nature herein I believe it is necessary for their content by way of prelude thereto unanimously and in a publick way to demand a Session of the States General of France to effect the establishment of the Common Liberty which will be unanimously embraced by the three Orders of that Estate and in the consequent explication of the means of Security for its maintenance it will not be absolutely impossible to attain our purpose of the second part of my Proposal Now all the Confederate States with the House of Austria and that Illustrious House are more than positively concluded of this point in this present Conjuncture not to hearken to any Peace but in doing what heretofore the Kings of England and Dukes of Burgundy practised in common with the Kings of France and States General of his Realm for this Imperial House and all its Allies have more than sufficiently proved by what succeeded upon the Pirenean Peace that no security can be re-established by any Treaties made with the present Ministers of that Realm by the most solemn Oaths and straitest ties of Consanguinity which were not strong enough to hinder the violation of that Peace there is therefore a necessity to reduce him thereto in the manner aforesaid and no other way which will infallibly draw after it such consequences as will be wholly for the advantage of the said Confederation and the Protestant Party in France These Propositions are too advantagious to the House of Austria for them to reject them and it is certain that if all the aforesaid States act in Combination and with a perfect Union to procure all these benefits they will be able fully to attain them and bring all France perhaps into a mutiny to make their Monarch consent thereto But as it would not be just that the Protestant States should act in the foresaid Union to bring about all these benefits for the Illustrious House of Austria and all the People of France and forget themselves but that at the same time they should procure for those of their Body all the advantages that so favourable a Conjunction could procure I am bold to say that all those States by the Principles of their Faith of their Interests and of their Glory should bring them to an Unanimous Resolution to labour in this Conjuncture two things in favour of the Electoral House Palatine of the Rhine with a pure and truly politick respect unto the said Confederation and other particular Managements The first is to procure to this Illustrious House a Justice that speaks sufficiently for it self it being certain that the same Reasons which caused it to lose part of its Establishments ought to cause a Restitution thereof to be made unto it in this Conjuncture and if the League of the Protestant States were solidly made and they would act with necessary vigour they would without doubt be in an Estate to do all things that were just and reasonable in this point The second is not to neglect by pressing Instances to urge his Palatine Highness Prince Robert to a suitable Marriage which might give hopes of Successors to this Illustrious House least by an unpardonable neglect the Estates and Electoral Dignity may fall into the hands of a Prince of the Roman Communion And these are two Capital Points whereunto all the said Protestant States as well they who have openly armed themselves as those who have been content to supply their several Quota's to the Arms of the Circles as being all naturally interessed in the Cause ought to apply themselves as to a point which capitally concerns them all and whose consequents if not prevented must needs be fatal to the whole But as there is no Rule so general that admits of no exception it may be gathered from all that I have written above that notwithstanding my Scruples against Confederations made with Princes of the Roman Communion I am far from blaming those Protestant States who in this last Conjuncture embraced the Interests of the House of Austria I am perswaded they could not dispense therewith without betraying their true Interest it being certain that since the Providence of God hath suffered the Houses of Austria and Bourbon to ascend in Europe its necessary that all the Protestant States should since then be Confederated and should put themselves into a condition to ballance these two that whensoever the one should invade the Estates of the other his Corrival he might not be able to subdue all the rest to his blind obedience and as it is manifest that France at the present is the unjust Aggressor and by the principles of a devouring ambition alone without any Right but that of his own Honour or bienseance would raise to himself the Title of the Conquerour by invading the Soveraign Dominions of his Neighbours the Empire Austria Holland and Lorrain it may be truly said that all the Protestant Princes who have listed themselves with the opposite Parties by all the Rules of a judicious and strict Policy have ranged themselves without contradiction in the Line of their true Interests First of all it ought to be considered that in the Modern Irruptions which the Arms of France made into Holland four years since by the manner whereby France attempted it and management precedent to it or which followed on the Enterprize the Monarch of this Nation hath plainly taken off his Mask and made us visibly to know that he ought to be considered in this Conjuncture not only in the same Character of Conquerours of former Ages towards all Estates who had the unhappiness to have Dominions adjacent to their Frontiers but that he ought also formally to be look'd on as the declared Protector of the Tyrannick Designs of the Papacy and so the premeditated and positive Enemy and Destroyer if the matter had been possible for him of all the States and People whose Faith is naturally opposite to that Tyranny The second thing is that the Imperial House of Austria forced by the threats of its utter ruine having in this occasion now Leagued and Confederated its politick Interests with the greater part of the Protestant States of Europe to oppose it self by a joint endeavour and force to the ambitious Designs of France it is for the Honour of all these States to cause this Imperial House in this Conjuncture to acknowledge that Justice Reason and Equity hath been the Base the solid and unmoveable Foundation whereon they have laid all their motions and that it is also in the Protestant that all the oppressed Powers of Christendom may find the Bulwark of their Security For Considerations of this force serve to confirm the respects of Interests and Glory which establish the Justice of these motions of all the Protestant States in favour of the House of Austria in a solid manner and these motions are so much more glorious for these Princes and they may draw from thence so much the more happy Events because the Houses of Austria and
Discourses ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Protestant Princes OF EUROPE Exhorting them to an UNION and LEAGUE amongst themselves AGAINST ALL Opposite Interest From the Great Endeavours of the Court of France and Rome to Influence all Roman Catholick Princes against the Protestant States and Religion and the Advantage that our Divisions give to their Party Wherein the General Scope of this Horrid Popish Plot Is laid down and presented to PUBLICK VIEW By EDMUND EVERARD Esquire Kept four years close Prisoner in the Tower by the Contrivance of some English Subjects plotting against us in France whom he five years since discovered and was lately justified and released by his Majesty LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultrey 1679. May the First 1679. I have appointed Dorman Newman Citizen and Stationer of London to print this Treatise EDMUND EVERARD ESSAYES of Politick Discourses ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Protestant Princes OF EUROPE Exhorting them to an Union and League amongst themselves against all opposite Interests PART I. THe Ancient and Modern Histories furnish us successively with very good Examples that the greatest part of the Monarchies Kingdoms Common-wealths which have heretofore flourished with great Glory and have afterwards for the most part been entirely demolished fell into that miserable destruction by two defaults especially First by degenerating and totally abandoning their pristine virtues and a soft negligence in not applying themselves to those means which might have re-established them in the practice of the same virtues as the principle whence their former puissance was to be derived and from the practice whereof they might be in a condition to preserve it And secondly by internal Divisions which Ambition Jealousie Avarice or Vain glory fomented by the Artifices of their Enemies have frequently produced amongst Princes or the Directors of their flourishing Estates Now then since these pernicious courses have caused the ruine of all the greatest Puissances of the World I conceive that no man will be so imprudent as not to be of accord with me in this point That it is the wisdom of those in whose hand God hath trusted the direction of any soveraign and lawful power diligently with all their care and might to avoid falling into such accidents And I also believe that every wise man will likewise agree That they more especially have the strongest Reasons to keep themselves most exactly on their guard who cannot be ignorant by many pressing experiences that they have on their necks very many both secret and publick armed subtle powerful and active enemies who are perpetually in motion to take advantages of all favourable conjunctures to procure their ruine which they endeavour with very great care and by all sorts of means to procure and foment This foundation being laid let us briefly examine whether in the modern conduct of the Protestant States in Europe they have strictly guided themselves in every thing which may be called the Interest of their Preservation according to such Rules as are sufficient not only to contribute to their maintenance in their Estate but to procure unto them the most considerable Augmentations therein or whether a good part of them have not rather been visibly engaged by the Modern Artifices of their natural enemies into such paths as are capable not only to enervate their principal