Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	henry_n	king_n	navarre_n	3,463	5	11.5896	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30330	A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.; Selections. 1685	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1685 (1685)	Wing B5770; ESTC R214762	83,014	140

do hinder him in his Iourney he is ipso facto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office or Benefice whether Ecclesiastical or Secular So here the indirect power over Princes by which they may be both deposed and punished is plainly assumed It is true that same Council did indeed Decree That no Subject should murther his King or Prince upon which some of our English and Irish Writers who condemn these practices think they have great advantages That Decree was procured by Gersons means who observing that by the many Rebellions that had been generally set on by Popes the Persons of Princes were brought under such contempt that private Assassinations came to be practised and in particular that of the Duke of Orleance by the Duke of Burgundy Therefore to prevent the fatal consequer ces which were like to follow on that and to hinder such practices for the future he with great earnestness followed that matter And tho it had almost cost him his life it is like from some of the Duke of Orleance his Faction who were resolved on a Revenge yet at last he procured it But this was only a Condemnation of private Cut-throats And the Article condemned had a pretty Reservation in it for it strikes only against Subjects killing their Prince without waiting for the Sentence of any Iudg whatsoever So if a Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judg then this Condemnation notwithstanding a Prince may be Murthered And the other Decree of that Council passed in the same Session shew they had no mind to part with the Deposing Power Besides the Answer to this Decree is clear It is acknowledged by the Defenders of the contrary opinion That it is not lawful in any case to kill a King but when one that was a King is no more such but becomes a Rebel and an Usurper then it is lawful to kill him Pursuant to the Decree made at Constance a Council met at Siena ten years after in which all the former Decrees made against Hereticks are confirmed and the Favourers or Fautors of Heresie are delared liable to all the pains and censures of Hereticks and by consequence to the chief of them all Deposition After that came the Council of Basil which ratified the forementioned Decree made at Constance about General Councils By which Popes Emperors Kings c. that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council are subjected to Excommunication Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal Last of all came the Council of Trent and tho met ters were at that pass that the Council durst not tread on Princes as others had formerly done lest they should have been thereby provoked to join with the Protestants yet they would not quite lay aside the pretence of a Deposing power but resolved to couch it so into some Decree that it might continue their claim to a Right which they would not part with tho they knew not at that time what to make of it So in the Decree against Duels they declare That if any Emperors Kings c. did assign a field for a Combat that they did thereby lose their Right to that place and the City Castle or other places about it Now it is certain if by their Decrees a Prince may forfeit any part of his Dominion he may be also dispossessed of all the rest since his Title to his whole Territory being one individual thing what shakes it in any part subjects it entirely to him who has such authority over it Here we have found 7 General Councils as they are esteemed by that Church all either expresly asserting the Deposing Power or ratifying former Decrees that had asserted it And from such a succession of Councils it is reasonable to conclude That this Third Character of a Tradition of the Church agrees to it and if General Councils are fit Conveyors of Traditions we have as full Evidence as can be desired for proving this to be a Church-Tradition This last Character of a Tradition is what the whole Body of the Church has held in any one Age. Upon which they say we may calculate that such opinions must have come down from the Apostles since it seems neither credible nor possible that the Belief of the Church could be changed With this Arnold has of late made great noise And as the new Fashions that come from France do please our young Gallants best so some of the Writers of Controversies among us have taken up the same plea here That the whole Church received the Deposing Doctrine in cases of Heresy may be inferred from what had been said The Church is made up of Popes Bishops Priests Of Soveraign Princes and Subjects of all ranks That the Popes believed it none can doubt So many Definitions of Councils shews us as plainly what the Bishops and other Prelates believed the Writing of the Schoolmen and Canonists shew what the rest of the Clergy believed Those Princes who suffered under the Sentences give at least a tacit consent to it since they never question it but study only to clear themselves of the imputation of Heresie The other Princes who made use of the Donations of the Popes shew as plainly that they believ'd it The great Armies that were brought about their Standards must have also believed it and the people who generally deserted the Deposed Prince notwithstanding the great vertues of some of them and the love that Subjects naturally carry to their Princes shew that they believed it So that if St. Iames his Question Shew me thy Faith by thy Works be applied to this particular the Answer will be easie What shall I mention the frequent depositions of Charles the 1st of Henry the 4th of his Son Henry the 5th of Frederick