scrupulosity of writing truth yet that profound Policy to which he always pretends should oblige him to take a little care that the falsehoods that he advances may not be easily discovered 3. He says Henry the 8th was 12. year old when his Brother died and that his Father had designed him for the Ecclesiastical State This was taken up by the Writers of the last Age to make the Parallel between Iulian the Emperour and him seem to agree that as Iulian had been a Reader in the Church so King Henry should be represented as an Abbot with a little band But as King Henry was not 12 year old when his Brother died for he wanted some Months of 11 and as at that Age young Princes considering the respect that is payed to them in their Education have seldome been found far advanced in Learning so it does not appear that he had then any other Education different from what was given his Brother who understood Latin and some of the beginnings of Learning Learning was then in great reputation and K. Henry the 7th engaged his Children to study either to raise their Authority the higher by that means or perhaps to amuse them with Learning that they might not think of pretending to the Crown during his Life since the undoubted Title to it resting in the Person of their Mother it had devolved upon them by her Death thô they did not think fit to claim their Right 4. He says that when K. Henry the 7th intended to marry his younger Son to P. Arthur's Widdow the Privy Council of England approuved it the more easily because of the precaution that had been taken to hinder the consummation of the former Mariage and to confirm this he cites on the Margent the Petition that the Parliament of England offered upon this matter to P. Alexander the 6th But as the Depositions are yet extant of the Duke of Norfolk that was then a Privy Councellour and of two others that there was no precaution used to hinder the consummation so Warham that was at that time Archbishop of Canterbury opposed the second Mariage as being neither honourable nor well-pleasing to God as he himself did afterwards depose upon Oath The Parliament took no cognisance of the matter nor did it make any address to the Pope so that this citation is to be considered as an effect of Mr Varillas his notion of Religion 5. He runs out in his manner into a long speculation concerning the different interests of England and Spain that made the Spaniards go backwards and forwards in the agreeing to the Match that was proposed for P. Henry and the Princess whom by an extravagant affectation he calls always Duke of York and makes the Princesse's Parents represent to K. Henry the 7th the danger of his Son 's growing weary of the Princess since he was 4 year younger than she was and that in order to the procuring of a dissolution of the Mariage from the Court of Rome he might pretend that his Father had forced him to marry her whenever he should grow weary of her All the other Writers of that time put K. Henry the 7th's desiring this second Mariage meerly on his covetousness which made him equally unwilling to repay the Portion or to send a great jointure yearly after the Princess and the Prince of Wales was too great a Match to be so uneasily admitted by the King and Queen of Spain He whom he calls by the Title of the Duke of York was indeed only Duke of York for some Months after his Brother's Death during which time it was supposed that the Princess might be with child by his Brother which proves beyond exception that it was believed that the first Mariage was consummated But when there was no more reason to apprehend that then he carried the Title that belongs to the Heir apparent of our Crown But it seems the King and Queen of Spain were more easily satisfied in this matter than Mr. Varillas would make us believe they were for two years after the Bull was granted when P. Henry came to be of Age he instead of entring into any engagement to marry the Princess made a solemn protestation in the hands of the Bishop of Winchester by which he recalled the consent that he had given during his Minority and declared that he would never marry her But it is very likely Mr. Varillas had never heard of this thô the instrument of that Protestation was not only mentioned but printed by many of the Writers of that Age and it is confessed by Sanders himself who after all Mr. Varillas's flourish with his Letters is his only Author And for this foresight that he thinks he may justly ascribe to the King and Queen of Spain because they are represented by the Writers of that time to have had an extraordinary Sagacity the reason that he makes them give shews it was a contrivance of his own since a moral force such as the Authority of a Father was never so much as pretended to be a just ground to annul a Mariage after it was made and consummated otherwise most of the Mariages that have been made might have been dissolved 6. He adds to this another speculation that is worthy of him he pretends that the King and Queen of Spain apprehended that K. Henry the 7th had acquired the Crown of England and by consequence had a right to dispose of it at his pleasure upon which the Crown of Spain was afraid least he should have disinherited his Son and given the Crown to the Duke of Suffolk that was then at Brussels and was preparing an Invasion of England from which they did not know but K. Henry the 7th might save himself by declaring Suffolk his Successour and that upon those fears they were unwilling to consent to the Match Here is such a mixture of Follies that it is not easy to tell which of them is the most remarkable This Doctrine of the Crown of England's being alienable at the King's pleasure might have passed well with those that some years ago thought to have shut out the next Heir and yet even these did not pretend that it could have been done by the King alone But here is a new Theory of Politicks for which we are sure Mr. Varillas can cite no Authorities from the Laws and Constitutions of England K. Henry the 7th had indeed acquired the Crown by defeating that Tyrant and Usurper Richard the 3 d but as he pretended to be Heir of the Lancastrian Race himself so by marrying to the Heir of the House of York that was the right Heir he by a conjunction of all Titles made the matter sure But this gave him no right to alienate the Crown at his pleasure and to fancy that a King might be induced to give away his Crown from his own Son to the Person in the World that he hated most and whom at his Death he ordered his Son never
