and receiuing life and strength vnto and from the other yet true religion medleth not so much with the temporal state as to hinder or further the proceedings of it otherwise then by the force of the word and the power of Ecclesiasticall censures but that which you call the Catholike religion hath like the Iuie that growes into the wall so incorporated and intwisted it selfe into the bowels of those States where it is setled that it can hardly bee rooted out or remooued without endangering the bodies of the States themselues which cannot but giue vs iust occasion to suspect that it is for the most part in the points controuersed betweene vs nothing else but a policie inuented of men to serue their owne turnes And consequently according to your owne rule set downe in the second Section of your first chapter a false and counterfeit religion And in trueth when wee shall come to examine the rules of that Church wee shall finde that they are not so consonant to the Maiestie and greatnesse of temporall Princes as you pretend but rather tend to the trampling of their Maiestie vnder foote and laying their honour in the dust and to the aduancing and raising of the greatnesse of the Bishop of Rome to the vtmost pitch and possibilitie of height Some of these rules which make so much for the Maiestie of Kings are brought by Bellarmine and by his Maiestie truely obserued and quoted in the latter end of his Apologie for the Oath for Allegeance which because they are so pat to this present purpose I will craue pardon to borrow and annexe hereunto they are twelue in all a fit number for the Iesuites Creede or to make vp a full Iury to passe a verdict vpon Mr. Doctors Assertion That Kings are rather slaues then Lords That they are not onely subiects to Popes to Bishops to Priests but euen to Deacons That an Emperour must content himselfe to drinke not onely after a Bishop but after a Bishops Chaplen That Kings haue not their authority nor office immediatly from God nor his Law but onely from the law of nations That Popes haue degraded Emperours but neuer Emperour degraded the Pope nay euen Bishops that are but the Popes vassals may depose Kings and abrogate their lawes That Churchmen are as farre aboue Kings as the soule is aboue the bodie That Kings may be deposed by their people for diuers respects But Popes can be deposed by no meanes for no flesh hath power to iudge of them That obedience due to the Pope is for conscience sake But the obedience due to Kings is onely for certaine respects of order and policie That those very Churchmen that are borne and inhabite in Soueraigne Princes countreys are notwithstanding not their Subiects and cannot bee iudged by them although they may iudge them And that the obedience that Churchmen giue to Princes euen in the meanest and meere temporall things is not by way of any necessary subiection but onely out of discretion and for obseruation of good order and Custome His Maiesties inference hereupon is this These contrarieties saith hee betweene the Booke of God and Bellarmines bookes haue I here set in opposition each to other vt ex contrarijs iuxta se positis veritas magis elucescere possit and thus farre I dare boldly affirme that whosoeuer will indifferently weigh these irreconciliable contradictions here set downe will easily confesse that Christ is no more contrary to Beliall light to darkenesse and heauen to hell then Bellarmines estimation of Kings is to Gods by whom they are called as his Maiestie noteth before The sons of the most High nay Gods themselues The Lords annointed Sitting in his throne The angels of God The light of Israel The nursing fathers of the Church with innumerable such stiles of honor wherwith the old Testament is filled and as for the New Testament Euery soule is commanded to be subiect vnto them euen for conscience sake All men must be prayed for but specially Kings and those that are in authoritie The Magistrate is the minister of God to doe vengeance on him that doth euill and reward him that doth well yea we must obey all higher powers but specially Princes and those that are supereminent Giue vnto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods So that wee may iustly conclude out of his Maiesties true collections and iust inferences that the rules of holy Scripture which wee make our principall and onely infallible leuell aswell in matter of manners as of doctrine are indeed most consonant to the maiesty and greatnesse of Kings but the rules of that religion which you call Catholike as they are reported by Bellarmine next his Holinesse the chiefe pillar and Proctor thereof this age hath aforded most disconsonant and repugnant thereunto I cannot but wonder then what Mr. Doctor meant to write thus to his Maiestie who hauing so particularly and exquisitely published his mind to the world in this point it must needs argue grosse ignorance and negligence in him not to haue read or obserued what was by him written or a strong presumption of his owne abilitie with one breath of his mouth or blot of his pen to perswade his Maiesty to the contrary B. C. 11. I knowe well that the Puritans of England the Hugonots of France and the Geuses of Germany together with the rest of the Caluinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to haue the pretence of so great a Maiestie to be their chiefe and of your posteritie to be their hope But I cannot be perswaded that they euer will or can ioyne together to aduance your Maiestie or your children further then they may make a present gaine by you they are not agreed of their religion nor of the principles of vniuersall and eternall trueth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honour where there is nullum principium ordinis there can bee nullum principium honoris such is their case there is a voyce of confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion their power is great but not to edification they ioyne together only against good order which they call the common enemie and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turne their fury against themselues and like deuils torment like serpents deuoure one another in the mean time of they can make their Bourgers Princes and turne old kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will doe it but that they will euer agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour ouer them all yeeld due obedience vnto him further then either their gaine shal allure them or his sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade myselfe to beleeue and therefore I cannot hope that your Maiestie or
Page 3. 2 Page 200. 3 Which Dispensation was first granted contrarie to the opinion of all the Cardinals of Râ—me being Diuines Hall ann Hâ—nry 8. 4 In the yeere 1562. and againe in 1571. 5 Apol. for the Oath of alleagiance p. 108. 6 Eusebius lib. 3 de vita Constantâ—i * Psal. 91 11. 7 Such a precedenciâ— hath the Emperour before Christian kings but no command ouer them 8 B. Bilson part 2 of Christian subiection p. 237. 1 This penalty was not inflicted for taking Orders but for returning after Orders taken such a penalty did Solomon impose and execute vpon Shimei 1. King 2. 2 There is lesse doubt of the Episcopall being of our Bishops then of those that deriue their being from the Popes in regard of their manifold schismes and if it came to scanning the Archbishop of Canterbury hath faiâ—er euidence to shew for his right to that See then the Bishop of Rome to the Popedome nay the Pope to the Bishopricke of Rome * Roâ— 11. 18 c. 1 He that examines the writings will easily find you wrote without booke 2 Such a Catholike then as your selfe the Sâ—ate standing as it doth can by your owne confession bee no good subiect 3 As if onely Puritanes were at the making of those Statutes or they alone make care and conscience of the execution of them 4 A mâ—rueile it is that a man of your age and experience should conceiue or affirme that to belong to the office of a Iustice of Peâ—câ— which appertaines to the Iudges or Iustices itenerant 5 Your hope must needes be grounded vpon a vaine presumption of some strange and sudden alteration in his Maiestie considering his full resolution and your many infirmities but your hope is perished with your selfe and so may all they who entertaine the like 6 You speake as if the naturall birth of a man gaue him interest in the Saints of heauen whereas there they put off all carnall affections and become like vnto the Angels 7 The Saints of heauen haue no knowledge of the particular conuersion of a sinner by any ordinary intuition but by reuâ—lation extraordinary 8 Many Saints no doubt are triumphant which were neuer militant in that Church which acknowledgeth the Pope her head 9 Where no offence is committed there needs no pardon to be either demanded or granted 10 The seruice you intended was nothing els but a plotting with the Pâ—pâ— and his Factours how you might betray the liberty of your Countrey and submit your Soueraignes neck to the yoke of his seruice 11 Vnlesse the Church of Rome draw neerer to vs then hitherto shee hath made sheâ— of it cannot bee but with the preiudice of all the honest men in England and honesty it selfe that a neerer vnion betwixt her and the Church of England should be concluded then already there is 1 Contrâ— literâ—â— Patâ—â— 2. c. 92 2 This Booke was written by my L. Burleigh L. Treasourer wherein hee pâ—ouâ—s that no Romish Catholikes were then executed but for iustifying the Bul of Pâ—us V. which Card. Allen replied vnto but so weakely as the trueth is thereby streâ—gthened 3 This samâ— poiâ—t is againâ— confirmed by his Maiesty in his booke Dâ— droâ—â— dâ—s Râ—yeâ— Pagâ— 113. 4 Ego intraproximum trimestro â—el sâ—mestre tot puta quinque vel sex reconciliaui pro quibus spondere ausiâ— quod quaecunque occasiâ— inciderit a parte nâ—stra â—â—turi sint omnes Tâ—rt Torti 138. 1 I suppose your meaning is to be accounted so 2 I haue not met with any that teacheth it but holy Father Aristotle in the entrance of his Politikes 3 That which you call the malice of the times was the iust censure of your superiours procured by your own malice against the trueth 4 What seruice could you do by dying but by remouing a dangerous instrument 5 So then you seeme to confesse that for religion you were of the same mind long before you went hence as since you haue declared your selfe which notwithstanding in diuers other places you contradict 1 Pol. lib. 3. cap. â— In methodâ— histâ— vt apparet in 〈◊〉 ex purgatâ—riâ— 1 That is you haue put off a Diuine to put on a Statesman but the prouerbe is Monachus in aula piscis in arido and your owne saying is that false Religion is but a policie for the temporal seruice of Princes 2 What securitie did it procure to Henry the IIII. and the 7. Emperours or to Chilperike Phil. lebâ—l Lewis the XII or the 2. last Hen. of France and if there be no securitie but in that religion what religion is that which will admit of no security in any but it selfe 3 They were aduanced by the grace of God and their owne right not by the Roman Religion which in a maner is all one with the Bishop of Romes authoritie by which Histories recorde how king Iohn and diuers other his Maiesties predecessours aswell of England as France and Scotland haue bene aduanced and protected 4 Why then if the Roman Religion had remained amongst vs should they still haue beene prayed for as if they had remained in Purgatorie 1 All this must be vnderstood of the Church of Rome which first curseth and then by all meanes laboureth to confound such as oppose against her imputing her owne deuillish plots to Gods working 1 See Lipsius his admiranda or de magnitudine Remani Imp. 1 It is rather Rome that is fallen from the vnitie of Christs Church 2 You are somwhat more fauorable to her herein then Bocius in his 12. booke and 3 chapter of the signes of the Church Terenixa passim pradicatur ex illicito coitu ac propterea fuitincemitijs Angliae publicis decretum vt illi defunctae in regno possent succedere ex huiusmodi concubinatunati A most malicious lie 3 She came vpon the religion professed and established in her sisters reigne which you call remainders of deuotion and wee denie it not but how comes it to passe that her sister was so vnfortunate if the onely comming vpon her remainders made Q. Elizabeth so happy 4 That which you cal maintaining of warre amongst her neighbours his Maiestie in her ensuing Epitaph termes the relieuing of France and supporting the Netherlands hee might iustly haue called it the setting vp of a iust King in his owne kingdome and the freeing of a free Estate from the vniust vsurpation of a forreine power 5 For feare of failing wee are yeerely supplied with a new Mission of shauelings from the fountaine but sure I am perswaded if this current were stopped our peace and prosperitie would be both more honourable and certaine then it is 1 That is as far as the drift of your reason proposed in the 2. and 3. Section of this Chapter 2 To conferre is not properly by a bare permission but by donation 3 Kingdomes may be bestowed vpon wicked men for many other reasons besides the sinnes of the people
it to the world that no other sect of heretikes not excepting Turke Iew nor Pagan no not euen those of Calicute who adore the deuill did euer maintaine it by the grounds of their religion Marke by the grounds of their religion that it was lawfull or rather meritorious as the Romish Catholikes call it to murder princes or people for quarrell of religion And although particular men of all professions of religion haue beene some theeues some murtherers some traitours yet euer when they came to their ende and iust punishment they confessed their fault to be in their nature and not in their profession these Romish Catholikes onely excepted And if that be your religion which we finde maintained by the chiefe pillars and Doctours of your Church and determined to bee Catholike by your Popes and Cardinals surely we haue as litle reason to entertaine your doctrine as wee haue good reason euer to be iealous of your practise Your doctrine is That the Pope if hee thinke good may excommunicate and depose kings and dispose of their kingdomes by absoluing their subiects from their allegeance and setting forraine princes to inuade there dominions as if they held not their Crownes from God but from him and as if they were to write no more in their stiles by the grace of God but by the Popes grace king of such or such a kingdom Your doctrine is that treason deliuered vnder the seale of cōfession is not to be discouered though it be to the indangering of your Soueraigns person the subuersion of the whole body of the State Your doctrine is That as many Churchmen as are in the Kingdom which in most is a third part in some more they are all exempted from the coertion of the ciuill Magistrate being for punishment whether in bodie or in estate onely lyable to the censures of Ecclesiasticall courts which haue both dependance vpon the Popes authoritie and direction from his Canon Law Your doctrine is That as many Bishops and arch-Arch-Bishops as are any where consecrated ought to take their oath to bee true and loyall to their good Lord and holy Father of Rome to the vtmost to execute and further his Commaunds without any limitation or reference to the authoritie of their Soueraigne Lord the King as may appeare by the tenour of the oath here ensuing which I haue annexed to the end the Reader may iudge whether this be the onely Religion as Mr. Doctour pretendeth to keepe Subiects in obedience to their Kings I Iohn Bishop or Abbot of A. from this houre forward shall be faithfull and obedient to S. Peter and to the Holy Church of Rome and to my Lord the Pope and his Successors Canonically entring I shall not bee of counsaile nor consent that they shall lose either life or member or shall bee taken or suffer any violence or any wrong by any meanes Their counsaile to mee credited by them their messengers or Letters I shall not willingly discouer to any person The Popedome of Rome the rules of the holy Fathers and the regalities of S. Peter I shall helpe retaine defend against all men The Legate of the Sea Apostolike going and comming I shall honourably intreate The rights honours priuiledges authorities of the Church of Rome and of the Pope and his Successors I shall cause to bee conserued defended augmented and promoted I shall not bee in Counsell Treatie or any act in the which any thing shall be imagined against him or the Church of Rome their rights states honours or power And if I know any such to bee mooued or compassed I shall resist to my power and assoone as I can I shall aduertise him or such as may giue him knowledge The rules of the Holy Fathers the decrees ordinances sentences dispositions reseruations prouisions and commandements Apostolike I shall keepe to my power cause to be kept of other Heretikes Schismatikes and Rebels to our Holy Father and his Successours I shall resist and persecute to my power I shall come to the Synode when I am called except I bee let by a Canonical impediment The lights of the Apostle I shall visite personally or by my deputie I shall not aliene or sell my possessions without the Popes Councell so God mee helpe and the holy Euangelists No meruaile then that Henry the eight when he commaunded the forme of this Oath to bee publikely reade in Parliament complained to the Speaker Sir Tho. Audely and some others whom for that purpose he sent for that he had thought the Clergie of his Realme had bene his Subiects wholly but now we haue well perceiued sayeth hee that they are to vs but halfe Subiects or indeed scarce Subiects at all Finally your doctrine is that the Christians in the Primatiue Church abstained from taking armes not so much for conscience sake as because they wanted strength which must needs open a wide gappe to the people vpon any humorous discontent when they once feele their owne strength like an vntamed horse to cast their rider if they may and that I may speake in your own phrase to make no bones of violating the Maiestie of the king and his children and is this a Religion fit to keepe Subiects in obedience to their Soueraignes Whereas our doctrine on the other side is That the persons of princes are sacred and by Gods ordinance priuiledged from all violence and for their actions that they are onely accomptable to God their Crownes and Scepters not disposeable by any but by him who set the one vpon their heads and the other in their hands who hath the name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords who as Iob speaketh leadeth Princes away spoiled and ouerthroweth the mightie and againe he powreth contempt vpon Princes and weakeneth the strength of the mightie Lastly our doctrine is that the Subiects duetie is not by any dispensable but by him alone who by his diuine prouidence subiected them to that power Now whether of these doctrines ours or yours is most likely to keepe men in obedience euen our enemies shall bee our Iudges Yet this to bee your doctrine your bookes witnesse and no man of learning and ingenuitie among you will denie But for our doctrine you pretend the opinions of Caluinists and those countrey Caluinists and those met in an Ale-house not in plaine termes but by consequences gathered not by sober or setled braines vpon iudgement but by working heads of greater libertie at their pleasure and that not in their bookes or speeches but in their liues and practises Thus the mountains swell as if wee should haue a giant borne but at length after much expectation wee haue a little mouse brought into the world What Mr. Doctour are there no principles in the Romish Catholike Religion from whence working heads of greater libertie doe at their pleasures draw the like dangerous consequences in their liues and practises If there bee none how comes it to passe that there are so many
