Orders of Monks and Friers like so many bulwarkes or strong forts to oppose all batteries and assaults whatsoeuer her Aduersaries shall plant or set against her As the Benedictins Carthusians Ieromites Bernardins Augustins Carmelites Dominicans Franciscans Capuchins Recollects Iesuites Theotines Oraterians Fullians Barnabists and an hundred more of these bald pates Also Nunnes Beghins close Nunnes loose Nunnes Sisters Canonesses And Hermites as those of the Orders which they attribute to Saint Anthony Hilary Macarius S. Theon S. Frontinian S. Paul the Heremite S. Apollonius and many more Now hath the Popes added to these the holy Gildes or Confraternities of Saint Roch Saint Hubricht S. Sebastian S. Coronna who are clad in blew Saint Anthony in blacke Saint Martin in white Saint Dominicke in blacke Of the Iesuites and Capuchins c. Yea moreouer holy Orders of Knights as those of the Rhodes or Malta Teutonickes or Dutch Knights Templers Knights of Saint Iames Our Ladies Knights Knights of Ierusalem Knights of the Order of Calatraua and many more whom for breuitie sake I omit for truly I had need of six hundred tongues and two hundred pens yea a mouth of steele with a brazen voice if I should declare all the diuersities of Orders and Religions which the holy Popes haue set vp not only without but also against the holy Scripture And yet I name not the Popes themselues their Cardinals Prelates Patriarkes and such like beasts whereof neither the Apostles or Prophets euer heard of nay I dare boldly say that if the Apostles or Prophets had but once seene or heard the hundreth part of these new Religious Orders named they would haue beene afraid of them For seeing that Saint Paul could not suffer that among the Corinthians some should call themselues the disciples of Peter others of Paul and others of Apollo how would he haue been then afraid and out of quiet to haue seene and heard of such an innumerable company of new and diuers names Professions Religions and Rules of perfection some clad in black some in white some in gray greene blew some in red and some in furres c. And euery one to esteeme his owne Order and Rules for the best and most worthy to be regarded he would surely haue thought himselfe to be in a new world Therefore the holy Father the Pope and his Monks and Friers yea all his Clergie men will not haue men to found themselues or depend only vpon that which the Prophets and Apostles haue written and taught for say they the world is now altered and the Popes haue found out and established new Religions new Commandements and new Articles of Faith whereof the Apostles neuer heard or knew of For otherwise beleeue me if nothing else were esteemed but the bare Scriptures and writings of the Prophets and Apostles then should the Decrees Decretals and Ordinances of the Church of Rome and all the Councells which haue beene kept and holden by the Order and Commandements of the Popes yea all the before specified Orders and Religions of Monks Friers Nunnes Heremites Gildes and Knight-hoods be vtterly ouerthrowne yea all their pretended Merits and Supererogations Prayers to Saints Purgatory and such like trumperies would not be worth a rotten Apple If men I say would begin to esteeme the holy Scripture alone for a true and sufficient rule and direction to attaine to saluation then should Luther be commended and praised for causing the Decrees and Decretalls of the Pope to be burned in Germany when his bookes were burned at Rome Now because there are many Monks Friers and Iesuites sent and transported into England out of the English Seminaries Colleges and Cloisters that are in forraigne parts as trading Factors for the Pope and the King of Spaine to extoll the sanctitie of the one and the power of the other I haue according to my bounden duty to my natiue Country and out of the zeale and reuerence I beare to Gods Church and true Religion vndertaken to write this ensuing Discourse my purpose being to discouer the beginning and in some manner the proceedings and present estate drifts and impostures of all Monks Friers and Iesuites in generall and of our English in particular and as well to instruct all those my louing Country men that are not as yet thorowly acquainted with their Impostures Hypocrisies Fornications Murders Idolatries Blasphemies many other abominable Impieties and inaccessible Mysteries as also to informe those that are carried away with the blind loue of these busie Hornets that they will not be perswaded that they are such wicked Hypocrites and impious Traitors as they are indeed to the end that the truth being knowne it may appeare in the face of the world what they are who in stead of the wholsome milke of the Word of God doe feed them who are committed to their charge with the poison of detestable Blasphemies and humane Traditions applying vnto the Virgin Mary and others their Saints many passages of holy Scriptures which are only proper vnto the Diuinity with their impious and abhorred doctrine of killing and murdering of Kings and Princes that are excommunicated by the Pope and Church of Rome We reade that many religious men heretofore contemning the world and all the pompe pride and vanity thereof withdrew themselues into Wildernesses and desart places in Syria Egypt and other Countries to the end they might the better being not troubled with worldly cares and incumbrances bestow their time in reading and studying the holy Scriptures fasting praying meditating and such diuine exercises Whereof Paul surnamed the first Heremite Anthony Hilarion Basil and Ierome were the first and chiefest among the Christians who for their sanctity of life were in those daies had in great honour for then this kinde of life was simple and free and not bound or tied to such vnlawfull Vowes and ridiculous Ceremonies as our moderne Monkes and Friers now adaies pretend to obserue and keepe Their Habit was then homely and yet decent as euery man best pleased to weare Neither were they bound to abide or remaine in any one particular place or Couent nor tied to one kind of life by vow but free to stay there where they liked best or to goe vnto any other City or Country where they would at their owne pleasure if that at any time it repented any of them to haue vndertaken or entred into that kind of life it was in his owne proper power to recant and withall to returne to his former vocation or calling againe without any note or signe of inconstancy or scandall which kind of life if the Monks of our time would imitate we should hold them farre more holy than we doe or to say the truth than they are indeed They sought out the most desart places they could find that is in the Wildernesse and therefore were called Heremites quasi eremum colentes inhabiting in the Wildernesse which the Grecians call Anchorites because they liued alone without any company and therefore
THE VNMASKING OF All popish Monks Friers and Iesuits OR A Treatise of their Genealogie beginnings proceedings and present state Together with some briefe obseruations of their Treasons Murders Fornications Impostures Blasphemies and sundry other abominable impieties Written as a Caueat or forewarning for Great Britaine to take heed in time of these Romish Locusts By Lewis Owen STOB SERM. 44. Quae nascentia mala sunt ea crescentia peiora LONDON Printed by J. H. for George Gibâ— and are to be sold aâ— his Shop at the signe of the Flower-de-Luce in Popes head Alley 1628. TO THE RIGHT VVORshipfull Sir IOHN LLOYD Knight and Sergeant at Law and one of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace and Quorum for the County of Merioneth c. SIR NOt being able in any better manner to answer the greatnesse of the obligation wherein I stand ingaged vnto your Worship for your manifold fauours so often conferred vpon me I must intreat you to rest contented with an infinity of thankes which I presently send you together with this insuing Discourse or Pamphlet being A Treatise of the genealogy proceedings and present state of all Monks Friers and Jesuits in generall c. vntill such time as occasion shall furnish me with means to make you a more worthy satisfaction To the Gentle Reader AS our Sauiour Christ Courteous Reader hath builded his Church which he hath so dearly bought and purchased vpon himselfe the only sure rocke and foundation thereof Than the which as the Apostle saith no other can be laid So on the other side hath Satan alwaies sought nothing more than to vndermine shake and if it were possible to ouerthrow the same For he well peceiueth that so long as this spirituall house and glorious building standeth firmely and surely grounded and founded vpon Christ the euerlasting truth the way and the life contained in the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles which they not only haue deliuered to the Church by liuely voice But as the faithfull Pen-men Notaries and Secretaries of the Holy Ghost haue also registred and committed to writing in the sacred Scriptures for the continuall comfort and instruction thereof Matt. 7.24,25 it remaineth vnremoueable and inuincible against hell gates and all the stormes and tempests raised against it by him and all his instruments Iohn 8.44 Wherefore he layeth all his battery and bendeth all his forces against this foundation labouring by falshood and lyes whereof he is the father to corrupt depriue alter obscure and deface the Gospell of Christ and the word of life and thereby to subuert and ouerturne or at least to weaken and shake the faith of the faithfull resting wholly thereupon This hath beene euer from the beginning his practise and is at this day and shall be vntil his kingdome be vtterly remoued and taken away Wherfore he is fitly named by Christ Iohn 8.44 A lyer and a murderer from the beginning For as by lyes he laboureth either to extinguish and abolish either to discredit and peruert the truth of the Word so doth he thereby intend and purpose the murdering and destruction of mankinde both body and soule For which cause our blessed Sauiour Iesus Christ foreseeing the dangerous and malicious attempt of Satan gaue vs warning aforehand that we might not be found vnprouided and so by securitie and carelesnesse lose the victory Deut. 13. Therefore as well Moses and the Prophets before the comming of Christ inspired with his Spirit as also at his comming in the flesh he himselfe and his Apostles do giue vs a watch-word and often admonish vs Mat. 7.15 To auoid and take heed of false Prophets false Apostles and false Teachers though they work signes and miracles and come in sheeps cloathing that is make neuer so great a shew to be the true Prophets of God in outward appearance yea though they following the foot-steps of their father Satan 2 Cor. 11.14,15 Who transformeth himselfe the sooner to deceiue into an Angell of light turne themselues into the Apostles of Christ Here-hence is it that the Apostle Saint Paul chargeth the Galathians Not to