A Looking Glass for Princes and Peoples Delivered, Book 2 · Part 4 · Chapter 27
CHAP. XXVII. Of their treacherous Practices in France.
IT would now seeme that after so manie Effronts in thisFrance is their Butcherie. vnhappie Usurpation and in the time of so great discoveries of their wickednesse, and decay of their greatnesse, they would either change or relent their course: But there is no such matter, for this last age hath seene some strange practises thereof, and that either executed or attempted. Their crueltie executed in France is not our: The Massacre of Paris is their shame, wee may say, Their fained peace stroue with warre and prevailed. Pax ficta cum bello de crudelitate certavit & vicit: For theseCivit. 3. 2…. last yeares they hauehave made that floorishing Kingdome a wonder to the World, and astonishment to it selfe: They found the two Francises, Henrie the second and Charles the nynth according to their heart, to maintaine Poperie and represse the trueth: But after the Butcherie of Paris, their rage increased at the reviving Trueth, and therefore set forward to the like massacres; and finding Henrie the third vnfitte for their cruell purposes,Their crueltie on Henrie the third. they cutte him off to serue themselues of the D. of Guise, who was lutum sanguine maceratum, Clay knedde with blood. Hee was indeered to the Pope for the massacre of Paris, and the Cardinall his brother, thought it a cause to thanke God that his house was honoured to be the instrument of Cardin. Lo… thar. …ractic. n. 1. Goldast. polit. 1139.that massacre. Henries catholick zeale could not saue him, because hee had not a Iesuited zeale to destroy all the Hugonots; hee agreed with them in all points of Religion, but in this, his clemencie and their crueltie could not agree, and therefore, hee must bee killed.
When Henrie the fourth arose, their rage was moreAgainst Henrie the fourth. kindled, because of his Religion, and notwithstanding his formall reconciliation to their Church, yet they ever keeped their prejudices and hatred to him: Their rage was not satisfied but doubled by Castellus his misse and their banishment: And their desire to returne, was not so much for the louelove of their Countrie, as to hauehave occasion to cut him off, and their hatred had never a pause, till his death.
That same spirit is yet powerfull in them: ThoughTheir plots against Lewes the 13. King Lewes bee zealous in their Religion, and (contraire to his clemencie) hath beene drawne by instigation to destroy many thousands of the Sainctes, yet they are notQui rebelles juvat rebellionem juvat, quecirca j… st… Dei judicio reddetur etali…. Cornel. Cornel. ubi supra. Quest. 8. An. in tanta perturbatione consultum con stituere, corregnantem, &c. hist. Iesuit. l. 4. cap. 3. satisfied with that is done: They perceiue in him an halting, and therefore are wearie of him. They hauehave boasted him to desist from his League with Protestant Princes, (which they see a meanes to strengthen himselfe against his common enemie) and hauehave threatned him with rebellions and insurrections: They hauehave also giuen him an Admonition in nyne questions disputed, whereof the summe is, That if hee relent in destroying the Hugonots in France, or assist the Protestants in Germanie, they shall set vp with him, a coniunct King. And least he should think that but wind, they stirred vp Franciscus Martellus, a Priest, neare to deepe like another, Ravilliacke to kill him, but God discovered the Traitour, who before his suffering deponed that two Iesuits Guyotus and Chapusyus were his Counsellours and instigators. And lastlie, they are brewing a browst like the Guysian faction against Henrie the third, and stirringThe extract of the olde Guisian treason. vp his brother against him vnderunder colour of Courtlie miscontentments against Cardinall Richli…u: And this is the corregnans, or coniunct King whereof their Theses spak.
It is a wonder that so mightie a Kingdome should bee so fearefullie shaken by plots, and more that they see it andThe Iesuits over…hrow Frence. groane for it, and yet can not expede themselues of these snaires. There was matter for redresse, when Henrie 3. was killed, but nothing answerable followed: and Henrie the fourth, had just cause of anger, and revenge by Castellus stroake, but it turned to nothing; for when hee had banished the Iesuits, within fiue yeares, that martiall King turned a pleader for their restoring. aBecan Exam. Concord. p 29.And after his death, whē (b) Cydon, refut. Antico…t. c. 1. Thuan.the presumptions of their treason were pregnant, they threw from the young King a declaration of their innocencie, and a condemning of the Booke-seller that dispersed the Copies of it: aThuan. Continuat. Ann. 1610.And when the Nobilitie did their best homageThey destroy their discoverers to their dead King, to kisse his heart, affecting to shew their lone in marking their months bAudit Hericu… Regem ita nostrorum opera delectatum, &c. Cydon. ibid pag. 44.with the blood of it, the Iesuits by right of a pretended, or (if it was true) an ominous Legacie of his heart left to them, caryed it to their Colledge of Laflex; and that not so much in the sorrow of funerals, as in the ioy of a triumph, for that they had found such a morsell for the paines of their long hunting. It were an hard matter to determine whether the hearts of the Nobilitie were more grieved, or the heartes of the Iesuits more over-ioyed about the Kings heart, but sure it is that the Iesuits gloried of it.
