mage, not doubting that, after his deceafe, the king would fupport his nephew's title, which was the principal motive to the marriage. This duke dying in the month of 1341

April, John count de Montfort, in right of his mother, immediately feized his palace and treafures, which quickly enabled him to make himself master of all the strong places in the duchy. As he knew the difpofition of the king, and the court of France, he had very little hopes of remaining long quiet; and therefore, to fecure himself a protection equal to that on which his competitor depended, he went over to England and offered to do homage to king Edward, either as king of France, on whom it depended by the new creation; or as king of England, fince in quality of duke of Normandy, which he claimed independent of his right to the crown of France, Bretagne depended anciently on him, and was but a remote fief of the crown of France. Edward entertained him kindly, received his homage, promifed him fupport, and fent him back to Bretagne. On the other hand, Philip caufed him to be fummoned to answer for his conduct before the high court of parliament, and probably granted him a fafe. conduct; for he went to Paris, made his excufes to the king, and remained there fome time; but, fufpecting a defign to fecure his perfon, he withdrew fecretly, and retired into his own country. The parliament proceeded however, and at length declared the right of fuccef fton belonged to the counteis de Penthievre, and the king ordered his fon John duke of Normandy to put that lady and her husband into poffeffion of the duchy of Bretagne. John de

Montfort exclaimed against this fentence as unjuft, and as given at the follicitation and out of con pliifance to the king; in which theie feems to be fumé foundation, fince he was brother to the deceased duke, and confequently nearer in blood than his niece, and heir male, and therefore to be preferred to a female : and it was not a little ftrange, that he, who was capable of taking the crown of France by defcent, thould have no title by the fame defcent to a fief of that crown.

The war of Bretagne feemed to be determined almoft as foon as it began; for the duke of Normandy entering that duchy with a numerous army, John de Montfort threw himself into Nantes, and made all the difpofitions requifite for an obftinate defence; but the duke having corrupted one of his officers, the place was betrayed into his hands, together with the perfon of John de Montfort, who was fent prifoner to Paris, and confined there in the tower of the Louvre. His wife, the daughter of the count of Flanders, retired into Hennebon, which was a place of great ftrength; and, having prevailed upon the garrifon and inhabitants to risk all in her defence, and in that of her fon, a child in the fifth year of his age, the fpar. ed no pains to encourage or to aug ment the party of her husband. His competitor Charles de Blois marched with a confiderable force to befiege her in Hennebon; upon which the fent Amaure de Cliffon into Eng. land to follicit fuccours from king Edward, and with him the young prince her fon, that he might be fafe.

Charles, who looked on the reduction of the place as a certain prelude to the conqueft of Bretagne, pufhed the fiege with all the warmth imaginable,

imaginable, and was on the very point of taking Hennebon and the duchefs, when the English fuccours arrived, under the command of Walter de Mauny, an excellent officer; who, with a handful of troops, did all that could be expected from him; but had probably been oppreffed by numbers, if the countess had not very artfully procured a truce, which gave her an opportunity of going over in perfon to England; where, the truce between the two crowns being expired, the procured a powerful fuccour, commanded by Robert d'Artois, with whom he embarked on board a fleet of fortyfive fail. In their paffage, they met and attacked the French fleet commanded by Lewis de la Cerda, whom the hiftorians of thofe times call Lewis of Spain, but were fe

1342

parated by a storm. On their arrival in Bretagne, the war revived with great spirit, in which, as in the fight at fea, the duchefs acted in perfon. Robert d'Artois made himfelf master of Vannes, which was foon after retaken by the French, and Robert d'Artois, with much difficulty made his escape. The wounds he received proving dangerous, he embarked for England; where he died about the middle of October, and was buried with great folemnity at Canterbury. A very fortunate event for king Philip, and which affected Edward fo much, that he refolved to go over in person to Bretagne to revenge it; which he accordingly performed with a greater force than had been hitherto employed on that fide.

