best assistance to the support of the Estate Royal and of the Kingdom wherein they lived It is true through the malice of the Devil and Instigation of some Enemies of the Church some of them for the asserting of their legal Immunities and to preserve the Liberty of their spiritual Jurisdiction entirely Free as it ought they were dirven now and then yet very seldom in comparison of such a long tract of time as we instance in unto some vehement and earnest contestation with their Princes and though much further then was pleasing to them yet I suppose not beyond terms of due respect and the Authority of their Function much less did they endeavor to stir up rebellion or instigate the people to sedition and commotions against their Princes nor did they ever upon their own account solely concur in any thing of that nature The first King that ever gave cause in this Kingdom effectually and in the face of the world to trie the admirable patience obedience and loyalty of Catholikcs was King Henry the Eighth Flagellum Dei that scourge of God to the Church of England and all good Catholikes therein yet outwardly professing the same Religion in most things with Catholikes This he did first by a pretended Accusation of the Clergy to be fallen in a Praemunire because Scil they did that which all their predecessors the Bishops and Clergy of England for many Hundreds of years confessedly had done without any exception taken viz. for acknowledging the power Legantine of Cardinal Wâ—lsey which yet the King himself for his own ends and in his own case had first of all procured 2. upon the Statute of supremacy And 3. by suppression of the Abbies These were his Three first breaches by which the Foundation strength and glory of the Catholike Church in England became afterwards utterly ruinated By the first his way was levelled to the Second and the Second obtained gave him power and authority to compass the Third By the First indeed onely the Clergy smarted in a fine of an Hundred thousand pound The second lay heavy upon the Clergy and Temporalty both But by the Third viz. the suppression of the Abbies and Religious houses if we consider the infinite prejudice which the poor Commonalty suffered thereby both in point of spiritual and temporal interest the whole Kingdom might be said to be worse then conquered by him that is Robbed Spoiled Enslaved to the exorbitancy of his sole Will Prodigality Lust and Tyranny And all this done to be revenged on the Pope who condescended not to humor him in the business of his marriage Therefore and to advance his own power and greatness That Authority and Jurisdiction which had alway been acknowledged as sacred by the English ever since the English were Christians must in a moment be abandoned disclaimed abjured himself by an unheard of and fatal Ambition instead thereof made Head of the Church and all persons who out of scruple of Conscience refused to conform to such grand sudden and sacrilegious Innovations and to swear they knew not what were cut shorter by the head executed at Tyborn imprisoned banished and put into such condition as he was sure they should not oppose him The ground of the Praemunire was at first onely a quarrel which he pick't against the Cardinal Wolsey but afterwards stretched it upon the Tenters and made it reach the whole Clergy who being thereupon Summoned into the Kings Bench the business was so aggravated there by the Lawyers The Kings Learned Counsel that in the Convocation house they presently concluded to submit themselves to the King and offer him no less sum then One hundred thousand pound for their pardon This was look't upon by the Christian world as a Prodigy That so many Shepherds should be afraid of one Wolfe And though it becomes us not hear to censure whether they did as they ought yet certainly this weakness of the Pastors boded no good to the Flock and it is observed that neither themselves nor the Church nor Religion ever prospered in England afterwards However the King accepts of thâ—ir offâ—r and signs their Pardon but with a fetch far worse then the first For undâ—r a prâ—â—eâ—ce of procuring this Pardon to be confirmed to them in Parliament he draws thâ—m in there how willingly or unwillingly let the world judge to acknowledge him Supream Head of the Church It was a course even at that time not thought agreeable to Justice or Honor. For as we said the Cardinal Wolsey had the Kings License for the exercise of his Legantine power both under the Kings hand and the Great Seal of England and was employed by the Kings particular Mandate and pleasure in the quality of Legat to sit with the other Legat Cardinal Campegius and examine the business of his marriage And could the Divorce have been granted according to the Kings minde it is easily conjectured the Cardinal had never been questioned for his Legat-ship Touching the Second of Supremacy All the Subjects of England ever acknowledged that the Crown and State of England quoad Temporalia in Temporal affairs and matters is independent of any other power but of that Transcendent Majestie which saith Per me reges regnant and this to the intent that Kings and all Governors considering who will one day take their Audit may be more careful to rule with Justice and common equity without partiality passion prejudice against any mans person further then his crimes against Publike Order Common Right and the Peace of the State shall make him obnoxious and by so doing may keep their accounts streight against the day of Account And on the other side that Subjects remembring their duty and who it is that layeth this jugum suave the sweet Yoke of good Government upon their Shoulders might be induced to obey with more fidelity and prompt affection But the Question which King Henry the first of all Kings Princes or States of Christendom propounded to his Clergy and People in Parliament concerned matters purely Spiritual and wherein not himself onely and his Subjects at home but all Christian Kings Princes States and people in the world were concerned And therefore required far greater deliberation I say not then was used for in truth that was little or none at all the Kings pleasure and resolution was known and that as the world went then was sufficient but I say then could possâ—bly be used in England which was then but one single Kingdom and a small Province of Christendom And for the suppression of the Abbeys and Religious houses by that Act and this other of Supremacy together the Clergy of England were brought absolutely into Captivity and stood meerly as they have done ever since at the pleasure of the King and of the State Their Possessions the greatest part of them were seized their Goods forfeited their Churches profaned and sacked and upon the spoils thereof together with the sale of the Vestments Chalices Bells and other
done it to her no little trouble No they never attempted any kinde or any shew of violent resistance at all either by Domestick or Forreign help but always from first to last most submissively behaved themselves towards her tendring her safety and the Peace of the Realm far above their own Lives Liberties and Estates 'T is true it was once debated among them whither they ought not to proceed to Excommunication against her both for the preservation of Catholikes and discharge of their Office Yet considering the great trouble and inconveniences that might arise thereby both to her Majestie and the State in case the people should fall into any disorders thereupon or take Arms in defence of Religion They concluded notwithstanding her case and proceedings were very much liable to censure yet for their parts to leave her to Gods Judgement and referred the whole business to his Holiness And herein also the Favor and Interest of King Philip as they had always done did stand her in no small stead For he knowing the practises of France upon this occasion and how much they labored at Rome that sentence of Excommunication might pass against Queen Elizabeth onely out of design and hoping to invest themselves of England thereupon under the Title and pretensions of Queen Mary of Scotland who was the next Heir and at that time married to their King Was the more willing to hinder it least by this means England and Ireland both together with Scotland should come to be Incorporate as it were into the Crown of France and so become an enemy too potent for him to deal with out of which respect also even in Queen Maries time more then once he had kept of proceedings against her which otherwise would have concerned her very neerly Therefore so long as there was any hope that the Queen might be capable of better Counsels he ceased not by his Ministers to do all good Offices here betwixt the Queen and the Clergy and at Rome hindered the passing of the censures for no small time notwithstanding all the indeavors and instances thereunto made by the French But the Prelates all this while as I said chose rather a Durate then Armate ever professing with their mouths and making it good no less with their examples and practises that Preces and Lachrimae indeed Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons which they had to fight against the Queen Though the world knows how little these prevailed with her whose severity towards them continued in the same extremity from first to last not relenting nor affording the least remission in any degree of Liberty or Estate unto their dying day Doctor Scot Bishop of Chester died at Lovain in Exile Goldwel of Asaph died at Rome Pate Bishop of Worcester was indeed at the Councel of Trent and subscribed there for the Clergy of England but never returned Doctor Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile who had Crowned the Queen was yet deprived with the rest dying suddenly and very shortly after so did also Doctor Tonstal that Learned and Famous Prelate Bishop of Durham while he was Prisoner at Lambeth Yet not before he had personally given the Queen a sound and Godly Admonition concerning her strange proceedings with that liberty and freedom of zeal which became so venerable a Prelate and true Pastor of Gods Church as he was and as some have said Godfather to the Queen Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells was prisoner to Cary Dean of the Chappel and there dyed Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Ely was first committed to the Tower afterwards He and Secretary Boxhal were sent to Lambeth and there ended their days Bishop Bonner of London Watson of Lincoln with the Abbot of Westminster Fecknam died all prisoners and as some say in the Marshalsey Prior Shelly was banished and died in Exile This was the the very Sad yet as by their Patience Submission and Sufferance appeared very Christian Catastrophe of so many grave religious and good Prelates of England chief Pastors of the Church of God in our nation Thus was a third and the most venerable State of the Realm who like the Cedars of Liâ—â—anus ever since King Etheldreds time for so many years together had stood flourishing in great Dignity and Power in this Land on a sudden cast down disgraced put in prison or banished the Realm The chief and immediate cause of which hard procedings against them was the refusing the Oath of Supremacy for no other crime no other fault could be charged upon them This indeed they refused as a thing which concerned their Conscience very much And although perhaps some of the Prelates now living had either for fear or upon surprizal in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when it was first enacted given more consent or connivence to it then became Prelates of the Church to do yet they had now better considered themselves and resolved to be constant not onely to the Doctrine of Catholike Faith in that point but also to the judgement of the whole Kingdom which so lately in full Parliament had desired the Abrogation of that Law and acknowledged the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Authority to be where Christ placed it viz. in the Sea Apostolike Nor did the English Prelates refusing to acknowledge the Queen Head of the Church any thing more then what the Protestants themselves at least no mean ones among them would likewise do For 't is manifest that setting aside some few English at home they do generally abroad dislike the Princes Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as much as any Not to mention Gilby who in his Book called Admonitio ad Anglos calls King Henry the Eighth reproachfully Monstrum Libidinosum Aprum qui Christi locum invasit c. A libidinous Monster a Wilde Bore broken into Christs Vineyard and making himself Head of the Church which belongs onely to Christ Calvin himself in his Commentary upon O see is very angry at those who attribute so much to Secular Princes as to give them such absolute power in the affairs of Religion and in plain terms confesseth Qui initio tantoperè extulerunt Henricum Regem Angliae certè fuerunt inconsiderati homines c. They saith he who first advanced the Authority of King Henry of England to such a height did not well consider what they did when they gave him that Supream Power in all Causes it was a matter which always greeved me very much saith he For indeed they did no less then blaspheme when they called him Supream Head of the Church under Christ Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher Abbot Whiteing of Glastenbury and those many other Holy Abbots and Religious men of all sorts who suffeâ—ed in the case of Supremacy under Henry the Eighth never said more And Luther himself saith no less but more scurrilously as his humor was Quid ad nos Mandatum Electoris Saxoniae What hath the Prince Elector of Saxony to do to command me Let him look to his Sword and see
how well he manageth that and leave matters of Preaching to the Clergy such as himself was Scilicet Tom. 2. Fol. 259. and Tom. 1. Lat. Fol. 540. he tells them plainly Non est regum aut Principum c. It belongs not to Kings and Princes to take upon them to establish Doctrine no not the true Doctrine but to be subject and obedient themselves in that case And Chemnitius in his Epistle to the Elector of Brandenburgh speaking of Queen Elizabeth after he had taxed her sufficiently in other particulars he fals at last upon her Title of Supremacy in these words Et quòd foemineo a saeculis inaudito fastu se Papissam caput Ecclesiae facit saying by a strange Womanish and unheard of kinde of Arrogance she makes her self as it were a She-Pope in her own dominions Head of the Church What the doctrin practise of those in Scotland is and hath ever bin since their pretended Reformation is too well known to be disputed Cartwright teacheth the same in all his Books but especially in his last And so do all the Presbyterians generally both here and beyond Seas They of Amsterdam in their Confess Fid. 1607. go somewhat further Pag. 50. Art 2. when they resolve That Vnicuique Ecclesiae particulari est par plenum jus c. That every particular Church hath ful and equal power with any other Church or Churches to use exercise and enjoy whatsâ—ever ordinances of Perpetuity Christ hath committed to his Church therefore it is cleer upon that supposition That no one Person is left Supream Governor over many Dr. Whitacre in his answer to Reinolds speaking upon this subject Pag. 4. hath a passage not easie to be understood The Title saith he of Supream Head of the Church hath been disliked by diverse Godly Learned men and of right it belongeth to the Son of God and therefore saith he never did our Church give that Title unto the Prince nor did the Prince ever challenge it By saying that many Godly Learned men disliked it meaning Calvin Gilby Knox Luther c. mentioned before and upon this ground viz. that of right it belongeth to the Son of God he sheweth sufficiently what his own judgement therein is But when he saith never did our Church give the Title of Supream Head of the Church to the Prince nor the Prince challenge it who can tell what he meaneth For admit that what was done by King Henry the Eighth were not rightly said to be done by their Church yet I hope they will own the Church in King Edward the Sixths time who challenged the Supremacy notoriously enough as appeareth in the first Parliament which he held wherein it was Enacted That whosoever after the Fifth of March nex ensuing should deny that the Kings Heirs and Successors were not or ought not to be Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England and Ireland immediately under God for the third assertion should be guilty of Treason And that Queen Elizabeth after him declined the Title and chose rather to be called Supream Governess mended the matter not a whit For it was not the Title onely but the power pretended unto and exercised by and under that Title at which men made scruple and that power Queen Elizabeth claimed and exercised all her Reign as much as ever King Edward her Brother had done So that the refusing of this Oath being the onely or chief matter alledged for the deprivation of the Catholike Bishops seeing Protestants themselves were no better agreed about it they might in all reason have expected if not a milder sentence yet at least a more favorable Execution thereof from the Queen whom they had so lately and so unanimously acknowledged and no less willingly then any other persons of the Realm Who always bear themselves obsequiously towards her in temporal matters never made complaint never writ Libels Invectives or Books against her as the Reformers in other parts perpetually did against their Princes and as too many of her Subjects at home that is to say Ministers of her own making and others in short time set themselves to do No Homilies of sedition were dispersed among the people No Wyat No Oldcastle appeared in the Field by their instigation notwithstanding all the Adversity Disgrace Wants which they suffered In a word such was their behavior constantly towards her even to the very last of their lives that noe indifferent man will attribute it to any thing else but to the most excellent and right Christian resolution of those worthy men to suffer perfectly for such a good cause and unto that Patience Humility Obedience Aequanimity and Resigned Temper of Spirit which as it was exemplary in them so is it indeed Innate as I may say and most natural unto all Vertuous and Religious men that are truely Catholike And such in truth though envy frown when we speak it is the general Inclination and Temper of all English Catholikes towards their Sovereign Prince both within and without the Realm as the experience of their quiet behavior for so many years together of hard times have cleerly shewen When I speak of Catholikes within the Realm I mean Recusants in general as we are called men and women of all Estates and Conditions who have had our shares and tasted of the Cup of affliction as God was pleased to administer it unto us at this present not much less then a Hundred of years When I speak of those without the Realm I mean the Seminaries of Priests Religious Persons and Students that be Catholike beyond the Seas Concerning which Seminaries we are to know that when the old Clergy of England Bishops and Priests were some languishing in Prison other in Exile many dead and all in disfavor The Secretary and such other Politick Protestants as then sate at the Stearn of Government in England did confidently imagin that in a short time both Priest and Priesthood would be worn out and extingished in this Nation And truely it was observed that about the year 1576. there were not above Thirty of the old Priests remaining in the Realm Hereupon Doctor Allen a man even raised by God to do his Country good in a time of greatest necessity together with some others of the English Clergy begun the Seminary at Doway about the year 1569. meerly out of spiritual charity towards their poor Country and a Christian Providence to prevent the utter decay of Religious Professors Priests and others who might serve in time to come to uphold true Religion in England and to preserve a Continuation of the Catholike Church there as it had ever been from the Apostles times to that present unto succeeding Generations And as by the great blessing of God we see their pious Counsels have had an happy effect unto this day notwithstanding the many oppositions adversities and difficulties which they have met with as well from England as from other places They intended also
