father must goe and take Marguerit the daughter of Lewis the eyght for a vvyfe to hys son Henry and for his son Richard tooke Aelix an other daughter of Fraunce vvhich alliances proued such assurances to Henry the second as his last fiue or sixe yeeres vvere nothing but an vnkinde stryfe with his ovvne sons and especially hys sonne Rychard made open vvarre against him and vvan from him a part of Normandie by the helpe of his trustie friend Lewes the French king After thys vvhen Rychard him selfe was king not vvithstanding all the French friendships and alliances at vvhat tyme he vvas taken prisoner in hys returne from Ierusalem the French king vvas not ashamed to excite Iohn the brother of England to seize himselfe of the crovvne The sayd Iohn vvhen he vvas king marieng the daughter of the Earle of Engolesme in Fraunce and his son Henry the third hauing maried first a daughter of the Earle of prouence and secondly french Marguerit sister to Phillip the fayer found in the seueral dayes of theyr raignes the French king to be no better then a pricke in theyr sides taking part against them and prouoking theyr people to be as it vvere thornes in theyr feete Edvvard the second succeding his auncesters aswell in theyr vnhappy folly as in they re kingdome vvill needes marry vvith Isabel daughter to the same Phillip vvhich proued such an assurance to hymselfe as that hys French vvife vvas able to bereaue hym first of hys son carying him into Fraunce and hauing there made a strong part could returne and bereaue her husband of hys liberty and kingdome and in the ende of hys lyfe to after a vvretched captiuitie vnder hys owne son So that of old the alliances of Fraunce dyd set husbande and vvife together by the eares as in Henry the second and Edvvarde the second the father and son together as they did Henry the second and hys three sons Henry Rycharde and Iohn brother against brother as Rychard and Iohn the king and hys people togither as they did king Iohn and Henry the thyrd against the people and as they did aftervvard in Rychard the second Henry the sixt vvhich the duke Thomas of Glocester in his tyme vvell foresavv and therefore vpon treaty of the like mariage for Rychard the second vvho hauing novv raigned xix yeeres and being thyrtye yeeres olde fell amourous most vnkindlye and vnkingly vvith a french girle but eyght yeeres of age daughter to Charles the sixt French king he the same Thomas of Glocester vncle to the king stept vp and vvithstode that match hauing belike in these former experiences obserued the truth of that general rule set dovvne vpon the French by that Greeke Emperor And because I find the vvords of thys Duke set dovvne more expresly in a French chronicle then any vvhere els I vvill vse theyr ovvne vvords as the fittest testimony in thys case The alliance of Fraunce sayth that Duke in that french story hath bene the ruine of England and this nevve frendship betvveene these kings sayth the Duke shall neuer make me loke for any assured peace attvvene thē for sayth he ther vvas neuer yet any trust or religiō or truth in the vvord or promises of the french VVhat an auncient hereditary disease of disloyalty is this in the royall seate of Fraunce especially since the Maiors of the housholde became kinges And though thys Dukes voice in thys counsell vvere ouerruled by the multitude or rather by the lust of the king yet did the king and his people and their children feele hovve true it was in sequele For first thys externe amitie with Fraunce bred home enemitye in England It cost vs for an earnest penny the tovvne of Brest in Britanie by meanes of the kings outlandish Queen And poore king Richard vsing in priuate connsaise altogether the French companions such as his vvyfe brought began to disdeyne his ovvne naturall kinsmen and subiects and finallye follovving ouermuch the cruell and riotous counsel of such minions namely the Constable of Fraunce and Erle of S. Pol vvhō the French king sent of purpose to king Rycharde his son in lavve polling the people and putting to death such nobles as his french counsail put in hys head in the end he vvas quite vnkinged by Henry of Lancaster afterwardes Henry the fourth vvho during the tyme that he platted thys enterprise founde hospitalitye in Fraunce for all king Rychards alliance vnder his father in lavves nose The French match it vvas vvhich vvithin one yere brought the king to dishonorable captiuitie death and deposing vvhich appeares for that in story it is rekoned emong other thinges that alienated from him the loue of hys subiects so farre as when he vvas taken hys enemy vvas fayne to saue hys lyfe by garde from hys ovvn people and also it is obiected agaynst hym that he had made thys alliance vvith Fraunce not calling to counsail the thre estates of England Euen the last mariages vve made vvith France vvere lyke vnhappy to the end Henry the fift that noble king had the alliance of Katherin daughter to Charles the seauenth of Fraunce and after had the possession of Fraunce first by right of descent and mariage then by conquest of sword and lastly by couenant agreed with king Charles and his peeres yet coulde he none othervvise hold theyr loue but hauing theyr necks vnder hys yoke VVhych vnion of possession and right to that realme vvas aftervvard fortified by crouning hys sonne Henry the sixt in Paris and by a nevv match betweene hym and Marguerit daughter of a French Charles as most men saien vvhich cost hym first for a princely brybe the dukedome of Angeow and Ereldome of Main and after many miserable destructions of our English cheualry people lost both the new cōquired title ancient heriditarye dominions on that side and finally vvrought an ignominious depriuation of Henry the sixt from this realme I think I might set dovvue all such matches as vnhappy ones and contrarivvise