the 1st Philip Otho the 4th Frederick the 2d and Lewis the 4th in the Empire The frequent Depositions in Sicily and Naples the many attempts upon France that terrible Bull in particular of Iulius the 2d against that good King Lewis the twelfth By which besides the Sentence against the King it appears he designed the total destruction of the Nation promising the Pardon of Sin to every one that killed one French Man the frequent Attempts upon England both in Hen. the 2d and K. Iohn's time not to mention their later Bulls of Deposition against K. Henry the 8th and Q. Elizabeth the many Attempts in Spain particularly the deposing the King of Navarre by P. Iulius and the Sentences against Henry the 4th then King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde All these and a great many more with the strange Effects that followed upon them are so clear Proofs of the Worlds believing this Doctrine for many Ages together that if Men had any Remainders of shame left with them they could not deny it And to this day all their Writers maintain it tho perhaps now the greatest part of the Laity know little of it but whenever the Tradition of the Church is

have felt such signal marks of his Royal Clemency that they can have no colour to complain except it be because they cannot bear any Office in the Nation For what Noise soever they make of the severe Laws yet in force both against the Clergy and Laity of their Religion they cannot pretend that since his Majesties happy Restauration any Priest has died or any Family has been ruined for their Religion But I confess it is enough according to the Doctrine of their Church to discharge them of their Allegiance That the King is a favourer of Heresy and if upon this Reason they will still Plot and Conspire against his Person and Government we have no reason to wonder at it for they act according to their Principles Nor have these Islands been the only Scenes in which those Principles have produced such dismal Effects If we look abroad and reflect on what was done in France we shall find they have had the same Operation there I need not mention that perfidious and cruel Massacre that as Thuanus tells us was so much extolled in Rome and Spain and of which the Pope has a Memorial kept in the Hangings at the entrance of his Chappel to this day The Barricadoes of Paris the design of Deposing Henry the 3d only because he had made Pe●…ce with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde the whole progress of the holy League their taking Arms against that King when the Duke and Cardinal of Guise were killed by his Orders and at last his being stabbed by Clement a Dominican Friar are Instances beyond exception The prosecution of the Rebellion against Henry the 4th the attempt made upon his Person by Iohn Chastel which was more successful in Ravilliack's hands shew sufficiently That a Princes turning from that which they call Heresie over to their Church does not secure him unless he will extirpate Hereticks For tho Henry the 4th changed his Religion yet the favour he shewed the Protestants in the Edict of Nantes was a thing never to be forgiven These things were set on and encouraged from Rome and pleaded for by their Writers That the holy League was authorized from Rome that Sixtus the 5th by his Bulls declared the King of Navar incapable of the Succession that he intended to have Deposed Henry the 3d and that he rejoyced at his death and magnified the Fact preferring it to Eleazar's killing the Elephant and Iudeth's killing Hollofernes and ascribed it to a singular Providence and Disposition of the Almighty called it a great Miracle and appeared vain that a Friar had done it having been one himself tho no doubt he had liked it better if Clement had been of his own sute and would have had himself thought a Prophet for foretelling it and so he might well do perhaps and in the end concluded That unfortunate Kings favouring Hereticks to be the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost These were all so publickly done that it were a needless labour to go about the proving them Francis Veronne wrote a Book to justify both the Facts of Clement the Dominican and Chastel as well he might from the Principles of their Church After all these dismal Facts was it not time for the States of France to think of some effectual Remedy to prevent the like for the future And they judged aright that without Condemning the Deposing Power it could not be done To which as was already hinted the Clergy made such vigorous Opposition that it came to nothing If these things had flowed only from the heat of some violent Spirits the danger were not so great but it is the Doctrine of their Church so Lessius under the name of Singletonus says That if the power of Deposing lies not in the Pope the Church must of necessity Err which has taught it and to assert that is Heretical and a more intollerable Error than any about the Sacrament can be And Becanus Confessor to Ferdinand the 2d says No Man doubts but if Princes are Contumacious the Pope may order their Lives to be taken away What security then can there be found out from Persons who give up their Consciences to the conduct of Men of such Principles and profess an Implicite Obedience and belief of all that their Church teaches and commands which possesses all its Votaries with such cursed rage against Hereticks that not content to adjudg them to eternal Flames in another Life they must needs Persecute and Burn without Mercy where they have the Power in their Hands and Plot and Conspire Kill and Massacre without relenting where they have not Power to do it with any colour of Law Men of Honour will not be easily drawn in to such Practices But in Conclusion when a fit Opportunity appears they must either forsake their Church or concur in the most mischievous Designs that the Masters of their Consciences will draw them into which I pray God make them see in good time before they are Involved in such Snares that Repentance will come too late to do them good or to preserve the Nation from those Miseries that they will bring upon it FINIS THE Unreasonableness AND IMPIETY OF POPERY IN A SECOND LETTER Written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT Imprimatur C. Alston Nov. 12. 