Ex Librit 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 

 
 I 
 
 -** 
 

 
 "*'*' 
 

 
 EDWARD EAUL OF
 
 RELIGION AND POLICY 
 
 AND THE 
 
 COUNTENANCE AND ASSISTANCE 
 EACH SHOULD GIVE TO THE OTHER. 
 
 WITH A SURVEY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IN THB 
 
 DOMINIONS OF OTHER PRINCES. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON, 
 
 LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, 
 
 AND 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 
 
 VOLUME THE FIRST. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS, 
 MDCCCXI.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Jrf ENRY Viscount Cornbury, who was called up to the 
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 of his father, Henry Earl of Rochester, by a codicil to his 
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 having been alfo recommended by LORD CLARENDON in 
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 Lord Cornbury dying before his father, this bequest did 
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 Henry Earl of Rochester, and late Duchess Dowager of 
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 which had arisen or might arise from the sale or publication 
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 The present Trustees, William Earl of Mansfield, John 
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 the following unpublished Work amongst these MSS. have 
 proceeded in the execution of their Trust to publish it : and 
 Jt is presumed that the following information may be fuffi- 
 cient to establish its authenticity. 
 
 The
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Manuscript is comprised in 407 folio pages fairly 
 written, and bears date on the last page, Moulins, 12 Feb. 167-!. 
 Laurence Earl of Rochester, fon of EDWARD the first 
 EARL OF CLARENDON, in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Turner, 
 President of Corpus Christi College Oxford, dated Nov. 30. 
 1710. fpeaking of this work, calls it a MS. of his Father's 
 intitled, Religion and Policy ; and fays, " It is in the fame 
 " hand- writing that most of the History was in." And the 
 Earl of Rochester's grandson, Henry Viscount Cornbury, in 
 a memorandum of the 7th June 1729, prefixed to the MS. 
 describes it in the state in which it is now found, and as the 
 work of the LORD CHANCELLOR CLARENDON. 
 
 In committing this work to the Press, no alteration from 
 the copy has been made, except in the orthography, and 
 where grammatical or verbal inaccuracies have appeared to 
 require it. The work itself has been divided into Chapters 
 according to the Author's division of his subject; and a 
 Table of Contents and an Index have been added.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Proposed subject of inquiry. Papal usurpation of Supremacy 
 in the dominions of other Princes that Supremacy never 
 looked upon in Catholic times as a part of Catholic Religion. 
 
 CH. I. p. i ii. 
 
 PAPAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 
 
 The first thirty-three Popes. Reign of Constantine Charac- 
 ter of the Emperor Julian. Irruption of the Goths into 
 Italy. Mode of electing Popes prior to the decree of Pope 
 Nicholas II. A.D. 1060. Irregular elections from Pope 
 Gregory VII. A.D. 1073. tl ^ ^ ie decree of Pope Honorius 
 III. A.D. 1337. Elections of Celestine V. Clement V. 
 and John XXII. His Doctrines censured ly the Univer- 
 sity of Paris His Jurisdiction denied ly the Council of 
 Spires. Succession of Popes to Julius III. A. D. 1549. 
 Factions in the conclave. Election of Paul V. A.D. 1605. 
 
 CH.II. p. 12 41. 
 
 PAPAL
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS. 
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 
 A. D. 1073. 
 
 Origin of the Papal Power. Contests between the Emperors 
 of Constantinople and the Kings of Italy. Reign of 'Jus- 
 tinian. Denial of the Pope's spiritual authority by the 
 Church of Milan. Liberties of the Gallican Church. 
 Papal right to depose Sovereigns first asserted and exer- 
 cised by Pope Constantine. Ancona and Ravenna obtained 
 by the Pope. Charlemagne obtains the right of approving 
 the election of the Bishops of Rome -introduces the Papal 
 power into France. Subjection of the Clergy to the see of 
 Rome established in Germany. Gregorian office and mass 
 introduced into France by Pepin. Appeals to Rome first 
 allowed in France by Louis le Debonnaire. Peter-pence 
 established in England during the Heptarchy. Four Popes 
 together. Leo IX. claims the sole right of calling General 
 Councils and depriving Bishops. The Bullarium Pallium. 
 Annates. Perpetual Vicars. Legates. Alexander II. 
 claims for tfie Pope to have the government of all the 
 Churches. Spain refuses to suppress the Gothic Missal. 
 Ecclesiastical laws made in England by William the Con- 
 queror. Origin of Appeals to the Pope in cases of Mar- 
 riage. CH. III. p. 42 105. 
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 
 
 10731305. 
 
 Contests between the Popes and the Emperors of Germany. 
 
 Roman Missal introduced inte Spain. Proceedings against 
 Henry II. of England on the murder of Thomas a Becket. 
 
 Crusades
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Crusfides to the Holy Land. Crusade against the Alli- 
 genses. Elections in Conclave. Inquisition established. 
 Attempts of the Pope to drauf money from England in the 
 reign of Henry III. Charles of Anjou crowned King of 
 Naples ly Pope Clement IV. Sicilian Fespers. Crusade 
 against Don Pedro of Arragon. Interdict of Spain. Re- 
 sistance of Edward I. of England to the Papal authority. 
 Jubilees and plenary Indulgences. Excommunication of 
 Philippe le Bel. Death and character of Boniface nil. 
 
 CH. IV. p. 106190. 
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 
 
 I 35 H3 1 - 
 
 Removal of the Pope to Avignon. Clement V. absolved 
 Edward I. from all his oaths for observing the Laws and 
 Charters of England. Suppression of the Knights Templars. 
 Rebellion against Edward II. assisted by John XXII. 
 University of Paris overrules a decree of the Pope upon mat- 
 ter of faith. Council of Spires denies the Pope's authority 
 over the Emperor. Edward III. of England resists the 
 Pope's Interdict of the Flemish Towns and prohibits on 
 pain of death the presentation or admission to benejices upon 
 any collation from Rome. -Laurentio and Baroncello, Tri- 
 bunes of Rome. Urban V. besieged in Avignon. Florence 
 resists the Pope's Interdict. Schism of forty years. Popes 
 and Anti-Popes at Rome and at Avignon. The Papal Su- 
 premacy denied in England in the reigns of Richard II. and 
 of Henry IV. Three rival Popes. Privileges granted to 
 the Mendicant Orders. Agreement between Martin V. and 
 Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, for reformation of 
 abuses. The Cardinal Bishop of Winchester excluded from 
 the Privy Council in matters concerning the Pope. 
 
 CH. V. p. 191 250. 
 
 b FROM
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III". 
 
 143 * J 534- 
 
 Papal dispensation from oaths. Causes and consequences of 
 the separation, between, the Church of Rome and the Greek 
 Church. Reestablishment of the liberties of the Gallican 
 Church ly the Pragmatique of Charles VII. Conspiracy 
 of Sixtus IV. with the Pazzi of Florence to assassinate the 
 Medici. Alexander VI. and his son Ccesar Borgia. 
 Charles VIII. invades Italy, and takes the Pope prisoner. 
 Savonarola burnt. Lewis XII. of France his character and 
 policy. Papal grant of the East and West Indies to Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella of Spain. The Bull intitled " Dam- 
 " natio Simoniacce Electionis Summi Pontificis Romani." 
 
 LeagueofCam.br ay. Venetian. War. Leo X. Disputes 
 in France about the Pragmatique and Concordat. Francis I. 
 
 Charles V. Henry VIII. Capture of Rhodes. Henry 
 VIII. abjures the Pope's Supremacy. 
 
 CH. VI. p. 251 327. 
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 
 
 I 534 
 
 Council of Trent called but not assembled. The Interim 
 of twenty -six articles upon matters of faith and discipline 
 granted by the Emperor Charles V. in a National coun- 
 cil at Worms. Foundation of the Jesuits by Paul III. 
 Julius III. his character and policy. The King of France 
 prohibits all intercourse with Rome. Marcellus II. his 
 character. Paul IV. his character. Charles V. abdicates 
 and is succeeded ly Philip II. in Spain and by Ferdinand in 
 Germany. The Duke of Alva. Philip II. Pius IV. 
 Huguenot wars in France. Meeting of the Council of Trent 
 its proceedings, debates, and sudden conclusion. Cardinal 
 Pallavicini's Hiftory of the Council. Bulls of Pius IV. for 
 varying and adding to its Decrees, and for strengthening 
 the Inquisition. CH. VII. p. 328 420. 
 
 VOL.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 
 
 1566 1631. 
 
 Pius V. his character. Excommunicates and deposes Queen 
 Elizabeth. Election of Gregory XIII. Massacre of St. 
 Barthelemi. Special privileges conferred on the Jesuits. 
 Henry III. of France. Wars of the League in France. 
 Character of Sixtus V. his proceedings for and against the 
 League. Excommunication and assassination of Henry III. 
 Papal bulls condemned by the parliaments and clergy of 
 France. Clement VIII. Henry IV. of France reconciled 
 to the Church of Rome refuses to publish the Council of 
 Trent in France. Paul V. his disputes and war with the 
 Venetians excommunication and interdict of the Republic. 
 Negotiations of Cardinal Joyeuse their absolution by 
 Cardinal Joyeuse in the Pope's name. 
 
 CH. VIII. p. 421524. 
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 1621 1670. 
 
 Change in the Policy of the Court of Rome. Republication of 
 the Buliarium. Gregory XV. Ludovico- his Bulls " De 
 " Elections Summi Pontificis" and " Contra Hasreticos" 
 his character. Urban VIII. Barberini his conduct and 
 character. Richelieu and Olivarez their characters com- 
 pared. France and Spain deny the Pope's Supremacy. 
 Urban VIII. makes war upon the Duke of P anna for the 
 Duchy of Castro prohibits the observance of peace in Ger- 
 many his canonizations his Bulls respecting Images and 
 Snujf, and for suppression of the Jesuitesses. Innocent X. 
 his character. Donna Olimpia. The Barberinis perse- 
 cuted by The Pope reinstated by Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
 Con-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Controversy between the Jesuits and Jansenisls. The Je- 
 suits maintain the Popes infallibility in matter of fact as 
 well as of faith. Pascal's ^Provincial Letters their merit 
 and effect. Alexander HI. Chigihis character and con- 
 duct towards his family .Embassy of the Duke de Creqvy 
 to Rome. Affray with the Corsican Guctrd resentment of 
 the King of France and humiliation of the Pope. Cle- 
 ment IX. Rospiglioso his character and conduct expedi- 
 tion for the relief of Candia, and its failure. Clement X. 
 Altieri. CH. IX. p. 525647. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Result of this Inquiry. Concluding observations on The 
 Pope's usurped Supremacy ist. Its mischievous effects 
 instanced in the separation of the Eastern and Western 
 Churches. Crusades against Christian Princes. Excom- 
 munications for temporal ends. Deprivation of Sovereigns 
 in the cases of Naples and Navarre. Disobedience to the 
 Papal Jurisdiction in civil matters made Heresy. Massacre 
 of St. Barthelemi. Plot for -murdering Queen Elizabeth. 
 Support given to the League in France and to the Re- 
 bellion in Ireland. idly. The Pope's Supremacy no part of 
 the Catholic faith in Catholic countries denied in Germa- 
 ny, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. $dly. The duty of 
 Catholic subjects in a Protestant country. Necessity for 
 the Priests as well as the Laity to abjure the Pope's Su- 
 premacy ecclesiastical as well as temporal. Unaltered 
 spirit of the Church and Court of Rome. Impossibility of 
 reconciling the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches. 
 National Councils the best conservators of Christian Reli- 
 gion. Of the repeal of penalties, and admission of Ca- 
 tholics to all privileges in the state and the providing 
 them with ecclesiastical teachers. 
 
 CHAP. X. p. 648 711.
 
 RELIGION AND POLICY, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Introduction, and proposed Subject of Inquiry. 
 
 J. HAT the sovereign care protection and propa- CHAP, 
 sration of Christian religion are committed by God to - 
 
 $L . . , . i , i Thesove- 
 
 Christian kings and princes needs no other evidence reign care 
 than his own declaration by the Prophet Isaiah con-andprdpa- 
 cerning the church ; * Kings shall be thy nursing fa- Christian 
 thers. and queens thy nursing mothers. It is the duty reli s ion 
 
 . . J committed 
 
 of sovereign princes to preserve and provide for the by God to 
 advancement of religion, and for the due exercise of kings and 
 it and devout reverence for it in their several domi- pnnces> 
 nions : and reason dictates that it can only belong to 
 those who have authority to give laws to their sub- 
 jects, to which they are bound to submit, and power 
 to cause those laws to be executed, if they refuse to 
 submit to them. And as they cannot prescribe what 
 laws they please upon their subjects which are con- 
 trary to the laws of nature or to those laws which 
 
 Ifn. xlix. 23. 
 
 B God
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAP. God himself hath prescribed, so they cannot impose 
 - what religion they please contrary to what he hath 
 enjoined. H( ' ith directed and established what 
 religion shall L embraced by prince and people, and 
 that must not be altered ; but the ways to propagate 
 and improve the same, and the removing of all that 
 would obstruct that improvement, and the suppres- 
 sing of all that would corrupt or discredit it, is com- 
 mitted to the sovereign power, to provide for the peace 
 of church and state according to its discretion by all 
 remedies which are not contrary to God's own di- 
 rection. 
 
 The forms Whatsoever God hath commanded to be done in 
 cumstances his Scriptures must be observed, and what he hath 
 forbidden must not be permitted, by kings and 
 P" nces i n tne i r several dominions : what he hath not 
 directed or forbidden may be supplied by the wis- 
 dom of those his lieutenants: or otherwise they could 
 not provide for the peace and well-being of the peo- 
 ple committed to their charge. And as they explain 
 or alter old laws upon doubts and inconveniences 
 which arise, or enact new upon the defects discovered 
 in their policy, in such manner as by the constitu- 
 tion of their several governments laws are to be 
 made, and with the assistance of such persons who 
 understand the nature and humour and just pre- 
 tences of the people, (which cannot be so exactly 
 known and understood by the prince himself without 
 such assistance ;) so, upon doubts which arise in re- 
 ligion which are not manifestly cleared in and by the 
 Scripture, or upon pretences that the Scriptures do 
 direct or imply or inhibit somewhat that is or is not 
 in practice, new rules or canons and injunctions may 
 be prescribed by the sovereign power, with the assist- 
 ance
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 ance of such learned and pious persons whose educa- CHAP. 
 
 tion and experience and other qualifications make ' 
 
 them fit for that great affair. 
 
 The body and substance of religion (as is said) is 
 enjoined and determined in Scripture, which must 
 not be altered. Whatsoever is not determined there 
 (and the circumstances formalities and ceremonies 
 which are to be used in the exercise of religion and 
 the more decent worship of God are not prescribed 
 and directed by the Scriptures) must therefore be 
 provided for and enjoined by that authority which is 
 entrusted with the government of that dominion and 
 people where the same is to be exercised ; and in 
 which the nature and humour of the people, the cus- 
 tom and disposition of the time, have been always 
 and may always lawfully be considered and indulged 
 to ; and they never were in all respects the same even 
 in those churches which were planted and instituted 
 by the Apostles themselves, nor will nor need be the 
 same to the end of the world ; since the nature of 
 the climate and manners of nations have always had, 
 and always will have, a great influence upon the cir- 
 cumstances of religion and forms of religious worship 
 throughout the world. As we are justly offended with 
 those amongst ourselves who, in those religious duties 
 which require the humblest postures and most devout 
 adoration, will affect to stand or to sit rather than to 
 kneel, (this latter being the posture in which they 
 would for the humility of it present their petition to 
 the King, and the other that which they would practise 
 if they were to speak to any man no better than them- 
 selves,) I say the singularity and irreverence of thpse 
 men may justly be reprehended and punished : and 
 yet, if the Turks and eastern nations should become 
 
 u 2 Christians,
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAP. Christians, it would be equally unreasonable to con- 
 demn them for not kneeling, which is not the posture 
 of their devout reverence and consequently not the 
 fittest for their devotions. 
 
 It is no wonder that the differences are so great 
 and many between the inhabitants of Europe and 
 of Asia in the habits postures and gestures, that it 
 would be impossible to establish an unity and uni- 
 formity in the outward form and practice of their 
 devotions, though the inward and substantial parts 
 of religion were equally submitted to by all ; when 
 the same or as important dissimilitudes in the man- 
 ners habit and practice amongst the European na- 
 tions themselves renders that conformity extremely 
 difficult, if not equally impossible ; since decency 
 (which is the best rule in many cases) is not the same, 
 nor are the same things comely and uncomely in 
 all places. But every thing of that kind, which is not 
 of the essence of religion, must be ordered and regu- 
 lated by the sovereign power as may best suit with the 
 peace and prosperity of their government; and there- 
 fore it is a very unreasonable and unjust presumption 
 of those who, upon those circumstantial differences in 
 practice, or indeed upon any differences which may 
 consist with -the essence of Christian religion, pro- 
 claim men and nations to be of several religions: 
 which is an odious distinction to exclude all the ob- 
 ligations of religion, and to introduce a bitterness 
 animosity and uncharitableness that is inconsistent 
 with any religion ; and as if the salvation they desire 
 and depend upon were not the same, the same confi- 
 dence of Christ, and the same confidence in him, 
 which is and can be but one ; though the circum- 
 stances and forms and ceremonies in his worship 
 
 and
 
 INTRODUCTION. | 
 
 and service, and even expressions of him and his at- CHAP. 
 
 tributes and merits, are not, nor ever have been, nor ' 
 
 will be the same. 
 
 It is not in the power or liberty of" private and 
 particular men to choose these circumstances of reli- 
 gion for themselves, or to use what forms or ceremo- 
 nies they please in the exercise of it, because they 
 are not of the substance or essence of religion. They 
 may not change the substance, because it is pre- 
 scribed by God himself; and they may not change 
 the circumstances, because they are enjoined by that 
 authority to which God referred the forming and 
 composing and establishing them ; and they thereby 
 become so much of the very substance and essence 
 of religion that we can no more reject the one than 
 the other ; and we may as lawfully make a new creed 
 for ourselves as new canons and rules of practice. 
 Things that were of themselves indifferent cease to 
 be indifferent, and become necessary, when they are 
 by lawful authority commanded to be practised ; and 
 kings are as well obliged to exact obedience to the 
 latter, as to take care that there be no invasion of the 
 former; and it is by such authority only that unity and 
 uniformity (which are very wholesome if not necessary 
 ingredients unto peace) may be established by every 
 prince in his particular dominions ; and these cannot 
 universally be established, because there is no uni- 
 versal monarch but God himself, who hath left that 
 work to be performed by his vicegerents according 
 to the wisdom he hath given them, and which can 
 no other way be provided. Princes and kings, to 
 whom this necessary supreme trust is committed, 
 and upon which the glory and honour of God as well 
 as the peace happiness and prosperity of themselves 
 
 ^ 3 and
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAP, and of the people so much depends, cannot transfer 
 - this trust to another over whom themselves have no 
 authority : they must take such aid and assistance to 
 them in discharge of the trust as may enable them to 
 perform it ; but they ought not to put it out of their 
 own power, upon any presumption that it will be as 
 well or better done than by themselves, without 
 being able to take it out of his hands again who is 
 not faithful in it. That nurse who is chosen by the 
 parents is inexcusable if she commits the nourishing 
 the infant she hath received to the care of another 
 without their consent, and to one from whom she 
 cannot require it again ; but much more if she deli- 
 vers it into the hands of a foreigner, who transports 
 it into a foreign country to suck the milk of a 
 stranger, and to learn the manners of a country 
 to which the parents would not have it subject. The 
 nursery must be performed by those to whom it is 
 committed, and to those ends for which it was prin- 
 cipally committed. 
 
 inquiry Since it cannot be reasonably supposed that kings 
 d princes have supinely waved and declined this 
 P art f tne ^ r trust f tne church and religion which 
 a God hath so solemnly bequeathed to them, or stu- 
 supreme pidly transferred it to any other, and thereby de- 
 
 junsdiction . * J 
 
 in the do- prived themselves of the better moiety of their sove- 
 
 minion of ,1 i -,i , 
 
 other reignty m their own dominions ; it will be worth our 
 sun,?ng a inquiry how they come to be without it, (for it is too 
 
 Tcrcigm > ' " a PP arent that most of the Christian princes are with- 
 out it or without the exercise of it, which is all one,) 
 and what just title he who usurps it from them hath 
 to it ; by what inducements and motives they have 
 been prevailed with to relinquish it ; and what co- 
 lour or pretence the Bishop of Rome, who usurps 
 
 and
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 and exercises that supreme jurisdiction in the domi- CHAP. 
 
 nions of other princes, makes to so monstrous and ' 
 
 unlimited an authority ; which without doubt hath 
 been the immediate cause of more rapine and the 
 effusion of more blood than all the ambition of other 
 princes or usurpers hath been since the death of our 
 Saviour ; and the propagation of Christianity hath 
 been more obstructed by that obstinate humorous 
 and senseless ambition than by the arms and ty- 
 ranny of the Turks and Infidels. And how can we 
 reasonably hope that those great and powerful 
 princes who command so much the greater part of 
 the world will ever embrace the Christian faith, when 
 they know that they are not only thereby to cease 
 to be Mahometans but to be monarchs, and admit 
 another prince to have an equal if not superior com- 
 mand over their own subjects in their own domi- 
 nions, and must cease to be Emperors before they 
 can be admitted to be Christians ? when our Saviour 
 himself, whilst he was upon the earth, and institut- 
 ing that religion by which all men are to be saved, 
 was so tender of and jealous for the entire power 
 prerogative and privileges of kings and princes, that 
 he would not suffer either to be invaded or affronted 
 for the advancement of the Gospel itself, and conse- 
 quently never intended that by becoming Christians 
 and followers of him from being Jews and Gentiles, 
 they should lose any of the preeminences they were 
 possessed of, or that their subjects should pay them a 
 less entire obedience and submission than they had 
 formerly done ; and when he intended that their 
 conversion should be the most effectual means to re- 
 duce all the world to the faith of Christ ; as indeed 
 it was like to have been till the Pope's usurpation of 
 
 B 4 a spi-
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAP, a spiritual distinct sovereignty obstructed the pro- 
 ' gress of it, and drove more from it than it ever re- 
 conciled to it. 
 
 Thesupre- It is true that so much hath been said by many 
 learned and pious men of almost all nations against 
 tne clai" 1 an( * usurpation of this papal power, and 
 upon in ca - a j| pre t e nces thereunto from Scripture or consent and 
 
 tnolic times f 
 
 as part of submission of the church have been so fully answered 
 
 catholic . j ,. 
 
 religion, and confuted, that little new can be said upon this 
 argument. Yet since so much of the peace and good 
 of Christendom depends upon the reforming and re- 
 jecting that error, and the putting an end to this 
 single controversy would quickly put an end to all 
 the rest ; and since what hath been said hath rather 
 been spread amongst other controversies than con- 
 tracted to that point alone, and so is not known and 
 considered by many who do not take the pains to read 
 great volumes ; and since their confidence is not at all 
 abated in those who are concerned to support the 
 claim, but they do as confidently aver tradition from 
 the apostolical times and practice throughout the 
 primitive church for all that authority the Bishop of 
 Rome usurps or lays claim to, as delegated to him 
 from our Saviour himself, and unquestionably pos- 
 sessed by him throughout the several ages of the 
 church, and that the contradiction thereof was never 
 heard of till Luther's time, and amongst his novel- 
 ties, and not before ; (all which pretences are most 
 romantic and known to be most untrue to those who 
 urge it, if they have any knowledge ;) it may be of 
 some use to collect shortly by itself, and without any 
 mixture with any other argument, the whole series of 
 the Bishops of Rome, from the time that themselves 
 pretend that there was any, out of their own most 
 
 avowed
 
 INTRODUCTION. g 
 
 avowed and allowed authors, and those records which CHAP. 
 
 by themselves are reckoned most authentic, with that 
 
 candour which impartial inquirers ought to have, 
 and without any other sharpness of language (which 
 it may be hath discredited many very reasonable and 
 true informations and attempts towards reformation) 
 than what cannot be severed from the fact and the 
 persons who are mentioned, and that is used by the 
 catholic writers themselves. And it will thereby best 
 appear how little of antiquity or warrantable tradi- 
 tion can be applied to the support of that power 
 which the Pope pretends to have in the dominions 
 of other princes, or in the determination of those 
 doubts and controversies which arise in religion it- 
 self; and how far that supremacy which he doth 
 usurp in many places, and which is absolutely denied 
 to him in others, (and the pretence to which is the 
 original and the continuance of all the schisms in 
 the Christian world,) is, from having ever been looked 
 upon in catholic times (even where it hath been to- 
 lerated) as a part of catholic religion : and then 
 whatever concessions of power have been made by 
 any' kings to the Pope to be exercised within their 
 dominions, or whatever he hath imposed or usurped 
 upon others without their consent, can signify no- 
 thing, nor be applied to the prejudice of those who 
 do or shall refuse to admit him to have any kind of 
 authority in their territories where they have the 
 sovereign power. 
 
 They, who will maintain an opinion or right only 
 upon the stock of tradition, had need have very exact 
 memorials of what was done in those times to which 
 they refer, which are as much wanting in matters of 
 religion if not more than in any other part of story ; 
 
 for
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAP, for I think we may reasonably believe, that we have a 
 L - - better collection and tradition of the secular and 
 temporal affairs for some hundred of years after our 
 Saviour's time (we may say from our Saviour's time 
 to this in which we live) than we have of ecclesiasti- 
 cal affairs and matters relating to religion and the 
 church ; and we may without doubt believe that we 
 have a better account of all affairs within these last 
 five hundred years, both spiritual and temporal, than 
 our predecessors had of any ages before from that of 
 our Saviour : the growth and improvement of learn- 
 ing from this time, the extent of dominions under 
 one government, and the method and policy of that 
 government throughout all the parts of Christendom, 
 the civilizing and reforming the manners of all na- 
 tions since this time, and the great number of learned 
 men in all nations having been better means and 
 conduits to transmit and convey the knowledge of 
 all that had been done in these last five centuries to 
 posterity than our ancestors had before: and yet even 
 in this little retrospect of five hundred years there 
 have been in all parts of Christendom so great mists 
 and so much darkness and obscurity, that we have a 
 very sorry account either of the ecclesiastical or se- 
 cular affairs in this short time ; insomuch as we have 
 great reason to wonder at and envy the excellent ac- 
 count and information which we have received of the 
 greatest time under the government of the Greeks 
 and the Romans for many hundred of years together, 
 when we have scarce one century of any one king- 
 dom in Christendom so carefully and exactly writ, 
 that we can say we have a clearer knowledge of this 
 time than we have of that. And in truth there is so 
 great an alteration within these last hundred years or 
 
 little
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 little more and in all the western parts of the world, CHAP. 
 
 not only in the religion and policy and language and '- 
 
 manners, but in the very nature and humour of the 
 people of the several nations and kingdoms, that if 
 the several kings and princes who then reigned could 
 now again take a survey of their several dominions 
 and subjects, they would scarce understand their lan- 
 guage, much less their habits natures and humours. 
 What shall we say then to those propositions and 
 conclusions which men would have us believe the 
 more exact, because they say it was reported and 
 agreed to be so sixteen hundred years ago ? 
 
 CHAP.
 
 12 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Succession of Popes, their Forms of Election, and 
 Extent of Jurisdiction, from the Time of St. Peter 
 to Pope Paul V. A.D. l6o5. 
 
 tine. 
 
 CHAP. IF we look upon the fountain of all ecclesiastical 
 story, from the time of the Apostles even to that of 
 
 Imperfect . . i i j j J 
 
 ecciesiasti- Constantine, which was about three hundred and 
 from die 7 twenty years, in which there were three and thirty 
 Popes, we may reasonably say that no rivulet con- 
 veyed any thing from that pure fountain of moment 
 to us, more than what the Scripture itself tells 
 us of the very history. There is not only no autho- 
 rity that obliges, but no reason that persuades us, to 
 believe any thing positively in the transactions of the 
 church or of churchmen ; nor does it appear from 
 whence we have the very lives of the Apostles and 
 other holy men which are derived to us ; and which 
 we have much more reason to suspect, because as 
 there was no collection of them in writing till after 
 Constantine's time, so what was afterwards put in 
 writing hath been oftentimes altered, many things 
 having been reformed and left out according to the 
 discretion and gravity of the age ; and that body of 
 the lives of the saints which hath now most reputa- 
 tion amongst the Catholics was compiled but in our 
 own age by the Jesuit Ribadineyra, who was chaplain 
 
 to
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 13 
 
 to Philip the Second in England when he married CHAP. 
 Queen Mary, and of whose skill in collecting history - : 
 we may make some judgment by what he hath left 
 us of England ; which relating only to the trans- 
 actions of twenty years is so full of mistakes and er- 
 rors with reference to persons times and actions, that 
 no Englishman who is best versed in the accounts of 
 that time can receive any information. But, as I 
 said before, his collection of the saints hath most re- 
 putation in all catholic countries of any other, and is 
 translated into all languages, though it contains not 
 half the particulars even of St. Peter himself as for- 
 mer and more ancient editions do ; and yet it con- 
 tains very much more than any learned and wise ca- 
 tholic will seriously profess to believe. 
 
 There is no consent in the very succession of the fthirt r- 
 
 t . . . . three Popes 
 
 Popes, very little pretence to jurisdiction over any in the first 
 other persons where themselves resided, and no men- dred and 
 
 tion of the manner of their election and how they 
 came to be chosen, till after three hundred years. 
 For, taking it as granted that St. Peter sat seven succession, 
 
 . ._ , nor account 
 
 years at Antioch and four and twenty at Rome, and of their 
 that he suffered in the year sixty-nine after the birth section. 
 of our Saviour ; and admitting likewise that St. Paul 
 suffered on the very same day with him, though in a 
 different manner, (which is of great use to them, since 
 they do not deny that St. Paul had equal authority 
 with St. Peter in Rome itself) yet it does not appear 
 who did immediately succeed St. Peter, whether Li- 
 nus or Clement ; for they who prefer Linus and 
 Cletus both before Clement do yet acknowledge that 
 St. Peter did appoint Clement to succeed him, and 
 that Clement was so humble that he refused it, and 
 so he is placed the fourth after Linus and Cletus, 
 
 But
 
 u PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP. But then again there is as great a difference whether 
 
 Anacletus and Cletus were one and the same person; 
 
 and then there will want one in the number of the 
 Popes, for Eusebius places Evaristus to succeed Cle- 
 ment ; others put Anacletus between them, and say 
 he reigned nine years : but for the precise time that 
 the several Popes for many successions lived and 
 reigned scarce any two writers agree. And if their 
 tradition be so uncertain an evidence of such an his- 
 torical verity in so few years after Christianity was 
 first preached or professed, how can we or any rea- 
 sonable man give credit to those allegations of many 
 , things done and words spoken by our Saviour him- 
 self and of his Apostles, for which they allege no 
 other proof but tradition so concealed between them- 
 selves, that nobody ever heard mention of either till 
 nine hundred years after the death of Christ ? But 
 let tradition be as weak and as partial a witness as it 
 must be still reckoned to be, we do deny that they 
 have even such a witness for them ; and by the par- 
 ticular disquisition we shall make into every half age 
 and less of the church, it will appear that this their 
 pretence is not in the least degree supported or fa- 
 voured by tradition. 
 Nature of Towards any thine; that looks like jurisdiction 
 
 their juris- ,,,-'. i i 
 
 diction till (and how far it extended or was submitted to is not 
 Constan- apparent) there is some dark mention of the bringing 
 in of holy water, and of the ordaining that no priest 
 should say above one mass a day, by Pope Alexander 
 the First ; and of the ordering three to be said on 
 Christmas eve by Pope Telesphorus ; and of the ap- 
 pointing godfathers and godmothers in baptism by 
 Pope Hyginus, which the Anabaptists will hardly be 
 persuaded to believe. The difference about Easter 
 
 indeed
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 15 
 
 indeed made a great noise and divided the churches, CHAP, 
 and was determined by Pius the First ; but revived - 
 and continued with great passion and animosity for 
 forty years after, until Pope Victor, in a council at 
 Rome (which they say was the next lawful council 
 to that of the Apostles at Jerusalem) with as much 
 passion, declared his judgment in that particular; 
 which is a shrewd evidence that the authority of 
 Pope Pius was not considered with a full resignation. 
 Some particulars of less moment, as the ordering 
 that no vessels of wood should be used in the mass 
 but of glass, and shortly after that cups of plate 
 should be only used in that service, are mentioned 
 to be established about or soon after that time. 
 
 But in what manner those orders were issued and 
 accepted, and what obedience was paid thereunto, is 
 no where mentioned, and may be best guessed at by 
 the respect that was given to the judgment of Pope 
 Pius in the point of Easter. And certain it is that 
 no acfof solemn jurisdiction by the Pope or church 
 itself will be found manifestly to have been done till 
 the Emperor became Christian ; nor can it easily be 
 conceived that any of those edicts could be digested 
 or published with any formality, or that they were 
 communicated with less secrecy than the Pope con- 
 cealed his own person or the place of his abode ; ei- 
 ther of which was no sooner known than he was 
 seized upon and carried to his execution. And there- 
 fore it is not easy to conceive how that council should 
 be assembled at Rome in which Victor determined 
 the time for the celebration of Easter, both parties 
 equally urging tradition for the day they observed, 
 and which they say was the first lawful council after 
 that of the Apostles ; and as hard how that council 
 
 was
 
 !6 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, was called in Africa, when Stephanus determined 
 against the rebaptization of heretics, to which St. 
 Cyprian would never submit, which is no sign of 
 his believing himself to be subject to the Pope's ju- 
 risdiction ; or that other at Antioch, when Diony- 
 sius censured and deposed Paulus Samosatenus from 
 that bishopric; and lastly, how the other was con- 
 vened at Sinuessa in the kingdom of Naples, for the 
 examination of the idolatry of Pope Marcellinus. 
 It is very probable, that whatsoever was decreed 
 in these particulars was secretly transmitted to the 
 persons concerned, and not transacted in any pub- 
 lic or solemn manner, and the more probable be- 
 cause all the several Popes lived many years after 
 those decrees, which they could not have done if 
 what they had done had been known. Yet it can- 
 not be denied that all those councils are mentioned 
 to be held in that excellent collection made by;the 
 learned Sirmondus, who no doubt had authority for 
 it, though his memorials contain no more than that 
 there were such councils held in those places at 
 those times, without mention who were present or 
 any one canon that was made. And the Popes have 
 gotten nothing by it, but the eminent and obstinate 
 contradiction and contempt of their authority from 
 St. Cyprian, (which much weighs down all the civi- 
 lity and deference in his letters to Pope Cornelius) 
 and the preservation of the record of that indelible 
 reproach upon the papacy in the idolatry of Marcel- 
 linus ; who, being terrified with the persecution in 
 the time of Dioclesian, (when in thirty days there 
 were seventeen thousand Christians put to death for 
 their religion,) preserved his life by sacrificing to the 
 idol gods, and was for that scandal and impiety, they 
 
 say,
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 17 
 
 say, convened before a number of bishops at Sinu- CHAP. 
 
 essa in the kingdom of Naples, who might more ' 
 
 securely have met in Rome itself; he for some 
 days passionately denied the charge until he was 
 convinced by thirty witnesses, when he made great 
 submission, professed great repentance, and declared 
 that he deserved to be deposed, but the council 
 refused to do it for want of power ; whereupon the 
 dejected Pope assumed new and unnecessary cou- 
 rage, returned to Rome, defied and reviled the Em- 
 peror to his face till he caused his head to be cut off: 
 and there need not be a better argument of the inse- 
 curity of such meetings than that there passed above 
 seven years from the death of Marcellinus before 
 Marcellus, who immediately succeeded him, was 
 chosen Pope. 
 
 We are beholden to the pontifical recorders for Conversion, 
 
 , . . , . , / f. . of Britain 
 
 supplying us with evidence long before this time ottoChristi- 
 our King Lucius having writ to Pope Eleutherius, an 
 (who by some of them is reckoned to be the four- 
 teenth Pope, by others the thirteenth, and by Beda 
 the twelfth, so soon their tradition left them in the 
 dark,) that both himself and his kingdom might re- 
 ceive baptism, which was presently granted ; inso- 
 much that many of their most unquestioned histo- 
 rians do acknowledge that King Lucius and his king- 
 dom was the first entire Christian kingdom. But 
 timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, and they always sell 
 their baptism at a much dearer price than our Sa-r 
 viour appointed should be paid for it. And therefore 
 since so authentic evidence as the original letter writ-* 
 ten by King Lucius to the Pope and his answer back 
 to the King (both which they acknowledge to have, 
 in their custody, with the names of the persons de- 
 
 .C puled
 
 18 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, puted by Eleutherius for the performance of that 
 11 function) have not gained so much credit with them, 
 but that they have given the precedence and priority 
 to a prince born near four hundred years after King 
 Lucius and his kingdom were baptized ; (for Clovis, 
 whom they declare to be the first Christian King, 
 became Christian but in the year four hundred 
 eighty-one ; whereas Pope Victor, who succeeded E- 
 leutherius and reigned eight years, died but in the 
 year two hundred and one ;) we will therefore claim 
 no benefit from King Lucius, but leave those pre- 
 cious records (though they are mentioned by many 
 of the most ancient writers) to be made use of to 
 their own advantage, and will content ourselves with 
 a much ancienter Christianity from the unquestioned 
 testimony of Gildas, (to whose knowledge and since- 
 rity antiquity pays the greatest reverence and sub- 
 mission, Avho declares Evangelii lumen in Britannia 
 radiasse in the last year of Tiberius ; which was the 
 fifth year after the resurrection, and so before St. Pe- 
 ter himself came to Rome, at least if he remained 
 Bishop of Antioch seven years. And this declaration 
 of Gildas is confirmed by Baronius upon the autho- 
 rity of a very ancient manuscript (which he says re- 
 ^ mains in the Vatican) of the History of England, by 
 
 which it appears that Christianity was brought into 
 Britain about that time by Joseph of Arimathea and 
 his company : nor is there more probable evidence, 
 because there is not so general a consent or so many 
 circumstances alleged for the planting Christian reli- 
 gion in any kingdom in Europe as concur in the ar- 
 rival of Joseph of Arimathea and his company in 
 Britain, and of his dying there ; and they who pro- 
 fess to believe this, would persuade us that in little 
 
 more
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 19 
 
 more than a hundred years it was so near extin- CHAP. 
 
 guished that King Lucius did jidem sopitam susci 
 
 tare, which is not only in the highest degree impro- 
 bable^ but is clearly contradicted by more authentic 
 records remaining with us than those are of Lucius 
 and Eleutherius in the judgment of all ecclesiastical 
 writers ; there being such an incongruity between 
 the letter supposed to be written by Lucius and the 
 Pope's answer, and such an uncertainty who Lucius 
 was, or when he lived. Beda says the letter was writ 
 in the year one hundred fifty-six, which was many 
 years before Eleutherius was Pope ; (for his prede- 
 cessor Soterus died but in the year one hundred se- 
 venty-six ;) others say that Lucius died in the year 
 one hundred eighty-one; whereas Matthew of West- 
 minster will have that letter to be written by him to 
 the Pope in the year one hundred eighty-five. . 
 
 To the end of Pope Marcellinus, who was put to 
 death in the year three hundred and seven, there was 
 no form prescribed for the election, nor any persons 
 appointed or who pretended power to elect; and it is 
 probable enough that the Pope dying might recom- 
 mend his successor ; for besides that they say that 
 St. Peter nominated Clement, they say likewise that 
 Stephen the First was recommended by Pope Lucius 
 that went before, who was the three and twentieth 
 Pope ; and it is very probable that those pious per- 
 sons who were all martyrs, (for of the first three and 
 thirty Popes, the last of which was Melchiades who 
 suffered in the tenth and last persecution under the 
 Emperor Maximianus, there were not above three or 
 four who died natural deaths ;) I say, it is very pro- 
 bable that they had all so great a reverence and ve- 
 
 c 2 neration
 
 20 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CH AP. neration from the people, that they were very willing 
 ~ to receive any man whom the Popes recommended 
 to be their successors ; and most of the admittances 
 being within five or six or seven or eight days after 
 the death of the last Pope may persuade us, that 
 there was very little faction or formality in the elec- 
 tion, there being then no room for any ambition 
 (except it were for martyrdom) or any secure place 
 to assemble in for such a business ; so that we may 
 reasonably presume that they, who during that long 
 time supplied that high office, did it rather by a ge- 
 neral admission and acceptation than by any formal 
 election. 
 
 It is true, after the death of Marcellinus, and when 
 the see had remained void above seven years, (which 
 would have produced an irreparable damage to Chris- 
 tianity if so much of it had been trusted to the per- 
 son of the Pope as hath been since imagined,) Mar- 
 cellus, who was his successor, was said to be chosen 
 by the clergy and people of Rome, which is not pro- 
 bable ; for if the Emperor Maxentius, who put him 
 afterwards to death, had known of any such thing, (as 
 if it had been so notorious he could not but have 
 done,) he would never have suffered him to have 
 reigned five years, which is the time assigned him ; 
 neither is there mention that his two successors Eu- 
 sebius and Melchiades had any such election; nor 
 that Pope Antherus's ordinance " that none but a 
 " Bishop should be chosen Pope" was afterwards 
 pursued ; for after he was put to death by the Empe- 
 ror Maximus, his successor Fabian had no such qua- 
 lification : and of any pretence to a larger power and 
 jurisdiction than is mentioned before we have no 
 
 foot-
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 21 
 
 footsteps before the time of Constantine the Empe- CHAP. 
 
 ror, who being himself a Christian preserved them ' 
 
 from any more bloody persecutions. 
 
 Our next inquiry shall be to discover what claim Reign of 
 
 1 . ' ' i -A ...... . i Constan- 
 
 or exercise the Popes had to any jurisdiction in other tine, and 
 kingdoms and states in or after the reign of Constan- stltc^f 1 Pa. 
 tine, and whence they derived it; and what opposi-j^"^' 
 tion and contradiction they met withal from time irru P tion of 
 
 the Goths. 
 
 to time, by which the current opinion of antiquity A. D. 420. 
 will best appear. 
 
 It is agreed on all hands, I think, that Silvester the Silvester I. 
 First was Bishop of Rome when Constantine came to 
 be Emperor ; though there is no mention what inter- 
 val there was between the death of Melchiades and 
 the election of Silvester, or in what manner he was 
 chosen ; and there seems to be some contradiction in 
 the authors about the computation of that time ; for 
 Silvester is said to have reigned three and twenty 
 years and ten months, and to have died in the year 
 three hundred thirty-four; whereas it was in the year 
 three hundred twenty-one that Melchiades was put 
 to death, between which several times there are but 
 thirteen years or thereabouts. However it appears 
 that Silvester was then Pope, and some authors will 
 have it that Constantine was christened by him. Sure 
 it is that as that Emperor performed many acts of 
 piety in building of churches in several places for 
 the exercise of the Christian religion, so he paid 
 great respect to Pope Silvester and gave him a rich 
 crown, which they say he never wore himself, though 
 he left it to his successors. Yet we do not find that 
 he gave him any part in the Council itself of Nice, Council of 
 (for the allegation that his commissioner resided Nlce ' 
 there is without any colour of authority,) where Arius 
 
 c 3 was
 
 22 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, was condemned by three hundred and one Bishops ; 
 
 IL the whole number present being but three hundred 
 
 and eighteen, and of the seventeen who dissented 
 eleven afterwards recanted and submitted, so that 
 there remained only six who continued obstinate. 
 Constantine himself was present in this council, and 
 he and he alone confirmed the decrees and acts 
 thereof, and sent them so confirmed to Pope Silves- 
 
 Councii of ter, who thereupon called a council at Rome of two 
 hundred sixty-seven Bishops, who confirmed all that 
 had been done at Nice, which confirmation was no 
 other than a submission and conformity thereunto ; 
 as the Council at Granada in Spain, which was then 
 
 Eiiberitan likewise assembled and is called the first Eliberltan 
 
 Granada. Council, likewise did. And there needs no other 
 evidence of the Emperor's supreme authority in that 
 Council than his Letter to all churches for the due 
 observation of all that was concluded at Nice, and 
 for the observation of Easter, and the burning of all 
 books written by Arius, which he commanded to be 
 done in a very imperial style : " SI quid autem scrip- 
 " turn ab Ario composition reperiatur^ ut igni id tra- 
 " datur volumus ; ut non modo improba ejus doctrina 
 " abrogetur, verum etiam ne monumentum quidem ali- 
 " quod ejus relinquatur : Illud cquidem predictum 
 " volo ; Si quis Libellum allquem ab Ario conscriptum 
 " ce/are, ncc continuo igni comburere deprehensus fu- 
 " erit, supplicwm ei mortis essc constitutum" And 
 
 Council of the Letter which was shortly after written from the 
 
 Aries 
 
 Council of Aries (where Eborius Bishop of York 
 and Restitutus Bishop of London were both present 
 and subscribed) is very notable to the argument we 
 are upon, and for the abridgment whereof we are 
 beholden to Sir H. Spalman in the first tome of the 
 
 Coun-
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 23 
 
 Councils' 1 : "Domino sanctissimo, Fratri Silvestro, CHAP. 
 
 II. 
 " Marinas, vel c&tus Episcoporum, qui adunati fu ' 
 
 " erunt in oppido Arelatensi^ quid dccreverimus com- 
 " muni concilia, charitati tu& signijiccfvimus, ut omnes 
 " sclant quid in futurum observare debeantT This 
 is the same Pope Silvester to whom they would per- 
 suade us the Emperor Constantine had such defe- 
 rence, when we see how the poor Council at Aries 
 treat him as they did any other Bishop. 
 
 Pope Julius sent some reprehension as they pre- ^^i| of 
 tend to the Eastern Bishops for having presumed to 
 meet in council without his consent ; but they ex- 
 pressed all manner of indignation at his reprehen- 
 sion, and shortly after met in a council at Antioch ; 
 and the Emperor continued so obstinate in that opi- 
 nion, that Pope Liberius who had succeeded Julius 
 was banished, and Felix was chosen Pope ; but Li- 
 berius redeeming himself from banishment by be- 
 coming and turning Arian, Felix was again turned 
 out ; and to wipe off* this scandal in Liberius the dis- 
 tinction was first made between the Pope and his of- 
 fice, which hath so often since been inverted owned 
 and contradicted, as the occasion and the humour of 
 persons concerned in the disputation have thought 
 fit. In this time was St. Austin born in Africa and 
 Pelagius in England, as those historians report who 
 did not distinguish between England, and Scotland, 
 where that nation will needs have him be born, pre- 
 ferring the fame of his wit and learning as a greater 
 honour to their country than the infamy and re- 
 proach of his heresy can detract from it. 
 
 And now succeeded Julian in the Empire ; whe- 
 
 > P. 4045. 
 
 c 4 ther
 
 24 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, ther an apostate or no, may for aught I know be 
 
 ~ fully doubted. That he was a great enemy to the 
 
 The Empe- J ,. 
 
 ror Julian. Christians, and that he found a way more to discredit 
 ten and dishonour Christianity by his wit and mirth and 
 
 scoffs and discountenance, (which made a greater im- 
 pression upon the Christians of that age, and made 
 more of them to renounce their faith, than any one 
 of the fiery and bloody persecutions had done,) is very 
 clear: yet I have never seen ground enough to conclude 
 that he ever embraced the Christian faith, or was in- 
 structed in it ; for though he had conformed in some 
 outward appearance to the commands of his uncle 
 the Emperor Constantine, yet he appeared always 
 addicted tp the religion of the Gentiles, in which he 
 was very learned ; and taking him as a Gentile, he 
 may be well looked upon as a prince of extraordinary 
 virtue; and one, who if he had not been carried by a 
 wonderful providence, and against all the advice of 
 his friends and several predictions (to which he was 
 naturally superstitious enough) into that war where 
 he was slain, it is probable might have extended 
 the empire to as great an extent of dominion and re- 
 putation as ever it had under any of his predecessors. 
 And here it may not be unfit (though I believe it 
 will be very unpopular) to observe how much passion 
 and prejudice contributes to the corruption of histo- 
 ry ; for we know not to what else to impute all those 
 relations of the manner of his death, and his last 
 speech in contempt of our Saviour, than to the over 
 zeal of religious persons of that age ; who, believing 
 his apostasy, thought they could not load his memory 
 with too many reproaches, nor sufficiently celebrate 
 God's mercy in the vengeance acted upon him in so 
 extraordinary a manner. And the Spaniards do still 
 
 believe
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 35 
 
 believe that he was killed by St. Mercurius with one CHAP. 
 
 T r 
 
 of the lances which was always kept in that Saint's - : 
 tomb, as it was missed on the day in which Julian 
 was killed, and found again the next day in its place 
 all bloody. Whereas, if we will believe Ammianus 
 Marcellinus, (who is incomparably the best writer of 
 that age, and was himself in that battle,) he was hurt in 
 a very sharp charge of the enemy when great numbers 
 fell on both sides ; and being carried out of the field 
 into his tent, where he lived some days after he found 
 his wound to be mortal, he sent for the principal offi- 
 cers of his army, made a long discourse to them of 
 the public affairs and of his particular person and 
 his actions and intentions, full of wisdom and mag- 
 nanimity, and died with as great serenity and tran- 
 quillity of mind as any Roman general of whom we 
 have received very good account in story. 
 
 Not long after Julian, Damasus was Pope, who 
 reigned no less than nineteen years ; and there were 
 but three Popes after him, that is to say, Siritius and 
 Anastasius (in whose time the Council of Toledo was 
 held in which priests were forbidden to marry) and 
 Innocent the First, before the Goths entered Italy 
 with an army of two hundred thousand men, and 
 entered and sacked Rome, Innocent himself being 
 then at Ravenna ; and this was about the year four 
 hundred and twenty, being two years before the 
 death of Innocent. 
 
 In this great deluge both the language and man- irruption of 
 ners and religion of Italy grew so much corrupted and subse- 
 that there are few records of the actions of that timeofpapal ju- 
 which have any credit: and this confusion was short- [-^ 
 ly improved by the Hunns and the Vandals 
 
 overran all Italy ; so that for an age or two there Gregory 
 
 J VII. A.D. 
 
 was 1073.
 
 26 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, was little other notice taken of the Papacy than by 
 the schisms that were in it, and by the Popes' appli- 
 cations to the Emperors to assist them, and the acts 
 of jurisdiction by the Emperors in punishments and 
 The Empe- reformation. Thus the Emperor Honorius, in the 
 uT banishes schism between Boniface the First and Eulalius, 
 andEuia- (which was the third schism) first banished both the 
 pretenders the city of Rome for seven months ; and 
 then, after examination of the business, he confirmed 
 Boniface to be the true and right Pope, and made a 
 law, which is still amongst the decretals, that if two 
 were chosen Popes together neither of them should 
 be allowed. And again in the time of the very next 
 Pope, which was CeJcstine the First, the Emperor 4 
 Council of Theodotius the Second called the Council at Ephesus, 
 
 Ephesus. t ' 
 
 where Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria presided ; but 
 they will have this office to be performed by Cyrill 
 by commission from the Pope ; for which as there is 
 no authority, so there appears no probability; because 
 Sixtus the Third, who was the very next Pope after 
 Celestine, was a person so totally neglected by all 
 degrees of men, upon a scandal which Bassus had 
 raised upon him, that nobody would so much as 
 communicate with him, until he had prevailed with 
 the Emperor Valentinian the Third to call a council 
 which might examine the whole matter ; which be- 
 ing done at Rome, where fifty-seven Bishops met, 
 all allegations and suggestions being examined, the 
 Pope was cleared and acquitted, and Bassus excom- 
 municated. Of so little authority was the Pope him- 
 self in that age when so much was done in the mat- 
 ter of religion. For in the time of the very next 
 
 CaSon f P P e > which was Leo the First > the Council at Calce- 
 don was held; and in his successors time, which 
 
 was
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 2f 
 
 was Pope Hilarius, the four general Councils of Nice CHAP. 
 
 Ephesus Constantinople and Calcedon were confirm- 
 
 ed. And yet the Popes were in much more liberty, 
 and received more respect from the new invaders the 
 Goths (who were Christians though Arians) than the 
 Emperors did ; for about this time and by means of 
 the Goths and Vandals the western empire grew so 
 totally suppressed, that for above three hundred years 
 (which was to the time of Charlemain) there was 
 not so much as the name of an Emperor of the West 
 heard of; Italy and the Popes living for the most 
 part under the protection of the Kings of the Goths, 
 who exercised their power as much over one as the 
 other. So in the fourth schism between Symma- 
 chus the First and Laurentius the Anti-Pope, (which 
 was after the year five hundred,) Theodoric King of 
 Italy keeping his court at Ravenna called a council, Council of 
 by whose advice he commanded Symmachus to be 
 acknowledged Pope, and the other to discontinue all 
 pretence. 
 
 This manner of questioning, receiving, and re- Form of 
 jecting Popes, makes it seasonable again to makepo pe sun- 
 some reflection upon the unprescribed unsettled and the decree 
 unobserved course or manner of the election of fp P. e . 
 
 Nicholas II, 
 
 Popes; of which antiquity is either silent or doth A. D. ioeo. 
 not pretend that there was any constant rule ob- 
 served therein : which we cannot reasonably suppose 
 could possibly be omitted, if our Saviour had ever in- 
 tended that the Bishop of Rome should be the sole 
 monarch of the Church, and that religion should so 
 much and so absolutely depend upon his pleasure 
 and determination : for then he would have pre- 
 scribed some such order for his election, that it should 
 at all times be manifest who is and who was truly 
 
 Bishop
 
 28 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP. Bishop of Rome : and if it were confessed that all 
 the texts of Scripture, which from all antiquity are 
 agreed to be spoken to and of all the Apostles, are in 
 truth only to be applied to the person of St. Peter, it 
 would confer no more right upon his successors, than 
 the breathing of the Holy Ghost and the gift of 
 tongues upon all the Apostles have derived the same 
 illumination upon all the successors of the Apostles. 
 Though Rome was for some time the seat of the em- 
 pire and so the place to which men were obliged to 
 resort upon several occasions, yet the place and city 
 itself never appeared to be chosen by God with any 
 peculiar privilege or title for his worship ; but on the 
 contrary hath borne the deep marks of his displea- 
 sure in being exposed to more affronts, more sack- 
 ings and devastations than any other great city in 
 Europe hath been. And therefore, that after the glory 
 of the empire is departed from it, it should still re- 
 tain a power to give to all the empires and kingdoms 
 of the world a supreme magistrate to whom they are 
 bound to submit and obey in all those things which 
 concern the salvation of their souls and their hopes 
 in the next world, is so very irrational, that less than 
 the most clear evidence that it is the will of God it 
 shall be so can never convince mankind that they 
 ought to consent thereunto. From the time that the 
 manner of elections was taken notice of, sometimes 
 the Pope was chosen by the clergy and people of 
 Rome, and sometimes by the clergy alone : and when 
 there were scandalous elections made upon which 
 schisms ensued, sometimes the Emperor, sometimes 
 the Kings of Italy, and sometimes the Exarch, regu- 
 lated those consentions, and settled such a Pope as 
 they thought fit; sometimes appointing them to 
 
 choose
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 2 g 
 
 choose such a man, and sometimes that none should CHAP. 
 
 be admitted to be Pope until, upon notice given to 
 
 the Emperor, his election should be confirmed or ap- 
 proved by him. Nor was there any form prescribed 
 or accustomed for those elections till the year one 
 thousand and sixty, when Pope Nicholas the Second 
 (whose own election might well have been ques- 
 tioned, he being chosen upon a schism when Bene- 
 dict the Tenth pretended to be Pope and continued 
 so nine months, and then waved the contest and . re- 
 turned to his bishopric of Velitri) made a decree 
 that from thenceforth the election of the Pope should 
 be only in the Cardinals; the Cardinals them selves Cardinals. 
 not being looked upon with any reverence, or in any 
 degree above other prelates, till the time of Leo 
 the Ninth ; who had been made Pope by Harry 
 the Fourth, and was attended and acknowledged as 
 Pope in his journey throughout Germany ; (though 
 afterwards he appeared in Rome as a private person 
 till he was formally elected, which was quickly 
 done ;) and therefore this decree of Nicholas would 
 have found opposition enough if the world had looked 
 upon the Pope as the universal Bishop of Christ. 
 And Nicholas was no sooner dead, and Alexander the 
 Second chosen in his place by the Cardinals, but the 
 Bishops of Lombardy took exception to the election, 
 and called a council in Milan and declared the elec- Council of 
 tion to be void ; and chose Honorius the Second to 
 be Pope, who was acknowledged by the Emperor, 
 and so there was a new schism. And when Cardinal 
 Hildebrand, who was the next successor, under the Hiidebrand 
 name of Gregory the Seventh, was chosen by the 
 college of Cardinals, he would not assume the Ponti- 
 ficate, till he had first sent to the Emperor for his 
 
 appro-
 
 30 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, approbation ; and till the Emperor had sent his am- 
 bassadors to Rome and approved his election ; which 
 
 he had no sooner obtained than he threatened his 
 
 benefactor, and soon after excommunicated him ; 
 
 which let in that deluge of blood into Germany that 
 
 was not assuaged in that age. 
 
 irregular From this time or shortly after new schisms arose 
 p^i eiec- upon this course and method of elections, according 
 Pop* Gr^. to the humour of the Emperor and other Kings and 
 yn. tin the p mc w | unsatisfied that men should be put 
 
 decree of _ * 
 
 Pope Hono- U p 0n them for Popes by such a small number, received 
 
 rius III* 
 
 ma;. and acknowledged him for Pope whom they liked best 
 and who they thought would live towards them with 
 the most dependancc : and so when two or three 
 Popes were chosen together by several Cardinals, (as 
 there were three Anti-Popes at several places when 
 Paschal the Second was created,) they all created Car- 
 dinals ; and these Cardinals, when he whom they ac- 
 knowledged died, chose a successor according to their 
 several factions. Thus after the death of Gelasius 
 the Second who fled out of Rome upon the coming 
 of the Emperor Harry the Fifth thither, (who made 
 the Archbishop of Bragha Pope and died, in France,) 
 the five Cardinals who were with Gelasius when he 
 died chose the Archbishop of Vienne Pope, called 
 Calixtus the Second ; and he found means to obtain 
 the approbation and consent of those Cardinals who 
 were absent, and likewise to reconcile himself to the 
 Emperor : upon which Gregory the Anti-Pope, 
 though he had absolved the Emperor and made Car- 
 dinals, was forced to fly out of Rome ; and being af- 
 terwards taken prisoner was put into a monastery by 
 Calixtus, where he died about the year one thousand 
 one hundred and twenty. This course of election con- 
 tinued
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 3l 
 
 tinued with several pernicious schisms until the time CHAP. 
 
 of Honorius the Third, who died about the year one 
 
 thousand two hundred twenty-seven, and ordered 
 that from thenceforth the Cardinals should be always 
 shut up in the conclave till the election should be 
 made. 
 
 Though the elections were still made by the Car- Subsequent 
 dinals, yet all persons in orders were capable of being the Cardi- 
 chosen Popes ; and very frequently persons were no^ouTof 
 chosen who were not of the body of the electors. 5 he j r ow " 
 
 * _ body exclu- 
 
 So after the death of Nicholas the Fourth, who died si veiy. 
 in the year one thousand two hundred ninety-two, 
 after a vacancy of seven and twenty months, Pedro 
 de Moron a hermit was chosen and took the name of 
 Celestine the Fifth; and he after six months, for pure CeiestineV. 
 want of wit and inability to govern, resigned the 
 chair ; upon which Cardinal Caietan was chosen and 
 took the name of Boniface the Eighth. 
 
 After his death and the short reign of Benedict clement v. 
 the Eleventh, which lasted but nine months, suc- e d. 
 needed that infamous election of the Archbishop of 
 Bourdeaux ; when after a vacancy of thirteen months 
 the faction between the Italians and the French was 
 so strong and equal in the conclave, that after, a long 
 contention they found no other expedient to agree 
 upon than that either faction should nominate three, 
 and the contrary faction should have forty days to 
 choose one out of those who should be Pope. The 
 Italians nominated three, whereof the Archbishop of 
 Bourdeaux was one, who was a person so unaccepta- 
 ble for many contests he had with Philip King of 
 France, that they thought it impossible for the 
 French faction to make choice of him. The Arch- 
 bishop was then in France, and the King having no- 
 tice
 
 33 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, tice of this found means privately to speak with him? 
 and then, that he might obtain the King's consent 
 that he might be Pope, he took a solemn oath to 
 the King that he would absolve him for whatever he 
 had done to Boniface and all his friends who had 
 been employed by him ; and that he would restore 
 the family of Colonna who had been deprived by 
 Boniface ; and that he would condemn the memory 
 of Boniface ; that he would make such of his friends 
 Cardinals as he should recommend ; and that the 
 King should receive all the tenths of the kingdom 
 for five years ; and for the performance of all this 
 the Archbishop did not only give his own oath, but 
 gave his brother and two sons of his brother for hos- 
 tages to the King, who were sent to Paris : and there- 
 upon the Archbishop was chosen Pope, and was called 
 Clement the Fifth, and removed his court to Avig- 
 non : all which is confessed by the present Bishop of 
 Montpelier Francis Bosquet in his Lives of those 
 Popes who had kept their courts at Avignon, printed 
 at Paris in the year one thousand six hundred thirty- 
 two. It was this Pope Clement the Fifth who in a 
 Council of Council held at Vienne upon the Rhone in the pre- 
 A. D. 1309. sence of King Philip and his three sons, in the year 
 press^n of one thousand three hundred and nine, condemned 
 an d suppressed the order of Knights Templars, and 
 reserved all their lands and goods to his own disposal, 
 (which was thought to be one of the conditions which 
 he made with the King of France who enjoyed the 
 greatest part of the benefit thereof,) and caused 
 many of the order to be put to death with great 
 torments for offences not yet communicated to the 
 world, and as it is thought principally to get the 
 possession, of their large estates, if there were no- 
 thing
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 33. 
 
 thing of religion in their opinions which hastened CHAP, 
 their fate. 
 
 After the death of Clement, the Cardinals being John xxn. 
 shut up in the conclave at Carpentoract, after much e w ' 
 time spent in dehate could not agree upon the election 
 of a Pope ; but there being great differences within 
 the conclave between the Cardinals, and without be- 
 tween their friends and servants, they agreed to issue 
 out of the conclave, and to defer the election to a 
 fitter time, which they appointed. But they met 
 not until two years after, when Philip Earl of Poic- 
 tou, brother to Lewis the French King, and who was 
 King after him, brought them together at Lyons in 
 the monastery of the Dominicans in the year one 
 thousand three hundred and sixteen, (according to 
 Bosquet;) " Ibique diligentia, arte, et mgenio, pr&fati 
 " Domini Philippi et concilii sui fuerunt omnes con- 
 " clusi nee exire permissi, cum prius nescirent nee cre- 
 Cf derent se ibi debere concludi, non enim potuissent in 
 " unum divisis animis alias congregari :" and so they 
 made their election. Mezeray, a much more exact 
 writer, describes this very pleasantly, and says that 
 the Cardinals being shut up in the conclave by Philip 
 could not any otherwise agree upon the election of a 
 Pope than by their joint referring it to the single voice 
 of James D'Ossat, Cardinal, and Bishop of Port ; he 
 without any scruple at all named himself, to the great 
 astonishment of all the conclave, who nevertheless 
 approved of him ; and so he took the name of John 
 the Two-and-twentieth, and reigned quietly eighteen 
 years or thereabouts, without ever having his election 
 questioned or doubted. This John the Two-and- 
 twentieth declared that the souls of the dead were 
 neither happy nor miserable till the day of judg- 
 
 O ment;
 
 34 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP, merit; which opinion was generally held in the for- 
 -r-^ iner age. But the university of Paris having more 
 
 Univ. of J jiiiru 
 
 Paris cen- exactly examined this point, corrected the holy rather 
 
 Pope's doc- in it, as Mezeray says, and thereupon the King, Phi- 
 lip of Valois, writ to the Pope in these terms ; "Que 
 " *'*/ ne se retractoit U le feroit ardre." Whether- he 
 was converted by this threat, or convinced in his 
 conscience, the Pope did not only change his opi- 
 nion, but published an act of retractation. So far 
 was the holy chair from being infallible when it 
 rested in Avignon. Yet this very Pope had the cou- 
 rage to excommunicate Lewis the Emperor for pre- 
 suming to take upon him the title of Emperor with- 
 out his confirmation, and declared him Apostata y 
 rebelde a los mandamientos de la Santa madre Iglesia ; 
 deprived him of all his dominions, and anathematized 
 as rebels heretics and apostates all persons who gave 
 him any title of dignity. The Emperor appealed to 
 
 His juris- a future council and called a council at Spires, which 
 
 niedb y the declared that the Pope had no jurisdiction over the 
 
 spiles^ f Emperor, but was his subject. 
 
 To this time and long after, though the election 
 was made by the Cardinals, yet other persons were as 
 
 Urban v. capable of being chosen as they. So Pope Urban the 
 Fifth, who died but in the year one thousand three 
 hundred and seventy, was chosen from a private 
 monk of St. Bennett's order without ever having, been 
 
 Urban vi. a Cardinal; and Urban the Sixth, who succeeded him 
 next but one and who died in the year one thousand 
 three hundred eighty-nine, was chosen, being Arch- 
 bishop of Barri, upon the Cardinals agreeing in the 
 v conclave that since they could not concur in the 
 election of any person amongst themselves, they 
 would choose one out of the college : and so long all 
 
 Christian
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 35 
 
 Christian countries were capable of 'having a Pope of CHAP. 
 
 their own nation ; and all prelates, indeed all clergy ; ' - 
 
 men, were capable of being chosen Pope. But the 
 last stratagem of restraining the election to be made 
 out of the sacred college (which hath produced that 
 combination that the Church shall not for the future 
 ever have a Pope who is not an Italian) is very mo- 
 dern, and would deprive the whole Christian world 
 of the greatest privilege imaginable, if any other part 
 of it than Italy were really concerned who is Pope 
 or what he does. And there can be no right reason 
 why the neighbour kings and sovereign princes do 
 not always insist upon the precedent made in the 
 Council of Constance; where, as the ambassadors of Council of 
 Italy France Spain Germany and England had con-A.D. i4as. 
 curred in the Council in the sentence against Bene- 
 dict and deprived him of the Papacy, so the Council 
 appointed six persons of either of the five nations, 
 whereof three or four were bishops and the other 
 learned men, to assist in the conclave for the election 
 of a new Pope ; and so there were thirty 6f those five 
 nations who with twenty-three Cardinals (for there 
 were no more upon the place) entered the conclave, 
 and after many contests and difficulties chose the 
 Cardinal Colonna, who was called Martin the Fifth ; Martin v. 
 of whose lawful election there was never any question 
 raised; and this Council was dissolved but in the 
 year one thousand four hundred and eighteen. Twen- 
 ty years after the Council of Basil proceeded in the Council of 
 same method ; and when they had deprived the Pope 
 Eugenio, and had but one Cardinal with them, they Eugenio. 
 appointed thirty-two, eight of each nation; Italian 
 French Spaniards and Germans, England not hav- 
 ing sent to that Council ; and they chose Amadeo 
 
 D 2 Duke
 
 36 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP. Duke of Savoy, who accepted the election, came to 
 ^ the Council, and assumed the title of Felix ; and 
 though this was looked upon as a schism, and Euge- 
 nio was afterwards received at Rome and looked upon 
 as the true Pope by many princes, as not having de- 
 served to be deposed, yet the Emperor and many 
 other princes adhered to Felix and acknowledged no 
 Nicholas v. other; till Nicholas the Fifth (who was chosen after 
 the death of Eugenio by a general consent) dissolved 
 the Council at Basil, and Felix renounced all right, 
 and was made a Cardinal and Legate of Germany. 
 There can be no reason why Christian princes do not 
 insist upon those precedents, leaving that election 
 entirely to the Cardinals, except that they look upon 
 it as in their own power to remedy all inconveniences 
 which shall fall out thereby, by excluding the Pope 
 from having any thing to do in their dominions, when 
 he shall meddle more than they have a mind he 
 should, without making any alteration in religion. 
 The truth is, the foul arts and practices which are 
 used in all conclaves to fill the infallible chair in a 
 sede vacante, the corruption of the Cardinals by mo- 
 ney, and the power that the two crowns of France 
 and Spain do assume to themselves in excluding 
 such and such men by name from being chosen, under 
 a protestation that they will never acknowledge them 
 if they be chosen, are so notorious and detected in 
 the world in this last age, that no serious man can 
 look upon the transactions as relating to religion, 
 or that our Saviour can acknowledge any to be his 
 vicar who is substituted without the least pretence of 
 authority from him. 
 
 Julius in. Upon the death of Paul the Third, which was in 
 'the year one thousand five hundred and forty-nine, 
 
 Harry
 
 FROM, ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 37 
 
 Harry the Second, King of France, writ to his am- CHAP. 
 
 bassador at Rome, Monsieur D'Urfe, that he wished '- 
 
 that the election of the future Pope might not be so 
 hastened nor so quickly dispatched as that the Car- 
 dinals of these parts might not have time to come to 
 Rome to assist in the conclave as well as others ; 
 otherwise that in regard to the place which he held 
 in Christendom, and the quality which he had of 
 being eldest son of the Church, he neither would nor 
 could admit of such an election, where his Cardinals, 
 who represent the Gallican Church, should be de- 
 spised and neglected : upon the receipt of which or- 
 der from the King the ambassador went to the door 
 of the conclave, and six Cardinals deputed to that 
 purpose came to him, to whom he declared that the 
 Cardinals of France were upon the way, and would 
 probably be there in a few days ; and therefore he 
 prayed the conclave to stay and suspend the election 
 until the next week, in which time the French Car-- 
 dinals might be there ; and in case they would deny 
 that request, and frustrate the voice of the King's 
 Cardinals, he did protest pn his Majesty's account 
 .(according to the power that he had given him) a 
 nullity of all which they should do, and not to ap- 
 prove of their election. The Cardinals desired that 
 they might see his power ; upon which he delivered 
 the order above mentioned into the hands of Cardi- 
 nal Tracy, who promised to communicate that and 
 all that he had said to the whole conclave ; upon 
 which and the like importunities there was such a 
 dissension amongst the Cardinals, that the election 
 was put off so long that both the Emperor and the 
 
 . c Memoires de Moivsieur Ribier, torn. ii. p. 254. 
 
 D 3 King
 
 38 PAPAL SUCCESSION 
 
 CHAP. King of France complained of the delay; and the 
 King of France writ to the Cardinal de Guise that 
 every body there laughed at the combustions in the 
 conclave, which he said did every day increase the 
 errors in religion, and that for one Lutheran that 
 was in Germany before the vacation of the holy 
 chair, there were now many; and the conclave con- 
 tinued from the beginning of November till the 
 middle of February before Julius the Third was 
 chosen. 
 
 Manage- It is a part of the will and last advice that the 
 conclaves, wise King Philip the Second of Spain gave to his son 
 who succeeded him, that he should always keep a 
 good correspondence with the Pope and the Cardi- 
 nals, gain what number of voices he can in the con- 
 clave, and order his pensioners to be well paid by ser 
 cret and faithful hands. But there needs now none of 
 that caution or reservation ; the Cardinals are as ready 
 to receive as any prince can be to give pensions ; and 
 it is as much known in Rome of what faction they 
 are as where their palaces are ; and though it would 
 be too much levity to believe all that is scattered 
 abroad in those relations which are usually published 
 of the corrupt transactions in the conclaves, yet 
 there are such authentic accounts privately transmit- 
 ted to princes by their subjects who are in the con- 
 clave, that there can be no kind of doubt of the . truth 
 thereof. To omit the several relations made by the 
 Cardinals Joyeuse Perron and D'Ossat to the King 
 in their several dispatches (since unwarily published) 
 of the conclaves in which Clement the Eighth and 
 Leo the Eleventh were chosen, and othej very faith- 
 ful accounts of other conclaves, that which the Car- 
 dinal Joyeuse writes to Harry the Fourth of the con- 
 clave
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 39 
 
 clave which succeeded the short reign of Leo the CHAP. 
 
 Eleventh (which continued but twenty-seven days) 
 
 deserves to be very particularly remembered, in the 
 Very words it was contained in his letter of the 19th 
 of May, 1605, which are these : " The Cardinal Al- 
 " dobrandini and the Cardinal Montalto (which were 
 " the two great factions) with all their creatures came 
 ** to us," (Cardinals Perron and D'Ossat being in the 
 same conclave,) " desiring us to join with them to 
 " make the Cardinal Tosco Pope. After we had dis- 
 *' coursed a great while on this affair, we had much 
 " ado to resolve upon it ; because the said Cardinal 
 " was looked upon as a man who had lived a life not 
 " too exemplary, very apt to be choleric and angry, 
 " who had always in his mouth unchaste and immo- 
 " dest words, and who was given to other customs 
 " unbecoming not only the head of the Church, but 
 " any person whatever who had but the least advan- 
 '" tage of an honest education. In a word, he was a 
 tl man from whom we could expect no good to the 
 *' Church, the election of whom would go against 
 " the conscience of many pious persons of the col- 
 " lege, and might perhaps gain us nothing but dis- 
 " grace and reproach from all the assembly of Cardi- 
 tf nals. Nevertheless the little hopes that we had of 
 " having a Pope to our mind, the fear of falling on 
 " one of those who were excluded by your Majesty, 
 ff the desire of not displeasing the Cardinal Aldo- 
 " brandini, and the opinion which we had that this 
 " man would be inclined to favour the affairs of 
 " your Majesty, made us resolve to assure Aldo- 
 " brandini that we gave our full consent to this elec- 
 tion." 
 
 D 4 There
 
 40 
 
 eij A P. There hath never been the least doubt made of the 
 truth of this relation, most of it being likewise in- 
 cluded in the letters of the other two Cardinals upon 
 this occasion, and therefore we will not enlarge far- 
 ther upon the integrity and piety of those elections. 
 It is very true the singular courage and conscience of 
 Cardinal Baronius, who protested against so infamous 
 a person, prevented the election of Tosco notwith- 
 standing so scandalous a combination ; and the con- 
 clave ended in the choice of Cardinal Borghese, 
 
 Election of ca n e d Paul the Fifth, who shewed so much folly and 
 
 j 
 mettle against the republic of Venice, and repented 
 
 it. But from this short review of the absence of all 
 religious and sincere cogitations, and the sinister 
 practice of such unrighteous ways in those elections 
 for politic and worldly ends, the Catholic Church 
 itself may easily discern how impossible it is that a 
 person so chosen can be of the essence of Catholic 
 religion ; and how ridiculous it is that any particular 
 Catholic shall expose his life and fortune as a sacri- 
 fice to maintain and defend the imaginary jurisdic- 
 tion of a man so imposed upon the Church against 
 the established laws and government of his own 
 country. If it were fit that there should be such an 
 universal submission of all Christian nations to such 
 a magistrate, reason and justice would require that 
 there should be an equal impartial and incorrupt 
 way prescribed for the election of him ; and that 
 every catholic nation in succession might have a 
 Pope chosen of that nation, who might by his parti- 
 cular knowledge of what is wanting administer to the 
 defects which that national Church labours under, 
 and that such a little corner of the world as Italy, 
 
 and
 
 FROM ST. PETER TO PAUL V. 41 
 
 and a handful of persons of that nation, so unac- CHAP, 
 quainted with the world, may not prescribe religion 
 to the whole Church of Christ, by making a Pope 
 who must declare it. And so from this cursory pro- 
 spect upon the course and practice of the election we 
 return to the history of their assuming, and the ge- 
 neral contradicting, of that authority which is now 
 unreasonably made a vital part of Roman Catholic 
 religion. 
 
 CHAR
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 -. /i b$ VI 3331 7'^dl 
 
 CHAP. m. .,,,,; -^^ 
 
 1 1 
 
 .v 
 Origin of Papal Usurpations and their Progress to 
 
 the time of Pope Hildebrand, Gregory VII. 
 A. D. 1073. 
 
 Origin of IT appears very evidently that the greatness of the 
 ttETthe Papacy* an d i ts pretence to that extravagant juris- 
 distractions diction which it afterwards acquired and attained to, 
 
 ofChnsten- . " . c f^, . 
 
 dom. grew very much out of the distractions of Chris- 
 tianity, and out of that desolation which the barba- 
 rous incursion of the Goths and Vandals made over 
 the western world. For as soon as they had covered 
 
 Italy, the Popes began to neglect and oppose the Em- 
 
 .../ '.'V/ivbrvj 
 perors. 
 
 Contests Thus Gelasius the First took upon him to threaten 
 Anastasius the Emperor of Constantinople, and 16 
 excommunicate him if he did not renounce the Eii- 
 
 ror of the tichian heresy ; when the very next Pope, Anasta- 
 sius the Second, became himself an heretic in the 
 same point, and died (as Arius did) at the end of 
 the first year of his Papacy, and was succeeded by 
 Symmachus the First, who (as was said before) re- 
 ceived the confirmation from Theodore : and yet 
 when Laurentius some years after renewed his claim 
 to the Papacy upon his old title, and Theodoric sent 
 a Bishop to visit Rome and call a council there for 
 
 the
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 43 
 
 the composing all differences, it no sooner met than CHAP. 
 
 by the Pope's good counsel they in very mannerly ' 
 
 terms disclaimed the King's power to call them ; but 
 they received a second summons from the Pope, and 
 proceeded as called by him : so that they made use 
 always of the name of the Emperor when they would 
 elude and decline the King's jurisdiction, and of the 
 King's power and greatness when they would contend 
 with the Emperor's. 
 
 Under this countenance Gelasius had begun his 
 contest with Anastasius the Emperor; and Hormisda 
 the First, who succeeded Symmachus, prosecuted that 
 quarrel against the same Emperor with the same in- 
 solence ; but the Emperor Anastasius, seconded by 
 his patriarch John, the patriarch of Constantinople, 
 renounced his jurisdiction and contemned his autho- 
 rity ; and if that Emperor had lived he would have 
 taken sharp vengeance on Hormisda, whose death 
 (together with the Emperor's) for the present silenced 
 that dispute. 
 
 That which happened to his successor is a shrewd 
 evidence that such submission to the Pope's autho- 
 rity was not in that time held a part of the Christian 
 faith ; for Justin succeeding Anastasius in the empire John i. i m - 
 of the East, and John the First being chosen Pope, 
 the same Theodoric sent the Pope as his ambassador [ 
 to the Emperor to treat of several affairs. The E 
 
 1 . ror Justin. 
 
 peror was well pleased with the Pope, and being to 
 be crowned would have that office performed by him; 
 and the Pope was as willing to perform it, that Empe- 
 ror being the first Emperor that ever was crowned by 
 any Pope. But the Pope no sooner returned to Italy 
 and informed the King of all his transactions than 
 Theodoric committed the Pope to prison for having 
 
 pre-
 
 44 
 
 CHAP, presumed, being his ambassador, to crown the Empe- 
 !IL__ror ; and the Pope continued in prison to his death. 
 This being as known a truth as any matter of fact 
 in that age, and reflecting so much upon the sove- 
 reignty which the Popes claim as from the begin- 
 ning, they make no other answer to it than by de- 
 nying that John went as ambassador from Theodo- 
 ric ; and saying he went of himself to visit the Em- 
 peror, and to consult with him upon some affairs of 
 the Church, and that Theodoric tyrannically impri- 
 soned him after his return, out of a jealousy that he 
 had been treating with the Emperor to disturb the 
 peace of Italy ; but what is before said hath much 
 more authority. 
 
 Reign of Justinian succeeded in the empire after the death 
 of Justin, and he reigned full eight and thirty years ; 
 during which time there is no pretence of any one 
 sovereign act to be done by either of the seven Popes 
 who succeeded one another during his long reign ; 
 for Felix the Fourth was Pope when Justinian the 
 First assumed the empire, and during his whole time 
 was positively opposed by the patriarchs of Constan- 
 tinople, who disclaimed any subjection to him : and 
 Felix being dead, and Boniface the Second chosen 
 to succeed him, there was so great disorder about his 
 election that many men were slain in it ; and Dyos- 
 corus made Anti-Pope ; which was the fifth schism : 
 whereupon it was ordained that upon the death of 
 every Pope a new one should be chosen in three 
 days. But this ordinance was never observed, for 
 the successor to Boniface (John the Second) was not 
 chosen till after seventy days, nor was any form of 
 election observed; the Popes being sometimes chosen 
 by the clergy and the people, sometimes by the clergy 
 
 alone,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 45 
 
 alone, sometimes by the King, whilst the Goths and CHAP. 
 the Vandals governed Italy, and sometimes by the i 
 Emperor for several ages together. It is very true 
 that Justinian the Emperor, who resolved to invade 
 Italy, and knew well the benefit he might receive 
 from the Pope, sent ambassadors and a present to 
 Pope John the Second ; but at the same time John 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople refused to submit in 
 the least degree to the Pope ; and it is as true that 
 Pope Agapetus the First, who was the immediate 
 successor to John, was himself sent ambassador to 
 Justinian by Theodatus King of Italy, to dissuade 
 the Emperor from making any war upon Italy, and 
 he died at Constantinople in that embassy. Pope 
 Sylverius succeeded next by the recommendation, if 
 not by the absolute nomination^ of Theodatus, Vigi- 
 lius being at the same time elected, which made the 
 sixth schism ; and within one year Belisarius the ge- 
 neral of Justinian's army (after he had taken Naples 
 and defeated Theodatus in battle, where he was slain,) 
 took Rome, compelled Sylverius to renounce the Pa- 
 pacy, and settled Vigilius as being well chosen by 
 the clergy, when the other was supported by Theo- 
 datus. But Pope Vigilius having not performed 
 some promise he had made to the Empress, was sent 
 prisoner to Constantinople, where the Empress Theo- 
 dora treated him very ill, and caused him to be 
 whipped ; nor did he ever after return to Rome, 
 though they reckon his reign to be no less than se- 
 venteen years. 
 
 In the time of his successor, Pelagius the First, 
 Justinian the Emperor died, being fourscore years of 
 age, after he had approved the choice of Pelagius ; 
 and because they cannot find any record of such au- 
 thority
 
 4 6 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, thofity as they would have the Popes to he succes- 
 n ' sively possessed of during that whole space of eight 
 and thirty years, (when God knows they had neither 
 then nor long before nor long after any pretence tb 
 such authority,) they load the memory of that ex- 
 cellent Emperor (by whose labour care and piety 
 Christianity was so much advanced) with many un- 
 worthy reproaches ; and endeavour to have him 
 thought an heretic in his old age, (in the point of our 
 Saviour's flesh being liable to corruption,) rather than 
 that so orthodox an Emperor should be thought so 
 little inclined to a subjection to the see of Rome. 
 But they will have as much cause in that particular 
 to be angry with very many Emperors after Justi- 
 nian ; and they will find that Pope Pelagius the Se- 
 cond (who was the third in succession from the other 
 Pelagius) sent an ambassador to the Emperor Tibe- 
 rius the Second (who was second or third from Jus- 
 tinian) to excuse his presumption in having entered 
 upon the Papacy after his election, before he had re- 
 ceived his imperial approbation, by reason that the 
 ways and passage were at that time so dangerous, 
 that he could not expect a speedy return. This Pope 
 indeed took upon him to ordain that no council 
 should be called without the Pope ; which as it was 
 a great violation of the imperial dignity, so ( ft >4 ei^ ' 
 ceedingly lessened the reverence to councils them'^ ? 
 selves : and this Pope himself met with more oppo- 
 sition and contempt than his predecessors had done; 
 for not only the Patriarch of Constantinople, but 
 likewise the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Bishop of Ra- 
 venna, and other Bishops of Italy itself, refused : W- 
 submit to him in their own diocese. 
 
 We are now come to the time of Gregory the 
 
 First,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 47 
 
 First, (afterward surnamed the Great,) who being a CHAP. 
 monk of St. Bennett's order, wrote a Letter to the 
 
 Pope Gre- 
 
 Emperor Mauritius, beseeching him not to approve gory i. the 
 
 'c i i in 11 Great - 
 
 oi his election, and tied to a mountain to avoid being 
 found, until he was discovered by a pigeon ; and 
 when he could not avoid the acceptation of his office, 
 to shew his great humility he introduced a new style 
 into his bulls ; for he was the first who inserted that 
 expression, "Servus servorum Dei" though Monsieur 
 Mezeray (who deserves to be looked upon as the 
 most accurate and impartial historian this age hath 
 produced) assures us that the title of " Pope," of 
 Father of the Church," of "His Holiness," of Pon- 
 " tifex Maximus," of " Servus Servorum Dei," were 
 common to all Bishops before his time, of which we 
 shall say more hereafter. But let him be as humble 
 in his title as he please, it cannot be denied that from 
 the time that he was Pope he used all the means he 
 could, fair and foul, to make himself greater than any 
 of his predecessors. And so indeed he did. For not- 
 withstanding all his obligations to the Emperor Mau- 
 ri tius^ and the professions he had made to him, Pho- 
 cas no sooner rebelled and killed Mauritius, and made 
 himself Emperor, than Pope Gregory acknowledged 
 him, sent a Legate de Latere to him, gave him all 
 the assistance and countenance he could to support 
 his wicked action and title, and received again from, 
 him all those offices which might contribute to his 
 own greatness : and he did indeed many great things, 
 and raised the Papacy to a higher pitch than ever 
 it had been at : and this was about the year six 
 hundred, for he died not till six hundred and five; 
 about which time Mahomet was born in Persia. Yet, 
 for some allay to all his greatness, he received more 
 
 affronts
 
 48 
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, affronts in matters merely ecclesiastical than any of 
 111 his predecessors had done; for besides that the coun- 
 cil at Constantinople in his time ordered that the 
 Patriarch should be reputed universal Bishop, he was 
 so much contradicted in Italy itself, that when he 
 added the four first days to Lent, and likewise corn- 
 His autho- piled the Missal, and required both to be observed 
 throughout the Catholic Church, the church of Milan 
 to did obey him in neither ; and refused to begin their 
 Lent and Lent till the first Sunday, and continued their old 
 
 the iV^isss.! 
 
 ofst Am- Missal, which was left by St. Ambrose; both which 
 I suppose they observe to this day. His successor 
 Sabinianus had also so little reverence for him that 
 he resolved to have burned all his works, and had 
 done it if he had lived a little longer. But it is very 
 true that the contest continuing with great animosity 
 between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the 
 Bishop of Rome for superiority, Phocas the Emperor, 
 after the death of Gregory, (and to return the civili- 
 ties he had received from three several Popes,) ad- 
 judged it to Boniface the Third, who was then 
 Pope. 
 
 infancy of As we are now entering upon the infancy of the 
 tencesof ambitious pretences of the Popes, (which from this 
 
 time were frequently advanced and improved, though 
 Christen- 0f * nev were ^ ften discountenanced and restrained 
 dom. by the sovereign princes, and sometimes to that de- 
 gree that they seemed utterly suppressed,) it may be 
 seasonable enough in this place to take a view of the 
 state of Christendom about this time, when there 
 was a general mutation of government in all the 
 kingdoms and states of Europe, in consequence of 
 the incursions and invasions made upon all the parts 
 thereof by that stupendous number of barbarians 
 
 under
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 49 
 
 under the names of Goths Vandals Hunns Lorn- CHAP. 
 
 bards and Saxons. Of these the Goths only were ' 
 
 Christians, (but Arinns,) who first covered Italy and 
 Spain and some parts of that which we now call 
 France ; the rest were all Pagans and Gentiles ; nor 
 were the dominions of the East and in Africa, which 
 were possessed by Christians, in much better condi- 
 tion. In what manner therefore and by what mea- 
 sures the Papacy advanced itself at this time will be 
 the subject of our observation. 
 
 We shall say little of the state of England at the State of 
 
 ~ J ._,. . England. 
 
 time when Gregory the JMrst was Pope, which was 
 then and had been long before and continued for a 
 good time after under the government of the heptar- 
 chy ; whereof all the Kings in the beginning of it 
 were Pagans, though some of them afterwards grew 
 to be Christians, such as they were. The Saxons 
 had been by a wicked prince called in about the year 
 four hundred and fifty to assist him against the Bri- 
 tons ; and they did assist him in such a manner that 
 by degrees they dispossessed him of all his domi- 
 nions ; and in the end defeated likewise all the Bri- 
 tish forces, which, together with all the other Chris- 
 tians, (or at least so many of them as could make 
 their way thither,) fled into the mountains of Wales ; 
 where they defended themselves and their religion 
 till the Saxons were driven out by the Danes, and 
 they again by the English, and the whole kingdom 
 upon the matter was become Christian. But the en- 
 largement upon this particular is the less pertinent 
 because Christianity having been so soon planted 
 there after our Saviour's resurrection, (as hath been 
 said before,) the Pope had never made any claim of 
 jurisdiction there. 
 
 E It
 
 M) PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. I*, is indeed true that this Pope did send Augustin 
 EL with some other company thither to suppress the 
 Arian heresy, which was spread too far amongst the 
 Christians who possessed that island ; and we are 
 contented to believe that Augustin did convert a Pa- 
 gan king of Kent, and thereby got great credit and 
 opportunity to advance the knowledge of Christianity 
 in that island ; but it is confessed on all sides that 
 the Christian clergy of the land would by no means 
 or inducements in the least degree submit to his au- 
 thority, or to the authority of him who sent him : 
 insomuch as, though the Archbishop of St. David's 
 with six other Bishops under his province were con- 
 tent to meet in a synod to confer with him, (there 
 being present the Abbot of Bangor, who had at that 
 time two and twenty hundred monks in his monas- 
 tery,) all the arguments he could use could not pre- 
 vail with any of them to submit to him, or to concur 
 with him ; which a catholic writer of great account 
 (Dr. Harpsfield) in his History of the Church of 
 England seems to think might proceed from the 
 great pride and insolence of Augustin, who, when 
 any of them came into his presence, would not shew 
 the least respect unto them, or rise from the place 
 where he sat. Let the reason be what it will, sure it 
 is that neither in the time of Gregory the First nor 
 long after was the Pope looked upon with any reve- 
 rence in England ; and therefore we shall say no 
 more of the then temper and constitution of our 
 country, but that it may be judged reasonably of by 
 the circumstance of our countryman Benedict's com- 
 ing (some years after the time we are now upon) into 
 England upon his return from Italy, to which he 
 had made many voyages, and bringing with him 
 
 from
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 51 
 
 from thence architects to build houses of stone, CHAP. 
 
 which were then rare in England, and where till - 
 
 then glass windows had never been seen. For though 
 no doubt there had been fair buildings in the Roman 
 government, yet, that having been determined near 
 two hundred years before the time of Gregory, the 
 Saxons had so demolished all those monuments, as 
 well as corrupted and confounded the manners and 
 the government of the nation, that this kind of bar- 
 barity had invaded it when Benedict brought over 
 those artificers with him for our instruction, which 
 was in the time of Pope Agatho, who died before 
 the year seven hundred ; all which we are informed 
 by Dr. Harpsfield, who was a very industrious en- 
 quirer into those times. In this posture was our 
 country with reference to any correspondence with 
 Rome ; and so many years had Christianity been 
 planted amongst us without any imagination that a 
 submission to the authority or jurisdiction of the 
 Pope was a part of it. 
 
 Let us in the next place take a view of the condi- state of 
 tion of France in that time, and of the advantage 
 that from thence the successive Bishops of Rome got 
 to promote their own ambitious designs. It was 
 within two or three years of the year five hundred, 
 when Clovis, or Louis (for they are the same name) 
 became Christian ; who, though he built some 
 churches, and induced many of his nobility and 
 other subjects to become Christians, and was a prince 
 of great valour, and by the winning of many battles 
 extended his dominions far ; yet upon the losses he 
 afterwards sustained he too soon forgot his Chris- 
 tianity, and did many foul actions, in perpetrating 
 many murders and most odious assassinations ; who, 
 
 E 2 if
 
 $3 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, if he were not the first, would justly occasion some 
 ^ doubt whether he were in truth a Christian King ; 
 at least there would be shewed arguments that the 
 oil with which he was anointed was not so miracu- 
 lously supplied by an innocent dove, nor the scut- 
 cheon presented by an angel ; since neither of them 
 
 i i 
 
 made any supernatural impression. 
 
 State of Though this was the state and condition of the King 
 and the kingdom of France, as it was then called at that 
 time, it must be confessed that the Christian religion 
 was then spread very far over Gaul, which compre- 
 hended the greatest part of Dauphine, all Provence, all 
 Languedoc, all Guyenne, Lyons, Rohanne, Tours, Sens, 
 and part of Burgundy, all which was governed by se- 
 veral princes who had no dependance upon France, 
 and where many learned and pious prelates had been 
 industrious in the propagation of it, from the time 
 that it was planted by the disciples of the Apostles, 
 whereof many had undergone martyrdom in the se- 
 veral persecutions, and had caused many churches to 
 be built. Of these good Bishops, who every day sa- 
 crificed their blood for their faith in Christ, as many 
 as could with security meet together assembled upon 
 the disputes which arose upon opinions in religion ; 
 and as they were called councils, so they made ca- 
 nons -for the determining those points, and for the 
 disposing men to live well; to which canons the se- 
 veral churches did usually submit. And these and 
 the like councils, which at first met of themselves 
 without any compulsory authority, after the Emperor 
 was Christian assembled and came together by his 
 summons and command ; as Constantine the First 
 called a council at Aries in Provence to put an end 
 to the errors of the Donatists, (where our two Eng- 
 lish
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 53 
 
 lish Bishops were present, as before mentioned,) CHAP. 
 
 which was in the year three hundred and fourteen, : 
 
 many years before that of the Council of Nice; 
 and after that, as Christianity extended itself, coun- 
 cils were frequently called and held by order from 
 the Emperor, and more frequently by the appoint- 
 ment of Kings in their several dominions and terri- 
 tories ; and sometimes upon the desire of the Popes 
 or the request of a metropolitan, or that of one only 
 Bishop^ as Monsieur Mezcray assures us ; who con- 
 fesses that, there being yet no great episcopal see 
 erected in France, those in Gaul grew insensibly into 
 a kind of subjection unto the Roman Bishop, at least 
 more than those of the East or Africa, though not 
 so much as that of Italy. For the great piety learn- 
 ing and martyrdom of so many Popes for several 
 ages had drawn so general a veneration towards those 
 who succeeded them, that the Bishops of Gaul used 
 to have recourse to them (besides that they were 
 much nearer to them than those of the East or Afri- 
 ca) in the most weighty affairs, as about the use and 
 right meaning of canons, and usually conformed 
 themselves to their advice ; which the Popes no 
 sooner discerned than they took upon themselves 
 often to send them advice before they were asked or 
 the other desired to consult with them,, and by de- 
 grees made themselves judges of any differences 
 which arose between them, and would have limited 
 their jurisdictions and territories. The Bishops how- 
 ever grew quickly jealous of these encroachments, 
 and very carefully watched that the Popes should 
 not infringe the canons ; and the Popes themselves 
 did declare (as the same good author affirms) and 
 acknowledge that they were obliged to observe and 
 
 E3 to
 
 54 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, to follow the canons. From this time and before' 
 
 ' the baptism of Clovis the privilege of the Gallican 
 
 Church hath its original, and at this time controlled 
 all the pretences of the Pope which were not grate- 
 ful to the King. And as the Pope was not in any 
 degree accessary to the baptism of Clovis, (of which 
 they use to make very unnatural and very uncvan- 
 gclical usCj) so the churches in Gaul (which probably 
 had Christianity preached to them as soon as Rome 
 itself) had no other dependance upon the Bishops 
 thereof than what was the effect of Christian humili- 
 ty ; which obliged them to a civil correspondence 
 and to receive information and advice from each 
 other. 
 
 Churches That this temper, and nothing like subjection, con- 
 in Gaul in- r . . 
 
 dependent tinued long after the Emperors became Christians 
 >e ' there is abundant evidence; of which I shall in this 
 place (because in the progress I shall have frequent 
 occasion to mention others) only give two notable 
 instances. The first of which is the abstract of the 
 letter sent by the council at Aries to Pope Silvester, 
 with the canons made there, of which Sir Harry 
 Spelman (who is not accused of partiality by any 
 party) gives us a transcript in the first tome of the 
 English Councils 01 in these words ; " Domino sanc- 
 " tissimo Fratri Silvestro, Marinus, vel cactus Ep'i- 
 " scopomm, qu'i adunati fuerunt in oppido Arelatensi, 
 " quid decreverimus communi concilia charitati tu& 
 " signijicfwimus, vt omnes sciant quid in futurum 
 " observare dcbeantr This council was called (as 
 hath been said before) by Constantine, who was him- 
 self present ; and, besides the Bishops of Gaul and 
 
 a Pag. 40. 
 
 Brit-
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 55 
 
 Brittany, there were likewise twelve present from the CHAP. 
 
 churches of Africa : and here they of Rome would '- 
 
 persuade us that the Emperor Constantine wrote a 
 very humble letter to the Pope excusing his pre- 
 sumption in calling that council upon the importu- 
 nity of the Church, to stop the current of that mis- 
 chievous error of the Donatists, "Licet id a functions 
 " sud alienum non ignoraret" as Harpsfieid says ; 
 but no such letter hath been produced, (though they 
 have the records of whatsoever Constantine ever said 
 or did) that they can apply to their advantage. How 
 contrary this is to the opinion of Constantine appears 
 by the part he acted afterwards in and after the first 
 council of Nice ; which, as it was called by his sole 
 authority, and the canons confirmed by him, so the 
 letter he wrote thereupon, not only to those Bishops 
 who could not be present in the council, but " ad 
 " omnes ubique ecclesias" sufficiently declares how 
 far he was from thinking that he had exceeded his 
 jurisdiction. The letter at large is recorded by Spel- 
 man e , in which there is this memorable clause, " /Si 
 " quid autem scriptum ab A.rio compositum reperia- 
 " tur^ut igni id tradatur volumus, ut non modo im- 
 " proba ejus doctrina abrogetur, verum etiam ne mo- 
 " numentum quidem aliquod ejus relinquatur, illud 
 " equidem pr&dictum volo, si quis libellum aliquem 
 " ab Ario conscriptu?n celare, nee continue igni com- 
 " burere deprehensus fuerit, supplicium ei mortis esse 
 " constitutum : illico ; namque in crimine tali com- 
 " prehertsus pcenam sustinebit capitalem? And as 
 all that the Emperor and council together could do 
 was not enough to extinguish that odious heresy, but 
 
 Pag. 43. 
 
 E 4 that
 
 56 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that it continued and flourished very many years 
 - after that council, and after Arius himself was dead, 
 so it is evident that it was the sole power of the Em- 
 peror, and even against the will of the Pope, that 
 suppressed it at the last. This was the state and 
 condition of that great kingdom which is now com- 
 prehended under the name of France at that time 
 when Gregory the First was Pope, from whence was 
 made this digression. 
 
 state of Let us in the next place take a view of the king- 
 dom of Spain, that we may there see what devotion 
 was paid from thence to the Bishops of Rome,, or 
 what jurisdiction they exercised there, or what power 
 they had to resist or restrain the pretences which 
 then might be or afterwards were made from thence. 
 But this enquiry will take us up very little time. 
 For although the Spaniards believe that the Christian 
 religion was quickly planted there by the Apostle 
 St. James himself, and some of them think even, 
 from the Scripture f , that St. Paul was there, (for it 
 appears that he had a purpose to go thither,) certain 
 it is that the light of the Gospel did shine with the 
 first, and that they had both Churches and Bishops 
 there as soon as in any part of Europe : but as sure 
 it is, that Christianity flourished not long there in any 
 kind of lustre before the Goths with the other bar- 
 barous nations overflowed that kingdom, insomuch 
 that the absolute government of it was under the 
 Goths, and continued in the empire thereof full three 
 hundred years ; when the insatiable revenge of the 
 Conde Julian, for the rape of his daughter by the 
 King Roderigo, brought over the Moors from Africa 
 
 f Rom. xv. 24. 
 
 with
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 57 
 
 with a very powerful army; which, after other lighter CHAP. 
 
 actions, gained a battle of the King Roderigo with '- 
 
 so stupendous a slaughter of the Goths and Spani- 
 ards, that, besides the death of the King and all the 
 great nobility, the Gothic government was quite ex- 
 tinguished ; and the Moors, who were suddenly fol- 
 lowed and relieved by vast numbers out of Africa of 
 their own countrymen, obtained the whole govern- 
 ment of that large region : all who were left of the 
 Goths and the Spaniards betaking themselves into 
 the mountains, and defending themselves there, with- 
 out being able for some ages to make any such im- 
 pression as was of great damage to the Moors. This 
 fatal battle, according to Mariana's computation, was 
 about the year seven hundred and fourteen ; when 
 the Empire had been enjoyed by the Goths more 
 than three hundred years. So that as we cannot find 
 any great correspondence between the Bishop of 
 Rome and the Goths who were Arians, (and yet 
 some orthodox Bishops will be found amongst them,) 
 and less subjection from the other, we can less ex- 
 pect any intercourse between Spain arid Rome whilst 
 the so absolute dominion remained under the Moors ; 
 which began not to decline till the time of Charle- 
 magne, nor much in a long time after ; and then we. 
 shall take another survey of it as soon as the Popes 
 pretended to any authority in that kingdom. 
 
 At this time three parts of Germany were pos- Sta ' e of 
 
 i i T T r^ o Germany. 
 
 sessed by the Pagans, when rope Gregory sent of. 
 Augustin into England with so good success that he 
 had converted the Pagan King of Kent. Gregory the 
 Second above a hundred years after delegated our 
 countryman Wenfrid, whom (that he might not be 
 suspected to be an Englishman) he called Boniface, 
 
 and
 
 58 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and made him (that is, called him) Archbishop of 
 Mentz. This indeed was a true and the first bare- 
 faced champion that is recorded for the authority of 
 the Pope in the act of the conversion of souls ; for 
 whatever good intention Augustin the monk might 
 have to advance that title, we do not find that he 
 made it any condition of his baptism, or promised 
 the vindication of it when he was sent ; but this Bo- 
 niface frankly undertook his mission upon that con- 
 dition, and solemnly swore, laying his hand upon 
 the body and relics of St. Peter, " Se Catholics Jldei 
 " sinceritatem integram atque illlbatam per omnem 
 " vitam conservaturum, Romanesque Ecclesi(E Pontifi- 
 " cibus, ut divi Petri successoribus ojficiost paritu- 
 " rum ;" for which we have the word of Dr. Harps- 
 field " ; and it is I believe the first precedent they 
 can produce of such an obligation before the time of 
 Ignatius Loyola, and only concerns our countryman 
 Boniface, who was therefore obliged to do the best 
 he could towards it. And so we have finished our 
 present survey of all the considerable parts of Eu- 
 rope, Italy only excepted; and we shall best discover 
 what was the concurrent doctrine of the Pope's au- 
 thority, at that time and after, there as well as in the 
 West, by returning to the time of the death of Gre- 
 gory the Great, (from whence we made this digres- 
 sion,) and prosecuting our former method, in which 
 we shall make those discoveries which are necessary 
 to our purpose. 
 
 Papal power It was in this time that the Emperors were killed 
 death of so fast by their captains and servants, who com-r- 
 jregory ' monly put themselves in their places; and the Popes 
 
 t Pag, 118. 
 
 (who
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 59 
 
 (who were courted by all pretenders, and commonly CHAP. 
 
 favoured those who were most in the wrong) took ' 
 
 those opportunities to increase their own power and 
 authority ; yet there never passed many years with- 
 out some such acts of coritrolment, either bv the 
 
 j 
 
 Emperors themselves or their Exarchs, (who were 
 their administrators in Italy,) as might very well sa- 
 tisfy the world how far the Popes were from being 
 supreme in any respect. So when Severinus was Severinus. 
 chosen Pope, which was after the year six hundred 
 and thirty, he did not presume to meddle with the 
 administration of the Church till he had prevailed 
 with Isacius, Exarch of Ravenna, to approve his 
 election ; who deferred the giving his approbation 
 above a year and a half. Shortly after the Emperor 
 Constant the Second commanded the Pope Martin Martin i. 
 the First, for some disobedience to him, to be taken 
 prisoner and sent to Constantinople, where he died 
 in prison ; the same Constant being killed by Max- 
 entius, who made himself Emperor in his place. It 
 is no wonder that such Emperors, who came to their 
 titles by such means, took the best way they could 
 to ingratiate themselves with the Bishop of Rome, 
 who by this time had great power in Italy and more 
 than ordinary reputation in some Christian king- 
 doms. The Emperor Constantine the Fourth, the 
 more to endear himself to that chair and to exalt it 
 to do him service, was pleased to release to Benedict Benedict n. 
 the Second and the succeeding Popes the necessity 
 of being approved by the Emperor; but this was 
 thought to be so far from divesting the Emperors of 
 their right, that Justinian the Second (who was the 
 immediate successor of Constantine) sent an order to 
 take Pope Sergius the First prisoner, and to bring sergiui i. 
 
 him
 
 60 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, him before him ; or, if that could not easily be done, 
 
 IIL to kill him : but the poor Pope escaped fairly by the 
 
 treason of Leontius, who took the Emperor Justi- 
 nian, cut off his ears and nose, and made himself 
 Emperor ; which Tiberius shortly revenged, and used 
 Leontius as he had done the other. After nine years 
 Justinian recovered the empire again, and cut off the 
 heads of Leontius and Tiberius in the time of Pope 
 John vi. John the Sixth ; and though he continued his dis- 
 pleasure and anger against the Popes, (for there were 
 three or four successions in his time,) the Kings of 
 the Lombards in Italy were strong enough to pro- 
 tect them, and had given them some towns and terri- 
 tories, by which they became princes and had a tem- 
 poral jurisdiction: and yet afterwards this Pope Con- 
 Constan- stantine the First finding the ecclesiastical power to 
 be lessened and undervalued in Italy itself, (the Arch- 
 bishop of Ravenna refusing to be confirmed by him,) 
 thought it necessary to ingratiate himself with the 
 same Justinian, and to that purpose made a journey 
 in person unto him in Constantinople : but Justinian 
 and his son Tiberius being shortly after killed in a 
 battle, and Philippicus making himself Emperor, the 
 same Constantino knowing how odious Philippicus 
 was to the people, and knowing no other way to do 
 him hurt than by his spiritual sword, and to shew 
 Excommu- his gratitude to the memory of Justinian, excommu- 
 deprives nicated and deprived Philippicus as an heretic ; which 
 Emperor "of was tne nrst sentence of its kind that any Pope had 
 the East. cver presumed to give against any who assumed the 
 title of Emperor : for though I have mentioned one 
 before of excommunication, this was the first depri- 
 vation ; and in truth against such an Emperor who, 
 besides the sorry title he had to it, was so odious for 
 
 his
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 6l 
 
 his tyranny, that the people arose upon him, took CHAP. 
 him prisoner, put out his eyes, and chose Arthemius - ' 
 Emperor in his place. Arthemius was shortly after 
 overcome by Theodorus and put into a monastery, 
 and Theodorus himself was quickly used in the same 
 manner by Leo ; and so there were at the same time 
 four alive together who had been Emperors. It was The Empe- 
 
 T T mi -11 i 11 i ror Leo HI. 
 
 this .hmperor Leo the Inird who caused all the bums all 
 
 images to be pulled down and burnt, and made 
 large declaration that the worshipping of them 
 idolatry, in spite of whatsoever the Pope said to the 
 contrary ; so far were those times from acknowledg- 
 ing the Pope's judgment in matters so merely spiri- 
 tual as cases of idolatry must be confessed to be. 
 
 We are now come to the time when the Popes Growth of 
 grew great indeed ; but not by those arts or weapons p0 wer. 
 which our Saviour and his Apostles had bequeathed 
 to the Church. The power of the Emperor was suf- 
 ficiently suppressed in Italy, but the King of the 
 Lombards continued still strong, and how to abate 
 this was the great design. France was but newly 
 become Christian, and accordingly fullest of zeal to 
 advance any power they thought might advance 
 Christianity. Charles Martel was the great general 
 under Childebert, and his friendship was the most 
 like to advance the design of the Pope, and to sup- 
 press those under whose power he could not grow to 
 the height he aspired. To that purpose Gregory the Gregory it 
 Second sent very earnestly to intreat Charles Martel 
 to aid him against Luitiprandus King of the Lorn- 
 bards ; and the Pope had the more need of support, 
 because notwithstanding he had called a council at 
 Rome, and therein made a canon in favour of images, 
 the Emperor Leo and Constantine the Fifth express-
 
 62 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ly forbad the use of them, and punished all those 
 
 very severely who paid any reverence to them. It 
 
 was Gregory the Second who wrote to Boniface's 
 
 legate in Germany, " quod il/i, quorum uxores infir- 
 
 " mitate aliqud morbida debitum reddere noluerunt, 
 
 Zacharias " alii poterant nubtre" His successor Pope Zacha- 
 
 Kmg Cnii- rias deprived and deposed poor King Childeric for 
 
 weakness and insufficiency to govern, and absolved 
 
 his subjects of their oaths, thereby to make Pepin 
 
 the son of Charles Martel King in his place ; who 
 
 probably would not forget the obligation, nor suffer 
 
 that authority to be suppressed which had given him 
 
 so great a crown. 
 
 Stephen ii. The Pope, Stephen the Second, makes a journey 
 phi'to in- into France unto Pepin, who shortly after marches 
 taly> with his army into Italy to vindicate the Church 
 from the tyranny of the Lombards ; and, that he 
 might be sure of the prayers of the Church for his 
 success, vows to consecrate all that he should win to 
 the Church ; and so all the towns which had conti- 
 nued under the Exarch, and were all the remainder 
 of the power of the Emperor, were delivered into the 
 possession of the Pope ; and from that time the Em- 
 perors of Constantinople have had no more to do in 
 Italy. The Lombards upon the death of their King 
 Astolphus grew so divided amongst themselves that 
 the Pope was courted on both sides, and complied 
 still with those who would be most at his disposal ; 
 and so quickly wrought himself above all their power; 
 Luitiprandus himself having first given to Pope Za- 
 Ancona, charias and to the Church the territories of Ancona 
 & c . deli-' and many other cities, and much other land, in hope 
 Po'pe. tC be t navc gained the favour of the Popes. And now 
 Pepin according to his vow delivers up to the Pope 
 
 Ravenna,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 63 
 
 Ravenna, Parma, Mantua, and many other places, CHAP, 
 besides all the towns of the Exarchat : so that office ^ 
 
 was determined, after it had continued a hundred 
 seventy five years from Narses, and had kept the 
 Popes from attaining their ambitious designs by very 
 severe mortifications. 
 
 Yet this growth was like to be nipped in the bud ;Constan- 
 and Pepin was no sooner dead, and the see became 111 
 void, but there was a new schism in the Church, and 
 Constantino was chosen by the nobility and some of 
 the clergy to be Pope ; and though a layman he was 
 consecrated and did exercise the office of Pope near 
 a year; when it being discovered that he endeavoured 
 to bring in again the power of the Emperor of Con- 
 stantinople, Stephen the Third was chosen Pope by Stephen 
 the people and the clergy ; and Constantine was 
 taken by tumults and had his eyes put out ; who 
 notwithstanding appeared before the council which 
 was then called at Rome, insisted upon his right, 
 justified his election, and named other Bishops who 
 had been chosen before they were in orders : but the 
 council deposed him and acknowledged Stephen, and 
 ordained that no layman should be capable of being 
 chosen Pope. All this was very little before the year 
 eight hundred; and so long time had the Popes been 
 without that jurisdiction and authority which they 
 would have the world believe to be founded in divine 
 right, and the basis upon which the whole fabric of 
 the Christian religion is supported. 
 
 Charles the Great, the son of Pepin, continues hisCharfe- 
 great affection and reverence to the see of Rome, con- overthrows 
 firms the donation formerly made by his father with e rtl ^" d 
 other great privileges, marches with a strong army s n fi f ^ r , g 
 into Italy, and there overthrows and takes prisoner s^m to 
 
 " r . the Popes. 
 
 JJesi-
 
 64 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Desiderius, the last King of the Lombards, after they 
 
 _ LLL_ had governed Italy above two hundred years : and in 
 lieu of these benefits a council at Rome of above a 
 
 obtains the hundred and fifty Bishops, in the time of Adrian 
 the First, ordained that Charles the Great should 
 ops nave tne ri g nt to a PP rove tne election of whom- 
 
 ofRome. soever for the future should be chosen Bishop of 
 Rome. 
 
 How far this addition and access of greatness was 
 from imprinting in the hearts of the people any reve- 
 rence to the person of the Pope or opinion of his 
 spiritual capacity, is evident enough by what was, 
 done to the very successor of Adrian, Pope Leo the 
 Third ; who was taken in the streets at Rome as he 
 went in procession by two priests, Pasquall and Cam- 
 pallus, and by them, after they had put out his eyes, 
 was cast into prison in irons ; and when Charles the 
 Great came again into Italy for his relief, and called 
 a council of the clergy and people of Rome, Pasquall 
 and Campallus appeared and charged the Pope with 
 many enormous crimes ; from which he freed himself 
 no otherwise than by going up into the pulpit, and 
 with the Evangelists in his hands making oath that 
 all that he stood accused of was false ; and so they 
 believed him, without giving any such reparation to 
 him, or inflicting such punishment upon those who 
 had used him so rudely as would have been due to 
 one who they thought could have opened and shut 
 the gates of heaven. Charles the Great was recom- 
 
 Andisde- pensed for his journey by being declared " Imperator 
 Romanorum -" and from this time, which was in 
 
 manorum. { ne y ear e ight hundred, the Emperors of the West 
 took their beginning. This poor Pope was after the 
 death of the Emperor driven out of Rome by the 
 
 people,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 65 
 
 people, all his houses were pulled down, and he was CHAP, 
 himself kept in banishment till he died. '- 
 
 At the same time, when Charles the Great was de- 
 clared Emperor with the sole power of approving and 
 consequently of disapproving the election of every 
 Pope, his eldest son Pepin was likewise crowned by 
 the Pope King of Italy. And France, that had never 
 yet undergone any encroachment from the Pope, and 
 had raised him to that height, and had made him a 
 great and an absolute prince, (yet so beset with ene- 
 mies or rivals that he had still as much need of her 
 protection as he had before of her creation,) looked 
 upon him now as so absolutely her creature, and 
 obliged to be so, (because he could not be but 
 by her approbation) that she thought fit to give him 
 some authority, and to make use of it for her own 
 greatness : and this was done by Charles the better 
 to suppress those contestations which he was liable 
 to in his own kingdom ; without any apprehension 
 that from thence would ever grow a presumption to 
 control his own power or dispute his own juris- 
 diction. 
 
 It is a vulgar error (entertained by men of no Origin of 
 vulgar faculties) that the privileges of the Church [ e g e rof 'the 
 and of churchmen in all kingdoms had their original Church - 
 from the grants or declarations of Popes ; whereby 
 they conceive that the clergy stand engaged to sup- 
 port all the extravagant pretences of the Popes, from 
 whom their own greatness proceeds, and that the 
 Pope is equally obliged to defend all their con- 
 cernments, as flowing from his grace and bounty. 
 Whereas in truth the rights and privileges which the 
 clergy claim in any Christian kingdom are as ancient 
 as Christianity itself in that kingdom, and in most 
 
 F places
 
 66 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, places much ancienter than any authority of the 
 
 ' Pope in that kingdom, and of another nature and 
 
 extent than ever any Pope pretended to grant. If it 
 were otherwise, they would produce the record of 
 any one such grant that they have ever made to the 
 Universal clergy of any nation. But religion, true or false, as 
 for mini- it is devotion paid by Pagans as well as Christians to 
 ligion! that divinity which they acknowledge, (whether they 
 comprehend it or no,) so the ministers of that devo- 
 tion (whether Druids or Flamens, or by whatsoever 
 style or appellation they were called) always found 
 a respect and reverence from the people, who looked 
 upon them as better acquainted with and more fa- 
 voured by those deities which they were all bound to 
 worship. And upon this ground (as much founded 
 in nature as any prospect or inclination to religion 
 is) at the first dawning of Christianity, the same per- 
 sons upon whom its doctrines made impression in 
 any nation had, in the same instant, a singular esteem 
 of and regard for those who preached it to them, as 
 men sent and employed by God himself; and they 
 had no sooner the least apprehension of the joys of 
 heaven than they had all imaginable deference to 
 those who would shew them the way thither. This 
 was the foundation of all the glorious successes which 
 the Apostles themselves had in all their labours ; and 
 the persons qualified and sent by them over all the 
 world found the same regard from all to whom God 
 gave his grace, to believe what they said, and to be 
 advised and instructed by them ; and though Chris- 
 tianity did not then in its infancy nor (God help 
 us!) ever since do its work so perfectly, that they 
 who were converted to the belief of its doctrine did 
 equally practise the obligations of it ; yet the persons 
 
 who
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 
 
 who instructed them, the preachers themselves, ap- CHAP. 
 peared men of great endowments, of unparalleled 
 piety and virtue; men of the most unblemished lives, 
 who they saw every day lay down those lives in the 
 defence and maintenance of the truth of that doc- 
 trine which they preached, against all the tempta- 
 tions of interest and worldly advantages ; and for 
 which they could receive no benefit or recompencc 
 but what they were to receive in another world. The 
 consideration and view of this, with the brightness 
 of their manners, wrought so much upon all who 
 were converted by them, that they looked upon them 
 as inferior only to him whose messengers they were ; 
 and were so transported with reverence to their per- 
 sons that they gave up their lives by their exam- 
 ples, disposed their estates by their directions, built 
 churches by their advice, and in all things which 
 concerned their fortunes so totally referred it to their 
 determination, that all other judicatories ceased, and 
 nobody was looked upon as a good Christian or an 
 honest man that would n6t refer any difference he 
 had had with any neighbour to the judgment of the 
 clergy. And that they might not be disturbed in or 
 diverted from intending wholly all offices of piety 
 and charity, they were exempted from all imposi- 
 tions and charges whatsoever, and had all such privi- 
 leges granted to them as the primitive devotion and 
 simplicity thought requisite for such excellent per- 
 sons. 
 
 This extraordinary virtue and piety in the first Privileges 
 planters of the Christian religion was (as hath been upon them 
 said) the true foundation and original of all the rights pj^ C o n P - e ~ 
 and privileges of the Church and the clergy ; and 
 
 soon as Constantine was converted, he confirmed all c nstan - 
 
 tine. 
 
 F 2 the
 
 6s PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAR the liberties and privileges of which the Church and 
 churchmen were possessed before from the voluntary 
 devotion of the people, and added new and important 
 concessions to them, and ordained that the clergy 
 should be judges in all causes whatsoever though of 
 never so temporal a nature : and so, probably by his 
 example and that they might be more acceptable to 
 him, as soon as ever any prince became Christian 
 (though it appeared not in any other actions of his 
 life or manners) he was very active and solicitous 
 Churches for the building of Churches, (which many impious 
 men did,) and immediately confirmed all the old and 
 granted new privileges to the Church and to all ec- 
 clesiastical persons ; by which they then came to 
 have a title to all they claimed which could not be 
 shaken by their original founders, when the first zeal 
 that begat it was exceedingly decayed, and when the 
 views of churchmen grew as notorious as their pru- 
 dence and piety had been eminent. This is manifest 
 by the records which are yet left with all the nations 
 who were first Christian, between which (at what 
 distance soever they were) there seemed a corre- 
 spondence or rather an instinct and sympathy dic- 
 tated from nature in the joint reverence they had for 
 their clergy, who were in all places assigned to a 
 principal part in the government of all kingdoms and 
 states, and quickly obtained in most of the provinces 
 clergy be- of Europe the stile and appellation of the third estate, 
 thhd estate This gave them a great ascendant in the government, 
 '"ar'tTof wn i cn together with their faculties made them very 
 Europe, necessary and of signal authority with the crown it- 
 self. Nobody can believe that this prerogative was 
 granted to them by the Pope, who doth not yet pre- 
 tend to any such power, even in those regions which 
 
 are
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 6*9 
 
 are newly converted, and in some degree by his own CHAP. 
 
 missionaries, but that it was settled in the first con '- 
 
 stitution or institution of all Christian governments, 
 as necessary to the peace and security of it ; and 
 when they had that, they were not capable of receiv- 
 ing any addition of benefit from the Popes, but were 
 always very vigilant and jealous upon the first visible Jealous of 
 
 r i TI the Papal 
 
 improvement or their power, that the Popes might power. 
 not invade their interests, and rob them of those 
 advantages which they had never conferred upon 
 them. 
 
 I wish it were in my power to conceal the too soon Corruption 
 decay of this primitive affection and zeal for the gy . 
 Church and religion ; or to shew that it proceeded 
 not from the decay of learning and virtue in the cler- 
 gy, and from their eminent ignorance and the im- 
 probity of their lives, which made too much haste to 
 pull down or deface the memory and the monuments 
 of their predecessors' sincerity and merit : so that 
 the power and authority which the people had first 
 given, and the princes afterwards confirmed, grew 
 grievous and even odious to their founders and bene- 
 factors. Though there was in truth no age in which 
 there were not in every Christian region some pre- 
 lates and other clergymen of that extraordinary and 
 transcendant knowledge, (for the dark times in which 
 they lived,) and that singular perfection and integrity 
 in their lives, which still uphold the credit and repu- 
 tation of the purity of the religion they professed ; 
 yet the scandalous laziness and ignorance and ini- 
 quity of others (even of some Bishops as well as of 
 the common and inferior clergy) did so much dis- 
 credit it, that the power of the Church and the clergy 
 seemed more active in disturbing and almost dissolv- 
 
 F 3 ing
 
 7Q P/VPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ing the practice of religion and the peace and tran- 
 III- quillity of kingdoms than it had formerly been ip. 
 the establishing the one or composing the other ; 
 neither was there any seditious attempt against the 
 sovereign power in any country, nor any unjust and 
 tyrannical encroachment and oppression upon the 
 peace and quiet of the subject, to which the clergy 
 did not contribute too much. 
 
 charie- Charles the Great himself (when he had donq so 
 traduces"' g rca t things and had settled his own authority and 
 the Papal the Pope's according to his wish in Italy) was sensi- 
 
 authority r ' v T- j i_- 
 
 into France, ble of this temper or distemper in r ranee and all his 
 other dominions. The assemblies of the clergy (which 
 they called councils, and were often called by the 
 bishops or metropolitans without so much as the pri- 
 vity of the kings) had usurped or exercised a very 
 extraordinary jurisdiction, and assumed a power of 
 judging in cases of all natures as if there had been 
 no other judicatory in the kingdom. Nor was this 
 latitude of authority always applicable to the King's 
 purposes, but did as often thwart his designs as ad- 
 vance them. To remedy these excesses this great 
 Emperor could not find a better expedient than 
 by introducing a superi6r ecclesiastical power into 
 France, which with his help might control that of 
 his own bishops ; and to this he found less opposi- 
 . tion in his dominions in Germany, where our coun- 
 tryman Boniface (as hath been said before) had with 
 the elements of religion infused such a reverence 
 TheGer- towards the Bishop of Rome that the ecclesiastics 
 " a^ote had signed an engagement in writing, by which they 
 obe ti0 the t0 were not on ty obliged to preserve the catholic faith, 
 church of but also to remain united and obedient to the Roman 
 the Pope. Church, and to the Vicar of St. Peter. This was the 
 
 first
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 71 
 
 first declaration of that kind that had been heard of CHAP. 
 and embraced by any temporal authority. King Pe- 
 pin his father, when he had gotten the upper hand 
 of all his enemies, (towards which he had committed 
 and countenanced horrible outrages,) and intended 
 to place himself in the throne, (which his father ne- 
 ver durst attempt,) yet could not rely upon the af- 
 fection of the bishops of France, who were chosen by 
 their chapters as the abbots were by their monks. So 
 that though the King's recommendation found usually 
 much respect in those promotions, yet they had not 
 so much dependance upon the crown as they after- 
 wards came to have ; and therefore before Pepin 
 would accept the crown, which the convention of the 
 states offered to settle upon him, and to depose Chil- 
 deric their King, he made use of the Pope's benignity 
 for a dispensation of that oath of fidelity which him- 
 self had taken to his King, and likewise for absolving 
 all the subjects from their obedience ; both which 
 the Pope very cheerfully granted and performed, and 
 likewise declared Childeric to be unfit and incompe- 
 tent to govern. Over and above this, when he came 
 into Italy, Stephen the Second crowned and conse- 
 crated with his own hands Pepin and his two sons ; 
 exhorting the French to pay them all fidelity, and 
 excommunicating them from that very time in case 
 they should ever choose any King but of that race ; 
 which stupendous proceeding, never before heard of, 
 terrified much all the small neighbour princes and 
 their bishops and clergy. And now the Emperor 
 (after repeating and confirming all the generous acts 
 his father had performed on the behalf of the Church, 
 and adding so many favours to them himself, and 
 being made Emperor and his eldest son crowned 
 
 F 4 King
 
 7 2 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. King of Italy, and the investiture of all bishoprics 
 being granted to him, and upon the matter the do- 
 nation of the Popedom itself) had all assurance that 
 he might make what use he would of the power and 
 greatness he had conferred upon the Pope without 
 any apprehension that himself or his posterity might 
 receive any prejudice from it: and therefore the more 
 to gratify Pope Adrian the First and to introduce his 
 authority into France, (which he thought he could 
 limit as he found it convenient,) at his return from 
 his fourth journey into Italy brought back with him 
 The Grego- into France the Gregorian office, and the liturgy or 
 and mass mass which was tben in use at Rome, and wished to 
 . abolish the service that had been always used in the 
 Gallican Church : but this change met with very 
 great difficulties, and begot very severe persecutions 
 against the old Gauls, who resolved to defend and 
 maintain their ancient service without any considera- 
 tion of the Pope's injunction. 
 
 Without doubt, if Charles the Great had used that 
 providence for the future which might have been ex-r 
 pected from so great an Emperor, he might have very 
 well secured his own dominions from being ever in- 
 vaded by the ecclesiastical authority, though he had 
 raised it to that height ; and he had the example of 
 that line which was extirpated to exalt his father to 
 the crown, to shew him how the power and greatness 
 of it were to be preserved ; or rather how much it 
 would be inevitably weakened and unavoidably dis- 
 solved, which was as useful an instruction. Clovis, 
 the first Christian King, after he had by his exem- 
 plary industry and courage (and without any restraint 
 from his religion or justice) enlarged his dominions 
 to a much greater extent than what had descended 
 
 to
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VIT. 73 
 
 to him, thought he could not leave a better testimony CHAP. 
 
 and record of his having been a great King than by r - 
 
 making his territories support the state and dignity 
 of four kings after his decease ; snd so having four 
 sons, he made them every one a King in his large do- 
 minions, which would well have provided for the 
 greatness of one and the security of the rest. To one 
 he gave the kingdom of Metz with Austrasia, to an- 
 other the kingdom of Orleans, to a third the kingdom 
 of Paris, and the fourth was the King of Soissons. 
 So that every one had enough to cherish the love of 
 empire, and to foment jealousies of each other, and 
 none of them enough to secure it from the pow r er 
 of ill neighbours nor their own invasion of one an- 
 other. They began presently to welter in each other's 
 blood ; and the eldest quickly subduing the second, 
 the other two united to defend themselves ; and this 
 unnatural temper raged throughout the whole race 
 till all the virtue of them was spent and the line ex- 
 tinguished in Childeric, by which Pepin got the 
 crown. 
 
 Charlemagne now after all his wonderful actions, charie- 
 when he had utterly extinguished the empire of the^ovmed 
 Lombards in Italy, (which had continued for the Emperor ' 
 space of above two hundred years to the infinite da- 
 mage and disinherison of the Emperor, but to the 
 advancement of the Pope, who gained somewhat of 
 all men's losses, yet under mortification enough,) was 
 himself crowned King of Italy by the Archbishop of 
 Milan ; whereby he had a dominion in Italy itself 
 much superior to that of the Pope after all his boun- 
 ty to trim : besides that all the other princes, to most 
 of whom he had given or enlarged their principali- 
 ties, were at his devotion. After he had received the 
 
 im-
 
 74 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, imperial crown he did providently enough to cause 
 his son Pepin, though not his eldest, to be crowned 
 King of Italy; but not so providently in causing 
 his third son Louis to be crowned King of Aqui- 
 taine, which made himself less King in France than 
 he was before : whereas he had not the less power 
 over Italy though Pepin was crowned King ; of 
 which latter he had sufficient evidence by the death 
 of Pope Adrian, when Leo the Third was made choice 
 Leo in. of to succeed him, who first applied to the Emperor 
 Emperor for for his approbation, and sent the keys of St. Peter's 
 bationr Church with a desire that some person might come 
 to Rome to receive the oath of fidelity to the Empe- 
 ror from that city. 
 
 The great misfortune and oversight of this great 
 Emperor was, that when he had lived to bury his son 
 Pepin, (who was a great prince and equal to the 
 charge he had,) and likewise to see his eldest son 
 Charles dead, so that Lewis (whom he had before 
 crowned King of Aquitaine without any visible da- 
 mage to himself) remained now his eldest son, and 
 worthy to inherit whatsoever he should leave behind 
 him, he nevertheless chose to make Bernard, the 
 bastard son of Pepin, and a boy of twelve or thirteen 
 years of age, King of Italy ; with such a dependance 
 however upon his uncle as was like to restrain him 
 from giving him any oifence. 
 
 Stephen iv. The Italian writers would persuade us that Charle- 
 like. magne before his death released the obligation he 
 had upon the election of the Popes ; but they pro- 
 duce no evidence of it, and the contrary appears by 
 the proceeding of his successors : for Ludovicus Pius 
 (whom the French called Le Debonnaire) succeeded 
 Charles the Great^ and Stephen the Fourth succeeded 
 
 Leo,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 75 
 
 JLeo, and was compelled to go into France to the Ein- CHAP. 
 peror to desire his help to put him into possession of - ' 
 his bishopric, and would not at that time confer a 
 bishopric that was fallen in Italy till the Emperor 
 gave his approbation as a right belonging to him. 
 
 Paschal the First was the next Pope, and the Paschal i. 
 hundredth from St. Peter ; and he was no sooner 
 .chosen but the people compelled him (or he was wil- 
 ling to be compelled) to assume and exercise the of- 
 fice, without sending to the Emperor for his appro- 
 bation; which he excused afterwards by his ambassa- 
 dors to the Ernperor, laying the whole fault upon 
 the passion of the people, whom he durst not dis- 
 please : and the good Emperor was so well satisfied 
 that he released that right of approbation to the The right of 
 Church ; and, to imitate the piety of his father and released to" 
 
 grandfather, granted the islands of Corsica Sardinia 
 and Sicily to St. Peter and his successors, which the Dcbon ' 
 
 * > . naire. 
 
 most catholic King doth not believe that St. Peter 
 will be offended with him for detaining. But not- 
 withstanding the release which Ludovicus Pius had 
 given of his right of approbation, it seems he did not 
 intend to divest himself of all kind of authority with 
 reference to the elections ; for when Gregory the 
 Fourth was chosen Pope, upon some surmises which 
 were cast abroad the Ernperor sent to Rome to exa- 
 mine whether the election were canonically made or 
 .not, and being satisfied proceeded no farther. 
 
 But yet this good Emperor (who the French his- Appeals to 
 
 . , ., Romeal- 
 
 tonans say would have been a better Bishop or AD- lowed by 
 bot than he was a King) was so totally addicted to him> 
 reform the Church by reforming the clergy, (which 
 in truth stood in great need of it, and towards which 
 he asked no other body's assistance,) that he was not 
 
 provi-
 
 CHAP, provident enough to secure even that government: 
 but the licence which had been so many years con- 
 tracting was grown to that excess in the superior as 
 well as inferior clergy, that they could not bear that 
 measure of severity which he thought necessary to 
 apply for the reformation, and so they devised all 
 the ways they could to lessen his authority in the 
 Church and to disturb his affairs abroad, in order 
 that he should not have so much leisure to inquire 
 into their extravagancies and enormities. And in 
 this combination they found a concurrence from 
 many of the great nobility, who did not think the 
 King's constitution agreeable to their designs, nor 
 their condition secure under his rigid inquisition. 
 Towards the first, Charlemagne, who always valued 
 himself upon the notoriety of his affection to reli- 
 gion, desired to increase the power and reverence to 
 the Bishops, that they might have the people the 
 more at their devotion ; and to that purpose he re- 
 vived a law that Constantine had made, (and which 
 my author says may be found in the sixteenth book 
 of the Theodosian code,) which permits either of the 
 parties that hath a suit depending before the secular 
 judges to carry the cause before the Bishops, whether 
 the other consent or not, and that their arbitrement 
 shall be binding and admit no appeal. This as it 
 had given great reputation to the Bishops in the be- 
 ginning, and in respect of their integrity had as 
 much pleased the people, so when the Bishops were 
 now grown lazy ignorant and corrupt, it brought no 
 less scandal upon the Church, and raised equal dis- 
 content in the subjects : and their delays corruption 
 and injustice grew so visible, that the parties con- 
 cerned, upon the manifest iniquity of the judgments 
 
 would,
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 57 
 
 would appeal to the metropolitan ; where, finding CHAP. 
 
 not a remedy to the disease, appeals were quickly : 
 
 after carried to Rome, contrary to the express terms 
 of the law. This was the first door that was opened 
 to let the jurisdiction of Rome to enter into France ; 
 nor did Lewis care to shut it, being willing to curb 
 and reform his own Bishops and clergy by any expe- 
 dient, without any apprehension that himself or his 
 successors should receive any damage from that ex- 
 cess. 
 
 The other stratagem was more effectual for the impri 
 present, and the mischief and danger thereof 
 sooner discovered ; though the consequence of the 
 former, which was not then discerned, produced in ltal y 
 succeeding time worse effects. The discontented party, 
 whereof a great many remained in the court and near 
 the person of the King, found means to work upon 
 the youth and levity of poor Bernardo King of Italy, 
 (who had by this time attained to the age of eighteen 
 years or thereabouts,) and persuaded him that the 
 whole kingdom of France and the empire itself did 
 of right belong to him as being the son of Pepin, 
 who was older brother to Lewis : and to compass 
 their designs the more easily they held correspond- 
 ence with the Emperor of the East, and were willing 
 to introduce his authority into Italy, which would 
 easily extinguish the power of the Western, and 
 which made the conspiracy much the more dan- 
 gerous. Lewis having discovered the whole design 
 before it was ripe, lost no time for the preventing it; 
 and though the unfortunate Bernardo had provided 
 and assigned some troops to guard the passages of 
 the Alps, the Emperor's forces no sooner approached 
 than the others fled and dispersed themselves ; and 
 
 the
 
 78 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 GHAP. the poor King and all the conspirators were seized 
 
 upon by such a consternation, that they abandoned 
 
 all other hope than in the clemency of the Emperor ; 
 at whose feet they made too much haste to cast them- 
 selves, before he had recovered himself of the dismal 
 apprehension he was in, especially upon the project 
 of calling in the Emperor of Constantinople, who 
 had given over all thoughts of the West and had 
 lived in very good intelligence with his father and 
 himself. And so the humility of their application 
 wrought nothing upon him ; but he caused them all 
 to be arrested and cast into prisons, and without any 
 delay their process to be made ; upon which the se- 
 culars were all condemned to die, and the Bishops 
 were degraded and confined to one monastery : some 
 of the principal of the other underwent the rigour of 
 the sentence and were publicly executed, and others 
 had their eyes burned out, of which the poor Ber- 
 nardo himself and two of the other best qualified 
 died within three days. 
 
 The nature of the Emperor was so changed upon 
 the discovery of this treason against him, and with 
 the severity he thought himself obliged to exercise, 
 that he was jealous of every body, and caused his 
 natural brothers the bastards of his father, who were 
 many, to be all shaved and put into monasteries 
 to prevent their falling into the like temptations ; 
 and chased others, abbots and great men whom he 
 suspected, till they left the realm. But after some 
 recollection, or the loud clamour and curses of the 
 people, he so much repented his cruelty to his ne- 
 phew, (a youth then of nineteen years of age and a 
 King,) that the remorse of it broke his mind and 
 disquieted him to the end of his life, And yet how 
 
 bar-
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 79 
 
 barbarous soever, this was no new example; for, both CHAP. 
 
 in that age and in that which went before it and in : . 
 
 some that followed after it, many princes who were 
 taken prisoners in war, and whose liberty was thought 
 dangerous to those who took them, were not only 
 secretly murdered and assassinated, but some were 
 exposed to process and had their heads cut off upon 
 public scaffolds in the sight of the people. 
 
 The Emperor grew every day more and more af- 
 flicted with the sense of what he had done ; and to 
 that degree that he made confession to the Bishops 
 and took penance publicly in the presence of all the 
 people ; and that he might as far as was possible 
 undo the injustice he had done, he permitted his bas- 
 tard brothers to go out of the monastery, and re- 
 called those whom he had violently driven out of the 
 kingdom, and received them into his favour, and em- 
 ployed them in his councils. He continued however 
 still in this agony ; and being tossed to and fro by 
 the tempest of his mind, he took a vengeance upon 
 himself that none of his enemies could have con- 
 trived. His wife whom he much loved was novr 
 dead, and had left him three sons, Lotaire Pepin and 
 Lewis ; and upon this new fit of melancholic, he 
 caused Lotaire the eldest to be made King of Italy, 
 and associated him with himself in the empire; Pepin 
 his second son he made King of Aquitaine ; and 
 Lewis his third son King of Bavaria. 
 
 Shortly after, upon a new affection, as all his af- 
 fections were very violent, he married again and had 
 another son, Charles, whom at the age of six years he 
 made King of Rhesia ; which gave his other three 
 sons such a jealousy of the great power that his new 
 wife appeared to have with or over him, that from 
 
 that
 
 80 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that time he had never any quiet: but his sons first 
 
 : macle .war upon each other and then upon him until 
 
 thcjli had very near deposed him : so that having 
 weakened , himself by dividing his power and domi- 
 nions amongst them, his reputation was likewise les- 
 sened in all places; all parties making address against 
 each other to the Pope ; who, though he was weary of 
 the authority the Emperor had in Rome, and glad of 
 the distracted condition he was in, and had made 
 great use of it to improve his own power in France, 
 which he had cunningly introduced (and not without 
 the King's connivance if not his consent) upon the 
 infamy of the clergy, yet forbore to do any thing 
 publicly to incense the King, but appeared to do all 
 offices towards the reconciling the royal family : and 
 some agreement there was made and some alteration 
 in the partition, Pepin his second son being dead, and 
 his son Pepin, a boy of fourteen years or thereabouts, 
 challenging the kingdom of Aquitaine, which his fa- 
 ther died possessed of. 
 
 Death and Shortly after Louis le Debonnaire ended his trou- 
 Louis ie blesome reign, having been Emperor and monarch of 
 France twenty seven years; a man of very unhappy 
 
 nairs. 
 
 parts, learned and heartily inclined to religion and vir- 
 tue, but capable by the softness of his nature to be di- 
 verted and misled from the obligations of either, which 
 was imputed to his too much hearkening to ecclesias- 
 tics ; and yet he left his Gallican Church deprived of 
 many of her privileges, and all other his dominions 
 in worse state by much than he had received them. 
 Wars be- Lotaire his eldest son succeeded in the empire and 
 
 tween Lo- .... . 
 
 taire and was likewise King of Italy. Pepin the son of Pepin, 
 
 his bro- , , p -r T r 
 
 there. who was second son or Lewis, was King of Aquitaine; 
 Louis the third son was King of Germany ; and 
 
 Charles
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 81 
 
 Charles the son by the second wife (who was after- CHAP. 
 wards called Charles the Bald) was upon the re -^ 
 
 conciliation between Lotaire and his rather 
 King of Burgundy and of Neustria with the consent 
 and approbation of Lotaire; which Lewis if- his death 
 put him in mind of and conjured him to observe it. 
 But he, as well upon the advantage of being Emperor 
 as of being elder brother, refused to observe any act 
 done by his father, or any contract made by himself 
 or with his own consent, and challenged his supe- 
 riority over them all, and that they should submit all 
 to him ; which they as positively refused, and pre- 
 pared to raise armies for their defence. 
 
 It was the year eight hundred and forty when the 
 Emperor Louis le Debonnaire died ; and before the 
 expiration of one year his four sons (reckoning Pepin 
 in his father's place) brought their armies into the field 
 together to decide the right between them. Pepin the 
 son of Pepin, being the weakest of the four, and ex- 
 pecting less courtesy from his younger uncles, joined 
 himself to his elder, Lotaire the Emperor ; and the Battle of 
 battle was fought with so great ardour that the like 
 had never been then done since the foundation of the 
 French monarchy, for there was above one hundred 
 thousand men killed upon the place, besides what 
 died afterwards of their wounds. The victory fell to 
 the two younger brothers, who used it with great hu- 
 manity, and forbore to prosecute it, with hope that 
 there might be no more blood spilt. But Lotaire the 
 Emperor and Pepin his nephew had thus time to ga- 
 ther new armies, and Pepin gave a great defeat to hi$ 
 uncle Charles, who would have taken Aquitaine from 
 him ; but in the end, by the interposition of bishops 
 and other great men, they were persuaded to consent 
 
 c to
 
 82 
 
 C H A p. to acquiesce in their divisions, after some alterations 
 
 ' were made for the satisfaction of the humour and 
 
 pretence of Lotaire the Emperor, who had Lorraine 
 (with a much larger extent than is now accounted to 
 be part of it) assigned to him. 
 Division of This division of the dominions, which when united 
 
 the empire 
 
 and its son- had preserved the dignity of the Emperor and had 
 made him generally obeyed in Italy France and Ger- 
 many, so that the Church and State were kept within 
 their regular limits, had still been and was now more 
 attended with a division and separation of the affec- 
 tions of the people of Germany Gaul and Italy, which 
 grew into factions jealousies and animosities against 
 each other, and to have less fidelity towards their 
 several princes. And at this time the Danes and 
 Normans (both Pagans) increased their inroads into 
 Neustria and Brittany; and the Saracens infested 
 those parts which lay next Arragon, and made in- 
 cursions over the Alps into Italy, from whence the 
 Emperor had been compelled to draw a great part 
 of his forces after the battle of Fontenay between 
 the four brothers, wherein such a vast number had 
 been killed. Being thus weakened in all parts and 
 all persons being made a prey to those who were 
 strongest, the noblemen and gentlemen themselves 
 of France betook themselves to the same course of 
 life, and lived upon what they got by plunder, and 
 took from those who were as ready to take from 
 them or at least were too weak to resist them. In 
 these disorders Pepin behaved himself so ill, in the 
 debauchery of his manners, and his ill conduct in 
 the defence of his subjects against the invasion of 
 the barbarians, that the great lords of the country 
 seized upon his person, and delivered him into the 
 
 hands
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 83 
 
 hands of his uncle Charles, (who had himself nar- CHAP. 
 
 ill 
 rowly escaped the same fate, being liable to the same 
 
 reproaches,) who caused him to be shaved and in- 
 closed in a monastery, and became thereby possessed 
 of Aquitaine and all that his nephew had been 
 master of. There remained therefore now only Lo- 
 taire the Emperor (who associated his son Lewis 
 with him in the empire) and Lewis and Charles : 
 and shortly after the Emperor Lotaire, being an in- 
 constant man, and tired with the disorders and vi- 
 cissitudes of the times he lived in, gave over his im- 
 perial crown to his son Lewis, and retired from the 
 world into a monastery, where within a few months 
 after he departed this life, which was about the year 
 eight hundred fifty-five. 
 
 Whatever the Emperor Ludovicus Pius released Lewis n. 
 to the Pope, his grandson Ludovicus the Second it 
 seems believed the power still remained in him, by 
 his sending two ambassadors, after Benedict the 
 Third was chosen, to approve the election : and I do 
 not find but the Pope was glad of it, for it supported 
 him against a competitor ; besides that in those 
 times the Pope's authority was ever and anon con- 
 tested by the Bishop of Ravenna ; and the successor 
 of Benedict, Pope Nicholas the First, had great trou- 
 ble by it, and much contention with the eastern Ca- 
 tholics upon the point of images, insomuch that in 
 the end of his time or the beginning of his successor 
 Adrian the Second, the council at Constantinople 
 condemned Pope Nicholas and all that adhered to 
 him in the use of images. This signal opposition in 
 so catholic a point the Pope could no otherwise 
 master than by courting Basilius, who being favourite 
 to the Emperor of Constantinople Michael the Third, 
 
 G 2 foully
 
 84 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, foully murdered his master and so made himself 
 
 : Emperor, and to endear himself to the Pope called 
 
 another council at Constantinople which condemned 
 
 the former and justified the use of images, for which 
 
 a very good Spanish historian gives him this testi^ 
 
 mony, " Era Basileo muy buen Christiana y Catho- 
 
 " lico, y sobre manera devoto de la Iglesia Ramana a ." 
 
 Extinction After Lewis the Second was dead, and Charles the 
 
 of the line i . , i / i i 
 
 ofcharie- Bald his uncle took the empire upon him, (though 
 his elder brother Lewis was then alive,) Pope John 
 the Eighth, without any consideration of matter of 
 right, adhered to Charles the Bald; and after his 
 death (Lewis and Charles being in competition for 
 the empire) the Pope first declared himself for 
 Lewis ; upon which the people of Rome adhering to 
 Charles arose and imprisoned the Pope, who making 
 an escape fled into France and there crowned Lewis 
 Emperor. But Charles in the mean time making 
 haste to Rome, and causing himself to be crowned 
 there, assumed likewise the title of Emperor ; which 
 the Pope no sooner knew, than, finding that Lewis 
 Was like to prove the weaker, he made all the haste 
 he could to Rome, revoked the declaration he had 
 formerly made on the behalf of Lewis, and with 
 great solemnity again crowned Charles Emperor. 
 Thus the great divisions and bloody wars which fell 
 out amongst the children and progeny of Charles 
 the Great, and his whole line being expired within 
 ninety years, (for Carolus Crassus was the last, and 
 was deposed when Arnolphus was made Emperor,) 
 the Emperors wanted leisure and power and reputa- 
 tion to look after the Church and the regular govern- 
 
 * Illescas en vida de Hadriano II. 
 
 ment
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 85 
 
 meat thereof; and the Popes grew so much to urv- CHAP. 
 dervalue them, that Adrian the Third declared, that Em 
 it did not and could not appertain to the right of the perors* 
 
 T-. 1-11- ,. r 'g ht f a P- 
 
 Jbmperors to make any approbation to the election or proving the 
 
 , i T election of 
 
 tne ropes. Popes de- 
 
 It was about this time (or not many years before) nied> 
 that our King Ethelwolf, a prince more given to de- i ' '"" 
 votion than action, after he had spent a good part of ^ r 
 his revenue for many years in building; churches and ponces of 
 
 f J' U" 1- J .theheptar- 
 
 rounding monasteries in his own kingdom, granted chy. 
 an annuity of three hundred marks to be disposed of 
 in pious uses at Rome, and went thither twice in 
 person, and carried his younger son Alfred with 
 him, whom Pope Leo the Fourth anointed, as if pre- 
 saging that he should be king. The Roman writers 
 also say that he gave that grant of one penny upon 
 every head of his subjects to be paid once in the year 
 to .the Pope, which was afterwards called Peter- 
 pence ; but they say this (which they uncivilly called 
 tributum, whereas it could be only whenever it begun 
 eleemosyna) had its original long before this time, 
 and that it was first given by Ina and then confirmed 
 by Offa upon both their first conversions, and there- 
 fore they think that it is a sacrilege that it is still 
 detained from payment. But neither of those kings 
 nor Ethelwolf himself had any power to lay any 
 such imposition, they being all of them but private 
 princes, kings of the Heptarchy, (which governments 
 were shortly dissolved,) and it could be only an ear- 
 nest of their own particular charity, towards the dis- 
 tribution of which all new converts were most in- 
 clined in the infancy of their Christianity. And the 
 same temper we may still observe in all converts to 
 this day ; for we seldom see any men to change their 
 
 G 3 religion
 
 86 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, religion from that in which they have been born and 
 ~ bred, but in the instant of their conversion they con- 
 tract a wonderful warmth and zeal for the religion 
 they are newly acquainted with, and an equal fierce- 
 ness and animosity against that which they are de- 
 parted from ; as if they could not enough manifest 
 the sincerity of their conversion, and the delight 
 they take in the change, if they do not say and do 
 somewhat which sober people of that faith which 
 they have now put on do neither use nor think them- 
 selves obliged to do. And we have reason to believe 
 that those princes before mentioned were a little 
 transported with this distemper ; or else (neither of 
 them acknowledging any dependance upon the Bi- 
 shop of Rome, as neither of them did) they would 
 not have chosen those seasons to have visited Rome 
 and to offer their devotions there, when both the 
 manners -and impiety of that place were notorious 
 throughout the world, and the Popes themselves ex- 
 ceedingly contemned both at home and abroad. 
 Enormities As this was a time when the empire was so much 
 graces of lessened, and the persons of the Emperors in little 
 during 1 !) esteem, so (God knows) the Popes got nothing of 
 Fom'JuT w ^ at ^ le Emperors lost either in reputation or inter- 
 to Gregory est ; but grew themselves to be so much undervalued 
 and contemned, especially in Rome and Italy, that 
 there passed above one hundred years (that is from 
 the time of Formosus who was before the year nine 
 hundred to the time of Gregory the Fifth, which 
 was about the year one thousand, in which time 
 there was one and thirty Popes, or thereabouts) 
 wherein there will not be found above two or three 
 Popes of virtue or reputation, and scarce any one 
 action done or pretended to by any of them which 
 
 can
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 8/ 
 
 can be made a precedent or instance for any one CHAP. 
 
 thing they now claim in temporal or spiritual juris '- 
 
 diction. And if the Christian religion had not been 
 supported by the learning piety and virtue of the bi- 
 shops in other parts of the world, it had been discre- 
 dited if not utterly lost at Rome ; there being so 
 many prodigious and infamous wickednesses done in 
 that time by the several Popes, or much the major 
 part of them, and all the holiness of their predeces- 
 sors being so much discredited by their extravagant 
 impieties ; one condemning all the actions of his 
 predecessor, as Stephen the Sixth did of Formosus, 
 and declared all the bishops made by him to be lay ; 
 and as John the Ninth did the like to Stephen, con- 
 demning all his decrees and causing the council to 
 be burnt that had condemned Formosus ; that no 
 Catholic reads their lives without open detestation : 
 and all must confess that in so many years the Bi- 
 shops of Rome were very unhappy conservators of 
 the integrity of Christian religion, and that it was 
 impossible that the people of that age could have that 
 reverence for them in their hearts, as must be due 
 to the Vicar of Christ and Head of the Universal 
 Church. 
 
 Many of these Popes were thrown into prison by John x. 
 the people, and some put to death there ; as John 
 the Tenth, who after he had beaten the Moors in se- 
 veral battles and taken Naples (as he was a very 
 good general) was taken himself by the Earl of Gui- 
 do, and hanged or at least strangled in prison ; others 
 were put into monasteries by the people ; and one 
 (Stephen the Eighth or the Ninth, for he is reckoned y^fjj 
 both in several Pontificals) was become so exceeding 
 odious and. contemptible, that a particular gentleman 
 
 G 4 set
 
 88 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, set upon him in the streets, and cut him over the 
 
 -face and nose with his sword, and disfigured him in 
 
 such a manner that, though he reigned above a year 
 
 or two after, he never came out of doors, or shewed 
 
 his visage to any. His next successor but two, John 
 
 John XIL the Twelfth, was from the hour of his election looked 
 upon as one chosen by subornation briberies and 
 threats, and abhorred by the people ; he cut off the 
 noses and the right hands and put out the eyes of 
 several cardinals for finding fault and complaining to 
 the Emperor of him ; and the Emperor Otho the 
 Second coming afterwards to Rome called a council 
 in which this Pope was reprehended for his dissolute 
 life ; which working no reformation in him, the car- 
 dinals and the people besought the Emperor to de- 
 pose him, which was done accordingly, and Leo the 
 
 Leo viii. Eighth chosen in his place, who was held for the 
 true and lawful Pope. The Emperor however was 
 no sooner departed Rome than the people arose, 
 drove Leo out of Rome, and called in John again, 
 who was afterwards (and after he had reigned nine 
 years) found by a gentleman of Rome with his wife, 
 and killed upon the place. After his death Benedict 
 
 Benedict v. the Fifth was tumultuously chosen in his place, in so 
 much as the Emperor was compelled to make another 
 journey to Rome, where after the people had suffered 
 many miseries in a siege, they were compelled again 
 to acknowledge Leo, and to deliver up Benedict into 
 the hands of the Emperor, who carried him with him 
 
 Revival of into Germany, where he died in prison ; and at this 
 time the old right was again revived, and it was or- 
 dained in a council at Rome that to the Emperor 
 an< ^ k* s successors the right of approbation of the 
 election of the Popes did and should always belong. 
 
 John
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 89 
 
 John the Thirteenth succeeded Leo, and though he CHAP, 
 reigned seven years he was so far from being looked 
 
 *U *U * U 4-1 ' U John XIIL 
 
 upon with reverence, that he was taken prisoner by 
 the Prefect of Rome, and shut up in the castle of St. 
 Angelo above eleven months ; and his immediate 
 successor Benedict the Sixth, upon a difference withyj nedict 
 a particular knight of Rome, (I think they call his 
 name Cintius,) was taken prisoner by him, and after- 
 wards hanged ; and this was about the time of our 
 Edward the Confessor. 
 
 Gregory the Fifth, whom we mentioned as the Gre s r yV. 
 outside of that hundred years of licence and infamy, 
 because he had a great reputation in the world, and 
 raised the drooping and dishonoured Papacy, lived 
 not long enough to establish his own greatness to his 
 successors ; for he reigned but two years, and even 
 in that time was once driven out of Rome by Cri- 
 centius, who declared his election to be void, and to 
 be made for fear of the Emperor, (whose kinsman 
 the Pope was,) and thereupon chose an Anti-Pope. 
 The Emperor Otho the Third was thereupon forced The Empe- 
 
 , . T i i i i i ror Otho 
 
 to bring a great army into Italy, where he besieged in. esta- 
 Rome, caused Cricentius to be cut in pieces, put o 
 the eyes of the Anti-Pope, and sent him prisoner 
 into Germany, where he died; yet in this short and their 
 
 i -n i . , coronation 
 
 time or two years, the Pope, being a wise man and by the 
 near of kin to the Emperor, did by the vengeance he 
 had taken upon his enemies and the good conjunc- 
 ture he lived in, raise the Papacy to a great height, 
 and in some respect greater than any of his prede- 
 cessors had ever aspired to ; for the Emperor Otho 
 the Third (who was indeed a great prince) being 
 himself impotent by nature, and having none of his 
 family left whom he desired to make his successor, 
 
 ordered
 
 90 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ordered for the future that in the vacancy of the em- 
 
 ' pire, six princes of Germany (who have been since 
 
 called Electors) should always make choice of an 
 Emperor; and because he would procure the more 
 reverence and submission to this new method, and 
 that it might be settled with the more formality and 
 for the better countenance and support of his cousin 
 the Pope by so great an addition of honour, he or- 
 dained him a part in the ceremony, though not in 
 the election of the Emperors ; and that after the 
 Electors had chosen the Emperor he should be con- 
 firmed by the Pope, which gives no more title to the 
 Pope of superiority over the Emperor than every 
 Elector can challenge because he was one of those 
 who made him. 
 
 In truth the intention of this ceremony was prin- 
 cipally that the Pope might receive countenance and 
 protection by the Emperor's sometimes resbrt to 
 Rome ; for that the power and ancient jurisdiction 
 was still understood to remain in the Emperor, ap-^ 
 Benedict pears in few years after ; when Benedict the Ninth, 
 after he had reigned six or seven years, was for seve- 
 ral crimes deposed by the people, and Silvester the 
 Silvester Third chosen ; who being by the same people again 
 rejected in a short time, with the consent of Bene- 
 john xx. diet, John the Twentieth was chosen ; and he again 
 GregoryVi. cast out, and Gregory the Sixth chosen in his place ; 
 upon which Benedict revoked his former consent for 
 Four Popes J onn . an( j so a u f our o f them assumed the title of 
 
 together. 
 
 Popes together, and every one of them exercised the 
 jurisdiction severally: whereupon the Emperor Hen- 
 ry the Third came to Rome and called a council, 
 which declared that neither of the four was worthy 
 clement ii. to be Pope, and Clement the Second was then chosen 
 
 who
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 9! 
 
 who crowned the Emperor ; and then all, the clergy CHAP. 
 
 and people of Rome took a solemn oath never to ' 
 
 make any election of a Pope, without the express li- 
 cence of the Emperor. And though Clement was 
 quickly rebelled against by the people and poisoned 
 after the Emperor was gone, and though they chose 
 thereupon, and contrary to their oath, Damasus theDamasus 
 Second, yet he only living three and twenty days, 
 they then sent ambassadors to the Emperor to desire 
 him that he would give them a Pope. 
 
 The Emperor appointed Brunus, who thereupon 
 called himself Leo the Ninth, and went immediately Leo ix. 
 from Germany towards Rome, attended and acknow^- 
 ledged for Pope ; but true it is when he came into 
 Italy, Hildebrand the monk came to him and ad- 
 vised him not to assume the papacy in that manner, 
 and without any formality of election ; and there- 
 upon he dimissed his train and went privately to 
 Rome, where he was immediately chosen by a general 
 consent, and had afterwards a great fame for sanctity, 
 even to the doing of miracles in his life time. In 
 his time (who died about the year a thousand fifty- 
 four) the Cardinals began to be taken notice of, and 
 to be treated with that stile ; and about this time / 
 likewise it was, (or three or four years after,) under 
 Stephen the Ninth, (who was brother to the Duke 
 of Lorraine,) that by the dexterity of Cardinal Hil- 
 debrand, the Archbishop of Milan was persuaded to 
 acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope, which his 
 predecessors for full two hundred years upon some 
 ancient exemption had refused to do. 
 
