Book X. From the Year 1553 to 1570. J

A Brief Summary: — Queen Elizabeth's Reformation. — That of Edward corrected, and the Real Presence, which had been condemned under that Prince, held for indiiferent: The Church of England still persists in this sentiment. — Other Variations of this Church in that Queen's reign. — Her ecclesiastical Supremacy moderated in appearance, in reahty left in the same state as under Henry and Edward, notwithstanding the scruples of Elizabeth. — Policy bears the sway throughout this whole Reformation. — The Faith, the Sacraments, and the whole ecclesiastical authority delivered up into the hands of Kings and Parliaments. — The same done in Scotland. — The Calvinists of France disapprove this doctrine, nevertheless let it pass. — England's doctrine upon Justification. — Queen Elizabeth favours the French Protestants.— They rebel as soon as they have it in their power. — The conspiracy of Amboise, in Francis the Second's reign. — The civil wars under Charles IX. — This conspiracy and these wars appertain to Religion, and were entered into by the authority of the doctors and ministers of the party, and grounded on the new doctrine teaching the lawfulness of making war against their prince, for the sake of Religion. — This doctrine expressly warranted by their national Synods. — The fallacy of Protestant writers, and of Mr. Burnet amongst the rest, who pretend that the tumult of Amboise and the civil wars were state afTairs. — Religion was at the bottom of Francis Duke of Guise's murder. — Beza's and the Admiral's testimony. — A new Confession of F'aith in Switzerland.

VOL. II. B

1. — Queen Elizabeth is persuaded nothing Can secure to her the Crown, but the Protestant Religion. Four points she was uneasy about.

England having soon returned, after Queen Mary's death to Edward the Sixth's Reformation, set about fixing her Faith and putting the finishing stroke to her rehgion by the new Queen's authority. EUzabeth, daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, was advanced to the throne, and governed her kingdom Avith as profound a policy as the most able kings. The step she had taken with regard to Rome, immediately upon her coming to the crown, countenanced what otherwise had been published of this princess, that she would not have departed from the Catholic Religion, had she found the Pope more disposed to her interests. Paul IV., who then sat in the Apostolic Chair, gave no favourable reception to the civilities she had caused to be tendered him as to another prince, without further declaration of her mind, by the resident of the late queen her sister¹. Mr. Burnet tells us, he treated her as illegitimate ; was surprised at her great boldness in assuming the crown, a fief of the Holy See, without his consent ; and gave her no hopes of receiving any favour at his hands, unless she renounced her pretensions, and submitted to the See of Rome. Such usage, if true, was not at all likely to reclaim a queen. After such a repulse, Elizabeth readily withdrew from a See, by whose decrees her birth had also been condemned, and engaged in the new Reformation : yet she did not approve that of Edward in all its parts. There were four points which caused her uneasinessf, that of Ceremonies, that of Images, that of the Real Presence, and that of the Regal Supremacy ; and what was done, in her time, with reference to these four points, we are now to relate.

2. — First Point : Ceremonies.

As for ceremonies, *' Her first impressions," says Mr. Burnet, "were in favour of such old rites as her father had still retained, and in her own nature loving state and some magnificence in Religion, she thought her brother's ministers had stri[)t it too much of external ornaments, and left religion too bare and naked. Yet I do not find she did any thing considerable in that regard ;{;."

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

3. — Second Point: Images. Pious sentiments of the Queen.

As for Images, " That matter stuck long with her ; for she inchned to keep up Images in churches, and it was with great difficulty she was prevailed upon, persuaded as she was that the use of Images in churches might be a means to stir up devotion, and that at least it would draw all people to frequent them the more²." Herein her sentiments agreed in the main with those of the Catholics. If they stir up devotion towards God, they might well excite also the external tokens of it ; this is the whole of that worship which we pay them. To be inclined to, and have favourable impressions of them in this sense, like Queen Elizabeth, was not so gross a notion as is at pi'esent imputed to our belief; and I much question whether Mr. Burnet would venture to charge a queen, who, according to him, was the foundress of religion in England, with entertaining idolatrous sentiments. But the Iconoclast party had gained their point ; the queen, unable to resist them, was wrought up by them to such extremes, that not content with commanding Images to be cast out of all churches, she forbade all her subjects to keep them in their houses 'j- ; nothing but the Crucifix escaped |, and that no where but in the Royal Chapel, whence the queen could not be persuaded to remove it.

4. — They persuade her with reasons evidently had.

It may not be improper to consider what the Protestants alleged in order to induce her to this injunction against Images, in order that the excess or vanity of the thing may be discovered. The chief foundation of their reasons is, "that the second commandment forbids the making of any Images, as a resemblance of God³," which evidently proves nothing either against the Images of Jesus Christ as man, or those of the saints, or, in general, against such, with respect to which we publicly declare ^^as does the Catholic Church) that by them we in no wise pretend to represent the Deity. The rest is too extravagant to bear repeating: for either it concludes just nothing, or it concludes for the absolute prohibition of the use of painting and sculpture, — a weakness now-a-days so universally exploded by all Christians, as only to find place in the gross superstition of Mahometans and Jews.

• Burn. 1. iii. pp. :597 Hiul 37«. | H.id. 'JflS. + Thium. 1. .\xi., An. l.VV).

^ Burn. Il)i(l. p. :}07.

THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

5. — Manifest Variation icit/i respect to the Real Presence. — Policy recjulates Religion.

The queen shewed more resolution on the subject of (he Eucharist. It is of main importance well to comprehend her sentiments, such as I\Ir. Burnet dehvers them : " She thought that in her brother's reign they made their doctrine too narrow in some points ; therefore she intended to have some things explained in more general terms, that so all parties might be comprehended by them⁴." These were her sentiments in general. In applying them to the Eucharist, " Her intention fvas to have the manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament be left in some (jeneral words. She very much disliked that those who believed the corporal presence had been driven away from the Church by too nice an explanation of it." And again, '^it was proposed to have the communion book so contrived, thai it might not exclude the belief of the corporal presence; for the chief design of tlie Queen's council was to unite the nation in one faithf .""

One might be apt to think, perchance, that the Queen judged it needless to make any express declarations against the real presence, her subjects of" themselves being sufficiently inclined to reject it : but, on the contrary, " the greatest part of the nation continued to believe such a presence. Theretbre, it was recommended to the divines to see that there should be no express definition made against it ; that so it might lie as a speculative opinion, not determined, in which every man was left to the freedom of his own mind.^;"

Q. — TJie Faith of the pretended Martyrs changed.

Here was a strange variation in one of the main fundamental points of the English Reformation. In the Confession of Faith set forth in 1551, under Edward, the doctrine of the Real Presence was excluded in so strong a manner, that it was declared impossible and contrary to our Lord's ascension. When Cranmer was condemned for a heretic in Queen Mary's time, he owned the capital subject of his condemnation was, his not confessing a corporal presence of our Saviour on the altar. Ridley, Latimer, and others, the pretended martyrs of the English Reformation, mentioned by Mr. Burnet, all suffered for the same cause. Calvin says as much of the French mar-

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 5 tyrs, whose authority he opposes against the Lutherans*. This article was esteemed of that high im})ortance even in 1541), and during the whole reign of P^dward, " that when the reformation was to be carried on to the establishment of a form of doctrine," says Mr. Burnet, " which should contain the chief points of religion, inquiry was chiefly made concerning the presence of Christ in the sacrament." It was, therefore, at that time, not only one of the fundamental points, but also a capital one amongst these fundamentals. As it was of such concern, and the principal cause for vvhich these boasted martyrs shed their blood, it could not be explained in terms too distinct. After so clear an exi)osition of it as that which had been made under Edward, to return, as did Elizabeth, to general terms, which left the thing undetermined, that all parties might be comprehended in them, and every man left to the freedom of his own mind, was betraying truth, and putting error on the level with it, Tn a word, these general terms in a confession of faith, were nothing but a fallacy in the most serious of all concerns, and wherein the utmost sincerity is required. This is what the English reformers ought to have represented to Elizabeth. But policy outbalanced religion, nor was it now to their purpose so greatly to condemn the Real Presence. Wherefore, the twenty-ninth article of Edward's confession, wherein it was condemned, was very much changed, and a great deal left outf ; all that shewed the Real Presence was impossible and contradictory to the residence of Christ's body in heaven. "All this was suppressed," says Mr. Burnet, "and that expressed definition dashed over with minium." The historian takes care to tell us it is still legible ; but that even is a testimony against the expunged doctrine. They Avould have it still legible, to the end a proof might be extant, that this was the very point which they had concluded to reverse. They had remonstrated to Queen Elizabeth concerning images, " that it would cast a great reflection on tlie first reformers, should they again set up in churches what these so zealous martyrs of the evangelical purity had so carefully removed;]:." It was of no less a criminal nature, to rescind from the Confession of Faith of these pretended martyrs, what they had placed in it, in op{)Osition to the Real Presence, and to annul that doctrine, in testimony whereof they had given up their lives. Instead of their plain and express definitions, they were content to say, conformably to Queen Elizabeth's design, "in general

.; * Calv. dilutid. ixj)lic. opusc. p. 861. p. ii., Li. ]<. 104.? t Ibid. 1. iji. PI.. 405, lOO, :;: 1\ 'MT,

€i THE HISTORY OF [bOOK terms, that the body of Christ is given and received after a spiritual manner; and the means by which it is received, is Faith*." The first part of the article is very true, taking spiritual manner for a manner that is above our senses and nature, as the Catholics and Lutherans understand it ; nor is the second part less certain, taking the reception for a profitable reception, and in the sense St. John meant, when he said of Jesus Christ, " that his own received him notf," although he were in the world in person in the midst of them ; that is to say, they neither received his doctrine nor his grace. Furthermore, what was added in Edward's Confession, with reference to the communion of the wicked who receive nothing but the symbols, was cut off in like manner, and care was taken that nothing but what the Catholics and Lutherans might approve^ should be retained with respect to the Real Presence.

7. — Substantial Changes in Edward'' s Liturgy.

For the same reason, whatever condemned the corporal presence, was now changed in Edward's liturgy : for instance, the rubrick there explained the reason for kneeling at the sacrament, " that thereby no adoration is intended to any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood, because that is only in heaven|." But, under Elizabeth, these words were lopped off, and the full liberty of adoring the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ was allowed as present in the eucharist. What the pretended martyrs and founders of the English Reformation had held for gross idolatry, became an innocent action in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Li Edward's second liturgy, these words, which had been left standing in the first, were taken away : viz., " the body or the blood of Jesus Christ preserve thy body and thy soul to everlasting life;" but these words, which Edward had left out because they seemed too much to favour the belief of the corporal presence, were replaced by Queen Elizabeth§. The will of kings became the rule of faith, and what we now see removed by this Queen, was again inserted in the common-prayer book by King Charles IL

8. — An imposition of Mr. Burnet ; ivho has the assurance to say, that the Doctrine established by Edward teas not changed.

Notwithstanding all these changes in such essential matters, Mr. Burnet would make us believe there was no variation in

X P. ii. p. 392. § Ibid. 1. i. p. 170.

X.] THK VARIATIONS, ETC. 7 the doctrine of the EngUsh refomiation. " The doctrine of the Church," says he, " was at that time contrary to the behefof a real or corporal presence in the sacrament, in like manner as at present : only, it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it in too distinct a manner*;" as if one could speak too distinctly in matters of faith. But this is not all. It is a manifest variation in doctrine, not only to embrace what is contrary to it, but to leave undecided what was decided formerly. If the ancient Catholics, after deciding in express terms the Son of God's equality with his Father, had suppressed what they had pronounced at Nice, contenting themselves with barely calling him God in general terms, and in the sense the Arians could not deny it, insomuch that what had been decided so expressly should have become undecided and indifferent, would they not have altered the church's faith, and stepped backwards ? Now, this is what was done under Elizabeth by the Church of England ; and none can acknowledge it more clearly than Mr. Burnet has done in the words above-cited, where it stands confessed in express terms, that it was neither by chance, nor forgetfulness, but from a premeditated design, that they omitted the w'ords used in Edward's time, and that " no express definition was made against the corporal presencef ;'' on the contrary, it was let lie as a speculative opinion, not determined, in which every man was left to the freedom of his own mind to reject or embrace it : in this manner, either sincerely or politically, the faith of the reformers was forsaken, and the dogma of the corporal presence left for indifferent, against which they had combated even unto blood.

9. — England indifferent as to the Real Presence.

