at this Consult they chose indeed the Cardinal of Genoua by the name of Clement the Seventh And now Arma Armis Tela minantia Telis Pope jostles Pope and Curse at Curses spreads Two Triple-Crowns are got to Loggerheads Each of them labours to draw as many Princes and States of Christendom to his obedience as he can Most of the Italians all the English Germans and Portuguese acknowledge Vrban for Pope Canonical but the Kings of France and Spain were all for Clement and some were so wise as not to admit either of them To strengthen himself Urban in one day created 26 Cardinals a jolly Company of Red capp'd Gentlemen who were oblig'd to espouse his Quarrel otherwise their Honour would be in the Dust since it was deriv'd from him He also besieg'd the Castle of St. Angelo wherein there was a French Garrison and took it sends for Charles a Noble Hungarian and gives him the Kingdom of Sicily and engages him to be his Champion And because this Charles had no Money the Pope not only sold to several of the Roman Citizens the Proprietaries and Rights of many Churches of Rome to the value of above Fourscore thousand Crowns but also expos'd to sale the Gold and Silver Chalices Crosses and other precious Ornaments of the Churches and Monasteries nay he made bold with his very Gods for he melted down many Silver Images of Saints and coin'd them into Money to pay the Soldiers of the said Charles's Army So little do these Popes themselves make of that Bug-bear Sacriledge when their own Ambition is concern'd Charles thus encourag'd marches to Naples and through the Treachery prepar'd by Pope Vrban is receiv'd into the City for he had inveigled to his Interest most of the best Families there by his liberal promotion of them to the Dignity of Cardinals But Joan the lawful Queen of Sicily that had been so kind to assist him with Money seeing him thus most ungratefully as well as unjustly invade her Dominions retired to the New Castle in order to whose rescue her Husband Otho Duke of Brunswick comes and besieges the City whereupon the Popes Creature Charles counterfeits the Hand and Seal of the said Queen Joan and sends a Letter as from her to Otho intreating him to come to her with six only of his dearest and most faithful Friends to Consult together in so great extremity what was best to be done Otho suspecting nothing goes thither by night accompany'd with the Marquess of Montferrat his Cousin Balthasar Duke of Brunswick's Brother Son in Law of the Earl of Fundi and three Captains in whom he greatly trusted but they fall into an Ambuscade prepar'd for them who kill'd the Marquess and the three Captains took Duke Otho and his Brother and carried them Prisoners to Charles who commanded Balthasar's Eyes to be put out in the public Market-place where the innocent young King Conradine by the commandment of Charles the First had been Beheaded and kept Otho full 3 years under Custody Queen Joan when she heard that her Husband was taken hoped that in yielding the Castle which besides was in distress for want of Victuals she might at least redeem her Life but he sent her presently Prisoner into a certain Castle of Abruzzo in the Chappel whereof as she was kneeling at Prayer before the Altar by his Command she is strangled by four Hungarian Soldiers All this was done by the councel of Pope Vrban for his Legat à Latere was the Cardinal of Sangro who was with Charles during all these Butcheries and thought he offer'd to God good Sacrifice when he had destroy'd them that had been faithful to Queen Joan as well of the Clergy as Laity either depriving them of their Goods or deposing them from Ecclesiastical Dignities without any respect of Age Condition or Merit in so much that in one day he created 32 new Archbishops and Bishops and many Abbots all Neopolitans and Followers of Charles's part Our Author adds That he used the Enchantments of a certain Vagabond who named himself a Knight and a little after was burn'd by commandment of Lewis Duke of Anjou whom he would have deceived Neither was our other Pope Clement in the mean while idle a Man saith the Author of a large Conscience and of great Experience and very needy whom Gregory the Eleventh by reason he could not otherwise maintain his Prodigality had appointed Legat in the Marca de Ancona and Lumbardy more perhaps that he might by that means have wherewith to live from the Inhabitants of those Regions under pretence of his Legation than for any quiet or safety that he might procure unto them Nevertheless he was covetous or rather a greedy Griper by reason of his Prodigality For Otho Duke of Brunswick having taken Verseil and 40 Castles in those parts from Viscount Barnabo then Commander of Millan who had delivered them to Gregory Clement being at that time Legate sold them all to Barnabo for ready Money who exercis'd against them all sorts of Cruelty and exacted from them the Money he had disburs'd to Clement and being come to the Popedom he retained still the same humour granting in fee for a very small yearly Revenue without any difficulty the Lands and Demesnes of Cathedral Churches and Monasteries to oblige great Men to his Faction and giving saith the Author large Thongs of other Men's Leather And when he saw that Vrban had at his pleasure created a King of Aâ—ulia he resolved to give him a Competitor This was Lewis Duke of Anjou whom he crown'd and sent into Italy with an Army of sixty thousand Men. Upon which Vrban thought fit to leave Rome and to go into the Kingdom of Naples whom Charles met not far from Aversa and did unto him the office of a Groom or Yeoman of his Stirrop and many Country people came and kiss'd the said Vrban's Feet but before they did so they had thrice kiss'd the Ground But yet for all this Complement Charles under colour of shewing him the Castle of Aversa kept the silly Pope prisoner suspecting some ill Design from his Journey into those parts and so much the rather for that he himself had not fulfilled his promise of putting Pregnan the Pope's Nephew or as some rather thought Bastard into possession of the Dutchy of Capua But soon after at the Entreaties of the Cardinals upon terms set him at Liberty and brought him to Naples The beforeâ—mention'd Pregnan was a notorious Villain and addicted to all kind of Vices and yet this Pope was so fond of him that when his Debaucheries were complain'd of he was always wont to cry He is young and yet he was then forty years old Amongst other of his Pranks he Ravisht a Nun of the Order of St. Clare at which the people being much incens'd he fled to a Church under protection of his Uncle the King having according to Law convicted him sentenc'd him to dye but the Pope interpos'd alledging That he was a
Divinity or some of the short sighted Laity may think at this time of day a mighty Service to the King and the Church But whoever is conversant in Roman-Catholic Authors cannot but know that they frequently Nickname the Church of England and her truest Sons with that opprobrious Title I appeal to all the Learned moderate Divines of our established English Church if this be not true nay I my self at two hours warning could give more than 100 Instances of it But I shall be content at present only with one but 't is of a Pope who you know is Infallible in his Rogueries in a Bull against Blessed Q. Elizabeth we have these words Impia Mysteria Instituta ad Calvini praescriptum c. The wicked Mysteries and Institutes according to Calvin ' s prescription by her received and observed she hath commanded to be embrac'd by her Subjects In a word 't is evident this skulking Author's business is to scandalize all the Learned pious Instruments which God hath made use of for the first Reformation As not only Calvin Zwinglius and Beza p. 1 2. but Luther Melancton Bucer c. p. 5. Therefore with what Notion would a Cranmer or a Ridley or a Latimer those glorious Martyrs or even Patient Hooper himself or Reverend Jewel and such-like famous Lights of our Church some of them the very Compilers of the Venerable Liturgy have beheld such a virulent Pamphlet Or can any Man that has a value for the Protestant Religion but feel his Blood curdle to see it sold with Impunity at the Royal-Exchange and through the Streets of a Protestant City which by the very same devilish Hands was within these 16 years laid in Ashes Tory. Come come you are hot and peevish I doubt 't is only because it presses you too close for only those that know not how to answer Books would stifle and have them suppress'd Truem. Nay then let it go on for I am sure the matter of it has been answer'd 150 times There 's nothing in this Pamphlet but Parsons that Bastard of a Jesuit 't is the Complement his own Brother-Priests gave him printed long ago You may find it too in a Book Entituled The Image of both Churches written by one Musket a Jesuit and printed in King James's time or you may have the effect of it in a Pamphlet Entituled Philanax Anglicus scribbled soon after His Majesty's happy Restauration by a Popish Doctor of the Civil Law to which the Reverend Du Moulin one of the Prebends of Canterbury return'd an Answer But if no such Refutations were extant as 100 are yet all the World knows your Bolsec was a most prostituted Liar and the rest of your Authors forg'd and Counterfeit Nor will I hope any that are truly of the Church of England be bubbled with such stale Shams but rather take notice who they are that thus blow these Coals and keep such a noise against Calvinists such a stir against Ignoramus Juries and are so overjoy'd at the prosecution of Conscientious Dissenters and if they find them at bottom no other than either Papists or Atheists or Debauchees who are half one half tother they may then competently judge whose Interest is promoted by these Intrigues Tory. Well there 's no talk to you now but I 'le warrant you L'Estrange will Crow bravely this fortnight for the other days work in the City Truem. What! because his old friend John Starkey is made one of the Common-Council I tell you Sir I value Roger's Observatorisms no more than I do Eustace Commyne's Narrativisms they both pretend to serve the Royal Family and the Bishops and in truth they both perform it at the same Rate Nor will you find much more reason upon the whole matter to thank St. Thomas than you have to Sacrifice to Madam Address who 't is forty to one when you come to try her will prove as Errand a Jilt and as Insignificant as an Irish Evidence Printed for Langley Curtis 1681. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Dec. 30. 1681. Potentes in Clero qui Religionem Christi dissipant sub pallio Sanctitatis vel punientur hîc per praepositos suos aut Laicos vel destruentur per vastationes Hostiles vel congregant facinora in ultionem Divini Judicii Wickliff de verit Script p. 432. Objections against Wickliff answer'd An Example or two of his writing in his own ancient Style His Troubles The Vniversity like to reject the Popes Bull c. THE Papists who are most exquisite and ready forgers of Lies and Scandals on all that oppose or go about to detect their Villanies have raised several Aspersions and Calumnies against honest Wickliff As first they affirm That his Preaching was not out of Conscience but spite and desire of Revenge because forsooth he was put by the Bishopprick of Worcester which he aim'd at Therefore he declaim'd so fiercely against the Church Answ This is only the malicious suggestion of Parsons and Brerely and such upstart Pettifoggers for the Church of Rome There is no ancient Author tho most of them as being Monks rail horribly against poor Wickliff that mentions any such matter Nay Parsons himself gives himself the Lie for in his three Conversions Part 3. Cap. 5. Numb 14. he saith Wickliff condemn'd all temporal Goods How then should he so greedily affect the Bishopprick of Worcester And elsewhere he confesses That Wickliff was in great favour with the Duke of Lancaster who bore chief sway during the time of King Edward the Third so that if Wickliff had been so fond of a Bishopprick sure that Duke's Interest might have got him one 2. They object that Wickliff taught That so long as a Man is in deadly Sin he is no Bishop or Prelate neither doth truly Consecrate or Baptize Answ If Wickliff did say so what more did he say than what St. Ambrose had said before him Vnless thou embrace and follow the good works of a Bishop a Bishop thou canst not be Ambr. de dignit Sacerd. cap. 4. Nay there is a Vote of a Council if that will help the matter in a Case almost to the same effect Quicunque sub Ordinatione Presbyterii vel Episcopatûs mortali Crimine se dixerint esse pollutos à supradictis Ordinationibus submovendos esse Censuimus Whoever coming under Ordination of the Presbytery or Eiscopacy shall be polluted with mortal Sin we think it fit That such be removed from those Orders saith the Synod of Valentia held under Damascus cap. 4. It must be remembred that Wickliff lived in a most corrupt Age when the Clergy were so seared in Impiety that it required sharp Launcings and good store of Vinegar to make them sensible It was only their abuses he inveigh'd against so tartly for elsewhere he reproves those that would not obey their lawful Prelates and in his Book of the verity of the Scripture he thus explains his
pardon and as to the former shall endeavour now to satisfie him which is Touching the Troubles and Opposition that Wickliff met with If the strength or policy of Man could have stifled those Truths which he delivered his Doctrine had long since been extinct for the Pope was soon alarm'd therewith and bestir'd himself amain to get Wickliff silenc'd but such Esteem had he by his Vertues and Learning obtain'd that when Gregory the Eleventh in the year 1378. sent his Bull to the University of Oxford expostulating with them for suffering him there to spread his Tenets Walsingham the Historian tells us That the Heads of the Vniversity were long time in suspense whether they should receive such the Pope's Bull with Honour or reject it with Contempt Yet at last the Reverence they bore to his Un-holiness prevailed with them to entertain his Bull with Respect However we do not find that they did any thing effectually against Wickliff But the Archbishop of Canterbury was very violent against him twice he was actually convented before him and other Bishops and thrice summoned to appear The first time he escaped by the favour of the Duke of Lancaster who would needs have a Chair for him that he might sit which the Bishops would not admit in their presence and so a Quarrel arose and nothing then was done The second time he got off by means of a Messenger who just as they were about to pass Sentence upon him came in from the Queen charging them immediately to desist The third time he prudently absented himself and did not obey their Summons because he had intelligence that the Bishops had plotted his Death by the way devising the means and encouraging certain Russians thereunto However in his absence the Bishops with the Rabble of Friars to assist them took upon them to examine and censure his Writings meeting for that purpose at the Gray-Friars London where just as they were going about their business happen'd a most terrible Earthquake which much daunted them yet at last they proceeded to pick out 9 Articles or Propositions which they condemn'd as Heretical and 23 others as Erronious And then they got the King's Letters forbidding his Books and Doctrines to be publish't yet still he remain'd firm and constant and laboriously both by preaching and writing propagated the Gospel and God wonderfully preserv'd him out of the hands of his Enemies continuing Parson of Lutterworth in Leicestershire and so died in peace in a good old Age in the year 1387. Nor was his Doctrine confin'd only to England but shone and gave light into Regions far remote Some say that to avoid the fury of the Clergy he himself for some years withdrew into Germany and there preached the Gospel but I do not find sufficient Ground for that opinion but rather believe the Truth might be propagated there by some of his Followers and in particular Cochleus in his History of the Hussiâ—es l. 1. tells us Petrus Payne Anglus Discipulus Wiclephi Pragam cum Libris illius profugerat One Peter Payne an Englishâ—man one of Wickliff ' s Scholars who was sent with other Legates to the Council at Basil where he disputed for three days together touching the Civil Dominion of the Clergy fled into Bohemia and carried with him some of Wickliff ' s Books Some of which were Translated by John Huss into the Bohemian Language as the same Cochleus relates who also affirms That one of the Bishops of England wrote him word Esse sibi adhuc â—odie duo maxima Volumina Wiclephi quae mole suâ videantur aequare opera B. Augustini That he had then by him two Volumes of Wickliff ' s which were almost as large as St. Austin ' s Works Of which many it seems are since lost or destroy'd by the Papists but divers of them are yet extant What opinion the University of Oxford had of the Learning and Piety of this good Man appears by that Testimonial which they publickly gave of him under their Common Seal dated October 5. 1406. which you may read in Mr. Foxes Acts and Monuments fol. 112. And now being in his Grave one would have thought he had been beyond the Sphere of Activity of the most inveterate Malice but such is the nature of Papal Cruelty that its Rage extends almost to the other World and with a Barbarity more than Heathenish violates Sepulchers for 41 years after Wickliff's Death the Council at Constance the very same Conventicle that Decreed That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks made an Order for taking up his Bones and burning them in these words For as much as by the Authority of the Sentence and Decree of the Council of Rome and by the Commandment of the Church and the Apostolical See after due Delays granted this Holy Synod hath proceeded unto the Condemnation of the said John Wickliff and his Memory having first made Proclamation and given Commandment to call forth whosoever would defend the said Wickliff or his Memory if any such there were but none did appear And likewise Witnesses being examined by Commissioners appointed by Pope John and his Council upon the Impenitency and final Obstinacy of the said John Wicliff reserving that which is to be reserved as in such Cases the Law requires and his Impenitency and Obstinacy even unto his end being sufficiently proved by evident Signs and Tokens and also by lawful Witnesses of Credit therefore the Sacred Synod declareth determineth and giveth Sentence That the said John Wickliff was a notorious obstinate Heretic and that he died in his Heresie Cursing and Damning both him and his Memory This Synod also Decrees and Ordains That the Body and Bones if they may be discerned and known from the Bodies of other faithful people be taken out of the Ground and thrown away far from the Burial place of any Church according to the Canon Laws and Decrees Pursuant to this worshipful Decree The Archdeacon and Official of the Diocess shortly after came with their Officers to Lutterworth Church where Wickliff lay buried and having disinterred his Bones they with much Formality burnt the same and turn'd his Dust into Ashes which Ashes they also took and threw into the River as if they would Interest all the Elements in their Inhumane Pageantry Touching which I find in a most Learned Treatise written by Dr. Hoyle Professor of Divinity in Dublin Colledge Entituled A Rejoinder to Mr. Malone ' s Reply concerning the Real Presence p. 654. this remarkable passage The Doctor having discours'd of the taking up the Bâ—nes of Bucer and Fagius adds these words I cannot upon so good an occasion but glance at the like more than Savage usage of Wickliff and signifie to the World a strange Accident not yet observed in Print by any and which my self learned of the most aged Inhabitants and they within a few hands from the very Eye-witnesses and is a common Tradition in all Lutterworth A Child finding one of Wickliff's Bones
