THE CONTRE-LEAGVE and answer to certain letters sent to the Maisters of Renes, by one of the League who termeth himself Lord of the valley of main, and Gentleman of the late Duke of Guizes train. Faithfully translated into English by E A.  
 Woodcut printer's device of a fleur-de-lys (McKerrow, 251).  
LONDON Printed by John wolf. 1589.   

THE CONTRE-LEAGVE AND answer to certain letters sent to the Maisters of Renes, by one of the league, who termeth himself Lord of the valley of main, and Gentleman of the late Duke of Guyzes train.  
XERXES being misused with many the reproaches of a soldier of his army, made for the time no farther account thereof, but caused to be proclaimed throughout the camp, that that frantic fellow had leave to say what he list, and the king to say and do according to equity, whereupon may be gathered it seemeth that there is no account to be made of the impudency or fury of thy letters. Howbeit, in as much as the holy Scripture attributeth to kings, the names of shepherds, of Fathers, yea even of Gods,( as likewise God hath adorned them with some beams of his majesty) sith also the Apostles doctrine condemneth such as reprove principalities, as a most pernicious pestilence, it is requisite to let thee see thy frenzye. Considering also that these warres, kindled in this realm under your goodly pretence of religion, haue brought in such unbridled licentiousness, as there is no longer regard of the king, of the Princes of his blood, or of any other men of honour, but rather it seemeth that some kind of giants are sprung from under the earth to conspire against heaven, to terrify the Angels, to raise war against God, to fill the earth with fire and blood, and to banish all pity and iustice.  
But in so bold an enterprise, as is this war, you will serve for a trumpet, together with the jesuits and other your seditious preachers unto whom in the chief cities of the realm at this day the vailes of the great temples do yield no other echo, but fire, blood,& death. To which end certain verses vomited out of thy seditious stomach thou hast entitled, The catholic Trumpet: so as were not this argument so woeful, yea even one of the most lamentable, we might let thee see that this is as fit for thee as for the ass in the lions war. nevertheless, sith thou art not such a beast but that thou knowest what miseries civil warres do bring in, and of a iolity thou sekest thereafter, and dost thereto inflame every man as well by sermons as seditious writings, must we not needs infer that it is some rage of hell fire which flameth within thee: whereof we haue sufficient testimony in thy letters written to the citizens of Renes: as well in thy impudency to counsel those that asked no counsel of thee, to rebel against the king, as also in that thou concludest their honour to consist in such rebellion and felony. For thesebe thy words in the beginning of thy letters: That it concerneth their honor, which they haue greatly blemished in rebelling against the Lord governor: but in case the governor conspire against the king, for whom should the town hold, but for the king? Is it rebellion? Yea( sayest thou) against the governor: and is it not rebellion to withstand God and the king? Whom should we rather obey, God and our king, or the governor when he disturbeth the kings estate? And to resist him is it not fidelity to the king and obedience to God? For the gouernours sake shall we cast the king out at doors? Or for the placing of the seruant in the maisters rome must we cast down the king? Or are the household children to be reproved, if seeing the steward of the house seek to drive away his Lord, take their mother perforce and endeavour to make himself Lord of the house, they do resist him? What dastardlines is it being able to withstand him, yet to let him alone, and to yield unto him; or what do such deserve? Thinkest thou that the kings subiects and officers with the parliaments, and other men of authority, especially the nobility, should deserve any less, if seeing the governor practise to seize vpon the kings estate, they should shut their eyes, look asside, or make as if they see him not. For being able to let him, if they suffer him, they be as guilty as they that put the sceptre in his hand, set the crown vpon his head, or placed him vpon the kings throne: and yet sayest thou that at Renes they haue greatly blemished their honour in that they took not part with the Lord governor against the King. This is the first argument, dost thou not then begin well? How durst thou writ this to a parliament town? Thou leavest God for his Saincts, the king for his seruants, and if we list, even God for the king. Is it not ignorance therefore that reigneth in you, yea even the power of darkness? Nay rather impudency in thee, who determinest that the honour of the town consisteth in rebelling against the king. peradventure you will say that they of the religion haue done as much. That is false, for they never did as you do: It never came in their mindes: They never practised any thing against the kings estate, against his person, his honor, his life, or his edicts, but were always armed in favour of the same, having both them and the chief princes and officers of the town on their sides: yea even those who now do hazard their lives for the kings estate, for his person, his life, and the benefit of the realm. How then haue they practised against the king? But you will reply that you likewise haue now the edict of union made by the king and his estates. I will not enter into the nullity of your estates, neither will I show that they were counterfeit, that the voices were purchased contrary to the kings will, or that the deputies were corrupted, for thou knowest it well enough, as also that most of them were of the league, and came not to procure peace, but contrary to the kings pleasure, to draw all France into an immortal war. This is evident, therefore I leave it, to the end to answer thee that those of the religion bear date first, that their edicts go before yours: and that even the Captaines of your league haue sworn irrevocably to them: therfore that they can not be broken. Their first edict was agreed unto by the king, by his whole counsel, by all the states of the land, by all the princes of the blood, and by all the parliaments of the realm for the wealth and quiet thereof: Can you say as much of yours? Nay yours haue been wrested forth for to infringe theirs, whereto they haue always held, and which haue continually been maintained by the chief princes of the blood. Thus haue you offered violence to the lawe, to the peace, to the wealth and health of the realm: your edicts are repugnant to the quiet thereof, neither were they ever desired but by you of the league, and that only to this accursed end,( notwithstanding whatsoever pretences of religion you haue propounded to deprive the realm of peace, to set it in trouble: to maintain war: to destroy the goodly forces thereof: and to bring it into that ruin which by this edict of union you do seek and draw vpon it so much as you may, contrary to all right, all lawe, and the kings holy will which tendeth onely to the peace, benefit, and safety of his kingdom: this haue they of the religion always thought to be the kings mind: and they hoped that one day he should know his enemies, whereof you were shrewdely afraid, and therefore thought it good to arm yourselves with this edict of union. The king hath known you: witness the sequel therof.  
moreover when they of the religion took arms, it was onely in their own defence, to keep themselves, their wives, their children, and their goods from you, and according to the kings edicts, to maintain their religion which you went about to take from them, yea which you had taken away: but can you say that any man hath taken away yours, or gone about to take it away? Thou wilt peradventure say, their religion is heresy and must not therefore be suffered in the land: shalt thou prescribe a lawe to the king and the states of the realm. Shall the Lorraine or any other make decrees in the land? It hath been thus thought good by the king, his princes and estates, besides it is the religion of the most part of the kingdoms in Europe: moreover it may be  told thee that they haue shewed their religion to be no heresy: and are still ready so to prove it by the word of God. Can any man say more. But you do put the decision thereof in the sword: helas, how well do you know that such matters are not to bee judged by weapons? What do you get? But what other pretence might you haue to divide the kingdom? to take away the defence thereof: or to destroy the forces of the same? What colour could you find whereby to levy war against the king, and to take him, or make him to lose his estate? Do what you will, right, reason and truth shall overcome. True it is that they of the religion haue used the kings treasure and towns: and reason good: for it was for the safety and preservation of the best French men and chiefest princes of the blood against the Spaniards and other seditious persons: it was for the defence of the kings best seruants, as this day doth testify, and for his majesties service against you his perpetual enemies, and in maintenance of the authority of his edicts, which contrary to the kings pleasure you haue evermore violated. These of the religion haue always rendered unto the king his towns, and still haue acknowledged themselves to be his faithful and loyal subiectes: and by the edicts haue continually been freed from all blame of seeking alteration in the estate: but this can not you say of yourselves: for you haue thrust forth the king: you haue proceeded against him and the presidents of his iustice: you haue misused his picture: nay what could you do to him, if God preserved him not from your rage? But your Iesuites and other seditious preachers which seek war rather then peace, and the alteration of the state rather then the kingdom of heaven( as if they were born for no other end, but to give the realm in pray, to make us kill one an other, and to lead our souls into hell?) do say that for religion the state was altered in Israell, as when Elizeus( at the least by him whom he sent) anointed jehu king. But let them take that example, either else the example of Lobna who rebelled against Ioram king of Iuda: what will they do with it? For both the Iorams had forsaken the true religion, that moses commanded by God, which was not lawful for them to do. Hath the king done so? Nay, holdeth he not their Religion, or rather they his? What would they more? What occasion haue they to deal with the king as Israell did with those kings? They fear the change of their religion? Why so? belike they think it to bee nought: If it bee of God, God will maintain it. Were it not better to rest there, then under a false fear to weak war: they take the alarm too soon: this cost the realm too dear: wee must not be so sly: every day hath malice enough for itself, neither ought we to torment ourselves before the time saith the Lord. But if they swear that this was the onely cause of their taking of arms they forswear themselves: witness their behaviours towards the king, and toward his picture, also all that they haue written against him, wherein they show that they rather seek alteration of the enact, then fear any change in religion. moreover such examples of Israell, whether of the Priestes or Prophets, yea or of the kings, are not to bee drawn into consequence, for they concerned Israell onely, neither are they any longer in use. even this example of jehu is a matter exraordinarie, and was but once put in practise: Besides God brought vpon jehu all the blood that he had  shed: for cloaking himself with zeal of religion he( even as you) sought nothing less then religion, neither laboured so sore after any thing as after the advancement of his house and the kingdom. But what taketh our government of that of Israell? we take not so much as the manor of electing our pastors, and shall we fetch thence the form or polllcie of creating kings? Hath not every realm a fondumentall law for those matters and a manner of creation of kings? Wherein it is not lawful to make any innovation, or to motion any speech tending thereto, no not for the Princes of the blood, much less for others, and least of all for strangers which are not to look thereinto. Besides, the date of the old Testament is out: It was the time of miracles: God wrought them in those dayes in Israell, sometime in the Prophets, sometime in the Priestes, and sometime in the realm and persons of the kings: God doth not so now: let us grant you your demand, and the realm shall be bound to change kings as often as the priestes list, also to take what kings they please: so what shall become of us? again the policy of Israell belonged to Israell onely, and died together with the kingdom of Israell.  
moreover I pray thee, where is Eliazer to anoint us an other king? Let him prove unto us his sending: Let him work some miracle: to the end thereby wé may know that God purposeth to alter our estate, But religion useth miracles no longer, neither changeth estates: For albeit shee require reformation as much as may bee, whether in pity, in iustice, in policy, or in manners, yet doth religion still leave unto every man his right, as appeareth in sundry places of the new testament. The alteration of the state of Israell repugneth not my saying: For that was a holy kingdom, and Gods royal Priesthood: a Nation which God preferred by extraordinary means, until the coming of the messiah. That people depended immediately vpon God, and used no other policy then the same which God had established for them only, neither had they any other estate then the same which God erected both when, and as he pleased: As also God would haue the people to depend immediately vpon him in the estate of his kingdom: so as if he made any alteration he did it by miracle, whereby it evidently appeared to bee his will.  
But where is this annnointed one whom you would make king? Nay, you will rather each kill other, then agree vpon any one. For as wee shall see hereafter the towns shoot at one thing, the clergy at an other, and the gouernours at an other: For these do pretend to make the kings elective, or else to erect an other Empire in france: wee know it well enough. Had not the Duke of guise this posy, every one in his turn: according whereunto through Gods just iudgment hath he not left his place to his brother? Him you haue to your head: he hath his Lieutenauntes every where, wheresoever you haue any holds, and in all the provinces. Were he the stronger in the field, he would command the towns: Thus you haue a king chosen, or an other Empire. This head being dead an other will succeed, and rather the craftiest and most wicked( for others you can not furnish) always provided that he bee the forwardest in the degree of arms, after the manner of the old Empire, and strongest in the field. Then must weapons walk, poison, or thrust out, and any other game whereby each one may supplant his companion. This game must bee played vpon the belly of france: These towns which were too free, and set themselves at liberty, will bee deceived: The nobility shall bee brought into slauerye: only the clergy shall live at ease and pleasure: For there must bee ordinarily some hundreth and fifty thousand men in the field to compass this matter about, and yet perhaps will bee scarce enough. Such an election( which can bee no other but a tumult) especially in France, bringeth with it all this, and hath within it, even as the fire hath the property always to burn. This is it which your jesuits and other mutinous preachers do seek, when in their sermons replenished with felony, they allege these examples of the old testament, wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction, the overthrow of the realm, and the damnation of an infinite number of souls.  