1678. LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1678. The Unreasonableness and Impiety OF POPERY In a Second Letter written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT SIR YOu are pleased to tell me that my last Letter has had some good effect and that many who were before carried away with the false colours of the Romish Religion are now a little awakned and seem not unwilling to examin things which they took formerly upon trust and therefore you desire me since you are not Master of so much spare time your self to set down the most material and convincing reasons and in as few words as may be that are most likely to open the eyes of honest and simple persons that have been hitherto misled and are now willing to be instructed In all such cases I first consider the temper of the persons to be dealt with Such as take up their Religion out of interest or humour and think it point of honour to continue in it and so will examine nothing are not to be spoken to Others that are naturally superstitious and credulous are very hard to be wrought on for they believe every thing that is said on the one hand and distrust all that is told them by any body else Some of those have a vanity in coming to talk with Divines but it is an endless labour to deal with them for at every time one must begin of new But the only persons to be dealt with are those that are sincere and inquisitive that having been bred in that Religion or brought over to it by some specious pretences are now willing to hear reason and resolved to follow it

that they will not be the Instruments of their Cruelty that they shall lose their Kingdoms or Dominions is known to all that have read the Decrees of the 4th Council in the Lateran The violation of Publick Faith was also decreed by another of their General Councils at Constance in which notwithstanding the safe conduct that Sigismund had granted to Iohn Husse and Ierome of Prague care was not only taken that they should be burnt but they made it a standing Rule for the time to come That tho Hereticks came to the place of Judgment trusting to their safe conduct and would not have come without it yet the Prince who granted it was under no Obligation by it but the Church might proceed to Censures and Punishment By these Decrees Cruelty and Treachery are become a part of their Doctrine and they may join them to their Creed upon as good Reasons as they can shew for many of their other Additions The Nature of Man is not yet sunk so low as easily to hear these things without horror therefore it is fit they should be kept among the Secrets of their Religion till a fit opportunity appear in which they may serve a turn and then we need not doubt but they will be made use of If any will be so charitable to their Church as not easily to believe this the History of the Parisian Massacre may satisfie them to the full which Thuanus says was a Pitch of Barbarity beyond any thing that former Ages had ever seen And if the Irish Massacre flowing from the same Spirit and the same Principles had not gone beyond it we might have reasonably concluded that it could never be matched again But we may be taught from such Precedents what we ought to expect when ever we are at the mercy of Persons of that Religion who if they be true Sons of the Church of Rome must renounce both Faith and Mercy to all Hereticks I shall give the Relation of this Massacre from that celebrated late Writer of the French History Mr. de Mezeray only adding some Passages out of Thuanus Davila and others where he is defective But I shall premise a short representation of the Civil Wars of France which are made use of as the Arguments for justifying that Cruelty and by which they do still blemish the Protestant Religion as teaching Rebellion against Princes During the Reign of Francis the 1st and Henry the 2d the Protestant Religion got great footing in France the usual severities of the Church of Rome were then employed to extirpate it yet tho their Numbers were very great and the Persecution most severe they made no resistance But upon the death of Henry the 2d Catherine de Medici the Queen Mother with the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise took the Government in their Hands pretending that the King Francis the 2d was of Age being then sixteen The Princes of the Blood on the other hand alleadged That the Kingdom ought to be under a Regency till the King was at least 22 Years of Age Since Charles the 6th had been admitted at that Age to the Government as a particular mark of their esteem of him So that tho the Age of Majority was at 25 Years and that was a singular exception from a general Rule yet at furthest it shewed that the King could not assume the Government before he was two and twenty It was also an undoubted Right of the Princes of the Blood to hold the Regency during the Minority of their Kings and to administer it by the Direction of the Parliaments and the Assembly of the States Upon these Points many things were written on both sides The Princes of the Blood pretended they were excluded from the Government against Law and upon that were projecting how to possess themselves of the Power which with the Person of the King were violently kept from them But the Prince of Conde being advised to it by Coligny then Admiral of France did also declare for mitigating the Severities against the Protestants This being the Case that the Point was truly disputable no