dheerfully bestowed their fubfidies *, learned the exercise, and buckled on the arms of Mars †.

But

tus V. incited Philip II, to make war on the English, and promifed a million of crowns upon the first advice that his army was landed in England: and at his death he left 5,000,000, one of which was never to be employed but in the recovery of the Holy Land, and another only in a war against infidels and heretics; and he ordered that all fucceeding Popes fhould be obliged by oath to inprove it for thofe ends. To eftablish that fund he contrived new taxes, and advanced the Papal revenue 6co,coo crowns per annum. Pius V. who was afterwards canonized for a faint, was a most inveterate enemy to the Proteftants. He joined his troops with the Spaniards and Venetians against the Turks: he affifted alfo Charles IX. of France, that perfidious murderer, with 4400 foot and 900 horse, and allowed him to alienate 150,000 crowns yearly of the revenues of the church to carry on the war against the Huguenots. Gregory XIV, followed the fame Neps, and expended vast fums in supporting the Guifean and Spanish faction against them. Maimb. Hift. du Lutheran, 1. iv. to. ii. p. 2, 34 Sleid. Comment. l. 17. Greg. Leti, Vit. di Sift. Atl. Geogr. vol. i1.

* The fevere ftatutes made against non-conformists to the church of Rome, as well as the execution of them, have not only been procured by the importunity of the clergy, but often purchased by their liberality. In this they bave departed from their usual character, and have given away large fubfidies very freely; a croifade, or a statute ex officio, or de heretico comburendo, being the best key to open the hearts and uniock the coffers of avaricious churchmen. So late as the year 1745, when some cruel edicts were revived and executed against the Proteftants in France, the clergy are faid to have paid for them, by a very great advance in their free gift; for we are told, (whether on good authority or not we cannot fay), that, though the utmost stretch of their liberality had not formerly exceeded 1,600,000, it was, on that occafion, worked up to 2,400,000 of lives.

In the time of the Catholic league, according to the ufu 1 custom in all the ecclefiaftical wars, a legate was fent into France, and under him came troops of Italian prelates, and religious of all forts, to rouze the furious zeal of the leaguers, or, as they said, to support the faith; and the clergy and monks of every order in the kingdom were so resolute in the cause, that they marched up and down the streets of Paris in military array, with the crofs in one hand, and the fpear in the other; the monks with their robes trouffed up, their cowls thrown back upon their shoulders, with the helmet on their head, and fhield on their back; their leaders and spiritual Quixots delighting to be styled the valiant Maccabees :—so the president de Thou describes them; Processiones novo, et ad hunc diem non viso paratu, publice, spe&ante populo, per cunctos fre quentes urbis vicos celebrata, in quibus Gulielmus Rofa epifcopus Sylvane&enfis, et Carthufianorum prior, altera crucem, altera haftam manu tenentes, tanquam, fcena Coragi, et ftrenui Machabæi, fic enim fe appellari gaudebant, primos ordines ducebant; fequebantur ordine patres Capucini, Foliaceni, Auguftiniani, Francif

cani,

But refractory princes who have not been difpofed to glut Rome's infatiable thirst with enough of blood, or who have not pronounced her Shibboleth aright, have met with no mercy. For the finalleft taint of anti-Romifh herefy, or for tolerating it in others, their right of fucceffion has been denied and fet afide *, and with difficulty admitted even after.

cani, Dominicani, Carmelite, fuccincti omnés, et cuculla fuper humeros rejela, quippe galeati, et laureati. Omnium in fe oculos convertebat Bernardus a Foliacéno ordine, adhuc juvenis, nuper Henrico III. rege, concionibus notis apud popukum, qui altero pede claudus, nufquam certo loco confiftens, fed buc illuc curfitans, modo in fronte, modo in agminis tergo, latum ensem ambabus manibus rotabat, et claudicationis vitium gladiatoria mobilitate emendabat. Another writer testifies,

Du vivant même du feu roi, la ligue avoit induit les moines a s'habiller de diverfes couleurs, avec des chapeaux pannachez de couleurs, portans barquebuses, carfelets, et autres fortes d'armes, et faifant la garde au retranchement des fauxbourgs de Paris quant et quant les autres foldats. Thuan. Hift. l. 98. Mem. de M. de Nevers, au Traité de la Prife des Armes en 1589. to. ii. p. 72.