been dedicated to it died himself not long after of a Carbuncle Sigon de regn Italiae Lib. 1. So Gondericus King of the Vandals when he took Sivill took also the spoils of the Churches and seized upon all their riches but to revenge it the Devil seized and possessed him Tarapha in Honorio What need I alledge more Julian the Apostate was also a Church-robber Tripart Histor lib. 6. c. 31. most tyrannical and notorious but his end is well known And so it is what misery befell Heliodorus the Treasurer of King Selencus for the like crimes though but attempted against the Sanctuary at Hierusalem 2 Maccab. chap. 3. Nicephorus Phocas the Emperor was the neerest parallel to King Henry that we meet with in all the Ecclesiastical Story For he resumed all donations that had been made unto Monasteries and Churches in his time but such afflictions and furies haunted him for it ever after that his Successor Basilius though himself none of the best Emperors that have reigned was yet careful to abrogate those Lawes of Phocas among the first Acts which he did and as the root of all publike calamities of those times Nor did indeed King Henry himself finde any better success to attend his impieties Did he not like that sacrilegious Herod mentioned before live jealous of his Wives and not confident even of those his Friends which he had so much enriched with the spoils of the Church His exorbitant lusts which were the original cause of all the mischief became at last his torments For after his Divorce from his first and lawful Queen Katharine no wife could please him long few of them could get protection for their heads and none of them all live long either secure or joyful Beside did his Exchequer thrive any better for the Augmentations Was his Treasury any whit better furnisht then his Predecessors before him Catholike Princes and Favorers of the Church Nay was there ever King of England more necessitated then he was in point of Treasure and that immediatly as it were and in very few years after those great spoils Did ever King of England before him lye more heavy upon his subjects in matter of Taxes Subsidies Loanes then he did after that Did ever any of them use more ignoble and unprincely wayes to raise money then he Our own Chronicles and the much base money which he coined doe sufficiently shew how things went with him in that regard But that which may seem most of all to be noted as an argument of Gods displeasure against him was the frustrating of that which was pretended to be his chief project and design in all those frequent marryings and unmarryings viz. Succession and Issue All his hopefull Stem and Branches have been taken away one after another without Issue and some of them but unhappily too And his Crown and Scepter translated much contrary to his intentions unto another Name and Nation God suffering him as a blinde man to erre in his ends and wander in all his courses Yea all that great Treasure which he raked together upon the ruins of the Church how was it employed How spent but in the excess of vanity and evil Neither to any honour of the Realm nor to the ease of his subjects nor to the maintenance of souldiers nor to the relief of the poor all which were pretended mainly when the business was to be done but in Tiltings Triumphs Mummeries Masquings in pleasing and enriching his Mistresses and to satisfie the greedy appetites and expectations of those sollicitors of his Lusts In a word Bolen and Prodigality consumed all And touching those who were thought to be the occasion and chief instruments of these disorders that is to say Cardinal Wolsey and the Lord Gromwel when they had served his turn sufficiently and were grown rich they were themselves upon pretended and but light occasions taken with disgrace and misfortune turned out of the World leaving their Estates at his mercy And for himself when he had wearied his subjects with a long chargeable and ingloricus Reign and that he found his soul as much oppressed with the guilt of innumerable heinous sins as his body was become unweildy and troublesome to others through his excessive intemperance he died as some good Authors say Thuan. desirous to repent and to be reconciled to the Church but what effect his desires had which we wish might be to the saving of his soul is only known to God But what course think we would the Lutherans of Germany the Câ—nsâ—storians of Genevah and France the Brethren of Scotland have taken in this case What would they have done should they have found themselves at any time oppressed abused robbed of their Rights and Interests and harrassed with injuries as the Catholikes of England were by such a Tyrant as this Yet the Catholikes took all patiently made no mutinies raised no tumults no insurrections that were considerable or generally owned It is acknowledged even by our adversaries that these Abbyes and their Dependants were almost the third part of the Realm men of understanding power and interest their Revenues great their Tenants many and rich They were not a little favored also by the people for their constant Hospitalities and good House-keeping among them well esteemed likewise generally amongst the Nobility and Gentry Besides the Knights of St. Johns of Jerusalem who found themselves in the same predicament with the rest by their Fraternities and Interests abroad might have procured great troubles to the King especially by the Pope and Emperors assistance yet to shew the world what they were to give an example of the patience of true Israelites and due obedience of good Subjects yea to imitate in some sort the Divine pattern of their Masters meekness they resolved rather to endure Gods just punishment upon them in the Kings great injustice then to Arm themselves into the Field like so many Lutherans Calvinists or Geuses against their lawful Sovereign having no lawful order or authority so to do The Arms they took up were not Zuinglius his Sword nor Beza's Pistols but the ancient and most proper Arms of true Christians Prayers and Tears Submission Resignation Patience under the rod of God and of a wicked King I shall add this onely Argument more of the inconveniences which followed upon these proceedings of the King and of the provocation which Catholike people had under him if it had been possible to be put into disorder viz. That although the number of Gentry were somewhat encreased by the suppression of Abbyes and alienation of Church Lands yet the Rents of Lands were presently and very much enhaunced thereupon Inclosures were set on foot Depopulations generally made the price of all things raised to the extreme detriment of the poorer sort of people ever since as the Protestants themselves complained Ascham Epist ad Protect and the Yeomanry infinitely decayed who before this were accounted and found to be upon all occasions the
Wriothsley to the Tower deposed Bishop Tonstal both from the Counsel from his Bishoprick viz. of Durham as thinking it a seignory too Stately for a man of Religion And therefore he dissolved it and brought it within the Survey of the Exchequer that is into his own power but as it was observed he never prospered after However the Act it self was most inexcusably unjust and tyrannical being so directly contrary to Law as appeared beside what hath been alledged before by 1. Ed. 3. chap. 2. where the King dâ—clareth That the Lands of Bishops ought not to be seized into the Kings hands and that what had been done in that kinde in his Fathers days was by advise of evil Counsel and hereafter should not be so But his sins now grew towards ripeness Therfore having also deprived and committed Doctor Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester dissolved the Colledge of Stoke fleeced all the Cathedral Churches in England and added unto the guilt of Sacriledge many other outrages oppressions and crimes under the Nonage of a Pupil King without any check or opposition save onely in the business of the Earldom of Oxford which he was not able to devour as he desired at last in the midst of his carriere and after he had sentenced and put to death his own and onely Brother the Lord Admiral chiefly as 't is supposed upon the instigations of an ambitious or malicious Wife he was himself arraigned for High Treason and ill governing of the Realm as may be seen by the Articles of his Attainder in Stow and thereupon condemned and executed on the twenty second day of January in the year of our Lord 1552. When the Brothers were gone viz. the Protector and Admiral Dudley Duke of Northumberland comes upon the Stage a man whose ambition and policy though unperceived had ruined both of them but especially the Protector whose chief Adversary he was and the principal contriver of the Charge against him which in brief referred unto these Heads 1. That he had subverted all Laws 2. That he had broke the orders appointed by King Henry the Eighth for his Sons good 3. That he held a Cabinet-Councel and by it transacted the publike and chief Affairs of State without the advice of his Fellow-Counsellors 4. Lastly That he observed not the Conditions upon which he was made Protector which were to do nothing in the Kings Affairs without consent of the rest of the Executors Upon these Rocks the Protector perished not without the manifest judgement of God for much injustice which he had committed in the time of his Government especially in the business of Religion and of the Church and Northumberland for a while prevailed This man though he were all otherwise in his heart yet thought fitting to seem a little more precisely religious then the Protector intending thereby to assure himself of the affections of such people as were more Zealously affected to new Religion The Protector looking onely at present proffit caâ—â—d to humor them in that point no further â—â—en might serve his own turn But Northumberland had other designs in his head which were no less then to advance his own Family to the Crown and to ruin the right Heirs And therefore to ingratiate himself more with the Common people in the year 1552. he causeth the Liturgy or book of Common prayer to be the second time Reformed and Purged of certain ceremonies and orders offensive to that sort of people which he desired to please and so to be published This project stood him in much stead among others of the Nobility it gained him the Duke of Suffolk who from henceforward seemed wholly to be at Northumberlands Devotion and to steer his course after the others compass Being a Potent man and the greatest Precisian of those times unless perhaps they dissembled both of them upon the same account But because the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester was more like to cross theâ—â—â—mply with them therefore it is resolved to remove him out of the way And to that end Northumberland observing that it was the Treasurers custom sitting at the Counsel Table if at any timâ— he were suddenly called up to the King to make such hast thâ—t he commonly left his Spectacles behindâ— him he procured them once to be so sweetly anointâ—d and perfumed before his return that at his next putting them on they cost him his Nose and scaped very narrowly with his Life which yet with much adoe was saved and the Treasurer lived to make the Duke his good friend some part of requital as the event shewed Not long after this King Edward falleth sick whereupon designes growing now to maturity the Duke procures his Son Guildford Dudly to be married to the Lady Jane Grey Daughter to the Dutchess of Suffolk one who had a remote title to the Crown But they meant to advance it by their power The Lady her self being also studiously affected to the Protestant Religion and for that respect they doubted not to finde favors and assistants enough But therein their count failed them At the same time thâ— Earl of Pembrokes Son was married to the Lady Katharine another Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk And the Earl of Huntingdons Son to one of Northumberlands own Daughters All which marriages were solemnized upon one day at Durham House in the Strand And after them King Edward lived not long It is said that the Apothecary who poisoned him for the horror of the offence and disquietness of his Conscience drowned himself and that he Laundress which washed his Shirt lost the Skin of her Fingers But this is certain thâ—re are some yet living in Court who can tell how many weeping Eyes they have seen for the untimely and Treacherous loss of such a Prince See Heyward Hist Edw. 6. But the pretence and zeale of Religion which these men shewed did so overshadow all things for a time that not many could discern their impiety The Oration which Nortâ—umberland made to the Lords in the Tower when he was upon his departure for Cambridge to proclaim his Daughter in Law Lady Jane Queen doth shew what a Fox he was and how far he could both descend and dissemble to compass his ends Goodw. Annals Howbeit in his way the Justice of God met him For the people the Suffolk men especially sticking faithfully to the right Heir and their lawful Sovereign Queen Mary he was quickly deserted by all men apprehended and received at Tower-hil the due reward of his Treason and other sins with the loss of his head And so we see those two Lords of Misrule or Reformation if it must be called so that is to say the Protector Duke of Sommerset and this man Duke of Northumberland Born both of them for the Scourge and ruin of the Catholike Church in England by a just vengance of Heaven proved at last as it were Butchers and Executioners of one another undid their several Families and endangered the whole Realm
own Religion as beleeving it to be right or the best neither are Catholikes to be excepted in that point They must be permitted to desire at least and wish for the restoring of Catholike Religion as it ought to be But surely as to the means whereby they procure it and the course and manner of their proceeding that seek and endeavor it This treatise hath already shewen what great odds and difference there is betwixt the proceedings of Catholikes and that of Protestants And that what the one viz. Catholikes seek â—â—ely by way of Petition Supplication Prayer and humble Remonstrating of their Sufferances The other viz. Protestants seek chiefly by fire and Sword and Cannon Bullet and by Thundring of Ordnances rather then Apologies in their Princes ears Beside to proceed a little further in this Parallel the Catholikes generally and for a long time both in Germany and France were Passive as in England they are still to this day The Protestants were Aâ—tive and the offendors Catholikes onely defend their own maintain the possession of that which they have quietly held out of all memory of Men and Ages Protestants invade and usurp by force Priests desire onely to keep that which they once de jure had Ministers seek to get that which they had not Catholikes obey ex conscientiâ out of an inflexible principle of Conscience and absolutely submit unto all lawful and established Government Protestants generally speaking but upon condition and with such limitations and restrictions of their obedience as they themselves think good to prescribe Priests are punished not for any formal wickedness or that which is a crime in its own nature but for something that is so onely by interpretation or in the judgement of the present State which perhaps a few days agoe did not judge so but the quite contrary Calvinists when they suffer suffer for real and foule crimes for Sedition Rebellion Murther Treason not imputative onely fictitious or made such of late by the prevailing of some particular faction in the State but truly and properly so and adjudged for such by all Laws Divine and Humane of their own Countries and of all Christendom beside long before they or their Grandsires were born Witness the examples of this last year in France of Lescun President of the Assemblies at Rochel Haute-Fountain Chamier P. Gomboult and some others who all suffered for real and actual Treasons and by vertue of such Laws not as the Parliament at Paris or some party there had procured to be enacted a few years or a few moneths before on purpose to entrap them but by the ancâ—â—nt known Lawâ— of â—rancâ— b wh ch they themselves knew the Kingdom was governed and had been ever governed time out of minde and therefore could not in any reason but expect the execution of them upon themselves in case they would persist to offend Witness the Treasons of their Brother Bischarcy in Poland who attempted to kill the King and did indeed wound him very dangerously as he was going to Church They object to us the positions of some private and disavowed persons and words onely We object to them the resolutions of whole general Assemblies held by them and those rebellions which have followed thereupon not in word onely but in deed and in act their real and actual Conspiracies their many Battles really and actually fought in the Field without lawful Authority or any publike Call against their Sovereign Princes with other manifold iniuries and insolencies committed Lastly Protestants reform commonly per populum and by Tumults Catholikes do nothing of this kinde but by Law Order and their proper Superiors So that the difference betwixt them is manifâ—st and the integrity of the professions of Catholike in point of obedience and loyalty towards their Prince beyond that of Calvinists or Protestants generally speaking is visible to every eye Why may they not then under the Favor of the State enjoy like Liberty of Conscience Person and Estates with other good Subjects notwithstanding that they differ in Judgement from the profession of the State Why may not a Catholike be tolerated to live and injoy without molestation that which God Nature and the Laws of the Land do give him as well as a Calvinist Why should the Laws of England be fettered with so many Shacles of Interpretative and Temporary Treason to the prejudice of many innocent persons and to the scandal of the Government Admit that for some worldly respect they were indeed nâ—cessary in State-policy for the times wherein they were enacted yet the times changing so much as thâ—y have done and those causes entirely ceasing which made them seem necessary then it may be thought now not onely safe as undoubtedly it is but honorable and just to repeal them May it not with great reason be wondered at that a Nation so Just so Honorable so Wise as this of England hath ever been acknowledged by the Nations abroad and settled by Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providâ—nce upon such Equitable fair and just principles of government as be constantly held forth by the Supream Authority of the Nation should permit any thing to be counted Treason by an Act of Parliament which is so generally over all Christendom at this day and hath been so anciently and even till of late times in this our own Nation so much honored maintained and reverenced by all men especially I say when there is no cause of suspicion remaining when there is no cause nor colour of jealousie from any persons that desire this liberty at least none but what may be easily removed by the wisdom of the State and plenary satisfaction given in that behalf both to themselves and to all the good people of the Nation How much Religious men and persons Ecclesiastical now called Traytors by the Law were wont to be esteemed in this Nation is not necessary now to speak our own Chronicles and the Constitutions of our very Laws themselves do abundantly declare it If a bondman entred a Cloysture he could not be commanded out by any power whatsoever The Law it self anciently holding it more reasonable that even the King should loose his interest in such a body then that he should be taken out from the Order which he had chosen The like was judged if the Kings Wards entred Religion An Alien by Law can hold no Lands in England yet if he be a Priest he may by Law be a Bishop here and enjoy his Temporalties as Lanfranck Anselme and some others did who were never Denizens It is well known The Six Clearks of the Chancery were anciently Clearks of the Church The Master of the Rolls Master of Requests Lord Privy Seal yea the Lord Chancellors and Treasurers of the Realm not onely commonly but in a manner constantly till of late times were Bishops Clergy-men How strange therefore may it seem that the Laws of England should make a Function so ancient and honorable in England to be Treason which