This, if we believe Mr. Burnet, is yet the present state of the church of England. It was on these grounds that the bishop William Bedell, whose life he has written, believed that a great company of Lutherans who had fled to Dublin for refuge, might without difficulty communicate with the church of England;};, " which in reality," says Mr. Burnet, " hath so great a moderation in that matter (the Real Presence) that no positive definition of the manner of the presence being made, men of different sentiments may agree in the same acts of. worship, without being obliged to declare their opinion, or being understood to do any thing contrary to their several per-

• Lifeot li. Bedell, pp. 137, 138.

suasions." Thus hath the church of England corrected her teachers, and reformed her first reformers,

10. — Neither the u-orcl substance nor miracles, which Calvin places in the Eucharist, are admitted by them.

Moreover, the Enghsh reformation neither under Edward nor EHzabeth, ever employed, in the explanation of the Eucharist, the substance of the body, nor those incomprehensible operations Avhich Calvin so much exalts. These expressions too much favoured a real presence, and it was for this reason they were not made use of either in Edward's reign, when that was designedly excluded, or in Elizabeth's, when the thing was to be left undetermined ; and England was very sensible that these words of Calvin, little suitable to the doctrine of the figurative sense, could not be introduced into it otherwise, than by forcing too visibly their natural sense.

11. — The Queen's Supremacy in spirituals is established in spite of all her scruples.

The article of Supremacy now remains to be considered. True it is, Elizabeth opposed it, and this title, of Head of the Church, in her judgment too great for kings, seemed to her still more insupportable in a queen, not to say ridiculous. '' A famous preacher among those of the reformation," says Mr. Burnet, " put this scruple about it in her head⁵;" that is, some remains of shame were still to be met with in the English Church ; nor was it without some little remorse that she gave up her authority to the secular power; but policy got the better even in this point. As much ashamed as the queen was in her heart of this title of the church's supreme head, she accepted of it, and exercised it under another name. By an act which passed in 1559, " The supremacy was again annexed to the crown, and declared that the authority of visiting, correcting, and reforming all things in the church is for ever annexed to the regal dignity, and whosoever should refuse to swear and acknowledge the queen to be the supreme governor in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, within her dominions, was to forfeit any office he had either in church or state; and to be thenceforth disabled to hold any employment during lifef." This is what the queen's scruple ended in; and all she did to moderate the laws of Henry YHl., with regard to the king's supremacy, was, that whereas denying the supremacy in king

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 9

Henry's time, cost men their lives, in Elizabeth's it cost them but a forfeiture of their goods⁶.

12. — Resolution of the Catholic bishops.

The Catholic bishops on this occasion were not forgetful of their duty, and being inflexibly attached to the Catholic Church and Holy See, were deposed for having constantly refused to subscribe the queen's supremacy, no less than the other articles of the Reformation. But Parker, the protestant archbishop of Canterbury, was of all the most zealous in submitting to the yoke. It was to him complaints were addressed of the queen's scruples respecting her title of Supreme head ; to him Avas rendered an account of what was done to engage the Catholics to acknowledge it, and finally the English Reformation could no longer be compatible with the liberty and authority M-hich Jesus Christ had given to his Church. What had been resolved on in the parliament in 1559, in favour of the queen's supremacy, was received in the synod of London by the common consent of all the clergy, of the first as well as of the second order.

13. — Declaration of the Clergy regarding the Supremacy of Elizabeth.

There the supremacy was inserted among the articles of faith in these terms : — " The royal majesty has sovereign power in this kingdom of England, and in her other dominions, and the sovereign government of all her subjects lay and ecclesiastical, belongs to her in all matters, without being subjected to any foreign power |" By these last words they intended to exclude the Pope; but as the other words, " in all matters |," put in without restriction, as had been done in the act of parliament, imported a full sovereignty, even in ecclesiastical causes, without excepting those of faith, they were ashamed of proceeding to such great excess, and introduced the following modilication. '' Whereas we attribute to the royal majesty this sovereign government, at which we learn that many ill-disposed individuals are displeased, we do not grant to our kings the administration of the word and of the sacraments, as is clearly shewn by the ordinances of our queen Elizabeth; but we merely give to her the ])rerogative, which the Scripture attributes to pious princes, of being able to keep to their duty all orders, whether lay or ecclesiastical, and to check the stubborn by the sword of the civil power.

14. — This served but as a clumsy palliation for a great evil.

This explanation is conformable to a declaration which the queen had published, where she said at first " that she was far from wishing to administer holy things." The Protestants, ready to afford satisfaction on the subject of ecclesiastical authority, thought thereby to be sheltered from whatever evil its supremacy was attended with, but all in vain ; for the question was not whether the English invested royalty with the administration of the word and of the sacraments. Who has ever accused them of wishing that their kings should ascend the pulpit, or administer communion and baptism ? And what is there so uncommon in this declaration, wherein queen Elizabeth avows that this ministry appertains not to her? The question was to know, whether in such matters the royal majesty has a mere direction and an external execution, or whether it influences fundamentally the validity of ecclesiastical acts. But whilst it was apparently reduced in this article to the mere execution, the contrary appeared but too manifest in practice. Permission to preach was granted by letters patent and under the great seal. The queen made bishops with the same authority, as the king her father and the king her brother, and for a limited time if she pleased. The commission for their consecration emanated from the royal povver. Excommunications were decreed by the same authority. The queen regulated by her edicts not only the exterior worship, but also faith and the dogma, or caused them to be regulated by her parliament, whose acts received their validity from her ; and there is nothing more unheard of in the Christian Church, than what was done at that time.

15. — 'The Parliament continues to assume the decision in points of faith.

The parliament pronounced directly on heresy. It regulated the conditions on which a doctrine should pass for heretical, and where these conditions were not found in this doctrine, it prohibited its condemnation, " and reserved to itself the cognizance of it." The question is not to know whether the rule which parliament prescribed is good or bad ; but whether the parUament, a secular body, whose acts received their validity from the prince, can decide on matters of faith, and reserve to itself the cognizance of them ; that is, whether they may

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. Jl challenge it to themselves, and take away the exercise of it from the bishops, on whom Christ had bestowed it; for the parliament's saying they would judge with the assent of the clergy in their convocation⁷, was nothing but a sham ; since, in the end, this was still reserving to the parliament the supreme authority, and hearing the pastors rather as counsellors whose lights they borrowed, than as natural judges, to whom only the decision appertained of divine right. I cannot think a christian heart can hear of such an invasion of the pastoral authority and the rights of the sanctuary Avithout a sigh.

16. — On ivhat is grounded the Validity of the English Ordinations.

But lest it should be imagined, that all these attempts of the secular authority on the rights of the sanctuary were nothing but usurpations of the laity, the clergy not consenting to them, and this under pretext of the above explanation given by the said clergy to the Queen's supremacy in the thirty-seventh article of the Confession of Faith, what precedes, and what follows^ evince the contrary. What precedes, inasmuch as this synod being composed, as just observed, of both houses of the clergy intending to set forth the validity of the ordination of bishops, of priests, and deacons, grounds it on a form contained in the book of consecration of archbishops and bishops, and ordaining of priests and deacons, lately set forth in the time of King Edward VI., and confirmed by authority of parliament^. Weak bishops! wretched clergy! who choose rather to take the form of their ordination from a book made lately, but ten years ago in King Edward's time, and confirmed by the authority of parliament, than from the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the author of their conversion, wherein they might still read the form, according to which their predecessors and the holy monk of St. Augustin, their first apostle, had been consecrated ; although this book was warranted, not indeed by the authority of parliaments, but by the universal tradition of all Christian churches |.

17. — Sequel of this Matter.

Upon this it was that these bishops founded the validity of their consecration, and the orders of their priests and deacons; and this was done pursuant to a decree of parliament in 1559, wherein the doubt concernijig ordination was solved by an act authorising the book of ordination, which was joined to King

Edward's liturgy : so that had not the parliament made these acts, the ordinations of their -whole clergy had still remained dubious *.

18. — Decisions of Faith reserved to the Authority Royal, by the Declaration of the Bishoj^s.

The bishops and their clergy, who had thus enslaved the ecclesiastical authority, conclude in a manner corresponding to such a beginning ; when, after having set forth their faith in all the foregoing articles to the number of thirty-nine, they conclude with this ratification, wherein they declare, "That these articles being authorized by the consent and assent of Queen Elizabeth, ought to be received and executed throughout the whole realm of England." Where we find the Queen's approbation, and not only her consent by submission, but also her assent, as I may say, by express deliberation, mentioned in the act as a condition that makes it valid ; insomuch that the decrees of bishops in matters the most within the verge of their ministry, receive their last form and validity, in the same style with acts of parliament from the Queen's approbation, these weak bishops never daring all this while to remonstrate, after the example of all past ages, that their decrees, valid of themselves, and by that sacred authority, which Jesus Christ had annexed to their character, required nothing else from the regal power, but an entire submission and exterior protection. TIius, whilst they forget the primitive institutions of their church, together with the head whom Jesus Christ had given them, and set up princes for their heads whom Jesus Christ had not appointed for that end, they degraded themselves to that degree, that no ecclesiastical act, not even those which regard preaching, censures, liturgy, sacraments, nay, faith itself, have any force in England, but inasmuch as they are approved and made valid by Kings; which in the main gives to Kings more than the word, and more than the administration of the sacraments, since it renders them the sovereign arbiters of one and the other.

19. — The same Doctrine in Scotland. — 1568.

It is for the same reason that we behold the first Confession of Scotland, since she became Protestant, published in the name of the {)arliament; and a second Confession of the same kingdom, bearing this title : " A general Confession of the true Christian Faith according to the word of God, and the acts of our Parliaments f."

X,] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 13

A great multitude of different declarations was requisite to explain how these acts did not attribute the episcopal jurisdiction to the crown : but all was nothing but mere words, since after all, it still stands incontestable that no ecclesiastical act hath any force in that kingdom, no more them in England, unless ratihed by the King and parliament,

20, — The Enc/Ush Doctrine, which makes the King head of the Church, condemned by the Ccdvinists.

Our Cal\ inists, I own, seem far remote from this doctrine ; and I find, not only in Calvin, as already observed, but also in the national synods, express condemnations of those who confound the civil government with that of the chnrch, by making the magistrate head of the church, or by subjecting the ecclesiastical government to the. people⁸. But there is nothing but will go down with these men, provided you are an enemy to the Pope and Rome ; insomuch that, by stress of equivocations and explanations, the Calvinists were gained, and brought in England even to subscribe the supremacy.

21. — All that remained to the Church seized upon.

It appears by the whole tenor of the acts which I have reported, how vain it is to pretend that, in the reign of Elizabeth, this supremacy was reduced to more reasonable terms than in the precedent reigns, there being, on the contrary, no alteration to be found in the main f. Among other fruits of the supremacy, one was the Queen's invading the revenues of the church under the pretence of giving the full value of tliem|, even those of the bisho|)s, such as, till then, had remained sacred and inviolate. Treading in the steps of the King her father, in order to engage the nobility in the interests of the supremacy and reformation, she made them a present of a share in these consecrated goods ; and this state of the church, enslaved both in her temporals and spirituals, is called the English reformation, the re-establislnnent of evangelical purity I

22. — A remarkable passage in Mr. Burnet, concerning the English Reformation.

Nevertheless, if we may form a judgment of this reformation according to the gospel-rule, by its fruits, there was never any

I Thuan. lib. xxi. 15o9. Burn. lib. iii. p. 391.⁹

thing more deplorable : seeing the effect which this miserable subjection of the clergy did produce, was, that from thenceforwards religion was no more than a state-engine always veering at the breath of the prince. Edward's reformation, which had entirely changed that of Henry VIIL, was changed itself in an instant under Mary, and Elizabeth destroyed in two years all that Mary had done before.

The bishops, reduced to fourteen in number, stood firm, together with about fifty or sixty ecclesiastics * ; but, excepting so small a number in so great a kingdom, all the rest paid obedience to the Queen's injunctions, yet with so little good will for the new doctrine they were made to embrace, " that probably," says Mr. Burnet, "if Queen Elizabeth had not lived long, and a prince of another religion had succeeded before the death of all that generation, they had turned about again to the old superstitions as nimbly as they had done in Queen Mary's time y."

23. — Inamissibility of Justice rejected by the Church of England.

