A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679. — Selections. 1685

A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679. — Selections. 1685

Table of contents

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A TABLE of the TITLES.

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A LETTER, Written upon the DISCOVERY Of the Late PLOT.

[2]

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The Unreasonableness and Impiety OF POPERY, In a Second Letter written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT.

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A Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants, begun in Paris, and carried on over all France, in the Year 1572.

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A COLLECTION OF Several Tracts AND DSICOURSES, Written in the Years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685. By GILBERT BURNET, D. D.

To which are added, A Letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers. The History of the Powder-Treason, with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon. An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches, who were Executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.

LONDON: Printed for Ric. Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCLXXXV

A TABLE of the TITLES.

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MDCLXXVIII.

1. A LETTER written upon the Discovery of the LATE PLOT.

2. The Unreasonablness and Impiety of POPERY in a Second Letter, written upon the Discovery of the LATE PLOT.

3. A Relation of the Barbarous and Bloody MASSACRE of about an Hundred thousand Protestants, begun at Paris, and carried on over all FRANCE by the PAPISTS, in the year 1572, Collected out of Mezeray, Thuanus, and Other approved Authors.

MDCLXXIX.

4. A Decree made at ROME, the 2d of March, 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Iesuits, and Other Casuists.

MDCLXXX.

5. The Conversion and Persecutions of Eve Cohan, now called Elizabeth Verboon, a Person of Quality of the Iewish Religion, who was baptized the 10th of October, 1680.

6. A Sermon preached on the Fast day; December 22. 1680. at St. Margarets Westminster, before the House of Commons, on Rev. 3. 2, 3.

7. A Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, on September 2. 1680. being the Anniversary Fast, for the Burning of London, on Amos 4. 11, 12.

8. A Sermon preached before the Aldermen of London, January 30▪ 1680. being the day of the Martyrdom of King Charles the first, on Zech. 8. 19.

MDCLXXXI.

9. A Sermon preached at the Election of the Lord Mayor of London, September 29. 1681. on Matth. 12. 25.

MDCLXXXII.

[Page]10. A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. James Houblon Merchant, June 28. 1682. Psal. 37. 37.

11 News from France, in a Letter, giving a Relation of the present State of the Difference between the French King, and the Court of Rome; to which is added, the Popes Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy, and the Protestation made by Them.

12. An Answer to the Animadversions on Dr. Burnet's History of the Rights of Princes.

MDCLXXXIV.

13. A Sermon preached at the Chappel of the Rolls, November 5. 1684. being Gun-Powder-Treason day, on Psal. 22. 21.

14. A Letter to Mr. Simon Lowth, Vicar of Cosmus-Blene, in the Diocess of Canterbury, occasioned by his late Book, [Of the Subject of Church Power.]

15. An Answer to a Letter to Dr. Burnet, occasioned by His Letter to Mr. Lowth.

16. A Letter occasioned by the Second Letter to Dr. Burnet.

MDCLXXXV.

17. A Letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an Account of Cardinal Pool', Secret Powers, From which it appears, That it was never intended to confirm the Alienation that was made of the Abby-Lands. To which is added, Two Breves that Cardinal Pool brought over, and Some other of his Letters that were never before Printed.

18. The History of the Powder-Treason, with a Vindication of the Proceedings, and Matters relating thereunto, from the Exoeptions made against it; and more particularly of late years, by the Author of the Catholick Apology. To which is added, A Parallel betwixt That and the present Popish Plot. 1681.

19. An Impartial consideration of those Speeches, which pass under the Name of the Five Iesuits lately Executed, viz. Mr. Whitebread, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Gawen, Mr. Turner, and Mr. Fenwick In Which it is proved, That according to their Principles they not only might, but also ought to dye after that manner, with solemn Protestations of their Innocency. 1679.

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A LETTER, Written upon the DISCOVERY Of the Late PLOT.

Licensed W. Jane, Octob. 17. 1678.

LONDON: Printed for H. Brome, and R. Chiswell, both living in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1678.

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A LETTER, Written upon the DISCOVERY Of the Late PLOT.

SIR,

I Heartily thank you for the News your last brought me, of the discovery of that horrid Plot, both against his Majesties Person, and the whole Kingdom. I doubt not but all good men are offering up their acknowledgments to God, for so great a Blessing; which is a fresh demonstration of his care of this Church, and State: and that all our Crying sins have not provoked him yet to abandon us: of which I pray God make us all sensible, that we may not continue to pull down such judgments, as the malice of wicked men would readily become instrumental in, if the Providence of God did not so wonderfully and seasonably interpose.

There is only one Passage in your Letter, that I wonder at. You tell me every body is surprized with this Plot now discovered. I confess I am not of their mind; for although I know there are persons of high Honour, and untainted Loyalty of the Roman Religion, who abominate the thoughts of all secret Assassinations, much more of [Page] Murdering his Majesty; yet such practices are so necessarily consequent to the Principles of that Church, that no Member of it, who throughly understands them, can, while they continue in that Communion, avoid the being involved in Conspiracies, as oft as a fit occasion presents it self.

These several years past they have boasted much of their Loyalty, and their Services and Sufferings for his Majesty, during the late Civil Wars. All this was necessary to make the Government put confidence in them, that so they might more secretly lay their designs: which were to take effect, when a Conjuncture was offered that seemed favourable. But I must again and again repeat, what I often told you in discourse; That no Member of that Church can thorowly understand and believe the Principles of it, and be a good Subject even to a King of his own Perswasion: But he can be much less so, to a Prince whom he looks on as an Heretick, who thereby lies under a general Excommunication, and may be brought under a particular and Formal one, before he, or any body else, but such as are fit to be entrusted with the Secret, shall know it: And then the Prince is at the mercy of all his Popish Subjects, who if they consider aright the Doctrine of their own Church, must depart from their Allegiance to Him, and be ready to do any thing that is laid on them, by those who are either directly their Superiours, if they have taken Religious Vows; or at least, have some authority over their Consciences.

This I shall open to you in as short and plain terms as is possible; and the rather, that you may communicate it to some persons of Honour of that Religion, who I hope upon so fresh a Discovery of these practices, may be now not unwilling to examine a Point, the consideration of which they before rejected, as an Imputation cast on their Religion. This will now, I imagine, move them so far to demur, as to consider impartially whether such practises flow only [Page] from the ill Tempers of particular Persons, or from the received Principles of their Church. This latter I undertake to make out, from the undeniable Maximes, to which all of that Communion are bound to adhere.

There are Two Principles, which I may well call the Fundamental Principles of the Roman Church: since all Opinions that are not inconsistent with them, can be tollerated among them: But whatever strikes at these, must needs be Abominated, as Destructive of that, they call The Catholick Faith. The one is, The Authority of the Church, The other is, The Certainty of Tradition. If then the Doctrine of Deposing Kings, and by consequence Killing them (for if they are justly deposed, it's as just to kill them as to kill any Usurper) is such, that without denying the Authority of the Church, and the Certainty of Tradition, it cannot be denied; then all men must resolve either to acknowledg it, or to renounce their Subjection to a Church that must needs believe it.

About the Authority of the Church, Two things are to be observed, that serve for clearing what I design to make out.

The First is, That the Church in any one Age has as much Authority as ever it had, or can have in any other Age: For if Christs Promises, together with the other Arguments they bring for the Authority of the Church, be good, they are alike strong at all Times, and in all Ages: And therefore though in writing Books of Controversies they muster up Authorities out of the former Ages, because we profess we pay little esteem to the latter Ages: Yet among themselves all Ages are alike, and the Decrees of them are of equal authority.

Secondly, The Authority of the Church is as little to be disputed in moral matters, that fall under practice, as in Articles of Faith that only fall under Speculation, and in a [Page] word, The Church must be the Infallible Expounder of the Ten Commandments, as well as of the Creed. All the Arguments from Christs Promises, from the hazard of trusting to our private Reasonings, and the Necessity of Submitting to a publick Judg, are by so much the more concluding in Practical matters, as it is of more Importance, That Men think aright in Practical than in Speculative Opinions. If then there arises a Question about a Moral matter, or the Exposition of any of the Commandments, The only certain Decision must be expected from the Church. For instance, a Question arises about Images, Whether it is lawful to use them in the Worship of God, upon the seeming Opposition which the worship of them has to the 2d Commandment? Since the Church has once Determin'd that it may be lawfully used, it is Heresie to deny it, on this pretence, that we fancy it is contrary to one of the Commandments. So if a Controversie arise upon the Fifth Commandment, How far a King is to be acknowledged, if the Church has determined the Limits of that, it is Heresie to carry it further. If also another Question arise how much the Sixth Commandment obliges? It must be carried so far and no further than the Determination of the Church allows. I confess by the Doctrine of that Church, even a General Council may err in a point in which any matter of Fact is included: Because they may be deceived by a false Information. But in a General Rule about Morality, and the Extent of any of the Ten Commandments, The Decision of the Church must either be certain, and for ever Obligatory, or the whole Doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church falls to the ground.

Concerning the Certainty of Tradition, the general Opinion of that party, is, That Tradition is an Infallible Conveyance of Divine Truth: and that whatever any Age of the Church delivers to another as derived from Christ and his [Page] Apostles, must be received with the same Veneration and Obedience that we pay to the Holy Scriptures. And for the ways of distinguishing a Tradition of the Church from any Imposture, or Novelty: There be four of them.

The first, That is the most doubtful, is, That the greatest and most esteemed Doctors in any Age deliver as a Divine Truth. Nor is it necessary that they formally say, This is a Tradition: but if many of them mention an Opinion, and declare their own assent to it, this passes as a sufficient proof of the Tradition of any Age of the Church▪ So in all points of Controversie between them and us, the greatest part of their Writers, (some few later and suspected ones only excepted) think they have sufficiently justified their Church, when they bring Testimonies out of any of the Writings of the Fathers, that seem to favour their Opinion: and will call it unreasonable for us to reject these, because they only deliver their own opinion, and do not call it the Tradition of the Church, but conclude, That many Writers in any age asserting an Opinion, it may well be looked on as the Tradition of that Age.

But, because this is more liable to exception, there is another way, that is more infallible to judg of Tradition: and that is, by the conveyance of the See of Rome, which they judg the chief Depository of the Faith; and for which they fansie they have so many proofs, from the high things some of the Fathers have said about the dignity of that See. Now if these conclude any thing, it must follow, That whatever has been delivered in any Age by a Pope, as conveyed down from Christ, or his Apostles, must either be so indeed, or the See of Rome is not a faithful Transmitter of Tradition.

But, there is yet a more certain way of judging of Tradition, by what the chief Pastors of the Church have delivered, when assembled in a general Council. This being the [Page] Supreme Tribunal in the Church, there can lie no appeal from it: Nor can the Doctrines delivered or approved by it be questioned. For instance, If it were under debate, How the Tradition about Transubstantiation can be made out in the Thirteenth Century; it is needless to seek any other evidence, than, That one Almerick is condemned for denying it, and in Opposition to that, it was formally established in a general Council. This is as much as can be had, and he were very unreasonable that were not satisfied with it: So if it be asked, How can the Tradition of the Doctrine of Deposing Kings, and giving away their Dominions in the same Century be proved? The Answer is plain, That same very Council decreed it: Upon which a great Prince was deposed, and his Dominions were given to another.

These are the Common Standards by which Traditions are Examined. But to these a new one has been lately added: which is indeed a much shorter and nearer way: And that is, whatever the Church holds in any one age, as a Material point of Religion, she must have received it from the former age, and that age from the former, and so it climbs upwards till the days of the Apostles. If this be a certain Track of Tradition by which we may infallibly trace it; Then for instance, If in any one age, it hath been believed, That St. Peter had power from Christ, which he left to the See of Rome, by which his Successor in it can depose Kings, then this must be an Apostolical Tradition, and by consequence of equal authority with any thing written in the Scriptures.

To these General Considerations about the Authority of the Church, and the Certainty of Tradition; I shall add Two other, about the Nature of Supreme and Soveraign Power: By which we may judg of what Extent the Popes Power must be, if he have an authority to depose Kings, and transfer their Dominions to other persons.

[Page]First, When the Soveraign Powers proceed in a Legal way against its Subjects; If either they abscond, so that they cannot be found; Or have such a Power about them, that the Sovereign cannot bring them to punishment; He may declare them Rebels, and set Prices on their Heads; And in that case it is as lawful for any Subject to kill them, as it is for an Executioner to put a condemned Person to Death. These being the several ways the Law provides in those several cases. So when a Pope deposes a Prince, He may as lawfully set on private Assassinates to kill him, as oblige his Subjects to rise with open force against him. For if the Pope has a Power over him to depose him; this clearly follows from the Nature of Sovereign Power, and it is the Course that sometimes must be followed, when the Rebel can be no other way brought to deserved punishment; and if the Pope has the power of deposing, then a Prince who after such a Sentence, carries himself as a King, is a Rebel against his Supreme Lord: And is also an Usurper. For his Title being destroyed by the Sentence, He has no authority over his Subjects: and therefore may be as lawfully killed as any Rebel or Usurper.

Secondly, The Supreme power may in cases of great necessity, when the thing is in it self materially just, pass over such Forms as ought in ordinary Cases to be observed. I need not tell you, That in a great Fire, Subordinate Magistrates may blow up Houses. But doubtless the Supreme Power of all, as a King in an absolute Monarchy (and such is the Papal Power if these Opinions be true) may dispence with some Forms, when the Matter is in it self just; and if the chief design of a Law be pursued, the circumstantial parts of it may upon extraordinary occasions be superseded: Therefore, if the Pope is Supreme over all Kings, and has this deposing Power; Then though by the Canon, a King ought to be first a Year Excommunicated for his Heresy [Page] or favouring Hereticks; and at the Years end he may be Deposed by the Pope, (There are also other Rules for Excommunications, tho the Summary way in some cases may be used) yet all these are but circumstantial and lesser Matters. The design of that Law, is, That no Heretical Prince, or favourer of Heresie, be continued in his Power; The other, are but Forms of Law, that cannot be indispensibly necessary in all cases. Besides, the very Canon Law teaches, that when there is both a Notorietas juris & Facti, Summary proceedings are Legal; when then it is Notorious, that the Doctrines of the Church (of England for Instance) are Heretical, and that the King is an Obstinate Favourer of these Heresies, and will not extirpate them, Summary and Secret proceedings are justifiable. There is no hope that Bulls, Breves, or Citations would do any good in this case: These would on the contrary, alarm the State, and bring all the Party under great hazards: Therefore from the Nature of Supreme Power, it is most justly Inferred, That though there have been no publick Sentence of Deposition (according to the Forms of the Canon Law) yet all these may be dispensed with, and a Secret and Summary one may do as well.

These Positions are such, that I cannot fansie any just Exceptions to which they are liable; and from all these laid together, the Inference will undeniably follow: That according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome, the power of Deposing Kings is lodged with the Pope, by a Divine Authority; and that, by consequence, private persons may conspire to take away the Life of a King so deposed: Even though there be no publick Sentence given about it. But before I bring the Evidence for all this, I shall desire the Reader will a little reflect on the Positions I have laid down: in which he will find an Answer to all the Exceptions, that can be made against the following Evidence.

[Page]By the first, The Authority of the Church, being the same in all Ages; he will see it is to no purpose to pretend these were dark Ages: So that what was done in an ignorant time, cannot oblige the World when things are seen in a better light. But if the Church has an Authority from Christ, that shall last till the end of the World, it must be the same in all ages. The Ignorance of the age is a very good answer when made by a Protestant, but can signifie nothing in a Papists Mouth.

By the second, Of the Churches authority in setling Moral Rules for practice, it appears how fond that distinction is, which they make between a Canon and a Decree. It is true, a Decree about a particular Case, in which there is some matter of Fact, may be wrong according to their Principles, and yet the authority of the Church remain entire. For instance, in the deposing a Prince, or condemning a Man for Heresie, the Church may either by false Witnesses, or mistaking a Man's words, be drawn to pass an unjust Sentence, by reason of a mis-representation of the Fact. But that is nothing to the purpose here, where a Decree is made as a perpetual Rule of Practice; this must be of the same authority of a Canon about any article of Faith. Otherwise it will follow, that the Church may mislead the People in matters indispensably necessary to Salvation: For such is the Obedience to the Ten Commandments.

By the first way of judging of the Tradition of the Church, from what the most received Writers in any age deliver, as the Doctrine of the Church, it will appear; That the Schoolmen and Canonists are as competent Conveyers of Tradition from the twelfth age downward, as the Fathers were from the sixth Age upward; and laying this for a Principle, That the Church is the same in all Ages, they are really more competent Witnesses than the Fathers were. First, Because they write more closely to the subject they [Page] have in hand; they consider what is said for, or against an Opinion in a more exact manner, than the Fathers did, who being carried with the heat they are sometimes in, go off from the purpose: and generally affect Eloquence, which is the most improper Stile for nice Matters: Whereas the Schoolmen write in a blunt way, only considering the purpose they are about, coyning the most barbarous words they can light on, when they think them the fittest to express their Notions. Secondly, They were divided into two famous Schools, among whom there were great heats, the Scotists and Thomists: So that if either of these had asserted any thing that was not the received Doctrine of the Age they lived in, the other Party had such Emulation against them, that they would not have failed to have laid them open: as they did in the matter of the Immaculate Conception of the B. Virgin. Whereas the Fathers writing only against Hereticks, or other Enemies to Christianity, they might have mistaken somethings, without so publick a discovery as was likely to▪ happen among the Schoolmen. 3dly. The Schoolmen wrote on purpose to deliver the Doctrine of the Age in which they lived, to those who were to succeed them. Their Books being generally the Divinity Lectures they read, either in Colledges or Religious Houses, to their Scholars, whereas the Fathers wrote upon Emergent Occasions, either Letters or Treatises to private Persons, regarding more the present, than the succeeding Age. In which we cannot expect that exactness, that is to be looked for in a Publick Lecture. Upon all which I assume, That allowing the Church to have the same Authority in all Ages, the Schoolmen are more competent Witnesses of the Tradition of the Church in their Ages, than the Fathers were in theirs.

By the second Rule for judging of Traditions, from the Conveyance of the See of Rome, it does undeniably follow, [Page] That the Popes from Gregory the Sevenths time downward, were as sure Depositories of the Traditions of the Church, as were the Popes from Gregory the First his time upward. They were both alike Christ's Vicars, and St. Peters Successors. So that all the high words that the Fathers bestow on the See of Rome, were either Complements, in which they are not wanting, or were said because of the worth of the Bishops, whom they had known in that See. But if they be to be understood in that sence in which the Writers of Controversy obtrude them on us, then it will follow manifestly, that as to the Conveyance of Tradition, P. Gregory the 7th is as much to be believed, when he says any thing in the Name of St. Peter, or of Christ, as any of the Popes are. For in the Preamble of Bulls and Breeves, the Reasons are given of what follows, which are most commonly vouched from Apostolical Authority and Tradition. So let the Pope be ever so ignorant, or so corrupt in his Manners, what he asserts to be Apostolical Tradition, must be either received as such, or the authority of that See is overthrown: therefore they must either cease to press us any more with tht Authority of the See of Rome, or acknowledg that all the Popes Declarations, which they make about Traditions, are to be received. It is an Answer to be made use of only to ignorant Persons, to say, These Depositions were the Deeds of some Popes, who might be ill Men, and the Church is not concerned to justify them. I confess, whether this or that Deposition was justly or lawfully made, is a personal thing, in which only the Pope who decreed it is concerned. But if he declares in the Preamble, that the Power of deposing upon those reasons, is grounded on an Apostolical Tradition, then the See is concerned in it: for either he declares true or false; if the former, then that Power of deposing comes from Apostolical Tradition; if they acknowledge [Page] he declares false, then we are not any more to be urged with the Authority of that See, as the certain Depository of the Traditions of the Church.

By the third Mark, to judge of the Tradition of any age from the Decision of a General Council, it appears, that the Decisions of the fourth Council of Lateran are as Obligatory as the Decrees of the first Council of Nice: the Church having the same power in all Ages. If it be said, it was only a Council of the Western Church, the like may be objected against the first General Council, which were generally made up of Eastern Bishops, and very few of the Western Bishops sat in them. And if we esteem a Council General, because it was received by the Church, then the whole Church of Rome having received that Council, it must be acknowledged to be General as much as any ever was. But to this, others answer, That a Council is only Infallible, when a thing is decreed by it according to the Tradition of the Church. If this be true, the whole Controversie between the Roman Church and us, about the authority of Councils, is decided on our Side. For if a Council has only authority to declare Traditions, then it is free for every Person to examine, whether this Declaration be according to truth or not? And if it be found that it is not so, they may lawfully reject such Decisions. For instance in the second Council of Nice, the worship of Images was established upon a mock-shew of Tradition: and yet all the World knows, there were no Images allowed in the Church the first four Ages after Christ; and even in the sixth Age P. Gregory declared, That though they might be in the Church, yet they ought not to be worshipped. Nor was there any contest about it, before the eighth Century. This being thus examined, and found to be True, then according to the foregoing Answer, that Decision was of no force, though made by the second Council of Nice. In a [Page] word, if this Maxime be true, That Councils are only to be submitted to, when they decree according to Apostolical Tradition, then they have no Authority in themselves: and their decisions can have no more force than this, That it may seem probable that they were not mistaken, and in an Ignorant Age, even this probability will vanish to nothing

No Body will reject the Decision of a Council, when the Decrees are just and right: But if i [...] be upon that score alone, that they are to be submitted to, then none are bound by them, before they have examined them: And if upon a Search it appear they decreed against Tradition, then their Decrees are to be rejected. So it is apparent this Answer does plainly, according to their Principles, lay the foundation of all Heresie; since it gives every Man a right to question the Decrees of a General Council.

Besides, How can those Persons be assured, that the fourth Council of Lateran did not decree according to Tradition? The Acts of that Council are lost: so we cannot know upon what reasons they made their Decrees. And it cannot be said, that because there is no mention made of any Tradition in the Decree, that therefore they considered none. It is seldom found that the reasons of any Decree are put with it. But we may reasonably enough believe, that they followed the Method in this Council, that had been used in some former ones (particularly in the second Council of Nice) which was this, a Writing was read, penned perhaps by the Pope, or a Patriarch, in which the Tradition of the Church was confidently alledged; and some Quotations were brought; and very oft out of some later Writers. The Paper was no sooner read, than a loud and often repeated Shout of applause followed, without any further search or canvasing about these Authorities. And upon that the Decree was made. This was the practice both [Page] of the second Nicene, and of some more ancient Councils; whose Journals are hitherto preserved; and where the Journals are lost, we have reason to believe they followed the same method: so that it is very probable there might have been some such Writing read in the Council of Lateran. And if they did not found their Decree upon Tradition, they were much to blame; for they had as venerable a Tradition, as either the second Council of Nice, or some other Councils had: a practice about 150 years standing from the days of Pope Gregory the VII. so that it is not to be denied but they had as good authority from Tradition, to make this Decree, as to make most of the other Decrees, on which they insist much, in the Books of Controversies that are written by them.

