so far that the Cities of France may be seen as well provided of Fortresses and Colonies of the Papacy under the names of Covents Religious Houses Colleges and Abbeys as those of Spain and Italy which may be called the Triumph of the Papal Policy it being infallibly certain that in process of time if God redress it not The Successors of these Monarchies must by all the Rules of a Judicious Policy together with their Subjects become the Miserable Slaves of the Despotick Monarchy of the Papacy In the fourth place Spain being no longer in a condition to patronize the Emissaries of the Court of Rome with a real Establishment in Amsterdam nor in the remaining extent of the whole United Provinces nor durst any more enterprize any thing openly against England nor the Protestants of Germany hath not Rome now served it self of the opposition which reigneth betwixt these Houses sacrificing impudently that of Austria at this blow to the violation of all sorts of Treaties to make his most Christian Majesty to attempt in our dayes in this particular what all the Forces of the House of Austria could not do heretofore and well it was that God was pleased to blow upon all these Designs for otherwise the States of the United Provinces had not been the only miserable but all European Christians must have changed Face as to the Liberty of their Faith and Estates in a very little space of time In the fifth place as Rome hath the Art to subtilize all the advantages that it can draw from all Conjunctures and as it embraceth nothing more readily in all its Projects than any Design to destroy the Protestant Party from their Heads to the meanest member of them that the poor Protestants of High Hungary might not escape this general Persecution was it not an effect of the opposition which rages betwixt those Houses that Rome being about to draw a cruel storm over the Protestants the Emissaries of the Papacy had the craft to make his most Christian Majesty to understand that there being none but his Imperial Majesty who could vigorously traverse his Designs on Holland it was his Interest to give him Business in his own State and that this could not be done by any probability otherwise than by somenting the Revolt on the Coast of High Hungary therefore he must of necessity purchase the Heads of the Protestants in that Country to his part Now at the same time that these Emissaries caused this Doctrine to be solicited in the Court of France and by their solicitation obtained Money and Treaties in France and insinuated themselves into High Hungary the Brethren of the same Emissaries who are as puissant in the Imperial Court as the former in the Court of France by Intelligence and Conspiracy with the former had the dexterity without notice it may be precisely given thereof at first to his Imperial Majesty to cause it to be determined at the Court of Vienna that cruel Persecutions should be raised against those miserable People we must not wonder then that those poor People Members of our Faith persecuted on one hand and flattered on the other are fallen into the trap set for them by the Court of Rome with so great dexterity and that thereupon we have seen the Protestant Body in that Country in this last conjuncture agitated with such furious Convulsions In the sixth place the Tripple League of England Sweden and the United Provinces having made Peace between France and Spain in the Year 1668. because by the continuance of this League the Protestant Party might have made themselves really the Figure in the Number of the true Arbiters of the worldly Powers is it not by an effect of the same opposition that Rome in this last Conjuncture making use of the Ambitions Forces and management of the Ministers of France knew by its charms cast upon England and Sweden to dissolve this Gordian Knot of Peace and force out of the hands of the Protestant Party the advantage to them so glorious and which might have been so profitable to the Repose and Tranquillity of all Christendom And that Posterity may not be ignorant of the Success of these Managements in this Point was it not in the seventh place by the infallible consequences of the aforesaid Breach that for a Praeludium to all the Advantages which this Mother of Tares might hope from this dissolution which we have seen she knew to arm England against the Republick of the United Provinces with so much cruel obstinacy that at the same time when this last was hurried by the Land-flood of one of her Ministers passionate or corrupted and was to sustain on the Continent all the Forces of France and its Allies after an unhappy Invasion upon 46 or 47 Places the former joyns all its Sea-Forces with those of France and gave fiercely in one Expedition three cruel Battles to this later capable to have wrought its total Destruction if in this conjuncture God had openly declared himself for their Protection For the eighth consideration is it not from the natural consequences of the said management that we now see since the last Campania the three Puissent Protestants of the North have entred into the entanglement of a War which cannot but prove fatal to one of those three Potentates and so to the general Protestant Body which we may say is to know very well by a dexterity worthy of their Principal to make their Enemies destroy one another a Policy which a thousand Experiments one following the other have taught us very vell to know that Rome doth possess in greatest excellency and whereuuto without doubt she ows her Elevation But if the Court of Rome from such an opposition as ought in all Appearance to be fatal unto it if the Protestant Party knew to make use of it hath notwithstanding the dexterity to draw from thence