Christendom with their noise and clamours of the dreadful Persecutions in England that Great man thought it not below him to write this Apology for the Execution of Justice here and to shew how reasonable just and moderate the Proceedings of the State were considering the height and insolence of the provocations and this was published in several Languages and dispersed in the Courts of Princes to undeceive them as to all the false reports of the Romish Emissaries who have taken upon them that publick Character of the Popes Ambassadors to lye abroad for his and their own advantage 2. But after that by the means of Cardinal Allen and others they had endeavoured to blast the reputation of that Apology and after the death of that great Minister of State the Secular Priests did publish their Important Considerations wherein they assert the Truth of what was said in the Apologie and vindicate the Honour and Justice of the Penal Laws which is the second Treatise here published and printed according to their own Copy and which hath been so much concealed or bought up by those of that Religion that it hath been heard of by sew and seen by fewer Protestants 3. And lest any should say that all those dangerous Principles to Government are since his Majesties happy Restauration utterly disowned by them I have added a third Treatise printed by one of their own Religion 1662. which charges the Jesuitical Party so deep with those Principles and Practices as to make them uncapable of any Favour If other persons will pursue the same method in retrieving such considerable Treatises as these are they may do more service to our Church and Nation than by writing Histories themselves and I shall desire the late Apologist to set these Authors of his own Church against the petty Historians he so punctually quotes on all occasions And we have so much the more reason to consider these things since in a very late Treatise called the Bleeding Iphigenia the Irish Rebellion is defended by one of the Titular Bishops to be a just and holy War and seeing they still think it lawful what can we imagine then that they want but another occasion to do the same things THE EXECVTION OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND For maintenance of Publick and Christian Peace c. IT hath been in all Ages and in all Countries a common usage of all offenders for the most part both great and small to make defence of their lewd and unlawful facts by untruths and by colouring and covering their deeds were they never so vile with pretences of some other causes of contrary operations or effects to the intent not only to avoid punishment or shame but to continue uphold and prosecute their wicked attempts to the full satisfaction of their disordered and malicious appetites And though such hath been the use of all Offenders yet of none with more danger than of Rebels and Traytors to their lawful Princes Kings and Countries Of which sort of late years are specially to be noted certain persons naturally born Subjects in the Realm of England and Ireland who having for some good time professed outwardly their obedience to their Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth have nevertheless afterward been stirred up and seduced by wicked Spirits first in England sundry years past and secondly and of latter time in Ireland to enter into open Rebellion taking Arms and coming into the Field against her Majesty and her Lieutenants with their Forces under Banners displayed inducing by notable untruths many simple people to follow and assist them in their Traitorous actions And though it is very well known that both their intentions and manifest actions were bent to have deposed the Queens Majesty from her Crown and to have traiterously set in her place some other whom they liked whereby if they had not been speedily resisted they would have committed great bloodsheds and slaughters of her Majesties faithful Subjects and ruined their native Country Yet by Gods power given unto her Majesty they were so speedily vanquished as some few of them suffered by order of Law according to their deserts many and the greatest part upon Confession of their faults were pardoned the rest but they not many of the principal escaped into Foreign Countries and there because in none or few places Rebels and Traitors to their natural Princes and Countries dare for their Treasons challenge at their first muster open comfort or succour these notable Traitors and Rebels have falsly informed many Kings Princes and States and specially the Bishop of Rome commonly called the Pope from whom they all had secretly their first comfort to Rebell that the cause of their flying from their Countries was for the Religion of Rome and for maintenance of the said Popes Authority Whereas divers of them before their Rebellion lived so notoriously the most part of their lives out of all good rule either for honest manners or for any sense in Religion as they might have been rather familiar with Catalin or Favourers to Sardanapalus than accounted good Subjects under any Christian Princes