beleeue an Angell comming from heauen but rather to hold him accursed if hee should teach vnto them any other doctrine than that which at his mouth they had receiued To the same purpose Saint Iohn 1 Ioh. 4.1 willeth the faithfull not to beleeue euery spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are entred into the world But albeit this warning against false Prophets be in diuers places giuen vnto vs yet then especially doeth our Sauiour Christ and his Apostles labour to stirre vp the godly to a more continuall and earnest watchfulnesse and warinesse when they tell of the state of the latter dayes wherein wee liue Apo. 12.12 by how much they foresaw these times should be more perillous than any other in which Satan perceiuing his time and kingdome to be short should rage most violently and vse most tyrannie and strange practises to driue them from the only foundation Christ Take heed saith our Sauiour speaking of these later times Mat. 24.4,5,11,23,24,25,26 Mark 13.21 Luk. 17.23 that no man deceiue you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceiue many and there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceiue the very Elect behold I haue told you before Saint Paul saith 1 Tim. 4.1,2,3 That in the later times men should depart from the faith and should giue heed vnto spirits of errours and doctrines of Deuils c. Peter also and Iude 2 Tit. 3.1,2,3,4,5 1 Pet. 2.1,2,3 Iud. 4.18 Declare that there should be false Teachers which should priuily bring in damnable heresies euen denying the Lord that had bought them and that many should follow their destruction by whom the way of truth should be euill spoken of and should turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and deny God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ But that is chiefly to be considered and marked which the Apostle Saint Paul writeth of Antichrist and his comming for before the later day he sheweth 1 Thes 2.3,4,8,9,10,11 That there should come an Apostasie and departing from the faith and that the man of sinne should be disclosed euen the sonne of perdition which is an aduersary and exalteth himselfe against all that is called God c. But to omit their monstrous and manifold errours drawn from the sinckes and puddles of all former Heretickes wherewith this confused and huge Babel of this Romish Antichristian kingdom hath beene builded vp the meanes and instruments whereby the same hath bin brought to passe are the hypocriticall swarmes of Popish Monks Friers Iesuits and such other irreligious Orders But especially the same is to be seene at this day in the new and lately inuented sects of the Iesuits Capuchins and the rest
of the Mendicant Friers which the Romish Antichrist hath set forth as the last proppe and stay of his tottering and ruinous kingdome for he perceiuing that as Saint Paul hath foreshewed Christ hath begun to consume it with the breath of his mouth and abolish it with the brightnesse of his comming that is the preaching of the Gospell And seeing moreouer the world to grow to a disliking contempt of the ignorance sluggishnesse lewdnesse of the other Orders of Monks and Friers taken from men as Benet Dominick Francis and such like hath sent abroad into Christendom this new Sect hypocritically adorned with the name of Iesus and furnished with more shew of learning holinesse and godlinesse than their other Popish fraternities to the intent that Iesus Christ may be the sooner betrayed while these holy Iesuits giue him a Iudas salutation and kisse Because hee is in good hope that they are the men by whom he shall recouer againe that so large a circuit of ground which he hath lost in France England Germany Scotland Ireland Denmarke Swethland and other Countries of Christendome Furthermore he vseth this speciall policy to cause them by all meanes priuily to allure and entice the youths of the Vniuersities and Countries where the Gospell is preached to depart from the places where they are vnto his Colleges Seminaries and Cloisters to the end that being there for a time nuzled and trained vp vntill they bee hardened in hypocrisie obstinacie and malice against the truth and poisoned with the pestilent errours of the Romish Synagogue they may be sent out as new false Apostles into their owne countries or else thither where it is thought they may doe most harme Wherein they follow their forefathers the Scribes and Pharisees the like hypocrites who as Christ saith compassed both sea and land to make one Proselyte or of their profession and when he is made they make him two-fold more the childe of hell than they themselues Now to the intent my Country-men who as yet are not throughly acquainted with these Monks Friers and Iesuits or with their profession doctrine and purposes and therefore are in danger the sooner to be deceiued by them may be the better admonished yea armed and prouided against them I haue compiled this ensuing discourse or Treatise of their Genealogie Proceedings and present estate my purpose being at this time in some sort to vnmaske these monsters wherein I doe vse such modestie as the subiect can beare to reproue their errours the which the loue of the truth and vertue enforceth me and not to cauill or to slander any one of them which I detest and abhorre Moreouer I doe craue of the Readers that they bring with them to the reading hereof a loue and zeale of the truth ioyned with godlinesse and desire of their owne saluation Farewell Thine in the Lord LEWIS OWEN GEntle Reader I pray thee if thou seest some literall faults escaped in this Discourse correct them but especially I must admonish thee of these viz. Page 74. line 27. for vniuis reade viuis p. 93. l. 11. for 1504. r. 1540. codem p. l. 12. r. in stead of Paul the 5. Paul the 5. or Gregory the 15. p. 98. r. Catulos in some bookes for Catulo p. 160. l. 34. for you vnto r. vnto you THE VNMASKING OF ALL POPISH MONKS FRIERS AND IESVITES ALbeit that the Apostle Saint Paul saith Coloss 2.2.3.4 vnto the 22. verse That in Christ Iesus and in the knowledge of him all the treasure and wisdome of God lieth hidden so that the faithfull ought not to receiue any institution or doctrine of men Yet many hundred years after the Apostles decease the Church of Rome hath found out a wonderfull and vnspeakable hoord of wisdome and knowledge through which a man may come to perfect Iustification and to an Angelicall life and withall get a store and a heape of merits and good workes to helpe a good friend withall at a pinch and to release a dozen or twaine of silly soules out of Purgatory And these are they especially the holy Orders and full perfections of Monkes and Friers especially of Saint Francis Saint Bernard Saint Dominick Saint Ignatius and many more of the same stampe which the Apostles knew not of when men were satisfied with the pure and vnmingled milke of God Word Like new-borne children as Saint Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.2 Iohn 14.29 15. yea these rich treasures were not yet reuealed to Christ himselfe who taught nothing but that which he had receiued of his Father and the same did he fully and wholly deliuer to his Disciples and Apostles This is plainly written in the fifth booke of Sexti Decret in Bulla Nic. 4. beginning at Exit qui Sem. nec his 1. de Verb. sign And in their Legends and in the booke which Almas made in the Inspiration of Mary the Aegyptian Vid. Conformitat S. Francisci 83. and established with the Popes Bulles But this as it seemes was too daintie a dish for his mouth and therefore must be kept for the last course against the time that the holy Fathers Saint Francis Saint Dominicke and Saint Alane who sucked the blessed Virgins brest as well as Christ himselfe and walked about the towne with her as the Bridegroome with the Bride and many more of that rable should appeare I dare giue them a paire of siluer Eyes to be offered to the blacke woodden Lady of Loretto if they can finde in the Bible that either Christ or his Apostles did euer know or teach that whosoeuer should die in a Gray-friers habit should neuer come into Purgatory or that Saint Francis is placed in Lucifers seat in heauen aboue all Angels at the vpper end and that he did liue a more perfect life than Christ and that the Angels are not to be compared with him or what knew they that he that should die in a White-friers Scapularie should be saued as they say the blessed Virgin did declare to Frier Symon Stocke In hoc moriens saluabitur that is Who so dies in this shall be saued as in their Churches euery where is painted forth Or what knew they that Frier Alanus should make the Rosary of our Lady which must be esteemed as the Gospell as Tarthemius Leander and others their Diuines haue written and their famous great Champion Blindasinus in his book called Panopolie or his full furniture of Weapons and harnesse saith that Saint Francis his Vineyard the Golden Legend the booke of the Conformitie of Saint Francis and the Masse-booke must be as much esteemed in all respects as the holy Scripture yea in the booke of the Conformitie of Saint Francis made by Frier Bartholomew of Pisa Anno 1389. and allowed by the Chapter generall of Assyso is written that the same booke is better than the Gospell And therefore to maintaine these errors and blasphemies the Church of Rome and the Popes her holy Vicars haue at sundrie times erected seuerall