such real Advantages for the advancement and maintenance of its greatness and is by the same means arrived at a Power to draw to its self such considerable ones as it hath already or would have attained had the Invasion of the United Provinces succeeded then the Protestants themselves ought not to doubt if for their sins God should ever permit the effective Union of these two Puissances whether by some Treaty advantagious to both as the division of some Protestant Estates may be or naturally by right or Succession which may happen in the greatest part that in such case Rome will know to take its Advantage and infallible Measures if God hinder not to destroy at once the Protestant Party in Europe And from thus much I think every man who is but a little clear sighted and makes reflection seriously on the Conduct of the Papal Court must needs be put out of doubt concerning this matter Rome besides hath found out an infallible means by the disposal of its Purple without being at a penny charge to acquire the suffrage and protection of the greater part
Discourses ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Protestant Princes OF EUROPE Exhorting them to an UNION and LEAGUE amongst themselves AGAINST ALL Opposite Interest From the Great Endeavours of the Court of France and Rome to Influence all Roman Catholick Princes against the Protestant States and Religion and the Advantage that our Divisions give to their Party Wherein the General Scope of this Horrid Popish Plot Is laid down and presented to PUBLICK VIEW By EDMUND EVERARD Esquire Kept four years close Prisoner in the Tower by the Contrivance of some English Subjects plotting against us in France whom he five years since discovered and was lately justified and released by his Majesty LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultrey 1679. May the First 1679. I have appointed Dorman Newman Citizen and Stationer of London to print this Treatise EDMUND EVERARD ESSAYES of Politick Discourses ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Protestant Princes OF EUROPE Exhorting them to an Union and League amongst themselves against all opposite Interests PART I. THe Ancient and Modern Histories furnish us successively with very good Examples that the greatest part of the Monarchies Kingdoms Common-wealths which have heretofore flourished with great Glory and have afterwards for the most part been entirely demolished fell into that miserable destruction by two defaults especially First by degenerating and totally abandoning their pristine virtues and a soft negligence in not applying themselves to those means which might have re-established them in the practice of the same virtues as the principle whence their former puissance was to be derived and from the practice whereof they might be in a condition to preserve it And secondly by internal Divisions which Ambition Jealousie Avarice or Vain glory fomented by the Artifices of their Enemies have frequently produced amongst Princes or the Directors of their flourishing Estates Now then since these pernicious courses have caused the ruine of all the greatest Puissances of the World I conceive that no man will be so imprudent as not to be of accord with me in this point That it is the wisdom of those in whose hand God hath trusted the direction of any soveraign and lawful power diligently with all their care and might to avoid falling into such accidents And I also believe that every wise man will likewise agree That they more especially have the strongest Reasons to keep themselves most exactly on their guard who cannot be ignorant by many pressing experiences that they have on their necks very many both secret and publick armed subtle powerful and active enemies who are perpetually in motion to take advantages of all favourable conjunctures to procure their ruine which they endeavour with very great care and by all sorts of means to procure and foment This foundation being laid let us briefly examine whether in the modern conduct of the Protestant States in Europe they have strictly guided themselves in every thing which may be called the Interest of their Preservation according to such Rules as are sufficient not only to contribute to their maintenance in their Estate but to procure unto them the most considerable Augmentations therein or whether a good part of them have not rather been visibly engaged by the Modern Artifices of their natural enemies into such paths as are capable not only to enervate their principal Forces but by consequence to draw them on like the aforesaid States into an entire destruction No man can deny as it seems to me that God's blessing was abundantly powred out on the labours of those great Persons whom his Providence was pleased to make use of in the last Age for the advancement of the work of Reformation and extirpating out of the Christian communion all the abuses and Idolatrous errours which the Spirit of darkness by the Ministry of the Papacy had established throughout the whole extent of the Western Church By this success it came to pass that two Parties were formed which in what concerns Spirituals and Temporals divided all this part of Europe which composes the said Church Now being the First-Fruits of this Reformation were such as suddenly stopped the progress of the Papacy and broke the greatest part of the measures which the Bishops of Rome had taken up successively since the Reign of the Parricide Phocas to establish a despotick and universal Monarchy over all Christendom as well in Temporals as Spirituals This Truth being perfectly well known by the See of Rome it were extreme folly to doubt of the true Resentments which those Bishops have against the