By the fourth Rule of judging about Tradition, the matter is yet much plainer: for if the generally received Belief of any Age of the Church, is a good Thread to lead us up to the Apostles times, then there needs no more be said. For it is certain, that for near four Ages together, this was the universally received Doctrine of the Church of Rome. And the opposition that some Princes made to it was condemned as Heresy, Rebellion, and every thing that was evil. And it is remarkable, that both O [...]kam that wrote much for the Emperors cause against the Pope, and Gerson and Almain, no great favourers of Papal power, are cited by Cardinal Perrow, as acknowledging the Ecclesiastical power of deposing, if a Prince were guilty of spiritual crimes. So that the Controversies in this matter that were managed between the Writers for the Popes and Emperors, were not, whether the Pope in cases of Heresy might depose a Prince? but were concerning two things very remote from this.

The one was, whether the Pope had a direct Temporal power over all Kings, by which as being Lord of the Fe [...], he [Page] could proceed upon any Cause whatsoever against a King, and take his Dominions from him. To this indeed Gregory the 7th pretended tho more covertly, and Boniface the 8th more avowedly. There was great Opposition made to this by many Writers; but at the same time they all agreed on it, as an undeniable Maxim, That the Pope had an indirect Power over Princes, by which in the Cases of Heresy he might excommunicate and depose them; nor was there so much as any Debate about it.

A second thing about which there was some Controversy was, whether the Particulars that fell under debate came within the Head of Heresy, or not? So in the Case of Princes giving the Investitures into Bishopricks, the Pope brought it in within the Head of Heresy, and condemned those Persons as Simoniacks. The Writers on the other side denied this, pretending it was a Civil Matter, and a right of the Crown. The like Debates fell in, when Princes were sentenced on any other account. The Authority of the Sentence in the Case of Heresy was not controverted; all the Question was; Whether the Point under debate was Heresy or not? And concerning these things, any who have read the Writings in the great Collection made of them by Goldastus, will receive an easy and full Satisfaction. By which it appears, that the Popes Power of deposing Kings in the Case of Heresy was the received Doctrine of the Church for several Ages, and by consequence it must be looked on as derived down from the Apostles, If the Doctrine of any one Age of the Church can lead us backward in a certain Track to discover what it was in the Apostles days.

By the first Position about the Nature of Supreme Power, it is apparent, that in the Case of Heresy, a Prince deposed by the Pope, if he stands out against the Sentence, may be as lawfully killed as any Tory or Moss-Trooper, [Page] or Bantito, may be; for he is a Rebel against his Lord, and an Usurper over the People, from that day forward. And therefore tho Mariana told a Secret too publickly, yet it cannot be denied to be a certain Consequent of their Principles. It had been indeed more discreetly done to have ordered this only to be infused unto Peoples Consciences, by their Confessors in secret. And for Mariana, tho the Book in gross is condemned, as they give out, yet the Opinions set down in it are not censured. But In regiam Majest. B [...]. l. 6. c. 4. sect. [...]0, à quocunque privato poteris interfici. Suarez writing against K. Iames, tells him in plain Terms, That a King, who is canonically deposed, may be killed by any man whatsoever. This was not only published with an ordinary License, but the whole University of Alcala declared every thing in it to be according to the Doctrine of the Church. Valentia, tho he disguisesIn Thom. Tom. 3. D [...]sp. 151. q 12. p. 2. it a little, yet says, That an Heretical Prince may by the Popes Sentence be deprived of his Life. Romish Tre sons, l. 2. cap 4. Foulis cites ten more Doctors for the same Opinion of killing Kings by private persons.

I do not build upon the Assertions of these Jesuits, as binding Authorities in that Church, but make use of them to shew, that some of their own eminentest Writers acknowledg the force of this Consequence; which is indeed so evident, that nothing but good Manners, and some small Care not to provoke Princes too much by such bare-faced Positions, keeps others from asserting it. Few Princes are so tame as Childeric was, to go into a Monastery after they are deposed. Therefore this Doctrine is but a lame provision for the Churches Security from Heresie, if the Lawfulness of killing does not follow that of deposing Kings. And it was so generally received, that it is told of Gerson, that he was at greatThe Life of Gerson before his Works, and Tom. 1. p. 375. pains to get it declared that no private Cut-throat might kill a King, and that by consequence it was only [Page] the Popes Prerogative to order them to be destroyed.

By the second Position about the Nature of Supreme Power, that in extraordinary Cases Forms of Law may be superseded; It is also clear, that tho we know nothing of any Sentence of Deposition given out against the King, yet he is not a whit the safer, for he lies under an yearly Curse every Maundy Thursday. The Notoriousness of his Heresy will sufficiently justify a particular Sentence, without any further Process or Citation, according to the Maxims of the Canon Law. And there may be for ought we can know, as valid a Deposition as Parchment and Lead can make it, already expeded. And if it be not yet done, we are sure it may be done very suddenly, and will be done whensoever they see any probability of Success.

Bellarmine hath very sincerely told us the Reason whyRecog. in lib. 5. de Rom. Pont. Heretical Princes are not deposed, because the Church has not strength enough to make such a Sentence good, or does not think it expedient; that is to say, They will do it whensoever they find a Prince who will execute the Sentence, and yet by that Conquest not grow so strong, as by that means to turn the Ballance. So the two Considerations to which we owe our Security are, the want of Force, and the Fear of another Prince his becoming too powerful by the Conquest. But I must add, that Bellarmine, while he was a Jesuite, had taught, that Heretical Princes were not to be deposed, except they endeavoured to turn their people from the Faith: This was all his Bounty to them of which we could not pretend to a Crumb, since there were such Laws made against Popery among us. Yet when he became a Cardinal, he considered better of the Matter; so that in his Recognitions he retracts that, and says therein be followed Durandus his Opinion, who maintains it against Aquinas, [Page] but he thinks the latter was in the right, and says, Even in that Case they may be deposed, only the Church does it not always; either because she wants Strength, or does not judge it expedient. But he concludes, If Princes endeavour to draw their Subjects from the Faith, they may and ought to be deposed. So in our Case there is no Mercy to be expected, unless we repeal all Laws against that Religion.

But after all this there is another Device in the Canon-Law, called, Ipso facto, by which a Sentence is incurred immediately upon the doing of a Fact. This began in the Priviledges granted to Monasteries or Churches, in most of which this Clause is to be found, That if any King or Prince, &c. did any thing contrary to these Priviledges, he thereby fell from his Power and Dignity. Now that Heresy is one of the things upon which a Prince is ipso facto under Excommunication and Deposition, we have the Authority of Father Philopater p. 106, 107. Parsons, or Creswel, who tells us, That the whole School of Divines and Canonists agree in it, and, That it is certain, and of Faith, That a Prince falling from the Catholick Religion, and endeavouring to draw away others from it, does immediately fall from all his Power and Dignity, even before the Pope has pronounced any Sentence, and that his Subjects are free from their Oaths of Obedience, and may eject such an one as Apostate and Heretick.

But there is a clearer Evidence for this; the great and famous College of the Sorbon, (seventy Doctors being present) when consulted, whether the People of France were not freed from their Obedience to Henry the third, upon his putting the Duke and Cardinal of Guise to death; they, before ever the Pope had given Sentence, declared, That they were absolved from their Obedience, and might with a good Conscience make War upon him for the defence of the Catholick Faith. Upon which the Parisians [Page] wrote to the Pope to desire the Confirmation of that Decision. From all which it appears, that if the deposing Power be in the Pope, the King is not a whit the safer, because we know nothing of any such Sentence pronounced against him.

And thus having made good and illustrated the Positions I laid down, against all the Exceptions which that small and condemned Party of Widdrirgton's Followers make use of, to cover themselves from the Charge of Treason, that lies against their Church▪ I go next to lay open the Evidence, after which I shall leave it to every Man's Conscience to pass the Verdict.

There are in (f) Pope Gregory the Great's Works,(l) Greg. M. l. 2 post. Ep. 38. lib. 11. Ep. 10, 11, 12. Siquis Regum, &c. contravenire tentaverit potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat.—in alio honore suo privetur. four Priviledges granted; one to the Abbey of St. Medard, another to the Hospital, a third to the Nunnery, a fourth to St. Martin's Church of Autim. In which after the Priviledges are granted, a Sanction is added in these words; If any Kings, &c. shall endeavour to countervene this Writing, let him lose the Dignity of his Power and Honour. Or shorter, in that of St. Medard, Let him be deprived of his Dignity. These are to be found both in all the MSS, and Printed Editions of that Popes Works. It is true, the first of these to Saint Medard's Monastery, is looked on as a forged Piece, both by Cardinal Perron, Sirmond, and Lannoy. But as it went for a true one till of late, and is still defended by others, Baronius in particular, concluding from thence for the Popes Power over Kings; so the other Priviledges are not denied to be true by any, except Lannoy of late, for ought I know. These have been for above 600 years looked on as the Grants of that Pope. But this may seem a private Writing, and not of such force.

About 130 years after that, Pope Baron. a [...] An. 730. n. 5. Gregory the 3d deposed Leo▪ the Emperor, from all his Dominions in [Page] Italy, because he would not tolerate the Worship of I mages. And if that single Heresie merited such a Sentence, what may we look, for, among whose many imputed Errors this is but one, and none of the most considerable? Not many years after that, did his Successor Zacharias upon a Message he received from France, absolve that Nation from their Oaths to Childeric, and ordered Boniface to Crown Pepin in his stead▪ And not long after that Pope Adrian gave the Empire of Rome, and of the West to Charles the Great. As Bellar. de Trans. Imperii Romani. Bellarmine proves from above 30 of the Historians of that time, and the Testimony of many Soveraign Princes. Yet these being dark Ages, in which there was more of Action than Dispute, we do not find the Grounds laid down, on which those Proceedings were founded. But the constant Maxim of the Papacy, was, once to begin a Practice, and then to find Arguments to defend it, among which the Practice it self was no inconsiderable one; for he was a mean spirited Pope, that would in a Tittle fall short of what his Predecessors had assumed. About 250 years after Charles the Great had assumed the Empire of the West, there arose a Pope (Gregory the Seventh) that resolved to make the most of his See that could be: and reckoning, That the Empire of the West was the Gift of his Predecessors, and building on that known Maxim, That none can give that which they have not, he looked on the supreme Dominion of it, as one of the Perquisites of the See, which he would by no means part with. And therefore in his Dictatus l. 2. post Ep. 55. Dictatis, in which he asserts the several Branches of his Prerogative, these be three of them: That the Pope only may use the Imperial Ensigns. That he may depose Emperours. And, That he can absolve Subjects from their Fidelity to wicked Princes. And to shew he was in earnest in these Doctrines, he began soon [Page] to lay about him. His first Threatnings were against King Philip of France, who was a vicious Prince: In a Letter to the Bishops of France, he requires them to admonish the King for his Faults, and if he did not mend them, to put the whole Kingdom under an Interdict: And if after all that he continued still Disobedient, he Swaggers out in these Words, Lib 2. Ep. 5. ad Ep. France. We will have none to be ignorant, or doubtful, what we intend to do upon it; for by the help of God we will endeavour by all Means, to wrest the Kingdom of France out of his Possession. But upon the submission of that King, these Threatnings came not to any effect: Yet he went on against the Emperor, Hen. the 4th, at the rate he had threatned the King of France. I need not tell what all the World knows: That he first Excommunicated and Deposed the Emperor, in the Year 1076. Then upon his doing of Penance, he received him into his Favour. But upon new provocations he deposed him a second, a third, and fourth time, in the years 1080, 1081, and 1083. In all which he had the concurrence of so many Roman Councils, and set up against him, first Rodolph, after that Herman: as his Successors did; first Conrade, and then Henry, that Emperor's unnatural Sons.

The prosecution of the History, is needless to my Design. But in his Letter to Herman, Bishop of Mets, Liv. 8. Ep▪ 21. we meet with that which is more considerable. For there he largely justifies his Proceedings, which he grounds on the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, being given to St. Peter; and the power of Binding and Loosing joined to them. More places of Scripture he sought not, but his Successor, Extra. de Major. & Obed. cap. 1. Boniface the 8th, made use of Ecce duo Gladii, and the power given to the Prophet Ieremiah, Over Kingdoms, to Root out, Pull down, Destroy, Throw down, to Build, and to plant: And they [Page] took it in great dudgeon, if any would compare a single Prophet under the Law, to Christ's Vicar under the Gospel. But Gregory goes on in his Proofs, to the Tradition of the Church: And says, The Fathers had often both in General Councils, and in their particular Writings acknowledged, That this Power was in the See of Rome; That it was the Mother and Head of all other Churches: That all matters were to be judged by it, from whose Sentence no Appeal could lye: Nor could there be a Review made of the Judgments passed in that See. And to confirm what he had asserted, he cites some Passages out of Gelasius, and Iulius, and that Clause in the Priviledges granted by Gregory the Great, formerly mentioned. So here he very fully and formally delivers the Tradition of the Church, and builds upon it. He also cites the Precedent of Pope Zacharias, his Deposing Childeric, not for any fault he found in him, but because he thought him not fit to Govern. From that he goes on to some Reasons, (such as they are) for the justification of his Proceedings. The Pope having thus declared the Tradition and Doctrine of the Church, it is not to be wondred at, if both the Schoolmen mixt it with the Instructions they gave their Scholars, and the Canonists made it a part of the Law of the Church. Bellar. de Pont. Rom. lib. 5. c. 151. Hugo de Sancto Victore, Alexander Alensis, Bonaventure, Durand, Peter of Aliac, Iohn of Paris, Almain, Gabriel Biel, Henry of Ghant, Iohn Driodo, Iohn de Terre▪iremata, Albert Pighius, Thomas Waldensis, Petrus de Palude, Cajetan, Franciscus Victoria, Dominicus a Soto, and many others, (in all 70 are reckoned by Bellarmin, but Foulis enlarges the number to 177, whom he cites, who) did formally assert it. Aquinas also taught it; tho' in some places he contradicted himself. But Cuspiman in vita Albert. Boniface the 8th, thought his Predecessors [Page] had proceeded in this matter too cautiously, and therefore he went more roundly to work. In the Jubilee in the year 1300, He shewed himself the first day in the Pontifical Habit, but the second day, he was clothed with the Imperial Habit, a naked Sword being carried before him, and cried out with a loud voice, I am Pope and Emperor, and have both the Earthly, and Heavenly Empire. This upon so publick an occasion looks very like the Teaching the Church Ex Cathedra▪ But because words vanished into Air, he left it in writing, in these terms: Cap. de Major. ut Ob [...]d. Exter. We say and define and pronounce, that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation for every humane creature, to be subject to the Bishop of Rome. This being put into the Text of the Canon Law, in which it is continued to this day; we cannot think it Strange that Panorimitan, Ostiensis, Silvester, with all the other Canonists assert the Popes direct Dominion over all the World. And what can they say less, Believing him to be Christs Vicar on Earth, to whom all Power in heaven and earth was given of his Father, therefore the power in Heaven being judged enough for Christ to manage himself, they thought all the power in Earth was Committed to the Vicar. This passed down without Contradiction among them, but was not received by the rest of the Church: yet the Indirect, or as they termed it, the Ecclesiastical power in cases of Heresie was Universally agreed to: not one person Opposing it, till Luther and his Followers came, sawcily to look into the Popes Title to this, and many other pretended Rights of the See of Rome.

But because the Plea for an Indirect Power, was not Sufficient, Since if a Prince did not Favour Heresie, it was of no use: And the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound: Therefore a Title of another kind was set up. It was pretended, That all the Kingdoms [Page] in the Western and Northern parts of Europe were by formal Surrenders offered up to St. Peter, and St. Paul; And therefore whatever the Popes did, was said to be done in Defence of their Rights; which made Gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting Address, with which he begins his Sentences against the Emperor.

First of all, the Donation of Constantine the Great was forged: By which the Power of all the West, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Germany, France, Spain, and England, were given to the Pope. This was put into the Text of the Canon Law: and was stood to, by all the Canonists. It is true the Civilians wrote generally against it. Among whom Bartholus may be reckoned, for in his Preface to the Digests having mentioned the Opinions of some against it, when it comes to his own, he delivers it thus; Take notice that we are now in the Territory of the Church (for he taught at Bulloigne) and therefore I say that Donation is valid. But till Valla discovered the Impostures of it so manifestly, that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer, their plea from it was never laid down. But Augustinus Steuchus, who undertakes the Vindication of that Donation against Valla, does likewise alledge from some Instruments in the Vatican, that both the Kingdoms of Spain, Arragon, France, England, Denmark, Muscovy, Sicily, and Croatia and Dalmatia, did Subject their Crowns to the See of Rome. In Vandal l. 8. c. 2. Kranizius tells us, that Lakold King of Poland, made it Tributary to Rome. And for the German Empire, tho Steuchus says nothing of it, perhaps that he might not offend Charles the 5th, yet there is both in the Canon Law, and the Letters of Popes, more to be said upon that Head, than for any of the rest. They pretend the Popes set up first the Empire of the West: Then gave the Princes of Germany the Right of choosing the Emperor, and does still give the Imperial [Page] Crown, upon the Emperors Swearing an Oath of Homage to them, according to the verse under that Insolent Picture set up by Pope Innocent the 2d. In the Lateram Chron H [...] saug. in vita Abb. Hartiingi. of the Emperor lying prostrate at his feet, and receiving the Crown from him.

Post homo fit Papae, sumit quo dante Coronam.

But all these Surrenders were made use of only to strengthen the great pretention they had of being Christs Vicars, and St. Peters Successours; which from the end of the 11th Century, till the beginning of the 16th. for above 4 Ages together was as Authoritatively asserted by Popes, as positively taught by Divines, and as tamely received by the whole Church, Emperors and Kings not presuming to contradict it, as any other Article of Faith. And for proofs of this we need appeal to no other witnesses than those 3. great Cardinals Baronius, Bellarmin and Perron, who may be presumed to have understood the Doctrine of their own Church, better than any body else.

The First of those, through his whole work strains his Industry, to discover as many Instances as he can of it: and never parts with any without expressing the particular satisfaction he had in so pleasant a Discovery. I shall only set down what he says on the two 1st. occasions that he met with. When he takes notice of Gregory the Great's priviledges formerly mentioned, he adds, Bar. ad Ann. 593. Num. 86. You see Reader, That the Popes can make Laws, to which if Kings themselves do not yield Obedience, they shall lose their Kingdoms. Upon the first Deposition made by Gregory the 3d. He adds, Bar. ad An. 730. Num. 5. The Faithful in the West being awakened by this Thunder, do immediately fall from the Obedience to Leo, adhering to this Apostolical Pope. So this [Page] Gregory left a worthy Precedent to Posterity, that Heretical Princes, be not suffered to reign in the Church of Christ, if having been often admonished, they continue to persist obstinately in their Errors. Such strains as these do so often occur afterwards, that they can scarce be reckoned. It is well known what advice he gave P. Paul the 5th in the quarrel with the Venetians, applying the voice to St. Peter, Arise and Kill, to the case in hand; and that, with his Insolent Paraenesis to that Republick, are clear Evidences of his sence in this matter. What Bellarmin taught more shortly and obscur [...]ly in his Controversies, was afterwards made more plain both by his Writings, about the Translation of the Roman Empire, upon the Interdict of Venice, and against King Iimes, and William Barklay: And Cardinal Perrons Eloquent speech against the Bill put in by the Third Estate of France, for Condemning those pretensions of a Deposing Power, shews us not only his own sense, but the sense of the whole Clergy of France; in whose name he delivered it. [...] his Di [...] [...] Oevres and R [...]ueil General des Affaires du Cierge de France. He calls the Contrary Opinion, a Doctrine that breeds Schisms, a Gate that leads unto all Heresie, and so detestable, that he and his Fellow B [...]shops will choose to burn at a Stake rather than consent to it. He affirming That all the parts of the Catholick Church, and of the Church of France in particular, and all the Schools of Divinity, till the coming of Calvin, held the affi [...]mative, and says, That no where in France since the Divinity Schools w [...]re set up, can they find any one Doctor, Divine, or Lawyer, any Decree, Council, or Sentence of Parliament, or any one Magistrate Ecclesiastick, or Politick, who had held that in case of Heresie or Idolatry, Subjects might not be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity to their Princes. It is true, at first he spake more modestly, and pretended the thing was problematical, and so was not fit matter for an Oath: but when that modester [Page] Strain (tho it tended all to depress the Regal, and exalt the Papal Power) had so far prevailed with the King, that he ordered the matter to be laid aside, and not to be further insisted on. They were not satisfied with this, but made a new Address in the Name of the Clergy; and the Cardinal spake now in a higher tone, asserting formally the Popes indirect Power in Temporal [...]; and that all who maintained the contrary were Schismaticks, and Hereticks, even those of the Parliament it self; and did plainly threaten the King, That if he did not raze all the Proceedings out of the Register, the Clergy would leave the Assembly, and Excommunicate all who denied the Popes Power of Deposing. And if the King would not suffer them to execu [...]e these Censures, they would proceed upon their hazard tho they were to suffer Martyrdom for it. For which zeal, they received a Brave from the Pope, giving them his solemn Thanks for what they had done; desiring them to persevere in the same mind. So we have in this [...]stance, not only Cardinal Perrons own mind, but the s [...]nse of the whole Clergy of France.

I do not think it necessary to enquire further into the opinion of later Writers; tho it were easie to shew, that to [...] day, both the Court of Rome, the whole Order of the Jesuites, the Writers both of Controversies, and Cases of Conscience, and the Expositors of Scripture, do as oft as occasion offers, assert the power of Deposing Kings to be still in the See of Rome. And tho some few Writers of that Religion, since Barkelay and Widdrington's time, both of the English and Irish Nation, have adventured to deny this power; théy have been censured for it, and branded with Heresy. This has been so notorious in the matter of the Irish Remonstrance, that I need say no more of it.

[Page]But whether the Writers of this Age allow it or not, they are bound according to their Doctrine about Tradition, to acknowledg it; since two of the Characters of Tradition are found to agree to it. For it has been delivered in several Ages of the Church, as true Catholick Doctrine by all the publick Doctors in these times: so that either This is a Tradition of the Church, or That is not a true mark of Tradition: nor is it a certain conveyance of Truth, if we may be thus deceived in a clear Tradition, for four Ages successively. It does also appear, that if the See of Rome be a faithful Depositary and Transmitter of Church Traditions, this must be one, since it is delivered to the world by so many Popes in the names of St. Peter and St. Paul, and founded on the Power of the Keys, and of Binding and Loosing granted to St. Peter.

But I shall next shew how the third mark of Tradition, the Authority of General Councils, agrees to this Doctrine. When this Doctrine had been so well spread over Europe, then the Popes found it was safe, to trust it to the judgment of such an Assembly as they esteemed a General Council. And they proceeded in this matter, after the same manner that they had done in the worship of Images: and as they did afterwards in the points of Transubstantiation, and denying the Chalice in the Communion. They took care first to infuse it into all the Clergy, (which God wo [...]'s was no hard thing) and then brought them together, and made up the Pageant of a Council, for giving it more authority. So above an hundred years after Gregory the VII. had first taught this Doctrine, a thing under the name of a General Council sate in the Later an at Rome, where, upon the advantage the Popes had against the Albigenses and others, who were according▪ to their Opinion most pestiferous Hereticks; they first precured a Decree for it. It is true, many Provincial [Page] Councils had concurred with Gregory the VII. (one of these is called a General one, 110 Bishops being present) and the other Popes who had formerly given out these Thunders: But now the matter was to be more solemnly Transacted.