superiour Lord in whose presence the King could not punish any Noble-Man without his consent And so the Criminal for this horrid Act escap'd the reach of Justice Quia sic placuit Papae says Theodoric of Neym because it so pleas'd the Pope to have it THE COURANT. Tory. WHat says little Harry as the great Heraclitus calls him Does he not Triumph about Friday's work Truem. Not at all as I hear of tho if some people might have their will it would be almost matter of wonder to see Right at any time take place But still I think tho the Turky-Printer bustled as much as the best Powder-monkey Extortioner Soap-Chandler or Splitter-splutter Suborner in the Pack yet your Gang had no great cause of boasting for some of the forlorn White Friars Troops I hear were cut off by the Shoulder-dabbers in their Retreat But prethee what hast got in thy paw there Thou art always like the Observator sumbling of Papers Tory. 'T is an odd thing I took up in the Street and I know not what the Devil to make on 't However for once I 'le read it just as Parson Whip-spur does his Sermon which he never perus'd before he came into the Pulpit The Copy of a Letter from a Roman Catholic in Albania to a Popish Priest in Albionia May it please your Reverence WHat is every where admir'd I joyfully congratulate the wise and a live Conduct of our Vice Master who by his unwearied pains and care hath gain'd such a Senate as unanimously hath recogniz'd his pretensions and tho never so much a Papist he shall be so far they declare from being opposable that he must not be question'd which gives us great confidence if our Friends could at last procure such a complying Assembly in your parts we may once again have in prospect the Advancement of the Romish Catholic Religion tho poor Ned our grand Agitator were most wretchedly Sacrific'd to the Glory of the Design over this whole Island without much opposition But we are even now startled besides the late indignity of burning our Holy Father in Essigie at some Rumours which are spread amongst us for 't is averr'd the greater assurance we have of the Gentleman 's faithful Adherence to his Holinesses Supremacy and the See of Rome the less hopes we have of his coming to the Imperial Dignity or getting such a Senate as will bring our holy Enterprize to perfection in your Nation For 't is diffus'd as a Maxim and generally receiv'd That no resolv'd Papist can be admitted as a lawful King there according to the Rules of their present Government They pretend to prove it thus Every King of Albionia according to the Law is to be in all Causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Supream Head and Governour Therefore no resolv'd Papist can according to Law there be King for be that owns the Popes Supremacy disclaims his own Supremacy consequently hath already renounc'd his Title and agreed an Act of Exclusion against himself And as for procuring such a Senate by the Laws establisht which are and have graciously been declared to be our Rule every Popish Recusant must be question'd discover'd repress'd and debarr'd from any Office and no man is to conceal maintain abet aid or assist a Popish Recusant in advancing him to any place of Trust Authority or Government but it shall be construed to signifie his consent to overthrow King Religion and Government establisht in so much that he shall incur the dangâ—â— and penalty of a Praemunire if not of Treason So that it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that ever the more considerate part of the Commons can be surprized unwarily to chuse such Men as lye under the suspicion of the Guilt beforementioned or that have been Abhorrers Anti-petitioners or Addressers against Legal Senates to be their Representatives in any future Assembly of the States To these gauling Objections of the Heretics which obstruct our hopes I humbly implore of your fatherly Wiâ—dom some Salâ—e and Satisfaction that so at once we may silence our Adversaries and confirm our Friends Thus doing you may contribute much to the carrying on the holy Design which hath been and will be the Desire and Endeavours of Paradisopolâ—s Dec. 5. 1681. Your most obedient Son c. Tory. Now would I give a Guinney to have this Priest's Answer for tho I don't understand what this Letter is about yet I love Replies extreamly For certainly he that has the last word must be the wisest Man Truem. For that very reason Sir I tell you I am Your Servant Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Jan. 20. 1681-2 Asperius nihil est misero cum surgit in Altum The Cardinals vote That if a Pope be negligent or unfit to govern he may have Curators plac'd over him Pope Vrban the Sixth drowns five Cardinals in Sacks He dies Boniface the Ninth succeeds him POpe Vrban the Sixth being seemingly reconcil'd at Naples with his Hector Charles the Titular King of Sicily did with his precious Nephew Pregnan retire to Lucera between Naples and Salerno a place no less pleasant than safe for their persons where he devoted himself to Sloth and all kind of sensual Voluptuousness whilst the Affairs of the Church every day ran to wrack and the Cardinals were continually alarm'd and in danger between the Forces of the said Charles on the one side and those of Lewis of Anjou who we told you was with a great Army enter'd into Italy on the behalf of the other Pope call'd Clement the Seventh Therefore at the instance of Cardinal Reatino their Eminencies held a Consult together where after a long debate it was resolv'd by the opinions of many Doctors That if a Pope should happen to grow negligent or be found unfit to govern the the Church or to be one so self-will'd and conceited as to refuse all wholsom Advice and thereby brought the Church St. Peter's Bark into danger or were so ungovernable a Cockscomb That without the counsel of his Cardinals he would rashly do all things according to his own Fantasy and Lust that then and in such case it was lawful to substitute by the Election of the Cardinals some fit Curator or Curators Governours or Guardians by and with whose direction and advice the Pope should be obliged to manage all affairs of moment in the Church This was concluded by the Conclave as you may see in the History of Theodorie a Nyem l. 1. c. 24. whose Testimony is so much the more to be valued for that he was Secretary to this very Pope Now was not this a hopeful most holy Infallible Ghostly Father fit for a Bib and Muckinder that must have Tutors and Curators to direct him Did these Cardinals think you believe That their Pope was not subject to Error when they conclude him such a Natural as to need Managers and Guardians But
cause which persons do also preach divers matters of Slander to engender Discord and Dissention betwixt divers Estatés of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the people to the great peril of the Realm Which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer of that whereof they be impeached will not obey to their Summons and Commandments nor care for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them And moreover by their subtle and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their Sermons and do maintain them in their Errors by strong Hand and great Routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament That the King's Edmmissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Miuisters of our Soveraign Lord the King or other sufficient persons Learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Faitors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison 'till they will justifie them according to the Law and Reason of Holy Church And the King wills and commandeth That the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid This was the first pretended Statute that ever was in England for imprisoning Christians for Religious opinions and by colour thereof the Bishops committed great Cruelties I call it pretended Statute for tho it be enter'd in the Parliament Rolls yet it was no Legal Act for it never pass'd the Commons And therefore at the next Parliament in Michaelmas Term following the Commons preferr'd a Bill â—eciting the same and constantly affirmed That they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the said supposed Statute be annull'd and made void for they protested That it was never their intent that either themselves or such as shall succeed them should be farther subject or bound to the Prelates than were their Ancestors in former times And to this the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Il plaist au Roy The King is pleas'd that it be so Cook 3 Instit fo 40. Foxes Acts and Monuments fo 406. But that you may more fully understand the fraud and subtlety of their Reverences in this Affair you must understand That before the invention of Printing the usual way of publishing Acts of Parliament was to engross them in Parchment and send them with the King 's Writ into every County commanding the Sheriff to proclaim them Now John Braibrook Bishop of London being then Lord Chancellor of England he by a Writ dated 26 May Anno Regni Regis R. 2. quinto sent down the before recited Ordinance of the King and Prelates amongst the Statutes that were then lately pass'd But no less knavishly left out in the next Parliamentary Proclamation the said Act of Revocation whereby the said supposed Statute was made void by which means afterwards the other still pass'd as an Act and was printed continually as such but the Act that disannull'd it was by the Interest of the Prelates from time to time kept out of the Prints the better to give colour to their imprisoning of the Laity at their pleasure And farther to make sure work Henry the Fourth having usurp'd the Crown to gratifie the Clergy who had chiefly assisted him therein in the second year of his Raign he at their Instigation procured the following cruel and wicked Law to be Enacted commonly call'd The Statute Ex Officio which that the Reader may the better observe the Spirit of Popery and Persecution and compare the Times and Actings of Men in past and more modern Times I hope it shall neither be thought tedious nor unuseful to recite the same at large Verbatim it not being now extant in Kceble or any of our Common Statute Books ITem Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament That altho the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progeniâ—ors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observ'd and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid landably endow'd and in her Rights and Liberties sustain'd without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and maliciously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these days openly and privily divers nâ—w Doctrines and wicked Heretical and Erronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed Determinations of the holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedâ—y instruct and inform people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the holy Church in diminution of God's honour and also in destruction of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrine and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most great peril of the Souls but also many more other hurts slanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Jurisdiction Spiritual without Aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their Malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesan but the same Diocesans and their Jurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehearsed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in
the same Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King That his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy the same our Soveraign Lord the King graciously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the Conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the land of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all his said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions Divisions Hurts Slanders and Perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease to be utterly destroyed by the Assent of the States and other discreet Men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath granted stablished and ordained from henceforth firmly to be observed that none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly or privily without the License of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Canon granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick faith or determination of the holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Câ—nvenâ—â—cles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools And also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such Preacher or maker of any such or like Conventicles or holding or exercising Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked Doctrine and Opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be delivered all such Books and Writings to the Diocesan of the same place within 40 days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do or attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premisses or in any any of them or such Books in the form aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan in the same place in his Diocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his Prisons to be detained 'till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do Canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and heretical and erronious Opinions do objure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judicially proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under safe custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said Arrest any lawful Impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries canonically Convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his Prison the said person so Convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the Offence according aud as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the Secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his peculiar Fine according as the same Fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the Offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his Seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levied to his use of the Goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominions upon the said wicked Preachings Doctrines Opinions Schools heretical and erroneous Informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the Abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into Relapse so that according to the holy Canons be ought to be left to the Secular Court whereupon Credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town or Borough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required And they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in an high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others whereby no such wicked Doctrine and heretical and erroneous Opinions nor their Authors and Fautours in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statnte the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Boroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries The COURANT. Tory. I Have read that passage we talkt of t'other day in Mr. L'Estranges Memento by the same token in the same page he gives an account of Addresses in these words And now from all parts are to be procur'd Addresses Sweet London leads the way The Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich c. These numerous and pretending Applications were but false Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them other gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity half a score pitiful wretches call themselves the people of such or such a County and here 's the Total of the Reckoning Thus far L'Estrange Momentop 30. Truem. I marry and he talks like a South-sayer But hang 't let 's prorogue the Discourse of him and his Atchievements Have you seen Father Dowdal's just and sober Vindication Tory. No what 's he Truem. Even a worshipful Roman Catholick Priest very lately if not still a Prisoner in the Gate-house for Religion forsooth 'T is a small Treatise of five or six sheets bound printed 1681. and to be sold by William Downing in Bartholomew Close The design on 't is
to express their Abhorrence of such Popish Shams and Lies and to Address to the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR That Thompson be call'd to Account for 't Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 17. 1681-2 Plangunt Anglorum gentes Crimen Sodomorum Paulus fert horum sunt Idola Causa malorum Surgunt nigrati Gierzitae Simone Nati Nomine Praelati hoc defensare parati Qui Reges estis populis quicunque praeestis Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibêre potestis Versic Parl. exhib Anno 18. Rich. 2. The Proceedings against Dissenters in the Raigns of King Richard the Second and King Henry the Fourth WE have told you the severe Laws made against all those that in these dark Times durst open their Eyes and see farther than Popery the Church then as by Law establisht thought fit to permit them such Hereticks were generally call'd Lollards they were the Puritans the Fanaticks the Whigs the Brummingham's of those days and how busie the Magistrates especially of the Clergy were to put the said Laws in Execution against them will appear in the following account 'T is true during the Raign of King Richard the Second we do not find any burnt to Death for the profession of Religion but many were imprison'd harrass'd and in great trouble and especially William Swinderby a Priest and Walter Brute a Lay-man but Learned and a Graduate of the University of Oxford the several Articles against whom and their Answers thereunto you may read at large in Foxes Acts and Monuments too tedious here to recite I shall therefore only note That John Bishop of Hereford having by solemn sentence denounced the said Swinderby to be an Heretick Schismatick and a false informer of the People and to be avoided by all faithful Christians He the said Swinderby did thereupon Appeal from such the Bishops Sentence to the King and Council by an Instrument under his hand which both in respect of the Matter and of the English wherein it is written being such as was then current now above 280 years ago I shall trespass so far on the Readers patience as to repeat it verbatim IN nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Amen I William Swinderby Priest knowledge openly to all Men That I was before the Bishop of Hereford the Third day of October and before many other good Clerkâ— to answer to certain Conclusions of the Faith I was accused of and mine Answer was this That if the Bishop or any Man couâ—hâ— shew me by God's Law that my Conclusions or my Answers were Errour or Heresie I would be amended and openly revoke them before all the people but they sayden singly with word That there was Errours in them and bidden me subject me to the Bishop and put me into his Grace and revoke mine Errour and shewed me nought by God's Law ne Reason ne proved which they weren And for I would not knowledge me Guilty so as I knew no Errour in them of which I should therefore the Bishop sate in Doom in mine absence and deemed me an Heretick a Schismatick and a teacher of Errours and denounced me accursed that I come not to correction of the Church and therefore for this unrightful Judgment I appeal to the King's Justices for many other Causes One Cause is For the King's Court in such matter is above the Bishop's Court for after the Bishop has accursed he may not fear by his Law but then mote he sech succour of the King's Law and by a Writ of Significavit put a Man in Prison The second Cause For in cause of Heresie there liggeth Judgment of Death and that doom may not be given without the King's Justices For the Bishop will say Nobis non licet interficere quenquam that is It is not lawful for us to kill any man as they sayden to Pilate when Christ should be deemed And for I think that no Justice will give sodenly and untrue Doom as the Bishop did and therefore openly I appeal to hem and send my Conclusions to the Knights of the Parliament to be shewed to the Lords and to be taken to the Justices to be well adviset or that they given Doom The third Cause is For it was a false Doom for no Mâ—n is a Heretick but he that Masterfully defends his Errour or Heresie and stifly maintains it And mine Answer has always bene Conditional as the people openly knows for ever I say and yet say and alway will that if they cannen shew me by Gods Law that I have erret I will gladly bene amendet and revoke mine Errours and so I am no Heretick ne nevermore in Gods grace will ben en no wise The fourth Cause is For the Bishop's Law that they deme Men by is full of Errours and Heresies contrary to the truth of Christ's Law of the Gospel For there as Christ's Law bids us Love our Enemies the Pope's Law gives us leave to hate them and to sley them and graunts Men pardon to werren again Heathen Men and sley hem And there as Christ's Law teach us to be merciful the Bishop's Law teachs us to be wretchful for Death is the greatest wretch that 〈◊〉 mowen done on him that guilty is There as Christs Law teaches us to blessen him that diseazen us and to pray for him the Popes Law teacheth us to Curse them and in their great sentence that they usen they presume to Dam hem to Hell that they cursen And this is afoue Heresie of Blasphemy There as Christ's Law bids us be patient the Pope's Law justifies two Swords that wherewith he smitheth the Sheep of the Church and he has made Lords and Kings to swear to defend him and his Church There as Christ's Law forbideth us Letchery the Pope's Law justifies the abominable Whoredom of common Women and the Bishops in some place have a great Tribute or Rent of Whoredom There as Christ's Law bids to minister Spiritual things freely to the people the Pope with his Law sells for Money after the quantity of the Gift as Pardons Orders Blessings and Sacraments and Prayers and Benefices and preaching to the People as it is known amongst them There as Christ's Law teaches Peace the Pope with his Law assoiles Men for money to gader the People Priests and other to fight for his Cause There as Christ's Law forbids Swearing the Pope's Law justifies Swearing and compels men thereto Whereas Christ's Law teacheth his Priests to be Poor the Pope with his Law justifies and maintains Priests to be Lords And yet the fifth Cause is For the Pope's Law that the Bishops demen Men by is the same unrightful Law that Christ was demet by of the Bishops with the Scribes and with the Pharisees for right as at time they gaven more credens to the two false Witnesses that witnessed against Christ then they deden to all the people that witnesseden to his
