Policie of the Church to force obedience vnto the Clergie and to worke regeneration in the milde spirited But because it was not soundly grounded on the Word of God it growes contemptible and worthy to bee suppressed for the monstrous abuses which we find in these times to flow by the indirect vse thereof In the Apostles time it was no other then an humble acknowledging of one Neighbours Infirmitie to the other and an asking of forgiuenesse reciprocally at their hands whom they had offended in remembrance of that clause in the Lords Prayer as wee forgiue them which trespasse against vs that thereby they might the more confidently receiue the Communion This the Apostle aduiseth in these words Confesse your sinnes one to another and pray yee one for another Which Confession they vsed publikely and priuately Publikely before all the Congregation if the Sinne were great as that of the Incestuous person in Saint Paul that Shame might worke the fruits of repentance in the Offendors heart Priuately as Saint Iames aduised by way of Charitie to succor one anothers conscience Afterwards Confession became farre more priuat and their mindes being puft vp with Pride or ashamed to let many know their dissimulations they repayred to some one of the Elders of the Church as Patients to a Physician to bee cured or to receiue Counsell for their Soules health At last the Clergie noting the simplicitie of the vnlettered people in those dayes they got them in lieu of Penance to disburse pence pounds sometimes to the Poore sometimes to build Churches Chappels Monasteries and to offer presents to the honour of their Parish Saints as the Heathen in those dayes did to their Idols All this while there was no great fault sauing that they began to make it somewhat meritorious But when the Popes had forbidden Marriages in time had barred the Clergie of their Concubines which was for a long time dispensed with then this laudable Order of Confession began to be grossely abused and womens Chastities suffered shipwâ—ackâ— For themselues being to continue for euer vnmarried they burned in lust and left no trick vnattempted to beguile wiues and maides But among all their sleights they preuayled aboue all when they drew men to build Nuâ—â—eries that they might allure prettie wenches thither with whom they might ioyne the more freely to coole their raging lusts Insomuch that the wariest of them seeing some of their sweet hearts too fruitfull they studied Physicke and gaue them drenches to destroy their Fruit or if that wrought not the effect for the credit of their Vâ—taries they held it no great sinne to murther it assoone as euer it came to light which Diuelish Acts of theirs since the preaching of the Gospell are daily discouered in Ponds and other hidden places where the skuls of many Infants haue beene lately found What mad men are they which will commit their daughters to a Confessors charge as lambes to wolues knowing that flaxe will flame if it bee too neere the fire Lust by degrees corrupts The wisest man liues not without some touch of folly Shall wee then thinke that Flesh and Bloud can waxe cold finding sweet opportunitie and solitarinesse to warme sensible nature At first they look babies in their eyes they wring or kisse their lillyed hands and induce them to read their Loue-sonnets Madrigalls and other Poems of Cupids baites Then they fall to a neerer forme the preambles and fore-runners of beastly pleasure they obtaine the gracelesse grace to play with their iuory breasts and to endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writes that vnmannerly Grobiâ—â—â— Tange etiâ—â— partes quâ—â— gâ—â—â—â—t Fâ—mina tâ—â—gi Arriued to this happinesse they must needs sanctifiâ— their lips with Nectarean kisses vowing that they would not for all the King of Spaines Iâ—dies proceed to a further Act. So meane perhaps but Time brings alteration And a faire woman is a shrewd Temptation As George Withers notes Hauing thus seduced these weaker vessels to condiscend to the elements of Loue they teach them the baudie A. B. C. instead of Aue Maria. Were I disdainfull or vnkind Or coy to learne or dull of mind But no such thing remaines in me To let mee learne my A. B. C. At last they winne the precious Fort which once they doubted to bee inexpâ—gnable The whole building is razed and these poore Soules pend in this pound of boâ—dage forsaken of their friends find no other ease for this disease but to sang this dolefull Diâ—tie to the tâ—â—e of too late Repeatance Which shall I doe or weepe or sing Neither of them will helpe mourning The Treasure 's stolne the Thiefe is fled And I lye bleeding in my bed If it were not for these 〈◊〉 Confussion in the Eare would much benefit a diseased Conscience and the whole Common-wealth of the Christian Corporation And we could wish it still in vse yet with this limitation that no Papist presume to confesse any woman vnder 50. yeares of age except he be first soundly gelded And for your part Frier Foster who claime the prerogatiue to haue a seare top with a green root to mingle a dead coarse with a liuing body after the example of Maxentius the Tyrant without regard had to your old age and decayed nature wee Order you to bee tortured on Ixions wheele because you haue profaned the vestall house Ixion henceforth to bee set at libertie for his petulant attempt against Iuno and all Nunneries to bee dissolued which after the imitation of the Gentiles you procured to be built more for your lecherous interest then for the honour of your Sauiour Whereby I let you all good Catholickes to vnderstand that we suppresse them for the same reason as Hezechias supplanted the Brazen Serpent good of it selfe and of the first erecting being a figure of Christs sauing Office and healing vertue but since a cause of Idolatrie as the Crosse also which the Reformed Churches by reason of the fottish misvsage haue lately put downe to take away the occasions of Idolatrie CHAP. VII Thomas Becket of Canterburie accuseth before Apollo Walter de Mapes Arch-deacon of Oxford in King Henry the Seconds time for defending the Marriage of Priests against the Pope of Romes Decree THomas Becket of Canterburie that opposed himselfe so obstinatly against his anointed King heere in England about some liuings which he pretended to belong to the Sea of his Archbishoprick appealing to the Pope from his Countryes Censure exhibited an Information before Apollo against his antient Friend Walter de Mapes Arch-deacon of Oxford for withstanding the Popes Legat that came to London with a strict Decree to command all the Clergie men in England to put away their wiues Walter de Mapes was sent for at whose comming Th. Becket hauing license to make good his Information spake as followeth Most Puissant Emperour Our Holy Father the Pope the visible Head of the Roman Church Saint Peters famous Successor whether by Reuelation from Heauen or by the Spirit of
30. CHAP. III. How Doctor Wicliffe of Oxford espying in a Church at Athens a Franciscan Frier a kissing of a Maidof Honour belonging to the Princesse Thalia brought S. Frances to surprize them who of meere idiotisme applaudes the Fall pag. 38. CHAP. IV. Doctor Wicliffe connents Saint Frances and the kissing Frier before Apollo Saint Frances defendeth the cause and discouereth seuen sorts of kisses Apollo refuteth his defence condemnes the Frier and abolisheth all Monasticall Orders pag. 39. CHAP. V. Apollo censureth Thalia and her Gentlewoman for their lasciuious prankes and reformeth the Comicall Court pag. 50. CHAP. VI. The Author of the Nuns discouery at Lisbon exhibits a complaint to Apollo against Father Foster the Frier Confessor to the English Nunnery at Lisbon for committing carnall copulation with sundry of them Apollo makes a discourse of Auticular Confession adiudgeth Foster to Ixions Wheele and suppresseth all Nunneries pag. 59. CHAP. VII Thomas Becket of Canterbury accuseth before Apollo Walter de Mapes Archdeacon of Oxford in King Henry the Seconds time for defending the Marriage of Priests against the Pope of Romes Decree pag. 65. CHAP. VIII Walter de Mapes is commanded by Apollo to defend his Positions against the Pope and Becket who accordingly obeyeth and prooues the lawfulnesse of Clergie-mens Marriage both by the Testimony of the Scripture and of the Ancient Fathers pag. 68. Apollo reuerseth the Popes Canon made against the Marriage of the Clergie and to that purpose sends out a Proclamation pag. 73. CHAP. IX Apollo vpon Information giuen him by the Greek Church of Images erected by the Pope in the Westerne Churches and of Inuocations on Saints confuteth these Idolatrous Traditions both by the Testimonie of the Scripture and by the Positions of the Primitiue Church pag. 74. CHAP. X. Martine Luther arriuing at Parnassus shewes to Apollo how the Popes vnder colour of redeeming mens Soules out of Purgatorie vsed to conicatch Christians by the sale of Pardons Apollo condemnes both the Fable of Purgatorie and the vse of Popish Pardons pag. 81. CHAP. XI Gratian the Canonist conuents the Waldenses and Albigienses before Apollo for celebrating diuine service in their Country Language and not according to the Rites of the Romish Church Zuinglius defends their cause by the Authoritie of the Scriptures and of the Primitie Church Apollo pronounceth a definitiue Sentence against the Pope on the behalfe of the Waldenses and Albigienses pag. 85. CHAP. XII Berengarius reneweth his opinion of the Lords Supper and proues both by the Scriptures and by the Authoritie of the most ancient Fathers of the Primitiue Church that the same is to be taken after a spirituall manner and in commemoration of the Lords death pag. 91. CHAP. XIII The Romish Church accuseth the Church of Aethiopia for denying to acknowledge her to be the Mother and Catholike Church The Patriarch of Alexandria challengeth the Prâ—macie ouer that Church and proues the Pope of Rome to be an Intruder and to haue no Right at all ouer the Church of Aeâ—hiopia Apollo determineth the difference by discouering the wayes how the Pope got the Supremacy ouer the Westerne Churches and how both he and the generall Councels erre in matters of Faith pag. 96. CHAP. XIV Scotus the Master of subtill Questions conuents Sir Geffrey Chaucer for calling the Pope Antichrist and comparing the Romish Church to the griping Griffon and the true Church to the tender Pellican pag. 110. CHAP. XV. Sir Geffrey Chaucer being prouoked by Scotus to defend his Cause proues the Pope to bee the great and uniuersall Antichrist prophesied in the Scriptures pag. 121. CHAP. XVI Apolloes iudgement of Chaucers Apologie concluding that the Pope is the great Antichrist pag. 131 CHAP. XVII Apolloes sentence promulgated for the Impurity of the Church Militant Doctor Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury complaines against Cartwright Browne and other Puritane Separists for inuaighing against their Superiours Apollo condemnes this Sect exhorting them to vnitie and to return to the bosome of their Mother Church pag. 133 CHAP. XVIII The memorable Synod of Dott accuseth Arminius before Apollo for broaching out of new Opinions in the Church to trouble the braines of the weaker Apollo confutes Arminius and sheweth what a sober minded Christian ought to conceiue of deepe Mysteries Arminius is commanded to recant pag. 137 The conclusion of the first Part. pag. 146. The Contents of the Chapters of the Second part of the Golden Fleece CHAP. I. MAlines and Misselden two Merchants of Great Brittaine doe seuerally declare their Opinions touching the Decay of Trade and the Causes of the vnder-ballance of their Natiue Commodities with the Forraigne which were brought into that Kingdome Apollo bewaileth their miserie and commands a further enquirie to be made of the Causes pag. 1. CHAP. II. Apollo causeth a Iury to bee impanelled out of the Vniuersities of Oxford Cambridge S. Andrewes Aberdine and the Colledge at Dublin to finde out these persons which sold Ecclesiasticall Linings The Presentours discouering some bring them before Apollo His Maiesties censure with his discourse of the Right of Tithes pag. 6. CHAP. III. Vpon a Bill of Complaint exhibited by Aeschines and Papinian against Rewards vnequally conferred on persons of meane desert and descent Apollo pronounceth a peremptorie Doome pag. 15. CHAP. IIII. Hugh Broughton vpon some discontentment taken in seeing his inferiours promoted to eminent places before himselfe complaineth vnto Apollo that Florio Deane of Thaliaes Chappell prophaned the sacred name of the Letany by singing the same intermixt with triuiall toyes Apollo causeth Florio to repeat his Letany pa. 18. CHAP. V. Apollo after some shew of distate against Florio for his new morall Letany at the last giues him leaue to defend it Florio in a briefe Oration declares the reasons why bee innented such a strange forme of Letany Apollo pronounceth his Censure pag. 26 CHAP. VI. Apollo asketh the Author of the Golden Fleece wherefore his Countreymen of Wales hauing the commodionsnesse of the Sea with a large scope of land are notwithstanding very much impouerished of late The Author imputes the cause vnto the multitude of Law Suites pag. 29. CHAP. VII Orpheus Iunior exhibits a Petition vnto Apollo to diminish the number of Lawyers and to punish their offences Apolloes Answer shewing how they may bee restrained and punished pag. 36. CHAP. VIII Bartolus and Plowden by the instigation of the Iesuiticall Faction doe appeach Orpheus Iunior before Apollo for certaine Offences supposed to bee committed by him pag. 40. CHAP. IX Apollo commanding Orpheus Iunior to answer the Accusation of Bartolus and Plowden who obeying extoilesh Charitie taxeth Conicatching and Hatred and commends the Lawes Apollo smiled to see the impudencie of these Lawyers yet not to seeme partiall in his Seruants cause he commanded Orpheus to defend himselfe who thus began pag. 44. CHAP. X. The learned Vniuersities of Great Brittaine do find themselues agrieued that Popish Physicians are permitted to practice Physick in this Kingdome Apollo remedies
