Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England And as for the person says he to the English Catholicks now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his advancement above all others as the only Heir of that renowned Mother for whom your fervent zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the person for the place and manner of his advancement all zealous Catholicks have both wished and prayed that he might first be a Catholick and then our King this being our bounded duty to wish and his greatest good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholick which with some others might breed disgust Thus the Jesuit thought to pacifie King James's Court by a piece of Impudence to be met with only in a Jesuit whoever will be at the pains to compare Parson's Doleman with this Preface cannot but declare him to be the greatest Villain that ever set Pen to Paper and to have lost all sense of Modesty Truth and Justice Amidst these his Projects for the Spanish Interest he had hopes upon the death of Cardinal Allen to be made by the Spanish Interest a Cardinal for England and there was set about in Flanders by Holt the Jesuit and Worthington a Petition to the King of Spain for that purpose subscribed by the Common Soldiers Labourers Artizans and Pensioners nay Scullions and Laundresses as well as by those of better rank and quality Upon this Father Parsons makes haste out of Spain to Rome to hinder it as the Jesuits say for him when he came thither upon a day set him he waited on the Pope and acquainted him how the City was full of the discourse of his being shortly to be made a Cardinal and that Spain and Flanders rung with it too and therefore begged of him that he would not think of making him a Cardinal who might be more serviceable in the condition he was now in to the affairs of England The Pope told him That the King of Spain had not written a syllable to him about any such thing and that he must not mind foolish Reports and bid him go and mind his studies I cannot but think that this neglect in the King of Spain lost him Father Parsons who soon after though he could not leave of plotting went on other designs four of which he seems to have had on foot together for the Exclusion of King James from the Crown of England The most improbable one was that of the Peoples rising and setting up a popular Government he had furnished them with Principles in several of his Books for this purpose In the Second and Third he dealt with the Pope either about making if his Purse and Interest were large enough his Kinsman the Duke of Parma King or in joyning with the Lady Arabella's Interest and marrying her to the Duke's Brother the Cardinal Farnese whom he had made upon the death of Cardinal Cajetan Protector of England thereby to ingratiate him with the Clergy and Laity of this Kingdom Cardinal d'Ossat gives a very large account of both these Projects in the Letter whcih I have already quoted to the King of France And in another of his Letters he gives an account of the fourth Project wherein he himself had been dealt with by Parsons then Rector of the College of Jesuits at Rome which was that the Pope the King of France and King of Spain should agree among themselves of a Successor for England that should be a Catholick and that they should joyn their Forces to settle him in the Throne of England Thus we see how Plotting and Treason was the whole business of this Jesuit's Life in which he was so notorious that Pasquin set him forth thus at Rome If there be any Man that will buy the Kingdom of England let him repair to a Merchant in a black square Cap in the City and he shall have a very good penniworth thereof While he thus filled his head with designs and hopes of a Popish Prince to be set up in England by some of these foreign Princes it was that he drew up the following Memorial for that his Prince his Directions to whom are like his other Counsels and Actions I will trouble the Reader with no more of his History As I take the Jesuits to be the very worst of Men so I think the preceeding accounts have proved Father Parsons to be the very worst of Jesuits A MEMORIAL OF THE REFORMATION of ENGLAND CONTAINING Certain Notes and Advertisements which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National Council of our Country after God of his mercy shall restore it to the Catholick Faith for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion Gathered and set-down by R.P. 1596. THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR SHEWING How and why these Notes were gathered and the principal Parts to be treated THE Notes and Observations of this Memorative following were gathered and laid together in time of Persecution when there was no place to execute or put them in ure and it is no more than seventeen or eighteen Years past that the Gatherer began first to put some of them in writing and having had the experience of the Years which have ensued since and his part also in the Catholic affairs of his Country and the Practice of divers other Catholic Nations abroad he was desirous in case that himself should not live to see the desired day of the Reduction of England yet some of his Cogitations and Intentions for the publick good thereof might work some effect after his Death and that thereby other Men might be the sooner moved to enter into more mature Considerations of these and such like Points yea and also to descend unto many more particulars than here are set down For that the Gatherer's meaning was only to open the way and to insinuate certain general and principal Heads that might serve for an awaking and remembrance at that happy day of the Conversion of our Country unto such Persons as shall be then able and desirous to further the common good and to advance Almighty God's Glory with a Holy Zeal of perfect Reformation who perhaps may be so entangled with multitudes of other business and Cogitations at that time as they will not so easily enter into these except they be put in mind thereof by some such Memorials and Advertisements as here are touched And what is said in this Treatise for the Kingdom of England is meant also for Ireland so far as it may do good seeing the Author desireth as much benefit for God's Service and the good of that Nation to the one Country as to the other And for that the principal
violently urged by the Jesuits above all others excepting that Society whose rich Colleges and abundance of Treasure made it apparent quickly to the World that some were great gainers while the poor Lay-Catholicks were made great sufferers by that Recusancy Upon Campian's Execution England grew too hot for our Father Parsons and notwithstanding the mighty zeal he pretended for the Conversion of England yet he was for saving one and getting out of harms way and therefore slips away back into France under the Pretext of conferring with Doctor Allen about the Seminaries and of Printing some Books which could not be done in England and never returned hither tho' he continued Superiour of the Jesuits Mission after this But though the Kingdom was delivered from such a Firebrand yet he continued diligent beyond Seas in his Seditious Designs and was to the last a constant Enemy to his Native Countrey As he had laboured in the promoting the Popish Recufancy and getting the English Papists to be governed by the Jesuits so he now employs all his Arts and all his interest to get Seminaries erected for the supplying England from time to time with Priests to keep up that Recufancy and to prepare the Papists here to joyn with any Invasion that they abroad should procure against their own Countrey Assoon as he was got hence to Roan in France he dealt with the Duke of Guise to erect a Seminary for such a purpose in Normandy after which he goes into Spain and prevails with King Philip to encourage and erect such in Spain so that in a short time they could not only boast of their Seminaries at Rome and at Rhemes but of those at Valladolid at Sevil at St. Lucars in Spain at Lisbon in Portugal at Doway and St. Omers in Flanders in all which their Youth were educated with violent Prejudices against their own Native Countrey and their minds were formed to all the Purposes and Designs which this chief Incendiary Parsons had in his head Father Moor the Author of the History of the Mission does indeed tell us That Father Parsons was for having the Youth that were entered into these Seminaries to take an Oath about faithfully answering the End and Benefit of their Education there but says not a word of their being forced to subscribe the Infanta of Spain's Title against the True Title of the then King of Scots King James the First The Oath was this IN. N. considering with how great benefits God hath blessed me c. do promise by God's assistance to enter into Holy Orders assoon as I shall be fit for them and to return into England to Convert my Countrey-men there whenever it shall please the Superior of this House to command me But when once Father Parsons being puffed up with his Familiarity with the King and Court of Spain had devoted his Soul and Body both to the service of that aspiring Crown then he was for having the Youth in the Seminaries to subscribe to the Spanish Title which was of his own inventing to the Crown of England then he was for speaking out his design against his Native Countrey And that he dealt in such traiterous designs after his getting out of England is proved upon him by their own Writers As touching the Colleges says Clark the Priest concerning him and Pensions that are maintained and given by the Spaniard which he so often inculcateth we no whit thank him for them as things are handled and occasions thereby ministred of our greater Persecution at home by reason of Father Parson's treacherous practices thereby to promote the Spanish Title to our Country and his hateful Stratagems with such Scholars as are there brought up enforcing them to subscribe to Blanks and by publick Orations to fortifie the said wrested Title of the Infanta meaning Isabella Clara Eugenia Daughter to Philip the Second of Spain whose Right to the English Crown was maintain'd in a Book by this Parsons made but published by him under the false name of Doleman As this Priest gives us an account of the zeal of Father Parsons for the Infanta so Watson another Romish Priest helps us to another of his knavery about the same affair That Parsons earnestly moving the young Students in Spain to set their hands to a Schedule that they would accept the Lady Infanta for Queen of England after the decease of her Majesty to wit Queen Elizabeth that now is but finding them altogether unwilling to intermedle with these State-affairs belonging nothing to them and most hurtful to both their Cause and Persons used this cunning shift to draw on the innocent and simple youths to pretend forsooth to them of Valladolid that the Students