Protestants and especially against the Kingdoms and States that protect and profess this Faith so that it ought to be the more observed that since the providence of God gave this overthrow to the Papal Tyranny this Beast which hath horns like those of the Lamb is in a condition to speak with the power of the first Beast that is to say the Bishop of Rome with the Title of Servant of Servants which they craftily affect to assume have so well ordered their Conduct that they have thereby been enabled no less than the ancient Caesars by sword and fire as Greg. 7. Urb. 2. Paschall 2. Boniface the Eighth did to attempt to make themselves to be acknowledged for despotick and universal Monarchs of Christendome as well over Temporals as Spirituals And to prove in a few words and in an uncontrolable manner what we have propounded we may conclude for certain as to temporal concerns that since the Reign of Charles the Bald the Roman Bishops after many Debates and cruel Wars which they caused to be raised on all hands against the Emperors of the West have not only been dispensed with from being named or approved by the Emperors themselves as the ancient custom was but having by succession of time and a thousand unjust ways so highly advanced themselves above them that these Monarchs have been forced afterwards as History assures us until Charles the Fifth inclusively not only to acknowledge the Roman Bishops for their Superiors but unless they would incur their Indignation which usually was followed with their ruine to abase themselves unto that abjectness of spirit as to go and kiss their feet in all humble prostration or as they mounted to or lighted from their Horses and the most part of them durst not take upon them to be Emperors till after their Approbation or Coronation by their or their Legates hands The chief Monarchs of all Christendom being reduced to this pass is it not true that the Bishops of Rome who hold it for a Maxim never to let go their Pretentions and to make every thing that falls out for their advantage a Prescription have really usurped and effectually enjoyed the Superiority over the Principal Temporal Dominion of Christendom And this is so true that before the holy work of Reformation this petty Priest hath been seen insolently many times to take the Imperial Crown from the Father after he had trod one of
Bourbon by what hath happened in Times past and present cannot hinder it but must needs thereupon make reflexions sufficient to open their eyes and make them know in the conclusion In the first place their Imprudence in regulating their Councils and Sallies by the passions of the Emissaries of the Roman Communion Secondly the temerity and danger of attempting the ruine of any Protestant People Prince or Estate Thirdly what the United Forces of this Party are naturally capable to execute And fourthly the Honour Candour and Constancy of that Party when they are concerned to oppose unjust Enterprises or to maintain the part of Equity and Justice Reflections of this nature ought in consequence teach these two Houses the regard esteem and respect which they ought to have and reserve for a Body so Puissant and Illustrious as is by God's grace that of the said Protestant Powers and the people whereof they consist and if this Party were always so managed as to insinuate into these two Houses the Doctrine of these four particulars we should certainly not see those who are Natives and Inhabitants of the Estates of those two Potentates France and Hungary handled any more in the manner they now are nor would these two Families whatever Solicitations should be made on the behalf of Rome attempt with so much injustice as they have both done at divers times the ruine of the Principal Members of this Communion But if in this present Conjuncture all the Protestant States except England and Sweden have followed their true Interest I persist affirming that the same Interest engages them Capitally to rectifie the Conduct of England and Sweden so as to neglect nothing to gain unto them these two Crowns in prospect of using all possible endeavours to effect an Union of all the aforesaid Protestant States that when by many happy Successes the Arms of his Imperial Majesty the Empire and all the Confederate States have reduced France to that abatement that their said Interest can require and in almost in the manner which I have above unfolded all these States may be in a condition to nail the Wheel and to produce an Universal Peace in Christendom with all the advantages and solemnities aforesaid both for their own particular and general Interests and for their particular of their Brethren through the whole extent of the Empire and without it which by the said Union they may be capable to effect if God permit without any Impediment from any Power and without this Union it may be some Nuncio or Emissary of Rome may possibly at a moment when they think least of it secretly manage some Marriage betwixt these Families so as to reconcile their principal differences and they not be in an Estate to oppose them nor to gather the Fruits which they might have justly expected And I insist so much the more on this that the Protestant States should put themselves in such a condition as I have said above because it being certain that the Emissaries of Rome have been the Instruments of the underworkings which have raised this War and of the League of France with the Electors of Colen and Bavaria the Bishops of Strasburg and Munster and the Princes of Newburg and Hanover and of the measures taken for the destruction of the Protestant Party in Europe as is too well proved we must not doubt but that Rome will make all its uttermost possible