of some superfluous humour ingendred in the braine where the Intellectuall Faculties ought to reside and to direct the inferiour Functions How soeuer the Cure is not impossible yet perhaps a thanklesse Office for a man vncalled to take in hand This last is the cause and none but this which makes mee the more sparing of my remedies In this confusion of thoughts fearing to play with Iupiters beard or to dally with Saints and higher Powers who might misconster my Good-will I thought once to be silent left in lending my hand to saue others of tender charitie and compassion I might fal my selfe into the Whirle-poole and there sinke or swimme I should rather be laughed at then pitied Sic aliquis nanti dextram dum porrigit ipse Incidit in liquidas non bene cautus aquat For this cause I minded to lay afide my Melodie one of my chiefest Receits to restore mad men to their wits in respect of these thanklesse times and thus to lament my doubtfull disaster as Sir Walter Raleigh did to our late Queene Anne of happy memory My broken pipes shall on the willow hang Like those which on the Babylonian bankes These ioyes foredone their present sorrow sang These times to worth yeelding but frozen thankes At last the Cloudie sable vaile of iealous doubts being remoued which for a while had interposed themselues betwixt the Light of my vnderstanding and the other attributes of my Soule I valiantly resolued on this Treatise of the Golden Fleece and in regard of the fraikies which the greatest part of my fellow-subiects doe as it were by some vnluekie influence of the Starres participate I haue prepared sundry kinds of artiâ—…ce so that if some proue distastfull and nauâ—eatiâ—e yet others may sort out well according to my expectation I will therefore diuide this Worke into three Parts In the first I will refute the Errours of Religion preparing the way to Vâ—ilie In the second I will endeuour to remoue the Diseases of our Kingdome that Contraries may be cured by Contraries And lastly I will lay downe those Helps which may repaire the ruines of our State as the surest Elixir and Restoratiue which my poore Experience hath attained vnto THE FIRST PART OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE Discouering the Errours of Religion with the remedies CHAP. 1. The greatest care which Apollo takes for the Monarchy of Great Britaine The singular and respectiue loue which hee beares towards the hopefull magnanimous King Charles And how by his Proclamation he caused Mariana the Iesuite to be apprehended for animating Subiects against their naturall Prince ABoue all the magnificent courts which the sun beholds from East to West and from the one Pole to the other It is noted that Apollo as it were by Sympathy of some Heauenly Influence beares particular affection to the Regall Court of Great Brittaine and tenders the welfare thereof as of his owne Parnassus Insomuch that his Imperiall Maiestie foreseeing that Gâ—y Faux and his damned Confederates would haue blowne vp the Parliament house with the King and Estates there assembled vpon the fift day of Nouember in the yeere 1605. and that they afterwards intended to set vp their Romish Religion hee first caused one of the Aeriall Spirits to insinuate into Tressams braine and by often nibling on his imagination to procure from him that Aenigmaticall Letter vnto his brother in Law the Lord Mounteagle Then out of his diuine loue towards this Monarchy he assisted the Genius of the learned and most noble King Iames to discouer the whole plot by vnlocking with the key of Prophesie the Mysterie of that intricate Letter more intricate and darke then Sphinx his Riddle So odious appeared this Butcherly and Diabolicall Treason vnto his Sacred Spirit That no Scrutinies of Triall nor legall Consultations were by him omitted to know the hidden motiues and quintessence of this bloudie and vnnaturall practice so much degenerating from mans nature as with the Giants of old time to scale the Heauens and to assault the Authour of nature by whom they liued moued and had their being But for all his Examinations and vigilant cares Apollo could by no meanes ferret out the Fox for the Deuill had transformed the beast into an Angell of light vntill Raâ—illiac that monster of Mankind had massacred the great Hercules of France King Henry the fourth Vpon which Accident one Peter Ramus a learned Parisian whom the Papists sometimes nicknamed the Hugenotes Champion informed Apollo that the said Rauilliac the very morning of the same day when he committed this lamentable murther was heard to maintaine that Paradoxe how iustifiable and glorious an Act it were for a Subiect to kill a Tyrannicall or Hereticall Prince For the verifying and approuing of which position he quoted down certaine leaues of Mariana the Iesuites Booke de Rege Reg. Instit. cap. 6. whereby hee subiects all Powers and Dominions to the becke and dispose of his earthly God my Lord the Pope and frees them from their alleageance to their natiue Prince if his Holinesse storme or themselues doe imagine him to become an Apostata or to fauour Apostasie or Heresie Apolloes griefe conceiued by this Assassinate and Tragicall euent became somewhat asswaged when he knew the cause of this inhumane butchery proceeded through the Kings owne credulitie and tendernesse of heart in admitting the Iesuits into France against the will of his judicious Sorbonists and afterwards sostering them like Aesopes Snake in the Louvre his Regall Palace whose common Maxime he knew to bee One God in Heauen one God on Earth and one Catholike King Yet notwithstanding to let his vertuous followers vnderstand how heynous crying sinnes and the treacherous shedding of humane bloud seemed in his vnspotted presence Apollo commanded Robert Earle of Essex Lord High Marshall of his Empire and Sir I hilip Sidney the Prouost Marshall of his Court to make diligent search and inquirie within the Precincts of his Territories for the bodie of Mariana and him to apprehend and in sure and safe manner to bring before his Imperiall Highnes These Noble Gentlemen endeuoured to performe the contents of his command but in no wise could they light on Mariana's person For while the warrant was a writing by the Clarke of the Counsell it chanced that Pererius Tolet Posseuinus Bellarmine Cotton of Paris ouer-heard the charge and tenour thereof And it is to bee suspected that they gaue him notice for the repute and credit of their Societie to hide himselfe for indeed the Varlet fled before the Warrant was signed Apollo perceiuing that his Marshals had taken exceeding great paines and yet in vaine for his attaching hee caused a publike Proclamation to be fixed on the Gate of his Palace at Parnassus that what persons soeuer could bring this fugitiue Iesuite before him his Maiestie would preferre him to some Office or place about his Court. For all this no man could finde out his haunt or tracke So wary and carefull were these subtill
Dauid doth morally teach vs that wee must not smite our Princes with the sword of our Lips though they wrong vs nor that we teare the hemme of their superfluous deeds If wee approoue not the holinesst of their liues let vs applaud the holinesse of their Vnctions In the English Chronicles euen when the Pope was at the highest staire of worldly triumph it is registred that Anselmus Archbishop of Canterbury in some difference betwixt him and King William Rufus would haue appealed to the Pope And that the King and the Bishops withstood it In the Raigne of King Henry the Second a Law was made on paine of Treason not to appeale out of the Kingdome of England Thus from time to time it is manifest that the Popes power hath beene inferiour and subiect to Earthly Princes And therefore to broach out such damnable Paradoxes for the iustification of murther and the warranting of priuate men to conspire against their Soueraignes is a Doctrine which God hates Somtimes men are plagued by the immediate hand of God sometimes by mediate and secondary means for their sins Sometimes men are forced to endure extraordinary stormes tempests famine warres and also crosses at their very friends hands Sometimes their women are deliuered of abortiues or mishapen Creatures All which they must patiently brooke Much more must they beare with the spots of Princes who haue long Eares and long hands It is not safe or vertuous to meddle with litigious wares nor to trouble the braine with these kind of Problemes For if men liue in a Monarchy which is hereditary the Fault is the greater If in other Kingdomes the fundamentall Lawes must be regarded by the publike States and not by priuate persons If the Kingdome be Electiue as Poland let the Chancelor looke to it If in Germanie it belongs to the Electors to decide the quarrell betwixt the Emperour and the Subiects Wee doe therefore vtterly detest these Iesuites for maintayning of these bloudy Tragedies and from henceforth wee banish that pestilent Race of Sectaries out of our Iurisdiction of Parnassus Mariana heere we doe order to bee perpetually tortured in Phalaris his Brazen Bull and his Bookes also to be burnt and the ashes to be scattered in the Riuer of Lethe CHAP. III. Now Doctor Wicliffe of Oxford espying in a Church at Athens a Franciscan Frier a kissing of a Maide of Honour belonging to the Princesse Thalia brought Saint Frances to surprize them who of meere Idiotisme applaudes the Fact IN May last when all liuing Creatures followed their naturall motions and kinds Doctor Wicliffe of Oxford who in King Richard the Seconds time by the countenance of Iohn of Gaunt and the Londoners opposed himselfe against the Romish Clergie as hee was entring into the Temple of the vnknowne God at Athens espied a Franciscan Frier very heartily kissing a Gentlewoman which in that jouiall and merrie time had made choise of that lustie Frier to confesse her whereupon Doctor Wicliffe being euer held to be of an vnblemisht behauiour and as chaste as Origen but that he had not gelt himselfe as Origen did burned with Zeale and like another Phinehes thought once to haue runne vpon them both to haue scratcht their eyes out for weapons he had none to offend with such was the Law of Apolloes Court But remembring himselfe of a place in Homer how Achilles as he intended to draw out his Sword against Agamemnon was preuented by the Ladie Pallas who inuisibly restrained his hand from that reprochfull Act he reculed backe vnseene by the youthfull Couple whose lips were so fastned together that as if they had beene in a trance the Church might haue falne by piece-meales about their eares before they would been parted from their sugred kisses and like an Arrow out of a Bow hee rushed into Saint Frances cloyster where meeting with the Old man a mumbling on his Orisons and Rosaries he desired him in all haste to come and visit the Corpse of one of his Friers which was strooke dead by the Planet Venus together with a Maide of Honour belonging to the Princesse Thalia At these words Saint Frances flung away his deuout Offices and went a long with Doctor Wicliffe to the place where he found the Frier and the gentlewoman a kissing After that Saint Frances had considerately noted how loâ—ingly the Frier lay as it were in an extasie with his lips as close as Iuy to an Elme vnto the Maides lips the good man fell downe vpon his knees and thanked God that he had seene so much Loue and Charitie in the World which before hee doubted had forsaken all humane race CHAP. IIII. Doctor Wicliffe connents Saint Frances and the kissing Frier before Apollo Saint Frances defendeth the cause and discouereth seuen sorts of kisses Apollo refuteth his Defence condemnes the Frier and abolisheth all Monasticall Orders DWicliffe the next day after this aduenture loth to be accessary to such baudy deeds made the matter knowne vnto Apolloes Maiestie who immediately sent Mercury for both the Friers And vpon the Friday after appointed a speciall Conuocation for the ordering of this lasciuious Cause About nine a clocke in the morning vpon the prefixed day both the Friers being brought before the Lords of the Connocations Apollo spake in this wise to Saint Frances The first time that you were initiated in morall Precepts and sithence matriculated in our Court you vndertooke aswell for your Monasticall Order as your selfe to liue chast and not to minister occasion of scandall to the married Societie to suspect the least token of incontinencie in your carriages But we find that you are flesh and bloud subiect to concupiscence as well as others Saint Paul therefore aduiseth you rather to marrie then to burne But you on the contrary doe forbid your Clergy to marry at all although in your consciences you know it a most grieuous yoke the which our Sauiour Christ said that no man can beare vnlesse as a speciall Gift some few receiue it from Heauen And therefore Saint Paul tels you It is the doctrine of deuils to forbid Marriage Why then haue you imposed such a burthen such a vow on these silly Nouices of your Fraternitie which they can neuer keep without hinneying and lusting after the Female Sexe Haue not you heard that a certaine Hermite cockolded the chiefest Nobles of a Princes Court whose Wiues vsed to repaire to his Cell for Spirituall Physicke as if he had beene another Baptist Endeauour yee neuer so violently to expell the affections of nature they will breake into your thoughts and bodies doe what yee can as on a time another Hermit but more holy of life experimented in a Nephew of his who notwithstanding that hee had brought him vp euen from his cradle in his hermitage shut vp from the sight of all Women-kinde and afterwards by chance following his Ghostly Father to a Towne when he had looked on the Sexe of women and askt his Father what creatures those prettie
