The Historie sheweth vs, that after the bat­tel of Cannas, in which the Romans receiued the greatest losse, that euer befell them; for­ty thousand Citizens, the Generall of the Armie, with fourscore notable persons of the Se­nate, beeing kild vpon the place, the rest of their troopes either taken, or dispersed; the Enemie victorious and triumphant, at the gates of the Ci­ty, the name of that magnanimous Common­wealth, brought almost to nothing: those of Ca­pua which had alwaies nourished an ill wil toward [Page 2]the Romās, forgetting all respect of obediēce due to the Empire, without any apprehension of the bonds and obligations, wherewith they were bound to the people of Rome; vpon the very point of such an occasion, thought to make them­selues Lords of Italie; so that in stead of contri­buting to the necessities of the State of Rome; of­fering the succour, and aid, which was required of them; they demanded to participate in the chiefest dignities, and that the honor of the Com­mon-wealth might bee diuided betweene them and the Romanes. After the losse of our great King, whose Person ought to haue beene as deare to vs, as his Monarchie: you haue seene the Iesu­ites (instead of compassion) seeking to raise them­selues by the common calamitie of France, and without giuing vs any leasure to set in order the domesticall affaires of the Estate, to labour with might and maine, and to loose no time for the en­tire establishment of their owne authority: I doe not say, that they haue demanded to partake in the greatest charges, but by meanes of the Hosta­ges of all your children, which they haue requi­red, to become able to distribute thē absolutely, and to rule at their pleasure, as they haue already promised vnto themselues.

The sequele of the Historie touching this gene­rous people, addeth further, that at the ouerture, which was made of such a proposition, the affli­ction of the Romanes, was vpon the instant con­uerted into an extreame indignation, against such [Page 3]ingratefull persons, which they knew well how to accompanie with a Resolution, beseeming their courage: I will represent it in the same termes: Indignatione orta, submoueri à Curiaiussos esse, mis­súmque lictorem, qui ex vrbe educereteos, atque eo die manere extra fines Romanos iuberet; The Romanes beeing mooued with indignation, commaunded them to bee conueyed out of the Senate, and sent a Sergeant with them to bring them out of the Citie, and forbadde them from that day forward, to enter into the Territories of the people of Rome. If God had giuen our poore nation, as much pru­dence & stedfastnesse, as bounty, & facility; & that theeies of our vnderstāding were as cleare-sighted as those of the body, the example and resolution of the wisest that euer the Sunne saw, might haue serued for a direction in this occurrence; which is vnto vs of no lesse importance. And as this sage counsell was soone seconded with good successe, (for the enemie diuerting his enterprise from against the scat of the Empire, to receiue the affections of those of Capua, gaue the Romanes time to take breath, and to make their greatnesse appeare more redoubtable, then euer) the same remedie would vndoubtedly haue secured vs from the troubles and diuisions, which they sowe amongst vs; wherein the enemies of France take farre greater assurance, then in all their force. But (alas) beeing giuen to vnderstand by the mani­fold harmes wee haue sustained of their designes, both already past, and yet continued vnto the [Page 4]fourth generation, shall not we be touched with a liuely apprehension, that at this time their onely drift is, to see vs the last of French men, and neuer to liue in repose; that the condition, and life of our Kings, and Princes, our owne, and that of our posteritie be no longer assured?

This is the third time, that the Vniuersitie of Paris eldest daughter of the thrice Christian Kings, hath beene reduced to this necessitie, by the enterprise of the Iesuites: neere vpon their fi [...]st arriuing, there was nothing else heard to re­sound in this place but Prophesies of their inten­tion, that they would confound all politicke or­der, and depraue the Lawes diuine and humane: what presages were there of the desolation of learning, and of the ruine of the greatest, and most famous Vniuersitie, which hath beene vpon the face of the earth? Although that this were de­clared by the mouth of the greatest personages, whose memory shall euer bee honoured by vs, notwithstanding it was hard to perswade vs, that which hath prooued since but too too true, euen then, when the Royall dignitie was in estate so assured, that it seemed wee neuer needed to feare any mutation: and besides, the Catholike religi­on, accustomed to propose nothing but amitie, faith, and inuiolable concord, made men little to mistrust, that it was possible to bring into the Church, which had flourished so many ages, without taking aduantage of trouble, and dissen­tion, this new learning, in her old age, which hath [Page 5]done so much harme, and made the remedies more dangerous then the disease.

As it is not commonly seene, that propheti­call declarations are frustrated of their effect, so these predictions haue beene authorized by the euents, in such wise, that the Iesuites working at one and the same time vpon two contraries, they haue stirred vp that which was of ill disposition in our stomackes, as well the cold as the hot, and for thirtie yeares continuance haue molested France with such a furie, that we haue found by experience, but too late, that hauing made vs lose all fidelitie, dutie, and charitie, wee were out of hope of any recouery; if hee, whom God would haue to be the Physitian of our griefes, had not by his balme of amitie, and reconciliation, (a most gentle lenitiue, and most profitable for our afflictions) brought backe our quiet and repose. The Vniuersitie did not then faile to giue the watchword, and to aduertise vs what were the causes of these mutatiōs, which were by her wor­thily and truely represented, and plainely and manifestly laid open, the subiect of so great an in­flammation, and of such a continuall feuer.

The Vniuersitie of Paris, beeing more mortal­ly iniured, thought on nothing but sorrow, and sought by an eternall remembrance, to immorta­lize the merit of her benefactor; there was not a­ny Temple of this great Citie, which shee filled not with teares, with holy seruices, with funerall discourses in his honour: the time did not suf­fice [Page 6]to recount the warres, the trauels, the coun­sels of her King, whose honour can neither in­crease, nor be diminished: when the Iesuites puf­fed vp with hope, and courage, did raise this great Nouitiate in the Suburbs of Saint Germaine, A new Col­ledge now in building for their nouices. for the which, designing out so large a circuit, they doe not dissemble any longer, but plainely de­clare, that they will no more faile of the prey, which they haue so long pursued: they doe ree­difie, and augment their Citadels, and withall doe denounce warre against the Vniuersitie, vnder the fauour of Letters, which by importunitie they had obtained in the moneth of August, in the yeare, one thousand sixe hundred and tenne: they require to haue the instruction of the youth, to haue power to set open their houses, and to reade Lecture in all sorts of Sciences, in stead that the yeare before, they had required permission to reade onely in Diuinitie: against which de­mand, the Vniuersity then opposing it selfe, they with-drewe their Letters, fearing that in such a season, the great inconueniences of their procee­dings, and of their institution might bee disco­uered.

Their last Letters were presented vnto the Court, the three and twentieth of the moneth of August, and (as there is no artifice whatsoeuer, of which they haue not the practise in hand) more then three weekes before, they had canuassed the faculties of the Vniuersitie, yea they vaunted of the consent of some particular men, which had [Page 7]alwaies thought well of them, they did publish their victory without any resistance, they did presse with might and maine the approbation of their letters. The court notwithstanding ordered, that they should be communicated to the rector, and the vniuersity, which hauing bin done, and the body thereof assembled, neuer any man saw more resolution shewed in the defence of their liberty, yea with all earnestnesse. And there were but three, wherof the facultie of the Canon law is composed, which failed her at this neede, (as if the bloud, which they haue in their veines, did proceed from some other different nourishment, and that they had habituated themselues to some strange affection,) notwithstanding being con­strained to yeeld vnto the rest which were in grea­ter number, (yea a hundred for one) the oppositi­tion was framed and receiued in this parliament, vnder the name of the rector of the vniuersity in generall. The Court hauing done me this honor, to name me the aduocate of the vniuersity, I haue blessed that day a hundred times, which I will hold alwaies as deere as that of my life, in which my small labour, and merit haue found so great a recompence by your iudgement, as that I may render to my country, to whom I owe the good fortune of my birth, & to the vniuersity, to whom I am bound for my education, this witnesse of my duety, and respect, and that I may be reckoned by posterity in the number of those, to whom this defence in his time hath happened.

Our time of pleading of the Parliament past, ended the morrow vpon S. Martins day; our ad­uersaries vanished as fire in a clowd, leauing vnto the Vniuersitie the extreame sorrow of being fru­strated of so honourable and so lawfull a combat, to which shee had been excited by the Iustice of her cause, and by the force of necessity.

In the time that the Vniuersitie imagined shee was at some rest, and that the Iesuites did promise openly they would not vndertake any further, and that they would containe themselues, wee feele and perceiue, that they oppresse vs, and that the cuill hatched long before hand, could not so sud­denly be eschewed. To cōclude, contemning the authority of the King (who would haue the iudge­ment of their Letters to depend on your appro­bation) and that of the Court, (which had ordai­ned, that the Vniue sitie should first be heard vp­on her opposition) wee see that they are establi­shed, and vpon their owne authoritie doe instruct Schollers in the Colledge of Clermont, vse all scholastical functions, and by their witty sleights, they will make vs pay interest for our small time of quiet, (as said the prouident Bat of Athens) du­ring the which, we haue seene the weeds to grow vp, which we suffered to be sowne.

As the Vniuersitie hath witnessed againe this [Page 9]time to all the world: by her obedience that shee would haue slept, referring the best of her inte­rest to the benefit of Tyme, so shee could not be­leeue, that now any one in the world can thinke it strange, that shee would desire not to die, and since that her peace within doth depend in ma­king warre, night and day, without, and that no other plaister can be applied vnto her griefe shee was forced to renue the instant pursuit of this au­dience, to ad a request, for the restoring of this en­terprise anew: whereunto finding the Court well disposed shee hath reason to promise vnto her selfe vpon the whole matter as ready a dispatch, as happie, and fauourable.

And because (my Lords) that in my owne par­ticular, I acknowledge my forces disproportio­nable to so heauie a burthen, yea I ingenuously confesse my selfe to bee the least of those of my profession, which could worthily acquit them­selues thereof, fauour him I beseech you, with your benigne audience, which speaketh by your cōmandement, nay rather countenance the cause the most important, which hath been pleaded in our memory in that of our ancestours, yea of all France, the issue, and euent whereof will conserue our lawes with the sweetnesse of our liberty, or make vs see our ruine without any more hope, or remedie; the which I will handle, as succinctlie as I may, and with so much truth and mildnes, that I hope to leaue no subiect to accuse ought but the euill wils, and subtill practises of the Iesu­its, [Page 10]against whom the Vniuersity contenteth her selfe to oppose a wisdome truly Christian.

The Vniuersity of Paris hath bin from all an­tiquity recōmended for her singular deuotion, & erudition, by meanes whereof many heresies, and those of people farre remote haue beene conuin­ced: the Doctors thereof haue so insisted in the waies of the holy spirit in the Catholike Church, that by reason of the reputation of this sincerty, there haue beene heretikes, which haue agreed to take them for Iudges, and according to their ad­uise, haue passed condemnation vpon their errors according to the example of the Donatists of Af­frica, who although they were proud, and per­uerse, yet in the cause which concerned one Caecili­anus, in the request which they presented to the Emperour Constantine, they demanded that the Iudges which should be giuen them, might bee Gaules, and it hath beene written to her honor by Vern [...]rus in fasciculo temporū, that learning leauing Greece, was come to Rome, and thence to make her aboad at Paris, vnder the protection of Charles the Great, who founded the same seuen hundred yeeres agoe, and that the light of learning being for certain ages extinguished, was again lightened in the Vniuersity of Paris; the Popes Celestine, and Innocent the third in their decretall Episties, haue left for a perpetuall blessing vnto this Vniuersity that she had peopled the most part of the Bisho­pricks of Christendome. And before them Euge­nius the third, taking notice of the error of Gilbert [Page 11]Porretan, Bishop of Poictiers, would not decree any thing therein, without the aduise of the Vniuer­sity of Paris, by reason of the multitude of lear­ned men, wherewith it was replenished, saith Otho Frisingensis, an Historian of merit, and indeed the Bishop was ouercome by the disputations of M. Adam de petit Pont, a famous doctor of our Vni­uersity.

Let vs adde consequently vnto this recommen­dation, that of the Popes Honorius the third, Inno­cent the fift, & Vrban the sixth, who haue said that Paris was as the neuer dried source, whence the riuer of science did flow, which watered continu­ally the Church of God, and the instruction of all Christendome. And it is fiue hundred yeeres agoe, that the Vniuersitie of Paris might boast of this high stile of honor, which aduanceth her a­boue all the Schooles in the world, Studium Pari­siense fundamentum ecclesiae. What more honora­ble testimony can there bee, then that which is read in the Registers of the Vniuersity, that in the yeere three hundred, seuenty eight, the Church being afflicted with a great Schisme, the sacred Colledge of Cardinals, Apostolica sede va­cante, did solemnlie inuite the Vniuersitie of Pa­ris to contribute to the good of the Church, for to defend her from intrusion.

In the yeere foure hundred, and ten, another Schisme hauing giuen occasion of assembling the Councell of Constance, the Doctors of the Vniuer­sity of Paris, and amongst others M ^r Iohn Gerson, [Page 12]which was Chancellor thereof, named the thrice Christian doctor, in honour of the thrice Christi­an King, which had sent him, by their learning made knowne that the Vniuersitie of Paris was the mother, and Nurse of all good, and holy insti­tution, that shee had conserued the puritie of Theologie, mainteined the Episcopall dignitie, had alwaies opposed her selfe against strange do­ctrines, nouelties, and superstitions. Which hath made men to conceiue so reuerent an opi­nion of the Vniuersitie of Paris, that from all the quarters of Europe, yea from the Court of Rome it selfe, her aduise, and resolutions haue been sought for, and preferred to that of other Schooles. To conclude, be it spoken to the praise of the Catho­lique Church, the Vniuersity of Paris hath made the Church of France to florish aboue all parti­cular Churches of the world; in token whereof the Popes, Clement the sixth, and Pius the second would solemnly giue notice of their elections vn­to the Vniuersity of Paris, and the last of these two witnessed, that at the pursuite, and authori­ty of the Vniuersitie of Paris, he was moued to defend the Councell of Basil.

So may we say, that the tree of this doctrine planted so long since, hath produced so good fruit, that there is not any one, which hath fre­quented strange nations, who will not say, but that the deuotion of France, and principallie of the City of Paris, surpasseth that of all other peo­ple, which it may bee is more in outward shew, [Page 13]but as different from that of ours, as the shadow from the substance. As the Vniuersity of Paris hath been religiously deuoute, so hath shee neuer wanted the respect, and obedience towards our Kings her protectors, and withall, her power hath conserued the royall rights against all vsurpati­ons. Our histories doe iustifie, that the Vniuer­sity hath alwaies couragiously opposed her selfe against all attempts vpon the power of Kings, a­gainst the abuses, which are committed contrary to the holy decrees, and constitutions of Coun­sels, hath held great authority in the assemblies of the Gallicane Church, for to maintaine the liber­ties of the same, witnesse the appeale brought by the Vniuersity of Paris, and maintained in this Court, against Pope Benedict the cleuenth, who would haue leuyed tenths vpon the Clergy of France, whence occasion was taken in a diffama­tory libell, which was then published against the King, and the Clergy of his Realme, to quarrell particularly with the Vniuersity, which appeale, the Vniuersity did reiterate in the time of Lewes the eleuenth, from the buls decreed, cōcerning be­nefices electiue. Vpon this subiect, we see so many oppositions framed by the Vniuersity of Paris, a­gainst the power, and faculties of the Legats sent into France, as against that of the Cardinall of S. Peter, ad vincula, and of Cardinall Ballue, wherein the Vniuersity did summon M ^r Sollicitor generall named then de saint Romain to assist her, which made an ancient French author to write that the [Page 14]Vniuersity of Paris was the key of Christendome, the most carefull promotresse of the rights of the Gallicane Church.

Also our Kings haue especially cherished her, for it is read, that shee accompanied the King re­turning in triumph from the battaile of Bouines, and it is a thing remarkeable, that King Philip the Long, hauing assembled the estates of his Realme and the Vniuersity, all others did sweare fidelity vnto the King, as soueraigne, onely the Vniuersity did not sweare at all, as M ^r Giuinner hath obser­ued in the preface to the Pragmaticke sanction, because that by her instruction, we learne to breath with the aire of France, fidelity towards our Prince, and loue to our Countrey: and who knoweth not the praise which the Vniuersity of Paris bare away from the mouth of Pope Pius the second, hauing vnderstood by the Cardinall Bessa­rion, that shee had hindered her schollers, from being inrolled in the troopes of those, This was in the time of Char'es the 7. who made the publique weale a pretext of their rebellion. Vpon this consideration Dumesnil the King his At [...]urney generall, whose memorie can neuer die, said that the Vniuersity of Paris was receiued to pleade in this Court, not only in her particular causes concerning her priuiledges, but also in cau­ses, which concerne the publique estate of this Realme.

The Vniuersity of Paris is composed of foure facuities, the first is of Diumity, which beareth a­way the prize and hath the aduantage aboue all [Page 15]the rest: this is that science, which treateth of eter­nall things, which lifteth a man vp in spirit vnto the heauens, which teacheth the saluation of mankind, the reunion of the creature to his Crea­tor. To the study of the faculty of Theologie of Paris, is attributed the perfect, and diuine inuenti­on of the schoole diuinity, held in the Romane Church to be the infallible rule, whereby to iudge of the mysteries of faith, and of religion, the subiect for which the learning of this schoole is so much admired.