 But before I part from Leo the Ninth, who is in First claim 
 
 . /, i i . i r- r of the Pope 
 
 all their pontifical histories spoken or as a person otto the sole 
 great sincerity, I cannot but take notice of a very" 5 l 
 
 pretty
 
 92 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, pretty art of his, and upon a strange occasion to de- 
 
 '- clare, " quod convocatio conciliorum generalium, et 
 
 nerd"co E un-" depositio Episcoporum solius cst Romani Pontiff 
 pri S vin n g d bl e " " els '" Tms is the most ancient record they have 
 ihops. to p rove that title, so contrary to all former prac- 
 tice ; and very probahly no declaration or claim was 
 heard of in some hundred of years since ; and sure 
 the practice hath been contrary to that rule since as 
 well as before. A bishop in Africa had written a 
 letter to this Pope Leo the Ninth to desire his ad- 
 vice and information, who was the metropolitan bi^ 
 shop in Africa ; because, though there were but five 
 bishops at that time alive in all Africa, which was 
 then held to contain the third part of the world, 
 there was a difference amongst them, who was me- 
 tropolitan that had authority and power to call gene- 
 ral councils and to depose bishops. This bull la- 
 ments that Christianity was so much decreased and 
 declined where it had formerly so much flourished ; 
 commends him, " quid Sancta Matris vestra EccLe^ 
 " site Romans sententiam requiritis ;" and then tells 
 him that the Archbishop of Carthage is the metro- 
 politan of all Africa, and "primus Archiepiscopu 
 " post Romanum Pontificem ,-" but adds, " Hoc autem 
 
 tf nolo vos lateat non debere pr&ter sententiam 
 
 t( summi Pontificis, universale concilium celebrari, out 
 <( Episcopos damnari vel deponi ; quamvis enim omni- 
 " bus generaliter Apostolis dictum sit a Domino, Qua- 
 " cunque ligaveritis in terra, ligata erint ut in caelo, 
 " &c. tamen non sine causa et specialiter, et nomina- 
 " tim, dictum est beato Petro, Tu es Petrus, et super 
 " hanc Petram, &c. : and so he magisterially deter- 
 mines and establishes his own authority. And truly 
 they were not careful enough of themselves, if, hav- 
 ing
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 93 
 
 ing so frequent opportunities to give judgments on CHAP. 
 
 their own behalf, they shall ever be without records -^ 
 
 to prove their title to whatsoever they have a mind 
 to ; when it is very probable that no emperor or 
 prince concerned ever heard of this grave decision 
 till many hundred years after it was made, that is, 
 till the Bullarium was printed. It is found in the The Bulk- 
 first tome ; in which they were not well advised in 
 printing another bull so little before it, which is so 
 contrary to it, and that is of Pelagius the Second ; 
 whereby he condemned the three councils of Con- 
 stantinople, " non jure convocati a Johanne Episcopo 
 " Constantinopolitano, universalis Episcopi, nomen 
 " sibi perperam vindicante :" That bull takes notice 
 of the injury done to St. Peter, to whom our Saviour 
 granted " potestatem ligandi et solvendi, fyc. qua etiam 
 " potestas in successoribus ejus indubitanter transivit" 
 &c. but the great offence was the stile of universalis, 
 " Nullus enim Patriarcharum, hoc tarn prophano vo- 
 " cabulo unquam utatur, quia si summus Patriarcha 
 '" universalis dicitur, Patriarcharum nomen c&teris de- 
 " rogatur :" the whole bull contains good learning, 
 and is worth the reading. But it was no hard mat- 
 ter in that time for the Popes to extend their power 
 and jurisdiction by the opportunities which were 
 every day offered to them by the neighbour princes ; 
 for in France there were almost as many sovereign 
 princes as there were provinces, and all making war 
 upon each other, so that he who was called King of 
 France had least authority there. In the mean time 
 the bishops met frequently in councils, in which 
 they assumed unlimited jurisdictions, not only in 
 controversies of right between particular persons, but 
 in contradiction to their several princes; which made 
 
 them
 
 94 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, them resort to Rome, where the Popes were glad of 
 all occasions to condemn the privileges of the Galli- 
 can church, and sometimes excommunicated the bi- 
 shops, who as confidently protested against their 
 power even in the decision of matters of faith ; as in 
 Hinckmar the point of predestination, wherein the learned 
 Pope's au- Hinckmar Archbishop of Rheims positively refused 
 pS of" to submit to the Pope's judgment, and the Pope pro- 
 doctrine. cee( jed no farther. 
 
 victor ii. After Leo the Ninth, Victor the Second succeed- 
 ed, who reigned but two years, and then Stephen 
 Stephen ix. the Ninth was elected. It was this Pope Stephen 
 who went out of Rome towards Florence, and took 
 Cardinal Hildebrand with him, and made the cardi- 
 nals and the other persons who were to elect (for the 
 election was not yet entirely in the cardinals) take a 
 solemn oath that if he should die .before he returned 
 to Rome, they would not proceed to any election of 
 a new Pope till Cardinal Hildebrand came to them ; 
 but before he went out of Rome, Hildebrand pre- 
 vailed with the Archbishop of Milan to submit to the 
 Pope's jurisdiction, which his predecessors had re- 1 
 fused during two hundred years ever to acknow- 
 ledge. 
 
 Benedirtx. They at Rome did not observe the oath they had 
 taken ; as soon as the news came of the death of Ste- 
 phen, part of them chose the Bishop of Veletri to be 
 Pope, who called himself Benedict the Tenth ; but 
 other of the Cardinals and the greater part of the 
 city went out of Rome to Sienna, and there chose the 
 Nichoiasii. Bishop of Florence, who was called Nicholas the Se- 
 cond ; and he called a council which declared the 
 election of Benedict void, who after he had been 
 Pope nwe months submitted and returned to, his bi- 
 
 shoprick.
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 95 
 
 shoprick. And it was then decreed that for the time CHAP. 
 
 to come the election of all Popes should be made by - - 
 the Cardinals only, and this was about the year one 
 thousand and sixty ; but how that decree was after- 
 wards observed will appear in its time. 
 
 Pope Nicholas the Second being dead, Alexand 
 
 the Second, who was in the time of William the 
 Conqueror, and who is mentioned in our records and 
 of those of France as if he were indeed of great re*- 
 putation and authority, succeeded him. 
 
 Mezeray observes, that from the beginning of the Grad uai 
 
 * encroach- 
 
 eighth age the Popes, as much out of credit as they ments of 
 
 1 A e A A '* V heP P e8 ' 
 
 were, had round means to weaken the authority or 
 metropolitans, by obliging them in a council held at 
 Mayence to receive the Pallium necessarily from Thepa i- 
 
 J J lium. 
 
 Rome, and to subject themselves and obey the Ro- 
 man Church canonically in all things ; nay more 
 than this, they had spread abroad their patriarchal 
 jurisdiction throughout all the West, by necessitating 
 the bishops to take their confirmation from them, 
 for the which they paid a certain right which in time 
 converted itself into that which at present is called 
 Annates : but (he says) they never made a greater Annates. 
 breach into the liberties of the Gallican Church, 
 than when they introduced the belief that no council 
 could be assembled without their authority ; and 
 when after divers attempts to establish their Perpe- p . er P etual 
 
 1 l vicars. 
 
 tual Vicars in Gaul, they found out the means at 
 last to make their Legates to be received there. Le s ates - 
 After they had accustomed the French prelates to 
 suffer and accept their legates, they gained by little 
 and little another advantage during the weakness of 
 princes, which was to send their Nuncios into all 
 provinces, although they were never desired OF called 
 
 upon
 
 96 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, upon to do it; and in a word, when they had once 
 
 ' put on the yoke, Alexander the Second (of whom we 
 
 are now speaking) laid down this as an undoubted 
 Maxim of maxim, " That the Pope ought to have in his hands 
 ii. That " the government of all the churches" This was the 
 oughtTogo- season and those the artificers (says that excellent 
 bu n rches heautnor ) bv which the Bishops of Rome by degrees 
 ascended to their greatness in France ; and we shall 
 find the same stratagems practised in all other king- 
 doms. It may be thought a judgment upon the 
 crown of France, that that kingdom which had en- 
 tirely given the .Pope all the power and authority he 
 had, and (by making him a great temporal prince, 
 when most of the other princes of Europe by the 
 smallness of their dominions and domestic strug- 
 glings were very weak) given him opportunity to in- 
 sult upon his neighbours, and was well contented 
 that he did, because that he was at its disposal if not 
 at his nomination ; I say, it looks like a judgment 
 from heaven that this spiritual prince, so created a 
 temporal prince, should shew and manifest his power 
 by first invading and then destroying his founder ; 
 first stripping France of the empire, and then divid- 
 ing it into many several hands, so that it could and 
 did insult more over the kings and princes thereof 
 than over any other in Europe, as we shall be obliged 
 to observe in the following discourse; though it hath 
 in this age resumed its full power and authority, and 
 hath begun to make the Popes pay some interest for 
 their long presumption and usurpation. 
 
 State of Spain was in too miserable a state to undergo any 
 encFoachment from Rome, the Moors being entire 
 lords of that large dominion. But the poor Chris- 
 tians (who for some hundred of years had supported 
 
 them-
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 97 
 
 themselves in the mountains) making some sallies CHAP. 
 
 upon the Moors in the low lands, and returnmg ' 
 
 from thence with small booty and more benefit by 
 the experience they got of the courage and manner 
 of fighting the Moors, about this time made more 
 prosperous descents, and got some footing both in 
 Castile and Arragon, under their several princes. 
 This was no sooner known at Rome, from whence 
 they had never received any assistance, than the 
 Popes thought how to get advantage over them, be- 
 fore they should be better settled ; their pretence be- 
 ing still to inform them better in the religion they 
 professed, and principally to reform their clergy, 
 who were extremely degenerated in their manners, 
 (being either married or keeping concubines,) and 
 were grown incredibly ignorant in all matters of 
 learning ; and therefore all overtures which tended 
 towards a reformation of these men were very ac- 
 ceptable to the princes, who had not power to do it 
 themselves. 
 
 As secular princes usually gain by the rebellion of Council of 
 their subjects, and by the confiscations and for- 
 feitures which commonly result from thence, so the 
 Popes have commonly enlarged their power and 
 sometimes extended their dominions by the advan- 
 tage of heresies which have grown up ; their help to- 
 wards the suppressing thereof being often called 
 upon, and believed to be necessary. Thus Victor 
 the Second (who reigned as was said before but two 
 years) had called a council in Florence to reform the 
 'ecclesiastical state; and had sent his nuncios both 
 into- France and Germany, to move the Emperor to 
 concur in the renewing the ancient discipline of the 
 Church, and to prevail with France to suppress those 
 
 H altera-
 
 3& PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, alterations and insurrections in their government 
 which proceeded from the new opinions which then 
 
 broke out, and every day got more credit by the doc- 
 trine of Berengarius ; which was like to be the more 
 dangerous, because it contradicted the two vital parts 
 of the religion of Rome, the real presence in the sa- 
 crament, and the universal authority of the Pope. 
 Dispute be- j n this council, the Emperor Henry the Second com- 
 
 tween the l J . 
 
 Emperor plained by his ambassadors against Ferdinand King 
 anTrerdi- of Castile, (who had got two or three battles against 
 Castlieset- the Moors with great courage, and thereby much in- 
 Fo^Le 6 crease d ms reputation,) for that he had contrary to 
 s ate - custom exempted himself from all dependance upon 
 the Emperor ; and not only that, but that he had 
 presumed to call himself Emperor ; whereupon the 
 council, without hearing the other side, (which having 
 received so little advantage from their Christian 
 neighbours had not sent their deputies to Florence,) 
 the Pope being a German, gave judgment for the 
 Emperor ; and they sent ambassadors to the King 
 of Castile, that they should declare to him in the 
 name of the Pope and the council that he should 
 hereafter shew all respect and reverence to the Em- 
 peror, and no more assume the title of Emperor to 
 himself, for it did not belong to him ; and the am- 
 bassadors had order to pronounce an excommunica- 
 tion against him if he did not obey the judgment. 
 The King was much perplexed with this declaration, 
 and called the Cortes, (composed, as our parliaments, 
 of the nobility prelates and deputies chosen by the 
 people,) to advise what he should do. Some were of 
 opinion that he ought to conform to the judgment of 
 the Pope and the council ; for that, having a war with 
 the Moors and many other troubles in his kingdom, 
 
 it
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 99 
 
 it was not fit to fall out with the Pope and the Em- CHAP. 
 
 III 
 
 peror at the same time. The major part was of a - 
 
 contrary opinion, and that the King could not in 
 honour submit to it ; and that it was better to die 
 with their swords in their hands than to admit an 
 authority so prejudicial to his dignity. In conclu- 
 sion, the King raised an army for his defence, and 
 then the matter was referred to the compromise of 
 the Pope's Legate, (who had given an assurance to the 
 King that such a reference should not prove to his 
 prejudice,) and of some others, who upon hearing all 
 the allegations gave judgment for the King, and de- 
 clared that from thenceforth the Emperor should 
 not pretend any right or authority over or in the 
 King's dominions; and though it was no part of 
 judgment the King forbore to use the stile of Em- 
 peror from that time. So the Pope gratified the 
 King, by exempting him from all pretences of the 
 Emperor; and thought he had obliged the Emperor,. 
 by leaving him in the sole possession of the title of 
 Emperor ; whereby his power and authority would 
 find the more respect with all other princes of Europe. 
 
 Urban died before he could make any farther pro- The 
 gress ; but Alexander the Second, (as Mariana tells 
 us,) to make a farther essay of his power, sent a 
 legate to the King of Castile, that he should p;ive forsu P- 
 
 pressing 
 
 over and suppress the Gothic or Mo^orab Missal the Gothic 
 
 and use the Roman for a better conformity with the 
 other Christians of the West. This the Spaniards 
 would not hear of ; and there being a council then ^ lar ^ f? b(? 
 
 Catholic. 
 
 called at Mantua, there were three bishops sent thi- 
 ther who carried with them all the Gothic office 
 which the council upon perusal approved and de- 
 clared to be Catholic. Ferdinand's dying soon after 
 
 H 2 and
 
 100 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and dividing his kingdom between his three sons 
 
 - ' and making them all kings, they grew all so unfit to 
 
 contest or oppose any encroachment, that the suc- 
 
 ceeding Popes usurped what they would upon them, 
 
 as will appear hereafter. However this Pope Alex- 
 
 ander was so far from being great at home and from 
 
 being obeyed in Italy, that the Bishop of Lombardy 
 
 excepted against him, and calling a council in Milan 
 
 Alexander declared the election of Alexander to be void, be- 
 
 II. set aside . 
 
 and sue- cause it was made without licence of the Emperor, 
 Hononus and thereupon chose Honorius the Second to be 
 
 Pope, (whom the Emperor acknowledged,) and re- 
 
 jected Alexander. 
 
 State of \\ r e are now i n the time of William the Con- 
 wniiam queror ; and the principal end designed of this dis- 
 
 course being to shew, how far that Catholic time was 
 
 fr m acknowledging that authority and superiority 
 laws with- o f t^e Pope in England, which is now insisted on as 
 
 out refer- * 
 
 ence to the an article of the Catholic faith, it will not be amiss 
 to remember that in that King's reign the ecclesiasti- 
 cal laws of the realm were altered and changed in 
 Parliament by the King with the advice and counsel 
 of the bishops and nobles of the realm, without the 
 least reference to the Pope ; and in the same King's 
 time the Abbot of Bury was by an ordinance of Par- 
 liament exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction, 
 which would not have been done if the Pope had 
 been looked upon as supreme ordinary. 
 
 Lanfranc But there is another instance that cannot be pa- 
 
 canonizes 11 1 J 1- J I 1 T !! 
 
 Aideimus ralleled in any kingdom where the Pope s jurisdiction 
 - e was suffered to have the least influence, or in truth 
 . was ever near( | of, and which was the highest act of 
 jurisdiction that can be exercised ; which was this, 
 that Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury took upon 
 
 him
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. ibl 
 
 him in the time of William the Conqueror to ca- CHAP. 
 
 lionize a saint. Aldelmus (who was a person of '- 
 
 great sanctity, and was dead above two hundred years 
 before) had contributed very much to reducing the 
 nation to civility by his skill in music, whereby he 
 softened the fierce and rough nature of the people, 
 and then instructed them in the obligations of Chris- 
 tian religion, of which they knew little, though they 
 had been baptized; he lived a pious life, and died in 
 the year seven hundred and nine, and after his death 
 was reported to have wrought many miracles, of all 
 which Lanfranc being well informed, " Edicto san- 
 " civit, ut per totam deinde Angliam Aldelmus inter 
 " eos, qui clvibus coelestibus ascripti erant, honorare- 
 " tur, et coleretur* ;" and shortly after the bones of 
 Aldelmus were gathered together, " et In antiquam 
 " thecam reposita, a quo tempore divina per eum mi- 
 " racula indies magis ac magis accumulabantur " 
 Lanfranc was a man of great learning, born and 
 bred in Italy, and for his eminency had been called 
 from thence to be Abbot of Caen in Normandy, and 
 was afterwards made Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 cannot be supposed to be so ignorant of the authority 
 that was invested in the Bishop of Rome, that he 
 would have usurped the highest exercise of ecclesi- 
 astical jurisdiction, if he had known or believed that 
 he was his superior in England. And since we are 
 upon the mention of canonization it may not be un- 
 seasonable to take notice, that the first bull of canoni- 
 zation by the Pope, of which there is any record, 
 was not many years before this of Aldelmus; and of 
 which it may reasonably be presumed that the Areh- 
 
 Dr. Harpsfield, p. 135. 
 
 H 3 bishop
 
 102 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, bishop Lanfranc could not be ignorant, for it was 
 
 ' but in the year nine hundred ninety-three, when John 
 
 the Fifteenth granted a bull of canonization of Ul- 
 ric Bishop of Augsburgh in a very different stile, 
 and with much less ceremony than is practised in 
 these days. It was done in an assembly of the cler- 
 gy, where the Pope being present " cum Episcopis et 
 " Presbyteris astantibus Diaconis, et cuncto Clero" 
 (no mention then of the Cardinals,) the present Bi- 
 shop of Augsburgh stood up and desired that a little 
 book " (libellus)" that he had in his hand containing 
 the life and the miracles of Ulric might be read ; 
 which done, the Pope with the advice and consent 
 of all the rest declared him a saint with this expres- 
 sion, " Honoramus servos ut honor redundet in Do- 
 " minum, gui dixit^ Qui vos recipit, me recipit a ." 
 State of This age is confessed in all histories to deserve the 
 name of the Iron age; not only from the inhumani- 
 ties which were committed by the incursions of the 
 barbarians into almost all the borders of Europe, but 
 for its ignorance and irregularity of manners, which 
 Monsieur Mezeray says was rather in respect of the 
 Roman Church (in which he says the disorders and 
 crimes were horrible) than of those of France or 
 Germany. It is very true there were in France some 
 learned and pious Bishops ; but it is as true there 
 were too many who were neither learned nor pious, 
 and who engaged their persons in war with all 
 pleasure and delight in blood and rapine. The crown 
 was stripped of all pretence to the empire, or to any 
 power in Germany or Italy, and indeed was reduced 
 into so narrow a circle of dominion (though some of 
 
 * Bullar. toin. i. 
 
 the
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 103 
 
 the kings before the expiration of the line of Charle- CHAP. 
 magne had several sons,) that they left only the eldest -. : 
 
 son the title of King, and granted appanages to the 
 younger ; being sufficiently infested with their ill 
 neighbour kings who had been raised to those digni- 
 ties by the improvidence of the ancestors of the 
 crown ; and from this wise reformation the power of 
 the kings did sensibly and presently begin to grow, 
 though so many of the roots of it were pulled up. But 
 the line of Charlemagne expiring about this time, 
 and the crown being set upon the head of Hugh Ca- 
 pet, great wisdom and moderation was to be used at 
 home, and many condescensions abroad before the 
 natural lustre could be attained. The bishops only 
 retained and enlarged their power by the King's 
 want of power ; and they called frequent councils, 
 in which little or nothing of religion was handled 
 but differences and contests between great persons ; 
 which were decided according to the number of 
 friends both parties had in the council. 
 The marriages within the degrees prohibited (which Or >gin of 
 
 i T i 1111 11 appeals to 
 
 the ropes had now declared to be to the seventh de- the Pope 
 
 -on cases of 
 
 gree, contrary to former usage) made a great part of marnage 
 the business of councils, and was often the sole occa- 
 sion of convening those assemblies. As soon as any 
 husband or wife were displeased one with the other, 
 or that any man had a mind to separate them, they 
 had nothing to do but to draw up articles and swear 
 that they were kindred within the degrees prohibit- 
 ed, and to produce nine witnesses thereupon, (which 
 were never wanting,) and the Bishop, who was well 
 prepared, presently declared the marriage to be void. 
 If either party appealed, a council was called; and 
 whatsoever they determined, he who liked it not ap- 
 
 H 4 pealed
 
 104 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, pealed to the Pope, who laid hold on the occasion to 
 - ' give his definitive sentence ; so that in the time of 
 the distractions in France he began to settle a su- 
 preme judicature there, which all parties acquiesced 
 in ; the kings, as I have said before, calling often to 
 them for help against their own bishops, and so in- 
 troduced that authority which could never have in- 
 troduced itself, and which gave them much trouble 
 afterwards, and produced much mischief before the 
 crown recovered strength enough to expel it. 
 John xix. Upon this occasion it may be seasonable enough 
 
 puts all f . r- i i r i 
 
 France un-to give an instance or that wonderful presumption, 
 being the first that can be given, and upon which pre- 
 
 afterwards founded much of their usurpa- 
 bertand tion. It was about the year one thousand when Ro- 
 bert the son of Hugh Capet came to be king, and 
 shortly after buried his wife,- after whose decease he 
 was inclined to marry Bertha the daughter of the 
 King of Burgundy, who was his kinswoman in the 
 fourth degree. And he (having held a child with her 
 in baptism) supposed that he might make this marri- 
 age lawful by the authority of the Gallican Church, 
 which had in all times given those dispensations ; 
 whereupon he caused all the bishops of his kingdom 
 to assemble, who having heard the case and the rea- 
 sons which induced the King to desire that marriage, 
 were of opinion that upon the consideration of the 
 public good he might take her for his wife, notwith- 
 standing all canonical hindrances. Whether Bene- 
 dict the Eighth or John the Nineteenth was then 
 Pope I cannot determine ; but one of them it was, 
 (and the French historians impute it to the last,) 
 who was so highly offended because he had not been 
 consulted, that he excommunicated the bishops 
 
 who
 
 TO THE TIME OF GREGORY VII. 105 
 
 who had authorized the marriage, and likewise the CHAP. 
 
 King and the Queen who had contracted it, if they '- 
 
 did not immediately separate themselves. The King 
 was much offended with the sentence, which beside 
 the presumption, seemed to him to be contrary to 
 the good of his state, and therefore refused to obey it; 
 with which the Pope was so offended that he forth- 
 with published an interdict of the whole kingdom, 
 which had never been before heard of: to this sen- 
 tence the people generally submitted themselves 
 with that humility that all the domestic servants of 
 the King (excepting two or three) abandoned him, 
 and they cast whatever was taken from his table to 
 the dogs ; there being no man how poor soever that 
 would eat any of the meat which he had touched 1 . 
 So much had a little usurpation, together with the in- 
 termission of the proper and natural government, 
 and the ignorance and stupidity of the nation, moped 
 the people, that they were terrified with a thing they 
 had never before heard of, and only because they 
 had never before heard of it; but they were after- 
 wards often put in mind of it. 
 
 * Mezeray in the Life of Robert. 
 
 CHAP.
 
 106 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Progress of Papal Usurpations from Gregory 
 A. D. 1073. to Clement V. A. D. 1305. 
 
 Gregory JjUT to return. In the next vacancy Cardinal 
 debrand) Hildebrand was chosen, who called himself Gregory 
 "cateTthe * ne Seventh; who indeed laid about him and made a 
 Emperor. g rea t noise in the world, no man before having pre- 
 sumed to brandish the ecclesiastical sword with so 
 much lustre and obstinacy. Upon his election, like 
 a wise man, he made sure of all titles ; and so sent 
 ambassadors to the Emperor Henry the Fourth, to 
 desire him that he would approve his election, which 
 the Emperor very graciously did, and sent an am- 
 bassador to Rome to that purpose, who with all for- 
 mality gave his approbation there. This the Pope 
 very ill requited shortly after; his great spirit en- 
 gaging him in disputes, and disposing him to send 
 uncomely menaces to the Emperor : and yet the re- 
 verence for him in Rome itself was not so great, but 
 that a particular person, having taken offence at him, 
 took him out of the church when he was saying 
 mass, and carried him to prison. With these me- 
 naces the Emperor was so incensed that he called a 
 
 council
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 
 
 council at Worms and deposed the .Pope, forbidding CHAP, 
 all persons to acknowledge him ; and sent an ambas- Council ' of 
 sador to Rome publicly to declare to him what was Worms. 
 done, and to forbid him any longer to assume the 
 title of Pope. It is very true, Gregory's spirit did 
 not at all abate; he also called a council in Rome Council of 
 and deposed the Emperor, (absolving all his subjects 
 from their obedience,) and appointed the electors to 
 make choice of a new Emperor; which falling out in 
 an unhappy conjuncture, disposed some of the Ger- 
 man princes to rebel, who chose Rodolphus Duke of 
 Suevia, insomuch as the Emperor thought it fit to 
 submit and ask pardon ; which he again repented, and 
 was again deprived. 
 
 These proceedings were so new and extravagant, 
 that it may not be improper to mention in this place 
 somewhat of the form that was used in these transac- 
 tions, in a stile never before used in the court of 
 Rome, and by which the spirit of the man and of 
 the time are both enough illustrated. His bull began 
 with a kind of expostulation with St. Peter ; " Beate 
 " Petre Apostolorum Princeps, inclina quasumus plus 
 " aures tuas nobis, et audi me servum tuum fyc. Tu 
 " mi/ii testis es, et Domina mea Mater Dei, et Beatus 
 " Paulus f rater tuus inter omnes sanctos, quod tua 
 " sancta Romano, Ecclesia me invitum ad sua guber- 
 " nacula traocit fyc. Et ideb ex tua gratia, non ex 
 " meis operibus, credo quod tibi placuit, et placet, ut 
 " Populus Christianus tibi specialiter commissus mihi 
 " obediat, et specialiter pro vita mea mihi commissa 
 " est potestas a Deo data ligandi atque solvendi in 
 " coelo, et in terra Sfc. Hac itaque fiducia fretus pro 
 " Ecclesia tu& honore et defensione ex parte Qmni- 
 " potentis Dei, Patris et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, per 
 
 " tuam
 
 108 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " tuam potestatem et authoritatem fyc" and so pro- 
 
 ' ceeds, and deposes him from any government in 
 
 Germany or in Italy, and declares all his subjects 
 to be absolved from all the oaths which they had 
 formerly taken to him. After the Emperor had 
 made his peace, that the world might not suspect 
 that he had procured his absolution at too cheap a 
 price, the Pope caused it to be published to all na- 
 tions ; that the Emperor, after many reiterated pro- 
 fessions of his hearty sorrow and penitence, came to 
 Canusium, the place where the Pope then was, " Ibt- 
 " que per triduum ante Portam Castri, deposit o omni 
 <( Regio cultu miserabilior, ut pote discalceatus et la- 
 " crymis persistens, non pr'ms cum multo fletu Apo- 
 " stolica, miserationis aumlium et consolationem im- 
 " plorare exi'it'it? After this his clemency vouch- 
 safed to admit the Emperor to his presence, and 
 then his absolution followed. 
 
 clement Whether this great Emperor received promises of 
 a better treatment, and so grew more irreconcileable 
 by his reconciliation, or whether the princes of Ger- 
 many upon the death of Rodolphus (which suddenly 
 happened) promised more obedience, or whether from 
 their resolution of his own nature, which was not po- 
 pular, sure it is, he quickly repented his repentance, 
 raised a great army, again declared that Gregory was 
 not Pope, and caused Gilbert of Parma to be chosen, 
 who took the name of Clement the Third. With 
 this new Pope in his company he marched directly 
 with his army and besieged Rome, where the Pope 
 durst not expect him, but fled to Salernum in the 
 kingdom of Naples; and resorting to spiritual artillery 
 published a new bull of excommunication against 
 the Emperor and Clement, in which he renewed his 
 
 complaint*
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 109 
 
 complaints to St. Peter and St. Paul jointly in very CHAP. 
 
 tragical expressions; " Beate Petre Princeps Apo 
 
 " stolorum, et tu Beate Paule, Doctor gentium, dig- 
 " nemini qu&so aures vestras ad me inclinare, meque 
 * l clement er exaudire, fyc. H<zc ideo dico, quid non 
 " ego vos, sed vos eligistis me, et gravissimum pondus 
 " vestraz Eccles'uE super me posuistis, et quia super 
 " montem excelsum me jussistis ascender e et clamare 
 " atque annunciare populo Dei scelera eorum, et filiis 
 " Ecclesi<B peccata eorum fyc. Agite quccso Patres et 
 " Principes Sanctissimi, ut omnis mundus intelligat et 
 " cognoscat, quia si potestis in ccelo ligare et solver e, 
 " potestis in terra imperia et regna fyc. et omnium ho- 
 " minum possessiones pro meritis toller e uniuscujusque 
 " et co'/icedere ^c." And truly from this time a man 
 may justly say, if all the comical interpretations of 
 Scripture and profaneness and the blasphemy upon 
 the word of God were lost, it might all be found in 
 the bulls of ecclesiastical censures, in those of canoni- 
 zations and foundations of monasteries and religious 
 orders ; where their several texts of Scripture, (which 
 are frequently cited to very ungrave purposes,) are no 
 more applied to the natural sense of those places 
 than those instruments are written in the stile of Ci- 
 cero ; the divinity and the Latin being alike barba- 
 rous. 
 
 The very vigorous proceeding of the Pope against Council of 
 the Emperor struck a great terror into the neighbour 
 princes ; Alphonso the Sixth, King of Castile, sent an 
 ambassador to him with a desire that he would send 
 a legate into Spain, " Con plena potesdad para reparar 
 " por todas lay vias possibles las costumbres de los 
 " EcclesiasticosT Whereupon he sent a legate, who 
 called a council in Burgos and made great alteration; 
 
 and
 
 110 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and upon the advantage of being sent for prevailed 
 
 ' for the abolishing the missal and breviary of the 
 
 Goths, which had been practised with the first Chris- 
 tianity, and had so lately before been insisted upon 
 against Alexander the Second, and justified by the 
 Council of Mantua, but was upon this demand of 
 introduces Gregory's laid aside : the Roman missal, and all the 
 
 the Roman J . ' . 
 
 miffai into customs and usages there, were quietly submitted to, 
 and received. In this council they also revived the 
 old ecclesiastical laws against the marriage of priests ; 
 and Mariana confesses it was high time, for that the 
 clergy for the most part had so far forgot their duty 
 that they were most of them married, and charged 
 with wives and children. Notwithstanding all which, 
 this great Pope enjoyed little ease or quiet, the Em- 
 peror remaining still with his army in Italy, and 
 keeping his Pope Clement still with it ; so that Gre- 
 gory durst not return to Rome, but remained still as 
 it were in banishment at Salernurn; where after a 
 very troublesome and mischievous reign of about 
 twelve years he died, and left his successor to justify 
 what he had done, or rather begun. 
 
 Victor in. When Gregory was dead, Victor the Third was 
 chosen in his place ; who being poisoned within a- 
 
 Urban ii. year, Urban the Second succeeded; both of them con- 
 tinuing and renewing the censures against the Em- 
 peror and Clement. The Emperor remained as obsti- 
 nate against submitting to them, and drove Pope Ur- 
 ban to very great straits, though he had prevailed with 
 the Emperor's own sons to rebel against their father. 
 
 Paschal II. Pope Paschal the Second succeeded, and was the 
 first Pope who was crowned with any circumstances 
 of pomp and majesty ; which, a Spanish writer says, 
 did not proceed out of any arrogance or ambition in 
 
 his
 
 FROM GREGORY VIL TO CLEMENT V. m 
 
 his nature, but only " Para la representation delta CHAP. 
 
 " Majestad Pontificall" And a great Pope indeed 
 
 he was, especially in England and France ; and he 
 reigned many years, yet without any felicity or calm 
 at home; for the Emperor Henry the Fifth (who by 
 the Pope's instigation had rebelled against his father, 
 being afterwards Emperor himself, and crowned by 
 Paschal before he departed from Rome,) took the 
 Pope prisoner, and compelled him to restore unto 
 him the investiture of all bishops in Germany, which 
 he had formerly taken from him by a council ; which 
 when the Pope afterwards repented and revoked by 
 another council, the Emperor came again into Italy, 
 made war upon the Pope and drove him out of 
 Rome. So that though he reigned eighteen years 
 (which few Popes had done before) he could not be 
 said to enjoy that superiority for which he contended 
 eighteen months of his time. 
 
 It is very true that this Pope did get more power 
 and authority in England than any of his predecessors 
 had pretended to ; which cannot be much wondered 
 at, when it is remembered that it was in the time of 
 King Henry the First; who having got the crown un- 
 justly from his brother Robert, and having much to do 
 in France, (where the Pope was in greater reputation 
 and power than he had in Italy,) and having great dif- 
 ferences with his own Archbishop of Canterbury An- 
 selm, (who carried himself with great insolence to- 
 wards him,) it is no wonder that he desired upon any 
 terms to make a fast friend of the Pope, by granting 
 him some privileges which were not his due. But Henry I. 
 when the Pope afterwards desired to send a Legate into adm^a u- 
 England, the same King, by the advice of his bishops | ate inl 
 and nobles, refused to admit him ; and being ear- 
 nestly
 
 112 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, nestly pressed by the Pope to receive him, answered, 
 
 ' " That he could not admit any such authority to be 
 
 " exercised in the kingdom without the approbation 
 " and consent of his bishops and nobility, who were 
 " against it." Thus he absolutely refused to let the le- 
 gate enter the kingdom, and this was the reverence 
 of that Catholic time towards the see of Rome. 
 Mezeray's It is the observation that Mezeray makes of this 
 the growth time, and in these words ; " The famous quarrel be- 
 " twixt the Popes and the Emperors, which hath 
 " caused so many mischiefs in Christendom, was very 
 " high in this time. It had begun between Gregory 
 " the Seventh and Harry the Fourth ; the first ex- 
 (f ceeding imperious and ready to undertake any 
 " thing ; the latter wicked cruel and monstrous irre- 
 " gular in his life. The taking from the Emperor 
 " the investiture of benefices, as an unjust and sacri- 
 tl legious thing, was the Pope's pretence to quarrel ; 
 " although his true motive was, the desire of the em- 
 " pire of Italy, and of subjecting all princes under 
 " his pontifical power; which appeared easy enough; 
 " because Europe being divided into an infinity of 
 " dominions, most of the princes were very weak, 
 (C and the greatest part of them (either for devotion 
 " or to shun the sovereignty of those who were more 
 " powerful than they) submitted, and even devoted 
 " themselves to the holy seat, and paid tribute to it." 
 So far that excellent historian. And whosoever takes 
 a view of the constitution of Christendom at that 
 time, how far the greatest kingdoms and principali- 
 ties which do now controul that ambition were from 
 any degree of strength and power ; that Italy was 
 then crumbled into more distinct governments than 
 it is at present ; that France (that is now entire) was 
 
 under
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 
 
 under the command of very many sovereign princes; CHAP 1 , 
 that Spain (which is now -under one monarch) was 
 
 then divided into the several kingdoms of Castile, 
 Arragon, val<*ritia, Catalonia, Navarre, and Leon, 
 when the Moors were possessed of a greater part of 
 the whole than all the other Christian Kings ; that 
 England (which hath now Scotland annexed to it) 
 was then (besides the unsettlement of the English 
 provinces upon the contests in the Norman family) 
 without any pretence to the dominion of Wales ; and 
 that Germany was under as many sovereign princes 
 as it had names of cities and provinces ; I say, who- 
 ever considers this, will not wonder at the starts 
 made by many Popes in that age into a kind of 
 power and authority in many kingdoms, how inter- 
 rupted and contradicted soever it was. 
 
 And there need be no other representation of the Crusade*, 
 small size and stature of Christianity at that time, than 
 the influence that the Popes then had upon all the 
 parts of Europe to inflame them with a zeal of going 
 to the Holy Land ; insomuch as an infinite number 
 of all qualities ages and sexes enrolled themselves in 
 that sacred warfare. The mark which they bore was 
 a red cross sowed on the left shoulder, and the word 
 in war, " Cod will have it so." By this frenzy, 
 which we are now too good Christians to believe 
 tould proceed from any sober reflection of conscience 
 or religion, so many millions of men (whereof were 
 many thousand kings princes and noblemen of the 
 highest extraction of Europe) and such vast treasure 
 were consumed and lost, to no other purpose than to 
 discover the falsehood and treachery of the Chris- 
 tians r of another climate ; who would rather have 
 tHeit 1 faith impaired by the Infidels, than their pbs- 
 
 i sessions
 
 114 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, sessions disturbed or endangered by the access of 
 
 ' such armies of their own religion, out of a curiosity 
 
 no way warranted by religion. And so the Chris- 
 tians of those parts contributed more to the destruc- 
 tion of their wandering brethren, than all the power 
 of the Pagans did or could do. By this sottish stra- 
 tagem the Popes made no small advance towards 
 the usurpation of that authority, which they would 
 have the world look upon as the pure legacy be- 
 queathed to them by our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, for the service of his church and the good of 
 mankind. But that the world had no more opinion 
 of it then than it hath now, will appear by what fol- 
 lows. 
 
 Geiasius the Second, as hath been said before, suc- 
 ceeded Paschal, and as soon as he was chosen (being 
 at that time no priest) two citizens of Rome fell 
 upon him, and the body of the Cardinals together \ 
 Cincius pulling the Pope to the ground by the hair, 
 and giving him many wounds, whilst Leon used 
 many of the other Cardinals as ill; and the Emperor 
 Henry the Fifth, who stood excommunicated and de- 
 prived by Paschal, came quickly to Rome, and forced 
 him to fly from thence, and caused Gregory the 
 Archbishop of Braga to be chosen Pope, who ab- 
 solved the Emperor, made Cardinals, and did all that 
 Popes used to do; whilst Geiasius fled into France, 
 and died there in a monastery. 
 
 After the death of Geiasius, the five Cardinals who 
 were with him in the monastery when he died chose 
 the Archbishop of Vienna to be Pope ; who, though 
 he accepted the election, forbore to exercise any ju- 
 risdiction till he had procured the approbation of the 
 rest of the Cardinals who had been absent; and then 
 
 he
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. iifl 
 
 he took the name of Calixtus the Second, and came CHAP. 
 
 iv 
 
 to Rome and was crowned, (Gregory flying out of - ' 
 
 the city,) and shortly after made a full agreement 
 with the Emperor ; the Pope granting to him other 
 powers over the chapters in Germany, in recompence 
 of the investitures which the Emperor was contented 
 to part with. 
 
 After the death of Calixtus, the Cardinal di Santa Ceiestin n, 
 Anastasia was chosen without any exception, and 
 called himself Ceiestin the Second. But Leon, a 
 great citizen of Rome, protested against the election, 
 and incensed the people to that degree that they de- 
 clared they would have Lamhert, Bishop of Astia, to 
 be chosen Pope, and prevailed so far that the Cardi- 
 nals revoked their former election and chose Lam- 
 
 bert, who called himself Honorius the Second ; and Honorius 
 
 n. 
 Ceiestin was so tender of the peace of the church 
 
 and the city, that he renounced to Honorius ; upon 
 which as good a pontifical history as any is, says, 
 that though the entrance of this Pope might seem 
 somewhat violent, yet his administration was so good 
 and commendable, that afterwards his election was 
 taken to be very canonical. 
 
 France would in this time have recovered itself state of the 
 from the Pope's jurisdiction, which their own differ- church! 
 
 ences amongst themselves had brought upon them, 
 if the same contentions had not still broken out to A - D - 1029 - 
 have continued, and improved it. They had Councils 
 there very frequently ; and every Council produced 
 rrfore controversies than it resolved. In the year 
 one thousand twenty-nine there was a Council called 
 at Lymoges, upon a contest that had arisen, whether 
 they ought to give the title of Apostle or of Con- 
 fessor to St. Martial, who had been Bishop of that 
 
 i 2 place.
 
 it/jj'j or .n / Yiioo3>ir> MOO 
 
 116 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, place. Such frivolous questions as these (says the 
 
 : French historian) proceeded from the ambition of 
 
 prelates ; who, to have the precedence before others, 
 attributed the foundation of their churches to the 
 Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ; and to this 
 end forged stories, and perverted all history. Where- 
 ever the fault was, the church and the crown sus- 
 tained the damage ; for an appeal of the one or the 
 other side always carried the matter to Rome, where 
 great use was made of it. So this business of St. 
 Martial having been in vain agitated in several 
 Councils after that at Lymoges, was again debated in 
 Councilor another at Beauvais; and afterwards the Pope's judg- 
 ment was demanded, who declared that St. Martial 
 ought to be reverenced as an apostle : for the wis- 
 dom of the court of Rome always took care never to 
 discountenance any contest for the frivolousness, nor 
 to judge on either side, (which in most cases would 
 have been the most equal judgment,) but it always 
 gratified one party, without which the litigation 
 could never have been kept up. However the Bi- 
 shops found, that though they gratified his particular 
 passions and humours in those proceedings, besides 
 the prejudice that was thereby brought upon the pri- 
 vilege of the Gallican Church, the mischief fell in 
 general upon themselves in their several jurisdic- 
 tions ; for when any person of condition was excom- 
 municated, or otherwise grieved by them in their 
 own diocese, he presently had recourse to the holy 
 chair, which (whatever it did afterwards) always 
 obliged the parties to attend. Complaint being made 
 thereupon in the second Council at Lymoges, a de- 
 cree was there passed, " That nobody could receive 
 " absolution from the Popes except he were sent to 
 
 "him
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 
 
 " him with a letter from his own Bishop." But that CHAP. 
 
 restrained few angry men from repairing to Rome ; 
 
 and it never hindered the Pope from receiving their 
 complaint ; and Gregory the Seventh declared it as a 
 rule in law, " That no man should be so bold to con- 
 <( demn any person for appealing to the holy seat." 
 
 Lewis the Sixth, whom the French call Louis le Louis ie 
 Gros, had always shewed great respect towards thcpeaisto" 
 church, and was desirous to support all their privi- [{ ononus 
 leges ; but the Bishops treated him with so much in- 
 solence that he withdrew his favour and kindness 
 from them. They would not sufler him to have any 
 thing to do in the nomination to benefices, as con- 
 trary (as they said) to the privilege of the Gallican 
 Church, though his predecessors had enjoyed it. 
 Upon which he seized their lands, and would have 
 imprisoned some of their persons, if they had not 
 concealed themselves, or fled out of his power. The 
 Bishop of Paris and the Archbishop of Sens had 
 more courage, and after many expostulations with 
 him they presumed in the end to excommunicate 
 him ; which compelled him to have recourse to the 
 Pope, Honorius the Second, who willingly accepted 
 the appeal, disannulled their censures, and declared 
 them to be void, but yet would not permit the King 
 to proceed by justice against them ; so that it was 
 plain enough that he did not allow them to be en- 
 tirely his subjects. 
 
 Next to Honorius, Innocent the Second succeed- innocct 
 ed, who presently made war upon Roger King of Si- 
 cily, and was therein together with many of the Car- 
 dinals taken prisoner. Thereupon Leon the citizen 
 of Rome (whom I have mentioned before) got him- 
 self chosen Pope, and was called Anacletus. Inno- 
 
 1 3 cent
 
 , 18 '4>APAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cent shortly after getting out of prison, and flying 
 into France, called a council there, condemned Ana- 
 s ' cletus for an heretic and schismatic, and then pre- 
 vailed with the Emperor Lotharius to march with an 
 army into Italy ; where they entered Rome without 
 resistance, and the Emperor was crowned by the 
 Pope. 
 
 victor viii. But the Pope enjoyed very little peace; for though, 
 upon the death of Anacletus, the Cardinal of the 
 twelve Apostles, who was chosen in his place and 
 called Victor the Eighth, presently submitted to the 
 Pope, upon the making all his friends cardinals ; yet 
 the senators of Rome gave him so much vexation 
 in excluding him from any part of the temporal ju- 
 
 Counciiof risdiction, that he called a council in St. John de 
 
 Lateran. Lateran, and excommunicated them, which they con- 
 temned ; and he was afterwards in another battle, 
 which he fought with Roger King of Sicily, again 
 taken prisoner, and kept till he agreed with the King 
 upon his own terms, and thereby obliged himself to 
 join with him against the Emperor. 
 
 Council of In that contest between Innocent and Anacletus, 
 Louis le Gros found his want of power ; for though 
 he was most inclined to Innocent, (against whose 
 election there could be no objection,) yet he thought 
 it necessary to call a council, which ae did at Es- 
 tampes, and desired to know which side he ought to 
 take. St. Bernard the Abbot of Clervaux sustained 
 very strongly the interest of Innocent, and had so 
 much credit, that much the major part of the assem- 
 bly was of his mind. But the council of the Bishop 
 of Angoulesme, (to whom Anacletus had sent again 
 the legation of Aquitaine, which had before been 
 taken from him) was so powerful, that the King's 
 
 declaring
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 119 
 
 declaring for Innocent did him little good; so that CHAP. 
 
 he was forced to repair to the Emperor, (as I said be ' 
 
 fore,) which made him the more undervalue the 
 King. 
 
 In his successor's time, Lewis the Seventh had a Lewi* vii. 
 difference with the clergy of Burgos about the elec- 
 tion of their Archbishop. The clergy had chosen 
 Peter de la Chastre, a very pious and learned man; 
 but the King not liking him, or having designed that 
 charge for another, refused to give his consent to the 
 election ; and thereupon Peter being of a very quiet 
 and peaceable nature, desired to desist from the pro- 
 secution of his right ; but Pope Innocent would not 
 consent to it, and commanded him to do his office, 
 and the King as much resolved to hinder him ; 
 whereupon followed great disorders, which were at 
 last heightened to that degree, that the Pope excom- 
 municated the King, and put the kingdom under an 
 interdict that produced great troubles and war in the 
 kingdom for two or three years. 
 
 Upon the interposition of St. Bernard, the King was His crusade 
 at length prevailed upon to yield, and likewise to raise Emperor 
 an army, and in person to conduct it to the Holy Conrade - 
 Land ; whereof let the success be what it would (as 
 it was always very unfortunate) the Popes were still 
 great gainers, ind extended their power by the oppor- 
 tunity very far in the West, how ill soever the armies 
 prospered in the East, Worse they could not at any 
 time do than they did in this expedition of Lewis, 
 in conjunction with the Emperor Conrade, either of 
 them having levied vast armies : though they had 
 marched several ways, they both met at Jerusalem, 
 after Lewis had taken Antioch in his way, and they 
 agreed to besiege Damascus ; but that design, as all 
 otherg of that kind, was miserably broken by the per- 
 
 l 4 fidious-
 
 130, PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, fidiousness and even open acts of treason and vio- 
 
 TV 
 
 ^ lence committed by the Eastern Christians ; which 
 
 might have prevented any more engagements for the 
 future, if the world had not been strangely infatuated 
 with those enthusiasms. The people indeed were at 
 that present much incensed against St. Bernard, who 
 had taken upon him by his spirit of prophecy to 
 foretell a most glorious success of that enterprize ; 
 notwithstanding which Lucius the Second was very 
 importunate with him within a year or two to 
 preach up another crusade, and to have gone himself 
 in person into the Holy Land ; which he believed 
 would have carried a great number of people with 
 him : but St. Bernard's monks would by no means 
 suffer him to engage himself farther in that affair, in 
 which he had already lost so much credit : besides 
 which, St. Bernard was at that time engaged in a bu- 
 siness of much more consequence to the church, 
 which was in continual disputation and preaching 
 against the Albigenses, whose opinions had been 
 spread abroad by one Henry, who had been a monk, 
 with great applause : these were almost the same 
 opinions which the Calvinists have preached up in 
 these latter ages, and which did at that time get 
 much credit in the principal towns and cities of Lan- 
 guedoc, and upon the confines of the kingdom of Ar- 
 ragon. 
 
 Adrian iv. Three or four succeeding Popes were very ill used 
 by the people, and often in danger of their lives, 
 upon their pretences to the temporal power ; and 
 though our countryman Adrian the Fourth did a 
 little restrain them, and interdicted the city of Rome 
 because the people had in a tumult wounded a Cardi- 
 nal, yet what he got at home he lost abroad: and the 
 Emperor Frederic Barbarossa being offended with 
 
 him,
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. i 2 l 
 
 him, forbade all his subjects to prosecute any appeals CHAP, 
 to Rome, and refused to receive any legate from him. 
 
 After the death of Adrian, Alexander the Third sue- Alexander 
 ceeded, who reigned above twenty years, and who is 
 so famous in our chronicles by his abominable pro- 
 ceeding with King Henry the Second upon the death 
 of Thomas a Becket ; yet he was so far from being 
 looked upon with that reverence in Italy, that there 
 was another schism in the church ; and Victor the 
 Fifth was chosen by a contrary party, who rai sed Victor v. 
 such tumults every day in Rome, that very many 
 men were killed by them : and the Emperor, for de- 
 termination of the difference, called a council at Pa- 
 via, and summoned both the pretenders to appear ; 
 which Alexander refusing to do, and Victor submit- 
 ting, the Emperor declared him to he canonically 
 chosen, and Alexander to be no Pope. Alexander 
 thereupon called a council and excommunicated the 
 Emperor and Victor, but durst not stand to what he 
 had done, and fled into France. So that if our King 
 Henry had not found such a condescension to be 
 very suitable to his affairs both in England and m 
 France, it is probable he might have declined so un- 
 just and unreasonable an imposition. 
 
 The cause of this schism was extraordinary, and Ri 
 worth the naming ; for the election was thought to 
 be very fair, all the Cardinals except two having con- 
 curred in the election of Alexander. But the people 
 of Rome, with those two other Cardinals, gave their 
 voices for Octavian a Roman, who called himself Vic- 
 tor. It is true, there had been the decrees of several 
 Popes which had granted the election to the Cardi- 
 nals only, and it had been observed since the death 
 of Nicholas the Second. But the Roman people pre- 
 
 tended
 
 122 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, tended to have a greater part in it, and declared that 
 
 : it was not in the power of the Popes to deprive them 
 
 of a privilege which they said was, as it were, born 
 with their church, and practised from the time of the 
 Apostles ; and it cannot be. doubted but that it had 
 been practised much longer than the other. The 
 Emperor as positively rejected him because he had 
 installed himself without his approbation ; and Ger- 
 many and many parts of Italy joined with the Em- 
 peror, who was then with an army before Milan, 
 upon some insolent behaviour of theirs towards him. 
 So that Alexander fearing that the Emperor, when 
 he should have tamed the pride of Milan, would 
 come to Rome, and that his party would not be 
 strong enough to withstand him, fled into France, 
 and staid there above three years ; and in a council 
 at Clermont excommunicated the Emperor and Vic- 
 tor, and all their adherents. At a town called Torcy 
 upon the river Loire, our Henry the Second of 
 England and Lewis the Seventh of France together 
 received the Pope with extreme submission. Both 
 of them alighted from their horses, taking each one 
 the reins of his bridle in their hand, and so conduct- 
 ing him to his lodging; and our Henry believed 
 himself to be upon as good terms with the Pope as 
 Lewis, however it fell out afterwards. 
 
 Affair of Since the Roman writers are so solicitous in the 
 Becket? & collecting and publishing the records of that odious 
 process, and strangers are easily induced to believe 
 that the exercise of so extravagant a jurisdiction in 
 the reign of so heroical a prince (who had extended 
 his dominions farther by much than any of his pro- 
 genitors had done) must be grounded upon some 
 fixed and confessed right over the nation, and not 
 
 from
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 123 
 
 from an original usurpation entered upon in that CHAP. 
 
 time, and when the usurper was not acknowledged '- 
 
 by so considerable a part of Christendom ; it will not 
 be amiss to take a short view of that time, that we 
 may see what motives could prevail with that high- 
 spirited King to submit to so unheard of tyranny. 
 That it was not from the constitution of the king- 
 dom, or any pre-admitted power of the Pope for- 
 merly incorporated into the laws of the land, is very 
 evident : for thoug}i it be very true, that the clergy 
 enjoyed very great privileges and immunities, which 
 had been granted to them by the extraordinary zeal 
 of the age, and confirmed by former princes, where- 
 by they had so great an influence upon the hearts of 
 the people, that the Conqueror himself had been glad 
 to make use of them, and William the Second, Hen- 
 ry the First, and King Stephen, had more need of 
 them to uphold their usurpations, their ill titles be- 
 ing principally supported by the clergy, who in re- 
 compence thereof drew new confirmations and greater 
 concessions from the crown ; yet these privileges, 
 how great soever, depended not at all upon the Bi- 
 shop of Rome ; nor were any persons more solicitous 
 than the clergy themselves to keep the Pope from a 
 pretence of power in the kingdom. The Bishops 
 themselves had in the beginning of Becket's rebel- 
 lious contests with the King consented in parlia- 
 ment, that for his disobedience all his goods and 
 moveables should be at the King's mercy ; and it is 
 enacted (after the Archbishop had fled out of the 
 kingdom to make some application to the Pope) that 
 if any were found carrying letter or mandate from 
 the Pope or Archbishop containing any interdiction 
 of Christianity in England, he should be taken and 
 
 without
 
 134 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, without delay executed as a traitor, both to the King 
 
 ' and kingdom ; that whatsoever Bishop, priest, monk, 
 
 &c. should have and retain any such letters, should 
 forfeit all their possessions, goods, and chattels to the 
 King, and be presently banished the realm with 
 their kin ; that none should appeal to the Pope ; arid 
 many other particulars, which enough declare the 
 temper of that Catholic time, and the aversion there 
 was to have any dependance upon a foreign jurisdic- 
 tion. And after the death of Beckct, and that infa- 
 mous submission of the King to t;ic Pope's sentence 
 thereupon, when the same King desired to assist the 
 successor of that Pope, Lucius the Third, when he 
 was driven out of Rome, and to that purpose endea- 
 voured to raise a collection from the clergy, (which 
 the Pope's Nuncio appeared in and hoped to ad- 
 vance,) the clergy were so jealous of having to do 
 with the Pope or his ministers, that they declared 
 and advised the King, that his Majesty would supply 
 the Pope in such a proportion as he thought fit ; 
 and that whatever they gave might be to the King 
 himself, and not to the Pope's Nuncio, which might 
 be drawn into example to the detriment of the king- 
 dom. 
 
 causes of The truth is, the King himself first shewed the way 
 second's to Thomas a Becket to apply himself to the Pope, 
 narjTsub- till when, the Archbishop insisted only upon his 
 own "ghts and power ; for the King not being able 
 to bear the insolency of the man, and finding that 
 he should be able enough to govern his other Bi- 
 shops, if they were not subjected to the power and 
 authority of that perverse Archbishop, was willing to 
 give the Pope authority to assist him ; and he did 
 all he could to persuade the Pope to make the Arch- 
 bishop
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 135 
 
 bishop of York his legate,, meaning thereby to divest CHAP. 
 
 the other Archbishop of that authority which was so : 
 
 troublesome to him, and which he exercised in his 
 own right. But the Pope durst not gratify the King 
 therein, knowing the spirit of the Archbishop, and 
 that he would contemn the legate, as the supreme ec- 
 clesiastical power resided in his own person as Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury : yet he sent to advise him to 
 submit to the King, and then the haughty Prelate 
 fled out of the kingdom, and was too hard for the 
 King with the Pope, and was content to be assisted 
 himself with the Pope's authority, that he might the 
 better tyrannize over the rest of the Prelates. Being 
 thus fortified with the Pope's bull, he suspended the 
 Archbishop of York, and all the other Bishops who 
 adhered to the King in the execution of his com- 
 mands; which so much the more incensed the King, 
 that his Majesty had (upon the intercession of the 
 King of France, and in his presence) admitted the 
 Archbishop to come to him in Normandy, and had 
 told him, that what the greatest and most holy of 
 all his predecessors had done to the meanest of the 
 Kings, let him do the same, and it should suffice ; 
 and had afterwards given him leave to return into 
 England, where, upon those his insolent proceedings, 
 he was killed before the King left Normandy. It 
 must be likewise remembered, that the King when 
 he bore all that from the Pope was indeed but half a 
 King, having caused his son Henry to be crowned 
 King with him, who thereupon gave him So much 
 trouble and joined with the French King against 
 him ; and that he had so large and great territories 
 in France, where the Pope was generally received, 
 and where his power was very great, and so his 
 
 friend-
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, friendship very necessary to the King. Lastly, (and 
 
 which it may be is of more weight than any thing 
 
 that hath been said in this disquisition,) it may seem 
 a very natural judgment of God Almighty, that the 
 Pope should exercise that unreasonable jurisdiction 
 over a King who had first given him an absurd and 
 unlawful jurisdiction over himself, and for an unjust 
 end ; when he obtained from Pope Adrian our coun- 
 tryman a dispensation not to perform his oath which 
 he had taken, that his brother Geoffrey should enr 
 joy the county of Anjou according to the will and 
 desire of his father ; and by virtue of that dispensa- 
 tion (which the Pope had no power to give) defraud- 
 ed his brother of his inheritance, and broke his oath 
 to God Almighty, and so was afterwards forced him- 
 self to yield to him, when he assumed a power over 
 him in a case he had nothing to do with, and where 
 he had no mind to obey him ; and this is all I shall 
 say to that matter. 
 
 Conclusion Though neither the fact supposed, nor the process 
 thereupon was such as they have been generally re- 
 ported to have been, (for it evidently appeared, and 
 the Pope believed, that the King was not privy to the 
 death of the Archbishop, but extremely afflicted for 
 it, nor had the least purpose or imagination that any 
 body should attempt it,) yet it was evident that upon 
 his choleric expressions and hasty words those de- 
 sperate persons had performed that assassination. 
 After the Pope and he had for some years struggled 
 who should appear to have the more courage, (the 
 Pope having for some time in great passion refused 
 to give his ambassadors audience, and the King pro- 
 secuting his other business and making an entire 
 conquest of the kingdom of Ireland, and every way 
 
 increasing
 
 FROM GREGORY VII, TO CLEMENT V. 127 
 
 increasing his greatness and dominions, and often CHAP. 
 
 speaking in such a manner that it might come to the : 
 
 ears of the Pope, that he had received propositions 
 from the Emperor about joining with him in the ac- 
 knowledgment of Victor, and as if he would hearken 
 to it in case he were not better used,) the Pope grew 
 more moderate than he had been, and professed 
 great respect to the King, if he would make himself 
 capable of receiving it, and sent two legates into 
 Normandy, as if they should proceed farther into 
 England, to examine all the evidence that could be- 
 produced concerning the assassination of the Archbi- 
 shop. The Pope however knew well that the King 
 would not suffer his legates to enter into England, and 
 Henry was contented himself to go into Normandy, 
 as a place he could better treat in, and at the same 
 time be ready to oppose all the machinations of the 
 King of France, who he knew used his utmost en- 
 deavours to incense the Pope against him and to 
 drive all to the highest extremities. The success of 
 the treaty was, after long debate, that the King 
 purged himself by his oath (laying his hands upon 
 certain relics of saints and upon the Evangelists) of 
 commanding or consenting to the murder of Becket; 
 and farther consented to certain articles, and swore 
 to observe them, whereof the principal was, that he 
 would adhere to Alexander and his Catholic succes- 
 sors, if they should treat him as a Catholic King; 
 that all persons should have liberty to prosecute their 
 appeals to Rome; and that the King himself would 
 within four years undertake the Cross and go him- 
 self to the Holy Land, except the Pope thought fit 
 to dispense with it : the other articles were of less 
 moment; and hereupon that business, which had de- 
 pended
 
 
 
 128 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, pended near if not full four years, and filled all the 
 
 mouths of Christendom, was determined ; and the 
 
 Pope and the King were ever afterwards good friends, 
 without the King's ever seeing the Pope, or subject- 
 ing his person to any indignities, which was not 
 only ridiculously reported, but was dispersed abroad 
 in books and writings of that time, and was I believe 
 credited by Machiavel, when in his history of Flo- 
 rence, mentioning that time about which this contest 
 was, he says, " that so great and powerful a King (as 
 " no doubt he was the greatest prince then in Eu- 
 " rope) was content to submit to such a judgment, 
 " che hoggi un homo private si vergonerebbe a sotto- 
 (e mettersi that a gentleman (at the time he writ) 
 " would have been ashamed to have submitted to it:" 
 and he adds, " that it was the more wonderful in 
 " that the Pope, while he exercised such authority 
 " over princes who were far off, could not be obeyed 
 " by the Romans, nor would they suffer him to re- 
 " side in their city." 
 The Pope's How excessive soever this power was which this 
 
 affumption . . . . 
 
 of power great spirited Pope had opportunity to exercise in 
 crown of England, and how little soever he had in Rome it- 
 Pormgai. ge jr ^here can be no doubt that in that time it met 
 
 with little resistance in Europe, in many parts where- 
 of he used it with more extravagance and insolence 
 than he did in England. Portugal in his time, or a 
 little before, had raised itself into the reputation or 
 appellation of a kingdom; for Don Alonso, who waS 
 the Prince, or Concle, or Duke, (for the historians do 
 not agree upon his title,) some days before his great 
 battle against the Moors (in which there were five 
 Kings against him, all whom he conquered) had, to 
 please his own army, and that he might have the 
 
 greater
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 129 
 
 greater authority over them, assumed the name of CHAP. 
 
 King, and continued it many years after, without any 
 
 contradiction from any of his neighbours ; but when 
 Alexander the Third came to be Pope, he let him 
 know that he could not wear that title if it were not 
 confirmed by him, and sent him withal a bull, 
 wherein he confirmed to him the title of King, but 
 reserved as a certain tribute to be paid every year to 
 himself and his successors as Popes, " dos marcas de 
 " oro ;" which Mariana says he doth not know whe- 
 ther it was paid in those times, but he says in the 
 present age, " Stempre a quel reyno se ha tenido por 
 " libre de todo panto."" Lastly, (for nothing can be 
 added after this.) this Pope Alexander, after he had, Hisins - 
 
 r . ' lent treat- 
 
 reduced the Emperor Frederic to so miserable a con- mem of the 
 
 dition that he could no longer contend with him, Frederic. 
 and refused to receive any ambassador, or messenger, 
 or letter from him, was prevailed with to give the 
 Emperor leave to attend him personally in Venice, 
 where the Pope then was ; and what his treatment 
 was there, we may best understand by the account 
 his Holiness gives of it in his bull of absolution ; 'iri 
 which, after a large relation of all that passed, he 
 adds these words, " Et cum ascenderemus palafredum 
 " nostrum ibi paratum, stapham tenuit, et omnem ho- 
 rf norem et reverentiam nobis exhibuit quam predeces- 
 " sores ejus nostris consueverunt antecessoribus*" 
 And now I hope it appears that our Harry the Se- 
 cond was treated with much less tyranny ; and as the 
 length of his reign (which was full twenty-one years) 
 
 Very much advanced his power/ so probably if he 
 
 - > : . f nuiifv/ 
 
 * T- * 
 
 Bull. torn. i. Alex. III. 
 
 K had
 
 130 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHA P. had lived longer, he might have extended his domi- 
 
 nion in the East as far as he did in the West. 
 
 Cmsadc of The five succeeding Popes did not reign above 
 
 Richard I. . f . . A1 
 
 of England, nine years ; yet, upon that stock or spirit that Alex- 
 iLof hlllp ander had left, they kept up their dignity, and pro- 
 France, gecuted still the design he had left ripe of engaging 
 the two Kings of England and France, who alone had 
 power to restrain their encroachments, in a new en- 
 terprize upon the Holy Land. And our Richard 
 (upon compunction for his undutiful carriage to- 
 wards his father) and Philip the Second of France, 
 frankly undertook the expedition, each of them at 
 the head of a very puissant army, to which multi- 
 tudes of all degrees flocked upon the bull of Gregory 
 the Eighth ; by which they believed that whosoever 
 died in that war was sure to go to heaven. ;It 
 cannot be enough wondered at, that so many people 
 could be deceived by such an invitation ; the clause 
 Bull of being, " Eis qui corde contrito et humiliate spiritu, 
 Gregorj (( ^ ner ^ fmjn^ laborem assumpserint, et inpcenitentid 
 " peccatorum et Jide recta decesserint, plenam eorum 
 " criminum indulgentiam et vitam pollicemur <Bter- 
 " nam ;" which conditions if they had observed at 
 home, they had been as sure of salvation, as if they 
 had never gone : and the same, or the like clauses, 
 are still in all those bulls of indulgencies which are 
 scattered throughout all Catholic countries, with an 
 obligation of visiting some churches even in the same 
 town, and which the people flock unto on those days, 
 as if that only entitled them to the forgiveness of 
 their sins ; without considering the other conditions, 
 which would better do the business. There was 
 indeed in the bulls another clause that probably 
 
 brought
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 131 
 
 brought more desperate persons to attend those CHAP. 
 
 marches, which was, " that they should be free from 
 
 " the payment of any usury for the debts they 
 " owed ;" which though a matter so temporal that it 
 exceeded the Pope's jurisdiction, the temporal princes 
 never considered the encroachment and usurpation, 
 but were satisfied in that they found it added great 
 numbers of men to the armies. The success of that 
 voyage is enough known ; and that though the two 
 Kings met and besieged the strong city of Acre, in 
 which the Emperor Saladin then was, and had it 
 delivered to them upon conditions, by which all the 
 inhabitants remained prisoners, or rather hostages 
 for the performance of the other articles, and were 
 equally divided between the two Kings, they pre- 
 sently grew jealous of each other, and studied more 
 how they might contrive a mischief against one an- 
 other, than to advance the conquest against the com- 
 mon enemy. Philip of France refused to march far- 
 ther, and returned home with the consent of Richard ; 
 and upon his oath, taken with all solemnity, that he 
 would not commit any hostile action upon any of 
 the dominions of King Richard in France ; which 
 oath he broke as soon as he returned. And Richard, 
 after he had marched to Jerusalem, found it conve- 
 nient to make a cessation with Saladin for three 
 years, and so returned without due consideration of 
 his journey, in order that he might prevent the mis- 
 chief which threatened him by a combination be- 
 tween the King of France and his brother John, who 
 at once invaded his dominions in both kingdoms. 
 He was taken prisoner by the Duke of Austria as he 
 passed through his country with one single servant, 
 and was delivered by him to the Emperor ; who (in 
 
 K 2 spite
 
 132 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 GHAP; spite of all the interposition and threats of the 
 1 that i he would excommunicate them if they detained 
 him) kept him prisoner, till, after above a year's de- 
 tention, he paid a very great sum of money for his 
 ransom ; upon which he was delivered without hav- 
 ing gained more by his most expensive voyage than 
 the reputation of a very courageous prince ; the 
 French writers saying of him, that he performed so 
 many actions of a prodigious valour, that they al- 
 most surpassed the belief, as well as the ordinary 
 force, of men ; in a word, he had certainly conquered 
 the Holy Land, if the jealousy of Hugo Duke of 
 Burgundy had not stopped his progress a . 
 Wars be- j n the war that was in France, (after the redemp- 
 
 tween R- . ' v 
 
 chard Land tion and return of Richard,) which was full of cruelty, 
 the animosity of the two kings being in the height, 
 it happened that the Bishop of Beauvais (who was 
 cousin german to the King) was taken in the battle 
 armed and fighting by the soldiers of Richard, who 
 caused him to be put in a very strict and unpleasant 
 prison, Philip knew not how to redeem him, but 
 prevailed with the Pope, Celestin the Third, to in- 
 
 edestiniii.terpose his recommendation and mediation with 
 Richard for his deliverance ; and in his letters to the 
 King he called this Bishop " his dear son." Richard 
 writ a letter back to his Holiness, in which he 
 made a large relation of the action in which he was 
 taken, with all the circumstances thereof; and gave 
 the messenger, by whom he sent the letter, the Bi- 
 shop's arms and coat of mail, all bloodyj and com- 
 manded him to shew it to the Pope, and to ask him, 
 " Sanctissime Pater, an hcec est tunica filii tui?" The 
 
 a Mezeray, Life of Philip. 
 
 Pope
 
 VI 
 
 TO* 
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 135 
 
 ,0<j- ; AH 
 
 Pope answered, that the treatment that had been CHAP. 
 
 IV. 
 used towards this Prelate was very just, since he had '~ - 
 
 quitted the warfare of Jesus Christ to follow that of 
 this world. I choose to make this relation, (the mat- 
 ter of it being common in all men's mouths) not oaly 
 because it fell out in this time of Celestin, and very 
 little before the death of Richard, but because it is 
 so different from that which the next Pope gave to 
 the same King Philip in the very like case. . It hap- 
 pened shortly after that, in the war between the same 
 King of France and the Earl of Flanders, that the 
 King's soldiers took Peter Bishop of Cambray pri- 
 soner, who had a great command in the other army. 
 The Pope, who was now Innocent the Third, sent a 
 round letter to the King, and required the liberty of 
 the Bishop ; and the King as positively refused to 
 deliver him ; whereupon the Pope commanded his 
 Legate to put the kingdom of France under an in- 
 terdict, which he without any pause performed ; and 
 the King expostulating in vain, at the end of three 
 months was constrained to set his prisoner at liberty. 
 The case was clearly the same ; but Richard was a 
 rough man, and would not be ill used or provoked 
 but he would take signal revenge. Others may 
 think that there was a great difference between the 
 spirit of Celestin the Third and Innocent the 
 Third ; and that the last would have been a more 
 equal match for our King Richard : and yet Pope 
 Celestin shewed more than ordinary courage against 
 Philip, which made his respect to Richard more no- 
 torious. For Philip, having buried his former wife, 
 married Isernbergh the daughter of the King of Den- 
 mark, a lady of great beauty and virtue ; but he was 
 quickly so unsatisfied with her, that, without giving 
 K 3 any
 
 134 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, any reason, he left her and married Agnes daughter 
 
 ' to the Duke of Dalmatia, with whom he lived with 
 
 much satisfaction and consent. Canute King of 
 Denmark, and brother of Isembergh, would not 
 brook the repudiating his sister, (whom Philip had 
 shut up in a nunnery,) but sent ambassadors to Pope 
 Celestin to complain of the injury and indignity 
 done to himself and his sister, in King Philip's hav- 
 ing taken another wife. The Pope sent two Legates 
 into France to examine the affair, who called an as- 
 sembly of the French prelates to Dijon ; arid though 
 the King had put in an appeal to the Pope himself, 
 they proceeded and published a sentence of interdict 
 upon the whole kingdom, in presence of, and with 
 the consent of, all the Bishops. Philip, who had al- 
 ways shewed great respect to the church, let loose 
 all his anger and choler against his own clergy and 
 ecclesiastics, whom he looked upon as the contrivers 
 of this affront and inquiry ; and therefore, in his 
 fury, he drove the Bishops from their sees, the pre- 
 bends from their churches, the cure's out of their pa- 
 rishes, and seized upon their goods. The interdict 
 continued seven months ; in which time the King, 
 by great importunity and many professions of duty 
 and entire deference to his Holiness's determination, 
 so prevailed, that another assembly was appointed to 
 meet at Soissons, where Philip, (after he had used all 
 the devices he could,) finding the cause would go 
 against him, went one morning to the monastery, 
 and took Isembergh out of her lodgings, and caused 
 her to be set behind him on horseback, and so car- 
 ried her away ; and sent one to the Legate to let 
 him know that he did acknowledge and would have 
 her for his wife. About the end of the year Agnes 
 
 her
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 135 
 
 her rival died; having lived five years with the King, CHAP. 
 
 and had by him a son and a daughter, both whom : 
 
 Innocent the Third afterwards legitimated. 
 
 We now come to the time of Innocent the Third, j" noccnt 
 who seemed to have the spirit of Alexander the 
 Third doubled upon him, and lived almost as long 
 as he did, (for he reigned eighteen years,) to cultivate 
 all those occasions which fell out in the several king- 
 doms of Europe to contribute to his greatness. And 
 there were several contingencies, which in the very 
 entrance of his reign looked like a good omen to 
 him. The voyages of so many Christian princes 
 (how unprosperous soever) with such vast armies to 
 the Holy Land, had made wonderful impression in 
 the East upon all those who feared the mighty 
 power of the Saracens ; and so the King of Armenia 
 made a voyage to Rome to solicit for new forces to 
 be sent thither. Innocent received him graciously, 
 and sent him home with more promises than ever he 
 intended to make good ; and in the mean time (as if 
 he had come only for that purpose) vouchsafed t& 
 crown him by a bull, as a record of his own great- 
 ness, " Gaudemus quod fyc. Sed ad honorem et glo- 
 " rlam Apostolica sedis, quam constitutam esse novistt 
 " super gentes et regna, Diadema regni receptsti de 
 " manibus ejus, et enim curasti devote ac humiliter ho- 
 " norare, et Nos per ipsum et literas tuas ad Orien- 
 " talis terra, subsidium invitasti fyc." and so he re- 
 turned with some relics of saints, and an opinion that 
 the Pope was the only powerful prince of the West. 
 The King of Bohemia gave him another opportunity 
 to exercise his sovereignty more notoriously. There 
 was then great trouble in Germany by the opposi- 
 tion which Otho the Emperor met with from the 
 
 K 4 other
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, other princes, who were more inclined to the Duke 
 of Suevia: but the Pope had prevailed with the King 
 of Bohemia to quit the other party, and to adhere to 
 Otho; and now, upon the King of Bohemia's coming 
 to Rome, the Pope would do him some grace ; and to 
 contribute to his greatness he declares by his bull, 
 " Licet ante tuce promotionis tempora, multi fuerint 
 ^ in Bohemia. Regio Diadeinate insigniti, nmiquam 
 " tamen potuerunt a predecessoribus nostris Romanis 
 " Pontificibus obtinere, ut Reges eos in suis liter is 
 " nominarent." But because he had left the party of 
 the Duke of Suevia at the Pope's desire, and adhered 
 to Otho the Emperor, &c. " tarn intuitu precum ejus y 
 " quam tu& devotionis obtentu, Regem te de c&tero re- 
 " putare volumus et vocare ; Tu igitur taliter gTa- 
 " tiam tibi factam agnoscas fe." and so dismissed 
 him with giving him what he and his predecessors 
 had long enjoyed ; a device that court frequently 
 used, that they might seem to consent, and to con- 
 firm what they could not deny, or take away. In- 
 deed Don Pedro of Arragon was more indebted to 
 him ; for though he had nothing but what he had 
 with signal courage got and won from the Moors, 
 yet neither the King of Castile, (who thought all be- 
 longed to him,) nor the other princes, would allow 
 him to be a King : he therefore applied himself to 
 the Pope, who was glad of the occasion to shew his 
 power, and with great solemnity crowned him in the 
 monastery of St. Pancras in Rome; which having 
 repeated in his bull, he adds, " Nos gratiam tibi a no- 
 " bis exhibitam ad successores tuos derivari volentes 
 " tyc." grants authority to the Archbishop of Tara- 
 gona to crown them in Zaragoza ; " Et quomamjure 
 " civili statutum est, ut mulieres maritorum honoribus 
 
 " de-
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 137 
 
 " decor en fur, prasentium authoritate, concedimus ut CHAP. 
 
 " per manus ejusdem Archiepiscopi eas liceat coro ' ' 
 
 " nari" And Mariana confesses, that, in lieu of this 
 great grace from the Pope, Don Pedro made his 
 kingdom tributary to his Holiness, and agreed and 
 promised to pay " cadet uno cierta cantidad de oro, 
 " cosa que llevaron mal los naturales" which, he says, 
 " his subjects took very ill." These several opportu- 
 nities falling out shortly after his coming to the holy 
 chair, could not but prepare all the neighbour princes 
 (most whereof either at present did, or were like 
 shortly to want his assistance) to look upon him 
 with more than ordinary reverence. 
 
 The Pope thought no more of the desire and sup- Crusade 
 plication of the King of Armenia, or of prosecuting Aibigense$. 
 the war in Palestine, but found other use of his spi- 
 ritual artillery nearer home. Notwithstanding all 
 the preaching of St. Bernard, who was now dead, 
 the Albigenses and Waldenses spread their heresies 
 very far, even over all the province of Languedoc. 
 They preached directly against that power which the 
 Popes assumed ; and declared " that the Pope had 
 " no power to pardon sins that the body of our 
 " Saviour was not really in the sacrament of the al- 
 " tar that the holy water had no virtue to those 
 " ends for which it was used, and that the prayers 
 " which the priests made for the dead did no good;" 
 and many other things, which are all reckoned up by 
 Mariana ; who confesses that many persons of qua- 
 lity, princes, conde"s, &c. much favoured those Albi- 
 genses; and says, that many did believe that the 
 King of Arragon favoured them too much, because 
 those great towns where they were most sheltered 
 were very much devoted to him. St. Dominic 
 
 was
 
 138 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, was the most famous preacher at this time, and, Ma- 
 riana says, converted many of them. But Pope In- 
 nocent the Third proved much the more effectual 
 preacher. He had first sent Peter of Chateauneuf 
 his Legate into Languedoc to give all the counte- 
 nance he could to the Catholics, and to incense and 
 to unite them against those he called heretics ; and 
 he being active in his charge, Raymond the Count 
 of Thoulouse (who was a sovereign prince, and an es- 
 pecial supporter of the Albigenses) caused him to be 
 killed. The Pope, herewith enraged, excommuni- 
 cated the Count, and gave his lands to the first pos- 
 sessor ; which would not have frighted him ; and 
 therefore the Pope applied that zeal, which had used 
 to encourage the people to the deliverance of the 
 Holy Land, now to the destruction of the heretics, 
 and caused a crusade to be preached against them ; 
 whereupon a great number of lords and prelates en- 
 rolled themselves in this warfare. Raymond Count 
 of Thoulouse was indeed so terrified with this, that he 
 came to Valence to wait upon Mylon, Legate of the 
 Pope, and submitted himself entirely to the Pope's 
 discretion, and gave eight strong places to the Ro- 
 man Church for ever as a pledge of his conversion. 
 Nor could he yet hereby procure his absolution till 
 he suffered himself to be whipped with rods at the 
 gate of St. Giles's church, where Peter of Chateau- 
 neuf was buried, and to be dragged from thence to 
 his tomb by the Legate, who laid the stole on his 
 neck in the presence of twenty Archbishops, and an 
 infinite number of people. Mariana will not ac- 
 knowledge that this crusade was granted against the 
 Albigenses, (who could not but be acknowledged to be 
 Christians,) but says it was granted against the 
 
 Moors
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 139 
 
 Moors in Spain. And indeed though the Pope never CHAP! 
 
 contributed to that war, there was some difference in ' 
 
 the cross ; for they who went to the Holy Land 
 wore the cross upon the shoulder, those against the 
 heretics upon their breasts, but the indulgence was 
 the same. The general rendezvous of this new army 
 was at Lyons, from whence they marched into Lan- 
 guedoc under the command of Simon Montfort, who 
 was by a general consent chosen to command it. 
 Their first attack was upon Beziers, one of the 
 strongest towns the Albigenses were possessed of; who 
 for some time defended themselves well ; but at last 
 the Crusaders entered and exercised all manner, of 
 cruelty, putting man woman and child to the sword, 
 insomuch as there were at last (as Mezeray confesses) 
 three score thousand persons killed there; which put 
 so great a consternation upon those of Carcassonne, 
 (a very considerable place too,) that they rendered 
 at discretion, and were glad to march away only in 
 their shirts. 
 
 Upon these victories, and for the better encou-simon 
 ragement to prosecute what yet remained to be done, 
 the Count Montfort received the bulls of Pope Inno- 
 cent, which (in pursuance of a decree that had been 
 made in the council held at Montpelier some months 
 before) granted to him and his heirs all the lands 
 which lay about Thoulouse, which yet held out, and 
 also all other lands and places which had been con- 
 quered by the Crusaders, on condition that he should 
 take the investiture of them from the King of France, 
 and pay him his feudal duties ; which was all that 
 King got by this devouring unchristian war, to which 
 he had contributed an army of fifteen thousand 
 men ; nor was he probably like to keep it long, for 
 
 all
 
 flOO3>U> MOH'1 
 140 PAPAL trSURPATIONS 
 
 fi"\ "lo iifiiJ 
 
 CHAP, all those places were of right holden of the King of 
 ' Arragon, and, if they were forfeited, did of right be- 
 long to him. Mariana also confesses, that after Simon 
 Montfort had taken Thoulouse and was made Conde 
 of it in his own right, the King of Arragon (who was 
 suspected to incline to the heretics) died ; and then 
 the Pope by mediation and by threats wrought so 
 with Simon Montfort, that both Thoulouse, Carcas- 
 sonne, Narbonne, and other places, were restored to 
 the young King of Arragon, when he was but six 
 years of age. Simon Montfort was not complied 
 with in all that was promised, and therefore endea- 
 voured to recover it by force, but was killed in the 
 attempt : and his son Americo (not being able to 
 support the war that was necessary for the recovery 
 of so great territories) renounced and conveyed his 
 right to the King of France, who, besides other re- 
 compence, made him Constable of France ; and this 
 was the first and original title that crown had to 
 Languedoc. In this manner the resolute Pope made 
 himself very terrible to all men, whilst he seemed 
 only to court Philip of France, rather out of kind- 
 ness than fear; for Philip's hands were full with the 
 war he had with Otho the Emperor, and with John 
 the usurper in England, from whom he took most 
 of his dominions in France, whilst John had work 
 enough to keep his sovereignty in England : so that 
 Germany and France and England being in war 
 against one another, and the many Christian Kings 
 in Spain (whereof two had made themselves tribu- 
 tary to Rome) being in continual war against the 
 Moors, the Pope was at leisure without controul to 
 increase his own greatness, and extend his jurisdicn.i* 
 tion ; which he transported into England with another 
 
 kind
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 141 
 
 kind of omnipotence than he practised in any other CHAP. 
 
 j IV - 
 kingdom. 
 
 And indeed the Popes found not so much tame- The pro- 
 ness any where as in England, nor exercised their between 
 
 jurisdiction any where so wantonly, as in the reign 
 of those two Kings Henry the Second and King 
 John ; of which their successors quickly shewed dis- 
 dain enough, and by degrees freed themselves from a 
 power that knew not how to be moderate. Nor can 
 it be much wondered at, that the Pope should obtain 
 any thing from King John, who had no title to the 
 crown but usurpation, and had so many enemies to 
 contend with in England and in France. To shevr 
 that the subjection to the Pope was not of the religion 
 of that time, the most popular ground which the no- 
 bility alleged to justify their taking arms against the 
 King was, the concessions he had made to the Pope. 
 And the King himself in his greatest agonies after- 
 wards, and when he was most perplexed, with much 
 passion said, (as Matthew Paris, who is the best au- 
 thor of that time, reports,) " Since the time I sub- 
 " jected myself and my kingdom to the Church of 
 (f Rome, nothing hath happened prosperously, but 
 " all things contrary to me." So that whatever the 
 Pope got then in England is to be imputed to the 
 guilt and weakness of the King, not to the consent 
 of the time ; and the Pope no sooner expressed his 
 concernment for King John, than he lost his credit 
 and authority with his friend the King of France. 
 
 Since the court of Rome hath so carefully pre- John's de- 
 served all the records of that odious proceeding t^thY 
 against King John as of sovereign use to them, whert crown * 
 their jurisdiction is questioned, I think it is not 
 amiss in this place shortly to sum up that case, ill 
 
 hope
 
 142 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, hope that Catholic princes will reflect upon the pfe- 
 ' -cedent, as no less to concern them, with all other 
 monarchs, in that groundless presumption, than it did 
 that poor unfortunate King, whom nobody pitied. 
 All the writers of that age do acknowledge that 
 Harry the Second (though he underwent mortifica- 
 tion of very unusual kinds, all his children having 
 been in rebellion and battle against him) died the 
 greatest Christian King of the age in which he lived ; 
 and Richard his eldest son, who succeeded him, al- 
 beit he consumed much of his wealth, lost none of 
 the dominions or honours that his father had left; 
 and dying without children, the crown of right ought 
 to have descended to Arthur, the son of Geoffrey of 
 Anjou, his next brother ; but John the younger bro- 
 ther of Richard, and the younger son of Harry, as he 
 had in his father's life time rebelled against him, and 
 afterwards against his brother Richard when he was 
 King and in the Holy Land, so now as soon as he 
 was dead possessed himself of the crown that be- 
 longed to his nephew, who was then in France ; and 
 found means, by a party he had in that kingdom, to 
 seize his person and to take him prisoner, and within 
 a short time after caused him to be murdered. This 
 horrible parricide gave the French King advantage 
 to summon him as his feudatory to appear at Paris, 
 and in justice to defend himself against the charge 
 for that foul murder, which neither his guilt nor his 
 pride would suffer him to do ; and so by a legal pro- 
 cess Normandy was adjudged to be forfeited, and to 
 escheat to the King, and from that time the legal 
 title was never restored to the crown of England. 
 Philip had also, before this forfeiture, seized upon 
 many of his other dominions in France, merely by 
 
 the
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 143 
 
 the advantage of his power, and so pursued it after- CHAP, 
 wards, that in a short time he possessed himself of all '-..'. 
 or very near all that belonged to John in France. 
 
 By his ill government in England, John had lost John's m- 
 the affections of his nobility and people there, who re-mentln 
 fused to give him any assistance towards the reco- England - 
 very of what was taken from him in France. And 
 he then agreed with his lords, and solemnly took an 
 oath to perform all he promised to them ; upon 
 which they did all he desired of them : but this was 
 no sooner done than he renounced all that he was 
 engaged to do, and thereupon they withdrew them- 
 selves again from him. His wants and necessities 
 increasing with his breach of faith and frequent per- 
 juries, he next found that he could get most money 
 (which was the only thing he cared for) from the 
 church, and so he began to prey upon that, and re- 
 quired great sums of money from the Bishops and 
 the monasteries, which at the first they were con- 
 tented to pay ; but their submission and obedience 
 did but increase the King's demand ; and then they 
 refused to give him farther supplies. This incensed 
 him to such a degree, that he seized upon their per- 
 sons, received their rents, and possessed himself of 
 their plate and money, as fast as he discovered where 
 it lay. The Bishops fled out of the land and appeal- 
 ed to the Pope, (Innocent the Third,) who was well 
 pleased with the opportunity, and promised them 
 protection and relief; Philip of France using all his 
 credit to inflame and incense the Pope; who was so 
 willing to have a hand in the pulling down a house 
 which he saw ready to fall, that he had already writ- 
 ten to some of the Bishops, that they should let the 
 King know that the dowager Queen (the wife of his 
 
 brother
 
 144 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, brother Richard) had complained that he withheld 
 her jointure from her; to which complaint he could 
 not hut give ear, being bound to do justice to all ; 
 " iliius vicem licet immerito gerentes in terris; qui ho~ 
 " minis personam non accipit, sed cum tranquillitate 
 "judicans facit misericordiam et judicium omnibus 
 " injuriam patientibus, et reddit retributionem super- 
 " bis." And he therefore wishes the Bishops to let 
 the King know, that if he did not by a day there 
 prescribed give the Queen just satisfaction, that he 
 should then appoint some proctor to appear at Rome 
 on his behalf, by a day likewise set down, to defend 
 his cause ; and if he should do neither, he should 
 cause all those cities towns and castles, which had 
 been assigned for the Queen's jointure, to be seques- 
 tered for her use. 
 
 Now that the complaint of the church was brought 
 before him, the Pope proceeded with more vigour ; 
 and though the King sent him many humble letters, 
 and promised to observe all he commanded, yet he 
 would not be put off with any promises, but writ 
 roundly to him, that he had long enough expected 
 whether he could recover him from his errors; "Ecce 
 (< tibi benedictionem et maledictionem proponimus ejus 
 tf exemplo, qui per Moysen famulum suum benedic- 
 " tiones et maledictiones propomit filiis Israel, ut eR- 
 " gas quam malueris, vel benedictionem si satisfeceris 
 " ad salutem, vel maledictionem si contempseris ad 
 " ruinam" This and much more you shall find in 
 that Pope's 232d Epistle, in the same imperious stile, 
 advising him to submit and conform himself; " Alio- 
 '* quin ejus cxemplo qm popidum suum de servitute 
 " Pharaonis in manu valida liberavit, Anglicam EC* 
 * clcsiam in forti brachio de servitute tud studebimus 
 
 " libe-
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 145 
 
 " liberare ;" and so he wished John to make peace CHAP. 
 
 whilst he might have it, or, if he did not, he should ' 
 
 find that when he had a mind to it he should not 
 have it. The truth is, the King found himself so ill 
 used by the Pope, and by the King of France, and 
 by his own subjects, that he desired more to be re- 
 venged on every one of them, than to have a peace 
 with any of them ; and thereupon he made a peace 
 with France, that he might the less fear his own 
 subjects; and then with his subjects, that they might 
 help him against the Pope and France ; and then 
 with the Pope) that he might secure him against both ; 
 until, by breaking the oaths he had made to every 
 one of them, he made himself so odious to all, that 
 none of them would trust him. But the Pope's spi- 
 ritual arms inarched quicker, and did more speedy 
 execution, than the other's temporal could do ; for he 
 (when the King had no credit left to deceive any more, 
 because nobody would trust him) issued out his ex- 
 communication against him, which he seemed to neg- 
 lect; but when he found an inter' ; cjiQn*i>ut upon the 
 
 <3nW"^& * 
 
 kingdom, and his subjects absolved n-dn all the oaths 
 they had taken to him, his spirits quite failed him ; 
 whilst the Pope still added new mortification to him, 
 and writ to the Bishops in his 237th Epistle; "that 
 " if he shbuld die before he made ample satisfaction to 
 " the church, none of them, or any other, should pre- 
 " sume ullum de hceredibus suis ungere vel coronare in 
 " Regem" and withal sent a bull to Philip King of 
 France, by which he gave the whole kingdom of Eng- 
 land to him and his heirs, and required them to seize 
 upon it; which Philip prepared an army presently to 
 do, having encouragement enough likewise from those 
 in England who were ready to join with him. 
 
 L It
 
 146 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. It was now time for King John to bow, when he 
 : was ready to break, and so he made haste to im- 
 
 Submis- ' . _ _ 
 
 sion of plore the Pope's protection, almost in the stile of In- 
 nocent himself, making the lowest act of baseness to 
 be the effect of the conviction of his conscience ; " Vo- 
 " lentes nos ipsos humiliare pro illo qui se pro nobis 
 " humiliavit usque ad mortem, gratia Sancti Spiritus 
 " ip.spirante, non vi inducti nee timore coacti sed nostrd 
 (( bond spontanedque voluntate offerimus <Sfc." Thus 
 offering to give up the kingdom of England, with 
 that of Ireland, to be held of his Holiness and his 
 successor, upon the payment of a yearly tribute, 
 which he desired him to accept, " Vobis et successo- 
 " ribu$ vestris mille marcas annuatim reddendo" This 
 wrought upon the tender bowels of Innocent, who 
 presently sent a Legate over to comfort him, and to 
 reduce all his own overtures into such a form, and to 
 add such circumstances to it, that the Pope might 
 be enabled to give him such a full protection, that it 
 might be in nobody's power to hurt him. And thus 
 having so amply divested himself of all manner of 
 sovereignty, he might be truly and literally called 
 the Pope's Beadsman ; for he was reduced really to 
 want of bread, which he received in monasteries, not 
 without the good grace of the abbots and monks in 
 the supplying. His Holiness vouchsafed to write 
 to the King, (which stands recorded amongst his 
 letters,) wherein he congratulates his sincere con- 
 version, and promises his apostolical grace and fa- 
 vour ; assuring him, " Sicut in area foederis Domini, 
 " cum tabulis testamenti virga continebatur et man- 
 " na, sic in pectore summi Pontificis cum scientid le- 
 " gis divines, rigor destructions et favor dulcedinis 
 " continentur :" and so, he says, he was inclined to 
 
 help
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 147 
 
 help him, " cum ad nos possis habere recursum, per CHAP. 
 " quos multa poteris honeste perficere, qua honeste : 
 
 " perficere non possis per te ipmm! 
 
 From this time it cannot be denied, that the Pope The Pope 
 shewed himself a thorough friend to the King (if he under his 
 were still worthy the name of a King) to all pur- pro 
 poses. First he writes to the King of France, that 
 England was now become the dominion of St. Peter, 
 which he was obliged to protect, and defend from 
 any violence ; and therefore he desired and advised 
 him to desist from making any farther warlike pro- 
 visions to invade that kingdom ; and, when he found 
 that this advertisement made no impression upon 
 Philip, but that on the contrary he proceeded the 
 more vigorously in his preparation, he writ to him 
 again, "That being preferred to the government of 
 " the universal church, he was obliged by the com- 
 " mand of God to proceed in this affair according to 
 " the forms of the church, and to declare the King 
 " of France idolater and publican, if he did not ma- 
 '" nifest his right either before him or his Legate; 
 " for though it did not belong to him to judge of the 
 " feoff, yet it did to examine the sin." And a short 
 time after he did excommunicate both that King, 
 and Lewis his son, who succeeded him, because they 
 would not give over that enterprise against John. 
 After the King was brought to this entire obedience, 
 and was become vassal to the Pope, his Holiness 
 took care that he should be more a King than ever 
 over his own subjects. He absolved him therefore 
 from the observation of all oaths which he had made 
 to them, as extorted from him by force ; and excom- 
 municated all who should presume to rebel against 
 him. And hereupon John, rinding the delight of be- 
 
 L 2 ing
 
 148 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ing no longer restrained by his oaths and promises, 
 
 - : exercised new oppressions upon his Lords and his 
 
 common people; resolving to take revenge upon them 
 
 for what he had suffered from Rome or France. 
 
 The French This, and the ill spirit of the time, which was too 
 
 England, much inclined to rebellion, disposed the Lords to en- 
 
 John's' 011 * er m ^ a new combination and conspiracy, which 
 death re- they carried with so much secrecy, that it was con- 
 
 turn to J J ' 
 
 France, eluded with Lewis the son of Philip, that they would 
 put the kingdom into his hands, and become his true 
 and faithful subjects, before the King had any notice 
 of it : as if they might as lawfully give themselves 
 up, without the King's consent, to become subjects to 
 France, as the King might, without their consents, di- 
 vest himself of being King, and make both himself 
 and them subjects to the Pope. Lewis thought this 
 bargain too advantageous for him to quit it, upon the 
 terror of the Pope's spiritual artillery, how much ter- 
 rified soever his father was with it ; and so prose- 
 cuted it with such vigour, that he landed with a great 
 army, and, without any opposition, marched to Lon- 
 don, which was delivered to him by the discontented 
 Lords ; whereby he was upon the matter in possession 
 of the whole kingdom, whilst the miserable King, 
 without hope of an army, and with a very small 
 train, went from place to place, and without welcome 
 to any place, lamenting his misfortunes which he had 
 drawn upon himself, and in a deep despair of find- 
 ing any remedy : by which, and by the agony of his 
 own mind, (rather than by poison which though 
 suspected was never discovered,) he fell into a high 
 burning fever, of which within few days he died ; 
 and left behind him the reputation of being the 
 worst subject, and the worst son, the worst brothe^ 
 
 and
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 149 
 
 and the worst friend, the worst King, and the worst CHAP. 
 
 Christian, that hath ever before or since sat upon the '-< 
 
 throne of England. This he had no other way to 
 recover or preserve but by dying ; and by his death 
 much was quickly done towards both ; for his son's 
 title was unquestionable, and his youth and nature 
 administered great hopes to the nation ; and the 
 Lords were already weary of their new sovereign 
 Lewis, and he jealous of their fidelity, so that both 
 contrived all the ways they could think of to com- 
 pass each other's destruction. Under these circum- 
 stances (in a shorter time than could be imagined) 
 the French were glad to get safely home ; and the 
 English more joyfully submitted themselves to their 
 lawful King, who by too much desiring to take ven- 
 geance upon all his father's enemies, (which, how 
 piously soever intended, was too great an undertak- 
 ing,) did not escape some of his father's misfor- 
 tunes. 
 
 To such an immense height did this great Pope, character 
 Innocent the Third, raise or carry his power and ju-ni. m 
 risdiction, that there was not a King or nation in- 
 Christendom that did not feel and undergo the in- 
 supportable burden of his pride and usurpation ; 
 the memory whereof ought to be as sensible and 
 as terrible to all the monarchs of the world ; since 
 the evidence is too notorious, that his successors re- 
 tain the same ambition, and think themselves injured 
 to be without the same power, and cherish the seeds 
 he sowed, that it may in due time grow up again to 
 the same vigour. And in truth he had not a greater 
 care to possess himself of all that authority which he 
 thought himself worthy, but was as solicitous that 
 his successors might ever enjoy the same ; not so 
 
 L 3 much
 
 150 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, much by his example, as by the just title to govern 
 
 '- all the world; (and he had little reason to doubt of 
 
 the validity of their title, when he founded it always 
 upon Scripture.) That the court might be answer- 
 able to the grandeur of the prince, he raised that also 
 to another lustre than it had ever known before. 
 This is the Pope who declared, that as God made 
 the world he created two lights in the firmament of 
 the heaven, the one to govern the day, and the 
 other to rule the night ; " Sic ad Jirmamentum uni- 
 " versalis ecclesia, qua cceli nomine nuncupatur, duos 
 " magnas institute dignitates, major em qua quasi die- 
 " bus animabus pr&esset, et minorem qua quasi nocti- 
 " bus pr&esset corporibus, qua sunt Pontiftcialis au- 
 " thoritas et Regalis potestasT And then he says, 
 that as the moon borrowed the light of the sun be- 
 cause she is in all respects below and inferior to the 
 other ; " Sic regalis potestas ab authoritate Pontifi^- 
 " ciali su(B sortitur dignitatis splendorem, cujus con- 
 " spectui quanta magis inh&ret, tanto minori lumine 
 " decoratur ; et quo plus ab ejus elongatur aspectu, eo 
 " plus prqficit in splendorem" This is the Pope who 
 declared, though not so publicly, (for we heard not 
 of it till the time of Eugenius the Fourth,) that the 
 Cardinals (who had not been mentioned in many 
 hundred years after there were Bishops of Rome, 
 and, after they were taken notice of, had always sub- 
 scribed and taken place after all Bishops till about 
 the year one thousand) had their original by God's 
 own institution in the Old Testament; and that 
 what was said in the 1/th chapter of Deuteronomy, 
 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, 
 fyc. And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, 
 and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and in- 
 quire ;
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 151 
 
 quire ; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judg- CHAP. 
 ment ; " de summo Pontifice mtelligendum esse et fra- 
 
 tribus ejus, id est S. R. E. CARDINALIBUS, qui ei 
 "jure Levitico in executione sacerdotalis ojficii coad- 
 "jutores existuntr These foundations he laid for 
 his successors, to support the greatness to which his 
 example had prepared the way ; and it is now time 
 to take a view with what success they endeavoured to 
 tread in his footsteps. 
 
 Upon the death of Innocent, Honorius the Third " norius 
 was elected ; who first ordered upon a sede vacante, Orders the 
 that the Cardinals should be shut up in the conclave to be shut 
 till election should be made of a new Pope, which w 
 not always observed afterwards, though in this last 
 age the conformity to it hath been very punctual, 
 notwithstanding some conclaves have been very long. 
 He lost none of the respect his predecessor received, 
 but enjoyed it with less noise and more affection ; 
 and took more care to make Italy conformable to 
 him than to meddle farther off, except by his Le- 
 gate's customary residence, to preserve the reverence 
 that was paid him in other courts. This was im- 
 proved by his exercise of another jurisdiction, with 
 which many were pleased, and nobody was damni- 
 fied, because it had reference only to the next world, 
 and did nobody any hurt in this ; and that was, the 
 canonization of saints, which the world was better 
 pleased with, than with the excommunications and 
 interdictions of his predecessors. St. Francis and St - Fran ,? i9 
 
 r . and St. Do- 
 
 St. Dominic were his acquaintance and his friends ; mmic ca- 
 and they were but a short time dead, before so many 
 miracles were wrought by them, that he thought fit 
 to canonize them both. The saint's place, however, 
 in those days did not cost half a quarter of the mo- 
 
 L 4 ney
 
 152 ...^ JAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ney it now stands in ; nor was there so much cere- 
 - '- mony or preparation necessary towards it as in these 
 days. The first canonization made by this Pope (for 
 he made more saints than all his predecessors before 
 St. Law- h^ i ia d done) was of St. Lawrence, " Archiepiscopi 
 Dublmensis. Regis ac Regince Hibernia filii (as the 
 
 ' 
 
 " 
 
 A.D.12'25... , I - ' O 
 
 ' bull says) ejusque relatio in numerum sanctorum 
 " Confessorum, et festwitatis ejusdem pr&fimtio pro 
 " die 14 Nov." The canonization was by Pope Ho- 
 norius, the third year of his reign, one thousand two 
 hundred and twenty-five. What age the saint lived 
 in appears not ; and it will be hard to find that any 
 King in that time had the stile of " Rex Hibernice" 
 He was canonized upon the petition of the Archbi- 
 shop of Rouen, in whose diocese he died in his jour- 
 ney. The certificate upon which he was made a 
 saint was from Irish Bishops, and the Prior of the 
 Trinity in Dublin, " Quod claudi gressum, c&si visum, 
 " surdi auditum, mufi loquelam, leprosi mundationem, 
 11 et variis afflicti languoribus sanitatem, ad invoca- 
 " tionem ejus nom'mis receperunt? Ribadineyra (who 
 hath written his life) was better informed ; for he 
 tells us that he was the son of Prince Maurice of the 
 blood royal of Ireland, and that he died in Norman- 
 dy as he was going to our King Henry the Second, 
 who was then in France. Honorius did all he could 
 in England to repair the mischief that had been done 
 by his predecessor, and constantly adhered to the 
 infant King's interest. And it cannot be denied that 
 his Legate or Nuncio did contribute very much by his 
 mediation, and by his threats of ecclesiastical cen- 
 sures, to reconcile the rebellious barons to the King, 
 and to restrain them from new impetuosities, to 
 which they were too frequently inclined, after they 
 
 were
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 153 
 
 were reconciled. However, as it did the King some CHAP. 
 
 good, so it preserved his own authority and jurisdic ' 
 
 tion in the kingdom, which had been so newly 
 brought thither, and was burdensome and odious to 
 the people, and to none more than the clergy, who 
 enjoyed much greater privileges in their own right, 
 and by virtue of old ecclesiastical constitutions, than 
 they did or could do by any countenance from the 
 Pope ; which (though it sometimes served the turn 
 of a refractory Bishop or abbot that had a mind to 
 contradict or affront the King) never produced benefit 
 to the body of the clergy, that yet was sure to pay 
 dear for what others received. 
 
 After Honorius, Gregory the Ninth succeeded; a Gregory 
 man of as great a spirit as any Gregory who had 
 gone before him, or come after him ; and he desired 
 as much to be doing; but the times were not so fa- 
 vourable to him. The senators of Rome not only 
 questioned, but denied his authority in temporal af- 
 fairs, and all the neighbour kingdoms and provinces 
 grew every day more composed within themselves, 
 and thereby less apprehended his power. Harry the 
 Third of England (who was too much the son of his 
 father John) had too often occasion to use his omni- 
 potence in giving leave to break his promises, and 
 the oaths which (being sure of the remedy) he never 
 made scruple to make for the obtaining any benefit 
 or convenience. And the Pope never failed him in 
 those occasions ; but, knowing the value of it, ex- 
 acted great rewards for the commodity. Once he 
 sent a mandate to the King that he should prefer 
 three hundred Romans to the first cures or dignities, 
 or ecclesiastical preferments, which should fall vacant 
 in England; and shortly after he sent his Legate to 
 
 demand
 
 154 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAT, demand a great sum of money from the clergy ;, but 
 -the King was not much troubled with those imperi- 
 ous desires ; which were so ungracious and unpo- 
 pular, that the Lords and Clergy and People were al- 
 ways ready to take the refusal upon them. So the 
 proposition for the preferment of so many ecclesiasti- 
 cal persons was rejected by the Bishops and clergy, 
 with protestation against his having any authority in 
 those cases : and his other demand by his Legate for 
 a great sum of money was the more popularly re- 
 jected, because the Emperor at the same time sent 
 to the King, that he would not suffer any money to 
 be raised or collected in his kingdom for the Pope ; 
 inasmuch as all the Pope could get was employed 
 against him, and to disturb the peace of Christen- 
 dom, which he was more inclined to do than to pro- 
 secute a war against the Saracens. Hereupon the 
 Clergy passionately and positively refused to contri- 
 bute any thing, notwithstanding all the threats of 
 the Legate ; and prevailed with the King that there 
 might be a remonstrance prepared by the Parliament 
 to the Pope and the Council that was then summoned 
 to be at Lyons, against the great exactions of the 
 Pope and his officers in England ; and therein to 
 mention the vast sums of money that he had re- 
 ceived out of the kingdom since his coming to the 
 Papacy, and therefore to desire him that he would no 
 more make any such desires or demands. This remon- 
 strance being sent to the Pope, he rejected it with 
 great pride and insolence, and some expressions un- 
 dervaluing the King and Parliament ; the which 
 being reported, a law was made, by which all men 
 were prohibited to pay any money, upon what reason 
 soever, to the Pope. But this gave him not the trou- 
 ble
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 155 
 
 ble he received from the Emperor, whom he excom- CHAP. 
 municated, and who contemned his excommunica 
 
 tion : for when the Pope called a Council at Rome, 
 and had granted a crusade against the Emperor, the 
 Emperor found means to seize upon the persons of 
 ten or a dozen Cardinals and many Bishops, and kept 
 them prisoners ; so that they could not be present at 
 the Council, nor would the Council proceed without 
 them ; and the Pope's spirit not being able to bear 
 all these several kinds of vexations, he died of pure 
 anguish of mind. This Pope, Gregory the Ninth, 
 as if he had not thought St. Francis to be saint 
 enough by the canonization which his predecessor 
 Honorius had made, added by another Bull a testi- 
 mony or verification, that St. Francis (though his 
 modesty would not suffer it to be known whilst he 
 lived) had the very marks in his flesh of our Saviour, 
 " Quod idem sanctus, cum adhuc spatium pr&sentis 
 "vita pr&curreret, et postquam illud f elicit er con- 
 " summavit, manibus latere ac pedibus, specie stigma- 
 " turn divimtus exstitit insignitus." 
 
 All Italy itself was so weary of the perpetual con- Ceiestin iv. 
 tests with the Emperor, that upon the death of Gre* 
 gory they made choice of Ceiestin the Fourth, who 
 was known to be desirous of peace, and who would 
 have brought it to pass if he had lived ; but he died 
 after he had reigned sixteen days ; and when they 
 were to enter into the conclave for a new election, 
 those Cardinals who had been taken prisoners in the 
 time of Gregory the Ninth, and who were still de- 
 tained, sent their protestation against any election 
 that should be made till they should be at liberty, 
 which kept that chair empty for the space of full 
 twenty months. 
 
 In
 
 156 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. In the end, Innocent the Fourth was chosen, prin- 
 
 cipally because he was generally thought to have 
 
 iv? C great affection for the Emperor ; but he quickly 
 deceived their expectation, and resolved to be ra- 
 ther like Innocent the Third than the man they 
 took him to be. And therefore shortly after he was 
 crowned, the Emperor being then in Italy, he thought 
 it not safe to stay in Rome, but made haste into 
 France, where he called a Council to assemble at 
 Lyons, and the Emperor resolved likewise to go thi- 
 Excommu- ther, being then at Turin : and there he heard that 
 
 nicates the , , , , , ... ..,, , 
 
 Emperor, the rope had renewed the* excommunication that 
 Gregory had before issued out against him. The 
 Emperor had before, in the time of Gregory, (and to 
 get reputation for his piety above the passion of the 
 other,) undertaken the cross, and made a voyage to 
 the Holy Land ; where, his army being much wasted, 
 he had entered into a treaty with the Sultan, who all 
 agree was inclined thereunto rather for the respect 
 he bore to the Emperor, than for the fear or appre- 
 hension of his army : and the city of Jerusalem had 
 been delivered by the Sultan to the Emperor, (but 
 dismantled,) and a good part of the land about the 
 city ; with which the Emperor was satisfied, and re- 
 turned before, or immediately after, the death of Gre- 
 gory. But the new Pope disliked and disavowed the 
 treaty, declared it to be void, and published a new 
 crusade for the carrying on the war ; which pro- 
 duced infinite damage and dishonour to the Chris- 
 tians ; for it was no sooner known in the East, (as it 
 could not be long concealed,) but there was a general 
 massacre of all the Christians in those parts; and the 
 report thereof kindled that indignation and zeal in the 
 pious breast of Lewis of France, (who was called the 
 
 Saint,)
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 157 
 
 Saint,) that he, without the deliberation that was ne- CHAP. 
 
 IV. 
 
 cessary for such an expedition, immediately took the ' 
 
 cross, and made all possible haste to raise forces, and Crusade of 
 
 St. Lewis. 
 
 whatever else was necessary, towards so great an un- 
 dertaking ; all which he could not compass in three 
 years after. In the mean time the Pope in the Coun- 
 cil at Lyons renewed the condemnation and deposi- 
 tion of Frederic, " Imperatoris anathematis vinculo a 
 ". Gregorio nono hactenus innodati ;" with many ex- 
 pressions very new, " non sine proditionis et ICBSCB cr'i- 
 " mine Majestatis ;" which I suppose refers to the 
 Emperor's treaty with the Sultan, as if he betrayed 
 Christendom ; " merito insuper contra eum de H&- 
 " reticd pravltate suspicio est exorta" because, being 
 excommunicated by Gregory, he had presumed to 
 cause mass to be celebrated ; and so proceeds to the 
 declaring all his subjects to be freed from their obe- 
 dience, and absolved from their oaths which they 
 had taken to him, " quippe propter suas iniquitates a 
 " Deo ne regnet vel imperet est abjectus^ suis ligatum 
 " peccatis, et abjectum, omnique honor e et dignitate 
 " privatum ;" and with this he sends ambassadors to 
 the princes electors that they should proceed to the 
 election of another Emperor ; which they did. The 
 Pope however had not the courage to return into 
 Italy until Frederic was dead; but staid in France 
 above six years, and then returned to Rome. 
 
 Mezeray observes, that about this time, (which was Return of 
 about the year one thousand two hundred and se-A. 0.1270. 
 venty, or a little sooner,) when St. Lewis was re- 
 turned from his unfortunate voyage from the Holy 
 Land, where he had been taken prisoner by the Sul- 
 tan, after the whole defeat of his army, and had still 
 the same zeal for a new expedition thither, and when 
 
 our
 
 158 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, our Henry the Third grew towards the end of his 
 
 ' reign, the abuses and enterprises of the Roman court 
 
 Papal pow-were come to so high a pitch, that St. Lewis (though 
 fn France, he had always paid a greater respect to the holy chair 
 than any other prince of that time did) made a prag- 
 matique to stop their farther progress in France ; which 
 gave that court very much trouble for many years ; 
 and they are at this day upon an emergent occasion 
 put in mind of it, the Parliament having never con- 
 sented to its revocation. Although Pope Innocent 
 parted with no power without struggling to retain it 
 to the utmost, yet he durst do no more at that time 
 with reference to France, not only for the great re- 
 putation the King had gotten of sanctity and justice, 
 but also lest it might divert him from pursuing his 
 resolution for a second voyage to the Holy Land. 
 And in In England he made new attempts to recover the 
 power his predecessor Innocent had there, and to re- 
 verse that Act of Parliament which the pride of Gre- 
 gory had produced against the payment of any mo- 
 ney out of that kingdom to the Pope ; but his at- 
 tempts there likewise miscarried ; so that he found 
 himself much lessened, which went to his heart; yet, 
 to keep up his spirits, he found an opportunity to 
 take vengeance upon one King, and thereby to make 
 others see what he could do. 
 
 nicationTf Spain was the ready scene upon which the Popes 
 Don Diego, could always celebrate what triumphs they pleased ; 
 
 King of Ar- J J . J ' 
 
 ragon. there were so many Kings there, and so jealous or each 
 other, besides their joint jealousy of the Moors, who, 
 though they lost ground every day, possessed as much 
 yet as all the Christians. Don Jayme, or Don Diego, 
 King of Arragon, had in his younger days some fami- 
 liarity with a lady of great quality, Donna Teresa Vi- 
 
 daura,
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 159/.n 
 
 daura, and had a mind afterwards to marry another. CHAP. 
 
 TTT 
 
 Donna Teresa sued before the Pope, and alleged that . 
 the King had given her his word and promise, by 
 which it was not in his power to marry any other 
 woman. The King denied it; and when the cause 
 was heard, there were not witnesses enough to prove 
 the allegation, for defect whereof the Pope gave judg- 
 ment against Donria Teresa. The Bishop of Gerona 
 had been the King's confessor, to whom the King 
 had confessed the whole secret of that amour ; and 
 he, pretending that he could not with a good con- 
 science conceal a truth of such a nature, wrote the 
 whole relation to the Pope in cipher, and then the 
 Pope gave sentence against the King. The King 
 quickly found how this came to pass, and imme- 
 diately sent for the Bishop, and, as soon as he came 
 into his presence, (persons being ready to execute 
 the command,) he caused his tongue to be cut off, 
 which was presently done ; and when the Pope was 
 informed of it, he pronounced the King excommuni- 
 cated, and interdicted the whole kingdom. Every 
 body thought the offence was great in the Bishop ; 
 yet because it was not examined, nor he heard as to 
 what he could say in his defence, the judgment 
 seemed very severe ; and Mariana calls it cruel " car- 
 " niceria et torpe vengen^a." The King with all hu- 
 mility acknowledged his offence, and begged the 
 Pope's absolution; and the Pope sent ambassadors, 
 before whom, and in the presence of some Bishops, 
 the King kneeling upon both his knees, (after they 
 had given him a great reprehension,) received abso- 
 lution for his offence : his penance was to build a 
 monastery, which he had begun many years be- 
 fore. 
 
 The
 
 160 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. This was the sole act of transcendant sovereignty 
 
 - ' performed by this Pope. He vented his other pas- 
 
 sions in adding to the grandeur of his court, by the 
 
 great privileges he granted to the Cardinals which 
 
 The inqui- they had not before, erecting; the Inquisition with 
 
 sitionesta-\ .,...,.. , . . 
 
 Wished, ilhmited jurisdiction, and ordaining many severe 
 laws for the punishment of heresy, without giving 
 any definition or description what heresy was, or 
 should be taken to be ; which might be more won- 
 dered at, because of the unheard of rigour of the pu- 
 nishments; they who were guilty of it being to for- 
 feit all their goods and lands, their houses to be 
 pulled down, and all their children or kindred to be 
 incapable of all trusts or employment ; though they 
 should give satisfaction to the Church of their being 
 good catholics, nobody should presume to harbour 
 or entertain them ; if he were an advocate, he was 
 incapable of pleading any cause ; and if he was a 
 scrivener, all instruments made by him should be 
 void ; and, lest all this might not be sufficient to de- 
 press heresies, to which the age was inclined, he de- 
 creed and forbad " ne cuipiam laicce persona liceat 
 "publics vel privatim de fide catholicd disputare? 
 
 Alexander Alexander the Fourth succeeded Innocent the 
 Fourth ; he had as much mind to be like Alexander 
 the Third as the last Innocent had to equal the 
 former, and failed not of it for want of courage to at- 
 tempt it, and was without one disadvantage which 
 the other Alexander had to struggle with ; for there 
 was no schism in the Church, and so no Anti-Pope to 
 
 Disputed contend with. There was also no Emperor to con- 
 * ro ^ ^ m ; f r besides that the Emperor Frederic was 
 lately dead, the other Emperor William, who had 
 been chosen by the Electors upon Innocent's depos- 
 
 ing 

 
 FROM GREGORY VIT. TO CLEMENT V. 161 
 
 ing of Frederic, was miserably killed unknown ; and CHAP. 
 
 the electors differed in their choice of a successor, 
 
 three of them choosing Alonso the Tenth King of 
 Castile, and the other three choosing Richard Duke 
 of Cornwall, and brother to the King of England, 
 whilst the King of Bohemia, who had the casting 
 voice, refused to give his vote either way. Both the 
 competitors accepted the election, and both assumed 
 the title. Richard advanced his right so far that he 
 went into Germany, and was crowned at Aeon with 
 the iron crown by his electors ; but Alonso, though 
 he put himself not to the charge of going out of 
 Spain, (having enough to do with the Moors,) yet 
 supported his party in Germany so well, that all the 
 princes of the empire were so much divided, and had 
 that animosity against each other, that though Rich- 
 ard transported with him a vast sum of money, with 
 which he believed he could have reconciled all the 
 princes of Germany to his party, yet he found, after 
 about a year's stay, and the consumption of his trea- 
 sure, that he could make no progress towards a 
 peaceable attaining the empire ; and was necessitated 
 to return into England, keeping his title and wearing 
 the name still of Emperor, as Alonso likewise did ; 
 whilst the Pope would displease neither of them, 
 and thought himself more at ease and more secure by 
 this division and displeasure against each other, than 
 he could have been if the whole power were vested 
 in any one of them. 
 
 Alexander was thus possessed of as many advan- Disputed 
 tages towards the making himself great as he could 
 wish; and though he had some trouble in Italy by 
 the several pretences to the kingdom of Naples andcUy. 
 Sicily, yet he had thereby advantage too, by having 
 it in his power (as he believed) to confer that noble 
 
 M king-
 
 l6a PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, kingdom (which he knew he should not be able to 
 ' keep to himself or annex to the Papacy) upon a power- 
 ful friend, who might be able to protect him from 
 oppression. He had it in his thought to have given 
 that investiture to Charles of Anjou, brother to Saint 
 Lewis, whom he most desired and courted to be his 
 fast friend. But before he would enter upon such a 
 public declaration, (which he well knew could gratify 
 but one, and would disoblige many,) he resolved that 
 he would first vindicate his own title, and so make it 
 appear to be in his power to bestow. To that purpose 
 he granted the crusade against Manfredo and Ecelino, 
 and all other enemies of the Church, who made any 
 claim to the kingdom of Naples or Sicily. Manfredo 
 claimed the kingdom of Naples by the death of the 
 Emperor Frederic his father, and was well received 
 by the people, who preferred their subjection to him 
 before submission to the Pope, or to any upon whom 
 he would confer the dominion : so that Manfredo was 
 not like to be driven out by bulls and excommunica- 
 tions, which, by the lavish spending them, grew 
 every day less terrible ; and the Pope therefore 
 hoped to raise an army by this crusade, with which 
 many princes were very much scandalized, to see an 
 expedient made use of against a Christian prince and 
 a Catholic kingdom, that was only proper to invite 
 all Christians to make war against Turks and In- 
 fidels. 
 
 Attempts of Alexander now foresaw^, that though he might 
 draw mo- have some benefit from the crusade, his chief de- 
 ^ y , f m re pendance must be upon a stock of money of his own, 
 sisted in the wn ich he used all possible devices to procure, and 
 
 reigns of * 
 
 Henry in. had some encouragement to hope well from the old 
 
 ward i. King of England, (for Harry the Third was still 
 
 living,) notwithstanding the inhibition by parliament, 
 
 which
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 163 
 
 which his predecessors could never shake. That un- CHAP. 
 
 . iv 
 happy and irresolute Prince had at this time need of '^- 
 
 the Pope to dispense with him for not performing 
 some oath he had taken, (as he had often use of his 
 omnipotency in that point,) and therefore was wil- 
 ling to dispense with that ordinance of parliament, 
 and gave the Pope's ministers leave to come into the 
 kingdom to collect money from the Clergy ; but the 
 Clergy protested against it, and declared they would 
 neither yield therein to the Pope or the King, and 
 so kept their money to themselves. And Henry the 
 Third was no sooner dead, but his son Edward the 
 First (who had observed from what fountains his fa- 
 ther's calamities principally flowed, and had a greater 
 reputation in the world,) resolved to lessen that power 
 the Clergy had by the laws and customs of the king- 
 dom ; the insolent using whereof had compelled his 
 father and his grandfather to introduce the Pope's 
 authority to control the other, and which, without 
 the help of the crown, could never have found that 
 submission in England : and therefore he did not 
 only make them supply him with very great sums of 
 money, but took away those liberties and privileges 
 from the greatest monasteries which most subjected 
 the people to their obedience, and caused the statute Statute of 
 of Mortmain to be passed in parliament, to hinder Mortmain ' 
 the increase of their temporal possessions as prejudi- 
 cial to the kingdom, and which indeed made them 
 so powerful with the people : by another statute he 
 retrenched and limited the jurisdiction of the eccle- 
 siastical judges : and all this without consulting the 
 Pope, and in a time when heresies, as they call them, 
 were broached and countenanced in England, of 
 which it will be more proper to speak hereafter. 
 
 M 2 Pope
 
 164 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Pope Alexander, receiving this discountenance in 
 England, could not prosecute his other designs with 
 
 Bulls in i i 
 
 ^indication that vigour which they required, and ended his seven 
 
 of the ho- & . . , * , . , 
 
 nour of St. years reign without any other notable record or mo- 
 andhi'aid nument of his having been Pope, than two very no- 
 ofthein- j- or i ous bulls: one whereof was a testimony or de- 
 
 quisition. * 
 
 claration and verification of what Gregory the Ninth 
 had sufficiently published, of the marks which St. 
 Francis had in his fleslji of the wounds of our Sa- 
 yiour; which Alexander confirms " cum pcenarum im- 
 " positione adversus aliter affirmantes. Siquis spiritu 
 " temerarice prccsumptionis insaniens, divini muneris 
 " invidus, Apostolica judicia sacrilegus impugjiatur, et 
 " pr&missa vel alia prodigiorum signet, quibus in eccle- 
 " sid Dei sanctitas pradicti confessoris eluxit, improba 
 " contradictionis morsibus obtrectanda crediderit, Vo- 
 f< lumus et Mandamus, ut eum sante menti restituat ju- 
 " dicialis severitas disciplines, ita quod district a proprit 
 * Pr&lati castigatione correctus,Dei opera blasphemarc 
 tf dediscat fyc" which being in a still more tragical 
 way than had been before in any bull, I thought not 
 unfit to be inserted. The other bull was to authorize 
 and compel all secular or civil magistrates to assist 
 and execute all the sentences and judgments which 
 should be inflicted by the Inquisition in cases of he- 
 resy, or upon heretical persons, which had never be- 
 fore been required. And so we leave Alexander the. 
 Fourth in the peace and quiet of his grave. 
 Urban iv. Urban the Fourth was chosen upon the death of 
 Alexander; and, following his example in all he had 
 done and all he intended to do, renewed the crusade 
 against Manfredo, and declared the nomination and 
 investiture of Charles of Anjou. But there was 
 quickly a fire kindled in his own house, so that he 
 
 could
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. l65 
 
 could neither much help or much hurt his neigh- CHAP. 
 
 hours. For the senators of Rome assumed to them ' 
 
 selves all authority in whatsoever concerned the tem- 
 poral jurisdiction ; and, because he would not ac- 
 quiesce in that their assumption, they drove him out 
 of the city of Rome, and so vexed him, that his 
 short reign of three years gave him no time to pro- 
 secute, or to bring any of his great projections to 
 any maturity. For Charles of Anjou, to the end 
 that he might come into Italy attended and accom- 
 panied as became the son and the brother of so great 
 a King, spent so much time in making those prepa- 
 rations, that before he could come to Rome the Pope 
 was dead ; and so his expedition for Naples was like-* 
 wise necessary to be deferred. 
 
 Upon the death of Urban, Clement the Fourth, Clement 
 who was at that time employed in France to recon- 
 cile the displeasure of the King of England towards 
 Simon Montfort, was chosen Pope. Being a French~. and Jerusa - 
 man, he confirmed the grants his predecessors had 
 made to Charles of Anjou, brother to the King of 
 France, made him Governor of Rome, with the 
 title of Senator, and crowned him King of Naples 
 and Jerusalem ; with a condition (which he was 
 sworn to perform) never to accept to be Emperor, 
 though he should be chosen, nor upon any condi- 
 tions whatsoever to put the kingdom of Naples into 
 the hands and possession of the Emperor, and like- 
 wise to pay yearly to the holy chair eight thousand 
 ounces of- plate, and a white hackney, or palfrey. 
 Thus was that investiture given that hath cost France 
 and Italy such a deluge of blood and devastation ; 
 and which had been offered before to Edmund, bro- 
 ther to our Edward the First, and was by the advice 
 
 M 3 of
 
 166 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of that wise King declined, who neither liked the title, 
 nor the expense he foresaw the reeovering and keep- 
 ing it would require : nor was St. Lewis very fond of 
 it for his brother, who, the excellent French historian 
 says, was drawn to accept it by the vanity of his wife, 
 who burned with envy to have the title of Queen, as 
 well as her other three sisters. 
 
 Defeat and The fierceness and cruelty of Charles in his first 
 Manfredo. entrance into his charge, was a sad omen of all those 
 tragedies that ensued. He made the haste that be- 
 came him to come to a battle with his rival Man- 
 fredo, who was as impatient as he for that trial of his 
 right : but the treachery of those he trusted lost the 
 day, and himself, behaving himself bravely, was killed 
 in the fight. Charles might very probably have en- 
 joyed the fruit of his conquest, if he had used his vic- 
 tory as worthily as he had gotten it ; but he suffered 
 his army to exercise all the rapine, insolence, and in- 
 human cruelties that could be devised, and (which 
 made as great a noise) suffered the wife and children 
 of Manfredo, and all the great men who were taken 
 prisoners in the battle, to die in prison for want of 
 such accommodation and treatment as persons of that 
 condition are seldom deprived of; and this inhu- 
 manity was universally odious ; besides the not suf- 
 fering the body of Manfredo to be buried because he 
 was excommunicated : but this he did soon after so 
 outact, that so slight a piece of cruelty was no more 
 worth mentioning. 
 
 Defeat and Conradin, (of whom we have spoken before,) the 
 
 "conra- son of Frederic the Emperor, upon the death of his 
 
 father, thought he had a good title to the kingdom of 
 
 Sicily ; and returning about this time from the holy 
 
 war with great reputation, though not above sixteen 
 
 years
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 167 
 
 years of age, drew many of his friends, the princes of CHAP. 
 Germany, to assist him with such forces, (which were 
 suddenly drawn together,) that he landed in Sicily be- 
 fore he was expected, and when Charles was engaged 
 with all his army in the siege of Nocera, the only 
 considerable town in the kingdom of Naples that re- 
 sisted him. Charles no sooner heard of Conradin's 
 being landed, than he gave over his siege, and made 
 haste to a second battle, which proved as prosperous 
 to him as the former had been, and was more horri- 
 bly used by him than the other. The battle was 
 fought with equal courage, and almost equal loss of 
 blood; yet in the end the French prevailed, and Con- 
 radin himself, Frederic Duke of Austria, and Henry, 
 brother to Alonso King of Castile, were all taken pri- 
 soners, all young gallant princes, and near of an age. 
 Whilst they were contriving the means they could to 
 procure their liberty by ransom, or any other way, 
 Charles had other thoughts : though he had subdued 
 all his public visible enemies, he found his kingdom 
 full of faction and disposition to revolt, upon the great 
 tyranny that was exercised over them ; and he be- 
 lieved also there would be great difficulty and danger 
 in detaining Conradin and Frederic in prison, but 
 much more in setting them at liberty, they having 
 both great interest and great inclination to give him 
 farther trouble : whereupon, after long deliberation, 
 that made it so much the worse, and after they had 
 been prisoners above a year, he referred them to the 
 common justice of the kingdom : and the judges 
 caused their process to be made in their usual form, 
 and condemned them to die as perturbators of the 
 peace of the Church, and they had both their heads 
 cut off upon a scaffold in the middle of Naples,
 
 168 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " Execution qutfait encore fremir d'horreur la pos- 
 '- "-teritt" says the prudent Mezeray. Henry of Cas- 
 tile had his life saved, but was kept in prison five and 
 twenty years, and had then leave to return into 
 Spain. 
 Character Clement the Fourth was enough afflicted at the 
 
 of Clement i i i i i i i 
 
 iv. distempered spirit which he could neither restrain 
 
 nor reform, and lived not to see the ruin and mis- 
 chief he brought upon Italy and himself; for after 
 he had reigned about three years he died, and left 
 the character behind him of being a very virtuous 
 man ; and (as hath been said of him) his modesty 
 hath been particularly admired by all, but imitated 
 by 4ew of his successors. He protested, upon his 
 first coming to the Papacy, that he would not raise 
 any of his kindred above their ordinary station ; and 
 observed his word so exactly, that of three prebends 
 which his brother possessed, he made him to re- 
 sign two of them ; and having daughters of his own, 
 (for he had been a counsellor in France, and mar- 
 ried before he entered into orders,) he was so far 
 from desiring to marry them to great lords or princes, 
 (as he might have done,) that he suffered them all to 
 enter into a convent, and to become nuns. But 
 what this good Pope wanted of indulgence to his kin-* 
 dred, he abounded in it towards the two mendicant 
 orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis : and upon 
 their complaint that the Archbishops and Bishops 
 took upon them (under pretence of interpreting the 
 Pope's bull of privileges and immunities) to make 
 themselves judges of the privileges themselves that 
 had been granted, he gave them a more especial and 
 plenary bull ; and, without hearing the Archbishops 
 or Bishops upon the matter, declared that neither the 
 
 one
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 169 
 
 one or the other should presume to intermeddle in CHAP. 
 
 the interpretation of any thing that had been granted, ' 
 
 whether the expressions of the said grant were clear 
 or doubtful ; " Volentes, ut cum ejus sit interpretari 
 " cujus est condere, interpretatio super hujusmodi du- 
 " bits et obscuris dicta sedisjudicio requiratur ; Nutti 
 " ergo hominum liceat <8fe." This was the highest in- 
 vasion that had been yet made upon the Prelates of 
 the Church, and was a fair warning to all princes, 
 whose subjects all ecclesiastics are to be, in whatever 
 kingdom they are permitted to reside. 
 
 The Popes of this time had used all the endeavours 
 they could to draw the entire dependance of the 
 Clergy of all kingdoms upon themselves ; so that 
 their own kings might not have any command over 
 them : and to that purpose they had persuaded the 
 Bishops of France to refuse to do their homage to 
 their King, as exempt from any temporal jurisdic- 
 tion. But they quickly found that to be a business 
 too hot for them to handle ; for St. Lewis himself 
 (who was the most meek and devoted son of the 
 Church of any prince alive) had threatened loud 
 what he would do in that case; so that they gave 
 over that barefaced design, and prosecuted it only by 
 discountenancing the Bishops upon any appeal by re- 
 ligious communities, and gave all the encouragement 
 they could to the building and erecting monasteries 
 there and in all other kingdoms, and granting and 
 enlarging their privileges to the utmost; and were 
 satisfied for the present in using all their skill to abate 
 the power of the Emperor, especially that he might 
 have none in Italy ; and therefore (as hath been said 
 before) Clement the Fourth had made it a* solemn 
 condition, upon the investiture of Charles, that no 
 
 King
 
 170 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 C HA P. King of Naples should be capable of being chosen Em-. 
 
 '- peror; and by the opportunity of the contest between 
 
 Richard of England, and Alonso of Castile, Germany 
 had been long without an Emperor, whereby the 
 Pope's authority had exceedingly flourished in Italy. 
 
 Gregory x. After the death of Clement the Fourth, (which was 
 about the year one thousand two hundred sixty 
 eight,) the vacancy continued near three years, 
 through the dissension of the Cardinals, who ad- 
 hered obstinately to the particular interest of several 
 princes ; and then Gregory the Tenth was chosen, 
 who at that time was with Edward the First (then 
 Prince of Wales) in the Holy Land. In a short 
 time afterwards the Emperor Paleologus and the 
 Greek Church withdrew from the agreement they 
 had made four years before at the council of Lyons ; 
 and with which that Church was so unsatisfied, that 
 notwithstanding it was well known that the poor 
 Emperor had made that submission only to be free 
 from the claim of Baldwin to the empire, and had 
 thereby silenced that rival; yet within a few years 
 after, when Michael Paleologus the Emperor died, 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople would not suffer him 
 to be buried, because of his apostasy in having sub- 
 mitted to the council at Lyons, and thereby to the 
 power of the Pope : so odious is that supremacy to 
 the whole Church of the East, which yet they dare 
 not pronounce to be no Church, and so admit their 
 ordination to be good to those who come from thence 
 over to them. 
 
 Rodoiph of Gregory found that Germany would now be settled 
 - un ^ er the government of an Emperor ; for Richard 
 ^ ^ n g^ an( i was dead, so that Alonso remained sole 
 with that title ; yet the Electors who had chosen 
 
 Richard
 
 FROM GREGORY VH. TO CLEMENT V. 171 
 
 Richard would never submit to Alonso, but pressed CHAP, 
 for a new election ; and therefore the Pope prevailed ' 
 
 with Alonso to quit his pretence, and thereupon all 
 the Electors chose Rodolph of Austria, who carried 
 himself with great kindness to the Pope, which was 
 improved and advanced by another circumstance. 
 Charles of Anjou, being now in possession of Naples 
 and Sicily, how odious soever to his subjects, was of 
 that intolerable pride and unlimited ambition, that 
 he was not only uneasy but formidable to his neigh- 
 bours. His being Senator of Rome gave him so 
 much authority there, (and the insolence of his na- 
 ture disposed him to use all he had, and all he could 
 get, to the magnifying himself,) that the Pope grew 
 weary of Rome, and, without the least declared jea- 
 lousy, removed and resided at Viterbo. The factions 
 in the commonwealth of Florence grew every day 
 more notorious, so that Charles hoped to reduce them 
 all to his devotion, and thereby to add that large ter- 
 ritory to his other dominions in Italy ; and there- 
 upon grew to that vanity, that he spake very slightly 
 of both the Emperors, and that neither of them 
 should have any thing to do in Italy. The Pope 
 therefore and both the Emperors entered into a good 
 correspondence together, and into secret consulta- 
 tion how they might abate the pride and ambition 
 of this new comer, and keep him from doing either 
 of them hurt. But this negociation could not be 
 brought to any perfection in consequence of the 
 death of the Pope Gregory, who reigned but four 
 years ; and his two or three next successors scarce 
 lived to enjoy their greatness; for Innocent the Fifth innocent v. 
 lived but six months, and Adrian the Fifth not full Adrian v. 
 forty days. 
 
 John
 
 !72 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. John the One and Twentieth succeeded Adrian, 
 *^J_ who, the Spanish writers say, was a man abundantly 
 versed in all kind of learning, " Y ' principalmente sin- 
 " gularissimo medico" Whether he depended upon 
 his own skill, or upon his knowledge in astrology, in 
 which he was notoriously expert, he did really be-r 
 lieve that he was to live very long, and so betook 
 himself to the adding a very sumptuous building to 
 the palace at Viterbo, having no more mind to live at 
 Rome under the jurisdiction of the Senator, than his 
 predecessors had. But as he was with great delight 
 visiting his new buildings, a great part of it fell upon 
 him, and so broke him to pieces, that he died within 
 six days : so that three Popes in succession had not 
 lived much above a year. They had, however, con- 
 tinued underhand the same combination against 
 Charles ; and the other confederates were as jealous 
 of his greatness ; and the very next successor, Ni- 
 zfcchoias cholas the Third, (who was of the powerful house of 
 Ursini,) quickly after his election appeared barefaced, 
 resolute against Charles ; and first deprived him of 
 being Senator, settled himself in Rome, declared 
 that nobody else should govern there ; and farther, 
 made a decree, that no person whatsoever " de stirpe 
 " regid" should be capable of being made Senator of 
 Rome ; and moreover invited both the Emperors, and 
 Pedro King of Arragon, to join together for the ex-: 
 pulsion of Charles out of Italy ; and made some se- 
 cret promise to Don Pedro, to encourage him to 
 make an attempt upon the kingdom of Sicily. But 
 all these contrivances were for the present disap- 
 pointed by the unexpected death of the Pope, who 
 lived not above three years. It was the observation 
 of Machiavel, that the Popes of this time, sometimes 
 
 upoi*
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 173 
 
 upon pretence of religion, and at other times to com- CHAP, 
 ply with their own ambition, " non cessavano di chia- 
 
 mare in Italia homini nuovi, e suscitare nuove 
 " guerre, e poi quegli havevano fatto potente un prin- 
 " cipe se ne pcntivano et cercavano la sua rouina ;" 
 not being willing that any body else should enjoy 
 that province which their own weakness would not 
 permit them to enjoy themselves. 
 
 The death of Nicholas did not so much put an Martin 17. 
 end to all these designs, nor contribute so much to 
 the settlement of Charles, as the election of his suc- 
 cessor, Martin the Fourth; who, being a Frenchman, 
 and privy to all the contrivances which his predeces- 
 sors had against Charles, did all that was in his 
 power to prevent the execution of them ; and in 
 order thereunto he restored all to Charles that Ni- 
 cholas had taken from him, and wedded himself 
 wholly to his interest. But Charles took not so 
 much pleasure in enjoying what he had, as in con- 
 triving how to get more ; and was more intent ho\r 
 to possess himself of Florence, than how to secure 
 Naples and Sicily ; and at the same time prepared a 
 fleet to invade the Eastern Emperor, whom the Pope 
 excommunicated for falling from the agreement at 
 Lyons, made by his father. This made the Em- 
 peror and the King of Arragon continue in the same 
 resolution they had entered into with the last Pope. 
 Nor was Charles without very particular advertise- 
 ment of it; yet, between not believing and contemn- 
 ing the danger, he took no care to prevent it. In- 
 deed the King of Arragon proceeded with all imagin- 
 able secrecy and cunning ; and seemed wholly in- 
 tent upon prosecuting the war against the Saracens; 
 in order to which, he had desired assistance from 
 Philip the King of France, and likewise from Charles 
 
 his
 
 174 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, his uncle, King of Naples, and had paid a good sum 
 
 '- of money to both of them to that purpose, which 
 
 made Charles to apprehend nothing from him, and 
 with his money to prosecute his design upon Flo- 
 rence, upon which his heart was most set ; and then 
 he had a fleet ready, when that work should be done, 
 for Constantinople. 
 
 Sicilian In the mean time the King of Arragon caused 
 a body of men to be shipped, and to lie upon the 
 coast of Africa till they should receive advice from 
 Sicily to land there. And all things being in this 
 readiness, the Sicilians had resolved upon the most 
 prodigious way of revenge that had been ever thought 
 of; and upon Easter day, at the first stroke, or 
 sign of the bell to Vespers,, the natives of the island 
 fell upon the French (who had no apprehension) 
 in all places, and cut their throats without mercy; 
 which action, the French writers say, was exe- 
 cuted with so much fury, that the good fathers, 
 the Jacobins and Cordeliers, imbrued their hands in 
 blood with as much pleasure as any other execution- 
 ers, and massacred those unfortunate wretches upon 
 their altars, who fled thither for safety. The fathers 
 ripped up the bellies of their very daughters who 
 were with child by the French, and dashed out the 
 brains of their infants against walls and rocks. There 
 were eight thousand killed within the space of eight 
 hours, and this inhuman act was ever after called the 
 Sicilian Vespers. The Spaniards would have it believ- 
 ed that this slaughter was not premeditated, but pro- 
 ceeded from the extraordinary insolence of the French, 
 that put the people into a sudden insurrection ; and 
 Mariana says, that it was confidently affirmed that it 
 began in Palermo upon the rudeness of a French- 
 ,man, whom he names, and who, it being a day when 
 
 the
 
 FROM GREGORY VIT. TO CLEMENT V. 175 
 
 the women in devotion used to visit the Church of CHAP. 
 
 the Holy Ghost, " quiso con saltura catar a una mu : 
 
 " ger para ver si ellevava armas" by which the 
 people were so provoked and enraged, that they all 
 arose. But no sudden accident could have caused the 
 work to be dispatched so completely. 
 
 Charles was at this time in Tuscany, cultivating siege of 
 
 .. , -ii i* i Messinai 
 
 his designs there, and received the news with that 
 rage that was natural to him, and at this time very 
 lawful : and for the present he laid aside all other 
 thoughts but of revenge, in which both the Pope and 
 the King of France concurred with him in equal pas- 
 sion; and they both gave him such assistance, that 
 sooner than could be imagined, and before the King of 
 Arragon was ready to second them, he entered Sicily 
 with a great and strong army, where, rinding no ene- 
 my ready to fight with him, he besieged Messina, 
 and might presently have had it rendered to him, 
 and with it all Sicily, (the people being under a ge- 
 neral consternation,) if he would have endured any 
 application to be made to him : but he breathed out 
 nothing but fire and sword, as if less than an utter 
 extirpation of the nation would not expiate for theif 
 crime. This despair disposed those of Messina to 
 defend themselves vigorously, as their only refuge, 
 and added courage to all the people of the island. 
 At the same time the fleet of the Emperor Paleolo- 
 gus having defeated and scattered that of Charles, 
 the King of Arragon landed at Palermo with his 
 army, and was received with that universal joy, that 
 without delay he was crowned King of Sicily. 
 
 Upon which, Charles (not enough advised) thought challenge 
 it necessary to raise the siege from Messina, which he chafies of 
 Heeded not to have done ; and the King of Arragon, i>m 
 
 well
 
 176 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, well knowing the temper of his enemy, and finding 
 
 '- his forces too weak to encounter the other puissant 
 
 army, that received recruits every day from Rome 
 and France, sent a challenge by a herald at arms to 
 Charles, and proposed that they two might deter- 
 mine their right to the kingdom of Sicily by combat, 
 in their own person, accompanied with one hundred 
 knights each, and in the mean time that there might 
 be a truce. The fierceness of Charles's nature, and 
 the personal animosity he had against Pedro, (upon 
 whom he looked as the author of all the damage dis- 
 honour and indignity that he had sustained, besides 
 his being crowned King of Sicily,) made him lay 
 hold upon this opportunity of revenging all by his 
 own hand ; and so he accepted the challenge, against 
 the advice of all his council. According to Mariana, 
 the Spaniards do say that the challenge was sent by 
 Charles, and by a Dominican friar : all, however, 
 agree that it was mutually accepted, and that Ed- 
 ward the First of England (who was equally allied 
 to both) assigned them a place for the battle near 
 Bourdeaux, of which he was then sovereign ; and 
 thereupon, the French say, that Charles both raised 
 the siege from Messina, and made the truce. The 
 Pope, however, sent to the King of Arragon to re- 
 quire him not to persist in his ambitious designs, 
 and forbid him to meet in the place appointed, and 
 likewise sent to the King of England, " a mandar 
 " con palabras muy graves" (say the Spaniards,) that 
 he* should not allow any place, nor suffer the Kings 
 to fight in his dominions ; but they say also, that this 
 moved not the King. The first of July was assign- 
 ed for the combat ; and upon the day Charles ap- 
 peared with the equipage agreed upon, and waited (say 
 
 the
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 177 
 
 the French) upon the place from the rising of the CHAP, 
 sun to the setting, without any appearance of the ' 
 
 King of Arragon ; who, the Spaniards say, had re- 
 ceived advertisement that the English intended to 
 seize upon him, and so durst not appear. But it is 
 probable that he was more terrified by the Pope ; for 
 he had not only excommunicated him for bringing 
 his army into Sicily, but degraded him from his roy- 
 alty, arid exposed his kingdom as a prey to whomso- 
 ever would possess it. All which the King turned 
 into raillery, and as if he would submit to the sen- 
 tence of the Pope, he would not be called King any 
 longer, but Knight of Arragon, Lord of the Sea, and 
 Father of the three Kings. 
 
 This carriage of Don Pedro equally incensed all Crusade 
 
 u- j ^u ^u r> u against 
 
 his enemies, and none more than the Pope, who ag- Don Pedro 
 
 gravated his former sentence of excommunication 
 and depravation, published a crusade against him, 
 with the same indulgences and privileges as are 
 granted to those who engage themselves in an expe- 
 dition for the Holy Land, gave his kingdom of Arra- 
 gon to Charles Count of Valois, second son to Philip 
 King of France, and' sent a special Legate (the Cardi- 
 nal John Colet) into France to perform the cere- 
 mony of the investiture, which was done according- 
 ly, and accepted there : and Philip himself raised a 
 great army of horse and foot, to march into Arragon, 
 and to put his younger son into the possession of 
 that crown. Thus did the unwarrantable ambition 
 of Kings contribute to the greatness and superiority 
 of the Popes, who gladly embraced all opportunities 
 to leave precedents to their successors of the power 
 and authority of their predecessors ; France only 
 looking upon what the Pope did against Arragon as 
 
 N an
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, an effect of his own power over the Pope, and never 
 
 ' like to be attempted against him, or his kingdom ; 
 
 and yet the succeeding Pope (within one or two) ex- 
 ercised the same authority and jurisdiction over his 
 own son, Philip the Fair. Don Pedro contemned all 
 these enterprises, and, being vigilant and fortunate, 
 he left Sicily well united under the care of his Admi- 
 ral, Roger de Lauria, who was held generally to be 
 the best commander at sea that the world then had; 
 and himself made haste into Arragon, to attend the 
 motion of the King of France, who was at the head 
 of a very numerous army. De Lauria had several 
 advantages over the French ; and went with his fleet 
 against Naples, where in some encounter, besides ob- 
 taining the victory, he took Charles le Boiteux, son 
 to Charles the King, prisoner, and carried him to 
 Palermo ; where he had much ado to preserve him 
 from being made a sacrifice, to expiate for the bar- 
 barity that had been shewed in Naples to Conradin 
 and the Duke of Austria. The Sicilians would have 
 condemned him as formally to die as the French 
 had done the others, but that Constance, the wife of 
 Don Pedro, (who remained there, and knew the 
 value and privilege of royal blood,) by wonderful 
 dexterity and address, pretending to be angry at the 
 Sicilians, took care with the Admiral that he was 
 sent into Arragon, to the King her husband. This 
 last blow, and to see his son in the hand of his great- 
 est enemy, wrought so much upon the spirits of 
 Charles the father, that he died within six months 
 after ; and within a little more, all the French were 
 driven out of Italy. Philip of France had better for- 
 tune, and made a great progress victoriously in Ca- 
 talonia, and took many places. And Don Pedro 
 
 made
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 179 
 
 made all the haste he could to encounter him, which CHAP, 
 he did indeed too soon, for, falling into an ambus- 
 
 cade of the enemy, he received many wounds, of 
 which he died in a short time, and left to Alonso his 
 eldest son his kingdom of Arragon, with all that be- 
 longed to it, and to James his second son the king- 
 dom of Sicily. The King of France had not much 
 better fortune, for the Admiral of Arragon fell upon 
 his naval forces, after he had too soon dismissed the 
 ships of Genoa that helped him, and some other 
 misadventures befel his land forces ; and his own 
 health failing him, he caused himself to be trans- 
 ported in his litter to Perpignan, where in a short 
 time after he died ; having first seen all those places 
 which he had conquered in Catalonia reduced, and 
 return to their allegiance to the King of Arragon* 
 And so in very few months three Kings perished in 
 this quarrel, and all things shortly after came to be 
 in. the same condition they had been formerly be- 
 tween France and Arragon. The successors of 
 Charles remained only with a title to Naples, and 
 the son of Arragon in the possession of Naples, 
 which kept the quarrel alive for the wasting much 
 more blood. 
 
 By all these tragedies Pope Martin, the author of interdict of 
 them all, was the only gainer ; and he had another an d d cas- 
 opportunity at the same time to triumph over an- tlle - 
 other King, or rather over another kingdom ; for 
 Don Zancho, the eldest son of Don Alonso King of 
 Castile, who had won several battles, and got great 
 victories against the Moors, rebelled against his fa- 
 ther, and had so great a party in the kingdom, that 
 Don Alonso could think of no better way than to 
 complain to the Pope of him, " de impio, desobediente 
 
 N 2 " y in-
 
 180 "PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 1 ' ' ' il " ' i i Ci 
 
 CHAP, " y ingrato, y que in vidd de su padre le usurpava 
 - ' " toda la autoridad real fyc" The Pope gave a will- 
 ing ear to the complaint, and in a short time dis- 
 patched his bull into Spain, by which he excommu- 
 nicated all those who followed the party of Don Zan- 
 cho, or in any degree assisted him against his father. 
 So that in one and the same time both Arragon and 
 Castile were upon the matter interdicted, and had 
 in one kingdom all, and in the other the most of the 
 churches shut up, and no mass said ; and those two 
 great Kings, who had obtained several great victories 
 over the Moors, and had very much straitened their 
 quarters, underwent now more damage and oppres- 
 sion from the Pope than from all the other. Yet it il 
 to be observed, that as Don Pedro of Arragon pro- 
 secuted the war of Sicily with all vigour, notwith- 
 standing all the bulls and excommunications from 
 Rpme, so Don Zancho did not desist from his enter- 
 prises upon all the anger of the Pope ; and many of 
 those who followed him gave over his service, with a 
 full resolution to have killed all the judges and com- 
 missaries, that had been sent thither by the Pope : 
 so much of the reverence he had then lost in those 
 kingdoms, which would have been paid to a person 
 whom they believed to have been the Vicar of Christ. 
 It was that Alonso of Castile, who, without consult- 
 ing with the Pope, had caused the whole Scripture 
 to be translated into Spanish, that it might be read 
 and understood by the people. 
 
 The house It was about this time (that is, in the year one 
 gin Maiy f thousand two hundred ninety-one) that they say that 
 
 tne h use at Nazareth, in which the Virgin Mary 
 l* ve d when she was saluted by the angel, was re- 
 A. D.I 291. moved from thence, and found upon a mountain in 
 
 Dalmatia ;
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 181 
 
 Dalmatia ; where, after it had rested about three CHAP. 
 
 IV. 
 
 days,, it was brought into a wood that belonged to a ' 
 
 certain widow, who was called Lauretta, and from 
 thence, by two stages more, it was removed again, 
 and left in the place where it now stands, and where 
 they have providently built a great and a noble 
 church over it; that so it may be safely inclosed, 
 that it may gad no farther. And the resort thither 
 by all degrees and conditions of persons in pilgri- 
 mage to visit that holy place, and the presents that 
 have been and every day are offered to our Lady in 
 her old mansion house, have made that church to be 
 in ( .plate and jewels the richest church in Christen- 
 (dom ; which being a matter of so extraordinary a 
 nature, it might be thought worthy the care of the 
 supreme Pastor, to cause some such evidence of it to 
 be published, at least of one of the stages by which 
 it made its voyage, or to undeceive the world, that so 
 egregious a figment may not receive the countenance 
 of being thought to be believed by the Pope : and it 
 falls out, unluckily, that the. remove of this house 
 (which was never heard of from the time of the sa- 
 lutation till this occasion) should happen in the next 
 year after the loss of Acre, which put an end to all 
 those chargeable expeditions to the holy war, and so 
 made it necessary to bring that precious relic to a 
 more convenient distance for resort. 
 
 We come now to the time when the appetite pas- Gros . s cor - 
 sion and interest of secular princes prevailed so far the con- 
 in the election of the Popes, that, besides the very ' 
 long vacancies in the church, there was such grqss 
 corruption in the conclave, and such force and vio- 
 lence used upon it, that it was apparent to all the 
 
 world how little the Holy Ghost had to do in those 
 
 
 
 N 3 elections ;
 
 182 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, elections ; and that they were rather made according 
 
 ' to the will and humour of those without, than the 
 
 suffrages of those within. 
 
 As the see continued void for near three years (as 
 I have said before) between Clement the Fourth and 
 
 Honorius Gregory the Tenth, so, after the death of Honorius 
 the Fourth, (who succeeded Martin the Fourth,) the 
 Cardinals, being shut up in the conclave, were forced 
 to break up, and above ten months passed before 
 they entered again into a new conclave, in which 
 
 Nicholas Nicholas the Fourth was chosen. After the death 
 
 IV. 4l-| 
 
 of Nicholas, who was Pope but four years, Charles 
 King of Naples came to Rome to get a Pope chosen 
 who would be his friend ; and raised such factions 
 amongst the Cardinals, that the see continued void 
 seven and twenty months before any election could 
 be made ; and then they could find no other expe- 
 dient to agree, but the taking a resolution to choose 
 such a man as should not be a Cardinal, nor known 
 to any of them, (which was an excellent qualifica- 
 tion to provide an universal governor for the 
 church;) and so they all agreed to choose an hermit 
 Ceiestin o f the order of St. Benedict, who was called Celestin 
 the Fifth, a man of so great simplicity, that he never 
 denied any thing to any body who asked it, inso- 
 much as, for want of memory, he very frequently gave 
 the same thing to three or four ; and grew so weary 
 of the charge he could so ill discharge, that, after be- 
 ing Pope six months, he made a solemn renunciation 
 to the Cardinals, that they might choose another ; 
 which as soon as he had done, he stole away again 
 by himself to his cell, where he died ; and though 
 he was good for nothing else, he stands canonized for 
 a saint by the name of St. Peter the Hermit. 
 
 Upon
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 183 
 
 Upon that resignation, Boniface the Eighth was CHAP. 
 chosen, about or little before the year thirteen hun- 
 
 , , . 1-1 Boniface 
 
 dred ; in whose time there were such signal passages vm. A. D. 
 
 1300. 
 
 as cannot but be remembered. Shortly after his en- His 
 trance into the papacy, he desired to revive his power g^ 
 
 dis- 
 
 in England, which he thought the supine spirits of wh 
 
 . . r t , his autho- 
 
 his two or three last predecessors had suffered to berity. 
 restrained ; when indeed the wisdom and spirit of 
 the King had upon the matter expelled it. Edward 
 the First continued still King, and had reigned about 
 twenty-five years when Pope Boniface was chosen. 
 He had reduced his clergy to an entire obedience to 
 him, and drawn vast supplies from them for his as- 
 sistance in the wars. But as his father and grandfa- 
 ther had introduced and countenanced the Pope's au- 
 thority, that by it they might lessen that power and 
 jurisdiction which his clergy enjoyed by the laws of 
 the kingdom, and independent upon Rome, as I have 
 said before ; so rip'w, the clergy finding that this King 
 had by new laws taken away from them many privi- 
 leges and powers which the old ones had conferred 
 on them, and in the doing it had not been beholden 
 to the Pope, they wished to try whether, by adhering 
 to that foreign jurisdiction, they could be even with 
 the King, and abate somewhat of that dominion he 
 exercised over them. The Pope therefore, upon 
 some private application and address to him, pub- 
 lished a prohibition, that the church should not pay 
 any tallage or imposition that should be imposed 
 upon it by what prince soever ; and thereupon, when 
 the Parliament gave a great supply to the King for the 
 carrying on his war, the clergy, upon this prohibition 
 of the Pope, absolutely refused to give any thing. 
 The King, according to the natural vivacity of his 
 
 N 4 spirit,
 
 184 , ,.L 
 
 CHAP, spirit, found a notable remedy for this new distem- 
 
 per without sending to Rome, and presently put the 
 
 clergy out of his protection, whereby what wrong or 
 damage soever they sustained, they could not de- 
 mand justice in any of his courts; at which they 
 were so confounded, that the Archbishop of York, 
 and several other Bishops, made all the means they 
 could to pacify the King, and paid the fifth part of 
 all their goods to be received into his grace ; and the 
 rest, who stood out long after all their estates were 
 seized into the King's hands, were glad at last to re-r 
 deem themselves, by giving a fourth part of all they 
 had towards the maintenance of the King's wars. 
 And this they got by the Pope's interposition, who 
 was not indeed at leisure to look so far from home ; 
 and he had received a very sharp answer from the 
 King, upon his interposition to divert the King from 
 his prosecution of the war in Scotland, which the 
 King would not admit ; and made his nobility at the 
 same time write to his Holiness, that they would de- 
 fend the King's proceedings with their lives, and 
 wished him to intermeddle no more in that matter; 
 and (as I said) the Pope had somewhat else to do. 
 
 Hisdis- The Emperor Albert of Austria, having lately de- 
 putes with 
 
 the Em- feated the Emperor Adolphus in a sharp and bloody 
 be battle, in which Adolphus himself was killed, and, as 
 was said, by the hands of Albert, who remained then 
 acknowledged Emperor by the Electors and all the 
 princes of Germany ; the Emperor sent ambassadors 
 to the Pope to be confirmed : the which, though all 
 the princes of Germany solicited the same for the 
 establishment of peace and quietness in their country, 
 the Pope refused to do, saying, that he that had killed 
 an Emperor with his own hands did not deserve to 
 
 be
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 185 
 
 be one. In a short time after there grew some dif- CHAP. 
 
 IV 
 
 ference between the Pope arid Philip King of France ; And w [ th 
 and the Legate behaving himself with too much bold-Philip of 
 
 France. 
 
 ness in the expostulation, the King committed him to 
 prison. Boniface, seeing that he was like to lose the 
 King of France, for whose sake he had much neg- 
 lected the Emperor, sent a Legate to the Emperor 
 with the ratification he had before denied, and with 
 all the obliging circumstances that could be ; and 
 sent another Legate into France to demand the li- 
 berty of the former, or to excommunicate the King. 
 Philip resolved to have nobody command in France 
 but himself; and thereupon forbad all his subjects to 
 have any commerce with, or to admit any bulls from 
 Rome, or to have any suits there ; and then called a 
 Council in Paris, and in it declared Boniface to be no 
 Pope, and appealed to a general Council. The Pope 
 would not sit down with this affront, but called a 
 Council in Rome, deprived the King, gave his domi- 
 nions to his new friend the Emperor, and used all 
 possible means to engage him and all other princes 
 in a war against France. Though Philip knew very 
 well that a little compliance would divert this storm, 
 he yet resolved to pull up this licence and presump- 
 tion by the roots ; and, to shew what remedies he 
 thought natural to be applied to those exorbitances, 
 which would persuade his subjects to rebel against 
 him for conscience sake, he sent Sciarra Colonna, with 
 his brother, a disgraced Cardinal, and a French gen- 
 tleman, with two hundred horse; and with these they 
 marched with so great secrecy to the place where the 
 Pope was, and whither he came out of Rome to take 
 his pleasure, that they took him prisoner, and killed Boniface 
 him; which Philip was so far from repenting, that 1 " 
 
 he
 
 186 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, he publicly justified his proceedings: and Benedict 
 the Eleventh, who succeeded Boniface, did not only 
 
 xi. absolve the King of France, but likewise the two Co- 
 lonnas, who had been both condemned by Boniface, 
 and one of which had killed him. 
 
 jubilees This Pope Boniface the Eighth was a man of that 
 
 with plena- ..',,,., 
 
 ry indui- spirit, that he desired to set the whole world on fire ; 
 Stated by and if he had not found two such princes to stop the 
 viii. faCe career of his pride, as Edward the First of England, 
 and Philip the Fair in France, he would have proceed- 
 ed very far in the suppression of regal power. He 
 observed no rules practised or prescribed by his pre- 
 decessors, but resolved to walk only in his own ways. 
 He began with instituting the Jubilee for the next 
 year, and so to be observed once in every hundredth 
 year ; and he promised to all persons who should 
 that year, and so in every hundredth year, visit the 
 churches of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome, " non 
 f( solum plenam et largiorem, imo plenissimam om- 
 " mum suorum veniam peccatorum" which was then 
 very new : but his successors, knowing the benefit of 
 it, brought it first to every fifty years, and afterwards 
 to five and twenty. His design was to engage all 
 Christian princes in a war for the recovery of the 
 Holy Land, which he thought he had authority to 
 compel them to undertake, and in order thereunto to 
 be at peace amongst themselves ; so he begun with 
 writing very imperious letters to Edward the First of 
 England, that he should no farther prosecute the war 
 against Robert Bruce of Scotland, " quod jEcclesia 
 " Romano, patr'imonium esse asserebat ;" and withal 
 sent to the Kings of England and of France, requir- 
 ing them to make a truce between themselves, under 
 pain of excommunication. But Philip answered him, 
 
 that
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. l&f 
 
 that he would not receive law from any man for the CHAP. 
 
 . . 1 . IV; 
 
 government of the kingdom ; and that the Pope in this '- 
 
 case could only exhort, but not command. Boniface, 
 however, thought he should reduce them both by for- 
 
 O <l 
 
 bidding the clergy of either kingdom to submit to 
 any impositions their King should lay upon them 
 without his consent. How Edward persuaded his 
 clergy to a better conformity is mentioned before ; 
 but Philip had need of his clergy's consent and as- 
 sistance to make the Pope sensible of his error ; who, 
 being enraged at the commitment of his minister, 
 gave the King greater advantage, by sending him a 
 rude message ; " That the King was under his cor- 
 " rection for the sins which he committed in the ad- 
 " ministration of the temporal, as well as for other 
 " matters ; and that the collation to benefices did not 
 " belong to him, but that it was an usurpation:" by an- 
 other bull he suspended all the privileges which had 
 been granted by his predecessors to the King : and 
 by a third bull he commanded all the Prelates of 
 France to appear at Rome at a certain day, that he 
 might the better resolve what remedy to give to the 
 disorders of Philip, and the encroachments which he 
 had made upon the ecclesiastical state. And he noExcommu. 
 sooner heard that the King had forbidden the Bi-phiiipie 
 shops to go out of the kingdom, or to receive any 
 thing from Rome, but he issued out another bull, by 
 which he declared the King to be excommunicated 
 for having hindered the Prelates to go to Rome, and 
 forbad them to administer to him either sacrament or 
 mass, and required them all to appear at Rome, 
 within three months, upon pain of being deprived. 
 Whereupon the States and Bishops joined in the de- 
 claration mentioned before ; and Monsieur Vogaret, 
 
 the
 
 188 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the King's advocate, in presence of several princes of 
 
 ' the blood, and Bishops, presented a request to the 
 
 King, accusing Boniface of heresy, simony, magic, 
 and other enormous crimes, and demanded his Ma- 
 jesty's assistance to the calling a general Council, 
 which might deliver the church from the oppression 
 under which she did groan : and the King declared, 
 that in the person of Boniface there was no affront 
 put upon the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but upon a wick- 
 ed fellow, who had intruded himself into the pontifi- 
 cate, " un mesehant homme qui sestoit intrus dans la 
 <( Papaute ;" and so the King proceeded in the man- 
 ner that is before mentioned. 
 
