that he forbore not to tell him and the rest
of Conde and the Hugonots pretending it was not against the King but against an evil Counseller and to deliver themselves from the oppression of one who abused the Kings youth That same one was the Duke of Guise who being himself a stranger say they and hating the Nobility of France on purpose to oppress them of the Reformed Religion and to set the Crown on his own head in case the King should die armed himself into the Field c. That thereupon the Nâ—bles of France perceiving his malicious designs viz. To murder and destroy so many innocents took up Arms to defend themselves against such a Tyrant That for the Kings consent it was not to be expected nor as the case stood much to be regarded seeing he was in the hands of the Guises and had neither age to discern nor freedom to deny nor power to execute the Law Lastly say some Beza teacheth obedience to Magistrates in his Book De confess fid very largely Cap. 5. Sect. 45. and prescribeth no other remedy to private persons oppressed by a Tyrant but prayers and tears to amend their lives Touching the first point the Apologists will seem confident that this Battle of Dâ—eux was neither against Law nor the King and yet afterward confess that they understand not the Law of France nor the Circumstances of the War So they pretend certainty in a matter wherein they have not Science which is to beat themselves with their own weapon But was indeed that War neither against the King nor the Law Assuredly against them both as will appear by the Laws of Charls the Eighth 1487. of Francis the First 1532. of Francis the Second 1560. at Fountain Bleau which I shall cite hereafter in the case of Rochel and Montauban Secondly it is certain that Battle was not in King Francis his time but in the Reign of Charls the Ninth And after the death of King Francis all men not unacquainted with the proceedings of that time know full well that the House of Guise did bear no sway at Court the Duke was made as it were a stranger to the State the Queen-Mother the King of Navar and the Constable sate at the stern and ruled all Therefore it is not true that the King was in captivity under the faction of Guise nor true that the Duke armed himself into the Field for the Constable commanded in cheif he and the Marshal of Saint Andrews were the Kings Lieutenants and had the Kings Commissions to warrant what they did The Duke of Guise lead onely the Rear of the Army Mons Lanow's discourses Mons Mauvissier Comment and though it were his fortune to stand master of the Field and to win the day yet he had not any charge in the Battle but onely of his own Companies Thirdly Neither did the Princes of Bourbon take arms onely to deliver themselves from the oppre sion of Guise For if it were so why did they not lay down when they saw not the Duke of Guise but the Constable Montmorency coming against them armed no less with the Kings Authority then with his Forces to chastize them as Rebels The Constable was a man against whom they could pretend nothing he was the Honor of the Admirals House the Admirals Kinsman and his great friend especially when he was prisoner at Melun by commandment of Henry the Second He was now the Kings Vicegerent in the Field why did they not reverence him yea why did they themselves begin the fight why did they first affront and assail the Kings Army This therefore is but matter of meer pretext for Beza himself confesseth plainly This Field was fought to restore or establish their pretended Religion Vbi supra Fourthly Neither is it true that the Duke of Guise is a stranger in France Is he a stranger in France who is descended clearly from the Stock and Line of Charlemaign who is no stranger in France I wis Is he a stranger in France who is a Peer of France and Cosin-German to the Prince of Conde their Protector whose own Mother was Antonietta Princess of Bourbon whose Ancestors have enjoyed the greatest Offices and Honors in the Court of France Neither may we forget the great services they have done for the Crown of France at Rome at Metz Verdun Theonville and at Calice especially in a time when all Franâ—e was in mourning and distress too for the loss which Monsieur the Admiral had received at St. Quintins Lastly that dream viz. That the Duke should aspire to the Crown is the pitifullest of all a meer fable taken out of the Legend of Lorrain and other Libels of that time For how many Walls of Brass were betwixt him and it The King himself yong his Brothers yonger their Mother living the King of Navar their trusty and Noble Friend with the whole Nobility of France as they themselves acknowledge Was it not then a likely object for such a Strangers pretensions It being then apparently false That the King was in the hands that is under the power of Guise let us consider the last Proposition viz. That the Kings Commission which the Constable had and the Prince wanted and fought against at the Battle of Dreux was not much to be regarded because at that time the King had neither age to discern nor liberty to deny c. As for Liberty it is answered already And for age what if the King wanted age naturally in his politick capacity he did not We are to know a King hath two bodies or his person may be considered under a double capacity that of Nature and that of Policy His Body politick as it never dieth so it is never defective of Authority or Direction The acts of the Body politick be not abated by the Natural bodies access The Body politick is not disabled to govern by the non-age of the natural See 26. Lib. Assis Placit 24. where by Justice Thorps judgement the gift of a King is not defeated by his non-age In the Book of Assis tit droit placit 24. Anno 6. Ed. 3. for a Writ of Right brought by Edward the Third of a Manor as Heir to Richard the First the exception of non-age against the King was not admitted For though the Natural body dieth yet the Body politick which magnifieth and advanceth the quality of the Natural is not said to die So 4. Eliz The Leases of the Dutchy made by Edward the Sixth were resolved by all the Judges to be good though made in the Kings minority So though the Kings Body natural cannot discern or judge yet that disableth not the King that the acts of his Minority ordered by his Counsel and the Regent should be of no validity which their own Hottoman in his France-Gallia might have taught them And let them resolve us whether the Counsel and State of England would take it well if a Catholike should affirm as he might do much more truly that the change of Religion made