in Sevil had done it already no remedy then but they must follow And that having thus craftily gotten their names he shewed them to the Students in Sevil for an example of their fact and forwardness which he required them to imitate Though these are sufficient Evidences of the use Father Parsons put the erected Seminaries to yet I cannot but add that great and wise Cardinal the Cardinal d'Ossat's account of these very Seminaries in his Letter to the King of France Henry the Fourth about the Spaniards and Father Parsons Design against England For this purpose also says he were the Colleges and Seminaries erected by the Spaniards for the English at Doway and at St. Omers wherein the young Gentlemen of the best Families in England are entertain'd thereby to oblige them and by them their Parenâ—â— and Kindred and Friends The principal care which these Colleges and Seminaries have is to catechise and bring up these young English Gentlemen in this Faith and firm Belief that the late King of Spain had and that his Children now have the true Right of Succession to the Crown of England and that this is advantageous and expedient for the Catholick Faith not only in England but where-ever Christianity is And when these young English Gentlemen have finished their Humanity-Studies and are come to such an age then to make them throughly Spaniards they are carried out of the Low-Countries into Spain where there are other Colleges for them wherein they are instructed in Philosophy and Divinity and confirmed in the same Belief and holy Faith that the Kingdom of England did belong to the late King of Spain and does now to his Children After that these young English Gentlemen have finished their courses those of them that are found to be most Hispaniolized and most couragious and firm to this Spanish Creed are sent into England to sow this Faith among them to be Spies and give advice to the Spaniards of what is doing in England and what must and ought to be done to bring England into the Spaniards hands and if need be to undergo Martyrdom as soon or rather sooner for this Spanish Faith than for the Catholick Religion In this Cardinal we find to what excellent purposes the Seminaries were erected that Father Parsons laboured
so much about and of which he glories so much up and down his Writings These Seminaries were the Nurseries of the Conspiracies and Treasons which were from time to time set on foot and carried on against the Queen and Realm of England and Father Parson 's whole Life from his leaving the Mission in England appears to me to have been one continued Act of Treason against his Natural Queen and Native Country To mention some of his Treasons that are come to light he was very grateful to the Duke of Guise whom he had perswaded to set up a Seminary in France for the English that should come thither for with him he conspires against his own Queen how to depose her and set up in her room Popery and the Queen of Scots He endeavoured for this purpose as we are told to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the State of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But that her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queen's Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in her affairs But notwithstanding these People would not let our Father Parsons have any thing further to do in those treasons which were really carried on at that time for the Queen of Scots yet he pretended to mighty merit upon her and her Son's Account in his Letter to Father Chreyton the Jesuit telling him how many long and tedious journeys he had taken for their sakes and how much Mony he had procured for them at one time twenty four thousand Crowns from the King of Spain at another time the same summ and from Pope Gregory XIII four thousand Crowns he confesses indeed that things had not succeeded for them as he had wished but wonders that any body should make him to be an Enemy to the King of Scots who had been so very serviceable to him and his Mother I suppose Father Parsons was disgusted at this sleighting of his faithful services to the Queen of Scots by her Ministers and to be revenged of her and them betakes himself wholly into the Spanish Interest which he espoused so far as not only to sollicite and encourage their open attempts by Invasion against England but after the ill success of that to set up their sham Title to the Kingdom of England He and Cardinal Allen whom Parsons had by his Interest with the King of Spain procured to be made a Cardinal two Brethren in iniquity were mighty forward for the famous Spanish Invasion in 1588. and to make it more successful wrote in defence of it a Tract which Allen was perswaded to own though Parsons had as great if not a greater hand in it than himself In this Admonition to the Nobility and People of England the Queen's Government is called impious and unjust her self an Usurper obstinate and impentinent and it is affirmed that for this reason Pope Sixtus Quintus moved by his own and his Predecessors zeal and the vehement desire of some principal Englishmen had used great diligence with divers Princes especially with the Spanish King to use all his force that she might be turned out of her Dominions and her Adherents punished for a great many Reasons there laid together after which it proceeds thus Wherefore seeing these Offences some of them rendring her uncapable of the Kingdom others unworthy to live his Holiness by the power of God and the Apostles reneweth the Censures of Pius V. and Gregory XIII against her excommunicates and deprives her of all Royal Dignity Titles Rights and Pretences to England and Ireland declares her Illegitimate and an Usurper of the Kingdoms and absolves all her Subjects from their Obedience and Oaths of Allegiance due to her And expressly commands All under pain and penalty of God's Wrath to yield her no obedience aid or favour whatsoever but to employ all their power against her and to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces who will not hurt the Nation nor alter their Laws or Priviledges only punish the wicked Hereticks And by the same Presents it was declared not only lawful but commendable to lay hands on the said Usurper and other her Adherents for doing of which they should be well rewarded And lastly to all these Roman Assistants is liberally granted a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their Sins But this unerring Thunderbolt as well as the Spanish Invincible Armado did very shamefully miscarry to the no small disappointment of our good Father Parsons who was not discouraged at that defeat though a worse Man than himself if any such could be would have seen the Finger of God plainly in it but labours with the King of Spain a while after for a second Invasion and after that for a third plotting and devising all ways to bring the King of Spain to it and the Papists of England both those at home and the fugitives abroad to joyn and assist the King of Spain in it but all his pains was lost about these Invasions from abroad and therefore he next sets himself to raise a Rebellion in England it self and deals with Ferdinand Earl of Derby to appear in and â—ead it which because he declined to do he was poysoned by Father Hesketh's procurement who had been sent to him by Father Parsons But failing here also of the desired success the poor Father was now at a loss what to do with this Kingdom of England and since he saw all miscarried that he had plotted against Queen Elizabeth who descended to her Grave full of years and honour his next business was to keep out King James who was a Protestant also from succeding her For this purpose he wrote his Doleman or Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England the chief design of which was to exclude the Scotch Title as well the Lady Arabella's as King James's and to set up the Spanish Infanta I know Mr. Camden will have Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to have their shares in this Book but Cardinal d'Ossat who had far better opportunities of finding out the Author makes it to be Parson's own and in one of his Letters to the King of France gives that King an account of it wherein he gives our Jesuit the true Character he deserved of being a fellow that regarded neither truth nor reason One thing I cannot but remark here that though this Jesuit had the Impudence to meddle in these matters and to set up forged Titles against the Royal Line of Scotland yet when King James contrary to their Popish designs as well as Expectations did quietly succeed to the Crown of England he had the greater Impudence to deny his ever intending to exclude that King this is in the Preface to his Three Conversions of England added upon the news of the Queens Death and
THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE Church of England THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL For the Intended Reformation of England Under their First POPISH PRINCE PUBLISHED From the Copy that was presented TO THE Late KING JAMES II. WITH An INTRODUCTION and some ANIMADVERSIONS BY EDWARD GEE Rector of St. Benedict Paul's-Wharf and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXC To the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of S. ASAPH Lord Almoner to Their MAJESTIES My Lord IT was a very easie thing for me to determine to whom I should present the following Discourses as it was from your Lordship's Sermon before Their Majesties the last 5th of November that I had the hint of your Lordship's having seen the Memorial that we had sought but in vain so earnestly after in the late King's Time so it was by your Lordship's Interest that I obtained not only the happiness of seeing it but the permission to publish it from the most authentick if not the only Copy in England from that which had been presented by the Jesuits to the late King James himself And since my Lord Decency requires the concealing from whose hands your Lordship received this Copy of the Memorial and the Leave for me to publish it it was necessary for me to address it to your Lordship from whose hands I received it that thereby any Objections against my Fidelity or Truth herein may be prevented as all will when my Lord Almoner's Name is seen at the Head of it Some indeed will wonder to see a Jesuit's Book dedicated by a Minister of the Church of England to a Bishop that hath been always most zealous against Popery and especially against the Jesuits Order to such persons I hope this Apology will be sufficient I am sure it will be to your Lordship that I publish this Jesuit's Memorial because I am fully perswaded that I am by it doing a greater service to the Protestant Interest against Popery than I was ever able to do by any thing I wrote against Popery during the Controversie in the late Reign In this Memorial we have naked Jesuitism and the several Projects laid down by which our Protestant