his lamentation and comforted himselfe It is in vaine and too late for a man to seeke the reuersing of the diuine Iudgement when he hath not the Grace to goe to the Physician before he fall sicke It is a sacrilegious sinne in the Pope to make men belieue that it lieth in his power to redeeme any mans soule from the place where the Almightie hath seated it seeing that hee cannot adde one yeere more to his owne life then is allotted him by the course of nature nor borrow one minute of an houre to allay the pangs of his owne death The very Best haue enough to doe to saue their owne soules without presuming to vndergoe a fruitlesse labour for another man Yea though these three men were among them Noah Daniel and Iob they should deliuer but their owne soules by their righteousnesse saith the Lord God Seeing that Iesus Christ by his death and Passion hath satisfied his Fathers Iustice and makes continuall intercession for the Penitent let none despaire nor trust any other besides this powerfull Mediatour CHAP. XI Gratian the Canonist conuents the Waldenses and Albigenses before Apollo for celebrating diuine Seruice in their Country Language and not according to the Rites of the Romish Church Zuinglius defends their cause by the Authoritie of the Scriptures and of the Primitiue Church Apollo pronounceth a definitiue Sentence against the Pope on the behalfe of the Waldenses and Albigienses NO sooner had Apollo refelled the vse of Popish Pardons inuented of purpose to make good the old saying that Purgatory is a very pick-parse but Gratian the Canonist framed a supplicatioÌ„ against the Waldenses and Albigienses wherein he shewed that whereas Ignorance was the Mother of Deuotion and thereupon the Church of Rome to retaine true hearted simplicitie in the bowels of her children had like a politicke Mother forbidden the reading of the Scripture in their Countries language to the intent that green-headed people sowgelders and base Mechanickes should not dispute of diuine Mysteries which surpassed their vulgar capacities yet those rude mountanists Montanae belluae presumed to vnlocke the cabinet of the Bible and to reade Gods Seruice in their barbarous Tongue Whereby much euill contentions and continuall bangling arose of late yeeres among Christians which otherwise might haue lyen couered as fire vnder ashes Zuinglius a notable Diuine of Suitzzerland being deputed by the Waldenses Albigienses to defend their cause stood vp and said with what face can you O Gratian blame these honest men for seeking the surest meanes of Saluation Who will still stand groping in the darke that may enioy the free light of the Sunne Haue not they soules to looke vnto aswell as the Pope himselfe and his Cardinals In reading the Word of God Faith increaseth And the Gifts of the Holy Ghost multiplyeth in relenâ—ing hearts So that Peace Vnitie and Loue as a â—uster of Grapes doe spring vp together and beare downe the wrangling opposites Neither is it any new Religion which they professe For all your Chronicles can testifie that these people haue departed from the Romish Church and proclaymed the Pope to be Antichrist aboue three hundred yeers before Luther was borne And for the reading of diuine Seruice in a more familiar language they haue the Scriptures for their warrant and the Primitiue Church for a patterne The Prophet Dauid pronounceth that man blessed which studies the Lawes of the Lord and therein exerciseth himselfe day and night Saint Iohn recommends them to the weaker sexe and children as appeares by his Epistle written to the Elect Lady and her children Saint Paul protesteth that hee had rather speake fiue words to bee vnderstood then ten thousand in a strange language And in another place he prayseth Timothy that hee knew the Holy Scriptures of a child Saint Basill in his infancie was instructed in the Bible by his Nurse Macrina Saint Ierome extols Paula a learned Matron for teaching her Maides to vnderstand the Scripture Theodoret speaking of the ancient Christians in his time You shall saith he see euery where the chiefe points of our Faith read and vnderstood not onely of our Doctors but also of shoo-makers Smiths and weauers and of all kind of Artificers not onely of our learned women but likewise of them which get their liuing by their Needles and of Mâ—id seruants not onely of citizens but also of Husbandmen insomuch that you shall be 〈◊〉 among us ditchers and Heardsmen arguing of 〈◊〉 Trinitie of the Worlds creation and of other deepâ— points of diuinitie Saint Chrysostome called for his Eloquence the Golden mouthed Doctour exhorteth all men to reade the Scriptures Heare me all yee Laymen get yee Bibles which are Physicke for the Soule Or at least wise prouide your selues of the New Testament Saint Paul prophesied that Antichrist should bee consumed with the Spirit of the Lords mouth What is the meaning of this but that hee must bee condemned by the Word of God declared in the Canonicall Scripture Euen by this Testimony the Sword of the Spirit at the bright brandishing whereof the Romish Clerkes runne away like Cowards and flye from them as if they were their mortall Enemies relying in stead of God Spirit vpon the Spirit of man which speaking without such immediate Reuelations cannot but Erre and grossely Erre The consideration of this weightie point enforced Doctor Fisher Bishop of Râ—chester in his Booke against Luther to wish for some other meanes to put downe the Protestants then the Holy Scriptures Therefore quoth he when Hereticks contend with vs we must defend our cause by some other helpes then by the sacred Scripture In this they verifie the effects of that wonderfull Booke which Saint Iohn in the Reuelation auerred to be as sweet as Honey in the mouth but afterwards bitter in the belly that is to say sweet to read because it promised euerlasting life but for all that bitter in the stomacke when Crosses came to bee digested when they were to forsake the pomps and vanities of this seducing world and specially when that counsell of our Sauiour came to be put in execution Sell all that which thou hast and come and follow mee No wonder then that the Pope and his Cardinalls delighting in temporall glorie cannot abide to try their Controuersies by the euidence thereof but with the hazard of some poore Schollers liues they send them abroad as Frogs out of the Dragons mouth to croke and crake of Antiquitie and Traditions but in no wise to contend with vs by the Bibles Testimonie This Booke proues indeed very bitter to their stomacks who hunt after worldly Preferments While the Bodies of the two Testaments lay despised moth eaten and shut vp in their libraries the Great Men of the world after their massacring in the Cities of spirituall Sodome and Aegypt sent Gifts and Presents the one to the other in token of gladnesse So iocond were worldlings as long as they might doâ—
admonition Saint Paul giues vs that in the Church vnder Antichrist there should bee working of Satâ—â—n with all Power Signes and lying wonders The like doth Saint Iohn prophesie of Spirits of Deuils working wonders In the Primitiue Church when the Gospell was setled Miracles ceased Which made Saint Chrysostome to answer their curiositie which looked for such rare signes in this wise There be some saith he that aske why men now adaâ—es doe not worke Miracles as the Apostles did If thou beleeuest Christ as thou oughtest thou hast no neede of Miracles for these were giuen to vnbeleeuers and not to beleeuers Sometimes God permits men with iugling trickes and legerdemaine or by the Deuils deuises to deceiue them either to â—rie the soundnesse of their Faith or to confirme them in their Errors As heretofore he suffered the Israelites to bee deluded with Baals Priests and the Golden Calfe who assuredly produced the like Miracles as the Iesuites boast of The tenth marke of Antichrist whom Saint Iohn calls the Whâ—re of Babilon the mother of Harlots and abhominations of the Earth is that shee shall be drunken with the bloud of the Saints and the Martyrs of Christ Iesus Of whom may this bee more significantly spoken then of the Pope How many thousands haue beene murthered in France in the Low Countryes and other places of Christendome by his procurement euen those which acknowledge Christ Iesâ—â— for their onely Mediatour with the Father which confesse the euer-liuing God in Vnitie and Trinitie hath hee caused to bee burnt for Hereticks or made to row as slaues in Spaines Gallies O bloudy Tyrannie O poisonous Imposture which vnder the colour of the Catholicke Faith doth shed the bloud of Innocents like mercilesse Hâ—râ—d not sticking to wound Christ anew through his seruants sides CHAP. XVI Apolloes iudgement of Chauâ—ers Apologie concluding that the Pope is the great Aâ—tichrist AFter that Sir Geffrey Chaucer had ended his speech Apollo gaue his definitiue sentence in this wise Euen as all the lesser sicknesses in mans bodie doth grow and descend into the Plague when contagion raignes And as by reason of oppilations the shutting vp of the spirits passages and their want of transpiration through the veynes all other inferiour diseases fall into the miserable Seâ—râ—y and principally for want of the Sunnes presence in the winter So for want of the Holy Spirits illumination caused through the corruptions of mens depraued wills by little and little the Antichrist increased and grew as it were with an inundation into one great Sea the Romish Sea Euen as Mahomet composed his Alcoran of many Sects so the Romish Religion by the policie of the Pope is stuffed and stored with many Heresies which all meeting together in his ambitious spirit and transferred to his successours doe make him that great Antichrist From Elixay the Heretick hee borrowed his Doctrine of celebrating Diuine seruice in an vnknown language For such was his Heresie From Montanâ—s the Heretick he learned to prescribe his rules of Fasts For hee first limited times of Fasting From the Collyridians he was inspired to worship the Virgin Marie From the Caianes to inuocate on Angels From the Carpocratians to adore the Image of lesus and Saint Paul From the Manichees and the Aebionites he got that damnable precept to prohibit Marriage vnto the Clergie Euen as all true Christians haue a relation vnto Christ their Head being through Faith his ingraffed members like as also the Patriarkes and Prophets vntill Christ had a dependance vpon that great Prophet whom God promised to raise vp like vnto Aloses so on the other side all the lesser Heretickes depend vpon Antichrist through whose lying mouth they oppose the Truth and the Apostles Humilitie And as Machiauellian members they ioyne with one consent to aduance his Maiesticall power though many of them in their consciences are fully perswaded that such state and pomp in a Clergie man cannot but displease the Author of Humilitie who pronounced them blessed which are poore in spirit CHAP. XVII Apolloes sentence promulgated for the Impurity of the Church Militant D. Whitgift Arch bishop of Canterbury complaines against Cartwright Browne and other Puritane Separists for inuaighing against their Superiours Apollo condemnes thâ— Sect exhorting them to vnitie to return to the bosom of their Mother Church AFter Apollo had condemned the Arch-hereticks of the Christian Church he caused that saying of that Ancient Father to bee retorted against the like erroneous seducers Ecclesia non diâ— post Apostolorum tempora mansit virgo That the Church after the Apostles time continued not long a Virgin And this his Maiestie did to the end all mouthes should bee stopt which arrogate to themselues extraordinarie Holinesse as the Popes doe who as his Courtly Cardinalls affirme cannot erre or which ascribe to themselues a degree of greater puritie in calling and conuersation then others of their Brethren in Christ forgetting his neuer fayling prophesie All men are liers Another cause why his Maiestie aduised his Religious Christians to remember that saying was to the end that they should not become amazed nor troubled when any hot-spurs and busie braind people doe maintaine new opinions differing from the old but rather to call into their memories that many false Christs many fraudulent Sects must from time to time spring vp in the Church like taxes among the good seede to shewe likewise that no Creatures can bee long pure without some spots or taint and that God alone who created them is only pure No sooner had Apollo ended these reasons for the Churches Impuritie but the graue and learned Whitgift Archbishop of Canterburie informed his Maiestie that one Cartwright Browne and others stiling themselues Puritans Precisians and holy ly Separists inueighed against him and his fellow Bishops with Libels and defamations worse then Oâ—id against Ibis or any woman scold put in a Cuckinstoole because hee gaue order in his visitations to present refractaries and stubborne minded persons disobedient to Authoritie and kicking against things indifferent triuiall and indeed very bables in respect of Faith Humilitie Charitie and Diuine Gifts which they had now more cause to pray for then to spend their precious times in railing and withstanding those outward things tending only to distinguish the Leuits from the Temporall Tribes to the view of the outward man whose fancie must bee stirred by outward obiects aswell as inward Apollo at the report of these selfe-opinions like to breake into a schismatick combustion became mightily perplext Yet like himselfe recollecting his spirituall tempers and resuming his wonted Maiestie hee said to Cartwright Browne and the rest of the Pâ—ritâ—â—icall Sect How long will you persist by your peenish positions to minister scandall vnto your Christian Corporation I haue long since heard of your rash and turbulent oppositions against your Churches Canons But I hoped that the calme dew which awaites on the â—iluer and staid age of Maturitie had by this time cooled