and liberties which they pretend were violated by the King They would have no Strangers rule or bear Office among them The Spaniards must be dismissed the Country and some new liberties granted viz. Liberty of Conscience and Toleration for Religion Thus were the names of Liberty and Religion made the Standard-bearers as it were to their future Commotions But let us concerning their several grievances As concerning the first that of the Inquisition the name is of greater Terror then the thing It was first devised upon a neceâ—sity against the Moors in Spain and upon experience of the use and benefit thereof continued And though I shall not commend any sign or proceedings that savor of cruelty yet I cannot condemn this because it addeth nothing to the punishment of Heresie which the Law did not inflict before but requires onely a more strict Execution of the Law and a more diligent course of examination to be used by the Inquisitors And certainly under God it hath been the chief Antidote which hath preserved Spain so well and so long free from the infection of heresies and from such dangerous and lasting tumults as do commonly follow them and wherewith the other Kingdoms of Europe have been generally embroyled The Spaniards themselves when they were most discontented never complained of it nor is it in it self a more bloody Law or Execution of Justice then the Consistory it self at Genevah doth maintain and hath executed more then once though unjustly and Tyrannically considering what principles they pretend and what outcries and obtestations they once made for Liberty of Conscience Liberty of Prophesying Liberty of the Spirit which is their onely Judge of Controversies according to the written word alone and not any Consistory or company of men whatsoever Besides as it was at first propounded by the King out of his zeal for the good and quiet of the Country so was it by his wisdom suspended afterwards finding they were not capable of such a remedy For the second viz. the Erecting of the new Bishopricks it was a prudent and necessary resolution to bridle Sectaries and as a Sythe to cut down those Weeds which grew so fast in Gods Church For by appointing in each Province grave and learned men to stand as Watchmen and Sentinels against the Enemies of the Church and State it would be more easie by concurrence of their Authority and by their vigilancy over their Flocks to preserve the people from danger of seducement Neither was it a new design For Philip Duke of Burgundy had long before desired it as a thing very needful because in his time all the Seventeen Provinces except onely the Diocess of Arras were under such Bishops as were strangers to the Country and Subjects of Forreign Princes which could not be convenient for the State And what good their Erection hath wrought experience daily sheweth in those places where they still continue For now every Diocess is carefully visited by a Bishop of the same Country and Language who as he hath more natural compassion so hath he also more knowledge and care to instruct his Countrymen in the way that is right and to weed out disorders And therefore was the Erection allowed and ratified by Bull of Pius Quartus in the year 1559. Concerning the third viz. the Cardinal of Arras Although his wisdom and experience in affairs of government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil was sufficiently known to the King yet because the Prince of Orange with the Counts Egmond and Horn did joyntly write to the King against him His Majestie though to his great disservice was content to remove him for their satisfaction But when this was done neither was the Country any whit the quieter for his calling away nor did they themselves cease from further practising As for their liberties and franchises had not the King confirm'd them all at the joyful entry When did he violat them afterward was it for preferring Spaniards There were very few of them left in the Country and of these fewer cum imperio Was it for the Offices of State See how the governments were distributed among themselves Count Egmond was Governor of Flaunders and Artois The Prince of Orange Governor of Holland Zealand Vtreckt and Burgundy Count Aremberge was Governor of West-Frezeland and Over-Issel Count Barlamont of Namur Count Mansfeld of Luxemberge and Clinay The Marquis of Berghen of Lisle and Doway So as 't is not easie to see how the Nobility could complain justly they were neglected or not honorably imployed And yet for addition and their further assurance of the Kings good affection to them and the Provinces he left his Sister the Dutchess of Parma Governor General with them a Woman of a very peaceable and mild Spirit and one that was like to hold the bridle of Government with a Gentle hand and to be advised by their Counsels In this maner were all things wisely and moderately constituted by the King and might have so continued had the Nobles complied with their duty and not favored so much those spirits of Innovation and Tumult which lurked up and down the Country and had infected no small part of the Common people Howbeit all things remained outwardly quiet for a long while The fire that was lay covered in Ashes The first breaking