those matches nothing so vnhappy but for the most parte prosperous vvhich were made eyther at home or in other places as vveren al those mariages made since Henry the sixt as by Edvvarde the fourth her Maiesties greatgraundfather and by her maiesties graundfather and by her father And if a sister or daughter vvho had no or dinarye counsail allowed her out of France could yet continually preuaile so much to the trobling of the state and deposing of the king here vvhat peril is it to dravv hether a brother vvho is to haue his ordinarye counsail and some gard of force and continuall-intelligence with the French king and is also to be a leader and executer of any deuise himselfe vvhich a French woman could not doe so vvell the daunger therefore in thys match is encreased beyond that in the former matches for there the party for or by vvhom the danger came vvas a vvoman and therefore
dishonour to her spouse vvith the separating her from her Lord God and vvith the treading vnder foot of that precious lavve vvhich îs her holy rule for order and souereigne preseruatife againste all headlong confusion if they say yea vve say nay and proue it nay Namely that this procuration of mariage is a breach of Gods lawe and not onely for the sinne thereof is against the church because it hasteneth vengeaunce but vve shevve by demonstratiue reasons that it goeth to the very gorge of the Church I trust I shall not neede to proue to these mens consciences this Maior proposition or Maxime that is to say Syn prouoketh the wrath of God and that greate sinnes call down great plages and mighty sinners are mightily punished This argument The vvorld sinneth such a citie sinneth such a land sinneth such a try be such a kindred such a family such a soule sinneth Ergo the vvorld such a city land trybe kindred family soule shall feele the vengeance of that high lavvgeuer against vvhom they sinne is a most necessary consequence This next though it be but the Minor in order and vvill not perhappes vvithout farther proofe be yelden vnto by thys kynde of protestātes yet is it as true as the former that is that it is a sin a greate and a mightye sinne for England to geue one of Israels daughters to any of Hemors sonnes to match a daughter of God vvith one of the sonnes of men to couple a Christian Ladye a member of Christ to a Prince good sonne of Rome that Antichristian mother citie For the inuincible manifestastion therfore of this truth let vs first consider England as a region purged from Idolatry a kingdome of light confessing Christ and seruing the liuing God Contrariwise Fraunce a den of Idolatrye a kingdome of darkenes confessing Belial and seruing Baal Then let vs remember vvhat was the first institution of mariage which is set before vs as a directory rule for vs in our mariages for euer and vvhereunto Christ teacheth vs playnly in al cases and other incidentes of mariage to looke back vvhen vpon a case put of mariage he aunsweres IN THE BEGINNING IT VVAS NOT SO. The first mariages were betvvene payres in Religion and in the feare of god And the first vvritten commaundements that are giuen by Moses touching mariage haue their regard to that first institution as it were to the oldest lavve The vvhich Moses rightly vnderstanding and according to the interpretation of al lawes vvhen they bid or forbid any thing do therevvith forbid or bid the contrarye He also in Denteronomie forbad those matches vvherein the sonnes of God vvere giuen to the daughters of mē adding thys reason for saith he such mariages wil make thy children to fal from me And this place at once may expound those other many places vvhere it is sayd least they make thy children to commit Idolatry to be added as a certaine punishment by the iudgement of God and not for a doubtfull reason as some vvould fayn haue it that seke to dravv the lavves of God to their lustes who should rather rule theyr lustes by the lawes VVhich pure institution of mariage S. Paul also continues when enlarging the holy vse thereof to all sortes of men he yet hath this restraint that it be in the Lord that is to saye in his feare as it was from the beginning and according to his former commaundements in his vvorde It is more then enough to breake the holy ordinaunce instituted of God vvhich ought to gouerne vs without further enqui rye of reason or commodity But as the holinesse of his lavves is holesome to vs euen in this life by obedience so doth theyr trāsgression breede vs infinite incommodities For the ende of this holy kind of mariage is our mutuall helpe and vpholdiug one an other in the feare of god vvhich appeareth by the reason of forbidding those vnholy mariages vvhich is least sayth the spirit of God their sonnes drawe your daughters or their daughters your sonnes from the lord Nowe as the one comes to passe vvhere thorder of God is kept so the contrary effect must iustly followe vpon neglect especially if such a mariage be made in a gospellike land vvhere the lavv of God is preached and contrarye to warning giuen out of Gods booke Then vvithout peraduenture all blessing is taken awaye and the plague follovveth And to teach our politiques by reasonable argumentes what other reasons haue the lavves of all lands to ioyne like to like in mariage but for the norishing of peace and loue betvvene man and vvife and for the vvell bringing vp of the children in euery familye vvherby to make them profitable members in some seruiceable vocation considering that families are the seedes of Realmes and petie partes of common vveales where if there be good order the vvhole land is vvell ordered and contrary as in anye instrument if euery string or many strings be out of tune the whole musick is marred and who so vvill preserue any entier must conserue euery part so if the families be distempered and out of tune the vvhole land is