started vp in England that the Common-wealth was so oppressed and exhausted by them that it was not able to releeue them or to say the truth to satisfie their exorbitant and greedy desires Idem ibidem The Robertin Friers WE reade that one Robert who had for a certaine time beene an Heremite forsooke that kind of life and erected an Order of Monks at Guaresburg or Waresburg in Yorke-shire about the yeare of our Lord 1137. Capgrauus Balaeus Centur. 2. cap. 63. de Script Brit. in Apendice The Heremits of Saint Paul THis Order of Heremits began in Hungary vnder the Rule of S. Austen about the yeare 1215. their first Institutor was as they say one Eusebius Strigonensis Panuinus in Chronich It was confirmed in the yeare 1308. by Cardinall Gentilis Legate to Pope Clement the fifth Idem ibidem The Canon Regulars of Saint Marke began at Mantua in Italy 1230. Of Ieromite Monks IEROME the sonne of Eusebius borne in the Towne of Stidonium in the Prouince of Dalmatia after such time that he had spent many yeares at Rome in study repaired to the Prouince of Iudea and there built him a Cottage neare Bethlem where hee liued many yeares in fasting praying and writing whose diuine workes are still extant Whereupon many other men afterwards by imitation indeuouring to lead that kinde of solitary life called themselues Hieronymiani or Ieronymiti but alas they were farre contrary to him ether in life discipline or doctrine From Saint Ierome or to say the truth from these Hieronymiani the Ieromite Monks doe borrow or vsurpe their first origine or beginning and doe pretend though most falsly that this great Doctor was the only man that first erected their Order and gaue them their Rule They weare a kinde of a sandy coloured habite downe to their heeles and a cloke of the same colour likewise to the ground some of them weare shooes and stockins and others that are more hypocriticall weare sandales They haue great Abbeyes and large possessions and abound in wealth wheresoeuer they liue And their chiefest dwelling is in Italy and Spaine for in other Countries they haue but a few or no Monasteries at all The truth is one Carolus Granellus a Florentine was the first Author of this Sect who liued many yeares after Saint Ierome and he was the first that built an Abbey for them in the hilles of Fessulana in Italy howbeit there are others that attribute this Institution to Redo Earle of Montegranello and that they obserued at the first the Rule or Order of Saint Austen of Fesula and that Pope Gregory the twelfth ratified and confirmed their Order There are others of them that brag that Saint Ierome instituted this Order when he liued in the wildernesse of Iudea and that Eusebius Cremonensis did increase and augment this family To conclude they themselues cannot tell who was their Institutor They are now diuided into two Sects that is to say Hieronymiani Eremitae and Hieronymiani Simpliciter England God be praised is not troubled with these Ieromite Monks and therefore I will proceed to suruey the rest of these disordered Orders making as much speed as I can to come to speake of the Mendicant or begging Friers with whom I am afraid I shall be more troubled than with these rich Monks and Friers Of the Canon Regulars of the Order of Saint Augustine THere are diuers opinions among the Papists concerning the first originall or beginning of these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant or begging Augustine Friers and therefore the question is not as yet decided for there are very many learned men which hold that Saint Augustine was neuer the Author or Founder of either of these two Sects or of any other Order of Friers Neuerthelesse these Canon Regulars doe not only affirme that Saint Augustine when he was Bishop of Hippo in Africa did reduce all the Canons of that Church to this order and discipline that they now professe to obserue But also some of them doe very impudently bragge that their Order was instituted by the Apostles before Saint Augustines time and that this holy man did but renew it and did neuer institute any other Religious Order besides theirs The Mendican Augustine Friers doe stoutly deny it and say that their Order and none other was instituted by this great Doctor as hereafter shall be declared These Canon Regulars doe weare long white cloth coats open before downe to their heeles vnderneath they weare doublets breeches shirts and white stockins shooes or slippers Ouer this coat which is bound with a girdle they doe weare a short surplice to their knees and ouer that a little short blacke cloake to their elbowes like a womans riding cloake with a little cowle or hood fastened to it and a blacke corner-cap or a broad hat when they walke or goe abroad and their crownes shauen like other Friers They haue great Monasteries like Princes Courts and great lands and reuenues and are very rich And haue many Cloisters in Italy Germany and Netherland but in France Spaine and other Catholike Countries they haue not so many Moreouer they are diuided into many Families as Canonici Saluatoris and Scopetini whose Authors were Iacobus and Stephanus Senenses This Order did Pope Gregory the eleuenth approue and confirme about the yeare 1408. Some report that one Franciscus Bononiensis was the first Institutor of this Sect in the time of Pope Vrban the fifth in the yeare 1366. and the other two did but renue it being almost abolished There is another Family of these Friers called Frisonaria neere the City of Luca in Italy which was erected and augmented by Pope Eugenius the fourth who gaue them many Priuileges Indulgences and Pardons they are called of some Lateranenses And withall there is another Family at Venice and another at or neere Cambray in the Low-Countries instituted by one Laurentius Instinianus Patriarch of Venice in the yeere 1407. and confirmed by Pope Iohn the two and twentieth these weare a purple Habit and a blacke Cloke ouer it These Canon Regulars had heretofore many Cloisters here in England whereof one was in that place which is now called Saint Mary Spittle But I neuer knew or heard of more than two English men of this Order that are now liuing and I thinke they are too many by two but howsoeuer there is neither of them guilty of much learning To conclude there were and still are diuers other Friers and Nuns that did and doe professe to liue vnder the Rule as they say of Saint Augustine as the 1. Dominicani 2 Serui Beata Maria Virginis 3 Brigidiani 4 Iesuati 5 Canonici Regularis Sancti Georgij 6. Montoliuenteses 7 Hieronymiani Eremitae 8 Hieronymiani Simpliciter 9 Cruciferi 10 Scopetini 11 Antoniani seu Hospitalarij Sancti Antoni 12 Trinitarij 13 Seruitae 14. Feruerij 15 Fratres B. Ioannis Hierosolymitani 16 Crucifericum stella 17 Fratres Sancti Petri Confessoris de Magella 18
grieuous plague at London and ouer all England that the like was neuer knowne before But now to the matter It is most certaine that these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant Augustine Friers were both of some other mens institution For many men in those daies vnder a counterfeit shew of piety did a long time after the daies of S. Augustine liue for some certaine time in wildernesses and solitary places and in the end gathered themselues together into one Family vnder the name of this holy man and called themselues Augustiniani Eremitani because they professed forsooth to imitate him in their Discipline and rule of life though indeed they were and still are meere Hypocrites and quite contrary to S. Augustine in sanctity of life learning and Religion And by this meanes these shauelings became to be the first Order of the rout of Begging Friers whereof they are not a little proud But truly I see no reason why these men should liue thus by the sweat of other mens browes for it is well knowne that S. Augustine whom they brag though vntruly to be their Patron and first Institutor did not liue idly by begging as they doe but was a very painfull man and a great Doctor or Teacher in Gods Church as his Workes doe testifie And withall it is most apparant that our Sauiour Iesus Christ did neuer beg neither did his Apostles or Disciples liue lazily and idly by othermens labours as Saint Paul testifieth of himselfe saying 1 Cor. 4.12 Et laboranimus operantes proprijs manibus We laboured working with our owne hands And S. Chrysostome saith that the Monks of Aegypt got their liuing with their owne hands as the Greeke Monks doe for the most part at this instant yea S. Francis whose Family or to say more plainly whose Sects are spread ouer the face of the earth would haue his Friers get their liuing by their handie worke as appeares by his last Will and Testament But alas now adayes it is no lesse than blasphemie to say that Monks and Friers must worke nay they hold them no better than Heretickes that would haue such holy men to follow the institution of the Apostle that is 2 Thess 3.10 That hee that would not worke should not eat These Mendicant Augustine Friers doe weare a long white coat of cloth downe to their heeles all loose with a cowle or hood of the same when they are in their Cloisters but when they goe abroad they weare another blacke coat ouer the other with another cowle both their coats are then bound close to their bodies with a broad leather girdle or belt which girdle is a very holy thing if you will beleeue them for they call it S. Augustines girdle and many lay people do weare it for pure deuotion sake because forsooth it hath some singular great vertue I haue seene many great Princes weare it namely Q. Margaret of France and others whom for breuitie sake I forbeare to name This leather Belt is giuen to none but vnto those that are their speciall good Benefactors and such as pay dearely for it which brings them in no small benefit Neuerthelesse these holy Fathers haue beene a long time not so well thought of because Doctor Martin Luther who was sometimes a Frier of this Order did reuolt from the Sea of Rome but yet of late they begin to flourish againe and are exceeding rich especially in Italy and Spaine The Augustine Friers in London which was built for them by Humfrey Bohum Earle of Hereford and Essex and many other Cloisters in England did heretofore belong to this Order of Friers and therefore some Englishmen of late tooke this holy habite whereof Father Thomas Witherhead alias Tomson alias Tom Poet alias Tom Tobacco a great Father and yet but a Homunculus a man a little bigger than a Dwarfe was the first A man of an extraordinary great knowledge in choosing of good Tobacco and no meane Actor as the Children of the Reuells could once tell and withall a peece of an English Poet for Latine he had neuer any This good father receiued this habite of the Prior of the Augustin Friers at Louain in Brabant and afterwards was made Priest and then sent into England to conuert as I thinke Ballad-makers Players Tobacconists and Tinckers His fatherhood being at Louain in his Nouiciatship or in the yeare of his Approbation wrote a letter secretly vnto a speciall friend of his that then liued at Bruxells requesting him of all Loue to send him an ounce or two of Tobacco and a few pipes The Gentleman willing to pleasure him tooke his iourney from Bruxells to Louain which was about twelue English miles and brought the Tobacco and pipes with him and vpon his arriuall to Louain repaired to the Augustine Friers Cloister to speake with Frier Thomas but alas it would not be granted because that he was a Nouice and for feare that the partie being an English-man was not a Catholike yet in the end Frier Thomas perceiuing that it was his friend commended him so highly to the Prior and the Master of the Nouices for a good Catholike Gentleman and with much adoe obtained leaue to speake with him The Gentleman being permitted to come into the Cloister saluted the Prior and the rest of the Friers with such complements that the Prior gaue Frier Thomas leaue not only to conuerse with him priuately but also to shew him the Cloister Garden the Church and the Reliques The Gentleman giuing the Prior many thanks walked together with Frier Thomas into the Church where Frier Thomas and another Frier that was the Sacristan or he that had the charge of the holy things shewed him among many other Reliques one that was the holiest of all which was a little bit of rotten flesh as big as a shilling inclosed in a siluer box couered ouer with a cristall-glasse which holy Relique as they said had wrought many miracles and had beene for many yeares in great honour in that Citie The Gentleman being very desirous to know the whole history of this holy morsell for his better edification requested them to certifie him of the truth The Dutch Frier told him that there was heretofore a young man dwelling in Midleburgh in Zealand who hauing bin at Cōfession on Easter-day in the morning with an Augustine Frier went home and did eat one morsell of Bacon and drunke too much and afterwards came to the Church to receiue the blessed Sacrament which was no sooner put into his mouth but the fellow did vomit it vp againe transubstantiated into flesh which the holy Frier perceiuing demanded of him what hee had done who confessed his great offence in drinking and eating before the receiuing of the Sacrament and asked God and our Lady forgiuenesse and afterwards became a Frier of that Order This Sacrament which was so miraculously transubstantiated into the visible body of Christ was put into the Reliquary And afterwards when these religious Friers were thence expulsed