Religion was not only to have been rooted out of England but the very possibility of its ever reviving here prevented and this I hope will teach some of the discontented People among us to acknowledge at least that our danger from the Jesuits Faction in the last Reign was as great as we made it and that our Deliverance by their present Majesties was a far greater blessing upon the account of our Protestant Establishment than they have hitherto been pleased to believe it I have had so much experience of your Lordship's goodness towards me that I do not in the least suspect your pardoning me the trouble of this Address Had I had no other reasons to make it the many favours I have received at your Lordship's hands would have engaged me to make this publick acknowledgment for them since I cannot but reckon it one of the greatest blessings of my Life that I have the honour to be known to your Lordship who are so eminent for your extraordinary Learning Piety Charity and Moderation I mention your Lordship's Moderation because some Men of late have been pleased to be very angry with your Lordship for it had your Lordship and those Eminent Persons that continued of your Judgment been as willing to part with Episcopacy as with the Apocrypha and as desirous to lay aside the whole Liturgy as they were to improve it I should have excused their anger against you for which I can see no other reason in the World but that your Lordship and those of your Mind could not forget so fast and so entirely as some others did their discourses their promises and intentions about accommodating matters with the Moderate Dissenters as well as giving ease to the rest of them That your Lordship may be blessed with a long continuance of health and enabled thereby to finish those excellent Designs that you have under your hands that you may long continue an Ornament to the Church of England and to Protestant Episcopacy and may be blest with success in your endeavours for the Establishment and Glory of both these is the most sincere Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's most obliged and most obedient Servant EDWARD GEE THE INTRODUCTION SINCE the Jesuit that was Author of the following Memorial has made so much noise in the World and was infamous for his Treasonable Practices during the Reigns he lived in and has by his seditious writings laid the Foundation of perpetual trouble to the Kingdom of England as long as there are or shall be either Papists in England or English Papists beyond Seas it will not be improper to furnish the Reader with the History of him that thereby he may be enabled to read and pass a truer Judgment upon the following Memorial for rooting out our Protestant establishment and replanting again their Popish Religion in England The World is not agreed either about his Name or Parentage for the Name of Parsons or Persons as he writes it himself they will have it to be given him upon a scandalous reason while the true name of his supposed Father was Cowback or Cubbuck He was born not at Stockersey in Somerset-Shire as the Secular Priests affirm against him but at Nether-Stowey in that County and notwithstanding the meanness of his Parentage had the advantage of a liberal Education and was fitted for the University whither he was sent and admitted into Baliol College in Oxford he was afterwards made Fellow of the same College and entered into Holy Orders and became a noted Tutor having the greatest number of Pupils in the College But notwithstanding his setting out so very well he was afterwards turned out of his Fellowship and the College with disgrace he was not expelled indeed but forced to resign with leave to keep his Chambers and Pupils a while longer but this grace was quickly crossed out the occasion of which the Writers of those times and of his own Society are very much divided about Father Morus the Jesuit and Author of the History of the Jesuits Mission into England will have it to be because he was not only suspected of inclining to Popery but as he will have it palam de Religione aliter judicaret loqueretur quam regni jura definierant c. both thought and spake openly for the Romish Religion and therefore that it was an unfit and a dangerous thing to trust such a Man with the Education of so many Youth as he generally had under his care But this cannot be the true reason since Father Persons behaved himself as a good Protestant and conversed especially with such Men Mr. Squire and Dr. Hide for example then famous Men and zealous Protestants as might instruct and confirm
very promising in those affairs and did not deceive their expectations being fierce and zealous in promoting their Cause He seems to have over-acted his part since he quickly drew upon himself no very favourable Opinion from the General of their Order who found him too turbulent busie and medling and therefore complain'd That he was more troubled with one English man meaning our Father Parsons than with all the rest of his Society He was however after having been but five years among them pitch'd upon to be one of the Jesuits that should be sent in their first Mission into England and perhaps his unquiet and boisterous temper might be the best reason their General had to send him away Cardinal Allen was the person that first motioned such a mission of Jesuits into England and named Father Parsons not only for one but to be the Superiour The picking out such a man does tell the World as plain as words themselves could what the true business was upon which these Jesuits were first sent into England The great pretence and what was published every where was that they were only sent into Christ's Vineyard to serve the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to recover others from their Heresies and Schism but Cardinal Allen knew other things and another sort of a design a design that required such men as Father Parsons himself was Had their sending been only and purely about Spiritual matters and the Salvation of Souls of all men living he would not have singled out our Jesuit whom he lookt upon to be a man very violent and of an unquiet Spirit and therefore more likely to cause Breaches and Divisions than to heal them And therefore some people who were not let into the Secret were very much disturbed when they heard that Father Parsons was sending amongst them expecting no good but a great deal of mischief to all the Catholicks left in England from the management of such a violent not cholerick and domineering Superiour even Blackwel himself that was afterwards Arch-Priest and so much at Father Parson's Devotion bewailed the coming of Parsons into England to a Friend of his saying That the President at Rhemes meaning Dr. after Cardinal Allen played a very indiscreet part to send him hither as being an unfit man to be employed in the Causes of Religion And being asked by that Friend why Father Parsons was unmeet for that Employment his answer was because his casting out of Baliol College and other Articles and Matters depending upon it betwixt him and Dr. Squire then living were very likely to be renewed and so to work great discredit both to him and to the Catholick Cause And indeed one cannot but wonder how a man who had left England so lately and upon such very scandalous accounts should have the face not only to come but to put himself forward upon such an Employment It confirms the Character of Mr. Camden and others of him that he was a man of confident boldness but it does not prove either Policy or Discretion in hiâ—â— except he had brought himself to believe that the Absolution he got in the Church of Rome when he turn'd Apostate had bloâ—ted his false tricks and knavish pranks oâ— of all Peoples Memories as well as out of Heavens Records However to do them justice who were for sending him into England against all those complainers against him and them such a man as Father Parsons was necessary for such a work as he was sent hither upon and what that work was we shall hear very quickly He and Father Campian were appointed for this Mission and parted from Rome on the Sunday after Easter 1580. with the Pope's Benediction Their Dispatches were given them there before they set out by Everard Mercurianus the General of their Order which Morus in his History of this Mission makes to be in short some Commands about faithfully discharging their Ministerial Function and by no means either by Word or Writing to meddle with the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom of England I was very careful not to omit the putting down these dispatches for the two Jesuits according to Father Moor's â—â—count of them because I shall shew by and by how wonderfully these do agree with another dispatch which though Father Moor leave it out of his History I will not leave out of mine and with the Practices of both these Jesuits as soon as they were got into this Kingdom Father Moor tells us that the two Jesuits with their Companions took Geneva in their way from Rome and made a visit to Beza with whom they had some Conference but no victory it seems because the poor ignorant Man took the advantage of the shutting in of the Evening to break off the Discourse and to conceal his ignorance a piece of History this that Father Moor ought not to expect to be credited in by any Body that hath ever heard of learning or learned Men or by any one but a Jesuit and a Jesuit's Fellow First Parsons set sail from Calice the two Sparks being unwilling to venture two such Treasures in one Bottom after Midnight which was the properest time for such works of darkness as he wâ—â— going about and got safe to Canterbury as Campian acquaints their General in his Letter to Rome in the disguise of Soldier but so gaudy and so airy thâ—â— he must be a very nice Man that coâ—â— â—hen suspect or find Piety or Modesty under such a dress and mien ay or without that dress I dare add for who ever heard otherwise of Father Parson's Modesty or Piety either After this he got as safe to London where he stayed for his Companion Father Campiâ—n who likewise escaped the strict search that was made for them their Pictures as well as the time of their setting out from Rome being got into England before them I must leave these Jesuits in their disguises for a while and look back to the State Queen Elizabeth was in with the Bishops of Rome Pius Quartus had a mind to attempt her by fair speeches and to perswade her to submit her Sceptre to his Crosier by fair Promises for which purpose by his Agent Parpaglia he wrote a very â—mooth Letter unto her giving her assurance of every thing she could desire from him But Queen Elizabeth was too prudent to be caught by such a gilded bait or to part with her Supream Power for a few good Words and therefore would have nothing to do with the Bishops of Rome so that all this Pope's hopes of her were lost Pius Quintus seeing his Predecessor's mild ways unsuccessful resolved upon harsher methods and made it his chief business to contrive and encourage Plots against her and not content with this 〈◊〉 slow and unsuccessful way of destroying her he without giving warning or sending Admonition to her le ts fly his Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against her and causes it by an impudent Wretch Felton to be