disturbed Thinke you that the common vveal can haue this care for her lesse partes and thus prouide for the vvell trayning vp of her chil dren that the church of England vvherin this holy lavv of religious matching marying the faithful vvith the faythful is giue by Christ to this end that their children might be sanctified and holily brought vp in christian religion thinke you I say that the church wil easely depart vvith her deere daughter her daughter of hiest honor Elizabeth the Queene of England vvho is the tēple of the holy ghost and vvill not hold her fast in her louing armes as being loath to giue her to a straunger one that hath shevved no signes of regeneration and her selfe vvant thassistaunce of a faythfull husband and her children of her body if any she haue vvhich receiue outvvard sanctification and entry into the bosom of the church thorough the promise of their faythfull parentes be in danger to be profaned before they be borne and to be corrupted after they are borne and thorovvout al their education S. Paul speaking of contrary couplings together compareth them to the vneuen yoking of the cleane Oxe to the vncleane Asse a thing forbidden in the lawe And here againe the lawes of men vvhieh medle but vvith the distribution of the things of this life haue learned this equitie of the lavves of God that it is a greate disparagement for health to be ioyned in mariage vvith any foule disease for beuty vvith deformity youth vvith decrepite age or to tender a townes man daughter to a gentilman of birth A citizen of Rome vvoulde hold foule scorne to mary a Barbariane And the common vvealthes of England Fraunce I dare say vvould meruail if eyther our Queene or Monsieur being both great princes borne and of
high linage should seeke or consent in mariage vvith any lovv borne or contemptible person Haue the lavves of common vveales prouided thus vvel for men the vvorld standes it thus vppon her slippers of reputation in obseruing what is comely in mariage and honourable for ech personage and shall the lavves of God trovv you be of none effect or shall it not be much more ougly before God and hys angels vvhen an Hebrew shal mary a Cananite ' there is no such inequalitie as that of religion no such disparagement as not to be faythfull no such dignity of Principality as to be a good christian and no such slauery as to be a Barbarian from Christ Iesu. Perhappes some man vvill defende these vneuen Irreligious mariages by abusing that place of 1. Cor. 7. But vvithout any other helpe that text it selfe is selfe sufficient to deliuer it self from that violence and the lavv of God from the beginning to the end all one vvith the obedient practise of Gods children and the plages vpon the transgressors do euidently shevv that Paul there speaketh onely for the continuance of such mariages as were first not vneuen being made in time of infidelitie on both partes and by the aftercalling of one party are become vneuen for thè cōtinuance I say of such mariages and not vneuenly to yoke any Christian which is free to one not faithfull Novv as by reasons it appeares vnlavvfull so by examples it may appeare hurtfull Those good men of whom vve loue to be esteemed the children and follovvers Abraham and Isaac had euen a religious care not to haue their sonnes matche vvith the Cananeans dwelling at theyr next doores but sent further of for the daughters of god VVhat a diameter of religion vvere it for vs dvvelling emong Christians to admit from ouer sea the sons of men in mariage The children of Iacob vvere so vvell taughte bytheir father in the religion of their grandfather great granfather that they could ansvver vve may not giue our sister to the vncircumcised that is to say vve can not or vve may not lawfully for that vve onely may vvhich by the lawe of God vve may Those ill men to vvhome vve vvoulde be ashamed to be resembled made this maner of mariage The old vvorlde vvhich thus defiling it selfe was therefore vvashed in the vniuersall flood And Esau whose fault yet was in this poynt lesse then ours for they wythout care of Religion tooke the fayrest and such as perhaps vvere next hand vve should in this match send further of for our mariage and haue not so much respect as to the fayrest being so far giuen ouer of God as to forget euen that part whyche we would gladliest please And emong those good men whome we set for holy examples this maner of mariage vvas euer noted by the scripture emong theyr faults As the Israelites which thus fel away from the seruice of God and withal out of his protection As Samson and Salomon whose vertues we must imitate and not these their sinnes VVhere Salomon might serue for all examples and hym will I chiefely name and namely vrge speaking novv of kingly mariages and courtly mariage makers because he vvas a king and also because that godly Courtier Nehemiah doth notably apply it in a stronger case vsing Salomons sin în this maner of vnholy mariages as a reason to separate the Israelits frō their wiues vvhich they had already maried yea and by vvhome they had had children born to thē thinking it an ilfauoured noise to heare theyr children gibber in the streetes halfe Hebrewe halfe Ashdod I pray you marke then how much more force Salomons example hath to disswade a mariage that is yet but in parle not concluded to make no such fayre reckoning of a babe yet vnborne whose shape we see not and how much more ilfauoured it vvere for vs that in our churches speake the language of Canaan to ioyne vvith thē that in their masse mumble the straunge tongue of Rome And if woman that vveaker vessel be strong enough to dravve man through thaduantage vvhiche the deuill hath vvithin our bosome I meane our naturall corruption and proonesse to Idolatry hovv much more forcibly shall the stronger vessell pull vveake vvoman considering