Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	believe_v	catholic_n	2,841	5	8.1494	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02750	A declaration of egregious popish impostures to with-draw the harts of her Maiesties subiects from their allegeance, and from the truth of Christian religion professed in England, vnder the pretence of casting out deuils. Practised by Edmunds, alias Weston a Iesuit, and diuers Romish priestes his wicked associates. Where-vnto are annexed the copies of the confessions, and examinations of the parties themselues, which were pretended to be possessed, and dispossessed, taken vpon oath before her Maiesties commissioners, for causes ecclesiasticall.	Harsnett, Samuel, 1561-1631.	1603 (1603)	STC 12880; ESTC S120922	196,686	296

so neere the order of the Primitiue Church yet they are not able either to discerne who are possessed amongst them nor how to giue thē remedy The third part is handled more largely to the great aduauncement power of Reliques As for holy water that S. Macarius thereby cured a woman who by Magicall enchauntment seemed to be turned into a Mare Likewise how S. Peter hallowed bread against the assault of certaine deuils which were sent by Simon Magus in the likenes of dogges to deuoure him For the power of priesthood there is an example alledged of S. Martin how he putting his fingers into the mouth of a Daemoniacke the deuill durst not bite him though he bad him to bite him if he had any power so to doe There is also mention made of the vertue of the blessed sacrament of holy oyle and of the bones of Saints The vse of all those things was very frequent in the exorcising of the parties possessed Insomuch as wee omitted not the reliques and bones of Ma. Campian Ma. Sherwin Ma. Brian and Ma. Cottam to haue some little testimonie by implication from the deuill to prooue them holy Matyrs If I be not deceiued Ma. Edmunds alias Weston was the Author of this booke and the examples by him alledged were brought of purpose to giue the more credit to his and our proceedings with the said parties before mentioned And indeed he was not therein deceiued for wee that were priests were thereby greatlie magnified by Catholiques schismaticks and weak protestants the two former beeing confirmed in the Romane Catholicke faith and the third sort therevnto reconciled as hath beene before mentioned And that cannot be denied but that in the course which wee held with the said pretended Daemoniacks many occasions were giuen and aptly taken to scorne and deride the orders seruice now established by her Maiesties lawes in the Church of England Likewise I must confesse that the course we held was so pleasing to such as saw it or were informed of it by those that they trusted as it prooued very gainfull vnto vs all that were priests wee had out of question procured vnto our selues very great fauour credit and reputation so as it was no meruaile if some young Gentlemen as Ma. Babington the rest were allured to those strange attempts which they tooke in hand by maister Ballard who was an Agent amongst vs. They saw as they supposed for both maister Babington and diuers of his company were oftentimes at the exorcisings that we had a great commandement ouer deuils which preuailed greatly with them as I think It would haue been a very strange thing I am perswaded that wee could not haue wrought men at that time to attempt which was prudently foreseene by Fa. Edmunds of purpose as I am resolued in my conscience to prepare the harts minds of Catholiques by those practises that when such forces as were intended should haue come into England they might haue been more readily drawn by him and vs to haue ioyned theyr forces with them And this is that I can say concerning the occasions or inducements that such matters were taken in hand at the time articulated Now as touching the substance of the generall interrogatory it selfe I haue perused the seuerall examinations and confessions of Sara Williams and Friswood her sister of Anne Smith and of Richard Mainy gentleman and am fully perswaded that they haue deposed the truth in such poynts whereof they were examined belonging to theyr pretended possession dispossessiō The effect wherof is that they were drawn by our cunning carriage of matters to seeme as though they had beene possessed when as in truth they were not neither were there any of the priests ignorant in my cōscience of their dissimulation nor the parties themselues as now it appeareth of our dissembled proceeding with them After I had beene my selfe first at one of theyr exorcisings it was my chaunce to he that night with