were men which of all others were thought to care least for Religion Sir Philip Sidney indeed like a Noble and worthy Courtier as he was endeavored by a short Treatise to present unto Her Majesty the unfitness disproportion and inconveniencies of that Match both in relation to Her Person and the whole Realm but he did it privately and with discreet circumspection Stubs like an indiscreet and fiery Zelot taking the question in hand and prosecuting it in a way more likely to incense and corrupt the people then to advise or inform the Queen Cund in Elizab. his hand paid for his presumption And though some of the greatest and wisest of the Councel appeared very earnestly for it as a thing which was likely to unite the whole Kingdom of France unto England and would surely bring along with it the offer of the Netherlands by the Prince of Orange and the States whereby England was like to become a petent Monarchy yet was the whole Body of the Kingdom cast into much distemper and jealousies thereby Some upon partiality and faction others upon distrust of the practises of France some for their own some for their friends sinister ends and ambitions as in this very case I am perswaded men are not a little possessed with the same diseases and humors And if I did not well know the nature of the multitude which is a Beast with many heads and as mad brains I should wonder how they durst oppose the designs of their Sovereign a Prince of so great Experience and Judgement and who hath managed this business from the beginning with such wariness caution and prudence as this great Conjunction cannot portend any other effects then honor comfort and prosperity to the whole Nation Is he not the fittest to judge in his own case And his case being the case of the Commonwealth in general if any private man shall arrogate to himself either more wisdom to amend what is already done or pretend more affection to the State or more providence to foresee and prevent inconveniences certainly he must needs fall into the custody of the Court of Wards till he recover himself But having said this I shall leave the whole matter as a deliberative still and tell you in few words what the occasion was of this Discourse which followeth The occasion of the following Discourse THere met at a Merchants House in London where Merchants for their Table and Hospitality do worthily bear the Bell from all the Merchants in Europe divers persons of quality where being together in a Garden before Dinner T. Aldreds Letter the Pamphlet aforesaid and some strange reports of seditious practises from Amsterdam were read and discoursed upon In the midst of all comes in a fine Chaplain belonging to a great person in England and one that was of the Merchants acquaintance who hearing but a little of the discourse which at that time was the common Table-talk of City and Country with much vehemency he affirmed the Match was likely to breed great troubles and mischief to the Kingdom and that forsooth in regard as well of the increase of Catholikes within the Realm which it would occasion as also in regard of Spain which he ignorantly called an ancient Enemy Hereupon also he took occasion to rail bitterly against the Church of Rome as the Seminary of all the commotions in Europe and the contriver and plotter of all Treasons in England And being resolved to shew his Rhetorick in the Ruff and to omit nothing which might exasperate the company against Catholikes he alledged for examples in thundering language Heywards Reign of Edw. 6. the death of King Edward the Sixth sillily enough that you will say the many conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth buâ— especially that horrible project of the Gun-powder Treason which being undertaken onely by a few desperate Male-contents in justice might rather be buried with the offendors then objected perpetually to innocent men who do generally with great sorrow abhor the very memory of the fact and were publikely acquitted thereof by the King himself in the next Parliament following See the Kings Speech in Parliament Besides this he urged That Princes be disquieted yea endangered many times by Excommunications Bulls and other censures from the Pope by the Catechisms and Doctrines of Jesuites and that the Subjects of England are withdrawn by them from their obedience to their lawful Princes Lastly That they are a people so full of treacheries and disloyalty as no Nation can shew the like He forgat nor you must think to arm himself with the authority of Doctor Morton whose Maxim it was That we may now as well expect a white Aethiopian as a good Subject of that Religion He produced a Book entituled A discovery of Romish Doctrine in the case of Conspiracy and Treason wherein the Author playeth his master-prize against poor Catholikes with equal malice and indiscretion charging them with an infinity of scandalous accusations able to drive men into despair of the Kings Grace towards them and to breed in His Majesties Royal Heart an everlasting distrust of them He urged Parson Whites rash and uncharitable judgement against them That all their Religion was full of such Doctrines as afforded Monsters of conspiracy against the State that they teach men to murther Kings to blow up Parliaments and that since Bells time never was there such a ravenous Idol found as are the Priests of the Seminaries Ormerode also that famous Picture-maker was alledged in this heat who by a great mistake took upon him to condemn the singular and renowned Doctor Allen as affirming That Princes may be slain by their Subjects from the Text Numb 25. At length he concluded all with that Rhetorical flourish of Monsicur Lewis Baily in his Book of The Practice of Piety pag. 783. which he produced with much oftentation as if it alone had been enough to cast the whole Society of the Fathers into a fit of a Quartane Jesuites and Priests saith he are sent to withdraw Subjects from their Allegiance to move Invasion and to kill Kings If they be Saints who be Scythians Who are Cannibals if they Catholikes This conclusion for the art and wit of it could not but deserve a plaudite so the company went to Dinner and after Dinner this fine Chaplain was gone in haste Thereupon some of the company not so much taken with his Rhetorick as were the rest desired a Gentleman then present who well understood the World and was a freeman not obliged to any particular order furthen then as a Son of the Church to deliver his opinion of the Ministers invective which at last upon their much importunity he was perswaded to do in such maner as is here with his leave and particular information represented to you After some pause Claudius accusat Maechos quoth he Catilina Cethegum This is most ridiculous who can endure to hear a Gracchus inveigh against Sedition A man may perceive by the Prologue That
Protestants have set it down as a decree against Catholikes and labor to imprint it as an Eternal scandal in the hearts of the people that Catholike Religion and Doctrine is dangerous to the State an Enemy to Sovereignty and therefore neither allowable nor tolerable in a well governed Monarchy Now this being a matter of so great importance as indeed it ought to be esteemed for querelam Ecclesiae quilibet Catholicus facit suam every good Catholike thinks himself injured when the Church is wronged I will endeavor to sift out the truth and shew you what is therein to be holden as matter of infallible vâ—rity as well to justifie them viz. the Catholikes as to inform my self in a point which I know hath made many good men in England to stagger much And that I may not wander in my discourse nor lead you up and down in a Labyrinth I will shew you first the true state of the Quâ—stion to be argued and the method in which it is most regularly propounded First therefore we demand Whether to be a Catholike that is one who professeth due reverence unto the Church of Rome and to be a true Subject to his Prince and Country be incompatible or no Secondly If they be incompatible whether this incompatibility or repugnancy that is betwixt them be general that is as unto all Principalities and States or particular that is to some one or to some few onely Thirdly Whether it be so originally and ever or onely casually that is at some particular time or upon some particular joyncture of affairs in State Fourthly Whether it be so simpliciter loquendo and as malum in se that is whether the being a Catholike be lookt upon as a thing evil intrinsecally and in its own nature or that it be onely accidentally such or made so by particular Statutes and Laws Lastly whether Lutheranism and Calvinism be not more incompatible with Loyalty more opposit and contradictory thereto and that ab origine To judge rightly betwixt Catholikes and Protestants in this grand charge which we have in hand it is necessary that every one of these particulars be cleerly considered and resolved and so I oblige my self to do at least to endeavor before I end my discourse But yet to pay Master Parson some thing in his own coyn I shall make bold to begin with the last Question first and in lieu of his general or rather hyperbolical accusations of our Doctrine to return him double measure both of Doctrine and Practise in each kinde from his own men That is I will examine and declare obsignatis tabulis and by evidence of fact That the Treasons Factions Seditions Tumults which have so troubled all the Kingdoms of Europe and filled Christendom with blood and calamity for these hundred years last past have sprung not so much from any opinions or practises of Catholikes as from the opinions and practises of Protestants and that the egg of this Cockatrice was not laid at Rome nor Rhemes nor Doway as the World must be made to believe but indeed and very truth at Wittemberg at Smalcald at Genevah And this I shall do not Theologically or like a Divine for I will not arrogate so much to my self but Historically sincerely plainly being one that desires to defend the Loyalty of Religions and Innocent men rather then their Opinions and Doctrines which they are best able to maintain themselves and as a faithful relator of what my self have both known and seen and learned the rest from others of whose authority and credit in this kinde no just doubt can be made Neither shall I affect any rhetorical flourishes or elegancy of stile in this discourse Integrity and Truth which I profess appear always most gracious in their own unborrowed beauties they need no paintings no art no colours Come we then by the Will of God to our intended business Titulus Primus LUTHERANISM OR The Troubles in GERMANY IN the year of our Lord 1514. the whole Church of God enjoyed Peace and her ancient Priviledges all Princes with great devotion were Nursing Fathers and Protectors of her no Storm did trouble her no Schism to break her Unity There was an harmony a good correspondence as to matters of Faith and Religion between the Church of Rome and all the Princes and States of Christendom and till then neither in England nor in any other Country of Europe had there been such a Question ever disputed viz. Whether a Catholike might not be a good Subject In the year 1517. Martin Luther an Augustine Fryer a man of a turbulent spirit learned but never counted any famous Clerk was the first that broke this long and happy Peace Surius in Chron. An. 1517. This man unhappily interposing himself in the business of Indulgences which were sent at that time by Pope Leo the Tenth into Germany although it concerned not him further then he made himself the Proctor and Advocate of his Order yet having once begun to inveigh against the injury done to his fraternity as he conceived for as much as the Preaching or publishing of those Pardons was committed unto the Dominicans and not to them viz. the Augustinians as had been usual before he fell afterwards to tax the abuses and covetousness of the Collectors and then to question even the authority of them by whom those Collectors were nominated and such a levy of money required in that nature This was a popular and plausible Introduction fit to win upon the vulgar who can never well endure the pressure of Contributions especially extraordinary and where the covetousness or scandal of Officers gives any occasion of murmur He quickly therefore found many favorers but much more when he began to exclaim against the ambition of Prelates against the ryot and disorders of Religious men taxing some for Tyranny some for Avarice some for Idleness and Ignorance all for corruption and abuses In this maner he stood in arms and as it were a challenger for some years onely against the defects of the Clergy and without much danger For divers good men at first conceived That he onely intended and sought Reformation of disorders and restoring of Ecclesiastical Discipline punishment of irregularities and amendment of life And this they did not without some cause For Saint Hildegardis had foretold a storm to the Church for their sins Savanarola a Dominican had awakned Italy with predictions of terror and Frier Thomas of Guien prophesied a Vae Vae a scourge and desolation to Bourdeaux an inundation of misery to France and the whole World All these not long before Luthers time Who finding thus Populo placere quas fecisset fabulas that the sport which he had begun did take with the people as novelty is ever welcome to the World and that his actions and designs seemed generally to be applauded that many of the best wits especially such as had been bred in Erasmus his School and were any way touched with his humor were
to breed some dislike of Monarchs in the mindes of people and to shew how inconvenient it is for such an infinite multitude and variety of people to depend upon the Edicts of one man This being done they know it is then easie and they may much better advance the authority of inferior Magistrates and by them emboldned by such degrees to contest at last and jar with their Superiors under a pretence of Reforming abuses and pulling down Idolatry they become able to pull down Kings themselves and to level the Creators that is to say the cheif Authors and origin of all lawful Power exercised in their respective Kingdoms with the most inferior Creatures themselves upon whom it should be exercised And after this they are sure their Consistories and Elders must rule all be Judges both of Clergy and Law Councel and King They must be henceforward the onely Rabbies and from their onely Sanbedrim or Genevian Consistory must the Oracles of all Government be fetcht both for Church and Kingdom Neither can I forget how irreverently Eusebius Philadelphus viz. Master Theodore Beza disguised used his Sovereign King Charls in his other Book of Reveille Matin where usually he calls the King Tyrant and of his name Charls Valois makes this Anagram Chasseur Desloyal that is neither more nor less Perfidious Hunter or Persecutor chuse you whether Read his rimes and scandalous reproaches of the Queen-Mother himself being a fugitive for more crimes then one deservedly most infamous Peruse the Forty Articles recorded in that Book for the better advancing of seditious Government For example Art 25. All Generals and Commanders in cheif must observe the Ecclesiastical Discipline ordained by their Synods Art 40. They are bound never to disarm so long as their Religion is persecuted as they call it by the King This is the patience of those Saints But what is become of their Preces lachrymae in the mean time That pretending to reform the World are so little masters of their own Passions But in Article fourteen and fifteen their spirits and designs appear in their bravery aiming at no less then the utter overthrow of the King and extirpation of the whole family of Valois as any man may perceive that reads them These were those Holy Articles of Bearn Anno 1574. so much talked of over all France coyned with Beza's own stamp and at Melion dispersed and communicated to their inferior Moschees all the Kingdom over to the intent as they expresly avowed That they might make war more strongly against their Enemies who were no other but the King and whole State of France and â—ill it should please God say they to turn the heart of the Tyrant that is of the French King their Natural and Lawful Sovereign About the same time also was framed and published by their Emissaries that libellous life of Catharine de Medices Queen-Mother Franco-Gallia the Tocsan of Massacreurs together with that fine-piece mentioned bâ—fore called the Legend of Lorrain For this is very observable and it is an honor which the House of Guise hath had a long time that no man ever professed himself an Enemy to the Church of God in France but he was likewise at deadly feud with them All which proceedings were so notorious and unexcusable in those times that even their fellow Protestants here in England those I mean of better note and more moderated judgement do acknowledge them with dislike The Protestants of the French Church saith Doctor Sutcliff Answ to a Lib. suppl for thirty years together taught violent Reformation by the Nobility people and private persons And again Beza saith he in his Book De jure Magistratus doth arm the Subject against the Prince and in effect overthroweth the Authority of Christian Kings and Magistrates And the Book Vindiciae contra Tyrannos gives power saith he not onely to resist but to kill the King if he impugn Gods true Religion The same also is affirmed by the late Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Bancroft in the Survey of Discipline but most copiously and at large in the Book of Dangerous Positions especially about Pag. 192. seq To these I may adde Francis Baldwin a famous Lawyer of France who lived a long time with Calvin at Genevah and knew all their proceedings very well Mirabar saith he Respons ultim ad Jo. Calvin I wondred a long while whether your fiery Apostle viz. Theodore Beza would tend who in his Sermons here so much extolled that fact of the Levites running up and down the Tents of Israel Exod. 32. and slaying every man his Brother that had committed Idolatry But I hear now that your self are not much satisfied with such Ministers And again Pag. 128. Leviora sunt isia All this is nothing saith he in comparison of that which follows For now men make war even upon the dead The Statues the Sepulchres the very bones and bodies of Martyrs Princes c. scape not their barbarous hands Cities are sacked Churches robbed and spoiled c. Which Beza is so far from excusing that he justifieth them rather and professeth to his Friend Christopher Thretâ—â—s Epist 40. That for his part he hath no thoughts of peace that is that if such outrages and villanies should cease Nisi de ellatis hostâ—bus until the â—nemies so he calls the Kings Army and all the Catholikes of France with them be totally subdued But we ought not to wonder at it It is Morbus innatus to all Sacramentaries a disease bred in their bones that is in the very vitals and entrails of their cause to be seditious and dangerous to their Princes Zuinglius their Patriarch first taught them the Lesson who Tom. 1. of his works Art 2. delivers this for an Oracle viz. That Reges quandò perfidè extra regulam Christi egerint c. When Kings break Faith with their people and do otherwise then the rule of Christ directs them which rule themselves will onely interpret Possunt cum Deo deponi They may be deposed with right good Conscience Doctor Bilson is here again entangled and troubles himself and his Reader not a little to finde som Apology for this Paradox I undertake not saith he first To defend each mans several opinion Wisely spoken Secondly They may be deposed saith he when they advance ungodliness as Saul was May they so where is the Samuel the Prophet extraordinarily and on purpose sent from God that shall do it may the people do it No saith he blushing or afraid to affirm that and therefore seems to leave it as a priviledge or a matter reserved to the judgement of the Elders But Zuinglius himself deals more plainly and tells you Art 42. and 43. who shall do it Cum suffragiis consensu totius aut majoris c. When saith he such a Tyrant is deposed by consent of all or the major part of the people it is well done and as God would have it Therefore in his
