declared the great Affections their Master had for the Emperor and the States of Germany they desired the ancient League might be renewed between the Empire and that Kingdom and that for the future there might be a firmer and closer Union and Friendship Upon this the Emperor returned Thanks to the Embassadors saying That the King might be assured of the Friendship of the Empire the Princes and States and of his too if his Actions did agree with his Words and those Cities which had lately been taken from the Empire were restored to it That this being done he did not see what could hinder their entring into a sincere Friendship At this the Embassadors replied That they had no Instruction concerning what he had proposed about the Cities but they would given an Account of it to the King their Master and in the mean time they desired the States would meet the King's Proposals of Friendship with equal Candour Upon this the Assembly broke up and the Embassadors were re-conducted back with great Civility and Respect to whom it was hinted that the Emperor could not but mention the Restitution of the Cities but then that neither he the Princes nor the States would break with the King of France though those Cities were not restored They decreed also a Noble Embassy to the King of France in which the Cardinal of Ausburg and Christopher Duke of Wirtemburg were employed One David George a Native of Delft in Holland born of mean Parents his Father being a Fencer and his Mother a mean Woman and himself unacquainted with any other than his Mother-Tongue was a Person of great seeming Moderation so that all took him for a very Honest and well-meaning Man tho' he was of a stubborn and incorrigable disposition The Life and Death of David George a famous Impostor He was a Person of a comely Countenance-and good meine and all the Motions of his Body were Grave and becoming so that he seemed made up of Honesty This Man spread amongst his Country-men the Pestilent Sect of Anabaptists to which they were very much disposed and this being done to his great advantage for he had got a good Estate by it and fearing he might not be safe if he continued any longer in his Native Country where he was accounted the Head of that Sect he went with some of his Followers to Basil in the Year 1544 under the Name of John Bruck and the first of April made a Speech in the Senate of that City desiring He might be protected by them as one forced to flee for his Religion and that they would receive his Wife Children Family and Fortunes as in a safe Harbour The Cause the Person and the Speech agreeed so exactly and his Temper was so wholely unknown to them as well as his former Life and his Country being very remote what he said appeared so like Truth and had happened to so many others That August 25 having given the usual Oath he was taken into the Protection of that City where he lived with the Respect to the Magistrate that Humanity towards the Citizens and that Civility towards all observing carefully their Religious Rites and in all things behaved himself so well that he gave not the least occasion to any to suspect him of any erroneous Doctrin and he was as well thought of by the most as he Desired to be or was esteemed by his own Party Thus he lived very quietly in his Family observing very strictly three things 1. Concealing the Name of David George by which he was well known in Holland and Friesland 2. Of what State and Condition he was at Home so that some took him for a Person of good Birth others for a Nobleman or Rich Merchant 3. Lastly he took Care not to admit any into his Sect of the City of Basil or of the neighbouring Country But in the mean time he took care by Letters Books and Messengers to enlarge his Sect in Holland and in other such distant Places But as to Switzerland he medled not for fear he might be discovered Having thus spent six Years with great Pleasure there happened a thing which gave him some Disturbance one of his Followers falling off upon better Information and appearing with great Zeal against the Doctrins of his quondam Master His House being also burnt with Lightning was a sad Presage That his good Fortune and his Life were near their End. But that which most afflicted him was That an able Person was come from Holland who had given an exact account of him and his Family to the Citizens of Basil this brought a great Despondence of Mind upon him and that a Sickness which seized his Wife also who dyed first and David George followed her himself August 25 1556 and he was buried with great Pomp in the Church of S. Leonard Thus died that famous Impostor and Deceiver who had pretended That he was greater and more Divine than Christ and Immortal that the Doctrin of Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles was imperfect and did not lead to a true and perfect Felicity but his was such as would certainly make him who rightly understood it happy That he was the true Christ and Messiah the most beloved Son of the Father who was begotten not of Flesh but by the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ which having reduced his Flesh to nothing and kept it in a certain place unknown to the Saints had at last delivered it to David George with much more such Blasphemous Nonsense After his Death the Frand broke out and this Year March 12 his Sons and all that belonged to him to the number of eleven were brought before the Senate and examined concerning his Name Country and Doctrin And they answering as he had taught were committed to different Prisons and all his Papers and Writings were delivered to the Divines April 26 the Divines and University having considered them condemn'd his Doctrin as false contrary to the sacred Scriptures pernicious and injurious to Jesus Christ and to be exterminated out of the Christian World. After this his Sons were dismiss'd out of Prison upon condition they should buy no Lands without the Walls of the City without the Permission of the Senate That they should entertain no Travellers though of their near Relations but should send them to the publick Inns That they should deliver in all the Books written or printed by David George and not keep any by them in the Dutch Tongue and that they should send their Children to the School of Basil to be instructed That they should pay a Pecuniary Mulct if required and that they their Wives and Children should appear in the Church and make Profession of the True Faith and Renounce that of David George Two days after his Body was sentenc'd to be taken up and burnt together with his Books and Effigies by the Hands of the Common Hang-man in the place where they usally executed Malefactors and all
before was so much hated began by degrees to grow up and get Strength with the tacit Consent of its greatest Enemies Thus ended the Assembly of the Princes and Notable Men of France About this time Ferrieres Maligni one of the Conspirators of Amboise escaping out of Prison had a Design to surprize Lyons and had formed so great a Party in the Town as might have done it but remitting the execution of his Project to a more convenient time by order of the King of Navarr the thing was discovered and many of his Partizans taken but yet such was the constancy of the Party that though many were tortured yet nothing could be found out to prove the King of Navarr or Prince of Conde concerned in this Attempt Yet were they invited to Court by the King to purge themselves of the Suspicion upon a Promise they should receive no Injury But this they wisely refused as not Reasonable This and several other such alarms procured an Edict That no Prince or other person of what condition soever should provide Money Soldiers Arms or Horses and if any Person did otherwise it should be taken for High-Treason The Cardinal of Bourbon was also imployed to bring the Princes of his Family to Court by passing his Faith to them That nothing should be done against them The three Estates in the interim meeting at Meaux were from thence adjourned to Orleans and the Marshal de Thermes was sent to Poictiers with two hundred Horse to watch the Motions of the King of Navar if he came to the Assembly The Protestants in France having obtained a little respite from the Pressures of the Persecution by the late Edicts The Protestants of France increase wonderfully during the Peace In some places they grow insolent encreased and there were great Assemblies of them in all Parts of the Kingdom especially in Dauphine At Valence which was an University much celebrated for the Study of the Law the fear of the Laws being now removed there succeeded in its stead a lawless Boldness and Petulance so that some of the Young Students forcibly seized the Franciscan's Church for the holding their Assemblies At Montelimard they had also their Publick Sermons and at Romans And which was yet more insufferable they met armed and were very injurious and rude to the Roman Catholick Which as to Valence was soon after revenged with equal Cruelty and perfidy by one Maugiron who was sent for that purpose by the Duke of Guise At Romans about sixty were taken and committed to Prison And at Montelimard the King's Faith was by Maugiron pawned and forfeited again and the Town taken and plundered The number of the Protestants encreased very greatly also in Bretagne and Normandy and they had their Publick Sermons in many Cities in those Provinces which were managed with greater Modesty than those in Dauphine Though the Guises had given many Testimonies of their small regard to their Faith The King of Navarâ— and Prince of Conde promise to come to the Assembly of the States The Archbishop of Vienne dies yet the King of Navarr and Prince of Conde had now passed their Promise to the Cardinal of Bourbon That they would present themselves in the next Convention of the States and that Cardinal had given the King Assurance of it being then at Paris and the King of Navarr was already on the Road. The Archbishop of Vienne falling sick about this time by a Letter signified to the Dutchess of Monpensier his great Confident That he certainly knew That if the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde came to Court they would be committed to Prison and that Bourbon would not be able to make good his Promise to them who was only imployed to deceive his Brothers That Montmorancy was laid at too and one la Sague a Villain had been examined against him and had confessed a Treaty with the Queen of England That so soon as the War in Scotland was ended the Soldiers would be imployed in France Soon after this venerable Prelate died of Grief and Vexation He was a learned and an honest Man not infected with the Leprosie of Flattery year 1560 and therefore not very grateful to the Court And being extremely desirous of a Reformation was suspected to be a Lutheran The eighteenth of October the King entred Orleans The States meet at Orleans attended by a terrible Guard of Soldiers which made that City more like a Garrison than the seat of an Assembly of the States Navarr arrived the thirtieth of the same Month with a small Retinue and unarmed and quickly found how little the Guises did regard their Faith or Promise by the little Respect was shewn to him and his Brother at his Entry and in their first appearance before the King Navarr and Conde secured And Conde was presently committed to Prison declaiming against the breach of Faith made by the King and the Guises and the Credulity of his Brother the Cardinal of Bourbon which had betrayed the whole Family into their Enemies Hands The King of Navarr seemed to have more Liberty but was under the restraint of a Guard deprived of the Attendance of his own Servants and watched by Men who had order to observe his Looks and Motions and his Secretary and all his Letters were seized The thirteenth of November the Prince of Conde was examined by the Chancellor and others in Prison Who told them It belonged not to them to try or examine the Princes of the Blood but to the Parliament of Paris and the Peers of France and the whole Body of the States Bourdin the Attorney General at last told him That if he declined the Judgment of these Delegates he should be taken for convict and Sentence accordingly pronounced against him as guilty of High Treason and the Witness should be examined elsewhere Perceiving by this the head-longhast of the Guises his Lady delivered a Petition to the King for learned Council which was granted him But his Servants were taken from him and he was denied a Conference with his Brother of Navarr and the Cardinal though he desired some of the Kings Ministers might be present These Hardships created him much Compassion in the Minds of Men and they thought he was hardly used which made his Enemies yet more hated They on the other hand despised the Thoughts of Men and bent all their Thoughts how they might destroy the King of Navarr for they thought they were secure of Conde Among other ways they intended to have assassinated him in the King's Chamber of which an account was given him by some of Guise his Creatures Upon which he resolved to draw his Sword and dye fighting if he were thus attacked and desired an old Friend to take care to preserve his Bloody Cloaths and shew them to his Son. When he had thus done he went unsent for into the King's Chamber and taking the King by the Hand so by his Looks prevailed upon him that