In this same Confession of Faith, which had been confirmed under Elizabeth in 1562, there are two important points relating to justification. In one of them, the inamissibility of justice is rejected clearly enough by this declaration. " After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and arise again, and amend our lives ;jl." In the other, the certainty of predestination seems quite excluded, when, after saying that " The doctrine of predestination is full of comfort to godly persons, by confirming their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Jesus Christ," they add, " It is the downfal for carnal persons either into a desperation, or into recklessness of most unclean living." And, in conclusion, that " we must receive God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in holy scripture ; and in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the word of God ; " which seems to exclude that special certainty, whereby each of the faithful is obliged to believe in particular, as of faith, that he is in the number of the elect, and comprehended within that absolute decree, by which God wills their salvation : a doctrine not agreeable, it seems, to the Protestants of England, although they not only bear with it in the Calvinists, but also the deputies from their

{ Synt. Gen. part i. Cojif. Aug. Art, xvj. xvii, p. 102.

X.] THE VABIATIONS, ETC. IB church have confirmed it, as we shall see in the synod of Dort *.

24. — The beginning of the disturbances in France fomented by Elizabeth. — Change of the Calvinian Doctrine.

Queen Elizabeth secretly encouraged that disposition which those of France were in towards a rebellion ; nearly at the same time that the English reformation was modelled under that queen, they declared themselves. Our reformed, after about thirty years, grew weary of deriving their glory from their sufferings ; their patience could hold out no longer ; nor did they from that time exaggerate their submission to our kings f. This submission lasted but whilst they were in a capacity of curbing them. Under the strong reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. they were in reality very submissive, and made no shew of an intention to levy war. The reign no less weak than short of Francis II. inspired them with boldness. The fire, so long concealed, blazed forth in the conspiracy of Amboise. Yet a sufficient strength still remained in the government to have quenched it at the beginning: but during the minority of Charles IX., and under the regency of a Queen, all whose policy aspired no further than to maintain her power by dangerous and trimming measures, the revolt became entire and the conflagration universal over all France. A particular account of these intrigues and wars comes not within my sphere, nor should I even have spoken of these commotions, if, contrary to all preceding declarations and protestations, they had not produced this new doctrine in the reformation, that it is lawful to take up arms against prince and country, in the cause of religion.

25. — The Calvinists took arms from maxims of Religion,

It had been well foreseen, that the new reformed would not be slack in proceeding to such measures. Not to trace back the wars of the Albigenses, the seditions of the AVickliffites in England, the furies of the Taborites in Bohemia, it had been but too apparent what was the result of all the fine protestations of the Lutherans in Germany |. The leagues and wars so much detested at first, as soon as ever the Protestants were sensible of their strength, became lawful, and Luther added this new article to his gospel. The ministers too of the Vaudois had but just taught this doctrine, when the war was¹⁰¹¹¹² commenced in the valleys against their sovereigns the Dukes of Savoy. The new reformed of France were not backward to follow these examples, nor is there any doubt but they were spirited up to it by their doctors. *

26. — Beza owns that the conspiracy of Amboise was entered upon from a maxim of Conscience.

As for the conspiracy of Amboise, all historians testify as much ; even Beza owns it in his ecclesiastical history. It was from the influence of their doctors, that the Prince of Conde believed himself innocent, or affected to believe it, although so heinous an attempt had been undertaken by his orders¹³. It ■was resolved on by the party, to furnish him with men and money, to (he end he might have a competent force : so that the design then on foot, after the seizure of the two Guises in the very castle of Amboise, where the King was in person, and forcibly carrying them away, was nothing less than from that very time to light up the torch of civil war throughout the whole kingdom. The whole body of the Reformation came into this design, and on this occasion the province of Xaintonge is praised by Beza, for having done their duty like the rest f. The same Beza testifies an extreme regret, that so just an enterprise should have failed, and attributes the bad success of it to the perfidiousness of certain people.

27. — Four demonstrations that the riot of Amboise ivas the handy ivork of Protestants, and that the motive to it was Religion. First demonstration.

The Protestants, it is true, were desirous of giving to this enterprise, as they do to all others of this nature, a pretext of public good, in order to inveigle some Catholics into it, and to screen the reformation from the infamy of so wicked an attempt. But four reasons demonstrate that it was in reality an affair of religion, and an enterprise carried on by the reformed. In the first place, because it was set on foot occasionally from the executions of some of the party, and especially of Anne du Bourg, that famous pretended martyr. Beza, after relating this execution, together with the other evil treatments the Lutherans underwent (then all the reformed were so called), introduces the history of this conspiracy, and at the head of

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 17 the motives which g-ave birth to it, places these manifestly tyrannical ways of proceeding, and the menaces that on this occasion were levelled at the greatest men of the kingdom, such as the Prince of»Conde and the Chastillons. " Then it was," says he, " that many lords awaked as from a profound sleep: so much the more," continues this historian, " as they considered, that the kings Francis and Henry never would attempt any thing against the men of quality, contenting themselves with aweing the great ones by the correction of the meaner sort, that now quite dilierent measures were taken ; whereas, in consideration of the number concerned, they should have applied less violent remedies, rather than thus open a gate to a million of seditions."

28. — Second Demonstration, wherein the advice of Beza and the Divines of the Party is reported.

The confession is sincere, I must own. Whilst nothing but the dregs of the people were punished, the lords of the party did not stir, but let them go quietly to execution. When they, like the rest, were threatened, they bethought themselves of their weapons, or, as the author expresses it, " Each man was forced to look at home, and many began to range themselves together, to provide for a just defence, and to re-settle the ancient and lawful government of the kingdom." This last word was necessary to disguise the rest ; but what goes before shews plainly enough the design in hand, and the sequel evinces it still more clearly. For these means of a just defence imported, that the thing¹⁴ " having been proposed to lawyers and men of renown in France and Germany, as likewise to the most learned divines ; it was discovered that they might lawfully oppose the government usurped by the Guises, and take up arms, in case of need, to repel their violence, provided the princes of the blood, who in such cases are born lawful magistrates, or one of them, would but undertake it, especially at the request of the estates of France, or of the most sound part thereof." Here then is a second demonstration against the new Reformation, because the divines whom they consulted, were Protestants, as it is expressly specified by Thuanus-j-, with them an unexceptionable author. And Beza insinuates it plainly enough, when he says, they took the advice " of the most learned divines," who, in his judgment, could be none else but the reformed. As much may we believe in regard to the lawyers, no Catholic having ever been so much as named.

VOL. 11. C

X9 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

29. — Third Demonstration.

A third demonstration, arising from the same words is, that these princes of the blood, " born magistrates in this affair," were reduced to the sole Prince of Cond6, a declared Protestant, although there were five or six more at the least, and amongst others, the King of Navarre, the prince's elder brother, and first prince of the blood ; but whom the party feared rather than depended on ; a circumstance that leaves not the least doubt that the design of the new Reformation was to command the enterprise.

30. — Fourth Demonstration.

Nay, not only the prince is the sole person placed at the head of the whole party, but what makes the fourth and last conviction against the Reformation is, that this, " the most sound part of the Estates, whose concurrence was demanded, were almost all reformed¹⁵." The most important and the most special orders were addressed to them, and the enterprise regarded them alone ; for the end they proposed to themselves therein was, as Beza owns, that '¹⁶ a confession of faith might be presented to the king assisted by a good and lawful council f." It is plain enough, this council would never have been good and lawful, unless the Prince of Conde, with his party, had governed it, and the reformed obtained all they desired. The action was to begin by a request they would have presented to the king for obtaining liberty of conscience ; and he who managed the whole affair, was La Renaudie, a man condemned to rigorous penalties for forgery, by a decree in parliament, at which court he sued for a benefice; after this, sheltering himself at Geneva, turning heretic out of spite, " burning with a desire of revenge, and of defacing, by some bold action, the infamy of his condemnation;];," he undertook to stir up to rebellion, as many disaffected persons as he could meet with ; and at last, retiring into the house of a Huguenot lawyer at Paris, had the direction of all matters in conjunction with Antony Chandieu, the Protestant minister of Paris, who afterwards gave himself the name of Sadael.

• Thuan. Ibid. pp. 733, 738.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. ^j^,

31. — The Huguenots that discovered the conspiracy do not justify the party.

True it is, the Huguenot lawyer, with whom he lodged, and Ligueres, another Huguenot, had a horror of so atrocious a crime, and discovered the plot ; but that does not excuse the Reformation, but shews only there were some particular men in the sect, whose conscience was better than that of the divines and ministers, and that of Beza himself and the whole body of the party*, who ran headlong into the conspiracy o\er all the provinces of the realm. Accordingly, we have seen the same Beza accusing of perfidiousness these two faithful subjects, who alone, of all the party, had an abhorrence of, and discovered, the plot; so that, in the judgment of the ministers, those that came into this black conspiracy are the honest men, and those who detected it are the traitors.

32. — The protestation of the Conspirators does not justify them.

It is to no purpose to say, that La Renaudie and all the conspirators protested they had no design of attempting any thing against the king or queen, or the royal family ; for is a man to be deemed innocent, because he had not formed the design of so execrable a parricide f ? Was it so light a matter in a state, to call in question the king's majority, and elude the ancient laws, which had fixed it at fourteen years of age, by the joint consent of all the orders of the realm P To presume, on this pretext, to appoint him such counsel as they thonght fit ? To rush, armed, into his palace; to assault and force him; to ravish from this sacred asylum, and out of the king's arms, the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain, because the king made use of them in his counsel ; to expose the whole court and the king's own person to all the violence and all the bloodshed, that so tumultuous an attack, and the darkness of the night, might produce ? In a word, to fly to arms over all the kingdom, with a resolution not to lay them down, till the king should be forced into a compliance with all that they desired. Were the particular injury done to the Guises here only to come in question, what right had the prince of Cond(5 to dispose of these princes, to deliver them up to the hands of their enemies, who, as Beza himself owns;]:, made a great part of the conspi- c2 raters, and to employ the sword against them, as Thuanus says¹⁷, should they not consent voluntarily to relinquish all state-afFairs ? What ! under pretext of a particular commission, given, as Beza words it f , " To men of a well-approved and wise conduct (such as La Renaudie) in order to inquire secretly, yet, though thoroughly and exactly, into all the employments heaped upon the Guises," shall a prince of the blood, of his private authority, hold them as legally convicted, and put them in the power of those, whom he knows to be " spurred on with the spirit of revenge for outrages received from them, as well in their own persons, as those of their kindred and relations ;" for these are Beza's words;):. What becomes of society, if such wicked attempts be allowed ? But what becomes of royalty, if men dare to execute them, sword in hand, in the king's own palace, seize on his ministers, and tear them from his side ; put him under tuition ; his sacred person in the power of rebels, who would have possessed themselves of his castle, and upheld such a treason, with a war set on foot over all the kingdom? This is the fruit resulting from the counsels " of the most learned Protestant divines and lawyers, of the best renown." This is what Beza approves, and what Protestants defend even to this day¹⁸.

33. — The suppleness and connivance of Calvin.

Calvin is cited||, who, after the contrivance had miscarried, wrote two letters, wherein he testifies, he had never approved it. But, after having had notice of a conspiracy of this nature, is it enough to blame it, without giving himself any further concern to stop the progress of so flagitious an undertaking ? Had Beza believed that Calvin did as much detest this deed as it deserved, would he have approved it himself ; would he have boasted to us the approbation of the most learned divines of the party ? Who does not, therefore, perceive, that Calvin acted here too remissly ; and provided he could exculpate himself, in case of ill success, was nowise averse to the conspirators hazarding the event? If we believe Brantome, the Admiral 5[ was much better disposed ; and the Protestant writers vapour much at what he wrote in the life of this nobleman, viz., "That none durst ever speak to him about this enterprise, because they held him for a man of probity, a man of worth, a

X Beza, Ibid. § Btini. 1. I'ii. p. 415.

II Ciit. cle Maimb. t. i. Lett. xv. N. G. p. 263. Cal. Ep. p. 312, 313.

«fr Crit. de Maimb. Lett. ii. N. 2.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. <21 lover of honour, who accordingly would have sent back the conspirators well rebuked, and detected the whole ; nay, would himself have been aiding to quell them*." Still, however, the thing was done, and the historians of the party relate with complacency, what ought not to be mentioned but with horror.

34. — Reflections on the uncertainty of histories useless on this occasion.