Baker in his Chronicle fo 177. says but Twenty eight were Executed for the pretended Treason And to push home the matter in a Parliament held the next Year They obtain an Act of Parliament 2 Hen. 5. Ca. 7. with this frightful Preamble For as much as great Rumours Congregations and Insurrections here in the Realm of England by divers of the Kings Liege-people as well by them which were of the Sect of Heresie commonly call'd 〈◊〉 as by other of their Confedracy Excitation and Abetment now of late were made to the Intent to Annul Destroy and Subvert the Christian Faith and the Lâ—w of God and Holy Church within this same Realm of Eâ—gland and also to destroy the same our Soveraign Lord the King and all other manner of Estates of the same Realm of England as well Spiritual as Temporal and also all manner of Policy and finally the Laws of the Land The same our Soveraign Lord the King to the Honour of God and in Conservation and Forâ—ification of the Christian Faith and also in Salvation of his Royal Estate and of the Estate of all his Realm wâ—â—ling against the Malice of such Hereticks and Lollâ—rds to provide a more open Remedy and Punishment c. hath Ordainâ—d That the Chancellour Treasurer Iustices of each â—ench Iustices of the Peace Sheriffs c. shall take an Oath to Root out and Destroy all manner of Heresies and Errours commonly called Lollardries And that all persons Convict of Hâ—â—esie by the Ordinary shall forfâ—it all their Lanâ—â—s and Tenements Goods and Chattels So that by this Law the poor People were in as bad ease for Heresie as if they had Committed Treason or Murder they must lose both 〈◊〉 and â—state only here was no Corruption of 〈◊〉 and 't is oâ—sâ—rvable that pursuant to this Act there waâ— even since the Reformation this Clause in the Sheriff Oath viz. Ye shall do all your pain and diligence to Destroy and make to Cease all manner of Heresies and Errours â—â—mmonly call'd Lollers within your Bayliffwick See Book of Oathes p. 27. And so it continued to the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First and then viz. the Fourth of December 1625. it was by direction of the Kings Council Reformed and that Clause omitted But now 't is time to return to speak of Sir John Old-Castle he had now sheltred himself about Four years in Wales and though the King at the Prelates Instigation had set forth A Proclamation Promising a Thousand Marks to any that should bring him in yet says Baker so generally was his Doctrine favour'd that the Kings offer was not much regarded till at last he was taken by the Lord Powis and sent Prisoner up to London and being in the Interim Outlaw'd for the aforesaid pretended Treason he was drawn to the Place since call'd Tyburn and as his Crime was represented double so likewise was his Punishment being both Hang'd and Burnt the first as a Traytor and the last as an Heretick and 't is said several others in those times were serv'd in like manner insomuch That some have deduced the Etymology of Tyburn from those two Words Ty and burn the Necks of Persons being tyed thereunto whose Leggs and lower Parts were Consumed in the Flames Having given this Succinct Relation of this Affair of Sir John Old Castle I am not Ignorant what rubbs have been thrown in the way and Scandals raised upon his Memory by Parsons the Jesuit and others which are reducible unto Two sorts viz. 1 st That he was a Traitor to his Soveraign 2 ly That he was a Drunken Companion or Debâ—uchee As to the First being a very material and heinous Charge we shall refer the Confutation thereof to our next Pacquet But this last being as groundless as Trivial wee 'l dispatch it at present That Sir John Old-Castle was a Man of Valour all Authentick though prejudic'd Histories agree That he was a Gentleman both of goâ—d Sense sober Life and sound Christian Principles is no less apparent by his Confession of Faith delivered under his own hand Extant in Foxe and his Answers to the Prelates But being for his Opinions hated by the Clergy and suffering such an Ignominious Death Nothing was more obliging to the then Domineering Ecclesiastick Grandeeâ— than to have him represented as a Lewd Fellow in Compliance thereof to the Clergy the Wits such as they were in the succeeding Ages brought him in in their Interludes as a Royster Bully or Hector And the Painter borrowing the Fancy from their Cozen Poets have made his Head commonly an Ale house Sign with a Brimmer in his hand and so foolishly it has been Tradition'd to Posterity Nor is this our private Conceit but the Observation of that Learned and Ingenious Divine the Reverend Doctor Fuller who in his Church History of Britain Lib. 4. fol. 168. has these words Stage-Poets have themselves been very bold with and others very merry at the Memory of Sir John Old-Castle whom they have fancied a Boon Companion a Jovial Royster and yet a Coward to boot contrary to the Credit of all Chronicles owning him a Martial Man of Merit The best is Sir John Falstaffe hath relieved the Memory of Sir John Old Castle and of late is substituted Buffoon in his place but it matters as little what petulent Poets as what malicious Papists have Written against him The spightful Calumnies of the Latter we shall wipe off in our next The COURANT. Truman and Tory. Truman THe Business I was about to tell you was this After the Discovery of the late Popish Plot a Gentleman at the desire of an Eminent Bookseller in Fleet-street Wrote a Brief History of all the Papists Bloody Persecutions Plots and Massacres throughout Europe This Manuscript was carryed by the Bookseller to Mr. L' Estrange to License which being unwilling to do he Cavill'd at it after he had kept it some time in his hands that the Author had not Quoted the Authors or Books whence he had taken the Relations and unless that were done he would not License it The Gentleman at the Booksellers desire made all the Quotations punctually and set them in the Margent and the Copy was again carried to L'Estrange who nevertheless Resolving not to License it put off the Bookseller with many delays near Three Months and at last told him in plain termes It was not fit to make the Breach wider betwixt the Papists and Vs and there were too many of such kind of Books already Neither could he get the Copy out of his hand Tory. Perhaps L'Estrange kept it that he might prevent its being Licens'd by any body else Trum. This I 'm sure The Bookseller lost his Season Copy and Charge of Writing it for this Man 's Aâ—britary Pleasure Tory. But what then did the Author of the Book do Trum. The Gentleman followed the business so Close threatning to take his course at Law that at last he got the Copy and without any Alteration
they are Gods Elect yet to speak precisely no mortal eye can infallibly discern them to be such since many times the Bristol-stone glitters as bright as the Diamond and Hypocrites make as fair outward shew as the real Saint The second sort therefore of the militant Church are Hypocrites and â—nâ—ound members who are not effectually called but disobey the truth whereof they make profession These distinctions being thus premised we proceed to acquaint you what we mean by a true Church of Christ and we shall do it in the very words of our mother the Church of England in the 19 th Article of her Faith The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of Faithfull men in the which the pure word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly Administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of Necessity are requisite to the same So that here we see wherever the word of God is sincerely preach'd and heard and the Sacraments Administred according to Christs Institution there is a Church of God for those are the marks whereby the Church may be known So that the visible Church which is also Catholick or Vniversal under the Gospel not confined to one Nation as before under the Law consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true Religion And particular Churches which are members thereof are more or less pure according the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced Ordinances Administred and publick Worship perform'd more or less pure in them And not only the purest particular Churches under Heaven are subject both to mixture and Error but some may and have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but Synagoges of Satan tho yet there shall to the end of the world be a Church on Earth to Worship God according to his will against whom the Gates of Hell shall not prevail Now whether the present Church of Râ—me be not one of these Apostatized Adulterous Churches against whom such a Divorce is sued out we shall proceed to Inquire as soon as we have told you what we mean by the Church of Rome And that is The whole Church of Rome as it is a Body consisting of one vissible head the Pope and of all Papists wheresoever Clergy and Laity professing themselves members of that Head and owning the Faith and Doctrine thereof This Body or Company I say is not in any sort to be accounted a true visible Church of Christ which I conceive will appear by diverse Arguments of which I shall give you one at present That Church which over throweth the main and proper cause of our Salvation is no true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome overthroweth the main and proper cause of our Salvation Therefore the Church of Rome is no true Church of Christ The Major I presume no man will deny and for the Assumption 't is notoriously evident for they have overthrown the principal and fundamental Article of Justification which is the Head and summ of all Religion they err in the Efficient Cause of our Justification which is the free Grace and favour of God which they deny building it upon mans merit of Congruity or works preparatory and dispository to Justification c. Coupling it with mans free-will They Err in the material cause Christ Obedience this they deny to be our Obedience or the matter of our Justification They Err in the Form of our Justification which it the Imputation of Christs Righteousness unto us They Err in the Instrumental cause to wit the Justifying Faith denying is to be a certain particular trust or Assurance in Gods mercy for the Pardon of our Sins They Err in the very Meritorious cause Christ our Redeemer several ways overthrowing all his Offices They Err also in the final cause of Justification being the free Gift of Eternal Life while they say the same is merited by the Condignaty They overthrow the very Fundamentals of Religion by denying the sufficiency of the Scriptures for the Rule of Faith and the necessity of its being known to Gods people They deny the right use of the Sacraments whilst they attribute unto them Grace ex opere operato and teach that their efficacy depends on the Intention of the Priest They deny the truth of Christs humane Body by their absurd whimsey of Transubstantiation and the vertue of His only and all alone sufficient Sacrifice by their propitiatory Masses c. So that 't is plain they have Corrupted or abandoned the main and proper Fundamentals of Salvation consequently has no Claim to the Title of a Church of Christ THE COURANT. Tory. HAVE you seen the famous Panegyrick the Sacrificâ— to the Rising-Sun Truem. No nor can guess what you mean But I have heard that amongst all sorts of Idolaters they were only a parcel of forlorn servile debauch'd effeminate Hen-hearted Chicken-soul'd Persians that worship'd the Sun rising And since you mention that word it puts me in mind what I read the other day in a Pamphlet Entituled A warning against the dangerous practises of Papists written by one Thomas Norton in good Queen Bess's days Anno 1586. Let it be well-weigh'd saith he what they mean to the Realm That under colour of Succeeding so far undermine the Head of our Country that they convey the countenance favour and supportation of a great corrupt number of such as may frame themselves any hope of Gain that way to persons that by such kindled Ambition may be the more hastily embolden'd This to do is to shew us a Sun rising to whose Worship they would fain draw us from our Sun declining as they suppose No no our Queen is our true Sun and whatever shining Thing they would set up in her time is no right Sun but an unlucky Comet And it is not yet Noon I trust with our Sun or if it be I hope yet God will lengthen the day to our Sun for his Honour-sake as he did to Joshua and rather have all good Subjects so to hope if the residue of that day may be so spent as Joshuah spent it and for which God did prolong it viz. To rid the World of God's Enemies Let it be considered what Hopes Anticipation and most dreadful Mischiefs which I fear and abhor to name the encouraging of such succeeding which is the work of Papists may minister where the only Person of our most dear and precious Soveraign standeth between them and their desired Effect the utter undoing of us all and specially where the power of Revenge may by possibility fall into their hands for whose sake it should be attempted It is no small mischief danger and appalling of our Faith and Courage when our Prince must be defended against those that by possibility may aspire to be our Princes themselves and to 〈◊〉 it upon good Subjects I dispute no Titles I have no reach beyond our Queen I can see nothing beyond our Queen 〈◊〉 a Chaos of Misery therefore I am
loth to look so far my only care is and all good Subjects ought to be for our Queens Majesties Preservation What other Title soever be pretended be it good or bad if it shall once threaten danger to the Queen's Majesty whose Title and Governance we know to be true and have felt to be good I wish it destroyâ—d and put out of hope lest it hope too soon too much too high and join with too many Thus the very syllables of that Author Tory. Well! and what the Devil does all this signifie The idle Dream I 'le warrant ye of some seditious Puritanical Whig Truem. The Book Sir was printed by Authority and seems but to express the general fears and apprehensions Protestants were then in from the prospect of a Popish Successor But the truth is Mr. L'Estrange was a little too young to be Licenser in those days Tory. Why there 's the business Tempora mutantur Protestants dread a Popish Successor I must tell you Sir that whoever is cautious against such a Blessing is Ipso facto to be reputed stigmatiz'd and prosecuted as a Whig a damn'd Phanatick a Rascal a Traitor and infallibly an Enemy to the Church of England as by Law establish'd and all this if need be we will have proved as plain as the way to Dunstable in the next Observator Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY April 28. 1682. Papae tempus adest magnò cum optaverit empâ—um Intactam hanc Gentem cum spolia ista diemque Oderit Arguments proving the Church of Rome not to be the true Church of Christ IN our last we Explain'd the Notion of a Church in its several Acceptations as far as was necessary and offer'd one Reason then why the Roman Church was not to be esteemed a true Church We now proceed to Consider the same a little further And our Second Argument shall for the greater Authority be taken from the Profest Publick Doctrine of The Church of England if the Book of Articles and Homiles be allowed to Contain her Doctrine which some Mens Heterodoxies and bold Preachments of quite contrary Tenets whilst they yet vapour and boast themselves as the only true Churchmen has rendred a Quaere Argument 2. The true Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of Faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duly Administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same But the Church of Rome is not a Congregation of Faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duly Administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Therefore the Church of Rome is not a true visible Church of Christ The Major is the Express Words of the Nineteenth Article of the Church of England And least any should say That we may indeed from hence conclude Affirmatively not Negatively viz. That where these Marks are There is a Church but not that where they are not there is no Church be pleased to take notice That the Church of England delivers these Words by way of Definition of a Church describing it by the proper Marks Now a Definition all that understand the Art of Reasoning know is not only positive in it self but Exclusive and Negative in regard of that to which it is Oppos'd The Minâ—r is also declar'd and asserted by our Church in her Homilies As for Example in That for Whit-sunday part 2 d. We have these Passages First It speaking of the Church of Rome wants these true and proper Marks of a true Church having before mentioned these very Marks For neither are they Built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets retaining the sound and pure Doctrine of Christ Jesus neither do they Order the Sacraments or Ecclesiastical Keys in such sort as he did first Institute and Ordain them Again They want the Spirit of God if it be possible to be there where the true Church is not then it is at Rome Again He that is of God heareth Gods Word whereof it followeth That the Popes in not hearing Christs Voice do plainly argue to the World that they are not of Christ nor yet possest of his Spirit Thus the Homily whereby I think this Argument is sufficiently supported and will appear Cogent to all such as own themselves Soâ—â— of the Church of England and indeed 't is pity any such should now be to be Informed That the Church of Rome is no true Church Nor is this Argument less strong in it self against the Papists For the Proposition is St. Paul's Gal. 1. 8. That Man or Angel and by parity of Reason That Church which teacheth otherwise than the Apostles taught is accursed and whether such Church offend herein by adding to Christs Doctrine or by detracting or taking from it 't is all one the Crime is the sameâ— 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another thing another Gospel For as for taking away as the Apostle saith Whoever shall keep the whole Law and yeâ— offend in one point he is Guilty of all James 2. 10. So most truly too saith St. Ambrose in his Sixth Book upon Luke Negat Christum qui non omnia quae Christi sunt Confitetur He denyeth Christ who doth not confess and acknowledge all that Christ taught And for adding unto the same Father Writing upon those words Be not the Servants of Men 1 Cor. 7. 23. thus testifieth Servi hominum sunt qui Humanis se subjiciunt Superstitionibus They are the Servants of Men that submit themselves to Humane Traditions And if they are the Servants of Men they are not the Servants of Christ So St. Paul concludeth Gal. 1. 10. So that the Proposition as it is Asserted by the Church of England so is it likewise Justified by the Authority of the Holy Scripture and ancient Fathers Then as for the Assumption That in the Church of Rome neither the Word of God is truly Preached nor the Sacraments duly Administred is notorious for as to Doctrine they have added their own Figments as Transubstantiation Purgatory c. and do Preach contrary Doctrines to the Scripture and as touching the Sacraments they have not only Augmented the Number and made Five new ones of their own which Christ never Instituted viz. Confirmation Orders Pennance Matrimony and Extream Vnction But also they have utterly Corrupted those Two which our Lord Ordain'd For in Baptism besides Water they use Spettle Salt Oyl Chrism contrary to the Institution and they lay such a necessity upon this Institution That all that dye without it even Infants they say are Damn'd See Bellarm. de Baptism L. 1. Ca. 4. and Rhem. Annot. on John the 3 d. In the Lords Supper they have turned the Sacrament to a Sacrifice made an Idol of Bread changed the Communion into private Masses
meaning Nomen non facit Episcopum sed vita c. It is not the Name but the Life that makes a Bishop If a Man have the Name of a Prelate and does not answer the reason thereof in sincerity of Doctrine and integrity of Life but live scandalously in open Sin he is but a Nomine-tenus Sacerdos A Bishop or Priest in Name not in Truth Yet still Wickliff did not deny but that such an ones Ministerial Acts were valid for so in the same Treatise p. 138. he saith Unless the Christian Priest be united unto Christ by Grace Christ cannot be his Saviour Nec sine falsitate dicit verba Sacramentalia Nor can he pronounce the Sacramental words without Lying Licet prosint Capacibus The notwithstanding they are available so far that the worthy Receiver is thereby nothing hinder'd from partaking of the Grace signified Obj. 3. They pretend that Wickliff maintain'd That it was not lawful for any Ecclesiastical persons to have any Temporal Possessions or property in any thing Answ This is falsly imputed to him he only tax'd the Abuses of the Revenues given to so many Abbies Priories and Monasteries tending only to Superstition and the keeping so many Drones in idleness And therefore he was of opinion That our Kings might dispossess them thereof and give them Genti facienti Justitiam to good and godly Uses The Poverty he exhorted to was no other than that which St. Paul recommends viz. Having Food and Rayment therewith to be content He did not debar Ministers from actual having but from Covetous affecting the things of this World which are to be Renounc'd saith he Per Cogitationem Affectum in the Mind and the Affections Obj. 4. They charge him with asserting That God ought to obey the Devil Answ This is so senseless and improbable a Slander that no Man in his Wits can believe it And on the quite contrary Wickliff in his Commentary on Psal 112. Expresly affirms That the Devil can do nothing without God's permission Obj. 5. Well but if they cannot fix Blasphemy upon him they will charge him with Treason This is a frequent Stratagem of the Devils and his Instruments If thou suffer this Man thou art not Cesar ' s Friend said the Jews of old not that they cared for Cesar but only to gratifie their own Revenge Thus the Papists charge Wickliff as a Teacher of Sedition and an opposer of Magistrates and that if a Civil Magistrate be in a mortal Sin he is no longer to be obey'd Answ There is much craft and malice but very little truth and no reason for this Slander Wickliff indeed in several of his Works admonisheth the King and all other inferiour Officers and Magistrates that he beareth not the Sword in vain nor hath his Office for nought but to discharge well and truly the part and Office of a King by seeing wholsom Laws duly executed and Justice impartially administer'd And tells him That if he be defective in such his Duty by suffering the Sword of Justice to rust in its Scabard and his People to perish for want of good Governance then he is not properly and truly a King that is in effect and operation for so the words must necessarily be understood being spoken by way of Exhortation But otherwise so far was Wickliff from mutinying himself or persuading others to any act that was Rebellious that never any Man in those times did so stoutly assert the King's Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil against all usurped foreign Jurisdiction for which amongst many others he gives this reason That otherwise our Soveraign should not be King over all England but Regulus parvae partis a petty Governour of some small parts of the Realm Nor does any thing tending to countenance Rebellion appear in any of his Works that are extant But the Friars and proud Clergy having an inveterate spleen against Wickliff and there happening to fall out about the same time a grievous Insurrection of the Commons under Wat Tyler occasioned chiefly upon a civil score about Taxes Commons and Servitude but much augmented by one John Ball a Priest and one of Baal's Priests too for ought I know for he does not at all appear to be any of Wickliff's Followers therefore in spight to Wickliff they cast the odium of that Frantic Tumult upon him and his Doctrine But indeed as Wickliff was a person of extraordinary Learning and Piety so that in substance he held and taught the very same Doctrines as are at this day maintained by the Church of England is demonstrated by the Learned Dr. James Oxford Library-keeper in his Book Intituled An Apology for John Wickliff shewing his Conformity with the now Church of England c. Printed Anno 1608. However to the end the vulgar Reader may better judge of this reverend man and his Works I shall here produce some few passages out of two of his Books Printed by the said James from the Original Manuscripts remaining one in Bennet Colledge Cambridge the other in the Publick Library at Oxford The English being excusable considering 't was wrote above 300 years agoe in his complaint to King Richard the Second and his Parliament Article 2. He hath these words Nothing ought to be damned as errour and false but if it favour errour or unrightewiseness against Gods Law And Article 4. He prays That Christ's teaching O beleave of the Sacrament of his own Body that is plainly tawght by Christ and his Apostles in Gospels and Pistles mayen be tawght openlie in Churches of Christen People and the contrary teaching and false beleave is brought up by cursed Hypocrits and worldlie Priests unkunning in Gods Law which say they are Apostles of Christ but are Fools And he concludes that Article with these words As Christ saved the wordle by writing and teaching of foure Evangelists so the Fiend casteth to Damme the wordle and Priests for letting to Preach the Gospel by these four by fayned Contemplation by Songs by Salisbury use and by worldly business of Priests And in his Treatise against the Orders of Friars Ca. 4. runs thus Friars sayen that if a man be once professed to their Religion he may never leave it and be saved though he be never so unable thereto for al time of his life and they wil nede him to live in such a state ever more to which God makes him ever unable and so nede him to be damned Alas out on such heresie that Mans Ordinance is holden stronger than is the Ordinance of God For if a man enter into the newe Religion against mans ordinance he maie lawfully forsake it but if he enter against Gods Ordinance when God makes him unable thereto he shall not be suffered by Antichrist's power to leave it And if this reason were wel declared sith no man wote which man is able to this new Religion by Gods dome and which is not able no man should be constrained to