The second faculty is of those, who handle the knowledge of the Lawes, who are to teach that, which Aristotle saith, is the most diuine thing a­mongst men, that is, to giue good counsell in af­faires, and directions in pollicies. The third is of Phisitians which haue care of the health of the body: the last of the Arts, which laieth open the treasures of humane learning, of the tongues, and of Philosophy. If that our diuinity hath had the honor for puritie, the knowledge of the law of not being equalled, our Phisicke to sur­passe all others; the last which is as the seed, and nursery of the former, hath the testimonie of the most eloquent Italians of our age, who con­fesse that they haue learned of the Masters of the Vniuersity of Paris, the purity of the Latine, and of the other tongues, which yet at this day are not to be found any other where so perfect. Now as the estate of the Church Vniuersall is secular, [Page 16]so the Vniuersity of Paris is secular, the Rector, the Chancellour, the Deane, the Syndickes, the Censors of the foure faculties, the Proctors of the foure Nations, the Deputies, Masters, and Do­ctors are secular; the Regulars, as are the Iesuits, were neuer admitted there into, but by grace and by adoption, vnder a double condition, the one to be perpetually excluded from all offices and dignities, without being able to participate in them, the other not to keep publique schooles, but simply and in particular to instruct those of their order, as it is contained in the first addition of the Capitularies of Charles the great. Chap. 47. Vt scholae in Monasterio non habeantur nisi eorum qui oblati sunt; That in Monasteries no Schooles should be kept but onely for those who were professed,

These are the prime and supreame lawes of the policie of the Vniuersity who is subiect to the pollitique, and ecclesiasticall Magistrate, that is to say, to the Lawes, and equity of the Estate, recei­ueth reformations from the royall ordinances, ac­cording to the times, and seasons, motions and necessities of the Realme: when on the contrarie the Regulars doe depend and tie themselues to the rule of their order, which they receiue from their superiors, being religious men, as they are, whom they are bound by their vow to obey, and the Iesuits aboue all others, since that they ac­knowledge in all things their generall, as Iesus Christ vpōerth: they are so far off from receiuing reformation, in their maners, their rule, or policy, [Page 17]from the Magistrate or Bishops, that they do not in any sort acknowledge them, & from whose po­wer they hold themselues to bee wholy exēpted.

This was the reason wherefore in times past the Vniuersity of Paris opposed her selfe against the like enterprize of the Iacobins, which would haue kept publique schoole, and boasted of their great learning, and notable seruices, which their Order had done the Catholike Church; not­withstanding the chiefest men, which then were of the Church, hauing no preiudicate opinion by reason of any particular Interest, or designe, fea­ring the confusion of two bodies altogether sepe­rated, did cause these religious Regulars to de­sist from their pursuit, and the Magistrates which feared least the Vniuersity should be transfor­med into a Regular estate, did hinder them from being receiued. And indeed, what designe can be more ordinary vnto religious men accusto­med to the greatest simplicity and modesty, then by their example, and instruction to draw men vnto the perfection of their rule, to make them religious men and Monkes, as they are, so that by little and little we should haue seene the Hierar­chicall Order of the Church to become subiect, and depend of a Regular Order, and the Com­mon wealth depriued and destitute of her Citi­zens, herscruice abandoned, the charges of the e­state forsaken, or furnished with those, who, after their choice, by reason of their order, and religi­on, would haue beene found to be least capable.

And in regard hereof Cardinall Borromeus, whose memory is alwaies to be reuerenced, tooke away the gouernment of the Colledges which he had established in the Archbishopricke of Mil­lan, from those of the society of the Iesuites, say­ing that the Church had more need of Pastors, then of religious men. In Spaine it selfe, they could neuer get licence to keepe publique schoole, or reade to anie other, then to those of their owne house in the Vniuersity of Salamanca, or in that of Alcala de Henares, which are the two princi­pall Vniuersities of the Country, but contrari­wise hauing attempted it vpon an occasion, which was euidently fauourable vnto them, they were not admitted. In the yeere 1563. King Philip of Spaine, being to establish a Seminary at Salamanca; for the studie of the English, and I­msh, who resorted vnto him for succour, the Ie­suites sought to haue the gouernment thereof, and had prouision, and permission accordingly, as well by reason of the knowledge, which they had of the tongue, and of the manners of those who were to be instructed; as for some other grea­ter enterprize then intended, and also by the re­commendation of the Duke of Medina Cidonia, whose mediation they vsed; notwithstanding vp­pon the opposition of the Vniuersity of Salaman­ca, they were put from their purpose, except that the seruice, which Spaine receiueth of the Iesuites was able to vanquish the protection due vnto the lawes, and to the policy of this Vniuer­sity: [Page 19]and the complaint of the Englishmen is not secret; that the Iesuits hauing the guiding of the Seminaries established in Flaunders, by the fauour they haue, doe allure, and violently draw vnto them the best wits of their nation; and du­ring the time that they besieged our Vniuersity, haue not wee felt the same losses, greeuous to most of the great families of this Kingdome, and preiudiciall to the Estate.

It is well knowne to euery one, that the Iesu­its comming into France, vnder the recommen­dation of Pope Paul the fourth, who was of the house of the Caraffaes, could not be receiued, nor approued of by the Church of France, as they are not yet at this day, and from that time they haue had all the Clergy in maine opposition a­gainst them. In the yeere 1563. they addressed themselues to the assembly made at Poissi, vnder the raigne of King Charles the ninth, after that they had begged the fauour of the Cardinals of Lorraine, and of Tournon, personages of great power, as they neuer faile cunningly to curry fa­uour with those who are in credit, and authoritie, and dissembling the quality, and degrees of their Vow, did hide the secret of their rule, so that ha­uing prayed to be receiued as simple schollers, it was yeelded vnto them, by the Act of that assem­bly, allowed of in this Court, which is the one, and only title of their introduction into France. It was then thought that much was done, and that the inconueniences of this noueltie, were surelie [Page 20]prouided for, by imposing vpon them Conditi­ons of altering their name, & their title of submit­ting themselues absolutely, as other Ecclesiasti­call persons, to the Iurisdiction and controle­ment of Bishops, precisely to bee bound, that they should first and formost expresly renounce the priuiledges mentioned by their buls, without seeking to obtaine anie others vpon paine of loo­sing the grace and fauour which had beene gran­ted vnto them.

But this serued not to any other end, but to for­tifie their resolution, and to giue them hope of that which remained, for without any other war­rant or authority, they established themselues in the Vniuersitie, contrary to the opposition plea­ded against them, referred vnto Counsell, and not yet decided, and so remained vntill the edict, and decree of the yeere, 1595. by which they were driuen and banished out of the Kingdome. By the letters of reestablishment, which they haue obtained, and which haue beene verified in this Court in the beginning of the yeere six hundred, and foure, it is contained amongst other things, that they shall not haue power to erect any Col­ledge, nor to make any residence in any other Towne or part of the Realme, but there, where they were then established by appointment of their letters, without expresse permission of the King: and particularly within the iurisdiction of this Parliament, except onely in the Townes of Lyons, and Fleche, which they being not willing [Page 21]presently to thwarte, nor openly to band them­selues against the Vniuersity of Paris, whom they knew to bee in the particular protection of this great parliament, whose Iustice the brighter it shineth, the lesse they dare behold it, they haue circumuented the accustomed weakenesse and folly of the simple people, vpon which foundati­on they build their most firme dessignes, and by the establishment of one or two and forty Col­ledges which they haue in the Townes of this Realme, in stead of twelue or foureteene, which they had in former times, haue imagined, that cut­ting off, and diuerting the streames, which runne into this great riuer, they would wholy dry it vp. And there is no doubt, but that the Vniuersity hath thereby felt a great impayring; and that they had conceiued such an opinion of the successe, that they already gaue out that men tooke no­tice of their worth, and that they were esteemed necessary, that the Vniuersity sought them, and offered them the Colledges of Plessis du Mans, and of Cholets to ioyne them to that of Cler­mont they reported vnder hand, that the City of Paris should come to that passe at length, that it should giue them the Colledge of Nauarre, or that any other should be built them as large as that. But God would that the smoke of these o­stentations should doe no hurt, but to the eyes of the Iesuites, and that the fruit, and con­tentment of their reuenge hath fallen out other­wise, then they expected; for they confesse, that [Page 22]the Vniuersity remaining as it doth without ad­mitting, or receiuing them into it, their other Colledges cannot long continue, and that their designes for the instruction of youth, wilbe well nigh fruitlesse, and to no purpose, whereunto in as much as they are stirred vp with the desire of rule, and by the consideration of that greatnesse, to which they aspire, not being able to be with­held by the force of the lawes of our Vniuersity, by the authority of your decrees, nor the condi­tions of their reestablishment, we are constrained to discouer one of the mysteries of their ambition.

Although that the Iesuits greatly wronging learning, doe mangle, and diuersifie the ancient authors, that they are altogether ignorant in the secret of the tongues, yea that in the Colledges, where they account themselues setled, and esta­blished to continue, as in Italy, and in Sauoy, they do altogether contemne them, and reade no other books, but such as are composed by those of their own society; notwithstäding the reputatiō of lear­ning is highly esteemd, the which they can neuer vsurpe nor adde vnto their trophies, as long as the Vniuersity continueth without Iesuites. Am­mianus Marcellinus writeth, that it was sufficient for the Physitians of his time, in recommendati­on of their knowledge, to haue studied in Alexan­dria; so it addeth vnto the merit of any man, be he neuer so learned, to haue studied in Paris; the strangers euidently shew it, in seeking the alliance of the Vniuersity of Paris, to grace their schooles, [Page 23]as that of Pauia, called her selfe, as Crantzius wri­teth, her daughter, that of Milan her sister, as wit­nesseth Paulus Iouius in the life of one of the Ga­leaces.

Besides this reputation of great importance, which can giue, or take from them the choice of the best wits, they cannot manage the instruction of youth, according to their minde, any where else, as well as at Paris, the seat of the Empire, the place, where the royalty resideth, whereon the eyes of France are set, the residence of the great & soueraigne assemblies; no where out of Paris is there such ciuilitie, out of Paris little experience is to be learned in affaires, elsewher, the course of the world is not knowne. To conclude, it is the braine of the body of this estate, if they cannot possesse this part, their hope is halfe frustra­ted.

First because that imploying for the instructi­on of the youth of other Cities, men of little vn­derstanding, which had more need to be taught, then to teach, and being constrained to keepe the most able and sufficient they haue, to make shew and muster withall, the children doe not onely not profit by them, but neither are they able to discharge what they haue vndertaken; so that the assurance, which they giue out of their le­ctures failing, the Vniuersity should be replenish­ed as shee doth begin with schollers; which they retaine with all their might.

Secondly instructing the youth out of Paris, v­sually, [Page 24]and most often the best wits doe leaue them, and escape their hand; & then, when hauing gotten more knowledge, their iudgement is aug­mented, they are diuerted by a quite contrary in­struction vnto theirs, so that their haruest neuer commeth to perfection, for to confirme and set­tle their doctrine, and institution, they must al­waies haue their eye vpon their scholler, whom they themselues doe fashion, and inure to affaires of the world, so that he taketh nothing in hand but by their aduise, direction, and order, and hee must yeeld them an account of what he doeth; they neuer let loose the bridle after they haue in­gaged him in some matter, which concerneth his particular interest, and they haue long time had experience, that by meanes of the bringing vp of the children of those of Paris, they know the se­crets of houses, they gouerne the hearts, and wils of those, who commit vnto their trust that which they hold most deare: a great augmentation of their power.

Another reason, yet more weighty, and of greater force is this: The Kingdome of France hath at all times had the Colledge of Sorbonne in singular reuerence, and estimation, founded by our good King Saint Lewes, it honoreth her re­solutions, and the consciences of men doe willing­ly submit themselues to her decrees, the French Church taketh great assistance from the authori­ty thereof, which is so much the more legitimate, by how much the more it is very ancient, de­riued [Page 25]by tradition from our fathers vnto vs, ac­companied with all sufficiencie, learning and pie­ty; the Iesuites would haue gotten an absolute vi­ctory, if they could haue ruinated this fortresse of the French Church, and of our beliefe, they should be without feare of euer seeing either their doctrine, or the bookes of their society con­demned, or controlled.

It is not then succour, or ayde, which the Ie­suits seeme to offer the Vniuersitie, but (to speake properly) they seeke her ouerthrow; and with what face dare they maintaine, that our doctors are defectiue and faulty? Gamaches, du Val le Clerke Ysambert Hennequin doe instruct so faith­fully and plainely, that by learned lectures the schoole of the Sorbonne hath her exercises conti­nually replenished with fiue hundred daily Au­ditors. For instruction in humane learning there are as sufficient, as euer there were. Marsille Morel, Bourbon, Granger, Hardiuiliers, and others, the least of whom hath more knowledge, and vn­derstanding in the tongues then all the best Re­gents of the Iesuites. Also this is not the vtmost of that which they striue for, they haue long since giuen out, that nothing is well done, which pro­ceedeth not from them, nothing is perfect but their life, their discipline, and their rule: they want no seede of diuisions to cast amongst vs, and doe laye vpon vs manifest aspersions, as they began in the yeere, 1575. in calumniating the faith of the Vniuersity touching the immaculate [Page 26]conception of the holy Virgin, bearing the holy father in hand, that the only hinderance and let which kept the Councell of Trent from being re­ceiued in France, was in that the doctrine of the diuines of Paris, maintained the constitution of the Councel of Basil. And their ordinary practises in places where they are established, may make vs iudge sufficientlie of their intention, in that they receiue no doctrine, nor instruction, but from those of their owne society. Master George Engli­semnis would haue read Philosophie at Rouen, Master Matthew Gelissemius at Doway would haue professed the same likewise to the English Semi­nary, but were both hindered by them: in the Towne of Auignion, there being in the Couent of the Fryars Minimes an excellent diuine which read lecture to the religious men of his order, manie moued by his learning did frequent his lectures, but they propounded and prosecuted the matter so earnestly, that none else, besides the religious men of their owne house could bee admitted. And not long since Master Claude Berthin a verie excellent scholler, and bacheler in diuinity being desirous to preach at La Fleche, could not be per­mitted by reason of their opposition. At this day in all Germany besides the Colledge of Col­len, there is no reader, nor schoole, but either of Iesuites, or Protestants: the image of those perni­tious extremities, to which they would bring vs; and already in France we see Vniuersities vtterlie ouerthrowne, Colledges of ancient foundation [Page 27]quite rooted out by their meanes agreeable vnto the presage, which Monsieur de Pontac, Bishop of Bazas made of them aboue forty yeers agoe, doe not they (although it be mistrusted and suspected to be false) make vse of the Bull, which they say they haue obteined from pope Sixtus the fifth, by the which contrary to the Lawes, and foun­dation of the Vniuersity of Pontamousson con­firmed by Pope Gregory the 13. his immediate pre­decessor, the dignity of the Rector-shippe is attri­buted vnto the Iesuites quite excluding all o­thers, and there doe they exercise by this meanes a perpetuall dictatorship. They haue not spa­red the ancient houses of Religion, for to ac­commodate themselues, as at Bourges, they would haue taken vp the house of the Carmelites, that of the Iacobins at Orleans, in Moldania and Walachia, they haue driuen out the religious men, and ap­propriated vnto themselues their possessions, at Lucerna, they haue driuen out the Chartreux, in Bohemia, they had done the like to other Char­treux, and had taken vp their ancient Monasterie, if Don Quincana a Spaniard of that order had not preuented them, who hindred their purpose: neither doe they endeuour to establish them­selues in any place in the world, but by the ruine of others.

They alleadge, that they teach for nothing, and that it is a great ease to fathers which are of small ability. Can it be possible, that we should be yet seduced with so ill and false an opinion, that ha­uing [Page 28]had so euident knowledge, and so cleere proofe before our Eyes, this imagination can cor­rupt the truth? The Iesuits haue no Colledges, which are not founded with the substance of those whom they so teach for nothing, and those of great reuenue. It is strange, that being reesta­blished but six yeeres agoe, they should possesse more wealth in France, then in anie other part of Christendome. Soe doe wee cherish our owne hurt, recompensing more liberally the harme which they doe vs, then our enemies doe the ser­uice, which they receiue from them. To one of their Colledges alone they haue belonging two thousand pound a yeere rent, and a hundred thousand Crownes bestowed in building, they haue vnited Abbeyes, Franes fiess are lands which none but gentle­men may en­ioy, and who­soeuer pur­chaseth them is made no­ble (as they terme it) and therefore the king hath a fine for alie­ning them, and no man, who is igno­ble, may pur­chase them without his leaue. Priories, and Benefices, and with one blow haue disappointed, and fru­strated the founders, Patrons and religious men, they got at one time alone foureteene thousand Crownes, vpon the last sale of the franke fees, and lands, which newly came to the Crowne, where­upon there was an edict made to inhibite them, (we may see whether we are to thanke their mo­desty) or else they had gone further. Whether are these the religious men of rare pietie, who prayed the great Emperour Iustinian, to imploy the liberality which he offered them, to the main­tenance of the poore, and easing of his people? or those dainty Courtiers, which Ammianus Mar­cellinus describeth: Who, that it might not be obie­cted vnto them, that they had serued for nought, [Page 29]or because they would not be measured by the rule of others. Stipendia sua manu non recipiebant, sed expansa chlamyde.