endeavours to procure it self the honour of making peace But that all Europe may know how far the Morality of the Protestant Faith is distant from the black and earthly malice of the Papacy I think it belongs to the Reputation of the Protestant States without any mixture with the Nuncio or any Emissary of the Court of Rome to procure to themselves the glory of establishing an Universal Peace in Christendom to the satisfaction of all honest men which by the foresaid Union they will find at one blow to be in their power to effect if by their private Interests and Jealousies they bury not the Talent which God hath put naturally in their hands not only for obtaining so great a present good but also for coustituting themselves for ever the infallible Guardians and Preservers thereof which is the Capital point at which all these States ought to aim as which will give them the inestimable Character of the Supreme Arbiters of all the Potentates of Christendom and invincible Bulwarks of their Security And if I may be allowed to continue to unfold my apprehensions as ingenuously as I have begun as to what I believe will be consequence of a Success of such force for the good and advantage of the Protestant Body through the extent of the Empire and by relation to them in several other places I conceive that all the aforesaid Protestant States having laid down their Arms ought seriously to apply themselves to solid means to obtain of his Imperial Majesty a modification of the Article touching the Bishop of Osnaburg in such manner as this Bishoprick may be successively enjoyed by the Successors of his Highness of Osnaburg without any mixture of Roman Catholicks it being certain that as his Imperial Majesty is very full of a generous benignity he seeing with what vigour this Illustrious House hath acted in this conjuncture for his Interests he will certainly be very easily perswaded to testifie toward that House his Imperial resentment and acknowledgement I doubt not but that a matter of this nature will be entangled with many difficulties but the said Union compleatly made or to the greater part will be a Rock to all the Slights and Machinatious of the Roman Court against which they shall effectually split and miscarry But if an Article of this force may and as I believe it would also be very easie for the said States to cause to be inserted in the same Instrument of Peace which shall be made some little Negotiations which are necessary to pacifie and lay asleep all matter of Jealousie and discontent betwixt the two Protestant Communions tollerated in Europe so as to deliver them both from some sensible displeasures For Example in some Imperial Cities of the Protestant Body to the shame of the Princes of that Communion the Pastors of the Lutheran Congregation are obliged to wear with a kind of Ignominy a Bonnet like the Jews it seemed to me a just thing to dispense with them in this for the future and leave them to their liberty there being no reason to constrain them to the like Infamy this being only an unnecessary mark of the animosity which reigned heretofore amongst the Princes of different Communion which ought upon all Principles of a judicious policy be entirely suppressed and abolished throughout all the extent of the Empire In other places in many Imperial Cities where the Magistracy is of the Communion of Ausburg it is ridiculous to see that whilst the Jews have there all liberty in the exercise of their Religion the Reformed are forced
with great inconvenience to walk to the exercises of their Devotion without the Wall of the City who agree with Lutherans in all the principal Doctrines of the Christian Faith and are together with them the common Butt of all the Impressions of the Papal malice which neglects nothing which might foment their division and thereby to walk on to solid means of their destruction Wherefore I conceive that the States of the Protestant Communion though of different belief in certain points ought unanimously to endeavour to cause an Article to be inserted in the said instrument of Peace which might for the future redress such Incongruities which whilst they continue can be only seeds of Divisions which both their proper Interest and their Charity oblige them to suppress continually in the Protestant Body But as all that appears in Christian Faith is commonly animated with the Spirit of Charity which engages us not only to adhere to what is our peculiar but to what respects our Brethrens interest especially theirs whom we cannot be ignorant to be actually in tribulation I think the aforesaid Protestant States should do a very heroick Act if by their mediation the interests of their poor Brethren might be regulated in such manner that at least the Emissaries of Rome might not have so ample matter whereupon to raise persecution against them For Example now for a whole Age Europe hath heard no discourse but of the disorders which from Time to Time have risen in high Hungary Silesia and other the Hereditary Countries of the House of Austria I commend not those of the Protestant Body of that Kingdom who for their private Interests or Ambition may be the cause of these revolts and seditions in those Countries but if a great part of those disorders arise from the discontents which the want of means to attend their spiritual Exercises do cause which without doubt is almost the only cause I conceive it were a work very pleasing to be able by humble Representations to his Imperial Majesty to cause him to establish an Order which might for the future banish from that Country all matter of discontent which I judge to be very feasible For if his Imperial Majesty shall consider the merits of all the Successors