and age and wrought by the frownes and threates of Cardinall Poole then Archbishop of Canterbury the Popes Legate and in England the principall Proctor and Champion for the aduancing of his authority was once brought to acknowledge that shee was a Romane Catholike but herein she did no more then St. Peter did whose successour the Bishop of Rome pretendeth himselfe in denying his Master No more then the Prince of Condie the King of Nauarre and his sister who at the massacre of Paris for feare renounced their Religion and were by the Cardinall of Bourbon reconciled to the Church of Rome though after ward being at liberty they reimbraced their former profession Nay no more then Queene Mary her selfe who being terrified with her Fathers displeasure wrote him a Letter vvith her owne hand yet to be seene in which for euer she renounceth the Bishop of Romes authority in England and acknowledging her Father vnder Christ supreame head of the Church of England confesseth his marriage with her Mother to haue beene vnlawfull and incestuous But I would faine know after Queene Elizabeth came to the wearing of the Crowne by what Catholike opinions shee gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that shee would continue Catholike If it were so as Mr. Doctor would beare vs in hand how was it that the reformed Churches through Christendome applauded her comming to the Crowne as it had beene the appearance of some luckie starre or the rising of some glorious Sunne for their Comfort and reliefe and your pretended Catholikes hung downe their heads as if they had seene some Comeâ— or blazing-starre How she was then affected in religion and so professed her selfe may appeare if no where else yet in Osorius his Epistle which he wrote her not long after her comming to the Crowne where he highly commends her for her wit for her learning for her clemencie for her constancy for her wisdome for her modestie but disswades her by all the arguments he could inuent from the opinions she had conceiued and did expresse in the matter of Religion Pius Quartus doth the like in his letter which he sent her about the same time by the hands of Vincentius Parpalia Abbot of Saint Sauiours who as it appeares in the Letters dated the 5th of May 1560 had priuate instructions to impart to the Queene among which the chiefe were thought to bee as it is reported by the most diligent searcher of truth that if she would reconcile her selfe to the Church of Rome and acknowledge the Supremacie of that See the Pope for his part would bind himselfe to declare the sentence pronounced against her mothers marriage to be vniust to confirme by his authority The English Liturgie and to permit the administration of the Sacrament here in England vnder both kindes By which it appeares that at that time shee then maintained the same opinions which during her life shee altered not And here it may be worth the remembring that the fourteenth day of Ianuary about two moneths after her sisters death as shee passed in her triumphall Chariot through the streetes of London when the Bible was presented vnto her at the little Conduit in Cheape shee receiued the same with both her handes and kissing it layd it to her breast saying That the same had euer been her chiefest delight and should bee the rule by which shee meant to frame her gouernment Before this a Proclamation came foorth that the Letanie the Epistles and Gospels the Decalogue the Creede and the Lords Prayer should bee read in all Churches in the English tongue and though it were the 14th of May after being Whitsunday before the sacrifice of the Masse was abolished and the book of the vniformitie of Common Prayer and the administration of the Sacraments publikely receiued and Iuly following before the Oth of Supremacie was proposed and August before the Images were by authority moued out of the Churches broken and burnt so moderately did shee proceede in this businesse of reformation by steppes and degrees yet is it plaiâ—e aswell by the choyce of those eight whom she added to her sisters Counsell beeing all in profession Protestants which Pius 5 tus in his Bull makes a part of his grieuous complaint and those whom she either restored to their former dignities or aduanced to new being likewise as auerse from the Romane Religion as also by the refusall of Nicholas Heath then Archbishop of Yorke the See of Canterbury by the death of Cardinall Poole who deceased the same day that Queene Mary did being then voide and of the rest of the chiefe Bishops to annoint and consecrate her at her Inauguration it being therefore performed by Owen Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile by these proceedings I say it is plaine that at her first entrance to the Crowne she sufficiently declared her selfe to bee the same in matter of Religion as afterwards they found her Wherunto if full satisfaction be not yet giuen in this point for farther proofe might be added that when Philip of Spaine wooed her for mariage the funerals of her sister being not yet solemnized The French King by his Agent the Bishop of Engolesme laboured if it had gone forward to stop their dispensation at Rome vnder colour that Queene Elizabeth fauoured the Protestants Religion and the Earle of Feria the Spaniards Agent here in England bore our pretended Catholiks in hand that except that match went forward it could not goe well with them so farre was shee at her first entrance from giuing hope to her neighbours as Mr. Doctor would perswade the world of continuing or turning Catholike by shew of Catholike opinions vnlesse her retaining the ancient forme of Ecclesiasticall policie and the godly Ceremonies vsed in the Primitiue Church be accounted Catholike opinions as in truth if wee take the word Catholike aright they may But no maruell hee should thus boldly and falsely charge the dead since hee spareth not in the same kinde his Maiestie now reigning and by Gods grace long to reigne amongst vs to the confutation of such slanders and confusion of such slanderers Hee goes on and tels vs that all her life long shee caried her selfe so betwixt Catholikes and Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But herein he mainely crosseth himselfe aswell in that which hee hath deliuered in the Section next saue one going before that if there bee now the same reason of State as there was all Queene Elizabeths dayes there is as little hope that his Maiestie should hearken vnto reconciliation as then there was that Q. Elizabeth would as also in that which afterwards he addes in this Section that being prouoked by the excommunication of Pius Quintus shee did suffer such lawes to bee made by her Parliament as might crie quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome And in the next Section he sayth It was necessary in reason of State to continue the doctrine of diuision as long as the
haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authority then that which other Christian Emperours and kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say aâ— Parsons doth in his answere to the Lord Cooke that farre more kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped authority some perchance lacking the occasion and some the ability of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of a violent intrusion and long wrongfull possession against me it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawful interruption vpon conuenient occasions Hitherto his Maiesty And I cannot but wonder what Mr. Doctour meant if he had read it not to take any notice of it or if he reade it not how he durst presume thus to write to his Maiesty without so much as the reading of his writings From whence we may gather that what Henry the VIII acted in that regard was but a manifestation of the intents and desires of his predecessors which they durst not fully expresse and what they enacted a preparatiue to the roundnesse of his proceedings Besides I see not but if his Maiesties predecessors granted that to his Holinesse which was indiuidually annexed to the Crowne as being a speciall branch of their prerogatiue Royall his Maiestie stands none otherwise bound to maintaine that graunt then they held themselues obliged to make that good which King Iohn had yeelded vnto him and if they did part with their authoritie as your selfe speake then was it their owne before they parted with it and not the Bishops of Rome as your Romane Catholikes would haue it by Diuine right and consequently beeing their owne as they vpon occasion best knowen to themselues conferred it so vpon a contrary occasion I see no reason but either themselues or their successours might as lawfully resume it But the trueth is that it was not giuen by them but stollen by the Bishop of Rome and by him held vnder colour of prescription yet your selfe by discourse of reasâ—n and force of trueth are driuen to confesse that our bodies and goods are at his Maiesties command either forgetting 〈◊〉 whom you wrote or not remembring or it may bee so much as knowing what the Church of Rome whose defence you vndertake defends touching the exemption aswell of the bodies as the goods of Churchmen from the iurisdiction of the secular though Supreame power and how his Maiestie in diuers parts of his writings hath most sufficiently prooued the nouelty of this doctrine so that what you write herein can bee imputed to none other but to grosse flattery or palpable ignorance flattery of his Maiestie in that which he truely holds or ignorance of that which is falsely held by the Church of Rome but like a shrewd Cow that hath yeelded a good meale oâ— milke and then ouerthrowes it with a spurne of her foote so hauing subiected our bodies and goods to his Maiesties commaund you exempt our soules from his charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion as if you meant purposely to crosse that of the Apostle Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers But I would â—aine dâ—maund if his Maiestie should not protect vs in that Religion which you call Catholike whether our bodies and goods shall then bee at his commaund Surely if his Holinesse whom you cannot but vnderstand by those that supplie Christs place in ijs quaesunt iuris diuini and to whom you would haue vs subordinate haue the command of our soules and his Maiestie onely of our bodies the later may command what hee list but men will execute his commands no farther then the former will be pleased to giue leaue whereof we haue had often and fresh experience aswel in the Bulls of Pius Quintus and in the Breuâ—s of Paulus Quintus and in trueth â— cannot but commend his wit though not his honestie that hee intitleth himselfe vnto and interesteth himselfe in the more actiue and noble part the bodie without the soule being as the shales without the kernell or the scabberd without the sword Those Kings that out of their Regall authoritie purged the Church of corruptions and reformed the abuses thereof brought the Arke to her resting place dedicated the Temple and consecrated it with prayers proclaimed fastes caused the booke of the Lawe new found to bee read to the people renewed he Couenant betweene God and his people bruised the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false Gods make a publique reformaâ—ion by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the high Priest and set vp another in his place they that lawfully called Generall Councils for the suppressing of heresies as Constantine did the Nicene Theodosius the elder the first at Constantinople Theodosius the yonger the Ephesin Valentinian Martian the Chalcedonian they that made Lawes for the ordering of Church-men and Church-matters as Iustinian and Charlemaine cannot in the iuâ—gement of any indifferent man be said to haue no charge of the soules of such aâ— are committed to their charge but onely by way of protection Neither doeth it follow that his Maiestie in taking the charge of soules vpon him according to the qualitie of his office and Gods appointment whose officer hee is should therfore be himself a Priest or be the author of his owne Religion as you would maliciously inferre from the custom of the heathen Emperors no more then the Kings of Israel or the Emperors of the Christian Primitiue Church were Priests or authors of that religion which by diuine ordinance they tooke care of aswell in the Priest as in the people aswell in confirming and countenancing what was in order as in censuring and restoring what was amisse neither was it in the time of the law of nature held vnlawfull that both the Regall and the Ecclesiasticall the princely and the priestly power should reside together in one person during which Law wee haue not many examples of Kings that gouerned a people where the Church of God was planted there is onely mention to my remembrance of Melchisedecke King of Salem and of him it is sayd withall that hee was a Priest of the most High God so that in his person these two offices the principalitie and the Priesthood were ioyned both which followed the prerogatiue of the birth-right and to this double dignity was answerable a double portion the like do we reade of Anias that he was Rex idem hominuÌ„ Poebique Sacerdos and it was the speach of Diogenes the Pythagorean that to make a compleat King hee had need bee a Captaine a Iudge and a Priest of which two
the euents are so cleane contrary to the Prefaces and pretences of them as if God of purpose would laugh them to scorne G. H. 35. If the Crowne haue more Pence paid in now then in former times it must needes follow that were it not by default of officers the meanes might bee greater to doe great workes both in peace and in warre whereas you vpbraid his Maiestie that his are but yet hoped for hee hath had other occasions as the world well knoweth of expence then his ancestors had and those occasions that they had hee hath not whether in building at home or in warring abroad theirs it may be were more conspicuous but his more necessary and yet I doubt not but vpon iust occasion his Maiestie would bee able to maintaine as great and as powerfull an armie as any of his predecessors to the terror of Rome and the Romanists who are so farre from complaining of his Maiesties wants as they would rather triumph most in this that hee were not rich Gretser in your account I am sure a good Catholike complaines not butscoffes at his Maiesties neede of money in his answere to Monsieur Plessis his Epistle Dedicatory to his Maiesty prefixed to his Mysteriū iniquitatis in which his Maiestie being incouraged by that noble Lord to lay by his Pen and take his sword in hand though it were to the passing of the Alps and the sacking of Rome Gretser in his replie makes it the burden of his song in diuers periods Sed deest pecunia But the onely sure way you say for his Maiestie to inrich himselfe is to turne Romane Catholike as if it were not fresh in memorie what infinite masses of treasure the pretence of that Religion carried out of the land to the triple Crowne of Rome and other forreiners well neere as much as was brought to the Crowne of England it selfe as appeares in Bonners Preface to Gardiners oration of true obedience In the reigne of King Henry the third it amounted by iust computation to the summe of 60000. markes which amounts to an incredible masse at this day and was more then the standing reuenues of the Crowne at that time as the Author of the British antiquities reports it out of Matthew Paris in the life of Boniface Archbishop of Canterburie in which relation are also set downe the grieuances which the Bishops the Abbots the Barons and the king himselfe exhibited in their seuerall Letters to his Holinesse touching the grieuousnesse of his exactions the effect whereof was as followeth That the Pope being not content with that aide which is called Peter-pence hee made money here in England by a thousand cunning sleights and trickes without the consent of the King against the ancient Right and Liberties of the Kingdome and against the Appeales put in by the Kings Ambassadours and Proctors in the Council of Lions That the Benefices and Prebendaries in England were by him conferred vpon Italians and Romanes not able to speake or so much as to vnderstand our language and that many times one Italian succeeded another as in lawfull inheritance the Church reuenues being by this meanes wasted and caried out of the kingdome the word of God not preached Ecclesiasticall dueties not obserued hospitality almes and Diuine Seruice neglected and lastly the walles and roofe of Chancels and Parsonage houses suffered to drop downe to the indangering of many soules and the vtter desolation of the Church That of those Churches into which hee thrust not strangers he exacted Pensions against his owne promise by letter That the natiue English were vpon all occasions drawen by Citations to the Court of Rome against the Customes and Common Law of the Kingdome and against the Popes owne priuiledges formerly granted To like purpose is that which I finde in a Manuscript of Mr. Hales a man renowned in his time aswell for his learning as his honestie his words are these speaking of the cunning fetches of the Bishops of Rome for the enriching of themselues and their Clergie to the impouerishing of the King and the State First saith hee they exempted the Clergy aswell the Secular as the regular from the authoritie of the Kings of England whereby they neither would obey the Prince but when and wherin it pleased them nor albeit they had the greater part of the possessions and profits of the Realme they would be contributory to the charges of the defence thereof but when it listed them Secondly they reserued to themselues the collations generally specially of all Archbishopricks Bishopricks Abbies Priories all other dignities and benefices in England which many times they gaue to aliants that neuer dwelt in England nor euer came into England So the reuenues thereof were not spent in the Realme but caried out of the same when they gaue them to any of the Realme they made them pay exceeding summes of money for Palls Annats First fruits Tenths and such like whereby the Realme from time to time was very much impouerished Thirdly they vsed to dispence not onely with their owne Lawes and Canons but also many times with Gods word in matters of Matrimony and otherwise whereby they sucked no litle treasure out of the Realme Fourthly in causes testamentary in causes of Matrimony and diuorces right of tithes oblations and obuentions they had decreed that men might appeale from any Court within this Realme to the Court of Rome whereby the people of this nation was very much troubled by reason it was so farre distant from this Realme and when they came thither they could not in long time haue redresse but with long delayes were constrained to spend whatsoeuer they had Fiftly with dispensations for eating flesh and white meates for pardons and redemption of soules out of Purgatory for dispensations with vowes and such like beggery they scraped together infinite summes of money and because no fish should escape for lacke of bait they had their Dataries and Collectours continually gaping for the prey resident here in England Lastly the Clergie of this Realme being animated by the authority of the Bishop of Rome the Arch-bishops Bishops and such as had Spirituall Iurisdiction within this Realme not onely vnreasonably troubled and vexed the people of this realme in their Courts but also exceedingly pilled polled and robbed them vnder colour of Fees and duties The Parsons and Vicars were not content with the moderate Mortuaries and Corse-presents but also daily increased the same and would haue what it pleased them without any consideration of the misery and pouerty of the widow and children liuing yea and many times where the dead had but a bare vse and no property in the goods and chattels they were found in his possession and in many places they would neither baptize nor marry nor bury but they would haue some extraordinary reward the common sort of Priests would not depart with any their Masses or praiers vnlesse they were sure to haue money Of these and the