the Lyoness was secur'd sends another Messenger to the Mongrel advising him to make sure of the Lyoness Whelp and then he might securly rule and govern all For saith he Possession is the chief point in Law and when you have him you have all Perhaps out of sullenness and restraint he may die however if he lives he shall be sure to live at your pleasure and disposing if you take him in time so he did accordingly This is the Fable The Moralizing of it I leave to those that expound Riddles though this be such as needeth not an Oedipus to declare it I might here end my discourse of this pretended Church of Scotland and of its irregular and tumultuous Reformation but that I desire to satisfie the Reader a little further in the true cause of this particular distemper or more special abuse and contempt of Civil Magistracy which the Reformers of this Church seem to have shewen all along their work It proceeded without all doubt from the Spirit and humor of Calvin who first devised it and was himself a bitter enemy against all Magistrates in whose Counsels he could not rule In so much as at Genevah it self he was at first expelled for a seditious person by the Magistrates of that City and compelled to go live with Bucer at Strasburgh Yet afterward the party which favored him prevailing at Genevah he was recalled back again but refused to return unless upon condition and promise that his discipline should be received So it was promised by a general consent of the City and at his coming performed His consistory that is to say an Oligarchy of certain pickd Elders was erected as it were the Inquisition of Genevah This by the way was a strain of policy much beyond Luthers dull reach and which madded him all his life long For by this Calvin did not onely set up a Church Independent of him and without consulting at all with him viz. with Luther but became a Dictator general as it were to all the Protestant or reformed Churches abroad and so very much Eclipsed Luthers glory But the seat of his Dominion was at Genevah as we said having setled his discipline in such maner there that by colour and pretence of it he was able not onely to censure offenders at his pleasure but to carry on designs against any opposition whatsoever For indeed through the concurrence of his Eldership who were commonly all at his book he was upon the matter invâ—sted with a kinde of Sovereignety both of their Town and Chuâ—ch He and his Eâ—ders ruled all there And to the end it should be received abroad with due reverence though it were indeed the Idol of his own fancy yet they set it down viz. Calvins Presbyterian Discipline for a mark of the True Church and joyn it in equal rank with the Preaching of the word and Administration of Sacraments So that by means of this Discipline he not onely in a short time became himself the great Soldan of the Lake but sent his Mammalukes also out into all the Provinces of France and planted Reformed Churches there after his Model of Genevah The Sinods or more general Assemblies whereof seating themselves in the principal and chief Towns of the Kingdom are thereby inabled to hold such correspondence with the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation inclined to novelty as that they are sure of a constant and strong support from them upon all occasions yea to engage them perfectly in their way they take them many times very politickly into their Consistories in the quality of Lay-Elders and do questionless nourish in themselves no faint hopes to be able one day by their means to subvert those Pillers of the Catholike Church which so much obstruct their proceedings viz. the Bishops Archbishops and other Prelates of France and to set up Calvinism and their Consistories all the Kingdom over This I say is the Train of their Policy and the reason why they are so implacable in their hatred and incessantly violent and active against all such Princes and States as do oppose the introduction of their Discipline which is the Medium whereby in France Scotland the Palatinate and elsewhere they have made or endeavored to make themselves Supream heads and Masters of misrule over all others as hath been in part declared already and shall be further manifested in the sequel of this narration Hence it is that all commanders Generals and all other Officers whatsoever in their service are so strictly injoyned by the Articles of Bearn Art 25. as hath been said to observe the discipline Ecclesiastical as it shall be from time to time ordained by their Synods And hence that is to say from this Arrogant confidence of theirs it was and indiscreet zeal that they refused when time was at Rochel so much as to speak with Monsieur Byron the Kings Embassador and used Monsieur la Nove with so much and so long incivilities that at last he was constrained to forsake them And out of this fiery zeal for their Diana of the Discipline it proceeds that they oppose prosecute and vilifie with so much bitterness of spirit and ill language where they can or dare all other Ecclesiastical government whatsoever all Order of Divine Service Rites and Ceremonies which are not exactly after their Mode or framed according to their Pattern And in this particular the Protestants church of England hath from the beginning so much tasted of their spleen or madness rather that Mr. Butler of Cambridge may seem to have shewen no less judgement then wit in the definition which he once gave of a Puritan viz. That he was a Protestant frayed out of his Wits which King James in the Conference at Hampton Court disliked not The reason whereof may be this We finde by experience that Ceremonies and Solemnity have ever in the Church of God stirred up and bred a reverence and devotion in the hearts of good people towards the service of God that they help to elevate and awaken their souls in time of prayer and other Divine worship also that the order and gravity of Bishops and other Prelates of the Church were not onely wont to finde but apt to procure estimation and respect with the people Now ask a Puritan his opinion of a Rochet a Surplis cornerd Cap or any other Habit which distinguisheth Ecclesiastical persons from the Laity he tells you presently They are the raggs of Antichrist badges of Superstition The Communion Book he calls the Portess and Breviary of Satan set prayers extinguish zeal with him yea are tantum non flat Idolatry The Ecclesiastical Courts are the Synagogues or Shops of the Devil and but the excrements of a corrupted discipline which they would fain reform As for the Authority and Government of Bishops he subscribs to Doctor Ames Hunc Episcoporum ordinem medio tollendum c. That either this Hierarchy of Bishops must down or Popery will come upon us do what we can
Cujus contrarium verum est But let that pass The Clergy of England they count Atheists call them soldiers of Antichrist and a Bastardly Ministery And from the Fountain of this frenzy sprang in late times all those infamous and scandalous Libels of Vdal Penry Brown Greenwood Martin Marprelate Martin junior Hay any work for a Cooper The supplication to the President of Wales and many other to the late Queen and troublesome to the State But the spring-head of all was Calvin himself who Epist 105. declares magis sibi placere c. that he forsooth did rather approve the Scottish Reformation then that of England Gramercy good Sir John You like it better why because it was the issue of your own happy Brain 't is well known Knox fetcht his Coales from your Fire and cast his Engin of Reformation in your Mould and so upon the matter in commending it like a wise man you commend your self So Epist 26. he tells Cranmer relictam esse congeriem That there was a great heap of Popish superstitions yet remaining in the Church of England which did not onely dim but even much darken and corrupt the purity of Gods worship Hence it was that during all Queen Maries Reign The English Church at Genevah as they calld themselves was Antagonist and at defiance with the English Church at Franckfort for they at Franckfort defended the Authority of Bishops and used the Leiturgy and Ceremonies which were commanded by King Edward the sixth notwithstanding Mr. Calvin writing to the Protector by whose Authority they had been established was so modest as to call them scoffingly and by way of contempt Tolerabiles Ineptias certain fooleries but yet such as might be born withal for a time It is therefore we see no Hyperbolical charge or Calumny to say that this Presbyterian Discipline is the Palladium of Calvinists for which they do not onely contend but fight tanquam pro aris focis against all Kings and Princes that oppose it more eagerly and bitterly then for any other thing which no man will deny that knowes what their proceedings have been are in France Scotland Low-countries Bohemia and elsewhere or that hath read Bsialicon Doron written by a Pen that had cause enough to be sensible of their disorders or that Book of Philippus Nicolai De regno Xti which is ful of predictions of what lawless attempts and practises they would serve themselves to advance their consistory above the court which have not all prov'd untrue or lastly that of Joannes Schutz a learned Lutheran Lib. 50. caus who tells them plainly that they trust onely upon their Soecular power That they are seditious people and defend their opinions best with a Sword in their hand But that which King James himself saith of them is most remarkable Ego a Puritanis Prefat monitor c. I saith he have been vexed with these Puritans from my very Birth yea they persecuted me while I was yet in my Mothers Belly and it mist but little that they had not murdered me before I was born Among which Pranks that of the Ministers at Sterling must not be forgotten who appeared themselves in the field under the Command of some of the Nobility of that faction and forced the King to yeeld his person to them and to suffer a new guard to be put upon him and his old removed For which insolent attempt the chief of them viz. Mr. Patrick Galloway Pollard Carmichel and Andrew Melvin were glad afterwards to take covert in England yet James Gibson stood to it and called the King Jeroboam and persecutor Lawson opposed and affronted him to his face Pont and Balcanqual by open Proclamation and in the presence of a publike Notary censur'd him very formally and did what they could to withdraw the peoples Loyalty and affection from him When Philautia and Phantasia that is self-love and self-conceit do meet in Conjunction in the Brain there must needs be a great Eclipse of the understanding and a Heart swollen and blown up with singularity doth so far contemn yea hate whatsoever opposition is made against her that being not able to govern the strong passion and those fervors of a proud spirit which boyl incessantly within her Men run like so many furies upon rash and inconsiderate attempts both against the reverence due to Majestie Justice and all good government A thing manifestly observable in these Zelots And therefore the Zuinglians who are otherwise more then their half Brethren can scarcely approve them in the point of the Consistory For saith Gualter Minister of Zurich Comment in 1 Cor. c. 5. Galli habent sua seniorum Concilia c. The Reformed French saith he have their Consistories of Elders in whose hands all power and authority Ecclesiastical is as it were deposited and in These all counsels and resolutions are taken all Taxes and impositions layd for the maintaining of War against the King Proper work doubtless for the Ministers of Gods word as they will be called and for a Spiritual Court as it pretends to be and to as good a purpose De Offic. Ministror lib. 15. cap. 19.20 22. Musculus also sheweth as little esteem of them in his Loci Commun cap. 10. But above all Schultingius in his Hierarchica Anachresis doth most graphically and to the life discover their exorbitant and absurd practises shewing how all Kings Princes and Governors are made subject to their Excommunications that truly Brutum Fulmen of their elderships How Nobility and Commons both must assemble at the Summons of the Pastor who is more then half Pope in his Parish being attended by Assisting Elders rather to countenance what he will have done then to do any thing contrary to his minde Lastly Calvin at Genevah is the Supream Oracle beyond whom there is no appeal really Papa though out of a dissembled humility he seems not willing to be called Doctor So he And what confusion in the Civil State this Constitution of pretended Discipline may further cause in time Hooker in the Preface to his Books of Ecclesiastical Policy sheweth at large Titulus Quartus GEVXISM OR The Troubles in HOLLAND AND THE United Provinces BY Course we arrive now at the States of Holland Zealand and those other united Provinces that is at an Aceldama a Field of blood where the Principles mentioned so oft already in this Narrative and the Tragical effects of them have been acted with most lamentable fury and rage for many years together I will not be large in the declaration of them to shew you how the Lutheran faction first began and how violently the Calvinists succeeding did prosecute their work for then I should weary you I shall labor to be as breif as I may and rather to Epitomize things then dilate them Of all their Actions That Union of Vtrecht was the most notorious a devise cleerly according to the rules of Junius Brutus and in imitation of the Switz
Tenure A certain Hollander in a third defence which he hath written of the united Provinces calls the King Raptorem Hereticum notorium Spoyler and Notorious Heretick and therefore to be set upon and driven out of his Kingdom by a general League and Vnion of all the forces of all Protestant Princes and States of Christendom But hoc tantum defuit this onely was wanting to advance their Calumnies against His Majestie to the height of impudence Never was the King of Spain called Heretick by man since he deserved the title of Catholike and it could not be done now but by one whose Malice and Heresie together had corrupted his judgement unto madness Nor is it to much better purpose that which they say concerning other Princes and States viz. That they have been acknowledged and treated by forreign Princes as Free States above thirty years That time will not serve for Prescription and if it would Prescription always pleadeth some other Title and possession bonâ fide beside neither of which can they pretend without blushing Neither can the opinion of forreign Princes make their bad claym better it may give some reputation indeed to an usurper but not any Title of right And as in a bad quarrel bravely defended not the cause but the success gains the credit so it is their prosperity and not the justice of their cause which doth them honor Beside it is not true that Princes have so reputed them To Negotiate with them under a quality which they will assume is one thing and really to adjudge that quality as due to them is another They offered the Sovereignty of these Provinces to Queen Elizabeth but she refused them The world doth not think it was out of any Favor to King Philip that she did so but because she knew they offered something more then their own and she was not willing to give her own people such a bad President against her self And when for private ends and some reasons of State she was content for a while to take upon her the charge and title of Protectress of the poor distressed States c. it was observed the business was most earnestly promoted by them who were now as willing to be rid of the * E. Leicester Son as when time was the Marquis of Winchester had been to be rid of the * Duke of Northumberland Camden Father This is upon record that Aversata est Regina the Queen could never endure the offer of the Sovereignty of those Provinces Neither was Sir Noel Caron in her time ever acknowledged Embassador but Agent But to joyn issue with them more neerly let us here what Damhouderius Praxis Crimin c. 132. a famous Lawyer and their own Countryman saith Seditiosi sunt qui moliuntur conspirationem c. Seditious persons saith he are such as hatch or foment Conspiracies against the Governors and Lievtenants of the Provinces that procure unlawful meetings or assemblies of the people or cause any Tumults in the Towns What is this but an Endictment drawn against the States considering their practises not onely against the Person of D' Alva but of Don John himself the Duke of Parma c. their many and tumultuous meetings at Breda Osterweal Saint Trudens their encouraging yea incensing the Genses throughout all the Provinces lastly with their defence and holding of Harlem Alemar Leyden and other places by force of Arms Again Chap. 82. he teacheth that to make a War just there must be first a just cause Second honest intention Third Authority of the Prince or Supream Magistrate Sine quâ without which saith he 't is Treason to make War That same Sine quâ of his might make the States tremble if they reflect upon it For in all their Wars they neither had good cause nor good colour Their Religion and Liberties were all secured to them by the pacification at Gaunt by the perpetual Edict by the Articles of the Treaty of Colen which were all quietly enjoyed without disturbance by such of the Provinces as would conform to them Their Sovereign was known to be His Catholike Majestie and for their good intention as no man could judge of it but by their actions so it appeared cleerly to be onely to sow dissention among the people and through factions and discord to arm them by degrees against the supream Magistrate under colour of Religion And the Prince of Orange most disloyal of all other because being a person of Honor and so highly entrusted by the King he betrayed that great trust reposed in him and made a War by his own Authority and that of his faction against the King Although he had neither Office nor any kinde of Command in the Low-Countries but what he had under the Wings of the Eagle and the Authority of the Lyon All his Belgick Lands he held in Fee of the Duke of Burgundy as his Leige-Lord he did Homage and Fealty for them and knew that a Sovereign gives Law as well as offices to his Subjects Besides Claudius le Brun Process Crimin another famous Lawyer addeth this viz. That whosoever surprizeth Towns Castles Forts without order of his Sovereign as the Prince caused Lumay to do in Holland and as Voorst and Barland did Flushing by which the peace of the Country is broken or who attempteth against the life of his Sovereigns Lievtenant it is Treason And these are judgements which all Europe do consent in decrees of reason and principles of Government which must not be called in question if the States of Holland themselves do permitt them to be disputed they must never expect Peace Order or any setled obedience in their Country So that by Law 't is cleer in what case the States do stand for thus breaking the peace of Christendom in those times and being cause of the effusion of so much Christian blood as hath been shed in that quarrel Now concerning any liberty which the Gospel Holy Scriptures or any principles of true Religion may be supposed to give them to use such proceedings against the Sovereign Prince I shall not enter into any Theological dispute with them as being beside my purpose which is onely to shew matter of opinion and matter of Fact in this controversie of obedience due to the Supream Civil Magistrate And therefore because I write onely to English men I shall content my self onely with the judgement of Doctor Bilson against them He was a great Divine and a great Prelate of the Church of England and chosen on purpose to write on this Argument by the greatest Statesman of that time and he wrote cum privilegio of the State and with the general approbation of the English Church Shall a King Christian Subject c. saith he be deposed if he break his promise and Oath at Coronation in any of the Covenants and Points which he promiseth He answers in the Margin No. The breach of Covenants is not deprivation and gives this reason