* As it is the received doctrine of the church of Rome that herefy difqualifies a perfon for holding any fort of authority or property, as we have already seen, this she hath endeavoured, to the utmost of her power, practically to fupport in regard to princes. When Queen Elisabeth came to the throne, the Pope indignantly refused to acknowledge her title, but told her ambassador, “That "England was a fee of the Papacy, and that it was a high presumption in her "to affume the crown without his confent, especially fince the was illegitimate;

but if he would renounce her pretensions, and refer herself wholly to him, "the might expect all the favour that could confist with the dignity of the "Apoftolic See." And a fucceeding Pope gave her crown to Mary queen of Scots, whofe pretenfions the great body of Papifts favoured all her lifetime, which engaged them in perpetual intrigues and plots, and haftened the untimely death of that unfortunate princess. Mary was fo entirely devoted to Rome, that fhe was willing to have fold the birthright of her own fon, because he was bred a Proteftant, and offered to difinherit him, first in favour of France, and then of Spain. Ruggenius Tritonius, abbot of Pinaro, declares, that Mary, the day before the fuffered, did, under her own hand, in the French tongue, declare, "That her fon James fhould not inherit England if he remained a Proteftant; "but that the right of the kingdom should be then tranflated to Philip of

Spain." After her death, that prince was folicited continually by Jefuits and other agents of Rome to turn Papift, and, by importunity or forgery, they got a letter from him to his Holiness, which Bellarmine afterwards produced. And, when they began to lofe hopes of his change, they wrote books and libels against his title, proving it null and void. Father Crefwell, in his Philopater, maintained,-Qui religionem Catholicam Romanam deferit, regnandi jus omne amifit. And, to set up a pretender, Parfons wrote his Doleman, or Conference

about

after the offender's return to the bofom of mother church, accompanied with ample renunciations, penances, and abfolutions,

about the next fucceffion to the crown of England, to exclude the Scots title, and affert that of the Spanish infanta, Father Watfon in his Quodlibets confeffes, that the Jefuit Parfons boasted," that they would all follow and prosecute the "king of Scots title, if he would turn Catholic; but, if not, they would all "die one after another against him." At last in 1601 Pope Clement VIII. fent two bulls to Garnet the Provincial of the Jefuits, the one directed to the Catholic clergy, the other to the nobility of England, in which he inhibits them, after the death of that miferable woman, as he called Elifabeth, from admitting of any fucceffor, however near in blood, who would not defend the Roman church and faith, and take an oath to do fo. Et quandocunque contigerit miferam illam fœminam ex hac vita excedere,—non admitterent quantumcunque propinquitate fanguinis niterentur, nifi ej fmodi effent, qui fiaem Catholicam non mode tolerarent, fed omni ope ac ftudio promoverent, et more majorum jurejurando fe id preftituros fufciperent. Cardinal D'Offat in his letters from Rome, of that date, declared, that it was the resolution of that court, that king James thould Yucceed in England, if he would turn Catholic, otherwise it must be some other perfon; and mentions two pretenders the Pope had in eye, the duke of Parma, and his brother Cardinal Farnese; and that he had sent three briefs to his nuntio in the Low Countries, to be kept in his hand till the death of the queen, addressed to the three eftates of England, admonishing them to unite together, in order to receive a Catholic king whom his Holiness fhould name to them for the resto ration of the Catholic religion, &c. He farther informed the French king, that the king of Spain gave penfions to the English Catholics, to retain them in his fervice, and to facilitate his defigns on the crown of England; that for the fame purpofe the Spaniards had erected the English colleges at Doway and St. Omers, to receive young gentlemen of the beft families in England, and hereby to engage their friends to the Spanish intereft; and that the principal care taken in thefe feminaries, was to inftruct them in the firm belief that his Catholic majefly had the true right of fucceffion, urging them to fubfcribe to his title, and to maintain it as neceffary for the Catholic religion,

Like practices were followed and intrigues fet on foot in France, but attended with more fatal confequences, for debarring Henry of Navarre from the crown on account of his religion. To effect this was a main object of the league, which the houfe of Guife fo warmly fupported, not merely from vielent zeal for Catholicism, and implacable hatred of the Calvinists, but from their ambitious views of fucceeding. The king of Spain promoted the league from Gimilar principles and motives, and had a strong party in the kingdom ta fecond his pretenfions; but all along the fpecious and popular pretext, and the common bond of union among the feveral parties, was zeal for the Catholic religion, and the extirpation of herefy.-The Pope emitted a thundering bull against Henry and the prince of Conde, "excommunicating them as heretics. and abettors of heretics, depriving them of their kingdoms, principalities,