to any man of iudgement whereof a chiefe one is his Maiesties vndertaking the cause in writing wherein wee are bound to blesse God that hath set such a King ouer vs whom he hath indowed with such singular gifts as to giue occasion to such an Obiection Hee was no foole that pronounced that CoÌ„mon-wealth happy where learned men had the gouernment or the gouernors were learned and another who holds those wise men in the Gospel who came from the East are therefore held Kings because they were learned which I speake not to derogate froÌ„ other Kings but to thanke God for our owne whose drops that fall both from his tongue and Pen are as the Prophet Dauid speakes in another case like raine falling vpon the mowen grasse or as showers that water the earth We haue read in our own Chronicles of one Bladud a Brittish King who studied at Athens of Alured a Saxon King who translated the Psalter into his own language of Henry a Norman King who for his great schollership was surnamed the Beauclarke but for a King only Dauid and Salomon excepted that hath written so much and so well as his Maiestie exposing it to publike censure hath left it as an euerlasting monumeÌ„t of his name to posterity for mine owne part I must confesse in my small reading I haue not met with any either in our owne or forreine History Some Kings haue done some what in this kinde but hee excelleth them all so that for a Christian King to write and to publish his writings to the world euen in matter of Religion is not without example The Booke of Charlemaine in defence of the decree of the Synode of Frankeford which himselfe had thither called and against the Canons of the second Nicene Council touching the controuersie of adoring images is yet extant to bee seene in the Palatine library so is it acknowledged by Augustinus Steuchus in his second booke of Constantines donation where hee presses some things in that Booke for the Popes aduantage Howbeit Bellarmine in his second Booke of Images and 15th Chapter labourto prooue the contrary granting that it was sent by that Emperour to Pope Adrian but not as his owne His Maiesties Bookes aswell the former in defence of the Oath of Allegeance as the later by way of Premonition to the Christian States are no doubt as great corrasiues and eyesores to you as to vs they are cordiall and comfortable and cannot be but to him as dishonourable if hee should recall them as now they are honourable if hee continue constant to himselfe and them Now that they should proceede rather from the instigation of others then his owne disposition is a surmise of your owne I know not whether more foolish as being ignorant of that which hee had both written and spoken and done since hee came to yeeres of discretion conformably thereunto or dishonest in calling his Maiesties singular wisedome into question in suffering himselfe to bee so farre abused as vnwittingly to bee sent on other mens errands and to serue other mens turnes Howsoeuer there is nothing you say in that booke by which you cannot but vnderstand both the Premonition and the Apologie both bound together in one volume and titled together in one front why his Maiestie may not when he please admit the Popes Supremacie in Spirituals wherein first you dash though peraduenture vnawares against your great Cardinal who in his Letter to Blackwell professeth that in whatsoeuer words the Oath of Allegeance in defence of which his Maiestie wrote his Apologie bee conceiued it tends to none other end but that the authorie of the head of the Church of England may bee transferred from the Successour of S. Peter to the Successour of K. Henry the VIII this indeed he affirmes falsly but both in his Tortus against his Maiesties Apologie and in his Apologie against his Maiesties Premonition hee affirmeth truely that the vsurped Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome is in them both impugned And I cannot but marueile at such shamelesse impudencie as dares thus to write to his Maiestie touching his owne writings whose very words toward the later end of his Apologie are these discoursing before of the Supremacie of K. Henry the VIII in Church-matters for which Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas Moore were pretended to haue suffered I am sure saith hee that the Supremacie of Kings may and will euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the true rule to discerne all weighty heads of doctrine by to bee the true and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then hee will euer be able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerent speaches of them wherewith both his former great volumes and his late bookes against Venice are filled Where he goes on and proues this Supremacie aswell by the Old as the New Testament and the practise both of the Kings of Israel and the Christian Emperours in the Primitiue Church both explaning and iustifying the Oath of Supremacie as it is by him imposed and taken by vs and in his Premonition written afterward though set before in the Booke he is so cleere in this point that Mr. Dr. cannot but stand conuinced either of grosse negligeÌ„ce in not reading or vnpardonable forgetfulnes in not remembring what he had read His Maiesties words are these But as I well allow of the Hierarchie of the Church for distinction of orders for so I vnderstand it so I vtterly deny that there is an earthly Monarch thereof whose word must be a Law and who cannot erre in his sentence by an infabilitie of spirit Because earthly Kingdomes must haue earthly Monarchies it doth not follow that the Church must haue a visible Monarch too for the world hath not one earthly Temporall Monarch Christ is his Churches Monarch and the holy Ghost his Deputie Reges gentium dominantur eorum vos autem non sic Christ did not promise before his Ascension to leaue Peter with them to direct and instruct them in all things but he promised to send the holy Ghost vnto them to that end And for these two before cited places whereby Bellarmine maketh the Pope to triumph ouer Kings I meane Pasce oues and Tibi dabo claues the Cardinall knowes well enough the same woâ—â—s of Tibi dabo are in another place spoken by Christ in the plurall number and hee likewise knowes what reasons the ancients doe giue why Christ bade Peter Pasce oues and also what a cloud of witnesses there is both of ancients and euen of late Popish Writers yea diuers Cardinals that doe all agree that both these speeches vsed to Peter were meant to all the Apostles represented in his person otherwise how could Paul direct the Church of Corinth to excommunicate the Incestuous person Cum Spiritu suo whereas he should then haue sayed Cum Spiritu Petri and how could all the
that hee hanged himselfe and that foorthwith an oath was taken of all that were present not to publish it for the honour as they sayd of the Gospell Thus they agree not in their tales no more then the false witnesses did against Christ Neither is it strange that Cochlaeus and Bozius deuise such slanders against him since his death seeing euen in his life time they spared not to publish in Print that he was dead and when hee was laid into his graue there was a terrible noyse heard as if the foundations of the earth had been shaken to the affrightment of all the night after there was yet a more fearefull noise heard about his graue which made the people run thither all amazed but opening it they could find nor bodie nor bones nor clothes onely they smelt a horrible stinke of brimstone This Luther himselfe read and in detestation of such blasphemie publikely protested against it as not long since Beza did being handled in like maner But returne wee vnto Cochlaeus First where he sayth that the supper before hee died hee was in perfect health they who knew him better tell vs that before he came to Islib whither hee was sent for by the Earles of Mansfield to compose a controuersie betweene them hee was very sickly and that hee had a long time been troubled with oppression of humors in the orifice of his stomacke Secondly where hee sayth that hee supped delicately and pleasantly and delighted all his company with merrie conceits surely they that were present testifie that his merry conceits were but holy and religious discourses for being demaunded at supper time Whether in that eternall life wee should know one another hee answered affirmatiuely and confirmed the same by testimonie of Scripture according as Thuanus also a Papist by profession but of more authoritie then an hundred Cochlaeusses doth relate Lastly where hee sayth that hee died suddenly the same night neither died he the same night but the next day betwixt 8. and 9. of the clocke nor yet suddenly for perceiuing his sicknesse to grow vpon him and feeling within him the summons of death hee gaue many sweete and comfortable exhortations to them that were about him and commended himselfe vnto God in a most heauenly and effectuall prayer and so quietly and by little and little died And these things are testified by Iustus Ionas who attended him euen vnto the last gaspe and by Melancthon and others of his best acquaintance Whereunto I adde out of Thuanus that as in his life time hee was dearely beloued so in his death could they not be drawen from his loue For they of Mansfield were earnest that his bodie might be buried amongst them in as much as there he was borne but Io. Frederick preuailed so farre by his authoritie that his bodie was caried backe to Wittenberg and there honourably interred So that though Papists burst for spight and enuie it could not be without the finger of God that so meane a man as Luther so boldly opposing himselfe against the Pope whom Kings and Emperours at that time durst not without great danger resist yet liued so long died so peaceablie and was buried so honourably The next is Zuinglius who as the Doctor out of the same Cochlaeus saith was slaine in warre which he made against the Catholikes Indeede that Zuinglius was slaine in the fielde neither is nor can bee denied but I would faine learne why so to die should be counted an vnhappie ende or why that which as seemes to mee is an argument of his courage and magnanimitie should bee esteemed an argument of heresie If you say hee was slaine fighting against Catholikes so haue many of your Romish Catholikes fighting against Protestants And if Costers defence of Sanders who was slaine in Ireland be sufficient He with other Priests aided the armie in those things which concerne the conscience Quid hic mali What euil is herein The same Apologie may I farre more iustly make for Zuinglius He according to the laudable custome of that countrey went as a Preacher with the armie Quid hic mali What euill is herein Onely here lies the difference that Sanders like a traitour and rebell fighting against his Prince and Countrey perished miserably but Zuinglius like a good Patriot fighting in defence of his Countrey died valiantly Of whose innocencie therein God himselfe as to mee it seemes hath giuen this testimonie that when his enemies hauing found his bodie threw it into the fire to burne it yet his heart could neuer be consumed as Thuanus witnesseth The thirde is Oecolampadius of whom vpon the same authoritie the Dr. saith that going to bed in good health one night he was found dead by his wife in the morning Vnto this fiction of Cochlaeus it shal suffice to oppose the true report of SimoÌ„ Grynaeus who with tenne other at least all of them very credible men was an eye-witnesse and present at his death He therefore reporteth that he kept his bed sixteene dayes before his death that in the meane season hee often exhorted them that were about him to prayer and to die constantly for the Name of CHRIST professing that hee went cheerefully to the Tribunall of CHRIST The last night of his life demaunding of a friend that came to visite him what newes and he answering None Then quoth he can I tell you newes Shortly shall I be with the Lord IESVS Soone after one asking whether the light did not trouble him Here quoth he laying his hand on his breast is store of light After this as well as his tongue could vtter it he repeated that excellent praier of Dauid for Remission of sinnes and that entirely from the beginning vnto the end fetching withall many deepe grones from the bottome of his heart Then pawsing a while he said CHRIST IESV saue mee which was his very last speech And so hee died with much peace and tranquilitie of mind Thus farre Grynaeus The fourth is Carolostadius whom saith the Dr. the Ministers of Bazil write to haue beene killed of a Diuell in their Epistle of the death of Carolostadius It cannot be denyed but that Carolostadius was a man ful of many imperfections and suspected to incline too much vnto Anabaptisme yet is this report a meere fiction and the Epistle out of which it is vouched a very counterfeit as diuers haue written which Fr. Iunius saith he vnderstood by sufficient men who were present at his death The last is Iohn Caluin who saith the Dr. was eaten and consumed with wormes and dyed as did Antiochus Hunery Maximinus c. as witnesseth Hieron Bolseck in his life who also addeth that he died blaspheming cursing inuocating diuels A feareful and vnhappy end indeed if it were true and worthy of an Arâ—h-heretike but if false as I am perswaded euen to the Doctors and Bellarmines conscience it was when they so wrote a most hellish slander Thuanus a
bee to this point more fully and cleerely spoken B. C. 13. And for the blessed SacrameÌ„t they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the Substance which they beleeue and surely if Christ be there truely really present as your Maiestie seemeth to graunt hee is hee is as much to bee worshipped as if wee saw him with our bodily eyes neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our blessed Sauiour himselfe should visibly appeare in person as hee was vpon the earth Iewes and Infidels would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him againe and so would all heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where hee is really present G. H. 13. You tell vs that the people doe not worship the accidents which they see but the substance which they see not but the question is whether they rightly beleeue the substance of Christs body to lie hidden and as it were buried vnder those Accidents which I am sure Saint Augustine on whom you so much relie is so farre from defending or else the adoration of Images before mentioned that in diuerse places hee maintaineth the cleare contrarie to both And to grant that after the words of Consecration pronounced the bodie of Christ is there folded or kneaded vp in a bodily maner yet whether the Priest that pronounceth them be rightly Ordered and if hee be whether hee pronounce them with the intent that the Church intends they may iustly make a doubt and consequently a question whether their worship bee idolatrous or no for in such cases by confession of all in stead of Christs bodie they worship the bread for our parts wee constantly beleeue him to be in heauen and not in the bread whereas we make a iust doubt whether a great part of them who beleeue him to be in the bread doe with like constancie beleeue that hee is in heauen You further adde that if he be truely and really present as his MAIESTIE seemeth to graunt he is as much to be worshipped as if wee saw him with our bodily eyes But indeed it is not the seeing of him with our bodily eyes that makes the matter or giues occasion of worshipping for then a blind man could not worship him at all nor a seeing man in the darke but the beleeuing of him to be present in a bodily manner Wee beleeue him then with his MAIESTIE it being Caluins opinion expressed in the very selfe same termes to be truely and really present but in a manner Sacramentall not bodily and consequently not to bee worshipped there as being not wrapped vp vnder the accidents of bread but triumphing in heauen And here by your leaue how submissiuely soeuer you would seeme in other places to carrie your selfe towards his Maiestie you make bold to put the title of Heretike vpon him and to ranke him among no better then â—ewes and Infidels But our iust defence is that after the way which you call Heresie we giue more true and lawfull honour to our blessed Sauiour then you casting all that religious worship which you giue to the blessed Virgin to Angels to Saints to the bread in the Eucharist to Images to Reliques to the Crosse and all that opinion of Merit of Supererogation and Satisfaction which you ascribe either to your selues or others wholy and solely vpon him either as God or as Man or as Mediatour betwixt God and Man onely wee denie to giue that honour to his Image or the bread in the Eucharist which is as essentially due to him as to them vndue B. C. 14. After diuers other obiections not so much because I was not as be cause I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyrannie ouer Kings and Princes and tolde them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your MAIESTIE which hath not yet beene iudicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhorre the fact as much as the best Subiests in the world and much more to fauour and defend the authoritie of Kings and Princes then Heretikes doe And they sayed that although your Maiestie were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a iudiciall proceeding that fact should be iudicially condemned In the meane time it was sufficient that all Catholike writers did coÌ„demne it and that the Pope by his Breue had condemned it exhorting the Catholikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience and as for any other authoritie or superioritie of the Pope then such as is spiritual and necessary for the vnity of the Church I haue met with none that doe stand vpon it G. H. 14. You well say they seemed to abhorre the fact it being of the nature of those whereof Tacitus speakes Quae nunquam laudantur nisiperacta which are neuer commended till they are ended had it taken effect according to their designes for the setting vp of their Religion among vs it had vndoubtedly bin recorded a most happie and fortunate successe which now by abortion onely and miscariage is stiled an horrible Treason And if they defend the authoritie of Kings and Princes much more then they whom they call Heretikes I would faine know how it comes to passe that more of those Princes wâ—om you call Catholikes permit within their Dominions the publike exercise of Religion to those Heretikes then the contrarie Surely in my iudgement it is an euident argument that Christian Staâ—es conceiue reason to bee more iealous of the one then of the other neither is the reason farre to be sought â—ince the one acknowledgeth no Supreme forreine power which the other doth but the Pope you say condemned the Powder-plot by his Breue I much desire to see that Breue of the Popes which condemnes it I suppose it is most like to be found on the backside of Constantins donation as an Ambassador of Venice told the Pope touching his right to the Adriatique Sea or we may say of it Breuis esse laboro obscurusfio hee is so briefe and obscure in it as we can find no such matter Two Breues of Clements I remember I haue heard of for the withstanding of his Maiesties entrance to the Crowne and two others of Paulus V. against the taking of the oath of allegiance which I marueile M. Doctour neuer vouchsafed so much as once to remember through his Letter but any against the Powder-plot I cannot call to minde I haue seene or so much as heard of Lastly wheras you beare vs in hand that the Popes fauourites stand vpon none other authoritie for their Master then such as is spirituall and necessary for the vnity of the Church I guesse their meaning to be Bellarmines indirect power in temporals or temporall power in ordine as spiritualia in relation to spirituall dueties which is in trueth vpon the matter as much as can be demanded by them