 Death of The French writers will by no means acknowledge 
 
 Boniface . J "'*' 
 
 viii. that Uonitace was killed by those who took mm pri- 
 soner. They confess, that,, being at Anagnia, the 
 town where he was born, and where he thought him- 
 self more secure than in Rome itself, Sciarra Colonna 
 had found means to conceal the men he had drawn 
 together in a neighbouring castle, till he had gained 
 the people of Anagnia to join with him ; and then 
 they forced the castle, and. seized upon the person of 
 the Pope, and a very great treasure : but they say, 
 that the fourth day after the people of Anagnia re- 
 pented their baseness., and drove all the French out 
 of the town, and thereby the Pope was set at liberty, 
 and removed to Rome ; where his great heart with 
 pure indignation cast him into a burning fever, of 
 which in few days he died ; which is a very proba- 
 ble story, that the greatest enemies he had in the 
 world, Italians, and whom he had most implacably 
 injured, (for he had sent Sciarra Colonna to the gal- 
 lies, and if he could have apprehended the Cardinal 
 Jhe had been strangled,) would have so parted with 
 
 him,
 
 FROM GREGORY VII. TO CLEMENT V. 189 
 
 him, after having had him in their hands four days. CHAP. 
 The Spanish writers (who are as unwilling that a ' 
 
 Pope should be so used by Catholics) say, that as 
 soon as he found that he was in the hands of those 
 his enemies, choler and rage broke his heart. There 
 is no probable evidence that he was ever seen alive 
 after he was in their hands ; and Philip's proceeding 
 after his death shews manifestly enough what temper 
 his displeasure was of. Mariana says, that the rea- 
 son why Philip and the Council at Paris declared 
 Boniface to be no Pope, was, because the renunciation 
 of Celestin was not valid; and concludes this affair, 
 " Grande es la auctoridad de los Pontifices, pero las 
 " fuerqas de los Reyes son mas grandest 
 Without doubt he was a man who delighted to tread His dm- 
 
 r3.ctcr 
 
 out of the common road, and did nothing like other 
 men: and so when the Kings of Castile and Portugal 
 sent ambassadors to him for a dispensation, whereby 
 they might accomplish a marriage that was agreed 
 upon between them, but by reason of the nearness 
 in blood required a dispensation, Boniface readily 
 granted it ; and likewise another dispensation, to 
 confirm the marriage that had been between the 
 Queen Donna Maria and the King Don Zancho, 
 who were both dead, and which he always refused to 
 grant whilst they were alive ; and this, by all the 
 rules which were then to be judged by, was generally 
 held void after death : but Mariana says, they that 
 think so do not understand the authority of the 
 Pope, and how far he can extend it when he sees it is 
 for the public good. All the world was glad he was 
 gone, though few were pleased with the manner of 
 his going ; and it looked like a judgment, that, 
 whereas he did intend to have left a more absolute 
 
 power
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, power and authority to his successors than they had 
 yet grasped at, his pride did so much awaken all 
 princes to an apprehension of their own interest, that 
 they were well content to see the succeeding Popes 
 made properties of for many years after. 
 
 -I -ids 
 
 CHAP.
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 191 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Farther Progress of Papal Usurpations from Cle- 
 ment V. A. D. 1305. to Eugenius IV. A. D. 1431. 
 during the Residence of the Popes at Avignon 
 and the great Schism. 
 
 AFTER Benedict the Eleventh was dead, (who Conclave 
 
 . upon the 
 
 reigned not a year.) the vacancy continued thirteen death of 
 
 , , j /i r- i J U Benedict 
 
 months ; and the factions were so equal and so ob- X i. 
 stinate in the conclave, that, after they had continued 
 together nine months, they found only this expedient 
 that they could agree upon ; namely, that those of 
 the French faction should name three, and the Ita- 
 lians should choose one out of those three to be Pope; 
 or, that the Italians should choose three, out of which 
 the French should elect a Pope ; and that they who 
 were to make choice out of the three should have 
 forty days allowed them to make their election. And 
 by this kind of lottery, and according to the humour 
 and appetite of these two nations, the universal 
 Church of Christ must be provided of a supreme Bi- 
 shop. 
 
 The Archbishop of Bourdeaux (who had incensed Clement v. 
 
 elected. 
 
 the French King, and was in truth a subject to the 
 King of England, who had then Aquitaine and Guy- 
 enne) was one of the three named by the Italians, 
 
 who
 
 192 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, who in the forty days to come found means to pacify 
 
 ' the King of France ; and the King agreed to make 
 
 him Pope, upon his faithful promise and obliga- 
 tion; first, that he would absolve the King from all 
 censures which Pope Boniface had inflicted upon 
 him ; secondly, that he would give him for five 
 years the tenths of all the churches within his domi- 
 nions ; thirdly, (which was worth the other two,) 
 that he would keep his pontifical court in France ; 
 fourthly, that he would condemn Boniface ; fifthly, 
 that the house of Colonna should be fully restored, 
 and some of their friends made Cardinals : all which 
 the Archbishop contracted to perform, and did not 
 only give his own oath for it, but put his brother 
 and nephews as hostages into the King's hand. 
 
 Removes to Thereupon he was chosen Pope, and called himself 
 Clement the Fifth ; and shortly after came to Avig- 
 non, where his court was kept ; and then called a 
 general Council at Lyons, in which Philip was very 
 importunate to have the bones of Boniface the Eighth 
 burnt as an heretic : this the Council would not be 
 persuaded to; but, to gratify the King, they repealed 
 all the judgments which Boniface had given against 
 him, and absolved the King for whatsoever he had 
 done. It is an easy matter from hence to imagine 
 what influence the King of France had upon the ec- 
 clesiastical state ; and what opinion the Christian 
 world had for above five hundred years of the infalli- 
 bility or universality of the Pope, may be easily col- 
 lected from the instances which follow. 
 
 Absolves I must not omit in this place to remember, (as a 
 aii his record of the sanctity of this Prelate, and of the time 
 - in wmctl he lived,) that it was this Pope Clement the 
 
 vatbn of fifth, who, even as soon as he came to be Pope, ab- 
 solved
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 
 
 solved our King Edward the First from the oath he CHAP, 
 had takeiij with all imaginable solemnity, for the ob- ^ 
 servation of the laws and charters he had granted and char- 
 and confirmed to his subjects in his three last Par- 
 liaments ; the desiring whereof was a great blemish 
 to that glorious King ; though it was when his judg- 
 ment was thought to be corrupted, and wrought on by 
 wicked men, it being in the thirty third year of his 
 reign, and when he was very old. And though his 
 virtue restrained him from making any use of that 
 dispensation, and so in a degree he expiated the sin 
 of asking it, yet the iniquity and impiety of the 
 Pope in granting it can never be excused. It is an 
 instance what a wicked price they paid, that they 
 might be admitted to exercise a sovereignty over the 
 consciences of princes. And, I am persuaded, if 
 there were a short collection of the bulls and dispen- 
 sations they have granted, (which is no difficult 
 work,) from time to time, for the dissolving and 
 making of marriages, the breaking of oaths and law- 
 ful contracts, and for absolving of perjuries, and the 
 like, they would be found to have introduced more 
 mischief into the Christian world, and to have 
 brought more scandal upon Christian religion, than 
 all the heretics whom they have condemned from 
 the time of the Apostles. 
 
 All the writers of this time, as well French asPerform- 
 Spanish and Italian, are very particular in the in- 
 famous conditions which Clement entered into wi 
 the King of France for the obtaining the Papacy ; waselected - 
 all which he performed to the utmost of his power. 
 Benedict the Eleventh had, as soon as he was chosen 
 Pope, disannulled and reversed all the acts which 
 Boniface had done against Philip, received his am- 
 
 o bassador*
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, bassadors with much respect and kindness, and had 
 - likewise revoked all the acts of condemnation which 
 his predecessor had passed against the house and fa- 
 mily of Colonna ; but he would not restore the two 
 Cardinals that he had deprived ; and moreover he 
 gave order for the prosecution of all those with the 
 utmost severity who had a hand in the taking the 
 late Pope prisoner, which made Philip so exact in 
 providing a particular article for them. As soon 
 therefore as Clement was chosen, they pursued their 
 former accusation against Boniface for heresy, &c. ; 
 and the King pressed very earnestly for the con- 
 demning his memory, and that his body might be 
 taken up and burnt, without which they thought the 
 censures and reproaches he had laid upon them could 
 not sufficiently be taken off. Clement yielded to all 
 that they desired, except to the condemning of Boni- 
 face ; this he reserved, and referred it to a general 
 Council, which he had appointed to meet at Vienne 
 in Dauphine" ; and in the mean time he directed all 
 the preparations to be made towards the condemna- 
 tion of Boniface. 
 
 Suppres- The French say, that, over and above the five re- 
 Knights e cited conditions, there was a sixth, that at the pre- 
 sen t was no f. k nown> It seems the other five were 
 generally spoken of; and they say that sixth con- 
 cerned the Knights Templars, whose fate shortly after 
 followed, and was the great business of the following 
 Council, and administered discourse to all the world, 
 that was amazed at it, it being only contrived be- 
 tween the Pope and the King ; nor is that affair to 
 this day understood. Upon the agreement made 
 with the Pope, the first prosecution against the 
 Knights Templars begun at Paris ; where, by the com- 
 
 mand 
 
 13 1 0>
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 195 
 
 marid of the Pope., the Great Master Jaques de Molay, CHAP, 
 a Burgundian, who was then at Cyprus, (which he ' 
 
 had with notable courage defended against the Turk,) 
 appeared before the King with threescore Knights of 
 the order ; whereof Guy, the brother of the Dauphin 
 of Vienne, and Hugh de Paralde, were two ; and the 
 rest were all principal officers, who came to accom- 
 pany their Great Master, not knowing what he was 
 sent for : but upon his appearance, they were all ap- 
 prehended and committed to close custody with him. 
 The King had called or appointed the Archbishop of 
 Sens to call a provincial Council at Paris, to which 
 the examination of that affair was referred. This was 
 in the year one thousand three hundred and ten, 
 when they were charged with many foul crimes, 
 without the proof of any one witness. The Pope had 
 appointed that the Great Master, and the other two 
 Knights who are named, should be reserved for his 
 own examination ; the other seven and fifty were all 
 put to the torture, and upon the torture confessed all 
 that they were charged with, and were all thereupon 
 condemned to be burned. This sentence was exe- 
 cuted with a circumstance of great cruelty, the fire 
 being kindled so slowly that they endured all the tor- 
 ment imaginable ; at their deaths however, every one 
 of them declared their innocence, and absolutely de- 
 nied all that they had confessed in their torture. In Council of 
 the year following, (one thousand three hundred and 
 eleven,) the general Council assembled at Vienne J 
 where the Pope told them, that the cause of calling 
 that Council was for the carrying on the holy war, for 
 the condemnation of the Knights Templars, and for 
 reforming some other things that were amiss. Bos- 
 quet, the present Bishop of Montpelier, (in the lives 
 
 02 of
 
 CHAp. of those Popes who lived at Avignon,) says, in th 
 '"fy "' life of Clement the Fifth, that the Pope, " multis Pra- 
 " latts cum Cardinalibus coram se in private consisto- 
 *' rio convocatis, per proviswnis potius quam condem- 
 " nationis viam t ordinem Templariorum cassavit^ et pe- 
 " nitus adnullavit ; personis et bonis ejusdem ordinis 
 " dtspositioni et ordinationi SUCK et ecclesia reservatisT 
 But he says, in the month following, in a second ses- 
 sion, " pr&dicta cassatio or dints Templariorum fuit per 
 " summum Pontificem radiante concilia promufgata^ 
 " prasente Rege Francm Philippo cum tribus filiis 
 " suis, eui negocium erat cordi. 
 
 Cruelty ex. Mariana says, that they were accused of all man- 
 wards the" ner of beastliness ; and that they held the same opi- 
 
 mons with the Albigenses concerning the Sacrament, 
 and doubt- ^g power o f the Pope. &c.; and that some of them 
 
 fulness of f f ' 
 
 the crimes were brought to confess the worst part of the charge, 
 them. and amongst them Molay, the Great Master, had been 
 led by great promises to make some confession ; but 
 that when he was likewise (contrary to the promise 
 made to him) brought to the stake, he utterly denied 
 all that he had formerly confessed ; and said it was 
 not a time in the last minute of his life to lie ; and 
 swore by all that was to be sworn by, that all that 
 had been objected against him and the other Tem- 
 plars was false, and without any ground ; " Porque 
 " aquella or denes santa, justa, y Catolica? and that 
 all that was imputed to them was false, " a persua- 
 " sion del summo Pontifice y del Rey de Francia." In- 
 deed the bull of Clement for their condemnation and 
 dissolution had very strange general expressions, 
 " obscemtatibus,pravitatibus, maculis fyc. qua (propter 
 " tristem et spurcidam eorum memoriam) pr&sentibus 
 " subticemus ; ejusque ordinis statum habitum atque 
 
 " nomen
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EtJGENIUS IV. 
 
 * nomen, (non sine cordis amaritudine et dolor e) sacro d H A I s . 
 
 '* approbante concilio, non per modum definitive sen- ' 
 
 " tenti&, ( cum earn super h&c secundum inquisitiones 
 " et processus, super his habitos, non possemus ferre 
 " de jure) sed per viam provisionis, seu ordinationis 
 " Apostolica irrefragabilij et perpetuo valitura sustu- 
 " limus sanctioned Nor is there, I think, (for I have 
 made diligent inquiry in places where they would be 
 most like to be found) any memorial preserved of the 
 crimes which were charged against them. Certain it 
 is, that no part of the Christian world appeared then 
 satisfied with the manner of the proceeding. But 
 the Pope had so good a second, or was himself so 
 good a second, that the work must be gone through 
 with ; and therefore the next year the Pope sent his 
 
 f!.->tn'j 
 
 :;.>;; 
 
 s<7 -Tis't 
 
 apostolical letters to the Archbishop of Toledo, a'nd 
 the Bishop of St. Jago, commanding them to pro- 
 ceed effectually against the Templars in Castile ; and 
 the like he sent into Arragon, and to all the pro- 
 vinces in Christendom where they had possessions? 
 Notwithstanding which a Council being called at Sa- 
 lamanca, and a process being made against some' 
 Knights who were prisoners, upon their confession^, 1 
 and all the information that was given, they were de-t 
 clared innocent ; and this declaration was sent to the : 
 Pope ; notwithstanding which he required them ttf> 
 execute his decree, " cujo deer eta y sententia provale-> 
 " cis contra el voto de todos aquellos padres y toda 
 " aquella orden fue extinguida ; (says Mariana, and 
 " concludes,) necessario es que confessamos que las ri- 
 " quesas con que se engrandecieron sobre manera,fue- 
 " ron causa de su perdicion :" but Philip was known 
 to have had a long displeasure against them before 
 this prosecution^ upon some countenance they had 
 /*v>: ; r o# given
 
 198 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, given to a mutiny in Paris, upon the occasion of some 
 adulterate money which the King underhand had di- 
 rected. The order was universally suppressed in all 
 places, and their estates seized ; but I do not find 
 that their persons were put to death any where but 
 in France : and in all other kingdoms their estates 
 were assigned to the Knights Hospitalers, and so to 
 those of Rhodes, and now remain for the most part 
 to the Knights of Malta. This bloody prosecution, 
 with so many unheard of circumstances, was attended 
 with an accident more wonderful, which being men- 
 tioned by Mariana, and confirmed by Monsieur Me- 
 zeray, (two who cannot be suspected to be of doubt- 
 ful faith in a particular of this nature,) may not be 
 unworthy to be here inserted ; which is, that the be- 
 haviour of Molay at his death, and his extreme con- 
 stancy and resolution, persuaded all the world that 
 he was innocent; and it was reported, that at his 
 death he summoned and cited the Pope and the 
 King of France to appear before the tribunal of God, 
 the Pope within forty days, and the King within a 
 year. The Pope grew very ill, and desired to be car- 
 ried to the place of his birth, that was not far off, and 
 in his journey died at Roquemaure upon the Rhone 
 before the fortieth day was expired. The King was 
 at that time very well and vigorous, being but eight 
 and forty years of age ; but he grew less cheerful, 
 and whether from some secret inward cause, or from 
 a fall he had from his horse in hunting a wild boar, 
 he fell sick, and died at Fontainbleau, where he had 
 been born, within a year after the citation. And the 
 fate likewise that afterwards, and in a short time, be- 
 fel his three sons, with whom his family expired, was 
 very observable ; and persuaded many men to be- 
 lieve
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 199 
 
 lieve that there was some secret vengeance (the cause CHAP. 
 
 whereof was not manifest) that produced so many ' 
 
 signal judgments. And in this manner was that fa- 
 mous order of Knights Templars, which had per- 
 formed many notable services against the Turks, and 
 after it had flourished a hundred eighty-four years 
 " impinguatus ac dilatatus mmis" says the Bishop of 
 Montpelier. But Daniell (who was a better calcu- 
 lator, and differs not from him in the time of the 
 dissolution) reckons that it lasted about two hundred 
 years ; and says, that it was instituted by Baldwyn 
 the Fourth, King of Jerusalem, and was first ap- 
 pointed for the defence of that city, and the safe con- 
 voy of such as travelled thither ; and therefore they 
 were afterwards through all the kingdoms of Chris- 
 tendom, and by the bounty of Princes and others, 
 enriched with infinite possessions : he says also, that 
 the King of France begun that prosecution, with a 
 purpose to make one of his sons King of Jerusalem, 
 and to possess him of all their revenues, which in- 
 deed were much greater than all that belonged to 
 that crown ; but I know not from whence he had 
 that evidence, more than that he was a very labo- 
 rious inquirer, and a man of good judgment, and 
 seems to believe that their wealth had made them 
 much to degenerate from their first institution, and 
 that they were become execrably vicious ; yet he 
 confesses that they were condemned rather by fame 
 than proof: and so we shall leave them to their 
 fate. 
 
 After a vacancy of eighteen months upon the death John xxn. 
 of Clement, John the Two and Twentieth was chosen 
 Pope in the manner mentioned before, that is, by his 
 own nomination: and he quickly shewed whose subject 
 
 04 he
 
 200 V?* SUWafcfcPAI;- USURPATIONS 
 
 ;{iHA-P. he was; for there being then great difference between 
 jrs-J.^ the Emperor Lodovico and Philip King of France, 
 
 f A 
 
 the Pope not only excommunicated the Emperor for 
 taking upon him that style without his confirmation, 
 but cited him to appear at Avignon within three 
 months ; which time being expired, he declared him 
 an apostate and a rebel to the commands of his holy 
 mother the Church, and thereupon deprived him of 
 all his dominions, and anathematized all persons who 
 gave him any title of dignity, as rebels, heretics, and 
 apostates. In what a dismal confusion had Christen- 
 dom been at this time, if it had believed that the 
 dictates of the Pope were the dictates of the Holy 
 Ghost! The Emperor was not much troubled, but 
 appealed to a future Council, and to the Pope himself, 
 when better informed ; and went with what haste he 
 
 Nicholas v. could to Rome, where he chose a Franciscan Friar 
 to be Pope, who called himself Nicholas the Fifth, 
 and having made Cardinals, absolved the Emperor 
 and crowned him. 
 
 John xxii. And here again, that we may be careful to trans- 
 
 takes part . , . i r i -r\ * i 
 
 against Ed- mit the evidence ot the Pope s current authority in 
 England.'" our own kingdom, it will not be amiss to remember 
 that it was this Pope John the Two and Twentieth 
 who took the advantage of the weakness of our 
 King Edward the Second, and of the ill temper of 
 that age ; and disposed most of the Bishops to join 
 with and assist all the rebellions against him, and 
 to insist upon the ecclesiastical privileges, so as not 
 to suffer the Bishop of Hereford to be proceeded 
 against by the laws of the land, for rebelling against 
 the King ; and afterwards sent a Legate to attend 
 the Queen when she made war against her husband, 
 and to excommunicate all those who took arms 
 
 against
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 
 
 against her ; because, he said, she only endeavoured CHAP, 
 the delivering the kingdom from the misleaders of - ' - 
 the King, who was shortly after taken prisoner, and 
 then murdered. 
 
 This Pope John the Two and Twentieth lived to a Character 
 
 . i-i of John 
 
 great age, even to ninety years, and reigned eighteen xxu. 
 years. Though he was but the son of a cobler, yet 
 he had a great and an active spirit, and was more 
 learned than most scholars of that age ; and if the 
 foulness of his election, and his so entire dependance 
 upon France, had not exposed him to the disesteem 
 and irreverence of all other Christian Princes, he had 
 a great mind to be busy in the world. The Em- 
 peror, whom he so unreasonably and absurdly ex- 
 communicated, went to Rome and set up an Anti- 
 Pope, (as hath been said before,) a Franciscan Friar, 
 who called himself Nicholas the Fifth; who made >fa-*> 
 
 - ^ ' Y ; A 
 
 .Cardinals and did all other offices of the Pope, and 
 absolved and crowned the Emperor, which put all 
 Italy into a flame. And though France adhered to 
 John in the vindication of his authority and govern- 
 ment, yet they could give him no other assistance ; 
 for their own wars in Flanders and with England 
 took up all their thoughts, and spent all their money. 
 He was elected in truth after the death of Philip le 
 Bel, but the death of the King was not known then ; 
 for though Lewis, who succeeded, (and who caught 
 the Cardinals and shut them up in the Dominicans* 
 cloister at Lyons, when they never thought of en- 
 tering the conclave,) was gone to Paris, yet he took 
 such care for the strict guarding them that they had 
 no news of the King's death till the election was 
 over, and John was declared and acknowledged 
 Pope. He lived to see the line of Philip le Bel ex- 
 tinguished,
 
 203 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, tinguished, for his three sons, who were all Kings in 
 - : their turns, died ; and Philip de Valois became King 
 whilst John the Two and Twentieth lived. By these 
 quick changes he had only opportunity to use his 
 authority in getting money ; and this he did to an 
 incredible proportion, and by an incredible oppres- 
 sion and tyranny over the French Clergy, which 
 made him not acceptable to the new King, Philip de 
 Valois. This same Pope was the first that settled, as 
 a fixed and permanent law, the reserving of the first- 
 fruits of all vacant benefices to the holy seat ; and he 
 attempted to revive his power in England by send- 
 ing a bull to our Edward the Second, very imperi- 
 ously requiring him not to suffer the Irish to undergo 
 so great oppressions by his governors and ministers, 
 " contra formam concessions habita a sede Aposto- 
 " lica ;" which found no regard even in that ill time. 
 Philip de But the greatest affront he received, and which 
 siststhe would have been insupportable if he had believed 
 that supremacy to be in him which some of his suc- 
 
 mediate'" cessors have since challenged, was in the very ex- 
 state of ercise of the Keys. He had published a decree in 
 
 the soul, . * 
 
 and over- Avignon, that the souls departed knew neither hap- 
 
 ajudgmentpiness nor misery till the day of judgment, which 
 
 torsof Paris' was agreeable to the opinion of some former ages of 
 
 A. D. 1333. t ne Church; but it was now no sooner heard of, than 
 
 the faculty of theology of Paris inveighed against it 
 
 with much passion and bitterness. Whereupon the 
 
 Pope sent two Nuncios to Paris, the one the General 
 
 of the Cordeliers, and the other a Dominican, both 
 
 men famous for learning, to inform and satisfy the 
 
 King in the point. But Philip de Valois (who was 
 
 now King, and had no reverence for John) made the 
 
 matter to be discussed by thirty Doctors of the fa- 
 
 culty;
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 2O5 
 
 ciilty ; who were so much too hard for the Nuncios, CHAP, 
 that the King sent their judgments under their seals 
 
 to the Pope, desiring him that he would believe that 
 those Doctors understood theology better than any 
 of the canon Lawyers of Rome did. The Pope, find- 
 ing that his decree was not approved, declared that 
 he had only proposed it as a matter to be debated. 
 Certain it is, that upon this judgment of the Univer- 
 sity of Paris, the Pope did not only desist from justi- 
 fying his decree, but gave a public act of retractation; 
 whether it was that he was convinced in his con- 
 science of his error, or upon the threats of King 
 Philip of Valois, who had sent him word in these 
 very terms, " ques'il ne se retractoit il le feroit ardre" 
 Monsieur Mezeray will not take upon him to deter- 
 mine : and this was the opinion that the Church of 
 France had of the infallibility of the Pope in the 
 year thirteen hundred thirty-three. 
 
 After John's death, Benedict the Twelfth was Benedict 
 
 Y IT 
 
 chosen Pope, who presently, upon the importunity of 
 King Philip, renewed the censures against the Em- 
 peror ; and though he declared a very great desire 
 afterwards, upon the Emperor's sending ambassadors 
 to him, to absolve him, yet he durst not do it, the 
 King of France in plain terms threatening him, that 
 if he should do it he would raise such a war against 
 him, as would trouble him ; and thereupon the Em-TheCoun- 
 peror called a Council at Spires of all the learned men denies his" 
 
 in Germany, who adjudged and declared that 
 Pope could not excommunicate the Emperor, nor empirc - 
 had any jurisdiction over him, but that he was his 
 subject : and as this may be reasonably thought the 
 opinion of all Germany, so there were but four cities 
 
 in
 
 204 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, in all Italy, Modena, Regio, Parma, and Lucca, 
 
 which paid any obedience to the Pope. 
 
 This Pope Benedict (whether his predecessor had 
 only retracted his error concerning the souls de- 
 parted, and not finished the decree, or whether the 
 manner by which he had been obliged to do either 
 did not please him) reduced that controversy in a 
 formal decree ; and after reciting the dispute that 
 had been amongst learned divines upon that point, 
 and that his predecessor John was prevented by 
 death to give that determination to it which he in- 
 tended to have done, he declared, " Quod anima 
 " sancta non egentes purgatorio statim faciem Dei 
 tf vident ; mandantes sub pcend anathematis ac incur- 
 f( sionis h&resis, ne quis contra hujusmodi determma- 
 t( tionem suam dogmatizaret aut crederetT 
 He endea- He was a good man, and much afflicted with the 
 move from J us t reproaches under which he lay, of not being the 
 Rornebut common Father, nor at liberty to declare his own 
 fails. judgment in any thing otherwise than as it was con- 
 formable to the humour and the interest of the King; 
 nor could he devise any other remedy to silence thi* 
 scandal than by removing out of France, which he 
 resolved to do, and to reside in the place that gave 
 him his title and reputation ; and that in the mean 
 time, and till such preparations as were necessary to 
 be made for his reception could be adjusted in Rome, 
 he would go into Italy, and remain in the city of 
 Bononia ; and this he declared in consistory as a re~ 
 solution he meant to be published. However, (whe- 
 ther upon the reasonableness of the thing, or the fear 
 of offending France,) he was put in mind how inso- 
 lently the city of Rome had carried itself towards his 
 
 pre-
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. 'TO EUGENIUS IV. 205 
 
 predecessor John, and that they had expelled his Le- CHAP. 
 gate out of the city, after they had first refused to _ 
 obey him in any thing; and that he had received 
 many affronts from most of the considerable places 
 in Italy ; and therefore he was prevailed with, first 
 to send to Rome to let the people know that he in- 
 tended shortly to be there ; whereby they who were 
 employed by him would easily discover by the very 
 countenance of the people what their inclinations 
 were ; and if they were such as were to be wished, 
 they might forthwith prepare his own palace to be 
 ready, and likewise such accommodations for the 
 Cardinals as were necessary : and the fame of his 
 being expected at Rome would the better dispose all 
 the other places in Italy through, or by which he was 
 to pass, to receive and pay him that respect that was 
 due to him. The counsel was good; and the mes- 
 sengers were sent, who received so ill entertainment 
 in their journey, and so much worse when they came 
 to Rome, that upon their return they gave the Pope 
 no encouragement to pursue his former purpose, but 
 to acquiesce in Avignon. 
 
 A principal motive that had disposed him to that His conduct 
 resolution, was the foresight, that as he had beettp^jJand 
 compelled, contrary to his judgment and inclination, En s land - 
 to proceed in that manner against the Emperor, so, 
 in the war that was upon the matter entered into be- 
 tween Edward the Third of England and Philip of 
 France, he should not be able to behave himself in 
 that manner as to please both : and as he was much 
 more in the power of Philip, who had an influence 
 upon all the Cardinals, and upon most of his own 
 servants ; so he was to be wary in provoking Ed-> 
 ward, who in respect of his dutchy of Guyenne, and 
 
 other
 
 206 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, other his French territories, was too near a neigh- 
 
 ' hour to him to bear an affront from him, which it 
 
 was manifest enough his great spirit would bear from 
 nobody. When therefore his remove into Italy ap- 
 peared desperate to him, he set his heart upon the 
 hope of reconciling the two Kings. He sent two 
 Cardinals as his Legates to interpose between them ; 
 and with directions that when they had first at- 
 tended the King of France, who was in their way, 
 they should prosecute their journey into England, 
 and negotiate with that King. Philip had given spe- 
 cial order that the Cardinals in their passage towards 
 him should be treated with all imaginable respect 
 and reverence ; and he received them himself with all 
 the demonstrations of honour, professed all readiness 
 to obey the Pope, and to be willing to defer all dif- 
 ferences to his determination. They advanced then 
 towards England ; but when they came near the sea, 
 instead of any accommodation for their embarkation, 
 they met commissioners, who were sent by the King 
 to receive their propositions, and to treat with them, 
 and with civil excuses for their master's not receiv- 
 ing them in his own kingdom, which that conjunc- 
 ture of his affairs would not permit. So that the 
 two Cardinals were obliged to return, without any 
 other fruit of their journey, than their testimony that 
 Philip was willing to make a just and a reasonable 
 peace, and that Edward had rejected it. 
 Seizure of . Notwithstanding this rejection of his interposition^ 
 
 the English , n -1-1 i 
 
 ambassa- the Pope shewed himselt very heroically just to Jiid- 
 ward, upon an extraordinary accident that fell out, 
 * n w i cn ^ is true his own honour and dignity was 
 highly concerned. As the quarrel grew higher be- 
 tween the two Kings, and when Edward was resolved 
 
 to
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 
 
 to prosecute it to the utmost, he thought it fit to CHAP. 
 send ambassadors to the Pope, to satisfy him of his 
 just pretences, and to preserve all fair correspondence 
 with him. His ambassadors arrived safely at Avig- 
 non, where they were received, and accommodated 
 very well. I know not whether it were the first 
 night after their coming thither, but it was not long, 
 some officers of the King of France, being then in 
 that city, so contrived their design, that in the night 
 they seized upon the persons of the ambassadors, 
 and carried them away prisoners to the other side of 
 the river of Rhone, into the dominions of the King, 
 " Scientibus consentientibus, imb etiam faventibus alt- 
 " quibus officialibus Papa et specialiter Mariscallo 
 " suo" says the Bishop of Montpelier, in his life of 
 Benedict the Twelfth. It was not possible for any 
 man to express more indignation, detestation, and 
 horror, than the Pope did upon the affront ; he 
 caused as many of his own officers and subjects, as he 
 could find cause to suspect, to be immediately appre- 
 hended, with all the circumstances of severity and 
 rigour. Where the ambassadors were could not be 
 discovered ; it was only known that they had been 
 put into a vessel, that was quickly rowed to the 
 other side of the river ; and there it was no hard 
 matter to conceal them, that it might not be known 
 in what place they were. The Pope therefore thun- 
 dered out his excommunication against all persons 
 who had a hand in the seizing upon their persons, or 
 in the carrying them away, or in the detaining them, 
 and all those who knew, and did not discover where 
 they were; and likewise interdicted all places from 
 all divine offices where they were detained. In a 
 word, the Pope proceeded so vigorously in the resent-? 
 
 ment
 
 208 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ment of this indignity and outrage, that within few 
 days the ambassadors were set at liberty, and return- 
 
 ed again to Avignon. Having thus provided for the li- 
 berty and security of the ambassadors, he prosecuted 
 as vigorously and as passionately the vindication of his 
 own honour ; and caused all those of his own family, 
 or of dependance upon him, of what quality soever, 
 and against all the importunity that could be used, 
 td be condemned and executed. Some were hanged 
 before the gate of the house from whence the ambas- 
 sadors had by force been taken out, and others in 
 other places of the city ; and because his Mareschal, 
 (who had been much in his favour,) when he found 
 that the Pope could not be prevailed with on his be- 
 half, to prevent the public disgrace, had killed him- 
 self, sentence was pronounced against him after he 
 was dead, and his body deprived of Christian burial, 
 and hanged up in the fields in the public place of 
 execution, " mclusum in una thecd ligned, inter duas 
 " bigas appensd ad terrorem aliorum" By this ex- 
 emplary justice (which made a good noise in the 
 world) Benedict XII. freed himself from all suspi- 
 cion of partiality ; and though Philip (it may be) 
 would have been better pleased if he had been so, 
 yet he was thought to have much the more reverence 
 for him. 
 
 interdict of When Edward the Third assumed the title of 
 
 towns n in King of France, and called Philip only Count de 
 
 Flanders. Valois, and by that name sent him a challenge to 
 
 fight singly with him, or each to bring two hundred 
 
 knights, some towns of Flanders, (as Lisle, Douay, 
 
 and Orchiers,) partly out of displeasure to their own 
 
 Earl, and partly out of their inclination to Edward, 
 
 (to whom the Flemings were generally well affected,) 
 
 opened
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 209 
 
 opened their gates and proclaimed Edward for their CHAP. 
 
 King, and took an oath of fidelity to him ; with ' 
 
 which Philip was highly offended, and complained 
 to the Pope, and desired assistance from his spiritual 
 sword. He said that they were not reduced by the 
 chance or force of war ; for England had brought no 
 army before those places, nor had put any garrisons 
 into them ; but the people, by a mere act of treason 
 and rebellion, had taken upon them to reject and re- 
 nounce their true and lawful King, and to choose an- 
 other for themselves, who had no title but the volun- 
 tary oath of fidelity that they had made to him. Here- 
 upon Pope Benedict laid all those places under an 
 interdict, which all the priests in the several places 
 obeyed exactly ; whereby all the people at first were 
 under great consternation. But the English pre- 
 sently sent them ecclesiastics of their country, who Edward HI. 
 were not so scrupulous, and who presently opened ets ^de- 
 their churches, celebrated the mass, and performed fiance - 
 all other offices of their functions, with the same 
 confidence it had been formerly done ; and in a short 
 time the people became generally as well satisfied as 
 they had been before. As that ecclesiastical artil- 
 lery was still called for, and desired by those who 
 believed it would do them good, so it never did any 
 execution where it was not feared ; and Edward well 
 enough knew the ingredients of which it was com- 
 pounded ; and the Pope knew that King too well, to 
 renew and prosecute those censures against his own 
 immediate subjects, who were not Flemings, but 
 were only executing their master's commands. 
 
 This Pope was too good to live long; for he in- Character 
 tended only what was good for the public, without XH. 
 any private thoughts. He had always hoped to have 
 
 P seen
 
 210 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, seen Christendom in such a posture of peace and 
 ' amity, that the princes thereof might have heen en- 
 gaged in a war against the Infidels ; and to that 
 purpose he had, with much husbandry, collected a 
 great treasure, which he left entirely to his succes- 
 sor, without having ever given any of it to any of his 
 kindred : in which kind of bounty he was so re- 
 strained and severe, that he never preferred to any 
 prelature more than one ecclesiastical person who 
 was allied to him ; and that was upon the impor- 
 tunity of the Cardinals, in conferring the bishopric 
 of Aries upon a person so worthy, that if he had not 
 been his cousin, he would have been by him thought 
 worthy of a greater preferment ; and if any body 
 else had been Pope, he could not have failed of a 
 better : of his lay kindred, though he reigned eight 
 years, he never preferred one ; and he had only one 
 niece, whom several of the greatest nobility desired 
 to marry, but he would not hearken to any proposi- 
 tion, and married her to a plain citizen of Thou- 
 louse, a merchant, and gave her such a portion as 
 the merchant's estate did well deserve. 
 
 Clement After Benedict, succeeded the Archbishop of Rou- 
 Mak e J the en, who was called Clement the Sixth. He pursued 
 had Idhe? * ne former sentences against the Emperor with the 
 ed to Lodo- same spirit as his predecessors had done, sending his 
 
 vico swear, 
 
 as matter of bull to the electors, requiring; them to proceed to a 
 
 Catholic . * a 1 
 
 faith, that new election, and deposed the .Elector 01 Mentz be- 
 was above cause he adhered to the Emperor ; with which pro- 
 ceedings some of the rest were so frighted, that they 
 made choice of Charles the Fourth to be Emperor ; 
 which probably would have come to little if Lodo- 
 vico had not suddenly died of an apoplexy. The ci- 
 ties which had adhered to Lodovico were freed by 
 
 the
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 211 
 
 the Pope from their censures, after they had sworn, CHAP. 
 as matter of Catholic faith, that the Pope was above - '< 
 the Emperor, an oath which he durst not make a 
 part of the religion of France. 
 
 It was in this Pope's time that our Edward the Edward ill. 
 Third so much restrained the jurisdiction of the death for 
 
 Pope, by the laws that were then made, that none o 
 
 his subjects should commence any suit in the 
 
 of Rome, and that it should be death for any man to u P n an y 
 
 ^ collation 
 
 present or admit any person upon any collation from from 
 Rome ; for the reason and ground of which, though 
 we find no other cause in our records than the wis- 
 dom of that Catholic King, and the policy of the go- 
 vernment in those Catholic times, yet a very good 
 pontifical history tells us, that that displeasure in 
 the King of England proceeded from the Pope's 
 having denied to create a person a Cardinal who 
 was recommended by his Majesty. And if this be 
 true, it seems the most Catholic princes did resent 
 disrespects from the Pope, with another kind of se- 
 verity than they could have done if they had be- 
 lieved that his jurisdiction over them and their sub- 
 jects had been of divine right. But whatever the 
 reason was, this great King did, during his whole 
 reign of fifty years, keep his authority from being 
 invaded by the Pope ; and though he had very much 
 to do in France, where the Pope was powerful, (his 
 residence being at Avignon, even to the year that 
 King died,) he did from first to last, by the advice 
 and full consent of his whole kingdom, enact as se- 
 vere laws, and in almost as sharp terms, against the 
 Papal power, as ever was done in after times by 
 Harry the Eighth, whose memory they charge with 
 
 p 2 so
 
 212 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, so many reproaches of innovation, and departure 
 
 from the religion of his predecessors. 
 
 Charles iv. Whether it were before the election of Charles, or 
 
 elected Em- _ i i r T i ! T'J 
 
 perorof after the death or Lodovico, certain it is, that h/d- 
 ward the Third of England was elected Emperor, 
 and all the princes offered to submit to him ; but 
 that wise King said it was too much out of his 
 way ; though Pope Clement used all the means he - 
 could to persuade him to accept of it; which he posi- 
 tively refused, and resolved to make no other enemy 
 than Philip, nor to enter into any other war than 
 with France ; for he had totally reduced Scotland to 
 submission. Though the Pope had deposed the 
 Elector of Mentz for adhering to Lodovico, (as hath 
 been said,) and made Gerard, son to the Conde of 
 Nassau, Archbishop in his place, yet the other would 
 not submit to his deposition ; but he, together with 
 the Marquis of Brandenburgh, and the Elector of 
 Saxony, and other princes, met, and elected Gunthe- 
 rus, Comte de Swassenburgh, to be Emperor ; who 
 shortly after falling sick, and being unwilling to em- 
 bark himself and his small fortune in so hazardous a 
 contest, prevailed upon the Electors who had chosen 
 him, and (with their consent) resigned all his right 
 to Charles, who had been chosen by the rest: where- 
 by Charles remained without a rival, and was ac- 
 knowledged and obeyed by all, and Germany re- 
 mained in peace. 
 Nicoiao There was in the time of this Pope Clement the 
 
 Laurentio ,. . ., . . . 
 
 sets up for oixth a very extraordinary accident, which very few of 
 Rom"" and the Italian pontifical histories think fit to take any 
 wen"* f r not i ce of; an d which indeed is an instance of the 
 months. ver y small devotion the city of Rome had at that 
 
 time
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 213 
 
 time for their Bishop, and how little power or credit CHAP. 
 
 he had then there. It was in the year thirteen him 
 
 dred forty-seven, one Nicolao Laurentio, a public 
 notary of no birth, and of a very mean fortune, enter- 
 tained some of his companions with historical dis- 
 courses of the great jurisdiction and authority which 
 the city of Rome had in former times exercised over 
 all the world ; and that it had still the same right to 
 be sovereign of all other nations as it had formerly 
 been. He came one day after this to the Capitol and 
 called himself the Tribune, removed the senators, 
 and, without any force or resistance, assumed the go- 
 vernment to himself. All people submitted to him, 
 as to a man sent from heaven ; for he behaved him- 
 self with that wonderful gravity and discretion, and 
 dispatched all business with that notable justice, that 
 the people were never better pleased, and nobody 
 complained or murmured at his assuming the pro- 
 vince. This lasted full seven months ; in which 
 time many of the neighbour princes sent to him, 
 and asked his advice in their affairs, and desired to 
 live in good correspondence with him. On a sud- 
 den, however, he fell into a great melancholy, and 
 had an apprehension that many plots were laid to 
 take away his life, and that every body had a pur- 
 pose to kill him ; and in this distemper he stole out 
 of Rome by himself, without any purpose of going 
 to one or another place ; and in his wandering was 
 apprehended by some troops belonging to Charles 
 the Emperor,, and by them sent to the Pope, who 
 thought not fit to put him to death, but committed 
 him to a very strict imprisonment. 
 
 This Pope enlarged the privileges to the Cardinals Privileges 
 
 e * of the con- 
 
 In conclave, which* had been made very strict by clave en- 
 
 J ^ J Urged. 
 
 p 3 Gregory
 
 214 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Gregory the Tenth, who had ordained, that if they 
 - ' made not their election of a Pope within three days 
 after they had entered the conclave, from that time 
 they should only have such a proportion of bread 
 and wine to every Cardinal. But Clement the Sixth 
 indulged to them better accommodations for their 
 lodging, and liberty to have two servants each Car- 
 dinal, and that, after the expiration of the three days, 
 they should have to their bread and wine an addi- 
 tion of fruit and cheese, and a little quantity of flesh 
 
 Avignon or fish. It was this Pope Clement who purchased 
 
 by the the principality of Avignon to the Church for ever ; 
 whereas before it was only mortgaged to the Popes 
 for a good sum of money by Jane Queen of Sicily, 
 who held it as feudatory to the church. But from 
 this time it hath appertained to the Pope in his full 
 right ; the Emperor Charles the Fourth having like- 
 wise confirmed the sale. By this Pope likewise the 
 Jubilee was reduced from every hundred years to 
 every fifty. 
 
 innocent Upon the death of Clement, Innocent the Sixth 
 
 VI. 
 
 succeeded, who found how little a prince the Pope 
 must be, if he were without his dominions in Italy, 
 and the respect of that country. He set his heart 
 therefore, in the first place, to recover some reputa- 
 tion of authority in those parts ; and to that purpose 
 sent a Legate de Latere thither, to try how far he 
 could prevail in the rectifying their understandings 
 or recovering their affections : but he found the peo- 
 ple of all conditions to be so aliened from any reve- 
 rence to the Pope, that, excepting only in that pro- 
 vince that is called the Patrimony of the Church, 
 the Legate could not so much as get lodging in all 
 the other lands and dominions which belonged to 
 
 the
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 215 
 
 the Pope; nor could he with security he known, CH"AP. 
 nor own his character. In Rome itself, Baroncello ' 
 
 i -VT- Baroncello 
 
 Komano usurped the same authority that JNicolao Tribune. 
 Laurentio had done, and called himself Tribune, and anTput 10 
 took possession of the Capitol, and took upon him^c^ia^ 
 the administration of all that that the other had ; Laur ent io > 
 
 who also is 
 
 but neither with the same gravity nor justice; and afterward 
 
 1-1 /r- P ut to 
 
 yet nobody cared to oppose him, but suffered him to death. 
 do all that he had a mind to do : of which when 
 Innocent was advertised, and how little his own au- 
 thority was considered there, he could not think of a 
 better expedient than to set Nicolao (who was still 
 in close custody) at liberty, with the sense of having 
 his life given him, and to whom he owed the obliga- 
 tion. Nicolao went presently to Rome, and no 
 sooner came thither but he found himself welcomed, 
 and in the same respect he had formerly been. He 
 took Baroncello prisoner, and cut off his head, with 
 which nobody seemed to be offended ; but then in 
 the exercise of the power himself, he shewed much 
 less temper and discretion than he had formerly 
 done ; and by his pride and insolence provoked the 
 people to that degree, that he found he could be no 
 longer safe there, and so endeavoured to have made 
 an escape, but fell into the soldiers' hands, who, en- 
 raged, cut him in pieces : and all things returned 
 into the channel in which they had run before, 
 without any more advantage or inclination to the 
 Pope. 
 
 It was in the time of this Pope Innocent the Sixth Complaints 
 that there was so great and so universal a clam our Mendicant 
 against all the orders of Mendicant friars, that the fnars ' 
 Pope was much perplexed with it; and though he was 
 resolved not to part with subjects who were so neces- 
 
 P 4 sarv
 
 216 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, sary to him, he knew not well how to protect them, 
 nor how to silence the complaints against them. The 
 
 Archbishop of Armagh, " magnus et profundus in 
 " Theologid Magister" (as the history stiles him,) 
 came purposely to Avignon to prosecute them ; and 
 very earnestly pressed their total extirpation, as a 
 people who " extendebant falcem suam in mensem 
 " alienam :" and there was so great a reverence for 
 his piety and learning, that it was helieved that the 
 Tope would have found it necessary to have abridged 
 them of divers of their privileges, if that Archbishop 
 had not suddenly died in the prosecution ; " de quo 
 ^ dicti fratres (says the author of the life of Inno- 
 " cent) pottiis de GAUDEAMUS quam de REQ.UIEM can- 
 " taveruntT 
 
 Urban v. Upon the death of Innocent, the Cardinals, being 
 shut up in the conclave, fell into great factions upon 
 the election of another Pope ; which begot such irre- 
 concileable animosities amongst themselves, and to- 
 wards one another, that they could agree upon no- 
 thing else, than that no Cardinal should be , chosen ; 
 which being resolved upon, they entered into a more 
 temperate debate ; and in a short time after they 
 made choice of a monk of St. Bennet's order, who 
 was a man much esteemed for piety and learning, 
 and who at that time was employed in the kingdom 
 of Naples, he having been sent thither by Innocent 
 about the weighty affairs of the church. When he 
 returned, he took the name of Urban the Fifth, and 
 the people in all places were much pleased with the 
 choice. 
 
 cardinals In this election there was a case determined, that 
 vote in con- was contrary to the received doctrine of the former 
 time ; nor did the present decision gain so much au- 
 thority
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 217 
 
 thority as to keep it from future controversy. An- CHAP, 
 droinus de Rocha had been made Cardinal by Inno- 
 
 ci- i i i i -L i mediately 
 
 cent the ISixth, when he was in extremis ; so that he U pon their 
 was never installed in Consistory, nor had a title as-"j m 
 signed him. Contrary, however, to all former pre- 
 cedents, and the doctrine received, he was present, 
 and voted in the conclave ; where it was resolved, 
 " quod sola assumpsio sen promotio ad Cardinalatum 
 " dat vocern in electione Pap<z, et non tituli assigna- 
 " tio" Nevertheless it hath been since held, that a 
 new Cardinal cannot speak in any Consistory till the 
 Pope first opens his mouth ; which he frequently 
 forbears to do for a Consistory or two : and in late 
 time [Clement VIII.*] having not many days be- 
 fore his death made [Conti, a Cardinal,] and pre- 
 sently repented it, he not only refused to open his 
 mouth in the next Consistory, but declared that he 
 should have no voice in the next conclave ; where- 
 upon the Cardinals thought that he was to be ex- 
 cluded by the late Pope's declaration : but in the 
 conclave the Cardinal Joyeuse (notwithstanding that 
 the new Cardinal was thought to be of the Spanish 
 faction) undertook to support the contrary, it may 
 be upon this precedent ; and the new Cardinal de- 
 claring, that if he were not admitted to his vote he 
 would enter his protestation against the election, it 
 was agreed that he should vote ; and in that con- 
 clave [Leo XL] was chosen, and from that time Gregory 
 
 , . , XL in orig. 
 
 there hath been no more dispute upon that point. 
 
 France was now the scene of a general devastation, Urban v. 
 it being shortly after the battle of Poictiers ; and Avignon," 
 
 * [Ciacconi Hist. Ponttf. Romanontm, torn. iv. p. 351. D'Aubery Hist, 
 du Card. Due de Joyeuse, p. 64 ] 
 
 though
 
 518 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, though there was a peace concluded between England 
 
 : and France, and thereupon many soldiers disband- 
 
 somed" ed, (Charles the Fifth being now King,) yet those 
 disbanded soldiers did more mischief than the ar- 
 mies had done ; and upon correspondence drew 
 themselves together into one body, consisting of all 
 nations, and chose themselves a captain, under whose 
 conduct they took towns and castles, and gathered 
 great plunder. Amongst other enterprises they be- 
 sieged the new Pope in Avignon, and would not raise 
 their siege till they had compelled him to lay down a 
 good sum of money for his ransom ; the King at the 
 same time causing as much more to be paid them, 
 that the Pope might be freed from that indignity. 
 Goes to In these distractions, the good Pope, wearied 
 
 after two with these insolences, and being still liable to the 
 dence there like, had a great mind in person to visit Italy, 
 returns to w Jthout giving; notice of it, as his predecessors had 
 
 ATignon. 
 
 done, who had thereby prepared affronts for them- 
 selves. In his late journey to Naples he had re- 
 ceived great civilities from all the princes and places 
 by and through which he had passed, and had every 
 where left a very good name behind him, and no 
 question had thereby made the conjuncture more fa- 
 vourable to visit Rome itself. Of this his inclina- 
 tion he gave advertisement to the King, whom he 
 would by no means disoblige; and assured him, that 
 with his good liking he might make that journey, 
 and could put all things in order there ; or, finding 
 that it was not to be done, he would not fail to re- 
 turn to Avignon. With this promise the King was 
 satisfied, and gave him his consent for the journey ; 
 being in truth afflicted and ashamed for the affront 
 he had undergone at Avignon. His journey suc- 
 ceeded
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 219 
 
 ceeded to his wish ; for in his passage he was re- CHAP. 
 
 ceived with solemnity and reverence in all places, 
 
 and reconciled many differences which were between 
 the princes and between great families in divers 
 great cities ; and when he came to Rome, his recep- 
 tion was also according to his wish, and the people 
 were glad to see him. He presently began great 
 buildings there, and encouraged others to do the 
 like ; promising them, that though it was necessary 
 for him to return to Avignon, yet by that time his 
 buildings should be finished, he would be again in 
 Rome : and so having stayed near two years in 
 Rome, he went again to Avignon, where in a short 
 time after he died. 
 
 Upon the death of Urban, Gregory the Eleventh Gregory- 
 was chosen, who was a haughty and imperious man, 
 and resolved to stretch his authority as far as it 
 would reach, in order to make himself and the Pa- 
 
 -. TA 
 
 pacy more considerable. It was no sooner known 
 that he was placed in that chair, than he received 
 letters from St. Bridget of Sweden, and St. Catha- 
 rine of Sienna, (who lived in that time in the reputa- 
 tion of very godly women,) in which they both per- 
 suaded him with great earnestness, and without any 
 correspondence or communication with each other, 
 that it was God's pleasure that he should leave Avig- 
 non, and reside at Rome ; that they had both vi- 
 sions, which required them to signify so much to 
 him ; and that it was necessary for the good of the 
 church, and of his own honour. Upon this repeated Removes 
 
 , . , i i i i i r T 
 
 advice Gregory resolved with himself to go to Rome; 
 but he kept it so privately, that, going away by night 
 from Avignon, he was embarked at Marseilles before 
 he was missed, and whilst all men believed him to 
 
 be
 
 220 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, be still at Avignon : he sent afterwards to the Cardinals 
 and his family to follow him to Rome ; whither he 
 
 came himself before he was looked for, ami was en- 
 tertained accordingly. This man was so unlike Ur- 
 ban in his carriage and behaviour towards all men, 
 that they had as great a prejudice to his person as 
 aversion to his power. 
 Lays Flo- There was grown a great correspondence between 
 
 rence un- . _ _^ i i . i i 1-1 
 
 deranin- those or Home, who desired to preserve their liberty, 
 and those of Florence, who, notwithstanding the 
 bloody and irreconcileable factions between some 
 great families, governed themselves as a common- 
 wealth, and desired to induce all their neighbours to 
 affect the same government ; which made them wish 
 that the Pope's authority might never be again ad- 
 mitted into Rome, lest it should have an influence 
 there, as it had had over all Italy. Gregory had been 
 well informed of the working of this republican spirit, 
 and thought the best way to reduce his Romans, and 
 his subjects of his other dominions, to -that temper 
 and obedience that was necessary, would be to break 
 the proud and insolent spirits of their neighbours ; 
 and therefore, without enough deliberating upon the 
 method and ground of his proceedings, he declared a 
 very great displeasure against the Florentines : he 
 pretended that they detained his rights from him, 
 and that they were guilty of many disrespects to- 
 wards him, and to the chair of St. Peter ; and there- 
 fore, without any of those formalities, which were 
 usual and necessary in an affair of that importance, 
 and with such an adversary, he issued out all his 
 ecclesiastical censures against that city, and inter- 
 dicted them and all their subjects. The Floren- 
 tines, how bitter soever their jealousies and animo- 
 sities
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 2 21 
 
 Cities were between themselves, were easily united CHAP. 
 
 v 
 against a common enemy; they compelled the priests - - 
 
 J 111-1 C ^ Which the 
 
 to say mass and perform all their other functions, Florentine* 
 and the people laughed at the interdict, and left the dlsresardt 
 Pope to feed upon his own rage and fury, without 
 making any application to pacify him ; and the peo- 
 ple of Rome were very glad to see him so notoriously 
 despised. This impious stubbornness vexed him to 
 the heart, and the more, that he found nobody have 
 that sense of it, as he thought they were in consci- 
 ence bound to have ; upon which he fell into a deep 
 melancholy, and seemed to foresee great trouble and 
 miseries which were like to befall the church : and 
 Monsieur Mezeray says, that he much repented that 
 he had given more credit to those deceitful revela- 
 tions of others, than to the light of his own reason. 
 In this discomposure of mind, and within fourteen 
 months after his coming to Rome, Pope Gregory 
 died, when the court had been absent from thence His death. 
 and remained at Avignon above seventy years. 
 
 During this long residence at Avignon, the repu- state of the 
 
 rin i nil- papal pow- 
 
 tation or the .Papacy was very low; all other king- er whilst 
 
 doms and provinces looking upon the Popes as 
 wardship to France, and in no degree free to 
 their own judgments, nor to be equal and just to theyears 
 interests of any other prince, or of the church itself. 
 And indeed no rank or class of men suffered so 
 much in all places as the clergy did ; and the liber- 
 ties of the Gallican Church were never so much in" 
 vaded ; whilst the Popes themselves grew very rich, 
 and amassed more money than they had ever done 
 before in any other place : for the Gallican Church 
 (which for many years had defended itself by its pri- 
 vileges against the invasions and impositions of their 
 
 own
 
 222 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, own sovereigns, and had afterwards unwarily and 
 unadvisedly appealed to the Popes for relief and as- 
 sistance, and thereby had given them a jurisdiction 
 over them,) now when they were invaded on all 
 hands, and when great impositions were laid on 
 them for the maintenance of the wars, repaired for 
 protection to the Popes at Avignon : they indeed 
 never refused their interposition, and readily medi- 
 ated with the King ; but the conclusion always was, 
 that the King should levy all that he had proposed 
 to do, and the Pope himself (by the King's consent) 
 should likewise raise such a proportion of money 
 upon them as was agreed upon. Thus they were 
 compelled to serve the occasions of both, without 
 their being protected by either. And so it was in 
 all other countries ; the Popes never denied any 
 princes to levy any money upon the church for their 
 aifairs, and the Kings consented that they should 
 likewise take what they thought requisite. Thus 
 also the Emperor Charles the Fourth, having visited 
 the Pope at Avignon, and performed great respects 
 to him ; and having, upon pretence that he would 
 carry an army to the Holy Land, (which he never 
 did,) had liberty given him to raise a great sum upon 
 the church over all Germany, the Pope's collectors 
 likewise received as much as the Pope required. 
 However, during these seventy years residence at 
 Avignon, albeit the authority of the Popes was un- 
 dervalued, and their jurisdiction limited; there was 
 yet no question who was Pope : so that all princes 
 and states paid him that reverence and submission as 
 by the constitution and custom of their several states 
 was due to him. Neither was there any schism, for 
 
 *> 
 
 the Emperor Ludovicus setting up a poor Franciscan 
 
 friar,
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 223 
 
 friar, who called himself Nicholas the Fifth, in the CHAP. 
 time of John the Two and Twentieth, was in itself so ' 
 
 ridiculous, and without a colour of any election, that 
 no other prince acknowledged him ; and the poor 
 man himself was in a short time brought prisoner to 
 Avignon, and cast himself, with a halter about his 
 neck, at the Pope's feet ; who only cast him into pri- 
 son, where he remained till he died : so that, I say, in 
 all this time Christian princes were never divided by 
 any notorious schism, but always acknowledged one 
 and the same person to be Pope, how little soever they 
 valued or considered his authority. But we are now 
 to enter upon such a scene of confusion, that as the 
 enormities of the papal chair were most notorious 
 and most grievous to the world, so the reformation 
 seemed most difficult, by their being no resolved or 
 confessed distinction between the head and the mem- 
 bers, nor was it agreed for many years together who 
 was Pope. 
 
 When Gregory the Eleventh died there were only Schism 
 twenty-three Cardinals in the church, whereof one years. 
 
 was then employed in a foreign legation, and 
 remained still at Avignon ; for Gregory, when (after Romc> 
 he had got to Marseilles) he sent to the Cardinals 
 and to his family to follow him to Rome, sent word 
 likewise that he intended to return thither; which 
 he desired the King of France should believe ; so 
 that there were at Rome only thirteen Cardinals who 
 entered into the conclave, and of them there were 
 but four Italians. The people of Rome therefore 
 the more apprehended to have the Court carried 
 again from them ; which to prevent they flocked in 
 great multitudes to the conclave, and cried out day 
 and night that they would have a Pope who should 
 
 be
 
 224 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, be an Italian. And when the Cardinals could not 
 
 v. 
 ' agree upon the election of any particular person 
 
 amongst themselves, they at last resolved that they 
 would make choice of one out of the college ; and 
 thereupon they chose the Archbishop of Barri, a 
 Neapolitan. After the election was made, eight of 
 the French Cardinals went out of the conclave to the 
 castle of St. Angelo, and the other received the Arch- 
 bishop and consecrated him, who called himself Ur- 
 ban the Sixth, and then the other Cardinals came 
 out of the castle, and all paid him obedience. 
 Clement This Pope was a virtuous and an austere prelate, 
 at Fundi ; and of a nature and humour not agreeable to those 
 Avignon. 10 w ^ nac ^ lived so long at Avignon. He was very se- 
 vere in his reprehensions of the levities and lives of 
 the Cardinals ; insomuch that they grew weary of 
 him, and repented their choice ; and the eight Car- 
 dinals who had been before in the castle of St. An- 
 gelo went together to Fundi, in the kingdom of Na- 
 ples, and there declared that force had been used 
 upon them in the election of Urban, that the see 
 continued still void, and that they resolved (as the 
 better and more sober part of the college) to proceed 
 to the election of a Pope. Accordingly they chose 
 the Bishop of Cambray, who accepted it, and called 
 himself Clement ; and made what haste he could 
 with his Cardinals to Avignon, and formed his court 
 there, and created many Cardinals, all France and 
 Naples acknowledging him. And so Clement against 
 Urban, and Urban against Clement, thundered out 
 all the ecclesiastical censures ; each giving to the 
 other all the reproaches which those processes are 
 usually stuffed with ; and the learned men of the 
 time differed amongst themselves which was the true 
 
 Pope ;
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 225 
 
 Pope ; and some of them declared, that the one and CHAP. 
 
 the other of them might be obeyed and submitted ' 
 
 unto with a good conscience. The princes of Italy 
 in the mean time were best pleased and got most by 
 the schism, and received all the church revenues to 
 themselves ; and when either of the other sent to de- 
 mand it, their answer was, they knew not to whom it 
 did of right belong. 
 
 It was this Pope Urban who was declared by Act Urban de- 
 of Parliament, in the second year of our Richard the Richard n. 
 Second, to be the true and lawful Pope ; and that p" r i, a ment 
 the livings of all Cardinals and other rebels to the * be ,, the 
 
 true Pope. 
 
 said Pope should be seized into the King's hands, 
 and the King to answer the profits thereof; and that 
 whosoever within the realm of England should ob- 
 tain or procure any provision or other instrument 
 from any other Pope than the said Urban, should be 
 out of the King's protection ; and but for this Act of 
 Parliament he had never been acknowledged for 
 Pope in England; so much his spiritual power want- 
 ed the countenance and confirmation of the tempo- 
 ral. The morosity of Urban continued to that degree, 
 that if he had not at one time created six and twenty 
 new Cardinals, whom he chose out of the best and 
 most learned men of that time, he had been left very 
 near alone ; for all the other Cardinals, one only 
 excepted, deserted him, and returned to Avignon ; 
 though the Emperor Wenceslaus had sent to Cle- 
 ment, to forbid him to assume to himself the title of 
 Pope. 
 
 It was a great countenance to Urban's title, that itcompara- 
 was five months before Clement was chosen; in 
 which time he stood sole, and sent his Nuncios to all 
 Christian Princes to dispose them to a concurrence 
 
 a and
 
 226 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and good correspondence with him. On the other 
 
 ' hand, the force that was upon the conclave was very 
 
 visible and notorious, and made a great and scanda- 
 lous noise in the world : it was known that the Car- 
 dinals had declared to each other in the conclave, 
 at the time they made their election, that they did it 
 out of fear of their lives, and that if they were at li- 
 berty they would not have chosen the Archbishop of 
 Barri ; and that as soon as the Cardinals were able 
 to get out of Rome to Anagnia, they had written to 
 Urban, " That he could not be ignorant of the force 
 " that was upon them, nor suppose that, if they had 
 " been at liberty, they would have chosen him, and 
 " therefore they advised him not to assume the title, 
 "and that they would meet at Fundi and make 
 " choice of a Pope ;" and it was likewise known, that 
 there was so strict a guard kept by Urban upon all 
 the ways and passages, that they were with great 
 difficulty and danger able to get to Fundi, under the 
 protection of that Earl ; which was the reason that 
 the election was not made sooner. Clement also got 
 much reputation by sending to Urban that there 
 might be a general Council called, and that they 
 might both refer their right to the decision and de- 
 termination of the Council, which he was ready to, 
 but the other refused. 
 
 Admitted Then the authority that many princes assumed, 
 and the method which they used in the examination 
 by Q f ^ r jgj lt an( j va iidity of the election, was no small 
 mortification to Urban. The King of Castile, who 
 had acknowledged him, and with whom he had a, 
 Nuncio residing in his court, upon second thoughts, 
 and upon the general rumours, called an assembly of 
 all his Bishops and Superiors of all colleges and mo- 
 nasteries,
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 337 
 
 nasteries, and of all orders, and heard the matter de- CHAP. 
 
 tr 
 
 bated by them, and by their unanimous advice ' 
 
 changed his mind, rejected Urban, acknowledged 
 Clement, and sent ambassadors to him to Avignon : 
 and (which was more grievous) Gomesius, who had 
 been made Cardinal by Urban, and was at that time 
 his Nuncio in the court of Castile, disclaimed and 
 renounced his master, and acknowledged Clement ; 
 who, that he might not be a loser by his good will, 
 made haste to send him a cap ; and so he remained 
 where he was, and still Cardinal. This example pre- 
 vailed with many others of those who had been 
 made Cardinals by Urban ; and they also (con- 
 vinced, as they pretended, by their consciences of 
 the forcible election of Urban, and that the other of 
 Clement was free and fair,) betook themselves to the 
 last, who gratified them likewise with caps. Peter 
 King of Arragon, who had looked on, and appeared 
 a neuter, (though some writers say that he had ac- 
 knowledged Urban,) sent ambassadors to Avignon ; 
 not to Clement ; but to be truly informed of the 
 force that had been used upon the conclave in Rome, 
 in which Urban had been chosen. Clement wisely 
 consented, that not only many persons of quality in 
 his court, who had been present in Rome at that 
 time, should be examined by the ambassadors, but 
 that the Cardinals themselves should, upon their 
 corporal oaths, answer to all such questions as the 
 ambassadors thought fit to administer to them : the 
 Cardinals on their part were as willing to set out all 
 the disorders threats and violence that had been 
 upon or towards them ; and the ambassadors return- 
 ed so well satisfied and convinced, that the King re- 
 solved immediately to send ambassadors to Clement, 
 
 a 2 and
 
 228 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. an( j to acknowledge him: he was prevented from 
 - this by a sudden death ; but John his son and suc- 
 cessor immediately performed what he knew his fa- 
 ther intended. So that Urban had now only Ger- 
 many, England, and Flanders, who adhered to him ; 
 Scotland followed France, and acknowledged Cle- 
 ment. 
 
 Schism It is no easy matter to give an exact account of a\l 
 
 a proof the particular actions of Rome and Avignon during 
 
 tianity may this long schism, which continued ftill forty years 4 
 
 ed wthout ^7 rea s n that all the authors who have transmitted 
 
 i Pope. w hat was done were partial to one side or the other ; 
 
 and the whole Christian Church was so divided in 
 
 opinion of the right succession, that the most equal 
 
 and indiiferent writer, Monsieur Mezeray, declares 
 
 that it will be a very great presumption in any man 
 
 to call those who kept their residence in Avignon 
 
 the Anti-Popes. Upon the whole, I think it may 
 
 be from this tedious rupture inferred and concluded, 
 
 that the Christian religion may be preserved in its 
 
 integrity without a Pope ; and that it must have 
 
 been in great danger in this prodigious vacancy, 
 
 if the Bishop of Rome were the sole conservator 
 
 of it. 
 
 Boniface After eleven years troublesome reign, and without 
 Rome. the acknowledgment of so great a part of the Catho- 
 lic Church, Urban died, and Boniface the Ninth was 
 chosen in his place, being not above thirty years of 
 age. He making no question of his being lawful 
 Pope, renewed all the excommunications and spiri- 
 tual censures against Clement ; and he again thun- 
 dered out the same against Boniface, who, in addi- 
 tion to the contradictions he found from abroad, 
 found a great weight of vexation at home ; the Se- 
 nate
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 229 
 
 nate of Rome not suffering him to exercise the least CHAP. 
 
 temporal jurisdiction : in which they were so magis ' 
 
 terial, that they by force took three or four ec- 
 clesiastical persons out of the Pope's own chamber, 
 and carried them to prison, because they had op- 
 posed their authority ; and by these affronts they 
 forced the Pope to leave the city, and to keep his 
 Court at Assisium. 
 
 In the mean time Clement died at Avignon, hav- Benedict 
 ing governed as Pope sixteen years, and in that time Avignon. 
 created thirty-four Cardinals ; and after his death 
 the Cardinals at Avignon chose Pedro di Luna, who 
 took upon himself the name of Benedict the Thir- 
 teenth. 
 
 Boniface had, in addition to the vigour of his Character 
 youth, a great reputation of wisdom and virtue ; and ix. ' 
 so behaved himself, that in the year fourteen hundred 
 (being the year of the Jubilee) the people of Rome 
 sent to entreat him to return thither ; which he re- 
 fused to do, except they would put the whole govern- 
 ment into his hands, and receive such magistrates as 
 he would give them. This in the end they were con- 
 tented to do, and so he returned and possessed him- 
 self of that absolute jurisdiction which his successors 
 have since enjoyed : and it may be truly said, that 
 he was the first Pope that ever had Rome in an en- 
 tire subjection, whatsoever sovereignty they pretend- 
 ed to in other parts of the world. 
 
 In this Pope's time all learning, and the Greek Restoration 
 and Latin tongues, which had suffered a dismal 
 eclipse for near five hundred years, began again to 
 get light, and to be restored to some credit and re- 
 putation in the world. 
 
 ft 3 In
 
 230 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. In this time also, and about the sixteenth year of 
 
 Denial of our ^* n g Richard the Second, the Archbishop of 
 the Pope's Canterbury made his protestation in open Parlia- 
 
 Supremacy * 
 
 in England mcnt, " that the Pope ought not to excommunicate 
 of Richard " any Bishop, or intermeddle for, or touching any pre- 
 Archbi'- 6 " sentation to any ecclesiastical dignity recovered in 
 Camertm " an y f t ^ ie Ki n g' s courts :" he further protested, 
 inParlia- that the Pope ought not to make any translation 
 
 ment. r . l J 
 
 " of any Bishopric within the realm against the 
 
 " King's will ; for that the same was the destruction 
 
 " of the realm and crown of England, which hath al- 
 
 " ways been so free as the same hath had none 
 
 " earthly sovereign, but only subject to God in all 
 
 " things touching regalities, and to none other." 
 
 Accusation And it was one of the articles in Parliament against 
 
 King for ac- King Richard the Second, for which he was deposed, 
 
 !ng it. edS ~ that the crown of England, being freed from the Pope 
 and all other foreign power, the King notwithstand- 
 ing procured the Pope's excommunication on such 
 as brake the last Parliament, in derogation of the 
 crown statutes and laws of the realm ; which is evi- 
 dence enough (how unwarrantable and wicked soever 
 that proceeding was) what opinion that Catholic 
 time, or at least that Catholic kingdom, had of the 
 Pope's jurisdiction. 
 
 Endeavours As soon as Boniface was chosen Pope, as he had al- 
 
 ix. to 'put ways professed a great desire to determine the Schism, 
 
 ?hcschn.so he had sent a Carthusian Monk to Clement to 
 
 desire him to consult upon the proper and best way 
 
 to give peace to the Church : but he, instead of re- 
 
 ceiving the overture civilly, caused the messenger to 
 
 be imprisoned with great strictness, that nobody 
 
 might resort to him. This had made the greater 
 
 noise ;
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 2 3l 
 
 noise ; and the University of Paris had made such CHAP. 
 loud complaint of it, that Clement found himself ob- 
 liged to set the Monk at liberty, and to make many 
 professions of an extraordinary desire to put an end 
 to the Schism. 
 
 That University was grown to so great authority Power and 
 in France, that whatsoever they determined found of theUn1! 
 no opposition or contradiction from the Prelates 
 the Council ; and though the crown adhered to Cle- 
 ment, yet his behaviour and depredations upon the 
 Church had exceedingly irreconciled the whole 
 Clergy towards him. He had possessed himself of 
 all the estates of such Bishops and Abbots as died, 
 with such sordid circumstances, that he scarce left 
 their clothes, and the most ordinary furniture of their 
 houses, to their servants: he had exacted a year's full 
 revenue of all the benefices which became vacant by 
 resignation, or mutation, or what way soever, and laid 
 other insupportable burdens upon the Church ; and, 
 that the Court might not hearken to complaints 
 against him, he had consented that the Duke of Or- 
 leans (who was the great minister in the government 
 of the young King, Charles the Sixth,) should levy a 
 tenth upon the Clergy, and otherwise gratified the 
 great men of the Court. The Cardinals who lived at 
 Avignon were so many tyrants; Clement giving way, 
 and indeed not daring to restrain any of their ex- 
 cesses, which were so great, that as benefices offices 
 or commanderies fell, they had engrossed them to 
 themselves, or extorted great pensions from them, or 
 sold them outright for money ; which sacrilegious 
 and simoniacal way of proceeding much incensed 
 many of the principal Doctors of the faculty rather 
 
 a 4 to
 
 232 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, to incline to Urban than to him; and the University 
 ' began to demand a Council as the only sovereign re- 
 medy for those evils. 
 
 Death of And now, after the death of Urban, upon this 
 andTiectlon Christian overture made by Boniface, and that 
 rough proceeding of Clement towards his messenger, 
 the University of Paris was more inflamed ; and 
 when he thought to reconcile himself to them, by 
 feigning a wonderful desire that some good means 
 might be consulted for the ending the Schism, they 
 declared that it was a thing impossible to be done by 
 any other way than by the absolute renunciation of 
 both the pretenders. This Clement would not think 
 of, but employed the Duke of Berry, and other great 
 persons, who were solicitous to support him, to inter- 
 rupt the consultations of the University, and to pre- 
 vent any public conclusion ; which all his endeavours 
 could not do ; but they proceeded with that vigour 
 that many books were published by their order, and 
 so many remonstrances made and sent to Clement, 
 and in an assembly of the Cardinals read in his pre- 
 sence, and even against his will, that in a great fit of 
 choler and rage he died ; and though upon the news 
 of it the King of France writ to the Cardinals to de- 
 fer the making election of any other Pope, they pro- 
 ceeded, after they had made an order in the conclave, 
 (to the observation whereof every man was sworn,) 
 that they would use their utmost power to put an end 
 to the Schism ; and that whoever should be chosen 
 Pope should be obliged to resign, if that should be 
 thought necessary: and so they made choice (as hath 
 been said) of Benedict the Thirteenth, who had with 
 great cheerfulness taken the oath. 
 
 Upon
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 233 
 
 Upon this refractory choice of Benedict, Charles CHAP, 
 the Sixth (in the lucida mtervalla between his great ' 
 
 Embassy 
 
 distempers, when he always assumed the government from 
 to himself,) called an assembly of all the Prelates of of France to 
 his kingdom to meet in his palace, to consult toge- Benedict to 
 ther upon the Schism ; where it was unanimously reslgn * 
 agreed that the cession of both pretenders was the 
 easiest and best way to put the Church in peace. 
 Upon which the Dukes of Orleans, Berry, and Bur- 
 gundy, went with the King's ambassadors, and with 
 the Deputies of the University, to speak with Bene- 
 dict at Avignon ; and informed him of the debate 
 and resolution that had been before the King ; and 
 proposed to him that he would perform his part to- 
 wards the accomplishment thereof. All the Cardi- 
 nals who were then at Avignon, and were fifteen in 
 number, concurred in the same opinion, one only ex- 
 cepted. Benedict himself seemed inclined at first to 
 satisfy, and only to take time to consider a matter of 
 so great importance ; but he employed that time in 
 private conferences with the Princes and ambas- 
 sadors, severally to work upon them by arguments 
 of all kinds, and such as were most like to prevail 
 with their persons, that they would themselves be- 
 lieve, and then persuade the King, that what was 
 proposed was neither good for his service, nor for the 
 peace of the Church ; and he granted to the King a 
 new tenth upon the Clergy, much of which he knew 
 would be for the benefit of some of the great men 
 who were employed. Nothing however could be said 
 or done to the Deputies of the University that could 
 work upon them ; and it is probable that their con- 
 stancy fixed all the rest ; so that there appeared no 
 receding in any of them ; but they continued jointly 
 
 to
 
 234 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, to importunate him either to do what they proposed, 
 or to declare his resolution to the contrary. But as 
 he was fully resolved not to satisfy them in the main, 
 so he was as wary to give no such answer as should 
 amount to an absolute denial ; and so fenced with 
 them in doubtful expressions and with such delays, 
 that they returned all to Paris without taking their 
 leave of him, which they conceived to be the best 
 denunciation of what he was to expect. The other 
 Christian Princes, who had adhered to Clement, 
 when they heard the resolution of the University of 
 Paris, and the instances that had been made by 
 Charles, resolved to press Benedict to the same pro- 
 position : and so, many Princes of Germany, the 
 Kings of Hungary, Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, 
 joined in desiring the cession ; but England desired 
 that there might be a general Council. Benedict 
 made great use of this conjunction, and gave one an- 
 swer to one, and a quite contrary to another ; made 
 one proposition to one, and one of another nature to 
 another ; and all with such a dexterity and subtilty, 
 that they all believed that he was rather irresolute in 
 the manner of what he was to do, (and as thinking a 
 general .Council to be the best expedient to compose 
 all differences and to secure the future peace of the 
 Church, whereas others pressed for a present ces- 
 sion,) than that he had a purpose still to insist upon 
 his own right. 
 
 Benedict These shifts and tergiversations of Benedict the 
 more provoked and incensed the King of France and 
 his Council ; and another great assembly of the Bi- 
 shops, Abbots, and Deputies of the University being 
 called, it was unanimously resolved, that France 
 should withdraw its obedience from him until he 
 
 con-
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 235 
 
 conformed to what had been proposed for his ces- CHAP. 
 
 sion ; and the Cardinals who were at Avignon so far ' 
 
 concurred in the same resolution, (to withdraw their 
 obedience and to abandon him,) that they left the 
 Court, and retired to the new town. But Benedict 
 was too hard for them, for he had sent into Arragon 
 (that was his country) for troops of soldiers to be a 
 guard to his person, who arrived at this time ; by 
 which he reduced the Cardinals, and shut them up in 
 his palace. Whereupon the Marshal de Boucicaute 
 had order from the King to draw forces together and 
 to besiege Avignon ; which he did so effectually, that 
 in a few days he stopped all recourse of victuals from 
 thence, so that they would be very soon in want of 
 bread. The assembly had resolved, that till the 
 Church should be in peace they should conform to 
 their ancient liberties, and be governed by their or- 
 dinaries, and follow the ancient canons. But Bene- 
 dict found a way by his friends in the Court (to 
 whom he was always very liberal) to divert this ter- 
 rible storm ; and when he was reduced to that ex- 
 tremity that he must have rendered himself, an order 
 came to the Marshal that he should not make the 
 siege so strait but that victuals might be got into the 
 town, which he should likewise permit ; and that it 
 would be sufficient if he blocked it up that no more 
 forces might enter into it. This present calm, toge- 
 ther with a letter from the King, in which he pro- 
 mised never to abandon him, renewed Benedict's re- 
 putation again to that degree, that the Cardinals 
 gladly reconciled themselves to him ; and the city 
 asked his pardon ; and the King of Sicily made him 
 a visit. All this alteration proceeded from the fac- 
 tions and emulations amongst the great men in the 
 
 govern-
 
 236 r 'PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, government; who, in the time of the King's distrac- 
 tion, and then upon his lucida intervalla^ made and al- 
 
 tered all counsels and resolutions according as their 
 power was in the several seasons. And the Duke of Or- 
 leans was so solicitous for the authority of Benedict, 
 
 of France. ... . . 
 
 and that their submission might not be withdrawn 
 from him, that he declared that he would himself be 
 caution for his good intention ; and that when the 
 time should be ripe for it he would in all things con- 
 form to the King's pleasure ; and hereupon the king- 
 dom returned to the obedience of Benedict with the 
 approbation and consent of the University itself, and 
 of the whole kingdom ; Normandy only excepted, 
 which would not be persuaded to have any more re- 
 course to Benedict. Being in this manner fortified, 
 and (as he thought) now well settled in the Papacy, 
 so he grew more insolent and vexatious to the Clergy, 
 and usurped more authority over them than he had 
 ever done before ; by which he quickly lost the Uni- 
 versity, that began again to inveigh against his pro- 
 ceedings ; and when affairs were in this state Boni- 
 face died, after he had reigned fifteen years. 
 innocent After the death of Boniface, Innocent the Eighth 
 ceeds Boni- was elected, and the rather, because whilst he was 
 face IX< Cardinal he was much taken notice of for censuring 
 the Popes for continuing the Schism, and Christian 
 Princes for suffering them to do so; and had himself 
 proposed and taken a solemn oath in the conclave, 
 that whosoever should be chosen Pope should endea- 
 vour by all possible means to compose and put an 
 end to it ; but after he was Pope himself he would 
 never so much as suffer the ways for the doing it to 
 be debated in his presence. The University of Paris 
 however prosecuted the removal of this scandal very 
 
 vigorously,
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 237 
 
 vigorously, and sent Deputies to Rome to Innocent; CHAP. 
 
 and with more passion complained to the Parliament ' 
 
 against the University of Thoulouse, that had pre- 
 sumed to write a declaration in defence of Benedict, 
 and likewise had sent a very bold letter to the King 
 on his behalf ; for which (notwithstanding all the in- 
 terest of Benedict's friends in the court, and his own 
 interposition by a Cardinal, whom he had sent on 
 purpose on the behalf of the University of Thou- 
 louse) the Parliament of Paris pronounced and de- 
 clared, that the letter should be burnt before the 
 ports of Thoulouse Lyons and Montpelier, and that 
 process should be awarded against those who had 
 composed it. This was a new mortification to Bene- 
 dict, who had undertaken to have so much interest 
 in Innocent that he would persuade him to resign, 
 and give over his pretences, which though he was 
 not like to do, death did; for Innocent lived not two 
 years, and so the chair became vacant again. 
 
 Innocent being dead, Gregory the Twelfth was Gregory 
 chosen, who immediately sent to Benedict, that they 
 would both quit the pontificate, to the end that the JS 
 church might be supplied with one whose rights sive p r - 
 
 o ceedmgs 
 
 should be unquestionable ; which Benedict seemed with Bene - 
 
 , , r , . . diet XIII. 
 
 to consent to ; but it was quickly round to be a col- 
 lusion between them, for they pretended to meet to- 
 gether to adjust the manner of their abdication, and 
 seemed to be in so good earnest that they both began 
 their journey, the one from Rome, and the other 
 from Avignon, and put himself on board his gallies 
 at Nice. But then much time was spent as to what 
 passes they should get for their security. The King of 
 France offered all they could desire of passes or con- 
 yoys, and all other princes did the like ; but they 
 
 were
 
 238 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, were not to be satisfied with any thing that was pro- 
 ' posed : upon which the King of France (who en- 
 joyed a long interval) expressed a wonderful displea- 
 sure, and resolved, against all importunity of Bene- 
 dict's faction, to publish his letters of withdrawing all 
 obedience from him : of which Benedict being ad- 
 vertised, he resolved to try another expedient than 
 he had yet made use of to divert that tempest, and 
 sent a bull to Paris to inhibit and forbid the publish- 
 ing any such substraction under pain of excommu- 
 nication ; and sent Sancio Lupi, and another of his 
 servants, to deliver the bull to the King himself and 
 to the Duke of Berry, who caused the men presently 
 to be arrested and kept in close custody. 
 Benedict's The Council was presently assembled, and the De- 
 pieces by puties of the University ; whereupon a little penknife 
 of e the e unl was P ut through the bull, and then the Rector of the 
 versityof University tore it in pieces. This being done, the 
 substraction was published with all formality ; and 
 France then order was given for proceeding in justice against 
 tne messengers who brought the bull ; and their sen- 
 tence was J tnat tne y should be. drawn twice about 
 the palace in a cart, and then they should be set 
 upon a scaifold, with mitres of paper upon their heads, 
 and in painted coats, with the arms of Benedict, and 
 that they should be there reprehended by a grave 
 Doctor for their presumption, and so to be carried 
 back again to prison: all which was executed with the 
 utmost rigour ; and many Prelates and other ecclesi- 
 astical persons, who were known to be of Benedict's 
 party, were committed to prison. This proceeding 
 discouraged both the Popes, who pretended to meet 
 in Savoy to prosecute their dissimulation, and they 
 no sooner received the news, but they resolved to 
 
 shift
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 239 
 
 shift for themselves. Benedict upon his gallies fled CHAP. 
 into Catalonia, being yet owned by his own prince - 
 the King of Arragon ; and Gregory made haste to 
 Sienna by land ; both of them abandoned by their 
 Cardinals. 
 
 In the time of this Pope Gregory the Twelfth, and Henry iv. 
 of his two predecessors, our King Henry the Fourth prohibits 
 reigned in England. He had raised himself to the 
 crown too foully to be willing to provoke or make 
 more enemies than he had, and valued himself very 
 much upon the opinion the world had of his sanctity, 
 and spake of nothing more than of a voyage to the 
 Holy Land ; and in the beginning of his reign he 
 did all he could to divert his people from making 
 complaints, or seeking redress against the oppression, 
 of the church of Rome, which in the weakness of the 
 former King, and the distractions of those times, had 
 insinuated itself: yet in the ninth year of his reign 
 he could not avoid to enact in Parliament, that the 
 Pope's collectors should not from thenceforth levy 
 any more money within the realm for first fruits of 
 any ecclesiastical dignity, as due by any provision 
 from Rome, on pain of pramunire ; and to appoint 
 that all the former statutes made in those cases 
 should be rigorously executed. 
 
 And in the thirteenth year of his reign there was a Archbishop 
 
 , i i j j of Canter- 
 
 Very signal case, which is a convincing evidence and bury claims 
 
 manifestation of what account the Pope's supremacy overhe' 
 was then in England. The Archbishop of Canter- 
 
 bury complained in Parliament, that the University in <wosi- 
 of Oxford had obtained a bull from the Pope to be Pope's bull, 
 clearly exempted from the visitation of the said Arch- parliament 
 bishop, to the end that they might better support He- 
 rctics and Lollards; notwithstanding which bull K-ing 
 
 Richard
 
 240 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Richard had ordered, that the said University should 
 
 ' be subject *o his, the Archbishop's visitation : that 
 
 however in this King's time he had been disturbed 
 by the Chancellor, and the Proctors of the Univer- 
 sity, (whom he named,) and hindered from making 
 his visitation ; whereupon it had been by his Ma- 
 jesty's direction, decreed in chancery, that the said 
 whole University and all orders persons and facul- 
 ties in the same, should be fully subject to the visita- 
 tion of the said Archbishop and his successors, and 
 to his and their officers; and that as often as the said 
 Archbishop or his successors, or his or their officers, 
 were therein by the said Chancellor interrupted, 
 their liberties should be seized into the King's hands 
 until the Archbishop were thereto restored; and fur- 
 ther, that for every time of such interruption, the 
 Chancellor or other officer should be bound to pay 
 to the King one thousand pounds : all which arti- 
 cles and orders were at the request of the Archbi- 
 shop confirmed by assent of Parliament : which the 
 Archbishop durst never have demanded, nor proba- 
 bly would such a Catholic Parliament have consent- 
 ed to it, against an express bull of the Pope, if any 
 such primacy or jurisdiction of the Pope had been 
 acknowledged in England. 
 
 Council at The Cardinals having thus abandoned both Bene- 
 dUexander diet and Gregory, a Council was called at Pisa, 
 v - where the Cardinals of both factions met, and sum- 
 
 moned both Benedict and Gregory to appear; and 
 commanded all people to withdraw their obedience 
 from both, till the Council should proceed to a new 
 election ; and now only the Kings of Arragon and 
 Scotland submitted to and obeyed Benedict ; and 
 only the kingdom of Naples, and some few cities of 
 
 Italy,
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV, 241 
 
 Italy, obeyed Gregory. The Council at Pisa pro- CHAP. 
 
 ceeded to declaring both Popes schismatical, and en : - 
 
 joined the people to obey neither of them, and then 
 chose the Archbishop of Milan to be Pope, who was 
 called Alexander the Fifth, and went to Rome, and 
 was crowned there : and in this perplexity the Arch- 
 bishop of Florence declared, that all three Popes Three 
 might be obeyed with a very good conscience. Be- g ether. t0 " 
 nedict called a Council at Perpignan, and condemned 
 the Council at Pisa, and made nine new Cardinals ; 
 and Gregory went out of Rome to a little town in 
 the patriarchat of Aquileia, and there excommuni- 
 cated the Cardinals at Pisa for schismatical. 
 
 Alexander being thus chosen, and, in the opinion Alexander 
 of all men who had reverence for the Council, esteem- privileges 
 ed the true and only Pope, Lewis Duke of Anjou Mendicant 
 came to him, and the Pope, with the consent of the ordcrs> 
 Council, gave him the investiture of Naples; and he 
 gladly accepted it, though it had cost his father and 
 his brother so dear, and though France was in too ill 
 a state to give him any assistance; for our Harry the 
 Fifth was then in the bowels of it with a victorious 
 army. The new Pope quickly found that the long 
 Schism, which was not yet at an end, had so weaken- 
 ed his authority, that, even where his person was ac- 
 cepted and he acknowledged to be Pope, his power 
 was disputed and rejected in matters in which hia 
 predecessors had been always obeyed. This Alexan- 
 der had formerly been a Cordelier, and as soon as he 
 was Pope he thought it very fit to express some gra- 
 titude to that order in which he had been bred ; and 
 yet, that he might not draw more envy upon it than 
 it could bear, he communicated his favour equally to 
 the other Mendicant orders, and so granted a new 
 
 R privilege
 
 242 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, privilege to the four Mendicant orders, the Francis- 
 
 ' eans, Dominicans, Augustines, and Carmes, that 
 
 they should administer all their sacraments within 
 
 the parishes, and receive the tithes where people 
 
 were willing to give it to them. 
 
 The Uni- The University of Paris was so much incensed 
 ParTs'Lpeis with this novelty, that they cut off and expelled 
 Mbta"" fr m tne i r body, and all the privileges that belonged 
 grant. thereunto, all those four orders, if they would not re- 
 nounce whatsoever was granted to them by that bull. 
 The Dominicans and the Carmes durst not contest 
 it, and quietly submitted to the decree of the Uni- 
 versity ; but the Cordeliers and the Augustines were 
 refractory, and insisted upon the privileges the Pope 
 had granted to them ; whereupon they were de- 
 prived of the chairs they had in the University, and 
 likewise of their liberty to take confessions ; by 
 which the Dominicans gained well, as the Cordeliers 
 had formerly done upon the displeasure of the Uni- 
 versity to the other. 
 
 Death of There is no doubt but that Alexander would have 
 loudly resented this affront if his reign had not been 
 very short, and he had had any time to have declared 
 xxin. his sense of it; but he lived only eight months after 
 pcahThe he had been chosen : and his successor, who was 
 * rant ' presently chosen, and called himself John the Three 
 and Twentieth, was so far from being willing to en- 
 ter into a contest with the University of Paris, that, 
 as soon as he was elected, he cancelled and repealed 
 all those privileges, and left all the orders in the 
 state they were before, and thereby seemed to con- 
 fess that his predecessor had exceeded his jurisdic- 
 tion. Of this Pope the Spanish writers say, " Era 
 " Juan harto mejor para Soldado o Capitan gue no 
 
 " para
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 243 
 
 " para -Pontifice :" and it is very true he did a very CHAP. 
 
 rough act as soon as he was in his chair ; for he ' 
 
 granted the Crusade against Laodislaus King of Na- against the 
 pies ; and, having sent it to be preached all over Hungary* 
 Germany, when it was published in Prague it gave 
 that offence and scandal to the people, that they rose 
 in tumult, and said that the Pope was Anti-Christ, 
 otherwise he would not grant the Crusade against 
 Christians, which was only proper to be done against 
 Infidels : and if this was not the beginning of the 
 [Reformers] in that city and kingdom, it was a very 
 great countenance to them, who had not been taken 
 notice of. 
 
 By this time Sigismund was chosen Emperor, who sigismund 
 was brother to Wenceslaus, who had been deposed ; Emperor, 
 and he found that the church was as far from peace 
 as it had been in any time of the Schism. Instead 
 of two, there now remained three, who with equal 
 confidence assumed the chair, and usurped the same 
 power to each which had been claimed when there 
 was no doubt of the person : and though all adhered 
 still to John, who had submitted to Alexander, yet 
 the world was unsatisfied still to whom the right be- 
 longed. The Council of Pisa, that was risen, and 
 had appointed another Council to meet within three 
 years, had not obtained the reputation of being a Ge- 
 neral Council : it did not appear by what authority 
 it had been called ; nor were the ambassadors of 
 many princes there; nor had it reformed the Schism, 
 but added a third Pope to the other two pretenders, 
 who began to recover new friends and dependants. 
 John had now sent out his summons to call a Coun- 
 cil to Rome, which in many respects was not thought 
 a convenient place for it to assemble in. And most 
 of the Kings and Princes had earnestly besought Si- 
 ft 2 gismund
 
 244 PAPAL USURPATIONS MI 
 
 CHAP, gisniund by his imperial authority to call a Council 
 
 ' to such a place as he thought fit, and they would all 
 
 assist him with their authority till the Schism should 
 be ended. 
 
 Council of Sigismund had at that time some differences with 
 e ' the republic of Venice, and went himself into 
 Italy ; where they say that John sent his Legates 
 to him to consult upon the place for the Council to 
 assemble, and that they agreed together that it 
 should be at the city of Constance upon the Rhine, 
 and that the Pope appointed the day for the meet- 
 ing. Be this as it will, Constance was the place ; 
 and the Emperor carne in person thither before the 
 first session, and assisted in it in his imperial accou- 
 trements, John being likewise present ; but because 
 many of the Prelates and ambassadors were upon the 
 way, and as it was in the winter season, the second 
 session was deferred for some months. The day being 
 come, John went up to the throne that was prepared 
 for him ; and, after he had sat there for some time, 
 he arose, and, turning to the altar, read a paper, in 
 which he promised and obliged himself to renounce 
 the Papacy, in case Gregory and Benedict would do 
 the same, or if they should chance to die : and with 
 this the Council was well satisfied, and forthwith 
 summoned Benedict and Gregory to appear within 
 such a time appointed. Some say there were certain 
 complaints and accusations prepared and preferred 
 against John, which produced great fear and appre- 
 hension in him. But the Council, before it would 
 enter upon any thing that was controverted, began 
 with asserting its own power and jurisdiction, and 
 frankly declared, that a General Council in matters 
 of faith and general reformation is above the Pope, 
 and that all Christians, and the Pope himself, is 
 
 bound
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 245 
 
 bound in those occasions to submit to its determina- CHAP. 
 tions. : 
 
 This ground being laid, they fell to the business ; John is im- 
 and John (whether upon the fear of his accusation, and resigns 
 or sorrow for the engagement he had made,) stole out 1 ' 
 of the town, and fled to Frederic Duke of Saxony, 
 who entertained him, notwithstanding the process 
 made against him by the Council for so doing. But 
 John himself in a short time appeared so irresolute 
 and void of courage, that all his friends forsook him ; 
 and Frederic (to make his peace with the Emperor,) 
 delivered him up to him, and so he was put in pri- 
 son ; and, after he was deprived, he consented to the 
 sentence, and made a solemn renunciation of the 
 Papacy into the hands of the Council. 
 
 This being done, Gregory, though he thought not Gregory re- 
 fit to be present in person, sent Charles Malatesta to Papacy, 
 make his full renunciation, who performed it accord- an 
 ingly : and the Emperor and Council sent an express 
 to give him thanks, and to make great expressions of 
 respect and reverence towards him ; but the good 
 man died within few days after of grief (as some 
 writers say) for what he had done ; and it is gene- 
 rally agreed that he had been canonically chosen, 
 and was the true and lawful Pope. Benedict here- 
 upon refused to appear at the Council ; and sent 
 them word, that if there had been heretofore any 
 doubt of his right and title, it was now clear by the 
 renunciation of the other two, by which he became 
 the true and unquestionable Pope ; and so the Coun- 
 cil was neither lawful, nor had any authority over 
 him. 
 
 The Council, though it doubted not its own au- Benedict 
 
 ,. i-i 11 i r 11 deprived by 
 
 thonty, desired rather the taking in or all parties the Coun- 
 
 i cil. 
 
 R 3 who
 
 246 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, who adhered; and, to persuade him to do as the 
 ~- other two had done, they sent other ambassadors 
 again to him ; and the Emperor Sigismund himself 
 went to Perpignan to confer with him, but could not 
 in any degree persuade him, nor get him to make 
 other answer than he had formerly sent to the Coun- 
 cil. So that, upon the Emperor's return to Con- 
 stance, and the ambassadors of England Germany 
 Italy Spain and France giving their consents, the 
 Council pronounced sentence against Benedict, and 
 deprived him of the Papacy, declaring him schisma- 
 tical, and a perturbator of the peace of the Church 
 and of Christendom ; and likewise condemned as 
 schismatics the King of Scotland, (who was the only 
 King that adhered to him,) and all other persons who 
 held Benedict for the true Pope. The see being 
 now void, the Council pronounced a decree, that 
 within five years there should be another Council 
 called in Pavia, and that afterwards, for the time to 
 come, from ten years to ten years, there should al- 
 ways be a General Council ; which decree, if it had 
 been since observed, would probably (whatever abate- 
 ment there would have been of the grandeur of Popes) 
 better have preserved the peace and unity of Chris- 
 tian religion. 
 
 Martin v. The Church being now void, the Council appoint- 
 ed (as the most reasonable expedient to procure an 
 universal submission to and acceptance of the person 
 who should be now elected,) that six persons of the 
 five nations mentioned before, whereof three or four 
 were Bishops, and the other learned men, should as- 
 sist in the conclave for the election of a new Pope : 
 and so those thirty entered the conclave with the 
 three and twenty Cardinals, who were on the place ; 
 
 and
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. $4? 
 
 fcfid after much difficulty they all agreed in the CHAP, 
 choice of the Cardinal Colonna, who called himself - 1 
 
 Martin the Fifth, and acknowledged the Emperor to 
 be " Restorador della Christmndad y reformador del 
 " Estado Ecclesiastical as the Spanish pontificals 
 confess. And since this method of allotting the se- 
 veral nations a part in the election of a Pope was 
 once thought necessary for the peace of the church, 
 and therefore can at no time be thought unlawful, it 
 might be wondered at that all Catholic princes, who 
 admit the papal authority in any degree to have an 
 influence upon their dominions, do not insist upon 
 having still that share in the conclave in the choice 
 of the Pope ; if it were not very plain, that they al- 
 low that authority more or less as they judge conve- 
 nient for their affairs, without any other obligation of 
 conscience as in matter of religion. 
 
 Doctor Harpsfield (whose knowledge or integrity Agreement 
 in history no Roman Catholic doth suspect,) says^ in 
 his Ecclesiastical History of England, that in 
 
 Council of Constance there was a treaty and agree- bish P of 
 
 * ~ Canterbury, 
 
 ment between Pope Martin and Chichely Archbi- for limiting 
 shop of Canterbury, (who was a Cardinal, and sent her of Car- 
 
 by our Harry the Fifth to be present in that Coun- e 
 cil,) upon the reformation of many particulars 
 which the Archbishop complained with reference tos enccs 
 England ; amongst the rest the Pope promised, that 
 the number of Cardinals should not hereafter be so 
 excessive, lest the multitude should bring them into 
 contempt, and that they should be chosen " ex omni- 
 (f bus promiscue gentibus idque ex Cardinalium reli- 
 u quorum voluntate et consensu :" and the Cardinal 
 complaining of the multitude of Indulgences which 
 were sent into England for the benefit of some parti- 
 
 R 4 cular
 
 248 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cular churches, which whosoever should visit and 
 ^ ' offer there should enjoy the privileges and benefits 
 
 granted thereby ; and that, besides the oppression 
 which the people suffered in many places by the 
 collectors and treasurers for the said Indulgences, 
 the parishioners of other parishes upon those occa- 
 sions frequented and resorted unto those particular 
 churches, and made their offerings there, to the de- 
 frauding their own proper curates of the churches 
 and parishes where they inhabited; upon these com- 
 plaints the Pope granted this remedy ; " Facultas 
 " data est Episcopis, ut idonee illi rei prospicerent, 
 (t rescissis etiam, ubi scandalum ministrarent, Indul- 
 " gentiis illis ;" which is evidence enough that Indul- 
 gences were very grievous, and complained of many 
 years before Luther's time; and that, upon complaint 
 from England, refprmation was sooner granted than 
 in other places : the temper of that nation being 
 well known, that they would quickly remove that 
 themselves which did not please them, if it were not 
 quickly done by them who pretend to authority to 
 impose it. 
 
 Return of The Pope formally took his oath that he would 
 t e Rome. faithfully observe all the articles which were esta- 
 blished in the Council ; and the Council was there- 
 upon dissolved ; and the Pope began his journey to- 
 wards Rome, remaining some months in Florence, 
 that there might be the more [care] taken for his re- 
 ception in Rome : and in that time John the Three 
 and Twentieth, who had been deposed by the Coun- 
 cil and committed to prison, corrupted his keeper, 
 and, whilst the Pope remained in Florence, came on a 
 sudden into the room where he was, cast himself at 
 his feet, acknowledged him for the lawful Pope, and 
 
 begged
 
 FROM CLEMENT V. TO EUGENIUS IV. 249 
 
 begged his pardon ; whereupon the Pope received CHAP, 
 him graciously, made him Bishop of Tusculum, and - '- 
 gave him the cap of a Cardinal : he then prosecuted 
 his journey to Rome, (where he arrived in Septem- 
 ber one thousand four hundred twenty-one,) which 
 had been a hundred and ten years without a peace- 
 able Pope ; for the Popes had remained in Avignon 
 seventy years, and the Schism had continued full 
 forty years, so that the people were quite altered 
 both in their fashions and in their language. 
 
 But, alas ! all this did not put an end to this Death of 
 Schism. Benedict refused still to submit, and tookxm. 
 upon him the title and exercised the jurisdiction of 
 Pope. And shortly after Alonso King of Arragon, 
 (taking offence at the Pope about the business of the 
 kingdom of Naples,) when the Council was called at 
 Pavia, at the five years' end, in pursuance of what 
 had been decreed in the Council of Constance, sent 
 his ambassador to Pavia, and proposed to the Coun- 
 cil the hearing and examining the case again of Be- 
 nedict ; with which the Pope was so exceedingly 
 frighted, that he found some means, on pretence of 
 sickness and other accidents, to suspend the Council, 
 and after some time to call a new one at Basil ; and 
 during this suspension Benedict died, having conti- 
 nued with the stile of Pope near thirty years ; which 
 a grave writer makes as an argument that he was not 
 true Pope, because, says he, no true Pope hath ever 
 yet attained to the years of St. Peter, which were 
 but five and twenty. 
 
 The death of Benedict produced not an end to the clement 
 troubles ; for Alonso, to be revenged of the Pope, ti-Pope "' 
 caused the Cardinals who had remained with Bene-SpSJfjJ, 
 diet to choose a Canon of the church of Barcelona to terfive 
 
 be
 
 230 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, be Pope, who accepted it, and was called Clement 
 the Eighth, and created Cardinals, and kept the stile 
 
 signs. End of Pope near five years ; till Martin made peace with 
 
 Schism. Alonso, and gave him the investiture of Naples ; in 
 
 recompence whereof Alonso returned to his obedi- 
 
 ence, and caused Clement to resign, who was by the 
 
 Pope made a Bishop. And so the Schism, which 
 
 had lasted little less than fifty-two years, expired, 
 
 and Martin remained Pope without a rival, 
 
 The Cardi- This fell out about the year a thousand four hun- 
 
 nal Bishop . . . . 
 
 of Win- dred twenty-six, which was within three or tour 
 
 years of the beginning of the reign of our King Hen- 
 Counseiior T Y ^ le Sixth ', during whose unhappy reign, though 
 to Henry there Was all fair correspondence held with the Pope, 
 
 VI. with r * 
 
 an exciu- who always encroached most in such times of faction 
 
 sion from . , . , .t{i 
 
 council in and contention, yet there was one memorable de- 
 concernlng termination in Parliament, which shewed with what 
 the Pope. j ea i ous y the power and authority of the Pope was 
 then looked upon. The Bishop of Winchester was 
 then made a Cardinal by Pope Martin, and after- 
 wards called to be of the King's Council, with this 
 protestation, " that the said Cardinal should absent 
 " himself in all affairs and councils of the King, 
 " wherein the Pope or see of Rome was looked 
 " upon ;" and this the Cardinal consented to, and ob- 
 served accordingly ; which had been a very unnatu- 
 ral limitation, if the Pope had been acknowledged to 
 have had the supreme spiritual jurisdiction. 
 
 CHAP.
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Eugenius IV. A. D. 1431. to Paul III. A. D. 1534. 
 from the end of the Schism, to the Reformation. 
 
 U PON the death of Martin, Eugenius the Fourth Eugenius 
 was chosen, who began his reign with persecuting 
 the family of his predecessor. The Council of Basil 
 continued to sit, and declared, (as that of Constance 
 had done,) that the Pope was subject to the Coun- 
 cil ; and thereupon summoned him to appear, and to 
 preside in person. The Pope, without contradicting 
 any of their conclusions, used all the means he could 
 to translate the Council to Bologna ; but the Coun- 
 cil absolutely refused ; and the Emperor Sigismond, 
 and Charles the Seventh of France, concurred with 
 them, and resolved it should continue still at Basil ; 
 where the Bohemians got a decree, that they might 
 continue the communion, sub utrdque specie. 
 
 This Pope, Eugenius the Fourth, left a lasting mo-Eugeniu* 
 nument to Christendom of his mischievous power penses with 
 and jurisdiction, in two infamous dispensations which 
 he granted, to dispense with oaths formally and reli- 
 giously entered into: the first was his absolving the dislaus 
 Duke of Burgundy from the faith and promise that Hungary. 
 
 he
 
 252 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, he had given to the King of England, never to enter 
 into any treaty with France, without the consent of 
 
 the English ; and the Pope's dispensing with him to 
 break that oath was attended with the loss of much 
 blood, and was really the original cause and ground 
 of the ruin of that most illustrious family : the other 
 was in the case of Ladislaus King of Hungary, who 
 had made a good and advantageous peace with the 
 Turks, and with all solemnity had sworn to observe 
 it ; but this Pope (though Christendom was at that 
 time enough distracted by bloody wars amongst 
 themselves,) importuned and prevailed with him to 
 break this peace, and dispensed with him for his 
 oath ; upon which that bloody battle of Varnas was 
 fought with the Turks, in which that young King 
 lost his own life, and all his army, " a wound (says 
 " Monsieur Mezeray) which bleeds yet at this very 
 " day ;" and he says farther, " that the Popes did 
 " things of that nature very often, believing that it 
 " did belong to that power which our Saviour had 
 " granted them of binding and unbinding." From 
 these unhappy and impious precedents, the Turks 
 themselves learned the infidelity which they had not 
 before practised, and justified all those barbarous 
 violations of the treaties and conditions which they 
 made in the kingdom of Cyprus, and many other 
 places, which cost the lives of so many thousand 
 Christians. 
 
 Council of After great and high contests, the Pope requiring 
 Basil> one thing, and the Council another, and threaten- 
 ing to depose him, the Pope by degrees, by gifts 
 and promises, wrought upon some of the Prelates to 
 withdraw from Basil ; and then published his bulls 
 for dissolving the Council at Basil, and for convening 
 
 another
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 253 
 
 
 
 another at Ferrara : whither those Prelates which CHAP, 
 adhered to him came accordingly, and where they 
 
 had the more credit, by the Emperor of Constanti- 
 nople's repairing thither to compose the disputes 
 with the Eastern Church. The Council at Ferrara Council of 
 declared those who remained at. Basil schismatics ; 
 and they at Basil (with whom the Emperor France 
 Naples and Milan joined,) declared the apostolical 
 chair to be void, and, proceeding to a new election, 
 chose Amadeo Duke of Savoy: he had lone; before Amadeo, 
 
 , , , i Duke of Sa- 
 
 given over the world, and retired into a monastery ; voy, elect- 
 yet he accepted this election, (which Germany Spain the name 
 and France, and so much of Italy as Naples and Mi- ofFehxV> 
 Ian contain, concurred,) and came to the Council at 
 Basil, and took the name of Felix the Fifth. 
 
 Eugenius had this likewise added to his affliction, Banish- 
 that he was driven out of Rome too by the people ; 
 
 and after seven years absence he returned thither, 
 
 but it was only a little before his death. The great- 1 cti " ? f . 
 
 J . "the Albizi, 
 
 est part of the time that he was banished from Rome and recai 
 he spent in Florence, of which Machiavel, in his His-de Medici. 
 tory of Florence, makes a very pleasant relation. At 
 that time Cosmo de Medici was banished by the 
 power and faction of the Albizi, and confined to Pa- 
 dua. The year following, when the election of new 
 magistrates was to be, there being a design, or at 
 least thought to be, to create a new Bailiff, and then 
 to recal Cosmo de Medici, the contrary party, of 
 which Messer Rinaldo delli Albizi was the chief, put 
 themselves in arms ; nor would they be persuaded to 
 lay down their arms, though the Signiory disclaimed 
 any such purpose, either to choose a new Bailiff, or to 
 recal Cosmo. Pope Eugenius, however, who was a 
 friend to the Albizi and that party, gave so much 
 
 credit
 
 254 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, credit to the professions and protestations of the 
 
 ' Signiory, that he prevailed with Messer Rinaldo to 
 
 dismiss the people, and lay down his arms, and to 
 stay himself with him in his palace ; where he gave 
 him his word and faith, that he should be secure 
 from any injury or affront. The Pope having thus 
 far prevailed, the Signiory no sooner perceived that 
 the party was dispersed and disarmed, but they sent 
 privately to Pistoia for soldiers to come into the city, 
 and then they chose a new Bailiff, and recalled Cos- 
 mo de Medici, who was received in triumph by all 
 the best of the people of all conditions, and was sa- 
 luted " Bcnefattore del Populo, et Padre della Pa- 
 " tria ;" and presently after Messer Rinaldo delli 
 Albizi, and all the chief of his party, notwithstanding 
 all the interposition and importunity the Pope could 
 use, were banished. The Pope was infinitely dis- 
 pleased and grieved for having been made the instru- 
 ment to cozen and undo his friends, and to promote 
 those who were not loved by him : he made a thou- 
 sand excuses to Messer Rinaldo for having been so 
 much abused himself, without which he could not 
 have abused him : to which Messer Rinaldo answer- 
 ed, that his friends giving less credit to him than 
 they ought to have done, and his believing the Pope 
 more than he should, had brought this ruin upon 
 him ; but that he had reason to complain most of, 
 and to be offended with himself, for believing, " che 
 " voi che erate stato cacciato della patria vostra po- 
 " tessi tener me nella mm :" " That he who was 
 " driven out of his own country, could have credit 
 " enough to preserve him in his country ;" and so he 
 went into banishment, from whence he never re- 
 turned. 
 
 After
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 255 
 
 After Eugenius was dead, Nicholas the Fifth was CHAP, 
 chosen to succeed him, and carried himself with that 
 
 Nicholas V. 
 
 respect to the Emperor and other Princes, and with succeeds 
 that dexterity towards the Council of Basil, that it iv. A. D. 
 was consented by a full consent to be dissolved ; andJ^ 
 Felix, renouncing his right, was made Cardinal and 
 Legate of Germany. 
 
 This was about the year one thousand four hun- Constanti- 
 dred and fifty, a little before the time that Chris- by the 
 tianity received that deadly wound in the loss of 
 Constantinople to the Turk, where the Christian 
 Emperor was himself killed in the storm : and that 
 dismal and irreparable damage cannot be imputed to 
 any human cause, but that fatal Schism in the 
 Church, which for so many years kept all Christian 
 Kings divided in that quarrel, and diverted them 
 from being united in any one honourable or generous 
 action for the good of Christianity ; and to that ac- 
 cursed dispensation of the Pope, by which Ladislaus 
 was induced to break the faith he had given. 
 
 Nor did ever any Pope interpose or desire to procure cause* 
 such an union ; but the Popes professed and avow- ^ence^Sr 
 ed such an implacable animosity against the Greek t t | 1 c n s ^ ara * 
 Church, because it would not submit (as it had no tw een the 
 
 . . . ,. V . . Church of 
 
 reason to do,) to their extravagant jurisdiction, that it Rome and 
 is evident to all the world that they rather desired to church? 
 see them live in servitude under Infidels, than that 
 they should be free members of Christ's Church, 
 without being subjects to their lawless authority. 
 To decline and renounce that authority, they have 
 however much more authentic evidence of primitive 
 tradition, than the Popes can produce for their un- 
 reasonable pretences ; besides a concurrence of much 
 the greater part of Christendom with them in the 
 
 same
 
 256 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, same refusal and protestation ; the which with great 
 
 ignorance, or greater impudence, the most active 
 
 men for the Roman Church would not have to be 
 believed in Europe ; but they persuade men to be- 
 lieve (and prevail over too many by being believed,) 
 that none but the Protestants, and those of the re- 
 formed religion, refuse to submit to the infallible 
 judgment and determination of the Bishop of Rome. 
 It is recorded to the honour and excellent memory 
 of that good Pope Nicholas the Fifth, that he was 
 never seen to smile after that fatal loss of Constanti- 
 nople, but spent the remainder of his wearisome 
 life, that did not last above two years after, in con- 
 tinual ac^s of piety and mortification. If his succes- 
 sors had continued in that blessed temper and just 
 sense of that calamity, the reparation would have 
 been long since brought to pass, and the daily 
 triumphs of that brutal enemy over the flock of 
 Christ would have been prevented, by confining him 
 to his old limits. But nothing is more notorious 
 than that the Popes, from that time to this, do much 
 rather wish that Constantinople may remain in the 
 possession of the grand Signior, than be in the hands 
 of a Christian Emperor, by whose lawful authority 
 and jurisdiction over them they have so often been 
 restrained and controlled in their greatest excesses, 
 and as often imprisoned and deposed, as appears by 
 what hath before been faithfully alleged. It is also 
 very observable, that the most dangerous and scan- 
 dalous schisms have arisen in the Church, since 
 the Emperors have been weakened and deprived 
 of their just authority ; and that Christian Princes 
 have always, upon those occasions, travelled and la- 
 boured to compose those differences, and to restore 
 
 peace
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 25? 
 
 peace to the Church ; whilst no Pope hath ever yet CHAP. 
 
 endeavoured to extinguish any one schism, by depart ' 
 
 ing from the least tittle of his own interest and gran- 
 deur. And it is also notorious, that what hath been 
 ever yet done towards a reconciliation of the Greek 
 and Latin Churches, hath been attempted and en- 
 deavoured by the Christian Emperors, with the con- 
 sent and approbation of the Patriarchs, as the only 
 natural means under heaven to extend the Christian 
 bounds, and to drive both the Mahometans and Pa- 
 gans into narrower quarters to dispute with each 
 other ; and that no Pope hath to this day ever con-- 
 tributed towards that blessed reconciliation, by shew^ 
 ing the least inclination to recede from, or to qualify 
 his vain pretences to a supreme jurisdiction, which 
 in truth (whatever is pretended of essential and fun-< 
 damental differences in religion, concerning the Tri- 
 nity, and other points, which are equally embraced 
 by them as by us) is the sole important matter that 
 keeps that wound from closing ; and this being 
 agreed would quickly produce an agreement in all 
 other particulars : whereas the opposing this subjec- 
 tion is so vital a part of the religion of the Greek 
 Church, and so contrary to the Christian doctrine 
 that was first preached to them before this part of 
 the world was informed of it, that they choose rather 
 to be subject to the Turk in temporals, than to the 
 Pope in spirituals. That this is the sole substantial 
 ground of this contestation, so pernicious to all 
 Christendom, except to the Court of Rome, needs 
 no other evidence than the connivance and indul- 
 gence that the Popes have granted to those small 
 members of the Greek Church, such as part of Mus- 
 covy, and of Armenia, which have made a verbal 
 
 pro-
 
 258 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, profession of subjection to the Pope ; upon which he 
 is well contented that they receive the Sacrament in 
 
 both kinds, that their priests may marry, and he 
 further dispenses with their practice of many other 
 particulars, which they persuade their neighbours 
 are against the faith in Christ : so that the ambition 
 of this worldly greatness and Supremacy is the sole 
 ground that divides the Pope's flock from Christ's 
 flock, and makes his Vicar believe that such only are 
 within the Church who are under his peculiar obe- 
 dience, and that the rest (how observant soever of 
 their Saviour's precepts) are to be left to Christ's 
 own immediate care, to be defended against Turks 
 and Pagans under the security of his promise, that 
 " the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail ; w 
 whilst the Popes themselves observe and perform 
 better intelligence, and more rules of justice and 
 amity with those Infidels, than towards those other 
 Christians. 
 
 crixtus Upon the death of Pope Nicholas, Calix.tus the 
 Third, a Spaniard of the house of Borgia, was chosen 
 Pope without opposition, being then above fourscore 
 years of age, which is always a principal motive and 
 recommendation in those elections. He reigned not 
 above three years, which was too short a time to 
 make him troublesome to his neighbours, or to enter 
 upon any contests in his jurisdiction. The chastise- 
 ment and mortification from the Councils of Con- 
 stance and of Basil kept those feathers yet from grow- 
 ing, with which they imped their wings afterwards to 
 mount very high, and to make great flights. The 
 Spanish writers mention a letter that was found 
 written by this Pope Calixtus, all with his own hand, 
 to die Queen of Arragon, in which he said, " que le 
 
 " devia
 
 FROM EUGENTUS IV. TO PAUL III. 259 
 
 " devia mas, que a su madre ; pero que no conviene se C HA P. 
 " sepa cosa tan grande" as Mariana remembers in 
 his history. 
 
 The distemper that had threatened the Church Charic 
 
 i 
 
 in the Council of Basil, to which France had ad- France 
 
 hered, grew to that height that it deposed a Pope, P r a 
 Eugenius the Fourth, and elected another, Feli 
 the Fifth, who contested it full five years, as 
 been said before ; and he in truth then resigned i 
 
 , Church. 
 
 rather as a piece ot bounty, and to give peace and 
 quiet to the Church, than that he doubted his title; 
 for besides that he had all things granted to himself 
 that he desired, all his friends who had been made 
 Cardinals by him were confirmed in the same digni- 
 ties : and the Council had likewise made itself so 
 terrible, that all succeeding Popes could not but have 
 the image of a deposition still before their eyes. Of 
 all this Charles the Seventh of France had made that 
 use and benefit, that (after he had given himself 
 some ease by many victories he had obtained over 
 the English, and by regaining most of the principal 
 towns which had been long possessed by them) he. 
 thought it time to redeem the poor Gallican Church 
 from that insupportable tyranny which that of Rome 
 had long usurped and exercised upon it ; and of 
 which it had as long complained without redress, 
 whilst the crown was too weak to vindicate itself 
 from present outrages, much less from past oppres- 
 sions. It was now notorious that the policy of Phi- 
 lip the Fair in drawing the Court of Rome to Avig- 
 non wa not founded upon that true wisdom and 
 foresight which made it lasting ; and that it rather 
 contributed to the particular end and appetite of that 
 King, and one or two of that short race, than to the 
 
 * 2 great-
 
 200 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 C HA p. greatness of the King, or happiness of the subject. 
 
 ' For as, during the time of the Pope's residence there, 
 
 they took the opportunity of several distractions in 
 that kingdom to exercise a greater sovereignty over 
 the crown itself than they had ever before presumed to 
 do ; so, when their power was restrained and con- 
 trolled in all other provinces, especially in Italy itself, 
 they then made a prey of the poor Church of France, 
 by imposing what impositions and tribute they 
 pleased upon it. In that time the Annates and 
 Tenths had their birth, and several other taxes, which 
 the Gallican Church had not been accustomed to, 
 and from which they had been able to preserve 
 themselves by their own old privileges and immuni- 
 ties. But now, when their own emulations and di- 
 visions had first by their Appeals introduced a supe- 
 rior jurisdiction, from w r hich they had been originally 
 exempted, and that jurisdiction, which used not to 
 be concerned till it was called upon at so great a dis- 
 tance from them as Rome, was now brought into 
 their own neighbourhood, and upon the matter into 
 their bowels, and would not stay till it was resorted 
 to, but took all occasions and opportunities to extend 
 itself, it grew too formidable to be contended with : 
 and when they appealed to the Court for relief and 
 protection, the remedy proved so much worse than 
 the disease, that, by the Pope's consent, as much more 
 was laid upon the Church for the benefit of the 
 Court as he had taken for his own occasions ; and 
 this equality in enlarging and multiplying the op- 
 pression was always the fruit and benefit' of the 
 complaint ; all which hath been more particularly 
 observed and mentioned in the proper place. But 
 now, I say, Charles the Seventh, upon this good 
 
 con-
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 26*1 
 
 conjuncture of the Council of Basil in abating the CHAP, 
 pretences of the Popes, took care to pull up all those 
 
 oppressions by the roots, by enacting and publishing 
 that Pragmatique which freed the Church from all 
 those enterprises of the Court of Rome, and which 
 proved the ground of so many warm disputes after- 
 wards, when the State was no less engaged in the 
 defence and support of it than the Church itself. 
 The poor old Pope knew no better way to resent the 
 affront done to the holy chair than by manifesting 
 all imaginable respect to the authority that did it, 
 and to comply with all the desires of that King who 
 inflicted it : and so the English, having by a formal 
 process in justice proceeded against the famous Pu- 
 celle of Orleans (she being then their prisoner) for 
 her many famous martial exploits, and having con- 
 demned and burned her for a witch and a sorceress, 
 this Pope Calixtus appointed such new commis- 
 saries as were named by the French King, as the 
 Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Paris and Con- 
 stance, to take a new examination of the affair ; who, 
 upon the testimony that was given to them, justified 
 the poor wench, and declared her to be an heroic 
 dame, and caused all the process and proceedings 
 that had been against her to be publicly burned. 
 
 When the short reign of Calixtus was expired, PJ US 11. 
 Cardinal Piccolomini, better known by the name 
 ^neas Silvius, was chosen Pope, and took the name 
 of Pius the Second ; of whom the prudent Mezeray 
 makes this observation ; "that there never was any pri- 
 " vate person who laboured more to reduce the power 
 " of the Pope within the terms and limits of the Ca- 
 " nons than ^Eneas Silvius did ; and never did any 
 " Pope make more attempts to extend it beyond all 
 
 s 3 " right
 
 262 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " right and reason, than he did, after he came to bo 
 : " Pius the Second." It cannot be denied that he was 
 
 a man at least equal in wit, learning, and parts, to 
 any man of that age ; of great experience, and great 
 eloquence ; and as he had a great reputation of vir- 
 tue and piety to promote any thing he took in hand, 
 so he was never taken notice of to have any secret 
 alloy of improbity, or any vice that might discredit 
 his pretences. He well understood the bonds and 
 shackles by which the Papacy was restrained, or at 
 least entangled, and which he himself had so indus- 
 triously endeavoured to fasten to it ; and till those 
 should be taken off or loosed, he knew well that he 
 depended upon too many to undertake any great 
 matter by himself. 
 
 Denies the The Council of Basil, which was the idol that he 
 pealing ap na d erected, was to be broken down or discredited be- 
 PO tcTa f re tne PP e cou ld ascend to a throne, to which terror 
 general should be paid as well as reverence, and from whence 
 he migrht make himself formidable as well as submit- 
 
 o 
 
 ted to. In order to which, he was no sooner chosen 
 Pope, and the ceremonies of his coronation over, than 
 he published a bull, by which he bravely declared, 
 that all men of what condition soever, " Appellantes a 
 " summo Romano Pontifice, adfuturum Concilium, eo- 
 " rumque Consiliarii et fautores, pcenis ejccommumca- 
 " tionis, criminisque l&s& majestatis, divina et humane 
 " subjichintur :" and finding that this instrument was 
 looked upon generally rather as an act of the Consis- 
 tory, which he could not in discretion prevent or di-. 
 vert, than as proceeding from himself, and upon his 
 own judgment, which he had formerly published so 
 contrary to this determination, he thought it fit to set 
 put another declaration, which he very ingeniously 
 
 styled,
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 263 
 
 styled, " Retractatio eorum, qua ipse Pontifex, in mi- CHAP. 
 
 " noribits existens srnpserat pro Concilia Basiliensi 
 
 " contra Eugenium quartumr In this he sets out 
 at large the history of his conversion, and by what 
 steps and degrees, and upon what reasons he came 
 to change his opinion ; which, though it compre- 
 hends as much as could naturally occur to a man of 
 great wit and eloquence, to dispose him to retract an 
 opinion that he had so solemnly maintained after he 
 was forty years of age, yet hath the less weight, be- 
 cause he doth allege no new arguments which 
 wrought that change in him, (except his reverence to 
 some particulars,) but those which he had before so 
 substantially answered, and against the judgment of 
 persons fully as venerable: and therefore it seems very 
 unwarily done of those, who (after the expiration of so 
 many years, and so great a change and alteration in 
 the time, with reference to that doctrine) have revived 
 the memory of it, and consequently the argumenta- 
 tion, by printing in the last edition of the Bullarium, 
 together with that bull of Pius the Second, the other 
 whole discourse and instrument of his retractation. 
 
 When Pius had declared his judgment and resolu- Require 
 tion in this bull, he very magnanimously chose to vii a . r t o S abo- 
 try the eifect and operation it would have upon thatp^ _^_ 
 Prince who was most like to contradict it ; and so tque, who 
 
 appeals 
 
 he formally sent to Charles the Seventh of France, against the 
 requiring him to recall and abolish the Pragmatique, to tiJ 
 which if he should not do, he threatened to excom- 
 municate him. Nor did this wise Pope make this 
 attempt rashly, or without well deliberating it ; as 
 he knew well, that if it prevailed over that great and 
 powerful King, it would not probably be disputed 
 by any other : and he conjectured that it might be 
 
 8 4 like
 
 264 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, like to have some good effect upon him, by the ope- 
 -r ration of his son's rebellion against him, which di- 
 vided his kingdom, and gave him great apprehension 
 and more vexation, and wrought so far upon him, 
 that he had a purpose to disinherit that son, and to 
 leave his crown to his younger son Charles, if he 
 could have got the consent of those great men, with- 
 out which he durst not attempt it; and the Pope 
 well knew that those mighty operations could never 
 succeed without his having a hand in the application, 
 and from thence promised himself a more than or- 
 dinary compliance from him. But this not unrea- 
 sonable conjecture failed him ; for that wise and 
 resolute King was no sooner assaulted with this 
 rude threat, but he chose seconds proper to ma- 
 nage that quarrel, and upon whose courage he 
 might safely rely ; and so left it to the Procureur 
 General, who formally made a complaint to the 
 Parliament of the Pope's high presumption, and en- 
 tered his protestation thereupon, and appealed to 
 the next general Council, which was accepted, en- 
 tered, and registered by the Parliament : and this, 
 being so directly in the face of the Pope's bull, made 
 that stratagem vain, and exceedingly grieved him. 
 
 Makes the However, that King soon after dying, and his son 
 
 lion To U ' S1 "Lewis the Eleventh succeeding without that opposi- 
 LewisXi. 
 
 t j on whjch might need the assistance of the holy 
 chair to extinguish it, the Pope again importuned 
 the new King with a little more ceremony to revoke 
 that Pragmatique ; and with the more hope of suc^ 
 cess, because that humorous Prince was not sus- 
 pected to be guided by the persuasions of any par- 
 ticular person, was known to have no reverence for 
 the policy of his father, nor to observe any old esta- 
 
 blishe/J
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 blishcd rules of government, but to vary his counsels CHAP. 
 
 and to change his most deliberate resolutions upon any : -~ 
 
 trivial accident that occurred : and so, not knowing 
 yet what use he might have of his Holiness, he enter- 
 tained all his overtures with singular reverence, and 
 more perplexed and affronted him with a total resig- 
 nation of himself to his fatherly advice, (consenting 
 to whatsoever he proposed, and giving his absolute 
 promise to revoke and annul the Pragmatique,) than 
 his father had done by his frank and positive aver- 
 sion to all his demands: for, according to his natural 
 temper of dissimulation, he never made the least ad- 
 vance to the performance of what he promised with 
 the most solemnity, but was well contented that the 
 University of Paris took upon them to answer all the Opposed by 
 reasons and authority of the Pope ; and so exposed s ity of Pa- 
 him to the contradiction and insolence of an eccle- ns * 
 siastical spiritual body, that was thought to have a 
 peculiar dependance upon him, whilst the Crown it- 
 self pretended to be willing to gratify him in all he 
 desired. In this manner Pope Pius was defeated 
 from any benefit from his lusty bull, and died in the 
 sixth year of his pontificate, leaving the world as 
 much inclined to the Council of Basil as he found it, 
 and more persuaded by the doctrine of ^Eneas Sil- 
 vius, than by the authority and declaration of Pope 
 Pius the Second. 
 
 In the place of Pius, Paul the Second was chosen ; p au i n. re* 
 who, hoping to make good use of the divisions in news the * 
 
 same requli 
 
 France, (by the league of the Duke of Burgundy sition< 
 with Charles the brother of the King, the Duke of 
 Brittany, and Bourbon, and divers other great persons, 
 against Lewis the Eleventh,) sent the Cardinal lofri- 
 di, Bishop of Albi, as his Legate to the King, to 
 
 cause
 
 266 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cause his revocation to be verified of the Pragmatique 
 
 ' that he had so often promised to his predecessor 
 
 Pius; and the King seemed so much to have the same 
 purpose and resolution, that he sent the Cardinal 
 Balue, Bishop of Angers, (a man trusted by him in 
 his most secret transactions,) to the Chastelet, and to 
 the Parliament, to see that revocation registered and 
 verified. At the Chastelet he found no opposition; but 
 when he came to the Parliament, the King's Procu- 
 reur Ge'ne'ral resisted the Cardinal to his face; and the 
 University sent their deputies to the Legate, to signify 
 to him that they did appeal to the future Council.'"" 
 Arrest of And in a short time after, the King, upon a disco- 
 Baiue, and very that the Cardinal, who had been trusted by him 
 about'the m ^ ne managery of the whole treaty of PeVonne, (by 
 mode of his wm " c h he had redeemed the King from the great dan- 
 ger of having thrown himself into the arms of the 
 Duke of Burgundy,) held secret correspondence with 
 his brother Charles without his privity, although it 
 was to no other purpose than to persuade him to ob- 
 serve the treaty that was made on his behalf with the 
 King, he caused the Cardinal Balue to be arrested and 
 carried prisoner to the Bastile: with loud threats that 
 he would cause him to be put to death. This diverted 
 the Pope from prosecuting the revocation of the Prag- 
 matique, to prosecute, as a more popular argument, 
 the enlargement of the Cardinal, and remission of his 
 cause to him, before whom alone he said he ought in 
 justice to be tried; and the King, without seeming to 
 contradict or doubt the Cardinal's privilege, or the 
 Pope's jurisdiction, but rather to acknowledge both, 
 made great instance at Rome that the Pope would ap- 
 point judges within the kingdom of France, before 
 whom the Cardinal's process might be made; and by 
 
 these
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 267 
 
 these reiterated importunities, wherein the one seemed CHAP. 
 not to gainsay the substance of the other, the poor - ' 
 Cardinal remained prisoner in the Bastile for the 
 space of eleven years ; by which the King obtained 
 his end in depriving the Cardinal of his liberty, which 
 he was afraid to grant him, without opposing the 
 Pope's claim, by exposing him to any other judicatory. 
 Nor did the Pope dare to nominate or send any 
 judges into the kingdom, knowing that the King 
 would compel them one way or other to comply with 
 his purposes. I find nothing of the activity of this 
 Pope, out of his own dominions, in assuming an extra- 
 ordinary power, but in his excommunication and de- 
 priving Gregory King of Bohemia, "per pergiuro et 
 " eresia" because, having at his coronation sworn to 
 obey the church of Rome, he afterwards refused to 
 do somewhat that the Pope required him to do. 
 
 Upon the death of Paul the Second, who, without Sixtus iv. 
 any visible sickness or indisposition, was found dead jubilee to 
 
 in his bed, after a great supper of fruit, Sixtus 
 
 Fourth succeeded, who was a man of very temporal l y- five 
 
 . years. 
 
 designs, and resolved to make business, if he could 
 not find it, that might cause him to be much spoken 
 of. In the beginning of his reign he ordained the 
 Jubilee to be kept every five and twenty years, than 
 which he could not have done any thing that could 
 have pleased the city of Rome more. 
 
 He had always professed a great animosity and Conspires 
 hatred against Florence, and particularly against thepazzi'of 
 family of the Medici, which was the most powerful Florence * 
 
 > assassinate 
 
 in that commonwealth; and upon that account he theMedici - 
 was ready to engage himself, contrary to his dignity 
 and his office, in any of the particular and private 
 contests of the disagreeing families in that city ; and 
 
 the
 
 268 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the faction being then greatest between the Pazzi 
 
 ' and the Medici, (the former being the more ancient, 
 
 and that of Medici being become much the more 
 rich and powerful,) the Pope publicly declared him- 
 self to be of the party of the Pazzi, and took all op- 
 portunities to manifest his disrespect and displeasure 
 towards the Medici. Machiavel says, that he shew- 
 ed what a Pope can do, and that many things which 
 have been accounted foul faults, " poterono sotto la 
 " Pontificate autortta nascondersi ;" he was so trans- 
 ported with that implacable malice, (which did not 
 pretend to have its rise from any motive of religion 
 or conscience,) that, when upon secret conferences 
 with the family of the Pazzi, or any other notorious 
 enemies of the Medici, (who frequently resorted to 
 Rome, and received there more than ordinary re- 
 spect,) he found that there was no hope to lessen the 
 mighty power of that family but by the death of Lo- 
 renzo and Julian, the two brothers, (to whose per- 
 sons the whole city paid reverence,) he entered into 
 consultation how to procure the assassination of 
 them ; the manner of which, arid all the circum- 
 stances by which the conspiracy was to be conduct- 
 ed, was first debated in Florence, and then presented 
 to the Pope for his approbation. Philip of Medici, 
 who was Archbishop of Pisa, died, and the Pope pre- 
 sently, against the express desire and protestation of 
 the Signiory, conferred the same upon Francisco 
 Salviati, a known enemy to the Medici, and as much 
 a friend to the Pazzi. The Signiory would not be 
 deprived of their right, and refused to admit Salviati 
 into possession, which added new indignation to the 
 Pope's choleric disposition. He sent, together with 
 his Archbishop of Pisa, (who was to solicit his own 
 
 affair
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 affair at Florence,) Giovanni Baptista de Monteseco, CHAP. 
 
 a person of the nearest trust about him in martial as ' 
 
 well as civil business, to accompany the Archbishop 
 and Francisco Pazzi thither, and with authority to 
 make use of the name of his Holiness for the encou- 
 ragement of any powerful person to enter into the 
 conspiracy ; and by that means Jacomo de Pazzi, 
 who was the chief of the family, of the same malice, 
 but of more wariness and jealousy, was induced to 
 consent. John Baptista returned to Rome, and gave 
 the Pope full information of all the consultations ; 
 and that it was only left unresolved in what manner 
 to assassinate them ; since it was generally conclud- 
 ed, that if they should not be both killed together, 
 the survivor would be able to take revenge upon all 
 the other party. 
 
 Hereupon the Pope sent the Cardinal Raphael deAssassma- 
 Riario, of a Florentine family, wholly devoted to the ii an de MC- 
 Pazzi, (and whom for that reason he had made Car- dlC1 ' 
 dinal,) to visit his friends' at Florence, and that he 
 might be present to countenance any thing that 
 hould be done ; and sent back John Baptista to con- 
 duct the whole design with the Archbishop, and 
 Francisco Pazzi ; whose orders the Pope's soldiers, 
 out of Romagna, were to observe, being appointed to 
 be in readiness near Florence to second the attempt, 
 by entering the town when it should be in uproar. 
 The Cardinal was received and entertained at the 
 tilla of Giacomo Pazzi, near Florence, whither it was 
 concluded that the two brothers would come in civi- 
 lity to gratify his arrival, and then would be a fit 
 time to dispatch them. One of them came, but the 
 other staid at home, which made it necessary to de- 
 fer it : then it was resolved that the Cardinal should
 
 270 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, go to Florence, and that the two brothers should be 
 
 ' invited to sup with him ; and then, going or coming, 
 
 or in the place, they might easily be killed. They 
 were then again disappointed by Lorenzo's coming 
 to supper, and Julian's not coming ; with which 
 being much dismayed, and fearing that the design, 
 which was communicated to many, would be disco- 
 vered, it was resolved, that it should be executed the 
 next day, being Sunday, in the cathedral church of 
 Santa Reparata, whither it was to be presumed they 
 would both, according to custom, accompany the 
 Cardinal ; and, that there might be no mischief fall 
 out by the not exactly timing it, it was resolved, 
 that in the instant of the elevation, when the priest 
 took the sacrament in the high mass, the assassina- 
 tion should be performed. This circumstance again 
 was like to have spoiled all ; for Giovanni Baptista, 
 who either had undertaken, or they believed would 
 kill Lorenzo, excused himself that he had not the 
 courage " commettere tanto excesso in chiesa, et ac- 
 " compagnare il tradimento col sacrilegio" and so 
 they were to find new men for that work ; Francisco 
 Pazzi and Bernardo Bardini having undertaken the 
 assassination of Julian. The Archbishop Salviati, with 
 a brother of his, and some other young men, were to 
 seize upon the palace, that thereby they might per- 
 suade or compel the Signiory to approve what they 
 had done. The Cardinal came to the church, and 
 Lorenzo with him, and the service thereupon begun ; 
 but Julian was not yet present ; whereupon the two 
 who were to massacre him went to his house to call 
 him, and with importunity hastened him to the 
 church, and walking entertained him with much 
 pleasant discourse ; Francisco Pazzi (under pretence 
 
 of
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 271 
 
 of embracing him) searching with his hand whether CHAP. 
 
 he wore any coat of mail, or other defence : but Ju L 
 
 lian, though he well knew the malice of the Pazzi, 
 had not the apprehension of treachery at this time.' 
 When they were come into the church, to as good a 
 place as the crowd (which was extraordinary upon 
 such a day) would admit them, at the instant of the 
 time agreed, Bernardo Bardini, with a short dagger 
 purposely provided, struck Julian upon the breast, 
 with which he fell ; and Fransisco Pazzi falling upon 
 him, and multiplying many unnecessary wounds 
 upon his body, was in so much fury that he struck 
 himself into the thigh with his own stiletto, so that 
 he could not rise. They who were to take the like 
 care of Lorenzo (whereof one was a priest) assault- 
 ed him at the same time, with the same malice; but, 
 whether by the advantage of the place he was in, or 
 their furious unskilfulness who attacked him, he de- 
 fended himself so well, that, though he received many 
 blows, yet, by the help of his friends who were near 
 him, he, with only one hurt in the throat, got into 
 the Sacristy, and with his friends made the door 
 so fast, that it could not easily be forced. The Arch- 
 bishop Salviati gave not his orders so skilfully, or at 
 least not to persons resolute enough ; for though he 
 appointed men to possess the gates, and not to suffer 
 any to enter, yet upon the sudden confusion they 
 were so terrified, that they forsook their security to 
 shift for themselves. The Archbishop, with others of 
 his party, went into the upper rooms, where the 
 Signiory used to sit, and finding the Gonfaloniere de 
 Giustitia there, he desired to speak with him, telling 
 him he had many things to say to him from the 
 Pope. They walked into the next room, but the 
 * Arch-
 
 272 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Archbishop's countenance was so distracted, and hi* 
 ' discourse so broken and confused, that the Gonfalo- 
 niere (who knew nothing of what had passed in the 
 church) suddenly retired into the other room, where 
 he saw persons who ought not to be there, and there- 
 upon called the guard, who presently apprehended 
 them ; and the whole city being presently in arms, 
 there was no expectation of a form of justice, but all 
 the strangers, or men suspected to be of their party, 
 were cut in pieces, and dragged about the streets. 
 The Archbishop found no protection or privilege 
 from his robe ; but was, together with his brother, 
 and others of the Salviati, and Giacobo de Messer 
 Poggio, (a man of great authority there,) hanged out 
 of the windows of the palace, in the sight of all the 
 people. The Cardinal fled to the altar, and by tha 
 interposition and strength of the clergy was pre- 
 served from present violence ; and, when the fury was 
 abated, conducted to prison. All the severity was 
 used for three or four days and nights, to all the fa- 
 mily of the Pazzi, that is agreeable to popular rage. 
 Francisco, by reason of his wound, could get no far- 
 ther than his own house ; from whence he was 
 dragged to the palace, and there hanged out of the 
 window by the Archbishop. When the clamour of 
 the people was a little suppressed, the court of justice 
 proceeded with little less rigour ; for all who were 
 but suspected to be in the conspiracy were condemn- 
 ed ; and many to whom sepulture was granted were 
 by the people taken out of their graves, and after 
 many insolences thrown into the river. Giovanni Bap- 
 tista, by the order of justice, had his head taken off. 
 
 Proceed- When the news of this miscarriage and disappoint- 
 Dacnt came to Rome, the Pope expressed all manner 
 
 of
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 373 
 
 of discontent, and was not ashamed forthwith to raise CHAP. 
 an army, and to draw the King of Naples, who was 
 
 i TM -11- i 
 
 an enemy to the Florentine, to join with him ; pub- He upon 
 lishing a declaration, that he had no quarrel to any action? 
 citizen of Florence but only to Lorenzo de Medici, 
 and only desired his banishment. This was gene- 
 rally looked upon as a very exorbitant act in the 
 Vicar of Christ, that, (after he had with such odious 
 circumstances contrived the murder of the two bro- 
 thers,) because one of them had been wonderfidly 
 preserved from the assassination, he should declare a 
 war against the commonwealth, and indeed kindle a 
 war in Italy, only for his destruction. But the Pope 
 alleged, (which was never before owned by any of 
 his predecessors, though Bellarmine and some of his 
 friends have since made use of the argument,) that it 
 did appertain to the Pope, " Spegnere la tyrannide, 
 " opprimere i cattwi, essaltare i boni" which he was 
 to take all opportunities to do ; that it was not the 
 duty of secular princes to hold Cardinals in prison, 
 to hang Archbishops, to murder and torture and 
 strangle Priests, and to put to death innocent and 
 guiltless men, without justice and distinction ; and 
 therefore he excommunicated a*nd interdicted the i 
 whole state of Florence, till they should satisfy him 
 upon their miscarriages. They on the other side 
 were not all dispirited, but declared, that the Pope 
 " Jera dimostro lupo e non Pastore ,-" and that all 
 Italy was concerned in his foul injustice towards 
 them ; setting forth his horrible impiety in encou- 
 raging traitors and parricides to commit an unparal- 
 leled treason in the church, in the middle of the di- 
 vine service, and in the celebration of the sacrament ; 
 and because the success did not fully answer the 
 
 T whole
 
 2/4 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, whole malice of the design, (which was to murder 
 the citizens, and change the whole form of its go- 
 
 vernment,) he had now laid his pontifical curse upon 
 them, and interdicted the exercise of their religion ; 
 but that they were confident God would not be 
 pleased with those proceedings of his Vicar, and that 
 he would protect them from his violence, and in the 
 mean time they cared not for his interdict, nor 
 would yield any obedience thereunto, but compel 
 their priests to celebrate all divine offices as they 
 used to do. They then called a Council of all the 
 Bishops within their whole government to assemble 
 in Florence, in and before which they appealed for 
 all the injuries done to them by the Pope to the 
 next general Council ; and having thus defended 
 themselves by writing, they vigorously disposed 
 themselves to raise an army for their defence, and 
 sent ambassadors to all princes, even to those who 
 they knew to be their enemies, and to be engaged by 
 treaty with the Pope ; presuming that when the 
 Pope's proceeding should be made manifest unto 
 them, all Christian princes would be ashamed to be 
 esteemed and looked upon as his confederates. 
 Loui XL It is very true, most Christian Kings and Princes 
 Itrates with expressed a wonderful dislike, and even a detestation, 
 the Pope. o f the Pope's prosecution ; both the brothers, espe- 
 cially Lorenzo, being esteemed exceedingly by them 
 for his great wisdom, and for many courtesies they 
 usually received from him, insomuch as they fre- 
 quently sent ambassadors to Florence rather to ad- 
 vise with Lorenzo de Medici upon their nearest con- 
 cernments, than that they had any thing to do with 
 the commonwealth. Lewis the Eleventh of France 
 (who had carried himself with all wariness and sub- 
 tlety
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 tlety towards the Pope, even to pretending that the CHAP. 
 Pragmatique should be abrogated) now called an as- ' 
 
 sembly of all the Prelates of the kingdom, and the 
 deputies of the University, to meet at Orleans, and 
 consult what was to be done upon these the Pope's 
 excesses ; and from thence he sent a splendid em- 
 bassy to Rome, and demanded that the Pope would 
 take off the excommunication that he had pronounced 
 against the Florentines, and that he would cause all 
 those to be severely punished who had been guilty 
 of that odious conspiracy ; and the better to dispose 
 him thereunto, the King sent him word that it would 
 be most necessary to call a general Council : all 
 which prevailed not with him in the least degree to 
 abate or slacken his hostility against Florence, till 
 the King of Naples, and the chief of his other confe- 
 derates, abandoned him. 
 
 There cannot be a greater instance of the horror The Em- 
 all men had of those transactions, than the magnani- Turks' deii- 
 mous carriage of the great Turk himself. Barnardo 9 rd u e p re j hc 
 Bandini, who had killed Julian, and in the general of Julian 
 
 _ . e de Medici. 
 
 confusion, after he had killed another principal per- 
 son of that party, and attempted to break open the 
 door of the Sacristy upon Lorenzo, escaped out of 
 Florence, and, finding that he was not like to be 
 safe in any place in Italy, fled to Constantinople; 
 but, as soon as he was known to be there, he was 
 seized upon by the Emperor's order, and sent and 
 delivered into the hands of Lorenzo de Medici ; an 
 action of an infidel, that might well have called the 
 Christian blood into the face of the Pope, whose 
 haughty humour disdained to be prevailed upon by 
 any example, and thought his mere will and direc- 
 
 T 2 tion
 
 276 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, tion to be argument enough to dispose all other 
 
 -- ' princes to act according to his pleasure. 
 
 |r* ndu i t v f ^' wnen ne na d encouraged and engaged the re- 
 
 in the wars public of Venice to make war against Ferrara, upon 
 
 and Ferra- large promises of what he would contribute there- 
 
 unto, as soon as application was made to him, he 
 
 sent to the Venetians to desist : but this they refused 
 
 to do ; which put him into great choler, and, when 
 
 he heard that Lodovic Sforza of Milan, whom he 
 
 hoped to have incensed against the Venetians, had 
 
 made a peace with them, in a high fit of rage and 
 
 fury he expired ; by his death giving peace to Italy, 
 
 which during his whole reign, that continued thir- 
 
 teen years, he had obstinately kept in continual 
 
 war. 
 
 supremacy This Sixtus the Fourth outlived our King Edward 
 iv. noTac- the Fourth but one year, and had been Pope fiill 
 
 - twelve years in that King's reign, which was a time 
 Iand - too full of trouble at home, and some contests and 
 disputes with France, to entertain any controversies 
 with the Pope. Nor do we find there were any. 
 And the laws were more asleep than they had been in 
 the precedent times, in the restraint of him from re- 
 ceiving money out of England ; which being purely 
 matter of permission, and founded upon the affec- 
 tions of the princes, was more or less looked after 
 and inhibited, as it was attended with other circum- 
 stances that displeased either King or People. But 
 we find, during the reign of this most Catholic King, 
 many grants still upon record, which were made by 
 the Abbots and Priors, without any licence or privity 
 of the Pope, and in which they always gave the King 
 this stile, " Supreinus Dommus noster Edvardus 
 
 " Quar-
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 2/7 
 
 " Quartus Rex-" which they could not have done if CHAP. 
 they had acknowledged any supremacy in the Pope. 
 Upon the death of Sixtus. Innocent the Eighth 
 
 VIII. cre- 
 
 was Pope, of whom an approved Catholic Span ishates Juan 
 
 writer saith ; " Aunque no tune letras, no fue ene- 
 
 " migo d'ellos, antes las favorecis siempre mu cho 
 
 He brought an example of great scandal into the a . rdin f l 
 
 Balue Le- 
 
 church, and which had never been before heard of, gate to 
 in making Juan de Medici (the son of Lorenzo, who vm. of 
 had been so barbarously persecuted by his predeces- ' 
 sor Sixtus, and who was afterwards Pope Leo the 
 Tenth) a Cardinal when he was but thirteen years 
 of age, as Machiavel positively affirms, though some 
 other writers say he was eighteen. The Cardinal de 
 Balue, who (as hath been said) was detained prisoner 
 in the Bastile by Lewis the Eleventh eleven years, 
 notwithstanding all the importunity and expostula- 
 tion of the Pope, was set at liberty, a little before 
 that King's death, upon security that he would not 
 stay in the kingdom, when indeed it was thought he 
 could not live to go out of it, which was the only ar- 
 gument that prevailed with that King for his dis- 
 charge ; and the King was no sooner dead, but he 
 prevailed with Innocent to be sent his Legate a La- 
 tere to the new King, Charles the Eighth, who was 
 then in his minority. He entered into his Legation 
 with that arrogance as if he meant to reproach the 
 kingdom for having kept him in so long captivity ; 
 and made use of his faculties before he had the 
 King's consent, or had presented them to the Parlia- 
 ment to examine whether there was nothing con- 
 tained in them contrary or derogatory to the right 
 of the crown, or the liberties of the Gallican Church. 
 Whereupon the Parliament, offended with this his 
 
 T 3 pre-
 
 278 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, presumption, sent to him, and forbade him to usurp 
 
 '- the privileges of his Legature, or to exercise 'the power 
 
 of it, till he had given satisfaction : but he had some 
 friends in the young King's Council, who upon his 
 submission, and producing his powers, prevailed so 
 far that he was received in the quality he pretended 
 to, and with all the accustomed honours ; and so he 
 exercised all the functions of it during the few days he 
 staid in France; and in his return to Rome; which he 
 hastened beyond his purpose, having received no en- 
 couragement to make a longer stay in that kingdom, 
 but the larger and more liberal present to hasten his 
 departure. This Pope Innocent the Eighth was of 
 an easy and quiet nature, and laboured more to 
 compose and settle Italy in peace, than to trouble his 
 neighbours ; soliciting them on all sides to be united 
 together in some attempt against the Turks, who had 
 so lately (upon the combustion that his predecessor 
 had made between the princes of Italy) landed in 
 the kingdom of Naples, and possessed themselves of 
 Otranto, by which all Europe was alarmed and ter- 
 rified; though the death of Mahomet their Emperor, 
 and the division between his sons, had determined 
 that, and for the present any expedition. 
 
 Alexander In the place of Innocent the Eighth, to the univer- 
 \i. Borgia. ga | amazcmen t anc i scandal of Christianity, the Car- 
 dinal Borgia was elected, or declared Pope, with the 
 most infamous circumstances of corruption that ever 
 accompanied the most secular transaction, and was 
 called Alexander the Sixth ; of whom I shall say the 
 less, because his memory is the most odious, and the 
 most blasted by the universal consent of all Catholic 
 writers, who acknowledge him to be an eternal re- 
 proach to the holy chair. Monsieur Mezeray thinks 
 
 he
 
 "FROM EUGENICS IV. TO PAUL III. 279 
 
 he hath sufficiently described him, by saying, that CHAP. 
 
 never any Mahometan prince was ever more vicious, ' 
 
 more wicked, more infidel than he ; and if any one 
 ever surpassed him in all kind of abominations and 
 crimes, it was his bastard son Caesar Borgia. 
 
 It was in this Pope's time that Charles the Eighth Charles 
 of France made his memorable expedition, or rather France in- 
 progress into Italy ; in which he made himself upon vade 
 the matter master of the greatest part of it without 
 the loss of a man, or striking one blow, except in 
 depredations, plunderings, and all manner of licence 
 in the countries and provinces through which he 
 passed ; so that it might be very reasonably looked 
 upon as an immediate judgment from the hand of 
 God upon that luxurious people ; since it was nei- 
 ther prudently deliberated, nor conducted according 
 to any rules of human wisdom, or of martial skill or 
 order, by his instruments of it, as quickly appeared : 
 for of an entire kingdom, of which they were pos- 
 sessed, and of several strong castles, and places of 
 other provinces through which they passed, and in 
 which they left strong garrisons, within the space of 
 a year there remained not one considerable place in 
 their possession, and of the army with which they 
 entered, very few remained alive ; and the French 
 writers say, that they brought nothing back from 
 thence but a disease, that was never before heard of 
 in France, and that could never since be driven out 
 of that kingdom. 
 
 No man was in his heart more an enemy to the Rome 
 French than this Pope, who professed that he would 
 himself die in the gate of Rome before that Kin 
 should enter into the city. But Charles least consi- of , St - An ~ 
 
 gelo, ca- 
 
 dered his threats, and marched directly towards itpituiates. 
 
 T 4 with
 
 280 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, with his army; which when the Pope discerned, he 
 VL besought the General of Naples (who was come with 
 considerable forces to assist him, and to defend the 
 town,) to retire with his troops, and shut himself up 
 in the castle of St. Angelo, and left the entrance free 
 into the city, which the King entered as into an ene- 
 my's town, and disposed all his troops and artillery 
 into those public places from whence they might se- 
 cure it against foreign or intestine forces. The Pope, 
 thus besieged, presently apprehended his being taken 
 prisoner and deposed, as he well knew he deserved to 
 be; and therefore sent to the King to capitulate with 
 him. He was never in his life afraid of making any 
 treaty, since he resolved at the same time never to 
 observe it ; and so he now consented to all that the 
 King desired, promised to give him the investiture of 
 Naples, and to put several strong places into his hands, 
 to be kept till he should have no more need of them, 
 and many other particulars ; which being all agreed 
 upon, he came out of the castle, and the King re- 
 ceived him with all the demonstrations of respect 
 and duty, kissed his feet, poured out water to him at 
 mass, and took his place in the chapel after the Dean 
 of the Cardinals ; and all this without making the 
 least apology for the force he had used, or the rude- 
 ness of his army. But as soon as the King was 
 gone, though with wonderful expedition he entered 
 Naples, the Pope disclaimed and renounced to per- 
 form any thing that he had promised, and stirred up 
 all the princes of Italy, and Ferdinando of Spain, to 
 enter into that solemn league, which quickly destroy- 
 ed the French army. 
 
 Savanaroia From this success he grew the more infamous in 
 preaching his life and manners ; which grew so notorious, that 
 
 Savana-
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 281 
 
 Savanarola, a Dominican friar in Florence, (who had CHAP. 
 for many years before foretold the judgments of - : 
 God which would shortly fall upon Italy, and which pope 
 they now saw accomplished by that expedition of 
 the French,) preached publicly against the wicked 
 life of the Pope, and of all his family ; for which he 
 was cited to appear at Rome, whither he positively 
 refused to go ; and when he was thereupon excom- 
 municated, he neglected and contemned it, and con- 
 tinued to preach with the same liberty ; and the 
 people of all sorts heard him with approbation. This 
 troubled the Pope so much, that he threatened the 
 state to interdict them, if they would not presently 
 give up that friar. After several expostulations, the 
 magistrates were so terrified with the daily examples 
 of the revenge which the Pope and his son Csesar 
 took of the most eminent persons with whom they 
 were displeased, or of whose contradiction they were 
 jealous, that they at last exposed him to his rage 
 and jurisdiction ; and so poor Savanarola was burned 
 alive, to the great trouble and even indignation of 
 the people. Mariana says, that he was by many 
 learned and pious men of that age looked upon as a 
 martyr ; and Mezeray says, that he was " gnereuse 
 " victime de la re rite et de la liber te. 
 
 I cannot here omit the mention of this Pope's ex- Lewis XH. 
 ercise of his supreme jurisdiction in the case and 
 
 the behalf of Lewis the Twelfth of France; who, !f c r ^ nd P- 
 having had the experience of a very evil court under 
 the dissimulation of Lewis the Eleventh, and of 
 worse under the folly and licence of Charles the 
 Eighth, (under which he had himself suffered a long 
 imprisonment, and other oppressions,) wisely re- 
 solved in the first place to constitute his court of the 
 
 best
 
 282 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, best and the wisest men he could find ; and to em- 
 : ploy none but such who had experience and reputa- 
 tion in martial or in civil affairs : the former class of 
 men had been exceedingly wasted in the late impro- 
 vident and ill conducted war in Italy, which how- 
 ever he resolved to prosecute with his utmost vigour ; 
 both to recover the honour his nation had lost in the 
 last expedition, and to support the title he had by 
 his mother to the dutchy of Milan, which appeared 
 to be the less difficult conquest by the odiousness of 
 Lodovic Sforza, who had usurped it. In the alli- 
 ances which he found necessary to make for the en- 
 trance upon that war, he easily discerned how neces- 
 sary the friendship of the Pope would be to him ; 
 but then his vices were so notorious and infamous, 
 and those of his children so beyond all limits prodi- 
 gious, that he could with great difficulty bring him- 
 self to the thought of it ; and it is generally believed, 
 that if he had no other inclination to it than the suc- 
 cess and carrying on that war, he would rather have 
 protested against his person as unworthy to be Pope, 
 and endured all the mischief he could have done him 
 in Italy, than sought or accepted a conjunction with 
 him. 
 His divorce g ut h e j ia( j a secre t corrupt design of his, the ac- 
 
 and second 
 
 marriage complishment whereof doth always require and in- 
 
 with Anne . . . 
 
 f Brittany, troduce corrupt ministers and assistance. Charles 
 the Eighth had (as is remembered) married the 
 daughter and heir of the Duke of Brittany; and the 
 advantage of annexing that dutchy to the crown was 
 evident enough to all men, who had seen or under- 
 stood the damage it had constantly undergone, whilst 
 it was a distinct sovereignty from it, and the perpe- 
 tual wars and devastations which had proceeded from 
 
 the
 
 FROM EUGENICS IV. TO PAUL III. 28$ 
 
 the contest : so that the annexing it to the crown, CHAP. 
 
 (though with circumstances not very justifiable,) by ' 
 
 Charles the Eighth, was generally looked upon as 
 the wisest act ever performed by that King, and the 
 most grateful to all his subjects. But that relation 
 was now determined by the death of that King with- 
 out issue ; and she was again entirely possessed of 
 her dutchy, as well as of the title of Dowager of 
 France. How to prevent this -new schism was the 
 careful labour of the present King, who had a wife 
 of his own, a lady of great virtue, though of a very 
 unbeautiful person, whom her father, Lewis the Ele- 
 venth, had therefore given to him and induced him 
 to marry, that he might prevent his marriage of this 
 very Queen Dowager, when her father was inclined 
 to give her to him : and it is true enough that this 
 Lewis (who was then Duke of Orleans) received her 
 rather out of fear of the father, than of love towards 
 the daughter, and because he durst hot disobey him. 
 However, the marriage was consummated, and he 
 had children by her, and so great obligation to her 
 kindness, that her diligence and dexterity alone 
 purely saved his life. How to get free from this 
 wife, before he could address himself to another, 
 though she had been the first object of his first incli- 
 nation, was his present work ; and upon which his 
 heart was more set than upon the war of Italy ; and 
 it was only to be compassed by the omnipotent 
 power of the Pope ; and in this respect the worse 
 man the Pope was, he was the better for his purpose; 
 though very few of them have ever been so good as 
 to decline any opportunity to gratify those intempe- 
 rate and unlawful desires of many persons below the 
 condition of Kings. 
 
 In
 
 284 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. In order to this affair, this great and (in all other 
 " respects) virtuous prince found it absolutely neces- 
 
 Caesar Bor- ,, . . 
 
 gia created sary (how contrary soever to his royal nature) to im- 
 plore the Pope's assistance ; for the better procuring 
 
 nois. whereof he vouchsafed to court his bastard, Caesar 
 Borgia, made him Duke of Valentinois, and gave him 
 a wife of a great family and fortune. Upon which 
 Caesar Borgia gave over his Cardinal's cap, and per- 
 formed all other functions which might contribute to 
 his greatness ; being a man of those rare endow- 
 ments of wit and wickedness, that Machiavel makes 
 him a pattern and example to all men who desire to 
 sacrifice their honour and their innocence to their 
 lawless and unlimited ambition. 
 