of Lithuania This Archbishoprick was founded in the year 1215 by the procurement of the Knights of the Teutonick Order the City being then and a long time after the Seat of the Master of it who divided the Sovereignty and Administration of Justice with the Archbishop After this short Digression which the Reader is desired to Pardon I shall now return to the prosecution of the French Affairs The new Friendship between Montmorency and the Guises was a very frightful thing to the Queen Regent The Queen suspects the designs of the Nobility who sought all the way she could possible to divide their Affections for the preserving her own Authority and therefore she was very Anxiously inquisitive to find whether this new Kindness between two such Ancient Enemies tended The Prince of Conde in the mean time was declared Innocent by the Parliament of Paris the Thirteenth of June and his Discharge Recorded The Differences in Religion not only disquieted the Court The Differences of Religion occasion Tumults but the Provinces also the two Parties reproaching each other with the Names of Papist and Huguenot There were frequent Tumults raised also by the Roman Catholicks to shew that Coligni was out when he said The Protestant Religion might be divulged throughout all the Provinces without any Disturbance And at Amiens and Pont-Oise things came to a Sedition the Catholick Artificers beginning the Quarrel and falling upon some of the Houses of some of the Protestants and they slew one Hadrian Fourre a Priest because he was reported to savour the Reformation and afterwards burnt his Body publickly for which only two were hanged An Edict to restrain them This necessitated the Council to forbid all Reviling Expressions and all Tumults on the Accounts of Religion And by it all that had been banished for Religion in the Reign of Francis II. were invited to return and promised they should enjoy their Goods and Estates if they would live like good Catholicks for the future or otherwise might sell them and retire elsewhere which was after opposed by the Parliament at Paris but yet many returned on that account and many that were in Prison were discharged so that the Protestant Party appeared numerous The Cardinal of Lorrain was Alarm'd at this and represented to the King and Queen That the whole Kingdom was fill'd with Conventicles That the meaner sort ran to the Sermons out of curiosity and were easily corrupted That the Ancient Ceremonies were little frequented or regarded and that they were already derided and scorn'd by many That great numbers every day forsook the Church and went over to the Protestants The Edict of July So he would needs have had a new Edict forthwith published to prevent these Inconveniences This being Debated in the Council in the Month of July there was another Edict published That all should live peaceably and without any fury each to other or reproaching one the other That there be no Listing or Inrolling Men on either side That the Preachers should use no Seditious or Turbulent Expressions upon pain of Death and the Presidents of the Provinces should determine of these Affairs and execute the Edict That no Sermons should be frequented by Men Armed or Unarmed in publick or in private nor any Sacraments Administred but according to the Rites of the Church of Rome And That if any Man was Convicted of Herefie and delivered to the Secular Power he should only be Banished and this was to stand till a General or a National Council should determine otherwise This was called the Edict of July The Cardinal of Lorrain had so good an opinion of his own Abilities The Carelinal of Lorrain procures the Conference of Poissy that he was fondly perswaded he could confute all the Doctrines of the Protestants out of the Fathers and thereby acquire a great Reputation to himself if he could procure a Conference with their Pastors It was therefore resolved that there should be a Meeting for that purpose at Poissy near St. Germain the Tenth of August and that Pasports should be granted to their Ministers which were to come thither on that account All of both sides being invited thither at the same time The Queen Regent was very much for this Disputation but the greatest part of the Roman Catholicks were against it as thinking it a dangerous thing to suffer the Doctrine which had hitherto been received to be brought under debate and the Religion of their Ancestors to be disputed In the Interim Mary Queen of the Scots left France Mary Queen of Scotland leaves France and return'd into Scotland the Cardinal of Lorrain attending her as far as Calais There was also a Theatrical Reconciliation between the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Guise by the Order of the King the later protesting That he had no hand in the Imprisonment of the Prince and the Prince telling Guise That the Adviser and Procurer of his Commitment was a Wicked Man and a Villain To which Guise Answered That he believed so too but was not concern'd in it After which by the King's Command they embraced each other as Kinsmen and Friends and promised a firm and sincere Friendship each to other and there was great Rejoycing in the Court. The Assembly of the States was Prorogued last year till May of this and then was on the account of the great Affairs prorogued to August and Appointed to be opened at Pont-Oyse In this Assembly The Three Estates of France Assembled at Pont-Oyse the Agreement between the Queen Regent and the King of Navar was Confirm'd by the three Estates which was very difficultly obtain'd by the later This Assembly was opened at St. Germain where James Bretagne d'Autum who spoke for the Commons declaiming sharply against the Ignorance of the Priests and the Corrupt Manners and Depraved Discipline of the Clergy so that they were unfit to Lead or Instruct the People but rather disgusted and displeased them doing all things for Hire and nothing as their Duty enslaving themselves to Pleasures and wallowing in Luxury and Idleness To this he assigned the Calamities which at present oppress'd France He therefore moved the King to take away all their Jurisdiction that he should employ their over-great Riches to Pious Uses and call a National Council which was the only present and certain Cure of those Evils That free Pasports should be given to all that would come to it and that the King or some of the Princes of the Blood should preside in it whilst Business of Religion was debated That the late Decree against Conventicles should be no prejudice to those of the Reformed Religion who rejected the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome nor any Prescription as to length of time which could not make what in it self was false true and the Business of Religion was to be quietly and friendly debated according to the Word of God and not with the Sword and Reproaches He that spoke for the
one Horse for his own use having reserved an hundred thousand Crowns for his Subsistence which was not over well paid neither spending his Time in the innocent Arts of Grafting Gardning and Reconciling the Differences of his Clocks which yet he could never make to strike together and therefore ceased to wonder He had not been able to make Men agree in the Nicities of Religion Here he first heard of the breach of Truce between his Son and the King of France and though he was something concerned at it Thuanus yet he concluded the Rashness of the Old doating Pope and the Perfidy of the Caraffa's would end in the Ruine of the Prosperity of France as it came afterwards to pass The last Day of October saith the great Thuanus John Sleidan John Sleidan's Death and Character when he had brought down his History to that time with an exact Faith and Diligence dyed of the Plague at Strasburg in the one and fiftieth Year of his Age. He was born at Sleidan a Town in the Dukedom of Juliers near Dueren and from thence he took his Name a Person who for his Learning and great Experience in Affairs was much esteemed by that Age He had spent the greatest part of his Youth in France and being entertained in the Family of Bellay had both learned and done great things in the Service of Cardinal John Du Bellay but a sharp Persecution arising in France against those that were suspected of Lutheranisme he went and lived at Strasburg and served that Free City and being by his own Employments much enformed of the Carriage of Affairs he added to what he had seen what he had learned from Men worthy of Credit and wrote his Book of Commentaries Paul IV had succeeded Marcellus a short lived Pope the twenty sixth of May Natura iracundus pene implacabilis Natalis Comes Paul IV a furious Hare-brained Prince in the Year 1555 as John Sleidan has set forth in his last Book he was a Man of a Furious and unquiet temper and made it his great Design to raise the See of Rome to its former Greatness and Authority but not considering the present state of things mistook his Measures The Submission of England had raised in him extravagant Hopes of Reducing Germany too under his Obedience but then the Peace of Religion appeared so contrary to that Design that it irritated him to the utmost and he threatned the King of the Romans and the Emperour That in a short time he would make them know to their Sorrow how much they had offended him if they did not prevent it by revoking and disallowing the things they had granted That he might have no occasion to proceed as he intended to do not only against the Lutherans but even against them too as Abettors of them But all this Ranting Zeal missing its due Effect he began his Revenges on King Philip the Son of the Emperour who was the best Friend that See had then in Christendom by denying to admit him to the Kingdom of Naples Marc Antony Colonna a Favorite of Philip King of Spain had about this time dispossessed Ascanius his Father who was a Subject of the Popes but had a great Estate in the Kingdom of Naples of all that lay in that Kingdom upon pretence that he was infected with Heresie that he favoured the French Interest against the Emperour and that he lived a dissolute