that vvith the inequalitie of strength there is ioyned as great or more readinesse to Idolatrye and superstition And if the husband vvhich is the heade be dravven aside by his vvyfe ouer vvhome neuerthelesse he hath authoritye and rule hovve muche more easely shall the vvife be peruerted by her husband to vvhome she is subīecte by the lavve of God and ovveth both avve and obedience hovve soeuer the lavves by prerogatif or her place by preeminēce may priuiledge her And here note this that euery vvhere it is set dovvne hovve the vvicked peruerted the good but no vvhere that the better part conuerted the wicked for euen the ill ralke or other conuersation of ill men corruptes good maners And sith Salomon a peereles king beloued of God as Nehemiah saith so furnished in vvisedome and of vvhome there vvere such certaine demonstrations that he was the child of God dyd yet thys foulye fal by ioyning himselfe in mariage vvith Idolatrons vvemē in so much as diuers now thinke they find almost as many reasons to call in some doubt his saluation I pray God it may seeme fearefull in the eyes of all other Princes and princesses vvormes to him in wisedom to do the like fault for dread of the like sequele VVherby it appeares how vaine that promise is of theirs who say that Monsieure shall be instructed in our religion and drawen frō his by going with our Queene to hers besides that we woulde be loath with so certaine great peril to our Queene who is emong men and vvomen the chiese to vs to attempt the vncertain winning of him who is emong all men the least to vs And if there were in him any hope of tollerable inclination to religion it wold rather shevve now in the time of his sute to our Queene by that meanes perhaps thinking to be lesse lothsome to her and les abominable to her people but we haue no cause to hope it for he vseth no protestant in the matter of mariage although for some other colour he hath seemed to make some reckoning of some in some respect And if there were hope yet in so vnaduised rashnes to venture against the word of God we may well looke for Gods iudgement to come betwene and punish our folehardines that he which loueth peril may abide and perish therein But these discoursers that vse the word of God with as little conscience as they doe Machiauel pycking out of both indifferently what may serue theyr turnes perhaps they will thinke to escape all hetherto sayd by calling in question for their mouthes are their owne to dispute of any thing without care of resolutiō whether to mary with the Papist that worshippeth the
Lord of Heauen and earth be against those interdictions in the law which seeme to compas in no more but the Canaanites Iebusites c. And mere pagan nations and whether to mary with the papist who in generall termes protesteth Christ be to mary in the lord To answere these men whose doubts procede euer of they re lust to giue themselues liberty and not of a conscience affrayd to offend God I might say that if to confes the Lord of heauen and earth be ynough to auoid those interdictions then might we entermary with Turks Iewes Moscouites and diuers other painnimes and as far as I remēber with some of the Cannibals Looke the storyes of the new Indians And albeit the Papist protest Christ in word yet sith the vnity of the Church is noted to be herein that Christians be the houshold of faith in the fundamental doctrine whereof what it is what is the vse worthines working thereof the papistes dissenting from vs as farre as they that scatter wher we gather it wil be hard to make them of one faithful houshold with vs. But to yeelde them a degree somevvhat nearer vs then Canaanites compare them with the Moabites and the Ammonites who were cosens to Israell by the flesh and had Lot for theyr father or let them stand with Ishmael Abrahams bastards son yea at once let them be in regard to vs with Edome Israels twinne brother both which had the circumcision of flesh yet vvas it not lavvful for the Isralites to mary with them in Salomon namely it is counted emong other his sinful mariages that he maryed with those nations But that we may yet giue somewhat more to these strayners for lustes sake at a gnat and swallowers of a Camel through conscience for they are more precise to doe popery wrong then to doe the gospell right let vs I say suffer the popish churche to be made more of then she is worth let vs take her at the best and in as good accompt as any learned gospeller hetherto hath set her and let her haue the allowaunce of two or three graines to be massier then the Edomite and finer then the pagane to hang in an euen ballance and to be of one assaie or touche with the Idolatrous and trayterous Israelits that fel from God and were false to the house of Dauid theyr king yet shal papistes be to light and to drossie to mary with vs For neither was it lawfull nor luckie for the Iewes to mary with those Ieroboamical Israelites for al theyr ontward circumcision and though they worshipped on the hill of the patriark fathers For this purpose reade well the storye of Iehoram king of Iehuda the son of good Iohosaphat that made a notable reformation in Gods house and for all his fathers sake you shall see it obiected against him and rendred as a reason of his other great outragious sins that he had maried in the house of Achab king of the Samaritane Israelites The wickednes and sinne of vvhyche kinde of mariage as it is euinced by the very word of God and punishment vpon the person of Iehoram so îs it proued by the horrible punishments following vpon his generation For Ahaziah or Ochoziah son of Iehoram by reason of the Quene mother Athalia fell in such a leag vvith the king of Israell that taking his quarel he fel with him vpon the svvord of Iehu After vvhose death the Queene mother and dovvagier Athalia plaied Rex and slew al the