Of threescore and three Colledges, which are in the Vniuersitie, there is not one, except the Colledge of the Grassius, which hath any foun­dation, or wages, for the Regents: the foundation of the Colledge of Nauarre hath for their wages in all but foure pounds a yeere at the most, there is not the least seruant of the Iesuits, which hath not a better remembrance. Learning is not enter­tained without the sweetnesse of some recom­pence, our ancestors would leaue this to mens dis­cretion, according to their meanes, and as the time required, notwithstanding they appointed some reward for to stirre vp emulation, the ho­nest spurre of vertue, without any constraint at all; there was neuer poore scholler, whose excuse hath not beene, and is receiued, and now must the imagination forsooth, that they will ease vs of some small expences, hinder vs from discerning the shadow from the substance, make vs reiect, and contemne the true sciences, which the Vni­uersity doth preserue by her owne proper merit, (as Plato said of the Mathematicians) and expell diuine, and noblemindes, these wits of fine gold, for to establish those of iron and lead, and to make them succeed in their roomes. Let the V­niuersity be gratified, but with the third part of an hundred thousand Crownes a yere rent, which the Iesuits possesse, all shalbe done there freely & [Page 30]we shall see learning flourish more then euer it did, or rather let the foundation of the Colledge be reduced vnto that which is necessary, and hus­banded according to the course of the time, there will be sufficient and if we will take neuer so little paine, it were as easie to establish the good as to know the euill, if we are not so vnfortunate, as that we will disdaine our owne, for to entertaine strangers.

We reade in the 22. Chapter of Deuterno. that God did expresly forbid, that a vineyard should be plāted of diuers kinds of plants, to mixe wool­len, and linnen together, to sow a fielde with di­uerse seedes: The nouelty of the institution of the Iesuites societie, their doctrine different from that of the Church, and from the Theologie of our schoole, the which neuer swarued, nor went out of the eclipticke line of truth, yea diameter­wise and directlie opposite, and contrary to the authority of free Monarchies hath beene the cause, that our ancestors haue earnestly withstood the receiuing of the Iesuites, and that the schoole of Sorbone then furnished with the greatest and most famous doctors of Christendome, the grea­test part whereof were assistant at the Councell of Trent, made that famous decree of the yeere 1554. which conteineth a prophesie of the mi­series which were felt sithence, and endured pre­sages, God for our chastisment hath ratified, so that the ineuitable necessity, in which the enter­prises, and imprudent passions of the Iesuites doe [Page 31]ingage vs, the extreme perill which they haue brought our Countrey vnto, cannot but vntie our tongue, although we should haue been mute and tongue tyed, all our liues, for to performe the same duty againe at this present, guided by the light of those, to whom we would take it for a speciall grace to be resembled, either for suffici­ency, or honesty, not being able to faile vpon this occasion to discharge our consciences for the ho­nor and preseruation of the publique weale, and for the aduancement of truth, vnlesse we will bee thought more zealous to our owne ruine, then affectionate to our safety.

Wherein, as our intention is, to take the same decree of our schoole, for the rule and measure of this demonstration, which the Iesuites could ne­uer procure to be censured at Rome, where our de­uotion is knowne, and where it is not yet out of memory, what opposition was made there, as well as here at the establishment of the Iesuites, which had preuailed, had it not beene in regarde of their fourth vow; so we will begin with the same protestation which the diuines of Paris then made, in which we desire to liue, & die, and for the good of the Catholike Church, and of the holy Sea, would confirme it with our blood; that wee haue no desire to enterprise any thing either in thought, word, or deed, against the authority of our holy fathers the Popes. But contrariwise all of vs in generall, and each of vs in particular, like obedient children, doe acknowledge the holie [Page 32]father to be the Vicar of our Lord Iesus Christ, the vniuersall Pastour of the Church, to whom God hath giuen fulnes of power therein, his de­crees, and constitutions are to be obeyed, and re­uerenced, kept, and obserued; and as the Vniuer­sity and schoole of Paris had neuer other beliefe, so now doth shee openlie pronounce it with her heart, and with all true affection.

Our Vniuersity together with all Christian people hath reason to take offence, and scandall at the vsurpation which the Iesuites haue made vpon the holy name of Iesus, in attributing parti­cularly vnto themselues this speciall, and incom­municable name, which cannot bee giuen for a marke and distinction amongst Christians, but is a name of effect, and of office, which apportai­neth vnto none, but to the Sauiour of the world, neuerthelesse, as if the Iesuites in a kinde of a­nalogie or proportion, could doe something in the Church like vnto that, they would make men belieue, that their society is essentially necessary for the Catholique religion, that without them, it cannot subsist, they say that they were chosen by the diuine prouidence, for a rule, and refor­mation in these latter times: Ad silentium tumidis magisterijs imponendum, defectus aliorum corrigen­dos & supplendos: To suppresse and put to silence the haughty doctors, and to supplie and correct the de­fects of other men: As Ozorius hath written in his second sermon vpon the death of father Igna­tius, applying vnto their society, the dreames [Page 33]and vaine fancies of the Abbot Ioachim condem­ned by the Church. Whereuppon it followes, that they submit all that which concerneth the honor of God, or the good of the Catholike religion, to the particular interest of their society, and repute all those for heretikes, which doe not follow their diuelish opinions, and concurre with them in their subtilties, and cunning practises.

This is the reason that Ribadenera writeth, that Ignatius Loiola framed his religion, by reason that all the rest were defectiue: whence it proceedeth, that by the Bulles of Pope Pius the fifth and sixth, they haue gotten by way of preuention, all the graces, indulgences, faculties, and priuiledges, which can be found euer to haue beene granted to any, Antehac concessa & concedenda: A testi­mony that their ambition is not yet at the point where they will stay. In their institution they haue wholy derogated from the discipline of the Church, and from all the ancient Canonicall con­stitutions, it may be truly saide, as the decree of the Sorbonne hath already pronounced, that they haue built, and raised themselues vpon the ruine, and decay of monasticall discipline. All the religi­ous men, which since the time of our Sauiour Christ, haue chosen a kinde of life, speciall, and different from that which is ordinary and com­mon to all Christians, haue made immutable vowes, taken markes, whereby to be discerned stedfast, immoueable, and perpetuall rules. The law of God doth command, that that which is [Page 34]dedicated and consecrated vnto God by the san­ctification of a solemne vow, should remaine for euer assured and setled in that estate, which is the highest degree of perfection that can bee imagi­ned: whence it commeth to passe, that in things inanimate, and without life, wee cannot make that which is sanctified, perseuering in his inte­grity, to be vnhallowed, and loose the force of his consecration. Farre greater reason then is it that a man vowed, dedicated, & consecrated vnto God, should not loose this essentiall quality, and inse­parable from the subiect. Saint Thomas setting downe the difference betweene a simple Vow, and a solemne vow, as that of entring into religi­on is, teacheth vs, that the solemnity of a vow consisteth in the consecration of him which is vowed, Quando per certaeregulae professionem re­licto saeculo & abdicata propria voluntate perfectionis statum assumit: When by taking vpon him the pro­fession of a certaine rule or Order, forsaking the world, and renouncing his owne will and affections, he doeth assume the estate of perfection, which all the Di­uines hold cannot be abandoned, nor forsaken without Apostasie. The Iesuites at the entring into their order, do make a solemn vow between the hands of their superior, and a solemne pro­fession, to liue according to the rules of their soci­ety, the which are of Obedience, Pouerty, & Cha­stity; notwithstanding, by permitting, (as they doe) those of their order to change their forme and manner of life to possesse goods and riches, [Page 35]to succeed their ancestors as heires, and at a need to marry, as many of them haue done, they doe peruert the effect of this infinite obligation, and of a most solemne vow they make a simple one, and giue leaue vnto him, which hath promi­sed to obserue their rule, and by consequence that which depends thereupon, to violate the same, which is so strange, that Nauarrus in his commen­taries De Regularibus tom. 1. saith, hoe est nouissi­mum admirabile, concessum praefatae societati: This is an admirable noueltie, granted vnto the aforenamed societie. If it had beene any where else but at Rome, he would not haue stucke to haue said that this was repugnant to the Diuine and Canon law. And although that there be nothing more natural in all obligations, and bonds, yea the chie­fest, and most precise of all, then to be reciprocall and mutuall, that as the people are bound to yeeld fidelity, and obedience vnto their Prince, so is he bound likewise to giue protection vnto his subiects. God himselfe would not be exemp­ted, when he saith, assemble me the people of the earth, that they may iudge beweene my people, and me, what thing I ought to haue done for them and haue not done it: And more apparant­in the gospell, which is full of sweetnes and mild­nes; whence it proceedeth, that there is no religi­on in the world, receiuing the Vow, and submissi­on of a religious man, which doth not bind it selfe to keepe and maintaine him, in his greatest extremities, and infirmities; they on the contrary [Page 36]as if they were bound to nothing at all, do expell, and may turne out at their pleasure, yea, though they haue beene thirty yeeres of their society, those which are weake and sickly. Whom they either cannot or will not make vse of any longer.

Another thing quite contrary to Ecclesiasti­call discipline is this: By the Buls of Paul the third of the yeere. 1543. and of Iulius the third, in the yere 1550. they are permitted to change all their rules, and constitutions, as often as it shall please their Generall, and he shall thinke it to be expedient, for the good of his company, these are the very words: Et tam hactenus fact as quam in posterum faciendas constitutiones, ipsas iuxta locorum ac rerū qualitatem mutare, alter are, seu in totū cassa­re & alias de nouo condere poss [...]nt & valeant: And that they haue full power and authoritie according as the condition of the places, and the estate of the affaires doe require, to change, alter, or vtterlie to abolish all constitutions, either heretofore made, or hereafter to bee made, and to make new in their stead. So that as they say themselues, they are neither regular, nor secu­lar, nor are bound to any rule, hauing no other excuse for this dissolution, but the designe of the absolute power, which they continuallie point at, & that the temporal power, may giue place to the spirituall, for the greater glory of God, as it is saide in the ninth part of their constitutions, the third chapter and ninth article, poterit in omni­bus ad maiorem Dei gloriam, vt senserit, procedere: Hee may proceed in all things as hee shall see cause, so [Page 37]it be to the greater glorie of God. The end of their fourth vow is the most exact obedience to the Pope, concerning their missions, which they will make vs beleeue is only in regard of Infidels, but on the contrary they themselues haue written, that this obedience ought to be measured, and re­ferred vnto the motion and will of him, to whom it is promised: So that at the instant that the Pope shall purpose, that the Bull in coena Domini, should bind the French men, and that he would leauie that which they call, and terme, sufferance, the Ie­suites are obliged by their vow to execute it, ac­cording to his meaning, without any other tem­per or moderation, but the will of their Generall, on whom the estate and the life of all our Kings by this meanes shall depend, an effect of their blind obedience for the perfection whereof they adde, Imperfecta est ea obedientia, in qua, praeter exe­cutionem, non est haec eiusdem voluntatis & sententiae, inter eum qui iubet & eum qui obedit, consensio: That obedience is vnperfect, wherein, besides the execution there is not the selfe same consent both of will and opi­nion in him that commandeth, and the other who obei­eth, hauing no other guide, but the meaning, and will of their Generall which they ought to exe­cute from point to point, and say that they are bound to effect it without any knowledge, or dis­cretion, after the manner perchance, as we reade in Victor, in the third booke of the persecution of the Vandales, that Hunneric King of the Van­dales, being set on by the perswasion of the Ari­ans, [Page 38]would that all Catholiques should sweare to that which was conteined in a paper, which was sealed vp, euen as the Prouincials of the Iesuites, often times in their assemblies, doe cause the im­portant commands of their Generall to be exe­cuted.

And that which is wondrous strange, to the end that they may make the power of their com­pany absolute, and the power of their Generall more ample then that of the Pope, in that which concerneth their vowes and missions, is this, that by the permission of their Generall they may cause that to be performed by others, which is en­ioined them by the Pope, and it may be reuo­ked by their Generall, yea without the know­ledge, and consent of the Pope, in the ninth part of their Constitutions. chap. 3. art. 3. And that which tendeth rather to lay the foundation of a particular greatnes, then to the good of the Vni­uiuersall Church, they haue obteined Bulles, wherein all men are forbidden, without excep­ting any, no not my Lords, the Cardinals to take vpon them any knowledge in the secrets of their rule, or to sound them, although it were to no o­ther purpose, but to know the truth thereof, as if that from henceforth the discourse, and iudge­ment of men were bound to become slaues to their vnderstanding and direction alone: by the Bull of Gregory the 13. decreed in the yeere. 1584. Ne quis cuiuscun (que) status gradus & praeeminentiae existat, dictae societatis institutum, constitutiones, vel [Page 39]etiam praesentes, aut quemuis earum, aut supradicto­rum omnium articulorum, vel aliud quid supradict a concernnes, quouisdisputandi, veletiam veritatis inda­gandae quaesito colore directè vel indirectè impugnare, veleis contradicere audeat, That no man of what e­state, degree or preheminence whatsoeuer, be so bold, as vpon any fained colour, either of disputation, or of sear­ching out the truth, directly or indirectlie to impugne, or contradict the ordinances and constitutions of the said societie, or these presents, or anie article of them, or of all the aforesaid premisses, or anie other thing which may concerne the said premisses. And, that which surpasseth all beleefe, it attributeth vnto their Ge­nerall only power to explaine and interpret it as hee shall thinke good: which was inuen­ted in fauour of them, then when father Claude Matthew shewed at Rome the memories and re­membrances for the hastning and aduancing of our miseries and troubles: and they hauing pro­ceeded so cunningly, that of 37. Bulles which they haue obteined, they neuer shewed any but those which least seemed to fauour them, because they would not discouer the great recompences which they receiue for endeuouring to bring the Papal dignity to this height, that there should be no­thing either in the spiritualty or temporalty, which should not become subordinate vnto it, ex­cepting only their Generall: for the better effe­cting whereof, their Bulles containe in them ab­solution from all excommunications which they might incurre a iure, vel ab homine, to the [Page 40]end that no respect of duty, or of any obligation whatsoeuer, might retaine and withhold them in setting forward this businesse. And as the Iesu­ites in excuse of themselues alleadge that they were not the first authors of this absolute power, Otho Frisingensis hauing obserued, that it began vnder Gregorie the 7. vpon occasion of the inue­stitures, and was continued vnder Gregorie the 9. so are we to admire the sage prouidence of the Almighty, who preserued in the schoole of Sor­bonne, founded about the same time, the treasure of the truth, contrary vnto that which the Iesu­ites propose vnto vs, as the first and chiefe article of our faith.

The schoole of Paris hath alwaies taught, that the primacie of Saint Peter and his successours, Popes of Rome, is by the law diuine, in honor and reuerence whereof the Church, antiquity, & the Christian Princes haue granted and attributed vnto the holy Sea many great priuiledges & pre­rogatiues which are by the law humane; that Ie­sus Christ immediatly after him, and proportio­nably sending forth his Disciples and Apostles gaue vnto them all equally and indiuidually the power of the keies, and that this mission is a reall conferring of power, and iurisdiction, euen as all the members of a naturall body, although they are inequall in dignity, doe proceed immediatlie from nature; by reason whereof the estate of the Church is Monarchicall, tempered with an Ari­stocraticall gouernement of Bishops and Priests, [Page 41]as it were a Senate: the most free and perfect e­state, which that can be imagined. Whence it a­riseth, that the certaine, and infallible authority for the resolution of points of religion, doth re­side in the whole Church, and not in the head a­lone, that by reason hereof, Councels are necessa­rie for the gouernment thereof, the conclusion of whose decrees, and Canons, by reason of the plurality of voices, the Pope himselfe is bound to obserue, without being able to dispence there­withall, but in case, where the Church being as­sembled in councell, would haue giuen dispensati­on, namely, where it concerneth the good of the vniuersall Church, and not of particulars, which is the solide foundation, whereon the liber­ties of our Church of France are grounded.

Hence it ariseth likewise, that the decrees, Buls, censures, and excommunications of the Popes, yea the Bull in coena Domint, and the counsell of Trent, as farre as they concerne the ciuill gouern­ment, do no way binde, nor may be executed be­fore they haue beene first approued, receiued, and published by the Councell, and Aristocraticall order of the Ordinaries of the places, which ought to put them in execution, and cause them to be obserued; that the sacred elections which succeeded the mission and vocation immediatlie made by our Sauiour Christ, do appertaine vnto the Church both by the law of God and nature, as it appeareth in the 1. and 6. Chapter of the [Page 42]Acts of the Apostles, by the counsels of Nise, and Basil, and by the ordinances of our King S. Lewes, and Charles the seuenth. That the Pope is the dispensator and Steward, and not Lord of bene­fices, that he cannot trouble the ordinaries in their functions, nor depriue them of their benefices, without lawfull cause, and without the Counsell of the Church, according vnto that which Saint Gregorie hath written, and is inserted in the bodie of the Canon law, can ecce. dist. 99. and S. Bernard lib. 3. de consideratione. cap. 4. and Gersson in his booke of the Ecclesiastical power consid, 12. and in the treatise which hee hath made concerning the Estates of the Church.