As for some examples of the heads of these Rebellions out of England fled Charles Nevill Earl of Westmerland a person utterly wasted by looseness of life and by Gods punishment even in the time of his Rebellion bereaved of his Children that should have succeeded him in the Earldom and how his Body is now eaten with Ulcers of lewd causes all his Companions do see that no Enemy he had can wish him a viler punishment And out of Ireland ran away one Thomas Stukeley a defamed person almost through all Christendom and a faithless Beast rather than a Man fleeing first out of England for notable Piracies and out of Ireland for treacheries not pardonable which two were the first Ringleaders of the rest of the Rebels the one for England the other for Ireland But notwithstanding the notorious evil and wicked lives of these and others their Confederates void of all Christian Religion it liked the Bishop of Rome as in favour of their Treasons not to colour their offences as themselves openly pretend to do for avoiding of common shame of the World but flatly to animate them to continue their former wicked purposes that is to take Arms against their lawful Queen to invade her Realm with Foreign Forces to pursue all her good Subjects and their Native Countries with Fire and Sword for maintenance whereof there had some years before at sundry times proceeded in a thundring sort Bulls Excommunications and other publick Writings denouncing her Majesty being the lawful Queen and Gods anointed Servant not to be the Queen of the Realm charging and upon pains of Excommunication commanding all her Subjects to depart from their natural Allegiances whereto by birth and by Oath they were bound Provoking also and authorising all persons of all degrees within both the Realms to Rebell and upon this Antichristian Warrant being contrary to all
Master the Emperour Henry and that in following their ungodly Counsels he had brought upon him Gods heavy and just Judgments And so Henry the Emperour prevailing by Gods power caused Gregory the Pope by a Synod in Italy to be deposed as in like times before him his Predecessor Otho the Emperour had deposed one Pope John for many hainous crimes and so were also within a short time three other Popes namely Sylvester Bennet and Gregory the Sixth used by the Emperour Henry the Third about the year of our Lord 1047. for their like presumptuous attempts in temporal actions against the said Emperours Many other examples might be shewed to the Emperours Majesty and the Princes of the holy Empire now being after the time of Henry the Fourth as of Henry the Fifth and after him of Frederick the First and Frederick the Second and then of Lewis of Bavar all Emperours cruelly and tyrannously persecuted by the Popes and by their Bulls Curses and by open Wars and likewise to many other the great Kings and Monarchs of Christendom of their noble Progenitors Kings of their several Dominions whereby they may see how this kind of tyrannous Authority in Popes to make Wars upon Emperours and Kings and to command them to be deprived took hold at the first by Pope Hildebrand though the same never had any lawful example or warrant from the Laws of God of the Old or New Testament but yet the successes of their tyrannies were by Gods goodness for the most part made frustrate as by Gods goodness there is no doubt but the like will follow to their confusions at all times to come And therefore as there is no doubt but the like violent tyrannous proceedings by any Pope in maintenance of Traiters and Rebels would be withstood by every Soveraign Prince in Christendom in defence of their Persons and Crowns and maintenance of their Subjects in Peace so is there at this present a like just cause that the Emperours Majesty with the Princes of the holy Empire and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes in Christendom should judge the same to be lawful for her Majesty being a Queen and holding the very place of a King and a Prince Soveraign over divers Kingdoms and Nations she being also most lawfully invested in her Crown and as for good governing of her People with such applause and general allowance loved and obeyed of them saving a few ragged Traiters or Rebels or persons discontented whereof no other Realm is free as continually for these twenty five years past hath been notably seen and so publickly marked even by strangers repairing into this Realm as it were no cause of disgrace to any Monarchy and King in Christendom to have her Majesties felicity compared with any of theirs whatsoever and it may be there are many Kings and Princes could be well contented with the fruition of some proportion of her felicity And though the Popes be now suffered by the Emperor in the Lands of his own peculiar Patrimony and by the two great Monarchs the French King and the King of Spain in their Dominions and Territories although by other Kings not so allowed to continue his Authority in sundry cases and his glorious Title to be the universal Bishop of the World which Title Gregory the Great above nine hundred years past