bewraied them at the last and made them infamous among the people and in the end they were taken tardè but not punished for feare of giuing scandall and that the Protestants of Geneua should not heare thereof That Caue is called the Iacobins Oratory to this day in meere scorne and scoffe of Monks and Friers And God be blessed the most part of the Townesmen at this instant are good Professors of the Gospell There are some English Scots and Irish of this Order dispersed here and there in forren parts and some also lurking in England and other places within his Maiesties Dominions whereof I knew two in Xeres or Sheres in Spaine the one a Gentleman well descended but a Roaring boy fit to keepe company with any English collapsed Lady and the other a meere Hypocrite the Spanyards called him Santico a little Saint He got more money with his counterfeit holinesse than any six Friers in that Cloister for he neuer lay in a bed as they reported but vpon a matt in the Church neither did he put off his Habite but lay therein his name is Father Thomas a singular good Philosopher but no Latinist A kinsman of his came to visite him very poore and almost naked and this good Father after such time that he had reconciled him to the Church of Rome procured for him a new sute of apparell cloake and all things else Gentleman-like and yet payed neuer a peny for them but promised to cleare the score with Masses De Profundis and Diriges I wonder whether our Salemen in Burchen Lane or Saint Thomas the Apostle will take a Trentall or two of Masses of him for a new sute But I would aduise him not to goe on the score with them if hee giues them no better payment than Masses lest hee be clapt with a Mase on the brest with the old word I arrest you sir when he shall not bee weary vnlesse it be of the Sergeants company Neuerthelesse I doubt not but that there are some good Catholike Taylors about London that would not sticke to trust a holy Frier with a Secular sure rather than he should want And withall if our English Catholike Ladies and Gentlewomen will loue him as well as the Spanish Señoras did then his Father-hood need not to goe vpon trust And I hope that his Reuerence hath crammed his purse with Spanish pistolls before his departure from thence Of the Franciscan Friers otherwise called the Gray Friers THis Idoll whom they call Saint Francis professed at the first the Rule of Saint Augustine and wore that Habit that the Augustin Mendicant Fries now vse But afterwards being somewhat scrupulous remembring how our Sauiour had commanded his Disciples when he sent them forth to preach the Gospell not to weare two coats or to carry any bag or wallet with them he wore a long gray coat downe to his heeles with a Cowle or a Hood a Cord or Rope about his loines in steed of a girdle and went bare foot and liued in the Wildernesse on the top of the Appenine hills at a place which they now call Auerna where he receiued if you will beleeue them the markes of the wounds that our Sauiour had in his hands side and feet Afterwards he gathered a company of lazy Friers together and built them a Couent at Asylo a Towne in Vmbria a Region of Italy and called his Friers Fratres Manores or Minorite Friers Pope Honorius who succeeded Innocentius the third approued of his Order and gaue them many Priuileges Pardons Indulgences and Graces And afterwards Saint Francis died and within two yeeres after Pope Gregory the ninth canonized him a Saint which was in the yeere 1129. There was neuer any Order of Friers that increased like this Order for there is neuer a City or Towne of any worth vnder the Catholique Dominion but that these Friers haue a Couent and before the Reformation they had Cloisters in all the Countries of Christendome And here in England they had many famous Couents whereof Christ-Church in London was the chiefest What this man whom they call Saint Francis was I know not it may be he was a good zealous man and yet superstitious according to the time But this I am assured of his Friers are as great Blasphemers Hypocrites and Gluttons as any in the world whatsoeuer And whereas it is reported of him that he first professed the Rule of Saint Augustine but because he was scrupulous and would not weare two Coats or carry a Wallet he erected another Order I conclude it was a very poore excuse But admit it to be true then his Friers are not of the same opinion and they obserue not his Rule for they carry Wallets ouer their shoulders from doore to doore daily through all Cities Townes and Countries wheresoeuer they inhabit as hereafter shall be proued And as for the markes of our Sauiours wounds which his Friers affirme and brag that he had in his body I thinke it is but a loud lie For Saint Paul should rather haue them than Saint Francis for the Apostle saith thus of himselfe Ego stigmata Domini nostri Iesu Christi in corpore meo porto And yet it is apparant that the Apostle had them not but spoke that in another sense And yet the Friers of Saint Francis his Order vsurpe that sentence and attribute it only to their Patron For in their Churches wheresoeuer any Picture or Image of Saint Francis is you shall finde those words vnder written Ego stigmata Domini nostri c. But shall I tell you what a good Iouiall Augustine Frier told me of this Saint Francis as I trauelled with him and another Frier of his Order vpon a time betweene Bayon and Bourdeaux in France among other questions to passe away the tediousnesse of the way I demanded of him if he did beleeue that Saint Francis had those markes in his body He answered me That he had certaine markes in his body which he receiued not from Christ but from Saint Dominicke for if you will said he heare me patiently and not laugh I will resolue you in that matter I promised I would Saint Dominick and Saint Francis said he were both great friends and kept company for a long time Dominick was a Scholler and a great Preacher and Saint Francis a dolt a great Gurmund and a Glutton as all his Friers are It fortuned vpon a time as they were both together that a good Lady or Gentlewoman that was much deuoted to religious Friers as many women are sent them a fore-quarter of Veale vpon a Saturday night for a present requesting the two Saints to pray for her The next day Saint Dominick was to goe to a certaine parish Church a mile or two from home to preach and Saint Francis and Frier Gyles were to stay at home to play the Cookes for Saint Francis and his Friers were euer fitter for the Kitchin than for the Pulpit But before such time that Dominick
towards Bauaria and Austria but the Italians vnderstood him not I came backe to my friend and awaked him and brought him to the place where I had formerly beene that he might both heare and see them who blessing himselfe stood amazed to see the Capuchin Friers whom he thought to haue bin Demi-saints to raile and wrangle in that sort for a bottle of wine and would haue reproued them if I had not very earnestly intreated him to the contrary In the end they arose vp and would haue fought if the other two had not stood betweene them and perswaded them to be quiet And thereupon they departed Within a quarter of an houre after we also went on our iourney and ouertooke them still brawling and quarrelling But when one of them had perceiued vs to be so neare and had giuen them notice they began to recite their Canonicall houres and one of them said or rather roared out Deus in adiutorium meum intende and the rest answered Domine ad iuuandum me festina and so proceeded on in the repetition of their houres of purpose to make vs beleeue that they were praying and not railing and fighting for they knew not that we were in the Thicket with them And so we saluted them and passed on our iourney but my companion being a Romish Catholike was ashamed to see their hypocrisie and swore that if he had not seene and heard all that past betweene them he would neuer haue beleeued the Capuchins of all other Friers to be such gourmans and great hypocrites A Franciscan Frier at Tournay was one of them that perswaded a villaine to kill the Prince of Orange telling him that his fact was commendable and meritorious and so assured him that if he were put to death for the same In Martyrum numero collocatumiri he should be counted a Martyr These idle lazie-packs are not good for any honest imployment as the Emperour Charles the fifth testified of them for when the Generall of their Order in a brauado offered two and twenty thousand Friers to assist him in his warres none aboue forty or vnder two and twenty yeeres old the Emperour answered That he would not haue them by reason that he should haue need of two and twenty thousand Flesh-pots intimating thereby that they are fitter by farre for the Kitchin than for any labour or seruice In Orleans a City in France a Presidents wife died who was a noble vertuous woman Sleydan lib. 9. and vpon her death-bed ordained that they should carry her to be buried without light without any Masses singing the office of the dead or any other pompe or ceremonies as the Papists vse as indeed she was buried in the Monastery of the Franciscan Friers But see what followed within a few daies after they began to heare in that place horrible noises vntill one of these Masse-mumblers shewed the people the breaden god When this was once spread abroad among the people one said he heard it one said he vnderstood it and another said he saw all The President being the womans Husband hearing this came thither himselfe then one of the Friers beginne to coniure and binde the spirit to answer to his questions and asked if she were in Paradise and there was no answer made He asked if she were in Hell and yet there was no answer In the end he asked if she came from Purgatory and then the Spirit made a great noise against the wall Then did the coniuring Frier aske the spirit if he was such a one naming many and sundry