There is no room here for eluding a certain fact, by descanting on the uncertainty of histories, and the partiality of historiansf. These commonplace topics are only fit to raise a mist. Should our reformed arraign the credit of Thuanus, whose works they printed at Geneva, and whose authority, we have been lately told by a Protestant historian, none ever disputed ; they have but to read La Popliniere, one of their own, and Beza, one of their chiefs, to find their party convicted of a crime, which the Admiral, Protestant as he was, judged so unworthy a man of honour.

35. — The first wars under Charles XI. in ivhich all the party concurred. — 1562.

Yet this great man of honour, who had such an abhorrence of the conspiracy of Amboise, either because it did not succeed, or because the measures were ill concerted, or because he found open war more to his advantage, made no scruple, two years after, of putting himself at the head of the rebellious Cah inists. Then the whole party declared themselves. Calvin made no resistance for this time, and rebellion was the crime of all his disciples. Those whom their histories celebrate as the most moderate, only said they ought not to begin J. However, this was their joint opinion, that to suffer themselves to be butchered, like sheep, was not the profession of men of courage ; but, to be men of courage in this way, they must renounce the title of Reformers, and much more — that of Confessors of the Faith, and Martyrs ; for it is not in vain that St. Paul said, after David, " We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter^} ;" and Jesus Christ himself : "Behold! I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ||." I have by me Calvin's own letters, well attested, wherein, at the beginning of the troubles of France, he thinks he does enough, in writing to the Baron des Adrets, against pillaging and violence, against image-breaking, and against the depredation of shrines and church treasures, without public authority. To be satisfied, as he is, with telling the soldiers thus enrolled, " Do violence to no man, and be content with your pay¹⁹," adding nothing more ; is speaking of this militia as you do of a lawful militia : and it is thus that St. John the Baptist decided in behalf of those who bore arms under their lawful princes. The doctrine, which allowed taking them up in the cause of religion, was afterwards ratified^ 1 do not say by the ministers in particular only, but also in common by their synods, and it was necessary to proceed to this decision in order to engage in the war those Protestants, who, from a sense of the ancient principles of Christian Faith, and the submission they had so frequently promised at the beginning of the new Reformation, did not believe that a Christian should maintain the liberty of conscience otherwise than by suffering, according to the gospel, in all patience and humility. The brave and wise La Noiie, who was at first of this opinion, was drawn into a contrary sentiment and practice by the authority of the ministers and synods. The church was for that time infallible, and they yielded blindly to her authority against their own consciences. ,

36. — -Decisions of the Calvlnian national Synods, in approhation of taking up arms. — 1 563.

Now the express decisions relating to this matter were, for the most part, made in provincial synods ; but, that there be no occasion to search for them there, it will be sufficient to observe, that these decisions were preceded by the national Synod of Lyons in 1563, Art. 38, by particular facts of this import, — " That a minister of Limousin, who, in other respects, had behaved uprightly, terrified by the threats of his enemies, had writ to the queen-mother, that he never had consented to the bearing of arms, although he had consented and contributed thereto. Item, that he had promised not to preach till the king should grant him leave. Since that time, having a sense of his fault, he had made a public confession of it before all the people, on a day of celebrating the Supper, in the presence of all the ministers of the country and of all the faithful. The query is, whether he may resume his pastoral charge ? the opinion is, he may : nevertheless, he shall write

,..] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 23 to him by whom he had been tempted, to notify to him his repentance, and shall intreat him to let the queen know as much, and all whomsoever this scandal to his Church might have reached ; and it shall be in the breast of the Synod of Limousin to remove him to some other place, as they shall think most prudent."

37. — Another decision.

It is so Christian and ,so heroic an act, in the new reformation, to make war against their sovereign for religion's sake, that it is made criminal in a minister to have repented of, and asked pardon for it of his queen. Reparation must be made before all the people in the most solemn acts of religion, namely, at the Supper, for respectful excuses made to the queen ; and so far must the insolence be carried, as to have it declared to her in person, that this tender of respect is recalled, to the end she may be assured that, from henceforth, they will have no manner of regard for her ; nay, they are not certain, after all this reparation and retracting, whether or no the scandal which this submission had caused amongst the reformed people would be quite defaced. Therefore it cannot be denied that obedience was scandalous to them : thus it is decided by a national synod. But here is, in the forty-eighth article, another decision which will not appear less wonderful: an abbot arrived to the knowledge of the Gospel, had burnt all his titles, and during six years had not suffered mass to be sung in the abby. What a Reformation ! but here lies the stress of his encomium: Nay, hath always comported himself /ai7/i/i«//y, and borne arms for the maintenance of the Gospel. A holy abbot, indeed, who far remote from popery, no less than from the discipline of St. Bernard and St. Benedict, would not endure either mass or vespers in his abbey, whatever might have been the founder's express injunction ; and moreover, dissatisfied with those spiritual weapons which St. Paul so much recommended, yet too feeble for our warrior's courage, has generously carried arms, and drawn the sword against his prince in defence of the new Gospel. Let him be admitted to the Supper, concludes the whole national Synod, and this mystery of peace becomes the remuneration for that war he had waged against his country.

38. — The same Doctrine perpetuated in the succeeding Synods till our days.

This tradition of the party has been handed down to subsequent times successively ; and the Synod of Alais, in 1620, return thanks to M. de Chastillon for his letter, wherein " He protested to them, that he would employ Avhatever was in his power, after the example of his predecessors, for the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ." This was their style. The juncture of times and the affairs of Alais explain the intention of this lord ; and what the Admiral de Chastillon and Dandelot, his predecessors, meant by the kingdom of Christ is well known.

39. — TVhat urns the spirit of the Huguenots in these ivars.

The ministers, who taught this doctrine, thought to impose upon the world, by setting up that fine discipline in their troops so much commended by Thuanus. It lasted indeed about three months : after this, the soldiers, soon carried away into the most grievous excesses, thought themselves well excused, if they did but cry out, Long live the Gospel ; and the Baron des Adrets, who knew full well the temper of this militia, upon his being reproached, as a Huguenot historian²⁰ relates, that after quitting them he had done nothing worthy of his first exploits, excused himself by saying, there was nothing he durst not enterprise " with a soldiery, whose pay was revenge, passion, and honour," whom " he had bereft of all hopes of pardon" by the cruelties he had engaged them in. If we believe the ministers, our Reformed are still in the same dispositions ; and the most voluminous of all their writers, the author of new systems, and the interpreter of prophecies, has but lately published in print, that " The fury, at this day, those are in who have suffered violence, and the rage they have conceived at being forced, strengthens the love and attachment they had to truth -f-." This, according to the ministers, is the spirit that animates these new martyrs.

40. — Whether the example of Catholics vindicates the Huguenots.

It serves not the turn of our Reformed, to excuse themselves, as to the civil wars, by the examples of Catholics under Henry

•|- Jur. accompliss. des Proph. Avis a tous les Cliret. Towards the middle of his Preface or Introduction.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 25

HI. and Henry IV., since, besides the incongruity of this Jerusalem's defending herself by the authority of Tyre and Babylon, they are very sensible that the body of Catholics which detested these excesses, and remained faithful to their kings, Avas always great: whereas, in the Huguenot pariy, scarce two or three persons of note can be found that stood firm in their loyalty.

41. — Vain pretext of Calvinists, who pretend that these ivars did not properly concern Religion.

Here again they make fresh efforts to shew that these wars were merely political, and nothing appertaining to religion. These empty pretexts deserve not refutation, nothing more being necessary for discovering the drift of these wars, than to read the treaties of peace and the edicts of pacification, — of which liberty of conscience, with some other privileges for the Protestants, was always the main import : but because, at this time, men are bent more than ever upon darkening the clearest fact, duty requires of me I should speak something on this head.

42. — Illusions of Mr. Burnet.

Mr. Burnet *, who hath taken in hand the defence of the conspiracy of Amboise, enters also the lists in vindication of the civil wars ; but after a manner which shews plaiidy he is acquainted with no more of our history and laws than what he has picked up from the most ignorant and the most passionate of all Protestant authors. 1 forgive his mistaking that famous Triumvirate under Charles IX., for the union of the King of Navarre with the Cardinal of Lorrain, whereas, unquestionably, it was that of the Duke of Guise, of the Constable de Montmorency, and the Marshal of St. Andrew: nor should I even have thought it worth my while to have pointed out these sorts of blunders, were it not that they convict him, who fell into them, of not having so much as seen one good author. It is a thing less supportable to have taken, as he has done, the disorder of Vassi for a premeditated enterprise of the Duke of Guise, with a design to break the edicts, although Thuanusf, whose testimony he must not reject, and (except Beza, too prejudiced by passion to be credited on this occasion) even Protestant authors, aver the contrary. But to say that the regency had been given to Antony, King of Navarre ; to descant,²¹ as he does, on the authority of a regent ; to affirm that this prince, having outstripped his power in the revocation of the edicts, the people might join themselves to the first prince of the blood after him, namely, to the prince of Conde ; to carry on this empty reasoning, and say that, after the death of the King of Navarre, the regency devolved to the prince his brother, and that the foundation of the civil wars was the refusal made to this prince "of the government, to whom it of right belonged²²," is, to speak plainly of a man so positive, mixing too much passion with too much ignorance of our affairs.

43. — His gross blunders and great ignorance of the affairs of France.

For, in the first place, it is certain, that in the reign of Charles IX. the regency was conferred upon Catherine of Medicis by the unanimous consent of the whole kingdom, and even of the King of Navarre. Mr. Burnet's lawyers, who proved, as he pretends, " that no woman might be admitted to the regency," were ignorant of a standing custom, confirmed by many examples ever since the time of Queen Blanche and St. Lewisf. These same lawyers, according to Mr. Burnet's relation, presumed even to say, *• that two and twenty was the soonest that any King of France had been ever held to be of age to assume the government, contrary to the express tenor of the ordinance of Charles the Fifth, in 1374, which has always been a standing law in the whole kingdom without any contradiction^. To quote these lawyers, and make a law for France of their ignorant and iniquitous decisions, is erecting into a state law the pretexts of rebels.

44. — Sequel of Mr. Burnet's Fallacies.

Neither did the Prince of Conde ever pretend to the regency, no, not even after the death of the King his brother ; and so far was he from calling in question the authority of Queen Catherine, that, on the contrary, at his rising in arms, he grounded himself on nothing but the secret orders he pretended to have received. But what deceived Mr. Burnet is, perchance, his having heard it said, that those who joined themselves to the Prince of Conde for the King's defence, who, they pretended, was a prisoner in the hands of the Guises,

^ t Ibid. p. 616.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 27 gave to the Prince the title of lawful Protector and Defender of the King; and kingdom²³. An Englishman, dazzled with the title of Protector, imagined he saw in this title, according to the usage of his country, the authority of a regent. The Prince never so much as dreamt of it, since even his elder brother, the King of Navarre, was still living ; on the contrary, this empty title of Protector and Defender of the kingdom, which in France signifies just nothing, was given him on no other account but because it was very well perceived there was no lawful title that could be given him.

45. — The French Calvinists extricate themselves no better out of this difficulty.

Let us then leave Mr. Burnet, who, though a foreigner, pronounces thus peremptorily on our laws, without knowing so much as the first rudiments of them. The French give the thing a different turn, and ground themselves on some of the Queen's letters, " who begged of the Prince to preserve the mother and children, and the whole kingdom, against those who had a mind to ruin all f." But two convincing reasons leave no shelter for this vain pretext. In the first place, because the Queen, who in this manner addressed herself privately to the Prince, exceeded her power ; it being agreed that the regency was conferred upon her on condition that she did nothing of consequence except in council, with the participation and by the advice of the King of Navarre, as the first Prince of the blood, and lieutenant-general, established by the consent of the Estates in all the provinces and armies during the minority. As, therefore, the King of Navarre felt that she was driving all to ruin through that restless ambition which, tormented her, of preserving her authority, and that she wholly turned on the side of the Prince and the Huguenots, the just fear he was in of their becoming masters, and lest the Queen, through despair, should at length even cast herself into their arms together with the King, made him break all the measures of this Princess. The other Princes of the blood joined with him, no less than the chief men of the kingdom and the parliament. The Duke of Guise did nothing but by the orders of this King; and the Queen so well knew she exceeded her power in what she requested of the Prince, that she never durst use any other words, in her addresses to him, than those of mvitation ; so that these so boasted letters are nothing else, in reality, but the anxieties of Catherine, not the lawful injunctions of a regent ; so much the more (and it is the second proof) as the Queen gave ear to the Prince but for a moment, and through the vain terror she had conceived of being stripped of her authority ; insomuch, that it was easily believed, says Thuanus, she would come off from this design as soon as ever she should get the better of her fears²⁴.