Forces but by consequence to draw them on like the aforesaid States into an entire destruction No man can deny as it seems to me that God's blessing was abundantly powred out on the labours of those great Persons whom his Providence was pleased to make use of in the last Age for the advancement of the work of Reformation and extirpating out of the Christian communion all the abuses and Idolatrous errours which the Spirit of darkness by the Ministry of the Papacy had established throughout the whole extent of the Western Church By this success it came to pass that two Parties were formed which in what concerns Spirituals and Temporals divided all this part of Europe which composes the said Church Now being the First-Fruits of this Reformation were such as suddenly stopped the progress of the Papacy and broke the greatest part of the measures which the Bishops of Rome had taken up successively since the Reign of the Parricide Phocas to establish a despotick and universal Monarchy over all Christendom as well in Temporals as Spirituals This Truth being perfectly well known by the See of Rome it were extreme folly to doubt of the true Resentments which those Bishops have against the Protestants and especially against the Kingdoms and States that protect and profess this Faith so that it ought to be the more observed that since the providence of God gave this overthrow to the Papal Tyranny this Beast which hath horns like those of the Lamb is in a condition to speak with the power of the first Beast that is to say the Bishop of Rome with the Title of Servant of Servants which they craftily affect to assume have so well ordered their Conduct that they have thereby been enabled no less than the ancient Caesars by sword and fire as Greg. 7. Urb. 2. Paschall 2. Boniface the Eighth did to attempt to make themselves to be acknowledged for despotick and universal Monarchs of Christendome as well over Temporals as Spirituals And to prove in a few words and in an uncontrolable manner what we have propounded we may conclude for certain as to temporal concerns that since the Reign of Charles the Bald the Roman Bishops after many Debates and cruel Wars which they caused to be raised on all hands against the Emperors of the West have not only been dispensed with from being named or approved by the Emperors themselves as the ancient custom was but having by succession of time and a thousand unjust ways so highly advanced themselves above them that these Monarchs have been forced afterwards as History assures us until Charles the Fifth inclusively not only to acknowledge the Roman Bishops for their Superiors but unless they would incur their Indignation which usually was followed with their ruine to abase themselves unto that abjectness of spirit as to go and kiss their feet in all humble prostration or as they mounted to or lighted from their Horses and the most part of them durst not take upon them to be Emperors till after their Approbation or Coronation by their or their Legates hands The chief Monarchs of all Christendom being reduced to this pass is it not true that the Bishops of Rome who hold it for a Maxim never to let go their Pretentions and to make every thing that falls out for their advantage a Prescription have really usurped and effectually enjoyed the Superiority over the Principal Temporal Dominion of Christendom And this is so true that before the holy work of Reformation this petty Priest hath been seen insolently many times to take the Imperial Crown from the Father after he had trod one of
for Summons had not a Doctor of Physick in their Company threatned to call and mutiny the Common People against them and so compelled them to change their Resolves Now they who know the Treasures and Sea-Forces of this single Town may thence deduce solid proofs of the consequences that would thereupon have followed By this only blow and the manner after which the Ministers of France had begun thereupon to behave themselves in the States of the Palatinate Cleve the Marquisatte and all the Protestant States in Europe all they who love their Faith and their Liberties may see the fatal point whereby they were about to be deprived of both for the most part and all this by the Ministry of the Emissaries of the Court of Rome and by their own neglecting too much the solid means of their Conservation Awake thou who slumberest that thou be not surprized with Sleep which will draw on thee Ruine and Desolation Making a serious reflection on the active conduct of the Roman party for the extension and maintenance of their Faith and the soft effeminateness and indifferency wherewith the Protestant party are accustomed to act in the propagation and support of theirs I think I may say that the former may be justly compared to an Army not only numerous but very well disciplined provided of very good Leaders of excellent counsel who marching in the Field make their Scouts to advance carefully on their right and left to make all sorts of Discoveries who when encamped retrench themselves always very well who cause every night their Rounds and Guards to be made very regularly and who as persons accomplished in worldly wisdom know subtly to foment in their Enemies Camp perpetual Divisions amongst their Chieftains and cause an infinite number of crafty subtle and faithful Spies to slide in amongst them who render a most exact account of all their motions and condition On the contrary I think that the Protestant party may be compared to an Army very numerous indeed and provided of excellent Commanders who want neither Experience nor Courage but who are by some unhappy Jealousies fomented for the greatest part by the Artifices of the contrary party divided amongst themselves and so reduced to that misery that this Army which is capable by the Excellency of its Captains and nature of its Forces to fall upon what part it could desire of the Enemies Army having abandoned all use of Retrenchment and of Corps de Guard to secure its safety and also neglected all the means whereby it might be informed of the motions of the Enemies Camp so great disorder is thereupon ensued that the Army of the Enemy doth often to their shame beat up their Quarters and make them actually fall into confusions unworthy the honour and courage of the Heroick Commanders which the providence of God hath established in the Head of their Army Every Kingdom divided against it self comes to destruction saith the Saviour of our Souls In truth this is a Lesson of which all the Protestant States ought very carefully to make their advantage and on the account of their Glory their Faith and their Interest think a little more seriously then hitherto they have done for the last half Age of the means to procure their Union as the fundamental point of their preservation The providence of God which is miraculous in all the cares it taketh for the conservation of his Children hath established a natural opposition betwixt the two principal Puissances of Christendom which same are the two principal Balwarkâ— of the Roman Communion in this part of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great are the depths of Satan that this crafty and subâ—â—â— spirit knows to suggest never failing means to this Roman Court to make this Division which were capable to bring about us entire ruine if the Protestant States knew how to use their advantages turn to its profit so that whatsoever opposition or disunion hath hitherto happened betwixt these two States Rome knows the secret thereof effectually to make an advantage as it designs For in the first place is it not by the effect of this opposition that Rome as the great Rohan observes doth preserve its temporal Authority entire in a great part of Italy which would be in a pitiful 〈…〉 of these Monarchs after he had defeated his Concurrent had free Elbow-Room in that pleasant part of Europe In the second place during the sitting of the Council of Trent the Cardinal of Lorrain being the chief mouth of France and so qualified became the head of that party of the Fathers who in this Council insisted on a real and actual Reformation to be made in the Church Rome was too clear sighted not to perceive that this single Proposition carries in it the means to undermine at one blow all the Foundations of its Monarchick Designs as manifestly did appear in that troublesome conjuncture for at that time more than half Christendom had shoke off the yoke of its tyranny and had openly embraced the Reformation with little difference in the less or more and the other half extremely disposed to receive it nevertheless in this extremity Rome know to mannage her Interest with so great dexterity by means of the jealousie which raged betwixt these two Houses that having promised Philip the Second the Destruction or Conquest of France and to the Cardinal of Lorrain to make the Crown of France fall into their House the League which should have destroyed France being signed thereupon by this diabolical expedient Rome made not only all the Pretensions of the Council illusory which it disposed of afterwards how it pleased but by the opposition it raised by Philip the Second and the House of Lorrain to Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth Rome brought the business so about that it was impossible for the later to Reign in France without embracing its Communion and by that means Rome continues there triumphant unto this day and the Protestants have been and are still most severely dealt with Thirdly it is not an effect of the Jealousie that reigns betwixt these two Houses that Rome hath had opportunity to inspire them so strongly to contend mutually in making out whether of them were more zealous of the Worship of the Roman Faith so that contrary to all the most essential Rights of their States and Crowns the former to preserve himself in the quality of the Catholick King hath suffered the new Emissaries of the Papacy in less than one Age to invade many very good Inheritances so that the Church at this day enjoys near a third part of the Temporal Estate through the whole extent of that Monarchy and the other to maintain the Quality of the most Christian King though he hath seen two of his most Illustrious Predecessors assissinated by their Parricides or Ministers in a very short time and the Laws of his Kingdom are repugnant to such Establishments yet nevertheless hath and doth still every day tollerate the same