princes of the blood and peeres of Iudah All which murdures began and are set downe to haue com for that mariage with the daughter of Achab whose seede the Lord had sayd to purseu to the rote VVherby it appeares that whoso matcheth with any vvicked race doe make themselues and their sede partakers of the sinnes and plagues of that race and their auncesters And because the match of fraunce with thitalian Athalia hir furies in that lande especiallye those at the mariage of her daughter Margeret vvill of themselues applye them selues in euery respect to agree vvith her of Iudea and proue the sin and punishment of such vvicked vvilling matches betvvene Christian true Ievves and popish bastard Israelites I onely name it and leaue it to the trembling consideration of all especially of suche as it neerest toucheth vvhom I besech in Gods name to stand vveightily vpon it These things do necessarily infer the third proposion vvhich is the conclusion or finall sentence of Gods punishment against this poore church for this sinne if it be committed Faire therefore is their pretext of peace to the Church vvho seeke that thing that must be the cause of such a vvoefull effect So that if our mariage makers be not so spirituall as that the sin vvhich this mariage hath simply in it selfe and of it selfe onely for being against Gods lavv can not make them yeld to confes the daunger it bringeth to the church let vs compel them to come in by looking at the tayle of sinnes and punishments that this venemous serpent of sin draggeth after it It is not in Gods church as in the Grecian host there delirant reges plectuntur Achiui but vvith vs Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis The sin of the Prince maketh the people to sin vvhereby euery one beareth his sin and the Lord findes matter ynough in Prince and people to vvrap the one and the other in the same calamitye In reasoning it is truely sayd one absurditie begetteth an other euen so hath sin a fruitfull generation and as the vertues are sayd to be chained together so is neuer one vice or sin alone But specially the breach of this lavve of God in vvhom soeuer priuate person it lighteth dravveth not onely a certaine falling avvay to the goodman or goodvvife of the house so vngodly maryed but a daunger also to children seruants and euery reteiner of that houshold much more manifold is the danger vvhē the honorable dame and as in humblenes I may say the goodvvife of Englād shold be so which God forbid vneuēly matched It vvere more perilous to the ouerthrovv of Religion in thys faythful houshold of England then if in one day vvere consummate the like mariages of a hundred thousand of other her subiects for the straightest and roundest going Prince shall vvyth much a doe keepe his people vpright especially in Religion But let the Prince laake neuer so little and the people vvil halt right dovvne The Princes fal is like that of a mighty Oake vvhich beares dovvn vvith it many armes and braunches therfore is it often recited in the scripture that Ieroboam sell avvay frō God and all Israell vvith him again for the sins of Ieroboam vvhereby he caused all Israell to sinne against the Lord. Novv if the French fautors of this mariage vvhich can enlarg theyr pollicy and mince the vvord of God as they list vvill yet cast about an other
to feare if these Israelites feared so much at the building of an Altar vvhych vvas meant to the honour of God and onely contrary to the outward shevv of the vvordes of the lavve shall not vve tremble at thys Alter vvhich all the charity in the vvorld can not conceiue vvell of as that vvhich hath none vse but to serue the deuil good Nehemiah for one piece of thys our sin found in the people feared the wrath of God proclaymed publike fasting prayer Let vs folovv his example that the Lord may be still our God and remember vs to do vs good Much more haue vve to shake for that thys our turning frō God in straunge mariage and permitting strange Gods vvhich the liuing God turne from vs should be more foule and more grosse thenany of those former vvhiche neuerthelesse deserued and had such plagues For it cannot I dare say be shevved in all the holystory that those people of God in the vvorst mariage emōg them did yet euer make any precedent pact or articulat cōdition aforehand vvith the Idolaters that they should quietly agaynste the lavves of theyr holy land commit Idolatry but rather at firste the Idolaters dissembling theyr ovvne or making semblant of the true religiō fayre foftly vvan by little little through familiarity mutuall conuersation of lyfe after mariage by a stealing insinuation or flattery and creping persvvasion daungerous therefore to haue any sort of felovvship vvith the vvicked an open exercise of theyr paganisme But if any man perswade our Prince in vvhose handes the Lorde hath put and holden a soueraigne scepter of peace novv twenty yeeres and more and by vvhose handes the Lord hath quite expelled Idolatrye he make her and vs thankfull for it vppon cammunication of thys mariage to indent vvith man hovv farre God should be honoured vvhat is thys but to sinne more then the supposed sin of the Reubenites to excede the transgressions of Salomon or Iehoram euen to erecte an Idolatrous altar not in a corner of the Realme but on the hyghest hyll of the land in London vvhich is our Ierusalem and to make an open fault not of infirmitye but by addised composition agaynst the Lord and hys truth not in tvvo shires and a halfe but in the greatest part of the realme and head of the land our prince in so much as it should be safer to set vp a thousande hyll alters for hedgecreping Priestes other where rather then thys high Altar so neere the Court. The sinne of Achan though not in thys kind proues that the sin of one man and hym pryuate doen in secrete and buried close vnder the