46. — The Calvinists convicted by Beza^.

Accordingly, the event discovers that she entered sincerely into the measures of the King of Navarre, and thenceforward never left negotiating with the prince in order to reclaim him to his duty. Wherefore, these letters of the Queen, and all that followed thereupon, are counted nothing by historians but a vain pretext. Nay, Beza makes it plain enough that all turned on religion, on the breach of edicts, and on the pretended murder of Vassi^j]. The Prince neither stirred, nor gave orders to the Admiral to take up arms, but " requested, and more than entreated, by those of the new i^eligion to grant them his protection, under the name and authority of the King and his edicts."

47. — The first War resolved upon by the advice of all the Ministers, and the j)eace concluded notwithstanding their opposition. — Testimony of Beza.

It was in an assembly, at which were present the chief men of their church, that the question was proposed, whether they might in conscience execute justice on the Duke of Guise, and that with no great hazard, for thus the case was worded ; and the answer returned was, that '^ it was better to suffer Avhat might }>lease God, putting themselves only on the defensive, should necessity reduce the churches to that point. Yet, whatever might happen, they ought not to be the first to draw the sword²⁵." Here, then, is a point resolved in the new reformation, that they may, without scruple, make war on a lawful power, at least in their own defence. Now^they took for an assault the revocation of the edicts ; so that the reformation laid it down for a certain doctrine, that she might fight for the liberty of conscience, in contradiction not only to the faith and practice of the Apostles, but also to the solemn protestation Beza had but just made at his demanding justice of

X.] * THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 29 the King of Navarre ; viz., " that it appertained to the church of God to sufiTer blows, and not to give them ; but that he ought to remember, this anvil had worn out many a hammer²⁶." This saying, so much extolled by the party, proved a deceit, since, after a while, the anvil itself commenced to strike contrary to nature, and, wearied with l)earing blows, repayed them in its turn. Beza, who glories in this conceit, in another place makes this important declaration in the face of all Christendom!, " that he had warned of their dutij as Avell the Prince of Conde as the Admiral, and all the other lords and men of every degree, that made profession of the Gospel, to induce them to maintain, by all means possible to them, the authority of the King's edicts and the innocence of the poor oppressed ; and ever after hath continued in this same will, exhorting, nevertheless, every person to use his arms in the modestest manner possible, and to seek, next to God's honour, peace in all things, j)rovided they do not suffer themselves to be deceived and imposed upon." What a delusion to persuade himself, whilst he actually authorizes a civil war, that he has fulfilled his duty by recommending modesty to a people up in arms ! And as for peace, did he not see that the security he required for it would always afford pretexts, either of keeping it at a distance, or of breaking it ? in the mean time he was by his preaching, as himself confesses, one of the principal inciters to the war. One of the fruits of his gospel was, to teach this new duty to subjects and officers of the crown. All the ministers concurred in his tentiments, and he owns himself;}], that when peace was mensioned, the ministers so much opposed it, that the prince, resolved on concluding it, was forced to exclude all of them from the debate ; for they were determined to hinder the party from suffering the least exception to that edict, which was most favourable to them, namely that of January. But the prince, who had consented, for peace sake, to some light restrictions, " caused them to be read before the nobility, suffering none else but the gentlemen bearing arms to speak their opinions, as he declared openly in the assembly j so that the ministers, after that time, were neither heard nor admitted to give in their advice § ;" by this means peace was made, and all clauses of the new edict make it appear that nothing but religion was contended for in this war. Nay it is manifest, had the ministers been hearkened to, it would have been continued in hopes of gaining more advantageous conditions which

3K) THE HISTORY OF [bOOK they proposed at large in writing, adding many things even to the edict of January ; and they made, says Beza, a declaration of them, " to the end posterity might be informed how they comported themselves in this affair²⁷." This, therefore, stands an external testimony, that the ministers approved the Avar, and were more bent than the princes and the armed soldiers themselves, on pursuing it from the sole motive of religion, which they pretend, at present, was quite out of the question ; yet was the fundamental cause of the first wars, by the consent of all authors, both Catholic and Protestant.

48. — The other wars are destitute of all pretext.

The rest of the wars have not so much as a colour of pretext, the queen then concurring with all the powers of the state ; neither was there any other excuse alleged but discontents and contraventions ; things which, in the end, have no kind of weight, but in presupposing this error, that subjects have a rio^ht in the cause of religion to take up arms against their king, although religion prescribes nothing but to suffer and obey.

49. — Answers of Mr. Jurieu.

I now leave the Calvinists to examine whether there be the least appearance of solidity in all Mr. Jurieu's discourses, where he says, that this same is a quarrel '^ wherein religion came in merely by chance, and to serve for a pretext only f ;" since, on the contrary, it is manifest, religion was at the bottom of it, and the reformation of the government was nothing but a cloak to cover their shame for having begun a war of religion, after so many protestations how much they abhorred all such conspiracies.

But here is another kind of excuse which this artful minister prepares for his party as to the conspiracy of Amboise, when he answers, that, " be it as it will, it is no otherwise criminal than by the gospel rules J. It is then a trifle for Reformers who boast nought to us but the gospel, to form a conspiracy that is condemned by the gospel ; nor will they be much concerned, provided it only militates against these sacred ordinances. But what follows in Mr. Jurieu will make it evident he understands as little of morality as Christianity, since he even dares to write these words : — " The tyranny of the princes of Guise could not be overthrown without a great effusion of

♦ Beza, 1. vi. p. 285. f Apol. pour la Reform., part 1. ch. x, p. 301.

5. Ibid. ch. XV. p. 453.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 31 blood ; the spirit of Christianity suffers not that : but if this enterprise be scanned according to the rules of worldly morality, it is not at all criminal *." It was, nevertheless, according to the rules of worldly morality, that the Admiral condemned the conspiracy as so shameful and detestable, and, according to the dictates of a man of honour, not barely of a Christian, that he conceived such a horror of it; nor is the corruption of the world as yet advanced so far as to discover innocence in deeds equally subversive of all laws human and divine.

The minister succeeds no better in his design when, instead of vindicating his pretended Reformers in their rebellions, he sets himself to point out the corruption of the court against which they rebelled, as if reformers could have been ignorant of that apostolical command, *' Obey your masters, though they be frowardf."

His long recriminations, with which he fills a volume, are not a whit more to the purpose, since this the main question will always return, whether those who are boasted of to us as the reformers of mankind, have diminished or increased its evils, and whether they are to be considered as Reformers who correct them, or rather as scourges whom God sends to punish them.

50. — Question concerning the spirit of the Reformation, — TVIiether it ivas a spirit of meekness or of violence. — 1514.

Here might that question be considered, whether it be true that the Reformation, as she boasts, never aimed at estHblishing herself by force ; but the doubt is easily resolved by all the abovementioned facts. As long as the Reformation was weak, it is true she always seemed submissive ; nay, gave out for a fundamental point of her religion that she believed it not only unlawful to use force, but even to repel it^. But it was soon discovered this was of that kind of modesty which fear inspires, a fire hid in ashes ; for no sooner could the Reformation attain to be uppermost in any kingdom, but she was for ruling uncontrolled. In the first place, no security there for priests and bishops ; secondly, the true Catholics were proscribed, banished, deprived of their goods, and in some places of life, by the law of the state, as for instance, in Swedeland. The fact is certain, whatever may have been said to the contrary. This was what they came to who at first cried so loud

X Crit. t. i. Let. viii., N, 1., p. 129, et seii. Let. xvi., N. 9, p. 316, «Stc.

3S THE HISTORY OF [bOOK against violence; and there needs but to consider the acrimony, the bitterness, and insolence which was diffused through the first books and the first sermons of these Reformed ; their bloody invectives, the calumnies they blackened our doctrine with, the sacrileges, the impieties, the idolatries with which they incessantly reproached us ; the hatred they inspired against us, the plunderings which were the result of their first preaching, " the spite and violence²⁸" which appeared in their seditious libels set up against the Mass ; in order to form a judgment what was to be expected from such beginnings.

51. — Sequel of the violent spirit which predominated in the Reformation.

But many wise men, say they, condemned these libels f; so much the worse for the Protestant party, whose transports were so extreme, that all the wise men who remained in it could not repress them. These libels were spread all over Paris, posted up and dispersed in every street ; fixed even to the door of the king's chamber J; nor did the wise ones who disapproved this, use any efficacious measures for its prevention. When that pretended martyr, Anne du Bourg, had declared in the tone of a prophet to the president Minard, whom he challenged, that in spite of his refusing to absent himself and decline hearing his cause, he never should sit judge in it²⁹, the Protestants knew full well how to make good his prophecy, and accordingly the president was murdered towards the evening on entering his house. It was known afterwards, that Le Maitre and St. Andre, both of them very averse to the new gospel, would have met with the like fate, had they come to the court ; so dangerous a thing it is to offend the Reformation, though weak ! And we learn from Beza himself, that Stuart, a relation of the queen's, '' a man ready for any execution, and a most zealous Protestant, made frequent visits to the prisoners held in the parliament jail on the score of religion [|." He could not be convicted of having struck the blow, yet we see at least through what channel the communication might flow ; and, howsoever that may be, neither did the party want men of desperate resolution ; nor can any be accused of this combination, but those who interested themselves for Anne du Bourg. It is no hard matter to vent prophecies, when such angels are at hand to execute them. The assurance of Anne du Bourg in foretelling so distinctly what was to happen,

X.] th;e variations, etc. 33 discovers plainly the good intelligence he had received ; and what is said in the history of Thuanus, in order to shew him a prophet, rather than an accomplice of such a crime, smells rank of an addition from Geneva. We must not, therefore, wonder, that a party which nursed such daring spirits, should take off the mask as soon as ever a weak reign opened a prospect of success, which we have seen they never failed to do.

52. — Vain Excuses.

A new Defender of the Reformation is persuaded, from the dissolute behaviour, and entire conduct of the Prince of Conde, that there was "more of ambition than religion in what he did ;" and he owns, that religion " was of no other use to him, than to furnish him with instruments of revenge³⁰." He thinks by that means to resolve all into policy, and justify his own religion : not reflecting this is the very thins we charge them With, VIZ. that a religion styling itself reformed, was so prompt an instrument of revenge to an ambitious prince. It is nevertheless the crime of the whole party. But what does this author say to us of the pillaging of churches and vestries, of breaking doAvn images and altars ? Why truly he thinks to clear all by saying that " the prince, neither by prayers, nor by remonstrances, nor even by chastisements, could put a stop to these disorders! .^ This is no manner of excuse ; it is a conviction of that violence, which reigned in the party, whose fury the very heads could not restrain. But I am very much afraid that they acted by the same spirit with Cranmer and the rest of the Enghsh reformers, who, upon the comjjlaints that were made against image-breakers, " although they had a mind to check the heat of the people and keep it within compass, yet were unwilling it should be done after such a manner as to dishearten their friends too much:[-." This was the case of the chief leaders of our Calvinists, who, though they judged theniselves obliged in honour to blame these enormities, yet we do not find they ever did justice on the authors of them. Beza's history will suffice to shew, that our Reformed were always ready at the least signal to run to arms, to break open prisons, to seize on churches, nor was there any thing ever seen more factious. AVho is ignorant of the cruelties exercised by the Queen of Navarre against priests and religious ? The towers from Avhich the Catholics were cast headlong, and the deep pits they were flung into, are shewn to this day. The

VOL. II. D

34 TIIR HISTORY OF [bOOK wells of the bishop's palace at Nismes, and the cruel instruments employed to force them to the Protestant sermon, are not less known to the whole world. We have still the informations and decrees, by which it appears that these bloody executions were the deliberate resolves of Protestants in council assembled. We have the original orders of generals, and those of cities, at the request of consistories, to compel the Papists to embrace the Reformation, by taxes, by quartering soldiers upon them, by demolishing their houses, and uncovering the roofs. Those who withdrew, to escape these violences, were stripped of their goods: the records of the town-houses of Nismes, Montauban, Alais, Montpellier, and other cities of the party, are full of such decrees ; nor should 1 mention them, were it not for the complaints with which our fugitives alarm all Europe. These are the men who boast their meekness. What a cruelty to persecute such people merely for religion, who warrant all they do from Scripture, and chant so harmoniously their psalms in rhyme ! No fear, they soon found means to shelter themselves from martyrdom, after the example of their doctors, who always were in security themselves whilst they encouraged others ; both Luther and Melancthon, Bucer and Zuinglius, Calvin and Qicolampadius, with all the rest of them, speedily betook themselves to secure sanctuaries ; nor am I acquainted, amongst the heads of the reformers, with any, even false martyrs, unless perchance such a one as Cranmer, whom we have seen, after a repeated abjuration of his faith, unresolved to die in the profession of it, till he Avas convinced his renouncing it would be unavailable to save his life.