fixt upon the Bishop of London's Gates the Title of which to trouble the Reader with no more of it is this The sentence Declaratory of our holy Lord Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering to her wherein also all her Subjects are declared to be absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and whatever other duty they owe unto her and those which from henceforth shall obey her are involved in the same Curse or Anathema But as terrible as this Title and as much more terrible as the Bull it self was it did no ways answer the Pope's Expectation it was so far from raising all the Papists in the Nation against her which was his Expectation as well 〈◊〉 his command that it was contemned and slighted by most and instead of alieâ—â—ting their duty and their affections from the Queen it did alienate them both from him who was so ill advised as by such hasty unreasonable and ridiculous provocations to bring the severity of Laws and Trouble upon them who had hitherto been suffered quietly to enjoy in private the exercise of their Religion but now had no reason to expect it any longer being made every one of them so obnoxious and suspicious to the Government by reason of this his declaratory Bull against the Queen In this Condition the Queen and Realm were when our two Jesuits were sent over and as no wise Man nor sober Man among the Papists themselves ever doubted that this Excommunication and Deposition of Queen Elizabeth was oweing to the false suggestions and traiterous and importunate solicitations of the Jesuits Faction so it is as little to be questioned that the Jesuits undertook to make this Bull effectual and to raise not only the Papists but all others that they could buy into their interest to depose the Queen and reduce the Realm to the Pope's Obedience and that for this very purpose their first Mission came over hither They pretended indeed that they came over only to minister in Spiritual things to the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to propagate their Catholick Religion as they call it for the saving of Men's Souls and that their business was not to stir up Sedition against the Queen or to meddle with matters of State but whatever their pretences were or whatever Father Moor has devised for them in his account of their Mission into England this we are sure of that the private Instructions here following given these two Jesuits by Pope Gregory XIII for their coming hither together with their practices immediately after their getting into England prove the direct contrary upon them We must understand that as by the damnatory Bull of Pius V. Queen Elizabeth and all her Adherents were cursed and deposed from all Power and Authority so by the last clause but one of it the Papists themselves were put under the same Curse and Anathematized if they continued to obey her Praecipimusque interdicimus universis singulis c. And we command and forbid all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates or Laws and for those who shall do otherwise than here commanded we do involve them in the same Sentence of Anathema This was very hard upon the Papists themselves since how unable soever they might be to depose the Queen and how certain soever their Ruine would be upon the least attempt towards it yet attempt it they must and disobey her and her Laws they must or else be put into the very same Condition with the Heretical Queen her self and therefore the Jesuits or their Friends who were to come over foreseeing this great inconvenience that the English Papists were not allowed to wait a favourable opportunity of deposing the Queen but must do it out of hand though it was absolutely impossible for them obtained faculties from this Pope's Successor Gregory XIII to free the Romanists in England from the Curse of that Declaratory Bull for the present till things were riper and a more favourable Juncture offered it self which Faculties were taken about one of these two Jesuits Complices immediately after Campian's Execution and run thus Facultates Concessae P. P. Roberto Parsonio Edmundo Campiano pro Angliâ die 14 o Aprilis 1580. PEtatur à Summo Domino nostro Explicatio Bullae Declaratoriae per Pium Quintum contra Elizabethum ei adhaerentes quam Catholici cupiunt intelligi hot modo ut obliget semper illam haereticos Catholicos vero nullo modo obliget rebus sic stantibus sed tum demum quando publica ejus dem Bullae executio fieri poterit Then followed as my Lord Burleigh's now stand but hereafter when the publick Execution of the said Bull may be had or made c. The Pope hath granted these foresaid Graces to Father Robert Parsons and Edmond Campion who are now to go into England the 14 th day of April 1580. Present the Father Oliverius Manarcus assistant Faculties granted to the Two Fathers Robert Parsons and Edmond Campian for England the 14 th of April 1580. LET it be desired of our most Holy Lord the Explication of the Bull Declaratory made by Pius the Fifth against Elizabeth and such as do adhere to or obey her which Bull the Catholicks desire to be understood in this manner That the same Bull shall always oblige her and the Hereticks but the Catholicks it shall by no means bind as affairs do Tract concerning Execution for Treason and not for Religion tells us many other Petitions of Faculties for their further Authorities which were all concluded thus Has praedictas Gratias concessit summus Pontifex Patri Roberto Personio Edmondo Campiano in Angliam profecturis die 14 o Aprilis 1580. Praesente Patre Oliverio Manarco assistente Thus furnished Father Parsons set out for England upon his true business which was not to read Mass and take Confessions and the like but to put this Bull of Deposition in Execution against his lawful Queen as soon as matters were a little riper and when the Jesuits thought fit to speak out And as his Instructions were such so his behaviour was every whit answerable to them he made it his whole business to alienate the Papists he conversed with from their Allegiance and went about the Kingdom in his several disguises upon the same traiterous errand one while in the habit of a Soldier another while in that of a Gentleman sometimes in the habit of a Minister again in that of an Apparitor a very Proteus Sedition and Treason was his business hither and he presently upon his arrival in England fell to his Jesuitical courses and so belaboured both himself and others in matters of State which the Jesuit Moor would fain have the World to believe they were charged in their Dispatches not to meddle in neither by word nor writing how he might set her Majesties Crown upon another Head
as appeareth by a Letter of his own to a certain Earl That the Catholicks themselves threatened to deliver him into the hands of the Civil Magistrate except he desisted from such kind of practices This Account of Father Parson's turbulent and seditious behaviour immediately upon his arrival in England is confirmed by our great Historian Mr. Camden who had it from some of the Papists themselves and speaks it upon their own credit that they had thoughts of delivering him into the Magistrates hands on this account But notwithstanding the Intentions and Threats of those more peaceable Papists we see Father Parsons went on in his own way wherein he made so good progress that though he came into England but in June that year viz. 1580. yet before Christmas all things seemed ready for an Insurrection the Papists being taught and that under pain of Damnation to renounce the Queen who had now no more Authority over them being deposed by the sentence of the Infallible Pope at Rome and the Popes and King of Spain's Countenance and Assistance promised them if they would but rise and make a Rebellion That the Papists by that time were generally come over to Father Parson's Party and lookt upon the Queen as no longer their Sovereign by reason of her Deposition by Pius the Fifth and Gregory the Thirteenth who sent the first Mission of these Jesuits into England is plain from the Confession of Hart one of their Fellows who was taken about that time wherein he acknowledged to put it in his own words That the Bull of Pius Quintus for so much as it is against the Queen is holden among the English Catholicks for a lawful sentence and a sufficient discharge of her Subjects fidelity and so remaineth in forte but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope viz. Gregory XIII For where in that Bull all her Subjects are commanded not to obey her and she being excommunicate and deposed all that do obey her are likewise innodate and accursed which point is perillous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they be in the Pope's Curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queen's danger therefore the present Pope to relieve them hath altered that part of the Bulls and dispenced with them to obey and serve her without peril of Excommunication which Dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope to determine it otherwise This was a strange Alteration to be made in so short a time that the Bull of Pius Quintus should be generally despised when it was first publisht among the English Catholicks and that Parsons who came over to encourage and exhort to the putting that damnatory Bull in Execution against the Queen should be in danger of being delivered up into the Magistrates hands for his traiterous designs and yet within half a year that the Bull of this Pope should be holden among those English Catholicks for a lawful sentence and a sufficient discharge of the Subjects fidelity This shews that these Jesuits and the Seminary Priests did ply this matter very close and made it their chief if not their whole business to gain this point upon the English Papists that so they might be in a greater readiness to joyn in any foreign attempts against their Countrey or to rise here against her whom by these new Apostles they were taught and did now believe to have no authority at all over them And as these two Jesuits business was to fill their credulous Peoples Heads with this sort of Seditious Doctrine so they themselves had the boldness to assert and maintain it publickly when they thought it necessary for their purposes Campian our Father Parsons Brother-Missioner was taken at Lyford-House in Barkshire the next year and being brought to his Tryal and Convicted of High-Treason received his Sentence accordingly after his Condemnation being asked Whether Queen Elizabeth were a Right and Lawful Queen He refused to answer and