be Cast out of the Sacred Temple which they had so vily prophan'd more than or as much at least as the 5 honest Protestants that were given to the Divel 'tother day near Ludgate for not receiving the Sacrament at Easter when they made it appear before that they have since received it and by the Doctors leave too according to the form of the Establisht Church of England But why may not we have a Query or two as well as Heraclitus 1. Q. Whether the Church-Warden that first presents men on his Oath for not coming to Church and afterwards Acknowledges to one of them before 4 Witnesses That for his part he did not know but he one of the defendants did use to come to Church c. have not a pretty Implicit vein of swearing 2. Q. Whether a Parsons Wife that when her Husband came to his Lodging at 12 a Clock on a Sunday Night and told her he must go out a Hunting next morning Swore twice by God he should not go may not for all that be a good daughter of the Church Or whether her Husband be not thereby barr'd from all hopes of a Bishoprick by that old Canon 1 Tim. 3. 4. because he can rule his Wife no better Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Jan. 27. 1681-2 Depravant publica Jura Justitiámque fugant Divûm nil verba verentes Pope Boniface makes the people of Rome intirely his Vassals sets up another Jubilee besides that Ordain'd by Urban Anno 1388. in the Year 1400. Complaints of his horrid Covetuousness POpe Boniface the Ninth whose Life we are at present concerned with came to the Chair in the Year One thousand three hundred eighty nine Platina says He was then but Thirty years old But Onuphrius Snibs him for that Errour and affirms He was five and forty and highly commends him for his Continency c. But how well he deserv'd those Praises you will by and by be better enabled to Judge Of his Ambition and Tyranny the same Author in the very next words gives us an Instance Primus Populi Romani vim Omnem in Pontificem transtulerit Creatis suo nutu Magistratibus omnibus c. He was the first that transferr'd all the Power of the People of Rome unto the Popes Creating all their Magistrates at his pleasure It seems before though the Popes bore a great sway amongst them yet the Citizens retain'd some part of their Antient Liberty and Elected their own Officers which made several of the Popes not endure to keep their Residence there But this bonny Boniface taking the advantage of the Feuds and Disorders amongst them and by the means of a Jubilee which they Courted him to hold in their City as you shall hear presently ordered matters so cunningly that he got to himself alone the Domination In Alâ—o Basso As Feudal Lawyers speak in High and Low or absolutely in All and over All So that henceforth the Pope must be Dominus Fac totum Chief Master of Misrule and becomes forsooth a Temporal Prince and from hence our small Hucksters for Popery little disguised Factors of Romes Braided Wares such as L'Estrange c. draw their Argument O! you must not call the Pope the Antichrist Man of Sin c. which are Titles the Spirit of God in Holy Scripture invests him with but you must blasphemously call him his Holiness and the Western Patriarch and give him Complemental Language and termes of Respect For he is a Civil Prince Thus you must first Reverence a Traitor a Rebel an Vsurper and a Murderer as a Lawful Soveraign in Civils and Honour a Blasphemous Villain and Enemy to Christ not only as a true Christian Bishop but a Patriarch too and Metropolitan of all the Western Churches And having got you so far 't will be no difficult matter to perswade you to alter this Reverence to Adoration and make you believe he has as much Right in Spirituals as in Temporals and as good a Jurisdiction over all the other Churches in the World as over those of these Western Kingdoms and then the Business is done and you will quickly prove as errant a Batt-blind Bigotted Papist as any in Spain To maintain his ill-acquired Soveraignty he grievously fleec'd the Clergy with Subsidies and Exactions But to make them part of amends gave them leave to Extort what they could from the Laiety He likewise Re-edified the Castle of St. Angelo and the Capitol and therein placed a Garrison and Fortified the Bridges over the Tiber the more to keep the people in Awe and Subjection You heard before how his Predecessor Vrban had for Lucre-sake Anticipated the Jubilee and appointed it to be kept almost Twelve years before it came in Course but the said Vrban dying Boniface so far approved thereof as to let it go on and take the Money that accrewed thereby amounting to a vast Sum But Ten years after when the year 1400. began to approach which was the year on which the Jubilee should customarily be kept as being the Fiftieth year He pretended that what Vrban did was Irregular and therefore he must have it solemnly kept according to the Original Institution so here were two Jubilees held in a dozen years space But a little before the beginning of the said year Boniface subtlely removes to Assise pretending to stay there for a considerable time this Alarm'd the Romans fearing least by reason of his absence whose Business it was to give the Blessing the great Jubilee would not be kept at Rome or at least not so much frequented and so they should lose the profit of the Solemnity whereupon they very humbly Petition him to return to the Mother-City But he had another Game to play and therefore they more Intreat the more Coy he seems and upbraids them with their Disrespectful Carriage and expresses much Aversion to the City particularly he Charges them with that they had refused to take Senators at his Nomination and that of their own humour they had appointed certain Magistrates called Conservers of the Chamber who were insufficient men and had suffered the Banderesii a Faction not favouring the Pope to have their will in all things c. So that at last to please him and get the Jubilee at their Town the Romans were glad not only to Banish the Banderesii and take such an one for their Senator which Office in those days appears to have been somewhat like that of our London Majors as Boniface appointed but likewise to give the Pope a great sum of Money which making all friends he comes to Rome and thence forwards Rul'd them at his Arbitrary pleasure as aforesaid We are Arrived at the Year 1400. and the Great Jubilee is Proclaim'd Quo innumera ferè hominum multitudo ad Urbem Religionis causâ venerat Whereupon a multitude of People almost Innumerable flock to the City on the Account of Religion
folks at Farringdon without yet survey'd the Books Truem. Don't mention that affair you 'l get no Credit by it if ever a Factious Spirit appear'd there he was visibly on your side Tory. Well well prattle what you please I 'le wager Cock-pit Law that we Nick many of the Common Council Truem. Why man I believe there is not one in the whole City but is Legally Qualified you know Heraclitus and Observator upbraided them with receiving the Sacrament Tory. No matter for that the Statute of 25 Car. 2 C. 2. requires we say not only the receiving of the Sacrament But the certifying the same on Record withing three Months after their being Chosen into the Courts at Westminster or the Quarter Sessions on pain of being disabled as therein is order'd and forfeiting 500 l. Now if they have receiv'd the Sacrament never so oft yet unless they do so certify on Record the Term ending and no Quarter Sessions happening after within the three Months limmited we will pretend they are Excluded so shall we neatly turn them out and get 500 l. a Man to boot Truem. I have neither read the Statute you mention nor pretend to be capable of judging of Law But however those concern'd may no doubt find a Church in London where the Sacrament is Administered next Lords-day or I think no Minister can deny it to a Competent number then may they lodge their Certificates on Monday in the Courts above and so defeat your Malicious expectations who I perceive do not so much desire your Neighbours Conformity to the Church and Obedience to the Laws as their Ruin Tory. Nay Pax don't talk so low'd if you do for ought I know the Ten Guinnies we gave for this very Stratagem may prove of no advantage to us Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Feb. 17. 1681-2 Fragenti fidem Fides frangatur â—idem A brief Account of John Hus and Jerome of Prague The Burning of those two Martyrs The Council of Constance declares That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks VVE have told you how the Synod of Constance order'd their Triplicity of Popes but it was not only that they sat four years about For they likewise Condemn'd and Burnt those two Noble Servants of the Lord John Hus and Jerome of Prague of whose excellent Lives and Honourable Deaths it will be necessary to inform briefly the vulgar Reader In our last Volume we acquainted you with the Preaching of John Wickliff here in England Almighty Providence honouring this Nation so far as not only to have the first Christian King in the World viz. Lucius and to give Birth to the first Christian Emperor in the World viz. Constantine But also to lead the van in the Reformation and 't was from our Torch many other Regions that sat in darkness borrow'd their Light these two Bohâ—mians had embrac'd several of those Truths which Wickliff had reviv'd in the World For King Richard the Second's first Wife being Ann the Daughter of the Emperour Charles the 4th and Sister to the Emperour Wenceslaus a Bohemian by Birth diverse of her Country-men follow'd her into England whom some becoming Students at Oxford where Wickliff then flourisht they were not only hearers of his Preaching but carried when they went away several of his Books home with them into their own Country as these de Realibus Vniversalibus de Civili Jure Divino de Ecclesiâ de questionibus variis contra clerum c. It chanc'd about the same time a Noble Man of the City of Prague in Bohemia had founded a great Church Dedicated to Matthias and Matthew but commonly call'd Bethlem Endowing it with large Revenues for two Preachers every day Holy day or Working day throughout the year Of these two Preachers John Hus was one a Person of great Learning in those times and of excellent Wit but especially reverenc'd by the People for his blameless life and holy Conversation He happening on some of these Books of Wickliffs was presently convinc'd of the Truth of them and began to defend the same not only in the Schools but likewise in his Sermons At this the Pope and Clergy were mightily nettled and wrot Letters to the King of Bohemia to punish him whereupon he was for some time Banisht the City of Prague but the People murmuring that he was unjustly dealt withall and the King himself not finding in him any Crime he was restor'd and this general Council coming on to purge his Teritories from the scandalous suspition of being infected with Haeresy the Emperour who then was Sigismund Son of Charles the 4th would needs have Mr. Hus appear there and in order thereunto granted him his safe Conduct both in the Latin and Dutch Language in these words Sigismund by the Grace of God King of the Romans of Hungary and Denmark Croatia c. To all Princes as well Ecclesiastical as Secular Dukes Marquesses and Earls Barons Captains Burgoermasters Judges and Governours Officers of Towns Boroughs and Villages and in General to all the Subjects of our Empire to whom these Presents shall come Grace and Goodness We Charge and Command you all That you have respect unto John Hus who is departed out of Behomia to come unto the General Council which is shortly to be held at the Town of Constance which said John Hus we have received under our Protection and into the safe Guard of the whole Empire desireing that you would cheerfully receive him when he shall come towards you and that you treat him friendly and shew him in all things favour and good will for the expedition ease and safety of his Journey as well by Land as by Water Further ordaining That he and all his Company with their carriage and necessaries shall pass through all Ports Bridges Lands Liberties Towns c. Without paying any Custome Toll Tribute c. We will also that you suffer him to Pass Rest Tarry and Sojourn at Liberty without doing him any manner of hindrance trouble or molestation and that if need require you provide a faithful Company to Conduct him for the honor and reverence which you owe unto our Imperial Majesty Given at Spire the 18th of Octob. in the year of our Lord 1414. On the 3d. of Nov. 1414. Hus came into Constance of which two Noble Men of his Countrey gave notice to Pope John desireing his Protection who promised the same very freely adding that if Hus had kill'd his Brother yet no outrage nor hurt should be done him in that place Yet for all this he had not been there a Month before they seized upon him and put him in a base and loathsom Prison and this too before his cause was heard in the Council The substance of the Articles at last exhibited against him was as follows 1. That he had taught Error and Herisy about the Sacraments of the Church and especially about the
to restore them Tolletus the Jesuit in his Instructions for Priests on the Title Excommunication Non tenentur reddere rem verbis contractam They are not bound to make good Contracts with Hereticks Nay the Gloss of their Canon Law in Gratian Caus 15. q. 6. not only justifies the thing but also assigns the reason of it Si Juravi me soluturum alicui pecuniam c. If I have sworn to pay a man Money and he happen to be Excommunicated I am not bound to pay it because we ought by all the means we can to vex ill men that they may repent of their Evil. Very pretty Popish Divinity Cardinal Allen resolves Pater qui filium habet Haereticum c. A Father that has a Son that is an Heretick is bound to disinherit him and Parents sin mortally that bestow their Daughters in marriage to Hereticks And of this too the Gloss of Gratian Decret l. 5. Caus 23. q. 8. gives the reason Because Hereticks are not to be esteem'd our Brothers or Kindred but tho he be the Son of thy Mother or thine own only Child yet according to the Law of old Thy hand must be upon him that thou mayest put him to death According to these Maxims 't is notorious that the Apostate Church of Rome and Papists have acted how often have Popes put Princes upon the breaking of their Treaties Alliances and Covenants How remarkable is that Story of Vladislaus the fifth King of Hungary about the year 1440. who having concluded a Peace with Amurath Emperour of the Turks for ten years space and sworn to keep and observe the same inviolably Eugenius the Fourth who at that time was Pope of Rome hearing thereof writes to Cardinal Julian then resident in Hungary to persuade the King to break that Peace alledging and declaring That no Peace made with the Enemies of Religion and in their esteem Protestants are worse than Turks without first consulting the Pope and having his leave was good or valid And therefore commanded the King to fall into Hostility assuring him That as for his Oath given at the Treaty he had dissolv'd the same Hereupon the King partly by Intreaties and partly by Threats is prevail'd upon to become a most perfidious wretch and to the dishonour of the Christian name treacherously to fall upon the Turk at unawares which Amurath observing and seeing his Forces like to be discomfited he draws forth the Original Articles of their League and looking up to Heaven cries out Haec sunt Jesu Christe Foedera quae Christiani tui mecum percussêre per nomen tuum Sanctè Jurantes Nunc si Deus es tuas measque Injurias te quaeso ulciscere Bonfin l. 3. Aenaeas Sylvius afterwards Pope â—p 81. Spondanus ad Ann. 1444. Behold O Jesus these are the Covenants which thy Christians solemnly swearing by thy name made with me now therefore if thou art a God revenge these Injuries to me and thy self upon their perfidious heads And no sooner had he pronounc'd these words but the success of the Battel was chang'd the Christians put to flight and the perjured King together with the wretched Cardinal that put him upon 't being both slain Pope Innocent the Third in the year 1213. in a Letter to Peter King of Arragon charges him in the name of the Holy-Ghost and as he expected ever to obtain Divine and Apostolical Grace to abandon the people of Tholose certain honest Waldensian Christians of whom in our Third Volume we have given an account nor to afford them any Aid or Countenance as long as they continued in their Heresie Non obstante promissione vel obligation quacúnque praestitâ Notwithstanding any promise or obligation whatsoever before pass'd to the contrary In the Year 1538. Paul the Third sends abroad a Roaring Bull against our King Henry the 8 th wherein he admonishes and requires all Christian Princes That they shall not under pretence of any Leagues or Obligations although corroborated by frequently repeated Oathes yield the said King directly or indirectly any Aid Favour or Assistance and to take them off from any apprehensions of their Duty pretends to Absolve them all from all Oathes or Obligations by them made or to be made and pronounces them to be void and of none effect So likewise Pope Pius Quintus Absolv'd not only all the Subjects of Queen Elizabeth but also Caeteros omnes qui Illi quomodocunque Juraverunt All others who in any manner had sworn unto her After Henry the Third of France was Barbarously Murder'd by Frier Clement all the World knew the Right of the Crown by Lineal Succession and Proximity of Blood belong'd to Henry of Burbon but the Popish Doctors of the Sorbon being intreated by the People of Paris to give their Judgment whether it were Lawful to submit to him They answered That Catholicks by the Divine Law were forbidden to admit to the Kingdom a Sectary and manifest Enemy to the Church That all that should Assist him were guilty of mortal Sin and would infallibly be Damn'd And all that did Resist him unto Blood would dye Martyrs and enjoy an Everlasting Reward in Heaven But to prove That Popish Princes who have made never so fair Promises did notwithstanding Persecute their Protestant Subjects with the greatest Rigour and act quite contrary to those Solemn Engagements our Native Island affords a sad and never to be forgotten Precedent for when the Men of Suffolk upon the pious King Edwards Death requested that bloody bigotted and treacherous Queen Mary to know Whether she would alter the Religion Establish'd in her Brothers days She assur'd them with all Asseverations That she would never make any Innovation or Change but be contented with the private Exercise of her own Religion And on April the 12 th she made a Publick Declaration in Council That although her own Conscience were fixed in matters of Religion yet she would never Inforce her Subjects otherwise than God should put into their Hearts a persuasion of the Truth she was in But no sooner was she settled in her Throne but slighting all these Engagements she no less perfidiously than cruelly fell to Burning her Protestant Subjects purely for their Religion Nay do we not at this Instant see the like Proceedings in our next Neighbouring Country where notwithstanding many Edicts and Solemn Promises Ratified with all the formalities of Perpetual Laws yet the poor Protestants directly contrary to all these Priviledges without any colour or shadow of Crime save only their Religion wherein their Persecutors deal much more Generously than if with fained Accusations and damnable Subornations they should falsly represent them as Rebellious and Disloyal are daily harass'd Ruinated and undone Therefore the General Inference from these Premises is That knowing so well the Principles and Practises of the Romish Church no Protestants or men of sense should ever trust to any though never so plausible Promises of any person of that Communion For with such all the