maister Thomson a priest and a great Actor in those matters at his chamber by the Spittle and falling into some conference about it I vsed some such words as though I doubted whether the party were actually and really possessed For I my selfe being not acquainted with anie plot deuised by Fa Edmunds or any other spake my minde some-what more plainely then I perceaued Ma Thomson wel liked of His aunswer vnto me was in effect that he being my friend did earnestly wish me to cast forth no such speeches whatsoeuer I did thinke For quoth he the matter is iudged to be so by Fa Edmunds and some others that are Priests Besides such Catholiques as haue beene present at such fits haue receaued it for a truth that the parties are possessed And although I for my part will not make it an article of my Creede yet I thinke that godlie credulitie doth much good for the furthering of the Catholique cause and for the defacing of our common enemies and their proceedings or to this effect Not long after also talking with Ma Stamp at the Lo. Vaux his house in Hackney concerning these matters and demaunding of him seriously his opinion what he thought of them his aunswer was that they were things of such importance as would further the Catholique cause more then all the bookes that had beene written of late yeeres about the controuersies in Religion with the Protestants with which aunswer I seemed to rest contented because I saw thereby he was not willing to enter into any playner course with me I would not haue this my confession further extended then my meaning is I doe not take vpon me either directly or indirecty to oppose my selfe to the three poynts of the Treatise before mentioned which are strengthened with some authorities both of the Scriptures and of the auncient Fathers and Writers How be it as I account it presumption to denie all those Histories as touching the casting out of deuils in the Primitiue Church since the Apostles times so to beleeue all that is written thereof I hold it a point of great madnes and I doubt not but the soundest Catholiques in Europe are of my opinion For be it true that is alledged in the said treatise of S. Ambrose that he neuer heard of any that could counterfeit himselfe to be a Daemoniack yet later experience hath taught vs the contrary And indeede the artificiall skil considered where-vnto priests haue attained it is a very easie matter to bring a young girle or a youth to doe and speake those things which the Exorcists can readily colour and interpret as if it were both done and spoken by deuils that did possesse them But yet this I wil say and giue it for a rule to all Catholiques heereafter that wil not purposely suffer themselues to be deluded let them but mark diligently when they are present at any such actions what the parties pretended to be possessed doe eyther act or speak and then they shal perceaue nothing but may very well

this dangerous fall on the hippe but that this should proue a reall possession as in deede it did Young Trayford the sixth patient being a boon-companion as seemes and louing wine and women well as appeares by the declaration had enflamed his toe and at some times felt a spice of the gowt a plaine case as the nose on a mans face the young man had a deuill and must be coniured all ouer for his wicked toe Now what a wofull taking are all those poore creatures in that haue about them by birth casualty or mishap any close imper ache or other more secret infirmity when a paine in a maides belly a stitch in her side an ache in her head a crampe in her legge a tinckling in her toe if the good Exorcist please must needes hatch a deuil and bringforth such chaire-worke fier-worke and deuill-worke as you shall heare heereafter And what a deliration is this in our graue learned and famous Colledge of auncient renowmed Physicians to vndertake a long costly and painfull course of study in those excellent worthies of learned times Galen Hippocrates and the rest and to spend their money strength and spirits in searching the treasurie of Nature let them cassier those olde monuments of Ethnick prophane learning and turne Wisard Seer Exorcist Iugler or Witch let them turne ouer but one new leafe in Sprenger Nider Mengus or Thyraeus and see how to discouer a deuill in the Epilepsie Mother Crampe Convulsion Sciatica or Gowt and then learne a spell an amulet a periapt of a priest and they shall get them more fame and money in one week then they doe now by all their painfull trauaile in a yeere It is a very poore bayte as you may see by Trayfords gowtie toe where-out our hungry Exorcists will not rather then faile nibble a