times past did but be thus spoyled massacred for no fellony trespas or treason but for holding that faith which al our happy forefathers and our selues vvere baptised in and out of vvhich I knovv there is no saluation in the next vvorld nor grace in this Beseching Christ our merciful Sauiour to pardon me that I denied him and his truth for feare of man and mortall paines As I also humbly for his sake desire al Catholikes vvhom I haue vniustly offended in this my fieblenes to forgiue and pray for me that I neuer fall to the like tentation againe namely those glorious confessors vvhom I loue as mine ovvne soule and honor as the chosen vessels of God vvho vvere iniured by my vndew dealing For I confesse and acknowledge in my conscience that I should haue suffered any torments in the vvorld rather then haue vttered any their godly religious actes to their dommage vvhether it vvere trew or false and that I should not nor ought by Gods word haue disclosed any such thing though I had takē an oth to doe it and to ansvvere to al interrogatories concerning the same being assured that al such othes be vnlavvful and ought not to be taken nor be kept if of frailtie they chaunce to be taken Because no man can binde him self neither by oth vow or any other obligation to God or man to accuse or be wraye any innocent to the persecutor no such othes I say binde being one sinne to take them and an other and that greater to keepe them But the thing a lasse is novv past and can not be amended in it self but only may be forgiuen as I verely hope it is both at God and mans hand by this my sincere confessing humble crauing pardon and poore publike satisfaction till the vvhich vvas done I could neuer finde reste in my vvounded conscience nor durst approche to the holy Altar to offer the deutiful giftes of my priesthod made much vnworthy of that high function through my said greuous offence and scandal Which being now as I hope in our Lords mercy and their great charitie remitted I shal daily vvith great comfort doe during life these soueraine duties of religion for them as also as I am most bound in deutie for my deare Mother and al her Christian offpringe my dearely beloued Brethren and Sisters according to the flesh desiring God to reliue their zele vvith trew vnderstanding humbly beseeching my louing Brother Sister vvho bound them selues in a certen somme of mony for my good behauiour so they cal the conformitie to their English procedings not to impute my departure to any vnnaturall carlesnesse of the losses dangers that may fall vnto them by forfaiting their bande by my retire ouer sea for God knovveth it is the speciall vvordly thing that greueth me but rather to accompte it a supplie of my patrimonie vvhich vvould haue surmonted it much in valewe a case of such meere necessitie both of my soule and body as no interest of temporall goods vvhatsoeuer may counteruaile it and of their singuler brotherly and sisterly affection if any extremitie should be vsed towards them in the matter as I trust verely their innocencie vvel knovven to the Counsel their great earnestnes and diligence to gaine me to that religion vvhich they of error and ill education thinke to be true shal procure them al courtesie fauour therein not to accompte the losse of monye which one daye either in this or the next vvorld may be redered by God or man againe for the health saluation of their owne flesh blood or at least if they thinke this not the waie to saluation yet for quieting of his conscience against vvhich what soeuer a man doth must needes be sinne and damnable Thus I ende desiring them and al Catholikes my louing brethren in Christ to pray and thanke God vvith me for al his mercies that he hath done to my soule as it shal laude and blesse his holy name for euer more Giuen at Rhemes this 19. of May being the Ascension of our Lord IESVS to vvhom be al thankes and eternall glorie for euer and euer Amen 1573. By me a poore sinner your Brother in Christ Edvvard Osberne Priest THE SATISFACTION OF M. IAMES BOSGRAVE THE GODLY CONFESSOR of Christ concerning his going to the Church of the Protestants at his first comming into England To al Christians and al that professe the Catholike faith to al such as are chained Imprisoned or othervvise afflicted for the faith and religion of Iesus Christ peace and saluation BLessed be the God and Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST the father of mercies and God of al comfort vvho comforteth vs in al tribulation I am merueilous heauy and sorrow full at the hart for that I vnderstand that there is a certen sinister opinion sprong spred abroade euery where of me as though I had renied that faith religion which had her beginning of our Lord Iesus Christ vvas receiued of the Apostles and Doctors hath ben perfited sealed not onely with the blood and death of the vvorthy Martyrs but principally with the blood and death of Christ our Lord. Would to God that I had either neuer ben borne or els that I had ben buried immediatly after my death If I borne of Catholike parents nourished brought vp vnder Catholike scholmaisters trained vp in learning in those countries vvhere the Catholike religion dooth greatly prosper and florish now at the length after my retorne into my coūtrey to mine owne and my parents comfort should depart from that Church vvhich S. Paul calleth