Man can blame the Protestants for joining with their Friends against their Enemies And yet this Plot was driven no further than an endeavour to take the King out of the Hands of his Mother and the Brothers of Lorrain who were all Foreigners The chief Promoter of it was a Papist Renaudy and it was discovered by Avennelles who tho he was most firm to his Religion being a Protestant yet having an aversion to all Plots revealed it out of scruple of Conscience Soon after this Discovery Francis the 2d died and his Brother that succeded him Charles the 9th was without dispute under Age he not being then full eleven years old And according to the resolution of many great Lawyers in the case of his Brother the Kingdom ought to have been under a Regency during all the Wars that preceded the Massacre for he was then but two and twenty At first it was agreed to that the King of Navarre as the first Prince of the Blood ought to be Regent but he being wrought on by the Queen Mother and her Party and drawn over to them the Lawyers were again set to examine How far the Power of the Regent did extend Many published their Opinions That the other Princes of the Blood ought to have their share in the Regency and that the Regents might be checkt by the Courts of Parliaments and were subject to an Assembly of the States The chief Point of State then under Consideration was What way to proceed with the Protestants whose Numbers grew daily and were now more considerable having such powerful Heads A severe Edict came out against them in Iuly 1561 condemning all Meetings for Religious Worship except those that were celebrated with the Rites of the Church of Rome banishing all the Protestant Ministers and appointing the Bishops to proceed against Hereticks with this only mitigation of former Cruelties That Banishment should be the highest Punishment But the Nation could not bear the Execution of this So next Ianuary there was a great Assembly called of the Princes of the Blood the Privy Counsellors and eight Courts of Parliament in which the Edict that carried the name of the Month was passed By it the free exercise of that Religion was tolerated and the Magistrates were required to punish all who should hinder or interrupt it Not long after that the Duke of Guise did disturb a Meeting of Protestants at Vassy as he was on his Journey to Paris his Servants began with reproachful words and from these they went to blows It ended in a throwing of Stones one of which hurt the Duke but that was severely revenged about 60 were killed and 200 wounded no Age or Sex being spared Upon this he encouraged the violation of the Edict every where so that it was universally broken The King of Navarre joined with him

in these Courses but the Prince of Conde that was next to him in the Royal Blood declared for the Edicts Many great Lawyers were of opinion That the Regents Power was not so vast as to suspend or break the Edict and that therefore the People might follow any Person much more the next Prince of the Blood in defence of it This Plea was yet stronger before the Year ended for the King of Navarre being killed the Prince of Conde was then by the Law of France the Rightful Regent So that all the Wars that followed afterwards till the Year 1570 had this to be said for them That in the Opinion of very Learned Men the King was all that while under Age that the Edicts were broken the Kingdom governed by a Woman and Foreigners against Law and that the lawful Regent was excluded from the Government which made King Iames whose Judgment is not to be suspected in this Case always justify the Protestants in France and excuse them from Rebellion This is a piece of History little understood and generally made use of to blemish the Reformation therefore I thought it necessary to introduce the following Relation with this just account of these Wars that were the pretended grounds with which the House of Guise covered their own Ambition and hatred of the Family of Burbon After France had suffered all the Miseries which a course of Civil Wars for ten years together carries after it the King was advised to set on foot a Treaty of Peace not so much out of a design to quiet Matters by a happy settlement as to ensnare the Protestants into some fatal Trap in which they being catched might be safely and easily destroyed The chief Authors of this advice were the Queen Mother the Cardinal of Lorrain the Duke of Nevers the Count of Rets and Birague the last three were Italians and so better fitted both for designing and carrying on so wicked a Council to which the Duke of Anjou afterwards Henry the third was also admitted They said the extirpation of Heresy might be done much cheaper than by a Civil War It was fit first to grant the Protestants what conditions they desired then to treat them with all possible kindness by which their Jealousies were to be once extinguished and a confidence being begotten in them then to draw the chief Heads of the Party to Court upon some specious Attractive and there they were sure of them The first Bait to be offered was the marriage of the King's Sister to the King of Navarre and if that succeded not they were to invent still a new one till they found that which would do the Business All the danger of this Council was that the Pope and the King of Spain would be much provok'd by it and there might be some hazard of Tumults among the zealous People of France if the King seemed to favour the Hereticks too much But they reckoned that when the Design took effect all who might be discontented with the appearance of favour shewed to them would be well satisfied and the more the Pope and Spaniard complained of it it would advance their chief end of creating a confidence in the Protestants more effectually Thus were their Councils laid The Room in which this was first projected was the Council-Chamber