In this Council many Hereticks are condemned andConc. Late. 3. Chap. 27. anno 1287. Tom 28. Excommunicated; and all that had sworn Oaths of Fidelity or Hemage to them, are Absolved from those Oaths: and they are required in order to the obtaining the Remission of their sins, to fight against them: and those who die doing penance in that manner, may without doubt expect Indulgence for their sins, with eternal rewards. And in conclusion, by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul they Remit to all who shall rise and fight against them, two years Penance. Here the Council does industriously infuse this Doctrine into all people; and calls Rebellion Penance (a very easy one to a poor or discontented Subject) and assures them of a deliverance from Purgatory, and that they should be admitted straight to Heaven for it. In an Age in which these things were believed, more effectual means than those could not be found out, to engage the people in it.

By this Decree, if we are guilty of the Heresies then condemned, (as no doubt we are of most of them) without more ado, or any further Sentence▪ upon the declaring us guilty of the Heresies of the Albigenses, the Subjects are delivered from their obligations to the King. And when they conspire or rebel against him, they are only doing penance for their sins; and he were hardhearted that would punish men only for doing of penance.

About thirty years after that Council, the Pope had a mind to regulate the former Law, That the Deposing of Kings might be declared a part of his Prerogative; and [Page] that thereby he might with authority Dispose of their Kingdoms to others. For hitherto the Popes had only pretended to the Power of Deposing, and then the States of the Kingdom as in an Interregne, were to choose a new Prince. But P. Innocent the III. thought it was half work, except he could bestow, as well as take away Crowns. His Predecessor Celestine had in a most extravagant humour set the Crown on Henry the Sixth his head, with his two feet, and then kickt it off again; to shew, according to Barronius his Comment, That it was in his power to give, to maintain, and take away the Empire.

A very full Assembly therefore being called of about 1200 of one sort or other to the Lateran again, It wasConc. Later. 4. Can. 3. Tom. 28. The same Council that established Transubstantiation. first Decreed, That the aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Extirpating of Hereticks; after that they proceed and enact thus. When the Temporal Lord required or admonished by the Church, shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical wickedness, let him be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans. And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year, let him be signified to the Pope: That he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience; and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks, who having exterminated the Hereticks, shall possess it without contradiction, and preserve it in the purity of the Faieh; so as no injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord, where there is such, provided he do not any way oppose himself: and the same Law is to take place on them, who have no Superiour Lord.

The Deposition of the Court of Tholouse, being the thing then in their eye, made that the Decree runs chiefly against Feudatary Princes, yet as the last Clause takes in Soveraign Princes, so by the Clause before, it was provided, That if the Soveraign did any way Oppose what [Page] was done against his Vassal, he was to forfeit his Right. I did in the former part of this Letter, meet with all the Exceptions that are commonly made to this Canon. Only one pretty Answer which a person of Honour makes, is yet to be considered. He tells us, that there were so many Soveraign Princes, or Ambassadors from them, at this Council, that we are to look on this Decree, as a thing to which those Princes consented. From whence he Infers, It was rather their Act, than an Invasion of their Rights made by that Council. But be it so, he knows they allow no Prescription against the Church. If then those Princes consented to it, upon which the power of Deposing had that Accession to fortifie it by, it can never be recalled nor prescribed against. It is true there were many Ambassadors from Princes there: But they were all such as either held their Dominions by the Popes Grant, or had been either Deposed by him, or Threatned with Depositions, or were the Children of those whom he had Deposed. So no wonder they stood in such fear of the Pope, that they durst not refuse to consent to every thing he had a mind to. For indeed this Council did only give their Placet to a paper of Decrees penned by the Pope.

Henry called the Greek Emperor, Brother to Baldwin, that had seized on Constantinople, had no other Title to it besides the Popes Gift. Frederick the 2d. who had been the Popes Ward, was then the Elect Emperor of Germany, made so at the Popes Instance, who had Deposed the two Immediately preceding Emperours, Philip and Otho the 4th. the last being at that time alive; So that he durst not contradict the Pope, lest he should have set up Otho against him. But no Emperor, except Henry the 4th, ever suffered more from the Popes Tyranny, than he did afterwards. One sad Instance of it was, that the Pope having [Page] pressed his March to the Holy-land much, did at last Excommunicate him for his delays: upon which, he to avoid further censures, carried an Army thither: which was so succesful, that the Pope who hoped he should have been destroyed in the Expedition, (as the first Emperor of that name was) now being vexed at his Success, complained that he should have presumed to go thither, while he lay under Excommunication, and was in Rebellion against him; and went about not only to Dethrone him, but to get him to be betrayed by the Knights Hospitallers, and Templers, into the Sultans hands, who abominating that Treachery, revealed it to him.

Iohn of Brenne had the Kingdom of Ierusalem by that same Popes Gift, who took it from Almeric King of Cyprus, and gave it him; But Almeric had no cause to complain, since he held Cyprus only by the same Copy of the Popes Gift: So they both were at the Popes Mercy. Our Iohn of England was his Vassal, as he usually called him; But his Successour went higher, calling the King of England not only his Vassal, but his Slave; and Declared That at his beck he could procure him to be Imprisoned, and Math. Paris. ad An. 1253. Disgraced. Iames King of Arragon, who was also the Popes Ward, had no less reason to be afraid of the Pope, who had Deposed his Father for Assisting the Count of Tholouse. Philip Augustus King of France, had his Kingdom twice put under an Interdict, worse things being also threatned. The like Threatnings had been made to Andrew King of Hungary, but upon his Submission he was received into favour.

And now is it any wonder, that those Princes gave way to such a Decree, when they knew not how to help themselves by Opposing it, which would have raised a Storm, that they could not hope to weather?

Anothet thing is remarkable concerning this time, by [Page] which the Belief of the Deposing Doctrine in that Age will better appear. Other Princes whom Popes had Deposed, procured some Civilians to write for them; and got Synods of Bishops sometimes on their side against the Pope. Because it was evident the Pope proceeded not upon the Account of Heresie, but of private spite and hatred. But in the case of the Count of Tholouse, who was a manifest Favourer of that, which was esteemed Heresie, (the Opinions of the Albigenses that were his Subjects) not a Writer in all that Age durst undertake to defend his cause, nor could he procure one Bishop to be of his side. So universally was it received, that in the case of Heresie, a Prince might be Deposed by the Pope.

The 3d General Council that Confirmed this Power,Conc. Lugd. Tom. 28. was the Council of Lions, held by Innocent the 4th against the forementioned Frederick the 2d, where (as the Sentence bears) The Pope having Consulted with his Brethren and the Holy Council, being Christs Vicar on Earth, to whom it was said in the person of St. Peter, whatsoever ye bind on Earth, &c. Declares the Emperor bound in his sins, and thereupon Deprived by God of his Dominions. Whereupon he by his Sentence does Depose him, and absolves all from their Oaths of Fidellty to him. Straitly charging all persons, to acknowledge him no more either Emperor or King. Declaring all that did otherwise, Excommunicated ipso facto. There are in this Process several things very remarkable. It is grounded on a pretence to a Divine Tradition; So here the whole Council concur with the Pope, in asserting this power to flow from that Conveyance. And thus either that Tradition is true, or the Councils are not to be believed when they Declare a Tradition. 2ly. Tho this is but a Decree in one particular Instance, yet it is founded on the General Rule; And so is a Confirmation of it, by which it is put out of doubt that the 4th Council of Lateran included Soveraign Princes [Page] within their Decree. 3ly, When the Emperors Advocate appeared to plead for him; He did not at all except to their Jurisdiction over him, or Power of Deposing in the case of Heresie, but denyed that the Emperor was guilty of the crimes Objected, namely Heresie, whereby he, at least, waved the denial of their Power in that case. He also desired some time might be granted for the Emperor to appear and plead for himself in person. Whereby he plainly acknowledged their Jurisdiction. 4ly When the Ambassadors of France and England, Interceded that the Emperors desire might be granted; the Council gave him near two weeks time to appear in: which was so incompetent a time, and all had declared themselves so prepossest, or rather so overawed by the Pope that hated him Mortally; That the Emperor would not appear because they were his professed Adversaries. And upon that, and other grounds (none of them touching on the power of Deposing in cases of Heresie) He appealed from them, to the next General Council; Upon which the Pope and Prelates sitting in Council, with Candles burning in their hands, thundred out the Sentence against him.

Here were three very publick Judgments, of three General Councils on this Head, within the compass of sixty years. But it may be imagined, these were Councils that wholly depended on the Pope; and so their Decrees are to be looked on, only as a Ceremony used by the Pope to make his own Sentence look more solemn. But when upon the long Schism in the See of Rome, the power of that See was much shaken, and a Council met at Constance to heal that Breach; in which the Bishops taking advantage from that Conjuncture, to recover their former Dignity, began to Regulate many matters. It may be, upon such an occasion, expected, that if any Party in the Church had disliked these practices, they should have [Page] been now condemned; and that the rather, since by so doing, the Bishops might have hoped to get the Princes to be of their side, in their Contests with the Pope. But it fell out quite otherwise. For as the Murtherers of his late Sacred Majesty pretended, when the King was killed, that all his power was devolved on them, and would have even the same precedence allowed their Ambassadors in forreign parts, that his had: So the Council of Constance reckoned, that whatever Rights the Popes had assumed, did now rest with them, as the Supreme Power of the Church. For in one of their Sessions, a Decree was framed, made up of all the severe Decrees that had ever been made against those who violated the Rights of the Church: And this Clause often returns, That all the Conc. Const. Tom. 29. Sess. 19. Breakers of these Priviledges, whether they were Emperors, Kings, or whatsoever other Degree, were thereby, ipso facto, subjected to the B [...]nns, Punishments, and Censures set down in the Council of Lateran. And tho they do not call it the Fourth Council, yet we are sure it could be no other; for they relate to that in which Frederick the 2d. was consenting to which was the fourth in the Lateran And in another Decree, by which they hoped to have set up a Succession of General Councils, at evety ten years end; this Clause is added, That if any person, whether of the Sess. 15. Papal (for they had subjected the Pope to the Council, and had more reason to fear his opposing this Decree, than any Bodies else) Imperial or Regal Dignity, &c. should presume to hinder any to come to the next General Council, he is declared to be first Excommunicated, then under an Interdict, and then to be subject to further punishment both Temporal and Spiritual. And in the Pass they gave the King of the Romans, to go to the King of Arragon, they add this Sanction, That whatever person, whether King, Cardinal, Sess. 17. &c. do hinder him in his Iourney, he is ipso facto, deprived of all Honour, Dignity, Office, or Benefice, whether [Page] Ecclesiastical or Secular. So here the indirect power over Princes, by which they may be both deposed and punished, is plainly assumed. It is true that same Council didSess. 15. indeed Decree, That no Subject should murther his King or Prince; upon which some of our English and Irish Writers, who condemn these practices, think they have great advantages. That Decree was procured by Gersons means, who observing that by the many Rebellions that had been generally set on by Popes, the Persons of Princes were brought under such contempt, that private Assassinations came to be practised: and in particular that of the Duke of Orleance by the Duke of Burgundy. Therefore to prevent the fatal consequer ces which were like to follow on that, and to hinder such practices for the future, he with great earnestness followed that matter: And tho it had almost cost him his life (it is like from some of the Duke of Orleance his Faction, who were resolved on a Revenge) yet at last he procured it: But this was only a Condemnation of private Cut-throats. And the Article condemned had a pretty Reservation in it, for it strikes only against Subjects killing their Prince, without waiting for the Sentence of any Iudg whatsoever. So if a Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judg, then this Condemnation notwithstanding, a Prince may be Murthered. And the other Decree of that Council passed in the same Session, shew they had no mind to part with the Deposing Power. Besides the Answer to this Decree is clear. It is acknowledged by the Defenders of the contrary opinion, That it is not lawful in any case to kill a King; but when one that was a King is no more such, but becomes a Rebel and an Usurper, then it is lawful to kill him.

Pursuant to the Decree made at Constance, a CouncilCon. Sien. Tom. 29. met at Siena ten years after, in which all the former Decrees made against Hereticks are confirmed, and the Favourers or Fautors of Heresie are delared liable to all the [Page] pains and censures of Hereticks, and by consequence to the chief of them all, Deposition.

After that came the Council of Basil, which ratified theCon. Basil Tom. 29. forementioned Decree made at Constance about General Councils. By which Popes, Emperors, Kings, &c. that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council, are subjected to Excommunication, Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal.

Last of all came the Council of Trent, and tho metConc. Trid. Sess. 25 c. 19. ters were at that pass, that the Council durst not tread on Princes, as others had formerly done, lest they should have been thereby provoked to join with the Protestants; yet they would not quite lay aside the pretence of a Deposing power, but resolved to couch it so into some Decree, that it might continue their claim to a Right, which they would not part with, tho they knew not at that time what to make of it. So in the Decree against Duels, they declare, That if any Emperors, Kings, &c. did assign a field for a Combat, that they did thereby lose their Right to that place, and the City, Castle, or other places about it. Now it is certain, if by their Decrees a Prince may forfeit any part of his Dominion, he may be also dispossessed of all the rest; since his Title to his whole Territory being one individual thing, what shakes it in any part, subjects it entirely to him who has such authority over it.

Here we have found 7 General Councils, as they are esteemed by that Church, all either expresly asserting the Deposing Power, or ratifying former Decrees that had asserted it. And from such a succession of Councils, it is reasonable to conclude, That this Third Character of a Tradition of the Church agrees to it; and if General Councils are fit Conveyors of Traditions, we have as full Evidence as can be desired, for proving this to be a Church-Tradition.

This last Character of a Tradition is what the whole [Page] Body of the Church has held in any one Age. Upon which, they say, we may calculate that such opinions must have come down from the Apostles, since it seems neither credible nor possible, that the Belief of the Church could be changed. With this Arnold has of late made great noise. And as the new Fashions that come from France do please our young Gallants best, so some of the Writers of Controversies among us have taken up the same plea here. That the whole Church received the Deposing Doctrine in cases of Heresy, may be inferred from what had been said. The Church is made up of Popes, Bishops, & Priests: Of Soveraign Princes, and Subjects of all ranks. That the Popes believed it, none can doubt. So many Definitions of Councils, shews us as plainly what the Bishops and other Prelates believed: the Writing of the Schoolmen and Canonists shew, what the rest of the Clergy believed. Those Princes who suffered under the Sentences, give at least a tacit consent to it, since they never question it, but study only to clear themselves of the imputation of Heresie. The other Princes who made use of the Donations of the Popes, shew as plainly that they believ'd it. The great Armies that were brought about their Standards, must have also believed it: and the people who generally deserted the Deposed Prince, notwithstanding the great vertues of some of them, and the love that Subjects naturally carry to their Princes, shew that they believed it. So that if St. Iames his Question, Shew me thy Faith by thy Works, be applied to this particular, the Answer will be easie. What shall I mention the frequent depositions of Charles the 1st, of Henry the 4th, of his Son Henry the 5th, of Frederick the 1st, Philip, Otho the 4th, Frederick the 2d, and Lewis the 4th in the Empire. The frequent Depositions in Sicily and Naples; the many attempts upon France; that terrible Bull in particular of Iulius the 2d, against that good King Lewis the twelfth. [Page] By which, besides the Sentence against the King, it appears he designed the total destruction of the Nation, promisingBud de Asse lib. 5. the Pardon of Sin to every one that killed one French Man; the frequent Attempts upon England, both in Hen. the 2d, and K. Iohn's time; not to mention their later Bulls of Deposition against K. Henry the 8th, and Q. Elizabeth; the many Attempts in Spain; particularly, the deposing the King of Navarre by P. Iulius; and the Sentences against Henry the 4th, then King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde. All these, and a great many more, with the strange Effects that followed upon them, are so clear Proofs of the Worlds believing this Doctrine, for many Ages together, that if Men had any Remainders of shame left with them, they could not deny it. And to this day all their Writers maintain it, tho perhaps now the greatest part of the Laity know little of it; but whenever the Tradition of the Church is laid before them, they are obliged to submit, or they fall from the Catholick Faith, the chief Branch of which is, To believe all the Traditions of the Church. And since the Church is the same in all Ages, according to their Doctrine, the Traditions of any one Age must be as good as the Traditions of any other can be, all being grounded on the same Authority.

And now let all the Reasons that Arnold brings to prove, from the Churches believing Transubstantiation in any Age, that she must have always believed it, be considered, and applied with a small variation of the Terms to this Purpose; and we shall see if they conclude not as strongly in favour of this Doctrine, as for that which he has pursued so much. How can it be imagined, says he▪ that a Doctrine so contrary to common Sence and Reason, could have been so universally received, if every Man had not been taught it by those who instructed him in the [Page] Faith? Will Men easily change their Faith? Or, tho particular Persons would prevaricate, would the whole Clergy conspire to do it? Or would the People take it easily off their hands. These and many more Topicks of that sort may be so mustered up, and set off by a Man of Wit and Eloquence, that an ordinary Person would stare, and not know what to say. The Premises will shew, that there is need but of very little Art to change the same Plea, and fit it to this purpose, with two great advantages beyond what can be fanci'd to be in the other. The one is, that the generality of Mankind is naturally more concerned in the preservation of Temporal things, than about nice points of Speculation; the one they see and handle every day, and are much concerned about; the other they hear little of, and are not much touched with them. So that it is less probable there could be a change made in opinions, on which the Titles of Princes, and the Peace of Kingdoms depended, than about subtil Discourses concerning Mysteries. So that the Plea is stronger for the Tradition of deposing Kings, than for Transubstantiation. A second Difference is, That there was a continual Opposition made to the belief of Transubstantiation in all Ages, which they themselves do not deny, only they shift it off the best they can, by calling the Opposers Hereticks; but for the deposing Doctrine, there was not one Person in the whole World, that presumed to bring it in question, from the first time it was pretended to, till those whom they call Hereticks disputed against it; and tho some few others, who hold Communion with them, have ventured on a canvasing of that Doctrine, it is well enough known what thanks they got from Rome; nor can they shew any one Book, licensed according to the Rules of their Church, that denies it. And thus the Plea for this Doctrine has a double Advantage [Page] beyond that for Transubstantiation.

Upon the whole matter then, if Tradition be a sure Conveyance, and if we may pronounce what is truly a Tradition, either from the Opinions of Doctors, the Constitutions of Popes, the Decrees of General Councils, and the universal Consent of the whole Church for some Ages; then the Doctrine of deposing Kings, to which all these agree, must be reckoned among Church-Traditions. There is but one other Mark that can be devised of a Tradition, which is, What the Church has taught and believed in all Ages; but for a certain Reason, which they know very well, they will not stand to that. They know we do not refuse such Traditions, and if only such may be received, then the Worship of Images, the Prayers to Saints, the Worship in an unknown Tongue, the Belief of Transubstantiation, the Sacrifice of the Mass, the denying the Chalice to the Laity, the redeeming Souls out of Purgatory, with many other things of the like nature, will be soon taken off of the File. And indeed in this sence, the deposing Doctrine is so far from being a Tradition, that we have as undeniable Evidences, that the Church for the first six Ages knew nothing of it, but on the contrary abhorred the thoughts of it, as we have, that their Church these last six Ages has set it up: From which, among many other Reasons, we conclude, that these latter Ages have not been acted with the same Spirit, nor followed the same Doctrine, that was the Rule of the former Ages.

There is more than enough said to shew, that these Doctrines are a part of their Faith; from which they can never extricate themselves, but by confessing, either that their Church has erred, or that Tradition is no true Conveyance; when they do either of these, they turn their Backs on Rome, and are in a fair away to come over to our [Page] Church, with which purpose I pray God inspire them.

The mean while, it is no wonder, if those of that Communion, have been guilty of such horrid Plots and Rebellions every where, especially in England, since Henry the 8th's time. There was in his Reign, First a Rebellion in Lincolnshire, another greater one in the North, and some lesser ones after that▪ In Edward the 6th's time, there were Risings, both in the North, and in the West. But these succeeded so ill, and turned only to the ruine of their own Party, that they resolved to try secreter ways in Queen Elizabeth's time; in whose long and blessed Reign, there scarce passed one year in which there was not some Plot against her Life. There was not Matter enough to work upon, for raising any considerable Rebellion in England: But in Ireland, there were more frequent attempts that way. It is true, the Care and Providence of God was too hard for all their Plots, how closely soever laid; and they were turned back on themselves, not so much to the ruine of the chief Plotters (who were wise enough to conveigh themselves out of the way) as of many Noble Families, that were poysoned with their ill Principles. All the Blood which the State was forced to shed, lies at their door, who were continually giving fresh Provocations. And for King Iames (not to mention the Conspiracies against him in Scotland, nor that Plot of Cobham and Watson, upon his first coming to this Crown) the Gun-powder Treason was a thing that went beyond all the wicked Designs that had been ever in any Age contrived. And when his late Majesty was Embroiled in his Affairs in this Island, how did they take advantage from that Conjuncture, to break out into a most horrid Rebellion in Ireland, joyned with a Massacre of Persons of whatsoever Age, or Sex, or Condition? Which was so far set on by [Page] Rome, that a Nuncio came publickly to direct their Councils. I will not dwell on Particulars that are suffciently known, but only name these things, to shew, That no Reign of any of our Princes, since the Reformation, has been free from the dismal effects of these Doctrines. And for his Sacred Majesty who now Reigns, (whom God long preserve from their Malice) they have felt such signal marks of his Royal Clemency, that they can have no colour to complain, except it be, because they cannot bear any Office in the Nation. For what Noise soever they make, of the severe Laws yet in force, both against the Clergy and Laity of their Religion, they cannot pretend that since his Majesties happy Restauration, any Priest has died, or any Family has been ruined for their Religion. But I confess, it is enough, according to the Doctrine of their Church, to discharge them of their Allegiance, That the King is a favourer of Heresy; and if upon this Reason they will still Plot and Conspire against his Person and Government, we have no reason to wonder at it, for they act according to their Principles.