the Moveables and Ornaments belonging to them the Augmentation Court was erected For the King seeing this extraordinary passiveness and submission of the Clergy could never think he had power sufficient till he had more then enough and therefore having already discharged his conscience from all Bonds but such onely as himself should think good to tie he took liberty to commit such outrages and violence upon Sacred things as no age before him nor since can parallel For first viz. Anno 27. of His Reign he appoints the Secretary Cromwel and Doctor Leigh as his Commissioners to visit the Abbyes and they by vertue of their said Commission first take out all the Plate cheifest Jewels and Reliques belonging to those houses and seize them to the Kings use Then they dismiss all such persons Religious as were under the age of Four and twenty years and had a desire to be at liberty in the world Anno 28. All the smaller Religious houses of the value of Two hundred pounds per annum and under were given to the King by Parliament with all their Lands and Hereditaments and of these the number was not less then Three hundred seventy and six who were able to dispend per annum to the benefit of the poor and service of the Publike not less then Three thousand two hundred pounds of old Rents of Assize bâ—side their Moveables Which bâ—ing undervalued and sold at mean rates yet amounted to above One hundred thousand pounds The Religious themselves and all people depending on them which were not a few were on a sudden outed and left unprovided even of Habitation above Ten thousand persons for no particular crimes charged or proved against them turned out of their own doors and driven to seek their fortune where they could A thing which compassionated the very common people themselves though not a little alienated in their affections at that time towards Monasticks more then they were wont to be to see so many persons compelled to Beg and live by Almes who by their bountiful and constant Hospitality had formerly releived many Anno 30. of His Reign some of the greater Abbies viz. Battle-Abby and the Abby of Lewis in Sussex Martin Abby in Surry Stratford in Essex were suppressed and all things belonging to them converted to the Kings use For indeed they were forced in some sort to proceed thus politickly in their work of desolation and to carry it on by degrees by reason of the Commonalty who though they stirred not yet they stood amazed as it were murmuring as lowd as they durst and were not a little unsatisfied at such doings But in the years 32. and 33. generally all the Monasteries of England of what value soever went to wrack and were destroyed The Lands belonging to Saint John's of Jerusalem were likewise given to the King and the Corporation of those Knights quite dissolved Though to turn out these with some kinde of contentment there was as some say certain Pensions during life distributed among them to the value of Two thousand eight hundred and seventy pounds In Anno 37. was the last sweep which King Harry made For then all the Chauntries in any part of the Kingdom which were many and numerous All Churches and places Collegiate yea the very Hospitals which were built and endowed by their several Founders onely and expresly for the relief of the poor were yet given to the King and permitted wholly to his order and disposing The value of Church Lands in England at this time amounted to above Three hundred and twenty thousand one hundred and eighty pounds per annum and of it the King took into his own possession and apropriated to the Crown to the value of One hundred sixty one thousand one hundred pounds yearly rent The rest it seems was sold or exchanged or distributed among Favourites Lastly to abuse the poor Commons perfectly and more easily to wipe them of those great and constant advantages as well Temporal as Spiritual which they received from these Religious places while they stood a proposition is made in Parliament by the Projectors and Sharers in this worke and 't is given out also to the people abroad That out of the Revenues of these Lands thus given to the King a standing Army for defence of the Kingdom and all other Military occasions of State should be maintained of no less then Forty thousand men besides Forty Earls Sixty Barons and Three thousand Knights for the Command and Conduct of this Army where need should be So that the Commons of England by this means should never heare of Tax or Subsidy any more This indeed was as pleasing a bait for the people as could be devised and it took accordingly They bit willingly at it But the Hook sticks in their jaws to this day Such a motion as this to note in a word by the way was made in that Parliament of Henry the fourth which they called the Lay-mens Parliament by those which countenanced Wicleff and loved the Lands far better then they did the Religion of the Church But their designs at that time were defeated by the Stout and Religious opposition of Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Prelates joyning with him Though now there were an unfortunate and unworthy Thomas found yet siting in that Seat of Canterbury ready to side with them for his own carnal ends and to countenance the Wicleffists of these times that is those Lutheran and malicious Spirits who by their Libels The supplication of Beggars well answered by Sir Thomas Moores Supplication of Souls and other wicked practises went about to destroy the Church and extripate true Religion Adde here unto the Kings natural Inclination to vain glory which was very great and begat those prodigal expences which he used towards his Favorites and Flatterers And these could not be long maintained but by extraordinary support which being not to be had in any way of Legality and Justice Avarice at last and many other vices which he was fallen to prompted him to fall upon the Church The Lords and Courtiers could not dislike the motion knowing what a rich Prey would fall to be divided among them Especially this pleased the principal Secretary of State afterward Lord Privy Seal Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Essex who being a man of great experience and of a deep reach in worldly policies knew full well that such a confused Innovation as this and so full of Spoyle would be infinitely advantagious to him and a Ladder to clime at ease unto what Wealth or Honor he could wish He therefore instigates the King with all might and main to go through with the Action and to stand stoutly to his Prerogative and profit knowing his conscience was already buried in Anne Bolens Tombe To this end and the better to pave the way to his evil designs Sacriledge and Blood not seldom going along together Three of the principal Abbots of the Kingdom and Barons
of Parliament viz. the Abbots of Glastenbury Reading and Bury Stout Vertuous and Religious men and likeliest to oppose such practises were taken away before hand being condemned and executed upon the Statute of Supremacy as well to prevent the Bishops mediating for them as to terrifie the other Religâ—ous of the Kingdom from opposing the Kings designs But may we ask quo jure quo titulo by what colour of Law or Right was this suppression of the Abbies made and done I cannot tell what it may do now but certainly to have mov'd such a question then it would have cost a man his head It is certain these Abbies held their Lands in Frank Almoigne and in Fee They were quietly possessed of them by the Donations and Guifts of many Saxon English Norman Kings Princes and other Subjects who were their Founders continued legally by prescription in them admitted acknowledged and established by all Laws beside the accessory Charters of many succeeding Princes who confirmed them and most commonly added to them They held all their Lands Immunities and Estates by the same Laws Authority and Right by which the Temporal Lords held their Baronies as Magna Charta 9. of Hen. 3. and the confirmation thereof 28. Ed. 1. do abundantly testifie where it is granted that the Church of England shall be Free and have all her Liberties preserved to her inviolable Chap. 2. any Judgement given against them is declared to be Null and Void And chap. 4. The Bishops are ordered to Excomunicate all such as shall seek to infring those Charters as also they did 30. Ed. 1. including all those that should either make or procure to be made any Statutes contrary to those Liberties Whence we may note Two things The First that as Excommunication is the highest punishment which can be inflicted upon a man Spiritually so the State cannot declare its detestation and dislike of any crime more then by requiring or ordering such a punishment for it The Second That as by one and the same Charter both the Church and the Temporalty held their Liberties so that which gave or pretended to give the King power to abrogate and destroy the one could not in point of reason or justice but make the other obnoxious In the Leidger-book of Peterborrough are to be seen all King Johns Grants and Confirmations more fully and at large then they are set forth in any Printed Book Let any man but read them seriously and with attention and he will wonder at the proceedings of later times What need I remember that same Law called Sententia lata super confirmatione Chartarum by Ed. 1. or thâ— 42. of Ed. 3. chap. 8. where it is declared that any Statute whatsoever made contrary to Magna Charta shall be void or the confirmation of all these in 1 6 7 8. of Rich. 2. and in 4. of Hen. 4. All which good Laws were intended surely to prevent Sacriledge and Tyranny in succeeding times and to secure both Church and people from the encroachments of injustice The King knew very well he had no Title to any of these things but by colour and concession of Parliament and how far a Parliament hath power to give away the Lands or Interests of a Third Person neither heard nor convicted orderly of any offence that should deserve such sentence is a thing to be considered Surely is it not Therefore to make his Title appear stronger in the eye of the World Anno 31. of his Reign he procureth an Act to be made in Parliament exprâ—ssing how that since the Act of Anno 27. the Religious Houses themselves had voluntarity and of their own good wills without constraint in due course of Law and by writings of Record under their Covent-Seals givâ—n and confirmed to the King their Lands Houses Rents Revenues and all Rights whatsoever yea to this Statute they are said to consent as to an Act of their own seeking and suit and you may see among the Records of the Augmentation Court a great Chest full of particular Surrenders made by the Abbots and Covents under their hands seals to this purpose But is it not a likely tale that out of their bounty and good will they would renounce their Livings and become beggars Indeed unto so gracious a Prince as he was become towards them at that time it was â—he less marvail I my self did once deliver my purse upon Salisbury-plains and though I could not commend the honesty of those that took it yet was I fain for a while to complement their humanity towards me that they used me no worse You will say how then came it to be done why would the Abbots and other Religious give away their Lands if they were not willing I answer because they could hold them no longer They saw themselves generally deserted and forsaken by the Commons and knew very well what the King was resolved to do by that which he had done already And therefore to make some petty accommodations for themselves perhaps by granting or renewing of Leases or otherwise wâ—â—ch the King for his own ends viz. 〈…〉 the work more plausible and 〈◊〉 was content to connive at and which we may be sure came not to much they thought best to give that which they were otherwise sure to lose And by doing so rather then by using any kinde of contestation they shewed the simplicity of their obedience to be such as became their Holy Profession and the King shewed how little he feared God or regarded his Honour in the censure of the World Whosoever therefore considers the business impartially shall finde this great conquest of Religious Persons to deserve little Triumph and that the augmentation of Revenue and Treasure by it being so palpably Sacrilegious and contrary to all acknowledged Law Divine and Humane proved to be Aurum Tholosanum a curse to him that took it and upon which the judgement of God hath visibly attended ever since Nor is it strange that it should for first what saith the Scripture Is it not a curse to him that devoureth sacred things Prov. 20.25 and after vows to make enquiry And what saith History and the experience of all Ages Did ever Sacrilege go unpunished Marcus Crassus robbed the Temple at Hierusalem but is not his sad and disastrous end noted by Josephus Lib. 18. C. 8. Herod likewise opened the Sepulcher of King David and took thence much spoil but into what great miseries and misfortunes he fell afterwards Lib. 16. C. 11. the same Josephus relateth Vrraca a Gothish King going to rob but one Chappel of St. Isidore in Spain and that in a case of necessity too as might be pretended viz. to defray the charge of war and to pay his Army yet his very guts burst out of his belly in the Church-porch Histor gen of Spain as the History saith Leo the Fourth Emperor taking a precious Gem out of the Coronet of St. Sophia at Constantinople which had
Honor and Strength of the Nation Titulus Secundus HItherto Schisme and Sacriledge annexed to it chiefly reigned but the second plague was the utter ruin and extinction of Religion For by abuse of the name and authority of King Edward the very Church it self was entirely subverted Religion absolutely changed Heresie introduced and established in the full open and publike profession thereof And we might say the craft and malice of the Devil whose work it is to corrupt true Religion confound States herein most perfectly appeared For though indeed the way to Heresie and all publike disorder were sufficiently levelled and made plain by King Henry the Eighth who onely by reason of his greatness and imperious cruelty was fit to begin such a work yet Religion it self was suffered to stand a while longer at least in the general and more visible parts of it he knowing well that all could not be effected at once and that it was necessary for him to seduce States as he doth souls gradatìm by degrees opportunity and succession of time And being also confident that if those forts of Piety and true Christian-Catholike Devoâ—â—on that is the Religious Houses were once-razed the Church in England brought under a Lay head and by consequence the sheep made Governors of their Shepherds he should easily upon a second attempt there and by some other hand overthrow Religion it self King Henry at his death had appointed by will sixteen Executors who during the minority of his Son King Edward should be as it were his Guardians and Counsellors for the better governing of the Realm Among these one who made himself afterward Principal was the Lord Edward Seymour Earl of Hartford who being the Kings Uncle by the Mother-side procured himself in a short time to be made Protector and by that means gat as he thought a dispensation from his Joynt Executorship with the others and demeaned himself now in all things concerning the Affaires of the Realm as their Superior A thing which King Henry least of all intended rather he had provided with as much caution as was possible against the encroaching of any one upon the rest under any title or pretence soever But this was the way to bring about some furthâ—â— designes intended by that Party which advanced the Protector to that dignity and which the other and more honest part of the Councel did not either so providently foresee or so faithfully resist as they ought to have done One of the first things which the Protector set on foot after the Protectorship was secured to him was Innovation of Religion abolishing the Old Catholike and introducing a New under the title of Reformation Not so much out of any great preciseness that was ever observed in him or devotion that he was thought to have more one way then another but because he was thirsty and desired to drink to the bottom of the Cup which in King Harries time it seems he had but onely tasted There was yet some Game in his eye which he intend-to bring into Toyls viz. some few remains of Church-Lands Collegiate-Lands and Hospitals which he could not compass or draw into possession by any Engine better then that pretence of reforming Religion Cranmer that unworthy Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was his Right Hand and chief Assistant in the work although but a few months before he was of King Harries Religion yea a Patron and Prosecutor of the Six Articles To this end viz. the more to amuze the people and as they thought to give some strength and countenance to what they meant to set up a couple of strangers Religious men indeed by profession but such as were long since run from their Orders that is Peter Martyr and Bucer must be sent for as far as Germany and placed in the Divinity Chairs at Cambridge and Oxford That the world might see how contrary not onely the Pastors of the Church and Clergy but even all the learned men in both the Universities and of the whole Kingdom generally were to his proceedings By these two Apostate Friers together with Cranmer Ridley Latimer and some others was a new Liturgie framed and the old abolished together with that Religion which had been so many hundreds of years observed in this Nation with great happiness and honour The Protector though powerful of himself by abuse and pretence of the Kings name in all things which he did although the King were but a Child of nine years old was yet well seconded by the Duke of Northumberland and by the Admiral his onely Brother by the Marquis of Northampton c. all of them persons seemingly at least much inclined to Reformation and by them he overbore all the rest that opposed him or were any thing contrary to his designs As there were many both eminent and wise men and equally intrusted in the publike affairs with himself could things have been carried rightly In particular the Lord Privy Seal the Lord St. John of Basing Bishop Tonstall Sir Anthony Brown and that wise Secretary Sir William Paget but most especially the Noble Chancellor the Lord Wriothsley a man of singular experience knowledge prudence and who deserveth to be a Pattern to his Posterity far to be preferred before any new Guides But being made Earl of Southampton though it neither won him to the Faction nor contented nor secured him yet he stood thâ— more quiet and made no great opposition to their doings All things now grew to confusion there remained no face nor scarce the name of Catholike Church in England and though there were great multitudes of men well affected to the old Religion and discontented that the Church should be thus driven into the Wilderness and forced to lurk in Corners Yet did they shew loyalty obedience and love to the publike Peace notwithstanding They took up no Arms they raised no Rebellion not so much as against the shadow of a King or the usurper of his Royal name The Protector in the mean time goeth on with his work which is principally to enrich himself with the Remains of the Church having long before as 't is said tasted the sweetness of such Morsels in the Priory of Aumesbury He now seizeth two Bishops houses in the Strand and of them buildeth Sommerset house which as the world saw quickly reverted and slipt out of his hands After this he procureth an Act to be made whereby all Colledges remaining all Chantries Free Chappels and Fraternities were suppressed and given to the King And how greedily he entered into the Bishop of Bath and Wells his Houses and Manors that Church will never be able to forget Notwithstanding that Bishop Bourn afterward by his industry recovered something but nothing to the spoiles and wast which was made Nor was he satisfied with this For shortly after contrary to all Law to King Henries will and against his own Covenants those I mean which he entred to his Advancers when they made him Protector He committed the Lord Chancellor