referre this Matrimoniall cause to the hearing and determining of his Legates but gaue Campeius a secret Bull in his bosom as witnesseth Francis Guicciardin in the 19th Booke of his Historie a Catholike in his profession no man more a reporter of things hee sawe no man truer and a creature of the Popes imployed in honourable charges the Copie of it is to be seene in Anti-Sanders dated in the yeere 1527. the 17th of December and the fifth yeere of Clement the seuenths Popedome wherein hee infringeth the former dispensatioÌ„ affirming that the King could not continue in such Matrimonie without sinne whereupon hee decreed that after the delaration of the nullitie of the former mariage and the Kings absolution it should bee lawfull for him to marrie another This Bull he forbad him to shew to any saue onely to the King and Cardinall Wolsey his fellow Commissioner in that businesse and though openly he commanded him to handle the cause with all expedition yet secretly hee willed him to protract the time promising that himselfe would watch an opportunitie to publish the Decree so the King and Queene were cited to appeare before them in May following at which time after some debating of the cause they protracted the sentence till the beginning of August and after many delayes finding that King Henry could not by hope of the diuorce bee drawen to side with the French the Pope commanded Campeius to burne his Bull and to returne home whereby it appeares that King Henry might easily haue had the nullitie of his mariage with Queene Katherine ratified at Rome without taking the title of Supreme head if hee would haue yeelded to the Popes conditions But the Lords you say and Commons would neuer haue suffered such a Statâ—te to bee made had not that title inabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and Religious houses and giue them to Lay men I would faine know then what mooued the Bishops to giue way to it who had no share in that diuision yet had they with the consent of the Clergie passed it in Conuocation before it was so much as proposed in Parliament and for the Commons a very little share fell out to their parts And if â—he assuming of that title were indeed so needfull as you pretend for the supressing of those houses by what authoritie did Cardinall Wolsey dissolue some and the King by his example more before that title was by him publikely assumed Now for Queene Elizabeth it is true that she reuiued those Statutes of Supremacie enacted by her father and repealed by her sister but not without diuers exceptions as may appeare by the bookes in so much as a new forme of Oath was established by her which is the Oath at this day in force the refusall of which vpon a second offering by such as stand conuicted of a former refusall is by the Statute of 5â— Eliz. cap. 1. made high Treason and it is none otherwise Nay further by an expresse prouiso in that Statute none are compellable to take the Oath the second time but Ecclesiasticall persons and some few others especially named in that Statute neither doth shee take to her in that or any other Statute the title of Supreme head but of Gouernour by which what shee vnderstood herselfe expressed in her Iniunctions and her Clergie in their 37. Article confirmed in two seuerall Conuocations where they thus speake Where wee attribute to the Queenes Maiestie the chiefe Gouernment by which title we vnderstand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be offended wee giue not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Iniunctions also lately set foorth by Elizabeth our Queene doe most plainely testifie but that onely prerogatiue which we see to haue beene giuen alwayes to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himselfe that is thâ—t they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the ciuill sword the stubburne and euill doers neither doe I see how Osorius in his Epistle to her can be interpreted to affoord her lesse where he professeth that all Kings are Pro parte suaiuris diuini Vicarij Vicars of Gods Law in their places From Queene Elizabeth you passe to his Maiestie and tell him that he confirmed the same Statute to satisfie other men arguing therein his Maiestie of great weakenesse either as being not able to iudge what he did or as being caried by others against his owne iudgement But that his MAIESTIE did it aduisedly and rather to satiffie himselâ—e then others appeares by this that hee was inuested with the same power which that Statute giues him before his receauing of the Crowne of England and since himselfe with his owne penne hath thus both iustified and explained it if these examples saith he sentences title and prerogatiues and innumerable other in the olde and new Testament doe not warrant Christian Kings within their owne dominions to gouerne their Church aswell as the rest of their people in being Custodes vtriusque tabulae not by making new Articles of Faith which is the Popes office as I said before but by commaunding obedience to bee giuen to the word of God by reforming the Religion accâ—rding to his prescribed will by assisting the Spirituall power with the Temporall sword by reforming of corruptions by procuring due obedience to the Church by iudging and cutting off all friuolous questions and Schismes as Constantine did and finally by making decorum to be obserued in euery thing and establishing orders to be obserued in all indifferent things for that purpose which is the onely intent of the Oath of Supremacie if this office of a King I say doe not agree with the power giuen him by Gods word lâ—t any indifferent man void of passion iudge But yet his Maiestie you say yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of the Westerne Churches Indeed his Maiesty in his first speech in his first Parliament called after his entrâ—nce to this Kingdome is pleased to acknowledge the Romane Church to be our Mother Church this M. Doctour is content to vrge but to conceale that which he addeth defiled with infirmities and corruptions as the Iewes were when they crucified Christ and as I am none enemy saith he to the life of a sicke man because I would haue his body purged of ill humours no more am I an enemy to their Church because I would haue them reforme their errours not wishing their throwing out of the Temple but that it might be purged and clensed from corruption otherwise how can they wish vs to enter if their house bee not first made cleane Herein Mr Doctour dealing with his Maiesty as the deuill did with our Sauiour hee pressed that out of the Psalme which made for himselfe Hee will giue
his Angels charge ouer thee but suppressed that which made against him to keepe thee in all thy wayes now if any man farther desire his Maiesties meaning in calling Rome the Mother Church hee hath fully expressed himselfe in his Premonition Patriarchs saith he I know were in the time of the Primitiue Church and I likewise reuerence that institution for orders sake and amongst them was a contention for the first place And for my selfe if that were yet the question I would with all mine heart giue my consent that the Bishop of Rome should haue the first seat I being a Westerne King would goe with the Patriarch of the West whereby it is cleare that his Maiesties meaning was and is to yeeld the Bishop of Rome ouer other Westerne Bishops in case they should meet iâ— Councell a prioritie in sitting not a superiority in commanding a primacy or precedency in order not a supremacie in power and iurisdiction it beeing the marke which Mr. Doctour driues at and from thence labours cunningly but malitiously to inferre contrary to his Maiesties both minde and words I conclude this point with a Reuerend Prelate His Vicarship to Christ must be proued by stronger and plainer euidence then you haue yet shewed before wee may grant it and for his Patriarkeship saith he which you now take hold of by Gods law he hath nne in this Realme for â—ixe hundred yeeres after Christ he had none for the last sixe hundred as looking to greater matters hee would haue none aboue and against the swâ—rd which God hath ordained he can haue none to the subuersion of the faith and oppression of his brethren in right reason and equity he should haue none you must seeke farther for subiection to his tribunall this land oweth him none B. C. 18. There is another statute in England made by Queene Elizabeth and confirmed by your Maiesty that it is death for any English man to bee in England being made a Priest by authority deriued or pretended to bee deriued from the Bishop of Rome I cannot beleeue that I am a Priest at all vnlesse I be deriued by authority from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England haue their being if they haue any being at all G. H. 18. The Statute intended is the 27. of Eliz. Cap. 2. which indeed in the body thereof hath words sounding to that purpose but the sense is malitiously peruerted and the inference thereupon for he that shall reade through that Statute and consider all the parts shall clearely perceiue that therby none other Priests are intended then Popish Priests made and ordeined by Popish Bishops and not such as Mr. Doctour was made in England by any of our Bishops here Though perhaps it were true that our Bishops did deriue their first authority from Gregory which we do not yeeld vnto considering that Augustine from whom they are pretended to deriue it was not consecrated by him but by Aetherius Archbishop of Arles if wee may beleeue our own Venerable Bede for the title of the Statute is An Acte against Iesuites Seminary Priests and such other like disobedient persons and the preamble of the acte hath these words Whereas diuers persons called or professed Iesuites Seminary Priests and other Priests which haue beene and froâ— time to time are made in the parts beyond the Seas by or according to the order and rites of the Romish Church haue of late yeeres commen and bene sent into England c. So that if according to the rule Praefatio est clauis Statuti we shall interprete the body by the title or preamble howsoeuer the wordes in the body of the acte bee somewhat generall yet what Priests are intended by the Law-makers is euident enough and except M. Doctour were a Priest according to the Order and Rites of the Romish Church by shauing anoynting and imposition of hands by a Popish Bishop and that since the first yeere of Queene Elizabeth he needed not to haue feared the danger of the Law B. C. 19. There is another Statute in like maner made and confirmed that it is death to bee reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our mother Church and that no man in England can be saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church and therefore I can not chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they may G. H. 19. This Statute also is either purposely or ignorantly mistaken and is not distinct from that following but are both one namely 23. Eliz. cap. 1. The title of it is An Acte to retaine the Queenes Maiesties Subiects in due obedience and the preamble recites that whereas diuers ill affected persons haue practised to withdraw the Queenes Subiects from their naturall allegeance the purueiw of the Acte followeth that all persons which shall put in practise to â—bsolue perswade or withdrawe any of the Queenes subiects from their naturall obedience to her Maiestie or to withdraw them for that intent from the religion established and so foorth shall be traitours and the person willingly absolued or withdrawen as aforesayd to be likewise a traitour so that the withdrawing of the Subiect from their naturall obedience or for that intent from the religion established is the offence made treason and not simple exhorting to the Romish religion as is alleadged And yet to speake a trueth I see not how any exhortation to an absolute submission of the vnderstanding and the will to the Bishop of Romes Iurisdiction which now is made the onely essentiall forme of that religion can well be seuered from such an intent But Rome you say is the mother Church and no man in England can bee saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church Where if you terme it the mother Church in that sense that his MAIESTIE doeth wee imbrace it but if your meaning bee that shee is our mother either in regard that wee receiued the first life or still should receiue the nourishment of religion from her wee denie it our nation being first conuerted to the Christian faith by Ioseph of Arimathea who intombed the Corps of our Sauiour and lieth himselfe interred at Glastenbury together with twelue disciples his assistants where they first preached the Gospel as Gildas affirmeth in the life of Aurelius Ambrosius and Malmesbury in the Booke intituled The Antiquitie of Glastenbury written to Henry of Bloys brother to King Steuen and Abbot of the same place and it is consented vnto by the learned Antiquaries of later times as namely Mr. Cambden Iohn Bale Matthew Parker Polydore Virgil and others grounding themselues vpon the authoritie of the best approued and most ancient writers and withall considering our keeping of Easter and other Ceremonies were after the fashion of the Easterne Church and not of the Westerne at the comming of Austin I may very well coniecture that our
Kings and Princes wheresoeuer they can preuaile in which passage can none other bee intended but the Netherlanders of whom touching this point I will say no more that they are now after the wasting of so much treasure and the shedding of so much Christian blood declared a free estate by him whose Regall right you pretend they ouerthrow Lastly those whom you call Caluinists either denie or call into question as few principles of Religion or Articles of Faith as any Romish Catholike nay I will be bold to say it and readie to make it good that the former maintaine some of them strongly which the latter ouerthrow if not in plaine termes and directly yet at least indirectly and by consequence by establishing their owne Articles Vnknowne to the Apostles and the Primitiue Church they make the Articles of our Christian Creede of none effect and for exposition which concernes not points in difference betweene vs and the Church of Rome if I can iudge any thing your Writers differ more among themselues and assume to themselues a greater libertie in expounding then ours and if they be restrained of their Allegoricall Tropologicall and Anagogicall interpretations as impertinent many times to the point in hand as wide from the scope of the Text they will presently cry out that wee despise the authoritie of the Church when it may be they haue wrested the meaning of one or two latter Fathers against the streame of Antiquitie and what bond of obedience can there be to God or to Kings for Gods sake in such Religion B. C. 14. It is commonly obiected by States-men that it is no matter what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so that they be kept in awe by Iustice and by the sword Indeed for this world it were no matter at all for Religion if it were possible to doe Iustice and to keepe men in awe by the Sword In Militarie estates while the Sword is in the hand there is the lesse need of Religion and the greatest and most martiall estates that euer were haue beene willing to vse the Conscience and reuerence of some Religion or other to prepare their Subiects to obedience but in a peaceable gouernment such as all Christian kingdomes doe professe to be if the reines of Religion bee let loose the sword commonly is too weake and comes to late and is like enough to giue the day to the Rebell And seeing the last and strongest bond of iustice is an Oath which is a principall act of Religion and were but a mockerie if it were not for the punishment of Hell and the reward of Heauen it is vnpossible to execute iustice without the helpe of Religion and therefore the neglect and contempt of Religion hath euer beene and euer shal be the forerunner of destruction in all setled States whatsoeuer G. H. 14. Hauing now spent your powder and shot in discharging your three substantiall reasons and the Apologizing of the Powder-treason for the filling vp of your paper but to the abusing of his Maiesties leisure and patience you here begin a fresh with a solemne discourse of the necessitie of Religion for a well ordered Common-wealth vnder colour of meeting with an obiection of States-men that it matters not what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so they bee kept in awe by iustice and by the sword But these Statesmen I take to be of Machiauels sect who of what nation he was by birth and of what religion by profession wee are not ignorant The ancient Romans indeed being themselues Lords of the world became vassals to the Idoles of all nations by admitting the free vse of their diuerse Religions of them all