Nor have these Islands been the only Scenes, in which those Principles have produced such dismal Effects. If we look abroad and reflect on what was done in France, we shall find, they have had the same Operation there. I need not mention that perfidious and cruel Massacre, that as Thuanus tells us was so much extolled in Rome and Spain: and of which the Pope has a Memorial kept in the Hangings, at the entrance of his Chappel, to this day. The Barricadoes of Paris, the design of Deposing Henry the 3d, only because he had made Pe [...]ce with the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde; the whole progress of the holy League; their taking Arms against that King, when the Duke and Cardinal of Guise [Page] were killed by his Orders, and at last his being stabbed by Clement, a Dominican Friar, are Instances beyond exception. The prosecution of the Rebellion against Henry the 4th, the attempt made upon his Person by Iohn Chastel, which was more successful in Ravilliack's hands, shew sufficiently, That a Princes turning from that, which they call Heresie, over to their Church, does not secure him, unless he will extirpate Hereticks. For tho Henry the 4th changed his Religion, yet the favour he shewed the Protestants, in the Edict of Nantes, was a thing never to be forgiven. These things were set on and encouraged from Rome, and pleaded for by their Writers. That the holy League was authorized from Rome, that Sixtus the 5th, by his Bulls, declared the King of Navar incapable of the Succession; that he intended to have Deposed Henry the 3d, and that he rejoyced at his death, and magnified the Fact; preferring it to Eleazar's killing the Elephant, and Iudeth's killing Hollofernes, and ascribed it to a singular Providence and Disposition of the Almighty; called it a great Miracle, and appeared vain that a Friar had done it, having been one himself, (tho no doubt he had liked it better, if Clement had been of his own sute) and would have had himself thought a Prophet for foretelling it, (and so he might well do perhaps): and in the end concluded, That unfortunate Kings favouring Hereticks, to be the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost: These were all so publickly done, that it were a needless labour, to go about the proving them. Francis Veronne wrote a Book, to justify both the Facts of Clement the Dominican, and Chastel, (as well he might from the Principles of their Church). After all these dismal Facts, was it not time for the States of France, to think of some effectual Remedy, to prevent the like for the future? And they judged aright, that [Page] without Condemning the Deposing Power, it could not be done: To which, as was already hinted, the Clergy made such vigorous Opposition, that it came to nothing.Diseuss. Decret. Con. Lateran. p. 46.

If these things had flowed only from the heat of some violent Spirits, the danger were not so great; but it is the Doctrine of their Church, so Lessius (under the name of Singletonus) says, That if the power of Deposing lies not in the Pope, the Church must of necessity Err, which has taught it; and to assert that, is Heretical, and a more intollerable Error, than any about the Sacrament can be. And Becanus, Confessor to Ferdinand the 2d, says, No Bec. Controv. Angl. p. 115. Man doubts, but if Princes are Contumacious, the Pope may order their Lives to be taken away. What security then can there be found out from Persons, who give up their Consciences to the conduct of Men of such Principles; and profess an Implicite Obedience and belief of all that their Church teaches and commands, which possesses all its Votaries with such cursed rage against Hereticks, that not content to adjudg them to eternal Flames in another Life, they must needs Persecute and Burn without Mercy where they have the Power in their Hands; and Plot and Conspire, Kill and Massacre without relenting, where they have not Power to do it with any colour of Law?

Men of Honour will not be easily drawn in to such Practices. But in Conclusion, when a fit Opportunity appears, they must either forsake their Church, or concur in the most mischievous Designs, that the Masters of their Consciences will draw them into; which I pray God make them see in good time, before they are Involved in such Snares, that Repentance will come too late to do them good, or to preserve the Nation from those Miseries that they will bring upon it.

FINIS.

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THE Unreasonableness AND IMPIETY OF POPERY: IN A SECOND LETTER Written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT.

Imprimatur C. Alston, Nov. 12. 1678.

LONDON, Printed for R. Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1678.

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The Unreasonableness and Impiety OF POPERY, In a Second Letter written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT.

SIR,

YOu are pleased to tell me that my last Letter has had some good effect; and that many who were before carried away with the false colours of the Romish Religion, are now a little awakned, and seem not unwilling to examin things, which they took formerly upon trust: and therefore you desire me, since you are not Master of so much spare time your self, to set down the most material and convincing reasons, and in as few words as may be, that are most likely to open the eyes of honest and simple persons, that have been hitherto misled, and are now willing to be instructed.

In all such cases I first consider the temper of the persons to be dealt with: Such as take up their Religion out of interest or humour, and think it point of honour to continue in it, and so will examine nothing are not to be spoken to. Others that are naturally superstitious and credulous, are very hard to be wrought on; for they believe every thing that is said on the one hand, and distrust all that is told them by any body else. Some of those have a vanity in coming to talk with Divines, but it is an endless labour to deal with them; for at every [Page] time one must begin of new. But the only persons to be dealt with, are those that are sincere and inquisitive, that having been bred in that Religion, or brought over to it by some specious pretences, are now willing to hear reason, and resolved to follow it wherever they find it. And therefore in the first place, their minds must be disingaged from these unjust prejudices, that they conceive of our Religion: and such just prejudices must be offered them against the Romish Religion, as may at least beget in them some jealousies concerning it, by which they may be brought so far, as to think the matter suspicious. If then there be such reasons offered them, for susspecting foul dealing from their Priests and Church, as would make them suspect an Attorney, Physician, or any other person with whom they were to deal, they will be prepared to hear reason; which is all that we desire: and upon this Head these following Considerations may be laid before them.

1. All people that pretend to great Power and Dominion over our consciences, are justly to be suspected. If any man designed to make himself Master of any of our other Liberties, we would examine his Title, and suspect all his other motions, when we see they tend to subject us to him: Therefore a Church that designs to keep all her Votaries under an absolute obedience, is justly to be suspected: and our Church that pretends to no such power, is more likely to deal fairly.

2. A Church that designs to keep her Members in ignorance, is more to be suspected, than a Church that brings every thing to a fair Trial. A Church that denies the use of the Scriptures in a known tongue, except to a few, and wraps up their Worship in a Language that is not understood, is reasonably to be suspected, more than a Church that gives the free use of the Scriptures to [Page] all persons, and worships God in a Language, which the people understand.

3. A Church whose Opinions tend to engross the Riches of the world to its Officers, is more to be suspected, than a Church that pretends to nothing but a competent maintenance of the several Officers in it. The Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory, and the Enriching the Shrines, or Reliques of Saints, Pardons, Jubilees, and many more Tenets of the Church of Rome, are so calculated for enriching their Societies; that every cautious man must needs suspect some design in it: which he cannot charge on a Church that has none of these Arts to get money.

4. A Church that has carried on its Designs, by the most dishonest methods possible, the forging of Writings, and Deeds, of Miracles, Visions, Prophesies and other things of that Nature, is more justly to be suspected, than a Church that cannot be charged with any such practices. The Forging so many Epistles for the Popes of the first Ages, which are now by themselves confest to be Spurious, with many other Forgeries, were the Engines by which the Papal Power was chiefly advanced. The Legends and Extravagant Fables of which they are now ashamed, were the chief Motives of Devotion for many Ages. And by these, Saints and Images were so much magnified, and Monasteries so enriched. A Noted Liar after a Discovery is no more to be trusted.

5. Any that considers the present State of Rome, the manner of Electing Popes, the Practices of that Court, and the Maximes they move by, must see that every thing there is secular, corrupt, and at best directed by rules of Policy. But to fansie the Holy Ghost can come upon any Election so managed, as their own Books shew [Page] that is, is the most unreasonable thing that can be devised. Therefore a Church that neither pretends so high, nor can be charged with such proceedings, is more likely to be the true Church.

6. A Church that teaches Cruelty against poor Innocent people, that differ in opinion; and sets on Plots, Conspiracies, and Rebellion against Princes, that are judged Hereticks, is more likely to be corrupted, than a Church that is so merciful, as to condemn all capital proceedings for difference of Opinion, and teaches an absolute Submission to the Soveraign Power, even when it persecutes and oppresses them.

7. A Church that is false to her own Principles, is not so likely to Instruct her members aright, as a Church that is in all things consistent to her self. The great Foundation of their Doctrine, is, That there must be a speaking Judg to decide all Controversies: Now they have no such Judg, for it is not of Faith, that the Pope is this Judg, or is Infallible: And for a general Council, they have had none these 112. years, nor are they like to see another in hast. So they have no Speaking Infallible Judg among them. And thus they deceive people by a false Pretence: whereas we appeal to nothing, but what we really have among us, which are the Scriptures.

8. A Church that appeals to Marks, which are not possible to be searcht out, is more likely to mislead people, than a Church that pretends to nothing but what can be certainly proved. The great thing they appeal to is the Constant Succession of the Bishops of Rome, and their other Pastors. This cannot be known, no not by a probable conjecture. But there are on the contrary, as great grounds for History to deny it in the See of Rome, as in any other Ancient See whatsoever: but [Page] though they have it, both the Greek Church, and our Church has it likewise.

These are such plain things, and the Truth of them is so notoriously known, that I should ask any of that Communion, whether upon the like reasons he would not be Jealous of any person or sort of persons whatsoever? And if these grounds of jealousie would work in other matters, it is much more reasonable, that they should take place in matters of Religion; In which as an Error is of far greater Importance; So Impostors in all Ages have studied to make gain by Religion. Therefore it is most just upon these violent presumptions, to look about us, and take care we be not cheated.

But before I would descend to particulars, there is one General prejudice that works most universally, on weaker minds to be removed, which is, that the true Church cannot Erre. If then it be made appear unanswerably, that the true Church may Erre, and that in a most weighty Point, all these Arguments fall to the ground.

That the Church of▪ the Iews, in our Saviours days was the true Church, cannot be denied; for our Saviour owned it to be such. He joyned with them in their worship, He sent the Lepers to the Priest, He commanded them to hear the Doctors that sate in Moses Chair, and himself acknowledged the High Priest. This is sufficient to prove that it was the true Church, and yet this Church erred, in a most Important point, whether Jesus Christ was the true Messias, in whom the Prophecies were fulfilled or not? they Judged falsly: The High Priests with all the Sanhedrim, declared him a Blasphemer, and condemned him guilty of Death. Here the true Church expounds the Scriptures falsly, and erred in the Foundation of Religion.

[Page]And it is well known, that the chief arguments which they of the Romish party bring to prove, that a Church cannot Err, do agree as well to the Iewish, as the Christian Church: the one being the true Church, under that dispensation, as well as the other is now. If then this Decision made by the true Church in Christs time, did not oblige all in that Church, to go on in that error, but private persons might have examined their Sentence, and depart from them upon it; then upon the same reasons, though we acknowledge the Church of Rome a true Church, yet we may examine her Doctrines, and separate from her errors. This grand prejudice being thus removed, there are two things in the next place to be laid before them.

One is, that the Scriptures, being acknowledged to come from Divine Inspiration, on all hands, can only decide the Controversies among us: and the places I shall make use of, shall be cited according to the Doway Translation, to which, being made by themselves, they cannot except.

Another is, that a man must judg of things as they appear plainly to his reasonable Faculties. It is against all reason to say that because it is possible for a man to be mistaken, therefore he ought to doubt his Judgment in things that are clear to him. This must turn a man Sceptical both to all Religions, and all the concerns of human life: Therefore every man must follow his Judgment, when after a diligent Inquiry, any thing appears plain to him.

And now to come up close to those of that perswasion, they are to consider, that the chief parts of Religion are, First, Articles of Faith: Secondly, Rules of Life: Thirdly, The worship of God chiefly in the Sacraments: And Fourthly, The Government of the Church. If [Page] then in every one of these Heads, the Church of England agrees clearly with the Scriptures, and the Church of Rome does either manifestly contradict them, or differs matterially from them, in all these points, in which we and they differ; then the Resolution of the Question, Whether a man ought to joyn himself to our Church, or theirs? will be easily made.

For Articles of Faith, if either the Apostles Creed or the Creeds of the First 4. General Councils, contain a just abstract of the Faith; then we who receive every Article in these Creeds, do agree more exactly to the Apostolical Doctrine, than they who have added many new Articles to their Creed.

The chief Article of Faith, is, The Covenant made between God and Man through Iesus Christ, by which upon the Account of his Merits and Intercession, all who follow the Rules of the Gospel, may expect the Blessings of it, both here, and hereafter. Pennance toward Acts 20. 21. God, and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ, being the conditions upon which we hope for Eternal life. This we plainly teach, without Addition or Change: But in how many things have they departed from this Simplicity of the Gospel? First, In teaching People to address to God, for the Merits and by the Intercession of the Saints: From whom these things are asked, for which the Scriptures direct us only to God and Christ. And in the very words pronounced after absolution, The Merits of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, are joined with the passion of Christ; as the grounds on which we obtain pardon of Sin, Grace, and Eternal life. Secondly, In perswading People, That a Simple attrition with the use of the Sacraments, without any real conversion of the Soul or change of life, is sufficient to Salvation. Thirdly, In perswading People, That [Page] there is a Communication of the Merits of Saints to other Persons, though the Scriptures mention only the Communication of Christs Merits. Fourthly, by Teaching that tho our sins are pardoned thorough Christ; yet, there are terrible and long lasting torments to be endured in another State. F [...]tly, that saying Masses, and going of Pilgrimages can Redeem from these. Now in all these, the two chief Designs of the Gospel are plainly contradicted: Which be; First, To Change our hearts and lives: Secondly, To perswade us to a humble Dependance upon Christ, and an high acknowledgment of him: But these Doctrines of theirs as they shew us a way to be sure of Heaven, without a real Conversion; so they take off so much from Faith in Christ as they carry us to trust to somewhat else.

These are Errors of great Importance: Since they corrupt the Fountain, and overthrow the chief design of the Christian Religion. They are also late devices brought in, in the dark and ignorant Ages.

No mention is made of praying to Saints, in any Ancient Liturgie. There is a great deal against it in the most Ancient Authors. And though in the Fourth Century, upon the Conversion of many Heathens to the Christian Faith, to humour them in their conceit, of some Intermedial Agents, between the Divinity and us Mortals, there was a Reverence for the Saints set up, to deive out the worship of those Secondary Deities; yet, this was no direct Adoration, though they then began to use Rhetorical addresses to Saints like prayers: Yet, even in Gregory the Great his time (in the beginning of the Seventh Century) we find no Prayers made to them in all his Liturgies. And for the Belief of a simple Attrition being sufficient with the Sacrament, no body ever dreamed of it, before the Schoolmen found [Page] out the Distinction, between Attrition and Contrition in the later Ages. For the Communication of the Merits of Saints, the whole Fathers in one voice, speak only of the Merits of Christ being Communicate to us. The Fryers first invented it, to invite People at least to die in their habits, by perswading them, that all the merits of the Saints of their Order, were shared among the whole Order. And for Redeeming out of Purgatory, the first Four Ages knew nothing of it. In the beginning of the Fifth Century St. Austin plainly speaks of it as an Opinion which some had taken up without any ground, and that it was no way certain, nor could we ever be sure of it. And though in Gregory the Great's time, the Belief of it was pretty far advanced; yet, the Trade of Redeeming out of it, by saying Masses for Departed Souls was not even then found out.

So that all these are both gross Errors, and late Inventions.

The next Branch of Religion, is the Rule of human life: which one would think could be taken from no other Standard so certainly, as the 10. Commandments: and the Expositions given of these in Scripture, chiefly our Saviours Sermon on the Mount. Let Malice it self appear, to Declare wherein our Church strikes at any of these: or Teaches men to disobey even the least of them. If then our Rule of life be exactly the same; with that which the Scriptures prescribe, we are safe as to this, which may be well called, The most important piece of Religion. For it is to be considered that God making man after his own Image, the end of his Creation was, that he might be made like God. The Attributes of God to be Imitated, are Goodness, Mercy, Justice, Wisdom and Truth. And it is certain that the Design of [Page] Revealed Religion was to give men clearer Notions of these Moral perfections, to press them by stronger Arguments, and encourage our Endeavours by suitable Rewards and punishments. So that if any Religion contradict these Moral Duties, we are sure it is false; for the Revelation of God's will must be designed to make us better than we would otherwise be, following barely the Light of Nature, and not worse. If then the Church of Rome over-throws Morality, and contradicts any of the Ten Commandments we are sure it is not of God. And how far it has done this, they may judge by these Particulars.

First, Whatever Church offers cheap and easie pardons for sin, does take off so much from our sense of the evil of sin. We cannot have a very ill opinion of any thing that is easily forgiven. Now what are the Popes Pardons, Indulgences, Jubilees, Priviledged Altars, the going of Pilgrimages, the saying of some Collects, the wearing of Agnus Dei's, Peebles, or other such like trash, but so many Engines to root out of mens minds any deep horrour or great sense of sin. Is not this the very thing which the People of the Iews of old offered at, to bring Thousands of Rams, Ten Thousand Rivers of Oyl, their First born, or the fruit of their Body, to offer for their sins? All which were rejected in the name of God in these words, I will shew thee O man what is good, and what our Lord requireth of thee: Verily to do Iudgment, Micha 6. 8. and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy God. This is a Moral matter and unchangable; therefore whoever go to beat down the sense of sin, by the offer of Pardon, on any other terms, but the sincere change of a mans life, destroy Morallity, which is the Image of God in man. If from this general Consideration we descend to Examine the Commandments in particular, we shall [Page] find matter enough for a severe Charge against their Church.

Is not the First Commandment broken when Devotions are offered to Saints which Import their being Omniscient; Omnipresent and Almighty; that are the Incommunicable Attributes of the God-head: and when pardon of sin, preservation, Grace against Temptations, and Eternal life, are immediately begged from Saints. It is true, they say the sence of these prayers, is only that we desire their assistance at Gods hands for these blessings. But the words of their Offices import no such matter. And though for above One Hundred and Sixty Years these things have been complained of; and in the Correction of their Offices, some of them were cast out; yet, many of them do still continue: In which the plain sence of the words of their Offices is Idolatrous: Only they make a shift with another and forced sence put on them, to defend themselves from that charge. And for such Devotions they can shew no Warrant for the first Thousand years after Christ.

The Second Commandment is so openly and confessedly broken by them, that many of them maintain, it does not all oblige Christians: but belonged only to the Jewish Dispensation. And in all their Catechisms it is left out, which was done very wisely; (with what honesty let them answer) for it was not fit the people should look on that as a Commandment, which they saw so notoriously broken throughout their whole Church: A great trade being also driven by the breach of it. That this was not in the Primitive Church, themselves confess: all the Books the Fathers wrote against the Idolatry of the Heathens, demonstrate this. Nor were Images so much as set up in Churches before the Sixth Century. And then care was taken that they [Page] should not be worshipped: and not before the Eighth Century were they worshipped in any place of the Christian Church.

The Doctrine of the Popes power of Relaxing of Oaths, and discharging men from the Obligation of them, joyned with the practice of their Popes for above 800 years, is as formal an Opposition to the Third Commandment as can be Imagined. This was also begun in the Eighth Century.

The vast multiplication of Holy-days, made the Observation of the Lords day of necessity slacken.

They have destroyed the Order of Societies, established in the Fifth Commandment; by the Power they allow the Pope to Depose Princes, and absolve Subjects from their Alleageance.

They teach the murdering and burning all Hereticks, that is to say, all that will not submit to their Tyranny: by which Infinite numbers of Innocent persons have been murdered, against the Sixth Commandment. And these two Doctrines of deposing Princes, and putting Hereticks to death, were abhorred by the Church for the first Eight ages, and were brought in by the Popes since that time.

The frequent practice of the Court of Rome, in granting Divorces, on the pretence either of Spiritual kindred, or of Degrees not forbidden, either by the Law of Nature, or the word of God, and allowing second Marriages to both Parties, upon such Divorces, is an avowed breach of the Seventh Commandment.

The setting on, some Princes to Invade other Princes in their just Rights, is the Doctrine, as well as it has been the practice of their Church for some Ages. And as their Popes have wrested many Territories from Temporal Princes, so for many Ages they set on Publick [Page] Robbery against the Eighth Commandment.

The Doctrine of Equivocating, both taught, and practised, the breaking of safe Conducts, and publick Faith decreed by their, General Councils, is also against the Ninth Commandment.

For the Tenth I shall say nothing of it, because the meaning of it is not so generally agreed on. But thus we see all the Rules of Morality are contradicted by that Church.

It might be justly added to swell up this Charge; that of late there have been Doctrines published to the world by the approved Casuists of that Church, with Licence, which subvert all Justice, destroy all security, and take away the most sacred ties of mankind. By the Doctrines of Probability, and of Ordering the Intention aright, there is no crime how black soever, but a man may adventure on it with a good conscience. These things were long and openly taught amongst them, without any Censure. And when many of the French Clergy complained of these at the Court of Rome (perhaps more out of spite to the Jesuits, than zeal for the Truth) it was long before these so just Remonstrances, were heard. And in conclusion a trifling Censure was past on them: by which they were declared Scandalous (neither Impious, nor Wicked) and all were forbidden to teach them any more, but they stand yet, in the Books formerly published with Licence.

After all these particulars, is it to be wondered at, if the morals of the men of that Church be vitiated, when their Doctrine is so corrupted, for peoples practices are generally worse than their Opinions. And thus the Second point is made good, that in our Church, we teach the same Rules of Living that are in the Scriptures, which are grosly corrupted by their Doctrines.

[Page]The Third Branch of the Christian Religion is the Worship of God and that chiefly the use of the Sacraments. For the Worship of God, let it be considered that we pray to God, and praise him only, for all these things about which the Scriptures command us to address to him. Our worship is in a Language that all the people understand, and so are edified by it according to St. Paul, who has enlarged so much on this matter, in a1 Cor. 14. whole Chapter, that it is strange, how any who acknowledg the Authority of that Epistle, can deny it. Our Liturgies are such, that the Romanists cannot except to any part of them: Our ceremonies are few, and these be both decent and useful: So that in all the parts of our Worship, we do so exactly agree to the Rule of the Scriptures, and the Primitive Church, that they cannot blame us for any one Rubrick or Collect in it. But for their worship, It is in a Language not understood by the people: who to be sure can receive no Edification, from that they understand not; nor can they say Amen to such Devotions. This is as it were in spite to St. Paul, who took special care that as long as his Authority was in any esteem in the Church, such an abuse should never creep into it. Nor is there a shadow of Authority for such a practice, from the Primitive Church, in which for many Ages, the Worship was still in the vulgar Tongues.

Next their Worship is so overcharged with many Rites and Ceremonies, that the seriousness of Devotion must needs be much alloyed by them. A great part of the Worship is so whispered, as if they were muttering Spells. Their Books of Exorcisms are the most indecent things that can be: full of Charms and other ridiculous Rites. And for the Pontifical and Ceremonial of their Church, they may match with Heathenism for Superstition. [Page] Their Offices are so various, and numerous, and the Rubricks seem so full of disorder, that a man may as soon learn a Trade, as know all the several parts of them. How this can be reconciled to the Simplicity of the Gospel, or the Worshipping God in spirit and truth, may be easily judged by those who can compare things.

For the Sacraments, we have the Two that Christ Instituted, Baptism, and the Lords Supper; And for Pennance, Confirmation, Ordination and Marriage, we have them also among us, as they were appointed by Christ and his Apostles: though we do not call these Sacraments. For Extream Unction we find no warrant at all for it, as a sacred Ordinance: and we are sure the Church for many Ages did not think of it. For Baptism it is doneMatt. 28. 19. among us, in the very Form our Saviour appointed: and this they do not deny. But among them they cannot be assured that they are at all Baptized: since according to the Doctrine of the necessity of the Intention of the Priest, to the Being of a Sacrament, they cannot be assured of it: for an Atheistical Priest can spoil their Baptism, so that unless they can be certain of that, which is impossible for them to know, I mean the Intention of the Priest, they are not sure that they were ever truly Baptized.