whom all the said Protestant State should leave behind them so that for Politick Reasons which engage him to prevent such disorders he would make an establishment for the future that so oft as in any Country or in any particular place Protestants should be found to a certain number and should desire to have a free exercise of their Religion they should be qualified to procure it without other Obligation then that of signifying by a simple act their number and desire to the Magistrate of the place I conceive that by such an expedient his Imperial Majesty might cut up the root of all those unhappy Revolts which engage him to extraordinary Expences and of the perpetual cares and alarms and other practices which the Court of Rom's Emissaries furnish and trouble him with to redress these mischiefs which are more proper to cast those Countries into flames then to establish their Repose as fatal experience of a whole Age cannot but have too well taught him And as the Peace which shall intervene will infallibly be an Universal Peace to all Christendom and so different Interests which concern its Tranquility may therein be regarded following still my intent which is to respect the extent and advantage of the Protestant Faith I must say that it will be of great Importance for the said Protestant States to obtain of his Catholick Majesty a Modification of the Instrument of the last Peace which France made with the Republick of the Grisons as touching the matter of the Reformed Religion in Chaveine and the Valtoline for the Inhabitants of both parts of that Religion who are in the said places though their Magistrates are for the greatest part reformed are obliged by a corruption inserted in the Treaty of Peace to walk at least three or four Leagues on the Lord's days to attend their Exercises of Devotion It is most certain that it is a considerable interest of his Majesty to consent to the Modification of this Article if he would preserve the Amity of this Republick and of this I have very precise knowledge for if the Abbot of St. Roman Embassadour for his most Christian Majesty in Switzerland in the Propositions he made to some of the Republick had been advised to let fall a word that the King his Master would consent to a free Exercise of the Reformed Religion in those places I know that the League of that Republick with the House of Austria had been in danger to be dissolved for thus I judge that this represented and maintained in such manner as it may by the Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant States it will not be absolutely impossible to annul this Article which will be of extraordinary consideration for the good of the Protestant Faith in that Quarter many good Souls which profess that Religion though they reside in Italy ardently desire this Consolation and this I can say of my certain knowledge But we have insisted long enough upon some Accessaries let us go to the Principal it is so common with very many Protestants of all Orders who enjoy peaceably according to their wish all conveniences temporal and spiritual not to be able to dispose themselves by the Principles of Charity to compassionate the miseries and afflictions of their oppressed Brethren that it is for this Reason that I have applied my self to make them know whereunto they are engaged in this particular for their temporal Interest But if in the first Point I have prospered somewhat to make known the connexion and indissoluble bond of Interests which the Providence of God hath established betwixt the subsistence of the Politick Interests of all the Potentates of Christendom and of the Protestants more especially with the re-establishment of the Protestant Party in France by the sincere Rehearsal which I am about succinctly to make of the miseries wherein that Body of our Brethren in that Kingdom are plunged I would shew the Protestant States for my second Head whereto their Pity their Charity and their Glory ought to engage them To make known sincerely the Estate of the Protestant Body in France I will not amuse my self in expounding what is publickly known to the greatest part of understanding persons who have travelled through that Realm or who have taken the pains to get some Information thereof I will content my self only to observe that the Emissaries of the Court of Rome having successively insinuated into the spirits of the Monarchs of this Nation that they could not think of advancing their Progress abroad till after they were solidly assured of all at home and that therefore it was necessary for them wholly to exterminate the Protestant Party out of their Kingdom this Counsel hath so strongly prevailed in the Councils
Sea also beheld their Nval Forces of some consideration and the Frontiers of the Pirennes with the two Seas were their only Neighbours and Frontiers through all the extent of Spain and all that Isthmos acknowledged their Laws from the Pirennes to Hercules pillars and farther till then they preserved to their advantage Friends and Pensioners secretly in all the Courts of Europe France it self not excepted but as if all that glory had been buried in the reduction of Rochelle it may be truly said that whosoever shall examine the ruines of the greatness of Spain with their miscarriages in the greatest part of their Designs almost perpetual since the reduction of this petty Carthage so that the astonishing dismembrings which this Puissance hath suffered and the hard Treaties which it hath been forced to subscribe will evince that its glory seems to be interred in the ruines of the fortifications of this Town for whether it were through its Military Expeditions or the Conduct of its Ministers or the little care it