most Sacred Ties besides those of Interest and present opportunity are no more than Sampson's Bands Dissolvable whensoever their own Humour or their Ghostly Fathers Conveniency shall require it The COURANT. Tory. HOw Hodge concern'd in the Burning of London and Godfry's Murder Trum. No I never said he was nor do I believe it but this I say such a wild suggestion might be maintain'd by as good Logick as any he uses to make out the Protestant Plot. Tory. As how prethee a touch for Example I 'le engage not to believe the Consequence Truem. I take it for undeniable That London in Sixty six was designedly burnt by Papists the Law hath determined it in the Execution of Hubert who own'd the Fact and that he was hired thereunto by Piedelon a French Papist The Body of the City have Recorded it in the late Inscription of the Monument and that great and sagacious Minister of State the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellour in his Speech before Sentence on the late Lord Stafford makes no doubt on 't Tory. But you may remember that Hodge was a little disgruntled at That Inscription and has endeavoured to persuade the World that they were the Fanaticks caus'd that Fire But what if the Papists did do it and Kill'd Godfry too what 's that to him Trum. Nâ—thing that I know on But this one might infer according to Mr. L'Estranges modes of Arguing If they were Papists and Hedge should happen to be a Papist too then he may altogether as fairly be Charg'd with both these Exploits as all and every the Dâ—ssenters are by him Tax'd with all the Villanies of Forty odd when the greatest part of them were not born Tory. Well but what Colour is there for Hodges being a Papist Truem. As many Colours as there are in the Rain-bow 1. Two of the Kings Evidence have sworn his haunting of Mass and another Gentleman deposes That he own'd himself to be of that Church whereof the Pope is Head Now you that Rail and Ranâ— at Juries if they won't believe any lousie Witnesses though they swear Dâ—ggers and Impossibilitie ought methinks to Credit such unexceptionable Evidence 2 ly The Gentleman has been oft Challeng'd to prove that for Eighteen years after the Restitution of the Liturgy viz. till after the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he was question'd as a Papist he ever usually frequented his Parish Church or receiv'd the Sacrament Tory. Oh he Answers that in his Preface to his first part of Dissenters Sayings referring people to one Mr. Gatford of St. Dionis Back Church for proof of his Receiving c. Truem. Call you that Sham an Answer 'T is but his nude Averment he produces no Certificate from that Gentleman Besides 't is known Mr. L' liv'd many years in St. Gileses Parish before the Plot why does he not produce some Testimony in all that time from thence can it be imagin'd so intelligent a person had he been so zealous for the Church of England as he now pretends would ever have liv'd Eight or ten years together without her Ordinances and in disobedience and despight to her Laws and Canons Tory. But in particular as to the Fire-Jobb Truem. Mr. L'Estrange some time before the Fire Printed a Pamphlet call'd A Memento wherein Chap. 6. speaking of some people put to death under Cromwel He uses these words London was made the Altar for these Burnt Offerings God grant that City be not at last Purged by Fire I mean before the general Conflagration Now since Roger I think pretends not to be a Prophet and no body takes him for a Conjurer Ill will might on this occasion suggest him to be a Conspirator for it has been prov'd That the mischief was intended long before it was perpetrated and if one would talk of him as he does of the Dissenters one might say his Prayer God grant is only to Cloak his Malice That here 's a plain Prediction It must needs be therefore that he was acquainted with the Design and so bigg with Expectation that he could not forbear Blabbing on 't and warming his fancy with the very Conceit of the Flames just as Del Rio the Jesuit in his Magical Disquisitions could not forbear giving a dark hint of the Gunpowder-Treason several years before it happen'd Tory. These are unjust and inconsequent Descants on such an Innocent Accidental passage Truem. I grant it But yet 't is at this very rate that L'Estrange Treats others wresting the most harmless Passages to odious and horrid meanings Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 2. 1681-2 Vmbrâque errabit Thynnus inultâ Of the first pretended Act of Parliament that ever was in England against professors of Religion how it was forg'd by the Prelates and soon after Repeal'd The bloody Statute of 4. Hen. 2. ca. 15. for Burning of Hereticks WE have pursued the Papal History beyond the Seas down to the Council of Constance and burning of Hus and Mr. Jerome that is to about the year of our Lord 1415. which answers to the Third year of the Raign of our King Henry the Fifth 'T will therefore now be necessary to look back and gather what Observables occurr'd in England relating to our Subject not already mention'd during the Raigns of King Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth We gave you before the Relation of Wickliff whose Doctrines spread so fast that the incens'd Prelates finding their Spiritual Thunders unable to repress them bethought themselves to pray in aid of the Secular Arm and to that purpose the King being young and dissolute so extravagant to his Favourites that he always wanted Money the Bishops either by fair words or the Bait of a Benevolence to be given him by the Clergy prevail'd with him in the Fifth year of his Raign to consent to an Ordinance of their framing in these words following For as much as it is openly known that there be divers evil persons within the Realm going from County to County and from Town to Town in certain Habits under dissimulation of great Holiness and without the License of the Ordinaries of the places or other sufficient Authority preaching daily not only in Churches and Church-yards but also in Markets Fairs and other open places where a great Congregation of people is divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the great emblemishing of the Christian Faith and destruction of the Laws and of the Estate of the holy Church to the great peril of the Souls of the people and of all the Realm of England as more plainly is found and sufficiently proved before the Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops and other Prelates Masters of Divinity and Doctors of Canon and Civil Law and a great part of the Clergy of the said Realm especially assembled for this
to detect the Intrigues of five Priests and Jesuits that were his Fellow Prisoners but still you must note the Man owns himself a stanch Catholick Tory. Hey-day Is Satan's Kingdom then divided against it self Do the Brethren in Iniquity squabble Truem. Pish that 's no News did you never read the feuds between the Fathers in Wisbich Castle and Parsons the Jesuit and his gang in Q Elizabeth and King James's time There you may learn the very Quintessence of Railing the Elixir of Billingsgate Tory. But what says this Reverend Father Dowdal Truem. Why it seems being in Gaol in the Gate-house the wily Jesuits c. his Fellow-sufferers Povre Turner Parsons Mackarty c. cheated him of his snack of the Charity as he calls it of abundance of devout Lasses Countesses Ladies and the Devil knows who that had no better use for their Money than to bestow it upon this Hypocritical Tribe of Traiterous Villains Hinc illae Lachrymae Here 's the Root of the Quarrel And p. 2. he affirm That altho they are reputed Sufferers for Jesus Christ's sake yet they have practis'd the greatest Injustice that could be more becoming Heathens than Christians mor suitable to Infidels than Catholicks and much less to reputed Priests and Jesuits p. 60. speaking of the same Holy Fathers his Fellow-sufferers he says Each of them could with Authority nobly treat one young Woman or other of very ill Repute all day long in their Rooms it was not worth taking notice of if one of them sent for more Bottles of Wine and Brandy in one day than I drank Beer or Ale in a whole weeâ— Either of them might lawfully call two or three of their younger â—evotes their Wives and as many more their Misses who used to call them Husbands and Gallants in like manner the rest of the young Women must be their Sisters and such as were elderly their Mothers yea our holy Patriarch Mr. Povre himself took the liberty to lock himself up daily in his Chamber for some hours with a young Woman he pretended to be his Niece altho a condemned Priest in Newgate his own Country-man has openly assur'd there is no such Relation between them A Gentleman of good Credit did assure me That one of the Women this godly Man us'd to have lock'd up in his Chamber bore a Bastard to one of his Acquaintance who kept her for his Miss some years p. 37. In all my Travels in most Kingdoms of Europe I never was Eye-witness to more Tricks and Knavery than I have seen practised by the fore-named Companions of mine in this Prison altho reputed Priests and Jesuits c. This is a Popish Priest's own Testimony of the practises and conversation of his Brethren Priests and Jesuits but the other day in the Gate-house and that too at a time when they pretended to be Confessors and Sufferers forsooth for Religion If the Goats and Foxes are thus rampant and mischievous in the Pound that kind of Creatures must they be abroad in the Common But Tory methinks you are asleep Tory. I am sorry our Loyal Friends the Catholicks should be thus expos'd by a Bird of their own Feather Could you but have told me such a Story tho never so Fictitious of the Presbyterians it had been worth hearing and would have made me as merry as Herâ—â—litus Ridens or Roger's Fiddle Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 10. 1681-2 Et Ficta arguunt fidémque faciunt A Letter of Thanks from the Devil to the Bishops and Clergy for their persecuting the old Dissenters WE shew'd you last week by whom and with what Artifices the first Sanguinary Laws or Acts of Parliament in England against Religious Dissenters were obtain'd It remains that we should give you a brief Prospect of the Mischiefs Cruelties and sad Effects which thereupon follow'd But first since both the worth of the Matter and surprizingness of the Form and the series of Time do all invite us to it we think it will not be unacceptable to recite here a certain Congratulatory Epistle then sent abroad and by a bold Prosopopoeia directed from Old Nick himself to his trusty and well-beloved the Prelates and Clergy For tho the Original has no Date yet the Reverend and Laborious Mr. Fox who publisht it verbatim out of the Registry of the Cathedral of Hereford concludes it to have been written about the time of King Richard the Second The words whereof Translated are as follow I LUCIFER Prince of Darkness and profound Horror Emperour of the high Mysteries of Acheron Captain of the Dungâ—oâ— â—â—ebus King of Hell and Lord â—omptroller of the Infernal 〈◊〉 To all 〈◊〉 Child on of Pride and Companions of our Realm and especially to our dear Allies the Princes of the Church of this 〈◊〉 Age of which our Adversary Jesus Christ saith to his Prophâ—t I hate the Church or Congregation of the wicked send Greeting and wish Prosperity to all that obey our Commandments that â—â—serve the Laws of Satan already Enacted and that are industrious to put in Execution our Precepts and Decrees Know ye That in times past certain Vicars of Christ following his steps in Miracles and Vertues living in Humility and a poor mean Life converted in a manner the whole World from the Yoke of our Dominion unto their Doctrine and Course of Conversation to the great Contempt of our Prison house and Kingdom and no small prejudice of our Jurisdiction and Authority they nothing dreading to bid defiance to our Forces and trample upon the Majesty of our Estate for then scarce did we receive any Tribute from the upper World neither did the miserable sort of common people rush in at the Gates of our deep Dungeon as they were wont to do with continual rapping but in those days the easie broad and pleasant way which leadeth to Death was unfrequented and lay wast without the hideous noise of trampling Travellers or being trod by the feet of wretched Souls So that our Courts being without Suiters all 〈◊〉 began to howl and as being robb'd and spoil'd continued in anguish and heaviness All which considered we could not without diminution to our Glory longer suffer it the impatient Rage of our Spleen was moved nor would our Captain General by a shameful negligence endure it any longer and therefore seeking out the Remedy to prevent like exclusion and inconveniencies for the future we provided our selves of a most opportunate Expedient For instead of these Apâ—stles and other their Adheâ—onts who conduct themselves by the same Line and Level as well in Manners as Doctrine and are odious Enemies unto us we have caused You to be their Successors and preferr'd you in their steads who are the present Prelates of the Church whom we have advanced by our great might and subtlety as Christ has said of you They have Raigned but not by me Once we promised
Tory. Well go on and prosper I hear Natt is like to have but a hard Bargain of it But I am for Sam 's Coffee-house to wait on the Guide to the Inferiour Clergy the Reverend Squire Roger how neatly he comes off about saying That he would not License a Narrative of Sir Ed. B. Godfreys Murder for fear of offending some Great Persons at White Hall Pap. Well! what says he to that I hear 't is Sworn against him Tory. Why he says What if the Printer do swear it 't is not the first time that a Perjur'd Rascal has Sworn against L'Estrange Papist Yes and in the same Observator Num. 114. is very angry with some body for declaring That he would rather believe Prance he should have added and Three more upon Oath than Mr. L'Estrange's single Protestation on the Sacrament Well if the World can meet with no better proofs than these and his Preface to the Proposals for Reunion with the Church of Rome to prove L'Estrange no Roman Catholique I shall still have the Charity to esteem him One and so my Service to him Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 31. 1682. Nulla Ratione fieri potest ut in rectè factis effugias Invidiam Quis enim Umbram effugiet Invidiae nisi pariter Virtutis Lucem effugerit The Story of Sir John Old-Castle continued A severe Law against Lollards A note touching the Oath of Sheriffs The strange manner of putting Sir John to Death Tyburn whence the Word deriv'd Sir John vindicated from Treason and the Imputation of Debauchery the reason of that latter Scandal OUr last acquainted you with the Grounds of Sir John Old-Castle's Troubles and what an honest Christian Answer he gave in Writing to the Bishops touching the Four Articles whereon principally they accused him yet therewith they were nothing satisfied but would needs have a more direct Answer and giving him time to consider of it that he might know how to please them sent him a silly Blasphemous Scroll containing their Creed and Determination in those Points which was as follows First The Faith and Determination of Holy Church touching the blessed Sacrament of the Altar is this That after the Sacramental Words be once spoken by a Priest in his Mass the material Bread that was before Bread is turned into Christs very body And the material Wine that was before Wine is turned into Christ ' s very Blood And so there remaineth in the Sacrament of the Altar from thenceforth no material Bread nor material Wine which were there before the Sacramental Words were spoken How believe you this Article Secondly Holy Church hath Determined That every Christian Man living here bodily upon the Earth ought to be shriven to a Priest Ordained by the Church if he may come to him How feel ye this Article Thirdly Christ Ordain'd St. Peter the Apostle to be his Vicar here on Earth whose See is the Holy Church of Rome and he granted that the same Power which he gave unto Peter should Succeed to all Peters Successors which we now call Popes of Rome by whose Power in Churches particular be Ordained Prelates as Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons Curates and other Degrees more whom Christian Men ought to obey after the Laws of the Church of Rome This is the Determination of Holy Church How feel ye this Article Fourthly Holy Church hath Determined That it is Meritorious to a Christian Man to go on Pilgrimage to Holy Places and there especially to Worship Holy Reliques and Images of Saints Apostles and Martyrs Confessors and all other Saints besides approved by the Church of Rome How feel ye this Article I cannot say whether the Lord Cobham on the Receipt of this Scrole did more admire or pity their Blindness But on the Twenty fifth of September in the before mention'd Year 1413. he was again Conven'd before them where the Arch-bishop telling him That he was Cursed and adviseing him to desire Absolution The Knight reply'd God had said by his Holy Prophet Maledicam Benedictionibus vestris Mal. 2. 2. Which is as much as to say I will Curse where you Bless And afterwards kneeling down on the Pavement and lifting his hands towards Heaven he said I here Confess me unto thee my Eternal Living God That in my frail Youth I Offended thee most grievously in Pride Wrath and Gluttony Covetousness and Letchery and many Men have I hurt in my Anger and done many horrible Sins for which Good Lord I ask thee Mercy And then weeping bitterly he said to the People who in great Numbers flock'd to hear his Examination Behold good People for the breaking of God's Law and his great Commandments they never yet Cursed me but for their own Laws and Traditions most cruelly do they handle me and other Men. And being question'd by the Arch-Bishop about his Belief he Answer'd I Believe fully and faithfully the Vniversal Laws of God I Believe that all is true which is contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible Then proceeding to Examine him touching the Four Articles before specified A Long Discourse happen'd which you may Read and worth reading it is in Foxe but too tedious to be here Recited his Answers were quick and pertinent and amongst others he has this Expression Rome is the very Nest of Antichrist and out of that Nest come all the Disciples of him the Pope is the Head the Prelates Priests and Monks are the Body and these pil'd Friars are the Tail In fine they proceeded to a Definite Sentence against him whereby they Condemn him as a most pernicious detestable and obstinate Heretick and order him to be delivered over to the Secular Power to be put to Death in pursuance whereof he was carryed back to the Tower from whence he made some means shortly after to escape and remain'd for near Four Years in Wales till he was taken and put to Death as by and by we shall acquaint you This Escape of his enraged the revengful Clergy and therefore a Sham-Plot was set on foot to bring all his Friends and whoever had any favour for Wickliffs Doctrine into a general odium and danger In those days it seems St. Giles's Fields were a Woody lonesome place full of Bushes and Thickets and very probably being so near the Town many good People not daring for fear of Discovery to Assemble in the City might meet there for the Worship of God and hearing his Word This according to the Common Construction of Malice is Rumour'd to be a Conspiracy against the Government and upon this suggestion our Historians who by the way either were Monks or such as borrow from those that were came thither at Midnight and finding some persons there caused them to be Apprehended and shortly after Sir Roger Acton and several others of them Parsons in his Second Part of Three Conversions pag. 197. says Thirty seven but Sir Richard
should continue in prosperity falsly and Treasonably Contriving as well the State of the Kingdom as the State and Office of Prelates and the Religious Orders within this Kingdom utterly to Annul and our Lord the King his Brothers the Prelates and other great men of the Realm to Kill And to compel the Religious Orders to leave divine Worship and the Observation of Religion and to follow worldly Occupations and demolish both Cathedrals and Religious houses and spoil them of their Goods and to appoint the said Sir J. O. Regent of the Realm and to set up many Governments in the Realm as a people without an Head to the final destruction as well of the Catholic Faith and Clergy as of the State and Majesty of the Royal dignity did falsly and Trayterously order and propose that he with many other Rebells unknown to the Number of 20000 men from diverse parts of England Arrayed in Warlike manner should Privately Rise and on Wednesday next after Epiphany in the first year of the King at the Parish of St. Gileses c. in a great field they unanimously came together and met to fulfill such their wicked Intent persevering therein to Kill the King and his Brothers viz. Tho. Duke of Clarence John of Lancaster and Humphrey of Lancaster and also the Prelates and great men aforesaid as likewise to disinherite the King of his Realm they came Riding into the said Field Array'd after the manner of an Insurrection against their Allegiance to subdue our Lord the King unless by him with a strong hand they had Gratiously been hindered These are the very words of the Indictment which we the rather have repeated because the same was not Translated by Mr. Fox The COURANT. Truman and Tory. Tory. And how fares our Friend Nat Truem. Why truly the Lords of the Council to use his own insolent Expression have put him in a way to prove his Letters about Sir E. B. G. murdering himself Tory. As how prethee Truem. By justly sending him and his two Vouchers to Newgate Every thing you know naturally tends to its Center hence no doubt the impudent lie first came begot by the Stallion Popish Priests and Midwif'd by Dame Celier and thither 't is now return'd Tory. I 'l tell you this is a great disappointment There were Te Deums intended to have been Sung by our Catholic friends and Hundreds of us were got to the Tavern to be drunk for joy and now to be thus Balkt verily as Monsieur Coleman said There is no Trust in Man Will not this fadg then what shall we do now What sham is next O Roger where art thou Truem. Never trouble thy head with Roger he is playing at Cross purposes For Example The Question is Mr. L'Estrange why did not you for eighteen years together come to Divine service and receive the Sacrament according to the Establisht Church of England The Answer is the Parson of Dionis Backchurch The Question is M. L'Estrange why did you refuse to License a Narrative touching the manner of Sir Edmundbury Godfreys being found and say you did not know but you might offend some great people at White-hall The Answer is 't is not the first time The Question is Mr. Le' Estrange is you are no Papist why did you go to Mass and own your self to be a Member of that Church whereof the Pope is the Head The Answer is Brass Screws The Question is Mr. L'Estrange why did you refuse to Licence an Innocent Copy of Verses meerly because therein it was said That from the Cells of Jesuits and Monks there proceeded a brood to Riffle Subjects and to Murder Kings The Answer is Original Copy The Question is Mr. L' Estrange why did you refuse to Licence both an harmless and usefull Historical Collection of Popish Massacres and Cruelties and say 't was not fit to make the breach between us aud the Church of Rome wider and this since the Discovery of the present Plot The Answer is Forty Eight and pordage The Question is Mr. L'Estrange with what face could you affirm such a notorious lie that there were never above 50 Quakers at a time in the noisome Little-Ease of Bristol The Answer is Sir John Knight and 300 Horsmen The Question is Tory. Prethee leave thy fooling I wonder you dare talk at this rate at this time of day a Catholick friend of mine sent me a Copy of Verses last post out of Lancashire I 'l read a stanza or two of them We must not Blabb but only hint If all things fail the Divel 's in 't Wait but a little longer Our Plot will prove that 't is no wonder For Bones well sett if broak asunder After do grow the stronger For mark ye well altho our Plot In its first Tract succeeded not Yet much we have got by 't The Haereticks by shams and fears Are set together by the Ears Whilst Whigg and Tory fight The Tory he Swagâ—gers and Sings Drinks the Dukes health before the Kings And damns to be Emphatick When he expresseth wish and hope To Kiss the Gouty Toe of Pope Ere he 'l endure Fanatick Then for our hot Tantivy Boys That more with Oaths than pray'rs make noise They 'r Birds deâ—ile their Nest Whose Priest-Craft is preferment meerly Which or to get or save they clearly Will pass through any Test Our Friends are numberless to think on The Dammee Blades and those that drink on And Whore without all shame The Crack-farts Hectors Atheists Bulleys The Bankrupts Poets Sots and Cullies And some I dare not name Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY April 14. 1682. Livor post Fata quiescat Tum suus ex merito quemque tuatur Honos Some further Remarks on the Story of Sir John Oldcastle An Epitaph offered to his memory The miserable death of his persecutor Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury who made a Constitution against Reading the Scriptures LEt us go on to Examine the Matter of Treason charg'd on Sir John Oldcastle c. And must request the Reader to Remind the Record of the Indictment recited in English in our last in which besides the unaccountable omission of the Jurors names and the improbability that the supposed Fact should be Committed and Commission to the Judges and their Session and the Conviction should all bear date and happen upon one and the same Numerical day there are these other Observables that present themselves 1. 'T is therein alleadged that the design of these Imaginary Traytors in St. Gilses Thickets was to make Sir John Oldcastle Regent and why not rather King since the same Indictment charges him with design to kill the King And yet if he had a mind to be Regent why should he design to kill the King for then presently his Regency must needs expire The truth is this very expression renders it suspicious that this pretended Indictment was â—obbled up afterwards