persons that were dead long agoe and yet there was no answer heard nor any noise but when he named the woman that was buried without pompe then the Spirit made two great rushings against the wall Then the Coniurer asked if shee was condemned for this or that cause and in the end the Spirit said Because she was a Lutheran at which time was heard three great rushes against the wall The Husband being a wise and a circumspect man marked euery thing and made as though he had much maruelled at the matter and desired the Friers to come and sup with him and the next day caused a hundred Masses to be said for his wiues soule and to light a world of wax Candles the Friers roared and howl'd they sent their Saints into Purgatory wet the graue with holy Water and perfumed it with Frankincence and when all was done he carried the Friers to dinner with him and in the meane time sent the Officers to the place where this deceit was done where they found certaine Vaults and there within were three Spirits or to speake more plainly three young nouiciat Friers whom the Officers led away into the place where the other Spirits were at dinner who when they saw their knauery discouered as men all dumbe beganne to looke one vpon another and with shame enough were punished afterwards and rewarded according to their demerits At Vercelle a Franciscan Frier desirous to get money vnder colour of Religion entised a rich Widow to satisfie his lust and carried her away with him to Naples and from thence to other Cities vntill he had cheated her of almost all she had and then turn'd her loose home to her friends Another religious Frier of those which they call the Minorite Franciscans put into the heads of foolish women this opinion That they must giue to the Church the tenth of all things and euen in like manner the tenth night as they lie with thier husbands All these seuerall Sects of Friers that pretend to obserue the Rule Order and Discipline of Saint Francis haue holy Sisters or Nuns of their Order or Sect. Albeit heretofore there was not any Order of Nuns that obserued the Rules of Francis but onely the Claristans or those of the Order of Saint Clara. Yet if you will suruay them now adaies you shall finde rich Nuns and begging Nuns of the Habit of Saint Clare who weare a gray Frocke like the Obseruant Franciscans The Conuentuals haue their Nuns the Penitentiarians theirs and the Capuchins their holy Capuchinesses Sisters Though they make neuer so great a shew of forsaking the world of mortifying the flesh and bringing it in subiection to the spirit and to leade an austere life yet there is not any Order or Sect of Friers whatsoeuer that hath not Nuns or holy sisters forsooth of the same Order and Habit for it is no compleat Order that is not Vtriusque Sexus consisting of Friers and Nuns or Sisters kinde and louing bed-fellowes Of the Theatines IN the time of Pope Clement the seuenth a certaine company of superstitious men in Italy neere Rome did vse to meet together at certaine houres in the day in Gardens Woods or some such solitary places forsooth to meditate and pray and to performe such other offices of piety and therefore called themselues Diuini amoris Sodalitas a Sodality or Society of the diuine Loue whereof the chiefest was one Ioannes Petrus Carrafa
gaudy Churches in all the chiefest Cities in France and are in great credit and estimation especially among great Ladies and Gentlewomen with whom they are if you will beleeue the other Mendicant Friers too familiar They haue a faire Cloister and a fine delicate Church at Paris and also in most Cities of France and no where else built by great Ladies who doe resort there daily to heare Masse and Sermons and to haue some other spirituall conference with these holy Fathers The other rout or rabble of old begging Friers cry out with wide mouthes vpon these new vpstart Sects for they say that they doe seduce their Benefactors to bestow vpon them the charity and beneuolence which they were wont to haue and therefore they are ready to starue But to say the truth these seuerall Sects of Mendicant Friers haue vndone the poore for they are increased of late to so many Sects that the poore people can get nothing because of them For in those Catholike Countries the Parishioners are not taxed or constrained to pay towards the reliefe of their poore as the manner is in England or among the Protestants in those Countries But the Friers say Giue vs your beneuolence and we will bestow vpon the poore And by this meanes the poore are neglected and these Priests of Baal well fed and prouided for It is a maruellous thing to consider the blindnesse of the Romish Catholikes that cannot perceiue the manifest hypocrisies practises and impostures of their Priests Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns and how they are cheated daily of their goods by these Locusts who doe increase so fast that I doe imagine they will in the end wax infinite For I dare be bold to affirme that there are in France at this instant more Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns by three thousand then there were when the last King was murdered yea within Paris and the Suburbs thereof or neere thereunto there is betweene thirty and forty Monasteries and Colleges of Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns built since that Kings death and all those liue by begging either publikely or priuately for a man cannot goe through any street in the City but he shall see Monks and Friers by couples trudging here and there and where there is any profit like to ensue there will they flocke like so many Rauens to a dead carcasse And as it is reported that Aphrick doth euery new Moone ingender strange Monsters in like manner the Church of Rome doth euer and anon produce new Babylonian Monsters I meane new Sects of Friers and Nuns to perturbe and trouble the peace of our Ierusalem The Author of the Congregation of the Fullians was a Cistercensian Frier and their Rule is composed out of that Rule the Cisterciens doe professe to obserue but somewhat more strictly as they say but to say the truth they are all one for the Fullians are a kinde of reformed or Mendicant Cistercians forsooth and therefore the greater Hypocrites Of the Jesuites THe origine or beginning of this Societie is but of a new institution not much aboue fourescore yeares since whereof the Founder was one Ignatius Loyola borne in Biscaya a Region in Spaine who had beene formerly a Souldier and borne armes at Pampelona against the French where he was maimed with a hurt that he receiued on both his knees whereof he halted euer after His Order was confirmed by Paul the third in the yeare 1504. Maphaeus in vita Ignat. Bellar. in Chronolog And himselfe Sanctified by Pope Paul the fifth in the yeare 1622. not for his holinesse and sanctitie of life but for an infinite summe of money giuen vnto the Pope by the Iesuites and withall because the Duke of Bauaria by the wicked practises and deuillish policie of his spirituall children the Iesuites and the helpe of the King of Spaine had taken the Palatinat from the Prince Elector Palatine the true and lawfull owner thereof This Ignatius ordained that all those of this his vpstart Societie should call themselues Iesuites or Patres Societatis Iesu Fathers of the Societie of Iesus And the reason is as the Iesuites report Serm. Valderama pag. 10. because our Lord Iesus who being the Sauiour of our soules from the time of his Natiuitie into the world vnto his death neuer dealt in other businesse than in that which concerned our saluation So the life of our Ignatius was wholly bestowed about the sauing of soules the life of Iesus was manifested in his miracles and Ignatius was transformed into him whose name the Iesuites beare And againe as this good Father was going to Rome for to obtaine the approbation of his Order Maphaeus in vita Loyola lib. 2. Rib. l. 2. c 2. and finding himselfe much perplexed about that which might befall him there Iesus appeared vnto him carrying a Crosse and in the same vision God the Father was seene recommending this new Societie vnto his Sonne who promised him that he would be propitious and fauourable vnto him at Rome And Valderama infers Serm pag. 48. that vpon his arriuall to Rome the Pope hauing well considered Ignatius hands he found them all printed with the name of Iesus whereupon he said Digitus Dei hîc est The finger of God is in these hands And therefore these speeches fortified the holy man and gaue him occasion to name his Company the Societie of Iesus But indeed it is apparent that this title is proper to all Christians in generall as Saint Paul speaking to the Corinthians witnesseth saying 1 Cor. 1.9 God is faithfull by whom you haue beene called to the Societie of his Sonne Iesus And againe Saint Iohn 1 Iohn 1.3 To the end our Societie may be with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ And yet the Iesuites goe about to proue by these former passages our of Saint Paul and Saint Iohn that their Societie hath beene euer since the time of our Sauiour And not new as many Writers yea of their owne Religion doe proue Watson in his Quodlib p. â—00 and Sparing discourses p. 36. for Pope Sixtus quintus conuenting the Generall of the Iesuites vpon a time before him demanded why he and his Order called themselues Iesuites who answering said That they did not call themselues so but Clerkes of the Societie of Iesus Then the Pope replying said But why should you appropriate vnto your selues to be of the Societie of Iesus more than other Christians are of whom the Apostle saith Vocati sumus in Societatem Filij eius We are called into the Societie of his Sonne But the Iesuites Generall made him no answer Const Prouinc lib. 1. de Consuetudine eius autem And againe the reason why wee are called Christians of Christ and not Iesuites of Iesus is this saith Lindwood Christ hath communicated vnto vs what is signified by his name Christ that is to say Vnction but he hath not communicated vnto vs what is signified by his name Iesus for Iesus