 Grounds of The Pope, for these high obligations, granted a 
 
 the divorce. . . J 
 
 commission to those Bishops who were nominated 
 by Lewis for the examining all things relating to his 
 marriage ; and they, according to the King's inclina- 
 tions, declared the marriage with Jane the daughter 
 of Lewis the Eleventh to be void, for the force that 
 had been used upon the King. Dispensations for 
 consanguinity, or other ecclesiastical relations, had 
 been formerly granted before the marriage ; and it 
 was notorious to all men, that there was no colour of 
 force in the case ; except that secret unwillingness, 
 which probably might have been in the King at that 
 time, to marry the unbeautiful daughter of the per- 
 son whom he hated and feared of all men living ; 
 which allegation would dissolve the marriages of all 
 men who are weary of their wives, if such a kind of 
 force were allowed to be a just cause for it. It was 
 well known that they had lived many years together 
 afterwards with demonstration of a mutual affection, 
 there appearing nothing in him of dissatisfaction; 
 
 and
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 285 
 
 and by her were performed all the offices of affection CHAP. 
 and tenderness, which the best wife in the world - 
 could express ; and in truth there were only two 
 reasons which disposed France itself to admit and 
 acquiesce in that dispensation, which was a privilege 
 never before heard, and of a nature as odious as 
 could be imagined ; the first of which was, the me- 
 mory of her father Lewis XL a memory universally 
 ingrateful to all Frenchmen, of a sovereign, the most 
 unloved alive, and the most abominated dead, of all 
 princes who had ever been ; (a precedent sufficient 
 to controul Machiavel's doctrine, that to be feared is 
 greater security to a prince than to be loved :) the 
 other was, that the Queen never opposed it ; which 
 if she had done, it was then believed it could never 
 have been granted ; but she, though she never con- 
 sented to it, quietly retired into a monastery, where 
 with great piety and devotion she ended her life : 
 and God, to shew how little he favoured those stra- 
 tagems to get children without his consent, blessed 
 not that great King with any issue, but the crown in 
 few years descended to a prince of another line. 
 This unlucky precedent was afterwards the induce- 
 ment to our Harry the Eighth to undertake the same 
 enterprise, and the cause of all that indignation that 
 attended it. 
 
 As this was the highest attempt that this ill Pope Eaft and 
 made towards the advancement of his ecclesiastical dies 
 
 and spiritual monarchy, so we will not take ourand^ v'f*' 
 leave of him without mentioning his equal attempt J^^^ 
 towards the procuring to himself and successors a lsabella 
 more temporal and universal jurisdiction, in his most 
 liberal and bountiful grant of the Indies, West and 
 East, to Ferdinando and Isabella ; by his gracious 
 
 Bull,
 
 286 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Bull, bearing date a the fourth day of May, in the 
 - '- year fourteen hundred ninety-three, in which for the 
 punctuality of the boundaries, and that there might 
 be no pretence to question the title, there are these 
 words ; " b Ut tanti negotii provinciam Apostolica? 
 " gratia largitate donati liberius et audaciiis assuma- 
 te tis, motu proprio, et non ad vestram vel alterius pro 
 " vobis instantiam, sed de nostrd merd liberalitate, et 
 " ex certd scientid, ac de Apostolica potestatis pleni- 
 " tudine, omnes insulas et terras firmas, mventas, et 
 11 inveniendas, detectas, et detegendas, versus Occiden- 
 " tern et Meridiem fabricando et construendo unam li- 
 " neam a polo arctico, scilicet Septentrione, ad polum 
 ." antarcticum, scilicet Meridiem sive terra, firma et in- 
 " sula" &c. a very great proportion of land, and 
 which might make the church be looked upon as an 
 ill mother for disinheriting her eldest son, in giving 
 so much more to his younger brother than his por- 
 tion amounted to : yet all this the Pope did, " au- 
 " thoritate Omnipotentis Dei, nobis in beato Petro 
 " concessd, ac Vicariatus Jesu Christi, qua fungimur 
 " in terris, cum omnibus illarum dominiis vobis h&re- 
 t( dibusque, et successoribus vestris (Castillce, et Le- 
 " gionis Regibus) damns, concedimus" &c. So that 
 as soon as the line of Castile is spent, and Arragon 
 with the other kingdoms and provinces are thereby 
 become separated from Castile, that and Valencia 
 and the other provinces have no more right or title 
 to the Indies ; and in the mean time, all those King* 
 of England, France, Portugal, and others, who have 
 made any plantations, and thereby dispossessed the 
 
 a Vide Magnum Bullarium Romanum, torn. i. pag. 467. Edit. Lugd. 
 1655. 
 
 Bullae diets . 6. 
 
 Spaniard
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 28? 
 
 Spaniard of such ample territories within that cir- CHAP. 
 cuit of land, granted so authentically by his Holiness 
 
 to Spain, are wrong doers and disseisors, and stand 
 ipso facto excommunicated for offering violence and 
 infringing that omnipotent bull ; which is all the 
 title by which that crown pretends to all the silver 
 and gold of the world, and which hath been shrewdly 
 invaded by all those Catholic princes, notwithstand- 
 ing that apostolical concession : by which it is mani- 
 fest that they do not believe that the Pope hath so 
 large territories to dispose of as he pretends to ; 
 though it cannot be denied, that from the time of 
 that grant by Alexander the Sixth, and since the 
 uniting all those several kingdoms and principalities 
 under the monarchy of Spain, the crown of Spain 
 hath paid another kind of submission and condescen- 
 sion to the Pope, than ever they had done when they 
 were in subjection to their several small and emulous 
 princes, or than any other Catholic princes in Eu- 
 rope do at present : and it is true, that they receive 
 more immediate benefit from the Pope, and that the 
 concessions and donations he gives to Spain are 
 greater and more profitable, without any charge to 
 him, than all other Catholic princes receive from 
 Rome ; so that there is very valuable consideration 
 mutually paid to each other, for the mutual kindness 
 that is between them, and for the Pope's esteeming 
 them his best and most Catholic children. 
 
 Upon the death of Alexander the Sixth, Cardinal Pius in. 
 
 Piccolo- 
 
 Piccolomini, who was a nephew of Pius the Second, mini . 
 was chosen to succeed him, and assumed the name 
 of Pius the Third. He was a devout and severe 
 man ; and qualified, if his age had not been so great, 
 to have governed in that conjuncture, which was the 
 
 most
 
 28S PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, most fit for a general and thorough reformation of 
 any that was before, or hath been since oifered. 
 
 A reforma- Though reformation had been and was still much 
 res C pressed by all princes, and the Popes themselves 
 'by would have been glad to have compounded, by grant- 
 * n & man y alterations both in matter of doctrine, and 
 restraining and limiting many excesses in the offices 
 and members of their court, yet they feared the les- 
 sening or questioning at least the extent of their own 
 power and jurisdiction, and the prescribing some 
 limits to the exercise thereof; which limitation they 
 looked upon as an eradication of it ; and to put any 
 bounds to it, would be to controul it. The late 
 Popes had pretty well knocked off the shackles, and 
 redeemed their sovereignty from the state which the 
 Councils of Constance and Basil had left them in ; 
 and the Pope and the Cardinals had of late so well 
 understood their own joint interest, that they could 
 not be divided ; but both equally resisted or eluded 
 all overtures and approaches towards any kind of re- 
 formation : the emulations also between France and 
 Spain had made both these powers less formidable 
 than they would otherwise have been ; and the rest- 
 less activity and poverty of Maximilian, and the de- 
 signs and artifices of Ferdinando of Arragon, with 
 the unquiet ambition of France, made them all three 
 solicitous for the friendship of the Pope, or very cau- 
 tious in offending him. But now the eleven years 
 monstrous reign of Alexander had not only rendered 
 the Papacy itself odious to all Christian princes, but 
 formidable to the city of Rome, and to the very col- 
 lege of the Cardinals ; upon whom the scars and 
 marks of his tyranny were as signal and conspicuous, 
 as upon any other people whatsoever. It was mani-> 
 
 fest
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 fest to them, that if that unexpected sudden death CHAP. 
 
 had not seized upon the Pope at that time, the Pa ' 
 
 pacy itself would shortly after have expired, by being 
 kept in perpetual wardship under the base issue of 
 that incestuous Pope. 
 
 Caesar Borgia, the bastard of the Pope, after he had Caesar 
 dismissed his two bishoprics of Valencia and Pam- 
 plona, of both which he was possessed together, had 
 renounced his Cardinal's cap ; which, Mariana says, 
 made all the world amazed ; " una cosa tan fea" 
 that when the very last preceding Pope Innocent the 
 Eighth would not suffer the Cardinal de Alteria to 
 renounce his cap, that he might as a Friar retire into 
 a monastery, this Cardinal should have liberty to 
 dispose of his cap that he might marry : and from 
 that time he had designed nothing else but to make 
 himself so great a Prince, that when he had by his 
 father's advice and concurrence made himself so pow- 
 erful during his life, he might after his father's death 
 make such a Pope as would be subordinate to him, 
 and govern the ecclesiastical, whilst himself exer- 
 cised the whole temporal jurisdiction ; and he missed 
 the attaining this point very narrowly. In order to 
 this he had possessed himself of Perugia, Piombino, 
 tJrbino, Pesaro, and several other the most import- 
 ant places, by which he could either have an in- 
 fluence upon Rome, or gratify such other Princes as 
 would in the proper season join or concur with him ; 
 all which places he either surprised by force or fraud, 
 by murders assassinations or poisonings, without 
 any other distinction of persons than as they were 
 like to contribute to, or obstruct his designs : and 
 so he caused many Cardinals to be killed, with whom 
 he had held much friendship, as soon as he disco- 
 
 u vered
 
 290 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, vered that they could not be applied to his purposes : 
 '- and the last visit his father and he made to the Car- 
 dinal Adrian Cornett at his villa, whither the Pope 
 had invited himself to supper, was with a purpose to 
 poison him. In order to this, Caesar Borgia had 
 caused several bottles of wine to be sent thither, 
 which could be only distinguished by the page who 
 was entrusted with the design ; and they being both 
 come to the villa before the Cardinal who was to 
 treat them came thither, and the Pope being warm 
 with the journey and the weather, called for wine, 
 which being filled to him by another page, (he that 
 was entrusted being out of the way,) he drank a 
 whole glass of the pure poisoned wine ; which had 
 so present an effect that he died the same hour : and 
 Caesar Borgia had perished at the same time with 
 his father, but that, finding himself hotter, he had 
 caused much water to be put into his wine, which 
 allayed to some degree the operation of it : having 
 so often practised that art of poisoning, he had been 
 well instructed how to obviate the like attempts 
 which might be made upon himself; and so caused 
 a great mule to be presently brought, and his belly 
 to be ripped open, and himself to be enclosed in it, 
 by which new remedy the malignity of the poison 
 was dissipated or drawn out, so that after a very vio- 
 lent sickness he recovered ; but by that sudden sick- 
 ness he was not able to pursue and give life to his 
 other stratagems in the succeeding conclave, in 
 which he would otherwise hardly have been disap- 
 pointed : all which was well known to the conclave, 
 and so terrified them, that they thought not so much 
 of the greatness and power to which themselves 
 might attain, as how to prevent the extravagant ex- 
 ercise
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 ercise of it in whomsoever should be placed in that CHAP. 
 
 chair; and therefore they chose a Pope, Pius the ' 
 
 Third, like to prescribe a remedy for the future, by a 
 severe inquisition into what was past. 
 
 But the great age of the Pope, which probably D eath f 
 was a motive for his election, hindered him from ad- and election 
 vancing so far in the reformation as he intended to 
 have done ; for he lived not above six or seven and 
 twenty days after his being Pope. The Cardinal de 
 la Rovere was chosen in his place ; and the rather, 
 for his known disaffection to the family of Alexander, 
 who had persecuted him to that degree that he durst 
 not stay in Rome, but for many years sheltered him- 
 self in France, under the protection of that King. 
 He called himself Julius the Second ; and it is true 
 he had all the animosity imaginable both against the 
 person and the family of Alexander ; but being a 
 man of the greatest pride and passion, he had with 
 it all the ambition of the other, (except with the pro- 
 spect for his family,) and desired to raise the Papacy, 
 and to depress all other princes, as much as any of 
 his predecessors had done ; and so he was contented 
 to give Caesar Borgia (whose sickness had not suf- 
 fered him to fly, but kept him prisoner) his liberty, 
 upon the delivery of those strong and fortified places 
 near Rome into his hands ; and then he had leave to 
 transport himself into Spain. Nor did the Pope care 
 farther to prosecute the memory of Alexander, but 
 found it necessary to govern himself by many of his 
 maxims. However, the foul artifices and corruptions 
 in the election of Alexander had been so notorious, 
 and had made that noise in the world, that he held 
 it requisite for his honour to publish that notable 
 bull that is entitled, " Damnatio simoniaca electionis 
 
 v 2 " summi
 
 292 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " summi Pontificis Romani, cum pcenarum impositione 
 ' " in electum, eligentesque, et eorum complices" a bull 
 the bull his successors have been more offended with, and 
 timoniac<e which indeed hath brought a greater reproach upon 
 MjwT" the Papacy, than the decrees of the Councils of Con- 
 P Roman"' stance and Basil have done : for, besides that it hath 
 made the secret transactions in conclave to be more 
 narrowly looked into and examined, it hath made the 
 very being of any Pope doubtful, questionable, and 
 uncertain ; for how can any man be obliged de fide to 
 believe the present Pope to be the Vicar of Christ, 
 which he may possibly not be, by any thing done 
 against this bull in his election? And this I once 
 heard urged at a public disputation in the Jesuit's 
 College at Madrid, by a Friar of the Minims upon 
 that occasion, whether all men were bound to believe 
 de fide that Innocent the Tenth was true Pope ? 
 which the Friar said could not be de fide ; since it 
 might possibly be otherwise by any simony in his 
 election, the contrary whereof no man could know : 
 which being pressed with the warmth that is usual 
 in those places and occasions, put the whole assem- 
 bly, and especially the Professor, who was a learned 
 man, into such passion, (the more it may be for 
 my being present,) that he imposed silence on the 
 disputant. That bull declares " per simoniaccvni ha- 
 " resim, in dando promittendo vel recipiendo, pecu- 
 " nias, bona cujusque generis, castra, qfficia, vel bene- 
 " ficia, sen promissiones et obligationes, per se vel 
 " alium sen alios quomodocumque 8fc ;" and that any 
 Cardinal that is present at the election may refuse to 
 submit to him as Pope, and the person so chosen is 
 dismissed from his former Cardinalate, " Nee hujus- 
 " modi simojiiaca electio per subsequentem ipsms in- 
 
 " throniza-
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 293 
 
 " thronizationem, seu temporis cursum, aut etiam am- c **^ p - 
 
 f ' nium Cardmalium adorafionem, seu obedientiam, 
 
 " ullo unquam tempore convalescat Sfc. Ad cujus 
 " qrioque confusionem, possint Cardinales., qui pr&- 
 " fata electioni se opponere valuer mt, si presumpserit 
 " se regimim universalis ecclesia pr&textu talis elec- 
 " tionis ingerere, auxilium brachii secularis contra eum 
 " implorare Sfc." And it is well known that here- 
 upon Philip the Second of Spain by his ambassador 
 threatened a Pope that succeeded, shewing at the 
 same time to him a promise under his hand, that he 
 had made before he was chosen, which shall be men- 
 tioned more at large when we come to that time. 
 
 Julius had a very hard task to comply with the Accedes to 
 several and distinct inclinations of the then power- of Cam- 
 ful princes, and to advance his own designs, which 
 he resolved to pursue even against them all. His 
 obligations were greatest to Lewis the Twelfth, who 
 had so many years protected him from the rage and 
 fury of Alexander ; but he could not endure that he 
 should disturb the quiet of Italy, or be powerful 
 there : and when he proceeded so far as the taking 
 of Genoa, he made himself the most odious to him of 
 any Prince alive, and used all the power he had to 
 unite all the Princes of Italy against him, and yet 
 then courted him most. His inclinations most dis- 
 posed him to the Venetians, both because they might 
 be most useful to him, and that they had some 
 places in their possession which had belonged to the 
 Church, and which he believed he could prevail with 
 them to deliver, for his conjunction with them against 
 the other Princes of Italy; to whom they were very 
 ungracious, having taken advantage of the contests 
 which had fallen out between their neighbours, and 
 
 u 3 pos-
 
 294 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, possessed themselves of many towns, forts, and cas- 
 ' ties, which lay convenient for themselves, and where- 
 by they had disobliged all their neighbours. But 
 when that republic had utterly refused to gratify him 
 with the delivery of those few places which he de- 
 sired, and he found that the Emperor, France, and 
 Spain, were entering into a league against the Vene- 
 tians, (who had yet the courage, when he had threat- 
 ened them with excommunications if they still pre- 
 sumed to detain the land of the Church, to make their 
 appeal to a future Council,) he likewise betook him- 
 self to that party ; and he entered into that treaty, 
 which was carried with so great secrecy, that Lewis 
 the Twelfth was even upon their borders, with an 
 army of forty thousand men, before they heard or 
 suspected the conjunction. Then it was that the 
 Pope thought it seasonable to publish his tragical 
 bull, which is stiled, " Eoctensio constitutionis a Pio 
 " Secundo editce, contra appellant eS a Romano Pont'i- 
 " fid, ad futurum concilium, eorumque complices et 
 " fautores ;" wherein he recites, that the Duke and 
 republic of Venice, when the Pope had required 
 them to deliver up Ravenna, and several other cities 
 which they unjustly detained from the Church, and 
 had advised them to perform the same upon the pe- 
 nalty of excommunication ; " ad prohibitum atque 
 " danmatum remedium confugientes, a requisitione, 
 " monitione, mandato fyc. nulla constitutionis Pii pr&- 
 " decessoris, hoc express^ vetantis habit a ratione, ad 
 "futurum concilium temerd provocarunt 8fc ;" and 
 thereupon he renewed his former excommunication, 
 with many exalted expressions and bitter invectives, 
 " decernentes et declarantes ultra pcenas imposi- 
 " tas fyc. ipsos et eorum quemlibety pro veris et indu- 
 
 " bitatis
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 295 
 
 " hitatis schismaticis , et inconsutilis tunica Domini no- CHAP. 
 
 VI 
 " str'i Jesu Christi violatoribus et dissipatoribus, ac de 
 
 " Catholica fide male sentientibus, habendos et repu- 
 " tandos Sfc. et cum Dathan et Abiram partem et 
 " damnationem habere Sfc" But within a short time 
 the Venetians became good Catholics again, and 
 France as bad as they had been. 
 
 In less than two years this strong and mighty con- Venetian 
 federation between the Pope, the Emperor, France, 
 and Spain, had so far prevailed against the Venetians 
 by sea and land, that they lost a naval battle or two, 
 and had so many of their towns taken, that they had 
 little left but Venice itself, with the places within their 
 own Gulph : notwithstanding which, when they had 
 all those Princes upon them, and when all the other 
 Princes of Italy either combined with their enemies 
 for their destruction, or durst not administer any assis- 
 tance to them, it ought to be remembered for their 
 eternal honour, that when Bajazet, the Emperor of the 
 Turks, upon no other motive but of a generous com- 
 passion, in this their perplexity offered to gi^ve them 
 aid and assistance, they absolutely refused to receive 
 it. In the mean time the Pope discerned he got no- 
 thing by all this mischief. Lewis of France (whom of 
 all men living he most feared and least loved) was al- 
 ready in the quiet possession of Milan ; and, by having 
 Genoa likewise in his hands, was upon the matter 
 able to give the law to Italy. Those places which he 
 thought by his spiritual ordinance to have gotten 
 from the Venetians, were in the hands of the Em- 
 peror Maximilian, or of Ferdinand of Spain, with 
 all the other towns which had been taken from the 
 Venetians ; and the Emperor himself, with an army 
 of forty thousand men, hoped first to straiten, and 
 
 u 4 then
 
 296 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, then to take Venice itself. This wrought upon the 
 Pope to believe the Venetians to be better Catholics 
 
 than he had thought them to have been ; and so, 
 without so much as communicating his purpose with 
 either of his confederates, and expressly against the 
 letter of the treaty, and his oath for the observation 
 of it, he enters into a strict alliance with Venice, and 
 sends imperiously to all the other Princes to refrain 
 from making farther war upon them, under the pe- 
 nalty of excommunication, which he would pro- 
 nounce against them. 
 War be- The Pope had now other manner of men to deal 
 
 tween 
 
 France and with. Lewis, after he had endeavoured all the ways 
 he coulcl to reduce him to his former temper, and to 
 comply with his obligations, withdrew all respect 
 from him, and prosecuted the war against the Vene- 
 tians with more fury than ever : and the Duke of 
 Ferrara, who had been most at the Pope's disposal of 
 all the Princes of Italy, and had been solely by his 
 instance engaged in that war, took it so ill, that he 
 joined his forces with France for the carrying the 
 war with equal passion and indignation : whilst Ju- 
 lius as passionately declared both Lewis and the 
 Duke of Ferrara schismatics and enemies to the Ca- 
 tholic Church, and absolved all their subjects from 
 paying any obedience to them. When the King of 
 France found that the war with the Pope would be 
 unavoidable, he resolved to prosecute it to the pur- 
 pose ; and, that he might first dispose his own king- 
 dom to a concurrence with him in it, he summoned 
 an assembly of the Gallican Church to meet together 
 at Tours, to be advised by them, upon a true state of 
 the whole affair communicated to them, what his 
 conscience might permit him to do in that condition. 
 
 The
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 297 
 
 The King proposed eight questions to them, which CHAP, 
 he desired them to consider and debate ; and in con- 
 
 Lewis XII. 
 elusion upon the whole matter they gave him this prohibits all 
 
 mi i ill ^intercourse 
 
 answer ; " lhat his arms were just, and that those or with Rome. 
 " the Pope were unjust ; and that he might lawfully 
 " take upon him the offensive part, in order the bet- 
 " ter to defend himself:" and upon this encourage- 
 ment he forthwith declared and forbad all his sub- 
 jects or any of them to repair to Rome upon any oc- 
 casions, or to send for or receive any bulls or patents 
 for any benefices, or other ecclesiastical preferments ; 
 and likewise, he positively inhibited and forbad that 
 any money should be carried out or paid to the 
 Court of Rome by any of his subjects : and the 
 French Catholic writers impute it as a great over- 
 sight in that great and wise King, that he did not 
 then prosecute that Pope to the utmost, and with 
 that vigour that he could well have done for two 
 years together : during which time, however, he ex- 
 pressly forbad Chaumont his General, and Governor 
 of Milan, to attack or make any incursion upon the 
 lands of the Church, and yet the Pope had both ex- 
 communicated that General and the Duke of Fer- 
 rara ; all which was known to proceed from the su- 
 perstition of the Queen, who used her utmost interest 
 with the King her husband to comply with the 
 Pope's unreasonable demands. But as he had se- 
 cured himself from any domestic inconvenience by 
 preparing his own Clergy in that manner, that they 
 were not at all moved by the Pope's excommunication 
 and interdiction, so he wisely foresaw that he must 
 draw a greater consent of other Princes to his party 
 before he could take a full vengeance upon Julius. 
 
 As
 
 298 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. As long as Maximilian had hope to get more, or 
 to keep what he had already got from the Venetians, 
 
 Lewis XII. 
 
 and Maxi- he rather made a fair shew of joining with Lewis 
 summon than apparently concurred with him against the Pope. 
 ^general t0 Ferdinand was too well known to be trusted ; and 
 Council at k new t oo we jj now to make use of the Pope's dis- 
 
 Pisa and 
 
 Milan. pleasure towards France to incur it himself, and had 
 so great a power over his son-in-law, Harry the 
 Eighth of England, that he would not separate him- 
 self from his interest; so that Lewis (except the con- 
 currence, or rather good wishes, of some Princes of 
 Italy, who by degrees likewise fell from him) stood 
 upon his own legs singly, against the Pope's spiritual 
 and temporal power. And the Pope had no sooner pub- 
 lished and renewed his excommunication and inter- 
 diction against France, and all who should assist, fa- 
 vour, or join with him, but Ferdinand undertook 
 and promised to the Pope that he would march with 
 his army into France, and engage his son of England 
 in the enterprise, who should thereby recover the 
 Dutchy of Guienne to that crown. For the better 
 facilitating this conquest, Ferdinand sends ambassa- 
 dors to the King of Navarre, that he would give him 
 leave to march with his army through his kingdom 
 into France ; and upon his deliberation, rather than 
 refusal, he prevailed likewise with the Pope to ex- 
 communicate John King of Navarre, as a confederate 
 and favourer of Lewis, and then he marched into 
 Navarre, and quickly possessed that whole kingdom. 
 This, and the loss of all the places he had in Italy, 
 awakened Maximilian the Emperor, who then re- 
 solved by agreement with France to bring down the 
 pride of Julius ; and as Lewis had before appealed to 
 
 the
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 299 
 
 the next general Council, so now the Emperor and CHAP. 
 
 he together declared that they would assemble a ge ' 
 
 neral Council for the reformation of the Church in 
 its head, as well as members ; and they appointed 
 the place for the convention thereof to be in Pisa, 
 whither they sent their ambassadors and Bishops, 
 who met there ; and many Cardinals likewise came 
 thither and joined with them. For their better se- 
 curity they removed themselves to Milan, and there 
 had several sessions ; in which, after having several 
 times' summoned Julius, that if he did not like that 
 place he would name another that should be free, 
 and where he would be in person to justify himself 
 against what was charged upon him, and he making 
 no answer to their summons, they declared him to 
 be suspended from the administration of the Pontifi- 
 cate, and forbad all persons to obey him. 
 
 All this subdued not the proud heart of Julius ; Julius n. 
 but, being thus provoked, he, to get the more reputa- an^taket 
 tion and reverence to his spiritual, drew his temporal Mlranda< 
 sword, and brandished it with his own arm, con- 
 ducted his army himself, and in the depth of winter 
 besieged the town of Miranda, a small but an im- 
 portant place, and under the protection of the French. 
 He was not only present, but, in spite of the snow 
 and frost, and without regard to his age, which was 
 seventy years, or the dignity of his sacred office, he 
 hastened the travers^es, directed the batteries him- 
 self, encouraged and caressed the soldiers, and 
 sometimes threatened them, and in less time than 
 was expected reduced the town to an ordinary com- 
 position by the middle of March ; and caused him- 
 self to be carried into it through a breach that he had 
 made with his cannon. 
 
 This
 
 300 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. This very courageous and unusual proceeding gave 
 NC otia- ^ m great credit both at home and abroad, and as 
 tionsfor much lessened the reputation of France, and like- 
 
 peace. . 
 
 wise of the Council of Pisa. The wary Ferdinand 
 thought it a seasonable time to promote a treaty to 
 all parties, by which he meant likewise to be a 
 gainer in the end ; and he prevailed with the Em- 
 peror and the King of France to accept it, and to 
 send their ambassadors to Mantua, which was the 
 place appointed for the treaty. The King of France 
 sent the Bishop of Paris as his ambassador, and the 
 Emperor the Bishop of Coire for his. The Pope, 
 whose design was only to divide the Emperor from 
 that conjunction, that he might satisfy his revenge 
 upon Lewis, sent to the Bishop of Coire, who was a 
 very learned man and of a general good fame, and 
 desired him to come to him to Ravenna, to confer 
 with him ; which the Bishop absolutely refused to 
 do, and at last obliged the Pope to meet him at Bo- 
 logna ; where the Pope first endeavoured to work 
 upon him by the offer of a Cardinal's cap, which the 
 Bishop slighted and rejected in that manner as if he 
 thought it no addition to the character he had, and 
 in all respects treated him without any condescen- 
 sion or appearance of inferiority ; insomuch as when 
 the Pope sat down, the Bishop likewise sat himself 
 upon a seat that was equal unto his, and refused to 
 treat with any body but with the Pope himself; leav- 
 ing to his gentlemen that attended him to confer with 
 those Cardinals that waited upon the Pope : so that 
 when they saw that he insisted as much upon the in- 
 terest of the King of France as upon that of the Em- 
 peror, with which he would have complied, the treaty 
 proved to no purpose : and the Pope, that he might 
 
 gain
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 gain as much glory to his spiritual sword as he had CHAP, 
 done to his temporal, called a Council to meet at 
 
 Rome, in his palace of Lateran ; which being much Council of 
 more numerous than that at Pisa, declared the Con- 
 vocation of those at Pisa to be void and null, and 
 cited their Cardinals, who had appeared there, to ap- 
 pear before them at a day assigned, and in failing 
 thereof, that they should be degraded of their dig- 
 nity, and deprived of all their benefices. 
 
 This raised again the spirit and courage of the Ve- Navarre 
 
 granted by 
 
 netians, who every day recovered the towns they had the Pope to 
 lost, and drove the French out of their territories, and 
 shortly after out of the Dutchy of Milan itself; which 
 when the Emperor saw, according to his usual incon- 
 stancy, he declined the fortune of France, and owned 
 the Council at Lateran ; being induced to it by the 
 crafty insinuations of Ferdinand, who had raised 
 most profit to himself from all those jealousies and 
 animosities between the other Princes. For as he 
 had thereby possessed himself of almost the whole 
 kingdom of Naples, contrary to his treaty with 
 Lewis, (who was by express terms to have half with 
 him,) and was become entirely master of the king- 
 dom of Navarre, so he procured now a donation from 
 the Pope and Council of that kingdom : for that 
 John the King thereof was a confederate with Lewis 
 who stood excommunicated, and was likewise a fa- 
 vourer of the Council of Pisa. And this donation, 
 and the convenient situation thereof in respect of the 
 other provinces of Spain, is all the title by which 
 Navarre became united to the crown of Spain, 
 When Ferdinand had done these great things for 
 himself, he prevailed with Maximilian by assuring 
 him that the Pope intended to confer the kingdom of 
 
 France
 
 302 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. France (of which he had deprived Lewis) upon the 
 
 ' King of England ; and it is confessed by the best 
 
 writers of that time, that the Pope was so far trans- 
 ported with malice and animosity against Lewis, that 
 he had caused a decree to be composed in the name 
 of the Council for the transferring the kingdom of 
 France, and the title of " Tres Chretien" to Harry 
 the Eighth, King of England : and he had so far 
 prevailed, that the Council was even ready to publish 
 that decree, if God had not been so merciful as in 
 that instant, for the good of Christendom, to have 
 taken that Pope out of the world ; who died out of 
 pure anger that he could not induce the Venetians to 
 an accommodation with the Emperor. " Tant ses 
 "passions (says Mezeray) estoient furieuses, et plus 
 " convenables a un Sultan des Turcs, qrfau Pere com- 
 " mun des Chretiens" 
 
 Remarks By this that hath been said, it is manifest enough 
 grounds what opinion of, or reverence for, the infallible chair 
 - 5 at that Catholic time, Kings Princes and Bishops 
 ~ had, both for the ecclesiastical and temporal authority 
 thereof; by their so frequent contemning all his spi- 
 ritual censures, and their appealing to a future ge- 
 neral Council. And there needs no other instance 
 than the authority he usurped in the excommunica- 
 tion of so many sovereign Princes of all degrees ; the 
 absolving their subjects from their allegiance and 
 obedience ; his interdicting the exercise of their re- 
 ligion in all their dominions ; and his conferring " ex 
 " plenitudine potestatis" their dominions and territo- 
 ries upon those he favoured more, or upon those who, 
 without any colour of right, would by force invade 
 the same ; thereby opening a door to let in all the 
 blood and rapine and devastation upon a peaceable 
 
 Catholic
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 303 
 
 Catholic people that could be exercised by the most CHAP. 
 
 barbarous and savage enemies : and all this upon no 
 
 other ground or pretence than that they did not wish 
 well to Catholic religion, and were Schismatics and 
 Heretics ; when none of them professed to know any 
 other religion than that which he pretended to be 
 of; nor to be of any Church than the same of which 
 he would be thought the head. I say, there needs 
 no other evidence than the insolence actions and 
 pretences of Julius the Second (whose pride and ty- 
 ranny wiped out the memory of the impieties of 
 Alexander the Sixth,) to convince all Kings Princes 
 and States, how insecure their condition an^c} govern- 
 ment must be, and how indevoted and unfaithful 
 their subjects may be to them, if the Pope hath such 
 a power over them as he lays claim to, and hath ex- 
 ercised ; and that, by virtue of a right which by no 
 intermission of the exercise thereof can be extin- 
 guished, even the legacy donation and investiture of 
 our Saviour himself: and till that groundless and pro- 
 fane, if not blasphemous, pretence be renounced by 
 themselves, or exploded and disclaimed by universal 
 declaration and indignation of all Christian Princes, 
 whose interest is the same, the discontinuance of any 
 such enormous presumption by the modesty and wis- 
 dom of several Popes for an age together, or by the 
 visible greatness and power of Kings, (which would 
 quickly crush those impotent attempts,) can be no- 
 thing like a security for them. But there is sulphur 
 enough stored up in the neglected mines of this very 
 Pope, which have not been unvisited and unrepaired 
 by some of his successors, to blow up all the prero- 
 gative and regalities of all the Kings and Emperors 
 of the world, when any misfortunes by the strength 
 
 of
 
 304 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of their neighbours, or by the defect of their own 
 
 - subjects, shall befall them ; upon which more shall be 
 
 enlarged hereafter. And the very new doctrine that 
 was published by that Pope, concerning the calling 
 of Councils, in that bull for the convening that Coun- 
 cil at Lateran, deserves to be read and considered by 
 all princes ; that they may clearly discern what por- 
 tion the Bishops of Rome are willing to assign or 
 allow to them in the government of the world. 
 LeoX. His When the conclave was shut up to choose a Pope 
 upon the death of Julius, Erasmus was then in 
 Rome, and declared that no man who was then in 
 the conclave would come out Pope ; after which, the 
 Cardinal of Medicis arrived, and entered the con- 
 clave, and was within very few days chosen Pope, 
 and took the name of Leo the Tenth. He was then 
 but thirty-six years of age, and yet the oldest Cardi- 
 nal, having had the cap from the age of thirteen ; 
 and was now, by the vigour of his wit, parts, and ex- 
 perience, to reform all the vices and mischiefs which 
 the passion and pettishness, and pride and covetous- 
 ness, of so many aged predecessors had introduced ; 
 and he was the more like to do it, because he was 
 without any of those vices by which they had been 
 introduced. He was the son of the wisest father 
 that age had produced, had the experience of the 
 immoderate and impious outrages of Pope Sixtus the 
 Fourth, and best knew how such ambition ought to 
 be treated. 
 
 Takes off As soon as he was chosen Pope, he wisely culti- 
 
 *ctfrom vated those good inclinations which he discerned to 
 
 France. ^e | n t ^ e |j n g o f France ; and willingly absolved 
 
 him from all those censures which his predecessor 
 
 had inflicted on him, after he had manifested, for six 
 
 or
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 305 
 
 or seven years, that he was a very good Catholic, and CHAP. 
 
 had kept all his subjects in that faith and exercise, ' 
 
 notwithstanding the Pope's excommunication and 
 interdiction of the kingdom. 
 
 This wise young Pope made all the haste he could 
 to get friends, and forbore to provoke any enemies; 
 and gained more by the gentleness and softness of 
 his nature and manners than the pride and stubborn- 
 ness of his predecessors could ever bring to pass. 
 For he prevailed with Lewis the Twelfth to abrogate Prevails 
 
 , . . , i r upon LeW- 
 
 the Pragmatique, (which was such a fortress against \ s xn. to 
 all the Papal power,) and to accept the Concordat, as p 
 a valuable recompence ; which latter cost the Pope 
 nothing, and satisfied the King at other men's charges ; theConcor- 
 and yet it produced so much opposition and contra- 
 diction from the University and the Parliament, as, 
 notwithstanding that abolishment, sufficiently de- 
 clares the Pope to have no other authority in France 
 than what is given him by the crown, and of which 
 the crown makes use as often as it thinks requisite. 
 And though the same Pope prevailed likewise with 
 Francis the First to confirm what his predecessor 
 had done, and though the Council of Lateran caused 
 it to be read at their last session, and confirmed it 
 by their authority, yet all the Clergy of France, the 
 Universities, the Parliaments, and (as Monsieur Me- 
 zeray says) all honest men, opposed it, making their 
 complaints, remonstrances, protestations against it, 
 and their appeals to a future Council, which they re- 
 new to this day upon any emergent occasion. - 
 
 If Leo the Tenth was not himself learned, as his~ f learning 
 countrymen will not allow him to be, he was surely 
 the greatest cherisher of learning and of learned men 
 that age produced, and thereby induced the greatest 
 
 x altera-
 
 306 PAPAL 'USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, alteration and improvement of all kind of good litera- 
 
 ture that hath in so short time sprung up in any age. 
 
 The commonwealth of learning owes the vast in- 
 crease of science, that it enjoys at this day, to the 
 seeds which were sown in his time, and cultivated 
 by his care and bounty. And as it is a record in 
 most of the histories of that age, that the extreme 
 ignorance of ecclesiastics, (many of them being 
 scarce able to read,) the scandalous lives of priests, 
 (who were usually the bastard sons of other priests,) 
 and their drunkenness and great negligence, gave the 
 first occasion opportunity and scandal to many per- 
 sons to persuade the people, that that could not be 
 the true religion which such men taught, who were 
 so ignorant, and who gave so ill example in their 
 lives ; so it cannot be denied, but that there grew up 
 in this Pope's time, and that he left behind him at 
 his death, many as great divines, and men of as po- 
 lite learning, as have flourished since. 
 Leo the We have reason to believe that he did really intend 
 
 Tenth's . i i 
 
 bull in the to have made a great retormation m the church, by 
 the bull that he published in the very first year of his 
 
 t^gener'a. re ign, intitled, " Reformatio generalis Pr&latowm ec- 
 ^orKm* 1 "'" clesiasticorum, eorumque officmlmm et familmrum ; w 
 &c -" which is so very well worth the reading for the new 
 stile, different from that which was used before, and 
 the lively description of the ignorance and iniquity 
 of that time : and afterwards, when Luther first ap- 
 peared, in contradiction of some doctrines and cus- 
 toms taught and practised in the church, the Pope 
 was moved by his arguments, and inclined to have 
 prescribed remedies, and to have extinguished the 
 clamour by suppressing the grounds of it. But the 
 vice of the time was too strong for the virtue of any 
 
 particular
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 307 
 
 particular man, and the conclave thought it good CHAP. 
 
 reason, that, though the complaints were known and : 
 
 confessed to be just, no reformation should be grant- 
 ed upon the advertisement of a simple monk ; nor 
 could the Pope himself obviate and reform that sot- 
 tish and proud spirit. 
 
 In this Pope's time, and within three or four years Deaths of 
 before his death, the whole face of Christendom was 
 changed, by the departure of all those, who, having 
 for so many years acted the chief parts, left the stage 
 to fresh and younger actors. Lewis the Twelfth, 
 who was much the youngest, and in regard of his 
 virtue, justice and piety, as a Gentleman and a King, 
 (for he had a rare love and tenderness for his sub- 
 jects,) was worth both the other, first led the way of 
 mortality : Ferdinand followed after, at the age of 
 seventy-four years, without any other remorse for all 
 his perjuries and breach of faith, and other tyranni- 
 cal oppressions, than the solicitude that his successor 
 might never restore or part with any thing that he 
 had unjustly and impiously got. And the last was 
 Maximilian, who was younger than Ferdinand, and 
 whose memory consists more in the infinite [vexation] 
 he got, and the miseries he brought upon his neigh- 
 bours, than in any notable benefit or advantage that 
 he procured for himself; and by his extraordinary 
 and restless activity, he only left a monument of the 
 poverty of the Emperor, when he contends with any 
 other great Prince. 
 
 These great Princes had successors at least equal Contempo- 
 to them, who were not like to suffer the world to en- 
 joy more peace than they found it in. Francis sue- l v c 
 ceeded in France, who may justly be called the first Hen - VIIL 
 great King; that nation ever had; and, if his great 
 
 x 2 virtues
 
 308 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, virtues had not suffered an alloy of vices not inferior, 
 
 : he would have appeared to posterity in equal lustre 
 
 with any who have succeeded him. Charles the 
 Fifth filled the places of both his grandfathers ; hav- 
 ing the empire of the one, and all the dominions 
 that ever the other had either in his own or his 
 wife's right, or purchased by his sword or his wit ; 
 which made him a great Emperor indeed, greater, I 
 think, than ever the West had. And that neither 
 the power nor ambition of those two mighty princes 
 might terrify and keep the world too much in awe, 
 they found a rival upon the stage before them, our 
 King Harry the Eighth, who could moderate their 
 pretences, and turn the scale when it seemed most 
 inclined to either of them. And with all these the 
 Pope kept fair quarter, though he did not dissemble 
 his desire to keep Italy from being made the seat of 
 the war ; and so entered into that league with the 
 Emperor and Ferdinand, which was most like to 
 keep the French King from invading it. And when 
 the Emperor was dead, and Francis the First desired 
 his assistance and interposition to the Electors, that 
 he might be chosen ^Emperor, the Pope denied to 
 contribute towards it ; which Francis knew not how 
 to take ill, when he discerned that he was not the 
 less solicitous against the election of Charles, since 
 
 O 7 
 
 he believed either of them to be too powerful to suc- 
 ceed in that charge. The wisdom of this Pope was 
 most conspicuous in the follies of his successors; and 
 they who were least satisfied with him, very much 
 lamented his death, which fell out at the end of 
 eight years, and before he was full five and forty 
 years of age. 
 
 Charles
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 309 
 
 Charles the Fifth, as soon as his grandfather Per- CHAP. 
 
 dinand was dead, assumed the government of Spain, ; 
 
 though he was but sixteen years of age, and though O f Chariet 
 it was expressly contrary to the will and settlement 
 made by his grandfather, and before he had a right 
 to it. He quickly prevailed with Pope Leo to make 
 a Cardinal of his tutor Adrian, an obscure Dutchman 
 of Utrecht, who had read grammar to him, and had 
 then no other title in the church but Dean of Lou- 
 vain ; and this man he sent into Spain, and joined 
 in the government with those who had been deputed 
 by Ferdinand ; but he found it necessary to make 
 haste after him himself. Whilst Charles was in 
 Spain, and as yet but eighteen years of age, his other 
 grandfather Maximilian likewise died ; and notwith- 
 standing his youth, and all the emulation of Fran- 
 cis the First, Charles was chosen Emperor. Upon 
 which, finding it necessary to transport himself into 
 Germany, he left the Cardinal Adrian in chief trust 
 for the government of Spain ; in the administration 
 whereof he did not appear to be a man of any nota- 
 ble parts. 
 
 However, Pope Leo dying at that time, the re- Adrian vi. 
 putation of the young Emperor was so great, that, 
 after the conclave had been shut two months, they 
 made choice of his tutor, with one only dissenting 
 voice. But when the Cardinals went home, the 
 people generally cursed them for having chosen a 
 Pope whom nobody knew and few had heard of. 
 He received the news of his promotion at Victoria, 
 and would not change his name, but was called 
 Adrian the Sixth. There is little more memory pre- 
 served of his person, than that he was a peevish, ab- 
 surd, and an obstinate enemy of all poets, as well an- 
 
 x 3 cient
 
 310 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cicnt as modern ; nor of the time in which he reign- 
 
 : ed, (which was but twenty months,) but that the 
 
 island of Rhodes was then taken by the Turks. 
 clement Pope Adrian was succeeded by one who admi- 
 
 VII. His 
 
 character, nistered matter enough of talk to the world, the 
 Cardinal of Medicis ; kinsman to Leo the Tenth, 
 but neither a kin to., his virtue, wisdom, or courage. 
 He took the name of Clement the Seventh. He 
 little advanced the Papacy, and left a lasting evi- 
 dence how unfit he was, and his successors must be, 
 to be trusted with a jurisdiction over the interest and 
 lives of Kings and Princes. When he was first 
 chosen, he seemed to prefer the friendship of the 
 Emperor Charles the Fifth before any other; and 
 yet during that time used all the arts he could un- 
 derhand to persuade the Marquis of Pescara to rebel 
 against the Emperor, and to make himself King of 
 Naples. Shortly after he turned from the Emperor, 
 and made more than a peace with Francis the First, 
 King of France; and afterwards, almost every year 
 during his life, altered and changed some important 
 and declared resolution that he had taken. It will 
 not be possible to take a clear view of the reputation 
 the Papacy was in in that Catholic time, and the re- 
 verence that Catholic Princes then had lor it, with- 
 out the mention of many particular actions of this 
 Pope ; what he did to others, and what others did to 
 him ; by which it will enough appear, with how 
 little veneration the world then looked upon him as 
 the Vicar of Christ, and entrusted by his divine Ma- 
 jesty to teach mankind what would be acceptable or 
 ingratcful to him ; and likewise how little his own 
 actions were directed to the advancement of religion, 
 or to any other end, than to the carrying on his 
 
 temporal
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 
 
 temporal designs, just or unjust, by the grossest rules CHAP. 
 
 of policy, and without any mixture of spiritual spe : 
 
 culation. 
 
 When the Emperor Charles the Fifth undertook Sends his 
 
 i i m ^ r i gallies with 
 
 his expedition against lums, m the year nrteen hun- Charles v. 
 dred thirty-five, he was assisted with all the gallies Mahome- 
 of the Pope, this Clement the Seventh; when there JJro'ne at* 
 was no pretence to plant Christian religion there, Tunis> 
 but the design only to displace and to chase from 
 thence Ariadne Barbarossa, and to establish there 
 Mule-Assen, another Mahometan: which he did, upon 
 the payment of a small tribute, and which (though 
 it gave great increase of honour and other conve- 
 niences to the Emperor) made it not less wondered 
 at, that the Pope should at the same time use all his 
 endeavours and faculties to disturb the peace of 
 Christian princes by interdictions and excommunica- 
 tions, and by stirring up their subjects to rebel 
 against them ; whilst himself employed his forces to 
 settle a Mahometan in his throne, purely to gratify 
 the Emperor, and without any imagination of esta- 
 blishing Christian religion : so tender he was that 
 any differences and divisions should arise amongst 
 the Mahometans, and so solicitous he was to foment 
 them amongst Christians. 
 
 This Turkish inclination was the true and realconse- 
 cause that the Christians were deprived of that most of the" 
 important island of Rhodes, (as hath been said,) by^ t e e * dy 
 the inadvertency and impotency of Pope Adrian ; conduct - 
 after the Christians had sustained a siege of five 
 months by an army of two hundred thousand men, 
 whereof fifty thousand were killed upon the place, 
 and had defended themselves as long as it had earth 
 left to shelter themselves, or powder to offend their 
 
 x 4 enemies;
 
 312 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, enemies ; receiving better conditions from Soliman 
 VL (out of the admiration of their virtue) for delivering 
 up what they could not keep, than he would have 
 given them the first day he came before it, and in- 
 deed as good as they could desire. And as this irre- 
 parable calamity befel Christendom (and at a time 
 when the Kings and Princes thereof were much 
 more powerful and able to relieve it, and to have re- 
 pelled the force of those barbarous Infidels, than they 
 had been in any age before,) only by the want of 
 Christianity in the Popes, and by their kindling jea- 
 lousies between those Princes, and incensing and in- 
 flaming them to prosecute their Christian subjects, 
 for not submitting to that Papal authority ; so the 
 same jealousies and animosities at that time, and af- 
 terwards, kept those Princes from uniting themselves 
 to obstruct his farther progress. For the Emperor, 
 though he acted his part towards the reparation of 
 the damage sustained in the loss of Rhodes, by his 
 liberal and magnificent donation of the island of 
 Malta to the same fraternity, and under the same 
 obligations, yet thought not fit to enter himself into 
 any particular league against the Turk ; lest the 
 King of France, who lived in great amity with the 
 Grand Signior, and frequently engaged him in en- 
 terprises that advanced his service, might call him 
 both into Italy and Germany, when he thought it 
 necessary for his assistance. And when Clement the 
 Seventh, upon his first exaltation to the Papacy, en- 
 deavoured, for his own security and the peace of 
 Italy, to reconcile the Emperor, Francis the First, 
 and Harry the Eighth of England, and to unite 
 them in a war against the Infidels, whilst the wound 
 was still bleeding from the loss of Rhodes; the Em- 
 peror
 
 FROM EUGENTUS IV. TO PAUL III. 313 
 
 peror possessed a willingness to be united in that CHAP. 
 war, provided that a firm peace might first be enter -- ' - 
 ed into between the three crowns ; Francis indeed 
 was content to make a truce for a few years, but not 
 a peace, nor would in the mean time break his amity 
 with the Turk ; and Harry the Eighth refused both 
 the peace and the engagement : all three of them 
 (besides the jealousies and animosities they had of 
 and against each other) being not without the just 
 apprehension of the unsteady and irresolute nature 
 of the Pope himself; and lest he might, according to 
 the precedent of his late predecessor Alexander the 
 Sixth, invite the Emperor Soliman (as the other had 
 the Emperor Bajazet) to assist him, when he found 
 his temporal designs like to be opposed by the 
 Christian Princes. 
 
 In what reverence this Pope was with his own na- His war 
 tural subjects, and what opinion they had of his spi- i colon-" 
 ritual power, appears by the Cardinal Colonna's car- 
 riage towards him ; who, having received many in- 
 juries and oppressions, made a war upon him, en- 
 tered Rome with his army, and sacked a good part 
 of the court. Then Clement left France again, and 
 joined with the Emperor, and pardoned Cardinal 
 Colonna, and made all other concessions to him 
 which were desired ; but repenting it again the next 
 year, he excommunicated the Cardinal for the former 
 offences, and prosecuted a sharp and destroying war 
 against him and all his family. But they being 
 under the Emperor's protection, he thereupon caused 
 his army to march against the Pope ; which entered 
 and sacked Rome, besieged the Pope in his castle, 
 and hanged a woman in the view of his window for 
 
 Mt 
 
 having sent in a little victuals to him. 
 
 The
 
 314 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. The French writers make themselves very merry at 
 - the carriage and behaviour of the Emperor, both upon 
 of Charles the news of the battle of Pavia, and of this other, of 
 cis i. the sacking of Rome and the taking the Pope prisoner 
 by his army. Upon the first occasion, when the in- 
 formation of that great victory arrived, and of taking 
 the King prisoner, preparations being made, accord- 
 ing to custom, by the magistrates for making fires of 
 joy, and other triumphant solemnities, the Emperor 
 declared and forbade that any such fires or other de- 
 monstrations of joy should be made : he said, there 
 ought rather to be a general mourning and lamenta- 
 tion for such a victory, as had cost the blood of so 
 many Christians, and expressed no manner of con- 
 tentment in the advantage he had gotten, but called 
 his council together to advise what was to be done 
 upon the occasion. This persuaded all men to be- 
 lieve that he meant to deal very generously with the 
 prisoner, and his confessor declared his opinion, that 
 he should without any treaty or condition immedi- 
 ately send order for the liberty and release of the 
 King, that he might return into his kingdom ; and 
 he said, that that magnanimous way of proceeding 
 would be a better foundation of a lasting peace than 
 any treaty could be. But the Duke of Alva, who 
 better knew the Emperor's inclinations, and was like 
 to have a greater influence upon him, advised him to 
 make the best use he could of the victory God had 
 given him ; that the bringing his enemy to an inca- 
 pacity and disability to do him farther mischief was 
 the only way to improve and establish his own great- 
 ness ; and therefore that he was in no case to be set 
 at liberty, until he had consented to such conditions 
 as would advance his affairs, and the great designs 
 
 he
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 315 
 
 he had. The Emperor thought the last the better CHAP. 
 
 . . vi 
 counsel; and thereupon the King was brought into ' 
 
 Spain, and, after above six months strict imprison- 
 ment, was never permitted to speak with or to see the 
 Emperor, till that treaty was fully and with all so- 
 lemnity concluded and signed ; by which the King 
 was set at liberty, in the same moment in which his 
 two sons were delivered as hostages for the perform- 
 ance of the treaty. 
 
 They make the Emperor's carriage, upon hearing His beha- 
 of the captivity, to be yet more artificial and comi-p ope r . 
 cal. They say, that upon the first news of it, which 
 came at a time when wonderful festivals of all kinds 
 were preparing to celebrate the birth of the Prince 
 and his christening, (who was afterwards Philip the 
 Second,) all that solemnity was laid aside and sup- 
 pressed ; the whole court was put into mourning ; 
 and the most solemn processions were made, in 
 which the Emperor himself was present with a taper 
 in his hand, offering their devotions and supplica- 
 tions to God Almighty, for the liberty of the Pope ; 
 who remained after all this in very strict prison full 
 six months, and could not be suffered to remove out 
 of the castle of St. Angelo, (though- the plague was 
 known to be in it, and some who in their attendance 
 were near the person of the Pope dying of it,) until 
 he had consented to such conditions as the Emperor 
 required from him : and, they say, that there was a 
 purpose to have sent him prisoner into Spain ; but 
 that the Emperor found that it would be very in- 
 grateful to many of the Bishops, and of the clergy, 
 to have the Vicar of Christ so treated and vilified ; 
 and that they had some purpose and combination to 
 
 have
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, have joined in an address to him to the contrary ; 
 
 and that upon that clamour, and the scandal that he 
 
 found it generally gave to Catholic princes, and the 
 union that it was like to produce between them 
 against him, the Emperor, when he had yielded to 
 all that he required, gave order for his deliverance. 
 Indeed it is very remarkable, that in the letter which 
 he writ himself to Clement, to congratulate his being 
 at liberty, he makes no kind of apology or excuse 
 for what had been done, but says only, that he under- 
 stood, by the way of France, that his Holiness was at 
 liberty; and though he had received no account of it 
 from his own ministers, yet he believed it to be true, 
 because he had given them such command ; and as- 
 sured him that he took great pleasure in it ; and that 
 as he had been exceedingly grieved for his detention, 
 the which had been without any fault of his, so the 
 joy that possessed him now was the greater, in that 
 he was set at liberty by his command, and by the 
 hand of his ministers, for which he gave God thanks; 
 and said that his Holiness might be secure, " che es- 
 " sendomi come spero buon Padre et buon Pastore 
 " trover a in me opere da vero et hurnil figliuolo" and 
 without any other ceremony, desires him to believe 
 that he will always do any thing to please his Holi- 
 ness, " che 10 honest amente potro :" which letter, all 
 writ with the Emperor's own hand, was dated at 
 Burgos the two and twentieth of November fifteen 
 hundred twenty-seven, and may be seen in the first 
 volume of those Letters dl Prmctpl, that was printed 
 in Venice in the year fifteen hundred seventy-three, 
 and dedicated to Cardinal Borromeo ; of the truth 
 whereof nobody hath yet doubted: and it was very 
 
 agree-
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 317 
 
 agreeable to the Emperor's behaviour afterwards in CHAP, 
 the interview that he had with the Pope at Bologna, - 
 
 where he never made the least mention of what had 
 passed at Rome by his army. 
 
 When Francis the First had, after so long and un-The Pope 
 pleasant imprisonment, and with so much delibera- Francis i. 
 tion, consented to and signed that treaty, upon which 
 
 he had his liberty; and in which, how large promises^ 6 ** 
 and concessions soever he made, there was nothing Madrid. 
 contained but what had been always required, and 
 had been the subject matter of the war ; and in 
 which there was one article, that if the King should 
 not within such a time limited perform and make 
 good all that he was obliged to in that treaty, he 
 should then return, and become a prisoner again as 
 he had been ; and when he had by this means reco- 
 vered his liberty and was again returned into his 
 own kingdom, the Pope very frankly absolved him 
 from the performance of whatsoever he had promised 
 by that treaty : by which there was a new stage 
 erected, upon which so many tragedies were acted, 
 and so much of the most precious blood of all Eu- 
 rope was spilt. Nor was that issue of blood stopped, 
 till after [ ] years by the treaty of Cambray ; 
 
 when all the most important particulars were again 
 confirmed, which had been first agreed upon at Ma- 
 drid, and the observation whereof the Pope so con- 
 scientiously dispensed with, to the so great damage 
 of Christendom. Sandonel, Bishop of Pampelona, 
 (who by the command of Philip the Second writ the 
 life of the Emperor his father, and was enabled to 
 that purpose by the communication of the most se- 
 cret councils and memorials,) says, that after the 
 treaty was signed, the Emperor and Francis, riding 
 
 one
 
 318 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, one day together to hunt, and in the chase being se- 
 : parated from all other company and finding them- 
 selves alone, the King said to him, My brother, you 
 and I must agree together to humble the pride of 
 this proud Priest, who hath so much abused us 
 both ; to which Charles, seeming not to hear it, 
 ' made no answer : but there can be but little doubt 
 made, that neither of those two great Catholic 
 Princes believed that there was any divinity inherent 
 in his person, or visible in his actions or determina- 
 tions. And the Catholic writers, who have transmit- 
 ted his life to us, have left us this character of him ; 
 that he had no friend, because he loved nobody, nor 
 many enemies, because he did nobody any harm; and 
 for the manifestation of his nature, they say, that of 
 thirty caps, which he gave in his time, (which was 
 eleven years,) there were not two which he had not 
 been compelled to give either by the importunity of 
 friends, who would not be denied, or by force of 
 arms. 
 Divorce of This was the man who thundered all those eccle- 
 
 Hen. VIII. . . TT 
 
 and his se- siastical censures against our King Harry the kighth, 
 from The an d thereby separated that Catholic kingdom, and 
 Rome* 1 f ^ e dominions which belonged to it, from the corre- 
 spondence and communion with the Church of Rome. 
 Whether the original of that quarrel, that is, whe- 
 ther that great King, who at that time had as great 
 reputation (that is, was as much esteemed by his 
 friends and feared by his enemies,) as any Prince 
 who then reigned, did well in desiring a divorce 
 from so excellent a lady, with whom he had lived 
 happily so many years, and by whom he had issue, 
 is not my part to inquire : and I wish that the reve- 
 rence which is due to the memory of Princes, and to 
 
 the
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 319 
 
 the high station in which God hath put them, would CHAP, 
 restrain the licence of men, that they would not 
 think themselves at liberty, upon the discovery of 
 every error and vice in Princes, (of which it is very 
 hard at their distance to receive a clear information 
 and knowledge,) to asperse their memories, espe- 
 cially of their sovereigns, with those odious re- 
 proaches and contumelies, as do too much disfigure 
 them to posterity; and which, by the rule of Christian 
 charity, is not lawful towards persons of the mean- 
 est condition. The truth is, this disposition in the 
 King, which was the rise and foundation of so many 
 inconveniences and mischiefs, may properly enough 
 be called rather the vice of the age in which he lived, 
 than of his own person. It was no new thing for 
 Kings and Princes, (yea, inferior men in that time,) 
 merely out of hope of issue, and when they had lived 
 long with barren wives, to procure divorces from 
 those beds, to which they were too fast engaged to 
 be capable of that liberty; and the Church of Rome, 
 who had by a general though an unlawful consent, 
 the sole vending of that commodity of dispensations, 
 made too much merchandise of it, 
 
 This young King had too impatient desire of issue 
 male, (which he could not naturally expect from his 
 wife,) that his line, which had been established with 
 so much blood, might not be determined with him- 
 self; and he thought providence might be assisted 
 by those expedients which he had seen practised in 
 his own time in other kingdoms. It was not many 
 years before that Charles the eighth of France, who 
 had joined the dutchy of Brittany to the crown by 
 the marriage of the daughter and heir thereof, (who 
 was contracted to another husband,) had died ; and 
 
 Lewis
 
 320 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Lewis the Twelfth succeeded him, who was then 
 
 married to a sister of the former King, a lady by 
 
 whom he had children, and to whom (as hath been 
 said before) he had other as great obligations, as the 
 saving his life could amount to : and yet, for the 
 conveniency of continuing the dutchy of Brittany in 
 the crown of France, he had procured from the Pope 
 a divorce from his lawful wife, that he might marry 
 the Queen Dowager, which he did accordingly. It 
 is no wonder, therefore, that our King Harry did 
 believe the same proceeding might be as good divi- 
 nity and as good law in his case, as it had been 
 twenty years before in the other. And it is noto- 
 riously known, that when he proposed this business 
 first at Rome, it found so good a reception with the 
 Pope and the Cardinals, that, after the usual formali- 
 ties, (which were necessary in cases of that import- 
 ance, and wherein there was that opposition by one 
 of the royal parties concerned,) the divorce was ac- 
 tually consented to ; and, by the unhappy temper of 
 that Pope's nature, it was stopped, and undelivered, 
 upon the direct threats of Charles the Emperor ; 
 who afterwards (and after his army had entered and 
 sacked Rome, and made the Pope prisoner, as I said 
 before) met him at Bologna, and with a few fair and 
 foul words prevailed with the Pope to issue out all 
 those censures against King Henry the Eighth; with 
 whom, in a short time after, the Emperor himself 
 entered into a stricter alliance and friendship than 
 he had done before. Can it then be wondered at, 
 that the King of England should look upon Clement 
 and his censures with no more reverence, than Lewis 
 the Twelfth had done a few years before upon Ju- 
 lius the Second, and the same censures ; and that he 
 
 should
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 521 
 
 should expel that spiritual sovereignty out of his CHAP. 
 
 kingdom, and the hearts of his subjects, which had 
 
 been first introduced by the consent and approbation 
 of his royal progenitors, and by them often enlarged 
 and restrained, as they found most agreeable to their 
 own affairs, and the good of their subjects ; and 
 which could be no longer continued or permitted, 
 without the destruction of himself, and leaving the 
 temporal jurisdiction and authority to be disposed of 
 by the spiritual ? It was thereupon that he applied 
 his own laws to the government of his own people ; 
 and this by consent of his Catholic clergy and Ca- 
 tholic people, who knew that therein they departed 
 from nothing of Catholic religion. Nor was that 
 great King less a Catholic, from that moment of the 
 expulsion to the hour of his death, than he had been 
 when he writ against Luther ; nor did in the least 
 degree favour any of those opinions which were af- 
 terwards called heretical, but prosecuted the favourers 
 thereof with the same cruel severity, which his un- 
 happy daughter Queen Mary was afterwards advised 
 and prevailed with to exercise towards them, when 
 she was entirely governed by the Pope. 
 
 What opinion the Christian world had at that Hen. vni. 
 very time of that extravagant act of that miserable 
 Pope, was not then concealed. The King of France 
 laboured with his utmost endeavours, by his letters 
 and ambassadors, and even threats, to divert Cle- 
 ment from such a purpose ; and afterwards prevailed 
 with him to suppress and not to issue out and pub- 
 lish that prodigious excommunication, after he had 
 concluded it, until Harry the Eighth (who likewise, 
 upon the importunity of Francis, was willing to con- 
 sent to reasonable conditions) was informed that the 
 
 Y Pope
 
 322 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Pope had declared it in Consistory, which could be ; 
 
 ' no secret ; and then he renounced all further nego- 
 
 ciations, and considered only what he knew was due 
 to his own dignity and his just indignation, and so 
 proceeded accordingly. The Emperor the very next 
 year (as hath been said before) renewed his treaty 
 and alliance with Harry under more strict obliga- 
 tions of amity than before: nor was there one Catho- 
 lic Prince in Europe who did not with the same 
 warmth embrace and desire his friendship that they 
 had done before ; which they could not have done if 
 they had believed the excommunication to be valid, 
 or the expulsion of the Pope's authority to be a 
 crime or offence against the essence of Catholic reli- 
 gion : nor did one of his Catholic subjects withdraw 
 his allegiance from him, either clergy or laity, upon 
 the stroke of that thunderbolt ; but cheerfully con- 
 curred in the condemning and renouncing that un- 
 ruly power, and the person who so lewdly had usurp- 
 ed it ; which makes it manifest enough what that 
 Catholic age thought of it. 
 
 Language And it is very probable that those very Princes, 
 
 of the Bull ,f .-. j c ., 
 
 ofExcom- who, out ot envy to the power and greatness or that 
 magnanimous King, were glad enough to see any 
 cloud arise that would probably eclipse his bright- 
 ness, found themselves equally concerned in the 
 imperious, insolent, profane, and tyrannical expres- 
 sions in that frantic Bull, which ought always to be 
 presented and preserved in the view and memory 
 of all Kings and Princes, of what faith or religion 
 soever. " Juxta Prop/ietee t/eremia vaticinium, (Ecce 
 " te constitui super gentes, et regna, ut cvellas et 
 " destruas, &difices, plantes, pr&cipue super omnes 
 " Reges universes terra fyc.) ut excessus et enormta, 
 
 " et
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 323 
 
 t( et scandalosa crimina. congrua severitate coercea- G H A P. 
 
 VI 
 
 " mus, et juxta j4postofafm, in obedientiam ovium ' 
 
 " promptius ulciscendo, illorum perpetrator es debit a 
 " correctione sic compescamus, quod eos Dei tram pro- 
 " vocasse pcenifeat &c. Cum dictum Henricum Re gem 
 (( if a in profundum malorum descendisse, nt de ejiis 
 " resipiscentid nulla penitus videatur spes haberi pos- 
 " se y reppererimus, N os attendentes veteri lege crimine 
 11 adulterii notatum lapidari mandatum, ac authores 
 " schismatis hiatu terra; absorptos eorumque sequaces 
 " ccelesti igne comumptos, Elymamque Magum viis 
 " Domini resistentem per Apostolum &terna severitate 
 " damnatum fuisse &c." And upon these pious mo- 
 tives and unquestionable precedents in the Old and 
 New Testament, (which have not the least relation 
 or reference to the case in question,) this universal 
 Bishop takes upon him to excommunicate one of the 
 greatest Catholic Kings in the world ; to deprive 
 him of all his kingdoms and dominions, and to ab- 
 solve all his subjects from paying any obedience to 
 him, forbidding all other persons to have any com- 
 munication or conversation with any who shall ad- 
 here to him ; " Neque emendo, vendendo, permutando 
 " aat quemcunque mercaturam seu negotmm exercendo 
 " &c. aut vinum, gramen, sal, sen alia victualia, deferri 
 " aut conduci permittunt? And lest all this should 
 not enough express and declare the immortal anger 
 of this sacred Pastor, he declares, that when he shall 
 die, or they who adhere to him, " ecclesiasticd debere 
 " car ere sepulturd, authoritate et potestatis plenitudine 
 " pr&dictis decernimus, et declaramus ; eosque ana- 
 " thematis, maledictionis, et damnationis cKterncp mu- 
 " crone percutimus. n 
 
 In what a miserable and low degree of subjection 
 were all Kings and Princes, if God had put such a 
 
 Y 2 sword
 
 324 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, sword of destruction into the hands of men of so vast 
 
 ' a distance from them in their quality, of very vulgar 
 
 extraction, and of as low an education ! Men, who 
 make themselves superior to Moses, and all the other 
 Prophets, and, in truth, equal to God himself; who 
 believe they are qualified and authorized to com- 
 mand and execute whatsoever he thought fit to do 
 at any time by his Prophets or others, for some ex- 
 traordinary manifestation of his power and glory, ac- 
 cording to their illimited fancies and humours ; and 
 who, under the presumptuous stile of Vicar of Christ, 
 assume an authority and jurisdiction totally dis- 
 claimed by himself. And though Christ declared, 
 that his kingdom is not of this world, they make no 
 doubt of their inherent right from him to dispose of 
 the empires and kingdoms over nations in this world, 
 as well as of the places and offices in the next : and 
 that all men may know the arbitrary and illimited 
 boundless power that they lay claim to, they will not 
 be limited by any former rules and precedents, (though 
 prescribed by the infallible chair itself,) nor by the 
 old wariness and deliberation in the process, exami- 
 nation, and proceeding ; nor will the old awful form 
 of excommunication serve their turn, nor is it agree- 
 able to their fervour and the haughtiness of their hu- 
 mour ; but they devise new scurvy words, and " ex 
 " plenitudme potestatis" make new naughty Latin, 
 force the Scripture to contribute to their rage and 
 fury, according to the spirit of malice and pride that 
 possess their own hearts. 
 
 The ex- Nevertheless, after the terrible and terrifying Bull, 
 s- (which by its ridiculousness and the contempt of it 
 i 7 might reasonably abate and mollify such ambitious 
 attempts,) alter all this thunder and lightning, these 
 impotent throes and strugglings, by which they en- 
 deavoured
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL lit. 
 
 deavoured to discredit and disfigure, but did indeed CHAP. 
 beautify the subject of their malediction; this great - ^~ 
 unhurt King enjoyed a life of many years, in greater 
 prosperity than before ; with the amity, at least the 
 application, of all his neighbour Catholic princes, 
 with the love (or reverence and obedience, which 
 served his turn as well) of all his subjects, he lived 
 to see Clement, after a life neglected and contemned, 
 buried in perpetual obloquy, and his memory detested 
 by all grave and pious Catholics ; he lived, unshaken 
 by the same malice of his successors, and prosecuted 
 and controlled the same insolence with the same 
 contempt; these presumptions and excesses of theirs 
 having made his excesses the less remembered, or 
 the less censured : and when he died, his death was 
 attended with the accustomed condolences of the 
 greatest Princes; and, notwithstanding all the Bulls 
 of Rome, his obsequies were, with all possible so- 
 lemnities, observed in the cathedral church of Notre 
 Dame in Paris, by the most Christian King and all 
 his Court: which they would never have done, if 
 they had not believed and esteemed him to have 
 died a very good Catholic. 
 
 They who are of opinion that Kings and Princes Reason- 
 may, upon the policy of their government, grant 
 
 what privileges and immunities they think fit, and privileges 
 
 * granted to 
 
 make what concessions they please to the Popes and the Pope 
 
 their successors ; but that they may not upon any "ience'of 
 experience, and for the good of the same govern- chlevo 
 ment, revoke those priviliges and retract those con- cffcctf 
 cessions, no more than a married man can, upon do- 
 mestic inconveniences, cancel the obligations of ma- 
 trimony ; and who believe that whatever was the ef- 
 fect of piety and zeal to religion in former ages, must 
 
 Y 3 continue
 
 326 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, continue to be the same, if we profess the same reli- 
 
 gion ; I say, whoever is of that opinion, let him first 
 
 persuade the Duke of Savoy and the Commonwealth 
 of Genoa to restore all Liguria (that is, all that is 
 now the river of Genoa) and Piedmont to the Pope ; 
 because Arithpertus, King of the Lombards, gave the 
 same to St. Peter, and the Bishops of Rome : let the 
 Duke of Mantua and the other Princes of Italy re- 
 store Mantua, "and all the other towns that belonged 
 to the Exarchate ; because Pepin heretofore granted 
 them to the Pope and his successors : let the most 
 Catholic King put his kingdom of Corsica, and Sar- 
 dinia, and even Sicily itself, into the Pope's posses- 
 sion ; because Ludovicus Pius granted and dedicated 
 those kingdoms to the church : let our Catholic 
 countrymen, and their neighbours of Germany and 
 France, engage their persons and their fortunes in a 
 war upon the Holy Land, as their ancestors used to 
 do : and let the Catholics of this time make voyages 
 to the Grand Signior and the Emperors of Persia to 
 affront them, and to draw the honour of martyrdom 
 upon themselves, as some of the primitive Christians 
 did to the Heathen Emperors : let all this be done, 
 or else let it be confessed, that the religion and piety 
 of all ages is not obliged to produce the same fruit 
 and effects ; and that we may very well retrench the 
 privileges which our ancestors granted to churchmen, 
 in a time when they were found to be the best props 
 arid supporters of the peace and security of king- 
 doms, and paid themselves and exacted from others, 
 in point of conscience, the most entire and sincere 
 obedience to the laws established, and were very 
 rarely prosecuted, but for their signal piety and in- 
 tegrity. I say, that the wisdom of Christian States
 
 FROM EUGENIUS IV. TO PAUL III. 327 
 
 and Princes may now very justly revoke the privi- CHAP. 
 
 leges that were granted to those men in those times, 
 
 upon their too sad experience, that the successors of 
 those men do not retain the virtue and sincerity of 
 their predecessors ; but that, instead thereof, they 
 disturb the quiet and peace of kingdoms, dispose the 
 subjects to irreverence towards their Princes and 
 their laws, and then to rebellion against them ; and 
 that, upon pretence of paying obedience to a foreign 
 spiritual jurisdiction, they withdraw that submission 
 to the temporal, without which the foundations of 
 government must be dissolved. 
 
 Y 4 CHAP.
 
 328 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. VH. 
 
 Paul III. A. D. 1534. to Plus V. A. D. 1566. 
 From the calling^ to the conclusion, of the Council 
 of Trent, 
 
 Paul in. .HAVING done with Clement, we proceed in the 
 disquisition of the reign of his successor Paul the 
 Third. 
 
 We might indeed now discontinue the method 
 we have hitherto pursued in the examination and 
 survey of the lives of the successive Popes ; since, 
 as it doth appear, (by the instances given before,) 
 that from the time of St. Peter to this last successor 
 of his, there hath not been one half a century of years 
 in which it hath not been sufficiently evinced, that 
 the successors of St. Peter either did not challenge 
 or assume to themselves that power and authority 
 which is now claimed by divine right, and as esta- 
 blished by Christ himself; or, that they were op- 
 posed and contradicted in the point by considerable 
 parts of the Christian Church, which rejects it from 
 being a Catholic verity ; so also it will not be denied 
 by any man, but that, since the time of Clement the 
 Seventh, so many great kingdoms and dominions and 
 nations have renounced that subjection, that (being 
 added to those who had either never acknowledged 
 or formerly withdrawn themselves from it) the Ro- 
 man
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 339 
 
 man Church at present is deprived of the force of its CHAP. 
 
 j i u- u * -i VII. 
 
 common and vulgar argument, by which it prevails 
 
 over too many, from the number and multitude of 
 its communion, and doth not now contain or com- 
 prehend near the third part of the Christian Church. 
 
 I shall choose however to prosecute the order that 
 I observed before, in view of the several actions and 
 attempts of those who have succeeded, and have still 
 continued the same pretences ; by which as great 
 mischiefs have befallen the Christian world as here- 
 tofore. And it cannot but be convinced, by the ex- 
 perience it hath had since that time in the foul prac- 
 tice and proceedings in the conclaves, how little our 
 Saviour hath to do in the election of his own Vicar, 
 and how much the two crowns of France and Spain ; 
 for the power of all other Catholic Princes serves to 
 no other purpose than to crown the triumphs of one 
 of those factions. And as they are pleased to make 
 it an argument of the presence of the Holy Ghost in 
 those elections, because, at the entering into the con- 
 clave, (notwithstanding all the brigues and corrupt 
 public interpositions,) nobody had yet ever named or 
 foreseen who would come out Pope ; so it is in truth 
 a shrewd argument of the absence of the Holy Ghost 
 from those conventions, because so many men are 
 able to foresee and foretell who shall not be elected 
 Popes ; since no man hath yet, from the time we are 
 speaking of, ever been chosen Pope who hath by 
 name been excluded by either of the two crowns : so 
 that if the Holy Ghost be not totally excluded, (as 
 many believe it to be,) it is at least limited and re- 
 strained from its voluntary and free operation ; of 
 which it will be impossible to avoid saying more 
 hereafter, 
 
 Paul
 
 330 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Paul the Third had been forty years Cardinal, and 
 was sixty-six years of age, when he was chosen Pope ; 
 
 Council 1-1 -11 r i 
 
 ofTrent which, together with the opinion or his gravity, and 
 n* t assent austerity of his nature, contributed very much to his 
 ^ t l al any election. Besides which, the iniquity of that time, 
 purpose and the depraved manners of the Court of Rome, gave 
 
 during his . ' 
 
 reign. occasion to so universal a scandal, that both the Em- 
 peror and King of France, and all other Catholic 
 Princes, had called loudly upon Clement for a General 
 Council ; and threatened, if he should defer the call- 
 ing of it, (for he still promised to do it though he 
 never meant it,) that they would call a National 
 Council themselves in their own dominions ; which 
 those of the reformed religion (who were now very 
 considerable both in Princes and people) more de- 
 sired, as being more equal, and like to produce a more 
 reasonable reformation. Cardinal Farnese (who was 
 now Paul the Third) had also the skill in that time 
 to express a great bitterness against the excesses and 
 corruptions in the Church, and to declare, that no- 
 thing was so necessary for Christianity as a General 
 Council. And as all those Princes continued as im- 
 portunate for it with him upon his election as they 
 had been before, so they had no doubt but that he 
 would, to satisfy his own discretion and conscience, as 
 well as to comply with their advice and desires, make 
 haste to give that general satisfaction. And, in a 
 short time after he was chosen, he issued out his let- 
 ters of Convocation directed to the Emperor, to whom 
 he much more inclined than to France, and ap- 
 pointed the Council to assemble in Trent. 
 
 Paul had all the ambition and pride and passion of 
 his predecessor Clement, with a stubbornness that 
 was inflexible either by threats or importunity ; and 
 
 he
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 331 
 
 he easily discovered, that the true end of the Em- CHAP. 
 
 . . . VTI. 
 peror's and King of France's desire of the meeting of ' 
 
 the Council was not so much for the suppression of 
 any heresy that was grown up in the Church, as to 
 elevate and exalt their own power anfd authority, and 
 to lessen and vilify the Papal ; and therefore he used 
 all the devices he could upon several pretences to 
 keep the Council from meeting, and in three years 
 after the first time appointed, they met not ; and 
 when he could no longer avoid it, by the Emperor's 
 sending the Spanish and German Bishops to Trent, 
 he likewise sent his Legates thither, that by their 
 presence and authority they might delay and puzzle 
 all proceedings there, which they did as well and as 
 long as they could : and when he saw that would 
 not serve his turn, he removed and adjourned the 
 Council to Bologna, sent his Legates thither, and 
 prevailed with France (that was very willing and 
 ready to widen any breach between the Pope and 
 the Emperor) to send their Bishops likewise to that 
 place. In the mean time the German and Spanish 
 Bishops, with the Emperor, protested against the 
 Pope's power to remove the Council, refused to go to 
 Bologna, and remained still at Trent in consultation 
 how to reform the Church ; and the clamour of the 
 Princes was so great, that France fell from him ; so 
 that he was compelled in the end to consent that his 
 Legates and all the Bishops should leave Bologna, 
 and continue their meeting in Trent. However, by 
 these devices he so much deferred and interrupted 
 and diverted their consultations, that, during the 
 whole fifteen years of his reign, the Council pro- 
 ceeded not effectually to any of the purposes for 
 which it was convened. 
 
 The
 
 332 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. The Emperor, who was every day more disquieted 
 
 by the increase of the Lutheran party in Germany, 
 
 peror calls was much displeased with the artifices the Pope used 
 
 Council* to avoid the Council ; and, that he might see that he 
 
 w uld not depend upon his good will and power for 
 an interim ^he suppressing or reforming any mischief or incon- 
 six Articles venience that should spring up or arise in his own 
 
 until a Ge- . . . ' . & \ 
 
 neraicoun- dominions, he issued out his writs for the calling the 
 assembly at Worms, which was a National Council 
 of Germany: and he did this without so -much as 
 imparting it to the Cardinal Farnese, who was the 
 Pope's nephew, and at that time his Nuncio in the 
 Imperial Court ; whereupon he immediately de- 
 parted without taking his leave, and made haste to 
 Rome, that his uncle might take new measures for his 
 future Councils. But that great Emperor thought 
 too much upon all he did, and upon all he meant to 
 do, to be shaken in his resolutions by any actions of 
 other men, or accidents from abroad. For the better 
 composing or quieting the distempers in Germany, 
 (where the flame was brightest,) he granted the In- 
 terim to be observed and submitted to by all men, 
 until a General Council should otherwise determine. 
 This contained twenty-six Articles, in which all dis- 
 senting parties found somewhat to gratify their de- 
 sires ; and the Protestants had indulged to them two 
 principal points, upon which their hearts were much 
 set, " Liberty for their Priests to marry," and, " that 
 " they might take the Communion in both kinds." 
 
 The Pope's This blow stunned the Pope, that he was even at 
 his wit's end ; to have new Articles of faith made with- 
 out his knowledge or privity, to suspend the decrees of 
 former Popes and the Canons of general Councils, and 
 in favour and for the benefit of those whom he con- 
 
 demned
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V, 333 
 
 demned as heretics, and this to be done by a secular CHAP. 
 
 VII. 
 
 power ; for he looked upon the act of the Emperor ' 
 
 (as in truth it was) as such a confinement and enclo- 
 sure of his universality, and such a contradiction and 
 contempt of his infallibility, that he knew not how to 
 redeem it, or to control the presumption. At last 
 his passion, that was always predominant in him, ad- 
 ministered new vigour to his spirit ; and he writ to 
 the Emperor such a letter of rebuke and menaces 
 that shewed he resolved not to sit down by the af- 
 front ; which letter we shall have occasion to men- 
 tion and enlarge upon hereafter. At the same time, 
 but of a later date, and by another messenger, (who 
 was appointed to deliver this three days after the 
 former letter should be delivered,) to soften and 
 mollify the fury of the Emperor, which he believed 
 would break out upon the reception of the other, he 
 writ with wonderful application, and made all imagin- 
 able expressions of kindness and esteem of him, and 
 passionate professions of his resolutions cordially to 
 assist him against all his enemies ; and it is true that, 
 though he feared and hated the Emperor, he did 
 more abhor the King of France, Harry the Second, 
 who he knew provided to break the peace of Italy. 
 
 The Emperor observed his own method, and dis- The Empc- 
 patched a courier with an answer to his first letter duct."" 1 
 in a style agreeable to his dignity, and such as could 
 not but wound the Pope deeper than before ; and 
 then, within the same distance of time, he answered 
 the other with all the acknowledgments and conde- 
 scensions and acceptations that could be most grate- 
 ful to him. The two first were forgotten, at least no 
 more thought of on either side, and the professions 
 of the two latter cultivated by the ministers of both 
 
 Courts ;
 
 334 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Courts; till in the end that alliance was produced. 
 
 VII 
 
 ' that Octavio, the Pope's grandson, married the na- 
 tural daughter of the Emperor, who had before been 
 married to Alexander the First, Duke of Florence ; 
 who was assassinated. Whether Paul himself had 
 been first married, and had a son before he entered 
 the Clergy, (as the Spanish and Italian writers af- 
 firm,) or whether Pierre Lewis, the father of Octavio, 
 was his natural son, (as the French historiographer 
 confidently avers,) I am not to determine. 
 
 Proceedings But this alliance produced no alteration in the af- 
 
 of the Pope . T r-i riri i 
 
 and the lections or inclinations ot either or the lathers : the 
 Emperor continuing not less impatient or importu- 
 nate that the Council should proceed, nor in the 
 mean time suspending the Interim, and which, it 
 may be, troubled the Pope more, making no haste to 
 exalt his family : and the Pope remaining as obsti- 
 nate and refractory to any proposition of the Em- 
 peror, being resolved to leave the Papacy at least in 
 as high a degree of reputation as he found it ; and to 
 raise his family to a station equal to any that any of 
 his predecessors had done : whilst the other was as 
 resolute to humble and abate the pride and ambition 
 of the former, and to promote the latter, as he found 
 most convenient and suitable to his other designs. 
 This temper made a schism in the Pope's family, 
 his son Pierre Lewis betaking himself to the party of 
 France with the privity and advice of his father, and 
 his grandson Octavio declaring himself at the Em- 
 peror's disposal in matters that most nearly related 
 to the Pope. 
 
 Indeed the Emperor's power so much increased, 
 that though the college of Cardinals, when they were 
 all in Rome, was thought equally to be divided be- 
 tween
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 335 
 
 tween the Emperor and France, yet by the residence CHAP. 
 
 of so many of them in France the other party was so ' 
 
 much superior in Rome, that it was proposed in the 
 college that the Pope would declare the King of 
 France to be the common enemy, and deprive him 
 of the title of most Christian King, for the infamous 
 league that he had lately entered into with the 
 Turks. But the Pope (who in the transport of his 
 anger was not only more inclined to France, but to 
 the Turk himself) would not hearken to that over- 
 ture. The Emperor, who was delighted with all the 
 Pope's vexations and distempers, the more to expose 
 him to reproach and neglect, made a Pragmatique or 
 law, that no stranger should hold any benefice or 
 pension in Spain; and that no man should pay them, 
 though they owed any thing to them upon that ac- 
 count. This impoverished very many Italians, and 
 other dependants upon the Pope, (many whereof had 
 little else to live upon,) and vexed him more than 
 any thing that had been done, the Interim only ex- 
 cepted ; which yet in one respect was not so griev- 
 ous, because, it being an assault and invasion upon 
 religion, many Catholic Princes concurred with him 
 in the resentment: but this other was a matter 
 purely within the Emperor's temporal jurisdiction, 
 and he knew was very grateful to a whole Catholic 
 nation, that was more devoted than any other to the 
 sacred chair. 
 
 Whilst he was struggling under those mortifica-The Pope's 
 
 . , c ,| , . TT i i sonassassi- 
 
 tions, much greater tell upon him. He had given nated, and 
 the cities of Parma and Placentia to his son Pierre delivered 
 Lewis, and expected that, for young Octavio's sake, 
 the Emperor would erect them into a dutchy ; which 
 
 he
 
 336 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, he yet refused to do upon the discovery of the 
 
 ' son's correspondence and inclination to France. And 
 
 Lewis, before he was a sovereign, took such sove- 
 reignty upon him, and did so many acts of tyranny, 
 that three or four citizens of Placentia combined to- 
 gether, and, under pretence of making some peti- 
 tion or other address to him, obtained entrance into 
 the castle or palace at noon-day, assassinated him, 
 and one other of his principal servants and confidants ; 
 and upon a sign given, some other of the citizens, who 
 were privy to the conspiracy, entered and possessed 
 themselves of the castle, and then sent to Ferdinand 
 de Gonzagua (who was the Emperor's governor of 
 Milan) for assistance; and he presently sent a strong 
 garrison that possessed arid kept it for the Emperor. 
 This was a wound to the Pope that bled inwards, 
 and bereft him of all his courage; and, when he com- 
 plained of the odious murder and rebellion, and re- 
 quired the redelivery of Placentia, the Emperor po- 
 sitively refused to restore it, and said that it be- 
 longed to his Dutchy of Milan ; which made the 
 Pope believe that he had likewise been privy to the 
 assassination. He resolved now to take some re- 
 venge upon his grandson Octavio, and to annex 
 Parma to the holy chair, which would be better able 
 to dispute the title with the Emperor, who likewise 
 made a claim to it, and had endeavoured to surprise 
 it ; and he sent his grandson word that he would 
 make other provision for him: but Octavio positively 
 refused to put Parma into his hands, and writ to his 
 brother the Cardinal, that if the Pope should press it, 
 he would sooner put it into the hands of Ferdinand 
 de Gonzagua ; which letter, when the Cardinal 
 
 shewed
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 337 
 
 shewed it to the Pope, put him into so great choler, CHAP. 
 
 that his whole body trembled, and within three days ' 
 
 he died, in the year fifteen hundred and forty-nine. 
 
 The greatest and the most lasting monument that The orderof 
 he left behind him to preserve his memory, was the founded. 
 foundation of the order of the Jesuits, instituted and 
 confirmed by a very wonderful Bull, wherein he de- 
 clared, " That they had forsaken arid renounced all 
 " the temptations of the world, ut eorum vitam per- 
 " petuo Domini nostri Jesu Christi, atque nostro et 
 " aliorum successorum nostrorum Romanorum Ponti- 
 " ficum servitio dedicarent, et jam quam pluribus annis 
 " laudabiliter in vined Domini se exercuerunt fyc." and 
 thereupon grants them many privileges, unheard of 
 before to any other Religious persons. " Quicunque 
 " in societate nostrd, quam JESU nomine insigniri cu- 
 " pimus, vult sub crucis vexillo Deo milifare, et soli 
 " Domino, atque Romano Pontifici ejus in terris vica- 
 " rio, servire Sfc. he shall enjoy these, and these im- 
 " munities &c.:" and they again on their part, the 
 better to merit his transcendent favours, over and 
 above the common vows entered into bv other fleli- 
 
 */ 
 
 gious communities, make another and more especial 
 vow, " Ita ut quicquid hodiernus et alii Romani Pon- 
 " tifices pro tempore existentes jusserint fyc. sine ulld 
 " tergiuersatione aut excusatione exequi tenearrmr fyc" 
 And the same Pope, upon a short experience, found 
 this kind of militia to be so very necessary for the 
 guard of his person, and of all his pretences, that, 
 within eight or nine years after, he amplified his 
 former concessions by a new Bull ; in which, after a 
 great testimony of the society, " Cujus specimen vel- 
 " uti agerfertilis in Domino multiplices atque uberes 
 *' fructus animarum, ad summi Regis laudem et fidei 
 
 " in-
 
 338 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " incrementum attulit, et affert quotidie 8fc" And 
 
 ' therefore he grants to the Generals, and the Superiors 
 
 appointed by him, for themselves, and likewise for all 
 the members of the society, who have taken the 
 order of Priesthood, and have their faculty to the 
 same purpose, liberty in all places wherein they re-^ 
 main or shall pass through, " habere oratoria, et in 
 " eis ac quocunque alio honesto et congruenti loco in 
 " altariportatili, cum debitis reverentid et honore, etiam 
 " tempore interdicti Sfc. submissd voce Missas et alia 
 " divina officia celebrare, ac ecclesiastica sacramenta 
 " recipere, et aliis mmistrare, 8fc" And, lest all this 
 might not be encouragement to sturdy men to enrol 
 themselves in this warfare, he grants to all manner 
 of persons, " defectum natalium ex adulterio, sacri- 
 " lego, incestu, et quovis alio nefario et illicito coitu 
 " provenientem patientibus, nee non iis qui irregulares 
 " fuerint postquam in or dine ipso vota emiserint^ ut 
 " defectu et irregularitate hujusmodi non obstantibus 
 " ad quoscunque, etiam sacros et presbyterianos, ordi- 
 " nes promoveri, et ad quascunque administrationes et 
 " officia dicta societatis, eligi, recipi, et assumi valeant, 
 " concedimus et indulgemus fyc" In this manner, 
 and of this manner of men, did this good Pope com- 
 pose and qualify this happy fraternity; and as it is 
 no wonder that there hath been few Popes since who 
 have not made new grants of privileges, or otherwise 
 manifested their grace to this valuable band, (as shall 
 be shortly observed hereafter,) so the reason is not 
 enough understood why they are so precious to many 
 Kings and Princes, to whom they have not made the 
 least promise of fidelity or obedience. 
 
 Proceedings The unquiet and uneasy reign of Paul the Third 
 
 in conclave * 11 i ' i 
 
 to himseli, and to all his neighbours, made all the 
 
 world
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 339 
 
 / 
 
 world at gaze, and solicitous for a Pope of a more CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 apostolical temper and inclination ; and the Empe- tion pf ^. 
 ror, and Henry the Second of France, were very successor. 
 much awake and careful that Christ might have such of France 
 a Vicar chosen for him that might love but one of i a " the eiec- 
 them. The French thought themselves to have the tlon ' 
 disadvantage by the so sudden death of the Pope, 
 whilst so many of their Cardinals were in France, 
 that they feared the Holy Ghost might be too preci- 
 pitate in the election of a successor that might not be 
 for their purpose ; to prevent which, the King of 
 France bethought himself of a remedy that had not 
 been so barefaced practised before. As soon as he 
 received the news of the Pope's death, he dispatched 
 an express to Monsieur d'Urfe, his ambassador at 
 Rome, in which he desired that the election of the 
 future Pope might not be so hasty, or so quickly dis- 
 patched, as that the Cardinals of those parts might 
 not have time to come to Rome to assist ih the con- 
 clave, as well as others ; otherwise, in regard of the 
 place that he held in Christendom, and the quality 
 which he had of being eldest son of the Church, he 
 neither would nor could admit of such an election, 
 where his Cardinals, who represent the Gallican 
 Church, should be despised or neglected. This letter 
 bears date from Paris the eighteenth of November, 
 fifteen hundred forty-nine ; and the ambassador re- 
 turned an answer to the King, dated the sixth of De- 
 cember following, in which he gave him an account 
 what he had done thereupon. He told his Majesty, 
 that he came to the door of the conclave, and that 
 the six Deputies (Cardinals, whose names he men- 
 tions) came thither to speak with him ; in the pre- 
 
 z 2 sence
 
 340 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, sence of whom he declared, that the Cardinals of 
 
 VII 
 
 ' France were on the way, and would probably be 
 
 there in few days, and therefore he desired the con- 
 clave to stay yet awhile, and suspend the election yet 
 a week, in which time the French Cardinals might 
 be there ; and in case they would deny him that re- 
 quest, and frustrate the voices of his Majesty's Car- 
 dinals, he told them, he did protest on his Majesty's 
 behalf, and according to the power that he had given 
 him, a nullity of all that they did do, and not to ap- 
 prove of their election. They desired to see his power, 
 which he presently delivered into the hands of Car- 
 dinal Tracy, who promised to communicate that, and 
 all that he had said, to the whole conclave. Some 
 time after they gave him this answer ; that upon his 
 words they had staid for the French Cardinals nine 
 and twenty days since the death of the Pope, and 
 that they could not possibly put off the election any 
 longer ; and that, as to what concerned the protesta- 
 tion which he had made, his Majesty was a Prince 
 who was in word and deed a Christian ; and that 
 their election should be so just and sincere, that nei- 
 ther he, as first son of the Church, nor any other 
 Prince of Christendom, should have occasion to be 
 dissatisfied with it. The ambassador, in the close of 
 the same letter, took notice of a later command that 
 he had received from his Majesty, in which he was 
 required not to make too much haste to salute the 
 new Pope, if he should not be one according to his 
 Majesty's desire, but to wait his farther orders, than 
 which, he said, nothing could be more reasonable, 
 for he was of opinion, that the less his Majesty did 
 court and seek the Popes, the sooner he would find 
 
 them ;
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 341 
 
 them ; and he said he could not comprehend how it CHAP. 
 
 VIT 
 
 could be, that his Majesty could have more need of 
 
 their help, than they had of his Majesty's. 
 
 There were at this time, besides some Spanish and The Empc- 
 German, twelve Neapolitan and Sicilian Bishops, and ens. 
 some other clergy, who remained still at Trent ; and 
 the Emperor gave commission to the Cardinal of 
 Trent, that if the election of the Pope succeeded not 
 according to his mind, he should protest, that at pre- 
 sent it only belonged to the Council to elect a Pope ; 
 which he affirmed to be assembled at Trent, and in 
 no other place. Is not the Catholic Church like to 
 receive very righteous directions and determinations 
 from an universal Pastor thus imposed upon it ? But 
 whatever haste the conclave seemed to be in to make 
 their election, they deferred it so long, that the King 
 of France writ upon the sixth of February from Fon- 
 tainbleau to the Cardinal de Guise, to press the Car- 
 dinals to come to an election, and to complain of the 
 delay of the conclave; and the King said that he did 
 not only press it, but that he understood that the Em- 
 peror himself did much blame their delay ; and al- 
 leged that Germany, seeing the conclave in such com- 
 bustions, (at which every body there laughed,) did in- 
 crease its errors every day against religion ; and that 
 for one Lutheran who was there before the vacation 
 of the holy chair, there were now very many. 
 
 In the end, being all tired, and almost killed with Julius HI. 
 the enclosure, rather because they could not agree e * 
 upon any man they liked, than that they were 
 pleased with their own choice, they elected the Car- 
 dinal de Monte, whom the French long excepted 
 against, with bitter invectives against his person and 
 his manners ; yet at last, by being divided amongst 
 
 z 3 them-
 
 342 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, themselves, he was chosen, and took the name of Ju- 
 - ' lius the Third. 
 Character Julius was a man of a pleasant and open nature, 
 
 of Julius 
 
 in. and his a free speaker, and less reserved, and therefore less 
 appointing suspected for dissimulation than men bred in that 
 
 at Court naturally used to be ; which made both the 
 Trent. Emperor and France the more inclined to believe 
 the professions he made to both, and the more pa- 
 tiently to attend his deliberation concerning the re- 
 uniting the Council of Trent ; which they both very 
 importunately pressed him to do after his election, 
 and which he had taken a formal oath to do, in pur- 
 suance of an act of the conclave to that purpose. 
 But for his oath, he answered, that obliged him only 
 for the convening the Council, which he resolved to 
 do, but without any mention of the place, of which 
 he would deliberate with himself. The first action 
 of importance in his Pontificate was the making his 
 page (a boy under twenty years of age) a Cardinal, 
 to whom he gave many great benefices for his sup- 
 port, and called him Innocent de Monte ; pretend- 
 ing that he was the son of his brother, though in all 
 the time that he had served him before, (which had 
 been many years, when he had been known to be 
 much in his favour,) nobody had ever heard who was 
 his father. The Pope declared that he looked upon 
 him as the author and founder of his fortune ; for 
 the astrologers had upon the boy's nativity foretold, 
 that he should become a man of great dignity and 
 riches, which he said could never come to pass but 
 by his being raised to the Pontificate. This brought 
 a general reproach or censure upon the Pope, and 
 gave men the more liberty to discourse, who might 
 probably be his father. He saw no better way to 
 
 divert
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 343 
 
 divert the licence of such discourses, and to repair CHAP. 
 
 VIT 
 
 his reputation, than by calling the Council, which 
 was universally desired and expected.' He himself, 
 having been Legate in Trent during the last Pope's 
 time, had been the principal adviser for the transla- 
 tion of the Council from thence to Bologna, upon ti 
 full discovery (as he informed the Pope) that the de- 
 sign and combination was not so much against the 
 Pope as the Papacy ; of which judgment he still was; 
 and therefore to recall it now again to Trent was to 
 condemn the former Council of the translation : be- 
 sides, that it would very much reflect upon the me- 
 mory of his predecessor Paul, who, though he un- 
 derwent much prejudice by that act, would never be 
 prevailed upon to retract it; and as he had been a 
 creature of that Pope's, so he had been exalted to 
 that chair by the sole credit and operation of Cardi- 
 nal Farnese, and therefore it would not become him, 
 by calling it back again to Trent, to wound the fame 
 of him who had removed it from thence. On the 
 other hand, he knew well that the not assembling it 
 m Trent, where so many Spanish and German Bi- 
 shops had so long continued, and still remained, 
 would in the Emperor's judgment be looked upon as 
 the refusal to have any Council at all; which was the 
 only possible remedy, or the best expedient, towards 
 the composing the distractions in Germany in matters 
 of religion, and which every day exceedingly increas- 
 ed; and the Emperor the more impatiently longed for 
 it, because there was no other way to put an end to the 
 Interim ; of the liberty whereof he himself was al- 
 ready weary, since he found it had lost him more of 
 the affection of the Catholics, than it had gotten him 
 good will amongst the Protestants. Upon all these 
 
 z 4 con-
 
 344 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, considerations, Julius (who always preferred present 
 
 '- ease against the prospect of future inconvenience) 
 
 published his revocation of the Council from Bologna, 
 and appointed it to meet, at a day to come, at Trent; 
 but without any other purpose that they should meet 
 and proceed there, than his predecessor had, as ap- 
 pears by his adjournment of it afterwards for two 
 years, notwithstanding the protestation of all the 
 Spanish Bishops against it, who would not stir from 
 the place. 
 
 TheKingof By this unsteady course in his proceeding, (which 
 hfbiuaii in- he thought served his turn better than his appearing 
 whhRorae. to De s ti\l the same man would have done,) he lost 
 A.D. 1551. t ne reverence of the Empire, France, and Spain, as 
 much as Paul or Clement had done. France made 
 the first discovery of its resentment. That King dis- 
 cerned, that, notwithstanding all professions and pro- 
 testations, the Pope made greater condescensions to 
 the Emperor than towards him, and had more de- 
 pendance upon him ; which his great spirit not being 
 able to endure, he publicly declared, that by the ripe 
 and serious deliberation of several Princes of the 
 blood, as also by the advice of his Council, and of 
 other prudent persons of his kingdom, he did forbid 
 all sorts of persons of his kingdom, whether eccle- 
 siastical, secular, or laics, of what estate or condition 
 soever, that they be not so bold as to dare to go or 
 send to the Court of Rome, or to any other place out 
 of his kingdom, to procure or purchase benefices, 
 or other grants or dispensations whatever ; nor to 
 carry or cause to be carried, or send to the said 
 Court of Rome, (by letters of change or credit, or 
 otherwise, directly or indirectly, by what way or 
 jneans soever,) gold, silver, monies, or monies worth, 
 
 for
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 345 
 
 for to have or obtain letters patents, bulls, dispensa- CHAP. 
 
 tions, grants, or any thing else whatsoever ; under 
 
 pain of incurring the crime of high treason : and in 
 case that, after the publication and proclamation of 
 this his declaration, any of his subjects, or others re- 
 siding in his kingdom, should be found doing, or to 
 have done the contrary, he did order that they 
 should be proceeded against by his judges and offi- 
 cers in their several jurisdictions, as persons guilty of 
 high treason. This bears date the seventh of Sep- 
 tember, fifteen hundred fifty-one, almost two years 
 after the election of Julius. And within a month 
 after, upon the foresight or advertisement that the 
 Pope was like to do somewhat in resentment of this 
 affront, and in vindication of his own authority, the 
 King writ to the Keeper of the Seals, that he knew 
 very well that, at his being lately at Paris, his Advo- 
 cate and Attorney General came to make some re- 
 monstrances to him concerning two points, which 
 they thought he ought to provide and give orders 
 against, considering the time in which they now are: 
 the first was, that he ought to provide from that very 
 present, by way of appeal, (by means which they say 
 were very well grounded,) how he might best pre- 
 vent or withstand the censures or prohibitions which 
 the Pope might publish against him ; if he should 
 perhaps come to that height, upon the account of his 
 having forbid his subjects to carry gold or silver to 
 Rome : the other point was, that he ought to take 
 care, whilst the troubles lasted, that order be given 
 concerning those appeals, which are made ordinarily 
 by metropolitan Bishops, or other churches or col- 
 leges, who think themselves exempted from his go- 
 vernment, and to be immediate subjects to the 
 
 Church
 
 346 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Church of Rome: these points, his Majesty said, 
 
 '- were of great consideration, and that it was much 
 
 better in this to prevent than to be prevented ; since 
 he did not know yet how affairs might go between 
 the Pope and him upon that account : and there- 
 fore he bade the Keeper of the Seals, whilst he was 
 in those parts, to assemble and call together his Ad- 
 vocate and Attorney General, to communicate and 
 confer with them upon the two points, and to take 
 the quickest and the best resolution, according to 
 which they might draw up those letters and writings, 
 which might be necessary for the same ; and to give 
 him notice of all that they did in that aflair. All 
 which proceedings of this great King, and what his 
 ambassador did to the conclave, appears at large in 
 the Memoirs of Monsieur Ribier, in the second tome; 
 and nobody can doubt that that Catholic Prince 
 would ever have engaged himself in that contest, if 
 he had not been very well satisfied that the Pope had 
 no just pretence to any jurisdiction, temporal or spiri- 
 tual, within his dominions. 
 
 Ferdinand, It is observable, that though Julius talked very 
 Romans? 16 l u dj an( i na ^ probably drawn this affront upon him- 
 deathCar sc ^ ^y ^ s ex P os tulations and menaces, that if the 
 dinai Gior- King would not withdraw his countenance and as- 
 
 gio. 
 
 sistance from Parma, (which belonged to the Church,) 
 he would issue out his spiritual censures and excom- 
 munications against him ; and notwithstanding that 
 he and the King entered into a sharp war against 
 each other upon that quarrel ; yet after this declara- 
 tion, and when his temporal sword prospered not, he 
 did not think fit to draw and use his spiritual, for the 
 blunting or abating the edge whereof he saw such 
 provision made. Indeed his spiritual thunder pro- 
 cured
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 34? 
 
 cured him little more reverence than that of his ca- CHAP, 
 non ; for Ferdinand, King of the Romans, had pro- 
 
 cured a Dominican Friar, who had performed many 
 great services against the Turk in Hungary and Tran- 
 sylvania, to be made a Cardinal, and thereupon made 
 him general of his army, who was called Cardinal 
 Giorgio, and obtained some signal victories after- 
 wards ; but the King, being sometime after fully in- 
 formed that he had entered into a treaty with the 
 Turk, and had promised, upon the payment of a great 
 sum of money, to deliver up Transylvania, and some 
 towns in Hungary, into the hands of the Infidels, 
 (and which irreparable mischief he knew no way to 
 prevent, but by the sudden death of the Cardinal,) 
 appointed and sent some officers to visit him when 
 he was gone to a country house for his pleasure, at 
 a little distance from his army, and there to assassi- 
 nate him ; which they performed accordingly, and 
 so disappointed the execution of that treason. Julius 
 hereupon solemnly excommunicated Ferdinand, who 
 would not take the least notice of it, or make the 
 least application to him. But the conspiracy was so 
 notorious, and the punishment generally believed to 
 be so proportioned to it, that the Pope found it fit to 
 absolve him, that there might be no more discourse 
 of it. 
 
 However, no Pope spoke louder, that God had The Pope's 
 made him " suo Wicario, Capo delta Chiesa, et prin- convening 
 " cipale lucerna del mondo ;" and that it did not be- 
 come the dignity of the Apostolical chair, " proce- 
 " dere con artiftcii et dissimulaziom ma parlar air 
 " aperta" So, when he saw there would be no way 
 to hinder the Council from meeting, and proceeding^ 
 he published his Bull for the convening them, but 
 
 drawn
 
 348 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, drawn in such a manner as was more like to keeri 
 
 VII 
 
 '- them from coming, than to bring them together. 
 
 It was so worded, that it took away all the security 
 from the Protestants of coming and going ; and de- 
 clared, that he intended so to govern the debates, 
 that he would not suffer any excesses to be run into. 
 The Emperor, to whom the draught of the Bull was 
 communicated before it was published, used all pos- 
 sible importunity by his ambassadors to persuade 
 him to alter it ; told him, that it would drive the 
 Protestants into despair, who in regard of their 
 strength ought to be tenderly and artificially handled ; 
 and that it would not less displease the Catholics, 
 who would believe that they were restrained from 
 that liberty in debate that was due to them. But 
 the Pope was inexorable ; and, after he had answer- 
 ed the ambassador with many sharp positive sayings, 
 to prevent farther importunity, he gave present or- 
 der, without the alteration of one word, to send out 
 and publish the Bull. 
 
 The Em- This displeased equally the Catholics and the Pro- 
 Wssafe^on- testants, for the reasons which the Emperor had 
 foreseen and urged ; so that both of them resolved 
 not to go to the Council. But the Emperor pub- 
 lished his edict to encourage and require all persons 
 to be present at the Council at the time appointed, 
 that was, in May next; declared that he came " Av- 
 " vocato della Santa Chiesa, et defensor de Consiglj" 
 that he would take care "per Vautorita e potesta 
 " Imperiale" that all people should be secure in 
 coming to the Council, and in staying, going, and re- 
 turning, and in proposing whatsoever they thought 
 necessary in their conscience to propose ; and there- 
 fore he required all the Electors and Princes of the 
 
 empire,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 349 
 
 empire, and especially all ecclesiastical persons, to CHAP. 
 
 repair thither; and also those who had innovated ' 
 
 any thing in religion, who could have no excuse to 
 be absent, since he undertook for their security, and 
 that all things should proceed in peace and order ; 
 " che si tratti e definisca ogni cosa pia e Christiana- 
 " mente conforme alia sacra Scrittura et dottrina d 
 " Padri ;" as Fra Paolo affirms, and Cardinal Pala- 
 vicini doth not contradict. 
 
 The world was well pleased to find that the Em-TheCoun- 
 peror's edict, or decree, was no other than an under- meets and 
 mining and blowing up the Pope's Bull; and that he pro ' 
 undertook to see every thing performed in a way, 
 and by rules directly contrary to what the other had 
 determined. However, the Pope (notwithstanding 
 that he felt the affront very sensibly) pursued his re- 
 solution in sending one Legate and two Nuncios to 
 Trent, limited by such instructions as would prevent 
 any sudden mischief; of which he should be sure to 
 have notice time enough to apply any other remedy 
 he should think fit to make use of. And so some de- 
 crees were made with much opposition, and the 
 Council proceeded, until the war between the Em- 
 peror, and France, and the Pope, (who joined with 
 the latter,) gave new interruption to it. And then 
 Julius, having spent the five years of his reign (for 
 he lived no longer) in perpetual contradicting, and 
 being contradicted, left the stage to a new actor ; 
 without having added any reverence to the holy 
 chair but what he found it before possessed of. Nor 
 did his successors celebrate his memory, by consi- 
 dering or paying any obedience to his decrees or de- 
 terminations. For though he published a bull, that 
 there should never be two brothers Cardinals toge- 
 ther,
 
 350 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ther, but that the brother of any Cardinal, during 
 
 ' the life of that Cardinal, should be incapable of that 
 
 dignity ; " et ex nulld quantumvis urgentissimd causa 
 " adversus hoc decretum dispensare licere &c. ;" no 
 man hath since otherwise complied with it than as 
 the stock of his kindred, or the extent of his affec- 
 tions or appetite, hath disposed him to do; and there- 
 fore, when themselves set so little value upon them, 
 they are not to complain that strangers do no more 
 regard their decretals. 
 Marceiius The long conclave for the election of Julius made 
 
 II. elected. .. . , -. 
 
 His charac- all men hope, that the vacancy would not continue 
 so long, though the two factions were as obstinate as 
 ever. The Cardinals entered the conclave sooner 
 than they used to do, before the Cardinals who were 
 at a distance could arrive ; whereby neither party 
 was able to get such a man chosen as they desired, 
 nor to exclude such as they had no mind to have ; 
 and so for fear of another, against whom they might 
 have more exceptions, they all concurred in the crea- 
 tion of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, who was chosen 
 within eight or nine days after the entrance into the 
 conclave, and about twenty days after the death of 
 Julius. He was called Marceiius the Second, and 
 would not change his own name, as his predecessors 
 had long done upon their assumption to the Papacy. 
 And when they proposed to him to take the oath, 
 that every man had before taken in the conclave, for 
 the observation of many articles, which had been 
 there agreed upon to be executed by whomsoever 
 should be elected, he said, he was the same man who 
 had taken the oath so few days before ; and that 
 they should quickly see he would perform it in 
 deeds, without multiplication of words. And as he 
 
 did
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 351 
 
 did not change his name, so he did not afterwards CHAP. 
 
 . . vn. 
 appear to have in any degree changed his nature, or ' 
 
 his manners ; but as his general reputation of gra- 
 vity, piety, and a virtuous severity had produced an 
 universal joy upon his promotion, so he seemed to 
 retain all those good qualities for which he had been 
 esteemed. He declared publicly, that he would pro- 
 ceed effectually in the Council for general reforma- 
 tion, which could be brought to pass no other way ; 
 and told his private friends, with whom he would 
 discourse with all freedom, that the multitude of un- 
 necessary people, as well as of officers, in the court of 
 Rome, gave great offence to all men, in their num- 
 bers, as well as the looseness and corruption of their 
 manners, and were an intolerable charge and burden 
 to the Holy Chair, and could not so well be reformed 
 by it as by a General Council. He said that his 
 five last predecessors were deceived, by believing that 
 a General Council would intend nothing so much as 
 lessening the Papal authority ; but, he said, he was 
 of another opinion, and that the Pope could never 
 arrive to his just power but by a General Council. 
 AH the hopes from this good temper and disposition 
 of his were, nevertheless, quickly blasted by his 
 death, which followed by an apoplexy, within two 
 and twenty days after his being elected ; so that he 
 only left behind him evidence of being a good man, 
 and of being like to be a good Pope. 
 
 The declared resolution and demeanor of Marcel- Paul iv. 
 lus made the Cardinals the more solicitous to put aHffcha- 
 man into the place of another temper, and not like 01 "' 
 to suffer himself and his high dignity to be lessened, 
 upon what pretence or clamour soever. And so, 
 without very long deliberation, they chose Pedro de 
 
 Caraffa,
 
 352 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Caraffa, who took the name of Paul the Fourth, to 
 
 VII 
 
 ' pay his gratitude to the memory of Paul the Third, 
 
 by whom he had been raised. There seemed some 
 act of providence in his promotion, for that the Em- 
 peror's party (which might easily have hindered it) 
 contributed to it ; though it was enough known that 
 he was devoted to the service of France ; which he 
 found means in the conclave to disavow or excuse, 
 and to get the credit that served his turn. Paul was 
 some years above fourscore when he was chosen 
 Pope ; and had, in the time of Clement the Seventh, 
 resigned the Archbishopric of Thieti, upon pretence 
 that he would give over the world, and become a 
 hermit, that he might only intend his devotions. 
 And when he returned to Rome, and was made a 
 Cardinal, he lived so retired, and came so little 
 abroad, that there were many in Rome who had 
 never seen him till he came out Pope. But he was 
 known to be of a morose nature, and the proudest 
 man living. He was of an ancient and noble family 
 in the kingdom of Naples ; which should have de- 
 voted him to the Emperor, but his being disobliged 
 by the governor there, (that is, denied some prefer- 
 ment in that kingdom that he had a mind to,) and 
 his emulation and animosity against the family of 
 Colonna, aliened all his affections, and directed them 
 to France, whither his two nephews (who had both 
 good commands in the Emperor's army) had retired 
 themselves ; which he pretended was without his 
 consent. From the moment that he was Pope, he 
 immediately changed his whole course of life, even 
 in those particulars which his age would have re- 
 quired a strict observation of. He took more state 
 and majesty upon him than any of his predecessors 
 
 had
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 353 
 
 had done; entertained more officers, and had a CHAP, 
 greater court; made greater feasts, and other jolli- ' 
 ties, and kept all the state, and made others keep 
 the greatest distance that any prince in Europe could 
 do. He called both his nephews to Rome; the elder 
 he made his general within all the dominions of the 
 church, and of whatever forces he should raise; and 
 the younger, a Cardinal; though they were both much 
 fitter to live in armies than in courts. No man, of 
 what quality soever, had any interest or power with 
 him, but his two nephews ; and they had so much, 
 that he denied nothing to them, but referred all 
 things to them, to do whatever they thought fit ; 
 which involved him in very great inconveniences and 
 troubles. In a word, lie behaved himself in all things 
 as if he had been in the full vigour of his age, and 
 able to leave all that he possessed to his own heirs ; 
 which administered much occasion of discourse and 
 wonder to all men ; when they saw at the same time 
 the most active Prince in the world, the Emperor, 
 who had made so many expeditions by sea and by 
 land, fought so many battles, resign all his domi- 
 nions, and giving over all thoughts of the world, and 
 at the age of five and fifty years retire into a monas- 
 tery, to spend his remaining days in devotion, and in 
 the mean time to have his coffin always in his pre- 
 sence, and sometimes to sleep in it ; and a monk of 
 above fourscore years of age, come then from an af- 
 fected retirement into the world, with all the affecta- 
 tion of the pomp and glory of it. Towards those 
 who had little to do with him, or who came only to 
 perform the offices of ceremony, (which are the busi- 
 ness of that court,) he was full of ceremony, cheerful 
 in discourse, and very facetious, and dismissed them 
 
 A a with
 
 354 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, with much courtesy, and well satisfied with their re- 
 ception : towards all others he was morose and sour, 
 
 and seldom granted any thing they desired ; espe- 
 cially towards the Cardinals, with whom he never 
 advised, otherwise than by telling them what he was 
 resolved to do, from which he never receded or va- 
 ried. 
 Seven addi- There had been an oath framed in the conclave, 
 
 tional Car- . . 
 
 dinais made which every Cardinal took, in regard to the multitude 
 
 l-i D 1 T17 
 
 contrary to f Cardinals ; that whosoever should be chosen Pope, 
 bi oath. snou ]d not have power during his time to make above 
 four Cardinals, without the consent of the College, if 
 by any accident it should be found necessary to 
 make more. The Pope was not pleased with the 
 constitution of his Council, and thought there were 
 more who depended upon others than upon him, and 
 therefore resolved to add such a number to them of 
 his own creatures as might turn the scale in any de-^ 
 bate. When he had made a choice of such persons 
 as pleased him, (who for the most part were men 
 against whom a just exception could not be made,) 
 he came to the Consistory ; and first declared, that 
 he had a business to communicate to them of great 
 importance, and therefore he would have no man 
 speak to him of any other matter : and when one of 
 the Cardinals desired to be heard, he forbade him to 
 speak, with some unusual sharpness and commotion, 
 which silenced all the rest : then he complained that 
 there had been a discourse or report spread abroad, 
 as if it were not in his power to make above four 
 Cardinals, by reason of the oath he had taken in con- 
 clave, which was to limit the power and authority of 
 the Pope, that was absolute ; that it was an article of 
 faith, that the Pope could not be obliged, nor that 
 
 he
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 355 
 
 he could oblige himself; and that to say otherwise CHAP. 
 
 was absolute heresy, of which he did for the present ' 
 
 absolve them, because he did not believe that they 
 had spoken it pertinaciously ; but that whosoever 
 should say so for the future, or any thing like it, to 
 diminish the authority that God had given him, he 
 would give order that the Inquisition should proceed 
 against him : he told them he was resolved to make 
 seven Cardinals, to which he would hear no reply, 
 because he had need of them to balance the factions 
 that were amongst them ; and so he named the per- 
 sons, and the Consistory arose. 
 
 He did affect this haughty stile in his discourse 
 no where so much as with ambassadors, or in such 
 public places, that they could not but be informed of 
 all he said to them ; and upon such occasions he used 
 to say, that he was above all Princes, and that he 
 would not have them to be too familiar with him; 
 that he could change kingdoms, and was successor 
 to those who had deposed both Kings and Emperors; 
 and he used often in Consistory, and at his table in 
 public, when many noble and great persons were 
 present, to say, that he would have no Prince for his 
 companion, but they were all his subjects, and under 
 his feet; and then he would stamp with his feet 
 upon the ground ; and he often said, that before he 
 would do any low or base thing he would die, and 
 ruin all things, and kindle a fire in all the quar- 
 ters of the world ; he said that the spiritual power 
 without the temporal could do little, but being join- 
 ed together, they could bring great things to pass. 
 
 He was inflamed with rage upon the peace of Peace of 
 Augsburgh, which the Emperor had made, and by 
 which only he could restore a peace to Germany, 
 
 A a 2 and
 
 356 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and inveighed against it with all bitterness, and not 
 - without threats what he would do upon it, and said 
 that he would have it broken, and would assist to- 
 wards it himself, and would require all Catholic 
 Princes to do the like ; and when the Emperor's am- 
 bassador excused it to him by the strength of the 
 Protestants, and the straits that the Emperor was 
 reduced to, having been in great danger to be him- 
 self taken prisoner, and that both the Emperor and 
 all the other Princes in Germany were sworn to ob- 
 serve it ; the Pope replied, that as to the oath, he 
 did not only discharge and absolve them from it, but 
 likewise command them that they should not keep 
 it ; for the rest, that God did not proceed by human 
 councils and measures, and had suffered the Emperor 
 to fall into that danger as an effect of his anger, be- 
 cause he had not done all that he ought to have 
 done to reduce Germany to its obedience to the 
 Apostolical chair ; and if he had behaved himself 
 like a soldier of Christ, without fear or worldly re- 
 spects, he would have obtained the victory, as the 
 example of former times did enough demonstrate. 
 Those outrages of Paul are very clearly set out and 
 described by Fra Paolo; and, not being in the least 
 contradicted by the Cardinal Palavicini, are by all 
 men concluded to be true, and were of a piece with 
 all the other actions of his pontificate. 
 
 Philip ii. Philip the Second was now possessed of all the 
 Kfaeof Spanish dominions, and of whatever else had been 
 ?P a ' n ; a " d settled by the Emperor his father upon that crown ; 
 
 becomes and shortly after Paul came to the Papacy, the Em- 
 Emperor. IT i i r> 
 
 peror abdicated the empire to his brother Ferdinand, 
 
 who had been many years before King of the Ro- 
 mans, and had thereby an unquestionable title to 
 
 succeed
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 
 
 succeed when the empire should be void. The Pope CHAP, 
 refused to acknowledge the Emperor's abdication, or '- 
 
 to declare or accept Ferdinand for Emperor ; alleg- 
 ing, that though, as King of the Romans, he was to 
 succeed in the empire when it was void by death, 
 yet the Emperor could not resign without his con- 
 sent ; and that the King of the Romans could not 
 pretend to a succession whilst he was living. But 
 Ferdinand was Emperor with the approbation and 
 general acceptation of the Electors, and all the other 
 Princes, and cared not for his consent or allowance. 
 Then the Pope would not consent that Charles had 
 any power to transfer the dominions in Italy (which 
 were feoffs of the church) upon his son ; and his two 
 nephews were so wholly devoted to France, that they 
 did all they could to render their uncle most averse 
 to Spain ; and assured him, that they had discovered 
 a conspiracy against his person, cherished and fo- 
 mented by Philip, and that they had apprehended 
 two persons, who, being put to the question, confessed 
 that they were hired to assassinate him, for which 
 they were both executed ; and it is true, that there 
 were two such men executed upon that allegation, 
 the foulness of all which did afterwards appear. 
 
 But Paul then gave entire credit to all that his ne- 
 phews said to him, and from thence grew to have an a league 
 
 implacable hatred against the whole House of Austria, 
 and secretly entered into a league offensive and defen- France - 
 sive with the King of France; and offered to give him 
 the investiture of the kingdom, and to assist him in 
 the recovery of the dutchy ; and as he reserved some 
 considerable places of the kingdom of Naples to him- 
 self, so he offered others which lay most convenient 
 to them, and even Ravenna itself, to the Republic of 
 
 A a 3 Venice,
 
 358 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Venice, to draw them into the association. But that 
 
 wise Republic liked not the conjunction, and thought 
 
 that the neighbourhood of the French in Italy could 
 not be recompensed by any places which could be 
 put into their hands. And though the King, upon 
 the advice of the lords who were most favoured by 
 him, and more by that of the ladies, with whose ad- 
 vice he most concurred, greedily entered into that 
 alliance, and accepted all the conditions, yet his 
 wisest counsellors, and all France in general, had 
 and declared a wonderful aversion from that war 
 and alliance : not only because their hands were full 
 enough, and that they could not without great diffi- 
 culty resist the Spaniard from Flanders, who daily 
 got ground upon them, but out of dislike of all that 
 the Pope did ; who, having one leg in the grave al- 
 ready, could not live to give above a year's assistance 
 to an enterprise that could have no limits of time 
 prescribed to the finishing it ; and they had paid too 
 dear for aifecting a war in Italy to be much in love 
 with the like attempts. 
 
 The Duke Philip at this time was a sour looker on ; he 
 niarchet knew all the intrigues which had with the greatest 
 ' C secrec y been entered into, from the very time of the 
 Pope's being chosen, and the whole progress they 
 made ; of which he took no notice, but spoke fre- 
 quently and publicly, that the Pope had not been 
 canonically chosen ; and that he meant to appeal 
 against it to a General Council : and he had prevail- 
 ed with a good number of Cardinals, who were will- 
 ing to have assembled to have given a beginning to 
 it ; but when he. saw all the Pope's designs to be 
 now published, and his league offensive and defensive 
 to be manifest and avowed, and that he had already 
 
 com-
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 359 
 
 committed the Cardinal Colonna to prison, and rais- CHAP. 
 
 ed a great persecution against bis whole family, (who 
 
 were all under the protection of Spain,) he declined 
 farther thought of that peaceable expedient, and be- 
 took himself to a rougher remedy, and more suitable 
 and proportioned to the temper and spirit of the 
 Pope. He sent orders to the Duke of Alva, his Vice- 
 King of Naples, that he should assist and protect 
 the family of Colonna the best he could ; and re- 
 strain the Pope from giving him any disturbance in 
 his dominions, if he discovered any inclination in 
 him to break the peace thereof. The commission 
 was not ingrateful to the Duke of Alva, who knew 
 the constitution of the Pope, and much loved the fa- 
 mily of Colonna, which he thought underwent some 
 oppression for his sake. Therefore, as soon as he 
 heard of troops gathering together in Rome, and in 
 the dominions of the church, and that some French 
 officers, who had been employed in the war of Sienna, 
 were come to Rome, and made much of by the Pope, 
 he began likewise to draw his forces together, and 
 by easy inarches led them towards Rome, and writ 
 letters of expostulation and advice, mingled with 
 menaces, to the Pope himself, to desist from farther 
 provoking his Catholic Majesty. 
 
 There is a notable letter from that Duke (who Letter of 
 was never suspected for inclination towards heretics) of Alva to 
 to the Pope, which bears date the one and twentieth A^D. 
 of August fifteen hundred fifty-six, from Naples, (and 
 may be found amongst those dispatches which are 
 mentioned before, and were printed in Venice,) in 
 which he took notice of his continual disaffection to 
 the prosperity of the House of Austria, before and 
 since his being Pope ; that in the time of Paul the 
 
 A a 4 Third
 
 360 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Third (upon occasion of some insurrection in Na- 
 
 VII 
 pies) he had advised that Pope not to lose such an 
 
 occasion, but presently to invade that kingdom ; that 
 since his own assumption to the Holy Chair he had 
 favoured and given offices benefices and govern- 
 ments to such as he knew to be rebels to his Catho- 
 lic Majesty, and gave secret entertainment to many 
 others of his enemies, that they might be ready to 
 disturb the peace of his dominions, when he thought 
 the season ripe for such an enterprise : he put him 
 in mind also, that he had imprisoned and oppressed, 
 many of his Catholic Majesty's servants, whose 
 names he mentions : and that he had often and in 
 public used many expressions in prejudice of the 
 King his master, which were very indecent, and not 
 agreeable to " amor paternale del summo Ponttfice" 
 all which his Majesty had hitherto borne out of his 
 respect to the Apostolical seat, and tfye public peace, 
 and always expecting that his Holiness would recol- 
 lect himself; never imagining that it could enter 
 into his mind, that, to advance and make great his 
 kindred, he would hinder the peace of Christendom, 
 not without some danger to the Apostolical chair it- 
 self; especially in a time so full of heresies, which 
 he ought rather to endeavour to correct or root out, 
 than to apply his thoughts how he might without 
 any cause or provocation offend and injure his Ma- 
 jesty : but since his Holiness had thought fit to pro- 
 ceed in a contrary way, and permitted his Fiscal of 
 the Apostolical chamber to make in the Consistory, 
 " cofii ingiusta inigua e temeraria instantia" and to 
 demand, that the King his master might be deprived 
 of his kingdoms, to which his Holiness gave his con- 
 sent, saying, that he would provide for his own time; 
 
 and
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 361 
 
 and had, in a monitory or decree that his Holiness CHAP. 
 
 had published against a servant of the King's, Asca 
 
 nio della Corgna, declared his Catholic Majesty to 
 be an enemy " della santa Sedia" and likewise had 
 to the Conde of St. Valentin in public said, "parole 
 " bn/tissmie? against the person of the King ; upon 
 all which provocations, since his Majesty had thought 
 fit to raise arms for his defence, he (the Duke) being 
 trusted with the government of his dominions in 
 those parts, would provide for the defence of them, 
 and would endeavour, by the help of God, to take 
 away from his Holiness the power he had to offend 
 his neighbours : then he again desires and advises 
 his Holiness, that he will not for the making his fa- 
 mily great endeavour to break the truce that was be- 
 tween the two Kings, by which Christendom enjoyed 
 so happy peace, but that he would, " come vero pa- 
 " store depulato a pascere^ non a lasciar divorare le 
 " pecore, che ha in governo" permit the Christian 
 world, after having undergone so many miseries by 
 war, to recover their spirits by the enjoyment of that 
 peace which the truce that was between the two 
 crowns had provided for them. 
 
 The Pope was not of a temper to be wrought upon Siege of 
 by such addresses, but looked upon it as the highest 
 indignity that he had yet undergone ; and the Duke 
 of Alva, who was of a temper the most equal and 
 proportioned to the other that could be wished, 
 when he saw no abatement in the pride and passion 
 of the Pope, lost no more time in writing letters, but 
 marched with a body of ten thousand men, with all 
 expedition, to the very walls of Rome ; which ex- 
 ceedingly surprised the Pope, and forced all his 
 troops, which had been quartered on the confines of 
 
 the
 
 362 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the kingdom of Naples, in great disorder to retire 
 into the very city for the defence thereof. 
 
 Philip ii. He now discerned how weak a support the friend- 
 French at ship of France was upon such an occasion, and saw 
 of st.Quhi- that all the Princes of Italy were well pleased to see 
 him struggling under this mortification. Indeed 
 France had about this time undergone a very terrible 
 misadventure in the loss of the battle of St. Quintin, 
 the greatest blow they had ever received, except by 
 the English: so that, instead of assisting the Pope, 
 they were enforced to send for their army out of 
 Italy to redeem Paris itself from the consternation it 
 was in ; and as the sole friend the Pope had was 
 hereby disabled to give him help, so the greatest 
 enemy he had was equally exalted, having himself, 
 to his great glory, commanded in that battle when 
 he obtained so great a victory ; for Philip, from the 
 time of his father's resignation, had remained in 
 Flanders, and went not into Spain till after he had 
 won the battle of St. Quintin. 
 
 Submission In short, the Pope was not able longer to bear 
 to the Duke this shock. The Conservators and Deputies of the 
 f Aiva. c jy Q f R ome presented a remonstrance to him of 
 the condition the town was in, and how ill provided 
 it was to sustain the siege, which already hindered 
 all provisions from entering into it, and (which it 
 may be troubled him more) they desired, if he yet 
 resolved to defend it, that Alessandro de Colonna 
 might have the command of the forces in the city, 
 whom the Pope loved little better than he did the 
 Duke of Alva, who commanded without : so that he 
 was compelled to enter into a treaty, and therein to 
 yield to whatsoever the Duke of Alva required. By 
 this treaty the Pope disclaimed the league with 
 
 France,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 363 
 
 France, and remained neutral between the two CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 crowns ; he pardoned all persons, both ecclesiastical 
 
 and secular, of what condition soever, and restored 
 them to all dignities offices and benefices of which 
 they had been deprived, and whatsoever had been 
 taken from them was likewise returned again to 
 them ; he accepted and received his Catholic Ma- 
 jesty for his good son, " e dtl/a santa sedia Apostoli- 
 " ca" and admitted him to all the graces and favours 
 with any other Prince; and, after all this, there could 
 remain no scruple hut the King would pay " le de- 
 " bite aonunission'r to his Holiness, to which he was 
 always inclined ; nor could the Duke of Alva refuse 
 to ask pardon of the Pope, for what every body knew 
 he would be as ready to do tomorrow : and in this 
 calm manner this storm expired, after his Holiness 
 had furnished the world with many merry stories of 
 his behaviour, and tragical expressions against all who 
 provoked him, whilst the fury still possessed him. 
 
 It is not unpleasant to consider what pretty bal- 
 sam the court of Rome is always provided with, to 
 cure the smart of all wounds and affronts it receives 
 of this kind, and even to deface the scars which 
 would remain ; and how it persuades the world that 
 it always triumphs over such attempts, and the per- 
 sons who at any time have presumed to be engaged 
 in them. Cardinal Pallavicini, in his eloquent and 
 witty answer to the History of the Council of Trent, 
 (after he hath enlarged upon the wonderful humble 
 behaviour of the Duke of Alva to the Pope,) ob- 
 serves, that there is so great awe and reverence an- 
 nexed to and inherent in the person of all Popes, 
 that how weak soever, and without any other armour 
 than the coat of Peter, they who oppose them are" 
 
 still
 
 364 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, still confounded; and, he concludes, that it cannot 
 
 : be denied, that over and above the infinite humility 
 
 in words and ceremonies, with which the greatest 
 monarch treats the Popes, the great jurisdiction 
 which they permit him to have in their several domi- 
 nions, the great sums of money which they suffer to 
 issue from thence to his court, and the great respect 
 they pay to all the dominions of the church, are 
 clear arguments, " cfi essi venerano in lui una dig- 
 ft nit a piu che umana^T His Eminence it seems did 
 not know, that amongst the swordsmen, he that hath 
 broken another man's head doth very seldom refuse 
 to acknowledge that he was to blarne, if no other sa- 
 tisfaction be required ; nor doth he take notice that 
 the respect and submission shewed to the Holy Chair 
 is very different amongst Catholic Princes, and is al- 
 ways proportionable to the benefit and advantage 
 they receive by it ; which is the reason that Spain 
 pays so much more than France, because it receives 
 more assistance from it, and which it could not re- 
 ceive without the Pope's donation. 
 Letter from It would be great pity to omit in this place the 
 
 Sultan So- . ,, i i i i t . i 
 
 liman to mention oi a very memorable letter, which about 
 56. this time passed from Soliman the Grand Signior to 
 this Pope ; bearing date the last of the full moon of 
 Rumbelachi, in the year of the Prophet nine hun- 
 dred sixty-four ; which, according to the Christian 
 computation, was the ninth of March in the year fif- 
 teen hundred fifty-six ; when the great league offen- 
 sive and defensive was entered into between the 
 Pope and France, and when France had sent to Soli- 
 man to assist him, by sending a fleet to do what he 
 
 Vol. ii. p. 103. 
 
 hoiild
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 365 
 
 should direct it in the Mediterranean, which Soli- CHAP. 
 
 man did accordingly. The letter is preserved in : 
 
 those memorials which are mentioned before. It 
 was a kind expostulation for some damage that some 
 Jews had sustained who traded from the Porte, and 
 were his subjects and tributaries in the territories 
 belonging to the Pope, especially in Ancona, where 
 their goods and merchandises had been seized on in 
 his name : " Perc'ib preghiamo la Santita vostraj 
 that he would upon the receipt of that letter, which 
 would be delivered to him by the Secretary, " Coc- 
 " ciardo, huomo dell' altissimo e magnanimo Principe 
 " de Principi delta detta generations del Messia Gesit, 
 " la Maesta Christianiss'mia del Re di Francia nostro 
 " cordialissimo amico" discharge his said subjects 
 from prison, and cause their goods to be restored to 
 them, to the end that they might be enabled to pay 
 him the tribute that they owed him ; upon which he 
 should cause his subjects, and the other Christiana 
 who traded in his dominions, to be very kindly treat- 
 ed ; and, believing that he would not deny to do 
 what he desired, he would say no more " alia San- 
 " tita vostra, Salvo che Fomnipotente Iddio la pros- 
 " peri multi anni " which being a very extraordi- 
 nary stile, shews the good intelligence that was be- 
 tween them, and there can be no doubt made, but 
 that the Pope gratified him in all that he desired. 
 
 There is no record of more than one action done The Bull. 
 by this Pope, that had any relation to religion, or to cS* 
 the exercise of his spiritual jurisdiction; and that is, <" p^*"""* 
 his Bull, " Contra ambientes Papatum, aut Papa vi- <( tmm " 
 <( vente, eoque inconsultb, tractantes de eligendo fu- 
 i( turo Pontifice, ac eorum complices et fautoresT 
 This probably proceeded from the question the King 
 
 of
 
 366 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of Spain had made of the canonicalness of his elec- 
 
 VII 
 
 - '- tion, and the general detestation that he knew he 
 stood in, and in which there are many sensible ex- 
 pressions ; that when, according to the Apostle, no 
 man ought to take any honour upon him, " sed qui, 
 " tanquam Aaroji, vocatur a Deo" they must com- 
 mit a grievous sin, " qui ipsam denique B. Petri Se- 
 " dem et Apostolicce dignitatis oilmen fyc. diversis 
 " modis et jnediis ambire et assequi, seu potius usur- 
 " pare pr&sumunt fyc. ;" that since all well establish- 
 ed commonwealths, even before the coming of our 
 Saviour, had been always careful to promulgate laws, 
 " de ambitu, et contra ambitum" and that detestable 
 sin had been grievously punished, "jure diuino, cum 
 " Absalom, qui regnum genitoris sui adhuc viventis 
 " ainbiebat, ex mulo cui insederat elevatii8 fyc. ;" there- 
 fore he, desiring to root out that detestable vice, not 
 only for his own time, but during the lives of his 
 successors, " volumus, et declarando statuimus, ordina- 
 " mus et decernimus^ 1 that all persons of either sex, 
 who shall by themselves or by others endeavour by 
 words, or by writing, without the privity and con- 
 sent of the Pope, whilst he is living, to have a future 
 Pope chosen &c. " Sunt ipso jure, et facto, absque alia 
 " sententid, exconwiunicat'i, excommunicatione majori, 
 " et maledictione <terna damnatir 
 
 Death of In this perpetual agony, and jealousy of his own 
 and of security, and in one continued fit of rage, this mise- 
 Henry S n. rable Pope spent his whole reign; and at last disco- 
 
 a- vere( ^' ^ at his greatest faults and misfortunes had 
 rj of Eng- proceeded from the wickedness of his own nephews, 
 two kings who had led him to proceed in that Bedlam manner 
 mark." against the whole House of Austria, by informations 
 which he found to be false and malicious : for which 
 
 he
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 367 
 
 he began to take that vengeance upon his two ne- CHAP, 
 
 phews, (imprisoning the one, and banishing the '- 
 
 other,) which his successor prosecuted to the ruin 
 and destruction of them, both : and so he died, when 
 he was about fourscore and eight years old, and 
 when he had been Pope very little above four years. 
 As his former manner and course of life made the 
 change that he affected in his Pontificate to be the 
 more observed and discoursed of, so the accidents 
 which preceded and attended his death, made that 
 likewise the more talked of and remembered ; for in 
 the same year died the Ernperor Charles the Fifth, 
 Harry the Second of France, Queen Mary of Eng- 
 land, and two Kings of Denmark ; which was a very 
 rare conjuncture of mortality, attended with prodi- 
 gious changes almost in all the provinces of Europe, 
 at least with some variety and alteration in all. 
 
 The reign of Paul had been too scandalous andPiusiv. 
 troublesome to all manner of men, to have a succes- 
 sor chosen without great deliberation : and therefore, 
 when the Cardinals were entered into the conclave, 
 before they would think upon any one subject, they 
 prepared such articles as would probably prevent those 
 mischiefs, which the passion of the last Pope had so 
 dangerously exposed the church to ; for the observa- 
 tion whereof every Cardinal was solemnly to swear : 
 of which, the fourth article was, that the Pope should 
 not make war against any Christian Prince, nor 
 make a league with one of them against another, but 
 should manifest a great equality to all, preserving a 
 strict neutrality, except it should be upon very great 
 and urgent reason, " approvata per la maggior parts 
 " de' Cardinali in pieno Consistorio? This and the rest 
 being with all formality confirmed, and sworn untq
 
 368 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP by all the Cardinals, they betook themselves to their 
 
 '- usual intrigues and artifices, which were so intricate 
 
 and mysterious, that they spent four months and 
 seven days before they concurred in an election. 
 Then the Cardinal Giovanni Angel o (who, for what 
 reason I know not, was called de Medici, for he had 
 no relation to that family) was chosen Pope, and was 
 called Pius the Fourth. This election was princi- 
 pally effected by the power and contrivance of the 
 faction of Caraffa, who thereby divided the French 
 party, and gratified the Spaniard in the choice of 
 one they most desired : and Pius thought himself so 
 much obliged, that he did not only resolve himself 
 to protect that family, but upon his first election 
 used all endeavours to reconcile the King of Spain 
 and the Austrian family to it ; as if their breaking 
 the French party, by the choice of him, was a suffi- 
 cient reparation for and blotting out the memory of 
 all their former demerit. But when he found that 
 Philip thought not so, and considered much more 
 what they had done formerly (which could indeed 
 hardly be forgotten) than their late action, and like- 
 wise the implacable malice that all sorts of people 
 expressed to the memory of Paul, (all manner of in- 
 dignities being done to his statues and pictures during 
 the sitting of the conclave,) he suffered himself like- 
 wise to be carried with that torrent ; and in a short 
 time after his creation, he committed both the Car- 
 dinal, and his brother, the Duke of Palliano, to pri- 
 son ; and after no long process, the Cardinal was 
 strangled in prison, and the Duke had his head 
 struck off upon a scaffold ; the circumstances where- 
 of, and what followed after in another Pope's time, 
 not being necessary to the subject matter of this 
 
 discourse,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 369 
 
 discourse, may be with great pleasure read in the CHAP, 
 elegant History of the Council of Trent, written by VIL 
 the late Cardinal Pallavicini in the beginning of the 
 transactions of Pius the Fourth. 
 
 This Pope was of a quite contrary temper and character 
 
 . of Pius IV* 
 
 constitution to that of his predecessor, and desired 
 to have every man his friend, and to anger no man ; 
 and therefore he staid not till the Emperor Ferdi- 
 nand should send to him to congratulate, but sent 
 to his minister, (who remained still in Rome, and 
 whom the last Pope would not receive,) to let the 
 Emperor know that he did both approve the resigna- 
 tion of Charles the Fifth, and likewise confirm the 
 election of Ferdinand, and would live with all fa- 
 therly kindness towards him. He could not so much 
 dissemble his affections, but that it was notorious 
 enough that his inclinations were to Spain, and his 
 great confidence in that King ; yet he performed all 
 demonstration of respect to France, and though he 
 had no fear of that crown as an enemy, and like to 
 disturb the peace of Italy, (as had been the case for 
 above forty years with his predecessors, and which 
 the factions in the kingdom would now prevent,) yet 
 he had a greater fear, which terrified him much; that 
 was, the growth of the power of the Huguenots in 
 France, which had brought armies into the field, 
 given battle to the King, and had committed many 
 acts of outrages in the churches and religious houses, 
 and upon the persons of ecclesiastical men. 
 
 During the reign of the last Pope there was noHisexpc- 
 mention of a Council ; his own head was too full of^o"^ a to 
 temporal designs to think of any thing that was S pi- CounciI - 
 ritual, and all other men knew it would be to no 
 purpose to speak to him. This Pope foresaw that it 
 
 B b would
 
 3J-0 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 C H A p. would be pressed on all sides, and quickly too j 
 ' therefore his thoughts Were directed only to the con- 
 sideration, whether he should first speak of it him- 
 self, before any body else moved it to him, or expect 
 till some Prince should press it, which he knew they 
 all were resolved to do. For the matter itself, no man 
 who had been before him abhorred the thought of it 
 more than he, having not confidence enough in any 
 one Catholic Prince that he would adhere firmly ta 
 that which he valued most, his own interest and the 
 power of the pontifical chair, which he knew they all 
 resolved to bring lower. If he spake of it first him- 
 self, it would be evidence that he thought of it ; and 
 so it would restrain others from importuning him to 
 do a thing he intended to do \ and so he would have 
 time to declare the time and place, which were the 
 terrible circumstances to him. So he first discovered 
 to those in whom he had most confidence, that he 
 purposed to call a General Council ; and gave them 
 order to let it fall amongst their friends. Then he 
 spoke of it in Consistory, as a thing he found would 
 be very necessary, and therefore wished that he could 
 cause a general reformation of manners to precede 
 the Council, especially in the clergy, which he said 
 was an universal complaint. He spoke to the am- 
 bassadors of his resolution, who, by the joy they ex- 
 pressed in the knowing it, made it appear, that they 
 had received orders to have required it ; but he told 
 them, that the appointing the place took up many of 
 his thoughts ; that he could quickly call it, as it had 
 been three times before ; but the great business was, 
 to provide that it might end as well as begin, which 
 it had not yet done, it might be, for want of due de- 
 liberation, lie said upon all occasions, that all places 
 * were
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 371 
 
 were alike to him, but he believed that France would CHAP. 
 
 not like Trent, against which there were very many ' 
 
 prejudices, besides the ill omen from the former mis- 
 carriages ; that there had been mention of Munstcr 
 and Cologne, which the King of Spain would like 
 probably better, in regard of the neighbourhood to 
 the seventeen provinces,, which begun to be infected 
 with the new opinions. All this while his own drift 
 was to have no Council, or to have it held in Italy ; 
 and with those artifices, and by pretending to desire 
 it, he avoided it some years. 
 
 In the mean time, in so general a clamour in all Publication 
 
 r i i T c* i of the Bull 
 
 countries or the very loose and debauched lives or the entitled 
 
 " / ' 't 
 Clergy, the Bull he thought fit to publish did not at ,JL '& c ' 
 
 all lessen that scandal ; and, as it was then of a new ^L2w< 
 nature, though it hath been since renewed and rein- '' cont ia ~ 
 
 " cer dotes 
 
 forced in this late time, so it made their vices at that "V 
 time to be more spoken of and believed. The Bull 
 was entitled, " Itiquisitomm h(,retic(c pravitatis fa- 
 " cultas procedendi contra sacerdotes, qui mulieres pce- 
 " nitentes in actu co7ifcssionis ad actus inhoncstos pro- 
 " vocare ct allicere tent ant :" this bull is extant in 
 the second volume of the Bullariurn, which begins 
 with Pius the Fourth. And it was the more won- 
 dered at, that, since the Pope was satisfied that there 
 was such horrid iniquity practised, he provided no 
 other way to discover it, nor any notable punishment 
 for it, but left it to the Inquisitors, that they might 
 take care to punish them, and to proceed, " juxta fa- 
 " cultatem contra hereticos aut dc hcrrcsi quovismodo 
 " suspectos ac culpabiles repertos juxta excessuum 
 " suorum qualitatem, prout juris fuerit : " all which 
 served to publish a scandal, that had never yet been 
 particularly insisted or publicly mentioned, without 
 
 u b 2 pro-
 
 372 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, providing or inflicting a punishment equal to the 
 : horror of the crime, or the indignation that ought to 
 
 accompany the very apprehension of it : which was 
 many years after in some degree supplied, though not 
 enough, by one of his successors. 
 
 A Council After all the artifices and tergiversations he could 
 neraUy/ex- use, the Pope was at last reduced to the necessity of 
 sTin" calling a Council in earnest, to prevent worse effects 
 Cruelties of than the Council could produce. He knew well both 
 
 Phihp II. r . 
 
 the interest and the dignity which the holy chair had 
 lost in Germany by the assembly at Augsburgh, and 
 the confession ; and which yet made not the Catho- 
 lics there less solicitous for a Council. In Spain in- 
 deed, Philip had, upon his first arrival there from the 
 Low Countries, proceeded with that terrible rigour in 
 the burning and torturing very many persons of both 
 sexes, and of all qualities, for entertaining new opi- 
 nions in religion, and denying the Pope's authority, 
 and to that degree, that, without considering how 
 deeply he wounded the memory of his father, (as 
 Catholic an Emperor as ever had protected the 
 Church,) he had caused the dead body of his Con- 
 fessor, and in whose arms his father died, to be taken 
 up and burned as an heretic. By this unheard of 
 severity (which he himself had seemed to disapprove 
 when in England) having terrified all men, he set- 
 tled the Inquisition, which had been introduced in 
 Spain for the prosecution of the Moors and Jews, 
 and applied it to the rooting out of those opinions in 
 religion which had grown up : and, to season them 
 well in their most rigorous jurisdiction, he permitted 
 them to seize upon the person of the Archbishop of 
 Toledo, and to keep him in the strict prison of the 
 Inquisition for many years, and without ever hearing 
 
 him,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 373 
 
 him, which he often desired and pressed: nor in CHAP. 
 truth was he in liberty to his death ; for though they - - 
 could not, after he had been in prison seventeen or 
 eighteen years, refuse to send him to Rome upon the 
 Pope's com mauds, yet he was sent thither in custody, 
 and shortly after died in prison there: after his death 
 he was declared innocent in the points of which he 
 had been accused ; but whether they were indeed sa- 
 tisfied of his innocence, or that they would not suifer 
 the heretics to have the honour of having an Arch- 
 bishop of Toledo of their fraternity, is uncertain. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that Philip by this means The spirit 
 hath to this day preserved those his dominions from n ish nation 
 entertaining any thing that was not before known 
 or generally believed by them ; but it is as true, 
 
 that from that time, and only by the settling that b y theln - 
 
 . . quisition, 
 
 terrible judicatory, (which admits not the mention 
 of any thing that is new in any other science as 
 well as divinity, nor the natural doubts or discourses 
 which cannot but arise amongst learned men,) the 
 acuteness and vigour of that nation is so totally de- 
 cayed, and their spirits broken, and inclinations di- 
 verted to more pernicious licences, that too many of 
 that class of men, who should preserve and improve 
 knowledge, are upon the matter become illiterate : 
 and that spirit and courage, which was natural to that 
 people, and made them as eminent for many noble 
 attempts and achievements as any other nation of 
 the world, is much degenerated and broken. It is 
 very probable, however, that since their pristine ap- 
 petite of honour and glory is not like to be extin- 
 guished, they will at some time, when it shall please 
 God to give them an active and enterprising King, 
 shake off their modern sloth and luxury, and those 
 
 B b 3 shackles
 
 374 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, shackles with which the faculties of their mind are 
 
 ' restrained and imprisoned, as well as their bodies >n 
 
 perpetual danger and captivity : and they will then 
 discern, that the true safety and security of a Church 
 and State consists in the wisdom knowledge and 
 virtue of a people, that can discern and distinguish 
 between truth and error, and suppress the one, or at 
 least expel the poison of it, by the power of the 
 other ; supported by laws constituted upon the foun- 
 dation of prudence and justice, more than by a stupid 
 resignation of the understanding to old dictates, and 
 by a sottish affectation of ignorance in those things 
 which are the proper objects for the disquisition of 
 the soul of man. 
 
 The Duke Philip liked these remedies better than the argu- 
 Into the ments of learned men, and chose to administer them 
 tries, COU "~ by a man who was the better liked by him, by his be- 
 ing of his own principles; and so he sent the Duke of 
 Alva his governor into the Low Countries, who made 
 a large experiment of austerity and terror ; till the 
 King, finding that the wanton and cruel letting out 
 the blood of those he called and made his enemies 
 abated his own strength and lessened the power of 
 his friends, was compelled to recal that fierce mini- 
 ster, without however declining in any degree his own 
 fiercest resolution to settle the Inquisition in those 
 parts, which Catholics, as well as they who were 
 averse from them, equally disliked and opposed, and 
 which cost him so many millions of men's lives, and 
 in the end deprived him of all the subjects of many 
 of those fruitful dominions, who had in all former 
 times been esteemed the best subjects in the world. 
 state of The Pope exceedingly approved the method Philip 
 France. ugc( ^ an( j thought it the only remedy that was pro- 
 portionable
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 375 
 
 portionable to the malady complained of, and used CHAP. 
 
 all the persuasions and importunities he could to pro 
 
 cure that the same counsels should he pursued in 
 France, and the Inquisition settled there ; assuring 
 the French ambassador, (who still pressed him for the 
 calling a General Council,) that it would be a much 
 more sovereign remedy for all their unquictness than 
 the other would be. But the most furious Catholic 
 in that kingdom had not the courage to propose so 
 rough an application. The King himself was young, 
 and of whose nature nobody could yet make any con- 
 jecture, except that it was evident that great care was 
 taken that no man should be able to make a judg- 
 ment, by any thing he said or did this day, what he 
 would say or do to-morrow. The Queen, who had 
 the regency, was thought to be a lady of great sub- 
 tlety, and resolved to preserve and maintain her own 
 greatness by all the arts and all the condescensions 
 which she discerned most like to establish it ; which 
 made it hard for those to judge of what party she 
 was, who were most concerned to know. 
 
 The factions which disturbed the peace of the king- The HU- 
 dom were generally reputed and looked upon as di- party, 
 vided into Roman Catholics, and those who called 
 themselves of the reformed religion, and were called 
 by their adversaries Huguenots ; which appellation 
 was not unacceptable to themselves, the rather, it may 
 be, because nobody knew the reason of the term, and 
 so it served for distinction without any rational re- 
 proach; when it was enough known that many and 
 the chief of that party had always been esteemed good 
 Catholics, and probably were still so, and only (at 
 least at first) adhered to the others upon contentions 
 and emulations in civil contests, and for satisfaction of 
 
 U b 4 their
 
 376 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, their own interest and ambition. This, and this only, 
 
 VII 
 
 divided the Princes of the blood, that they might be 
 
 the civil a bl e to give some controul or obstruction to the ex- 
 orbitant greatness of the House of Guise, which had 
 lately overshadowed them ; and if it had not been 
 for those strong supporters, upon those principles 
 only, the faction for reformation of religion would 
 never have had the power to shake the security of 
 that crown, or much to have disturbed the peace of 
 the kingdom : it being as notorious at the same time, 
 that many principal persons of those who dissembled 
 not a very hearty aversion from the Church of Rome, 
 were never engaged in the war, nor held it lawful to 
 take up arms against their King ; but the secular in- 
 terests and emulations made use of the passions and 
 animosities which difference of opinion in matters of 
 religion had kindled. This raised armies, and did fight 
 battles, with those horrid circumstances of the foulest 
 perjuries, the most brutish cruelties, in breaking all 
 articles which were agreed on and sworn upon public 
 capitulations, by robberies and massacres, that it is 
 no wonder that God blessed neither party, but made 
 them both instruments of each other's destruction. 
 
 Conduct of The principles of the Court consisted in all man- 
 ner of luxury riot and voluptuousness; and what- 
 ever obstructed or disturbed the career of those pas- 
 sions and appetites were equally ingrateful ; which 
 made the Queen (who had a rare talent in dissimu- 
 lation) court the heads of both parties with profes- 
 sions agreeable to both, and within a short time do 
 somewhat contrary and destructive to those profes- 
 sions. Thus when she had disposed the King to all 
 the bitterness and virulence against those of the re- 
 formed religion, even to the resolution of extirpating 
 
 them,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 377 
 
 them, and had therein obtained notable successes in CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 the field, by breaking and subduing their armies in ' 
 
 battle, and reducing their towns to obedience ; and 
 when the same spirit still increased, and new armies 
 were raised and old towns revolted again from their 
 subjection; the Court could not bear this interruption 
 of its delights, nor the Queen keep her mind bent to 
 such fatigue ; but some treaty was set on foot, and 
 such concessions granted to the Huguenots of liberty 
 of conscience, and other privileges, as they desired ; 
 which put them in a better state than they were be- 
 fore: and when any violation should be offered, (which 
 from the same inconstancy shortly afterwards fell out,) 
 it gave them a greater pretence in justice to defend 
 that which they had not so lawfully obtained ; and, as 
 it usually happens in the nianagement of such contra- 
 dictions, the over-active and subtle Queen incurred 
 the jealousies and censure of the zealous Catholics, 
 and of the Pope himself, without gaining any belief 
 or reputation with the Huguenots. 
 
 In these perplexities that France was in, and in The Queen 
 one of those calms that a present cessation of arms assemble 
 had produced, the Queen called an assembly of the^^^' 
 principal officers and persons of the kingdom, with National 
 many of the Bishops and Prelates, that they might 
 consult what course was most probably to be taken 
 to compose those distempers. The Bishop of Va- 
 lence made a long discourse of the dissolute lives of 
 the Clergy, who gave so great scandal, that from 
 thence many good men contracted an aversion from 
 the Church : he said that there was little hope of re- 
 dress from a General Council, for that the Clergy 
 were generally more dissolute in Rome than any 
 where else ; and he therefore proposed that the King 
 
 would
 
 378 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, would send out his summons for the meeting of the 
 
 VII. 
 
 : States, who would host find what was to be done for 
 
 the preservation and good of the kingdom ; and that 
 he would likewise call an assembly of the Clergy in 
 a National Synod, which would best prescribe the way 
 for the reformation of religion. The Archbishop of 
 Vienne spoke much to the same purpose, and said 
 there could not a better expedient be found. The 
 Cardinal of Lorrain, and the Duke of Guise, and 
 their whole party, were of another opinion, and pro- 
 posed only the prosecution of the war, and fire and 
 faggot to be applied for the conversion of the Hugue- 
 nots. However, there were so many and so consi- 
 derable persons of the contrary opinion, that the 
 Queen seemed to incline to that, and appointed a se- 
 lect number of the Lords to consider of all prepara- 
 tions which were necessary, in order to the convoca- 
 tion of the States ; and of the Bishops, to consult the 
 same with reference to a national Council ; and of 
 the place for either ; so that the expectation of both 
 was spread over the whole kingdom, which seemed 
 well pleased with it. 
 
 The Pope The news of this (which the Nuncio dispatched 
 away with all expedition, together with his account, 
 f tnat aM which he could say against it could not pre- 
 vail upon the King and Queen) removed all the dif- 
 ficulties and all the aversation which had occurred 
 and affected the Pope against calling a General Coun- 
 cil. He foresaw th-at a National Council in that great 
 and distracted kingdom would probably produce 
 most of the mischiefs he apprehended, that no good 
 could result from it to his purposes, and that more 
 inconveniences might proceed from it than a General 
 Council could possibly bring forth. He was confirm- 
 ed
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 379 
 
 cd in this judgment by another accident that at the CHAP. 
 
 same time fell out in Savoy. They who in the moun ' 
 
 tains and valleys of Piedmont had for several hundreds 
 of years enjoyed the liberty of their conscience, and 
 the exercise of a religion very contrary to that of the 
 Church of Rome, under privileges which had been 
 granted to them by many successive Princes of those 
 dominions, (whether those privileges and immunities 
 were now invaded, or whether they were stirred up 
 by the unquiet humour of their neighbours in 
 France, and in hope to enlarge them,) had put them- 
 selves in arms ; and in so great numbers and so 
 good order, that the Duke of Savoy writ to the Pope 
 to desire his advice ; letting him know, that many of 
 his Council were of opinion that he should enter into 
 a treaty with them, and give them such conditions 
 as they might be induced to accept; which vexed the 
 Pope so much more than the disposition of France, 
 as it was nearer to him, and was a propagation of 
 heresy in Italy itself. He writ therefore to that 
 Prince with great commotion ; that he ought not to 
 treat with them, or to give them any conditions or 
 pardon ; but to take this opportunity which God had 
 sent him, totally to extirpate and root them out ; in 
 order to which he would give him any assistance he 
 should desire. So upon those provocations he re- 
 solved, as the lesser evil, not only to call a Council, 
 but that it should be at Trent ; that he might there- 
 by oblige the Princes of Germany, and the better be 
 able to master and suppress that schism which the 
 treaty of Augsburgh, with the consent of the Empe- 
 ror, King of the Romans, and most of the Catholic 
 Princes, had formerly enacted and made legitimate ; 
 and which was in the image thereof more terrible, by 
 
 those
 
 380 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, those ebullitions in France and Savoy, which pre- 
 
 ' sented a view to him of the crumbling away of his 
 
 vast power and jurisdiction in a more formidable way 
 than could be effected by any general concurrence in 
 Council. 
 Meeting of The Council met, though in a small number, in 
 
 the Council , i < A i r*r i J 
 
 of Trenr, the month of April, in the year fifteen hundred sixty- 
 2> two ; few or none of the French Prelates being pre- 
 sent: for France was much offended at the Bull 
 which the Pope had issued out for the calling the 
 Council, it being directed only to the Emperor by 
 name, and to all other Kings and Princes in general ; 
 whereas the two former Bulls to the same purpose 
 had mentioned the King of France together with the 
 Emperor. Of this omission the French ambassador 
 complained with that passion that is peculiar to his 
 countrymen ; and which at first so far moved the Pope, 
 that he seemed not to understand it, or to know that 
 there was any such thing. Afterwards, being pressed 
 again to mend it, he excused it upon the inadvertency 
 of hi? ministers, who were not enough instructed in 
 the old forms ; and, having wearied the ambassador 
 with those delays as long as he could, he positively, in 
 the end, refused to alter it, as a matter of no moment, 
 which he wished had not been; but, being now public, 
 the alteration would irritate other Kings to require 
 the same ; and this kept France from sending to the 
 Council, till the change of their own affairs disposed 
 them to it. The Pope applied him with all the con- 
 descensions imaginable that were like to contribute 
 to his own ends, and only in such ; in all other mat- 
 ters he depended entirely upon himself, and the 
 steadiness of his own will, from which no importu- 
 nity could divert him ; and it was quickly evident 
 
 that
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 381 
 
 that he rather promised himself a good opportunity CHAP. 
 
 to dissolve the Council, and before it should do any : 
 
 thing to his prejudice, than that he expected any be- 
 nefit or a good conclusion of it. 
 