might walke on simply and sincerely towards the Feast of the Lamb. But this is not the first Easter which you haue disturbed For the common voice goes that your Sect vnder your name haue alienated one Neighbours loue from the other and done more harme in the Low Countryes then all their warres with Spaine Which inconuenience Affricke sometimes felt as an ancient Writer testified plus incommodi capiebat Africa ex Secta Arriana qua insecti erant Vandali quam ab auaritiâ corundem vel crudelitate ijs innata Africke receiued greater hurt from the Arrian Sect wherewith the Vandals were infected then by their griping couetousnesse or crueltie though the same were naturall vnto them In alledging that mans free will must aide and cooperate with the Grace of God you cannot but ascribe glorie vnto flesh and bloud which is fraile and honour vnto Nature which the Serpent wounded with a mortall sting For what is Free will but an Electiue power to deliberate and determine what it pleaseth In naturall things as to eate and drinke to sit or walke to sing or play I allow of such a Free will in humane affections But in heauenly matters it is sacriledge worse then Prometheus his flealth whom the Poets fabled feloniously to conuey away some of Iupiters fire It is indeed traitorous impietie to rob God of his Prerogatiue Grace is only his to conferre on his vessell of honor â—nto men shame only belongeth as the Prophet protested And as another confirmeth of more ancient writ The way of man is not in himselfe neither is it man to walke and to direct his steps meaning any power to make vse of in Godly Actions Man planteth Apollo watereth but when all comes to the vpshot it is God which giues the increase as Saint Paul confesseth How dare yee O bewitched Arminians attribute the least glorie to a putrifide carcasse How dare yee auouch that a man being called and iustified according to Gods purpose which neuer changeth may fall away from Grace wholy and finally To bring in a Decree respectiuely argues you are better seene in Tautologie then in Theologie in Sophistrie then in the Doctrine of Predestination This is to ecclipse Gods Sunne-shine of Grace and to set vp Phacton to pull downe his power and to set a beggar a horsebacke For in affording such excellencie to a man you must needes ascribe somewhat to his worth and merit which can bee no other then Damnation Though man hath Faith Loue and Charitie hee cannot say that God made choice of him for one of his Elect number because hee foresaw that man was able to take hold of these Diuine Gifts for these are not the causes but the effects of his calling but onely because of his owne absolute pleasure it seemed good vnto his wisdom to choose him without any such cause of merit foreseene in man though afterwards when he had called him hee bestowed vpon him these Heauenly gifts at the intercession of his Sonne who was to bee incarnate for mans saluation By this meanes and for this cause were sinfull men elected called iustified and glorified before the world began euen for his owne honour and for our Redeemers sake by whom and in whom we were to bee incorporated and ingraffed as bastard-slips quite salne from the state of innocencie by Adams succeeding fall which his all-seeing Maiestie saw as in a liuely Map alreadie come to passe as afterwards Adam and his whole Progenie sensibly perceiued And there by the way I signifie vnto you O heedlesse Armâ—nians that your too much regard of naturall causes and effects your humane calculating and intentiue computation of Time according to the errors of the outward man hath beene the prime cause of this absurditie For God seeth not as man seeth His foresight is eternall that is alwaies present There is no Time past nor future tense declined by his euerlasting Grammar though mortall race in respect of their limited capacities vse this manner of calculation A thousand yeares in his fight are but as yesterday Hee is Alpha Omega the beginning and last vncircumscribed infinite and without end So that hee which searcheth and diueth ouercuriously into this depth of Predestination hee may fall into the Gulfe of Scilla by seeking to auoide the danger of Charybdis Therefore the safest way for man is with Saint Paul to reioyce in his infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in him His Grace is sufficient for him for his power is made perfect through mans weaknesse Let not your eyes gaze too long vpon the Sunnes beames lest they become dazeled or blinded with the glorious Maiestie thereof Content your selues with such nourishment as serues fittest for your tender constitutions and for the reach of your humane capacities I say as the Apostle said through the grace that is giuen vnto me I say to euery one that is among you that no man presume to vnderstand aboue that which is meet to bee vnderstood but that hee vnderstand according to Sobriâ—tie Leaue off your curious inquisitions and doe your best endeauours to let the world know that you are of Gods elected number by your Faith Loue Charitie and Humilitie And for you Arminius wee take it in ill part that you without acquainting vs with your theoricall Proiect would diuulge abroad your Theses and Problemes to confound the Intelligence of your yonger brethren How much better and safer had it beene for you to smother your profound doubts then to work confusion by the publishing of them vnlesse you thought by this improuident dispersing of the notions of your braine to goe beyond Erostratus who fired Dianaes Temple at Ephesus for no other intent then to be spoken of in after ages to haue done some Act worthy to bee recorded in the Chronicles as likewise Guy Faukes attempted in England to blow vp the Parliament house Wee doe now order that you for these presumptions do openly before our Congregation to bee held at Libethrum vpon the Mâ—nday following after Trinity Sunday next make a full recantation of your scrupulous Paradoxe and there penitently confesse that God called and elected sinfull man out of his owne free secret and vnquestionable pléasure without hauing any respect at all to maâ—s ensuing merit or free will but onely to his owne attribute of Mercie to the absolute power which his Deity hath ouer the workmanship of his hands as the Potter ouer his vessels and to the righteousnesse of his Sonne the vndefiled Lamb which redeemed Sinners out of the Deuils iawes And also you shall here protest that all men whatsoeuer though they were as iust as Henoch as faithfull as Abraham as meck as Moses as zealous as Phinehes as patient as lob as penitent as Dauid as constant as Elias as wise as Daniel as godly as Saint Iohn Baptist who wasmore then a Prophet yet all these notwithstanding were predestinated to bee saued not for any deseruing vertues which God foresaw in
vnder-ballance of Trade with other Nations that it is high time now or neuer to looke about before wee bee driuen to a narrower pinch The causes in two words of this ouer-ballancing is Prodigality and Pouerty The one brings in by Excesse of Forraigne goods into the Kingdome an ouerballancing The other by the Defect and hauing too little from their partiall Mother keeps our Trading backe in vnder ballance Apollo sighed at the relation and all his Court which fauoured the Protestant Religion both outwardly and inwardly demonstrated great heauines for this Decay of Trade in Great Brittaine that in the dayes of peace vnder a Religious King this vnder-ballance should happen and openly protested that Peace consumed more men and goods in that Kingdom then all their Warres with Spaine and Tyrone Likewise his Maiesty said that if the Noble King Iames had not betimes raised the Iacobus piece to twenty two shillings and his other Gold to the like proportion other Nations had by this time attracted all the treasure of this land vnto themselues and that the riotous flaunting in Apparell with their prodigall Feasts did helpe to vnder-ballance their Trading which together with many other abuses crept into that State hee wished some of the Inhabitants if they had any feeling of their Countreyes smart should present without delay or partiality CHAP. 2. Apollo causeth a Iury to be impanelled out of the Vniuersities of Oxford Cambridge S â— Aâ—drews Aberdine and the Colledge at Dubin to find out those persons which sold Ecclesiasticall Liuings The Presâ—ntours discouering some bring them before Apollo His Maiesties censure with his discourse of the Right of Tithes APollo perceiuing that one of the chiefest causes of the miseries which perplexed Great Brittain proceeded from Siâ—â—ny and the enforced Periury of some Ministers who being driuen by meete necessity were faine to accommodate themselues to the iniquity of the times caused about Whitsontide last 1626. a Iury to be impanelled of the precisest Preachers in that Monarchy viz. sixe out of the Vniuersitâ— of Oxford sixe out of Cambridge sixe out of St. Andrewes sixe out of Aberdine and the like number out of the Colledge at Dublin in Ireland 30. in all integros vitae scelerisque puros men of vnattainted liues and pure from notorious vices These his Imperiall Maiesty appointed to enquire of such Patrons as presumed directly or indirectly to play the Marchants and sell those worldly meanes which God himselfe had allotted to his earthly Angels towards their maintenance and wages in labouring to reduce his astrayed flocke to their true Shepheard Ouâ—r this impanelled ranke he placed D. Raynolds a man of very austere Conuersation so temperate in his affections that hee made choise rather to bee Head â—â— Corpus Christs Colledge in Oxford then to become a Bishop which the famous Queene Elizabeth offereâ— vnto him About ten dayes after the Inquisitors returned and presented the names of 40. Patrons and so many Ministers which had truckt and bargained for Benefices Likewise they presented that 6. Widdowes whose Husbands had coped and giuen 4. yeers purchase for Benefices were ready to starue some of them hauing seuen or eight children lying on their hands And that before the first fruits were satisfied without receiuing one penny for their purchase their poore Husbands died Apollo moued to Commiseration to see the wretched estate of the Church brought to this wofull plight said that it was no maruell all things went to wrack and ruine in that Noble Iland when the Patrimony of the Church became a prey and pillage to Marchandizing Greedy-guts For how quoth he can vertue harbour in their hearts when the Rewards of vertue are rauished embezeled and turned topsy turuy This inequality compelled many braue Spirits desperately to runne into the gulfe of discontentment This made Campian Parsons Harding Stapleton Creswell Dallison Garnet and infinite others to forgo their natiue Countrey and betake themselues to the Seminary Colledges in Doway in Valladolide Ciuill Rome and other Popish places After these speeches his Maiesty ask't the delinquent Patrons what infernall fury possessed them to wrong the Ministers the selected seruants of their Heauenly Father Why they forced them to buy their owne Right and due The Patrons answered that they held a hand ouer the Aduowsons and Ecclesiasticall liuings in their gifts aswell as ouer the impropriate Tithes Both which being wrested and extorted by the Clergy-men themselues heretofore in time of Popery towards the Religious houses belonged as a lawfull spoile vnto them for ridding the Land of such Lazy Lordanes Abbey-lubbers Likewise they alleged that they could not support their magnifique Port and pompe without making sale of such Benefices as were in their donations To this Apollo replied Though yee haue beene tolerated to detaine the impropriate Tiâ—hes dare ye aduenture to take money for those Spirituall Liuings which appertaine not vnto you ◠〈◊〉 yee againe deuoure the forbidden Fruit Could not the many examples of them which felt the Stroke of Diuine vengeance for purloyning of forbidden Wares terrify your mercenary minds Achâ—n for the wedge of Gold and the Babyâ—oâ—ishâ—ayment â—ayment was stoned to death Gehezi for receiuing the two Talents and the change of garments from Naaman was strucken with Leprosie No ill gotten goods can long thriue with any man Male parta male dilabuntur which yee might obserue by the Crane in the Embleme which hauing a wrongfull prey could not digest it As in like manner it befell to an Eagle which snatching a Coale from the Altar fired her nest therewith Famous are the destructions of sacrilegious persons in all ages Of Heliodorus who was scourged by an Angell for seeking to rob the treasure of the Templeat Ierusalem of Pompey which tooke away the Golden Table out of that sanctified place of the Galles which spoyled the Delphicke Church of Câ—piâ— who robbed the Church of Toloza that gaue an occasion to the Prouerb Aurum Tolozanum which proued fatall to the takers Although these two last serue not so fit for our turne because they were Heathenish yet in as much as they portend fatal success Malâ—omeÌ„ to the rakers of Church goods let men feare to share in Sacred things or in any Commodity annexed to the Spiritualty But now-a-dayes yee are not content onely to exact of the poore Ministers such vnreasonable prizes but yee must get some by humane reasons and vnwarrantable authority to iustifie your Acts training their ouerfluent wits to proue the Word of God to become mutable in matters of Tithe for the â—onfounding of which leprous opinion I will now onuert my speech vnto you my learned Courtiers Be it knowne vnto you that Tithes are due to the Clergy Iure Diuino before the Law by the Law of Moses and vnder the Gospell Before the Law Abraham payed Tithes to Melchisedâ—ch euen the tenth part of all which he had as the Authour to the Hebrewes explayned Hee payd Tithes as a temporall Prince to a