Life And the Accusation had been countenanced and encouraged by King Philip to that height that the Father as much as in him lay at his Death disinherited his Son giving his Estates in the Papacy to the See of Rome and those in the Kingdom of Naples to Victoria his Daughter the Wife of Garzia de Toledo This was made the Pretence of the ensuing War between the Pope and the King of Spain into which the French and English were drawn too and all Christendom almost imbroiled again The Pope however considering that he was not able to deal alone with so Potent a Prince as King Philip under pretence of sending Cardinal Caraffa into France to congratulate the five Years Truce imployed his Interest with the King of France to persuade him to break his Faith so lately given and to renew the War with Philip The Pope had before upon several Pretences clapt up the leading Cardinals and great Men of the Spanish Faction And when the King with all the Respect his Zeal for that See could inspire him with by his Ambassadour desired the Discharge of these Prisoners and the Restitution of Marc Antony Colonna to his Fathers Estate and Castles in the Papacy the angry Pope Replyed That he had Authority and Right to punish his Subjects for their Offences And commanded his Ambassadour to write to his Master not to meddle with what did not belong to him and that he should permit him as Pope to exercise his Soveraignty freely on his own Subjects And accordingly he seized all Colonna's Castles and Estates in the Dominions of the Church pretending to revenge the Wrongs he had done to Ascanius his innocent Father with the consent of his Mother who was also severely treated by the Pope and not contented with all this he declared the Kingdom of Naples forfeited to the See of Rome because King Philip had neglected the Payment of eight thousand Crowns due as a yearly Tribute for that Kingdom He annexes the Kingdom of Naples to the See of Rome and now many Years in Arrear whereupon his Holiness published an Edict by which he annexed that Kingdom as forfeited to the See of Rome and began to fortifie Paliano a City of Champagna di Roma thirty miles from Rome to the East and put a thousand French into it for a Garrison which the more exasperated the King of Spain The Duke de Alva who was then Vice-roy of Naples did all that was possible to mitigate the Pope The Duke de Alva begins a a War upon the Papacy but his Submissions and Protestations more incensed him his Flatterers persuading him they proceeded more from Fear than a Reverence of the Holy See which he so much pretended Whereupon the Vice-roy raised twelve thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse and entring the Popes Territories he took Ponte Corvo upon the River Garigliano one of the Pope's Towns in the Borders of Terra di Lavoro without resistance and after that Frusilione the Pope's Forces flying out of it in the Night Hereupon the Pope also levied ten thousand Italian Foot and seven hundred Horse to which he added two thousand Gascoigners which were old Soldiers sent him by the King of France and imprisoned one Lofredo who was sent by the Duke de Alva to persuade the Pope to a Peace before the War was begun and staid at Rome for the Pope's Answer The Duke de Alva hearing this presently marched to Anagni another City in the same Province Anagni taken which the Pope had made his Magazine but here
the English that had not been slain into the Town The Castle being thus gained the Duke of Guise put a strong Garrison into it The English so soon as the Tide returned again which filled the Dikes stormed the Castle in hopes to regain that important Post and being beaten off they planted four Cannon against the Bridge and forced open the Castle-gate and then stormed it the second time but having lost two hundred of their best Men to no good purpose they then began to treat of a Surrender which at last was agreed The Governour and fifty others being to become Prisoners of War The Soldiery and Townsmen to be at liberty to pass into England or Flanders without any Injury as to their Lives or Liberties And all the Ammunition Cannon Housholdstuff Gold Silver Merchandise and Horse was to be left to the disposal of the Duke of Guise On these Conditions was Calais delivered up to the French the fourteenth of January 1557 58 when it had been two hundred and ten Years in the hands of the English The Place was no sooner yielded up but great numbers of Ships came over who understanding what had passed returned back King Philip had smelt the Design of the French upon this Place and had wrote to Queen Mary that he would put Succours into the Town but this was suspected by the English as a Design to get Calais into his own Hands and so his Prediction came to pass After Calais was taken they fell to consider Guines taken Whether they should attack Guines which was in the Hands of the English and lay two French Leagues from Calais to the South or Graveling a Town of Flanders three Leagues to the N. E. But they resolved to attempt Guines which was nearer and more necessary for the securing the Possession of Calais the Lord Gray was Governour of it who had a good Garrison and had received some Succours from King Philip yet at the first Attack he left the Town and fled into the Castle but whilst the French were plundering the Town returned again and drove them out and firing the Town returned into the Castle again which in a short time after he surrendred when he had eight hundred English Spanish and Flemmings to have continued the Defence of it but the Hearts of the English were down for Gray was reputed a good Soldier There was now nothing left to the English but a small Place call'd the Comte de Oye which had a Castle not strong but almost unaccessible as being surrounded with unpassable Marshes and which had no Passage but over a Timber-Bridge This Place lies almost two Leagues from Calais towards Graveling the Garrison of which never staid for a Summons but hearing of the loss of Guines fled and left the Place open and unguarded and Sipetra took possession of it without any further trouble for the French. Burnet calls this Castle Hammes and Thuanus Oye but the Castles of Hammes lay directly between Guines and Calais One Sir Edward Grimstone was then Comptroler of Calais and a Privy Counsellor and he had often given Advertisement of the ill condition of the Garrison but the Treasury was low the People discontented and the Thoughts of the Queen and her Council more set upon extirpating Heresie as they called it than upon preserving this important Post so it was lost and the Grief and Dishonour of this Misfortune sat so heavy upon the Spirits of the Queen that she never joyed after The next thing the French undertook was the taking of the Castle of Herbemont in the Forest of Ardenne belonging to the Count of Beilisteine which was very troublesome to the Inhabitants of Ivoy this enterprize succeeded well too and they took the Castle the sixteenth of February and after it several other small Places on the Frontiers were deserted by their Garrisons This Year a Fleet of one hundred and twenty Turkish Galleys loosed from Prevesa a Port of Epirus and passing by Brindisi took and plundred Reggio A Turkish Fleet land in several Places of Italy and carry many into Slavery a City in the South of Italy after which landing in the Bay di Surrneto they carried four thousand persons into Slavery among which was a great many Monks and Nuns The Grief and Shame of this was the greater because it was done in sight of Naples From thence it sailed to the Coast of Provence and having refreshed the Sailors it returned to Minorca and took the Town of Citadella with great difficulty and the loss of four hundred Men after which it returned in August into Turkey The French Fleet in the Mediterranean was able to do nothing for want of Money so the Fear was much greater than the Hurt The twenty fifth of May the Dauphine was married to Mary Queen of the Scots The Dauphine married to Mary Queen of Scotland yet the Scotch Ambassadors refused to promise under their Hands and Seals to procure the Dauphine in the next Convention of their States to be received and owned as King of Scotland and thereupon four of them dying soon after it was suspected that they had been poisoned Yet in the next Convention the thing was granted and the Earl of Argile was appointed to bring the Marital Crown into France But in the mean time Mary Queen of England dyed which occasioned a great Change in England France and Scotland The greatest part of the Scots were not pleased with this Marriage and the French too underhand disliked it as tending to the exalting the House of Guise and the depressing that of Montmorency and Gasper de Coligny Admiral of France who were both at this time Prisoners to King Philip. A meeting in the mean time being appointed at Perone between Christierna the Mother of the Cardinal of Lorraine and Perrenot Bishop of Arras for King Philip The first Proposals of a Peace between France and King Philip. and the Duke and Cardinal of Loraine for the French Perrenot deploring the progress of the Turkish Arms during this unfortunate War and above all things the increase of Heresie in France and the Netherlands cunningly offered the House of Guise their Assistance for the ruining Montmorency Coligny and Andelot as favourors of the Reformation when a Peace were once setled between these two Crowns The House of Guise hereby only seeking to aggrandize it self upon the Ruine of these three great Men and the Spaniards to imbroil and weaken France The Cardinal at his return acquaints the King with what concerned Andelot intermixing a mention of a Peace with it Henry II was a mild and most merciful Prince but had an implacable aversion for the Reformation which had been instilled into him in his Infancy by those who had the Care of him and he had before this heard something of Andelot's Inclinations to favour that Party and thereupon sent for him who waited upon the King at Monceaux a Castle near Meaux Andelot Marshal of France ruined by