out was not til Baron Brederode and his Associates presented their Petition to the Dutchess which containing many things neither fit for them to aske nor safe for her to grant was not without reason look't upon as a Prologue to some future Troubles Henceforward the Heads of the Faction plot the advancing of their party and begin to strengthen themselves both at home and abroad These were the Earl of Culembergh who had lately married a Germane Lady of the Lutheran way Horn who was matched with the Sister of Count Harman The Prince of Orange was already by his Mother allied to the Count of Solms and his Wife was Sister to Maurice Duke of Saxony And Grave Scheremberg had married his Sister There was also Count Lodowick the Princes Brother a Soldier and a man of great Spirit Lutheran all over and as fit an instrument as could be desired both to make a party and to back it Besides these Flacius Illiricus a most turbulent Preacher of new Doctrines had been sent for privately out of Germany with some other Ministers and were dispersed in all corners of the Country incensing and corrupting the people with as much industry as was possible These were Lutherans and did mischief enough But when Calvins Quicksilver came to be cast in among them the fire then could be kept in no longer but the flames break out in all places The people in spight of Laws mutiny every where down go the Kings Arms down go Images and all the Ornaments in the Churches The Churches themselves as if they had been the Castles and Forts of some Enemy are Sackd and Pillaged Strad de bell Belgie Monasteries rifled Religious houses robd
Flanders and to take upon him the protection of the Low-Countries That Aldegund a great Incendiary was in Germany solliciting a party there with like eagerness So that they laboring on all sides to offend the King shall it not be lawful for his Majestie to provide for his own necessarie defence but he must be taxed with Tyranny Certainly it is a most unequal censure and argueth much more partiality then reason D' Alva could be no cause of those disorders which made his coming necessary for they all preceded his coming The Regent notwithstanding all her mildeness yet was at last forced to deal with them by Arms and having by that means once reduced them yet they are insolent and factious still and to bring their evil purposes to effect they seek to Forreign Princes for aid Who can wonder then if the Duke finding their distempers such as that gentle proceâ—dings did rather aggravate then allay the malady did make his War with some rigor It was no more then necessity and the general malice with which they had possessed the people against him compelled him to do for his own safety In the Passion week presently after his coming there was a Conspiracy to kill him whiles he was at his Devotions at the Monastery of the Green Vally in the Forest of Sauve not far from Brusels Monsieur Risot Carli Villars with Seven hundred Horse and Five hundred Foote were designed to do it when the Duke the Nobles and all his followers should be at Mass and with fire and instruments devised for the purpose to burn both men and Monastery and Church good and bad friends and enemies all together as the two Guidons confessed Such another business was intended also at Brussels against the Spaniards Mich. ab Isselt de bell Belg. as both Petit Mendoza and others testifie Neither did their malice much cease when he was recalled For as that Noble Lord the Duke of Areschot discovered and advised Don John there was a Plot to have surprized his person of which the Prince of Orange was reported to be the chief manager and another to kill him at Namur by Radcliff and Grey two Englishmen I enquire not who set them on work Latet anguis in herbâ it s a business not to be look't into too far And did not those Calvâ—nists at Antwerp as finely contrive to have blown up that famous Duke of Parma as he should be going along the High Street with all the chief State of the Country attending on him So that 't is cleer how strange soever they make of it Protestants may be charged with Assassinats and Treasons as well as others Thus were the occasions and first beginnings of the Nether-Landish tumults To discourse a little of the chief Author Actor and upholder of them we are to know The Prince of Orange who signally deserves that Character was a very popular and no less politick man and beside a great House-keeper which qualities especially the last very acceptable to that sort of people stood him in no smal stead in order to his designs The house of Nassau in Germany was Ancient and Honorable but advanced in this Country chiefly by marriages This William his Father falling to Lutheranism Charls the Fifth Emperor out of a Princely affection to him took from his Father and commended him to the care and Education of Mary Queen of Hungary his Sister Afterwards he admitted him to be of his Bedchamber Then made him General of his Horse and after that raised him to be Leivetenant General of the Army And yet further to endear his obligation to him when he was to â—â—nd the Imperial Crown to his Brother Ferdinand he made choise of him as a man of most Trust and commended him likewise very much to his Son King Philip notwithstanding diverse often warned him to take heed that he nursed not a Snake in his Bosom to these favors we may adde how much the Emperor favored his match with the Count of Burens Daughter and Heir who was his first Wife and by whom he was highly advanced and that he procured Rhenatus of Challon Prince of Orange to make this William his Heire when the President Schorus was wholly against him These things considered and also the many favors and great trust which King Philip also shewed to have in him committing so many and so great Governments to his charge and fidelity viz. Holland Zealand Vtrecht and Burgundy as hath been said it might seem impossible