content in some degree or other To this end I inuented this new Letany knowing that my gracious Mistresse liked pleasant raptures better then the graue and austere rules of the Stoicks As for the proâ—aâ—ing of the name of Letany while vnder the shadow thereof I couch matters of some moment I hope it redounds not so preiudicially infamous to your vertuous Court as for a Papist to be called a Catholicke or for a smatterer in Logick to be termed a Sophister or for a peeuish Diuine to be stiled a Puritane If my Letany be throughly scanned vnder that title Mâ— Broughton shall meet with as much substance to edifie the common sort of people as with his Hebrew Genealogies to enrich the learned It is not a Cowle or hood which makes a Monke Cucullus non facit Monachum nor is it a shauen or bald Crown which makes a Priest for a man may lose his haire with the Poxe or for want of radicall moisture in that part of the head as chanced to the Poet Aeschylus on whose bald pate an high soaring Eagle did let fall a shel-fish with intent to breake it as on a stone Nor doth along beard make a man aiudicious Socrates bar batum hoc crede Magistrum Dicere sorbitio quem tollit dira Cicutae whom a forc't draught of Hemblocks iuyce did kill We see the Goat stalking with a long beard Yet who will take him for a religious beast that climbes vp to the Altar and feedes on the sacred flowers Barbatus li 〈◊〉 Caper tamen esse negamus Hunc recta et purâ Relligione pecus It is not the baâ—e outside the vsurping of a naked name which can disgrace an honest Action If vnder the name of Letany I haue alluded to any lewd passage whereby youth may be corrupted or the state of Parnassus defamed I appeale to Caesar to your Maiesties iudgement Apollo after that Florio had thus defended his cause yeelded his censure in these few words Whosoeuer goes about to depriue men of all kinde of pleasure seekes to depriue them of freedome and of a cheerefull nature which God preferres before a sullen crabbed mind as was that of Cains Beeing tempred it consorts well in an ingenuous Scholler For thereby hee shall auoid the name of a laughing Democritus with his tickling spleene and also of a weeping Heraclitus with his melancholy passion The title of Letany derogates not froÌ„ grauity while it tends not to base scurrility but rather to a vertuous morality There is a time to teach to exhort and there is a time to fling stones against the wind There is a time of earnest things to write A time to talke of matters small light A time to walk to run to ride or praunce A time to sit and laugh or lead a Daunce There is a time for men to fast and pray And so a time to sing like Birds in May. CHAP. 6. Apollo asketh the Author of the Golden Fleece wherefore his Countreymen of Wales hauing the commodiousnesse of the Sea with a large scope of land are notwithstanding very much impouerished of late The Author imputes the cause vnto the multitude of Law Suites Vpon Thursday in the Easter weeke 1626 while the rest of his Maiesties Subiects of Great Brittaine consulted how they might repaire the decay of Trade lately hapned by Prodigality Excesse of Aparrell Tobacco and other enormities in this Iland fostred and cherished besides our losses a broad by the Mâ—â—rish Pirates and now of late by the Dunkirkes it was my good fortune to be present at Apolloes Court in Parnassus Where likewise his Imperiall Maiesty sate in Councell about the same affaires because there might bee a perpetuall correspondency betwixt his diuine Court our humane actions As soone as Apollo saw Orpheus Iunior it pleased him to demaund of him the resolution of 〈◊〉 Questions which he presently proposed Whereof the former was wherefore his natiue Couâ—◠〈◊〉 Wales being a Peninsula almost an Iland compassed about with the Sea in forme of an horse-shoo like little Brittaine in France from the riuer Dee and Chester round about to Glocester hauing aboue 100. Riuers running out into the Sea beside Seuerne and d ee yet for all this large Tract commodiousnesse they had not ten Ships whereas Deuoâ—shire alone our neighbour vpon Seuerne not contayning the tenth part of land flourished with 150. ships The other Question was wherefore their enclosed lands as also their mountaines and Commons lay desolate not halfe stockt and their Corne fields in most places so bare of Corne that a stranger would thinke eyther that the earth produced such graine naturally wild or else that the Locusts of Aethiopia had wasted and harried the same Vnto these demands hee craued an houres respit to answer At the end whereof he returned his resolutions in this wise I could haue wisht that these Questions had been askt of some iudicious Gentlemen of these parts whom pâ—â—tly by familiar acquaintance and partly by fame I know to be far better experienced and consequently more sufficient to yeeld your Highnesse satisfaction in these demands of import But seeing most vertuous Emperour the Fates that is your incuitable pleasure allotted this charge vnto my weake capacity I will not spare to display the causes according to that measure and taleÌ„t which God hath giueÌ„ me In the entrance whereof a Story comes into my mind out of an old Spanish Booke printed at Salamanca aboue one hundred thirty yeeres past entituled The causes of the pouerty of Spain dedicated to Fâ—rdinandâ— and Isabella before the conquest of Granata and the discouery of the West Indies by Columbus Among other reasons the Author imputes the breeding of Asses and the vse of barren Mules in stead of Bâ—ls and Oxen to be the prime and waightiest cause of their necessities For whereas in Hercules time the goodliest Kine of the world were found with Gerion and Cacus in that Countrey since the rearing of those vnprofitable Beasts and the Golden Mines of Bebellio in the Pâ—renean Mountaines and the graines of Gold in Tagus Sands were exhaustâ—d dry Spaine became the most miserable Region of Europe Now my Countrey of Wales appeares in my iudgement to haue some resemblance with Spaine as it stood in those dayes being like vnto it for situatâ—â—n and the vneuen â—esse of ground vp hill and downe hill yet enriched with faire vallies and a boue all with the benefit of the Sea as your Maiesty hath well obserued But our grieuance is that in stead of plentifull droues of Cattell which heretofore serued vs aswell for our sustentation as to supply our necessities abroad wee haue studied that fabulous Booke of Ouids Metamorphosis so much that our stocke is decayed and now-a dayes we reare vp two-legged Asses which doe nothing but wrangle in Law the one with the other By this meanes wee consume our precious time not to bee redeemed By this vngracious brood wee become so impouerished that our
Neighbours of Deuoâ—shire notwithstanding our large Circuit of the Sea and our infinite extent of land goe farre beyond vs in shipping and necessary Trading Apollo informed of this heynous abuse replied No man proues vnfortunate but by his owne procurement In whom lies this fault but in your selues Who can redresse this grosse absurdity better then your owne selues Pardon mee most Noble Prince said Orpheus Iunior It consists not in our powers to withstand what Heauen hath decreed as a punishment for our Ancest ours sinnes and ours The meanes for our Education are farre short in espect of the wise English Nation In times of Superstition most of our Church-liuings by our too much simplicity became a prâ—y to Religious houses Which being dissolued in King Henry the Eights dayes and by Act of Parliament confiscate to the Crowne as Impropriations our Curates stand as before but reasonably prouided for not able scarce to haue Whay to themselues much lesse to feed their weanelings with milke as Saint Paul aduiseth I know many Parishes whereof the Tithes of euery one amount to two hundred pound a yere and yet the poore Ministers receiue not ten pounds a piece yea and some of them but twenty nobles out of which they pay Tenths Subsidies and other impositions So that for want of maintenance both Shepheards and Flockes doe oftentimes miscarrie and wee two-legged Asses can hardly recouer true humane shapes Nor is this the onely cause of our Pouertie We are subiect to more inconueniences then the English Nation for we stand in feare and our feares are not in vaine continually without intermission to be sued at the Courts of Westminster at the Counsell of the Marches at the Spirituall Courts at home and in London notwithstanding that wee haue the Courts of Assize of double the terme then they haue in England besides our Quarterly Sessions of the Peace our Countie and Stewards Courts Nor yet haue I ended all the afflictions of poore Wales Within these two and twentie yeeres the number of Clerkes and Sollicitours at the Counsell of the Marches haue encreased so exorbitantly if not prodigiously that whereas I knew not aboue one or two of these Clerkes in a Shire now I can point at a doozen and more in most Shires whereof many of them haue three or foure Foot-posts which they call Cursitors belonging vnto euery of them whose Office is continually to runne for Processes insomuch that one of these Clerkes sent for a hundred and fortie Processes against one of their times called the Appearance for they sit ofner then Westminster the most part of them for matter not appertaining to the Iurisdiction of that Court I haue knowne men sued for a shilling and vnder to that remote place I will speake all I know for the reuerence I beare to Authoritie and to the Seate of Iustice which ought to be sacred But I could wish all Courts to liue within their Precincts and not to goe one inch from their Instructions to take away the occasions of debate and not as our late King Iames of blessed memory noted to seeke more moulture to their Mill then of right belongs In former times they neuer vsed to direct binding Processes but against Fugitiues They neuer sent Pursuiuants nor Serieants at Armes in matters of Debt betwixt Partie and Party but onely in Criminall and high natured Causes where the King was immediately interessed They seldome vsed to fine the Plaintiffe for charitable yeelding to an attonement at home or if they did it was but small in the nature of a mild amercement They endeuoured by all meanes to establish Loue and Charity among Neighbours and were glad to heare those good newes of their Conuersions though their Gaine came in the lesse They often vsed to repeate that Prouerbe of Salomon euen at their meales Better it is to sup a messe of Pottage with quietnesse of minde then to haue a whole Oxe with strife They trembled and made a conscience to take money of any fellow Christian though due vnto them for sentence or verdict if the same came like so many drops of life-bloud from his heart They cared more for the Defendant then for the Plaintiffe vnlesse the Cause were too abhominable Why then I see said Apollo if some of your Courts were abolished you might quickly grow wealthy both by Sea and Land For if the Occasions of Suites were taken away men would follow their Husbandry diligently at home fall to enclosures plant Orchards marle their Lands and not scratch the Earth with weake Heyfers or Steeres They might then keepe strong Oxen to plough withall which now they are enforced to sell for their Lawiers vse The Sea might be aswell frequented by you as by the Deuonshire men Surely if the Noble King of great Britaine would release you from the Courts of London or else discharge the Court in the Marches I see no reason but you might fall to industrious courses aswell as others Dcuonshire and Cornwall are a great deale further from London then the remotest Part of Wales and their Termes of Assizes shorter by halfe then yours And yet they liue in good securitie one Neighbour with the other and doe all ioyne in honest Trading both at home and in the Newfoundland augmenting their fortunes and breeding store of Mariners and shipping Your Court at the Marches was first instituted to suppresse rebellious Attempts and Traitours specially Owen Glyndowrdie who was so called for taking part with King Richard the Second But now me thinkes it might very well be spared seeing that those stormes bee long sithence by King Henry the Seuenth comming to the English Crowne quite vanished and that now-adayes a man may trauell in Wales as safely as in any other Part of the Kingdome The consideration of the Premisses we doe neuerthelesse referre to your Prudent and generous King And I belieue there is neuer a poore man worth fortie shillings but will contribute somwhat with all his heart towards the Wars or for a gratefull Beneuolence to his Prince to be acquited of some of these Courts For indeed I heard that a Knight of Staffordshire who dwelt but three miles distant from the Iurisdiction of the Marches should say that he would not for a 1000. Markes his house had stood those three miles further towards Wales by reason of those troubles which they were subiect vnto more then his Countrey CHAP. VII Orpheus Iunior exhibits a Petition vnto Apollo to diminish the number of Lawyers and to punish their offences Apolloes Answere shewing how they may be restrained and punished ORpheus Iunior vnderstanding that Apollo burned with Zeale and Charitie to reforme the superfluiries of Law-suits which were not the least causes of the Decay of Trades in great Brittaine and fearing that in time to come their sufferance and continuance might yet worke a greater impediment to his Proiect of the Golden Fleece which with infinite care paines and some charge he hath for many yeeres managed and almost now