holding that as it seemeth the most perfect Religion which refused none as false neither is the Turke much different from that opinion howbeit hee preferre his owne Religion before all others but all other States-men who are so conuersant in affaires of State as they neglect not Christanitie can not but hold the Christian religion alone admittable in Christian Common-wealthes Now as we grant in all States some Religion necessary and in Christian States onely the Christian admittable So with all we confesse an Oath to bee a principall acte of that Religion But how it is abused by Romish Catholikes for seruing their owne turnes by Dispensations by aequiuocations and Mentall Reseruations both Histories witnesse and wee haue had too great experience By which meanes that which indeede should be the surest and strongest band of truth iustice and as the Apostle speakes an end of all strife is become the matter of quarrell and a meere visard for iniustice and falshood to maske vnder and by the same meanes as the Romish Religion is growen odious to vs so for their sakes both ours and theirs going both vnder the common name of Christians is in that respect growen odious to the very Turkes who obserue an oath made by the name of their Mahomet more inuiolably then wee by the Name of CHRIST one to another as well appeared by our King Henry the third who being a great exactor vpon the poore Commons as euer was any king before him or since and thinking thereby to winne the people sooner to his deuotion most faithfully promised them once or twice and thereunto bound himselfe with a solemne oath both before the Clergie and Laitie to graunt vnto them the old liberties and Customes of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta perpetually to bee obserued whereupon a Quindecim was granted to the King but after the payment was sure the King trusting the Popes dispensation for a little money to be discharged of his oath and couenant went from that he had promised and solemnely sworne before In like manner the sayd King at another time being in neede of money signed himselfe with the crosse pretending and swearing deepely in the face of the whole Parliament that hee himselfe would goe in person against the Saracens but as soone as the money was fingred small care was taken for the performance of the oath being so put in head by certaine about him that hee needed not to passe of that periurie for so much as the Pope for an hundred pounds or two would quickly discharge him thereof as Matthew Parris reports it who liued at the same time and was often in Court with him this was then the account which by reason of the Popes easie dispensations Kings made of their oathes to their Subiects The like account by the same meanes did Charles the 9th of France and the Queene his mother make of their oath taken to the King of Nauarre the Prince of Condie the Admirall and the rest of the Protestant profession at what time his sisters marriage was made more red with their blood then his wine but this blood crying for vengeance himself at his death issued blood at all the passages of his bodie Neither did Subiects make any other reckoning of their oathes taken to their Kings
themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience vnto God and their kings G. H. 24. The Commons might haue beene disburdened of their Subsidies had those reuenues and treasures which came or might haue come to the Crowne by the downefall of monasteries bene imployed as they might haue bene the plates and wires of gold of Beckets onely shrine together with the pearles and precious stones of inestimable value filling two great chests But God so ordered the matter for their laying of sacrilegious hands as it may be thought vpon those tenths which by himselfe were consecrated to himselfe that neither it nor the rest prospered neither was the king thereby much inriched nor the Commons relieued it beeing like the dead flie in the boxe of oyntment or the Colloquintida in the Prophets pottage Now for the peoples liberty in making lawes at their own pleasure to liue as they listed it is a matter fondly surmised and published of you not promised by the State nor demanded or expected by them The Lawes Ecclesiasticall were in King Henries time and by his authority appoynted to be compiled and digested by a certaine company of Bishops and other diuines ioyned in Commission with Ciuill and Canon-Lawyers to the number of 32. but this worke being leâ—t imperfect by the death of that king was afterward finished in the dayes and by the command of his sonne Edward which my selfe haue seene though by the vntimely death of that king also it neuer yet receiued publike allowance And for other lawes as the world knoweth they neither could nor can make any without the consent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the approbation of the king And lastly how the lawes of your Church crossed their affections let their often and dangerous rebellions for the restoring of them testifie there beeing none in trueth more fitting to the humour of a natural minded man as may appeare by this that a man of no religion and like white paper or sponged tables apt to receiue any impression will sooner imbrace yours then any other in the world From this you digresse to their studying of the Scriptures that they might be able to confute confession satisfaction penance and to declaime against that tyranny of the Church whereby themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience to God and their king For their studying of the Scriptures it is indeede a great eye-sore to you because thereby your malice in withholding your followers from reading them and withall your burdensome traditions thrust vpon them for your owne honor and gaine but to their paine and grieuance are clearely discouered and discerned from that which before you call eternall trueth but to them nothing can bee more profitable or to their guides more comfortable so it bee done with reuerence and â—obriety and as our Preface to the Bishops Bible exhorts not so much to dispute and contradict as to learne and obey as being a practise which both our Sauiour himselfe and his Apostles and the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church specially S. Chrysostome in diuers homilies often and earnestly exhort their heares vnto And for the confutation of those poyntes you name I am of opinion and I thinke not without reason that many of our people are better able by Scriptures to confute them as they are now held and vsed amongst you then your greatest Bishops and Cardinals are from thence able to proue them of whom some haue not sticked to professe that they thought that time which they passed in reading the Scriptures to be of all other the most vnprofitably spent preferring Tullies Orations before Pauls Epistles and Aristotles Ethikes before Solomons Prouerbes B. C. 25. To the Clergiemen that would turne with the times beside the possibilitie of present preferment by the alteration was giuen shortly after leaue to marrie to purchase and to enioy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the laitie and what carnall minded Monke or Priest would not with might and maine keepe open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then to be in danger to forgoe so pleasing a coÌ„moditie Hence did arise a necessitie of speaking and writing against Vowes Vrginitie Pouertie Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austeriâ—ie of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a monasticall and Priestly conuersation G. H. 25. Little hope was there giuen for the present to the Church-men that yeelded to the King for matter of preferment since the Abbots and Priors were not onely turned out of doores but their houses rased and their goods and lands confiâ—cated And for the Bishops none of their places thereby fell voide they all Rochester onely excepted ioyntly concurring with the king in casting off the Romish yoke and for their marrying purchasing neither of theÌ„ were permitted during the reigne of king Henry who liued reigned somewhat aboue 14. yeres after the breach with Rome Howbeit if wee may credite Mr. Cambden an vnpartiall Antiquarie Churchmen were not forbidden mariage in England till the yere 1102. then Anselme Archbishop of Canterburie sayeth hee offered violence both to nature and to the Scriptures which he writes vpon occasion of one Ealphegus a Priest famous for his learning who was married and dwelt in the South part of Deuonshire And further he alledgeth the words of Henry of Huntindon touching that act of Anselme He forbadwiues to the English Priests being neuer before forbidden which to some seemed a thing very decent to others as dangerous least whiles they aimed to a puritie aboue their reach they might fall into horrible impurities to the dishonour of CHRISTS Name and their profession Those words of Cambden before quoted together with these of Huntindon by him alledged are commaunded to be rased by the Spanish Index But they might aswell haue rased those of theâ—I â—I in Platina auouching that hee saw great reason why Priests should be restrained of mariage but greater why it should be restored them or those of Cassander by that ouer rigorous and vnseasonable constitution speaking of restraint of marriage in Churchmen wee see much grieuous and abominable scandall to haue arisen in the Church or those of Mantuan touching S â— Hillary Bishop of Poictiers in France Non tibi progenies nocuit non obfuit vxor Legitimo coniuncta toro Or lastly those of the same Poet speaking of the father of Nazianzen Praesule Patre satus nam tunc idiura sinebant non horruit illâ Tempestate Deus Thalamos cunabula toedas And in another place of the father of Basil and Gregorie Nyssen Tutius esse volunt qua lex diuina sinebat Isse viâ veterumque sequi vestigia patrum Quorum vita fuit melior cum coniuge quam nunc Nostra sit exclusis Thalamis coniâ—gis vsu. And if marrying be allowed them I see no reason but they should withall be allowed purchasing as they are and alwayes haue
to wit Westminster Chester Peterborough Oxford Bristol and Gloucester whereof the fiue last are yet in being at which time hee also erected at Canterbury a Deane with 12. Prebends at Winchester another with 12. more at Worcester another with ten at Chester another with sixe at Peterborough another with sixe at Oxford another with eight at Ely another with eight at Gloucester another with sixe at Bristol another with sixe at Carlile another with foure at Durham another with twelue at Rochester another with sixe and lastly at Norwich another with sixe so that wee haue good reason to thinke he returned againe to the Church much out of the Abbey lands and if notwithstanding all this God blessed him not in his thriuing wee haue nothing else to answere but that of Salomon It is a snare to the man who deuoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make inquiry But in his wiuing hee so blessed him though in this too hee shewed himselfe a man and consequently subiect to humane passion and frailty that three of his children successiuely wore the Crown after him of which the first was renowmed for his vertue beyond his age and the last beyond her Sexe of the one and his mother it was written Phoenix Ianaiacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phoenices nullatulisse duas And to the other might bee applied Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens And though they all died without issue yet doth his honour still liue in theirs Henry the II. of France died in the vnitie of the Church of Rome yet three of his sonnes reigning after him left the Crown to a neighbour Prince as the children of Henry the VIII heere with vs did yet none that I haue met with hold him in that regard accursed of God and if in that respect God cursed Henry because hee renounced the pretended authoritie of the Church of Rome then should hee by vertue of that reason haue blessed Henries eldest daughter with issue who with great submission and deuotion reconciled her selfe to that Church and married to the most Catholike King and though the world were for a while so borne in hand yet in the end the great and solemne expectation thereof vanished into smoake Now that Henrie was wearie of his title of Supremacie before he died it appeares not and that hee wished to bee reconciled to the Pope which you call being in the Church againe is as vnlikely since no doubt is to bee made but vpon notice giuen of his Contrition and desire of Satisfaction hee might as easily haue beene absolued as wished it But certaine it is that hee wished it not if we may make coniecture of his wishes from those speeches which a little before his death hee deliuered to Mounsieur de Hannibault Lord Admirall of France and Ambassadour to the French king being then at Hampton Court in the moneth of August and in the yeere 1546. in the hearing of Cranmer Lord Archbishop of Canterburie concerning the reformation of Religion and afterwards more neere his death and more openly to Bruno Ambassador of Iohn Frederike Duke of Saxonie vnto whom the King gaue this answere in the hearing of these foure sufficient witnesses the Lord Seymer Earle of Hartford Lord Lisley then Admirall the Earle of Bedford Lord Priuie Seale and the Lord Paget That if the quarrell of the Duke of Saxonie were nothing else against the Emperour but for matter of Religion he should stand to it strongly and hee would take his part willing him not to doubt nor feare and with this answere dismissed him Besides the manner of his sonne and heire Apparent Prince Edwards education the qualitie and disposition of those persons whom he named as the principall ouerseers of his Will from which number hee excluded the Bishop of Winchester the most busie and forward instrument in those times for the maintenance of the Romish Religion though hee had once admitted him and was earnestly solicited by some of his bed chamber to readmit him are to mee so many euident demonstrations that hee was so farre from wishiug reconciliation with the Church of Rome that hee rather desired and intended if God had spared him life a while longer some more full and perfect reformation of Religon But the secret working of Gods holy prouidence which disposeth all things after his owne wisedome and purpose thought it good rather by taking that King away to reserue the accomplishment of that worke as he did the building of his Temple to Solomon to the peaceable time of his sonne Edward and Elizabeth his daughter whose hands were vndefiled with any blood and life vnspotted with any violence or crueltie Lastly not content to rippe vp the disgraces of his life you dogge him to his very graue bearing vs in hand that he was accursed of God in as much as hee wanted a Tombe which was the want also of Queene Mary his daughter But if the want of a Tombe be a token of Gods Curse vpon Henry then the hauing of it must consequently be a token of his blessing vpon Elizabeth whom notwithstanding you wrappe in the same Curse Nay how many of your Bishops of Rome then are Cursed of God of whom a number are not onely without Tombes but some in the first age of the Church by the fury of their persecutors and some in latter times by the malice of their Successors without Graues also Indeed wee reade of Dauid a man after Gods owne heart His Sepulchre is with vs vnto this day But of Moses a faithfull seruant in all the house of God No man knoweth of his Sepulchre vnto this day And yet in my remembrance we read it no were that either Dauid was more blessed of God for the one or Moses cursed for the other the heathen Poet could tell vs Coelo tegitur quinon habet vrnam And S. Augustine that these kinde of Monuments and Memorials are Solatia viuorum not suâ—sidia mortuorum comforts only for the liuing no helpes for the dead and many noble spirits may be of Catoes minde desirous rather that after their deaths it should be demaunded why they haue no statue erected to their memory then why they haue one This I speake onely to shew that had hee had no Tombe yet were it no great dishonor to him But if we may credite the last but not the worst compiler of the Historie of our Countrey hee was with great solemnitie buried at Windsor vnder a most costly and stately Tombe begun in copper and guilt but neuer finished In the inclosures of whose grates is curiously cast this Inscription Henricus Octauus Rex Angliae Franciae Dominus Hiberniae Fidei defensor And that it might appeare to posteritie how Artificiall and Magnificent this worke was intended he there sets downe the seuerall parcels and pieces of the Modell thereof as he found it described in a Manuscript receiued from Mr. Lancaster
