66 VIII. any ways serve him, he would endeavour to prove before CHAP. "all men, as long as he should live, that he should never "repent of his favour and protection, [clientele,] which he Anno 1582. "desired to receive of him, or rather to be continued to "him. And of the favours which he [the lord treasurer] "should, according to his singular humanity, shew to that "prince and his brother, both of them his admirers; and "which he was able to do in that great place wherein he "was. And so he should oblige all that illustrious family, "heretofore most addicted to him in many respects." Written from Veldent, July 26. Subscribed, Tuæ generosissimæ excellentiæ humiliter addictissimus, Theod. Wierus, Dr. archisatrapa comitat. Veldentiæ. As those protestant German princes palatine had all respects at the English court, so to another foreign prince the queen shewed as little affection; namely, the duke of Savoy. The duke of Who laboured all he could to swallow up the neighbour queen's amSavoy; the city, Geneva; and that chiefly out of his pretended zeal to bassador in France, his destroy the religion there professed. The citizens this year letters are applying themselves, (as they had done before,) by their about him. agent, monsieur Mallet, to her majesty for her assistance, and now in their great danger from that duke, to grant them a supply of money. And out of compassion to them, she appointed a voluntary collection to be made in all the dioceses for that city; and the privy-council directed their letters to the archbishop of Canterbury, for his setting it on foot by his letters to the bishops of his province. The success whereof may be read in Archbishop Grindal's Life, under this year Book ii. 1582. chap. 14. There was a letter (not mentioned there) of the syndics The city of and council of Geneva, then addressed to the lord treasurer, letter to the laying open their present distressed condition; and thereby to use his interest to move the queen to favour their request. shewing And that backed with another from Beza, their chief minister, to the same lord, to this tenor: Geneva's lord treasurer, their condition. "That he, depending on his benignity, so much spoke of Beza to the "by all foreigners; which though he might seem thereby your their same, to fa "too confident, yet partly his equity, and partly their ne"cessity would easily, he hoped, excuse. 66 "That no doubt it had been told him, what snares had been laid for their city of Geneva, and with what force it "had been assaulted; and how wonderfully God had deli"vered it that present year. That he knew very well how greedily it was desired by the enemies of the gospel: and "that beside those that had declared an irreconcileable war "against the gospel, it had other enemies, whatsoever was "pretended to the contrary, in respect of the opportunity "that the situation of that city afforded. And how much "the defence of that city imported, he [the lord Burghley] 66 sufficiently perceived. And that most assuredly in this "state of things, as long as that propugnaculum, that for"tress of the Helvetian churches, and that most seasonable "refuge of the French churches, stood, they must despair "of executing the council of Trent, was the true scope of "all those warlike attempts, either in France, or in those 89" their countries. And he hoped that these pontificians, "leaving them [of Geneva] behind, whatsoever success openly they might have against Holland, (which he pray"ed God to avert,) they might pass over the sea, and make "other attempts...... [he meant upon England.] 66 "On these accounts he beseeched that lord, to whom he "writ, that by his power with the queen, in that their "scarcity of money, to obtain of her money, for the assist66 ance of that city and church; that had not illy deserv❝ed of others, and also sometime hospitable to this nation." This letter, dated October 10, proceedeth further: to take off a prejudice that might remain in the queen's mind against Geneva, he endeavoured to clear that church and city of it; namely, "That it was a receptacle of certain wicked per66 sons: which he affirmed was a shameless slander, since "there was no city under heaven that received strangers "with more careful and accurate examination of them, and "where right judgment was more severely done. And for "this he appealed to the English themselves; some whereof, "of all ranks and qualities, had honoured their state and CHAP. "school with their presence." VIII. And whereas there was another thing that might give a Anno 1582. disgust against Geneva; that also he thus took off: "That "he remembered there was a book set forth there [at Ge 66 neva] by a certain Englishman, in the unhappy times of queen Mary, which gave the queen's majesty offence: "[this book seems to be Goodman's, against women's go"vernment:] but that as soon as it was known there, it was "evident that it was condemned and suppressed, by the "judgment of that church, and by the authority of their "magistrates. And that as for the diversity of some indif"ferent rites, and of the different manner of the government "of their churches, far be it, that the minds of those that "plainly agreed in consent of the same doctrine should be "divided. And he appealed to his lordship how moderately they always spoke and wrote, being required of "those matters." These particulars, and