to carry on this attempt under the Authority of the Prince they chose La Renaudie a Gentleman of Perigord That he contrived a meeting of a considerable number of Gentlemen and other Deputies at Nantes That after he had discovered to this Meeting what had been concluded at La Fertè he told them that the concealed Head of this Party was the Prince of Condè who had made him his Lieutenant That it was agreed that five hundred Gentlemen and a thousand Foot under thirty chosen Captains should upon the tenth of March meet from several Quarters at Blois at which time the Court was to be there and pretending to present a Petition to the King should secure his Apartment that they might effect their designs upon the Guises That the Guises having discovered this immediately removed the Court to Amboise That La Renaudie who was resolved to do that at Amboise which he could not now do at Blois was betrayed by one he trusted That by this means they apprehended most of his Associates without much trouble That they hanged a great many presently without the form of a Tryal That they cast some into the River That they hanged up the Body of La Renaudie who was slain and afterwards cut it into Quarters That the chief of his Captains were Beheaded after they had all confessed That three of their Captains who came last and had attacked the Castle were cut to pieces This was the end of that attempt After this general account Monsieur Maimbourg comes to the Prince in particular and this he says As to the Prince of Condè when the King reproached him for attempting against his Person and against the State he justified himself like a great Man and suitable to his high Courage for in presence of all the great ones at Court that were then by and before the King the Queens and Royal Family he gave the Lie to as many as should dare to say that he headed those that had attempted the King's Sacred Person or his State profering to lay aside the consideration of his being Prince of the Blood and maintain that Challenge in single Combate but no body took him up This he might do questionless with all Justice it being certain that he was resolved the first Article of the Consult at La Fertè should be That they should attempt nothing against the King's Majesty nor against the State Mezeray adds something here that is too remarkable to be passed by The Prince after he had profered To justifie his Innocence against his Accusers by Sword or Lance said That he assured himself he should make them confess that they themselves were the persons who had sworn the subversion of the State and Royal Family He had no sooner done speaking says this Popish Historian but the Duke of Guise seeming not to take it to himself addressed to him and told him That it was not to be endured so foul a Charge should be laid upon so great a Prince and offered to be his Second if there could be any so audacious as to maintain these false Accusations It appears by what Monsieur Maimbourg sets down and asserts That the design of that business of Amboise was only to seize the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain to bring them to their Tryal That it was resolved at the undertaking of this business That they would attempt nothing against the King the Royal Family or the State That indeed the Prince of Condè did not attempt any thing against the Kings Majesty or State in this business of Amboise When therefore Monsieur Maimbourg so shamefully contradicting himself dares say in another place That you shall hardly meet with a more desperate Conspiracy than that of the Huguenots against their King in the business of Amboise What can he pass for less in the sense of all honest men than an infamous Libeller Against the testimony of his own conscience against what himself had writ and avowed does he lay a heavy accusation upon the Innocent and all this in hopes to afflict the afflicted and to shut up the Bowels of their Brethren in Foreign Parts from taking compassion of the poor French Protestants who are so terribly persecuted in their own Countrey He would make all the World jealous of them that they might no where find reception but be reduced wherever they go to dye with Hunger and Affliction You see what a worthy Wight this Author proves that they make such a do about amongst Persons of Quality to prejudice them against their poor Brethren For we must not think that the argument he makes in his Recital to perswade us That to attack the Guises was to fall upon the King can excuse him from contradiction and calumny in this particular They are not groundless proofs that will justifie an accusation of this weight especially when it has been acknowledged that the persons accused designed neither against King nor State but only against the Guises There never was any thing says he so heinous as this Plot. For to seek to possess themselves of the King's Appartment to seize his principal Ministers and kill them before his face as Captain Mazeres who with others undertook the bloody execution attests Is it not to set upon the King himself and to seek to make themselves Masters of his Person and Government I shall not trouble my self to take off what he says of the Confession of Captain Mazeres Mezeray observes expresly in his Chronological Abridgment That the brave and wise Castelno when he was confronted sufficiently reproved this Captain and the famous Monsieur de Thou has the same passage in his History Monsieur Maimbourg himself acknowledges That the result of this meeting was not to kill the Guises but only to apprehend them that they might be brought to Tryal by the ordinary course of Justice These are the very words of their resolution as Mezeray reports them That whilst the King by reason of the tenderness of his years and the Artifices of those that had shut him up to themselves could neither foresee nor prevent the danger his Persâ—â— and Government were in they ought to seize upon the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal his Brother to bring them to Iustice before the States As to what Monsieur Maimbourg pretends that to endeavour to secure the Kings Appartment by force and in his presence to seize his principal Ministers is to seize the King himself and endeavour to become master of his Person and Government I say his pretence is unjust and very rash in regard of those extraordinary Circumstances France was then under 1. Francis the Second who then reigned was very young and Monsieur Maimbourg who calls him so often The little King Francis gives him no very advantageous Character 2. The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain who were strangers having become masters of the Person and Government of this young Prince played
which Aristotle calls Iust Griefs we are apt rather to pity than blame men for the faults they have committed I am well assured Monsieur Maimbourg will not deny but that the Prince's integrity has been put to the severest tryal For he confesses that the Queen broke her word with him in a matter of the Highest Consequence and that the Duke d' Anjou had passed a cruel Affront upon him which touched him to the quick Besides the Prince knew upon very good grounds that his enemies were about to seize his Person a second time It is true they talked only of shutting him up in Prison during life But he could not forget that they were not men to be satisfied with so little when once they had got him in their hands For when he was first in Prison they condemned him to lose his Head by the hand of the common Executioner And then it was manifest they designed the death of the Admiral his great Friend and of a Million of innocent Persons more Suppose it therefore to be true that at the sight of death and of so many Injuries and so great a spilling of Blood the Prince's head was a little turned and that being intent upon saving his own Life and Honor and the Lives and Honor of so many brave Men as were engaged with him c. he forgot that he could not without a want of respect to his King attack his Ministers how wicked or injust soever they might be supposing this to be true ought he to be used after that insolent manner as Monsieur Maimbourg treats him Is he the only Hero the only true Christian that has discovered his Infirmity under so heavy a Temptation And when is