Contrartwise the Iesuites teach, that it suffi­seth not to beleeue that the primacie of Saint Peter is by the law of God, but that for a more ac­complished gouernment of the Church, we must acknowledge a Monarchicall, vniuersal, absolute, and infallible power ouer all Christians, yea in that which concerneth the temporalty, for to giue them lawes and directions, yea in Ciuil mat­ters no otherwise then doth the reasonable soule rule the body, and affections of man, this is the doctrine of Cardinall Bellarmin in his booke de Rom: Pontifice. of Salmeron in his fourth Tome, and the third part, the fourth treatise, explaining that place of Saint Matthew: Dabo tibi claues regni caelorum, I will giue thee the keies of the King­dome of heauen. of his commentaries vpon the 13 chapter of the Romains, and in the fourth dispu­tation: [Page 34]of Ludouicus Molina the 2. treatise de iusti­tia & iure, the 29. disputation: of Azorius in the second part of his morall institutions the 4. book and 19. chapter and of his 21. booke the 3. and 5. chapter of Gregorius de Valentia in his commenta­ries, of Magallianus in the beginning of his com­mentaries of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie, to which absolute power their principall and most secret vow, the first foundation, and motion of their institution and Order being tied, we haue small reason to doubt, but that this is the com­mon and certaine receiued doctrine of all their society.

They adde moreouer, that Iesus Christ hath gi­uen the keies with all Ecclesiasticall power to S. Peter alone, and to his successors, for to distribute the same amongst the Apostles, Bishops, and Priests, according as they shal thinke it fit: whence it followeth of necessity, that the institution of Bishops, and Curats is not by the law diuine, and that the Church is a pure soueraignty, which ought to depend on the will of the Pope alone, whereupon the Iesuits found their great power, to the preiudice of Bishops, Curats, and Pre­lates, taking vpon them more authority ouer the flockes of other men then the Pastors themselues. And indeed by the Bulles of Gregory the 13. of the yeere 76. and 84. besides that they are ex­empted from the iurisdiction of all Ordinaries as well secular as regular, all command is attribu­ted vnto them, and they are constituted to be as [Page 44]it were superintendents in the Church, whence it ariseth, that they vsurpe vpon the charges of all Ecclesiasticall persons, bee it either in admini­string the sacraments, or in any other function whatsoeuer, & at this day the Penitentiary of my Lord the Bishop of Paris, although it be furnished with three most sufficient doctors in diuinity, & renowned for their integrity, yet is it in a manner forsaken & abandoned in respect of the Oratory of the Iesuits, and the Catholike Church of Eng­land being destitute of Bishops by their monopo­ly, is depriued of the holy sacrament of confirma­tion. Where it is easie to be knowne, whether those of the Sorbonne of Paris, who haue alwaies mainteined hierarchical order, and the dignity of Bishops, haue from the yeer 1554. rightly conie­ctured of their design, which is to withdraw from the ordinaries the obedience and subiection due vnto thē, if the Iesuits may be sēt forth as Bishops and Curates and by this fulnesse of power, haue more authority then the lawfull pastors, the Bi­shops should be but as Vicars destituable at their pleasur. S. Paul saith, that the power was giuē him not to destroy but to edifie, and made scruple to preach the Gospell where Christ should haue bin already preached, ne superalienū fundamentū aedifi­caret. Ro. 15. & Rupertus interpreting the words of S. Iohn. 4. chap Vt cognouit Christus, &c. saith, that the great M ^r. of Humility hath taught all the do­ctors of the Church & of the houshold of faith, not to intermeddle with, nor pester the charges & cures one of another, although that he were the [Page 45]sun & the light it selfe, yet he would not manifest himselfe nor shine there, where Saint Iohn had first begun to shewe his borrowed light: can it be imagined, that it is possible to substitute one in the place of the father of the familie with the same power and authority, as hee hath, to whom nature hath appointed it, or, as Gerson saith, that the ordinarie Pastors which are accountable and answerable before God for their flocke, should not haue the guiding and gouernment thereof, to conclude, that a stranger should haue more priuacie with the wife, then the lawfull spouse? This is against the aduise of Saint Gregory. Non ego honorem esse puto (saith he,) in quo fratres honorem su­um perdere cognosco, meus namque honor est honor v­niuersalis Ecclesiae, meus honor fratrum meorum soli­dus vigor, tune ego vere honoratus sum, cum singulus quibusque honor debitus non negatur: I doe not thinke any honor to bee done vnto mee in that whereby I know that my brethren loose their honour, for my ho­nor is the honor of the vniuersall Church, my honour is the soliderigour and courage of my brethren, then am I truly honored, when euery one in particular hath not his due honor and respect denied him. Bern. 3. Con­sid. cap. 5. And S. Bernard saith, honorū ac dignitatū gradus, & ordines quibus (que) suos seruare positi estis nō inuidere, You are apointed to preserue & maintain the degrees & orders of eueryone in his particular place & dignity & not to enuy them.

Moreouer the Iesuits doe teach, propose, and maintaine, that the Pope only is infallible, the ce­lebration of Councels is but for decencie onely, vt facilius canones recipiantur: That the Canons [Page 46]may bee more willingly receiued: that the Synodall resolutions doe depend not only of the will of the Pope, but that hee may dispence with them, change and abrogate them when hee thinketh good, that the sacred elections are neither from the law of God or nature, and appertaine only to the Pope; Cardinall Bellarmine in the first booke De clericis. chap. 8. and that hee may dispose of be­nefices, yea to the preiudice of the Patrons, and of those vpon whom they are conferred, etiam sine causa, yea without any cause, the proper tearmes of Emmanuel Sa in verbo Papa. That the Buls con­stitutions, censures and excommunications, yea the Bull in coena Domini, and the Councell of Trent, in that which concerneth the ciuill Poli­cie doe oblige the French men in conscience al­though the French Church neuer gaue consent thereunto, nor did euer receiue them. Azorius in the 5. booke, the 3. chap. of his morall instituti­ons. If that the councels doe depend entirely of the authority and approbation of the Pope, as they mainteine, and the author of the Catholike institution perswadeth, when as in reckoning vp those which are legitimate, hee omitteth those of Constance and of Basil, which can bee vpon no o­ther ground, but for want of being approued and allowed, by the Popes, as Mariana his Colleague hath written, it followeth, (and see the mischiefe they runne headlong into,) that all the liberties of the French Church founded vpon the autho­ritie [Page 47]of the Councels are schismaticall, since there is an higher ascendent then that of the Councels, that the appellations which are interposed vpon this foundation, are grosse abuses and are abho­minable: it followeth moreouer that the sacred e­lections, haue not their beginning from the law of God, that the Primitiue Church, & the Church of France, haue beene in an error vntill the con­cordate King Frances betweene the first and Leo the fift, that you (my Lords) doe vsurpe vpon the greatest part of the iurisdiction which you haue, and the iustice which you sincerely exercise, which the Councell of Trent attributeth to Ecclesiasti­call persons.

As the doctrine of the Iesuits peruerteth the Hierarchicall order of the Church, so doth it an­nihilate the authority of Princes and of politique lawes, and drowneth it in the spirituall power, and is herein as opposite and contrary to that which our Theologie doth beleeue as white is vnto blacke, nor the sensuall appetite to reason, and if that calamities past haue not wholy bereft vs of our memorie, we may thinke it to be at this time the miraculous hand of God, which, when wee least thought vpon it, seemed to lay open this occasion, not only to make vs see, but also feele and touch the cause of our sorrowes.

The Vniuersitie of Paris teacheth, that the spi­rituall power is no lesse separated from the tem­porall, then heauen is from earth. The raigne of the sonne of God and of his Vicar our holy fa­ther [Page 48]is not of this world: the Church ought not to vse, (beside the Ecclesiasticall censure, and that for lawfull causes and in such forme and manner as is prescribed,) any other meanes, but persuasi­on, and not constraint, her proceedings, which ought to draw vs to eternall beatitude, are simply aduise and direction, and not force, and rigor, that it can in no sort appertaine vnto Ecclesiasti­call men to meddle in secular affaires, all their in­termedling ought to be tied vnto the soule and conscience, and their iurisdiction vnto those acti­ons, which follow and depend on the administra­tion of the sacraments.

That by the law of God and nature, Kings hol­ding amongst men the highest place next and im­mediately vnder God, haue all politique and ciuil power, and that they alone haue power ouer all that which concerneth the temporalty, and amongst all Princes of the earth our thrice christian Kings, to whom it seemeth, that God hath communicated the most liuely markes and representation of his image, who doe not auow, nor acknowledge that they hold of any one but God alone, their scepter, and their crowne, which he hath had in his speciall protection well nigh from the time that the crowne of the Saui­our of the world hath beene adored. The King of France I say, who by the testimony of the Greeke and Latine Historiographers, and since their time by the Italian writers and doctors is amongst other Kings as the glorious starre of the [Page 49]daie in the middest of a cloude comming from the South bearing the crowne of glorie and li­bertie.

Contrary vnto this, the Iesuits doe submit vn­to the absolute and infallible Monarchie, which they seeke to establish, the temporaltie of all Kings and Princes, to the end that the spirituall power may reforme, rule and correct them when they abuse their authority, that is to say, when they doe not as the Pope would haue them, and behold their sophistrie, indeed say they the spiri­tuall power ought not to meddle directly in secu­lar affaires, prouided that they hinder not, or bee no obstacle to the end and designe of the spiritu­all power, or that they cannot serue, aide, or ad­uance the same, for if it be so, and that there be a­ny aduantage to be gotten, spiritualis potestas po­test & debet coercere temporalem omni ratione, & via, quae ad id necessaria esse videtur: The spirituall power may and ought to correct the temporall by anie way or meanes whatsoeuer shall seeme necessary there­unto; the proper tearmes of Cardinall Bellarmine in the 5. booke, de Rom. Pontif. cap. 6. This is the Vniuersall doctrine of all the Iesuits before cited, and others who haue written, there being scarcely any one that hath omitted to handle this subiect, which is the principall scope and end of their in­struction.

This is the euill doctrine whose fallacious manner of arguing and contrary to all the rules of discourse and disputation, hatched the troubles [Page 50]of the yeere 1584. in which time the bookes of Cardinall Bellarmin were published, and preached in all corners of France: a doctrine of correction, which constrained King Henry the third of happie memory, who had hazarded his life a thousand times for the zeale of the Catholique religion, to vse the remedy which he so many times found by experience to be mortall and deadly, forced him to reuoke the Edict of peace vnder which his kingdome and Estate of France did quietly liue, for to cicatrize to his great griefe so dangerous a wounde.

Let vs not any more deceiue our selues; the false opinions in religion as they are diseases of the soule, so ought they to be cured by spirituall remedies, the substance of soules which is incor­porall and inuisible, cannot be constrained to re­ceiue or reiect any thing by force, and therefore those, who thinke to establish religion by force, as the Iesuits, doe wholy forsake and abandon the law and will of God, who would not in the building of the materiall Temple of Ierusalem, the figure of his Church, any one stroke should bee giuen with the hammer, or any other toole of i­ron: or that the pretext of religion should driue men into extremities so farre different from all re­ligion, let vs not attribute vnto ciuill warre the like effect as vnto the word of God, which alone hath power to confirme mens hearts in the truth, and to direct them from the contrary: so hath there nothing else arisen from thence, but that [Page 51]the strong potion of this Circe of ciuill warre made vs to forget our selues and all humanitic.

And although that both by the law of God and nature, and by humane institution all sub­iects owe faithfull obedience to their Kings and naturall Princes, without that any one of what quality soeuer, or by reason of any priuiledge whatsoeuer can be freed or exempted. Rom. 13 5. Non solum propter iram, sea propter conscientiam: Not only for feare but for conscience, as saith the Apostle, this be­ing prescribed both by the scriptures, by the do­ctrine of the fathers, and by the Canons of the Church: the very bond and ciment of peace betweene the two powers, the influence of the perfect and accomplished harmonie of all com­mand and rule here on earth, wherein the best and first Christians being instructed, haue alwaies made it their glory to serue their Kings cheere­fully whatsoeuer they were, and to accomplish their commandements in all humble obedience euen vnto the death: yet notwithstanding all this vpon the doctrine of this absolute authori­ty of correcting the temporall power, by the spi­rituall, are founded the excommunications a­gainst Kings, interdictions of their Kingdomes, discharging of their people from the oath of fide­litie and obedience, in case that their naturall and liege Princes should vndertake any thing in temporall matters, contrary vnto the will of the Popes: a doctrine adiuged to be schismati­call by our Church, the maintainers thereof con­demned [Page 52]by the Magistrates, conformably vnto that which the French Church resolued in the time of Lewis the Debonnaire, vpon whom Gre­gory the fourth would needs make triall of ex­communication, the which resolution was su­steined and vpheld by Hinemarus Archbishop of Reims whose writings are canonized, and con­firmed in the time of Lewis the Grosse against Pope Paschal of King Philip Augustus against Celestine the 3. of Philip the faire against Boniface the 8. and likewise by the Councell of Tours in the time of Lewis the 12.

Notwithstanding the Iesuits haue taken no other pretext but this to iustifie the vsurpation of the Kingdome of Nauarre, made by Ferdinand King of Spaine vpon Iohn of Albret, for no other occasion, but because hee affisted the King of France, against the will of Iulius the 2. whom Master Iohn du Tillet Bishop of Meaux calleth perfidiosus sceleratus, & vecors, perfidious, wicked & foolish: in stead that M ^r. Gilbert Genebrard a Doctor brought vp in the schoole of the Sorbonne in his Chronologie hath written: Ferdinandum Hispa­niae regem nullo meliore iure, quam quod sibi vtile & commodum esset, regnum Nauarrae expulso loanne Albreto occupasse: That Ferdinand King of Spaine had no better right to possesse himselfe of the King­dome of Nauarre by expelling Iohn Albret but that it was fit and commodious for him.

If the Frenchmen hath perseuered in this nou­rishment they had neuer sucked this outlandish [Page 53]poison which afterward was diffused into their veines, wee had not seene the rebellion stirred vp against our good King Henry the 3. by this do­ctrine, confirmed by the booke, whereof Bellar­min was the Author, intituled Franciscus Romu­lus, published in the yeere 88. by which (the mindes of the French men being at that time, as they reported sufficiently disposed and prepa­red) it was perswaded, that the taking of armes against a Soueraigne Prince, was lawfull wee had not seene so many fellowe-Citizens cruelly bent one to the ruine of the other, the heart of this poore Estate oppressed with so many cala­mities, the brest thereof so surcharged with an­guish and endurances, and the skinne so dried vp, and withered vpon the bones, that there was neither muscle nor sinew of this great body which could discharge his function, and our Country of France a thousand times as it were at the last gaspe.

But more then this it had neuer entred into the thought of a French man, if this doctrine had not beene, that it was lawfull to make any attempt vpon the sacred persons of Kings, and permitted to kill them: for as they haue taught, that Kings may be excommunicated, and depo­sed, if they failed to submit themselues vnto the will of this absolute power, so they haue also said, that it was meritorious to kill them, and by the one haue proued the other, this is the course they take to proue it. Princes by being excom­municate [Page 54]condemned and deposed of publique persons become priuate and particular men, without hauing either authority, or subiects: and so from being Kings they become tyrants, vsur­pers, and perturbers of the common peace and repose. Occupantem tyrannicè potestatem quisque de populo potest occidere, si aliud non sit remedium, est enim publicus hostis: Emanuel Sa in verbo Tyran­nus. Any one of the common people whatsoeuer may kill him who tyrannically vsurpeth the authority, if there be no other remedy, for he is a publike enemie. The obiect of all the enterprises made by Parri­cides, vpon which ground both Cardinall Bellar­min in his Apologie against the King of Eng­land, pag. 299. and Ioannes Mariana in his first booke de rege & regis institutione, and the Iesu­its likewise author of the booke intituled Am­phitheatrum honoris, haue all after one manner praised the abhominable parricide of our poore Prince, and the Iesuits of Bourdeaux, haue both saide and written, that this was the cause of their safety, which this very doctrine the rashnes of Barriere was armed in the yeere 1593. streng the­ned by the Counsell of Varrade Rector of the Ie­suits against our inuincible King Henry the fourth. At which time father Commolet did egge him for­ward by his outcries, Iudg. 3.15. desiring an Ehud of what quality soeuer he were, beleeuing that Barriere could not faile of his enterprise, or, if he did, that he would stirre vp the minde of some other to at­tempt the like.