Saviour of his Sectaries as Parsons 2 d. of his 3 Conversions p. 250. relates from Walsingham or as Stow botches up the story The last words that he spake to Sir Tho. Erpingham Adjuring him that if he saw him Rise from Death to Life again the Third day he would procure that his sect might beat peace and quiet Now let any man read his papers and discourses in Fox savouring of such firm piety prudence and sobriety of mind and then judge how unlikely he was to be Guilty of such a phrensical Extravagance But possibly he might at his Execution say that though they so severely persecuted those Truths which he bore Testimony to and sought by all means to suppress and bury the same yet they would Rise again and his Doctrine be Reviv'd And from some such true words the Father of Lies and his Journy-men the Monks might take occasion to raise that wicked scandal And now having thus fairly represented Sir John Oldcastles Case to posterity we take leave of his Manes but that we may do it civily tho the prejudice of those times would afford him neither Tombstone nor Grave yet certainly we my be allow'd to offer an Extempore Epitaph to his Memory On Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham who suffer'd Decem. 1417. Rome's Old new fraud in Cobhams Fate we view The Hereticks must still be Traitors too All Popish Sham-plots are not hatch'd of late Long since their Int'rest Culli'd in the State For God and for the King the Prelates Cry'd But only meant their own Revenge and Pride Had the sly Meal Tub fadg'd or Irish Oathes Been Jury-proof old Churches hated Foe 's Ere now had been Old-Castled Hang'd and Burn'd And Loyalst Patriots into Rebells turn'd But Midwife Time at last brings Truth to Light For after Death each man receives his Right Then sleep brave Hero till last Judgments day Raising to Glory thy twice-martyr'd Clay Romes malice and thy Innocence display But here we may note that before the Execution of this noble-man viz. in the year 1414. his bitter Persecutor Tho Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury who originally caused his trouble and Condemn'd him for Haeresy and who in a synod had forbidden the Scriptures to be translated into or read in the English Tongue was taken away by a strange death His own Tongue being so swell'd that for many days he could swallow no sort of sustenance and so was starv'd to death A most remarkable Judgment that he who by his Canons forbad the Food to the Soul and had pronounc'd Sentence of Condemnation on many Innocents was now both famish't and struck Dumb together Thomas Gasconous in his Theological Dictionary thus plainly tells the story Tho. Aruudel Cant. Archiepiscopus sic Linguâ Percussus erat ut nec deglutire nec Loqui per aliquot dies ante mortem suam potuerit et sic tandem obiit Atque Multi tu nofieri putabant quia vâ—rbum Alligasset ne suo Tempore praedicatur Tho Arrundel Archb. of Canterbury was so smitten in his Tongue that he could neither swallow nor speak and so died which was thought by many to come upon him for that he restrain'd the word of God from being preached in his days The COURANT. A CHARM against ROGERISM Triceps est Cerberus tèr ego te Despuo Triplex est Eumenis tèr te ego Despuo Vomas dico vomas tèr vome Improbam Pectore purgato Rabiem ad Phlegetonta Remitte Enter Jesuit solus NOW shall I turn Heraclitus Ridens and split my sides with laughing to see how sweetly matters go on 'T is the hopefullest Spring I have known or read of above 100 years and all our Projects are blythe and blooming How kindly do our Councils work and cully in the hood-wink'd crowd the French Monarch our mighty Patron plays a Game at Tick-tack with his Holiness and the World stares and gapes as if they were at Sharps What if he clip the Wings of the duller Orders Let him go on and prosper Roma interim crescit Albae Ruinis No matter for those swarms of Drones our active Society if the Fools prove peevish and stubborn may beg their Lands Nor need we fear the gripes of his Talons since we have twisted our Interests inseparable with his for Campanella has shifted the Scene and 't is resolv'd in spite of Providence one Monarch and one Religion shall govern the Europaean World They are pitifully read in School craft that cannot modelize Divinity to each complexion of Affairs there lies a little spot on the Northwest corner of the Map that has cost us many a pangful Thought Father La-Chese long since undertook the Conversion of those Infidels and tho he met with some rubs despairs not in time to accomplish it If one Broad-side does not sink a Vessel another may the Needle 's in and the Thread must follow O Beata Maria into what Confusions have we put the Hereticks amongst themselves Well! let Whig and Tory scuffle 'till their Hearts ake whilst we tour aloft like the Vulture hovering over the Lion and Wild-boar in their Combatings as hoping to devour the Carcases of them both O the Church the Church the Church by Law establish'd There 's Musick enough in that very sound to supersede the office of the Organs But then not one in forty Dreams what those words signifie in our Dictionary Pshaw Pshaw you Dolt-heads Verity is Vnity there is but one Church in the World and that 's the Catholick and Catholick is Roman and there 's the Riddle unfolded But how is this Religion by Law establish'd We 'l make That out I 'le warrant you you shall have enough of Magna Charta Is there any prescription against the Church Shall any Laws prevail against St. Peter's Right Or indeed what power have Excommunicated Hereticks to make any Laws at all All such Provisions are still-born Ipso facto void as errant Felo's de se as we would make Sir Edmondbury Godfrey and holy Mother-Church unjustly disseiz'd may lawfully make a Re-entry Let 's first down with the Dissenters crush them maul 'um hang 'um if we can or ruine them at least and then their Church of England shall have Polypheme's courtesie O Bristol Bristol thou hast done gallantly I could not but snicker the other day to see a parcel of Wooden-shoe'd French Hereticks that had fled thither for shelter how sillily they look'd when they saw a parcel of English Calvinists dragg'd out of their Meeting and hurried to Gaol But we have a greater work in hand 't is a Protestant Plot must do our business and a Protestant Plot we 'l have if it cost us as much as we got by burning of London There are a fresh Cast of Beuk-blawers listed spick and span new ones never yet baulkt or blasted by an Ignoramus they only want a little Documentizing as to matter persons times and places for all the rest they remember right well I must away and Discipline them and if they prove
taken the Cup from the Lay-people and committed many other Abominations Therefore I conclude this Argument The Church of Rome not having the Word of God purely Preached nor the Sacraments rightly Administred according to the Institution is in no sort to be esteemed a Visible Church of Christ Argument 3. That pretended Church which overthroweth and denyeth the only Rule of Faith is no true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome does so Therefore As to the Proposition the only Rule of Faith is the Scripture or written Word of God John 5 32. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Now to overthrow this Rule is to overthrow the Foundation of the Church of God which is built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2. 20. That is the Scriptures of the New and Old Testaments As for the Assumption That the Church of Rome hath overthrown this Rule is Evident for First She hath added another Rule of her own to wit Traditions and humane Inventions which are contrary to the Scriptures as Christ saith Matt. 15. 16. Gods Ark and Dagon cannot stand together what Communion hath Christ with Belial What agreement hath Divine Purity with bold Forgeries Secondly they overthrow as much as in them lies this only Rule of Faith whilst they subject the Authority and Sense of it wholly to the Church of Rome or the Pope so that Gods Word is not received of the Church of Rome as it is the Word of God but as the Word of Men contrary to that of the Epistle 1 Thess 2. 13. Argument 4. That Church which holdeth not the Head Christ is no true Spouse or Church of Christ But the Church of Rome holdeth not the Head Christ Therefore The Proposition is undeniable Eph. 4. 16. and 5. 23. The Assumption may thus be proved That Church which is wholly Idolatrous holdeth not the Head Christ For if Worshiping of Angels which is but one kind of Idolatry separates from the Head as it does by the Apostles Testimony Colloss 1. 18. then much more all kind of Idolatry But the Church of Rome is drown'd in all kind of Idolatry as not only Worshiping of Angels but likewise of Saints and Pictures and Images and of a piece of Bread c. Besides she adhereth to another Head viz. the Pope and not to the one only true Head Christ and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 2 Cor. 6. 16. And the member of an Harlot cannot be withal a member of Christ See 1 Cor. 15. 16 17. Argument 5. The true Church of Christ is the true Flock of Christ But the true Church of Rome is not the true Flock of Christ Ergo. The Proposition is undeniable from Cant. 6. 6. Acts 20. 28. John 10. 16. The Assumption is proved John 10. 3 4 and 17 verses There it is laid down as the property and Characteristick Mark of Christs Flock That they hear his Voice and know it and follow it But the Church of Rome hears not Christs Voice nor acknowledges or follows it but the Voice of Antichrist and the Antichristian Synagogue they hear not Christs Voice as Christs Voice but as the Churches Voice And this is likewise affirm'd against Rome by the Church of England in the before Cited Homily for Whit-sunday Argument 6. That Church which practiseth not the true Baptism of Christ is not the true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome does not practise the true Baptism of Christ Ergo The Proposition I suppose will be granted Baptism being an Initiating Ordinance without which none can be Members of the Visible Church The Assumption is thus proved True Baptism is a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith and of the Covenant of Grace made unto us in Christ But the Baptism in the Church of Rome is not such for the Church of Rome denyeth the Righteousness of Faith and the Justifying by Faith yea she maketh Baptism the Instrumental Cause of Justification so as that it confers Grace Ex opere operato by the meer thing done and they require not Faith in Christ as necessary for the Party to be Baptized But only a Disposition Conc. Trent Sess 7. Can. 6. and 8. and principally the whole Force of Baptism and so of all their Sacraments depend upon their Priests intention So that the Church of Rome hath no more of Baptism but only the External Form of words and those fullyed with abundance of lewd Ceremonies together with the Element of Water For a Sacrament is a visible sign of an Invisible Grace which Invisible Grace the Church of Rome destroyeth while she placeth the Grace in the Sacrament it self denying and Accursing Sess 7. Can. 6. only Faith in Gods Promise to be sufficient to receive Grace Thus they destroy the Nature and use of Christs Sacraments and of Baptism in special while they seperate it from the Doctrine of the Word of God and from the necessity of Justifying Faith Thus their Church is quite Removed from the Foundation and built upon another Bottom Thus Baptism to them of that Church is nothing else but a Seal to a Blank or which is worse a Sealing up of their Condemnation whilst their Sins are not washed but their Souls drowned in Errour and Idolatry as the Aegyptians in the Red Sea a Type of Baptism Yea they make a very Idol of their Sacrament and of the Priest together whilst to these they attribute that Grace which the only Author and Fountain of true Baptism can give and present their Children in the Faith of that Church which denyeth true Faith in Christ THE COURANT. Jesuit PRethee whither so fast my dear most obliging Friend Tory. I have just now seen an Express from his Eminency Cardinal H. Patron of our Nation at Rome which assures That all this Ruffle of the most Christian King against that Court is only a Sham Contriv'd on purpose to wheadle in Neighbours into a good Opinion of the French whom you know our Common People naturally hate but yet he says at this Juncture it will be highly necessary for a certain Gentleman's purpose whose Interest is Inseparable to set Monsieur fair in their thoughts under pretence That he will prove forsooth a Second Harry the Eight Jesuite I hate a blabbing Tongue 'T is only taking wind makes things smell strong This ought to be kept a Secret not but that we are long since satisfied in the Intrigue and know whose Influence at present Governs the Sorbon we must adapt Principles to occasions vcer our Sails to catch the Wind. 'T is a thriving piece of Haeresie prethee promote the Hint That Lewis's Arms shall Effect what one of his Predecessors Coyn threatned Perdam Babylonis nomen and get our Observator and his Cullyed Pupils to advance the Notion nothing will be more advantagious as present Circumstances play The White Witch shall Unravel the Enchantments of the Black one Let us alone to Retrieve the Business at next favourable opportunity Tory. But I have further
is not again affixed but the Evidence of saving Faith and Testament of the Gospel being written in his heart is now added to the Seal and so it becomes compleatly authentick as not being bound necessarily to outward means Nor do we here exclude Gods free Agency in Baptism who in the Party Baptized in that Heretical Church may if it please him work Grace finding his own Water and his own Words finding I say his own Seal he can add his Covenant of Grace unto it yet no Child there Baptized coming to the years of Discretion unless he Renounce the wicked Faith and Relinquish the Idolatrous practices of that Romish Church can have benefit by his Baptism but to him it is Penal and Pernicious as Augustine speaks And now I proceed to another Argument That the Church of Rome is not a Church of Christ Argument 7. That Church which hath not a lawful Ministry is not a true visible Church of Christ But the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ministry Ergo. I know this to many will seem a Paradox but 't is a certain Truth for if the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ordination how can it have a Lawful Ministry But it has no Lawful Ordination 1. In regard of the Efficient Cause either Remote as the Pope as Head whence all their Ministerial Power is deriv'd or immediate as the Ordainer on whose Intention their Gratia gratis data dependeth So that here is a Nullity in the very Foundation of the Papal Priest-hood It is deriv'd from the Pope as Head of the Clergy and Church a Title Anti-christian and Usurp'd and so their Ministry is Anti-christian And if the Pope being Antichrist and an Usurper and Consecrating Bishops by vertue of his Papal Supremacy as Christ's sole Vicar and Peter's Successor cannot convey any power of Order upon his Bishops and Clergy what lawful Ministry can we expect in that Apostolical Synagogue So that Calvin an Author whom for Honour's sake I mention in a lewd Age when thousands decry him that either for Learning and Piety are no ways comparable to Him was in the Right in his Book called The Method of Reforming the Church Nego sub toto Papatu unum esse verè Episcopum I deny that under the whole Popedom there is one truly a Bishop and what then shall we say of their Priests neither have they any Ministerial Grace because it depends according to their Belief upon their Ordainers Intention and not upon Christs Ordinance Grace and Promise But 2 ly They fail too in the Formal and Fixal Cause of Ordination They have quite altered and Corrupted the Form and so the End thereof adding a New Form which overthroweth the Old and imposeth a New End viz. making the whole Essence and use of their Ministry to consist in Priesthood that is in Sacrificing of an Idol and so turning the Office of a Minister of the Gospel into an Idol-Sacrificing Priest For in the Form of their Ordination set down in their Tridentine Catechism Part the Second after Imposition of Hands with the sign of the Cross on the Party that is to be Ordain'd The Chalice with Wine and the Paten with the Host is delivered into his hands with these Words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium Deo Missásque Celebrandi tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis c. Receive thou Power to Offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses as well for the Living as the Dead c. And this praecipua Sacerdotis functio existimanda est is to be esteemed the principal Office or Function of a Priest Ad Extremum verò c. In fine Imposing hands again he says Receive then the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye Remit c. Eique Coelestem illam c. And thus the Bishop giveth unto the Priest that Heavenly Power of Retaining and Forgiving of Sins which the Lord gave to his Disciples Thus the very words of their Ordination Now we know that this power of Remitting and Retaining of Sins the Church of Rome placeth not in the Dispensing and Preaching of the Word of God but in their Sacrament of Pennance Thus they have wholly perverted their Ordination both for the formal and final End Nor do they less fail in the Material Cause ignorant unqualified Persons being ordinarily made Priests and such as only are able to Mumble over the Mass and Matins But it may be Objected That in Popish Ordination there is a Power Confer'd to Preach the Word of God 'T is true they do use these words of our Blessed Saviour which the Church of England useth viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit c. Which we do indeed understand of the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments But the Church of Rome otherwise meaning thereby the Priests power of Binding and Loosing in their Sacrament of Pennance And it is in vain for them to say That their Priests in their Ordination have any Power confer'd upon them to Preach the Word of God when their Practise is far otherwise Neither indeed is it lawful for them so to Preach the Word of God as it behoveth faithful Ministers of the Gospel viz. purely and soundly to the saving of Mens Souls For the pure and sound saving Doctrine of the Word of God is branded for Heresie in the Council of Trent Nor may their Bishops or Priests deliver the sense of it otherwise than according to those Canons and Decrees In a word See the Conc. Trid. Sess 14. Can. 3. Si quid dixerit c. If any one shall say That those words of our Lord and Saviour Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted and whose sins you Retain they are Retained are not to be understood of the power of Remitting and Retaining sins in the Sacrament of Pennance but shall wrest them contrary to the Institution of the Sacrament to the authority of Preaching the Gospel Let him be Anathema Well therefore does the pious and judicious Calvin conclude Totum Sacordotium Papisticum non solum impia est vera Ministerii profanatio sed Execrabilis in Christum comumelia quisquis est sacerdos Papalis dâ—nec titulum illum abjecerit Christi Servus esse nequeat The whole Popish Priesthood is not only an impious Profanation of the true Ministry but an execrable Reproach against Christ So that whosoever is a Popish Priest until he renounce that Title he cannot be the Servant of Christ True Ordination is a sacred Institution of Christ whereby the Person Ordain'd is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance But the Ordination used in the Church of Rome is not according to Christ's Institution to wit whereby the Person Ordained is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance Therefore in the Church of Rome there is no true Ordination therefore no