of all the Ministers of State to the most Crowned Heads of their Communion for as they are commonly men of mean Birth so If they were of the most Illustrious a Cardinal's Cap by the corruption of blindness of these last Ages is so great a glory to a Family that there are very few who to procure this vanity to their House in causing it to be conferred on a Son Brother or Nephew would not submit and render themselves slaves to this Court as much as the most passionate of all their Monks and as those Ministers are for the most part persons corrupted with the Affairs of the World and who know perfectly the weaknesses of their Princes it is no wonder if they know and will take exactly the favourable moments to perswade them what they please so that Rome hath infallibly all the satisfaction it desires by the Counterpoise of the Principles of these Interests to cast all the Princes of its Communion when it pleases and it is by these Maxims which cannot rise but from the bottomless pit that we see the Protestants so cruelly persecuted in many places of Christendom as in France Hungary and Savoy and hence it was that our Grandfathers saw or suffered in the execrable day of Saint Bartholomew in France with the Massacre that have been made in Bohemia Hungary and the Low Countries Ireland the Valley of Piedmond the Valtoline without setting in the Particulars of this reckoning what the Ancient Hussites Vandois and Albingois have suffered in their times on the same accompt in divers Places in Europe And it will infallibly come to pass that unless the Protestant States with regard of what I give them to know do restifie their conduct at the moment they least suspect and when they have consumed their principal Forces by their Wars and Divisions amongst themselves or perhaps by maintaining the Interests of some power of the Roman Communion and when they confide in the Faith of some Treaties this Roman Dame by her Managers reuniting all the Forces of her Communion will feed them with a dish of her cooking to their total destruction which is the principal Butt of all her Applications and all her Labours the Sallies and Retreats of all her Guards which she sends out into all Parts in the mean time all this while till a blow come the whole Protestant Camp sleep all in perfect rest or at most they are but half awake or perhaps busie themselves to cooperate by the destruction of its own Members unto its own ruine as they of the Republick of the United Provinces in the conjuncture of the Siege of Rochelle and England in the last place against that Republick have furnished us with two capital and lamentable Examples But if England and Holland on the foresaid occasions have provided us of unhappy proofs of what I above propounded what hath the Swede done in an almost equal case for what had the Swede more to desire than to preserve peaceably the glorious Conquests which the Great Gustavus had made in Germany and Chartos Gustavus had made in Poland and Denmark but to see himself at the same time by his confederation with England and Holland to be one of the Principal who was in a condition to regulate the Bounds and Frontiers of all the Powers of Christendom All which advantages this Crown had naturally preserved to it self if acting as a true Member of the Empire it had put it self in a posture as their Electoral Highnesses of Brandenburg Saxony and the Palatinate to oppose it self with the Head and other Members against the Enemy who did invade it with all his force it being certain that by one advance of this nature the Swede had infallibly brought about three things which had been very profitable and glorious for him 1. He had taken away all lawful pretence from the Emperor and Empire whereon they could assail his Estate in Germany 2. He had raised no occasion to the King of Denmark to put him in condition to recover his Estates which the Swede had possessed in the Reign of his late Majesty of Denmark his Father 3. If France had not flattered himself into a perswasion or rather had not been assured by his managery and tampering with some corrupt Ministers of that Crown that the Swede was engaged in his Interests he durst never have attempted what he enterprized upon the Empire and thereby this War whereof God knows when we shall see an end had probably been immediately concluded after his Irruption into Holland was defeated which would have given an infallible means to the Swede and England to reassume their true Interest to renew much more strongly than ever the Tripple League and so to become again the Pillars of Peace in Europe from which the one and the other are very far removed if God provide not a remedy the Swede for his part seeing himself in this unhappy condition about to loose it may be in a very little time by suffering himself to be seized by the Current of France and carried away to the management of the Papal Emissaries all the Conquests which the great Gustavus had gloriously made for having opposed with all its Forces the Establishment of its Tyranny Let it not displease the Swedish Ministers of State that were of the opinion to declare themselves against the Empire to understand that there was a very great difference of the time of great Gustavus from this That Heroick Monarch leagued himself with France for the advancement of his Progress in Germany because he entered into it in the quality of a Restorer of the Protestant and German Liberty and when France at the same time declared for sustaining the same Liberty But in this juncture the Swede himself was an Essential Member of the Empire and whereas France formerly imployed his Arms to sustain that Liberty he in this juncture imploys them to oppress the same It is hence evident that the Swede joyning himself unto his own true Interest ought in common with the rest of the Empire Head and Members to have opposed all his Forces against this Puissance and so much the more because he might see by what France had endeavoured to execute against Holland and their Electoral Highnesses of the Palatinate of the Rhine and Brandenburg what he was himself to expect of France if they had prospered in their first Invasion and in all his vast Designes against the Empire But if the Swede to secure all in case that France by the sequel of the War had lost its Establishments in Alsatia which is the point that seemed to have produced this Declaration against his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg had desired any president and particular Stipulation of his Imperial Majesty and his Allies it is very probable that in the beginning of the War when all sorts of Events were dubious his Imperial Majesty and his Allies would have given that Crown all the satisfactions and securities which it could reasonably desire
in that point and that which may justifie this against all Objections is that it was very remarkable and manifest that his Electoral Highness and his Allies did not till the very last Extremity take those strong Resolutions of opposing his Enterprise So that it is certain that if the Swede by his Invasion of the Estates of Brandenburg had not drawn on him the Storm which at present overwhelms him he had till now according to all appearances been in the peaceable possession of all his Estates and Establishments through the whole Extent of the Empire But whatever have been the Counter-marches of Holland and England and Sweden on the said occasions it being impossible to hinder what is already done I believe it becomes the generosity and prudence of Protestant Princes to strip themselves from all prejudices which might divide them and apply themselves seriously to all the means that may unite them as the fundamental point of their preservation and which may render vain all the deceits their common enemies can project or take in hand for their destruction and so much the more because they ought formally to conclude it for a positive Truth that the Court of Rome which by the principle of its Interest neglects nothing that may procure their destruction directs indifferently in certain Cases the State-Councils of the Monarchies of its Communion though otherwise cruelly divided by their particular Interests or will find an infallible secret to delude their deliberations when they find them contrary to their Interests and Intentions And to prove this truth in an uncontroulable manner I will make it good without departing from this Age by four positive and cogent Examples upon this Subject Example 1. France neglects nothing in the conjuncture of the last Troubles of Bohemia to perswade his Electoral Highness the Elector Palatine of the Rhine to attempt the Conquest of that Realm ingaging himself for that purpose to furnish him with all sorts of real Assistances and Succours which in that Conjuncture by all sorts of Circmstances appeared to be the true Interest of France without all contradiction notwithstanding when the Prince was ingaged in the Affair because the matter of Religion was concerned therein Rome knew so well to manage the Councils of France by the means of Spanish Pistols that France did not only fail of all those points in this matter but by an imparallel'd treachery the Palatine House being oppressed in the consequences through the evil Suits of that War made a private League with the House of Bavaria of the Roman Communion who had invaded the state of the former and in consequence thereof France was the capital and principle cause which hindred that his Serene Highness the Elector Palatine of the Rhine hath not been fully re-established in all the Estates and Dignities of his House Example 2. A fatal experience as I have else-where observed hath been but too apparent in the most Illustrious House of Austria which in the surrender of Rochel hath felt that fatal point which hath broken all its Forces when in its greatest state of glory and reduced it to such an abasement as was capable to have drawn on it a total destruction if two thirds of Europe had not generously confederated with all their Forces in this last conjuncture to sustain it The great Spinola who past by Rochel in