AFrica no longer engendreth monsters. The Ayre of Europe conceiueth them: France nourisheth & bringeth them vp: Spayne aduoweth them: and Italy sanctifieth thē: of Bastards she legitimateth them: and of simple vntimely birthes, maketh them perfect men: By them is Christiandome molested: Christian [...]ie scandalized & the Church deuided. To be short, all order [...]s so peruerted, that traitors are named Confederates: seditious persons, good Catholickes: New­ters, trustie and well aduised persons: Rebels, riualls in e­state: seruants, home-borne Children: strangers, naturall and originaryes of the Realme: yea euen supporters of the estate & pillers of the Church: Euery one complayneth of the disease, but no man seeketh remedie. The Gangrene ta­keth holde of the vlcer, & in liew of a burning corosiue they applie hurdes dipped in oyle and viniger. Phisitions scorne the diseased person, and the search of the Surgions penetra­teth not to the quicke: Nature seeketh to ouercome the vi­olence of the sicknesse, and no man secondeth her. The me­dicines are contrary vnto it: The crisis or iudgement is not noted: None is in doubt vpon the thing that is not feared: [Page 2] Feare neuer surmounteth desire, desire surpasseth dutie: & to conclude in one worde, all things are indifferent to a soule euil borne, & to a corrupt & depraued minde: We had bene lost if we had not so bene. The felicitie of France is like the Phaenix: who in her death procureth another borne like to her selfe, and out of her mortall ashes draweth a flame of life which cannot be quenched in her posteritie.

The late King of happie memory, when he relieued vs found himselfe ouer-whelmed: In easing vs. he found him selfe oppressed: and returning vs into life, himselfe dyed. He dyed I say, not in the middest of his victories: but in the beginning of his tryumphs he stumbled vpon the ruynes of his enimyes: and he found none so repugnant to his good, as those whose safetie & peace himselfe had established: The soules of the rebels do yet sigh in the playnes of Jarnac and Moncontour, & do arise against the murderer that slue him, because suspicion hath condemned them: yet this trespasse it self is not able to make this man guilty, euen in the sight of those for whō this great King abandoned his lyfe to so many hazards which the hea [...] [...] [...]gnosticated vnto vs: whose ver tues were inuinci [...] [...] victoryes were most certaine: to whome the [...] of his were vnknowne: & his triumphes do [...] & daylye. With him was infamye a stranger, & [...] [...]gither inuiolable & most holy: Our cowardlynes [...] [...] [...]eated him, whome the enimies army durst neuer [...] the Church who had lost her voice, had not he [...] [...] rument thereto, hath iniuriously con­demned hi [...] [...] [...]ction is extreame, the excesse stealeth away the cre [...] [...] honour is ingadged: The posteritye will disadvo [...] [...] & such as shall be borne of vs into this worlde, sha [...] [...] are in a better to name themselues our children, Y [...] [...] [...]ying of the Poet will be found true.

Againe, it [...] knowne what enterprises and practises haue bene wro [...]g [...] against his Maiestie who now reigneth, [Page 3] whome the heauens do so manifestlye fauour, that all that doubt thereof are Athiests, and such as doe not admire & re­uerence him, euen prophane & vngodly persons. We may euidently perceiue and as it were palpablye feele, that many gouernours haue their perticuler deuises concerning the K. death, & easilye may we iudge how much they are deceiued, considering the onely iniustice of their conceits doth con­found them, that the apprehension thereof dooth destroye them, and that their consciences do torment them with a scourge, which ingratitude layeth about their shoulders, as an instrument destined to that onely end. I beseech you tell me, what became of the inheritours, not of the desert but of the dominions of great Alexander? All the Princes & Lords of Grece thought to finde a second life in his first death: but hardly was himselfe buried, before they were all found in their graues: In stead of gaine, reaping nothing but repen­tance: for a kingdome, the desire of one: for assurance, dis­paire: for a place of retract, the tombe: & for choise from bad to better, onlye death. Such were Eumenes, Demetrius, Ptolomie, Antigonus, Saleuchus, of whom some lost both liues & kingdomes, & some endured tribulations more forcible, and torments more cruell and bitter then death. And ther­fore that Poet, semeth to haue some reason, that said:

What will become of so many ingratefull Lordes if our prince should miscarie: or what will become euen of the princes themselues, when all obedience is violated, subiecti­on buried, the ambitiō of perticuler persons encreased, malice in generall accomplished, and disorder perfected? Among the princes of Jtaly some doe acknowledge the empire, and some are of the popes homage: They can encurre no displea­sure neyther susteine any iniury, but either the one or the o­ther will support them: but who shall protect these men, considering that only one Charles the fift triumphed ouer all the princes of Germanie within the space of four monthes, [Page 4] who in effect & apparance had all bene lost, had it not beene for the succour that they receiued from Henry the second? If they frame the substance or bodye of an army, who shall be the head? If they haue none, who can fight without a head? But if there be a head, who will endure it, considering they coulde not brooke a lawfull King? And in the meane tyme what shall become of the people? Shall not they be led as beares or bulles by the noses to be the pastimes of the passi­ons of some Chastelaine or warder, in whose forhead tirannie shalbe written with the verie blood of his fellow Citizens? yea whereto shall the church be reduced, when euery souldi­er wilbe curat of his owne village, & euery Captaine Byshop of his owne garison? Where I beseech you shall wee finde la­bour, & due reward for the same? May tirantes rest in sastie, where kinges are debarred that felicitie? will men practize that course toward them which they haue abhorred toward others? Counsailers & Presidēts should become factionaries to those that liue vnder their iurisdictions: and they that are the protection of kinges should liue vnder the halbarde of some Corporal, or paraduenture of some watchman or scout.