53. — Answer to those ivlio might say, this is foreign to our subject.

But to what purpose, it may be objected, the reflecting on these past transactions, Avhich a peevish minister will say is only done to exasperate them the more, and aggravate their misfortunes ? Such fears ought not to hinder me from relating what appertains so manifestly to my subject ; and all that equitable Protestants can, in a history, require from me is, that, not relying wholly on the credit of their adversaries, I also give ear to their own historians. I do more than this, and, not content with hearing them, 1 join issue with them on their evidence. Let our brethren open then their eyes ; let them cast them on the ancient Church, which, during so many ages of so cruel a persecution, never flew out, not for a moment, nor in one single person ; but was seen as submissive under Dioclesianj

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 35 nay, under Julian the apostate, when she was spread over all the earth, as under Nero and Domitian, when but in her iniancy ; there indeed appeared the finger of God truly visible. But the case is quite different, when men rebel as soon as able ; and when their wars last much longer than their patience. Experience sufficiently shews us in all kinds of sects, that conceited opinion and strong prejudice can mimic fortitude, at least for a while ; but maxims of Christian meekness are never in the heart, when men so readily exchange them, not only for opposite practices, but also for opposite maxims, with deliberation and by express decisions, as it is plain our Protestants have done. Here is, therefore, a true variation in their doctrine, and an effect of that perpetual instability, which cannot but fix on their Reformation a character suitable to those works, which having but what is human in them, of course must " come to nought³¹," according to Gamaliers maxim.

54. — The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, by Poltrot, held by the Reformation as an act of Religion. — 1562.

The assassination of Francis, Duke of Guise, ought not to pass utmientioned in this history, inasmuch as the author of this murder mingled his religion with his crime. It is Beza that represents to us Poltrot as excited by some secret impulse, at the time he resolved upon this infamous exploit ; and in order to make us understand that this secret impulse was from God, he also describes the same Poltrot just ready to enter on the execution of this black designy, "Praying to God most ardently, that he would vouchsafe to change his will, if what he intended was displeasing to him; otherwise, that he would give him constancy, and strength sufficient to slay this tyrant, and by that means free Orleans from destruction, and the whole kingdom from so miserable a tyranny. Thereupon, and in the evening of the same day, proceeds Beza, he struck the blow ; that is, during this enthusiasm, and just rising up from that ardent prayer J." As soon as ever our Reformed knew the thing was done, " they solemnly returned thanks to God with great rejoicings §." The Duke of Guise had always been the object of their hatred. No sooner were they in a condition to effect it, but we have seen them conspire his ruin, and this by the advice of their doctors. After the riot of Vassi, although it was certain he had used all his endeavours to appease it, the party rose up against him with hideous clamours^ ; and Beza,

» Acts V. 38. f L. vi. p]). 2(i7, 2fi«. | Ibid. p. 290.

who carried their complaints to court, acknowledges, " He had desired and begged of God innumerable times, either to change the heart of the Duke of Guise, which, nevertheless, he could not hope, or that he would rid the kingdom of him ; whereof he calls to witness all those who have heard his prayers and preaching³²." It was therefore in this preaching, and in public, that he offered up innumerable times these seditious prayers ; after the example of those of Luther, whereby, we have observed, he knew so well how to animate mankind, and stir up individuals to fulfil his prophecies. By the like prayers the Duke of Guise was represented as a hardened persecutor, from whom it was necessary to beseech God that he would deliver the world by some extraordinary stroke of his Providence. What Beza says in his own excuse f , " that he did not publicly name the Duke of Guise," is much too silly. What signifies the naming a man when you knowboth how to point him out by his characters, and ex})lain yourself in particular to those who might sufficiently have understood you ? These mysterious innuendos, in sermons and divine service, are more likely to exasperate men's minds, than more explicit declarations. Beza was not the only one that inveighed most bitterly against the Duke ; all the ministers railed in the same manner. No Avonder then, that amongst so many " men disposed for execution," with which the party abounded, some should be found that thought they did God service in delivering the Reformation from such an enemy. The still blacker enterprise of Amboise had met with the approbation of Beza and their doctors. This, in the conjuncture of the siege of Orleans, when the bulwark of the party together with this city was just falling into the Duke's hands, was of a far different importance; and Poltrot believed he did more for his religion than La Renaudie. Accordingly, he talked openly of his design as of a thing that would be well approved of. Although he was known in the party for a man sworn to kill the Duke of Guise, cost what it would, neither the generals, nor the soldiers, nor even the pastors dissuaded him froni it. Let any one that pleases believe what Beza says J, that those words were taken '^ for the vagaries of a giddy-headed person," that would never have vented his design had he resolved to execute it. But the more sincere D'Aubigne is agreed, that it was hoped in the party he would strike the blow : which, he says, " he had learnt from good authority^."

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 37

It is also very certain, that Poltrot did not pass for one that was hair-brained *. Soubize, whose servant he was, and the Admiral, considered him as a useful person, and employed him in affairs of consequence; and the manner of his explaining himself spoke him rather a man resolute at all events, than one giddy-headed and crazy. " He presented himself (they are Beza's words) to Mr. Soubize, a leading man in the party, to acquaint him that he had resolved with himself in cold blood to deliver France from so many miseries, by killing the Duke of Guise; which he durst boldly undertake, cost what it would]." The answer which Soubize returned him was not calculated to make him relent in his undertaking ; for he only tells him " To do his accustomed duty;" and as for the matter proposed, " God knew well how to take care of it by other means." So faint a reply, in an action which ought not to be spoken of without horror, must have discovered to Poltrot, in Soubize's mind, either the apprehension that the thing would not be executed successfully, or the design of exculpating himself, rather than an express condemnation of it. The rest of the chiefs spoke to him with no less indifference : they were satisfied Avith telling him " he ought to be aware of extraordinary vocations J." This, instead of dissuasion, was working up a belief in him that his enterprise had something in it of what was heavenly and inspired; and, as D'Aubigne expresses it in his animated style, " Their remonstrances, under the appearance of dissuading, really urged him on." Accordingly, he was but the more determined on his black undertaking : he spoke of it to every body ; and, continues Beza, " had his mind so bent on it, as to make it the common topic of his discourse." During the siege of Rouen, at which the king of Navarre was killed, this death being mentioned, Poltrot, " fetching a deep sigh from the bottom of his bi'east, Ha ! says he, this is not enough, a much greater victim must still be sacrificed §." When asked what it might be : he answered, " It is the great Guise ;" and at the same time, lifting up his right arm, " This is the arm," cried he, " that will do the deed, and put an end to our misfortunes." This he repeated often, and always with the like energy. All these discourses bespeak a man determined, scorning to conceal himself, because persuaded he is doing a meritorious action: but what more discovers the disposition of the whole party, is that of the Admiral, whom they held up to the whole world as a pattern

X D'Aub. t. i. p. 17G. § Thuan. 1. sxxiii, p. 207.

38 THg HISTORY OF [bOOK of virtue and the glory of the Reformation. I shall not speak here of Poltrot's evidence, accusing him and Beza of having induced him to this design. Let us lay aside the testimony of a witness, who has perhaps varied too much to be entirely credited on his own word : but the facts avowed by Beza³³ in his history cannot be called in question, much less those that are contained in the declaration which the Admiral and he jointly, on the assassin's accusation, sent to the Queen f . Thence, therefore, it remains evident, that Soubize dispatched Poltrot with a packet of letters to the Admiral when still near Orleans endeavouring to relieve the town ; that it was with the Admiral's consent that Poltrot Avent to the Duke of Guise's camp, and pretended to surrender himself to him, as one who was tired of bearing arms against the king J; that the Admiral, who otherwise could not be ignorant of a design made public by Poltrot, learnt from his own mouth that he persisted in it still, since he owns that Poltrot, in departing on his enterprise, ♦' went so far as to tell him, it Avould be an easy matter to kill the Duke of Guise;" that the Admiral spoke not a word to turn him from it; nay, on the contrary, though conscious of his design, gave him at one time twenty crowns, and a hvindred at another, to mount himself well § : in those days a considerable supply, and absolutely necessary both to facilitate his undertaking and escape ||. Nothing can be more frivolous than what the admiral alleges in his own defence. He says, " that Avhen Poltrot mentioned to him his killing the Duke of Guise, he, the admiral, never opened his mouth to incite him to undertake it." There was no need of inciting a man, whose resolution was so well taken ; and in order that he might accomplish his design, the admiral had no more to do than, as he did, to dispatch him to the place where he might execute it. The admiral, not content to send him thither, gives him money to support himself there, and for the supply of all necessaries for such a design, not forgetting even that of a good horse and furniture^. What the Admiral alleged farther, that he sent Poltrot into the camp only to gain intelligence, is manifestly nothing but a cloak to that design, which he would not own. As ibr the money, nothing is more weak than what the admiral replies, viz, " that he gave it Poltrot, Avithout ever specifying to him the killing or not killing the Duke of Guise³⁴." But the reason he brings in his justification for not dissuading him from so Avicked an attempt, discovers the bottom of his

X p. 209. § P. 308. ill Ibid. pp. 297, 391.

^Ibid. ** Ibid, p. 297-

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 89 heart. He confesses then, " before these last troubles, he knew the men who had determined to kill the Duke of Guise ; that far from inducing them to this design, or approving it, he had diverted them from it, and even given notice of it to Madame de Guise : that, since the alTair of Vassi, he had prosecuted the Duke as a public enemy ; nevertheless it cannot be discovered, that he had approved any attempt should be made on his person, till he had notice given him that the Duke had drawn in certain persons to kill him and the Prince ofConde." It follows, therefore, that after this notice given (as to the truth Avhereof we ought not to believe an enemy on his bare word) " he did approve " attempting on the Duke's life : but, " since that time, he acknowledges, when he heard one say, if he could he would kill the Duke of Guise even in his camp, he did not dissuade him from it :" by which it appears at once, that this bloody design was common in the Reformation, and the chiefs of it, the most esteemed for their virtue, such was undoubtedly the Admiral, did not think themselves under any obligation of opposing it ; on the contrary, they concurred to it every the most effectual way they were able ; so little did an assassination disturb their consciences, provided religion were its motive.

55.' — Sequel.

Should it be asked, what could induce the Admiral to confess facts which bore so hard upon him ? it was not from his ignorance of the difficulties he incurred ; but, says Beza *, " the Admiral, being downright and truly sincere, if any man of his quality ever was, made answer, that if afterwards, upon confronting, he should happen to make some further confession, he might give occasion to think that even then he did not discover the whole truth; " that is, if rightly understood, this sincere and downright man feared the force of truth at confronting, and prepared his subterfuges, as is usual to guilty persons, whose conscience, and fear of being convicted, makes them often confess more than could be drawn from witnesses. INay, it seems, if the manner of the Admirars ex{)laining himself be well considered, that he feared men should tliink him innocent, that he shunned only the formal acknowledgment and a juridical conviction, and, what is more, took pleasure in displaying his revenge. But the most politic thing he did for his acquittal was desiring that Poltrot might be kept to be con-

• Beza, p. 308.³⁵

fronted with him, relying on his alleged excuses and the conjuncture of the times, which forbade driving to extremes the chief of so formidable a party³⁶. Neither was the court ignorant of this, and accordingly the process was concluded. Pol trot, Avho had retracted the charge brought in by him against the Admiral and Beza, persisted in acquitting Beza, even to death y ; but, as for the Admiral, he impeached him anew by three declarations, one after another, even amidst the tortures of his punishment, of having induced him to perpetrate this murder for God's service. As for Beza, it does not appear that he had any share in this action otherwise than by his seditious preaching, and the approbation he had given of the much more criminal conspiracy of Amboise ; but very certain it is, that before the fact was committed, he did nothing to prevent it, although he could not be ignorant of the design, and, when it was over, omitted nothing that might give it all the appearance of an inspired action. The reader may judge of the rest ; and here there is more than sufficient to make it evident what spirit those were animated with, who thus boast their meekness.

5G. — Catholics and Protestants agreed on the question of punishing Heretics.