it that a Fault is most excusable if it be not when a Man is hurryed away by such violent storms 3. But I cannot endure that so glorious an attempt should be blemished with the least Imputation The Prince by his Birth and the great Concern that engaged him in was under a particular Obligation to watch for the preservation of the Crown and the Blood Royal all the World must grant it It is most certain that the Princes of the House of Lorrain aimed at the Crown under a pretence that it belonged to them as the lawful Successors of Charlemain and that they only waited a fit opportunity to possess themselves of it Experience shews plainly that he was not deceived when Henry the Third to escape the ambitious Attempts of the Duke of Guise Nephew to the Cardinal of Lorrain was forced to run from his Palace and his capital City where the Duke had made every body against him and where they shewed the Suissers with which they intended to make him a Monks crown when they had taken away that of a King The Prince knows moreover that the Cardinal of Lorrain to compass his wicked Design was resolved to rid himself of all the Princes of the Blood whatever it cost him They had thoughts of stealing away the Queen of Navar and her Son the first Prince of the Blood to destroy them in a most cruel and shameful manner by putting them into the Spanish Inquisition They had raised Six thousand Suisses to seize his Person put the Admiral to death and to root out all the Protestants that is the main Supporters of the Rights of Capet's true Line against the false pretences of the Mock-posterity of Charlemain The Prince who sees and knows all this is he not obliged to set himself with all his might against this Bloody Conspiracy of Strangers who are about to shed the Noblest Blood of France to supplant the Heirs of the Family and usurp their Place There is no question of it But things were come to such a pass that the Prince could no longer set himself effectually against the wicked purposes of the House of Guise by the common methods of Remonstrances and Petitions to his Majesty and by the course of Justice either in Council or Parliament For the Cardinal of Lorrain and his party swayed all in the Parliament and Council They had all the power at Court There was no coming to the King but by them They were so got into this young Prince who was at the most but sixteen years of age that he would hear nothing but what these people told him and blindly took their advice in every thing It was then absolutely necessary either that the Prince against his duty of Prince of the Blood and a faithful Subject should suffer all the Royal Blood to be spilt with that of all true French men and that the Crown should be usurped by Strangers or else that he should do something extraordinary and put Himself in a posture to overcome all the difficulties which hindred him from undeceiving the King making him to understand who were his real enemies and bringing them to condign punishment which could never be done without the assistance at least of several of his Friends and cutting off the six thousand Swisses who were to seize his Person and ruine all the honest party unless in short he would become a prey to the Cardinal when he should present himself before the King to request Justice I must confess the Protestant that is the Christian Religion never allows a Subject to take up Arms against his Soveraign upon any pretence whatever But a Prince of the Blood does not take up Arms against his Soveraign when he takes them up to no other end but to hinder Strangers from laying hands upon the Crown and changing the Succession It is true indeed that these Strangers taking the advantage of Charles the Ninth his tender years were predominant in his Court and that it is an odd sort of a way for a Subject to come armed before his King and to seize upon his chief Ministers before his face and as it were teaâ— them out of his arms But Prudence directs us of two Evils always to avoid the greatest And I do not think any one will dispute it in earnest but that to suffer a Kingdom to be taken from its lawful Heirs and all the Royal Family to be oppressed by Tyrants who have ingrossed their King for no other end but to destroy him is an evil infinitely greater than to come short for some little time of the Laws of good manners till the King and Kingdom were safe There are none but such as would be glad to have the way left open either to invade the Throne or Royal Authority whereby to work the overthrow of the State I say there are none but the ambitious and common Pests that have the impudence to perswade the King that to fail in these rules of Good manners when it is upon the utmost necessity and in prospect to save the Crown is to give a mischievous example and encourage Rebellion Extraordinary actions upon absolute necessity as this attempt of the Prince never ought to be drawn into example for ordinary proceedings which should always be
of Conde in the Civil Wars during the minority of Lewis XIV I am confident the Papists would cry out against it as a great and foul Injustice done to their Church And yet why do they continually use the Protestants thus unreasonably I presume this may serve for a full Justification in reference to the Spirit of Rebellion imputed upon the account of what passed in the beginning of the Reign of Lewis XIII They cannot wrong them more than to make their Religion answerable for the weakness of some of them who were disapproved by the wisest among them who have more reason to be considered than a few who acted contrary to the Principles of the Protestant Religion as they are contained in their Confession of Faith established by their most eminent Divines as I shewed you at our third Conference So that I suppose Sir it will be needlâ—ss to run through all the several troubles which followed the first down to the year 1629. This may answer the whole Yet methinks said I you should not have done before you have said something particularly of Rochel It s Rebellion and Siege have made too great a noise in the World and perchance that which happened about this Town is what has raised the greatest cry against the French Protestants as Commonwealthsmen and Traytors Therefore I shall no more question their Loyalty and you will enable me to defend them sufficiently under the Reign of Lewis XIII as well as under those that went before if you can set me right in the excuse of Rochel It will be no hard matter for me says our Friend to satisfie you in this Point And we English are particularly obligâ—d to make out the innocence of the Protestants in this affair If any be to blame we are For it was we that engaged them in this last War But God be thanked they can charge us with nothing To make it the clearer to you we must take the Business a little higher Rochel did belong to the Kings of England being a part of their Dominion by the Marriage of Eleanor Countess of Poitou in the year 1152. with Henry II. when he was yet but Duke of Normandy But the King of France Lewis VIII assaulted and took it by force in the year 2224. It fell again into the hands of our Kings who were the rightful Lords of it in the year 1359. by the Peace of Bretegny as part of the Ransome for Iohn King of France who was taken Prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers by Edward Prince of Wales But in the year 1372. the Rochellers were so unhappy as to withdraw their Allgiance from their natural Lord our King Edward III. And to compleat their Revolt they put themselves under the powâ—r of the French King This occurrence ought to be observed though I shall say nothing of it but in Mezeray's own words This Town says he having shaken off the English Yoke desired to come under the French upon condition of preseâ—ving that liberty it had acquired by its own means And therefore it delivered it self up to the King it made so good a Bargain for it self which was agreed by Letters under the Broad Seal and the Seals of his Peers that the Castle should be demolished and that there never should be any within or near the Town c. The same Historian touches upon this in another place In consideration says he that Rochel came voluntarily into France the King Charles V. seeing that the Townsmen having of themselves quitted the