 There was nothing; more puzzled the understand- The : P ?P C 
 
 sends Mar- 
 ing of all men, than his sending the Abbot Marti- tinengo to 
 
 invite 
 
 nengo to Queen Elizabeth, to invite her and persuade Queen EU- 
 iier to send her Bishops to the Council; and it i 
 certain that the Abbot had instructions to offer her, 
 that all her Bishops should be confirmed, that the 
 Liturgy should be in the English tongue, that the 
 Communion should be administered in both kinds, 
 and that the Priests should have liberty to marry ; 
 all this upon condition that she would acknowledge 
 the Pope's supremacy, and a subjection to the Bi- 
 shops of Rome. And Cardinal Pallavicini confesses, 
 that when he was resolved to call the Council, (and 
 without any hope of good by it,) he declared freely, 
 that he would leave all liberty to it ; so that the in- 
 tegrity of the articles already defined, and the dig- 
 nity of the Apostolical Seat being once secured, let it 
 determine what they thought fit ; and that if he 
 ought to make restitution to any one (understanding, 
 as it was believed, the authority of the Bishops) he 
 was ready to do it. In the last place, as for the 
 laical communion under both kinds, and the mar- 
 riage of Priests, they might truly in themselves be 
 granted, as dispensations of laws merely ecclesiasti- 
 cal ; but that it seemed not convenient to him, that 
 those ordinances, which had been confirmed in for- 
 mer Councils, should be cancelled without the au- 
 thority of a new Council : and this was looked upon 
 as great moderation, to court the Protestants in Ger- 
 many ; as his other invitation of Queen Elizabeth 
 
 was
 
 382 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, was by many interpreted (as it might reasonably 
 
 ' be) as a censure at least, if not a revocation, of all 
 
 the acts of his predecessors against that great Queen 
 and all her Protestant subjects ; for if they were still 
 in force, how could he invite her to send her Bi- 
 shops to the Synod ? But the Queen had been too ill 
 used by more than one of his predecessors, to make 
 herself or her kingdoms in any degree, or for any 
 consideration, subject to that jurisdiction : and so 
 when the Abbot Martinengo came to Calais, he there 
 received notice, that the Queen would not receive 
 any overture letter or message from the Pope, and 
 an absolute inhibition to him not to presume to come 
 into England ; which put an end to all further ap- 
 plication or correspondence between Rome and that 
 Queen, and to all thoughts of moderation in Council, 
 at least if there had been any before. 
 
 Proceedings I shall find it necessary to the argument in hand 
 t\on of the hereafter to reflect upon the wonderful incongruities, 
 Council. j.j ie wan O f f rcec l omj an( J the want of justice, in the 
 
 whole proceedings of that Council, from the begin- 
 ning to the end, and its disorderly and ungrave con- 
 clusion. But what I shall for the present observe 
 shall have an authority so authentic that it cannot 
 be doubted by any Roman Catholic, which is, the 
 evidence of the Cardinal Pallavicini himself; and in 
 the relation I shall use no other words than his 
 own, (as any one must confess who will take the 
 pains to compare it with the original,) by which it 
 will appear how impossible it was for that body of 
 men to do any thing with integrity, that might com- 
 pose the distempers of that age, or prevent the im- 
 provement of them' to greater distractions. The Car- 
 dinal declares, (I think it is, for I have not the book 
 
 at
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 383 
 
 at present by me, in or very near page /OO of his se- CHAP, 
 
 cond volume,) that .he will without any dissimula ' 
 
 tion there set down the face of the Council, just as 
 the Legates did represent it to the Cardinal Borro- 
 meo, who was the Pope's nephew, and to whom all 
 the dispatches were made from all ministers in all 
 places, of all matters of importance. 
 
 The Italians (he says) did esteem it as a thing The Italian 
 
 . Prelates. 
 
 both very becoming and advantageous to their na- 
 tion to uphold the majesty and power of the eccle- 
 siastical government, in the which Italy doth as 
 much surmount other countries as it is inferior to 
 them in the want of a temporal common and native 
 King ; so that, except a few, who either by weakness 
 of mind or estate suffer themselves to be led by 
 strangers, the Prelates of this country commonly aim 
 at no other object than at the supporting and great- 
 ness of the Apostolical Seat ; it appearing to them 
 that upon that did equally depend the honour of their 
 province, and the good of their Church ; and there- 
 fore that they in so doing did at once perform the 
 parts of good Italians and good Christians. 
 
 The Spanish Prelates and Bishops (as persons forrheSpa- 
 the most part advanced either by the ampleness ofhue s . " 
 their churches, or by the plenty of their rents ; by 
 the eminence of their family and learning, or by their 
 veneration with the people) did very hardly suffer 
 the great preeminence of the Cardinals, a preferment 
 which few of them could hope for ; and as ill could 
 they endure the great subjection to the Pope's mini- 
 sters, or to the tribunals of Rome ; so that they were 
 persuaded that the highest good of the Church would 
 consist in the bringing the Cardinals into some rule 
 and compass, and raising Bishops to their ancient 
 rights : they proposed, that these might be incapable 
 
 of
 
 384 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of bishoprics, the best of which they at present pos- 
 
 ' sessed, which did much maintain them in authority 
 
 and in riches ; they being obliged to remain in 
 Rome to take care of their titular churches, and to 
 be the Pope's counsellors, without a possibility of 
 quitting that place, excepting for some legations : 
 they also demanded, that their entire power might 
 be restored to the Bishops, by taking away the ex- 
 emptions of persons and causes ; by which they 
 would become as Popes in their dioceses. 
 
 The French The French Prelates, as those who possess less ec- 
 clesiastical jurisdiction, (they being, according to 
 the use of that kingdom, brought within the compass 
 of the secular power,) did less approve of the diminu- 
 tion of the power of the Roman tribunals, and did 
 less complain of the purple's overshadowing the 
 mitre : but they were all inclined to the moderating 
 of the Papal monarchy, according to the meaning of 
 the modern Council of Basil, by them approved ; be- 
 cause that, in such case, they would have had little 
 reason to fear their prohibitions or punishments, as 
 being able to blunt or suppress them by calling to- 
 gether or threatening a Council ; in the which there- 
 fore they would have authority to be not only over 
 the Pope, but full and as much in the Church. 
 
 Thedif- The Princes, or at least their statesmen, inclined 
 more or less to satisfy the Prelates of their nation ; 
 of whose advancement they were not so jealous as of 
 the greatness and power of the Pope ; which was 
 also accompanied with the abhorrence of some abuses 
 which remained until that time in the Roman Court. 
 Let any man produce out of Soave, [Polano, a ] 
 as the Cardinal calls him, so lively a description and 
 
 a Fra. Paolo; sometimes called Soave Polano. 
 
 mani-
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 385 
 
 manifestation of the inequality, incompetency, and CHAP. 
 
 impossibility of the Council to determine any point ' 
 
 of religion in controversy ; and we may justly say, 
 that as we are beholden to Fra Paolo for the com- 
 municating, in so clear and excellent a style, the in- 
 comparable history of the dark intrigues arid transac- 
 tions of that Council ; so we are indebted in many 
 thanks to the Cardinal, for giving us so excellent a 
 confirmation and illustration of the most important 
 parts of that history, and for imparting to us, out of 
 the treasure of those originals, (with which he hath 
 had the honour to be entrusted, and which another 
 less generous man would have concealed or de- 
 stroyed,) so many particulars of the highest moment, 
 which add great beauty and ornament to what the 
 other (for want of those exemplifications) could not 
 so credibly have enlarged upon ; whilst his direct 
 and positive contradictions of the veracity of the 
 other, and the arguments which he doth urge to con- 
 trol the same, I mean in matters of weight, (for whe- 
 ther the exact number of the voices in any congrega- 
 tion, or the days of the week, are rightly computed, 
 is nothing to the truth of the fact,) are so faint, and 
 so weakly pressed, that he rather adds vigour to 
 what he would confute, than weakens the credit of 
 it ; of which we shall have occasion .pertinently 
 enough to insert some instances. In the mean time, 
 we shall prosecute our observation upon the proceed- 
 ings in the Council ; in all or most of which we shall 
 make use of no other authority than the Cardinal's 
 own, which we shall faithfully cite in his own words; 
 and by all which, as they who were in the Pope's 
 displeasure, and whom he proposed to destroy, had no 
 reason to acquiesce in their determinations, so it will 
 
 c c S
 
 386 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 i 
 CHAP, as plainly appear, that the Pope himself had great 
 
 ' reason to have no mind to call them together, if he 
 
 could have avoided it ; and, when he could not avoid 
 it, to apprehend many inconveniences and mischiefs 
 by their continuance : and the mortification that 
 himself underwent, during the whole time that their 
 conferences lasted, was not inferior to what they suf- 
 fered, who were most in his power to condemn. 
 And upon the whole matter, nobody can wonder 
 enough, though all men have wondered ever since, 
 that such an obstinate spirit of disagreement contra- 
 diction and animosity should last without declension 
 for so many months ; and that, within five or six 
 days, there should such a composure and harmony 
 break out amongst them, that every one should ap- 
 pear to be pleased, and all to have obtained what 
 they had always desired ; which could have fallen 
 out from no other cause, but that temper which the 
 Cardinal described the Council to be instituted of, 
 which was, to pay a ready obedience to those who 
 sent them, and who best knew how to provide for 
 the security of their own interest ; the effect whereof 
 must be more at large mentioned hereafter. 
 
 Contest for The first trouble the Pope encountered, after the 
 
 precedence . ,, , _, ., 11-1 i 
 
 between meeting or the Council, was the high contest be- 
 8pa"n. e a tween the crowns of France and Spain for prece- 
 dence ; which always had been enjoyed by France 
 till the time of Charles the Fifth ; who being Em- 
 peror so many years, and having in that capacity 
 suppressed all disputes which might have risen con- 
 cerning Spain, and then leaving the crown of Spain 
 so much greater than he had found it, his son Philip 
 (who loved not to lose any thing) insisted positively 
 and passionately for the precedence. And probably 
 
 this
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 387 
 
 this was the reason that the French Bishops appear- CHAP, 
 ed not yet at the Council, for this controversy de- 
 pended at Rome, and was to be decided by the Pope 
 himself. The Council made great haste in framing 
 their decrees, and declared that they would stay no 
 longer for the French divines ; whereupon Lansac, 
 the French ambassador, wrote to the Queen, desiring 
 her Majesty to let him know whether her Prelates, 
 and the Cardinal of Lorrain, could arrive there by 
 the end of September, which would be above six 
 months from the meeting of the Council ; because if 
 it were so, although the Legates had rejected his de- 
 mand of deferring the session any longer, he doubted 
 not but to obtain it, if by no other means, at least 
 by protesting, that except they would stay for them, 
 he would not esteem the acts of the Council authen- 
 tical. The Cardinal says, that the Pope was willing 
 to hold the dispute concerning the precedence in 
 suspense ; and that he had therefore a long time for- 
 borne to appear in the chapel ; but upon Holy 
 Thursday, it being usual for him to bless the people, 
 he had disposed things so that there should not ap- 
 pear any first place among the ambassadors, alleging, 
 that at this ceremony there was no order of place 
 used to be observed ; upon which Monsieur de Oi- 
 zel, the French ambassador, had demanded leave to 
 be gone, but he was detained with some promise of 
 satisfying him in the chapel at Whitsuntide. This 
 news no sooner arrived, but it made great noise in 
 France ; and the Queen told the Pope's Nuncio, that 
 the King, though young, had said in his full Coun- 
 cil, that he would not endure such a wrong ; that 
 the ambassador had done well in asking leave to be 
 gone, but very ill in deferring his departure ; that 
 
 c c 2 she
 
 388 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, she would speak not only as mother of the King, but 
 as daughter of the Apostolic Seat; that the Pope hav- 
 ing failed in his duty, she saw sulphur prepared, with 
 which ill willers to the church would not fail to kin- 
 dle anger and hatred enough in the King, to the 
 ruin of religion. So far are the Cardinal's words, 
 and he confesses, that upon the report that the Pope 
 had given the precedence to France, the Spanish am- 
 bassador was heard to threaten, " cTiil Re sene ris- 
 " contrerebbe col armi" and the Pope thought not fit 
 to run the hazard of it, but resolved to grant the pre- 
 cedence to Spain, of which he informed the Legates 
 of Trent; which, the Cardinal assures us, was done in 
 these words, taken out of his own letters to them ; 
 " Ever since We have been Pope, the ambassadors of 
 " the Catholic King have insisted on nothing else 
 " but their precedence, constantly saying, that his 
 " Catholic Majesty had resolved to call away his am- 
 " bassadors from Rome, and also from Trent, if they 
 " were not granted the place that he desired ; where- 
 " upon We, seeing the danger of losing so powerful 
 " and so good a King for so little a matter, and, on 
 " the contrary side, that the French have failed in 
 " their duty to God, by that heretical peace which 
 " they have made, by the edicts which they have 
 " published^ and by the preachers and heretical mi- 
 " nisters which they send through the provinces in 
 " despite of Catholics, as also by the alienation of 
 " ecclesiastical lands, which they do against our will ; 
 " moreover, We seeing that in all matters of debate 
 " the French are they who not only openly oppose 
 " both ours, and the authority of the Holy Seat, but 
 " endeavour to unite all Princes against us, We have 
 " been forced to come to that action which you have 
 
 " seen,
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 389 
 
 " seen, to the end that We might not remain naked, CHAP. 
 
 " and deprived of every body." To these worldly ' 
 
 shifts was this infallible Vicar of Christ put to de- 
 scend in the determination of a matter of right, that 
 he might the better be enabled to constitute articles 
 of faith. 
 
 But whatsoever his private resolution was, and 
 how much soever he communicated it, he had not 
 the courage to publish his decision ; the French am- 
 bassadors being ready, as Monsieur Mezeray affirms,, 
 to retire, and to make a protestation, not against the 
 Legates, who depended upon the will and pleasure of 
 the Pope, nor against the Council, that was not free, 
 nor against the King of Spain or his ambassador, who 
 did but support their pretension, but against one 
 particular man, who carried himself as Pope, who 
 had intruded himself into the chair of St. Peter by 
 foul and unlawful tricks, and by corruption, of which 
 they had indubitable proofs ready to produce. If 
 the interposition of friends had not found a way to 
 accommodate the dispute, this protestation in those 
 very words had been delivered; and it was thus near 
 (upon a matter of state, separated from any theologi- 
 cal verity) silencing any farther noise of this Coun- 
 cil, and preventing the publication of that numerous 
 body of new articles of faith, which have since so 
 much disturbed the peace and quiet of Christen- 
 dom. 
 
 Nor were the doctrinal points, which they would Deba . te9 * u 
 
 doctrinal 
 
 have believed to be matters of faith, debated in the points ; re- 
 Council with less passion, or with more freedom, or thT 
 with any such consent as can give any credit to the i 
 decision. It was not only urged by the Emperor, 
 but likewise by the Bavarian ambassador, in the marriage 
 
 J of Priests, 
 
 c c 3 Council,
 
 390 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Council, that the Communion under both species 
 ' might be administered to the laity ; that the Mar- 
 riage of priests might be permitted, and that there 
 might be a reformation of the clergy ; which was as 
 much pressed by the ambassadors of France. The 
 Imperialists demanded that the cup might be grant- 
 ed, not only throughout Bohemia, but throughout 
 Hungary, and other patrimonial states of the Em- 
 peror, with several reasons and public advantages, 
 which induced them to make that demand ; every 
 body declaring, (as the Cardinal himself confesses,) 
 that the Council was assembled, not for the con- 
 demning, but for the giving satisfaction to the Here- 
 tics ; and that their conversion might be obtained by 
 contenting those their contumacious appetites, which, 
 it is true, the Cardinal there says, ought rather to be 
 repressed. The Bishop of Five-Churches, who was a 
 learned man, and of great authority, proposed, that 
 what the Emperor proposed as to the cup might be 
 granted; and said, the only reason which he could 
 oppose against it was, the danger of spilling the 
 blood of Christ, which was to be avoided by the vi- 
 gilance of the Prelates ; but in a word, if Christ 
 looked upon all his blood as well spilt for the salva- 
 tion of our souls, he could not think that any effu- 
 sion, which should happen in this function by human 
 infirmity, would be displeasing to him ; since that, 
 by this means, salvation would be got to innumerable 
 souls redeemed by him with the same blood. And 
 the Archbishop of Palermo said, that all the present 
 miseries of religion did proceed from hardness of 
 heart, and want of complying towards the inflamed 
 wills of minds weak in piety, but strong and active 
 in revenge. It would be too long, and besides my 
 
 purpose f
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 391 
 
 purpose, to set down the arguments which were CHAP. 
 
 urged against it, which whoever takes the pain to 
 
 read as they are set down by the Cardinal, will won- 
 der at the weakness of them, and at none more than 
 at what was alleged by Salmeron the Jesuit, (who 
 without doubt was a learned man,) who said, that 
 the not giving the cup to the laics must have neces- 
 sarily continued from the age of the Apostles. Cer- 
 tain it is, that it was generally believed as well as 
 desired by most Catholics, that it would have been 
 granted ; and how it came not to be, is not unplea- 
 santly described by the Cardinal ; for he says, that 
 after long diligence and subtle examinations concern- 
 ing granting the cup, the votes in the congregation 
 amounted to the number of a hundred sixty-six ; 
 and they were found to be divided into eight opi- 
 nions ; fourteen were of opinion that the determina- 
 tion ought to be deferred, eight and thirty were for 
 its repulse, nine and twenty were for its being grant- 
 ed, four and twenty for its being remitted to the 
 Pope, one and thirty approved the first article but 
 not the second, (that is to say, they agreed to its 
 concession, but that the execution of it should not 
 be left to the Bishops, but to the Pope,) one remain- 
 ed doubtful, ten inclined to the negative side, but yet 
 remitted it to the Pope, and nineteen restrained the 
 concession to Bohemia and Hungary. So that he 
 confesses, that before this question was proposed it 
 was scarce possible to have invented so many opi- 
 nions as were actually found in the assembly ; and I 
 think I may reasonably say, that, as he hath deliver- 
 ed it, no man knows what the judgment of the Coun- 
 cil was ; and whether it desired that it should be 
 granted or denied, 
 
 c c 4 The
 
 392 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. The power of Bishops by divine right, and their 
 institution, produced more passion, even to reproaches 
 
 respecting and ill words ; of which we will make use of no other 
 
 tion and evidence than what the Cardinal furnishes us with ; 
 
 Bishops*" though it be much less than we have from a more 
 credible author, Diego Lainez the Jesuit, (than 
 whom no man was heard there with more attention 
 and reverence,) who made a discourse concerning 
 the institution of Bishops, that in any other assem- 
 bly would have appeared very ridiculous. He af- 
 firmed, that the power of the episcopal order is from 
 God immediately, in general ; that is to say, in 
 some, as in Peter and his successors, as also in all 
 the Apostles, by a special privilege ; in others, as in 
 particular Bishops, it did proceed mediately from 
 God, immediately from the Pope ; because in him, 
 whilst Pope, the jurisdiction is invariable, as it was 
 in the Apostles ; in the Bishops it may be varied 
 and altered by the Pope ; although not upon his 
 mere will, but upon occasion. To the objection of 
 the words of Christ, " Pasci le mie pecorelle" (which, 
 according to St. Basil and St. Ambrose, were not 
 spoken to St. Peter alone, but to all the Apostles, 
 and in them to all Bishops, so that they did imme- 
 diately receive from Christ all jurisdiction employed 
 in the power of feeding,) he answers, that the fore- 
 mentioned words were spoken, " a tuttl gli Apostoli, 
 " st; non pero in tutti, ma in Pietro solo" who not be- 
 ing able to feed the whole flock alone, was to make 
 use of the assistance of the other Apostles. I con- 
 fess I am not able to translate his distinction into 
 any sense in any language, and shall therefore leave 
 it to others. The Spaniards objected, that unless Bi- 
 shops had their power from God, they could not de- 
 fine
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 393 
 
 fine in the Council, and what they defined would CHAP. 
 
 vii 
 not concern our faith : to which it was answered, ' 
 
 that it was sufficient that they had it from the Pope ; 
 and hence it was, that no Council was legitimate 
 without the Pope's concurrence, and that the deci- 
 sions of Councils were the decisions of God, inas- 
 much as they were of the Pope, who was assisted by 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It was affirmed by Avosmediano, Bishop of Gua- 
 dix, that Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustin, and many 
 others, had been Bishops not elected by the Pope ; 
 and that yet the Archbishop of Saltzburgh did make 
 his four suffragans, without the Pope's having any 
 part in them. To the end that this opinion might 
 not take root, the Cardinal Simonetta interrupted 
 him pleasantly, by saying, that he ought to know 
 that the Archbishop did that by the authority and 
 privilege of the Pope. Thereupon all begun to cry 
 out against Guadix, and, from railing at him, fell 
 to accusing the whole Spanish nation, and said, 
 " Abbiamo piu travagli da qucsti Spagnuoli i quail 
 " fanno I Catholici, che da medesirm erittci" and in 
 this so great confusion, leave was hardly obtained for 
 the Bishop to proceed in his discourse. The Cardi- 
 nal of Lorrain, a little after this disorder, was heard 
 to say, " Se un tal caso fosse accaduto a qualche 
 " Francese, to presente mente hard appellato da questo 
 " congregatione, ad un Consilio piu libero ;" and if 
 they should not have given him satisfaction, he would 
 have returned presently into France : and that Car- 
 dinal was so exceedingly displeased with the pro- 
 ceedings of the Council, that he bade the Secretary 
 Pagnano (who was going to Milan) to tell the Mar- 
 quis of Pescara, that he could not only not expect 
 
 any
 
 394 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, any good success from this Council, but also some 
 _ : schism ; and that he and his French would be gone 
 before long, and perhaps sooner than a new occasion 
 of departure should be given them. This, and much 
 more of the same nature, will be found in the second 
 volume 2 . The Cardinal found himself often in need 
 of his sharpest wit and faculty of distinguishing to 
 preserve the reputation of freedom to the Council, in 
 the most gross invasions of it ; as when the Bishop 
 of Gerona did formally protest against the decrees, 
 and was most severely reprehended and threatened 
 by the Legate. But the Cardinal confesses, that, just 
 as they were about to propose the decrees, Arrias 
 Cagliego, Bishop of Gerona, seemed as if he would 
 enter his protestation ; upon which the Cardinal 
 Morone, with harsh words, and a dire aspect, pre- 
 vented him, by saying, that whatever particular per- 
 son dared to say " he looked upon that which should 
 " be approved by that sacred Council as nothing," 
 did deserve to be immediately driven out of it. This 
 speech, the Cardinal confesses, was like thunder, 
 which stunned and frighted Cagliego, and perhaps 
 some others, from the like disposition, but was receiv- 
 ed with common applause, not as a restriction of li- 
 berty in giving their voices, but as a blunting of for- 
 wardness against what was voted. How rude must 
 that force have been, that the wit of this man could 
 not put into a softer dress ; it being no better an- 
 swer than the Comte de Luna (the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor) received from the Legates themselves, when he 
 complained that there were great murmurings at the 
 private congregations which were held in their 
 
 * From p. 520, almost to p. 600. 
 
 houses.
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 396 
 
 houses, calling together at the least twenty Italians CHAP, 
 for two Spaniards and as many French ; upon which 
 
 the Legates answered, that it being their duty to fa- 
 cilitate difficulties and decide controversies, they 
 could not do it without making use of the assistance 
 and counsel of whom they thought fit ; and that it 
 could not seem an un proportionable or unequal 
 thing that in those assemblies the number of the Ita- 
 lians should be greater than of any others, consider- 
 ing that in the Council the Italians were one hun- 
 dred and fifty, and they of the other provinces were 
 in all but threescore and ten. A very good reason 
 indeed to justify the integrity of their determina- 
 tions, and to induce all the other provinces of Chris- 
 tendom to submit to them. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these advantages, the Pope Supremacy 
 took no delight in the proceedings of the Council, above th pe 
 but promised himself much more pleasure in the dis- n o t U assert- 
 solution of it, upon any occasion that might not too edfhere< 
 notoriously offend all the other Catholic Princes, who 
 he knew had not all the same end or interest. That 
 which the Pope's heart was only set upon was, to 
 get his own authority vindicated ; which done, he 
 cared not what they did. But the Cardinal says, 
 that the Legates and ambassadors stood in doubt 
 whether they should take upon them once for all to 
 define la maggioranza of the Pope above the Coun- 
 cil, which, if it were once declared by the Council 
 itself, would for ever shut the gate against any schism 
 in the church ; or whether they should rather avoid 
 that encounter, for fear lest, whilst they should pro- 
 vide against schisms which might possibly happen, 
 they might fall into a real one. And the Cardinal 
 of Lorrain sent for Paleotto, and told him, that al- 
 though
 
 396 "PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, though he had endeavoured it with all diligence, yet 
 
 ' he could not persuade his Prelates nor Divines to 
 
 admit of those words in one of the canons, viz. " that 
 " the Pope was equal to Peter in the authority of 
 " government ;" because, said they, where the holi- 
 ness is greater, there also greater is the authority ; 
 and that Peter could do some things which were de- 
 nied to his successors, as the composing of canonical 
 hooks. It is plain that the Legates, and all the 
 Pope's party, besides their advantage that nothing 
 should be debated but what was proposed by them- 
 selves, (a reservation that was never before heard of 
 in any General or National Council, and inconsistent 
 with the nature and freedom of either,) had enough 
 to do to watch that no such expressions might slide 
 into any decree or determination, whereby they 
 might lessen or reflect upon the Pope's authority, 
 without the courage to propose any thing that might 
 enlarge it. The Republic and the Patriarch of Ve- 
 nice having desired that an end might be put to 
 some things which they had proposed to the Coun- 
 cil, the Legates, after having a while deliberated 
 upon an answer, gave them this, that they had great 
 reason to desire an end of those things, but that they 
 could neither finish them, nor continue to propose 
 the Council's finishing of them, without a special bre- 
 viate of the Pope, before whom those things had 
 been discussed several times; because that this would 
 be to shew that the Council was above the Pope, and 
 that it could bring causes before itself before they 
 were introduced by him. Considering all which 
 instances alleged and confessed by the Cardinal, 
 it is a wonderful thing, and worthy the confidence 
 of the Pope's greatest champion, to affirm, as he 
 
 does.
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 
 
 397 
 
 does a , that it was the love of concord that prevailed so CHAP. 
 
 much in the Pope, that, although of ten parts, nine of 
 
 them agreed to confirm the decree of the Florentine 
 Synod, and to establish the maggioranza of the Pope 
 above the Council, yet, because some few French^ 
 with yet a smaller train, did oppose it, and because 
 the Cardinal of Lorrain had desired him that the re- 
 pose might not be disturbed on that account, he 
 would condescend to deprive himself of that advan- 
 tage, that is, as to what did belong to the dogmas : 
 for the confutation whereof no more need to be said, 
 than what hath been alleged out of his own evi- 
 dence ; by which it appears, that they never had the 
 confidence to propose it ; and it is enough known 
 that all the Spanish Bishops of that age (however 
 their successors have been since converted by the 
 powerful arguments of the Inquisition) were as much 
 enemies to that pretence of the absolute power of the 
 Pope as those of any other nation 
 
 Since the Cardinal hath kindly supplied us with Proceeding 
 the evidence much more particular than Fra Paolo er 
 had done, I cannot omit the observation of the wary 
 and prudent proceeding of that Council (how com- 
 pacted soever) with reference to Queen Elizabeth. 
 For he says, that the Doctors of Louvain, and the 
 Bishops of the kingdom of Spain, demanded some 
 declaration in the Council against that Queen ; and 
 about the same time there arrived at Trent three 
 Flemish Prelates, with as many Divines from Lou- 
 vain, sent by the order of King Philip ; and that the 
 arrival of these Flemings had much warmed the 
 Council in their purpose of proceeding against that 
 
 4 P. 1062. 
 
 wicked
 
 398 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, wicked Queen of neighbouring England; and that 
 the Pope was inclined thereunto; that place seeming 
 to him most fit for this business, where the lawful- 
 ness of the Bishops might be treated upon, and 
 where sentence might be given, that those promoted 
 by her were not lawful, and withal that she was both 
 a schismatic and heretic ; the which sentence being 
 pronounced by an universal Council (as he hoped) 
 would have inflamed Catholic Princes to assist with 
 arms, to the utmost of their power, the persecuted 
 and oppressed faithful. But the imperial ambassa- 
 dors did represent to the Legates, what the Nuncio 
 Delphino had before writ both to them and to the 
 Pope, (viz.) that she, being exasperated by such a 
 stroke, might perhaps put to death those few Bishops 
 which remained in England ; and moreover, that 
 the heretical Princes in Germany, by the same rea- 
 son, expecting the same condemnation, would league 
 themselves together to prevent the offence ; who, 
 when they should be united in that design, would 
 be powerful enough for any design. The Legates 
 (who had first communicated this design to the Car- 
 dinal of Lorrain, and to all the ecclesiastical ambas- 
 sadors, and had unanimously concluded to share in 
 it with the Emperor and the Pope) answered to 
 what was alleged by the Emperor, that they had 
 writ anew to both the Princes, governing them- 
 selves according to the direction of the one, and the 
 commissions of the other. The deliberation taken 
 at Rome was, that they should not cut off a putrid 
 member, whilst they saw that the taking it away 
 would turn rather to the loss of the sound, than to 
 the curing of the corrupted parts. And Pius, (as 
 men of good sense use to do,) that he might draw as 
 
 great
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 399 
 
 great advantages as was possible from this delibera- CHAP. 
 
 tion, ordered his Legates to let the Emperor know, ' 
 
 that the prudence and authority of the advice given 
 by his Majesty had prevailed in his onind over that 
 of an infinite number of others who persuaded him 
 to the contrary ; and he caused these words in gene- 
 ral to be writ to the Legates, which, the Cardinal 
 says, seems worthy to him to be registered for the 
 honour of those two Princes ; the words are, " In 
 " this, as in all other things which may concern the 
 " repose of Germany, and any other countries which 
 " may be in danger of any alteration as to religion, 
 " His Holiness will be glad to have them governed 
 " according to the judgment arid Council of the 
 " Emperor ; in whose judgment and goodness His 
 (( Holiness hath reason to trust, knowing him to be 
 " most wise and full of Christian zeal :" and, he says 
 afterwards, there arrived letters from the Cardinal de 
 Granvile, who was in Flanders, who concerning Eli- 
 zabeth advised the Legates the very same thing, 
 both as his own, and as the most Catholic King's 
 opinion. 
 
 That the Pope should desire, for the reasons men- 
 tioned before, that so notorious and powerful an ene- 
 my to his church, as that Queen was declared to be, 
 (whom two of his predecessors had with so much so- 
 lemnity declared to be a schismatic and an here- 
 tic, and had absolved all her subjects of their fide- 
 lity, and, as much as in them lay, deprived her of 
 all her dominions,) should be likewise condemned 
 under the same declaration by an universal represen- 
 tative of the Christian Church, no man can wonder. 
 He had no doubt very weighty reasons to desire it. 
 But why the Council should deny, or make any 
 
 scruple
 
 400 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, scruple to grant it, there can be but two reasons al- 
 
 ' leged or imagined ; first, that the Council did not 
 
 approve of what those two former Popes had done, 
 and would not involve themselves in the same guilt, 
 as being a matter in which they could not pretend, 
 nor ever any Council had pretended any jurisdiction: 
 and, secondly, that all Christian Princes, how much 
 Catholic soever, upon the consideration of their own 
 particular interest and security, concurred in too 
 great an indignation to suffer their high calling, that 
 depends on God alone, to be exposed to such a tri- 
 bunal ; and so would not suffer that odious attempt 
 to be made. And I am confirmed that one or both 
 those reasons diverted any farther prosecution of that 
 frantic design, by another instance, with which the 
 Cardinal supplies me : for, he says, the Pope ac- 
 quainted the Legates, that he intended to proceed 
 against the Queen of Navarre, that fierce persecu- 
 trix of the Catholic religion ; but they dissuaded him 
 from it, by telling him, that might occasion some 
 strange motion in the Queen of England, and in the 
 Protestant Princes of Germany ; with whom the 
 cause as well as the danger was common. The Car- 
 dinal of Lorrain also, having heard of the Pope's in- 
 tentions, represented unto him by letter the distur- 
 bances which such a proceeding against the Queen 
 might cause in Christendom : and the Pope, in the 
 very same day he received the letter, answered it, 
 thanking him very kindly for it; and, using the most 
 honourable and civil words possible, told him, that 
 he was returned from Civita Vecchia to Rome ex- 
 pressly to call a Council about his letter, and that he 
 would answer the contents of it in due time. But 
 that time never came, nor was there any more men- 
 tion
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 401 
 
 tion of it. So much rnodester doth the very name of CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 a General Council, how factiously soever assembled, ' 
 
 make the members of it, in the estimate of their 
 power and authority, than the Popes themselves are. 
 
 The mention of the Queen of Navarre obliges Remarkson 
 me to take notice of the solidity of the Cardinal's 
 arguments, when he thinks himself concerned 
 confute some averment of his adversary. He says, betwe ? n 
 
 J . 'the King 
 
 that the Bishop of Arras (who managed all in Flan- and Queen 
 ders under the Duchess, upon the death of Francis 
 the Second, by the means of Conconeto his brother, 
 who was Spanish ambassador in Paris) entered into 
 a treaty with Anthony, King of Navarre, about the 
 exchange of that kingdom for the island of Sardinia ; 
 and that the Nuncio Santa Croce, who about that 
 time passed from Spain into France, gave the King 
 of Navarre new assurance of the reality of Philip's 
 intentions, which, he said, he had heard from his 
 own mouth. The Cardinal takes notice, that there 
 is a certain historian ill affected to the Catholic reli- 
 gion, and to its head, and therefore is followed in 
 this by Soave, who says, that they proposed to An- 
 thony King of Navarre to make a divorce between 
 him and his heretical wife, and to join him in mar- 
 riage with the widow of Francis the Second, Queen 
 of Scots, who yet pretended a right to the English 
 crown ; and, with the assistance of France Spain and 
 the Pope, to make him King of Great Britain ; upon 
 which he, having espoused this pompous chimera, 
 began to manifest an aversion from his true consort. 
 But this he assures you is a fable, for Famianus 
 Strada, who protests to have seen all the letters 
 which passed between the Bishop of Arras and his 
 brother Conconeto concerning this treaty, says, he 
 
 D d did
 
 402 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, did not find therein the least sign of any such pro- 
 - position, concerning any divorce of that bond ; 
 which, he says, as it is very well known, according to 
 the decision of the church, is not possible after the 
 matrimonial tie, although the woman be an heretic 3 . 
 Is not this a notable argument to contradict the af- 
 firmation of several authentic historians (whereof 
 some are Catholics) in a point that must reasonably 
 be presumed to be well known to them ; that another 
 Jesuit knew no such thing, though he had the peru- 
 sal of all the letters which were writ between trite 
 two brothers ? Whereas, by what the Cardinal him- 
 self suggests, it is most probable that the oifer of that 
 divorce and dispensation rather passed between the 
 Nuncio Santa Croce and the King, (as matters of 
 that scandalous nature do not use, especially before 
 the final determination, to be communicated to more 
 than are necessary to the effecting thereof,) than that 
 it was known to the Bishop of Arras and his bro- 
 ther, who would contribute nothing thereunto. So 
 that a man had need to have made all the vows 
 which the Cardinal had done, if he gives any credit 
 to him upon this affirmation. And for his other ar- 
 gument, from the decision of the church, he falls 
 upon a rock, (according to his usual custom, for a 
 present convenience,) which, if he were not supplied 
 with an inexhaustible store of distinctions, would split 
 the authority and jurisdiction of the sacred chair, as 
 to many dispensations of that kind, which it will by 
 no means suffer itself to be deprived of. 
 
 Sudden The little good intelligence that was in that age 
 between the Catholic Princes might probably be a 
 
 Pag. 176. 
 
 circum- 
 
 agree
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 403 
 
 ^circumstance, amongst others, that might dispose the 
 Pope at that time (how unwilling soever) to call that 
 
 Council ; upon a presumption that so many disjoint- Council. 
 ed interests (some whereof had need of his assist- 
 ance) would never be reconciled arid united to his 
 prejudice, though they all thought to lessen his au- 
 thority. But he never could expect or hope that 
 those dissensions and jealousies, which were so deep 
 rooted in them, could ever facilitate and conspire to- 
 gether to contribute to his desires, and to bring that 
 to pass which he could now only desire. And a less 
 miracle than this could never have composed that 
 tempest, which for so many months had raged in 
 the Council, into such a calm, that (even in the mi- 
 nute when he was implacably angry with his Le- 
 gates for not dissolving, in spite of all opposition or 
 protestation, for fear of receiving a more incurable 
 wound than that could give him) there should such 
 a harmony appear on a sudden, that, within fourteen 
 or fifteen days, there was an universal consent (or 
 that which looked like universal) to be dissolved ; 
 and, to purchase his consent that they might be so, 
 to make such haste in the passing those decrees 
 which had produced so much anger and contradic- 
 tion in all the former debates, that they hardly had 
 patience to hear them read, but took their words 
 who had formed them in their several congrega- 
 tions. 
 
 That this sudden and miraculous conjunction and its causes. 
 conformity may not appear more wonderful than in 
 truth it was, it is not impertinent or unnecessary to 
 take a short view of those extraordinary causes, 
 which were attended with those rare and prodigious 
 eifects. The Pope, from the beginning, had most 
 
 D d 2 courted
 
 404 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, courted the Emperor, as a Prince greatest in dignity, 
 
 ' and who could propose least advantage to himself by 
 
 impairing the Pope's authority, of which he had al- 
 ways use in Germany and Hungary to preserve his 
 own. Ferdinand in his inclinations, and for his pre- 
 tences, shewed more reverence towards the person of 
 the Pope than either of the other Crowns did ; yet he 
 was a man of great steadiness, and could never be pre- 
 vailed with to depart in the least degree from his right 
 or his dignity ; but in the representing and insisting 
 on those, how positively soever, it was in words full 
 of respect and condescension. So when the Pope, 
 with great earnestness, laboured to obtain a decree 
 for cancelling and annihilating all the pragmatiques 
 and other constitutions of Princes against the immu- 
 nity and exemption of ecclesiastical persons, and of 
 their goods, (upon which his heart was more set 
 than upon any thing but his own maggioranza , and 
 which had drawn so peevish and absurd an answer 
 from his predecessor to the ambassadors sent from 
 Queen Mary with the tender of her obedience, and 
 that of the kingdom of England,) the Emperor said, 
 that such a decree would be intolerable to him, and 
 perhaps to all other Princes ; that for his own part 
 he had never opposed, but, on the contrary, had al- 
 ways defended the ecclesiastical liberty ; but that 
 His Holiness ought to remember, that, besides laws 
 which were common to all, every particular kingdom 
 was governed by its own peculiar and ancient cus- 
 toms ; besides which, even according to common 
 sense, the immunity of ecclesiastics had its distinc- 
 tions and limits ; (a doctrine, how unquestionably 
 true soever, never before preached so loudly in the 
 Pope's own ears;) that he did believe that this would 
 
 find
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 405 
 
 find great difficulty with all Princes; and if, not- CHAP. 
 
 withstanding this, the Legates would proceed, and ' 
 
 cause the decree to be approved of, his ambassadors 
 should represent the great difficulty which, not the 
 executing, but the mere accepting of it, would find in 
 the empire. This rational discussion suppressed that 
 design ; nor was the Pope so much moved by the 
 advice of any man in any thing he affected, as by 
 that of the Emperor : and the Cardinal doth confess, 
 that it was a providence of God that the Emperor 
 did oppose that hasty design of dismissing, rather 
 than of ending, the Council, which the Pope had in- 
 tended, and to the which he was inclined for fear of 
 worse success a . 
 
 It is very probable that the Pope's knowledge ofTransac- 
 how much need the Emperor had of his kindness tween the 
 disposed him the more to value his councils, as I&-SSri^Uan 
 ceedincr from the integrity of his heart. There was Kin of the 
 
 . . i -0 Romans. 
 
 nothing in the world that the Emperor desired 
 equally to the seeing his son sure to succeed him in 
 the empire; and, though he was already elected King 
 of the Romans, yet there were several reasons and 
 arguments alleged against that election, beside the 
 prejudice and exception to the person of Maximilian; 
 which was like enough to prevail, whatever the rea- 
 sons were. It was alleged, that there were but two 
 Electors who voted for him, and who could be looked 
 upon as lawful ; because the three other were here- 
 tics, and the Archbishop of Cologne was not yet con- 
 firmed : besides w r hich, it was pretended that the 
 Electors could not choose a successor to the Emperor, 
 yet alive, without the Pope's consent; but could 
 
 a Pag. 866. 
 
 D d 3 only
 
 406 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, only substitute him to the defunct one, or give a 
 
 ' coadjutor to the living one, as long as he should live; 
 
 and that such coadjutor was in effect King of the Ro- 
 mans, before the pontifical confirmation ; and that, in 
 the present case, this had a greater place, because that 
 his father the Emperor had not been crowned by the 
 hands of the Pope; and lastly, they opposed Maximi- 
 lian's having taken the crown of silver in Frankfort, 
 and not in Aeon, according to the designation Charles 
 the Great always observed for his successors. Not- 
 withstanding all this, the Pope had ordered Cardinal 
 Morton not to be too obstinate in supplying all these 
 defects, in case Maximilian would closely adhere to- 
 the Catholic party. But because the absence of the 
 King deprived the Legate of all means of entering 
 into a treaty, and moreover the Nuncio Delphino 
 had told the Pope, that it was not fit to leave a busi- 
 ness so ingrateful to Ferdinand and Maximilian in 
 suspense, (who, seeing this acknowledgment denied to 
 them by the Holy Seat, could not look upon him as 
 propitious, and a well-wisher to their greatness,) 
 therefore the Pope inclined to the confirming Maxi- 
 milian's election ; upon condition, that he would de- 
 mand the supplement of those defects, that he would 
 swear in favour of the faith, and of the Apostolical 
 Seat, according to the form of a writing that he 
 should send, and according to which several Em- 
 perors had sworn, and that he should send to Rome 
 ambassadors of obedience, as other Potentates are 
 used to do, and as his father Ferdinand had done. 
 But Maximilian refused to demand his confirmation; 
 and said, as for the oath which was proposed, it had 
 never been known to be used. Whereupon the Im- 
 perial ambassador, on his own head, proposed another 
 
 oath,
 
 "FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 407 
 
 oath, which the Emperors had used to take when they CHAP. 
 
 received the crown actually from the Pope, and in ' 
 
 which was expressed an obligation to maintain the 
 Catholic faith, and with which the Pope contented 
 himself: only Maximilian, in a letter writ unto him, 
 declared, that by the Catholic faith mentioned in the 
 oath he understood that which the Roman Popes did 
 profess. This declaration, the Pope said, would serve 
 to enlighten and confirm the minds of those Cardi- 
 nals who were to consent to the acknowledgment 
 that was to be made of Maximilian's being King of 
 the Romans, and who were not yet purged from all 
 suspicion by reason of those things which were past. 
 Maximilian also denied to render obedience, alleg- 
 ing, that it had neither been done by Charles the 
 Fifth, nor by his grandfather Maximilian. 
 
 In a letter in cipher from the Cardinal Borromeo, 
 the Nuncio was ordered to put the Emperor in mind 
 of the suspicion they had of his son ; as well because 
 he had not put away an heretical miriister, whom he 
 kept still about his person, as for other things of 
 greater moment ; for which the Emperor had often 
 grieved with the Pope, by letters writ with his own 
 hand, declaring that it was not in his power to hin- 
 der it ; and that this was the reason why the Pope 
 and Cardinals would not satisfy themselves with a 
 general declaration, by which the King did promise 
 to maintain the Catholic religion, but did search for 
 words incapable of various interpretations, and made 
 him express what he meant and understood by the 
 name of Catholic religion ; that by how much the 
 degree that he held in Christendom was higher, by 
 so much the more security was to be demanded, that 
 he should administer that office to the honour of 
 
 D d 4 Christ:
 
 408 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Christ; and that otherwise the Pope did not -believe 
 
 VII 
 
 ' that Maximilian had so much as three voices in the 
 
 Consistory. Even the greatest favourers themselves of 
 the Emperor believed the crown but weakly settled 
 upon Maximilian's head, except it were fastened by 
 the hands of the Pope. Amongst other things, in the 
 oath taken by Maximilian at Francfort, there was 
 this question put to him by the Archbishop that 
 crowned him, " Vuoi al Santissimo in Ckristo Padre 
 " Signore, il Sig?ior Romano Pontiftce ed alia Santa 
 " Roma?ia Chiesa esibir riverentemente la debita sog- 
 " gezzione e fede;" and the King answered, " Foglio" 
 After the letter of Maximilian to the Pope had been 
 read in the Consistory, the Pope, by the counsel and 
 with the consent of the Cardinals, confirmed the 
 aforesaid election, and supplied all the defects ; and 
 after this it was decreed, that Maximilian's ambassa- 
 dor should be received as ambassador of the King of 
 the Romans in the next Consistory. All these parti- 
 culars (some whereof would not have been exposed 
 to the public view, as contributing more to Suave's 
 purpose than to his own, if the Cardinal's judgment 
 had been proportionable to his eloquence) will be 
 found in his second volume a . It was generally 
 then believed, that the Pope had dexterously culti- 
 vated the jealousies, which he well knew the Empe- 
 ror arid Maximilian had of the King of Spain ; and 
 that they believed that the difficulties which had 
 been raised in the Court of Rome concerning his 
 election (whereof some of the points had been stirred 
 and insisted upon by Paul against the election of 
 Ferdinand himself, and had been wisely declined, 
 
 a P. 872, 873, 874, 876, and 877. 
 
 which
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 4O<> 
 
 which was thought an overruling, by Pius upon hi* CHAP. 
 
 election) were fomented by Philip, out of design to - 
 
 get the Empire to himself when Ferdinand should be 
 dead, who had ravished it from him ; and that this 
 apprehension had made Maximilian stoop to some 
 concessions, which could not otherwise have been ex- 
 torted from him. 
 
 Whether the Catholic King had any such design Policy of 
 or no, (of which there appears no evidence from the spain^d 
 time of his return into Spain upon the death of h 
 father,) certain it is, that the Pope made no less be- p P e - 
 nefit of the jealousy, which he knew Philip himself 
 was infected with, upon this sudden and unexpected 
 atonement of all disputes between the Pope, the Em- 
 peror and Maximilian. He doubted much that this 
 good intelligence would be preserved at his charge, 
 and that some of his dominions in Italy, larger than 
 what were settled upon him by his father, would be 
 sacrificed to the satisfaction of the one or the other, 
 who had pretences upon them. Then his losing 
 ground in the Low Countries by the bedlam humour 
 of the Duke of Alva, (though the same had been ac- 
 cording to his own pleasure and instructions,) and 
 the increase of those of the religion in those parts, 
 and (which troubled him at least as much) the pro- 
 digious growth and power of that sect in France, and 
 the correspondence he discovered to be entered into 
 between them, and the factions and divisions which 
 he knew well to be between the Catholics of that 
 kingdom, who equally wished the extirpation of the 
 Huguenots; all these several considerations, with the 
 difference of opinion which he discovered to be in 
 those of his own Council concerning the prosecution 
 of the war in Flanders, made him change the mea- 
 sures
 
 410 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, sures which he had formerly taken ; and he grew 
 
 : less solicitous for the depression of his own rebels, 
 
 than of those of his neighbour kingdom ; presuming 
 that if he could for the present prevent the increase 
 of those in the Low Countries, until they in France 
 could be rooted out, (to which he believed the King 
 and the Queen mother to be enough inclined,) the 
 other would be able to give him little trouble ; where- 
 as, if that party in France prevailed so far as to be 
 able to compel the King to grant them such condi- 
 tions as would amount to a liberty for the exercise of 
 their religion, (which they pressed in plain terms when 
 they had gotten any advantage, and insisted upon it 
 with equal confidence when they were beaten,) they 
 would contribute such supplies of men and money, 
 and, which was preferable to both, such numbers of 
 excellent commanders, that he should not be able to 
 keep the little he had yet left ; the Catholics of those 
 his dominions, who manifested great loyalty and af- 
 fection to his person and government, no less detest- 
 ing what he proposed to himself as his only security, 
 (the introduction of the Inquisition,) than the oppo- 
 site party did. All these reasons together made him 
 resolve to enter into a firm friendship and league 
 with the Pope ; and in order thereunto, and to a firm 
 conjunction against the heretics, who were equally 
 odious to them both, he presently sent orders to his 
 ambassadors at Trent to mitigate and restrain that 
 fervour in his Bishops there, which was so ingrateful 
 to the Pope ; and knowing how grievous the Council 
 itself was to his Holiness, and that he desired no- 
 thing so much as to put an end to it. 
 
 He had before, for the more quiet proceeding 
 in the Council, and when he desired the conti- 
 nuance
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 411 
 
 nuance thereof, written a letter to the Marquis of CHAP. 
 
 Pescara, in which (after some expressions of joy, ^- 
 
 for the satisfaction that some Princes had received, 
 and for the peaceful progress of the Council as to 
 its continuation) he said, that seeing the great re- 
 pugnancy of the Emperor and of the most Chris- 
 tian King, and the great troubles that such a de- 
 claration might occasion, that his ambassador should 
 cease from demanding the precedence, and that it 
 should suffice that no contrary act should be made : 
 but now the Catholic King writ to the Pope with 
 his own hand, and, amongst other things, he used 
 these words; " I am already resolved to send an 
 " ambassador to Venice according to the advice of 
 
 O 
 
 " your Holiness, and I am only searching for and 
 " thinking upon the person who will be most fit for 
 " this employ, neither will I at present stand upon 
 " precedency ; because they who are obliged as I am 
 " ought not to regard such points of vanity which 
 " are of no account, but those which concern the 
 " service of our Lord, the good of the Church, and 
 " the authority of your Holiness." This could not 
 but be a sovereign cordial to the Pope, who now only 
 wanted to moderate the unsteady spirit of the Car- 
 dinal of Lorrain, who had more affronted his Legates, 
 and more opposed all his designs in the Council, than 
 any other person had done ; and, though he had 
 made more condescensions and applications to win 
 him than to all other persons, his nature was so im- 
 perious, and withal so irresolute, that nothing could 
 be depended upon in all his promises : and in this 
 conjuncture, when so many things succeeded even 
 beyond his expectation, Providence seemed to pro- 
 vide an opportunity to overcome this evil. 
 
 The
 
 412 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. The Cardinal of Lorrain was a man of very erreat 
 
 VII ... 
 
 Character w ** an< ^ s pi r ^> an d had as absolute a government of 
 and con- the ecclesiastical affairs in France, as his brother the 
 cardinal of Duke of Guise had over the martial Catholics ; and 
 though he was the most bloody persecutor of those 
 of the religion in that kingdom, he held a secret in- 
 telligence with the Protestant Princes in Germany, 
 as if he wished them well. No man talked louder 
 than he of the excess of the Pope's power to the pre- 
 judice of all Christian Princes, and he seemed to 
 concur with those who advised the calling of a Na- 
 tional Council, thereby to compel the Pope to call a 
 General Council when he was most resolved against 
 it. When he found that the Pope would no longer 
 refuse so general a demand of all Catholic Princes, 
 he raised all those disputes against the place, making 
 France except positively against Trent ; in which he 
 gratified the Pope, who, next to have it no where, 
 desired to assemble it in Italy. The Cardinal how- 
 ever desired not to please him, but that the Council 
 might be convened in Cologne or in Francfort ; and 
 after all the delays, when Trent was the place re- 
 solved upon, he pretended that neither himself nor 
 any of the French Prelates would be there ; (nor did 
 he or they go thither till many months after the 
 Council met ;) and yet he threatened that France 
 should protest against all their decrees, as null, be- 
 cause of their absence. When he came thither, no 
 man received the Pope's compliments with more neg- 
 ligence ; . no man treated his Legates with less reve- 
 rence ; and, by what hath been more enlarged upon 
 before, he did not only lay hold on, but industri- 
 ously sought out, all opportunities to vex him, by 
 crossing whatsoever he desired ; in which all the 
 
 French
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 413 
 
 French Bishops diligently concurred, and never CHAP. 
 
 swerved from his instructions. Of this the Pope 
 
 complained to all men, and knew no remedy to apply 
 but by dissolving the Council ; which he had done, 
 but by the Emperor's advice he suspended his reso- 
 lution. 
 
 In this conjuncture the Duke of Guise was assas- As 
 sinated before Orleans; the news of which was 
 sooner arrived with the Cardinal, than his whole car- 
 riage and behaviour was changed. He now thought e " ceu P n 
 of nothing but himself and family, and of establish- nai'spro- 
 
 i 1-1 i L 11 ceedings. 
 
 ing their greatness, which now seemed to be totally 
 undermined. He had two brothers of great reputa- 
 tion, but who had not yet been received into the se- 
 cret of affairs, nor were fit for the conduct of them ; 
 and his nephew, the son of the late Duke, was a boy 
 at school ; so that the whole fate of his house seemed 
 to depend upon him, and his interest ; and how that 
 might be lessened, he had reason enough to appre- 
 hend. The Prince of Cond had already private 
 meetings with the Queen ; and what those were like 
 to produce, his own experience gave him cause to 
 fear. Nothing could be applied to prevent these 
 evils which were in view, but by his own presence 
 and activity ; nor could he think it convenient or 
 lawful for him to be absent from the Council with- 
 out the Queen's leave, who probably would refuse to 
 grant it if he should desire it. From these disquisi- 
 tions he discerned nothing so much to conduce to 
 his own purposes, as the dissolving the Council, 
 which would set him at full liberty. But then the 
 Pope would be at liberty too to take vengeance upon 
 all the disobligations he had put upon him, and af- 
 fairs might go so in France, that his friendship and 
 
 sup-
 
 414 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, support might be necessary even to his preservation. 
 Upon the whole matter, he resolved to make a fast 
 
 dependance upon the Pope, by concurring in the ad- 
 vancement of all that he desired, which profession he 
 no sooner made to the Legates, and from them un- 
 derstood how grateful it was to the Pope, than he 
 made a journey himself to Rome, was lodged as in. 
 the Pope's palace, and so caressed by him, that in a 
 few days he returned again to Trent as fully in- 
 structed and intrusted as the Legates, and he thought 
 more. Then the Cardinal wrote a letter to the Em- 
 peror, (towards whom he had never before made ex- 
 traordinary application,) in which he told him, 
 " that the Pope, desirous to end the Council, had 
 " proposed to him the doing it with the next ap- 
 " proaching session, assuring to him moreover the 
 " legation of France, with a faculty and power of 
 " dispensing in ecclesiastical laws, as he should 
 " think fit for the good of that kingdom ; the which 
 " his love to his native country advised him not to 
 " refuse, when it should be once approved by his Im- 
 " perial Majesty." 
 
 Haste in These extraordinary and even miraculous contin- 
 6 gencies falling out within the space of twenty days, 
 C or thereabouts, when the Pope was in utter despair 
 of putting an end to the Council, otherwise than by 
 breaking it, (which probably would be attended with 
 some pernicious consequences,) so transported him, 
 that he could not conceal his joy without some levity 
 that was not natural to him ; and, as if he doubted 
 lest some new accidents might deprive him of the 
 benefit of so happy a conjuncture, he was so impa- 
 tient of the determination of it, that they at Trent 
 (who well knew the pain he was in) made so great 
 
 haste
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 415 
 
 haste in their dispatch, that it was not suitable to the CHAP, 
 gravity of the matter, or to the dignity of the per- 
 sons : insomuch as many of those Bishops, upon the 
 reading the decrees and propositions, declared that 
 they could not possibly make any judgment of them, 
 by reason of the shortness of the time, and therefore, 
 as to what concerned them, they remitted themselves 
 to the Pope and the Apostolical Scat ; others simply 
 answered, Place ; and when the Fathers were asked 
 if it pleased them that the Council should be ended, 
 and if the Legates should in their name ask of the 
 Pope the confirmation of all their decrees, the Cardi- 
 nal says there was only one, the Archbishop of Gra- 
 nada, (though there were many more who said the 
 same,) who answered, " Place che si finisca il Con- 
 " cillo, ma non chledo la confirmazlone" which he 
 said, perhaps, (says the other,) because he looked 
 upon the Council to be enough confirmed by the au- 
 thority of the Legates sent thither by the Pope, and 
 with instructions given to them concerning all mat- 
 ters to be decreed and confirmed. But he did not 
 believe that to be his meaning, and therefore he is 
 glad to add, that there were three rose up, and in 
 opposition to Granada said, " Chledo la confirmazlone 
 " come necessaria" and that they were all three of 
 his own nation. In truth, it could not have been 
 any wonder if all the rest had answered " Piace? 
 whatever they had thought, after they had seen the 
 Bishop of Gerona so treated by the Cardinal Morone t 
 when he offered to protest, as is before remembered. 
 But the use and application which Cardinal Pallavi- 
 cini makes of the expressions of joy that were made 
 for the ending of the Council, which were begun by 
 the Cardinal of Lorrain, as the mouth or voice of the 
 
 Senate^
 
 *-\ 
 
 416 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Senate, to whom the Fathers answered as in quire, 
 
 ' is very pleasant ; for in them, he says, they prayed 
 
 to God for happiness to Pius Quartus, who was then 
 called by the Cardinal of Lorrain, " Pontifice della 
 " Santa ed unwersale chiesa;" and so, says the other, 
 it seemed, that that " maggioranzcT over the univer- 
 sal Church was attributed to the Pope, which had 
 been disputed by him and the French ; to which he 
 might have added, and which is still denied to him 
 by the whole Gallican Church, as well as by many 
 other Churches. 
 End of the J n this disorder, and almost in the same confusion 
 
 Council of. i i i -i i i i r r- '"i 
 
 Trent. in which it had been continued, this famous Council 
 of Trent, after it had sat for above the space of eigh- 
 teen months in continual dissensions, ended in a vi- 
 sible harmony in the month of December, in the 
 year fifteen hundred sixty-three, to the eternal ho- 
 nour of Pius the Fourth ; who, it cannot be denied, 
 steered it with wonderful dexterity, and, by the 
 bounty and good influence of his own stars, and the 
 rare accidents which intervened, brought it to such a 
 consistency as hath given more credit, and produced 
 more unity to that Church, than could have been ex- 
 pected either from the debates or the conclusions. 
 The articles were signed by four Legates, two other 
 Cardinals, three Patriarchs, five and twenty Archbi- 
 shops, a hundred sixty-eight Bishops, seven Abbots 
 Benedictines, nine and thirty Proctors of the Prelates 
 absent, and seven Generals of Orders ; so that the 
 whole subscriptions were of two hundred and fifty- 
 five hands ; and, considering the paucity of the num- 
 ber, besides the presumption of imposing rules and 
 restraining privileges, contrary to the laws and cus- 
 toms of all ecumenical councils, it is no wonder that 
 
 the
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 417 
 
 the same is not received in many Catholic as well as C H A P. 
 
 VII. 
 Prbtestant kingdoms ; and still less that the Church : 
 
 of England rejects what the State never admitted, 
 and hath more reverence for the decrees of its own 
 Councils, (which always consist of much greater 
 numbers,) than the subscribers to those articles of 
 Trent amount unto : and if the parts and learning of 
 the subscribers (for all the names of both are easily 
 known) be considered, there will be more men of 
 profound learning and confessed or eminent piety 
 found in the Synod held in that time in our own 
 country, and in all the Synods which have since been 
 held there, than there were at any time in Trent ; 
 though it is not denied that there were many of great 
 estimation in letters, and of lives very unblameable ; 
 and yet that kind of learning is much improved since 
 that time, and even in that Church, which they will 
 not deny. 
 
 I have been the longer in the reflection upon theobserva- 
 
 ... ,-, -111 i tions upon 
 
 transactions or that Council, botli because it took uppaiiavkini's 
 all that Pope's life, and administered more occasion 
 of discourse and matter of consequence in all Chris- Cl1 * 
 tendom, than any other action or occurrence in that 
 age ; and especially because this Cardinal, who spent 
 so many years of his long life in compiling a history 
 that should convince the world it had been hitherto 
 deceived in the relation of all that was done there^ 
 and should manifest the gravity justice equality and 
 unanimity of the proceedings in that assembly, had 
 supplied rne abundantly with evidence to the con- 
 trary ; and hath rendered it as guilty of all the in- 
 congruities and defects and tergiversations, as his ad- 
 versary, against whom he writes with so much bit- 
 terness, had done ; and hath made us very much be- 
 
 E e holden
 
 418 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, holden to him for his good and eloquent supplement 
 
 ' to that excellent history. And I have, upon the 
 
 matter, confined myself to the single evidence which 
 this Cardinal hath furnished me with. When I shall 
 hereafter find it convenient to mention what suc- 
 ceeded at Rome after the dissolution of the Council, 
 I shall take a greater latitude in the allegation of 
 what was done there from the testimony of more, 
 but as authentic, witnesses. I shall here only cite 
 one particular more from the same Cardinal, that II 
 Ferriere, who was ambassador of the King of France 
 at Venice, as soon as he heard that the Council was 
 ended, writ a letter to his master ; in the which he 
 said, that his and his colleague's absence (for he had 
 been ambassador at Trent) in the two last sessions was 
 very advantageous ; because by their presence they 
 might have prejudiced the liberty and prerogative of 
 the Gallican Church, and of the Crown ; for he did 
 consider that in the four and twentieth session, in 
 the fifth the eighth and the twentieth heads, it was 
 enacted, that the causes of Bishops should be 
 brought to Rome against the privilege of France, 
 which implied that those causes should never go out 
 of the kingdom ; that the Pope was denominated 
 " Vescovo delta chiesa uuiversale" a title always con- 
 tradicted by the King's ambassadors ; and that there 
 were other things enough, from whence it would ne- 
 cessarily follow that the Pope was above the Council, 
 against the opinion of France and of the Sorbonne/ 
 which had always been there defended by them eon- 
 junctly with the Cardinal of Lorrain, the Bishops* 
 and the French Divines a . 
 
 ,',:-, ^ 
 
 a P. 1037. 
 
 It
 
 FROM PAUL III. TO PIUS V. 419 
 
 It may very well be wondered at, that the Pope CHAP. 
 was so much displeased (as it was then generally The t ^ 
 known he was) with his Legates upon the perusal of Bulls of 
 
 Pope Pius 
 
 the decrees, when he had such a plenitude of power iv. pub- 
 of his own to add to, or alter, or reverse whatsoever ri 
 was done in the Council, and to give any thing 
 
 himself which he could not persuade them to do, as Trent ' m f 
 
 1 . support of 
 
 he did by his transcendant Bull for the confirmation the inqui- 
 and publication of the canons of that Council; which f or 
 
 as they altered and added very many articles to the 
 Christian faith, (so that very many are to be damned ^ e t 
 now for not believing many things which they might Council 
 have been saved without believing before,) so, by his 
 Bull, he hath created to himself quite another and a 
 greater dependance upon himself of the whole Ca^- 
 tholic Clergy within the precincts of the Roman 
 Church, and a less subjection to their own natural 
 Kings and Princes, than they were ever subject to be- 
 fore ; which how it comes to be suffered in those 
 provinces where the Council itself hath neyer be# 
 admitted, I cannot comprehend; except it be that 
 they know it to be invalid, and never distinguish in 
 criminal cases in their proceedings between Clergy 
 and Laity, but prosecute both by the same process ; 
 of all which somewhat more will be added anon. 
 
 But Pope Pius did yet supply himself with another 
 weapon out of liis own forge, upon which he more 
 depended for the defence and propagation of his new 
 faith, than upon his Bull or his canons. This was 
 another omnipotent Bull, which he published during 
 the sitting of that Council, and before its dissolution, 
 whereby he provided that, " iNauisiTORES h&retica 
 " pravitatis, non teneantur publicare dicta testium 
 " contrh schismaticos vel h&ret'wos examina.torum> ne-
 
 420 PAPAL USURPATIONS, &c. 
 
 CHAP. " quc rationem redder e de processibus alt en ^ qi/am 
 
 ' " Romano Pontifid aut supremis INQ.UISITORIBUS afma 
 
 " urbis :" and, that nobody may be terrified by the 
 power and greatness of any heretics or schisma- 
 tics from discovering or accusing, it secures them, 
 that no men, " qui schismaticos sen h&reticos hvjus- 
 " modi revelaverint, sen contra eos deposuerint, et tes- 
 " tificaverint" shall ever have their names known or 
 revealed ; which is such a devastation and eradicat- 
 ing all the elements of justice and prudence, and 
 with them of all the security and liberty that is due 
 to mankind, that it is hitherto held too brutal to be 
 received in any Catholic dominions, those only of 
 the Pope himself, and of the King of Spain, excepted: 
 and even those territories of theirs, where the same 
 hath been admitted, have undergone that curse of 
 leanness and barrenness, that they have yielded no 
 one man of that eminence of parts, or acuteness of 
 learning, (besides the deluge of ignorance, laziness, 
 and want of courage that hath overwhelmed them,) 
 with which those provinces heretofore plentifully 
 supplied the schools and the armies of all other parts 
 of Europe. And so we take our leave for the present 
 of Pius, to take a short view of the actions of his suc- 
 cessor.
 
 RELIGION AND POLICY. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON.
 
 ftOIOI 

 
 RELIGION AND POLICY 
 
 AND THE 
 
 COUNTENANCE AND ASSISTANCE 
 
 EACH SHOULD GIVE TO THE OTHER. 
 
 WITH A SURVEY" 
 
 OF THE 
 
 POWER AND JURISDICTION OF THE POPE 
 
 IN THE 
 
 DOMINIONS OF OTHER PRINCES. 
 
 LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, 
 
 AND 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 
 
 VOLUME THE SECOND. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. 
 MDCCCXI.
 
 I5J8AT
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS. 
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 
 
 1566 1621. 
 
 Pius V. his character. 'Excommunicates and deposes Queen 
 Elizabeth. 'Election of Gregory XIII. Massacre of St. 
 Barthelemi. Special privileges conferred on the Jesuits. 
 Henry III. of France. Wars of the League in France. 
 Character of Sixtus V. his proceedings for and against the 
 League. Excommunication and assassination of Henry III. 
 Papal bulls condemned by the parliaments and clergy of 
 France. Clement VIII.-^-Henry IV. of France reconciled 
 to the Church of Rome-^ refuses to publish the Council of 
 Trent in France. Paul V. his disputes and war with the 
 Venetians excommunication and interdict of the Republic. 
 Negotiations of Cardinal Joyeuse their absolution by 
 Cardinal Joyeuse in the Pope's name. 
 
 CH. VIII. p. 421524. 
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 1621 1670. 
 
 Change in the Policy of the Court of Rome. Repullication of 
 the Bullarium. Gregory XV. Ludovico 'his Bulls " De 
 
 " Electione
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 " Elections Summi Pontificis" and " Contra Hasreticos" 
 - his character. Urban VIII. Barber mi -his conduct and 
 character. Richelieu and OTwarez their characters com- 
 pared. France and Spain deny the Pope's Supremacy. 
 Urban VIII. makes war upon the Duke of Parma for the 
 Duchy of Castro prohibits the observance of peace in Ger- 
 mdny- his canonizations his Bulls respecting Images and 
 Snuff, and for suppression of the Jesuit esses* ^Innocent X. 
 his character. Donna Olimpiy. The Barberinis perse- 
 cuted by The Pope reinstated by Cardinal Mazarin. 
 Controversy between the Jesuits and Jansenists. The Je- 
 suits maintain the Pope's infallibility in matter of fact as 
 well as of faith. Pascal's Provincial Letters their merit 
 and effect. Alexander VII. Chigi his character and con- 
 duct towards his family. Embassy of the Duke de Crequy 
 to Rome. Affray with the Corsican Guard-^ resentment of 
 the King of France and humiliation of the Pope. Cle- 
 ment IX. Rospiglioso his character and conduct expedi- 
 tion for the relief of Candia, and its failure. Clement X. 
 AltierL CH. IX. p. 525647. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Result of this Inquiry. Concluding observations on The 
 Pope's usurped Supremacy* ist. Its mischievous effects 
 instanced in the separation of the Eastern and Western 
 Churches. Crusades against Christian Princes. Excom- 
 munications for temporal ends. Deprivation of Sovereigns 
 in the cases of Naples and Navarre. Disobedience to the 
 Papal Jurisdiction in civil matters made Heresy. Massacre 
 of St. Barthelemi. Plot for murdering Queen Elizabeth. 
 Support given to the League in France and to the Re- 
 bellion in Ireland. idly. The Pope's Supremacy no part of 
 the Catholic faith in Catholic countries denied in Germa- 
 ny, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. ^dly. The duty of 
 Catholic subjects in a Protestant country. Necessity for 
 
 ihe
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 the Priests as well as the Laity to abjure the Pope's Su- 
 premacy ecclesiastical as well as temporal. Unaltered 
 spirit of the Church and Court of Rome. Impossibility of 
 reconciling the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.. 
 National Councils the best conservators of Christian Reli- 
 gion, Of the repeal of penalties, and admission of Ca- 
 tholics to all privileges in the state and the providing 
 them with ecclesiastical teachers. 
 
 CHAP. X. p. 648 711. 
 
 V
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Pius V. A. D. 1566. to Gregory XV. A. D. 1621. 
 Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth Massacre 
 of iSf. Barthelemi Wars of the League in France 
 Excommunication of the Republic of Venice. 
 
 U PON the death of Pius, and after a very long and Election of 
 a very factious conclave, the Cardinal Alessandro was His cha- 
 chosen Pope ; who, to shew the veneration he had 
 for his predecessor, assumed his name, and was called 
 Pius the Fifth ; but quickly shewed that he had much 
 more affection for the memory of Paul the Fourth 
 than of Pius the Fourth, by reversing the memorable 
 and just judgment pronounced by his predecessor 
 himself in full consistory upon the two nephews of 
 Paul the Fourth, for several the most horrid assassi- 
 nations and murders, and other crimes and misde- 
 meanors; which, with those circumstances, have been 
 in all times and all countries capital ; and for which 
 they were both put to death ; the Cardinal, by the 
 privilege of his purple, having been strangled in 
 prison, and the Duke publicly beheaded on a scaf- 
 fold, with two of his nearest friends and kindred. 
 
 F f And
 
 422 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. And now, near six years after, this new Pope caused 
 the process to be re-examined, reversed the sen- 
 tence, declared the family restored to its honour 
 without blemish, and to inherit all the lands and 
 goods which had been forfeited, and (which was a 
 thing monstrous and unheard of) caused the Trea- 
 surer Pallantieri, a man of an unblemished reputa- 
 tion, to be beheaded for having deceived the late 
 Pope, and having overcharged those miserable men 
 in the drawing up and relation of their trial ; when 
 the whole process had been (as hath been said be- 
 fore) deliberately read and perused in consistory, 
 and the sentence given by the Pope himself; which 
 proceeding made all men observe that the temporal 
 law did not less depend upon the determination of 
 the Pope's private spirit, than the spiritual. Of the 
 last of these he found that the so late Council of 
 Trent had already so much need, that by a Bull, in 
 which he declared, that " ad Romanum spectat Pon- 
 " tificem sud sollicitudine dillgenter providere, ut sa^ 
 " crorum Conciliorum decreta, ita SUCB declarations 
 " adminiculo dilucidentur quod nulla desuper dubi- 
 " tandi occasio cuiquam relinquatur :" and thereupon 
 he made an interpretation upon the third chapter in 
 the four and twentieth session, " circa sponsalia vel 
 " matrimonia^ manifestly contrary to the sense and 
 purpose of the Council. Indeed this Pope scattered 
 abroad his Bulls into all quarters of the world, as if 
 he had been universal Monarch, as well as universal 
 Bishop ; nor doth he assume a less style to himself 
 in his Bull, by which " Cosmus Medices reipub. Flo- 
 " rejitincR duo?, ejusque successores magni duces Etru- 
 " rue creantur ;" in which he says, that " Romanus 
 " Pontifex in exceho militantis ecclesia throno, dis- 
 
 " ponentt
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 423 
 
 ponente Domino super gentes et regna constitu- CHAP. 
 tus fyc." But the Princes of that time were so far 
 
 from believing him, that not only men out of Italy, 
 but the Princes in Italy of the age in which he lived, 
 not one ever gave him that title, and many are of 
 opinion that the wise Cosmus never had desired it 
 from the Pope : but certain it is, that he did after- 
 wards much endeavour to procure the Emperor to 
 confirm it, which he always refused to do. 
 
 That he might give as great an instance of 
 power in pulling down, as he had done in building Queen EIJ- 
 up, and that he might shew how much more power deprives*" 
 the Pope hath than a General Council pretends 
 have, he made no scruple of doing what that had so 
 lately refused to do ; and he issued out his Bull of 
 excommunication against Queen Elizabeth, and all 
 who adhered to her; with that horrible preamble, to 
 the scandal and reproach of all the Kings and 
 Princes of the earth ; " Regnans in excelsis, cui data 
 " est omnis in ccelo, et in terra potestas, unam Sane- 
 " tarn Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam, extra 
 " quam nulla est sains, uni soli in t err is, videlicet 
 " Apostolorum Principi, Petro, Petrique successor i 
 " Romano Pontifici in potestatis plenitudine tradidit, 
 " gubernandam ; hunc unum super omnes gentes, et 
 " omnia regna Principem constituit qui evellat, destruat, 
 11 dissipet, disperdat, plantet et (Rdificet fyc. Illius ita- 
 " que aulhoritate suffulti, qui Nos in hoc supremo jus- 
 " titice throno, licet tanto oneri impares, voluit collo-* 
 " care, de Apostolica, potestatis plenitudine, declara- 
 " mus pr &dict am Elizabeth h&reticam, et hareticorum 
 " fautricem, eique adhaRrentes in pr&dictis, anathema- 
 " tis sententiam incurrisse, esseque a Christi corporis 
 " ujiitate pr&cisos? And so he proceeds to the ab- 
 
 F f 2 solving
 
 424 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, solving all her subjects from the oaths of fidelity 
 
 L_ which they had taken to her, deprives her of all her 
 
 kingdoms and dominions, and condemns all who 
 shall adhere to her, or submit to her government, 
 under the same censure and excommunication. And 
 can any body wonder that this great Queen (to whom 
 all Christian Princes of the age paid more reverence 
 than to any other King or Queen in the world) 
 should comply with the just jealousy of her sub- 
 jects, in providing the strictest laws against the emis- 
 saries of such a tyrannical usurper, and against all 
 those who, submitting to his authority, were like to 
 conspire with them against her person, and the peace 
 of the kingdom ; of which they gave too frequent in- 
 stances. This is the greatest monument that un- 
 godly Pope raised and left to the world of his being 
 Pope, and for which all good Catholics themselves 
 detest his memory. Nor is there, over and above 
 that frantic Bull mentioned before against the Queen 
 and Kingdom of England, any other memorial of 
 him, than that he was so poor and obscure a person 
 in birth and fortune, that, fifteen years before he was 
 chosen Pope, he came to Rome on foot for want of 
 a beast to carry him ; and except the notable actions 
 which have preserved the memory of the time of his 
 six years reign, namely, the battle of Lepanto, the 
 loss of the island of Cyprus, and the woful tragedy 
 of the greatest Prince in Christendom put to death 
 by his own father. 
 
 Gregory Upon the death of Pius the Fifth, there was so 
 great a consent in the conclave, that, within less than 
 four and twenty hours after it met, all the Cardinals 
 by adoration elected the Cardinal Buoncompagno, 
 who took the style of Gregory the Thirteenth: which 
 
 give*
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 425 
 
 gives us occasion properly in this place to observe CHAP. 
 
 (for after this time there is, I think, no difference in ' 
 
 the account) the irreconcileable disagreement that is 
 between the Catholic writers of the Pontifical his- 
 tory ; for in some, this Gregory the Thirteenth is 
 reckoned the two hundred fifty-fourth Pope from St. 
 Peter, as by the Spaniards, I think all ; whereas by 
 others, both French and Italian, he is looked upon 
 but as the two hundred and thirtieth ; and this pro- 
 bably proceeds from the different concessions and ac- 
 ceptations of the several nations, which in the fre- 
 quent schisms that have fallen out, have preserved 
 the memory only of him who was by them received 
 and acknowledged to be Pope. It is harder to find 
 a reason how some come to be recorded as Popes 
 when no schism hath been, who not only were never 
 in that station, but want good evidence of having 
 been in the state of nature ; as of him who passed 
 under the name of John the Eighth in some Ponti- 
 ficals, and who, they say, was an English woman, 
 who is reckoned to have succeeded Leo the Fourth 
 about the year eight hundred fifty-nine, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Benedict the Third ; and there are be- 
 tween Leo the Fourth and that John, (who is gene- 
 rally accounted the Eighth,) three or four Popes. 
 Be it true or false, (as I am inclined to think it to be 
 a mere fable,) it owes its original to Catholic autho- 
 rity ; the first mention of it being only to be found 
 amongst them. However that, and the different ac- 
 count of the number, (as in this of Gregory the Thir- 
 teenth,) shews how hard a task they have to trace 
 that authority they would have to reside in the 
 Pope, in a direct line from St. Peter, when they do 
 
 rf\3 not
 
 426 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, not agree who have been his successors, or upon the 
 
 VIII. f ., 
 
 number or them. 
 
 His cha- Gregory the Thirteenth was seventy years of age 
 when he was chosen Pope, but had all the frantic 
 passion of anger and rage that youth was ever pos- 
 sessed with, and outdid all the Gregories who had 
 been before him in acts of blood and cruelty, and 
 kindled that civil war in France which destroyed so 
 many millions of men, and could not be quenched 
 with the blood of the greatest Princes of Europe, 
 and was inflamed by him till the whole royal family 
 was consumed, which by his instigation had de- 
 stroyed so many. And if the actions of this one Pope 
 and his successor (though they did but tread in the 
 footsteps of some of their predecessors) were but well 
 weighed and considered by all Kings and Princes of 
 the Christian faith, there would need no other argu- 
 ment to convince them how impossible it is that 
 God should ever give the Bishop of Rome that 
 power and authority which he impiously assumes 
 and usurps as his deputy; and how insecure and mi- 
 serable they must always be, (because in some time 
 they may be so,) whilst those men do but imagine, 
 and other men believe, they have a supreme power 
 in what case soever over their persons subjects or do- 
 minions. 
 
 Massacre of He was chosen in that infamous year fifteen hun- 
 
 St. Barthe- , , , 
 
 lemi. dred seventy-two ; and, as soon as he was chosen, 
 very cheerfully, and without any of those pauses 
 which naturally attend such transactions, he granted 
 the dispensation for the Prince of Navarre (who was 
 afterwards Harry the Fourth) to be married to the 
 Princess Margaret ; which no importunity could pre- 
 vail with his predecessor to consent to ; and his 
 
 doing
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 427 
 
 doing so made it believed that he was privy to the CHAP. 
 end and purpose of that marriage. Notorious it is, - 
 that he had no sooner notice of that barharous and 
 inhuman Massacre of St. Barthelemi, than he went 
 himself in the most solemn procession to the church 
 of St. Lewis in Rome, to give God thanks for that 
 happy victory; and shortly after sent an extraordi- 
 nary Nuncio to that King to congratulate with him 
 for his conquest over so many of his enemies, and to 
 advise him to prosecute the same method of revenge 
 and justice until he had rooted out all the heretics, 
 and not left a single man to reproach him with it : 
 a Massacre, in which, in the first night in Paris, 
 where it begun, there were killed above five thousand 
 men, of whom there were between six and seven 
 hundred gentlemen of quality, whereof no one had 
 his sword in his hand ; and, within few days after, 
 in Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Lyons, Orleans, and two or 
 three other towns, Monsieur Mezeray accounts there 
 perished five and twenty thousand men women and 
 children : (and this carnage was prosecuted through- 
 out the kingdom for the space of near, if not full, a 
 month ; and for this butchery, this anti-christian 
 Gregory makes a formal procession to give God 
 thanks, and sends the Nova buona to the most Chris- 
 tian King:) a Massacre attended and accompanied 
 with all the foul dissimulation and most horrid per- 
 jury that ever added to the deformity of any wicked- 
 ness, that the authors and conductors of it were 
 ashamed and forsworn in the very act of executing 
 it ; and the memory whereof is more preserved and 
 propagated by the most exemplary vengeance that 
 God inflicted upon the principal authors and con- 
 trivers of it, than by its cruelty ; the whole fruitful 
 
 F f 4
 
 428 
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 Privileges 
 of the Je- 
 suits in- 
 creased. 
 
 CHAP, race of that miserable Queen, who principally moulcl- 
 
 ' ed the whole machine, being in few years extirpated 
 
 from the earth, and the crown settled upon his head, 
 and continued to his posterity, whose destruction and 
 murder was the chief end of that monstrous design : 
 a Massacre, that all pious Catholics, in the time in 
 which it was committed, decried abominated and 
 detested : nor hath any Protestant writer mentioned 
 it with more bitterness and aversion, than those two 
 judicious Catholic historiographers Thuanus and Me- 
 zeray have done ; whilst Gregory alone paid his de- 
 votions for it ; nor hath it been celebrated by any of 
 that party, (how many soever cruelly concurred in 
 it,) but some Jesuits, from whom he well deserved it. 
 And it was wisely done of that Pope, when he re- 
 solved to cherish and promote that kind of warfare, 
 in taking care to advance and countenance a militia 
 that was most proper for it. And therefore, as there 
 was no Pope, or but one, (from the time of the first 
 institution of that society by Paul the Third,) who 
 had not given some new access and testimony of his 
 grace and favour to it ; so Gregory the Thirteenth 
 (who looked farther into the use 'of it) did not con- 
 tent himself with one single act of bounty to them, 
 but poured out and even emptied his whole treasure 
 of concessions and privileges, to enable them for any 
 services they should dedicate themselves to by his 
 appointment. That they may not be too intent upon, 
 and tired with those devotions which other religious 
 orders are liable to and exercised with, and that the 
 other more ancient orders may not be taken notice 
 of to precede them, he grants by a special Bull, that 
 " Religiosi et persona societatls Jesu, ad publicas pro- 
 (( ccssiones accedere non cogantur ;" in which he 
 
 takes
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 429 
 
 takes notice, that " nonnulll locorum ord'mariL forsan CHAP. 
 
 . , VIII 
 
 " Concilii Tridentini authoritate et decreto moti" had - ' 
 
 compelled some Jesuits to attend such religious ex- 
 ercises, " non sine illorum functionum et minis terio- 
 il rum retardations ;" and therefore he did absolve 
 them from all those and the like attendances. By 
 another Bull he grants them liberty that " ubique 
 " ecclesicB) et domus &dificari possint" (notwithstand- 
 ing any privileges granted, or to be granted, to other 
 orders, " quod prope eorum loca nova monasteries 
 " coiistrui nequeant,} because he could not but take 
 notice that his dearly beloved sons, " Presbyteri ve- 
 " nerabilis societatis Jesu in vinea Domini tanquam 
 " fructifcri palmites in toto fere orbc, optimum et 
 " uberrimumfructum attulerant Sfc." Then, lest their 
 great revenues (they being founded in poverty, and 
 by a special Bull of his predecessor, declared to be 
 " vere de ordinibus mendicantibus''] should be taken 
 notice of, by which they might be liable to pay a 
 little out of the much they receive, he grants them 
 by another Bull an exemption " a solutione et prce- 
 f( statione decimarum, et aliorum onerum quorumcun- 
 
 We of England had a more particular obligation English 
 
 U" f I? A f .college 
 
 to him, tor his care and provision tor our peace and founded 
 quiet, by his erecting a college in Rome only for the at 
 maintenance and support of those " juvenes ex illo 
 " miserrimo regno hue profugientes qui, d'wino spi- 
 " ritu ducti" had left their country parents and es- 
 tates, only to be brought up and instructed in the 
 Catholic Religion ; and, being so, that they may re- 
 turn into their native country, " ad alios, qui a via 
 " veritatis declinavcri?it, erudiejidos :" and there is a 
 special clause in the Bull, that every scholar, after he 
 
 is
 
 430 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, is admitted, and hath betaken himself to his studies 
 - ' for some time, " Jur amentum prccstet se vitam eccle- 
 t( siasticarn producturum, seque omni tempore ad jus- 
 " sum superiorum in patriam revertendi/m, et ad ani- 
 " mas quantum in Domino potuerit adjuvandas para- 
 " turn fore i" and, being thus disposed and resolved, 
 " sacerdotali militia; pro temporis vel loci necessitate 
 " ascribere fyc. promoveri possint extra tempora et 
 u absque ordinariorum litcris dimissoriis , et sine titulo, 
 " et non obstante defectu natalium :" so ready they 
 are to dispense with the most ancient and most es- 
 tablished canons of their own Church and Religion, 
 and most generally received, that they may have an 
 opportunity to disturb and betray their neighbours. 
 Special pri- In order to this, it was a very signal provision that 
 given to the was made by this Pope by another Bull, by which 
 trary toThe " usus ultaris portatUis Religiosis societatis Jesu re- 
 " stituitur, non obstante Concilii Tridentini disposi- 
 
 of Trent. tione? This had been granted to them by Paul 
 the Third, in regard of their missions to the Indies, 
 upon which they then seemed wholly intent; but by 
 the Council of Trent expressly and universally for- 
 bidden ; but now, " vobis eateniis restituimus, ut pres- 
 " byteri vestri (all the Jesuits) Missce sacrificium licite 
 " valeant celebrare super hujusmodi altari ubique gen- 
 " tiumr It is worth the observation, that all this fa- 
 therly care for our country, and those and other mul- 
 tiplied concessions to those his sons, were granted in 
 that time, when the great preparations were making 
 in Spain for that invasion, and other designs were 
 contriving against the life of Queen Elizabeth ; to all 
 which this Pope was privy, as shall appear hereafter, 
 though he died before it was ripe. But the two last 
 signal Bulls, which he granted to them in the year 
 
 fifteen
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 431 
 
 fifteen hundred eighty-four, (a little before his own CHAP. 
 
 death, and after his age of fourscore and three,) are L - 
 
 the lasting monuments that this peaceable spirit left 
 him not till his own sudden expiration. And the 
 great use he made of those precious and faithful in- 
 struments must not be unmentioned ; the one is, 
 that which is called " Approbat'w tertia mstituti et 
 " constitutionum Religionis clericorum regularmm so- 
 " cietatis Jesu fyc" in which is that extraordinary and 
 memorable and abominable preface ; " Ascendentc 
 " Domino et Salvatore nostro in naviculam, ecce motus 
 " magnus factus est in mari, ipse autem a discipulis 
 " rogatus vcntis imperavit, et facta est tranquillitas, 
 " quam Nos in Petri naviculd collocati turbinibus ecc- 
 " citatis, fyc. nostram interea operam et laborem in 
 " frangendis procellosis fluctibus impendere non de- 
 " sistimus : then he thanks God for his great provi- 
 dence for assisting him with those " validos remiges" 
 who are ready to perform all offices which he should 
 require from them ; and therefore it concerned him 
 to cherish and protect " et ab omni non modo injurid, 
 " sed etiam calmnnia tenemur intactos conservare :" 
 and to that purpose, to those who shall make the 
 fourth vow, " specialis Summo Pantijici obedientia cir- 
 " ca missiones prastandtf, ob certiorem Spiritus Sancti 
 " in missionibus ipsis directionem ac majorem ipsorum 
 " mittendorum sedl Apostolica obedientiam, majorem- 
 " que devotionem, humilitatem, mortifaationem ac vo- 
 " luntatum abnegationem fyc." he will not have them 
 pretend to any preference or dignity, within or with- 
 out the society ; nor out of the society they shall not 
 consent to any such election made in their favour, 
 " nisi coacti obedientid ejus qui ab ipsis possit sub 
 " poend peccati pr&cipere :" and all this they may 
 
 safely
 
 432 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, safely do, having good reason to be assured that their 
 want of ambition shall, by the especial care and pro- 
 vision of the Master to whom alone they have dedi- 
 cated all their obedience, not turn to their preju- 
 dice. 
 
 It would have required a very strong and fertile 
 invention, after the multiplication of so many dona- 
 tives graces and concessions by one Pope, added to 
 the full heap of what had been before granted by so 
 many of his predecessors, to have found any defect 
 of power by which the Jesuits could be restrained 
 from doing any mischief they were inclined or di- 
 rected to do : but this careful Pope discerned, that 
 men of such sagacity ought to be trusted to do what- 
 soever they thought would be agreeable to their 
 great Master's will or wish ; though some formali- 
 ties were wanting in them, which to all other men of 
 less pregnancy were even necessary qualifications ; 
 and without which they could not perform their of- 
 fices : and therefore by his last Bull, very few 
 months before his death, he granted " quod religiosi 
 " societatis clericorum Regularium *7esu, etiam sacris 
 " ordinibus non initiati verbum Dei pradicare possint? 
 Also, that there might no scruples arise amongst 
 themselves in this point of their incompetency, " De- 
 " claramus, uc etiam decernimus vestrum unicuique 
 " etiam ad sac.ros ordmes non promoto, pr&dicationis 
 " munus in vim privilegii hujusmodi exercere posse fyc. 
 " et valeant de'mceps ipsum verbum Dei, nbique populo 
 " prccdicare" Since it is no new tenet, and was the 
 sole excuse or justification which a gentleman, who 
 suffered in the Gunpowder Treason, made for himself 
 in that infamous and odious conspiracy, " Deus est 
 " Papa, et Papa est Deus ;" it may be no breach of 
 
 charity,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 433 
 
 charity, especially considering what this Pope did af- CHAP, 
 
 terwards, (though he did not do half of that kind 
 
 which he intended to have done,) to believe that this 
 qualification he dispensed, " ipsum Dei verbum pra- 
 " dicare" was in his own purpose and intention, and 
 in theirs who were thus employed by him, to have 
 no other measure of the " verbum Dei," but as it was 
 "verbum Po-ntificis '," and to proceed accordingly. 
 However, as in the other courts of Princes, they who 
 in the public view receive so great and so frequent 
 promotions and benefits above all other men, are 
 sure to undergo a greater measure and burden of 
 envy and malice and jealousy, than others to whom 
 graces are more moderately dispensed ; so the good 
 fathers of that society (which hath yielded, since the 
 foundation of it in most parts of Europe, men of as 
 signal and profound learning, and, no doubt, of as ac- 
 complished virtue and piety, as any other province 
 of learning whatsoever) must not wonder if these 
 plentiful showers of munificence, from those who 
 claim a prerogative and sovereignty in the dominions 
 of all Kings and Princes, makes them more than or- 
 dinarily jealous, at least less confident than ordinary, 
 of that class of men, who have vowed their subjec- 
 tion to one only Monarch, and not to him to whom 
 nature hath subjected them ; which jealousy cannot 
 but be much increased if they are versed in history, 
 and know to what uses they were employed after this 
 Pope had cultivated and prepared them by those boun- 
 ties, to be proper instruments for all his commands. 
 
 When Charles the Ninth of France, who from Henry IIL 
 that fatal night of St. Barthe'lemi (to the transac- 
 tions whereof he had been too much an eye-witness) 
 never enjoyed that tranquillity and serenity of mind 
 
 which
 
 434 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, which he had formerly been master of, was dead, 
 
 VIII 
 
 ^ (and he had long before his death manifested an aver- 
 sion from all those who had led him to that odious 
 resolution, which all the Catholic historians believe 
 to have hastened his death ; for they observe, that, 
 after the Poland commissioners or deputies had pre- 
 sented his brother, the Duke of Anjou, with the act 
 of their election of him, to be their King, and all the 
 solemnities of his and their parts were passed in Pa- 
 ris with all magnificence, in the presence of Charles, 
 all delays for his journey thither were sought for, 
 and found by the Queen Mother, and by Harry 
 himself; so much to the dissatisfaction of the King 
 of France, who before this time found the vigour of 
 his body to decrease no less than the peace of his 
 mind, that he appointed a day in which his brother 
 should begin his journey, and, finding new delays to 
 be interjected, told him plainly, that one of them 
 two should go out of France by the day prefixed, 
 and when the Queen could by this means no longer 
 defer their parting, she accompanied him to the bor- 
 ders of Lorrain, and there, in the tempest of tears 
 and sighs at parting, told him imprudently, (as Me- 
 zeray confesses,) that he should not be long absent;) 
 I say, when Charles was dead, and Harry the Third 
 became King, he quickly discovered the same tem- 
 per of mind to be in him, that the dead King had 
 manifested ; that is, to unite all his subjects, and to 
 govern France in peace ; which neither his mother, 
 nor any of those to whom he had too much adhered 
 formerly, did desire. 
 
 Besides his own recollections and reflections, 
 (which he had reason and time enough to make in 
 that cold country, from which he had made all inde- 
 cent
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 435 
 
 cent haste to rescue himself,) when he assumed his CHAP. 
 
 own shape again, and in his return was treated in all ' 
 
 courts according to his dignity, he found that amongst 
 Catholics, as well as Protestants, the dismal triumph, 
 of St. Barthelemi was mentioned with equal horror. 
 And the Emperor, who had entertained him six or 
 seven days at Vienna with all princely magnificence, 
 at parting advised him, that, as soon as he returned, 
 he would take the government into his hands, and 
 make a peace with those of the reformed religion, as 
 the only means to cast the odium of that infamous 
 act from himself upon those who had counselled it. 
 Whether those so reiterated animadversions, or the 
 thoughts which could hardly not arise from his own 
 heart, or whether his nature was more disposed to ease 
 and luxury, than would consist with the fatigue of a 
 war, that must be carried on with such incessant la- 
 bour, certain it is, that he quickly manifested a greater 
 desire of peace with the Huguenots, than a resolution 
 to extirpate them, which was the only remedy that the 
 Queen, and all who adhered to her, meant to apply. 
 
 No man was more startled with this unexpected Conduct of 
 change in the King than Pope Gregory, who promised 
 himself new massacres in all places, till there should 
 not be a Huguenot left in France. The contrary re- 
 solution, which he discovered to be in Charles, had 
 made him withdraw his good opinion from that Prince, 
 and as much to long for the establishment of Harry, 
 as the Queen his mother did. But now, when he dis- 
 covered himself to be deceived likewise in that expec- 
 tation, he commanded his Nuncio to interpose for the 
 prevention of all treaties towards peace, and to con- 
 ipire diligently with the Queen Mother, the Duke 
 f Guise, and all those who adhered to them in op- 
 posing
 
 436' PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, posing it, or in breaking it when concluded. They 
 -made the King's inclination and propensity to peace 
 
 to be a clear demonstration of his affection to the re- 
 ligion of the Huguenots, and persuaded the people 
 that his affection to the King of Navarre, and the 
 Prince of Cond, (with whom he desired to preserve 
 a peaceable intelligence,) proceeded from his aversion 
 to the Catholic religion. And no man fomented this 
 opinion more in the hearts of the people than the 
 Pope's Nuncio, when no man knew better than he 
 the perfect hatred the King had against the religion 
 of the Huguenots, and the persons of all who pro- 
 fessed it, and that only the fear of that power which 
 they were like to get by a war, and the fear of that 
 power which the Duke of Guise had already got by 
 advancing the war, were the chief causes of his desire 
 of peace. 
 
 Wars of the Whilst the Pope had, by all the means he could 
 France.'" devise, inflamed the Queen Mother and the Duke of 
 Guise to the prosecution of the war, and to the di- 
 verting all thoughts of peace, and had likewise dis- 
 posed the King of Spain to offer the King his assist- 
 ance towards so holy a work, (which was indeed do- 
 ing his own work, by preventing a conjunction be- 
 tween his own rebels of the Low Countries with 
 those of France,) he proceeded then to work upon 
 the King by threats and menaces, how absolutely he 
 would be deserted by all his Catholic allies, and by 
 all his Catholic subjects, if he did not speedily wipe 
 off the reproach of being affected to the Huguenots : 
 and by these artifices the irresolute nature of the 
 poor King was prevailed with to sign that League, 
 which was contrived for his own destruction ; pre- 
 suming that he should have more power by being 
 
 the
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 437 
 
 the head of it, than hy opposing it under the disad- CHAP. 
 
 vantage of being thought to be no good Catholic : ' 
 
 and now, when he had qualified all his most implaca- 
 ble enemies to be of his own fraternity, they quickly 
 made it appear what their intention and purpose 
 was, and how confident they were of the Holy Fa- 
 ther's conjunction with them, in their utmost enter- 
 prises. 
 
 There cannot be a more lively description of theNcgoda- 
 progress they made, and the lawful and righteous Matthieu 
 ends they proposed to themselves, than by their elec- at 
 tion of the emissary they sent to the Pope for the 
 better receiving his advice and direction, who was 
 Pere Matthieu the Jesuit ; nor of his transaction in 
 this high trust, than by the account he gives of his 
 negociation (after he had full conference with the 
 Poj>e) to those by whom he was employed : and a 
 more authentic evidence of which cannot be given, 
 than out of so much of his own letters as are pub- 
 lished in the Memoirs of the Duke of Nevers, to 
 whom that letter of the eleventh of February, in the 
 year fifteen hundred eighty five, was writ and direct- 
 ed, and signed Claude Matthieu Jesuit, which may 
 be found in the 655th page of the first volume of 
 those Memoirs. The good Father, after a short apo- 
 logy for not giving an earlier account, (which he 
 knew his wisdom would excuse, since he knew that 
 aifairs of such importance cannot be done on the 
 sudden, and that they are always done soon enough, 
 when they are done well enough,) told him of the 
 time of his arrival at Rome ; that he had within 
 three days audience of the Pope, to whom he gave 
 his credential letters from him, Monsieur de Guise, 
 Cardinal de Guise, and the rest whom he names ; 
 
 g and
 
 438 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and that he then made him a large discourse con- 
 
 ' cerning the state of affairs, according to that memoir 
 
 which he had seen before he left Paris ; that he did 
 very easily make, the Pope believe all that was con- 
 tained in his instructions, for that he was already 
 enough informed about it; so that he was before his 
 arrival resolved publicly to declare the King of Na- 
 varre, and all the Princes of the blood, heretics, and 
 incapable to succeed to the kingdom of France, if he 
 had not been hindered by the remonstrance of some 
 Cardinals, who told him, that it was by no means ex- 
 pedient for him to make that declaration, until the 
 Catholics of the kingdom had their arms in their 
 hands, to put the sentence of the Pope in execution : 
 that the Pope questioned him very particularly con- 
 cerning every article of his instructions, and having 
 heard him very graciously, he said, this was an af- 
 fair of very great consequence for the service of God, 
 and of all Christendom ; and that he would address 
 himself unto Almighty God; and that he would well 
 and maturely consider of it, and have all that had 
 been said given to him in writing: and the Pope com- 
 manded him to communicate all to the Reverend Fa- 
 ther, the General of his order, to the end that, without 
 saying why, he might commend the business to the 
 prayers of the whole society; and that he (the General) 
 as well as the Father should give their opinion of it. 
 
 Some days after, the Pope having with two Car- 
 dinals, Palleve and Cosmo, maturely considered all, 
 and heard the General and him, resolved upon the 
 answer he would make ; and he was called by the 
 Cardinal Cosmo, Secretary to the Pope, who told 
 him the Pope's resolution, which he writ word by 
 word, and shewed it to the Cardinal, telling him 
 
 withal,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 439 
 
 withal, that it was a thing of so great importance, for CHAP. 
 
 the satisfaction of the consciences of the most con '* 
 
 scientious Princes, who had writ to his Holiness, 
 that he should be glad to carry the answer and reso- 
 lution in writing from the Pope, to the end that he 
 might not say any word in this resolution which pro- 
 ceeded not from his Holiness's own mouth ; which 
 the Cardinal thought very reasonable : and the Fa- 
 ther going the next, day to the Pope, he presented to 
 him what he had writ from the mouth of Cardinal 
 Cosmo, which he had read, and said he would keep 
 it two days by him, the better to consider upon it ; 
 after which he restored it to him in the following 
 form, word by word ; which is inserted in Italian in 
 that letter from the Father to the Duke of Nevers. 
 It said, that his Holiness, having well understood 
 and much considered what had been proposed on the 
 behalf of some Catholic Princes who had writ to his 
 Holiness, and of others their confederates, was very 
 glad of the good occasion that God had given them 
 to bring that to pass, which they had resolved upon : 
 that their first and principal intention being to take 
 up arms against the heretics of that kingdom, and 
 that they had means in all probability to render it 
 effectual, " Sua Santita consente, et lauda che lo fa- 
 " ciano, et leva loro ogni scrupulo di coscienza che 
 " per tal conto potessero havere fyc" He gave them 
 this answer upon the sixteenth of November fifteen 
 hundred eighty-four. 
 
 The Father proceeds farther, and says, that upon 
 the eighteenth of November he proposed to the 
 Pope, that it would be a great comfort to all those 
 Princes who should be engaged in this enterprise, if 
 he would give them a plenary indulgence in form of 
 
 G g 2 a ju-
 
 440 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, a jubilee, as also to all them who should assist them 
 
 VIII 
 
 in so holy a work ; which he granted. He said the 
 Cardinal de Cosmo was very zealous in this affair, 
 and the Pope much more ; who told him often, that 
 he feared lest the Catholics should be too slow in be- 
 ginning, and that the Heretics would prevent them ; 
 a thing he judged to be very dangerous, considering 
 the disposition of the state of the kingdom, and of 
 the neighbouring countries, as also of the King of 
 Navarre's being so near to the crown, and so zealous 
 for the Heretics ; so that he urged him to be gone, 
 and to be with them as soon as was possible. He 
 said, that as soon as they had begun, the Pope would 
 declare the King of Navarre, and the Prince of 
 Conde, incapable of succeeding to the crown, and he 
 would not fail to favour the undertaking by all means 
 imaginable ; and that he would send a Legate into 
 those parts if there should be need ; and would do 
 every thing which he thinks may serve for the justi- 
 fication of the cause before God, and before men. 
 
 The good Father gave a farther account to the Duke 
 of what passed after his return from Rome ; he told 
 him, that as he passed through Switzerland, Colonel 
 Pffeiffer assured him, that if he were acquainted with 
 the design a month or six weeks beforehand, he 
 would bring from thence six thousand of the best 
 men they had, and all Catholics ; provided that they 
 returned to him thirty thousand livres to Lucerne to 
 make the levy : he tells him that he was at last ar- 
 rived at Mousson, where he received express com- 
 mand not to enter into France for fear lest they should 
 have some suspicion of him : he said, that he had 
 seen Monsieur de Lorrain, who told him, that the 
 affairs were much more advanced than he imagined, 
 
 and
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 441 
 
 and that they were ready to begin : he said, he had CHAP, 
 sent one of the Fathers, who had accompanied him 
 in the journey, to Monsieur de Guise, and had writ 
 to him all the negotiation at large; upon which he 
 had sent an express to him, and did urge him very 
 earnestly to come to him to Joinville; he had never- 
 theless excused himself, as not being willing to give 
 suspicion to any body. He tells him, moreover, that 
 the Pope did not think fit that any attempt should 
 be made upon the King's life, since that could not 
 be done with a good conscience ; but if they could 
 seize upon his person, and remove from him those 
 who are the cause of the kingdom's ruin, and put in 
 their place some who might govern him, and give 
 him good counsel, and make him put it in execution, 
 that would be very well approved of; for under the 
 pretence of his authority, they might make them- 
 selves masters of all the cities and provinces of the 
 kingdom, and they might establish every thing as it 
 ought to be, and so shun an infinite number of mis- 
 fortunes, which would arrive if the King remain in 
 the condition he then was, and if he should be so ill 
 advised as to join with the Heretics against the Ca- 
 tholic Princes, as in all probability he would do. As 
 there was danger also that he might be followed by a 
 considerable party of Catholics, they might do well 
 to take that point into deliberation, which in his opi- 
 nion, he said, was the most important in all the en- 
 terprise, and yet it seemed no hard thing to him to 
 be performed : they were upon the place, and could 
 better judge of those means which ought to be ob- 
 served in order to the execution of it than others. 
 The good Father concluded, that if the Duke were 
 satisfied in his conscience, and resolved to be of the 
 
 G g 3 parly,
 
 442 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, party, he might be pleased to send some person to 
 
 ' him, in whom he had a firm trust, and he would go 
 
 along with him to the confines of Lorrain, to find 
 Monsieur de Guise, to make the last resolution con- 
 cerning the means, the day, and the persons, who 
 should execute the aforesaid undertaking ; and if the 
 Duke thought fit, he might write whatsoever he 
 pleased to command him in the cipher of the Scotch 
 ambassador. 
 
 Dr. Parry These are all the material points contained in that 
 encouraged ^^ Q Father Claude MatthieUj o f the eleventh of 
 
 SinSe 38 " February fifteen hundred eighty-five, of the truth of 
 Gueen Eli- everv p ar t thereof no man can doubt, since it is pub- 
 lished from the very original letter, which remained 
 in the custody of the Duke of Nevers : and the divi- 
 nity of the whole, and the care of the safety of the 
 King's person was agreeable to that Pope's practice, 
 in cases of the like nature : for when Dr. Parry, an 
 Englishman who had studied and taken his degree 
 in Physic at Padua, about the same time offered his 
 service to the Pope's Nuncio, and proposed to him 
 that he would kill Queen Elizabeth, and was willing 
 to make a journey to Rome to make the same over- 
 ture, the Nuncio (after he had informed the Pope of 
 it) persuaded him not to lose so much time in a jour- 
 ney to Rome, but satisfied him that it was lawful to 
 kill the Queen, provided that it was not out of ma- 
 lice, or for revenge, but only out of charity, and for 
 the advancement of Catholic religion ; and for the 
 better convenience of his journey he gave him the 
 Pope's own pass, which carried him into England ; 
 where, after few months, and upon evidence of his 
 intention to kill the Queen, he was condemned and 
 executed as a traitor. But as all Gregory's enter- 
 prises
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 443 
 
 prises and inventions upon England were by God's CHAP. 
 
 providence diverted and disappointed, so he lived not ' 
 
 to finish half the mischief that he had carefully de- 
 signed for France ; though he had so well set all the 
 wheels in motion, that the work was as well done as 
 if he had lived. Within few months after the date 
 of the Jesuit's letter, and upon a very short warning 
 for a soul so ill prepared for the next world, he was 
 killed by a quinsy very suddenly, and before any re- 
 medy could be applied ; so that he was dead before 
 any body in Rome knew that he w r as sick, and after 
 he had reigned above twelve years, and lived above 
 fourscore and three ; which obliges us to examine 
 how far the seeds which he had sown, and which 
 prospered so plentifully, and rendered so prodigious 
 a harvest in France, flourished likewise in Rome ; 
 and we shall there find how much better a casuist 
 his successor was, and opposed and contradicted all 
 the doctrine that had been preached by his predeces- 
 sor, as to the dictates of the Spirit. 
 
 Upon the death of Gregory, though no conclave sixtus V. 
 had been fuller of arts and faction, yet the heads of 
 every faction quickly discerned that they should not 
 be able to make either of those subjects they desired 
 to be elected ; and so they the sooner concurred in 
 the election of a person that neither of them did de- 
 sire : which he that writ the narrative of that con- 
 clave makes an argument of the sole power of the 
 Holy Ghost in those elections, that when, at the en- 
 trance into the conclave, there was no man less in 
 the opinion of men like to come out Pope than the 
 Cardinal of Montalto, he within fourteen days should 
 be elected both by adoration and scrutiny. He called 
 himself Sixtus the Fifth. 
 
 G g 4 Few
 
 444 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Few men of any condition have been more re- 
 ' markable than this Pope was through the whole of 
 
 His cha- 
 racter, his life. His birth and extraction could not be lower; 
 
 for he was taken by a charitable Friar from keeping 
 of pigs, which was his only livelihood about fifteen 
 or sixteen years of age, and placed in a monastery of 
 the Minor Conventuals of the order of St. Francis; 
 where there quickly appeared in him a great acute- 
 ness of wit, and a wonderful pregnancy of parts, but 
 withal such a pride and rancour of nature, such a 
 malice and appetite of revenge, that he was loved by 
 very few, and frequently removed from one house to 
 another by his superiors, only for preservation of the 
 peace of the convent. Yet the fame of his parts made 
 a much greater noise than his ill nature and ambi- 
 tion ; which was best, if not only, known to his own 
 order, to which he was always odious, and where all 
 who had ever oifended him underwent some chastise- 
 ment from him in the whole progress of his fortune ; 
 and when he was made General of his order (by the 
 omnipotency of Pius the Fifth, and against the ex- 
 press consent of the Electors, who had chosen an- 
 other) he took vengeance of all who had ever crossed 
 or offended him in that great body. 
 
 The same Pope made him a Cardinal, when he as- 
 sumed the title of Montalto, the place of his birth ; 
 and after that promotion, from an angry ambitious 
 and active course of life, he wholly changed his na- 
 ture, and his manners ; no man more civil to all con- 
 ditions of men, more humble, more retired from all 
 business, which in a short time gets the reputation of 
 devout: he built him a little house, in a bigger garden, 
 where he lived with a small family with great frugali-^ 
 ty, and seldom went out so much as to congregations, 
 
 except
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 445 
 
 except he was deputed; and seemed more to have CHAP. 
 
 A/I IT 
 
 abandoned the world, than when he was a poor Friar, -~ 
 
 and to be less exalted with his promotion. When Pius 
 the Fifth was dead, he entered into the conclave with 
 that simplicity and unactivity, that they who had 
 known him formerly believed him to be totally decay- 
 ed in his parts ; and they who had not known him 
 thought he never had any. He gave his vote as he was 
 directed by Cardinal Alessaridrino, (who was nephew 
 to his founder, the last Pope, and was glad to be in- 
 strumental in the election of Gregory the Thirteenth,) 
 upon whom he had attended as an officer in his fami- 
 ly, during the time of his being Legate in Spain; and 
 from whence the Legate (though he had much kind- 
 ness for him) was compelled to dismiss him for the 
 perpetual quarrels he had, and the dissension he 
 made amongst all the other officers of his family; 
 and so sent him before his own return to Rome, after 
 he had by his dexterity and learning got a good re- 
 putation in the court of Spain. As soon as the elec- 
 tion of Gregory was over, with whom it was believed 
 that he might have what degree of interest he would 
 desire, he returned to his little house and garden, 
 with the same narrow and contracted thoughts he 
 had carried from thence ; and in all that active reign 
 seldom appeared, except when any thing that con- 
 cerned the greatness and sovereignty of the Papacy 
 was upon any occasion brought into debate; and then 
 no man was more vigorous in the vindication and ad- 
 vancement of it above all earthly powers. In all other 
 affairs and contests he was so totally unconcerned, and 
 in preserving his dignity so negligent and careless, 
 that he often walked (when he was thought scarce able 
 to go) without a man, and farthest from the wall, that 
 
 he
 
 446 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, he might escape being jostled, and letting some part 
 
 ' of his robe hang in the dirt, that the people generally 
 
 believed him to be cracked in his understanding : 
 yet he was known to be charitable, and as great a 
 dispenser of alms, as could be administered from his 
 small visible revenue. This condition of life, during 
 the long reign of Gregory, made him so totally for- 
 gotten, that when he came out of the next conclave 
 Pope, there were very many in Rome who had never 
 seen him, though he had never been out of it. 
 Hisarti- The art that made him chosen Pope hath never 
 
 fices in the 
 
 qnciave. been made use or by any man since ; at least hath 
 never had success. To seem older than he was, and 
 more infirm and broken in health, is a vulgar arti- 
 fice, and naturally advances the pretence : but to ap- 
 pear weak, and almost a fool, and incompetent to 
 conduct any affairs of moment, was the first expedi- 
 ent that ever a candidate for the greatest government 
 in the world, and in the most active age, depended 
 upon ; and yet upon this was all his hope : though 
 his age was well known to many not to exceed three- 
 score and four, he seemed to be decrepit at the rate 
 of fourscore ; he supported himself in that manner 
 upon his staff, that he looked always as if he would 
 fall ; and when any of the Cardinals spoke to him of 
 the business of the conclave, he seemed not to under- 
 stand it, nor to be capable of acting any part towards 
 it ; so that they who had not been formerly ac- 
 quainted with him, wondered what was become of 
 those abilities which had brought him thither. He 
 visited the heads of the several factions with all hu- 
 mility, and promised every one of them his vote to 
 be disposed of as he thought fit. When they had 
 been long enough together to discover that any man 
 
 whom
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 447 
 
 whom either of them should set his heart upon CHAP. 
 
 would be excluded by the rest, some amongst the ' 
 
 rest nominated Montalto, and found not that aver- 
 sion from him that they expected. Alessandrino and 
 Rusticucci (the former whereof was nephew to Pius 
 the Fifth, who had raised Montalto, and was known 
 to hate him) one evening went to his cell, and told 
 him, that they believed that he would be chosen 
 Pope : upon which he smiled, and said, that if he 
 were chosen Pope, that they two must do all the busi- 
 ness, for he was sure he could do none of it himself: 
 and from that time both those Cardinals took all the 
 ways underhand to advance his election; which they 
 found the easier, by every man's believing that they 
 had no such design, and so never entered into a 
 combination to exclude him, which enough were 
 ready to have done, if they had thought the inten- 
 tion to be real. They then found, upon conference 
 with Cardinal Mandruccio, (the Cardinal of Austria 
 being likewise then in the conclave,) that Montalto 
 was one of those who would not be unacceptable to 
 that King ; whereupon they made haste to inform 
 their friends, whilst some did not yet believe it, and 
 others thought it too late to cross it, and so, when 
 they came next to the chapel, they all concurred in 
 the adoration. The good man, however, thought 
 that not enough, but desired that the scrutiny might 
 be called, and, whilst it was doing, he reckoned every 
 Cardinal as he was named, until he had passed such 
 a number as made the election sure ; and then he 
 threw away his staff, and walked as firmly to the 
 altar, as ever he had been able to do in his life. 
 
 From this minute he was a new and another man ; His change 
 his manners, his gait, his words were of another n 
 
 ture,
 
 448 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, ture, and fashion, and tune; and. that he might make 
 
 VIII 
 
 ' haste to undeceive the world, he sent for half a dozen 
 
 of the Cardinals to sup with him the first night, and 
 amongst them the two Cardinals, Alessandrino and 
 Rusticucci, and such of the rest as, from his profes- 
 sions, were like to promise themselves much interest 
 in him ; and they were no sooner sat at supper, than 
 he entertained them with discourse of the greatness 
 of the pontifical office, of the wisdom of God in con- 
 ferring it upon St. Peter alone, " Tibi dabo claves;" 
 and how much they had to answer, who, when they 
 were trusted alone, assigned it to friends or favour- 
 ites. In a word, from the hour of his Pontificate, he 
 governed as if he had been born to govern, not only 
 inferior people, but all the Kings and Princes of the 
 world ; and no man was ever thought to have in- 
 terest or credit enough with him, to divert him from 
 any resolution he had taken, or from any strong in- 
 clination. 
 
 Hisconfe- How far this Pope was from the judgment or con- 
 th^Duke science of his predecessor Gregory, cannot better ap- 
 deNevers. p car than by his behaviour to the Duke de Nevers; 
 nor can there be so good an account given of that as 
 by that Duke himself, which he gives us very parti- 
 cularly in the first volume of his Memoirs. It seems 
 that Duke (who was zealous in his religion, and 
 weak enough to be imposed upon, and had therefore 
 an implacable animosity against those of the reform- 
 ed religion, and so had been amongst the first who 
 had signed the Covenant, and had likewise signed the 
 letter mentioned before to the last Pope, and like- 
 wise the instruction given to the Jesuit, Claude Mat- 
 thieu) had still a purposed fidelity to the person of 
 the King, and for the conservation of the royal au- 
 thority
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. ,449 
 
 thority against all rebels whatsoever: and (as he CHAP. 
 
 says) as soon as he was a little descended from that ' 
 
 height, whither zeal, and the sense of injuries done 
 to his wife, had blindly carried him, it was no hard 
 thing for him to discover great pride hid under the 
 specious appearance of much piety ; and that the 
 good Cardinal of Bourbon was not so much the chief 
 and head, as pretext, and as it were the stalking 
 horse of his party; nevertheless, he would not openly 
 declare his suspicions until he had a clearer know- 
 ledge of their cause ; and, for fear he might appear 
 too light and inconstant, he continued yet firm for 
 some time in the resolution he had taken with the 
 Cardinal and Duke of Guise ; but he writ divers 
 letters to them, to oblige them to make such evident 
 and positive declarations to him of their intentions, 
 that he might have wherewith to convince them of 
 breach of promises, in case their actions should not 
 prove conformable to their words and letters. He 
 did not content himself in having done this, but 
 thought himself obliged in conscience to go to Rome, 
 and to consult the Pope in an affair of such conse- 
 quence. He rid post to Rome, and had several au- 
 diences of His Holiness. It was Sixtus the Fifth, 
 who had very lately mounted into St. Peter's chair, 
 by the sudden death of Gregory the Thirteenth. 
 
 He found this new Pope of a temper much differing His dip- 
 from that of his predecessor; he was a person who of the 
 was steadfast, clear-sighted, and penetrating into af- edguc 
 fairs, and who would not be abused or deceived with 
 the outward appearance of things. When the Duke 
 had given him an account of the cause of his jour- 
 ney, of the love which he had for the church, of the 
 fear he was in from the power of the Huguenots, and 
 
 of
 
 450 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of the torments and disquiets which he suffered in 
 
 his soul, as often as he thought of an heretic Prince's 
 
 being the next heir to the first crown of Christen- 
 dom ; the Pope commended his zeal, and comforted 
 his mind, (which was discomposed with such fears as 
 were not unbecoming the most generous and heroic 
 breast,) and made him clearly see, that those men 
 were rash and ill advised, who dared to lay their 
 hands on their swords ; that God's arm was as 
 strong as ever to protect his Church ; and, more 
 nearly observing the sincerity of this Prince, by the 
 tender expressions which discovered the very bot- 
 tom of his heart, he thought fit to remove that veil 
 from before his eyes, which did hide the knowledge 
 of affairs from him, and told him, that he would 
 not treat him like others who were not so sincere and 
 good Christians, as to what concerned the Church, as 
 he was ; that he did take him for an honest man, 
 and a good subject of the King's, and under that 
 notion he would endeavour to undeceive him : and 
 thereupon he begun to relate unto him the birth and 
 the progress of the League unto that very day, and 
 broke out often into this exclamation, " Oh Gregory 
 " the Thirteenth ! in designing to do well, you have 
 " indeed done very ill! Your soul doth answer atpre- 
 " sent before the throne of God for the desolation of 
 " France, and for all that effusion of blood which 
 " there hath or shall be spilt." 
 
 The Duke of Nevers was very much amazed at this 
 exclamation, and, casting himself at the Pope's feet, 
 asked him, with tears in his eyes, what he meant ? 
 and if it were possible that there should be any trea- 
 son and villany hid under that so specious name of 
 the Catholic League ? Yes, (said the Pope,) that 
 
 there
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 451 
 
 there is; and I dare assure you, by an oath, that CHAP, 
 there is nothing in it but envy, and* jealousy, and VIIL 
 ambition, and desire to reign, with a thousand other 
 crimes of the like nature ; they whom they call 
 Leaguers have deceived Gregory the Thirteenth, 
 and his principal ministers, as they have done you ; 
 and, being only the instruments of a power which 
 fears nothing so much in France as a peace, they 
 take a great deal of pleasure in cheating their very 
 selves : he added unto this all that he knew con- 
 cerning the designs of Spain, and of those other 
 Princes who depend on that crown; and, after having 
 explained at large all the mysteries of that cabal, he 
 made the Duke acknowledge, that they who did 
 compose the body of that party in which he was en- 
 gaged were in general the enemies of the King and \/ 
 kingdom : he yet continued his discourse, and, smil- 
 ing, said, * I know very well that in this affair of 
 yours the honour and interest of your family is 
 somewhat concerned ; I am not so great a stranger to 
 the intrigues of the French court, as not to know (to 
 my great regret) whatever doth pass, or is done in 
 the King's cabinet : I could wish, with all my heart, 
 that he was more moderate in his aflections, that he 
 did not deprive himself (as it were) of his own thoughts, 
 to enter into those of persons whom he loves, and that 
 he did not give pretexts too great, and too small to 
 complain of, and to blame his conduct. But what is 
 there in all this which can stir up subjects to take 
 arms against their King, and to make parties in his 
 kingdom, to present requests, and to make declara- 
 tions of an insolent nature to him, and force him (as 
 it were) to cut off his left arm with his right, to make 
 him take pains to depose himself, in naming a suc- 
 cessor.'
 
 452 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cessor.' The Pope then brake into tears, and said, 
 - ( Believe me, my son, I have great compassion for 
 your miseries and your divisions, and would to God 
 there were nothing wanting but the best of my 
 blood to restore France to that flourishing estate in 
 which she hath been in time past; I would give it 
 with the love and joy of a true and tender father : 
 but I fear that things are now come to that height, 
 that France is no longer in a condition to suffer her 
 evils, or their remedies.' As he had done speaking, 
 the Duke kissed his feet, the tears being still in his 
 eyes, and, finding himself quite another man from 
 what he was before this discourse, he said, ' Give me 
 your benediction, and, if you please, obtain for me 
 that power which shall be necessary to the execu- 
 tion of what I now consider in my mind, and I will 
 go from this place to the King my master. ; and, 
 without the consideration of any other glory than 
 that of doing my duty, I will consecrate to his ser- 
 vice my estate, and my life, and rather die at his 
 feet than fail in my fidelity, or the observation of 
 that good advice which your Holiness hath intimated 
 to me.' The Pope strengthened him in this good re- 
 solution, and heaped upon him blessings, giving him 
 chaplets, and medals, and indulgences ; and did so 
 much more yet than this, that he permitted him to 
 present him with the form and model of the Bull, 
 according to which he would have it drawn, to let all 
 
 O * 
 
 France know what he had been to do with his Holi- 
 ness, as also to uphold him with the testimonies of 
 several Cardinals. 
 
 The Duke of Nevers being thus converted, he 
 made what haste he could to undeceive his friends, 
 who he thought had as good meaning as himself: he 
 
 writ
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 453 
 
 writ to the Cardinal of Bourbon, whom he believed to CHAP. 
 
 be an honest man, and knew to be a weak man, and : 
 
 gave him an account of all that had passed between 
 the Pope and him : he told him of the time that he 
 arrived at Rome, and that he had alighted from his 
 horse at Cardinal Pellive's house, (who was the chief 
 confidant of the League,) who received him with great 
 demonstrations of joy, and told him presently, that 
 he was come too late ; that things were very much 
 changed ; and that, since the election of the new 
 Pope, the affairs of France were looked upon with an 
 eye wholly different from that with which they were 
 lately beheld ; that those who had been the most hot 
 for the Catholic party were now become so cold, 
 whenever any proposition was made to them of ad- 
 vancing their design, they now talked of nothing but 
 of that obedience which subjects owe to their lawful 
 Prince, and of the ill opinion which his, the Cardi- 
 nal's, retreat from the court had given to all Italy : 
 he left it to him to conjecture, whether he, the Duke, 
 had not been much surprised with this news ; and if, 
 knowing the sincerity of his, the Cardinal's, inten- 
 tions as he did, he did not blame the lightness of the 
 persons of that court : he told him then of the man- 
 ner of the Pope's reception of him, and that, as he 
 was about to speak to him, (after he had told him 
 that he was glad to see him, and that he was a true 
 Israelite,) the Pope interrupted him, and said, I 
 make no question but that the intention of the Car- 
 dinal of Bourbon is good ; and I will believe that 
 that of his confederates is the same ; and, above all, I 
 have had so particular a declaration of the sincerity 
 of your's, as I am persuaded that your conscience 
 only is the rule of your actions, and that in the en- 
 
 ii h gagement
 
 454 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, gagement which you have with the Cardinal, and 
 
 ' the other united Princes, you have no other end but 
 
 the glory of God, and the conservation of the Catho- 
 lic Apostolic and Roman religion ; but, granting this 
 to be so, in what school, I pray you, have you learn- 
 ed that men are obliged to make parties against the 
 will of their lawful Princes? To which the Duke con- 
 fesses, that he answered him with some warmth, and 
 commotion ; ( Most holy Father, it is with the con- 
 sent of the King that these things are done.' Upon 
 which the Pope made this reply : ' I see you begin to 
 be hot already ; I thought you had come to me to 
 hear the words of a father, to take his advice, and to 
 conform yourself thereunto ; and yet I see that the 
 same spirit reigns in you which is in all those of 
 your society ; you cannot endure to be reproved, 
 you agree to come to a justification of your proceed- 
 ings, and then condemn every body's opinion but 
 your own. Undeceive yourself; if you will believe 
 me, the King of France hath never consented in 
 good earnest to your League, or to your arms ; he 
 looks upon them as attempts against his authority ; 
 and though the necessity of his affairs, and the fear 
 of a greater mischief, force him to dissemble it, yet 
 he holds you all to be his enemies ; and that more 
 terrible, and more cruel ones, than either the Hugue- 
 nots of France, or any other Protestants whatsoever. 
 I will go on farther, (said he,) and yet say nothing 
 which the knowledge I have of the nature of Princes, 
 and of yours in particular, will not warrant me to 
 speak with certainty: I fear lest things will be driven 
 on to that height, that at last the King of France (as 
 Catholic a Prince as he is) will be compelled to call 
 in the Heretics to his assistance, to deliver him from 
 
 the
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 455 
 
 the tyranny of those of the Roman church.' He com- CHAP. 
 
 VIII. 
 plained often of Gregory the Thirteenth, and of Car 
 
 dinal Cosmo, and accused them of having kindled 
 the fire, and spilt the blood, of all Christendom, by 
 the consent and approbation with which they had fo- 
 mented the League and the union of the French Ca- 
 tholics: and so, the Duke concluded, that they might 
 both see how far they were from what they expect- 
 ed, and what hopes they had of those temporal and 
 spiritual succours, which they sought in that place. 
 The letter was dated at Rome, upon the last of July 
 fifteen hundred eighty-five, and may be found in the 
 667th page of the first volume of that Duke's Me- 
 moirs. 
 
 Shortly after this discourse, the news came to 
 Rome of the peace made by the King with the Hu- 
 guenots, upon which the Duke of Nevers had an- 
 other audience of the Pope, and of which he gave the 
 Cardinal of Bourbon another relation, by a letter 
 dated within twenty days after the other. He then 
 told him, that things were looked on quite otherwise 
 in Rome than they were in France ; the reunion of 
 all the Catholics under one head had seemed to 
 them in France a sovereign remedy for the extirpa- 
 tion of heresy, and for the preservation of the Church ; 
 and yet that the Pope had but just then told him, that 
 there was never any conspiration formed which was 
 more pernicious either for the Church or State, than 
 that of the League ; and that he doth praise God 
 that it doth appear, as it were, stifled by the bounty 
 of the King, and by the approbation which he seem- 
 ed to have given to all that had been done ; but if 
 the pardon and reconciliation be not so sincere as 
 they seemed to be, they should see in a short time 
 
 H h 2 the
 
 456 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 C II A P. the unhappy consequences which they would have. 
 
 ' ' It will be necessary, said the Pope, with tears in his 
 
 eyes, that the King of France treat the Catholics as 
 his greatest enemies ; that he draw forces out of Ger- 
 many, England, and other Protestant countries, to 
 make himself master in his own kingdom ; that he 
 make dishonourable conditions with the King of Na- 
 varre, and with the Prince of Conde" ; and that he 
 overrun all France with Lutherans and Calvinists ? 
 behold (said he) the blessed effects of their union, 
 and the happy issue of your taking up arms ; believe 
 me, and delight not in cheating yourselves. You are 
 the uncle of a sovereign Prince, and although he be 
 not King of France, yet he hath as noble thought as 
 a King of France can have. Go to Mantua and con- 
 sult him concerning what hath been lately done in 
 France ; ask him what he would do, if he were in 
 the place of the most Christian King ; and you shall 
 find, that he doth not discourse as the Cardinal of 
 Bourbon, nor as the Prince of Lorrain do : I look 
 upon you as a Prince of great sincerity and without 
 interest; I do not doubt but that you are a very de- 
 vout and religious person, and that you do what you 
 do from the instigation of a true zeal : this being so, 
 you will do well to retire with a firm resolution not 
 to abuse or violate that peace which the King had 
 given them ; reunite yourself with him in good ear- 
 nest, and give him that advice you shall judge best 
 for the extinguishing of heresy and factions in the 
 state. I have some experience of things, and I think 
 I see clear enough into the time to come to speak 
 very boldly, but yet very truly, concerning one af- 
 fair ; and that is, that the Huguenots can never be 
 ruined, except the League be also : upon this you 
 
 may
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 457 
 
 may safely resolve, and do not stay till time do make CHAP. 
 you wise ; for it hath never made any person so who - 
 hath not nought his wisdom with his own over- 
 throw. I will not weary you with the length of this 
 discourse, (said he, in letting fall his voice,) but I 
 confess to you, that my very heart doth bleed when 
 I consider that the most glorious kingdom of the 
 world, and as it were the flower of Christendom, is 
 in extreme danger to become a prey to foreigners, 
 like another Jerusalem, and to be destroyed by those 
 very hands which ought to defend it.' And with this 
 information, advice, and benediction, (and indeed 
 prediction,) the Pope took his last leave of the Duke, 
 who made haste to return to France. 
 
 Thus far we see the transcendent difference be- SixtusV - 
 
 T ii i- c o- - IT .publishes a 
 
 tween the divinity and the policy 01 oixtus V. and Bull against 
 
 of that of Gregory XIII. and how, in a moment, 
 the whole court of Rome became changed or con- 
 verted. It cannot be believed that they both re- Cond6 
 ceived their dictates from the Holy Ghost, and 
 therefore it could not be enough wondered at, if 
 there were not some inherent malignity in the office, 
 that this Pope (after so rational and conscientious 
 discourses of his own, without any the least altera- 
 tions in the case, from the time of those discourses, 
 except some successes of the League against the 
 King) should so much change his opinion, that by 
 degrees he exceeded Gregory in all the acts of injus- 
 tice, outrage, and impiety ; and for the advancement 
 of the Catholic, that is, the religion of Rome, pulled 
 up Christianity by the roots. They of the League 
 were so careful to publish in print their victories, 
 and made them so much greater than they were, 
 with new and old reproaches upon the King for his 
 
 H h 3 breach
 
 458 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, breach of faith, and for the ill spending his time, to- 
 
 gether with his underhand and secret treaty with the 
 
 King of Navarre, (managed, as they said, by Du 
 Plessy Mornay, who was known to have been in pri- 
 vate with the King,) that the Pope believed all ; not 
 without apprehension that the Leaguers might be 
 able to do all their mischief, without his help : and 
 therefore, that he might have some share in it, he 
 issued out his Bull of fulmination against the two 
 Princes, in a style agreeable to his humour, and the 
 contempt he naturally had of all Princes. He de- 
 clared Henry, called King of Navarre, and Henry 
 Prince of Conde, " lesquels il appelloit, Generation 
 " bastarde et detestable de nilustre maison de Bour- 
 " bon, Heretique srclapses, Chefs fauteurs et protec- 
 " teurs de Vheresie fyc." and, as such, fallen under 
 the censure contained in the sacred canons ; he de- 
 prived them of all their lands, signiories, and digni- 
 ties, and pronounced them to be incapable to suc- 
 ceed in any principality, particularly to the crown of 
 France ; and absolved their subjects of any oath of 
 fidelity they had taken to them ; and forbade them 
 to render any obedience to them, under the penalty 
 of incurring the same excommunication. 
 
 Monsieur Mezeray observes, that this blow, which 
 was thought would prove fatal to the Princes, was 
 much more disadvantageous to the Holy Chair than 
 to them ; for it did not only exceedingly provoke 
 and enrage the Huguenots, but many Catholics, 
 who were most zealous for the defence of the truth, 
 and of the liberties and privileges of the Gallican 
 church, were the more curious and diligent to search 
 the ground and the bottom of that authority, which 
 the Pope assumed over the crown f and they could 
 
 not
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 459 
 
 not find that in the councils or canons which they at CHAP. 
 Rome imagined. The Princes themselves were so 
 far from being disheartened by this excommunica- 
 tion, and their friends from forsaking them, that they 
 found means to get a placart or writing to be set up 
 and fastened in the most public and notorious places 
 in Rome itself; in which they appealed from the sen- 
 tence of the Pope, for whatsoever was temporal in it, 
 to the Peers of France ; and for the crime of heresy, 
 to a future Council, before whom they cited the 
 Pope to appear, and declared him to be Anti-Christ 
 if he refused to appear before it. This Bull likewise 
 awakened the King to an apprehension that it was an 
 attempt made by which they might facilitate the 
 way towards his own deposing ; and therefore he 
 published an Arret, straitly forbidding that that Bull 
 should be published in France. 
 
 The Pope easily found that he had got no ground Assassina- 
 by this Bull, more than that it increased the confidence Duke, and 
 of the League in him ; whereas they before looked P"" 1 
 
 upon him as an enemy; and it made it likewise ne- Blois ' 
 cessary for him to enter into a closer correspondence 
 with them : yet they could not prevail with him to 
 do any act immediately against the King, or to send 
 a Legate to reside amongst them, (both which they 
 very importunately desired,) until after the killing of 
 the Duke, and Cardinal of Guise at Blois ; which, if 
 ever any assassination was or can be lawful, could 
 not be avoided with the retention of his own sove- 
 reignty; they being so strong and powerful, that 
 though their guilt of high treason and rebellion was 
 known to all the world, and manifest to the whole 
 kingdom, yet he could not have justice upon them 
 by the administration of any judicatory ; all degrees 
 
 H h 4 of
 
 460 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of men being so terrified with their power and au- 
 
 VIII 
 
 thority ; and at that very time when they were cut 
 
 off, they had conspired to compel him to transfer his 
 regal power from himself to such persons as would 
 be guided and governed by them. 
 
 Proceedings The news of this was no sooner brought to Rome, 
 upon this than the Pope let himself loose to all the thoughts 
 '"'and resolutions that passion and revenge could sug- 
 gest to him. When the news came first to Rome 
 of the death of the Duke of Guise, (which was a day 
 or two before that of the Cardinal's,) the Pope seemed 
 neither surprised with it nor moved at it ; neither 
 from his own conscience upon the intolerable inso- 
 lence and provocation of that Duke towards the King, 
 nor from the relation that he received from his Nun- 
 cio, who was well affected to the King, and gave an 
 account of that action as a thing the King could not 
 avoid consistently with his dignity or the security of 
 his person. But when the next messenger arrived 
 with the account of the death of the Cardinal, and 
 that the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Archbishop of 
 Lyons were generally believed to be in the same 
 danger, being under the same Arret, the Pope, " qui 
 " faisoit gloire de marcher sur les fetes souveraines" 
 (as Monsieur Mezeray says,) would not lose this oc- 
 casion to shew his puissance and his courage. Though 
 he himself used all the Cardinals with that insolence 
 and contempt as if they had been his simple valets, 
 and talked frequently when he was with any of them 
 that he would unmake and degrade him ; and al- 
 though he had lately caused a Bull to be read 
 in the Consistory, by which he declared St. Bonaven- 
 ture Doctor of the Church, and did not ask the opi- 
 nion of the Cardinals thereupon ; for fear the com- 
 pany
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 461 
 
 pany should go against him, as the congregation of CHAP. 
 Cardinals which he had appointed for that affair had - 
 done ; of which assembly there being one sent unto 
 him, to tell hirn they were of the opinion that he ought 
 not to make St. Bonavcnture Doctor of the Church, 
 he had answered, that he would do it nevertheless, 
 for that the Holy Ghost was with him, and that it 
 was to him, and not to the Cardinals, that the Holy 
 Ghost was promised : yet as to all others, he raised 
 the style and title of Cardinals much higher than 
 they were before, and had equalled them to Kings 
 by his Bull that he had published in the second year 
 of his Pontificate; in which he declared, that they 
 were " vert; sal terra ac lucerne positce super cande- 
 " labrum, ut inter sanguinem et sanguinem^ causam 
 " et causam, lepram ct lepram discernant fyc." all 
 Christians were to observe their precepts and direc- 
 tions as " regula et norma rede vivendi ,-" that their 
 high quality and condition could not be doubted, 
 when the Pope himself, being a member of that body, 
 is chosen by and out of that number, " qui tune de- 
 " mum pnblico bono Christian! populi optimus sine 
 " ullti disputatione existet-" and therefore, as the mo- 
 narch of the world, he confers many privileges and 
 immunities, even to the restraining and nullifying 
 any thing that shall be done to the contrary by any 
 of his successors as to the number ; namely, not to 
 exceed seventy, according to the example of Moses 
 in the choice of seventy, and according to the num- 
 ber of the seventy disciples ; which rule his succes- 
 sors, as to the number, have been contented to submit 
 to, with a total rejection of all the other rules and 
 orders prescribed in that Bull. So that, as if he sen- 
 sibly felt that one of the limbs and members of his 
 
 own
 
 46'2 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, own body was cut off in the violent death of that 
 
 VTIT 
 
 ' Cardinal, he cast nothing but wildfire out of his 
 
 mouth, and talked of nothing but doing justice upon 
 the King, as if he had been one of his meanest sub- 
 jects. Yet he paused so long as to send a positive 
 command to the King, that he should immediately 
 set the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Archbishop of 
 Lyons at liberty ; and as soon as he received excuses 
 for the not doing thereof, upon the most substantial 
 reasons of state, he presently issued out a monitory in 
 this form : in the first place, he renewed his command 
 for the liberty of the Cardinal and the Archbishop 
 within ten days after the publication of the said mo- 
 nitory ; in default whereof, he declared that the 
 King had incurred the ecclesiastical censures, espe- 
 cially those which are contained in the Bull, " In 
 Coena Domini" from which he could not be absolved 
 but by the Pope himself, except in the hour of death, 
 and upon caution to give satisfaction if he lived ; and 
 he required him farther personally to appear at 
 Rome within threescore days, and revoked all those 
 indulgences faculties and privileges which the Holy 
 Chair might have granted to him, or to any of his 
 predecessors, to the contrary. 
 
 The King's This rage, and the necessity of his affairs, kept up 
 the King's spirits to that degree, that he prosecuted 
 his resolution to join with the King of Navarre and 
 the Huguenots ; and preserved his dignity in with- 
 holding any kind of compliance with the Pope's 
 usurpation. And therefore he writ to his ambassador 
 at Rome, and to the Cardinal Joyeuse, who was 
 then Protector of France in Rome, and in whose Me- 
 moirs, the truth whereof nobody hath questioned, it 
 is recorded, that they should consult together, whe- 
 ther,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 463 
 
 thcr, in respect of the Cardinal, it would be necessary C HAP. 
 for his Majesty to have the absolution of his Holi-- 
 ness ; advising them nevertheless, before they made 
 any overtures thereupon, to carry themselves in such 
 manner that nobody might pretend to attribute to 
 themselves a greater power over the Kings of France 
 than that which had been acknowledged in time 
 past. He says, that, since the writing of that part' of 
 the letter, he had found a brief which his Holiness 
 had sent him heretofore, by virtue of which the 
 Doctors in Divinity had judged that he might be ab- 
 solved from this by any Confessor whom he would 
 please to choose ; according to which resolution he 
 had confessed before the Theologue of that city, a 
 man very famous for learning, piety, and integrity of 
 life, who had given him absolution, after which he 
 had communicated and received the body of our 
 Lord upon the first day of the year. 
 
 But the Pope was too strong to be bound by such The Pope 
 weak obligations, and well understood the advantage gat e to Pa- 
 he had by the irresolute nature of the King, an 
 even from his conscience, which he knew to be 
 wholly devoted to the Catholic Religion ; and that 
 mere necessity, which he had foreseen and foretold, 
 had produced that conjunction with the King of Na- 
 varre : and therefore, without any consideration of 
 all that he had said to the Duke of Nevers, and 
 which he had often repeated to the Marquis of Pi- 
 savy, who was afterwards, and long before, ambassa- 
 dor from the most Christian King at Rome, (to 
 whom he had frequently exclaimed in the same man- 
 ner against Gregory the Thirteenth, and the treason 
 falsehood and iniquity of the League, even at the 
 time when he had received an agent from the Duke 
 
 of
 
 464 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of Guise,) he now made haste to send a Legate, 
 
 VTf T 
 
 ' which Gregory could never be prevailed with to do, 
 
 to reside at Paris, and to assist the League in all 
 their counsels, and to promise all possible assistance 
 from his Holiness. And the Legate writ him word 
 afterwards, that if he had not caused fifty thousand 
 crowns to be delivered into the hands of those who 
 were entrusted by the League, all strangers would 
 have returned home, and that the principal persons 
 of Paris would enter into a peace with the King ; 
 which very probably would have been the case in a 
 short time, considering how strong the King's forces 
 grew suddenly to be, (not only by the King of Na- 
 varre's joining all his Huguenot troops to those of 
 the King, but by a great access and conflux of the 
 Catholics, out of indignation to see their King 
 treated in that manner by his rebellious subjects, 
 under the pretence of Catholic Religion, and that 
 they called in the aid of foreigners to subdue France,) 
 so that he was able in a short time to bring his pow- 
 erful army to the very gates of Paris, and to restrain 
 provisions from entering into the city. 
 
 The Pope But now the power of the Pope appeared, who had 
 nkTt mU made himself so terrible to that nation, as if they 
 Henry in. rea }]y believed whatsoever he said to be the word of 
 God. There was no other rhetoric used in the pul- 
 pits, but to defame the King, and to render him 
 odious to the people ; nor can there be a greater in- 
 stance of the malignity and frenzy of that time, than 
 the declaration and resolution then published, upon a 
 solemn consultation by the college of Sorbonne, that 
 the Frenchmen were absolved from their oath of fi- 
 delity, and from all duty and obedience to Henry of 
 Valois ; and that they might with a good conscience 
 
 take
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 465 
 
 take arms against him; which I wish may be for- CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 gotten for their resolute determination of the contrary 
 
 upon all occasions since that time, as their predeces- 
 sors had always done before, in spite of all judgments 
 pronounced by the Pope himself. But the divinity was 
 current then ; insomuch as a young melancholic Friar 
 of the order of St. Domiriick, of the age of five and 
 twenty years, intoxicated with that doctrine, under 
 pretence of delivering some secret message to the 
 
 Kiner from some of his party in Paris, stabbed him Assassma- 
 
 iin -i i 11 t ' on f 
 
 in the belly with a knire in such a manner that he Henry HI. 
 
 died the next day. So quick an operation had the 
 Pope's excommunication! For his monitory, after the 
 days of notice were expired, was become so effectual 
 an excommunication, that, being issued but in the 
 beginning of May, it murdered the King on the se- 
 cond of August following. 
 
 The news of this horrid parricide was no sooner The Pope 
 brought to Rome than the Pope presently called atheassas- 
 Consistory, that he might be the first reporter of it ; sir 
 when he made the relation of it in such a manner as 
 made it evident that he was well enough content to 
 be thought the author ; and he even solemnized the 
 memory of that accursed Friar for his unparalleled 
 zeal and courage, in that infamous speech of his in 
 the Consistory, of which there are too many records 
 preserved to have it ever forgotten. Indeed Sixtus 
 the Fifth had gone too far to retire ; and, having 
 brought this fate upon one King, whom he knew to v 
 be a Catholic, only upon his suspicion of favouring 
 heretics, it cannot be wondered at that he prosecuted 
 his blow with more resolution and fury against the 
 heretic himself who succeeded him ; and ' who he 
 knew had a spirit as great as his own, if he were not 
 
 quickly
 
 466 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, quickly suppressed, to take full revenge upon those 
 who had so near destroyed him. They of the League 
 persuaded him that they owed their deliverance from 
 their late King (whom they loaded with all re- 
 proaches of perjured murderer and tyrant, and the 
 like) to his monitory, which was not ingrateful to 
 him, and made him believe that, with the conti- 
 nuance of his favour, they should be in a short time 
 able to overthrow and ruin the new Pretender ; so 
 that he began to fancy that he should have a prin- 
 cipal share in the choice and appointment of him 
 jwho should be thought worthy to wear that crown. 
 Yet he gave orders to the Cardinal Cajetan, his Le- 
 gate, that he should use all his endeavours that 
 France might be provided of a pious and a Catholic 
 King, and one that would be agreeable to all good 
 Frenchmen ; that he should consult with the ambas- 
 sadors of Spain and Savoy, and hear what proposi- 
 tions they would make ; but to shew himself entirely 
 disinterested, and not to engage himself on the be- 
 half of any pretender, insomuch as he should as rea- 
 dily hearken to the King of Navarre himself, if he 
 would give any such hope of being reconciled to the 
 Church in such a manner as might consist with the 
 honour and dignity of the Holy Chair. He did wish, 
 and had many of the League concur with him, that 
 the Cardinal of Bourbon might be declared King, 
 who was by many called by the name of Charles the 
 Tenth, and in Paris they coined money in his name 
 and with his effigies ; at which the King of Spain 
 and all his party of the League were much oifended. 
 Abandons This made the Pope again withdraw his good opi- 
 
 the League. 
 
 nion from the League, when he discovered that all 
 their pretence of Religion was resolved into faction 
 
 for
 
 FBOM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 467 
 
 for the Spaniard, and to set the crown upon his head CHAP, 
 who should be chosen or appointed by him ; and the ' 
 death of the Cardinal of Bourbon at that time in 
 prison made them less reserved towards that inclina- 
 tion. But the Pope was so averse from any such 
 thought, that he utterly refused to issue out or renew 
 his excommunication against the new King, which 
 he was with all importunity urged to do by the 
 League, as well as by the ambassador of Spain : and 
 when he saw the King, after he had been compelled, 
 upon the assassination of the last, speedily and in 
 disorder to withdraw his army from Paris, and in 
 few days reduced unto so great straits that it was be- 
 lieved that he fled with a purpose to transport him- 
 self into England, and seemed to be deserted as well 
 by the Huguenots as Catholics, (which information 
 was by courier after courier transmitted to Rome;) 
 I say, when he saw this King, by the vigour and ac- 
 tivity of his own spirit, gather an army together, re- 
 concile many of the principal Catholics to him, with- 
 out so much as making a promise to change his re- 
 ligion ; that he fought with his enemies and beat 
 them ; that he took towns, and had brought his army 
 to besiege Paris itself; he grew to express an extra- 
 ordinary high esteem of the King, and as much to^ 
 undervalue the League, and to mention them with 
 disapprobation and contempt. Nor was he at all re- 
 served in publishing a particular hatred against the 
 pride and ambition of the Spaniard, insomuch as, 
 when rt was known that he had amassed together five 
 millions of gold in the castle of St. Angelo, and 
 Philip the Second sent to him to furnish a sum of 
 money for the advancement of the Catholic Religion 
 and the extirpation of the heretici in France, he did 
 
 not
 
 46'8 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, not only refuse it positively and absolutely, but in 
 - such a manner, and with that sharpness of words, as 
 could not become any man who did not believe him- 
 self to be much superior to the other: all which 
 made Harry the Fourth very much to lament his 
 death, which fell out little more than one year after 
 his coming to the crown. 
 
 Death and it cannot be doubted but that if Sixtus the Fifth 
 
 character of 
 
 v. had lived to that age, or the King had chosen to do 
 that in his time which he did afterwards in the 
 change of his religion, that Pope would have so en- 
 tirely wedded his interest, that Spain would have felt 
 it in all its dominions ; for he was a man who did 
 nothing by halves, and was without any fear of any 
 earthly power. The truth is, he was an original, and 
 in many respects a much greater Pope, than any who 
 was before him, or any who hath succeeded him. He 
 did, in the six years of his reign, more acts of mag- 
 nificence in his glorious buildings in the city of 
 Rome itself, (besides what he raised in other places,) 
 than any three Popes who had been before him, or 
 have come after him ; and all for the benefit of the 
 public : he left a greater treasure of money behind 
 him in the public treasury than ever was before or 
 since enclosed within the walls of the castle of St. 
 Angelo : and in the impartial administration of jus- 
 tice (except where his own supreme jurisdiction and 
 authority seemed to be contested, or circumscribed 
 and limited) very exact and severe : indeed, in all 
 matters that related to the other, he could endure no 
 bounds, nor cared to transgress any. His greatest 
 pride was (which was his predominant vice) to make 
 it believed that all Kings and Princes were inferior 
 to him, and stood in need of him, and that he had 
 
 no
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 469 
 
 no need of any of them, or the least dependance CHAP. 
 
 upon them. At the same time that he gave counte ' 
 
 nance to the League in France, by which he dis- 
 obliged that King to the utmost, he used no cere- 
 mony, nor shewed any regard, towards Spain ; but 
 when the first Hackney was presented to him at the 
 usual time and with the usual formality, and when 
 the Grande, in great lustre, presented it in the name 
 of his Catholic Majesty, and as his acknowledgment 
 for the kingdom of Naples, the Pope made no other 
 answer or ceremony to the ambassador, but that it 
 was very small rent for so very large a farm, and pre- 
 sently turned away : and when he was shortly after 
 informed that the King of Spain had restrained the 
 building any more religious houses in Spain, and 
 saw a Pragmatique that he had lately published against 
 the Clergy's intermeddling in some affairs, he bitterly 
 inveighed against the former, and said he had meddled 
 with that he had nothing to do, and he would give 
 order that he should not be obeyed therein ; and for 
 the Pragmatique, he said he would send it to the 
 Congregation for the prohibition of books, with order 
 that they should insert it in the next catalogue of 
 prohibited books, with their censure, that the author 
 of it might be looked upon as a Lutheran, and an 
 enemy to the Catholic faith. 
 
 The Cardinal Joyeuse, in his letter of the fourth His com- 
 of November fifteen hundred eighty-six, to King to Cardinal 
 Henry the Third, tells him, he did believe that 
 levies which had been lately so much spoken of be- Ql 
 tween the Pope and the Duke of Savoy, for the en- 
 terprise of Genoa, had been made in expectation of 
 what would be the success of that in England, 
 (which was that design of Parry's upon the Queen of 
 
 I i England, 
 
 Queen E- 
 
 abeth.
 
 470 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. England, which hath been mentioned before,) that 
 - they might be ready to make use of that occasion, in 
 case it proved favourable, rather than really to execute 
 that of Genoa ; because they had seen, that as soon 
 as that of England had been discovered, the forces 
 which had been ordered to march with so great haste 
 stopped on a sudden, and nobody at present spoke 
 a word of Genoa. He said, the Pope spoke to him 
 very earnestly to recommend to his Majesty the 
 Queen of Scotland, who he heard was suspected to 
 have some part in that conspiracy lately discovered 
 against the Queen of England : and His Holiness 
 said, that he could not choose but pity that poor 
 Queen very much ; and that, for his own part, he 
 durst hardly speak of her, there not being wicked 
 men wanting who would accuse him to have had a 
 share in that enterprise against the Queen of Eng- 
 land ; and therefore he did desire his Majesty, who, 
 he said, he knew could at that time do what he 
 pleased with the Queen, to do his utmost to procure 
 her liberty. The Pope confessed to the Cardinals, that 
 * he would not deny but that several persons had ad- 
 dressed themselves to him, offering to murder the 
 Queen of England, but that he had always rejected 
 them, as being an action which he did detest and 
 abhor. 
 
 The Cardinal told the King, that the Pope said, 
 that the Queen of England was an Infidel, deprived 
 of her kingdom by apostolical censures ; and that he 
 was very sure, that, in conjunction with the King of 
 Denmark, the Duke of Saxony, and the other Pro- 
 testant Princes, she had sent to treat a league with 
 the Turk, and to persuade him to make a league with 
 the Persian, and then to turn his whole forces against 
 
 the
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 471 
 
 the Emperor and the two Kings of Spain and CHAP. 
 
 France; and that she and her adherents would join ' 
 
 themselves to and march with the Turks ; and His 
 Holiness assured him that the Turk began to hearken 
 to that league, which the Queen of England and the 
 other Protestant Princes proposed to him ; and that 
 he had sent them word, that as for the year fifteen 
 hundred eighty seven, he could not possibly arm 
 himself to undertake any great expedition whatsoever; 
 but that if the same Princes did continue of the same 
 mind, he did promise them, that, against the year 
 eighty-eight, he would gather together the greatest 
 armies, both by sea and land, that had ever been 
 seen : so that seeing the danger that Christendom 
 was like to run, His Holiness desired that the Ca- 
 tholic Princes would prepare betimes, to the end that 
 they might not be taken unprovided ; and that one 
 of the principal means would be to gain the Queen^ 
 of England, and convert her to be a Catholic, which 
 
 D ' ' 
 
 he desired his Majesty would endeavour to do. 
 
 It is very probable that the Pope used those dis- 
 courses of the correspondence between the Queen 
 and the Turk (since it was not probable that he 
 could believe or imagine any such thing) with a 
 prospect toward the Spanish engagement for the 
 year eighty-eight, with which he was well acquaint- 
 ed ; and both to give some colour to those prepara- 
 tions, as if they were made only to resist and repel 
 the Turks, and to induce all Catholic Princes to have 
 arms ready against that conjuncture of time. Nor 
 can it be presumed, because of the continual differ- 
 ences and animosities which were between the Pope 
 and Philip the Second, that he was not entrusted 
 with that affair ; for though their great pride irre- 
 
 I i 2 conciled
 
 472 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, conciled their persons to each other, yet their pas- 
 sions and rage were equal against the Protestants, and 
 against the person of that Queen ; and there is abun- 
 dant evidence that Sixtus was entirely trusted with 
 that design, and was depended upon to prepare the 
 Catholics of England to make the best use they 
 could of that occasion and opportunity. It was a 
 common saying of that Pope in his ordinary dis- 
 courses, and the same Cardinal told the King that 
 he said the same thing to him, that one ought to 
 treat a Turk, who came to render himself Catholic, 
 quite otherwise than a Heretic : that as for a person 
 born an Infidel, he would go to meet him to embrace 
 his good will ; but a perjured Christian he would 
 stand still and expect his coming, and treat him (in 
 order to his conversion) as the Church doth direct. 
 After all this extravagancy, he did not dissemble the 
 having a secret inward reverence for Queen Eliza- 
 beth ; and would often say, that there were but three 
 / Princes in Europe who knew how to govern, Eliza- 
 beth, Harry the Fourth, and Sixtus. 
 
 When I consider and weigh all his actions and be- 
 haviour, during his short reign, he seems to me 
 really to have believed (which I think few others 
 have done) that he was deputed by God Almighty as 
 the universal monarch to govern and reform the 
 whole world ; and that Kings were as much his sub- 
 jects as any other class of men : and if Kings well 
 examined and considered the acts of his and his pre- 
 decessor Gregory's pontificate, they would be con- 
 vinced how impossible it is that God hath assigned 
 such a power and authority to the Bishops of Rome, 
 and how impossible it is for them to live in any se- 
 curity, to have their subjects obedient ta them, 
 
 and
 
 TROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 4/3 
 
 and the laws observed, whilst they are suffered to CHAP. 
 
 .... vill. 
 imagine that the Popes have any such jurisdiction 
 
 committed to them by God. 
 
 The three successors of Sixtus stayed not long Urban VH. 
 enough upon the stage to afford us much matter for 
 enlargement. Urban the Seventh, who was his im- 
 mediate successor, reigned but thirteen days, and 
 left little more memorable behind him, than his 
 message to his kindred, that they should forbear to 
 come to Rome, and should neither accept titles or 
 preferment from him. How true he would have 
 continued to that resolution may be doubted, by the 
 inconstancy of some of his successors after as solemn 
 a profession. As short as his reign was, he mani- 
 fested so much prejudice and displeasure against the 
 League, that the French writers would have it be- 
 lieved that both Sixtus and he were hastened away 
 by the direction of Spain ; though either of them, 
 being above seventy years of age, seemed not to stand 
 in need of any other poison for a vehicle than the 
 number of their years. 
 
 Gregory the Fourteenth, who followed Urban, and Gregory 
 
 xiv. ex- 
 was a Milanese, though he reigned but ten months, communi- 
 
 quickly made it appear whose subject he was ; andryiv. 
 wholly betook himself to the advancement of the in- 
 terest of his own King ; and presently issued out two 
 monitories, the one addressed to the Prelates and 
 Clergy of France, the other to the Nobility Magis- 
 trates and People : by the first, he excommunicated 
 all those who did not retire from the obedience pos- 
 sessions or train of Henry of Bourbon within fif- 
 teen days, and at the expiration of those fifteen days 
 they were to stand deprived of all their benefices; by 
 the second, he exhorted them to do the same, if they 
 
 i i 3 would
 
 474 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, would not turn the good will of a father into the se- 
 
 VIII 
 
 -- ' verity of a judge; and in both of them he declared 
 Henry of Bourbon excommunicated, and deprived of 
 all his kingdoms and dominions. The Duke of 
 Maine understood his own condition too well to be 
 pleased with these transactions, and did all he could 
 to prevent the publishing them in the places and 
 towns which held for the League, and which Lan- 
 driane (the person employed by the Pope) caused 
 speedily to be done : and France as quickly appear- 
 ed less Catholic than it was thought to be at Rome. 
 
 Henry iv. The King had forbidden the Parliament to meet 
 
 assembles T i i 11 
 
 the Parlia- any more at Fans, and ordered them to assemble at 
 which con- Tours ; and so many of them as were not united to 
 the L ea g ue ) or na d n t his secret licence to remain 
 
 Bulls. there for his service, yielded obedience to his com- 
 mands, and came to Tours ; where they again di- 
 vided themselves by his Majesty's orders ; and part 
 of them remained there, and the rest resided at Cha- 
 lons. The Chamber at Chalons declared those Bulls 
 of the Pope to be null scandalous and seditious, full 
 of imposture, and contrary to the decrees and canons 
 of the Councils and to the rights of the Gallican 
 church ; and ordained that they should be torn and 
 burnt by the hand of the hangman ; that Landriane 
 should be apprehended, and ten thousand livres re- 
 compence should be given to him who should deli- 
 ver him into the hands of justice ; forbidding all 
 the King's subjects to lodge or harbour him ; and 
 that nobody should go to Rome, or send money thi- 
 ther for any provisions or expeditions whatsoever ; 
 and ordered, that the Procureur Gnral should en- 
 ter an appeal to the next Council lawfully called. 
 The Chamber at Tours shewed yet more courage than 
 
 that
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 4/5 
 
 that at Chalons, and declared Gregory to be an cne- CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 
 my to the peace and union of the Church ; that he - ' 
 
 was an enemy to the King and to the State; that he 
 
 adhered to the conjuration of Spain ; that he was a 
 
 favourer of rebels, and guilty of the parricide of Hen- 
 
 ry the Third. And that the Pope might see how far 
 
 the King was from being thunderstruck, he reversed 
 
 at the same time all those edicts which had been 
 
 given against the Huguenots, and the judgments 
 
 which had passed thereupon, and revived all the for- 
 
 mer edicts of pacification. It is true, that they who 
 
 remained in the Parliament at Paris adhered still to 
 
 the League, and pronounced those other Arrets to 
 
 be void and of no effect, being made by men who 
 
 had no power, and who were schismatics and here- 
 
 tics, enemies to God and the church ; and ordained 
 
 that their Arrets should be torn in pieces whilst the 
 
 court sate ; and that the several pieces should be 
 
 burned upon the marble table by the executioner of 
 
 justice. 
 
 The Clergy likewise assembled at Mantes, accord- The clergy 
 ing to the King's order, and declared the Bulls to beatMames 
 
 void, unjust, and to be granted by the suggestions 
 the enemies to the state ; but declared withal, that P e ' s 
 they would not depart from their obedience to the 
 Holy Chair : and they then considered what order 
 to establish for the provisions for benefices, since it 
 was not lawful to repair to Rome. The Archbishop 
 of Bourges made an overture, that a Patriarch might 
 be created of France, but he was thought to have 
 some design for himself, since, after the Archbishop 
 of Lyons, (who was of the League,) his pretence was 
 fairest. Others proposed, that the King should call 
 a National Council ; and the King was well pleased 
 
 i i 4 that
 
 476 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that these and other expedients should be proposed 
 
 - to terrify the Pope, but without any inclination to 
 
 Death of ma ke use of either. But, during those high contests, 
 
 xiv. and this fiery Pope left the world, and he who succeeded 
 
 innocent him, Innocent the Ninth, lived only two months, 
 
 without yielding us any matter of observation to our 
 
 purpose. 
 