The ones Ambition The others Avarice destroying him Yet of the two the calamity of the Protector must in all humane judgement seem most disastrous For 't is certain through his own weakness and the importune instigations of his Wife he was compelled to serve the designs of his greatest Adversary in the world by putting his own brother to death And after that living to see Bologne lost and the Crown through his Misgovernment engaged in many debts wants and trouble he last of all ended his days fatally and without any shew of repentance for those sins which brought him to that end Whereas in this respect Northumberland was far more happy For having in all humble and penitent maner acknowledged his offences to the Bishop of Worcester Doctor Heath his Ghostly Father and thereby reconciled himself to God and to the Communion of his Church at the place of Execution not out of design or hopes of life as some would malitiously asperse the action but willingly freely of his own accord and out of conscience as himself protesteth at his death he made another most Christian and publike acknowledgment of his Faults especially those which concerned Heresie Sacriledge and Treason in all which he confessed himself to be most guilty And thereupon used much and vehement exhortation to the people to beware of those Preachers of New Doctrine who had fâ— ed the Kingdom with so many false Opinions and much trouble Assuring them plainly and openly concerning himself that whatsoever he had professed or done in that kinde proceeded wholly from Covetousness Ambition and other evil Motives not worthy to be named and not from any perswasion of Judgment or Conscience which he ever had that way And therefore adminished them that they should willingly return to the Communion of Gods Church and keep themselves constant in the Catholike Faith and true Religion Which for Conscience sake saith he I onely tell you and that I may thereby in some sort acquit me of my duty and save my soul and not for any humane or temporal motive expectation or hope whatsoever And so died The Oration it self out of which this is extracted may be seen at large in Schardus Sim. Schard Memor Histor in Maximil 2. a Protestant chronicler of note in his historical collections and elsewhere I suppose without much difficulty Thus lived and thus died as we have said the two grand adversaries of Gods Church and subverters of Catholike Religion in England after so many disorders committed as God was pleased to suffer by their power and procurement and that they had sufficiently scourged and afflicted those whose sins well deserved such punishment they were both of them taken away by the hand of Justice and met with their deserts Temporally and things were restored to some better pass But what did the Catholikes all this while How did they behave themselves What Rebellions did they raise what commotions or tumults of the people did they procure I mean the more civil religious and ingenuous amongst them 'T is true some Risings there were in Devonshire and the Western parts of the rude multitude exasperated especially upon some temporal grievances oppressions and wants which followed the misgovernment of those times Religion was either not at all or least of all pretended by them They were vexed indeed to see the encroachments which the Protector and others made dayly upon the Kings and Peoples Interest They were sensible of the Scarcity and Dearth of all kinde of necessary commodities for life which came suddenly upon them and was far greater then it used to be They could not endure well to be abridged by Inclosures of some other Liberties which they pretended to In brief They were sensible of all such inconveniences in the Government of the State as concerned the Outward Man but for Religion further then it served to ease their Spleen that is to clamor to asperse and rail upon those whom they conceived the Authors of their other and more resented grievances I conceive they minded it not and that there is scarce any good ground why a man should think them in that respect more Catholikes then Protestants And if a Priest or some Ecclesiastical person were found amongst them as it were strange if there should be none considering how many there were then in the kingdom absolutely destitute and discontented yet certainly they were not many nor in any other quality considerable Whereas 't is certain that Kets camp in Norfolk a business of far greater consequence and difficulty were all of them such as were fallen with the State from the profession of Catholike Religion and become Protestants And this I would generally premise desiring the Reader to observe it that where I affirm of Catholikes that they did not conspire against their Princes nor raise any tumults in the kingdom for matter of Religion I mean such only as were Catholikes indeed and stood firm in their Holy Recusancy not complying in any sortwith those alterations which Henry the 8th Edward the 6th or Queen Elizabeth in their several times procured to be made contrary to the integrity of Christian Religion For such as complied were not to be counted Catholikes any longer but Heretikes Schismaticks Hypocrites c. And for such people having corrupted their faith to God I would not be taken to apologize in any other point of duty For 't is very possible they might still retain some notions of Catholike Religion in their minds which afterward and upon other occasions running into terms of disloyalty they might pretend as matter of complaint against their Prince though themselves were neither Catholike nor That nor any other matter purely Spiritual the true original cause of their Disorder but onely those Temporal Grievances by which they smarted as is abovesaid and which they saw well enough to procceed either wholly or in part from the several alterations made There were the like in Lincolnshire which our English Chronicles pass not over in silence But it sufficeth that for the generality of Catholikes I mean still those of more ingenuous civil and better quality notwithstanding so great and violent provocations as were used towards them their patience and submissive demeanor towards the State and civil Government was most exemplary to the World Neither Prelates nor Priests nor Lay-people making any resistance against those unworthy men who so much oppressed them under the Kings usurped Authority and Name making such havock in the Church and spoil of all things consecrate to the Service of God and exercise of their True Ancient Christian-Catholike Religion as this Nation never saw the like since it had â—he happiness to be called Christian It seemed they had been bred in a better School of Vertue then that which Calvin opened at Genevah and had learnt to bear the cross of their Saviour that is to say these temporal afflictions calamities and injuries with more Patience and that the glory of Martyrdom in sufferance was accounted far
more honorable with them and more becomming good Christians then the Sword and Fortune of a Conqueror in comanding In which most Christian posture I leave them to proceed Titulus Tertius THe last and greatest tempest against poor English Catholikes was raised by Queen Elizabeth This not onely shook the foundations of the Church which had been so lately repaired by the most Catholike Princess Queen Mary but proceeded so far as humane policy and power could to extirpate the very name and memory of Catholike Religion in England Camd. in Elizab. And this as it were in an instant and without noise For as her own Historian Camdeu reporteth it was done Sine sanguine sudore No man unless perhaps it were Master Secretary Cecil did so much as sweat in the bringing in of New Religion nor was any mans blood I mean at the first beginning drawn about it The Christian world stood amazed at the first news of such a sudden alteration Both because Religion had been so lately and so solemnly restored by Parliament as also because the Queen her self that now was always professed her self so much Catholike during the Reign of her Sister She constantly every day heared Mass saith the same Camden and beside that ad Romanae Religionis normam soepius confiteretur went often to Confession as other Roman Catholikes did Yea saith Sir Francis Ingleseild when she was upon other matters sometimes examined by Commissioners from the Queen she would her self take occasion to complain that the Queen her Sister should see me to have any doubt of her Religion and would thereupon make Protestation and Swear that she was a Catholike The Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip is yet extant to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her beleefe and in particular concerning the point of Real Presence that for his part he could not beleeve she intended any great Alteration in Religion The same profession also she made to Monsieur Lansack as many Honorable Persons have testified and at her Coronation she was Consecrated in all points according to the Catholike maner and anointed at Mass by the Bishop of Carlile taking the same Oath to maintain Catholike Religion the Church and Liberties thereof as all other her Catholike Predecessors Kings and Queens of England had ever done Concerning the grounds which moved her to make this Alteration so much contrary to the expectation and judgement of Christendom we shall speak in due place This was manifest that the long sickness of Queen Mary gave her great advantage time both to deliberate and draw all platforms into debate to prepare instruments in readiness for all designs and to make choise of the fittest and surest Counsellors such as were most likely to advance her ends Neither did she seem to value her Honor overmuch in order to the bringing about of her chief design For in open Parliament after her intentions for a change began to be discovered she protested that no trouble should arise to the Roman Catholikes Horas Preface of Queen Elizab. for any difference in Religion Which did much abate the opposition which otherwise might probably have been made by the Catholike party and put the Clergy themselves in some hopes of Fair quarter under her Government She knew full well that a Prince alone how Sovereign soever could not establish a new Religions in his Kingdom but that it must be the work of a Parliament to give Authority and Countenance to a business of that nature Therefore to win the Bishops and the rest of the Catholikes in Parliament to silence at least she was content to use policy with them and promise them fair as Monsieur Mauvissieir hath well observed Les memoir de Mons. Mich. Castelnau who was a long time Embassador heer from the French King and curiously noted the passages of those times Add hereunto That when the Act for Supremacy was revived which was always the great Wheel of these Motions whereas by King Henry's Law both Bishops and Barons stood in danger thereof as the examples of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England and Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester had shewen in this Parliament the Queen was content to exempt the Lords and Barons absolutely from the Oath as they in King Edward the Sixths time had exempted themselves and to leave the Rigor of it onely upon the Clergy and Commons She also thought good to qualifie the Stile somewhat viz. from Supream Head changing it into Supream Governor which though it altered not the sence yet it abused some into a beleef that the Queen pretended not unto so much in matters Ecclesiastical as the King her Father had done Beside we are to remember that King Henry by pulling he Abbyes had much weakned the power of the Clergy in Parliament having deprived them of the Votes of no less then Five and twenty Abbots who constantly sat in Parliament in the quality of Barons And lastly it is well known The Lower House of Parliament it self as they call it was so calmly spirited in those times that they used not much to oppose what their good Lords of the upper House liked All which things considered and that too many of the Catholikes both Lords and others thinking it better wisdom to purchase their future security by present silence then to expose themselves to trouble and vexation afterward by opposing that which they feared they should not be able to hinder therefore either but faintly resist or quietly absent themselves who can wonder if the whole business were carried with ease upon such promises of the Queen and by the industry and craft of Sinon alias Secretary Cecil who had the chief Management of it in his hands By his advise it was thought fitting that the Noble Earl of Arundel should for a time be abused with some hopes of marrying the Queen who thereupon by the interest which he had in the house of Peers ingrosed into his own hands the Proxies or voices of so many of them who thought good to be absent as when time came served the Queens turn exceedingly well The duke of Norfolk Son in law to Arundel but now a Widower was already exasperated against the Pope because he might not have dispensation to marry his Kins-woman and therefore it was no hard matter to joyn him with Arundel The Queen had also against this time either made or advanced in dignity and consequently in interest certain new Lords whom she knew to be favorers of her design viz. William Lord Parr was made Marquis of Northampton a good Speaker and a Politick man Edward Seymour Son to the late Duke of Sommerset was made Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hartford Sir Thomas Howard was made Viscount Bindon Sir Oliver Saint John Lord St. John of Bletso Sir Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon She had also as much weakened the Catholikes party by discharging from the Counsel-Table many of the old Counsellors
proceedings she was not onely left destitute of all her Allies and Confederates and driven as it were to stand solely upon her own guard against France who was already an Enemy and against Spain who was a friend not very well satisfied But she was forced even at first and at the entrance of her Reign to run upon a Rock which might have Shipwrackt her whole State which was to assist the Rebells in Scotland against their lawful Sovereign under a pretence of expelling the French who were brought in thither by Authority of the Queen onely to maintain the Government established This might have taught her own people a bad lesson at home a man would think though it did not as it proved And being thus engaged in Scotland she was obliged in pursuance of her design to succor the Admiral and those Rebellious Hugonots of France by whose perswasion she invaded Normandy took possession of the Towns of Newhaven Diep and some other places delivered to her by the Vidame of Charteres But the disgrace in ill-defending and loosing of them especially of Newhaven was one of the greatest blemishes that ever the English before that time received upon French ground and far greater then it was Honor to have them delivered upon such occasion into the Queens possession For certainly had either the cause been just or prudently managed they might upon that advantage have easily brought home Calice again or lockt up the Gates of Roan and Paris But they did neither nor brought home any thing but a great Plague after them in most mens judgement a scourge to the Realm for that offence After this upon the like necessity of self-preservation and upon the Reason of State which Polybius prescribeth Vicini nimâ—ùm crescentiâ— potentia quâcunque ex causâ deprimenda By all meanes keep thy Neighbor from growing too great she made no scruple to impede and give obstruction to the affairs of King Philip in the Netherlands who was her Neighbor her Ally her Confederate yea upon more occasions then one and in matters of no small exigence the best friend which she had in the world Yet by reason of those pernicious Counsels concerning Religioâ— which she was fallen upon she was as it were compelled to disown his just interest and profess her self Ungrateful in the face of the world Thereupon Orange and the States are assisted against their lawful Sovereign King Philip. I must not deny but even in doing this she pretended respect unto the Kings interest professing in her Declaration concerning that business Stow. That what she did was to preserve the Ancient Amity and Leagues betwixt the Crown of England and the House of Burgundy and to prevent the loss and utter revolt of those Countries from the Kings obedience which she knew otherwise the States and Orange would deliver up to some other Prince more professedly his Enemy So true it is that which Machiavel observed I suppose much about those times viz. That wise Princes seldom or never want pretences for their Actions What a fair colour is here given to a foul Cause But where is Conscience Christianity and Truth in the mean time The world could see well enough through the Vizard and knew at what mark both the Queen and the States aimed But most Sage sure and worthy of so great a Commander and wise man as himself was is that of Thucydides Nullus Princeps a suis subditis justè puniendis arcendus est c No Prince saith he ought to be hindred from punishing his Subjects according to the Laws and whosoever goeth about to do so by his evil example parem in se legem Statuit c. he makes a Law against himself and inables his own Subjects in like case to seek forreign protection against his jusâ—ice And this the Queen with the whole Nation might have found true by sad experience if that either Henry the Second or Francis the Second Kings of France had lived or that her own Subjects I mean those whom she had not a little injured and alienated by her Misgovernment had not been more loyally respective of her dignity and more inclined to obedience and sufferance for a good cause then many other people in the world were But Divine Providence having decreed for our much unworthiness and many sins to remove the Candlestick of this Nation that is to deprive us of the Light of the true saving Faith and of all publike and free exercise of true Christian Religion and to deliver us up to the darkness and many old delusions of Heresie and to follow our own ways in those things wherein it most of all concerned us to have been ruled by good Authority which is the greatest judgement that can befall a Nation or any people in this woâ—ld all things cooperated to the accomplishment of his just displeasure against us And the Queen with heâ— party were permâ—tted to go on with their work without any interruption Even before her Coronation or that any debate or resolution had been taken in Parliament de novo concerning Religion she being her self but a Sheep of the Flock as Constantine Thedosius and many others her Christian Predecessors in Princely Dignity have not blushed to acknowledge yet presumed to put all the Shepheards of the Kingdom to silence commanding that none of the Bishops or other Prelates should preach till her pleasure was further known And after the Parliament all of them that refused the new revived Oath of Supremacy were deprived of all Honors Dignities and Employments which they had in Church or Common-wealth and committed to several Prisons Of this sort there are reckoned no less then Fourteen Bishops of England all Vertuous and Learned Prelates that were instantly deposed and Ten of Ireland Twelve Deans Fifteen Heads or Masters of Colledges Six Abbots besides inferior dignitaries of the clergy viz. Arch-Deacons and other Priests without number together with Master Shelley Prior of Saint Johns of Jerusalem All these as to their demeanor towards the Queen were blameless there was not the least exception taken against them in that respect The Bishops themselves were all sitting in Parliament at the time of Queen Maries death and acknowledged by diverse Proclamations Queen Elizabeths Right and Title to the Crown The Arch-Bishop of York Doctor Heath was then Chancellor of England and labored by all means possible to do her Majestie service and to settle the Hearts of her people in obedience and loyalty towards her as to their natural and lawful Sovereign especially in that grave Oration which he made to the Nobility and Commons of Parliament upon the first report of Queen Maries death The Bishops joyntly did their Homage and Fealty to her in all dutiful maner and though they were not without some suspicion that she intended to change Religion yet did they practise neither Scotizing nor Genevating towards her Never did they incense the people against her though they were generally Catholik and they might probably have
