CHAP. XIX.
Of the Authority, of the Assembly of the States concerning the most important Affairs of Religion.
We have hitherto demonstrated, that the Assembly of the States had a very great Power in all Matters of Importance relating to our Kingdom of France. Let us now consider, what its Authority has been, in Things that concern Religion. Of this our Annals will inform us under the Year MCCC. when Pope Boniface the Eighth sent Ambassadors to King Philip the Fair, demanding of him, whether he did not hold and repute himself to be subject to the Pope in all Things temporal as well as spiritual; and whether the Pope was not Lord over all the Kingdoms and States of Christendom? In Consequence of these Principles, he required of Philip to acknowledge him for his Sovereign Lord and Prince, and to confess that he held his Kingdom of France from the Pope's Liberality; or that if he refused to do this, he should be forthwith excommunicated, and declar'd a Heretick. After the King had given Audience to these Ambassadors, he summon'd the States to meet at Paris, and in that Assembly the Pope's Letters were read, to the Purport following. Boniface, universal Bishop, the Servant of the Servants of God, to Philip King of France. Fear God and keep his Commandments. It is our Pleasure thou shouldst know, that thou art our Subject, as well in things temporal as Spiritual, and that it belongs not to thee to bestow Prebends or collate Benefices, in any Manner whatever. If thou hast the Custody of any such that may be now vacant, thou must reserve the Profits of them for the Use of such as shall succeed therein: and if thou hast already collated any of them, we decree by these Presents such Collation to be ipso facto void, and do revoke whatever may have been transacted relating thereunto; esteeming all those to be Fools and Madmen, who believe the contrary. From our Palace of the Lateran in the Month of December, and in the Sixth Year of our Pontificate. These Letters being read, and the Deputies of the States having severally deliver'd their Opinions about them, after the Affair was maturely deliberated, it was ordain'd; first, that the Pope's Letters should be burnt in the Presence of his Ambassador, in the great Yard of the Palace: Then, that these Ambassadors with Mitres upon their Heads, and their Faces bedaub'd with Dirt, should be drawn in a Tumbrel by the common Hangman into the said Yard, and there be exposed to the Mockery and Maledictions of the People: finally, that Letters in the King's Name should be dispatched to the Pope, according to the Tenor following. Philip by the Grace of God, King of France, to Boniface, who stiles himself universal Bishop, little or no greeting. Be it known to thy great Folly and extravagant Temerity, that in things temporal we have no Superior but God; and that the Disposal of the Vacancies of certain Churches and Prebends belong to us of Regal Right; that it is our due to receive the profits of them, and our Intention to defend our selves by the Edge of the Sword, against all such, as would any way go about to disturb us in the Possession of the same; esteeming those to be Fools and Brainless, who think otherwise. For Witnesses of this History, we have the Author of the Chronicle of Bretayne, lib. 4. chap. 14. and Nicholas Gilles in the Annals of France, to whom ought to be join'd Papon. in the first Book of his Arrests tit. 5. art. 27.
CHAP. XX.
Whether Women are not as much debarr'd (by the Francogallican Law) from the Administration, as from the Inheritance of the Kingdom.
The present Dispute being about the Government of the Kingdom, and the chief Administration of Publick Affairs, we have thought fit not to omit this Question: Whether Women are not as much debarr'd from the Administration, as from the Inheritance of the Kingdom? And in the first Place we openly declare, that 'tis none of our Intention to argue for or against the Roman Customs or Laws, or those of any other Nation, but only of the Institutions of this our own Francogallia. For as on the one Hand 'tis notorious to all the World, that by the Roman Institutions, Women were always under Guardianship, and excluded from intermeddling, either in publick or private Affairs, by Reason of the Weakness of their Judgment: So on the other, Women (by ancient Custom) obtain the Supreme Command in Some Countries. "The (Britains says Tacitus in his Life of Agricola) make no Distinction of Sexes in Government." Thus much being premised, and our Protestation being clearly and plainly proposed, we will now return to the Question. And as the Examples of some former Times seem to make for the affirmative, wherein the Kingdom of Francogallia has been administered by Queens, especially by Widows and Queen-Mothers: So on the contrary, the Reason of the Argument used in Disputations, is clearly against it. For she, who cannot be Queen in her own Right, can never have any Power of Governing in another's Right: But here a Woman cannot reign in her own Right, nor can the Inheritance of the Crown fall to her, or any of her Descendants; and if they be stiled Queens 'tis only accidentally; as they are Wives to the Kings their Husbands. Which we have prov'd out of Records for twelve hundred Years together.