of Spaine And for this cause with his commendatory Letters from a Iesuite in England to his brother Iesuite Robert Parsons at Madrid he posted thither in hope of high preferment In the meane time his men which hee left a ship-boord finding themselues betrayed by Captaine Eliot and destitute of necessaries to relieue their wants they complotted to steale the Pinnasse away But the matter casually discouered some of them were hanged and the rest made Gally-slaues which comming to the eares of Captaine Eliot at Madrid and hearing that his Brother whom he had left to ouer-see the Pinnasse had likewise tasted of this Spanish Courtesie hee repayred in this male-content to Father Parsons pittifully complayning of his cruell fortune and this bloudie course extended toward his people which hee brought of purpose to serue the King of Spaine hoping of reward rather then to bee so inhumanely dealtwith Father Parsons at that time being more in a moode of deuotion then willing to shew himselfe a Statesman began to reade a Lecture to Captaine Eliot of Patience Humilitie and of Mortification The which hee for a while gaue eare vnto but at last perceiuing that his speeches tended to defeate him of his Ship and to get him into a Cloyster he brake into these impatient termes What doe you preach vnto mee of Patience and Mortification Can flesh and bloud rest satisfied with this vsage Can I be patient when I see my brother and my friends executed and the rest of my men condemned to the Gallies Had it not beene for the aduise which your friend and brother Iesuit gaue me to betray the Q Pinnasse I might haue liued in my own Countrie a happy man far from this barbarous end Surely it were fitting that those which vndertake for money to direct their Clients should requite them for their charges if by following their sinister Counsell the matter goes against them If a Smith hauing but a penny for his paines vnwitting ly chance to prick a horse to the quick whereby the horse is the worse for it there lyes an Action of the Case against the Smith How much more then ought a poore Country fellow altogether without the rudiments of Law haue remedie against a learned Master of the Lawes which takes vpon him to know the whole proceedings of Iustice aswell as the wisest Iudge of the Kingdome O I would that men would become more charitable the one to the other that I might heare from time to time the like complaints as Lawyers made at the end of Michaelmus Terme last 1625. They bewailed their misfortune that whereas some one of them vsed to haue sixtie Clients hee had scarce eight at that Redding Terme which complaints moued mee no more to pittie then to see a Goose goe bare foot I rather reioyced to heare the tidings that Suites of Law were not become eternall And presently I ministred this Pill vnto them My Masters said I you seeme for all the world to bee like the Sextons and Diggers of Graues now of late in London who when any askt them how they did they answered with you Neuer worse It is a hard time For whereas one of vs haue receiued fees for ringing and opening of foure hundred graues a weeke now the Plague being abated wee receiue not money for eight graues A pitifull Case To end this my Apologie against Doctor Bartolus and Master Plowden for my vsurping of Orpheus Iuniors Title I doe it permissu Superiorum by your Maiesties command emboldned by the examples of those which in the like matters borrowed the like Titles as Terentius Christianus and Democritus Iunior lately haue done to their great honour and the Readers satisfaction euen as Ausonius before them had imposed the name of Cato to his little Booke of Manners Nor can any man much blame me if hee compare the Aduentures of our Newfoundland with the Argonaâ—ticks Golden Fleece though more sweetly sounded by the elder Orpheus Apollo after this Apologie seemed highly to extoll it And further to let the world know his fuller resolution hee vttered these words God forbid that Vice should raigne without controulement If my Attendants shall bee tongue tied when such vncharitablenesse possesseth mortall men it is to be feared that men wil sooner glory in euill then turne to good nay more it is to be suspected the whole world but for our peales of Charitie and sounding retraits from Hatred will fall vnder a generall Excommunication from the presence of God Take away the abuse which is meerely accidentall and let the substance of Law remaine still Long may Iustice flourish without ecclipse or stormie oppositions Florescat viuat vigeat celebretur ametur CHAP. XII The learned Vniuersities of Great Brittaine doe finde themselues agrieued that Popish Physicians are permitted to practice Physick in this Kingdome Apollo remedies their grieuances and decreeth that the Popish presume not to minister Physick to any Protestant but to them of their owne Sect. VPpon the Wednesday after Low Easter Sunday there arriued at Parnassus certaine Deputies sent from the Learned Vniuersities of Great Brittaine pitifully complaining that whereas sundrie honest Persons of wonderfull rare Spirits and singular dexteritie had spent the most part of their time in ruminating reuoluing the workes of Hippocrates Cornelius Celsus Galen and also had read the volumes of other Physicians aswell Arabian as Paracelsian Antient as moderne there crept notwithstanding some false Brethren seruants to the Mysticall Whore as Drones which vnder a counterfeit maske of more pregnant knowledge had ingrossed the Gaine and Rewards due vnto them as the laborious Bees of their Country and wrought so effectually with some of the Greater sort that by their example others repaired to them for helps in their Bodily Infirmities forsaking them being of the same Religion and no way inferiour vnto these Romish Physicians The danger both eminent and imminent which by this conniuence might happen they submitted to his Maiesties good will and pleasure Apollo nettled at this complaint called for the Romish Physicians and caused some Patients which had lately taken Physick at their hands to be brought before him to whom he said O yee of little Faith what a lunacie and distemper of the Braine hath peruerted your vnderstanding as to moue you to abandon the medicinable waters of Silo and Bethesdae and to haue recourse vnto muddie Pooles not deriued from the Rocke of liuing waters Is it because there is not a God in Israel that yee goe to the God of Ekron to enquire and looke counsell Did the example of Lopez the Portugall who by warrant from the great Dispencer of Murthers poysoned some Noble Personages of your Countrie nothing terrifie your mutable phantasies but ye must resort for cure vnto your knowne Foes the Foes of Christ Is it possible that my Remedies shall worke their proper effect which are ministred by profane hands but rather the contrary being accursed like the Fig-tree in the Gospell It was a sinne in
Asa King of Iuda for putting his trust in Physicians of his owne Religion How much more had it beene if he had relied on succour from the vncircumcised If God blesse not the Physicke it proues ominously vnluckie and perhaps to the ruine of the Patient though for a time it may seeme to ease Doe we not often see that many men rise vp miraculously as it were from death to life like Hezechias when all earthly helpes proue vaine and fruitlesse euen by Kitchen Physicke So all blessings with Faith must concurre together with the Medecine or commonly it ill succeeds In tender consideration of these ensuing perils and in commiseration to the states of your Soules and Bodies which may suffer for want of mature Discretion to discerne Friends from Foes We Order that no Papisticall Physician minister Counsell nor Receit in Physicke to any Protestant from this day forward but that euery Patient do repaire to some of their owne Religion to whom Rewards belong and whom God hath ordained for a vertuous purpose We do also order that these Verses of Orphcus Iuniors be annexed to this Decree Misso pecunifices volo te Medicosque cauere Caedere Magnates quos Mariana docet c. Beware of Physicke mixt by Romish brood Whom Mariane taught to let great Princes bloud By Lopez learne by poyson hir'd to kill What mind those haue a Christians bloud to spill Tobacco late which men haue brought froÌ„ Spain Is thought to taint the bloud heart lungs brain The Iesuits this teach as a point of merit To murther some and Heauen to inherit Lust creepes and Theft by opportunitie Then cheere not Aesops Snake with iollitie CHAP. XI The Nobilitie of Parnassus doe complaine that their Inferiours with their Wiues doe weare richer Apparell then themselues shewing likewise that they haue encroached on other Priuiledges of theirs to be hurried in Coaches by which presumptions many other Corruptions are lately crept into Apolloes Court. VPon Thursday in the Easter-weeke last 1626. the Noble Families of the Fabricy and Lenâ—ulâ— and others aswell of the Romanes as of the ancient Bloud of the Argines complayned vnto his Maiestie shewing that one of the chiefest Causes of the decay of Trading and of the want of Money in these Times proceeded through the proud affectation of men of Inferiour Rankes who contrary to the Prescriptions of Ciuill Gouernment following the Example of Lucifer the Prince of Pride had perked vp so high that they wore gorgeous Garments more glorious then Princes And not so content they pestered the streets of Parnassus with needlesse Coaches so that Carters and Wainmen could hardly passe to and fro with necessary prouision and commodities for the Courtiers and Citizens vse Apollo informed of these indignities sent for the Lords Reformers before him and askt how this Excesse got into his Imperiall Citie which ought to bee the mirrour and sountaine of moralitie They answered that the World as it grew in Age so it multiplied in Infirmities That the Prince of this World perceiuing the state of Religion to become better purified then in former times whereby he lost many Soules had infected a great number of his Maiesties Subiects with the poyson of Toades to make them swell with Ambition to the end they might burst and that he by that meanes might repaire his great losses which the Protestant Religion had caused to his Infernall Kingdome And that for the further setling of his poysonous power hee had employed Asmodeus the Spirit of Lust and other petty Agents of his to sow Tares in the night season after the Dinine Preachers had in the day time plowed and sowed pure seed in mens hearts That likewise he had seduced their embosomed second selues whom they terme the Night-crowes to insinâ—ate on his behalfe the Pompes and vaine glory of humane loftinesse into their Husbands Heads and neuer to cease pecking vntill they preuailed of their purpose to expell his mortall Enemie the Spirit of Humilitic which the Holy Ghost had placed for his Deputie Guardian in their minds The Reformers also declared that the Deuill had so strongly possessed some of them both men and women that to continue their brauery of Apparell and charge of Coaches they mutually agreed sometimes to horne the other but yet so slily and politickly that they might take off their Hornes at set times and lay them in their pockets to keepe for feare of too grieuous a head-ach To this end they vsed this Song the one to the other It matters not so much to weare the Horne If that it might be free from others scorne Hornes haue no cure but when thy selfe art sped To graffe those Hornes vpon anothers head If the Wife want embroydered Peticoates and Wastcoates if her Husbands meanes and credit extend not to furnish her with Iewels equiualent to the greatest Countesse or if shee cannot honestly deuise how to maintaine her Caroach the debauched Gallant will in this distresse and exigent lay that which shee can spare euen Honestie it selfe to pawne In the meane time my Cuckoldly Gentleman winkes for his profit Non omnibus dormio sed Mecenati solum He will not dissemble sleeping for any mans pleasure but onely for hope of treasure And if any of vs your Maiesties Officers should chance to cry out vpon it or to say with that innocent King Henry the Sixt Forsooth you are to blame when he beheld certaine Ladies with their breasts nakedly discouered with their haire cut like a Tomboy one of these horned ranke will retort no other counterplea then Tarletons Woe to thee Tarleton that euer thou wert borne Thy Wife hath made thee a Cuckold and thou must weare the Horne What and if she hath Am I a whit the worse She keeps me like a Gentleman with mony in my Purse Hope of Gaine to supply immoderate expenses extorteth a thousand complements ceremonious seruices so that it is not Lust alone for indeed Tobacco hath almost mortified that motion which causeth many to Court their Mistresses or these to entertaine Seruants but the in finite charge of New Fashions of Apparell one while with the Spanish another while Frenchified doth make Clownes to weare Gownes to polish their dul wits and of Carterly dispositions to become Courtly Musicians and Poeticall Courtiers As that English Satyrist obserued O those faire starlike eyes of thine one sayes When to my seeming she hath lookâ— nine wayes And that sweet breath when I thinke out vpon it It would blast a flowre if she breathed on it But bee she neuer so well qualified in affections neuer so full of vertuous qualities Maide Widow or Wife vnlesse shee haue sufficient to defray this endlesse cost of prodigalitie she may stand long enough without courting euen vntill mosse grow to the soles of her feet Apollo hauing bewayled with teares the miserable Condition of his vertuous Followers seduced now of late to regard the out-side more then the precious in-side which of old was reputed