a Prince of great Moderation and Justice he overthrew the united Army of Christopher Duke of Oldenburg and of the City of Lubeck who had invaded his Inheritance near Alsens a City of Fionia with a great slaughter of their Forces Having by this Victory obtain'd a Peace he caused the holy Scriptures to be translated into the Danish Tongue and open'd an University and a Library at Coppenhagen Not long before his Death he visited his deposed Uncle who was then in Prison and having discours'd very friendly with him a great while they mutually forgave each other By his Queen Dorothy Daughter of Magnus Duke of Saxony he had five Children Frederick II who succeeded him in his Kingdom Magnus Bishop of Vpsal in Livonia Joane Ann married to Augustus Elector of Saxony and Dorothy married to Henry Duke of Lunenburg Christian II King of Denmark dies The Twenty third of the same Month Christian his Predecessor in that Kingdom followed him being in the Seventy seventh year of his Age he had lived in Prison ever since the Year 1532 having given saith my Author Thuanus this Lesson to all Princes That if they will Reign well and happily they must govern their Affections and not out of a violent lust of insulting over their Subjects give up themselves to the conduct of their Passions and that they ought to assure themselves that God is a severe Revenger always ready and delighting to pluck off their Thrones the most Proud and Insolent who shall abuse that Power he has intrusted them with Frederick I being dead who was a Prince utterly averse from war and neither moved by Ambition nor Covetousness to invade what was anothers Frederick II conquereth Diermarsh his Son Frederick began a War upon the Inhabitants of Dietmarsh who had heretofore been subject to the Dukes of Holstein the Bishop of Breme and the Kings of Denmark successively and had often regain'd their Liberty with great Loss and Dishonour to those Princes that had attempted to reduce this small Province but now their time was come and Adolph Duke of Holstein this year made a final Conquest of them for Frederick King of Denmark in the space of one Month. In the beginning of this Year was a great change of Affairs at Rome The Affairs of Italy The Kindred of the Pope had already made themselves hated by all Christendom and now the Pope himself too fell out with them they had engaged the Pope in the War with Spain which had brought so much Loss and Shame upon that See and its Dominions In the time of those Confusions they had acted many things with great Rapacity Intemperance and Insolence without the Pope's knowledge who finding his Treasure exhausted had by their Advice raised great and extraordinary Taxes upon his People and besides all this had sold the Places of the Criminal and Civil Judges suppressed the monthly Payments of his Officers and seized many of the Lands belonging to the Religious Orders and had levied two Tenths upon all the Benefices The War with King Philip being ended and the Pope having with a calm and dispassionate mind heard the Complaints made against his Relations by one Jeremiah a Fryer of the Theatin Order and especially against the Cardinal of Caraffa began more nearly to inspect his own Affairs and the Lives of his Relations About the same time Cosmus Duke of Florenee made great Complaint also of the Caraffa's because not content with the extorting what they pleas'd from the Hospitals Monasteries and Clergy within the Pope's Dominions which they lookt upon as their own they had also by their private Authority done the same Wrongs in the Dukedom of Florence and indeed all over Italy He thereupon order'd Bongianni Gianfigliacci his Resident at Rome to complain of this to the Pope but then the Caraffa's had prevented him from having any Audience whereupon Cosmus wrote a Letter to the Pope which was by the means of Cardinal Vitelli an Hater of their Insolence deliver'd to the Pope He having read it sent presently for his old Monitor Jeremiah and by him ordered Vitelli to give him a more exact account of their Misdemeanors There was nothing more incensed the Pope against them who was Imperious and Jealous of his Papal Power to the utmost degree than that the Cardinal had agreed without his knowledge or consent with the Duke de Alva that his Brother should accept of a Compensation from King Philip instead of Paliani which Place the Pope had designed to unite to his See. Whereupon he presently commanded the Cardinal to leave the Vatican and not to come any more into his Presence The Twenty seventh of January the Pope summon'd a great Consistory and in it discharged him of the Prime Ministry of Affairs and of the Government of Bononia He took also from the Duke of Paliani his Brother the Command of the Forces of the Ecclesiastick State and of the Gallies and deprived the Marquess di Monte Belli of the Custody of the Vatican Palace declaring against them with that fury that some of the Cardinals attempted to appease him and among them Ranutio Cardinal of Farness To whom he replied That your Grandfather had done much better if like me he had sacrificed his private Affections to his Pastoral Office and having severely chastised your Father's abominable Lusts and Villanies had thereby prevented the scandal the Impunity of them hath given to the whole World. So that nothing that could be said or done could reduce the old Man from his Resolves against them but tended rather to the encreasing of his Fury And hereupon he forthwith abolish'd some Imposts pretending they were exacted without his knowledge By all which he hoped to obtain the repute of a Just and Upright Prince and to cast the Odium of the ill things which had been done in his Popedom upon his Relations After this he betook himself wholly to the promoting the Inquisition which he call'd the most Holy Tribunal and here he shewed a very great severity bringing not only Men suspected of Heresie but of some other Crimes within their Jurisdiction Then commanding all Monks and Nuns to their several Houses he Imprison'd some and sent others to the Gallies for not presently obeying him His Rigour was so great in this last that many left his State and went and setled in the State of Venice He spent Fifty thousand Crowns in Corn to relieve the Poor in a time of Scarcity and setled Bishops at Malacha and Cochin two Cities belonging to the Portuguese in the East-Indies and made the Bishop of Goa an Archbishop exempting him from the Jurisdiction of the Bishoprick of Lisbon He also erected many new Sees in the Low-Countries at the request of Philip King of Spain to the Diminution of the Jurisdiction and Diocesses of many French and German Bishops These Sees were setled at Mechlen Antwerp Harlem Daventrie Leewarden Groningen Midleburg Bosleduc New Bishopricks erected in the Low-Countries Namur St.
Peace to the servile Yoke of Foreign Forces and an Insolent Soldiery King Philip was inwardly displeased with this Liberty yet suppressed his Resentment and that he might not seem to go thence offended with these Great Men he promised to withdraw those Forces within four Months After this he took Shipping at Flushing August 26. being attended by a Fleet of 90 Ships He takes Ship at Flushing He met with so great a Tempest on the Shoars of Gallicia that the Ship in which he went perished the King being hardly got out of her into a small Bark that waited upon him Thuanus saith He ascribed his Delivery to Heaven and said He was preserved by the singular Providence of God to extirpate Lutheranism And Meteren That this Tempest was an Omen of the great Calamities that attended him and his States a great part of the Fleet being Shipwrecked He soon fell to the Work he believed God had call'd him He raiseth a great Persecution in Spain and began with the extirpation of Heresie some few had been put to Death before his arrival here and there but the greatest part were kept that he might have the joy of seeing them burnt at Vallidolid and Seville September 24. this pompous Shew was begun in the Person of John Ponce a Son of the Count de Baylen who was brought forth with great State and burnt as an Obstinate Lutheran and with him John Gonsalo a Preacher After these Isabella Venia Maria Viroesia Cornelia and Bohorquia which was a Spectacle of great Compassion and Envy the last of these being not above 21 Years old yet suffering with great Constancy After these followed Ferdinad de St. Jean and Julian Ferdinando John de Leone and Frances Chavesia a Nun Christopher Losada a Physician and Christopher de Arles a Monk and Garsia de Arras This last was the Man who had brought that Spark into Spain and by his constant and learned Preaching improved it so far that he had brought over to his Opinion the greatest Part of the Monks of S. Isiodore and of the Inhabitants of Seville yet afterwards he had deserted his Companions and disputed against them too before the Inquisitors but being at last convinced of the Wickedness of it he repented and being brought before the Inquisitors reproached them as fitter for Mule-Drivers than Judges of the true Faith of which they were brutishly Ignorant tho' they impudently assumed that Title and Office. Constantio the Confessor of Charles V burnt after he was dead Giles and Constantio were reserved to bring up the Reere but they both died yet their Bodies were burnt This last was Confessor to Charles V in the last two Years of his Life and Retirement Soon after his Death he was imprisoned and died in durance His Body was carried about in a preaching Posture and the dreadful ghastly look it had brought Tears from some whilst others laughed at the theatrical Hypocrisie and Bloody Folly of the Monks From hence this Cruel Scene was removed to Vallidolid in October following Twenty eight Nobles burnt at Vallidolid where in the presence of Philip 28 of the Principal Nobility of that Country were bound to Stakes and most Catholickly and Charitably burnt Whether Thuanus were weary of the former Cruelties or wanted exact Informations of the Particulars of this last I cannot say but the last is most probable but however he gives none of their Names or Qualities and saith there was some Variation in the Time. Thus Spain was preserved from Heresie as they call it not by the Learning or Piety of the Clergy but the Bloody Zeal of King Philip. Pope Paul IV The Death of Pope Paul IV. being worn out with Years and very much afflicted with a Dropsie July 29 sent for the Cardinals and told them He was going the way of all Flesh and having advised them to chose a good Successor recommended to them The most Holy Office of the Inquisition as he called it which was the only thing that could preserve that most Holy See. He after this pointed in another Discourse to King Philip whom he said God had raised up as the great Defender of the Catholick Faith and he added That he did not doubt but the Christian Religion would by his Counsels however now afflicted be restored to its Ancient State. He dyed August 18. aged 83 Years having sat Pope four Years two Months and twenty three Days Whilst he was yet dying The People of Rome express their Hatred of him and the Inquisition the People broke open all the Prisons especially those of the Inquisition which they also set on Fire and they were hardly restrained from burning the Palace of Minerva where that Court Sits with the same Fury they beat down the Image of the Pope and broke off its Head and Right-hand and three Days it lay exposed in the Streets to the Contempt and Scorn of all Men after which it was thrown into the Tiber. After this the Arms of the Caraffa's were demolished all over the Town His Body was buried with little Pomp and a Guard of Soldiers drawn up to secure it from the Rage of the Populace It is observed The Deaths of several Princes That this Year was fatal to the Princes of Europe August 17 Lawrence Prioly Duke of Venice died and was succeeded by Jerome his own Brother his rare Virtues dispensing with the Venetian Laws of not suffering Honours to continue in the same Family lest they might seem Hereditary September 1 died Hercules di Este Duke of Ferrara he married Renata a Daughter of Lewis XII King of France and was happy in all his Government except his taking part with Henry II in that unjust War against King Philip as Thuanus calls it But he was happy in this That by his Prudence he extricated himself and came off with little or no Damage in his Treaty of Peace with that Potent and provoked Prince February 12. died Otho Henry Duke of Bavaria Count Palatine of the Rhine and was succeeded by Frederick III. April 29 died Francis Otho Duke of Lunenburg January 24 died William Prince of Henneberg so that within the space of one Year died Charles V two Kings of Denmark a King of France a Duke of Venice a Pope the Elector Palatine the Duke of Ferrara and three Queens Helionora of France Mary of Hungary and Bona Sfortia Queen of Poland The Conclave was very much divided in the Election of a new Pope Pius IV elected between the French and Spanish Factions each Side labouring to have a Pope of their own Interest So that this Contest lasted three Months till at last the Embassadors of the other Princes began to remonstrate That this long Delay tended only to the improving the Differences in Religion and the increasing the Enemies of that See. At last after a Vacancy of four Months and seven Days John Angelo Medici was elected December 26. by the Suffrage of forty four Cardinals