now will I return to thy speeches, and would gladly know vpon what reason thou sayest that the town of Renes and the Lord of Mom-Barot, being therein for the king, with other the lords of britain which held out for his majesties service, ought to haue taken part with the Lord of Mercoeur who enterprised against the king. They perceived your dryftes, and the holy purposes of your League: they smell out the zeal of your holy mother church which is continually in your mouths: they took heed of you, and still with their due respect to his person. Was this evil done? Who will blame them? What lawe will condemn them? Considering that even at a kings death, if the governor detayneth the town, and doth not keep and restore it to the heir of the realm, he is taken for an usurper, and is denounced an enemy to the king and kingdom, and worthy to loose his life together with his head. But who are you, that would haue the kings succession even before his death? That would strip and unclothe him before he bee willing to go to bed? I would moreover demand, wherefore doth the king place gouernours in his towns, but to keep them for himself, in case the governor of the province would practise any thing against his majesty. If thy speech must take place, then take all right from among men: all policy from kingdoms:& all iustice from off the earth. Raze out the laws out of our books: yea even pluck God out of his seat, and take from him his Empire: Enstall the seruant in his Masters throne: abolish all equity: make the doest mightiest, the seruant, master of the house, and the wickedest wretch king. For such as thou art there need neither God, law, heaven, nor iustice vpon earth? Thou speakest of atheists, but is there any Atheist, if thou beest none? Well, harken a while, he that confoundeth all lawe both of God and man, and will deal as if there were no God in heaven, the same is in that point an Atheist: But thou dost this, for thou wilt take from thy king his towns and estate, and give them to his seruant: thou confessest him to be no longer king: thou callest him but plain henry of clois: tell me therefore who thou art. The king whom God hath established dost thou cast down: thou disgradest him from all power and authority: contrary to Gods word and his express defence, thou speakest so vnreuerently of him, that the very devils,( as a man may say) should bee afraid, neither carest thou for God in this matter, nor fearest any other but thy dead Idols. Tell us then if thou beest no Atheist, what thou art. God preserveth kings, he placeth them vpon their thrones: they are his lieutenants, and petty Gods in power. I haue said, you are Gods,( saith david) speaking even so, and with such reverence of his enemy Saul, who wrought so much mischief against him, yea and against the Sacrificers and Priestes anointed by the living God, for his sake. Kings do give life and death. jupiter( said the Heathen to this purpose) beareth the thunderboult about him, and therefore wee see that some Emperours caused him to bee graven in their coins with two or three thunderboultes in his hand. And Salomon saith that the frouning of the kings countenance is the messenger of death: for their eyes send lightning and yet thou art not afraid. speak therefore wisely and make account that the wise king scattereth the wicked, and driveth the wheel over them. But what? It is the love thou bearest to the town of Renes, which thus transporteth thee. dost thou not love it well? In deed it is greatly beholding unto thee, as well for the good counsel which in thy letters thou givest it, as for thy great endeavour to uphold the honor thereof against all that speak there-against. For to whom may they complain but to thee? Or in whom might they more safely repose their confidence then in thee? yet know wee scarce who thou art: but thou answerest, that all the mischief is to be imputed to the governor Mon-Barot whom thou termest a resolute heretic and sayest that he will undo both himself and the town together, the reason, for sayest thou, he will plant heresy and atheism. In dead that were the way to undo the town and in case he were so minded he should not only loose himself, but should already be a lost man. But sith there is no such matter, also that there is no heresy in him unless it be heresy to be in the Romish Church,( couldst thou be content to confess this?) what other thing doth there then remain but that all the world should perceive that thy speeches proceed from a troubled head? not that he is to be suspected of atheism: hast thou seen him in profession or act do any thing likely thereto? It were peradventure good that thou wert none no more then he: but our debtor challengeth us: to hold out for the king, to fear God, to stand in awe of his horrible vengeance, which evermore followeth the perturbations of an estate: to love peace: to obey the laws: to withstand your woeful League: to bewail the apprehension of these mischiefs which it bringeth with it: to quench the fire of sedition: to uphold godliness: to keep France out of hell: to reduce it to quiet: to staunch the bleeding thereof: to wipe away the tears of the same: to preserve that so noble estate before the lord and his Angels: to restore every one to his goods: to replenish our houses, our streets, and our fields with ioy, peace, wealth& all mirth: term you all this heresy? to cause every Frenchman to fall vpon their knees before God: to force them to lift up their hands to heaven: to moisten their eyes with the tears of ioy: to procure all men to give God thankes for the peaceable estate of the realm: to stop the course of blasphemy, perjury, cursinges, denials of God, and murmuringes against God and the king which the warres do breed( as the Prophet saith, that it maketh man to look a skue vpon heaven& to accurse the king) callest thou it atheism to cease all this? It is the kings pleasure. The Lord of Mon-Barot had respect thereto: holding for the king according to duty he meant to eschew a woeful war for britain: call you him therfore an heretic or an Atheist? Where haue you gone to school? Was it Sorbonne, or the Iesuites that taught you to say that the procuring a good and holy peace is the way to plant heresy and atheism? moreover if we should enter into consideration of his action, it is enough for him that the king doth find him faithful, and commendeth him for his wife dealing. neither taketh he it other then for an honour that thou shouldst injury him for doing his king good service. For he hath kept the town to the kings use: he hath maintained his majesties authority: he hath caused his edicts to be there reverenced and received: he doth his endeavour to uphold britain in peace and in all honor: to preserve in the town many souls that are faithful to the king, such as fear God, as well of the one as of the other religion of all britain and the confines thereof, whom the king next unto God hath committed to his diligence and fidelity, least they should become a pray to your insatiable League. And gromble thou as much as thou wilt: let thy Iesuistes with their sermons heat thee: yea let the divels themselves fret, what careth he, considering that next after God he hath the king for his warrant: his sacred Parliament for his counsel: the most noble for his comfort: Gods Angels for his lookers on: and all good men for aduowers of his actions? Yea I will now prove that even by thy own writing he deserveth commendation. For thou sayest that britain hath always carried away the commendation for the integrity of their fidelity: which is true. Knowing then the integrity, and uprightness of the Nation, with their reverence and obedience to the king, who would ever haue imagined that the League could find any place there? as in deed it hath not in any the great and ancient families, whom God hath hitherto preserved in their former eminency. Herein doth britain triumph over all the other provinces of the realm, in respect of the great number of mighty and noble families that it hath, whereof there is none found worthy to be of the League, but onely that one which thou extollest. But peradventure it is more expected that Israell will restore unto him his fathers pretended kingdom: That did this family attend in the former troubles, witness the late Lord of Lorrains letters. For when your faction meant to infringe the peace and renew the wars by his letters he wrought to his partakers that he was assured that that family would not be the last at work. What shall I tell thee? that all they which make those commotions in the estate haue no other meaning but to rent a sunder the realm, and to catch every man his fleece: thou knowest it well enough. Thou seekest to take away the king: thou hast disgraded him: In your Sorbonne ye haue condemned him: you haue executed him in his picture, which never any people did, no not the most barbarous: the very sun might haue abhorred your deed, and the heauens been astonied thereat: did you it because you would not make an other king? But thou wottest whom thou appointest in his place, at the least for britain: but be thou sure it shall never come to pass. For if britain hath evermore continued sound in fidelity, will shee now loose that reputation and derogate from the honour of her ancestors? Nay rather as being covetous of honour, shee will in this affair still compass matters worthy her memory. Hath the lord of Mon-Barot done any thing contrary to this fidelity: nay contrariwise, hath he not persevered in the same fidelity and obedience that britain hath sworn to the crown and kingdom? What then meanest thou? If thy words be true, he together with the other lords and Gentlemen who with a good consent assisted him with one mind in withstanding the certain and inevitable ruin of britain, deserveth commendation: for the League would haue entangled it in such warres as the posterity should never haue seen the end. What meanest thou therefore to reprove that which thou art forced to commend? But blame providence, a singular gift of God: blame that care that every one ought to haue of his safety, and the peace and benefit of our posterity: defame virtue, condemn goodness: spit at glory, yet haue all this valiant and brave nobility, this grave Parliament, this peaceable town done nothing but what deserveth true, great, perfect and especially honor. In the mean time thou sayest it is a perverse persuasion, namely their deed, an unreasonable overweening, thou termest them, giants the children of the earth: But thou art deceived: thou takest others for thy own: for who is worse persuaded then he that taketh falsehood for truth, wrong for right, and evil for good? Who is so presumptuous as he that riseth against the king, the peace, and the lawe? Who do more overween, then such as seek to scale heaven, to beate down equity, to take away all lawe and policy of kingdoms and to cast down and subvert the principalities which the God of heaven hath established vpon earth? Thou speakest of Giants, but wootest thou what they are? No man doubteth but there haue been Giants in old time, whom the poets haue termed the children of the earth. feigning of them that they sought to scale heaven, and to pluck God out of his throne, also that being high and mighty they so heaped mountain upon mountain, that the Gods were a fearde and fled into Egypt: that jupiter looked down from above upon those giants, being displeased with their so unreasonable presumption in his just displeasure shooke his glorious head, and withall made heaven and earth to tremble, and commanded the Ciclopes to make heady his thunderboultes which the diligent Eagle brought unto him, he shot them from above, and fought from heaven: Hercules also fought for him vpon the earth against the said Giants, who thereby were broken and overcome, their mountains were cast upon them, and themselves brought lower then before they were high: then was their kingdom in the bowels of their mother the earth, and hell itself was their heaven: their glory was turned into reproach, and their name defamed for ever. But now harken to the end of that fable, and thou shalt see what moved the learned Poets to fain it.  
We find in certain old fragments of ancient Histories that Osiris who reigned in Egypt, and was afterward surnamed jupiter, the same who was called pharaoh, and who took to him Sara Abrahams wife( indeed in purpose to marry her) was a king of singular piety, iustice, and clemency, as appeared in the exhortations that he made to Abraham and Sara when he restored her again, also in the good that he did to them and in his fear of GOD which kept him from touching her. We find likewise that he travailed into diverse partes of this world with Isis his wife, who is also name juno: that he taught men good laws and policy, and namely the art of husbandry, also to live more civilly then the rude world yet did. To be brief, that he left a notable memory of himself, as appeareth by the coins that are to be seen and red together with other monuments and antiquities: or that thus doing much good among men he purchased great honour and famed among those kings whom the holy scripture nameth Gods. His Empire was great, yea he was accounted a great and mighty king and the most famous amongst the kings of the earth, which bread him the name of the Great God jupiter or helping father, and to be the greatest of the kings that were called Gods. I will not speak of the superstition and Idolatry that sprung thereof, for with the excessive commendation of his rare virtues, and by giuing him those magnifical titles of God, men so far forgot themselves that after his death they invocated him, had recourse to him as to God, and accounted him a God both in heaven and earth: neither will I say that the Philosophers knew this error and had him in derision, but not very openly. Which cost Socrates his life, so deep roote had this infernal superstition taken throughout the world: All this will I omit to come to the story, namely that jupiter living and reigning in his kingdom which was of great extent, the giants( so termed for their boldness, corpulence, and the great strength and authority that they had under this jupiter) with their great towns, inaccessible as mountaines, rebelled against him: And indeed in those dayes all towns were builded upon mountains, whereupon the Poets writ that they heaped mountain vpon mountain, meaning that they so fortefyed themselves that they were thoroughly persuaded to thrust jupiter out of his throne: then many other smaller kings( who also were called Gods and took Iupiters part) were forced for their safety to get into Egypt, as the surest fenced parte of the earth, where also Iupiters chief strength lay: what got these children of the earth? So did poets term those giants in this case, to signify that they were new come, sprung from some obscure race, like mushrommes that shoot forth of the earth in one night, also to show that they were not of the race of the kings, whom for honor they termed the heavenly original of the gods. They gained as much as they that went about to steal heaven. They lift up themselves against God, in rising against their king, but God cast them down into hel, and butted them under the great montaines which he overturned vpon them, so as there remained no speech or famed of them, but with infamy and horror to the posterity. Of this matter did the ancient Poets compose diuers songs, whereby to show that king jupiter overcame them through the favour of the heauens, also that he had no other mean to compass it, but they haue entermingled and hidden all under their fables and poetical fictions, in weening to writ most excellently of such notable matters. I will omit all that afterward happened to the said Osiris through the second League or conspiracy of the remainder of those giants, also their horrible, yea detestable and infamous cruelty: Likewise the reuenge that Isis took, together with the incredible exploits of their son Hercules or Horus. But what wilt thou now say? Who be these giants that seek to scale heaven? Who is that king whom they seek to thrust out of his throne. Whom do they set vpon? What will become of it? Doth not God preserve the mighty kings? saith david, yet the holy history testifieth that he heareth and keepeth them from those calamities whereinto they are brought for their sins, so often as they return and cry unto him: the onely example of Manasses among many other may suffice for proof thereof: yea for such a proof, that when we see that they haue recourse unto God, we may well say that it is a testimony and infallible token of their salvation.  