the time of the Siege fore-seeing the Surrender of this place by the means he foolishly suggested of shutting them out from the Sea if it were not readily relieved and therewith the losses that thereupon would follow to the prejudice of this House insisted like a man of worth at the Council-Table at Madrid pressed it with all his Judgment and Experience to cause that place to be relieved his Reasons were strong and the greater part of the Ministers of the Council were convinced nevertheless because the Affairs of Religion were concerned or rather a point of the Roman Mummery and Bigottery one single word of the Pope's Nuntio overbore all and caused Rochel to be abandoned on that accompt and with it the most essential Interests of this Imperial House were sacrificed at the only appearance of a Papal Emissary Example 3. The three United Grisons were oppressed by the House of Austria this Common-wealth put themselves under the Protection of France who for some time by the help it sent by the Marquess of Coevres and the Duke of Rohan acted with vigour enough for their Protection so much the more for that the latter in a few Months did such things in the Valley of Valtolline as surpassed all imagination and have immortalized his memory But because Rome by a principle of its Interest made it self a party to the Event of this War as gave in this conjuncture most real proofs of its Authority in these Courts France made its Treaty so with the House of Austria without concerning the Grisons therein for excluding the exercise of the Reformed Religion from the Valleys of Borneo the Valtoline and County of Chavanes that these two Powers were reconciled upon this point in effect to force that Republick to pass it by Articles before provided by the Pope's Nuntio which caused the Grisons seeing themselves betrayed by the French through timerousness corruption or otherwise to make a second Treaty with the House of Austria with very burdensome Clauses as to the concern of these Exercises whereof I shall speak hereafter in the Sequel of this Discourse Example 4. In the Year 1672 when the Arms of France were in so high a point of prosperity that all Europe looked on the Republick of the United Provinces as an Estate almost undone his most Serene Electoral Highness the Duke of Brandenburg who judged profoundly of all consequences which were to be expected from the ambitious Enterprizes of France if no opposition were made to the Current of these prosperities acquired to himself both the glory of being the first Prince of Christendome who generously drew his Sword for the protection of this distressed State and did also by his most vigorous Representations at the Court of Vienna cause his Imperial Majesty rising out of his unhappy Lethargy whereinto some corrupted Counsellors had plunged him to resolve to arm vigorously and League with his said Electoral Highness for the maintainance and protection of this Republick In consequence of this determination his Electoral Highness being advanced to the Bank of the Rhine with a considerable Army the Count Montecuculi commanding an Imperial Army marched therewith to that end and were in prospect of doing together some considerable thing in favour of that Common-wealth France allarmed with the march of these two German Armies sent away Marshal Turenne with a Body of an Army who might observe the motions of these two but by the divers Marches and Counter-marches which these two Armies made and specially that of Brandenburg sometimes making as if he would pass the Rhine in many places and sometimes as if he would fall on
these States but they should rather endeavour to clear and avoid their differences by the moderation of their Friends Allies and Confederates For this being established in this manner his Imperial Majesty and the whole Empire could not but well approve that a Body so considerable should unanimously agree for the first Article of their Confederation to sustain one anothers Interests against all and it would naturally follow upon this agreement that as the Republick of Venice hath very judiciously taken for its particular Interest the general of all Italy the Protestants of Germany taking for their principal Interest that of the Empire in general this would necessarily follow thereupon that the Emperor and Empire would be politically oblig'd to take for their Interest the preservation of the Protestant States which would by consequence draw on very favourable successes to the advantage of the Protestant Body through the whole extent of the Empire and elsewhere and the Emperour and Empire ought so much the more cleave to this Interest for that it is certain that if this great blow were once given the Emperour and Empire needed no more to fear the practises or secret workings of France with the Electors and private Princes of the Empire of the Roman Communion nor of all their armed attempts on that part and this being not established the Emperour and Empire shall be in a perpetual condition to fear every thing as they both have at present if the principal Princes of the Protestant Body in the Empire had not generally joined their Forces to those of his Imperial Majesty and the Empire in that juncture when France by its formidable Armies and publick and secret Leagues with the greater part of the Princes and Electors of Roman Communion in Germany thought to extend his Victorious progress to the Danube or beyond which without the assistance of the Protestants he had doubtless executed too well Being then an Union of this nature can produce such good effects by all these Reasons according to the small Intelligence I have I conclude afresh that if the Northern Peace be a thing possible and the Union of the Protestant States in the form and under the clauses and reservations aforesaid in as much as to establish the repose and glory of the Empire on the side of France no more is required than to force the French Army to repass the Rhine whoever counselleth the Emperour and Empire and all its Allies according to the pressing sollicitation of a certain party to treat with France in the Estate things now stand should do the same thing with a Physician who seeing his Patient assailed with a mortal disease if not fundamentally cured should notwithstanding advise him to take no other than palliative Remedies And one of the first truths which ought to be considered is that all the Arms of the Emperour and Empire Spain Holland and their Allies have not hitherto taken one single piece of ground of the Ancient Patrimony of France and that France brought its Arms actually into Campania and in the places of the Empire Flanders Brabant Haynalt Luxemburg Limburg Lorain and Burgoigne and hath actually advanced its Conquests in some of these Provinces Now to make an honourable and sure Peace it 's necessary to imploy solid means for the Expulsion of the French Armies from the said Countries and to force them to submit to such a Peace which may work the security and satisfaction of all the said Estates and this satisfaction and assurance if it must be such as I have declared it must herein essentially consist First as to the Empire that he willingly reduce himself to the Fortress of Brissac unless his Imperial Majesty shall choose rather to consent that this place if it be conquered from France should be absolutely demolished or together with its dependences given to some Prince of the Protestant Communion for in this second case it cannot but be altogether safe and wholesome to expel all the French out of the Dominions of the Empire the same is to be concluded of the Bishoprick in the Country of Metz. Secondly as to what concerns Spain France should be content to reduce it self to the State of the Pirenean Peace Thirdly that to recompence Holland for Mastrick which this Republick is obliged to concede unto Spain to save shipwrack and for satisfaction for the dammage of the unjust War which France had made on them Dunkirk or some other place of equal value shall be given them And in the fourth place that his Highness of Lorain shall be fully established in his Dukedoms of Lorain and Bar. I must be excused from speaking of what remains to be speculated in favour of other Confederate States because I have no good nor precise cognizance thereof But to come to a Peace both sure and honourable there are preliminaries without which it is certain our end cannot be attained and when it doth succeed all that cannot be called solid and sure To attain to the one and assure the other we must proceed to means to establish in France what would so settled make France to contain it self modestly in its just bounds without unreasonable interposing and attempting on its Neighbours The one and only means to reduce France to this point is to re-establish as I have said above the Civil and Protestant Liberty throughout the whole extent of that Estate the one of the said establishments being notoriously inseperable from the other and that all the Confederate States should stifly stand not to hearken to any Propositions of Peace till this double Establishment were made and that for the securing it the Protestant Party should be possessed of some of the strong and maritime places they formerly had Neither ought any person to imagine that I am herein carried only with passion for my Religion for I absolutely affirm that withont a real execution of the said two Articles nor solid Peace can be made with France and that it is the only means to stop at once the ambitious Sallies of the Monarch of that Nation by a total incapacity whereof this establishment only can be a possible execution And that the Reader may more sensibly apprehend this Truth I intreat him to read with a little consideration before he proceeds any farther my particular observations of the effects which followed in Europe upon the fatal Surrender of Rochel the reading of that alone will make him understand that which we are about and the solidity of my precedent Proposition But notwithstanding all the unhappy mischiefs successively befallen the House of Austria by this only error of State on its part for not having imployed all its Forces to hinder this surrender it will for all that perhaps not be easie for that Illustrious House such is the Zeal it unhappily reserves still for the Interests of a Court which hath caused all its misfortunes to be perswaded to favour the Establishment of the Protestant Party in the Kingdom of France to help