ground gaue forth such a stench in the Lords nostrels as was contagious to the vvhole host and hys garmente brought the plague emong them Much more shall the hygh sin of a highest magistrate doen and auoued in open son kindle the vvrath of God and set fire on church and common weale And this fire if it fasten on our church it is like wild fyre or fire from heauen that all the seas can not stoppe nor quench but the flakes thereof wyll flye ouer sea and keepe hauoke in the churches both on thys side and beyoind seas Our neighbour vvel builded church of Scotland must needes think hir selfe to haue some what in hand vvhen our wall is aburning The infant churches in the lovv countryes shall loose a nource of vs The elder churches in Garmani a sister of strength And vvhen I remember the poore orphane churches in france I must needes giue the pryce of godlesse impudencie to those vvhich vvyll needes forsooth mayntaine thys mariage as a mean to assure religion in fraunce and to preferue the professors there from more massacres These men haue lyke vnkind mothers put as it vvere theyr owne child the church of England to be nour sed of a french enemy and friend to Rome and novv very kindly they take in both armes the church of fraunce and giue it a priuy deadly nipp vnder colour of offering it their teates vvherein is nought but vvind if not poyson As therefore the ennemies to Gods truth seeke those churches ruin throug hatred to religion so should we who are members of one body vvith them haue a care of them as of our selues The enemies think there kingdom of Antichrist can not stand vnles Christ be put out of these churches let vs knovv as those reformed Churches next vnder God and theyr owne forces haue stoode by good neighbourhood euen so that there standing is our necessary strength Certainly the Pope seeth vvell that one great staye vvhy neyther the French King in Fraunce nor the Spanish king in the low countryes can destroy religion is the helpe and avve of other Princes confessing the gospell emong which our Queene is in regard with the chiefe A game he seeth as vvell that next vnder God one greate cause vvhy hys interdictions against vs take no place in England nor Ireland and that those kings to whom hee hath giuen our land as it vvere to vvhom soeuer occupanti can not come to take possession of vs is because that they of the reformed religion in both those countryes are as a brazen doore and an yron wall agaynst our popish enemies and therefore by thys match he seekes to sunder them from vs and vs from them and so by vnbarring our brazen doore and treading dovvne our vval to lay open hys passage to vs I vvill not therefore vouchsafe this straunge suppositon of these persvvaders the place of an obiection to be aunsvvered in the ende but vvill vse it for an other mayn reason of proofe in thys part that thys mariage is agaynst the church because it is agaynst the churches of Fraunce the vvhich it must needes kill in the place as they say and vvithall giue our church a deathes wound Here is therefore an imp of the crovvne of Fraunce to marye vvith the crovvned Nymphe of Englande It is proued alreadye that his comming shakes the church in Englande and hovv shall he stablish the religion in France VVhat is France to the church of God and to England for religions sake Fraunce is a house of crueltie especially against Christians a principll prop of the tottering house of Antichriste and vvithout vvhich our VVesterne Antichriste had bene ere this sent to his brother Mahomet into Greece vvhether he long sence sent his maisters the Emperoures of Rome The long and cruell persecutions in Fraunce the exquisite torments and infinite numbers there put to death doe vvitnes hovv worthy that throne is to be reckoned for one horn of that persecuting beast the primitiue Empire Thys man is a son of Henrye the second vvhose familie euer since he maryed vvith Catherine of Italie is fatal as it vvere to to resist the Gospell and haue bene euer oney after other as a domitian after Nero as a Traian after domitian and as Iulianus after Traian VVhose manifest cruelties and
because our sins ioyned with hers in that we ioyned one of our Oxen to one of her shee asses In thys tragedy she played her part naturally and shewed howe she gouernes all Fraunce Her daughter Margerit vvas the stale to lure and allure them that othervvise flewe hyghe houering a far of and could not be gotten her son then king was in all the haste become a father to the Admirall and those of the religion Monsieur that then was and now king he played false semblant as though he had bene merueylons angry at the mariage at the grace which the Admiral and the rest of the religion found with the king Monsieur that now is he played the childes part or weeping part reseruing hys credit as is a foresayd til a riper age all thys whyle the mother as setter forth of thys earnest game stoode holding the booke as it were vppon the stage and told her children and euery other player what he should say the last acte was very lamentable A king falsifyed hys sworne word The mariage of a kings sister embrued with blood A king murdered hys subiectes many noble honourable gentilmē shamefully vsed valiant men surprysed by cowards in theyr beddes Innocents put to death vvemen and children without pitye tossed vpon halberds and throvvne downe wyndowes and into Riuers learned men killed by barbarous souldiers the seyntes of God ledde to the shambles all the day long and all that weeke long by vyle crochetors or porters the church of Christ rased the very nest egge broken as farr as mens mischeeuous reasonable wit cold reach and that which was worst those that liued were compelled to forsweare theyr God and little ones Christened before to Christ were novv dipped agayne to Antichrist He therefore that loueth the church