called a profane Title full of Sacriledge and a Preamble of Antichrist yet in all their Dominions and Kingdoms as also in the Realm of England most notably by many ancient Laws it is well known how many ways the tyrannous Power of this his excessive Authority hath been and still is restrained checked and limited by Laws and Pragmatiques both ancient and new a very large field for the Lawyers of those Countries to walk in and discourse And howsoever the Popes Canonists being as his Bombarders do make his Excommunications and Curses appear fearful to the multitude and simple people yet all great Emperours and Kings aforetime in their own cases of their Rights and Royal Preheminences though the same concerned but a City or a poor Town and sometime but the not allowance of some unworthy Person to a Bishoprick or to an Abbey never refrained to despise all Popes Curses or Forces but attempted always either by their Swords to compel them to desist from their furious actions or without any fear of themselves in body soul or conscience stoutly to withstand their Curses and that sometime by force sometime by Ordinances and Laws the ancient Histories whereof are too many to be repeated and of none more frequent and effectual than of the Kings of France But leaving those that are ancient we may remember how in this our own present or late Age it hath been manifestly seen how the Army of the late noble Emperour Charles the Fifth Father to King Philip that now reigneth was not afraid of his Curses when in the year of our Lord 1527. Rome it self was besieged and sacked and the Pope then called Clement and his Cardinals to the number of about thirty three in his Mount Adrian or Castle S. Angelo taken Prisoners and detained seven months or more and after ransomed by Don Vgo di Moncada a Spaniard and the Marquess of Grasto at about four hundred M. Duckats besides the ransoms of his Cardinals which was very great having not long before-time been also notwithstanding his Curses besieged in the same Castle by the Family of the Colonesi and their Fautors his next Neighbours being then Imperialists and forced to yield to all their demands Neither did King Henry the Second of France Father to Henry now King of France about the year 1550. fear or regard the Pope or his Court of Rome when he made several straight Edicts against many parts of the Popes Claims in prejudice of the Crown and Clergy of France retracting the Authority of the Court of Rome greatly to the hinderance of the Popes former profits Neither was the Army of King Philip now of Spain whereof the Duke of Alva was General stricken with any fear of cursing when it was brought afore Rome against the Pope in the year of our Lord 1555. where great destruction was made by the said Army and all the delicate Buildings Gardens and Orchards next to Rome-Walls overthrown wherewith his Holiness was more terrified than he was able to remove with any his Curses Neither was Queen Mary the Queens Majesties late Sister a person not a little devoted to the Roman Religion so afraid of the Popes cursings but that both she and her whole Council and that with the assent of all the Judges of the Realm according to the ancient Laws in favour of Cardinal Pool her Kinsman did forbid the entry of his Bulls and of a Cardinal Hat at Callis that was sent from the Pope for one Fryer Peyto whom the Pope had assigned to be a Cardinal in disgrace of Cardinal Pool neither did Cardinal Pool himself at the same time
have added that Clause that None in the Church but you were bound under pain of Damnation not to teach that Doctrine whereas all good Christians think it damnable to teach any wicked Doctrine such as this is declared to be by all France I wish to God you would instance in what Sermons or serious Discourses any of you have argued against this Doctrine out of which it might be gathered that in your hearts you dislike it I hear you and yours have much exclaimed against some even late Pamphlets that touch the Oath of Allegiance though none of those Books as far as I understand press the taking of the Oath it self in its present terms but only oppose this King-dethroning Doctrine Surely unless you declare your selves farther this must cause a main suspicion that you dislike the Oath not as Moderate Catholicks do for the ambiguity of the expression but because the Doctrine of Deposition pleases you And why should the Peace of Kingdoms and the quiet of all Christendom depend upon your Generals Order for that 's all the security I can find your Paper gives us who will assure us your Generals Order may not alter to morrow and that which you call now a mortal sin to do becomes then as mortal a sin not to do and has not then the World reason to fear that where and when the interest of your Body will either dispense with your obedience to your General or prevail so far with him as to revoke the Prohibition you speak of you will be ready again to maintain the same Deposing Power with as much fierceness as those few whom you now seem to disowne For who are those few Bellarmine of whom one of your