hath had to keep its intelligence amongst its Enemies and after with its Allies as well as the facility wherewith the Ministers of France after Richelieu pierced into the most secret deliberations of the Council of Madrid it is most true that after the Error of Estate on their part this Puissance did flutter only with one wing which gave courage together with other accidents of a different nature to the Catalonians Portugese and Neopolitans and likewise to the Messinese of late to enterprise by incitation and puissant Succours of France what they have hitherto attempted it being most certain that without vigorous Succours from its Allies it would be at present exposed to an entire invasion of the most considerable part of its Estate as well in the old as in the new World For Holland the Case is so hot and fresh in the miseries which have befallen them within these four years by their Error of Estate in the conjuncture of that Siege that certainly it is needless for me to make a long discourse to evince this truth for I believe there is not any man of perfect understanding who knows not readily and is not well perswaded that if Rochelle in the time that his most Christian Majesty did attempt to subject Holland had been in the hands of the Protestants of France in such manner as it was before and as it probably might have been if this Republick had not furnished out its Sea Forces to make this Reduction his most Christian Majesty had never dared to enterprise an Expedition of that nature and that for two unanswerable Reasons The first because Rochelle by its subsistence gave life to two millions of Reformed Christian Souls which are yet in France whatever the Jesuits please to say that there are but 1500000 France having in its bowels so considerable a number of Protestants would never have determined to have undertaken the destruction of a Protestant Republick which by its scituation so favourable as it had to Rochelle was in condition to put France it self into disorder Secondly they would have found themselves without a possibility or force to have attempted this enterprise for the Liberty of France I mean that of Estate being in force and its prime as without doubt it would have been to this time had Rochelle been unsubdued the Ministers of France and their Monarch would have been more cautious than to have attempted it if then this foundation be truly laid as I shall prove it more largely hereafter my Masters the Estates of the United Provinces who are persons that commonly understand strictly to take the account of their interest may calculate after they have set on one side the profits which they received from France for Vessels which they lent or sold them to advance this Reduction and have set on the other side the loss which by the late Expedition of his most Christian Majesty against them they have sustained that which arises of gain or loss at the foot of the account in this Commerce of theirs and the quid pro quo of Estate in this Juncture shall be plain As for France considered in it self I speak of its State in its three Estates we may admire in this point the wonderful light of the deceased Monsieur Marshal de Bassompiere which I quoted above for it is a truth no more disputed but generally known of all persons of worth and intelligence in France of the Roman Communion That the Liberty of all France was buried in the reduction and demolition of the fortifications of the Town of Rochelle It was this City that sustained the dying liberty of France since the Reign of Lewis the Eleventh and which was in a condition to re-establish it and with its liberty to uphold also the liberty of all Europe both in their Religious and Civil Concerns If the aforesaid Powers as well as France it self ignorant of their true interest had not by their connivance or by their Succours brought about the aforesaid Reduction for to what purpose serves it for the Gentry of France to see their Monarch triumph over all his Neighboury Princes if this only tend to increase the number of Slaves under his Dominion or rather to give them the sensible and tormenting displeasure to see the Forces and Power of some Estates broken in pieces who by their Subsistence and Ayds might have had time and place to have holpen them in some favourable conjuncture to break the chains and shake off the yoke which oppresseth them whereas if no Power be in a condition to make Head against their Prince who shall be able to lend them assistance to free them from their oppressions But that it may not be thought that I advance a strange notion in that I would build the safety of a whole Realm and also of the greatest part of Europe on the simple surrender of one Town which hath been entitled with the name of a Rebel we must examine it And to penetrate into the bottom of this matter I consider that in the Estate the King of France's Authority now is there can be no other then the re-establishment of one of the three means which I shall after expound or some equivalent which can hinder these Kings absolutely to dispose of the Lives and Goods of their Subjects and that thereby they may not be able by the formidable multitude of people of all degrees which are in France their Industry Courage and Martial Activity to hold all their Neighbours in perpetual and well grounded alarms I would be understood to speak of the means which France hath had or may have in it self to maintain or establish its liberty The first of these means is as ancient an Institution as the Office and name of a King in France for it hath been since the time the ancient Franks did conquer the Gauls that is the Election of a Palatine or Major of the Palace who was the Consul and Head of the