deuill And if I be not much deceaued I haue heard it credibly reported by some that haue cause to know that the Popes Holines himselfe may be deuill-caught by this trick For it is credibly auouched that this sweet natured Clement the 8 with vsing too much some sweet sawce is molested with the gowt Now what a Quaere would this proue if a Lynceus Exorcist should discouer a deuill in his Holines toe How would the Scotists and Thomists belabour and trick the deuill with questions in the Popes toe First whether his Hol being necessarily inuested with the holy spirit of God can possibly admit of a deuill no. Then graunting by way of admittance that his Hol may be possessed whether his resolutions be to be taken for the Canons of Gods holy spirit or the maximes of the deuill and lastly if the deuill may lurk in the Popes toe whether his wise holy sweet babes with beards that haue kissed his toe haue kissed the deuill yea or no in his toe but my wit is too shallow to sound these deepe profundities I must goe on and tell you what farther newes from Denham CHAP. 7. ¶ Their holy pretences to make their Disciples sure vnto them YOu will wonder that these visards being so bare and made all of browne paper should euer serue the turne to make a maske for a deuill vntill you heare how handsomly the glew of holy church doth make it hang together and how it is stitched vp with packthreed of holy deuotion If their patients be Catholiques whom they set their hooke for a lime-twigge of a rush wil serue the turne to catch them hold them and fasten them to their tackling but if their Conies be Protestants and such as goe to Church then some holy ceremonies for good fashion sake must be solemnly vsed to combine them the neerer vnto their holy Fathers that the band and knot may be the surer betweene them for vntying againe and to bring them to lye betweene the sweete breasts of their holy Mother the Romish Church that the mammaday which shall be giuen them may doe them the more good Heere you are to vnderstand that all or the most of vs Protestants are forsooth in a most wofull case for the most of vs already without the helpe of either passion of the Mother Sciatica Gowte Cat-biting or hipping according to the Romish Kalender are plainly really possessed with deuils In so much as the reuerend Thyraeus disputes it very profoundly pro con and foyles a whole chap with this learned probleme Vtrum heretici sint verè á daemonibus obsessi Whether Protestants whom he termes Haeretiques be truly possessed with deuills Where first he sayes for vs that wee haue magnam coniunctionem vel comunionem cum Daemonibus Great fellowship and neere friendship with the deuil 2 Quam plurimi cum diabolo egerunt vel ab eodem tanquam magistro sua dogmata acceperunt That very many of vs haue dealt with the deuill and haue receaued our principles of no other maister then the deuill And these reasons he sayth will easily perswade some to thinke we haue actually deuils in deede But he for his part of pure good will vnto vs will thinke that wee are not to be accounted properly possessed Propterea quod vera in ipsis signa quae obsessos produnt desiderantur His reasons that mooue him to thinke so well of vs are because wee doe not tumble wallow foame howle scricke and make mouthes and mops as the popish possessed vse to doe Loe doth not the good man deserue you should giue him a bribe for so mildly concluding his aphorisme on your sides that you are not to be said to be really possessed but onely to deale talke make league friendship and familiarity with the deuill But our 12 Apostolicall Exorcists and Weston their head in their deeper in-sight and experience of vs Protestants haue long since set olde Thyraeus to schoole and bidden him turne ouer his booke to an other leafe for they plainly see teach and auouch that the greatest part of vs Protestants are possessed in deed Sara Williams saith in her deposition that it was an vsuall saying with the Priests that many Protestants were possessed But Friswood goes further sayes in plaine termes That the Priests in talking of the Protestants haue affirmed of them in her hearing that the greatest share of them were possessed with deuils I could wish that whilst our Exorcists are in this good mood to say and auouch that you haue deuils and you in your good moode for hearing them so say that you had some 12 of their holiest Exorcists amongst you and Weston their champion to trie whether they could coniure a deuill out of you or you coniure them for saying you haue the deuil But I pray you in the meane while help them out of their muse for they are sorely perplexed to think vpon that day when England shall become Catholique againe how the Catholiques shal be pestered with worke in casting out deuils by reason of the infinite number of vs protestants that hauing deuils in vs must come into theyr handling Our hands say they