In that common sorrow Abbas Sylviu… the Abbot of They burne at Rome, what France spares.Boes in the iust griefe of a loyall heart, when hee considered the Iesuits Probleme: An fas esset tyrannos occidere, if it were lawfull to kill tyrants, and how Marianas and such Bookes were in the hands of people, hee turned him to the Iesuits in his Sermon, and exhorted them that they would provyde that no Booke passed vnderunder the name of Thuan. Continuat. Ann. 1610.their Societie, and with the Superiours approbation, that might any wayes offend the French, Summo studio providerent ne ex ipsorum officina vllus liber qui Gallos offenderet, prodiret, except they would expose themselues to such a danger, which all their wisedome supported with authoritie and riches of their favourers could not eschew, The Iesuits tooke that graue admonition so hardlie, that they complained to the Queene, and made him to bee sharplie rebuked: But what they could not doe at Paris, they effected at Rome, when they caused him to bee put to death there: whereof some accused them—because that hee was the first who after the Kings death reproved them out of Pulpit, albeit in the funerall oration which hee published, hee left out the speach that hee directed to them. cQuidā Iesui tas accusabāt—propterea quod primus post mortem Regis ipsos insectatus est. Thuan. Con.This was a Iesuitish tricke, that they who should hauehave beene punished for treason, turned the punishment of it on them who challenged them. It is like a new devyce of Bellarmines, whoThuan. Continuat. Lib. 2. p. 53. seeing how odious the Iesuits are made to the world by their wickednesse layed open in sundrie Books; suggested to the Pope, and his Consistorie that a new censure of Bookes should bee institute to raze and purge out all thinges that were written against them. A devyce of a gnawing Conscience, for though all these Bookes were burnt. yet the treacherie of that order will bee knowne to Posteritie.
Let France consider her estate. Before Iesuits arose, they France Iesuited is become treacherous.were loyall to their Princes. But since Spaine thirsted for that Kingdome (as his great stay of the European Moarchie) and hath as manie friends in her bowels as Iesuits, there is nothing, but Leagues, Plottes, and Factions formed, and everie faction ending in the killing of a King. The Sorbone standeth yet in her honestie, but can doe no more, than a Schoole censure, and is borne downe by the incroaching of the Iesuits on her, to punish her for her former loyaltie to Kings. The auncient forwardnesse of the Court of Parliament seemeth to bee relented, since the Iesuits Schoolers hauehave place there. The processe of Ravilliacke was so tepide, that they seemed to feare nothing more than to find out the truth: What was it to burne Marianaes Booke? and such like after that murther, or to tell their discretion to the world in condemning Bellarmines, booke but not burning of it for their respect to his Cardinalshipe: Curia Regia. Librum Bellarmini condemnavit, nec tamen exempla Hist. Iesuit. p. 179.eius in Cardinalis honore concremari voluit vti Marianae & Suar libris factum est. The death of Kings would make men forget such respectuous distinctions: The Iesuits goe on in their businesse, and contemnes such paper censures, But ex-Iesuited shall bee loyall.they know the event and punishment will bee no more, but a Magistralis censura of the Sorbone and an honorarie punishment of the Parliament, in making the Authour to burne his Booke. Such Paper-bridles are too weake to ride so hard-headed a Beast: They will as little preserue their living Kings, as restore them when they are killed.
Some may think strange, that seeing both France andWhy Spaine is more beloved of the Pope than France. Orat. vera p 41. Vita Ignat p. 69 Debemus orar… Deum noctes & dies ut servet quā dintissime,—Philippum Regem Catholicum qui—potentia ad insinitum ma…ore quam vnquam fuerit in mundo ullius Regis est propugnaculum ad defensionem Religionis Catholica. The standing of Frāce and the Iesuites incom patible. Spaine are popish, how it is that the Crowne of France is worse handled, than the other? Wee read of no treason plotted against the Kings of Spaine, nor League maintained in their Countries; but contraire; that hee doeth foster a League in France against it selfe, and while hee is in securitie, France is daylie in hazard. The reason is, Spaine is fitter for the Popes end; and the Iesuits (who swey all) are hispanized: They count Spaine the speciall pillet of the Catholicke faith, and the Protectour of their order, and therefore pray day lie for that King. This may bee called the Iesuits fifth vow, to seeke the Spanish greatnesse, for though hee were a French, English, …cot, &c. Yet so soone as hee is Iesuited, hee would kill his natiue King, (even though hee were popish) for the grandour of Spaine: There hauehave beene moe treasons executed against the French King, than all the Kings in Europe; for though they bee Popish, yet they are a barre to Spaine, and a thorne in the Iesuites eyes. The fancied fifth Monarchie is a fitte stoupe for the decaying Hierarchie.
Wee may say of the Pope as Augustus said of Herod, when hee heard that hee had killed his owne Sonne amongst the Babes of Bethlehem, that it was better to bee Herods Sow than his Sonne: There is no King worse intreated of the Pope than his first borne most Christian King: That floorishing Kingdome seemes now to bee drawne to some period, which can hauehave none other end, but either her ruine, or the riddence of her disturbers: Let not France thinke to brooke her auntient libertie and peace, so long as the Iesuits nest in her bowels: Her floorishing, & their standing in her, are both incompatible and impossible: It is weaknesse in Princes to thinke by Courtesie to gaine them, who for the Character of their order, hauehave odium Vatinianum, an irreconciliable hatred against all Princes, that will not idole the Pope and Spaine.