can not think this mariage to promise any happynes to Gods church in Fraunce Noe certenly as touching the church it hath that mischeuous ende set vnto it by them which the former mariages had God graunt we harken not in thys match to the present French king and his brother least by abusing vs also inmariage thorough our sinnes vve thorough vnaduised policie fall in the same snare vvith our good brethren and the king with hys brother for so abusing vs be gathered to theyr fathers and buried vvith them in the same graue or hel of infamie by Gods manifest iudgements vpon them And which is all the good can come to the churches of Fraunce by thys mariage the Queene mother seeing novv all her foure sons after a sort to be kinges fynd that delphick ansvver of her familiar spirites subtilly fulfilled so as she may chalenge no longer life of the deuill but that he to vvhom she hath giuen her selfe muste rid that Realme and those poore churches of her A man vvould thynke that thys matter needed not to be anye vvhit set forth but that the very name of the Parifien mariage should a fray any protestant of Eugland or Fraunce from euer loking for any good to come by committing this il yea the scourging rod vvhich followed so hard at the heeles of that sinne and vvhere iudgement began at Gods house should as a thonderclap of Gods vvrath astonish all politiques And if Thadmerall the hundred thousand men vvemen and children vvhose innocente blood solemnized that mariage myght be sent to vs againe frō the dead they would out of theyr heauenly loue to Gods church heare on earth lyuely and hottly diswade thys kind of mariage they vvould lay forth the harmes of that mariage with such reuiued afections as their wounds would bleede afresh and they re headlesse bodies speake as it were before you But vve haue Moses and the Prophets vve haue Christ and his Apostels if we beleeue not them we shall be taught by late experience and go the way of our Parisien brethern Yea though thys mariage being made should not haue towards vs that malicious bloody effect vvhych is meant and that it should but vveaken vs as that of Spayn did alas neuertheles for the poore protestantes in france there ruin were present for we saw when before the great murder there vvas a new coloured freendship made with our Queen such as vvith other Princes in respecte whereof both she they vvere notably abused and vvronged by the massacer following that friendship serued first to bleare the eyes of the French protestants and after to put them quite out which single friendship vvith the Queene if it made the french king the bolder to enterprise the murder how far will he presume hauing a brother in the hart of our Court to refresh the remembrance of his alliaunce to stay any contrary aydes from hence vvhyle he seise vpon hys protestants and vvorry them lyke sheepe And if Monsieur had any sinceare meaning to relieue the protestants he would employ all that credit and familiarity vvhych he now hath whyle he is present vvith the king to the protestāts good euen now when as they seeme to haue some neede of him He meanes nothing les and that he means the contrary may easely be gathered by the manye blasphemous speeches and cruell threatnings agaynst reformed religion proceeding from suche as bene in the trayn of hys present legate a latere in England hys ill vvyll also to helpe the protestants may appeare that wher as there haue bene since the last peace many violences murders outrages and iustice for those facts denyed and establishment of churches vvithstood all against the edict yet Monsieur shevved neuer to haue any common compassion such as some man wold haue vpon beastes when he saw them ouerburdened In fraunce he hantes the mas and is hanted onely of papistes In Flaunders he ioyned himselfe onely with the Papistes and strengthned that tumultuous parte of the VVallons from whence all the present disorder there comes and thaduantage to the Spaniard by mutuall discention hys messenger here though he be in continuall conuersation with the kings Ambassador and at one table yet can not one mas serue them but they must haue three or four Priestes that doe nothing but goe from the tauarn to mas and from mas to the tauarn A miserable hope therefore of the maisters change to good And to conclude thys part vulesse he had some extraordinary purpose and some Italian Quintessence of mischiefe meante to be compassed against the church of Christ in vvhich seruice the Pope will employ hys catholike and hys christien sonne and all his sonnes and they like obedient fooles doe hys will. it could not be possible that hee woulde speake of comming hether with any meaning For pope mother and brother and all papistes vvould resist it and he himselfe for his owne part would cast with hymselfe that being next king of Fraunce if he should be here at the death of hys brother he might beholden for a noble hostage till they had restored vs our manyfold wronges and againe on the otherside it might put hym in danger of
