engaged in the difference and a party also is appointed Counsellor and aduiser to the Iudge the Iudge prescribed to do nothing of moment without him Too strange a forme of Iustice as we thought for his Holines to be the setter downe of and so vnfit a meane to peace as what can able and further contention most Touching also the composing of the dissention pretended to be betweene the secular Priests and the lay Catholickes this authoritie appeared in like maner very defectiue in the means of taking it away if there had bene such a difference in regard the Cardinals Letter giueth the Archpriest onely authoritie ouer the Seminarie Priests and maketh not euen the least mention of any iurisdiction or power giuen him ouer the laitie as he that peruseth the Constitutiue Letter the true and sole lists of his whole authoritie cannot but see Or if any will shew themselues to be of so weake iudgement as once a speciall Agent of our aduersaries did vpon warrantise as he said from father Parsons as to auow that the Archpriest holding authoritie ouer the Priests Confessours to the Laitie he holdeth likewise authoritie ouer their ghostly children it were vndoubtedly a strange consequence and which bringeth a new doctrine into the world For hereby it cannot but follow that when a religious man a thing most common is Confessor to a King or Pope the chiefe of the house or companie whereof the religious man is a member hauing by the rules and vow of religion iurisdiction ouer the Confessor he hath likewise iurisdiction by this reason ouer the King or Pope to whom the said religious mā is ghostly father But let the sequel be good as in common reason it is most absurd yet euen in this maner the authoritie is in it selfe farre short of effecting peace For not all the Lay Catholickes and most probably not such between whom and the Priests the contention was or was like to be are vnder the charge of the Seminarie Priests but vnder the guiding of the Iesuits and consequently no whit at all vnder the iurisdiction of the Archpriest if the former doctrine were currant that he that retaineth iurisdiction ouer the Confessor retaineth iurisdiction ouer his ghostly children Further these that were in this maner vnder the direction of the seminarie Priests were not neither would be nor perhaps could be so tied to continue with them but that they would leaue them at their pleasure and when they thought good Nay it cannot be doubted but they meeting with such an occasion would not faile to change their ghostly father and go to confession to the Iesuits for ridding themselues from all such authoritie of the Archpriest An inconuenience as none greater and which by likelihood would in short while set our whole Church on fire Wherefore the authoritie of the Archpriest appearing vnto vs neither auaileable to the making of peace between the secular Priests and the Catholicke laitie if they had bene at variance as it was suggested neither a meane to attone the debates betweene the Iesuits and the Priests which was concealed and his Holinesse motiue and intent of commaunding a subordination to be instituted being a pious and zealous desire of according all differences and making perfect peace it seemed cleare vnto vs that his Holinesse neuer meant that this kind of subordination afflicting onely and furthering nothing els but the increase of our miseries should be brought into our Church but some other more profitable kind of regiment that might encourage strengthen and support the naturall infirmities of man in these troubles and hote times of Catholike triall All which considerations and precedent profes did more then problably assure vs that it could hide neither offence before God or man and lesse the crimes obiected to deferre our absolute submission vntill such time as his Holinesse should make knowne his particular commaundement or ratifie and approoue the Cardinals act after some authenticall manner The third Reason OVR third reason was that supposing the information had bene true and that his Holinesse had giuen also a plaine and direct commaundement to the Cardinall to ordaine an Archpriest with like power and soueraigntie ouer vs as is challenged and that himselfe likewise had nominated M. Blackwel appointed the Cardinall to choose him to the office and further that all these particulars had bene cleerely and most expressely set downe in the Constitutiue Letter as how little any of them were the Letter it selfe doth best testifie and the former reason hath sufficiently shewed yet not knowing these things otherwise to be true but by the sole testimonie of the Cardinals Letter we did and do still think that we were not bound to beleeue in such a generall innouation and preiudice of our Church the like vntestified single relation without Canonicall certitude of such his Holinesse delegation to his Grace or Commission by word of mouth or other deriued authoritie in what manner or vnder whar title soeuer For who can doubt but that it is most meete and requisite that the greater and more strange the authoritie is which is claimed the more Canonicall and euident ought the proofes to be by which it is claimed To make an Archpriest superiour ouer the Cleargie of a whole Realme to direct to reprehend to chastice and prescribe as he listeth vnto them to remoue them also from their places of residēce the same being in temporall mens houses and of almes and not onely in this nature to commaund them while they reside in the same kingdome with him but also to hold exercise the same iurisdiction ouer them if so they reside in an other kingdome gouerned by an other Prince and distant by many hundreth miles from the place of the others abode These are so rare nouelties without example in holy Church as no proues but such as are legall can seeme warrantable or sufficient inough in the case And because this very point which we are now entring into is the hardest knot in the whole controuersie in which the principall issue most lieth we thinke good for the more perspicuitie of the discourse first to make a diuision of the meanes by which the Cardinall might receiue authoritie from his Holinesse to constitute such a subordination in our Church And then to proue that his Graces Letter whether patent or sealed as to my remembrance it came sealed vp according to the Romane maner with a labell was no such proofe as could either in law or conscience bind vs to admit the subordination appointed without further specialty of such his Holines Commission vnto him then the credence and testimonie of his Graces Letter either patent or close sealed Touching the first it seemeth cleere that his Grace receiued authoritie from his Holinesse to constitute an Arch priest ouer vs either by way offormall delegation or by way of Cōmission by word of mouth This is so euident and manifest by the tenor of the Constitutiue Letter if a
that are qualited therewith Do they only affect you so farre as in vertue they ought that haue but one yea and one nay with you and can dislike nought and will approue all whatsoeuer you say or do or go about Or may they be said to affect you so farre as in vertue they ought who carrie a reuerent respect towards your Societie and towards your persons also yet not so affectionatlie but will see and can dislike that is amisse in your actions and be further willing to put their most helpe to the redresse No doubt if this measure be of the size that contenteth there are as many or more fit left vnchosen as chosen vpon suspect and ielousie only that they affected you not so farre as in vertue they ought I haue little feare but that Maister Blackwell well cleared himselfe of all suspition that way and affected you so farre as in vertue he ought when in your behoofe and not without preiudice to the schollers he wrote a Letter to Rome witnessing vnder his hand that there was no dislike or difference betweene the fathers of the Societie and the Priests in England albeit your selfe with shew of griefe voluntarily acknowledged the contrary vnto me not long before yea complained thereof and expostulated the causes He also affected you so farre as in vertue he ought when for making vp the fuller measure of your purgation letted not as the report goeth to touch three Priests at once with disgrace by writing vnder their testimonies and censure which they gaue concerning the particulars of the memoriall Hij tres patres non bene informantur c. as if the three good Priests had bin altogether strangers to the State and truth of matters or carried so loose consciences as in so waightie an affaire would affirme they knew not what and to testifie vnder their hands what themselues were ignorant of Likewise that partie affected you so farre as in vertue he ought who writing somewhat as it was thought with the largest in your and your brethrens behalfe and being demaunded by a familiar friend of his how he could verifie the words answered he could do it by the figure hyperbole If such dealing and excesse of truth be the meane of farming your good conceipts I would be loath to become tenant if I might haue as this good man had an assistantship for vantage Others who spake and wrote their conscience and deliuered no more then what their knowledge iudgement and integritie led them vnto and that also vpon charitable considerations and to good purpose were notwithstanding deemed thereby not to affect you so farre as in vertue they ought and thereupon by the decree of your owne order reputed not worthie of gouernment The particular is knowne and after an vndenyable manner as from his mouth who carieth greatest regard with you By all that I haue said I would say that this your strange caueat or canon and correspondent proceedings as well in appointing of our Superior as in the choise of the assistants and in the deuising of the instructions and forme of gouernment shew apparantlie enough how little you seeke to haue the ordering and swaying of all things You affirme that in very deede you would not haue any reprehended because they are opposite against you but because they acknowledge not their lawfull Superior I praye sir how do these words comport with that you said before where you will haue the want of affection towards you a barre against election Will you make men vneligible without a fault or without such a fault as is worthie of reprehension or will you haue such faults as make men vneligible to be soothed in them and not reprehended One of these must needes follow by the sequele of your order and either concludes more then my selfe sees reason to maintaine But let this be as it may be assuredly all men are not perswaded and some do feele and will sweare that not only the reprehending of your oppositors but the punishing of them also and with extreame rigour enough setteth but as a gentle corrasiue to your hearts howsoeuer you grieue now and would haue that none be reprehended for being opposite against the Societie You giue vs to know and seeme to take a liking therein that you will by Gods grace procure alwayes and to your vttermost that whosoeuer is opposite against the reuerend Archpresbyter must of force be consequentlie opposite against you your brethren Howsoeuer you please your self in the needlesse vttering of these voluntarie speeches my dulnes cannot conceiue how this spirit agreeth with that of Saint Paule factus sum infirmus infirmis vt infirmos lucrifacerem by compassion of the infirmities of all sorts I became weake to the weake that I might gaine the weake If it be a fault to oppose our selues in the manner we do against the new authoritie challenged as we acquiet our conscience to the contrarie and thinke our selues well able by sound and good arguments to vphold the lawfulnes thereof against whome soeuer in our countrie yet your Societie being no partie nor bound to intermedle more indifferencie and lesse taking against vs had beene in my poore opinion as charitable and more wisdome For by making your selues a partie without cause and so professed and forward a partie what could you get but aduersaries and haue debarred your selues from being mediators in the difference si fieri potest quod ex vobis est cum omnibus hominibus pacem habentes if it may be as much as in you hauing peace with all men That you say you will gloriari in Domino if any be thought opposit to your Societie who are opposite to our reuerēd Archpresbyter I say no more but hope that notwithstanding your gloriari in Domino your glorie in our Lord yet our Lord wil not be in this gloria vestra nec exaltās caput vestrum your glorie nor the lifter vp of your head You auouch that the new authoritie is the only meanes to ioyne vs all together in perfit loue and vnion and that there is now no hinderance at all of vnitie but the not admitting and refusing of the same Sir I can easily belieue you in this for God forbid I should liue the while to account you or any of you so ouerloaden with frailties or surcharged with ill nature that hauing your desire will refuse to contract loue and vnion with those that graunted it vnto you and further surrender themselues to your disposing That which followeth in the same paragraffe maketh me somewhat to muse by whose authoritie or example you applie the words of Saint Paule non tenens caput not holding the head to the Archpresbyter For if the holie Fathers of Christes Church and the Popes themselues other then in a generall terme euer abstained for reuerence to the Apostles from vsing their kind of blessing and salutation gratia pax à Deo Patre Domino nostro Iesu Christo grace and peace frō
Right excellent also to this purpose are the wordes of y Serm. 1. de dedicat Eccle. Damianus Decretales paginae sanctorum patrum instituta decernunt non esse differendam post Baptismum sacramenti huius virtutem ne nos inermes inueniat fraudulentus ille contortor à quo nemo vnquà m nocendi inducias extorsit Delibuti igitur vtriâ—squè roris vnguento illo sanati confortati esto securiùs descendamus ad singulare certamen The decretall pages the institutes of holy fathers haue decreed that after Baptisme the vertue of this Sacrament is not to be deferred least that guilefull racker of our soules Sathan find vs vnarmed from whom no man euer hath wrested the league of truce that he should not hurt him Being therefore annointed with the sweet oyle of both deawes Baptisme and Confirmation in that healed in this strengthned we may the more securely cope or descend to handy gripes with our ghostly enemie To conclude z Hist Eccle. lib. 6. ca. 35. ex Epi. Cornelij Pont. ad FabiuÌ„ Eusebius attributeth such exceeding force and working efficacie to this Sacrament as he doubted not to say that Nouatus who after became an Ach-heretike could not merit the grace and assistance of the holy Ghost in reason of his wretchlesnesse and lacke of deuotion in that being baptized in a daungerous fit of sickenesse he was not likewise at that time signed and fortified with the sacrament of confirmation § And thus much of the importance of our intentioÌ„ first truth which as we verily thought was kept secret from the vnderstanding of his Holinesse wishing euery one maturely to consider of that litle which is said and what Diuines do further adde in this point for exciting all Christians not onely most heartily to affect but most studiously also to get timely ministred to themselues Another truth secreted was the great contention and scandalous The second truth secreted debate raigning betweene the Iesuits and some of the secular Priests by reason of an affected superioritie which the Iesuits after the decease of good Cardinall Allen laboured to place in father Weston ouer his fâ—llow prisoners in Wisbish by much his elders as in yeares so in sufferance also for the Catholicke cause And it was not thought that this maner of seeking to beare rule would take vp so or consine it self in that castle The humour was deemed to be more actiue and that it would soone enlarge in selfe to the Priests abroad Neither was this opinion conceiued without cause in respect of the question that master Warpoole now a knowne Iesuit and Father Minister at Valodelide proposed to a student in Rome demaunding of him what he would say when no Priest should find harbour or welcome any where in England vnlesse he came recommended by some of the Iesuits And after the secret Iesuit for so he was at the time when he vsed thâ—se speeches had continued a long discourse in shewing the ample and manifold conueniences that would ensue vpoÌ„ so good an order he would needs without deniall haue the student at the end of his tale to declare also his conceit in the matter and when by earnest importunitie he had wonne him therunto and the student had shewed plainly his auersion from liking any such practise or soueraigntie ouer the Priestes the Iesuit incontinent bewraied no litle discontentment Againe that which yet brought more euidence to the matter was a Treatise which a speciall fauourite of the Iesuites compyled and which was giuen abroade to others to reade wherein it was discoursed that none were sit to haue the guiding of soules nay speciall heede to be taken that none such be chosen to be guides who were not addicted to Religion or had not that way relation or dependance Which iniurious and disgracefull assertion being excepted against by one or moe of the auncientest Priests in our Realme was notwithstanding so little reuersed or disliked as more stiffely then before maintained both by the Author of the Treatise and by the chiefe of the society with some other of the same company Now then these and moe like particulars which if neede require will be easily produced yeelding sufficient coniecture if not remonstrance of the heartie desire the Iesuits had to haue the secular Priests vnder their direction we thought meete the sooner also for auoiding the bad and ignominious reports which were spread abroade euery where of vs for not stouping to the foresaid subiection as that we were forsooth men who would not liue vnder discipline or could away with obedience being as it were giuen ouer to follow the sway of our owne fancies and vnwilling to haue either other rule or Superior to direct vs then our owne wil or what the loue of liberty should prescribe we say to auoide this fowlest obloquy and to the end the occasion of variance betweene them and vs might be taken away in the roote we desired the ordinarie gouernement by Bishops Which intention and petition of ours if it had bene made knowne to his Holines together with the ground mouing vs therunto and the causes of the dissention as they were not hid from the procurers of the authority we most certainly assured our selues that either his Holines would not haue appointed this kind of gouernment to which the Iesuits are no way subordinate or not haue placed it in such a like fauourite of theirs as themselues only had purposely culled out to serue their turns § Or could we win our thoughts that his Holines knowing how all things stood with vs would neuerthelesse haue erected this kind of superiority and haue appointed Master Blackwell for the Superior yet the whole world cannot make vs to beleeue or once to doubt that his Holines pious prudeÌ„t disposition his high commended vigilancie zeale of iustice would if his blessed Fatherhood had bene truly and fully informed of our case haue euer annexed such a tie and instruction to the authoritie as that our Arch-priest should consult and take aduice in all matters of moment with the Prouinciall of the Iesuites whereas father Garnet who then had and now hath the roome was And let our aduersaries answer this the chiefe of the one side in the difference so that herby he is become borh partie and counsellour plaintiffe and iudge assistant defendant and in Commission for arbitrating his owne case and the causes of his fellow brethren of the same societie vnder his guiding An exorbitant most contrarie to the lawes of all Nations and opposite to the nature of iustice euen by the light of nature But to leaue to stay longer about the truths which we tooke to be The first falsitie expressed concealed as a matter wherein ignorance or forgetfulnesse may plead the informers excuse and to come to the falsities wherein not ignorance or forgetfulnesse can haue place as in the former but mis-affection or fraud or a worse godfather must name the child § The
that the Constitutiue Letter maketh mention how his Grace in ordaining the new authoritie followed therein the will of his Holinesse we may answere that imagining as we did and vpon most pregnant grounds that father Parsons was the inditer of the letter we had little reason knowing him as we do to credit euery word therin especially the matter being so greatly preiudiciall to our selues Church and Realme and so fit a rise or step besides to his further designes Another reason also and which more induced vs not to beleeue euery word in the Cardinals Letter was the report it made of the fatherly charitie which the Iesuits exhibited towards all Priestes in our countrey and that they molested no one An affirmance so farre from truth as to doubt whether it be true or no were to doubt whether yee be cold or fire hote or whether there be a Sunne in the element For who can deny vnlesse he be resolued to deny any thing how apparant or demonstrable soeuer but that all the Cleargy and sociall dissention in our Realme proceeded from some of the fathers of the Society The dissention at Wishich from fa. Weston assuming superioritie the dissention now on foot from fa. Lister the author from fa. Garnet the approuer from fa. Iones the increaser from fa. Holtby the maintainer and from some other of the Society the abettours of our most grieuous wrongs and infamie Thus no doubt we might answer and neither idlely nor vntruly yet we will not thus answer but referre our selues to the sixth Proposition which yeeldeth another kind of reioynder and bringeth more light and helpe to our cause and innocencie For the said Proposition teacheth that the formall obiect of obedience is the knowne precept of a Superiour not the sole will vnlesse it be an imperatiue or commanding will and so notified as the subiect vnderstand it to be a commaund So that admitting we had bene bound to heleeue euery word in the Cardinals Letter as how little we were bound it will appeare anon and more in the next reason yet the Cardinall vsing but these words Nos S t is suae pijssimam prouidentissimamque voluntatem sequentes hoc ipsum statuere decreuimus We following the most godly and the most prouident will of his Holines haue decreed to appoint a subordination among the English secular Priests we could not see how this related will of his Holines did put on the nature of a precept especially after so expresse and certain a maner as that we were bound all causes how iust soeuer set aside to obey forthwith the new authoritie not respite our absolute submission therunto no not so long as til we could seÌ„d to his Holines for more direct assured knowledge in the matter Beside the reasons were neither few nor vulgar but many and very materiall which droue vs to thinke that if his Holinesse had possessed such a determination as at vnawares without any one of our assents or priuitie to appoint vs a superiour and with so large soueraigntie ouer vs yet that he would neuer haue vsed so little fauour towards vs who liue in the midst of so many miseries and dayly spend our liues for the truth and primacie of that Chaire as to enact the authoritie in so powerable a manner that euen at the first appearing thereof and by the bare Letter of one Cardinall only it should be the crime either of notorious disobedience or schisme an impossibilitie euen not to prostrate our selues and surrender our full and absolute obedience thereunto without either making question how it câ—me or so much as to send to his Holinesse for vnderstanding whether it was his ordinance or no. First the milde and sweete disposition of his Holinesse nature forbad vs so to thinke then the quality of our pressures the ancient Canons Distinct 63. Ca. Si â—n plebibus of the holy Church allowing Priests the election of their Archpriest the deserts of our poore estate seruing God in the degree of Priesthood without either enioying or expectance of Church liuing yea and which did most of all deforce vs from entertaining so hard a thought of his Holinesse loue and pastorall regard towards vs his afflictiue labourers was the most respectiue and honourable speeches which himselfe vsed to some of our brethren namely that he would not appoint any order of gouernemeÌ„t in our country before the good A ground of surreption Priests in England so gracious were his Holinesse words should aduertise him what kind of gouernement were fittest best sorted with the miseries of our Church That his Holinesse vsed these speeches there be two Priests or moe in England that will depose it and father Parsons himselfe hauing more then once reported so much cannot without doing wrong to his religious profession denie or vnsay the same So that the question rested whether of these two we should sooner and were more bound ☜ to beleeue the Popes owne word or the Cardinals Letter Either the Popes word related vnto vs by seuerall of our brethren of good report and the immediate hearers thereof or the Cardinals Letter penned as we no whit doubted by our boldest aduersarie containing apparant vntruthes as before is shewed and will hereafter more appeare And now the matter of our choise to whom we should giue more credite being of this quality whether sooner to beleeue the Popes owne word or the Cardinals Letter was it possible that father Lister or any other of lesse holy profession and of meaner parts could embolden their pens and tongues to by-name vs so prodigally as he and some of his complicers haue done Or could it be thought credible that our superiour who by his place and order of charity is the more inuited to loue vs and bound by iustice wherein he may to defend vs would intreate his children our trespasse no greater in so vnkind and hard a manner as he hath done and continueth Let others who can aunswere We will returne and proceede in our proues Senior Acrisio of the Popes Fiscals and who had commission to examine maister Bishop and maister Charnocke in their imprisonment at Rome hath giuen very good testimony with like circumstances as not lightly any euidence may deserue more beliefe For this officer hauing by himselfe and father Parsons taken the examination of the two prisoners and demanded of like as many questions of them as were thought necessary he told them that now he was to make relation of all things to his Holinesse and therefore counselled them to commend the cause to God by prayer adding that it were not amisse also if they would enioyne to themselues three dayes fast that weeke for better prospering of the affaire A spirituall taske which the prisoners gladly vndertooke and performed in the time prescribed The next weeke Senior Acrisio came to the prisoners and among other matters very confidently affirmed to them both apart that the new superiority was not instituted by his
like sort bound to beleeue the President of Doway the Rectour of the Colledge at Valedolid father Parsons and so many of the Iesuits as haue authoritie to giue faculties vpon credence of their owne word yea the ground and respects being one we are likewise bound if the former reason be good to beleeue our Archpriest and his successors of what bad qualitie soeuer they happen to be vpon testimonie of their owne word because authoritie to delegate faculties is now annexed to the office and so any of this number may at his pleasute by borrowing leaue of his conscience innouate set vp pull downe chop and change what he listeth in our Church by saying onely he had a commandement from his Holinesse without shewing script or scrowle or other assurance for proofe thereof then his bare word and we bound forsooth vnder crimes of greatest infamie to admit the same and subiect our selues theÌ„ which what greater folly what fouler distain to the dignitie of our Priesthood or what in his nature or consequence layeth open a wider gap to let in intrusion confusion and all vtter hauocke both of order and discipline in the house and Sanctuarie of Almightie God and spouse of our Sauiour ANother reason which our aduersaries vse for confirming their Position against vs is the variety of the testimonies they shewed vnto vs besides the Constitutiue Letter for proofe that the subordination was erected by his Holinesse priuitie and commaund namely a second Letter of Cardinall Caietanes signifying that his Lordship receiued a charge from his Holinesse to institute the subordination he did a Letter of the Popes Nuntio in Flunders a Letter of Doctour Stapletons on other of Doctour Barrets an other of father Bellarmines since Cardinall an other of Doctour Worthingtons and two other from our two brethren which went to Rome in the affaire all attestating as our aduersaries are pleased to report the subordination to be the commaundement of his Holinesse A faire shew to carrie away the vulgar and credulous but of too light substance by much to perswade any of iudgement who haue but looked vpon the Canons of holy Church were all true that is said as when the particulars come to scanning we trust neither all nor the most part will so fall out And first it is cleere by the authoritie aboue rehearsed out of Innocetius Panormitane Speculator Felinus Egidius Bellemera Bouerus Zecchius Conradus the very choise of both the ancient and moderne Canonists that all Papall delegation especially communicating iurisdiction in penall matters must of necessitie ere any be bound to obey be first proued either by shewing the rescript of the delegation or an authenticall copie thereof Neither can such a delegation iustly according to the forme of the law be proued by record of witnesses saue when as Bouerus noteth the originall hath bene shewed before as the Verb delegatio 7. nu 10. originall of this delegation if so the Cardinall his grace receiued authoritie from his Holinesse by way of formall delegation was neuer if euer extant to be shewed Which saying also of Bouerus is not generally to be vnderstood in all kinds of Delegation but in such onely as do not deriue a pluralitie of particular iurisdictions the contrarie whereof the new subordination doth containing at least ten seuerall iurisdictions and as many moe instructions For in delegations of this sort proofe is to be made by shewing of the original or an authentike copie thereof and not by the sole record of witnesses as after the allegation of a In prohemio super Clement Barbatia the Doctors of the Rota haue b Decisione quae incipit Quod licet Romana curia in plaine termes decided who also quoteth these words of Baldus for ampler proofe of the assertion Gratia Papaefacta super iurisdictione non potest probari per testes The grace that the Pope giueth communicating iurisdiction cannot be proued by witnesses And the reason is plaine and inuincible for where many particulars c In ca. 1. de allodijs col 3. in tit are delegated and those vndepending one of other as in the new authoritie there the volubilitie of humane memorie and the strict necessity of neither adding nor detracting considered with other circumstances namely that wordes may often beare diuerse senses and do take their limitation and truest exposition from that which went before or followed after in the same Commission there we say where these thing meete the proofe of the delegation cannot without suspition of errour be made by report of witnesses but ought onely to be made by shewing the originall or a testified copie as the authours before cited do write Which reason also seemeth as strongly to conclude that the faculties and iurisdiction giuen to the Archpriest and particularized partly in the Constitutiue Letter partly in the instructions and partly in the additions being many in number and distinct without dependance each of other cannot well for the same cause and ficklenesse of memorie be proued by witnesses but rather require for due proofe the shewing and comparing of an authenticke note or abstract of the things in particular which were graunted to the Archpriest or Cardinall by his Holinesse which hitherto we neuer saw nor heard tell of nor which perhaps was euer extant notwithstanding the iust necessitie thereof Neuerthelesse we wil yeeld to our aduersaries to the end to make our iustification the cleerer and the lesse impugnable that the like delegation or commission may be proued by witnesses though the originall nor anie authenticke copie were euer shewed before Which was neuer affirmed by any writer or euer practised as we thinke no not where oppression and bondage raigned most Yet here we trust that yeelding thus much voluntarily our aduersaries wil not an inch so freely and friendly being giuen them take by and by anâ—ell and thinke it enough to proue the delegation or commission in generall and not also to proue the tenour in particular For if this large scope were once in vre and admitted the next may be to bid all order farewell as wherein discipline is rifled tyrannie set free the practise of holy Church turned vpside downe and the arayes of all Christian peace and quietnesse vtterly broken in regard it followeth hereby that whosoeuer can prooue a delegation or commission may forthwith incroch and challenge therupon to order all matters either out or in his commission as he listeth without restraint limit checke or gainestanding of any as hauing by the former scope authoritie for his warrant which is so very absurd that he scarcely deserueth the name of a man and lesse the praise of scholership who shall shew himselfe so very a babe as once to affirme it And now here we demand who in the rankes of the foresayd witnesses which are yet all that our aduersaries themselues claime witnesse of doth in his record descend to the specifying of any one particular contained in the commission Let the testimonies be
other to the sheepfold and due obedience of the same Church and highest Pontifex That which I haue said is the whole truth of my owne thoughts and as much and not otherwise then my memorie vpon best recalling of matter could suggest If our aduersaries will haue the foresaid persons to speake more for them or in another tune against vs let them produce their Letters and out of them all inforce the most they can against vs. The qualitie and maner of their dealing with vs hitherto doth not put vs in hope they will much spare vs and we on the otherside haue as little feare truth and sinceritie encouraging but that we shall be wel able to free our selues of as much as all corners being sought can be obiected in our rebuke And certes the force of the foresaid testimonies if such farre off speeches from the point vnintended and accidentall may be called testimonies which Pope Calixtus 3 q. 9. testet § si debitum denieth will appeare very weake and be most easily auoided if the ground they stand vpon be aduisedly pondered For if any of all the parties of whom our aduersaries claime testimonie should be demaunded 4 q. 2. 3. si testes §. null â—s idoneus Siluest verb testis nu 2. Cardinal Caietane excepted who neither might fitly beare euidence in his owne cause the reason why they so wrote or what knowledge or certaintie they had of the thing they affirmed would they or could they truly yeeld another reason for such their affirmaÌ„ce theÌ„ that they heard it to be so by report or that they had read the Letter Costitutiue We beleeue verily no how caÌ„ we beleeue otherwise one liuing at the time of the grant of the CommissioÌ„ in Louaine others in Bruxels an other in Doway an other we wote not where all distant a thousand miles from Rome where the authority was granted saue onely Cardinall Caietane and father Bellarmine since made Cardinall And first to heare a thing by report is no good ground or sufficient warrantise for any one thereupon to witnesse the same to be true For the Ecclesiastical Canon hath Testes noÌ„ de alijs causis vel negotijs dicant 3. q. 9. testes testimonium nisi de his quae sub praesentia eorum acta esse noscuntur Let not witnesses giue testimonie of other causes or matters but of those which are knowne to be done in their presence And Innocentius affirmeth that if one bearing witnesse of a thing and being asked how he knew it to be so as he witnesseth it to be his testimonie is nothing worth if the can render no surer cause of his testimonie then that he heard it by report Si dicit ego scio quia sic omnes dicunt non valet eius testimonium In ca. cum causam de testi attest nu 3. quia malâ—m insufficientem causam reddit sui testimonij If the Testis say I know it because all men do so report his testimonie is not good because he assignes too weake or insufficient a cause or ground of the testimonie he beareth And the same holy Father and Pope reputed the glorie of the Canonists hath these wordes in the Nu. 2. same place Officium testis est propriè dicere veritatem de ijs quae percipit quinque sensibus corporis It is properly the office of a witnesse to tel the truth of those things which he knoweth by one of the fiue senses of the bodie Consonant to this is that also which Siluester writeth Requiritur Verb. testis nu 6. quod testis testificetur de auditu proprio scilicet quantum ad sonos vel devisu quantum ad visibilia idem de alijs sensibus non de alieno * Glos in l. in sâ—m ff de aqua pluuia arcen quia non est propriè testimonium It is required that a testis should beare witnesse of the things himselfe heard or saw and so the same of other senses and not of things he taketh by report because this kind of euideÌ„ce is not properly a testimony Neither do other authors new or old disagree in this position Benintendus a Conclu 67. nu 10. Testis de auditu non solum non plenè probat sed etiam non facit praesumptionem sufficientem ad transferendum onus probandi in contrariuÌ„ A witnes speaking by hearesay doth not only not fully proue but faileth to make so much as a sufficient presumption of inforcing the aduersarie to proue the contrarie Again which coÌ„meth a little nearer and more distinctly to our case the same authour hath these words almost immediatly ensuing the other b Ibid. nu 11. Testimonium de auditu relatione alterius nullam facit probationem in negotio de recenti gesto Testimonie giuen by heare-say and vpon report maketh no presumption in a matter newly done Speculum c Li. 1. de test § 1. nu 53. Testimonium de auditu alieno sâ—z quod audiui dicit non valet A witnes vpon hearesay is little worth Panormitane d In ca. ex literis de consuetu nu 4. Testis interrogatus quo modo scit debet dicere quia vidi audiui A witnesse being asked how he knew the thing he testifieth ought to be able to answer because I saw it and heard it For that as Barbatia recordeth e Super Clem. in rubrica de elect fo 97. col 4 In vsu auditu fundatur testimonium Testimony touching mattet of fact is founded vpon assurance of the eye and eare The author comprising the verdict of the other three senses vnder the noblenesse and generalitie of the eye and eare On the other side if our aduersaries shall say that the aboue named witnesses or any of them did reade the Constitutiue Letter and therefore wrote as they did we aske them what maner of ground this is wherein it differeth from the kind of testimonie that followeth Iohn imagineth that Peter gaue him a boxe on the eare and thereupon frameth a bill of complaint against Peter and when he had framed it sheweth the same to sundry of his friends After the matter is brought to triall Peter denieth the giuing of the blow Iohn auerres it the fact resteth to be proued by witnesses Iohn in this meane while vnderstandeth that those his friends to whom he shewed the bill haue sithence addressed some Letters to certaine of their friends and vttered some words concerning the contents and drift of the bill and thereupon calleth them to witnesse and bringeth their said Letters into the Court and they comming to giue euidence the Iudge asketh whether they were present and did see when Peter gaue Iohn this blow and they answer no. The Iudge demaundeth further what then is it which they can say for testimonie of the fact Marie quoth they we did reade his bill of complaint before the sute was commenced and thereupon wrote