« lordships,

abfolutions. And for this caufe, above all others, have fentences

lordships and dignities, declaring them and their defcendants incapable of "fucceeding to any principality or kingdom whatever, especially to the kingdom of France; pronouncing them liable to the punishment contained in "the laws and canons, abfolving their fubjects from their oath of fidelity, "and forbiding them to obey them." This bull was approved and signed by 25 Cardinals. After the death of Henry III. Gregory XIV. fent another bull to Cardinal Cajetan to proceed to the election of another king to the exclufion of Henry the next heir threatening ecclefiaftical censures against all who continued to follow him.-A fimilar commiffion was given by Clement VIII. to his legate fome time after, who published in 1593, An exhortation to the Catholics of the kingdom who followed the party of the heretic, inducing them to renounce his title and chufe a Catholic. The doctors of the Sorbonne alfo by their fentences declared him incapable, and confirmed his exclufion. (The preachers violently propagated the fame doctrine. A Theologic doctor preaching at Rouen during the fiege in 1591, chufed for his text the words of Paul, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, exprefly inferring from thence," that it was incomparably better to undergo all forts of calamities "and dangers than submit to the king of Navarre declared (he faid) to be a heretic and relapfed by two Popes :" upon which he made his hearers swear that they would rather die/then ever yield themselves to him.-William Rofe or Rofs, bishop of Senlis, whose real name it it said, was Rainolds, an English apoftate, published a book in 1592, after the crown had devolved to Henry IV. with this title; Dei jufta reipub. chriftianæ in regas impios et bereticos animadverfione, juftiffima que catholicorum ad Henricum Navarrum et quemcunque bæreticum a regno Galliæ repellendum confœderatione. And in 1594, on the very morning of the reduction of Paris, he pledged himself to the legate and Spanish ambassador to preach next day a fermon exprefly to prove the nullity of the king's title. The infurmountable difficulties that prince found in the way of getting his right generally acknowledged,-the meetings, confultations and debates of the catholics about a fucceffor; their fetting up the Cardinal of Bourbon, against him; the various maneuvres and events of the war; the fuccefs of the king fupported by his faithful Proteftant subjects, and a party of Catholics who owned his title in hope of his converfion; the fubmiffion of the kingdom to him upon his turning Papift (a price too dear for a kingdom) with the ratification of the liberty and privileges of the Proteftants by the edict of Nantes, are noted events in the hiftory of France, and form one of its most memorable periods. Each. hift. Memor. to Proteft. Rugg. Triton. vita Vincent. Laurei. Crefw. Philop. no. 156. Proceedings against the Traitors. Lettres de Card. D'Oat. p. 545. &c. Leti, vita, di Sifto, to. ii. p. 53. Thuan. I. 102. Memoir, de la ligue, tom. v. p. 312. Remarques fur la Sat. Menippe. tom. ii. &c.

*King Henry having long with ftood the fury of the league, and almost broken its force, yielded at laft to his fears, and refigned himself into the hands of fuperftitious pricfts: thinking to make all fure to his intereft by abjuring his religion and profeffing himself a Catholic. This he did in the most public

and

fentences of excommunication and depofition been fülmi

and formal manner in the church of St. Denis 1593, before the Archbishop of Bourges, the princes of the blood, lords, gentlemen, and a congregation of bishops, abbots, doctors, and curates. For the space of three days he was in perpetual devotion at St. Denis, clothed in the habit of a penitent, denying himself all kinds of paftime and pleafures, always in conference with the prelates, and pouring out abundance of tears at the remonftrances they made him as to his part offences. Having been heard in confeffion by the Archbishop, be was at last abfolved by him: though all who knew his real character could not but confider this as a mere farce. He had told the Proteftant ministers, a few months before," that if they heard a report of his falling into any kind of debauchery, they might believe it, for he had great weakness on that fide; "but if they should hear of his having changed his religion they should give no credit to it." But he fhewed himself to be much truer to the word he had formerly spoke to his predeceffor when follicited by him to fubmit to the Pope, professing he would do any thing to please the Pope except to kifs bis back—de. Yet all these fubmiffions were not fufficient to unbend the rigour of the pon tiff, nor to restore him to the confidence of the more zealous Catholics. For more than two years after the court of Rome rejected all applications for reconciliation and abfolution, though repeatedly made by persons of the first quality, treating them with great fcorn and haughtiness. These were in the end procured by the negociations of Cardinals D'Offat, airi Perron, with much difficulty from Clement VIII. after appointing prayers for 48 hours in all the churches of Rome: the Pope acting on the occafion as chief mournet, going barefooted for two days together, at break of day, to the church of St. Mary, where he celebrated mass, making the fiations weeping, without giving his benediction to the people.

Neither the abjurations nor absolutions could entirely allay the violent fpirit of the league against the king's person and government, but it continued to vex him all his life after, and he fell a facrifice to it at laft. Boucher, Pigenat, Commelet, Lucan, Cueilly, and a great number more preached "that it was not in the power of God fimfelf to convert the king,-that the Popé could not abfolve him, nor eftablish him in his kingdom, and if he did, that he would himself be a heretic and excommunicated." After the king's change, Boucher a doctor of Sorbonne deliveres a courfe of nine fermons on the fubject, proving that he was neither truly reconciled, nor ightly abfolved, and of confequence that none could acknowledge him without being guilty of á crime and of herefy. Thefe he afterwards printed, and dedicated to the legate, with this title; Sermons de la Simullée converfion, et nullità de la pretenduë abfolution de Henri de Bourbon, prince de Bearn, á S. Denis en 1593 Pronouncez à Paris par Jean Foucher. Moreri, Grande Dist. hift.Memoir de la ligue. Thuan. I. 107. Satire Menip. tom. 2. et 3.