But for the Lords Supper, if any person will so far trust his own Reason and senses, as to compare all the Warrants we have in Scripture for that Ordinance, with the Practice of our Church and theirs, they will soon see who agree most to them. Christ took Bread which Matt. 26. 26, 27. 28. ver. he blessed and gave, saying, This is my Body which is given for you. He also took the Chalice and said, Drink ye all of it, &c. All this we doe, and no more, so that it is indeed a Communion among us: and those who have read the account that Iustin Martyr gives us of the Rites in the Communion in his days, would think he were [Page] reading the very Abstract of our Office. But in the Church of Rome, besides the less material things, of the Form of the Bread, the Consecration of Altars and Vessels, with the numberless little devices in the Canon of the Mass, that they seem not of such importance let these considerable changes they have made be looked into.

1. They have brought in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, against the clearest Evidence both of sense and reason, against the nature of a Sacrament, and its being a Memorial of Christs Death, and that by the very words of Consecration, the Bread and Wine are Christs Body and Blood, as the one was given for us, and the other shed for us, on the Cross: and not as he is now at the Right hand of God. The belief of this crept in by degrees, from the eighth Century, in which it was first set on foot, but much contradicted both in the Eastern and Western Church: and was not fully setled till the 13th Century. We are sure it was not the Doctrine of the Churches of Rome, Constantinople, Asia, Antioch, nor Africk in the 5th and 6th Centuries, by express Testimonies from the most esteemed Authors of that time, Gelasius, Chrysostom, Ephrem, Theodoret, and St. Austin.

2. They deny the Chalice to the Laity against the express words of the Institution; and contrary both to the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church for 1300 years.

3. They have declared the Priests saying Mass, to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Dead, and the Living, though the Scripture plainly says, That Christ was once offered for us. It is true the Primitive Church used theHeb. 9. 26, 28. words Sacrifice and Oblation as our Church yet does, but their meaning by that, was only in the general sense of these terms, as Prayers, Praises, and Alms are called Sacrifices.

[Page]4. They have brought in a new piece of Worship, which is the hearing of Mass, without receiving the Sacrament: and it is now the great Devotion of their Church. Though by the Institution, it is as express as can be, that the Consecration is only in order to its being a Communion. And by the Apostolical Canons, which some in their Church believe to be the work of the Apostles, and are by them all acknowledged to be a Collection of the Rites of the first Ages, all persons that were present at the Worship, and did not communicate were to be severely censured.

5. The adoring the Sacrament, the exposing it on the Altar, and carrying it about in solemn Processions, to be worshipped, as they are late Inventions; so if Transubstantiation be not true, they are by their own confession the grossest Idolatries that ever were,

And are not these considerable variations from the first Institution of this Sacrament?

As for their own Sacraments, though there is no reason to equal them, to either of these that were instituted by Christ; yet some of them we use, as they were at first appointed. Persons Baptized, are Confirmed with ImpositionActs 8. 17. of hands, the only Ceremony used by the Apostles.

We allow the use of Confession, and do press it in many cases; and give the benefit of Absolution: but we do not make this an Engin to screw peoples secrets from them. For which there is no warrant in Scripture; nor was it thought necessary for many Ages after the Apostles. Confession of publick Scandals was enjoyned, and for private sins it was recommended: but this latter was not judged simply necessary for obtaining the pardon of sin. And what noise soever they make of the good that Confession, and the enjoyning of Pennance, may do, [Page] if well managed, we need only appeal to some of their own best Writers, now in France, whether as they have been practised, they have not rather driven all true Piety out of the world. If these abuses had been only the faults of some Priests, the blame could not have been justly cast on their Church; but when the publick Rules given to Confessors, printed with Licence, are their warrants for so doing, then their Church is in fault. So that nothing is more common among them, than for persons after a confession made of their sins, with a slight sorrow, and some trifling pennance undergone, together with the Priestly Absolution, to fancy themselves as clean from all sin, as if they had never offended God. And this being the Doctrin of their Church, it both lessens the sense of sin, and takes men off from making such earnest applications to God through Christ, as the Gospel commands.

For Orders they are among us with the same Rites that Christ and the Apostles gave them first: And a learnedMorinus. Man of their own Church has lately published the most ancient Forms of Ordinations he could find: From which it appears, that all the Ceremonies in their Ordinations, for the want of which they accuse us, were brought in since the eighth Century: so that even by their own Principles these things cannot be necessary to Ordination, otherwise there were no true Orders in the Church for the first eight Ages.

For Marriage we honour it as Gods Ordinance; andHeb. 13. 4. since the Scriptures declare it honourable in all, without exception, we dare deny it to none who desire it. St. Paul delivers the Duty of Clergy-men towards their Wives, with Rules for their Wives behaviour, which had1 Tim. 3. 2. 4. 11. been very impertinent if Clergy-men might have no Wives. We find a married Clergy in the first ten Centuries: [Page] And we know by what base Arts the Caelibate of the Clergy was brought in; and what horrid ill effects it has produced. Neither do we allow of any devices to hinder Marriage, by degrees of kindred not prohibited in the Law of God, or the trade that was long driven in granting Dispensations in those degrees, and afterwards annulling these, and avoiding the Marriages that followed upon them, upon some pretences of Law.

Thus it appears, how they have corrupted the Doctrine of the Sacraments, together with the Worship of God.

The last head of Religion is Government; and as to this, we can challenge any to see what they can except to us. First in reference to the Civil Power, we declare all are bound for conscience sake to obey every lawful Command of the Supream Authority, and to submit when they cannot obey. We pretend to no Exemption of Clarks from the Civil Jurisdiction, but give to Caesar the things that are Caesars. We do not obey the King only because he is of our Religion: much less do we allow of Conspiracies or Rebellions upon our judging him an Heretick, so that we deliver no Doctrin that can be of any ill consequence to the Society we live in.

And for the Ecclesiastical Government we have Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, rightly Ordained, and in their due subordination to one another; every one administring these Offices due to his Function, which has been the Government of the Christian Church, since the times of the Apostles. So that we have a clear vocation of Pastors among us, from whose hands every person may without scruple receive all the Sacraments of the Church.

But for the Church of Rome, how unsafe is the Civil Government among them? not to mention the Doctrin [Page] of deposing Princes, for which I refer you to my former Letter; What a security does the Exemption of Clerks from the Civil Courts in cases criminal, give to loose and debauched Church-men; and what disturbance must this breed to a Common-wealth? The denying the Civil Magistrate power to make Laws that concern Religion, or oblige Churchmen, takes away a great deal of his Rights; for scarce any Law can be made but wrangling and ill-natur'd Churchmen, may draw it within some head of Religion. And that this was frequently done in former Ages, all that have read History know. The quarrels that were in the beginning of this Century between the Pope and the Republick of Venice were a fresh Evidence of it.

But for the Ecclesiastical Government, they have spoiled it in all the parts of it. The Pope has assumed a power of so vast an extent, and so arbitrary a nature, that all the ancient Canons are thrown out of doors by it. We know that originally the Bishops of Rome were looked on by the rest of the Church, as their Colleagues and fellow Bishops. The Dignity of the City made the See more remarkable; and the belief of St. Peters having founded it, with his suffering Martrydom there, with St. Paul, made it much honoured: so that when the Empire became Christian, then the Dignity of the Imperial City made the Bishop of Rome be acknowledged the first Patriarch. From this beginning they arose by many degrees to the height of pretending to a Supremacy both Civil and Spiritual: and then they not only received appeals, which was all they at first pretended to, but set up Legantine Courts every where, made the Bishops swear Obedience and Homage to them, and the Arch-Bishops receive the Pall from their hands, in sign of their dependance on them: Exempted Monasteries, [Page] and other Clarks from Episcopal Jurisdiction, broke all the Laws of the Church by their Dispensations: So that no shaddow of the primitive Government does now remain. And though Gregory the Great wrote with as much indignation against the Title of Universal Bishop, as ever any Protestant did; yet his Successors, have since assumed both the Name and thing. And to that height of Insolence, has this risen, that in the Council of Trent, all the Papal Party opposed the Decree that was put in, for declaring Bishops to have their Jurisdictions by Divine Right. The Court Party not being ashamed to affirm, that all Jurisdiction was by Divine Right only in the Pope; and in the other Bishops, as the Delegates of the Apostolick See; and they were in this too hard for the other Party. So that now a Bishop, who by the Divine appointment ought to feed the Flock, can do no more in that, then as the Pope gives him leave. The greatest part of the Priests have no dependence on their Bishops. The Monks, Fryars, and Iesuits, being immediately subordinate to the Pope; so that they do what they please, knowing they can justifie any thing at Rome, and they fear no Censure any where else.

From this so many abuses have crept in, and the Canonists have found out, so many devices to make them Legal, that there is no hope of Reforming these at Rome. The whole State of Cardinals is one great Corruption, who, from being Originally the Parish Priests of Rome, and so under all Bishops, have raised themselves so high that they do now trample on the whole Order; and pretend to an Equality with Princes. The giving Benefices to Children, the unlimitted Plurality of Benefices in one Person; the Comendam's, the reserved Pensions, with many other such like, are gross, as well as late Corruptions. And no wonder if all men despair of Reforming [Page] the Court of Rome, when these abuses are become necessary to it, by which the greatness of the Cardinals and the other Officers, or Ministers there, is kept up.

I need not mention the gross Simony of that Court, where all the world knows, every thing may be had for money. The Popes themselves, are often Chosen by these Arts: and if their own Rules be true, such Elections, with every thing that follows on them are void. The Infinite Swarmes of the Inferiour Clergy, do plainly drive a Simoniacal Trade, by the Masses they say for Departed Souls, for Money. And for Publick Pennance, they have Universally let it fall, in stead whereof private Pennance is now in use. And if their own Writers say true, this is made an Engine to serve other ends, when by enjoyning slight and easie Pennances, they draw the People after them; upon which the Jesuites have been loudly accused, these Forty Years last past. In Sum, all the Corruptions or rather defects, that are in the Government of our Church, are only such as they brought in and have not met yet with such effectual remedies, as must cure the Church of these inveterate Distempers, their ill Conduct did cast her into.

If any of that Party will review these Particulars, and so far trust their own Reasons, as to judge according to the plainest Evidence, they cannot resist the conviction that they must needs meet with: when they see the simplicity of our Faith, the Morality of our Doctrine, the Purity of our Worship, and our Primitive Government; and compare it with their vast Superfetation of Articles of Faith, the Immorality of their Rules of living, the Superstition, if not Idolatry of their Worship, and the most extravagant Innovations in Government, that are in the Church of Rome.

And indeed these things are so clear that few could [Page] resist the force of so much plain truth, if it were not for some prejudices, with which they are so fettered that they cannot examine matters with that freedom of mind, that is necessary. Therefore much care must be taken, to clear these, in the most familiar and demonstrative manner that is possible.

They may be reduced to these Five chief Ones. First, That the true Church cannot Err. Secondly, That out of the true Church there is no salvation. Thirdly, That the case of the Church of Rome is much safer than ours is; since the Church of England acknowledges a possibility of salvation in the Church of Rome; which they on the other hand deny to the Church of England. Fourthly, That unless there be a Supreme Judg set up, we can be sure of nothing in Religion, but must fall into many Factions and Parties. And Fiftly, That the Reformation was but a Novelty begun in the former Age, and carried on in this Nation, out of an ill design▪ and managed with much Sacriledge.

The First of these seemed necessary to be cleared in the beginning of this Discourse, and I am deceived if it was not done convincingly. And for the Second we agree to it, That out of the true Church there is no S [...]lvation.

But then the Question comes, What makes one a Member of the true Church? The Scriptures call the Church the Body of Christ, of which he is the Head. Eph. 1. 22, 23. So then whoever are joined to Christ according to the Gospel, must be within the true Church. But the deceit that lies hid under this, is, That from hence they fancy that the Unity of the Church, does consist in an outward Communion with the See of Rome. And upon that they calculate, that there must be an Unity in the Body of the Church: And that cannot be, except all be joined to the See of Rome. Now, we grant there is [Page] but one Church, but this Unity consists not in an Outward Communion, though that is much to be desired, but consists in an Unity of Belief, about the essentials of Christianity.

There is nothing more evident, than, that even according to their own Principles, other Churches are not bound upon the hazard of Damnation to hold Communion with the See of Rome; for it is not an Article of Faith, nor certain according to their own Doctrine, That the Pope is Infallible: And except that were certain, we cannot be obliged to hold Communion under such a Sanction with that See. For if it be possible that a Pope may become an Heretick or Schismatick (which many of them confess, and all agree that the contrary is not of Faith,) then other Churches are not in that case obliged to hold Communion with that See. If therefore the possibility of Error in that See be acknowledged, then holding Communion with it, cannot be the measure of the Unity of the Church. So we bring it to this Issue, It is not Heresie to say, The Pope may Err: Therefore this is no just prejudice against our Church, because we have departed from Communion with him, when he imposed his Errors on us. So all the high things they boast of that See, come to nothing, except they say, This Proposition is of Faith, That the Pope is Infallible. And for these Meetings that they call General Councils; they were at best but the Councils of the Western Patriarchate artificially packt, and managed with much Art; as appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's History of the Council of Trent.

For the Third Prejudice, It is the most disingenuous thing that can be; Because our Church is charitable, and modest in her Censures, and theirs is uncharitable, and cruel in her Judgments; therefore to conclude, That Communion [Page] with them is safer, than with us. If confidence, and Presumption, Noise, and Arrogance, are the marks to judge a Church by, we must yield to them in these: but if Truth, and Peace, Charity and holy Doctrines, be the better Standards, then we are as sure, that our Communion is much safer. Let this Rule be applied to the other concerns of human life, and it will appear how ridiculous an abuse it is to take measures from so false a Standard. If a man were sick, the Question comes, Whether he shall use an approved Physitian, or a Montebanks. On the one hand, the Montebank says, He will certainly cure him, and the Doctors will undoubtedly kill him. On the other hand, the Doctor modestly says, he will undertake nothing, but will do the best he can; and for the Montebank he tells him, It is very dangerous to trust to him, though he will not deny but sometimes great cures are done by them. The Insolence of the Montebank will never carry it against a Doctors modesty, but among weak and credulous People; and such must they also be, who are taken with this Montebankry in Religion.

But if this be taken to pieces, the folly of it will yet appear more manifest. For First, the reason we give for a possibility of Salvation in the Church of Rome▪ is, because we look on such and such things as the Essentials of Christianity, which are yet retained in that Church: And either this Reasoning is true or false. If it be true, then it is as true, that we may be saved, who retain these Essentials of Christianity: If it is false, then no Inference can be drawn from it. Secondly, Though we yield a possibility of Salvation in that Church, we declare that they are in great danger, by many opinions among them, which if fully understood and believed, do even vitiate the Essentials of Christanity; particularly [Page] that Foundation of Religion, The Covenant between God and Man thorough Christ, formerly insisted on. So that we declaring a Certainty of Salvation to those who sincerely follow the rules of our Church, and a great danger in their Church, the preferring their Communion to ours, upon this account, is, as unreasonable, as to sleep without shutting our Doors, because it is possible we shall not be robbed, in so doing: Or when we are at Sea to prefer a Cock-boat to a good clean Ship. These are such absurdities, that an ordinary measure of weakness cannot swallow them down. Thirdly, We are not so forward as they imagine in yielding a possibility of Salvation in their Church. For our concession amounts rather to this, that we do not deny it, than that we positively affirm it: And therefore they have no reason to draw these advantages from it.

4. A great difference is to be made between what God in the Infiniteness of his mercy may do, and what he is bound to by the Covenant made with man in the Gospel; for the former we acknowledg, it is impossible to fix the limits of that mercy which is as far above our thoughts, as the Heavens are above the Earth. And how far it extends to all sincere minds, we are not so presumptuous as to define; therefore we will not Damn at pleasure, as they do but we do assert, Their Church is guilty of such gross Corruptions, by which the vitals of Religion are vitiated, that they have not that reason to claim the Mercies of the Gospel due by that Covenant.

5. The Church of Rome has a dark and fair side; the dark side is, what the true consequence of their Opinions is, the fair side is, what some witty men have devised to palliate these corruptions with, and to deceive the Vulgar by. We know many of that Communion, either [Page] do not at all know these corrupt Doctrines, or have such a fair representation made of them, that they are thereby both more easily and more innocently misled. From hence it is that we are inclined to hope more charitably concerning some, that are abused by them. But for those that have examined things more fully, or that having been bred among us, yet reject the Truth, and go over to them, we are not so much enclined to have so good hopes of them, as they imagine: So this is a weak and ill grounded conceit in all the parts of it.

The Fourth Prejudice, is concerning the necessity of Submitting to some Common Judg, of distrusting our own reasons, and believing the Church, without which there must be many Sects and Divisions: and this they aggravate from the many different Parties that are among us.

But these are only specious pretences to deceive weak people by. For First, If it is necessary that there be a Common Judg, it is most necessary that it be known, who this Judg is, otherwise it is to no purpose to talk of a Judge, if they cannot point him out. This is like him that came to discover a huge Treasure that he knew was hid under ground; but being asked in what place it was? he answered he did not know that: and he believed no body else knew. Some say the Pope is the Judge, others as confidently, that the Council is Judge even without the Pope, others think it is sure work to say, the Pope and Council together: and others say the Body of the Church spread over the World.

For the Popes, some of them have been condemned for Heresie, and others for making Schism; many of them have been most horrid men: they are generally ignorant in Divinity, being for most part bred to the [Page] Law: so that a great part of their own Church rejects the Popes Infallibility.

For Councils, they have had none these 115 years, and the last was so over-ruled by the Popes, that no other has been desired since: so that if either a Council without the Pope, or with him, be the Infallible Judge they have lost their infallibility; and except a Council were constantly sitting, they can shew no living and speaking Judg. So that either this is not necessary to a Church, or otherwise they are not a compleat Church. And for the Body of the Church, how shall a man find out their sense, unless gathered together in some Assembly? or must a Man go over Christendome, and gather the Suffrages of all the Pastors of the Church? Upon the whole matter it is plain that after all their Canting about the Church, they must say, that it is of Faith that the Pope is Infallible, otherwise they have no Infallible Judg, and since a Council cannot be called but by the Pope, what ever Authority the Council has it can never be exercised, but by the Popes leave.

And for all the sad consequences they say, follow the want of a Common infallible Judg, it appears they are under them as well as we; but with this difference, that we plainly acknowledg, we have none, but do the best we can without one: But they, as they have none, no more than we, yet are under the Tyranny of one, and though they are not bound to believe him Infallible, yet are as much enslaved to him, and obliged to obey him, as if he were really exempted from all possibility of Erring. So that in short, they are slaves and we are freemen. And for these ill consequences, they are, we confess, unavoidable; for which we have very good Authority, from his words, who on all sides is acknowledged to be Infallible, [Page] that said, Wo be to the World for scandals, for Matt▪ 18. 7. it is necessary that scandals do come.

But to discuss this Objection, which works much on ignorant people, let it be considered that sin and Error are the two things, that do chiefly cross the design of the Gospel: and of these two, sin, is the more dangerous and destructive: since there is great reason to hope that Error cannot be so fatal, when it infects a mind that is otherwise sincere, as Sin, which clearly defaces the Image of God in the Soul. We ought not therefore to expect that the Gospel, should give any further security against Error, than it gives against Sin: On the contrary we should rather expect a further security from Sin, because it is most hurtful. But all the Provision made against Sin, is this, that in the Scriptures we are warned of the evil of it, and are directed to such methods, and have the promises of such Assistance, that if we use our endeavour, we shall not be overcome by sin, nor perish in it: So as to Error, we have the same security. The Gospel affords us a very clear light for directing our Belief in the most important things, which if we study with due humility, and sincerity, imploring God for the grace of his holy Spirit, for our instruction, we shall be preserved from Error. And thus the same provision is made against Error, that is against Sin. And we have no reason to expect more. And as it were not fit, that Salvation should be offered without obliging men to use their utmost endeavours, so it were not fit to give such an easie Remedy against Error, as that a man should not need to employ his reason to discover Truth, and avoid Mistakes. If our Gospel be also hid, it is hid in them that 2 Cor. 3. 3. perish. Therefore that our Searches after Truth, may be both encouraged and rewarded, God sets it before us [Page] in such a Light, that it is our own fault if we do not see and follow it. But if men will either blindly give themselves up, to the conduct of such Guides, whose interest it is to mislead them, which is the case of the Church of Rome; or out of humour, or other base ends, will invent or follow some erroneous Tenets, as other Hereticks do, they have themselves to blame; and shall bear their own Iniquity: but they have no reason to cast the fault upon God, or accuse the Scriptures, of Darkness, or Defectiveness, in these things that are necessary to Salvation.

I come now to the last Prejudice, which will require a fuller Discussion, because it relates to matter of Fact: which as it is better understood, so it makes deeper Impressions on people, that are not so much wrought on by speculative points, as by these things that fall under their senses.

They first except to the Novelty of our Reformation, and always insult with this Question, Where was your Religion before Luther? To this, these things are to be opposed. First, we turn back the Question, and ask them where was their Religion the first six hundred years after Christ? Where was the Worship of Images, the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence, of Redeeming out of Purgatory, of Deposing Princes, and of the Worshipping Saints, before the Eighth Century? If the Reformation be now to be condemned, because of its Novelty, these things were then to be as much condemned, because they were then Novelties.

Secondly. If the Reformation had brought in any new Doctrine, its Novelty were indeed a just Prejudice against it: but it was only the throwing out of these Corruptions which had been brought in, in some dark and Ignorant Ages.

[Page] Thirdly. The Doctrine of the Reformed Church, is no other than what Christ and his Apostles taught; and what the Church believed for many Ages after them. And as to the Positive part of it, it has been still held by the Church of Rome, and is yet acknowledged by them: but with so many Additions, that there was a Necessity of Reforming these: And this is often to be inculcated in them, that there is no Article of Faith, nor any other material point of Religion, among us that is condemned by the Church of Rome. They only blame us because we do not in many other points believe as they do: and this we ought not to do, unless we could see an equal Authority binding us to all alike.

Another Exception is, that in the Reformation we made a Schism, and broke the Unity of the Church, whereas if there had been any things amiss in the Church, they say the Reformers should have endeavoured to remove them, without tearing the Body of Christ in pieces.

But in answer to this, we acknowledg if the things complained of, could have been continued without sin, they ought not to have departed from the Communion of other Churches: but when the publick Liturgies and the Worship was found to be full of such Corruptions, that without Idolatry and Superstition, they could be no longer kept up, then it was not time to stay for the leisure of their Neighbouring Churches.

Yet if there had been any probable hopes, that the See of Rome, would have concurred in such a Reformation, it had been worth staying for, as long, as was possible. But when it was on the contrary, apparent, that all the most just Remonstrances made to that Court, were answered at best with delays and Excuses, if not with Excommunications and other censures; they had [Page] no reason to expect any concurrence from thence. So the case being thus put, that they discovered such Corruptions in the Worship of God, with which they could not comply any longer; either they were obliged to Worship God against their Consciences, or to lay aside all publick Worship, or else to cast out these Corruptions by a Reformation. Let any man of good reason judge, whether the last of these was not to be chosen?