Thou termest those that held for the king Busiris and proud tyrants: But for whom but their king should they hold? They belong to the king, they be bound to the king: they haue lived to the king, they owe their goods, persons and lives to the king and the preservation of his crown. Shall they leave their king? The bees do never leave theirs, yet are they but flies: without him they can not live: when he is abroad all is scattered: when they see him not, O wondrous work of God, all is without conduct: when he is dead they all die, and without a king they yield no profit. think vpon this, you that will haue no king, or that at the devotion of the holy mother Church, desirest to make an election. Wise men do find it were the way to make a very hell of the realm: and to bring fire, sword, famine, blood& death into all partes thereof: for every one would be master. Why not a French man as soon as a Lorraine, a Sauoyan or an other stranger? The state will bee overthrown: when wilt thou haue formed such an other? This league of our kings formed it, to them doth the honor therof appertain: alter so steadfast an estate,& bring in one, and place an other, and what will it be? even as much as the dividing of the realm to every man his share: Then will one overrun an others portion, and the warres will flourish all over, one war will follow an other: our forces shalbe brought low: the gate shal be open to the stranger: what should petty kings easy to be divided, and peradventure in continual controversy, be able to do against a mighty stranger, either English, Spanish, Germaine, muscovite, Tuck or Tattarian, whom the least of the three last is taken to be nere hand as mighty as all Europe? They travail not, sayest thou, so far: yes indeed do they, If God do but whistle they march much farther. They go where they see division: They haue heretofore come into our countries, yea out of the farthest part of the world, as did the goths, Ostrogothes, Wisigothes, Wandalles, Huns germans& swissers. Came not the Romaines when we had but common earths and principalities? Came not also the saracens from the deserts of Arabia into France: or held they not all guienne and languedoc even unto avignon? How many battailes had we to expel them? Who now doth or hath kept the stranger out, so as he durst not so much as think vpon entering? The forces of the realm: Helas, that consisteth in love, and obedience to the king: for we haue no other strength in France. I shall never beleeue thee to be a Frenchman: for so far as in thee lieth, thou settest division in the land between the people and the king, with furious irreverence thou makest the king odious: thou breakest the union of the realm, and the power thereof, which consisteth in union. Thou goest about to give the realm for a pray, to disperse the estate thereof, to open the gate to the enemy, to deliver our fields, towns, and castles into his hand, and to bring france into the Spaniards bondage. Settest thou division in the realm? Thou beatest the bushes and huntest for him. He lieth in wait: He watcheth time convenient to fall vpon france, and thou givest it a pray into his hands, and submittest it to the barbarous cruelty of the inquisition, which is a thousand and a thousand times more cruel then ever was that of Busiris, of whom thou speakest. yourselves must not tarry at home: you must go into exile: you must repeople the Indies. The spaniards are no less fierce to the Frenchmen then to the wild Indians, of whose flesh they haue kept open shambles for the nourishment of their dogges, witness one of their own bishops, even Bartelmew de las Casas, who having seen it did writ it. Then must the Frenchmen search the myues for gold, and yet haue none, but rather there shall reign more bastonadoes vpon their backs, then maluedies in their hands. Thou speakest of proud tyrants, go but into flanders, and thou shalt see what the Spaniards are. Thou mentionest Busiris, red therfore but what the Spaniards haue done in India. And you like wretches would put France into their hands, what do you therefore deserve? never allege your zeal of religion: for there is no religion that will make you do that. Had the king forbidden your religion when you begun this war, and forced him to fight against those of the religion? Nay you did it of malice, to bring down the state of the land: for you saw well enough that by breaking the occasion thereof, you took away the defence also. Neither speak of the war that is now levied against you: for others must defend themselves: sith you began the war, what if now they give you enough of it, and a little too much? Say not likewise that now the king doth mistrust you: rather think that he is sorry he hath no better subiects of you to trust unto. For you see what you haue already done to those of the religion: haue you yet repented it? Yea, that you haue done no more. Yet herein your cruelty was greater then was Busiris, as may evidently be proved unto you: but let this be forgotten, and let us speak of that you haue done, and yet do unto your king: therein is your passion more then fury, as shall appear in place convenient. Yea, it is even rage itself, witness that which is uttered in your sermons, done in your processions, and practised in your shriftes: you help yourselves with your religion, as with an instrument of cruelty to war vpon your king and to kindle his people against him, so as wee must needs say that you haue a grudge against him. What shall I speak of your leasings, slanders, falsehoods, cursings and imprecations, either of your attempts in al sorts against his majesty? Therein hath he matter sufficient to mistrust you: yet is it you that haue greater mistrust of the king then his majesty hath of you: for he calleth you, but you run away: he hath promised and given you pardon, and yet you stil return to your rebellion: therein are you relapsed. Gods vengeance followeth you: you seek your woe, and eschew your safety. Yet are you not afraid to be forced under pain of death to change your religion, as they of the reformed religion haue been: you are sure of your religion, and therein are out of fear of that which they of the religion haue found harder then death. For your lives there resteth mercy in God and the king, and of necessity you must come to that, sith you haue no other mean of safety, before either God or man: yet is it the thing which you still shun with mortal hatred. Why do you then say that others mistrust you, when indeed there is no malice nor mistrust but in you? But would you take away this mistrust, love your country, fly from division as from a pestilence in your houses, abhor whatsoever is repugnant to the kings wealth, honor, life, and the peace and safety of the realm and lands union. Otherwise who can trust you? Shall you be accounted Frenchmen so long as you violate the union, obedience, and reverence of the king? Nay being in the realm, who will not take you for enemies to the realm, because by bringing in troubles and division, you extinguish the force therefore: For there is no force in France either in the towns, nobility, Princes of the blood and all estates, or in confederacie with strangers, but onely in union with the king. The same is it which with Gods help hath been the only batrier of France to make it unaccessible to all men. For God hath thought good to employ this mean to the end to show that he delighteth in union, that he blesseth it, that he nurseth division, then which there is nothing more to be seared: for it bringeth fire, blood, death and destruction vpon the four corners of the realm. Yea I may say thus much more, that as wee ought to oppose ourselves against present death: so likewise that when an estate is once established and assured we are not to dispute whether it be lawfully, neither to seek after the usurpations or right which some would pretend or challenge, but rather to rest quiet under the same, which being once established, assured, approved, received, consented unto, and accepted of the estates of the land, albeit the beginnings seem not so lawful, yet being once done, doth pass for a lawe, in such sort that the innouating or altering of any thing bringeth in more mischiefs then the yielding thereunto: Neither can any man conspire there against, but he must withall shake of Gods yoke, overthrow the order that he hath established, disturb the estate which he hath pacified, and abolish the peace of the land to bring in war: Whereof peradventure this onely example may bee proof sufficient. Viz. that as pompey, Cato, Cicero, and the Senate had some reason seing Cesars ambition and purposes, to withstand him: and to keep him from altering their estate, and becoming Lord thereof. So nevertheless when he had once achieved it, Brutus, Cassius, and their partakers did evil to conspire against him, neither did their conspiracy purchase any other thing then those great mischifes that were wrought under the triumuirat, the onely rehearsal whereof would make mens hair to stand upright, and yet the estate remained in the family of the Cesars, even after they had encurred all sorts of calamities for the assurance thereof. In such like cases therefore we must always haue respect to Gods will as appeareth in this that our Lord saith: give unto caesar that belongeth unto caesar. The Apostle likewise Honor unto whom honor belongeth: and afterward commandeth obedience unto principalities, which are no principalities, before they bee peaceably established: yea the Apostle saith that wee owe this obedience not onely for fear of the sword, but also for conscience sake: Thus it imputeth more then the magistrates punishment, or any bodily pain, because it concerneth the conscience, also that the souls of those that continue it, that rebelleth against it, and that gainesaieth the yielding of Cesars due, are guilty before God. Secondly Gods will herein also appeareth that sith there appeareth no alteration without a very gulf of mischiefs where the alteration chanceth, we may well say that God will not haue us to start from the yoke which he hath once laid vpon vs. If they therefore whom thou slaunderest, haue feared these mischiefs, haue continued in the kings obedience, haue holden for the estate, haue endeavoured to keep and observe their faith sworn to the crown, would not force the right,& violate the politic estate established by their fathers, and haue singularly reverenced the union of britain with the king and kingdom, are they to be blamed? What haue they done? They haue resisted the L. of Mercoeur. Yea, but to the end not to disobey God and the king, or to make an other hell in britain: for else they might haue brought in so many calamities as perhaps they should never haue sene the end of thē: are they for that cause proud tyrants or Busiris as thou termest?  
Now must we speak of the Church: for thou sayest that they whom thou callest giants, Busiris and proud tyrants haue denounced war against God, Iesus Christ and the church: but wherein? Because they would not that which the church would: hereto they will answer that the priestes are to take care for their portuises, not for matters of estate, wherein they haue not to do, no not his holiness: for his dominion should not pass the walies of Rome, with the towns and villages adjacent, according as the first counsel of Nice in the presence of Constantine did limit. His drifts are suspicious, and many good men did murmur in their heartes, when at the beginning of this war in some partes of this land it was said that the drum stroke up for his holinesse. The Pope is but a Priest, who peradventure would bee an honester man if he were the poorest priest in Rome. Ought he to haue dominion? No saith the Lord, if he follow the Apostles steps, or be their successor as he boasteth, for speaking to the Apostles of the dominion of kings he faid unto them It shall not be so with you. To conclude, let him say that he is Christes vicker, or successor to the Apostles, as he termeth himself, yet would not the ancient kings of France knowing their ambition, permit any other bishop or cardinal to enter into their counsel: For they haue given their faith to the Pope, they are his creatures, and do call him their creator, whereby they make a several body which will aclowledge no King for their superior but persorce, neither is so given to heavenly matters, but that they will bee doing also accordingly with original, and is indeed more diligent to intrude into princes affairs, and to govern kingdoms, then to preach the kingdom of heaven. For without fear of the loss of the first, they will take no care for the second: yet will in the mean time pretend the handling of both. witness Pope Boniface, who came forth of his parlour with two sword, crying, Ecce dvo gladij, see here two sword: Is not this proof sufficient that the Pope hath like authority over the kingdoms of the earth, as over the kingdom of heaven, that he weareth two knives in one sheathe, that he hath two armed hands, either that he is armed with double authority, that is, with as much in earth as in heaven? Is not he an heretic that doubteth thereof? Nay a beast that believeth it. As Phillip the fair the 49. king of France gave his holinesse to understand. For thus had the Pope written unto him.  
Bonifacius, &c. Boniface Bishop, seruant to the seruant of God, to Phillip king of the French, serve God, keep his commandements. We will thee to know that thou art subject to us both in spiritual and temporal causes: that thou art not to confer benefice: If thou hast any that be void, reserve the fruits for their successors: and if thou hast conferred any benefice, we declare the same collations to be void and do revoke them in respect that thou hast conferred them, and whosoever shall think otherwise, we denounce to be an heretic. given at Lateram the nones of December in the first yeaere of our Bish. &c. Here also followeth the kings answer.  
Phillip by the grace of God king of France, to Boniface terming himself sovereign Bishop, little or no greeting at all. Let thy sovereign foolishness know that in temporal causes we are subject to none: that the collation of Churches and prebends belongeth to us by our royal prerogative, as also to convert the fruits of vacations to our own use: that such collations as hitherto we haue made or hereafter shall make, are of force and by virtue of the same wee will manfully defend such as are in possession against all men:& all those that shal otherwise beleeue, we account fools& madmē.  
But will some man say, he was an impudent person, as also it is said of him that he entered the papacy like a lion, reigned like a fox, and died like a dog. In dead it was a marvelous impudency as the Chronicles of France do note, yet took he vpon him to be Christs Vicker vpon earth: this was the zeal, piety and faith of those holy fathers. And hereby we may perceive whether that sea is so well guided by the holy ghost that it can never err, as they preach unto us and perforce they would make us to beleeue. And indeed that Pope gave the realm of France to the Emperour Albert: but would he haue given it to an other if he could haue gotten it for himself? Would he haue made any conscience of it? Did the Bishops of Cologne, trevers, Magance, Liedge or others make any difficulty to join the sword with the cross, and so to lay hold vpon both sword, when every one fell vpon the Empire? Thinkest thou that we see not well enough that there is never a one of your League, but would do as much against the state of France if once it were overthrown? No, peradventure the primate of Lions would not. We see their cunning well enough: what made them to enter into this League? The expectation of some better kingdom from the house of guise, Lorraine, spain or else where, then from their natural king? They are not( I ween) such beasts as to think so. Who will imagine that they made any show as if they would choose this man or that man king? It was more likely that as the governors having gotten like authority as the king in their governments would haue made the same their house, so that those would haue made their parts better,& become every man king of his own. Esay sheweth us almost the like conspiracy of the king of Israel, the king of Assiria,& the son of Tabeal. They should seize vpon Ierusalen,& make the son of Tabeal king: yea said they, but had they taken it, there was neither of the other two but would haue been king himself. And albeit they promised it to the son of Tabeal, yet each of thē in his hart promised this to himself, the one to make Ierusalen the head town of Assiria: the other, to make it the capital town of al Israell. And therfore said Esay there should be nothing changed: Damascus should remain the head of Assiria& Samaria of Israell. Thus when such people do unite themselves& enter into League concerning such affairs, every one, notwithstanding whatsoever his promises, imagineth only to deceive his companion,& to make his own portion the best: but they unite themselves vpon necessity, because that alone they can do nothing. Heard you never the tale of the lame& the blind that stolen apple? The blind could not see to do it alone,& the lame could not go, but the blind did carry the lame,& the lame with his staff did guide the blind,& then they took of the fairest: even so the clergy alone could do nothing, neither could the lords& gentlemen of the league do any thing unless the clergy carried thē. But in the end what will become of this conspiracy? even the same which Esay prophesied of that which was made against jerusalem, let not the kings heart be troubled. Let not the house of France be affearde, they are but smoking firebrandes. For as of a quenched firebrand there resteth nothing but smoke, and that but for a while, so these shal not kindle as they threaten, neither shal they raise any other fire then such as shal arise out of their Leagued towns to consume them,& from thē to devour their towns, according to the saying of Ioathan the son of Gedeon concerning the town of Sichem and the bastard Abimelech, that of their conspiracy should grow no other but the destruction of Sichem by Abimelech, and of Abimelech by the Sichemites. But in as much as such conspiracies do bring forth sorrowful calamities, and are occasions of great mishaps, they must be withstood. They whom thou sclanderest did perceive that the holy mother Church of whom thou speakest, held one side and that she was very deep in the match, whereupon they feared, Was it evil done? Who made the enroulements? Who decreed the fasts, processions, pilgrimages, shriftes, and other the deuotions which in the beginning of this woeful, horrible, wretched and bloody war, they termed State of Grace but the Prelates? Who was better then themselves? Who did more hasten& set forward the matter then they? Who caused the preachers, Iesuites and others in the beginning, midst and end of their seditious sermons to cry out, to war, to war Christians, to war Frenchmen? Who made them to cry out against the king? For the match was made against him. It was not for religion, for he was evermore a hundred times more zealous then the most zealous of thē. Is not the clergy( being in reverence more mighty then the king) to be feared in this business, sith it is evident that they be of the faction? Nay I will say thus much more, that it were good for the realm they were not so mighty as to be able to make any commotion. The Priests of jerusalem were mighty in store of wealth, in dignity, power and great authority. Weenest thou that they were never mistrusted, or that none watched vpon thē to see to their actions? Philo the jew, saith that he pretendeth to prove out of the second book of kings, that of the three branches of the line of Nathan( to whom david had decreed the kingdom, in case the line of Salomon should fail, or that there should not be a son to sit vpon the throne of Israel) one was to look to the temple and priests, and therefore were they name Princes over them, not that they should execute their office, but to see that they did it, and to meddle no further. As also an other branch was over affairs& offices of the kings house: and the third being children of the first branch, were accounted among the kings children,& so name the kings brethren, because they were next to the crown. Neither was the vocation& authority of the Priests called in question, as is that of our Prelates at this day: for it was grounded vpon Gods law,& their holy function, charge and office particularly from point to point set down without omission of any thing, which can not be said of those. For in the new Testament there is no speech but of preaching the gospel, or onely word of God, and administering the Sacraments, which are therein specified as the full ecclesiastical function, and so to intend to prayer and administration of the word, and yet was it requisite that they should endure to be directed, neither was it to any purpose to cry Holy mother Church. If therefore those were then mistrusted, shall we repose any greater confidence in these? Are not their purposes known to all men? Let them cover all that they haue done in their service and processions with the name of zeal, yet haue good men often found their zeal unto rage itself. The onely shane whereof will make men hold their peace. But in these times what are their shriftes, but firebrondes of war, bellows of sedition and the fittest means to make their monopoles? And for these 15. yeares or more in all the principal towns of this realm, their seditious preachers against the king are witnesses of my saying. Sith therefore that holy mother Church speaketh so loud, that she bloweth forth nothing but fire and blood, breatheth nothing but threats, crieth vpon nothing but alarms, hatcheth nothing but conspiracies, bringeth forth nothing but leagues, seeketh after nothing but war, and worketh nothing but dispatches, enroulementes, contributions of coin, &c. Haue they whom thou slanderest done evil to watch, to beware, and to look unto themselves, and not to consent to this league? Yet termest thou this denouncing of war unto God, to Iesus Christ& to the church. Afterward thou sayest that it is to set up a sheaf of straw to God,& to kick against the womb of their mother. Thou speakest of setting up a straw sheaf to God, that is to say, to go about to deceive God, or to set a good face vpon a naughty matter, before men that look not narrowly thereto. As to speak of peace, of obedience, of religion, of the king and of God, and yet to mean nothing less, but rather to bear onely war, rebellion, impiety, presumption, felony, and atheism in the heart. This do I take to be thy meaning, viz. in one word, most notable deceit before God and man. But none of al this taketh place in those of whom thou speakest, sith they do but what they ought. If thou hast expected otherwise of them& been deceived, yet haue they still done but their duties before God. Knowest thou not that of bad seed, men never reap good crop? Say( saith the Prophet) and it shall not be done: decree the counsel, but it shall not be determined. Accursed be they( saith the Lord) that wave the web without me. God hath made the wind to ride,& hath thrust you from your expectation: this thou termest a sheaf of straw, yours be it therfore. But you were deceived in saying that it was to God: for in Gods sight they could not haue done better: neither is it to kick against their mothers womb: for they haue done nothing unnaturally or against their country. But to impugn their country: to sell it: to betray it: to commit it to fire, blood, sword, and famine: to procure the destruction thereof by conspiracies and leagues is more then to kick their mothers womb: for so do they open her bowels,& look vpon all that is in her, they rent her in pieces and  shed her blood: they commit her to her grave: with her blood they stain the waters, they replenish the air with their cries and with her bones they cover the earth. It is more then to kick against their mothers womb: for they deliver her for a pray to strangers: for food to the beasts of the field: for pasture to the crows, and for corruption to the grave: her goodly towns to the pestilence, to the sword, to barbarous bondage, to famine, to devour each other, finally to ashes,& to be converted into ruinous walls. Helas! who looketh not for this? nay unless God take pity of us, who seeth it not? Can true& natural Frenchmen do all this to their mother France? No, but the Frenchmen that do it are bastards and untimely births of France, and the true Frenchmen do withstand it. Who then art thou that sayest that it is to kick against their mothers womb?  