of Blois where 16 Years after the Duke of Guise was killed by Henry the third's orders And it was more fully concluded in that Chamber at St. Clou where the same Henry the third was murdered by a Dominican The Design being agreed on the Queen-Mother made some of her Spies among the Protestants assure them that she hated the King of Spain mortally both on her Daughter's account that was his Queen and as was universally believed had been poysoned by his Orders as also upon the consideration of her own Family of Florence to which the Spaniard was then an uneasy Neighbour and designed to take the Territory of Siena out of their Hands It was reasonable enough to believe that upon such Motives a Woman of her temper would set on a War with Spain The King did also express a great inclination to the same War and to undertake the Protection of the Netherlands which were then under the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva's Government This wanted not a fair pretence Flanders having been formerly subject to the Crown of France He also seemed weary of the greatness of the Duke of Guise and his party which a Civil War did still encrease The King and the Queen-Mother employed also in these Messages Biron Momorancy Cosse and others who were Men of great Integrity and had much Friendship for the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral that were the Heads of the Protestant Party The Queen of Navarre was sensible of the great advantages her Son would receive from such an Alliance An Army was also promised her for the recovery of her Kingdom from the Spaniards which had been easily regained if the Crown of France had assisted her since the Southern Parts of France were almost all Protestants who would have w●…llingly served her against Spain Only she being a most Religious Woman had great apprehensions of the unlawfulness at least the extream danger of matching her Son to one of a different Religion therefore she took some time to consider of that part of the Proposition The Admiral was very weary of the Civil War it both ruined his Country and slackened the discipline of War which he had formerly observed with a Roman Severity He thought the Conquest of the Netherlands would be an easy and a great accession to the Crown he knew there was none so likely to be employed in it as himself and he was resolved to carry all the Souldiers of the Religion with him And being Admiral he also designed to raise the greatness of the Crown both at Sea and in the new-found World which was then sending over an incredible deal of Wealth to Spain in which the Spaniards who had landed in Florida and killed a Colony of the French that was setled there had given just cause to make War upon them Therefore as he had often expressed his being so averse to a Civil War that he could no longer look on and see the Miseries it brought on his Country so he was made believe the King did in good earnest intend to assist the Flemings which being both against the Spaniard and in defence of those of the same Religion he would by no means hinder Upon these Considerations there was a Peace concluded between the King and the Protestants by which the free exercise of their Religion was granted some Cautionary Towns were also put in their Hands to be kept by them two Years till there were a full settlement made of the Edicts and the other things agreed to for their Security The King acted his part with all the Artifice possible he became much kinder to the Family of Momorancy and the rest of the Admirals Friends and

seemed to neglect those of Lorrain He threatned the Parliament of Paris because they made some difficulty in passing the Edict in favours of the Protestants He went secretly to meet with Lewis Count of Nassaw and treated with him about the Wars of the Netherlands He married the Emperor's Daughter who was thought a Protestant in his Heart He entred in a Confederacy with Q. Elizabeth and the Cardinal of Chastilion the Admiral 's Brother who had renounced his red Hat and turned a Protestant being then in England was employed to set on foot a Treaty of Marriage between the Duke of Anjou and the Queen A Peace was also made with the Princes of the Empire And tho both the Spanish Ambassador and the Legat did all they could to hinder the Peace and the Marriage of the King of Navarre yet they seemed to make no account of that at Court Only the King gave the Legat great assurances of his Fidelity to the Apostolick See and that all that he was doing was for the interest of the Catholick Religion And taking him one day by the Hand He desired him to assure the Pope that his design in this Marriage was that he might be revenged on those that were Enemies to God and Rebels against himself and that he would either punish them severely and cut them all in pieces or lose his Crown All which he would do in compliance with the Advices he had received from the Pope who had continually set him on to destroy them and he saw no way of doing it so securely as by getting them once to trust him having tried all other methods in vain And for a pledg of his Faith he offered him a Ring of great value which the Legat refused to take pretending that he never took Presents from any Prince and that the Word of so great a King was a better security than any Pledg whatsoever Upon all these demonstrations of Friendship made to the Protestants it was no wonder if Persons of such Candor as the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral were deceived The Admiral went first to Court where he was received by the King with the greatest shew of kindness and respect that was possible He embraced him thrice laid his Cheek to his squeezing his Hands called him Father and left nothing undone that might possess him with a firm Opinion of his Friendship Nor was the Queen-Mother less officious to express