Bourbon by what hath happened in Times past and present cannot hinder it but must needs thereupon make reflexions sufficient to open their eyes and make them know in the conclusion In the first place their Imprudence in regulating their Councils and Sallies by the passions of the Emissaries of the Roman Communion Secondly the temerity and danger of attempting the ruine of any Protestant People Prince or Estate Thirdly what the United Forces of this Party are naturally capable to execute And fourthly the Honour Candour and Constancy of that Party when they are concerned to oppose unjust Enterprises or to maintain the part of Equity and Justice Reflections of this nature ought in consequence teach these two Houses the regard esteem and respect which they ought to have and reserve for a Body so Puissant and Illustrious as is by God's grace that of the said Protestant Powers and the people whereof they consist and if this Party were always so managed as to insinuate into these two Houses the Doctrine of these four particulars we should certainly not see those who are Natives and Inhabitants of the Estates of those two Potentates France and Hungary handled any more in the manner they now are nor would these two Families whatever Solicitations should be made on the behalf of Rome attempt with so much injustice as they have both done at divers times the ruine of the Principal Members of this Communion But if in this present Conjuncture all the Protestant States except England and Sweden have followed their true Interest I persist affirming that the same Interest engages them Capitally to rectifie the Conduct of England and Sweden so as to neglect nothing to gain unto them these two Crowns in prospect of using all possible endeavours to effect an Union of all the aforesaid Protestant States that when by many happy Successes the Arms of his Imperial Majesty the Empire and all the Confederate States have reduced France to that abatement that their said Interest can require and in almost in the manner which I have above unfolded all these States may be in a condition to nail the Wheel and to produce an Universal Peace in Christendom with all the advantages and solemnities aforesaid both for their own particular and general Interests and for their particular of their Brethren through the whole extent of the Empire and without it which by the said Union they may be capable to effect if God permit without any Impediment from any Power and without this Union it may be some Nuncio or Emissary of Rome may possibly at a moment when they think least of it secretly manage some Marriage betwixt these Families so as to reconcile their principal differences and they not be in an Estate to oppose them nor to gather the Fruits which they might have justly expected And I insist so much the more on this that the Protestant States should put themselves in such a condition as I have said above because it being certain that the Emissaries of Rome have been the Instruments of the underworkings which have raised this War and of the League of France with the Electors of Colen and Bavaria the Bishops of Strasburg and Munster and the Princes of Newburg and Hanover and of the measures taken for the destruction of the Protestant Party in Europe as is too well proved we must not doubt but that Rome will make all its uttermost possible endeavours to procure it self the honour of making peace But that all Europe may know how far the Morality of the Protestant Faith is distant from the black and earthly malice of the Papacy I think it belongs to the Reputation of the Protestant States without any mixture with the Nuncio or any Emissary of the Court of Rome to procure to themselves the glory of establishing an Universal Peace in Christendom to the satisfaction of all honest men which by the foresaid Union they will find at one blow to be in their power to effect if by their private Interests and Jealousies they bury not the Talent which God hath put naturally in their hands not only for obtaining so great a present good but also for coustituting themselves for ever the infallible Guardians and Preservers thereof which is the Capital point at which all these States ought to aim as which will give them the inestimable Character of the Supreme Arbiters of all the Potentates of Christendom and invincible Bulwarks of their Security And if I may be allowed to continue to unfold my apprehensions as ingenuously as I have begun as to what I believe will be consequence of a Success of such force for the good and advantage of the Protestant Body through the extent of the Empire and by relation to them in several other places I conceive that all the aforesaid Protestant States having laid down their Arms ought seriously to apply themselves to solid means to obtain of his Imperial Majesty a modification of the Article touching the Bishop of Osnaburg in such manner as this Bishoprick may be successively enjoyed by the Successors of his Highness of Osnaburg without any mixture of Roman Catholicks it being certain that as his Imperial Majesty is very full of a generous benignity he seeing with what vigour this Illustrious House hath acted in this conjuncture for his Interests he will certainly be very easily perswaded to testifie toward that House his Imperial resentment and acknowledgement I doubt not but that a matter of this nature will be entangled with many difficulties but the said Union compleatly made or to the greater part will be a Rock to all the Slights and Machinatious of the Roman Court against which they shall effectually split and miscarry But if an Article of this force may and as I believe it would also be very easie for the said States to cause to be inserted in the same Instrument of Peace which shall be made some little Negotiations which are necessary to pacifie and lay asleep all matter of Jealousie and discontent betwixt the two Protestant Communions tollerated in Europe so as to deliver them both from some sensible displeasures For Example in some Imperial Cities of the Protestant Body to the shame of the Princes of that Communion the Pastors of the Lutheran Congregation are obliged to wear with a kind of Ignominy a Bonnet like the Jews it seemed to me a just thing to dispense with them in this for the future and leave them to their liberty there being no reason to constrain them to the like Infamy this being only an unnecessary mark of the animosity which reigned heretofore amongst the Princes of different Communion which ought upon all Principles of a judicious policy be entirely suppressed and abolished throughout all the extent of the Empire In other places in many Imperial Cities where the Magistracy is of the Communion of Ausburg it is ridiculous to see that whilst the Jews have there all liberty in the exercise of their Religion the Reformed are forced
with great inconvenience to walk to the exercises of their Devotion without the Wall of the City who agree with Lutherans in all the principal Doctrines of the Christian Faith and are together with them the common Butt of all the Impressions of the Papal malice which neglects nothing which might foment their division and thereby to walk on to solid means of their destruction Wherefore I conceive that the States of the Protestant Communion though of different belief in certain points ought unanimously to endeavour to cause an Article to be inserted in the said instrument of Peace which might for the future redress such Incongruities which whilst they continue can be only seeds of Divisions which both their proper Interest and their Charity oblige them to suppress continually in the Protestant Body But as all that appears in Christian Faith is commonly animated with the Spirit of Charity which engages us not only to adhere to what is our peculiar but to what respects our Brethrens interest especially theirs whom we cannot be ignorant to be actually in tribulation I think the aforesaid Protestant States should do a very heroick Act if by their mediation the interests of their poor Brethren might be regulated in such manner that at least the Emissaries of Rome might not have so ample matter whereupon to raise persecution against them For Example now for a whole Age Europe hath heard no discourse but of the disorders which from Time to Time have risen in high Hungary Silesia and other the Hereditary Countries of the House of Austria I commend not those of the Protestant Body of that Kingdom who for their private Interests or Ambition may be the cause of these revolts and seditions in those Countries but if a great part of those disorders arise from the discontents which the want of means to attend their spiritual Exercises do cause which without doubt is almost the only cause I conceive it were a work very pleasing to be able by humble Representations to his Imperial Majesty to cause him to establish an Order which might for the future banish from that Country all matter of discontent which I judge to be very feasible For if his Imperial Majesty shall consider the merits of all the Successors whom all the said Protestant State should leave behind them so that for Politick Reasons which engage him to prevent such disorders he would make an establishment for the future that so oft as in any Country or in any particular place Protestants should be found to a certain number and should desire to have a free exercise of their Religion they should be qualified to procure it without other Obligation then that of signifying by a simple act their number and desire to the Magistrate of the place I conceive that by such an expedient his Imperial Majesty might cut up the root of all those unhappy Revolts which engage him to extraordinary Expences and of the perpetual cares and alarms and other practices which the Court of Rom's Emissaries furnish and trouble him with to redress these mischiefs which are more proper to cast those Countries into flames then to establish their Repose as fatal experience of a whole Age cannot but have too well taught him And as the Peace which shall intervene will infallibly