1562. 4. In the first place1, he signifies to the said Scipio, that AN. REG.4, a great part of the world professing the name of Christ (as Greeks, Armenians, Abyssines, &c. with all the Eastern Church) were neither sent to nor summoned to this Council. Secondly, that England's absence was not so great a wonder, seeing many other kingdoms and free states (as Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, Princes of Germany, and Hanse-Towns) were not represented in this Council by any of their Embassadors. Thirdly, that this pretended Council was not called according to the ancient custom of the Church, by the imperial authority, but by the papal usurpation. Fourthly, that Trent was a petty place, not of sufficient receipt for such multitudes as necessarily should repair to a General Council. Fifthly, that Pope Pius the Fourth, by whose command the Council 148 was re-assembled, purchased his place by the unjust practices 320 of simony and bribery, and managed it with murder and cruelty. Sixthly, that repairing to Councils was a free act, and none ought to be condemned of contumacy, if it stood more with their conveniency to stay at home. Seventhly, that anciently it was accepted as a reasonable excuse of holy Bishops absenting or withdrawing themselves from any Council, if they vehemently suspected ought would be acted therein prejudicial to the truth, lest their (though not actual) included concurrence might be interpreted a countenancing thereof. Eighthly, That our Bishops were employed in feeding their flocks and governing their Churches, and could not be spared from their charge without prejudice to their consciences. Ninthly, that the members of that Council of Trent, both Bishops and Abbots, were by oath pregaged to the Pope, "to defend and maintain his authority against all the world"." And lastly, he desired to know in what capacity the English Clergy should appear in this Council?-not as free persons, to debate matters therein, in 1 The division into heads, and the order in which these are placed, are Fuller's 2 Juramentum Episcopi, in Pontifical. Rom. p. 64. ed. Venet. 1836; Juram. Abbatis, ibid. p. 93. 3 "They could not, as free persons,...they would not come as offenders, to hear the sentence pronounced against themselves, which they had heard of before." Fuller. The passage here intended is near the beginning of the letter: "Hoc mihi velim responderi, utrum id agat pontifex, ut nobiscum, quos habet pro hæreticis, in Concilio de religione [HEYLYN, II.] BB 1562. AN. REG. 4, regard they had been pre-condemned as heretics by Pope Julius the Third; not as offenders, to receive the sentence of condemnation, to which they had no reason to submit themselves. 5. Of these refusals and the reasons of them, neither the Pope at Rome, nor the Cardinal-Legates in the Council could pretend to be ignorant: yet still the expectation of the coming of some English Bishops must be kept on foot, partly for the encouragement of such as were there already, and partly for the drawing on of others who came slowly forwards; and sometimes also it was used for an artifice to divert the Prelates when any business was in agitation which seemed dangerous to them. For so it happened, that, some of the Prelates being earnest in the point of residence, none of the Legates could devise a better expedient to put off that question, than to propose that some means should be used to set at liberty the English Bishops which were imprisoned by their Queen, that, coming to the Council, it might be said that that noble nation was present also, and not wholly alienated from the Church. This pleased all, but the common opinion was, that it might sooner be desired than hoped for. They concluded, that, the Queen having refused to receive a Nuncio expressly sent from the Pope, it could not be hoped that she would hearken to the Council; therefore all they could do was, to persuade the Catholic Princes to mediate for them1. And mediate though they did, as before was said, both for the admitting of the Nuncio, and the restoring of those Bishops to their former liberty, they were not able to prevail, especially as to the licensing of any of them to attend the Council; which if the Queen had yielded to, she must have armed so many of her enemies to disturb her peace, who questionless would have practised with the Embassadors of all Princes and with the Prelates of all nations whom they found there present, to work some notable alteration in the government and affairs of England. Of all the Bishops which were left in England at the end of the Parliament, I find none deliberet; an potius ut nos ex inferiori loco causam dicamus, et vel statim mutemus sententiam, vel iterum e vestigio condemnemur? Alterum novum est, et prorsus nostrarum partium hominibus jampridem a Julio papa tertio denegatum; alterum ridiculum est, si id putat, Anglos venturos esse ad Concilium, tantum ut accusentur, et causam dicant, apud illum præsertim qui jamdudum non tantum a nostris, sed etiam a suis, gravissimis criminibus accusetur." viii. 75. Sarpi, 498. 1 1562. but Pates of Worcester and Goldwel1 of St Asaph who forsook AN. REG. 4, Troubles in 6. But leaving the Fathers in Trent to expect the coming Religious of the Holy Ghost in a cloak-bag from Rome, according to the France. common scorn which was put upon them3, we must prepare ourselves for England,—first taking in our way the affairs of France, which now began to take up a great part of the thoughts of the 149 Queen and her Council. The reformed religion had made 321 some entrance in that kingdom during the reign of King Francis the First,-exceedingly dispersed and propagated in most parts thereof, notwithstanding the frequent martyrdoms of particular persons, the great and terrible massacres of whole townships, commonalities, and churches, even by hundreds and thousands, in divers places of the realm. To which increase, the fickle nature of the French, the diligence of their preachers, and the near neighhourhood of Geneva, were of great advantage; all which advantages were much improved by the authority of and reputation which Calvin carried in those churches, and the Edd. "Goldnel." 