the piller ground of truth should deny Christ our Lord and breake my faith plight in baptisme and vvhereas al men did expect that I should haue borne grapes to bring furth weedes My deere and vvelbeloued brethren to vvhom I write these fewe vvhose glorie and saluation I seeke and vvhom I beare in my bowels I forsake my part of heauen and vvish neuer to see the good of God in the land of the liuing and would that my name were blotted out of the booke of life if I euer either did or attempted or as much as thought any such thing let me also be accursed and a Maranatha if I vvould either crucifie Christ our Lord againe or make void and frustrate the blood that the holy Apostles and vvorthie martyrs haue shed vvho al vvere slaine for that religion faith which Christ our Lord hath communicated reuealed vnto vs gratis of the vvhich religion and faith I my self am partaker and for the vvhich I am readie to suffer death O wretch that I am of al men the vnhapiest what hope of saluation could I haue how durst I lift vp mine eies to heauen vvith vvhat face might I call Christ our Lord Father if I should forsake his spouse the Church our Mother I knovv most louing brethren that there is no more saluatiō to be looked for out of the Church
be preferred in England And as touching the College of Rhemes this I saie that I spake more of mallice then of truth and so in likevvise the College of Rome vvas falsely accused by me And as concerning M. Doctor Allen I say in conscience that I knovv or haue heard by the man nothing els but innocencie his religion excepted 7 Besides these vve vvill proue him to be a periured person not onely for that he is in relapse falne againe into those heresies vvhich he abiured publickly solemnely voluntarily at Rome 4. yeres since but for that he promised vpon his othe when he was a student in the English College at Rome that he vvould take holy orders and go into England and there to teach the Catholick faith vvhensoeuer he should be sent by his superiors which promis confirmed vvith an oth he hath broken not vvithout great scandall The seuenth article is true and I haue incurred periurie for that at Rome I liued as an hypocrite being neuer in hart of the Romane religion 8 Moreouer vve obiect to him that he abused the Pope vvith craft and deceipt vvhen vnder pretence of sicknes and that he could not awaie vvith the aier of Rome he desired leaue of his holynes to come to the College at Rhemes there to follow his studie and to be made prieste and to that ende requesting and receiuing of his holynes 50. crovvnes of gold but assoone as he had gotten the money thus fraudently he vvent straight into England As concerning the eight article it is graunted I defrauded the Pope of 25. crownes giuen vnto me in vvay of Viaticum to bing me to Rhemes For al these articles being thus graunted by me Iohn Nicols I am right sory and submit me self vnder the feete of any such as I haue maliciously and greuously offended God knovveth I spake these things vvith a desire to be promoted rather then vvith a minde to vtter the truth God be merciful vnto me and pardon me and al those vvhom I haue thus offended vvilfully I crie mercie and beseech them for Christ his sake to forget such iniuries so impudently committed against them partly by Sathans prompting partly by the countenāce of others in commending such stuf By me Iohn Nicols Englishman M. Stubs gaue me the matter of my booke in the Tovver intituled The recantion of Iohn Nicols c. M. Vvilkinson did vvrite in the margent the notes and also added to that vvhich I vvrote and corrected the faults by me escaped Moreouer I told my Lord Treseurer about alhallowtide last past Anno Domini 1582. these vvordes that follovve If it may pleas your honor I am right sorie that I haue such bookes put forth that conteine more falsehood then truth My lord ansvvered that the Papist found out that I lyed Vvhen I confessed to M. Kirkby in the tovver that it repented me in vvriting such bookes as vvere contrary to the truth M. Lucas Kirkby reported these my vvords to M. Reignolds of Oxford vvho made reporte thereof to Sir Frauncys Vvalzingham vvho being certified of this thing vvrote or sent to M. Lieutenant of the Tovver of London that I should be sent for and examined face to face before M. Kirkby to knovv vvhether it vvas so or not as Sir Frauncis vvas certified Vvhen I came to the Tovver M. Kirkby vsed these vvordes to me vvhen he saw me Speke the truth quoth he and shame the Diuel So I vvill quoth I doubte not thereof M. Kirkby was examined apart and I ansvvered truly if I had been permitted by M. Lieutenant so to do For vvhen I said so I told M. Kirkby that I vvrote those bookes for ambition say not so quoth M. Lieutenant vvrite quoth he to his Secretary after this manner That he vvas sorie that he vvrot his bookes so rudely as he did Vvhen M Reignolds in the presence of Doctor Humfrey told me that he vvould proue to my face before M. Doctor Humfrey M. Kirkby being called before them that I had vttered such vvords as that I vvas sorie that my bookes were published conteinning more vntruth then veritie and that I said I vvould forge no more against the Papists neither in print nor pulpit Vvhich thing vvhen M. Lieutenant heard he had him hold his peace and talke no more thereof By me Iohn Nicols THE SATISFACTION OF LAVRENCE CADDEY