almost that any thing should corrupt his Loyalty The first visible disgust he took was upon the Kings going into Spain The Prince being then a Widower aspired to marry with the Princess Christerna Dutchess of Lorrain Cousin Germane to the King and labored also that she might be made Governess of the Provinces in the Kings absence to the intent that by such Alliance he might in effect sway the whole Government of the Provinces himself a thing indeed for which he had gaped a long time and stood competitor with Count Egmond But the King preferring the Dutchess of Parma he lost both his hopes and his Wife Upon this grew his first hatred against D' Alva and the Cardinal Granvellan by whose Counsels he supposed the Dutchess of Parma was preferred So as Ambition and Pride being indeed the true internal motives of his discontent Religion and the Common-wealths interest must be made the Mantle to hide it Hereupon he marrieth into the house of Saxony which was already Lutheranized and sets Brederode and his fellows to work as we have seen already Then labors to make a difference between Granvellan and Egmond although the former had been his good friend in many matters of importance practiseth what he can to hinder the coming in of D' Alva nor did he ever after that repulse concerning the Dutchess of Lorrain shew himself wel affected to the Kings affairs nor content with any favors But after all this that hath been already recited he invades Frizeland directs Lumay to possess himself of Brill and what else he could in Holland gives order to his Brother Scheremberg to make himself master of Zutphen and himself maketh Saras Governor of Flushing Wherein to note it by the way the World took notice of a great oversight in the Duke d' Alva to neglect a place of so great importance so long and to suffer it to be invested by the Enemy In a word I may wel conclude he was the great Wheel whereupon the whole State of the Confederates affairs turned It is true he did once seek to be reconciled to the King by intercession of the Emperor and Duke of Bavier but not being able to procure it modo formâ as he desired he grew desperate in his resolutions though he met with ill success in all things for a long time and could finde no harbor but Holland That Country indeed being now become through his means a receptacle for all Religions afforded him a place of retreat not
Fifteen years after the beginning of the troubles Adde hereunto that when the Emperor procured the Treaty at Colen in the yeer 1579 and made choise of most Honorable and eminent persons for that purpose viz. Two of the Princes Electors the Bishop of Wurtzburgh the Count Wartzemburgh and Doctor Lawenman the King of Spain was as forward and sent thither the Duke de Terra Nova And the Duke Areschot with some others were Commissioners from the States with Commission Signed by the Arch-Duke Mutthias The States had by their Letter to the Emperor bearing date June the Eighth 1578. promised that they were and so would continue constantly resolved Vt in Belgio colatur religio Catholica sua Regi constet Authoritas that both Catholike Religion and the Kings Authority should be maintained in the Netherlands Before this at Worms in the year 1577. the Agents of the States submitted and referred themselves to the Emperor as likewise the King of Spain did Therefore both parties being so inclinable and consenting in Eodem Tertio in the same Umpire who could expect but that a general peace should follow But Davus perturbat omnia When the Emperors Commissioners were come to Colen at the time appointed viz. by the beginning of April the States Commissioners appeared not till the Fourth of May and then with a Commission insufficient and their Treating restrained to a Term of Six weeks and no longer when as themselves had been twice the time in but framing their instructions which the Commissioners of the Emperor took for a great error as justly they might do All which delays had been craftily procured by the Prince of Orange and his party on purpose to obstruct the peace And in the Articles themselves the States Commissioners propounded many things contrary to promise In the Articles proposed by the Duke de Terrâ Novâ in the behalf of his Master All kinde of severity relating to Religion was mitigated as the Emperors Commissioners had assured them to the intent ut nemo justè queri possit c. that no man might complain of the King as if he desired either to Tyrannize over their bodies or to Seize their Estates or to Oppress their Consciences for matter of Religion But nothing could prevail so the Imperial Commissioners finding such dallying and delays in the States That in Sixteen weeks they could get no answer and that in their Letters they did onely renew old grievances and quarrels they broke up the Treaty and departed Nevertheless Bâ—lduc and Valenciennes received the Articles So did Over-Issle and Tournay Artois and Henault guided by the Bonus Genius of the Country and Em. Lâ—lain that valiant and religious Marquis of Renty together with Monsieurs de Capre Heze Barze and the rest contemned the course of Orange offered their obedience to the King and made peace with the Duke of Parma But as for the Hollanders they were now further off then ever they publish discourses against the Treaty and labor by all means possible how to make good their usurpation and perfect their Union which they were all this time a framing not forgetting to scatter seeds of dissention and further discord among the Provinces in which business their Ministers helped them not a little And lastly at this time also by the advise of Orange and England they admitted Monsieur the Duke of Alenson in the year 1578. to a kinde of Protectorship of the Provinces creating him Duke of Brabant and absolute Prince of the Netherlands And all to shew how irreconcileable they were to their natural Sovereign Thus much hath