he would goe braue it out at the Court for they were all his friends This is the gentle quittance your holy renegadoes doe returne you for the fauour or conuiuencie which they finde in that her Maiesties Lawes are no more seuerely executed against them They bring you home a placard from his hellishnes at Rome to assure you that you are all in league and amity with the deuil For so the deuil or Edmunds doth proclaime you from hel or Rome Those famous renowmed Worthies of her Maiesties priuie Counsel whose bodies sleepe in peace and their soules as I trust repose in Abrahams blessed bosome how our infernal tragaedians haue disturbed their rest prophaned their happy memory violated their tombs and called forth their spirits like the Witch of Endor making them tennis-bals for their deuils to bandy on their stage take a true view of in the passage of a Dialogue betweene the Exorcist and the deuil Yonder cries the deuil in Sara nodding her head towards one part of the chamber stands such a one whom he had named before full of deuils and Leicester at this present houre euen now now vnder the right arme of that one before mentioned and all the Court are my friends Then went he forward with his speech naming certaine persons and said that they are now gone to the deuil and amongst the rest named Bedford already departed and that his soule is euen now with me in this chamber and so passed on his talke and passed on to matters of treason and therefore they are not to be mentioned Thus farre theyr owne Recorder in his owne sweet termes And were not those matters of treason vttered by the deuil strange matters from hel trow ye that the penner durst not cōmit them to writing hauing written so much touching our most sacred Prince her Court and Counsel before as the deuil himselfe durst not inspire more into his pen And who doth not feele this palpable legerdemaine at his fingers ends The deuil speakes treason against the Prince and state for the winning and gaining of Subiects from her Maiestie to the Pope and making them become traytors by his treasonable perswasions and this stands for good Romish Rhetorick and popish Diuinitie whilest it was spoken and acted by the Popes Orator the deuil and the deuil shewed himselfe an absolute powerful speaker for his graund maister the Pope enchaunting by his sweet eloquence 500 or as their owne disciples confesse vpon record foure or fiue thousand soules in a short time whom hee wonne from the Queene and reconciled them to the Pope by this wel acted tragaedie And might the deuil speake treason so aptly distinctly and elegantly on the stage that it enchaunted the harts and affections of the poore bewitched people and chained them to the Pope and is not this sweet enchaunting treason to be mentioned in wryting Quis causam nescit You were afraid good deuil-tragaedians to be sainted at Tiburne for this sweet enchaunting treason vttered by your proloquutor the deuill and it must be committed to none but your sworne new proselytes that knew how to keepe it from stragling abroad whom you haue by this one sentence of your wise Orator the deuil manteled in the same degree of horrible vnspeakeable treasons with your selues not onely for concealing and entertaining treason not to be mentioned or spoken for the abhomination of it but for yeelding themselues their faith and fealty to the Pope the true end and ayme of all those vnspeakable treasons Et quis hic daemon And who was the deuil the brocher herald and perswader of these vnutterable treasons but Weston the Iesuit the chiefe plotter and the arch-impostor Dibdale the priest or Stemp or all the holy Couey of the twelue deuilish comaedians in their seueral turnes for there was neither deuil nor vrchin nor Elfe but themselues who did metamorphoze themselues in euery scene into the person eyther of the deuil himselfe or of his Interpreter and made the deuils names their Puppet to squeake pipe and fume out what they pleased to inspire And thus as the deuil would haue it by a deuilish inconsiderate clause inserted that the deuill spoke treasons not once to be mentioned haue you proclaimed your selues and your 5000 new adhaerents for vnspeakeable vnutterable detestable Traytors The estate of our Cleargie they haue adorned with a special grace The deuill appearing vnto Trayford sayth the Miraclist in the likenes of an English Minister and