being a second time asked Whether he would take part with the Queen or the Pope if he should send Forces against the Queen he openly professed and testified under his hand that he would stand for the Pope and yet this Jesuit must be a Martyr in the Popish Calendar and dyed purely for Religion and for being a Priest of the Catholick Roman Church whereas if there can be such a thing as Treason against any Government in the World Campian was certainly guilty of it And so his Brother Robert Parsons though he had not such an opportunity of testifying his Faith and making Confession of his Opinion in the face of Magistracy it self Campian's Execution frighting him away out of England yet by his writing he shewed to the World that his Brother Campian and he were perfectly of the same mind as to the Pope's power and Queen Elizabeth's Authority in England In his Book written on occasion of a Proclamation of this Queen against them and called generally Philopater from the feigned Name of Andreas Philopater under which Father Parsons disguised himself he does very frankly discover how much a Subject he lookt upon himself to be to his Lawful Queen even before the Pope's Sentence of Deposition against her Hinc etiam infert Vniversa Theologorum Jurisconsultorum Ecclesiasticorum est certum de fide c. It is certain says he and what we ought to believe and it is the Opinion of all Divines and Ecclesiastical Lawyers that if any Christian Prince fall from the Catholick Faith and would have others to follow him he himself thereby doth forthwith â—oth by Divine and Humane Law yea though â—he Pope the Supreme Judge hath not issued forth any censure against him fall from all â—is Authority and Dignity and his Subjects â—re freed from all their Oaths of Allegiance â—hich they sware to him as a Lawful Prince â—nd they may nay and ought if they have â—orce enough to overcome to pull him down â—rom his Throne as an Apostate Heretick a â—orsaker of Christ and an Enemy to the â—ommonwealth And so fond is Father Parsons of this Notion of the Lawfulness of Deposing Princes meerly for Religion that to make it go down the easier with his Popish Friends he was dealing with he makes it to be the certain determined and undoubted opinion of all Learned men and plainly agreeable and consonant to the Apostolick Doctrine After which he is not content with its being only lawful to Depose their Prince upon this account of falling from their Popish Religion but will have it that they are all obliged and bound to do so if they have strength and power upon their Consciences and utmost danger and pain of their Souls If this Jesuit was not a Doctor fit for a Papal Mission into England I am very much mistaken he that could in Print vent such Doctrine to the World as well as teach it in private among his Followers and Confidents what work and what progress
must be expected from him when he came furnished also with the Pope's Thundring Sentence of Excommunication and Deposition against the already despised and deposed Queen As to the Fruits of Father Parson's Doctrine in these points and his restless and seditious Practices against his Native Countrey upon them I will inquire after them by and by Soon after his coming into England a Controversie was raised and most probably by himself and fellow-Jesuit Campian about the Catholicks frequenting the Protestant Churches a thing which had been constantly and generally practised from the accession of the Queen to the Crown It is certain that abundance of people were drawn from their Popish Opinions and Superstitions by it and it is probable that the remaining Roman Catholicks would in time have come over entirely into the Communion of the Church of England and have brought their Hearts and Affections as well as their Bodies thither for it could not have been otherwise but that the Light and Plainness and Reasonable Service of the Protestant Church would have prevailed by God's Blessing upon every honest well-meaning Papist and have saved the Pope the trouble of detaching his Incendiaries and Seminary Priests hither Since therefore this Practice would have made their Seminaries useless and their whole Craft was endangered by it it was these new Jesuits Interest and they made â—t their business to oppose and exclaim against it every where and upon all occasions And they pretended that they had very good Authority for it no less than that of the Council of Trent which tho' it did not in open Council decree against and forbid all Catholicks the frequenting the Protestant Churches because this would have alarmed the Government of England and would have caused great mischiefs and disturbance to all the remaining Catholicks there yet did appoint a Committee of twelve Bishops and others to consider determine and give answer in the Name of the Council of Trent to the Petition that was either sent but without Name or pretended to be sent to that Council from the Catholicks of England wherein it was desired that they might be resolved in this point Whether the Laws enjoyning all Peoples going to their Parish Churches under a strict Penalty they might do it without danger of their Souls or offending God I put the sence of the Postulation in Father Moor's words in his History of the Mission the answer to which he makes to be that after Commendations of the English Papists for their constancy in the Catholick Religion and their having not during those troublesome times in England never bowed their Knees before Baal as if forsooth the Church of England had had Images and Reliques and a Wafer Host for their Members to bow to they declared to them with one consent that they ought not to be present at our Impious Worship nor can appear there without Sin and offending God and giving Scandal to the Church of God every where I know nothing worth the observing in that tedious dull determination of these twelve Delegates out of the Council of Trent which is so far from being worth transcribing that it is not worth reading except the good words they give our Protestant Worship throughout it which is one while Impious then most Profligate then Nefarious and which is the best Jest of all Idolatrous and what not It would be too great a disparagement of our Divine and Excellent way of Worshipping God to enter the lists in defence of it against such Sottish and Wretched Calumnies this I will only say concerning it That if to put into the Mouths of Minister and People Devout and Fervent Prayers to God for his Grace to enable them to repent of their sins to resist Temptations and to lead true Christian Lives in Piety Justice and Sobriety be Wicked and Nefarious then I will own that our Church Service does deserve this hard Character of being Nefarious That if to put the Prayers into such a Language as that the Unlearned as well as the Learned part of the Congregation may joyn with understanding in them and offer them up together with fervency of Spirit to God be Impious then I must again own that our Common-Prayer is Impious that if to offer up all the Prayers and Praises in our Divine Service to God the Father through the alone Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ our alone Mediator as well as Redeemer be Idolatrous and I know nothing else in our service so likely for those Delegates to fix the Idolatry upon then I will own and subscribe too that our Protestant Worship is Idolatrous Impious Profligate and Nefarious and what else or worse these Trent Fathers should have been pleased to call it It was very hard for men that did pretend to be Christians and were some of them men of great Figure in the Romish Church to give out such hard words against a Form of Divine Worship which probably never a one of them had ever seen or inquired into they being all Foreigners and perfect Strangers to this Church that were employed in this Affair I would ask one of that Persuasion Whether if Queen Elizabeth had come to terms with Pope Pius Quartus that sent her a flattering Letter by Parpalia his Nuncio and if that Pope as he offered her had confirmed the English Liturgy by his Authority and granted the use of the Sacraments to us English under both kinds this bare Confirmation of the Pope would have made our Worship to be holy pure and Christian which without it as they said was impure wicked and Idolatrous If the Pope's power be so great as to make Wickedness Innocence and Vice Virtue it s the better for them who live under him if it be not either the Pope was grievously out in offering to confirm or these doughty Delegates at Trent in giving such a Character of our Church of England-Worship Whether this whole business of the Delegates and their Determination be not an Invention of the Jesuits themselves I cannot affirm But if it was a real thing either it was not heard of much or had little effect among the English Catholicks since we see that eighteen years after its making the English Papists went to Church when Father Parsons came over and the thing was disputed among them in 1580 which it could not easily have been had the Council of Trent by twelve Delegates determined so strictly against it as the Jesuits say they did in 1562. eighteen years before Father Parsons laboured with all his might to break the Catholicks of that custom of frequenting the Protestant Churches which he did easily foresee would be the ruine of Popery in England and betook himself to his Pen and under the seigned Name of Howlet published Reasons why Catholicks refuse to go to Church But a Brother Romish Priest tells us That all this care and concern was meerly for Temporal ends and designs and shews that no body was a gainer by this Recusancy so