but the eldest Son lived only 9 Months the other two Sons and the eldest Girl died immediately after they were born only the youngest that was born the 8 of February 1515 was longer lived Mr. Varillas has a peculiar talent of committing more Errours in one single Period than any Writer of the Age and here he has given a good essay of his art for the Queen bore only three Children the first was a Son born the 1. of Ianuary that died the 22 of February thereafter which was not two full Months much less 9 Months the second Son died not immediatly but about a Fourtnight after he was born and the Daughter afterwards Q. Mary was born the 9th of February 1516. So that thô by chance he has hit the Month right yet he is mistaken both as to the Year and the Day of the Month. So unadvised a thing it is for an ignorant Writer to deliver matters of fact so particularly for thô this may deceive others that are as ignorant as himself by an appearance of exactness yet it lays him too open to those that can find the leisure and the patience to expose him and the last is no easy matter 12. He runs out into a very copious account of K. Henry's Disorders and dresses up Q. Katherine's Devotions in a very sublime strain It does not appear that in all that time he had any other Mistress but Elisabeth Blunt and during all that while he had the highest Panigyriques made him by all the Clergy of Europe upon his Zeal for Religion and Piety possible so that if we did not live in an Age in which Flattery has broke loose from all the restraints of Decency they would appear very extravagant Commendations and if the sublimities of Flattery were not rather a just prejudice against a Prince which give a character of a swelled Ambition and an imperious Tyranny that must be courted by such abject methods so that it is hard whither we ought to think worse of the Flaterers or the Flatered we would be tempted to judge very advantageously of K. Henry the 8th by the Dedications and other fawning Addresses that were made him As for Q. Katherine it does appear that she was indeed a vertuous and devout Woman but Mr. Varillas being more accustomed to Legends than to true Histories could not set out this without a considerable addition of his own for the half of it is not mentioned by any Author that ever I saw nor by any quoted by himself but a Poët must adorn his matter and if he has not judgment he overdoes it 13. He says the King designed to marry his natural Son the Duke of Richmont to his Daughter Mary upon which he makes that long digression concerning the Names of the Race of Tudors that was formerly considered When a Man affirms a thing that is so notoriously injurious to the Memory of a Prince he ought at least to give some sort of proof of its truth for thô in the accesses of Mr. Varillas's Religious Fits he does not think fit to trouble himself with those inconsiderable matters of Truth and Falsehood yet all the World is not of his mind and some colours of Truth are at least lookt for It is true a Negative is not easily proved so a bold Affirmer fancies he has some advantages but in this case it is quite otherwise for the whole series of the Original Instructions Messages and Letters that passed between Rome and England in that matter are still extant in all which there is not the least tittle relating to this Proposition And there are some things of such indecency that nothing but a temper like Mr. Varillas's can bring them together For when K. Henry was pretending a scruple of Conscience at his own marrying his Brother's Wise it is very improbable that he would have asked a Dispensation for a Mariage in a much nearer Degree For Sanders that is Mr. Varillas's Author says that both Propositions were made at the same time There were many Libels printed against K. Henry about that time but the strongest and the best writ was that of Cardinal Pools in which it is visible that he spares nothing that he could alledg with any colour of Truth yet he says nothing of this matter thô it had more weight in it to discover the King's Hypocrisy in pretending to scruples of Conscience than all the other things he alledges and I never could find any other Author for this Story before Sanders whose Book was printed 60 years after 14. He gives another essay of his skill in History and that he is equally ignorant of the Histories of all Kingdomes when he represents to us the endeavours of the King of Scotland for the obtaining of a Mariage with the Princes Mary in favours of his Son upon whose Person he bestows a kind dash of his Pen and he enters into a speculation of the danger that King Henry apprehended from this Proposition and that if he had rejected it the King and Prince of Scotland might have addressed themselves for it to the Parliament and that the Parliament would have raised a general Rebellion rather than have suffered