An eagerness to perform fomething very extraordinary prevented him from doing at all what he thought to have done at once; for, perceiving there was no confiderable

army in the field to oppofe him he laid fiege to Nantes, Rennes, Vannes, and Guignan, at the fame time. The duke of Normandy, who knew thofe places were well provided, made no great hafte to fuccour them, that the English army might be harraffed by the fatigue of thofe fieges, and that he might have time to augment his own. At length, hearing that Edward had taken Guignan, he marched toward Rennes ; and, the enemy having raised the fiege, he proceeded to Nantes, the fiege of which was likewife raised at his approach, and the whole of Edward's army affembled about Vannes; where the duke of Normandy, having fome officers about him of great experience, and being guided by their counsel, formed a blockade at a great diftance; and, though Edward took every measure he could devife to provoke him, yet he continued ftill in the fame fituation, till, by the interpofition of the new pope Clement the fixth, a truce was concluded, and Edward returned into England with lefs advantage than from any campaign he ever made. By this treaty John 1344 de Montfort obtained his liberty,' and tho' he was forbid to leave Paris, yet he took the first fair opportunity of leaving it privately, and returning again to Bretagne. As for the conferences held at Avignon, in the prefence of the pope, they were far from advancing the peace; but they had this good confequence, that the truce was prolonged for three years, and this for France and England, as well as Bretagne, Scotland, Guienne, and the Low Countries, the allies on both fides being included.

and that from hence it follows, that be has an immaterial principle within him; and that he is accountable to God for all his actions.

It is, I think, highly probable, that the differences of mens underftandings, is in a great measure from the different texture of the brain; though of this we cannot be certain, or whether there be not a real difference between the foul of one man, in the nature of the foul, and the foul of another.

The question that arifes here is, Wherein do brutes differ from men? to this the answer is plain and eafy, that the reason of brutes does not direat them farther than to provide for the food and fafety of themfelves and of their young; and that, conquently, they are not accountable for their actions.

But it does not from hence neceffarily follow, that they have no immaterial principle within them; or that they do not exercise their reafon in providing for the food and fafety of themselves and their young.

To deny that brutes have an immaterial principle within them, is fo far from ftrengthening the argument that fouls of men are immaterial, that it greatly weakens it.

This is evident from the writings of that great and good man Mr. Locke, who, upon a fuppofition that brutes are purely material beings, very truly and juftly argues, that it is poffible the foul of man may be material.

But that the foul of man muft neceffarily be immaterial, is plain from hence, that the foul must be one, fimple, uncompounded, thinking, fubftance; which it cannot poffibly be, if it be immaterial: for as matter is compofed of an infinite num

ber of parts, which may be divid ed; if the foul be material, it cannot be one fubftance, but must confift of an infinite number of thinking fubftances.

Dead, lifeless matter has not the power of moving itself; and confequently, whatever matter is endued with life and felf-motion, muft neceffarily have an immaterial principle annexed to it.

God may, and no doubt has, created an infinite number of material fubitances of different capacities, in their own different natures; this, we are told, is true of angels; and it may be true of men and of brute creatures. The difference of underftanding in each, may not proceed from the different texture of their bodies, but from the different kind or nature of their fouls. fouls of fome angels may, and no doubt are created more perfe& than the fouls of others, and fo may the fouls of fome men; and fome brute creatures may have more fagacity than others, from the different kind or make of their fouls.

The

The queftion concerning the foul of brutes has been long difputed among the learned, and always to no purpose: it is in itself an injudi cious difquifition; it is what a wife man clearly fees it is impofiible for him to come at any certainty in, and therefore he declines it, as an attempt of founding an unfathomable abyfs. It is perhaps one of thofe queftions referved for our contemplation, in that ftate when we are to be exercifed in an endless advance to wifdom and perfection; and is now probably one of the things that angels entertain themselves and one another with, in their fublime dif quifitions.

To what degree the almighty

Power