A great misfortune that France hath lost this aduantage which in ancient time was attributed vnto her, that shee nourished no monsters. But God stirred vp his Hercules, to the end that he might subdue them, of whose hand next after his bountie he would wee should receiue this diuine worke, and the miracle of the rising againe of this Estate.

In this time the Iesuits knew that there re­sted nothing which could any more be opposed against the victorious armes of our great King, that hee was as certainely assured of the honour of conquering his Kingdome, as that it iustly ap­pertained vnto him, they made shew, as if they would take a sweeter and more pleasing tune, and for to vphold and preserue their society, published the resolution which they said their Generall had made at Rome in the end of the yeere. 1593. by the which they were expreslie forbidden to intermeddle with any affaires, they protested to obey the same, and to renounce all factions, to honor and serue the King as Subiects, whose clemencie should more appeare in pardo­ning th [...]m all, then in the remnant and surplus of those who had swarued and straied from their duty, this is that which then they touched in their pleading, and by their defense put in print, and it may bee, was the onely reason and consi­deration, that they were not at that time depri­ued of the Kings grace and pardon.

The wisdome of the Iesuits consisteth in gai­ning [Page 56]time vpon such occasiōs, their designe neuer dying, they attend the commodity that their seed may bring forth fruit in season: foure or fiue mo­neths after, at the instant that the King left his armie, this Prince, the Pourtrait of valour it selfe; in the midst of two hundred gentlemen, in his house of the Louure is wounded by Chastel, a scholler of the Iesuits, nourished in their do­ctrine; and hurt in such sort, that without the manifest prouidence of God, who loued vs, at that time this Monarchie had beene vtterlie subuerted, and we miserable men had beene de­priued of the blessings which hee afterwardes obtained for vs, by his incomparable valor, his iustice, and piety, no lesse admired at by all the world, then his arme and his sword were re­doubted.

This miserable monster, in the presence of you, my Lords, said hee ought else but that the King, although he were a Catholike, was yet out of the Church, that he yet stood excommuni­cate, that he must be slaine: is there any thing here to bee seene differing from their propositions? Barriere had said as much before, Guignard the Ie­suite written it, and after a thousand blasphemies vttered against his naturall Prince, Henry the 3. added this moreouer against the last King. If hee cannot be deposed without warre, let armes be taken against him: if that cannot be done; let him bee killed.

True enemies of quiet and repose, quite con­trary vnto the disciples of our Sauiour Iesus [Page 57]Christ, who vsed no other armes but their prai­ers: and preached nothing but loue, charity, and concord. Your enterprises against our Kings and their Crownes, by your owne confession, de­serued a greater condemnation then that which was pronounced against you by the decrees, what tongue can sufficiently praise the power and effects of the Iustice of this great Parliament, which in the middest of the greatest tempests, hath alwaies measured her actions by the com­passe of the good, and honour of this Estate? not­withstanding all oppositions your glory shall re­maine immortall.

Plato in his Politickes holdeth an opinion which hath beene followed by many others, that there are ages in the which God in person sit­teth at the Sterne of this Vniuers, doth guid and turne it according to his good pleasure; but that againe there are other times in which God negle­cteth this gouerment, and that then the world destitute of the conduct of his creator taketh a motion contrary vnto that which God gaue it: so that the East commeth to be the West, and the North taketh the place of the South; and that when this vniuersall conuersion doth happen, the generations, fashions, and manners of men, are either extinct or changed. As Christians we are brought vp in a better schoole, and fully re­solued that the prouidence of God neuer aban­doneth the guiding and conduct of the worlde, and doth not in any age permit the Intelligences [Page 58]or Angels which moue the celestiall spheres, to depart from the motion and measure which hath beene once prescribed them, notwithstanding when calamities raigne in the world, it seemeth that God sleepeth, and that he will meddle no more with ought, the rebellion of the people ac­companied with all kind of vices, with forgetful­nesse towards God; and all sorts of miseries and calamities during the ciuill warre, had taken so deepe roote: and so strange and maruellous a growth.

On the contrary with the acknowledgement of our King, our Soueraigne, and lawfull Prince: with the concord of vs who are fellow-Citizens, and his Subiects; as God more properly made vs to see his presence and his gouernment, so like­wise he made vs feele his bounty; neuer was there more affection in each one to performe his duty; more deuotion toward his Prince: more grace in particular, more hope of future times, it seemed that the soules of all Frenchmen loosed out of prison, enioyed such a liberty as neuer could bee expected or hoped for.

There had beene more spent in seeking to dis­poile our King of his rightfull inheritance, then euer was in making warre against the Turke: ne­uerthelesse all the iniuries which he had receiued from the time of Sixtus the 5. and his successours vntill Clement the 8. could not withold him from discharging the duty of a thrice Christian King, from sacrificing al his passions and iust apprehen­sion [Page 59]of the wrongs hee had receiued to the glory of God, and the good of his people. Thus our King, whilest hee liued exalted aboue the most renowned Emperors; richer then euer Prince was in the loue of his people, had the good will of all his subiects equally, and as he was all our hope; so was he the terror of all our enemies.

And that which made the blessing of God en­tire, was, that neuer there were so good courses ta­ken, and greater successe in the conuersion of those which were out of the Church: in priuate there were such mild communications, such mee­tings; and endeauors for the honor of God, and of the Catholique Church: and so visible an o­peration of the holy spirit, that those who were not yet touched, were more astonished then gree­ued, or displeased thereat. What was the successe of the conference at Fountaine-bleau where the King himselfe was moderator, and did giue light vnto others by his example; as the light in the middest of the Temple: where that learned Pre­late, that most illustrious Cardinal, that minde enriched with immortall graces, by his Christian temper did more profit the Catholique religion, then ten thousand Iesuits could euer doe by their preaching of fire & sword? O what victories were there in publike of the greatest wits, from whom the holy Sea and all Christendome hath receiued most notable seruices, what in priuate and parti­cular of those who wanted rather oportunitie then will.

The perfection of a man consisteth in the con­templation of the truth, there is nothing which so much tempereth the inconsiderate zeale of those who are in an error, as to shew them, that no other force shall bee vsed vpon their conscien­ces but that of the truth: and as the King did ear­nestly endeauour it, hauing established the Ca­tholique religion, and made the masse to be cele­brated in more then three hundred Townes of his Kingdome, where it had not been said in fiue and thirty or fortie yeeres before, so did he pro­mise the accomplishmēt of this holy worke in the conuersion of the greatest of his Estate, and of his neighbor Princes, who suffered themselues to be perswaded both by the force of reason, and by the miracle of his example.

The holy scripture teacheth vs, that too curi­ous and nice deuiding causeth schisme, the Church hath felt the discommodity thereof; too much vniting is the other extremity which threatneth the like inconuenience: All the body is not the eie, saith the Apostle, for then what should become of the hearing? and the body is not one member, but many: God hauing com­posed the body of such a temperature that he would haue the members to haue care perpetu­ally one of another: that which delaieth the con­uersion of an infinite company of men separated from the Church, although they are satisfied in all other points of the Catholike faith, is this ab­solute power and authority which they cannot [Page 61]brooke, this is that which augmenteth their di­strust, and suspitions and putteth off the reconci­liation of many; this is the meane whereby the Iesuits haue ouerthrowen the estate of Hungarie, made the Turke master of the better part there­of, and that the rest is held but at his pleasure, this hath troubled Transiluania, bred disorder and confusion in Polonia and Sweden, without that a­nie part of the worlde can be free from this trou­ble.

These are the profitable seruices, which the Ie­suits doe vnto the Church; who for the establish­ing of this power, and for their particular ambi­tion doe make as small conscience to hurt the best Catholikes, as those whom they hold to be separated from the Church, that they may veri­fie a part of the decree of the Sorbonne, Multas in populo querelas, multas lites, aemulationes, dissiaia, contentiones, variaque schismata inducit: That it bringeth in many quarrels among the people, much strife, aemulation, discord and contention, and diuers schismes: not to repeate the example of our last troubles, when they would from the beginning abridge King Henry the third a Prince most Ca­tholike of his seruants, yea so farre forth as to deny them the holy Communion. The schoole of Paris hath felt their calumnie, the Car­dinall Bellarmin hauing written in the 4. booke de Rom. Pont. chapter 1. & 2. that the opinion of the schoole of Paris which doth not auow the absolute and infallible power, erat erronea & hae­resi [Page 62]proxima. Nay rather is it not heresie to doubt of the faith of the schoole of Paris? It is true, that for proofe of his proposition he allea­geth a passage of Deuteronomy chap. 17. which (I very much grieue that this occasion enforceth to speake it,) hee hath corrupted, for whereas it is in all the editions of the Bibles, yea, in that which was receiued and imprinted by the commande­ment of Pope Sixtus the fifth, according to the text of the tongues Veniesque ad Sacerdotes Leuitici generis & ad iudicem qui fuerit illo tempore, quaeres­que ab eis, qui indicabunt tibi iudicii veritatem. And thou shalt come vnto the Priests of the Leuits, and to the Iudge that shall be in those daies: and shalt enquire of them, and they shall shew thee the truth of the iudge­ment. He hath written ad Sacerdotem, against the expresse prohibition of the holy spirit, which for­biddeth vs to change or diminish any thing from the booke of life. The selfe same happened vn­to the Author of the Catholike institution the second booke 8. chapter, vpon the like subiect, where citing the place of Saint Luke, chapt. 22. Ego autem rogaui pro te Petre vt non deficiat fides tua, & tu aliquando conuersus confirma fratres tuos. But I haue praied for thee Peter, that thy faith faile not, and when thou art conuerted, strengthen thy bre­thren: he transposeth this word aliquando from one period vnto another, and writeth: Ego rogaui prote Petre, vt non aliquando deficiat fides tua, abu­sing this word aliquando for nunquam. But they [Page 63]doe not this wrong to the schoole of Paris alone, there is no Ecclesiasticall order nor Religion which they haue not gone about publikely to disgrace, who knoweth not what their ambition hath cost the Catholique Church of England, which they had welnigh vndone in stead of ai­ding it? After the decease of Cardinall Alan the conducting of the English Seminaries was com­mitted vnto the Iesuits, presently they meditated how they might take from the Priests and Eccle­siasticall men of the Country, whose deuotion and affection had beene prooued, the rule and authority from ouer their flocke, for to attribute it vnto themselues, caused Arch-priests to bee made which should yeeld them a reason of all things, and would that the contributions and almes of the Country, which are not small, should be distributed by their hands, which caused more trouble amongst those poore Catholiques, then all their persecution, in the which, before they medled with matters, there was neuer any obiect of committing treason: yea they came to such ex­cesse that some Ecclesiasticall men of England, hauing passed the Sea for to aduertise his holines of this disorder Persons the Iesuite made them to be put in prison, and to be handled as male­factors and schismatikes, and hindered their ap­peales from being receiued.

These poore men thus afflicted found meanes by the Councell of the Vniuersity of Paris, to make the iustice of their complaint to appeare, [Page 64]whereupon came forth the Breue of Pope Cle­mēt the 8. by which the Ecclesiasticall men of Eng­land were forbidden to render any account of their administration, vnto the Iesuits, or to their Generall, nor to communicate their affaires vnto them by letters or otherwise, but to addresse themselues, directly to his holinesse, with reuoca­tion of that which Cardinal Caietan protector of England, had decreed in fauour of them, princi­pally concerning the distribution of the almes: and after that, the trouble of that Church ceased, and the peace thereof had continued longer, had it not beene for the negotiations of the Iesuits, in that which rather concerned the Monarchie of the world, then the Kingdome of heauen.

Another example without exception, and the carriage whereof was publike and notorious, a testimony of the mediocrity, whereof they boast that they haue gotten the perfection, and of the peace which they procure vnto the Church. The inquisitiō was placed in the hands of the Domi­nicans, as well for their great and excellent know­ledge, as for the great seruices they had done the Catholike Church, time hath not diminished the ancient and first glory of this order. The Iesu­its, whose designe tendeth to the soueraigne dig­nity of the Church, bethought themselues to stirre vp against them a dispute which they call de auxillijs, concerning iustification: thinking that by getting some aduantage vpon the repu­tation of these Religious men lesse cunning [Page 65]then they are, it would bee easie to pull out of their hands this powerfull function, although they neuer had abused the same. Which Pope Clement vnderstanding forbad the disputation, notwithstanding the Iesuits published the same: and there is no man who is ignorant, that this wise and holy Pope desired to abate their ambiti­on, confessing that hee had entred into speech thereof, with Cardinall Tolet, who preferred towards his latter end the honor and good of the Church, before the factions of his society; that he had sought meanes to make the counsell of Sixtus the fifth to preuaile, which was to shut them vp, and to submit their Generall to the ca­pitular resolutions of the society, and to make him triennall, from the which that they might se­cure themselues, they haue obtained a Bull from Pope Gregory the foureteenth, which importeth excommunication to all those who should offer to enterprise the like: but the Pope being not a­ble to bring it to passe, and Cardinall Tollet being deceased, he would, vnder colour of reforming their Order, haue sent their Generall into Spaine, which the Iesuits withstood, affirming vnto his Holinesse, that he could not do it without preiu­dice of his health, which made one amongst them to enquire of a woman which was possessed with an euill spirit, what should be the successe of that voyage, doubting with others of his socie­ty, that this was a meane to diminish the power [Page 66]of Aquauiua which is as great at Rome as that of the Pope.

The leauen which the Iesuits had left in the Townes where the Kings Edict touching there banishment was not executed, made them al­waies to encrease the hope of their returne, histo­ries the witnesse of time, the memorie of ages past, the mirror of men, the messenger of all the accidents which declare the truth, shall faith­fully report vnto posterity, that they haue not omitted ought which might make for their pur­pose, and they haue not concealed it, in a great discourse composed of thirty or fourty articles which they published, and supposed it to haue been made in the yeere 1603. by the King, in answere to the graue remonstrances of his Parlia­ment, which they impose and thrust vpon strange nations as if it were true, hauing made it to bee printed in Latin and Italian, and lately Gretserus in Germany for their last discharge, and also Posse­uin, doe imploy it in their Bibliotheca or Chro­nicle which they haue composed, to the end that this imposture should passe current vnto posteri­ty: who after that they had beene so bold as to compare their reestablishment which was of pure and meere grace, vnto the diuine and law­full establishment of our King in his Estate, yet they confesse that they obtained it as they might, & very hardly. As we all acknowledge that the clemency of our King hath giuen peace to his people, so it was necessary for him to assure the [Page 67]foundations thereof by iustice, in case of so great, so inueterate and pernicious a corruption, & for the sure establishment of the common weale not to content himselfe to command wel, but to inhi­bite the committing of euill. Great King which hast beene without comparison more exalted in vertue then in dignity, aboue other men, your good seruants wounded by the knife which hath shortened your daies, shall for euer complaine that your vnmeasured clemencie and gentle­nesse, hath encreased the boldnesse of those who haue beene to you as very infidels, as you haue beene vnto them a good and gracious King.

Our heart was sound, our wound recouered and the griefe of the Vniuersity in particular be­ganne to breake away, when the Iesuits emploied the intercession of Pope Clement the 8. about their reestablishment in this kingdome. All Christen­dome can be witnesse of the deuotion which our King did beare towards the holy Sea, and of the honour which hee gaue particularlie vnto Pope Clement, for his high, great, and eminent vertues: the bounty of the King more respected the con­tentment of the Pope, and the assurance which he gaue him, then the naturall apprehension of the iniuries and outrages which he had receiued, so that after manie commandements vnto you, my Lords, and many remonstrances by you, the letters which they had obteined were verified, it being worth the noting that the conditions ad­ded vnto their reestablishment, by meanes where­of [Page 68]men thought to bring them to the tearmes of simple religious men, and obedient Subiects, be­ing consented and agreed vnto by the Pope, were not allowed by their Generall, by reason that they were different from the principall rules of their Order, they kept close this secret from vs, by the which they thought themselues to be dis­pensed with, from all that which was required of them, and from that which they promised, not being able to be bound without the consent, and will of the Generall, they being more bound vnto him then vnto God; the Church, or Pope, or to all the world beside. They were reestablished in the moneth of Ianuary 1604. and a little be­fore, their brethren of Doway had managed the enterprise vpon the person of Duke Maurice, and had sent their Purueior named Panne to execute it. And a short time after was discouered ano­ther designe of their good intentions, to wit the conspiracy of the which three of their fathers Tesmond, Gerard and Garnet, had the managing a­gainst the King of England, and all the Estates and Magistrates of the country, the most prodigious that euer could enter into the heart of man, and which surpasseth and confoundeth all the excesse and villany of former times. The Estates of England were summoned, the place and day ap­pointed, and the ouerture prepared: the conspira­tors had found meanes to fill the vault vnder the roome where the assembly should haue beene, with such a quantity of gunpowder, hidden and [Page 69]couered with wood, that with the least artifice, frō as far off as they listed, they could haue blown vp & ouerthrown a whol kingdom at one instāt: they themselues haue thus described it, and part of those which were guilty, haue confessed it: It is not the meane to establish the Catholique Re­ligion, to fill an Estate with murders and horrible combustion, it is rather the way to giue cause vn­to heretikes, stifly to bend themselues against pro­ceedings so contrary to moderation and mildnes, which God hath left as a marke of his light, and to make that the Christian verity neuer returne more thither from whence it hath beene expel­led, and that it come to passe, that infidelity and paganisme shall rather succeed heresie, then that euer there should be any amendment or restoring of that which is better.