 The Papal Indeed we come next to a man and to a time that 
 
 jurisdiction . , i i r i MI* i 
 
 not looked yield us argument enough ot the illimited pretences 
 i- an< i desires of the Pope, (who never could have more 
 as undo^ advantages to second them and carry them on,) and 
 mental part of the steadiness and contradiction of the whole Gal- 
 
 of Catholic 
 
 religion, lican Church against his authority : and I shall be 
 
 the longer in the disquisition of the occurrences, be- 
 
 cause I think they yield abundant evidence that the 
 
 Papal jurisdiction was not then looked upon by the 
 
 Catholic Bishops and Clergy of France, as a Catholic 
 
 verity, or a fundamental part of Catholic religion. 
 
 Violent Upon the death of Innocent the Ninth, after so 
 
 ings in con- short a reign, it was generally believed that the con- 
 
 clave would have been very short; since so many 
 onnnocem art | ma } s were gone out of Rome, and it was enough 
 known, by the late transactions in the election of 
 the last Pope, to what party they who remained were 
 severally inclined ; and none of the public ministers 
 could have received instructions from their masters 
 for the exclusion of any, At this time the Spanish 
 faction thought themselves so much superior in num- 
 ber, that they declared that they were sure of as 
 many voices as were requisite upon the scrutiny, and 
 that there were not enough left to make an exclu- 
 sion ; and so they were not reserved in publishing, 
 before they entered into the conclave, that the Cardi- 
 nal of Santa Severina should quickly come out Pope ; 
 
 of
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 477 
 
 of which they thought themselves so sure, that they CHAP. 
 
 intended to have gone to adoration within two hours '* 
 
 after they entered the conclave. But they found 
 themselves deceived ; and that, even of those who 
 had promised their votes, many withdrew out of 
 envy to those who were thought the principal nego- 
 ciators, to whom all the obligations would be ac- 
 knowledged, whilst thvy should be thought to have 
 contributed little thereunto. The leaders however 
 pursued their purpose so resolutely, that, after many 
 days, Santa Severina was so much believed to be 
 elected, that himself declared that he would assume 
 the name of Clement, and his cell was, according to 
 custom, pulled down and plundered. But the oppo- 
 site party made so great a clamour, crying that the 
 votes were mistaken, and that they would have them 
 numbered again, and the confusion was so great, and 
 even the violence, that the Cardinals laid hands on 
 each other; and many declared, that they would pro- 
 test against the election for want of freedom ; inso- 
 much as the gravest and the best reputed Cardinals, 
 (even of those who desired Santa Severina to be Pope,) 
 for the scandal, desired to put an end to the present 
 disorders, and to defer the prosecution of the great 
 affair till the next day. And so the poor Cardinal, 
 whose person was generally thought worthy of the 
 promotion, returned to the place where his cell had 
 stood, without finding the least thing there for his 
 accommodation ; and from that time (though the 
 party still opiniatred his election for very many days, 
 even till many of their friends were carried sick out 
 of the conclave, and some of them died) they found 
 their votes still decreased ; notwithstanding all the 
 promises and all the menaces they could make. 
 
 Where-
 
 478 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Whereupon the Spaniards, finding they could not 
 make him whom they desired most, yet that they 
 could make one of their own faction, resolved that 
 the Cardinal Aldobrandini, who was well known 
 to their King, would be acceptable to him ; and so 
 unexpectedly they proposed him ; and within half 
 an hour there was so universal a concurrence, that he 
 was elected, himself only resisting and refusing. The 
 Spanish Pontifical says, that he did positively refuse 
 to accept it, till the Cardinal of Santa Severina first 
 released his right or pretence, and then he took the 
 name of Clement the Eighth. 
 Clement Clement entered into the pontificate like a man 
 
 VIII. Aldo- . . . 
 
 brandini. chosen by opain, and made his affection to the 
 League quickly to appear, by renewing his instruc- 
 tions to the Legate to prosecute to the utmost their 
 interest, and to do all he could in prejudice to the 
 King, who was sorry for the death of Innocent, and 
 resolved to endeavour to do all he could to divert 
 Clement from giving himself wholly up to the in- 
 terests of Spain. 
 
 Embassy As soon therefore as he heard of his election, and had 
 r^iv.^to 11 likewise himself resolved to become Catholic, which 
 to declare ^ e f un d to be necessary to his condition, he sent the 
 his conver- Duke of Nevers (who had formerly known the Pope, 
 
 sion to the , , . . -,-, 
 
 Roman re- and been much esteemed by him) to Home, to assure 
 His Holiness of the sincerity of his conversion to the 
 Roman religion. But when the Pope knew that the 
 Duke was in his journey, he sent Possevini the Jesuit, 
 a man of great activity in those times and in those af- 
 fairs, to meet him, and to let him know, that as a pri- 
 vate person he should be very welcome to Rome ; but 
 as ambassador from the King of Navarre (for so he 
 called him) he could not receive him, as not believing 
 
 him
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 479 
 
 him to be a true Catholic. Notwithstanding any thing CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 
 the Jesuit said, the Duke continued on his journey; ' 
 
 and, being come to Rome, at his very first audience 
 spake very passionately for the King his master, and 
 as briskly against the League; and the Pope, being 
 very much warmed at the confidence of his dis- 
 course, answered him thus: "Do not you tell me 
 " that your King is a Catholic ; I will never believe 
 " that he is truly converted, unless an angel from 
 " heaven come to tell it me in my ear. As to what 
 " concerns those Catholics who follow his party, I 
 " do not look upon them as disobedient, or as de- 
 " serters of their religion ; but yet they are bastards, 
 " and sons of the servant : on the other side, they of 
 " the League -are the true and legitimate children, 
 " and the props and faithful pillars of the Catholic 
 " Religion." Of the truth of this conference we 
 have the evidence of the Duke of Nevers himself*. 
 And when the Pope himself made a relation in the 
 Consistory of what had passed between him and the 
 Duke of Nevers, and that he had absolutely denied to 
 give the King an absolution, or to acknowledge him 
 for a Catholic, the first reason he assigned was, " ra- 
 " tione impemtentia," which, he said, was so manifest, 
 that from the time that he had been declared " inha- 
 " bilis ad regni successionem a sancta sede" he was 
 so far from relinquishing what he had possessed, that 
 he continued making war against the Catholics, and 
 had recovered by arms and usurped a great part of 
 the kingdom of France, " contra sedis Apostolicce, 
 " sententiam" and endeavoured to recover the rest ; 
 and therefore it abundantly appeared, " quam longe 
 
 * In the second tome ot'liis Memoirs, p. 414. 
 
 " Inf elite
 
 480 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " infellx iste distet a vera pwnit entice signis" upon 
 ' this, and other as weighty reasons, " absit a nobts ut 
 ic in caussd Dei vacillemus" he will never consent to 
 so irrational a request, or do any thing so unworthy 
 the Holy Chair, nor give posterity cause to com- 
 plain, that such a mischief hath been introduced by 
 any Pope ; " qmn potius parati sumus excoriar'i^ lace- 
 " rari, ac martyrium subire" But how constant His 
 Holiness remained, and how long he persisted in 
 those haughty resolutions, must appear hereafter. 
 Henry iv. Henry the Fourth satisfied himself with the light 
 himself a approach he had made, and cared not so much to ap- 
 P ear a Catholic at Rome as in France, and resolved 
 to do his business as much, and as well, by being re- 
 puted a good Frenchman as a good Catholic, which 
 he declared his resolution to be to his own Bishops, 
 and that he was willing to go to Mass. He com- 
 plained of the stubbornness and incredulity of the 
 Pope, who, notwithstanding his application and ten- 
 der of his obedience, had obstinatdly denied to grant 
 him absolution ; which he imputed to his subjection 
 and dependance upon the King of Spain, who, they 
 all knew, fomented this bloody and destroying war 
 only that he might obtain the sovereignty of France 
 for his own daughter, against the fundamental laws 
 of the kingdom : and he therefore desired them well 
 to consider, since he was ready to do whatsoever was 
 believed to be necessary for the good of France, whe- 
 ther it was in the Pope's power to deny peace to that 
 miserable kingdom, and to keep it always under the 
 exercise and mortification of fire and sword. Whilst 
 he committed this province to the Bishops, he prose- 
 cuted the war with the utmost vigour ; he fought 
 and beat his enemies, obtained every day signal vic- 
 tories,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 481 
 
 tories, recovered towns, and the Catholics of the CHAP. 
 
 greatest quality and interest made their peace with 
 
 him, and returned to their obedience ; and at last 
 Paris itself opened its gates to him, and received him 
 with public joy. 
 
 All these were powerful arguments with Clement ; The Pope 
 but notwithstanding all this, he would not desert the grant him 
 League ; who, notwithstanding they were compelled ab 
 to leave Paris, adhered still to the Pope, and had ar- 
 mies enough on foot, and places enough at their de- 
 votion, to give the King much trouble, until he could 
 procure absolution, which the Pope resolved not to 
 give, and had so much reserved to himself, that no 
 other persons or Prelates had a faculty to absolve him. 
 The truth is, the Pope, who was a wise man, was in 
 great strait, and discerned that he lost all that ground 
 which the King got, and thought himself obliged not 
 only to maintain his own dignity, in making good all 
 his professions and declarations, and to defend his 
 own jurisdiction send authority entire from any inva- 
 sion or neglect, but likewise to express his gratitude 
 to the King of Spain, in adhering to his interest, and 
 procuring all the prejudice he could to his enemies ; 
 and his ministers in Rome more importunately, 
 because more publicly and warrantably, laboured 
 against the Pope's granting the absolution, than any 
 body durst solicit for it in Rome. The Spaniard, 
 amongst their other threats and bravadoes, spoke 
 aloud of a protestation that they had prepared to 
 publish against the Pope, in case he should proceed 
 to absolve the King ; which was very well known to 
 his Catholic Majesty, and that that King was too po- 
 tent an enemy, and able to do too much mischief, to 
 be provoked when he could handsomely avoid it; 
 
 and
 
 482 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and therefore he was more intent in persuading: him 
 
 VTTF 
 
 ' that he would never be prevailed upon to do it, than 
 
 solicitous to give France any satisfaction in the hope 
 of it ; presuming (it is probable) that any necessity 
 that might arrive to make him change his resolution 
 would appear likewise with such evidence, as would 
 carry an excuse with it for the doing it. 
 
 Henry iv. Whilst these perplexities and irresolutions were at 
 and receiv-Rome, there appeared in France great consent and 
 church by unity amongst the Bishops of France; and they 
 of e F fa n c ps talked and inveighed little less against the usurpa- 
 tion and tyranny of the Pope, than against the re- 
 bellion and treason of the League. The King was 
 crowned at Chartres, by the Bishop of that city, 
 with the same ceremony, and it is believed with 
 the same oil, that he should have been at Rheirns. 
 Eighteen Bishops had presumed to reconcile the 
 King to the Church, and to pronounce him to be a 
 good Catholic, which no man had the courage to 
 contradict who was within the reach of justice : and 
 all this triumph was at the charge of the Pope, whose 
 authority was contemned in the public discourses of 
 the Bishops, of which there be instances enough 
 given in another place, and to another purpose. 
 The Pope It was now time for Clement to look about him, in 
 posed to- his own judgment. The Duke of Maine he knew 
 wards Hen- still j^ ^ ^ refused to submit to the King; 
 
 but he knew as well that he despaired of any success 
 against him, and insisted only on the punctilio of an 
 oath that he had taken to himself, that he would 
 never submit to the King, till he had first procured 
 an absolution from his Holiness, which he did not 
 think that any other power could have presumed to 
 have given. How long this scruple was like to re- 
 main
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 483 
 
 main with him, in ihe midst of so many inconveni- CHAP. 
 
 ences, he was too good a casuist to be confident of; -i 
 
 and therefore resolved to follow that maxim which 
 he had learned in conclaves, and which is the high- 
 est mystery in those politics, that is, to give freely 
 that which he can neither sell nor keep. And so, 
 after he had, with great passion and indignation, 
 pronounced that the absolution given to the King in 
 France was void and invalid, and had threatened to 
 proceed judicially against the Bishops, who had as- 
 sumed a power for which they were not competent, 
 and for which he would deprive them, and had ap- 
 pointed that they should be all summoned to appear 
 at Rome, (which well satisfied the Spaniards that he 
 was firm in his resolution, and that this proceeding 
 would make the wound the wider,) he let fall some 
 words in the hearing of those who he knew would 
 lose no time in transmitting them ; that he would 
 be content to hear any thing that the King or the 
 Bishops could allege in justification or excuse of that 
 absolution, which he was sure should never be con- 
 firmed ; and therefore the King had made himself in 
 a worse condition than he was before. 
 
 Though the King was well satisfied in his own Reasons 
 conscience of the validity of his absolution, and as Henry iv. 
 resolved never to decline it, but to justify the autho- absolution 
 rity and jurisdiction of his own Bishops, yet he was mthe 
 very glad to lay hold on this inclination of the Pope, 
 and to cultivate it by all the ways he could ; which 
 was wondered at and imputed to him by many in 
 that time, that when he had upon the matter done 
 his business by his own Bishops, and in it vindicated 
 the privileges and immunities of the Gallican Church, 
 (which would be an eternal obligation upon that 
 
 Clergy
 
 484 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Clergy to adhere to him,) he would then stoop to 
 any such condescension, as to send to the Pope, who 
 had rejected and treated him with so many indigni- 
 ties. But that great King understood his own busi- 
 ness better than any of the standers-by, and resolved 
 to part with no advantage he had got, but to get as 
 many more as he could. He had underhand treaties 
 with the Duke of Maine, and understood well the 
 stubbornness of his resolution, and that he had a 
 great party still amongst those who were discontent- 
 ed, and which was very numerous in the kingdom. 
 He was glad that the number of the Bishops was so 
 considerable that adhered to him, and which every 
 day increased, either by the taking of the cities of 
 their residence, or by their voluntary coming and 
 concurring with their brethren ; yet he knew there 
 were many Bishops who were of another opinion, 
 and who would not enter into any contest against 
 the Pope's authority ; and he discerned the sottish- 
 ness of that time to be such, through the long conti- 
 nuance of the civil war, and the jealousy and animo- 
 sity against the Huguenots, that less than an absolu- 
 tion by the Pope himself would not restore a general 
 peace to France, the unity of which was absolutely 
 necessary to his affairs. It was necessary towards 
 the preservation of his own power and authority over 
 his old friends the Huguenots, who were loudly of- 
 fended and provoked by his conversion ; and many 
 of the principal of them did not think they were suf- 
 ficiently rewarded, nor like to be, for the great ser- 
 vice they had performed for him ; and so were too 
 well disposed to engage themselves in any new trou- 
 bles and enterprise : and it was more necessary, in 
 order to the expulsion of the Spaniard, and all his 
 
 pretences,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 485 
 
 pretences, out of France, and to the prosecution of CHAP. 
 the war against him in Flanders, and in all other ' 
 
 parts of his dominions, upon which his heart was as 
 much set as upon the procuring peace in his own 
 kingdom ; and the more upon the latter, that he 
 might take full vengeance in the former, to which he 
 had as great and as many provocations, as it is possi- 
 ble for one King to receive from another ; and this 
 great work could neither be entered upon, nor pros- 
 perously carried on, without a full confirmed and 
 avowed peace and correspondence with Rome, which 
 he could not reasonably expect; without its being 
 ushered in by his receiving absolution from thence. 
 
 There was yet another reason that was more im- Further 
 
 i -11 reasons. 
 
 portant, and, it may be, more prevalent with that 
 great Prince at that time, than either of the other. 
 The King had a thorn in his side, that could not be 
 taken out but by the surgery of Rome, without making 
 a wound as deep and dangerous as that which was to 
 be cured. The history of Queen Margaret his wife, 
 and the many sallies she made in her life, are too 
 well known not to be taken notice of, or to be too 
 much enlarged upon. And how to remove that in- 
 commodity, without which he saw, by his want of 
 issue, he should probably leave France in as bad a 
 condition as he found it, he could find but one way, 
 at least one that he was willing to take ; namely, the. 
 power and jurisdiction of the Pope. The doctrine 
 of dispensations in common and ordinary marriages, 
 upon the least relation in blood alliance or other pre- 
 tence of consanguinity, had been so long acknow- 
 ledged to be of the Pope's spiritual authority, that it 
 was even become incorporated into the municipal 
 and fundamental laws of France ; and though it had 
 
 K k been
 
 reasons. 
 
 486 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, been in some former ages declined and contested. 
 VII I 
 
 : ' those contradictions had been attended with incon- 
 veniences and mischiefs, which were not prudently 
 to be invited. 
 
 Further Yet the King stood in need of more than such a 
 dispensation : there was no new marriage to be 
 made, but an old one to be dissolved and made void 
 from the beginning, and upon the allegations and 
 suggestions of what was not the true ground and 
 reason of it ; all which could never be brought to 
 pass, but by such a plenitude of power as could 
 never come to bo c[isputed, and which would suffer 
 itself to be no less conducted in the way than to the 
 end. Notwithstanding all these invitations, which 
 were strong enough to have induced any other man 
 to a compliance with a power of which he stood so 
 much in need, this great and wise King would not 
 depart from his own dignity, nor give up any of his 
 own or his kingdom's rights ; and therefore, though 
 he was well content to send the Bishop of Evereux 
 (who was afterwards Cardinal Perron) to treat with 
 the Pope, he limited him by very strict instructions, 
 that he and Cardinal D'Ossat (who had been long 
 entrusted by the King, and understood the court of 
 Rome very well) should carry themselves in that af- 
 fair with such wariness and circumspection, that, in 
 asking the Pope's absolution, they should not dis- 
 countenance or prejudice that other which his Ma- 
 jesty had already received from the Prelates of his 
 own kingdom, to the end that, if His Holiness should 
 refuse him his, (which his Majesty hoped he would 
 not do,) his reception and incorporation into the 
 Church, obtained and approved by the Bishops of 
 France, might not be called into doubt, nor disputed. 
 
 And
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 487 
 
 And in order to this the King gave them two procu- CHAP. 
 
 rations; the one, to demand the Pope's absolution ' 
 
 purely and simply ; the other, to ask the strengthen- 
 ing the things which were past, insomuch as should 
 be needful to add thereunto the absolution of His 
 Holiness, for the greater assurance and satisfaction 
 of his mind : but withal, that they were not to make 
 use of, or to shew the first procuration, if they did 
 not find that His Holiness was fully resolved to satis- 
 fy his Majesty. 
 
 How this transaction was carried, and the King's Reconciiia- 
 
 i . ,, tion of the 
 
 success therein, as to the manner, as well as to the p ope and 
 matter, is so notorious, even to the creation of his Henry 
 two great ministers Cardinals by the Pope in the con- 
 clusion of the treaty, that it is to no purpose to en- 
 large upon it. From that time we may justly say, 
 that Clement was as much French to the end of his 
 reign, as he had been Spanish in the beginning ; and 
 as he had the skill to pacify Spain with the promise, 
 that by having obliged France in that manner he 
 should be able to make a peace between the two 
 crowns ; (than which Philip desired nothing more, 
 and Henry nothing less ;) so in all that concerned 
 France, he suffered himself to be guided by the ge- 
 nius of that great King ; and in matters which were 
 in their nature of the most ecclesiastical cognizance, 
 he willingly departed from the known common rules, 
 and complied with the method proposed by the 
 King, and never denied any thing that was positively 
 insisted on by him. So he consented to the annul- 
 lation and invalidating the King's marriage, with all 
 the circumstances and formalities which were re- 
 quired, and which had never been used ; and when 
 he seemed to be averse to any thing that was desired, 
 
 K k 2 he
 
 48$ PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, he was told, that before the late disorders, and before 
 
 VIII. 
 the heresies which were now started, the court of 
 
 Parliament and the great Council had determined 
 many things otherwise than were held at Rome ; 
 and that the French Church had always had some 
 pretensions above that which the Sacred Chair would 
 hear or acknowledge, and that the Sorbonne at Paris 
 had always defended several opinions, and held seve- 
 ral maxims very disadvantageous to the Pope: which 
 argumentations were always hearkened unto ; the 
 Pope being wisely resolved to have no more contro- 
 versies with France, whilst so learned a. Doctor sate 
 in the chair. 
 Henry iv. ]Nj or fad these condescensions in him ever prevail 
 
 refuses to . . . * 
 
 publish the with the King to comply with any thing he desired, 
 Tr^nTin if it did in the least degree shock with the policy of 
 ice ' the kingdom. So when the Pope with all imagin- 
 able importunity pressed the King for the publica- 
 tion of the Council of Trent, and said, he was the 
 more earnest in it by reason of the disorders and ex- 
 treme abuses, which, he understood, increased every 
 day more and more in the French Church, by so 
 many French Priests, who came at present to Rome 
 upon the account of the Jubilee, and who were so 
 defiled and infected with so many debaucheries and 
 irregularities, that he was not only excited to a pity, 
 but to a horror of them in his soul ; and though the 
 good Cardinal D'Ossat, in order to prevail with the 
 King in that particular, writ, that though the Pope 
 was not at that time well satisfied with the King, yet 
 if he would but please to hasten the publishing the 
 Council of Trent, he would appease and calm all his 
 anger ; (and in truth the expedient proposed by that 
 Cardinal to induce his Majesty to consent to it, in 
 
 his
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 48Cf 
 
 bis 172d letter, in the year fifteen hundred ninety- CHA. 
 
 nine, is very worthy not to be forgotten ; namely, 
 
 that in the publishing might be added thereunto 
 some certain salvos and cautions, under which any 
 thing whatsoever might be comprehended, as the 
 prerogatives and preeminences of the Crown, the au- 
 thority of the King, the independencies and liberties 
 of the French Church, the indulgences of the court 
 of Parliament, the edicts of agreement, and whatso- 
 
 ' o ' 
 
 ever else you have a mind to except ; by which we 
 see what kind of reverence themselves have to the 
 decrees of Councils, which they admit to be general, 
 and how many ways they have to avoid their obliga- 
 tions ;) yet all these arguments could not prevail 
 with this King to satisfy the Pope herein, nor did he 
 ever suffer that Council to be received in France. 
 
 When the Pope first spoke to the Cardinal D'Os- Papal doc- 
 
 . trine of not 
 
 Sat concerning the peace between the two crowns, keeping 
 (which of all things in the world he desired to bring heretics, 
 to pass,) and of the affairs of England ; the Cardinal 
 told him, as to what concerned the peace, the doubt oaths 
 which he had of it long before was increased lately ; 
 for that the King, who was always an exact observer 
 of his word and promise, would have much ado to 
 disengage himself from that alliance which he had 
 lately renewed and confirmed by an oath. The 
 Pope answered, that oath was made to an heretic, 
 and that the King had made quite another oath to 
 God and to him ; and afterwards added, (what he 
 had often before told him, and particularly in the 
 audience before,) that Kings and sovereign Princes 
 gave themselves the liberty to do any thing that 
 might tend to their own advantage ; and that it was 
 come now to that height, that nobody imputed it to 
 
 K k 3 them
 
 490 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, them for crime, nor thought the worse of them for 
 
 VIII 
 
 so doing ; and alleged on this occasion a saying of 
 
 Franciscus Maria, Duke of Urbin, who used to say, 
 that if a Gentleman or Lord not sovereign kept not 
 his word, it would be a great dishonour and reproach 
 to him ; but Sovereign Princes, upon interest of state, 
 could without any great blame make and break 
 treaties at their pleasures, make alliances, and, as 
 soon as that is done, quit them, lie, betray, and do 
 any thing else. The honest Cardinal said, he had 
 too much to reply upon this discourse ; but he 
 thought it not safe to stop in a place that was so slip- 
 pery : however, the King might see that the hatred 
 which the Pope bore to heretics did transport him 
 to that degree, that he sometime let slip out of his 
 mouth (though under the name of another) maxims 
 very pernicious, and wholly unworthy of a man of 
 honour or honesty. It would not be reasonable 
 just or charitable to say, that the Church of Rome 
 hath long retained and doth still retain those max- 
 ims, which very many learned and pious Catholics 
 do every day disclaim, and by their writings with 
 great vehemence dislike and controul ; nor hath any 
 other Catholic in these late years assumed the cou- 
 rage to support them, or to contradict the others for 
 want of zeal to their religion. Yet it is nothing like 
 a calumny to believe and say, that all those princi- 
 ples and maxims, so destructive to human society, 
 and contradictory to all moral honesty, are as much 
 the doctrine of the Court of Rome still, as they were 
 in the time of Clement the Eighth, or of the worst 
 of his predecessors ; as is manifest, by the frequent 
 Bulls which have been issued out by several Popes 
 since his time, for the annulling several treaties and the 
 
 most
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 491 
 
 most solemn contracts, and dispensing with and ab- CHAP, 
 solving from all the oaths which have been taken for ' 
 the punctual observation thereof, in the most im- 
 portant matters that concern the peace of Christen- 
 dom : of which, in the conclusion of this discourse, 
 we shall think fit to annex some instances. But, 
 God be thanked ! Catholic Princes, and indeed all 
 good Catholics, look upon those scriptures as Apo- 
 cryphal, and obey them accordingly. And here we 
 shall for the present leave Clement the Eighth to his 
 rest, and take a short view of his successor. 
 
 Clement the Eighth being dead, the Cardinal 
 Medicis was chosen, who assumed the title of Leo conclave 
 the Eleventh, and living but twenty-seven days after, t ion of a 
 yields us very little matter for observation. But the su 
 conclave in which his successor was chosen yields us 
 so much and so full evidence of the evangelical pro- 
 ceedings in those dark conventions, that being com- 
 municated by so unquestionable authors as three 
 great Cardinals, who were present in the conclave, 
 Joyeuse, Perron, arid D'Ossat, we should be very 
 much failing to our work in hand, if we did not in- 
 sert it, and in describing whereof we will use no 
 other words but their own. 
 
 The Cardinal de Joyeuse, in his letter of the 1 9th Narrative of 
 of May, 1605, to King Henry the Fourth, makes this n ai 
 relation of it; " The Cardinal Aldobrandini and the euse ' 
 " Cardinal Montalto with all their creatures came to 
 " us, desiring us to join with them to make the Car- 
 " dinal Tosco Pope. After we had discoursed a great 
 " while of this business, we had much ado to resolve 
 " upon it ; because that Cardinal was looked upon as 
 " a man who lived a life not too exemplary, very apt 
 " to be choleric and angry, who had always in his 
 
 K k 4 " mouth
 
 492 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " mouth unchaste and immodest words, and who was 
 
 VIII 
 
 1_ " given to other customs unbecoming, not only the 
 
 " head of the Church, but any person whatever who 
 " had but the least advantage of an honest education. 
 " In a word, he was a man from whom we could not 
 " expect the least good for the Church ; the election 
 " of whom would go against the conscience of many 
 " pious persons of the college, and might perhaps 
 " gain us nothing but disgrace and reproach from all 
 " the assembly of Cardinals. Nevertheless, the little 
 " hopes we had of having a Pope to our mind, the 
 " fear of falling on one of those who were excluded 
 " by your Majesty, the desire of not displeasing the 
 " Cardinal Aldobrandini, and the opinion that we had 
 " that this man would be inclined to favour the affairs 
 " of your Majesty, made us resolve to assure Aldo- 
 " brandini that we gave our full consent to this e'lec- 
 " tion." These are the very words in which that Car- 
 dinal made that relation of the conclave to the King, 
 and the other two differ not in any material expres- 
 sion ; and it is very notorious that Cardinal Tosco had 
 been chosen Pope, if the learned Baronius (from the 
 indignation of his soul, in a most pathetical discourse 
 of the horror and odium that would attend such an 
 election of a man so scandalous, whom he described 
 as much to the life, as the Cardinal Joyeuse had 
 done to the King) had not so wrought upon the con- 
 science or the shame of very many of the Cardinals, 
 when they were in the point of going to adoration, 
 that they were diverted from that intention, and would 
 have recompensed that Cardinal for their redemption 
 with the election of himself for Pope, which he as 
 magnanimously refused. And by this means, and 
 after all these foul circumstances, the Cardinal Borg- 
 
 hese
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 493 
 
 hese came to be chosen Pope, and assumed the name CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 of Paul the Fifth, and administered much matter to ' 
 
 us of observation. 
 
 Paul the Fifth, from the time that he assumed the Paul v. 
 Pontificate, was in his nature as much inclined and 
 resolved to extend the power and jurisdiction of the 
 Papacy, as any of his predecessors ever had been. 
 He had the activity and courage of his age, which 
 did not exceed three and fifty years, and had a spirit 
 as obstinate as his predecessor Sixtus the Fifth. He 
 took counsel only of himself, and was not to be re- 
 moved from what he once resolved by any sugges- 
 tions from other men, or from his own reflections ; 
 and therefore was so much the more like to succeed 
 from the strength of his own imagination and will, 
 than the other was, by how much he had more 
 friends and persons, who loved him and would be 
 ready to second whatsoever he desired. But he had 
 the misfortune to make a wrong choice and election 
 of the object of his displeasure and emulation. Spain 
 paid all the obedience to the Holy Chair it could ex- 
 pect or desire, as being well paid and recompensed 
 for it, and received every benefit from its condescen^ 
 sions : France was so newly reconciled, and was in, 
 the hand of such a Prince as would not be drawn to 
 any thing but what his own wisdom and convenience 
 did invite to, and one whose courtesy was to be che- 
 rished and his power to be feared; both which would 
 have established the authority of that Chair, and pre- 
 served the full reverence of his neighbours towards 
 him, if he could have been contented to have en- 
 joyed the greatness and power his predecessors were 
 possessed of, though by means not very justifiable. 
 And since his spirit could not acquiesce with that 
 
 portion,
 
 494 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, portion, he could not satisfy his ambition better than 
 to suffer it to transport him to provoke an adversary, 
 
 that next to the two crowns was best able to contend 
 with him, and least like to depart from their own 
 rigour, to comply with his pretences or satisfy his 
 humour. So he made choice of an enemy, from 
 whom he could not afterwards disentangle himself, 
 without (besides prostituting the dignity of his own 
 person) exposing the Papacy itself to receive those 
 wounds that it can never recover, and to be stript 
 of all that divine authority which they lay claim to 
 by the donative of St. Peter, by the full testimony 
 and approbation of a sovereign body of Catholics, 
 who, without ever giving countenance to or suffering 
 any heretics to live amongst them, hath ever pre- 
 served the practice of the Catholic Religion with 
 equal reputation and integrity with Rome itself. In 
 the stating this difference there can be no partiality, 
 since every particular of it was so notorious, that as 
 it had called all the eyes of Christendom to behold 
 it in a great calm after the peace between the two 
 crowns, so it was published in all languages, and the 
 matter of fact so fully agreed, that it would be in- 
 excusable folly to endeavour to mislead any man by 
 misinformation. 
 
 Dispute The case then was this. The Republic of Venice 
 had, during the Pontificate of Clement, enacted two 
 laws ; the one, to restrain ecclesiastical persons from 
 taking certain lands into their hands, which belonged 
 to their dignities or titles ; and the other, that it 
 should not be lawful for any person of what condition 
 soever to erect or build any church monastery or re- 
 ligious house, without a licence first obtained from 
 the Senate, upon very severe penalties, besides the for- 
 feiture 
 
 nice.
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 495 
 
 feiture of the ground or land so given or assigned; and CHAP. 
 
 to these two there was a third added, (during the va ' 
 
 cancy of the Chair, between the death of Clement and 
 the election of Paul,) which made the two former laws, 
 which before reached only to Venice, extend over all 
 their dominions. It was generally believed, that Paul 
 had brought with him some secret displeasure to that 
 Republic in the moment that he was elevated to that 
 Chair, and thought he could not propose an easier task 
 to himself for the manifestation of his power, than 
 the mortifying that Commonwealth, that so much 
 overshadowed her neighbours. And if he had not 
 entertained that prejudice, he could hardly so soon 
 have published it ; for, without expecting the cere- 
 mony of their ambassador of obedience, (which he 
 was sure would speedily be sent,) he declared to 
 their ambassador residing in Rome, that he would 
 have that last act that had been made during the 
 sede vacant c to be immediately repealed and vacated. 
 The ambassador gave the Senate notice of his de- 
 mand, and from them returned this answer to the 
 Pope ; that the decree he disliked contained nothing 
 in it that was contrary to the liberty ecclesiastic, but 
 regarded only the secular state, over which the Re- 
 public had an absolute power ; and that they had 
 done nothing in this but what the Emperors Valen- 
 tinian and Charlemain, the Kings of France, from St. 
 Lewis to Harry the Third, King Edward the Third 
 of England, the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and 
 many other Christian Princes had done upon the 
 like occasions. The Pope quickly declared that he 
 was not satisfied with the answer ; and that he had 
 other matters to complain of, in which he expected 
 speedy satisfaction. The Senate had lately put to 
 
 death
 
 496 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, death a Canon for having ravished a girl of eleven 
 
 : years of age, and afterward cut her throat ; and there 
 
 were at this time two ecclesiastic persons in prison, 
 the one a Canon, the other an Abbot ; the first, for 
 having committed a very enormous crime (that by 
 the law was very penal) against a kinswoman of his, 
 because she would not yield to his infamous desires ; 
 the other was accused of having committed incest 
 with his own sister, several assassinations and poi- 
 sonings, robbing in the highways, and many other 
 great crimes. Yet the Pope, without farther exami- 
 nation, and against the advice of those Cardinals with 
 whom he thought fit to confer, sent two briefs to his 
 Nuncio at Venice to be forthwith delivered to that 
 Duke. By the one, he was required to set those two 
 prisoners at liberty ; and by the other, to repeal 
 those laws under pain of excommunication and in- 
 terdict. But when those briefs came to Venice, the 
 present Duke was very sick, and died within few 
 days, so that the Nuncio could not deliver them till 
 there was another Duke chosen : which was no 
 sooner done, than the Senate returned the same an- 
 swer they had formerly done ; that the Holy Chair 
 had sustained no disrespect in what had been done, 
 nor was concerned therein, their proceedings having 
 been the eifect of their sovereignty upon the tempo- 
 ral estate ; and at the same time they made choice 
 of an extraordinary ambassador to satisfy the Pope 
 in the grounds of their proceedings. 
 
 Conduct As soon as those growing differences could be 
 n. taken notice of, the French ambassador, by the com- 
 mand of that King, performed all the offices he could 
 towards softening the hot temper of the Pope, who 
 spoke very lodly and scornfully of the Republic, 
 
 and
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 497 
 
 and to persuade him not to precipitate his resolutions, CHAP. 
 
 which might produce mischiefs that would not be so : 
 
 easily remedied as prevented. On the contrary, the 
 Spanish ambassador, who drew more of the Cardinals 
 to a concurrence with him, did all he could to in- 
 flame the Pope ; as in a business wherein Religion 
 and the dignity of the Holy Chair was concerned, 
 and which would be prostrated and exposed to con- 
 tempt, if that proud Senate was not humbled upon 
 this occasion. The Spanish ambassador had in his 
 own particular received some disobligations from the 
 Senate, and was glad of this opportunity to revenge, 
 himself, and thought it would not be unacceptable to 
 the King his master, who was enough incensed 
 against that Republic for some encroachments they 
 had made upon his state of Milan, or had hindered 
 him from encroaching upon their limits, (which was 
 an equal offence ; ) and he could never have such a 
 seasonable conjuncture to reform them, as now when 
 .he had nothing to do against France. 
 
 When the extraordinary ambassador from Venice Bulls of - 
 arrived at Rome, he found that he had not made haste cation""' 
 enough; for, notwithstanding all the reasons he could 
 offer to satisfy the Pope, or to convince the Cardinals, 
 he found within very few days after his being there, 
 that there was a Bull published and fixed upon all 
 the most notorious places in Rome, declaring that 
 the Duke and Senate, by the attempts they had 
 made against the authority of the Holy Chair, the 
 rights of the Church and the privilege of ecclesiasti- 
 cal persons, had incurred the censures contained in 
 the holy Canons, in the Councils and in the Consti- 
 tutions of Popes ; and therefore it ordained, that 
 they should put the prisoners into the hands of his 
 
 Nuncio ;
 
 498 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Nuncio; and declare their decrees to be null and 
 
 ^- void, and raze out of their records the memory of 
 
 them : and all this to be done within four and 
 twenty days ; and in failing therein, they were all 
 declared to be excommunicated ; and after the ex- 
 piration of the four and twenty days of the excom- 
 munication, for the hardness of their hearts, the city 
 and all the dominions thereof shall lie under the in- 
 terdict. Hereupon the extraordinary and ordinary 
 ambassadors retired from Rome without taking their 
 leave of the Pope, and returned to their own country. 
 Resisted The courage of the Senate was not at all abated 
 Republic, by this rough proceeding at Rome, but made so good 
 use of the time assigned for their obedience, and 
 made so wholesome orders for the exacting obedience 
 from their own subjects, that when the time came 
 for the interdict to begin, the doors of all churches 
 were as open, and the altars as well supplied, and all 
 ecclesiastical functions performed in the same man- 
 ner they were accustomed to be. The Senate had 
 made a decree, that whosoever presumed not to com- 
 ply with the obligation of their ordinary function, 
 should immediately be apprehended by the chief 
 magistrate of the place, and without farther process 
 be hanged ; and there is no record of any one who 
 suffered in the cause. There is only a pleasant men- 
 tion of two, the one a Canon (as I remember) of Ve- 
 nice, the other a Curate at Padua. The former, 
 being told by the Podesta what decree the Senate 
 had made, and being asked what he would do in the 
 case, he answered, that he would do as his conscience 
 should direct him : to which the Podesta replied, 
 that he, the Canon, should do well ; and that for his 
 part, he, the Podesta, would likewise do that which 
 
 the
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 499 
 
 the conscience of the State had directed him to do, CHAP. 
 
 which was immediately to hang him if he refused it; ' 
 
 which put the poor Canon into such a terrible fright 
 and trembling, that he did not recover his voice and 
 the other faculties of life in many days. The Curate 
 of Padua had a more present understanding ; and 
 when the Podesta told him what judgment the Se- 
 nate had passed, and asked him what he resolved to 
 do, he without much pausing said, that for his part 
 he had rather be excommunicated thirty years than 
 be hanged a quarter of an hour ; for he had always 
 observed, that these differences between Princes were 
 in short time usually ended, and then commonly all 
 things were left in the same state in which they had 
 been before : but he never heard that they who were 
 hanged got any thing; and therefore he was resolved 
 that he would say Mass. 
 
 The Senate observed, that all the religious orders Jesuits and 
 of old institutions carried themselves with obedience expelled 
 and submission to the State; but those of the new Venetian 
 foundation were refractory ; as the Capuchins and dominlons - 
 the Jesuits ; and that whilst the Senate took pains 
 to satisfy the understandings of men of the justice of 
 their cause, as well as to provide coercive laws to 
 exact their obedience, the Jesuits were as solicitous 
 and as active to seduce their subjects, and to incense 
 them against the government. And therefore they 
 presently expelled and banished both orders out of 
 their dominions, and executed it with that wonder- 
 ful expedition, that within very few days there was 
 not one Capuchin or Jesuit to be found in any of 
 the dominions belonging to the Republic. Yet in 
 this their severity, they expressed much more dis- 
 pleasure against the latter, as a people of a more des- 
 perate
 
 500 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, perate malice, and better qualified to do mischief. 
 
 ' And as they made it present death for any Jesuit to 
 
 be found in any of their dominions upon what pre- 
 tence soever, though it was as travelling to any other 
 place ; so they made it very penal for any Senator 
 whatsoever, or the Duke himself, so much as to pro- 
 pose in the time to come the restoration of that per- 
 nicious society. 
 
 Answer to Having thus provided for their peace and concord 
 
 the Pope's . . . . . . 
 
 Bull, and amongst themselves, they proceeded in making such 
 ronius Lid ther preparations as they thought necessary for their 
 Beiiarmi- re putation, or their security. They first published an 
 answer and declaration against the Pope's Monitory 
 and Bull, and complained against the injustice and in- 
 competency of it, stated -their case truly, and shewed 
 that their whole proceeding had been always done by 
 their predecessors, and that they owed no account to 
 the Pope for the same, and that he had no authority 
 to require it : and this they printed in the name and 
 by the authority of the Senate, and sent it to all the 
 Christian Princes their allies, with expressions sharp 
 enough against the Pope and his no jurisdiction. The 
 Pope inflicted a new censure upon this new presump- 
 tion ; and caused his two great Cardinals, Baronius 
 and Bellarminus, to write two conscientious discourses 
 to prove that the Pope had done nothing that he had 
 not only lawful authority to do, but what he was ob- 
 liged by his pastoral charge to perform ; and to per- 
 suade the Senate that they were obliged in con- 
 science to submit to his determination, and to give 
 obedience to him in the particulars he required. 
 The names of those learned Cardinals found little 
 submission, but very much contradiction. Some of 
 the Senators themselves, men of great learning, took 
 
 upon
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 501 
 
 upon them to answer them ; and what they writ was CHAP. 
 published by order of the Senate. Antonio Quirino, 
 
 a Senator of excellent parts, writ a book, which he 
 called, " Advice to the Subjects of Venice ;" and 
 shewed the nullity of the Pope's censures, which were 
 therefore void, because they were inflicted where 
 there was no crime ; and with extraordinary elo- 
 quence endeavoured to convince other Christian 
 Princes, that their own interest obliged them to sup- 
 port the authority of the Senate against the usurpa-^ 
 tions of Churchmen ; and that the cause of the Se- 
 nate was common with their own. And now that 
 this war of the pen was entered into, every man took 
 the liberty, divines and lawyers, all Catholics, to 
 write their judgments upon the point in controversy; 
 in which they examined the foundations of the pre- 
 tences on either side ; so that the Pope's authority 
 received deeper wounds than could ever since be 
 closed up. 
 
 That which troubled the Pope most was, the obe- The Pope 
 dience that all the Bishops and Clergy of the Repub-agl'^sr* 1 
 lie paid to the decrees of the Senate, notwithstanding Vemce ' 
 the excommunication and interdict ; for the Senate 
 had required them not only to perform all their pub- 
 lic offices, but to satisfy and inform all who came to 
 them in confession that they were obliged in con- 
 science to prefer their obedience to the State before 
 that to the Pope ; and there wanted only three votes 
 to condemn a Jesuit to the gallows, for having ad- 
 vised his penitent in confession that he ought in 
 conscience to submit to the interdict. And the fa- 
 mous Fra Paolo, and Fulgentio, with other religious 
 men, had in their writings and in their sermons so 
 much exposed the dignity and authority of the Pope 
 
 L 1 tO
 
 502 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, to the contempt of the common people, that nobody 
 spoke of him but in mirth and derision. All which 
 being quickly known in Rome, inflamed the college 
 of Cardinals as much as the Pope ; insomuch as 
 many, who had been against the precipitation of those 
 ecclesiastical censures, and thought the subject re- 
 quired more deliberation, were now so transported, 
 that they advised the Pope, that not his personal re- 
 putation, but the duty of Religion, obliged him to 
 vindicate the Holy Chair from the reproach it un- 
 derwent, and to chastise with his temporal sword 
 those rebellious children, who had so notoriously de- 
 spised his spiritual. The Pope liked the counsel, 
 and made his brother General of his forces both by 
 sea and land, who prosecuted the levies of men with 
 great diligence and much expence. It was a princi- 
 pal argument in the Consistory for taking this reso- 
 lution, that the Republic would never have the cou- 
 rage to enter into a war with His Holiness, knowing 
 well enough how odious they were to all the Princes 
 of Italy, towards whom they were very ill neigh- 
 bours ; and therefore they should no sooner hear of 
 forces raised against them by His Holiness, but they 
 would be terrified, and immediately submit to all his 
 ordinances. The contrary appeared quickly to him ; 
 and that the Republic had not deferred making pre- 
 parations to resist him till he began to arm ; but had, 
 besides those of their own subjects, which they had 
 drawn together to prevent any insurrections, agreed 
 for a levy of eight thousand foot, and some horse ; 
 and that they had sent for the Count of Vaudemont, 
 who had long a pension from them, under an engage- 
 ment to serve them as their general when they should 
 have occasion ; and they had now sent for him into 
 
 Lor-
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 60S 
 
 terrain, where he lived with the Duke his father. CHAP. 
 
 These advertisements, with the expence he had al- 
 
 ready been at upon the small levies he had made, and 
 the computation from thence what the charge of the 
 war would amount unto in a short time, made him wish 
 that the work was to begin again, and to reflect upon 
 many things which he had not thought of before. 
 
 It is true, that, (as hath been said,) upon the first Conduct of 
 hasty discovery of his displeasure against the Repub- France. 
 lie, and the sturdy answer given to his demand by 
 their ambassador Nani, (namely, that they governed 
 their subjects by their own laws, and that if they 
 should repeal any of those because the Pope was dis- 
 pleased with them, they had nothing to do but to 
 send their book of statutes to him, that he might ap- 
 point which of them should be executed,) the Spa- 
 nish ambassador used many arguments to incense 
 His Holiness against them, and to extort obedience 
 to his decrees by force, in which he was confident 
 that he might depend upon his Master for his ut- 
 most assistance. But it was as true, that, from that 
 time, (and though he had sent an express into Spain, 
 to complain of the affront and contumacy which the 
 State of Venice had shewed towards him, in vindi- 
 cation whereof he desired both counsel and assistance 
 from the Catholic King,) full three months were 
 passed without his having received any answer; nor 
 could his Nuncio in Spain give him any account 
 what that Court inclined to do. The King of France 
 had indeed, upon the first appearance of the diffe- 
 rence, sent an ambassador to Rome with great ex- 
 pressions of respect to the Sacred Chair, and to la- 
 ment the appearance of any discord like to fall out 
 between His Holiness and his dear ally the State of 
 
 L 1 2 Venice;
 
 604 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Venice; for composing whereof his Majesty offered 
 
 his interposition and mediation, and he had already 
 
 sent an ambassador thither, in order to dispose that 
 Senate to what was fit, all which amounted but to 
 a mediation, without any proffer of help and assist- 
 ance if they should be refractory to what should by 
 him be thought fit. Whereupon the Pope accepted 
 the mediation, and permitted that the French am- 
 bassador in Venice should propose any thing he con- 
 ceived reasonable towards the entering into a treaty ; 
 intimating likewise by the ambassador who was at 
 Rome, that he believed, if an ambassador were 
 sent from Venice to desire it, His Holiness might 
 be prevailed with to take off the ecclesiastical cen- 
 sures, and to grant his absolution in order to a treaty 
 upon the whole matter : to this however Monsieur 
 de Fresne, the French ambassador in Venice, gave for 
 answer to Monsieur Alincourt, who resided in Rome, 
 that the Senate thought they had no need of an ab- 
 solution, nor required, nor would accept of any ; but 
 if the Pope would first take off all his spiritual cen- 
 sures, they would then be ready to enter into a 
 treaty with him. 
 
 Mediation This was the highest indignity they had yet 
 treated him with ; to despise his absolution, and to 
 propose the taking off the excommunication and in- 
 terdict, without any sign of repentance, or so much 
 as an acknowledgment of a crime. But it happened 
 at the same time, that an express arrived from Spain 
 with letters under the hand of that King to His Ho- 
 liness, in which he gave him many thanks for his 
 having communicated to him the dispute he had 
 with the Republic, whereupon he had sent the Conde" 
 de Castro his extraordinary ambassador thither, to give 
 
 the
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 505 
 
 the Senate good counsel, and to put them in mind CHAP. 
 of their duty to the Sacred Chair ; which if it had - 
 that effect upon them as it ought to have, he would 
 become a suitor on their behalf to His Holiness, that 
 he would accept their submission, and restore them 
 to his favour ; but if they should continue obstinate, 
 and adhere to the resolution they had taken, he as- 
 sured the Pope that he would send all the armies he 
 had to assist him, and likewise lead them in his own 
 person, before Religion and the Church (which he 
 and his predecessors had always defended) should 
 submit to any affront. This came very seasonably 
 to raise his drooping spirits ; and he took care that 
 it might not be concealed, but published it by all the 
 ways he could, sent copies of it to all the Princes of 
 Italy, and resumed his former courage for the prose- 
 cution of the war, and issued out all orders accord- 
 ingly ; in which he found such a universal concur- 
 rence, that all the Cardinals and city of Rome made 
 voluntary subscriptions for the supply of very con- 
 siderable sums of money towards the war : so that 
 the Pope's General publicly declared, that there was 
 money enough to raise an army of forty thousand 
 foot arid six thousand horse, and to maintain it for 
 three years. Nor was the Republic untouched by 
 the King of Spain's so unexpected declaration, but 
 took pains to have it believed that his ambassador 
 spoke quite another language at Venice, and made 
 great protestations that he would faithfully observe 
 the treaty that was between them, if he could not 
 be so happy as to procure a reconciliation by his me- 
 diation. Certain it is, that the Spanish ambassador 
 received nothing but great ceremony and acknow- 
 ledgment of the King's bounty, in undertaking his 
 
 L 1 3 media-
 
 506 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, mediation in so perplexed a condition as their com- 
 - monwealth was then in ; for which they rendered 
 him infinite thanks. But when the ambassador pre- 
 tended that his business was to understand and be a 
 witness of their good disposition to peace, and then 
 to Continue his journey to Rome, to induce His Ho- 
 liness to the same good inclination, and therefore 
 it would be necessary for them to make such propo- 
 sitions on their part, that he might inform the Pope 
 thereof, and give the best arguments he could to 
 make them acceptable ; he could draw no other an- 
 swer from them, but that they had nothing to pro- 
 pose, being resolved to maintain and defend their 
 laws, by which their government and sovereignty did 
 subsist, At last, with great importunity, they in- 
 formed him what they had offered to the French 
 ambassador, beyond which they could make no ad- 
 vance ; and of which, when he had sent information 
 to Rome, there could be no other use made, than the 
 conviction of those, who imagined that they had an 
 enemy to deal with that would by any menaces be 
 wrought upon to comply ; which gave the Pope him- 
 self great thoughts of heart. 
 Mediation Harry the Fourth of France looked from the be- 
 
 of France. ..'-.. 1-1 
 
 ginning of this garboil as a man who resolved to 
 have some part in it, to the composing or to the 
 widening it ; and therefore begun early his office of 
 mediation : and, well knowing the Spaniards' inten- 
 tions to make use of this opportunity to recover 
 some places which belonged (they said) to the 
 dutchy of Milan, and which were possessed by the 
 Venetians as territories of the Republic, he did not 
 intend they should choose their er.emy in Italy. 
 This made the Republic gladly embrace the media- 
 tion;
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 50f 
 
 tion ; which the Pope durst not reject, who begun to CHAP. 
 
 discover that the late gaudy professions from Spain ~ 
 
 had somewhat hid under them, that which would 
 cost him dearer than the affront he had yet received 
 from the Venetians : and he found that they, the 
 Princes of Italy, upon whom he most depended for 
 their dislike of the greatness and power of the Re- 
 public, begun now to talk of the nature and ground 
 of the quarrel ; that the books and discourses which 
 had been written by them, and on their behalf, had 
 made much deeper impression than those which had 
 been printed at Rome ; that to compel a sovereign 
 State to repeal the laws which they had thought fit 
 to make for their own policy and good government, 
 would no less trench upon their own interest, than 
 upon that of Venice ; and then, for the privileges of 
 ecclesiastical persons, which had been a doctrine 
 most preached amongst them, and had met with 
 least contradiction, the monstrousness of the crimes 
 of which they were known to be guilty, produced 
 that horror in all men, that whatever would obstruct 
 the most speedy and the most severe course of jus- 
 tice was believed to be an enemy to it. It was evi- 
 dent enough that the Venetians would not be threat- 
 ened out of their right, or their humour ; and that 
 they would manage a war longer and better than he 
 could do at his own charge, and by his own forces ; 
 and that his calling in strangers to assist him (espe- 
 cially the Spaniards, who would be more easily called 
 in than carried out) would inevitably irreconcile and 
 incense all Italy against him. The Pope therefore, 
 when those boutades were a little over, which the 
 steady proceeding of the Senate, in their answers to 
 the French ambassador, frequently put him into, still 
 
 L 1 4 desired
 
 508 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, desired that interposition might not be discontinued: 
 VIIL and his Nuncio at Paris desired the King, that he 
 would prosecute it with a little more warmth and 
 zeal on the behalf of the Sacred Chair, for the pre- 
 servation of its dignity, and the reverence due to it. 
 For there the King thought himself concerned to ap- 
 pear very tender ; and, because the scene for action 
 was like to be more at Rome than at Venice, he 
 thought fit that the Cardinal Joyeuse should go thi- 
 ther ; for which no excuse or pretence was to be 
 made, since every Cardinal is thought to go home 
 when he goes to Rome ; and he was a person of 
 whom the Pope was known to have a particular es- 
 teem. In his journey the Cardinal gave advertise- 
 ment to the French ambassador at Venice, that, being 
 to pass near the confines of that Republic in his way 
 to Rome, if he found that his presence would not be 
 unacceptable there, he would take their city in his 
 way. He was well known at Venice, and esteemed 
 as a good friend ; so that his reception there was in 
 all respects answerable to his quality. It was easy 
 enough, by the introduction of the French ambassa- 
 dor, who was to observe his orders, to open a door to 
 let himself into the treaty ; and to make the Senate 
 know, that, without any character, he knew well his 
 master's mind ; and that it was known at Rome that 
 he did so. So that the Senate, and the Duke him- 
 self, who gave him always the hand, (which he used 
 not to do to other Cardinals,) treated readily with 
 him without reserve. He was well informed of all 
 that had passed in the Court of Rome, and that the 
 Pope was sensible that he had pulled a greater bur- 
 den upon his shoulders than he was able to bear, and 
 that he was glad to hear of his being there, and ex- 
 pected
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 509 
 
 pected some good overtures by him. He thought CHAP. 
 some expedients might be found to compose the two - 
 main points upon which the difference had first 
 grown ; but the acts which had followed after, 
 (namely, the excommunication and interdict by the 
 Pope, and the circular letter from the Senate to all 
 their officers and clergy, to prevent the ill effect of 
 those Bulls by their want of power and authority,) 
 were not so easy to be reconciled ; since the sup- 
 pressing and recalling them would still leave the om- 
 nipotence of the Sacred Chair blemished, if not 
 blasted ; except they could be prevailed with to ac- 
 knowledge some excess on their part, which he found 
 impossible. Yet there was another point more to be 
 despaired of than the other, and without which he 
 thought his going to Rome must be to no purpose, 
 which was, the revocation of the Jesuits ; which the 
 Pope could not in honour recede from, and which 
 they would never consent to. 
 
 When he knew all that the ambassador could in- 
 
 form him of, and collected as much as he could from cardinal 
 
 the discourses, with which those of the Senate, 
 had been deputed to confer with him, had enter- 
 tained him, he told them, that his business was to 
 Rome, but his coming to Venice had been a volun- 
 tary act of his own ; though he knew it would be 
 grateful to the King his master, as the most probable 
 way, to have carried somewhat with him from thence, 
 as must have made him welcome to the Pope; where- 
 as his judgment had so much deceived him, that by 
 coming out of his way he had disappointed himself 
 of the end of his journey, and must return to Paris 
 without going to Rome ; since he could impart no- 
 thing to the Pope that would not make the breach 
 
 wider ;
 
 510 PAPAL USUHPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, wider; and he seemed resolute to give over the ne- 
 
 VIII 
 
 gociation, and to return to France. The Senate, that 
 
 looked for more from his dexterity and plain dealing 
 at Rome than from any other minister who could be 
 employed thither, was much troubled at his declara- 
 tion ; and told him, that they had consented to 
 much more upon his demand in the name of the 
 King his master, than they could have been induced 
 to by any other way ; nor would they consent to the 
 same hereafter upon any other interposition : that, 
 upon his desire, they were content to deliver up the 
 two prisoners into the hands of such as his most 
 Christian Majesty should appoint to receive them, 
 and who might dispose of them in such manner as 
 that King thought fit : that for the two laws that 
 were complained of, they were likewise, for his Ma- 
 jesty's sake, content to suspend the execution thereof 
 for some time, and till some other occasion should 
 make it necessary for the Commonwealth to proceed 
 in that way ; provided that both these concessions 
 should in no degree reflect upon their sovereign 
 power, nor imply that they had done any thing 
 which they ought not to have done : and therefore 
 that, before either of these was done, the excommuni- 
 cation and interdict should be repealed, and declared 
 void: and when all should be done and executed that 
 was mutually agreed upon, they would send an am- 
 bassador to Rome, to testify to the Pope the affection 
 and respect they had always had for the Sacred Chair; 
 and that they desired the same favour and kindness 
 from him that they had still received from his prede- 
 cessors : and beyond this they could not yield to any 
 thing, without dissolving or shaking the principles of 
 their State and Government. 
 
 When
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 511 
 
 When the Cardinal discoursed of the reverence that CHAP. 
 
 was due to Religion and the Church, and that it was 
 
 a thing unheard of, that those censures, once inflicted, 
 should be taken off without repentance or acknowledg- 
 ment, which WAS the ground of all absolutions ; they 
 answered, that they were not without notable records 
 of their constant affection to Religion and the Church, 
 by such ample testimony of the Popes themselves, that 
 few other sovereign Princes had the like: that they 
 had done nothing that could offend the present Pope, 
 but what was necessary for the preservation of that go- 
 vernment ; which had at some times exceedingly ob- 
 liged, if not preserved, the Sacred Chair from violence 
 and rapine ; and without which their sovereignty 
 could not subsist : that they could not for that rea- 
 son acknowledge that they had committed any of- 
 fence ; nor did they desire, nor would receive, any 
 absolution. The Cardinal then put them in mind, 
 that, after a controversy of so unusual a nature, pro- 
 secuted to the making a war, at least to the raising 
 of armies, many crimes and offences must have been 
 committed by both sides ; and that they, whose zeal 
 had transported them farthest on the behalf of those 
 to whom they thought themselves most obliged, and 
 to the prejudice of the other party, would be in ill case, 
 if they were left liable to all those penalties and cen- 
 sures which the laws of the several governments would 
 inflict upon them; and therefore, in all the like cases, 
 an absolute act of oblivion and indemnity was, and 
 must always be, the necessary foundation and sup- 
 port of any peace that can ensue : which being so 
 known a truth, he desired them to consider, whether 
 it were possible for His Holiness ever to consent to 
 any peace with the Republic, without the Jesuits 
 
 being
 
 512 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, being restored to their primitive condition, of which 
 they had been deprived only for steadily adhering 
 to him, without the least charge or imagination of 
 any other crime ; and whether they imagined that 
 the most Christian King (who had the greatest de- 
 votion to the Chair of St. Peter of any Prince living) 
 could ever interpose or mediate in a matter so un- 
 generous and derogatory to the honour and dignity 
 of the Vicar of Christ. All which they answered 
 with silence, as a matter they were not qualified to 
 speak in ; only some of them said, that it was a 
 transcendent evidence of the respect that the Senate 
 had for his most Christian Majesty, that, upon his 
 desire, they were content to restore the Capuchins, 
 who had much provoked the State ; but for the 
 other, no man could, without his own ruin, so much 
 as mention it, and therefore desired to be excused if 
 they said no more upon that affair. 
 Proceedings When the Cardinal found that there could be no 
 
 of Cardinal 
 
 joyeuse at farther concessions made by the Senate, he told 
 them, that though he hoped little from the Pope, 
 (and, it may be, he would not tell him that little they 
 had proposed,) yet since he was so near Rome, he 
 thought it would not become him to return into 
 France without kissing the feet of His Holiness, and 
 therefore he would begin his journey the next day ; 
 though he did defer it two or three days, to the end 
 that the post might be there before him : and he 
 caused the French ambassador to make a true rela- 
 tion of all that had passed, to that ambassador of 
 Rome ; because he knew the Spanish ambassador 
 there would receive the same information from him 
 at Venice, to whom the Senate had communicated it. 
 But the Cardinal writ a letter himself to the Pope, 
 
 in
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 613 
 
 in which he informed him, that he should bring that CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 
 with him that would put an end to all disputes. So 
 
 that, whilst the two ambassadors appeared to all the 
 Cardinals very melancholy, and to despair of peace, 
 the Pope himself was very cheerful, and in good hu- 
 mour, and told those who were most intimate with 
 him that the peace was concluded. When the Car- 
 dinal Joyeuse arrived, he alighted at the ambassa- 
 dor's house, and, pretending some indisposition, he 
 excused seeing the Pope that night, who had great 
 impatience to be possessed of the secret. But when 
 he had the next morning, after an audience of above 
 three hours, heard all the Cardinal had to say, he 
 was exceedingly offended, and reproached him for 
 having deceived and abused him. To which the 
 Cardinal made no other answer, than that nobody 
 he could send would be able to do more than he had 
 done. However, he desired the Pope to appear well 
 pleased in public, for he had many things more to 
 acquaint him with ; and he had a secret expedient 
 yet, which if His Holiness approved of, would put a 
 fair end to the business, but would by no means at 
 this time let him know what the expedient was: and 
 when he had left the Pope to the Cardinals, who 
 were in the next room, he used all those expressions 
 which might persuade them, that though all was not 
 yet to be published, they might believe it to be con- 
 cluded : so that though the Pope could not dissem- 
 ble his dissatisfied looks, yet the report was current 
 through the court and town, that the peace was con-, 
 eluded : and the Spanish ambassador complained 
 how much his master had been contemned, that, 
 having offered more to the Pope than all other 
 Princes had done, his mediation had been rejected 
 
 no
 
 514 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, no less by the Pope than by the Venetians, who had 
 
 VIII . 
 
 ' deluded his ambassador with false and vain relations, 
 
 and granted all that the King of France had re- 
 quired. 
 
 The Pope was no better satisfied with the Car- 
 dinal's next audience, nor with his expedient. He 
 gave a large relation of the distemper of the Se- 
 nate, and of the great preparations they had made 
 for war ; that they desired not peace, but rather to 
 reduce His Holiness to that lowness, that he might 
 hereafter not be able to make a farther attempt upon 
 their sovereignty ; which seemed to him to be no 
 less the desire of the clergy than of the laity ; that it 
 was very evident to him, that what His Holiness de- 
 sired, and which he could only desire beyond what 
 he had obtained, namely, the restoration of the Je- 
 suits, would never be consented to, for that there 
 was so universal a detestation of them, upon the dis- 
 coveries which had been made of their machinations 
 against the State before, and over and above what had 
 happened in the last occasion, that they would never 
 more be 'looked upon as subjects to the sovereignty of 
 the Commonwealth; and that upon the whole matter 
 he advised the Pope not longer to insist upon that 
 point : which the Pope heard with great indignation, 
 and angrily asked him, whether this were the expe- 
 dient that he had so long reserved, and the care he 
 had of his honour and dignity? The Cardinal an- 
 swered him with some warmth again, that this was 
 not the expedient, and that whilst he had so little 
 care of his own condition, and of the peace of Italy, 
 and put the state and condition of the Jesuits into an 
 equal balance with the other, and with the Catholic 
 religion itself, he would not find a concurrence 
 
 from
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 51$ 
 
 from many other Princes, nor was he capable of a CHAP. 
 rational expedient, which he would reserve to a fitter : 
 
 time. 
 
 The Pope was as much dissatisfied with the Car- F u rther 
 dinal as was possible, and took it to heart, that he between 
 had at all infused into him any hope of a reasonable and Ca?di- 
 composition ; and that he could have so little a sense "^ e joy " 
 of his honour, as to persuade him to so infamous a 
 condescension. But that which troubled him most, 
 and of which he could see no end, was the opinion 
 that the Cardinal (who was generally esteemed a 
 wise man, and more versed in business than any 
 man of that age, and whom he had always looked 
 upon as his friend) would never have proceeded in 
 this manner, and at last fallen to that dejection of 
 spirit in his advice, if he had not been fully instruct- 
 ed by his master in all the particulars. And that 
 imagination was attended by such a train of other 
 jealous thoughts, that he could find no place in 
 which he could have rest ; nor durst he communi- 
 cate this to any body, nor seem to have less hope of 
 the peace than he had professed to have, for fear of 
 being thought a weak man, and easy to be cozened. 
 The Cardinal continued to use the same dialect still 
 in his conversation, that the peace was in the Pope's 
 own power; and seemed to wish that it might be 
 debated in Consistory, where the sole point would 
 appear to be the comprehension of the Jesuits; which 
 would be too envious a burden for them to bear, in 
 the disappointment of a peace, the delight wherein 
 every body had so digested in their own thoughts. 
 When the Pope had suffered himself for some days 
 to be overwhelmed with the agony of these distract- 
 ed thoughts, he called again for the Cardinal Joy- 
 
 euse,
 
 516 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 C HAP. euse, and lamented that any of his friends should 
 - think that he ought to redeem his life at so infamous 
 a price as the relinquishing a body of such true, and 
 faithful, and learned friends, (who had with that 
 courage adhered to him in a matter of conscience,) 
 to be destroyed, and even worried by their implaca- 
 ble enemies ; and desired him, that he would pro- 
 pose his expedient to him, if there were any hope 
 that it might redeem him from the trouble he sus- 
 tained. The Cardinal told him, that, next the pain 
 his Holiness underwent, his was the most uneasy part 
 in this great affair ; that the King his master had 
 made choice of him for this employment principally 
 out of the knowledge he had of his entire duty to his 
 Holiness, and his zeal for the dignity and authority 
 of the Sacred Chair ; and he was sure that that de- 
 votion alone prevailed with him cheerfully to under- 
 take it : that he had too often passed the mountains 
 before to take delight in those journies ; and he had 
 never intended to be present in any more conclaves ; 
 that he discerned now, to his great discomfort, that 
 his being engaged in this unlucky business had 
 drawn upon him the jealousy of His Holiness, which 
 he had least suspected ; and probably the ill success 
 of it might be attended with the same dissatisfaction 
 to the King his master, who (though he might blame 
 his want of address) he believed would never doubt 
 his sincerity, to the corruption whereof there was no 
 temptation in view : he said, he had not represented 
 the state of the whole affair to His Holiness with a 
 worse aspect than in truth belonged to it ; it might 
 possibly hereafter appear with a better than it yet 
 appeared to have, and he would not deny that he 
 had some such presage within himself; for when he 
 
 consi-
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. $17 
 
 considered that at his late being at Venice he had CHAP. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 not any character or authority to oppose to the in '* 
 
 solent demands and behaviour of the Senate; but his 
 person being well known there, and the French Am- 
 bassador's declaring, that the King had sent him to 
 Rome to dispose the Pope to an accommodation, but 
 especially the hope the Senate had to receive assist- 
 ance from his most Christian Majesty, had wrought 
 so far upon them, that he must confess that they had 
 shewed him as much respect, and used more free- 
 dom towards him, than they could have done if he 
 had been under any qualification ; for he did not 
 only confer with those who were deputed to treat 
 with the Ambassador, who they knew was to be 
 wholly governed by him, the Cardinal, but he had 
 liberty to speak with the Duke himself, or with any 
 other Senator, when he had a mind to it: however, 
 the method he had used, during his stay there, was 
 only to draw from them the utmost they would con- 
 sent to, upon his representation of the danger they 
 lay under of a temporal war, (in which all Catholic 
 Princes would look upon them as withdrawn from 
 the Church,) as well as of the ecclesiastical censures; 
 but that he had never taken upon him so much as to 
 imagine what would be insisted upon by His Holi- 
 ness ; and the discourse he had held concerning the 
 Jesuits had been an excursion of his own, as a point 
 absolutely necessary to facilitate a treaty ; and it was 
 true, their demeanor then was such as he had repre- 
 sented it to be, and he feared was grounded upon as 
 firm a resolution as could at that time be made. 
 
 This discourse wrought great attentiveness in the Asecret 
 
 authority 
 
 Pope, and appeared to have raised his spirits; sogiveuby 
 that as soon as the Cardinal made a little pause, yet the Cardi- 
 
 M m with
 
 518 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, with a purpose to have proceeded, the Pope told 
 him, that he would gladly hear him all that he had 
 
 euse, to y to say ; but he would be the more beholden to him, 
 with! and e ^ he would, as soon as he could, mention the expe- 
 absoivc, the dient that might disentangle him from the labyrinth 
 
 Venetians. _ * 
 
 in which he w r as involved. The Cardinal replied, 
 that he had wasted as little of his time as was possi- 
 ble, before he came to the expedient itself; which 
 was, that some person might be qualified at the 
 same time to absolve the Republic, and take off the 
 interdict, if they made themselves worthy of it, or 
 immediately to shut the door upon them, and return 
 without leaving farther hope of renewing any treaty ; 
 and then he believed, when they found themselves 
 reduced to that strait, and that they had it in their 
 power to be quiet, they would not then be so despe- 
 rate as to sustain the war, rather than retract the ba- 
 nishment of the Jesuits. The Pope acknowledged, 
 that such an expedient might produce that effect if it 
 were practicable, but he could not discern what he 
 could contribute towards it; since, whilst things con- 
 tinued in the present state, nobody qualified by him 
 could repair to a people excommunicated and inter- 
 dicted, nor could any man entrusted on their behalf 
 have admission to his presence. The Cardinal said^ 
 that he had not been without a foresight of that dif- 
 ficulty ; yet thought the expedient that was then in 
 his mind to be practicable without any of these ob- 
 jections, but that he could not say that he was as 
 much now of the same opinion : and, making a little 
 pause, whilst the Pope seemed to expect, he proceed- 
 ed, and said, that, whilst he believed himself to be in 
 the confidence of His Holiness, he could not object 
 against reposing so much trust in him, as, when he 
 
 returned
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 510 
 
 returned to France, (which he would now hasten, as CHAP. 
 
 being in despair of being instrumental towards any 
 
 reconciliation,) he might again make Venice his way; 
 and then if he were with all possible secrecy entrust- 
 ed by His Holiness with a brief for a short number 
 of days, as his Legate, to take off the interdict, and 
 pronounce the absolution upon such concessions as 
 he thought fit, there should be no notice taken of it ; 
 nor would he own such a power, till in such an arti- 
 cle of time that. he foresaw it would prove effectual; 
 otherwise that the short time would expire of itself, 
 and there would be no memory preserved that there 
 had ever been any such power granted : and he 
 added, that he might probably within such a time 
 receive such directions from the King his master, that 
 might have a better effect than he could hope for 
 from his rhetoric. The mention of his master made 
 more impression upon the Pope than all the other 
 discourse. He never doubted but that he could 
 bring the Venetians to any terms he thought fit; but 
 he was not sure that the conveniences he proposed 
 to himself might not be greater from the war, than 
 from a peace. However, he much more relied upon 
 the sincerity of France than of Spain; which he 
 plainly discerned thought of nothing so much, now 
 they were at peace with the other crown, as of a pre- 
 tence for drawing troops into Italy ; which he knew 
 as well could not be done, without France's taking 
 occasion likewise from thence to make an expedition 
 thither with a greater army ; for which neither of 
 them could ever meet with so good an opportunity 
 as this quarrel between him and the Republic would 
 administer to them, if it were not suddenly com- 
 posed. So that, without bringing the matter to a 
 
 M m 2 public
 
 620 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, public debate, (in which he knew private passions 
 
 ' would sway much, and that many of the Cardinals 
 
 who abhorred the war would yet, upon pretence of 
 honour, be very violent for the carrying it on, only 
 upon an imagination that the vexation of it, which 
 they saw already had made great impression upon 
 him, would shorten his days,) he sent again for the 
 Cardinal Joyeuse, and took leave of him, as upon his 
 going to France, and gave him such a brief as he had 
 proposed ; and shortly after the Cardinal's coming 
 to Venice, and without obtaining any thing more 
 from the Senate than they had granted before his 
 going to Rome, the peace was concluded, and the ab- 
 solution pronounced, by a trick of the Cardinal's, 
 without being desired or taken notice of; the Doc- 
 tors of the canon law having resolved and declared 
 an absolution to be valid when pronounced without 
 the consent of the party ; the Pope for some days 
 professing wonderful dissatisfaction, and declaring 
 that he had been betrayed by the Cardinal. 
 Reflections j nave collected this short relation as faithfully as 
 
 upon the m J 
 
 preceding I could, and without any partiality, out of the large 
 account that is given in the letters of Monsieur de 
 Fresne upon this subject, and in many other volu- 
 minous narrations which are made both in Italian 
 and French, in print and in manuscript, and do con- 
 ceive it to be as near the truth as can be made of a 
 matter that passed so privately, as to the most mate- 
 rial parts of it, between the Pope himself and the 
 Cardinal de Joyeuse, whose own relations and com- 
 mentaries of it are not so cle'ar as in other transac- 
 tions they use to be ; and as if he were content ra- 
 ther to expose himself to some reproach, than to lay 
 open the Pope's weakness and want of resolution, 
 
 which
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 521 
 
 which yet (it may be) was wisdom .in the conclusion, CHAP. 
 
 that was pride and rashness in the beginning: for it 
 
 cannot be that this wise and expert Cardinal could so 
 grossly have imposed upon the Pope's understanding, 
 which was sharp sighted enough, to the procuring such 
 absurd commissions from him ; or that he could more 
 grossly and so foully have broken a trust reposed in 
 him, by consenting in his name to what was so ex- 
 pressly contrary to his will and pleasure, and in a 
 case of religion that had so near a relation to the 
 honour and dignity of the Sacred Chair; which if he 
 had done, all the world must have heard of his infa- 
 mous perjury and perfidiousness ; and the King of 
 France could not have refused to have delivered him 
 up to be chastised by him whom he had so grievously 
 offended and provoked : whereas there is not any 
 record in any one relation of that whole transaction 
 o much to his disadvantage, or so liable to imputa- 
 tion, as in that which he makes himself; but he con^ 
 tinued in as high trust and favour with that King to 
 his death. Nor after two or three days choleric ex- 
 pressions, when the news of the peace came thither 
 without the conditions which they expected, was the 
 Pope ever heard to speak with any reflection upon 
 the Cardinal ; but himself appeared abundantly 
 pleased to be at rest and quiet, and reigned the re- 
 mainder of his time (which was near, if not full, ten 
 years after) with much more wariness and discretion 
 than he had done before ; and always assured the 
 Jesuits, that though their restoration could not be 
 made a condition of the peace, it would inevitably be 
 a consequence of it ; and was willing to have it be- 
 lieved, that the King of France had provided for it 
 by some secret stipulation with the Senate. Upon 
 
 M m 3 the
 
 522 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the whole matter, we may reasonably conclude, that 
 
 whatever Cardinal de Joyeuse did was by the Pope's 
 
 privity direction and approbation ; who chose rather 
 to trust him, that was to be absent from Rome, than 
 any Italian Cardinal, who must know too much of 
 his nature defects and oversights, and might pre- 
 sume to make other use of either than the other was 
 like to do. And here I cannot but observe a won- 
 derful sagacity in that Court, never to be convinced 
 by their own records in any point that may be a 
 contradiction or prejudice to any of their pretences ; 
 for, in a matter so notoriously acted upon the stage 
 of the world, and preserved by so many good au- 
 thors from the authentic acts of state of that time, 
 the record they have registered of that absolution 
 makes a formal recital of all the application and sub- 
 mission and humility from the Republic that can be 
 imagined ; and that thereby, and by the earnest me-r 
 diation of the two Kings of France and Spain, and 
 the instance of other Catholic Princes, His Holiness 
 had been prevailed with to accept and receive them 
 again into the communion of the Catholic Church, 
 and to authorize the Cardinal de Joyeuse as his Le- 
 gate to proceed, &c. 
 
 How far artifices of this nature may prevail with 
 succeeding ages, cannot well be foreseen ; but with 
 the present it can find no credit, whilst the true and 
 particular transactions in all that affair are remem- 
 bered with so much punctuality in all languages, and 
 the last entry of the conclusion of the whole is so 
 much of another nature in the archives of Venice. 
 Nor would that wise people (even after the reconci- 
 liation) permit any thing to be done that might im- 
 ply the least condescension of their part. And there,- 
 
 fore,
 
 FROM PIUS V. TO GREGORY XV. 523 
 
 fore, upon some advertisement that there were seve- CHAP. 
 
 . VIII. 
 
 ral books in the press at Rome ready to be publish 
 
 ed, containing a relation of all the proceedings which 
 had been, and answers in justification of all that 
 had been done by the Pope, the Senate sent to the 
 Pope, that they had submitted upon the desire of 
 Cardinal de Joyeuse, that all that had been writ on 
 either side should be suppressed, and suffered no 
 more to be sold ; but if any thing should be pub- 
 lished at Rome, or in any other place, to their disad- 
 vantage, they would take themselves to be absolved 
 from the observation of that article, and would cause 
 full answers to be made to whatsoever should come 
 out of the same nature, and what had been published 
 to be reprinted : whereupon there was strict order 
 given at Rome for the suppressing of what was then 
 in the press, and for the inhibiting any of the rest to 
 be sold ; and it was observed, that there was more 
 diligence then used in Rome for the suppressing all 
 that had been written on the Pope's behalf, than for 
 the justification of the Senate: so much it was be- 
 lieved that the one had the advantage over the other 
 in the reason and the style ; and whosoever now 
 reads both, cannot but acknowledge that there can 
 be no comparison between them. 
 
 The wounds which the Papal Chair received in that 
 conflict may be closed and bound up, but the scars 
 thereof can never be wiped out. To have all his claims 
 of a Supreme ecclesiastical dominion by arguments 
 and places of Scripture refuted and retorted upon him ; 
 to have his Excommunication examined, and contra- 
 dicted as invalid by the rules of law ; and his Interdict 
 resisted, and condemned as without ground ; and all 
 this by a Sovereign body of Catholics, is, and will 
 
 M m 4 continue
 
 524 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, continue to posterity, an undeniable evidence, that 
 
 those excesses and powers were not held of the essence 
 
 of Catholic religion ; and when such fulminations 
 may pass without being felt, and are recalled without 
 leaving smart or sign behind them, and without the 
 least acknowledgment that they were so much as 
 taken notice of, men cannot but believe that they 
 have no terror in and from themselves, but from the 
 stupidity of the persons who are affected by them ; 
 and whilst the memory of Paul the Fifth is preserv- 
 ed in the ecclesiastical annals, the distinction of spi- 
 ritual and temporal persons in the administration of 
 the sovereign justice of kingdoms will be neglected 
 as ridiculous, and the Pope's excommunication of so- 
 vereign Princes will be held fit to be derided. Be- 
 yond this we shall not extend the consideration of 
 any other of the particular actions of Paul the Fifth, 
 during jthe whole fifteen years of the Pontificate. 
 
 CHAP.
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 535 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 From Gregory XV. A. D. 1621. to Clement X. 
 A. D. 1670. Change in the policy of the Court of 
 Rome Denial of the Popds Supremacy by France, 
 Spain, and Venice Controversy between the Je- 
 suits and Jansenists Humiliation of the Pope by 
 Lewis XIV. 
 
 UPON the death of Paul the Fifth, and after 
 long and factious conclave, the Cardinal Lodovico vico. 
 was elected Pope, and took the name of Gregory the 
 Fifteenth : his short reign of two years has left us 
 little matter of observation, except the stupendous 
 value and revenue of that high administration, when 
 in so short a time it enabled him to leave so vast a 
 wealth to his heir, that his family remains still pos- 
 sessed of as great an estate as any that hath de- 
 scended from any Pope. 
 
 And here it will not be unseasonable to observe, Change in 
 that the wariness of the Popes, from the time that oftheVourt 
 the Christian Princes in Europe grew to have greater of Rome - 
 power and reputation, and consequently the Papacy 
 to have less, within their dominions, hath left less 
 information to posterity of their transactions, than 
 their predecessors used to have done. For from the 
 
 time
 
 526 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, time, that France recovered its inward convulsions to 
 
 TV 
 
 - : which the League had brought it, and Harry the 
 Fourth had restored it to its full vigour, to the same 
 at least that Spain had enjoyed during the two long 
 lives of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, 
 being time enough, with such prosperous conjunc- 
 tures, to raise it to an affectation of the universal mo- 
 narchy ; and that England was now become more 
 formidable, by the union of Scotland, and reducing 
 all the rebellious of Ireland under the obedience to 
 one King ; the Bishop of Rome likewise declined 
 those rude enterprises upon their sovereignties which 
 they had been accustomed to, and prescribed softer 
 arts of policy to themselves to govern by, and which 
 were much more natural to them to practise, and 
 with more probable success. 
 They did all they could to wipe out or efface the me- 
 
 tionofthe r n i i 
 
 Buiiarium. mory or all those their extravagant excursions in the 
 late League, by leaving out, in their next impres- 
 sion of the Bullariurn, all those Bulls which they 
 had sent abroad in the time of Gregory the Thir- 
 teenth, Sixtus the Fifth, and Clement the Eighth, to 
 the eternal reproach of the crown of France : that 
 the presumption and malignity of them might be 
 forgotten, and not be exposed to the continual view 
 of posterity. Nor had they a less care in the sup- 
 pressing all the like ebullitions upon the occasion of 
 the late dispute with the Republic of Venice. So 
 that the late editions of the Buiiarium have commu- 
 nicated little to us, whereby we may make conjec- 
 tures of the spirit of the time, or the humour of the 
 Popes, since the time of Gregory the Thirteenth to 
 this present ; but have only informed us of their 
 several Bulls for canonization of pious men to be 
 
 saints,
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 527 
 
 saints, and the weighty inducements and reasons for CHAP. 
 
 the conferring those preferments, and of others for 
 
 the foundation of religious houses, and some for the 
 reformation arid regulation of them, if it be possible ; 
 as if the Sacred Chair had now abandoned all secular 
 pretences, and was well contented to receive those 
 assignations, and enjoy those prerogatives, which so- 
 vereign Princes assign to them in their dominions, 
 and was only intent upon the exercise of their own 
 power in their own territories, and extending their 
 spiritual jurisdiction, as far as it would reach, in Italy. 
 The Court of Rome hath exceedingly reformed 
 itself in its civil behaviour and good manners, and 
 hath left the clamour and evil speaking to those 
 who wear no shirts, and countenances no foul words 
 towards those who, it is sure, will be damned ; and 
 it is so excessively civil to heretics, that there is less 
 danger in being thought a Lutheran, or a Calvinist, 
 in Rome, than in most other good company ; and 
 the Inquisition itself is grown so fine a gentleman, 
 that they are as safe there as at Amsterdam. Nor is 
 it many years since, that the host to a Dutchman in 
 Rome was in great danger to be condemned to the 
 gallics, for calling him (upon some difference in ac- 
 count) a heretic, that he was preserved only by the 
 good nature and earnest solicitation of his provoked 
 guest. And it is not to be doubted, that they find 
 themselves greater gainers by this courtship, than 
 they did by their worse breeding ; and that they 
 win more proselytes by their affability and good 
 breeding, than by their divinity or miracles ; upon 
 which they make themselves as merry with you as 
 upon the Pope himself, until, by a communication of 
 guilt, they persuade you that there is no salvation for 
 
 that
 
 '" 
 
 528 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that state, but in their Church. Probity is no where 
 
 _ so much contemned, nor impiety so much derided ; 
 
 their application being to the constitution of the pa- 
 
 tient, not to free him from the disease, but that he 
 
 may live well with it. To quit and abandon a sin is 
 
 too vulgar and uneasy a remedy ; to have the pleasure 
 
 and delight of practising it, and yet to be saved, is 
 
 the only expedient that is bought and sold here. 
 
 The Bull Gregory the Fifteenth, who best knew the straits 
 
 tione "' an d difficulties through which he had mounted into 
 
 Summ, tn at c na i r did intend, no doubt, to make the ascent 
 
 rontijl- * 
 
 thither more easy, and more innocent to his succes- 
 sor, by his Bull " De Elections Summi Pontificis :" 
 where, according to the natural dialect of those in- 
 struments, (which, by the way, if faithfully collected 
 by a discreet gatherer out of all the Bulls, from first 
 to last, would amount to as pleasant, if not as profit- 
 able, a bulk of commentaries and glosses upon the 
 Scriptures, as the Schoolmen themselves would yield,) 
 after he had observed upon the wisdom and caution 
 of our Saviour, and which he had never used in any 
 Other action, who, before he would commit " Ovium 
 " suarum curam" to St. Peter, asked him the same 
 question three times, and would not receive less than 
 a thrice repeated answer and profession of his faith- 
 ful affection to him, (by which he had learned what 
 great diligence and care should be used in the elec- 
 tion of all Pastors, and especially in the choice of a 
 successor to St. Peter himself, " qui Orbis est Lumen, 
 " Doctor Gentium, et Pastor Pastorum?} he or- 
 dains therefore that every Cardinal, at every scru- 
 tiny, antequam schedula in calicem mittatur, shall 
 make this oath, alt a et intelligibili voce ; " Test or 
 " Christum Dominum, qui me judicaturus est, me eli- 
 
 " gerc
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 529 
 
 " gere quern secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et CHAP. 
 " quod idem in accessu prctstabo :" then he prescribes 
 to all the Cardinals such a form for their own beha- 
 viour, " ut omnino abstineant ab omnibus pactionibus, 
 " coviventionibus, promissionibus, mtendwientis y fwde- 
 11 ribus, aliisque quibuscunque obligationibus 8fc. tarn 
 " respectu inclusionis quam exclusionis, tarn unius 
 "persona quam plurium 8fc.; n and " ex tune" excom- 
 municates all who are guilty in any of those cases. It 
 is true, he adds a very comfortable clause in the same 
 paragraph ; " Tractatus tamen pro electione haben- 
 " doSj vetare, non mtelligimus :" this it is doubted may, 
 according to the latitude of many consciences, have 
 dispensed with much of the precedent severity ; which 
 yet he supplies again by the next article ; namely, 
 that he shall be chosen by the suffrages of two parts 
 of three of the whole number of the Cardinals who 
 shall be present, " quasi per inspirationem, nullo prtr- 
 <f cedente de persona speciali tractatu fyc. per verbum 
 " ELIGO intelligibili voce prolatum 8fc. ;" and if this 
 be not observed, any election otherwise made, " electo 
 * ( nullumjus tribuit, quin imb is non Apostolicus, sed 
 " Apostaticus sit fyc" And there can be no doubt, 
 but as the Pope himself, who had passed the pikes, 
 did intend that for the future there should be fairer 
 play for the same prize, so it was a much stricter 
 provision than had been made before ; and the pub- 
 lication of it, according to all the vulgar interpreta- 
 tion of the words, persuaded all men to believe, that 
 there was an end of all long conclaves, and that for 
 the future the Holy Ghost would quickly have its 
 operation upon all persons, who were so well pre- 
 pared to be inspired. But the next conclave proved 
 better grammarians, and made it appear that the 
 
 Bull,
 
 530 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Bull, or the Oath, had done no harm, and that Sove- 
 ix 
 
 '- reign Princes still retained their prerogative of ex- 
 clusion, and that the particular Cardinals could not 
 be divested of those natural affections and inclina- 
 tions, with which God and nature had invested 
 them. 
 
 The Bull This Pope, how little time soever he reigned, pub- 
 
 Hareti- lished some other notable Bulls, which found no 
 better reception and obedience than that of the elec- 
 tion did ; and so much worse, as he lived not to see 
 the violation of that, and might have the delight of 
 imagining and believing that it might produce the 
 wished effects after his death; but he lived to see the 
 others neglected and contemned, upon the matter, 
 . in his own diocese ; and when he had been so mo- 
 dest (contrary to the custom of his predecessors, and 
 in a matter of as spiritual a nature as heresy itself) 
 as to contract his jurisdiction within the limits of his 
 Patriarchat. For such was his Bull " Contra Hts- 
 " reticos in lacis Italia, et Imularum adjacentium 
 " quovis pr&textu commorantes, eorumgue fautoresT 
 He there ordained, that no heretic, though under 
 the notion of a merchant, or any other traffic what- 
 soever, or under what pretence soever, should pre- 
 sume to take a house, or to live in any place of 
 Italy, or the islands adjacent ; but that they should 
 be proceeded against in the forms prescribed. And 
 when he found that he could not provide for the pu- 
 rity of that province, without the exposing the au- 
 thority of his predecessors, and some orders of the 
 established government, to reproach and contempt ; 
 and that there is no sure way to preserve the Catho- 
 lic religion to be unhurt there, as by providing that 
 it should not be known to them what heresy is ; 
 
 having
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 531 
 
 having observed (as he says) that the liberty to read CriAP. 
 
 prohibited books, " magno esse sincere fidei cultori 
 
 " bus detrimento fyc" and being informed that such 
 licence did exceedingly increase, he did, by another 
 Bull, revoke all liberty that had been given, to what 
 persons soever, of reading, or having any prohibited 
 books, and all licences which had been granted to 
 that purpose, " ab omnibus etiam Romania Ponti/ici- 
 " bus concessarum ;" which was a sign that he 
 thought that Cardinal Bellarmine (who was then 
 newly dead) had done them more harm than good, 
 by his two great volumes of controversies. He lived 
 also long enough to see, that not one English or 
 Dutch factor was put out of any city or town in 
 Italy, but enjoyed the same, or more liberty and pri- 
 vilege, than they had done before, in the places where 
 they inhabited ; and which places well understood 
 what profit they got by their company, finding it 
 necessary to publish such concessions and edicts, as 
 might give them security against any future appre- 
 hensions of that kind ; which could not be, without 
 declaring that the Pope had nothing to do in those 
 affairs. The Republic of Venice took from thence 
 occasion to renew and publish such orders, as (toge- 
 ther with the wise discourse set out with their privi- 
 lege by Padre Paolo, the constant friend to the 
 Pope's authority) gave as deep wounds to those pre- 
 tences as any that Paul the Fifth had drawn upon 
 himself. And for the revoking the liberty to read 
 prohibited books, he saw likewise, (which hath been 
 since more confirmed by experience,) that the only 
 benefit that it received from the congregation for the 
 prohibition of books, is in making the prices of those 
 books dearer, by the curiosity of men to read them, 
 
 and
 
 532 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and thereupon to deride the authority that would 
 ' suppress them ; it being very notorious, that religion 
 
 doth not nor ever did suffer so much by those men 
 who diligently read and examine what is written in 
 books, as by those, who (without reading them) per- 
 suade others to believe that they contain somewhat 
 that is not there, and so beget prejudice to the au- 
 thor, and (for his sake) to whatsoever he declares to 
 be his opinion : as it is no unusual stile in that con- 
 gregation to condemn all the books which are written 
 by such a man, and all those which he shall here- 
 after write ; which must be the product of another 
 foresight. 
 
 The Bull We shall mention only one Bull more of that 
 the Bi"of Pope, (who left us nothing else to mention of him,) 
 which he calls " Confirmatio et Ampliatio Constitu- 
 f' wn ^ pn Qyarti edited contra Sacer dotes in Confes- 
 
 J 
 
 " sionibus Sacramentalibus pwmtentes ad turpia sol- 
 
 sionibus . T i ' i i f ! J? 
 
 &c. sol- " licitantes. It was observed before, in the time of 
 mm- pj us ^ th^ j- ne publishing that Bull had brought great 
 reproach and scandal upon the Catholic religion, by 
 infusing into the minds of men, that there was so 
 much wickedness amongst those who were looked 
 upon as the Fathers of the Church, that, in the cele- 
 bration of the most solemn sacrament of confession, 
 they should solicit those penitents, who were at their 
 feet, to disburden their consciences of their most 
 grievous and most heinous sins, and to submit to 
 such chastisement and penance as they should in- 
 flict upon their transgressions ; and that these su- 
 preme spiritual guides, directors, and judges, should 
 make that diabolical use of the secrets they were in- 
 trusted with, as to solicit women, in the very act of 
 their penitence, to renew the same sins with them, 
 
 upon
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 533 
 
 upon the advantage of their confession. And al- CHAP. 
 
 though it is true, that this had been objected by 
 
 some who had left their Church, as well as by others 
 who had never been of it, and had therefore been 
 looked upon, for the magnitude and incredibility of 
 the wickedness, as the effect of the most transcendent 
 and heretical malice ; yet their veracity could be no 
 longer doubted, when Pope Pius himself had given 
 that testimony of it by his own Bull for the better 
 discovery and punishment of it. And now that an- 
 other Pope, near one hundred years after, upon evi- 
 dence that the former Bull had not produced its hoped 
 for effects, should renew and amplify it with several 
 clauses for the better discovery and punishment of 
 it, hath, no doubt, given many warrantable occasions 
 to many good men to fear, that, as we see no con- 
 spiracies or treasons discovered or prevented by it, 
 so adultery fornication and other uncleanness may 
 be propagated by this screen of confession, and 
 therefore to wish that the compulsory custom of it 
 were abolished ; with what devotion soever it was 
 first instituted, and with what piety soever it may be 
 practised. 
 
 And so we finish our survey of the short reign ofcharactcr 
 this Pope, with the character that a very eloquent xv/ eg017 
 Italian historiographer of that time, Procurator Nani, 
 gives him ; that, after he had for the space of about 
 two years, or very little more, " Sostenuto forse, piu 
 " cK esercitato il nome, e Vautorita dell ' Apostolato? 
 he left the fame of having had much zeal for reli- 
 gion ; on the other side, with reference to affairs, he 
 was esteemed " di genio rimesso e totulmente soggetto 
 " aW arbitrio de 1 Nepoti" who governed all things 
 " con tanta prepotenza" that in the short reign of 
 
 N n their
 
 634 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, their uncle they heaped up an incredible mass of 
 wealth, and attained great honour and interest. 
 
 Urban Gregory the Fifteenth was succeeded by Urban 
 
 VJII. J 
 
 the Eighth, who had not found less trouble and ob- 
 struction, nor received any benefit by the care and 
 providence of his predecessor's Bull : and when he 
 was elected, the same excellent writer of that time 
 says, that nobody wondered more at it than they 
 who had elected him ; " che si stuperono cThavere in- 
 " gannate le proprie Speranze ;" by having chosen a 
 man who by his complexion and vigour might very 
 well outlive the major part of those who had chosen 
 him ; as indeed he did, for he was not above five 
 and fifty years of age at that time, and he reigned 
 above twenty-one years. This long period of time 
 affords us abundant matter for observation. And if 
 we consulted no farther than the public transactions 
 under him, which are communicated to us in the re- 
 cords of Rome, we should think that he had lived in 
 the golden age of piety and virtue, by the multitude 
 of saints canonized by him ; most (if not all) of 
 which had lived in his own time. But when we 
 look into the more ingenuous and impartial account 
 of that age, (and of which there is light enough that 
 may be drawn out of Rome itself,) it will appear that 
 he governed but in " f&ce Romuli." 
 
 His con- He had found such a general consent in the con- 
 character, clave to take no kind of notice of Gregory's Bull for 
 the election, that he resolved (according to the prac- 
 tice he had learned from some of his predecessors) to 
 begin his reign against the express injunction and 
 determination of Sixtus the Fifth, and renewed and 
 confirmed by another who succeeded, in not only 
 making his two nephews Cardinals, (which was ex- 
 pressly
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 535 
 
 pressly inhibited to be done, and declared invalid CHAP, 
 and void if done,) but by adding his brother to the 
 number ; the sole Capuchin, I think, that hath ever 
 been a Cardinal : so that there were together three, 
 his brother and two nephews, who had votes in the 
 Consistory ; without considering how mortal a wound 
 it must needs be to the pretended power of the Pa- 
 pacy, in the judgment of all uncorrupted persons, to 
 declare or acknowledge that any decree whatsoever, 
 let it relate to religion or church government, is 
 reversible by another Pope as invalid, or to be made 
 so by his single judgment. Urban was generally 
 esteemed a scholar, and to take much delight in 
 books, and in the softer study of poetry, (which of 
 itself disposed him to case,) as we may see by a 
 volume of Latin poems which he hath left. And it 
 was generally believed, that his nature inclined him 
 to quiet, and that he resolved (though his long 
 employment in France as Nuncio made him sus- 
 pected to be of that party) to be neutral in all con- 
 tests between the two Crowns. But he found him- 
 self, in the very entrance into the Pontificate, embar- 
 rassed by the weakness of his predecessor, and the 
 strength of the Spaniard, to whom he had been most 
 inclined, which had made the Holy Chair the depo- 
 sitary of some towns or forts upon the quarrel of the 
 Valteline ; in which France and the Republic had 
 equally engaged themselves on one side, as Spain on 
 the other ; by reason whereof, the new Pope could 
 not disentangle himself without offending one of 
 them, whilst they both used all possible endeavours 
 to draw him to their party, by making offer of the 
 greatest marriages that were in either of their domi- 
 nions to be made and solemnized with his nephews. 
 
 N n 2 Though
 
 536 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Though the Pope discerned that at last he should 
 inevitably be compelled to declare himself for one, 
 
 Wars be- * 
 
 tween yet he resolved to defer it as long as he could, before 
 Spain re- any body should reasonably guess which side he 
 theVaUe- would take. Nor did he despair that he might for 
 line ' some time be able to keep and observe a neutrality ; 
 for there was yet no immediate declared war be- 
 tween them, though their allies were engaged warm- 
 ly, and either Crown sent their forces to assist their 
 armies. Besides what concerned the business of the 
 Orisons and the Valteline, in which France and the 
 Republic were united, the war was likewise broke 
 out between Savoy and the Duke of Mantua, and 
 both Crowns were raising armies for the support of 
 either ; but, till they should be embarked upon a di- 
 rect denunciation of war, the Pope still thought that 
 an interposition to prevent it would best become 
 him, until he could by their consent discharge him- 
 self of the depositary, by withdrawing his garrisons 
 from the towns and places they were possessed of. 
 France desired he should do this according to the 
 trust, by first dismantling the fortifications ; but the 
 Spaniard would not permit it, insisting that they 
 should either be delivered to them in the state they 
 were, or so left, that they might possess them as 
 soon as they were left. It is not doubted that the 
 Pope loved France better, and as little that he feared 
 Spain more; who could, from his kingdom of Naples 
 and Duchy of Milan, do him more mischief in a 
 month, than France could repair in a year, if it af- 
 fected to do it. He sent first his nephew, Cardinal 
 Francisco, his Legate into France, who was received 
 with all the demonstrations of respect and magnificent 
 presents that can be imagined, but prevailed not in 
 
 any
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 537 
 
 any one proposition that he made; which offended CHAP. 
 the Pope so much, that he no sooner returned to 
 Rome, but he was presently sent in the same condi- 
 tion into Spain; where he was equally caressed, and 
 was from that time always believed to be of the 
 Spanish party ; though without the least manifesta- 
 tion of his uncle's inclinations that way, he at the 
 same time advising the Republic, (with whom he 
 was in strict alliance,) that they would invite and 
 procure France to send an army into Italy, as the 
 only way to stop or give some check to the exor- 
 bitant power of the Spaniard. It is true, that the 
 intestine divisions and troubles in France during the 
 minority of the King, and the rebellions after he 
 came to age, with the domestic differences and pub- 
 lic breaches between him and the Queen his mother, 
 had found that King business enough at home ; so 
 that he could not obstruct nor countermine the pro- 
 gress that the other Crown had made in Italy, which 
 was grown formidable : and at this present, besides 
 the several forces under pretence of assisting the 
 Emperor about the Valteline, the Duke of Feria, Go- 
 vernor of Milan, had an army consisting of forty 
 thousand foot, and four thousand horse, under his 
 command, ready to march upon the first orders of 
 his Catholic Majesty ; and therefore it is no wonder 
 if the Pope, how well soever he wished to France, 
 did heartily endeavour to preserve the friendship of 
 Spain with all professions. And if he had not after- 
 wards committed greater errors in respect of his own 
 politic demeanor towards the Princes of Italy, relat- 
 ing to his own interests, than he did in his beha- 
 viour and carriage towards the two Crowns, he would 
 have left the character behind him of a very prudent 
 
 N n 3 and
 
 538 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and dexterous Pope ; and would have enjoyed a life 
 - ' of much more ease and quiet, (which he did, next 
 
 wealth, heartily affect,) and have died with much 
 
 more fame and glory. 
 
 France and The two Crowns were at this time entirely under 
 verned S by the government of the two great Favourites ; France 
 
 under Cardinal Richelieu, and Spain under the Duke 
 \arez. o f Qlivarez ; whilst the two Kings themselves had 
 no mind to do each other hurt, and as little to hinder 
 any man who had a mind to do it. 
 
 character The first was looked upon, at a distance, as the 
 Richelieu, greater Favourite, because he did the greater things, 
 and only for that ; for he sailed always against a 
 strong and violent wind, and did more towards mak- 
 ing himself great than the King ; and was more the 
 favourite of fortune than of the King ; and no man 
 was ever more " faber fortunes sua;" and with a 
 marvellous dexterity and address he applied all his 
 faculties at the same time to the most contrary de- 
 signs. He was always of some faction, and increased 
 it, or got out of it, or composed it, as suited best with 
 what he desired ; and rarely miscarried in what he 
 proposed to himself. It seemed miraculous to all 
 men, that, without ever being beloved by the King, 
 he could make an implacable quarrel between him 
 and his mother ; perpetual dissensions between his 
 Majesty and the Queen his wife ; continual jealousies 
 between him and his brother ; and totally irreconcile 
 him to all the Princes of the blood, and those to 
 him : and yet, when he was in the highest degree of 
 favour with the King his master, and the most in his 
 confidence, the King loved very many men better, 
 even some of the Cardinal's enemies, and would have 
 been glad to have heard he had been dead any hour 
 
 in
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 53$ 
 
 in the day. He was, without doubt, the immediate CHAP. 
 
 . ix 
 instrument to introduce more calamities upon France, 
 
 and all the neighbour kingdoms ; to raise and prose- 
 cute greater and longer wars ; to shed more blood, 
 and ruin more families, than any man in that or the 
 former age had been : and, after all this, his enemies 
 cannot deny him to have been qualified with those 
 rare endowments, which have in all times preserved 
 the memory of the most illustrious persons ; nor can 
 it be denied, but that the greatness and prosperity 
 which France hath enjoyed since his time (a greater 
 no nation under heaven hath enjoyed longer together 
 in these last thousand years) was the product of his 
 ministry ; and which his successor, who through 
 many hazards and difficulties cultivated his work, 
 could never have established if he had been before 
 him. 
 
 The other Favourite, the Conde* Duke of Olivarez, Character 
 was in many respects more potent at home, and in 
 all the dominions subject to that monarchy, than the ollvarez ' 
 Cardinal could be esteemed to be in France ; for he 
 had no rival in his master's favour, who was as 
 young as the other King, and as indisposed to busi- 
 ness ; but by so much the more constant in his af- 
 fections, as he was more devoted to his pleasures : 
 and though there could not but be in that haughty 
 nation men enough who would have been glad to 
 have been in the same post that he possessed, yet 
 there was never any formed faction in the kingdom 
 against him, nor scarce any particular man of note 
 tand value who had the courage to enter into a con- 
 testation with him. So that, in the long time of his 
 ministry, which continued more years than that of 
 the Cardinal, he found little uneasiness at home ; 
 
 N n 4 whereas
 
 540 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, whereas the Cardinal was still threatened by conspi- 
 racies, and frequently escaped by outfacing those en- 
 terprises which he knew were formed against his life; 
 and sometimes when he was not sure that the King 
 himself was not privy to them. Olivarez was a man 
 of excellent parts and of good learning, having been 
 designed, during the life of his elder brother, to the 
 Church, and afterwards for the Court ; and many 
 years he lived in Rome, when his father was am- 
 bassador there, and a man of much trust and ex- 
 perience in the most secret affairs of that Crown, 
 whilst the Duke of Lerma governed the affairs of 
 Spain ; and there he was well trained up in business 
 by his father, and very fit for it, having, with very 
 pregnant parts, industry equal to what he was to do ; 
 though by degrees he grew more lazy, and, it may 
 be, for want of opposition and contradiction, (with 
 which the other favourite was abundantly exercised,) 
 less solicitous and vigilant for the public than he 
 ought to have been ; for great misfortunes befel the 
 monarchy before his fall, which was a fall too as 
 gentle as could be, though it could not have been 
 borne by the other, nor (it may be) long sustained 
 by him. 
 
 These two great favourites were equally ungracious 
 in the Court of Rome, and equally indevoted to it ; 
 and it may be some evidence of the integrity of the 
 Pope's behaviour towards both Crowns, that he was 
 treated wich equal rudeness by both ; and, by the 
 influence of both Favourites, received more affronts 
 and contempts even in those particulars which, ac^ 
 cording to the Catholic sense, were merely spiritual, 
 than the Sacred Chair had ever been accustomed to 
 from its dearest children. 
 
 It
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 541 
 
 It was not then doubted (as hath been said) but CHAP. 
 
 IX 
 
 that Urban was in himself most inclined to France ; 
 
 The Pope's 
 
 yet he seemed, as to their public interest and private neutrality 
 
 i <v IT- between 
 
 contestations, indifferent or neutral. It is true he France and 
 first sent his nephew Legate into France, which in p 
 Borne respect seemed the less compliment, in that 
 the legation being to procure a peace between the 
 two Crowns, which he had endeavoured bv his Nun- 
 
 v 
 
 cios in both Courts, it implied that France was the 
 more unreasonable, and insisted upon terms which 
 he must desist from before Spain was to be treated 
 with. The disrespect that his nephew was treated 
 with (I mean, as to consenting to any thing he de- 
 sired) was notorious ; nor was the Pope reserved in 
 owning the dissatisfaction he received in it ; and, as 
 soon as he returned to Rome, the same Legate was 
 sent to Spain with more lustre, and was entertained 
 with better words, and returned with better presents 
 by an abbey or two ; as the situation of the kingdom 
 of Naples is more convenient to the Court of Rome 
 than that of France. When the Pope saw the un- 
 kindness and jealousies between the Crowns increase, 
 and that it would quickly break out into a war, 
 (which yet it was not,) and then how difficult it 
 would be for him to carry himself with that real in- 
 differency as was requisite, and how impossible that 
 it would be thought so, he divided himself between 
 them ; that is, he permitted one Cardinal nephew to 
 be taken notice of to adhere to the interest of Spain, 
 and the other to the interest of France ; which was 
 manifest in both their behaviours, yet with this dif- 
 ference, that the elder, Francisco, being a man of 
 more phlegm, was more wary and reserved in what 
 concerned S^jain, as if he desired to be thought un- 
 biassed ;
 
 542 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, biassed ; whereas the younger, Cardinal Antonio, so 
 - ' much affected and wedded whatever France was con- 
 cerned in, as it he were well contented to be es- 
 teemed an enemy to Spain. It is true, that warmth 
 (sometimes to indecency) drew such checks and re- 
 prehensions from his uncle, and even restraints and 
 inhibitions, as he would not suffer him to receive the 
 office of being Protector of France, to which that 
 Crown desired to assign him ; which made the Pope's 
 affection the more suspected, and the jealousy and 
 animosity between the two brothers the more taken 
 notice of. 
 Cardinal Let us see now how this prudent Pope (for a pru- 
 
 Richelieu ' . . 
 
 threatens dent man he was) was treated by his two rival sons, 
 which should express most veneration to him, and 
 wnat provocations they had from him. When the 
 
 a Patriarch King of France sent the Cardinal of Valette to be 
 
 for France. 
 
 General of his army in Italy, the Pope sent a very 
 severe reprehension to him, and threatened that, if 
 he did not immediately withdraw himself from that 
 employment, he would deprive him of his cap ; and 
 after he had refused to give obedience thereunto, and 
 led the army into Germany, and there died, the Pope 
 refused to celebrate mass for him, as he used always 
 to do upon the death of all Cardinals, nor would 
 permit the other Cardinals to perform those obse- 
 quies for him, which were of course in those cases. 
 If he be a judge in any case, one would think he 
 should be in this ; in which, besides the ancient ca- 
 nons which were still in force, there had been some 
 modern decrees, which made it more penal. But 
 that Cardinal Richelieu should be herein so far pro- 
 voked as to threaten the Pope with calling a Na- 
 tional Council, and choosing a Patriarch in France, i* 
 
 instance
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 543 
 
 instance enough that he had not that reverence for CHAP. 
 
 IX 
 the authority of the Pope as many Cardinals pretend ' 
 
 to have. 
 
 That the most Christian King should have great Affronts put 
 indignation for the affront that was offered to his am-p op eby 
 bassador in the Court of Rome, the Mareschal d'Estre, 
 in the assassination of his Escuier, (by what accident 
 or insolence brought upon himself,) cannot but be 
 thought very just; (since Princes cannot be too jea- 
 lous of the honour due to their own persons in any 
 negieet of their representatives in the Courts of other 
 Princes ;) that admission and audience should be so- 
 lemnly denied to a new and extraordinary Nuncio, 
 because the Pope had denied, or rather delayed, to 
 make Julio Mazarin a Cardinal upon that King's re- 
 commendation ; that Chavigny (who had been the 
 Cardinal's secretary, and was by him made Secretary 
 of State, and still trusted by him as his own) should, 
 in the tclaircissement he had with that extraordinary 
 Nuncio, barefacedly own that exception, and re- 
 proach the Pope for using the King with so little 
 respect in that affair of Monsieur Mazarin ; that he 
 should tell him of a Patriarch and a National Coun- 
 cil to allay the Papal presumption; that there should 
 be a strong guard set upon and about the Nuncio's 
 lodging to observe all who went in and out, and re- 
 strain some from doing either; that there should be 
 a positive prohibition published by the King, that 
 no Prelate of the kingdom, or any of their Clergy, 
 should repair to the Nuncio, or have any correspon- 
 dence with him, or receive order or advice from him ; 
 that upon the death of the General of the Domi- 
 nicans, and a difference in the chapter about a suc- 
 cessor, (the French choosing the brother of Cardinal 
 
 Mazarin,
 
 544 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Mazarin, and the Italians another, and the Pope, to 
 -- whom it belonged, deciding it for the last,) the King 
 ordered that France should acknowledge only the 
 brother of the Cardinal to be their General, and per- 
 sisted in it until another preferment was given to 
 him in the Pope's palace, by which he came at last 
 to be a Cardinal too, though not in the time of 
 Urban ; I say, all these particulars, to which many 
 more may be added, are manifestation that the Gal- 
 lican Church hath not that reverence for, or vene- 
 ration of, the Sacred Chair, but that they think they 
 can live without it. 
 
 Spain Our next view must be of the most Catholic king- 
 
 call a Gene- dom, under the direction and conduct of the other 
 
 'se g reat Favourite, and the condescension that Crown 
 a Patriarch. p a id to the person of that Pope, and the submission 
 they shewed to his dictates and determinations ; how 
 often and how loudly he was reproached for his par- 
 tiality and over-inclination to France, and threat- 
 ened with the calling a General Council, and an in- 
 hibition to all men to resort to the Nuncio, and to 
 submit to any judicatory of his, or to carry any cause 
 before him. It was in the year 1632 or 1633 that 
 the two Spanish ambassadors in Rome, whereof one 
 was a Bishop, presented a memorial to him, which 
 was afterwards printed, and remains still in the hands 
 of many ; in which they told him, that since he for- 
 got to be a common Father, and shewed so much 
 partiality to- their enemy's crown, and so little justice 
 to that of their master, he was not to wonder if his 
 Catholic Majesty withdrew much of that respect 
 from him, which he had always shewed to the Sacred 
 Chair : that Spain well knew the great emoluments 
 which His Holiness and his Court enjoyed in that 
 
 king-
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 545 
 
 kingdom by the piety and licence of the Crown ; and CHAP. 
 
 likewise what former Kings of that nation had done, '- 
 
 when the Court of Rome had presumed to do some 
 things which it ought not to have done; and an- 
 nexed a large collection of those precedents in former 
 times, (which was likewise printed at Madrid,) im- 
 plying that this King could and would do the like, 
 if the Pope continued to exercise the same disaffec- 
 tion and injustice towards him and his subjects as he 
 had done: it talked of choosing a Patriarch, and con- 
 tained many such expressions of questioning and 
 contradicting the exercise of that illimited jurisdic- 
 tion which he usurped, that any man who peruses 
 them will swear that they who framed those memo- 
 rials, and directed the presentation, did not in truth 
 believe that the Pope was the Vicar of Christ ; nor 
 that Christ had ever given or left to his Vicar power 
 or authority to exercise any such power as he as- 
 sumed to himself. 
 
 It had been to be wished that the Pope, in his age m effects of 
 and great decay of his faculties, had not so much de- po iic y . pc 
 parted from trusting his own understanding, and re- 
 linquished the conduct and management of the whole 
 Papal power to his nephews, that he was thought 
 worthy of all the disrespect he had received from the 
 two Crowns, and from the ministers of both ; and the 
 councils and actions which, towards the conclusion of 
 his reign, he affected and countenanced, were such as 
 were contrary and most destructive to his own de- 
 signs, and drew most of the Princes of Italy into a 
 direct league against him, and for the limiting and 
 restraining that exorbitancy of power which he knew 
 not how to use with such modesty or moderation as 
 would permit his neighbours to be Princes too in their 
 
 own
 
 546 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, own dominions; and by this excess he left his fa- 
 mily in a state approaching near to ruin. 
 His cndea- From the first hour of his Pontificate, he confined 
 
 vours to ag- 
 grandise his all his thoughts to Italy, as if he could he well con- 
 tented that no other part of the world should be 
 thought within his diocese ; but then he desired to 
 extend his authority in Italy as far as it would reach, 
 arid to leave his family (upon the raising of which 
 his whole heart was set) into the degree of Sovereign 
 Princes. That they might not entirely depend upon 
 the favour and bounty of the Church after his de- 
 cease, he thought first to contrive some device where- 
 by his nephews might appear to be in a higher sta- 
 tion than other Cardinals ; and his first invention of 
 the title of " Eminence" was designed that it might 
 be only given to, and assumed by, his two Cardinal 
 nephews, and no other of the college: but he quickly 
 found that would not be digested by the rest ; and 
 therefore, knowing that it was in his own power suf- 
 ficiently to distinguish them from others, he annexed 
 the style of " Eminence" to be the sole appellation 
 to and of every Cardinal ; and ordered, that without 
 it they should not accept or receive any address, or 
 use any other style to each other; and hereby (which 
 probably was in his second purpose, that, when lie 
 could not raise his nephews to be above other Car- 
 dinals, he might provide that none might be above 
 them) he degraded all those who were called Prince 
 Cardinals, and had been always treated with " Al- 
 " tezze." They took this levelling them to a com- 
 mon title so ill, that, since they could not procure re- 
 dress by their expostulation, (which was likewise se- 
 conded by the ambassadors of the Sovereign Princes 
 as an indignity to themselves,) they have forborne to 
 
 reside
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 547 
 
 reside in Rome, and seldom come thither, but sede CHAP. 
 
 TV 
 
 vacante, or in such conjuncture when they can best 
 
 preserve their own quality. But this did rather whet 
 than satisfy the Pope's appetite. He could, he saw, 
 raise money enough, upon which he was throughly 
 intent ; but that mass would not invest his heir with 
 the condition of a Sovereign Prince, which alone 
 could preserve his other wealth to his family. 
 
 The last heir male of the Duchy of Urban was ex- Affair of 
 
 i i i i- f 11 i l ^ e Duchj 
 
 pired, and so that principality lell to the Church, to of Castro. 
 which he was a feodary ; and of that he had a great 
 desire to give his heir the investiture ; against which 
 there were so many positive decrees, that he found it 
 would be in vain to attempt it against so many votes 
 that would oppose its alienation from the Church. 
 His next design was to purchase the Duchy of Cas- 
 tro of the Duke of Parma, who, it was presumed, 
 might be induced, in regard of his great debts, to 
 part with it for more than it could be worth, which 
 would willingly have been paid ; and this the ne- 
 phews found means to be proposed to him, by friends 
 who were not ingrateful to him. But the young 
 Duke, being a person of a haughty nature, and no 
 friend to the Barberinis, received the overture with 
 10 much indignation, that he forbore not, without 
 any reservation or caution, to inveigh loudly against 
 the pride and insolence of the Pope and his nephews, 
 with such other expressions as are seldom separable 
 from those passions, and they quickly found equal 
 resentments from the whole family, which had not 
 usually met with such magisterial contradictions. 
 The Duke of Parma was indebted to the Monte or 
 bank in Rome a great sum of money, contracted by 
 himself, but more by his ancestors ; the interest 
 
 whereof
 
 548 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, whereof had raised it to avast proportion, which had 
 been secured upon the revenue of the Duchy of Cas- 
 tro ; and the Duke hearing many whispers, after his 
 having refused to gratify the Pope in that affair, of a 
 strict inquiry into that debt, and that it was reported 
 to amount to more than the Duchy upon which it 
 was secured was worth, upon those rumours care- 
 fully raised and dispersed, he thought fit to make a 
 journey himself to Rome ; which did his business no 
 good, but accelerated, if it did not produce, the mis- 
 chief that shortly followed: for the Duke looked fora 
 better reception than he found; yet the Pope himself, 
 not privy (as was generally Believed) to the design of 
 his nephew, treated him with much kindness, grati- 
 fied him with making some abatement of the interest 
 of the money, and renewed likewise a former grant 
 to him of some impositions, in which consisted the 
 greatest part of the revenue of the Duchy of Castro. 
 
 In the mean time, Cardinal Francisco (who wed- 
 ded this business of Castro, and was of a jealous 
 nature, and how irresolute soever in himself, such 
 an opiniatre, that he never asked advice, or if he 
 did, he still preferred his own opinion before what- 
 ever he received from others) caused the Duke still 
 to be pressed to sell Castro. The Duke, easy to be 
 transported with choler, not only rejected the mo- 
 tion, but revenged himself upon Cardinal Francisco 
 with all the bitterness of language that his passions 
 could supply him ; and though he found persons of 
 all degrees and qualities in Rome who concurred 
 with him in a perfect detestation of the whole family, 
 (for the Pope and all his nephews had rendered 
 themselves very odious,) he was not without some 
 apprehension of an affront, and therefore chose to 
 
 leave
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 549 
 
 leave the city in the night, and returned to Parma CHAP. 
 
 IX 
 
 without taking leave of the Pope, or of his nephews ; : 
 
 presuming that the Pope, who was very infirm, would 
 shortly die, and he knew he should then have no 
 fear of his family. When His Holiness was informed 
 of the Duke's departure in that manner, and of the 
 revenge he threatened, he was so much aifected that 
 he wept; but his nephew Francisco, who had the 
 greatest ascendant over him, and in truth governed 
 absolutely both Church and State, quickly prevailed 
 with him to abolish all other passions but the same 
 that the Duke had carried with him, and to think of 
 nothing but revenge ; which he assured him he 
 should easily inflict on him by the ordinary course of 
 justice, and without putting himself to the trouble of 
 any extraordinary proceedings. 
 
 The Pope being enough incensed and confirmed in Quarrel of 
 
 i fn c rf-ii i- the Pope 
 
 his resolution, the Clerk or the Chamber was directed with the 
 to issue out a monitory ; whereby the Duke of Par- p a "ma? 
 ma was required to appear in person, and to pay the 
 debt that he owed to the Monte ; and if he should 
 not appear within thirty or forty days after notice, 
 he was to stand excommunicated, and the revenue of 
 the Duchy of Castro to be sequestered towards the 
 payment of the debt: and, to make that the more 
 difficult to be done, the Pope resumed the grant he 
 had made to him of those impositions upon corn, and 
 forbade the merchants to pay them ; which abated 
 the better part of that revenue. The Duke did not 
 expect such a quick way of proceeding, and found 
 himself perplexed what to resolve. To submit to the 
 formal proceeding in justice, was to have it deter- 
 mined by his enemy ; for he could not suppose that 
 any of those judges durst displease the Cardinal. He 
 
 o o resolved
 
 550 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, resolved therefore to pray for and expect the Pope's 
 
 ' death, and in the mean time to neglect his spiritual 
 
 sword, and to provide against his temporal, which he 
 believed would quickly be drawn to defend the other; 
 and therefore, instead of appearing injustice, he raised 
 some troops and erected some forts and fortifications 
 about Castro, that it might not be liable to a sur- 
 prise. This administered new matter of offence, and 
 gave new advantage against the Duke. The lawyers 
 determined, that the erecting of any new fortifica- 
 tions by any feodary upon the lands of the Church, 
 without the Pope's express consent, is no less than 
 rebellion against his Sovereign Prince, and amounts 
 to " crimen Icesa Majestatis ;" so that, whereas the 
 quarrel before was depending in justice, and only 
 concerned the recovery of a debt, for the payment 
 whereof Castro was liable, now the Duke was a rebel, 
 and had forfeited all his other dominions. Nor 
 would his enemies lose any time in taking their ad- 
 vantage, but renewed all the censures which were 
 before inflicted, and added a new Bull of excommu- 
 nication and forfeiture of all his dominions, of which 
 he was declared to be deprived as a rebel, schismatic, 
 and heretic ; with all those expressions of reproach 
 which in the opinion of that people makes a depriva- 
 tion most lawful, and absolves all his subjects from 
 their oaths of fidelity, and forbids them, under the 
 same penalties, to yield any further obedience to 
 him. And that all this thunder and lightning might 
 not appear without some execution, Cardinal Anto- 
 nio is made General of the Church, and collects and 
 brings together those troops which were already 
 standing, and, joining others to them so soon, that, 
 before the fortifications of Castro could be finished, he 
 
 sur-
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 551 
 
 surprised that place, arid drove the Duke's small gar- CHAP, 
 rison from thence, and fortified it better for the Pope. 
 
 The neighbour Princes had hitherto looked on, War be- 
 
 , . . . tween the 
 
 hoping that the vexation or these commotions, when Pope and 
 they should come to the Pope's knowledge, and into O f e parma. 
 which he had been betrayed by his nephews, (who 
 believed likewise the work would with more ease and 
 less expence be finished than they found it like to 
 be,) would quickly contribute to the death of His 
 Holiness, and that would put an end to all. But 
 now, when they saw an army raised to execute all 
 the sentences the Pope would inflict, and that he 
 made no scruple in excommunicating a Sovereign 
 Prince as an heretic and schismatic, only that he 
 might deprive him whom they knew, and knew that 
 the Pope knew, to be a good Catholic, and that all 
 his fault was in defending himself and his dominions 
 against the power and oppression of the nephews ; 
 and that, now Castro was taken, licence was de- 
 manded from the Duke of Modena, that Cardinal 
 Antonio might march through his territories to pro- 
 secute the war against the Duke of Parma in his 
 other dominions ; they thought that their own in- 
 terest was at stake, and that there was a fire kindled 
 that might disperse itself into their quarters, and 
 even burn their own palaces ; to prevent which, they 
 entered into a league to stop and resist this outrage 
 against the Duke of Parma. The Republic of Ve- 
 nice, that neither loved nor feared Urban; the Duke 
 of Tuscany, who hated him and all his family, (for 
 that, being all born his subjects, they had shewed less 
 respect towards him, and disobliged him more than 
 any other Pope had done of that age;) and the Duke 
 of Modena, (who had been too much hurt not to have 
 
 o o 2 some
 
 552 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, some fear of him;) entered into a firm league together: 
 first, to endeavour by mediation; and, if that could not 
 put an end to the difference, then to give the Duke of 
 Parma assistance with arms. Nor were they with- 
 out some assurance that France would put itself into 
 the head of that League. Cardinal Richelieu was yet 
 alive, and not the more reconciled to the Pope for 
 having at last, and after many indecent pauses, made 
 his friend Mazarin, Cardinal; and he was well pleased 
 to hear that Cardinal Antonio was General of an 
 army ; which, though for the Church, (except it had 
 been against infidels,) was as much against the ca- 
 nons as the presumption of the Cardinal of Valet had 
 been, to whom the offices of the Church had been 
 denied after his decease. Monsieur de Lionne, an 
 active and a dexterous minister, brought up under 
 the care and direction, and cultivated by the instruc- 
 tions of that Cardinal, was sent by the King of 
 France to counsel and assist those Princes of the 
 League, and to interpose with and to advise the 
 Barberinis to disentangle themselves from that en- 
 terprise ; and he made what haste he could, in Ja- 
 nuary sixteen hundred forty-two, to consult with 
 those Princes of the League who were in his way to 
 Parma, and then thither ; where it was difficult 
 enough, in respect of the provocations that Prince 
 had sustained, and his martial inclinations and reso- 
 lutions of revenge, together with a great contempt of 
 his enemy, to adjust those propositions which were 
 to be offered and insisted upon at Rome. 
 Negocia- The Duke of Parma was not all this while inactive 
 thT media" on his own behalf; but, having raised a good body 
 France ^ norse an d foot under good officers, desired nothing 
 so much as to be found with his enemy, over whom 
 
 he
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 553 
 
 he doubted not the victory; and therefore deferred CHAP. 
 
 till then the attempt to recover Castro. But the Bar 
 
 berinis knew too well the consequence of losing the 
 army they had, the raising and maintaining whereof 
 cost them much of that money which they intended 
 to disburse to better purposes, and the recruiting it 
 would cost them much more ; and therefore they re- 
 solved to avoid a battle ; and, as the Duke advanced, 
 the Cardinal retired, and retired with so much disor- 
 der, that the other got some advantages over him in 
 light skirmishes, and pursued him into the lands of 
 the Church; which, together with the Cardinal's hasty 
 retreat, raised a great consternation in Rome itself; 
 so that, when Monsieur de Lionne came thither, the 
 Barbcrinis (for the Pope himself treated of nothing, 
 nor meddled in any business, but signed what the 
 Cardinal Francisco caused to be prepared for him) 
 seemed very willing to enter into treaty for a recon- 
 ciliation, arid to desire nothing else but such a humi- 
 liation from the Duke as was necessary for the 
 Pope's honour ; whilst the Duke pressed the redeli- 
 very of Castro in the first place, and to treat after- 
 wards. After the Cardinal had endeavoured by all 
 the offers and all the promises to prevail with Mon- 
 sieur de Lionne, that the King of France would de- 
 sist from prosecuting his mediation or giving any as- 
 sistance to the Duke, and found that no good could 
 be got that way, he seemed to be willing that Castro 
 should be deposited in the hands of one of the 
 Princes of the League, and to be restored to the 
 Duke within such a time, and upon such conditions 
 as should be agreed by the treaty. Cardinal Spada 
 was appointed to treat on the behalf of the Pope, and 
 went to Orvietto to meet with the deputies of the 
 
 o o 3 Princes
 
 554 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Princes of the League; with whom Monsieur de 
 
 TV 
 
 Lionne was first to confer, and to prepare the Duke 
 
 of Parma to such a temper in his condescensions as he 
 thought convenient, and which he knew would be dif- 
 ficult enough. In the end, he adjusted all things so 
 well, that he and the deputies of the League met 
 Cardinal Spada, with whom they thought they had 
 fully agreed upon all particulars. Castro was to be 
 deposited in the hands of the Duke of Modena, and 
 all other things so adjusted, that a short day was ap- 
 pointed for the mutual delivery of all the signatures, 
 and for the execution of all matters agreed upon. 
 When the day came, the Cardinal had not received 
 the Pope's confirmation, and made (as he said, by 
 new instructions) new demands, whereof some had 
 never before been heard of, and others had been de- 
 bated, and upon consent of all parties laid aside or 
 declined ; which made the deputies suspect that 
 there was never any sincere intention that the treaty 
 should have a good effect ; of which they shortly 
 after were supplied with abundant evidence, and 
 knew that the officers in Cardinal Antonio's army 
 had confidently declared, that the treaty would come 
 to nothing, when the deputies believed it to be con- 
 cluded : and a letter was intercepted from Cardinal 
 Francisco to Cardinal Spada, in which he gave him 
 thanks, and very much commended his sagacity in 
 suspending the conclusion of that treaty according 
 to their wish, for it was now winter, which was the 
 season they expected to enable them to recover the 
 reputation they had lost, and to reduce the Duke 
 into such straits as should make him submit to more 
 uneasy conditions. But the loud report that Mon- 
 sieur de Lionne made of those foul tergiversations, 
 
 and
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 555 
 
 and the sense that France declared to have of the in- CHAP. 
 
 IX 
 
 dignity that it sustained thereby, hut especially the - ' 
 visible decay in the Pope, (hastened, as was supposed, 
 by the dark information he got of those transactions, 
 which with great care were concealed from him,) 
 made them afterwards willing to renew that treaty, 
 and to consent to more dishonourable conditions, if 
 the Pope's death and the proud humour of his suc- 
 cessor had not prevented the entire execution of it ; 
 the defect wherein hath since given the succeeding 
 Popes some trouble, and will give them more, when 
 they have either need of France, or any other occa- 
 sion shall invite them into Italy. 
 
 The blackest action, and surely the least aposto-The Pope 
 
 i-ii -if i refuses pe- 
 
 lical, that unhappy Pope was guilty of, was, thatcuniary aid 
 when the victorious King of Sweden (of whom the l^ror^nT" 
 world had scarce ever heard before) had covered p ^^, of 
 
 all Germany with blood and slaughter, and by fire Gcrman y 
 
 ' i against the 
 
 and sword wrought a greater devastation, almost to King of 
 desolation, than hath ever been produced amongst 
 Christians by a war between them ; this successor of 
 St. Peter, whose office and peculiar obligation they 
 pretend is to root out all heretics, and by right or 
 wrong to remove all obstructions which hinder the 
 growth or improvement of Catholic religion, refused 
 to give the Emperor and Catholic party any assist- 
 ance in money, of which he was known to have 
 abundance, and the other to want nothing else. 
 When the Cardinal Pasmaii was sent by the Em- 
 peror as his ambassador to Rome, to make a lively 
 representation of the extremity to which the Catho- 
 lic interest in that province was reduced, by the fre- 
 quent victories obtained by that King, and the gene- 
 ral submission of the greatest cities and towns in his 
 
 o o 4 obedi-
 
 556 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, obedience, and thereupon to press for such a relief 
 as in such a case might be expected from Christ's 
 
 Vicar, to save himself from the ingrateful importu- 
 nity of that representation ; the Pope positively re- 
 fused to give him audience, or to receive him as am- 
 bassador, upon a suggestion, that no Cardinal could 
 be an ambassador from any secular Prince. And 
 when the ambassador urged the contrary practice, 
 (which was notorious,) His Holiness made no other 
 answer, than that no precedents were valid against 
 his determination. The Cardinal replied, that he 
 would not be restrained from representing the com- 
 mon calamity that had befallen Christendom by 
 such an exception, but would (with his protestation 
 against the violating of the laws of nations) attend 
 the Emperor's farther direction ; and in the mean 
 time, that he, as a Cardinal, would make his relation 
 in the Consistory (from which they could not ex- 
 clude him) of all that he had to say. This, how- 
 ever, prevailed not with the Pope, nor would he 
 lessen his treasure upon this most important occa- 
 sion, 
 
 Prohibits All which doth not make up the blackness of his 
 anceof erv crime ; but that, when Germany was involved in 
 made. When *h at dismal ruin, all inclosures thrown up, and the 
 whole country laid waste, when the plague and fa- 
 mine was broken in, and contended with the fire and 
 the sword which should destroy most effectually, 
 and should first kill, then the common Father, who 
 would give no help, should do all he could, and take 
 more pains (than, it may be, would have procured as- 
 sistance for them) to hinder the miserable remainder 
 that was left alive from preserving themselves ; that 
 he should neither bear a part in the war, nor endure 
 
 that
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 557 
 
 that it should be extinguished by a peace ; nay, CHAP. 
 
 after he had obstructed all treaties towards it, and ' 
 
 crossed and diverted all probable expedients which 
 might procure it ; when the Christian prudence and 
 compassion of all other Catholic Princes concurred 
 to put an end to those outrages, and to avert those 
 calamities which had almost extirpated the German 
 nation, (besides the waste it had made of the nobi- 
 lity and gentry of all the nations in Europe,) and had 
 effected it, by agreeing upon such a peace as could 
 only establish it ; that when all his temporal inven- 
 tions could no longer serve to propagate destruction, 
 he then should set his spiritual instruments on work, 
 threaten and pronounce damnation against every one 
 who should submit to or observe the peace, and ab- 
 solve all men from the most deliberate and solemn 
 oaths which they had entered into to perform the 
 articles of it on their part ; this indeed was such a 
 transcendent part of impiety and inhumanity as 
 might well convert mankind to believe, that the 
 office he usurped was never instituted by Christ ; 
 nor so savage an appetite ever permitted by him, 
 that must be maintained and cherished by continual 
 draughts of human blood : and it may be reasonably 
 hoped and presumed, that this barbarous exorbitancy 
 in the exercise of them hath wrought that very good 
 effect amongst very good Catholics, that they have 
 neither opinion of, nor reverence for, that his power 
 and authority ; since it doth not appear that any 
 one Catholic, of what quality soever, hath been terri- 
 fied by that devouring Bull from yielding all obe- 
 dience to, and performing of all the articles of that 
 peace, which he is obliged to observe ; which, consi- 
 dering
 
 558 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, dering the stupidity of that people, may be looked 
 
 ' upon as a miracle next to his presumption. 
 
 Hisnume- His canonizations were indeed very numerous, as 
 noniza- if he believed that he had more power in heaven 
 than upon earth ; Philip Neri, Ignatius Loyola, 
 and Xavier, owe their being saints to him ; besides 
 the materials which were laid in by his providence, 
 which have contributed to the preferment of many 
 others to the same degree by some of his successors. 
 And though Francis Borgia, who from being Duke 
 of Candia, and a Grandee of Spain, became a Jesuit, 
 was not yet ripe for a canonization during his reign, 
 yet he declared him to be beatified, and by a special 
 Bull of indulgence he granted that upon the day of 
 his death a mass and extraordinary office should be 
 celebrated in all the houses of the Jesuits ; which 
 had been never prescribed nor permitted in the like 
 case before. 
 Prohibits Whatever authority he might have in heaven, he 
 
 a public 
 
 funeral for left very few marks of any that he had upon earth, 
 *t Venice, even in those cases that might seem to be most re- 
 vertheie^s ^tive to his spiritual function. When he was in- 
 is soiem- f orm ed that Fra Paolo was dead at Venice, and that 
 
 nized, 
 
 though he the Senate made great preparations for the solemnity 
 communi- of his funeral, he wrote to his Nuncio to prohibit 
 them to proceed therein, or to perform any obse- 
 quies, or other offices of respect to his memory, for 
 that he died excommunicated ; at which they laugh- 
 ed, and proceeded with the more formality and lustre 
 in the celebration, and put such an inscription upon 
 his tomb, that testifies to the world that they believe 
 he was not in the worse state for the Pope's excom- 
 munication. 
 
 Upon
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 559 
 
 Upon the general scandal that was taken by pious CHAP. 
 Catholics for the absurd custom that was introduced 
 
 for the painting, adorning, and beautifying the images Bull against 
 
 of saints upon the days of their festivals, that Pope 
 
 published a Bull, which he called, " Constitutio 
 
 " formam et habitum sacrarum imaginum ;" in which the da r s 
 
 J of their fes- 
 
 he notices the offence that was taken at those ex-tivai. 
 cesses, and strictly forbids all persons whatsoever to 
 presume to put any new colours or paint upon any 
 images, " aut vestire cum alio habitu et forma quam 
 " in catholicd et apostolicd ecclesid ab antiquo tem- 
 " pore consuevit" Notwithstanding which prohibi- 
 tion, there are very few eminent churches in any 
 Catholic countries where all the she -saints are not 
 upon the solemn days of their festivals adorned with 
 the best clothes, and in the best fashion, that is used 
 by the best women of that place ; and the blessed 
 Virgin is as carefully set out in a gnarda infanta in 
 Spain, as she is dressed in her hair and other orna- 
 ments in France ; besides that, it is well known in 
 many places from what original those pictures are 
 copied ; which if our Lady knew, she would not 
 think that they had been very tender of her honour, 
 who had brought her into such company. 
 
 This Pope, upon a formal complaint made to him Publishes 
 by the Bishop and Dean and Chapter of Seville in gainst tak- 
 Spain, that it was a custom there for people generally, a"Vsnuff C 
 and the clergy and religious persons as much as any ,' n churches 
 to take tobacco in the churches, " ac quod referre "**** 
 " pudet, etiam sacrosanctum miss& sacrific'mm cele- 
 " bra?ulo suinere fyc" thereupon declares all persons 
 who shall presume to take tobacco in any churches, 
 " sive solidum, sive in frustra concisum, aut in pul- 
 " verem reductum, ore vel naribus et alias quomodo li- 
 
 " bet
 
 560 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. " bet sumere, sub excommunicationis lata sententice, eo 
 
 T\ 
 
 " ipso absque allqua declaratione fyc" which prohibi- 
 tion hath been so far from producing any reforma- 
 tion, that it is more used than ever by Clergy-and 
 Laity of all conditions ; insomuch as nothing is 
 more usual throughout Spain than for religious per- 
 sons in their pulpits, and during the time in which 
 they preach, to turn aside and snuff tobacco for their 
 refreshment, and to do the same two or three times 
 in their sermons ; and the practice is since intro- 
 duced with the same obstinacy into other Catholic 
 provinces. How then can any man believe that 
 they who refuse to submit and yield obedience to 
 such wholesome injunctions and prescriptions, do 
 think that the Pope hath any power or authority 
 from Christ to meddle with their religion, or their 
 manners ? 
 
 Society of To conclude this observation of the impotency of 
 
 the Jesuit- . , . . ,, 
 
 esses. this rope throughout his long reign ot twenty-one 
 years, we shall do him the justice to give one in- 
 stance in which he found himself obeyed, though 
 not without some difficulty, at least without some 
 delay, and for his constancy wherein the world is in- 
 debted to him. It was his Bull, styled, " Annullatio 
 " et suppressio pretense Congregationis Jesuitissa- 
 " rum" There had for some years before been se- 
 veral women (virgins as they pretended, nor was 
 there any reproach cast upon them) who assembled 
 themselves together, and (without the countenance 
 of any public authority, for aught appears) formed a 
 society by the name of Jesuitesses. They chose su- 
 periors, erected houses, especially in Italy, and in 
 the hither parts of the High Germany ; they formed 
 oaths and other vows, prescribed rules and orders to 
 
 be
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 561 
 
 be strictly observed amongst them, assumed a parti- CHAP. 
 
 cular habit to themselves, professed the education of 
 
 young women and girls in their several societies ac- 
 cording to the principles of Catholic religion and of 
 virtue, without any inclosure, and preserving the li- 
 berty to go abroad whither they had a mind ; and 
 from thence they got the appellation of Galloping 
 Nuns. They were generally looked upon as women 
 of piety and devotion, and many of them of very 
 great parts of discourse ; whereof some of our coun- 
 trywomen of good Catholic families, and without 
 any blemish upon their honour, Bedingfield, Bap- 
 thorpc, Ward, and others, were very eminent ; and 
 they could never have subsisted without disreputa- 
 tion so many years without the secret countenance, 
 as well as connivance, of some sovereign power. Their 
 design was to divide the sexes, and to make them- 
 selves confessors to women ; and they did not doubt 
 to get liberty to give absolution, professing and de- 
 claring (according to the profitable example of the 
 male society) an extraordinary submission and obe- 
 dience to the Pope's authority and commands. They 
 had, from their first declared purpose, applied them- 
 selves to some of the late Popes (who are naturally 
 as slow in denying as in granting) to be qualified and 
 incorporated by their authority ; but, by their short 
 reigns and long forms, in which transactions of such 
 a nature use to pass, without effect ; and likewise 
 without the least reproach or discountenance, which 
 they interpreted to be such a kind of warrant, as 
 they might well proceed in their design ; and with- 
 out doubt many others thought so too, and therefore 
 shewed the more favour to them. They had never 
 more confidence of success than when this Pope was 
 
 chosen,
 
 their sup- 
 
 56*2 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, chosen, to whom they made an early address for his 
 - protection and confirmation. The reputation of the 
 devotion and virtue of many of them, and .their con- 
 versation, (which appeared more than ordinary in 
 discourse and manners,) had procured them many 
 friends, who interposed on their behalf, and desired 
 the Pope to grant what they desired. Nor did His 
 Holiness reject it suddenly, but sent out many com- 
 missions, and appointed many deputies, to examine 
 their actions, and to consider and certify their opi- 
 nions upon their proposals, which spent many years; 
 and those they lost not in propagating their designs 
 and improving their interest. 
 
 Bull for Whether the common report from all countries, 
 (which was not favourable to them,) or the discourses 
 and advice of severe and sober men, (who thought it 
 scandalous to Catholic religion,) or whether the so- 
 ciety of the Jesuits (who were believed first to have 
 inspired that people, and to have formed their de- 
 sign) grew jealous that they aspired to an authority 
 that might too near rival theirs, whatsoever it was, the 
 Pope grew very angry with them ; and often reciting 
 much of this that hath been said, and that he had 
 resolved utterly to root up those mischievous weeds 
 out of the fields of the Church, and had to that pur- 
 pose given express order to his Nuncio in the lower 
 parts of Germany, " Vetum, ille Dei tintore ac nostro 
 " et sedis Apostolica respectu post habito fyc." had 
 forborne to execute his commands. He proceeds to 
 say, " plantas istas ecclesia Dei noxias ne ulterius se 
 " diffundant radicitus evellendas et extirpandas esse 
 " decrevimus ;" and so pronounces that pretended 
 congregation of women " sen virginum Jesmtissurum 
 " nuncupatarum, illarumqve sectam et statum" to 
 
 have
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 563 
 
 have been void and null from the beginning, and CHAP. 
 
 doth for ever suppress and extinguish them ; and ab 
 
 solves them from the observation of any vows they 
 had bound themselves, and all rules and orders they 
 had obliged themselves to observe ; and strictly 
 charges and commands all those women, who had 
 gathered themselves, or remained together in any 
 pretended college or house, that they forthwith sepa- 
 rate and continue no longer together ; and that they 
 presume no longer to wear that habit which they 
 had made choice of, and been accustomed to wear ; 
 and never more to receive or admit any other woman 
 to wear the same, or to be of the same pretended so- 
 ciety : all which I have the more particularly set 
 down, because though it be a transaction of so late a 
 date as contains little more than forty years, and 
 the Bull itself is extant in the fourth tome of the 
 Bullarium, amongst those of Uroan the Eighth, and 
 of the year sixteen hundred and thirty ; yet I have 
 discoursed with many Catholics, who for the ridicu- 
 lousness of it do not believe that there w T as ever any 
 such real design, but that it is a calumny invented 
 by Protestants to expose their religion to reproach. 
 Nor yet did the power and passion of the Pope, vi- 
 gorously pursued, quickly find obedience; for though 
 it did hinder the propagation, many years passed be- 
 fore those congregations were dispersed; and when 
 they did retire into private houses, they did for the 
 most part persist in wearing the habit, and received 
 more than ordinary respect from the people; whereof 
 some of our countrywomen are yet (I am sure lately 
 were) alive in Rome itself, and continued their ha- 
 bit : and therefore I say again, as I said before, that 
 the world is beholden to Pope Urban for breaking 
 
 and
 
 564 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and destroying that cockatrice egg, which might 
 
 - have been hatched into millions of serpents; nor 
 
 could any vigilance have prevented, or industry have 
 
 extinguished, the fire that these female missionaries 
 
 would by this time have cast in, or brought into, the 
 
 most peaceable families of all nations. 
 
 Proceed- As the Bull of Gregory the Fifteenth produced 
 
 ings of the . . . . . * 
 
 conclave neither unity nor integrity in the next conclave, as 
 hath been observed in that time, so it could not be 
 
 x. is elect- ex p ec ted that it should have more virtue one and 
 twenty years after. Such a long reign of Urban 
 made it believed that his creatures would bestow the 
 Papacy upon what subject they pleased ; and with- 
 out doubt they might have done so, if the two bro- 
 thers had employed all their forces one way. But 
 Cardinal Antonio was so loud a Frenchman, that 
 with all his power ^he opposed every man w r ho was 
 proposed, or so much as wished by the Spaniard : 
 whereas Francisco (who was always called Cardinal 
 Barberini) desired not that any man should be cho- 
 sen Pope who was grateful to France ; and yet be- 
 haved himself with so much reservation, that the 
 Spaniards trusted him not as of their party, but sus- 
 pected all the visible discord between him and his 
 brother to be the effect of dissimulation ; nor could 
 all their creatures in the conclave (who in number 
 made a major part, and well enough discerned the 
 mischief of the dissension) prevail with them to join 
 both their interests upon one subject. Francisco w r as 
 the more esteemed, but Antonio the more loved and 
 followed ; he did more harm to those whom he op- 
 posed, and made himself more odious to them, than 
 his brother did good to those he wished well, or than 
 he made himself grateful to. Cardinal Barberini was 
 
 only
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 565 
 
 only solicitous for a Pope upon whose affection his CHAP. 
 
 family might entirely depend, and so contracted his 
 
 thoughts upon very few ; but Antonio was only upon 
 the exclusive part, that none might be chosen who 
 would not be liked by France. The Cardinal's heart 
 was equally set upon Cardinal Pamphili and Cardi- 
 nal Sachetti, who were both creatures of his uncle, 
 and both always professed much affection and grati- 
 tude to the family ; but they were no sooner entered 
 the conclave than the Spaniards excluded the latter 
 of them, by direction, as they pretended, of their 
 King ; but was in truth upon the desire of Cardinal 
 Medicis, who would not endure that another subject 
 of his brother should succeed a man who had so 
 much affronted their family ; and when the Cardinal 
 proposed privately to them that Pamphili might have 
 their approbation, who had been long Nuncio in 
 Spain, and was universally known to be of that fac- 
 tion, they pretended not to approve him, and said, 
 their King desired to have him his friend, but not to 
 have him Pope ; and so they overreached Cardinal 
 Barberini, and kept him from being proposed, be- 
 cause they thought it not yet time ; and they knew 
 that Cardinal Antonio had order from France pe- 
 remptorily to exclude him, and therefore would have 
 the conclave more tired with being together than it 
 yet was, before they would mention him, whom of 
 all others they desired should be chosen. And Cardi- 
 nal Bentivoglio, whom the French desired to pro- 
 mote, being carried out of the conclave, and dead ; 
 after two months inclosure in the hot months of 
 June and July, when all the old men despaired of 
 living to see a Pope chosen, the Spanish Cardinals 
 seemed content that Pamphili might be proposed, 
 
 P p and
 
 566 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, and Cardinal Barberini, by importunity, threats and 
 
 promises, prevailed with his brother not to exclude 
 
 him ; whereby Cardinal Pamphili came to be chosen, 
 who assumed the stile of Innocent the Tenth. 
 innocent Though nothing was more manifest than that he 
 phili, per- was elected by the party and power of Cardinal Bar- 
 ? berini, and the concurrence or silence of Cardinal 
 Antonio, he had so deep a sense of the ill offices and 
 malice that the latter had expressed and avowed to- 
 wards him, that he scarce acknowledged or took no- 
 tice of the obligations he had to the other, who made 
 little noise in conferring them ; so that the first re- 
 solution he took in his Pontificate seems to have 
 been, that he would ruin the family of the Barberi- 
 nis; of which Antonio's conscience gave him so early 
 notice, and he so well knew that the licence of his 
 former life had made him liable to many inquiries, 
 that he was very little seen in Rome after the crea- 
 tion of Innocent, but within few days he fled in dis- 
 guise with great expedition into France. Cardinal 
 Barberini thought he had deserved a better return, 
 and the Pope was willing that he should believe by 
 Cardinal Panzirollo, who had the great ascendant 
 over him, that the Pope thought so too. He was se- 
 cure in the severity of his manners, and could have 
 acquiesced in the plenty of his own acquisitions; but 
 he found that he was no more exempt from the 
 Pope's displeasure than his brother ; and that there 
 was a purpose to cast all the charge that had been 
 expended upon that unreasonable war with the Duke 
 of Parma and the Princes of Italy upon him, and to 
 call him to account for all that had been taken out of 
 the revenue or treasure of the Church, though by 
 the warrant of the Pope ; which would quickly de- 
 vour
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 567 
 
 vour the whole fortune of the family, how prodigious CHAP. 
 
 soever it was grown to be. This discovery made 
 
 him, within a short time after, put himself with all 
 secrecy into a vessel that was bound for Genoa, and 
 from thence to make what haste he could to overtake 
 his brother, and to implore the protection of France. 
 
 Innocent was full seventy years of age when he character 
 was elected Pope ; a man of a sour and severe na- x ' 
 ture, of very strong parts of body and mind, of long 
 experience, good learning in the only learning of 
 that court, the canon law, and generally looked upon 
 as a wise man ; and therefore there was throughout 
 Christendom an expectation that he would have 
 proved a good Pope, with reference to the Church, 
 and a good Prince, in suppressing those gross impo- 
 sitions and exactions which had been raised by his 
 predecessor ; and which had brought so great an 
 odium upon the family of the Barberinis, that they 
 were thought worthy of any oppression, and to de- 
 serve no pity. 
 
 But the world quickly found itself undeceived in Governed 
 this expectation, by the Pope's immediate giving oii 
 himself up into the disposal of an impetuous woman. 
 Donna Oiimpia, who had been wife to his elder bro- 
 ther, and was the mother of all the children who 
 were of the family of Pamphili. This woman, from 
 the time of his being Pope, (as she had done long 
 before,) so absolutely governed him, that she dis- 
 posed of all Bishoprics, Abbies, Canonries, and Be- 
 nefices, aud whatsoever depended upon the Pope, 
 without controul or dispute ; he did nothing but by 
 her advice ; and she did nothing but for money, and 
 that in so public and scandalous a manner, that the 
 price of all ecclesiastical promotions was as well 
 
 P p 2 known
 
 568 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, known as of any other commodities in the market: 
 
 and all taxes and impositions in the State were so 
 
 much raised, and the payment thereof exacted with 
 so much severity and rigour, that the reign of Urban 
 was looked upon as a golden age ; and the people 
 became speedily so reconciled to the Barberinis, 
 (who were so lately detested by them,) that they 
 murmured openly at the oppression and persecution 
 that they underwent. This woman industriously 
 inflamed her captive Pope to the utter destruction of 
 them, to which she had no other temptation than 
 the malice of her nature, (for she had never received 
 disobligation from them,) and the hope of getting 
 the disposal of some of their large revenues and pre- 
 ferments. 
 B ,VlL as *. inst As soon as it was discovered that they were both 
 
 all Cardi- > 
 
 nais facing got out of reach, Innocent was exceedingly provoked, 
 dominions and published a very angry Bull against all Cardi- 
 church na l s who presumed to go out of the lands and domi- 
 the h pope' s ni ns f the Church (which had never before been 
 believed to be unlawful) without the licence of the 
 Pope, and against those who at present had absented 
 themselves without his leave. He urged the inde- 
 cency and odiousness of it, that any Cardinals, who 
 are " pars corporis et membra ipsius Pontificis, inpar- 
 " fern solicitudmis Apostolica vocati, ut personaliter 
 " assistant in regimine universalis Ecclesia, <Sfc." That 
 these men should absent themselves from their high 
 station was not to be endured ; and therefore, to pre- 
 vent this evil for the future, he declares for the time 
 to come, that what Cardinal soever should presume, 
 without the licence of the Pope for the time being, 
 to remove his person out of the temporal dominions 
 of the Church, " statim et eo ipso, absque aliqud judi- 
 
 " els
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 569 
 
 ** cis vel alterius pr&cedente declaratione" he is to CHAP, 
 stand actually deprived of all immunities or privi- 
 
 leges whatsoever : and for them who were at present 
 guilty of this presumption, if they did not, within Fix 
 months after the publication of this Bull, make their 
 personal appearance in the court at Rome, they 
 should, without any other declaration, " incidere in 
 " poetias interdicti ingressus Ecclesia ;" and if they 
 did not, after those six months were elapsed, return, 
 they should stand deprived of all their offices and 
 other revenues. And he was at least as good as his 
 word ; for, before the expiration of the term, he 
 caused the whole estate of both, that he could lay 
 hold on, to be seized upon by his own authority, 
 upon pretence of a great debt due from them to the 
 Church, and moreover caused many processes to be 
 formed against Dtfn Tadeo, the brother of both the 
 Cardinals, and whose children should inherit all that 
 the family had, or should heap together, and there- 
 fore were to be involved in the general ruin. 
 
 France was now under the conduct, if not the go- Reception 
 vernment, of Cardinal Mazarin, who had no more berinis in 
 reverence for Innocent than Cardinal Richelieu had 
 had for Urban; yet, upon the arrival of the Barberi- 
 nis in that court, they both underwent an equal 
 weight of mortification. The court of France looked 
 upon the elder brother as a declared and avowed 
 enemy, one who had been always powerful in the 
 faction of Spain, and ought to have resorted thither 
 for protection ; and upon Cardinal Antonio as a 
 man who had broken his trust, for he had been ex- 
 pressly commanded to declare an exclusion of Cardi- 
 nal Pamphili, at the first shutting up of the conclave, 
 but was overwitted or corrupted by his brother ; so 
 
 P p 3 that
 
 570 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that they were equally offended with both. The two 
 - brothers staid long after their arrival in France be- 
 fore they could procure access to Cardinal Mazarin ; 
 and then they received but very dry entertainment, 
 which they submitted to for some years, that it 
 might be the more evident, that their condition was 
 desperate, if it were not relieved by the interposition 
 and power of that crown; for at Rome the Pope pro- 
 ceeded against them furiously, and seized upon their 
 revenue, and whatsoever else could be discovered of 
 theirs : all which served in the end to give lustre to 
 the authority of Cardinal Mazarin, and to manifest 
 how much he was the greater man. 
 Though in- And it is observable, that, notwithstanding their 
 
 terdicted by,. -n IP i r- i 
 
 the Pope, eclipse in France, and after the expiration or the 
 
 term limited for their return, under the penalty men- 
 - 1 " tioned before, they were so far from looking upon 
 themselves as interdicted the Church, that they never 
 
 France. ... 
 
 failed to exercise their daily functions ; which shews 
 how little reverence they had for his supreme eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction, 
 Cardinal At this period, when the Pope every day declared 
 
 Mazarin * . . c i 
 
 compels more and more his entire devotion to opain, and his 
 to^eimtate aversion from France, insomuch that the ambassador 
 ^ n c is Barbe " of that crown could seldom procure an audience, and 
 only short and perfunctory answers, and was com- 
 pelled to resort to Donna Olimpia for her favour to 
 compass any thing he desired, which was the case 
 indeed of all other ambassadors ; when the Pope, to 
 shew how little he esteemed the power of Cardinal 
 Mazarin, and of France itself, refused to make his 
 brother (a Dominican Friar of no great eminency in- 
 deed) a Cardinal, though pressed to do it with all 
 that importunity and impetuosity that is peculiar to 
 
 that
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 5/1 
 
 that court; when He refused to receive an ambassa- CHAP. 
 
 TV 
 
 dor, or so much as a letter from the King of Portu 
 
 gal, with whom France was in a strict alliance, or 
 to supply the vacant sees of Bishops in that king- 
 dom, even though there was but one Bishop left alive 
 there, as if he intended, and thought it to be in his 
 power, to extinguish Christianity in a whole nation ; 
 in a word, when His pride and hypocrisy were so no- 
 torious that Spain only had veneration for him ; (which 
 nevertheless could not prevail with him to excom- 
 municate their rebels either of Portugal or Catalonia, 
 although, without doubt, the rebellion of the last at 
 least, if not of the former, would at the first blast of 
 it have been suppressed, so much his love to Spain 
 gave place to his fear of France;) at this period, when 
 all men thought that the best prognostic that could 
 be made of the Pope's mind and of his manners, of 
 his nature and of his intentions, was from his face, 
 which was the most ungracious and ugly that ever 
 disfigured a human visage ; Cardinal Mazarin now 
 thought it high time to rescue France and the Church 
 itself from the tyranny of his government, and made 
 a war upon him, upon all those points in which he 
 had behaved himself most magisterially. He re- 
 ceived it not as any gratification that the Pope had 
 made his brother a Cardinal, (which he did the most 
 against his affection, and the most against his under- 
 standing, that any action could be,) but assumed the 
 defence and protection of the Barberini family, that 
 he might abstain from which, the making his brother 
 a Cardinal had been the particular bribe ; he prose- 
 cuted him by all the reproaches imaginable, of want 
 of justice, and of want of power to warrant his pro- 
 ceedings against the Cardinals Francisco and Anto- 
 
 P p 4 nio,
 
 572 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, nio, as if the King would vindicate their innocence 
 
 by his army in Italy; and, in fine, he prevailed so 
 
 far, that Cardinal Barberini had first liberty to re- 
 turn to Rome, and had all his estate restored to 
 him ; and, in a short time after, Donna Olimpia 
 thought it so necessary for her own benefit, and even 
 for the support and protection of the house of Pam- 
 phili, to make a firm friendship with the Barberinis, 
 that she persuaded the Pope to make an alliance with 
 it, and to depend upon Cardinal Barberini as a fast 
 friend ; upon which all was likewise remitted to 
 Antonio, who returned to Rome in triumph : and 
 their nephew, son of the elder brother, was likewise 
 made a Cardinal ; so that they had now as many 
 voices in the Consistory as they had ever had in the 
 time of Urban their -uncle ; and from that time to 
 his death the Pope was most governed by the Bar- 
 berinis. 
 jurisdiction The reign of the Pope was so late, and the mani- 
 
 of the Pope 1-1 
 
 questioned fold scandalous things which were done m it were so 
 notorious to all the world, and are yet retained so 
 freshly in the memory of many, that I shall only 
 mention one or two particulars, by which it will 
 enough appear how worthily the Christian world was 
 supplied with an Universal Bishop, and how much 
 religion was advanced and secured by his definitions 
 and determinations, and consequently what kind of 
 understanding those men were of, who did believe 
 that Christ had made choice of such a Vicar, who 
 made choice of such a female deputy to perform the 
 function for him. 
 
 It was this Pope's misfortune, that there fell out a 
 - difference amongst the Roman Catholics, upon a 
 
 ists and Je- point in religion which had been long debated in 
 
 former
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 former ages ; and the Council of Trent had declined CHAP. 
 
 IX. 
 the giving any determination in it, and was rather 
 
 contented, even whilst they sat, to have their resolu- 
 tion declared by either party to be on their side, than 
 to offend either by a clear and plain decision ; but 
 falling now to be taken up again by men of more 
 warmth and noise, it much troubled the peace of the 
 Church, especially in France and Flanders. 
 
 There had been one Jansenius, who, for his emi-The Domi- 
 nency in learning, and fame for piety, had been port the 
 made Bishop of Ypres in Flanders, and in his life 
 time had printed many books, in some of which 
 had handled those difficult points of grace and free 
 will, which had been debated in so many ages before; 
 and his books had been much esteemed by the Uni- 
 versity of Louvain; the opinions themselves had been 
 generally maintained and defended by the Friars of 
 St. Dominic in all places, and as generally contra- 
 dicted and exploded by the other of St. Francis. 
 
 After the death of Jansenius, the Jesuits declared Calvinism 
 great dislike of his books, and first examined the 
 grounds of his opinions in their schools and pub- 
 
 lie exercises in divinity, and took upon them to in- theirdoc - 
 
 i 1-1 -i i- i tnne b y s 
 
 veigh against his doctrine with extraordinary bitter- Austin. 
 
 ness ; and that again was defended with the same 
 intemperance of spirit. The chief and most popular 
 argument that was urged by the Jesuits was, that it 
 was the doctrine of Calvin, and so ought to be con- 
 demned as heretical ; and the chief argument used 
 by the Jansenists was, that it was the doctrine of St. 
 Augustin, and therefore could not but be orthodox, 
 and they who would condemn St. Austin might be 
 justly looked upon as enemies to the Catholic reli- 
 gion. The presses were filled with the books of this 
 
 argument,
 
 574 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, argument, and all pulpits debated and handled no- 
 thing else ; with so much revilings of the persons of 
 
 each, as if modesty and charity had been exploded 
 out of the number of Christian virtues. The Society 
 of Jesuits to a man, in all nations, embarked and 
 listed themselves in this war, and they wrote and 
 preached with more eloquence than the other ; but 
 with such insolence as irreconciled more to them, 
 than the strength of the other drew to their opinion : 
 and both the University of Louvain, where Janse- 
 nius had so long sat in the chair, seemed to adhere 
 to his doctrine, and the College of the Sorbonne, 
 between approving the opinions and disliking the 
 temper and carriage of the Jesuists, were thought 
 more inclined to the former ; which provoked many 
 of the Bishops of France, and many of the most 
 learned and eminent of their Clergy, to declare them- 
 selves enemies to the Jesuits, rather than friends to 
 the others. 
 Appeal to This pen and pulpit war had an influence upon 
 
 the Pope. -rin 1-1 ^ 111 
 
 the quiet of the State, which was every day troubled 
 with complaints and appeals from each other ; and 
 both seemed desirous, at least willing, to refer the 
 decision to the Pope ; and the Cardinals who under- 
 stood not, nor cared, who was in the right, were very 
 willing that the debate should be carried before him, 
 who had (whilst it was depending at this distance) 
 manifested a great regard of the Jesuits, and as much 
 disrespect towards the College of the Sorbonne, with 
 which they neither were, nor can ever be surprised : 
 and they found both much increased when the scene 
 was carried to Rome, where the society is thought as 
 omnipotent as the Pope, he being most inspired by 
 them ; and the old champions of that controversy, 
 
 the
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 575 
 
 the sons of St. Dominic, were so totally subdued in CHAP. 
 
 that climate by the prevalence of the Jesuits, that : 
 
 they only studied distinctions how they might ap- 
 pear neutral ; which since that time hath much les- 
 sened their reputation in all places. 
 