her kindness to him He was allowed to keep fifty armed Gentlemen about him An hundred thousand Franks were sent him for furnishing his Houses that had been spoiled during the Wars And which was more than all the rest when Complaints were carried by him to the King of some who violated the Edict great Insolencies being committed in many places the King ordered them to be exemplarily punished So that there was a general repining over all France at the King's kindness to him The King had also told him that now he had got him near him he would never suffer him to leave him any more The Design succeeding so well on the Admiral the Proposition of the Marriage was also carried on and the Queen of Navarre was next brought to Court but soon after died as was generally believed of Poison that was given her in some perfumed Gloves to conceal which the Chirurgeons that opened her would not touch her Head but pretended she died of an Imposthume in her side The Cardinal of Chastilion was also at that time poisoned which tho afterwards confessed by him that had done it yet was not then so much as suspected The King seemed more and more set on the War in Flanders He sent both to England and Germany to consult about the Preparations for it and had agreed with the Prince of Orange about the Division of the Netherlands That all on their side of Antwerp should come to the Crown of France And what lay on the other side of it should belong to the States He sent a Protestant his Ambassadour to Constantinople to engage the Grand Signior unto a War with Spain He also furnished the Count of Nassaw with Mony and sent some of his best Captains with him to try if they could surprize any Towns near the Frontier who did their part so dextrously that Mons was surprized by the Count of Nassaw and Valenciennes by La Noiie according to Mezeray tho he seems to be mistaken as to Valenciennes for Thuanus and Davila say nothing of it but mention Mons only And Veremundus Frisius who wrote the History of that Massacre the Year after says That they missed their Design in surprising Valenciennes upon which they went to Mons and carried it Upon this all reckoned that the King was now engaged and the War begun So the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were brought to Court and received with all the Marks of a firm Friendship that could be invented A Dispensation was obtained from the new Pope for the Marriage Veremundus says Pope Pius the 5th had always opposed it but upon the Cardinal of Alexandria's return to Rome who went to assist in the Conclave where Gregory the 13th was chosen the new Pope easily granted the Bull which was believed to have flowed from the Information he received from that Cardinal of the King's Design in this Marriage which to be sure his Holiness would neither obstruct nor delay So the Bull being sent to the Cardinal of Burbon the day was set and the chief heads of the Protestants were all drawn into Paris partly to assist at the Solemnities of a Marriage which they hoped would put an end to all their Troubles partly to get Charges in the Army which all People believed would be commanded by the Admiral Only many of the hottest of them had followed Ienlis and La Noiie into Flanders where it was intended to abandon them to the cruelty of the Duke of Alva who had intercepted and cut off a great Body of them commanded by Ienlis The Admiral pressed the King to declare the War immediately foreseeing that unless it followed suddenly his Friends that had surprized these Towns would be destroyed and the whole Design spoiled But the King put him off with delays in which he expressed much Confidence in him by telling him the secret grounds he had to distrust almost every Person about him and that therefore he must of necessity settle his Court and Councils first before he could enter upon such a War But now the Design being ripe the Duke of Guise to whom it had also been communicated was employed to gather many desperate Men about him who might be fit to execute all Orders and the thing getting into more hands took wind so that they at Rochel being informed of some suspicious Passages wrote to the Admiral to disabuse him and desired he would leave the Court and trust no more to the fair appearances he saw there since these were only the Masks of some great Mischief that

their Consultation to her She and her Party were now pressed with time therefore the execution of their Design could be no longer delayed than the next Night So the Council met and resolved that not only the Persons of Quality of the Religion should be killed but that every one of what condition soever that were of that Profession should be Massacred It was debated long whether the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde should perish with the rest for the Duke of Guise his Party had a great mind to destroy the whole Family of Bourbon but as for the King of Navarre it was thought contrary to the Laws of Nations of Hospitality and of Nature to murder a King that had come under trust to the Court and was now so nearly allied to the King and was guilty of no Crime but what he had from his Education So it was resolved he should be spared and made change his Religion But for the Prince of Conde he was naturally fierce and that temper joined with the memory of his Father made them less inclined to save him Only the Duke of Nevers who had married his Wifes Sister interposed vigorously for him and undertook that he should become a good Catholick and a faithful Subject And he prevailed tho with great difficulty that he should be spared But for the rest it was agreed on to raise the Town of Paris and set them upon them who were inflamed into such a rage against that Party that they knew it would be an easy work to engage them in any sort of Cruely against them The conduct of it was committed to the Duke