Howbeit, sith thou complaynest so sore, let us see what troubleth thee: the destruction of Renes which( as thou sayest) thou accountest certain. But who told thee so? My tears, sayest thou, Whence will this destruction proceed? from the trespass of the great. What trespass? Mon-barots relapse, which sayest thou will be the cause of the destruction of Renes of both great and small. Albeit they can do no less thereto, then( if we list to beleeue thee) did the death of Iesus Christ, to the cause of the destruction of jerusalem. Weepest thou for it? Why, thinkest thou not, that peradventure there shall be no such matter: but harken a while, weep for thy town of Manse, and other of the League, weep over it, if thou hast any foresight. The saying of some one that then took your partes, and foresaw the end of this war, may peradventure come to pass, that is, that it would bee the destruction of the best towns: yea he proceeded so far as to say, that we should see the grass grow in the streets of Paris for cattle to feed vpon, and the mower stoop to cut it down. God grant it fall not out so: but she deserveth so, she taketh the course, and it is to be feared that her rebellion will call her to account for all the blood that she hath  shed and drunk unto this day. Yea even shee more then all other the towns and forrests of this realm: let her therefore repent her sins. Let us all mourn over her and pray to God to pardon her: for otherwise shee is no greater then Rome the great: then the ancient Thebes with her hundred brazen gates, then Babylon the strong, then jerusalem the holy, then Rome the misteris: I say she is no more then Rome, which hath so often passed the revenging hand of God that Rome is no longer Rome, yea yet will she be less: for her blood and whooredomes will come to remembrance before God. Thinkest thou otherwise? God is just, he that striketh with the sword, shall perish by the sword, he that leadeth into captivity, shall be lead captive: he shall drink double of the cup that he hath poured forth to others. There is an old prophesy that she shalbe drowned,& the people shal cry alas, alas, alas, weep over her and fear not for Renes, if she do no wrose then heretofore she hath done.  
Thou sayest that the small ones do suffer for the transgressions of the great. It is true. For the ambition of the giants, who are never content, disturbeth heaven and earth, and as a man should say, heapeth mountaines vpon mountaines, kindleth the fire in all places, bringeth the goodly towns into dust, and the fruitful fields into deserts, covereth the sea with pirates, and staineth it with blood, delivereth marchants into theeues hands, maketh fathers childless, and children orphans, women widows, and churches voided of piety, palaces without iustice, and houses not inhabited: for the war that springeth of their ambition, maketh the world without God, without faith, and without lawe. It maketh the earth a very hell, and of men it maketh devils. The war that proceedeth of the ambition of the mighty, filleth all with fear, with howlings, tears, terror, curses, blasphemy, ravishments, perfidy, adultery, and violence. war causeth the daughter more dead then alive to be deflowered in her mothers arms, and the forced wife to lose both life and honor in the presence of her husband. O accursed war, that thou wouldest hurt none but those that seek thee, and haue as it were haled thee out of hell, to make an other hell in this world. And God comfort those that seek for peace. war is the cause of all these mischiefs: war ariseth of the ambition of the mighty, and for the sins of the great ones do the little ones suffer. So said Cicero once or twice, that the ambition of the mighty bringeth a Chaos or bottomless pit full of calamities, which Philip of Macedon, being fallen in the wreastling place, and gotten up again, beholding the place where he had in the sand left the print of his length, very pleasantly giuing to understand, said, see, man so little, yet neither little nor much doth suffice him, what then? Man to the end to grow great, feareth not to bring all things to nought. We do therefore say that thy saying is true, that the little ones do suffer for the sins of the great. But if thou thinkest that France suffereth other then for the ambition of those whom thou callest Gods faithful seruants, thou art deceived. For who wished, sought, desired and began this war, but they? What haue the king and king of Nauarre done but stood vpon the defensive? And as for the nobility of britain whom thou slaunderest, they also stood to their defence when they did see the mischief so near thē that there was no remedy nor time of delay. The fire was to be quenched, and they would not encur the crime of treason by participating in the bloody purposes of the league, but according to their dueties they sought to save britain from the ambition of the insatiable cruelty of thy giants, whom thou termest Gods faithful seruants.  
Thou hast reason to say that thou wilt no longer employ thyself for those of Renes, in case they will hold for the Lord of Mon barot: but weenest thou that they hold for him? Go tell them so, and see what answer they will make. Thinkest thou that they be seditious as other the leagued towns which hold for every one that can seize vpon them, and that take them for themselves? Renes holdeth for the king, and take not their governor for other then the kings seruant, and for his part he craveth no greater benefit, advancement or felicity but to do faithful service to the king and britain. What thinkest thou of their Parliament wherein haue been seen as great iustice, piety, and gravity, as in any other of the realm? What thinkest thou of so many great and famous houses whose abilities will compare with the greatest of other provinces in revenues? Supposest thou that they will dismember themselves from the crown, or rise against the kings obedience? Thou art in that greatly disceaued, to think that they would abandon a king, the most noble, the greatest, the strongest, and most feared in Europe, to make themselves a petty king, or that they will leave the force of the mightiest realm, and enter into daily strife there against by making themselves a petty realm apart. It were as if they should abandon the shadow of a great three, the sweetness of the fig three, and the haviour of the vine for the bramble. They do yet remember their ancient warres, and do like of the clemency of this estate, wherein they haue been at peace ever since that by the free estates of the land britain hath been inseparablye and for ever annexed and united unto the crown. Weenest thou that they had not rather still enjoy a quiet and peaceable estate wherein the king by Gods grace is able to maintain them, then to haue continual war against so strong a kingdom: But to cause them to rebel, thou makest them afraid of heresy, and therefore thou sayest that The lord of Mon-barot is an heretic, How knowest thou that? When sayest thou there were no more but this, that he favoureth henry of clois, the same were more then sufficient to convince him of heresy, or rather sayest thou atheism. unless thou holdest thy peace, in britain they will cry a miracle. The beasts do speak: For to prove that the Lord of Mō-barot is an heretic, thou sayest that he favoureth Henry of clois. Is not thy speech well proved? If they that employ thee, do make any account of thee, we may well say both of them and thee, that in the land of blind men, they that haue but one eye are kings. Is this proof sufficient that he is an heretic? Must he not do the king service? Belike thou callest it heresy to do the king service, and to be faithful unto him: But it is thou that art an heretic herein, and plunged up to the ears in anabaptism: for thou wilt haue no king: thou termest him but Henry of clois: Tho sayest that the lord of Menbarot is an heretic, or rather an Atheist for favouring of him. Thou maiest well cry war, war I wot not what to say, for thou makest so small account of the king that thou makest the Lord of Mon-Barot equal with him, yea thou preferrest the Lord of Mon-Barot before the king in that thou sayest that he favoureth him. And I beleeue thee to be so honest a man that thou wilt speak no better of the king.  
And indeed behold what thou sayest of the king. He is sayest thou worse then the heretic: Is it possible? It is apparent sayest thou, wherein? In that to his power he endeavoured to give us a Biarnian for our governor, what then? Is this the cause of your taking of atmes? At the beginning of these warres there was no such matter: you armed yourselves under an other pretence, even quiter contrary, namely, because the princes of the blood( of whom the king of Nauarre is the chief) enjoyed not their governments: But admit the king would as thou sayest give us the king of Nauarre for our governor, because he is a Biernian, is he no Frenchman? Shal we deprive him of that which God and nature haue given him? Is he not the first prince of the blood, nor the first of the house of france, and right heir to the crown? Who knoweth it not? Doth his being prince of Biarne, whereupon thou termest him a Biernian, make him uncapable thereof? Despisest thou his discent from that side also? red the history of spain, and thou shalt find that the realm of Nauarre, from whence this prince is come, and whereof he is the son, the head, and the Lord: is one of the chief kingdoms of spain. But I had rather thou shouldst argue this matter against those that would draw his discent from Hercules the Libean, then me. For that great Hercules who again after the death of Osiris fought with the Giants, and overthrew them, made his soune Hispalus king of spain, whose posterity reigned until Saul, and until seventy five yeares after the destruction of troy. Then was the realm divided into sundry dominions, whereby the Carthagenians got thereinto, and afterward the Romaines enuaded it. But albeit this Nation was much troubled with them both, afterward with the goths, and then with the saracens, yet did the goths still leave at liberty some noble men, and famous famelies, of those whom they found, whom they brought not into bondage, whether because they could not so easily or in respect of their ancient nobility and famous discent. Of these are descended those who not able any longer to bear the violent tyranny of the goths, called in the saracens to expel them, and afterward again expelled the saracens, and one of the chiefest of them was he who erected the kingdom of Nauarre, of whom is descended the king that thou speakest of. Now, whether these famelies descended from the said Hercules or not, I am content to say that he is extract of a most ancient and noble race, considering the very barbarous people had some respect unto them and admitted them into offices and governments? neither is it incredible but that both the Carthagenians and Romaines who were better acquainted with the reverencing of the royal blood, did so aclowledge them. Finally here thou seeest on that side the original of that king whom in contempt thou callest Biernian. Well, no man can deny, but that on that side his discent is certainly from the noblest. If then because he is prince of Biarne, thou judgest him unworthy of the charge whereto God hath caused him to bee born thou art very vnskilfull: what wouldest thou haue said in Egypt when pharaoh gave the government to joseph, who was a stranger, a bondman, an hebrew, and of a contrary religion to the Egyptians, whom they abhorred more then you do those whom you call heretics? For they would not eat with them, where you are content to mary with the others wives or daughters, or match your children with them, and yet you call them heretics: Are not you afraid of heresy? It would never grieve thee that the king should give this office to a stranger, if in case he were a mutinous person and seditious like thyself, such a one as would play at King by your leave as the rest of those whom thou termest good catholics, and Gods faithful seruants. moreover thou seekest to smite two blows with one ston: For thou art not content to throw at the king unless the blow light also vpon the king of Nauarre. Therefore when thou sayest that the king will give us the king of Nauarre for our governor, thou sayest, he is a wolf to keep the sheep, and a fox to look to the hens: speak if thou canst with a little more reverence of a king, of the first prince of the blood, yea of the first child of the ancientest and most noble family that at this day beareth crown in all the world. If God should sand the king never a son, is not the king of Nauarre the kings son? But thou wretch, how canst thou reverence the son when thou misusest the Father? Art thou a Frenchman? aclowledge Gods gift, the hope of the kingdom, and rejoice at his springing up. When the king hath a son born, all the realm rejoiceth, every one blesseth him, they cover him with holy wishes: but when he cometh to the age of his value and force, seeing in him that which we desire and more, what cause haue we to rejoice, and to give God thankes? Howso ever it grieveth thee, yet shall the king of Nauarre bee herein a rare gift of God unto France: an other Hercules to the king: a terror to the enemy: a light to the realm: the ioy thereof within: and the praise thereof abroad: even to the uttermost bounds of the world.  
That it is not so, how long haue you maliced him? He hath stisted the serpents that you cast unto him even in the cradle: These twenty yeares hath he been in the fire, in blood, and in arms: he hath fought against the Hidra of your league: he hath carried a hauie burden as if he had heaven vpon his shoulders: he hath watched night and day, he hath hazarded his life for the safeguard of the king, the realm, and such as in the realm haue no other father but God: he hath entered into a hell of business, and is got out again with victory: all this could not overcome him. What forces hath he had vpon his arm, namely within these five yeares? Is it nothing that he standeth against all this? But God preserveth him. True, but what honor is it to him in the face and knowledge of the whole world.  