Power they were under to the great hazard of their Lives could either continue free or give themselves up to whom they pleased granted them all the Priviledges they could dâ—â—â—re as That they might Coin Florins Mony of a mixt Metal 〈◊〉 the Castle should be demolished and that no other should be built in their Town And by other Letters he promises them that their Walls and Forts should stand and that he would raise none upon them He goes on with the other great Immunities that were granted to Rochel by this King and by his Successors not sticking to declare ingenuously that Henry II. and Francis I. by sometimes placing their Governors and Garisons had infringed their Priviledges He adds ' That the Rochellers looked upon this as a violation and always waited for a more favourable occasion to restore themselves to their original Right By this you see that Rochel did not deliver it self up to France but upon Conditions and so were to continue their Obedience no longer than the Articles stipulated by the Rochellers and accepted by the King of France were observed It appears that one of these Articles says expresly That they were never to build Castle or Fort either in or about the Town Notwithstanding contrary to this Agreement they raise a Fort before Rochel in time of the War which was in the Years 1621 1622. And though they promised by the Articles of Peace which were afterwards agreed upon that this Fort should be slighted yet it always continued which was the cause of those troubles that followed in the Years 1625 1626. the Rochellers being no longer obliged to keep touch with the King of France because he had broke the Treaty by vertue of which alone they became his Subjects The Affairs of Europe disposing the late King our Soveraign Lord Charles I. to interpose for a Pacification The Rochellers and such other Protestants of France as had engaged in their Quarrel agreed to refer all their Concerns to him And he obtained it for them a second time that this Fort which was so great an eye-sore to Rochel should be demolished for which he was Guarantee by an Authentick Declaration that his Embassadors gave in Writing I will read it to you We Henry Rich Baron of Kensington â—arl of Holland Captain of the Guards to the King of Great Britain Knight of the Order of the Garter and Counsellor of State and Dudley Carleton Knight Counsellor of State and Vicechamberlain of His Majesties Houshold Embassadors Extraordinary from His said Majesty to the Most Christian King To all present and to come Greeting It so falling out that Montmartin and Manial Deputies-General of the Reformed Churches of France and other particular Deputies of the Dukes of Rohan and Soubise with those of several Towns and Provinces who were engaged with them have made their Peace with the Most Christiaâ— King By our advice and interposition it is agreed and consented to 〈◊〉 the said King their Soveraign And the Deputies have released many things which they esteemed very important for their security and all conformable to their â—dicts and Declarations which they had express order to insist upon at the Treaty of Peace and which they had resolutely persisted in saving the obedience they owe and desire to pay their King and Soveraign and saving the respect and deference they would shew to the so express Summons and Demands of the most Serene King of Great Britain our Master in
Bailywick in distinction to that other place of the same nature which is granted by virtue of the Edict of 1577. When Henry the Fourth sent Commissaries into the several Provinces to see his Edict put in execution there was scarce found any considerable City or Town where the Commissaries did not acknowledge that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion had no need to be confirm'd or re-established because it had been used there in some one of the three years above-mentioned in so much that there were whole Provinces which had no need of those two places granted out oâ— pure favour I mean the two places of each Bailywick all the Cities and all the Towns of those Provinces claiming that Exercise by a better Title This is it which made the Bishop of Rodes Monsieur Perifix afterwards Archbishop of Paris in his History of the Life of Henry the Fourth to say that that Prince by his Edict of Nantes granted to the Protestants Liberty of Preaching almost every where But he granted them farther the means and full power of breeding up and teaching their Children Read as to that the thirty seventh particular Article It declares that they shall have publick Schools and Colleges in those Cities and Places where they ought to have the publick Exercise of their Religion The Edict having secured as you see the Exercise of the Protestant Religion secures also the condition of them who should profess it to the end that they might without any molestation each one according to his quality follow those Trades Employments and Offices which are the ordinary means of mens Livelyhood Indeed the thing of it self speaks this For it is plain that they do not grant in good earnest the free Exercise of a Religion who debar the persons that profess it the use of means necessary for their subsistence Nevertheless for their greater security Henry the Fourth hath declared to all Europe by his Edict that he would not that there should be any difference as to that point between his Protestant and his Papist Subjects The thirty seventh general Article as to that is express This it is We declare all them who do or shall make profession of the pretended Reformed Religion capable of holding and exercising all Conditions Offices Honours and publick Charges whatsoever Royalties Seigneuries or any Charge in the Cities of our Kingdom Countries Territories or Seigneuries under our Authority The fifty fourth Article declares that they shall be admitted Officers in the Courts of Parliaments Great Council Chamber of Accounts Court of Aids and the Offices of the general Treasurers of France and amongst the other Officers of the Revenues of the Crown The seventy fourth Article puts them in the same state with their Fellow Subjects as to all publick Exactions willing that they should be charged no higher than others Those of the said Religion pretendedly Reformed saith the Article may not hereafter be overcharged or oppressed with any Imposition ordinary or extraordinary more than the Catholicks And to the end that Justice might be done and administred impartially as the Edict explains it self the 30th 31st to the 57th Articles set up Chambers of the Edict in the Parliaments of Paris and Roan where the Protestant Counsellors ought to assist as Judges and Chambers Miparties in the Parliaments of Guienne Languedoc and Dauphine consisting each of two Presidents the one Protestant the other Papist and of twelve Counsellors an equal number of each Religion to judge without Appeal exclusive to all other Courts all Differences of any importance which the Protestants might have with their Fellow Subjects as well in Criminal as in Civil Matters In short this great Edict forgets nothing which might make the Protestants of France to live in peace and honor It hath not fail'd even to explain it self as to the Vexations which might be created them by taking away or seducing their Children For read the eighteenth general Article It forbids all Papists of what quality or condition soever they may be to take them away by force or by perswasion against the will of their Parents As if it had foreseen that this would be one of the ways which their Persecutors would use to vex and ruine them But the 38th Article goes farther yet That Wills that even after their death Fathers shall be Masters of the Education of their Children and consequently of their Religion so long as their Children shall continue under Guardians which is by the Laws of France till the 25th year of their Age It shall be lawful for Fathers who profess the said Religion to provide for them such persons for their education as they think fit and to substitute one or more by Will Codicil or other Declaration made before Publick Notaries or written and sign'd with their own hand You perceive then plainly continued our Friend that by this Edict King Henry the Fourth made the condition of the Protestants equal almost