disswading him to leaue the Catholique Romish Church c. This was a signe say they of our especial fauour with the deuil in that he pleased rather to put on our habite then the vestments of a Catholique Romish Priest and yet all circumstances considered this was no great fauor done vnto our profession in regard their holy geare was too hote for the deuils wearing A sute of purgatorie fire had beene much easier for the deuil then an Albe or vestment of that consecrate attire But a greater argument of loue and mutual good affection is the liberal commendation which Saras deuil doth very frankly bestow vpon our Ministers affirming by his deuils honestie that hee likes them well and that they be much better then the Catholique Romish priests Which the poore Ideot spectators tooke to be sooth indeede and deemed vs to be too great in the deuils bookes euer to be good And aboue all General Maho being straightlie charged by the Exorcist to tel his name he standing vpon his dictatorship tels the Exorcist plainly that hee cannot commaund him but that the English Ministers may What and their wiues too quoth the Exorcist Marry thou a wife too quoth the deuil Loe here good gentle Conies that come to weare the Woodcocks bil you heare the deuil alias Dibdale plainly tel you that the English Ministers and their marrying of wiues come both out of hel and are the deuils alias Dibdales owne counsel to the priest and so cannot be good But hunting nipping cros-biting a prety wench on the bare crossing recrossing surcrossing her with priestly hote holy hands per honesta in honesta giuing her such a Catholique close pinch that you make her crie oh and possessing her with a shee deuil vppon the same afterwards dispossessing repossessing and super-possessing her againe til the poore wench is so handled amongst you as the deuil and you giue out Marrie her who will she can neuer haue child This is but his Holines owne hunt and chase for his holy hellish disciples in which Catholique sport the deuil himselfe making one he can take no iust exception there-vnto After the deuils gracing our seueral callings by his deuillish commendation he must needes of his good nature speake something in fauour of our religion to especially in behalfe of those points wherein we haue opposition with the Church of Rome First therefore for his and our better credit the deuil tels the priest that himselfe is an heretique and

that heresie came first into England in the raigne of King Henry the eight That he teaches the Protestants to call themselues Catholiques His good deuilship caused Sara to weepe for her father and mother because they went to the English Churches and tels the Exorcist very kindly that young children though they want vnderstanding must be kept from the Church because they may be plagued for so going for their parents faults that suffer them to goe Heere we must suppose that the deuil had taken so much of the priests blessed potion Sacke Galbanum and Rue that he was Maudelen-drunke and in his kinde drunkennes of pure compassion and good nature doth reueale thus much against himselfe to haue children and good folkes saued For being sober and in his right wits you shal by and by finde him in another key Sara was tempted forsooth to say first that there was no Purgatory This was a sore temptation indeede to wish Sara to say that fire was not whereof there is not one sparkle to be seene in all the booke of God which fire the pillers of Gods Church haue alwaies held for an Heathenish dreame a Platonick fiction whose coles brands skorching flames haue beene purgatiues for mens purses houses lands haue annihilated more mettall and euaporated it into smoake then all the conceited fire-works of our Chymicall Impostors haue done And here I feare the deuils braine was a little too much heated with the smoke of holy brimston grew somewhat adle in aduising Sara to goe about to put this enchaunted fire out of peoples heads for that the conceited opinion of this imaginarie fire hath brought more sooty-soiled soules into hell in a fancied hope of a purge after this life which they can neuer meete withall then any one cheating deuise besides in all the Popes budget Saras second temptation was to say the priest saide naught in saying of Masse A Christmas temptation after the deuil was wel whitled This was a pretty gul of your merry Christmas deuil as your selues had gulled impostured the world For what can be greater glee and pleasance to the deuil then to behold you the Archiuglers and Impostors of the world to put downe in this craft the Sorcerers of Aegypt the Heathen Mahomet and all To see you first