There was no Obligation lying on this Church to wait for the pleasure of the Court of Rome, or our neighbouring Churches in this matter. We are a free and Independent Church: we owe a charitable and neighbourly Correspondence to forreign Churches; but we are subject to none of them. And according to the express Decision of one of the first General Councils, in the like case, we were no way subordinate to the See of Rome, even as it was the Patriarchate of the West. Themselves do confess that it is no Heresie to say, That See is fallible: and therefore we were not obliged to dance attendance at that Court, when we discovered the Corruptions, with which it had deceived the World; but might in our National or Provincial Synods at home, examine and Reform whatever errors were among us. And the multitude of those who held these errors, could be no just ground for delaying any advances towards a Reformation; no more than in the ancient Church, the Orthodox Bishops when chosen into a See corrupted with Arrianism, were obliged because that Contagion was generally spread, to make no attempts toward Reformation.

They Except further, That the Reformation was begun here by a vitious Prince, King Henry the Eighth, [Page] who partly out of revenge, because the Pope would not grant his desire about the Divorce of his Queen, and partly to enrich himself and his Courtiers with the sale of Abbey-lands did suffer these Doctrins first to take head here: and therefore they can have no good opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man, and upon such ill motives.

If this be a good Argument against the Reformation, it was as good against Christianity upon Constantine's turning Christian; for the Heathen Writers represent him with as black a character as they can do King Henry. But we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man, and upon an ill Principle: Otherwise if we had lived in Iehu's days, the same Plea would have been as strong, for keeping up the Idolatry of Baal: since Iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it: and yet God rewarded him for what he had done.

But whatever might have been King Henry's secret motives, his proceedings were regular and justifiable. He found himself married to her that had been his own Brothers Wife, contrary to the express words of the Law of God. The Popes Legat, and his own Confessor and all the Bishops of England (except one) thought his scruples were well grounded. Upon which according to the superstition of that time, he made his applications to the Court of Rome for a Divorce: which were at first well received, and a Bull was granted. Afterwards some defects being found in that, a more ample one was desired, which was also granted: and Legats were appointed to try the matter. But the Pope soon after turned over to the Emperors Party, whose Aunt the Queen was: and was thereupon prevailed with, to recal the Legats Commission, destroy the Bull, and cite the King [Page] to appear at Rome, where all things and persons were at the Emperors devotion. Upon all this, the King did expostulate with the Pope, that either his business was just, or unjust: if it was just why did he recall what he had granted, and put him off with such delays. If it was not just, why did he at first grant the Bull for the Divorce. This was unanswerable, but the Pope did still feed him with false hopes, yet would do nothing. Upon which he consulted the chief Universities, and the most learned men in Christendom, about his Marriage. Twelve famous Universities, and above an hundred learned Doctors, did declare under their hands and Seals (some writing larger Treatises about it) that his Marriage was against the Law of God. And that in that case the Popes Dispensation, which had allowed the Marriage, was void of it self. So after the King had been kept in suspence from December 1527 till February 1533/4. above six years, he set his Divines to examin what authority the Pope had in England, either by the Law of God, or the practice of the Primitive Church, or the Law of the Land, and after a long and accurate search, they found He had no authority at all in England, neither by the Laws of God, of the Church, nor of the Land: so this Decision was not made rashly, nor of a sudden.

The Popes Authority being thus cast off, it was Natural in the next place to Consider, what Doctrines were then held in England, upon no other grounds than Papal Decrees. For it was absurd to reject the Popes power; and yet to retain these Opinions, which had no better Foundation than his Authority. Upon this many of the things, which had been for some Ages received in the Church of Rome, fell under debate: And, a great [Page] many particulars were reformed. Yet, that King was so leavened with the Old Superstition, that the progress of the Reformation, was but slow during his Reign. But it was carried on to a further perfection, under King Edward, and Queen Elizabeth. In all their Methods of proceeding, there is nothing that can be reasonably censured: if it be confessed that the Pope is not Infallible, and the whole Church of Rome, acknowledges that it is no Heresie to deny his Infallibility.

And for the Sale of the Abby-lands, they only spoiled the spoilers. For the Monks, and Fryers, had put these publick cheats on the Nation, of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory, going on Pilgrimages, with the worship of Saints, and Images, which were infused in the vulgar, by many lying Stories, pretended Apparitions, the false shew of Miracles, with other such like Arts. And the credulous and superstitious Multitudes were thereby wrought on, to endow these Houses with their best Lands, and adorn their Churches with their Plate and richest Furniture. It was not to be expected that when their Impostures were discovered, they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them: nor was it for the publick interest of the Nation, to give such encouragement to idleness, as the converting all these Houses to Foundations for an unactive life would have been. Many of them were applied to good Uses, Bishopricks, Cathedral and Collegiat Churches, Hospitals, and free Schools: And more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends. But the excesses of King Henry, and his Courtiers must not be charged on the Reformers; who did all they could to hinder them.

[Page]And thus all these prejudices with which the Vulgar are misled, appear to be very unjust, and ill grounded. In conclusion, If by these or such like considerations, any that are now of that Communion, can be brought to mind Religion in earnest, considering it, as a Design to save their Souls, by making them truly pure and holy; and so reconciling them to God through Christ: And if they will examine Matters without Partiality, seeking the truth and resolving to follow it, wherever they find it; and joyn with their Enquiries, earnest Prayers to God, the Father of lights, to open their eyes, and grant them his Holy Spirit, to lead them into all truth; there is little doubt to be made, but the great Evidence that is in Truth, will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists, which Education, implicite Faith, and Superstition have raised, by which they have hitherto darkened.

FINIS.

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A RELATION Of the Barbarous and Bloody MASSACRE Of about an hundred thousand PROTESTANTS,

BEGUN At PARIS, and carried on over all FRANCE by the PAPISTS, in the Year 1572.

Collected out of Mezeray, Thuanus, and other approved Authors.

LONDON, Printed for Richard Chiswel, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1678.

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A Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants, begun in Paris, and carried on over all France, in the Year 1572.

THere are no Principles of Morality more universally received, and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all Men, that are more necessary for the good of humane Society, and do more resemble the Divine Perfections, than Truth and Goodness: So that if our Saviour denounced a Woe against those who teach Men to break the least of his Commandments, what may they look for, who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them?

That the Church of Rome teaches Barbarity and Cruelty, against all who receive not their Opinions; and that Hereticks are to be delivered to secular Princes, who mustCan. 3. burn them without mercy; or if they have either Bowels or Conscience, so that they will not be the Instruments of their Cruelty, that they shall lose their Kingdoms or Dominions, is known to all that have read the Decrees of the 4th Council in the Lateran. The violation of Publick Faith, was also decreed by another of their General Councils at Constance; in which, notwithstanding theSess. 19. safe conduct that Sigismund had granted to Iohn Husse and Ierome of Prague, care was not only taken that they should be burnt; but they made it a standing Rule for the time to come, That tho Hereticks came to the [Page] place of Judgment, trusting to their safe conduct, and would not have come without it; yet the Prince who granted it, was under no Obligation by it, but the Church might proceed to Censures and Punishment. By these Decrees, Cruelty and Treachery are become a part of their Doctrine, and they may join them to their Creed, upon as good Reasons as they can shew for many of their other Additions.

The Nature of Man is not yet sunk so low, as easily to hear these things without horror: therefore it is fit they should be kept among the Secrets of their Religion, till a fit opportunity appear, in which they may serve a turn: and then we need not doubt but they will be made: use of. If any will be so charitable to their Church, as not easily to believe this, the History of the Parisian Massacre may satisfie them to the full: which Thuanus says, was a Pitch of Barbarity beyond any thing that former Ages had ever seen: And if the Irish Massacre, flowing from the same Spirit, and the same Principles, had not gone beyond it, we might have reasonably concluded, that it could never be matched again. But we may be taught from such Precedents, what we ought to expect, when ever we are at the mercy of Persons of that Religion, who, if they be true Sons of the Church of Rome, must renounce both Faith and Mercy to all Hereticks.

I shall give the Relation of this Massacre from that celebrated late Writer of the French History, Mr. de Mezeray, only adding some Passages out of Thuanus, Davila, and others, where he is defective.

But I shall premise a short representation of the Civil Wars of France, which are made use of as the Arguments for justifying that Cruelty, and by which they do still blemish the Protestant Religion, as teaching Rebellion against Princes.

[Page]During the Reign of Francis the 1st, and Henry the 2d, the Protestant Religion got great footing in France; the usual severities of the Church of Rome were then employed to extirpate it; yet tho their Numbers were very great, and the Persecution most severe, they made no resistance. But upon the death of Henry the 2d, Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother, with the Cardinal of Lorrain, and the Duke of Guise, took the Government in their Hands; pretending that the King (Francis Thuanus. the 2d) was of Age, being then sixteen. The PrincesThe abstract of the Books written upon the Head, is in the Voluminous but Anonymous Historian of these Wars, printed at Paris, An. 1581. of the Blood on the other hand alleadged, That the Kingdom ought to be under a Regency till the King was at least 22 Years of Age: Since Charles the 6th had been admitted at that Age to the Government, as a particular mark of their esteem of him: So that tho the Age of Majority was at 25 Years, and that was a singular exception from a general Rule, yet at furthest, it shewed that the King could not assume the Government before he was two and twenty.

It was also an undoubted Right of the Princes of the Blood to hold the Regency, during the Minority of their Kings: and to administer it, by the Direction of the Parliaments, and the Assembly of the States. Upon these Points, many things were written on both sides.Thuanus, lib. 16. The Princes of the Blood pretended, they were excluded from the Government, against Law, and upon that were projecting how to possess themselves of the Power; which, with the Person of the King, were violently kept from them. But the Prince of Conde being advised to it, by Coligny then Admiral of France, did also declare for mitigating the Severities against the Protestants. This being the Case, that the Point was truly disputable, no Man can blame the Protestants for joining with their Friends against their Enemies. And yet this [Page] Plot was driven no further, than an endeavour to take the King out of the Hands of his Mother, and the BrothersThuanus. Mezeray. of Lorrain, who were all Foreigners. The chief Promoter of it was a Papist, Renaudy, and it was discovered by Avennelles; who tho he was most firm to his Religion, being a Protestant, yet having an aversion to all Plots, revealed it out of scruple of Conscience.

Soon after this Discovery, Francis the 2d died; and his Brother that succeded him, Charles the 9th was without dispute under Age, he not being then full eleven years old. And according to the resolution of many great Lawyers, in the case of his Brother, the Kingdom ought to have been under a Regency, during all the Wars that preceded the Massacre, for he was then but two and twenty. At first it was agreed to, that the King of Navarre, as the first Prince of the Blood, ought to be Regent; but he being wrought on, by the Queen Mother and her Party, and drawn over to them, the Lawyers were again set to examine, How far the Power of the Regent did extend: Many published their Opinions, That the other Princes of the Blood ought to have their share in the Regency, and that the Regents might be checkt by the Courts of Parliaments, and were subject to an Assembly of the States.

The chief Point of State, then under Consideration, was, What way to proceed with the Protestants, whose Numbers grew daily, and were now more considerable, having such powerful Heads. A severe Edict came out against them in Iuly 1561, condemning all Meetings for Religious Worship, except those that were celebrated with the Rites of the Church of Rome, banishing all the Protestant Ministers, and appointing the Bishops to proceed against Hereticks; with this only mitigation of former Cruelties, That Banishment should be the highest Punishment. [Page] But the Nation could not bear the Execution of this: So next Ianuary there was a great Assembly called of the Princes of the Blood, the Privy Counsellors, and eight Courts of Parliament, in which the Edict that carried the name of the Month, was passed. By it, the free exercise of that Religion was tolerated, and the Magistrates were required to punish all who should hinder or interrupt it.

Not long after that, the Duke of Guise did disturb aDavila. lib. 3 Meeting of Protestants at Vassy, as he was on his Journey to Paris; his Servants began with reproachful words, and from these they went to blows. It ended in a throwing of Stones, one of which hurt the Duke; but that was severely revenged, about 60 were killed, and 200 wounded, no Age or Sex being spared. Upon this he encouraged the violation of the Edict every where; so that it was universally broken. The King of Navarre joined with him in these Courses; but the Prince of Conde, that was next to him in the Royal Blood, declared for the Edicts: Many great Lawyers were of opinion, That the Regents Power was not so vast as to suspend, or break the Edict, and that therefore the People might follow any Person, much more the next Prince of the Blood, in defence of it. This Plea was yet stronger, before the Year ended, for the King of Navarre being killed, the Prince of Conde was then by the Law of France the Rightful Regent: So that all the Wars that followed afterwards, till the Year 1570, had this to be said for them, That in the Opinion of very Learned Men, the King was all that while under Age, that the Edicts were broken, the Kingdom governed by a Woman, and Foreigners, against Law, and that the lawful Regent was excluded from the Government; which made King Iames, whose Judgment is not to be suspected in this Case, always [Page] justify the Protestants in France, and excuse them from Rebellion.

This is a piece of History little understood, and generally made use of to blemish the Reformation; therefore I thought it necessary to introduce the following Relation, with this just account of these Wars, that were the pretended grounds with which the House of Guise covered their own Ambition, and hatred of the Family of Burbon.

After France had suffered all the Miseries which a course of Civil Wars, for ten years together, carries after it, the King was advised to set on foot a Treaty of Peace; not so much out of a design to quiet Matters by a happy settlement, as to ensnare the Protestants into some fatal Trap, in which they being catched, might be safely and easily destroyed. The chief Authors of this advice, were the Queen Mother, the Cardinal of Lorrain, the Duke of Nevers, the Count of Rets, and Birague; the last three were Italians, and so better fitted both for designing and carrying on so wicked a Council, to which the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry the third, was also admitted.

They said the extirpation of Heresy might be done much cheaper than by a Civil War. It was fit first to grant the Protestants what conditions they desired, then to treat them with all possible kindness; by which their Jealousies were to be once extinguished; and a confidence being begotten in them; then to draw the chief Heads of the Party to Court, upon some specious Attractive, and there they were sure of them. The first Bait to be offered, was the marriage of the King's Sister to the King of Navarre, and if that succeded not, they were to invent still a new one, till they found that which would do the Business. All the danger of this[Page]Council was, that the Pope and the King of Spain would be much provok'd by it; and there might be some hazard of Tumults, among the zealous People of France, if the King seemed to favour the Hereticks too much. But they reckoned, that when the Design took effect, all who might be discontented with the appearance of favour shewed to them, would be well satisfied, and the more the Pope and Spaniard complained of it, it would advance their chief end, of creating a confidence in the Protestants more effectually. Thus were their Councils laid. The Room in which this was first projected,Thuanus lib. 49. was the Council-Chamber of Blois, where 16 Years after the Duke of Guise was killed, by Henry the third's orders. And it was more fully concluded in that Chamber at St. Clou, where the same Henry the third was murdered by a Dominican.

The Design being agreed on, the Queen-Mother made some of her Spies, among the Protestants, assure them, that she hated the King of Spain mortally, both on her Daughter's account, that was his Queen, and as was universally believed, had been poysoned by his Orders; as also upon the consideration of her own Family of Florence, to which the Spaniard was then an uneasy Neighbour: and designed to take the Territory of Siena out of their Hands. It was reasonable enough to believe, that upon such Motives, a Woman of her temper would set on a War with Spain. The King did also express a great inclination to the same War, and to undertake the Protection of the Netherlands, which were then under the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva's Government. This wanted not a fair pretence, Flanders having been formerly subject to the Crown of France. He also seemed weary of the greatness of the Duke of Guise and his party, which a Civil War did still encrease.

[Page]The King and the Queen-Mother employed also in these Messages, Biron, Momorancy, Cosse and others, who were Men of great Integrity, and had much Friendship for the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral, that were the Heads of the Protestant Party. The Queen of Navarre was sensible of the great advantages her Son would receive from such an Alliance. An Army was also promised her, for the recovery of her Kingdom from the Spaniards; which had been easily regained, if the Crown of France had assisted her; since the Southern Parts of France were almost all Protestants, who would have w [...]llingly served her against Spain. Only she being a most Religious Woman, had great apprehensions of the unlawfulness, at least the extream danger of matching her Son to one of a different Religion; therefore she took some time to consider of that part of the Proposition. The Admiral was very weary of the Civil War, it both ruined his Country, and slackened the discipline of War, which he had formerly observed with a Roman Severity.

He thought the Conquest of the Netherlands would be an easy and a great accession to the Crown; he knew there was none so likely to be employed in it as himself, and he was resolved to carry all the Souldiers of the Religion with him. And being Admiral, he also designed to raise the greatness of the Crown both at Sea, and in the new-found World, which was then sending over an incredible deal of Wealth to Spain; in which the Spaniards who had landed in Florida, and killed a Colony of the French, that was setled there, had given just cause to make War upon them. Therefore as he had often expressed his being so averse to a Civil War, that he could no longer look on and see the Miseries it brought on his Country; so he was made believe the King did in good earnest intend to assist the Flemings, which being both [Page] against the Spaniard, and in defence of those of the same Religion, he would by no means hinder.

Upon these Considerations, there was a Peace concluded between the King and the Protestants, by which the free exercise of their Religion was granted: some Cautionary Towns were also put in their Hands, to be kept by them two Years, till there were a full settlement made of the Edicts, and the other things agreed to, for their Security. The King acted his part with all the Artifice possible, he became much kinder to the Family of Momorancy and the rest of the Admirals Friends, and seemed to neglect those of Lorrain. He threatned the Parliament of Paris, because they made some difficulty in passing the Edict in favours of the Protestants. He went secretly to meet with Lewis Count of Nassaw, and treated with him about the Wars of the Netherlands. He married the Emperor's Daughter, who was thought a Protestant in his Heart. He entred in a Confederacy with Q. Elizabeth: and the Cardinal of Chastilion (the Admiral's Brother, who had renounced his red Hat, and turned a Protestant) being then in England, was employed to set on foot a Treaty of Marriage between the Duke of Anjou and the Queen: A Peace was also made with the Princes of the Empire. And tho both the Spanish Ambassador and the Legat did all they could to hinder the Peace, and the Marriage of the King of Navarre, yet they seemed to make no account of that at Court: Only the King gave the Legat great assurances of his Fidelity to the Apostolick See, and that all that he was doing, was for the interest of the Catholick Religion. And taking him one day by the Hand: He desired him to assure theCaten. vita d [...] Pio Quinto.Pope, that his design in this Marriage, was that he might be revenged on those that were Enemies to God, and Rebels against himself, and that he would either punish [Page]them severely, and cut them all in pieces, or lose his Crown. All which he would do in compliance with the Advices he had received from the Pope, who had continually set him on to destroy them; and he saw no way of doing it so securely, as by getting them once to trust him, having tried all other methods in vain. And for a pledg of his Faith, he offered him a Ring of great value; which the Legat refused to take, pretending that he never took Presents from any Prince, and that the Word of so great a King, was a better security than any Pledg whatsoever.

Upon all these demonstrations of Friendship made to the Protestants, it was no wonder if Persons of such Candor, as the Queen of Navarre, and the Admiral, were deceived. The Admiral went first to Court, where he was received by the King with the greatest shew of kindness and respect that was possible. He embraced him thrice, laid his Cheek to his, squeezing his Hands, called him Father, and left nothing undone that might possess him with a firm Opinion of his Friendship. Nor was the Queen-Mother less officious to express her kindness to him. He was allowed to keep fifty armed Gentlemen about him. An hundred thousand Franks were sent him, for furnishing his Houses that had been spoiled during the Wars. And which was more than all the rest, when Complaints were carried by him to the King, of some who violated the Edict, great Insolencies being committed in many places; the King ordered them to be exemplarily punished. So that there was a general repining over all France, at the King's kindness to him. The King had also told him, that now he had got him near him, he would never suffer him to leave him any more.

The Design succeeding so well on the Admiral, the [Page] Proposition of the Marriage was also carried on; and the Queen of Navarre was next brought to Court, but soon after died (as was generally believed) of Poison, that was given her in some perfumed Gloves; to conceal which, the Chirurgeons that opened her, would not touch her Head, but pretended she died of an Imposthume in her side. The Cardinal of Chastilion was also at that time poisoned, which tho afterwards confessed by him that had done it, yet was not then so much as suspected.

The King seemed more and more set on the War in Flanders. He sent both to England, and Germany, to consult about the Preparations for it, and had agreed with the Prince of Orange, about the Division of the Netherlands: That all on their side of Antwerp should come to the Crown of France: And what lay on the other side of it should belong to the States. He sent a Protestant his Ambassadour to Constantinople, to engage the Grand Signior unto a War with Spain. He also furnished the Count of Nassaw with Mony, and sent some of his best Captains with him to try if they could surprize any Towns near the Frontier, who did their part so dextrously, that Mons was surprized by the Count of Nassaw, and Valenciennes by La Noiie, according to Mezeray; tho he seems to be mistaken as to Valenciennes, for Thuanus and Davila say nothing of it, but mention Mons only. And Veremundus Frisius, who wrote the HistoryPrinted at Edingburgh, 1573. of that Massacre the Year after, says, That they missed their Design in surprising Valenciennes, upon which they went to Mons and carried it. Upon this all reckoned that the King was now engaged, and the War begun. So the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, were brought to Court, and received with all the Marks of a firm Friendship, that could be invented. A Dispensation was obtained from the new Pope for the Marriage. [Page] Veremundus says, Pope Pius the 5th had always opposed it, but upon the Cardinal of Alexandria's return to Rome, who went to assist in the Conclave, where Gregory the 13th was chosen, the new Pope easily granted the Bull, which was believed to have flowed from the Information he received from that Cardinal, of the King's Design in this Marriage, which to be sure his Holiness would neither obstruct nor delay. So the Bull being sent to the Cardinal of Burbon, the day was set, and the chief heads of the Protestants were all drawn into Paris, partly to assist at the Solemnities of a Marriage, which they hoped would put an end to all their Troubles; partly to get Charges in the Army, which all People believed would be commanded by the Admiral. Only many of the hottest of them had followed Ienlis and La Noiie into Flanders, where it was intended to abandon them to the cruelty of the Duke of Alva, who had intercepted and cut off a great Body of them commanded by Ienlis. The Admiral pressed the King to declare the War immediately; foreseeing that unless it followed suddenly, his Friends that had surprized these Towns, would be destroyed, and the whole Design spoiled. But the King put him off with delays, in which he expressed much Confidence in him, by telling him the secret grounds he had to distrust almost every Person about him: and that therefore he must of necessity settle his Court and Councils first, before he could enter upon such a War.