been said to shew the Kings good inclination to Peace Now for his Tyranny and Exaction which they pretended and objected in the second place as the cause of making that Union and also his breaking of their Priviledges and the too severe Government of his Ministers contrary as they say to his Oath at Coronation surely so long after D' Alva's times and under the moderate Government of the Duke of Parma and after so many significations of the Kings gracious disposition and offers to ease their burthens if they would themselves this may rather be judged a Cavil to shift Peace then any desire to be rid of War But as for the business of the Tenth Penny an exaction which they so much complain of we must draw the Curtain a little and tell you it was necessity and not his own will which forced him to require that and that otherwise neither would he have done it nor the King have suffered it But as it happened being driven to an extremity for the satisfying of the Soldiers who always grow wilde if they want Pay he was constrained to incur an inconvenience that he might avoid a mischief England and Orange were the cause of it For about this time some of the Counsel here by the instigation of the Prince had made stop of no less sum then Six hundred thousand Duckets which were sent out of Spain to the Army but driven by hard weather and ill fortune upon the coast of Hampshire notwithstanding as some say the Queen had given a safe Conduct for the passage thereof But the Polititians of those times and Enemies of Spain knew well into what Streights the want of this money would drive D' Alva and that of necessity he must commit some error or other which would encrease the hatred of his Government and perhaps arm the peoples fury once more to sedition Besides this the King had sent another sum of Two hundred thousand Duckets by the Duke de Medina but that also was intercepted at Sea by the Zealanders and converted to other uses This man was of a milder nature and sent on purpose to qualifie the severity of D' Alva who by his natural Sterneness and some errors in Government which the general malice of the people and disfavor of some Forreign Princes did much aggravate had made himself it must be confessed not a little odious but having as was said lost his money and Ships he had small heart to stay among them so he quickly returned home again and with a resolution it seemed never to have further dealing with such sharking Cormorants and left D' Alva in a Labyrinth of difficulties how to get money and govern his Soldiers But however it appears by this that it was never the Kings pleasure nor purpose but meerly the necessity of his present wants which compelled the Duke to demand that Tribute and that the quarrel upon it was rather made and contrived by themselves then given And these great pretenders for the Commons that seemed then so extreamly careful of the peoples ease and sollicitous to keep them free from Taxes Impositions c. Let me ask them one question Why do they now Tax them so much Why do they lay such heavy burthens upon them they themselves now they have them in their power Excises Subsidies Taxes of all sorts which they have augmented and do daily augment and raise
The people may not break with their Princes so often as they break with God And afterward Subjects saith he cannot depose their Princes to whom they must be Suâ—ject for Conscience sake This is Doctrine we see quite contrary to the Aphorisms of Holland and to the Divinity that is now currant at Rochel Now as private subjects may not by Gods Law depose their Princes so are they forbidden to take Arms against them and the reason hereof is invincible For saith Doctor Bilson he that may fight may kill and War against the Prince and killing of the Prince are of consequence inevitable The Apostles saith he obeyed Tyrants that commanded all things against Religion And in those things which were commanded against God they did submit themselves with meekness to endure the Magistrates pleasure but not to obey his will Lastly and most of all to the purpose he concludeth if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next to the King to assist him in doing right and to withhold from doing wrong then are they Licensed by mans Laws to interpose themselves but in no case to deprive the Prince where the Scepter is inherited And because some of good judgement have been lead into that error that the Dukes of Burgundy had not full Power or Sovereignty in the Netherlands I will send them to School to all the Lawyers Records Stories and which is most infallible to the practise and Common Laws of the Country and unto Bodin Bodin derep and satisfie my self to alledge here that Ancient and Honorable Counsellor of our Nation the Lord Chancellor Egerton who in his Oration for the Postnati saith thus P. 71. The Dukes of Burgundy were absolute Princes and had Sovereign power in their Countries And King Henry the Eighth had as absolute power when his Stile was Lord of Ireland as when he was King For the difference of Stile makes not the difference of Sovereignty I conclude therefore upon the grounds of all Law Divine and Humane and as you have seen upon a full view and examination of all their pretenses complaints excuses c. that as their usurpation at first was without warrant so they continue the possession with as little conscience That all their Pleas are either Nullities or Forgeries and they have indeed no better title then what success and their Cannon gives them And that all forreign Soldiers that assist them knowing the injustice of their cause and that the War is so utterly unlawful do incur Mortal Sin and danger of damnation and may as justly be reproved as King Josaphat was for helping and assisting Ahab Look to the end for it is certainly fearful and we must know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write not this as an Enemy to the