France is the theatre of the world: every one seeth what is done: the muscovite heareth of it: the turk is astonished: the Tartarian is abashed: the Persian merueileth, and the Indian rejoiceth: for his fleets do sail thither, yea even without fear of the weapons of his so mighty Castilian enemy who detayneth the kingdom of his ancestors from him. You haue brought him to nothing, prayed vpon all his goods, left him destitute of all his wealth, and levied war against him: he hath beaten you at his pleasure, he hath taken pity of you, his forces haue increased, Two of the strongest kingdoms in Europe, haue not daunted him, neither made him to bow. Now tell me, had france ever so rare honor of any son of France? He giveth the glory to God whose arm hath wrought such meruciles in our eyes. I know myself unworthy to entreat of so haughty an argument, but the impudency of your league emboldeneth me. Thou forcest me to speak of things wherein God maketh him wonderful, that is, in clemency and incredible courtesy toward his enemies. Wilt thou know how? I will tell thee. You haue shot at his life: you haue wished nothing so much as to get him into your power: you haue set your seditious preachers against him: they haue gone from the text of the Scriptures to overrun him until they haue been weary, and the sweat hath run down their cheeks. You haue excommunicated, accursed,& thundered against him in the court of Rome, you haue defamed him,& made him odious to the whole realm. You haue beaten the fields, and laid ambushes against him: being without comparison stronger then he, and desirous even to eat his flesh, you haue forced him to the extremity of the battle. You haue endeavoured with your whole power if you could to bring him in disgrace with the king, which grief of all other he could hardlyest brook. By the estates which to that end yourselves haue crwoned and assembled, you haue gone about to disgrade him from his honor, goods and estates, and causeless haue adiudged him unworthy life or succession. So impudent haue you been, as to sound the kings mind, and therewith to wound his heart, seeking to force him to infringe all laws of nature, had not God given his majesty grace to provide for the common safety of them both, and of the realm, according to the saying, that the wise king scattereth the wicked and turneth the wheel over them. All this haue you done unto him and worse if a man may so say: Contrariwise the king of Nauarre holdeth your lives dear, pardoneth you, will not behold any one of your tears, embraceth you all, yea he forgiveth your preachers. Art not thou then an execrable deceiver and slanderer? If thou beest not an other devill, be even astonied at his plainness: wonder at his clemency, and marvel at the clearness of that whom injuriously thou termest a wolf and a fox. What? among you is it the part of a wolf and a fox to forgive enemies, to bewail their calamity, to yield them good for evil, to embrace such as would drive him away, to give life unto those that sought his death, to keep faith to such as falsify it, to be steadfast in all his promises and to show an open heart to all his enemies? But tell us what hath the king of Nauar done to thee, what hast thou found in him? Dost thou complain? Then art thou the first that he hath offended. Art thou in fear of him for his religion? He is the better man, the honester, and the sounder for it. But perhaps thou seest more goodness in him then thou wouldest. Surely for your partes he hath not hitherto been either fox or wolf to any man. His valour, his humanity and his uprightness are sufficiently known to all men and his famed flieth over the round world. Thou speakest of the king of Nauarre. Hast thou seen his fury? every man feareth it. Can he reuenge himself? It is but clemency. It is not possible( wilt thou say) God can do it: God giveth him the grace: his religion beareth it: experience sheweth it. What shall I say more unto thee? But that when God taketh pity of the realm, you shall be convict of your malice. hear thee, it may fall out that the great mastiff may bark at his master, who nevertheless will not kill him for it, but what a shane will that fault be to the mastiff? he will even hid himself. Cease therefore or you will be worse then dogges. But if thou speakest irreverently of the king of Nauarre, thou dost no less of the king himself, otherwise couldst thou be of the League? But this is your impiety: for piety reverenceth God in heaven, and the king vpon earth as a father. Thy injuries are the sink of the jakes of thy malice which overfloweth in thy letters that sing nothing but sedition: Of the abundance of the heart, thy mouth speaketh,& talketh even against the king. Thou art an other Semei, it was not forgiven him: fear Gods judgements who commandeth to reverence the kings. Thou shalt not speak evil of the judge, saith God, neither shalt thou curse the prince of thy people: but you haue leave to do all. It cometh to you, not from heaven, but from beyond the Alpes. For a little holy water or 3. words of shrift you are quit. The Bull will absolve this, yea it may be done to so good an intent that you shall haue 1000. daies of very pardon. To lye, to accuse, to slander, to swear falsely, to forswear, to betray, to sell both king and country, all is free for you( I say among you Leaguers) yea it is holy and worthy of paradise. For so you lye and deceive to a good intent. And for holy mother church. But in the holy scripture it is said, shalt thou lye for him& he shall can thee thank? This saith job where he speaketh of God against such as would& ween to advance his glory by lies and falsehood.  
Then thou sayest, Those of Renes had need to take heed what they do, why? because( sayest thou) it is unpossible for them to keep the title of catholic so long as they will cleave to the purposes of Mon-Barot and so consequently of Henry of clois. What wilt thou say if a man ask thee why they be not so good catholics as those of the League? For what haue the Leaguers more, or these less in religion? go they not all to the mass? Is there any surer token of religion among you then the going to mass? What did the king then unto you, who went to the mass as much as any of you all at the beginning of this war? Yet call you him worse then an heretic. Who then can blame the king of Nauarre though he go not to mass, for albeit he did, yet would you say no less of him? But I perceive that those among you are the good catholics that enterprise against the state, that seek to strip the king: that go about to make the kings elective, or to bring the realm to an anarchy: for then he that hath nothing should haue somewhat. The Gentleman should be a Baron, the Baron an earl, the earl a Duke, and the Duke a king: every one should reign in his turn. even the bishop should be more then a Bishop, and should bear the title of a Prince. Then would it be a goodly matter to see France: for there would be not onely so many provinces so many kingdoms, but also so many towns so many lords. The wise man will tell you that it were better to sleep in the grave then to see such confusion. For every one would be Master, and all rats in the straw and the strongest get the pouch. But this is not it that thou fearest: for thou fearest not being an heretic: and to show that thou art not afraid without a cause thou sayest, confess you not that the armies of the Biernian and of Henry of clois are all but one body, and then thou sayest, that it is to subvert the catholic religion, as if of the two armies their majesties had made but one even for that purpose, or as if necessity to take heed of the league had not forced them. Perhaps the king could not so easily alone haue brought you to order and therefore called the king of Nauarre who joined with him, when both of them perceived that the controversy was other then for religion. To be brief, that is not it that leadeth you. For yet you want neither Masses, neither Priestes or Bishops to say you some. Yea many times you haue more then yourselves would. But I pray you, who began the war? was it not your faction? Wherefore, to save your religion? Who spake of taking it away? But some other matter held you. The king had been on your side, but at length he knew you. In the beginning had not the king his camp apart, and the king of Nauar the like? Warred they not each vpon other to extremity( witness the battle of Coutras) and that for the space of four yeares? Being afterward united together, thou sayest it was to subvert your religion, but why sayest thou not that it was for their better defence against you, who did first beate the fields, not for religion, but to assail the state? That was the cause that ceasing all difficulty of religion they made of the two camps but one: so much doth the king of Nauarre owe the king. Say not therfore that it was to subvert religion, for they thought not vpon that when you began the war: each one lived quietly in his religion and you onely troubled the peace. But what wilt thou show us? Wherefore criest and complaynest thou so much, that the people of Renes abusing of their Lord governor to the great interest of britain are made to lift up their heads against God? Thou allowest of religion against the kings majesty, and to stop and withstand it thou termest lifting up of the head against God. Where are wee now? What times? What hour? If the divell did either speak or writ, could he do worse? Wo, saith the Prophet, be to those that call evil good and good evil, darkness light, and light darkness: thou dost it, in that thou allowest that which by all laws is condemned. Rebellion against the king is condemned, and the king hath condemned him for whom thou speakest: to the end to obey the king they haue withstood him, and that thou termest lifting up the head against God. His attempt against the king& his estate is evident: where is then that goodness that thou speakest of? Is there any in this affairs? If he hath else where shewed his goodness, I would to God in this business we had not found in him either ingratitude, treachery or malice. But what maketh thee to speak thus? Albeit thou fearest no shame of the world, yet fear gods judgements& remember that there is no dispensation or pardon that can excuse those before God, which speak vnreuerently of kings, trouble their estates& set their people in arms, as you do under a false pretence of religion. Thou crauest recompense of the inhabitants of Renes for the evils that shalbe committed in britain: But will they be the causers of them? Yea, sayest thou, Why? Because they opposed themselves and sought to stop the mischief? Theeues assailing a house by night may threaten to set it on fire, to spare none, to ravish, force and do their worst, unless men will open unto them: yea they may say that such as resist them shall cause such mischief as shall never be recovered: yet all this notwithstanding, if men can may they not resist them nevertheless? shall the law forbear to repress their violence for their threats? This is the like case: for what cause haue you to make war? what injury hath been offered you? Who hath taken any thing of yours? Who hath abridged your liberty in any thing? Was not all power in your hands? Did not yourselves reign? But it was not enough for your Gouernours to haue the kings authority, unless each had also his share in his title. For what else could you require? peradventure Paris rebelled for want of Masses and default of her religion: Did Orleans, Rouan, Tholouze and other towns want Priestes, monks, Iesuistes, Nunnes or Masses? Nay, they haue more then they need for their salvation or quiet, and sermons also, especially at the Iesuites hands. Would you not be wiser, if you had not so many? Time will teach that your processions, your seditious sermons, your shriftes and other your deuotions haue undone you: That devotion that worketh wickedness is not of God, but of the enemy. even the same which speaketh of nothing but fire, blood, drowning, drawing, death, rebelling against the king, and attempting against his state, and life. Those great towns could not suffer the Protestants sermons to bee made in them, because they bee repugnant to their purposes, and would haue hindered the course of them if they had been freely permitted. They would haue changed mens hartes and reduced them to the peace and obedience of God and the king. For this cause could not the heads of this League and those mutinous towns suffer them, but a far off and that against their wills, besides that you haue still murdered them. Yet when those towns required the banishment of the exercise of religion from them, was it not granted? Did the king refuse you any thing herein? he granted you all, and that( as it now appeareth) to the prejudice of his estate. You can not then complain for your religion, we must therefore say that it is some other matter that troubleth you. The king hath smelled it out: you haue found yourselves guilty of all that he hath charged you with, you are convict to be slanderers, and to use thy own speeches, who shall now pay for the broken pots, but they that haue played with our heads, also with the king and his estate, and haue every man appointed of what share himself haue thought good.  
Thou speakest of the honour of maides and wives and indeed in the suburbs of Towers we see that thy threats haue not proved bare words. For if neither the presence of the Curate, nor the reverence of the place could bridle thy catholics from deflowering a maiden hard by the great altar, yea even in the Curates arms, what would haue been done by all the rest of your religion. do you thus pass over your rage against those that are faithful to the king and his crown and will not( as you) rebel against his majesty? Yet shall their honor remain unspotted in the sight of God, of his Angels, of all good men, yea of yourselves& in the consciences of the most wicked: but of such there could nothing be had but by force:& the violence offered to the body, doth never pollute the integrity of the soul where chastity resteth. But threaten as much as thou wilt: for where thou saist that your army shall violate, force and murder the aged vpon their hearthes, yea even replenish all with slaughter, yet for their own safety they will never rebel against their king: for so should they do evil that good may come of it: yea so shall they bring themselves into an evident trespass, and into inevitable danger for the eschewing of an inconvenience that shall not come to pass: even for the saving of themselves, they shall cast themselves into hell. Let every man in the name of God do his duty and leave the events to God. ween you that there is no other power but yours? You threaten, but shall you be let alone? You must bind many mens hands, and Gods first of all, who will turn his hand against the wicked when time shall serve.  
Well among those losses that thou foreseest thou art troubled with the dead,& askest whether their town of Renes being cause of their death, can raise them again. Helas! My friend must the town recompense all that your League will destroy? shall you do the mischief,& must we make the mends? What law hold you of? God hath no master, neither doth his law import thus much. He that worketh the wickedness shall smart for it. Thou sayest it cometh of the treachery therof. How or wherein haue they been treacherous? To the king? I pray thee where hast thou studied? what be thy laws? If ever there were Ciclopedie, it is among you. May any man swear against the king? That were treachery indeed. The most sacred right next after God, is that of the king. In matters concerning the service of the king, his estate& wealth, or the peace of the realm. We ought courageously to overslip all amity, consanguinity, alliance, kindred& affinity. Herein the father hath no son, the son is against his father, and the brother against the brother, neither doth any man fear least his sword should fall vpon his friends. In matter touching the kings life, every man, especially the Trenchman, taketh all for his enemies. Renes therefore in this case is unblamable before God and man, and of the mischiefs thereby committed, the fault is in them that commit them without cause. Then thou askest what may bee said at the day of iudgement. What will you say in the great day sayest thou, where you shall need no at tourney, for yourselves must plead your cause: when your consciences shall accuse you before the judge of iudges for so many vices perpetrated through your default. O wretch, darest thou speak of the latter day? Who is more to fear it then yourselves? For when God will not judge of your transgressions, when he shall allow of your detestable rebellion, replenished with rapine and malice against the king and the realm: I will say he shall bee no longer God. You haue brought the realm into fire, blood, famine, and a pray to the stranger, and for the glutting of your greediness, you haue troubled the holy quiet thereof. Thou speakest of pleading this matter in the last iudgement: But thou shalt not pass so far this day, but that thou maiest see some sentence given against those that defend this case of a wicked soul. What moveth thee to writ as thou dost? What wouldest thou haue? What dost thou pretend? Thou knowest that it is not thy religion that leadeth thee. Wantest thou any thing? Hath any man taken ought from thee? Doth not thy conscience reprove thee? Yet if you now sleep in your sin, the iudgement of God will waken you, and you must appear: Then will your sin accuse you: you will condemn yourselves: neither shall you escape the vengeance of God, unless before your death you confess your offences and crave pardon of God, and the king, to the end that in that day that you speak of, the son of God, that king of kings and judge of all men may be your attorney to help you to your pardon.  