to be done they would give but three The French Provocations against the English The English Merchants were ill used in France A Servant of Throcmorton's the Embassadour was sent by Francis Grand Prior of France the Brother of Guise publickly to the Gallies A Pistol was discharged against the Embassadour in his own Lodgings And he had no Plate allowed him for his Table but what had the Arms of England engraven on it in contempt Du Brossay was also sent with Supplies of French into Scotland And the Gallies of France were brought from Marseille in the Mediterrancan into the British Seas This was the State of Affairs between France and England The Scotch Complaints against the French. when the Troubles of Scotland broke out and the Lords of the Articles sent William Maitland their Secretary who made a deplorable Representation of the State of that Kingdom to Queen Elizabeth setting forth That since the Marriage of their Queen to the Dauphine of France the Government of Scotland had been charged the French Soldiers laid all waste The principal Employments were given to Frenchmen their Forts and Castles put into their Hands and their Money adulterated to their Advantage That the Design was apparently to possess themselves of Scotland if the Queen should happen to die without Issue Cecil who was the Queens Prime Minister imployed Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland to find out what the Lords of the Articles designed and what Means they had to attain their Ends and upon what Terms they expected Succours from England They said They desired nothing but the Glory of Jesus Christ the sincere Preaching of the Word of God the extirpation of Superstition and Idolatry the Restraint of the Fury of Persecution and the Preservation of their ancient Liberties That they knew not for the present how to effect this but they hoped the Divine Goodness which had begun the Work would bring it to its desired End with the Confusion of their Enemies That they earnestly desired to enter into a Friendship with the Queen of England to the Preservation of which they would Sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes The Consideration of these things was not warmly entertained in England Queen Elizabeth holds off at first but be cause the Scots had little Money and were not over-well cemented among themselves so they were only advised Not to enter rashly into a War. But as soon as the English knew that the Marquess of Elboeuf the Queen of Scots Unkle was listing Men in Germany by the Rhinegrave for a War in Scotland That Cannons were sent to the Ports and Preparations made to conquer that Kingdom and that in greater Quantities than seemed necessary to reduce a few unarmed Scots That the French to draw the Danes into this War had proffered That the Duke of Lorrain should renounce his Right to Denmark And that they were renewing their Solicitations with the Pope To give a declaratory Sentence for the Queen of Scot against the Queen of England Thereupon Sir Ralph Sadler a wise Man was sent to the Earl of Northumberland and Governour of the middle Marches on the Borders of Scotland at last is forced to unite with the Protestants of Scotland Reasons assigned for the driving the French out of Scotland to assist him and Sir James Croft Governour of Berwick The English Council could not see whither all this tended unless the French designed to invade the Kingdom of England as well as assume the Title and Arms of it Upon this the Council of England began to consider in good earnest and with great Application of the Scotch Affairs it was thought a thing of very ill and dangerous Example that one Prince should undertake the Protection of the Subjects of another Prince who were in Rebellion But then it was thought impious not to assist those of the same Religion when persecuted for it And it was certainly a great Folly to suffer the French the sworn Enemies of England when they challenged the Kingdom of England too and were at Peace with all the rest of the World to continue armed in Scotland which lay so near and convenient for the Invasion of England on that side which had the greatest number of Roman Catholicks both of the Nobility and Commons This was thought a betraying the Safety and Quiet of the whole Nation in a very cowardly manner And therefore it was concluded It was no Time now for lazy Counsels but that it was best to take up their Arms and as the English Custom was To prevent their Enemies and not stay till they should begin with us It was always as lawful to Prevent an Enemy as to repel him and to defend our selves the same way that others Attack us That England could never be Safe but when it was Armed and Potent and that nothing could contribute more to this End than the securing it against Scotland That in order to this the Protestants of Scotland were to be protected and the French Forces driven out of it and this was not to be done by Consultations but by Arms. That the neglect of these Methods had not long since lost Calais to our great Hindrance and Shame That a little before whilst the French pretended to preserve the Peace with great Fidelity they had surprized the Fort of Ambleteul and some other Places near Bologne and by that means forced the English to surrender that important Place That we must expect the same Fate would attend Berwick and the other Fronteer Garrisons if they did not forthwith take Arms and not rely any longer on the French Pretences of maintaining the Peace which were never to be believed their Counsels being secret their Ambition boundless and their Revenues immense so that it was then a Proverb in England France can neither be Poor nor Quiet three Years together And Queen Elizabeth was used to say that Expression of Valentinean the Emperour was good The War resolved Francum amicum habe at non vicinum Let a Frank be thy Friend but not thy Neighbour So that upon the whole it was concluâ—â—d That it was Just Honest Necessary and our Interest to drive the French as soon as was possible out of Scotland Hereupon William Winter Master-Gunner in the Fleet The War begun was sent with a Fleet to Edinburgh Frith who to the great terror of the French fell upon their Ships of War on that Coast and their Garrison in the Isle of Inchkeith The Duke of Norfolk then Lieutenant of the North was also sent towards Scotland William Lord Grey who had well defended Guines against the French tho unsuccessfully was made Governour of the Eastern and Middle Marches and Thomas Earl of Sussex who had been Lieutenant of Ireland in the Reign of Queen Mary was sent thither again with the same Character and commanded to have a particular care the French did not excite the barbarous and superstitious Irish to a Rebellion under the Pretence of Religion The French in
his Heart failed him and he either repented or durst not proceed in this Design Queen Catharine was already weary of the Insolence of the Guises and desirous to save the House of Bourbon as a Curb upon them to this purpose she gave order to the Chancellor to put what Rubs he could in their way The Guises in the mean time hastned the Tryal of Conde as much as was possible esteeming all Delays dangerous to them The sixteenth of November the King being abroad to hunt Francis II dies was taken extream ill which caused Montmorency to make the more haste to Court. The twenty sixth of that Month the Kings Disease grew very great and hopeless This turned the Rage and Fury of the Guises into Fear and Consternation when they considered what they should lose in the Death of that Prince Thereupon they began to work upon Queen Catharine by other Methods to flatter and crouch to her and to represent the King of Navarr and Prince of Conde as exasperated to that height by their late Sufferings that without doubt they would seek her Ruine but they for their Parts would stand by her and serve her with great Fidelity They desired therefore Navarr might be committed as well as his Brother had been before the King dyed The Chancellor prevented this by shewing in a grave Oration That it would certainly involve France in a Civil War. The fifth of December the King dyed having lived seventeen years and ten Months and reigned one Year five Months and twenty Days His Youth and the shortness of his Reign makes it uncertain whether he ought to be ranged with the Good or Bad Princes and the more because not he but the Guises governed This Accident changed the state of things and saved the Life of Conde Charles IX succeeds or rather the House of Bourbon Charles IX his Brother succeeded him and Navarr of a Prisoner became the second Person in that Kingdom Queen Catharine having adjusted all things with him before the late King died She sent Letters also to Montmorency who was not yet arrived at Orleans to hasten his coming to the new King because she was desirous to use his Counsel and Advice When he came to Orleans he asked the Centinels By whose Orders they were placed there and for what End and commanded them to be gone or he would hang them The Guards presently disappeared and then it was visible that the Guises and not the King needed them Though Conde was freed the same moment the King died The Prince of Conde fre'd yet he would not go out of his Prison till he knew his Accusers and Prosecutors to which the Guises replyed It was by the late King's Order and would explain the Mystery no further About twelve Days after he went to the Castle of Hane in Picardy and there attended the Orders of the new King. Francis the Second was buried with small State and less Expence to the great hatred of the Guises who in the mean time were very busie to revive the Differences between Queen Catharine and the King of Navarr who wisely prevented their Design by offering the first Place to the Queen and reserving the second to himself as President of the Kingdom This passed into a Decree the twenty first of December The Protestant Religion The Protestant Religion breaks out in the Netherlands which had got such footing in France that it seemed not possible to root it out without the Ruine of that Kingdom began this Year to shew it self more openly in Flanders and the Netherlands the Nobility espousing it in great numbers together with the rest of the States Nor could Margaret their Governess under King Philip obtain the continuance of the Taxes for the maintenance of the Spanish Forces Nor would they of Zealand acquiesce tho the Pay was sent from other Places till these Troops were sent into Spain Nor would they grant any Supplies to be disposed of by the Governess but reserved that to themselves that the Soldiers in the Frontier Towns might be certainly and regularly paid This was vigorously opposed by the new Bishops instituted by Paul IV as tending to the remitting the Reins of the Ecclesiastical Government as well as the Civil Bartholomeo Caranza The Archbishop of Toledo suspected to be a Lutheran Archbishop of Toledo in Spain was also suspected to incline to the Protestant Religion and on that account was imprisoned by the Inquisition and his Revenues were brought into the King's Treasure By an Appeal to Rome he saved his Life but was never able to recover his See again but died many Years after at Rome in a Private State. Thuanus saith He knew him and that his Learning Integrity and the Holiness of his Conversation was such as made him worthy of that Dignity The great Progress of the Protestant Religion in all Places A General Council desired by many and opposed by the Pope made all Good Men saith Thuanus desire that the General Council which had been intermitted might be reassumed and carried on but Pope Pius IV had the same Fears of it his Predecessors had lest his own Power should be abated And therefore though he judged this the only means to root out Heresies and very necessary yet he delayed it and unless he were compelled by Force or some present Danger it was apparent he would never admit it But having resolved on the other side right or wrong by Force or Fraud to accomplish his own Desires and hoping to reap great Advantages from the Ruine of the Caraffa's though he had been much assisted by them in the obtaining of the Papacy he applied himself to this with great Application and Industry But prosecutes the Caraffa's to ruine and under the Mask of Friendship And having laid his Plot he committed Charles Caraffa the Cardinal and his Kinsman the Cardinal of Naples to the Castle of S. Angelo But Anthony Marquess de Monte Bello being then not at Rome though cited also escaped the Danger and fled for his Life Though daily Accounts came to Rome of the Tumults and Disorders of France the Pope took no notice of them Though the Duke of Florence who was great with him for he pretended to be descended of that Family did very much urge his Holiness to consider the State of Affairs in France and Scotland And told him It was Uncharitable to see so many thousands of Souls Lost and Impolitick to necessitate Princes by the despair of a General Council to betake themselves to National Synods This was much inforced by the Noise the Speech of the Chancellor of France had made in the late Assembly which was then very hot in Italy He had among other things assured the French Clergy That if the Pope would not hold a General there should very speedily be a National Council assembled in France and had exhorted all the Bishops to prepare themselves for it To this the Pope answered with great anxiety seeking