From this establishing of the spirituall power aboue the temporall, proceedeth this other pro­position of the doctrine of the Iesuits, to wit, that Ecclesiasticall men are neither subiects, nor vnder the iurisdiction of any Prince, but of the Pope a­lone, yea in that which concerneth temporall matters, that liuing in the Estate of any one what­soeuer, they are not bound by the lawes nor po­licies, be they fundamentall and most supreme: and therefore Bellarmine in his treatise de Clericis from the 28. chapter to the 30. Emmanuel Sa in his Confessionary vpon the word Clericus, Gret­serus in his writings against the common-wealth of Venice, doe concurre, together with all the [Page 70]rest of their society, that although Ecclesiasticall men should conspire against the Estate or person of the Prince, yet they cannot encurre the dan­ger of Treason, because he is neither King nor Prince as to them, neither are they subiects in re­spect of him.

The schoole of Paris on the contrary hath al­waies held and taught, that Ecclesiasticall men as naturall subiects of the Princes and common­wealths, in the which it hath pleased God they should be borne, are bound in the selfe same man­ner as other men are to obey the lawes of directi­on, and constraint, and are exempt only in regard of that which concerneth Gods diuine seruice, and the competent maintainance of the Ecclesi­asticall Estate: and as to this point the Iesuits dis­pute fallaciously, going from the declaration of a very speciall and particular exemption to an en­tire generall and absolute immunity, contrary vnto the doctrine of the Church, who teacheth vs that as the feare of God is the beginning of wisdome, so the feare of the Magistrate is the be­ginning of discretion, that as this life is the sha­dow of the life eternall, so the lawes of Princes and Kingdomes are a figure of the eternall law: so that he that loueth not the figure sheweth that he loueth yet lesse the thing figured.

This exemption continuing it is not to bee doubted but that Ecclesiasticall men, should be as it were so many garrisons of strangers in an E­state: and if the Prince or magistrate would con­straine [Page 71]them to anie thing for the good of his E­state, it ariseth from the same learning, that in as much as they are not his subiects, he should be a tyrant and an vsurper, which might be deposed and killed by any one whosoeuer: This was the foundation of the trouble which we haue seene stirred vp against the common-wealth of Venice, euer most Catholique, and deuoted to the holie Sea, which cannot bee attributed to any but the Iesuits, whom the Senate of that common­wealth, in honor of the Catholique religion had carefully cherished fifty or threescore yeeres in such sort that foure or fiue yeeres before, they had bestowed a great Pallace vpon them for their Colledge, where they had aboue three hundred schollers, children of the best houses of Venice, and possessed in this Estate twelue or fifteene thousand crownes a yere reuenues. During the Papacie of Pope Clement the Venicians had pub­lished an ordinance by the which Ecclesiasticall men were inhibited from acquiring any immoue­ables, this holy father knew it well inough with­out taking offēce therat. And how could he take it in euil part since that in the Estate of Milan there was the like prohibitiō strictly obserued, & that the Pope that now is vpon his first comming vnto the Popedome, had forbidden the house of Loretta to purchase any more immoueables: the Iesuits being desirous neuerthelesse to purchase a Pallace of pleasure vpon the riuer of Brent neere vnto the City, were hindered by this law, so as [Page 72]the gentlewoman which was owner thereof drew backe, and said, that she had been seduced by her Confessor. This nourished in their minds an euill will towards the State: so that two Ecclesiasticall men of Vincence being imprisoned for most hor­rible crimes, the Iesuits, taking their time, gaue aduertisement vnto the Pope, that these were en­terprises vpon his authority, and of those who depended immediately on him; that the Veneti­ans had no power to make lawes, which should concerne Ecclesiasticall men, although they were necessary for their Estate and conseruation, with­out the will and consent of the Pope, neither to decree any thing without making him first ac­quainted therewithall; thus doing, they tooke from them all soueraigntie, they perswaded the excommunication with all earnestnesse, whereun­to Cardinall Zapata, protector of Spaine subscri­bing, for confirmation of their counsell said, that this action done for the greatnes of the Church, merited a statue of gold, dedicated to immortali­tie. This first breach gaue apprehension of great calamities to ensue, so that the Pope naturallie desirous of mild and gentle courses, and enclined thereunto by the counsell of the Princes of Chri­stendome, and specially of that of our great King, was againe exasperated by the Iesuits, and by let­ters which they wrote vnto their Generall, who hath no shew of a religious man besides his ha­bite, and behaueth himselfe in all his actions as one who would raise some great Empire: they [Page 73]promised that the Senate would be diuided, and that the people would rise, that the schollers which they had were as so many prisoners, and assurances of their promises, that the excommu­nication should haue the like effect at Venice as at Ferrara: and vpon this was the interdict pub­lished.

The common-wealth of Venice contented it selfe in this occurrence, to forbid all Ecclesiasticall men to trouble the state of mens consciences, and to take from them all occasion of excuse, gaue the religious men choise to stay, or to retire them­selues, the Iesuits made answere, that they would conforme themselues to the ordinances of the common-wealth: in the meane time they secretly send father Posseuin to Rome to their General, and vnder hand labor to suborne other Ecclesiasticall men, and to hinder their obedience due vnto their Soueraigne.

There fell out an action very memorable of a good religious man accustomed to plaine honest dealing, which had no other end but the loue of God, and not the care of worldly affaires, or of rule and gouernment: the Prouinciall of the Ca­puchins, a man of singular integrity, and of a holie life, who wrote vnto all the Couents of his Or­der, that if the Prince & common-wealth should command any thing contrary vnto the twelue Articles of the Creede, they were rather to suffer a thousand deathes, then to obey it: but that in [Page 74]whatsoeuer thing else should be cōmanded them, they should discharge the duty of good subiects without any scruple of conscience, vpon paine of his indignation, the which they ought to feare as much as death it selfe. True holinesse with­out dissimulation or ambition, which shall crown the glory of this obedience with immortality, which, in despite of these new doctrines, the wind of truth shall blow into all corners of the Christi­an world.

There passed not many daies before that there were fathers and husbands which complained that their wiues and children made a doubt whe­ther they should yeeld them the loue and obedi­ence due vnto them, being afrighted by the Ie­suits who preached that they were excommuni­cate and damned: and notwithstanding that at their departure from Venice, they had burned a great quantity of their papers, fearing least they should be seene, neuerthelesse there were found some bearing wirnesse, that they kept a register of the confessions of men of quality, and that they had sent a great masse of money vnto Rome, and carried away all the ornaments which had beene giuen to their Churches, and at Padua and Bresse where they were surprised and had not leasure to dispose of their papers, nor to burne them, there were found so many enquiries and searches of the disposition of the Estate, and of all the families in particular, that it was a most infallible token that they had some great designe in hand, to the [Page 75]execution whereof was required so painefull a curiosity.

It is another secret very remarkeable: that they stirred vp this trouble in the Estate of Venice, then when the Count de Fuentes had an armie on foot in Italie for the King of Spaine, and had cau­sed two great forts to be built which are held im­pregnable, for to hinder the passage of the Swit­zers and the Grisons; by meanes whereof they thought assuredly in them selues, that these forces & their directiōs meeting, they might haue trans­ferred that Estate, as they did that of Portugal, first by the vanity wherewith they knew how to puffe vp the mind of the King, Don Sebastian to his ruin and vtter ouerthrow, who had suffered them to beare authority in his Estate: then by with­drawing the affection of King Henry the Cardi­nall his successour from Iohn Duke of Bragance husband vnto Catherine his neece, and daughter of Edward his brother, which had excluded Isabel from whom the King of Spaine was descended, to make vse of it in his behalfe, and in strengthening his pretention, and likewise by the warre which they kindled against Don Antonio acknowledged to be their naturall and lawfull Prince, in the which they spared not the blood of two thou­sand good Religious men, loyall vnto their King, by reason whereof there was obtained a Bul of speciall absolution.

For beside that the stocke and race of him who was the founder of the Iesuits is Spanish, and [Page 76]their Generals of the same nation, or of some o­ther country subiect vnto the King of Spaine, which inspireth into them a particular affection vnto that Estate: they aiming at no other marke, but the absolute establishment of the spirituall power wherewith they promise readily to crush and beate down heresies, haue more need of force then perswasion, and doe rather chuse to make vse of the materiall sword then the spirituall: now the King of Spaine being hee who most ap­plieth himselfe vnto this designe, they seek to ex­alt him aboue all other Princes: and indeed they haue written that the Emperour Charles the sift and King Philip did well conforme themselues vnto this resolution, but that they were hindered by the Kings of France, without whom heresie had beene quite rooted out: they say that King Frances the first made alliance with the Turke, that Henry the second defended the Protestants, whom the Emperor would haue destroied, that Henry the 3. made alliance with the Queene of England, Germaines, and Switzers: that Spaine hath receiued the Councell of Trent, and caused the inquisition to the strictly obserued.

Great ingratitude! are there any Princes in the world that haue so much exalted the Catho­lique Religion as the Kings of France, and which haue more augmented the holy Sea? the Dona­tions of Pepin and Charlemaine falsly attributed vnto Constantine, the armes of France so often trāsported into the holy land, those of king Lewis [Page 77]the 12. and of his successors emploied in reco­uering the Popes estate which was vsurped on, all this is nothing to those who preferre their nouel­ties before any other consideration, and are bound to take it in euill part, that the thrice chri­stian Kings of France for the conseruation of their Estate haue maintained thēselues against Charles the fist, and neuer blame the alliance which he bought with King Henry the 8. of England, for to ruinate and subuert vs.

And for proofe of this their affection conspi­ring against vs, those which haue gone frō amōgst them do report, that they obserue this order, that in euery house there are two which keep registers, & haue the charge of matters of Estate, to whom the rest doe confesse themselues, and are bound to report what they learne; this is carried by the Visiters vnto their Generall, (and he must be a Neapolitane, Sicilian, or Spaniarde,) to giue ad­uise thereon.

And in the yere 1604 there being discouered a cōfraternity of Iesuits associated, (as they say) that a whole Towne may be Iesuited) who made their assembly in the house of the Iesuits in the City of Genua, in the which those of the brotherhood had sworne not to giue their voices for the electi­on of Magistrates and publike officers, to any but those of their fraternity, the Common-wealth hauing greatly contested against such a monopo­ly and being resolued to haue expelled the Iesu­ites, they said that they had done it, because some [Page 78]of the Towne had intelligence with the French­men, and seemed to affect and fauour them.

But the Common-wealth of Venice hath not ad­mitted any excuses for their enterprises, nor like vnwise men staied from digging and making hol­low their wels vntil they were ready to die for thirst: for after that they had beene enformed of their carriage, of their sermōs which they made in the Townes adioining vnto their Estate, & of the calumnies and slanders which they spred against the Duke Leonardo Donato, whose innocencie and piety are known and renowned as well as his wis­dome, made a decree whereby the Iesuits were perpetually and irreuocably banished out of their Estate, not leauing them any hope euer to deli­berate or thinke of their establishment.

And God being so pleased, that our great King should be the author of peace in the South as well as in the North, the Iesuits only were exclu­ded from the benefit of this vniuersall reconcilia­tion, this sage Commonwealth so well knew how to relish and make vse of the deliuerance from the danger it was fallen into, that it would rather haue chosen warre, then to haue made peace ad­mitting the Iesuits.

Oh! would to God we had not been so credu­lous, that we had been as seuere within our selues, as strong and puissant abroad, that for to refresh the liuer we had not cooled and taken away the heate of our stomackes, we should not haue been the discourse of all nations of the Earth, the sub­iect [Page 79]of their pity and commiseration, the proofe of what they said, to wit, that the Iesuits compasse great and weighty enterprises by taking hold of small aduantages, & vnlikely to doe hurt; we had then been ignorant of their rare doctrines which they haue both preached and published, as that it was more meritorious to pay tribute and impo­sitions, then to giue almes, that a man may blas­pheme without committing mortall sinne, that Ladies may lawfully paint and farde themselues, yea for to please the world, that vsury is lawfull, and by the same rule theft should be tolerable, so it were to bestow in almes; that it is no simony to giue mony for benefices; Modoid fiat non tan­quam pretium, sed tanquam motiuum ad resignandum, vel tanquam motiuum aliquod gratuitum: So it bee giuen not as a price, but as a motiue to resigne, or some motiue of free will and of gratuitie: the proper termes of Gregorius de Valentia vpon the Summe of Saint Thomas Tome 3. disput. 4. question 16. page 3. fol. 2039. wee had neuer learned to re­compence good with euill, nor the forme of am­bulatory cōfessions, being all but superficial cures of vices, things vnbeseeming true religious men.

We had not scene in these our daies (horrible things) interrogatories framed for to learne of her, which was said to be possessed with an euill spirit, the truth of the doctrine, and difficult pla­ces of scripture, ill curiosities forbidden in the 18 chapter of Deuteronomy, and also by a Coun­cell held at Narbonne vpon paine of excommuni­cation: [Page 80]and Sozomene in the third booke 5. chap. reporteth, that a Deacon of the Primitiue Church was deposed for bauing beene transported with the like curiosity: and Gregory of Tours for the same occasion blameth a son of Gontran, because he had sent to aske questions of a Pythonisse, so hee calleth a woman which had an euill spirit and Saint Thomas saith: Non licet Daemones adiurare per modum deprecationis, quia id ad beneuolentiam pertinet, qua non licet ad Daemones vti, ne socij Daemo­num fiamus: licet tamen per virtutem diuini numinis eos adiurando eijcere, ne noceant, non autem vt ali­quid per eos discamus aut consequamur: It is not law­full to adiure the diuels by way of deprecation, or re­quest, because that is a token of good will, which wee may not beare vnto them, least wee become companions of diuels: but it is lawfull by the vertue of God his di­uine power by adiuration to cast them out, that they doe no hurt, but not to learne or attaine any thing by them.

And that which is most hainous and capitall by all lawes, to enquire of the health of the Prince, and of the secrets of Estate, these were the very tearmes: Quid circa sanitatem regis, quid circa compositionem armorum inter regem, & magnates subditos, quid circa vrbes obsidionales, quid circa bel­lum cum Hispanis, vel cum haereticis: How long the King should liue, what should come to passe as concer­ning the composition betweene the King and his No­bles, what of the garrison Townes, what concerning the warre with the Spaniards, or with the Heretikes. [Page 81]Tertullian saith, that it appertaineth not to anie man to enquire concerning the life of the Prince, but those who haue some enterprise vpon his person, or who laie the foundation of some great hope vpon his death: and he which instructed a Mathematician, forbad him expresly to meddle with the life of Kings, or with the Estate of Com­mon wealths. Non enim oportet vt de statu reipub. aliquid nefaria curiositate discamus: For we ought not, neither is it lawful for vs by wicked curiosity to learne any thing concerning the Estate of the common-wealth. Kings to whom God hath giuen the gouernment of the Earth, to whom all power and dignities are subiect, participating immediately of the greatnesse of God doe not depend on the course of the Planets, and ought not to fall into the curi­osity of men. It is reserued to God alone how long the life of a great King, or the peace and pro­sperity of his Estate shall endure.

As little had wee vnderstood the proposition and resolution of Ioannes de Salas Castelanus Gum­eliensis in his commentaries which he hath made in primam secundam of Saint Thomas, dedicated to Aquauiua their father Generall tractat. 8. disput. v­nica sect. 5. neer the end, which is more dangerous for the setting wide open of Monasteries, then the doctrine of heretikes; for making this que­stion. Vtrum semper sequi liceat opinionem, quaea­genti probabilior aut aequè probabilis apparet, behold his resolution: Religiosus autem efficacissima debet habere motiua, vt probabiliter opinaretur, veramesse, [Page 82]reuelationem, qua secum dispensaret Deus, vt matrimo­nium contraheret, contra communem legem: hacte­nus enim Deus nunquam dispensauit: Si tamen veram probabilitatem haberet, posset ad euitanda magna in­commoda, vti dispensatione dubia, & tantum proba­bili, quod etiam in dispensationibus quorundam praela­torum obseruatum est. Whether it bee lawfull to fol­low alwaies the opinion which seemeth vnto the vnder­taker more probable or as probable as any other, be­hold his resolution. That a Religious man ought to haue most powerfull motiues, that he may probably con­iecture that the reuelation is true whereby God would dispence with him to marry contrary vnto the com­mon law of marriage; for God neuer yet dispen­sed with any one: But if hee hath had any true probability he may, for auoiding of greater inconueni­ences vse a dispensation though it be doubtfull and on­ly probable, which hath beene also obserued in dispen­sing with certaine Prelates. From henceforth fa­stings, orisons and praiers will become vnprofita­ble to preserue chastity, euery one will abuse his reuelation, for to put in vre the euill passions of his soule.