All this had almost come to passe in the hurt of our King (whom heauen would in our behalfs immortalize, in case our selues were as worthy as his desertes doe bind vs to wish it & our necessitie do inuite vs) His death would haue quailed our libertie: his fall would haue ouerwhelmed our felicitie: his losse would haue made desolate our families: his absence woulde haue acquainted vs with that which wee feare: his ship wrack would haue swallowed vs vp: and the breaking of so great a body would haue bred a rocke in Europe where­vpon Saint Peters ship would haue bene quite split and vt­terly wrecked. Beleeue me not my maisters: I woulde to God I might be found a lyer in all that I am to tell you. And this is it: namely that certaine Capucines, Peuilians & other fryers of this towne dare freely confesse that they neuer pray vnto God for the King: because (say they) the pope hath not absolued him: as if it were lawfull for him to condemne in­nocency: to iudge of that which is not in controuersie: & to alienate from Gods grace the person that in such humilitie [Page 5] doth beg it: That surely ther is superstition in this so vaine & presumptuous rigour, considering all counsailes doe mayn­taine that it is not the Bull that excommunicateth the man, but the fault: also that the fault is taken away when repen­tance taketh place, which serueth as a beginning of absoluti­on and an end of punishment (my speech is of the same which spirituall Iudges may inflict) why doe they therefore ende­uour to bewitch our soules, by ministring vnto them a food so vnseasonable for a christian, who ought to pardon the of­fence euen before it bee accomplished, and rather to com­plaine and grow bitter against the peruers nature of the per­secuter, then to returne vpon the persecuted: for it is writen: I will wait vntill the Sunne goe downe, and J will be a light vnto his steps, least he should fall. The Curates of all parishes do powre foorth their praiers to God for the King: All lawes both of God and man doe ordaine the same: And his benefites doe in generall bind vs thereunto: yet shall these men as re­bels and men guiltie of treason make a diuorce in the church & escape, I wil not say vnpunished, but euē vnreproued? The kinges subiectes doe feed them: yea the kinges them selues haue established them: and now shall they vpon some bar­barous error, togither with a malitious pretence, free them­selues from that duety wherto nature bindeth them and the generall societie of men doth call them? Shall they commit such impietie only in France: because the contempt of the lawes & royal dignitie is so great that the princes are not re­garded but vpō humours: neither the laws obserued, but for a fashion, & yet that also rather in aparance thē in effect? The simple people whose minde is not capable of any profound reasoning & which beleueth no more then itself imagineth, is incontinently drawen to the purpose of these fryers, who for bread doe preach vnto them a reuolt: terrifying the wea­ker consciences, & shaking the beast founded by I wot not what manner of threatning, which serueth as a torture to de­uout consciences, an ambush to the kings life, trouble to the common wealth, and argument of superstition and offence to the Church, whose iust & holy weapons are neuer emploi­ed against such as acknowledge their dueties to her, and li­uing vnder her standerd are resolued there vnder to fight, e­uen [Page 6] to the death. Can any thing be more impertinent or of a more cowardly disposition, then that some of the kings of­ficers who barking at the shadowes of Miters & red hattes with eloquence rather artificiall then naturall & with farther fetches then reason, haue hitherto maintained the Iesuites with such feruency that they enflamed the speches of theyr maisters faithfull seruants & conuerted thē into smoke, euē at such time as the kings life was in question, & that mē pro­tested against them in respect of the smale accompt that they made, to the end they might rest in credite with the pope & his formall creatures the Iesuites? A little thing woulde make me to tearme you the vnthankfull Pyes or layes of this great cadge: I haue couradge enough to vndertake it & more then sufficient argument to put it in effect: But I will for­beare you, for the honor of France, as also for that albeit yee escape the hand of man, yet is not Gods hand subiect to any palsey: you shal haue no greater enemies then your selues: & albeit your offices & dignities doe free you from temporall punishment, yet wil men iudge you worthy therof. For the punishment make not the martir but the cause: but it is en­nough that your ententes do make you parties, & that al the worlde doth see that you haue wrongfully supported the Ie­suites, out of whose house as out of an Arcenal or storehouse is issued that accursed piece, who in only one person had al­most with lightening kindled al France from whēce al Europe should haue bene set in combustion & in such vniuersall de­solation your selues (as I think) haue bene brought into ruine. yet doth one thing put me in comfort & make mee to hope wel: namely that our maisters of Paris haue in this last essay of treason made full proofe of their fidelitie. For there was not any familye but re [...]oiced at the preseruation of the king and the punishment of the paricide. The salutations by bonfyers & praiers, in that respect powred foorth, do induce a perpetual obliuion of al former transgressiōs of the enhabi­tants of Paris, who in one onely might haue made a perfect day of that credit which his maiesty is to take of their seruice, wherein affection sitteth as president, with so much truthe, that the testimonie therof is wonderfull, & the hope of their continuance certaine and infallible.