But now the Design being ripe, the Duke of Guise, to whom it had also been communicated, was employed to gather many desperate Men about him, who might be fit to execute all Orders; and the thing getting into more hands, took wind, so that they at Rochel being informed of some suspicious Passages, wrote to the Admiral, [Page] to disabuse him, and desired he would leave the Court, and trust no more to the fair appearances he saw there; since these were only the Masks of some great Mischief that was framing. To them he wrote a long Answer, and assured them, That the King's Heart was wholly changed, that there was never a better Prince in the World, and that for his owe part, he would die a thousand Deaths, rather than suspect him capable of so base a Design. Then he laid before them all the reasons which induced him to believe the War with Spain was really intended, and therefore he desired, that they would lay dow their groundless Jealousies. And when some that were about him, pressed the same things upon him; he told them plainly, He would rather be destroyed, than make a new Rupture; and would be dragged at Horse-heels through Paris, rather than begin another Civil War. His Authority was so great, and his Experience so approved, that the whole Party submitted to his Judgment: And he got some Cautionary Towns, that were by the Treaty of Peace to be restored at the end of two Years, to be delivered up three Weeks before the time was elapsed: Only the Rochellers were a little more apprehensive, and would not receive a Garrison.

On the 17th of August was the King of Navarre Married, and four days were spent in all the gallant Diversions, that are usual on such Occasions, but were now performed with more than ordinary Magnificence and Joy.

Hitherto the Mine was working under ground, and now it was time for it to play. There was nothing could be blamed in the Conduct of the Protestants, but too much Candor and too great Confidence. They knew they designed nothing, but the quiet of their [Page] Country, and the greatness of the Crown. They were cajol'd with the most engaging tokens of Friendship, that ever were shewed on any such Occasion; they thought the King was sincere, and being then but coming to be of Age, was taking new Measures. And he had so covered the Cruelty of his Temper, with a shew of good Nature, that they expected they should be most happy under him. And for the Queen-Mother, tho they knew her too well to put any confidence in her; yet her Passion for her Family, and her Revenge for the poysoning of her Daughter, made them think they were also well assured of her. And indeed so deep and so refin'd a Dissimulation was perhaps never before acted. There was but one part of the King's Deportment that could give any ground for Jealousie, the horrid and blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations, which he made use of on all occasions to persuade them of the reality of his Professions; which always raise suspicion in sober and wary Persons. These the King used so frequently, that the Writers of that Time, say, That he seldom spoke three words without some terrible Oath, or blasphemous Expression, which from his ill Example, was so spread over all France, that none but the Protestants, spoke in any other strain.

But now when it fell under Consideration, how their Designs should be executed, the Queen with her two Italian Confidents, the Count de Rets, and Birague, who, next to the Protestants, hated the House of Guise beyond all the World, yet dissembling it most artificially; intended that the business should be so managed, as to ruine both the Protestants, and that Family at once: Therefore they thought, that if some of their Followers would assassinate the Admiral, the Protestants would turn their Revenge on them, and they knew the Parisians, [Page] would be easily moved to rise against the Protestants; and so they reckoned, that if an attempt was made upon the Admiral, by any of the Duke of Guise's Creatures, his Party would presently take a severe Revenge on the Head of the House of Guise, and the Parisians would be soon brought out to destroy them.

They concealed this part of their Design, and in the Cabinet-Council only proposed, that the Duke of Guise would find some person to kill the Admiral, which should pass like an act of private Revenge; and they said, they did not doubt, but the whole party would upon that take arms, and thereupon, there would be a good colour given, to bring out the City of Paris upon them. The Duke of Guise being young and hot, and boiling with Revenge for his Father's Blood, undertook it, not considering that himself might perish in the first heat of action, as the Queen hoped he should. He pitch'd on Maurenel, who had formerly assassinated another Person, and placed him in the House of one that had been his Tutor, near St. German of Auxerre, where the Admiral used to pass, as he went or came from the Louvre.

It was now necessary to execute their Design quickly, for the Protestants were beginning to apprehend some danger. They saw the King was resolved, to let those who had surprized the Towns in Flanders perish, without sending them any Relief. The Admiral was resolved to take leave within a few days: His Friend, the Duke of Montmorency, tho no Protestant, yet saw the Storm coming, and retired to his House: and many little Circumstances occurred, which gave them all just cause of fear: So the other Party had no time to lose. Therefore on the 22d of August, about Noon as the Admiral was going Home from the Court, reading a Paper that he had [Page] in his hand, the Assassinate that was laid for him, shot him from the House, where the Duke of Guise had placed him; his Fuzee was charged with three Bullets, that were believed to be poysoned. One of these carried away part of the Fore-finger of his right Hand; the other stuck in his left Arm, and the third missed him. He received it with great presence of mind, and pointed to the House from whence it came; he also sent one to the King to give him notice of it, and then ordered his Arm to be bound up, and so went Home leaning on his Servants. Some run to the House and broke into it, but found none there, save a Lacquey, and a Maid, and the Fuzee, which the Murderer left behind him, when he made his escape. The King was in the Tenis-Court when the news were brought him: He personated a deep resentment, and said in a Tone that seemed full of affliction, and with a terrible Oath, Shall I never have quiet! and so threw away his Racquet, and went out in a rage. The Duke of Guise did also counterfeit some Surprise.

But they missed their designs, both ways, for neither was the Admiral killed, nor did the Protestants fly out into any disorder. The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, came upon this to the King to complain, and desired leave to go out of Town, since Men were not safe so near the Court. The King seemed to resent it, more than they did, and with the horriblest Oaths he could think of, swore he would execute such a Revenge on all that were found guilty of it, whoever they were, that it should never be forgotten; and desired them to stay and be Witnesses of it. The Queen-Mother made also shew of inflaming his Rage with most vehement Expressions, so that they were persuaded to stay. The King ordered the Murderer to be pursued, the two Servants [Page] to be Examined, and all the Gates of Paris (except two) to be kept shut. The Admirals carriage on this occasion, was suitable to the rest of his behaviour, and equal to what the greatest Heroe's had ever shewed. Ambrose Parè, the famous Surgeon, dressed his Wound, he madethe Incision into his Arm, that he might take out the Bullet, and did cut off his Finger for fear of a Gangreen: But his Scissars not being sharp enough, he put him to extream pain, and did not cut it off but at the third reprise: during all which, the Admiral expressed no impatience nor anger. But as Parè told Thuanus, he said to Mr. Maur a Minister that stood by, Now I perceive that I am beloved of God, since I suffer these Wounds for his most holy Name. And during the Operation, he often repeated these words, O my God, forsake me not, and withdraw not thy wonted Favour from me! And whispered one that was holding his Arm, in the Ear, that he should distribute an hundred Crowns among the poor of Paris.

Next day Damvil, Cosse, and Villars, came to visit and comfort him, but confessed it was needless, for he expressed great resolution of mind and readiness to die, only he desired to see the King, and speak with him before he died. Damvil and Teligny (the Admirals Son in Law) carried this Message to the King, who very readily yielded to it. The Queen-Mother apprehending the great Genius of the Admiral, and fearing lest he should turn her Son to better Councils, would needs go with the King. His two Brothers, with twelve of the chief Persons in the Court, waited also on him, to make a shew of putting the more Honour on the Admiral, but really to watch the King, that he might have no opportunity of speaking with him alone. When the King came to his Bed-side, he expressed the greatest tenderness possible, and in his Looks, and the [Page] of his Voice counterfeited a most profound sorrow, and said to him, You, my Father, have received the Wound, but I feel the smart of it, and will punish it in so severe a manner, that the like was never seen. The Admiral thanked him, and told him, By his Wound, he might well perceive, who were the Authors of the Troubles of France. He pressed him earnestly to go on with the War in Flanders, and not leave all those Gallant Persons to the Duke of Alva's Insolence and Cruelty, who had trusted to his Protection. He complained of the Violation of the Edict in several parts of France; and desired the King, to consider how much it concerned him both in Honour and Interest, to keep his Faith inviolated. The King gave him full assurances of this, but avoided the discourse of Flanders, and with repeated Oaths told him, he would punish this Fact against him, as if it had been done against himself. Then the Admiral desired to speak privately with the King, which lasted not long; for the Queen-Mother, apprehending what the subject of his Discourse might be, came to the Bed-side and told the King, that so long a Conversation would much endanger the Admirals health, and so broke it off. Yet it seems, as short as it was, it made some Impression, for when she asked the King, what it was that he had said to him? He answered, He had advised him to Reign himself, and he was resolved to follow it. When this was over, the King asked the Admirals Friends, and the Physicians many questions about his Health, and proposed for his greater security, the carrying him to the Louvre. But the Physicians said, he could not be safely removed. So after he had staied an hour he left him, during which time he acted the part, he intended to play, so well, that all the Witnesses were satisfied with the Sincerity and Passion he expressed.

[Page]The Court of Parliament examined the Maid, and Lackquey, that were taken in the House from whence he was shot, about the Murtherer: and many presumptions appeared against the Duke of Guise, whose Servants, they found, had brought him to that House, and had provided an Horse for his escape. The King wrote that same day both to his Ambassadours in forreign parts, and to the Governours of the Provinces, shewing them what had befallen the Admiral, and how much he resented it. The next day being the 23d, the Duke of Guise and his Uncle the Duke of Aumale, came and desired leave to go out of Town. The King by his Looks and Carriage seemed to abhor them; and said, they might do what they pleased; but as they went away, he said, they might go whither they would, but he should find them out, if they appeared to be guilty of that Fact. And so they mounted on Horse-back and rode to the Port St. Anthony, as if they had intended to go out of Town, but came back to Guise-house: and began to raise a great stir in Paris. They called many about them, and sent their Agents all over the Town, and sent Arms to divers places. When News of this was brought to the Admiral, he sent to the King to desire a Guard, so 50 were sent under the Command of Cosseins, one of his bitterest Enemies. But to cover the matter better, some of the King of Navarres Swisses, were sent to Guard within his House. The King did also order all the Papists that lay near his House, to remove their Lodgings, that the Protestants might have conveniency to be about him, and gather together if there should be any Tumult. He also desired the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde would gather about them their best Friends, that they might be prepared to defend themselves, in case the Duke of Guise should raise any disorders.

[Page]All this seemed not only sincere, but kind; and by these Arts were the Protestants, not only secured from their fears, but had great hopes raised in them: And thus the greatest part of them were brought within the Net, that was laid for their ruine. Only the Vice-Lord (or Vidam) of Chartres saw through the disguise: And a Council of their Party being held in the Admirals Chamber, he spoke freely, and told them, the Admirals Wound was the first Act of the Tragedy, and more would soon follow. Therefore he proposed, that he might be carried to Chastilion, ill as he was, in which there was less danger, than to stay in a place where they and all their Friends would be suddenly destroyed. Teligny and others, that were fully perswaded of the Kings good Intentions, opposed this much, and said, it would shew such a distrust of the King, as might for ever lose him, that was then beginning to favour their Party. But the Vidam answered, that stay who would, he would not stay longer than to Morrow, for he was assured their stay would be fatal to themselves, and all their Friends.

There was a perfidious Person in that Assembly, one Bouchavannes, who was an Intelligencer to the Queen-Mother, and carried presently an account of their Consultation to her. She and her Party were now pressed with time, therefore the execution of their Design could be no longer delayed than the next Night. So the Council met and resolved, that not only the Persons of Quality of the Religion should be killed, but that every one of what condition soever, that were of that Profession should be Massacred. It was debated long, whether the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, should perish with the rest? for the Duke of Guise his Party had a great mind to destroy the whole Family of Bourbon: but as for the King of Navarre, it was thought contrary to the Laws of Nations, of Hospitality, [Page] and of Nature, to murder a King, that had come under trust to the Court, and was now so nearly allied to the King: and was guilty of no Crime, but what he had from his Education. So it was resolved, he should be spared, and made change his Religion. But for the Prince of Conde, he was naturally fierce, and that temper, joined with the memory of his Father, made them less inclined to save him; Only the Duke of Nevers, who had married his Wifes Sister, interposed vigorously for him, and undertook that he should become a good Catholick, and a faithful Subject: And he prevailed, tho with great difficulty, that he should be spared. But for the rest, it was agreed on, to raise the Town of Paris, and set them upon them, who were inflamed into such a rage against that Party, that they knew it would be an easy work to engage them in any sort of Cruely against them.

The conduct of it was committed to the Duke of Guise, who undertook it very chearfully. He did first communicate it to the Guards, and ordered them to keep a strict Watch, both about the Louvre, and the places where the Admiral and his Friends were lodged, that none might escape; then he desired the Provost (or Major) of Paris, and the chief Magistrates and Officers of the City, would meet at Midnight in the Town-house, where they should receive their Orders. They met accordingly, and it was intimated to them, that the King was now resolved to destroy the Hereticks, who had so long distracted his Kingdom: that therefore every one should go to his Quarter, and have all People in readiness, with the greatest secrecy that might be, and that they should have many Torches and Flambeaus ready, to light out at their Windows. The Sign should be a white Linnen Sleeve on their left Arm, and a white Cross in their Caps: and at the tolling of the great Bell of the Palace, which should [Page] be done near the break of Day, they should light their Torches and march.

The King in the mean while, was under great irresolution. The horror of the Fact, the infamy that would follow it, and the danger he might be in, if it either miscarried, or were not fully executed, could not but fill him with Confusion. But the Queen, who had overcome all the impressions of Tenderness and Pity, that are natural to her Sex, hearing of it, came to him, and studied to confirm him in his former resolutions, representing to him all the trouble they had given him in the former Wars, and that he might expect yet worse, if he would let go this opportunity, of securing the quiet of his whole Reign. She knew how to work upon him so well, that in end she prevailed, and the King swore deeply he would go through with it. Upon that, she being impatient, and fearing a new turn in the Kings Thoughts, made the Bell of St. Germans be tolled, which was the warning for tolling that in the Palace.

This fatal Signal was given the Morning of the 24th of August, St. Bartholomews day, being Sunday; and was followed with a general Rising of the whole City of Paris. The March of Souldiers, the noise of their Arms, and the lightning of so many Torches, awakened the poor Protestants, who now saw visibly that their ruine was both near and inevitable. Some of them went out to the Streets, and asked what the matter might be, of so great a Concourse, and so many Torches and armed Men, at such an hour? Some answered, as they had been instructed to say, till all things should be ready, that there was to be a Mock-Siege of a Fort in the Louvre, for the Kings Diversion. So they went forward to satisfy their Curiosity, but quickly found it was a real Massacre, and not a Mock-Siege that was intended, and they were the first [Page] Sacrifices of that bloody Festivity. There were now about threescore thousand Men brought together. The Duke of Guise, with his Uncle Aumale, resolved first to satisfie their revenge on the Admiral, and therefore went to his Gate, where Cosseins kept guard, on design to betray him the more effectually. He called to open the Gate; which being done, they killed the Porter and broke into the Court. But the King of Navarr's Swisses barricado'd the next Gate, and made some resistance. This dismal noise awakened the Admiral, who at first apprehended, it might be some Tumult of the Populace, which he hoped the King's Guards would easily disperse. But when he perceived it encreased, then he saw he was to be destroyed. So he took his Night-Gown and got up: Those that were about him were amazed at the constancy of his mind, his Minister Merlin prayed; and when that was ended, He said to those that were about him, I see now what this will end in, but I am prepared to meet Death, which I have often looked for, but was never afraid of: I account my self happy since it is so near me, having in this my Death, through the Grace of God the hope of Eternal Life. I need no more the help of Men, therefore farewel, my Friends, and try how you can save your selves, that you be not involved in my ruin, lest by my death I make more Widows than one: I have help enough in the presence of God, into whose hands I commit my Soul, which is soon to be discharged out of this Body. All this he spoke without the least commotion or appearance of fear. Then those about him left him, and got up to the Roof of the House. By that time the Murderers had brook in, and seven of them being all in Armour, came into his Chamber. Besme, that had been one of the Duke of Guises Grooms, advanced towards him; to whom he said, Young Man, you ought to reverence my gray Hairs, but you cannot shorten [Page] my Life much. They all stood a while amazed at such undaunted courage, and so composed a behaviour, which as one of them told Thuanus, was the most extraordinary thing that ever he saw his whole Life. Besme did first thrust him into the Belly, and then cut him over the Face: at which he fell, and the others struck at him, till he was quite dead. The Duke of Guise being below in the Court, heard the noise, and called to them to throw him out at the Window, which Besme and another did. And either the Duke, or the Count of Angoulesme (for it is differently reported) wiped his Face, which was disfigured with Blood, to know if it was he indeed, and perceiving it was so, trampled on his Belly, and went away. An Italian cut off his Head, and carried it first to the Queen-Mother, and then embalmed it, and sent it to Rome, (not only as the Protestants say, which is disingeniously added, by Mezeray, for Thuanus affirms it): Then all the ignominy and barbarity possible, was exercised about the dead Carcase, his Fingers and Hands were cut off, his Body dragged about the Streets, thrown in the Sein, and hanged up in Chains his Feet uppermost: and a fire was set under to burn it, but it only dried it and did not consume it. Some days after Monmorancy caused it to be taken down secretly, and buried it in his Chappel at Chantilly.

Thus fell the Admiral, that for all noble Qualities necessary, either to a great Captain, or a compleat Statesman, may be equalled to any of the Ancient Greeks or Romans; and for Piety and other Christian Vertues, was the Wonder of the Age he lived in.

But the Cruelty of the Duke of Guise and his Party, was rather kindled than satiated with his Blood. So he and his Company went out to the streets, and cried aloud, It was the King's command they should go on, and finish [Page] what they had begun. And so the Multitude was let loose, to murder all that were of the Religion, and the plunder of their Houses was to be their reward. This was followed with the most enraged and cruel Massacre that ever was heard of. It exceeded all that either the Heathens had done, or their Poets had feigned. Every Man seemed a Fury, and as if they had been transformed into Tigres and Wolves, out-did the very cruelty of Beasts of Prey. The bare relation of Matters of Fact, is beyond all that Eloquence can invent, by which it may be aggravated: and indeed a strict Narrative of what was really done, will appear some Ages hence, as a Tragical description of an imaginary Cruelty, rather than a true History. Five hundred Persons of Quality were murdered, and in all 4000 according to Thuanus and Mezeray. Perefixe the late B. of Paris says, there were twenty Lords of note killed, and twelve hundred Gentlemen, and between three and four thousand others. But Veremundus says, they were ten thousand. No Age nor Sex was spared; Husbands and Wives were killed in one anothers Arms, after they saw their Children murthered at their feet. One butcher'd an innocent Babe, as it was playing with his Beard. Men of fourscore were not left to the course of Nature, but hewen down. Nor did a single death satisfie their brutal rage, but they made them die many deaths, before death relieved them. One would cut off the Nose, another the Ear, a third the Hands, and a fourth the Arms of the same Person, before they would be so merciful as to kill him out-right. Those that fled up to the tops of their Houses, were made leap over to the Streets, where they were knocked down with Halberts. Such as ran out to escape through dark Passages, were either instantly killed, or driven to the Sein, where they took [Page] pleasure to kill and drown them with much art. Dead Bodies floated all along the Seine, and were lying in heaps thorough the Streets. In many places the Kennels ran Blood. There was nothing to be heard but the howlings of mangled and dying Persons; or the horrid blasphemies of their accursed Butchers. They searched all the Corners of their Houses, as Hounds pursuing for prey. No Man delivered his Friend; no Host had pity on his Guest: Only one brave Man saved his Enemy.

The Louvre it self was full of Blood, and the dead Corpes of those whom the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde had brought about them for their security: but where they expected a Sanctuary, they found a Massacre. It is needless to reckon up the Names of those noble Persons who were then destroyed, for the memory of Rochfoucant, Teligny, Renel, Piles, Pluvial, Baudine, Guerchy, Lavardin, Nompar or La Force, and five hundred more will be ever sacred; yet in this Nation where these Families are not known, the recital would be tedious and useless. Of all those Guerchy alone died with a Sword in his Hand, but could hurt none of those that assaulted him, they having Armour on them.

This horrible Confusion, gave the Allarm to those who lay in the Suburbs on the other side of the Seine to make haste and be gone; and they, having no suspicion of the King himself, were thinking to have gone over and sheltred themselves within the Louvre. The Parisians had now lost all order, and were fallen to plunder, so that they could not be brought together: Therefore the Duke of Guise sent over some of the Swisse Guards in Boats to kill them, and himself followed with some Horse; and had it not been for the mistake of him who brought the wrong Keys of the Gate, thorough which he was to pass, they had been all surprized before [Page] they had resolved what course to take. But day appearing, they saw enough to convince them, it was not time to delay any more: So in the greatest confusion possible, they got on Horseback, and fled away. The Duke of Guise pursued them, but they were out of his reach, and not being strong enough to defend themselves, and keep in a Body, they dispersed and escaped.

But the fury that they fled from, continued in Paris all that day, and the two following days: In which nothing was left undone that ingenious and desperate cruelty could suggest. Six hundred Houses were pillaged. And after such a glut of Blood, Mens minds becoming savage, they fell to revenge private Enmities, even upon their Fellow Papists; many of whom were in the end also murdered, but those were chiefly Monorancy his Friends, who were thought cold in the matter of Religion.

The most enraged of their Blood-hounds were Tanchou, Pesou, and Crosier a Goldsmith; the two former drove many to the Mills, and forced them to leap from thence into the River. Pesou boasted to the King himself, that he had made an hundred and fifty leap that night. And Thuanus says, he often heard Crosier say, That with that Hand he had killed 400: by which it seems he was thought so sanctified, that he would live no longer a common life, but as a sacred Person went to an Hermitage; where yet his cruelty left him not; for during the Warrs of the League, he drew a Flemish Merchant into his Cell and murdered him there. Thus were the Protestants destroyed in Paris, with a Treachery and Cruelty that the uncivilized Nations had never shewed to one another, nor had the Heathens been ever guilty of any thing like it towards the Christians. The Precedent which the Church of Rome had formerly given [Page] in the Massare of the Albigenses, was the likest thing in History to it for Barbarity; but never had Treachery and Cruelty met together in such a manner before this execrable day.