2 Fuller states that Scot, Bishop of Chester, went to Louvain. 3 It is said by Phillips, that Pates "assisted at the close of the Council of Trent." Life of Pole, ii. 39. Strype mentions that he was imprisoned in the Tower, A.D. 1563, "perhaps for presuming to sit in the Council of Trent." Ann. i. 144. His name, however, does not appear in the list. Goldwell went further-to Rome, where he lived six and twenty "A blasphemous proverb was generally used,-That the Synod of 1562. AN. REG.4, contentment which the people took in a form of government wherein they were to have a share by the rules of their discipline, and thereby draw the managery of affairs unto themselves. Being grown numerous in the city of Tours, and not permitted to enjoy the liberty of assembling within the walls, they held their meetings at a village not far off, for their public devotions; the way to which leading through the gate of St Hugo is thought to have occasioned the name of Hugonots', which others think to have been given them by reason of their frequent nightly meetings, resembled by the French to the walking of a night-spirit which they called St Hugh; but from what ground soever it came, it grew in short time to be generally given as a by-name to those which professed the reformed religion, (whether in France or elsewhere), after Calvin's platform. Their numbers, not diminished by so many butcheries, gave them the reputation of a party both stout and active, which rendered them the subject of some jealousy to the Roman Catholics, and specially to those of the house of Guise, who laboured nothing more than their extirpation. But this severity sorted to no other effect than to confirm them in their doctrines, and attract many others to them, who disdained to see poor people drawn every day to the stake to be burned, guilty of nothing but of zeal to worship God, and to save their own souls. To whom were joined many others, who, thinking the Guisiards to be the cause of all the disorders in the king"There have been several fanciful derivations of the word Huguenot. It is now supposed to have been originally Eidgenossen, or associated by oath, the name assumed by the Calvinistic party in Geneva, during their contest with the catholics. From Geneva, missionaries penetrated into the south of France, and took with them the appellation of Egnots, or Huguenots." Lingard, vii. 308. It is singular that this German etymology is not given by the writer of the article on the Huguenots in the Conversations-Lexicon, who, like Davila, p. 20, derives the name from the gate of St Hugo at Tours. The other derivation mentioned in the text is given by De Thou:-"Cum singulæ urbes apud nos peculiaria nomina habeant, quibus mormones, lemures, manducos, et cætera hujusmodi monstra inania anilibus fabulis...vulgo indigitant, Cæsaroduni [Tours] Hugo rex celebratur, qui noctu pomœria civitatis obequitare et obvios homines pulsare ac rapere dicitur. Ab eo Hugonoti appellati, qui ad ea loca ad conciones audiendas ac preces faciendas itidem noctu, quia interdiu non licebat, agminatim in occulto conveniebant." Hist. xxiv. 21. (t. i. 827.) So too Beza, quoted by Henry, Leben Calvins, i. 48. dom, judged it an heroic act to deliver it from oppression by AN. REG.4, taking the public administration out of their hands1. 7. But nothing more increased their party than the accession of almost all the Princes of the blood of the House of Burbon, the chiefs whereof were the Duke of Vendosme, (who called himself King of Navarr in right of his wife), the Prince2 of Conde, the Duke of Montpensier; who, finding themselves neglected by the Queen-Mother and oppressed by the Guisiards, retired in no small discontentments from the Court, and, being otherwise unable to make good their quarrels, offered themselves as leaders of the Hugonot faction, who very cheerfully submitted to their rule and conduct. The better to confirm their minds, they caused the principal lawyers of Germany and France, and the most famous Protestant divines, to publish in writing, that, without violating the majesty of the King and the dignity of the lawful magistrate, they might oppose with arms the violent domination of the house of Guise, who did not only labour to suppress the true religion, and obstruct the free passage of justice, but seemed to keep the King in prison3. Having thus formed their party in the minority of King Francis the Second, their first design was, that a great multitude should appear before the King without arms, to demand that the severity of the judgments might be mitigated, and liberty of conscience granted ;—intending that they should be followed by gentlemen who should make supplication against the government of the Guisiards. But the purpose being made known to the Court, the King was removed from Bloys, an open town, to the strong castle of Amboise, as if he could not otherwise be safe from some present treason: after which followed a strict inquiry after all those who had a hand in the design, the punishment of some, and the flight of others, with the conclusion taken up by the Guisian faction, to settle the Spanish 2 Edd. 1, 2, "princes." 1 Sarpi, 421. 3 "Licere respondebant vim contra illegitimam Guisianorum dominationem opponere, modo accederet regiæ stirpis principum, qui in his casibus legitimi sint ac nati magistratus, aut unius ex iis, auctoritas, et ex ordinum regni aut majoris ac sanioris eorum partis consensu id fieret: quippe superfluum esse regem ea de re monere, qui ob ætatem et nullum rerum usum rebus suis superesse non possit, et a Guisianis quasi captivus teneatur, ut ordinariæ juris rationi minime locus sit." Thuan. xxiv. 17. (t. i. p. 818.) Sarpi, 421. * Thuan. xxiv. 18. (t. i. p. 824.) 1562. |