Thou askest how the town of Renes will excuse itself before the iudgement seat of God. What excuse sayest thou will you bring? What defensive reasons? But he that should tell thee that thou art but a scoffer, should say true. There will be no jesting, and with reverence must we speak of these matters: every one shall carry his process ready made, so as there shall need no defensive reasons. But weenest thou that thy bulls, pardons, or masses shall stand thee in any stead? arm thyself with crosses and holy water here: take the frock if thou list, but make thy account, that all that is not it that must save thee. Enterprise not therefore, if you please, any thing vpon that confidence as you do. he that killed the late Lord prince of orange was found furnished with certain prayers in virgin parchment( as they term it) that he should bear about him for a passport every way, and to bring him strait to paradise without any fear of hell or purgatory, much less of Limbo. You tell them goodly matters that list to beleeue you. You would take up money to pay with interest in the other world, as well as the priestes of the lower India: For doth not he that selleth paradise, and offereth it for the money that he receiveth, more then so? Yea doth not he that warranteth paradise for a murder worse then that? To the end the more easily to abuse the people you keep them in ignorance, and so may soon persuade what you list, furnishing those with warrants, even the surest in the world, whom you employ about any murder. If you may attain to your purposes, what care you for damning their poor souls? You promise salvation, you make them to beleeue that death for such matters is martyrdom: that to murder a king, or prince, or other necessary member of the common wealth is meritorious, and at the latter day enjoyeth glory with Iesus Christ. Let men judge of you whether you be daungerous people or no, or whether you deserve not to be banished among the Caniballes. Who shall trust such preachers and confessors, sith they practise such horrible matters under pretence of Gods service, and with promise to bee the first saved? Your preachers haue taken and lead him to heaven by the hand that poisoned the late prince of Condé, saying of him that he was Gods angel that had slain the Dragon. Thus do you take Gods name in vain: who shall reprove you? You will haue no censor: who so reproveth you is an heretic: but he that shal believe that you haue God in your power: that you make him and use him as you list: that the Lord in the latter day will not minister iudgement without the advice of the holy Father: that your warrants, absolutions excommunications, bulls and other of the like deuotions shall take place: he I say that shall beleeue all this shall be a good catholic. Hereupon you make men commit what transgressions you please. You are not indebted to the inventor of murders. For he could never haue induced his manslears to slaughter, had he not first shewed them his paradise: but onely for an Agnus Dei, which( you will say) the Pope hath blessed thrice in the name of the holy trinityfiue times in the name of the five wounds, and certain times in the name of the joys or sorrows of the virgin: or some other trumpery that you give to some wretch, you make him enterprise what you will: you assure him of S. Michael, of the virgin for his warrants before the iudgement seat of God. Thus do you lead hell, and promise paradise. What do you not make men beleeue? again for an other testimony of your impudency, you never use religion, but to achieve your purposes. Thou speakest of the day of iudgement, not for any fear that thou hast, for otherwise wouldest thou abuse it, as thou dost in induce the subiects to rebel against their king? But wouldest make them afraid. Thou openest hell: thou vnchainest the devils, and bringest them in, thou makest heaven to fall, and thou fearest men with the day of iudgement: but who should be more afraid then thyself, thou that goest about to abolish all equity, policy, and iudgement? Hardest thou never the tale of him that was afraid of calves, who if in the day time he had seen a calf in the street, he would haue fled, looked behind him, cried out, and seemed to fear the calf should haue bitten him, but by night he would haue stolen the kine: was not he sore afraid? In some points you leaguers do resemble him. For you seem as you feared heresy, you threaten hell: you terrify with the day of iudgement: but albeit there be nothing so terrible( what soever face thou settest on the matter) yet do yourselves fear none of it all. And whereas you seem to be afraid, and do terrify others, it is onely to the end to attain to your purposes. Thus wouldest thou do to those of Renes. I speak onely against the leaguers: for who useth such fashions but they that would be doing with kings? All good men do abhor all these dealings.  
Farther, because thou wouldest we should know that thou reuerencest the day of iudgement, let us see what thou sayest. Can you in the presence of the living God sayest thou: by suborned witnesses impute any oppression to him that never sought other then the quiet of your province? Why in going about to make them rebel against their king, dost thou seek their quiet? What do kings to rebellious provinces? Is the breach of their peace their quiet? Callest thou it quiet, to bring men into immortal war? But why wouldest thou prove that before God which he seeth evidently? God is not forgetful: that which is past is still in his presence. Where the conscience accuseth of troubling the realm, sharing it out, breaking the peace, of subscribing to the death of princes, and of blood, must we seek witnesses before God? hearken, if thy conscience doth now accuse thee, what will God do when thou shalt come before him in his great and last iudgement? There my friend, shall be given of all matters, of all suits, and of all deeds in one moment the definitive sentence.  
Yet is not this all, thou threatenest them with the Angels: For thou sayest: The angels of heaven shall arise to uphold his innocency. heaven and earth shall ask vengeance of your so heinous treachery that the report thereof doth make the most barbarous nations to quake for fear and horror. What meanest thou, dost thou make the Angels of heaven atturneis in such causes? What hath been done to Duke Mercoeur? he was quietly and without shedding one drop of blood refused the gate. His purposes were descried, and he known to be of the league: he was mistrusted, and therefore kept from plunging britain in a cruel war, and sayest thou that he had great injury, and that the Angels will uphold his innocency? You haue made the king to fly, and you will rob him of his estate? Thou confessest it, and canst not deny it. For thou entitulest him only Henry of clois, and speakest of the angels. But think vpon the sacred parliaments that you haue oppressed: irreverently thrust out of their holy seats of iustice, and lead captive without reverence of God or his iustice, even at Paris, albeit some then cried God save the king and his iustice. This haue you done, yea you haue seditiously imprisoned them in their scarlet robes because they held for the king. For the same cause haue you at Tolouze put to death the chief president, a man accounted one of the best catholics and greatest iusticiers in the realm. I am ashamed( nay who doth not abhor it) to show what you did to the kings person in picture. For it is incredible that Frenchmen should so use their anointed king. If you be Frenchmen, the Frenchmen are devils in you. Your leagued clergy gave their consent, and yet the Angels shall defend your party. But your cruelty hath surpassed all this. For since the writing of the premises you haue flaine the king, whose woeful death wee heard off while this was in the press. O most vile wretches: haue I said any thing of you, or of your fury and rage which is untrue? Now do you justify me in all that heretofore I haue spoken of you. God hath delivered a good king into your power. Helas, God grant it bee not to punish our sins, or to sung the calamities of France. It is to bee feared, considering how desirous the late king was to extinguish the war, and to establish peace in his realm: considering also how he laboured, and how able he was by a good reformation to decide the controversies in religion. But now hath God displayed your malice, and incredible treachery. Now do I see that some hellish fury driveth you. How could it haue been done otherwise? Your attempt in this war is horrible, sith you commit such abominable facts. God is not on your side, but rather the enemy of nature, of all goodness, and of salvation. You show how bloody your superstitions are, and how dangerous such a vermiue is in a realm.  
truly it was not without cause that when the four begging orders began, men foresaw nothing but mischiefs, and all kinds of calamity. Then did every man cry against them, even Pope John the two and twenty, who wrote a book against thē, as also did diuers learned men in France, namely, William of Saint Amour. They condemned these beggars as the plague of the world. every man cried out against them, as taking them for those four bad angels that should be loosed to hurt the earth, and to keep the wind from blowing: that is, that should stop the course of Gods word which is the spirit or wind of the lips of the mouth of God. They were called the four wagons of hell: and that realm was said to be accursed that should haue them in it: yea there were that prophesied of the mischiefs that this vermin would commit, and that in the end they should be expulsed for their deceits, even that they should be a scorn to the world. The Bishops and curates acknowledged not this kind of people. They were forbidden preaching, and the administration of the sacraments. Yet by little and little their kingdame increased. The first work they did, was to supplant curates( as these haue done them) by preaching& shriuing: yet were they not so greedy of any thing as of the bodies of the dead, by reason of the gain of purgatory which then waxed warm. How ever they were resisted, yet got they to be so advanced, that some of thē haue been Bishops, some Cardinals, and some Popes. As also they haue greatly endeavoured themselves to defend the papacy, and succoured it in time. At the first they were wallet men,& rogues, in the end from knaves they grwe to bee great men: but always beggars. In 'vice abominable, witness their doings in England, when king Henry the eight banished that vermin, even long before the reformation of religion. But is it not a marvel that we hear never a pleasant tale but of their deeds? That we never laugh but at their follies: that we never wonder but at their impudency: that wee are never astonished but at their fury, and that we never tremble but at their rage: and yet the world reposeth their salvation in them? What, is the world bewitched? There hath been no account made but of them: they haue shriuen kings: they haue dealt in the greatest affairs: they haue delivered cursed instructions: they haue climbed into the highest chairs, even so high that they haue sought to govern kingdoms, to change kings, to bend the people to their devotion, and to disturb the state.  
This woeful argument requireth we should speak of the jacobins. Was it not a jacobin that poisoned the Emperour Henry the seventh? That did Pope Clement procure, because that Emperour spake of reforming the Church, and then gave out that he died for spite, because he could not be revenged of his enemies. This jacobin poisoned him with beaten diamond, in ministering unto him the communion of the blood in his chalice. One Pope also was poisoned in the sacrament which himself had consecrated: you take it to bee the flesh and blood of Christ, but this sheweth that you are deceived. For can such malice of Satan haue any place in the flesh and blood of the living God? These men died as is afore said,& a Duke of guienne also. That jacobin feared not to mingle the dust in the communion, with the same hands wherewith he held the body of God: when he made it ( as you say) and this with the same hand wherewith he lift it up, drew the knife against his king and so slay him. Can any man speak of a greater contempt of their religion? Who will beleeue that these men do repose any trust in the mass, or that they do beleeue that they handle the body of the son of God, much less that they make it? Hath any man ever heard speaking of so barbarous a matter, committed by a religious person against a king, even against his own king?  
Yet must I speak one word more of the original of the jacobins that we may thereby know them also. While S. dominic the author of this sect was in his mothers womb she dreamed that she was delivered of a dog, that held a torch wherewith he kindled a fire in the world,& brought all into combustion. howsoever the jacobins do expound this dream, yet signifieth it no other matter then the rage of their inquisition( which is always composed of jacobins) that is, the fury of their coments, their cruelty among themselves& the furious follies of their S. Dominick, who so will red his legend shall see what he both said and did in the war against the Albigeois in the time of king S. Lewes of whom is descended the king whom God hath of late established in this realm. For of the two sons that the said S. Lewes had, you haue extinguished thē that remained of the first in the person of the late king. But what care you? you are no Frenchmen: yet would you command in France. In the mean time you haue quenched the lamp, the wealth& the health of the realm, in depriving it of the king, even when he was at the point to agree the controversy for religion: which would haue been the peace, cure, life and ioy of France, as being the only way to draw it out of war, death and hell, and to bring into France such a golden world as we see in other realms and countries, whom necessity hath likewise forced to reformation. Truly it is but folly to think ever to see any peace in France before we be reformed. God so willeth us: his law commandeth, reason requireth it, and necessity constraineth vs. For among our controversies of religion, we loose all religion. Piety is changed into impiety, iustice is made injustice, and reason exaction. Charity giveth place to cruelty: it seemeth that God is no more: Satan beareth sway. We hear no man speak of God, but in blaspheming him: of heaven, but in renouncing it: of hell, but in cursing: of the soul but in damning it: or of the devils, but in calling vpon thē. Neither do we see either devotion or superstition. atheism slippeth into the harts both of great& small. And there is nothing to be seen but a manifest contempt of God,& rejecting of his will. For men will haue no other God but themselves,& their own lusts: whereof will ensue,& that shortly unless it be remedied, with such contempt of God, the like contempt of the king, of his Princes, his iustice, the church, all goodness& honesty, and as many calamities& miseries in France as in hell. And a man may say that this desperate league seeketh nothing else. But the means to pluck up the roote of this contempt, is a full reformation according unto God: But, will some say, wee will none of that: well all good men do long thereafter,& the hearts of all other are in Gods hand, who blesseth holy purposes& either conuerteth or withholdeth the harts of the wicked. The kingdom of Israel was never in greater prosperity& power, then when it flourished in godliness under david and Salomon. Neither was the kingdom of Iuda ever more feared& honoured, or enjoyed more wealth, peace& comfort then under the reformation of jehosophat, Ezechias& josias. As also it was not infortunate, but when they called vpon others besides God. If therefore we be desirous of the like prosperity: let us beseech God to reconcile the king& the realm, and to unite the realm and the King: to subdue his enemies unto him by a joyful peace, rather thē by a sorrowful war: to give him grace to reign quietly: and that our storms may now cease: that his reign being long and of many yeares, may be unto us but as a faire day: that our war may be turned into peace, our fury into clememcie, our fear into assurance, our woeful voices into sounds of ioy, and all our rage into compassions: that the weapons may fall out of all mens hands, to the end to embrace as brethren: that our blood may be staunched, our wounds closed up, and our tears wiped away. To be brief, that this hellish fire which hath so long flamed in the bowels of France( whereby she renteth, overthroweth, and as a mad beast teareth herself in pieces) may for ever bee quenched. Then the kingdom being reduced to God and his Christ, the air of France shall sound of nothing butthe praises of one only God.  
truly if we be bound to pray to God to bless our bread& wine which we do eat& drink, with other the food that we do use& all the benefits that he bestoweth vpon us, much more are wee bound to pray unto him to bless us our king, of whose life we do live: for wee live by the breath of his nostrils. If ieremy taught to pray to God for the peace of Nabuchodonozer, much more ought we to pray to God for the peace and prosperity of that king, whom all the Nations of Europe do admire, yea even the whole world, for the most dear and rare gift of God that ever was bestowed upon France, neither is there any but the frantic Frenchman that denieth such a benefit.  