Pretences of Delay and pretending he was going to Ancona and that by the way he would speak with the Duke of Florence who was a wise Prince and his Kinsman and regulate that Affair by his Advice Cosâ—us Duke of Florence The Duke of Florence come to Rome perceiving that this Journey of the Pope to Ancona was a Sham and being invited by the Pope to Rome resolved to go thither to promote this and some other Private Business he had with the Pope Before this King Philip having heard of the National Council designed in France had sent Anthony de Toledo to advise the King and Council in this and lay before them the inevitable Danger of a Schism which would follow upon it On the other side Ferdinand the Emperour insisted That seeing the Council was begun on the account of the Germans it should be renewed in Germany and all that was already determined should be re-debated anew Others thought it reasonable That seeing the French were now equally concerned with the Germans the Council should be assembled in some City in the Confines of France and the Empire as at Constance or if the Germans would agree to it at Besanzon The Pope was rather inclined to have it at Trent or rather to bring it deeper into Italy and had some Thoughts of Vercelli a City in the Borders of France though he could not yet resolve certainly to hold it any where for he good Man was more desirous that Geneva which had much infected France and Germany should be reduced by a War than that the Controversies of Religion should be committed to the peaceable Determination of a Council And to that end he had persuaded the Duke of Savoy to make a War upon the Vaudois his Subjects Whilst the Pope was in this incertainty in October the Duke of Florence came to Rome and persuaded the Pope by his Arguments to resolve on the calling of a Council the next Year that he might provide a General Remedy for a General Disease He shewed him That there was no Danger such a Council would pass any severe Sentence on the Manners and Abuses of the Court of Rome And that it was fit he should desire the Discipline and Corrupt Manners of the Church of Rome should be reformed That he ought sincerely to promote it His Arguments for a General Council and cause select Divines to be assembled out of all Christian Kingdoms and to hear them favourably that so the Peace of Christendom might be restored which was now torn in Pieces by Diversity of Opinions About the same time the Death of Francis II the Advancement of the King of Navarr and the great Kindness Queen Catharine on his account shewed to the Protestants very much terrified the Pope and compelled him to entertain the Thoughts of a Council in good earnest which till then had been talked of with no great sincerity The Pope thereupon sent Lawrence Lenzi Bishop of Firmo to King Philip With other concurrent Accidents at last prevail'd John Manriquez to the Duke of Florence and Angelo Guicciardin to the Queen of France who was to condole the Death of her Son to comfort her and to entreat her to undertake the Protection of the Religion she was brought up in and that she would not open a Door to the growing Schism nor seek any Remedy for the Disorders of France from any but the Church of Rome And to assure her The Pope's Ambassadors to thee Christian Princes That in a short time all their Desires should be gratified by the Calling of a General Council and therefore they prayed her to take Care That the flourishing Kingdom of France might not make a Defection from the Ancient Religion during her Government nor any Prejudices be raised against the Remedies which might justly be expected from it The Pope at the same time appointed Hercules Gonzaga Hierome Seripand and Stanislaws Hosio three of his Cardinals to be his Legates in the Council and sent Zachary Delfino Bishop of Zant and Francis Commendone into Germany to invite the Protestant Princes to it Canobbio was sent into Poland on the same Errant and had Orders to go on into Russia to exhort that Prince who was of the Greek Communion to send his Bishops and Divines to the Council but there being a War between the Russ and Poles at this time this Journey was prevented The Twenty ninth of September this Year died Gustavus King of Sweden Gustavus King of Sweden dies which was the Founder of the Line which now reigns in that Kingdom he was succeeded by Eriek his eldest Son. This Prince reigned Thirty eight Years with great Prudence and Commendation being only noted for a little too great Severity in his Taxes which was necessary in a Prince that was to Found a Family but he was otherwise a Prince of great Vertues and the Reformer of the Church of Sweden The same Year died Philip Duke of the hither Pomerania and Albert Count of Mansfield a great Favourer of the Reformation he died the Fifth of March in the Seventieth year of his Age and Sixtieth of his Government The same Year died the Cardinal du Bellay the Great Patron of John Sleidan a Person of great Merit and employed by Francis I in many Embassies He was a great and hearty Desirer of the Reformation of the Church and without all doubt shew'd our Author the right way to it though he miss'd it himself The Nineteenth of April died also Philip Melancthon at Wittemberg He was born at Brett a Town in the Palatinate of the Rhine and was the great Companion and Friend of Martin Luther but was more moderate and a great hater of Contentions and Disputes and a lover of Peace By which Vertues he won the Love and Respects of both Parties in those troublesom days on which account he was sent for into France by Francis I. The Celebration of the States of France was interâ—â—â—tted by the sudden Death of Fracis II. But there being great Discontents at the numerous Assemblies of the Protestants in many Places which were now openly held the finding out a Remedy for this hastned the opening that Convention The Thirteenth of December was appointed for that Purpose and the Chancellor began the Affair with an Elegant and Pious Discourse In which having shewn the Use of these Assemblies and exhorted all degrees to Peace and Concord and shewn 'em the common Causes of Sedition and Rebellion he tells them That in their times a new Cause that of Religion had been added to all the former As if saith he Religion could or ought to be the cause of a Civil War which is the greatest Mischief that can befall a Kingdom and contains all others in it But then God is not the Author of Dissention but of Peace and other Religions because false may be founded and preserved by Force and Fraud but the Christian Religion which is the only true is only to be established by
next morning he came to Pont Olivet by Orleans which being unknown to him and therefore thought by him to be very distant from the place he fled from he laid him down to sleep and was taken upon suspicion by the Searchers and being known was brought to the Queen to St. Ilario and Examined concerning the Fact and by whose Procurement he did it He said he had been twice solicited to it by Coligni and had at last consented to it upon the perswasion of Beza and another Minister but he said the Prince of Conde Andelot and the Sieur de Soubieze knew nothing of it He advised the Queen to have a care of her self too because the Protestants were ill affected to her since the Battel of Dreux and that Monpensier and Sansac were also designed to be cut off An Account of which Confession being sent to Cologni by a German Prisoner the 12th of March he published a Paper in his own defence in which he call'd God and Man to Witness that he never saw nor knew Poltrot before the last January and he had given him Money and employed him as a Spie in the Duke of Guise his Camp That when he went into Normandy he had given him 100 Crowns to acquaint Andelot with what passed there and that all he had said besides were lies and falsehoods That though he was not much concern'd for the death of the Duke of Guise who was an Enemy to the King and to the Reformation and all that Embraced it yet he ever detested these ways of Proceeding and had never by himself or any other asked any such thing of Poltrot though he had before this discovered and could prove such designs were entred into against Conde Andelot and himself before the Queen and Montmorancy to whom he had produced good Assurances of it Beza also in the same Paper said he never saw Poltrot in all his Life and Rochefocault said the same Coligni sent the same day a Letter to the Queen to intreat her to keep Poltrot that the truth of his innocence might be made out from him before he were Executed The Death and Character of the Duke of Guise The Duke of Guise in the mean time died the 24th of February having purged himself of the Massacre of Vassay and Advised the Queen to make a Peace as soon as was possible He was a Great Man in the Opinion of his Enemies a good Soldier and both fortunate and prudent in his Actions but falling into a divided Factious State he was by his Brother Charles a violent Man misled though he often detested his Advises Though he had no Command in the Battel of Dreux yet he alone procured the Victory this made him the sole General and being terrible to the Protestants it hastened his Ruine but then it had ill Consequences though at first it occasioned a speedy Peace in after times The Children of the Duke growing up in the Civil Wars which followed inherited the popularity of their Father and under the Pretences of Religion and the Sloath of the Kings of France endeavoured first to Revenge their Fathers Death on the Protestants and at last turned their Arms against the Royal Family to the great hazard of its Ruine and their own too Soon after the Duke of Guise was wounded the Queen sent Henry de Cloet The Queen earnestly desires a Peace and the Bishop of Limoges to the Princess of Conde and Andelot to treat of a Peace several times And when he was dead she yet more earnestly desired it fearing Conde and Montmorancy the Heads of the two Parties Or as Davila saith being desirous