And indeed the precept was not long without an example: Menas the Iesuite committed so scandalous an incest that hee was called in questi­on for it in the inquisition of Spaine; those of his company by faining a miracle freed him from his punishment, which lighted vpon the officers at Valladolid, who were displaced for that peece of seruice: the scandale hereof is redoubled in the [Page 83]writings of Sanches and of Chetora, who are of the same society, the onely imagination whereof is sufficient to make a man loose the knowledge of himselfe and to become worse then a beast.

And like vnto this is that which is common in euery mans hand set forth some foure moneths agoe, to wit the sermons made vpon the beatifi­cation of their father Ignacius, by the which the name of Ignacius is not onely equalled with that of our Sauiour and placed in parallell with it: but surrogated in his place: the miracles done in the name of the Almighty for exalting of his glorie, and the confusion of Infidels, which we beleeue as an article of our faith, abased, diminished, and distrusted. For to extoll those of father Ignacius, I say not vncertaine, but altogether vntrue, and which neuer were, as they themselues confesse, since that Pibadenera in the fift booke of his life saith thus of him, eius sanctitatem minus testatam miraculis: that his sanctitie was not so much testified by miracles, and as if they had commerce and ne­gotiation with heretikes, from making him Gods Vicar, applying vnto him that of S. Paul: fungimur legatione pro Christo, wee are emploied in the message of Christ, from calling him the ministeriall head of the Church, they make him successor vnto Iesus Christ himselfe, striking at his holy resurrection, and the eternity of his raigne in the Church.

O learned, o sweet, o free antiquity how thou art faire with al thy wrinkles, with the lineaments of thy countenance defaced and hardly to be dis­cerned, [Page 84]O holy schoole of Sorbonne, how perfect is the vertue of your mediocrity, inspire into thy successors the truth of the prophecie of thy de­cree verified in the yeere 1554. these are the words thereof, Societas haec periculosa in negotio fi­dei: This societie is dangerous in matter of faith, in this age corrupted with passion, and adulation let this truth find one mouth exempt from this con­tagion: neither haue they failed; there censure and testimony constant and loyall vnto the truth shall euer be seene, and appeare notwithstanding, the-threats, and inuectiues of the Iesuits full of bitter­nesse, being as so manybels of the Coribantes which serue to no other purpose but to trouble & disquiet the heads of those who are least staied and setled.

Let vs adde hereunto the inuention of their equiuocations, and dissimulations, of their homo­nymies, which are deceipts of similitude and ap­parence in stead of the thing it selfe, changing the substance without changing the name: which they confesse that they make vse of, when they are to answere vnto Kings and Magistrates, and other persons bearing office in the common-wealth, whose subiects they doe not beleeue they are, nor that they are iusticiable by them, their words and their answers are like the images of Dedalus which deceiued the sence, changing their visage and countenance, as often as a man did cast his eies vpon them. This inuention of aequiuocation reduced into an art, and recommended by Na­uarrus [Page 85]in fauour of this society, not only like vnto the artifice practised by Arrius, who after he had subscribed vnto the Councell of Nice, sware vnto another confession of faith which hee had writ­ten in his bosome, altogether different from that: but also vnto that law of the Manichees, which permitted them to answere quite contrary vnto that which was true indeed, and that which they perfectly knew, noted by Lucas Siculus in the time of the Emperour Basil, and which he repor­teth, setting it downe in these words: Iura periura sceretum prodere noli.

By reason whereof, for to confirme their euill doctrines, then when there is any danger to be a­uoided or aduantage to be taken, it is both law­full and honourable to vse this inuention, yea boldly to gainesay that which they are most assu­red of: witnesse that which they haue done by the writing of Richeome, who making answere to an in­terrogatory ministred vnto them which was thus: what they would do in case there should be a Pope which after the example of Iulius the 2. should in­iustly display his censures against France? being vr­ged, hee answered, That their society would doe that which good Frenchmen then did, who defending their rights did not giue ouer the respect due vnto the holy Sea, did acknowledge the Pope to be the head only in spi­rituall matters, approuing the Councell of Tours of the yere 1510. held for the defence of the rights of Lewis the 12. Cardinal Bell. in the treatise which he hath made against the diuines of Venice, saith, that the [Page 86]meaning of Richeome was only to shew, that good French men ought to obey the Pope without debating the matter, and counsell the King to come to agreement with him, and not to resist him by armes.

This is the reason that all their declarations are conceiued in defectiue and incertaine words, to the end that they may disaduow, reuoke or o­therwise interpret them, when they shall thinke good: and that which is most intolerable, yea most vnchristianlike, they ground these cauillati­ons and dissimulations vpon textes of scripture, which they corrupt most licentiouslie, as if God the father of truth, had taught the contrary to truth. And as it falleth out ordinarily, that the worst getteth mastery of that which is better: the vsage of their dissimulations and cauillations doth insensibly creepe in, and men leauing sim­plicity and innocency, for to learne their shifts and euasions, doe receiue the corruption thereof both in generall and in particular.

And to the end that it may not be thought a particular vice of some one among them; but a precept generall to all their society, Ribadenera in the life of father Ignacius the 3. booke and 11. chapter intituled, De prudentia rerum agendarum, hath written thus, Dicebat quibus artibus diabolus ad perniciem hominum vteretur, ijsdem nobis vten­dum ad salutem: nam vt ille cuiusque naturam explo­rans, & animi propensionem pertentans, ad eam se attemperat, vt ambitiosis splendida, vtilia cupidis, vo­luptuosis [Page 87] luptuosis iucunda, piis quaespeciem habent pietatis pro­ponit, & non irrumpit subito, sed sensim irrepit, & in animaese familiaritatem insinuat, penitusque tan­dem immergit: sic spiritualis, ac peritus artifex, vnius­cuiusque naturae conuenienter se debet gerere, & in principio multa dissimulare, in multis conniuere, dein­ceps parta beneuolentia ipsos quibuscum agit ipsorum armis expugnare: Hee said that those arts which the Diuel would vse for mens destruction, the same must we vse for their safety: for as hee searching out the na­ture of euery man, and throughly considering the in­clination of the mind, doth applie himselfe thereunto, so that he proposeth vnto sensuall and voluptuous men pleasant things, to the ambitious those things which seeme glorious, to godly men such things as haue a shew of pietie, and doth not suddainly breake in, but stealeth on, by little and little, and doth insinuate himselfe into the familiarity of the soule, and at last doth wholy diue into it: so he that is a cunning & spiritual craftsmaster ought to carry himselfe agreeablie to the nature of eue­rie one, and at the beginning to dissemble many things & to winke at thē, & afterwards he hath gotten their good will to conquer those whom he hath in hand with their owne weapons.

We haue already shewed how by the doctrine of the spirituall Monarchie, absolute and infalli­ble, which teacheth Kings to obey, and to which the Iesuits attribute the correction of Princes, that they are obliged to follow the Councell of the Pope in the gouernment of temporall mat­ters, and that in case of resistance they may be de­posed, [Page 88]and after publike iudgement, that it is law­full for any man to attempt vpon their liues, and to kill them. By this word, of publique iudge­ment, they meane the Pope, as soueraigne ouer all Common-wealths, and of all Christian pow­ers. Behold their proofe by the saying of A­zorius, whom they confesse to be one of the most modest amongst them, in the second party, the 11 booke 5. chapter of his morall institution; after that he hath confirmed the power that the Pope hath to depose Kings, and sought to answere the obiection of those who say that it cannot be done contrary vnto the will of the people, hee addeth further in these tearmes: Tertiò obiicitur, populo in­vito non potest Rex auferri aut dari: respondeo à Ro­mano Pontifice Regem auferri, vel dari iustis de causis, & tunc populus Romano Pontifici tanquam superiori parere debet: Thirdly it is obiected that a King cannot be giuē nor taken away against the wil of the people: to this I answere, that hee may vpon iust cause, and then the people ought to obey the Pope of Rome as their su­periour.

Whence it ensueth that if a Prince doth enter­prize any thing in this Estate against the will of the Pope, if hee contradict this publike iudge­ment, if he come to square with any of the ar­ticles of the Bull In caena Domini, without desisting from it, that he is presently a Tyrant, an vsurper and schismaticke, and as such a one may be meri­toriously slaine. By the articles of this Bull it is conteined amongst other things, that all persons who [Page 89]who haue secret or publique alliance with here­tickes, haue commerce with them, or doe sup­port and protect them, are ipso facto excommuni­cated, although they are not particularly design­ed, named nor specified in the Bul, which is pub­lished at Rome euery Thursday before Easter, and then the Iesuits teach, and their doctrine is vni­forme, that no other proceeding, nor no other iudgement is to be expected. According where­unto Suares the most renowned of their societie in the fourth Tome of his workes, and his trea­tise of censures, which he made expresly against our King, disput. 5. sect. 6. saith, that subiects vp­pon a morall certitude, which they shall haue that their Prince will doe anie thing contrary vn­to the Catholike religion, may without atten­ding any iudgement or other censure of the Pope, rebell and take armes against him: these are his very words: Si subditi timeant ex eorum princi­patu maximum periculum fidei & religionis imminere: tunc enimiure defensionis possunt eos repellere, & obedientiam ac fidelitatem negare, quod facere possint, etsi non essent excommunicati, nec per Ecclesiam essent illis aliae poenaeimpositae, solum ob praedictum pericu­lum. If the subiects feare that by their rule and go­uernment faith and religion is like to incurre any dan­ger: then they may in defence thereof repell them and denie them obedience and fidelity, which they may doe although they were not excommunicated, nor had any other punishment inflicted vpon them by the Church, only for feare of the aforesaid danger. Molina in [Page 90]his treatise de iustitia & iure. Lessius in the 2. booke De iustitia & iure 9. chapter dubit. 4. say the like, and that it is lawfull to attempt vpon the life of those Princes whom they call Tyrants, vpon the tacite will and intention or presumpti­on of the common-wealth: Mens oppressae Reipub. est, vt á quouis etiam, qui non est pars Reip. defendatur, fi aliter liberari non possit. It is the mind and opini­on of the common-wealth which is oppressed, that it may be defended of any man, though he be no member thereof, if it cannot otherwise be freed. That which they call mens Reipub. the motion of Parricides, Mariana termeth, proceeding as it seemeth with more aduisednesse, the counsell of graue and learned men: Viri eruditi & graues in consilium ad­hibeantur: Let the aduise and counsell of wise and grauemen be vsed. It is not to be doubted, whom he intendeth, this is as euident to his vnderstan­ding as the Sun at midday vnto our eies, for his booke beareth the priuiledge and allowance of their Prouinciall deputed by their Generall: and behold the reason why they are necessarily de­signed and no others: It is there in as much as the establishment of the absolute power aboue all Princes is their principall vow and desire, they must haue the directing and executing of all en­terprises which serue to this end: so that in those places where the inquisition is not receiued, the Iesuits exercise the office, and haue the secret charge thereof, and their Generall the direction: whence it proceedeth, that all their aduise, coun­sell [Page 91]and directions doe make a part of this pub­like iudgement: so that in stead of spirituall mi­nisters, moued with another spirit then that whereof they make shew, these are Officers ser­uing against Princes, for to ouerthrow their pow­er & to subrogate that of the Pope in the tempo­ralty & the matter standing thus, he that desireth to be instructed in this learning, cannot addresse himselfe to any but those who handle it, and best vnderstand it, as they cannot deny, but that this is the sole and only intellect which animateth the whole Vniuers of their society.

And indeed they alone haue touched it in their sermons: lightnings which went before, and were vnto our eies presages of the tempests, wherewithall we all thought wee should haue beene vtterly confounded. A cursed doctrine, which whether it bee written or spoken in pub­like or secret, there is not any one touch thereof, which hath not beene as the point of a dagger at our heart.

The King by his warres, labors, and victories had reestablished with France all Christendome, had obliged all Princes and people, the two third parts of the world had the Lilies grauen in their hearts, and thought themselues interessed in his prosperity. France being in flourishing estate, neuer saw her selfe in better case to succour her friends, her Prince was of immortall valour, of an admirably strong complexion, whose felicity did dazell the eies of all his enemies: when the [Page 92]Princes of Germany most strictly allied vnto this crowne did instantly desire her helpe, and prote­ction against the oppression of the house of Au­stria, to which the Iesuits are most deuoted: our King had not omitted any exhortation or per­swasion whatsoeuer, to remoue the warre, and to cause that the matter in question should be hand­led and decided in any other maner: knowing better then any other, that necessity alone can iustifie the armes of Christians against Christi­ans: and being not beleeued, he prepared for the liberty of Germany such succours, as his consci­ence, his honour, and his duty could not haue de­nied.

But willing before his departure to giue vnto France and vnto all the world the contentment of the coronation of the Queene, a Princesse crowned and adorned with all vertues, in the ve­ry height of our best estate, of our greatest con­tent, Extrema gaudij luctus occupat, ioy and sor­row lead one another by the hand: the King pas­sing through the middest of his most affectionate City, amongst his most faithfull seruants, glori­ous in maiestie, was stroke in the side with a knife of the same temper that those of Clement, Barri­ere, and Chastell were of, his heart was presently in a swound, stifled in his blood, what? are there to be found any minds so vnnaturall, so diaboli­call as to conspire, as to attempt the death of a Prince so behouefull, so amiable, vnto his sub­iects, so equitable vnto his neighbors, so necessa­rie [Page 93]for all Christendome? There was not time e­nough to bring him backe to the Louure, before his eies were setled in his head, his lips pulled vp within his flesh, his blood clotted like ice in his beard: can we thinke on it a quarter of an houre without pulling out our heart? he which filled all with his power, this soule of the world, this ma­sterpeece & wonder of nature, this valiant warlike hand, falleth, and is taken from vs without any other warre then that of this doctrine, by the hand of the most hideous, most cruell, and most fearefull monster that euer was vpon the earth, by a more then hellish and infernall furie.

Let any man reade the confessions of Barriere and of Chastel, let them bee confronted with the answeres of this execrable parricide, there is not any difference at all betweene them: the markes of this doctrine doe visibly appeare therein; That the King was a tyrant and fauoured heretickes against the will of the Pope, who was God vpon earth, that the Preachers had sufficiently explained the cause which had moued him to doe it. Stupide and bloc­kish fellow, it is true, and why should it be dissem­bled? in all other points concerning this subiect he had subtilties and euasions, and was very cun­ning therein, you haue heretofore vnderstood as much, Master Iohn Fillesac a worthy Curate of the Parish of Saint Iohn: Master Philip de Gamache the Kings Professor in diuinity another Israelite, Coeffeteau heretofore Prior of the Iacobines, all diuines of great merite can witnesse it, and hee of [Page 94]their owne companie, who confessed him, better then any other, who put him in minde of his con­science, and bad him take heed of accusing those who were innocent.

Alas! you were a thousand times more secure, you Emperors and Kings enemies of Christians, who amongst the greatest persecutions which the Church endured, in the middest of the great and frequent martyrs which suffered by your autho­rity and commandement haue seene no other weapon nor defence, then that of praier, of orisons, of praise and thanksgiuing, but that of teares, as Gregory Nazianzene witnesseth, with­out that any of those who truly adored Iesus Christ, yea, in the hottest of all their torments and persecutions, once thought either in word or deed, I doe not say to make any attempt vpon your persons, but to be the cause of the least trou­ble, or least commotion of your Estate. O Go­spell of peace, doctrine of sweetnesse and charitie, to what vse are you emploied? what aduantage is giuen to Infidels and miscreants to continue their hate against the Church, in stead of louing it, what coales of Gods diuine vengeance do you pull vpon your heads?

O France, how farre different was the censure of your innocent schoole the yeeres immediatelie precedent, when your King Henry the 2 vpon the selfe same subiect, and to deliuer Germany from the vsurpation which Charles the fift would haue made vnder colour of religion, did leade sixtie [Page 95]thousand French men all Catholiques euen vnto the Rhene, and so farre, that he made him giue o­uer his booty: can we learne out of the history of any one Diuine in those daies, or one subiect which thought himselfe lesse obliged vnto his Prince, or which bare him lesse affection for that cause? And yet 6. yeeres before our very do­ctors of Sorbonne had framed articles for the con­demnation of the heresie of the Lutherances inser­ted into the body of our ordinances, and vpon the which the Councell of Trent laid the princi­pall foundation of the resolutions concerning that doctrine: but the schoole of the Iesuits had not yet taught nor published, that Kings might be deposed vpon any secret intention, or pre­sumption. He whom God had most visibly ex­alted, who did obscure the memory of the most fortunate and happy Monarchs, the most preti­ous and sacred person of all Christendome, to whom the holy Sea was beholding for the tran­quillity, it enioyeth, the holy father for his quiet and repose: he who had renounced the safetie of his owne, to endeare you vnto him, who made the clemency of his iustice to triumph in fauour of you, receaued so ill a recompence for his boun­ty and goodnesse, by your doctrine: a doctor of the Church said that it was in the power of God to pardon a Virgin defiled, but not to restore her to her virginity: euen so fareth it with your fidelity and allegeance towards Princes after you haue once made your vowes vnto your Generall.