signifieth a Sauiour and it is his propertie to Saue and no man else as the holy Scriptures doe witnesse Locor Theol. lib. 4. cap. 2. And Melchior Canus Bishop of Canary saith That that Societie being the Church of Christ they that attribute that title vnto themselues are no better than the Heretickes that doe vainly boast that the Church is no where abiding but with them The Iesuites on the other part affirme that the Society of Iesus was founded at the very point of his admirable conception vniting in his diuine person his humanity with his eternall nature Serm. de Vaderama pag 10. And that that was the first societie that God had with men And the first College thereof was the Wombe of the Virgin Mary And that it was but renued of late for diuers reasons and among the rest Bellarm. de Monach lib. 2. cap. 6. because that that feruour which is found in the beginning of a new Order exciteth men to piety which by little and little waxing cold it is needfull that new should be raised whereby that new may be entertained But as for the originall of this Society say they it is very ancient But if this be true I wonder why the Euangelists or the Apostles or any of the Fathers of the Primitiue Church or any other Writer vntill within these fourescore yeares neuer made mention of this famous Societie and noble College But indeed to lye and blaspheme is the ordinary trade of the Iesuites Let vs returne once againe to our Martiall Saint Ignatius indeed the first Institutor of this Iudaicall Societie of whom they report wonderfull things and among the rest they obserue that his name hath its signification from fire wherein they finde many yea infinite mysteries First of all as the Psalmist saith According to thy name O Lord so is thy praise throughout all the Earth thy right hand is full of Iustice As much thinke I may I say of Father Ignatius which signifieth a Saint composed of fire Serm. de Vald. pag. 10. and that in one of the names proper to God Our God is a consuming fire And on the other side saith he I perceiued that in his right hand hee carrieth the name of Iesus who was our Sauiour and Satisfaction And another saith Serm. de Deza pag. 112. That in these last times God hath spoken vnto vs by his sonne Ignatius whom he hath constituted heire of all things and in whom nothing is wanting but only the word whereby he made all ages Oh horrible blasphemie Valderama preached Pag. 74. That when Saint Ignatius plunged himselfe in the water vp to the very chin in the cold winter for to diuert a young man from certaine filthy desires one might say that Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas the Spirit of the Lord was carried vpon the waters The same Preacher in another place saith Pag. 10â— That when this Saint resolued to quit the Souldiers life the very house wherein he then was moued the walls shaked the posts and beames trembled and all that were in it betooke themselues to flight and ran out of doores as fast as their legs could carry them euen as when some strange eruption of fire doth suddenly break out with furious flames in some high mountain So when this interior fire began to be discouered in him who before was cold and frozen in the things of God it lightned forth in such sort that it caused a thousand feares a thousand amazements a thousand firings of houses c. There was neuer any Aetna or flaming mountaine that did the like Hitherto are the words of Valderama Truly I am of opinion that this fire was transferred after his death vnto his Societie it may be vpon his prayers and intercession seeing they doe participate so much of it for out of the feruour of their mercenary Religion they haue euer since exercised the trade of incendiaries in all places and not contented with a thousand fierings of houses made by their Institutor they haue set all Christendome on fire neither is there any Kingdome Common-wealth Citie or Prouince which they haue not enflamed with warres seditions and persecutions and therefore Ignatius may be properly compared to Mount Aetna the very mouth of Hell and the Iesuites vnto himselfe in that respect Virg. Eglog Sic canibus catulo similes sic matribus haedos Noram Sic paruis componere magna solebam This Saint hath wrought more miracles than euer any man did for Valderama saith Serm. Vald. p. 1â— That it was no maruell if Moses wrought such great miracles for he did them by vertue of the ineffable name of God engraued in his Rod it was no maruell if the Apostles wrought such miracles seeing they also did them in the name of God But that Ignatius with his name written in paper should doe more miracles than Moses and as many as the Apostles c. is that which sheweth so wonderfull vnto vs Idem pag. 55. The Iesuites by the merit of Ignatius can cast out deuils ding dong For it happened one night that the Deuill had almost strangled him and twice or thrice he beat him cruelly but since the good Saint had a full reuenge of him for it hath beene often seene by experience that after many prayers haue beene made many Saints inuoked many and sundrie Relickes applied the last and best remedy hath beene the Image of blessed Ignatius laying it on the patient or one of his Signets shewing it vnto him and saying Per merita Beati Ignatij abi hinc Spiritus maligne By the merits of blessed Ignatius I command thee euill Spirit to be gone And presently he departed And is not this a powerfull yea a victorious Spanish Saint that now dominiers ouer the Deuill that was wont to beat and abuse him before Vine el brauo Spaniol que haze la barba al Diablo Oh braue Spanyard that dare shake the Deuill by the beard In his Sepulcher was heard most melodious singing Idem pag. 89. yea his Sepulcher seemed a new heauen and the Angels descended downe in whole Squadrons to play the fidlers albeit no Angell euer appeared vnto him in his life-time yet the blessed Virgin Saint Peter the eternall Father and his Son carrying his crosse appeared vnto him And the reason was saith the Author because it arriued vnto him at his death as it arriueth vnto great potentates of the earth As long as a King is in his Palaces and houses of pleasure the Guard suffer none to enter but men of note vnlesse it be some necessarie attendants but when the King is dead and that he is laid on an Hearse in the great Hall of the Court then euery one is admitted to come in As long as Ignatius liued there was none but Popes as S. Peter Emperesses as the Mother of God or some Souereigne Monarch as God and his Sonne which had the fauour to behold him but as soone as
wounds and diseases than all the Physitians Chirurgians and Montebancks in Europe These Monks Friers Iesuits and popish Priests will when any come to confession vnto them demand of them if they are Witches Sodomites or the like because they do imagine others to be as bad as themselues and therefore many times in asking them that which they vnderstand not and neuer heard of before they teach them to practise some hainous crime or sinne the which in former times they were not acquainted withall Baltazar Earle of Castiglon a man renowned in Italy both for birth and learning among many others his merry iests of Monks and Friers wrote in one of his bookes how a Frier by asking an Ostler some foolish impertinent questions in his confession taught him more knauery than al the Monks and Friers of Europe could make him forsake for hee gaue him directions how to make euery horse Mule or Asse that came into his stable so sicke that they should not be able to eat any grasse hay or prouender and to cure them againe by meanes of a Smith whom he afterwards made his partner in that mysterie so that by this meanes he got more money for himselfe his Master and the Smith in one yeare than they had gained in ten yeares before for one load of hay and one quarter of prouender was more than his Master could spend in a whole yeare And he and the Smith whom he recommended to his guests for an extraordinary good Farrier crammed their purses for curing the poore â—ades whom he had formerly infected and abused I would haue inserted here the whole historie at large if it were not for feare that I should imitate that good Frier and to teach our English Ostlers more knauery than they haue alreadie Moreouer in the time of confessing or shriuing they entice or seduce honest women and maids to yeeld to their carnall concupiscences For in the holy time of Lent in the yeare 1623. one of the Canons or Prebends of the Cathedrall Church of Euereaux in Normandy in France as he was hearing a womans confession entised her to yeeld to his carnall desire so went presently both together to a priuate chamber in his owne house where as they were in the very act her husband and the Officers came and apprehended them whereupon the woman confessed her fault and asked her husband forgiuenesse and was at the earnest intreatie of her neighbours receiued into his house as before And the Priest committed to prison by the Bishops Vicar Generall I was then in Euereaux in company with another English man and many Irish men and saw it and yet within a moneth after I met him at Chambery in Sauoy going to Rome for a Pardon as I imagined for his offence it seemes he had forgotten the old lesson Si non castè tamen cautè And yet that was but a veniall sinne and but a trifle if it had not come to light which euery petty Priest could forgiue and absolue him of Vide Decret cap. dilectissimus causa 12. quaest 1. 4. lit Clement in prima parte concil for the Church of Rome hath concluded many yeares agoe that it is better and a lesser offence for a Monk or Priest to vse another mans wife than to marry Oh the chastity of these Votaries and the wholesome doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon and the sonne of Perdition Now let euery discreet and iudicious indifferent man iudge if it be good to fill the world with these idle and slothfull bellied persons who vnder colour of praying for others doe liue most dissolutely and withall to nourish such idle and lazie mates only to howle in the Churches and to mumble not only the Psalmes as the ancient Heretikes named Eutiches Psalliens and Messaliens did of whom the histories make mention but also other superstitious prayers full of heresie trumperies and deceits which are altogether contrary to the holy Scriptures For we doe not finde it written in the holy Scripture that there should be any Order of people ordained only to pray for others and at their charges and to be maintained and releeued by them without doing any other thing and to sing when others weepe and withall to make merchandize of prayers For this office to pray for himselfe and for others was giuen to all the Church and principally to the Ministers whom our Sauiour Iesus Christ hath ordained not onely to pray for the Church and to leaue the preaching of his Word to others or only to preach and to put the charge of praying to others but enioyned them to doe the one and the other as he himselfe did without vsing any Vicars in that that they could or ought to doe as the Disciples themselues haue well vnderstood and practised We haue the winesse thereof in the Apostles themselues Acts. in the election of the Deacons for they said there manifestly that their office was to preach and to pray And therefore it is very hurtfull and pestiferous to all Christendome to nourish and feed so many fat hogges in idlenesse vnder colour and pretext of prayer and of those Canonicall houres and Masses for I thinke that none of the ancient Fathers and Doctors did euer allow of these fat bellies and such howlings and mumbling and Canonicall houres nor of such begging Monks and Friers as the Church of Rome now doth and that in such great number and diuersitie the one emulating and hating the other like so many Beares and Dogges as daily experience teacheth vs and as their owne Quodlibets doe shew Truly those Locusts of whom S. Iohn makes mention Reuel 9.3 doe well expresse the Monks Friers and the Popes Clergie-men for those were engendered of the smoake of the pit so were these of heresies ignorance and superstition they destroyed the fruits of the earth so these spoile the Church and the Christian Common-wealth And the Frogs mentioned by him in the sixteenth Chapter and thirteenth verse doe well resemble the Iesuits who feeling the Riuer Euphrates which is meant by the Church of Rome to drie vp bestirre themselues with all their might and are croaking like Frogs in euery corner labouring day and night to maintaine the Popes authoritie and that stincking Synagogue of Antichrist But the best way and the best remedie to correct their spirituall fornications and to learne them to keepe a good diet and to vse sobriety is in my opinion to damme vp the mouth of Purgatory and take it quite from them for if they lose that they are all quite vndone As certaine souldiers heretofore answered some of these Bald-pate fathers who saluted them with a Pax vobis Peace be vnto you they answered them in stead of Amen Dominus auferat vobis Purgatorium Holy fathers said they doe you pray that souldiers may haue peace and we on the other side pray to God to take from you your Purgatorie which is your Bull-begger that you frighten fooles withall