person and admit the execution of his office without shewing the Popes letters for testimonie of the legation Neither in shew be it spoken vnder leaue with due submission to holy Church doth such refusall deserue any great censure because seuerall a Steph. Papa dist 63. ca. lectis Nicholaus Papa dist 97. ca. nobilissimus ca. de man prin l. vnica Popes beside the demonstration of dayly practise haue testified that it is not the maner of the Apostolicke Sea to receiue an Ambassage from any person whatsoeuer without letters in the credence of the Ambassadour And therefore that holy Sea not accustoming to receiue or beleeue any Ambassadour without letters from the Prince or Potentate he commeth from it seemeth to follow not amisse this action of the highest Sea being as an exampler for other that Kings or other temporall and supreme Magistrates are not bound to receiue and giue credite to the word of a Cardinall Legate vnlesse he shew the Popes letters for witnesse of his commission But these notwithstanding we graunt as the truth is that a Cardinall Legate ought to be beleeued vpon his word without shewing the Popes letters for testimonie yet we resolutely denie that a Cardinall delegate is to haue the like credite giuen to his word in the charge or matter committed vnto him as father Parsons inferreth except he first shew the Popes letter or otherwise proue the Commission A veritie which hath bene sufficiently if not more then enough confirmed before by diuerse authorities out of all the chiefest Pag. 58. 59. sequentib writers new and old vpon the law Neuerthelesse to abound in our proofes of this materiall point we will adde one authoritie more and such an authoritie as concludeth for vs against our aduersaries whether the Cardinall instituted the subordinatioÌ„ as his Holines delegate by a rescript or as his coÌ„missioner by word of mouth only Si de magno alicuius praeiudicio agatur non creditur Cardinali testanti sibi aliquid à Papa viuae vocis oraculo maÌ„datum nec creditur ei asserenti esse delegatum nisi literis ostensis If the question be saith Zecchius of a matter that is very De statu Ill â— Cardinalium nu 9. vers 6. indomeageable to another a Cardinall is not to be beleeued vpon his word testifying that the Pope enioyned him such a commaundement by word of mouth neither is beleefe to be yeelded vnto him if he affirme himselfe a delegate vnlesse he shew the letters And the author proues both partes of the assertion by the testimonies of sundrie other writers which he there citeth Further beside the pleading of authority the reason is manifest why credit is giuen to the word of a Cardinall naming himselfe a Legate without shewing the Popes letters and not to the word of a Cardinal affirming himself a delegate or to haue receiued such a CoÌ„mission by word of mouth except he shew the Popes letter for testimonie of the delegation or proue the verbal commission after a farre more authenticall maner then by the sole record of his owne word or missiue Letter patent or sealed For when the Pope sendeth a Legate de latere to anie Prince Zecchius de statu Ill â—i Legati nu 2. Country or Prouince he neuer sendeth him but with the aduice and consent of the residue of the Cardinals which maketh the mission very notorious Againe a Cardinall legate departing vpon like occasion from the Court of Rome taketh his dispatch and leaue of his Holinesse and the other Cardinals with great solemnitie goeth likewise towards the person and place assigned after a most honorable maner of attendance accompanied with others of rare parts and when he commeth neare to the confines of the Countrey or Prouince whereof Idem ibidem nu 3. speculum de Legat. § 4. superest he is made Legate he aduertiseth the nighest Bishop of his approching at hand who presently is to commaund his Cleargie to giue their attendance and meete the Legate on his way comming and to bring his Grace to the Cathedrall Church or any other that is nearer with all sutable preparation and entertainement Which kind of ceremonies with other complements do euer make all laterall legations most aparant but in delegations and more in commissions by word of mouth there is no such solemnity nor manifestation vsed which yeeldeth a most materiall cause why credite is and ought to be giuen to the auowance of a Cardinals affirming himselfe a Legate without shewing the Popes Letters why the like credite is not by any bond due to be giuen to the word of a Cardinall if he affirme himselfe a delegate or shall say he receiued Commission from the Pope by word of mouth to do this or that To put another difference betweene the cases a Cardinall Legate receiueth the masse or body of his authority * Speculum vbi supra nu 14. Zecchius vbi supra nu 4. Siluest verb. Delegatus n. 22 Cucchus lib. 1. Tit. 25. de off potest leg Staphilus eodem tit alij a lege communi from the supreme dignitie and office he holdeth but a Cardinall delegate Commissioner or executor taketh not onely the subiect but the limits and specialties of his whole iurisdiction from the Popes rescript or verball direction and therefore ought to proue the particular tenour by other meanes then by the sole credence of his owne word especially because as a Gloss in ca. 1. de rescript verb. procâ—ssus ordinarie iurisdiction the b ca. 2 de offi-Legat li. 6. like as is legation is matter fauourable so all delegatine iurisdiction is matter displeasant or burdenous and matter that is burdenous requireth in common reason a more full and strict proofe then matter importing fauour And further that which maketh yet the case somewhat more cleare is the receiued positioÌ„ among the Canonists that although c Paâ—â—rm in ca. quod translationeÌ„ de off leg nu 10. a Cardinall is to be counted a Legate vpon his word neuerthelesse if he claime any iurisdiction more then he hath from the constitutions of the law by office of his Legateship he is not to be beleeued vpon his word but must proue his claime and saying either by shewing his commission or by testimonie of witnesses or after some legall maner which maketh plaine in the consequence that where a Cardinall hath not the authoritie he claimeth by vertue of ordinarie iurisdiction founded in his person as in an ordinarie there he is not to be beleeued vpon credence of his sole word but must authentically proue what he affirmeth ere any be bound to obey Which precedent differences and disparitie if father Parsons had considered he would neuer haue made so ignorant inference as he did vpon the place of the Glosse before cited nor would he haue so weakly reasoned if the subiect he wrote of had bene matter of state or belonged to the genealogie of Princes
There is one clause chiefely in his Graces letter of the tenth of Nouember which bearing little shew of indifferencie maketh vs the more to feare the like guile by father Parsons For who euer heard where there was but an outward face of iustice that the Iudge shall commaund one aduersarie to informe him of the life and manners of the other aduersarie and to lay downe his causes and reasons for him in the matter in question betweene them The partialitie appeareth such as deforceth vs to thinke that euer his Grace read the Letter but signed it vpon confidence of father Parsons sinceritie and wisedome A smooth meane to deceiue the best You see good sir how either part of the proposition and one must needes be true maketh in our excuse for not stooping downe our necks to the yoake that father Parsons hath prepared and by all meanes laboureth to inforce If Maister Standish be asked the cause of his iourney to Rome the perswasions vsed to him to that end the helps he receiued the companions he went with his long expectance for father Parsons returne out of Spaine who brought him to the presence of his Holines the particulars of the oration he made of whom he receiued the instructions his Holines speeches in answere thereunto he can informe enough if your owne acquaintance with the plotting and processe of the matter be not light sufficient to teach you who inuented the new authoritie who layd the ground who added the complements I should stay my pen from writing it if it auailed ought to be silent in that which euery man notes It would make more to the praise of father Parsons if being a religious man he were either lesse actiue or busied in matters directlier appertaining to his calling and charge For what hath he to do with the Priests in England How do we depend of him At what back-dore vnknowne doth his authoritie or charge come in Or what may the rich pleasures be that his wit and trauels hath stead vs in and bound vs to him why he should in this high presume of our patience and yeelding to whatsoeuer he liketh to appoint Sundry of his deuises or to returne the same word back againe that he giueth vs disturbances haue so little made vs beholden vnto him that neither we nor our Countrie haue receiued more preiudice from any that seemeth to loue vs. He happie we happier if religion were lesse worldlified in him and state matter and the designing of kingdomes had not so great a part in his studies 5. Father Parsons hath giuen wrong information to the Cardinall and his Holines So farre as the coniectures of all likelihood may auerre a troth this is no vntruth because we can no way conceiue that the Cardinall or his Holines would euer haue decreed such a penall forme of gouernment consisting only in taking away of graces without bringing the least benefit to our countrie or ease to our afflictions if their wisedomes had bin fullie and rightfullie informed of the true state and termes of our aduersities That I say nothing of the designes and petitions which many of the ancients in our realme had assigned and were forthwith determined to exhibit them to his Holines view iudgement and approbation Further if father Parsons had giuen true information to the Cardinall and his Holines it followeth necessarilie that his credit is right litle or nought with either which you would not haue vs to thinke yea and their loues and care also which we shall neuer thinke as litle or lesse towards the huge multitude of our manifold miseries in reason their supreame authoritie and compassion cannot be drawne to graunt vpon his information and solliciting no other fauour then increase of penalties and facultie to reuoke whatsoeuer our late Cardinall of blessed memorie had obtained of the sea Apostolick as well to credit Priests the more as also to manifest his greater affection towards our Countrie yea and as though this had bin too litle seueritie to inflict besides that kind of punishment without annexing the same to any crime or crimes as no age since the beginning of the world as I verily assure my self yeelds in all respect a president All which considerations commaund vs to belieue that the Cardinall especiallie his holines had no part in setting downe the particulars of the authoritie or were not well informed but much more misinformed by father Parsons 6. The Cardinall was alwayes partiall on the Iesuits side I wote not into what hard meaning the word partiall may be drawne therefore we only affirme that his Grace is no way a back-friend to your Societie but euery way most ready to do you all the pleasures and the best furtherances he can 7. Some of necessitie must be sent to informe better I verily belieue the necessitie hereof was many wayes so importantlie great that vnlesse our two brethren had out of their charitie and due considerations aduentured vpon the difficulties of the iourney for learning the truth and his Holines pleasure in all things there had bin much more alteration and questioning among vs about the validitie and bond of the authoritie then now is or hereafter can be hauing by their labours made knowne our case and submissiuelie referred our selues to his Holines arbitement in what soeuer That the Cardinall by the title of his Protectorship should haue the like soueraigntie in England as to inforce a Superior vpon vs manger our vnwillingnes and without our priuitie seemeth so strange a noueltie as the like was neuer heard of in our countrie before nor as I thinke euer had instance in any other country hereticall or catholick Or if his excellencie haue this ample iurisdiction by any other title grace or priuiledge it were very meete we knew it and after some authenticall manner especially sith he delegateth authoritie euen to take all authoritie from vs graunted by whome soeuer or when soeuer yea to remoue vs from the places of our acquaintance and residence and by consequence to turne vs to seeke harbour and sustenance among strangers an extremitie most seueare and most meruellous the rigour of the lawes of our Realme and the tearmes of the best condition that Priests liue in dulie considered which is meane and base enough without this new increase of our greater contempt and agrieuances 8. The messengers must procure that some assistants be chosen who may not be thought partiallie affected to the Iesuits Sir admit this were so albeit I thinke there will be many other motions made before yet what kind of iniustice or vncharitable dealing can you deduce from hence Is there not good cause that at least some of the assistants who haue by the veritie of Maister Blackwels words euery one in his owne quarter as large authoritie to execute all extremities as himselfe against vs should be perfitlie vpright without poize of biase or parcialitie And I praye what reason can you yeeld or any other complice of the new authoritie why
God our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ I see not why you might not very well for reuerence sake haue forborne the application of that passage to Maister Blackwell being literallie and euer principallie referred to our Sauiour and neuer secondarilie applied to any but a Pope nor can be but incongruously as my small reading and iudgement giueth me A bold charge hard measure that for bearing off to subiect our selues to the new authoritie vntill the returne of our two brethren with true certificate of his Holines pleasure therein we must be counted by you non tenere caput ex quo totum corpus per nexus coniunctiones subministratuÌ„ constructum crescit in augmentuÌ„ Dei not holding the head wherof the whole body by ioints and bands being serued and compacted groweth to the increase of God which is by the prime and proper signification of the place to apostatate or forsake Christ and in the second and largest sense to be an hereticke or schismaticke Take heed good sir least for reprouing others you vtter what is not worthie of your self I know you had not The insuings shewed I was deceiued herein so ill a meaning but the inferences be direct and therefore I wish you againe to take better heede to the running of your pen hereafter You say the new authoritie is receiued with singular liking of the most and best and that who is ioyned to Maister Blackwell is yours and qui cum illo non colligit spargit he that doth not gather with him scattereth First you forget comparisons to be odious and continue the citing of places vnprouable against vs. Then you sooth more then can be truly auerred in the eye of the world for by generall opinion there are of as good parts and of as good deserts and of no lesse name that haue not as haue submitted themselues thereunto And for the number a gay coate-card in all your mouthes I thinke if there were authoritie from the sea Apostolicke willing euery Priest to deliuer his conscience which of the two kinds of gouernment he most liked or deemed fittest either this of your and father Parsons deuising where an Archpresbyter the lowest Prelature in holie Church and now And this time the Laitie were not comprised vnder the authoritie worne out of vse must absolutely commaund and prescribe to the Cleargie of a whole kingdome or the other that we now principallie sue for which is the Ecclesiasticall only vsuall regiment throughout all Christendome I say if there were such authoritie graunted for comming to the true knowledge of euery priests opinion herein there would be as I am most assured vpon good grounds ten for one if not tweÌ„tie or rather hundreds of the Cleargy Laity with vs against you Now sir for conclusion if the points of your Letter to me or more if the contents of your Letters to others whereof I haue had some vnderstanding or more then either if the seueritie vsed in Rome and in England against our cause and brethren were vprightlie and iudiciallie weighed doubtles in my opinion there would appeare little ground for the truth of that you say in the beginning of your Letter to wit that if all could not be induced to loue and affect you you would yet beare their auersion with patience and silence without following any course or pursute against them I praye if the Societie I meane the English and your adherents should do their worst what could there be more done then is done against vs Could there be more horrible crimes obiected Could what is obiected be more openly or more against conscience diuulged Could promises be lesse kept Could conditions be worse performed Could dissimulation be finelier masked Could Priests sustaine greater triall of patience then is heaped on them Could the burden of their afflictions take increase Could their friends be more earnestlie laboured to withdraw their good liking and charities from them Could there be mightier shoouing to remoue some of that coate from their places of residence Could all assayes almost euery way to that end be lesse forborne Could detraction be rifer Could calumniators swaâ—ue more Could mo pratlers be found to tenise their obloquies Could harder censures be giuen of them or more liberallie Could their liues be ript vp from a further period Could their faults be liuelier depainted Nay could faults of no faults be plentifullier created Or could all this or more go freer without satisfaction lesse check rebuke or controulement Lamentable that men suffering for being Priests and suffering the like extremities they do should be deuoyded of faculties and haue doubts thrust into their heads and by parties of speciall name to be also vnlawfull for them either to vse the altar or to practise preaching So that if particulars be belieued small is the patience lesse the silence and sharp is the course or pursute that is followed against vs. I write not these things to the end I do or would charge any in particular and much lesse you then any other whome my loue hath a long while reuerenced for vertue and other good habilities but I rehearse them and verily with teares to moue pitie to stir vp compassion and if I might be so happie to procure also the surceasing and redresse of these our common but no common miseries And one thing seemeth more strange then all that acquainting as we did M. Blackwell himselfe with our purpose of sending to Rome for full vnderstanding of his Holines mind and to intimate to his wisedome the true state of our countrie and the tearmes of Priests as his holie Fatherhood by the relation of those that heard the speeches required vs to do yea some hauing made their appeale also from him yet that in this short interim till our iust doubts be cleared neither he nor your societie nor your copartioners can be intreated to breath and let the difference sleepe till our brethren bring or your selues shew his Holines resolution but will needs with tooth and nayle and with all earnestnes pursue the challenged authoritie against vs and stop at nothing that lieth in your way be it the generall disturbance of vs all and the disquieting of the whole realme that I say nothing of the scandall nor of the edging of other persons A better temper would more commend Vndoubtedly if our two friends returne not the sooner nor you perswaded to desist from the busie course begun assure your selues you wil baile our pens and inforce vs for defending of our good names to make knowne to the whole realme the full state processe of all matters in Rome in England Wherein if there fall out ought as it is feared there will fall out much little to the commendation of some of your proceedings you are to impute the blame to your selues that thus mainely vrge the occasion Good counsell to remember before hand that had I wist is too late Neither were it amisse if you did lesse follow
strange resolution and not a little grieue to see and heare how sharplie how vncharitablie how iniustlie we are dealt with and what bond of endlesse discord the pamphlet of schisme the occasion and origin of all hath most vnfortunatelie cast among vs which notwithstanding we do not rehearse that when the difference commeth to tryall we intend to make benefit of such their opinions hoping without that help to be able with sounder proofes to confirme what we hold then with such allegations Now touching your Fatherhoods charge and our culpablenes in the other offences specified we omit to say much partlie in regard of dutie partlie because we would not be thought tender in taking nor full of defending partlie also for that the raising of scandall must fall in fine to their part to whome the lawfulnes or vnlawfulnes of the vsed processe and more the truth or vntruth of our schisme after deciding shall prescribe and giue it And as for the other three kinds of sinne of discrediting our Protector of vttering opprobrious speeches against the fathers and of drawing your selfe into danger our only answere is that because the mentioning of them in this sort bringeth a suspition of their vngodlines vpon vs all we most hartilie beseeke you to nominate and take condigne punishment of the guiltie and thereby free the residue of so foule a staine Doubtlesse if the taunts of our schisme composed and the pluralitie of by-words which he spent in that paradox with lesse modestie against vs yea if his condemning vntruths in sentencing vs to be rebels schismaticks fallen from Gods Church offenders against all faith and humane authoritie excommunicate irregular contemners and treaders downe of due obedience to the Sea Apostolick scandalizers of all the godlie infamous throughout euery mans mouth no whit better then soothsayers and idolaters and to be counted of as ethnicks and publicans if these we say with other intollerable defamations dispersed and sent to Rome against vs for deeper deprauing our designes and persons which we can proue some by letters yet extant others by testimonie of credible relatours were vprightly ballanced with that which we haue said or written against the Fathers it would soone appeare and as manifestlie as light at noonetide who haue most exceeded who haue surfeited and who remaine obliged to satisfye for vttering we may say lauishing of loose bad opprobrious speeches Is it possible we meane Father Garnets words in his letter to me of the 7. of March 1599. not for religious humilitie or morall courtesie but for gaule it selfe or a worse humour to exaggerate matters heauier vpon vs then to affirme that if those whome we haue begotten to Christ or who are our ghostlie children should receiue sacraments at our hands they seeme to receiue poyson in place of medicine from vs yea also to commit grieuous sinne if they do but intreate vs to celebrate or shall but help vs at Masse Surely surely had we defiled our pennes against the Fathers with like stuffe and doctrine Lord how francklie had we bin exclaimed against with open mouth if not all the bels both in towne and country rung out Crucifige vpon vs long since to our euerlasting ignominie But the abhomination and execration of our schisme commerited and importuned this and a fuller measure of bitternes to be powred vpon vs. Be it so though we hope by all authorities to cleere our selues from any such tainder yet the same being neither decided by sentence of holie Church nor in talke nor in the least suspition before it pleased the Fathers to raise and spread the calumniation of vs we cannot but thinke we haue reason to blame them of course and homely dealing that hauing alwayes honored them in the degree we haue and they being neither our superior against whome our offence if any were was committed nor in any way with vs in subordination vnto him but a distinct body from him and vs thus peremptorily thus eagerly thus violently to censure and condemne their long welwillers and ioint-labourers with them in one vineyard To say charitie induced them to so exceeding a processe against vs were to speake voluntarilie beyond all likelihood of truth for if charitie had bin the motiue charitie being as the Apostle writeth patient benigne not prouoked to anger suffering all things hoping all things bearing all things they would either haue deferred the denouncing of their cruell sentence vpon vs knowing that we had long before that time sent to his Holines for vnderstanding his pleasure or haue vsed ciuiller tearmes or at leastwise not interlaced so many frumps and mightily inciting scoffes as they did in the treatise fitlier beseeming a Stage-player then a religious person 4 There remaineth one materiall point yet vnremembred and which putteth vs in feare ofmo troubles at hand viz. that part of your letter to Maister Clearke wherein you signifie that you are content for the time to suffer vs in our opinion of schisme as the lesse euill and will not deale as yet as a prelate may do for appeasing the same What course you intend against vs good sir in these your words we know not in particular but a warning they must needes be vnto vs either to addresse our selues to take vpon vs without demerit the turpitude of schisme and thereby discredit our nation staine our function leese our faculties loade our consciences wrap our selues in censures and turmoile if not agonize the soules of our ghostlie children in breeding doubts whether their confessions made vnto vs or hereafter to be made be good or no. On these mischiefes great and many and very fearefull we must wittinglie put our selues as is said or prepare our patience to beare whatsoeuer it shall like our hard friends to aduise and your selfe to impose vpon vs. Lamentable to remember how much the former glorie and renowne of our english schollers and priests at Rome are sithence the death of our blessed Cardinall eclipsed or rather blotted or rather then either if we may so say defamed Which euill hitherto outlandish and confined chiefely to that place begins now alas to creepe hitherward apace nay hath alreadie found large welcome in our realme and gauled the reputation of Priests impeached the increase of Catholicks decayed the reliefe of prisoners and raysed the like mutinies and debates in our country as the generall and Gods cause lyeth groueling amitie pineth peace droopeth our aduersaries reioyce and dissention and faction seeme only to raigne Our good Lord for the infinitenes of his mercy guide and graunt you good Father the happines to reforme all and pardon the causers whosoeuer they be that they feele not the smart of the misdeede in the reckoning of their last accompts For conclusion we appeale honored sir to the indifferencie of your owne thoughts whether these and mo of like agreiuance which if we would we could alleage being the aduersities of our present state there be not greatest necessitie of mouing and recommending this
institution of our Superiours nor make any secret meetings for aduising one the other when as the condition of our state embarreth vs to meete publikely nor write letters to any beyond the seas without his priuitie For these reasons and for that the authoritie it selfe was most strange neuer heard of in the Christian world meerely penall without mixture of any benefite to our selues Church or countrey of most absolute soueraigntie without tye in the proceedings to any forme of law other then the arbitrarie pleasure of the Archpriest and the receiuing of the sayd authoritie the same being a superiour prelature expresly and vnder heauie penalties forbidden b Extâ—â—u Iaiuncl c. Bulla 2. Iulij 2. Iulij 3. constit 34. by the constitutions of holie Church except the partie preferred thereunto do shew the Letters of the Sea Apostolicke such as the Cardinals were not for proofe of his promotion Notwithstanding all these exceptions and iustifications of our bearing off to admit the subordination we neuerthelesse offered to obey Maister Blackwell in the meane though not to receiue him to our Superiour till such time as the Pope should make forth his Breue or otherwise confirme him in his place and likewise protested vnder our hands that no sooner should any such Breue or confirmation appeare but that it should find vs readie most absolutely to receiue the authoritie But this was not deemed sufficient nor ought could satisfie but our present submission Which because we deferred to make and did not yeeld to acknowledge him for our Superiour vpon testimonie of the Cardinals letter father Lister diuulged his condemned Treatise against vs his Superiour father Garnet and M. Blackwel approued the same They taught that our company was to be shunned that our faculties In Fa. Listers treatise and in Fa. Garnets letter of the 7. of March were lost that our selues were excommunicated that none vnder mortall sinne could inuite vs to say Masse and those that did participate with vs in Sacraments made themselues also partakers of our wickednesse Which inflaming matter of dissention and vntollerable reuiling against vs lasted some moneths and when at last the Popes Breue arriued we were content notwithstanding the sharpnesse of the premisses to forgiue all for peace sake and receiued the Subordination in as large maner as it was proposed Presently vpon this atonement and remission of the former defamations Father Iones raised another paradox farre more strange and absurd then that of Father Listers and our Archpriest soothed it to be true vidz that whosoeuer did stiffely maintaine that we had not incurred the crime of schisme by the prorogation of our refusall to receiue M. Blackwell for our lawfull Superiour he himselfe ipso facto for such his maintenance incurred the censures of holy Church At this time also M Blackwell published a resolution which he said he receiued from our mother citie declaring the refusers of the appointed authoritie were schismatikes and commaunded that none should absolue vs in confession vnlesse we did first acknowledge so much In his Letter to Master Clearke and likewise menaced that if we did perseuere in the contrary opinion he would deale with vs as a Prelate for appeasing the same Vpon which order and threate of our Archpriest and as well for satisfaction of our ghostly children as to make a finall end of the controuersie we offered to dispute the question with the Iesuites the authors of the Calumniation but being denyed this iust request by our Archpriest we sent compelled thereunto to the Vniuersitie of Paris with humble petition to that venerable companie of the Sorbons that they would vouchsafe to deliuer their opinioÌ„ censure in the case Who freeing vs from schisme and all sinne in the nature of the act our Archpriest made foorth eftsoones a decree prohibiting 29. of May 1600. vnder grieuous penalties either directly or indirectly the said censure of the famous Vniuersitie And within short time after his 18. of October 1â—00 Reuerence published another decree wherein he by vertue of his authoritie iudicially declared vs to haue bene truly disobedient to the Sea Apostolike and rebellious against his office for not admitting the subordination at first and forbad vs vnder present losse of all our faculties and of being ipso facto suspended and interdicted neither to presume our selues nor any other for vs to defend our former disobedience any maner of way by word or writing Yea his Reuerence enacted further in the same decree that we as §. 5. if we had bin boyes in some Colledges vnder the Iesuits and that it behoueth also that some iealousie were cast abrode of our demeanure should not haue any secret meetings or communication together saue such only as tended to the increase of pietie and hospitalitie or of humanitie and peace A law of that qualitie notwithstanding the smooth pretext as the christian world neuer heard the like to be made for Priests and Pastors sent by the sea Apostolicke for reducing others to the Catholicke faith By which and some other of our Archpriest his decrees following in the discourse the reader may iudge both what an vnworthy and seruile bondage he and the Iesuites whose counsell or direction he exactly followeth in all things haue and would more of all likelyhood haue brought vpon vs ere this day if we had not appealed and wrote to his Holines and also whether there remayned any other refuge vnto vs then to appeale and try the accusations before that Tribunall vnto whose iudgement both they and we must stand Further we haue seuerall times sued for peace at the hands of our aduersaries euen vpon vneuen conditions namely before the first Breue before and after our appellation and before our brethrens preparation to Rome but they of the other side euermore reiected all our offers nor would accept of any conditions wherein our vtter discredit and their victory though in vnrights should not appeare to the world The holy Ghost writeth and the words are true as well Eccle. 41. touching the spirituall as carnall parent the children complaine of their wicked father because they liue in reproch for him And S. Thomas c 22. q. 73. art 4. ad 1. quodl 10. q. 6. art 13. with all other schoole Diuines teacheth that a man is bound to defend his good name when the wrongfull deprauing thereof turneth others to detriment Likewise the same Doctor d 22. q. 72. art 3. c. writeth that one may be bound to purge his good name euen in respect of doing good thereby to the defamer viz. when through the checking and repressing of his boldnes the party is learned to be more wary and temperate Which is also the commaund of holy writ answere a foole according to his foolishnes least he seeme wise Proverb 26. to himselfe We trust by the litle which is said that both the necessitie and iustnesse of our defence appeareth so much the more by how
authoritie vpon the first promulgation thereof Pag. 163. My Letter to the Arch-priest touching the same Pag. 164. A part of Maister Blackwels letter to Cardinall Caietane in praise of the Iesuites Pag. 172. The sixth Instruction appointeth the Arch-priest to seeke the iudgement and counsaile of the Superior of the Iesuites in all things of moment Pag. 175. The Arch-priests proceedings either dispence with or violate the law of nature Pag. 179. The proceedings of our Arch-priest either dispence with or transgresse the lawes of holy Church Pag. 181. My Letter to our Archpriest after he had suspended and interdicted diuerse other Priests and my selfe Page 183. The points of the Archpriests letters to M. Iacson and the authorities he alleaged for practising and imposing the Censures of Suspension and Interdict and for making Decrees are examined and answered Page 184 The causes why our Archpriest suspended interdicted and redoubled the taking away of my faculties are proued most vnworthy Page 190. The fourth and fifth Paragraffes of our Archpriests Decree of the 18. of October Page 191. Our Appeale from the Archpriest to his Holinesse Page 192. My second Letter to our Archpriest sent vnto him together with the Appeale Page 203. My Letter to a lay gentleman in answer of his accusations Page 205. A second principall point wherein our Archpriest transgresseth his commission Page 214. A third principall point wherein our Archpriest infringeth the ordinances of holy Church Page 215. A fourth instance of the same Page 220. A fift essentiall point of the same Page 221. A sixt particular shewing the same Page 222. The Archpriests letter for taking away of M. Mushes faculties and mine Page 225. My third Letter to our Archpriest Page 226. The disproofe and refutation of the causes alleaged by our Archpriest for taking away of our faculties Page 229. A fourth Letter of mine to the Archpriest Page 236. The fift Reason Shewing that we were not bound to receiue the authoritie vpon commaundement from the Cardinall in respect of the indignation that our Prince and State beare to father Parsons whom they knew to be the procurer and plotter thereof Page 239. My Letter to father Garnet for intreating notice of that he could say against me Page 243. My Letter to another Gentleman concerning the same Page 244. Father Garnets answer Page 245. My reioinder to him Page 248. Conditions of peace offered before the comming of the first Breue Page 270. Our Supplication for a dispute Page 273. Conditions of peace offered before our brethrens going to Rome for prosecution of the Appeale Page 284. The kinde of submission that our Archpriest exacteth at our hands Page 286. The Popes declaration in the controuersie Page 291. That our deferring to receiue the subordination was no actiue scandall and that the Iesuites their stirres were really and actually scandalous Page 293. The imputation of ambition cleered Page 294. The exception of leauing the Carthusians answered Page 299. The Constitutiue Letter Henricus Tituli S tae Potentianae Cardlis Caietanus S. R. E. Camerarius Anglicanae nationis Protector Georgio Blackwello Sacerdoti Anglo S. Theologiae baccalaureo formato in vinea Anglicana laboranti salutem SCitum est atquè vsu fere quotidiano compertum diuina prouidentia ad bonorum exameÌ„ atquè exercitationem sic disponente vbi maiora eduntur ad Dei gloriam opera ibi acriores etiam existere ad haec ipsa impugnanda vel retardanda satanae atque communis hostis conatus Neque vllum sane vidimus his annis illustrius quam in causa Anglicana exemplum quae vt insignem accepit à Domino pietatis fortitudinis patientiae atque constantiae gratiam clarissimamque tùm confessorum tùm etiam martyrum gloriam sic acerrmaÌ„ quoquè ab haereticis impugnationem passâ— esse noscitur ita vt locum in ea habeat illud quod de anima electa Spiritus sanctus pronunciat Certamen fortè dedit ei Deus vt vinceret Et de vase electionis Christus Dominus Ostendam illi quantum oporteat cum pati pro nomine meo Imo Catholicos ipsos ac Sacerdotes nonnullos Sâ—minariorum qui caeterorum duces atquè antesignani ad omnem excelsae virtutis laudem hactenus extiterunt aggredi sathanas non dubitauit vt inter se â—ollideret vnionis murum quo omnis nititur Christianae pietatis spes dissiparet Cui hostis conâ—tui Romae quoquè nuper emergenti cum Smi D. N. summa prudentia ac paternus amor remedium salutare per Dei gratiam diebus praeteritis adhibuerit cupiatque ad huius Collegij Romani exemplum quod summa pace ac tranquillitate fruitur reliquis quoque in partibus eandem curari conseruari animorum concordiam sine qua nihil boâ—i exitus sperari potest speciali mandato nobis iniunxit vt hâ—â—c rei procurandae omni nos qua possumus vigilantia impendamus quod perlibenter quidem facimus eo quod hoc cardine potissimum totius causae momen tum versari non ignoremus Cum igitur non parum interesse ad hoc ipsum nonnulli censeant si subordinatio aliqua inter Sacerdotes Anglicanos constituatur rationes ab ipsis Sacerdotibus pro ea re redditae à S mo D. N. probatè fuerint nos S t is suae pijssimam prouidentissimamque voluntatem sequentes hoc ipsum statuere decreuimus Atque pro ijs quidem Sacerdotibus Anglicanae nationis dirigendis ac gubernandis qui in Angliae Scotiaeve regnis in praesentia versantur vel in posterum eo venturi sunt dum haec nostra ordinatio durauerit te deligimus cui vices nostras pro tempore delegemus inducti relatione ac fama publica virtutis â—ruditionis prudentiae ac laborum tuorum in ista vinea Anglicana per multos annos excolenda Facultates autem quas ad hoc ipsum tibi concedimus hae sunt Primum vt caeteris omnibus Seminariorum Sacerdotibus saecularibus vt iam dictum est authoritate Archipresbyteri praesis quoad S mâ—s aut nos eius mandato aliud statuerimus Deinde vt eosdem Sacerdotes dirigere admonere reprehendere vel etiam castigare possis cum erit opus hocque vel facultatum sibi à quocunque seu quandocunque concessarum restrictione aut etiam reuocatione si id necessitas postulauerit De ijsdem praeterea Sacerdotibus disponere de vna residentia in aliam cum maior Dei gloria animarumque luâ—rum illud exigat mouere ac commutare dubia quoque controuersias exorientes audire pro rerum aequitate ex aequo bonóque determinare schismata diuisiones ac contentiones amouere vel etiam compâ—scere earumque rerum causa quemcumque Sacerdotem ad te vocare ac conuenire plures etiam vnum in locum conuocare cum necesse fuerit cum sine probabili periculo fieri posse in Domino videbitur congregatis vero praeesse eisque proponere vel quae istis