in all things to that of his other Subjects They had reason then to hope that they should be allowed to exercise their Religion to breed up and instruct their Children in it without any disturbance and that they should have as free admission to all Arts Trades Offices and Employments as any of their Fellow Subjects This is very clear said I and I am much obliged to you for explaining to me what this famous Edict of Nantes is which I had heard so much discourse of But they who have no affection for the Protestants tell us that it is a Law which was extorted by violence and consequently is not to be kept I will not stand now said our Friend to examine whether that consequence be good you cannot but perceive that it is dangerous But I dare assure you that the Principle from whence it is drawn namely that the Edict was extorted by violence is very false I would not have you take my word for it But I will produce an unexceptionable Witness It is the Archbishop of Paris he who writ the Life of Honry the Fourth That one Witness is worth a thousand for he was a declared Enemy of the Protestants According to him The general Peace was made the Ligue extinguish'd and all persons in France had laid down their Arms when this Edict was granted in favour of them It is ridiculous now to say that it was extorted by violence there being then no party in all the Kingdom in a condition to make the least attempt with impunity Moreover that Prelate could not forbear owning expresly what it was mov'd the King to grant them that Edict It was the sense of the Great Obligations he had to them See the Book it self read the Passage The Great Obligations which he had to them would not permit him to drive them into despair and therefore to preserve them a just ballance he granted them an Edict larger than any before They called it the Edict of Nantes c. Indeed the Obligations he had to them were
not small They had testified an inviolable Loyalty to him in all his Troubles They had spent freely their Lives and Fortunes to defend his Rights and his Life against the Princes of Lorrain who made so many Attempts to keep him from the Throne of his Ancestors and to usurp his place Had it not been for their Valour and their Loyalty the Crown had gone into the hands of Strangers and since we must speak out had it not been for them the Blood of the Bourbons would not this day have been possessed of the Throne The Edict of Nantes then was the Effect and the Recompence of the Great Obligations which King Henry the Fourth had to his Loyal Protestants and not as is slanderously reported the fruit of any violence gained by force and granted against the hair But farther the Law of Nature and common policy might challenge such an Edict for them as well as Gratitude It is true that Soveraign Magistrates are appointed by God to preserve the publick peace and by consequence to cut off or prevent as much as in them lies whatever may disturb it It is true also that new Establishments in matters of Religion may cause great troubles in a State and that there are Religions which have Maxims so pernicious that when Magistrates are of a different opinion or but so much as tolerate such a one their Lives and their Kingdoms are never in safety But Henry the Fourth found the Protestant Religion wholly establish'd in the Kingdom when he came to the Crown Besides he who had so long profess'd it knew perfectly well that it had none of those dreadful Maxims which makes Princes and States jealous that on the contrary in it Loyalty and Obedience of Subjects to Soveraigns of what Religion and what humor soever was to them an Article of Faith and an obligation of Conscience He knew that Protestants by their Religion were peaceable men who sought but to serve God according to his Word and were always ready to spend the last drop of their blood for the service and the honor of their King But he knew also that the zeal of the Romish Clergy always animated the Popish Common People against them and that they would be sure to fall upon them unless he took them into his protection The Law of Nature then did not permit him to abandon to the rage of the multitude so many innocent persons and common policy warned him to preserve so many faithful Subjects for the State so capable of supporting it on occasion as he had so freshly experienc'd It being certain that had it not been for them the Pope and the Ligue had ruin'd the whole Kingdom But it was not possible either to defend them from the fury of the People or to preserve them for the service of the State if he had granted in favour of them any thing less than the Edict of Nantes so that this Edict in truth was to be ascribed to common Equity and Prudence no less than Gratitude But said I to my Friend do you believe that the Grandson of Henry the Fourth is bound to make good what his Grandfather did I do not doubt it at all answered he otherwise there would be nothing secure or certain in Civil Society and wo be to all Governments if there be no Foundation of publick Trust. 1. For if ever Law deserv'd to be regarded by the Successors of a Prince it is this It was establish'd by a Hero who had recovered the Crown for his posterity by his Sword and this Establishment was not made but after mature and long deliberations in the calm of a prosound Peace obtained and cemented by many and signal Victories That Hero hath declar'd expresly in the Preface of the Edict that he establish'd it in the nature of an irrevocable and perpetual Law willing that it should be firm and inviolable as he also saith himself in the 90th Article Accordingly he made all the Formalities to be observed in its establishment which are necessary for the passing of a fundamental Law in a State For he made the observation of it under the quality of an irrevocable Law to be sworn to by all the Governors and Lieutenant-Generals of his Provinces by the Bailiffs Mayors and other ordinary Judges and principal Inhabitants of the Cities of each Religion by the Majors Sheriffs Consuls and Jurates by the Parliaments Chambers of Accounts Court of Aids with order to have it publish'd and registred in all the said Courts This is expresly set down in the 92d and 93d Articles Was there ever any thing more authentick 2. The same Reasons which caused the Establishment remain still and plead for its continuance 1. The Family of Bourbon preserved in the Throne 2. The Law of Nature and common Policy 3. The two Successors of Henry the Fourth look'd not upon themselves as unconcern'd in this Edict Their Word and their Royal Authority are engaged for its observation no less than the Word and Royal Authority of its Illustrious Author Lewis the Thirteenth confirm'd it as soon as he came to the Crown by his Declaration of the 22d of May 1610 ordering that the Edict of Nantes should be observed in every Point and Article These are the very words Read them said he shewing me a Book in Folio called The Great Conference of the Royal Ordinances and Edicts I read there in the first Book Title 6 of the second Part of the Volume not only the Article he mention'd but also the citation of nine several Declarations publish'd at several times by the same King on the same subject Lewis the Fourteenth who now Reigns says our Friend hath likewise assured all Europe by his authentick Edicts and Declarations that he would maintain the Edict of Nantes according to the desire of his Grandfather who had made it an irrevocable Law He himself acknowledges and confirms it himself anew by his Edict of Iune 1680 where he forbids Papists to change their Religion There it is pray take the pains to read it Lewis by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre to all persons to whom these Presents come Greeting The late Henry the Fourth our Grandfather of Glorious Memory granted by his Edict given at Nantes in the Month of April 1598 to all his Subjects of the Religion pretended Reformed who then lived in his Kingdom or who afterwards should come and settle in it Liberty of professing their Religion and at the same time provided whatsoever he judged necessary for affording those of the said Religion pretended Reformed means of living in our Kingdom in the Exercise of their Religion without being molested in it by our Catholick Subjects which the late King our most Honored Lord and Father and we since have authorised and confirmed on other Occasions by divers Declarations and Acts. But this Prince is not content to tell what he hath formerly done in confirmation of the Edict of Nantes read some Lines a little lower