King Henry to reject it The dislike that Mr. Varillas has conceived against the Crown of England seems deeply rooted in him for it returns very often Here he represents forreign Princes complaining to Parliaments when the Kings do not accept of Propositions for their Children as if our Princes were less at liberty in the disposal of their Children than the meanest of their Subjects are but he knows our Constitution as little as he does the History of Scotland otherwise he could not have represented the King of Scotland as pretending to the Mariage of the Princess Mary for his Son since K. Iames the fourth that had married King Henry's Sister was kill'd at the Battel of Floddun the 2 September 1513 above three years before the Princess was born he left an infant Son between whom and the Princess a Treaty of a Mariage was once proposed but no progress was made in it for K. Henry neglected it And he had always his Parliaments so subject to him to apprehend any of those vain Schemes with which Mr. Varillas would possess his Reader There are many that make no great progress in History but yet know somewhat of the Death of Kings and that carry some small measure of Chronology in their Head Yet since Mr. Varillas has not yet got so far he had best buy some common Chronological Tables and have them always before him when he writes and this will at least preserve him from such childish Errours 15. He tells us that there were many Pretenders to the young Princess and to make a full Period he tells us that all the Souverains of Europe courted her both the Emperour the Kings of France Spain and Scotland and so he gives us a fantastical speculation of King Henry's balancing those Propositions one against
History The Queen had a strange Plea for there was not one Witness brought against her so that she was condemned meerly upon Testimonies that were brought in writing which is expresly contrary to our Law As for her Behaviour at her Death it was far from being Stoïcal for it was rather too cheerful and the Lieutenant of the Tower who knew her Behaviour better than any Person whatsoever gives a very different representation of it for in his Letter to Court he tells of her great Devotion of her cheerfulness and of the protestations that she made of her innocence the Morning before she died when she received the Sacrement adding that her Almoner was still with her and had been with her ever since two a clock after Midnight And he also says that she had much Joy and Pleasure in her Death And as all this is very far from the Maximes of the Stoical Philosophy so it seems Mr. Varillas understands very little what they were otherwise if he had remembred what a picture he had made of Anne Boleyn he must have known that the amourous disposition that he had fastned on her agreed very ill with a Stoical Unconcernedness and equality of Temper But this he thought was a pretty conclusion of one of the Scenes of his Piece And now being as weary of this ungrateful Imployment as any Reader or as even Mr. Varillas himself must needs be I find my self at great ease being no more obliged to turn over so very ill a Book And since in the Survey of one of the shortest of the ten Books of which that Work consists I have found so many capital Errours in most of which there is a complication of divers Mistakes in the same Period to how much publick shame must Mr. Varillas be exposed if those who are concerned examine the other Books as I have done this I expect no other Justice from himself but that he will reckon all this scorn that such a Discovery must bring upon him as a meritorious Suffering at the hands of Hereticks and that he will use it as an Argument to raise his Pension But it will be a great happiness if others can learn thô at his cost to write with more Truth and greater Caution The design of all revealed Religion is to heighten in us those Seeds of Probity Vertue and Gentleness that are in our Nature and I will not stick to say that it were better for Mankind that there were no revealed Religion at all in being and that humane Nature should be left to it self than that there were such a sort of a revealed Religion received that overthrows all the Principles of Morality and that instead of making Men sincere teaches them to be false and instead of inspiring them with Love and Mercy enflames them with Rage and Cruelty and it is likely that M. Varillas will easily find out what that Society is of which I mean For he deserves well to be at least one of the Lay-brothers of the Order if not to fill up Mr. Maimbourg's room and then the Order will not lose by the change much of a quality that has been believed to be almost an essential ingredient in its Constitution which gave occasion to a very pleasant Passage that as I was told fell out at Amiens within these 20 years All the Companies of Tradesmen in the Church of Rome choose a Saint for their Patron and the many new invented Trades have put some Bishops to hard shifts to give proper Saints which has produced some very ridiculous Patronages for the Cooks have the Assumption for their Feast because the two first Sillables assum signifies roasted and when the Needle-makers at Paris asked of the Cardinal Gondy a Patron he could not easily find out a Saint that had any relation to their Trade but he advised them to take All-Saints for it could not be thought but that some one or other of the Saints had made Needles but the Bishop of Amiens gave Ignatius Loyola to be the Patron of the Packers now the Word emballeur as it signifies a Packer it passes also for a Trepan so the Packers being satisfied with the Bishop's nomination had Ignatius up on his Day in a Procession upon which the