the King of Spaine who leaue nothing vndone that they make themselues plausible vnto you and your fauourers Now these traiterous Iesuites Monks Friers and Seminary Priests who aime at nothing else than to corrupt the fidelity of England and to withdraw the hearts of his Maiesties subiects from their obedience to their Soueraigne yea finally to plucke England Scotland and Ireland from due subiection to his Maiesty and to present them to this ambitious Philip of Spaine gained first of all secretly those whom they knew to be best affected to the Spaniards as some of the Priuy Councell Nobility Gentry and of his Maiesties Officers at Court and elsewhere and withall not few of our collapsed Ladies in whose laps these holy Fathers doe often lay downe their heads to take a nap nay which is worse they suborned and peruerted many of the Clergy and Students of either Vniuersitie to ioyne with them who O horrible shame make no conscience to sell for ready money their Eloquence and Knowledge which they ought to haue imploied in preaching the Gospell and instructing the simple people in the feare of God and obedience to their King to corrupt the constancy and fidelity of England but Quid non mortalia pectora cogit aurisacra fames What is it that gold will not doe These cunning Iebusites or if you will Iudaists are the King of Spaines trading Factors and Dispensers to distribute and pay his gold to his Pentioners that lurke about the Court of England so that by this meanes he hath still notice and intelligence of the estate of the Realme and withall they seduce the subiects as Cambyses heretofore espied and deceiued the Ethiopians These I say by meanes of their mercenary tongues omit no art that may serue their purpose to suborne England but vse all meanes possible to make his Maiesty odious vnto her and him vnto his subiects in altering as much as in them lieth by their flattering discourses the sincere amity and faithfull loyalty which English men haue alwaies intirely borne towards his Maiesty and his Ancestors either aggrauating euery seeming petty imperfection aboue his great perfection blaming and accusing his gouernment or else in attributing vnto the King of Spaine the glory onely due vnto our Royall Soueraigne and withall in all their Discourses magnifying the greatnesse and vertues of this ambitious Spaniard whom they paint out accomplished with all the perfections that may be imagined and briefly they forget nothing whereby they may withdraw England if they could from her King and withall gull you of your money to enrich themselues and their Colleges Cloisters and Seminaries in those forraigne parts But some Iesuite or one of that faction perchance may obiect that nothing moueth the King of Spaine to be at such great charges to maintaine so many English Seminaries Colleges and Cloisters in those forraigne parts and to transport from thence so many Monks Friers and other religious men into the King of Englands Dominions but onely to conserue among you the Catholike Religion Ah poore senselesse soules for Gods sake giue eare to what I shall briefly recount touching him and his Predecessors actions in this point and then you shall plainly perceiue whether the zeale that he beareth towards your Religion solliciteth him to be so charitable you vnto as you imagine Hath this great King or his Father or Grandfather spent their treasures or hazzarded the liues of their subiects onely for the aduancement of the Christian Faith against vnchristian Princes nothing lesse To verifie this to be true I will produce you these two examples Pope Gregory the 13. proposing himselfe to the aid of certaine Christian Princes to make an enterprise vpon the Persian for the augmentation of the Church of Rome requested that ambitious Philip King of Spaine this Kings Grand-father to giue him some succour which he not only flatly denied but which is more would not lend any of his Gallies albeit the holy Sea of Rome offered to charge them at her owne charges Moreouer how dealt he with the late King of Portugall Don Sebastian whose death all Christendome had sufficient cause to bewaile who desiring to assist Mulei Mahumet King of Fez and Morocco against Mulei Maluco his brother who had expulsed him his Realme a worke surely worthy of so noble a Prince and aduantagious besides to the Church of Rome for the good conditions he had compounded with the stranger required Philip his Vnkle to succour him in that expedition who accorded that hee should haue fifty Gallies equipped and foure thousand fighting men which Mulei Maluco the other brother perceiuing incontinently offered Philip certaine Townes on the Sea side to desist from his promise which he speedily accepted not shaming to breake his oath sworne to his Nephew to contract alliance with a barbarous Infidell so much did auarice raigne ouer him as to cause him to violate the Lawes of God and men but he was paid with the same mony that he lent for sending his Ambassadour Vanegas to take possession of the Towne of Rarach and others promised vnto him the Barbarians mocking at his treachery and perfidiousnesse constrained the Ambassadour by force of the Cannon to retire sooner than he was willing But it may be you will say he bare himselfe politikely in these two actions to conserue and maintaine his owne estate as if humane policy were to be preferred before the Law and honour of God I but for all this he hath shewed himselfe a very zealous Catholike and hath carried a particular respect towards thoâ—e that make a strict profession of his owne Religion well but let vs see if that be true After that he had inuaded the Kingdome of Portugall and that among infinite other Ladies he had banished into Castile the wife of the Agent of Don Antonio the lawfull King thereof his children and Mother in Law he drew three of his sisters chaste and religious Nunnes out of the Monastery of Saint Clare at Lisbone and confined them likewise into Castile But he hath dealt maruellous mercifully with them in sauing their liues albeit seruile and miserable Yea but sith the women are thus dealt with the men must be handled a little more rigorously and surely herein he hath thorowly acquitted himselfe witnesse a religious Frier named Iohn of the Order of Saint Dominick who for embracing the liberty of his Country was hanged in the I le of Madera Another Frier Hector Pintus of the Order of Saint Hierome was committed to the hands of certaine souldiers in Castile where he was afterwards impoisoned Frier Iames de Noronba another Dominican Frier and brother to the Earle of Mira was so cruelly beaten by the souldiers that were of his guard that he died A Doctor named Frier Augustine of the Order of Saint Augustine and one Frier Emanuel Margues a Franciscan Frier were both chained together with Rouers and Theeues in a Galley which was afterwards taken by the Turks vnder whose crueltie I leaue it to
to build them a stately Church all the Pillars Arches and the Porches being of fine Marble and the whole Church couered ouer with fine Copper adorned within without with many curious and costly Images Pictures Tablets and the Vtensels belonging to the Altars of gold and siluer Copes and Vestments of cloth of gold cloth of tissue and curious imbroideries And withall to infeoffe whole Townes Castles and Mannors vpon their new College his sonne and heire being constrained to liue in a meane house in the same towne with such small pension as his father had formerly assured vpon him And albeit the old Iesuited Duke had surrendred this gouernment of the Country vnto him at his first entering into their Society yet he durst not doe any thing without the Iesuits aduice and approbation The old Duke being a silly zealous simple well minded Prince was wont to entertaine into certaine Chambers or Lodgings in his Court appointed for that purpose all such Pilgrims as trauelled that way with meat drinke and lodging of the best for three daies and three nights and this was the manner of their entertainment At the gates of the Towne among the Souldiers that had the guard for it is a Garison Towne there were certaine Officers to receiue all such Pilgrims as had good Letters of commendation or testimony that they were Romish Catholikes and bound to Rome or any other place of pilgrimage vpon deuotion or else returning homewards which Officer was to conduct these Pilgrims presently vpon their arriuall to a certaine lodging in the Dukes Court where was another man of purpose to receiue them but before that they entred into their lodgings they were brought into a roome where euery man had deliuered vnto him a cleane Shirt a long Wastcoat made of red Cotton a paire of new blacke Canuasse breeches a paire of new linnen Stockins a paire of Slippers a blacke Gowne a Girdle a blacke Cap and a little sticke in his hand for they were to put off all their owne clothes and to put on these which being done they were shewed the way to the Church there to say a few Aues and Paters and then to returne to their lodging to dinner or supper according to the time of the day that they came thither These poore men had meat sent them from the Dukes owne Table and serued in by his seruants and the best Wine and Beere that the Country did yeeld besides euery man lay alone in a good Feather-bed with sweet fresh linnen more like a noble man than a Pilgrim where they remained for the space of three daies and so many nights Moreouer the Duke came himselfe sometimes and washed these poore mens feet in warme water with sweet herbs and dryed the