sole cause alledged in the Cardinals letter and which as there appeareth was made the principall motiue and ground of the new institution was a debate or variance fained to be betweene the Seminary Priests and the Catholicke laytie of our nation A fiction no lesse slanderous defaming both cleargie and temporalty then the same is open to euery mans checke For what Priest or lay Catholike in England can warrant and verifie the assertion with any one instance or being acquainted with what hath passed in this kind cannot if he hath will witnesse the contrary Neither is there need we should produce more or clearer euidence for disproofe of the slander then Maister Blackwels owne letter which he wrote to Cardinall Caietane immediatly By likelihood no holy haters of their owne praises before the institution of the authority and which for the sundry praises it gaue to the societies high labours and charities here is registred in our English Colledge at Rome as a perpetuall memory to all posterity For the writing whereof together with a Sermon he made in setting forth their merites he was in many mens opinion chosen to the office he possesseth In this letter he confidently affirmeth that for this latter twenty yeares space and more he neuer heard of any dissention Cuius afflatus paulo molestius aliquando commouit which was The selfe words of the Letter not blowne ouer without the least trouble § Which testimony of Master Blakwels to the Cardinall cannot in his owne coÌ„science be vnderstood of the Iesuits and Seminary Priests but only of the good agreement betweene the secular Priests the laity This we say because for the space of the latter two yeares immediatly before he wrote the said letter not only the whole realme was grieuously scandalized but the Pulpets rung also euery where with the great contentions which were betweene the Iesuits and the Priests at Wisbicâ—h And these scandalous stirres were so little vnknowne to Maister Blakwell as himselfe indited a generall letter vnto them perswading to mutuall peace and concord Yea further at the very same time when he addressed his letter to the Cardinall he could not be but weeting to the reuiuall of the old and increase of the new dissentions at the same place and among the sayd persons and which also were of no small moment and of much disedification By all which it is most euident that if Maister Blackwels words were true auowing that there was no dissention in our countrey Cuius afflatus paulò molestius aliquando commouit they were onely true in the secular Priestes and the laytie and not betweene the Iesuits and the Priestes and consequently the dissention which was suggested to be betweene the Seminary Priestes and the laytie and for appeasing whereof the new authority was ordained was a meere deuice and an apparant falsitie the dissention being wholly which was concealed from his Holinesse betwixt the Iesuits and the Seminary Priests And to the redresse whereof this authority no whit auailed the Iesuits who were the brewers and principall cause of all the broyles being altogether out of the compasse of the Archpriests authority iurisdiction vnlesse it be to direct him in the execution of the same The second falshood vttered was that Maister Standish whom The second falsitie expressed the Iesuits imployed in negociating this businesse with his Holinesse as is confessed in the Apologie and who had at that time giuen his name to be one of their order told his Holinesse but by what kind of equiuocation or strange subintellection we know not that he had the consents of the Priests in England and came in their names to intreate the appointing of a superiour whereas in truth he neuer acquainted the body of our Cleargy with his going and lesse with the businesse he went about Nay he was so cunning in cloaking his intention that euen to those Priestes who were not also aboue two or three from whom he could not conceale his iourney he pretended the cause of his voyage to be a long desire he had to visite the holy places and perhaps to enter into religion forgetting therein the aduice of S. Paul Non ambulantes in astutia not walking in craftinesse intending one 2. Cor. 4. thing and making semblance of another To conclude our first reason the information being faulty as well for truths concealed as for vntruths deliuered yea the very groundsell of the authority we meane the chiefe maine reason which is preferred to the first place in the Constitutiue Letter giuen as the sole principall cause of instituting the subordinatioÌ„ being not only vntrue but coÌ„taining beside a very grieuous touch both to the secular cleargy confessant Catholiks of our countrey as that the diuel had made an assault to set vs together in tumults when not the least breach or variance was knowne or euer extant betweene vs we assured our selues the case thus standing that we might most lawfully and in wisedome deferre our obedience to the new authority till we had disclosed the drift to his Holinesse layd open the fraudulent and bad dealing practised by the complottors and procurers of the subordination and the likelihood of the broiles to ensue betweene the Iesuits the Priests whilest the Iesuites hauing thus cunningly gotten the chusing of both our Archpriest and Assistants and consequently deriued power to themselues to make and multiplie what ordinances they pleased in our Church for curbing and afflicting any one that should withstand Res ipsa loquitur No moe words neede the effects themselues do witnesse The second Reason THE second reason of our bearing off was for that admitting the information to be true which the procurers of the authority gaue vp to his Holinesse as how little sincere it was the reason precedent sufficiently sheweth we stood neuerthelesse morally assured that our delay could not be offensiue being intended for no longer while then till sending to his Holinesse which was done with greatest speed and vnfolding to him the true state of all matters we might receiue direct knowledge what was done namely whether the subordination was proposed only and vpon our liking to be confirmed which appeared most probable or whether it was so peremptorily decreed which we could not beleeue as whatsoeuer our exceptions might be against it it must notwithstanding be in force and continuance And here to make our discourse the more perspicuous and to lay certaine grounds for supporting the same we put downe the propositions following The first proposition NO delegatine authority by whom or of what matter soeuer can any way be rightfully extended beyond the limites of the coÌ„mission and case expressed The proues a In ca. Solâ—t de sent excommu verb. per superioreÌ„ lib. 6. Delegata potestas est stricti iuris idsolum potest quod ei specialiter est commissum sine quo causa expediri non potest Delegatine authority as writeth the Glosse appertaineth
Holinesse command as his Holinesse himselfe with whom the day before he had conference about the same point told him and yeelded for reason that he durst not enact a forme of gouernement in our countrey ô the strange information that was giuen against vs for that he would not aduenture to haue his authority contemned of the Priests in England What better proofe if Senior Acrisio Priest and his Holinesse Fiscall be an honest man in his words can be demanded then this for iustifying the delay we made in subiecting our selues to the Arch-priests authority What argument taken from the euent of the matter can be of more force to shew that we had reason to suspēd our beliefe in many particulars of the Constitutiue Letter or what more pregnant coniecture can there occurre the Fiscals words being true then that Fa. Parsons of likelihood hath told many a good tale to his Holinesse for inducing him to conceiue alike hardly of out whole secular Cleargy as scarcely harder could be conceiued had we bin the lozels of the world and not our loyaltie obedience respect loue dutifulnes and sufferance for the eminency of that Sea equall with the merites of any Cleargy in the world The same officer also or another of greater calling which is more This letter is in the English booke likely told maister Bishop as himselfe witnesseth in his letter to Fa. Parsons that his Holinesse had at the most no other purpose touching the bond and imposition of the authority then that it should be proposed to the Priests in England for triall whether they thought that kind of gouernement fit sorting with the state of their countrey then as they should make knowne their opinions therein his Holinesse intended to establish or change it And beside the report of the Fiscall herein strengthned by so solemne and particular circumstances the busie busie endeuours of the society to get Priests to set to their names to a letter beginning with Olim dicebamur in testimony of their applause and thanksgiuing to his Holinesse for appointing the authoritie and his Holinesse long delay a full twelue moneth or thereabout to cōfirme the same is argument euident inough if no inuincible proofe that the truth and processe of matters were no other then is sayd Or if in so probable a truth there need moe coniectures the hardnesse of our two brethren their intreaty by Fa. Parsons the like as neuer had a president in that place doth not a litle confirme that all was not sound and iustifiable For vndoubtedly if there had not layd a pad in the straw or some secret hid in the decke of the stratageme which Fa. Parsons would not haue his Holinesse and others to see what need was there for him to procure doubtlesse by no charitable or true information the imprisoning of his countrey-men of Priests of labourers in Gods vineyard of those who for zeale of religion had made themselues incapable of fauour in their owne countrey and one of them relinquished a rich inheritance to procure the imprisoning of those who for many yeares space had continually ventured their liues and with good profit for reducing of soules to the obedience of the Sea Apostolike to procure the imprisoning of those who with all submissiuenesse of duty came a long and a chargeable iourney to his Holinesse foote out of loue and conscience to vnfold all things to his wisedome and for truer vnderstanding of his Holinesse pleasure What neede was there not onely to imprison them before they were heard or could come to the presence of his Holinesse but to apprehend them with Isberze by night with torches most infamously and himself a religious mā to be the leader chieftaine What need was there to imprison them apart to rifle them of all the instructions letters and notes they brought to keepe them close without licence so so much as to heare Masse euen vpon some of the chiefest feasts in Gods Church What need was there for himselfe to be their Iailour New yeares day and Twelfe day and keeper of the keyes of both their chambers What need was there to deny them to haue their learned counsel or Aduocates which they seuerally and earnestly requested and which seemed so iust a petition as father Holby in his discourse of the last of Iune 1601. auoweth vnder ferious protestation that they had it graunted vnto them and bringeth it in to imply their greater guiltinesse for that hauing their learned counsell and pleaders allowed were neuerthelesse condemned and found worthy of the punishment layd vpon them which was to be banished and confined in the banishment without any contribution or reliefe at all towards their maintenance What neede was there their arrest and imprisonment being so publickly knowne as it was and the whole course and manner thereof being so straunge as it could not but giue token to euery one of some notable and hainous crime in them to try them after in secret in the Colledge and to suffer neither scholler of the house nor externe nor any at all to be present at their triall beside the two Cardinals their Iudges Senior Acrisio the Fiscall father Tichborne the Notary Doctor Haddocke master Martin Array aduocates for the Archpriest himselfe and the two prisoners to the ende no doubt that none might witnesse lament and admire for what sinfull trespasse so to call their Christian intents they were so long and so straightly imprisoned and condemned to the sufferance of so greatly infamous and extreame punishment What neede was there neuer to release them of their durance no not after their triall before the two Cardinals vntil such times as his Holinesse had cōfirmed the authority by his Breue What need was there that in the verie graunt of the prisoners liberty they must be enioyned vnder heauiest penalties to depart the city within twelue dayes and that the dayes of the one must be expired too ere the other might be enlarged or set foote out of the Colledge What need was there that the prisoners being to be exiled and confined might not yet as they instantly desired be confined together in one place or prouince In fine what need was there that our two brethren might not at least going both one way for many hundreth of miles to the places assigned of their confinement could neuerthelesse vpon their instant desire be suffered to take comfort one of the others company being both Priests in so wearisome dangerous and desolate a iourney Vndoubtedly these other like vsages insinuated something they had their meaning fa. Parsons is wise and therfore how little soeuer his complexion inclineth him to pittie yet he would not shew the like extremities for manifesting his inclination and potencie onely He deuised the platforme of the gouernement our brethren disliked it Enough Or if we should adde more what must we say The authoritie being a bird of fath Garnet and father Parsons own hatching and the man whom they
promoted thereunto of their owne chusing also the forme of the subordination creating themselues in truth and vnderhand the appointers of the Archpriest the designers of the Assistants the makers of our lawes the dispensers the disposers the directors the commaunders and our great masters in all things Their stomackes were too great not to haue the subordination to go forward howsoeuer father Parsons his soule lay at pawne in the Interim as wel for his vsage towards our two brethren as also for abusing therein of the Sea Apostolicke Neither among so many strange wonders could we maruell at any thing more then what the cause or drift might be why father Parsons comming on a time from his Holinesse told one of the prisoners M. Charuock that he had neuer so much ado as to perswade his Holines that he and his fellow Agent were Catholicke Priestes and not heretickes a thing as father Parsons auowed which his Holinesse would not beleeue of a long while O good God to what times are we reserued to liue in either for that so vniust an information should be giuen to the highest Pastour against vertuous Priests or that an auncient religious man should in such sort glose and counterfeit For it cannot be possible if his Holinesse stood so conceited but that very impious vntruths and with greatest colour of truth were inculcated to his Holinesse ere his practised and aged iudgement could entertaine and ground so bad an opinion of English Priestes as they comming so farre off vnto him should be of any other religion then Catholicke Two Priests to come out of England to Rome and purposely to his Holinesse Chaire and in a message and supplication from Priestes whereof a good many were then are now and had bene a long while in durance for the Catholicke cause and in an affaire meerely belonging to the Romane Religion with a prest readines also to follow and obey his Holinesse order in the same as vnder their booke-othes they assured are we trow no tokens of heresie but ablest demonstration of conuincing the contrarie What should then be the cause that his Holines was possessed with so hard an opinion against them and consequently against vs all from whom and in whose names they came Was it the matter they came about Impossible if right information had bene giuen because they came only to vnderstand the truth coÌ„cerning the institutioÌ„ of the new authoritie and to open to his Holinesse wisedom our difficulties about the same and to acquaint him with the spiritual wants of our country with humblest petition for supply Cardinall Caietane who had most cause to stretch the action to the hardest sense against vs in that it might beare some semblaÌ„ce of an opposition against his ordinance Cardinall Burghesio openly acknowledged at the time when our two brethren appeared before them sitting in iudgement vpon their cause that they could not find fault with the intention and matter they came for And if the intention matter were lawfull or not iustly to be blamed as both their Graces affirmed let our aduersaries tell what might the trespasse be why his Holinesse mind was so greatly auerted or rather his holy zeale incensed The messengers were reported the one to be a Maultster and a Horse-courser the other for an incontinent person O tongue libertie whither runnest thou O father Parsons how credulous are you in bad matters Let but this latter be proued notwithstaÌ„ding you said who perchance counteth such a saying no bad pollicie that a Priest sware it and two other Priestes tooke their othes that they heard him sweare it and we do all here yeeld our selues without further conuiction to be traytours to God and his Church and craue the fagot There was a night-cappe with a border of blacke silke two fingers deepe a dozen of silke points fine sockes a sword and a dagger found in their chambers and matter of much good sport made therat father Parsons the chiefest doer hauing now forgotten how himselfe went attired when he liued in England and how some of his brethren here now go more costly then any Priest The messengers were accused that they came to Rome to renue the stirs in the Colledge The apprehension of M. Dudley M. Barrowes M. Râ—wse and M. Watson the remoue of Fa. Weston M. Archer M. Southworth and M. Pound from Wisbich to the Tower the great search made by the Officers for our Archpriest was laid to their charge as a complot agreed on before their going and after executed by vs here their confederates To make the bead-rowle long inough it was obiected that M. Doctour Bagshaw had a pension of fiftie pound a yeere of her Maiestie that we dealt with the Counsell and tooke direction from them The fall of M. Ithell and the Apostacie of Frier Sacheuerill were laid warmely in their dish with a long rable of surmises what would become of some others if they hold on Were not these fine exceptions we appleale to the whole world or accusations rather Who would euer think they could haue bin spoken without a vizard or obiected by any who before had not shaken hands with all shamefastnesse Alas alas whither do vnruly humours driue such as serue them For could there be grosser tales deuised if one would haue fabled for the whetstone or more infamous slaunders coined if there had beene a dispensation graunted to forge at pleasure That these things were laid in the dish of our two brethren against vs their fellows it cannot with any truth be denied or but with the abandoning of a great deale of modestie be stood against For sundry Letters containing the greatest part of the premises and which father Parsons had the perusing of and was the inditor or prompter of all or most of the contents and which also himselfe sent open into England to and for our Archpriest and others to reade are yet extant and both the priests liuing against whom the said counterfeit crimes were obiected and who are ready to witnesse or if need so require to depose so much as before is rehearsed But what would we inferre out of all these Verily not that father Parsons did accuse them and vs to his Holines in al the foresaid crimes for then vndoubtedly his maners had bene so far discrepant from the etymologie of his religious name as blacke is from white or hell from heauen Neuerthelesse we cannot but assure our selues that he or some other and none but himselfe hath the office of informership in the English affaires plaid a monstrous bad part in inciting his Holinesse by vntrue and vngodly suggestion to conceiue so infinite hardly of our two brethren as not to be brought but vpon long perswasion to thinke them to be Catholicke Priests Now although the reasons testimonies and probabilities already alleaged may sufficiently declare what grounds we had to beleeue that his Holinesse did neither commaund the institution of the new authoritie nor was priuie to the particulars
yet because we desire to abound in the purgation of our good names being all that we haue to leese and better then great riches we will adde a few more for fuller Prouerb 22. proofe and testimonie of the issue It seemed then a matter most improbable vnto vs that his Holinesse carrying a singular praise for his wisedome and clemencie in gouerning would euer appoint so barren an authoritie in our poore distressed Church as this appeared to be consisting wholly in a libertie and freedome to punish without the admixture of the least comfort redounding to any thereby Yea it appeared incredible in our vnderstanding that his Holinesse after so many tokens of fauour and compassion towards our miseries would ordaine the like strange and penall gouernement and not so much as to giue vs notice thereof from himselfe by Breue or missiue letter knowing that without such immediate notice or other Canonicall certitude we could neither in discretion wisedome nor conscience admit so meere a burthen void of all maner of commoditie in our Church When his Holinesse made Cardinall Allen of blessed memory our Superiour he declared it by a Breue notwithstanding the state and rich deserts of the man our founder in learning and common parent Note the precedent Which president and foregoing example did in a sort commaund vs to beleeue that if the new subordination farre more straunge and in some points more ample too then the authoritie of the good Cardinall had bene the binding ordinance of his Holinesse his pastorall wisedome would in like manner haue vouchsafed specially conferring so large iurisdiction vpon a priuate man not in dignitie before nor of any marke or reckening in comparison of the true vertuous a like wise and most learned Allen to publish and attestate such his fact to our Church by a Breue or some other kind of Apostolicall writ And we were alike thorow setled in this opinion as we reckned the contrary a plaine derogation to his Holinesse wisedome clemencie iudgement and compassion Another probabilitie The Constitutiue Letter as M. Blackwell read it vnto vs directed except our memories do much deceiue vs that the rest of the Assistants who were left to the Arch-priest to chuse should be selected out of the number of the auncientest Priests that had their places of residence in or nearest about London to the end as the reason was adioyned that he might vpon euery occurrance haue some readie at hand to consult withall The breaking of which prescript forme and direction did secure vs that the Letter Constitutiue was not the ordinance or commaundement of his Holinesse For if it had bene either as there wanted not reason to moue vs so did we throughly presume that neither M. Blackwell nor the Iesuits in truth the chiefe Electors receiuing expresse direction to chuse the rest of the assistants among the elder sort of Priestes residing in or nearest about London would euer haue bene so venturous as contrarie to the selfe-forme of the Commission not only to chuse two three or foure of the Assistants but the whole number of them in places furthest remote from the place assigned And that such a direction was expressely contained in the Cardinals Letter as it was shewed vnto vs by M. Blackwel M. Charnocke and my selfe who were first of al sent for before him to acknowledge the authority are ready to witnes and beside the record of both our memories the presumptions ensuing do not a little seeme to confirme the same Anon after that M. Blackwel had chosen the ful number of the Assistants a Gentleman very inward with him in these affaires brought their names vnto me in writing which when I had read and saw that some of theÌ„ which were chosen dwelt in the North another in Wales another in the West Country and others in place farre distant and no one in or neare to London the place assigned I demaunded why M. Blackwell had not chosen his Assistants according to the direction of the Cardinals Letter out of the number of the auncientest Priests in and about London The Gentleman not denying but that the Cardinals Letter so prescribed gaue this answere that if M. Blackwell had chosen the Assistants according to the direction of the Cardinals Letter in and neare about London this inconuenience had followed that he could not haue had or not so conueniently by much so ready aduertisements from those parts and quarters of the Realme where he hath now chosen the Assistant as by this meane his Assistants there residing he shall haue Which reason how weightie soeuer it appeare yet because in Delegations and no lesse in subdelegation the a Ca. Cum dilâ—cta de rescriptis glossa ibidem Ca si cui de elect li. â— glo ibidem glo in ca. Praeterea de off dâ—leg verb. sâ—â—pliter Panormitan in ca. CuÌ„ post de elect nuâ— 1. Aâ—t Fracodum ca. verb. ipso ture Hostiensis de offici iud deleg nu 8. Speculum coâ— tit §. 5. n. 1. alij forme of the rescript is of the substance of the Commission and strictly to be obserued and not to be gone from or what is done to the contrary to be of no force and void in law as the third fourth and fifth Propositions teach For which respect and also because the reason alleaged in the Cardinals Letter for hauing the rest of the Assistants to be chosen in and neare about London was expedient and very behouefull we could not thinke that M. Blackwell or the Iesuits would euer in any such ouert actual maner at least transgresse the direction and selfe-forme of the Commission had he or they taken the Constitutiue Letter to be the ordinance of his Holinesse and not for the plot of father Parsons receiuing reputation by bearing the Cardinals name but the thing it selfe left wholly to the others order framing and direction Another proofe or presumption though not so forceably concluding and which time a good decypherer of matters hath sithence discouered is the appearing of a second forme of the Constitutiue Letter as we take it or at least wise of a copie of the Constitutiue Letter subscribed and signed with the Cardinals hand and seale as was the Constitutiue Letter it selfe And that this is true thus we make plaine The Constitutiue Letter which M. Blackwell first shewed vnto vs bore date the 7. of March 1598. as himselfe will not deny nor can if he then shewed vs the true Letter because the Popes Breue confirmeth it by that date and about some foure moneths after the attonement made vpon the arriuall of his Holinesse Breue my selfe intreating M. Blackwell for a sight of the Cardinals Letter to the end I might once throughly see as wisedome and conscience did require to what I was bound he sent me the Letter which is verbatim set downe in the beginning of the booke and which was subscribed and sealed with the Cardinals name and signet and his
onely instrument and meane of doing good to others and for himselfe to liue by For although in Censures of holy Church regularly he that hath authoritie to bind hath also authoritie to loose and contrary wise he that hath authoritie to loose hath authoritie to bind yet it followed not at least in our vnderstanding the taking away of faculties being no censure that because the Archpriest had authoritie giuen him to take away faculties graunted by whom or whensoeuer therefore he could giue or restore them againe after he had once taken them away in regard his authority being delegatine and after a prescript forme it could not at least as we thought be extended beyond the cases expressed And therefore no expresse signification being made of any such authority in the Constitutiue Letter that he might restore againe all such faculties as he had for any cause taken away we thought the subordination to be much more rigorous or defectiue in this point then that it could be the ordinance or commandemement of his Holinesse A second instance It appeared incredible that his Holinesse bearing so great commendation for mercifulnesse and lenitie as he doth would neuerthelesse enact a new kind of punishment for the Priests of our countrey onely â—ighting in more bloud for maintaining the soueraignty of that Chaire then any other Cleargy at this day in the world We presume to say a new kind of punishment for the Priests of our countrey only because the auncient and vsuall manner of punishing Priests in other countries that shew themselues disobedient vnquiet or stubborne against their Ecclesiasticall superiours is by imposition of censures that is by debarring them the vse of their Priestly functions not by taking their faculties quite from them But in the new subordination authoritie is giuen not onely to suspend or debarre vs from the vse of our faculties but as if that tye and punishment were too slight or brought not misery inough vpon vs we must haue all our faculties taken quite and cleane from vs giuen by whom and whensoeuer A kind of iurisdiction seldome heard of and neuer vsed vpoÌ„ any Pastors such as al the Priests in our country are after a sort reputed to be so named in the 9. Instruction Nor was the iurisdiction euer practised in England while good Cardinal Allen liued but an extremity taken vp only since Fa. Par. began to sit at sterne therby become more bold to vnmaske his violent nature Yea as M. Blackwell now demeaneth the matter and sayth he hath good warrant for it not only al our faculties must be taken wholy away from vs vpon due conuiction of a fault but the like prosecution must be made vpon vs without triall without proofe without summons meerely at the arbitrary disposition of himselfe that is as the euent hath hitherto shewed when so often as he shall imagine or be pleased to pretend a cause A third instance We could not beleeue the action being without an example in Gods Church that his Holinesse determining to make a superiour ouer our whole secular Cleargy would institute no greater a prelate theÌ„ an Archpriest to take the charge especially if his Holinesse then meant so much as in his later Breue is sitheÌ„ce appointed that he should also be a superiour ouer the laity as well honorable as worshipfull And not onely to gouerne all the secular Priests residing within the realme but to gouerne direct and command vs if so we do or shall reside in the kingdome of Scotland A scope which conuinced our vnderstanding that the subordination was not the appointment or decree of his Holinesse but some fine descant or politicke deuice plotted by father Parsons for seruing some turne appertaining to state matters We wish it were not so but it is too plaine for if consideration of matters of this quality were laid aside what reason can be giuen that an Archpriest residing in England should direct and gouerne his Countrey-priests in Scotland where also no English Priests at the time of instituting the authority or since is knowne to reside But father Parsons harbouring some watchfull bugs in his brest and forecasting matters a farre off thought it good wisedome to preuent the contingent which his owne feare or surmizes suggested and to forelay what might fall in time verifying therein the words of our Sauiour The children of this world are Luke 16. wiser then the children of light in their generation A fourth instance On the one side it appeared straunge that his Holinesse hauing set so long in the Chaire as he hath and receiuing aduertisements of the miseries of our Church could be so little weeting to the state of Priestes and lay Catholikes in our countrey as to thinke Priests might be remoued from one residence to another by authority and not great and open daunger to ensue And on the other side if so his Holinesse were ignorant of the lawes of our country or did not vnderstand the miseries and dangers we liue in what sinne could our prolonging be of not subiecting our selues to the new authority till we had informed his Holinesse therein and shewed how inconuenient nay how dangerous or truer how impossible it was for any such iurisdiction to be practised in our countrey vnlesse we did wilfully lay open not onely our selues but our Catholike friends to the hazards of a thousand ieopardies Let that point of the subordination the termes of our realme and the nature of requisite circumstances be considered together and the demonstration is made of as much as is auerred We will here let passe in silence that one of the Assistants the Iesuits chiefe solicitor in forwarding this new authority at Rome was the man who first suggested that clause of remouing Priests from their places of residence to be inserted in the iurisdiction of the Archpriest alleadging such a cause for his good deede as howsoeuer his discretion serued to tell it yet our conscience and feare of preiudice to manie especially if the faculty should happen to be practised as hath bene already threatned will not giue vs leaue to recite it Alexander the third writing to the Archbishop of Râ—uenna and pointing out the respect and duty we should beare to the Sea Apostolike vseth these words Aut mandatum nostrum adimpleas aut quare Ca. Si quando de rescript adimplere non possis rationabilem causam praetendas Either regardfully fulfill our commaundement or alleadge a reasonable cause why you cannot As if the good Pope would haue sayd the commandement of the Sea Apostolicke or of any other superiour ought to be carefully executed vnlesse there be a reasonable cause to the contrary Neither is this a false glosse or an enlarging of the Popes words being the same with the written Glosse Mandatum superioris debet adimpleri vel Glossaibidem reddenda ratio quare non adimpletur The commandement of a superiour ought to be accomplished or a reason rendered why it is not
accomplished And in another place Oportet mandatum Domini Papae Glossa in ca. cum tenâ—amâ—ur de praebend adimplere nisi subsit ratio non adimplendi It behoueth to fulfill the commandement of the Pope except there be a cause of not fulfilling it And it is likewise a receiued doctrine among all a D. Tho. in sen dist 15. q. 3. art 4. ad quartum quaest ad 3. Sil. verb. lex nu 8 Graff p. 1. Li. 2. ca. 36. nu 16. diuines that an exception of reasonable cause excuseth from sinne and is to be admitted in all precepts soeuer in positiue lawes A document which our aduersaries seeme by the nature of their proceedings to be little acquainted withall in that they did so rashly and most wrongfully condemne vs we wote not of how many enormities without so much as suspending their iudgements till they had heard or enquired after our reasons or knowne what we could say for iustifying or excusing our bearing off by them so peremptorily condemned O Lord who could thinke the contrary being not seene and felt that men of learning men of religion men that must be accounted of a passing mild spirite would censure adiudge and diuulge that action of ours to be so grieuous a crime as they made it being in his nature no other then which Popes themselues haue decreed to be lawfull and millions of true obedient children haue without scruple committed To wade further be it that we knew the Archpresbitership and the iurisdiction adioyned to be the commaundement or immediate act of his Holinesse as before the arriuall of his first Breue the whole time of our bearing off we nâ— did nor could win our thoughts to suspect any such matter what must it by and by put on the nature of enormious disobedience and we wote not what else to deferre the accomplishment of the sayd commaundement vpon manifest euidence of vntrue and most ignominious suggestion expressed in the front of the same Letter wherein the commaundement it selfe was signified and alledged also for the chiefe and sole cause why the subordination was instituted Verily if such auouance be throughly and vprightly looked into there cannot but appeare in them matter of dishonoring the Sea Apostolicke and supreme pastours as that hauing made forth their coÌ„mandements vpon information cannot or must not after permit that any delay be made by the subiect in executing the commandements how wrong detractiue soeuer they shall thinke or know the information to be then which what is farther from reason or can deeper distaine But leauing to others to comment vpon the paradoxe we desire the aduersarie that can say most in the cause to particulate the reason which in our duty and loue towards his Holinesse should haue moued vs to thinke that his mild and sweet course of proceeding with all other nations had so maruellously chaunged it selfe towards the professant Catholikes of our Realme his oppressed children as to graunt authority to the Archpriest to place and displace Priests in their houses harboring them of charity when but an inckling of receiuing any Priest into their house is matter inough to occasion trouble and the proofe or knowledge thereof a sufficient cause vtterly to vndoe theÌ„ their whole family A iurisdiction therfore farre more inconuenient hurtfull then we could any way beleeue his Holinesse euer appointed nay our vnderstanding gaue vs that we could not but with breach of bounden duty thinke that his Holinesse would euer assigne such a faculty as we for the foresayd cause and preiudice as also for that it giueth authority to the Archpriest to dispose of the persons of secular Priests a thing neuer heard of yea in the consequence to dispose of our liues too in regard that all Catholike houses whither he may remoue vs be not alike safe and free from danger What shall we say We could no way imagine that this so rare ample iurisdiction came from any other then from the heads of father Garnet and fathers Parsons as bearing the right stampe of father Parsons nature and sorting with other his forcible pollicies For by inuesting the Archpriest their owne at commaundement with this soueraigne kind of iurisdiction they knew they had a meane alwayes ready at hand to helpe when they would their brethren the Iesuites and other their deuoted friends to the best places in our Realme and thereby to draw to their party such of the laity as they would fainest haue to comply and aduance their proceedings First by remouing the Priest they keepe if he be thought an impediment thereunto and after by placing another Priest in his roome who must prepare and win them in the maner he shall be directed A fifth instance It seemed most improbable vnto vs that his Holinesse knowing in what deepe disgrace we liue with our Prince and in what vtter contempt and scorne with the greater number of our Realme by infinite and this for no cause more if for any so much as for honouring and maintaining the supreme dignity of that Chaire would neuerthelesse adde this hard fauour and increase of dishonour to our other afflictions as that we should in no chaunge haue the election of our superiour but the Cardinall Protector a straunger and who being a chiefe patrone of our oppositors hath shewed himselfe alwayes a backe friend to our party should without any of our voyces or the least aduice taken from vs euermore of himselfe appoint our Archpriest A greater disgust then we could perswade our selues that his Holinesse for the compassion and respect he beareth toward our miseries would euer shew specially to our whole Cleargy And certes we could not recken this so straunge a prouiso but for a cunning deuise of they two foresayd Iesuites both to preuent that none might be chosen to the place but such as themselues should well like and haue the preferring of and by the intersession and meane of this fauour bestowed euermore to make themselues the proprietaries and commanders of our Archpriest and haue him ready to execute all their designes punish remoue disgrace whom when and how they should appoint In briefe the speeches that M. Blackwell himselfe vsed not long after the receit of the Constitutiue Letter bred at that time an assured opinion in vs that the authority he claimed was not the institution of his Holinesse The speeches were these That if we would accept of the subordination appointed and should obediently demeane our selues thereunto his Holinesse intended after some triall of our cariage vnder this forme of gouernement to make Bishops in our Church and to allow them as large pentions as the reuenewes of Bishoprickes in our countrey amounted to in a Catholicke time Which words sounding very vnlikely in our eares what could we in reason thinke but that if the authority had bene the act of his Holinesse such grosse inducements little needed and consequently the vsing of them did more and more confirme vs that the subordination was