little of Christianity She was an ambitious Queen who by a wicked Policy would govern at any rate even to the sacrificing Religion it self She did not deal faithfully with the Huguenots when she made the Peace with them Her only design was to deceive them It was she that put the King upon that barbarous resolution which was executed upon that bloody and accursed day of St. Bartholomew He sets out Charles the Ninth as a Son worthy of such a Mother This Prince was of an impetuous humour Cholerick Revengeful and very Cruel which proceeded from his dark Melancholy temper and from his wicked Education He was so good a Proficient in what his Mother taught him who was a Woman the best skilled of any in her time in the Art of Dissimulation and deceiving people that he made it appear he had outdone her in her own Craft What was it he did not do for two years together to deceive the poor Admiral He expressed the greatest value and love for him imaginable Embraced him kissed him called him his Father And yet so soon as ever they advised him to dispatch him out of hand He stood up in the greatest rage and swore by God according to his wicked custom Ay I will have him dispatched nay I will have all the Huguenots destroyed that not a man remain to reproach me hereafter with his death They hung the Body of the Admiral by the heels upon the Gibbet of Mount-Faucon lighting a Fire underneath to make him a more frightful spectacle It was so miserable a sight that Charles the King would needs see his Enemy thus dead which certainly was an act altogether unworthy I will not say of a King but of a man of any Birth to such a degree had this Spirit of hatred revenge and cruelty which he had learn'd of his Mother prevailed upon him As for Henry the Third another mortal Enemy to the Protestants Monsieur Maimbourg sets him out as the falsest and most unnatural of Mankind The Sieur Aubery du Maurier says he tells us in the Preface of his Memoirs that he has heard his Father say that he had it from the mouth of Monsieur de Vellievre that at the same time he shewed large Instructions to oblige him earnestly to intercede for the Life of Mary Queen of Scots he had private ones quite contrary from the hand of Henry the Third to advise Queen Elizabeth to put to death that common Enemy to their Persons and Kingdoms And could there be a stranger cruelty than what he makes this Prince guilty of when as yet he was only Duke d'Anjou The Prince of Condè after he had defended himself a long time most bravely at the Battle of Iarnac was forced at last to yield up himself Two Gentlemen received his Sword with all manner of respect But the Baron of Montesquiou Captain of Monsier's Swiss Guards being come up whil'st this was doing and finding by them that it was the Prince of Condè Kill him kill him says he and with a great Oath discharged his Pistol at his Head and shot him dead at the stump of a Tree where he leant It was an action doubtless no ways to be excused especially in a French Man who ought to have had respect and spared the Royal Blood had it been in the heat of the Battle much more in cold Blood They say this was done by the express command of the Duke d'Anjou He says of the Duke of Montpensier an irreconcilable enemy to the Huguenots that he would give them no Quarter that he always talked of hanging them that all he took prisoners he put to death presently without mercy that he said to that brave and wise la Noüe who came to surrender himself Prisoner of War My Friend you are a Huguenot your Sentence is passed Prepare for death that the day of the Massacre this bigotted Catholick went through the Streets with the Marshal de Tavannes encouraging the People that were but too forward of themselves and provoking them to fall upon every body and spare none He makes the Cardinal of Lorrain that great Champion for Popery to be Author of a sordid and cruel proceeding He says of the Duke of Guise whom the Catholicks looked upon as the invincible Defender of their Faith that indeed he did service to the Religion but that he likewise made it serve his turn and to invest him with that almost Regal Power which in the end prov'd so fatal to him Now a Subject that makes Religion a step to mount him into his Princes Throne and take away his Crown can he be otherwise esteemed than as a prophane and wicked man Speaking of the Ligue which as he says had for the chief Actors Philip the Second Queen Katharine and the Duke of Guise the great supporters of the Pope That it had like to have destroyed Church and State at once and that the greatest part of those that ran headlong in with that heat and passion and chiefly the People the Clergy and the Fryars were but the stales of such as made up this Cabal where Ambition Revenge and Interest took more place than Religion which was used but for a shew to cheat the World At last he represents the Court of Charles the Ninth which had been that of Francis the Second and was afterwards that of Henry the Third as a pack of Miscreants and Atheists The Court says he was at that time very corrupt where there was no difference hardly between a Catholick and a Huguenot but that the one went not to Mass nor the other to Sermon As for any thing else they agreed well enough for as much as the one and the other at least generally speaking had no Religion at all profane without the fear of God And yet it was from this Court as from a deadly Spring that flowed all the Persecutions which the Protestants suffered under the Reigns of three of their Kings And Monsieur Maimbourg is very pleasant when he makes it up of Huguenots as well as Papists All the World knows that the Huguenots were banished from the Court of Charles the Ninth so that all he says of this Court can light upon none but the Papists who alone were admitted at that time You are in the right says our Friend and it will do well to finish the draught Monsieur Maimbourg has given us of this Court that I read to you what the Bishop of Rhodes writes of it in his History of Henry the Fourth There never was one more vitious and corrupt Wickedness Atheism Magick the most enormous uncleanness the fowlest treacheries perfidiousness poysoning and murder predominated to the highest pitch But I beseech you Sir says he tell me what you would infer from these words of Monsieur Maimbourg that gives such Encomium's to the same Protestants whom he would seem at the same time to cry down with all
his might and makes such heavy Reflections upon those same Roman Catholicks whom he makes the Pillars of his Church and the greatest enemies to the Protestant Relâ—gion I make no doubt replyed I but I draw the same Consequences from hence as â—ou do that Monsieur Maimboâ—rg plainly shews by this that he ought noâ— to be believed when elsewhere he charges so many faults upon thâ— first Protestants of France and imputes all the great Exploits to their enemies the Papists and that the true Protestants or the good Huguenots being so pious and having the fear of God before their eyes for which he commâ—nds them could not be the causes of Disorders though very likely their Adversaries might have been whom the Historian represents as the most wicked ambitious ungodly and cruel of men By this he likewise convinces us that his Book ought not to be regarded and that we ought not to look upon his accusations against that which he calls Calvinism otherwise then as railing and aspersions invented at will to make way for his better reception at Court or some other by end that is not worth enquiring after It is that which prejudices his Book with all Ingenious Persons and renders it unworthy the least consideration Yet since the enemies of the French Protestants make such a noise with it let me intreat you Sir to clear the matters of Fact to me which he produces with so much confidence to raise a jealousie in Princes upon these poor Men as if they were the Authors of those Troubles and Disorders in the last Age which came within a very little of ruining France First he charges their Religion