Society though in Prison when he spake it said King James was no more to be compared to Bellarmine than Balaams Ass to Balaam Suarez whom you esteem the Master of the World Lessius under the name of Singleton Fitzherbert the chief in his time of your English Writers Patriarch Parsons Mariana Salmeron Becanus Vasquez Omnes Capita alta ferentes and of whom you will renounce none for less than being frightned to lose a Province as when in France you were threatned to be put out if you had not condemned Suarez and Santarellus With these deserves to be ranked for his Merits in the same kind F. Symonds of a far later date who procured to be condemned at Rome those three Propositions expressed in the Christian Moderator of which the first was expresly made to disclaim the Popes power in absolving Subjects from their Obedience to the Civil Government Are all these but four or five Nay I could reckon above four or five besides all these so that there is no farther security of your not preaching this Doctrine than until the Pope please to attempt again the Deposition of some King of England for then no doubt but your Generals Decree will be released and the Interest of your Order to preach this Doctrine again As to that perverse and unseasonable insinuation that Others too have defended the Popes deposing power as well as you I answer perhaps Flattery or Errours may have prevailed so far with some others besides Jesuits yet with this difference in the point we now treat some persons of other Communities have written for that exorbitant power in the Pope and very many and far more against it not only the faculties of Paris and Sorbonne but seven or eight whole Universities in France have unanimously and solemnly condemned it All this while what single Jesuit has spoken one unkind word against it though both particularly suspected and highly concerned to clear themselves Cry you mercy you there subscribed also their Condemnation of it But why find I not that alledged here if there be not some juggle in 't Sure you would not have waved urging it among your best Reasons did not your hearts disavow that forced compliance then and so hate the Medium for the Conclusions sake Your Generals Prohibition as your Reasons seem to express it is Not to teach c. that Doctrine and then you are free at least to teach c. the contrary which who of you ever did so much as in a private Conference Nor will it help you if your Generals Prohibition be to speak either for or against that Opinion which I believe is the truth though your Reasons craftily dissemble it since then you neither have hitherto given nor can hereafter give the least satisfaction to Princes without disobeying your General Let any one but cast his eye upon F. Lloyd or Fisher a famous man in his generation and consider what he writes in his Answer to the Nine Points That he omitted the discussion of the Ninth Point about the Pope's Authority to depose Kings for being bound by the command of his General given to the whole Order not to publish any thing of that Argument without sending the same first to Rome to be reviewed and approved his Answer to that Point could not have been performed without very long expectation and delay And so goes on referring His Majesty and the Reader in general to the Treatises lately written on that Subject to which said he ' T is not needful any thing should be added And I ask first is not this Jesuits proceeding with his King extremely both uncivil and disloyal too his Majesty commands an English Jesuit to write concerning the Opinion of deposing Kings and giving away their Kingdoms by Papal power whether directly or indirectly What says the Jesuit to this important question wherein all Princes and particularly his Majesty was so nearly concerned He could not answer it without sending it first to Rome to be approved c. and so excused himself and made no answer at all which now of these two will you guess was the Jesuits supreme Soveraign the King or his General Nor should I have stayed so long upon the example of one particular Jesuit though never so eminent among them but that by these their Reasons I see they all cleave to the same Principle of not meddling with this point whatever it costs them without leave of their General Secondly I ask concerning those late Treatises here mentioned by the Jesuit were they not those very Books which Paris and so many whole Universities of France publickly condemned I have this motive to think so F. Fisher wrote this Book 1626. these Treatises were that very year condemned and some of them as Santarellus printed but the year before But that F. Fisher adhered to the affirmative of the Popes deposing power is clearly evident by his other excuse that commonly Kings are not willing to hear the proofs of coercive Authority over them c. As also when his Adversary objected that Suarez's Book was burnt by the Hangman he answers far from disliking his Brother Jesuit in these peremptory words I likewise demand of you says Fisher if Jesuit Suarez his Book be prejudicial to Princely Authority why is the same