the Instruction and training up of yong Scholars viz. of the Catholike Nobility Gentry and others of our Nation in the studies of Learning Vertue and all kinde of honest and christian Education which as the case stood they could not possibly have in their own Country without Ship-wracking of their consciences and great peril of their souls This I say was the first and onely design of the Seminaries viz. to be a Nursery of young and tender plants as should be committed to them to be fitted for the Service of God and the leading of a true Christian Vertuous life afterward and not to be Seedplots or Forges of Treason and seditious practises against their Country as their Adversaries cease not to accuse them That 's a calumny black and palpable as shall appear more hereafter At present I shall onely take notice of what that great Protonotary of England brings in charge against them in his Book called Justitia Britannica which are three things First That they are a company of base fugitive persons Secondly that they corrupt the Land with false Doctrine and Thirdly That they practise with forreign States to disturb the Kingdom raise rebellion and withdraw Subjects from their obedience As touching the First I am very well assured that there be Gentlemen of our Nation at Doway both in the Colledge and Monasteries of as good Families as well Bred and as Eminent Scholars as any I have known of all these sorts in the Universities of England wherein I am not altogether a stranger I will not make Comparisons for that were but to make them more odious neither am I willing to detract any thing from the honor of our English Academies which I am bound to maintain It must be confessed there be many excellent wits and men of great learning bred in them yet this I may truly say That those beyond Sea are of no base quality neither is their education in those places such as should render them liable to that Character in time to come Yea rather they are so orderly governed and their times of study devotion exercise both Scholastical and Spiritual recreation yea even of their most necessary repast and rest are all so exactly measured out to them all occasions of idleness excess and ill company so prudently and carefully prevented that it is indeed no wonder they appear so civil so devout so religious temperate sober and well governed in all outward deportment as through the grace of God they do They are as I said by their Superiors strictly kept to their tasks yet rather won then forced unto good They are bridled with a hard bit but it is carried with such a gentle hand as it doth not pinch but guide them So that as their studies blessed be God are not altogether unhappy so neither is their life unpleasant but sweet agreable to vertuous mindes and full of the Noblest contents And that they should be counted Fugitives is most injurious For do they live there as Outlaws in a forreign Province have they fled for any crime doth Justice enquire after them or wait for them in their own Country what Felonies what Treasons have driven them thence but such as a very few years before were not onely in the same place where they are now so hardly censured but in all places of Christendom and by all people of sound judgement counted the greatest vertues Again they live not there out of any factiousness of spirit or ill affection towards his Majestie or the State of England but for conscience sake onely and to avoid the severity of Laws enacted here against Catholikes and the profession of Catholike Religion It is necessity that compels them to take this course In England Catholikes have no Churches wherein to serve God publickly nor liberty to serve him privately any where else The Sacraments are never or but very seldom Administred to them in comparison of what they should be They can have no priviledge or benefit of the Universities for education and study without Oaths going to Church and hearing and doing many other things contrary to a good conscience Beside all this did not Barty Knolls and Hales did not Jewel Horn Cox Pilkington Poynet and many others in Queen Maries time take the same course for conscience as they pretended They would not willingly have been called Fugitives when they were abroad Why then should those Gentlemen at Doway Saint Omars and elsewhere Exil'd as it were at present from their native Country upon the same common pretence and reason viz. reason of conscience be called Fugitives or stigmatized with any such Characters of ignominy Let those Laws be repealed first which threaten present death to them upon their return and which were all procured against them unduly and by misprizion viz. of their supposed practisings against the State which as they complain were never proved nor are true Let it be permitted to them to enjoy Liberty of Conscience and to serve God as all good Catholikes and Christians ought to do without molestation and danger to their persons prejudice to their estates further then they shall give just offence to the State and the world would quickly see where their truest affections lay Neither Doway nor St. Omars nor Rhemes nor Rome it self would hold them from returning with all thankfulness and speed to express their humblest obedience to his Majestie and fidelity to their native Country And as for their Parents Kinsfolks and Friends from whom they are now unhappily separated and from many of them perhaps against their wills they should plainly finde that natural affection was not extinguished in them neither would kindness creep where it might safely go The Second objection is They corrupt the Land with false Doctrine This objection supposeth that Calvinism and the present Religion by Law established in England is the true which England it self denied but a few years since and the whole Christian world doth at this day I do not except the Protesttants themselves For there is not any one of their pretended Churches abroad that agreeth with this present Church of England in all points of Doctrine and Discipline established But to wave that quâ—stion at present as no part of my undertaking it must be considered there are learned and vertuous men on both sides one whereof will not it seems vaile Bonnet to the other in point of understanding the Scriptures How then should the diffâ—râ—nce be decided even in reason but by some Authority distinct from them both yet indifferent and superior to both which can be no other but the judgement and tradition of the Catholike Church precedent unto both Besides this the Bishops in the first Parliament offered to defend their Religion by disputation which the Protestants would not accept but upon an unequal condition that is as Master Camden himself reporteth Nisi Baconus in studiis Theologicis parùm Versatus c. Vnless Sir Nicholas Bacon might be President and Moderator of the business
who was a man neither of competent Dignity to preside in such an action thoâ—gh he were newly put into an high office nor yet of sufficiâ—nt abilities to judge of such matters being a man of the other Robe but a Serjeant at law a few days before and beside all this a Partialist and open favorer of the Adversaries of the Church Therefore the Bishops refused him as an incompetent person as well they might Though for doing so they endured a great deal of calumny But indifferent men will judge best And certainly had the Queen at all desired the Disputation as some pretend or that it should have had any just and fair issue she would have provided Judges as easily she might more agreeable to the Dignity of the action and the Qualities of the Disputants both for Ability Indifferency and Honor Since their time F. Robte Parsons Campian and diverse others have made the same request to the State being desirous to bring truth to the Tryal and Touchstone in some publike maner which cannot but be some argument that at least they do beleeve in sincerity and good conscience that themselves are in the right and therefore shâ—uld not be so hastily condemnâ—d or prejudgâ—d of their cause If it be said that such demands as these have been answered disputations have been permittâ—d as for example that of Doctor Reinolds with Master Hart that of Doctor Goad with F. Campian and that in both these and some other truth hath appeared so manifestly on the Protâ—stants side that both Catholikes and Priests ought to be convinced I reply There was not faire play used in those actions it was iniquissima conditio the most unequal dealing that ever was used for a man armed to set upon a Captive a man at Liberty upon one in Fetters dâ—stitute of Books having no warning nor liberty given him to prepare him self but which is woâ—st of all and the greatest inhumanity that ever was heard of in the sight and view of the rack whereon he had a very little while before been posed with most cruel questions which was the case of that excellent and blessed man F. Edmund Campian afterwards Martyr And as for Doctor Reinolds although he pretends something to the contrary yet it is certain he framed that Combat which he published between himself and Master Hart at his own pleasure Lastly the Clergy and other Priests of the Catholike Church in England do pretend and have not seldom offered to prove that the chief Basis of Protestant Doctrine in general is either Fallacy or Forgery and that the chief builders of this Babel by name Bp. Jewel the grand Apologist of the English Church Luther himself Calvin Melancthon Du Plessis the Hugonots Saint Augustine in France Doctor Morton their Achilles in England both the Whites not excepting Laud himself the late Patriarke of English Protestants nor Andrewes nor Mountague but generally all other Proctors of that cause do defend thâ—mselâ—â—â— and endeavor to bear down Catholikes not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians but with calumny and falâ—hood that is to say by false Quotations Corruptions Falsifying and misreciting of Authors untrue reporting of Doctrines false and unjust criminations of mâ—ns persons and of whole Orders of men and by many other indirect ways unseemly and unworthy of the cause of truth They humbly therefore implore and hope from the justice of his Majâ—stie and the State that they shall not be condemned without hearing But as the charges which they bring against their Adversaries are of a foul nature tending much to the dishonor of God and disparagement of Christian faith which God will not have to be upheld by ungodly and evil mâ—ans so they shall before sentence be permitted to plead foâ— themselves and to prove the charge against their Adversaries for whom it is not to purpose to recriminate in the business and say that Catholikes are guilty of the same faults For we maintain the contrary And desire to know what one Doctrine it is that we charge them with as odious and offensive to Christian eares but the Reader if he please may finde it expressly and undeniably verified upon them by our Authors and perticularly in that exact Treatise of the Bishop of Chalcedon called Collatio doctrinae Protestantium c. extant both in Latine and English what crime do we lay to their charge but we prove it by Authors and Testimonies of good credit and most commonly from among themselves What do we bring out of Antiquity in behalf of Catholike Religion or against them which they themselves confess not upon some other occasion The Protestants Apology is a Magazine of Evidences in this kinde And as concerning the Index Expurgatorius whereby they pretend that we Corrupt Authors it is onely a specious calumny to catch those who are willing to be deceived For first the very maner of proceeding doth exempt it from all imputation and suspicion of Fraud with indifferent men it being ab origine a thing intended and made for publike view and to be openly exposed and avowed to the world as it was which matters of Fraud Forgery and false play use not to be Secondly the Expurgators appointed to the oversight of that business meant not to corrupt Authors but to correct former and less perfect Editions by better Copies and more exactly compared especially such Editions as they found corruptly and partially published by Hereticks And where they observed that any late writer had been bold by way of Annotations or otherwise to deliver any thing out of his private judgement less consonant unto Catholike Doctrin or Truth then was requisite they spared not to admonish the Reader of it by their censure In all which doing what is there we pray that can be blamed Yea suppose it should happen that the reasons which moved them to Correct in this or that place and to vary from some other reading were not sufficient and that they inserted their Deleaâ—ur and other censures where they ought not yet I say the Index of their Expurgations being faithfully published to the world and so easily procureable by all men it was impossible that any prejudice should arise to truth by it every man being left free either to follow or refuse the said corrected Reading as he judged best Beside when we say Catholikes are not guilty of misalledging Authors or of any other abuse of that nature we would be understood to speak not onely of wilful and culpable misalledging of which onely we accuse our Adversaries but also of such writers especially as being themselves publikly Authorized to handle the controversies of Religion in the Schools Their works are afterward upon mature examination published to the view and judgement of the world or else of such Prelates and Persons of Dignity in the Church as have had leisure and set themselves to combat the Heresies of the time For otherwise as we do not charge them here with any mistakes of Amès Bucanus
secular Priests attainted or convinced of Actual Treason against her Majestie viz. Ballard for knowing and yet concealing the attempts of Babington in the business of the Queen of Scots and old Parson Plomtree of the North who said Mass once at a rising in those parts And yet how greevously are they charged with such crimes all along the Queens Reign And how much was the people incensed against them upon that perswasion What Sermons Proclamations Lawes were made in Thunder and Lightening and Blood against these poor men Souldiers of our Saviour Christ and fighting onely with Spiritual Arms under his Banner The Cross in that part of the Catholike Church which is Militant in England What calamities afflictions miseries have they not endured by persecution hereupon The onely Colledges of Rhemes and Doway beside other Religious Orders from other places have sent out into our Lords Harvest no less then One hundred persons who have all suffered for Things purely Spiritual that is either for being Priests or for doing the Office of Priesthood viz. Saying Mass Reconciling of Sinners unto God c. In the year 25. of Queen Elizabeth it was made Felony to harbor a Priest and to be a Priest Treason And the Act looked so cruelly back to primo Elizab. that whosoever was made Priest since that time might very easily be drawn within compass of the charge The Law was made upon occasion of those Treasons of Parry Francis Throgmorton Anthony Babington and his complices as also upon occasion of F. Campian and those Priests arraigned with him For a general apprehension was taken that these had combined with some forreign Princes and other persons of power within England to restore Religion and deliver the Queen of Scots out of prison which was a business then fresh in memory Hereupon the Priests in England frame a supplication by common consent and finde means to present the same to the Queen at Greenwich by the hands of Master Shelley Wherein after they have first condemned and renounced the practises of Parry c. They profess and declare their own judgement in these words First we utterly deny that the Pope hath power to command or give License to any man to consent unto Mortal sin or to commit or intend to commit any thing contrary to the Law of God Secondly whatsoever person he be that maintaineth such opinion we renounce him and his opinion as devilish and abominable Thirdly we protest before God That all Priests who ever conversed with us have acknowledged your Majestie their lawful Queen tam de jure quam de facto as well of right as for your actual possession of the Crown that they pray for you and exhort your Subjects to obey you Fourthly and lastly they profess that it is heresie and contrary to Cotholike faith to think that any man may lift up his hand against Gods Anointed T is true the Petition had no other success with her Majestie then this viz. that Master Shelley who presumed to commit such a Treason as to present it was suffered to be sent to the Marshalsea by order of Secretary Walsingham and there to be kept prisoner to his dying day onely upon this pretence Scilicet because the Councel had not been first acquainted with the business Howbeit by this supplication the world may cleerly see They answer the Six Articles which in those times used to be so commonly and captiously propounded to such men framed by Doctor Hammon viz. Whither the Queen were lawful Queen notwithstanding the sentence Decleratory of Pope Pius Quintus against her whither that sentence were to be obeyed in althings Whither the Pope by such sentence could give her Subjects any lawful Authority to rebel or depose her c. For if she be their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding that sentence and that obedience and loyalty be due unto all lawful Princes by the Law of God and of nature it is easie to see what must be said to such questions According also as Bishop Watson Abbot Fecknam Doctor John Harpsfeild Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild with others who were very often and rigidly examined upon them yet professed perpetually obedience to her Majestie tanquam verae Reginae as unto their true and lawful Sovereign Yea saith Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild reported by Goldastus a Protestant Ego regalem ejus Authoritatem Goldast de Monar Sac. Imp. Rom. c. I do acknowledge saith he her Royal Authority in all Temporal and Civil affair without exception They presented the like humble supplication to his Majestie that now reigneth some while after the discovery of that wicked and desperate Plot of the Gun-powder-treason another to the Parliament then sitting and another to the Earl of Salisbury in all of them professing the same things And though it hindred not the passing of some severe Acts against Catholikes in that Parliament occasioned as I suppose by that foul and horrid attempt yet the King himself in his Proclamation published upon that subject gratiously professeth his opinion of the generality of his Catholike Subjects viz. That they did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then himself True it is F. Garnet suffered for concealing that Treason and Sir Everard Digby for contributing in some sort to the security or rather flight of some of the Conspirators But as the one viz. Sir Everard Digby much lamented his ill fortune that he should leave behinde him the memory of so great a stain protesting always that he was never made privy to their design and drift So the other viz. F. Garnet knowing it onely as he did in the way of confession and the Seal of that Sacrament which is Secrecy being by the Doctrine of Catholike Religion and that not without most just and necessary cause esteemed so inviolable it may abate something even in the judgement of man of that Heynousness of guilt and blame whereof all good Christians otherwise must necessarily condemn him In a word how much Catholikes in general and especially Priests do detest rebellion and Treason even in times of greatest affliction and pressure and what Religious observers they are of all just loyalty and obedience to their lawful Princes appears cleerly not onely by a book written in those times by the learned Bishop of Chichester Doctor Christopherson against rebellion but also by the Annotations of the Divines at Rhemes upon the New Testament where Pag. 301. we read thus Subjects saie they are bound in Temporal things to obey even the Heathen being their lawful Kings and to be subject to them for Conscience to observe their Temporal Laws to pay them Tribute to pray for them and to perform all other duties of Natural Allegiance Doctor Kellison in his Survey goeth further giving the reason of this Because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction neither is any Authority lost by the loss of Faith Which is also the Doctrine of Saint Thomas who in his Book Cap. 6. de Regim Princip denieth utterly