Jesuites were offended to see their Patron pretended to by such a Company of Mechanicks and sued the Packers upon it they defended themselves upon the account of their Bishop's naming him to them and when the Bishop was asked why he had given him for their Patron he alluding to the other signification of the Word emballeur said that he had observed that all the emballeurs of Europe were under that Saint's Patronage But it is not necessary to infer from hence that Mr. Varillas has a just claim to his protection for thô he seems to have very good inclinations yet he wants the address that is necessary to recommend him to so refined a Society and to a perfection in it that cost Mr. Maimbourg a whole Jubily for a Novitiat for thô seven years is enough to learn an ordinary Trade yet 50 is necessary to furnish a Man with a sufficient stock of Impudence for so hardy an Imployment ADVERTISEMENT I Have at last found Card. Cajetan's Works and am now confirmed in that which was only a conjecture when I writ upon the 31st Article pag. 141 for it is hard even to guess wrong when it is in contradiction to Mr. Varillas and as the Reasons that he put in Cajetan's Mouth had such manifest Characters of his own ignorance and hardiness that I could not so much as doubt of the Imposture yet I was not positive till I had taken some pains to find out Cajetan's Works and there I saw my conjectures were well grounded That Volume in which he delivers his opinion in the matter of the obligation of the Levitical Law concerning the degrees of Mariage was writ long before this Dispute of K. Henry's was started for it is dedicated to Pope Leo the tenth And instead of all those impertinencies with which Mr. Varillas calumniates him and of which none less ignorant than himself is capable all that Cajetan says is that whereas Thomas Aquinas was of opinion that those degrees were moral and of eternal obligation he in his Commentary declares himself of another Mind but takes a very backward Method to prove it yet such as was sutable enough to the blindness of the time in which he writ for he proves that they are not Moral only because the Pope dispenced with them who could not dispence with the Moral Law and he gives for instance the Mariage of the King of Portugal to which he adds these Words The present Queen of England had likewise consummated her former Mariage with the late Brother of the King of England her Husband So that Cajetan was only driven to this opinion that he might justify the practises of the Court of Rome And it appears by what he says concerning it that it was considered at Rome as an undoubted Truth that the Queen's first Mariage with Prince Arthur was consummated and so it is sufficiently apparent how impudent Mr. Varillas is in the abstract that he charges on Cardinal Cajetan's Memory it was far from his way of reasoning to talk of Fleets blocking up Constantinople but Mr. Varillas who knows little of the past Time and fancies that matters went formerly as they go now had perhaps the low Estate in which the Otthoman Empire is at present or the Bombarding of Genoa in his Eye when he thought of the sending Fleets against Constantinople above 180 year ago but this speculation was as much out of Cajetan's way as it is sutable to Mr. Varillas Page 250 he says King Henry the eighth had opposed the Mariage of his Sister to the King of Scotland with so much violence that it brought on him several Fits of an Ague But that Mariage being made in August 1502 the young Prince was not then 11 years old and this is too early even for a Poët to make matters of State to have gone so deep into his thoughts as that they endangered his Health But as the Legends of Saints represent them in Extasies before they have past their Childhood so Mr. Varillas thought it sutable to the rest of his Poëm to represent K. Henry even in his Infancy as transported with the violence of impetuous passions But I am afraid I lay too much to his charge since I do not believe that he had examined the History of his Life so Critically as to know even his Age but it is a sad thing for an ignorant Man not to have a Chronological Table always before him FINIS pag. 5. Lib. 9. Pag. 249. Pag. 6. p. 226. 228. â— 240. p. 239. Illudquâ— carnali â—â—â—pula forâ— consummavi Etiamsi Matrimâ—nium fâ—rit per â—â—â—â—nalem â—â—â—pulam â—â—â—â—summaâ—â— p. 232. Ibid. p. 235. p. 2â—6 p. 237 p. 240 24â— â—orison p. 244. p. 245. Ibid. p. 246. p. 248. P. 250. p. 2â—1 P. 252. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. p. 257. p. 258. p. 259. P. 260. Ibid. P. 261. p. 263 c P. 266. p. 278. Ibid. â— 269 â—70 p. 272. p. 274. p. 277. Ibid. â— 278. Ibid. p. 2â—1 Ibid. Ibid. P. 2â—2 Ibid. P 283. Ibid. p. 286. p. 287. p. 287. Ibid. P. 288. p. 289. p. 250. 2da 2dae quaest 15 Art 9. Moderna quoque Regina Angliae consummaverat prius matrimoniuâ— cum olim fratre istius Regis Angli sui marit