TOVCHING his frailties and fall from the Catholike Church at his retorne into England IF there be any Catholicks in England or out of England that heard of my speach or recantation at Paules crosse which was in the yere of our Lord 1581. These are to certifie them that it vvas directly against my conscience and that I vvas neuer of that Religion that then I pretended as God shal saue me at the general day of Iudgement For I will shew plainely and manifestly that of my inward defection from our Mother the Catholick Church there were neuer any effectual causes vvhereby it may most cleerely appeere that invvardly I vvas neuer since my first reconciliation to the Catholick Church an heretick For either I invvardly separated my self from the Catholick Church because I thought some points of the Churches doctrine to be false or for the euel life of the Catholicks For the first although I neuer studied diuinitie but as much as some Cathecumini do and the yonger schollers that are yet in the course of Philosophie or other prophane sciences yet I am not I thanke God so dull of vvit but I can Iudge somewhat of Religion and of the difference betwene the Catholicks and the Protestants by the sermons of learned men which I haue here to fore frequented by the cōuersation I had vvith learned Fathers vvhich daily did expound the harder points of Religion and often did dissolue diuers folish and childish Sophismes of hereticks Whereby I knovv and truly euer since my first conuersion did knovv that euery point of the Catholick religion is conformable to the vvord of God although the hereticks do falsely say that they are grounded vpon the bare traditions of men and to me it is euident that there is no article of the Catholick faith novv called in doubt which may not be proued by diuers places of the scriptures or by most cleere sequell inuincebly deduced and gathered of the same And where the aduersaries say that either the Catholicks do recite places out of the scriptures vvhich are not authētical or els if they do allege places out of the true scriptures that they expound them falsely according to their ovvne fancies I vvas neuer since my first reconcilement so simple or necligent of my saluation as not to see that to be an vsual stale euasion of al old hereticks For this I knovv that Luther that provvde Lucifers Primogenitus or vvhat other singular sectarie soeuer being but one man although he had ben most holy in the sight of men as in deede he vvas most vnholy and vvicked both before God and man ought not to iudge
singularitie delite and loue of mans selfe that driueth downe persons laden vvith sinne to this heresie of the Protestants and that the next dore yea the next steape of this staire is atheisme and no beleefe at al. A fevv vvordes vvil serue a vvise man Wel when I had thus entangled my self for some daies proued that such as I had vttered my euel heretical speaches vnto kept al things close I bouldly aduētured vpon their familiaritie and secrecie to vtter diuers horrible blasphemies in plaine termes against the principal points of religion specially to one person of myne owne calling vvho aftervvard as I must needes confesse to the shame of th'ennemy godly and trewly for both our good and saluations vttered the vvhole matter vnto our superior vvhich vvas Gods great mercy to me for othervvise I had doubtles perished for euer more For a moneth space or there abouts I delt vvith my said fellovv bouldly not only by arguments and often communication to drawe him to heresie but also vttered to him my intention to goe into England there to preach heresie and to annoye the common cause of Christs Church and specially this Seminary the President and superiors thereof as much as I could possibly discoursing with him and declaring that there vvas no remedy but the counsel must needes seeke the dissolution of the Seminary or els sustaine their state to be ruyned in time by it Therevpon I vttered sondry meanes vnto him how first the president him self might be made avvay and if that missed how the vvhole company might easely be poysoned or othervvise dispersed further more offering my hand to gage that the president should not be a liue that daie tvvo yeres that I spake it one of the yeres being now gone and yet he aliue as I desire God he may be many This vvas often my deuilish communication and whether I should not haue giuen this ouerture to the counsel vvhen I came into England for dispatch of him and the said Seminarie my derest nurce my self knovv not to say he lest hovv farre the deuil vvould haue driuen me vvho novv holy occupied my hart in hope of aduauncement in England by these practises For vvhich purpose I had also fraudulently discouered certaine points of secrecie set them dovvne in vvriting with intent to giue the note of the same to the counsel vvherein I rather detected my ovvne malice then any other thing for the matters vvere of no importance in deede In breefe this I must needes acknovvledge that I vvould haue done any of these impious iniuries rather then haue fallen from the preferment I hoped gaped after so inordinatly our Lord of his infinite mercies for giue me that detestable treason against him and his Church and the abhominable periurie dissimulation fiction vvhen for a vvhole moneths space after I had discouered my minde to my fellovv yet I said Masse