be an Universal Peace to all Christendom and so different Interests which concern its Tranquility may therein be regarded following still my intent which is to respect the extent and advantage of the Protestant Faith I must say that it will be of great Importance for the said Protestant States to obtain of his Catholick Majesty a Modification of the Instrument of the last Peace which France made with the Republick of the Grisons as touching the matter of the Reformed Religion in Chaveine and the Valtoline for the Inhabitants of both parts of that Religion who are in the said places though their Magistrates are for the greatest part reformed are obliged by a corruption inserted in the Treaty of Peace to walk at least three or four Leagues on the Lord's days to attend their Exercises of Devotion It is most certain that it is a considerable interest of his Majesty to consent to the Modification of this Article if he would preserve the Amity of this Republick and of this I have very precise knowledge for if the Abbot of St. Roman Embassadour for his most Christian Majesty in Switzerland in the Propositions he made to some of the Republick had been advised to let fall a word that the King his Master would consent to a free Exercise of the Reformed Religion in those places I know that the League of that Republick with the House of Austria had been in danger to be dissolved for thus I judge that this represented and maintained in such manner as it may by the Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant States it will not be absolutely impossible to annul this Article which will be of extraordinary consideration for the good of the Protestant Faith in that Quarter many good Souls which profess that Religion though they reside in Italy ardently desire this Consolation and this I can say of my certain knowledge But we have insisted long enough upon some Accessaries let us go to the Principal it is so common with very many Protestants of all Orders who enjoy peaceably according to their wish all conveniences temporal and spiritual not to be able to dispose themselves by the Principles of Charity to compassionate the miseries and afflictions of their oppressed Brethren that it is for this Reason that I have applied my self to make them know whereunto they are engaged in this particular for their temporal Interest But if in the first Point I have prospered somewhat to make known the connexion and indissoluble bond of Interests which the Providence of God hath established betwixt the subsistence of the Politick Interests of all the Potentates of Christendom and of the Protestants more especially with the re-establishment of the Protestant Party in France by the sincere Rehearsal which I am about succinctly to make of the miseries wherein that Body of our Brethren in that Kingdom are plunged I would shew the Protestant States for my second Head whereto their Pity their Charity and their Glory ought to engage them To make known sincerely the Estate of the Protestant Body in France I will not amuse my self in expounding what is publickly known to the greatest part of understanding persons who have travelled through that Realm or who have taken the pains to get some Information thereof I will content my self only to observe that the Emissaries of the Court of Rome having successively insinuated into the spirits of the Monarchs of this Nation that they could not think of advancing their Progress abroad till after they were solidly assured of all at home and that therefore it was necessary for them wholly to exterminate the Protestant Party out of their Kingdom this Counsel hath so strongly prevailed in the Councils
of these Monarks that since Cardinal Richelieux Ministry nothing hath been omitted to make it fully succeed For this purpose all the Bishops in every Diocess have had order to give Instructions to all the Parish Priests to hold an actual eye on all solid means to proceed unto this destruction and the Governours Counsellours and Intendents of the Provinces as well as all the Officers of Justice have had like order to concur with the Solicitations of those Bishops wherefore we need not admire at the Tribulation which these poor miserables do suffer for it is from these fomentations that we see dayly in all parts of that Kingdom Children rebel against their Parents Wives against their Husbands Vassals and Subjects against their Lords Houshold Servants against their Masters for what ever injury or violence is committed in these sorts of Rebellions he that embraceth the Religion of his Prince hath always reason on his side and he that persists in the Protestant Faith hath always wrong So that as it is very hard in a House to regulate every thing so well that there should not naturally arrive some accident betwixt the said Parties these Emissaries never loose any occasion directly or indirectly to bring about such Contests to kindle the fire more strongly and thence the heat more fiercely and if this succeeds to insinuate their Poyson Hereby it may appear what bitter potions the most happy and wise of the Reformed in Popish Dominions are forced to swallow More than two thirds of their Temples have been demolished within these ten years more than half their Colledges supprest No Protestant can have the least place in the Offices nor Troops of the King's Houshold and if in the common Troops persons of the highest merit rise to the place of a Lieutenant Colonel it is rarely seen that they pass farther What hath befallen the Mareschal Schomberg is not an Argument to prove that the French Protestants that deserve well may rise thither he is at present that Phenix which appears but once in an Age. But if any Protestant be so unhappy as to have any Suit against any Roman Catholick he may assure himself how little dubious soever his Cause is his Affair is lost If two Protestants have any Suits he that Apostotizeth is sure to carry it against him that persists in his Faith who shall never fail to loose his Cause But all this abovesaid is nothing at all to that which was provided for them if the Invasion of Holland had succeeded for warrant whereof I can alledge one of the most Heroick Princes of all Europe who read himself the Declaration ready provided and who thereupon was struck with an Horrour and spoke immediatly with liberty his thoughts upon that point to considerable Persons but the ill success of that Irruption and some other Respects have caused that Monster for the present to be laid up in due darkness First of all the King declared himself by this goodly Declaration Tutor of all the Infant Pupils of Protestant Fathers and so condemned all those poor unhappy Creatures to be sacrificed to the adoration of Idols In the second place all the Temples and Colledges of all the Royal or Episcopal Cities or places belonging to Catholick Lords were suppressed throughout all France In regard that by the Edict of Nantes every Lord having right of Fee-simple might have at his House the Exercise of Religion more or less extended according to the nature of his Fee by this Declaration it was expounded not to extend to any places but those which at the time of that Edict did belong to Protestant Lords now for that many Lords had since changed their Religion and the greater part of the Lands had by a natural vicissitude of things changed Masters thence it would have followed that no exercise of Religion in those Fees would have been preserved in that Kingdom though it be those only that so many as they be have in the furious overthrows of Protestant Temples made the Exercises of Religion to subsist abroad in the Country In the fourth place all the Chambers of the Edict or Miparties were by this Infamous Declaration suppressed and all the Mipartiâ—â— Mayoralties which were established in former times in favour of those of the R. Religion And to complete their misery by the same Declaration all Children born in Marriages not blest by the Priests of the Roman Communion after the publication of that Declaration were declared uncapable to succeed their Fathers and their Mothers in their Goods and Possessions Note that by a former Declaration all the Protestants in France who had received a blessing on their Marriage by the hands of a Priest of the Roman Communion with Abjuration in case they returned to communicate in the Exercises of the Protestant Religion wherein they were born were declared Relaps'd and their Goods Confiscate I forbear to set down here some other Articles not so considerable as the former which yet were no less unjust nor malicious the reading of the preceding seem sufficient to me whereby the more sound Party of the Protestants of Europe may examine as I do with all my heart intreat them the pernicious fare which the Papal Council had prepared for the Protestants of Holland at that very time wherein they pretended to make them submit unto the Dominion Protection or Discretion of France and that England and Sweden in particular may see the surprize which the Court of Rome by the Channel of France's Ministers had provided for them and the Iniquity of the Cause they have put themselves into a condition of protecting in authorizing the Irruptions Burnings and ambitious Enterprizes of France on the Low-Country Provinces and the Empire And all these States and all the People of their Dominions being instructed in their Interests which engaged them to sustain the cause of the Re-establishment of Liberty in France both Temporal and Spiritual which as to the second Head consists in the common cause of their Brethren in this Estate all these Benefits cannot be effected but by a positive Union of their good will and Forces I leave them to consider whether I had ground to insinuate this with all my power praying the good God with all the ardour of my soul that he would inspire into this Illustrious Body Sentiments and Resolutions of Piety and Glory such as a Cause so solid so just and so holy requires I finish the first part of my Discourse reserving my self to press home this matter more strongly assaying in good earnest to open the eyes of the Protestant Body in Europe to make them sensibly apprehend what they are to expect from their Enemies and what they are in condition to do by the Forces which God's providence hath put in their hand not only to deliver themselves from all these Judicious Apprehensions but also to become the indisputable Arbiters of the Fortunes of their Friends and Enemies PART II. The Error of Estate made by many Potentates