Country I hold it a Peerless County for the goodly Townes Wealth Traffick Strength and Fertility in so small a Circuit nor for any personal quarrels nor for any corruption or assentation in regard of the match with Spain but onely for the truth of the story which induced me together with the danger of the President and the manifold injuries that were done to Religion For though I remembred the general dislike that they have of our government their dealing with the Queens Officers and how unkindly of old they used my Lord Willoughby as his Apology testifieth and of late what complaints our Merchants Adventurers in their Books have made of their ill usage by them at Moske at the East-Indies c. what contempt they shewed when the Duty of Sixteen Herrings was demanded in his Majesties right ☜ for Fishing upon the Coast of Scotland presuming no less then to imprison him that demanded it and many such like matters yet seeing the State is not moved why should I be offended And when I say The State I mean not the people onely but especially the King to whom Holland is most obliged and more particularly for Two Singular and Royal Favors such as might in reason require some reciprocal return of thankfulness and breed in them good Blood good Affections and also good Language The first was in restoring to them the Keyes which did open and lock up their Province and this not for any reward but a restitution onely of part of his due The second for the Free permission of their Fishing upon the English Coast wherein they yearly employ above Thirty thousand persons who are set on work by it and above Four thousand Busses Doggerboats Galliots and Pinks to their exceeding great benefit and enrichment which is not a liberty they have by any Law as some men pretend but a priviledge or permission rather of royall Grace and Favor And Grotius may prove without any mans contradiction Mare Liberum in this sense as the Kings Highway is Free for every man to walk that is to go and come but he shall never be able to prove that Fishing is Free that is to say taking away the profit upon another Princes Coast without leave of the Prince first had and obtained T is true they have had the boldness to do this for a long time without leave but they may hap to finde at last the longest time they can pretend will not serve them for prescription And thus much for our new Masters and no very good Neighbors The High and Mighty States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands Titulus Quintus PALATINISM OR The Troubles in BOHEMIA AND THE PALATINATE About Religion BOhemia is the last Stage of the Scene of Forreign Tragedies or Tumults for Religion to which I am now going yet so as I must take the Palatinate in my way an unfortunate Province of late which in the space of an Hundred years hath changed Religion no less then Five times and yet as it seems never learned well that part of Religion which is not the least principle concerning Obedience But of this wee shall cease to wonder when we think of Paraeus Gracerus and some other Divines that have possessed the Chaire there and of the Schools of the new discipline which are open Paraeus in his Commentary upon the Thirteenth ad Romanos teacheth plainly Subditi possunt suos reges deponere c. That Subjects may depose their Princes for Tyranny c. Tyranny is contrary to the very end and being of Government and therefore where it is Universal and general and no other redress to be found it is capable of the less dispute onely it is not to be determined by private persons especially of his Robe which yet most commonly they do or when they compel their Subjects to Idolatry By compelling to Idolatry he means if the Prince maintains Mass Confession Priesthood and other the Service and Religion of the Catholike Church as all Catholike Princes are bound to do by their Oath or indeed with these men if they maintain any other Religion then pure Calvinism it is to compel to Idolatry This is the sentence which he pronounceth against the Emperor
Ottoman Greatness and the whole Nation of Turks and that in a short time Ferdinand would surely be expelled out of all Germany and forced to seek his fortunes in Spain But O Monstrous O Incredible that such desperate malice and impiety should enter the hearts of any that profess themselves Christians were it not that the Records themselves be extant fide publicâ which do assure us thereof even beyond contradiction who could beleeve it O Malice implacable O Envy most perfectly diabolical And O happy house Family Name of Austria which for the interest of true Religion and Constancy to Justice deservest to be made the object of such execrable Spleen and to Combat perpetually with such odious and Antichristian Conspiracies Guicciard Lib. 20. It is no new thing But Macte istâ virtute Be faithful to God and to those principles of piety and justice descended from so many so Religious and so Renouned Ancestors and reign in spite of Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endureth The Truth is Ambition was so hungry with them that they consulted about dividing the Bears Skin before the Bear was taken They consulted how they should share among them the spoils of the German Clergy and of the house of Austria before either of them was in their power For as by their Chancery-rolls it is evident Their intent was to advance the Palatine to Bohemia Cancel Anhaltina Alsatia and some part of Austria enlarging his Dominion also with the Bishoprick of Spiers and a part of Mentz Bethlehem Gabor should be assisted to keep Hungary which afterwaâ—d this Gabor having no issue might also probably fall to the Palâ—tines lot Too many Crowns herâ—â— you will say to expect any in Heaven Onaltzbach gaped for Two fat Benefices the Bishopricks of Wâ—râ—â—burgh and Bambergh his Neighbors and therefore was it agreed that their Armies should Rendevouz in those parts The Marquis of