of Guise who undertook it very chearfully He did first communicate it to the Guards and ordered them to keep a strict Watch both about the Louvre and the places where the Admiral and his Friends were lodged that none might escape then he desired the Provost or Major of Paris and the chief Magistrates and Officers of the City would meet at Midnight in the Town-house where they should receive their Orders They met accordingly and it was intimated to them that the King was now resolved to destroy the Hereticks who had so long distracted his Kingdom that therefore every one should go to his Quarter and have all People in readiness with the greatest secrecy that might be and that they should have many Torches and Flambeaus ready to light out at their Windows The Sign should be a white Linnen Sleeve on their left Arm and a white Cross in their Caps and at the tolling of the great Bell of the Palace which should be done near the break of Day they should light their Torches and march The King in the mean while was under great irresolution The horror of the Fact the infamy that would follow it and the danger he might be in if it either miscarried or were not fully executed could not but fill him with Confusion But the Queen who had overcome all the impressions of Tenderness and Pity that are natural to her Sex hearing of it came to him and studied to confirm him in his former resolutions representing to him all the trouble they had given him in the former Wars and that he might expect yet worse if he would let go this opportunity of securing the quiet of his whole Reign She knew how to work upon him so well that in end she prevailed and the King swore deeply he would go through with it Upon that she being impatient and fearing a new turn in the Kings Thoughts made the Bell of St. Germans be tolled which was the warning for tolling that in the Palace This fatal Signal was given the Morning of the 24th of August St. Bartholomews day being Sunday and was followed with a general Rising of the whole City of Paris The March of Souldiers the noise of their Arms and the lightning of so many Torches awakened the poor Protestants who now saw visibly that their ruine was both near and inevitable Some of them went out to the Streets and asked what the matter might be of so great a Concourse and so many Torches and armed Men at such an hour Some answered as they had been instructed to say till all things should be ready that there was to be a Mock-Siege of a Fort in the Louvre for the Kings Diversion So they went forward to satisfy their Curiosity but quickly found it was a real Massacre and not a Mock-Siege that was intended and they were the first Sacrifices of that bloody Festivity There were now about threescore thousand Men brought together The Duke of Guise with his Uncle Aumale resolved first to satisfie their revenge on the Admiral and therefore went to his Gate where Cosseins kept guard on design to betray him the more effectually He called to open the Gate which being done they killed the Porter and broke into the Court But the King of Navarr's Swisses barricado'd the next Gate and made some resistance This dismal noise awakened the Admiral who at first apprehended it might be some Tumult of the Populace which he hoped the King's Guards would easily disperse But when he perceived it encreased then he saw he was to be destroyed So he took his Night-Gown and got up Those that were about him were amazed at the constancy of his mind his Minister Merlin prayed and when that was ended He said to those that were about him I see now what this will end in but I am prepared to meet Death which I have often looked for but was never afraid of I account my self happy since it is so near me having in this my Death through the Grace of God the hope of Eternal Life I need no more the help of Men therefore farewel my Friends and try how you can save your selves that you be not involved in my ruin lest by my death I make more Widows than one I have help enough in the presence of God into whose hands I commit my Soul which is soon to be discharged out of this Body All this he spoke without the least commotion or appearance of fear Then those about him left him and got up to the Roof of the House By that time the Murderers had brook in and seven of them being all in Armour came into his Chamber Besme that had been one of the Duke of Guises Grooms advanced towards him to whom he said Young Man you ought to reverence my gray Hairs but you cannot shorten my Life much They all stood a while amazed at such undaunted courage and so composed a behaviour which as one of them told Thuanus was the most extraordinary thing that ever he saw his whole Life Besme did first thrust him into the Belly and then cut him over the Face at which he fell and the others struck at him till he was quite dead The Duke of Guise being below in the Court heard the noise and called to them to throw him out at the Window which Besme and another did

signified the joy in Heaven at that days work and that the Church was to flourish again by the death of the Hereticks But leaving these discantings on this seeming Miracle Morvillier that was Lord-Keeper advised That for justifying or at least mitigating the Censures that might be made on these proceedings there should be a Process carried on against the dead Admiral to prove him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and the Royal Blood and there were some few Protestants kept Prisoners who had been taken out of the English Ambassadors Lodgings who to save themselves they hop'd might be brought to accuse the Admiral But while this Mock-Process was making there was a real prosecution of the like Cruelties in many other parts of France At Meaux a little Town not far from Paris they began on the 25th of August being Monday and spent the whole Week in shedding more Blood