China or Iapan but it is so gross an imposition on such as know the Methods of the Courts of Europe that Mr. Varillas presumed too much on the credulity of his Readers when he thought that this could be believed and si non è vero il è ben trovato is so necessary a Character for a Man to maintain that would have his Books sell well which I am told is Mr. Varillas's chief Design that he had best find out some Judge of his Pieces that has a true Understanding since it is plain that he has not sence enough himself to make a right Judgment in such matters 27. He says when Cardinal Wolsey went over into France he caried a Commission to consult the Universities of France touching the King's Divorce but that the change of Affairs in Italy made the King to recal him who was strangely surprised when he found that the King had no thoughts of marrying the Dutchess of Alençon and that he was become so much in love with Anne Boleyn that he was resolved to marry her on any Terms It is an unfortunate thing for a Man to have heard too much and to have read too little of History for as the one gives him much confidence so the other exposes him to many Errours Mr. Varillas had heard that K. Henry had consulted many Universities but not knowing where to place this he fancied that it must be the first step in the whole Matter But he knew not that this was not thought on till after a Sute of above two Years continuance in which the King saw how he was deluded by the Court of Rome and upon that he took the other Method of consulting the Universities All his speculations concerning Card. Wolsey are built on the common Mistake that supposes him ignorant of the King's intentions for Anne Boleyn the falsehood of which I have sufficiently demonstrated 28. He tells us that Card. Wolsey having once several Bishops to dine with them the King knowing of it went to them after Dinner and made a Writing to be read to them that set forth the Reasons against his Mariage the Bishops did not approve it quite yet they were so complying as to say that if those things were true his scruples were well grounded This was too important a thing not be made appear probable by some of his pretended Vouchers thô it is most certainly false for a Resolution signed by all the Bishops of England except Fisher was produced before the Legates to shew how well the King's scruples were grounded 29. He says the Privy Councel acted more steadily and intended to give the King an undeniable proof of his Mistresses Lewdness for Sr. Thomas Wiat that had obtained of her the last favours was willing to let the King know it and so being of the Privy Councel he not only owned the matter to the rest of that Board but was content to let the King know it and when he found that the King would not believe it he offered to make the King himself an Eye-witness to their Privacies but thô the Duke of Suffolk made this bold Proposition to the King he was so far from hearkning to it that Wiat was disgraced upon it and by this means the Mistress was covered from such dangerous Discoveries for the future Such a Story as this might have passed from a Sanders that knew the World little but in earnest it seems the fits of Mr. Varillas's Religion are strong even to Extasy since they make him write as extravagantly of humane Affairs as if he had passed his whole Life in a Desert A Man that knows what humane Nature is cannot think that Wiat would have either so far betraied Mrs. Boleyn or exposed himself as to have made such a Discovery it being more natural for a Man that was assured of a young Lady's Favour to contribute to her Elevation since that must have raised himself than to contrive her Ruin And K. Henry whose imperious temper gave him a particular Disposition to Jealousy must have been of different composition from all the rest of Mankind if he could have rejected a Discovery of this nature And when the secrets of Jealousies are opened to Princes it is too gross even for a Romance to make the Discoverer to begin with the Councel-board and to procure a Deputation from them to acquaint the King with them But as Wiat does not appear to have been a Privy Councelour till near the end of K. Henry's Reign so it is plain enough he was never disgraced but continued to be still imploied by the King in some forreign Embassies to the end of his Life 30. He says Anne Boleyn endeavoured thô in vain to engage Sr. Thomas More to negociate her Affair but he being proof against all corruption Gardiner that was a Canonist was made Secretary of State and was sent to Rome with My-Lord Brian who scandalised all Rome with his lewd behaviour and had the impudence to assure the Pope that the Queen desired to be divorced that so she might retire into a Monastery And made other offers of great advantage to the Pope in case he would allow the Divorce Mr. Varillas cannot say too much in Sr. Thomas More 's commendation but since he was a Man of so much Sincerity it is certain that he approved of the Divorce for in a Letter that his own Family printed among his other Works in Q. Mary's Reign he writing to Cromwel owns that he had approved of the Divorce and that he had great hopes of the King's success in it as long as it was prosecuted in the Court of Rome and founded on the defects that were pretended to be in the Bull and after that most of the Universities and of the learned Men of Europe had given their Opinions in favours of the Divorce four years after it was first moved he being then Chancellour went down to the House of Commons and made those Decisions to be read there and upon that he desired the Members of Parliament to report in their Countries that which they had heard and seen and added these very Words and then all Men will openly perceive that the King has not attempted this Matter for his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience Upon Wolsey's Disgrace he was made Chancellour and continued in that high trust almost three years which is an evident sign that he did not then oppose the Divorce nor did he grow disgusted of the Court till he saw that the King was upon the point of breaking with the See of Rome So that he would have liked the Divorce if the Pope could have been prevailed with to allow it but he did not approve of the King 's procuring it another way Mr. Varillas is no happier in the other parts of this Article for Gardiner was not sent first to Rome to negotiate this matter Knight that was Secretary of State was first imploied and Gardiner was