PROSOPOPOEIA. Or, A CONFERENCE held at Angelo Castle, between the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of Spaine.
Pope.
VVElcome deare Sonnes, vnto our court of
Rome,
blessing Apostolique and holy doome,
sheild all the house of
Austria from mischanee,
And both their fortunes and your crownes advance.
Emperour.
Thy feet most holy Father doe I kisse.
Of Church benediction if I misse,
th'Imperiall Crowne from
Austria will be gone,
which heav'n forbid: for then w'are all vndone.
Bohemias rebells with
Hungaria joyne
the Hereticks from
Danow to the
Rhine,
their heades, their armes, their forces they combine,
'gainst
Rome and
Austria: Oh the
Palatine!
that cursed
Calvinist with his partakers,
those damned Schismaticks the Church forsakers,
vpon our ruynes seeke to build their fortune,
which makes me thus your Holines importune.
Pope.
The keyes of
Peter, and the sword of
Paul,
shall shut, and open, cutt in sunder all:
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the gates of heaven, nations lawes, and rights,
and turne cleere daies, into the darkest nights;
ere one of
Caluines, or of
Luthers sect,
with
Romaine Bayes, or Aegles shall be deckt.
Emperour.
The threates and curses of the
Catholiques,
are now despis'd by these vile
Heretiques:
help by your counsell therefore
Holy Sir,
and shew us meanes to quiet all this stir.
Pope.
Thou maist by reasons, and Embassages,
by questions, answers, and like passages,
winne time a while, but these are out of date:
Now swordes, not wordes, doe Kingdomes arbitrate.
To neighbour friends, and subjects quickly send,
that from surprise, thou maist thy selfe defend.
My
Nuntios and my
Legats Ile dispatch,
more forces'mongst the
Catholiques to hatch,
Ments, Colen, Trier, Catholique
Baviere,
hast thou in
Germany, with other there;
Thy vncle
Albert, and the
Polish King,
vnto thee quickly may their forces bring.
And though my selfe with
Florence may not send
our armes so soone; yet money will we lend.
The
Cantons of the
Switzers shall be wag'd,
which to our See doe holde themselves engag'd;
so is the
Saxon Duke with his estate,
to thee in
Dresden and th'
Electorate,
whose elder cosins hopes will make him feare,
and to thy fortunes, and thy house adhere:
Ile also send to
Savoy, and to
Venice,
to
France our eldest sonne, and to S.
Dennice,
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Ile fetch the saints from heav'n,
The fiends from hell,
Flectere si nequeo sisperos, A
[...]eronta mouebe.
but Ile those drunken
Germane traytors quell:
Besides thy Spanish cosin present here,
whome
Europe and the new found world doe feare,
the Churches
Atlas, and the Empires prop,
by strength, by wit, by friends, or golde will stop
these proud attempts and darings of the Dutch,
and break their forces, cost it nere so much.
K. of Spaine.
If
Caesar and your
Holines have donne,
obserue the answer of your Spanish sonne.
Not
Germane Prelates, nor
Bavarie can,
nor King of
Pole, your selfe, nor any man,
nor
Tuskans Duke, nor
Albert my poore brother,
nor
Cantons Catholique, nor any other,
bring timely succours, gainst the conjuration
those
Almaigne Graves have made in every Nation.
Expect not help from
Savoy, nor
Venetia,
who feare and deadly hate the house of
Austria.
I looke for nothing from my sonne of
France,
for if he saw vs downe hee'd sing and dance.
And why should you from
Saxon hope for more,
then
Charles my grandsire reap'd from his before;
who gave him all, and more then you doe mention:
yet shortly after in the great contention,
twixt him and
Germane rebels, he forsooke
his
Benefactor, and against him tooke.
And
Caesar if at home thou look'st for ayde,
thy
Kingdomes both are lost, thy strength decayde.
Thine
Austrian subjects also are infected
with
Luthers heresie, and have rejected
the Papall dignitie, and may doe thine,
and with their fellow
Lutherans combine,
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and if for succour thou doe send to
Thracia;
the faithlesse
Turkes, thou know'st doe not loue
Austria.
Spayne then must help, or what will Caesar doe?
and how shall
Spaine helpe
Rome and Caesar too?