to our Commonwealth and to all Christendom besides for that this perfect Reformation was not made in Queen Mary's time All wise and Godly Men attribute the loss of Religion again in our Country to this error and ingratitude towards Almighty God which that it may not happen any more Et ne postrema fiant pejora prioribus most careful diligence is to be used by all whensoever the Mercy of God shall offer occasion c the second time that the former error be well amended Thirdly It seemeth that as Almighty God in his Justice has used England for a scourge to the other Countries round about it both for the infecting them with Heresie as also by afflicting them by Sword Sedition and other Infestations so again in his mercy he meaneth to help and comfort them by means of England once reduced as may appear by that which abroad he hath begun to work in Scotland and Ireland by Executions of English Catholick Priests sent unto those Kingdoms wherefore to the end that this Holy Intention of our Saviour be not letted by us and England may be a Light and a Lantern to other Nations near unto it the Reformation must needs in reason be made first very exact and exemplar in England it self Fourthly The d Facility and Commodity that there is and will be in England to make this perfect Reformation whensoever God shall reduce that Country doth greatly conjure and oblige us to the same for we shall not find that difficulty and resistance by the grace of God in England which good Men do find in other Catholick Countries for bringing in of any Reformation that is attempted and that which the very Prophets ever found amongst the Jews and that Christ himself did find amongst the Scribes and Pharisees to wit the repugnancy of corrupt Livers and stubborn People that will contradict and resist their own benefit We are not like to find I say the infinite mercy of our Saviour be blessed for it either backward Bishops and dissolute Priests or Licentious Religious Men or Women to oppose themselves against so Holy a designment as this our Reformation is or if any one such creep in amongst the rest he would not dare to shew himself nor should he find followers all is now zeal and integrity in our new Clergy Almighty God be thanked for it and no less in our Laity and Catholick Gentlemen of England that have born the brunt of Persecution for so many Years so if we should want the effects of true and sound Reformation at the change again it would be for want of some zealous godly Men to sollicite and procure the same d For in the behalf of the Realm and Country I perswade my self most certainly that there will be no difficulty which ought to convince such as feel the Zeal of God's Glory within their breast to joyn hands together as St. Luke saith all Apostolical Men did in the Primitive Church and each to seek above other to have a part in the happy Procuration of so holy and important a Work And Lastly for our more incouragement hereunto it seemeth that the sweet and high Providence of Almighty God hath not been small in conserving and holding together a good portion of the material part of the old English Catholick Church above all other Nations that have been over-run with Heresie for that we have yet on foot many principal Monuments that are destroyed in other Countries as namely we have our Cathedral Churches and Bishopricks yet standing our Deanries Canonries Archdeaconries and other Benefices not destroyed our Colledges and Universities whole so that there wanteth nothing but a new form to give them e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men into them which is a great advantage before other Kingdoms where all is ruined and desolate and none or â—â—â—tle means left by reason of poverty to raise them up or repair them again but in many Years and with repugnance of many potent Persons for their particular Interest whereas in England there are and will be less resistance more easie and abundant means to restore and amend all that is wanting without over-burdening of any Man by the means that after shall be declared which is a very great and important point and a Token of God's sweet disposition for this effect and ought to encourage every true Catholick Man to concur the more willingly to the work and to help wherein he may to this holy and perfect Reformation that is pretended Animadversions on Chap. I. A Memorial of the Reformation c. This Memorial is a plain Instance to the World of what they have always changed the Order of the Jesuits with that they have been much greater dealers in Politicks than in Divinity and this Memorial is as clear a proof of the Jesuits being as great Bunglers at Politicks as ever any that pretended to then Notwithstanding the Author hereof was one of the most subtle Men the Jesuits ever had and not only by his being born and having lived long in his Native Country but by the Experience and Observations which his Converse and familiar access to the greatest Men in Foreign Countries did afford him might he supposed to have studied and understood the Genius and Temper of the People of England yet he appears to have been out in his measures as will be easily shewed in the following Animadversions He lays mighty stress upon some things which can no way bear it other things he takes to be most easie to his Popish Prince which reason would have told him then as Experience has told his Brethren since to be insuperable difficulties and his cruel and barbarous advices up and down the Memorial are so contrary to the temper of the honest Englishman as if the Design of the Memorial had been more to shew the Politicks and the Spirit of the Jesuit's Order than to convert England to Popery b Multitudes of Martyrs c. If the worst of Criminals must be nick-nam'd Martyrs we can then allow the Jesuit that there were some the later part of Queen Elizabeth's Reign but how to make Multitudes of them is beyond all the skill that I can obtain either from our own or their Historians It is agreed on both hands striking off such Scandalous Writers out of the rank of Historians as Sanders that for several Years in the beginning of that glorious Queen's Reign great Mildness and Clemency was used towards the Roman Catholicks and that no manner of Severity was used towards them till the Bishop of Rome by his Bull of Excommunication and Deposition of that Queen had justly incensed her and her Parliament to make several Laws against Popery and even after that most if not every one of those Roman Catholicks that suffered during her Reign suffered for Rebellion or Treason and not for Religion I will not vouch our Historians for the Truth hereof but take it in the words of their own Secular Priests who writ the Important
forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
on the contrary side Qui facit veritatem saith he venit ad Lucem ut manifestentur opera ejus And though I confess that in a quiet and establisht Catholick State Disputation with Hereticks were not to be presumed profitable yet our Condition is different now at the beginning and will be for some Years in England and all satisfaction must be given that may be conveniently and seeing our building is true at the Foundation and our Mony with which we desire to enrich Men is pure Gold and tried the more we rub it on the Touchstone the better it will appear and the more acceptable it will be to all Men. One other publick satisfaction also I could wish were given for some days at the beginning to certain principal Persons in London or elsewhere or rather that every Bishop should do it in his City or Diocess for that in my Opinion it would be of very great importance And this is That some chief Man of Learning and Authority of our side or the Prelate himself should take a certain hour in the day to confer openly the writings of some two of both sides as namely of Juell and Dr. Harding in London for that they write both in the Vulgar Tongue the one against the other and of Whitaker and Dr. Stapleton in Oxford or Cambridge for that they writ in Latin and the manner of this Conference might be that one in Pulpit or publick Audience should read some Paragraph out of one of them and confer presently the Authors which he citeth and whether he citeth them truly or no and to let the places be read publickly out of their own Authors which may be prepared to be there present and then the answer of the other might be read and Authors also that he alledgeth and for more indifferency of this Examination or Collation there might be two Learned Men appointed one of each side a Protestant and a Catholick to see that no fraud or injury be done to any Party but only the Books examined sincerely and seeing that the truth is but one and cannot but appear by this Collation h I perswade my self this Examination would do exceeding much good to all such of understanding as should be present as indeed I suppose that all principal Protestants likely would be for that the Exercise would be both pleasant and profitable and I dare avouch that Juell will be discovered to make so many shifts and to slide out at so many narrow holes and creeks to save himself and to deny falsifie and pervert so many Authors Doctors and Fathers as his own side within few days would be ashamed of him and give him over which would be no small blow to overthrow Heresie even by the root in England he having been their chiefest Pillar to maintain the same in that Kingdom Besides these two publick satisfactions I do perswade my self there will be need of little more for that the private Industry of divers good and learned Men and one Lay-man with another and the vertuous lives and conversations of our Priests and Clergy-men and the Example of all sorts of Religious People both Men and Women and the very outward face show and practice of Catholick Devotion the wearisomness of Heresies and of their Authors and Maintainers will quickly work out all affection of People towards them and plant it the contrary towards true Religion Piety and Catholick Christianity And thus much for gaining of those that have been deceived by error and are of a good nature and think they do well and do hold a desire to know the truth and follow the same and finally do hope to be saved as good Christians and do make account of an honest Conscience though they be in Heresie But for others that be either wilful Apostates or malicious Persecutors or obstinate Perverters of others how they may be dealt withal it belongeth not to a Man of my Vocation to suggest but rather to commend their State to Almighty God and their Treaty to the wisdom of such as shall be in authority in the Commonwealth at that day admonishing them only that as God doth not govern the whole Monarchy but by Rewards and Chastisements and that as he hath had a sweet hand to cherish the well-affected so hath he a strong arm to bind the Boysterous Stubborn and Rebellious even so the very like and same must be the proceeding of a perfect Catholick Prince and Commonwealth and the nearer it goes to the Imitation of God's Government in this and all other points the better and more exact and more durable it is and will be ever And this answer may be given in general for in particular what order is to be holden with such as before I named Persecutors Arch-Hereticks false Bishops Preachers Ministers Apostates Traytors to the Cause Strangers and Foreign Hereticks that do oppress the Realm and others of the like Crue and Condition I leave to be determined according to the circumstance of time occasion and place when opportunity shall be offered Animadversions on Chap. IV. f PErchance it would be good not to press any Man's Conscience at the beginning for matters of Religion for some few Years The perusal of this part of this Chapter I cannot but recommend to all those Dissenters in England that did in the late Reign not only accept of the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience but give the King such extravagant thanks for it They must not deny that they were warned of the snare and that all the Kindness shewed them was but forced and would in a little time have proved their own as well as Ruine of the Church of England which was too wise to be trickt by the Jesuitical Arts of that Court They may see here what was the sole design of that grinning Toleration and which is more how lasting it was to have been Who can read the Jesuit's Instructions and Limitations here about it as the late King questioness did and remember the Cant that was set about then that the Liberty of Conscience should be made as firm as Magna Charta and established to all Posterity It was indeed the Admiration of all wise Men that the Dissenters who had believed that the Declaration of 1672. was designed to make way for Popery and had seen it proved out of other Books as well as Coleman's Letters that this was their most probable way to bring in Popery should in the Reign of a Popish King himself governed by Jesuits and when Popery was barefac'd be imposed upon to comply with and which was ten times more foolish to address and thank the Popish King for that Declaration which I do from my Soul believe would not have been continued to this Year 1690. so many are the Limitations and Restraints and Conditions in it that it would have been the easiest thing in the World for them when they pleas'd to have taken the forfeiture of this Charter also for Liberty of Conscience It