The inspirations and visions with which these vndertakers say the are possessed, are they not the inuentions and subtilties of this doctrine, for to corrupt and peruert the mindes of men, and to transforme the dispositions of their vnderstan­ding and will, to the end that the fantasie and apprehension which they haue taken, may the more easily be so imprinted in their imagination, that they may neuer receiue any other? The letter of William Criton the Iesuite, vsed by Riche­ome, in his Apologeticall complaint, for to couer the doctrine of this society, by the which it is maintained, that it is lawfull for particular men to kill those whom they call Tyrants, saieth, that this is not permitted, if those priuate men haue no reuelation or vision, which perswadeth them thereunto: who shall be witnesse of this vision or reuelation but himselfe? and so by this meanes he may take permission both to kill and iustifie the murther from himselfe.

It is reported in the histories of Assasins & mur­therers, that they were so corrupted, & Gregory of Tours toward the end of his fourth booke speak­ing of those who killed King Sigisbert, saith, that they were inueagled, and inchaunted, maleficiati: and S. Augustine in the epistle 165. vnto Genero­sus saith, that the Donatists, most dangerous here­tikes, did induce their followers to many villa­nies by visions, and continuing his discourse in the epistle 168. reporteth the example of a yong man, who by the counsell of the like vision had [Page 97]killed his mother. The minde of a man is like vnto a looking glasse, which doth vsuallie repre­sent that which is shewed vnto it, specially when it is directed vnto the most sensible part which is the conscience: let vs adde moreouer that be­side these fantasies and inspirations which serue to transport the feeblenesse of these mindes be­yond all discretion, they giue to these conspira­tors crownes of martyrdome: and to proue this, Bellarmine hath highly commended Iames Cle­ment for this quality, Mariana calleth him Gal­liae decus aeternum, they doe the like by Guignard and Garnet, falsly attributing miracles vnto them.

Call to mind, My Lords, if you please that which hath passed before your eies, and the me­mory whereof it seemeth is not yet buried: one named Charles Ridicoue a religious Iacobin of Gaunt, stirred vp by the preaching of the Iesuites, who commended Iames Clement ordinarily as a Saint, and Chastel as a Martyr, hauing at vnawares giuen out speeches whereby he testified that he had beene tickled with the like desire, presentlie his Prouinciall was commanded to bring him to Brussels, where he was promised wonders, both for the discharge of his conscience, (for he had some remorce to attempt vpon the person of a most Catholique King, which held good corre­spondencie with the Pope,) and also in regard of recompence both to himselfe, his mother, and brother; he was visited by father Hodume the Ie­suite, [Page 98]who gaue aduise whether he were of sta­ture, of strength, and resolution sufficient to exe­cute such a businesse, in the end all fitting to the purpose, he had instruction to change his name, to alter his apparell, to learne to ride, daunce and fence, that he might be the more ready, and the sooner haue admittance, these are the confessions made in this Parliament, by himselfe who came thrise into France, with this purpose and intenti­on. He could giue you no reason why he con­temned the grace and pardon that was at the first offered him, nor why he came the second time hauing beene formerly suspected, nor why he perseuered in his villanous designe, but that if the Iesuits had perceaued or mistrusted that hee had disclosed the secret of his enterprize, they would neuer haue forgiuen him, as they neuer reueale the confessions of such people, be it anie enterprize whatsoeuer, or come what euill soe­uer by it. At the very time of the last appre­hension and execution of this Ridicoue ordeined by your decree of the moneth of Aprill 1599. was published and imprinted the booke of Mari­ana; for to shew how constant the effects of their doctrine are, they prepare and fasten together iointly both the doctrine and the effects; and notwithstanding one of them in his Apologie, hath written, that it had beene to be wished that the last parricide had read it well ouer, because it is conformable vnto the doctrine of the Sorbonne, which hath condemned the booke of Mariana, [Page 99]and holdeth it to bee abhominable, together with the imposture of the Apology: so bold and impudent are they to circumuent the truth with falshood and deceit.

Great and vnimitable King, the wisdome of whose counsels and diligence in executing them, whose soundnesse of iudgement more then hu­mane, we haue all equally admired, receiue in to­ken of our affection, and for a sure pledge of our faithfull seruice, our teares, our lamentations, our sorrowes, our sighs, and perpetuall mourning, which we offer vp vnto your glory. Happy soule made Citizen of heauen, and placed in the ranke of Angels in eternall rest, farre from the care of warres, your roiall qualities and perfections shall bee euer written in our hearts, your name shall be for euer in our mouthes, and although that our cries are imperfect, that our voice interrup­ted with sighs cannot vtter it selfe, that sorrow bereaueth vs of our soules, and that there remai­neth no strength in vs, but only to feele our griefe, wee will die rather then corrupt the holie law of your Estate, vnder whose Sunne since we liue, wee will for euer loue the light and bright­nesse thereof.

With the same teares and voice halfe dead, wee humbly beseech the holy father, to enter into compassion of Christendome, torne in peeces by this doctrine, and to remember what danger there is in taking from the spiritualtie the true honor and glory, by medling with the temporall [Page 100]and ciuill gouernment, these are things which God would haue to bee wholly separated and di­stinct: that he will bee pleased to remember the wholesome aduertisement of Saint Bernard con­cerning this absolute power, which was then en­deuoured to bee brought into the Church, in his 2. booke de consid. chapter 6. I ergo tu & tibiv­surpare aude, aut dominans apostolatum aut apostoli­cus dominatum, plane ab alterutro prohiberis, si vtrum­que simul habere voles, perdes vtrumque: Goe then and vsurpe if thou dare, being a publique Magistrate, the office of an Apostle, or being an Apostle the authoritie of the Magistrate, thou shalt plainely bee prohibited from enioying either, if thou wilt haue both together thou shalt loose both. God hath prouided for the conseruation and augmentation of his Church, by other remedies, and raised vp Bishops, Do­ctors, and Pastors from time to time: yet againe once more to bethinke himselfe in this declining age of the world, how pernicious this excesse is; wee haue seene two of our Catholique Kings a­ble to haue opposed their armies against those of the Turke, to preserue the Church and the rest of the world from the inuasion of Barbarous peo­ple and Infidels, brought vnto an vntimely death by reason of this doctrine, this great Estate the cheefest of Christendome in danger of ruine: that he will protect the Church and vs from those furious Empiriques, which hazard their vi­olent remedies indifferently vpon all sorts of men, without regarding the Estate of their bo­dies; [Page 101]that he will purge and rid the world for euer of these so tragicall examples: France is nouri­shed and trained vp in a singular deuotion to­ward your holinesse, towards the holy Sea, shee can neuer faile therein, the profession of our schoole remaineth alwaies entire and inuiolable to the Christian saith, and to the obedience due vnto the holie Sea: and as his succession in the Popedome is not farre distant in time from that of Pope Clement the 8. so let it succeed it in re­presenting his mildnesse and prudence, & that he will be pleased to cast his eie vpon this society, which, vnder the pretext of the good of the Church, doth point at it one particular greatnes, to the which in the end it will vnite that of the Church, and they alreadie are not farre from it.

These are the reasons of the opposition which the Vniuersity proposeth against the letters ob­tained by the Iesuits, founded vpon the soueraign authority engrauen from all antiquity in the brasse of the fundamentall lawes of the French monarchy, vpon her particular policy, vpon your decrees and vpon her holy and constant doctrine, which fasteneth the crowne to the head of kings, contrary vnto that of the Iesuits, who attribute vnto the Pope a like superiority ouer our kings, as ouer the least Priests, or his most inferiour Officers & vicars, yea far greater; maketh Kings to be but at wil, subiect to be deposed & killed foūnded more­ouer vpon so many miserable examples which gall vs, and make vs feele the smart so particularly [Page 102]that there is not any man who loueth the Estate, or Religion, which hath not had a feeling and apprehension thereof. The instruction of youth is not a matter of small importance, in ancient time men had a speciall care thereof next imme­diately after that of Religion: children owe their sife vnto their parents, but that they liue well, they owe that vnto those who instruct them: and he doth no lesse profit the Common-wealth who frameth and fashioneth men well affected to the Estate, who nourisheth them vnder the hope of honors and dignities, with reuerence vnto the lawes of the Country, then he who serueth in greater place with duty and fidelity: The Vni­uersity of Paris hath hereof, loyally and worthily acquited and discharged her selfe these 8. hundred yeeres, neuer bound her selfe to any thing what­soeuer, but to the honor of God, of her King, and to the good of the Church; Ill doctrine is easi­ly perswaded, and that which is false, conforma­ble vnto the darkenesse which enuironneth vs in our corruption: there is (saith the wise man,) store of gold and pearles, but lips that preserue know­ledge, that is a rare moueable. What father is there which had not rather loose his life, honor, goods, and whatsoeuer hee hath else most deare in this world, then to nourish one who shall bee a mon­ster to his Country? Haue we not had intelligence within these three weekes of the conference held at Toul in Lorraine amongst men impoisoned with this doctrine, disclosed by an Hermite, [Page 103]wherein after declaration of their euill minde towards all Catholike Princes, it was agreed as granted amongst them, that the Iesuits had by their doctrine so cleared these maximes, that they ought to be held for ratified, and confirmed, in stead that they ought to be condemned, and pu­nished not only in the effects, but in the very dee­pest and most profound thoughts.

They offer to submit themselues vnto the Or­ders of the Vniuersity, and demand to be incor­porated: from the yeere 564. they haue done as much, and they are yet to beginne, they pro­mised to renounce their vowes, faculties, Priui­ledges, yea themselues, we haue seene our selues cleane frustrated of this expectation, and to be the example of their power, and attempts contrarie vnto publike Order: in the yeere 1591. they pro­mised not to meddle any more with affaires of Estate, it was then that they were most busily em­ploied in them, and embraced the world most greedily: they know well how to boast of this sci­ence, since that they haue written in French, that their laie brethren could reade lectures therein to the Chancellour and greatest of Spaine, God knoweth whether in Spaine (if it be true that the sermons were made there) they haue forgotten to enter into cōparison with our greatest magistrats: there is not any one condition of their reestablish­ment which they haue not already transgressed and broken, by breues and letters obtained by tricks and vpon aduantages: it would be a strange [Page 104]follie in vs, nay rather a great crime, to bee the first alwaies who are surprised, and the last to free our selues, to be so often abused and mocked by those who beare two hearts in one breast, who for to make their doctrine to be receiued, are so au­dacious as to impose and lay imputations vpon the Apostles themselues, and to impute vnto them that lewd vice of cosinage and dissimula­tion which they vse ordinarily; for Bellarmine in his treatise concerning the exemption of Ecclesi­asticall men chap. 30. saith that Saint Peter and the Apostles haue preached obedience to the poli­tike magistrate, & that euery soule should bee sub­iect vnto the Prince, only for to establish thēselues & to giue the Gospell passage: they will promise and sweare to all conditions, since that by their owne proper constitutions they can be bound by nothing, to the end that they may make those to be receiued which they would impose, by reason of the Pope his absolute authority, without the which their society cannot subsist.

France after the death of her King, hath placed her hope in the Queene, it is shee that giueth her life and nourishment: a Princesse whom strangers admire, and the subiect honoreth, you haue found all the Princes furnished with great ver­tues, tied with the same band of affection to the good and greatnesse of this Estate. This magni­ficent Court of Peeres, the Diall of France, which hath alwaies shewed his Meridionall line, and the Officers of the Crowne, ready to doe their duty, [Page 105]and to follow the high waie of honour, the No­bility and gentry, the Townes and people readie to sacrifice themselues, for to perform your com­mands: continue on by your bounty and iustice, in making it appeare, that these were the Coun­sels of our late King your husband, which gouer­ned his Monarchy, and to cause this liuely picture to be adored in his death, that the lawes of the E­state of the King your sonne, may remaine by your wisdome so ordered, that euery one may therein find his goods, his life, his honor, his con­science in safetie and repose; so may the Counsell and prudence of the two great eies of this Estate alwaies watch ouer the affaires: perseuere in this beliefe, that diuision and ciuill warre is the onelie desolation of this great Empire: there is nothing which can disturbe it but these extractors and Alchymists, which haue found out the meanes to dissolue all piety, & the most strong & naturall bands of affection: they easily can doe it with their seedes and dewes of sermons, and confessi­ons, and by the precepts of their learning, by meanes whereof they can peruert the course of nature altering our essence, and reaching the euill, which afterwards men fall into vnawares: they say that our soile is soft, that in one yeere they haue taken notice of all our humors, that they haue already procured of their side the vnad­uised weaknesse of woman and children, that wee are men little speculitiue, who will bee quickly carried away, that wee are ready and easie [Page 106]to be moued, that they need not but a little to be­ginne, and set their affaires on foot, that after­wards they roule of themselues, and flie on, as fast as they can, to the very height of all excesse.

Homer saith, that a sword once vnsheathed draw­eth men on by some secret instinct to designes not thought of, and seldom is guided by the discourse of wisdome and discretion: this is a crisis, vpon the which all Christendome doth set her eies. Needeth there any greater proofe or confirma­tion of this which wee haue said, then the treatise newly composed by Cardinall Bellarmine, pre­sently after the absence of our Sunne, by the which lifting vp his disguise, hee vseth no longer the terme of correction, it is not for heresie or crime that he maintaineth that the Pope may ex­communicate and depose Kings, but vpon what­soeuer subiect it pleaseth him if hee see that the good of the Church require it, de principe facere non principem: of a prince to make him no prince, and that he hath this power not only ouer Kingdoms, but ouer all that which apperteineth vnto either Christians, heretikes, schismatikes, or scandalous people in what sort soeuer, if they wil not yeeld & submit thēselus vnto his propositiōs, which being granted their conclusions are ineuitable. Do they not write that there is a new sect of Catholiques Roiall, as if to loue the King and to be a good Ca­tholike were things contrary one to the other and incompatible: he particularly repenteth that for modesty sake hee hath sometime auowed, [Page 107]that Ecclesiasticall men as subiects, owe obedi­ence vnto Princes, now he confidently affirmeth; Clericos principibus Ethnicis solo facto nullo iure fu­isse subditos: That Ecclesiasticall men were subiect vnto heathen Princes, onely in fact and not of right.

To conclude, this doctrine is the open destru­ction of the authority of Kings and of their pow­er, the subuersion of all the Estates of Christen­dome, the cypher and strange character where­with they holde correspondence with all that which is either corrupted or corruptible.

In the estate wee now stand, the Iesuits cannot haue a greater obstacle then to be bound, strictly to obserue the conditions of their reestablish­ment, and to bring them thereunto, to make them subiect vnto Magistrates, and ordinary powers as other Religious men are, without suffering their enterprizes; to maintaine and keepe the Bishops, Prelates and Curates in their dignities, against whom they set themselues, as they doe against all other Ecclesiasticall persons: not to permit them to haue the instruction of youth, to the end that institution and learning come not vnder their monopoly, and that henceforward it strengthen it selfe in such sort that a man must leaue to be a Frenchman for to become a Iesuite: and princi­pally to haue a care, that men doe not abandon, nor forsake the authority of our doctrine, which is the foundation of loue and fidelity to the Roi­all dignitie, for to receiue the instructions of this new diuinity framed and composed for the inte­rest [Page 108]and respect of their particular greatnesse, and authority, wherewithall they would adde to our beleefe this 13. article of faith, that all Crownes do depend of the Pope, and are held of him, who may depose Kings at his pleasure, and aboue all the French Kings, so that our King should by this meanes finde his Crowne worse then it was left him, and receiue this preiudice during his mi­nority.

Our King, who growing vp and prospering, shall learne the noble and valiant deeds of his fa­ther, his vertues, being the ornament and honour of Kings, whose glory ought to beginne and ende with the praise of his name, he shall inherite his prowesses, and being come yong to this actiue art of managing a Kingdome, instructed by the sage counsels of his mother, shall bee reuerenced as Salomon for his wisdome, and serue for a new miracle to all the world, and to France.

God for our sinnes not hauing permitted that our great King, of whom we were not worthie, should continue amongst vs his yeeres shining with all vertues, nor peaceably end the course of his life which remained; let vs all wish and desire with our heart and with affection, that it would please the diuine bounty to confirme according to his deserts, and as it is greatly behoofefull and expedient for France, the assurance of this our greatest happinesse, consisting in the perpetuall continuance of his roiall progenie, for the conser­uation, greatnesse and authority whereof, the V­niuersity of Paris, from the Temple of the Muses, [Page 109]where this great Hercules doth now make his a­bode, doth the third time aduertise you of the tempest, wherwith the Iesuits threaten the calme of France: and if it happen, which God forbidde, that our presages and aduertisements be yet con­temned, we shall haue this contentment, and te­stimony in allsucceeding ages, that with the truth of the holy doctrine, wherein we haue alway con­tinued, we haue not failed to performe the dutie and affection we owe vnto our King and Coun­trie.

The Vniuersity concludeth, humbly praying, that the Iesuits now demandants bee denied the effect and allowance of their letters, and conse­quently, that they be prohibited from reading, teaching, or vsing any other cholasticall function in the Vniuersity.