They killed two hundred many of those were Women whom they Forced before they Murdered them At Troye in Champaigne about the same number was killed At Orleans a thousand were also killed Six or seven hundred at Roan tho the Governour did what he could to hinder it At Bourges Nevers and Charite all they found were killed At Tholouse two hundred were killed At Burdeaux they were for some time in suspence being afraid of the Rochellers but the Priests did so inflame the Multitude that the Governour could not restrain their rage longer than the beginning of October so then they Massacred all that they could find This beginning was followed by all the Towns on the Garvinne But next to Paris Lions was the place where the most barbarous Cruelties were acted The Governour had a mind to save the Protestants and gathered together about six or seven hundred of them whom he lodged in several Prisons that so he might preserve them And to give the People some content he granted them the pillage of their Houses But they were so heated by the Clergie and by some that were sent from the Court to promote the Massacre every where that they broke open the Prisons and murdered them all dragged their Bodies through the Streets and opened the Bellies of the fattest of them to sell their Greese to Apothecaries And when they could do no more they threw ●…em into the River of Rhosne which was coloured with the Blood and filled with the Carcases of the slain These Examples were followed in many more places but detested by others who were not Papists enough to overcome Nature and all Morality The Governours in some places restrained the People and in many places the Souldiers tho more inured to Blood defended the Protestants from the Rable that were set on by the Priests The Answer the Governour of Bayonne made deserves to be remembred who wrote to the King in these Words SIR I Have communicated your Majesty's Command to the Inhabitants of the Town and the Souldiers of the Garrison I find many good Citizens and brave Souldiers but never a Hangman here And therefore in their Name and my own I humbly beg your Majesty would employ our Arms and Lives in things which are possible for us to do how dangerous soever they may be and we will spend the last drop of our Blood in your Service This gave great Offence at Court and soon after both he and the Count of Tendes Governour of Provence who had also given Orders that there should be no Massacre made within his Jurisdiction died very suddenly And it was believed they were both poisoned In all there were as Thuanas says Thirty thousand massacred over France tho he believes they were not quite so many Mezeray estimates them at five and twenty Thousand But Perefixè says that over all France near an hundred thousand were butchered And Veremundus says that besides those who were killed an hundred Thousand Persons were set a begging most of those being Widows and Orphans Many of t●●m fled to the places of strength in France and great numbers went out of the Kingdom For when they had escaped the first rage of the Massacre they clearly perceived the design of their Enemies was to extirpate them Root and Branch And tho the King at first declared he would observe the Edict inviolably they had learned from sad experience how little his Faith was to be depended on and they were further convinced of it by fresh Proofs For the King pressed the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde very hard to change their Religion the former was tractable and hearkned to instruction but the latter continued resolute and would hear nothing This put the King once into such a Rage that he called for his Arms and was going in Person either to kill him or see him killed had not his vertuous Queen who had been instructed by her Father to abhor all cruel Proceedings about Religion cast her self at his Feet and with many Tears diverted him from so ignominious an Action But he sent for him and said only these three words to him Mass Death or the Bastil Yet he generously resolved to suffer Death or perpetual Imprisonment rather than go to Mass had they not found out a Tool fit to work on him One Sureau-des Rosiers that had been Minister of the Protestants at Orleans had now to save his Life changed his Religion But to have some reputation in it pretended that he had resolved to have done it sooner tho when that fear was over he returned to them again but was never much considered after that He was therefore employed to perswade the Prince of Conde and what by his endeavours and what by fear of Death both the King of Navarre and he went to Mass and wrote Letters full of Submission and Obedience to the Pope tho they were no sooner out of that Snare than they declared that what had been obtained of them was extorted by force This being done the King sent his Orders over all France bearing date the 22d of September to turn all Persons out of any considerable Imployments that would not renounce their Religion and a long form of Abjuration was sent with it which was to be the Test both which are printed by Veremundus The Process against the Admiral was carried on before the Parliament of Paris and without any proofs that ever were published they on the 27th of October judged him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and his Crown And therefore ordained his Body to be hanged if it could be found or if not that he should be hanged in Effigie his House of Chastilion to be razed and a Pillar set up with an Inscription to defame his Memory his Blood was also attainted and his Children declared ignoble and incapable of any Priviledges in France And the Sentence concluded with an Order for celebrating St. Bartholomews day in all time coming with Processions and publick Thanksgivings for the Discovery and Punishment of that Conspiracy There were also two other Persons