Gods grace with our wittingnes euer shall deserue of Peters Chaire or at the hands of his Holinesse Now if our aduersaries can answere and shew wherein we are mistaken or how the precedent reasons or authorities conclude not for vs whether the Cardinall receiued his authoritie by way of formall delegation or by way of verball commission we beseech them of charitie to communicate their knowledge and we promise them they shall find vs thankfull and most readie to recant our errour and aske them pardon And this being proued that we were not bound by law or conscience for that cannot be against conscience in which so many approued authors do agree to be lawfull to subiect our selues to the subordination his Grace erected vpon the sole credence of his Letter without further testimonie that his Holinesse gaue him Commission to institute the same in specie with all the branches and faculties it resteth for cleerer remonstrance of the truth and satisfaction of al doubts that we answer the reasons which our aduersaries make for proofe that we were bound to beleeue and obey the Cardinall Protector his Letter before the appearing of his Holinesse Breue in Confirmation thereof ONe of the chiefe reasons that our aduersaries bring for proofe of M. Blackwell in his 12. questions to the Priests 14. of March 1600. Fa. Holtbey in his discourse the last of lune 1601. and in the Apologie fol. 108. Destatu Ill. DD. Card. nu 9. such our bounden dutie is that his Grace was Lord Protector of our Nation and the distributer of faculties to Priests in their mission from Rome for England To which we answere first of the two dignities Cardinalship and Protectorship abstracted and considered apart each from other no doubt the title of Cardinalship is the greater and by so much that hardly there is any resemblance to be made betweene them as is to be seene by comparing the prerogatiues together recounted and laid downe by Zecchius in his booke de repub ecclesiastica And therefore if we were not bound as is abundantly proued before we were not to beleeue a Cardinals word in a matter of like preiudice much lesse were we then bound to giue credence to the word of a Protector in the same But be it for further proofe-sake and declaration of moe our advantages that the office of a Protector doth in right challenge more beleefe then doth the state of a Cardinall and that the two soueraigne dignities and offices meeting and residing in one personage as they did in Cardinall Caietane could not but impose a straighter bond by much vpon vs to beleeue and obey the particulars of his Graces Letter subscribed and signed with his own hand and seale then could the like Letter of any other Cardinall who was not our Protectour nor had the distribution of faculties in the missions To this we say that the authoritie of our Protector thus compounded and enlarged remaineth neuerthelesse a definite authoritie and falleth vnder the name of authoritie but the text of the law aboue cited is a Ca. cum à nobis de testib Quantaecunque authoritatis c. How great authoritie soeuer the affirmer is of he is not in things hurtfull to another to be beleeued vpon the sole testimonie of his owne word And b Inca. praeterea de dilat n. 5 Panormitane cited by c Verb delegatus nu 5. Syluester writeth that quantumcunque est persona authorizabilis what high ample authoritie soeuer the person beareth he is not in praeiudicialibus in matters of preiudice to haue beleefe built vpon the credence of his owne word onely What need moe proues It is very manifest by the vnanswerable authoritie of the text it selfe aboue cited salua in omnibus sedis Apostolicae authoritate that the priuiledge of being Ca cum à nobis de testib beleeued vpon the sole warrantize of his owne word in cases of preiudice is a respect peculiarly reserued and appropriated to the supreme dignitie of the Sea Apostolicke Or if on the other side our opponeÌ„ts wil as a principal man among them did once boldly affirme that the Cardinall did not so much institute this kind of subordination in our Church by vertue of any delegation receiued of his Holines as he did it by vertue office of his Proterctorship A conceit that M. Blackwell himselfe in some of his To my selfe the 8. of August to M. D. Bishop and my self the 17 of Aug. 1598. Letters which he wrote incontinent after the receit of the Constitutiue Letter seemeth to beate about if not to inferre calling the subordination Statuta constitutionem institutionem ordinem prudentissimam prouisionem Ill mi Domini Protectoris The statutes the constitution the institutions the order the right prudent prouision of our most illustruous Protector Now if our aduersaries beaten from their other holds will retire as some of them haue to the succour of this poore shift alas the fortresse they flie too is but a paper wall a descant fit onely to deceiue the ignorant For the office of a Protector consisting as Zecchius relateth Destat Ill arum D â—rum Card in nu 9. in proposing the elections and other causes of the Prouince or Country whereof the partie is Protector in the sacred consistorie and in answering the reasons doubts or exceptions which the Pope or any of the Cardinals shall there moue touching matters by him propounded neither did nor could impart like iurisdiction and soueraigntie to his Grace as thereby to institute of himselfe any kind of gouernement and much lesse so strange a kind of gouernement in our whole Church For why is there any kind of semblance or societie any alliance or coniunction between authoritie to propose elections to preferre the sutes of our Country to yeeld satisfaction to what is obiected in that most honourable assembly of the Pope and Cardinals the offices of a Protector and the iurisdiction of erecting a subordination the like wherof in all points was neuer heard of in our Church before if euer any where else in the Church of God The sequence is so incongruent that none of iudgement will make it and none but such as are wedded to their owne folly will euer stand therein carrying no more coherence then that chalke being white must needes without doubt be cheese or because the aduocate moueth and pleadeth his clients cause therefore without question he hath authoritie to determine and giue finall sentence in the same Touching the other part or meÌ„ber of the reason that we are bound to admit what Cardinall Caietane assigned in respect his Grace had the distribution of faculties to our Priestes that come from thence we thinke no answer fitter then silence in respect it bewrayeth so great shallownesse and defect of iudgement For if we were in this regard bound to beleeue the Cardinall on his word because he had authoritie to delegate faculties it followeth directly that we are in
owne life and there keepeth them without looking on them and thereby commeth to haue leisure and appetite to gaze vppon the life and cariages of some of the secular But to proceed in examining the rest of the testimonies Secondly his Holinesse Nuncio in Flaunders in his Letter to maister Blackwell and which our aduersaries alleage as a testimony against vs made no mention at all of the tenor of the commission nor of any particular that should be contained therein Our aduersaries themselues will not deny this or if they do we must say there is no truth in their words The whole that his Lordships letter can be drawne to make against vs or to testifie for them was in that his honour writing to M. Blackwell wrote vnto him by the name and title of Archpriest which also hapned as we thinke through this occasion After father Parsons had won the Cardinall to solicite and erect a subordination in our Church the like as himselfe thought fittest he sent a copie of the Constitutiue Letter to the Nuncio in Flaunders and to others there to reade Whereupon the Nuncio seeing maister Blackwell to be constituted Archpriest by the Cardinall gaue him also that title And what is this for proofe of the commission specially for proofe of the tenour the thing which is to be witnessed as is declared before or else what is witnessed to be little worth Thirdly touching the testimony of D. Stapleton the most and all that he wrote to the Nuncio concerning the authority of maister Blackwell and which our aduersaries lay hold on for reckord against vs was that his Holinesse had made him Archpriest Which thing also he did neither write by way of affirmance or to testifie so much but onely accidentally by occasion of another matter to weete what he thought fittest to be done about maister Tempest For at that time the Nuncio had sent M. Tempest vnto him with his accusers to be examined in the points for which the Cardinall Protector had taken away his faculties while he was in the way downwards from Rome and giuen likewise order to the Nuncio that he should be stayed in the Low-countries and not suffered to go into England Now when Doctor Worthington and maister Caesar Clement his accusers had charged him before Doctor Stapletō with as many things as they thought good or as their instructions from father Parsons directed and he had made his answer and purgation thereunto Doctor Stapleton aduertising the Nuncio by letter how the matter passed before him withall giuing his honor to vnderstand what he thought meetest to be done in the cause wrote that maister Tempest might wel be dismissed and suffered to depart into England and as he should there demeane himselfe so to receiue againe his faculties of the Archpriest whom his Holinesse had constituted superiour in England By all which being the whole summe of that Doctor Sapleton wrote to the Nuncio what more may be gathered then that Doctor Worthington and maister Caesar Clement relating the contents of the Constitutiue Letter or shewing a copie thereof vnto him which at that very season was newly come to Bruxels and made common to many the other incidently thereupon inserted in his foresayd Letter to the Nuncio the words aboue mentioned Which in no sence can iustly be reckened a testimony the writer by euidence of all circumstances thinking nothing lesse in vsing the words then as a witnesse to testifie the commission or that the subordination was the ordinance of his Holinesse by what he did say But whatsoeuer Doctour Stapletons intention was therein either to witnesse or not to witnesse the subordination as it could not be to witnesse it vnderstanding the same but by report yet our aduersaries themselues wil not say that the good man did particularize or testifie the tenour of the commission or any one iurisdiction contained therein Or had he rehearsed in his letter some moe or few particulars of the commission as he did not yet we desire to know what reason or fatisfaction can be yeelded why he might not as well haue erred in relating the tenour and consequently neither bond nor wisedome in vs to beleeue his words as he did in saying that M. Tempest vpon desert of his good cariage in England might haue his faculties restored vnto him by the Archpriest whē M. Blackwell at that time had no authority at all as himselfe both confessed practised either to restore him or giue faculties vnto any other vpon what necessity soeuer We will not stay here to aske the cause why D. Stapletons letter addressed to the Nuncio vpon the aforesayd businesse was brought ouer with other like into England and here shewed for testimonies But although we will not stand to demand the reason hereof yet we cannot but giue all men to know that our suspition doubts and mistrust of the validity of the new authority were no whit lesned thereby but very much increased seeing what meane proues were mustered and as it were marshalled in the forefront of the army of prooues against vs. Fourthly concerning the testimony of M. D. Barret there was yet much lesse cause why he should be brought for witnesse vnlesse the necessity be such that any thing must serue that can make the least shew of sounding against vs we neuer saw or heard but of two letters that he should write the one to the Popes Nuncio in Flaunders concerning matters belonging to Maister Tempest the other to maister Blackwell himselfe In either of which no other testimony was giuen then that he named maister Blackwell Archpriest and wished that those effects might follow vppon the authority which the author in the institution of the authority intēded without naming who he was And what we pray could this possibly make to the proofe of that which was then in question and which we stood vppon to know after an assured and requisite manner viz. whether the Cardinall receiued a commaundement from his Holinesse to erect such a subordination with like iurisdiction in all points ouer vs. Well it must needes argue a rich wardrope and good proues no doubt to lye in store where such poore stuffe is brought forth for shew Fiftly touching the testimony of father Bellarmine of whose letter our impugners seeme not to make the least account first we say that to this day there be very few of our company who euer saw the letter and for certaine neither of these two whom Maister Blackwell calleth the Princes in the action and hath sorest punished for defending their owne and their brethrens good names against the slaunders imposed euer cast eye thereon or the same euer sent by any or offered vnto them to reade till after the arriuall of his Holinesse Breue and our absolute admittance of the authority And therefore whatsoeuer testimony it caried it could little condemne or blame those that knew no more thereof But what might the contents be of the letter or to whom was the same
written and to what purpose The letter was written to father Parsons in aunswere of a letter of his to do him to vnderstand that the two English Priests of whom he wrote vnto him were not as then come to Ferrara and that his Holinesse was much incensed vpon newes of their intention of comming and determined to imprison them Againe that father Parsons needed not to come to Ferrara about that businesse in respect his Holinesse intended to make no long stay there that if in the meane the two Priests hapned to come he assured that their audience should be put off till his Holinesse came to Rome This for so much as our memory serueth was the contents of the letter And now what proofe of the tenour or any particular of the commission is there named in all this no word or sillable so much as pointing thereunto Neuerthelesse we will not gainsay if father Bellarmine wrote such a letter but that the displeasure which his Holinesse is sayd to take for their comming if so the cause of his displeasure was their comming and not rather wrong and sinister information may in some sort not amisse argue that his Holinesse was priuie to the erecting of the subordination but it can no way argue that this or this was the tenour of the commission or these the particulars of the iurisdiction giuen A point much more important to be testified then the commission in generall ere any be bound to render their particular obedience For being in possession of our particular freedomes no reason to render them vp by constraint as euery bond bringeth a constraint into the hands of another before he hath sufficiently and according to law in that matter proued his right thereunto as was shewed at large in the eleuenth Proposition And the same appeareth also plaine by this place in the Decretals Antequam exprimantur res delegatus nequit iurisdictionem exercere Before the things be expressed C. 1. Pastoralis dâ— rescript in fiâ—e wherein the Delegate hath authoritie the Delegate cannot exercise iurisdiction and consequently none bound to obey in the same And what in this respect is true in Delegations holdeth also in commissions by word of mouth We omit to lay downe the reasons we had of not giuing ouer light credit to what was auerred in the Letter if so it had bene shewed vnto vs before the comming ouer of his Holinesse Breue and our acceptance of the authoritie The stile sauoured little or nothing at all of the temper and mildnesse wherewith the good religious father was knowne to abound Then the Letter was taken not to be of his hand writing and sithence it hath bene acknowledged that it was but a copie and not the originall it selfe Againe the contents greatly derogated from the natiue and sweete disposition of his Holinesse as in like measure and without knowing the cause to be offended with any for repairing vnto him and much lesse with Priestes comming from a Realme so farre off and so well deseruing of holy Church and in the generall cause of many Lastly the Letter passed through the hands of father Parsons and some other vnto vs whom we accounted of no such integritie but that circumstances considered we might in wisedome mistrust least something therein might be added or altered for making the famous Clarke to speake harder against vs. Fiftly touching the testimonie of Doctour Worthington none of vs know or were euer told to this day what he either said or wrote in witnesse of the authoritie or tenour thereof or in commendation of our delay Neuerthelesse let his record be what it can be we hope by Gods grace when one opponents or himselfe shall acquaint vs therewith to be able so to answere it as that it shall neither conuict vs of the crimes obiected nor of any other faultie transgression Lastly concerning the testmonie of our two brethren the negociators of the affaire we maruel why either * The 14. of March 1600. our Archpriest in his twelue proposed questions or * The last of Iune 1601. father Holtby in his discourse should so earnestly obiect their ioynt testimonie against vs when the first Letter of all that we receiued from M. Charnocke came to our hands together with the Breue at which time we presently yeelded our obedience We do not deny but that M. Bishop in his Letter of the 22. of February 1599. according to the Romane account which was deliuered vnto vs some seuenteene or eighteene dayes before the receit of the Breue made mention that M. Charnocke had written vnto vs at the same time but we did not receiue his Lettter before the comming of the Breue as our Archpriest father Garnet and some other can witnes if they please to remember themselues So that what testimonie soeuer M Charnock gaue in the said Letter it maketh little against vs because we absolutely admitted the subordination and subiected our selues so soone as euer we saw his Holines Breue before the reading of M. Charnockes Letter as the Gentleman can testifie who first brought vs the copie of the Breue testified with the hands of our two brethren in Rome M. Bishop and M. Charnoke to be a true copie wherby it vnquestionably followeth that the breach of promise wherewith father Holtby chargeth vs for not submitting our selues vpon certificate receiued from our two brethren is an vntruth as there be many moe in that Letter-treatise These notwithstanding let vs heare what were the letters and acknowledgements of our 2. hrethreÌ„ by mean wherof they are brought for witnesses or as a confirmation of blame against vs. They both wrote that they heard Cardinall Caietane affirme that what was done touching the Archpriest was done by order from his Holines that they heard so much also by others not expressing the parties names of whom they did heare it Againe that they repented themselues of taking the iourney chiefly of the inconsideration they committed therein and that they requested their humble commendation and dutie might be done vnto our and their Superiour the Archpriest Loe the auowances and writings of them both and which M. Bishop signified in a Postscript onely vpon occasion by like that father Parsons reading his Letter as he did and prescribed or approued the points to be treated of in all the letters that either of them wrote vnto vs during the whole time of their imprisonment which was full foure moneths and finding that principall Verbe the former signification missing he would not but needes haue the said complements added in a poscript Certes that they repented themselues of taking the iourney being kept before the writing of the Letters eight weekes from the 29. of of December till the 22. of February in close and straight durance vnder the iay lourship of father Parsons their chiefe aduersarie and examiner was no strange newes and lesse strange that they sorrowed the inconsideration they commited which as themselues haue sithence expounded they
principally meant in not taking the names of moe Priests with them or in a better forme then they did and specially because they omitted the procuring of the King of France his Letter in their behalfe to his Ambassadour in Rome which was promised and another to his Holinesse himselfe for request of fauourable audience in their sute matter of iust sorrow they smarting after the rate they did for omitting of the helpes vpon confidence only of the most behoueable and reasonable petitions they were to propose But of what persons beside the Cardinall his Grace did our two brethren remaining close prisoners heare that the Archpresbytership and the faculties adioyned was the order of his Holinesse Had any of those accesse vnto the prisoners which liued neare about his Holinesse or were often in his presence and so by likelihood might heare when the commission was giuen or after talked of Were other straungers or their countrey-men in the city allowed to come vnto them Were the students of the Colledge licensed at that time to visite the prisoners and haue communication with them No no they were alike straightly kept as they were not suffered to consult or speake with any nor the one of them with the other What then did his Holinesse Fiscall who was appointed to examine the prisoners but not long after surrendred the office to father Parsons report so much vnto them It cannot be sayd because the same man at the end of all their examinatioÌ„s resiftings told the prisoners as they both witnesse that the subordination was not the ordinance of his Holinesse Of whom then had the prisoners that intelligence vndoubtedly either from father Parsons or father Owen who onely had recourse vnto them relators that must needes haue beliefe giuen to their words because the one was a chiefe deuiser of the authority and his reputation lay in gage to haue it go forward the other a profiting scholler in father Porsons studies and his right hand in this busisinesse as the seruice following declareth When maister Charnocke wrote his letter vnto vs by the appointment of the Cardinals for a finall end of their durance as father Owen reported and father Parsons had the perusing thereof a night and a day it was brought againe vnto him by father Owen with order from father Parsons to adde that the subordination erected was the order of his Holinesse who answering he could not write so because he knew it not the other replied that the Cardinall protector sayd it when he sate in iudgement in the cause and that father Parsons affirmed the same and therefore he might well and truly write that to his knowledge the Archpresbitership was the appointmeÌ„t of his Holinesse Whereupon the prisoner being willing to giue the fathers the most contentment he could for his speedier riddance out of prison promised him to write in so large a maner in that point as possibly he could with any truth and accordingly signified in his Letter yet not that he knew the subordination to be the order of his Holinesse but that he heard the Cardinal to affirme it and also vnderstood it by credible relation of others The like wrote M. Bishop and not vnlike vpon the same perswasion But neither the one nor the other of our brethreÌ„ nor the Cardinall Protector in the Constitutiue Letter nor any other of whom witnesse is claimed did euer in the least word affirme that the faculties and iurisdiction annexed to the Archpresbitership the onely point which was most needfull of all other to be descended vnto being the most materiall and which alone for the amplenesse rigour vnusualnesse thereof caused our delay were the ordinance or commandement of his Holines A thing worthiest of special note as that most manifesteth the headie violence of our aduersaries and how beyond all colour of reason they haue proceeded in their accusations and outcries against vs. Now touching the commendation and dutie our two brethren sent to be done to our and their superiour the Archpriest who could thinke reading the passage but that somwhat lay hid was insinuated by the words that they being prisoners in Rome should as it were hunt after so impertinent an occasion of calling M. Blackwell their Superiour and direct commendations vnto him by that title when as we were right sure they both well knew that the Cardinals Letter made him but Superiour ouer the Priestes residing in England and Scotland only and not ouer any whiles they liued any other where And one of them being sithence asked the meaning of the said words aunswered that the authoritie of the Archpriest not stretching to any out of England this clause so farre as I can so farre distant vsed in the same sentence where he rendred his dutie did shew that he wrote it onely to make faire weather with father Parsons and the sooner to get himselfe released of the imprisonment he indured But would our aduersaries indeed vnderstand the truth how much or wherein our two brethren do either beare witnesse against vs or condemne our standing off to yeeld our obedience vntill the comming of his Holinesse Breue Let them reade M. Bishop his answere to father Parsons Letter and the censure vpon the same both printed in the English booke and written when they were not in hold and then tell vs the particularities wherein they giue testimonie against vs or find fault with our delay In the meane there are none but must see that all the testimonies which are brought against vs proceeded from one head take their whole force from the Cardinals word and not from his Graces word as auowing the particular faculties iurisdiction annexed to the Archpresbytership to be the command or appointment of his Holinesse but from his Graces word onely that he receiued a Commission to make peace in our Country and that following the will of his Holinesse he decreed a subordination We therefore being not bound to beleeue specially to obey as hath bene sufficiently proued before the Cardinals word himselfe writing and affirming it we were lesse bound by al consequence to beleeue and obey the same related or witnessed vnto vs by others And here I thinke good to aduertise touching the report I haue made of all the precedent testimonies that I do not so aâ—â—ow it as that I engage my word the report to be in euery iot one with the Letters themselues for this were the imperfection of mans memorie considered to ground certaintie vpon vncertaintie especially the time being long since I read most of the Letters and neuer read them but once nor could be admitted to copie them forth wheÌ„ also I feared no accident lesse then that matters would fal out as now they do or that we should euer haue had occasion to proue our selues no disobedient run-agates from the Church of Rome or from the supreme Pastour thereof who with semblable perill of life and renunciation of worldly preferment haue for many yeeres laboured to reduce
the Letters we did thinking that Peter had giuen Iohn the blow Surely if such a peece of euidence and claime of testimony being one with that which is brought against vs should come before the Iudges of the Kings Bench or Iustices of Oyer and determiner they might perhaps sport themselues not a little at the folly But the least cards must be all coat-cardes against vs. For conclusion of our answer to this second obiection and for a briefe recitall of that hath bene said before in this third reason we beseech our impugners to consider vnprightly and seriously as before God in the court of their owne vnderstanding first whether truth reason demonstratiue practise and the voice of all lawes speake not more for vs then for them nay whether they all do not combine and pleade wholly for vs and altogether against them namely that euery delegation must be proued by shewing of the Commission or authenticke copie thereof and not by witnesses especially if the delegation or verball commission shall impart a many of particular iurisdictions as this of his Holinesse did to the Cardinall with like number of faculties Then whether testimonies not founded vpon euidence of the eye or eare but grounded onely vpon report or hearesay are of any force or make a presumption in law in a matter lately done Thirdly whether it be enough in law or conscience when a delegation or verbal commission is granted to one deriuing many distinct and seuerall iurisdictions each bringing their porper and increasing preiudice to others whether it be enough we say to testifie the commission in generall and not for the witnesses to descend to the testifying of the particular tenour of the commission And if in all these three vnderstanding be conuinced by the euidence and proues aforegoing then we instantly pray them for the loue of their owne soules not to be ashamed to confesse the truth and surceasse further contention remembring what the holy Ghost writeth Est confusio adducens peccatum est confusio adducens gratiam gloriam there is a confusion that bringeth sin and there is a confusion that bringeth grace and glorie A Third reason that our impugners make against vs and seeme in the force thereof to take no small contentment is that at our first comming ouer we were and are still beleeued to be Priests vppon our word without shewing our letters of orders and that folke come to vs without making question either of our Priesthood or of our iurisdiction to heare confessions and how then our selues being in this sort beleeued vpon credit of our owne word could we refuse to beleeue our Cardinall Protector vpon euidence of his Graces letter hand and seale Do we looke that others euen in that tribunall of loosing from sinne should rely vpon and trust our bare word and vse vs without scruple in the court of their soule and we in the sensible feeling and continuance of this supreme credence and fauour so to forget our selues and our duty as not to giue beleefe to the word of a Cardinall of our Protector of his Holinesse Counsellor in all matters incident to the gouernement of the Vniuersall Church A fault that can no way be excused and which cannot but condemne vs with as many as are wise Well let vs notwithstanding the peremptorinesse of the accusation haue leaue to aunswere and cleare our selues as we can First we desire to know of what kind of fault did this our reproued demeanor condemne vs Not of the crime which was first obiected For to refuse to obey a Cardinall Protector his letter in matter of like preiudice and in authority deriued by commission from his Holinesse without further proofe then his Lordships owne letter for testimony thereof hath no more affinitie with that crime then white hath with blacke or things that are lawfull with things vnlawfull Of what other offence then did our foresayd demeanor condemne vs Forsooth of enormious disobedience What is the matter so certaine Yea. Then against whom immediatly did we commit this enormious disobedience against his Holinesse the Cardinall or maister Blackwell Not immediatly certes against his Holinesse because there is no disobedience and much lesse that which can be called enormious a D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 105. art 1. cor Greg. de Vale ibidem punct 3. Siluester verb anobedientia omnes but consisteth in the breaking of a knowne precept and we neither vnderstood at that time nor did know before we read it in his Holinesse Breue when we presently yeelded our obedience that his Holinesse had giuen commaundement for such a subordination to be directed with like iurisdiction as is set downe in the Constitutiue Letter ne did the Cardinall any where specifie or relate so much So that we hauing no vnderstanding of such his Holinesse commandement before the comming ouer of the Breue and then submitting our obedience thereunto without any delay how could our demeanor be immediate and enormious disobedience against his Holinesse If our aduersaries will gainsay any of the premises as we hope the euidence of the truth nor their owne consciences will giue them leaue it resteth and it is our request vnto them that they would tell vs when to whom and in what forme his Holinesse gaue such a commaundement and that we had also vnderstanding thereof whiles we detracted to obey the subordination An issue which we are sure all the world nor the Angels of heauen can make true against vs and which not verified it remaineth vnpossible to proue that we were in the action of our bearing off enormiously and immediatly disobedient against his Holinesse Not against the Cardinall as our Protectour because we neither knew nor heard that his Lordship was by prerogatiue of authority any otherwise a superiour to the Priestes in England then as other Cardinall Protectors are ouer the Cleargy of the countries or Prouinces whereof they are chosen Protectors Who neither practise nor claime as all Christendom is witnes any such iurisdiction ouer the Priests as either to ordaine new superiorities amongst thē or to haue the chusing of their prelate or to increase the rules of their subiectiō or any otherwise to alter the forme of their vsuall gouernement Not against the Cardinall as Delegate or Commissioner because we were not bound either to beleeue or obey him in that place before his Grace had shewed vs the rescript of the delegatiō or otherwise authentically proued his Holinesse commission vnto him as hath bene abundantly declared before Not against the Cardinall as the distributer of faculties to Priestes in their commission for England because the authority to institute an Archpriest with like iurisdiction as is specified in the Constitutiue Letter was not delegated in that commission nor euer so claimed nor yet to this day so interpreted Not against maister Blackwell and the twelue Assistants because we being not obliged as is said to obey the Cardinal in regard of the none-proofe of the
delegation or commission by word of mouth we could not be bound to obey master Blackwell or the twelue Assistants taking their whole authority from the Cardinall Nemo in alium potest Glos in c. Si. cui de elect li. 6 plus iuris transferre quà m ipse habet No man can transferre more right to another then himselfe possesseth And therefore being not bound as is proued before to obey the Cardinall in constituting the subordination by reason his Grace had not first shewed or proued his commission we rested lesse bound to obey maister Blackwell the twelue Assistants because what was defectiue in his Grace the principall or of no sufficient power to bind must needes by all necessary sēquell be as much if not more defectiue and of lesse force to bind in the secondaries or his Graces subdelegates Or if now our reprouers shall say that although our detracting to subiect our selues to the Cardinals order were neither the crime they first tooke it to be nor enormious disobedience yet the same could not but make vs guilty of some other great offence Of what by name Surely of the like offence by coherence the argument being brought à simili of likenesse betweene matters as those should commit who should refuse to beleeue vs to be Priests vpon our word and would not but vpon surer proofe vse vs in that function Now then what kind of offence might this be To heare Masse is by the straight condition of our lawes the forfeiture of an hundreth markes to helpe a Priest at Masse or to be confessed of him is made an act of felony to relieue abet harbour or maintaine him no lesse What fault then not to beleeue such or such an one to be a Priest or not to partake with him in Priestly functions except he know him to be a Priest by other prooues then vpon the bare reckord of his owne word Verily the faulte is so little as none of iudgement will take it but for an act of prudence and the contrary for a faile of due consideration if not for a fact of too much aduenturousnesse or temeritie And our cōscience here prompteth that our fault-finders as full of exceptions as they are against vs ne haue ne will entertaine any one as Priest and lesse subiect themselues in confession vnto him of whom they shall haue no further surety what he is a spie or an honest man then the parties bare affirmation of himselfe But we wot how our contradictors wil reply at last when all other pretences be taken from them to weete that our distrust and prolonging to obey the Cardinals order was an iniurie to his Grace and could not but derogate from the honour of his high estate This is the most that we thinke can be obiected and to this we answer First that it is a receiued proposition in the ciuill and common law and reason conuinceth that Non facit alicui iniuriam qui vtitur iure suo Ca. cum ecclesia de electione l. iniuriarū § 1. ff de iniurijs He doth iniurie to no one that vseth his owne right We therefore vsing no more then our owne right in the aboue mentioned delay and that kind of right too which the Canons of holy Church the vniforme consent of all writers and the generall practise ouer all Christendome doth absolutely affoord and assure vnto vs can neuer acknowledge that our precedent demeanour was or could be possibly any iniurie to his grace For can contraries be both true or one and the selfe action be iust and vniust right to one and iniurious to another Siluester declaring the Etymologie or interpretation of the word Iniuria writeth Iniuria est quasi non iure Iniurie taketh her Verb iniuria ante §. Aristoteles 5. Ethn. ca. 1. name of a defect of right And the Philosopher opposeth iniurie as a contrary to law or right So that what is done lawfully or by good right according to law cannot without the abuse of the terme be counted an iniurie Againe the not yeelding of that to any man of what high degree soeuer which the law of holy Church doth prohibite or not graunt it should be yeelded vnto him is neither iniurie nor the diminishing of reputation And that our demurre to admit the new authority was of this quality it is plaine by the authorities that haue bene alleaged and will yet appeare more euident hereafter Saint Augustine writeth and his words be registred in the Decrees Lib. 19. contra Faustum ca. 25. 14. q. 1. quod debetur Peccat qui exigit vltra debitum He sinneth who exacteth beyond his due Which without peraduenture holdeth as well in points of soueraignty and command as in matters of worldly substance if not more in respect that the abridgemēt of freedome is more irksome to man then any meane losse of the goods he enioyeth And therefore whatsoeuer our hard friends be pleased to deliuer abroad of his Graces intention yet we cannot thinke that he intended to exact that beliefe in vs and obedience to the contents of his Letter Constitutiue as vppon the sole view thereof his honours iurisdiction being a delegatine power we should incontinent captiuate our vnderstanding and bowe downe our neckes to the yoake without asking for other proofe of the delegation and the tenour thereof then the credence of his owne word alone Or if his Lordship had this meaning as we shall not beleeue he had to exact so vndue a tribute at our hands yet that being more then our debt and repugnant to the order in Gods Church how could our prolonging or not taking his Graces word for full and sufficient warrantise of what he sayd be either sinne in vs or an iniurie to his honour when the learned writ and the doctrine is receiued of all men Quamui◠aliàs iniuria fiat ei cuius dicto credi deberet si ab eo exigeretur Gloss in institut Lancelot li. 1. de confirmatione electionis tit 9. §. patet vreb literas scriptura secus tamen esset in casibus requirentibus à iure scripturam Although it should be otherwise an iniurie to exact of him the sight of his commission whom it is meete to beleeue vpon his word neuerthelesse it is not so in these cases in which by the assignement of the law a letter or written testimony is required And that the law not onely licenseth but appointeth the proofe of a delegation to be made by shewing the Delegators letters the authorities before quoted do verie amply demonstrate as also that commission giuen by word of mouth in matter of preiudice ought and must be attestated otherwise then by the selfe and sole auowance of the commissioner and likewise that beliefe in cases of * Bart. in l. palatinos cod de collation fisc l. 10. Iason consil 72. nu 3. cōsil 104. Alciet in ca. cum contingat nu 35. de iurciur Cōradus li. 2. ca. 2. de Cardinalibus