iugle with Almighty God and our blessed Sauiour and then with all his saints turning his most blessed institution into a masse-monster a Chimera of puppets gaudes Approching vnto the holy celebration like Bacchanall priests with a stole an albe maniple an amice a tunicle and such phantasticall attire putting vppon the blessed institution of our Sauiour a forraine Babylonian name of a masse making it a night catch or round to be chopped vp betweene a boy a priest peruerting the nature of the holy communion to a priuate nunchion for a priest alone seuering those two maine pillers of our soules comfort the body and blood of our Sauiour and renting them in sunder which God had so neerely conioyned making the reuerend celebration a pageant of moppes mowes eleuations crouches and ridiculous gesticulations euacuating the power of that perfect and absolute oblation of the body and blood of our Sauiour by a quotidian imaginarie oblation of a sacrifice without blood offering vp in a blasphemous conceit the body of our Sauiour which sitteth for euer at the right hand of GOD giuing it for the dead which our Sauiour did to and for the liuing receiuers onely and aboue all sacriledge and heathenish blasphemie offering vp our Sauiour vnto God his father thus beseeching him that he with a mercifull pleasant countenance will behold the offering vp of his onely begotten and liuing sonne Christ Iesus and that he will accept the same euen as he accepted Abels offering and the sacrifice of Abraham and of Melchisedech the high priest Heereby sacrilegiously making your selues not onelie the true Melchisedech an honour appropriat vnto our Sauiour by the saying of the holy Ghost but most blasphemously intruding your selues as Mediators not onely betweene God and man but also betweene Almightie God and his sonne beseeching him to accept of the oblation of his sonne with a pleasant countenaunce O hellish blasphemy at your intercession Thirdly Sara was tempted by the deuil to say the blessed sacrament was bread and not to be adored This was an old potent temptation indeed The blessed Apostle was thus tempted 1500. yeeres agoe to call it expreslie by the name of bread and to will vs to remember by the breaking of it that it was none other but bread Platoes Idaea of an essence subsisting in nature without existence in indiuiduall substances long since hissed out of the schooles for a fantasticall fiction is nothing vnto this Popish brainsick imaginatiō that the colour forme tast sauour and dimensions of bread should subsist exist reall obiects to our sences without the substance nature of bread that all these sensible accidents should be made pendulous in the ayre like Archimedes Doue or els stript from their proper substance and adhaere to an indeterminate vagrant vnbounded beeing which all the subtile wits of all the Eagle-eyed Schoolemen in the world could yet neuer christen with a name These are the Italian Monsters hatched of the egges of schoole Crocodiles the winding serpentine wits of prophane vncircumcised spirits that take libertie to themselues to descant vpon Almightie God vpon his beloued sonne and his blessed institution as they descant vpon haecceïtie nihileïtie and all those conceited schoole-tricks Our Sauiour Christ I suppose would haue had somewhat adoe to haue instructed his twelue holy disciples at the first celebration of the supper in this Lecture of flying formes and vagrant substances and if our Sauiour had told S. Peter that the bread which he brake gaue him was no true bread indeed but the accidents of bread who could not conceiue of leuen that our Sauiour mentioned but he thought of houshold bread it would haue caused him to mooue many odde questions and haue troubled his braines and hindered his deuotion much in that reuerend and sacred action But our Sauiours blessed disciples were but grossa capita to our subtiliated sublimated new spirits of the Sorbon The blessed Apostle Saint Iohn did thinke hee had brought an argument of good assurance to the Iewes when he beganne his Epistle thus That which wee haue seene with our eyes handled with our hands and beene conuersant withall the Lord of life which if he had written to a quirking Sorbonist or a scoffing Lucianist that had his braine puffed vp with this theorie of formes hee would say the Apostle wrote like a good plaine Iohn a nods for those accidents of speech fauour proportion and feeling might be in indiuiduo vago in a wandering Hobgoblin that had no similitude of nature vvith the Lord of life Verily neither this new coyne of conceited formes nor the imagination of any Idolatrous adoration was once in