to drive out the Foreign Forces before they could settle themselves and above all the English out of Havre de Grace Besides she wanted a General to Head the Kings Forces Montmorency being then a Prisoner and none of the rest being equal to the Prince of Conde Coligni or Andelot besides the Royal Revenues were by the War reduced to so low an Ebb that they were forced to borrow of their Neighbours to support the War. In the mean time Francis de Briqueville Baron de Columbiers was employed by Coligni to take Bayeux before which he came the 12th of February and though at first repulsed yet upon the bringing four Cannon from Caen he took the City the Fourth of March the Garison helping him to plunder it and many of the Inhabitants especially of the Clergy were slain because they were thought to have occasion'd the resistance which was made Soon after St. Lo was deserted and fell into the hands of the Protestants and after it Auranches Vire had expell'd the Protestants and pretended to defend it self but was taken by Storm towards Night which increased the Calamities of the Inhabitants Honfleur was taken by De Mouy the Fourteenth of March. About this time Coligni having made Montgomery Governor of Normandy went from Caen with a gallant Army towards Lisieux where he was excluded by the Garison and from thence to Bernay which presuming to do so too he took the Town and made a great slaughter of the Inhabitants destroying all their Images and Altars and handling their Priests very severely The 7th of March the Prince of Conde and Montmorancy were brought to the Island Boaria near Orleans under strong Guards The Treaty of Peace between the Prince of Conde and Montmorancy and a Treaty of Peace was opened And Montmorancy declaring he would never consent to the Edict of January other Conditions were proposed to the great dissatisfaction of the Protestants Conde upon his promise had leave given him to enter Orleans where he treated with the Protestant Ministers but finding them resolved to stand to the Edict of January the 12th of March he came to an Agreement with the Queen which was subscribed by the King the 19th of the same Month. The Terms of which were The Articles agreed on That 1. All the Nobility should permit what Religion they pleased who had Sovereign Authority in their Jurisdictions That all Noblemen should have the free Exercise of Religion in their Families if they did not live in Corporate Towns. That in every Generalite or Prefecture one City should be assigned for those of the Religion And that wherever they had at this day a Liberty they should still enjoy it All Offences were remitted and the Royal Moneys spent in the War and Conde was acknowledged the Kings faithful and Loyal Kinsman and the Nobility Captains and all others who had assisted him were pronounced to have done all things for the Kings Service and with a good Intention Coligni was kept in Normandy by the Flattering Prosperity of his Arms Coligni not pleased with the Peace and though he was by many Letters from the Prince of Conde pressed to hasten his Journey to Orleans yet he did not arrive there before the 23 of March. The next day he could not dissemble his discontent at the Terms of the Treaty of Peace telling
the Prince publickly That he wondered how they could be prevailed upon to clap up a Peace upon such disadvantageous Conditions when the Affairs of the Protestants were in so flourishing a state That they ought to have remembred that in the beginning of the War the Triumvirate had consented that the Edict of January should be restored and that now two of them the King of Navar and the Duke of Guise were slain and Montmorancy was their Prisoner and consequently a Security for the Prince of Conde Why should not they have had the same Terms That the restraint of the Profession of the Protestant Religion to one place in a Province was to give up that by a dash of the Pen which their Sword could never have obtained That what was granted to the Nobility could not be denied and they would soon see it was safer to serve God in the Suburbs of great Cities than in their Private Families and that it was uncertain whether their Children would be at all like them But however nothing could rescind an Agreement made by common consent Thus ended the first Civil War of France I have transcribed this whole Account of the first Civil War of France from the great Thuanus abridging it as much as was possible and pursuing the Actions only of the great Armies because if I had taken in all he relates of the various Actions between the two Parties in the several great Cities and Provinces it would have swell'd infinitely beyond the design of this Work or otherwise have been so dark as not to be easily intelligible And if the Reader compare this short Account with that given by Davila he will soon see how little the sincerity of that Historian is to be relied on and how small the Reason is for him to treat the Huguenots as Rebels in all the Course of this War. When the War first began the Protestants acted purely on the defensive but after several local Massacres they began to pull down Images and Altars in Revenge for the blood-shed of the other Party and finding to their cost this did but enrage the Roman Catholicks against them and made them the more cruel they fell next upon the Priests and Monks as the Authors of their Calamities this more incensing the Roman Catholicks And they again using the most horrid barbarities that were ever practised by Men the Protestants rose likewise in their Executions on them so that if this War had continued a few years France must have been depopulated Now though in all this the Roman Catholicks were the first Agressors and forced the Protestants to this severity in their own defence yet their Writers cunningly omitting the Provocation or softing the Actions of their own Party set forth at large the Cruelties of the Hereticks as they call them and many times aggravate them above what is true but Thuanus though a Roman Catholick was too great a Man to be guilty of so false a representation and who ever pleaseth to consult him will find I have been very favourable to the Roman Catholicks in this Abstract and have not sought occasions to make them odious without cause A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK IV. The CONTENTS The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France The Causes of the Delay of the Council The Pope's Legates sent to Trent The Prohibition of Books taken into Consideration The French Ambassadors arrive at Trent The French King's Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council The French Clergy arrive there The Pope's Fear of them Maximilian Son of Ferdinand the Emperor chosen King of the Romans The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council The Spanish Ambassadors received in the Council The Fathers of Trent much Displeased with the Peace made in France The Queen of Navarr cited to Rome and many of the Bishops by the Inquisition The French King's Declaration against these Proceedings The Queen Mother of France complains of the Council The Pope Gains the Cardinal of Lorrain to his Side That Councils have no Authority over Princes The Ambassadors of France Protest against the Council and retire to Venice The Council ended The Censure of the Council The State of Religion in Piedmont A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. The Romish Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy and the Cup to the Laity The Siege and Surrender of Havre de Grace Charles the IX declared out of his Minority The Scotch Affairs HAVING thus dispatched what concerns the first French War year 1562 I now return to the Affairs of the Rest of Christendom in the Year 1562. And here I will first begin with the History of the Council of Trent Whilst the recalling this Council was agitated with great heat The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France the Cardinal of Ferrara the Pope's Legate in France after the Revocation of the Edict of January seeing all things there in the state he desired he took his leave of the King and returned into Italy Before he went however he took care to furnish the King with Money to carry on the Siege of Orleans which he took up of the Bankers of Paris He had raised a vast Expectation of this Council in the minds of all those who had yet any Kindness left in their Hearts for the See of Rome and the more because they thought the Edict of January which had caused the War would then fall of Course it being made only by way of Provision till a Council should determine otherwise As the Cardinal was in his Journey Fifty Horsemen came out of Orleans under the Command of one Monsieur Dampier and surprized all his Mules Horses and Treasures and when he sent a Trumpeter to demand them again the Prince of Conde made Answer That this magnificent and warlike Equipage did not befit Pastors and the Successors of St. Peter but rather Commanders and Generals of War who were in Arms for Religion Yet if he pleased to recal the 200000. Crowns which he had furnished the Triumvirate with to carry on the War against him and the Italian Forces out of France he would then restore all he had taken to his Eminence The Council which was appointed to meet at Easter of the former Year was delay'd to the beginning of this The Causes of the Delay of the Council the Pope putting it off because he was as much afraid of the Spanish Bishops as of the French National Council He had been necessitated to grant great Contributions to King Philip to be levied upon his Clergy and he thought the Bishops would on that score come with exasperated Minds to the Council and all his Thoughts were bent on the keeping the Papal Power undiminished rather than on satisfying the just Compaints of the Nations At last being forced by an unresistable necessity he sent Hercules Gonzaga The Pope's Legates sent to Trent Jerom Seripand and Stanislaus Hosio out of his Bosom to be his Legates at Trent And not long after he