§. 3 nu 22. great preiudice is not to be giuen to the word of a Cardinall But now let vs consider of the arguments that our opponents make against vs. The Catholike laity of the Realme say they beleeue vs to be Priests vppon credite of our owne word without shewing them our letters of orders Ergo we were bound to beleeue our Cardinall Protector affirming that he receiued a commaundement from his Holinesse to erect a subordination Againe the layty beleeuing vs to be Priests vpon our word resort in confession vnto vs without mouing question of our authority Ergo we ought to haue subiected our obedience to his Graces order subordination appointed without making stay or demaund for any further proofe or confirmation thereof Good consequences whether the antecedeÌ„ts be true or no. What must the fauour we receiue of the laity in not examining whether we be Priests or haue faculties or no bring an obligation vpon vs to obey our Cardinall Protectour vpon testimony of his owne word alone and not onely in things of direct and greatest preiudice but euen in things wherein the lawes of holy Church giue vs leaue not to obey Straunge that the voluntarie fauour of the laity and in a case too wherein themselues receiue commodity as they do by partaking with vs in the exercise of our Priestly functioÌ„s must be of consequence to bind vs to accept of and endure the foresayd detriments Surely such fauours are lesse worth then thankes and such solide arguments or fond deductions fitter to be vsed in a matter of sport then for condemnation of Catholike Priests To beleeue one to be a Priest vppon the affirmance of his owne word or because he saith so is no matter of preiudice to the beleeuer or to any third person for neither is the beleeuer or any other brought thereby within compasse of an enforced superioritie or of hauing their former liberty abridged and penalties imposed at the arbitrarie disposition of their hard friends but in our case and supposed obligation it fareth much otherwise because the preiudices that attend the Constitutiue Letter are many and of mightiest preiudice as hath bene declared in the beginning of this reason And therefore by the rule of common wisedome stronger and more assured proofe was both to be made and expected for beleeuing the authority and all the particulars thereof commaunding a present subiection then for beleeuing Iohn Astile to be a Priest so long as none are bound but all left wholâ—y to their owne choise either to heare his Masse or receiue Sacraments or enter acquaintance with him Moreouer the law of humane curtesie inuiteth to beleeue the word of another in auowances of no preiudice the like as this is to beleeue Iohn Astile to be a Ptiest so long as there is no band to partake with him in any spirituall or indomageable action but neither mans law or Gods law celestiall or worldly wisedome doth prescribe that we should beleeue another vpon warrantise of his only word in matters that after will we nill we bring with them store of preiudice and a constrained bond of obedience which euermore and with all persons is reckned for most irksome But on the other side it cannot be shewed any where certaine neither is there any such custome in the Church of God as that the laity are left free at their owne choise whether to beleeue or not to beleeue a Priest to be Priest vnlesse he first shew them his letters of orders this being an a Tit. de Clericis pereg per totum dist 71. 52. per totum Lâ—ndvvod const lib. 1 ca. cum quanta de Cler. pereg Concil Tredent sess 22. Decret de obseruandis vitandis in celebratione Missae exaction which only belongeth to Bishops and such Curates to make as shall admit vnknowne Priests to say Masse or minister Sacraments in their Dioces or iurisdiction Or let vs graunt to our aduersaries that the lay Catholikes of our Realme haue Pastorall or Episcopall authority to call vs to proue our ordination What may they do No more certes by the Canons of holy Church then to examine and call such to this reckning as are b Concil Trid vbi supra Vagi ignoti c Lyndvvood vbi supra de quorum ordinatione non constat wandering and vnknowne Priests of whose ordination there is no certainty Lyndwood commenting vpon our countrey constitutions hath these words d Lyndvvod lib. 1. in ca. cuÌ„ quanta de cler pereg verb. constiterit vir bene not us bonaefamae qui vbi conuersatus est longo tempore habitus est pro ordinato non cogitur nec per literas nec per testes probare ordinationem suam A man well knowne and of good fame who in the place where he liued was a long time counted a Priest is not to be constrained to proue his ordination either by letters or witnesses And Pope Innocentius the third resoluing the doubts which the patriarch of Ierusalem moued vnto him touching such as came into his Dioces without their Dimissories or testimoniall lâ—tters writeth e Ca. tuae fraternitatis de Cler. pereg Nisi legitimè tibi constiterit siue per literas siue per testes f Inter eodem tit siue per idonea argumenta de illorum ordinatione canonica qui penitus sunt ignoti non debes ipsos permittere in tuis plebibus celebrare Vnlesse thou dost assuredly vnderstand either by letters or witnesses or by sufficient arguments their Canonicall ordination who are vtterly vnknowne thou oughtest not to permit them to celebrate before thy Diocesians Now how can it be conceiued that we are wandering persons vtterly vnknowne or that our initiation or receiuing of Priesthood appeared neither by letters witnesses or other able arguments being trained vp as we were in a knowne Seminarie and taking holy orders by the appointment of the superiour the whole house likewise witnesses thereof and many of our fellowes here in England ready from the eye to attestate the same the frequent correspondence also betweene the chiefe of the Seminaries and others in our countrey and almost a weekely entercourse of persons too and fro with many other pregnant and most forcible presumptions we aske how it can be conceiued notwithstanding the counterpleading of all these contrarie apparances that we be persons vtterly vnknowne and by sequell such as may be suspected whether we be true Priests or but disguisers and miscreants If our iudgement shall be taken in our owne case we thinke there is little reason for any man to call our Priesthoods in doubt were our owne words of no credit and consequently the auauncing of the fauour we receiue in being beleeued to be Priests vpon our owne relation without sight of our letters of orders to be but an idle florish and as weake an argument as what is weakest to proue that we were bound to obey what our Cardinall Protector ordeined without making
question of his Graces authority or looking for further proofe then the testimony of his owne word for warrantise therof but such truthes must haue like proues To end all in few words we aske our aduersaries what is our dutie to do if the laity shall refuse to beleeue one two or moe of vs to be Priestes and will not haue communion in diuine Seruice and Sacraments with vs as with Priestes vntill we shew them our Letters of orders or shall otherwise according to law proue our selues to be men of that calling Will they out of their wisedome and charitie giue vs other counsell then to haue patience in the interim and to procure with most conuenient speede satisfaction and legall testimony to their doubts and exceptions No truly well then we not holding our selues bound to admit the subordination vpon credence of the Cardinals word vntill such time as his Grace had either shewed the rescript of the delegation or proued his verball commission or obtained from his Holinesse a confirmation of the authoritie erected what was the part of our Archpriest the societie their adherents to do in this point not as ours was in the former to patient our bearing off and procure so soone as they could one of the foresaid proues for our due satisfaction either a sight of the Commission it selfe or an authentical proofe thereof or else some Papall instrument for testimonie of that which his Grace had brought into our Church and imposed vpon vs. It cannot be denied the cases being alike or rather our case infinitely more demaunding that right of iustice And if this had bene their dutie as the lots changed it would soone haue bene proclaimed then what thankes did we deserue in sauing them that labour and charges and vndertaking to our great cost the discharge of that businesse for them We desire not to be our owne iudges neuerthelesse can we thinke but that our paines therein craued a gentler recompence at their hands then to imprison those that were sent about the businesse and not only to imprison them a thing neuer heard of as we thinke since S. Peter sate first in the Chaire the nature of the affaire considered but to raise most fabulous and sinfull reports of them and dub both them vs with the surnames of all impietie as of faction emulation ambition scandall rebellion highest sacriledge disallegiance to the Sea Apostolicke renegacie from the spouse of Christ and of what not implying turpitude in this kind A strange requitall and so strange as inhumanitie it selfe could hardly deale lesse charitably or more vnconscionably with vs had we bene Iewes or Turkes and the onely drosse of either nation but our Lord Iesus giue vs euer his grace to possesse our soules in patience and incline our disturbers to reuerse at length their most vncharitable slanders the cause and continuing occasion of all the scandalous broile among vs past present and to come We haue bene the longer in refuting this weake and vngrounded reason because not onely the vulgar but father Holthy in his discourse of the 30. of Iune 1601. and diuerse other both of the Laitie and Cleargie Secular and Religious haue it most frequently in their mouths and enforce the obiection as a most mightie and choking argument to conuince what they most ignominiously burden vs withal A Fourth reason that our oppositours bring for proofe and maintenance of the crimes they impute vnto vs is the fewnesse of our number being as father a In his said discourse the 30. of Iune Holthy writeth but twelue or thirteene in all or as b Doctour Haddock and M Array in the libel dated the 10. of Ianuary 1599. giuen vp to the two Cardinals Protector and viceprotector against M. Bishop and M. Charnocke other make the account but ten and c In his letter to M. Bishop the 9. of October 1599. and in the Apologie after father Parsons manner of numbring vs much fewer then ten First let vs admit that these men write a truth as how farre their wordes swarue from all truth it commeth after to be examined yet we are to demaund of them and the rest of our impugners who think the fewnes of our number matter euidence cleere enough to condemne vs by whether the cause we stand in be naught in that we are but fiue ten or twelue which defend it If they say yea as they must or else bewray their own reason then must it follow by force of the same reason that the cause of S. Thomas of Canterbury in defence whereof d Gulielm Neubrigensis lib. 2. ca. 16. no one Bishop adhered vnto him in the whole Realme nay all subscribed to the Articles he stood against was treasonable rebellious or vnlawfull then the cause that Bishop Fisher died for and the causes that infinite other of great Holinesse maintained hauing fewer and incomparably fewer of the cleargie vnited to them in open defence of the same then are now or were at first of our companie were likewise either treasonable or rebellious or vnlawfull which we are sure our aduersaries will not say and yet they cannot but say it if they stand to the triall of the reason they make against it or shall not acknowledge the vnsoundnesse or inualiditie thereof For further satifaction in this point we refer our aduersaries to the dayly iudgement which experience maketh the surest confutation of all other whether the small number of open defendants especially when the sword of authoritie is drawne against the matter or action defended as it is in our case be a sufficient warrantie in conscience for any one of vnderstanding to infer that the cause they stand in is wicked or vngodly or not meete for men of quiet natures or Priests to be seen in Verily the question is so cleare and demonstrated by dayly experience as he that should make doubt hereof might not amisse seem to haue liued out of the world nothing being more frequent in the world then for truth to find fewest defenders when authoritie humane fauour and temporall gaine be her impugners But to vnderprop this weake reason founded vpon our small number father Holthy fortifieth and gildeth the matter in this wise It is Pag. 2. 5. well inough knowne saith he that those who receiued the authoritie farre exceeded the other who deferred their obedience not onely in number being twentie for one but in all things else setting their presumptuous minds and busie heads â—side And it is too too cleare that the refusall came not either of ignorance or infirmitie but of plaine malice of an obstinate will not to obey and from a proud presumptuous mind and seditious spirite Also it is manifest that some of the best among them were euer noted for busie and seditious spirites yea no one of their chiefest almost but he was noted with some particular fault or exception but among their brethren who embraced their authoritie there were many which
set vp new authorities and bring in innouations Yea he added further how vnfit how vnprofitable and how preiudicial it was for any one person to take vpon him the Ecclesiasticall gouernement in our Countrey and that if he liued to the change of Religion he would deale for deuiding the Bishopricks into moe Diocesses Which reasons concluding directly and most strongly against the new authoritie were anon of likelihood either soon forgot or began to appeare of no force when himselfe was chosen Archpriest In like manner when father Parsons last trauelled from Spaine to Rome he so greatly disliked the making of a superior in EnglaÌ„d among the secular Priests as he made it the ordinarie subiect of his talke during the whole iourney deuising moe and new reasons dayly for remonstrance Inconstancie in the Noter of incoÌ„stancy and proofe of the inconueniences But after his arriuall in Rome and conference with M. Standish and father Baldwine whom father Garnet had imployed as his agents in the businesse vnto him he soone altered his mind vnderstanding of like by intelligence from father Garnet how probable it was that in short time the Priests would agree vpon some forme of gouernement and therfore it imported him with speede to preuent our intentions least we hapned in the meane to make choice of a kind of gouernement and gouernor which would impeach their designes and make way to the diminishing of the reputation they now carried in our Country which was and is the swaying of all things as themselues think meete Neither is it vnlike the thing being constantly auerred by many but that father Garnet sent father Parsons notice of the man whom he should promote and of the authoritie and particular iurisdiction which he should procure vnto him ouer vs. Hence came that place of Scripture into father Parsons head together with his analogicall exposition Act. 6. Crescente numero discipulorum factum est murmur Graecorum aduersus Hebraeos c. When the multitude of Priestes increased and the former spirite in many of them decreased there began presently murmuration and emulation against the fathers of the society Hence proceeded the manifold and long faction laid downe in the eight Chapter of the Apology where father Parsons cunningly fashioneth a narration lasting for foure of the first leaues but with addition of moe vntruths then he vsed full points in the tale Hence sodainely arose an vrgent or as it were a fatall necessitie in fa. Parsons conceit of making a Superiour in England ouer the secular Priests an affaire which himself a little before in his iourney from Spaine to Rome as hath bene said spake so much Lo the deceiuing and presuming nature of the man o Fol. 100. and often against and from prosecution whereof himselfe aduised vs by M. Champney to desist as from a matter of contention Hence finally are the words of the Apologie o It seemed in all good mens opinion and in the Iesuites aboue the rest that the onely or chiefe remedie of auoiding murmuration emulation in the secular Priests against the fathers of the societie would be to haue a subordination of the secular Priests among them selues whereby the fathers of the Societie might remaine forth of all occasion of contention Good Lord must the taking away of emulation and heart-burnings in the secular Priests against the fathers of the Societie be made the motiue and end why this subordination was instituted Who can beleeue it that shall looke into the particulars or who will not but auow the contrary that shall consider how and by whom the same was procured For is it likely or possible in reason that that kind of subordination should extinguish emulation or make agreement or not increase mâ—rmur and debate which the more principall and oppressing partie in the contention should deuise and get to be ordained without consent or notice of the other partie that suffered the oppression And who we pray plotted this kind of subordination but father Garnet and father Parsons Who nominated the Archpriest but they Who deuised the iurisdiction but they Who framed the authoritie who annexed the instructions who made the additions who chose the assistants but they Who conferred with Cardinall Caietane who informed his Holines who procured the confirmation but father Parsons onely or such as himselfe did set on worke and put in their mouthes what they should say In briefe who euer had part voice or consent in any point belonging to the particulars of the subordination saue these two and perhaps some other few of their consorts whom they thought good to acquaint with the affaire And this which we say is so cleere to euery one that will not blind his owne vnderstanding as the Sunne when it shineth Neuerthelesse if witnesses be demaunded at our hands we will name no other but father Garnet and father Parsons themselues hauing their own words for testimonie For when father Garnet asked M. Iohn Bennâ—t for his name to olim dicebamur that is as hath bene signified before to a pretensed Pag. 50. letter of thanksgiuing to his Holinesse for institution of the authoritie and seeing him to be vnwilling to giue his name told him that the subordination was the fact and prosecution of father Parsons his old friend and therefore stood assured he would not denie the graunt of putting too his name Likewise father Parsons in his speeches with M. Charnock at Rome among other things freely acknowledged that hearing how we went about in England to make a superiour among our selues he thought it wisedome to preuent the effecting of such our endeuours by choosing and promoting one to the roome whom they knew to be their friend and would comply with them But why stand we about the proofe of these the apparant managing of the affaire the condition of the particulars the manner of the processe the nature of the circumstances the ground the end the scope and all other accessaries being more euident then boldnesse we will not say impudencie it selfe can denie Neither was this forme of gouernement deuised onely by the foresaid paire of fathers and by their meanes brought vnweetingly vpon vs but they keepe themselues euermore close at the sterne directing ruling prescribing guiding as vniuersally and absolutely as if themselues were the Archpriest or any other higher superiour ouer vs. And whether now this kind of subordination thus plotted thus effected thus executed thus continually caried against vs be the onely or chiefe remedie as father Parsons auoweth of auoiding murmuration and emulation in the secular Priests against the fathers of the Societie and whereby they might remaine forth of all occasion of contention this we leaue to the indifferent to iudge the contrarie appearing plainer to vs then that any doubt can be made thereof But to returne We aske of father Parsons and the sixe Assistants who seem to haue beaten their wits for finding matter wherin and how to condemne vs whether by seeking to vnite
and prouoke our selues to vertue through the erecting of a Sodalitie among such onely as should like and desire to be thereof we became thereby obliged in conscience to accept of any subordination which himselfe and his consorts should by wrong and sinister suggestion get to be proposed or ordained against vs If they say yea it resteth that they proue the bond a worke impossible or if they say no then why doth he in the Apologie and the other in Ca. 1. 6. â— their letter to the Nuncio in Flaunders of the second of May dilate as they do and so iniuriously inferre thereof against vs It hath bene enough and enough declared before that we were not bound to admit the subordination vpon credence of the Cardinals Letter and being not bound by any vertue of the said Letter we trow our trauels to make a sodalitie did not bind vs thereunto if so they had not bene broken off as they were before the institution of the subordination and we all conioyned in the sympathie or mutuall embracing of one desire to sue to his Holinesse for obtaining of Bishops in our country We say no more but that if father Parsons or the sixe Assistants had stood so indifferently inclined to fauour our atteÌ„pts in going about to ordaine a Sodalitie as he sheweth himselfe prone and readie not only to excuse but to commend and iustifie the league and orders of the Agency begun and prosecuted in the Castle of Wishich calling the same p Fol. 66. a congregation according to the fashion and example of those priuate congregations of our Ladie allowed by the Sea Apostolicke in diuers Countries no doubt both he and they had lessened their account in the day of their doome when they must answere for the wrongs they do vs. Touching the preiudice which by instituting the Sodalitie should be intended to others we would faine know what preiudice that could be in particular when euery man was lefâ— free to his own choice and no one to be misliked if he would not be a member thereof and others tied by a new obligation to loue reuerence and stead him wherein they could Neither do we take it to be true that the most part of our brethren did reclaime and mislike the institution of the Sodalitie as may be gathered by the small number of those that manifested their dislike being as we haue said before but very few three onely of note M. Doctor Bauen M. Blackwell and M. Tirwit and by the companie of those that expressed their good liking therof which were more theÌ„ 20. times so many as those that impugned the same by the account reckord of such as negociated the affaire and dealt with others for vnderstanding their affection or aueâ—sion therein To that wherewith the obiection chargeth vs that when the institution of the Archpriest came into England and was promulgated by the prudent and godly letters of the Protectour we hauing resolued to be vnquiet began first to stagger and doubt and then to disâ—usse our Superiours commaundement and lastly to contemne it we answer that if the Cardinals Letter had bene the Popes Letter or an Apostolicall Breue or Bull as it was not and the degrees of beleefe due to the one exceedingly surmounting the degrees due to the other yet doubting as we did or truer being right assured as we were in our own vnderstanding that the said Letter was procured by surreption or obreption or both what fault was it in vs to stagger and doubt and discusse our Superiours commandement when no writer ancient nor moderne but holdeth the same for most lawfull q Institut moral p. 1. li. 5. ca. 14. quaeritur 4. Non negamus literas Apostolicas recognosci quidem discuti debere cum sint dubiae sint nâ—â—ne subreptitiae an legitimae It is not to be denied writeth Azore but that Apostolicall Letters may and ought to be considered of discussed when they appeare doubtfull whether they were procured by wrong or right information And the same Author in another place hath these words r Idem ibidem quaeritur 7. Fas est etiam Laico de literis pontificijs cum dubiae sint incertae â—ona side probabiliter ambigere disputareve sint nâ—â—ne Pontificiae sint neâ—ne subreptitiae It is lawfull euen for a lay man hauing no corrupt intention probably to question and dispute whether the Popes letters appearing doubtful and vncertaine were indeede his Leters or gotten by surreption Againe the Canonists note many things which may be opposed against the Popes Bull and Å¿ Rebussus in pâ—axi Tit. Quae apponi possunt contra Bullam Rebuffus putteth downe 29. exceptions whereof some if they be found in the Bull cannot be salued but do vtterly inualidate and frustrate the same some other that may be amended and the Bull after to be of force Now if it were vnlawfull as father Parsons maketh it to be though all the learned besides himselfe do with one voice witnesse the contrarie to scanne and discusse the Popes Bull how should the said defects or matter of exception be opposed And if this libertie be graunted against the Popes Bull or Apostolicall Letters no doubt the same freedome or much greater is allowed against a Cardinals Letter instituting a strange subordination afflictiue and most rigorous But the father would haue vs and we commend his wit therein to practise perfect obedience that is as Diuines teach t D. Tho secunda secundae q. 104. art 5. D. BonaueÌ„ q vlt. Durandus q. 4. Cordubensis in exposit Regulae ca. 10. q. 2. Valetia To. 3 disp 7. q. 3 punct 2. Angles par 2. in secunduÌ„ lib. Sent. dist 44 q. 2 diff 5. Siâ—mistae verb. Religiâ—sus not only promptly and readily to do whatsoeuer we are commaunded without considering the authoritie or end of the Commaunder but to preuent also the commaundement of our Superiour in all things wherein we know before his will or pleasure And yet if we should follow the fathers exhortation in this point and not content our selues with performing the obedience we are bound too and which v D. Tho. vbi supra ad tertiuÌ„ sufficeth vnder tie of sin we do not see how shewing this perfect obedience we ought to haue admitted the subordmation because the Extrauagant Iniunctae and the x Paulus 3. Const quae incipit cum nobis Iulius 2. Constitut quae incipit Romani Pontificis Iulius 3 consiit quae incipit Sanctissimus constitutions of other Popes do forbid to receiue any such superiour Prelate to the office and dignitie he claimeth without sight of the Popes Letter for testimonie of such his graunt and the parties promotion Neither can that in truth be called perfect obedience but rather indiscreet and sinfull which transgresseth the ordinances of holy Church as vndoubtedly we should haue done had we receiued M. Blackwell to the office of the Archpresbytership before the shewing
of the Popes Letters for his preferment thereunto No doubt but the vtter face of the perswasion which the sonnes of Iacob vsed to Sichem was good and holy as being the act of Circumcision Gen. 34. the chiefest Sacrament of the old law yet Sichems obedience thereunto was the cause of his death and of the slaughter of many mo Againe if we looke vpon the outside of Dauids counsell to Vrias in 2. Reg. 11. exhorting him to take his ease after his wearisome iourney there appeareth nought but goodwill and kindnesse and yet Dauid had a subtile fetch therein and more respected his owne good in the counsell then he did the welfare of Vrias Neither did the enemie of mankind let to candie and cloake his perswasion to our vnfortunate mother Eue with an outward shew of godlinesse Eritis sicut Dij scientes bonum Gen. 3. malum Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and euill but what drift he had therein all her posteritie feeles We know how excellent a vertue obedience is especially that kind which father Parsons would haue vs to practise and which spirituall writers call Caecam obedientiam blind obedience for that it closeth the eye of our will and leadeth the iudgement of our vnderstanding as the guide leadeth the blind man agreeable to this saying of S. Gregorie Vera obedientia nec Praepositorum Li. 2 ca. q. in li. 1. Reg. intentionem discutit nec praecepta discernit quia qui omne vitae suae studium maiori subdidit in hoc solo gaudet si quod sibi praecipitur operatur Nescit enim iudicare quisquis perfectè didicerit obedire True obedience neither discusseth the intention of his Prepositors neither scanneth their commaundements because he that hath subiected the whole course of his life to the direction of his superiour ioyeth only in this if he do as he is commannded For he knoweth not to iudge that hath perfectly learned to obey But as we wot the thing that father Parsons counselleth vs too to be right good in it selfe being the perfection of the y D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 104. art 3. worthiest of al other morall vertues so do we feare least he seeke therein the increase of soueraigntie and absolutely without contradiction to rule in our Country as already he hath not blushed to vaunt himselfe of the commaund he holdeth in England we speake from report of an eye and eare witnesse as well ouer many of the Laitie as of the Cleargie which vaine bragge he would easily make good with aduantage could he once bring vs to a blind kind of obedience neither to discusse the commandements of our Archpriest whom he directeth in all things nor the ordinance of any other superiour vpon what false information soeuer the same was enacted Volo vos sapientes esse in bono simplices Rom. 16. in malo I would haue you sayth the Apostle to be wise in good and simple in ill Which God of his mercies make true in father Parsons and in vs all Concerning the other part of the charge that hauing resolued to be vnquiet we would not desist till lastly we fel to contemne our superiours commandement Here we haue good cause to aske father Parsons how he knew being no Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet that we had resolued to be vnquiet for so much was neither written in our foreheads nor manifested in the nature of our actions doing nothing as we haue often sayd more then what the Canons and constitutions of holy Church and the vniforme consent of all writers allow and direct But notwithstanding the iustnesse of the cause we will not trouble him with this demaund hauing another question of more weight to be assoiled viz. that he tell vs and the world vnlesse we and the world must hold him for more then a vaine speaker wherein and how we contemned the commandement of our Superiors that is as Diuines and the Summists write in a thing z D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 986. art 9. ad 3. Caiet ibid. in summa verb. coteptus valet To. 3. disp 10. q. 4. punct 5. Siluest verb. Contemptus nu 1. Archidiaco in Ca. quicunque dist 81. Dominicus in Ca. Nullus dist 55. Viguerius ca. 5. § 9 ver 1. Nauar in Manuali ca. 23. nu 42. Prouerb 18. we were bound to obey them did not obey theÌ„ for this respect only because we would not be subiect to their coÌ„mandements A slander which he nor our aduersaries shal euer be able to proue not prouing we trust he will make coÌ„science to reuerse the words as he must needs if he loue his soule the sooner if by the gradation and forme of speech he vsed he intended to giue ayme to the Reader of our nigh approching or perfect arriual to that degree of sin which the holy Ghost mentioned by the pen of Salomon Impius cum in profundum venerit peccatorum contemnit When the wicked is sunke to the depth of mischiefe he contemneth the commaundements of Almightie God and of his Deputies vpon earth Finally touching the remnant of the obiection vnanswered to wit that our sinne in refusing to subiect our selues to â—he new subordination before it was witnessed or approued by his Holinesse Breue can no where else be placed but in the highest greece of disobedience seeing it was committed against the supreme Pontâ—fex himselfe and against the dignitie of the whole Romane Court We referre the Reader the assertion being most ignorant and vncolourable to that which hath bene said before * Pag. 29. sequen â—ib in our second Reason and * Pag. 85 86 in our answer to our aduersaries third obiection and to that which God willing we shall hereafter touch in both the Reasons that follow AN eight obiection or shift which our oppositours deuise for maintaining their feeble assertions and for finding a way out of the straites which their afterwits saw would mightily enuiron them if they should stil hold and maintaine * Our Archpriest in his letters in the 8. and 17. of August see pag 67. as they did at first the subordination to be the act and ordinance of our Cardinal Protector because to acknowledge this much did and would euer most hardly rub vpon them either to shew the rescript of his Holinesse delegation to the Cardinall or to proue his Holinesse verball Commission vnto him or driue them to recall vnles they should shew themselues of worse conscience then they seeme to be the temerarious and too too vncharitable censures which they had most wrongfully laid vpon vs and dinulged euery where for not yeelding our obedience no law nor rules of conscience binding vs therunto without proofe first made in that behalfe of the Cardinals authoritie to M. Blackwell vpon view of the Constitutiue Letter to correct this errour father Parsons in the bill of complaint which M. Haddocke and M. Martin Array exhibited to Cardinall Caietane
before quoted do stand in ful force against theÌ„ in respect that that which is in this sort done by the authoritie of another is a delegatine act and bindeth the doer to shew or proue the commission ere he can compell beleefe or obeysance in the processe f Gloss general in ca. Si euÌ„ de PraebeÌ„d li. 6. verbum authoritate nostra inducit actum delegationis The word by our authoritie induceth an act of delegation And that the Cardinall did chuse M. Blackwell to be Archpriest by authoritie and commission from his Holinesse it is witnessed Of the 17. of August 1601 Note the wresting sincerity of the man in the new Breue euen whence father Parsons culled the sentence in which he inserted his pareÌ„thesis aboue mentioned where the words are these Habita iam à biennio super hac re matura deliberatione bonae memoriae Henrico Praesbytero Cardinali Caietano nuncupato nationis AngloruÌ„ Protectori coÌ„misimus vt viruÌ„ aliqueÌ„ probuÌ„ qui hoc onus ad communem Catholicorum vtilitatem posset sustinere delegeret eúmque Archipraesbyterum eiusdem Regni Angliae authoritate nostra constitucret Hauing had mature deliberation for two yeares space of this matter we gaue comission to Henry Presbyter Cardinall Caietane of good memory that he should chuse some honest man who might beare this burden to the common profite of Catholickes and by our authoritie constitute him Archpriest of the same kingdome of England Or why stand we to proue this euident truth by the testimonie of his Holinesse Breue when father Parsons the drawer of the forefaid Bill of complaint against our two brethren and the markeman and inserter of the parenthesis acknowledgeth both in the * Fol. 7. first and in the * Fol. 99. eight Chapter of the Apologie that the Cardinall instituted the Archpriest by commission from his Holinesse His wordes in the first place are his Holinesse gaue full commission to Cardinall Caietane the Protector to appoint the same viz. a gouernement with conuenient instructions which he presently did And in the second these his Holinesse committed the institution of the matter that is of instituting an Archpriest by speciall order to the Protector to be done in his name Which auowances of father Parsons whether they be true or not true in themselues as true they cannot be if Signior Acrisio * Fol. 139. 121. the Popes Commissarie and Canon of S. Iohn Laterans as he styleth him be a true man in his word for he told our two brethren remaining in prison that the subordination was not the commaundement of his Holinesse as his Holinesse himselfe newly affirmed vnto him adding for reason as it hath bene * Pag. 34. before specified that his Holinesse durst not command it for feare of hauing his censures contemned by the Priestes in England yet they manifest thus much that euen by his own confession the Cardinall was the institutor of the Subordination And now if we adde to these what it is to delegate and who is a Delegate there can we hope remaine no doubt but that the Cardinall was the Popes delegate in the erecting of the subordination and by consequence not such a bare publisher and witnesser therof as our aduersaries would faine haue him to be for ridding themselues out of some narrow straits by reason of the authorities aforegoing that otherwise presse exceedingly and ineuitably vpon them and as clearely excuse vs of all blame for not surrendring our obedieÌ„ce to M. Blackwel vpoÌ„ view of the Cardinals letters before either his Holines had ratified the fact or giueÌ„ notice vnto vs of such his pleasure or the Cardinall proued his coÌ„mission after some authentike or legall maner Of which no one was done so long as we bore off and so soone as to our knowledge either was done we presently submitted our selues g In rubri de off deleg nu 13 l. delegarâ—ff de nouationibus Delegare est vice sua alium dare to delegate saith Decius is to appoint another in his stead h Siluest verbo Delegatus nu 1. Delegatus quoad ecclesiasticos est is â—ui à summo PoÌ„tifice vel ordinario causa committitur aut ab eo qui extraordinaria iurisdictione aliquid potest A delegate as the word appertaineth to ecclesiasticall persons is he to whom a cause is committed by the Pope or Ordinary or by him who through extraordinarie iurisdiction can delegate or appoint that charge to another By which definitions it is very apparant the tenour of the Constitutiue Letter the wordes of the Breue and what father Parsons himselfe acknowledgeth in the Apologie considered that the Cardinall Protector was his Holines delegate in erecting of the subordination and consequently we not bound as it hath bene ofâ—en sayd to obey his Grace till such time as he shewed the rescript of the delegation or proued his Holinesse verball commission giuing him authority to delegate the like ample and extrauagant iurisdiction to the Archpriest as is specified in the Constitutiue Letter Neither are the distresses of our aduersaries releeued a whit if they should contend as what vntruth is there which will wit cannot in some sort flourish ouer that the Cardinall was but an Executor in the institutioÌ„ of the subordinatioÌ„ because i Doct de rota decis nou de off Dele decis 6. n. 2 de concess Praeb decis 19. nu 1. Gloss in ca. Tibi qui de rescrip verbo certo Gloss in ca. Si super de off Dele ver Principalis l. 6 euery Executor is a delegate his authoritie delegatine therefore not to be obeyed vnles he proue the coÌ„mission the tenour And besides the authorities * Pag. 58. sequentibus before quoted for proofe hereof this that followeth taken out of k C. de iurâ— fis li. 10. l. Sancimus â— de diuer rescrip 25. quaest vlt. sancimus the ciuill law and recorded by l In compend Resolut verbo Executor Brunorus maketh the case plaine and confirmeth abundantly Executori dicenti se potestatem habere ad exequendum ex mandato principis non creditur sine literis nec sufficit exhibere literarum transumptum sed originale exhiberi debet Beleefe is not to be giuen to an Executor affirming himself to haue authoritie to execute by the commandement of the Prince without shewing his letters nor is it inough to shew the transumpt or copie of the letters but he ought to shew the originall Neither is the force of the authorities auoided in that the Executor was a Cardinall because in matters of like domage no one is bound to beleeue and subiect himselfe vpon the sole word of a Cardinall as Panormitane Felinus Alexander de Imola Antonius de Butrio Benedictus Valdus the Doctors of the Rota Nauarre Siluester Zecchius Lancellotus Conradus Bartolus Iason with others * Pag. 60. 61. 62. 66. 89. before cited do teach and no author impugnes that we