true Ordination Therefore no true Church The Assumption we have already Demonstrated For first for Administration of Sacraments the Priests Power is respectively and specially limited to their Eucharist and Pennance 2 ly That Eucharist is a meer Idol and blasphemous Sacrifice and no true Sacrament at all 3 ly The very Words of Christ used in true Ordination of all Orthodox Churches which are understood of Dispensing the Word and Sacraments the Church of Rome perverteth and wresteth to Absolution and most impudently faith That to understand it of Dispensing the Word of God is to wrest the sense contrary to the Institution of this Sacrament of Pennance But now a like Objection will occur thus If in the Church of Rome there be not true and lawful Ordination why then when any of their Priests are Converted to the true Faith and Church of Christ are they not Re-ordained To this we may Answer That although their Ordination were altogether unlawful and unwarrantable according to the Institution of the Church of Rome yet coming to us of the true Church after the paring and shaving off of their Power of Sacrificing and of Sacramental Binding and Loosing and Pennance and Restoring to the Word of God prophaned and abused by them to a wrong sense its Original and true meaning whilst the Priest so Converted openly Renounces the Mass and witnesseth his Abhorrence and Detestation of all that abominable Sacrifice and subscribes to the Articles and Doctrine of our Church they are hereupon Received and their Ordination now stands good which before was vitious and Anti-christian See for this more fully Mr. Francis Mason's Book of Ordination L. 5. Ch. 12. The same Reason is to be given of the Ministry of the Church of England which in times past was derived and descended from that false and Corrupt Church Some will say The Church of Rome is as a Diseased Body which though never so Corrupt is yet still a true Body for he is really a Man to whom the Definition of a Man agreeth indued with a reasonable Soul though his Body be never so much Diseased as with the Plague or Leprosie I Answer Many deceive themselves and others with this Comparison They should first prove the Church of Rome to be a Living Church before they can properly compare the Body of it to the Body of a Living Man for else it is a meer Petitio Principii a shameful begging of the Question For I deny the Church of Rome to be an Organical Body to wit a Living Body No no It is a meer Corrupt and stinking Carcass and as a dead corrupt Corps is not to be accounted an Organical Body as wanting the Soul to Actuate it and so cannot be called truly a Man or a Mans Body but Cadaver a Corps No more is the Church of Rome no less Dead than Diseased a true Church for a dead Member can but Equivocally be call'd a Member Nor will it follow That because there may be an hidden Church of God within the borders of the Church of Rome Therefore the Church of Rome is a true visible Church For if any amongst them be of the Number of Gods Sacred ones before their Effectual Calling they are Members of that Antichristian Church but being Call'd they are no more of it but in it and there being in it will never prove it a true Church It may be alledged That the Church of Rome hath only added to the Foundation not taken away or subtracted from it and the Nature of an Addition is not directly to deny but by Consequence at most I Answer We have already proved That they have destroyed the Foundation and that both by Subtraction and Addition As their Traditions and Decrees overthrow the Foundation of the Scriptures for if the Scriptures affirm one thing and their Traditions another These are obey'd and those rejected What say you to Invocation of Saints doth it not directly overthrow the pure Worship of God and Faith in him alone Doth not the Mass directly overthrow the one and only Sacrifice of our Lord upon the Cross And so of the rest The COURANT. Tory. WEll I 'le say that for Roger he 's a brisk mettlesome laborious old Wretch He writes four or five Observators a week Truman Do not call it writing man but casting or say he is so often troubled with the Hickup or overflowing of the Gall. The old Gentleman delights much in calling other people Monkeys but sure 't would make a Stoic smile to see how like an Ape he sits cracking of Nits on the Head of the Tory Plot. Tory. Why What would you have him do scribble all the year round about Brass-screws and Antipendiums Trum. Now you speak of that old business I can tell you a story that is altogether as strange and much more true than the transmutation of the Screws Some Years ago there was a very great parcel of English Rogues and Biddle's Catechisms seiz'd by a Friend of mine the obscenity of the first and the Blasphemies of the second against the blessed Trinity deserving a suppression But some Casuists resolve That though Books be unfit to be sold yet it may not be unfit to take money for them So it happened that these very Books by Art Magic were invisibly convey'd to Cambray-house where a certain old Lady then had Lodgings and upon paying down a pretty round Sum to a Friend in a corner the self-same Books of their own accord came one Night out of a Window into a Cart and so disprsed themselves into most of the Stationers Shops about Town There is one J. S. still living who they say can attest this Miracle Tory. But what is all this to honest Roger Trum. Nothing nothing at all I only told it to prove that there is such a thing as Necromancy and Black-Art in the world And therefore to return to Mr. L'Estrange what think you of his owning Observ Numb 129. That he has been forty times at Mass beyond the â—eas I dare challenge him and all his Admirers to pâ—oâ—e that he was so often at any Protestant Church in twenty years time And I cannot fathom the Policy of this Declaration unless it were to give old friends an Item that for all his late sacramental Rant he does not forget them Tory. You must note he did not trudge to those forty Masses out of devotion nor curiosity but purely out of duty for I have been told that when he was abroad he was a little Retainer to Cardinal Van Hess and officiated in his Chappel in the way of his proper Calling playing in Consort on the Base-Viol So that probably he was not at Mass under the Character of a Papist but as Fidler in ordinary to his Eminence But see how in his last Observator Numb 132. he boxes about the Statute 25 Ed. 3. and will needs have the words Eldest Son and Heir to be understood not only of the Eldest Son but of any other Heir Trum. Though
some of the Inferiour Clergy may take him for Guide the Inns of Court scorn to be his Pupils for all he stiles himself Observ Numb 84. Roger L'Estrange of Grays-Inn Labourer The Man is as much out in his Law as he uses to be in his Divinity For tho God forbid any should be so wicked to imagin the Death of a collateral presumptive Heir to the Crown is not Treason by this Statute Coke 3 Instit fol. 8 9. speaking of the same words Before this Statute some did hold that to compass the Death of any of the King's Children was Treason but by this Act it is restrained to the Prince the King's Son being Heir apparent If the Heir apparent to the Crown be a collateral Heir apparent he is not within this Statute Roger Mortimer Earl of March was Anno Dom. 1487. 11 Rich. 2. proclaimed Heir apparent Anno 39 H. 6. Richard Duke of York was likewise proclaimed Heir apparent and so was John de la Poole Earl of Lincoln by R. 3. and Henry Marquess of Exeter by King H. 8. But none of these or the like are within the purvieu of of this Statute But since Roger will be dabbling with Statutes prethee read to him the following Clause of the Act of the 3d of King James c. 4. And further be it enacted That if any person or persons at any time after the tenth of June c. shall either upon the Seas or beyond the Seas or in any other place within the Dominions of the King's Majesty his Heirs or Successors put in practice to absolve persuade or withdraw any of the King's Subjects or to reconcile them to the Pope or See of Rome or if any person shall be wilfully absolv'd or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly reconciled or promise obedience to any such pretended Authority every such person and persons their procurers and counsellors aiders and maintainers shall be to all intents adjudged Traitors and shall have judgment suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason From whence 't is plain that every English Subject that has bin brought up in the Protestant Religion and afterwards revolts and turns Papist and so is reconcil'd to the See of Rome is ipso facto guilty of High Treason Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY May 12. 1682. Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur Popery is a kind of Atheism proved in many particulars OUr Two last have contain'd some Arguments proving the Church of Rome not to be a true visible Church of Christ which will further appear if we can Demonstrate the same to be Guilty of the horrid sin of Atheism To know whether she be or no we must distinguish the several kinds of Atheism Atheisme is Two-fold Open and Colour'd Open-Atheisme is when men both in Word and Deed deny God and his Word Colour'd Atheisme is not so manifest and hath two Degrees 1. When men acknowledge a God a First Cause of Causes or Infinite Being that made and Governs the World but yet deny or are Ignorant of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Thus the Ephesians before they Believed the Gospel are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2. 12. and said to be without God when yet no doubt in their natural Judgment they acknowledged because they deny'd Christ And in like manner though the Samaritans Worshipped the God of Abraham yet our Blessed Saviour saith They Worshipped they knew not what John 5. 46. And the Psalmist saith of all the Gentiles that their Gods are Idols The second Degree of this Colour'd Atheism is when men do rightly acknowledge the Unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of Persons yet so as by necessary Consequences partly of their Doctrine and partly of the Service of God they overturn that which they well maintained And in this Respect I say That the very Religion of the Church of Rome is a kind of Atheism 'T is true every Papist is not so shameless as one of their Popes who shewing some of his Confidents his Vast Treasures Hellishly said Quantas divitias nobis peperit haec Fabula Christi What a world of Riches has this Fable of Christ brought us in Yet the very Doctrines of their Church if understood and believed directly tends to lead all those of her Communion to the like or as desperate Impiety For 1. Whereas the Church of Rome maketh the Merit of the works of men to Concur with the Grace of God it overthrows the Grace of God If it be of works it is no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. whereas in words they own those glorious Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God to be Infinite do they not by Consequents deny both For how can that be Infinite Justice which may any way be appeased by humane satisfaction And how is God's Mercy Infinite when we by our own satisfactions must add a supply to the satisfaction of Christ 2. He that hath not the Son hath not the Father John 21. 23. and consequently is an Atheist Now the present Roman Religion hath not the Son that is Jesus Christ God and Man the Mediator of Mankind but hath transformed him into a feigned Christ For instead of one Jesus Christ in all things like unto us in his Humanity Sin only excepted They have framed a Christ to whom they Ascribe two kinds of Existing one Natural whereby he is visible touchable and Circumscribed in Heaven The other not only above but also against Nature by which he is substantially according to his Flesh in the hands of every Priest in every Host and in the mouth of every Communicant invisible untouchable and uncircumscribed and thus in effect they abolish his Man-hood 3. They Degrade our blessed Lord of his Offices and have Committed High Treason against the King of Glory and will you contend that such Arch Traitours are still true Subjects For one Jesus Christ the only King Lawgiver and Head of the Church They joyn unto him the Pope not only as a Vicar but also as a Companion or Equal in Government In that they give unto him power to make Laws binding Conscience To resolve and determine infallibly the sense of Holy Scripture c. For one Jesus Christ the only real Priest of the New Testament they joyn many Secondary Priests who pretend to offer Christ daily in the Mass for the Sins of the Quick and the Dead For one Jesus Christ the All sufficient Mediator of Intercession They have added many other Companions to Intercede for us And for the only Merits of Christ in whom alone the Father is well pleased they have devised a Treasury of the Church containing besides the merits of Christ the Over plus of the merits of Saints to be dispensed to men at the Popes discretion By all which we see That Christ and consequently God himself to be worshipped in Christ is changed for a Fantasie or Idol of mans
nothing remains but the Ordinance or Decree of God to appoint Damnation as a punishment of this sin according to the desert thereof But that was passed long since by the Lord himself You shall put nothing to the word which I command you Deut. 4. 2 11. 30. There 's the Precept and the Penalty is express'd Rev. 21. 18. If any man shall add to these things God shall add to him the Plagues that are written in this Book But more plainly 2 Thes 2. 11 12. The Lord shall send them strong delusions that they should believe lies that all they might be damned which believe not thâ— truth Here we see the Lord wrappeth them up in Damnation by his Sentence that believe Lies that is false and erroneous Doctrin nor agreeable to the Truth which they ought to believe What then is wanting to them to make the Faith of the Church of Rome damnable and the Professors thereof liable to Damnation when both the thing it self deserveth it and the Lord hath decreed that they which believe it should have according to their desert Since therefore it thus plainly appears that every man is bound upon pain of Salvation to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome in what a desperate case are those that continue in it 'T is not for nothing that the Almighty God of Love and Compassion makes Proclamation by his Sacred Herauld Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her people lest ye perish with her and partake of her Plagues We have a famous example in that depravation of the true Religion and setting up of Idolatry under Jeroboam 2 Chron. 11. 14. The Levites that dwelt amongst those Revolted 10 Tribes left their Suburbs and their Possessions that belonged unto them a great Act of self-denial and came to Judah and Jerusalem to do the Service of the Lord in the Temple there And after their example many people out of all the Tribes of Israel that abhorred Jeroboam's Idolatry came thither also for the true worship of God They knew to abide amongst Idolaters would bring them to destruction But if such wrath attend those that continue in that Communion wherein perhaps they were Born and Educated and to which sinkt by so many Chains of prepossession and hardned against truth with a thousand prejudices what Indignation may those expect who were born in Goshen within the daily sound of the Gospel and free tenders of the word of Life in a Land of Bibles baptized into a Reformed Church engaged for by Protestant Sponsors Educated by Religious Parents and under the sweet distillations of Divine Manna from the Lipps of sound and able Preachers If such as these I say will be trudging back to the Garlick and Onyons of Egypt if these Apostatize after so much light and embrace Popish darkness What remains But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under Foot the Son of God in his Soveraignty Laws and Ordinances and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was Sanctified an unholy thing imperfect without the Virgins Milk and Saints Intercessions and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace As the Apostle argues in the same Case Hebr. 10. 27. It is reported by Ireneus cont Haeres L 3. Ca. 3. And by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History L. 3. Ca. 25. That Holy and Beloved Apostle St. John when he spied Cerinthus the Heretick in the Bath where he was made all the haste he could possible to be gone apprehending it dangerous to be under the same Roof with him Yea the very Heathen as Tully de natura deorum L 3. witnesses being at Sea in a violent storm were much afraid of being Ship-wrackt because they had Diagoras the Atheist abord amongst them I would to God some Protestants were but as careful for their Souls as I say not the Apostle but the Heathen were for their Bodies and used the same discreet caution to provide for their Eternal Salvation as they had to procure their Temporal safety Neither was the Apostle any thing concern'd in the Impiety of Cerinthus or these Heathens with that of Diagoras and yet both He and They doubted some evil might befall them because they were in the Company of such profane wretches And can any Protestant Imagine that he may be free from danger though he joyn in Faith with the Pope that great Anti-christ though he harbour those Locusts Priests and Jesuites and converse daily with them and hearken to their Syren Musick and Imbibe their gilded poyson out of that Cup of Fornication wherewith they have Intoxicated the Kings of the Earth No No touching of Pitch always defileth It cost Jehosaphat dear though he were otherwise a good King for going to War with Idolatrous Ahab against a common enemy For what said Hanani the Seer 2 Chron. 19. 2. Wouldst thou help the wicked and love them that hate the Lord Therefore for this thing the wrath of the Lord is upon thee What then may they look for who like the Laodiceans are lukewarm neither hot nor cold altogether indifferent whether they be Papists or Protestants prepared to shift their Religion as the humour of the Successor shall happen such as are not asham'd to declare beforehand that they had rather be Papists than joyn with any of the Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seas that scoff at the very name Protestant and make it the best part of their Religion to swear and damn and rail against and persecute all those pious peaceable Protestants that cannot suppose it be through the error or weakness of their Conscience come up to the usage of some insignificant Ceremonies acknowledged to be indifferent though otherwise sound in their Faith Loyal to their King readily paying all Taxes useful to the publick and peaceable to their Neighbors whilst at the same time these high soaring Nominal Sons of the Church of England as they love to stile themselves though there is scarce one in forty of them but either is ignorant of or does not believe her Articles shall speak well of applaud and caress Papists and argue for their Principles and extenuate for their Treasons c. what shall we say of such people The Lord Rebuke them But least we should seem Fanatical in this assertion that the Faith of Rome is to be refused on pain of Damnation we shall here add some Testimonies of the Reverend Fathers and Divines of the Church of England 1. The famous Jewel in the defence of his Apology part 6. Ca. 22. Div. 2. We have departed saith he speaking of the Church of Rome from them who have utterly forsaken the Catholick Faith 2. Dr. Reynolds Conclus 5. The Church of Rome is not distemper'd with a little-Ague such as hindreth not greatly the functions of life
Brother Roger That he is a Protestant and never was at Mass in England you must understand him in his Life But the Devil cannot hide his Cloven Foot for p. 12. he puts us upon Petitioning His Majesty for Mercy to the Few Papists in England and to stop their Convictions upon their present prosecutions poor Lambs they are shrewdly hurt Yet some think more has been actually levyed on the Protestants at Bristol within a twelvemonth than on all the Papists in England these seven years and this he recommends as the only expedient to ease the poor French Protestants from the Persecution Now I should have thought that the Petition for a Cessation of Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters would be a more likely medium for that purpose for if we teaze our Protestant Brethren meerly on the Account of Non-conformity to our Ceremonies do we not justifie the French King in Harassing those that differ from his Establisht Church not only in Ceremonies but most material points of Doctrine too Tory. Well but he tells you that if we should be Bless'd with a Popish Successor yet 't is impossible he should establish Popery Truem. That 's the most errant sham in nature and some day or other when we meet I doubt not but to Demonstrate that in such a case which Heaven prevent the persecution on all forts of Protestants would be much more bloody and cruel than that in Queen Maries days and he that does not already apprehend why is only fit for Laâ—ine Prayers and drinking of Healths with an Huzza Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY June 23. 1682. Tu Portentorum locus es conformis eorum Cum Nilo portenta paris nutris Crocodilos Theodor. Ã Nyem L. 3. Ca. 41. ad Romam The Papal History after the Council of Constance prosecuted The loud complaints of Clemangis and other learned Godly men of the miserable corruptions of the Church in those Times The Life of Martin the V. His tricks to avoid a Reformation he dispenses with a man to Marry his own Sister THough we have made a long yet perhaps neither altogether useless nor unseasonable digression to give our Country-men a true Idea of the Church of Rome and what a necessity there is incumbent on all true Christians to abandon her Communion and not pollute their Souls by mixing with her damnable Idolatries and Superstitions We must remember to return and reassume the intermitted not neglected Thred of Papal History Which the Reader may remember we diverted from Numb the 8. concluding with the flagitious and detestable Life and justly deserv'd deposal of that most Holy Monster John the 23 d. â—lias the 24 th and that most scandalous tuâ—g for the uâ—erring Chair which for several years depended between him and Gregory and Benedict his two Competitors who being at last all three cashier'd by the Council of Constance In their stead was set up Otho Colonna by the name of Martin the 5 th The beginning of whose Popedome their best Chronologies assign to the Year of our Lord 1417. But before we proceed to the particular story of his Life it will be necessary for clearing some passages that we may meet with therein to take a brief review of the lamentable state and condition of the Church in general in and about those times which we find so sensibly described and bewail'd by several pious learned men of that Age that their complaints seem rather writ with Tears of Blood than Ink. Amongst these Clemangis Arch-Deacon of Bayeux in France for his courage and zeal to truth deserves to lead the Van His Book De Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu of the corrupt Estate of the Church as it was produced at the Council of Constance so it well deserves every studious Gentlemans Reading that would fully satisfy himself touching the horrid abominations of Rome I shall only select a few passages Having set forth by what steps and degrees the Church at one and the same time rose to her temporal height and spiritual declination and by what subtleties the Popes engrossed all Dominion and how greedily they and their Creatures the Cardinals hunted after gain he proceeds to their further Character thus They bear more patiently the loss of Ten thousand Souls than of Ten Groats nay they regard the ruin of Souls with no consideration or emotion of mind at all but for the least diminution of their own private pecuniary advantages they presently grow mad and furious The Study of Divinity and such as make Profession thereof are made a meer May-game and Laughing-stock even which is most monstrous to the Popes themselves who prefer their own Tradition far before the Commandments of God And now that worthy and excellent function of Preaching sometimes attributed to Pastors only is of that base account with them that they think it too mean a work for them to meddle with and that nothing is more unbecoming their dignity The same Author in his Epistle concerning the Study of Divinity tells us That in those days the Monasteries both of Monks and Nuns each Sex it seems was as bad as the other are become so many Brothel-Houses their Divinity meerly Scholastick and Chimerical the very same which St. Paul intended to describe by those words They dote about Questions and strife of words Their fruits are like those of the Lake of Sodom outwardly fair but inwardly smoak and filthy ashes Ecclesiastical Persons are generally the Successors rather of Simon Magus than Simon Peter No man hath Orders given him without silver or gold nor is any refus'd or debarr'd from the sacred function that brings mony be he never so wicked To such a prodigie of wantonness and debauchery are they grown that their people the better to defend their Wives chastity from the attempts of these Clergy-stallions will have no Priests except such as are known to keep Concubines The Legends of Saints are read instead of the holy Scriptures and the Saints brought into the place of God And in a Letter to a Student at Paris discoursing of the Council of Constance he assigns several reasons why no Reformation of the raigning abuses of the Church was to be expected thence For saith he these Carnal Sons of the Church do not only not regard spiritual things nor have any feeling of them themselves but they persecute those that are according to the Spirit as ever since the time of just Abel whom Carnal Cain murdered it hath been and will be to the worlds end These are they that for Temporal Commodities fly to the Church and yet living even worse than secular men they covet scrape and rob all they can desiring to bear Rule but not to serve glorying in their superiority oppressing their inferiours and rejoycing in their own pride and luxury They account gain godliness and are always ready to act or suffer any thing whatsoever for their temporalities how lewdly soever