with being a mortal enemy to Monarchy I confess you have made the contrary appear beyond dispute in our former Conference But he lays his Charge upon matters of Fact whereof I have not knowledge enough to clear the Objections One shall hardly see says he more dreadful Conspiracies than those which the Huguenots have made against our Kings For instance that cruel business of Amboise and that of Meaux not to mention their terrible Rebellions which have cost France so much Blood and the unhappy Intelligences they have held with the enemy to withdraw themselves from their Allegiance and set up openly for a Commonwealth as they have done more than once I beg of you to give me all the light you can to deliver Innocence from so black an Aspersion With all my heart says our Friend and besides when I have taken off this reproach I promise to make it as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that they are Father Maimbourgs Catholicks who are guilty of all these desperate Conspiracies against the persons of Kings which he so unjustly and fasly lays to the Protestants His first proof of the dreadful Conspiracies of the Huguenots against that of their Kings is the business of Amboise and Meaux But before I enter into Particulars I set against him an unexceptionable Witness who openly declares That the Huguenots entred not into any Conspiracy against their Kings in either of those places My Witness is one of the same Religion with Monsieur Maimbourg and what is more a Cardinal and one so knowing and of so extraordinary worth that Monsieur Sainte-marthe is not afraid to stile him The Flower of the Colledge of Cardinals the Light of France and the New Star of his Age Sacrati ordinis aureum Florem Ocellum nostrae Galliae sui denique seculi novum Sidus He had over and above this advantage of Monsieur Maimbourg that he lived in the time of the businesses of Amboise and of Meaux He was above twenty years old at the time of the â—irst and he was too exact and too knowing not to have throughly examined the Causes and Motives of two Occurrences that made such a noise all over Europe You shall hear what he says in his eighth Letter of the â—irst Book upon the occasion of an attempt against the Life of Henry the Fourth You had it already but I cannot forbear reading it again to you for it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold upon the Front of all the French Kings Palaces To a Prince turned Catholick who should have been encouraged and confirmed by all means possible it was to give him great offence and distaste at the Catholicks when they that call themselves the support of the Catholick Religion should go about to have him Assassinated that which if there were any pretence for the Hereticks ought to have procured or done it themselves because he had quitted and forsaken them and they had therefore reason to fear him and yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors whatever Butchery they had made among them These remarkable words And yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors are a manifest confutation of all that Monsieur Maimbourg's Libel sets forth against the Loyalty of the French Protestants from the beginning of the Reformation which was under Francis the first to the Reign of Henry the fourth The businesses of Amboise and of Meaux happened the one under Francis the second the other under Charles the ninth two of the five Kings Predecessors to Henry the fourth of whom Cardinal d'Ossaâ— speaks Assuring us therefore as he does That the Protestants never attempted any thing against the life of these five Kings he positively denies what Monsieur Maimbourg asserts That in 〈◊〉 two affairs the Huguenots had entred into terrible Conspiracies against their Kings Now in the presence of God which of these two ought we rather to give credit to the Cardinal a man of an unspotted Reputation and who was an Eye-witness of these two passages now in dispute or Monsieur Maimbourg who writ his Libel sixscore years after the business of Meaux and whom the Pope himself has turned out of the Jesuites Order for an untoward reason For every body knows it was for being detected of falsehood in his Writings that the Pope put this high Affront upon him But to come to our present purpose and to be short we will stick to the account Monsieur Maimbourg himself gives of that he calls the business of Amboise This is that he says That at a very close meeting at la Fertè sous Ioûare they determined a high point of Conscience by the advice of Divines Canonists and Lawyers who all agreed That during the present State of affairs men might take up Arms to seize in any manner the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother to bring them to Tryal provided a Prince of the Blood who is in this case a lawful Magistrate would head the Party That all this having been allowed of by a general Consent the Prince of Condé resolved to head them upon condition that they attempted nothing against the King and the Royal Family nor against the State That
the matter he commends the Prince his generosity and said He was likewise ready to justifie his Innocence though privately he took care to have him apprehended In good earnest Monsieur Maimbourg's Morals must be strangely depraved since he is no longer a Jesuit not to find any fault in a Prince guilty of so prosligate a Dissimulation and notorious Treachery And does he think if Lewis the Fourteenth ever comes to open his eyes he will think himself obliged to those that would make such a Man pass for a truly Christian Hâ—ro who has done his utmost to disappoint him of the Crown by taking it from his Ancestors and endeavoring to cut off the Illustrious Race of the Bourbon's If an â—nglishman should Canonize Cromwell and place him among the Hero's Can you imagine he should be well received at Court or that the King should repose any great confidence in his Loyalty Monsieur Maimbourg must know that the Prince of Condè being what he was could not look upon this pretended Hero otherwise than as a Monster He was obliged by the duty of his Relation his Honor Loyalty and all that was becoming a Great Mind with all his might to set himself against those wicked Designs which he saw the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain had so plainly layed Would you have had him stood with his hands in his pockets when he discovered so great danger and suffer Strangers to ruine the State and take the Crown away from his Family with a high hand 7. These Usurpers had laid their business so well and were become so absolute Masters of the Person the Mind the Authority and the whole Power of the young King that it was impossible to carry any Address to the King unless by their means and to do any thing against them to bring them to Justice but as one may say in the Kings presence who was continually in their hands and by consequence to redress a mischief that so absolutely required a remedy without resolving upon some great and extraordinary attempt Either therefore the Prince of Condè must have done what he did or else have suffered the Throne to be usurped and the Royal Family sacrificed contrary to that duty he owed to France to his King to Himself and to his whole Race If Monsieur Maimbourg will have it that the Prince of Condè should have let the Guises go on his King ought to look upon him as his mortal Enemy If he believes he did his duty let him retract and be ashamed of those unadvised words That he would have taken the Kings Lodgings by force as Affairs then stood to seize in his presence upon his chief Ministers was to attack the King himself and to seek to make himself master of his Person and Government In the condition matters were then it was the only humane means left to rescue the young King from slavery to give a stop to the Outrages of a Forain domineering Power or rather Tyranny and to preserve the Crown to its right Heirs If God was not pleased in his All-wise providence to give so good success to the attempt as was hoped it failed not nevertheless of doing some good It gave a check to the wicked designs of the Guises and made them sensible that whil'st they had to do with men of that Courage they should not purchase the Kingdom at so cheap a rate as they thought for Besides I must not