holy bene the cause sine qua non of many sinfull scandals the world will witnesse yea in that many some by their pens some by their tongues some after another maner haue spoken and done that which was very sinfull and which they would not haue done had your order neuer bâ—ne founded You know what the Prophet and the Apostle writeth and of whom Ecce pono in Sion lapidem offensionis Esa 8. Rom. 9. petram scandali Behold I put in Syon a stone of stumbling and a rocke of scandall And yet we are more then sure that you will not inferre any of our Sauiours actions to be vnlawfull albeit they caused many most sinfull scandals in the kind of cause aboue mentioned But now let vs see how you shew the information giuen to the Sorbon Doctors to be wroÌ„g defectuous false sinistrous For euery of these is your own Epitheton You make 6. exceptions to this purpose The first is that we in proposing the question said only that an ecclesiasticall Superior was coÌ„stituted by the Letters of a most illustrious Cardinal not telling the Doctors that he was Protector of the nation which doth much increase as you say his credit for matters touching the country vnder his protectioÌ„ The inualidity of this exceptioÌ„ is refuted before the Cardinal not instituting Pag 66. 67. the subordinatioÌ„ by any vertue of his Protectorship but onely by commission from his Holinesse what did the adding or not adding that the Cardinall who was his Holinesse delegate in the action was also Protector of the nation import sith the institution of the subordination did not belong to his office of Protectorship and consequently we not bound to obey his letter vntill he had prooued the commission because Literis cuiusdam credendum est de his quae facere De probati §. 3 nu 15. potest vel debet ratione officij sui Beleefe obedience saith Speculator is a tribute due to be giueÌ„ to the letters of those that coÌ„mand the things which appertaine to their office So that the ordaining of the subordination being a thing not belonging to the office of his Protectorship we held it superfluous to set downe in the state of the question that the Cardinall who by his Letters instituted the subordination was also the Protector of our nation And whereas you say that the adding of being Protectour of the nation doth much increase his credit for matters touching the Country vnder his protection we say the same if either you meane by matters such as beloÌ„g to the office of Protectorship or do meane that the title of being Protector doth much increase his credit though not so much as we were bound to beleeue and take his Graces word for warrantize of his Holines commission vnto him But if you meane another or greater increase of his credit then either of these then we discent from you in opinion and assure our selues that ye can neuer make good by reason or authoritie that which you say herein Your second exceptioÌ„ That we putting down the questioÌ„ did but onely signifie that the Cardinall did it according to the will and good liking of the Pope but did not tell them that it was expresso mandato by his Holinesse expresse commandement which the Cardinall setteth down clearly in his Letters Father your little sincerity or rather boldest audacitie amateth For where doth the Cardinall cleerely set downe in his Letters that he receiued an expresse commaundement to erect a subordination Certes either your ignorance appeareth grosse and verie faultie that would not ouerview the letter before you affirmed out of it a matter of such weight or your audacitie in the affirmance there being no such commandement We graunt that the Cardinall in the beginning of his Letter maketh mention of an expresse commaundement receiued from his Holinesse to make peace in our countrey to the example of the peace in the English Colledge but what is this to an expresse commandement of erecting a subordination especially so afflictiue burdenous in our whole church How litle these two do folow one another and how the expresse commandement of doing the one is not nor cannot be the expresse or tacitiue commandement of doing the other the three first Propositions with sundry other places in our Pag. 23 â—4 second Reason do manifest and confirme aboundantly When the Cardinall came in his Letter to appoint the Subordination he made this entrance For so much as some men thinke it would not a little auaile to the making of peace if a subordination were constituted among the English Priests and the reasons yeelded by the Priests themselues which was but M. Standish onely so farre as yet we know for the same were approued by our holy Father we following the most godly and most prudent will of his Holinesse haue decreed to ordaine a subordination Where is the expresse commandement you talke of and which as you say the Cardinall setteth downe clearely in his Letter we meane an expresse commandement of instituting a subordination Verily we must answer you with a Non est inuentus except you can lend vs a spirit to find that which is not We propounded the question in as full or more large termes then the Cardinall vsed for his Grace wrote sequentes voluntatem we following the most godly and prudent will of his Holinesse haue decreed to ordaine a subordination And we in the state of our question wrote that the Cardinal did also declare in his letters vnto vs that he decreed the subordinatioÌ„ iuxta voluntatem beneplacitum according to the will and good liking of his Holinesse So that where the Cardinall said he did institute the subordination following the will of his Holinesse we added that not onely he did it following his will but that also he did it according to his Holinesse good will and pleasure which is somewhat more ample or of greater emphasis Your third exception We concealed another thing vttered also in the Cardinals Letters to wit that a subordination was demaunded by Priests letters to his Holinesse What did you dreame when you wrote this for where we pray is it vttered in the Cardinals letters that Priests in their Letters to his Holinesse did demaund a Subordination Fie what failings are these must we thinke the cause you pleade no better but that it requireth to be vpholden with such apparant falsities The Prophet saith in detestation of idols Lingua ipsorum polita à fabro ipsa etiam Baruc. 6. inaurata inargentata falsa sunt non possunt loqui Their tongue is polished by the Carpenter and themselues being gilded and siluered ouer are notwithstanding counterfeit and cannot speake We know not what Art hath polished your pen but certaine we are that howsoeuer the counterfeits she draws shew faire to the outward view yet looked into and examined they are false and as idols speake little truth Againe how shall we know that
true as we maintaine and the other information to our brethren by your owne wordes but as false we are content if this much do please to allow the comparison Neuerthelesse the truth is that the information and motiues which inuited some of our brethren to manifest themselues and drew others to amend their former hastie errour in receiuing so fruitlesse an authoritie vpon the sole warrantize of the Cardinals Letter was times deciphering The true causes of the increase of our numbers of matters the loue of truth the direction of their owne consciences the inward working of their compassion the sorrow griefe their hearts felt by seeing how vniustly we their brethren were slandered and how violently beyond all measure extremities were caried prosecuted against vs and this vpon no colour or inducement more then because we were few So that compassion of our miseries and loue of lessening the burden by diuiding it among more were the meanes and information that increased our number and not the participation of our libertie and the sore baite therof Neither is there scarce any one Catholicke or Protestant in our countrey that markes how matters passe but can tell that we onely and none but our partie are punished by the Archpriest Which thing whether it be true or no or not more then our words import let the taking away of faculties from seuerall of the Appellants since the making of the appeale let the suspending and interdicting of vs let the solemne declaration which he made by his letters addressed to that end Vniuerso clero Anglicano caeterisque In his letter of the 21. of February 1601. Christi sidelibus in Angliae regno commorantibus to the vniuersall English Cleargie and other faithfull people of Christ abiding in the kingdome of England let his refusing of our appeale * In the same Letter In his letter of the 16. of May 1601. D. Bagshaw In his Letter the 18 of March 1601. M. Colleton let his strange inuerting of our words let the contumelies in calling one of vs Erraticus per saltuÌ„ ascendens Doctor a wandring Doctor ascending by iumpes and another the sonne of Belial let the exempting of vs from hauing part of the common diuidents if we be prisoners or if we be at libertie let their excluding of vs from all places and fauors where the aduerse part can preuaile let the disgraces the obloquies the slanders that are euerie where in citie and countrey spread tennised and maintained against vs and the freedome and rich friendship which our brethren of the other side find beare witnesse and decide whether the participation of our libertie and the freedome we enioy aboue our fellowes of the other partie be a sore baite for yong men or not rather most potent meanes to deterre both yong and old from taking part with vs. Moreouer there be some Priests in our countrey who for that they The rigor of the gouernement be destitute of friendes and know not how possibly to liue if they should openly appeale or otherwise manifest their conscience in matters haue written and protested to his Holinesse that they dare not appeale by reason of the foresaid extremities Againe our Archpriest In his Letter of the 21. of Febr. 1601. Stilo Romano warneth and exhorteth in our Lord all Catholickes Vt omnibus modis quibus possunt nos vitent that by all meanes possible they should shunne our companie and taking vs to be breakers of peace he wisheth them as they do shew themselues patrons and foster-fathers of the Church of Christ Omni ope atque opera iuxta Apostoli praeceptuÌ„ etiam confundere nitaÌ„tur that they would labor by all helpes and furtherances to confound vs according to the precept of the Apostle Likewise one of the Assistants M. Standish words to M. Drâ—wâ—e said that he wold no more froÌ„ henceforth account the AppellaÌ„ts his brethreÌ„ nor otherwise esteem of theÌ„ theÌ„ of Bâ—l Topâ—lif Also another Priest of like forwardnes aduiseth that our coÌ„pany should be shuÌ„ned M. G. as his who hath a plague sore running vpoÌ„ him And some Priests that are not known to adhere vnto vs haue told vs that if their benefactors did know they were in our coÌ„pany they would discontinue their charities withdraw their good affectioÌ„ from them All which to our seeming do conuince that the benefite and libertie we enioy by appealing is not so sweete a baite for misleading young men as the matter is made but rather most sower auersions and such as he that is a young man and not a senior in vertue and in contempt of worldly fauours will beware as of his vndoing how he appeales or haue commerce with vs in the cause And albeit we haue staid long about the confutation of this reason yet here we cannot omit to note one thing more viz. that you hauing otherwhere affirmed that we were not aboue ten or not so many and In the libell the 10. of Ianuary 1599. In your letter to M. Bishop the 9. of October 1599. repeating also in this very place that we were not the twentieth part at the beginning of those that admitted the gouernement would neuerthelesse after the reading of our appeale and seeing thirtie of our names therunto make a doubt by an if whether we haue increased our number since Certes how slow of beleefe soeuer you would make your selfe to appeare in this point yet our Archpriest is not so incredulous for he said not long since by credible relation that the Laitie had neede to sticke vnto him for the Priests were fallen away Neither do we doubt if there were a commission graunted to examine euery Priest on his oth how he liketh the gouernement but that the number of those which would depose for it would be very small and hardly twentie besides the Assistants in all England if al the Assistants should take theis othes for the allowance thereof as we doubt they will not Your fifth exception that we pretended onely to refuse to subscribe to the authoritie of the Archpriest before he had obtained letters from the Sea Apostolicke for confirmation as who would say that this being done we meant to be quiet Sir how highly you esteeme of your owne credit yet deedes being euer of more power to perswade then wordes we hope especially hauing thousands of witnesses on our side that our deedes will be credited before your wordes Did we not all presently vpon the arriuall of his Holinesse Breue receiue the authoritie and subiect our obedience to M. Blackwell the matter is plainer then can be denied and it is acknowledged by our Archpriest and fuller by father Garnet in their letters which are set down in the tenth Chapter of the Apologie yea your selfe intitleth that Chapter in this manner of the Fol. 146. 147. Fol. 148. ending of all controuersies vpon the publication of his Holinesse Breue But you call in doubt whether the
not consenting To M. Charnocke whiles he was prisoner in Rome to our other brethren wherein all learning was with vs and the ordinances of holy Church against them and we not knowing when we first dissented but that they would demur as we did about the absolute admittance of the authoritie were a thing so dangerous as you relate to be attempted among Catholickes in sight of the enemy and in time of persecution the other diuision which father Lyster and other of the Iesuits made was beyond all proportion more daungerous as wherein so many failes of modestie learning iudgement ciuilitie and charitie hudled together But as our prouerbe is some may better steale a horse then some others looke ouer the hedge For our tumultuous behauiours for the reuell we kept in writing sending and perswading against the Popes ordination for the conuenticles and tumults we made to draw men into faction because you barely affirme them without making any proofe or descending to any one instance we will leaue those that know vs and our actions to iudge of the truth of the accusations and to take you for such a one herafter as the libertie of your pen deciphereth you to be But touching the reasons we inuented as you say to discredit the Protectors Letters and person because you set them downe in another place what they were in particular we will answer vnto them You affirm that to diminish his Graces estimation with the Catholickes we wrote he was Protector of the English Colledge at Rome and afterward honoured by the title of Protector of England but Pag. 17. we did not graunt say you that he was so indeed was not this a high point in a low house trow ye and worthy to be taxed by a religious pen Could his Graces estimation especially being more then a tweluemoneth dead before the writing of the words be diminished with the Catholickes of England thereby who neuer knew him nor scarce euer heard whether there was such a man or no or was our acknowledging of him to be Protector of the English Colledge at Rome and our graunting that he was afterwards honoured by the title of Protector of England a deniall that he was so indeede who would thus infer that had his wits about him But you go onward and make another reason of our discrediting his Grace because forsooth we no plainer acknowledging him to be Protector of England then is said did adde that we were not bound to beleeue him in a matter of so large a consequence as the institution of the Archpriest without Bull or Breue A reason much like to the former For it hath bene shewed before that it is no discredite Pag. 62 88. to a Cardinall not to be beleeued on his word in matters greatly preiudiciall to others because according to the Maxime Non attenditur Decius in ca. Causam quae de offic Deleg nu 26. illa presumptio quòd quis praesumatur bonns vbi agitur de praeiudicio tertij for a man to be holden good is no presumption to be regarded where the matter concernes the preiudice of a third person You fashion a third argument for proofe that we laboured to discredite our Protector because we wrote you say that he was knowne to be allied to 〈…〉 said to be ruled altogether against the English schollers and Priests whose Protector he prâ—tended to be Are not these weightie exceptions Will you inferre it a discredite to the Cardinall to be allied to your Generall or if not why do you alleage it And touching the other part of the reason are we the first or onely men who report that the Cardinall was said to be ruled by persons of your Order against the schollers and Priests You would be loth to feed all those that haue and do make this report besides vs. Did his Holinesse himselfe allow the schollers appellations from the Cardinal Protector as reputed partial on the Iesuits side and gaue them other visitors namely Cardinall Sega and Senior Moro at one time and at another time Cardinall Burghesio and the same Senior Moro It is straunge to see how fondly you reason and leese your selfe A fourth reason of yours consisteth in that we wrote that his Graces Letters drew on a generall and extreme persecution vpon our necks and consequently were not to be allowed by vs. Sir here we must tell you that you clippe our words and maime or inuert the sense for these are our words in the place you quote What reason is there that his Graces bare Letters the contents whereof drew on so great and extreme persecution vpon our neckes should be allowed of by vs as a sufficient proofe of the delegation Now marke how you chaunge them We made them a demaund and you make them positiue without asking the question We said the contents thereof drew on so generall and extreme persecution pointing by the word so to the meere punishing iurisdiction which the Cardinall gaue to the Archpriest without counterpoise of anie commoditie at all and to the increase of our daunger and our Princesse disfauour through the institution thereof and you turne the word so into a which cutteth away the reference And in stead of our demaund whether his Graces bare letters so preiudiciall vnto vs ought without anie further euidence to be allowed by vs as a sufficient proofe of the delegation you come in with a consequently they were not to be allowed by vs omitting that addition of ours as a sufficient proofe of the delegation And if doubt be made whether the contents of the Constitutiue Letter can be said to drawe on a persecution let the Iurisdiction graunted to the Archpriest of remouing vs from the places of our residences of binding vs to stand to his decision and arbitrement in the doubts and controuersies that shall arise of prescribing what he listeth and of forcing vs to obey the same vnder losse of our faculties Let these and other of like qualitie declare whether the contents of the Cardinals Letter may not beare the name of mouing a persecution when the person to whom the like ample authoritie was committed was promoted to the office and directed in the execution thereof by those that are the chiefest and most potent parties of the other side of the difference yea the verie setters downe of the ordinances Verily whatsoeuer others may think in this point yet we that are the sufferers and against whom the spleene is borne do feele more aggrieuances and a heauier weight of persecution by the vse or abuse of the iurisdiction graunted then we doe by the straite condition of the lawes of our countrey In briefe for conclusion of the premises and for binding vp all to our greater reproch you say It is sufficient to shew our passionate and discomposed minds for that the Cardinall protector now gone to God hauing bene to all our nation a most deare patrone and father in all occasions we notwithstanding in all
without vtter wracke of his credit he could not occupie his pen in defence of the paradoxe What others will thinke in this point we know not but our selues seeme most sure hereof The other points that we would haue the reader to note in the delating and proofe of the exceptions are the words he vseth that he will Fol. 115. not presume to determine any degree of sinne touching the deferring of our obedience to the Archpriest but will leaue that to God and to the offenders consciences and likewise his declaration that well we might haue spared Fol. 118. to print the Censure of Paris but that M. Champney would make a vaine flourish with the ostentation of an Academicall sentence Of like he wrote the former without any deliberation or did not afterwards remember what he had written because in the eleuenth chapter he defineth resolutely Fol. 172. that we were bound vnder grieuous sinne by all rules of true diuinity to haue obeyed with far lesse euidence then was shewed vnto vs. Which doubtlesse seemeth to be written when his iudgement was asleepe as may appeare by that which is said before * Pag. 61. 62. Deuteron 19. and by the text of holy scripture In ore duorum vel trium testium stabit omne verbum In the mouth of two or three witnesses euery word shal stand And touching his opinion that we might well haue spared the printing of the Censure of Paris we neede say no more but that such outfacing words do way little with the wise who know that where shame is not the like words may be spoken of any truth in the world And likewise know that put case all the exceptions were true which are alleaged against the Censure yet the same Censure doth cleere vs of father Listers imputation and of enormious disobedience because if it were either of these crimes our deferring could not be but sinne in the fact considered in it selfe which the censure denieth and that we had so wicked and diuellish intention as to cut our selues from holy church or rebell against any lawfull superior in a deede lawfull in it selfe as the Vniuersitie defined our deferring to be we thinke our aduersaries will Math. 7. Rom. 14. Iac. 4. D. Tho. 22. q. 60. art 2. 6. q. 67. art 1. not say it and we are sure they cannot say it without guilt of vsurped iudgement and most grieuous sinne to their soules and so leauing these matters we will returne and proue that the aucthoritie as it hath bin practised infringeth or dispenseth with the law of nature THe aucthoritie as M. Blackwell hath hitherto demeaned it either dispenseth with the law of nature or violateth the same in that he by vertue of the aucthoritie prohibited the accused to defend Clem. ca. pastoralis de re iud § caetâ—ruÌ„ themselues A right if any other taught by nature her selfe And that he hath thus done the proues be many and vndeniable Father Lister accused vs of a foule crime the infamie was diuulged in all parts of the Realme and in many places beyond the seas our company grew thereon to be shunned our benefactors were put in feare that their soules would finde smart in the next world for harboring of vs in their houses seuerall meanes were practised and attempts giuen to remoue vs * and not to leaue vs where to hide our heads * Father Garnet In his letter the tenth of Nouember the superiour of the Iesuites affirmed that we ministred and receiued sacraments in deadly sinne that we gaue poyson in liew of medicine that we were such by the opinion of all the learned as his brother Lister had censured vs to be that our criminous sinfull irregular and excommunicate state was so plaine and notorious as none vnder sinne could forward or assist vs in the exercise of our functions Priests were dealt withall and fauors promised so as they would affirme or report vs guiltie of the crimes obiected To make our oppressions great enough a Roman resolution without name of the author was published against vs by our Archpriest and direction giuen by him that none should absolue vs in confession before we would acknowledge and make satisfaction for the enormities wherewith we were charged Likewise to increase our burthen father Iones gaue foorth and our superior said the position was true that whosoeuer mainteined vs not to be the abandoned creatures which father Lister iudged vs to be incurred ipso facto for such their defending of vs the censures of holie church What shall we say Our Archpriest himselfe charged vs with enormious disobedience to liue a gracelesse state and in * In his letters of the 21. and 27. of February and of the 14. of March 1600. the letters wherein his Reuerence thus censured vs which were also made common ouer the Realme he forbad vs being no otherwise condemned vnder threate of suspendinâ— vs presently from the vse of our function either by word or writing to defend the disobedience imputed Againe there was neither meane nor measure obserued in multiplying of afflictions vpon vs M. Blackwell in his decree of the 18. of October 1600. denounceth and declareth vs to haue bin truly disobedient to the Sea Apostolike and rebellious against his office and in the next paragraffe of the same decree prohibiteth all of vs in vertue of holie obedience and vnder paine of suspension and interdict and vnder losse of all our faculties ipso facto to be incurred not any maner of way by word or writing directly or indirectly to presume to defend the disobedience whereof he immediatly before condemned vs. Was there euer greater iniustice heard of vpon earth Can that ecclesiasticall secular or prophane Iudge be named who before Iuridicall condemnation forbad vnder like or so grieuous penalties any offendor guilty of what crime soeuer to defend his reputation Pope Clement the fift affirmeth that focultas defensionis Clem. ca. pastoralis de re iud quae à iure prouenit naturali adimi non valet libertie of defending our selfe proceeding from the lawe of Nature cannot be forbidden And what is more ingraffed in nature or a deeper instinct thereof then not being conuicted nor coÌ„demned to defend our good names We do not denye that the deferring of our obedience to the Constitutiue Letter and Archpriest was notorious we meane publikely knowne but that this deferring and protracting of our subiection till the comming of his Holines Breue was either enormious disobedience or any of the other crimes pretended this we denye to be notorious or to be true at all That kinde of defence which consisteth in denying the vnlawfulnes of a fact acknowledged to be done cannot be taken away by the prerogatiue of the Prince or by any law Sum accusatus de homicidio fateor sed volo me defendere quia feci me defendendo ista defensio tolli non potest I am a In ca. ex parte 2 de offi
him any such kind of iurisdiction ouer vs who to proue that he had authoritie to interdict vs affirmeth that by the letters of his institution and also by the Breue he may inquietos poenis coercere ecclesiasticis correct the vnquiet with ecclesiasticall penalties leauing forth the words which immediatlie followed and which specified with what ecclesiasticall penalties he should correct ablatione nimirum facultatum vel suspensione namely by taking away their faculties or suspending Which words and part of the sentence if M. Blackwell had not left out the very place he alleaged for proofe of his authoritie did most clearely demonstrate and conuince the contrarie Neither is this the first time that such kind of foule play hath bin offered vs for in the third of the twelue questions which our Archpriest or father Garnet in his name proposed vnto vs to be answered in stead of graunting the dispute we intreated In sua eccle rep de statu Ill. Cardinal nu 9. for ending of the controuersie the like pranck is practised the propounder alleaging Zecchius to affirme that against vs for them which if the whole sentence had bin taken not cut off guilefully in the mids it had made most stronglie for vs against them Zecchius words are these Cardinali creditur testanti sibi aliquid à Papa viuae vocis oraculo mandatum vt quod restituat aliquem natalibus si tamen de magno alicuius praeiudicio agatur ei non creditur A Cardinall is to be credited on his word affirming that he receiued a Mandate from the Pope by word of mouth namely that he should make such an one a Gentleman who was of base bloud before but if the matter whereof the Cardinall giueth testimony concerne greatly the preiudice of an other then is his sole word of no sufficient power to bind any to belieue him Now the proposer of the twelue questions were he father Garnet or M. Blackwell assumed only one part of the sentence as euery one may see where the difficultie lay not and which made for them and omitted the other part that belonged to the state of the difference and which made most strongly against them But can these odde shifts and paring of sentences proclaime other then a bad cause and lacke of sinceritie in the mainteiners No no the wise do note it Secondly whereas our Superior affirmeth in his letter that he was appointed Archpriest of the English Catholikes for the happie rule and regiment and mutuaâ— loue of Catholikes c. we pray him to shew vs wheÌ„ and by whom he was appointed Archpriest of the lay Catholikes The Constitutiue Letter maketh him Archpriest but only ouer all the secular English Priests residing in England or Scotland And though his Holines first Breue for his second was not extant long after M. Blackwell wrote these signified that the Cardinall had by his commaundement for the happie rule and gouernement and mutuall loue peace and vnion of the Catholikes of the kingdomes of England and Scotland and for conseruing and augmenting ecclesiasticall discipline deputed M. Blackwell Archpriest by his Letters patents ouer the English Catholikes Yet no such thing appearing in the said Letters M. Blackwell can no more rightfully stile himselfe the Archpriest of English Catholikes because per confirmationem Papae nihil noui iuris datur No new Glos in ca. Quis nesciat dist 11. verb. Autoritate Glos in ca. quia diuer sitatem de concess Praebend verb. forma coÌ„muni right is giuen by the Popes confirmation then Iohn Astile can write himselfe the Lieutenant of the Shire because the Queene commaunded the Lord Keeper to appoint him so who neuerthelesse in the commission he sent him made him but Iustice of peace And whether Iohn Astile be Lieutenant in this case or no there is none of iudgement especially of knowledge in the lawes but will say he is not because he is no more nor can be taken for other then the writ of Commission ordaineth him Thirdly to that M. Blackwell saith that the wayward man is to know that the Canonists agree that he which hath iurisdiction in the exteriour court can inflict censures we answere that it is true in any who hath iurisdiction in the exterior court by vertue of any ordinarie office or delegatine vnlesse there be a forme prescribed together with the graunt of the delegatine authoritie how he shall punish and proceede with the contumacious or delinquents For if there be such a specification or limitation added to the authority then that forme is most strictly to be obserued and any thing done beyond it is of no obligation Vbi datur certa forma procedendi processus corruit non solâ—m Panorm in ca. Prudentiam de offic deleg nu 5. si aliquid attentatur directè contra formam sed etiam citra vel praeter formam Where there is a certaine forme giuen of proceeding the processe falleth and is of no effect not only if an attentatiue be made directly contrary to the forme but also if any thing be enterprised beside or out of the compasse of the forme Againe Subdelegatus delegati Idem in Can. venerabili de off deleg nu 1. Papae si excesserit formam rescripti processus est nullus The Subdelegate of the Popes delegate if he shall exceede the forme of his commission the thing that he doth therein is of no force And that M. Blackwell was the Cardinals Subdelegate none can deny who shall reade the Constitutiue Letter Now the ordinarie authority that M. Blackwell hath being the only authority of an Archpriest which giueth him no iurisdiction at all in the exterior court because as the Canonists yeeld the reason the a Ioannes Andreas in ca. 1 de Archip. nu 3. Lancelottus in Insti nu Ca li. 1 tit 14. Hostiensis in sumnâ—a de offi Ar hipraesb nu 2. Archpriest supplieth the stead of the Bishop in celebration of certaine spirituall things as the Archdeacon doth in matters belonging to iurisdiction and therefore the Archpriest hath no power in the exterior court as the authorities ensuing do proue b Zâ—cchius de Eccl rep ca. 24. nu 14. Archipresbyter iurisdictionem habet voluntariam non tamen contentiosam An Archpresbyter hath a voluntarie but no litigious iurisdiction that is c Schardius in suo Lexicon verbo Iurisdictio he can exercise no authority by compulsion but only where the parties are willing d Ioannes Andreas in ca. ministrum de Archipraesb nu 3. Archpraesbyter punire aliquem non potest authoritate sua sed de praecepto sui Episcopi An Archpriest cannot punish any body by his owne authority but vpon commaundement of his Bishop Of the otherside touching his delegatine authority the particulars and the forme thereof are set downe and therefore not to be extended to any thing that is beyond the limits of the said forme or if in case it be further extended neuerthelesse the like extension
one or necessitie constraine the other that is as the Cardinall himselfe explaineth the particulars when we after the foresaid admonitions and reprehensions shall demaine our selues disobediently vnquietly or contumaciously against his commaundements From these premisses we inferre that albeit our Arch-priest hath authoritie to make Decrees which we neither denye nor affirme though we rather thinke he can not vnlesse he first summon vs and propose as the Constitutiue letter directeth the things he intendeth Pag. 6. § 3. to decree yet we assuredly beleeue that his Reuerence hath no authoritie nor iurisdiction at all to annexe the censures of suspension or interdict or the penaltie of leesing our faculties to be incurred ipso facto if we disobey and breake his Decrees And the reasons why we be thus perswaded are first because this were presently before any fact done by vs to passe and impose the said censures and ecclesiasticall Vgolinus ta 1. ca. 9. § 6 nu 3. penaltie and to lay them in the Decree for it to execute them without any his further concurrance when the offence is committed But our Arch-priest hath no authoritie to passe and inflict a Censure or to restraine and reuoke faculties as appeareth by the tenour of the Cardinals letter saue only after the committing of an offence and after charitable admonitions and reprehensions for the same and therefore till the offence be committed and the reprehensions first vsed he can not passe and impose any censure or penaltie And although the publishing of a Decree be a sufficient admonition yet the publishing thereof doth not nor can not supplie as we thinke the reprehensions which by the prescript forme of the Constitutiue Letter is to be vsed before the inflicting of the said penalties Againe the edition of a Decree is g Panor in caaeum à consuâ—tudinis de cod tit nu 6. a thing of greater authoritie and distinguished from the exercise of bare iurisdiction because one may appeale from the sentence or iudgement of his superiour but not from h Panorm in ca. ex liâ—eris de constit nu 9 Silu. verb Appell nu 6. the penaltie or mulcte of a statute and also because Decrees be certaine and perpetuall but the exercise of iurisdiction variable according to the conditions of persons Wherefore it seemeth that he who hath but only authority to impose Censures or other ecclesiasticall penalties as time place the condition of the offender and the nature of his offence shall require as the Cardinals letter giueth our Arch-priest no more can not by vertue of the same authoritie make Decrees and adioyne those penalties vnto them which he may impose vpon the offender after the offence committed because as Panormitane writeth i In ca. cum consuetudinis cod tit nu 6. potestas habens arbitrium imponendi paenam non potest à principio per sua statuta declarare paenas He that hath authoritie to inflict punishment according as he shall thinke good can not by his statutes before the trespasse be committed declare the penalties he intendeth to impose Briefely the Arch-priests authoritie in the exteriour court being whollie delegantine and in a set forme and no part thereof containing like iurisdiction as to make Decrees and annexe such penalties the fift Proposition in the second Reason Pag. 25. teacheth that what he doth therein is of no obligation because k Panoâ—m in ca. quae in de co stit n. 1. statutum excedens fines potestatis statuendum est ipso iure nullum the Decree that exceedeth the decreers authoritie is absolutelie none at all A Third principall thing wherein our Arch-priest seemeth to transgresse the lawes of holie Church is that the sacred Canons l Ca super co 2. de appel giuing all men leaue to appeale m Ca. de appel â—od tit euen for the smallest iniustice and commaunding the Superiour n Ibid. ca. vt debitus cod tit to admit euery such Appeale his Reuerence notwithstaÌ„ding imbarreth vs to appeale by collection of names vnlesse we haue first his licence thereunto Againe thirtie of vs hauing ioyned in one Appeale and some moe since all alleaging the same causes and prouing them to be most weightie and true neuerthelesse his Reuerence refused to admit the Appeale saue onely for one of the whole number Courses which most directly crosse both the rules of law and conscience And to prooue the particulars First that his Reuerence hath in the foresaid manner debarred vs to appeale and that he hath also which is much more punished vs for appealing it is cleare by the testimonie of his owne Decrees and other writings Prohibemus autem sub paena c. We prohibite saith our Arch-priest in his Decree of the 18. of Nouember 1600. vnder paine of suspension from diuine offices leesing all faculties that no Priest after any manner either by writing or word of mouth do seeke or giue voyces in any cause soeuer which is not certainely knowne to haue bene communicated before to vs or to two of our Assistants Secondly when signification was giuen to our Arch-priest which was performed in the letter that accompanied the Appeale and is set downe before that Pag. 1003. we intended to moue some moe of our brethren to giue their names to the Appeale he presently wrote a letter with this addressed dated the 28. of Nouember 1600. To the Reuerend and dearelie beloued in Christ my Assistants and felow-priests in which the words folowing are inserted Quoniam sunt quidam qui in eo cauillati sunt quod collectionem suffragiorum ad notitiam aut meam aut Assistentium deferri mandauerim cognoscite in hoc hunc fâ—isse meum sensum quem sic declaro vt communicationem facerent collectionis suffâ—agiorum cum Superiore cuius consensus exquirendus habendus est Atque illud praecipuè intendimus quod Decretum antecedentibus temporibus confiâ—matum fiat authoritate Ill â—â— bonae memoriae Cardinalis Caictani that is Because there are certaine that haue cauilled for that I commaunded the collection of suffrages to be imparted to me or the Assistants know ye in this thing this to be my meaning which thus I declare that they should communicate the gathering of voyces with the Superiour whose consent is to be asked and obteined And this was that which we chiefely intended which Decree in former times was confirmed by the authoritie of the most Illustrious of good memorie Cardinall Caietane By which passage and that which was rehearsed out of the Decree together with the cause for which his Reuerence made this explication it very plainely appeareth that he forbiddeth vs either to appeale or at least to giue or aske names for making of an Appeale without his consent And that this is no more nor otherwise then our Arch-priest himselfe acknowledgeth his words ensuing in the same letter do testifie Quod enim in suis literis pâ—sucrunt dâ—â—râ—ta quâ—dâ—m nostra 18.