in the Business of the Reduction of Rochelle the Consequences whereof have been the cause of most considerable Conversions of Estate Wars and Disorders of Europe which we have seen since that time CArdinal of Richelieu who without doubt was the greatest Person and Minister of State that France hath of many years produced or which it may be it shall have hereafter for a long time was he who first laid the Axe to the foot and roots of the Imperial Family of Austria and having in an admirable manner pierced into the knowledge of that wherein the true Interest of France might consist to raise the glory of its Kings to the highest degree of all greatness he knew also to adhere only to essential Maxims whence so glorious a Work ought to be commenced And this is so true that we may positively conclude as a most certain thing that whatever Mazarin hath executed since and whatever Messieurs Le Tellier Colbert Louvois and de Pompone have since performed in our days for the Grandeur and exaltation of their Monarch are no other than the fruits of the Heroick Labours of that great Minister and the Execution of the Memoires and secret Instructions of his Ministery it being certain that so far as they have not departed therefrom their Glory and Success have been inseperably united to the greater part of their Expeditions and so far as they have departed from them their Enterprises have many times been attended with loss of Glory to their Master these are things which we observe sometimes by the way whilst we confine our selves to the pursuit of our Observations and Remarks upon some Errors of Estate in the Ministry of France but our design at present is to begin to observe for our private satisfaction that Point alone for the Reduction of Rochelle a Capital quid pro quo of Estate of the most part of the Potentates of Europe who might have hindered it if they on that occasion had known their true Interest and the excellent Conduct of that great Minister at the same time And first of all we will apply our selves only to observe what is but too well known I mean the misadventures which have successively fallen out in Europe to the prejudice of the most powerful Estates therein by this Reduction only and those greater which are ready to befall them if some part of them redress it not The Siege of Rochelle being settled about it the Town was but weakly relieved by the English so that we may affirm that their last expedition which seemed to be set out for that purpose after the death of Buckingham was rather a succour of show and appearance than reality if it might not be said rather that the good King then could not do all he would for their Relief Holland blind to their enemies own true Interest upon this occasion lent their Maritime Forces to advance this Reduction Spain who ought more than any other Potentate to have known and apprehended the consequences thereof thought it better to give credence to its pretended Council of Conscience then to great Spinola who having personally visited Rochelle in the conjunctures of the Siege and perceived the Infallibility of its Reduction unless speedily relieved for it was he that gave that advice to the Cardinal to shut it out from the Sea the Infallible means of its Reduction and repented thereof too late he prophesied punctually at the Council at Madrid all the misadventures which befel them and followed upon this Reduction to the prejudice of the greatness of the Austrian Family All the Roman Catholick Party of France made it so strong a Point of Religion to contribute what lay in them to this Reduction that we may say of them as sometimes the deceased and very wise Marshal of Bassompiere They were great fools who gave themselves no repose until by the sacrifice of their goods blood and lives they had effected it Let us now examine apart in a few words that which consequently did happen upon this Error of Estate to the Imperial House of Austria to Holland and France it self I speak of State Affairs and also by the consequences thereof to the greater part of the rest of Europe For England we need only take a small tast of the Travels and Addresses of the late Monsieur President de Thou Embassadour of France in England to understand that upon the King of England's failing to succour Rochelle was the foundation whereon that insinuation was advanced into the spirits of the People of that Kingdom that his late Majesty of Great Britain had in secret by the perswasion of Henrietta de Bourbon his Wife embraced the Roman Religion and that his designs tended to nothing more then to procure the destruction of the Protestant Religion in England as well as in France if it could possibly be done which supposition though doubtlesly false against that pious and learned Prince yet it was ocasioned by that unhappy slackness of supplies for the relief of Rochelle we may say that it was upon this foundation that France by the means of the said Lord Thou gave life to the universal revolt of all England and to that unfortunate Catastrophe which all Europe have beheld with horrour and astonishment and this is the very truth that the departed Monsieur de Thou who was not a Person that would speak untruth did affirm before his death to several of his Confidents of which some are yet alive that he protested that he died with sore regret that he had intermedled with that unfortunate Affair As for the most Illustrious Family of Austria in examining what hath befallen it on these two Heads since that fatal Reddition First with respect to the Imperialists the King of Denmark the Elector of Saxony the Elector Palatine of the Rhine the Princes of Transylvania and all their Confederates being humbled or destroyed we may truly say it was in a condition to do what it could reasonably desire in Germany but by the Consequence of that Reduction France was in condition to send its Aids abroad and to make Alliances and having in consequence thereof subscribed to the Swedish League it is easie to see what after the Great Gustavus did set foot in the Empire did happen through the whole extent thereof to the prejudice of this Illustrious House till the Peace of Munster and Osnaburg The eight Electorate Brisac and Philipsburg with all the Conquests of the Swede in the Empire and the enfeebling the Body of the German Church for the Recompences made to the Elector of Brandenburg and Prince of Meckleburg are the living Monuments of the failures on that side For Spain we may say that till the Reduction of Rochelle it was not always triumphant but it had thitherto supported the weight of its greatness with glory and was in an Estate to make all them to fear it who did not love it till then Flanders Italy and Germany beheld a numerous Armies on their side the
Sea also beheld their Nval Forces of some consideration and the Frontiers of the Pirennes with the two Seas were their only Neighbours and Frontiers through all the extent of Spain and all that Isthmos acknowledged their Laws from the Pirennes to Hercules pillars and farther till then they preserved to their advantage Friends and Pensioners secretly in all the Courts of Europe France it self not excepted but as if all that glory had been buried in the reduction of Rochelle it may be truly said that whosoever shall examine the ruines of the greatness of Spain with their miscarriages in the greatest part of their Designs almost perpetual since the reduction of this petty Carthage so that the astonishing dismembrings which this Puissance hath suffered and the hard Treaties which it hath been forced to subscribe will evince that its glory seems to be interred in the ruines of the fortifications of this Town for whether it were through its Military Expeditions or the Conduct of its Ministers or the little care it hath had to keep its intelligence amongst its Enemies and after with its Allies as well as the facility wherewith the Ministers of France after Richelieu pierced into the most secret deliberations of the Council of Madrid it is most true that after the Error of Estate on their part this Puissance did flutter only with one wing which gave courage together with other accidents of a different nature to the Catalonians Portugese and Neopolitans and likewise to the Messinese of late to enterprise by incitation and puissant Succours of France what they have hitherto attempted it being most certain that without vigorous Succours from its Allies it would be at present exposed to an entire invasion of the most considerable part of its Estate as well in the old as in the new World For Holland the Case is so hot and fresh in the miseries which have befallen them within these four years by their Error of Estate in the conjuncture of that Siege that certainly it is needless for me to make a long discourse to evince this truth for I believe there is not any man of perfect understanding who knows not readily and is not well perswaded that if Rochelle in the time that his most Christian Majesty did attempt to subject Holland had been in the hands of the Protestants of France in such manner as it was before and as it probably might have been if this Republick had not furnished out its Sea Forces to make this Reduction his most Christian Majesty had never dared to enterprise an Expedition of that nature and that for two unanswerable Reasons The first because Rochelle by its subsistence gave life to two millions of Reformed Christian Souls which are yet in France whatever the Jesuits please to say that there are but 1500000 France having in its bowels so considerable a number of Protestants would never have determined to have undertaken the destruction of a Protestant Republick which by its scituation so favourable as it had to Rochelle was in condition to put France it self into disorder Secondly they would have found themselves without a possibility or force to have attempted this enterprise for the Liberty of France I mean that of Estate being in force and its prime as without doubt it would have been to this time had Rochelle been unsubdued