Now to return to thy letters. Thou termest the doings of them of Renes treachery, yet were they faithful both to God and the king to whom both they and their ancestors had given their faiths. What treachery can any man see herein? Nay who seeth not mere fidelity? But to speak of treachery, we may allege that of the Leaguers. whatsoever they would haue of the king, they had: he raised them to honors: to offices: to benefice: to governments and to greatness. They were( as a man should say) kings, and in their governments might do more then the king, of whom they made no account any longer then they listed: being through his clemency exalted so high, they sought to cast him down, and presumed to set themselves vpon his bed of iustice. What wilt thou say, was not this mere treachery? But let us speak of the house, the cause of all these calamities. What manner of one was it 60. yeares ago? Of what degree? What offices had it? What reuenties? Who brought it even into the world but the house of France? Was not their alliance with the house of Bourbon their greatest honor and alliance? A marriage with the daughter of the Scottish king? But how came that but by the favour of the French kings. How many offices? How many honours? How many benefice? what power? what authority hath it since gotten? A house that had not above 18000. francks rent to grow the richest in France through the kings grant? whereby it grew so proud that it presumed to be equal with the Princes of the blood, yea to go before them, if they would haue suffered it. dost thou not find that this was well risen? had they not enough whereof to content themselves? A daughter of their house to match with a king? To haue the whole dealings in their hands, during the reigns of 4 kings? was not all this sufficient to make this house faithful to the king? Lookest thou for any greater treachery? But all men expected as much of this house:& it is said that king Frances the first, prophesied the same. Now let us speak of him whom in thy letters thou dost so highly exalt. God and the king so far favoured him, that the king married his sister. And whereas she could haue been content with a younger born of the house of France; besides the Princes of the blood, the king nevertheless set upon her head the noblest crown of Europe. But as for him, he hath honoured him with one of the goodliest governments in the Realm, after he had advanced him to a great& rich marriage, yet all those that had obtained such aduancement at the kings hand, haue conspired against his estate, person and life. Yea I say they haue conspired against so courteous a king, as there never came any discontented from his presence, since God put the sceptre in his hand: no not themselves, unless they were malcontent for that he left them not his throne to reign in his place. In his life time they sought to quarrel for the succession, albeit he was as young as themselves: they sought I say to quarrel for the succession, wherein they haue no more right then the poorest Gentleman in France. Their searches after the genealogy of charlemain( vpon the which the Iesuites and all your leagued clergy so often entitled them the burgeons of charlemain) together with their writings against the Salicke lawe do testify that they pretended against the realm the ancient quarrels of the kingdom of Anieow, the duchy of Bar, and the County of Prouence. If then thou longest to speak of any detestable treachery, speak of this. And as for those of Renes, know thou that they are approved by the king, and allowed of by all men, saving such as thyself, who sayest that they are but a pray to the devill, whereof thou seekest to make them afraid in saying that The divell calleth for them, But tell us why? Because they haue falsed their faiths: To whom? To the governor: why they never promised him any thing contrary to the kings service. He never asked thē any thing other then for his majesties service: for that was always thy pretence: weenest thou that otherwise they would haue hearkened unto him? But had they made him any such promise, were they bound to keep it? might they not lawfully shrink from it? May the subject promise any thing to the prejudice of his sovereign? Ought either he or any enhabitant in the realm so to do against the honor, health, wealth or peace of the land? May such a promise contrary to God be holden? or should not the holding of it be a hundred times greater transgression thē the making? But they had( sayest thou) promised their faith to their benefactor, who had pacified the state of the town, so saist thou: but he had kindled the fire, the flamme whereof these men haue diligently and wisely quenched. Is there any more dangerous fire, then fedition and reuoult, or any fire that men should make more hast to quench? He had set the whole state in trouble: he assured it to himself and thrust out the king: callest thou that pacification? Whether for the one party or the other, it was the kindling of a war which would not haue been ended without the destruction of the one part, peradventure of both: and because they did their duties both to britain& to the king, are they a perverse Nation, as thou termest thē? Do they bear therefore viperous hartes? Or do they eat out their mothers belly? Oh wretch! art thou not ashamed? Say well, if thou canst, of that which is good, otherwise thou shalt be worse then the devil. For he, albeit he maliced the son of God, yet did say that he was the holy one of God. They haue saved their country from your sedition, and therefore thou sayest that they are a perverse Nation. Their heartes moult with sorrow vpon consideration of the mischief of your league, whereupon they prevented it and this thou sayest to proceed of a viperous heart. You seek to break and rent their mother britain in pieces, they saved her out of the claws of your monstrous league, and this thou sayest is to seek to eat out their mothers belly.  
Thou alleadgest unto us the story of one Andronicus and the lion his guest: but to what purpose? To convince Renes of ingratitude. Wherein? In that the lion acknowledged his host& physician, but Renes hath not acknowledged the Lo. of Mercaeur her benefactor. But they will tell thee that as yet he hath not drawn any thorn out of their foot: he hath not yet healed them: he sought rather to haue put shackles vpon our feet, manacles vpon our hands, and haulters about our necks, to haue disgraded our town from all honor: to haue pulled down our turrets, and laid our walls on the ground: to haue made our town a wilderness& ruinous walls: to haue sacked houses,& brought us, our wives& children into banishment, to fire and blood,& to haue put all to the sword. Thus far( had not God taken pity of us) had he hazarded our estate. For this is the end of such rebellions: are not we then greatly beholding unto him? Is not he our great benefactor,& we more cruel then the lion, in that we will not aclowledge him, sith he so greatly procured our safety? If a man say this unto you, what answer can you make? For this is the very truth of the matter. Thou speakest of broken pots. Helas! he that list to beleeue thee, what broken heads wouldest thou make? Howe many towns wouldest thou put to the facke? How much country wouldest thou lay waste? How many persons wouldest thou send into banishment, and how many souls into hell? Beleeue me, eschew civil war and turn it from the state, unless thou be so unnatural as to desire to see the glory, ioy and selicity of thy king, of the realm, yea of thy own house in the dust. What hast thou more to say? That the enhabitants of Renes haue been at the schools of Embroin and Lisander to learn to deceive. What lesson findest thou out of the schools either of Lisander or of Embroin? Whom haue they deceived? The king? Thou wilt say, their governors. But they will deny it and say that they never promised any thing contrary to the service& fidelity due to the king: Also that perceiving that it concerned the service due to his majesty,& the peace of the country, they performed no part of the said Lord of Mercaeurs pretence. If he were therein deceived, that which they did was because they would be faithful to the king,& keep their oath which they had promised& sworn to his majesty,& so on their parts there was no deceit for there was no malice in their doings. But he deceived himself in that he expected from them more then the integrity and fidelity of so honest men could afford. never ask therfore by whom a man may now swear at Renes: for there is no perjury, but all faith& loyalty. And had they done otherwise, had they not been periures, traitors,& disloyal? Renes hath maintained the foundation of all humane society in keeping their sworn faith: it hath reverenced the name of God, and feared his thunder wherewith he smitteth the pariurers, and hath faithfully observed the oath made to the king and his crown, whereupon it shall be called Renes the loyal: but thou art wise to say that at Renes the women will no longer trust their husbands. These be thy words. Who will trust thee, that hast deceived such a Prince? How will thy town be maintained without faith which is the foundation of al humane society? What traffic canst thou haue sith none dare trust thee? For who will trust him that hath violated his faith? What wife will trust her husbands faith, sith you haue violated a public faith, as was that of the union: even that which you ought to your governor? Thou chargest them with deceiving a Prince: but is it deceit to keep themselves from deceit? Thou wilt say that they had sworn& promised him: that is, as if a commonalty did so easily bind itself, besides that such an obligation is void in matters against the king& the common wealth. It is an easy matter to terrify a communality: but vpon notice of better counsel they may bee likewise better advised. To conclude, they neither ought or might promise him any thing against the crown: for so had they been perjured. Besides that we are bound to the king, to his life,& estate rather then to father, mother, wife, or children. The town of Renes then hath constantly kept herself in her first faith, and in her duty to the king, and hath no whit violated humane society. But had she fulfilled thy mind, she should haue violated even the first bond of this humane society, that is her fidelity to her king and country. This faith once falsified, tell me what else thou findest that can countenance an estate in a realm? What leavest thou but an hellish countenance: but the very kingdom of darkness, confusion, and all sorts of calamities, yea even hell itself. But on good iudgement if thou hast any, and thou shalt find that they haue faithfully observed their faith in these points wherein thou accusest them of breach and falsification thereof. Put hadst thou had thy desire, they should haue been perjured, even in the horriblest degree of perjury of all, where now their credit will be greater and richer then ever, both with the king and all other men. Yet fearest thou that the wives will no longer trust their husbands faiths. would they trust them better if they were traitors to their king? Perhaps should they haue some greater cause to honor thē? But thou art a firebrande: thou seekest to set division in a realm, in the towns, in the fields, in the houses. If thou beest no Iesuist, yet art thou worthy to be one. If thou shouldest shrine the women, thou wouldest tell them many goodly matters: but they are no dealers in these affairs: in the mean time such as be wise, do commend their husbands, they lift up their hands to heaven& give God thanks for that by the diligence, discretion and fidelity of the governor and their husbands they see themselves saved from sack, fire, blood, famine, murder, and other mischiefs, which the timorous wives do fear in time of war, and do tremble at, when they see the danger wherein the town had been, had not God taken pitty therof, by inspiring their husbands with good counsel. How termest thou it the faith of the union, which is broken? what union? It is your league. Wilt thou call the conspiricie of theeues that keep the woods, cut the passengers throats,& take from thē al that they haue, an union? The union thou speakest of is such an other: for by it you would seize vpon the goods of the best Frenchmen and the kings estate. thereupon had you already devoured yourselves: France should never haue had peace& this thou callest an union. Must a sacred name be abused to colour your bloody purposes? Then thou askest which of the Saints shall pray for thē sith they seek to bring in those that break down the altars. Thou supposest that the Saints do nothing but look vpon the alters, who bring to thē, who giveth to them, who lighteth them, who doth them good, who erecteth to them some brave image, or some faire altar, or that they live only of offerings,& in heaven haue no ioy, but in that is done to thē on earth. Must wee beleeue this because the Curate saith it? ask him secretly between you two,& he will say no. Weenest thou that they gape after goodly altars& rich offerings? God is their fullness: God doth suffice them: in God are they contented: God is all unto thē. They respect not this world. The benefits that God there giveth to his, could mans hart never comprehend, his eye never see, nor his ear never hear:& they whom God fulfilleth with his glory, haue perfect ioy in him,& are fully caught, stayed& ravished without being any thing else where. Such is the nature of God& his glory. But what fearest thou? For they shal never I assure thee, see the breaking of their altars, neither were they whom thou fearest for that, called in for any such purpose, but they are called to save the king& his crown, for there is nothing else in question,& as for thy altars, beleeue that if they be of God, God will preserve them. Thy greatest care is, how they may present themselves before God, sith they haue made no account of his commandments. If a man should ask, wherein they haue failed, or which of Gods commandements they haue broken, what wouldest thou say? still they haue violated their faith. To whom? to the governor. But it was first due to the king. We may imagine that thou believest that God hath commanded in favour of the governor to rebel against the king, his life& estate: for( saist thou) for that cause are they of Renes rejected of God: the Angels do sue against them: the saints do disdain them: yea even the blessed Virgin Mary( whom saist thou) the Protestants do so greatly abhor. Who  told thee this? For thou speakest as if thou wert newly dropped out of heaven. But if thy speech be to be judged by the word of God, all that thou sayest will prove false. For the holy scripture saith not that God abhorreth the right, neither consequently do the heavenly spirits. Yet bringest thou in here the Angels of heaven as agents, or criminal proctors:& of the Saints whom you all make advocates, thou now makest disdainers, saying that they disdain those that haue done nothing but according to God& the law, for the country& for the keeping of their faith sworn to the king. Thou chargest the Protestants that they abhor the holy virgin. Where hast thou been, that thou yet knowest nothing of their religion? But admit thou knewest as much as their ministers: thou art so honest a man that thou wouldest say never the less. For lying, the divell& thou art all one. Who knoweth not that they beleeue all the articles of the faith or the Apostles creed, which is repeated at the end of every sermon: taught to every child: and used in their domestical prayers evening& morning: wherein with great reverence, kneeling on the ground, they confess what they beleeue of the holy Virgin? red their books& thou shalt see that they call her the mother of God, not of the godhead, but mother in respect of the humanity of our Lord, who is very God. Thou shalt find that they call her blessed for bearing the saviour of the world in her womb. But more for her salvation in that through a true& lively faith she bare& embraced him in her hart as her only saviour. Thou shalt also perceive that they confess that she might say of her child, He is my God: also that( saving the reverence due to so great a mystery, which passeth all other) shee might say of God in the person of our Lord, This is my child. True it is that they seek no salvation at her hands, for they find that there is but one God that saveth, that she is not our Emanuel, that is to say, God with us, but that it is her son, who being the very eternal God, was made very man at the appointed time. And by Gods word they know that he is the onely mediator, the only God and man, the onely advocate, the onely intercessor for us in heaven when we haue sinned. 1. joh. 3. They also find that there is no other name under heaven given unto man, whereby we may be saved, and that there is no salvation in any but in him. Thou wilt cry out that they haue broken her images. That neither is, ne ought to be done in disdain of the holy virgin, but of a zeal to Gods glory, and as Ezechias did to the brazen serpent which had been erected by Gods commandement, yea and which figured Iesus Christ. John. 3. They saw that some sought salvation in those images, that they kneeled unto them as unto God: that they made an idol of the virgin mary and her image, wherein she was more disfigured& dishonoured, then represented. And they saw that God hath forbidden Idols, also that he hath forbidden us to seek salvation but in one onely God. If they then to whom it belonged, haue thus taken away the images: they will tell thee that it was according to the word of God, the ancient counsels and doctors, and for the glory of God and the salvation of his Church. But if any should break the images of the virgin in disdain of her, they say that it were a horrible crime before God, and worthy death among men. This would they say that thou mightest understand that in the reformed Churches they honor& reverence the holy virgin so far as may stand with Gods word.  