our rights or of the See Apostolick or against the rights of what other Churches soeuer Now whether the state of ecclesiasticall libertie by the foresaid Decree of our Arch-priest especiallie expounded as himselfe enlarged it and is before set downe be either disanulled impeached diminished or any way directlie or indirectlie implicitiuely or expressely streited we leaue to others to iudge when as the same Decree forbade vs vnder threat of suspension from diuine offices and forfet of all our faculties either to seeke or giue voices in any cause soeuer without his consent and leaue and that we should not collect and ioyne voices in making an Appeale to his Holines vnlesse we haue his assent thereunto and hath sithence punished our attempt therein both by declaring that we incurred the foresaid censure and penalties in breaking his Decree by subscribing our names to the Appeale and by suspending and taking away our faculties for the same cause as the foregoings do most manifestlie conuince and hundreds beside can witnes Tenaunts oppressed by their temporall Lord may without his licence by all lawes conferre and combine themselues in one complaint for reformation of their iniuries likewise subiects receiuing wrong through the ignorance or corruption of any vnder officer or vicegerent may vnite themselues giue and gather names for manifesting their pressures by way of Supplication to their Prince and Soueraigne without the parties consent or priuitie who vniustly afflicteth them yea the contrarie in either example or infinite moe that might be alleaged to the same purpose were plaine tyranie in the secular state And if in the ciuill regiment these things be alike lawfull and sometime necessarie can they be vnlawfull or may they possiblie be prohibited in ecclesiasticall gouerment and the rights of ecclesiasticall libertie not infringed No no the matter is plainer then it can be doubted of And if so then did our Archpriest as we feare and some other cooperators who are comprehended vnder the Canon of Vbi supra Honorius incur excoÌ„munication in the nature of the fact and because the said decree is not yet cancelled nor reuoked but rather still extended against vs we thinke further that his Reuerence after absolution falleth againe so often into that censure as he maketh vse of the decree against vs which hath bin not seldome And it is strange that the nature of the decree considered which can by no shift of wit be truly salued from being against the rights of ecclesiasticall libertie our Archpriest was not afraid to let passe in a common letter vnder his hand 28. of NoueÌ„ber 1600. seale that the aboue mentioned part of the decree containing such od stuffe was confirmed by Cardinall Caietane in his life time A report which for the distaine it bringeth to the dead we should not beleeue Or if it be true yet we hope it was but a slye finesse of father Parsons winning the Cardinall to confirme what his grace looked not into for that no Cardinall whosoeuer hath authoritie to decree any such extremitie But howsoeuer the same was it can not but witnes a very seuere course intended when such a decree importing if we mistake not the case sacrilegious iniustice was beforehand deuised ratified A Fourth chief particular wherein our Archpriest seemeth to haue transgressed the lawes of holie Church is in that many of vs ioyning in one appeale and alledging the same causes his Reuerence admitted the Appeale for one reiected it in the behalfe of all the rest For either the said Appeale was iust or vniust in respect of vs all or none in that we were all vnited in the action yeelded the same reasons And if vniust then did our Arch-priest violate the sacred canons in approuing it towards one because they prescribe that when the appeale is vniust the Superiour should not defer thereunto g Ca. cum appellationibus eod tit lib. 6. idem habetur cap. cuÌ„ speciali § porro Appellationibus friuolis nec iustitia defert nec est à iudice deferendum Neither doth iustice allow friuolous appeales nor ought the Iudge to admit them And the Glosse h Ibidem goeth further Iudex à quo non debet deferre appellationi friuolae quae interponitur sine causa vel causa est irrationabilis aut est falsâ— imo si deferat peccat mortaliter The Iudge from whom Appellation is made ought not to admit a friuolous Appeale which is interposed without a cause or vpoÌ„ an insufficient or false cause nay rather if he defer thereunto he committeth mortall sinne The like hath i In ca. de priore de appel nu 2. Panormitane though not in so plaine termes and Siluester k Verb. appellatio nu 13 calleth the deferring to an vniust appeale malice and imprudency And the reason why it is sinne is plaine because in receiuing an vniust appeale the course of iustice is broken and iniquitie patronised Of the contrary side if the appeale were iust then did his Reuerence more grieuously offend in not admitting the same l 2 q. 6. decrâ—to Note the punishment and censures of not admitting a iust appeale Si à quoquam secus praesumptum fuerit ab officio cleri submotus authoritatis Apostolicae reus ab omnibus iudicetur ne Lupi qui sub specie ouium subintrauerunt bestiali saeuitia quosque audeant lacerare He that shall presume sayth Pope Gregorie the fourth to reiect a lawfull and iust appeale ought to be put from his office and of all men to be iudged guiltie of contempt against authoritie Apostolicall least Wolues that priuily entred in Sheepes clothing should not feare to vexe and torment others with beastlie crueltie Which vniustice of not deferring to a iust appeale m Ca. de priorâ— de appell Pope Alexander the third tearmeth a grieuous excesse and prescribeth that he who should presume to commit the offence is if the appeale were made to the Sea Apostolicke to be sent to the court of Rome there to satisfye and be punished for the transgression Or if finallie the appeale were neither apparantlie iust nor vniust but doubtfull as how it could so appeare we do not see because the causes alleaged therein were most weightie demonstratiue and proued by seuerall testimonies out of Maister Blackwels owne letters and other his writings yet do the n Ca. Cum speciali de appell § porro Canons in this case appoint the Iudge to receiue the appeale as both the o Glossa in ca. Sacro de sent excom verb. â—â—bitari Durandus de appell § 9. nu 5. Panormita in ca. vt debitus de appell nu 30. VVamesius â—od tit in ca. de priore nu 7. expositors of the lawe and p Siluester verb. appell nu 13. Summists testifie Si iudex de legitimatione appellationis dubitat q Vbi supra debet r Vbi supra tenetur differre If the Iudge doubt of the lawfulnes
of the appeale he ought and is bound to deferre thereunto And the reason is because appellation doth alwaies implie an vniustice receiued or intended and in things doubtfull the ſ Salo◠de iustitia q. 63. art 4. contr 2. concl 2. regula 11. de reg iur lib. 6. diuine law naturall and humane declareth that the case of the agrieued or sufferer is to be preferred A Fift essentiall point wherein our Archpriest seemeth likewise to transgresse the lawes of holie Church is that his Reuerence hauing admitted my appeale à grauaminibus futuris from future agrieuances deliuered me my apostles or dimissory letters would * From the 20. of December to the 21. of February following some few weekes after notwithstanding this his formall allowance of the Appeale suspend interdict and redouble the taking away of my faculties and this vpon no new offence which was notorious but See these things set downe in his own letter pag. 190. euen for consenting to the prefixing of the causes before the appeale which himselfe admitted and for making answere to a lay Gentleman his letter the copie whereof is set downe before and lastly for that three of the appellants did denye the giuing of their assents to the said causes which were prefixed All a Ca. super de appel Ca. Romana ca. sià Iudice de appel lib. 6. Panormitan in ca. ad reprimendam de off iudi ordi nu 9. Silu. verb. appellatio nu 1. lawes and writers do assigne these two effects to euery appeale admitted viz. the suspending of the superiours iurisdiction in the cause from whome and in which the appellation was made and the reuoluing of the said cause to the tryall of the higher Iudge to whome the appellation was made Hence it appeareth plaine that Maister Blackwel admitting my appeale and after proceeding against me in the very same kind of agrieuances for which I appealed and this his proceeding against me chiefely for annexing the causes of the Appeale he allowed without any new and notorious offence committed by me as the fore-goings do manifestly conuince hence I say it most euidently appeareth that his Reuerence therein brake the lawes of holy Church vnlesse his authoritie be a transcendant aboue all the written rules either of lawe or conscience A sixt particular wherein our Arch-priest exceedeth the limits of his authoritie as we verily beleeue is his opinion and practise touching the reuocation of faculties What opinion his Reuerence holdeth herein his letters to Maister Charnock of the 17. of Iune 1600. This letter is set downe pag. 199. do manifestly shew wherein amongst other things he writeth thus Facultatum concessio vt etiam duratio merè voluntaria censenda est cum facultates delegatae sine vllo prorsus crimine solo nutu concedentis vel ab co potestatem habentis expirent As the graunt of faculties so the continuation of them is to be counted meere voluntarie sith delegatine faculties expire without any fault vpon the sole will of the graunter or of the party that hath authority from him A strange position and which cannot but prognosticate somewhat See Panormitan in ca. in singulis de stat mona nu 7. Cardinall Caietaine appointed Maister Blackwell Arch-priest and gaue him Delegatine authoritie as is plaine by his graces words cui vices nostras pro tempore delegemus to whome for the time we delegate our stead and yet * § 6. vers 10. Note a contradiction betweene the two opinions father Lyster in his treatise against vs affirmeth that the Pope cannot depose him without a crime committed neither is the authority or office wherewith Maister Blackwell is inuested a like meane of his maintenance as the hauing of faculties is to Priests that liue in our countrey which putteth a materiall difference betweene the cases and inferreth that if Maister Blackwell may not but vpon a crime be remoued by the Pope much lesse may faculties be taken away from Priests in England without any crime foregoing The donation of faculties to Priests in their mission seemeth not so to depend on the meere pleasure of the superiour as our Arch-priest would pretend but rather to be an implicitiue couenant and the performance thereof due vnto them by iustice vnlesse their owne misdemeanor bereaue them of the interest For can their admittance into any of the Colledges the addicting of themselues to the study of Diuinity the taking of an oath to be made Priests and goe into England when the Superiour shall appoint promise lesse then a couenant on the Superiors side to furnish them with faculties at the time of their going vnlesse as is sayd their owne deserts shall make them vnworthie sith the hauing of faculties is the chiefest meane of inabling thē to do good in our country the end why they became Priests and resigned the liberty of their former state And as the giuing of faculties to Priests at their departure for England is not to be counted a meere voluntarie fauour being in truth the due hire of their trauels and alteration of their state so neither can the continuation of our faculties iustly be deemed to depend in such sort vpō the will of the graunter as that at his pleasure they expire and determine without any sufficient cause giuen Vndoubtedly the disgrace and iniuries which accompanie such a fact is an oppression that sendeth vp his cry to heauen for punishment vpon the imposer An extremitie that men who haue left the Vniuersitie forsaken the preferments of learning in their country relinquished their patrimonies lost the loue of their worldly friends brought themselues in dislike with their Prince and the State deuoted their trauels to the gaining of soules and hourely for that cause venture their liues and floting beside in a sea of difficulties must after all these and in the middest of these be spoyled of their faculties yea at the arbitrarie pleasure of another and this sine crimine without any blame or fault But who seeth not how this doctrine of our Archpriest tendeth to bōdage and meere tyrannie For haue Priests in our Countrey either Tithes Parsonage or Vicaredge or any other help of maintenance though they serue the Altar in more danger then any Priest in the Christian world beside then the voluntarie charities of those with whom they deale And with whome can they deale being depriued of their faculties The Councell of a Sess 21. de refor ca. 2. sc 1. Trident enacteth seuerall prouisoes that Priests should not through necessitie of want be driuen to beg holding the same a reproch to the order The like also haue the auncient Canons b Dist 50. ca. studeat decreed appointing that Priests euen guilty of murder when their liues are spared should be allowed a competent portion for their maintenance out of the benefices they had when they committed the fact And touching the censure of suspension all the Canons c Panormit in
manner the taking away of our faculties which heapeth discredit and sundire other damages vpon vs and alike vnperfectlie or by halfes to recite the causes and lay downe the punishment as the reader through additions of et-cetera-es is left as it were to a wide scope to conceiue what further bad matter or consequence he listeth of our demeanour or state of soule and not vpon intreatie so much as to make a full and distinct declaration in the premisses if the proceeding be iuridicall or haue neighborhood with clemencie either my bookes be false or I vnderstand them not If your Reuerence tooke but all our faculties from vs and the et-cetera-es adioyned implie no Censure nor a notorious damnable state then I desire to know the reason why we may not minister and the Laitie receiue at our hands the Sacrament of the holie Eucarist baptisme or extreme vnction which your causatiue ne seemeth and by congruitie of speech can not as I thinke but denie Concerning the causes alleaged I acknowledge as I euer haue so do I continuallie maintaine that we were no schismatikes for delaying to subiect our selues to your authoritie before the arriuall of his holines Breue and that I also insist for the reuersement of father Listers pamphlet as most wrongfullie condemning vs of that detestable crime For the other two offences your Reuerence chargeth me with I denye them vtterly and do beseech you most humblie to name the Letter and particular the contumelie or calumnes in which I abused your Reuerence or forgot my selfe toward any other Superiour The like I desire touching my busie practises against peace and with greatest instancie Thus your Reuerence in few words seeth my grounds and vnderstandeth my requests I humblie pray the graunt and so with duetie do leaue beseeching God to guide you increase patience in me 24. of October Your Reuerences Iohn Colleton Notwithstanding which earnest petition to our Arch-priest for his answere to the points he neuerthelesse as if he had bin more then the Metrapolitane of England and my selfe the meanest Priest on earth returned me a ragged peece of paper such as would not much more then come about a mans thombe with these words written in it legatur Suarez tom 3. disput 16. sect 1. disput 72. sect 4. eod to together with a few broken speeches by word of mouth either not appertayning or not satisfying my demaunds which also the messenger being a lay person would not put downe vnder his hand nor attestate The places he referred me vnto teach that Priests depriued of Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction can not lawfullie minister any Sacrament and how many wayes they sinne mortallie that minister a Sacrament vnworthilie or others in receiuing of a Sacrament at the hands of an vnworthie Minister So that his intent in quoting the places was plaine viz. that I could not he hauing taken away all my faculties administer any Sacrament at all and that I liued in notorious mortall sinne and therefore none without sinning deadlie could receiue a Sacrament of me Wrongs which as I pray God of his mercie to forgiue him so do I hope that neither he nor all his adherents shall be able to prooue if they giue hands and deuise all the quircks and quidities in the world for bolstering vp the slaunder And before we descend to the examination of the causes which his Reuerence alledgeth in the Instrument for the punishment he inflicteth it seemeth necessarie to speake a word or two explicating the beginning of his Letter as also for declaring how and when he may take away our faculties by the authoritie graunted Some nine or tenne dayes before the arriuall of his Holines Breue for confirmation of the new authoritie Maister Blackwell suspended See more of this matter pag. 52. the vse of Maister Mushes faculties Maister Hebornes and mine because we would not admit him before he should shew his Holines Letters for proofe of the promotion Which refusall being lawfull according to all lawes he tearmeth a manifest disobedience and our receiuing of him vpon the first appearing of the Breue he nameth our submission and the remouing of the suspension the restitution of our faculties all spoken vnproperlie and the first also very wrongfullie Touching the other point how and when his iurisdiction authoriseth him to take away faculties there can not be made a better declaration thereof then are the selfe words of the Constitutiue Letter being the set forme of his Commission and from which he can Gloss in ca. cum dilecta de rescript not swarue a haires breadth which are these To restraine or suspend the vse of faculties if there shall be neede or to take them whollie away if necessitie constraine So that of force either neede or necessitie must be the antecedent to his correction neede if he restraine our faculties or necessitie if he take them away And when is this Marie as the same letter specifieth and seemeth to limite when his Reuerence hath summoned vs and proposed with the aduise of his Assistants the things which either he shall iudge necessarie to be obserued by vs or shall thinke needefull to be written to Rome or to Doctor Barret President of Doway and we in the same matters shall shewe our selues disobedient vnquiet or contumaceous then that his Reuerence after due admonitions and reprehensions vsed in brotherlie charitie may either take away or suspend our faculties Which passage being the words of the Cardinals letter and comming after the generall graunt of restraining or reuoking faculties and in the place where his Grace deliuered the forme how and when the Archpriest should vse the said punishing iurisdiction appeareth to be the true and intended exposition and limits of the former clause when there shall be neede or necessitie constraine Or whether this be so or no yet it is euident by the discourse of reason and the testimonie of the learned that this neede or necessitie Arg. gloss in ca. vt debitus de Appell verb. ex rationabile must be construed according to the truth of matters and not according to the priuate conceipt or opinion of our Archpriest For howsoeuer father Parsons the plotter and penner of the subordination would perchaunce make our Arch-priest iudge in the matter and not truth and reason yet we haue no doubt but the Cardinall the institutour and are most sure that his Holines the confirmer would haue this neede or necessitie to be taken according to the veritie of the matter in it selfe that is l Arg. 11. q. 3. nemo Episcoporum ca. sacro de sent excom for a certaine and manifest neede or necessitie and not according to any mans formed fancie or corrupt vnderstanding And if the Cardinall and his Holines had this meaning by the words as we may not mistrust but they had then can not our Arch-priest words especially deriuing iurisdiction being m Ca. intelligentia de verb. signif to be vnderstood not as they
enlarged by a In constitutione quae incipit cum à nobis Paulus the third b In const quae incipit Romani Pontificis Iulius the second and c In const quae incip sanctissimus Iulius the third inuolue or concerne the promotion and office of Maister Blackwell as how little true all these things are the former reasons haue sufficiently declared yea we tooke the hard conceite and indignation which our Prince and the State carry against Father Parsons whom they reputed to be the chiefe deuiser of the subordination and to haue the whole ruling thereof as a iust excuse of not admitting the authoritie especially at the first appearance thereof vpon the bare sight of the Cardinals letter directed also to no more then one And the grounds why we tooke this to be a reasonable cause of iustifying our bearing off were these that follow First because the Magistrates haue in their hands and de facto haue shewed to some prisoners at the time of their examinations for proofe and to exaggerate the disloyalties and treasons obiected one or mo letters which they affirme to be father Parsons wherein his concurrance and furtherance to an inuasion were expressed then the mans restlesse tampering in State matters being reported to haue profered and reprofered the Crowne of our Countrie to seuerall Princes now to one now to another as the meeting of matters and oportunities could most recommend and credit his words and entertaine the personage with hope thereof thirdly the incessant solicitation which the Magistrate protesteth that he hath vsed with forraine Potentates and the attempts which as the same Magistrate affirmeth haue thereon ensued for a conquest of our countrie So as the Magistrate vnderstanding as common fame could not but bring it to his hearing that the subordination was the worke of father Parsons our feare was least the politick State would deeme vs coadiutors and creatures combined with him if we had admitted the Subordination vpon no greater compulsion then the Protectors letter and consequently that we were persons who did deserue to be abandoned and to haue the extremitie of the lawes prosecuted against vs. Could we therefore in common reason do lesse matters standing in these termes then deferre our acceptance of the authoritie vntill his Holines had commaunded vs by Bull Breue or other papall instrument or verball message to subiect our selues thereunto that so the State might see our receiuing of the Subordination not to be for any liking we caried towards father Parsons proceedings but for obedience only towards the Sea Apostolick and in a matter wherein the obseruances of our religion bound vs and the same not iustlie preiudiciall to the temporall state Verily we tooke this for so reasonable and iust a cause as we could not but stand thereupon vnlesse we would in our owne vnderstanding haue shewed our selues cruell to our owne innocencie of ill deserts towards the Magistrate in not remouing his wrong suspition of vs when and how we might ingratefull to our benefactors vnmindfull of our owne liues betrayers of the cause we professe enemies to the professors thereof and iniurious to the honor of Priesthood for that all these her Maiestie and the State not reading in our actions that we were true dislikers of all and singular his disloyall practises and platformes were like to receiue increase of affliction blemish by our admittance of the iurisdiction before such time as his Holines had confirmed the same thereby through the vertue of his supreme authoritie freed both it and vs from hauing part in father Parsons intentions so farre as they were any whit disloyall Neither is father Parsons holden onely of our Magistrate for a Statist or marchandizer of the Crowne and Diademe though this were enough to estrange deforce vs from hauing any connexion or partaking in ought with him but his trauels and negotiations this way are become so notoriouslie knowne that euen Pasquine in Rome as intelligence is sent vs speaketh in this manner of him If there be any man that will buy the Kingdome of England Let him repaire to a Marchant in a blacke square Cappe in the Citie and he shall haue a very good penny-worth thereof Touching the proper nature of our delaie vpon the foresaid cause we thinke that the same will not onely appeare iust and reasonable before any Tribunall vpon earth to our full excuse but that it will be found of that qualitie in the day of iudgement when * Psal 5. Sophon 1. Iustice will be iudged and Ierusalem searched with a candle For what humaine cause can be thought iust or reasonable if not the precedent branching into so many seuerall and weightie consequences as the premisses deliuer and reason maketh manifest if circumstances of time place and persons the direction of a wise mans aime be vprightlie considered And if the cause were either in truth or in semblance iust we meane either iust in it selfe or so taken in good faith by vs then our prolonging to subiect our selues supposing the Cardinals letter had bin a binding precept vnto vs was either no sinne at all or not greater then a veniall No sinne if the cause were reallie iust as witnesseth a Ca. si quando de rescript Pope Alexander the third b 12. q. 96. art 6. 22. q. 147. art 3. ad 2. in 4. dist 15. q. 3. art 4. ad 4. quaest ad 3. Saint Thomas c In dist 76. ca. vtinam Archidiaconus d In ca. â—am quae de rescript nu 4. in rubr de obseruat iâ—iu nu 11. Panormitane e Verb. lex nu 8. Siluester f In â—an ca. 23. nu 43. Nauar g P. 1. li. 2. ca. 36. nu 16. Graffius and others Or not greater then a veniall if the cause were but putatiuely iust as writeth h 2 P. tit 6. ca. 2. ante § 1. Saint Antonie i In 22. q. 147 art 3 in summa verb. prâ—ceptum Caiâ—tane k In 4. dist 15 q. 4. Paludamus l Verb. ieiunium nu 21. Siluester m Vbi supra Nauar n T. 3. disp 9. q. 2. punct 5. Gregorius de Valentia and others Neither is this doctrine only true in the commaundements of inferiour prelates but holdeth likewise true in the precepts of Cardinals or of Popes them selues as both the text of the lawe and the best writers do testifie o Ca. si quaÌ„do de rescript Si aliqua tuae fraternitati dirigimus quae animum tuum exasperare videntur turbari non debes c. Qualitatem neâ—otij pro quo tibi scribitur diligenter considerans aut mandâ—tum nostrum reuerenter adimpleas aut per literas tuas quare adimplere non possiâ— rationabilem causam praetendas If we inioyne you any thing sayth Pope Alexander to the Archbishop of Rauenna that may seeme to stirre your mind you ought not to be troubled therewith but
my selfe but chiefely because my reply could not be well vnderstood without the adioining of his answere and for that some parts of my reioinder did most euidentlie protest our readinesse of admitting Maister Blackwels authoritie vpon notice of the first canonicall certitude that should appeare thereof and consequently in all truth of learning freed vs of father Listers calumniation imposed and likewise conuinced the author and approuers of the same either of very bold ignorance or of vnworthiest demeanure against vs they hauing the said replie of mine almost three moneths if not full out in their hands before the setting forth of that proude and slanderous treatise the only soule and life of the whole contention My very reuerend Sir IF you be sinisterlie talked of for wronging our Societie blame not Father Garnets answere him I beseech you who for all your strangenes ceasseth not to loue you and whome for your hurtfull proceedings loue inforceth to pittie you It hath bin alwayes my desire since that we purged our selues I hope sufficiently from the malicious slaunders of some impudent libellers that all things should as much as is possible be vtterly forgotten and if all could not be induced to loue and affect vs to beare their auersion with patience silence without following any course or pursuite against them so that if you heare either your selfe or by any others any sinister reports against you you may examine them best whether they be true and the reporters are to giue account on what ground they vtter them True it is that as it hath pleased God to giue our Societie part in many glorious labours which in his holie Church are continuallie atchieued so also very often times yea ordinarily doth he make vs Note the matter of this our blame partakers of the afflictions and difficulties which do thence arise and if any worthie thing be accounted worthie of blame we are lightlie the first which are blamed It hath pleased his Holines of late to ordaine a certaine gouernement among vs. It hath bin receiued with singular liking of the most and best God forbid but that I and all my brethren should haue bin most ready to runne whither charitie and obedience did call vs least by disobedience we should contemne our Superior or by schisme and diuision be cut off from the head Some haue refused to acknowledge this head much more to obey him Their pretences are in euery ones mouth that haue heard of this authoritie It is a thing deuised by the Iesuites The Superior is one of their owne choosing Why should the Iesuites appoint vs a Superior more then we a Generall vnto them It is the fine head of father Parsons that hath inuented this He hath giuen wrong information to the Cardinall and his Holines The Cardinall was alwayes partiall on the Iesuites side Some of necessitie must be sent to informe better The messengers must procure that some assistants be chosen who may not be thought to be partiallie affected to the Iesuites They must propound to haue the gouernment of the Colledge enlarged as being ouer-straite or indiscreete for our nation Yea they must make suite that the Iesuites be remoued from the gouernment of all Seminaries of our nation And touching the mission of England in particular all the Iesuites must needes be called away These and the like speeches hauing bin vttered by such as either gathered voyces for another gouernment or are knowne not to fauour this what can it argue else but that such oppose themselues against the Societie as if no authoritie were to be liked but which may beate downe the Iesuites or set them and other Reuerend Priests together by the eares And verily the successe of matters since the authoritie of the Reuerend Arch-priest was diuulged doth make many to feare least the secret intention yet not perceiued of all of these which were the principall seekers to erect a sodalitie or other superioritie and subordination was either ambitious or seditious For hauing now that very thing which they sought for although imposed on other persons then they had designed to reprehend and impugne the same must needes make men suspect that they doe it either because they themselues are not chosen or because such were not chosen as might deale peremptorily with those which they ought to tender Both which affections sheweth them doubly vnworthie of gouernment For what is so vnfit for honor as ambition And what haue we done that all should not affect vs Yea by Gods great goodnes so it is as we thinke that if any affect vs not the fault is in them and not in vs. So that if they would haue themselues or others that do not affect vs though otherwise seeming neuer so vertuous to be chosen heads let them first affect vs so farre as in vertue they ought that they may be worthie of gouernment Then you see good Sir it wanteth not probabilitie that if any giue out that you wrong vs it is because you are thought to draw backe from your Arch-presbyter which you knowe whether it be so or no. And although I verily perswade my selfe that most of those speeches neuer proceeded from your mouth yet those that will be part of a discontented companie of force must be contented to beare the reproch of many things which are done or sayd amisse by a few it being impossible that all men should distinguish and applie euery particular to the true authour And verily as it grieueth me oftentimes to heare and I reprehend it so often as I heare it spoken that such a one or such another who is not ioyned to the Archpresbyter is condemned as opposite to the Societie and condemne such manner of speech for a fallacie which we call as you know non causae vt causae for in very deede I would not haue them reprehended because they are opposite against vs but because they acknowledge not their lawfull Superiour so on the other side must I needes acknowledge that it is and by Gods grace will I alwayes procure that it shall alwayes continue that those two things are so annexed one to the other that whosoeuer is opposite against our reuerend Archpresbyter must of force be consequentlie opposite against vs. And therein will we gloriari in Domino if any be thought opposite to vs who are opposite vnto him Therefore good Sir there is nothing I more desire there is nothing can be more honorable profitable for your selfe then that you vnite your selfe vnto him whom God hath made your Superior who like vnto him which is Princeps Pastorum is in this our particular church lapis qui factus est non in offensionem sed in caput anguli qui medium parietem maceriae soluat qui faciat vtraque vnum is the onely meanes to ioyne vs all together in perfit loue and vnion which we had long since enioyed if his authoritie had bin admitted as at this present there is no hinderance at all
that place Againe whatsoeuer it be that he accuseth me of as what it is I cannot imagine he must needes take the same from the mouth of another or borrow it from his owne inuention because he neuer knew me nor I him or euer had conference each with other by messenger word letter or otherwise Neuerthelesse sith Fa. Iones layes his confession to my charge in the discurteous manner he doth I must needes thinke or hold the Father very inconsiderate that there is some surer proofe for the veritie of that I stand accused of then the only presumption of Fishers bare confession Or if there be not as I request all that may be brought to be brought against me the measure is very hard which is offered in that his sole word must be a currant truth against me whome your selues condemne and are bound thereunto vnder losse of much credit for a very vnhonest malicious and lying person You affirme that his Holines of late hath ordained a certaine gouernement among vs and that Maister Blackwell is our lawfull Superior made by God Good sir if you loue not our errors or more if you loue peace Note these well proue your affirmations and you end the difference For vndoubtedlie our soules beare witnesse that you are faultilie mistaken if you take vs for such that will neither obey what our holie Father the Pope appointeth or what God himselfe ordaineth Belieue me I beseech you that the reason why we delay in the manner we do to subiect our selues to the new authoritie is not because we are in vaine puffed vp by the sense of the flesh as you wrongfullie insinuate but because we neither see nor can heare of any Bull Breue or other authenticall instrument comming from his Holines for attestation and declaration thereof Which forme of processe being euer the customarie vse of the Sea Apostolicke euen in matters of much lesse moment and incomparablie of lesser question and failing in this maketh vs greatlie to misdoubt or rather putteth vs in vndoubted assurance that his Holines was not the author thereof nor the appointer His holie Fatherhood well knowes we haue no Church-liuings but liue only of almes and that our miseries are in way of no other case then the prison torture and gallowes euery miscreant hauing sufficient authoritie to apprehend vs so that for his Holines to increase the number of our pressures to make the burden of our crosses more heauie not only by denying vs the choice of our owne Superior a freedome and benefite which the Cleargie euery where else and by the Canons of holie Church enioyeth but by imposing also a Superior vpon vs without all our vnderstanding and not with the least notice of our liking seemeth to our iudgements to be a course of much greater seueritie then the mildnes of his Holines nature and the ripe wisedome of his aged experience would euer designe and lesse enact and put in vre against vs. Further his Holines being for these fortie yeares space our immediate Bishop how can we without expresse certificate of such his Holines pleasure admit another betweene his blessed Fatherhood and vs vnlesse we would thereby condemne our selues of want of loue and dutie towards his Holines and of forgetfulnes for seuerall rich benefits receiued They be in England who haue heard his Holines to say that he would not appoint a gouernment in England before to vse his owne words the good Priests there should aduertise what kind of gouernment they thought fittest and best liked Therefore affirme what you list and tell your fauorites and the vulgar neuer so liberallie and vntrulie to prattle of our misconceiued disobedience yet we may not beleeue the new authoritie to be the ordināce of that sea hauing by the record of many his Holines owne words to the contrarie There is an especiall prouiso in the Cardinals letter that if it happen the Archpresbyter to dye or be taken then the next senior assistant to supply that roome till there be another chosen by the Cardinall Verily if we had no other ground at all but the hardnes of this prouiso there were cause enough to assure our selues that his Holines had no part in the new authoritie For who weeting to the abundance of his fatherlie loue care and mild proceedings can winne his thoughts or once to feare that his wisedome and rare clemencie would alike grieuouslie loade our miseries with so perpetuall a burden as neither first nor last nor at any time to haue the choosing of our owne Superior but must in all changes stand to the appointment of a stranger vnacquainted with vs and our State and who taketh wholie his aduertisements or direction from others that are not of our companie but incorporate to another body and who more labour the glorie and aduancement of their owne peculiar as reason leadeth then the good of others from whom they are by profession distinguished Yea those that are the Cardinals informers and whome his Grace most willinglie heareth and followeth are the chiefe parties of the one side in the difference for ouerruling whereof the new authoritie was first thought on sollicited and at vnawares brought vpon vs. Now the truth of the particular being thus as euery one sees who is acquainted with the issue of matters and will not close his eye I appeale euen to the good opinion which your selfe holds of his holines disposition indifferencie and iustice whether if he had bin the institutor of this new authoritie his wisedome and tender conscience would haue permitted the adding of so large a prerogatiue or truer of so vnequall a prouiso I thinke it an attribute of iustice if not a decree in nature that the bond of obedience ought euermore to bring some commoditie with it as the obedience of the seruant to his maister receiueth wages the obedience of the child to his parent the benefit of education the obedience of the wife to her husband her maintenance and dowrie the obedience of the religious to his superior prouision of all necessaries the obedience of the Priest to his Bishop iurisdiction and the appurtenances the obedience of the subiect to his Soueraigne protection and the administration of iustice and generally wheresoeuer obedience is due there followeth a correlatiue I meane a good depending which maketh it due You would haue vs to obey and it is the scope of all your trauailes I praye name vs the good that commeth to vs thereby the whole authoritie consisting only in the taking away of faculties and in distressing more our miseries If the supposed authoritie had bin the action of the Pope no doubt his Holines consideration for drawing mens obedience the sooner thereunto would haue giuen to it some indulgence at least if no temporall or other kind of spirituall commoditie I shall be driuen to touch this point in mo places being the directing cliffe to all and therefore do omit here to stay longer vpon it hoping what is alreadie said
to be sufficient You proceede to the reckning vp of our pretences for so it phansieth your pen to by-name the reasons following as though all were false colours and no truth at all and thus you repeate them as obiected by vs. 1. It is a thing deuised by the Iesuites I trust you will not make shew to deny this the truth being so cleare as the light of the Sunne when it shineth And if you do a number of conuincing testimonies can be brought against you and you by gainesaying so euident a truth will giue vs good cause to take heede how farre we beleeue you in doubtfull and vnknowne matters 2. The Superior is one of the Iesuites owne choosing This also we auerre for a certaine truth and auow further that not only the Superior but all the assistants are likewise of your choosing as Maister Blackwell himselfe neither could nor did deme nor seemed vnwilling to acknowledge And what greater soueraigntie would you seeke to carrie ouer vs if you might haue your wishes being in the dignitie of priesthood and in the labours for our countrie by many yeares our iuniors 3. Why should the Iesuites appoint vs a Superior more then we a Generall to them If the resemblance be not good I praye shew the difference that disproueth and the reasons why you may elect our Superior and we not yours 4. It is the fine head of Father Parsons that hath inuented this Omit the epitheton I meane so farre as it carrieth the nature of a quipping word and the residue we maintaine belieuing there is no one who will not wilfully blind himselfe but seeth so much For what can be clearer if particulars be compared or what lesse denyable or more manifest then that whereof his owne letters to Maister Doctor Pearse to Maister Doctor Worthington and others beare witnes infalliblie Therefore good sir where you let not to affirme that God hath made Maister Blackwell our Superior you are to proue prouing your assertion that father Parsons act was Gods deede and what the one the other did which will be somewhat hard for you to do in respect of the indirect dealing which father Parsons vsed in sending ouer word vnto vs to desist from further proceeding to the choosing of a Superior as from a matter I wot not of what ill consequence and he himselfe notwithstanding to labour and effect it vnder-hand contrary to the purport of his message and all our knowledges The Cardinall addressed a letter as you know to two reuerend Priests while they were on the way to England and in it made speciall mention of two apostolicall Breues which his Holines had then newly set forth The letter signed with his Graces seale and subscribed with his owne hand rehearsed the contents of both in manner following Sua Sanctitas Breue apostolicū edidit Datum apud Sanctū Marcum sub anulo Piscatoris die decimo octauo huius mensis septembris praesentis anni 1597. quo prohibet omnino ne quis Anglicanae nationis quoad illud Regnum ad religionis Catholicae ac sedis Apostolicae vnionem redierit Doctoratus gradum in theologia vel iure accipiat nisi post cursum quatuor annorum expletum alios adhuc quatuor annos ad ea quae didicit perpolienda impendat neque tunc etiam nisi habeat suberioris Collegij in quo vltimò studuerit licentiam in scriptis cum Protectoris vel vices eius gerentis assensu qui secus fecerit illum poenam excommunicationis ipsi sedi Apostolicae reseruatae ipso facto incurrere neque praeterea gradum quem accepit vllum esse omnino sed prorsus inualidum Edidit praeterea This Breue was neuer seene for ought we euer heard sua Sanctitas aliud Breue exhortatorium ac consolatorium ad Catholicos Anglicanos pijssimum illud quidem ac verè Apostolicum quo eos ad constantiam patientiam longanimitatem coeterasque virtutes hortatur praecipue vero concordiam pacem ac vnionem quae coeterarum omnium virtutum fundamenta sunt atque vincula eosque vitent qui seditiones ac diuisiones seminant Good sir as I may be deceiued so perhaps I am yet vnder correction I must thinke that there may be framed out of these a dilemma or forked argument that maketh euery way greatly for vs. Either the reported Breues were set forth or not set forth If set forth then what should perswade that his Holines wisedome and diligent regard being alike circumspect and prouident in making forth his particular and speciall Briefes for ordering the precedents would in enacting this new authoritie a much more iealous and contentious subiect forget or neglect or refuse to do the like or more Shall we attribute to his sacred fatherhood prudence vigilancie and maturest consideration in small matters take them frō his Holines in great His Holines possesseth the Chaire that hath the promis of diuine assistance He is our holie Father and therefore retaineth care of continuing peace among vs his children as the dignitie requireth so his Holines is full of charitie benignitie and compassion and therefore much vnlike especiallie while the Magistrate is in drawing his sword against vs that his Holines would appoint a meere punishing authoritie that neuer had an example and not so much as signifie to vs the constitution thereof by Bull Briefe or other Papall instrument but as if our case function and trauels were despiseable to leaue vs to the reports of others for notice thereof who as to his Holines knowledge deedes haue proued incline more to fauour that is against vs then to friend or causes And to say as some say or as they say who say most that his Holines wisedome omitted to make forth a Briefe thereof for feare of trouble and prouoking the State is so light and superficiall a reason as it best answereth it selfe in his owne weakenes For what greater trouble could such a Briefe cause which the institution of the new authoritie causeth not more Neither do we demand the transporting of the Briefe though we see no more danger therein then in sending ouer the Cardinals letters yea much lesse because the pot that goeth often to the water is likelier at length to returne broken then that which was vsed but once The fauour and iustice we sue for is only canonicall notice of that which is done For this we call for this we haue long and often called and for this shall we still continue calling being both iust and reasonable and the performāce of no difficultie nor requiring time were the authoritie his Holines ordinance On the other side if no such two Briefes were set forth as I am sure you will not grant then must father Parsons the archdeuiser thereof be much too blame in getting the Cardinals hand subscription and seale to the aforesaid Letter and iust cause administred why we should suspect the like peece of cunning in other letters that haue come from the Cardinall