they are gotten scorning and laughing at all those that are desirous to live justly holily chastly innocently and spiritually with such the Church at this day is so full that almost in every Chapter and College scarce any other can be found And can we imagine that such will endeavour the Reformation of the Church in manners and discipline and honesty of Life who count that Reformation their greatest Calamity and desire nothing so much as that it may be lawful for them to do whatsoever pleaseth them freely without controul or punishment Thus far Clemangis of the manners of the Dignified Clergy almost 300 years ago and I wish the Picture may not serve too well for some Ages since Nor was he the only complainant Cardinal Zabarella a famous Lawyer in his Treatise De Schismate written about the year 1406 talks much at the same rate and affirms That with the flattering Canonists there was nothing so unlawful which they thought not lawful for them to do insomuch that they extolled the Pope above God himself making him more than God so that saith he if God afford not his helping hand to the present state of the Church it is in danger of an utter overthrow Nor was John Gerson the Learned Chancellour of the Parisian University who was also one of the Assistants at the Council of Constance silent In his Book De Examine Doctrinarum It is not saith he in the power of the Pope or any Council to change what is prescribed by the Evangelists and St. Paul as some do Dote Yea we are to give more credit in a matter of Doctrine to the assertion of a simple unlearned man speaking according to the Scriptures than to the Declaration of the Pope or Council being contrary thereunto We have seen in what a maimed condition the Church was and that there were some able Physicians that both saw and might they have been suffered were able 't is probable to have cured her wounds Nay all the Empericks at Constance pretended at least the same design But they made use of but an ill expedient when they elected the before-mentioned Martin the Fifth For though in the Council he had carried himself very subtilly and under colour of moderation had not only avoided opposing either party but given each side grounds to hope him most inclinable to their particular Faction which much facilitated his choice the rather for that the Emperour was much taken with that stayedness of his temper and expected no small fruits of Reformation from so unbiass'd a Conduct yet no sooner were his Temples Impaled with the Triple-Crown but he appeared divested of that moderation which before he made shew of and wholly addicted to advance the secular interest Dominion and Treasure of his Chair Therefore when soon after his Election the Emperor Sigismund who had had so great an influence in his promotion press'd him earnestly to proceed on vigorously with the promised Reformation the crafty old Father wheadled it off That the Bishops c. continuing so long together at Constance was a great inconvenience to their respective Churches and charges that therefore it was now very necessary to give them a short recess that Reformation was a thing highly needful but withal being a matter of great importance it required mature deliberation Therefore he thought fit to dissolve the Council at present on condition that another should be call'd within 5 years and in the mean time he would endeavour to prepare matters and that afterwards in 7 years they should have another Council and thence forwards for ever a Decennial one that is to say a general Council every 10 years should be conven'd and sit to Redress the grievances of the Church Having Cajoled them with these fair stories to make them the rather believe that he was in honest earnest he presently ordains and appoints a place for the next general Synod viz. That it should be held within 5 years at Pavia in Italy And then in the 45 th Session they having done very little or indeed nothing towards Reforming the Root of all the Churches corruptions but only fiddle-fadled about number of Canons for ordering of Annates Collations Reserved Causes Appeals Commendums and the like Ecclesiastical Trumpery comes Cardinal Winbald like the Popes Chancellor and dissolves them by pronouncing these words Domini ite in pace My Lords you may be packing or get ye gone in peace Which was done saith Platina sublato omnium consensu maximè verò Imperatoris without any of their consents but especially against that of the Emperour Nor could the Emperour prevail with Martin to continue a while in Germany but he would away for Rome alledging that in the absence of the Popes the Saints Chappels were gone to decay and which was a more cogent reason by half Tyrants had seized a great part of St. Peter's Patrimony He was no sooner got into Italy but he engaged in several wars and reduced the Dutchy Spoletto Perusia Bononia and other places which had set up for themselves He likewise made Lewis of Anjou King of Naples though Joan the Queen thereof had before declared Alphonsus King of Aragon her Hâ—ir The time being come for holding the Council at Pavia the Pope for fashion sake sends thither one Arch-bishop a Bishop an Abbot and a Friar who met there only two Abbots of Burgundy and these six began forsooth a Council a Worshipful Representation of the whole Catholick Church on Earth But the Plague breaking out they adjourn'd from thence to Sena where things not fadging just as Pope Martin would have them he quickly gave that Assembly too a Writ of Ease without their effecting any thing But for a colour still promises to call frequent Councils and that next seventh year they should have one at Basil Having thus sham'd off the means of Redressing the Churches grievances and correcting abuses he settles at Rome and begins to reâ—edify several decay'd buildings which the Romish Historians gloriously Intitle Restoring the Church But his main business was to scrape money together For saith Antoninus He was generally blam'd as one that too greedily labour'd to heap up riches being in no wise able to say with the Apostle whose Successor he pretended to be silver and gold have I none But all his vast Treasure was lewdly consumed by his Kinsmen and especially by his Nephew the Prince of Salerno to whom it fell by his death he bestowing most of it on hired Soldiers and Enemies against the Church And now he had spun out the time till the Council at Basil was to Assemble how he would have shuffled it off or rendred it insignificant we know not since then God was pleased to cut him off dying of an Apoplexy the 20 of February 1431. in the 53 year of his Age and when he had held the Chair 13 years 3 months and 12 days This is that Pope whom many flattering Popish Authors extol for his vertues to the Skies when yet besides his
Rebellion promoting a general good of the King and Kingdome Faction and endeavouring the safety of the Nation against Popish Conspiracies a Presbyterian Plot. But if by Faction may be understood a few boysterus Troublesome people with as little sense as honesty that contrary to the rightful customes of the place they live in bandy against and disturb the Majority as suppose out-number'd above one Thousanâ—d in three and by persons of as good or better Quality every way than themselves and struggle to overthrow the Right Laws and Priviledges of the whole Community and when with Innovations Noise Shamms and shamefull foul practises they themselves have first industriously rais'd Feuds and Cumbustions do then think to file them to the account of such as justly and innocently oppose their lewd designs if this I say may pass for a true description of Faction then on my Conscience Popery and Torism are as errant Factions as ever pester'd a State Tory. Thou art always harping upon Popery I tell thee once again that party is not worth minding where shall you meet a man that now adays will own himself a Roman Catholick now quoth Roger we have taken the Oaths c. There 's Sing and Nevil shall talk as zealously for the Church by Law as any Country Curate and is not this a happy Reformation Truem. A Wolf is never the less a Wolf but the more dangerous for wearing the Lambs-skin that he lately worried I tell you there are still Papists in England and Bloody Traiterous Papists and a damnable Company of them too when was St. Omers and Doway more empty and yet I 'le warrant you all the Jesuits are not gone to Convert the Great Mogul Do not their raskally hedge-Priests flutter up and down as thick as Filfares who may not any day meet at 'tother end of the Town with Father Mathew's my Lord Peters's Ghostly Tool Father Fincham Brother to the Right Worshipful in Cromwel-shire Father Witherington Who once in doleful dumps Being drunk said Mass upon his Stumps Cum multis aliis quos cum proscribere Nolo strutting up and down streets as briskly as if they hoped to sing te Deum in Pauls and what business think you have these reverend Blades here Tory. Nay how do I know perhaps they only come over to turn Informers against Protestant Conventicles Do any of them Lodge in the Savoy Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY June 7. 1682. Crudeles Impiorum Misericordiae The Debates of the Bohemians at the Council of Basil The Story of Zisca his wonderful success and Epitaph The use of the Cup permitted to the Bohemians c. AMongst other Occurrences that happened at the Council of Basil which began to be Assembled Anno 1431. and continued sitting almost 12 years very remarkable were their proceedings with the Bohemians How God had been pleased to enlighten that Nation with the knowledge of his Truth and to discover to them the errors and wickedness of the Church of Rome by the spreading of Wickliffs Books amongst them we have heretofore acquainted you As also how those good seeds were cultivated by the pains of those laborious Husbandmen in the Lords Vineyard John Huss and Jerome of Prague who were both cruelly martyr'd contrary to the safe conduct granted them by the Council of Constance about the year 1415. Whereby the Gospel had taken such Root amongst the Bohemians that all the powers of darkness could not pluck it up yet of those of them that refused the Church of Rome there were two sorts some that only contended to have the use of the Cup in the Sacrament restored to the Laity but in other Doctrines agreed with the Romanists and these for that reason were commonly called Calixstines from Calix a Cup the other not only complained of the Sacriledge of the Papists in that respect but also pressed for the purity and simplicity of Religion in all Articles and Ceremonies and these were sometimes call'd Piccardines and sometimes Tabâ—ritâ—s for the cause herein after mentioned You must note after the burning of Huss and Jerome the Nobles of Hungary to the number of 50 and upwards in the name of themselves and the whole Commonalty sent Letters under their Seals Dated 2 Sept. 1416 to Constance complaining thereof as likewise did the Nobles of Moravia But that Bloody Conventicle vouchfased them no answer but on the contrary stirred up great persecution against them so that the Hussites were not only Excommunicated but their Churches broke open and their persons and goods every where exposed to violence which occasion'd such a tumult on the 13 th of July 1419 at Prague that the common people being enraged threw 12 Senators of Old Prague with the chief City Majestrate out of the Windows of the Senate House who fell upon the points of Spears Pope Martin the 5th Anno 1420 publickly excommunicates the Bohemians Exciting the Emperor and all Kings Prince Dukes c. to take up Arms against them Intreating them by the Wounds of Christ and their own Salvation unanimously to fall upon them and quite Extirpate that Sacrilegious and cursed Nation and withal promises so zealous and bountiful was his Holiness an universal remission of sins to the most wicked person that should kill one Bohemian Heretick History of the Bohemian Persecution p. 27. But some small time before this some thousands of those that profess'd the true Religion finding they could not live peaceably in Prague retired from thence to a stony Mountain about 10 Miles distant which they named Tabor and encompassed it round with a Wall and other fortifications constituting there a kind of Common-wealth and resolv'd to defend themselves by Arms and hence they were call'd Taborites The Emperour Sigismund spur'd on by these Incentives and large promises from the Pope of gairing Heaven gathers a most puissant Army from all parts of the Empire and resolves utterly to extirpate these poor Bohemian Hussites Who being in this sore distress one John de Trosnovie call'd Ziska because he had but one Eye of a Noble house but mean fortune yet great valour and conduct undertakes to gather together the scatter'd people and to head them against their Enemies which he perform'd with such success that Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope and no friend to be sure to the Bohemians who wrote the Story of those Wars affirms his Atchievements will rather be admir'd than believed by posterity for with handfuls of those poor unfurnisht people he fought eleven several Battels with Sigismund's numerous well provided and fresh recruited Armies and in all of them came off victorious nay though in one of them he lost his other Eye and so was blind yet afterwards he continued no less fortunate a Leader so that at last Sigismund despairing to vanquish him but by a Treaty consents to declare him his Lieutenant and allow him a Pension on condition he and his followers would
acknowledge him the said Sigismund as King But before this Treaty was fully perfected Ziska dies Some say that he should bequeath his Skin to make a Drum of or that his followers should carry it about with them thinking thereby to fright their Enemies but this I conceive but a Fable and yet 't is little more than what our valiant King Edw. the 1 st did who on his Death-bed commanded that his Bones well boil'd from the flesh should in a fit Vessel be carried about by his Son 'till he had Conquer'd the Scots telling his Son that as long as he had his Fathers Bones with him none should overcome him This is certain that after his Death the Bohemians call'd themselves Orphans as having lost the common Father of their Country man nor will it be amiss to insert here his Epitaph written on his Tomb in the City of Tabor as we find it before the History of the Abbot of Vrsperge I John Ziska rest here in the skill of Military Affairs not inferiour to any of the Emperours or famous Captains of old A severe scourge of the pride and covetousness of Clergy-men and a most valiant Defender of my Country That which Appius Claudius being blind did for the Romans in well counselling and furious Camillus in valiantly exploiting the same have I done for my Bohemians I was never wanting to the good fortune of the war nor it to me I have foreseen though blind all advantages and opportunities of well doing and with Ensigns display'd have fought eleven times in the open Field ever victorious It seemed to me most fit and honourable to take in hand the most just cause of the miserable and hungry against the delicate fat and full-cram'd Priests and in this doing I have found the assistance of God giving a Blessing to my arms if their envy had not hindred it no doubt I should have merited to be numbred amongst the illustrious men nevertheless my Bones lye here in this sacred place without asking the Pope any leave and in spight of his Teeth John Ziska the Bohemian an Enemy of Priests that are covetous of dishonest gain but in a godly zeal After his death the Pope and Emperour thinking the Hussites much discouraged thereby as in truth they were sent several great Armies against them but still they were strangely discomfited for the Bohemians saith Monstrelet feared neither death nor torments their very Women took arms and fought and the dead Bodies of many of that Sex were found amongst the slain in several Battels Wherefore being not able to extirpate them by War they are invited to come in order to hearing their demands and giving them satisfaction to the Council of Basil Indeed most of the Bohemian Churches being sensible of the perfidious treachery used to Huss and Jerome at Constance were loth to send any Deputies thither but the Nobility over-rul'd the matter that some should be dispatcht to render a Reason for the Innovations in Religion laid to their charge Commissioners were therefore chosen and sent amongst whom the most eminent were John Rokizane of Prague and Nicholas Episcopius of the Taborens both famous Divines and of the Nobility Procopius the General of the Taborens and William Rastka Baron of Postupiez and others who being honourably conducted in their passage and courteously received at Basil They declared that at Constance they had been condemn'd unheard though they held nothing but according to the Scriptures and then exhibited the four Requests and Articles following desiring that the Council would grant them or allow them to defend them by Argument 1. That the use of the Cup may be restored to the people and that the Service of the Church might be in their own Tongue 2. That Clerks or Ministers might usurp no Authority in Seculars 3. That the word of God might be freely Preached without disturbance 4. That there may be publick punishment of publick offences These Articles being read the Popes Legate demanded if they had nothing else to propound because he had heard it reported that they affirmed that the Orders of Monks were from the Devil Procopius made answer from whence else I pray can they derive their original which was instituted neither by the Patriarchs nor Prophets neither by Christ nor his Apostles However a Conference was appointed and 40 days some say 50 the Disputation lasted and when the Bohemians could not be confuted by Arguments they were at last wheadled into a composition John Rokisane being himself corrupted with the hopes of an Arch-bishoprick seduced others of the Commissioners and so matters were subtilly carried that leave being given by the Council that they should enjoy the use of the Cup in other matters they were brought to consent These four Articles with some Explanations were afterwards named the Concord and Commissioners were sent into Bohemia from the Council and Emperour to declare that Realm was received again into the Bosome of the Church and a Diet being there Assembled on that occasion Rokisane very rhetorically explained and magnified the benefits of this agreement whereby so much War Bloodshed and Devastation as otherwise might have happen'd to the Kingdom was prevented and now he was pleased to mention the Pope and Cesar in other Language than heretofore when he was wont to stile the one the Whore and the other the Beast This Rokisane continued a pitiful Hypocrite long after and at last died uncomfortably Anno 1471. The craft of the Council in granting the Cup to the Bohemians provided in all other things they would submit was considerable for hereby they set at variance the Calixstines and the Taborites and consequently prevented all their further endeavours of Reformation and the pure professors of the Gospel henceforwards were as much hated and persecuted by those that enjoy'd the use of the Cup as by those that disown'd it It was no little grief to many especially of the zealous Taâ—orites to depart in this manner from the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ delivered to them by Huss and return again to the profession of the Church of Rome nor could they ever be wholly brought over to embrace it but the truth has remained still amongst them and great Persecutions have they suffered even to our times as by the History thereof brought down to the year 1632. and Printed at London Anno 1650. appears To return to the Council of Basil the other most material Decrees they made were 1. That no Actions Suits or Controversies should by Appeals be carried up to be decided in the Courts at Rome which were above four days distant from thence 2. A Regulation of the Cardinals that they should not be above 24 in number and to exclude the Popes Nephews and Kindred from that office 3. Against the payment of Annals or first fruits to the Pope 4. Against Priests keeping Concubines 5. They brought two new Holy-days into the Church viz. The Conception and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary As long as