Shall
Indian armies, be recall'd from thence,
Italian forces march away from hence,
leave
Millaine, Naples, and our siluer fountaines
vngarded, naked, to march ore the mountaines?
Through
Grisons countrey lead the strength of
Spaine,
or venture our
Armada once againe,
to narrow Seas, and so at once loose more
then we haue got, in sixscore yeares before?
So thou at
Auspourgh, I in
Arragon
may shave our crownes, turne Monks, and liue alone.
You count your friends, but count not all your foes,
whose strength, whose number, you cannot oppose:
The
Northern tract of
Europe from
Britania,
tending to
East, as farre as
Transilvania,
(save
Poleland and some trifles) is their owne,
aye me, in fourescore yeres how they are growne.
Their Kingdomes,
England, Scotland, Ireland, bee,
with
Denmarke, Norway, Sweden, six you see:
besides those two which they have wonne from thee,
being eight in all, and our Kings are but three.
The number of their
Princes, Dukes, and
Countes,
with their free
Lords, and
States, ours farre surmounts:
besides their many
Palsgraves, and
Burghgraves,
with all their
Lantgraves, Reingraves, and
Markgraves.
And as their numbers, so their spirits are,
made great with hopes,
[...] 1618.
by the
Prodigious starre:which
Blazed over
Almaigne last
December,
portending change of states; and I remember
their expositions, and their calculations
of times, of Scriptures, and of situations.
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of
Rome, of
Babel, and of hilles and dales,
of beasts and dragons, and such fearefull tales:
wherewith they cheare themselves, and their new King,
as if they
Victors were, and bells doe ring.
Alas for
Rome, alas for
Ferdinand,
Alas for
Philip, must he needes withstand
his owne, the
Empires, and the Churches foes,
and so himselfe, the Church and
Empire lose?
Haue all my Ancestors to fiue descents,
by Conquest, wedlock, and like ligaments,
ty'de
Earledomes, Dukedomes, Crownes and
Empire fast,
hoping for
Westerne Monarchie at last:
and is the period of our greatnes past,
and our declyning now begin to hast?
Ah
Nassau, Nassau, hatefull Sonne and Father;
Curst be your name and house, you, you did gather
the hatefull rebells, into warlike bands:
who now doe
State it in our
Netherlands.
There, there you wrote
nil Vltra once againe,
and set vp
Esterne pillars, barres to
Spaine.
Emperour.
Thus are our dangers, thus our feares related:
thus be our mindes perplext, our hearts amated.
If
Rome haue any secret wisedome hid
layd vp for wicked times, or euer did
make wicked heretiques feele Churches power,
then Father now's the time and this the houre.
Remember how two
Fredericks heretofore
'frighted thy predecessors, this may more
hazard thy fortunes, vtterly suppresse
the Romane Church, thy selfe, and vs (vnlesse
by some prime Stratageme) fetcht from the deepe
thou dost thy selfe and friends from danger keepe.
Pope.
And are our friends so few and so vntrustie?
and be our foes so many and so lustie?
One
Innocent of
[...]ome in former ages,
hath us'd three Kings for lackeys and for pages:
And dare they now against our liking make
both Kings and Kaesars? then you furies wake:
Help me to store of pistols, poysons, knives,
to fyre and powder, manacles and gives.
Bid
Ravilltack and
Clement hye them hither,
Let
Gerad, Faux, and
Garnet come togither;
Come ye
Ignatians bring
Assasinates,
left handed
Ehuds, that doe rule the fates,
and cut the threds of Princes lives a sunder:
these Romane
Scauola's shall make men wonder
to see the upstart King with his partakers,
in euery nation slaughtred by massacres.
Ile raise up
Swarez,
3. Famous
Iesuites.
Parsons, Bellar mine,
Loyallas-selfe their father: and refine
all humane witt to one pure quintessence,
against whose vertue shalbe no defence.
Therefore fayre Sonnes at nothing be dismay'd,
remember what your Father now hath sayd:
You to
Vienna, you to
Civil goe,
helpe as you may to giue the fatall blowe.
K. of Spaine.
Come
LLerma: looke not sadly on thy friend
But let's with Spanish patience waite the end.