same with sweet damaske Napkins when they were to depart they had Shirts Shooes those Stockins and Breeches which they had formerly worne a Pilgrims staffe and money in their Purse according to their wants and quality And when the Duke became a Iesuite it was agreed betweene them that the Pilgrims should haue the selfe same entertainment there for euer which indeed they had as long as he liued But as soone as euer the breath was out of his body albeit they had meanes giuen vnto them by the Duke not onely for their owne maintenance more than that was sufficient but also to entertaine the Pilgrims these vnconscionable Machiuillians who can neuer abide any poore body gaue straight order at euery gate of the Towne that no Pilgrim or any other poore man should come in but send their Letters vnto them the which if they like of they marke with a priuate marke that they may know if they come thither againe and then they write their names and Country in their bookes of Record and perhaps send these poore creatures three pence or a groat after such time that they make them attend three or foure houres for it The Polonians and some Netherlanders that did vse to goe that way to Rome doe giue them many a bitter curse for their vncharitable dealings with them but they care not for there is none there that can controll them nay this Duke dare not offend them and whatsoeuer they doe or say is a Law They haue at Bourdeaux in Aquitania built their College vpon the land belonging to an Hospitall that appertained to the Pilgrims that goe to Saint Iames of Compostella and in the end because they would enlarge their College they pulled downe the Hospitall and got into their hands all the reuenues thereof vndertaking to the Magistrates of the Towne and ouerseers of the Hospitall to maintaine the same in farre better manner than it was kept before But now these Vsurpers will admit none to haue a nights lodging there but such as haue speciall Letters of recommendations from some of their Society All which I know to be true for I haue beene told by more than a hundred poore Pilgrims of seuerall Nations of these their vnchristian-like dealing with them The Magistrates and Clergy of Turnay in the Low Countries would not by any meanes receiue them into their Towne albeit they had the King of Spaines Letters Patents In the end vnder hand they got one of their Factors an Antwerpian Merchant to buy them one of the fairest houses in the Citie and a whole rew of houses besides where they built their Schooles and taught maugre all the Magistrates the Bishop and all the Monks Friers and Clergy men whatsoeuer Yea they haue there now two Colleges and a Seminary where they lodge and boord Noblemen Gentlemen and rich mens children which brings them in no smal profit The Magistrates and Citizens of the Towne of Isle or Rissel alias Insula in the confines of Flanders receiued the Iesuites into their City with such honour and respect as is to be admired at and yet they required their kinde courtesies most basely First the Magistrates and the inhabitants assured vnto them an annuall rent of about two hundred pounds sterling And because that there was no spare place in the Towne that the Iesuites did like of to set vp their rest the Magistrates with the common consent and charges of all the Citizens about the yeere 1608. brake downe a great part of of the wall rampier and a great bulwarke of the towne and damped or filled vp the Mote and tooke in aboue a hundred acres of ground into the Towne inclosing and fortifying it againe with a high strong brick wall rampiers bulwarkes and another mote and there built them vpon their proper cost and charges a goodly sumptuous College magnificent Schooles furnished with fine pleasant Gardens Orchards and walkes yea with all necessary offices in so much that they brought water into euery office in the College I omit to speake of a maruellous faire Church adorned with all necessary vtensills thereunto belonging And all this in lesse space than two yeares Moreouer this new plot which was thus taken in was diuided among the chiefest
men of the Towne where they built the goodliest houses in all the Citie because forsooth they would be neare these holy Fathers to haue their spirituall comfort and consolation in time of need The Iesuits being thus seated and setled like Princes the first thing was that they did to requite the Citizens great loue and extraordinary charges They procured vnto themselues from the King of Spaine the Archduke the Archduchesse Letters Patents that they should haue for euery barrell of beere that is drawn within that Town two shillings nine pence farthing which is for euery quart pot two Liards or halfe a Stiuer which is about an halfe-peny halfe farthing English and doth amount to a great summe of mony yearly considering the greatnesse of the Towne and the multitude of the people that are the Inhabitants thereof Albeit the Assise which they were constrained to pay before that time for their beere was as much in equall portion to the King and the Archduke as they did pay to the Brewer from which the poore begger was not free but if he did drinke he paid so much vnto the King as he did to the Victualer And yet these vnconscionable and couetous Iesuites did for their benefit and better maintenance procure this other imposition to be laid vpon the Inhabitants notwithstanding the former extraordinary loue and kindnesse which they receiued from them Both which assise of the beere the poore inhabitants haue beene constrained to pay euer since as well to the King as to the Iesuites by means whereof and other their politike cheating and cosenage they are become not only exceeding rich but also odious to all the Townes and Countrey there adioyning And besides whereas the inhabitants of this Towne had been for many hundred yeares free and exempt from all forfeiture or confiscation of their lands and goods to the King if any of them had committed any felony murder treason or the like their bodies being only liable to the Law and not their lands or goods Now these Iesuites perceiuing that the State-house the Towne Charter and all the ancient Records of the Towne had beene some certaine yeares before burnt by occasion of fire procured vnder-hand a Patent to be granted to their College of all forfeitures and confiscations whatsoeuer that should happen to fall due to the King within that Towne and the liberties thereof and hauing so done they began to seize vpon the land and goods of all such as were conuicted for any of these or the like crimes or offences The Magistrates of the Towne and all the rest of the inhabitants with one consent did oppose the Iesuites as intruders vsurpers and common perturbers of their Priuileges and Liberties whereupon the Iesuites commenced their sute against the Magistrates and all the inhabitants of the Towne in the higher Courts wherein the Iesuites would haue surely preuailed if that a certaine Religious man as I thinke a Canon Regular of the Order of S. Augustine that liued in an Abbey about six miles from the Towne and yet in the territories of the same had not found out in the Library there an old booke of Histories or Antiquities in Manuscript written many hundred yeares since wherein was contained among other things a Copie of the Charter of this Towne of Lysle which being shewed vnto the Councell of State the Iesuits with much shame disgrace had a definitiue sentence giuen against them neuer afterwards to intermedle with the Priuileges and Statutes of the Towne and to pay cost and charges besides Oh the honestie of these holy men of the society of Iesus Iohn Chastell was taught and perswaded by the Iesuites to murder Henry the fourth of France and yet some Papists would deny it if they could because they are loth to make the Iesuites odious and yet others did helpe to erect a pillar of stone neare to the Kings Palace in Paris whereby so much was signified But the Iesuits when they were recalled againe into France from their banishment got leaue of the King vpon the Queenes request to deface it some few yeares before the King was murdered by Rauillacke In the yeare 1607. The Iesuites procured the Emperour Rodulphus to prescribe that ancient Imperiall City Donawert in high Germany and to giue it in prey vnto the Duke of Bauaria who came priuately with foure or fiue thousand men and tooke it and ransacked it and afterwards put a strong garrison therein altering their Lawes and Customes and debarring them of all their former Priuileges whatsoeuer in so much that the chiefest men in the Citie were constrained to abandon both house and home and to seeke after another place to inhabite I came thorow this Citie within three moneths after that the Duke of Bauaria had taken it and it grieued my heart to see into what miserable bondage the poore Citizens were brought and all through the deuillish practise of these irreligious Machiauills who then did tyrannize ouer them like so many Turks or Infidels for they managed the whole affaires of the Citie the Gouernour which the Duke had placed there ouer the souldiers stood but for a cipher for he durst doe nothing without the consent of the Iesuits The Magistrates were all put out of their charge offices other base poore mechanicall fellowes appointed in their places farre vnworthy the high dignitie of Consuls or Burghemasters in such an ancient free and noble City as that is The souldiers were billeted in all the Protestants houses and not in any Papists house where they dominierd like so many deuills making hauock of all that they could come by and yet the Protestants were constrained to pay them their wages besides What shall I say The Iesuites in effect did command and controll the whole Citie as they pleased They banished their Ministers and compelled the inhabitants either to goe to heare Masse contrary to their consciences or else forsake the Citie and liue in exile And yet this is nothing in comparison to that the Protestants of Aquisgranum haue endured and yet doe suffer The Emperour Charles surnamed the Great hunting vpon a time in the Forest of Arden found out certaine Bathes or hot waters in which place he built a very faire Citie and called it Aquisgranum and gaue it many priuileges and great freedome among other things he ordained that all other Emperours his Successours should be crowned there and that the Imperiall Diadem which is now kept at Franckfurt vpon Main should be kept in this Citie Here likewise hee built among other Churches a very faire Collegiat Church endowing it with great reuenues within a Chappell of this Church the craftie Clergie men obseruing the ignorance of the people in those daies set vp an Image of the blessed Virgin Mary which they affirmed to worke great miracles by meanes whereof and of the hot Bathes this Citie came to be very famous and haunted by many people for many that were visited with sicknesse and diseases came from farre