end of the Second Part. THE THIRD PART OF The Golden Fleece CHAP. I. Orpheus Iunior is required by Apollo to discouer where the Golden Fleece lies Orpheus performes his Maiesties commandement shewes that there be sundry kindes of the Golden Fleece all which after an allusion to the English natures hee reduceth into one maine Trade to the Plantation and Fishing in the Newfoundland The generall cause which moued Orpheus to regard this Golden Fleece APollo secretly informed by the Fraternity of the Rosie Crosse that Orpheus Iunior could well tell where the King of great Britaine might perpetually finde Trading both in time of Warres as Peace to inrich himselfe and his subiects which Trading they stiled the Golden Fleece more certaine then Iasons Fleece transported from Colchos or the Philosophers Stone so much dreamed on by the Chymists because the sheepe which yeelds this pretious Gaine were to be shorne for eight moneths space without intermission and of bodies farre bigger then the Peru sheepe which the Spaniards brâ—gge to equalize Asses for proportionable greatnesse In May last 1626. he commanded Orpheus Iunior as hee tendred his seruice and the good of his languishing Countrey to discouer where these Golden-coated sheepe pastured and the manner how the noble Britaines might attaine vnto them Orpheus Iunior answered that the Golden Fleece which the fraternity of the rosie Crosse insinuated to his Maiestie was parti-coloured like the Rainebow so produced by the Patriarch Iacobs Art according to the seuerall obiects represented and likewise diuided into the Naturall the Artificiall and the Mysticall sometimes singled out the one from the other sometimes mixt as politike Merchants and Diers know best yet all of them comprehended vnder one generall name viz. Trading That it was necessary for the Common-wealth of Great Britaine to pursue all the kindes of these obiects lest the English Nation who neuer likes any thing how profitable soeuer vnlesse it be diuersified Pragmata non Angli invariata probant might take surfet of one sort of Trading and at length fall to a loathing thereof Whereto he adioyned that by many yeares experience hee had learnt the skill of discerning spirits And that hee found out this quality of the English to delight in varieties of Newes though for the most part false of Apparell though they sold their lands for it of multiplicities of Law suits though oftentimes they knew themselues bought and sold by them which they most trusted of meate and drinke though they felt the euent in grieuous torments And as in their natures they respected choise and change so in their outward senses hee obserued first that their sight receiued more contentment in many colours then in one alone specially those colours of Gold and Siluer they preferred before the pure and simple which they held in contempt as fitter for Hob-lurkins then for generous spirits As for their smelling they approued of sundry sorts as Ciuet Amber-Greece Muske Storax and aboue all of Tobacco though some of them lost their wits and the vse of their senses in the taking of it and though most of them were ready to choake for good fellowship The like he said he could discourse of the rest of their senses outward and inward But these instances would suffice as he conceiued to open the way to many kindes of Trading as well to furnish that Nation with those seuerall Commodities though superfluous as to replenish the Kingdome with more supplies lest in prouiding themselues barely on their Countries charge with all those wares which their newfangled imagination prouoketh them to long for their Countrie might in a small while deuour her selfe or else eate vp her owne tayle like a Munkey Now to explaine what hee had spoken of the mysticall Golden Fleece hee onely at that time offered to declare the nature vse and place where it flourisheth as how he came to the knowledge of it if it pleased his Maiestie to affoord him audience Apollo bad him proceed signifying vnto him that the principall scope of the Meeting at that season was to haue that beneficiall Trade communicated to all his vertuous Attendants in Great Britaine Orpheus Iunior then went forward in this discourse About ten yeares past most mighty Prince musing with my selfe what might be the Psalmists meaning of those words Their sound is gone out into all Nations I happily coniectured at the last that the Word of God should not onely be spread abroad and planted by those which ought of zeale and charity to teach it but by those which like the frogs out of the Dragons mouth might publish it for temporall ends And when I had throughly lookt into these ends the one neglected by the Professors of the Gospell the other begun and continued with prosperous successe by the Spaniards in the West-Indies where within these 120. yeares many thousand Heathen people haue receiued the Christian Religion though not so purely as wee could wish I collected this memorable obseruation that our Sauiour makes vse of our worlaly desires to serue his diuine intentions In this fashion deales an Earthly Father with an vntoward Daughter for whose aduancement in mariage he giues a large portion to counteruaile her imperfections By which meditations of mine I perceiued that nothing but gaine could moue the carelesse minds of our Ilanders to seeke abroad for new habitations I lookt into the Plantations at the Summer Iles Virginia yea into Affrick as farre as the Cape of good hope where for the ease of our East-Indian Fleetes I conceiued at Sancta Helena or Soldana a fit Plantation might be erected But after that I had considered the many difficulties by reason of the tediousnesse of the voyage the charge and aboue all the malice of the Spaniards who being like to the Dogge in the Manger doe want people to plant and yet they will not permit others to plant I saw that God had reserued the Newfoundland for vs Britaines as the next land beyond Ireland and not aboue nine or tenne dayes saile from thence I saw that he had bestowed a large portion for this Countries mariage with our Kingdomes euen this great Fishing that by this meanes it might be frequented and inhabited the sooner by vs. And I verily thinke that his Heauenly prouidence ordained this Iland not without a Mystery for vs of Great Britaine that Ilanders should dwel in Ilands and that wee should ponder on this ensuing Morall Euen as our Sauiour Christ making Fishermen Fishers of men preferred Peter Andrew others his Apostles being plaine persons and simple before the great Lords of the earth as also the Lillies of the field before the Royalties of Salomon so in these latter daies his vnsearchable wisedome preferring necessary maintenance before needlesse superfluity hath allotted Newfoundland the grand Port of Fishing to the Professors of the Gospell And because the depraued nature of mankinde delighteth in appetite and some appearance of profit therefore his sacred Maiestie discouered that plentifull Fishing vnto
Phisicians to take care ouer all the English Sailers which from thenceforth should hazard their liues to the Indies He likewise commanded the East Indies Company to be more bountifull to the poore Widowes whose Husbands chanced to miscarry in their seruice Lastly his Maiestie caused the London Merchants to ioyne together for the prosecuting further of the Northwest passage and for the honour of those braue spirits which had already aduentured their persons in the discouery to ingraue on a brazen Table these verses following and the same to place as a Frontispice on the Delphicke Palace Orbis in Occiduâ latitat via parte sub Arcto Ducit ad Eoum quâ— magis apta mare Dux Frobisherus Dauis Hudson et inclitus ausis Buttonus validis hanc petiere viam Cambria non tantum sed et Anglia laudibus effert Te Buttone suis aequiparátque Dâ—ako De quot te memorem saluum euasisse periclis Sint testes Indus Maurus IeÌ„rnus Iber. Non glomerata tibi Glacies imperuia ferro Non Hyemis longae nix numerosa nocet Quin tunc vlterius transisses altera naui Obuia succedens sireleuasset onus Albioné mque nouam nobis incognita Meta Tum benc vulgasset per fretanostramaris Neere to the Pole there lurkes within the West A shorter way to saile into the East Braue Furbisher Danis and bold Hudson Sought out this way with the valiant Button Not onely Wales but England rings his name And with great Drake compares our Buttons fame Though Ireland Spaine India and Affrick rage To beare the brunts of his stout Pilgrimage Yet they will prize him more when more they know How he endur'd a winter deep with ' Snow For eight moneths space besides the Icy hills Which Natures eares with strange amazemeÌ„t fils And if supplies had come in his distresse New Pillars he like those of Hercules Had raisd but with Plus vltra in the place Where Drakes new Albion waites for Britaines race CHAP. 8. The Merchants of Lisbone doe complaine on the English and Hollanders for trading into the East Indies for Spices Drugs and other Commodities Apollo reiecteth their complaints and aduiseth how they may saile thither with lesser inconueniences then heretosore APollo hauing giuen order to the Inhabitants of Great Britaine to set forwards some Shippes for the discouery of the North west passage word was presently brought to the Portingals that his Maiestie had interessed the Protestants in the Trade of Spiceries Whereupon the City of Lisbone sent to Parnassus foure of their most substantiall Citizens where being arriued they made meanes by Osorius one of their learned Bishops to haue a full Audience of their matter the next Court day which fell out on the fift of Iune last 1626. as Menante the grand Post-master deliuered the last weeke at Paris But Mercurius Gallobelgicus affirmeth otherwise that this weighty cause was discussed on the ninth of Iune Such is the disparity of iudgements and inequality of reports that wee cannot rightly be informed by any of these Currents concerning those passages which happen in our neerest times How much lesse then shall we credit Historiographers of elder ages which haue left vs the occurrences of many memorable affaires which ought to serue as mirrours to posterity Howsoeuer most true it is that the East Indy Cause was decided before the sunne entred into the Tropick of Cancer in this Moneth of Iune last The ground of the Plaintiffes suit was fixed most vpon the Diuision which Pope Alexander the sixt made betwixt the House of Castile and the House of Portingall about 120. yeares past that all the whole world then newly discouered or to bee discouered should equally be shared betwixt them both the East Indies to belong vnto the Portingals and the West Indies to the Castilians the same to haue and to hold to either of the said Nations their Factors and Agents for euer warranted contra omnes gentes Vnder colour of which authenticke Patent they freely inioyed the same vntill the bold English and Hollanders lately intrâ—ded into their Liberties and haue vsurped many of the Coasts in those rich Countries Apollo not wont suddenly without mature deliberation to order causes of such high consequences sent for Peter Martyr the Author of the Decades and asked him how that Partition became ratified Peter Martyr now a member of the Corporation of Parnassâ—â—s and not daring to conceale the verity of that businesse from the sincere Head of the vertuous Society answered that indeed such a Capitulation was treated of betwixt those Princes and that iust as the said Commissioners intended to diuide the whole world by certaine Lines and imaginary points in the Globe they were quite put out of their agreements by a Knauish Boy who at that time accidentally bathed himselfe in a riuer neere vnto them as they debated of these Lines and hearing the Commissioners varying and wrangling about the drawing of these new Lines he turned his backe side vnto them and wished them to forme the same equally as if they should delineat from the Center of his Ano and so taking the same for a patterne the one halfe should appertaine to the one and the other halfe to the other Vpon which ridiculous interruption the Commissioners being abashed and ashamed that a Childe should touch so seriously vpon their Masters ambition they departed leauing the partition vnperfect Apollo perceiuing that the Portingals drift was to ingrosse the whole Trade of Spiceties as a Monopoly preiudiciall to others of the Christian Profession vtterly misliked their a spiring and greedy purposes and after some bitter exprobration of their Couetousnesse hee framed this speech vnto them In going about to appropriate the whole world to your selues yee seeke to ecclipse the power of the Omnipotent to forestall the wonderfull Art of Nauigation and by keeping backe the Protestants to let the Mahumetans still to ioyne with you in this beneficiall Trade I confesse your Nation deserues to be commended for your discoueries of the Cape of Good Hope vnder Vasco de Gama But afterwards for you to ingrosse into your hands more Coasts and Trades then yee are able to mannage is meere auarice and a wrong to your Creator who happily by these your Neighbours aduentures may in time to come discouer as yet more vnknowne Countries and settle in those remote places the word of God euen beyond New Guiny where more Noble Nations doe yet reside then yee haue found out What greater glory can arriue to this part of the world then to search into the vttermost parts of those Southerne Regions In all ciuill Countries the Inhabitants must as well looke into the Artificiall waies of acquiring wealth as into the naturall meanes abounding in the places of their abode This consists in Corne Cattell Wooll Lead Tinne or in the like Commodities which are ordinarily and without much Art deriued from their natiue Seates The other depends on their industry and more curious skill to work vpon those materialls as