one of the Heralds at Armes the title whereof was this The maner of the Tombe to be made for the Kings Grace at Windsor So that I cannot but woonder how either our Historiographer and our Herauld should be so much mistaken or which I rather thinke how Mr. Doctor so great a Polititian should be so sowly deceiued and so confidently leade others into the same errour I will conclude this Section with the conclusion of ourfamous Annalist touching this Prince Princeps Magnanimus in cuius maximo ingenio inerant confuso quodam temperamento virtutes magnae vitia non minora A stout and gallant Prince he was in whose braue spirit a man might obserue blended and tempered together by a rare kinde of mixture great vertues and no lessevices But had he honoured the See Apostolike as much at last as hee did at first his vices had beene buried in silence and his vertues highly extolled whereas now by opposing himselfe against it his vertues are suppressed and his vices racked vpon tenterhookes and set vpon the Stage which course were enough to make the best Princes nay the best men to appeare monsters to the world B. C. 32. Queene ELIZABETH although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first comming to the Crowne shee would haue the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set downe that shee might both by English Seruice satisfie the Commons who were greedie of alteration and by Catholike opinions gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike and all her life long she caried herselfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and hauing both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement And therefore after she was prouoked by the Excommunication of Pius Quintus shee did suffer such Lawes to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome This course seemed in policie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henrie the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland G. H. 32. From Henry the father you descend to Elizabeth the daughter as you call her of Schisme howbeit she were indeed the Nursing mother of the Church And for the Common prayer Booke which she allowed it was the same with very litle alteration which was current by publike authority during the reigne of her brother King Edward So that it was no inuention of hers to satisfie the Commons as you falfly suggest but an imitation of her renowned brother for the satisfying of her owne conscience and the furtherance of the seruice of God in a knowen language You adde that by Catholike opinions she gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would continue a Catholike wheras the world knowes that her mother was otherwise affected being brought vp in France vnder the Lady Margret Alençon a principal fauouresse of the Protestant religion there after shee had a while waited vpon Q. Mary yonger sister of king Henry the VIII and wife to Lewes the XIII the French king and as long vpon Claudia sister to the Guise and wife to Francis the first and in regard she was this way affected the holy maide of Kent was by Clergie men suborned to prophecie against her and as one writes it seemeth very plaine that the crimes supposed against her were matters contriued by the Pope and his instruments her chiefest enemies none of them all that were accused in the same treason confessing the acte euen vnto death but haue left direct testimonies in writing to the contrary one meane groome excepted namely Marke Smeton who made confession vpon some promise of life belike but was executed before he was aware or had time to recall what he had said Now the mother being thus affected and that before king Henry cast his affection towards her or disaffected Rome in likelyhood the daughter had beene that way also affected whether the breach with Rome by her mothers mariage had bene made or no. It was S. Pauls argument to Timothie that the faith first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and therefore he was well perswaded of him also He argues not from his father and his grandfather but from his mother and his grandmother so may we by the same reason from the faith which dwelt in the mother of Queene Elizabeth make some coniecture of her faith that it was not different from her mothers But her education vnder Roger Ascham who was himselfe that way affected to cōtinue her so read vnto her among other authors for her diuinity exercise Melancthons common places will yet farther cleare this matter but the suspition cast vpon her though most vniustly as hauing a finger in Wyats conspiracy and Stories damnable aduise to leaue lopping at the branches and strike at the roote will put it out of doubt and doubtlesse as in that regard shee suffered much hardenesse during the raigne of her sister so had shee not suruiued to haue worne the Crowne had not God in his prouidence mooued the heart of the Spaniard to preserue her aliue not so much out of any loue of her person or pittie of her ruefull estate as out of reason of state lest she being taken out of the way and her sister dying as she did without issue the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland might in time be vnited and annexed to the Crowne of France by meanes of the Lady Mary Queene of Scotland next heire in right after Queene Elizabeth then affianced to Francis Dolphin of France and heire apparent to Henry the second the French King then which the Spaniards thought nothing could happen more disasterous to their affectation of greatnesse Besides all this being as she was the miracle of her sexe and ranke for wit and learning it is not improbable that as the knowledge of the Arts and Languages and the light of the Gospell brake forth both together so in her person the one might haue prepared and as it were beaten out a way for the entrance of the other though neither her Mother had beene that way affected nor her Father made any breach as wee see his Maiestie that now is to the glory of God and our great comfort though his Father were slaine before his birth and his Mother liued and died in that Religion in which shee was brought vp yet by the excellencie of his naturall parts and learning but especially by the working of Gods holy spirit hath attained to such a light of Religion that he hath not only discouered the trueth but chosen and professed it being discouered and with his Penne maintained and defended that which he professeth True indeede it is that Queene Elizabeth during the raigne of her sister tender both by sexe
reason The like befell Iohn de la Poole designed by Richard the third after the death of his owne sonne to bee his Successour himselfe being alwayes euen in that respect suspected of Henry the VII till at last he was slaine and his brother vnder Henry the VIII beheaded These reasons might mooue her Maiestie for the stopping of that declaration not the feare of his Maiesties right but the care of preseruing it being sufficiently proclaimed in his blood and discent Whatsoeuer it were since his Maiestie who had the neerest interest in that errand hath bene content thus graciously to passe it ouer it cannot but argue want both of wisdome and charitie in Mr. Doctor thus vnseasonably and maliciously to reuiue it Lastly God of purpose no doubt raised vp his Maiestie to crosse the worldly and diuelish pretence of Rome and to perpetuate the life of that Religion which you call Schisme and I make no doubt but if King Henry the VII had found it left by his predecessor in the state that his Maiestie did hee would in his wisedome haue left it to his Successor as hee is like to doe and I am the rather induced to thinke so because in the first yeere of his raigne the Pope hauing excommunicated all such persons as had bought allome of the Florentines by his permission if not command it was resolued by all the Iudges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to bee put in Execution within the Realme of England and in the same yeere hee suffered sharpe lawes to be made by the Parliament to which himselfe gaue being by his Royall assent for the reformation of his Clergie then growen very dissolute and in the eleuenth yere of his raigne a Statute was enacted that though by the Ecclesiasticall Lawes allowed within this Realme a Priest cannot haue two Benefices nor a bastard be a Priest yet it should be lawfull for the King to dispence with both of these as being mala prohibita but not mala per se all which argues that they then held the King to bee personam mixtam as it was declared in the tenth yeere of his reigne that is a person mixt because hee hath both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall iurisdiction vnited in his person B. C. 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serue you to none other vse at all for your title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to further the vnity of the Church of Christ. Truely those your most famous and renowned ancestours that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them vpon the Church of CHRIST and did curse and execrate those that should diminish and take them away againe did not thinke so nor finde it so And I would to God your Maiesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soueraigne Lord All our bodies and our goods are at your command but our soules as they belong not to your charge but as by way of protection in Catholike religion so they cannot increase your honour and authority but in a due subordination vnto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt iuris diuini It was essentiall to Heathen Emperours to bee Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselues authors of their owne religion But among Christians where Religion comes from CHRIST who was no worldy Emperour though aboue them all the spirituaâ— and temporall authority haue two beginnings and therefore two Supremes who if they bee subordinate doe vphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority oppose the spirituall it destroyeth it selfe and dishonoureth him from whom the spirituall authority is deriued Heresie doth naturally spread it selfe like a caâ—kâ—r and needes little helpe to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a meane Prince to be a great man amongst heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great king to gouerne them When I haue sometimes obserued how hardly your Maiesty could effect your most reasonable desires amongst those that stand most vpon your Supremacy I haue bene bold to bee angry but durst say nothing onely I did with my selfe resolue for certaine that the keyes were wont to doe the Crowne more seruice when they were in the armes of the miter then they can doe now they are tyed together with the scepter and that your title in spirituall affaires doth but serue other mens turnes and not your owne G. H. 34. Hauing passed your supposed remoouall of all opposition both in doctrine and State thereby to make a readier way to your imaginary reconciliation you now come to an endeuour of clearing such obiections as you conceiued would offer themselues whereof the first is that the religion established which you call schisme serues to increase his Maiesties authoritie and wealth and therefore it cannot stand with his honour to further the vnity of the Church of CHRIST Indeed it must be confessed and cannot bee denied that the religion established yeelds his Maiestie the authority due vnto him which is more then the Romish yeelds to the Soueraigne Princes of her profession and yet no more then CHRIST and his Apostles in practise yeelded and in precept command And yet withall it cannot be denied but some of his Maiesties ancestours partly through the insensible incrochment of some ambitious Popes and partly through the neglect of some weake kings did part indeed with some of their authority to bestow it vpon that Church to which you intitle Christ yet that they reserued to themselues a power euen in Ecclesiasticall causes I haue already made sufficiently to appeare in mine answere to the 16 section of the first chapter and in diuers other places to which I wil presume to adde that which his Maiesty hath published to the world touching this very point in his Premonition to all Christian Princes and States My Predecessors ye see of this kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnesse spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes obedience to theirs euen in Church matters so farre were they then from acknowledging the Pope their temporall Superiour or yet from doubting that their owne Church men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Acte of Parliament in King Richard the II. his time whereby it was prohibited that none should procure â— benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the kings protection And thus may ye see that what those kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleared my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of nouelty in me should
of these were ioyned in Ely and Samuel and the other two in Moses The name of Presbyter Iohn seemes to import that they haue beene or should bee Priests and at this day the Kings of Malabar in the East Indies are all of them Bramenes that is Priests whereby it appeares that the Office of a King and a Priest are not incompatible in the same person but as they are not incompatible so neither among the Heathen was the Priest-hood essentially annexed to the Regall power as M. Doctor affirmeth Romulus indeed ioyned them but Numa disioyned them and Augustus againe reioyned them aswell for the safetie as the honour of the Emperour yet not so but that they might and afterwards did fall asunder Indeede the Bishop of Rome now as he succeedes those Emperours in place so doth he in that chalenge assuming to himselfe but in another sense then hee spake it whose Successour hee pretends himselfe Regale Sacerdotium a royall Priest-hood And being Christs Vicar he cannot for shame take to himselfe the title of Emperour or King but a power aboue them all as you truely tell vs CHRIST had but to none other purpose as I conceaue but from him to deriue it to his Vicar he being not only that Spirituall man who iudgeth all things himselfe being iudged of none by which hee is inabled to depose Princes but a Spirituall Prince himselfe which is the most fauourable construction that possibly can be giuen of those words Hunc vnum super omnes Gentes omnia regna principem constituit where Christ vnto whom all power was giuen both in heauen and earth is made to make the Bishop of Rome his Vicar the Soueraigne Lord and graund Commander of all the Nations and Kingdomes in the world applying that as properly meant of himselfe which was figuratiuely spoken to the Prophet I haue this day set thee ouer the nations and ouer the Kingdomes to roote out to pull downe to destroy to ouerthrow to build and to plant but in that hee makes himselfe a Prince he goes beyond euen the literall Commission of the Prophet The vse hath beene that the Christian Emperours at their Coronation should administer to the Pope in place of Subdeacon should put on a Surplis be admitted as Canonicks not onely of S. Peters Church in Rome but of St. Iohn Laterane which argues their acknowledgement of some Ecclesiasticall power to haue beene in them Nay Maximilian the first a Catholike Emperour went so farre as to attempt the vniting of the Papacie to the Empire The Pope neuer yet attempted so much in open shew and plaine termes but hath effected no lesse nay more indeede and in trueth in making the Papacie the Substantiue and the Empire the Adiectiue But among Christians saith our Dr. the Spirituall and Temporall authoritie haue two beginnings as if hee who gaue his Apostles Commission to preach the Gospel did not also proclaime in the eight of the Prouerbes By me Kings reigne it is there deliuered in the person of wisedome by which no doubt is to be vnderstood the second person in Trinitie the wisedome of the Father It may be his meaning is that the Spirituall authority is from the good God and the Temporall from the euill god distinguishing as the Manicheans did Or that the Spirituall is from God and the Temporall from the people or the Spirituall from Christ and the Temporall from Antichrist Howsoeuer from a double beginning he inferres a double Supremacie whereas to speake properly that is onely Supreme which giues beginning and not that which receiues howbeit in themselues since the institution of the Leuiticall Law wee must confesse them distinct and independant the Priest depending on the Prince in regard of externall coactiue iurisdiction but not of inward vocation or outward ordination Power of the keyes of administring the Sacraments of preaching the Word in himselfe hee hath not and consequently cannot confer it vpon others and therefore was Saul reproued by Samuel for sacrificing a burnt offering and Vzziah plagued with leprosie for burning incense in the Temple Yet by special dispensation Moses the Supreme ciuil Magistrate consecrated Aaron the high Priest and is in regarde of preheminence termed his god and Iehoshaphat King of Iudah by his ordinary power gaue instructions aswel to the Priests as to the Iudges how to administer their seuerall charges himselfe being as it were the head and these two as his two eyes or armes Indeed before the Kingdome was erected I take the high Priest and the chiefe Iudge among the Israelites to haue bene as two heads without any appeale either from each to other or to any Superior But when once they had a King appeales lay to him from both Thus did Saint Paul appeale from the high Priest of his owne Nation to Caesar though an Heathen Emperour and from him was there no appeale at all So that the Spirituall authoritie was then subordinate to the Temporall but when once it began to interpose it selfe in Temporall affaires and within a while after to oppose it selfe against the Temporall power it made a ready way to the destruction of both B. C. 35. As for your wealth it is true that the Crowne hath more pence payed vnto it now then in the Catholike times it had but it hath neuer the more wealth It is but the gaine of the tellers to haue more money True wealth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is the richest Prince that hath meanes to maintaine the greatest armie and to doe most magnificent workes both in warre and in peace wherin the facts of your Catholike ancestors doe appeare vpon good Record your Maiesties are but yet hoped for and if euer you haue the helpe of Catholike Religion to assist you I hope you shall excell them all otherwise I assure my selfe the Schisme will doe what it can to make you poore and then complaine that you are not rich It was indeed one of the maine pretenses in the statutes of Henry the VIII that the Schisme might inrich the King and maintaine his warres but God did not blesse it for notwithstanding all the Church lands and goods and tenths and fruits and premuniries King Henry the VIII was faine to abase his coyne more then once and yet he died not so rich as his Catholike father left him And since his time what is become of the Court of Augmentation what benefit doe you receiue of all the Church lands more then your Progenitors did when they were in the hands of the Clergie what ease haue your Subiects of Subsidies thereby or in briefe how much your Coffers are inriched you may be pleased to bee informed by those that haue to doe in those offices and can readily giue you an account for mine owne part I haue diligently read ouer the Statutes made by Henry the VIII and doe finde that