the Priests themselues of each quarter should not be franchised and allowed so much fauour as to choose the assistant that must be ouer them vnlesse we must be made yongmen still or rather boyes or children and you our tutors to gouerne and direct vs in all things and giue our voyces for vs 9. The mâ—ssengers must propound to haue the gouernment of the Colledge enlarged as being ouer-straile or indiscreete for our nation As I cannot affirme so will I not denye but they may peraduenture moue such a sute to his Holines and the sooner by much in regard we hold the same no preiudice but a pleasure done to your Societie as being the selfe sute which your Generall as your selues giue forth hath made to his Holines and that of late and which also well established could not faile to be but a meruailous good furtherance both to the making and keeping of a perfit peace among vs and likewise to the augmenting of your greater or more generall good name and estimation For from whence commeth the cause of all or most of our agrieuances but from the manner of gouerning that Colledge And what so greatly weakeneth the good opinion which our Realme hath conceiued of your Societie as the continuall discontentment of the schollers there and the multiplicitie of their complaints here after their ariuall Griefe and shame forbid me to rehearse their manifold exceptions or to name the crimes that were after their departure fâ—oÌ„ the Colledge most iniuriouslie imposed vpon them and as full detractiouslie read openlie in the Refectorie and diunlged to their foulest infamie I omit these as points more odious then willinglie I would any way occupie my penne in and do only beseeke you to tell me with what indifferent person you thinke it can find good hearing that the Students there must not talke nor conferre vnder three in a companie nor those of one chamber speake or recreate with their fellowes of another chamber and that they must haue strangers to their prefects whereby the dâ—e honor of our nation especiallie of the â—lder sort of Priests and students to whome that â—ffice alwayes hitherto belonged must needs be much impaired if not distained also the number of schollers which otherwise the reuenewes of the Colledge would serue to maintaine lessened by so many at least as the companie of the externe prefects amount to 10. Yea the messengers must make sute that the Iesuites be remooued from all the Seminaries of our nation and touching the mission of England in particular all the Iesuites must needes be called away This amplifying speech and exaggeration is the addition of some cunning head and happilie not by chance reserued by you for the last place as by the pretexed impietie mustering whereof all that went before might the sooner leese the credit of truth and take vnto them the shew of words of malice ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis For my owne part I can say and as I verily thinke all my associates can auerre the same that vntill the reading of your letter I neuer heard the least inckling of any such matter Beside grant we could so frame our consciences yet vnlesse we should leese our naturall wits therewithall we could not shew our selues so very sooles as to propound the like motion to his Holines being the assured meane of drawing rebuke to our selues thereby and to stop his Holines eares against the hearing of other sutes And to speake my mind plainlie as the quicknes of the premisses inforceth without all question it is a large freedome of toung that many of your fauorites vse if your selues be all cleare The fault is generallie noted begins to be appropriated dismayes not a few and cannot but ere long purchase small commendation to your Societie if it be not eftsoone reformed In the paragraffe following you infer as it were a coÌ„clusion saying These and the like speeches hauing bin vttered by such as either gathered voyces for another gouernmeÌ„t or are knowne not to fauour this what can it argue else but such oppose themselues against the Societie as if no authoritie were to be liked but that which may beate downe the Iesuits or set them and other reuerend Priests together by the eares The franke libertie of your pen astonieth deare sir For the disiunctiue cannot be proued and your illatiue importeth much detraction charging vs to haue no other marke in our eye in the association we laboured but the beating downe of your Societie the setting of you other reuerend Priests together by the eares Alas could not charitie your loue of Priests intreate your preiâ—dicate conceipts so much as to thinke there was some other cause lesse wicked more excusable why we imbrace not the new authority then for that no authority liketh vs but which treadeth the Iesuits vnder foote and soweth discord Hard that nothing can be disliked in your actions but by and by it must be dubbed an opposition and euery opposition also to carrie the like vncharitable gloses The forme of gouernment that was gone about by the assent good liking of those that were to liue vnder the same was no whit in the outward letter preiudiciall to the Societie as both you and father Edmonds did seuerallie approue and the rules theÌ„selues declare And to presume a corrupt intention to feare false measure and to suspect the lurking of notorious impietie where the ouert act is good the doers neuer detected of any treacherie if it be pollicie it is sâ—pientia huius mundi the wisedome of this world contrary to the propertie of charitie quae omnia credit which beleeueth all things if not contrarie to our Sauiours prohibition nolite iudicare iudge not You verily sooth that the successe of matters since the authoritie of the Reuerend Archpresbyter was diuulged doth make many to feare least the secret intention yet not perceiued of all of those which were the principall seekers to erect a sodalitie or other superioritie and subordination was either ambitious or seditious You still make little conscience to speake your pleasure of vs. Maister Standish was the first and principall mouer as I haue bin told of the sodalitie and who vnderstanding that his parts were counted by vs not fit to beare office in the same anon shifted sayles vpon what intent you may better aske him and so leauing vs went to you became an agent and by his industrie or good fortune hath gotten an assistantship If in the former charge you meane him he is of age let him answere for himselfe But if by it you point to me and others then let vs see how you fasten the fault of ambition or sedition vpon vs. You say because hauing now that very thing which we sought for although imposed vpon other persons do neuerthelesse reprehend and impugne the same Like truth like proofe Is the new authoritie good sir that very thing we sought for I could wish that writing in a controuersie
the begging of names to Olim dicebamur especially with lesse importunitie an office fullest of suspitiō for you to take vpō you but all shews frō whence the plot came and whither it tends to haue our heads vnder your girdles in making ruling our Superior and by consequēce in working your pleasures in whatsoeuer vpon vs. Patience For taking my leaue I beseech you to consider the dissention at Rome to consider the differēces in England to looke into the causes maintenance of them both and if you do not espy that we haue more to say against you then you against vs yet to thinke that our purgation when it commeth forth wil shew you so much proue vs also to haue vsed more plainenesse forbearance truth silence and charitie then our oppositors haue done in their cariages against vs. Thus haue I beloued sir tyred my selfe and long troubled you beseeching you humblie of pardon if I haue any way offended and truly if I knew the word line sentence or particular which were against bounden charity I could labour rather to blot it out with teares of bloud then euer suffer it to come to reading Fare you well most hartily A post-Script GOod sir let the length of my answere excuse that it commeth in an other bodies hand and the reason why it commeth so long after yours was an ague-doubtfulnes whether I should reioyne or no fearing least if I did I might moue offence which I am loath to do and would not haue set vpon the aduenture had your side taken vp in any time or obserued any measure in their hard speeches against vs. The excesse and surfet whereof hath bin and continueth so great that had men and women a charter to speake what they list of Christ his annointed and that there were no such thing as the restitution of fame I see not well how they could either lesse restraine or more enlarge their ignorant and slanderous babling I hope conscience binding and all lawes permitting vs to defend our guiltlesnes against whome soeuer you will not dislike and lesse misconsture and lesser misinforme against this our inforced appologie but rather vnderstanding the grounds of our refusall procure with all speede canonicall certitude of that you would bring vpon vs which must and shall presentlie stint all disputes find vs readily obedient in what soeuer Fare you well againe and our Lord protect you and giue me of his grace to see his holie will and follow it Yours in true loue Iohn Colleton NOtwithstanding the serious and seuerall auowances interlaced in the former Letter that the least Canonicall notice such as the lawe in like cases prescribeth should presently without further question haue vs ready vpon the first shewing thereof to subiect our selues to the authoritie yet did father Garnet and father Lister the one in a Letter communicated to many the other in a diuulged Treatise censure and condemne vs of schisme and alike violently prosecuted their opinion as if the same had bin the sentence of all the learned or rather the declaration of the Sea Apostolick Neither did this their headie presumption correct it selfe in any time but the passion indured and not indured only but increased also to the heaping of most excessiue and vntollerable iniuries vpon vs. Neuerthelesse our thirst after peace and quietnes was such as we sent the conditions following to Maister Blackwell who had now allowed the said Treatise of father Lyster and taken on him the patronage of father Garnets positions that his Reuerence conferring the matter with the Fathers of the Societie the difference might be composed our selues reunited in former loue Conditions offered to Maister Blackwell by the Priests who delayed to receiue him to their Superiour before the comming ouer of his Holines Breue AS alwayes we haue so now expressely againe we do admit all Authoritie whatsoeuer his Holines hath instituted and are most readie actuallie to obey the same when authenticall proofe thereof shall be shewed vnto vs. Further if that can not be shewed yet for auoyding slanderous reports and to the intent we may more peaceablie exercise our functions benefite and edifie others we are well content voluntarily to subiect our selues and obey this forme of gouernment with these Conditions following First that we may be sufficientlie aduertised how farre this Authoritie extendeth particularly ouer vs and that we may haue a copie thereof Secondly that you and the Societie will consent with vs to the sending ouer of certaine who may thereby haue the freer accesse to his Holines both to informe him in our cause and vnderstand his holie Fatherhoods determination therein Alwayes prouided that if their audience be preuented directlie or indirectlie by your or the Societies meanes that then we fullie reuoke all obedience here offered Thirdly in consideration that two of our brethren imployed in this busines haue bin by information from hence discredited and imprisoned and so still continue for ought we know our desire is that we may receiue from you notice of the crimes or misdemeanour laid against them or haue your testimonie for their good cariage and behauiour whilest they liued here or at least that you knew no defaming ill by them Fourthly that whereas we all in generall and diuers particularlie haue bin iniured and defamed by a Treatise of Schisme diuulged by one of the Societie the same may be reuersed and we againe restored to our credits Fifthly that you would let vs haue your accord and letters ouer for procuring order from his Holines that hereafter the Arch-priest may not be elected otherwise then by the consent and voyces of our owne bodie Likewise that the Assistants in respect they haue as it is affirmed equall authoritie with the Arch-priest in the places where they gouerne may not be chosen but by suffrage of the Priests who reside in the Shires or circuite ouer which the Assistant shall be authorised Sixtly that euery one that shall be made either Arch-priest or Assistant shall for auoyding tumult or perpetuall contention through the confounding and mixing of the two distinct States together Religious and Secular protest by the word of a Priest that he is not by vow obedience or other tye in subodination or incorporate to any other bodie or companie then our owne and that he will manifest so much and surrender the place and authoritie he holdeth ouer vs whensoeuer he shall be throughlie determined to change his state and vocation Lastly that for so much as the State is alreadie maruellouslie incensed against vs and the indignation increasing dayly by the meanes of bookes letters and plots touching State matters neither meete in these times nor belonging to our function our most earnest request is that all proceedings of this qualitie be by you vtterlie presentlle forbidden and that you with the ioynt petition of all the Assistants would make instant supplication to his Holines for expresse prohibition thereof THe offer of these conditions how well
soeuer the same was meant by vs was neuerthelesse alike offensiuely taken by our Arch-priest as his Reuerence did not only most peremptorily reiect them all but returned in his answere that impenitencie of heart and an obstinate will of sinning being the more grieuous phrensie drew vs to the That is called by our Arch-priest a destructiō of peace and order which the Canons of holie Church appointed for the preseruation of peace and order making of the requests and that our petition of hauing the Arch-priest and the assistance to be chosen hereafter by the voyces of the Priests who were to obey was the destruction of peace and the perturbation of order in the Church being in truth the expresse decree of holie a Ca. 1. de electi Canons and the customarie forme of electing Superiors ouer the whole Christian world Againe his Reuerence tearmed our demaund of hauing the treatise of schisme reuersed an vnreasonable request because as he gaue the reason the medicine ought not to be remoued before the sore be thoroughly cured applying besides these words of scripture vnto vs stiffe-necked and of vncircumcised hearts and eares alwayes resisting the holy Ghost with many other alike exciting speeches Not long after the exhibiting of the aforesaid conditions his Holines Breiue arriued and we presently without any stay receiued Maister Blackwell to our Arch-priest and yeelded him our obedience yea such was our affection to vnitie as for desire thereof we were content to pardon all the iniuries and defamations past being many in number and in qualitie most grieuous At this very time our Archpriest wrote likewise a common Letter willing and commaunding all Priests not to vpbraide and impute the fault of schisme any more vnto vs. Which fauour so to call the surceassing of most grieuous wrongs we know not whether it moued sorrow or no in the Iesuites who perhaps had conceiued some feare least the concord begun might diminish the authoritie and sway they carryed with the Archpriest being linked now to his body and brethren but most certaine it is that not many weekes after the making of this generall attonement father Iones a Priest of the Societie gaue forth and defended the assertion that whosoeuer should stiffely maintaine that our refusall to the subordination appointed before the arriuall of his Holines Breue did not make vs schismatickes incurred by such his patronage of our case the censures of holy Church Which vnreasonable position our Archpriest my selfe acquainting him therewith affirmed to be true as there hath bin nothing hitherto written or spoken by the Fathers against vs which his Reuerence how vnprobable and iniurious soeuer the same was hath not soothed and to his power sought to iustifie Neither did his Reuerence after the aforesaid prohibition only allow and defend this strange saying of father Iones but also he himselfe diuulged a resolution both declaring that we were schismaticks by our refusall and directing all Priests not to apply the benefite of absolution vnto vs vnlesse we did acknowledge the offence and make satisfaction for it Which reuiuall of matters rising so directly and in points of like importance both from the Societie and from our Archpriest and for that also some of our fellowes were thorough the diuulging of the foresaid resolution denyed absolution in the sacrament of penance and not suffered to celebrate in some places where they came and where before they had bin well accoumpted of we not seeing a fitter meane either of easing our distresses or of relieuing our good names framed the Petition following to our Arch-priest Verie Reuend Father WE humblie beseech you that the extreame necessitie of the hard tearmes our good names are brought into may both excuse the boldnes if bounden indeuour to put off so great a hurt may be called boldnes and encline your consideration to take in good part the proposing of our request Your Reuerence and others do still affirme and seeme to auow the opinion more and more that we incurred the crime and penalties of schisme in not absolutely admitting your Authoritie before the ariuall of his Holines Breue our first certaine notice of his priuitie thereunto Would God therefore it might please you deere sir for perfit tryall of the truth the thorow ending of the controuersie to licence that we may conferre reason or dispute the case with the conditions vnder specified Good manners and more the duties of obedience forbid vs to name or request you to be one of the disputants being our Superior but if your owne desires shall carrie you to the yeelding of your most help for better declaration and strengthening of the issue we shall hartilie greete the fauour and rest fuller satisfied in respect we wish the vttermost that can be said and vrged against vs. For certes if we see our selues we do neither affect to be misled by errour or dwell in ignorance or presupposing that we are deceiued seeke for ought more then to haue the noted crime fortified with the proofes that may most reproue and conuict our guiltines Among all the meanes our poore wits could thinke of this appeared of most force and the readiest as well to let the mistaken see their faile as also to mediate a generall attonement in regard the rules of conscience bind to acknowledge a truth when it is euidentlie shewed and the agnizing induceth to satisfaction and satisfaction hath right and authoritie as well to cancell iniuries past as also to inuite loue for the time to come Two soueraigne effects and being the natiue begetters and nourcers of peace cannot but bring great ioy and edification to many If therefore your better iudgement shall like to ratifie this course and vouchsafe to giue vs notice the aduertisement will much glad vs and shall indebt vs for dutifull thanks to your Reuerence for the kindnes Neither without good cause for if the difference be not after this way decided alas we see no remedie but of constraint our good names bleeding alike pittifullie as they do and the wound so oft and hardlie rubbed on as it is we must either wittinglie suffer perpetuall infamie to come vpon vs or take our pennes in hand cleere our selues as we may A processe that feareth because great likelihood our apologie shall receiue an answere the answere require a reply the reply occasion a reioynder and so the difference become a circle that is to say without end vnlesse How neere is this prediction true it be that lamentable end which the Apostle specifying sayd quod si inuicem mordetis comeditis videte ne ab inuicem consumamini if ye bite and deuoure one another take heed least ye be not consumed one of another To flye this gulfe and eschue so idle wast of so much time that we say nothing of the scandall we most submissiuely intreate your good Reuerence to graunt for your selfe and solicite the Fathers that we may in this sort the shortest as we deeme and the
proane and willing thereunto as teacheth Sainct Tho. quodl 10. quest 6. art 13. and may be auouched by that knowne saying of Sainct Augustine Qui conscientiae suae confidens famam negligit crudelis est He is cruell that neglecteth his good name vpon the cleerenesse of his conscience And againe by that exhortation of the Apostle prouidentes bona non tantum coram Deo sed etiam corā omnibus hominibus prouiding good things not only before God but also before all men And the reason is apparant for being pastours and labouring in the busines of gaining soules the report of a good name is as important to vs for the good of our neighbour as a good conscience for our selues 2 Further your Reuerence being sued vnto by the whole number of Priests in the Clinck for vouchsafing to restore M. Benson to the vse of his faculties you refused or thought it not meete so to do vnlesse among other points he did first acknowledge sorrow his long adherēce to the schismaticall conuenticle meaning so naming our companie Which forme of speech and manner of proceeding cannot but make plaine to euery vnderstanding how desperatly grieuous you repute our state and what miscreants we come to be reckoned when our Superiour letteth not to tearme our fellowship a schismatical conuenticle and that also by pen whereunto then to a sodainnesse of speech a farre more mature deliberation concurreth Consider in the name of our Sauiour we humble the request vnto you the place you hold the authoritie your words beare your writings more and how thereby the waight of our affliction with the hauock of our credits dayly increaseth all or most men taking your word for warrant against vs. 3 Againe there is a Letter auowed to be written by your Fatherhood as the tenor can agree to no other and the copies common wherein the words following lye word for word without change or interposition We haue receiued a resolution from our mother citie that the refusers of the appointed authoritie were schismaticks and surely I would not giue absolution to any that should make no conscience thereof Do they thinke that the scandall that did arise thereof that the discrediting of our Protectors authoritie that the opprobrious speeches against the Fathers vttered by them that the danger they drue me vnto may be free from sinne I hope they haue not so senselesse a conscience And therefore my direction is that they do make accompt thereof and do make satisfaction before they do receiue the benefit of absolution The order and manner of satisfaction I referre vnto the discretion of their ghostlie fathers which haue not bin marked with this note of schisme O good Lord help vs is our demaund standing off only for canonicall proofe that the designed authoritie was the ordinance of his Holines or that it had his Holines approbation adiudged to make vs schismaticks and the maiestie of the place remembred to credit our dome the more And hereupon as if all were by and by an vndoubted truth whatsoeuer is aduertised by some persons against vs you first soothing what you would do your selfe commaund all other that we make satisfaction ere the benefit of absolution be imparted vnto vs. An ordinance only and that seldome annexed to publick and horrible crimes but patience must be our remedie much patience seemeth not vnneedfull albeit our hope is there may be some as meane schollers in Rome as there are elsewhere or how singularlie learned soeuer he or they were that thus hardlie concluded it inferreth not much because as the euidence and information were deliuered so without all doubt were we sentenced and if these were either not true or vnperfit as we assure our selues of the one or both then must the iudgement depending thereon needes take the same dye be of like veritie And if it be replied that true and full information was giuen then we aske why it is not added to the resolution or otherwise shewed vnto vs to the end our selues and others may be witnesses thereof and haue whereupon we may iustlie alter and repent our contrarie opinion Besides it were to good purpose and to our seeming not vnrequisite that as well the names of the resoluers as also the most substantiall reasons of such their opinion were likewise set downe and adioyned to the resolution For without these or other good specialties what man or woman of conscience in the world vpon view or hearesay of an vnauthored resolution without shew of proofe reason instance example or authoritie will condemne so many as are of our side of so irreligious a crime and criminall outrage whose proper entitie and nature requireth in the doer wittingnes deliberation obstinacie and rebellion and that immediatlie or mediatlie against our high Pontifex and as Pontifex or head of our Church for vpholding and maintenance of whose prerogatiues we haue suffered and dayly do many sorts of pressures calamities and death it selfe A strange proposition and much incredible In like manner how is it possible that such a bare and naked resolution should weigh ought with vs standing as we are verily perswaded we do vpon diuersitie of assured grounds for the contrarie especiallie when we consider who wrote the resolution ouer a puney in Religion and fellow Iesuite with the creatours of our schisme at what time when a feare was conceiued least we had sent to the Sorbonists for their opinion why because the vsuall aduertiser either had not as may be coniectured or would not be seene to haue his finger in so great an vnright condemned ere we were heard to speake or asked the reasons why we did prolong our submission To draw neerer would not the ods in the iudgement of all men good sir fall on our side if to counteruaile this vnstrengthened resolution we should oppose the opinion censures of our english Students and Doctors at Doway who as an honest Priest reported Maister Beisley that came from thence make the discourse and proofe of our schisme a meere iest and matter of recreation to sport themselues with by the fire and cannot beleeue but the author trauelled when he penned it in some forgetfulnes of his schollership or distemper of head Or if we should seeke to incounter the said resolution by the suffrage euen of such our fellow Priests here at home as haue not bin marked with this note of schisme who being eye and eare witnesses to all particulars and not without some knowledge in the state of most of our soules and therefore by probabilitie as likely to see as farre into the point as strangers were we anon cast in the closing or should we leese thereby If reports be true or many of good vnderstanding not deceiued there are few of our said brethren either reuerēt for yeares or speciallie counted of for learning vertue wisedome iudgement discretion true courage in Gods cause or for any other good part who do not greatlie meruaile at this
Letter Constitutiue The thirteenth and last Proposition A Superior proceeding vniustly as he doth when he commandeth more then the place and authoritie he holdeth giueth him leaue may without all imputation of blame the peril of scandall euer excepted be as lawfully resisted as an a Nauar. in ca contingat causa 5. nullitatis n 8 aduersarie as a b D. Tho. 22. q. 69. art 4. c. theefe as a c Ezech. ca. 22 wolfe as a d Molina Tō 1. de iustitia iure tract 2. disp 23. vers concessa tyrant or forraine enemie So that to disobey a Superior enlarging his precepts beyond the vtmost bounds of his authoritie is so farre from the nature of criminall disobedience as it cannot be said to be the least sinne yea the case may be such as it were sinne and perhaps great sinne to obey For none will deny but that there is e D. Tho. 22. q. 104 art 5. ad 3. D. Bernard Epist 7. a kind of obedience which is indiscreet or vnlawfull agreeable to that Canon of holy Church collected out of S. Gregorie f 3. p. pastoralis cura 2. q. 7. ca. admonendi Admonendi sunt subditi ne plus quam expeditsint subiecti ne cum student plus quam necesse est hominibus subijci compellantur vitia eorum venerari Those that liue vnder subiection are to be admonished that they be no more subiect then is meet lest whiles they endeuour to shew more subiection to men then is necessary they be compelled to worship their vices THese grounds being laid we proceed and affirme that the Cardinals Letter as it is plaine to the Reader maketh no mention at al of any Mandate or Commission which his Holines should giue other then that he should imploy his indeuour to make peace in our Countrey to the example of the peace and quietnes established in the English Colledge at Rome And how this commaundement did communicate authoritie to the Cardinall to institute an Archpriest ouer vs with like iurisdiction and soueraigntie as is expressed in the Letter Constitutiue appeared a more strange point vnto vs then we could vnderstand or find out any ground or shew of reason how the said commaundement of his Holinesse could any way be in such sort possibly extended and retaine force to bind For what necessary connexion is there betweene making of peace in our Country and instituting of an Archpriest ouer one part of those that were at variance with iurisdiction to spoile them of their faculties to remoue them from their places of residence to depriue them of the vse of their Priestly functions and to afflict and vnable them to do good in our Church and in no degree to subordinate the other more principall part of the contenders to the least iot of the same iurisdiction We say what necessary and straight coniunction is there between the two precedents that Commission being graunted to labour and effectuate the one viz. peace in our Countrey authoritie must thereby be thought to be graunted to erect and appoint the other viz. an Archprist Must the assigning of an Archpriest with such iurisdiction be holden alike intrinsicall or dependant an accessorie to the taking vp of dissention and of making peace as not ordaining the one the other could not be effected None will say it that shall compare them together and none can say it that haue wel looked vpō the sequell contētiō strife debate variance broiles scandall parts-taking enmitie slaunders calumniations wrongs iniuries being now most rife in our Church and neuer heard of before Neither any maruell at all whiles one who was vnknowne vnto vs to haue any such authoritie nor many yeares euer holden but for our backe friend would institute in our Church a new forme of gouernement the like neuer heard of in the world meerely penall wholly consisting in punishing and in punishing contrarie to the forme of law that is without citing without triall without proofe of the accusation And to bring this intollerable burden vpon vs without making so much as any one of our bodie priuie thereunto and also to giue vs none other satisfaction of this his Graces straunge proceeding in our Church but onely the warrant of his owne Letter and the same not addressed to vs neither but to the superiour onely whom himselfe without all our consents or weeting preferred to the office by the sole information of him whose busie head and actions haue bene the cause and increase of much trouble and persecution in our Church and Realme And who being a member of another bodie and professing also a mortified state and to haue relinquished the world seeketh neuerthelesse to be our great maister and to rule all and would to God but to rule and not to domineere or tyrannize rather Let any practised Gouernour Ecclesiasticall or temporall or any one of common vnderstanding in the world tell vs whether this platforme this new and strange kind of gouernement and as straunge a maner of proceeding in it were a meane to make peace or not rather the high way to breake peace to kindle debates to multiply dissention and as it were to strike vp an alatum of troubles in our poore afflicted Church too manifoldly if it pleafed God to the contrarie alreadie tossed The new authoritie therefore being in it selfe no greater a helpe to the setting forward of peace and in the sequell so preiudicious the first second third and fifth Propositions shew that his Holinesse commaunding the Cardinall to bestow his paines for the establishing of peace and concord to the patterne of the peace wrought in the English Colledge at Rome did not therin for ought appeareth or may be gathered out of the Constitutiue Lettet giue commission to his Grace to enact the foresaid iurisdiction Againe the second third and fifth Propositions declare that the enacting of the like authoritie not being so nigh linked and vnited an accessorie to the principal in charge as the one might not be wel effected without the institution of the other declare we say that we were not bound by any law of holy Church or duty of obedience to subiect our selues to such his Graces ordinance because his Grace seemed euē by the tenour of the selfe Constitutiue Letter to haue exceeded the limits of his Holinesse Commission vnto him in that receiuing but a commaundement to make peace he made an Archpriest and indued him with largest punishing iurisdiction and soueraigntie ouer vs. Neither of which were behooueable or not so behooueable to the making of peace as that peace could not be made without these as is already shewed And therefore his Graces decree touching the subordination could not at least in the iudgement of our owne thoughts bind vs the same appearing vnto vs to be an excesser or too great an enlargement of the delegation committed Plaine by the authorities and proues laid downe in the said Propositions But if our aduersaries shall here say
liued without touch of discredite and euery way better qualified then any of them Thus much father Holtby And father Parsons in the Apologie striketh this key oft as the musicke perhaps that best contenteth his eare yet because the vntruthes in that booke be innumerable and because another intendeth to display them in part we meane not here to insert any of his course reports but will returne to father Holtby and demaund of him the reason why if the ill habites and sinnes he vpbraideth vs with be notorious he did not name the persons he meant but vseth the deprauing wordes in such generall manner as the Reader is left a condemned e Nauar. in Man ca. 18. nu 18. kind of detraction to apply them to whom and to so manie as he listeth of our companie Or if the wicked qualities and enormities he obiecteth be not commonly knowne to raigne in vs why did the religious father he and his complices being the f Sotus de inst h. 5. q. 7. art 3. Valenti Tom. 3 disp 5. q. 14. punct 3. assailers and we the partie assailed a materiall difference and which putteth great oddes in the case touching the lawfulnesse or vnlawfulnesse of reuealing secret sinnes thus inordinately publish and blaze our dishonours to the world in addressing the discourse to one but communicating the same to many ere it came to that one bodies view We expect his answere and how he will cleare himselfe of both either being a foule transgression and in the meane do hold this position that truth out of what mouth soeuet it commeth ought to be g Gloss in ca. quaeritur 2. q. 7. verb. praeponimus preferred and not impugned A lesson of Christian doctrine and which our Sauiour in his owne fact did not let to manifest in commending the censure of h Luke 7. the Pharisie with a recte iudicasti thou hast iudged aright albeit he perfectly knew him to be most enuious and arrogant So that how exorbitant soeuer our naturall inclination and qualities be and with what particular faultes or exceptions neuer so greatly distaining the chiefest of our company go marked yet if we maintaine a truth the maintenance is not to be calumniated either in that we are but few or because we are admitting the relgious mans slaunders busie headed proud and presumptuously minded seditiously spirited and wel knowne to be euer noted with particular faultes or exceptions In which treatise also the same discrupulous father forbeareth not to condemne vs for not yeelding our obedience at first before notice of his Holinesse Breue of to vse is owne words a most grieuous and damnable most enormious notorious publike and hainous sinne breeding open scandall and making vs infamous for rebellion comming from plaine malice and conuincing vs to haue a seditious and most presumptuous spirite c. Touching the lesser faultes or ill properties imputed we answere no more but that we know now who can first throw the stone at vs for Ioh. 8. it were indecent or a point of hypocrisie to twite other with particular faults except he himself were free And concerning the criminous we are to put him and his Superiour in mind that there is i D. Tho. 22. q. 62. art 2. ad 2◠Caietanus ibid. Sotus de iustitia lib. 4. q. 6. art 3. ad 4 arg Nauar. in Man ca. 18. nu 45. Valent. To. 3. disp 5. q. 6. pūc 5 assert 1 2. Bannes de iure iust q. 62. ◠art 2. dubit 8. Petrus à Nauar. lib. 3. ca. 4. nu 375. sequēt Salon Tom. 1 q 62. art 2. controu 20. satisfaction due vnto vs and we demaund it vnlesse he shall proue to which we challenge him both that we were culpable in the manner he specifieth and that the offences were notoriously knowne Now for the comparison we are very sure that not all nor the most part in our Realme do thinke that M. Doctor Bagshaw M. Doctor Bishop M. Bluet M. Mush M. Taylor so much inferiour as father Holtby maketh them to any of the elder Priests that are of the contrarie side nor yet M. Doctour Norres M Champney M. Bennet M. Drurie second by so great oddes to any of the yonger sort in any one quality or talent soeuer nay rather if the matter were to passe by verdite of most voices it is certaine that father Holtby would be found partiall if not detractious in the comparison And concerning the report that he and others make and seeme to glory much therein that we were but ten or 12. at most who stood off to admit the authoritie we say no more but that fath Parsons through whose irreligious dealing our two brethren were spoiled of their notes and schedules they carried and which he sent afterwards into England or the most part of them can witnesse that there were thrice ten within one who gaue their names whereof some also wrote that there were many moe of their brethren which disliked the forme of the gouernement appointed or rather that they were but few which were willing to receiue it if they might any way chuse And indeede what one commoditie spirituall or temporall either to Priest or lay person did the authority bring with it to inuite any one of iudgement Aggredi Sathanas non dubitauit vt inter se collideret to like thereof vnlesse apparant preiudices slaunder that the secular Priests and Laitie were at great variance and the mightie increase of our miseries or new seruitudes must be counted commodities But howsoeuer our aduersaries do please themselues in our small number yet there are few in our Realme of any acquaintance with Priests but know there be mo then ten inwardly for vs for one against vs. We wish from our hearts that euery Priest would shew himselfe outwardly as he is affected in his thoughts and then we should little doubt but that our small number so great a beame of the eye of our cause would quickly waxe the greater part and the reckning that our aduersaries make of twentie for one to be on their side against vs would farre fall out to be truer in the count for vs. A Fifth obiection which our oppositours make against vs is the grieuous condemnation that publickely passed vppon vs at Rome by sentence of the two Cardinals Caietane and Burghesio and by the contents of the Breue and his Holinesse iudgement The auowances of our Archpriest in his decrees of the 29. of May 1600. of the 18. of October following and in his Dimissories to me and refutories to all the other Appellants of the 20. of December His wordes in the former decree are these Whereas after the condemnation at Rome of the two Embassadours he meaneth Maister Doctour Bishop and Maister Charnoke together with all their complices here and also the Popes Breue confirming the Cardinals Letters as Validas ab initio that is of force from the beginning and vtterly condemning and inualiditing all