 The University of Louvain, though the Jesuits Proceed - 
 
 J 3 ings at 
 
 had great power there and in that whole govern- Rome, 
 ment, made choice of such deputies to attend the 
 Pope as were most notoriously affected to the opi- 
 nions of Jansenius, and some who had written in de- 
 fence of them ; the like choice was made at the Sor- 
 bonne of the most eminent Doctors thereof, who 
 had most signally opposed and incensed the Jesuits ; 
 and they likewise (though they had least need) sent 
 some of their members to prosecute their determina- 
 tions. These representatives were never permitted 
 to have one audience together from the Pope, nor 
 from the Consistory, nor from any two Cardinals at 
 once ; the power of the Jesuits being so great in 
 Rome, and the name of a Jansenist being so branded 
 by them for Calvinists, that those of the Cardinals 
 who were without any passion in their judgments, 
 and had little favour for those of the Society, durst 
 not trust any of their body so much as to confer of 
 the argument together. The Jesuits talked loud and 
 imperiously, and took and sought all opportunities to 
 put neglects and scorns upon the persons of the 
 others ; who, with more modesty, behaved them- 
 selves with courage enough ; and finding that they 
 were more acceptable when they made their visits 
 apart and single, than when they went two or three 
 together, they observed that method, that they might 
 find more freedom from those from whom they ex- 
 pected
 
 576 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, pected justice, and good offices towards the procur- 
 
 I \ . 
 
 mg it. 
 
 Conduct of The first business in that Court is always the per- 
 
 thePope . 
 
 and Car- lormance or ceremonies, in the reception whereof 
 they had no cause to complain ; and therein the Pope 
 himself was as gracious as they could wish, and dis- 
 missed them in such a manner, as if he very well un- 
 derstood their business, and in a very short time 
 would put an end to it. Their next business was to 
 get such a Congregation to be appointed as might 
 hear the whole matter debated, and the arguments 
 and allegations urged on either side; that they might 
 make a full and clear report to the Pope and to the 
 Consistory of the truth of the case of the matter of 
 fact, and of the proofs that were made. There is so 
 exact a relation of all that passed in the solicitation 
 of that affair by Monsieur St. Amour, a learned doc- 
 tor of the Sorbonne, employed then at Rome in it, 
 that it administers great information and pleasure to 
 the reader ; and it is great pity that the good man 
 (who is known to be a good Catholic, and so con- 
 fessed to be, and the truth of his relation no where 
 questioned) is discouraged or restrained from finish- 
 ing; his account. After the first or second visit, and 
 
 O ' 
 
 when they began to enter upon their business, and to 
 be importunate for a Congregation, they seemed to 
 be very troublesome. There were few of the Car- 
 dinals who understood any thing of the controversy, 
 or had faculties which made them capable of being 
 informed. They who were prepared by the Jesuits, 
 and seemed to have read Jansenius, entertained them 
 with reproaches, and accused them of holding these 
 and these monstrous opinions, which it was high time 
 
 for
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 577 
 
 for the Pope to condemn, and to punish the authors CHAP. 
 
 and supporters of them ; and when they disclaimed 
 
 all those opinions, as neither contained in Jansenius, 
 nor believed by any of them, and would have pro- 
 ceeded to the informing them of the truth, the Cardi- 
 nals rescued themselves by giving them new ill words, 
 as a people that ought not to be believed. The very 
 few who did in truth understand the differences in 
 question, or who did ingenuously desire to be in- 
 formed, received them always very civilly, and la- 
 mented (if there were but one present) that the mat- 
 ter they came about was so little understood in 
 Rome ; and from thence they concluded, that they 
 would receive little satisfaction by their prosecution. 
 No man seemed to receive them with more candour 
 and grace, or to hear them with more patience and 
 attention, than Innocent himself; yet when they 
 enlarged upon the point, and cited the words of St. 
 Austin to this and that purpose, he appeared not to 
 be at ease, and often said, " lo non sono Teologo, lo 
 " non sono TeologoC and then dismissed them with a 
 renewed promise that he would forthwith name a 
 Congregation to hear them, which he never thought 
 of afterwards. 
 
 The conclusion of this so great matter of faith was, The Pope 
 that after they had solicited to be heard for the space S^"* 
 of fifteen or sixteen months, with such importunity conmed "* 
 as made every body weary or ashamed of hearing out . ofjan - 
 them, they could never procure a Congregation ; nor 
 that their adversaries and they might be heard toge- 
 ther in any place. Many of them left Rome for fear 
 of being banished from thence, and returned into 
 their own country ; and others the more securely 
 stayed there to see and observe the end of it ; and 
 
 truly
 
 578 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, truly the end of it was shortly after very notorious. 
 The Pope, finding it much more easy to judge than 
 
 to understand, or believing that the understanding of 
 the Jesuits was sufficient for them and him too, with- 
 out ever hearing the doctrine debated by the persons 
 concerned, or in the Consistory, pronounced his de- 
 finitive decree in the words and terms prepared by 
 the Jesuits; in which he condemned the Five Propo- 
 sitions collected out of Jansenius (who had been 
 then dead about twenty years) as false, scandalous, 
 and heretical ; and pronounced an anathema upon 
 all who should maintain or defend them ; and that 
 he might be sure to restore peace to the Church by 
 this Apostolical determination, he required by an- 
 other act, (shortly after published by the same infal- 
 lible authority,) that all Bishops should subscribe to 
 the verity of those his new articles of faith, and re- 
 quire all their Clergy under their obedience to re- 
 nounce the believing of any of those condemned he- 
 resies. 
 The Jan- g u ^ now the W orld could hold out laughing no 
 
 senists deny 
 
 that the longer ; and it fell out, as it usually doth upon all 
 
 Propositions ..,.. , .,, . 
 
 are in his excesses or jurisdiction, when men will immoderately 
 extend their power farther than it can possibly reach, 
 persons most concerned and grieved usually make it 
 less than in truth it is, or deny that of right they 
 have any at all. The Pope's decision found little re- 
 verence and submission either to his person or his 
 chair ; and the foul circumstances which had at- 
 tended upon his judicial spirit was discoursed of in 
 all Catholic assemblies with a very Catholic licence 
 and detestation ; and the Jansenists, when they saw 
 with how little gravity they had proceeded at Rome, 
 gave over being serious too, and made themselves 
 
 merry
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 579 
 
 merry with the Pope. They found no fault with the CHAP. 
 
 decree, nor complained of not being heard; possibly 
 
 they believed that his spirit could as well discern 
 without it as with it ; but they said, that they were 
 not at all concerned in the determination, and that 
 those Propositions, which were under so many ana- 
 themas condemned by the Pope, were not to be 
 found in Jansenius ; and that he had never avowed 
 any of them. 
 
 This evasion exceedingly provoked the Jesuits, And con- 
 
 tend that 
 
 who called them (with better warrant than formerly) the Pope, 
 heretics ; and accused them of opposing and contra-. 
 
 dieting the Pope's judgment in matters of faith ; 
 
 they with as much mettle replied, that they did not faith is not 
 
 > J J so in matter 
 
 question his judgment in matters of faith, but in of fact. 
 matters of fact, in the discerning whereof he was as 
 fallible as other men, and depended upon what he 
 was informed as much as others do ; as appeared by 
 this very sentence, wherein he had condemned Jan- 
 senius for having said and written what in truth he 
 had neither written or said ; which being matter of 
 fact, ought to be proved, and could be known no 
 otherwise to the Pope, than it was to other men. 
 
 The scene became now changed, and (as it com- Prosecution 
 monly falls out between fierce and angry disputants) troversy in 
 each maintains what he , need not to maintain, and b 
 undertakes to prove a thousand absurdities imperti- 
 nent to the matter in controversy, but excellent fuel 
 to make the fire that was throughly kindled to flame 
 out abundantly. The Jesuits, who had lately much 
 laboured in producing many discourses of conscience, 
 being now chafed with disputing, and believing them- 
 selves strong enough to remove any obstruction that 
 was cast in their way, published a very confident dis^ 
 
 course,
 
 580 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, course, in which they averred that the Pope was no 
 . less judge of matter of fact, than he is of faith, and 
 therefore that all men were as much bound to be- 
 lieve that those propositions are contained in Janse- 
 nius, as they are to believe that they are heretical ; 
 since it must be presumed that he would never have 
 condemned them to be the last, if he had not been 
 very sure of the truth of the first. And Innocent 
 was of their mind, and with notable obstinacy (which 
 was his chief talent, and which he bequeathed as a 
 legacy to his successor) renewed all his former de- 
 crees and declarations ; and required, without farther 
 delay, an entire submission and obedience to all his 
 dictates. But this was a new case, and raised the spirit 
 of the Sorbonne, who had no opinion in truth of his 
 faculty in defining matters of faith, but would not en- 
 dure that it should extend likewise to matters of fact; 
 and thereupon they severely censured two or three of 
 the Society who had preached or printed, or other- 
 wise maintained, that authority to be in the Pope. 
 
 Pascal's The Jansenists, upon these advantages, gave over 
 
 Provincial ... i i 
 
 Letters. the writing large volumes upon the original quar- 
 rel, which few men read but they who were in- 
 toxicated on the one side or the other ; and they be- 
 took themselves to write little animadversions, by 
 way of letter, that contained one or two sheets of 
 paper, which every body read with delight; in which 
 they described the nature and humour of the Jesuits, 
 and published their opinions in matter of conscience; 
 which produced answers from them in the same vo- 
 lumes, and with their natural insolence and averring 
 the truth of what was objected, which they were not 
 obliged to have done ; and this again drew upon 
 them such sharp replies, till the letters written 
 
 against
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 581 
 
 against them amounted (being collected together, CHAP. 
 
 which all men had the curiosity to do) to a great vo > 
 
 lume in quarto, under the title of " the Provincial 
 " Letters ;" which all read, and will always read, 
 with great pleasure, who are delighted with the most 
 natural wit and the greatest eloquence and propriety 
 of words that is extant in the French, or, it may be^ 
 in any other language : and to how high a pitch 
 soever the French language is ascended, it will not 
 deny, but that those letters are a great ornament 
 to it. 
 
 It is evident that they broke the heart of the Je- Effects of 
 suits, who have visibly since hung down their heads, C iai Letters 
 and had no other way to redeem themselves from the j^J|J t e 
 last contempt, than by procuring a positive order and 
 command from the King, that neither they nor the 
 other party should continue that way of writing any 
 longer, under 'great penalties. Yet it discovered one 
 secret, which probably troubles them as much as any 
 other part of their sufferings ; that whereas they are 
 most unjustly accused of knowing the secrets of all 
 private families, and of being the greatest and most 
 skilful spies in the world, they never were able to 
 find out who was the author of those Letters whilst 
 he lived, and till his friends thought it injustice to 
 his memory to conceal it ; and then they knew, that, 
 against all suggestions and insinuations that it was 
 this or that advocate, or such a Bishop, or another 
 whom they thought worthy to be their enemy, 
 it was a private gentleman of no profession, but en- 
 dowed with excellent learning, piety, and virtue ; 
 which made the wounds the; had received to bleed 
 afresh, and fester the more ; so that, having found in 
 what church he had been interred, (which, as I re- 
 ft q member,
 
 582 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, member, was some leagues distant from Paris, where 
 
 his estate lay,) they employed some agents to nego- 
 
 ciate with the Curate of that parish, and who had 
 often assisted him in his sickness, to declare that, be- 
 fore his death, he found infinite compunction, and 
 passionately lamented the having been author of 
 these Letters : but they easily discerned, that this 
 credit and reputation was too strongly and substan- 
 tially built to be demolished by such weak and im- 
 potent blasts. 
 The Sor- ^ great number of the most learned and eminent 
 
 bonne con- 
 demns the Bishops and Prelates of France (for in Flanders they 
 
 the Jesuits, were more subdued, the Archbishop of Mechlen and 
 Bishop of Ghent being discountenanced to the highest 
 degree, and threatened to be deprived) assumed the 
 courage to refuse to subscribe to what was required, 
 or to command their Clergy to do it ; and made an 
 address and remonstrance to the King and the Pope, 
 to which they set their hands, and in which they 
 gave many reasons why they ought not to be com- 
 pelled to make any such subscription, and likewise in- 
 serted many such expressions as made it evident that 
 they looked upon the Jesuits as the sole prosecutors 
 of that affair. But the greatest part of the Cure's of 
 Paris spoke plainer language ; and, as they spoke 
 with freedom enough against the decree itself, and 
 made all those exceptions, and others to it, which have 
 been mentioned, so they made many bitter invectives 
 against the Society, as the corrupters of Christianity, 
 and the patrons of all licence and corruption in man- 
 ners, and demanded justice against them and many 
 of their doctrines, which were carefully collected into 
 a schedule, with the names of the authors who had 
 published them, and the chapter and the page where 
 
 the
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 583 
 
 the very words were contained. The publication of CHAP, 
 them in this manner produced the effect it desired, 
 in exceedingly lessening the opinion that had been 
 contracted of the Jesuits' piety and devotion, and the 
 reverence that had been paid to them ; and without 
 doubt withdrew the respect of very many consider- 
 able persons from them. But it did not produce 
 that public prosecution in justice as was expected, in 
 the branding such enormous and monstrous conclu- 
 sions ; though some of them underwent the severe 
 condemnation of the Sorbonne, and the Parliament 
 had a very great inclination to have assumed the ex- 
 amination both of the doctrines and the persons ; for 
 though there was no one man of the Society dis- 
 claimed the opinions, they all said, they could not be 
 charged upon the Society, but upon the particular 
 persons who had published them ; and yet all the 
 books which contained those opinions were printed 
 with all those formal licences, by the several Supe- 
 riors, as are prescribed by their rules, and may justly 
 be said to involve the whole Society. Innocent was 
 not moved with all this, either to suspend the exe- 
 cution of his own decree, which he saw was every 
 day more and more contemned, nor to examine or 
 take notice of those scandalous doctrines, with the 
 maintenance and defence whereof the Jesuits were 
 charged, but continued the same animosity and 
 fierceness against the Jansenists which he had be- 
 fore, even to his death. As this fell out before the 
 execution of his decree, or any submission to his de- 
 termination, we shall have occasion again to observe 
 the farther prosecution of it in the reign of his suc- 
 cessor ; and at last it will appear, what jurisdiction 
 and authority were found necessary rather to lay 
 
 a q 2 that
 
 584 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, that unruly controversy asleep than to determine it ; 
 neither of which could be done by the Papal power, 
 
 and yet was done principally to preserve the Society 
 from farther disgrace. 
 
 The Pope The choler that Pope Urban had expressed against 
 observance the peace of Germany was rather against the preli- 
 of Germa- C n " nar ^ es towards it by the cessation; which was 
 n y- therefore the more cruel, that he would not allow 
 
 those who were faint with the loss of blood to take 
 a little breath to refresh themselves. The final peace 
 was not concluded till some years after the reign of 
 Innocent; who, imitating his predecessor in assign- 
 ing or contributing nothing towards the mainte- 
 nance of the war, but sending an extraordinary Nun- 
 cio by all artifices to prevent the peace, outdid him 
 in his passion and rage, when he could no longer 
 hinder the conclusion of it. He begins his Bull for 
 the declaration of the nullity of it, with " Zelus Do- 
 " miis Dei animum nostrum assidue $fc." according 
 to the natural prefaces of that Court to all acts of 
 blood and cruelty ; when, by some text of Scripture, 
 or exalted expression of their love and zeal for 
 his service, they make God himself to blow the 
 trumpet towards the most impious wars, and for the 
 propagation and countenance of the foulest actions, 
 which he hath plainly declared himself to condemn 
 and to abhor. Then he professes, with what grief 
 and trouble of heart he hath been informed of the 
 peace lately concluded at Osnaburgh and at Mun- 
 ster, (for the dissent of the French to have the Spa- 
 nish interest comprehended had made the treaty to 
 be held in two places,) against all the endeavours he 
 could use, and against the protestation of his vene- 
 rable brother Fabius, (who was his extraordinary 
 
 Nuncio
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 585 
 
 Nuncio then there, and afterwards his successor in CHAP. 
 
 IX. 
 
 the Papacy,) who, he said, had declared the articles ot ' - 
 
 that peace to be unjust and void, because it was " no- 
 " tissimi juris quamcunque transactionem sen pactio- 
 " nem in rebus ecclesiasticis, sine pr&fata sedis au- 
 " thoritate factam, nullam, nullmsque roboris et mo- 
 " menti existere:" which, if true, or if Catholic Princes 
 believed it to be true, the Latin Church would un- 
 dergo a much more insupportable slavery under His 
 Holiness, than the Greek Church doth sustain under 
 the tyranny of the Grand iSignior. Then he pro- 
 ceeds, out of the tenderness of his conscience, " pro 
 " commissi nobis ex alto pastor alis offic'n debit o provi- 
 " dere volentes fyc" to express his own indignation 
 at that peace ; and " de Apostolica sedis plenitudine" 
 he declares all those articles which had any reference 
 to the ecclesiastical state, or to ecclesiastical persons, 
 " prffjudicium etiam minimum afferunt, aut infer re 
 " quoquomodo did vel censer i possent fyc. ipso jure 
 " nut/a, irrita, invalida, fyc. ;" with that multitude of 
 other words which their capriccios are accustomed 
 to, and nobody thinks worth the considering, when 
 all the ecclesiastical Princes and other Bishops, and 
 (for aught appeared to the contrary) all the Clergy 
 that was concerned, cheerfully gave their consent to 
 what was agreed, and well knew that there could be 
 no peace without those concessions ; nor did they 
 give any thing that they had not been long without, 
 and secured the rest by releasing an impotent claim 
 of what they had no rational hope to recover, and 
 were in evident danger to lose what they were yet in 
 possession of: and so he positively requires and for- 
 bids all persons to observe the peace, and frankly 
 absolves them from all the oaths they had taken for 
 
 ft q 3 the
 
 586 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the observation thereof, to which not one Catholic 
 
 IX 
 
 ever submitted. 
 
 Decision of The last determination that ever he made in any 
 favour "of '" thing relating to religion was in behalf of the Je- 
 agaiSX Slnts j against the Bishop of Angelopolitana in the 
 Bishop of West Indies, a learned and an eloquent man. who in 
 
 Angelopoli- ' * . 
 
 tana. his own behalf, and in the name of many other Bi- 
 shops of that patriarchate, came to Rome to com- 
 plain of the unrighteous proceedings of the Jesuits 
 in those parts, their scandalous doctrines, and com- 
 pounding with the native Pagans to become half 
 Christians, and to remain Gentiles in the other part 
 of their belief and practice ; and that they will not 
 receive any advice or order from the Bishops or Me- 
 tropolitans, in cases which do exceed, or are not com- 
 prehended within the privileges which are granted 
 to them. Innocent gravely advised the Bishop, 
 without examining the truth of the allegation, " ut 
 " Christiana mansuetudinis memor, erga societatem 
 " t/esu, qua laudabili suo instituto in ecclesid Dei tarn 
 " fructuose labor avit, pater no se gerat affectu fyc" 
 and declares, that in any difference which should 
 arise between them, upon the interpretation of their 
 privileges, (as the Jesuits could not be without the 
 wit to justify whatsoever they said or did under the 
 protection of their privileges,) there should be no re- 
 course to any Bishop or Metropolitan in the Indies, 
 but that the appeal should be to the Pope himself; 
 and, which is yet more admirable, he declares, " Non 
 " indigere patres societatis approbatione pr&vioque 
 " examine Episcopi^ seu licentia, sed solum benedic- 
 " tione :" so that the Bishops must ordain them 
 Priests, whatever they believe of their learning or 
 their manners, which is more than they can chal- 
 lenge
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 587 
 
 lenge yet in any Catholic province in Europe; and, CHAP. 
 after all, the poor Bishop was not suffered to return - 
 to the Indies, to give an account to his brethren of 
 the honour that the Universal Bishop vouchsafed to 
 confer upon them, but was removed to another Bi- 
 shopric in the most desert parts of Spain, where he 
 died shortly after, a sacrifice to the displeasure of the 
 Society. 
 
 The kingdom of Portugal gave this miserable Pope Cardinal 
 
 Mazarin 
 
 more trouble ; and he loved his ease so well, that he denies the 
 
 desired to be without the obligations of his function. 
 There remained now in that whole kingdom but one 
 Bishop alive ; and the King of Spain would not en- Crowns 
 dure that any new should be made ; and Innocent 
 had made a vow never to displease him, and had 
 hitherto given himself some ease by obstinately re- 
 fusing to acknowledge that King, or to receive any 
 ambassador or other minister from him. But his 
 own dear brother, Cardinal Mazarin, would not suffer 
 him to enjoy the pleasure of that slumber ; he pre- 
 vailed with the most Christian King to put him in 
 mind roundly of his duty, and to tell him that he 
 took too much upon him to judge of the right and 
 title and descent of Crowns, and to the government 
 of nations, which could not belong to him, but was 
 to be decided by the laws and constitutions of king- 
 doms ; and that when all other Kings and Princes 
 (only the single person who was a party excepted) 
 acknowledged a Monarch, who was entirely possessed 
 of all the dominions he pretended a right to, and re- 
 ceived ambassadors from him, (which it could not be 
 presumed they would have done, without being well 
 informed of the title he justly laid claim by,) it must 
 seem to them all that His Holiness refusing to con- 
 
 a q 4 cur
 
 588 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, cur with them could proceed from nothing hut the 
 
 assuming a jurisdiction to himself to determine the 
 
 controversy, which too much concerned all other 
 Princes and States to permit. 
 
 Remon- When this plain and good counsel could not 
 the King awaken him out of his lethargy, the King of France 
 against "the commanded his ambassador to pursue him with con- 
 duct to- n tinual and loud instances ; and at last to present and 
 wards For- publish a Remonstrance on the behalf of Portugal, in 
 which they complained of his injustice and impiety, 
 that (being a Catholic nation that had never che- 
 rished or endured a heresy to grow amongst them, 
 but had been always dutiful children to the Sacred 
 Chair, and all entirely in subjection to their natural 
 King, who had only right to govern them, and his 
 title to which they set out) he should refuse to ac- 
 knowledge them as such ; and that, by denying his 
 Bull for the consecration of Bishops in the many va- 
 cant sees, he should threaten the suppression of the 
 Catholic religion itself in that kingdom : after which, 
 and many unanswerable arguments, very confidently 
 urged and insisted on against his having any such 
 power and authority as he pretended to, they told 
 him, with the same confidence, that if he continued 
 in this unfatherly resolution towards his children, 
 they would likewise forget that they were his children, 
 and would choose a Patriarch for the regulation and 
 government of that Church that he had rejected or 
 deserted. The Remonstrance is translated into all 
 languages, and is well known and understood in all 
 nations, without having ever had the least answer to 
 it, and doth manifest enough how far the Catholics 
 of all nations were from believing that the Pope's 
 authority is a part of the Catholic faith. 
 
 When
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 539 
 
 When he had governed very little, and been go- CHAP, 
 verned very much, for the space of ten years, and- 
 was as weary of the world as the world was of him, {^ 
 he began to reflect, with great agony of mind, upon 
 the no good and much hurt he had done in the ad- 
 ministration of his Apostleship, Upon the repre- 
 sentations of all the courts of Catholic Princes of the 
 scandal which his government gave to all the world, 
 and of the frequent lampoons which were cast abroad 
 in all places, and not concealed from his own view, 
 but especially upon Donna Olimpia's having prevail- 
 ed upon him to create a boy of eighteen years of age 
 (scarce of any quality, and of the most abject parts 
 of understanding, and the most dissolute parts in 
 manners) a Cardinal, to the reproach and infamy of 
 the College ; and for no other reason but being her 
 nephew, and to manifest the extravagancy of her 
 spiritual power, the instance whereof is still living 
 as a monument of that Pope's madness, and of his 
 contempt of religion. He had for some years before 
 pretended to withdraw himself from the empire of 
 Donna Olimpia, that is, that she should withdraw 
 herself from the court ; but this proved only a pre- 
 tence ; for his affection was too deeply rooted in him 
 to live without her ; so that it was only an absenting 
 herself during those hours of the day which were 
 subject to all men's observation, and repairing thi- 
 ther in the evenings, which could be taken notice of 
 only by those who durst not discourse of what they 
 saw ; but her interest was not lessened, nor the pro- 
 fit she reaped by it abated. The credit and virtue of 
 Cardinal Barberini, and the new alliance which she 
 had made with him, gave her many advantages ; for 
 the Pope consulted most with him, and he was very 
 
 just
 
 590 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, just to her in the preservation of the old kindness to 
 her; and her diligence and attendance about him was 
 
 so necessary, that she departed not from his chamber 
 till the moment of the Pope's death, which she con- 
 cealed as long as was possible, and till she had caused 
 those things of value to be conveyed out of the Court, 
 which she had suffered to remain there so long. So 
 died Innocent, after the eightieth year of his age was 
 expired, and left behind him the fame of a very 
 weak and wilful man, who was neither fit to govern 
 the Church nor the State, and lost all the reverence 
 and esteem of Christian Princes, for the scandal he 
 brought into and upon the government and religion, 
 the latter of which he neither understood nor cared 
 for ; and if he were Christ's Vicar, he carried as ill 
 an account with him to his Master, as most who had 
 been deputed to that service before him. 
 Election of There was not now a more universal expectation 
 
 Alexander 11111 
 
 vii. Chigi. or a new Pope, than that there should be such an 
 one as would vindicate the Sacred Chair from the 
 foul blemishes and reproaches which the last man 
 had brought upon it, and who would begin that 
 vindication, by taking full vengeance upon the infa- 
 mous Donna Olimpia, against whom there was no 
 kind or species of transgression that could not have 
 been justly charged and amply proved. Nor did 
 this purpose or expectation more possess the people 
 than it did the Conclave itself, which seemed to con- 
 tain in it but two factions ; the one for the choice of 
 a Pope who would cause the ill actions of the last to 
 be thoroughly examined, and the lewd woman to be 
 destroyed ; the other, that such a man might be 
 elected, who would prevent the like enormity for the 
 future, without exercising much rigour upon what 
 
 was
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 591 
 
 was past: but they of this spirit were thought to be CHAP. 
 
 of so small a number, that nobody doubted they . 
 
 would be suddenly so much overpowered, that the 
 Conclave would be very short. The interposition of 
 the Crowns was of no other signification, than the 
 subject proposed was thought qualified for one of the 
 purposes aforesaid ; nor was either of them solicitous 
 for the preservation of the family that they had never 
 cared for, except it was attended with some other 
 convenience. The Barberinis, of which there were 
 three Cardinals in the Conclave, were very powerful ; 
 and the virtue of the eldest was so much revered, 
 that it was generally believed Cardinal Francisco 
 would have come out Pope, (for he had one day 
 thirty-three voices,) if it had not been for his known 
 affection to the house of Pamphili, which he would 
 not be prevailed with to desert. When the Conclave 
 had continued near four months without any appear- 
 ance of union, the party that had most laboured for 
 the preservation of Donna Olimpia began to incline 
 to such a moderation, that if those might be excluded 
 who were known to be at that defiance with her, 
 that for revenge had vowed and laboured her de- 
 struction, they would no longer insist upon the elec- 
 tion of such a one as was known to adhere to her 
 interest, but would be well contented that such a 
 one might be named, who in all probability would 
 govern himself by the rules of justice, and ordinary 
 prudence. This brought the Cardinal Chigi upon 
 the stage, which pleased the Cardinal Barbcrini well; 
 for he being a Cardinal created by Innocent, it was 
 not probable that he would shew any sharpness 
 against the family of his founder, which was not the 
 custom of the Conclave ; and the brutal behaviour at 
 
 present
 
 592 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, present of that Cardinal, whose want of merit and all 
 
 = virtue had drawn that eternal odium upon Innocent, 
 
 in all the foul language against his memory, and to 
 the prejudice of his aunt, did her more good than 
 harm ; every man so much abhorring his person and 
 his manners, that they thought it dishonourable to 
 concur with him in any thing. On the other side, 
 they who knew well the obligations that Cardinal 
 Chigi had to Innocent, knew well likewise, that in 
 the very time he had received them he never made 
 the least acknowledgment for them to Donna Olim- 
 pia, nor could ever be persuaded to make her one 
 visit, which he always excused by the uncourtliness 
 of his nature, and his never having been bred in the 
 conversation of women. So that both parties satisfied 
 themselves tliat he was sufficiently qualified for both 
 their purposes, and though both France and Spain 
 had once resolved to exclude him, they were at last 
 both contented to accept him ; and so with an uni- 
 versal consent, and without any opposition, he was 
 elected Pope, and took the name of Alexander the 
 Seventh. 
 
 Hischa- Alexander was surely as acceptable at the time 
 [*f conduct when he was chosen to all the Princes of Europe, 
 rds hlSan d ^0 all the people of Rome, as any man could 
 have been that was within the inclosure of the Con- 
 clave. He was esteemed learned, and had the ele- 
 gancy of the Latin tongue in great perfection, and 
 was a master of all polite learning, and excelled Pope 
 Urban in poetry, and had good experience in the 
 transaction of public affairs. They who knew him 
 but little had very much esteem of him, as a man 
 of wisdom and extraordinary civility, upon which 
 account the Princes of Germany, who had known 
 
 him
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 593 
 
 him during his Nunciature, were exceedingly pleased CHAP, 
 with his promotion ; and they who knew him better, 
 and were not abundantly confident of the sincerity 
 of his nature, thought him a wary man, and not like 
 to commit any gross faults. In his entrance into 
 the Pontificate he did two great actions, both which 
 had as much of popularity in them, and raised his 
 reputation as high, far and near, as any thing he 
 could have done. The first was, his declaring pub- 
 licly, and industriously, and affectedly, that he would 
 never suffer any of his kindred to come to Rome ; 
 that he loved them very well, and would do them 
 good, that they might be the better for his promo- 
 tion, but that they should not come to Rome; which 
 he confirmed with an oath or vow ; and took delight 
 in professing, that he would banish nepotism from 
 that court, which was a weed that had grown up 
 lately, (that is, two hundred years,) and had brought 
 so great scandal upon the Church. And of his full 
 resolution to remain steady in this particular he 
 gave a seasonable evidence ; for, as soon as his elec- 
 tion was known, the Great Duke, whose subject he 
 was, sent immediately to Sienna, (the city where his 
 family had always resided in the quality of gentle- 
 men of very moderate fortunes,) to congratulate with 
 his brother, sisters, and sons, upon the advancement 
 of his brother, and sent some presents to them all ; 
 and the same respect they received from that city, 
 and all the neighbours of quality. And Don Mario 
 his brother, and his son, though they had received 
 advertisement of the Pope's pleasure, believed their 
 presence would quickly remove that prejudice ; and 
 so made haste to put themselves in such an equipage 
 as might be fit for their new greatness to make a 
 
 visit
 
 594 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, visit to the Pope, and were accordingly attended by 
 ' the Magistrates and principal persons of Sienna 
 
 some leagues on their journey ; with which he being 
 quickly informed, was so highly offended, that he 
 sent a messenger to meet them in the middle of their 
 way, and to command them in his name, without 
 advancing farther, to return immediately to Sienna, 
 and remain there: this they durst not but presently 
 obey, and returned with as much privacy as they 
 could to the place from whence they came so lately 
 in such triumph; nor could any body have imagined 
 that he would have given such a mortification to his 
 own family, if he had not intended they should al- 
 ways remain strangers to him. 
 
 Prosecutes His second popular action was, his discovery that 
 limp 1 . " he resolved strictly to examine the miscarriages 
 which had been in the time of his predecessor, and 
 especially to call Donna Oliinpia to a severe account 
 for the money she had received out of the treasure of 
 the Church ; and he appointed a committee of per- 
 sons unloved by her, and well acquainted with her, 
 to receive the complaints that should be brought 
 against her, and the testimonies that should be 
 brought of all her exactions and offences, of what 
 kind soever ; whereof some were of such a magni- 
 tude, as were thought might reach her life. She was 
 not without some friends, who desired to preserve 
 the family from ruin, for she had contracted all the 
 general odium against herself and the dead Pope : 
 but her son, the Prince Pamphili, who had married 
 the Princess Roxana, and two other noble Princes, 
 who had upon her promises, or their own expecta- 
 tions, married her daughters, were loved and pitied 
 the more for the extreme ill nature that she had ex- 
 pressed
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 595 
 
 pressed towards them all, during her whole reign; CHAP. 
 she having prevailed with Innocent to banish her 
 son from Rome for many years, that he might not 
 be thought her rival in the Pope's favours, or in con- 
 ferring his graces ; nor were the others permitted to 
 have access to him: however, they were now equally, 
 at least jointly, concerned in preserving the vast 
 wealth she had heaped up for herself, and which she 
 must leave behind her, from being a prey to others, 
 who had deserved no better than themselves, against 
 whom nothing could be objected. Cardinal Barbe- 
 rini was their fast friend, and had defaced the me- 
 mory of all the oppression that he had sustained 
 from Innocent and Donna Olimpia, in the beginning 
 of his reign, with the sense and gratitude for the be- 
 nefits he received from them both in the end of it, 
 though they scarce repaired the damage of the for- 
 mer : but all this weighed little against the general 
 clamour, and the implacable prejudice that was in 
 the Pope's heart against her, whose name he could 
 not hear mentioned without some commotion. She 
 sent one day to him, by a person not unacceptable, 
 to beseech him to admit her to an audience, when 
 she was confident she should appear to be innocent 
 from many of the aspersions which had been cast 
 upon her ; to which the. Pope answered presently, 
 " That she had been too familiar with one Pope, for 
 " another to have any thing to do with her ;" and so 
 turned away: and within few days after, that he 
 might be free from those perpetual importunities, he 
 sent an officer to command her within three days to 
 go out of Rome, and to go to Orvieto, (thirty leagues 
 from thence,) and not depart from thence without 
 his leave first obtained : which sentence she made 
 
 haste
 
 596 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, haste to obey, and, stealing out of Rome in the night 
 for fear of the people, whose rage she had great reason 
 
 to apprehend, she lodged within two leagues of the 
 city, and then prosecuted her journey to Orvieto ; 
 the preparing her process in Rome, and the exami- 
 nation of witnesses in order thereunto, being pro- 
 ceeded in with the same vigour. 
 
 His con- The carriage of the Pope towards the two Crowns 
 wards the was with visible impartiality, nor did either of them 
 Germany, except against it. It had been one of the popular 
 and King discourses to which he had long accustomed himself, 
 
 of France. 
 
 especially during the time of his Nunciature, that it 
 was an abominable thing that all the Princes of 
 Christendom did not unite to compel the two Crowns 
 to a peace, and he seemed to think that the Pope 
 himself did not enough do his duty towards it. He 
 knew well the Pope had wished it much, and per- 
 formed those offices which, if they had not an aver- 
 sion, could not but dispose them to it ; but that in 
 such a case, where Christianity was so much con- 
 cerned, and underwent so much reproach and scan- 
 dal by it, he thought the Pope ought to speak plainer 
 language, and even to threaten both Kings with the 
 censure of the Church ; and as soon as he was Pope 
 he sent a Nuncio to each Crown, charged only with 
 motives to the peace. In Germany he had talked 
 aloud, how infamous a thing it was to all Christian 
 Princes, that, after they had looked on and seen a 
 great King murdered in the sight of the sun by his 
 own subjects, and his posterity forced to seek their 
 bread in foreign countries, (a case in which all the 
 Monarchs of the world were concerned, and ought to 
 revenge, till they had rooted out that cursed race of 
 men from the earth,) they yet intended their own 
 
 unne-
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 59? 
 
 unnecessary and impertinent quarrels, and, out of the CHAP. 
 gaiety of their humour, cared not for offending God - '* 
 pr man. So that, when the news came of his being 
 mounted into that Chair, many of the German 
 Princes (the King being then at Cologne) sent to 
 congratulate with his Majesty for his promotion, 
 which they said would infallibly produce some no- 1 
 ta.ble advantage to his affairs. But his Nuncios did 
 no more towards a peace than the former had done ; 
 nor after a little time was he warmer in it than his 
 predecessor had been ; and Cardinal Mazarin slight- 
 ed more whatsoever was proposed by him. That 
 Cardinal, during his retreat from France in the time 
 of the troubles, had reposed himself at Cologne, and 
 in a house of that Elector's near the city, and so had 
 some conferences with the Nuncio, who, not being 
 well satisfied with the Cardinal's discourse, did after- 
 wards declare before many persons, that it was Car- 
 dinal Mazarin's fault that there was no peace, nor 
 would there be any as long as he continued in that 
 ministry ; which discourse Mazarin never forgave 
 him after he was Pope, and was the less moved by 
 his interposition. 
 
 There was another great action that he attempted, He obtains 
 
 11 i i i 11 j the reversal 
 
 and Drought to pass, which was thought most dim- of the Ve- 
 
 cult, and is an unparalleled instance of the great au- 
 thority that the fame of his abilities had given him ; 
 which was, the reversal of that famous decree against demns the 
 
 T -i o <*Tr 1-1111 Jansemsts. 
 
 the Jesuits by the .Senate or Venice, which had been 
 so often urged by several Popes, and as often reject- 
 ed, without so much as suffering it to be proposed; yet 
 he so ordered it, upon his first ascending the Chair, 
 after two Popes who had not been so propitious to 
 that Republic, that as nobody durst advise it, so no- 
 
 R r body
 
 598 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, body would oppose it; and so it being pressed by 
 '- his Nuncio, the decree was silently reversed. What- 
 soever his care was of that Society, theirs was not the- 
 like of him ; for, having the full ascendant over him, 
 they prevailed with him to renew and confirm the 
 decree that his predecessor Innocent had published 
 against the Jansenists, (besides some new clauses-, 
 that required their immediate conformity,) and like- 
 wise to write to the King to require their obedience 
 by his authority ; which *made the affront he under- 
 went the more notorious, that the decree of two 
 Popes successively in cathedra, and in matter of 
 faith, could not gain belief amongst Catholics. 
 invites his It began now to appear, that Alexander had not 
 l a id i n a stock of constancy and virtue that would 
 last above a year, and that he began to be weary of 
 being so unlike other Popes ; for that term was no 
 sooner expired, but that he took all occasions to 
 speak of his kindred as persons of merit, and to men- 
 tion the respects which had been paid to them upon 
 his elevation as somewhat with which he was well 
 pleased, and gave order more publicly for returning 
 good sums of money to them at Sienna, (which he 
 had formerly done with reservation both in the man- 
 ner and the proportion,) at which nobody was offend- 
 ed, but thought he did well. This gave occasion to 
 many who would be good courtiers to administer 
 some discourse of them ; and to tell the Pope, that it 
 was generally much wondered at that they came not 
 to Rome, where they might be an ease and comfort 
 to him, without any of those inconveniences which 
 had in other times given occasion of offence ; their 
 own virtuous tempers and inclinations, in which 
 they said they were eminent, together with the strict 
 
 discipline
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. ; 
 
 discipline observed in the court of His Holiness, CHAP. 
 
 with his example, and the indefatigable pains he ' 
 
 took in his own person for the dispatch of all im- 
 portant affairs, would restrain them within the 
 bounds which he thought fit to prescribe to them, 
 and which their modesty would not exceed ; but 
 that the restraining them from coming to Rome, a 
 place to which all the world had liberty to resort, 
 was against the law of nature, and that common jus- 
 tice that ought to be the rule of all good men's ac- 
 tions ; that he deprived himself of the greatest com- 
 fort that nature had provided for him, in making 
 those of his nearest blood, who were so qualified that 
 ,they might be great blessings to him, the only 
 strangers to him ; and deprived them of the benefit 
 that nature had given them, to be in the presence 
 and under the protection of their nearest parent; 
 from both which severe and unusual proceedings the 
 world must conclude one or two propositions, either 
 that he was a person of a very hard and ill nature, 
 and without any bowels to his own nearest relations, 
 which was not a good character of the universal Fa- 
 ther, nor agreeable to that excellent temper God had 
 endowed him with for the good of Christianity ; or 
 that they were an infamous people, given up to the 
 practice of all vice, that must render his relation to 
 them uncomfortable and injurious, which must ine- 
 vitably produce such dishonourable reflections upon 
 their persons and their manners, as the most impla- 
 cable enemies could raise ; which could not but in a 
 degree reflect likewise upon His Holiness, at least 
 upon his misfortune, from whfch God had entirely 
 preserved him, and, instead thereof, had conferred 
 blessings upon him, which all other men would be 
 
 R r 2 exalted
 
 600 . PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, exalted with, and he rejected: and then they told 
 him, that it was against all rules of justice, that his 
 
 family only, which before had the liberty of all other 
 men, to live where they had most mind to do, at 
 least to go to what place they would, must be ba- 
 nished Rome because they had a brother and an 
 uncle that was Pope ; so that the greatest honour 
 that any other family was capable of must be the 
 greatest mortification that his could undergo. 
 Proceed- When these discourses had been often made to 
 wards their him by many of those Cardinals and others who best 
 knew how to make their court, he could not deny 
 but that he found that nature was more powerful in 
 him than he conceived it could ever have been ; that 
 the very good report he heard from all hands of his 
 brother, whom he always knew to be a man of ho- 
 nour and exemplary virtue, and the good education 
 he had given his sons, who he heard were very 
 hopeful, and without any notable vice, and the hu- 
 mility with which they had all submitted to his com- 
 mands, though it could not but be very grievous to 
 them, had so much affected him, that he confessed 
 he had a good mind to see them, and enjoy their 
 conversation in some private place out of Rome, 
 though it were limited to three or four days ; which 
 yet he foresaw would raise much discourse, as if he 
 had receded from his former resolution, which he 
 had heard had been very grateful to all foreign 
 Princes when it had been imparted to them, and 
 therefore he had no intention to change that pur- 
 pose. They who knew his mind best took care that 
 he should not rest in those thoughts, which were so 
 uneasy and unpleasant to him ; and, for his better 
 satisfaction, prevailed with some ambassadors to 
 
 move
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 601 
 
 move him plainly to the same purpose, and to assure CHAP, 
 him that the calling those of his family to Rome had 
 been long expected, and would be very grateful to all 
 Princes ; that it was true, that his first declaration of 
 that purpose was very agreeable to all men, both for 
 the rarity of it, and upon the observation that before 
 the Popes themselves understood well their own pro- 
 vince, their nephews, who were utterly ignorant be- 
 fore, possessed themselves and engrossed all business, 
 and introduced corruptions by their ignorance and 
 covetousness, that could never be removed or reform- 
 ed ; and therefore that they were all pleased to hear 
 that His Holiness would have nobody about him in 
 that capacity or relation, but would govern his affairs 
 entirely by his own prudence, and not suffer any 
 body to pretend to understand them better than he 
 did himself, which he had now made good by his 
 unwearied pains, and so much made himself master 
 of all business, that he could well govern his ne- 
 phews, and could never be suspected to be governed 
 by them, which was the cause of all the former mis- 
 chiefs : and he having now attained his end, all men 
 would be glad to see him draw his kindred to him, 
 to whom they would bring ease and comfort, and 
 could bring no incommodity to any body else under 
 his prudent and pious government and direction. 
 Nor were some ambassadors reserved in performing 
 those offices, who well knew that their masters would 
 be best pleased to see him do any thing that might 
 draw reproach and contempt upon him. That which 
 troubled him most was, the vow that he had made 
 with the privity, if not the advice, of his Confessor, 
 which was no secret, that he would not suffer his 
 kindred to come to Rome, which his Confessor had 
 
 R r 3 published
 
 60S PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, published for his honour in a very voluminous book, 
 with such immense commendation of his piety and 
 
 wisdom in the making that vow, that you may easily 
 see that he was not without some pride in being 
 thought to be the author of it; and this far was already 
 printed before these new pauses appeared. But he 
 had the same Confessor still, whom he had since 
 made a Cardinal, and who was the ablest and the 
 fittest man living to untie those knots, which he had 
 tied himself, when they grew uneasy or unpleasant 
 to the person that was bound -, and so he extols him 
 at the end of his book (his Answer to the History of 
 the Council of Trent) for having done that which 
 in the beginning he had magnified him for resolving 
 so solemnly never to do. 
 The Pope It may administer some cause of wonder, that, 
 
 cv3.dcs his 
 
 oath by to disentangle himself from this obligation, by the 
 Castei same powerful antidote which he so willingly and 
 Gandoi o. f re q uen tly prescribes to others in the same distem- 
 pers and inquietudes, he did not, out of the pleni- 
 tude of his power, absolve himself from perform- 
 ing the rash promise he had made, and dispense 
 with the observation of his unreasonable vow ; which 
 would have been a thousand times more agreeable to 
 his dignity than the mean and the low evasion that 
 he stooped to, which no casuists can allow. The 
 vow and resolution that he had made, if the same 
 was ever reduced into words, was, that his kindred 
 and family should not come to him to Rome, arid 
 the evasion that was found out between him and his 
 Confessor was, that, instead of their coming to him 
 to Rome, he would go to them to Castei Gandolfo ; 
 and this only to comply with his natural affections, 
 and not at all to depart from his politic declaration ; 
 
 for
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 6O3 
 
 for he would never permit them to come to Rome, CHAP, 
 where only they could do that mischief which he 
 liad been so careful to prevent: and so, in that season 
 of the year wherein it was customary to refresh him- 
 self in that air, and for the same reason to reside 
 there for many months, he was well content that his 
 brother, and the rest of his family, should find them- 
 selves there, where they were sure to receive that re- 
 spect from all men that they could wish ; and they 
 could not be without that civility and address to 
 those Cardinals, and other persons of the highest 
 and best condition, who every day resorted to that 
 Court, that might make them acceptable : and when 
 the delight the Pope took in them was so apparent, 
 who would be so dull as not to discover some virtue 
 or good quality in them, as might give them occa- 
 sion to congratulate with the Pope for the great 
 merit they found in all the several branches of his 
 family, which must be so great a comfort to him? So 
 that when the jolly season was over, and it was ne- 
 cessary to return to Rome, which gave the occasion 
 of discourse of their return to Sienna, the whole 
 Court put itself into a grateful mutiny; and they who 
 knew well that they might assume the boldness, told 
 the Pope, that he had done much better if he had 
 never vouchsafed this honour to his family, than 
 now to deprive them of it again ; as if he had dis- 
 covered such defects in them as rendered them unfit 
 to remain in his presence ; whereas, in truth, their 
 extraordinary good qualities and qualifications had 
 made so deep impressions upon the minds of all 
 men, that the not permitting them now to go to 
 Rome was not a greater affront to them than to his- 
 whole Court, and to the ambassadors, who had all 
 
 P- r 4 expressed
 
 6'04 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, expressed the wonderful satisfaction they had receiv- 
 - ed in their parts and in their manners. But he 
 said this would publish an inconstancy and mutabi- 
 lity to be in his nature, which would make all his fu- 
 ture actions to be suspected ; whereas he was sure he 
 was still the same, and had the same firm resolutions 
 for the public that he had at the beginning professed 
 to have, and was as resolved that his kindred should 
 not have any part in the managery of the public, or 
 his own more private affairs. At last he suffered 
 himself to be prevailed upon, that they might have 
 the same liberty that all other persons of all other 
 nations enjoyed to live in Rome, but they should 
 not pretend to meddle in any business, they should 
 not be admitted to come into his presence, or so 
 much as to repair to the Court : and upon this new 
 ridiculous declaration, the Court no sooner returned 
 to Rome, than the family (with great modesty, as in- 
 cognita, and with great care not to be discovered or 
 taken notice of,) repaired to those private habitations 
 which were provided for them. 
 
 Enriches But this mask was too strait for the face, and kept 
 his family. ^ tliat air from it that ' it Delighted in, and therefore 
 
 it was quickly now pulled off. Such jewels were too 
 bright to be longer concealed under a little rubbish ; 
 it was no sooner known or whispered (for whispers 
 sometimes make a great noise) that they were some- 
 where in Rome, at how great a distance soever from 
 the Court, but their retreat was with some industry 
 found out. The Ambassadors, the Cardinals, the 
 Princes repaired to them with the same respect that 
 had been always paid, and therefore now conceived 
 to be due to the family of the Pope ; and the magis- 
 trates of the town repaired to them with the same 
 
 adoration
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 adoration as if they had been received into the pa- CHAP. 
 
 lace ; and their refusal to receive those addresses : 
 
 served the more to set off their lustre. At last, since 
 it could be no longer deferred, they came all so- 
 lemnly to the Court, and the Pope received them 
 with open arms. Don Mario, his brother, was forth- 
 with Governor of Rome, one nephew made General 
 of the Church, another Admiral of the Gallies; his 
 most beloved nephew was created Cardinal Nepote, 
 with all the advantages and perquisites that belonged 
 thereunto. There was no single branch of the family 
 that did not presently receive some testimony of the 
 Pope's bounty, and whatsoever fell of all kinds within 
 the donation of the Papacy, was divided or dispersed 
 amongst the kindred ; and there never appeared a 
 keener appetite in any Pope to make his family great 
 and rich, than did from this time in Alexander the 
 Seventh. And they, like men who had been kept 
 long fasting, resolved to make a full meal, and as 
 soon as might be to recover the time they had lost ; 
 and, as if they had been kept only at Sienna that 
 they might inform themselves of all the arts of the 
 Court of Rome, before they came to practise them, 
 they appeared the first day as learned and as dexte- 
 rous in the science of rapine, as Donna Olimpia her- 
 self, and suffered nothing to escape them that they 
 could lay their hands upon ; and Alexander every 
 day grew insensibly into as great a doting as Inno- 
 cent had done, with so much more evidence, that he 
 took all occasions to appear more sensible of any 
 neglect that was offered to any of his kindred, and to 
 resent any affront that their own insolence had drawn 
 upon themselves. Donna Olimpia had by this time 
 redeemed herself from farther vexation by dying, 
 
 whilst
 
 606 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, whilst she was confined to Orvieto, which, though it 
 1 - : secured her person from farther prosecution, was be- 
 lieved would not have preserved her fortune from 
 such a seizure or forfeiture, as the many witnesses 
 who had been examined, and the foul actions which 
 were proved, would make it liable to. But the Pope 
 now discerned who might be hereafter concerned, if 
 too rigorous an inquiry should be made into the 
 estates which should be left to the heirs of Popes, 
 and how the same were gotten ; and so the prosecu- 
 tion upon that process proceeded no farther, and 
 whatsoever had been grievous to the people under 
 the griping hands of Donna Olimpia, or the more 
 extended reach of the Barberinis, was now forgotten 
 under the illimited government of the Chigis; whose 
 empire was so much the more grievous and odious, 
 by how much they added a greater insolence in their 
 behaviour towards all men, and exercised their ty- 
 ranny in oppressions and exactions with a greater 
 fasto and ostentation than their predecessors had 
 done. 
 
 Partiality And now that impartial temper that seemed to be 
 pal' Court so equally divided between the two Crowns made 
 to Spam, itself appear more notable. The Spaniard, that does 
 not naturally walk so fast and so steadily in the 
 dark, as soon as he sees the candle lighted, com- 
 monly proves the best chapman ; and it was scarce 
 sooner known that there was a Cardinal Nepote, than 
 that he was of the Spanish faction. The truth is, 
 Cardinal Mazarin had provoked the Pope too unne- 
 cessarily, and a little too wantonly, for he had not 
 only refused to allow him any part in the treaty of 
 the peace, or so much as to have a minister there; 
 
 but when it was concluded between him and Don 
 
 Lewis,
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 607 
 
 Lewis, and the articles were prepared to be signed CHAP. 
 
 by both, and the hour appointed for the signature, 
 
 the Cardinal entered into the room, with a counte- 
 nance that seemed full of trouble and irresolution ; 
 which Don Lewis observing, and asking what the 
 matter was, he answered, in a sad tone, that he 
 was very sorry they had lost so much time, for that 
 he must not, durst not sign the treaty. Don Lewis 
 stood amazed, imagining that he had in that instant 
 received some contrary orders from the French 
 court, when the Cardinal proceeded, " Alas, Sir, 
 " (said he,) you and I are Catholics; and whatever 
 " you dare do, it can never become me, who am a 
 " Cardinal, to declare against the Pope's infallibility: 
 " he hath publicly professed and declared, that he 
 " knows that there will be no peace ; and shall you 
 " make the Pope to be fallible ? It must not be." 
 Don Lewis was glad to find that there was no other 
 obstacle, and the company was very merry at the 
 obstruction, and the peace was signed. And when 
 the news thereof was brought to Rome, the Pope 
 laughed, and said, he knew the Cardinal too well to 
 bdieve it possible. But when it was so much con- 
 firmed by the letters from all places that there re- 
 mained no more room for doubt, and when he was 
 informed of the pleasant humour of the Cardinal in 
 the conclusion of it, at his charge, he could not con- 
 ceal his indignation, nor hear the name of Cardinal 
 Mazarin without some commotion, even to the hour 
 of his death. But he was now dead, which it may 
 be had disposed the Pope to hope better of the good 
 correspondence of that Crown, which he could not 
 but set the greater value upon, by the notorious de- 
 clension of the puissance of the Spanish monarchy, 
 
 and
 
 608 
 
 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 Rome. 
 
 CHAP, and the probability of its falling lower by the age 
 - and weakness of that King, and the infancy of his 
 heir, with many other ill symptoms in that Court ; 
 and therefore it cannot be doubted, but that he 
 much desired the protection of France against all 
 contingencies, though his affection was stronger for 
 Spain. But the good Cardinal, who understood that 
 mystery to the bottom, had faithfully instructed his 
 Master what kind of respect he was to pay to the 
 Holy Chair, and what was the way to preserve his 
 own dignity. 
 
 Duke of That the King might the better express the esteem 
 Ambassa- he had for the Pope, he made choice of one of the 
 greatest subjects he had, the Duke of Cre"quy, a 
 D u ke and Peer of France, (which is the highest qua- 
 lification but that of Prince of the blood,) and sent 
 him his Extraordinary Ambassador to Rome, with so 
 great an eclat in attendance, equipage, and servants, 
 that the like had not been seen before; and the Pope 
 received him with as extraordinary a countenance of 
 respect, and wrote his acknowledgment to the King 
 for the honour he had done him in the quality and 
 merit of his Ambassador. Many men were then of 
 opinion, that it was a sign the King did not much 
 care how his affairs succeeded in that Court, when he 
 made choice of that Ambassador to cultivate them. 
 For the Duke was known to be a man of little expe- 
 rience, and utterly unacquainted with civil transac- 
 tions, and the forms of business ; of a martial educa- 
 tion, a rough nature, and the proudest man alive ; 
 jealous that respect enough was not paid to him, and 
 obstinate in pursuing any disrespect he shewed to 
 others, how unreasonably soever. So that a fitter 
 Ambassador could not be chosen to send to a Court 
 
 where
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 609 
 
 where a good intelligence was not desirable. How- CHAP. 
 ever, the prudence and great wariness in the Pope's 
 nature, whilst he was to treat only with himself, 
 prevented all inconveniences which might have pro- 
 ceeded from the uneven temper of the Ambassador ; 
 and the Pope contented himself with denying, or not 
 granting, what the other did most impetuously pro- 
 pose ; but as soon as a Cardinal Nephew began to 
 reign, the fire was quickly kindled. 
 
 The French Ambassador would not consider what Am 
 all the other Ambassadors did ; he would have 
 rules prescribed to him, but by his own Master; 
 thought it was due both to the quality of his own per- l A he rench 
 
 ' r Ambassa- 
 
 son, and to his character, that these new comers should dor- 
 perform the first visits. They, on the other hand, 
 thought that there was not the less respect due to 
 them, because they had not come a year sooner to the 
 town to receive it; and believed that they might justly 
 expect the same honour to be paid to them which 
 they of the same relations to former Popes had receiv- 
 ed, and which all other Ambassadors at this time very 
 willingly performed towards them ; and the Pope 
 thought so too, and did not conceal what he thought 
 of the Duke of Crquy. Besides a Cardinal Nephew, 
 who could put a stop to all business that had been 
 begun before, there were brothers and sisters, and 
 other nephews, whp required the same applications ; 
 and all parties concerned talked aloud of their mo- 
 tives, and of the injuries they underwent, appealing 
 to the company who were in the right: so that 
 Rome, which is not naturally favourable to the fa- 
 vourite, was made the judge ; and all the conflux of 
 nations agitated and debated the quarrel according 
 to their several inclinations ; which so much exas- 
 perated
 
 610 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, perated all, that, when the King of France deter- 
 mined the point, by ordering his Ambassador to per- 
 form all those ceremonies towards the Pope's kindred 
 which had been usual, the visits were made on one 
 side, and received and returned on the other side, 
 with such a coldness and aversion, and such visible 
 dislikes, as administered more arguments for dis- 
 course and matter of animosity than had been be- 
 fore. In the streets, as they passed by each other, in 
 the places where they accidentally met, there were 
 looks, and motions, and dumb shews, which in the 
 Roman cipher signify all the reproaches, affronts, 
 and indignities that any words can express. The 
 servants of the house, and all the French nation, 
 (which is very numerous always in Rome, and 
 abounds in persons of quality,) when they met the 
 train or associates of those of the family, by their 
 negligent gestures towards each other, and the like 
 aspects from the contrary party, gave manifest evi- 
 dences that there was no good will between them, 
 and that both desired a good opportunity to speak a 
 plainer language. 
 
 Affray in The several inclinations being a long time thus 
 P re P are d and disposed, and the accidents of every 
 day contributing somewhat to the bitterness ; it hap- 
 pened one day that the Duchess of Cr^quy, who, ac- 
 cording to the style of Italy, was called Madame 
 1'Ambasciatrice, passed through the streets with her 
 usual equipage and attendance, when some part of 
 that troop of guards of the Pope, that is called the 
 Corsican, (being soldiers levied out of the isle of Cor- 
 sica,) were in the way, probably by design; and after 
 some reviling words between them and the French 
 lacqueys, (the usual prefaces amongst such people to 
 
 whet
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 6ll 
 
 whet each other's courage,) they fell to blows, and CHAP. 
 the Corsican guards having the advantage of wea -- ' 
 pons, discharged their fire arms upon the other, hurt 
 many, shot several bullets into and through the 
 coach where the Duchess herself was, and killed one 
 of her pages dead upon the place; and she, in the dis- . 
 order she might 'very well be in, made what haste she 
 could through that multitude of people, which upon 
 those occasions usually flock together, to her own 
 house. All the French about the town repaired thi- 
 ther to offer their service, and the Ambassador re- 
 tained them there as a guard, shut up his doors, and 
 seemed to fortify some places which might with more 
 ease be forced, and prepared all things which a man 
 could do that expected an assassination. 
 
 How well pleased soever others might be, there could Conduct of 
 be no doubt but that the Pope himself was exceeding- and the 
 
 ly surprised with the accident, and confounded 
 the consequences that he foresaw might attend it. upon 
 For prevention, he sent immediately the same even- 
 ing the Cardinal Nephew in person to wait upon the 
 Ambassador and Madame, to express the deep sense 
 His Holiness as well as himself had of the barbarous 
 outrage that had been committed, and to assure them 
 that the strictest orders were given to discover and 
 to apprehend the malefactors, who should speedily 
 undergo the most exemplary punishment ; with all 
 such other expressions as the most injured persons 
 could look for from an ordinary adversary. But the 
 gates were shut, and neither this visit or excuse 
 would be admitted ; and the Ambassador's house 
 stood to their arms that night, and he sent an ex- 
 press at the same time into France, to inform the 
 King of the barbarous affront he had received. The 
 
 Pope
 
 613 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Pope (who well knew that the fierce and unpolished 
 
 : nature of the Ambassador was not like to make a 
 
 more favourable representation than the matter de- 
 served) lost no time, but dispatched likewise an ex- 
 press the same night to Paris to his Nuncio, with a 
 letter to the King, and with as great submission of 
 words as could be used from an inferior to a man 
 whom he feared to offend : but his messenger made 
 not so much haste as the other by two days. The 
 night pacified not the Ambassador's rage, but the 
 next morning he pursued the same care for the forti- 
 fying his house, provided a great stock of arms and 
 ammunition, which he caused to be brought in hour- 
 ly ; he entertained and listed all such .soldiers as 
 offered themselves, and contracted with officers to 
 make levies, and advanced money to them to that 
 purpose ; and there wanted not gentlemen of all na- 
 tions then in Rome, for their pleasure or retreat, who 
 made large offers what service they would do, and 
 (which admits some degree of wonder, and may be 
 thought a shrewd evidence that the government it- 
 self was not in a full adoration) many of the Roman 
 Barons, and others under the highest qualifications, 
 did not only repair to the Ambassador, and offer their 
 service to him, but publicly in all places maintained 
 his cause, and spoke with all bitterness of the nephews, 
 as if they were the patrons of the assassination. 
 
 The Pope, afflicted and cast down when he heard 
 of the levies made by the Ambassador, sent again 
 to him, to let him know how much anguish of mind 
 he sustained, to hear that he had entertained any 
 apprehension or doubt of the security of his per- 
 son or of his family, which were in as much safety 
 in Rome as himself; and if he did conceive that he 
 
 stood
 
 PROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 6l3 
 
 stood in need of any guard, he would send him such CHAP. 
 a one as he should approve; and doubted not that he 
 had given his most Christian Majesty such an ac- 
 count of the misfortune, and so full an offer of all the 
 satisfaction and reparation which himself would re- 
 quire, as would be acceptable to him. To all this 
 the Ambassador made no answer, but within few 
 days, with his whole family and train, left the town, 
 and stayed no where till he arrived in the dominions 
 of the Duke of Florence. And of all this, and what 
 he had done to the Ambassador, with what he had 
 offered to the most Christian King, the Pope made 
 so full a relation in the Consistory, and with such 
 expressions, that every body might discern the dis- 
 turbance he was in, arid desired the Cardinals that 
 they would give him counsel what he should do 
 more ; whilst the Cardinal Nephew was not reserved 
 in declaring that he had done too much. 
 
 The exact relation of this whole affair hath been so 
 fully communicated to all the world, and the acci- 
 dent itself was so late, and the transactions upon it so 
 generally known, that I should totally decline the 
 mention of any particulars which are to my purpose, 
 no otherwise than that all men, upon the observation 
 thereof, may seriously consider whether it be possible 
 that the proceeding hereupon (how proportionable 
 soever to the affront and indignity that had been of- 
 fered) could be prosecuted in that manner by a 
 Prince and people who do in their hearts believe that 
 the Pope is the Universal Bishop of their souls, and 
 hath power from Christ to deprive them of heaven, 
 or do indeed think him to have the least jurisdiction 
 over them, be it temporal or spiritual. 
 
 s s As
 
 614 ' PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. As soon as the King received the first account 
 
 IX 
 The Kin from the Ambassador of the injury he had sustained, 
 
 of France after a consultation with the Council, he sent the 
 
 orders the , tr^vr 
 
 Pope's same day the Comte of Brienne to the Pope's Nuncio, 
 quit Pans, (who, by the way, is Nuncio of the Apostolic See as 
 well as of the present Pope, so that his office is not 
 determined by the vacancy of the Chair,) to com- 
 mand him from the King that he should the next 
 morning depart from Paris to Meaux, and not stir 
 from thence until he should receive new orders. His 
 Majesty sent him word that he had enjoined this for 
 his safety, lest he should receive the same treatment 
 that his Ambassador had received at Rome. The 
 Nuncio understood nothing of it, and went the same 
 night to St. Germains, and conferred with the Secre- 
 tary of State, and desired to be admitted to the pre- 
 sence of the King, which he could not obtain, but 
 used many arguments of weight, that the King would 
 vouchsafe to expect a more perfect account of what 
 had passed at Rome, which he could not be long 
 without, before he would resolve to put such a dis- 
 countenance upon the Sacred Chair; and declared 
 likewise, that he could not submit to such a relega- 
 tion without the pleasure of His Holiness. The next 
 morning he made a new attempt to procure an au- 
 dience of the King, who positively refused to see 
 him ; and Monsieur le Tellier assured him that the 
 King would not alter his mind, and expected a pre- 
 sent obedience from him to his former orders. When 
 the Nuncio rose the next morning, he found there 
 was a troop of the King's guards of musketeers, that 
 was placed at all the avenues that led to his lodging, 
 arid hindered all persons from repairing to him. 
 
 This
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 This unheard of treatment made him resolve to quit CHAP. 
 
 TV 
 
 Paris ; and yet, that he might seem to insist upon :-*-- 
 
 some privilege, instead of going to Meaux he went 
 to St. Denys, where the guard likewise attended him. 
 In this time the Pope's express arrived, and brought 
 the relation of all that had then passed, with a letter 
 from the Pope to the King, another to Monsieur de 
 Lionne, (in whose friendship His Holiness had much 
 confidence, having owed his promotion to the Pon- 
 tificate to his kindness,) who was at that time Am- 
 bassador in Rome, and took upon him to have con- 
 tributed very much to his election. The Nuncio, as 
 soon as he received this packet, sent it to Monsieur 
 de Lionne, who immediately presented it to the 
 King, who, upon reading the Pope's brief or letter to 
 him, seemed somewhat to recede from the passion he 
 had been in; and His Holiness having offered to give 
 him all the reparation he would please to demand, 
 all men began to think there would be a fair compo- 
 sure of the contest. Then arrived the second express 
 from the Ambassador, by a servant of his, who in- 
 formed the King of many particulars which had 
 passed, and that the Ambassador had found that he 
 could not stay longer in Rome with any safety, and 
 had therefore removed with his whole family to Qui- 
 rino, a town within the dominions of the Great Duke, 
 where he waited to receive the signification of his 
 Majesty's farther pleasure. 
 
 This again made the King resume all the resent- The Nun- 
 ment and indignation which' he had been inclined 
 restrain ; and he presently sent to the Nuncio to re- 
 quire him the very next morning to begin his jour- 
 ney out of France, without staying or resting one 
 day whilst lie remained in the kingdom. The guard 
 
 s s 2 of
 
 616 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, of fifty musketeers attended him, five and twenty rid 
 
 before his coach, and five and twenty after, who kept 
 
 all persons from speaking with him ; nor would they 
 suffer him to make his journey in the common roads, 
 or through the great towns, but carried him through 
 by-ways, and made him travel ten leagues a day for 
 ten days together ; at the end whereof he found him- 
 self in Savoy, and there rested till he could send to 
 Rome an account of his peregrination. 
 
 The King The King pursued his point, and gave present orders 
 session of for his troops which were nearest to prepare to march 
 into Italy ; and sent both to the King of Spain, and 
 to the Duke of Savoy, for leave that his army might 
 march through their territories into the Ecclesiastical 
 State, which they both granted without any hesita- 
 tion. He disposed the city of Avignon to put them- 
 selves into his protection, and to turn out the Vice- 
 Legate and all the Italian garrison, and to depend 
 on him for their security ; who immediately seized 
 upon that whole province, which had been of right 
 longer in the possession of the Church than Lan- 
 guedoc, or Provence, or Dauphine* had been united 
 to the Crown of France. In a word, he did all 
 things which might make him terrible to the poor 
 Pope. The first letter the King wrote to the Pope, 
 after a short and passionate mention of the indignity 
 offered to his person in the foul assassination that 
 had been attempted against the Ambassador and his 
 wife, he concluded in these words ; " I demand no- 
 " thing of Your Holiness in this particular affair; for, 
 " for a long time you have assumed such a custom of 
 " denying me every thing I ask, and you have ex- 
 " pressed so much aversion for every thing which re- 
 " gards my person and my Crown, that I think it 
 
 " will
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 17 
 
 " will be better to remit the resolutions upon this af- CHAP. 
 
 " fair to your prudence, upon which I will also take 
 
 " and regulate mine ; wishing only that yours may 
 " be such, that they may oblige me to continue to 
 " pray to God that he will preserve Your Holiness 
 " iri the government of his Church." And, that the 
 , Pope might discern that his Majesty did resolve not 
 to acquiesce in his judgment alone, and intended to 
 stir up his own Court against him, he wrote several 
 letters to the Cardinals, in which he made a short 
 reflection upon the odious outrage that had been 
 committed, and concluded in these words : " If your 
 " good offices cannot work any thing, after having 
 " used my utmost diligence, as I have done, I shall 
 " not much care for those evil and bad consequences 
 " which this affair may draw after it, protesting that I 
 " ought to be fully excused before God and man for 
 " whatever may arrive hereupon." 
 
 The Pope used all the ways he could devise, by Mediation 
 the mediation of the Duke of Florence, and other in- of Florence! 
 stances, to soften the King's displeasure; yet the dis- 
 covery of the people's affections in Rome upon that 
 accident had been so notorious amongst persons of the 
 first rank, that the Pope or his nephews gave order 
 for the prosecution of many of those who had been so 
 hardy, by the common rules of justice; whereupon 
 some of them retired out of Rome, or with great care 
 concealed themselves there. The King did not think 
 that he ought to suffer those spirits to be dejected of 
 which he might have farther need, and therefore em- 
 ployed fit persons privately to let them know that he 
 had been well informed of the kindness they had for 
 him, and that they should never suffer by it; and 
 his Majesty writ a letter with his own hand to the 
 
 s s 3 Duke
 
 618 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Duke of Cesarino, in which he told him that his Am- 
 
 ix . ' 
 
 -~ ' bassador had given him a full account of the great 
 
 expressions which he had made of affection to his 
 Majesty, upon the occasion of that barbarous insult 
 that had been made upon his Ambassador, of which 
 he had so great a sense, that his Majesty assured 
 him he would never forget ; and if any damage 
 should befal him, from what power soever, for that 
 manifestation of his affection, he should find his Ma- 
 jesty's care of him to be such, that he should be a 
 gainer by it. 
 Letters of During these transactions the Queen Christina of 
 
 Queen & 
 
 Christina to W eden, who then resided at Rome, and naturally 
 
 the King of ,-i,i U 1 U ' U A 
 
 France. was disposed to have a hand m any business, had 
 written a letter to the King, in which she condoled 
 upon the late accident which had fallen out, with alt 
 the terms of aggravation that can be applied to make 
 any outrageous action the more odious and infa- 
 mous ; concluding only with the deep sense His Ho- 
 liness had of it, as if she seemed to apprehend that it 
 would break his heart ; and within few days after 
 she wrote a second letter to him, for which the first 
 seemed only to be an introduction, in which she ad- 
 vised him not to suffer himself to be so transported 
 with a just indignation as to give himself leave to do 
 any thing that might grieve the Holy Father, much 
 less that might discredit Catholic Religion, and raise 
 the spirits of the heretics, by their seeing the eldest 
 son of the Church bring contempt and dishonour 
 upon the Holy Chair. Upon the occasion of this 
 letter, the King found an opportunity to express his 
 sharp displeasure against the family of the Pope ; 
 which he could not seasonably do before, other than 
 in discourses, of which little was known at Rome : 
 
 and,
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 and, after he had answered to several other 'parts of CHAP. 
 
 her letter, he said, that he was certain her Majesty J - L 
 
 would acknowledge unto him, that if the Pope could 
 have persisted until that time in that resolution, that 
 gained him so great glory in the first year of his 
 Pontificate, of aholishing and annihilating that which 
 they call Ncpotismo in this country, which sucks the 
 purest blood of the subjects of the Ecclesiastical State, 
 and the whole patrimony of St. Peter, to fatten one 
 family alone, (which on this account is always odious 
 to Catholics, and gives Heretics occasion to be scan- 
 dalized at it,) they would not have attacked the per- 
 son of his Ambassador; and he should not have been 
 necessitated, as he was now, to revenge this affront 
 upon the authors of it. If His Holiness had by his 
 prudence and justice done him reason during the 
 time that he himself governed his Pontificate, his 
 Majesty said, it would not have been any difficult 
 thing for them to have entertained a good correspon- * 
 dence together ; but since he had called his kinsmen 
 near him, drawing them out of that condition where- 
 in God had placed them, to put into their hands the 
 government and direction of all affairs, neither his 
 Majesty, nor any other Prince, had any other sub- 
 ject than that of complaining of the evil proceedings 
 of the Roman Court, where they had received no- 
 thing but displeasures, denials, and discontents. His 
 Majesty asked the Queen, whether she could imagine 
 that they, who governed at Rome under her Holy Fa- 
 ther, who had scarce ever seen the light, and who are 
 besotted and drunken with an empty and short lived 
 authority, for which they were never born, did so 
 much as know that there are other powers out of 
 their country equal to theirs, and to the which they 
 
 9 s 4 owe
 
 620 .PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, owe all sort of respect. The King concluded his letter 
 with these words ; " These thoughts and these ef- 
 " fects of the Pope's kindred do proceed from a low 
 " and pitiful birth and condition, which, having once 
 "got the command into its hand, disdains all per- 
 (C sons of meritj and looks upon it as a small thing to 
 (i put the whole world into confusion ;" and used 
 some other expressions of displeasure, which enough 
 declared, that he resolved to take revenge upon the 
 persons who had been the authors of the affront with 
 his sword. 
 Mediation There did not appear, upon any examination that 
 
 of the Duke , . . , , , . , , 
 
 of Florence had been taken, or the least evidence that was Wf- 
 aa ' leged, that any of the Pope's family had been accessary 
 or privy to the insult made by the Corsican Guard ; 
 and Don Mario had before this time given over the 
 government of Rome to the Cardinal Imperiale, who 
 then exercised it: yet the King wholly imputed it to 
 * them, and from thence took occasion always to men- 
 tion them with the lowest contempt. So, in a rela- 
 tion that he caused to be published of the whole 
 matter of fact, he said, that the Nephews of the Pope 
 had wholly chased away all humility, and banished 
 it from their dwellings, that they might introduce in 
 its stead pride and haughtiness ; and, according to 
 the ordinary custom of poor become rich, can by no 
 means suifer any persons who will not submit to 
 them: and this kind of bitterness affected and grieved 
 the Pope more than all the King's menaces and 
 threats, for he knew not how to take notice of it, or 
 to suffer any thing in their vindication without giv- 
 ing new offence and advantage to the King, as if he 
 would support them against his Majesty. The Duke 
 of Florence (who sufficiently manifested the sense he 
 
 had
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 621 
 
 had of the villanv that had been committed, and of CHAP. 
 
 ix 
 the King's just cause of displeasure, yet had no de : 
 
 sire to see a French army in Italy) prevailed that the 
 King would appoint some person to treat upon the 
 reparation he expected ; and the King would appoint 
 no man to debate the accommodation but him who 
 had been first offended and provoked, the Duke of 
 Cr^quy himself, who remained still at Quirino ; and, 
 though it seemed an ill augury towards peace, the Car- 
 dinal Chigi sent the Abbot Rospigliosi with a letter 
 of credit to the Ambassador ; in which he told him, 
 that he was informed that his most Christian Ma- 
 jesty had, upon the interposition of the Ambassador 
 of Florence, given his Excellence power to treat of 
 the satisfaction that his Majesty expected, for the in- 
 sult that had been made by the Corsican Guard; and 
 to that purpose he had sent the Abbot Rospigliosi to 
 confer with him, and to know what the King pro- 
 posed, which he presumed would be what was agree- 
 able to the affection of the eldest son of the Church, 
 and suitable to the dignity of the Sacred Chair. 
 When the Duke found that the Abbot had no other 
 commission than the letter from the Cardinal, he 
 wrote another letter to the Cardinal, under the same 
 style of Excellence as he had received from him, and 
 told him, that since the Abbot had brought no com- 
 mission from the Pope, whereby he had authority to 
 consent to what should be proposed by the King, he 
 had nothing to say to him ; and so the Duke prose- 
 cuted his journey to Paris, and the Abbot returned 
 to Rome. 
 
 The Pope had sometimes a resolution, upon his The Pope 
 observation that all the approaches he had made, andnlsterto 
 the condescensions he had offered towards the King, France - 
 
 had
 
 622 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, had but drawn new contempt and reproaches upon 
 ' himself, that he would acquiesce in the tranquillity of 
 
 his own innocence, and in the conscience of having 
 performed all that was to be done on his part, and 
 leave the King to prosecute his own passions in his 
 own way; and presumed, that if they were contained 
 within no bounds of moderation, not only all the 
 Princes of Italy would, for their own sakes, stop any 
 forces from entering Italy, but all other Catholic 
 Princes would resent his proceedings ; yet he found 
 nobody of his mind but those who would not suffer 
 themselves to appear to be so. The Cardinals in ge- 
 neral seemed to be so full of the sense of the affront, 
 indignity, and injury the King of France had sus- 
 tained, that he could not complain too loudly of it, 
 nor ask too great a reparation; and that His Holiness 
 ought to consent to all that he demanded. Hereupon 
 his spirits sunk again, and he resolved to send Mon- 
 seigneur Rasponi, a man of the first rank under the 
 Cardinals, and most trusted by him in his secret affairs, 
 with a full commission to give the King satisfaction 
 in all he required ; and, for avoiding all delays, 
 which the King complained of, and thought the Pope 
 affected, he should go into France, and treat with any 
 persons his Majesty should appoint ; of all which 
 notice was sent to the King, and that he would stay 
 at Lyons to expect his commands ; whereupon the 
 Duke of Crequy was again dispatched to meet him, 
 and with a light train in few days by post found 
 himself at Lyons. 
 
 Negocia- When the Duke arrived there, he found Monseig- 
 tween Ras- neur Rasponi in the garb and posture of Legate a La- 
 3 ftere, and that he expected precedence, and very many 
 other privileges, which the Duke would by no means 
 
 yield
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 623 
 
 yield to him, nor would the magistrates of the town CHAP. 
 
 take notice of him under that character. The Duke 
 
 told him, that it was a great incongruity that the 
 Pope should imagine, that after an extraordinary 
 Ambassador of his most Christian Majesty had been 
 forced for his security, and after so unheard of an in- 
 jury, to go out of Rome, and the dominions of the 
 Church, (of which his Majesty had declared his re- 
 sentment by sending the Nuncio under a guard out 
 of France,) that, before any acknowledgment and re- 
 paration to his Majesty, His Holiness should presume, 
 that a Minister from him, under any such qualifica- 
 tion, would be received in that kingdom : therefore 
 he would not enter into treaty with him, nor ac- 
 knowledge him in any other capacity than of a pri- 
 vate person sent from the Pope to offer reparation to 
 the King for the injury that had been done to him. 
 And, as soon as he had given an account of all this to 
 the Court, he received approbation of what he had 
 done, and order not to depart from it. Rasponj 
 found that the Duke would not recede a tittle, and 
 spoke of nothing but returning to Paris; and, know- 
 ing well the impatience his own Master had to lay 
 this controversy asleep, proposed that he would send 
 an express to Rome, and then he would depart out 
 of France to some town on the confines of Savoy, 
 where, being discharged of his function of Legate, 
 they might proceed in the treaty. This was accepted, 
 and the Duke went to the same place ; and, when the 
 Duke's stern nature could not be prevailed upon to 
 waste the time in compliments, but pressed dispatch, 
 as if he knew his Master was impatient to be doing, 
 they fell into the business, and Rasponi made some 
 propositions of giving such acknowledgment and sa- 
 tisfaction
 
 624 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, tisfaction to the King for the indignity he had sus- 
 
 tained, and such reparation to the Ambassador and 
 
 his Lady for the affront they had suffered, as suffi- 
 ciently manifested that they would not boggle at 
 making any farther condescensions of that nature 
 that should be demanded. But then the Duke said, 
 that he had instructions not to conclude those arti- 
 cles which related to the insult, before the Pope 
 should first consent to the restoring Castro, and all 
 that belonged thereunto, to the Duke of Parma, who 
 was under the King's protection. Rasponi was sur- 
 prised with this ; and said, it could not be imagined 
 that he could be armed with any commission to treat 
 upon an affair that was of so foreign a nature to the 
 matter of his negociation ; that he was ready to offer 
 or to submit to what satisfaction could be justly re- 
 quired by reason of that insolence which had been 
 committed in Rome by the Corsican Guard, and 
 which was criminal, and ought to be punished : 
 whereas the other pretence concerning Castro was an 
 old business that had no relation to it, and was of a 
 civil nature, that must be determined by justice: that 
 there had been many Popes since that matter had 
 been debated, and could with no colour of reason be 
 the subject of this treaty, nor had he authority so 
 much as to speak of it. The Duke answered, that 
 the antiquity of it was an argument that it ought the 
 sooner to be made an end of; and the succession of 
 so many Popes, without finishing it, made the injury 
 the more insupportable; that it was agreed by Urban 
 the Eighth, and sworn to by him in the treaty he 
 made with the King, whose honour was engaged to 
 cause it to be executed ; and though Urban died be~ 
 fore it was performed, the King had still demanded 
 
 it
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 625 
 
 it from Innocent and the present Pope, who had both CHAP. 
 
 given their promise to see it done ; and since they 
 
 had both failed, and there was now a new "occasion 
 of making another treaty with His Holiness, it could 
 not be fit to leave it without mention ; and he had 
 positive order to treat of nothing else, till that of 
 Castro was first consented to : and with that declara- 
 tion the Duke returned immediately to Paris, and 
 Rasponi sent an express to Rome with an account 
 what was become of the treaty, and moved himself 
 toward Piedmont, where he expected further orders 
 from the Pope. 
 
 This advertisement put the Pope into the highest The Pope 
 passion his constitution was capable of; he presently upon war. 
 summoned a private Consistory of those Cardinals 
 who were most trusted by him, complained pitifully 
 of the King's proceedings with him, and declared to 
 them, that he was resolved to sustain the war, let what 
 would fall out; and then he sent for the two Ambas- 
 sadors of Spain, and of the Republic of Venice, and 
 informed them at large of all that had passed at 
 Lyons and in Savoy ; and that, when he was pre- 
 pared, for the preservation of the peace of Italy, to 
 descend to lower conditions than ought honestly to 
 be demanded of him who had committed no offence, 
 the King had refused now to admit of any proposi- 
 tion towards it till he should first consent to the 
 restitution of Castro to the Duke of Parma, which 
 had no relation to the matter in debate ; and with 
 this resolution his Plenipotentiary was returned to 
 Paris : whereupon he declared to them with much 
 vehemence, that before he would so much prostitute 
 his honour, or consent to that which would be so 
 prejudicial to the Church, to which Castro apper- 
 
 tainedj
 
 PAPAL' USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, tained, he would undergo the damage and mischief 
 of the war, though it should be to the loss of Rome 
 itself, with that of his life, and that other Princes 
 should look to their own concerns in it : and it was 
 generally believed that at that time he said no more 
 than he resolved to do. 
 
 v ^; n ce re and The truth is, that the Pope underwent all the de- 
 fuse their p-rees of mortification that either his person or his 
 
 support, 
 
 function could be made liable to. When this busi- 
 ness first broke out, he sent to the Republic of Ve- 
 nice, which was of the greatest force and strength in 
 Italy, represented to them the spirit and temper of 
 the King of France, his ambition to bring all other 
 Princes to comply and submit to his illimited designs, 
 and proposed to them to enter into a League with 
 him for the defence of Italy. They gravely advised 
 him to consider well the greatness of that King, and 
 rather to give him satisfaction for the injury done to 
 him in the person of his Ambassador, which was, in 
 the judgment of all men, an offence of the greatest 
 magnitude, than to think of contending with him by 
 arms. The Nuncio in Spain, with many wonderful 
 flourishes of rhetoric, and as wonderful promises of 
 the benefit and glory he should reap thereby, invited 
 that King to make himself the protector of the Ca- 
 tholic Church and Religion, to both which His Ho- 
 liness would declare the King of France to be a pub- 
 lic enemy and persecutor ; whereupon, and his Ca- 
 tholic Majesty's appearing in the head of that League, 
 all the Princes of Italy would immediately enter into 
 the same League, and all men would desert and for- 
 sake the King of France ; so that, without any trou- 
 ble, expence, or hazard, all his designs would be 
 broken, which must redound to the eternal glory of 
 
 his
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 627 
 
 his Catholic Majesty: and for the licence that he had CH A p. 
 given to the French to march through his territories, 
 
 the Nuncio said, that His Holiness would absolve 
 his Majesty from the observation of that promise ; 
 since the same had been made to the prejudice of 
 Religion, and that it would be for the good of Reli- 
 gion that it should not be observed. But the old 
 King liked the peace too well, that he had bought so 
 dear, to part with it for a state of war upon those 
 specious pretences, which were better understood 
 even in the Court of Spain than they had used to be; 
 and therefore the King, instead of embracing the 
 Pope's friendship upon those terms, magnified the 
 power of France, and persuaded His Holiness to 
 make his peace by any concessions his Majesty 
 should impose. But that which troubled him more 
 than all the rest was, that he plainly discerned, that 
 in all Courts there appeared more inclination to the 
 lessening and abasing the Papal power, than to the 
 vindication of it from any dishonour or reprQach that 
 the French could inflict upon it : nor were any men 
 less affected on his behalf, or more delighted with 
 what was applied for his humiliation, than the people 
 of all conditions in the city of Rome itself, and 
 within all the lands of the Ecclesiastical State : and, 
 whilst he was in this deep agony, he received certain 
 advertisements that the French troops were already 
 entered into the Duchy of Parma, who received them 
 willingly, and prepared jointly for the enterprise 
 upon Castro as soon as the season should permit. 
 
 All things seeming to be in this desperate condi- The Pope's 
 tion, the Pope encountered a new inquietude within su 
 the walls of Rome that added to his uneasiness. The 
 Cardinals who adhered to the interests of the several 
 
 Crowns
 
 628 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Crowns repaired to him with one importunity, that 
 
 ' since all other particulars had been so well prepared 
 
 by Rasponi, that there remained no other obstruc- 
 tion of the peace but the matter of Castro, which 
 was not a thing of that moment or value as ought to 
 deprive Italy of so great a blessing, that His Holi- 
 ness would consent to that article likewise ; and 
 when the Cardinals had made this address, all the 
 Ambassadors of Princes successively gave him the 
 same advice. The Pope could hold out no longer, 
 but found ways, through those secret hands which 
 are never wanting in those cases, to make it known, 
 that he was content to yield in the point of Castro, 
 and that he made choice of Pisa in the Duchy of 
 Florence for the Plenipotentiaries to meet in, and to 
 debate and conclude the matter. The King approved 
 the place, but said, he "had been too much accus- 
 tomed to the delays of the Court of Rome, and that 
 he would not therefore send Plenipotentiaries to de- 
 bate any more, but to conclude, which would be 
 sooner and best done if the articles were first ad- 
 justed at Rome and at Paris, and then the Plenipo- 
 tentiaries might quickly conclude at Pisa. The Pope 
 submitted to this too ; but, that he might obtain 
 somewhat, he desired that the French troops might' 
 be recalled out of Italy before the treaty should be 
 concluded ; which he was told was so much against 
 the King's honour, that no man durst propose it to 
 him. 
 
 Treaty of To say no more, all the articles were consented to 
 by the Pope which were prescribed by the King; the 
 principal of which were, 1st. That the Pope should 
 cause Castro to be delivered, with all that belonged 
 to it, and in the condition it then was, into the hands 
 
 and
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 and possession of the Duke of Parma, who should CHAP. 
 
 pay the just debt, which he confessed to be justly : 
 
 owing by him to the Apostolical Chamber : 2. That 
 the Corsican Guard should be for ever banished, not 
 only out of the city of Rome, but likewise out of the 
 whole ecclesiastical State; and that, for the time to 
 come, there shall be no farther use made of the same 
 nation, which should be declared incapable of ever 
 exercising the same employment, which they had for 
 so long time had at Rome, to wit, that of Serjeants; 
 and that they amongst them who had committed the 
 assassination against the person in the coach of the 
 Ambassador's Lady, should be all condemned to be 
 hanged, and that there should be all possible dili- 
 gence used to take them ; and, being taken, that they 
 should be executed, or put into the hands of the 
 Ministers of his most Christian Majesty, to be done 
 with as they should judge convenient : 3. That, for 
 a perpetual memory, there shall be erected a pillar in. 
 the city of Rome, in a public place near the place or 
 the street where the coach of the Ambassador's Lady 
 was set upon, or, at least, in the quarter where the 
 Corsican Guard were lodged, with an inscription, to 
 shew the resentment which was conceived for that 
 crime, and the reparation that hath been made unto 
 the King, which pillar shall never be demolished or 
 taken from the place where it shall be planted; and 
 in case any one shall attempt to take it from thence, 
 he shall be convicted of the crime of lasa Majestas^ 
 and shall be punished as such, and the pillar put 
 into the same place again with the same inscription : 
 4. That the Cardinal Imperiale shall be obliged to 
 transport himself to Paris, not only to make there a 
 personal reparation, and ask pardon of the King in 
 
 T t his
 
 630 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, his public Council, or in his Parliament, if his Ma-- 
 
 jesty should so direct, but also to give an account of 
 
 the assassination the Corsican Guard had committed, 
 considering that he was then Governor of Rome ; 
 and in the mean time he should be banished from 
 the Ecclesiastical State, and reputed as such, and de- 
 prived of all the charges he possessed, in which he 
 should not be again established till his Majesty had 
 written and given advice that he was fully satisfied 
 with him ; and that he shall be obliged to acknow- 
 ledge his return to Rome as a pure grace which his 
 most Christian Majesty had done to him : 5. That 
 the Cardinal Chigi, nephew of His Holiness, shall be 
 declared Legate a Latere, with all the circumstances 
 requisite to such a case, that he may be able to re- 
 present the person of the Pope himself, and to trans- 
 port himself to Paris in that quality, to make an ex- 
 cuse to the King for the Apostolic See, and to de- 
 clare that it was never the intention of the Pope to 
 give offence unto his Majesty, and that, on the con- 
 trary, he had been very much displeased with the 
 enormity of that attempt ; and at the same time that 
 the Legate did perform that compliment at Paris^ 
 the Duke of Crquy should return to Rome with the 
 same character of Ambassador extraordinary that he 
 had before, and that there should be paid unto him 
 all the honours due to so public a person, and one 
 who represented such a King ; that the Pope himself 
 should make him reparation, and testify unto him 
 the displeasure and regret he had for his leaving 
 Rome upon the account of an accident of that nature, 
 which he himself had disapproved and blamed from 
 the beginning: 6. That the Pope may not mortify, 
 under any pretence whatsoever, either directly or in- 
 directly.
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 directly, any of those who had followed the party of C H A P. 
 France, either French or Italian; that if there be 
 
 found any one who of his own accord was gone out 
 of Rome, or had quitted any charge, not being able 
 to behold the ill treatment of the French nation 
 there, it should be permitted to him to return again 
 without quitting his charge, and he should be rein- 
 stated in the honours that are due to him ; and, in a 
 word, that all the French, of what condition soever 
 they be, shall have free liberty to dwell in Rome, 
 paying unto the Holy See the respect that they owe 
 it, His Holiness promising on his part, that his Mi- 
 nisters shall take greater care for the time to come, 
 not to commit any more the like fault. 
 
 There were many other articles, which I forbear to Furthercir " 
 
 , f cumstances 
 
 insert particularly, because they are of less import- of 
 ance than the forecited, yet including as much of ' 
 triumph to the French; such as the providing for the 
 discharging of all process that had been made against 
 the Duke of Caesarino, for any thing he had said or 
 done upon the occasion of the late outrage upon the 
 Ambassador, and for the discharge and cancelling 
 all the like decrees or actions against any of the Ro- 
 mans : they provided for the return of the Cardinal 
 Maldachini to Rome, and to be restored to all his 
 goods, benefices, and privileges ; though the censure* 
 which had been inflicted upon him had not the least 
 relation to the late affront, but were grounded upon 
 his having departed Rome without the Pope's leave, 
 and when he was prosecuted for several crimes and 
 misdemeanors, all which were hereby discharged, par- 
 doned, and released : provision was likewise made in 
 what place one of the Pope's Nephews should meet 
 the Duke of Cre"quy, when he returned Ambassador 
 
 T t 2 to
 
 632 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, to Rome, and where his Nieces should meet the Am- 
 
 IX 
 
 bassadress, and the ceremonies which were to be per- 
 
 formed ; and many such particulars, as would become 
 the greatest and most powerful Prince to exact from 
 the most abject enemy that could have offended him. 
 It was plain that the Pope was so thoroughly broken 
 that he was only solicitous to prevent that his bro- 
 ther Don Mario should not undergo any reproach, 
 from which he preserved him with great difficulty, 
 and that none of his Nephews might be looked upon 
 as guilty of or privy to that assassination ; and that 
 being provided for, he cared not what he was con- 
 demned to do himself. All this, and somewhat more, 
 was consented to on the Pope's part, for which all 
 that was yielded to by the King was, that when this 
 satisfaction should be given, which was done accord- 
 ingly, his Majesty would appoint Avignon, and all 
 that belonged thereunto, to be delivered again into 
 the Pope's hand, and his Italian guard, and all his 
 other officers to be received there; yet with this cau- 
 tion and provision, that no man who had contributed 
 to the putting them out, or used them with any re- 
 proach, or did them any injury when they were put 
 out, should in the least degree suffer for the same. 
 And so Avignon is again under the Pope's obedience, 
 and his subjects as ready to deliver it up again into 
 the hands of the King of France, when he shall so 
 require them to do. 
 
 Remarks It is not the purpose of this discourse to make the 
 whole of least reflection upon the justice of the proceedings of 
 acttavand the King of France, as if he had exacted a greater 
 mk> r n P re- reparation than the injury required ; that for the ac- 
 quired by cidental death of the Pages, without any foresight 
 
 the King of J 
 
 France. of malice, for aught appeared, the whole form and 
 
 dignity
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 635 
 
 dignity of the government should be shaken, and CHAP. 
 
 upon the matter dissolved, to make an entire satisfac ' 
 
 tion ; that for the offence of half a dozen or a dozen 
 Corsicans, a whole nation should be deprived of a 
 privilege they had enjoyed for many ages, and that 
 no subject of the island of Corsica shall be for the 
 time to come permitted to live, not only within the 
 city of Rome, but within the whole Ecclesiastical 
 State; (which is upon the matter a condemnation and 
 judgment upon the most Catholic King, or upon the 
 Republic of Genoa, to whichever of them the imme- 
 diate subjection of that nation is due;) that the per- 
 sons of lords and ladies should undergo punishments 
 for the rudeness and barbarity committed by a lewd 
 company of varlets and ruffians; I have none of those 
 reflections : and I do not believe but that the wick- 
 edness of the action and attempt was of that magni- 
 tude, and so deep a wound to the royalty of a King, 
 that it could not be inquired into or punished with 
 too much severity ; that it might reasonably be pre- 
 sumed, that such an outrage could not have been 
 committed in the noon day, by a band of men listed, 
 known by their names as well or better than any ci- 
 tizen of the town, and that not one of them should 
 be apprehended, or their names be known, without 
 the countenance and protection of the most power- 
 ful persons in Rome, or without some connivance 
 from* the Government itself. The carriage and beha- 
 viour of the Pope's kindred had been such before, 
 that it might well be imagined they had contrived 
 this affront, and they might be held worthy of some 
 mortification, or to be required to perform some more 
 civilities than their own natures disposed them to; in 
 all these respects, a man who knows what is due to 
 
 T t 3 the
 
 634 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, the offended Majesty of a King, cannot believe there 
 
 was any excess used in the vindication; nor can it be 
 
 doubted, that if all Kings were equally sensible of 
 the violation of their Majesty, and had proceeded in 
 the same manner for the repairing it, infinite mis- 
 chiefs, which have fallen out in the Church and State, 
 would have been prevented. 
 The incon- The question only is, whether they who prosecute 
 
 sistency of ,...._ . . .. -,,..[ 
 
 such repa- this kind ot reparation, acknowledgment, and satis- 
 an opinion faction, let the offence or provocation be what it will, 
 Feme's su- nave * n their judgments or affection that reverence 
 premacy. anc j veneration for the sacred person of the Pope, or 
 for the Holy Chair, or the Apostolical Chair, which 
 they seem to be offended with other men for being 
 without: whether they do in truth believe him to 
 have any authority to examine and censure the errors 
 and offences of their consciences, or to have any spi- 
 ritual jurisdiction for the reformation of their lives ; 
 indeed, whether they do think him to have a temporal 
 or a spiritual sovereignty or supremacy, whose person 
 they compelled to make penance, and to ask pardon 
 for an offence that he had never in the judgment of 
 any man been thought guilty of; for all that his Le- 
 gate said or did was in the person of the Pope, and 
 on his behalf, and was a more literal submission than 
 was made by our Henry the Second for the death of 
 Thomas a Becket, and for which our nation hath 
 blushed so much ; nor hath the Universal Bishop 
 ever undergone such a personal reprehension since 
 the time of Boniface the Eighth, 
 
 In the next place, and to conclude, (for the dis- 
 quisition is equally reasonable,) is it credible that 
 this Alexander did in his conscience believe that our 
 (Saviour had given him full power and authority to 
 
 depose
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 635 
 
 depose Kings, and to deprive them of the fidelity CHAP, 
 and obedience of their subjects, and that they are all 
 subject to his direction and jurisdiction ? Is it possi- 
 ble that he could believe that his spiritual artillery, 
 the thunder and lightning of his excommunications 
 and interdictions, can kill at such a distance, and 
 draw Princes upon their knees to him by the com- 
 pulsion of their own subjects, and yet would not in 
 "his own defence (and to rescue that spiritual autho- 
 rity of binding and loosing, which he had from Christ 
 himself, from being invaded by the arms of a secular 
 and temporal Prince) emit so much as one monitory 
 to cite the King of France to appear upon penalty of 
 an excommunication ? There cannot be a greater 
 manifestation that this Pope had himself no such 
 opinion of his own just power, which he would have 
 all other men have ; and if he had, he could not be 
 excused in conscience for intermitting it in such an 
 eminent distress upon any politic respect or appre- 
 hension ; for if he did really think that God had 
 given him that power for the defence and mainte- 
 nance of his Church and religion, he did. not dis- 
 charge his trust in not applying it, and leaving the 
 effect of it to God ; who, if it were a remedy of his 
 own compounding, could enable it to have done what 
 execution he thought fit. But he knew well where 
 the Supremacy remained, and that it was able to en- 
 join and exact obedience, and that he should gain 
 more upon the generosity of that Prince, by submit- 
 ting to him, than contesting with him ; which he 
 found to be true ; for after the pillar had been erect- 
 ed with the very famous inscription, and stood long 
 enough to be viewed by all the world, and can never 
 be forgotten, he prevailed with the most Christian 
 
 T t 4 King,
 
 636 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. King, that that yoke of servitude, that lay so heavy 
 - upon the neck of the Pontificate, might be and was 
 
 taken off before the death of himself who had put it 
 
 on. 
 
 The Pope And the Pope in the end made himself no loser 
 the rest of by all this ; for, finding how unfit he was to grasp 
 cate in"en- such an unwieldy power that he was not able to 
 " 8 h ' S rriana g e j as soon as he was off from this uneasy dis- 
 
 pute, he affected no more the exercise of such dan- 
 gerous negociations, but retired to the sole care of 
 growing rich, that he might leave his family in a 
 condition above ordinary oppression : and this more 
 equal design he was so well qualified to manage and 
 conduct, that, without doing any one action to adorn 
 his memory in the few years he survived this trou- 
 blesome affair, (which indeed 'he did not long sur- 
 vive, for the agony of it shortened his life,) he heap- 
 ed so great a mass of wealth, that though he left the 
 Church in a worse and lower condition than he found 
 it, and his family very little more beloved than Don- 
 na Olimpia had been, yet he left it much more se- 
 cure, and his Nephew in a reputation to stand upon 
 his own feet, to live in great lustre, and to avow and 
 own that implacable malice to France that a good 
 Italian Prelate is obliged in conscience to profess to- 
 wards those, from whom he conceives that he or his 
 friends have undergone any injury or indignity. 
 clement Upon the death of Alexander, in a shorter con- 
 lioso, his clave than, in the factions which were then notorious 
 character. cnoll g] lj cou }<} be expected, Cardinal Rospiglioso was 
 chosen, and called Clement the Ninth ; and was the 
 man most wished, or with whose election very few 
 were displeased. He was a grave man, very well 
 versed in affairs, and of a temper that could not 
 
 make
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 
 
 make him enemies; though he gratified nobody CHAP. 
 
 against his own judgment, hy which he was wholly 
 
 governed : for though he presently recalled his Ne- 
 phew, the Abbot llospigiioso, a young man of good 
 parts, who had been sent by Alexander to be Inter- 
 nuncio at Brussels, and, as soon as he returned, made 
 him Cardinal, yet he kept all the affairs so in his 
 own disposal, that he was not suspected to be swayed 
 by any man. He had been bred up under the Bar- 
 berinis, and was always grateful to that family. lie 
 was sent, by Innocent, Nuncio into Spain, where he 
 had been formerly under him in principal trust dur- 
 ing the time of his own Nunciature ; and when he 
 came to exercise that function himself, no man had 
 been there before him who received greater reverence 
 from that Court, being a person most unblamcable in 
 his life, and of very conformable manners. In the 
 beginning of Alexander's time he was made Cardinal 
 and Secretary of State, and was most entirely trusted 
 in all the secret affairs ; but from the time of calling 
 the family to Rome, he became less trusted every 
 day ; and though he kept still the title of Secretary 
 of State, few men understood less of the business 
 that passed than he ; and towards the end of his life, 
 the Pope had a kind of an aversion from him ; yet 
 his gratitude, and the custom of the court of Rome, 
 kept him still to the party and faction of the Chigis ; 
 so that though there were some Cardinals who would 
 have been more grateful, yet when Cliigi found all 
 factions ready to concur in llospigiioso, he thought 
 himself safe in him, and so he was made Pope ; and 
 during his reign he cherished and confirmed the in- 
 terest of that family, and gave his own cap to a Ne- 
 phew of that house. 
 
 Clement
 
 638 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Clement without doubt was in his heart more in-^ 
 
 i\ . t 
 
 * clined to Spain than to France ; yet he knew well the 
 
 His policy . . ^ .'!.' 
 
 towards interest and reputation or that Crown to be so low, 
 Spain? and an d the factions in that court to be so high, by the 
 infancy of the King, that he believed he should be 
 able to do more service to it by obtaining credit with 
 France, than by being thought to be impotently ad- 
 dicted to Spain. Sure it is, that his nephew the 
 Abbot, in his return from his Nunciature in Flanders, 
 upon his uncle's promotion, stayed longer at Paris 
 than is usual in those cases, when men make as 
 much haste as they can to receive a preferment that 
 expects them : he had many audiences of the King, 
 and at parting had very great presents ; and from 
 that time there was never the least misunderstanding 
 
 o 
 
 between the King and the Court of Rome ; but the 
 Pope gratified his Majesty in whatsoever he desired, 
 and His Majesty professed to have a greater reverence 
 for the person of the Pope than he had ever before 
 for any of his predecessors. 
 
 Arretofthe Wherever the condescension was, it was at this 
 FvTnce, time that the choleric disputes and animosities, 
 a\Harther S which had been so long upon the stage between the 
 disputes be- Jansenists and the Jesuits, were almost in an instant 
 
 tween the 
 
 ists silenced rather than composed ; and what the suc- 
 
 and Jesuits. . . . . . r 
 
 cessive decrees and definitions or two Popes, in mat- 
 ter of faith, could not determine or find submission 
 to amongst Catholics, one single Arret from the 
 King, in prohibiting either party either to preach, 
 dispute, or mention either of those points, (which 
 was a suspending, if not cancelling, both the Pontifi- 
 cal decrees,) suppressed finally any farther discourse 
 upon that subject. Nor is there any question but 
 that this proceeding of the King was either advised 
 
 or
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 639 
 
 or desired by the Pope, who had not any resigna- CHAP, 
 tion to the Jesuits in matters of religion, and who 
 
 did believe that it was a better expedient towards 
 the quieting those unruly spirits, than the prosecu- 
 tion of any ecclesiastical censures would be that 
 could be applied by him ; and it was very worthy 
 the observation, the moderation and meekness of the 
 Jesuits, (who never forgave Clement, or his memory, 
 for that discountenance,) that having, for so many 
 years together, given up all the Jansenists to damna- 
 tion, as the worst kind of Calvinists, they upon this 
 Arret of the King declared, that it was only a litiga- 
 tion upon words, which was best to be determined 
 this way. 
 
 No Pope ever gave less offence or umbrage to Moderation 
 
 /-,! i-. i f i 1-1 of Clement 
 
 Christian Princes than this Clement did, or more ix. towards 
 intended the honour and reputation of the Church, miiy. wn 
 which he endeavoured to improve and advance by 
 mending the manners of the ecclesiastics, which he 
 well knew brought insupportable scandal upon the 
 religion they professed. lie did avow to have great 
 affection and kindness for his family, and resolved 
 that they should be the better for him, but not at the 
 Church's charge, which he resolved to dispose to the 
 uses it was designed. When any offices, as abbies 
 and other benefices, became vacant, he conferred 
 them upon his Cardinal Nephew, and others of his 
 family, that they might have such a decent support 
 that they might not be liable to contempt; and all 
 that he promoted them to during his whole reign did 
 not raise them beyond that convenient proportion, 
 without ever giving them opportunity or capacity 
 to render themselves grievous to the people ; from 
 whom he took off all the taxes and impositions which 
 
 had
 
 640 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, had supplied the luxury of the former times, and 
 continued none but what was necessary to the pub- 
 lic, and really expended for the public. He had the 
 happiness to have a brother, Don Camillo, a man of 
 much virtue and severity of manners, who was the* 
 father of the Cardinal, and of most of the other 
 branches of his family, and a severe inquisitor into 
 the lives of them all, who were as careful to conceal 
 all their excesses from him, as from the Pope him- 
 self: and if this reign had continued long, virtue 
 and piety would have been brought into more re- 
 quest, and vice into more discredit, than it had been 
 in many ages. 
 The Pope When he first came to the Pontificate, he found 
 
 relieves 
 
 the island of Candia (which had been for so many 
 years upon the matter possessed by the Infidels) re- 
 duced to so great straits, that there remained only 
 the port, with a small neck of land, which was called 
 the Canea, a fort strong and capable to be relieved, 
 in the hands of the Christians, but besieged by an 
 army of fifty thousand Turks, who had raised such 
 fortifications about the town, that they were as 
 strongly encamped without as the Christians were 
 within ; besides which, having the whole island at 
 their devotion, they had thereby plenty of all things 
 they could stand in need of; whereas the besieged 
 had nothing but what was supplied to them by sea, 
 at the sole charge of the Republic of Venice, to 
 whom the dominion of that island appertained, and 
 which had already (to their immortal honour) de- 
 fended and maintained it against the whole power of 
 the Grand Signior for five or six years, whilst they 
 in vain implored and importuned the several Popes, 
 and other Christian Princes, to assist them in so un- 
 equal
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 4! 
 
 equal an enterprise, and in which Christianity was CHAP, 
 so much concerned. Innocent and Alexander were 
 deaf to those clamours ; the raising their families and 
 enriching their kindred was their talent, and en- 
 .grossed all their thoughts ; but Clement came no 
 sooner into the Chair, than he wedded this affair as 
 that which his pastoral charge made incumbent on 
 him, and to which he dedicated, and in truth sacri- 
 ficed, whatsoever he could raise by or from the Pa- 
 pacy. He first repaired and fitted up all the gallics 
 and other vessels which belonged to the Church, and 
 which had lain so long useless and idle, and sent 
 them under the command of one of his Nephews, 
 who was a Knight of Malta, with all such provisions, 
 and money, and men, which they most stood in 
 need of, and to return to him with such an account 
 of their necessities, the posture they were in for their 
 defence, and the condition of the enemy, that he. 
 might be able to judge what would be the most ef- 
 fectual means to give them a full relief: and to that 
 purpose he required the particular information and 
 advice of the Senate, and to assure them of all the 
 assistance his own ability could procure for them,, 
 and what by his interposition he could obtain from 
 others, having already made very effectual instance 
 with the most Christian King, to think it a work 
 worthy of his title and greatness to redeem that peo- 
 ple from the servitude of their barbarous and cruel 
 persecutors : and if either of his predecessors had 
 been possessed with his zeal, or if he had been Pope 
 in that time when Alexander reigned, it cannot be 
 doubted but that fruitful isle of Candia would at 
 this time have remained a part of Christendom. 
 
 Upon
 
 642 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP. Upon the return of the gallies from Candia, (after 
 they had delivered the supplies and relief which they 
 
 Joint expe- , . f . 
 
 ditionof had been sent with, and thereby much raised the spi- 
 and Vene- r i ts f tne besieged Christians,) the Pope found that 
 thTfarther ^ ie P^ ace was ln mu ch worse condition than he expect- 
 reiiefof e d it to have been ; that the town was so totally beaten 
 
 Candia. . r 
 
 down, and tire houses demolished, by the cannon and 
 gfenados of the Turks, that they were of no more 
 use to the inhabitants nor soldiers; and that, by the 
 same means, there was not earth enough left for huts 
 or other covering for the soldiers or officers of the 
 garrison ; and that if there were a thought of re- 
 taining and reestablishing the island, they must re- 
 solve once for all to send such a supply of arms, and 
 men, and ships, as might make that impression upon 
 several places of the island, that the garrison might 
 no longer be confined or restrained within the nar- 
 row compass of ground of which they were now pos- 
 sessed : of all which when the Pope was informed, 
 he renewed his instance with the King of France, 
 and made it quickly appear how much credit and 
 authority he had with that Prince ; for, upon his ad- 
 vice and desire, that great King caused a noble fleet 
 of his gallies and other vessels to be prepared and 
 equipped, and an army of ten thousand men ; the 
 fleet under the command of the Duke de Beaufort, 
 Admiral of France, and the land forces under the 
 command of the Duke de Navailles, a commander of 
 great courage and experience. These joined happily 
 with the Pope's gallies, the furnishing and setting 
 out whereof cost all the money he could draw toge- 
 ther; and, though not at the precise time agreed 
 upon, the Venetian forces met with them, and they 
 
 all
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 643 
 
 all came in safety into the port at the Canea. Within CHAP. 
 
 the town and forts the Christians were commanded 
 
 by Morosini, who, being a Senator of Venice, was to 
 have no superior in command, though he had no- 
 thing of a soldier but the personal courage in which 
 he abounded, with some extravagancies and licences, 
 
 ' O 
 
 which render the greatest faculties of no effect ; but 
 he referred the whole ordering the militia, which 
 consisted of all nations, which had been often chang- 
 ed and supplied since the beginning of the siege, to 
 St. Andre* Montbrun, a Frenchman of most eminent 
 conduct, and inferior to none in the opinion of his 
 own nation, if his religion of a Huguenot had not 
 obstructed his having the highest offices in command 
 amongst them. The King gave this man to them, 
 and the Venetians assigned him to that command, 
 which he discharged with an universal applause, 
 and for which he was liberally rewarded by the Re- 
 public. 
 
 When all these forces were thus luckily assembled Failure of 
 In the place they desired, it was generally known d . exp 
 that they were to land in the night, all the landing 
 places being under the command, or rather exposed 
 to the cannon of the enemy ; but whether or not for 
 want of being well concerted with the officers who 
 commanded within, and could best advise how any 
 attempt was to be made, this work was performed 
 with the greatest confusion imaginable, and they all 
 landed into the town and fort ; and at the head of 
 them the Duke de Beaufort, who ought not to have 
 left his ship ; and in his presence the Duke de Na- 
 vailles could not assume the command. The Duke 
 de Beaufort, transported with vanity that he might 
 have the honour to defeat the Turks, or led by his 
 
 destiny,
 
 644 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, destiny, would, as soon as he landed, and in the same. 
 
 - darkness, presently conduct his troops to assault the 
 
 enemy's trenches, without having seen the posture in 
 which they lay, nor how near their trenches were to 
 the other ; nor could the Venetian General, or St. 
 Andre Month run, prevail with him to defer it till the 
 morning, though they assured him of the desperate- 
 ness that must attend the present enterprise : and 
 this attempt was pursued in such confusion, that the 
 Duke de Navailles protested afterwards, for his ex- 
 cuse and justification, that he never knew any thing 
 of the council and resolution (being intent upon the 
 safe disembarkation of those troops which were not 
 come yet on shore, and upon their accommodation) 
 till he heard that the Duke de Beaufort was engaged 
 in the sally, for which he quickly paid dear ; for he 
 and most of those who followed him were cut off and 
 destroyed, without doing any considerable damage to 
 the enemy. And so the unparalleled rashness of one 
 night, and, as is supposed, of one man, rendered the 
 whole design, that had been prepared and conducted 
 till then with great prudence and vast expence, fruit- 
 less, unfortunate, and dishonourable. The body of 
 the Duke was never found or known, though many 
 rumours were dispersed concerning it, that the 
 Grand Vizier had caused his head to be cut off, and 
 sent it to the Grand Signior, and such other stories. 
 This so signal defeat defeated all other hopes of re- 
 lieving or preserving Candia. The several fleets re- 
 turned with what was left to their several stations, 
 and the fort and garrison shortly after (though not 
 sooner than was confessedly necessary) surrendered 
 upon more honourable terms than they had reason 
 to expect from so barbarous an enemy. The fatal 
 
 account
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 645 
 
 account of this expedition made so great an impres- CHAP. 
 
 sion upon the spirits of the good Pope, weakened - 
 
 enough hefore by the weakness of his body and 
 many infirmities, that he lived but a short time after, 
 his whole reign having continued less than three 
 years, in which time he did all the good he could to 
 all men, and no harm to any, and is the only Pope 
 of many ages whose death no man desired, and 
 whose loss more men lamented ; nor was any of his 
 family reproached with his memory. 
 
 When Clement was dead, all the factions which clement x, 
 had been united in the choice of him, and had been 
 composed and laid to sleep during his reign, pre^- 
 sently broke out, and appeared with more noise and 
 bitterness than ever. Cardinal Chigi, by the coun- 
 tenance and favour he had received during the whole 
 Pontificate of Clement, and there having so few of 
 his uncle's creatures died in that time, was like to 
 have more credit in the next Conclave than he had 
 in the last, though it then appeared to be very great; 
 and the very good life of Cardinal Barberini, and the 
 universal esteem of his virtue and affection to the 
 Church, was like to make as many votes to be at his 
 disposal as at any man's ; and all men knew that 
 they two would never design the same person to the 
 Chair; so that all prognosticated a very long and a 
 very troublesome Conclave. And such it fell out to 
 be. For Cardinal Chigi, having with too much va- 
 nity bragged that no man should be chosen Pope 
 who was not amongst the creatures of his uncle, had 
 been able to exclude all those who had been pro- 
 posed ; and they had likewise authority and power 
 enough to exclude all those whom he desired to pro- 
 mote. After they had remained in the Conclave 
 
 u u five
 
 and cha- 
 racter. 
 
 646 PAPAL USURPATIONS 
 
 CHAP, five months by the affectation and obstinacy of Chigi, 
 
 (who found he was much censured by all men for 
 
 it,) he began to relent, and accept of such a Pope 
 as was not notoriously believed to be an enemy; and 
 so they at last even unanimously consented in the 
 election of the youngest Cardinal, though the oldest 
 man, and who was most like quickly to make room 
 for a successor; and Cardinal Altieri was made Pope, 
 who, out of reverence to his patron, assumed the 
 name of Clement the Tenth. 
 
 His origin ,^Emilio Altieri had been, in the reign of Urban 
 the Eighth, a man of great eminency, and by him 
 made Nuncio in the kingdom of Naples, which office 
 he exercised with a general good testimony many 
 years, being a place of good profit, and independent 
 upon the Vice-King, who is rather inferior, but pre- 
 tends not to have any jurisdiction over him. He 
 was then looked upon as of that class that was to 
 come next to the purple ; but Urban dying, and In- 
 nocent succeeding, he was presently recalled, not 
 without some marks of disgrace. For Innocent had 
 formerly been in the exercise of the same function, 
 and well remembered the silent gains of it, and 
 would therefore call Altieri to such an account as 
 might dispose him to offer some composition ; to 
 which the other, though he was esteemed very rich, 
 utterly refused to submit, and challenged his accu- 
 sers ; whereupon he was discountenanced, and set 
 aside, lived as a private person in Rome, and during 
 the reigns of Innocent and Alexander (which conti- 
 nued near twenty years) he was without any employ- 
 ment, unknown or unregarded. As soon as Cle- 
 ment was Pope, who had formerly known his abi- 
 lities, and had great familiarity with him, (both be- 
 ing
 
 FROM GREGORY XV. TO CLEMENT X. 647 
 
 ing then looked upon as of the same level,) he called CHAI*. 
 
 him to the court, and made him Master of the '~ 
 
 Chamber, and, a few months before his death, created 
 him Cardinal, the last of that creation, not without 
 some presage that he would succeed him. Yet his 
 best title was, that he was eighty-three years of age, 
 and all the vigour of his faculties so much decayed 
 and broken, that he did not remember in the morn- 
 ing what he had said or done the night before. So 
 that he wanted only a Cardinal Hildebrand to per- 
 suade him to resign the Papacy, as his predecessor 
 Calixtus the Fifth had done, for the like infirmity. 
 But the poor man hath reigned already above three 
 years, with the general reputation of a good and 
 pious man, who gives his neighbours or his subjects 
 little trouble, choosing rather to do nothing at all, 
 than to run the hazard of doing any thing amiss ; 
 and if his successors shall be of the same rare tem- 
 per, they will not be the worse spoken of.
 
 648 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP. X 
 
 Concluding Observations upon the Pope's usurped 
 Supremacy and the Duty of Catholic Subjects to 
 Protestant Sovereigns. 
 
 Result of W E have now attended every Pope from their first 
 
 this Inqui- ',,',...-, i -r /"n 
 
 r y. institution in St. Peter, to the present Pope Clement 
 
 the Tenth, who is now living, and reckoned upon the 
 best account to be the two hundred and forty-third 
 Pope from St Peter ; and where there is any differ- 
 ence in the calculation, it is from those Pontifical 
 histories which record some Anti-Popes, who were 
 acknowledged for the true and lawful in those pro- 
 vinces, as it often fell out in all the schisms. And I 
 conceive, that upon this short view there hath not 
 been one half century of years in which it hath not 
 appeared, that the successors of St. Peter either did 
 not challenge or assume to themselves that power 
 and authority that is now claimed by divine right, or 
 that they were opposed and contradicted in the point 
 by considerable parts of the Christian Church, which 
 rejects it from a Catholic verity, and so cannot be 
 reckoned amongst the Catholic doctrines. 
 
 It
 
 DOPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 649 
 
 It will be no unnatural addition and conclusion to CHAP. 
 
 x 
 this historical discourse, to make two observations, 
 
 which may very well be verified out of it. 
 
 The first is, the extreme scandal and damage reli- Concluding 
 gion hath sustained from this exorbitant affectation 
 of superiority and sovereignty in the Pope; the great- J^ 
 est schisms and separations amongst Christians hav- f th f 
 ing flowed from that fountain ; and from thence thefectation of 
 
 T , . ii-i -i sovereign- 
 
 greatest ruin to Kings and kingdoms, in the vastty. 
 
 consumption of treasure and blood in unnatural wars 
 and rebellions, having had their original. 
 
 The second is, that Catholic Princes themselves, n. That 
 who, for their own benefit and mutual exchange of Princes 
 
 conveniencies, do continue that correspondence with 
 
 the Popes, and do themselves pay and enjoin their ^^'" 
 
 subjects to render that submission and obedience to p P e ' s di - 
 
 l.i 1 P 1 T 1 VinC r 'S hr 
 
 him, have not that opinion or his divine right, nor nor look 
 do they look upon it as any part of their religion ; a^t'of * 
 so that in truth the obligation which is imposed g ^ n r / 
 upon the Catholic subjects of Protestant Princes is 
 another religion, or at least consists of more articles 
 of faith than the Catholic Princes and their subjects 
 do profess to believe. 
 
 For the first of these, the original and progress of Historical 
 the differences and proceedings between the Popes, [he^rst'ob. 
 with and against the Eastern Church, will sufficiently servatlon< 
 manifest, that that irreparable damage to Christiani- 
 ty, and by which Turcism and Infidelity have gotten 
 so much ground, proceeded solely from the unrea- 
 sonable affectation of dominion and tyranny in the 
 Bishops of Rome, and from their magisterial rejec- 
 tion of all reasonable overtures of compliance. 
 
 What was the first scandal and offence that the Crusades 
 kingdom of Bohemia took against the Church 
 
 u u 3 Rome,
 
 650 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP. Rome, which grew afterwards into that great revolt 
 under John Huss, but that exorbitant and impious 
 
 Christian act of John the Twenty-Third, in granting the cru- 
 sade against Ladislaus King of Naples ? upon preach- 
 ing whereof in Prague, the people rose with a gene- 
 ral indignation, saying, " that none but Anti-Christ 
 " would grant a Crusade against Christians :" and 
 what advantage Luther got afterwards by the preach- 
 ing up the Indulgence, and how great a scandal it 
 gave to the best Catholics of that time, may be ma- 
 nifested at large. 
 
 Thespiri- That dreadful process of the Church, the spiritual 
 
 tual sword J - 1 
 
 of Excom- sword, which cuts off enormous sinners by Excom- 
 munication .. I '1 Til ! 
 
 employed mumcation, whilst it was applied only to the punish- 
 fa[ endsT*" men t f vice, and to separate those from the com- 
 munion of Christians who led the lives of Infidels, 
 was looked upon with reverence by the people, and 
 even with veneration by Princes themselves, whilst 
 those censures were issued to spiritual ends, and 
 only for the salvation of souls ; but when they grew 
 to be the Pope's artillery, and applied only to the 
 compassing his own temporal ends, Princes made no 
 scruple of repelling that force by force, and raised 
 Catholic armies to protect themselves against that 
 uncatholic tyranny. The instances are too many in 
 the imperial histories, and in the reigns of the Hen- 
 ries and Frederics, of great deluges of blood, and un- 
 natural rebellions, from this usurpation. Gregory 
 the Ninth first excommunicated, merely upon matter 
 of right and title, the Emperor Frederic the Second, 
 for detaining that which belonged to him by the 
 laws of the empire ; and when he was not terrified 
 with that thunderbolt, he granted the Crusade (which 
 had never before been used but to support a war with 
 
 Infidels)
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 651 
 
 Infidels) against the most Christian Emperor. And CHAP. 
 
 Alexander the Fourth did the same against Man : - 
 
 frido King of Naples, who claimed that kingdom by 
 descent from the Emperor Frederic his father. When 
 Pedro King of Arragon made war against Charles 
 King of Naples, Martin the Fourth would have dis- 
 suaded him from it, which when he could not do, he 
 issued out his process of Excommunication against 
 him ; and his successor, Pope Honorius the Fourth, 
 (who, they say, was of so virtuous and excellent a 
 disposition, that he never in his life did any thing to 
 anger or grieve any body,) continued the same cen- 
 sures against Pedro, on the behalf of the King of 
 Naples. 
 
 The case of the kingdom of Naples, with reference Deprivation 
 to the two Crowns of Spain and France, is too noto- reign^nc! 
 rious, and hath cost the lives of too many thousands ^ay^f*" 
 of the gallant persons that Europe had bred, not to p rown f ' t e 
 be mentioned. Shortly after Pope Martin the Fifth kin s dom of 
 
 i s~i ..Naples. 
 
 came to Home, upon the conclusion or the Council 
 of Constance, Lewis Duke of Anjou came thither to 
 him ; and there being at that time great differences 
 between the Pope and Jane, Queen of Naples, and 
 the Pope having a desire to make France his friend, 
 he gave the investiture of Naples to the Duke of An- 
 jou, and deprived the Queen of that crown. She 
 presently applied herself to Alonso King of Arragon 
 for aid ; and, the better to dispose him to her assist- 
 ance, and having no children of her own, she adopt- 
 ed him for her son ; who thereupon raised an army, 
 and undertook her quarrel, and therewith compelled 
 Lewis to desist from the prosecution of his pretences: 
 and so Alonso being now the stronger, the Pope con- 
 curred with the Queen, confirmed her adoption of 
 
 I T u 4 him
 
 652 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CH AP. him and his title to the kingdom of Naples after her 
 ' decease. Yet he had no mind to have so powerful a 
 
 neighbour in Italy; and therefore, the Queen in a 
 short time after disagreeing with Alonso, she, with 
 the formal consent and approbation of the Pope, 
 (who confessed himself to have been ill informed,) 
 revoked the adoption she had made of Alonso, and 
 adopted her old enemy the Duke of Anjou for her 
 son. This so incensed the King of Arragon, that he 
 threatened the Pope with a Council, and first pro- 
 posed the re-hearing of the case of Benedict the 
 Thirteenth, and afterwards set up his Anti-Pope Cle- 
 ment, (as I have mentioned before,) until he reduced 
 the Pope to reason, and to do him full justice ; inso- 
 much that he deprived Queen Jane of her crown, 
 and likewise her adopted son Lewis, and gave the 
 present investiture of Naples and Sicily to Alonso. 
 And from hence had grown that bloody difference, 
 and from the inconstancy and injustice of the Pope 
 is the foundation of that quarrel, which had lasted 
 now above two hundred years between the Crowns 
 of Spain and France about the kingdom of Naples, 
 and which hath wasted little less blood, and little 
 less infested Italy, than the incursions of the Goths 
 and Vandals did heretofore. 
 
 Case of the The case of the kingdom of Navarre may in some 
 f n Navarre. considerations appear yet harder. When the quar- 
 rel was between Pope Julius the Second and Lewis 
 the Twelfth of France, (which I mentioned before,) 
 and when Lewis was thereupon excommunicated be- 
 cause he would not give over making war upon the 
 Venetians, in which he was first engaged by the 
 Pope, Ferdinand, King of Arragon, like a good son 
 of the Church, would drive Lewis out of those domi- 
 nions
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 653 
 
 nions of which the Pope had deprived him, and so CHAP. 
 raised an army to invade France; for the facilitating 
 
 whereof he desired leave of John, King of Navarre, 
 to march through his country ; which the King de- 
 nied, both in respect of his alliance with the King of 
 France, and the inconvenience and mischief that 
 might attend the receiving an army, though of an 
 ally, into his country. This Ferdinand called a dis- 
 obedience to the commands of the Church, and an 
 adhering to its enemies, and pressed the Pope to 
 pronounce the same ecclesiastical censures against 
 the King of Navarre, as he had done against Lewis ; 
 which the Pope accordingly did, and deprived him 
 of his kingdom ; and then Ferdinando, the champion 
 of the Church, marches with his army into Navarre, 
 drives the poor King out, and possesses himself en- 
 tirely of his kingdom, without farther practising any 
 acts of hostilities against France; and, upon this won- 
 derful proceeding of the Pope, the kingdom of Na- 
 varre continues to this day in the possession of 
 Spain, and the right heirs of that King remain disin- 
 herited. 
 
 Upon this occasion I could enlarge, and shew how Dis 
 little good Christians ought to think themselves con- Pope'sju- e 
 cerned in that customary, uncharitable, and 
 
 sonable reproach of heretics and schismatics ; which nated He - 
 
 resy, and 
 
 is the usual appellation the Church of Rome and its ma <ie mat- 
 followers give to all those who are not of their com- tual juris- 
 munion, because they will not submit to its jurisdic- 
 tion ; and which are angry words they have always 
 given to the most Catholic persons, and in most Ca- 
 tholic times, with whom they have had any litiga- 
 tion ; hoping by a fond inversion of logic, because 
 the Church hath been thought the most proper judge 
 
 of
 
 654 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, of spiritual offences, to persuade the world, that 
 whatever they have a mind ,to judge and determine 
 is therefore spiritual. And as, without giving those 
 ill names of heretics and schismatics to those per- 
 sons (whether Princes or others) whom they have a 
 mind to do wrong to, they cannot handsomely pre- 
 tend to have any jurisdiction over them, those terms 
 of art are become an essential part of the form of 
 their process : so, (as hath been touched before,) to 
 The Em- omit infinite other examples, when Pope John the 
 dovlco de- Two and Twentieth was to oblige the French King, 
 Heretic 1 for ^7 disobliging the Emperor Ludovico, he cited him 
 not appear- t o appear at Avignon, whither he could not come 
 
 ing upon * . , ... 
 
 citation to without an army, it being in the dominion of his 
 
 Avignon. , r . . , . 
 
 .greatest enemy ; and tor not appearing within the 
 time prescribed, (three months,) the Pope declared 
 him Apostate, and a Rebel to the commands of his 
 Holy Mother the Church, and thereupon deprived 
 him of all his dominions, and anathematized as Re- 
 bels, Apostates, and Heretics, all persons who adhered 
 to him, or gave him any title of dignity : by which 
 we may judge how comprehensive a word Heresy is, 
 when the Pope would hurt any body he is angry 
 with ; and it relates as well to doing or not doing 
 according to his pleasure, as to impious opinions 
 
 Merchants against the good will of God. And it is no unplea- 
 sant instance that Fra Paolo gives, in his History of 
 e Inquisition, of the Bull published in the year thir- 
 
 dels - teen hundred twenty-six, which declared all those 
 who carried any merchandize to the Infidels to be He- 
 retics ; by which invention the Pope thought to have 
 had all the trade of the Levant driven by his licence, 
 all the merchants standing in need of absolution for 
 every voyage they made ; and the Pope did for a 
 
 time
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 655 
 
 time get much money by it, till that Republic would CHAP. 
 not endure that matter of trade should fall under his : 
 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 I would very willingly pass over two infamous ac- Massacre 
 tions done by Gregory the Thirteenth, if I did not theVmi 
 
 find the memory of them preserved in their own hi 
 tories, as instances of signal piety and magnanimity XIIL 
 in that Pope, which I believe all good Christians will 
 look upon as very unjustifiable. The first, his sending 
 an express to give the parabien to Charles the Ninth 
 of France, upon the massacre at Paris, in which so 
 many thousand persons of all conditions, and both 
 sexes, were cruelly murdered, without the least form 
 of justice, or manifestation of guilt, according to the 
 barbarous will and appetite of the persons employed 
 in that execrable mission of blood, and which was at- 
 tended with so many judgments upon the royal fami- 
 ly, that was universally engaged in the support of it. 
 The second, the same Pope's sending Dr. Parry to Dr. Parry 
 murder Queen Elizabeth ; which is thus far manifest ^m to' 
 in the life of that Pope, (for except out of our own Quee^E- 
 records I allege nothing,) that Dr. Parry was satisfied lizabeth. 
 by the Nuncio at Milan that it was lawful for him to 
 kill Queen Elizabeth, upon this supposition and con- 
 cession, that the act was to be performed only out of 
 Christian charity, and zeal to advance Catholic reli- 
 gion, not out of any personal animosity or revenge ; 
 and upon this grave decision of this casuist, the Doc- 
 tor had the Pope's own pass to go through France, and 
 so into England, where what became of him is well 
 enough known ; and this was the rise of all those 
 laws which have drawn so much blood from Catho- 
 lics; and from hence the Catholic religion was so dis- 
 credited, as if it cancelled all the obligations of sub- 
 
 jects,
 
 656 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, jects, and placed the security of Princes in the sup- 
 '. pression of that religion: and they who will not con- 
 
 demn that theological determination must excuse 
 those laws which endeavoured to pervert the effect 
 thereof. 
 
 Caesar That Clement the Eighth should endeavour to re- 
 
 communi- cover the Duchy of Ferrara as a feudo of the Church, 
 Heretic 8 for an( ^ to re cover it by force of arms, though that issue 
 
 was P r P er ty to be determined by a process in law, 
 of Ferrara is no wonder, nor (it may be) blame-worthy; but 
 from his that he should excommunicate Caesar d'Este for 
 making claim to it by a donation from his father, 
 the last Duke, and excommunicate him as a Heretic 
 and schismatic, who was never accused of any erro- 
 neous opinion in religion ; that he should use those 
 tragical expressions, " that he would sell all the ves- 
 " sels of the altar to maintain his army, and would 
 " himself die in the graif of the town with the bles- 
 " sed sacrament in his hand," as if the attributes of 
 God himself were to be vindicated by that action ; 
 cannot make any deep impression in the hearts of 
 Christians, or dispose them to that reverence of his 
 determination, as if they were dictated by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Rebellions Nor can the proceedings of that Pope, and three 
 
 League in or four of his predecessors, in the support of the 
 
 ported 6 by p "League in France, (which was the most barefaced re- 
 
 the Popes, bellion against two of their Kings,) be forgotten. 
 
 And what was then written in defence of the Pope's 
 
 power and proceedings cannot but have left jealou- 
 
 sies in the hearts of the most Catholic Princes, who 
 
 must discern how incongruous such an ecclesiastical 
 
 sovereignty is, and how inconsistent with the tempo- 
 
 ral in the same dominions ; and it must much more 
 
 awaken
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 657 
 
 awaken Protestant Kings and Princes, who can never CHAP. 
 
 be content that their subjects shall divide their affec : 
 
 tions between them and a foreign power, that hath 
 published such maxims. 
 
 Amongst these, the account the Cardinal d'Ossat Cardinal 
 gave the King his master must not be forgotten, when account of 
 he advised .him to declare to the Pope, that when 
 recovered the Marquisate of Saluzzo, he resolved to put 
 in a Catholic Governor and garrison, lest the appre- 
 hension the Pope had of the increase of Heresy there 
 might dispose him to adhere to the Duke of Savoy, 
 and that he might keep it ; for the Cardinal said, he 
 did know that the Pope and all his court did hold, that 
 to preserve Catholic religion in any country, and to 
 keep it from Heresy, His Holiness can and ought to 
 take it from the true Lord and possessor, and give it 
 to any other that hath no right to it, provided that he 
 can and will maintain the Catholic religion better in 
 it. And therefore Protestant Princes are not to be 
 blamed, if they are not willing that such casuists 
 should have any jurisdiction over the consciences of 
 their subjects, and desire that they, upon whose fidelity 
 and obedience their security so much depends, may 
 disclaim any consent to such odious conclusions. 
 
 I will conclude this consideration with a miserable Irish rebel- 
 instance, that is too fresh to be put out of our mem 
 ries, of the prejudice brought upon Catholic Reli- Pope< 
 gion, and the peace of kingdoms, by this usurpation 
 in the Pope ; even the miseries of our own poor 
 country, which hath been mentioned before ; which, 
 if they have not been brought upon us immediately 
 by the rebellion in Ireland, would very easily havp 
 been prevented, or at least remedied, if that rebel- 
 lion had not been a rebellion fomented, cherished, 
 
 and
 
 658 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, and supported immediately by the Pope, with all the 
 circumstances of his power in Bulls, Benedictions, 
 and presence of his Nuncio, who took upon him to 
 be General of the army in rebellion, against the 
 King, and to exercise a full sovereign power in all 
 things : and when, out of conscience, the representa- 
 tive body of the Catholics had resolved to return to 
 their duty and obedience of their lawful King, and 
 thereupon obtained from his Majesty such gracious 
 and ample concessions as satisfied and pleased them- 
 selves, and had solemnly bound and obliged them- 
 selves to perform all the offices and duties of subjects 
 in assisting his Majesty, the Pope's Nuncio absolved 
 them from all those obligations, and excommunicated 
 all persons whatsoever who should adhere to the 
 peace then so solemnly made ; by this means, and 
 finding a supine obedience in that unhappy nation, 
 deprived his Majesty of the assistance he should have 
 had, and which probably might have preserved his 
 life, and restored his dominions to peace ; instead 
 whereof, that whole nation, and the Catholics of the 
 kingdom, have suffered intolerably, and have great 
 reason to abhor that jurisdiction. 
 
 Papal juris- It were to be wished that the conveniences and 
 benefits which flow from this illimited prerogative 
 were ^ n an y degree notorious to the world ; and that, 
 
 wars or re- i n lj eu o f those many schisms and bloody wars it 
 
 bellions. i j j 
 
 hath produced, w r e could find that it had ever com- 
 posed the like distempers, and that by soft and cha- 
 ritable applications it had ever prevented those mise- 
 ries. But I doubt there will be very few instances 
 given where the spiritual sword hath been unsheath- 
 ed purely to those spiritual ends. How many re- 
 bellions have we seen raised by Catholic subjects 
 
 against
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 659 
 
 against Catholic Princes,, and yet no interposition of CHAP. 
 
 that supreme judicatory over the consciences of men ' 
 
 to punish or reform those enormous crimes ? If there 
 be such a jurisdiction over the consciences and ac- 
 tions of sovereign Princes, why is it not exercised 
 and extended towards those who, out of unchristian 
 ambition and animosity, make war upon each other, 
 to that infinite prejudice and consumption of their 
 subjects, and general disturbance of Christendom ? 
 Why doth not the Pope in those cases put Christian 
 Princes in mind of their duty to God and man, and 
 exact an obedience from them to those precepts 
 which themselves confess to be prescribed by him- 
 self? If they think not fit to proceed in those high 
 cases in any other method than by neglected and de- 
 spised mediation, yet why do they not at least issue 
 out their Excommunications against all Catholics who 
 rebel against Catholic Princes ? Why were not the 
 Catholics of Catalonia excommunicated and inter- 
 dicted for the rebellion against the King of Spain? 
 Why was not the city of Paris interdicted when it 
 shut its gates and refused to receive the King, and 
 when it published an Arret to encourage and reward 
 any man who would assassinate a Prince of the 
 Church ? It is morally certain, if these wholesome 
 and extraordinary remedies had been or were ap- 
 plied in those cases, rebellion would be at an end ; 
 nor would the discontent or ambition of any par- 
 ticular persons be able to support it. And if they 
 will not perform this Catholic office, and exercise 
 this Catholic power, where their authority is con- 
 fessed, and an obedience thereto enjoined by the 
 municipal laws of the kingdom, what hope is there 
 tfrat it would do good, or what encouragement is 
 
 there
 
 5 " 
 
 11 " 
 
 660 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, there to submit to it in other places where it is not 
 ' acknowledged ? And how hard a case is it that it 
 
 must be a part of the Religion of the English Ca- 
 
 tholics ? 
 
 Proofs of To draw then to a conclusion, and for the mani- 
 ^ h b e se s ^ d n .festation of the other proposition, " That Catholic 
 by the dit- Princes themselves, and their subjects who conti- 
 
 terent man- t " 
 
 ner and ex- " nue their correspondence with the Pope, and do 
 which the " pay that submission and obedience to him, do it 
 n t out of any opinion of the divinity of it, nor do 
 
 U P n ^ ftS a Vl ^ P art ^ ^ eir Religion," this 
 
 thoiic king- i s clear enough, by the different manner and extent 
 of the jurisdiction which he doth exercise in several 
 Catholic kingdoms ; which would be the same in all 
 if it were founded upon divine right, and he would 
 have the same jurisdiction and privilege in the king- 
 dom of France, that he hath in the kingdom of 
 Spain. 
 
 clement If the great Emperor Charles the Fifth had in 
 priw by truth believed the Church of Rome to be the mother 
 the Empe- an( j m i s tress of all other Churches, and that he did 
 
 ror Charles 
 
 v. owe a true and entire obedience to the person of the 
 
 Pope, as to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, it had not been 
 possible he could have used the person of Clement 
 the Seventh in that manner, or suffered him to have 
 been made a prisoner, and prosecuted with those cir- 
 cumstances of contumely and reproach ; but he would 
 have taken vengeance of the General and officers 
 of his army, as upon most sacrilegious wretches. 
 Whereas, when he writ to them to set the Pope at 
 liberty, he directed them to do it in such a manner, 
 that of a friend he should not become an enemy ; 
 which was, that he should be so looked to, that it 
 should not be in his power to do any harm ; and 
 
 when
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 when the Emperor afterwards did meet with the CHAP* 
 Pope, he never made the least apology for what had : - 
 been done against him, but even then compelled him 
 to that extravagancy against Henry the Eighth, with 
 whom he himself presently after made a stricter 4 
 friendship than before. 
 
 If the same Emperor had believed that the sove-Dietof 
 
 ! . f. r r i i i Spire, and 
 
 reign power, in determination of matters or raith, had the interim 
 resided in Pope Paul the Third, he would not have charks v. 
 called the Diet at Spire, and referred the examina-^" p^i]^ 
 tion of those high points then in controversy to 
 them ; nor taken afterwards upon himself to have 
 granted the Interim, by which it was lawful for the 
 several Churches in Germany to profess those opi- 
 nions, and exercise that Religion, until a General 
 Council should be called, which the Pope had de- 
 clared to be schismatical and heretical. 
 
 In the time of Julius the Third, and after the year Excommu- 
 fiftecn hundred and fifty, Ferdinand King of the Ro- Ferdinand 
 
 mans, having clearly discovered that the Cardinal 
 Georgio, who was employed and entrusted with the julius m - 
 
 r _ J and of the 
 
 command of the army in Transilvania, had a secret Republic of 
 treaty with Soliman the Grand Signior to deliver Paul v. 
 that province into his hands, and, knowing no other breach. C 
 way to prevent that mischief but by the death of the 
 Cardinal, sent chosen persons to kill him, who did 
 it accordingly ; upon which the Pope excommuni- 
 cated Ferdinand, who neither took notice of it, nor 
 made the least address to him thereupon : so that 
 shortly after he found it necessary himself to revoke 
 the Excommunication, and absolved the King with- 
 out any application to him. And what opinion the 
 Republic of Venice had of the Excommunication and 
 Interdict issued against them by Paul the Fifth, hath 
 
 x x been
 
 662 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, been mentioned at large, and few people are ignorant 
 enough to need information of it. 
 ThcSpiri- What opinion the Gallican Church hath of that 
 rei a g nty V of Spiritual Sovereignty, amongst a thousand other in- 
 denied P by stances > their proceeding in the case of Henry the 
 
 the Gaiii- F OU rth i s evidence enough, that being a case of He- 
 can Church 
 
 in the case resy, which cannot be denied to be of ecclesiastical 
 
 of Henry . i < i T- i r--n 11 
 
 iv. cognizance. And it the .Bishop or Rome hath any 
 
 jurisdiction out of his own diocese, he can reserve such 
 a case to himself as Clement the Eighth did, publish- 
 ing such his reservation, and inhibiting all other per- 
 sons to meddle in it, with all the formalities which 
 could be devised; and yet the Archbishop of Bourges 
 and seventeen other Catholic Bishops joined toge- 
 ther, and (notwithstanding the reservation of the 
 Pope, and all his threats and commands to the con- 
 trary) proceeded in the absolution of the King, 
 and received him into the Catholic Church ; nor, 
 when the Pope himself complied, could he ever af- 
 terwards prevail to satisfy the King that his former 
 absolution should ever be acknowledged to be void, 
 as hath been before observed. 
 
 Menaces Whosoever sees the expostulations which have 
 to ifrban been made, and the menaces which have been given, 
 c^Fr'anct by the King of Spain to Pope Urban the Eighth, 
 an^Pytu- upon that Pope's violent inclination to France ; or 
 nocent x. from the King of France and the Portuguese to In- 
 nocent the Tenth ; must believe that all those Catho- 
 lic kingdoms do not think the power and authority 
 of the Pope to be greater in their respective domi- 
 nions than they please to give him, nor by any other 
 title than their own donation. 
 The Pope's Since then this unnecessary universal jurisdiction 
 
 claim of u- 
 
 j u . of the Pope, which affronts the supreme government 
 
 of
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 of Kings Princes and States, and perplexes the faith CHAP. 
 of Catholics themselves, (there bein scarce one na- . .' 
 
 nsdiction 
 
 tional Church that hath the same notion of it,) being un-^ 
 hath no foundation in Scripture, where all articles of and denied 
 
 f , i_ r j j by different 
 
 faith are to be found, nor was ever exercised or pre- catholic 
 
 tended to by St. Peter; since for many bund red 
 
 years no one of his successors demanded or assumed ages> and in 
 
 J various m- 
 
 it, and, when it was first usurped, it always found stances 
 
 .. ,. , ... it is unrea- 
 
 mamfest and public contradiction' and opposition in sonabie to 
 the Church of Christ, and so it hath no foundation 
 in antiquity as a Catholic verity, but in the most 
 pure and sincere ages of the Church, it hath been subjects of 
 
 r A ^11 i Protestant 
 
 reproached as an instance of Anti-Lhristian ambition Princes. 
 and tyranny ; since it hath not yet been declared 
 or instituted in any General Council that is acknow- 
 ledged by Catholics themselves; the Council of Trent 
 itself (which added so many new declarations and 
 anathemas in Catholic Religion) pretending, that 
 though they added nothing to the Catholic faith, 
 it was necessary to enlarge upon and explain the 
 old articles, that the Church's sense might be clearly 
 known in all those tenets and opinions which they 
 accused the heretics of that age to have set on foot, 
 and yet that same Council not presuming to make 
 one Canon to declare or establish the Pope's universal 
 authority and jurisdiction, which was almost the only 
 point in which all whom they called heretics agreed, 
 and was more insisted on than any doctrinal point 
 in controversy, and therefore needed more vindication; 
 since the kingdom of France admits it in a very 
 small degree, and even controls it by some privileges 
 of the Gallican Church, whenever it would exercise 
 a jurisdiction not agreeable to the policy of the go- 
 vernment, or the pleasure of the governors, nor is 
 
 x x 2 any
 
 664 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, any determination or Bull of the Pope obligatory 
 
 : there, until received and confirmed by the Crown ; 
 
 and till then, there is the same liberty in the arguing 
 and debating the grounds and reasons of it, as if it 
 were not determined there; as appears in the disqui- 
 sition upon the five points with reference to the Jan- 
 senists by the University at Paris, and in many 
 other particulars, and in the restraints and censures 
 lately put upon the Society of the Jesuits by several 
 Bishops in their synods, directly contrary to some 
 Bulls granted by the Popes to that order; since in 
 the most Catholic kingdom of Spain, which is under- 
 stood generally to depend more on the Pope, and to 
 have his Supremacy more in veneration than all 
 other Catholic kingdoms of the world, (though, in 
 truth, it is but an exchange of mutual conveniences, 
 the Crown receiving more real benefit and advantage 
 by the Crusade, which is a vast revenue entirely 
 given him by the Pope, than it returns by all the 
 concessions it gives him in Spain,) yet, that it may 
 not be thought, whatever it is, to be of the Religion 
 of Spain, but purely of the policy, it is as penal 
 there as it was in England in the Catholic times to 
 publish any Bull, or other act of the Court of Rome, 
 without the licence and approbation of the Crown ; 
 and since the very Inquisition itself was erected by 
 the civil power and authority of the Crown, nor is any 
 direction or order to it from the Pope admitted with- 
 out the express direction of the King ; and since no 
 Bull from Rome is received, of how spiritual a nature 
 soever, that doth in the least degree concern the go- 
 vernment, or even the appetite and the humour of the 
 nation; so that, notwithstanding the Bull which Pius 
 the Fifth published against the Toros \n Spain, for- 
 bidding
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 bidding any religious or ecclesiastical person to be CHAP. 
 
 present at those exercises, and none to have Christian '- 
 
 burial who lose their lives in them, (which in truth 
 is no more than Christian temper and discretion 
 should enjoin,) yet the Clergy are formally and in a 
 body present at those entertainments, and the Pope's 
 Bull is no more considered, than if it were an injunc- 
 tion from the Archbishop of Paris, or the Gallican 
 Church ; and so, that since the year sixteen hundred 
 and thirty, in the time of Pope Urban the Eighth, 
 upon the dislike of the Pope's too violent inclinations 
 to France, the Spanish Ambassador expostulated very 
 briskly upon that inequality of his temper ; and, for 
 want of the satisfaction that was expected, the whole 
 Papal jurisdiction was suspended in Spain, and no 
 subject suffered to appeal to the Nuncio in any case 
 whatsoever: in a word, since neither Germany, 
 Spain, France, nor Italy itself, admits or receives it 
 in the same degree, nor otherwise than as it is esta- 
 blished by the municipal laws of the several do- 
 minions ; and it is less reverenced in Italy than 
 almost in any other Catholic country ; witness the 
 deportment of the Republic of Venice towards it 
 upon all occasions, and the privileges challenged and 
 assumed in Sicily and Milan, in the last whereof the 
 Missal of St. Ambrose is continued notwithstanding 
 the Pope's Bull, and so, in a matter merely spiritual, 
 it differs from all other Churches in the communion 
 of the Catholic Church ; it is therefore, upon all 
 these grounds, very unreasonable to put a yoke upon 
 the necks of the Catholics who live under Protestant 
 Princes, (who must be acknowledged to owe the 
 same allegiance to their sovereigns which is paid by 
 Catholics to their Kings and Governors,) by obliging 
 
 x x 3 them,
 
 666 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, them, to contend with the laws of their country, un- 
 der which they are born, in things merely temporal ; 
 and to distinguish themselves from their fellow sub- 
 jects, by acknowledging but half that obedience to 
 their Prince which the other pays, and in that part 
 which relates merely and purely to the peace and se- 
 curity of their common country, and not at all to the 
 exercise of their religion ; and thereby to force and 
 compel their Sovereign Princes, who should be com- 
 mon fathers to all their subjects, to give but a half 
 protection to them who will pay but half obedience ; 
 and to make the strictest laws to disenable those from 
 doing hurt by their depraved affections to their King 
 and country, who will not secure their King and coun- 
 try of their good affections to them, by taking those 
 lawful oaths which are the common bonds of all sub- 
 jects within the same dominions, and which have as 
 well to do with the illimited fancies of the brain, as 
 the dutiful affections of the heart ; and though men 
 cannot reasonably be tied to think what others think, 
 they may be ready to do what others do. For no 
 Prince nor State can be secured of the dutiful actions 
 of those who do subject themselves to opinions which 
 control those actions, and dispose the persons not to 
 perform them ; as when the Pope excommunicates 
 all those whom he calls Heretics, and absolves all 
 those who are in subjection to those excommunicated 
 persons from any oaths they have taken to them, and 
 from all duty that they are understood to owe to 
 them. And when Princes see that accordingly their 
 subjects depart from their duty and obedience, have 
 they not great reason to make themselves as sure as 
 may be, that those subjects, to whom they allow the 
 protection of their laws, Shall not submit to such au- 
 thority,
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 667 
 
 thority, nor in their opinions consent to such doc- CHAP. 
 
 trine? And if they shall refuse to make any such de -'- 
 
 clarations, have they not great reason to provide for 
 their own security by other restrictions ? 
 
 I may, after all this, reasonably wish and advise Advice to 
 all rny countrymen the Roman Catholics, who are Romarfca- 
 his Majesty's subjects, and live within his Majesty's th< 
 dominions, and under his protection, (towards many 
 of which I have always performed all offices of friend- 
 ship, and towards none whereof I have ever shewed 
 prejudice for their opinions,) that they will seriously 
 consider, whether they do not highly offend God Al- 
 mighty in refusing to give that security to the King 
 for their duty and allegiance towards him as the 
 laws require from them, and which contain no other 
 obligations than Catholic subjects stand bound in to 
 their Catholic Kings ; and whether, by adding some- 
 what to their religion which is not religion, they do 
 not deservedly bring those penalties and forfeitures 
 upon themselves, which they sustain in the very exer- 
 cise of their religion ; and whether the Crown can be 
 without a reasonable and just jealousy of their affec- 
 tion, until they renounce all kind of subjection to, 
 and all kind of dependence upon, the Bishop of 
 Rome, who doth desire all opportunities by which 
 the peace of the kingdom may be disturbed. 
 
 It is no more excuse for them, than it is security Spiritual 
 for the King, that they say that they do not acknow-the Pop 
 ledge any temporal authority to be in the Pope, so " "^f"^ 
 that he cannot disturb the peace of the kingdom ; to tem porai 
 and that, if himself came to invade the kingdom, they 
 would themselves oppose and resist him with the 
 same courage as they would fight against the Turk. 
 Spiritual authority hath done too much mischief to 
 
 x x 4 be
 
 668 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, be undervalued, or to be believed to have less mind 
 , x ' to do mischief than it hath had ; nor do they who 
 talk of resisting it know to what degree they would 
 resist, or to what degree they would not assist it, if 
 there were occasion. No man yet knows what them- 
 selves mean by that spiritual authority which they 
 own to be in the Pope, and which they would before 
 this time have carefully explained, if they thought it 
 so innocent that no harm could be apprehended from 
 it ; and, till they do clearly define what it is, they 
 must not take it ill, if we conceive that they mean 
 enough by it to compass any thing the Pope thinks 
 seasonable to apply it to. So that the attributing 
 any power to him, or acknowledging any to be in 
 him, of how spiritual a nature soever it is thought to 
 be, shall be enough to give law to the temporal, when 
 a spiritual end shall so direct it : and all Kings have 
 reason to believe, that every Pope thinks that he hath 
 the same authority over them which any of his pre- 
 decessors have ever exercised over any of their pre- 
 decessors, and as much as Bellarmine, Mariana, or 
 any other Jesuit hath assigned to them. For though 
 it may be presumed that every Pope doth not ap- 
 prove what many of his predecessors have done, (and 
 it is not reasonable or just to charge the Catholic 
 Church with those opinions which particular Catho- 
 lic writers have published,) yet, since the succeeding 
 Popes have not in the least degree disclaimed or re- 
 nounced the highest act of power which any of their 
 predecessors have ever exercised, (though they have 
 not found it seasonable or safe for them to attempt 
 ,the same usurpation,) nor hath the Catholic Church 
 condemned or disapproved those opinions published 
 by Jesuits .and other writers, which have been pub- 
 lished
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 6*69 
 
 lished by public authority, we may reasonably and CHAP. 
 without breach of charity believe, that it is only want - 
 
 of opportunity, and despair of success, that restrains 
 them from those excesses, and not any reformation 
 in their judgments, or opinion that their jurisdiction 
 is not in truth as large and illimited as any of their 
 predecessors ever presumed to infest the Christian 
 world with. 
 
 And I know very well, that, since the King's happy J he meet- 
 restoration, the Catholics, finding themselves at somndei, a f- 
 much ease that they received no disturbance nor 
 derwcnt any penalty for the exercise of their religion, 
 and well discerning; the reproach his Majesty under- that mi s ht 
 
 J J give satis- 
 
 went for his indulgence to them, as if he were not faction to 
 
 .... . J , . . the King. 
 
 without some inclination to their religion, as well as 
 charity towards their persons, which they easily fore- 
 saw would turn to their disadvantage, and that the Par- 
 liament would be induced to complain of the licence 
 they enjoyed ; and finding also, that, since they re- 
 fused to take those oaths which the laws enjoined 
 them to take, it concerned them to think of such other 
 security, by way of oath or protestation, as the King 
 might accept as of equal security ; some principal 
 persons of that religion desired that there might be a 
 meeting between the superiors and others of the se- 
 veral orders of the Clergy, that they might discourse 
 and agree together upon an oath or subscription, that 
 all Catholics might take or subscribe, to give the 
 King and the State satisfaction of their fidelity. 
 The meeting was at Arundel house, there being, be- 
 sides ecclesiastical persons, some of the nobility, and 
 other persons of quality of that Religion ; where se- 
 veral propositions were made for the disclaiming any 
 authority of the Pope in temporal affairs, to which 
 
 when
 
 6'70 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, when the company seemed generally to agree, a Je- 
 
 ' suit desired them to consider better of what they 
 
 were about, and enlarged very much that they could 
 not with a good conscience deny the Pope to have 
 authority even in temporal affairs within the king- 
 dom ; which he endeavoured to prove by many argu- 
 ments, upon which the company broke up without 
 any conclusion, and met no more upon the debate ; 
 many much disliking the Jesuit's positive discourse, 
 others thinking it not safe for them to be present at 
 such argumentations. 
 
 Necessity Nor will the secular and regular Clergy ever agree 
 p^ests as upon any expression for the excluding the Pope's au- 
 LainMo're- thority. If they were discoursed with by those in 
 "hep" e's autnor ity severally, that is, the superiors of the 
 authority m Clergy and of the several orders, some would yield 
 
 ecclesiasti- i r i v i i i i 
 
 cai affairs much farther than others ; and, it may be, some or 
 in tempo- them, if they might have any reasonable presump- 
 ral - tion that they should not be exposed to a foreign ju- 
 
 risdiction abroad for denying it at home, would ea- 
 sily be induced utterly to abjure any kind of submis- 
 sion to the authority of the Popes, towards whom, in 
 truth, all those who follow Jansenius (of which there 
 are very many of the Seculars, and some of the Regu- 
 lars) have very little reverence, and would have less, 
 if they might safely disclaim the having any : which 
 courage would be much advanced if they saw a dis- 
 tinction made, and those who avow the more sturdy 
 principles, and own a dependence upon the Papal au- 
 thority, made examples of and utterly banished the 
 kingdom ; which will not be a severity ingrateful to 
 the Catholics of the best quality and most peaceable 
 tempers in the kingdom, who undergo much trouble 
 and many inconveniences by the froward and impe- 
 rious
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 67! 
 
 rious humour of those fire-brands. And the prin- CHAP. 
 
 cipal care must be of those spiritual persons, the 
 
 ghostly fathers ; and if they be suffered to govern 
 over the consciences of their penitents, without en- 
 tering into any kind of obligation themselves for 
 their fidelity to the Crown, (as none of them do,) it 
 is no matter what oaths are administered to or taken 
 by the laity ; nor can less than an entire and absolute 
 renouncing any kind of submission to the Pope, as 
 well in ecclesiastical as temporal affairs, be in any 
 degree a reasonable assurance of their dutiful and 
 peaceable behaviour. 
 
 There is no authority or power that the Pope more Undefined 
 
 rt . iii extent of 
 
 atteets, or more owns and avows, or doth more exer- the Pope's 
 cise, than that, to absolve men from all obligation s 
 by the oaths they have taken, and to dispense with 
 them for violating them. And surely he can chal- 
 lenge nor usurp no power that ought to be more 
 odious and formidable to all Princes. And therefore 
 they cannot be too jealous that their subjects may 
 not be corrupted with that doctrine, or too inquisitive 
 that they may discover those who are ; which can be 
 no other way, than by their renouncing his having 
 any such power and authority : and if they refuse to 
 declare their judgments in that particular, their fi- 
 delity can be no longer depended upon than the 
 Pope will permit them to be loyal ; which is a very 
 loose and insecure title for Kings to the duty and 
 loyalty of their subjects. And yet this is all or the 
 greatest objection they can make against their taking 
 * those oaths of allegiance and supremacy, which the 
 laws require them to take. They say they are wil- 
 ling to take any oaths, that they will be always faith- 
 ful to the King, and that they will continue so, not- 
 withstanding
 
 672 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, withstanding any dispensation or injunction that the 
 
 Pope shall publish or grant ; but that they dare not 
 
 take upon them to define or limit the Pope's power 
 or jurisdiction, and so determine what he can or 
 cannot do ; as if they can warrantably declare that 
 they will not obey him, if they once believe that he 
 hath a just and warrantable power to command 
 them. 
 