we see well enough it had been in other cases of this Nature Neither in King Edward the Sixths time nor against the Kings of Scotland Denmark Sweden Duke of Saxony Marquis of Brandenburgh or any other Protestant Prince was there ever any such sentence issued to this day Whereupon Father Pâ—rsons and Father Campian procured some kinde of mitigation concerning it presently after the publishing and Pope Gregory following declared That the Subjects of England ought to perform all duties to Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the censures So little reason is there in truth that Protestants should clamour so loud as they do and cry out nothing but Treason Treason against religious and good men who as they have no other business so come they hither for no other end but to do them good and so far as lieth in their power and office to save their souls They tell the world that no less then two hundred Priests have been executed in England for Treason since the times of Reformation which is certainly a very heavy report and sufficient to make them odious to all the world if it were true or that there were any thing in it but fallacie and aequivocation of words whiles they call that Treason in England which in all parts of Christendome besides is both called and counted Religion and the highest Vertue For we beseech them to tell us of what Treason do they convict us at any time but the Treason of being a Priest the Treason to say Mass the Treason to refuse the Oath the Treason to absolve Penitents confessing their sins the Treason to restore men to the Communion of the Church the Treason to Preach and Administer Christs Sacraments the Treason to be bred up in the Seminaries that is in such places where onely as things now stand in England thâ—y can be Catholikely bred and fitted for such Christian imployment What actual and real Treason is in England according to the true sâ—nse and notion of that crime â—dious both to God and man the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. will inform us better then any other being enacted when the whole Kingdom was of one mind and of one judgement as all Christian Kingdoms and Societies ought to be not rent nor overborn by factions and parties undermining and supplanting one another by indirect and undue meanes as it was when these new Statutes of Treason were made By that Statute and by the opinions of the most learned Judges in England Ploydon Stamford c. Treason must alwayes be some Action or Intention actually discovered not an opinion onely or a profession of Religion And this is the reason why Sir John Oldcastle Stow. one of Mr. Fox his Martyrs in the Reign of Henry the Fifth mentioned before though he were both Traytor and Heretike yet for his Treason he was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another as also were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time Secondly it must be some Act or Intention discovered of a subject prejudicial to his Sovereign or to the State where he lives But what hurt had ever I say not Queen Mary Henry the Eighth while he stood right Henry the Seventh or any other Catholike Prince but even Queen Elizabeth her self King James or any other Protestant Prince by a Priests saying Mass absolving of Penitents preaching of sound Doctrine to them and particularly of all due and just obedience to Civil Magistrates as they have ever constantly done Therefore by the common Laws of England and in it self it is not it cannot be Treason or criminous to be a Priest to say Mass Absolve c. But onely by Statute Laws it is made so upon temporary and present occasions and for certain politick ends which men have projected of themselves and which they are resolved to follow And therefore also it is by the very Statutes themselves provided 22. and 27. Elizab. That if a Priest conforms be content to go to Church to renounce the Pope or his Orders c. he becomes ipso facto without more ado Rectus in Curia and is actually discharged of all imputation of Treason no further proceedings lie against him Yea even at the very place of Execution and when the instruments of death are upon him yet still 't is in his own power if he please in three words to pardon himself and frustrate the expectation of so many eyes as are commonly waiting to see his last Exit Let him but say I will conform or I will swear c. Ther 's no man living dares meddle with him further Which is far otherwise where the offence is judged to be Treâ—son indeed and really prejudicial to the Prince or State But the fatal resolution being taken to change Religâ—on upon a principle or pretended reason of State as false as the Counsel it self was evil viâ— That otherwise the Queen could not be secure either of her Kingdom or Life it was necessary to take a severe course with those men whose Function obliged them to maintain True Religion and to endeavour to reduce things again into the old State From this root also sprang their extream jealousie and hatred of the Queen of Scots For she being Heir Apparent to the Crown after Queen Elizabeth and a Princess zealously affected unto Catholike Religion and so strongly Allied in France Those Statesmen who had contrived and wrought all the alterations here could never think themselves secure so long as her head stood upon her shoulders Therefore was she first invited into England upon pretence of Friendship and for Safety But when she was here used with so much unkindness and kept under restraint for little less then twenty years together that at last in order to procure her Liberty she was indeed provoked to doe something which it was easie for them who loved her not to interpret to be Treason and so they cut off her head From hence also sprung those continual injuries and practises of much ingratitude against the King of Spain The intercepting of his Treasure The holding of his Towns The ayding of Orange and the States as hath been said Lastly from this onely Source and Fountain of unjust Policie sprung all those laws of severity and bloud against Recusants as we are commonly called viz. of Twenty pound a moneth of Two third parts of Estate against Hearing Mass against Harbouring a Priest against Being reconciled c. It is well known the Recusants of England against whom those Laws were made were generally persons in all degrees of the Noblest quality in this Nation Vertuous Grave Wise Charitable Just and Good men of fair and friendly Conversation towards all I shall not say Loyal to their Prince because the contrary is so commonly beleeved Stow. yet our own Chronicles will not altogether deny them right in that regard while they testifiâ— how diligent and forward they were to offer their service to the Queen and State even in that great Action of Eighty eight Neither were
they altogether refused by her Majesty They were also generally men of plentiful Fortunes and good Estates and are so still except such as the Lawes and hard times have impoverished Yet because for Conscience sake they refuse to hear Common-prayer and Sermons to receive the Communion according to the new order of the Church of England they stand by Law as it were marked out for destruction and branded with all the Characters of ignominy suspition and prejudice which the people of any State even for the greatest crimes actually commited Sir Edw. Cook can justly suffer It is reported by a great Lawyer of this Nation that from primo Elizab. till the Bull of Pius Quintus was published which was about half a score or a dozen years after No person in England refused to come to Church as if perchance that Bull had beâ—â— the sole occasion which Catholikes took to disobey the Queens Injunctions But it is a great error For not to speak any thing of Puritans many of whom before that time refused the Church-Service how many Bishops and Priests were there in England known and professed Recusants from the first beginning How many Noblemen and Gentlemen of account did openly and absolutely refuse to joyn with their New Church It is true and to be lamented The revolt of the English under Queen Elizabeth from the true Catholike Religion so lately restored was too general and too many there were who suffered themselves to be carried away with the stream of Authority and with the evill example of their Neighbors and especially of Great Ones But what is this but a general infirmity and weakness commonly observed in the people What Form soever of Religious Profession a State sets up it proves an Idol to them and they are apt to fall down before it yea though the Figure which they worship as it happens sometimes hath much more of the Calf then of the Man in it And for this respect it cannot but be matter of much consideration to all wise States-men and States to be well advised how far they proceed in this kinde viz. of establishing or setting up any outward form or profession of Religion whatsoever especially by any compulsory Acts or Penalties lest the bloud of Souls lye upon their account another day As most certainly it shall whensoever people are misled into any corrupt way of Religion meerly upon the Authority and Resolution of the State And yet notwithstanding there were in many places of the Kingdom not a few of worthy and constant Catholikes who never bowed theer knees unto Baal that is never consented nor made profession of Heresie one way or other as Lanhearne Ashby de la Zouch Grafton Dingley Cowdrey and many other places can witness by whose integrity the Catholike Church in England viz. that Remnant according to the election of Grace which God was pleased to preserve here from the general contagion to glorifie his name by suffering and to give Testimony unto Truth have subsisted and stood by the great mercy of God unto this day though indeed suffering grievously for their Conscience as God was pleased from time to time to exercise them by confiscation of their Estates vexations by Pursivants and Promoters restraint and imprisonment of their persons at Wisbich Ely Banbury York Ludlow Bury the Fleet Gatehouse c. Not to speak any thing of the spoil of their Woods leasing their Lands exaction of Fines nor yet of their disarming by Law because this last though it were as unjust and undeserved as the rest yet it had more of disgrace and ignominy in it then of real damage arguing onely suspition or jealousie which the State would seem to have of them and nothing more But the Twenty pounds a moneth was a burden insupportable especially to the meaner sort Although it must be confessed the rigour and extremity thereof was many times moderated by the Lord Treasurer Burleigh Now to compare these men with the Recusant Puritans in England for such we must know there are more then a good many in all Countries All Recusants are not Popish if it were not too odious it might be very necessary and the world could not but see much better and acknowledge the patience humility and obsequious deportment of Catholikes compared with the others insolency and stoutness For t is very well seen already that this growing Sect of Protestant Recusants are not men likely to bear such burdens should the State finde it necessary to impose them They discover a far different Spirit even now while they are but in their shell as we may say and without any visible power or interest within the Nation save that of their number Compare them with the Recusant Fâ—ugonots of France who are Brethren and of the same principles with â—urs in England you would think our Catholike Gentlemen here to be all Priests in respect of their sober humble and Christian carriage of themselves whensoever they fall under question for Religion Their very Ministers there you would take to be all Sword-men Captains Sons of Mars so much fury rage breaths out in every word or action of theirs which relates to the publike Catholikes here are persons of all other most unwilling to offend Recusants there most unwilling to obey These defend their Religion with their Swords and by resistance of the Civil Magistrate ours onely with their Pen and with their prayers Ours endure and à Scio cui credidi with St. Paul is all their comfort These endure nothing wil trust no body with their cause but themselves and their Cautionary towns They have their Bezas Their Marlorates Chamiers and other Boutefeux swarming thick in all parts of the Kingdom ready to incense and set on fire the distempered multitude against their lawful governors they have their Montaubans their Rochels Saumurs Montpelliers places of refuge and retreat strong and well fortified to shelter themselves when they cannot make good their designs in the field Catholikes here have none of all these They have no Preachers but Preachers of Pennance and Mortification They hear no Sermons at any time but such as teach them Obedience Patience Resignation to the will of God and to be willing to suffer whatsoever the will of God is They have no places of security but their own unarmed houses which if they change it is always for the Fleet Gatehouse Newgate or som other prison and place of restraint Much talk there is among Protestants of the Inquisition its severity cruelty partiality and what not to make it odious and terrible to the people but verily if a man do well consider it in comparison of the troubles vexation and manifold danger both for life liberty and estate whereto the Catholikes of England Priests and Religious persons especially are subject it may seem rather a Scare-crow then any thing else Charls the Fifth Emperor in the year 1521. at Worms decreed onely Exile against Luther notwithstanding his obstinacy and all the
mischief which he had brought upon Germany and that his Books should be burned In the year 1526. at Machlin he enacted a Penalty against Hereticks and all such as disputed the Controversies of Religion Heretically or that kept prohibited Books viz. for the first offence Forty shillings for the Second Four pound for the Third Eight pound and Banishment as the best remedy he could think of to preserve others from infection In the year 1529. if they repented not of their error he adjudged Viris ignem Mulieribus fossam That men should be burned and women buried alive which was no more then anciently the Laws prescribed nor then what Calvin himself exercised upon Servetus at Genevah In the year 1531. he confirmed these former Acts with something additional against such as pulled down Images or defaced them with any malitious intention viz. that such persons should loose their goods This is the sum of all those Laws of the Emperor Charlâ— the Fifth concerning Religion so much complained of in the Low-Countries and concerning the Execution whereof there were also many exceptions qualifications and limitations procured by the Regent in the year 1555. upon advise of Viglius President of the Counsel at Brussels and to take away all occasions that might poâ—â—â—bly hinder Traffick or be a means of oppression to innocent and quiet people And for King Philip he always professed particularly in his answer to Montigny in Spain that he intended no addition of severity to his Fathers Laws nor to create any new offences but onely to punish those which were of old censured for offences both by the Church and State Let us look then upon England and consider if the penalties upon Catholikes here be not far more in number and much more severe To acknowledge the Popes Supremacy in Spiritualibus is Treason To be reconcilâ—d is Treason To refuse the Oath upon the first offence is a Praemunire the second Treason For Priests to come over into England is Treason if any that were made Priests since Primo Elizab. shall stay Forty days in England after the Parliament 1585. 't is Treason To Harbor a Priest is Felony and Death If yong Students beyond Sea return not and abjure their Religion it is Treason To bring in an Agnus Dei Beads or Crosses is a Praemunire To bring a Bull or any Sentence of Excommunication from Rome that may concern the Queen is Treason To absolve or reconcile a man is Treason Not coming to Church was at first Twelve pence every Sunday and to be liable to further censure afterwards viz. Twenty seven Elizab. it was made Twenty pound a moneth where it could be had otherwise their bodies were to fine for it in prison To depart out of the Realm without License and not to return within Six moneths after the Proclamation is a forfeiture of all Goods and Lands during life To hear Mass is an offence fined at One hundred Marks If a mans Son or Servant not Merchant goeth beyond Sea with his consent he forfeits One hundred pounds I speak nothing of their loss of goods imprisonments reproaches chains fetters which upon many other pretended and feigned occasions they are frequently made subject unto nor of banishment which would be counted many times matter of great favor Nor yet of the rigorous and vexatious Execution of all these Laws which makes the Tower full of such Patients and new prisons to be erected for the entertainment of them nor of the hard usage which they frequently find in those prisons The sad examples of Master Tregion at Launston of Master Rigby of Master Christopher Watson who perished at Yoâ—k with Eighteen persons more in the year 1581. with the very infection of the prison do shew sufficiently what they suffer Adde hereunto the strict examination of the Justices the proceedings of the High-Commission against them that inquisition of England not altogether untruly so called the multitude of Promoters in all the Temporal Courts of the Kingdom informing against them of Pursuivants searching and rifling their houses upon every light suspicion and not seldom without any at all but onely to make them Fine and to purchase their quiet with money Lastly the Racks and Torturings which Father Campian Father Southwel with many others tasted in their times how can they be forgotten concerning whose case I mean of Father Campian and his Associates especially beside that the whole matter of their Accusation seemed upon Tryal rather to be grounded upon words and some verbal discourse then upon any Actual design or attempt really projected against the Queen or the State and beside that at the time of their Tryal as I have been credibly informed there were persons of very Honest Quality who offered to depose that sundry of the Parties accuâ—ed were at the times specified in their several charges many hundreds of miles distant from the places where their supposed Treasons and Conspiracies were said to be I say bâ—side all this the Queens unwillingness to have them dye testifiâ—d by her own Historian is argument sufficient with indifferent mâ—n what great Traytors she conceived them to be For their Arraignment and Tryal having been in November 1581. * Stow. they suffered not till the first of September 1582. and then it was aegrè consentiente Reginâ as Camden himself confâ—sseth They who sought their lives had much ado to procure the Queens consent that the Sentence of death should be executed upon them Surely there is no man so extreamly partial or purblinde but will easily observe how much greater affliction and pressures the Catholikes of England have endured by the Laws of this Realm then the Geuses of Holland ever did or could do by the inquisition among them And how much more their state and condition might be justly commiserated especially when not onely Anabaptists and those other more innocent and harmless Sects but Puritans great and stubborn enemies of the State Arians Socinians yea even Professed Atheists and men of far more violent passions and destructive principles then Catholikes can with any reason be supposed to hold are scarce searched after or punished And yet notwithstanding all this to preserve the Queens reputation for Humanity and fair dealing with her Subjects the Book called the Execution of English Justice will make the world beleeve That no man in England is punished for Religion no mans Conscience is medled withall no man is examined upon matters of Faith But is it possible that such a pretence should be sustâ—ined by man so notoriously contrary to truth so easily so manifestly disprovable even by sight and the evidence of their own dayly proceedings In the year 1581. there was a general Pardon granted by the Queen but with a strict Caution and Proviso That no person in Prison nor Recusant for Religion should have benefit thereby which Malefactors of all sorts had Was this no punishment The Recusants pay Twenty pound a moneth for their Recusancy is this no punishment The Turk himself