the Ministers of France and their Monarch would have been more cautious than to have attempted it if then this foundation be truly laid as I shall prove it more largely hereafter my Masters the Estates of the United Provinces who are persons that commonly understand strictly to take the account of their interest may calculate after they have set on one side the profits which they received from France for Vessels which they lent or sold them to advance this Reduction and have set on the other side the loss which by the late Expedition of his most Christian Majesty against them they have sustained that which arises of gain or loss at the foot of the account in this Commerce of theirs and the quid pro quo of Estate in this Juncture shall be plain As for France considered in it self I speak of its State in its three Estates we may admire in this point the wonderful light of the deceased Monsieur Marshal de Bassompiere which I quoted above for it is a truth no more disputed but generally known of all persons of worth and intelligence in France of the Roman Communion That the Liberty of all France was buried in the reduction and demolition of the fortifications of the Town of Rochelle It was this City that sustained the dying liberty of France since the Reign of Lewis the Eleventh and which was in a condition to re-establish it and with its liberty to uphold also the liberty of all Europe both in their Religious and Civil Concerns If the aforesaid Powers as well as France it self ignorant of their true interest had not by their connivance or by their Succours brought about the aforesaid Reduction for to what purpose serves it for the Gentry of France to see their Monarch triumph over all his Neighboury Princes if this only tend to increase the number of Slaves under his Dominion or rather to give them the sensible and tormenting displeasure to see the Forces and Power of some Estates broken in pieces who by their Subsistence and Ayds might have had time and place to have holpen them in some favourable conjuncture to break the chains and shake off the yoke which oppresseth them whereas if no Power be in a condition to make Head against their Prince who shall be able to lend them assistance to free them from their oppressions But that it may not be thought that I advance a strange notion in that I would build the safety of a whole Realm and also of the greatest part of Europe on the simple surrender of one Town which hath been entitled with the name of a Rebel we must examine it And to penetrate into the bottom of this matter I consider that in the Estate the King of France's Authority now is there can be no other then the re-establishment of one of the three means which I shall after expound or some equivalent which can hinder these Kings absolutely to dispose of the Lives and Goods of their Subjects and that thereby they may not be able by the formidable multitude of people of all degrees which are in France their Industry Courage and Martial Activity to hold all their Neighbours in perpetual and well grounded alarms I would be understood to speak of the means which France hath had or may have in it self to maintain or establish its liberty The first of these means is as ancient an Institution as the Office and name of a King in France for it hath been since the time the ancient Franks did conquer the Gauls that is the Election of a Palatine or Major of the Palace who was the Consul and Head of the
People and the true Protector of the Liberty of his Country who had Power to deal as an Arbitrator betwixt the King and his People and to regulate and decide all their differences and in truth the ancient Kings of France were no other to speak properly than the chief Captains General of their Realm and in the Palatine resided the Principal charges of the Estate as the Chancellour Constable and Admiral and it is very true that in this manner the Authority was very well parted betwixt the King and his People who were represented as for this last regard by the Palatine but Hugh Capet knowing very well by the consequence of what he and Pepin had done that the same Palatines might one day act the very same against their Successours he with dexterity suppressed the Office of the Palatine and annexed it unto the Royalty see here the manner wherein appears the first means whereby the liberty of Estate in France hath subsisted during the two first Races of its Kings suppressed and abolished by a Palatine himself in whose Person the third Race of those very Kings did commence whose Successours have reigned in a continued Succession unto this day But as Hugh Capet could not come to this Crown but with the satisfaction of all the Principal Members and especially those of his own degree this was the cause that the evil consequences which would have arisen from the Office of Palatine were not perceived nor redressed as the interest of State without doubt required and that he might take away all resentments thereof Hugh Capet being too subtle and refined a Politician to leave any suspicion in his peoples minds he made use of this contrivance to substitute the Sessions of the States General of the Kingdom under the name of Parliaments of which we find very little mention during the Reign of the Kings of the two first Races for in as much as the Deputies of the three Estates compose this Assembly it may seem at first view that Hugh Capet had not suppressed the Office of Palatine for other purpose then to diffuse all the Authority of this Eminent Charge upon the particular Members of the said Assembly but these good souls did not reflect that the Office of Palatine was perpetual and that the Session of the Parliament was only then held when the King had a fancy to assemble them albeit it is true that the States General of France if they were in possession would understand it otherwise notwithstanding by the consequence we may understand how dangerous it is to change under what pretence soever the Fundamental Laws of Estate let the appearances be never so specious that the same advantage is retained it being certain that they who have the courage or dexterity to modulize or conquer Sovereign Estates know better than any other by what Maxims their Successours may be enabled to maintain themselves therein for when the French first conquered the Gauls they chose a King out of the number of their Generals they also wisely devised as I touched above all that might hinder their Kings from ever becoming Tyrants Now in the Estates Generals or Parliaments consisted the second means whereby the publick Liberty in France did subsist so long as their Sessions were frequent but in process of time Lewis the Ninth having reunited the greatest part of the particular Principalities which were in France unto the Crown Charles the Eighth having accomplished that great Work by his Marriage with Anne the Heiress of the Dukedome of Britain these Princes believing and finding themselves above all accidents the assembling of the Estates General of the Kingdom hath been so long discontinued that at length all use of it hath been as it were quite lost and thereby the second means of maintaining the liberty of France through the whole extent thereof is vanished and dissipated as the former then the publick liberty was in a pitiful Estate until such time as the Reformation began to get footing in France for as the Reformation of Luther was doubtless the means of saving the German liberty so the Reformation of Calvin in France did not help a little to revive the dying liberty of that Estate Now by the following cruel and bloody persecutions wherewith the reformed were thereupon pursued in France the Head of that Party being inclosed in Rochelle and from thence giving life to the rest of the Party through the whole Extent of France it may be truly said that Rochelle in the defect of Palatines and General Assemblies with the rest of its Party did little less in France then what a pit or excellent Cistern of pure water doth in a dry and parched place in the times of greatest heat for the use of water being of an indispensable necessity for the service of life and these dry places in the most ardent heat being destitute of Fountains or Rivers as in the defect of these natural means we think our selves happy in the comfort of Cisterns though they be means extraordinary so of the like nature was the subsistence of the Protestant Party in France for the Palatines and Sessions of the States General in France by their total or tacite suppression being not able to sustain any longer the liberty of the State Rochelle and its Partisans as an extraordinary means so long as it subsisted did in one manner or other maintain this accidental Liberty which hath entirely disappeared since the reddition thereof so that at this day all France is wholly fallen into a domination purely despotick and to speak the truth being a Body sick of ill humours which subsisted by one only sort of nourishment and wholly excluded from it its death by consequent is inevitable As to the tacite interest which the greater part of other Powers of Europe might have had to oppose themselves against this rendition with as much vigour as Spain England Holland and France it self ought to have done if they had followed their true Interest for this they need only in the first place see into what Estate all the Potentates of Europe would have been reduced if the irruption into Holland had succeeded and if the Sovereign Lord of all things had not taken away their light and spirit from the Ministers of France after they had taken Utrich and Narden to make themselves Masters of the Town of Amsterdam which might have been done for some days more easily than the Commonwealth of the United Provinces could by means of this place alone preserved have recovered unto it self in a small time the possession of the greatest part of their conquered Estate In the second place we must examine what by the loss of the Liberty of the People of France this Monarch disposing absolutely as I have said before of the wealth and industry of all his Subjects is able to do and execute against all his Neighbours with relation thereto against all the Potentates of Christendom and by this Reflection all the Powers concerned to deliver