daily sought for leaue and viaticum of M. President to goe home to encrease by preaching and al endeuours the Catholick cause and toke an oth vpon the Euangelists that I beleeued al points of the Catholick faith and had no other purpose of going into England but for the aduancement of the same And I desire good M. Presidēt the whole howse euen for the blessed death and vvoundes of our Sauiour for vvhose sake they sustaine al this contradiction of me and other sinners to pardon and healp me by their praiers to true repentāce and remission And that good Priest my deare louing fellovv whom I vvould haue had partaker of my vvicked and damnable reuoult I cry him mercy euen vpon my knees and thanke him though to the carnal vvordly man it might be compted an iniury that he discouered al my counsel vnto his superiors and myne for els I had been vvith out doute damned for euer more But al this came of the sweet mercies and dispositions of our Lord God and Sauiour vvho ouertooke and ouer raught me happely in the very course of my malice and damnable designements and hath by his vnspeakable wisedom caused not onely my imprisonmēt and other my bodely afflictions vvhich he procured for me at the very same time that I had thought to haue been in my ruffe and iolitie amongest his ennemies but turned my very sinnes and vvickednes to the good of his honor and my saluation at the same time both deliuering his trevv and innocent seruaunts of the Seminarie and others vvhom my malice might haue annoyed and me also in most gracious miraculous sort his name be blessed therefore for euer more And it is his goodnes that hath deliuered me from the accomplishment of my vvicked desires as powrably and miraculously al most as he did Saul persecuting the Christians but vvith much more mercie then him for that he found grace because he did it of ignorance in incredulitie vvhere I did al against my ovvne skill and conscience neuer doubting but the Catholick Romane religion vvas the onely true Christian auncient and Apostolick faith and vvorship of God though I fained my self for the atchiuing of my detestable designemēt to doubt thereof and to haue some reasonable motiues against the same and sought by al meanes possible to haue enformed my conscience against that truth vvhich othervvise I in hart beleeued Novv therefore for the poore amends that lieth in me to make vnto Gods Church I protest before the blessed Trinitie and al the glorious company in heauen and by this publike vvriting vvhich I voluntarily make and subscribe vvith mine ovvne hand That I beleeue in al points the holy Catholick Apostolick Romane Church submitting my self to her and the cheefe gouernor thereof our Lord and Maister Gregory the xiij Christs supreme Minister in earth and do Detest Accurse Anathematize and Condemne from the botome of my hart al Heresies Schismes and Sectes and specially the heresies of Luther Caluin and al others vnto vvhich I might seeme by my outvvard wicked behauiour and dissimulation to haue been enclined vnto Desiring God and our holy mother the Church no othervvise to haue mercie on me to saluation then so long so farre as I keepe professe and mantaine to my povver the said faith of our holy forefathers taught set furth by the See Apostolick Giuen in my chamber at Rhemes the xiij of May 1583. in the presence of M. Thomas Bailly Priest M. Humphrey Ely Doctor of the Lavves and M. Seth Foster Priest I acknovvledge this to be mine owne act Richard Baines Priest THE SATISFACTION OF EDWARD OSBERNE PRIEST TOVCHING his frailties and fall from the Catholike Church at his being in England IT is almightie Gods great wisedom mercy that he hath besides his other iuste iudgements either tēporall or eternall vpon sinners ioyned also for most parte some great affliction and torment of minde for a continuall inward checke and chasticement of their offences euen in them selues and in this life which caused a great Clearke to saie Thou haste commaunded
and enchaunte their dearest freends then other men can doe their deadly enemies These lo are the arguments and not any colour of scriptures any learning of the heretikes or any other probabilitie in the vvorld that can moue any man to be of their religion the same reasons vvill as easely make one a Turke I doe speake it before God as a protestāt For though those that be from their childehod brought vp in their Vniuersites or other their Scholes and Churches vvithout a special miraculous grace of God can not lightly be of any other religion because they can not ordinarely beleeue excepte they heare or reade some catholike trew teachers or vvriters vvhose writings therefore the protestants hide from them with all diligence yet none that euer hath ben a brode in the vvorld and seene th' other or that hath the good lucke to looke to the faith of our forefathers in our countrie or any other Christian countrie can be in hart a protestante And would God al the youthe of both vniuersites especially my deare Brethren whom God hath blessed vvith vvit learning and good nature saw what loue sinceritie sweete and plaine dealing is vsed in the Seminarie of Rhemes vvhere I now by God his grace am and how easely vpon a fevv daies conference and hearing vvith out al Rackes Feares Forces Tormentes vvorldly allurementes or presermentes by the only force of truth and euidence of