encouragement for others to do the like And in like manner of Hereticks and Rebels Goods which any way shall come to be confiscate he will abstain his hands from the part of God and of his Church which therein shall be found to appertain unto them and by this pious and religious proceeding there is no doubt but God will prosper and aid him much the more Of his Holiness also the like were to be required that considering the many necessities that England shall have at the first beginning to set up and restore the outward would vouchsafe not only to further and favour this designment of Restitution to be made in manner aforesaid but also as a bountiful Father remit some part of the temporal duties which will be due to the See Apostolick from England as the first-fruits of Bishopricks and the like for the certain space only of some Years after the next change for the setting of foot of our Church again which will be of great Edification to all the World and an infinite incouragement to our English Catholicks And last of all about this matter may be remembred that among Ecclesiastical Livings that have been invaded by temporal Men some have been taken from the Secular Clergy also as from Bishops Cathedral and Collegial Churches Colleges Deanries Parsonages Parish-Churches and the like though nothing so much as from Religious Orders And these for that their true Owners are or will be quickly extant and that present need will be of the same for the uses to which they were first appointed it is reason they should be returned to the same Uses and Churches again and not to the common Purse as the other yet with the Limitation Order and Reformation that the Council designed for this purpose shall think best and most expedient About Impropriate Parsonages Patronages and Advowsons of Benefices albeit for the part they come into Temporal Men's hands at the beginning as things either incorporated or annexed to Abby-Lands for that these Revenues and Priviledges were given to Religious Orders in the old times for the better maintenance and with Obligation only to provide Preachers and Teachers to the Parishes and that when Religious Houses were suppressed by King Henry the said Parsonages Tithes Advowsons and Patronages passed also to Lay-mens hands as Members and Parcels of Abby-Lands yet notwithstanding for that in truth they were taken from the Livings and Revenues of Pastors and Curates at the beginning and are part of the Revenues it seemeth more reason that they should be accepted rather Ecclesiastical than Monastical Livings and consequently be returned back to the Church again though with the Moderation and Qualification that shall seem most expedient to the Council and not to be disposed of to any other uses as Abby-Lands may be for the greater glory of God and better setting up of our Church again And for that I have divers times made mention of the Council of Reformation I shall now set down some Notes about the same CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained and wherein they are principally to be occupied FOR the Execution of all these Notes and Advertisements that here are set down about the Reformation of England nothing will be of so much moment as to have certain prudent and zealous Men put in authority by the Prince and Parliament and Pope's Holiness to attend principally and as it were only to this affair and to be bound to give a continual account what they do in the same And for that and name of Inquisition may be somewhat odious and offensive at the beginning perhaps it would not be amiss to name these Men a Council of Reformation and that their authority might be limited for some certain number of Years as four five or six as it should be thought most convenient and sufficient for the setting up and establishing of the English Church and that before the end of this term assigned they shall give account to the Persons appointed for this purpose by the Pope Prince and Parliament of all matters committed to their charge and especially of the Ecclesiastical Rents received and imployed by them as after shall be declared And for that the matters and affairs which are to be laid upon these Men are many and weighty and of singular great importance it is necessary first that the place of their ordinary residence should be in London near the Court whereby they may have easie recourse and conference with the Prince and Council And secondly That their Persons be of great sufficiency and respect and fit for the purpose as for example perhaps may the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester London and Rochester whose Diocesses lie near about the City and will be no great lett to their ordinary charge to reside much in London and be imployed in this affair also And with these Men might be joyned other principal and skilful either Bishops or others as should be thought best together with all kinds of Officers Secretaries Notaries Gatherers Treasurers and other helps for better Execution of so great a charge The first and most principal thing that in Temporal matters should be committed to this Council is the gathering of the said old Rents of Assize of Abby-Lands and other Ecclesiastical Revenues which by vertue of the Restitution above mentioned are to return to the Church and by these Men as hath been specified are now to be put in one common Treasury and thence to be spent and imployed within this time limited of their Commission as they shall judge most needful and to the most advantage of God's Holy Service and common benefit of the Realm The like charge also will be necessary to lye upon them for the Collection and Custody of all other Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues throughout England as of Benefices Parsonages Curates and other such Livings as cannot conveniently be provided of particular Owners seeing that the English Clergy which for the present we have and are like to have for a great time after the next Reduction of England will scarce be able to furnish the principal Dignities and places alone of Jurisdiction and Government as Bishopricks Deanries Archdeanries Colleges and the like and if besides these there be two or three Men left for Preachers to be given to every new Bishop to carry with him into his Diocess a small store God knows for so great a Charge it will be all and how then think you will it be possible to furnish the least part of the residue of Benefices throughout England for some number of Years Wherefore to remedy this inconvenience it seems that the only way would be for this Council of Reformation to appoint Collectors of these Rents and to be accountable for them as for the rest and allowing so much to be spent in every Parish as shall be thought needful they may reduce the remnant to the aforesaid common Purse for common necessities until there be store of Priests
pious Men may have Commission to consult what were to be redressed about the common Laws either for learning teaching or practice of the same to the end the Prince and Parliament might afterwards determine thereof And the like about our Colleges Halls and manner of reading both of Philosophy and Divinity Physick Civil and Common Laws and other Sciences in the Universities And amongst other Points to consider whether a Third University were not necessary in the North parts of England as at Durham Richmond New-Castle or the like place in these quarters for the better polishing of those parts towards Scotland and planting learned Men in the same seeing they have need and that the other two Universities which we have already are both of them far towards the South and many of the North parts cannot so conveniently send their Children unto them And divers other Countries have three Universities within much less circuit than these three would be A like Consideration also might be whether it were not expedient to have a third Archbishoprick in England for example at Bristol or thereabouts which might have for his Suffragant Bishopricks those of the West Country and more parts of Wales that lye near about And hereby might the Archbishoprick of Canterbury's charge and labour be eased much and the Metropolitan Visitations from three Years to three Years more commodiously performed and yet sufficient priviledges and preeminence left to the said Archbishop and Primate of Canterbury according to the ancient dignity of the said Church In like manner it may be put in Deliberation whether the number of Bishops in some part of the Realm were not to be increased for the better governing of the Clergy or at leastwise that their circuits were better divided some of them being at the present very ample and laboursome as Lincoln York and some other and in some other places perhaps the Livings of some other Bishopricks were to be augmented for better maintaining of the Dignity though ordinarily this is the least want of our Bishops in our Realm and the authority of the Place is better maintained by opinion of Gravity Learning Wisdom and Holiness than by much abundance of Riches CHAP. IX There ensue more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation THough I have touched divers points yet follow there more belonging to this Council among which one very special is as hath been signified before the particular care that ought to be had of erecting of Seminaries at the very beginning for the encrease of the Clergy and this in every Bishoprick according to the Order of the Council of Trent And before that Men be interessed in the Livings either of Bishopricks or Benefices all the Ecclesiastical Livings of the Realm might be searched what each one might contribute to the erections and maintenance of these Seminaries