them sauing that they desire the vvorst to befall vs And if there be any perswader of this straunge mariage in whom remaynes yet a simple mind but missed or miscaried I desyre hym or her and I charge thē as they vvill answer to God of theyr truth to their Mistres of England English brethren that they close theyr hand and put theyr fingar to theyr mouth and vvaigh better hereof as vvell by the lavve of God as of humane policie vvhich must no doubt agree vvyth Gods law I cousell them to consider these daungers common to them selues vvith all other and if they looke vvell about them they shall find thys mariage a right vnhappy one and on no side happy vvheresoeuer they turne them For let it be that he haue issue by her and that none but feamal only vve haue hazarded our kingdom for putting it in the hands of the father vvho vnder colour of some tutorship to hys daughter vvill haue her into Fraunce and so eyther adioyne this land to Fraunce or mary her to some French or other stranger at hys lyking and all this vvhyle vve neuer the neere possession of our old right in Fraunce whych vve so much desired for the Salique lavve barres hyr quite And though she should come and dwel in England yet her bringing vp being in Fraunce her father will nousell her in hys own religion and so she comming home shall striue to staplish popery as the late Queene of Scotts did when shee came out of Fraunce vvherupon ensued those bloodshedds and redde vvarres besides the ilfauoured examples of the French Court and kings vvhich vve vvould be loath our English princes shall learne and bring home hether If thys issue by Monsieur should be a son and but one sonne then vvill he translate his Court into Fraunce and leaue thys poore prouence to the mannaging of a viceroy the greuances whereof are ynough set foorth by referring you to the proconsulates of Rome vnder that Empire to the vndergouernours in the former monarchies to the viceroyes and Luogotenenti of Spayn in Naples-Cicil and here nerer in the lovv countryes VVho like boares in a fat nevv broken vp ground by sovving first some seedes of dissentions to breed partialities in the countrye doe roote out the auncient homegrovving nobilitie and turne vnder perpetuall slauery as cloddes the country people yea and perhaps in the end caught with the liquerishnes of gouernment seize thēselfe of the absolute kingdome and deceiue their mayster so did the auncient Monarchies melt so did this pre sent Empire lose her prouinces and is novve become lesse then a kingdom and so may this auncient kingdom be transferred to a rebellious seede Such rough plovvers doe our sins deserue to plovv deepe furrovves on our backs if the Lord in mercy looke not on vs I am not ignorant that some passe easily this incommoditie of viceroy affirming it to bring honor not perill for say they thys son being born here shall be king of both kingdomes with great honor as hath bene heretofore But they be svveete Englishmen if you marke theyr english vve reason of the dishonor and seruitude vvhich comes to the nation and they ansvvere of the honor that comes to the prince more lyke Basciaes to the great Turke then Christian commonvvealthmen as though our Christian and naturall Queen could thinke any thing profitable to her vvhich might any way though a farr off tend to the perpetuall bondage of hyr people here though they subtilly let slippe the assured hurt vvhich hereby falles to the common weale I wyl not forget to shew hovv incertain yea and hovv certainly perillous to the prince thys honor is wherewith they flatter hyr Holy king Henry as they call hym vvhom I suppose they wyll bring in for example vvas crovvned in Paris and yet lost all on that side before he was a man as I remember or soone after and before hys vnhappy death he lost thys land also vvhich losse of both came by striuing for both So that he may with more reason be recorded emong those fallen princes at the lowest of Boccaces vvhele or in our English booke of fallen Maiestrates then to be reconed vp by any faythfull English man for a patern of imitation to our present Queen Elizabeth VVho so vvyl auoyd those feareful effects must auoyd the cause from vvhence they procede and not bring such examples to be followed This example of Henry the sixt vvould proue like to our present case if it vvere pursued For the complection and constitution of Monsieur is not to liue long but to leaue his child in the cradle for the reasons hereafter remébred And if the byrth of thys child should any vvay endanger our Queen the poore infant if he ouerliued shold haue tvvo ouer great scepters to play withall euen as Henry the sixth had and so much the worse as there are euen novve one or tvvo houses in Fraunce vvhich vvould easely be saluted as kings and of whom both Monsieur and the king that novve is may vvell stand in feare perhappes these men wold prouide that this chyld should be borne in Monmouth and not at vvinsor and then they would think all sure Me thinks they should runn headlong on this remedy that are blinded in thys euill Thus it comes oftentimes to passe that flattery vvoundeth princes euen vvyth the very self thinges it so fairely beareth in hand And if he should haue a son and a daughter so as both of them ouer liuing theyr parents the son should be actually king as vvell of hys fathers as of his mothers kingdome and then dye wythout issue hys sister yet liuing is it not more then probable in this case that the next prince of the blood in Fraunce vnder pretence that England vvas once vested in the blood of the French king and vnder theyr gouernment vvyl drawe it also by thys vnity of possession vvith the crown of Fraunce vnder the law Salique and so quite vnqueen the desolate sister for the least color in the worlde ioyned vvith the sword in a stronge highminded kings hande makes a good tytle to a kingdome euen agaynst father mother wyfe brother and sister as storyes witnes and according to that vvhich is sayd No fayth in matter of a kingdome Much more agaynst that poore daughter vvhich then should be a straunger in the house of Fraunce The actuall possession of her brother vvyll make no tytle neyther wyll it be any plea to say that by our lavves lands descended from the mother are guyded to the heyrs of the part of the mother but our issue must be battel vvhich is a tryall most incertain most perilous to the daughter vvho being out of possession shal haue much adoe to find equiualiant champions And if thys Monsieur should haue by our Queen two sons or moe it must needes breed forrain vvars and ciuill partaking thorough disagreement of the brethren vvhyle the younger looking back to the