holy scriptures and such other plentiful proofes as the Church of God and al Catholike scholes haue for al the articles in controuersie besides the great difference betwixt the life order and manners seene here in Churches and scholes and the wilde behauiour of our maisters and Scholers in England Or at least it vvere to be vvisshed that our fellow students in both the Seminaries or other Catholikes might haue the like fredō to come to those vniuersites as theirs do hither and there to trie with out threates of imprisonmēt death or terrifyinge by calling men traitors rebels and I can not tell vvhat to see then vvhether their spirit or vvord vvhereof they so childisly vaunte them selues could conuert any of this education in the holy Church to their improbable secte At the beginning I knovv vvhen their vvares were fresh and their nouelties ioyned to the promises and doctrine of luste and licentiousnes they found some schollers and may yet finde some to follovv their concupiscences but none trevvly I thinke either yong or olde that can be perswaded by their arguments They make much a doe vvhen they gaine the exterior assent of infirme persons vvhich in deede are thankes be to God very fevve in comparison of the great number of those that gloriously and constantly contemne their terrors perswasions through whose forcible praiers and merits I verely thinke God hath giuen me now at this time and in manner al the rest of their feeble brethren grace mercy that th' enemies there may haue confusion by vs where they looked for glorie the vveake that fell or vvere scandalised by vs may rise and repent vvith vs and those that stande may be vvarned by our frailtie and by the admonition of the holy Apostle to take head they fall not For mine ovvne part God knoweth since I knevv vvhat religion ment I vvas neuer and least of al of late vvhen they caused me to subscribe to them of their meaning I subscribed our Lord God forgiue me to that which one Vvilliam Harte parler-preacher to my vncle Sir Robert Lane deuised vvhich I neither knew of before vvrote my self nor beleeued my self The very truth is one Richard Levvis a minister Person of the Parish vvhere I vvas bred vp where I then abode a famous preacher in deede but as I am able to iustifie a most infamous liuer brought me to that vnlucky bargaine as he vvas before the procurer of my first relenting vvhich he may remember by this token that his energumicall spirit could not abide the signe of Christs Passion portred in a glasse vvindow in my Fathers Parler vvhich vvas the Crosse and vvoundes of our Redemer vvith this sentēce vvritten about the same Pittey his passion that caused our redemption this goodly speach he scraped out let the rest alone vvhich his diuisishnes no Christian I suppose will allow nor I though fallen before could like in him but once fell into hote dispute vvith him about the same vvhose foolish defence vvhich vvas for that Christ is omnipotent and a glorious God I can not novv stande to reporte Surely the very acquaintance with such mens actiōs and vvordes vvhich they often lett fall in familiar communication among such as they deale vvith all secretly would make a man abhorre them one example may be of Fox the auctor of the volume of Crackes many lies I vvould saie Actes monuments to whom vvhen I had of late in cōference alleaged a place of S. Peter 2. Pet. c. 1.11 for proofe that our good vvorkes vvere cause of our iustification and saluation the fellovv answered flatly such vvordes I doe not remember but if S. Peter say that wee are iustified or saued Per praesidia bonorū operum for so he is vvont to interlace his English speaches with latten vvordes I would say that he lied because Iame sure that Paul hath the cōtrary whereby and by diuers like thinges I vvel perceue those good fellovves measure all religō by their owne meere phansie caring in truth nether for Peter nor Paul nor Christ further then their can vvrith they vvordes to their lust I am sommething beholden to this man not vvithstanding for that at our very first acquaintance of al he made me partaker of a certen secrete vvhich he said he had not reueled to any man els vz. That he vvas called by God him self to make his nevv latten booke of iustification Againe at the same time very impertinently to our talke he told me that he had sent an angell to alderman Martin to change into single pense for to imploye them in almees verely I laughed in my sleue to heare this vaine hypocrite talke thought I vvith my self Hypocrita cupit videri iustus These vvicked ministers of Satan vvere they that by their craft pollices promises procured my subuersion and subscription of the said articles and other vniust actions All vvhich articles vvhich vvere seuen I novv by this publike testimony doe reuoke and recant of mine ovvne free wil as before in hart so novv openly before all the vvorld protesting that I vvill by the grace of God liue and die in the communion and felloship of the Catholike and Apostolike Church of Rome and during life vvill obey in al spiritual causes our holy Father Gregory the XIII and his successors in th'Apostolike seate Christs vicars in earth the reuolte from vvhom hath bene the cause of al these errors sectes and diuisions and that vvee can not liue in rest and peace of conscience in our vnhappy daies and countrie as our auncetors in