To this may be added (which we have likewise prov'd) that nor only the sole Power of Creating and Abdicating their Kings, but also the Right of electing Guardians and Administrators of the Commonwealth, was lodged in the same Publick Council. Nay, and after the Kings were created, the supreme Power of the Administration was retained still by the same Council. And 'tis not yet full a hundred Years since 36 Guardians of the Commonwealth were constituted by the same Council, like so many Ephori: and this during the Reign of Lewis the Eleventh, as crafty and cunning as he was. If we seek for Authorities and Examples from our Ancestors, we may find several; there is a remarkable one in Aimoinus, lib. 4. cap. 1. where speaking of Queen Brunechild, Mother to young Childebert; "The Nobility of France (says he) understanding that Brunechild designed to keep the chief Management of the Kingdom in her own Hands; and having always hitherto, for so long a Time disdained to be subject to a Female Domination, did, &c." And indeed it has so happned in the Days of our Ancestors, that whenever Women got into their Hands the Procuration of the Kingdom, they have been always the Occasion of wonderful Tragedies: Of which it will not be amiss to give some Examples. Queen Crotildis, Mother of the two Kings, Childebert and Clotarius, got once the Power into her Hands; and being extravagantly fond of the Sons of Clodomer, (another of her Sons then dead) occasion'd a great deal of Contention, by her endeavouring to exclude her Sons, and promote these Grandsons to the Regal Dignity; and upon that Score she nourished their large Heads of Hair with the greatest Care and Diligence imaginable, according to that ancient Custom of the Kings of the Franks, which we have before given an Account of. The two Kings (as soon as they understood it) presently sent one Archadius, who presenting her with a naked Sword and a Pair of Shears, gave her Choice which of the two She had rather shou'd be applied to the Boys Heads. But She (says Gregory of Tours) being enraged with Choler, especially when She beheld the naked Sword and the Scissars, anwer'd with a great deal of Bitterness—"Since they cannot be advanced to the Kingdom, I had rather see them dead than shaven"—And thereupon both her Grandsons were beheaded in her Presence. The same Gregory, lib. 3. cap. 18. subjoyns—"This Queen, by her Liberalities and Gifts conferr'd upon Monasteries, got the Affections, Plebis & vulgi of the common People and Mob: Date frenos (says Cato) impotenti naturæ, & indomito animali, & sperate ipsas modum licentiæ facturas. Give Bridles to their unruly Natures, and curb the untamed Animal; and then, you may hope they shall see some Bounds to their Licentiousness." What an unbridled Animal and profligate Wretch was that Daughter of King Theodorick, by Birth an Italian; who being mad in Love with one of her Domesticks, and knowing him to have been kill'd by her Mother's Orders, feigned a thorough Reconciliation, and desir'd in Token of it to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with her Mother; but Privately mixing some Poyson in the Chalice, She at once gave the strangest Instance both of Impiety and Cruelty in thus murdering her own Mother. The Account given of it by Gregory of Tours is this: "They were (says he) of the Arrian Sect, and because it was their Custom that the Royal Family shou'd communicate at the Altar out of one Chalice, and People of Inferior Quality out of another. (By the way, pray take notice of the Custom of Communicating in both kinds by the People.) She dropped Poyson into that Chalice out of which her Mother was to communicate; which as soon as she had tasted of it, kill'd her presently."—Fredegunda, Queen-Mother, and Widow of Chilperick the First, got the Government into her Hands; She, in her Husband's Time, lived in Adultery with one Lander; and as soon as she found out that her Husband Chilperick had got Wind of it, she had him murdered, and presently seiz'd upon the Administration of the Kingdom as Queen-Mother, and Guardian of her Son Clotharius, and kept Possession of it for 13 Years; in the first Place she poyson'd her Son's Uncle Childebert, together with his Wife; afterwards she stirred up the Hunns against his Sons, and raised a Civil War in the Republick. And lastly, She was the Firebrand of all those Commotions which wasted and burnt all Francogallia, during many Years, as Aimoinus tells us, [lib. 3. cap. 36. & lib. 8. cap. 29.]