There is no need here of explaining myself on that question, whether or no Christian princes have a right to use the sword against their subjects, enemies to sound doctrine and the church, the Protestants being agreed with us in this point. Luther and Calvin have written books expressly to make good the right and duty of the magistrate in this point J. Calvin reduced this to practice against Servet and Valentine GentiH³⁷. Melancthon approved of this procedure by a letter he wrote to him on this subject [|. The discipline of our reformed likewise permits recourse to the secular arm in certain cases ; and amongst the articles of discipline of the Geneva church^, it appears that the ministers ought to inform the magistrate against the incorrigible, who despise spiritual penalties, and especially against those, without distinction, Avho teach new doctrine. And even at this day, the author³⁸ that most bitterly of all the Calvinian writers upbraids the Roman church

$ Liith. de Magist. t. iii. § Calvin, opusc. p. 592. Ibid. 600, 659.

II Melan. Calvino inter Calv. Ep. p. 169.

% Jur. Syst. ii. chap. 22, 33. Lett. Past, de la 1 Annee 1 , 2, 3.

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 41 on this subject, with the cruelty of her doctrine, subscribes to it in the main, inasmuch as he "permits the exercise of the power of the sword in matters of religion and conscience ; a thing which in truth cannot be called in question without enervating, and, as it were, maiming the power of the legislature ; so that there cannot be a more dangerous illusion, than to set down sufferance as a characteristic of the true church; nor do I know amongst Christians any but Socinians and Anabaptists that oppose this doctrine. In a word, the right is certain, but moderation is not less necessary.

57. — Calvin's Death.

Calvin died at the beginning of these troubles. It is a weakness to look for something extraordinary in the death of such men ; God does not always exhibit such examples. Since he permits heresies for the trial of his elect, we ought not to Avonder that, to complete this trial, he suffers the spirit of seduction, with all the line appearances wherewith it decks itself out, to predominate in them even to the end; and without further informing myself about Calvin's life and death, it is enough that he kindled a flame in his country which the effusion of so much blood could not extinguish, and is gone to appear before God's judgment- seat without the least remorse for so great a crime.

58. — New Confession of Faith of the Helvetic Churches.

His death made no alteration in the affairs of (he party ; but the instability natural to new sects was ahvays furnishing the world with some new spectacle, and Confessions of Faith went on at their usual rate. In Switzerland, the defenders of the figurative sense, far from being satisfied with so many confessions of faith made in France and elsewhere, in exposition of their doctrine, were not even satisfied with those that were made amongst themselves. We have seen that of '/uinglius in 1530, we have seen another published at Basil in 1532, and another of the same town in 153G ; another in 1554, aoreed to with the joint consent of the Swit/.ers and those of Geneva: all these confessions of faith, although ratified by divers acts, were not deemed sufficient 3 and it was necessary to proceed to a fifth in 156G *.

42 (THE HlSTORV OF [bOOK

59. — The Ministers' frivolous reasons for this new Confession of Faith.

The ministers who pubhshed it were very sensible that these alterations, in a thing of that importance, and which ought to be so firm and simple as a Confession of Faith, discredited their religion. For which reason, they set forth a preface, wherein they strove to account for this last change ; and here is the whole of their defence: viz., "Although many nations have already published different confessions of faith, and they themselves have also done the same thing by public writings, nevertheless, they also propose this" (reader, observe) " because those writings may perchance have been forgotten, or be spread in divers places, and explain the thing so much at large that all the world have not time to read them³⁹." Yet, it is visible that these two first confessions of faith, which the Swiss had pubhshed, scarce take up five leaves; and another, which might be joined to them, is much about the same length ; whereas, this last mentioned, which ought to be the shortest, has more than sixty. And, allowing their other confessions of faith had been forgotten, nothing was more easy than to publish them anew, were they contented with them : so that there was no necessity for publishing a fourth, but because they found themselves obliged to it for a reason they durst not utter; which was the variety of new sentiments continually rising in their minds ; and as they must not own their daily loading their confessions with such novel fancies, they cloak their changes with such frivolous pretexts.

60. — Imjjuted Justice hecjins but then to be known amongst the Swiss.

We have seen that Zuinglius was an apostle and reformer, without so much as knowing what was that grace by which we are Christians ; and he who saved even philosophers by virtue of their morality, was an entire stranger to imputed justice. Accordingly, nothing appeared of it in the Confessions of Faith of 1532 and 1536+. Grace was acknowledged there in such a manner as Catholics might have approved, had it been less indefinite ; and nothing was so much as mentioned in them against the merit of works. In the convention made

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 43 with Calvin in 1554, it appears that Calvinism began to gain ground; and, accordingly, imputed justice then shews itself ; they had been reformed nearly forty years without knowing this fundamental article of the reformation. The thing was not thoroughly explained till 15G6j and it was by such a gradation that, from Zuinglius's excesses, they passed insensibly to those of Calvin.

Gl. — The merit of Good Works how rejected.

In the chapter concerning good works, they speak of them in the same sense that other Protestants do, as the necessary fruits of faith, and reject their merit, whereof, we have seen, not a word was said in the precedent confessions. To condemn them, they here make use of a saying, often inculcated by St. Austin, but they quote it incorrectly; for, whereas St. Austin says, and incessantly repeats it, " That God crowns his own gifts, when he crowns our merits ;" they make him say, " He crowns in us, not our merits, but his own gifts*." The difference of these two expressions is easily perceived, one of which joins the merits w ith the gifts, and the other separates them. It seems, nevertheless, as if they had a mind to insinuate, at the close, that they condemned merit only as opposed to grace ; their conclusion running thus : " We, therefore, condemn those who so defend merit, as to deny grace." In reality, then, no error but that of the Pelagians is here condemned ; for the merit, which we admit, is so little contrary to grace, that it is the very gift and fruit thereof.

62. — Faith appropriated to the Elect. — Certainty of salvation.— Inamissihility of justice.

In the tenth chapter, true faith is attributed to the predestinated alone, by these words : '* Every man must hold it for unquestionable, tliat, if he believes, and abides, in Jesus Christ, he is predestinated." And a little further on, '' If we communicate with Jesus Christ, and lie belong to us, and we to him, by true faith, this is to us a sufHciently clear and sure testimony that we are written in the book of lifef ." Hence it is pfoin that true faith, namely, justifying faith, appertains only to the elect ; that this faith and this justice can never be lost finally; and that temporary faith is not the true justifying faith. These same words seem to conclude for the absolute certainty of predestination ; for, although they make it depend

♦ Synt. Gen. part i,, p. 2C. t ^^P- ^« P- 1^*

on faith, it is a doctrine received amongst the whole Protestant party, that a behever, in saying " 1 beheve," feels in himself the true faith. But herein they are insensible of the seduction of our self-love, of the mixture of our passions, so strangely complicated, that our own dispositions, and the true motives which actuate us, are often what we, of all things, know with the least degree of certainty ; so that, in saying with that disconsolate father in the gospel, " I believe⁴⁰," how greatly soever we may think ourselves moved, though we should cry out lamentably as he did, and with a flood of tears ; we ought, nevertheless, to subjoin, with him, " Lord, help thou mine unbelief;" and shew by that means, that saying " I believe," is rather an effort in us to produce so great an act, than an absolute certainty of our having produced it.

63. — Conversion ill explained.

How prolix soever be the discourse, which the Zuinglians make on free will, in the ninth chapter of their Confessionf, this little is all that is material in it. Three states of man are well distinguished : That of his first institution, wherein he had the power of inclining to good, and declining from evil ; that of his fall, when, unable to do good, he yet is free to evil, because he embraces it voluntarily, and by consequence with liberty, although God frequently prevents the effect of his choice, and hinders him from accomplishing his evil purposes ; and that of his regeneration, when, reinstated by the Holy Ghost in the power of voluntarily doing good, he is free, yet not fully, on account of the infirmity of concupiscence remaining in him, acting, nevertheless, not passively ; these are their terms — odd enough, I own — for what is it to act passively ? And how is it possible such an idea should enter any man's head ? However, this manner of speech pleased our Zuinglians. Acting (they continue to speak of man regenerated), not passively, but actively, in the choice of good, and in the operation by which he accomplishes it. How much was this short of a clear and full explanation ! They ought to have joined to these three states, that of man between corruption and regeneration, when, touched with grace, he begins to bring forth the spirit of salvation amidst the pangs of repentance. This state is not that of corruption, in which he wills nought but evil, since he begins, in this state, to will good ; and if the Zuinglians would not consider it as a state, it being rather a passage from one state to another, they ought to explain, at least in some other place,

X.] _ THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 45 that, in this passage, and previously to regeneration, the effort man makes, through grace, to convert himself, is not an evil. Our Reformed are strangers to these necessary precisions ; tiiey ought also to have explained whether, in this passage, when drawn towards good by grace, we can resist it ; and again, whether, in the state of corruption, we do evil so of ourselves as not to be able even to abstain from one evil rather than another ; and lastly, whether in the state of regeneration, working good, through grace, we be so forcibly attracted to it, as not to have it then in our power to decline to evil. All these things were necessary to give a right understanding of the operation and even notion of free will, which these doctors leave confused by terms too indefinite and equivocal.

64, — Monstrous Doctrine on Free- Will

But what ends the chapter displays still better the perplexity of their thoughts. "We doubt not," say they, "that men regenerate, or not regenerate, have equally their free will in common actions ; becavise man, being not inferior to beasts, hath that in common with them, to will certain things, reject others ; thus, he may speak or hold his tongue, go out of doors, or remain within." Strange doctrine ! To make us free like beasts ! They have not a more elevated idea of man's liberty, having said a little before, " that, by his fall, he is not altogether changed into a log or stone⁴¹ ;" which is as much as to say, he wants but little of it. However that may be, the Swiss Zuinglians aim no higher ; nay, the Protestants of Germany grovel still lower, when they say, that in man's conversion, to wit, in the most noble action he is capable of — in the action by which he unites himself with his God, — he acts no more than a stone or log, though he acts differently on other occasions f. How dost thou debase thyself, O man, thus meanly accounting for thy freewill! But, in fine, since man is not a log, and, in ordinary actions, his free will is made to consist in being able to do certain things, or not to do them, it ought to be considered, that not finding in ourselves a different manner of acting, in natural actions, from what we do in others, this same liberty accompanies us throughout ; and that God knows how to preserve it, even when he elevates us by his grace to actions supernatural — it being unworthy of His holy Spirit to make us act any more in these than in others, like to beasts, or rather, like stocks and stones.

65. — Our Calvinists are more sparing in their explanations, and why.

It may perhaps seem strange, that we spoke nothing of any of these matters in treating of the confession of the Calvinists. But the reason is, they themselves pass them all in silence, nor thiiik it worth their while to speak of the manner in which man acts ; as if it were a thing indifferent to man himself, or did not appertain to faith to know, in point of liberty, together with one of the most beautiful lineaments God has traced in man, to make him in his own image, that very thing which renders us worthy of blame or praise before God and man.

66. — The Supper ivithout Substance, and the Presence only in virtue.

The article of the Supper still remains, in which the Swiss will shew themselves more sincere than ever. Those indeterminate phrases, which we have seen them employ once only, in 1536, by Bucer's advice, and in condescension to the Lutherans, are no longer satisfactory to them. Even Calvin, their very good friend, cannot bring them over to the proper substance, nor the incomprehensible miracles, whereby the Holy Ghost, notwithstanding the distance of place, makes us partakers of it. They say, therefore, '^ that indeed we receive, not an imaginary nourishment, but the proper body, the true body of our Lord given for us, but interiorly, spiritually, by faith, the body and blood of our Lord, but spiritually by the Holy Ghost, who gives and a})plies to us the things which the body and blood of our Lord have merited for us, namely, the forgiveness of sins, the deliverance of our souls, and life eternal ." This is, then, what is called the thing received in this sacrament. This thing received indeed, is the forgiveness of sins, and spiritual life ; and if the body and blood are also received, it is by their benefit and effect ; or, as is afterwards subjoined, by their figure, by their commemoration, and not by their substance. For which reason, after having said, " That the body of our Lord is no where but in heaven, where he ought to be adored, and not under the species of bread f," in order to explain the manner in which he is present, " He is not," say they, " absent from the Supper. Though the sun be in heaven absent from us, he is present to us efficaciously, that is, present by his virtue. How much more is Jesus Christ present

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 4uf to uis by his vivifying operation ?" Who does not perceive that what is present to us only by its virtue, has no need of communicating its proper substance ? These two ideas are incompatible, nor has any man ever said seriously, that he receives the proper substance of the sun and stars, under j)retext that he receives their influences. Thus Zuinglians and Calvini.sts, who, of all that have separated from Rome, boast most of being united among themselves, nevertheless reform each other in their several confessions of faith, and never could agree in one common and simple explanation of their doctrine.