Baden thirsted after Brisack and was willing by this occasion to continue his possession of the upper Marquisate against the more just claim of the Count Eberstein Brandenburgh expected the least of all being content onely with a part of the Bishoprick of Wirtzburgh which lay fit for him But Anhalt intended to recruit both his purse and broken fortunes with the spoils of Mentz Banbergh and other Catholike places as also with some Lands and Lordships which were like to Escheat in Bohemia If the Venetians would joyn with them they might make themselves Masters of Istria and Friuli and so Oceanum cum Adriatico as their Cancellaria speaks they might joyn Sea to Sea and Land to Land and carry all before them without controule Such were the vast but vain designs of their Ambition and Avarice But before we proceed any further it may not be amiss to examine their Plea It is manifest their design in it self was most pernicious and such as if it had taken effect which God would not suffer had been of general prejudice to the State of Christendom and not onely to the Peace of the Empire which yet every one of the Princes Confederate were bound in some relation or other to maintain beside the subversion of all Laws which apparently it carryed along with it Who doth not remember how all the Pulpits in England when time was and generally of all the Reformed Churches abroad sounded the Alarme against the League and Leaguers in France Which yet was not half so mischeivous as this but was at first set on foot quietly without any sedition or insurrection onely for defense of the Ancient Religion always received and established in France yea confirmed with the Kings personal Oath and approbation And though it were afterward continueed and more strictly prosecuted upon occasion of some horrid Actions of murther and tyranny yet Monsieur Villeroy himself who was a wise man and a great Royallist professeth that their aim was not the Extirpation of the King of Navarre but his Reformation and that if they might be assured of his Religion which he had promised he should be instantly assured of their obedience as in the conclusion it clearly appeared every person in France according as the King condiscended to give them satisfaction in that point entirely acknowledging their Allegiance to him And the mishap which befel him afterwards was not in pursuance of the League but upon a private account not to say upon some new provocation given and which no man living justified But as for this Union it runs in a far wilder strain and is for the advancement of a new Religion entirely disavowed by all the States of the Empire in all their publike Acts. How then can it be otherwise then extreamly disloyal and criminous The Duke of Saxony himself though a Protestant Prince disswaded it and advised the Palatine very prudently and like a friend to quit Bohemia and to seek for reconciliation and pardon where as yet he might possibly finde it Beside it opened the Gates of the Empire to the Turk which mischief alone had there been no other going along with it had been sufficient to condemn it But Plessen confesseth in his Letter to Anhalt That it was an Action of the same nature with Holland and what that was we have seen already In brief they took arms against a King Lawfully Elected solemnly Crowned and established in possession by consent of the States It is true when they first went about the work they nominated the Duke of Saxony as Competitor with the Palsgrave for Bohemia but that was meerly craft and a trick of maliciousness to render the Duke suspected with the Emperor They knew he had rejected their offer and Confederacy long before when their Agent the Count Slick sollicited him in their names By this means they put Austria it self the Emperors Patrimonial Country into sedition The people there through correspondence with the Turk and Gabor were so bold as to tell Ferdinand that unless he would grant them Toleration and such Liberty of Conscience as they desired they would joyn with his Enemies And they were in this point as good as their words For in the year 1620. all the upper Austria did really quit their old Lord and submitted unto a new Protector in his stead If the Catholikes of England should attempt the like how would it be censured for sedition and punished severely as it might and yet surely the cases are much Parallel and if there be any advantage it is on our side who desire the exercise of nothing but what was once publike owned for many ages together by all the people of the Nation and legally established before us But nothing makes the Action more offensive and scandalous then that Anhalt and Onoltzbach two such private and inconsiderable persons in relation to the business they dealt in should take upon them insciis Electoribus without the knowledge and consent of the Princes Electors themselves to dispose of the succession of the Empire and in order to effect this more then
layeth not any greater upon the Christians under him All or most of the old Catholike Bishops and Clergy of England died in prisons Antipath of Prelat as Master Prinn himself confesseth of the chiefest of them amâ—ng Rogues Murtherers and Felons in the Marshalsea The rest in Exile for Religion is this no punishment Or was there any other Crime laid to their charge but onely matter of Religion Not to speak of many others Master William Anderson in 45. Elizab. was executed upon no other charge but that he was a Priest and then found to be in England so was Master Barckworth in the year 1600. was this no punishment Anno 35. Elizab. Master Barwis a Citizen of London was executed for being reconciled to to the Church and Master Pormort attainted at least for reconciling him was this no punishment In the year 1575. as Holinshead himself recordeth it for a matter to be noted The Lady Morley the Lady Brown the Lady Guildford were committed all of them