several others mentioned in the abovesaid letter of Beza, makes me reckon it worth reading over, and preserving in the Appendix, exemplified from No. XV. the original. This letter was accompanied and brought with the beforementioned from the council of Geneva, to the same statesman: which is also added in the Appendix, written in No. XVI. French. And what good success these applications had in the English court and church, may be found in the Life of Archbishop Grindal before shewn. Walsing Concerning this duke of Savoy, Brook, the queen's am- The Engbassador in France, in a letter to secretary Walsingham, lish ambasgave this notice privately: "That it was given him to un-France to derstand, how that duke had given order to win chevalier secretary "Briton [who was a servant of monsieur, the French king's ham. "brother] to become at his devotion, and to repair unto his "court; where he promised to do him much honour. Upon "which he thought good to put the secretary in mind, that "if the said chevalier should depart from monsieur's service, " and be entertained by the duke, if he would, he might do "her majesty secret service in that court, and might come 90 BOOK by intelligence to many matters intended against her majesty and those of this religion, now that the said duke had Anno 1582." shewed himself so great an enterpriser against those of the "religion. That he [the ambassador] thought he had some "of his acquaintance which would assure him that the said "chevalier Briton should do her majesty secret service." The said ambassador propounded another project to the secretary against the duke of Savoy: "I know not whether "your honour may think it good, that by monsieur's means, "the prince of Geneva, son to madam de la Granache, may be gotten out of prison, where he lieth in Paris; "who might be raised up as an opposite instrument unto "the duke of Savoy and those of the house of De Ne"mours." 66 In the same letter he informeth, "That he had been ad"vised by a person of great quality, who had conversation "with the nuncio and Spanish agent, that they were as"sured the prince of Orange had such an indisposition of "health, [as though he were poisoned,] that he could not The prince "live above a month or six weeks." And upon this the amof Orange bassador gave his probable conjecture, "That the report in a month.❝ concerning that prince might be so given out, in respect to die with "of his indisposition of health, that he could not live be"yond such a time, to cover a wicked design about this time 66 against his life." And indeed so it proved; for he was shot by a young, desperate fellow at Antwerp, in the hall, He is shot. close by the door of his withdrawing chamber, the bullet entering in at his throat under the right chap, being so near that the fire entered with the bullet into the wound, burning his ruff and his beard, and pierced his jugular vein; and came out at the left cheek, hard by his nose. The surgeon being called, found that the fire which had entered into the wound had cauterized the jugular vein, and done him much good: wherefore the wound was not mortal. But it proved otherwise. "The villain was immediately thrust through with an halberd. That which moved him to do the villainy, as the historian relates, was the temptation of a great sum of the Nether money promised by king Philip, to any who should kill that General History of VIII. lands, by Ed. Grim prince. In his preparation for that act, he was confessed by CHAP. a Jacobine friar, who fortified him in his resolution; persuading him, and making him believe, that he should go in- Anno 1582. visible; and gave him some characts in and certain paper, little bones; [of some saints perhaps ;] which they found ston. in his pockets, with many conjurations written. And so he was accompanied with the monk to his enterprise. And this I relate, the rather, upon occasion of the English ambassador's intelligence of the reports at Paris, of the shortness of the prince of Orange's life. CHAP. IX. A contest with the bishop of Coventry and Litchfield about the chancellorship. The case referred to civilians and judges. A petition about it to the privy-council. This bishop's troubles in his diocese. Vexed with lawsuits. The earl of Leicester his enemy. Lord treasurer his friend. Desires a commission ecclesiastical. Names of recusants convict sent up. The ill state of his diocese by papists, and exempt jurisdictions. His letter to the lords. A wicked scandal, laid to the charge of the archbishop of York, discovered. Judgment in the star-chamber upon the actors. The archbishop's earnest letters to the lord treasurer: his letters of thanks to the queen, and treasurer. They make open confession at York of their treachery. Now for some collections of remark concerning some of the bishops, falling within this year. 91 Litchfield. There happened a sharp contest between Overton, bishop A contest of Coventry and Litchfield, and one Dr. Beacon, about the with the bishop of Cochancellorship of that diocese, the bishop having granted it ventry and to him, and afterward with his consent joined Babington, M. A. with him, granting the place to them both, conjunctim et divisim, and to the longer liver. And lastly, upon pretence of Non user, excluding Beacon wholly, and granting the whole office to the latter. This occasioned a resist |