the Pope was afraid the World should think him more solicitous for the preservation of the Papal Power than for his Pastoral Cure. The Demands of the French Ambassadors in the Council The Twentieth of May the French Ambassadors were admitted in a Congregation where they made an unacceptable Oration an abstract of which is in Polano Thuanus saith The Speech was made the Fourth of June and that amongst other things they desired That the Missals and Breviaries might be Reformed and the Lectures which were not taken out of the Holy Scriptures might be cut off That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper might be allowed in both Kinds according to the desire of many Nations And also the Liberty of eating Flesh and that the Severity of their Fasts might be abated That Marriage should be allowed to the Clergy of some Countries That the multitude of Humane Constitutions should be retrenched and Prayers in the Vulgar Tongue faithfully Translated mixed with the Latin Hymns Before this the Ambassador of the Duke of Bavaria had also demanded the giving of the Cup in the Lords Supper to the Laity as absolutely necessary for the Preserving those who had not yet separated themselves from the Communion of the Church of Rome but were much offended with this denial and for the Recovery of those who had left it And accordingly there were about Fifty of the most Learned of the Fathers of the Council who were for granting it and amongst them Gonzaga President of the Council though all his Collegues dissented But the Spanish Bishops opposed it and others thought it was fit first to send Legates into Germany who should see and report it to the Council whether it were necessary and how it might be done This was debated in a Congregation the Twenty eighth of August but in the Twenty second Session held the Seventeenth of September it was rejected and all were Anathematized That did not allow the Church to have taken away the Cup from the Laity c. upon just Grounds When the Germans still insisted that it might be granted again to some People the Council to free themselves from their importunity turned them over to the Pope who according to his Prudence was to do what he thought Useful and Salutary Before this the Pope being press'd to Grant the Cup by the French Ambassador about a Year since had referred it to the Conclave of Cardinals and they and he had referred it to the Council and now the Council sends it back to the Pope Oh the stupid Patience of these Men When Lanssac gave the King of France an Account of what had been done he said in his Answer That he liked what had been done as yet at Trent but could not but observe that they went very slowly about the Reforming of the Ecclesiastical Discipline The French Kings Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council and the Manners of the Clergy and in the mean time were in great haste to Establish the Points of Doctrine That therefore it was suspected when this was with Levity enough perform'd there would be an end put to the Council and no care be taken for the former that so this procedure would afford no Benefit to the Church in this distracted State of Christendom and especially to France That about Thirty Years since when Fire and Sword had so unsuccessfully been imployed to Cure the Disease all Men looked upon a General Council as the Sheet-Anchor That he wished nothing had been done in the beginning of this Council for the Alienating the Minds of the Churches Enemies but rather that they had by all means been allured and invited to it and if any had been prevail'd upon to come that they should have been treated by the Fathers of the Council with Kindness and Humanity as Children For to what end were all these careful and diligent Disquisitions and Disputations concerning the Doctrine seeing there was no debate but between the Catholick and Protestant in these Points And as to the Protestants their Definitions signified nothing but only gave them Occasion to say their Opinions were condemned by the Council without hearing what they had to say for them That therefore it seemed more advisable to have endeavoured to have brought them into the Council for fear they should in time withdraw all those who adhere to the Church For it was a vain furmise that the Protestants would ever submit to those Decrees which were made when they were absent That therefore he was of Opinion That the Reforming the Manners of the Church-men and the Discipline ought to be their first and greatest Care and the other to be for a time suspended for this would be acceptable to all Men. And lastly Lanssac was ordered to get the next Session Prorogued to the latter end of October 1563. that the French Clergy might be present at it or at least that the publishing of the Canons might be deferred till then When Lanssac had represented all this to the Council he desired in the King's Name That seeing in the former Sessions some things had been decreed to the prejudice of the Liberties of the Gallicane Church it being an ancient Privilege belonging to them to represent by their Kings or their Ambassadors what they thought useful or necessary for them that this Liberty should for the future be preserved and that if any thing were Acted to the contrary of it it might be recalled In the mean time the Thirteenth of November The Cardinal of Lorrain and the French Clergy arrive at Trent the Cardinal of Lorrain and about Forty of the French Bishops came to Trent with some Divines who were met without that City by the Pope's Legates and some of the other Bishops and of the Ambassadors In this Journey the Cardinal of Lorrain went to Inspruck to meet the Emperor before he went to the Diet at Francfort where he had some Conferences in private with that Prince about the Affairs of Religion The Pope and the Cardinals at Rome were alarm'd at this coming of the French Clergy The Pope allarm'd at it as if so many Enemies had invaded him as if so many Enemies had invaded them and all things were in an Hurry to make Preparations against them There were new Legates and a new Squadron of Italian Bishops who might out number the French presently to be sent to Trent And the Pope wrote to King Philip to Order the Bishops of his Dominions to unite their Counsels and Votes with the Italian Bishops that neither the Reasons nor the Votes of the Vltramontane Bishops might prevail against them And in his private Audience with L' Isle the French Resident at Rome he ridicul'd the Cardinal of Lorrain by calling him The other Pope who had Three hundred thousand Pounds the Year Revenue out of several Ecclesiastical Benefices when he good Man was content with the single Bishoprick of Rome and it is an easie thing saith he for the Cardinal with his belly
were taken away in the Assembly of the States of France lately held at Orleans should for the future be paid to the Pope he hoping by this means to have him more ready to grant his desires tending to the peace of the Church which the Pope's Ambassador largely promised On the 14th of February a Decree was made concerning the Residence of Bishops and Pastors with great difficulty and opposition which all tended to the obtaining the Judgment of the Council That the Pope has full power to feed and govern the Vniversal Church The French who hold that a Council is above the Pope were contented to conceal their opinion in this point for fear the Pope should take that opportunity to dissolve the Council without any good done by it But then they were resolved to defend their said opinion if it were opposed whatever happened and upon no terms to lose or yield it King Philip also laboured very hard that the power of the Bishops should be raised and that of the Pope and the Conclave brought lower which they of the Pope's party interpreted as a design to diminish the Spanish Liberties because the Bishops and Chapters of Spain would be more subjected to the will of the King than the Court of Rome would By which means they at last prevailed so far upon that jealous Nation that the power of the Bishops in the end was very much abated and that of the Pope was enlarged and exalted and the Bishops were contented to act as the Popes Delegates and by his Authority and in his Name to exercise their Functions About this time it was that the Cardinal of Lorrain went again to the Emperor to Inspruck which caused a great fear in the Pope's party in the Council for that they suspected he went to adjust with that Prince the ways to bring the Papal power under In the beginning of March the Emperor wrote a Letter to the Pope after he had consulted the Bishops of Quinque Ecclesiae The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council who went to Inspruck to him wherein he signified to his Holiness That after his Son in the last Diet was Elected King of the Romans and Crown'd and that he had visited his Cities upon the Rhine he was come to Inspruck to promote the Affairs of the Church in the Council as became the Supreme Advocate and Procurator of the Church but that to his great grief he understood that things were so far from going as was to be desired and as the publick State of Affairs required that it was to be feared if speedy remedies were not applied the Council would be ended in such manner as it would give offence to all Christendom and become ridiculous to all those who had made a defection from the Church of Rome and fix them more obstinately in those opinions they had embraced tho' very differing from the Orthodox Faith. That there had not been any Session celebrated for a long time and that it was commonly given out the Fathers and Doctors in the Council had contentions and differences amongst themselves which were unworthy of that moderation which they ought to have and tended very much to the detriment of that concord which was hoped for from them and yet these contests frequently broke out to the great satisfaction of their Adversaries That there was a report That the Pope intended to dissolve or suspend the Council and he advised him not to do it because nothing could be more shameful or damageable and which besides would certainly cause a great defection from the Church and bring a great hatred on the Papacy and from thence cause an equal contempt of all the Clergy That this dissolution or suspension would certainly procure the Assembling of National Councils which the Popes have ever opposed as contrary to the Unity of the Church and which those Princes which were well affected to the See of Rome had hitherto hindred in their Dominions but after this they could find no pretence to deny or delay them any longer Therefore he desired the Pope to lay aside that thought and to apply himself seriously to the celebration of the Council allowing the Ancient Liberty to all in its full extent that all things might be dispatched rightly lawfully and in order and thereby the mouths of their Adversaries who sought an opportunity to calumniate might be stopp'd That it would become his Holiness to attend the Council in person if his health would permit it and he earnestly desired he would That he the Emperor if the Pope thought fit would also come thither that they both by their presence might promote the Publick business That the Pope might compose and decide many difficulties which had arisen from his absence The Emperor sent a Copy of this Letter to the Cardinal of Lorrain also and desired he would promote those things which tended to the Glory of God and the good of Christendom The 21th of May the Count de Luna Ambassador for the King of Spain The Ambassador of Spain received in the Council was received in a Congregation and there was a Speech made in the behalf of that Prince in the Assembly by one Pedro Fontidonio de Segovia a Divine who extoll'd above measure the care of his Master in the Affairs of Religion and especially his severity shewn towards Sectaries he said this Prince Married Mary of England only to the end he might restore the Catholick Religion in that flourishing Kingdom He Reproached the French and German Nations for thinking that much was to be indulged to the Hereticks that being won by these Concessions they might be reduced into the bosom of the Church At last he said That they ought so to consult the Salvation of Hereticks and the Majesty of the Church that all things might be done for the promoting the latter rather than for gratifying the former And he exhorted all Princes to imitate the severity of his Master in bridling Hereticks that the Church might be delivered from so many Miseries and the Fathers of Trent from the care of celebrating Councils A little before this time the news of the Peace made with the Protestants of France came first in Generals and soon after the particular Articles The Fathers at Trent much dissatisfied with the Peace made in France This was blamed by the greater part of the Fathers in that Council who said it was to prefer the things of the world before the things of God yea to ruin both the one and the other For the Foundation of a State which is Religion being removed it is necessary that the Temporal should come to desolation whereof the Edict made before was an example which did not cause Peace and Tranquility as was hoped but a greater War than before The truth is these men would have all the world fight out their quarrel to the last man and then if their Catholicks perish they are as unconcerned as for the Hereticks and accordingly ever