 Ail Protes- They speak as much and no more to the purpose 
 considered than, that (God be thanked) there is no danger of 
 munica'ted an y such unjust injunctions ; that it is now above or 
 heretics. near a h unc } rec l years since any Pope hath mani- 
 fested any such disaffection, or issued out any ex- 
 communication or other instrument to the prejudice 
 of the Crown ; but, on the contrary, that all the late 
 Popes have manifested all possible respect to the 
 King, his father, and his grandfather, and wish and 
 advise that all their subjects should be dutiful and 
 obedient to them. If this were true, as it is noto- 
 riously the contrary, as appears by Innocent the 
 Tenth sending Rinuccini his Nuncio into Ireland in 
 the late rebellion there, (as hath been mentioned be- 
 fore,) with as full and absolute power and authority, or 
 a greater, than he gives to his Legates at Bologna or 
 Ferrara, or to his General in the dominions of the 
 Church, and who absolved all his subjects not only 
 from their allegiance, but from the oath they had 
 lately taken, upon the pacification, of future obe- 
 dience upon the King's pardon of their past trans- 
 gressions ; I say, if this interruption had not been of 
 their pretended modesty and peaceable dispositions, 
 yet we all know that they all look upon the Crown,, 
 and all Protestants of his Majesty's dominions, as 
 under the excommunication of Gregory the Thir- 
 teenth
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 6/3 
 
 teenth and Sixtus Quintus, as if the same had been CHAP. 
 renewed and thundered out again by the Urbans and 
 the Innocents, and the Clements, who have suc- 
 ceeded ; that they look upon them all as the same 
 Heretics they were when those Excommunications 
 were first issued out, and that they renounce all 
 commerce and correspondence with all Protestant 
 Princes and States, by sending or receiving Ambas- 
 sadors. This declares and avows a perpetual hostility 
 with them, which, if it were generally resented by 
 those Princes, and a war were declared by them all 
 against that Prince and all his subjects, (as by the 
 law of nations might be done,) I much doubt, or ra- 
 ther believe, that no Catholic Prince would find him- 
 self concerned in the quarrel to support an insolence 
 so contrary to their joint practice ; and which alone 
 prevents and obstructs that Christian unity which 
 ought to be, and would be, amongst all Christian 
 Princes against Pagans and Infidels, and which can 
 only hinder them from making Christendom a prey 
 to the barbarous enemies of Christ. 
 
 It is very true, that, since it hath pleased God to The 
 bless the Protestant Religion to that degree, that it O f Rome 
 
 subsists without the protection, and against all the 
 malice of its enemies; and that the Catholic Princes ,!f" e f'"' hat 
 
 " faith is 
 
 notwithstanding all the absolutions excommunica- " not to be 
 
 ... ,, "kept with 
 
 tions and interdictions from Rome, are well con- heretics." 
 tented to make and observe leagues and treaties of 
 alliance and commerce with them, and to entertain* 
 the strictest amity together, to that degree as to 
 enter into leagues offensive and defensive with them, 
 even against Catholic Princes and States ; many 
 learned and worthy persons of that Religion have 
 thought fit to renounce and disclaim that odious and 
 
 horrible
 
 6/4 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, horrible doctrine, " that faith is not to be kept with 
 " Heretics ;" an opinion only of angry and passion- 
 ate particular men, contrary to the truth and inte- 
 grity of Catholic Religion ; and even the most angry 
 men have in this last age declined the urging and in- 
 sisting upon that envious and detested proposition. 
 Yet we must say, that this renouncing and disclaim- 
 ing is but the act of particular men ; for the Faculty 
 of the Sorbonne (which hath piously and honestly 
 contradicted, and, as much as in them lies, con- 
 demned it) is but so many particular men, as to the 
 pronouncing a Catholic verity. The Church of Rome 
 hath in no degree deposited this weapon by disavow- 
 ing it, and no half age passes without avowing and 
 assuming it; and if the dictates of the Popes them- 
 selves be of authority enough to establish a Catholic 
 doctrine, the tenet and assertion will have no less 
 credit to support it. 
 
 Discourse It was but in the reign of Henry the Fourth of 
 France, (as hath been touched upon before,) that 
 Clement the Eighth, then Pope, speaking with Car- 
 dinal D'Ossat of a peace between the Crowns of 
 France and Spain, arid that they should both join in 
 a war against England, (Queen Elizabeth being then 
 alive,) the Cardinal answered him ; that the King, 
 who was always an exact observer of his word and 
 promise, would have much ado to disengage himself 
 from that alliance which he had lately renewed and 
 'confirmed by an oath : but the Pope answered him, 
 that that oath was made to an heretic, and that the 
 King had made quite another oath to God, and to 
 him ; and afterwards added, (what he had often said 
 to him before,) that Kings and Sovereign Princes 
 gave themselves the liberty to do any thing that 
 
 might
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 6/5 
 
 might tend to their advantage ; and that it was come CHAP, 
 now to that height, that nobody imputed it to them 
 
 as a crime, nor thought the worse of them for so 
 doing ; and alleged a saying of Francis Maria, Duke 
 of Urbin, who used to say, " If a gentleman or a 
 " lord, not a sovereign, kept not his word, it would 
 " be a great dishonour and reproach to him ; but So-. 
 " vereign Princes, upon interests of state, could, 
 " without any great blame, make and break treaties at 
 " their pleasure; make alliances, and, as soon as that 
 " is done, quit them, lie, betray, and do any thing 
 " else:" upon which the good Cardinal observed to 
 the King, that the hatred the Pope bore to Heretics 
 transported him so far, that he let slip out of his 
 mouth sometimes, though under the name of an- 
 other, maxims very pernicious, and wholly unworthy 
 of a man of honour or honesty. And no question, 
 this opinion of the keeping no faith with Heretics is 
 as much the doctrine of the Court of Rome now as 
 it was then ; and it was the ground of the two Bulls 
 mentioned before, and issued out by Urban and In- 
 nocent, one against the peace of Germany, and the 
 other against that of Spain with the Low Countries, 
 after those seas of blood which had been let out in 
 both those wars. 
 
 It cannot therefore be wondered at, if P rotestant Papal Su- 
 Princes cannot be confident of the affection and fide-denied m 
 lity of their Roman Catholic subjects, who refuse to 
 disclaim that power to be in the Pope which he 
 be sure to use to their destruction when he finds it Gallican 
 
 . ,. Church. 
 
 convenient ; and which power they have no obliga- 
 tion from their Religion to believe ; for if they had, 
 the College of Sorbonne would not so often have pre- 
 sumed to declare against it ; and it is no longer since 
 
 than.
 
 676 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, than the year sixteen hundred and thirty-three, that 
 - it thought fit, upon a new occasion, to renew the same 
 declaration, " quad subditi fidem et obedientiam Regi 
 " Christianissimo ita debent ut ab us nullo pratextu 
 " dispcnmri possint\ n which is as much as is re- 
 quired of those to whom the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy are administered. Whoever hath read the 
 many determinations of the Sorhonne upon this sub- 
 ject of the Pope's authority, or the considerations of the 
 learned Gerson, Chancellor of France, must confess, 
 that all the little reverence the Gallican Church hath 
 for the Pope proceeds only from the narrow conces- 
 sions that Crown hath made to him, not from the 
 conscience of what he claims as the Vicar of Christ. 
 And Petrus de Aliaco, Bishop of Carnbray, and a 
 Cardinal, says clearly in his treatise " de Authoritate 
 " Ecclesite" that those words of our Saviour, " Pelrc, 
 " rogavi pro te^ ut non deficiat fides tua" was not 
 spoken of the personal faith of Peter, " sed de fide ec- 
 " clesi& ;" and of that only it was said, that the gates 
 of hell " non pr&valebunt adversus earn, not adversus 
 " /<?;" which was the universal opinion of that age, 
 and is not different from the present ; as may fur- 
 ther appear by the censure of the Faculty of Paris 
 upon the book written within these very few years 
 by Jaques Vernant, who endeavoured to raise the 
 Pope's authority to the highest extent of the Jesuits ; 
 which censure and declaration against the proposi- 
 tions of Vernant was by this King's command, after 
 it was registered in the Parliament of Paris, sent to 
 be entered in all the Parliaments within the several 
 provinces of France. And if any doubt can remain 
 of the opinion of the Gallican Church in this parti- 
 cular, it will be cleared by reading the excellent book 
 
 of
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY: 677 
 
 of the late Bishop of Paris, Petrus de Marca, " De CHAP. 
 " Concordid Sacerdotii et Imperil? 
 
 But let the Gallican Church say what it will, and Unaltered 
 the College of Sorbonne define and determine whatichurchand 
 it thinks reasonable, and the Crown of France do^ f 
 what it pleases to manifest its power and authority, 
 there can be no question but that the Church and 
 the Court of Rome adhere still to their old most rigid 
 maxims ; and, however their civility and manners in 
 conversation are more refined, their bitterness ani- 
 mosity and malice against all those of the reformed 
 Religion are not in any degree inferior to what they 
 were when Luther first provoked them ; and all the 
 extravagant and execrable expressions they then used 
 against those of that Religion, and against those 
 Princes who countenanced them, or against those 
 Princes who would not or could not prosecute them 
 with the same fury and blood-thirstiness as they 
 wished and advised, (in which the Emperor himself, 
 as well as the King of France, or other Catholic 
 Princes, underwent a full measure of reproaches;) I 
 say, the same spirit still reigns, and the same pride 
 and acrimony will be expressed, when they shall find 
 a conjuncture which they believe will be favourable 
 to them. 
 
 And of this there needs no other manifestation The pbii- 
 
 , . , . cation of 
 
 than the many virulent expressions and invectives Pal lavicim'g 
 
 throughout the two great volumes published by the 
 late Cardinal Pallavicini against all of that Religion, ofTrent - 
 in his answer to the unanswerable History of the 
 Council of Trent, (even whilst the pillar was stand- 
 ing in Rome as the monument of the supremacy of 
 the King of France, Lewis the Fourteenth, over 
 Alexander the Seventh, Bishop of Rome,) and his so 
 carefully publishing the authentic letter sent from Paul 
 
 Y y the
 
 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, the Third to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, upon 
 his convocation of the German States to Worms and 
 the edict there, after that great Prince had enough 
 declared the esteem and reverence he had for the 
 Sacred Chair, by his sacking of Rome, and impri- 
 sonment and contumelious usage of the person of 
 Clement the Seventh, upon his odious dissimulation 
 and reiterated breach of faith : yet the next succes- 
 sor of that very Pope presumed, upon the occasion of 
 that Prince's convening that assembly, (in which that 
 edict was made for the Interim, until the differences 
 in religion could be settled by a General Council,) 
 to write that letter to him, in which he declared that 
 he had nothing to do to interpose or give rules con- 
 cerning religion, though in his own dominions, but 
 that the same depended wholly upon him as the 
 Vicar of Christ; and, besides the misapplying several 
 texts of Scripture, as if his authority over the Em- 
 peror had been fully established there, he puts him 
 in mind of the proceedings of his predecessors, the 
 Popes, against the Harries and the Frederics, the pre- 
 decessors of the Emperor, for their disobedience to 
 the Holy Chair ; and mentions' the wicked effects of 
 those treasons and conspiracies of those Popes as the 
 punishment of God upon that disobedience in the 
 Emperors ; and does upon the matter menace him 
 with the like, if he doth not retract that edict, upon 
 the observation whereof the peace of Germany did 
 entirely depend. And it may very reasonably be be- 
 lieved, that the chief end and reason of publishing 
 that book (which, by the formality of the licence, 
 and the Pope's own grant for the sole impression of it, 
 may be justly received as the doctrine of the Catho- 
 lic Church) was only to revive all those angry pro- 
 positions and bitter expressions against those of the 
 
 Pro-
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 6/9 
 
 Protestant Religion; and that they may be looked CHAP. 
 upon as such heretics as the Church can have no - ' 
 peace with or charity for, how different soever their 
 common stile is now from that which was used to- 
 wards them in that age ; and that they may see that 
 they have the same opinion of them, and kindness 
 towards them, as Sixtus the Fifth had, when he told 
 Cardinal Joyeuse that Queen Elizabeth was an in- 
 fidel deprived of her kingdom by Apostolical cen- 
 sures, and that he would treat the Turk with much 
 more kindness and condescension than he would do 
 any heretic. 
 
 And if the Pope be allowed to exercise any autho- Necessit y f 
 
 . . . . the Clergy 
 
 rity in another Prince's dominions (how limited so* taking the 
 
 , x ;1 ., psame oaths 
 
 ever the same may seem to be) under the stile 
 
 spiritual, or any other restraint, it shall, by the arti- 
 fice and comments of his emissaries the Priests, be 
 extended to such a magnitude in the hearts and af- 
 fections of the subjects, as shall be strong enough to 
 disturb and shake all the temporality, when it shall 
 be applied to that purpose ; and therefore, any pre- 
 tence to the whole must be renounced, and those 
 oaths taken by the Clergy, and by all Priests who shall 
 be suffered to abide within the kingdom, as well as 
 by the Laity, whose obedience can never be ascer- 
 tained whilst their consciences are governed or di- 
 rected by men who are not under the same obliga- 
 tions. 
 
 Next the so stupid resignation to, or introduction Papal Su, 
 of the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome into the great 
 so many provinces of the Latin Church, (for they do un^harita- 
 not pretend that any of the Greek Church, which j^jf'be" 
 was still much the more numerous, ever paid sub- tween 
 
 . . , . ~ Christians. 
 
 jection to them till within lew years, and what con- 
 
 Y y 2 cessions
 
 680 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, cessions they made for that unprofitable subjection is 
 
 ' as well known,) nothing is more wonderful, than that 
 
 it hath not been rejected by more ; since it is every 
 day more and more understood, not only by the 
 learned scholars in all Catholic kingdoms, but by the 
 great Princes and Statesmen of that Church, that it 
 is no essential part of their religion; and that it is 
 the greatest, if not the only cause of the uncharitable 
 disunion and separation between Christians ; I say 
 uncharitable, for disunion and separation there may 
 be without uncharitableness. 
 Impossibi- The temper of considering* how all good Christians 
 
 lityofthc ' . 
 
 Church of may become so far united as to pray for and with 
 seotingTo one another, (which is an expedient piously to be 
 ciifationof l n g e d f r j) hath persuaded many devout men of the 
 the Roman Roman, as well as of the Protestant party, to believe 
 
 Catholic r J ' 
 
 and Pro- as well as wish, that a way may be found out to re- 
 
 icstcint 
 
 Churches, concile both Churches ; and that one and the other, 
 parting with somewhat that may piously be parted 
 with, both may be reconciled to a charitable and re- 
 ligious communion together ; and, it may be, the 
 opinion of the easiness and probability of this, if 
 the consultation were entered upon, hath prevented 
 much of that reformation which would before this 
 time have been made in both Churches by them- 
 selves, if they had not deferred it out of an opinion 
 that it would be better done together. For neither 
 of the Churches believe that there is no doctrine in 
 either which may not be better explained, and that 
 there are not many other particulars, both in disci- 
 pline and practice, which may not be altered or de- 
 parted from, for the satisfaction of such a considera- 
 ble body of good Christians as would thereby be re- 
 conciled to one congregation and one communion. 
 
 And
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 And this would easily be done, if Sovereign Princes CHAP. 
 
 would vindicate their own authority and supreme ju 
 
 risdiction, and by National Councils take care for 
 the settling all matters pertaining to the Church in 
 their own dominions, which, by correspondence with 
 the like National Councils under the neighbour 
 Princes, will without any difficulty sever what is of 
 the essence of religion from what may in the prac- 
 tice of it be permitted, in respect of the government 
 nature and customs of several nations ; so that all 
 Christians would but submit to the present cus- 
 toms of the devotions and religious rites established 
 in the several Churches where they come ; as St. 
 Ambrose told St. Austin, that he found great ease in 
 himself (and therefore commended that temper to 
 him) in conforming to the practice of the Church of 
 Rome whilst he was at Rome, and by observing the 
 customs of the Church of Milan whilst he was at 
 Milan : and they would find argument enough in the 
 devotions of every Christian Church to communicate 
 together, (though there were many opinions, if they 
 were examined, in which they did not concur,) 
 whereby the visible and uncharitable outward schism 
 would be prevented, which alone keeps the different 
 opinions from being reconciled, by keeping them 
 from being understood. But to imagine that this 
 blessed reformation and pacification can ever be 
 made by or with the consent of the Pope, or without 
 the demolishing his Supremacy, and excluding him 
 from any power in the territories of other Princes or 
 over their subjects, is not worthy of the experience 
 or the wisdom of the present age. It is lawful and 
 reasonable for us to judge by their constant practice, 
 and what they have always done from the time they 
 
 Y y 3 have
 
 682 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, have grasped the power in their own hands, what 
 
 ' they will do for the future ; and we may be sharpr 
 
 sighted enough to discern what they ought in wis- 
 dom not to do, if they hope to preserve that power 
 still in their hands. 
 
 Opinions There are indeed two particular opinions, or rather 
 restrained imaginations, which have restrained, and (it may be) 
 andSo- sti U restrain both Catholic and Protestant Princes 
 testant f ro m pursuing this expedient, and have been enter- 
 from re- tained by many very pious and learned men of the one 
 the Papal and the other profession, as like to produce that which 
 is so desirable ; but which can less reasonably enter- 
 tain us longer, than when they first entered into the 
 minds of men. The first is, a belief, that the observa- 
 tion which the Popes of this last age cannot but have 
 made, how offensive and neglected many of their 
 usurpations grow every day to Catholic Princes and 
 States, no less than to Protestants, (who live towards 
 each other with the same fidelity and punctuality as 
 either of them observes towards the Holy Chair it- 
 self,) will induce them to consent in time to such a 
 reformation or concession as may satisfy all parties ; 
 rather than run the hazard in some sturdy conflict, 
 that may arise by very many accidents, (which may 
 naturally be supposed to occur,) to have more extorted 
 from them, when they are less at ease to contend. 
 The second is, that the growth and multiplication of 
 erroneous opinions in matter of religion, or from 
 matter of religion, (which, without being heretical 
 by any rule that is yet declared, may prove as trou- 
 blesome to the peace and unity of kingdoms, as well 
 Catholic as others, as if they were heretical,) rnay 
 dispose all Catholic Princes to oblige the Popes to 
 consent to the calling a General Council, with such 
 
 circum~
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. ' 683 
 
 circumstances with reference to liberties of all kinds, CHAP, 
 as may prepare all men to come with that temper 
 and ingenuity as shall engage them in the investi- 
 gation of truth, without inclining to faction or in- 
 terest : and men are the more in love with this reme- 
 dy, and think it like to be the more effectual, if they 
 have any other reason beside, because all Popes have 
 most unwillingly ever been drawn to submit to it, or 
 to call any Council ; except it be held in a place 
 subject to their government, and by persons like to 
 be at their own disposal. But, I say, either of these 
 expectations is not worthy of that sagacity that all 
 men of experience and observation in the great 
 transactions of the world are endued with, of what 
 opinion soever, and who know of how little preva- 
 lence the sincere and abstracted love of religion is in 
 all those transactions. 
 
 The ground of the first error hath proceeded from improbabi- 
 lity of the 
 
 the familiar, and, it may be, innocent conversation Pope's con- 
 between persons of different judgments, though bothanV" 8 
 of confessed learning, who, finding that those differ- 
 ences did not produce any aversion from each other, 
 did really believe that the same temper would work 
 the same effect in all other men ; especially in those 
 who in all politic respects seemed to them to have 
 most reason to wish a reconciliation. And from 
 hence either side makes conclusions according to the 
 narrowness of their own understandings, and unskil- 
 fulness in their conjectures ; whilst one of them con- 
 cludes, that the Church of Rome would make more 
 concessions than it can ever be induced to make ; 
 and the other as unwarrantably thinking, that such, 
 or it may be fewer condescensions, would satisfy all 
 the Protestant Princes or Churches, of which kind of 
 
 Y y 4 satis- 
 
 mation or 
 concession.
 
 684 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, satisfaction they have no manner of comprehension ; 
 and, by having a good opinion of each other's man- 
 ners and sincerity, think that the differences be- 
 tween them are rather verbal, than real and sub- 
 stantial, (which in some particulars is true enough,) 
 and that there wants nothing towards a perfect re- 
 conciliation but unbiassed and dispassioned persons 
 to negociate it ; without considering how few. such 
 dispassioned persons there are in the world, and that 
 none such ever had, or ever will have, power to con- 
 tribute to it. Though there may be, as I said, men 
 of good learning and much honesty, who, dissenting 
 in their judgments, have the same fancy, and do 
 heartily wish the same thing, and what they say, yet 
 the little experience I have had of those persons 
 hath made me observe, that the Catholics have al- 
 ways had great advantage by the want of ingenuity, 
 and by giving themselves leave to say what they 
 wished, rather than what they knew or believed. 
 
 Before the troubles which broke out in the year 
 sixteen hundred and forty, when the Church of Eng- 
 land was thought to be in no danger of oppression, it 
 was a common bait laid out by many learned Catho- 
 lics, that the differences were so small between the 
 Church of England and that of Rome, that they 
 were easy to be reconciled ; towards which Mr. Da- 
 venport *, a Franciscan Friar of good learning, made 
 his approach, in a book wherein he calls himself Fran- 
 ciscus a Sancta Clara; and the which I the rather be- 
 lieve to be well intended, because it was suppressed by 
 
 * [Christopher Davenport, born at Coventry 1598. entered into the 
 Franciscan Order by the name of Franciscus a Sancta Clara ; Provincial of 
 his Order in England, and one of the Chief Chaplains to the Queen of King 
 Charles II. See Wood's Athena Oionienses, second edit, vol. it. p. 652.] 
 
 the
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 685 
 
 the Inquisition. And it was in those days commonly CHAP. 
 
 said hy a Benedictine Monk of the most eminent learn 
 
 ing, who went by the name of Father Leander, " that 
 " if any member of the Church of England would, 
 " in the way of confession, assure him, that for all his 
 " opinions in religion he would very willingly submit 
 " them to, and stand to the judgment of a General 
 " Council, when it should be called lawfully, he for 
 " his part would immediately give him absolution, 
 " and reconcile him to the Church ;" and I am not 
 sure that this profession from a man who was well 
 thought of, and known to have very little reverence 
 for the Pope, did not make impression upon some 
 men of good parts ; when he could not but know, 
 that upon such a general profession and confession, 
 or without an absolute abjuration of the Church of 
 England, he could give him no absolution ; or if he 
 did, that, by the rules to which he was subject, both 
 the absolution and reconciliation are void, and of no 
 effect. Alas ! those, and the men of that class, know 
 little of the Pope's constitution, and how little he is 
 to be moved by overtures of reconciliation. 
 
 It is equally unreasonable to expect that the Pope 
 will willingly depart from any of those prerogatives, 
 with which his predecessors have been invested, or 
 of which they have been possessed for some hundred 
 of years. He sees all his neighbour Princes not only 
 positive in enjoying what their ancestors have left to 
 them, without inquiring by what right or title they 
 came to it, but solicitous to increase their power, and 
 to enlarge their dominions ; and so he easily satisfies 
 himself with retaining the authority he finds himself 
 in possession of, whether he be sure that Christ left 
 it him or no. And as other Princes think themselves 
 
 rather
 
 686 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, rather obliged to provide for their own greatness, 
 
 : and the plenty and happiness of their own dominions, 
 
 than to contribute out of their own to make their 
 neighbours more at ease, so he looks upon himself as 
 trusted to support the Papacy to the full height at 
 which he received it, and not in the least degree to 
 diminish the state, and revenue, and dependence 
 which belongs to himself, to increase and establish 
 the peace and security of all the Christian world be- 
 sides. How independent and infallible and supreme 
 soever the person of the Pope is, and how uncon- 
 trollable soever his authority is, yet it is a Catholic 
 doctrine, that he may be deposed if he become here- 
 tic ; and therefore he is obliged, for his own security, 
 never to be suspected to incline to those who have 
 withdrawn their obedience from the Church, for what 
 reason soever. He knows very well, that consenting 
 to any alteration in opinion or practice, to comply 
 with the consciences of other men, will encourage 
 others to make more unreasonable demands. That 
 a palpable error and mischief ought not to be re- 
 moved to comply with the presumption of a poor 
 Friar, was reason enough to restrain Leo the Tenth 
 from satisfying Luther in some particulars which 
 were agreeable enough to his own judgment and dis- 
 cretion. There is nothing more manifest (both by 
 the instructions to the several Ambassadors, and by 
 the frequent declarations and importunities of the 
 Bishops of France and Spain, as well as of Germa- 
 ny) than that those kingdoms did desire that the 
 Sacrament might be delivered in both kinds ; and 
 France as well as Germany did heartily wish that 
 the growing and spreading schisms in both nations 
 might be composed, by permitting marriage to the 
 
 Clergy,
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 687 
 
 Clergy, as well as the cup to the Laity ; so that nei- CHAP. 
 ther of those points were then looked upon by those - 
 Catholic countries as contradictions to Catholic reli- 
 gion, nor could the Pope then have avoided consent- 
 ing to those and other reformations, if he had not 
 eluded their importunity by seeming to concur with 
 them in opinion of the convenience and benefit of 
 what they proposed, and in his inclination to grant 
 that himself, out of the plenitude of his own power, 
 which would endure long contest, and take up very 
 much time in the Council ; by which pretence, 
 and the jealousy which he kindled between those 
 Princes upon their other pretences and different in- 
 terests, he prevailed with them all that those parti- 
 culars should be referred by the Council to the de- 
 termination of His Holiness, and thereupon consent 
 that the Council should be dissolved : after which 
 he would never endure either of the particulars to be 
 proposed to him ; declaring upon all occasions, in sea- 
 son and out of season, in earnest and in jest, that the 
 Council itself would have gratified those Princes and 
 nations in what they desired, if they had not known 
 that it was not consistent with Catholic religion. 
 And now both of them, the single life of the Clergy, 
 (with what scandal or wickedness soever accom- 
 panied,) and the receiving of the Communion in one 
 kind, (how contrary soever to Christian institution,) 
 are looked upon as main pillars of the Catholic faith, 
 and no proposition in Calvin is less consistent with 
 the Roman religion, than the violation of either of 
 those particles. 
 
 The other expedient towards reconciliation, by 
 
 General Council, administers less of hope, because ing a cie- 
 
 i.ral Council
 
 688 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, it is in a degree impossible. For the proof whereof, 
 before we shall make use of other arguments that are 
 
 to any ef- . . 
 
 fectuai pur- demonstrative, we may urge the judgment of a late 
 Pope himself; for his own approbation and licensing 
 makes what is so approved and licensed to be his own. 
 
 Not for Cardinal Pallavicini hopes (which rnav be well 
 
 Cardinal 
 
 ni s rea- 
 sons. 
 
 Paiiavici- called the judgment of Pope Alexander the Se- 
 venth) that the reading his History of the Council of 
 Trent, granting it should produce no other fruit, will 
 yet remove a scandal common enough among zea- 
 lous but inexperienced persons in civil affairs, which 
 is, why in this age Popes do not assemble Councils 
 as they used formerly to do, as the canons do enjoin, 
 and as the restoration of our decaying and sinking 
 discipline seems to require. " Without doubt," says 
 he, (for I use no other words than his own,) " who- 
 " ever reads the successes of this last Council, even 
 " in those things wherein Suave and I do not dis- 
 " agree, will find, that in the mystical heaven of the 
 " Church there is no conjunction harder to be made, 
 " or, being once made, of a more dangerous influence, 
 " than a General Synod ; so that, as long as the 
 " course of the world shall go on as it does," (this 
 was said not above a dozen years since, and there 
 appears no alteration since that time,) " an attempt- 
 " ing it in extreme necessity would be a perfect 
 " tempting of God, and such an assembly would 
 " make the Church run an evident risk of having its 
 " flock scattered ;" and so, according to his usual un- 
 wariness, he proceeds to the use of other arguments, 
 the strength whereof chiefly implies, that it would 
 be very inconvenient and mischievous to the Pope 
 that there should be any General Council convened ; 
 
 which,
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 689 
 
 which, as I sard before, is the best, if not the only CHAP, 
 argument, which prevails with most men to believe 
 that it would produce much good. 
 
 But, whatever other men may think or say, it 
 must seem very strange, especially to Catholics, who 
 are persuaded to think that their religion and Church 
 itself is founded very deep in the authority and an- 
 tiquity of General Councils, which destroyed and 
 rooted up all those thorns and briars, the heresies 
 and impieties which were like in its infancy to have 
 choked religion, and to have rendered it utterly un- 
 fruitful, and which have given and preserved all that 
 vigour which hath sustained it ever since ; it must, 
 I say, seem strange to all such Catholics, to hear it 
 said by a Pope, or a Cardinal with the Pope's appro- 
 bation, " that the attempting to call a General Coun- 
 *' cil, as long as the course of the world goes as it 
 " now does, would be a perfect tempting of God ;" 
 and " that such an assembly would make the Church 
 " run an evident risk of having its flock scattered." 
 If this appears scandalous to the ordinary rank of 
 Catholics, how much deeper impression must it 
 make upon all those (who, we may reasonably con- 
 ceive, will amount to a major part of the Roman com- 
 munion) who do really believe that a General Coun- 
 cil is the only representative of the Church, and hath 
 the supreme jurisdiction to depose the Pope ? And 
 whosoever submits to the Councils of Constance and 
 Basil do so believe. And will not all these men be apt 
 to think, that those men, who will have no General 
 Synods, would have no other Church than what is 
 comprehended within the sole person of the Pope, 
 and would rather be without the promise made by 
 our Saviour to his Church, than that it should be 
 
 under-
 
 690 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, understood to be made to any other representa- 
 
 _^i tive? 
 
 other rea- However, (though not for the Cardinal's reasons,) 
 
 sons for its . . . 
 
 impossibi- 1 do with some confidence conceive that it is de- 
 monstrable to be utterly impossible that a General 
 Council can ever be lawfully called, or assemble to 
 any purpose; unless it were possible that a Council 
 could first meet to determine what another Council 
 should or could do, or what submission should be 
 paid to it when it is assembled. 
 
 It is not because no single person doth or can as- 
 sume, or indeed pretends to the power of calling 
 it, in such a manner and quality as those Emperors 
 confessedly had, who summoned those four first 
 (Ecumenical Councils, which are received, and I 
 think submitted to, by all Christians, and who were 
 the Sovereigns of all those Prelates who were con- 
 vened to meet, and could therefore compel them to 
 meet, and could likewise compel all Christians (for 
 all Christians were their subjects too) to submit, and 
 yield obedience to their decrees ; whereas no Em- 
 peror, nor the Pope himself, (who claims absurdly 
 the sole power to call and to dissolve all Councils,) 
 doth presume or pretend to call the Prelates who 
 are subjects to other Princes to attend in those 
 Councils against, or without their own Sovereigns' 
 consent ; so that those meetings must be (whatever 
 the stile of the summons is, as that of the Council of 
 Trent was an original) by a general consent of Sove- 
 reign Princes, before they do any thing ; and then, 
 when they have done all they can, there must be 
 another consent and approbation and reception, by 
 the same Sovereign Princes, before any of their sub- 
 jects are bound to yield obedience to the decrees. 
 
 I do
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 691 
 
 I do not state the impossibility of the meeting CHAP.. 
 
 in a General Council from hence, how great soever '- 
 
 the difficulties appear to be ; for it is possible, and 
 but possible, that all Christian Princes, even when 
 all the world is Christian, may agree and consent 
 to send their several Prelates, or so many of them 
 as are fit, to represent their national Churches, to 
 be present in a General Council ; for we may law- 
 fully expect in that conjuncture, when all the world 
 is Christian, that there will be another spirit of 
 meekness and charity in all of them, than is yet 
 discovered to be in many of them. But the impos- 
 sibility will consist in not finding a place where this 
 General Council can hope to meet, and from thence 
 return to give an account to their Princes and their 
 People, who sent them, of what hath been deter- 
 mined. 
 
 It must be a convenient place, where all who 
 are Christians at present, (which, God knows, is 
 but a very little part of the world,) and all who we 
 are to believe will be Christians, may meet ; that is, 
 all mankind that inhabits the world ; of the magni- 
 tude whereof we have no rational rules to judge by ; 
 and our experience leads us into despair of ever hav- 
 ing any knowledge of it, by the very little that any 
 of those have attained who have spent their whole 
 lives in the inquiry, and going from province to 
 province, and from kingdom to kingdom ; most 
 whereof have never returned to let their friends 
 know what they have seen ; and they who have 
 given the largest account have seen so little of any 
 of the four quarters of the world, that we have re- 
 ceived very little information from them, otherwise 
 than for the satisfaction of a lawful and innocent cu- 
 riosity,
 
 692 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, riosity, of which there is no end or satiety. And if 
 there were no other argument than this to convince 
 and confute the illimited and extravagant ambition 
 of the Pope, it would be enough to make the impos- 
 sibility manifest, that our Saviour could leave any 
 such single person for the administration of so large 
 a jurisdiction, of which he can receive neither ac- 
 count or information in the whole current of his life, 
 though it should be much longer than any of those 
 Vicars have lived. 
 
 Result of Indeed, if we shall confine our General Council 
 riesofthe only to the Prelates of the Latin Church, (which 
 would be an ill argument to prove the divine institu- 
 
 ^ * ne Universal Bishop,) we may then resort to 
 
 cmi. 
 
 Cadi- 
 nai Paiiavi- the Cardinal's authority, and, from the reading the 
 
 History of the Council of Trent, and from the other 
 as authentic records of that convention, conclude, 
 that if there be not a simple and direct, there is a 
 presumptive and rational impossibility, that any such 
 Council as, even with that restriction, can be called 
 General, will ever meet; and if it should, that it 
 would ever be effectual towards the peace and union 
 of the Church. We may all know, if we will take 
 the pains, how much all Catholic Princes did desire 
 and resolve to reform the exorbitancies and corrup- 
 tions of the Court of Rome, and to abridge the ex- 
 cessive personal power of the Pope himself, when for 
 so many years they called for, and at last even com- 
 pelled bini to consent to, a General Council; which 
 was by a thousand artifices eluded, corrupted, and 
 made ineffectual, as soon as it was convened at 
 Trent ; and which, by the proceedings and discove- 
 ries then made, hath convinced the world, 1st, that 
 it is impossible that even that part of the Christian 
 
 Church
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 698 
 
 Church can reasonably hope to meet in any General CHAP. 
 
 Council ; 2dly, that in any assemblies of that kind, 
 
 the Pope presiding, (except it be with such limita- 
 tions as he will never consent unto,) he will sa- 
 crifice the peace, and happiness, and piety of all par- 
 ticular kingdoms and nations to his own private in- 
 terest, ambition, and tyranny ; 3dly, that the fac- 
 tion and emulation between the Catholic Princes 
 will never suffer those assemblies to contribute to the 
 lessening and restraining the Pope's authority, how 
 grievous soever it is to themselves, and how much 
 soever they resolve to controul it by their own acts 
 of power in their own dominions, or any where else, 
 and how much soever they contemn it with reference 
 to conscience and religion ; because it would look 
 like a public compliance witii the Protestants. And 
 these three conclusions are notorious and manifest in 
 that excellent history written by Fra Paolo, the Ve- 
 netian, of the proceedings in that Council, and no 
 less in the bitter, virulent, and voluminous answer 
 which the Cardinal Pallavicirii hath published against 
 that history ; and in which latter Work (besides the 
 refutations and contradictions which are in the most 
 minute and frivolous particulars, as the days of the 
 month when the congregations were held, and the 
 number of the persons present, or opposing each other, 
 and the like) the artifices and uningenuity of the Court 
 of Rome, and the unalterable principles of the policy 
 thereof, with their imposing upon the Bishops who 
 are their subjects, and their palpable corrupting and 
 buying the votes of others who are the subjects of 
 other states, the corrupt designs and intrigues of all 
 the Catholic Princes to compass some design of their 
 own, and their absolute command over the con- 
 
 z z sciences
 
 694 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, sciences of their own Bishops and Clergy, and lastly, 
 the liberty which all Princes reserve to themselves to 
 receive or reject, according to their own will and 
 pleasure, all that shall be resolved and concluded in 
 those Councils, are as evident and apparent as in the 
 other. So that in truth the long labours of that Car- 
 dinal (though he confesses he hath built upon an- 
 other man's foundation) have rather furnished us 
 with an addition and supplement of many useful re- 
 cords and memorials which were wanting to the 
 
 O 
 
 other, than weakened the faith or credit of the other, 
 in whatsoever of importance that was delivered by 
 him. 
 
 Catholic Not to speak of the factions artifices and sinister 
 down by contrivances which are unavoidable in all popular as- 
 cii of Trent semblies, and of which some of the Fathers coinplain- 
 t ^ tnat there was too much even in some of those 
 
 sons who w hi cn are acknowledged by all to be CEcumenical, it 
 nions con- is morally impossible that there can ever be expect- 
 by the ed a General Council to be assembled together, that 
 shall be equal and indifferent for the decision and 
 determination of all points in controversy, which al- 
 ready are, or hereafter may grow, in matters of reli- 
 gion. Let there be such an agreement in the calling 
 it that it shall meet and come together, the first 
 great controversy that must be determined must be 
 the preeminence and power which the Bishop of 
 Rome assumes and would usurp over the rest ; and 
 that point is like to find a very righteous decision by 
 the impudent, absurd, and unnatural exclusion of 
 whole Christian kingdoms and states from being pre- 
 sent, and having places and votes in those Councils 
 which are to argue judge and determine from 
 whence the true cause of the schism and separation 
 
 hath
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 695 
 
 hath proceeded, and where the greatest errors in CHAP, 
 doctrine or practice are received and countenanced. 
 Whereas, in those primitive Councils in which any 
 heresies have been examined considered and con- 
 demned, as the Arian, Eutychian, and the rest, those 
 Bishops who were known to be Arians, or tainted 
 with the other heresies, were all present, and had 
 their places in those Councils with the other Bi- 
 shops, arid argued, debated, and so defended their 
 own assertions, and gave their own free votes in the 
 scrutiny, when by the major part their opinions were 
 condemned. But the Council of Trent hath left it 
 as a Catholic rule, that no person, who holds any 
 opinions which have been condemned by the Pope, 
 shall have any place in the Council : so that all ap- 
 peal to future Councils, which hath been the uncon- 
 trolled liberty and practice in all the ages of the 
 Church, is at once taken away or eluded, and the 
 only use of Councils declared impertinent ; since all 
 their wisdom and authority is vested in the Pope. 
 Upon this ground all the Lutherans, and the rest of 
 the reformed religion, were excluded, and had no 
 other place offered or allowed to them in that Coun- 
 cil, but as criminals ; and had liberty rather to de- 
 fend their persons, and answer for their lives, than to- 
 maintain or justify their doctrine or opinion : and 
 Virgerius, the Bishop of Capo d'Istria, though he 
 had been Nuncio for the Pope in Germany, and 
 came to that Council as a member of it, because he 
 was known to be of Luther's judgment in some 
 points, could not be admitted to sit there by the Le- 
 gates, unless he would first go to Rome, and justify 
 himself to the Pope ; and the Cardinal Pallavicini 
 thinks he hath answered it very substantially, when 
 
 z z 2 he
 
 696 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, he says, " Venne nl Concilia esser ammesso fra giudici 
 u di quelhifede, dalla, quale errava*? " He came to 
 " the Council to be admitted amongst the judges of 
 " that religion which he contradicted ;" as if it were 
 a reasonable thing to oblige a man, who hath a con- 
 troversy for his inheritance, to refer the decision to a 
 person who makes claim to the same inheritance : 
 and so the poor Bishop (to prevent the being sent to 
 Rome) was compelled to make his escape into the 
 country of the Grisons, amongst whom he spent 
 the remainder of his life, and published his work 
 in defence of his opinions. According to this me- 
 thod they proceeded likewise against Ermande, Elec- 
 tor and Archbishop of Cologne, without suffering 
 him to take his place in the Council as a member of 
 it. So that nobody can wonder that no Protestant 
 kingdom, or province, or person, can look upon that 
 little convention (which in many sessions, wherein 
 they pronounced Canons of faith in points of contro- 
 versy, did not exceed the number of forty) as a Ge- 
 neral Council of the Catholic Church, of which it 
 had none of the marks essentially necessary to it. 
 Dissatisfac- Enough hath been said before of the proceedings 
 Court of he m this Council ; and therefore I shall only add a 
 Rome with wor( j U p O n what passed after the conclusion of it ; 
 
 the canons 
 
 made by by which the Pope's tergiversation was yet more no- 
 
 theCoun- J . & J 
 
 cil of Trent, tonous and scandalous alter the Council was dis- 
 solved, and the decrees which were passed were to 
 be confirmed by him. Though the Crowns were 
 eluded in all things which they were contented 
 should be referred to the Holy Chair, upon the as- 
 surance they had of satisfaction ; and though the 
 
 a Pars I. lib. vii pag. 590. 
 
 Bishops
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 697 
 
 Bishops had been likewise prevailed upon to leave CHAP, 
 their jus divinum, and their residency, (upon which - 
 they had with so much reason and obstinacy insist- 
 ed,) to the same determination, upon the same pro- 
 mises ; yet there were many Canons passed by the 
 Council itself for the reformation of several corrup- 
 tions in the Court of Rome, of which the Princes 
 and the Prelates had complained so loudly, and the 
 Popes themselves had, in their several Bulls for call- 
 ing the Council, confessed to need reformation; and 
 therefore the Council could not avoid consenting 
 thereunto. The Reformation cut off many fees and 
 emoluments from the Datary, and all other offices of 
 the Court, and abridged much of the power of those 
 officers ; so that they who had bought their offices 
 at a vast expence of money found that by these new 
 Canons half or more of their annual profits, accord"- 
 ing to their usual computation, were absolutely taken 
 away and remitted ; which put the whole Court into 
 such an uproar, that the Pope was petitioned, that 
 he would by no means confirm those canons, which 
 very many of the College of Cardinals thought it 
 very unjust for him to do, and the Pope himself de- 
 clared a marvellous aversion thereunto, and exceed- 
 ingly blamed and inveighed against his Legates for 
 having consented, and thereby exposed him to so 
 great a reproach, as the consenting or not consenting 
 must inevitably bring upon him. 80 that the Le- 
 gates, who, during the whole time that the Council 
 sat, sustained the burden of all the complaints and 
 reproaches which the Ambassadors of the Princes 
 and States and the Bishops every day laid upon 
 them, and had with admirable dexterity and address 
 declared all things which might seem to trench upon 
 
 z z 3 the
 
 698 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, the supreme authority of His Holiness, were now 
 put to undergo a new mortification at Rome, when 
 
 and where they expected all imaginable applause and 
 reward. A Consistory was called, where the Pope 
 himself declared his dislike of what had been yielded 
 to in the Council, and that he was resolved never to 
 confirm all that was there done ; and thereupon he 
 appointed a congregation of the Cardinals, who were 
 possessed with his own prejudice, to peruse and con- 
 sider all the Canons which had been made in the 
 Council, and to select those which were fit for his 
 confirmation ; and the rest should remain uncon- 
 firmed ; which was the best expedient that they 
 could think of to satisfy the Roman Court, as well as 
 the Christian Church. 
 Confirma- After much time spent in this consultation, Carck- 
 
 tion of the 
 
 canons by na j fMorone a l, who had been one of the Legates, de- 
 
 the Pope, . "r TT . TT ,. , i r 
 
 and for sired His Holiness well to weigh the consequence or 
 sons! l the resolution he seemed to be inclined to ; that he 
 would remember the importunity which the Chris- 
 tian world had used for many years that a General 
 Council might be called, not more for the extin- 
 guishing the heresies, which were grown up in the 
 Church by Luther in Germany, and Zuinglius 
 amongst the Swiss, than for the reforming many 
 abuses which had slipt into the Court of Rome ;*W 
 that Clement the Seventh, though he called not the 
 Council, acknowledged publicly those abuses to be 
 so great and so scandalous, that he was resolved to 
 begin with the reformation of those before he would 
 call a Council, and appointed a congregation of Car^ 
 1 ' '. .~inrj : 
 
 a [Moronc. See Historia del Concilia Tridentino di P. Soave, p. 798. edit, 
 ful. Land. 1619.] 
 
 dinals
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 699 
 
 dinals to consider and prepare what was necessary CHAP. 
 
 towards that reformation ; that the two Popes sue - 
 
 ceeding, and also His Holiness in whose time the 
 Council was convened and sat, had by their Bulls 
 taken notice how absolutely necessary it was to pro- 
 ceed in that reformation, as well as in the doctrine 
 that concerned the Heretics ; that the importunity 
 used in that Council, by the Ambassadors of Princes 
 for that reformation, was at least equal to the con- 
 cernment they seemed to have in the spreading of 
 the heresies ; that His Holiness would call to mind 
 the trouble and perplexity he was often in, out of the 
 apprehension of several particulars, pressed with great 
 passion by the Prelates of Spain and Portugal, as 
 well as of those of Germany and France, that the 
 right and authority of the Sacred Chair would be in- 
 vaded ; and how solicitous and impatient he had been 
 that an end might be put to the Council, since there 
 was too much cause to fear that there would be want 
 of moderation in it ; that by God's blessing, and 
 their punctual observation of his wise instructions, 
 they had put an end to all his fears and apprehen- 
 sions, with the consent of the Emperor, Kings, and 
 Princes, and the general approbation of the Christian 
 world, which expected to receive the fruit and bene- 
 fit of so many years consultation in the peace and 
 tranquillity they should enjoy in the Church ; and all 
 this without the least prejudice to, or diminution of, 
 his Apostolical power and jurisdiction ; and that if 
 after all this, and when all men were prepared to 
 submit, and to be obedient to what the Council had 
 determined, His Holiness should now make such a 
 distinction between the Acts and Canons of the Coun- 
 cil, as to confirm some, and reject others, he would 
 
 z z 4 himself
 
 700 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, himself minister occasion to revive the controversy 
 upon the power of General Councils, which there 
 had been a great inclination in the Council to have 
 vindicated, and which they had with much trouble 
 and dexterity declined and diverted; and, by reject- 
 ing some of the Canons, he would make the validity 
 of the rest, which he should confirm, doubtful, and 
 liable to be disputed ; of which the Heretics would 
 make great benefit and mirth, whilst the Emperor, 
 Kings, and Princes, would be so much unsatisfied 
 and scandalized, that he must expect a new and joint 
 importunity from them all, that he would call a new 
 Council, both to interpret the Acts of this, and sup- 
 ply the defects of it ; all which might be prevented 
 by his confirmation of all the Acts which had been 
 transacted there, without distinction, or seeming un- 
 satisfied in any particular : and this could not but 
 give ample contentment to all kingdoms and coun- 
 tries abroad, which would be abundantly pleased, 
 when they should see all the Canons of the Council 
 now made valid by his final decree and confirmation, 
 and published to the world ; nor could it produce 
 the least prejudice or inconvenience to the Court of 
 Rome, or the officers thereof, who thought them- 
 selves most concerned ; for, he said, that there had 
 been care taken in the penning those Canons which 
 related to reformation in such ambiguous terms, and 
 with those doubtful expressions, that they would al- 
 ways want an interpretation ; and they who were in 
 the sense they conceived it to receive a benefit by 
 the same, were no more competent interpreters of 
 that sense than they were who were to undergo the 
 damage : so that in all cases the appeal must still be 
 to His Holiness, who would give such an interpreta- 
 tion
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 701 
 
 tion as should be just and equitable; whereby, he CHAP, 
 said, in a very short time all things would be as they 
 were. The Pope easily comprehended the reason 
 and consequence of what had been said, and imme- 
 diately called for all the Canons, and confirmed them 
 without farther hesitation ; and it fell out as had 
 been foretold by the Cardinal, and, after some few 
 short contests, and interpretation given, all things re- 
 mained as /they were, and there was never any fruit 
 or benefit from any of those Canons of reformation. 
 
 By all that hath been said, it may appear to any National 
 dispassioned man, how impossible it is that there the best 
 can ever any such Council meet in the future, that 
 can with any reason be looked upon as General, for 
 all the Christians of the world ; and if such a one 
 could meet, how impossible it would be to agree 
 upon such a practice of religion as all parts should 
 submit to in all particulars ; that is, it would never 
 be thought fit that the same thing should be observ- 
 ed in all places, by reason of the different customs in 
 several nations ; and therefore every kingdom and 
 distinct dominion must provide for its own peace 
 and uniformity, by such National Councils as the 
 sovereign power shall think fit; in which it will have 
 an equal care to provide against any submission to a 
 foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction, how limited and re- 
 strained soever, as against an invasion by a powerful 
 army of his greatest enemy ; and as these National 
 Councils have, through the several ages of the 
 Church, been the best conservators of Christian reli- 
 gion, and sometime preserved the purity thereof from 
 the corruption of more general assemblies, (as in the 
 Arian Heresy,) so the discontinuance and intermis- 
 sion of them may reasonably be thought a principal 
 
 cause
 
 702 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, cause of some schisms, which have thereby crept 
 into the Church, and hath contributed more than 
 
 any thing else to the extravagant pretences and 
 illimited power of the Pope ; which will easily be 
 reduced by renewing the convention of National Sy- 
 nods, and is not like so peaceably to be done any 
 other way. This the Court of Rome knows very 
 well, and is equally solicitous to prevent such assem- 
 blies, as not to be any more importuned for a Gene- 
 ral Council, which, by the laws they have prescribed 
 to it, it is sure never to be, by any who contradicts 
 its authority. It was the terror of those frequent 
 assemblies in Germany, and the apprehension of the 
 like in France, which produced that meeting in 
 Trent, which the Popes so long opposed, and were 
 so hardly brought to consent to at last ; and which 
 by the artifice of the Popes, upon the jealousy be- 
 tween the Crowns of France and Spain, and the 
 equal jealousy of the Emperor towards all three, was 
 concluded without doing any thing which was ex- 
 pected it would have done. Nor was the Pope in a 
 small agony, after the determination thereof, whilst 
 the conference was held at Poissy in jFrance, out of 
 pure fear that those of the reformed religion should 
 obtain any grace from the King, in the straits he 
 was then in ; towards the satisfaction of whom, or of 
 those in Germany, he never adjudged any other ex- 
 pedient than the fire and the faggot, and the utmost 
 prosecution and massacre by arms, which shut all 
 doors of hope for any moderation from thence. 
 Necessity For more moderate Councils can never proceed 
 nlsh'ment f rom tne Court of Rome, or be prosecuted with any 
 effect, whilst the emissaries thereof, the Jesuits, are 
 admitted into those countries where any moderation 
 
 is 
 
 suits.
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 703 
 
 is intended to be exercised ; nor doth the one or the CHAP. 
 
 other, in -truth, desire or wish (whatever they pre 
 
 tend) that Protestant Princes should use more lenity 
 to their Catholic subjects, or abate any of the rigour 
 that is or hath been used towards them ; but rather 
 that they would extend their severity to the utmost. 
 They do not think them Catholics enough who live 
 peaceably and civilly with Protestants, and submit to 
 their government ; they are in great apprehension 
 that their conversation and civil offices, and eminent 
 piety and justice in their lives, together with the 
 benefit and advantage that may redound from their 
 conformity, may at some time work upon them to 
 their conversion, and to their conviction that they 
 cannot be good Christians without being good sub- 
 jects ; and therefore they had rather that all the 
 penalties inflicted by the law upon their lives and 
 estates were executed with the utmost severity, hop- 
 ing that that would drive them into some bold at- 
 tempt against the state, which they foolishly believe, 
 if once set on foot, would find such countenance and 
 support from Catholic Princes, that they may be able 
 either to root out the Protestant religion, or at least 
 so provide for the indemnity of their own, that they 
 shall live with equal freedom in the exercise of their 
 religion. And this was the specious imagination 
 that led the poor Irish into rebellion, and to forfeit a 
 condition in all respects as easy and as pleasant as 
 any Catholic subjects enjoy in any part of Europe ; 
 that is, they enjoyed the practice of their religion 
 without controul, and paid less imposition for the 
 support of their government than any Catholic sub- 
 jects in the world at this day are liable to, and com- 
 pelled to pay. 
 
 When
 
 704 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP. When the King was abroad in exile, under those 
 straits and perplexities which all the world hath 
 
 * heard of, (during; which time his Roman Catholic 
 su bj ec t s j two or three persons of honour only ex- 
 charksii. eepted, shewed very little affection to him, but ap- 
 ik, unless plied themselves to Cromwell, and those in power, 
 become that they might live quietly under that government, 
 Catholic, ^jgjj t ne y were willing to submit to, and to give 
 any security for their obedience,) some Catholic 
 Princes had so good an opinion of the then Pope 
 Alexander the Seventh, that they believed, though 
 he could not raise armies or provide fleets for an in- 
 vasion of England on the King's behalf, he would 
 out of generosity assist a young Prince, driven into 
 such exigence, with an annual supply for his assist- 
 ance, till the two Crowns, by a peace between them- 
 selves, might be united for the greater work ; and 
 they were induced the rather to this opinion by the 
 discourses which he was known to have had during 
 his Nunciature in Cologne, which are mentioned be- 
 fore ; and hereupon he was moved by a Catholic 
 Prince, who had himself heard those discourses, that 
 His Holiness would oblige this young King to such 
 a degree as the opulency of his own condition did 
 well enable him to do, which would be a lasting ob- 
 ligation upon him to think well of Catholics, and 
 dispose him to be gracious to those of his own sub- 
 jects, when God should restore him to his domi- 
 nions. The Pope answered, that he could not dis- 
 pose of the patrimony and goods of the Church to 
 the support of heretics ; and asked, what good he 
 would do to Catholic religion ? It was answered, that 
 if by his bounty, and the assistance of Catholic 
 Princes, his Majesty should be restored to his king- 
 
 dom,
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 705 
 
 dorn, he would infallibly cause those severe laws CHAP, 
 which are against Catholics to be repealed, or at least 
 restrain the execution thereof. The Pope asked, 
 whether the King would become Catholic ? slighting 
 all other overtures that were or could be made. And 
 it is a known truth, that the Jesuits and the Court 
 of Rome feared nothing more upon the King's happy 
 and blessed restoration, than that his Majesty's gen- 
 tle and gracious disposition might incline him to 
 consent to the repeal of all those sanguinary laws 
 which are in force against the Priests ; and therefore 
 did use all their dexterity to divert that grace which 
 they knew w r ould lessen the reverence that was paid 
 to them, and make it notorious to the world that 
 they are not under so sharp a persecution as they 
 would be thought to be. Nor will any indulgence 
 be grateful to them without an entire conversion of 
 the nation to them, and a submission to the Papal 
 tyranny, which they do assuredly promise to them- 
 selves. And this confidence can no other way be 
 abated than by an absolute indispensable banishment 
 of the Jesuits, who industriously plant other opi- 
 nions in the hearts of their proselytes than what per- 
 tain to Catholic religion, and such a resignation' to 
 and dependence upon the Papal power, as is incon- 
 sistent with their duty and obedience to the King. 
 Whereas other ecclesiastical orders, at least particu- 
 lar persons of the secular and regular Clergy, (the 
 Jesuits excepted,) may be easily found out, who are 
 of peaceable and quiet dispositions, who will give 
 that security to the State for their obedience which 
 can be desired, and renounce any other dependence 
 upon any superior, but such as the King shall ap- 
 point to govern over them. This would quickly in- 
 duce
 
 706 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, dace such a temper into the hearts of all the Roman 
 Catholics who shall inhabit in his Majesty's domi- 
 nions, that there will be little cause to doubt any de- 
 fection from them, after they have so solemnly re- 
 nounced all foreign dependence and subjection. 
 Reasons for How long soever the indulgence of Princes, and a 
 ail the Eng- mistaken charity, from the present professions of the 
 Roman Catholics, and their peaceable behaviour, 
 defer the exacting this security, so lone there 
 
 o J ' 
 
 thoiics to 
 
 renounce 
 
 the Pope's shall remain distrusts and jealousies between the 
 ey. King and that party of his subjects ; the Crown not 
 
 being able long to defend itself from the importunity 
 of the rest of his subjects, that the laws in force may 
 be put in execution against those who confess such a 
 dependence upon a foreign power, that they may not 
 give the same security for their fidelity to their na- 
 tural Prince, which all their other fellow subjects 
 do ; or from their jealousy of his affection for his not 
 complying with them in their so just and necessary 
 a demand. And the Roman Catholics themselves, 
 who are for the present without those pressures, will 
 consider, that the indulgence under which they en- 
 joy their present ease is founded only upon the gen- 
 tle- and unjealous temper of the King, which may be 
 shaken and changed by several accidents which may 
 fall out; and will, for their better security, use all 
 the artifices which occur to them to gain protection 
 from those who seem most like to be able to disturb 
 them, by mingling with some discontented party, 
 without farther design, at first, than to save them- 
 selves harmless, and to make the protection of the 
 King the more available to them ; yet in short time 
 will they give real jealousy to that power which can 
 only protect them ; and then this sovereign remedy 
 
 must
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 707 
 
 must be applied with rougher circumstances, than in CHAP* 
 a calm and a quiet conjuncture it might be. Where 
 
 . r . . , .. , , IftheCa- 
 
 as it it were in such a season positively and reso-thoiics will 
 lutely pressed, and no other expedient allowed to ab- 
 solve the Roman Catholics from the many penalties J 
 which are already in force, and provided for them, the penal- 
 
 ii -ties against 
 
 than by their absolutely renouncing all manner or them, 
 authority or power in the Church of Rome, or in- the 
 Pope, to lay any commands upon them, and all kind 
 of obedience from them to such commands within 
 the King's dominions ; and that, upon their giving 
 that security of their allegiance and fidelity, all other 
 penalties might be for the present suspended ; it is 
 more than probable, that the most considerable part 
 of the Roman Catholics would find, that no kind of 
 dependence upon or; relation unto the Bishop of 
 Rome is of the essence of Catholic religion, or em-' 
 braced by any other Catholics in any other manner 
 than as they are directed by the laws of the kingdom 
 or country in which they live to be subject unto, 
 and therefore they would gladly redeem themselves 
 from so many disadvantages, by giving that earnest 
 of their faith, as all other subjects do : and they 
 would find enough of their best Clergy to concur 
 with them in the practice, arid support them in their 
 resolution. And it is then as probable, that the 
 State, upon the observation of the truth of their pro- 
 fessions, would by degrees repeal those severe and 
 rigid penalties, and reserve only some such distinc- 
 tion of them from other subjects as might only re- 
 tain them to their practice, without prejudice and re- 
 proach to them. For if that subjection to the Pope 
 were once disclaimed and rooted out, their other 
 errors are not dangerous to the State ; and would 
 
 sooner
 
 708 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, sooner be discovered and reformed by themselves, if 
 they were out of that captivity which deprives them 
 of the use of their own senses, and divests them of 
 the faculties of their own understandings ; and the 
 world would quickly discover that, if the Papal ty- 
 ranny were universally shaken off. 
 
 whenfo- If the authority of sovereign Princes were thus 
 diction is vindicated within their several dominions, and no fo- 
 thosetvho rc ig n jurisdiction admitted to exercise any power 
 differ from over their subjects, nor any subjects suffered to have 
 
 the esta- , . . 
 
 wished re- the least dependence or recourse to any foreign 
 
 ligion of . 
 
 the state power ; and it their own persons and power were 
 safely a<i- thus secured by a mutual alliance and defence of 
 mitted to each o ther, Princes would then easily agree what in- 
 
 the com- J o 
 
 mon privi- dulffence they would allow to such other subjects, 
 
 leges of 
 
 subjects, who are of a contrary religion to what is established 
 by their laws, when they might grant such an indul- 
 gence without any danger to the peace of their do- 
 minions. For it is neither agreeable to policy nor to 
 piety, to wish or imagine that Christians will live 
 without the exercise of their religion, how penal so- 
 ever it is to them ; or that they should be permitted 
 to live any where, where they may not likewise be 
 permitted to do whatsoever their religion obliges 
 them to do ; and it would then easily and quickly 
 appear, how many scruples they now entertain, in all 
 professions of religion, which are no parts of their re- 
 ligion, by their then casting them out. We have 
 seen how, under the disadvantages of so many laws, 
 many Roman Catholics, of the Clergy as well as the 
 Laity, have taken the oath of allegiance, and written in 
 defence of it, to the great offence and jealousy of the 
 Court of Rome : and it may be reasonably presumed 
 that very many more would have been convinced in 
 
 this
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. 
 
 709 
 
 this point, if they had found that a proportionable CHAP. 
 favour of the State had attended that ingenuity and - : 
 submission. But the law having made no distinction 
 between Catholics, (they who would take the oaths 
 being as punishable for going to mass, as they who 
 refused the oaths,) it is no wonder, that they would 
 not expose themselves to the reproach of many Ca- 
 tholics, and the censures of their own ecclesiastics, 
 when they found not the more protection from Pro- 
 testants ; and when Priests themselves were at the 
 same time excommunicated for taking the oath of al* 
 Jegiance, and condemned to greater penalties for the 
 discharge of their function in saying mass* 
 When the State, upon their making themselves en-E"^'" 11 - 
 
 , . . . . r . cal teach- 
 
 tirely subjects, by giving that security tor their loy- ers should 
 alty and allegiance which other subjects do, shall for 
 likewise receive them as subjects in all other re- 
 
 spects, and give them the same protection and privi- sion f thc 
 
 r sovereign 
 
 leges that all others enjoy, it may also be reasonably power, 
 hoped, that they will study their religion better, than leaving 
 to want the full protection of their natural sovereign supplied by 
 for paying half obedience to another sovereign, upon a for . e| s n 
 whom by the laws of God they have no dependence, 
 and to whom by the laws of the kingdom they are 
 to disclaim any subjection. In order to which, the 
 State shall do well to take care that they be provided 
 with ecclesiastical teachers, of the mildest and most 
 peaceable dispositions, by the admission of the sove- 
 reign power, without leaving them to be supplied by 
 a foreign mission ; which will always supply such 
 men who shall be more solicitous to advance that in- 
 terest than the peace of their country, because they 
 have a greater dependence upon it. Whereas, if a 
 competent number of such persons were with some 
 
 3 A formality
 
 710 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE 
 
 CHAP, formality admitted by the State upon due examina- 
 
 ' tion of their principles, and such encouragement 
 
 thereupon, that they should not find themselves in 
 danger of being exposed to that power they shall 
 once renounce ; it is probable there would be many 
 found of great fidelity to their country, and who 
 would not be shaken therein by any censures what- 
 soever ; and the State would thereby be sure to 
 know all who should presume to come into the coun- 
 try without leave, and to exclude those who are of 
 turbulent and unpeaceable dispositions. And if Ca- 
 tholic Princes were induced to make this prudent 
 provision for their own security, they would clearly 
 understand the humour and nature of all their sub- 
 jects ; and Catholics who live in the dominions of 
 Protestant Princes would depart from those tenets 
 which the essence and purity of their religion do not 
 oblige them to maintain, and which are as inconve- 
 nient to themselves as to the States wherein they 
 live ; and such Protestants as live in the dominions 
 and under the protection of Catholic Princes would 
 be easily induced to reform such parts of their re- 
 formation, as the conscience or interests of several 
 powerful instruments, who contributed to the re- 
 formation, (and without whose assistance they could 
 not have vindicated those necessary truths,) obliged 
 them to admit into their constitutions ; and who, by 
 the abatement of those passions with which their 
 predecessors were unreasonably transported, and by 
 the improvement of very good and useful learning, 
 wherein many of them abound, and the conversation 
 with learned, and prudent, and pious persons, who 
 are of another persuasion, (and who did heretofore 
 more industriously avoid the company or acquaint- 
 ance
 
 POPE'S USURPED SUPREMACY. fil 
 
 ance with each other, than the diseases or dangers CHAP, 
 which would most inevitably accompany their con- * 
 tentions,) do now discern, that whatsoever is abso- 
 lutely necessary to the service of God, and to the sa- 
 tisfaction of any sincere and well informed con- 
 science, may be still retained ; without many of 
 those affected excesses, which give most offence and 
 scandal to the lawful government under which they 
 live, and as much to many of their neighbours, who 
 have more effectually concurred with them in all par- 
 ticulars of a solid reformation ; and which in truth 
 do but serve to excuse and assist their adversaries in 
 charging them with many too just reproaches. 
 
 This would be the way, and the only way, to make 
 the practice of religion flourish amongst Christians, 
 without any violation of Christian charity ; and, the 
 uncharitableness of all faction being removed, there 
 would remain such an innocence and integrity in the 
 heart, as would make our religion acceptable to God; 
 and when no mischievous action doth necessarily re- 
 sult from our opinions, how erroneous soever, we 
 should be no more offended with each other for those 
 differences, than for the distinct colour of our eyes, 
 or hair. 
 
 MOULINS, 
 12th February
 
 INDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ADRIAN IV. Fope, interdicts 
 the City of Rome, 120. 
 
 Adrian VI. {'ope, his election, 309. 
 his character, ibid. 
 
 /F.neas Silvias. Vide Pius II. 
 
 Albigenses, propagation of their 
 opinions, 137. 
 
 Albizi, faction of, 253. 
 
 Aldelnius, St. his character and ca- 
 nonization, 101. 
 
 Aldobrandini, Cardinal. Vide Cle- 
 ment VIII. 
 
 Alessundrino, Cardinal, his sinister 
 views in supporting the election 
 of Sixtus V". 447. 
 
 AHessandro, Cardinal. Vide Pius 
 V. 
 
 Alexander I. Pope, introduced the 
 use of holy water, 14. ordained 
 that no Priest should say mass 
 oftener than once a day, Hid. 
 
 Alexander II. Pope, first establish- 
 ed the maxim, " that the Pope 
 " ought to govern nil churches," 
 96. set aside, 100. 
 
 Alexander III. Pope, cause of the 
 schism between Alexander lit. 
 and Victor V. 121. his assump- 
 tion of power over the Crown of 
 Portugal, 128. his insolent treat^ 
 ment of the Emperor Frederic, 
 129. 
 
 Alexander V. Pope, grants privi- 
 leges to the Mendicant Orders, 
 241. 
 
 Alexander VI. Pope, his infamous 
 character, 279. besieged by 
 Charles VIII. of Trance in the 
 castle of St. Angelo, 280. capi- 
 tulates, ibid, breaks the treaty, 
 ibid, burns a Dominican Friar 
 
 for preaching against his enormi- 
 ties, 281. grants the East and 
 West Indies to Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, 285. the effects of his 
 reign, 288. 
 
 Alexander VII. Pope, cause of his 
 election, 591. his character and 
 his conduct towards his family, 
 592. prosecutes Donna Olimpia, 
 594. his conduct towards the 
 Emperor of Germany and King 
 of France, 596. obtains the re- 
 versal of the Venetian decree 
 against the Jesuits, 597. con- 
 demns the Jansenists, 598. in- 
 vites his relations to Rome, ibid. 
 proceedings towards their recep- 
 tion, 600. hot* he evades the 
 oath he made, never to suffer his 
 kindred to come to Rome, 602. 
 enriclies his family, 604. his con- 
 duct towards the Duke de Crc- 
 quy in consequence of the affray 
 between the Corsican guard and 
 the Duke's servants, 611. sends 
 Rasponi to France, 622. resolves 
 upon war with France, 625. his 
 submission to the King of France, 
 628. the humiliation to which he 
 was exposed by the treaty of Pi- 
 sa, ibid, further circumstances of 
 humiliation, 631. employs the 
 latter end of his Pontificate in 
 enriching himself and his family, 
 636. refuses to assist Charles II. 
 King of England, in his exile, un- 
 less he would become Catholic, 
 704. 
 
 Alonso, King of Arragon, adopted 
 by Jane Queen of Naples, 651. 
 afterwards disowned by her, ibid. 
 3 A 4 threatens
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 threatens the Pope with calling a 
 Council, 652. the Pope obliged 
 to give him the investiture of Na- 
 ples and Sicily, ibid. 
 Alteria, Cardinal de, not allowed by 
 Pope Innocent VIII. to renounce 
 his cap, 289. 
 
 Altieri, Cardinal. Vide Clement X. 
 
 Alva, Duke of, his advice to Cluirles 
 
 V. respecting the treatment of 
 
 his prisoner, Francis I. of France, 
 
 314. marches against the Pope, 
 
 358. his letter to the Pope, 359. 
 
 besieges Rome, 361. submission 
 
 of the Pope to him, 362. sent 
 
 into the Low Countries, 374. 
 
 Amadeo, Duke of Savoy, elected 
 
 Pope, 253. 
 
 Ambrose, St. his Missal retained at 
 Milan notwithstanding the Pope's 
 Bull, 665. 
 
 Amour, Monsieur St. his acpount 
 of the proceedings at Rome upon 
 the dispute of the Jansenists and 
 Jesuits, 576. 
 Anacletus. Vide Leop. 
 Anacletus, whether the same with 
 
 Cletus doubtful, 14. 
 Ancona given to the Popes, 62. 
 Angelo, St. Cardinal Giovanni, 
 
 Vide Pius IV. 
 
 Angelopolitana, Bifliop of, goes to 
 Rome to complain of the pro- 
 ceedings of the Jesuits in the 
 West Indies, 586. forbidden by 
 the Pope to return to his See, 
 and translated to another Bi- 
 ftiopric in the most desert part 
 of Spain, 587. 
 
 Annates, origin of this payment, 
 95. when first imposed upon the 
 Gallican Church, 260. 
 Antherus, Pope, his ordinance re- 
 specting the election of a Pope, 
 30. 
 
 Antioch. Vide Council. 
 Antonio, Cardinal, requests per- 
 mission of the Duke of Modena 
 to inarch an army through his 
 territories, 551. his proceedings 
 in the conclave wherein Innocent 
 X. is elected, 564, 565. flies in 
 disguise into France, 566. his 
 cold reception in France, 569. 
 returns to Rome in triumph, 572. 
 Appeals to Rome allowed by Lewis 
 King of France, 76. origin of ap- 
 
 peals to the Pope in cases of mar- 
 rii-rt-,^03. 
 
 Arianism suppressed by the Em- 
 peror Constantine against the 
 will of the Pope, 56. 
 
 Arimathea, Joseph of, reported to 
 have first introduced Christianity 
 into Britain, 18. 
 
 Arius, his writings ordered to be 
 burnt, 22. 
 
 Aries. Vide Council. 
 
 Armenia, King of, his voyage to 
 Rome and reception there, 135. 
 
 Arragon and Castile under an inter- 
 dict, 179. 
 
 Arragon, kingdom of, becomes tri- 
 butary to the Pope, 137. 
 
 Arundel House, meetjpg at, after 
 the Restoration, to agree upon an 
 oath that might give satisfaction 
 to the King, 669. broke up with- 
 out coming to any conclusion, 
 670. 
 
 Augsburgh, peace of, 355. 
 
 Augustin sent by the Pope to sup- 
 press the Arian heresy, 50. 
 
 Avignon, the principality of, pur- 
 chased by Clement VI. for the 
 Church, 214. seized by Lewis 
 XIV. 616. 
 
 B, 
 
 Balue, Cardinal de, his arrest and 
 imprisonment for eleven years in 
 Castile, 266. disputes between 
 the King of France and the Pope 
 about the mode of his trial, ibid. 
 sent by Pope Innocent VII 1. Le- 
 gate to Charles VIII. pf France, 
 2J7. 
 
 Barbarossa driven from the go- 
 vernment of Tunis by Charles V. 
 311. 
 
 Barberini, Cardinal. Vide Francis- 
 co. 
 
 Bardini, Bernardo, assassinates Ju- 
 lian de Medici, 271. flies to Con- 
 stantinople, 275. delivered into 
 the hands of Lorenzo de Medici 
 by the Emperor of the Turks, 
 ibid. . 
 
 Baroncello, Tribune, deposed and 
 put to death by Nicolao Lauren- 
 tio, 215. 
 
 Baronius writes a reply to the Ve- 
 netian
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 netian Senate's answer to the 
 
 Pope's Bull, 500. 
 Barthelemi, St. massacre of, 427. 
 
 approved by Gregory XIII. 655. 
 Basil. Vide Council. 
 Beaufort, Duke de, commands the 
 
 expedition to the island of Cah- 
 
 dia, in theobject of which, through 
 .' his own rashness, he tails, and is 
 
 killed, 642, G43. 
 Beauvais. Vide Council. 
 Beauvais, Bishop of, taken prisoner 
 
 by Richard I. 132. 
 Becket, Thomas a, atfair of, 122. 
 Bellanninus writes a reply to the 
 
 Venetian Senate's answer to the 
 
 Pope's Bull, 500. 
 Benedict III. his election approved 
 
 by Lewis II. 83. 
 Benedict V. Pope, his tumultuous 
 
 election, 88. died in prison, ibid. 
 Benedict VI. Pope, hanged, 89. 
 Benedict IX. Pope, deposed for his 
 
 crimes, 90. 
 
 Benedict XII. endeavours to re- 
 move from Avignon to Home, 
 
 204. his conduct towards France 
 
 and England, 205. his exemplary 
 k justice, 206. interdicts certain 
 
 towns in Flanders, 208. his cha- 
 racter, 209. 
 
 Benedict XIII. Pope, his subtilties 
 to avoid consenting to resign the 
 Papacy, 233. besieged in Avig- 
 non, 234. his haughty conduct 
 after lie had established himself 
 in the Papacy, 236. his collusive 
 
 proceedings with Gregory XII, 
 237. fate of his Bull to prevent 
 the King of France from with- 
 drawing his obedience, 238. de- 
 prived of the Papacy by the 
 Council of Constance, 246. his 
 death. 249. 
 
 Berengarius, the progress and effect 
 of his opinions in France, 98. 
 
 Bernard, St. prevails upon Lewis 
 VII. to engage in person in a 
 Crusade, 119. preaches against 
 the Albigenses, 120. importuned 
 by Lucius II. to go himself in 
 person to the Holy Land, which 
 tiis Monks would not sutler, ibid. 
 
 Bernardo, King of Italy, his impri- 
 sonment and death, 77. 
 
 Be/iers, slaughter there by the Cru- 
 saders, 139. 
 
 Bishops, debates in the Council of 
 Trent respecting their institution 
 and power, 392. 
 
 Bishops of the Eastern Church dis- 
 regard the reprehensions of Pope 
 Julius, 23. 
 
 Bishops of France in the earlier 
 ages, their character, 102. 
 
 Bishop of Rome. Vide Pope. 
 
 Boniface. Vide Wenfrid. 
 
 Boniface VIII. Pope, his disputes 
 with Edward I who resists his 
 authority, 183. his disputes with 
 the Emperor Albert, 184. and 
 with Philip of France, 185. said 
 to be killed, ibid, manner oi his 
 death doubtful, 188. his charac* 
 ter, 189. 
 
 Boniface IX. Pope, his character, 
 229. endeavours to put an end to 
 the Papal schism, 230. 
 
 Books prohibited become dearer, 
 and men more curious to read 
 them, 531. 
 
 Borghese, Cardinal. Vide Paul V. 
 
 Borgia, Ca;sar, surpassed his father 
 in all kind of abomination, 279. 
 created Duke of Valentinois, 284. 
 renounces his Cardinal's cap that 
 he may marry, 284. 289. his cha- 
 racter, 289. liis remedy against 
 poison, which he had unintention- 
 ally swallowed, 290. 
 
 Borgia, Cardinal. Vide Alexander 
 VT. Pope. 
 
 Bosquet, Francis, Bishop of Mont- 
 pelier, his Lives of tbe Popes of 
 Avignon, 32, 33. 
 
 Boucicaute, Marshal cle, besieges 
 Avignon, 23a. 
 
 Bourges, the Archbishop of, pro- 
 poses that a Patriarch be creat- 
 ed to preside over the Gallicaii 
 Church, 475. 
 
 Bridget, St. of Sweden, her vision, 
 219. 
 
 Britain, i^s conversion to Christi- 
 anity, 17, 18. 
 
 Bnmus. Vide Leo IX. Pope, 
 
 Bullarium first published, 93. re- 
 published, 526. quoted, 563. 
 
 Bulls, Papal, notorious for profane- 
 ness and blasphemy, 109. 
 
 Buoncompagno, Cardinal. Vide 
 Gregory XIII. 
 
 Burgos. Vide Council. 
 
 Bury, Abbot of, exempted by the 
 'Par-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Parliament from all episcopal j u- 
 risdiction, 100. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cagliego, Bishop of Gerona, pro- 
 tests against the decrees of the 
 Council of Trent, 394. 
 
 Calcedon. Vide Council. 
 
 Calixtus III. Pope, justifies the Pu- 
 celle d'Orleans, 261. 
 
 Calvinism charged upon the Jan- 
 senists, 573. 
 
 Cambray, Bishop of, taken pri- 
 soner, 133. 
 
 Candia relieved by the Pope, 642. 
 joint expedition of the French 
 and Venetians for its farther re- 
 lief, ibid, failure of the expedi- 
 tion, 643. 
 
 Canea besieged by fifty thousand 
 Turks, 642. 
 
 Canonization, mode of, in the tenth 
 century, 102. 
 
 Canterbury, Archbishop of, claims 
 jurisdiction over the University 
 of Oxford, in opposition to the 
 Pope's Bull, 239. 
 
 Capuchins expelled the Venetian 
 dominions, 499. 
 
 Caraffa, Pedro de. Vide Paul IV. 
 
 Cardinals, not respected above 
 other Prelates till the time of 
 Leo IX. 29. ordered by Pope 
 Honorius III. to be shut up in 
 the Conclave during the election 
 of a Pope, 31. none but Cardi- 
 nals eligible to the Papal Chair, 
 a modern restriction, 35. their 
 delay m electing a successor to 
 Paul III. 37. their foul practices 
 and corruption in Papal elec- 
 tions, 36. 38. when first treated 
 with that stile, 91. enjoyed not 
 the exclusive privilege of elect- 
 ing the Pope till the time of 
 Pope Nicholas II. 95. their pri- 
 vileges in Conclave enlarged by 
 Clement VI. 214. entitled to 
 vote in Conclave immediately 
 upon their nomination, 217. they 
 summon the rival Popes, Benedict 
 XIII. and Gregory XII. to ap- 
 pear at a Council at Pisa, 240. 
 their number limited by Pope 
 Martin V. 247. a boy of thirteen 
 
 years of age created a Cardinal 
 by Innocent VIII. 277. a youth 
 under twenty years of age, Page 
 to Pope Julius II. created a Car- 
 dinal, 342. the insolent treat- 
 ment they experienced from Six- 
 tus V. 460. forbidden by Inno- 
 cent X. to go out of the domi- 
 nions of the Church without the 
 Pope's licence, 568. a. boy of 
 eighteen years of age created one 
 by Innocent X. 589. 
 
 Castilians refuse to obey the Pope's 
 ' mandate for suppressing the Go- 
 thic missal, 99. 
 
 Castro, affair of the Duchy of, 547. 
 required to be restored to the 
 Duke of Parma in the negocia- 
 tion between the Duke de Cr6- 
 quy and Rasponi, 621. its resto- 
 ration to the Duke of Parma, 
 629. 
 
 Catharine, St. of Sienna, her vision, 
 219. 
 
 Catholics, advice to English Ro- 
 man Catholics, 667. reasons for 
 requiring all the English Roman 
 Catholics to renounce the Pope's 
 supremacy, 706. if they will ab- 
 jure the Pope, the state may re- 
 mit the penalties against them, 
 707. should be provided with ec- 
 clesiastical teachers by the ad- 
 mission of the sovereign power, 
 without leaving them to be sup- 
 plied by a foreign mission , 709. 
 
 Celestin II. Pope, renounces the 
 Popedom, 115. 
 
 Celestin III. Pope, his treatment 
 of Philip II. King of France for 
 putting away his Queen, Isem- 
 bergh, 134. 
 
 Celestin V. Pope, the circumstances 
 of his election, 182. his incapa- 
 city, ibid, his renunciation of the 
 Papal Chair, ibid, canonized by 
 the name of St. Peter the Her- 
 mit, ibid. 
 
 Ceremonies of religion, by whom to 
 be enjoined, 3. cannot be univer- 
 sally establifhed, 5. 
 
 Chalons, the Chamber at, condemns 
 the Pope's Bull for excommuni- 
 cating Henry IV. Ring of France, 
 474. 
 
 Charlemagne, Emperor, confirms 
 
 his father's grants to the Popes, 
 
 63.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 63. obtains the right of approv- 
 ing the election of the Bishops of 
 Home, 64. is declared Imperator 
 Ronuinorum, ibid. invests the 
 Pope with authority to serve his 
 own purposes, 65. introduces the 
 Papal authority into France, 70. 
 ,: crowned Emperor, 74. extinction 
 , of his line, 84. 
 
 Charles of Anjou challenges Don 
 Pedro to determine by combat 
 their respective claims to the 
 kingdom of Sicily, 176. 
 
 Charles U. King of England, re- 
 fused assistance by the Pope un- 
 less he would become Catholic, 
 704. 
 
 Charles V. Emperor, his accession 
 to the empire, 309. his behaviour 
 to Francis I. of France, when the 
 King was his prisoner, 314. his 
 behaviour to the Pope, 315. has 
 but little reverence for the Pope, 
 318. obliges Paul III. to call a 
 General Council, 330. defeats 
 the attempt of the Pope to re- 
 move the Council from Trent to 
 Bologna, 331. calls a Rational 
 Council at Worms, and grants an 
 Interim of twenty-six articles, 
 332. enjoins that no stranger 
 should have any benefice or pen- 
 sion in Spain, 335. grants a sate 
 conduct to all who wished to be 
 present at the Council of Trent, 
 348. acknowledges not the sove- 
 reign power of the 1'ope, 660. 
 makes a prisoner of Pope Cle- 
 ment VII. ibid, calls the Diet of 
 Spires, and grants the interim, 
 661. 
 
 Charles VI. King of France, his 
 embassy to Benedict Xllt. to 
 persuade him to resign the Papal 
 Chair, 233. 
 
 Charles VII. King of France, re- 
 stores the liberties of the Galli- 
 can Church, 259. relieves the 
 Gallican Church from the op- 
 pression it had experienced from 
 the Court of Rome, 261. appeals 
 to a General Council against 
 Pope Pius Il.'s Bull, which re- 
 quires him to abolish the Prag- 
 matique, 263. 
 
 Charles VIII. King of France, in- 
 vades Italy, '279. enters Rome, 
 
 280. besieges the Pope in the 
 castle of St. Angelo, ibid. 
 
 Chichely, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, persuades Pope Martin to 
 repress the abuse of Indulgences 
 in England, 247. 
 
 Chigi, Cardinal. Vide Alexander 
 VII. 
 
 Christendom, state of, during the 
 infancy of the pretences of tlie 
 Popes, 48. 
 
 Christian Religion, Sovereignsbound 
 to protect and advance it, 1. its 
 propagation obstructed by the 
 ambition of the Popes, 7. 
 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, her 
 letters to the King of France, 
 618. 
 
 Church, origin of its privileges, 65. 
 causes and consequences of the 
 separation between the Greek 
 and Latin Church, 255. 
 
 Churches, their foundation encou- 
 raged by Constantine, 68. 
 
 Church, Gallican, its Bishops jea- 
 lous of the Papal encroachments, 
 53. its state, 115. redeemed from 
 the tyranny of the Pope by 
 Charles VII. 259. the oppression 
 it experienced from the Popes, 
 260. considers not the Papal ju- 
 risdiction as a fundamental part of 
 the Christian religion, 476. deni- 
 ed the spiritual sovereignty of the 
 Pope in the case of Henry IV. 
 662. 
 
 Church of Rome never disclaimed 
 the tenet, " that faith is not to 
 " be kept with Heretics," 673. 
 its unaltered spirit, 677. impossi- 
 bility of its consenting to any 
 reconciliation of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic and Protestant Churches, 
 680. 
 
 Clement, appointed by St. Peter to 
 succeed him, which he is said to 
 have refused, 13. 
 
 Clement II. Pope, his election, 90. 
 poisoned, ibid. 
 
 Clement III. created Pope by the 
 Emperor, in opposition to Gre- 
 gory VII. 108. 
 
 Clement IV. ['ope, crowns Charles 
 of Anjou King of Naples and Je- 
 rusalem, 165. his character, 168. 
 
 Clement V. Pope, how elected, 31. 
 
 suppresses the order of Knights 
 
 Templars^
 
 f rf D E X. 
 
 *j:. , i.oj. 
 
 Templars, 32. the conditions 
 upon wluch he was elected, 192. 
 removes to Avignon, ibid, per- 
 formance of the conditions upon 
 
 . which he was elected, 193. ini- 
 quitously absolves Ring Edward 
 I. of England of all his oaths for 
 the observation of the laws and 
 charters, ibid. 
 
 Clement VI. Pope, makes the cities 
 which had adhered to Lodovico 
 swear, as matter of Catholic faith, 
 that the Pope was above the Em- 
 peror, 210. 
 
 Clement VII. Pope, elected at Fun- 
 di in opposition to Urban VI. 
 224. acknowledged by Scotland 
 and France, 228. his character, 
 
 310. sends his gallies with Charles 
 V- to settle a Mahometan in his 
 throne at Tunis, 311. conse- 
 quences of his unsteady conduct, 
 
 311. his war with Cardinal Co- 
 lonna, 313. absolves Francis 1. 
 of France from his oath to ob- 
 serve the treaty of Madrid, 317. 
 made prisoner by Charles V. 
 660. 
 
 Clement VIII. Pope, speedily after 
 his election declares for the 
 League, 478. refuses to give ab- 
 solution to Henry IV. King of 
 France, upon his conversion, 479. 
 481. his reconciliation with Hen- 
 ry IV. King of France, 487- an- 
 
 i .juris the marriage between Henry 
 
 ,Jiy> and Margaret his Queen, 
 
 487. his condescensions to Hen=- 
 
 , ^3iy IV- King of France, ibid, his 
 
 K ; (Ejiscpurse with Cardinal d'Ossat, 
 674. 
 
 Cleiiient VIII. Anti-Pope, elected 
 in Spain, but in five years re- 
 signs, 249. 
 
 Clement IX. Pope, his character, 
 636. his policy towards France 
 and Spain, 638. moderation tt>: 
 wards his own family, 639. his 
 conduct towards the island of 
 Candia, 640. 
 
 Clement X. his election, 645- 
 
 Clergy, owe not their privileges to 
 the Pope, 65. their rights as an- 
 cient as Christianity, ibid, uni- 
 versal reverence for ministers of 
 religion, 66. character of the pri- 
 mitive Clergy, ibid, privileges 
 
 I" * f 
 
 conferred upon them by the peo- 
 ple enlarged by Constantine the 
 Great, 67. become the third es- 
 tate in most parts of Europe, 68. 
 their corruption, 69. jealous of 
 the Papal power, ibid, their a- 
 buse of die rite of Confession, 
 632. 
 
 Clergy of England, their aversion to 
 a Papal jurisdiction previous to 
 the reign of Henry II. 124. re- 
 monstrate against the exactions 
 of Pope Gregory IX. 154. pro- 
 test against the Pope's collecting 
 money from them, 163. Edward 
 I. puts them out of his protection 
 for adhering to the jurisdiction of 
 the Pope, 183. they pay one 
 fourth part of their goods to be 
 restored to favour, 184. necessity 
 of the Roman Catholic Clergy 
 taking the same oaths as the Lai- 
 ty, 679. 
 
 Clergy of Spain, their profligacy 
 and ignorance, 97. 
 
 Clermont. Vide Council, 
 
 Cletus, it is uncertain whether he 
 was the immediate successor of 
 St. Peter, 13. whether the same 
 with Anacletus doubtful, 14. 
 
 Clovis, King of France, his conduct 
 and character, 51. divides his 
 dominions amongst his four sons, 
 73. 
 
 Coire, Bishop of, his conduct to- 
 wards Pope Julius II. 300. 
 
 Colet, Cardinal, sent into France 
 by Pope Martin IV. to imest 
 Charles, Count of Valois, \\ith 
 the kingdom of Arragon, 177. 
 
 College, one founded at Rome by 
 Pope Gregory XIII. for the in- 
 struction of Englishmen in the 
 principles of the Catholic reli- 
 gion, 429. 
 
 Colonna, Cardinal, wages war a- 
 gitinst the Pope, 313. drives linn 
 out of Rome, ibid. 
 
 Communion, sub utraqve specie, 
 granted to the Bohemians by the 
 Council of Basil, 251. allowed to 
 Protestants by the National 
 Council at Worms, 332. argu- 
 ments upon, in the Council of 
 Trent, 389. 
 
 Conclave, management of, 38. Vio- 
 
 lent proceedings in, upon the 
 
 death
 
 INDEX. 
 
 death of Innocent IX. 476. infa- 
 mous proceedings in, for the elec- 
 tion of Paul V. 491. 
 Confession, the infamous use some- 
 times made of this rite by Catho- 
 lic Priests, 632. 
 
 Conformity, religious, amongst 
 Christians cannot be universally 
 established, 4. 
 
 Conrade, Emperor, engages in per- 
 son in a crusade, 119. 
 Conradin, his defeat and execution, 
 
 167. 
 
 Constance. Vide Council. 
 Constantine, the Emperor, preserv- 
 ed the Popes from persecution, 
 21. said to have been christened 
 by Pope Silvester I. ibid, his acts 
 of piety in building churches, 
 ibid, present at the Council of 
 Nice, over which he presided, 22. 
 suppresses Arianism, 56. 
 Constantine I. Pope, excommuni- 
 cates and deprives Philippicus, 
 Emperor of the East, 60. 
 Constantine IV. Emperor, his mo- 
 tives for releasing the Popes from 
 the necessity of being approved 
 by the Emperor, 69. 
 Constantinople. Vide Council. 
 Constantinople, Patriarchs of, re- 
 fuse to submit to the Pope, 44. 
 46. taken by the Turks, 255. 
 Converts, their zeal, 86. 
 Corsica granted to the Pope, 75. 
 Corsican guard of the Pope, their 
 affray in the streets of Rome with 
 the French servants of the Duke 
 de Crquy, 610. required by the 
 treaty of Pisa to be for ever ba- 
 nished from the ecclesiastical 
 state, 629. 
 
 Councils, whatsoever was decreed 
 in the earliest Councils was not 
 transacted publicly, 16. Coun- 
 cils called by Bishops in Gaul, 
 62. frequently held by order of 
 the Emperor, and more frequent- 
 ly by Kings, 53. Councils often 
 assembled to decide solely upon 
 cases of marriage, 103. impossi- 
 bility of calling a General Coun- 
 cil to any effectual purpose, 687 
 692. a general Council can 
 never be assembled that is equal 
 to the decision of all points in 
 
 controversy in matters of reli- 
 gion, 694. National Councils the 
 best conservators of religion, 
 701. 
 
 Council at Antioch, 16. 23. 
 Council of Aries, 22. 52. letter from, 
 
 to Pope Silvester, 54. 
 Council of Basil, 35. dissolved by 
 Nicholas V. 36. declares the 
 Pope subject to the Council, 251. 
 dissolved, 255. 
 
 Council of Beauvais assembled to 
 decide the frivolous question, 
 " whether St. Martial should be 
 " called an Apostle or a Confes- 
 " sor," 116. 
 
 Council of Burgos, 109. 
 
 Council of Calcedon, 26. 
 
 Council of Clermont, 122. 
 
 Council of Constance, 35. declares 
 that a General Council in matters 
 of faith and reformation is above 
 the Pope, 244. 
 
 Council at Constantinople con- 
 demned the use of images, 83. 
 the use of images justified in a 
 subsequent Council, 84. three 
 Councils of Constantinople con- 
 demned by Pelagius II. 93. 
 
 Council, Eliberitan, at Granada, 
 22. 
 
 Council at Ephesus, 26. of Es- 
 tampes, 118. 
 
 Council of Ferrara, called by the 
 Pope in opposition to the Coun- 
 cil of Basil, 253. 
 
 Council of Florence, called by Pope 
 Victor II. to reform the ecclesi- 
 astical tate, 97. 
 
 Council of St. John de Late ran, 
 118. declares the Council of Pisa 
 null, 301 opposed by the Clergy, 
 the Universities, and the Parlia- 
 ment of France, 805. 
 
 Council of Lymoges, called to 
 decide the frivolous question, 
 " whether St. Martial should be 
 " stiled an Apostle or a Confes- 
 " sor," 115. 
 
 Council of Lyons, 192. 
 
 Council at Mantua, 99. 
 
 Council of Milan, 29. 
 
 Council of Montpelier, 139. 
 
 Council of Nice, 21. 55. 
 
 Council of Paris, 195. 
 
 Council of Pavia, 121. 
 
 Council'
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 Council of Perpignan condemns the 
 Council of Pisa, 241. 
 
 Council of Pisa, 299. sets aside the 
 rival Popes, and elects Alexander 
 V. 241. 
 
 Council of Ravenna, 27. 
 
 Council at Rome assembled by 
 Victor, the first lawful one after 
 that of the Apostles at Jerusalem, 
 15. called by Pope Silvester I. 
 22. called by Pope Gregory If. 
 61. an ordinance of, in the time 
 of Adrian I. 64. 
 
 Council at Sinuessa, 16, 17. 
 
 Council of Spires, declared that the 
 Pope had no jurisdiction over the 
 Emperor, but that he was his 
 subject, 34. denies the Pope's 
 authority over the empire, 203. 
 
 Council of Toledo forbids Priests to 
 marry, 25. 
 
 Council of Trent called, but not as- 
 sembled to any effectual purpose 
 during the reign of Paul III. 330. 
 meets and proceeds, 349. 380. 
 proceedings and disposition of 
 the Council, 382. disposition of 
 the Italian Prelates, 383. of the 
 Spanish Prelates, ibid. French 
 Prelates, 384. different Princes, 
 ibid, contests between France 
 and Spain for precedence in the 
 Council, 386. debutes on doctri- 
 nal points, 389. proceedings with 
 reference to Queen Elizabeth, 
 397. sudden agreement in the 
 Council, 403. its causes, ibid. 
 haste in passing its decrees, 414. 
 end of it, 416. observations upon 
 Pallavicini's History of the Coun- 
 cil, 417. Henry IV. refuses to 
 publish its canons in France, 488. 
 a Catholic rule laid down by it 
 for excluding all persons who hold 
 opinions condemned by the Pope, 
 694. dissatisfaction of the Court 
 of Rome with the canons made 
 by the Council of Trent, 696. its 
 canons confirmed by the Pope, 
 and for what reasons, 698. called 
 to prevent the meeting of Na- 
 tional Councils, 702. 
 Council of Vienne, 32. 195. 
 Council of Worms, 107. National 
 Council at Worms called by 
 Charles V. Emperor, 332. 
 
 Crquy, Duchess de, assaulted in 
 her carriage in the streets of 
 Rome by the Pope's Corsican 
 guard, 610. 
 
 Crlquy, Duke de, Ambassador 
 from France to Home, 608. ani- 
 mosity between the Pope's fa- 
 mily and the French Ambassa- 
 dor, 609. his conduct upon the 
 affray between the Pope's Cor- 
 sican guard and his own ser- 
 vants, 611. his answer to the 
 letter of the Cardinal Chigi, 621. 
 negociation with Rasponi, 62^. 
 Cross, when worn on the breast, 
 and when on the shoulder, by cru- 
 saders, 139. 
 Crusades favoured the authority 
 
 of the Popes, 114. 
 Crusade of Lewis VII. and the Em- 
 peror Conrade, 119. indulgences 
 granted by Gregory VIII. to 
 those who would engage in a 
 Crusnde, 130. of Richard 1. of 
 England, and Philip II. of 
 France, ibid, against the Albi- 
 genses, 137. of St. Lewis, 157. 
 against Manfredo and Ecelino, 
 162. against Manfredo renewed 
 by Urban IV. 164. against Don 
 Pedro of Arragon, 177. against 
 Laodislaus King of Naples, 243. 
 fatal consequences of Crusades 
 granted against Christians, 650. 
 Cyprian, St. refused to submit to a 
 Council called in Africa by Pope 
 Stephanus, 16. 
 
 D. 
 
 Davenport, Mr. writes a book to 
 reconcile the churches of Rome 
 and England, 684. this book 
 suppressed by the Inquisition, 
 685. 
 
 Diego, Don, King of Arragon, his 
 gallantry with Donna Teresa 
 Vidaura, 158. his excommunica- 
 tion and absolution, 159. 
 
 Dominic, St. converted many who 
 had adopted the opinions pecu- 
 liar to the Albigenses, 138. his 
 canonization, 151. 
 
 D'Ossat, Cardinal, his Letters, 38. 
 Easter
 
 INDEX. 
 
 E. 
 
 Easter, the time of keeping it deter- 
 mined by Pius I. 15. 
 
 Ecclesiastical history imperfect from 
 the Apostles to Constantine, 12. 
 
 Edward I. King of Englund, intro- 
 duces the Pope's authority into 
 England to controul the Clergy, 
 163. passes various acts to limit 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction with- 
 out consulting the Pope, 163. 
 
 Edward I II. King of England, his de- 
 fiance of the Pope's authority, 209. 
 211. makes it death for any man 
 to present or admit any persou 
 upon any collation from Rome, 
 ibid, elected Emperor, but de- 
 clines the Imperial crown, 212. 
 
 Eleutherius, the correspondence be- 
 tween him and Lucius King of 
 Britain doubted, 17. 19. 
 
 Eliberitan Council. Vide Council. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, in- 
 vited to the Council of Trent, 
 381. doctrinal points given up to 
 her on condition that she would 
 acknowledge the Pope's supre- 
 macy, ibid, excommunicated hy 
 Pope Pius V. 423. Parry's plot 
 to assassinate her, 655. 
 
 Eminence, title of, conferred upon 
 Cardinals by Urban VIII. 
 
 England, state of, during the infan- 
 cy of the pretences of the Popes, 
 49. invaded by the French in the 
 reign of King John, 148. acknow- 
 ledged not the supremacy of Six- 
 tus IV. 276. 
 
 Ephesus. Vide Council. 
 
 Erasmus foretels who shall not be 
 elected Pope, 304. 
 
 Ermande, Elector and Archbifliop 
 of Cologne, refused, on account 
 of his opinions, a seat in the 
 .Council of Trent, 696. 
 
 Estampes. Vide Council. 
 
 Este, Caesar D', excommunicated as 
 a heretic for claiming the Duchy 
 of Ferrara as a gift from his fa- 
 ther, 656. 
 
 Ethelwolf, his grant to the Church 
 of Rome, 85. 
 
 Eugenius IV. Pope, dispenses with 
 
 the oaths of the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy and Ladislaus King of 
 Hungary, 251. banished from 
 Rome by the people, 253. 
 
 Evaristus, by Eusebius called the 
 successor of Clement, 14. 
 
 Excommunication, with deprivation, 
 first exercised by Pope Constan- 
 tine 1. against Philippicus Em- 
 peror of the East, 60. when ap- 
 plied to spiritual ends was re- 
 vered by princes and people, 650. 
 when employed for temporal pur- 
 poses wus resisted, ibid. 
 
 F. 
 
 Felix V. Pope, resigns the Papal 
 Chair, 255. 
 
 Ferdinand, King of Arragon, the 
 manner in which he possessed 
 himself of the kingdom of Na- 
 varre, 653. 
 
 Ferdinand, King of Castile, dispute 
 between him and the Emperor, 
 98. calls the Cortes, ibid. 
 
 Ferdinand V. King of Spain, joins 
 with the Pope against France, 
 298. promotes a treaty between 
 the contending parties, 300. ob- 
 tains Navarre from the Pope, 
 301. his death, 307. 
 
 Ferdinand, King of the Romans, 
 without the consent of the Pope, 
 puts to death Cardinal Giorgio, 
 347. excommunicated, but soon 
 after absolved, 347. 661. 
 
 Ferrara. V ide Council. 
 
 Ferrara, Duke of, joins France 
 against Pope Julius II. 296. 
 
 Ferriere, II, his absence from the 
 two last sessions of the Council 
 of Trent, 418. 
 
 First fruits of vacant sees, first re- 
 served to the Holy Seat by John 
 XXII. 202. Henry IV. of Eng- 
 land prohibits the levying of first 
 fruits for the Pope on pain of 
 prtcmunire, 239. 
 
 Five-Churches, Bishop of, his pro- 
 position respecting the Eucharist, 
 390. 
 
 Florence. Vide Council. 
 
 Fontenay, battle of, 81. 
 
 France, state of, during the infancy 
 
 of
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ot" tlie pretences of the Pope, 51. 
 the Pupal authority introduced 
 by Charlemagne, 70. its early 
 state, 102. first put under an in- 
 terdiction by John XIX. 105. 
 war between France and Pope 
 JuJius II. 296. state of, during 
 the minority of Charles IX. 374. 
 proposes to mediate between 
 Paul V. and the Republic of Ve- 
 nice, 506. 
 
 Francis, St. his canonization, 151. 
 Gregory IX. testifies that he had 
 the very marks in his flesh of our 
 Saviour, 155. Bull in vindication 
 of his honour, 164. 
 
 Francis I. King of France, a great 
 King, 307. taken prisoner at the 
 battle of Pavia,314. entertains but 
 little reverence for the Pope, 318. 
 dissuades the Pope from excom- 
 municating Hen. VIII. of Eng- 
 land, 321. 
 
 Francisco, Cardinal, sent by the 
 Pope Legate to France* 536. a 
 letter of his intercepted, betray- 
 ing the Pope's insincerity in the 
 arf:iir of redelivering Castro to 
 the Duke of Parma, 554. his pro- 
 ceedings in the Conclave wherein 
 Innocent X. is elected, 564, 565. 
 to avoid the Pope's displeasure 
 retires to France, 566. his cold 
 reception in France, 569. obtains 
 liberty to return to Rome, 572. 
 his influence in the Conclave, 
 591. nearly elected Pope, ibid. 
 
 Frederic Barbarossa, Emperor, for- 
 bids his subjects to appeal to 
 Rome, and refuses to receive a 
 Legate from the Pope, 121. 
 
 Fresue, Monsieur de, his Letters 
 upon the dispute between Paul 
 V. and the Republic of Venice, 
 520. 
 
 Fulgentio derides, in his writings, 
 the Papal dignity and authority, 
 501. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaul, state of, during the infancy 
 of the pretences of the Pope, 52. 
 its churches independent of the 
 Pope, 54. 
 
 Gelasius II. elected Pope though 
 no Priest, 114. 
 
 Germany, state of, during the infan- 
 cy of the pretences of the Popes, 
 57. the Clergy sign au obligation 
 to obey the Church ot' Rome and 
 the Pope, 70. the calamities 
 brought upon it by the victorious 
 King of Sweden, 555, 556. 
 
 Germany, Emperor of, revival ol 
 his right of approving the election 
 of Popes, 88. the jniodes of elect- 
 ing them, and their coronation by 
 the Pope, established by Otho 
 III. 89. the Clergy and 1'eople 
 of Rome take an oath never to 
 elect a Pope without the licence 
 of the Emperor, 91. 
 
 Gerona, the Bishop of, his tongue 
 cut out for betraying the secret 
 of an amour of the King of Aira- 
 gon, 159. 
 
 Gilbert of Parma. Vide Clement 
 III. 
 
 Giorgio, Cardinal, put to death for 
 treasonable practices, 347. 
 
 Godfathers and Godmothers in bap- 
 tism introduced by Pope Hygi- 
 nus, 14, 
 
 Goths, irruption of, into Italy, 25. 
 
 Glass windows, when first introduc- 
 ed into England, 51. 
 
 Gregorian office and mass, intro- 
 duced into the Gallican Church, 
 72. 
 
 Gregory I. Pope, surnamed " The 
 " Great," endeavours to avoid en- 
 tering upon the Papal office, 47. 
 raises the Papacy to a higher 
 pitch than it had ever before 
 reached, ibid, the treatment he 
 experienced, 48. adds four days 
 toLent,t6id. compiles the missal, 
 ibid, his authority denied by the 
 Church of Milan, ibid. 
 
 Gregory V. Pope, raised the disho- 
 noured Papacy into esteem, 89. 
 
 Gregory VII. Pope, would not as- 
 sume the Pontificate till he had 
 been approved by the Emperor, 
 29. 106. deposes the Emperor, 
 107. absolves the Emperor on 
 very humiliating conditions, 108. 
 effects of his vigorous proceed- 
 ings, 109. introduces the Roman 
 missal into Spain, 110. 
 
 Gre-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gregory X. Pope, his character, 
 533. 
 
 Gregory XI. Pope, lays Florence 
 under au interdict, which the 
 Florentines disregard, 220. 
 
 Gregory XII. Anti-Pope, his collu- 
 sive proceedings with Benedict 
 XIII. 237. resigns the Papacy, 
 245. 
 
 Gregory XIII. Pope, his character, 
 425. grants a dispensation for the 
 Prince of Navarre to be married 
 to the Princess Margaret, 426. 
 his solemn thanksgiving after the 
 Massacre of St. Barthclemi, 427. 
 his Bulls in favour of the Jesuits, 
 428. founds a college at Rome 
 for the instruction of Englishmen 
 in the principles of the Catholic 
 religion, 429. his hatred towards 
 the Huguenots, 435. prevails 
 upon Henry III. of France to 
 sign the League, 436. his sudden 
 death, 443. congratulates Charles 
 IX. of France upon the massa- 
 cre at Paris, 655. sends Dr. Par- 
 ry to murder Queen Elizabeth, 
 ibid. 
 
 Gregory XIV. Pope, excommuni- 
 cates Henry IV. 473. his Bulls 
 opposed by the Chamber of Cha- 
 lons, 474. declared to be an ene- 
 my to the peace of the Church 
 by the Chamber of Tours, 475. 
 his death, 476. 
 
 Gregory XV. Pope, his election, 
 525- his Bull " de eiect'ume Sum- 
 mi Pontificis," 528. Bull " con- 
 tra h&reticos," 530. his Bull, 
 confirming the Bull of Pius IV. 
 ' contra Sacerdotes in Confessioni- 
 1 bus sacramentalibus pomitentes 
 ' ad turpia sotlicitantes," 532. 
 
 Gregory, King of Bohemia, excom- 
 municated by Pope Paul II. 267. 
 
 Guido, Earl of, takes Pope John X. 
 prisoner, 87. 
 
 Guise, Duke of, and Cardinal, as- 
 sassinated at Blois, 413. 459. 
 
 II. 
 
 Harpsfield, Dr. his History com- 
 mended and cited, 50, 51. 55. 
 
 58. 101. 247. 
 
 Henry I. King of England, refuses 
 to admit a Legate into England, 
 111. 
 
 Henry II. Emperor, dispute be- 
 tween him and Ferdinand King 
 of Castile settled by the Pope's 
 Legate, 98. 
 
 Henry II. King of England, and 
 Lewis VII. King of France, re- 
 ceive the Pope at Torcy with great 
 submission, 122. causes of his 
 extraordinary submission to the 
 Pope, 124. 
 
 Henry II. King of France, upon 
 the death of Paul III. sends to 
 delay the election of his succes- 
 sor, 339. resents the proceedings 
 of Pope Julius III. 344. 
 
 Henry III. King of England, gives* 
 leave to the Pope's ministers ta 
 collect money from the Clergy, 
 163. 
 
 Henry III. King of France, his 
 peaceful disposition towards the 
 Huguenots, 435. prevailed upon 
 by the Pope to sign the League, 
 436. his opinion of the League, 
 454. makes peace with the Hu- 
 guenots, 455. joins the King of 
 Navarre and the Huguenots, 462. 
 excommunicated, 464. assassinat- 
 ed, 465. 
 
 Henry IV. Emperor, excommuni- 
 cated by Pope Gregory VII. 107. 
 his humiliation and repentunce, 
 108. repents his repentance, ibid. 
 besieges Rome, ibid. 
 
 Henry IV. King of France, excom- 
 municated by Gregory XIV. 473. 
 assembles a Parliament which 
 condemns the Pope's Bull of ex- 
 communication, 474. reverses the 
 edicts which he had published 
 against the Huguenots, 475. de- 
 clares to the Pope his conversion 
 to the Roman religion, 478. de- 
 clares himself a Catholic in. 
 France, 480. crowned, and re- 
 ceived into the Church by the 
 Bishops of France, 482. his rea- 
 sons for desiring absolution from 
 the Pope, 483. 485. his reconci- 
 liation with the Pope, 487. re- 
 sists the jurisdiction of the Pope, 
 488. refuses to publish the ca- 
 
 3 It 1IDI15
 
 INDEX. 
 
 nons of the Council of Trent in 
 France, 488. 
 
 Henry V. F,mperor, compels the 
 l^ope to restore to him the inves- 
 titure of all Bishops in Germany, 
 111. 
 
 Henry VIII. King of England, his 
 separation from the Church of 
 Home, 318. apology for his di- 
 vorcing so muny of his wives, 
 319. excommunicated by Cle- 
 ment VII. 321. the excommu- 
 nication disregarded by him, 
 ibid, his memory respected by 
 all Princes, and his obsequies 
 observed in the Church of M otre 
 Dame, 325. 
 
 Heresy, disobedience to the Pope's 
 jurisdiction called heresy, and 
 made matter of spiritual jurisdic- 
 tion, 653. instances to prove 
 how comprehensive a word here- 
 sy is when the Pope would hurt 
 any body he is angry with, 654 
 657. 
 
 Heretics, Papal doctrine of keeping 
 faith with them, 489. Bull of 
 Gregory XV. against, 530. mer- 
 chants declared heretics if trad- 
 ing with Infidels, 654. 
 
 Hildebrand, Cardinal. Vide Grego- 
 ry VII. 
 
 Hildebrand, Cardinal, persuades 
 the Archbishop of Milan to ac- 
 knowledge the jurisdiction of the 
 Pope, 91.94. 
 
 Hinckmar, Archbishop of Rheims, 
 denies the Pope's authority in 
 a point of doctrine, 94. 
 
 Holy Water, its use said to have 
 been introduced by Alexander I. 
 14. 
 
 Honorius II. Pope, his election, 
 115. 
 
 Honorius III. Pope, ordered that 
 the Cardinals should be always 
 shut up in Conclave during the 
 election of a Pope, 31. 151. 
 
 Huguenots, cause of their wars with 
 the Catholics, 3T6. Henry III. 
 Ring of France, desirous of mak- 
 ing peace with them, 435. League 
 against them, 436. 
 
 Hyginus, Pope, first appointed god- 
 fathers and .godmothers in bap- 
 tism, 14. 
 
 1. 
 
 James, St. planted Christianity in 
 Spain, 56. 
 
 Jane, Queen of Naples, deprived of 
 her crown by Pope Martin V. 
 651. adopts Alonso King of Ar- 
 ragon for her son, ibid, revokes 
 the adoption, 652. 
 
 Jansenists, origin of their dispute 
 with the Jesuits, 572. charged 
 with maintaining the doctrines of 
 Calvin, 573. the Pope condemns 
 the five propositions of Janse- 
 nius, 577. deny that the proposi- 
 tions are in Jansenius's works, 
 578. contend that the Pope, 
 though supreme judge in matter 
 of faith, is not so in matter of 
 fact, 579. all disputes between 
 them and the Jesuits forbidden 
 by Lewis XIV. 638. entertain 
 little reverence for the Pope's au- 
 thority, 670. 
 
 Jansenius, his writings esteemed by 
 the University of Louvahi, 573. 
 his opinions maintained by the 
 Dominicans, and exploded by the 
 Franciscans, ibid. 
 
 Jesuits, their order founded by Pope 
 Paul III. 337. their privileges 
 increased by Gregory XIII. 428. 
 430. 432. expelled the Venetian 
 dominions, 499. Cardinal Joy- 
 euse intercedes for their re-ad- 
 mission into tlie Venetian States, 
 511. origin of their dispute with 
 the Jansenists, 572. refer then- 
 controversy to the decision of the 
 Pope, 574. proceedings at Rome 
 upon the occasion, 575. conduct 
 of the Pope and Cardinals in this 
 dispute, 576. aver that the Pop 
 is no less judge of matter of fact 
 than he is of faith, 580. accusa- 
 tions against them in the Provin- 
 cial Letters, 581. attempt to 
 blast the reputation of the author 
 of the Letters, 582. necessity of 
 their banishment from all coun- 
 tries, 702. 
 
 Jesuitesses, society of, 560. Bull for 
 their suppression, 562. 
 
 Illc'scasj
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 a Spanish historian, cited 
 with commendation, 84. 
 
 Images, a canon made in their fa- 
 vour by a Council at Rome, 61. 
 declared idolatrous and burnt by 
 order of the Emperor Leo III. in 
 : spite of the Pope, ibid, condemn- 
 ed by a Council at Constanti- 
 nople, 83. justified by another 
 Council -at Constantinople, 84. 
 
 Images of Saints, Urban VIII. for- 
 ., bids by a Bull their being dressed 
 QUt oil the days of their festivals, 
 559, 
 
 Indies, East and West, granted by 
 Alexander VI. to Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, 285. 
 
 Indulgences, Archbishop Chichely 
 Complains to the Pope against 
 . their abuse, and obtains redress, 
 247, 
 
 Innocent II. Pope, taken prisoner 
 .in a war against Roger, King of 
 Sicily, 117. excommunicates 
 Lewis VII. 119. 
 
 Innocent HI. Pope, puts the king- 
 ,dom of France under an inter- 
 dict, 133. his conduct towards 
 the kings of Armenia and Bo- 
 h<-ini;i, 135. circumstances which 
 favoured his greatness, 140. the 
 .proceedings between him and K. 
 John of England, 141. his cha- 
 racter, 149. 
 
 Innocent IV. Pope, renews his pre- 
 decessor's excommunication a- 
 .gainst the Emperor, 156. esta- 
 blishes the Inquisition, ItiQ. 
 
 Innocent VIII. Pope, liis perjury, 
 236. creates Juan de JVledici, a 
 l>oy of thirteen years of age, a 
 Cardinal, 277. sends Cardinal Ba- 
 iue Legate to Charles VIII. pf 
 France, ibid. 
 
 Innocent X. Pope, proceedings of 
 the Conclave wherein be is elect- 
 ed, 564. persecutes the Barberi- 
 nis, 566. his character, 567. 590. 
 governed by Donna Ohmpia, 567. 
 coiwiemns the Jive propositions 
 of J,ansenius as heretical, 577. 
 his decision disregarded, 5.78. his 
 decrees and declarations against 
 the Jausenists disregarded by the 
 College of Sorboune and the 
 " Paris, 583. forbid* the 
 
 observance of the peace of Ger- 
 many concluded at Osnaburgh 
 and M unster, 584. his decision in 
 favour of the Jesuits against the 
 Bishop of Angelopolitana, ,586. 
 his conduct towards Portugal, 
 587. sends Rinuccini into Ire- 
 land to foment rebellion and to 
 absolve the people from their al- 
 legiance to their sovereign, 672. 
 his death, 589. 
 
 Inquisition, established by Innocent 
 IV. 160. Bull in aid of, 164. its 
 bnneful effects in Spain, 373. in- 
 troduced into the Low Countries, 
 374. the Bull of Pope Pius IV. 
 in its support, 419. 
 
 lofredi, Bishop of Albi, sent by 
 Pope Paul II. to Lewis XI. King 
 of 1 rauce to require his revoca- 
 tion of the Pragmatique, 266u ; 
 
 John, King of England, laments hjs 
 .having ever subjected himself to 
 the Pope, 141. his detective tide 
 to the crown, and his misgovern.-' 
 ment, 143. his submission to the 
 Pope, 146. his last illness, 148. 
 his character, ibid. 
 
 John I. Pope, imprisoned by Theo- 
 doric for presuming to crowu the 
 Emperor Justin, 43. 
 
 John X. Pope, a good general, 87.: i 
 hanged in prison, il>i<i. 
 
 John XII. Pope, his cruelties., 88. 
 deposed by the Emperor, ibid. 
 restored by the people, ibid. kiHn 
 ed, .ibid. 
 
 John XIII. Pope, imprisoned in the 
 CHt-tle of St. Angelo by the Pre- 
 feet of Rome, 89. 
 
 John XV. Pope, his Bull for tlie 
 canonization of St. Ulric, 10& <-of 
 
 John XIX. Pope, puts all France 
 under an interdict on the mar- 
 riage of Robert and Bertha, 
 104. 
 
 John XXII. Pope, bow elected, 33. 
 his opinion about the souls of the 
 dead, ibid, obliged to retract his 
 opinion by Philip of V'alojs, 34> 
 excommunicates the iEmperor 
 Lewis, 34. 200. his jurisdiction 
 denied by the Council of Spires, 
 20O. takes part against Edward 
 II. in England, ibid, his charac- 
 ter, 201. first reserved to the 
 
 3 11 3 Holy
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 Holy Seat the first fruits of va- 
 cant sees, 202. 
 
 John XXII L. Pope, imprisoned and 
 resigns the Papacy, 245. escapes 
 from prison, 249. gains access to 
 Benedict, whom he acknowledges 
 as the lawful Pope, 249. made 
 Bishop of Tuscuhnn, ibid. 
 John, Patriarch of Constantinople, 
 refused submission to the Pope, 
 45. 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea, said to have 
 introduced Christianity into Bri- 
 tain, 18. 
 
 Joyeuse, Cardinal, his letter to Har- 
 ry the Fourth, on the election of 
 Paul V. 39. his narrative of the 
 proceedings for the election of 
 Paul V.- 491. appointed by the 
 King of France to mediate be- 
 tween the Republic of Venice 
 and the Pope, 508. his negocia- 
 tions at Venice, 509. proceedings 
 at Rome, 512. 
 Ireland, rebellion in, fomented by 
 
 the Pope, 657. 
 
 Italy, Kings of, contests between 
 them and the Emperors of the 
 East, 42. 
 
 Jubilee, with plenary indulgences, 
 instituted by Pope Boniface 
 VIII. 186. ordered to be kept 
 every twenty-five years by Pope 
 Sixtus IV. 267. 
 Julian, Comic", introduces the Moors 
 
 into Spain, 56. 
 
 Julian, the Emperor, whether an 
 apostate doubtful, 24. his cha- 
 racter, ibid, manner of his death, 
 26. 
 
 Julian de Medici, his assassination 
 in the cathedral church of Santa 
 Reparata, 70. 
 
 Julius, Pope, his reprehensions dis- 
 regarded by the Eastern Bishops, 
 23. 
 
 Julius II. Pope, cause of his elec- 
 tion, 291. his Bull to suppress 
 the corruptions prevalent in the 
 election of a Pope, ibid, his con- 
 duct towards the Venetians, 293. 
 296. accedes to the league of 
 Cambray, 294. besieges and 
 takes Miranda, 299. grants Na- 
 varre to Ferdinand of Spain, 
 301. purposes to transfer the 
 
 kingdom of France and the title 
 of Tres Chretien to Henry VIII. 
 of England, 3O2. 
 
 Julius III. Pope, proceedings in the 
 Conclave prior to his election, 
 338. character, 342. makes his 
 page, a youth under twenty, a 
 Cardinal, ibid, his motives for 
 appointing the Council to meet 
 at Trent, 343. his Bull for con- 
 vening the Council of Trent, 347. 
 excommunicates Ferdinand King 
 of the Romans, but is obliged to 
 absolve him, 347. 661. 
 
 Justinian, Emperor, why reviled by 
 Papal writers, 46. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kings, the protectors of religion, 
 cannot impose what religion they 
 please, 2. 
 
 Knights Templars, their suppres- 
 sion, 194. cruelties exercised to- 
 wards them, and doubtfulness of 
 the crimes imputed to them, 196. 
 
 L. 
 
 Ladislaus, King of Hungary, killed 
 at the battle of Varnas, 252. 
 
 Lambert, Bishop of Astia. Vide 
 Honorius II. 
 
 Landriane, publishes the Bulls of 
 excommunication againft Henry 
 IV. 474. a reward offered by the 
 Chamber at Chalons for his ap- 
 prehension, ibid. 
 
 Lanfranc, Archbilhop of Canterbu- 
 ry, canonizes Adelmus, 100. 
 
 Languedoc, origin of the claim of 
 the Kings of France to the terri- 
 tories of Languedoc, 140. 
 
 Laodislaus, King of Naples, Cru- 
 sade against him, 243. 
 
 Lateran. Vide Council. 
 
 Laurentio, Nicolao, sets up for Tri- 
 bune of Rome, and governs for 
 seven months, 212. his death, 
 215. 
 
 Lawrence, St. his canonization, 
 152. 
 
 League, wars of the League in 
 
 France, 436. rebellions of the 
 
 League
 
 INDEX. 
 
 League in France supported by 
 the Popes, 656. 
 
 Learning, restoration of, 229. 305. 
 
 Lent, four days added to it by Pope 
 Gregory I. 48. 
 
 Leo III. Emperor, burns all images, 
 declaring their worship idolatry, 
 61. cruel treatment of him, 64. 
 
 Leo III. Pope, upon his election to 
 the Pontificate sends to the Em- 
 peror for his approbation, 74. 
 
 Leo IX. Pope, manner of his elec- 
 tion, 91. his advice requested by 
 a Bishop in Africa, 92. his Bull, 
 appointing the Archbishop of 
 Carthage Metropolitan of all A- 
 frica, ibid. 
 
 Leo X. Pope, his election and cha- 
 racter, 30-1. takes ort" the Inter- 
 dict from France, ibid, prevails 
 upon Lewis XII. King of France 
 to revoke the Pragmatique and 
 to accept the Concordat, 305. 
 his encouragement of learning, 
 ibid, his intention to refonn the 
 Church, ibid. 
 
 Leo XI. Pope, his election, 491. 
 
 Leon, a citizen of Rome, protests 
 against the election of Celestin 
 II. 115. 
 
 Leon, elected Pope, and called A- 
 nacletus, but condemned by a 
 Council for a heretic and schis- 
 
 ' inatic, 117. 
 
 Lewis, Duke of Anjou, receives the 
 investiture of Naples from Alex- 
 ander V. 241. 
 
 Lewis II. King of France, sends 
 ambassadors to approve of the 
 election of Pope Benedict III, 
 63. 
 
 Lewis VI. King of France, appeals 
 to Honorius II. against the ex- 
 communication of the Bishop of 
 Paris, 117. calls the Council of 
 Estampes to determine which 
 side he should take in the con- 
 test between Popes Innocent II. 
 and Anaclerus, 118. 
 
 Lewis VII. King of France, engages 
 in a crusade with the Emperor 
 Conrade, 119. he and Henry II. 
 ,."-. King of England receive the 
 Pope at Torcy with extreme sub- 
 mission, 122. 
 1 Lewis XI. King of France, required 
 
 by Pope Pius II. to recal the 
 Pragmatique, 264. his dissimula- 
 tion, 265. remonstrates against 
 the excesses of Pope Sixtus IV. 
 274. 
 
 Lewis XII. of France, his character 
 and policy, 281. his divorce and 
 second marriage with Ann of 
 Brittany, 282. grounds of his. di- 
 vorce, 284. prohibits all inter- 
 course with Rome, 297. he. and 
 Maximilian summon the Pope to 
 a General Council at Pisa and 
 Milan, 298. his death, 307. 
 
 Lewis XIV. King of France, remon- 
 strates against the Pope's con- 
 duct towards Portugal, 588. or- 
 ders the Pope's Nuncio to quit 
 Paris, 614. and afterwards to de- 
 part from France, 615. takes 
 possession of Avignon, 616. his 
 letter to the Pope about the af- 
 fair of the Duke de Crequy, ibid. 
 his letter to the Duke of Cesari- 
 no,618. his answer to- the let- 
 ters of Christina, Queen of Swe- 
 den, 619. his Arret prohibiting 
 all farther disputes between the 
 Jansenists and Jesuits, 638. 
 
 I^wis Pierre, natural son of Pope 
 Paul HI. assassinated, 335. 
 
 Lewis, St. his Crusade, 157. his re- 
 turn, ibid. 
 
 Linus, it is uncertain whether he 
 w.is the immediate successor, of 
 St. Peter, 13. 
 
 Lionne, Monsieur de, sent by the 
 King of France to assist the 
 Princes who had leagued agaidst 
 the Pope, in favour of the Duke 
 of Parma, 552. his report of the 
 tergiversations of the Pope in 
 the affair of redelivering Castro, 
 554. 
 
 Lodovico, Cardinal. Vide Gregory 
 XV. 
 
 Lombardy, Bishop of, excepts a- 
 gainst Pope Alexander II. 100. 
 
 Lorraiu, Cardinal of, his character 
 andconduct,'Jrt2. his contemptu- 
 ous treatment of the Pope, ibid. 
 his change of conduct after the 
 assassiivation of his brother, the 
 Duke of Guise, 413. 
 
 Lotah e, Emperor, wars between 
 him and his brothers, 80. resigns 
 
 3 it 3 the
 
 INDEX. 
 
 the.. Imperial crown and retires 
 into a monastery, 83. 
 ' Louis le Debonnaire, his grants to 
 the See of Rome, 75. treason of 
 . Bernardo, King of Italy, against 
 him, 77. his death and character, 
 80. 
 
 Louis le Gros. A r ide Lewis VI. 
 
 Lucius, King of Britain, his conver- 
 sion to Christianity, 17. his let- 
 ter to Pope Eleutherius doubted, 
 ibid. 
 
 Ludovico, Emperor, declared a he- 
 retic for not appearing upon a 
 citation at Avignon, 654. 
 
 Ludovicus Pius. Vide Louis le De- 
 bonnuire. 
 
 Lymoges. Vide C'ouncil. 
 
 Lyons. Vide Council. 
 
 M. 
 
 Maine, Duke of, [Mayenne] ob- 
 structs the publication of Grego- 
 ry XlVth's Bull for excommuni- 
 cating Henry IV. King of France, 
 474. 
 
 Manfredo, his defeat and death, 
 166. 
 
 Mantes, the Clergy assembled 
 there condemn the Pope's Bnll 
 against Henry IV. King of 
 Trance, 475. 
 
 Mantua. Vide Council. 
 ' Mahtu'a given to the Pope, 63. 
 
 Marcellinus, his idolatry, 16. 
 
 Marcellus 1 . Pope, not chosen by the 
 Clergy and People of Rome, 20. 
 
 Marcellus II. Pope, his election 
 and character, 350. 
 
 Mariu, Franciscus, Duke of Urbin, 
 a saying of his, 490. 675. 
 
 Mariana, his History cited, 99. 129. 
 174. 1F6. 196, 197. 259. 
 
 Marriage, origin of appeals to the 
 Pope in cases of marriage, 103. 
 
 Marriage of Priests forbidden in 
 the Council of Yuledo, 25. al- 
 lowed by the Popes to the 
 Churches of Muscovy and Ar- 
 ineriin, 258. allowed by the Na- 
 tional Council of Worms, 332. 
 
 Martel, Charles, invited by Pope 
 Gregory II. to aid him against 
 
 Luitiprandus King of the Lom- 
 bards, 61. 
 
 Martial, St. commanded by the 
 Pope to be reverenced as an A- 
 postle, 116. 
 Martin 1. Pope, imprisoned by the 
 
 Emperor for disobedience, 59. 
 Martin V. Pope, manner of his e- 
 
 lection, 35. 246. 
 
 Martinengo, Abbot, sent by Pope 
 Pius IV. to invite Queen Eliza- 
 beth to send Bishops to the 
 Council of Trent, 381. the Queen 
 refuses him admittance into Eng- 
 land, 382. 
 
 Mary, the Virgin, her house mifa- 
 culously removed to Loretto, 
 180. 
 
 Mass, Pope Alexander I. ordained 
 that no Priest should say but one 
 a day, 14. Pope Telesphorus 6r- 
 dered three to be said on Christ- 
 mas eve, ibid. 
 Matthieu, Pere, his negotiations ; at 
 
 Rome, 437. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor of Germa- 
 ny, summons the Pope t:> a Ge- 
 neral Council, 299. his death, 
 307. 
 Maximilian II. Emperor, his advice 
 
 to Henry III. of France, 435. 
 Mazarin, Cardinal, his treatment of 
 the Barberiiiis upon tlieir flight 
 into France, 570. compels the 
 Pope to reinstate the Barherinis, 
 ibid, denies the power of the 
 Pope to judge of titles to Crowns, 
 587. 
 
 Medici, Cardinal of. Vide Leo X. 
 Medici, Cardinal of. Vide Clement 
 
 VII. Pope. 
 
 Medici, Cosmo de, returns to Rome 
 in triumph after having been ba- 
 nished from thence, 253. 
 Medici, Juan de, created a Cardi- 
 nal when only thirteen years old, 
 277. 
 
 Medici, Lorenzo de, generally es- 
 teemed by Christian Kings and 
 Princes, 274. 
 
 Medicis, Catherine de, Queen Re- 
 gent of France, 375. she resolves 
 to assemble the States, and also a 
 National Synod, 377. 
 Mendicants, complaints against 
 them, 215. privileges granted 
 them
 
 INDEX. 
 
 them by Alexander V. 241. his 
 grant repealed by Pope John 
 XXIII. 242. 
 
 Blezeray, his History commended 
 and cited, 33, 47. 53. 96. 132. 
 157. 168. 203. 221. 228. 252. 
 281. 302. 305. 428. 434. 460. 
 
 Messina, siege of, 175. 
 
 Milan. Vide Church. Council. 
 
 Milan, the Archbishops of, refused 
 to acknowledge the jurisdiction 
 of the Pope for two hundred 
 years, 91. 
 
 Miranda besieged by Julius II. 
 299. 
 
 Alissal, the Gothic or Mocorab, de- 
 clared to be Catholic by the 
 Council of Mantua, 99. 
 
 Missal, Roman, when first intro- 
 duced into Spain, 110. 
 
 Modena, Duke of, resists the out- 
 rage committed by the Pope 
 against the Duke of Parma, 551. 
 
 Molay, Jaques de, Grand Master of 
 the Knights Templars, his con- 
 stancy and resolution in death, 
 198. 
 
 Montalto, Cardinal of. Vide Sixtus 
 V. 
 
 Monte, Cardinal de. Vide Julius 
 HI. Pope. 
 
 Monte, Innocent de, made a Car- 
 dinal when under twenty years of 
 age, 342. 
 
 Montfort, Simon Count, commands 
 the army assembled against the 
 Albigenses, 139. 
 
 Montjtelier. V ide Council. 
 
 Morone, Cardinal, his harsh speech 
 against the Bishop of Gerona, 
 394. prevails upon the Pope to 
 confirm the Canons of the Coun- 
 cil of Trent, 698. 
 
 Morosini, commander in chief for 
 the Venetians in Candia, 643. 
 
 Mortmain, statute of, enacted in 
 the reign of Edward I. 163. 
 
 Mule-Assen settled in his throne at 
 Tunis by the Pope in conjunction 
 with Charles V. 311. 
 
 N. 
 
 Naples, cause of the quarrel be- 
 tween Franc* and Spain foe that 
 
 kingdom, 6.51. 
 
 Navarre, granted by the Pop* to 
 Ferdinand, 301. the manner in 
 which the Kings of Spain became 
 possessed of that kingdom, 653. 
 
 Nevers, Duke of, his Memoirs, 437. 
 his conference with the Pope re- 
 specting the League, 448. sent 
 by Henry IV. King of France, to 
 assure the Pope of the King's 
 conversion to the Roman reli- 
 gion, 478. 
 
 Nice. Vide Council. 
 
 Nicholas V. Anti-Pope, 200. 
 
 Nicholas V. Pope, disserves the 
 Council of Basil, 36. greatly af- 
 fected by the loss of Constanti- 
 nople, 256. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oath, Papal doctrine with respect 
 to breaking oaths, 489. 
 
 Octavio, grandson of Pope Paul 
 III. marries the natural daughter 
 of the Emperor Charles V. 334. 
 takes part with the Emperor 
 against the Pope, ibid. 
 
 Olimpia, Donna, governs Tnnoeent 
 X. 567. 570. her enmity to the 
 Barberiuis, 568. obliged to seek 
 their friendship, 572. prevails 
 upon Innocent X. to create a 
 boy of eighteen years of age a 
 Cardinal, 589. her influence t>yer 
 Innocent X. ibid, her rapacious 
 conduct upon his death, 590. 
 prosecuted by Alexander VII. 
 for her enormities, 594. com- 
 manded to retire from Rome to 
 Orvieto, ibid, where she dies, 
 606. 
 
 Olivarez, Duke of, governs Spain, 
 538. his character, 538. 
 
 Ossat, Cardinal D', his interview 
 with Clement VIII. 488. his ac- 
 count of the maxims of the Court 
 of Rome, 667 . 
 
 Otho II. Emperor, reprehends Pope 
 John XII. for his dissolute life, 
 88. 
 
 Otho III. Emperor, establishes the 
 modes of electing Emperors, and 
 their coronation by the Pope, 
 89. 
 
 3 B 4 Otranto
 
 I ':]SP 
 
 X. 
 
 Otranto- possessed .by the Turks, 
 278. 
 
 "'C-i*" - ' P ' 
 
 Pallantieri, Treasurer of Rome, be- 
 headed by Pius V. 422. 
 
 Pallavicini, Cardinal, his History 
 cited, 349. 363. 369. 381, 382. 
 390. 394, 395. 397. 408. 415. 
 695. his arguments in favour of 
 the Papal dignity and suprema- 
 cy, 364. advantages of his His- 
 tory of the Council of Trent, 
 385. 694. remarks on his ac- 
 count of the projected divorce 
 between the King and Queen of 
 Navarre, 401. observations upon 
 his History of the Council of 
 Trent, 417. publication of his 
 answer to the Council of Trent, 
 677. his reason for publishing 
 that book, 678. result of his His- 
 tory of the Council of Trent, 
 692. 
 
 Pallium. Metropolitans first obliged 
 necessarily to receive the Pallium 
 from the Pope, 95. 
 
 Pamphili, Cardinal. Vide Innocent 
 X. 
 
 Paolo, Fra, his History commended 
 and cited, 385. 349. 531. derides, 
 in his writings, the dignity and 
 authority of the Pope, 501. ex- 
 communicated, 558. is honoured 
 with a public funeral at Venice, 
 558. result of his History of the 
 (Council of Trent, 692. 
 
 Paris. Vide Council. 
 
 Paris, University of, their power 
 and proceedings during the Pa- 
 pal Schism between Clement 
 VII. imd Urban VI. 231. send 
 deputies to persuade Benedict 
 XIII. to resign the Papal Chair, 
 233. inveigrTagainst his proceed- 
 ings, 236. expel all the Mendi- 
 cants who accept the privileges 
 granted them by .Pope Alexander 
 V. 242. oppose the Bulls of Pope 
 Pius II. 265. and of Paul II. 
 
 Parma given to the Pope, 63. 
 Parma, Duke of, his debt to the 
 
 Monte of Ronie, 547. '.the Pope's 
 quarrel with him, 549. war be- 
 tween the Pope and him, 551. 
 his advantage over Cardinal An- 
 tonio's army, 553. repossesses 
 Castro on condition of paying the 
 debt to the Apostolical Chamber, 
 629. 
 
 Parry, Dr. encouraged by the Pope 
 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, 
 442. 655. 
 
 Pascal publishes the Provincial 
 Letters, 580. their effect upon 
 the Jesuits, 581. 
 
 Paschal I. Pope, apologises to the 
 Emperor for assuming the office 
 of Pope without sending for his 
 approbation, 75. 
 
 Paschal II. Pope, the first Pope 
 who was crowned with pomp, 
 110. acquired more authority in 
 England than his predecessors 
 had, 111. 
 
 Pasman, Cardinal, sent by the Em- 
 peror to state to the Pope the 
 calamitous state of Germany, and 
 to solicit pecuniary aid, 551. 
 
 Paul II. Pope, requires Lewis XI. 
 King of France, to verity his 
 revocation of the Pragmatique, 
 266. excommunicates Gregory 
 King of Bohemia, 26.7. his sud- 
 den death, ibid. 
 
 Paul III. Pope, obliged to call the 
 Council of Trent, but prevented 
 its assembling during his i>\\n 
 reign to any effectual purpose, 
 331. endeavours to remove the 
 Council from Trent to Bologna, 
 ibid, rebukes the Emperor for 
 calling the Council at Worms, 
 333. the order of the Jesuits 
 founded by him, 337. his death, 
 ibid. 
 
 Paul IV. Pope, his election, 351. 
 his character, 352. makes, con- 
 trary to his oath, seven additional 
 Cardinals, 354. his rage on ac- 
 count of the peace of Augsburgh, 
 355. refuses to acknowledge 
 Ferdinand Emperor upon the 
 abdication of Charles V. 356. 
 enters into a league with the 
 King of France, 357. his sub- 
 mission to tftie Duke of Alva, 
 362. his Bull, " Contra ambientes 
 " Papa-
 
 I N D EX. 
 
 " Papatum," 365. his death, 
 366. 
 
 Paul V. Pope, his injudicious con- 
 duct upon his elevation to the 
 Papal Chair, 493. his dispute 
 with Venice, 494. excommuni- 
 cates the Duke and Senate of 
 Venice, 497. levies war against 
 Venice, 501. his conference with 
 the Cardinal Joyeuse respecting 
 the Venetian States, 513. gives 
 a secret authority to Cardinal 
 Joyeuse to make peace with and 
 absolve the Venetians, 518. 
 
 Pavia. Vide Council. 
 
 Pavia, battle of, 314. 
 
 Pazzi, family of, quarrels with the 
 Medici family, 267. 272. popu- 
 lar rage against them, 272. 
 
 Paz/i, Francisco, one of the assas- 
 sins of Julian de Medici, 271. 
 hanged by the populace, 272. 
 
 Pedro de Moron chosen Pope 
 takes the name of Celestine V. 
 31. 
 
 Pedro, Don, King of Arragon, 
 declines to meet Charles of An- 
 jbu in single combat, 177. his 
 death, 179. 
 
 Pelagius II. Pope, apologizes for 
 having entered upon the Papacy 
 without the Imperial approba- 
 tion, 46. the Bishops of Italy, 
 &c. refuse to submit to him in 
 their own diocese, ibid. 
 
 Pepin, son of Pepin, his ill conduct 
 towards his subjects, 82. the 
 cruel treatment he experiences, 
 83. 
 
 Perpignan. Vide Council. 
 
 Peter of Chateauneuf, sent by the 
 Pope to incense the Catholics 
 against the Albigenses, 138. kill- 
 ed, ibid. 
 
 Peter Pence, first granted by the 
 Princes of the Heptarchy, 85. 
 
 Peter, St. disagreement between 
 the Catholic writers about his 
 successors in the Papal Chair, 
 13. 425. 
 
 Petrus de Marca, Bishop of Paris, 
 his excellent book, " De Cun- 
 " cordid Surer dot it et Imperil" 
 677. 
 
 Philip II. King of Spain, his pro- 
 ceedings against the Pope, 359. 
 
 defeats the French at the battle 
 of St. Quintain, 362. his cruel- 
 ties, 372. 
 
 Philip le Bel, excommunicated by 
 Boniface VIII. 187. his impolicy 
 in drawing the court of Rome to 
 Avignon, 259. 
 
 Phocas, the Emperor, adjudges to 
 Pope Boniface III. the supe- 
 riority over the Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, 48. 
 
 Piccolomini, Cardinal. Vide Pius 
 II. 
 
 Piccolomini. Vide Pius III. 
 
 Pisa. Vide Council. 
 
 Pisa, treaty of, 628. 
 
 Pius I. Pope, his authority in fix- 
 ing the time of keeping Easter, 
 15. 
 
 Pius II. Pope, his inconsistency, 
 262. his character, ibid, denies 
 the right of appealing from the 
 Pope to a (.Jeneral Council, ibid. 
 requires Charles VII. King of 
 France, to abolish the Pragma- 
 tique, 263. makes the like requi- 
 sition of Charles's successor Lew- 
 is XI. 264. 
 
 Pius III. Pope, his character, 287. 
 
 Pius IV. Pope, his election, 368. 
 his character, 869. his expedi- 
 ents to avoid a Council, ibid. 
 publishes a Bull to reform the 
 corrupt lives of the Clergy, 871. 
 attempts to introduce the Inqui- 
 sition into France, 375. resolves 
 to hold the Council of Trent, 
 378. invites Queen Elizabeth to 
 send Bishops to the Council, 
 381. his policy in courting the 
 Emperor, 404. transactions be- 
 tween him and Maximilian King 
 of the Romans, 405. his two 
 Bulls, published during and after 
 the Council of Trent, in support 
 of the Inquisition, and for vary- 
 ing as well as confirming the de- 
 crees of the Council, 419. 
 
 Pius \ . Pope, his election and cha- 
 racter, 421. reverses the judg- 
 ment of his predecessor upon the 
 nephews of Pope Paul IV. ibid. 
 unjustly sentences the Treasurer 
 Pallantieri to be beheaded, 422. 
 excommunicates Queen Eliza- 
 beth, 423. his extreme poverty 
 fifteen
 
 INDEX. 
 
 fifteen years before he was cho 
 
 ,. sen Pope, 424. his Bull for pro- 
 hibiting bull tights in Spain disre- 
 garded, 665. 
 
 Placentia delivered up to the Em- 
 peror Charles V. 336. 
 
 Pontifical history, the irreconcile- 
 able disagreement between the 
 Catholic writers of, after the time 
 
 ; of Pius V. 425. 
 
 Popes, their supremacy never con- 
 sidered, even before Luther's 
 time, as a part of Catholic reli- 
 gion, 9. no consent as to their 
 succession for the first three hun- 
 dred and twenty years, 13, 14. 
 no act of solemn jurisdiction 
 done till the Emperor became 
 Christian, 15. of the first three 
 and thirty not above three or 
 four died natural deaths, 19. no 
 consent as to their manner of 
 election for the first three hun- 
 dred and twenty years, ibid. 
 their power very limited before 
 the time of Constantine, 20. had 
 no supreme authority in the 
 Councils of Nice, of Aries, and 
 of Antioch, 21 23. state of 
 their jurisdiction till the time of 
 Gregory VII. 25. if two chosen 
 together, neither of them by the 
 law of the decretals to be allow- 
 ed, 26. respected by the Goths, 
 27. form ot' their election unset- 
 tled till the decree of Pope Ni- 
 cholas It. 28. irregular course 
 of Papal elections from Pope 
 Gregory VII. till the decree of 
 Houorius III. 30. their power 
 had its origin in the distractions 
 of Christendom, 42. none of 
 them pretended to any sovereign 
 act during the reign of the Em- 
 peror Justinian I. 44. ordained 
 that upon the death of a Pope a 
 new one should be chosen in 
 three days, but the ordinance 
 was never observed, ibid, manner 
 of their election, ibid. Phocas 
 the Emperor adjudges to them 
 the superiority over the Patri- 
 archs of Constantinople, 48. Pa- 
 pal power alter the death of Gre- 
 gory I. 59. tlieir first temporal 
 jurisdiction arose from towns and 
 
 territories given them by the 
 Lombard Kings, 60. growth of 
 their power, 61. their authority 
 contested by the Bishop of Ra- 
 venna, 83. deny the right of the 
 Emperor to approve their elec- 
 tion, 85. their enormities and 
 disgraces from Formosus to Gre- 
 gory V. 86. four together, 90. 
 their first claim to the sole right 
 of calling General Councils and 
 depriving Bishops, 92. when first 
 elected by the Cardinals only, 
 95. their gradual encroachments, 
 ibid, have enlarged their power 
 by being called upon to suppress 
 heresies, 97. Mezeray's account 
 of the growth of their power, 
 112. many endangered their lives 
 by pretending to temporal power, 
 120. their power checked in 
 France and in England, 158. 
 their vain endeavours to make all 
 the Clergy dependent upon them, 
 169. gross corruptions in their 
 elections, 181. state of their 
 power whilst they resided at A- 
 vignon for seventy years, 221. 
 proof that Christianity may be 
 preserved without them, 228. 
 their authority weakened by the 
 Papal schisms, 241. three toge- 
 ther, ibid, their supreme spiritual 
 jurisdiction not acknowledged in 
 England in the reign of Henry 
 VI. 250. remarks upon the 
 grounds and effects of the Papal 
 usurpations, 302. but little reve- 
 renced by Francis I. of France, 
 318. by the Emperor Charles V. 
 ibid, by Henry VII. and Lewis 
 XII. of France, 320. their arro- 
 gance and presumption, 24. 
 reasonableness of revoking the 
 privileges granted them upon ex- 
 perience of their mischievous ef- 
 fects, 325. their claims, of a di- 
 vine right to the authority they 
 have assumed, resisted by the 
 Church and by Catholic Princes, 
 
 328. the Holy Ghost hath no- 
 thing to do with their election, 
 
 329. their power and authority 
 not derived from God, 472. their 
 jurisdiction not acknowledged by 
 die ( jallicun Church as a fun- 
 damental
 
 I N B E X. 
 
 dnrnerital part of the Christian 
 religion, 476. their dignity and 
 authority derided by the people 
 through the writings of Fra Pao- 
 lo and Fulgentio and others, 
 501. their authority and juris- 
 diction examined and contradict- 
 ed by the proceedings which 
 passed between Paul V. and the 
 Venetian States, 523. adopted 
 a milder policy as Christian 
 Princes increased in power, 525. 
 527. the Bull " l)e ekctitme 
 , " Stenimi Pontificis," 528. their 
 jurisdiction questioned in France, 
 579. proof that their authority 
 is not a part of the Catholic 
 faith, 588. historical proofs of 
 the mischief of their affectation 
 of sovereignty, 649660. histo- 
 rical proofs that Catholic Princes 
 themselves do not acknowledge 
 the divine right of the Pope as 
 part of their religion, 660- 
 662. their jurisdiction not ex- 
 ercised for the prevention of 
 wars or rebellion, 658. their 
 
 claim of universal jurisdiction 
 unscripturaJ, and denied by dif- 
 ferent Catholic nations in dif- 
 
 ferent ages, and in various in- 
 stances, 663. unreasonable in 
 them to require submission from 
 the Catholic subjects of Pro- 
 testant Princes, 665. their spiri- 
 tual authority undefined and ap- 
 plied to temporal ends, 667. 671. 
 their authority in ecclesiastical 
 affairs as well as in temporal 
 ought to be renounced by the 
 Clergy as well as the I.nily, 670. 
 their supremacy denied by the 
 SorlxMine and the Gallican 
 Church, 675, 676. improbability 
 of the Pope's consenting to any 
 reformation or concession, 683. 
 
 Priests, necessity for them as well 
 as the Laity to renounce the 
 Pope's authority in ecclesiastical 
 affairs as well 'as in temporal, 
 670. 
 
 Protestants considered by the 
 Popes as excommunicated here- 
 tics, 672. 
 
 Provincial Letters. Vide Pascal. 
 
 Pucelle d'Orleans burnt for a witch 
 
 by the English, 961. declared to 
 be an heroic dame by Pope C- 
 lixtus III. 261. 
 
 Q. 
 
 . ; u; 
 
 Quintin, St. battle of, 362. 
 Quirino, Antonio, his book against 
 tlie Pope's censures, 5O1. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rasponi, Monsieur, his negociation 
 with the Duke de Crquy, 622. 
 
 Ravenna. Vide Council. 
 
 Ravenna given to the Pope, 63. 
 Exarchate of, that office termi- 
 nated, ibid. 
 
 Raymond, Count of Thoulouse, ex- 
 communicated by the Pope for 
 killing his Legate, Peter ot Cha- 
 teauneutj 138. his submission and 
 his punishment, ibid. 
 
 Reformation, pressed by all Princes, 
 but resisted by the court of 
 Rome, 288. abridged the emolu- 
 ments of the offices of the court 
 of Rome, 697. 
 
 Religion, its body and substance 
 enjoined by Scripture and unal- 
 terable, 2. its forms and circum- 
 stances belong to temporal juris- 
 diction, ibid, and not to indivi- 
 dual caprice, 5. a trust which 
 Kings cannot transfer to others 
 over whom they have no authori- 
 ty,^. 
 
 Rhodes, island of, taken by the 
 Turks, 811. 
 
 Ribadineyra, the Jesuit, his Lives of 
 the Saints full of mistakes, 12. 
 
 Ribier, Memo-ires de, cited, 37. 
 
 Richard I. King of England, as an 
 act of penance engages in a 
 Crusade, 130. taken prisoner 
 upon his return home by the 
 Duke of Austria, 131. 
 
 Richelieu, Cardinal, governs France, 
 538. his character, ibid, threat- 
 ens to call a N'utional Council and 
 choose a Patriarch for France, 
 542. 
 
 Rinaldo
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rinaldo delli Albizi banished from 
 Rome, 254. 
 
 Rinuccini sent into Ireland to fo- 
 ment rebellion, and absolve the 
 people from their allegiance to 
 their sovereign, 672. 
 
 Rodolph of Austria, chosen Em- 
 peror of Germany, 170. 
 
 Rome. Vide Council. 
 
 Rome, see of, remained void above 
 seven years after the death of 
 Pope Marcellinus, 20. 
 
 Rome, city of, besieged by the 
 Duke of Alva, 361. a pillar re- 
 quired, by the treaty of Pisa, to 
 be erected in the city to record 
 the Pope's submission for the af- 
 front to the servants of the Duke 
 de Crequy, 629. this pillar pull- 
 ed down, with consent of the 
 King of France, before the death 
 of Pope Alexander VII. 636. 
 
 Rospigliosi, Abbot, sent by the 
 Cardinal Chigi to confer with the 
 Duke de Crequy, 621. 
 
 Rospiglioso, Cardinal. Vide Cle- 
 ment IX. 
 
 Rovere, Cardinal de la. Vide Ju- 
 lius II. 
 
 Rusticucci, Cardinal, his sinister 
 . views in supporting the election 
 "of Sixtus V. 447. 
 
 bs 
 
 S. 
 
 Sacrament in both kinds allowed 
 'by the Popes to the churches of 
 Muscovy and Armenia, 257. de- 
 bates upon it in the Council of 
 Trent, 390. 
 
 Salviati, made Archbishop of Pisa 
 by Pope Sixtus IV. 268. the 
 Signiory of Florence refuse to 
 admit him into possession, ibid. 
 hanged out of the windows of his 
 palace, 272. 
 
 Santa Croee, Cardinal of. VideMar- 
 rellus II. 
 
 Santa Severina, Cardinal, disap- 
 pointed in his hopes of the Papal 
 Chair,477. 
 
 Sardinia granted to the Pope, 75. 
 
 Savanaroia burnt for preaching 
 
 against Pope Alexander VI. at 
 Florence, 281. 
 
 Schism, Papal, for forty years, 223. 
 the authority of the Popes weak- 
 ened by it, 241. end of, 250. - ^ 
 
 Schisms in the Church, their cause, 
 256. 
 
 Sergius I. Pope, the treatment he 
 experienced from the Emperor 
 Justinian II. 59. 
 
 Severinus, Pope, meddled not with 
 the administration of the Church 
 till he was approved by Isacius 
 the Exarch of Ravenna, 59. 
 
 Sicilian Vespers, 174. 
 
 Sicily granted to the Pope, 75. ; 
 
 Sigismund, Emperor, attempts in 
 vain to persuade Benedict XIII. 
 to resign the Papacy, 246. 
 
 Silvester I. Pope, was allowed by 
 Constantine no power in the 
 Council of Nice, 21. presented 
 by Constantine with a crown, 
 ibid, calls a Council at Rome te 
 confirm what had been done at 
 Nice, 22. 
 
 Siuuessa. Vide Council. 
 
 Sixtus III. Pope, his little authori- 
 ty, 26. 
 
 Sixtus IV. Pope, orders the Jubilee 
 to be kept every twenty-five 
 years, 267. conspires with the 
 Pazzi of Florence to assassinate 
 the Medici, ibid, his conduct in 
 the wars of Venice and Ferrara, 
 276. his supremacy not acknow- 
 ledged in England, ibid. 
 
 Sixtus V. Pope, his election, 443. 
 character, 444. artifices iri the 
 Conclave, 446. his change of be- 
 haviour after his exaltation to 
 the Papacy, 448. his conference 
 with the Duke of Nevers respect-- 
 ing the League, 449. publishes a 
 Bull against the King of Navarre 
 and the Prince of Condc, 457. 
 his proceedings in consequence 
 of the assassination of the Duke 
 and Cardinal of Guise, 460. his 
 conduct towards his Cardinals, 
 ibid, sends a Legate to Paris to 
 assist the League, 463. excom- 
 municates Henry III. of France, 
 464. commends in a speech HJ 
 the Consistory the assassin- of 
 Henry III. 465. abandons -the 
 League,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 - League,' 466. his death and cha- 
 racter, 468. his communication 
 to Cardinal Joyeuse respecting 
 Queen Elizabeth, 470. 
 
 Snuff, forbidden to be used in 
 churches during the time of mass, 
 559. 
 
 Soave. Vide Paolo. 
 
 Soliinan, Sultan, his letter to the 
 Pope, 364. 
 
 Sorbonne, College of, always de- 
 fended opinions and held maxims 
 disadvantageous to the Popes, 
 488. deny that the Pope is 
 judge of matter of fact as well 
 as of faith, 580. condemn the 
 opinions of the Jesuits, 582. de- 
 ny the Papal supremacy, 675. 
 
 Spada, Cardinal, appointed by the 
 Pope to treat with the Princes of 
 the League about the redeliver- 
 ing of Castro to the Duke of 
 Parma, 553. 
 
 Spain, state of, during the infancy 
 of the pretences of the Popes, 
 56. Moors, when first introduced 
 into, ibid, first introduction of the 
 Papal authority into Spain, 97. 
 always the ready scene of Papal 
 usurpation, 158. the spirit of the 
 Spanish nation broken, and its 
 understanding darkened by the 
 Inquisition, 373. proposes to me- 
 diate between Paul V. and the 
 Republic of Venice, 504. threat- 
 ens to call a General Council 
 and choose a Patriarch, 544. 
 
 refuses to support Pope Alexan- 
 der VII. in his projected war 
 with France, 626. 
 
 Spelman, Sir H. passages quoted 
 from his Councils, 23. 54, 55. 
 
 Spires. Vide Council. 
 
 Stephen II. Pope, invites Pepin to 
 invade Italy to vindicate the 
 Church from the tyranny of the 
 Lombards, 62. 
 
 Stephen III. Pope, chosen by the 
 People and Clergy, 63. 
 
 Stephen IV. Pope, upon his elec- 
 tion to the see of Rome obliged 
 to send to the Emperor for his 
 approbation, 75. 
 
 Stephen VI. Pope, declared the Bi- 
 shops made by Pope Formosus 
 to be lay, 87. 
 
 Stephen VIII. Pope, hated by the 
 people, 87. 
 
 Stephen IX. Pope, his election, 
 94. 
 
 Supremacy, Papal, never confider- 
 ed in Catholic times as a part of 
 Catholic religion, 8. denied in 
 England in the reign of Richard 
 II. by the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury in Parliament, 230. not as- 
 serted in the Council of Trent, 
 395. denied by the Sorbonne, 
 
 675. and the Gallican Church, 
 
 676. no essential part of Chris- 
 tian religion, 680. the great 
 cause of uncharitable disunion 
 between Christians, ibid, reason* 
 for requiring all the English Ro- 
 man Catholics to renounce the 
 Pope's supremacy, 706. 
 
 T. 
 
 Telesphorus, Pope, ordered three 
 masses to be said on Christmas 
 eve, 14. 
 
 Templars, Knights, their order sup- 
 pressed by Clement V. 32. 
 
 Theodora, Empress, her treatment 
 of Pope Vigilius, 45. 
 
 Tobacco forbidden by a Bull of 
 Urban VIII. to be used in 
 churches during mass, 559. 
 
 Toledo. Vide Council. 
 
 Tours, the Chamber of Parliament 
 at, declares Gregory XIV. to be 
 an enemy to the peace of the 
 Church, 475. 
 
 Trent. Vide Council. 
 
 Turks invade Italy, 278. besiege 
 the Canea, 642. 
 
 Tuscany, Duke of, resists the out- 
 rage committed by the Pop* 
 against the Duke of Parma, 
 551. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valette, Cardinal of, appointed by 
 the King of France General of 
 his army. 542. 
 
 Valte-
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 Valteline, wars between France 
 and Spain respecting the Valte- 
 line, 536. 
 
 Varnas, occasion of the bloody 
 battle fought there, 252. 
 
 Vaudeinont, Count of, invited by 
 the Republic of Venice to com- 
 mand their army against Pope 
 Paul V. 502. 
 
 Venice, tlie Senate remonstrates 
 against tlie Pope's interfering 
 with their secular affairs, 495. 
 resists the Pope's Bulls of excom- 
 munication, 498. the Senate ex- 
 pels the Jesuits and Capuchins 
 from the Venetian States, 499. 
 makes it penal for a Senator to 
 propose the restoration of the 
 Jesuits, 500. the Republic's an- 
 swer to the Pope's Monitory and 
 Bull, ibid, the Republic proposes 
 to Pope Paul V. that he should 
 take olF his excommunication 
 without its testifying any signs ot 
 repentance, 504. resists the out- 
 rage committed by the Pope a- 
 gainst the Duke of Parma, 551. 
 refuses to support I'ope Alexan- 
 der VII. in his projected war 
 with France, 626. 
 
 Venetian war, 295. 
 
 Vernant, Jaques, his propositions 
 respecting the Pope's authority 
 censured by the faculty of Paris, 
 676. 
 
 Vicars, perpetual, attempts by the 
 Popes to establish them in Gaul, 
 95. 
 
 Victor II. Pope, calls the Council 
 of Florence, 97. endeavours to 
 move the Emperor to concur iu 
 the renewing the ancient disci- 
 pline of the Church, ibid. 
 
 Victor III. Pope, renews the cen- 
 sures of his predecessor against 
 the Emperor and Clement III. 
 110. 
 
 Vienne. Vide Council. 
 
 Vigilius, Pope, chosen by the Cler- 
 
 gy, 45. 
 
 Virgerius, Bishop of Capo d'Istria, 
 is refused a seat in the Council of 
 Trent on account of his opinions, 
 
 Ulric, St. manner of his canoniza- 
 tion, JO2. 
 
 Urban II. Pope, renews tlie cen- 
 sures of his predecessor against 
 the Emperor and Clement III. 
 110. 
 
 Urban V. Pope, elected Pope 
 though not a Carding, 34. be- 
 sieged in Avigno.n ;ul ransomed, 
 217. goes to Rome, where he be- 
 gins great buildings, and after 
 two years residence there return* 
 to Avignon, 218. 
 
 Urban VI. Pope, elected to the Pa- 
 pacy though not a Cardinal, 
 
 224. comparative pretensions of 
 Urban and his rival Clement, 
 
 225. acknowledged as the true 
 Pope in England, ibid, rejected 
 by the King of Oistile, 226. ac- 
 knowledged by Germany and 
 Flanders, 228. 
 
 Urban VII. Pope, his short reign, 
 47-3. 
 
 Urban VIII. Pope, his election, 
 534. his conduct and character, 
 Hud. his neutrality between 
 France and Spain, 41. the af- 
 fronts he receives from France, 
 543. ill effects of : Jiis policy, 545. 
 confers upon Cardinals the title 
 of " Eminence," 546. his attempts 
 to aggrandize his tkniily , ibid, af- 
 fair between him and the Duke 
 of Parma, 547. refuses pecuniary 
 aid to the Emperor and to the 
 Princes of Germany against the 
 Khig of Sweden, 555. his nume- 
 rous colonizations, 558. prohi- 
 bits a public funeral for Fra Pao- 
 lo at Venice, which nevertheless 
 is solemnized, though be died ex- 
 coinmunicated, ibid, his Bull a- 
 gainsi taking tobacco and snuff 
 in churches during mass, 559. his 
 Bull against dressing out saints 
 upon the days of their festivals, 
 ibid, suppresses the society of Je- 
 suitesses, 562. 
 
 Uric, Monsieur d', sent ambassador 
 to Rome by the King of France 
 to delay the .election of a Pope, 
 339. his account of bis proceed- 
 ings, ibid. 
 
 Wai-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 w. 
 
 Waldenses, propagation of their 
 
 opinions, 137. 
 Wenfrid sent by Gregory II. to 
 
 plmit Christianity in Germany, 
 
 57. 
 William the Conqueror alters the 
 
 ecclesiastical laws of England 
 
 without reference to the Pope, 
 
 100. 
 
 Winchester, Bishop of, made a Pri- 
 vy Counsellor to Henry VI. with 
 an exclusion from the Council in 
 all matters concerning the Pope, 
 250. 
 
 Worms. Vide Council. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zacharias, Pope, deposes Childeric 
 to make Pepm King in his place, 
 62. 
 
 THE END.
 
 The following Errata, affecting the sense of some of the passages quoted, 
 should be thus corrected. 
 
 P. 129. I. 13. for panto read punto p. 175. 1. 2. for sahura read soltura\ 1. 3. for 
 e/Ievava read llevava p. 196. 1. 3,J. for ordenes read orden es p. 197. 1. 2?. 
 read cttyo decreloy sentencia. prevalecib p. 277. 1. 6. for favortcts read favorccio.
 
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