to prison onely for hearing Mass and Leases presently made of two Third parts of their Lands was this no punishment I might be infinite in examples of this kinde but it is needless The case is manifest and the sense of the whole Kingdom proclaimes the contrary to what that Author pretendeth convincing his assertion of not a little imposture and calumny To conclude then the loyalty and obedience of these Gentlemen and other people of all sorts which are commonly called Recusants towards their King and the State appears undeniably in all things not only by their humble petitions to his Majesty that now is in the year 1604. and at sundry times since but by their constant and general conformity unto the temporal Government in all Queen Elizabeths Reign by their Protestation made at Ely in the year 1588. where a great many of them were prisoners by some other offers which they made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their justification of them afterwards by their submâ—ssions sent up to the Lords of the Privy Councel and their profession of all due acknowledgement towards her Majesty notwithstanding the sentence of Excommunication by their readiness to serve her Majesty the State even in that Action of 88. for which they are so calumniated Lastly by the very Irish Recusants joyning their Forces with the Queens at Kinsale in the year 1600. All which Arguments do indeed shew them to be â—ubjects absolutè and not ex conditione or by leave of some other as their adversaries pretend Let the Readâ—r therâ—fore now judge if he please by what hath been said whether to be a Protestant and a loyal â—ubject or a Catholike and a loyal subject be more incompatible things This was the question propounded in the beginning to be declared and it hath been declared I suppose at large both from their doctrinal assertions and constant practises in all parts of Germany France Holland Scotland Genevah and many other Countries of Christendom what kinde of people both Lutherans Calvinist and other sectaries generally are towards their Sovereign Princes It hath bin shewn that the chief scope and end of their endeavours where they come is to set up their several professions by the Sword and violâ—nt resistance of the Civil Magistrate doing but his Office in restraining them according to Law yea with the ruin of the Church and State both that shall oppose them This I say both the Lutheran s n Germany the Hugonets of France the Gâ—uses of Hâ—lâ—and the Protestants and Puritans in all other places where they could have so apparently done or attempted to doe that there is neither colour of excuse for it nor liberty to deny it The World knoweth what was endeavored in Germany against the Emperor in France how long continued they in Armes against their Sovereign Prince viz. till they had by force not to say contrary to his Oath extorted from him such Edicts of Pacification as themselves liked And that in Holland and Scotland where they had the fortune to become Masters they renounced and deposed their Princes absolutely On the other side let us consider how far it is from being true that wherewith so many Books in England have abused the people viz. That to be a Priest or a Roman Catholike and a good Subject withall is impossible They are things inconsistent with one another For if we look back to former times we shall easily finde that from the Saxons to King Henry the Eighth it was never made so much as a quâ—stion To be a Catholike was never held any bar to Loyalty and yet the Princes had their differences somtimes with the Pope even then And in the grounds of Catholike Faith there is certainly nothing contrary unto civil obedience and duty towards the temporal Magistrate Witness the Government of the Sacred Roman Empire of the Kingdoms of Spain France Poland and many other Christian Principalities and States All which differing in their several constitutions or particular formes of Governing yet doe generally and unanimously account him the bâ—st Subject and least dangerous to the State who is most of all devoted to Catholike Religion It is not therefore malum in se simpliciter whatsoever Doctor Morton or Parson White say it is not an evil intrinsecal to Priesthood nor essentially folloâ—ing the profession of Catholike Religion to be an evil subject If it happens to prove so at any time it is ex accidente and from the voluntary wickedness of particular men if not as too often it doth from some evil constitution of State in which the profession of Catholike Religion hath been unduly subverted and is as unjustly prohibited and punished Neither can it be verified of Catholike Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universally as sedition and troubling the Civil Government is apparently chargeable upon Calvinism and the other several professions of Protestancy Therefore surely it was an errour both uncivil and indiscreet in those Doctors to frame their proposition so general onely to make us odious and suspected with his Majestie who yet we hope understands us better then so and knows that the imputation is groundless and meerly passionate We deal not so with them We are ready to acknowledge that as to particular persons there are many especially among the Protestants of England of more calm and moderate dispositions of no such fiery zeal as works in many other of their Brethren abroad Boni viri boni cives such as we confess to be both good men and good Subjects of sociable nature obsequious not inclined to Sedition nor desirous to persecute And the like good Testimony doth even the Author of the Execution of English Justice give unto Catholikes acknowledging their obedience and loyalty towards the late Queen and that in a time when they wanted not matter of complaint for the manifold oppressions and afflictions which were heavy upon them T is true every man may be supposed to wish the advancement of his