and that in as honourable and publike a forme of triall as euer was vsed in this kingdome and although as his Maiesty himselfe hath well obserued the onely reason they gaue for plotting so hainous an attempt was the zeale they caried to the Romish Religion yet were neuer any other of that profession the worse vsed for that cause as by his Maiesties gracious Proclamation immediately after the discouery of the said fact doth plainely appeare onely at the next sitting down againe of the Parliament were there Lawes made enacting some such orders as were thought fit for the preuenting the like mischiefe in time to come amongst which a forme of oath was framed to bee taken by his subiects whereby they should make a cleare profession of their resolution faithfully to persist in their obedience according to their naturall allegeance to the end a separation might bee made betweene so many of his Maiesties Subiects who although they were otherwise Popishly affected yet retained in their hearts the print of their naturall Allegeance to their Soueraigne and those who being caried away with the like fanaticall zeale that the Powder-traitours were could not containe themselues within the bounds of their naturall Allegeance but thought diuersitie of Religion a safe pretext for all kinde of Treasons and Rebellions against their Soueraigne Which godly and wise intent God blessed with successe accordingly for very many Subiects that were Popishly affected aswell Priests as Laickes did freely take the same oath whereby they both gaue his Maiestie occasion to thinke the better of their fidelitie and likewise freed themselues of that heauie slaunder that although they were Fellow-professours of one Religion with the Powder-traitors yet were they not ioyned with them in treasonaâ—le courses against their Soueraigne whereby all quietly minded Papists were put out of despaire and his Maiestie gaue good proofe that hee intended no persecution against them for conscience sake but onely desired to be secured of them for ciuill obedience which for conscience sake they were bound to performe I vse his Maiesties very words because he is best able to expresse himselfe and I know not how to expresse my selfe better nor by many degrees so well These were the greatest effects of his Maiesties anger vpon occasion of the Powder-treason which notwithstanding to shew your Rhetorike you compare to a storme vpon the Sea raising vp the billowes to the height making him inexorable impatient of any equall hearing chiding and punishing vntill he were weary wheras if his Maiâ—stie had but giuen way to the fury of the multitude the chiefe offenders no doubt had beene torne in pieces before they could haue come to the place of execution or of triall and if the like monstrous and neuer heard of offence had beene committed by Protestants for their Religions sake in other countries the body of that profession had suffered for it Indeed his Maiestie had sufficient occasion giuen that his wrath should haue beene as the roaring of a Lyon which is the Herauld of death but bearing the Image of God and being the Vicegerent of God on earth nay stiled God by God himselfe his mercy so triâ—mphed against his iustice that he seemed not to be mooued as the hainousnes of so horrible a fact required vntill his Holinesse by his two Breues and Cardinall Bellarmine by his Letter to the Arch-priest throughly awakened him they thereby disswading his Subiects from taking that most reasonable Oath of Allegeance and checking the Arch-priest for taking it to these his Maiestie in his booke Intituled Triplici nodo triplex cuneus or an Apologie for the oth of Allegeance vouchsafed with his owne Penne to frame a full and quicke answere aswell for the satisfaction of scrupulous consciences as for the iustifying of his owne proceedings to which the Cardinal vnder the name of Tortus makes his reply and hauing on his visarde dealt with his Maiestie at his pleasure in such termes as neither became a Churchman to giue nor a Prince to take whereupon his Maiestie being nowe somewhat warmed once againe tooke his quill in hand and wrote that excellent Premonition to the Monarchs and free States of Christendome as the Prince of Aurange did his Apologie to the States of the Netherlands hauing his head proscribed by Phillip the second King of Spaine for the summe of 25000. Crownes wherein hee not onely refutes Bellarmines reply but by a large Confession of his Faith cleareth himselfe from all imputation of Heresie and with all most iudiciously setteth downe the reasons of his opinion why he cannot but conceaue the Bishop of Rome to be Antichrist To this the Cardinall againe reioyneth somewhat more manerly in shew but indeed no whit lesse saucily then in his former discourse and how many Hell-hounds haue followed vpon the same sent the world to well knoweth besides it is not vnknowen how some of the plotters or at leastwise abettors in that intended Tragedy haue their Apologies published from Rome and others their protection in Rome nay the doctrine which gaue life to that and giues way to the like attempt is as violently maintained by the Romish Doctors as euer beside infinite other writers witnes Beaumanoirs expostulatory defence of Suarez against Seruius expository coÌ„plaint as also Cardinal Perrons and his fellow Prelates late proceedings in France together with his Holinesse benedictioÌ„ for that speciall peece of seruice both the Cardinal in his oration the Pope in his Letter labouring to disgace our Church State with what assurance then can this Maiesty ioyne hands with Rome since though the Powder be remoued froÌ„ vnder the Parliament house yet they still prepare new matter for the like Blow and no doubt but Paulus V. would be as ready to make his Oration in Conclaue in commendation of it being once acted as Sixtus Quintus was in commending that mortall blow giuen Henry the thirde of France by a Friar Iacobin which that it may the rather appeare I will hereunto annexe the Translation of his Letter to Cardinall Perron and the other French Prelates assembled in Parliament the Originall it selfe is but a barbarous Papall stile and therefore it cannot be expected but the Translation should be sutable the Letter was written vpon occasion of a Bill passed in the Lower-house crossing the Popes pretended Power in Deposing and Murthering Princes and crossed by the Clergie Pope Paul the fifth VEnerable Brother our beloued Son and likewise Venerable Brethren and beloued Sonnes greeting and Apostolicall benediction The excesse of boldnesse wherby some as we haue heard in the generall assembly there held in the 2. of Ian. haue endeuoured to violate the sacred authority of the Apostolike See hath so troubled our minde that were we not comforted by the firme confidence wee haue in the singular pietie and prudence of our dearest children King Lewis and Queene Mary his mother whom we vnderstand to haue been carefull to represse so vnaduised an attempt and in the admirable zeale
themselues might haue liued and died in the seruice of God without posteritie and haue helped to maintaine the rest of their families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and prouision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who laboureth to discharge his payments hath little or nothing left at theyeres end to lay vp for his children that increase grow vpon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to bee had when the Clergie had a great part of the Land in their hands who had no neede to raise the Rents themselues and did what they could to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefite to the Commons so that whereas ignorant men carried with enuie against the Clergie are wont to obiect the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their prouisions they speake therein as much against themselues as is possible for the greater the number is of such men as be mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the land is of such as can haue no proprietie in them the better is the prouision of the Commons for themselues can haue no more then their food and their regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in hospitalitie and reliefe to their neighbours or is kept in a liuing Exchequer for the seruice of the Prince and Countrey in time of necessitie so that the Commons doe gaine no wealth at all but rather doe lose much by the Schisme G. H. 41. You proceede and assure the Commons that our separation from Rome makes much against their wealth and libertie for proofe whereof you beginne with the Puritan vnthrift who lookes for the ouerthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hoping to haue his share in them Now I denie not but some such vnthrifts there may bee shrouding themselues vnder the vizard of those whome you call Puritans but their power is not so great God bee thanked as wee neede feare them nor I hope shall bee whiles his Maiestie and his posterity sway the Scepter who is so farre from pulling them downe or giuing any way vnto it that hee hath not onely to his immortall fame bound his hands from withdrawing any thing from them but restored them in Scotland and both often and openly professed No Bishop no King and as for them which looke for that ouerthrow let their eyes drop out of their sockets with looking and the yong rauens deuoure them I haue heard of a platforme of our Church gouernment deuised by Parsons if the Pope should once againe recouer his footing amongst vs in which one especiall piece of his proiect is the pulling downe of the Bishopricks Churches Cathedrall that his Holinesse and the Padres may bee all in all so that the Iesuites may most properly bee termed those Puritan vnthrifts And I make no doubt but if his Holinesse could dispence with those who withhold the Tenths of the Church he might as well dispence with the pulling downe of Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches Now for those honest Protestants who for matter of religion could be content it were as it was conditionally themselues might receiue more benefit their heads may bee in England but sure their hearts are in Rome deceiuing themselues aswell in vndervalewing the benefit they haue as in expecting that they haue not nor are euer like to haue the faire pretexts and promises made them from Rome being like the Apothecaries boxes haâ—â—ng Catholicon set on their front in capitall letters as if they conteined a soueraigne medicine for all diseases but within are full of deadly poison or like the apples of Sodome which are to looke to beautifull buâ— being touched onely with the finger presently are turned into dust The first apple you present the Commons if they yeeld to the reentertaining of Popish religion is increase of wealth But before we goe any farther in the triall of this point I shall desire all ingenuous Papists rightly to informe both themselues and others what the two Monkes Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster haue left vpon record touching the Bishop of Romes most intolerable exactions in this kingdome whiles his authority here preuailed and then to iudge indifferently whether by submitting our neckes to that yoke which our fathers were not able to beare it be likely the wealth of our land should be increased That which one of the Popes pronounced touching our Countrey was doubtlesse the opinion of them all I speake of latter times Verè hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia verè puteus inexhaustus est vbi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri England is our Paradise of pleasure a well neuer to bee drawne drie and where much abounds much may be taken It was the speach of Innocent the IV. reported by Maâ—thew Paris anno 1245. about which time S. Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury vndertooke a voyage to Rome to complaine of the great vexations and extortions offered the Clergie and people by Caâ—dinall Otho his Legate who hiding himselfe in the tower of Ousnie Abbey for feare of a tumult of the Schollers of Oxford they termed him Vsurer Simonist rent-racker money-thirster peruerter of the King subuerter of the kingdome enriching strangers with the spoiles of the English but Edmund returning home without successe in his complaint and weary of his life in England by reason that hee could not redresse the Popes oppressions made choise of a voluntary banishment at Pountney in France where hee died with the honour and opinion of a Saint Not long after his Holinesse desirous to see England caused his Cardinals to write their letters to the King that it would be a thing tending much to his honour and safety and to his kingdomes immortall glory to enioy the Lord Popes presence who did long to view the rarities of Westminster and the riches of London but the Kings Counsell told him plainely that the Romane rapines and simonies had enough stained the English puritie though the Pope himselfe came not personally to spoile and prey vpon the wealth of this Church and kingdome the like deniall of entrance hee had found both in France and Arragon it being said that the Pope was like a mouse in a sachell or a snake in ones bosome who but ill repay their hosts for their lodging and the infamies of his Court deserued none other whose filth saith our Monke sent foorth a steame and stench as high as the very cloudes These and worse were the effects of the Bishop of Romes vsurpation here in England by imposing continuall taxes and tallages being sometimes the tenth sometimes the fifteenth sometimes the third sometimes the moity of all the goods both of the Clergie and Laity vnder colour of maintaining the Popes holy warres against the Emperour and the Greeke Church who were then
lawfull to the Confessor to publish that which he heard in confession but none saith hee of those holy Fathers euer decreed that constitution of Ecclesiasticall discipline with such strictnesse as thereby to make the Law of God of none effect They knew well enough that if the case so stood as the Law of the Church enioyned silence and the law of God vtterance wee should rather obey God then man They knew well enough that Dauid is commended of the Sonne of God to whom properly belongs the interpretation of the lawe himselfe being the author of it for the eating of the Shew-bread which otherwise was not lawfull saith Christ for him to eate rather then hee would suffer himselfe to starue with hunger To like effect is that which my Lord of Ely hath in his last booke against Bellarmine Let that reuerence which is due to that seale be preserued inuiolate but towards penitents not wilfull proceeders in thier mischieuous plots neither is that saith hee the seale of God and CHRIST but of Satan and Antichrist with which so horrible villanies are masked But will Mr. Doctor say these are but the opinions of priuate men I demaund the authority of your Church for the seale of secresie but if he had â—in as skilful in the decrees Canons of our Church as he would beare vs in hand he was he would surely haue forborne that demaund the 113. Can. of those which were agreed vpon in Conuocation anno 160â— ratified by his Maiesties royal assent concluding thus Prouided alwayes that if any man confesse his secret hidden sins to the Minister for the vnburthening of his conscience and to receiue spirituall consolation and ease of mind from him wee doe not any way binde the said Minister by this our Constitution but doe straightly charge and admonish him that he do not at any time reueale and make knowen to any person whatsoeuer any crime or offence so committed to his trust secrecie except they be such crimes as by the Lawes of this Realme his owne life may be called into question for concealing them vnder paine of irregularitie So that neither is Mr. Doctors Assertion true that the people with vs are freed from the possiâ—ility of Confessing though they are from the necessitie nor his reason because wee haue taken away the seale of secrecie the abuse being onely by vs remouâ—d but the vse aswell by publike authoritie as priuate opinions retained and maintained But to conclude this point the libertie which the people haue gained by separation from Rome stands not so much in forbearance of Confession rightly vsed as in that libertie wherewith CHRIST hath made them free for if the sonne haue made them free then are they free indeed if they intangle not themselues againe with the yoke of bondage my counsell is that which the Apostle there aduiseth Stand fast and to like effect though in another place and case Art thou free seeke not to bee bound and as many as walke according to this rule peace shall bee vponthem and mercie and vpon the Israel of God B. C. 43. As for the libertie of making Lawes in Church-matters the common Lawyer may perhaps make an aduantage of it and threfore greatly stand vpon it but to the Common people it is no pleasure at all but rather a great burden for the great multitude of Statutes which haue been made since the Schisme which are more then fiue times so many that euer were made before since the name of Parliament was in England hath caused also an infinite number of Lawyers all which must liue by the Commons and raise new families which cannot bee done without the decay of the old and if the Canon of the Church and Courts of Confession were in requâ—st the Lawyers market would soone bee marred and therefore most of your Lawyers in this point are Puritans and doe still furnish the Parliament with grieuances against the Clergie as knowing very well that their owne glory came at the first from the Court Infidel and therefore cannot stand with the authoritie of the Church which came at the first from the Court Christian I speake not against the anciâ—nt lawes of England which since King Ethelberts time were all Catholike nor against the honest Lawyers of England I know many and honour all good men among them and doe looke for better times by the learning wisedome and moderation of the chiefest But I am verely perswaded that the pretended liberties of the Commons to make Lawes in matter of Religion doth burden the Common-wealth and doth trouble and preiudice your Maiestie and pleasure none at all but the Puritan and petti-fogging Lawyer that would faine fetch the antiquity of his Common Law from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert So that whether wee respect the spirituall instruction and comfort or the temporall wealth and libertie of the Commons of England if the Puritan Preacher and the Puritan Lawyer who both seeke the ouerthrowe of the Church and deceiue and consume the people would let them alone there would quickely appeare no reason of their state at all why they should hate the Catholike Church that is so comfortable and beneficiall vnto them or maintaine the Schisme that with sugred speaches and counterfeit faces doth so much abuse them G. H. 4â— The next priuiledge which you pretend to the Commons is the liberty of making Lawes in Church-matters as if they could make lawes without the consent of the Lords both Spirituall and Temporall or they all without the royall assent of his Maiestie and for the multitude of Statutes which you speake of the multitude of erroneous opinions deuilish practises from Rome haue caused a great part of them and the malice both of the deuil as knowing his time to be but short and of men in this last and worst age of the world generally increasing must needes giue occasion to more lawes Hee that shall looke into the bodie of the ciuill law may find that those lawes multiplied faster from Constantines time to the ende of Iustinians which was about 200. yeere then in foure nay in fiue hundred yeeres before though the one were vnder a Christian gouernement and the other vnder an heathenish whâ— tooke their beginnings as wee knowe onely from the lawes of the twelue tables which were brought out of Greece Did not God himselfe besides those twelue precepts grounded vpon the law of nature adde many lawes therunto for the gouernement of his Church and that which hee did by the Ministry of Moses vnto that speciall people the same power hath hee left to the gouernours of particular Churches conditionally all their lawes bee conformable or at leastwise not repugnant vnto his law the rule and square of all humane lawes how hath the Canon law it selfe to which Mr. Doctors drift is wholly to resubmit vs in Church gouernement growen vp to a great bulke and massie bodie and
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did