hee care for the Church of God Thus in admonishing the Clergie to satisfie themselues with one wife the Apostle leaues the Temporall to their choise who accounted it in those times one of their chiefest felicities to haue many children And therefore in regard of their Custome of their hot Climate being farre more vnfit for procreation of children then the cold Countries as also for that their wiues were busied in giuing sucke themselues two or three yeeres vnto their little Ones Saint Paul meddles onely with the Clergy-mens marriage which laudable custome none contradicted vntill the Manichees and Ebienites first beganne to taxe them for Marriage So we reade that Saint Gregory Bishop of Nazianzen had a Sonne called Gregorie who succeeded him in his Bishopricke Saint Ierome a Bishop of Africke had a Daughter called Leontiâ— who was martyred by the Arrians Saint Athanasius writing to Dragontius saith that he knew many Bishops vnmarried and Monkes married as also hee saw Bishops married and many Monkes singlemen The sixt generall Councell kept at Trulla did much detest this Antichristian Policie against Priests Marriage and therefore made this Constitution For as much as we are informed that a Canon hath beene lately enacted by the Romane Church that no Priest or Deacon shall haue to doe with a Wife Wee following the Apostles Orders and Discipline doe order that the lawfull Marriage of Priests be for euer vsefull and auaileable And a little after they yeeld the reason why they did it lest say they we bee compelled to dishonour Marriage which was first instituted by God and sanctified by his presence What greater euidence will my friend Becket expect then these Primitiue Lights If these will not satisfie his curious Iudgement but that he yet relies on the Decree of the Romish Church let him belieue the Deuill himselfe out of the heard of Swine confessing the Truth of my allegations euen your famous Canonist Cardinall Panormitane continencie saith hee in clericis Secularibus in Secular Clergy-men is not of the substance of their Order nor of the Law diuine because otherwise the Greeke Church should sinne nor could their custome excuse them It followes and I doe not onely belieue that the Church hath power to make such a Law but I likewise belieue that such a Statute were expedient for the health of their Soules that all that were willing might marrie seeing that Experience teacheth how a contrary effect ensues out of that Law of Continencie seeing they liue not spiritually nor are they cleane but defiled with vnlawfull copulation to their most grieuous sinning whereas they might liue chastly with their owne wiues If this mans authoritie who was one of your principall Darlings seemes but a Conceit in your Saint-like vnderstanding yet me thinkes my Lord the Pope vpon your discreet motion might mitigate his rigour and tolerate with vs to marrie as well as hee tolerates the Iewes and Stewes at Rome What stirres and tumults haue lately ensued vpon this Edict in the Church of Saint Dauid in Wales our friend Giraldus Cambrensis who is our Coaetaneus with many honest Clergy-men can assure you For when you sent this Canon vnder colour of your Metropolitane Visitation that whole Diocesse withstood not onely this Canon but also your owne Prerogatiue pretended from the Romish Church clayming themselues as heeretofore for the keeping of their Easter to liue according to the Rites of the Greeke Church at Constantinople to which place as the Seat of the Romane Empire appointed by Constantine they appealed for the deciding of all doubts Insomuch that our King Henry the Second was faine to intreate for aide from the Lord Rice Prince of South Wales to bring in your Visitation of Canterbury If these cloudes of witnesses serue not to confirme the truth of my Poeme which you terme a Libell let vs then bee dispenced withall to keepe prettie Wenches in corners and these to be dignified with the old Titles The Lords Concubine the Priests Leman and the Knaâ—es Whore Apollo reuerseth the Popes Canon made against the Marriage of the Clergie and to that purpose sends out a Proclamation APollo well noting the speeches of Walter de Mapes and the great inconuenience which the Prohibition of Marriage to the Clergie had wrought in the Christian Church with the Consent of al his Parliament assembled at Parnassus reuersed that Canon whereof Saint Paul had prophesied that it was the doctrine of deuils to forbid Marriage and withall caused this Proclamation to bee fixed in all places subiect to his populous Iurisdiction Of late there rose a Sect of Caiphas kind Which great renowme with Pen tongue assign'd To Wedlock-bands and with a large extent Confirm'd the same to be a Sacrament Yet ne'rethelesse by quirks and tricks they push As if they found a knot within a rush Forbidding it to all the Clergy-men A doctrine sure come from the Deuils deâ— But what 's the fruit Their bodies Lust inflames That they doe burne as scorcht in Aetnaes flames Enamoured they wish for cruell death To end their watchfull cares and wearied breath Their mind runnes all on Loue. Loue moues the braine To muse vpon sweet Beauty dy'd in graine This is the vpshot of their rash made vowes Vnlesse the Baudy-house which Rome allowes Like to a lakes doe ease their pampred reines Or like a Horse-leach suck their puft vp veines Returne then Marriage to thy free estate Repent yee Shauelings ere it be too late Vse lawfull meanes and leaue of stolne pleasure Account of Marriage as the Churches treasure Christs easie yoke yee need not stand in awe Dissolues old vowes and for Dianaes Law Christs easie yoke yeelds Priests a freer life That one man be the Husband of one wife CHAP. IX Apollo vpon Information giuen him by the Greek Church of Images erected by the Pope in the Westerne Churches and of Inuocations on Saints confuteth these Idolatrous Traditions both by the Testimony of the Scripture and by the Positions of the Primitiue Church THe Greeke Church seeing that by no perswasions the Pope would condiscend to abolish Idols grauen Images out of the Romane Church but that still he suffered euen in the chiefe Temples at Rome the Pictures of the Virgin Mary and of many other Saints to bee worshiped and called vpon with Prayers and Oblations they resorted to Parnassus on Good Friday last shewing to Apollo that the Popes not satisfied by their cunning practises and treasons to defeat them of the Primacie belonging to Constantinople as to the Head Citie of New Rome but likewise they set vp Charles of France about the yeere 801. to inuest himselfe in the Empire of the West and so by their Confederacie to compel all Christendome to wander after the strange Beast of the seuen hilled Citie which now grew to such a height that his voice stood peremptory as a Law Idolatry he accounted the Mother of Deuotion The Romish Church were summoned to answere these Accusations who made
choice of Thomas Aquinas the famous Schooleman for their Aduocate and him they sent to patronize their Cause before his Maiestie vpon the first of Aprill last according to the ancient stile 1626. this Doctor appeared in the Delphick Hall before Apollo and said that he came thither on the behalfe of the Latine Church to maintaine the lawfulnesse of Images in their Church Apollo bad him proceed and shew what hee could in their Defence Aquinas then began in this manner Most sacred Prince farre be it from vs to adore any grauen Images Wee that are learned know it is damnable But when your Maiestie shall vnderstand the reasons why wee tolerate them in our Churches we shall not be found much in fault For herein wee follow the counsell of the famous Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome This learned Father hearing that Serenus his fellow Bishop had defaced and broken all the Images in his Church he commended his Zeale therein But afterwards wished him to permit them in Churches to the intent that the vnlettered might bee edified by their view on the wals seeing they could not reade them in Bookes Yet with a prouiso that those ignorant people should bee admonished not to worship them The like aduice doe wee giue to our vnlearned people that they adore not Idols but onely that they inuocate and honour the Saints which those Idols doe represent We worship not the Images of Christ or of the Virgin Mary because it is Idolatry so to doe But we worship Christ and his Mother before their Images because their Images doe allure vs to loue them For mine owne part I confesse it were good to abolish them but we are constrained to tolerate them to the end the simple sort of people might be won by the sight of them to giue the more reuerence to holy mysteries Apollo hauing heard this glozing Apologie answered By your subtill speech you would make the Learned belieue that you worship not these Images at all but onely that you offer your seruice vnto them like a Courtier Yet neuerthelesse you bow your bodies and kneele vnto them you begge for their fauours to be intercessors for you Saint Anthony must helpe you for the Poxe Saint Margaret must come from Heauen to assist women in Child-bed Saint Vitus must learne you to dance Saint Iames must defend you in your Pilgrimage The Pagan Poets neuer had so many houshold Gods Lares Dâ—â—s Tutelares as your Superstitious Religion allowes you to haue O foolish men will ye still repaire to muddie pooles neglecting the Fountaine of liuing waters God is a spirit and they which worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth He is inuisible to mortall eyes so that no man should presume to mould his likenesse into Gold or Siluer Plates His Saints are at rest and must not bee raised vp like Samuel by any Endor Witches The Virgin Mary liues in eternall ioyes not to bee disturbed with the clamorous inuocations of worldly Creatures This was the Heresie of the Collyridians as our vertuous Epiphanius who flourished within foure hundred yeares after Christ quotes downe to the memoriall of all Posterities Whose Arguments with the Cause I will not repeat vnto you because all yee which goe vnder the naked name of Catholickes may leaue off to tender your seruice to the Creatures iniuring your Creator who will not communicate his glory to any whatsoeuer Saint Angell or Principality according to our Sauiours speech Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue In Arabia certaine women vsed vpon some Holy-dayes in the yeare to beare about a foure squared Table with a cloth spred and Bread thereon laid which they offered to the name of the Virgin Marie Epiphanius confutes this Heresie saying that this was meere madnes a Sicknes of Eue now againe deceiued nay of the Serpent which abused Eue. His Arguments are these First No women euer sacrificed in the Old Testament Secondly If any women it had beene a regular Custome in the Church that Mary her selfe did sacrifice in the New Testament which wee neuer read of Thirdly Nor was the Sacrament of Baptisme euer committed to Mary Or else her Sonne would haue made choise of her and not of Iohn The Gospell was committed to the care of the Apostles and not to any woman Fourthly The Daughters of Philip did prophecie but neuer medled with those mysteries which belong to men who onely executed the Priestly office Fistly Women were forbidden to speake in the Church Out of these Propositions he proues that the Virgin Mary is not to be worshipped First Because he is a Deuill which making a God of a mortall nature in the eyes of men doth expresse by the varieties of Art any carued Images which represent the shape of man Secondly Because the minde commits adulterie which falls from the euer-liuing God to honour the Images of the Dead like to a Whore which forgoes the lawfull vse of a Husband to lye with others Thirdly Because Mary was not giuen vs to be worshipped but that her selfe should worship her Sonne Fourthly For that these words in the Gospel doth warne vs to take heed Woman what haue I to doe with thee That by these words wee might note in calling her Woman that others might not admire her as a Virgin too holy and sacred Fiftly Because in the Scriptures wee doe not find that any of the Prophets euer commanded vs to worship any man much lesse a woman Sixtly God allowes vs not to worship Angels Therefore hee will not haue vs to worship Mary Shee may bee mentioned with honour But Worship and Adoration is a mysterie due onely vnto God The greatest Angels receiue not that Glorification These bee the reasons which Epiphanius exhibited against the Collyridians There was a Sect called Caianes which Epiphanius noted likewise to call vpon the Angels The which also Saint Augustine ascribed to those Heretickes which were termed Angelici The same Augustine mentioneth another sort of Heretickes called the Carpocratians which worshipped the Images of Iesus and Saint Paul Saint Ambrose auerreth it an Heathenish I dolatrie for any man to worship the Crosse whereon Christ suffered The Prophet also denounceth him accursed which reposeth hope in man saying Cursed is the man which putteth his trust in man Singular is that Example of Epiphanius who on a time beholding a vaile in a Church painted with the Image of Christ thereon hanging on the doores contrarie to the Authoritie of the Scriptures hee tore it downe and deliuered it so defaced to the Wardens bidding them to bestow it for a shrowd on the next poore body that died And when the Churchwardens murmured saying that seeing he had tore it he ought to haue bought a new one or not to haue rent it so much as he did Epiphanius promised to send them another vaile to bee hanged vp in lieu thereof which afterwards he performed in a letter