G7. — NotJiing partkular in the Supper.

True it is, that of the Zuinglians leaves nothing peculiar to the Slipper, The body of Jesus Christ is no more there than in any other actions of a Christian ; and it was in vain that Jesus Christ said in the Sup[)er only, with so much energy, " This is my body ;" since with these powerful words he was able to work nothing in it that is singular. This is the inevitable weak side of the figurative sense, which the Zuinglians were well aware of, and owned sincerely : " This spiritual nourishment is taken," say they, " out of the Supper; and how often soever a person believes, this believer hath already received and enjoyeth this food of everlasting life ; but for the same reason, when he receives the sacrament, that which he receiveth is not nothing; non nihil accipit." What is our Lord's Supper reduced to ? all they can say for it is, that what you receive in it " is next to quite nothing. For,"" proceed our Zuinglians, " we continue there to partake of the body and blood of our Lord." So the Supper hath nothing singular in it. " Faith is stirred up, increases, is nourished with some spiritual food ; for as long as we live it receives a continual increase." It receives, therefore, as much of all this out of the Supper as in the Supper, nor is Jesus Christ a whit more there tlian any where else. In this manner, after saying that the particular thing received in the Supper is not a mere nothing, and in fact reducing it to so small a matter, they are not yet able to tell us what is that little they have left in it. Here is a great vacuum I must own ; it was in order to supply this emptiness that Calvin and the Calvinists invented their big swelling words. They thought to fill up this frightful chasm by saying in their Catechism, that out of the Supper, Jesus Christ is received in part only ; whereasj in the Supper, he is received fully. But to what purpose promising such⁴² great matters when you mean nothing by them ? I like far better the sincerity of Zuinglius and the Swiss, who own the scantiness of their Supper, than the false plenty of our Calvinists, sumptuous in nothing but in words.

68. — The Swiss the most sincere of all the defenders of the Figurative Sense.

Thus much am I then obliged to say in behalf of the Zuinglians, that their Confession of Faith is of all the most natural and simple ; and this not only with reference to the Eucharistic point, but in regard to all the others ; in a word, of all the Protestant confessions of faith, that of 1566, with all its defects, speaks the most clearly what it means to speak,

G9. — Remarkable Confession of the Polonian Zuinglians, in which the Lutherans are roughly handled. — 1570.

Amongst the Polish separatists from the Church of Rome, there were some that maintained the figurative sense, and these had subscribed, in 1567, the confession of faith, which the Swiss had drawn up the year before. They rested content with it for three whole years ; but in 1570, they thought it reasonable to frame another in a synod held at Czenger, which is to be met with in the collection of Geneva, in which they particularly signalize themselves on the Supper article⁴³.

They condemn the reality, as well in respect to the delirium of Catholics, who say the bread is changed into the body, as in respect to the folly of the Lutherans, who place the body with the bread : they declare particularly against the latter, that the reality, which they admit, cannot subsist without a change of substance, such as happened in the waters of Egypt, in the wand of Mos-es, and in the water at the nuptial feast of Cana; thus they clearly own that transubstantiation is necessary, even by the principles of the Lutherans. They hold them in such abhorrence, as to vouchsafe them no other appellation than that of '' eaters of human flesh," ascribing everywhere to them a ' ' carnal and bloody " manner of communicating, as if they ate raw flesh |. After condemning the Papists and the Lutherans, they speak of others under error, whom they call Sacramentarians. " We reject," say they, " the phrensy of those who believe that the Supper is an empty sign of our absent Lord." By these words they aim at the

X.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 49

Socinians, as introducers of an empty supper, though unable to shew that their own is better furnished, nothing at all being to be found in either of them with respect to the body and the blood, but signs, commemoration, and virtue⁴⁴. To place some difference betwixt the Zuinglian and Socinian Supper, they say in the first place, that the Supper is not the sole memorial of Jesus Christ absent, and make an express chapter concerning the presence of Jesus Christ in this mystery. But endeavouring to expound it, they confound themselves with terms that are not of any language, words so uncouth and barbarous, as not to be translated. Jesus Christ, say they, is present in the supper both as God and man : as God, cvter, prasenUr; render these Mords who can : by his Jehoval divinity, that is, in common speech, by his divinity properly so called, and expressed by the incommunicable name, " As the vine in its branches, and the head in its members." All this is true, but nothing to the Supper, where the question relates to the body and blood. They proceed, therefore, to say, that Jesus Christ is present as man in four ways. " In the first place," say they, " by his union Avith the word, inasmuch as he is united to the word who is every where. Secondly, he is present in his promise by the word and by faith, communicating himself to his elect as the vine communicates itself to its branches, and the head to its members, though distant from it. Thirdly, he is present by his sacramental institution, and the infusion of his holy spirit. Fourthly, by his otfice of dispenser, or by his intercession for his elect." They add, " he is not present carnally, nor locally, it being reqviisite he should be no where corporally till the day of universal judgment, except in heaven |."

70. — Ubiquity taught by the Polish Zuinglians.

The three last of these four ways of presence are well enough known amongst the defenders of the figurative sense. But will they be able to make us comprehend the first, agreeably to their sentiments ? have they ever taught, as the Poles of their communion do, that " Jesus Christ is present as man, in the Supper, by his union with the word, because the word is every where present ?" This is the reasoning of Ubiquitarians, who attribute to Jesus Christ an omnipresence as to place, even according to his human nature ; but this extravagance of the Ubiquitarians is no where maintained but amongst the Luthe- rans. The Zuinglians and Calvinists reject it equally Y>'ith the Cathohcs. Yet this notion is borrowed by the PoUsh Zuinghans, who, not fully satisfied with the Zuinglian confession which they had subscribed, append to it this new dogma.

71. — Their agreement with the Lutherans and Vaudois.

They did more, and that very year united themselves with the Lutherans, whom they had but just condemned as gross and carnal men, as men who taught a cruel and bloody communion. They sued for their communion, and those eaters of human flesh became their brethren. The Vaudois entered into this agreement, and all, assembled together at Sendomir, subscribed what had been defined concerning the Supper-article in the confession of faith called Saxonic.

But for the better understanding of this triple union betwixt the Zuinglians, Lutherans, and Vaudois, it will be necessary to know who these Vaudois were, who then appeared in Poland. It may not be amiss to know moreover what were the Vaudois in general, they being at last turned Calvinists ; and many Protestants doing them so much honour as to assert even that the Church, persecuted by the Pope, preserved her succession in this society — so gross and manifest a delusion, that I must strive once for all to cure them of it.

iimjn'JOTt;

Xr.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. ^1

Footnotes

1. Burn, 1. iii. p. 374. f Il>id. p. 3/0. [ Ilnd. ↩

2. Euni.l.iil. p. 37fi. t Ibid. ."02. + Ibid. ↩

3. Calv. dilucid. expHc. opusc. 1, iii. p. 405. f John i. 10, 11. ↩

4. Burn. 1. iii. p. 40*;. f P. ^02. ↩

5. Burnet, 1. iii. p. 38G. J Ibid. 1. pp. iii. 385, 386. ↩

6. Buviiet, 1. iii. 38G. f Syu. Loiul, art. 7- $ Syn. geu, p. i. pag. 107- ↩

7. Syn. gen. pag. i. 107. t Syn. Loo., art. 36. Syn. Geu. p. 107. Bur. 385. I Ibid. ↩

8. Burn. ibid. p. 392. f Synt. Gen. parti, p. 10!). IbId.p.I2G. 1588. ↩

9. Syii. of Paris, l.'jGo. .Syn.of Iloclielle, lo/l. t Burn. 1. ili. ?,'M, &c. ↩

10. Btirnet, 1. iii. p. 401. + Ibid. ↩

11. Book xiv. f Burn. 1. iii. pp. 415, 4If>. ↩

12. Thauu. lib. xxvii, loGO, t. ii. p. 17> •L'» Poplin. 1. vii. pp. 1246, 255. ↩

13. Thuan. t. i. 1. xxiv. p. ^oi. La Poplin, livre vi. Bez. Hist. Eccl. livreiii. p. 250. 25 1. 270.— 15U0. f Ibid. 313. ↩

14. Beza, Hist. Eccl.liv. iii. 249. f Lib. xxiv. p. 372, edit. Gen, ↩

15. La Poplin. Ibid. p. 164., &c. f Hist. Eccl. ]. ili. p. 313, ↩

16. Beza. Thuan. La Poplin. Ibid. S. n, 26. 1 . f Old. de Charles V. 1373 and 74, et seq. Vid. la Foplin. 1, vi. 155 et seq. + Beza, p. 250. ↩

17. Thuan., pp. 732, 738. f Beza, p. 250. ↩

18. Brant. viedel'Aflmiral de Chastil. f Crit. deMaiml). N. 1.4. Burn. 1. 1. Pref. \ La Poplin. 1, viii. Beza, t. ii. 1. vi, p. 5. ^ Kom, viii. 30. || Mat. x. 16, ↩

19. Lukeiii. 14. ↩

20. D. Aub. t. i. 1. iii. cb. ix. pp. 155, 156. ↩

21. Part ii., 1. iii. p. 415, &f. f Thuau. 1. xxix. p. 77 et seij. La Poplin., 1. vii. pp. 283, 284. ↩

22. Part 2, 1. iii. p. 416. + Vide la Poplin. 1. vi. pp. 155, 156. ↩

23. Thuan. 1. xxix. 1562. La Poplin. 1. viii. I Critiq.du P. Maimb. Let. xvii. N 5. p. 303. Thuan. 1. xxix. An. 1552, pp. 79, 81. Thuan. 1. xxvi. p. 787, &c. J Thuan. ibid. p. 79. ↩

24. Thuan. xxvi. p. 79. ■}• Lib. vi. | Ibid. p. 4. § ibid. p. G, ↩

25. Beza, 1. vi. p. 3. t Iljid. p. 298. + Ibid. ])p. 280. 282. ↩

26. Ibid. p. 285. ↩

27. Apol. pour la Reform,, part 1. cb. xv. p. 453. f 1 Pet. ii. 18. ↩

28. Beza, 1. i., p. 16. \ Ibid. + Thuan. lib. xxiii. An. 1559, p. 169. ↩

29. Beza, 1. i. I>a Poplin. 1, v. p. 144. |1 h. iii. p. 248, An. 1560, ↩

30. Crit., t. i. Lett. ii. N. 3. p. 45 et seq. Ibid. Lett, xviii. p. 33L i Ibid. Lett. xvii. N. 8. J Burn. part, ii., 1. i. p. i). ↩

31. Ibiil, p. 21>0. M Thuan. lib. xxix. pp. 77, 78, ↩

32. L. vi. 299. t Tbid. + Ibid, p. 268. ↩

33. D'Aub, p. 1. 1, iii. c. xvii, p. 176. ↩

34. Beza, pp. 2G8, 295, 297- f Il>i<l- PP- 20C, 208. ↩

35. L. vi. pp. 291, 308. f Ibid. pp. 294, 295, et seq. ↩

36. Beza, p. 308. f Pp.312, 319,327. ↩

37. Hist, dii Papis. 2, Recrira. ch. 2, et seq. ↩

38. Synt. Gen. 1st part, p. 1. ↩

39. Synt. Gen. init. Preefat. t Conf. 1532. Art.ix. Synt. Gen. i. p. 68. 1536. Art. 2, 3. Ibid. p. 72. Consens, Art. iii. opusc. Cal. 751. Conf, fid. c. xv. Synt. Gen. part i. p. 26. ↩

40. Mark ix. 24. f Cap. ix. p. 12. ↩

41. Cap. ix. pp. 12, 13. f Concord, p. CG2, ^S 5. S. lib. vlii. n. 48. ↩

42. Cap. xxi. p. 48. f P. 60. ↩

43. Syncd. Czen. Synt. Conf. part i. p. 148. Cap. de Ccen. Dom. p. 153. •|- Cap. de Sacramentariis, p. 155. ↩

44. Caj). de Sacramentariis, p. 153, 154. Cap. de Praes. in Ccena. p. 155. t P. 155. VOL. IT. K ↩