him whereas wee euery where teach with S. Peter that as noe prophecie-in the Scripture is of priuate motion so neither is it of priuate interpretation the originall word signifies both Wee cannot take from any Christian man in expouÌ„ding of Scripture a iudgement of discretion in weighing the drift of the Text and conferring it with other passages of like nature though to the guides of the Church and Pastours of mens soules we reserue the iudgement of direction but the iudgement of iurisdiction to the representatiue Church it selfe assembled in Synode for as the spirits of the people are in this case subiect to the Prophets who sit in Moses chaire so the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets if not to conuince the conscience at leastwise to impose silence for God is not the authour of confusion but of peace and they which thinke otherwise for mine owne part I thinke of them that the way of peace they haue not knowen I will conclude this point with his Maiesties most graue and godly aduice When ye reade the Scripture reade it with a sanctified and chaste heart admire reuerently such obscure plases as yee vnderstand not blaming onely your owne capacitie reade with delight the plaine places and studie carefully to vnderstand those that are somewhat difficile presse to bee a good Textuary for the Scripture is â—euer the best interpreter of it selfe but presse not curiously to seeke out farther then is contained therein for that were ouer vnmannerly a presumption to striue to bee further vpon Gods secrets then hee hath will bee for what hee thought needefull for vs to know that hath hee reuealed there and delight most in reading such parts of the Scripture as may best serue for your instruction in your calling reiecting foolish curiosities vpon Genealogies and contentions which are but vaine and profit not as Paul saith If these then bee the opinions of the Church of England which you call Caluinisme maintained aswell by the pens as the tongues of those Church-men who sit at the Sterne and in the most eminent places of the Church there will easily appeare a reason to the Parliament if it be demanded why so necessary a partie as the Clergie should at leastwise peaceably enioy that allowance which they haue allotted by Gods ordinance the piety of deuout mindes and the ancient constitutions of the Realme and sure wee are that a great deale lesse reason there is of maintaining so chargeable a Clergie in the Romane Hierarchie where the Popes plenary Indulgence may in a trice effectuate that about which they make so much a doe But at length the Asses eares appeare through the Lions skinne before he haue told vs in generall that those opinions forged for the most part out of his owne braine were too much faâ—ored maintained by Clergie men themselues here he comes at length to open his splene tels vs in plaine termes that the Clergie men he meanes are such who can be content to be Lords and to go in Rochets being indeed the greatest enemies of the Clergie now had the same men who long since did smell his hypocrisie and inclination toward Rome fauoured Dr. Cariers Popish doctrine and designes or endeuoured to haue put him in a Rochet and to haue made him a Lord whereof he thought himselfe worthy though no man else did they had doubtlesse bene in his account the Clergies best friends but for that they discouered and discountenanced his slie purposes and practises they are now become the greatest enemies the Clergie hath they are therefore become enemies because they tell the trueth yet whatsoeuer they are to the Clergie whome they loue and tender as their brethren sure I am they haue proued themselues more loyall to his Maiestie and more faithfull to the State more diligent in their calling and more vnblameable in their wayes then the accuser it being a thing full of commiseration and compassion to see that by these false and wicked suggestions of mutinous and discontented persons the deuil the father of these and all other lies doth daily take possession of the soules of some of his Maiesties subiects both of the Nobles and Commons But another sort of Clergie men you say there are good schollers and temperate men who cannot but in their iudgment approue the trueth of the Catholike religion These that you may the better satisfie you desire two things and by way of counterchange or retribution promise three hauing assurance as you pretend from some of the greatest The first thing you desire is no lesse then the Bishop of Româ—s Supremacie in England which you vaile vnder the title of the subordination of the Church of Canterbury vnto that Church by whose authority all other Churches in England at first were and still are subordinate vnto Canterbury Wheâ—ther Rome may properly be called the mother Church of England I haue already in another place considered but vndoubtedly as the case now stands she being become vnto vs worse then a stepmother we cannot in common reason entertaine vnâ—on with her much lesse acknowledge subiâ—ction vnto her for shall we thinke that the head of the Papacie being in the body of Poperie will bee long behind no no if that one poâ—nt were once yeelded vnto all the rest controuersed betweene vs and them would quickly follow after as a necessarie traine The Frier in Chaucer would haue nothing be killed for his sake only he desired the liuer of the capon and the braine of the pig So the Pope would bee contented there should bee no innouation in England vpon condition his Supremacie and the Masseâ— the second thing you desire were readmitted vpon which two in a manner the whole frame of Poperie is built and therefore in the reformed Churches of France not without good reason in my iudgment such as forsake the fellowship of the Church of Rome and betake themselues to their profession are bound before they bee admitted into their society publikely in the Congregation as to renounce the errours of that Church in generall so in speciall and by name to abiure these two The vsurped authority of the Bishop of Rome and the â—dolatry of the Masse as may appeare in the late declaration of the admittance of the Earle of Candale into their Church in Ianuary last he being sonne and heire to the Duke d'Espernon a chiefe Patron of the Iesuits and their faction and the Lord himselfe as he is stiled in the declaration printed at Rochel 1616 Prince of Busch Duke and Peere of France gouernour and Lieutenant generall for the king in the Prouinces of Xaintongâ— Aâ—goulmois high and low Limosin principall gentleman of the kings chamber in this declaration he also protesteth before God the searcher of hearts and iudge of soules that his change proceeded not from the motions of flâ—sh and blood oâ— from worldly respects but from the meere sencâ— of consâ—ience But to returâ—e to our purpose the latter of
said for your deliuerance from thence but that you must presently iumpe into heauen I durst warrant the Iesuits among whom you died did not esteem you such a Saint Indeed Castellanus who made the funerall oration vpon Francis the 1. the French King was excepted against and accused by the Sorbonists for saying That he doubted not but the Kings soule was in heauen but his purgation was made by Mendoza that he thought he called by Purgatorie in passing but being as he was of a stirring disposition hee made no stay there but I thinke M. Doctor who offers to vndertake the iustifying of all Romish doctrine was not of this opinion We teach with S. Iohn that Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours But M. Doctor should haue remembred that the Church of Rome teacheth with Virgil whose authority Bellarmine solemnly quoteth to that purpose That the soules of the most iust except they die by Martyrdome or presently after Baptisme or doe some notable Meritorious worke as for the purpose the killing of a King whom that Church shall iudge a Tyrant are all to bee scoured in the flames of Purgatory fire before they enter into heauen But in the meane time you say you will reioyce in nothing but onely in the Crosse of Christ which is the glory of his Maiesties Crowne where if by the Crosse of Christ you vnderstand as S. Paul did Christ Crucified you do well hee being indeed not only the Glory of his Maiesties Crowne but the Crowne of his and our glory but if the materiall Crosse or a painted or carued Crucifix this could bring but a shadow of ioy to you and of glory to his Maiesties Crowne Lastly you conclude that you are not gone from his Maiestie to his aduersaries but before him to his Mother For the first of which I demaund who his Maiestie shall account for his aduersaries but those who condemne such Romane Catholikes censuring their Books and commaunding them to purge themselues who onely maintaine his Ciuill power in Temporall affaires and restraine his subiects from taking the Oath of meere naturall Allegeance which in effect is all one as if they absolued them from that Oath being taken and consequently incouraged them to rebellion For the second part of your conclusion we doubt not but his Maiesties Mother might find mercie knowing no better religion then that in which shee was borne and bred when such Apostates as our of discontent or for temporall respects forsake a knowen trueth which they haue preached in which they were baptized to which they haue subscribed shall finde heauen gates shut against them But wee iudge nothing before the time vntill the Lord come who will lighten things that are in darkenesse and make the counsels of the heart manifest and then shall euery man haue praise of God Who so confirme vs in that we are right and reforme vs in that we are amisse that passing through things temporall wee may not finally lose eternall Now prayse and honour and glory and power bee vnto him that sitteth vpon the throne and vnto the Lamhe for euermore B. C. Multum incola fuit anima mea cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus cum loquebar illis impugnabunt me gratis Psal. 119. vers 5 6. G. H. The wordes of his mouth were smoother then butter but warre was in his heart his words were softer then oyle yet were they drawen swords Psal. 55. 21. AN ANSWERE TO THE MATERIALL POINTS of a second Letter of Dr. Cariers written also from Leige to his friends heere in ENGLAND WHen I had almost finished my former answere to the Doctors Letter to his Maiestie another Letter of his dated also from Leigâ— and directed to his friends in England came to mine hands wherunto are added certaine collections found in his Closet made by him as it is thought saith the Publisher of the miserable endes of such as haue impugned the Catholike Church to which is also annexed a briefe exhortation to perseuere constantly in the sayd Catholike Church what opposition soeuer may occurre and lastly a few examples of the admirable felicitie of such as haue defended the same Church First then for the Letter I must confesse I expected from Mr. Dr. some piece of greater value considering himselfe had promised vs in the last Section of his first chapter particularly to iustifie and make plaine froÌ„ point to point the Religion at this day practised and prescribed by the Church of Rome Pelitier for him that hauing consigned his writings into the hands of one of his friends wee should shortly haue that happinesse as to see them published to the ioy and comfort of Catholikes and the edification of those whom hee had forsaken But at last we haue receiued for payment in ful satisfaction of the whole debt as I conceiue this Letter with the appertenances which I would haue set downe intire as I found it the very sight of it being confutation sufficient but that I should haue done the Printer iniury in staying his presse and withall haue raised my booke to a bulk too far exceeding my purpose and it may be haue deceiued the reader too in offring that to his view which he would haue iudged scarce worth the reprinting In his entrance after his verball flourishes and the repetition of that which hath already been answered more then once if any way materiall hee settles at length vpon nine Propositions the very marrow and piâ—h of all his Letter all tending to draw what hee might from the authority of Scriptures and to cast it vpon the Church that is in his language the Romish Clergie as afterwards hee expresses himselfe I will examine the propsitions as they lie in order B. C. 1. That our Sauiour did leaue nothing in writing but taught his Religion to his Apostles by word of mouth G. H. 1. Doubtlesse our Sauiour was not of that Polish Cardinals minde who thought it had beene better for the Church had there beene no Scripture extant at all for though himselfe left nothing in writing touching his Religion yet by the Scriptures alone hee proues himselfe to be the Messias in his conferences his Sermons his disputations with it hee informes the ignorant confirmes the weake instructs his Disciples confutes the Pharisees puts the Sadduces to silence and the diuell to flâ—ght Not a booke of Moses and scarce a Prophet but hee either quotes some passages from him or at least alludes to some in him specially that of the Psalmes and the Prophet Esay Nay in the 24. of St. Luke it is said hee proued his passion and resurrection from Moses and all the Prophets Though it were hee that spake to the Patriarches in dreames and visions and Reuelations yet hee mentions none of them for proofe and except they were 〈◊〉 much lesse traditions but his ordinarie questions and exhâ—rtations and reprehensions are How readest thou and haue yee not
afford as many sufficient and learned Preachers and that in a more substantiall and conscionable fashion then the Popes Hierarchie and that London alone affords more then Rome it selfe and their readinesse to supply Sermons is not so much out of any good will they beare that exercise as out of ill will they beare vs. Iohn Aduenâ— lib. 30. Anal. Boio 1 So that in Mr. Doctors Logick an honest Protestant may thus be defined One that can endure the State of England as it is and could be content it were as it was that he might receiue more benefit 2 You tel vs before that all false religions in the world are but humane policies and we as truely returne it vpon you that this humane policie fauours of a false religion 3 Many of them though they professed themselues dead to the world yet were they aliue to the flesh Renulfus Câ—str lib. 7. 1 Indeede by the forme of words yet extant in the masse booke and vsed by the Priest it is supposed that a number should Communicate daily with him but it seldome is so 2 If wee had no vse of confessours yet might and ought inferiors be kept in awe of hell fire by their Preachers and superiours be tolde of their errours in state by their Counsellers but you seeme to assure his Maiestie that if hee will not be told of his errours in confession he shall in rebellion * 2. Cor. 5. 18. 1 Bell de peâ—â—t lib. 3. Cap. 2. 2 Epist ad Front pag. 129. 3 Premon 125 4 See nouell doct in the ende of the Premon the 3. 5 Epist. ad Front pâ—g 140. 6 Pag. 326. 7 That is they doe not binde him to present the party confessing as appeares both in the body and title of the Canon * Gal. 5. 1. 1 If in those middle times when all things ranne in a current course there were not so many Statutes made in Church matters it must be imputed rather to the want of occasion then of power the plantation or reformation of the Church chiefly giuing occasion to the making of lawes in Church matters 2 When the name of a Parliament began in England is vncertaine See my L. Coke in his Preface to the ninth part of his reports 3 I take the raising of new houses to be no hinderance to the Common-weâ—lth the Lawyers themselues being a part of the Commons 4 As 〈◊〉 the Ciuill Law came not from the Roman Infidels â—hich notwithstandâ—ng stand well enough with the authoritie of the Ecclesiasticall Courts 5 What you call Catholike I know not but sure I am that since King Eth. time many Statutes haue been made for the restraâ—ning of the Bâ—shop of Romes vniuâ—t vsurpation neither doâ— finde that hee â—â—â—tered any thing in the lawes of the kingdome saue onely by commaâ—ding them to be turned into his mother tongue 6 Iâ— by better times you meane the restitution of the Romish Religion or the recoÌ„ciliation of our Church to Rome you had certainly very little reason to expect them from the learning wisedome and moderation of those that are now the chiefest in that profession the chiefest of all hauing both fâ—equently and fullâ— declared himselfe to the contrary and suffred for it by the slanderous tongues and pennes of malicious Romanists and namely Eudaemon and Parsons 1 Bod in lib. 1. de â—epub cap. 8. 2 See Monsâ—ir Seruius the Kings Attourney generals speach in the end of the reformation of the Vniueâ—sitie of Paris 3 Spâ—culum Iust. anno 712. 4 Statut. 21. Râ—â— 2. cap. 11. 5 Comment cap. 49. 6 A God containes the Sea within his owne bounds and marches so is it my office to make euery Court containe it selfe within its owne limits see his Maâ—â—sties Speech in Parliament 1609. 7 Cap. 17. 1 What thoâ—â— Clergie men are wee desire to know and who in your sense are Caluinists 2 What those points of doctrine are wee shall see in the next Section 3 That his Maiesties fauour to the Clergie is such as not to giue way to their ouerthrow and in stead of them to set vp a few stipendary Preachers we haue had good triall and are bound to blesse God for it but sore against the will of all Romane Catholikes it is that his Maiestie should fauour them so much 1 How Caluin himselfe though he were a stipendary Minister pleased Master Maior and his brethren let his banishment more then once for his free preaching testifie 2 We are assured that both his Maiesty and his heire apparent are so well resolued in this point as they wil neuer put it to the question 3 Our Sermons are not so cheape as your Masses which notwithstanding are in a manner the very life and soule of your Priesthood 4 The vntrueth of this assertion appeares in mine answere 5 As if all those who are called Lords and goe in Rochets were not by their place conformable to the discipline had often before they come to that place subscribed to the doctrine established by Law 6 They may more easily turne Lay with you where Lay men are admitted to the administration of the Sacrament 7 These kinde of Clergie men desire no satisfaction from you but wish you had bin as carefull to maintaine that trueth which once you professed as to confute their pretended errours which confutation notwithstanding you speake much of but no where performe nor so much as vndertake 8 You may rather call them temporizing then temperate 9 It were well that others knew them too if any such there bee who in iudgmeÌ„t approoue the trueth of that religion which you call Cath. and yet proâ—â—sse themselues not onely members but Ministers of our Church but our hope is that their number is not such as you vaunt of it being vnpossible that honest men and good Schollers should take the oath of Supremacie and subscribe to our articles of religion and yet in iudgement approue the authority of the B. of Rome which is in a maner the substance of that religion 10 Had ours had the like temperate course held with them or the like liberty afforded in Queene Maries dayes they would haue thought themselues happy 11 Their wiues and children are bound to pray for you in regard of your fatherly care of them 12 It is well that you account your selfe one of the honest men and good Schollers but they are so farre I hope from accounting you one of them as they vtterly condemne and mislike your courses 13 But it pleased God you should die among strangers and not liue to see that toleration you desired neither shall any of them we hope that yet liue and desire to see it 14 As if the whole fortune of Greece depended vpon your submission to that Church 15 What assurance can there bee on our parts from them who hold yâ— faith is not to be held with heretikes but you forgot your promise made to my Lords Grace of