conceal it from you that the Protestants were not the only Men that Lifted themselves under the Prince of Condè for this important Service to their Country and to the Royal Family several Roman Catholicks shared with them in the glory of this Attempt The famous Mezeray has published it to all the World So that Monsieur Maimbourg is 〈◊〉 out when he would make it a quarrel upon Religion And much 〈◊〉 unjustly is he mistaken when he offers to say that at the business of Amboise The Huguenots entred into a horrible Conspiracy against their King I am satisfied says I to our Friend and I am confident every honest man that knows as much as you have told me of this matter will look upon this Jesuits Imputation with amazement and detestation Pray give me an account now of the business of Meaux The French Protestants repâ—yed he are no less innocent of Conspiracy against their King in the business of Meaux than they were in that of Amboise The testimony of the eminent Cardinal d'Ossat is an invincible Defence to them in this Affair and puts them beyond the reach of Calumny But I suppose you would be throughly informed of this matter I will do it in as few words as possibly I can And I will take the account partly from Monsieur Maimbourg himselff partly from two other Popish Historians who have much a greater esteem in the World than he it is the famous President de Thou and Mezeray We will take it from the beginning You have not forgot what I told you at our former Meeting when I gave you an account of the first War the Prince of Condè was forced to make for rescuing the King at the earnest intreaty of the Queen-mother then Regent I shall not need to take off a thousand odious Reflections which Monsieur Maimbourg lays upon the French Protestants in relation to this War They are either the faults of some private persons who having acted contrary to the principles of the Reformed Religion were disowned by all sincere Protestants or false Suggestions which the solemn Edict of Charles the Ninth in the Year 1563. has sufficiently confuted the King there owning as done for his Service all that the Prince of Condè and his Friends had done in this first taking up of Arms. This noted Edict Ordains That the Protestant Religion should be publickly exercised in several parts of the Kingdom which the Edict names it puts all the French Protestants under the protection of their King in what part of France soever they should make their abode it Wills That every one of them when they come home should be maintained and secured in their Goods Honors Estates Charges Offices c. The Prince and the Protestants observed the Articles of the Treaty of Peace most exactly Monsieur Maimbourg tells us himself That all the places which the Huguenots held submitted to the King Nay we English have occasion to complain of their too great exactness in this point For they were the hottest in taking Havre de Grace from us which we had possessed our selves of only to give them succor against their Persecutors All their great Souldiers came against us to the Siege of this Town The Prince of Condè lodged all the while in the Trenches All the French says Mezeray went thither in great fury especially the Huguenots But their Adversaries dealt not so with them they broke the Edict every where in a shamful and barbarous manner This Illustrious Queen
Divine who knew the story that I have related published it to prove that the Catholicks were guilty of the Crime which the Calvinists were accused of When this story came to light there was a great alarme in the House of the Queen-Mother of the King of England that House being full of Jesuits and even that great Lord who had lead the Jesuits to Rome and had made himself chief of that Conspiracy was one of the principal Officers of the House They immediately demanded Justice of the King by the means of the Queen-Mother for the injury that he who had published this scandalous story had done them The Doctor offered to prove his Accusation and to produce his Witnesses who were still living The great Lord and Officer of the Queens House and the Jesuits seeing the resolution of this Man durst not push him on they only obtain'd from the King by the means of the Queen-Mother that he should be silenced You must avow that there are but few that are innocent who would have been so easie in so terrible an Accusation Besides it is certain that this Consultation of Rome has been seen by several persons If it is false it must have been forged by this Chaplain who was turned Catholick and who shewed it since tho it must be confessed that this is not very likely However as all this is reduceed to a single Witness my Gentleman acknowledged that the proof was not wholly in forme but he stood much upon the late Conspiracy of England which was discovered two years ago by which half the Kingdom was to have had their Throats cut to become Masters of the rest Prov. Be it as it will my Hugonot Gentleman concluded from all this that a Protestant Prince can never be assured of the Fidelity of his Catholick Subjects On the contrary said he the Protestants are subject to their Prince out of Conscience and out of a Principle of their Religion They acknowledge no other Superiour than their King and do not believe that for the cause of Heresie it is permitted either to kill a lawful Prince or to refuse him obedience They oppose against us said he to me the English and Holland Catholicks But what has been promised to those people that has not been performed The United Provinces of the Low Countries are entred into the Union with this Condition of not suffering any other Religion in their States than the Protestant Though England was reformed under Edward the 6 th afterwards under Elizabeth by several Acts of Parliament which are the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom it was ordered that no other Religion should be suffered than that the Anglicane Church made choice of and that they would not suffâ—r the Assemblies of those whom they at present call Nonconformists It was even forbidden to the Priests and Monks to set Foot in England and to make any abode there However they have not kept up to this rigour and every one knows that there is at present above ten thousand Priests and Monks disguised in England and that there has ever been so Wherefore more has been given to the Catholicks than was promised them But in France where we live under favourable Edicts they have promised us what they have not performed It is only against us that they make profession of not performing what they have promised The Edicts of Pacification are in all the Forms that perpetual Laws ought to be they are verified by the Parliaments they are confirmed by a hundred Declarations which followed by Consequence and by a thousand Royal Words In fine they have been laid as irrevocable Laws and as foundations of the Peace of the State We rely upon the good Faith of so many promises and on a sudden we see snatcht from us what we looked upon as our greatest security and which we had possessed for above a hundred years Thus there is neither Title nor Prescription nor Edicts nor Acts nor Declarations which can put us in Safety This is what he told me and I avow to you that this part put me in pain for I am a Slave to my Word and an Idolater of good Faith I look upon it as the only Rampart of Civil Society and I conceive that States and Publick persons are no lâ—ss obliged to keep what they promise than particular men Far. That is true But do not you know that the safety of the people and the publick good is the Soveraign Law Very often we must suffer and even do some Evil for the good of the State Peaces and Treaties are daily broken which have been solemnly sworn because that the publick interest requires it should be so Prov. My Hugonot made himself that difficulty and told me thereupon When War is declared against Neighbours to the prejudice of Treties of Peace and Alliances this is done in the Forms They publish Manifesto's they expose or at least they suppose Grievances and Infractions in the Articles of the Treaty that have been made by those against whom War is declared When a Soveraign revokes the Graces that he had done his Subjects it is ever under pretence that they have rendered themselves unworthy