Now to return to thy speeches, and to see what followeth. heaven saist thou, will fall vpon you, the earth will open to swallow you up, and hell will be ready to receive you, you shall bee the goat of lechery, the chameleon of treachery, the tiger of cruelty, and the monster of disloyalty. All this saist thou. Thy speech, were it to any purpose, would be a stream of eloquence. But to whom speakest thou? Whom wouldest thou make afraid? Those that are as resolute as lions,& that do better know the equity of their cause, then thou that art a man. Thou vtterest great speeches: but to what purpose, or who maketh you so bold? It is because you ween some man will beleeue you, at the least some hairbraind person:& it is enough for you if some small sedition& commotion may spring thereof. Thus do you seek to blind the peoples eyes with a hope of sundry matters: but with this thy lean rhetoric thou ministrest matter to beate thee like a bandogge. For where thou saist that heaven will fall vpon them, thou lookest vpon Iudas, who was oppressed with despair, as if the sky had fallen vpon him. And where thou saist that the earth shal open to swallow thee up, and that hel shal receive them, thou thinkest vpon Chore, Dathan, and Abiram. But who should be his master? Who betrayed his king? Who delivered, or would haue delivered him to the leagued Priests, to haue made him a monk like yourselves? And who rebelled against the state ordained by God, as did Chore, Dathā, and Abiron, but you fear therfore least the heauens fall upon all you of the league, as already it beginneth,& hel swallow you up, as did Chore, Dathan, and Abiron. Albeit the earth openeth not of herself in your way, yet must you into it. If you die in your sin,& before your death ask no forgiveness of God, the king& the realm. The history of God testefieth, and we hold that as certain as there is a God, that so certain is your destruction& ruin. Thou speakest of the lecherous goat, but to what end? Is it because they would not submit their daughters& wives to the slippery lusts of your barbarous troops? Heals. that is it that wee feared. What wilt thou say if there be any lecherous goats, or that among your troops( witness the suburbs of Tours) they deal worse than ever did the saracens in France? What would you do at Renes and else where, if you were the stranger? Yea didst thou threaten those that resist you herewith. As for that which thou alleagest of the chameleon for treachery, of the tiger Tiger for cruelty or of the monster for disloyalty, with whom doth it better agree then with you: For to shroud themselves under the name of God or religion, every day to take a new pretence wherewith to deceive the king, to make him loose his forces, to attempt against his estate, to wrest it from him, to take no pitty of so many lamentations, weepings,& tears of the people: wishest thou any greater Tigers for cruelty, chameleons for treachery or monsters for disloyalty, thē those that haue thus attempted against the king, his person, estate& life? The king is Gods image vpon earth, his throne is sacred, his countenance reverent, his life dear,& his person holy. There is no crime comparable to such felony. Parricide is nothing in respect of the attempts against the king. While he liveth, al live: in his person God sheweth mercy to the realm& blesseth it: we live of the breath of his nostrils: he is that faire three that holdeth, keepeth& causeth men, beasts& the fowls of the air to live under her shadow. The king keepeth the wicked in fear, he safely preserveth the innocents, and causeth all to live in peace. Then are they Tigers for cruelty, chameleons for treachery, monsters for disloyalty,& if thou wilt Gotes for lechery, that smit, assault& enterprise against the state, life& person of the king. Now tel me who you are? For all this haue you done, yea ye haue slain him. But what greater monster for disloyalty wouldst thou haue then to borrow the name of God to cover your conspiracies? You made your account that men would never haue imagined that such a conspiracy could haue proceeded out of a counsel, where were men assembled for reformation in the Church, but that it was the doubt of the jesuits that shrive so devoutly. To deal with such matters in shrift, where men kneel down so humbly to confess their sins to God& his Vickar, who will know thē or else can give no absolution, if it be not a monster of disloyalty, tell us what it is? Would you thus use your religion and yet be called catholics? Thou wilt yet say that you do nothing but what the Protestants haue don. Nay they I ever did as you haue done: for they haue always shewed that they never imagined to put down the king, but always prayed for him: yea they abandoned and discharged their power when they had the better hand. They took arms. true: but they had injury: ye took from thē the benefit of the kings edicts, their liberty, their lives& their religion, the exercise whereof had always been granted thē, as also their armies were allowed& their strangers paid,& acknowledged for the kings faithful seruants. That which had been given& irrevocably sworn unto thē, ought not to haue been taken from thē, no not by the king himself: yet haue you taken thē from thē, namely you of the house of guise even against the kings will, whose authority you haue abused, shrouding yourselves under a false pretence of religion. Well, your vizard is plucked off& you are known, you haue revealed what you would haue done. For without any injury offered unto you either in liberty, goods, lives or persons, much less in your religion, you haue taken arms against the king. This can you not deny, for you entitled him but Henry of clois: besides you haue executed him in picture as is aforesaid,& afterward most traitorously murdered him by your confessor: are not you then chameleons for treachery,& Tigers for cruelty? Where thou weepest for the union broken at Renes, thou art much more grieved at the faith falsified at Blois,& sayest that it will grow into a proverb, as did the punic faith. Yet speakest thou not very largely of this matter, whereby thou art thought the wiser. For to what purpose is it to be attorney in a cause already judged& lost? weenest thou that herein faith was falsified? It was but iustice executed vpon those that had falsified their faith. If thou saist that faith was given them: to whom was it given? To him who after the faith given made his party the stronger: who also after the giuing& taking of his oath enterprised against the king, but never took the kings faith but in purpose to break it with the king? I would weete of thee whether the king gave him his faith, that he might come to enterprise against his majesty,& estate: to command, and purchase voices: and to play the master, as if there had been no other master but he? Frangenti fidem, sides frangatur eidem. To a breaker of faith, let faith be broken. It was his part to haue kept his faith,& not to haue practised against the crown, person, state, and life of the king, or the peace of the realm, but for doing otherwise he hath his reward, yet no faith broken, for he was justly punished that had, and continually did break it: neither was there ever king but would haue done as much, yea, thyself, if thou wouldest but look vpon thy conscience, wouldest say that it was well done, considering( so great was his power and so forward were his affairs) that the king had no other means to save himself. If a man come into a house under colour of good faith,& offereth to take away thy life,& to get the mastership in thy house,& thou canst no way escape but by taking away of his life, wilt thou not do it? But the law armeth thee herein. If a Prince thē may do this, shal the king haue no greater privilege? Was the kings doing at Blois so great a transgression? was it sufficient to stir up rebellion,& to make the Frenchman to take arms against his king in the behalf of a stranger, that still falsified his faith unto the king? If thereupon you take occasion to rebel, you were before conceived of the evil: and that blow broken out the villainy of the imposthume of France. Why, must you for that cause overrun the fields as you haue done? There is neither temple nor alter at Paris but you haue visited, and a thousand and a thousand candles haue you in one day put out, with horrible imprecations against the late king. What say you now that God hath heard you? Yet were your prayers but fury, and your vows but rage. God hath heard you in his wrath as he heareth the lost child that prayeth for his fathers death, whereof ensueth his own destruction. You haue injured the late king in his picture: you haue looked awry vpon him, you haue cursed him, you haue shamefully trailed him about, hanged him on a gybet, made up his process, executed him,& some of you even haue murdered him, until a jacobin by treason slay him in dead. On the other side, the image of the enemy to your late king& the realm you worshipped. Your fury astonieth me and your rage maketh me afraid. even hel is no worse, I tel you truth,& I am ashamed and do abhor the dishonour& impiety of France,& the of reverence of the Frenchman to his king. Oh frantic people! Thou hast not the wit to see that thy temples are become temples of frenzy, fury& rage. What doth thy devotion deserve? Iudas for betraying& selling his master, king,& lord brast in the midst. I will make no comparison between the king& our Lord, but I detest the Frenchmens treason against their king& their causeless furious devotion against him. God hath justly visited thee with such blindness: beleeue therefore that thy attempt against the person, life and estate of the king is a most horrible trespass, witness thy own rage, for thereby do I know it better thē before. But wouldst thou haue any other testimony? Expect then some horrible vengeance of God, for otherwise thou wilt never be taught. But rather God bring thee again into thy right wits,& grant the king power to use full remission of so many trespasses, which is more necessary for his realm, then the bulls of Rome, that in part haue ben the cause of all this rebellion& calamity. When thou speakest of breach of faith, look vpon thy leagued prelates that haue broached al this, where is their faith sworn to the king& the Realm? It is lawful( say they) to break it for the benefit of holy mother Church, so as men need not swear any more but by the faith of a Priest. But what weenest thou to do with so many injuries: thinkest thou the rather to persuade the people of Renes for calling thē rude, ignorant& sluggish people that sojourneth in the puddle of ignorance,& then for calling the governor an heretic that quoifeth the people, and haileth them through the mire as men lead bears by an iron chain? Hast thou not made a good spoken, yet shall not this people be found so rude: but shall we find thē any wiser at Paris& else where? Time will try: God grant it be neither by fire nor famine that maketh men eat one an other, neither by the sword but by repentance, every of these mutinous towns coming to crave peace of the king: then shall Renes haue glory& ioy,& see her self lead not through mire or laberinthes, neither by an iron chain as they lead beasts: but they shall be lead like true Frenchmen, that are united and closed together with a chain of gold, whereof the two ends are fastened to the discreet and eloquent tongue of Hercules, according as the ancient Gaules were wont to be portrayed. For the force of reason is the Gaules Hercules: and such noble mindes as the true& natural French, will not be lead but by the strong reasons of a lively& perfect eloquence: that is it that bindeth, uniteth, and leadeth them. Then shall it bee a comfort to those of Renes that they were so lead, and the Lo. of Mon-Barot, whom onely thou stomackest shall haue honour. Thou art not ashamed to show thy impiety. For when thou exhortest this people to rebel against the king: thou seest that nothing but death can ensue: thou seest it in maner present and inevitable, as in truth it is: and to take away this fear, thou wouldest make thē beleeue that death in this quarrel shall be Martyrdom: that it shalbe a glory for them to die for the gospel, even for God( sayest thou) who was willing to die for us, and thou holdest that in so just a quarrel we must die for him that hath given us life. Ah wretch! is it a Martyrs death to die a rebel against his king: to die leagued& a conspirator against his estate and life: to die for felony: to die a rebel against God, a traitor against his country a mutinous and seditious person? termest thou this the glorious martyrdom of our lord? Hath God given thee life that thou shouldst loose it in transgressing against thy king and country, where thou dost owe it? As for that that thou speakest of the mass, of the cross and other things, what can all that( notwithstanding whatsoever devotion) seem in a bad cause? Sith you haue God against you, who shall save you? The ark of the covenant, a Sacrament ordained by God, saved not Israell even in a good cause. How good so ever devotion is, yet must wee know it to bee granted upon Gods word: and therefore we must not use it to cover or uphold a bad cause: for God looketh vpon the heart, and stayeth not upon these outward ceremonies. He loveth plainness, peace, obedience to the sovereign, and love toward our neighbours. Otherwise he abhorreth all our deuotions, yea albeit he had a hundred and a hundred times commanded them. I will haue mercy( saith God) and not sacrifice. he saith also, Why come you before me seeing your hands are full of blood. When you shall cry unto me I will not hear you. Sith then that thy Gedeons and Sampsons haue armed themselves against the king, thinkest thou that all thy goodly deuotions will save or make them the honester men?  
But let us see what thou sayest of the kings army. visit the enemies camp( sayest thou) and thou shalt find none but atheists, tormenters, cutters, unnatural Sorcerers, heretics, polluters of Churches, robbers of the common wealth, deflourers of women. There the harlot heresy, with her sisters cruelty and hypocrisy do lead the first point of the army. These be thy words. But dost thou judge us to be atheists? Wee beleeue in one onely God: thou knowest it well enough, whereupon dost thou build? Thinkest thou that the Protestantes bee atheists, because they pretend no salvation but in one onely God, who alone hath created the world? In other matters they will answer thee that some will say one is none: but in mattets of salvation one only God doth all and is all and who so seeketh more saviours& other means of salvation beside God, findeth less, yea hath nothing all. Thou speakest of cutters: I hear say that there lieth all thy grief: but know thou that the king taketh what gard he list, and what executioners of his iustice he please. Neither is he to be contraried, when the enemies are to be dealt with. Kings are called Gods, for they kill and grant life, they do what they will. Whether by day, by night, in the chamber, in the bed, at the table, in the street, in the temple, even at the horns of the altar. Did not Salomon command even Bannaiok the Prince of his army to slay job, the greatest& mightiest of Israel, one who had served david, had commanded over the men of war, and had so often saved the king& realm that the safety of Israel was due unto him, I mean so far forth as next unto God it might be done to any man. Yet sought he not the realm for himself, but for Adonias Dauids eldest son, and the son of a kings daughter. Albeit he laid hold upon the horns of the holy& sacred altar of God, craving pardon in the name of the mighty God of Israell, yet did wise Salomon command him there to be slain. This was an acceptable offering to God: for God loveth iustice, especially against the enemies of kings,& disturbers of kingdoms, because therein consisteth the wealth, peace& safety of the world. What else wouldest thou haue? think that the king may use what iustice he list, I say, where necessity, reason& equity do command. Yet must we see your pretence whereupon ye call the late king heretic, to the end the better to know your integrity. The late king would haue nothing but peace in his land: he would support as well the one as the other religion until some good reformation: he would not see any more blood, he had been glutted therwith,& had asked forgiveness of God for the same. was he therfore an Atheist? but you spake but of killing, drowning, banishing, burning, and confiscating,& when you were  told that so you should make France a wilderness, you answered that France could never be without inhabitants. Is not this rather atheism? The late king would not obey you, whereupon you took your pretence to call him heretic, yea thou callest him Atheist. What people be you? If a good king will not be a Phalaris, a Tiger, a Busiris, he is an Atheist. Into what times are wee grown? Whereas thou callest those of the reformed religion heretics, they will answer that they can better tel what they beleeue, then you what you do worship. That they beleeue that salvation cometh from God,& the lamb,& that is the confession of the catholic Church, whereto all the Angels of heaven do say Amen. Apoc. 7. so that if they were heretics, the catholic Church must be an heretic, yea even the Angels themselves. But you haue charged thē with this to the end to haue thē rooted out,& so to overthrow the fairest forces of the realm,& the pillar of the crown, to the end afterward with more facility at your own pleasures to make an alteration in the state of France. And therefore it is no heresy that is in us, but malice that is in you.  
FINIS.