which may be at such an easie rate as none had need to feel it and yet may the Furniture for Education of English youth be such by these means as no Realm in the World will have the like and all these Seminaries may be divided into two or three parts according to the number of the Universities or Archbishopricks and every University have one great Seminary wherein only the course of Divinity and Philosophy may be read and in the other abroad that are subordinate to these may be read Grammar Humanity and Rhetorick alone and as the Scholars shall grow fit they may be transferred to the great Seminaries of the Universities The like care must be had for well ordering of Grammar-Schools what Books are to be read and what manner of Masters are to be allowed as also for other Schools for Children Writing Reading and casting of Accounts by Arithmetick which greatly doth awaken and sharpen the wits of young Children and make them the more able Men for their Commonwealth if it be taught with care and good order as in other Countries it is where Children are wont to be examined in publick and made to Compose Divide and Multiply numbers upon the suddain and without Book and rewards proposed to them that do best And in all Schools must there be particular order also for teaching of the Christian Doctrine and divers proofs appointed for the same Publick and private Libraries must be searched and Examined for Books as also all Book-binders Stationers and Booksellers Shops and not only heretical Books and Pamphlets but also prophane vain lascivious and other such hurtful and dangerous Poysons are utterly to be removed burnt suppressed and severe order and punishment appointed for such as shall conceal these kind of Writings and like order set down for printing of good things for the time to come It would be of great importance that in every City or great Shire Town there should be set up a certain poor Man's Bank or Treasury that might be answerable to that which is called Monte della Pieta in great Cities of Italy to wit where poor Men might either freely or with very little interest have Mony upon Sureties and not to be forced to take it up at intolerable Usury as oftentimes it happeneth to the utter undoing and general hurt of the Commonwealth and for maintenance of these Banks some Rents or Stocks of Mony were to be assigned by the Council of Reformation out of the common Purse at the beginning and afterwards divers good People at their deaths would leave more and Preachers were to be put in mind to remember the matter in Pulpits and Curates and Confessors in all good occasions either of Testaments when they are made or of cases of Restitution when they should fall out and other such occasions The like good use were to be brought in that Ghostly Fathers in hearing Confessions and otherwise should admonish their Spiritual Children among other works of Piety to visit Hospitals and sick People as also publick Prisons and enjoin it some times for Penance and part of Satisfaction especially to principal People whose Example would do much good to others and by the Fact to themselves And to the end there should not be so much repugnance therein as commonly is wont to be in delicate Persons the Hospitals were to be kept fine cleanly and handsome and publick Prisons were to be inlarged with Courts and open Halls for People to visit them by day and relieve them with their Alms though by night they were kept more strait And above all other things convenient place is to be made in all Prisons to say and hear Mass and for Spiritual Men to make Exhortations to the Prisoners seeing that besides the chastisements of their Bodies the salvation of their Souls is also to be sought and oftentimes they are in better disposition to hear good Council and profit themselves thereby standing in the Prison than when they were abroad And for this effect only that is to say for looking to Prisoners and procuring the comfort relief and instruction of such as be in necessity therein divers
in particular by yielding and agreeing willingly to the order that shall be taken for the moderate restitution of Ecclesiastical Lands before mentioned And this for Religion But for the other points of Chivalry and acts of Arms our Nobility is by all means to be incouraged to exercise themselves and their Children therein according to the laudable example of their Ancestors who for the same were renowned both at home and abroad And in particular it were to be wished That they should shew their valour against hereticks and Enemies of God and his Church of these our days seeing they are so many and so pernicious as well at home among us as also in divers Kingdoms round about us whereas their Ancestors to fight against Infidels less dangerous and odious to God than these Hereticks undertook long costly and perillous journeys into Asia and other Countries And for better performance hereof I mean of fighting against Hereticks it may be considered as before I have noted whether it shall not be more convenient for the exercise of our Nobility and for the better provision for their younger Sons that some new kind of Religious order of Knights were appointed in England instead of the other of St. John of Malta whose Seat and Residence is very far from England and the observance of the Rule much fallen from the first perfection and hard to be reduced or kept by younger Gentlemen that live at liberty abroad especially touching the Vow of Chastity as hath been before declared As for other private Exercises and Customs ordinarily used by the Nobility and Gentry of England wherein they do exceed much the custom of other Countries as namely in the much use of Hawking Hunting keeping of great Houses many Servants much Hospitality and the like it is to be noted that as in it self they are things honourable and fit for Nobility being used with moderation that is convenient so for many reasons they being old customs of their Ancestors are not to be disswaded nor left off but rather continued for avoiding of greater inconveniences though with such Reformation as is needful for taking away or lessening of such excesses as sometime creep in As for example that those exercises before-mentioned of Noblemen's pass-times be not hurtful either to poor Men their Neighbours or to their own Devotion and acts of Religion whereunto they are bound as of hearing of Mass Sermons and the like and that their Housekeeping be moderated from gluttony dissolution and excess of drinking and that their keeping of many Servants be limited with these Conditions first That no Man keep any more than he can well maintain of himself and that wholly giving them sufficient whereon to live without necessity to attempt any other unlawful shifts or means for their maintenance as often doth happen in such Servants as being otherwise poor do take only Livery-Coats of their Lords and Masters for to shift thereby under their countenances and authority The second Condition is That these Servants be kept from idleness with some honest exercise either of labour or recreation and that they be taught the necessary points of Catholick Religion and Christian Doctrine and that some good Books be provided for them in places where they wait wherewith to entertain themselves and be moved to vertue and diverted from sin and that some peculiar account be taken of their Christian demeanour and of their going to Confession and the like for unto all this and more too is a good Catholick Lord and Master bound concerning his Servants A third Condition of keeping Servants or rather an advice to good Lords and Masters may be that they have care to provide for their Servants according to their merit not only for the time of their present service but some stay of certain living afterwards to the end that having spent their youth in their Lord's and Master's service they fall not afterwards into misery and being forced to seek their living by unlawful and dishonest means to dishonour both their Masters and themselves wherein also may be considered that if their Lords and Masters should die without providing for them at all or recompensing their service whether it were not convenient they should have Actions by our Law against his Heirs for some honourable satisfaction as the Civil Law and Statutes of other Countries do allow And thus much for Servants For Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children it were greatly to be wished that such care were taken for their Education first in Piety and then in learning and other qualities fit for their Estate that their Prince and Commonwealth might afterwards imploy them worthily in occasions and affairs that shall be offered and not be forced to prefer other of far meaner birth for the defects and insufficiency of the Nobility And first of all to speak in order though it be not necessary for Heirs and Elder Brothers to study so much as the Younger for that they are to live on their Lands yet for sustaining the place wherein they are to live some learning is necessary but much more that they be brought up in Order and Discipline and that they be taught to know God and themselves seemeth may best be done either in the Seminaries and Convictories whereof I have spoken before or in some Colleges of the Universities when they shall be reformed and brought in order again and some part of this also may be taught at home by private Masters if their Parents be discreet and careful though this be somewhat hard and seldom taketh great effect by the overmuch indulgence of the said Parents as also by the flattery of Servants that ordinarily are wont to instil nothing but pride and vanity into their young Masters that are brought up among them so as the Education of Nobility and Gentry is much more effectual abroad than at home As for the manner of their Wardships begun in England with very good intention though different from all other Nations and of late years perverted by Heretical Governors against all equity to the Wards and Pupils both in their Livings and Educations and Match of Marriage that some good remedy and moderation may be had in this matter by dealing with the Catholick Prince which shall be as the Deputies of the Parliament shall best devise and suggest About the younger Sons of Noblemen and Gentlemen it is to be considered That the Common-Laws of England are much less favourable and beneficial unto them The Civil and Imperial observed in other Countries are such as do allow them equal Portions with their eldest Brethren of all the Goods Chattels and Lands of their Fathers which be not intailed as of all that also which has accrued or been augmented by means of the said intailed Lands or otherwise whereas the Laws commonly of England leave all to the elder Brother's disposition and pleasure if the Father chance to dye without taking particular order in the same himself whereby many younger Brethren of