At Court all those generous Impressions which follow noble Blood, seemed extinguished. Men threw off Humanity, and Women had neither compassion nor modesty. The Queen-Mother and her Ladies took pleasure to look upon the most detestable Objects, and greedily beheld some obscene and indecent sights; but it is not fit to write all that was then done. About nine of the Clock, the King sent for the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, and told them he was forced to use that severe Remedy to put an end to War and Rebellion, and had therefore destroyed those, whom he could not induce to obey: And for them, tho he had good reason to hate them mortally, since they had led on a Rebellion against him, yet in consideration of their Blood and Alliance, he was resolved to spare them if they would change their Religion, otherwise they must look for no better usage than their Servants had met with. The King spake this with great rage, so that the King of Navarre being terrified, said, That if the King would save their lives, and leave them their Consciences free, they should in all other things be commanded by him. But the Prince of Conde answered more boldly, That he might dispose of his Life and Estate as he pleased, but for his Religion, he owed an account of it to God alone, from whom he had received the knowledg of it. This resolute Answer put the King in such a rage, that after he had treated him with most abusive language, he swore, That if he did not change within three days, he should hang for it. And so ordered them to be strictly guarded. At the same time there were Expresses dispatched over [Page] all France, to set on the People both in the Towns and Country, to imitate the example of the Parisians, and destroy the Hereticks. Yet the King either out of some remorse or shame, wrote to his Ambassadours and the Governours of the Provinces, that same day: That the Duke of Guise, and others that adhered him, having a great interest in the City of Paris, and apprehending that the Admirals Friends were resolved to revenge his Wound, had therefore, both to secure themselves, and to prosecute their former Quarrels, raised the City of Paris: and had broke through the Guards set to defend the Admiral, and killed him, and many other Persons of Quality; the rage of the People being such, that the King's Guards could do nothing to repress it: Therefore he was forced to keep himself within the Louvre, but had, as soon as was possible, quieted the Town; so that all things were put in order again; and he was resolved still to maintain his Edict, made for the free Exercise of their Religion. Veremundus has printed the Copies of the Letters, directed to the Governours of Burgundy and Tourain, and to the Town of Bourges, with the Memorial sent to the Swiss Cantons, all to the same purpose, bearing date the 24th of August. And in another Letter the King wrote, That he had made up a new agreement with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, and was resolved to run the same hazard with them, for revenging the death of his Cousin the late Admiral. But the House of Guise would not bear this, and made the King own, that all was done by his express Orders. So on the 26th of August, the King went to the Court of Parliament, and after an invidious repetition of all the Troubles of his Reign, which yet he said, he intended to have quieted by the late Treaty of Peace, he discovered that the Admiral had conspired to kill him, his [Page] Brothers, and the King of Navarre, and to set up the young Prince of Conde, whom he also designed afterwards to kill, that so the whole Royal Family being destroyed, he might make himself King: and since extream Diseases required extream Remedies, he was forced to do what he had done; and concluded, that all was done by his express Order and Command. Thuanus the Father, tho he abhorred the thing, yet out of fear and compliance, made a base flattering Speech, of the necessity of dissimulation in Princes, and did much commend that saying of Lewis the 11th. He who knows not how to Dissemble, knows, not how to Reign. And Pibrac the Attourney General, moved the King, that the Declaration he had made might be entred in their Registers, and that strict Orders might be given, to put an end to the Blood and Confusion with which the City was filled: Both which the King ordered to be done. The Declaration which was thereupon published on the 28th, is printed by Veremundus. By it the King charged all Persons, under pain of Death, through the whole Kingdom, to do no injury to the Protestants. And at the same time declared it Capital, for the Protestants to have any Assemblies. This was believed to be done rather on design to destroy, than save the Hugonets: That they being out of apprehension of danger, might stay all at Home, and so be more easily Massacred. On the 28th of August, a Jubilee was granted to all, who had been in this Butchery; and they were commanded to go every where to Church, and bless God, for the success of that Action. So little relenting had they, after all these black Crimes, that they imagined they had done God good service: And to that height did their Impudence rise, that they presumed to address to that Merciful Being, who abhors cruel and blood-thirsty Men, and that with [Page] hands not only defiled with Blood, but boasting of it as a Sacrifice offered to God, which had been a fitter Oblation to him that was a Lyar and a Murderer from the beginning, than the God of Truth, and Father of Mercies.

One remarkable Passage fell out, which occasioned much Discourse, and was variously constructed by the several Parties. On the day of the Massacre, about Noon, a white Thorn in the Church-yard of the Innocents, that was almost dead, and had no Leaves on it, flourished all of a sudden. This was published through the Streets of Paris, as a Sign, that Heaven approved their actions, and was made use of to animate them to new heats in their Cruelty: For every one was set on to kill one or other, that he might be honoured with the sight of so unusual a thing. Some thought it might come from the nature of the Tree, and it was said, such things were not extraordinary in Trees of that kind, a little before they became quite dead. Others believed it might be the Trick of some Monk, who pouring either hot Water, or some prepared Water at the Root of it, might have done the feat. But the Rable did universally ascribe it to some miraculous Cause, only they differed about that to which it referred. The Protestants said, it signified their Innocence, and that a new Troop of Innocents were sent to Heaven, and therefore the Tree in the Church-yard of the Innocents flourished afresh. The Papists said, is signified the joy in Heaven at that days work, and that the Church was to flourish again by the death of the Hereticks.

But leaving these discantings on this seeming Miracle, Morvillier that was Lord-Keeper, advised, That for justifying, or at least mitigating the Censures that might be made on these proceedings, there should be a [Page] Process carried on, against the dead Admiral, to prove him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and the Royal Blood; and there were some few Protestants kept Prisoners, who had been taken out of the English Ambassadors Lodgings, who to save themselves, they hop'd might be brought to accuse the Admiral. But while this Mock-Process was making, there was a real prosecution of the like Cruelties in many other parts of France.

At Meaux, a little Town not far from Paris, they began on the 25th of August, being Monday, and spent the whole Week in shedding more Blood. They killed two hundred; many of those were Women, whom they Forced before they Murdered them. At Troye in Champaigne, about the same number was killed. At Orleans, a thousand were also killed. Six or seven hundred at Roan, tho the Governour did what he could to hinder it. At Bourges, Nevers, and Charite, all they found were killed. At Tholouse two hundred were killed. At Burdeaux, they were for some time in suspence, being afraid of the Rochellers; but the Priests did so inflame the Multitude, that the Governour could not restrain their rage longer, than the beginning of October; so then they Massacred all that they could find. This beginning, was followed by all the Towns on the Garvinne. But next to Paris, Lions was the place where the most barbarous Cruelties were acted. The Governour had a mind to save the Protestants, and gathered together about six or seven hundred of them, whom he lodged in several Prisons, that so he might preserve them: And to give the People some content, he granted them the pillage of their Houses. But they were so heated by the Clergie, and by some that were sent from the Court, to promote the Massacre every where, that they broke open the Prisons and murdered them all▪ [Page] dragged their Bodies through the Streets, and opened the Bellies of the fattest of them, to sell their Greese to Apothecaries. And when they could do no more, they threw [...]em into the River of Rhosne, which was coloured with the Blood, and filled with the Carcases of the slain. These Examples were followed in many more places, but detested by others, who were not Papists enough, to overcome Nature and all Morality. The Governours in some places restrained the People; and in many places the Souldiers, tho more inured to Blood, defended the Protestants from the Rable, that were set on by the Priests. The Answer the Governour of Bayonne made, deserves to be remembred, who wrote to the King in these Words.

SIR,

I Have communicated your Majesty's Command to the Inhabitants of the Town, and the Souldiers of the Garrison. I find many good Citizens, and brave Souldiers, but never a Hangman here: And therefore in their Name and my own, I humbly beg your Majesty would employ our Arms, and Lives in things, which are possible for us to do, how dangerous soever they may be, and we will spend the last drop of our Blood in your Service.

This gave great Offence at Court, and soon after, bothMezeray. he and the Count of Tendes, Governour of Provence, who had also given Orders, that there should be no Massacre made within his Jurisdiction, died very suddenly: And it was believed they were both poisoned. In all there were, as Thuanas says, Thirty thousand massacred over France, tho he believes they were not quite so many. Mezeray estimates them at five and twentyHist. Hen. the 4th. Thousand. But Perefixè says, that over all France, [Page] near an hundred thousand were butchered. And Veremundus says, that besides those who were killed, an hundred Thousand Persons were set a begging, most of those being Widows and Orphans. Many of t [...]m fled to the places of strength in France, and great numbers went out of the Kingdom. For when they had escaped the first rage of the Massacre, they clearly perceived the design of their Enemies, was to extirpate them Root and Branch. And tho the King at first declared he would observe the Edict inviolably, they had learned from sad experience, how little his Faith was to be depended on, and they were further convinced of it by fresh Proofs. For the King pressed the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde very hard, to change their Religion: the former was tractable and hearkned to instruction; but the latter continued resolute and would hear nothing. This put the King once into such a Rage, that he called for his Arms, and was going in Person, either to kill him, or see him killed; had not his vertuous Queen, who had been instructed by her Father, to abhor all cruel Proceedings about Religion, cast her self at his Feet, and with many Tears diverted him from so ignominious an Action. But he sent for him and said only these three words to him, Mass, Death, or the Bastil. Yet he generously resolved to suffer Death, or perpetual Imprisonment, rather than go to Mass, had they not found out a Tool fit to work on him. One Sureau-des Rosiers, that had been Minister of the Protestants at Orleans, had now to save his Life, changed his Religion; But to have some reputation in it, pretended that he had resolved to have done it sooner, tho when that fear was over, he returned to them again, but was never much considered after that. He was therefore employed to perswade the Prince of Conde: and what by his endeavours, and what by fear of Death, [Page] both the King of Navarre and he went to Mass, and wrote Letters full of Submission and Obedience to the Pope; tho they were no sooner out of that Snare, than they declared, that what had been obtained of them, was extorted by force.

This being done, the King sent his Orders over all France, bearing date the 22d of September, to turn all Persons out of any considerable Imployments, that would not renounce their Religion, and a long form of Abjuration was sent with it, which was to be the Test: both which are printed by Veremundus.

The Process against the Admiral was carried on before the Parliament of Paris, and (without any proofs that ever were published) they on the 27th of October, judged him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and his Crown: And therefore ordained his Body to be hanged, if it could be found; or if not, that he should be hanged in Effigie: his House of Chastilion to be razed, and a Pillar set up with an Inscription to defame his Memory, his Blood was also attainted, and his Children declared ignoble and incapable of any Priviledges in France. And the Sentence concluded with an Order, for celebrating St. Bartholomews day in all time coming, with Processions and publick Thanksgivings for the Discovery and Punishment of that Conspiracy. There were also two other Persons of Quality, Cavagnes and Briquemaut who had been dealt with to accuse the Admiral, but they would not save themselves by so base a ransom; so they were both condemned as Complices with him. But when the Sentence was pronounced against them, Thuanus, that was an Eye-Witness, says, Briquemaut cried out, when that part of the Judgment was read that concerned his Children; Ah Innocents! what have they done? And then he, who for 50 years together had served [Page] in the Warrs, with a high and approved Valour, being then 70, what for fear of Death, what out of pity to his Children, would have done any thing, to have saved himself. He sent the King word, first that he would put Rochel in his Hands, if he would spare his Life: But that being rejected, he offered to accuse the Admiral, to preserve himself. But neither was that considered. All that while, his Fellow-Sufferer Cavagnes continued most serious in his Devotions, and for three hours together, was either Praying or reciting some Psalms: and expressed no concern for his Life, his thoughts being wholly employed about Eternity. He encouraged Briquemaut to die as he had lived, and to turn himself to God, and not to stain so honourable a Life, as he had led, with an ignominious end. And he seeing, he must die, recollected his Thoughts, and seemed ashamed of his former abject behaviour, and composed and prepared himself for Death. They both were carried to the place of Execution in Hurdles, where they not only suffered the reptoches of the Multitude, as they went along (who threw Filth and Clay at them with their most scurrilous Language) but Death it self with much Christian Patience and Magnanimity. They were hanged at the Greve, and their Bodies, after they were dead, were barbarously mangled by the cruel Multitude. With them the brave Admiral was hanged in Effigie, whose Innocence, as well as their own, they did to their last Breath assert. The King who delighted in such bloody Spectacles, did not only look on himself, with the Queen-Mother, and the Court; but forced the King of Navarre likewise to be a Witness of it.

It is needless to say much, for evincing the Admiral's Innocence, for all the Writers of the time acknowledg, the Process was only to cover the infamy of the Massacre. [Page] And Thuanus has so fully demonstrated it, that none can so much as doubt of it. If the Admiral had any such design, why came he to Court? Why to Paris, where he knew he had few Friends, and a vast number of mortal Enemies? and why did he desire a Guard from the King? But since they could not find a better colour for so foul a Business, they must make use of the best they had. They took another course to stop the Queen of Englands resentments, who, besides the common Cause of Religion, had a particular esteem for the Admiral, for they shewed a Memorial, which he had given the King to perswade the War of Flanders, to Walsingham (the ever renowned Secretary of State) then her Ambassador in France; In which one of the reasons was; That if the King would not receive these oppressed Provinces into his Protection, they would throw themselves into the Queen of Englands Hands; and if the English made themselves Masters of them, or of any considerable Ports in them, they would be again uneasy and formidable Neighbours to France, which would thereby lose the great security they had in taking Calice out of their Hands. When Walsingham read this, and was asked, what he thought of the Admirals Friendship to his Mistress? he answered, as became so great a Man. That he could not say much of his Friendship to the Q. of England, but he was sure, it appeared from that, what a faithful Subject he was to the King of France.

A Week after this was done, the King compleated the Treachery of this Precedure: for by his Letters directed to the Governours of the Provinces, bearing date the 3d of November, He declared he would Tollerate no Religion, but the Roman Catholick in all his Dominions. Upon which the following Civil Wars began, and in excuse of them, I shall only say, that besides [Page] the barbarous and persidious Treatment the Protestants had now received, they had this legal Warrant for standing on their own defence, That by the former Treaty the King granted them Cautionary Towns, for Pledges of the observation of the Edict. And it is certain, that if a Prince grants his Subjects Cautionary Towns for their Security, he does thereby relax their Alleagiance to him, and gives them a right to defend themselves, if the Agreement upon which these Pledges were given, should come to be broken.

This is the true and just account of that foul and treacherous Massacre, even as it is represented by the Historians of that Age and Church, who can neither deny nor excuse the Infamy of it; tho some rejoyced at it, and others wrote in defence of it. The King gloried so much in it, that three Meddals were struck, to perpetuate the memory of it. In one, Hercules is both with his Club, and a Flambeau, fighting against the sevenheaded Serpent, with this Motto. Ne ferrum temnat, simul ignis obsto. On the reverse, the King with his Hand, supports two Crowned Pillars, ready to fall, with this Motto. Mira fides, lapsas relevat manus una Columnas. Hereby intimating, that Heresy was the Serpent, which was to be destroyed by main Force, and by Fire: And that by this Act, the King had supported Religion and Justice. In the second, the King sits in his Chair of State, with a Sword in his right Hand, and an Hand on the Head of a Scepter in his left. And many Heads lying about his Feet, with this Motto. Virtus in Rebelles. On the Reverse, were the Arms of France, between two Pillars and two Lawrel Branches, with this Motto, Virtus excitavit Iustitiam. The third had, on the one side, a Woman environed with Rays, and a Book open in one Hand, and a Palmin the other, and at her [Page] Feet many Heads in Flames, with this Motto, Subducendis rationibus. The Reverse was the same with the first. The Signification of this, was, Religion triumphing over Heresy.

But this was only a false shew of Joy, for he was ininvardly tormented with the horrours of a guilty Conscience, which the effusion of so much Blood did justly raise in him; so that being often troubled with Visions, he was frequently heard say, Ah! my poor Subjects, what had you done? But I was forced to it. The strange manner of his Death, looked like a signal Judgment from Heaven for that bloody day; for after a long Sickness, which was believed the effect of a lent Poison given him by the Queen-Mother, Blood not only came out through all the Conduits of his Body, but through the very Pores, so that he was sometimes found, all bathed in his own Blood. And he that had made his Kingdom swim with Blood, died thus wallowing in his own.

All the servile Pens of the Lawyers, and the bitter ones of enraged Priests, were also set on work, to appear in Defence of it; Of whose Writings Thuanus gives a full account. One mercenary Protestant was also hired, to excuse, if not to defend it. I have never been able to meet with any of these Books, only Rosseus that wrote in defence of the Holy League, calls it the Iustice of St. Bartholomews day. And Andreas Eudemon Iohannes does also commend it.

The Arguments they used, have been formerly glanced at. The late Civil Wars; the pretended Conspiracy of the Admiral; the necessity of using desperate Remedies in extream Cases; and the Sovereign Power of Kings, were what the Lawyers could pretend. But the Divines had a better Plea, that by one General Council, all Hereticks [Page] were to be extirpated. And by another, Faith was not to be kept to them. And it cannot be denied, but this is unanswerable, according to the Principles of the Roman Church. The Protestants were not wanting to their own Cause, but answered these Books, and sufficiently discovered the impudent Allegations of those shameless Persons, who hired themselves out to defend so horrid an Action.

Maximilian the 2d, the Emperor, is the Person whose Judgment we have least reason to suspect. He was the King of France his Father-in-Law, and both by Blood and Alliance was joined to the Crown of Spain, yet he in a private Letter, writing to Scuendi his chief Minister in Hungary, has delivered his sense of this Matter so sincerely and fully; And that whole Letter is so excellently well written, and shews so much true piety, and so rare a temper of mind, that I shall not fear the Reader's censure for inserting it at its full length. It is but in one Book thatComingii Collectio p. 278. I know, and that is very scarce.

Dear Scuendi,

I Received your Letter, and took in good part your Christian and Friendly Condoleance for my late Sickness. The Eternal God, in whose hands are all things, do with me according to his Will. I bless him for every thing that befalls me. He only knows best what is healthful and profitable, and what is hurtful to me: I do patiently and chearfully acquiesce in his Divine Pleasure. And indeed Matters go so in this World, that a Man can have little pleasure or quiet in them: for every where there is nothing to be found but trouble, treachery, and foul dealing. God pity us, and deliver his Church from these mischiefs. It were no [Page] wonder, if from such a prospect of Affairs, a Man should become stupid or mad; of which I could say much to you. I begin to recover, and am now so strong, that I walk about with a Stick. God be blessed in all his Works.

For that strange thing which the French have lately acted, most tyrannically against the Admiral and his Friends, I am far from approving it: and it was a great grief to me, to hear that my Son-in-Law had been perswaded to that vile Massacre; tho I know that others reign rather than he; yet that is not sufficient to excuse him, nor to palliate such a wickedness. I would to God he had asked my advice, I should have given him faithful and fatherly Counsel, and he should never have had my consent to this Crime, which has cast such a blemish on him, that he will never wash it off.

God forgive them that lie under such guilt. I apprehend within a little while, they shall perceive what they have gained by this method. For indeed, as you observe well, the Matters of Religion are not to be handled or decided by the Sword: and no Man can think otherwise, that is either pious or honest, or desirous of Publick Peace and Happiness. Far otherwise did Christ teach, and his Apostles instruct us; their Sword was their Tongue, their Doctrine, the Word of God, and a Life worthy of Christ. Their Example should draw us to follow them, in so far as they were followers of Christ.

Besides, that mad sort of People might have seen after so many years Trials, and so many Experiments, that by their Cruelties, Punishments, Slaughters and Burnings, this Business cannot be effected. In a word, [Page] Their ways do not at all please me, nor can I ever be induced to approve them, unless I should become mad or distracted which I pray God earnestly to preserve me from.

And yet I shall not conceal from you, that some impudent and lying Knaves, have given out, That whatever the French have done, was by my knowledg and approbation. In this I appeal to God, who knows how deeply I am injured by it; but such Lies and Calumnies are no new things to me. I have been often forced to bear them formerly: and in all such cases, I commit my self to God, who knows in his own good time, how to clear me, and vindicate my innocence.

As for the Netherlands, I can as little approve of the Excesses committed there. And I do well remember how often I wrote to the King of Spain, Advices far different from those they have followed. But what shall I say? The Councils of the Spaniards relished better than mine. They now begin to see their Error, and that they themselves have occasioned all the mischief that hath since followed. I had a good end bebefore me, that these noble and renown'd Provinces might not be so miserably destroyed. And tho they would not follow my Counsel, so that I may well be excused from medling any more, yet I do not give over, but am sincerely pressing them all I can to follow another method.

God grant I may see the wished-for effect of these endeavours, and that Men may be at last satisfied with what they have done, and may use no more such violent Remedies. In a word, Let the Spaniards or the French do what they will, they shall be made to give an account of their Actions to God, the Righteous and [Page] Just Judg. And for my part, by the help of God, I shall carry my self honestly, christianly, and faithfully, with all candour and uprightness; and I hope God will so assist me with his Grace and Blessing, that I may approve all my Designs and Actions, both to him and to all Men. And if I do this, I little regard a wicked and malicious World.

How the rest of the World looked on this Action, may be easily gathered from the Inclinations and Interests of the several Parties. That all Protestants did every where abhor it, and hold the remembrance of it, still in detestation, needs not be doubted. All that were noble or generous in the Roman Church were ashamed of it, but many extolled it to the Heavens as a work of Angels; and others did cast the blame of it on the Protestants. The Court of Spain rejoiced openly at it. They delighted in the shedding of Protestant Blood, and were also glad to see France again embroil'd, and to be freed of the fears they had of a War in Flanders. In which if the French King had engaged, he had in all appearance conquered in one year, that for which his Successors have been since fighting a whole Age.

But let us next examine how the tidings of this Massacre were received at Rome, by which we may judg how fitly that part of Antichrist's Character, of being drunk with the Blood of the Saints, agrees to it. The News was brought thither the 6th of September, upon which a Consistory of the Cardinals was presently called, and the Legate's Letter, that contained a Relation of the Massacre, being read, they went straight in a Procession to St. Mark's Church, where they offered [Page] up their solemn thanks to God for this great Blessing to the See of Rome, and the Catholique Church. And on Monday following, there was another Procession made by the Pope and Cardinals to the Minerva, where they had high Mass, and then the Pope granted a Jubilee to all Christendom: And one of the Reasons was, That they should thank God for the slaughter of the Enemies of the Church, lately executed in France. Two days after that, the Cardinal of Lorrain, had another great Procession of all the Clergy, the Ambassadours, Cardinals, and the Pope himself, who came to St. Lewis Chappel, where the Cardinal celebrated Mass himself. And in the King of France his Name he thanked the Pope and the Cardinals, for their good Councils, the help they had given him, and the assistance he received from their Prayers, of which he had found most wonderful effects. He also delivered the King's Letters to the Pope, in which heHistorie de France, An. 1581. wrote, That more Heretiques had been destroyed in that one day, than in all the twelve years of the War.

Nor did the Pope think there was yet Blood enough shed, but that which all the World condemned as excessive Cruelty, he apprehended was too gentle. Therefore he sent Cardinal Ursin his Legate in all haste to France, to thank the King for so great a Service done the Church, and to desire him to go on, and extirpate Heresie Root and Branch, that it might never grow again. In order to which, he was to procure the Council of Trent to be received in France; and as the Legat passed through, in his Journey to Paris, he gave a Plenary Absolution to all that had been Actors in the Massacre.

[Page]The best Picture-drawers, and workers of Tapistry, were also put to work to set off this Action with all possible glory, and a Sute of these Hangings are to this day in the Pope's Chappel. So well do they like the thing, that they preserve the remembrance of it still, even in the place of their Worship. Such a representation does indeed very well agree with their Devotion, whose Religion and Doctrine led on their Votaries to the thing so expressed. By this we may easily gather what is to be expected from that Court, and what we ought to look for, when-ever we are at the mercy of Men, whose Religion will not only bear them through▪ but set them on to commit the most Treacherous and Bloody Massacres.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.Selections. 1685

Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.

Edition statement

1685

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Text Creation Partnership,

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Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A30330

ID [STC]

Wing B5770

ID [STC]

ESTC R214762

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12121889

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12121889

ID [VID]

54459

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Early English books online.

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A30330)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 54459)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 885:19)

Source

— A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679., Selections. 1685, Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715..

Extent

[6], 45, [3], 36, [2], 47 p.

Printed for Ric. Chiswell ...,. London :: 1685.. (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.)

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