of them But are we accused or can we be accused of having tampered in any Conspiracy of having had Intelligence with the Enemies of the State of having wanted Love Fidelity and Obedience towards our Soveraigns If it be so let us be brought to Tryal let the Criminals be informed against and let the Innocent be distinguished from those that are Guilty We speak boldly thâ—rein because we are certain they can reproach us with nothing and we know that his Majesty himself has very often given Testimony of our Fidelity He knows that we did not enter into any of the Parties that have been made against his Service since he has been upon the Throne During the troubles of his minority it may be said that none but those Cities we were Masters of remained Loyal When the Gates of Orleans were shut upon the King he went to Gien and that City was going to be guilty of the same Crime without the vigour of a Hugonot who made way with his Sword in his hand to the Bridge and let it down himself This action was known and recompenced for the King immediately made him Noble who had done it We had not any part in the disturbances of Bordeaux in those of Britany and Auvergue nor in the Conspiracy of the Chevalier do Roban Not one Hugonot was engaged in these Criminal Cases The King has been pleased to acknowledge it and we look upon the Testimony of so great a King as a great Recompence But our Enemies who continually sollicit him to our ruin ought to be mindful that it would be more civil in them to leave the King the liberty of following his inclinations These would without doubt move him to preserve the effects of his kindness for people who have preserved for him an inviolable Fidelity This is what
Pope has declared a Prince deprived of his Sâ—ates his Subjects may set up the Standard of Rebellion declare War against him refuse him Obedience and kill him if they can meet with him provided it be with arms in their hand and by the ordinary course of War I cannot comprehend how one â—an be secured of the Fidelity of those who hold such like Maxims For in fine Kings are not infallible and if they happen to do any thing that the Court of Rome judges worthy of Excommunication and Intâ—rdiction they are Kings without Kingdoms and Subjects accoâ—ding to our Clergy of France as well as according to the Divines of Italy But perhaps the Sorbonne which is the Depository of the Frenâ—h Divinity does not receive these Maxims so fatal to the safety of Kiâ—gs Let us see what it has done In the Month of December 1587 because Henry the Third for the security of his Person and of his State made a Treaty with the Rütres or the German Protestants the Sorboâ—ne without staying for the Decisions of Rome made a private determination which said That the Government might be taken from Princes who were not found such as they ought to be as the adminiâ—tration from a suspected Tutor This was known by the King he sent for the Sorbonne some days after and complained of it After the death of the Princes of Guise which happen'd at Blois the Sorbonne did much worse they declared and caused to be published in all parts of Paris That all the People of that Kingdom were Absolved from the Oaths of Fidelity that they had sworn to Henry of Valois hereâ—ofore their King they raâ—ed his name out of the publick Prayers and made known to the People that they might with safe Conscience unitâ— aâ—m and contribute to make War against him as a Tyrant If I would add to that the Story that I know this Gentleman told you concerning the Death of the late King of England we should find that the Sorbonne has â—ver been of the same Opinion This is the truth of it every time that our Kings affairs shall carry them to extremity against the Court of Rome the Clergy of France will suppress their discontents while matters go well for the Court of France but if things turn other ways the Maxims of our Divines against the King will be sure to break out Every sincere person will allow â—haâ— it has never been otherwise than so and that it will be always thus which may be observed in the very least disputes I was willing to read all these passages to you out of The Policy of the Clergy of France because the Author of that excellent piece proves there exceedâ—ng well all that I prâ—mâ—sed to shew you for the close of our Conferences which is that the Papists are truly Guilty of the Conspiracies and Rebellions which Monsieur Maimbourg would falsly fasten upon the Hugonots Of this the Murder of Henry the Third that of Henry the Fourth the violence of the League the several attempts against Queen Elizabeth King Iames and our holy Martyr Charles the Firâ—t not to mention the late Plot that has made such a noise in the World are undeniable proofs But you have seen likewise which ought to awaken the Protestant Princes to a purpose that all these black attempts have not been the fruit of impatience and human frailty under the temptation of some severe persecution but the natural Consequence and effect of the Principles of the Roman Religion as we are assured by those very men who pass for the Oracles of this Religion For you have seen just now out of Authentick pieces that the Pope the Cardinals and all the Divines of Italy who are the Pillars of the Roman Catholike Religion all the Regulars of France who draw after them more then three fourths of the French Papists and the Sorbonne it self when the rod is not over it own publickly that the Pope may Excommunicate Kings when he judges them Hereticks or countenancers of Heriticks to interdict their Kingdoms absolve their subjects from their Allegiance and expose them to the fury of all the World You have also seen that the whole Clergy of France was of this opinion by the mouth of Cardinal Perron so that this pernicious Doctrine is the vowed Faith of the whole Popish Gallican Church as well as of the Court of Rome the great depository of the Roman Religion and all its misteries From whence evidently follows what the Author of The Policy of the Clergy of France infers That there is no safety for the Crown nor for the life of Kings whether they be Protestants themselves or only protect such as are whilst they are beset with Papists so that there is not the same reason to tolerate Popery in Protestant Kingdoms as there is to toâ—erate Protestants in Popish Kingdoms Monsieur Maimbourg would make us believe that all this is but a poor shift And to convince us of it he says that we need but to consider these two things First that there are not to be found more detestable Conspiracies then those the Hugonots have made against their Kings c. Secondly that it is by no means thâ— belief of the Roman Catholicks princes that a Pope may depose Princes though they were Heretiâ—ks acquit their subjects from their Allegiance and bestow their Dominions upon those that can first take them But I have evidently shewed you the falsness of the first assertion and for the second it is expresly disproved by those undeniable proofs the Author of The Policy of the Clergy has produced to shew that the Roman Catholicks hold that belief which Monsieur Maimbourg afâ—irms they do not You say Monsieur Maimbourg that it is by no means your belief that a Pope can depose Princes c. At this rate the Pope who is the head of your Church this head for whose infallibility you have so much disputed knows not the belief of your Church for he believes that by the principles of the Church of Rome he has the power which you seem to deny him The Cardinals the Bishops and all the Divines of Italy all your Regulars all your Clergy of France speaking by the mouth of your Cardinal du Perron your Sorbonne it self so renowned for its great number of able men did not know in so important a case what was the belief of your Church For they have all held that it believes the Pope can depose Princes c. At least he should have given some answers to the Authentick Acts and notorious matters of fact which the Author of The Policy of the Clergy had quoted to this purpose To say nothing of all this and to think it enough to say at randome It is by no means our belief that a Pope may depose Princes even though they were Hereticks c. this is to pass the sentence of an unjust judge who rather then fairly to confess his errour makes no conscience of denying